{"content": "\nEPISTLEEuropean Process Industries STEP Technical Liaison Executive\nEPISTLEEnvironmental, Psychological, Institutional/political, Social, Technological, Legal and Economic (needs)\nReferences in classic literature ?\nAfter breakfast two letters arrived for Athos, who read them with profound attention, whilst D'Artagnan could not restrain himself from jumping up several times on seeing him read these epistles, in one of which, there being at the time a very strong light, he perceived the fine writing of Aramis.\nJulia herself had written several long epistles to Anna, and it was now the proper time that some of these should be answered, independently of the thousand promises from her friend of writing regularly from every post-office that she might pass on her route to the Gennessee.\nSo much of the epistle as was divulged in that manner, we shall lay before the reader, accompanied by the passing remarks of the sheriff:\nMy whole instinct in matters of religion is towards reconstruction; to quote your favorite Epistle to the Hebrews, 'THE REMOVING OF THOSE THINGS THAT ARE SHAKEN, AS OF THINGS THAT ARE MADE, THAT THOSE THINGS WHICH CANNOT BE SHAKEN MAY REMAIN.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9687027931213379}
{"content": "How to Contact PSNC Energy Live Person?\n\nPhone Numbers - United States\n\nContact with PSNC Energy online bill payment and connection has not been a big problem now. All you are required to visit the listed websites of PSNC Energy in order to explore phone number 877-776-2427 reviews. You can not only have all the contact details regarding PSNC Energy customer service but also the office address of PSNC Energy near you supported by Google Map directions.\n\nGoogle Play PSNC Energy section is the right place for you if you are in quest of PSNC Energy related android apps. Also don't think much and feel free to visit apps section in order to download your favorite android related apps.\n\nContact PSNC Energy\n\n\nRating 3.9 - 5,842 Votes\n7812Caller Used this number after\nreading this page\n7336People found this number useful\n4.9 minAverage waiting time\n\n\nFor information or detail about PSNC Energy, explore search results linked with your query. Answer box can also be used to answer this question.\n\nAsk Question\n\nTo Ask Question, please login with: or\n\nUseful Resources\n\nUseful Resources about customer service helplines\n\n\nTo write a review, please login with: or\n\nWrite Review without Login\n0 Reviews\n\nirs customer service number live person capital one chat psnc bill pay family mobile customer service penelec bill pay 888-283-5051 ohio unemployment phone number 8002882020 sparkletts login at&t uverse customer service phone number philadelphia inquirer customer service comporium pay bill ez pass ny contact contact geico capital one live chat sprint 1800 number stamps com contact champion energy login irs phone number live person popular science address change delta airlines phone number fedex customer service number elite motors concord ca nj ezpass login irs phone number for live person ez pass md login\nphone number for priceline cerritos high school basketball credit repair phone number ackerman security reviews virginia casual male xl reviews columbia gas of ohio phone number wttool at&t tech service at&t customer service number from cell phone ct depart of revenue cummins quick service online delta airlines customer service phone carnival cruise lines contact number at&t customer service call lenovo customer service number what is in dinovite maxim magazine customer service phone number chat with metro pcs representative duke energy phone number sc oregon scientific customer service phone number green tree mortgage company phone number 24/7 at&t customer service number mvq credit score phone number kayak flights phone number savannah georgia visitors bureau priceline phone numbers live person omaha steaks contact number pasadena family cosmetic & implant dentistry att uverse help desk orbitz toll free number amica phone number customer service paychex 401k customer service phone number att customer care number craters and freighters dallas roxio technical support phone number ohio department of taxation phone number geico customer service phone number classmates online inc phone number dish television customer service florida department of revenue child support phone number orange cab columbus ohio williams ski and patio hours dollar rental car customer service phone number chamberlain garage door opener technical support assurant health customer service express scripts corporate phone number united illuminating company phone number h&r block problems u verse tv technical support safelink wireless fax number phone number for pennsylvania unemployment live at five at four", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5795448422431946}
{"content": "Launch of Nitecrest’s new low volume plastic cards website\n\nNitecrest is excited to reveal their newly improved low-volume plastic card website targeted at small to medium-sized businesses. The Leyland-based manufacturer that is best known for producing billions of plastic cards per year for large retailers and financial institutions, has upgraded the existing Simply Plastic Cards’ website to provide advanced functionality to create plastic cards for a range of purposes. Read more here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9303934574127197}
{"content": "Washington: Japan has proposed a tri-lateral talk with China and the United States, a move which is being supported by the US.\n\n\"The United States supports a meeting between Japan, China and ourselves, as Foreign Minister (of Japan, Koichiro) Gemba recently proposed,\" the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.\n\nClinton's remarks came on a day on which diplomats of the US, India and Japan started their first tri-lateral dialogue.\n\n\"When we look at the Asia-Pacific region, trust and cooperation among Japan, the US and China is critical for ensuring stability in the region,\" Koichiro told reporters at a joint press conference with Clinton here.\n\n\"With this in mind, I proposed to Secretary Clinton to launch a trilateral dialogue among these three countries. And in response, Secretary Clinton shared my views,\" he said.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.874194860458374}
{"content": "Hamlet Plot Edit\n\nClick here to return to the Table of Contents\n\nClick here to go to an overview of the play.\n\nClick here Hamlet Concordance page to go to the table of text selections and concordance pages.\n\nThe Plot - Scene by Scene Edit\n\nAct I Edit\n\nAct I, Scene I\n\nFrancisco, Bernardo, Horatio, Marcellus\n\nFrancisco and Bernardo are palace guards who witness a phantasm in the form of former King Hamlet. Then they discuss this creature and the ongoing activity surrounding the preparations that the Danes are making in advance of an anticipated attack by the Norwegian pretender, Fortinbras, with Horatio and Marcellus, evidently student friends of Hamlet from Wittenberg who are also doing guard duty at the castle.\n\nYoung Fortinbras, nearly the same age as young Hamlet, is seeking to recover his paternity, lost when Hamlet, senior, slew his father in single combat.\n\nThe scene closes with the assemblage resolving to divulge the presence of the ghost to young Hamlet.\n\nAct I, Scene II KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE - The King and Queen of Denmark\n\nThe son of the late King Hamlet, Prince HAMLET\n\nPOLONIUS - Lord Chamberlain\n\nLAERTES - His son\n\n\nKing Claudius, after confessing his marriage to his sister in-law, annouces his intent to send ambassadors to negotiate a preclusion to the anticipated attack by young Fortinbras.\n\nCornelius and Voltimand are commanded to go to old Norway in pursuit of this mission.\n\nLaertes begs leave to return to France, where he is living apart from the Royal court.\n\nHamlet confesses his suspicions and dislike of his uncle/father, while Claudius and Gertrude remonstrate with Hamlet, warning him to abandon his dejection, and accept them in his father's stead.\n\nThen, Claudius warns Hamlet against returning to college. His mother concurs, and Hamlet agrees to remain at court.\n\nHamlet then gives voice to the most suicidal and dejected sentiments possible.\n\nThough Claudius is described here as my father's brother, elsewhere he refers to himself as Gertrude's brother. Either way, it is evident that the relationship is one of incest.\n\nHere is the first mention of the penchant of the Danish court to engage in excessive consumption of alcohol.\n\nHoratio announces he saw Hamlet's father.\n\nHamlet happily receives the news, and interrogates his friends accordingly.\n\nAct I, Scene III - A room in Polonius' house\n\nLORD POLONIUS, and his children, LAERTES AND OPHELIA Enter Laertes and Ophelia\n\nIn a farewell speech, Laertes warns his sister against becoming emotionally involved with Hamlet.\n\nOphelia responds that she will keep her brother's advice, but asks him to do also as he preaches.\n\nThen Lord Polonius adds a double-weight of advice to the occasion.\n\nThen, to Ophelia he addresses himself, counselling her as well not to become involved with Hamlet.\n\nAct I Scene IV. The platform.\n\nEnter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS with the intent of witnessing the \"miracle\" of the phantasm.\n\nIt appears and Hamlet addresses it.\n\nThe ghost beckons Hamlet.\n\nHoratio warns him against following it.\n\nPerhaps the most oft-quoted line from all of Shakespeare's works: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.\n\nThe ghost confesses itself to be the late King Hamlet.\n\nHe states he was murdered and commmands young Hamlet to revenge him.\n\nThough the story fed his subjects was that he'd been killed by a poison snake, King Hamlet's ghost explained that in actuality his brother had poured poison in his ear while while he slept in the royal garden.\n\nHowever, the ghost admonishes Hamlet to spare his mother his vengeance, leaving her in her sinfulness to her conscience and the powers on high.\n\nHamlet agrees to carry out his father's will.\n\nHamlet forces his friends to swear never to divulge what transpired that night.\n\nAct II Edit\n\nAct II Scene I A room in POLONIUS' house.\n\n\nIn this scene, Lord Polonius retains Reynaldo's services as a spy, and instructs him to follow Laertes to Paris, and through asking leading questions to his friends and acquaintances, find out if the young man is guilty of any indescretions.\n\nAct II Scene II A room in the castle.\n\n\nClaudius takes into his confidence Hamlet's student chums, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with the intent of discovering \"how much Hamlet knows.\"\n\nThen, the ambassadors, Cornelius and Voltimand return, accompanied by Polonius. They announce that there mission has been a success, and young Fortinbras has been placed under arrrest, and, as a result, has sworn to forego any further attempts on Danish holdings. However, he counters with an entreaty to allow him and his followers free passage through Denmark, so that he might prosecute the wars against the Poles. Claudius promises to consider the request.\n\nWhen the ambassadors leave, Polonius takes the occasion of the meeting to announce to Claudius and Gertrude his opinion concerning Hamlet, namely that he is insane. In support of his assertion he reads a letter purportedly written by Hamlet to Ophelia. This has been given to him by his cooperative daughter. He goes on to claim that the madness is a result of Hamlet's having been rebuffed in his entreaties by Ophelia.\n\nThe three then plot to catch Hamlet in his madness. However, even before they have a chance to do so, Hamlet wanders by, and through acting absent in mind and speaking riddles and barbs, \"proves\" to them that he his mad.\n\nThen, enter Rosencrantz and Guilderstern, also student chums from the university at Wittenberg. Hamlet suspects they are in league with his parents, however, they shrug off his suspicions, and he confesses his state of mind.\n\nGuilderstern responds by offering to entertain Hamlet through the services of a company of players.\n\nAfter a brief introduction to the actors, Hamlet agrees, but asks if the actors might recite something written by him. They are amenable to the idea, and Hamlet then announces to the audience that he will catch the King with his play.\n\nAct IIIEdit\n\nAct III, Scene I A room in the castle.\n\n\nThe King and Queen continue to connive with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet's invitation to join him in witnessing the production of the players is tendered the King and Queen.\n\nThen, Claudius and Polonius secret themselves in hopes of gaining proof of Hamlet's mad infatuation with Ophelia, after first sending Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guilderstern away.\n\nGertrude demonstates a maternal concern for her son by hoping out loud for an honorable end to the affair (marriage). This wish will be repeated under more tragic circumstances at the end of her life. Both Polonius and Claudius admit to feelings of guilt in the lines that follow.\n\nTo be or not to be..., probably Hamlet's best-known speech. It is a revelation of philisophical proportions, as well as a burning question posed to an eternity of college-age students thereafter.\n\nOphelia tries to return to Hamlet tokens of his love he has given her previously. He senses a trap, and rejects her offers, denying having made her presents. There follows his \"get thee to a nunnery\" speech, in which he repeats the injunction four or five times. Ophelia responds with the line, \"O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!\"\n\nThe King and Lord High Chamberlain who have witnessed the meeting, now voice disbelief in the theory of madness. Polonius proposes that his mother be the one to put him to the test, and discover the cause of his erratic behavior.\n\nClaudius concurrs, iterating the much-quoted line, \"Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.\"\n\nAct III, Scene II A hall in the castle.\n\nEnter HAMLET and Players\n\nIn this scene, Hamlet coaches the players, teaching them his critical theories of drama, as well as how to play the lines he has written.\n\n\nThe \"play within a play\" is enacted first as a dumbshow, but it's meaning is not lost upon the King and Queen.\n\nThe lines that follow reaffirm the meaning of the actors' gestures, and include one of the most best known lines of all times, when Queen Gertrude says in understatement: \"The lady protests too much, methinks.\" Of course, Shakespeare wrote these words to simply mean \"she talks too much\" with reference to the speech above, as well as the curse uttered in damnation of her remarriage.\n\nThe play's name, The Mousetrap, is a recurring theme in literature and art.\n\nThen Ophelia and Hamlet go at it again, with Ophelia once again launching the first volley.\n\nThe players go on to recite a mystery, where the husband's murder is caused in the same way and under the same circumstances as that of the late King Hamlet. Claudius calls for lights, and the show is ended. All disperse, except Hamlet and Horatio, who then receive Guilderstern who has arrived with a message from Gertrude. She would entertain his presence in her private chambers.\n\nHamlet, at this point, confounds the audience by giving voice to an ambition quite out of keeping with his previously stated intent upon revenge, but similar to his retort concerning the poor fare which graced his table at the time of the play. He then rebuffs Guiderstern, however Polonius appears, and again demands of Hamlet that he attend his mother.\n\nHamlet agrees, but what follows is a fearful speech redolent with black magic and witchcraft.\n\nAct III Scene III A room in the castle.\n\n\nEven as Hamlet prepares for his interview with his mother, Claudius drafts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for a final mission. He instructs them to arm themselves, and using what force that is necessary, to spirit Hamlet off to England.\n\nThen, Polonius enters, and announces his plan to hide behind a screen in Gertrude's chamber, and overhear the ensuing conversation.\n\nClaudius thanks his chamberlain, and then, for the benefit of the audience, confesses himself of his brother's murder.\n\nHamlet perceives him to be praying, and wonders out loud if now isn't the time to exact revenge. However, he declines in favor of more profane setting for a bloody reprisal, and goes to his mother.\n\nAfter harsh words are exchanged, Hamlet alarms his mother by forcing her to be seated. Her cries of protest are taken up by the Lord Chamberlain, hidden as he is, and Hamlet responds by drawing and thrusting in the direction of his voice. His cry of \"How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!\" has become a popular way of expressing resentment against eavesdroppers.\n\nFor those who believe that Hamlet's mother married his brother, a degree less serious than the crime of marrying her own brother, this line supports their argument.\n\nThese lines bring to the fore the argument that Hamlet is, in fact, insane, as his mother fails to see his father's apparition.\n\nGertrude states quite accurately that the phantasm is merely a symptom of schizophrenia (ecstasy).\n\nHamlet argues otherwise, and to get free of him she agrees to conspire on his behalf, and, at his urging, profess him to be sane, but feigning insanity. His intent appears to be to cause the King to assume the reverse, since the words will issue from his doting mother's mouth.\n\nThen there follows another line which has been used to the end of creation, and will be for all time, namely, For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard. This, and the following reference to \"digging a mine one yard below theirs...\" contribute to the perception that Hamlet is in actuality suffering from delusional paranoid schizophrenia.\n\n\nAct IV Scene I A room in the castle.\n\nHowever, Gertrude does not carry through with her promise to abet her son, and reports to Claudius that Hamlet is, in fact, mad.\n\nAt the same time she reports the death of Polonius, and Claudius, rising to the occasion, orders his courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to bring the body from Hamlet's hiding place, and put it in the Chapel.\n\nAct IV Scene II\n\nHamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern argue over Polonius' corpse. When brought before Claudius, Hamlet declaims with the \"politic worms\" speech.\n\nHe is then sent off to England, his speed matched by a letters written by Claudius asking that he be murdered by the English.\n\nAct IV Scene IV A plain in Denmark.\n\nYoung Fortinbras and his army enters on the scene. A captain is dispatched to scout the place and meets up with Hamlet. They discuss the campaign against the Poles.\n\nThen Hamlet again soliliquizes, wondering at the ways of greatness, and doubting his own capacity for the same.\n\nAct IV Scene V\n\nOphelia breaks down as a result of her father's death, and Gertrude is called upon to help her. Upon hearing her rave and ramble on, they call on Horatio to follow and watch over her, and make certain she comes to no harm.\n\nThen, the gentleman returns with more bad news. Laertes has returned from Paris, and is being followed by a sympathetic mob who would have him crowned in Claudius' stead.\n\nHowever Laertes desires no more than vengeance against the man who killed his father, and thereby hangs the dialogue between the Royal couple and Polonius' son, soon joined by Ophelia, which ends with Claudius' appeal to Laertes to accompany him in search of justice.\n\nAct IV Scene VI Another room in the castle.\n\nHoratio is found by servant, and given a letter from Hamlet. He has returned to Denmark, after having been intercepted by pirates and held for ransom. They intend to seek payment by presenting themselves and their hostage at the Royal court.\n\nAct IV Scene VII Another room in the castle.\n\n\nClaudius promises his friendship to Laertes, apologizing for having failed to bring Hamlet to justice.\n\nThen, a letter from Hamlet is brought by a messenger.\n\nThe letter is read, and Laertes and Claudius seize the occasions to conspire and set a trap for the prince.\n\nClaudius relates to Laertes the news given him of the young man's prowess at arms.\n\nHe then proposes that they arrange a fencing match, where one foil will be sharpened and the other dull. Hamlet will generously grant the choice of swords to Laertes, who might choose the sharp.\n\nFurther, Laertes proposes to poison the tip of the sword, ensuring Hamlet's demise given even a touch.\n\nClaudius approves, and adds that he too will have poison ready in a cup of refreshing drink.\n\nThen Queen Gertrude enters with the news that Ophelia has drowned.\n\nACT V Edit\n\nAct V, Scene I\n\nA group of grave-diggers (clowns) is found hard at work in a churchyard.\n\nHamlet and Horatio stumble upon these and a conversation ensues. It is at first of a most morbid character, and then shifts to where Hamlet gains the opinion of the grave-diggers as to the recent events in the Royal household, and the grave being prepared for Ophelia is mentioned, though not her name.\n\nThen the skull of Yorick, formerly the King's jester, is discovered. Thus, Hamlet's \"skull\" speech.\n\nThen, enter a procession with the corpse of Ophelia.\n\nHamlet, upon realizing the identity of the deceased surprises them, and then leaps into the open grave with Laertes, who has descended to take into his arms the body of his sister.\n\nThe two struggle for a moment, with Hamlet then affirming his love for Ophelia, while Gertrude again states that her son is mad.\n\nAct V, Scene II\n\nAfter opening the scene with a conversation between Horatio and Hamlet, Osric arrives with the invitation to a fencing match. How Osric could assume Laertes to be unknown to Hamlet before then is unclear, but that is gist of this speech.The wager is made, and thereafter there gathers the King and Queen, along with sundry others of the Royal court to witness the duel.\n\nThe duel begins, and Hamlet scores a hit. Then, Hamlet touches Laertes again, Gertrude celebrates with a draught from the poisoned cup.\n\nLaertes than seizes the initiative, and wounds Hamlet, though in the subsequent scuffle, they exchange rapiers, Hamlet taking the poisoned sword in hand.\n\nHamlet inquires of his mother, and she cries out that she has been poisoned.\n\nThen Laertes admits to having poisoned the sword, and Hamlet, realizing he is to soon die, stabs Claudius with it.\n\nLaertes dies after first asking forgiveness of Hamlet.\n\nHamlet, dying, asks Horatio to defend his reputation after he has passed. Horatio is prepared to die, as well, but Hamlet siezes the cup to deter him from drinking of the poisoned wine.\n\nHamlet, in dying, gives his blessing to young Fortinbras (presumably as far as concerns his quest to recover his paternity), while Horatio utters the immortal lines, \"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!\"\n\nThen, though the ambassador entering upon the scene tells Horatio that Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are dead, that Hamlet's commandment had been fulfilled, Horatio denies his ever having given the order.\n\nHoratio and Prince Fortinbras decide upon a fitting memorial for the dead, and the play ends.\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9437548518180847}
{"content": "SkylanderslogoThis article is also viewed at the Skylanders Wiki.\n\nWind-Up is a Skylander cadet in Skylanders Academy television series.\n\n\n\nWind-Up is easily impressed by feats from the Academy staff and older students, and easily distracted along with his fellow cadets Hex and Roller Brawl. He is unaware of his unique characteristic as of Season 1, mistakenly thinking it depends on the time he can stay wound up.\n\n\nWind-Up can attack with his sharp, spinning pincers. Though he mentions the duration of his winding up function, it is unknown if it's a form of attack like in the games.\n\n\nSeason 1\n\nWind-Up is seen in classes or playing with Hex and Roller Brawl at various points of the season.\n\nIn Beard Science, they repeatedly notice Master Eon while attempting to discover their abilities, but are too distracted by their hijinks to pay attention.\n\nIn Assault on Skylander Academy, Wind-Up drives away the Doom Raiders along with fellow cadets and veteran Skylanders. However, he is defeated despite leading an attack with Food Fight and Trigger Happy against an empowered Kaos, being incapacitated and hypnotized by Wolfgang.\n\n\n\n\n  • Despite being a robot, Wind-Up reacts to the spicy chilli in Anger Mismanagement the same way as his organic friends, rather than being damaged or having worse effects on his casing.\n  • According to himself in Beard Science, he can go 48 hours on a single wind-up.\n\n\nSkylanders Academy\n\nSpyro - Stealth Elf - Eruptor - Pop Fizz - Jet-Vac\nHex (Skull) - Chill - Wind-Up - Roller Brawl - Snap Shot - Ka-Boom - Flashwing\nFood Fight - Trigger Happy - Cy - King Pen\nMaster Eon - Hugo - Bad Breath - Crash Bandicoot\nKaos - Glumshanks - Kaossandra\nMinor Characters\nDale - Garry and Claire\nBomb Shell - Fire Vipers\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999585747718811}
{"content": "The rise of Zero Hour Contracts\n\nThe days of the traditional contract, be it part time or full time, are coming to an end. The last few years has seen the rise of alternative employment arrangements, such as flexitime, job sharing, remote working- and the ever popular zero hours contract.\n\nStatistics recently collated show that the number of staff on zero hour contracts has risen, with almost a quarter of large UK employers using such contracts, in both public and private industries. The 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study found that 23% of employers used zero hour contracts in 2011, rising from 11% 1n 2004.  Companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch and McDonald’s have long used such contracts, with larger charities and the public sector recently following suit.\n\nIn low paid sectors such as catering and cleaning, it is a relatively commonplace practice (and in many instances, the employees have to buy their own uniforms). However, it is the same for some jobs requiring skill, experience and responsibility.\n\nG4S has previously employed custody detention officers- who work alongside  Lincolnshire police to oversee the safety and security of custody centres- on such zero hour contracts. Amidst concerns as to the quality and experience of the G4S custody staff, a G4S spokesman defended the initiative, stating that zero hour contracts gave “additional resilience to forces, and ensure they can respond effectively to peaks and troughs in demand, typically coinciding with major sporting events or music festivals…This pool of officers, less than 10%… receive the same training as their [full time] colleagues… and their skills are kept up to date through regular work and training.”\n\nConcerned about the business approach of the public private partnership scheme, David Hanson, shadow policing minister, stated that “the police can suddenly be busy handling a public order situation, so what checks are in the system to ensure staff are available? Any public-private partnerships must pass tough tests on value for money, on resilience and security, on transparency and accountability, and most of all on public trust. The public need to trust that policing is being done in the interests of justice, not the corporate balance sheet.”\n\nThe same criticisms can be levelled at bank and agency staff currently provided for the healthcare industry- again many of them on zero hour contracts. Opposition MP’s and employee rights advocates are similarly critical of the concept of zero hour contracts, claiming that such contracts allow employers to avoid regular employer- agency worker relationships. Legislation entitles agency workers to the same working terms and conditions as permanent employees after 12 weeks. Additionally, such an arrangement gives little peace of mind to employees, who often do not know if they are working from one day to the next- especially in jobs where the rota can be changed with as little as 24 hours’ notice.\n\nThe Labour Research Department (which studies employment trends) is concerned that zero hour contracts are “increasingly being used to replace proper secure employment with its associated guaranteed level of paid work and other benefits… [zero hour contracts] can be applied in such a way that a worker, in order to have any chance of getting paid work, is obliged to be available for work at the whim of the employer and so cannot commit themselves to any other employment.”\n\nIn defence of the practice, many employers cite that the flexibility is very popular and beneficial for both employers and employees- especially employees juggling family or other onerous commitments. Many employers allow employees to choose shifts either in advance or online- and the inherent flexibility means that many employees do not have to sit by the phone waiting and worrying for a phone call. Employees can arrange their working patterns around often hectic lifestyles, and not the other way round, at times more suitable to their individual needs.\n\nIt is without doubt that the concept of zero hour contracts has, and will continue to, exploit ruthlessly low paid or young workers, or similarly vulnerable workers. It does alter the employer/employee relationship legally, in favour of the employer, sometimes to the employee’s detriment.\n\nDespite such criticisms, zero hour contracts are both a product a reflection of the hectic, flexible, 24hr lifestyle of 21st century Britain- and are here to stay. The popularity and flexibility of such arrangements will continue to rise; regulation and perhaps legislation is needed to ensure that such a system is not exploited for employer gain.\n\nHours, leave and flexible working\n\nAs an employer, you are a legally obliged to comply with legal restrictions on working hours and time off. Failure to do so could lead to claims being made against you in an employment tribunal, enforcement action and even prosecution. Giving employees fair holidays, work breaks and flexible hours (where appropriate) can go a long way to increasing general productivity and reduce accidents and unauthorised absence. Legally, all requests for flexible working must be considered by employers.\n\n\nHolidays, working hours, and rest break requirements are set under The Working Time Regulations to comply with The EU Working Time directive. Both are in place to safe guard the health, safety and welfare of employees in the work place.\n\nEmployees are limited to working a maximum of 48 hours per week unless they strictly opt out.  Employees have a minimum statutory entitlement of 5.6 weeks paid leave a year. This applies pro rota to part time workers. Special rules apply to young workers, Sunday workers and night workers.\n\n\nEmployees are entitles to additional paid time of for the following reasons; maternity leave, paternity leave and adoption leave. Parents and careers are entitled to take unpaid parental leave and care leave. This unpaid leave can be taken to deal with an emergency involving a dependant.\n\nFlexible working\n\nEmployees who are parents, children under the age of 17 or disabled children under the age of 18 are legally required to have their application for flexible working seriously considered by their employers. Flexible working can include arrangements such as flexi-work, part time work or work from home. Usually, an agreements for flexible working becomes part of the employment contract unless it is specifically disclosed that the arrangement is temporary or on a trial period.  Refusal of flexible working must be accompanied with a valid reason. For example, and employee may refuse to give an employee flexible work if it will cause harm to the business performance or is too expensive.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.625106692314148}
{"content": "\n\nGuillain-Barré (ghee-yan bah-ray) syndrome (GBS) is a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system includes the cranial nerves (except the optic [eye] nerve), the spinal nerves, and the autonomic nervous system that governs involuntary actions. The central nervous system is the spinal cord and brain. GBS often occurs a few days or weeks after a person has had symptoms of a respiratory or gastrointestinal viral or bacterial infection; in fact, two-thirds of affected individuals have had a preceding infection. Campylobacter jejuni, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae are commonly identified antecedent pathogens, although C. jejuni is the most common pathogen that elicits GBS. Occasionally surgery or vaccinations will trigger the syndrome. GBS is not contagious. It has been reported that GBS occurs more in men than in women and more often in the elderly. Seasonality has not been reported in developed countries like the United States.  Click on image to visit:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9661643505096436}
{"content": "The Eye\n\nThe eye is a sophisticated, one-lens system for imaging visible light. Light passes through the cornea, through the iris, into the anterior chamber that is filled with a water-based fluid called the aqueous humor, through the lens, into another water-based fluid called the vitreous humor, and finally onto the retina. The iris is an opaque aperture that limits the amount of light that enters the eye. The lens is a tough membrane that is filled with long cells. The focal length (power) of the lens is changed when the ciliary muscle forces the lens to change shape. This enables us to image objects at different distances.\n\n\nFigure 1: Representation of the eye\nPublic Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Rhcastilhos\n\nA person’s eyesight changes as he or she ages because the cells of the lens multiply, but the membrane that surrounds them won’t allow any to escape. As the cells in the lens become more dense, the index of refraction of the lens changes and the lens can’t be bent as well by the ciliary muscle.\n\nThe eye is a wonderful system, but it frequently suffers from one of two refractive errors: myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness). In the case of myopia, the eye forms an image of distant objects in front of the retina, which makes those objects seem out of focus. The eye then forms images on the retina for objects that are closer than the eye’s far point. Myopia can be accommodated for through the use of a negative lens that will cause the light rays to diverge. The power of the lens is chosen by matching the lens’ focal point with the eye’s far point. This causes the light rays to diverge by the correct amount, so that the images of distant objects coincide with the location of the retina.\n\n\nFigure 2: Use of a Negative Lens to Correct for Myopia\n© Гуменюк И.С. / CC-BY-SA-4.0 International\n\nIn the case of hyperopia, light from distant objects is focused to a point behind the retina. In this case, the eye can image rays that would naturally converge to a point to the right of the retina, if the eye did not act to image them. The point to which the least converging rays that the eye can still image come to a focus defines the far point of a hyperopic eye. A positive lens, which has a focal length that coincides with the far point of the eye, can be used to correct for farsightedness.\n\n\nFigure 3: Use of a positive lens to correct for hyperopia", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5977663993835449}
{"content": "When I first started out in marketing, I didn’t quite predict that I’d be a part-time designer, too.\n\nNow, in 2017, visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content and it’s become obvious and even necessary for all of us marketers to have at least some basic knowledge of key design terms.\n\nThankfully, we live in a wonderful world where anyone can make the jump from novice to intermediate and create well-designed images for social media. There are tools like Pablo and Canva that make this design work achievable (and beautiful).\n\nHowever, tools aside, if you want to take your marketing skills to the next level, improving your understanding of design is essential.\n\n\n\n\n53 design terms explained for marketers\n\n1. Golden ratio\n\nThe golden ratio occurs with two objects which, once you divide the larger by the smaller, result in the number 1.6180 (or thereabouts). The most famous golden ratio is the golden rectangle, which can be split into a perfect square and a rectangle the same aspect ratio as the original rectangle. You might see this in image composition or website design and grid layout.\n\n\n\nBy using the golden ratio you can ensure your images are eye-catching and beautifully formatted. Here’s an example of the golden ratio being used to divide space between the body of a website and the sidebar:\n\n\nBelow is another example where the key elements of the design all fit within a different section of the Golden Ratio:\n\n\n2. Rule of thirds\n\nYou can apply the rule of thirds by imagining a 3×3 grid lying on top of your image and then aligning the subject of the image with the guide lines and their intersection points (e.g. placing the horizon on the top or bottom line) or allowing the elements of the picture to easily flow from section to section.\n\n\n\nOnce you have your grid in place, the spots where the lines intersect each other indicate the prime focal areas within your design:\n\n\n\nTypography, text, and font terms\n\n3. Typography\n\n“Ty­pog­ra­phy is the vi­sual com­po­nent of the writ­ten word,” Practical Typography beautifully explainsAll visually displayed text, whether on paper, screen or billboard, involves typography.\n\n4. Serif\n\nA serif is the little extra stroke or curves, at the ends of letters.\n\n5. Sans-serif\n\n“Sans” literally means “without”, and a sans serif font does not include any extra stroke at the ends of the letters.\n\n\nThough there are no set rules for when to use a serif or sans serif font, it’s suggested that sans serif fonts should be used for online body text and serif fonts for headlines and print.\n\n6. Script\n\nScript typefaces are fonts or type based upon historical or modern handwriting styles and are more fluid than traditional typefaces.\n\nA couple of example script fonts include:\n\nAlex Brush;\n\n\nAnd, Grand Hotel:\n\n\n7. Slab serif\n\nSlab serif fonts feature geometric feel than traditional serif fonts and feature serifs that square and larger, bolder.\n\nAn excellent example of a slab serif font is Museo Slab:\n\n\n8. Monospace\n\nA monospaced font, (also known as a fixed-pitch, fixed-width, or non-proportional font) is a font whose letters and characters each occupies the same amount of horizontal space.\n\n9. Hierarchy\n\nTypographic hierarchy is an essential part of any design or layout and even if you’re not familiar with the term, you’ll be sure to have seen hierarchy in action on any website, newspaper or magazine.\n\ntuts+ explain:\n\n\nHere’s an example to illustrate the importance of hierarchy:\n\nhierarchy 2\n\n10. Kerning\n\n\n\n11. Leading\n\nLeading determines how text is spaced vertically in lines. Leading is used when content that has multiple lines of readable text and ensures the distance from the bottom of the words above to the top of the words below has appropriate spacing to make them legible.\n\n\n12. Tracking\n\nTracking is similar to kerning in that it refers to the spacing between letters or characters. However, instead of focusing on the spacing between individual letters (kerning), tracking measures space between groups of letters.\n\n13. X-height\n\nThe x-height refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lower-case letters in a typeface.\n\n\n14. Ascender / Descender\n\nThe ascender is the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the mean line of a font (the x-height). On the other hand, the descender is the portion of a letter that extends below the baseline of a font.\n\n\n15. Orphans / Widows\n\nWidows and Orphans are lines of text that appear at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left alone at the top or bottom of a line. There is some debate about the exact definitions of these terms but as a rule of thumb:\n\n  • Orphan: A is a single word or very short line, that appears at the end of a paragraph or the beginning of a column or a page, separated from the rest of the text.\n  • Widow: A paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. Or the beginning of a new paragraph that starts at the bottom of a column or page.\n\n\n16. Lorum Ipsum\n\n\n\n\n17. RGB\n\n\n\n18. Hex\n\n\n\n19. Palette\n\nA color palette comprises of colors that can be utilized for any illustration or design work that represents your brand. The chosen colors should be designed to work harmoniously with each other.\n\n\n20. Monochrome\n\nMonochrome is used to describe design or photographs in one color or different shades of the single color.\n\n\n21. Analogous\n\n\n\n22. Complementary\n\n\n\n23. Triadic\n\n\n\n24. CMYK\n\n\nCMYK colors\n\n\n25. Pantone\n\nThe Pantone Matching System (PMS) is a standardized color reproduction system. Every hue is given a number, making it easy for people to reference and reproduce the same colors.\n\n\n26. Warm colors\n\nWarm colors are made with red, orange yellow and various combinations of these colors. They give a friendly, happy, cozy vibe.\n\n27. Cool colors\n\n\n\n28. Color theory\n\nColor theories create a logical structure for color. There are three basic categories of color theory: The color wheel, color harmony, and the context of how colors are used. Understanding how to use different colors to convey meaning is an important part of both design and marketing. Here’s a quick guide on how colors affect our brain:\n\nDo you want to learn more about color theory? Check out: Why Facebook Is Blue? The Science of Colors in Marketing.\n\n29. Gradient\n\nA gradient is a gradual change of colors (such as green turning gradually into blue) or a color fading into transparency. There are two common types of gradients: radial and linear.\n\n30. Opacity\n\nOpacity enables us to make an element of a design transparent. The lower the opacity, the more transparent an element is. For example, 100% opacity means an object is solid.\n\n\n31. Hue\n\nEssentially, a hue is a way to describe a color. And a hue can be any color on the color wheel. For example, red, blue and yellow are all hues.\n\n32. Tint\n\nA tint is a variety of a color. Craftsy explains that Tints are created when you add white to any hue on the color wheel. This lightens and desaturates the hue, making it less intense.\n\n\nBranding and logos\n\n33. Logotype\n\nA logotype is the name of a company that is designed in a visually unique way for use by that company. Most of the time when people refer to a logo, they’re referring to the brand’s logotype.\n\n34. Logomark / Brandmark\n\nA logo mark generally does not contain the name of the company and instead more abstractly represents that company using a symbol or mark.\n\n\n35. Icon\n\nIcons are images used to represent an action or an object. For example, a pen icon could represent someone writing (action) or simply a pen (object). When using, icons think carefully about what you want to signify and how clear it is to your audience.\n\n36. Style guide\n\nA style guide is a set of standards for the design of anything related to your brand, whether it’s a website landing page, business card or printed document. The reason to have a style guide is to ensure complete uniformity in style and formatting wherever the brand is used to ensure no dilution of that brand.\n\nAs an example, you can check out our Buffer style guide here.\n\n37. Grid\n\nA grid is constructed from evenly divided columns and rows. The point of a grid is to help designers arrange elements in a consistent way. Here’s an example of the grid we use at Buffer:\n\n\nUsing the Buffer design grid, a page can be divided into fifths, fourths, thirds and halves – and any combination of these. Each grid row must contain parts that add up to one whole. For example, one-fourth + one-half + one-fourth.\n\n\nDesign Terms and Techniques\n\n38. Scale\n\nIn design, scale refers to the size of an object in relationship to another object. Two elements of the same size can be seen as being equal. Whereas elements with a clear variation in size tend to be seen as different.\n\nWhen putting together a design, think about how you can utilize scale to help you illustrate the meaning behind your image. Take the below example; the larger circle appears to be more influential and important that the smaller one. You could even say the smaller circle may be a little timid or shy.\n\n\n39. Aspect ratio\n\nAn aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between the width and height of a rectangle (a rectangle is used because the vast majority of screens are wider than they are tall). An aspect ratio is defined via a mathematical ratio, with two numbers separated by a colon.\n\n  • width:height\n  • This means that 4 inches wide by 3 inches high would be a ratio of 4:3\n\n40. Texture\n\nA texture is defined as the surface characteristics of your image. In design, you can utilize textures such as cloth and brickwork to mirror the visual appearance of the actual texture.\n\n41. Knolling\n\nKnolling is the act of arranging different objects so that they are at 90-degree angles from each other, then photographing them from above. This technique creates a very symmetrical look that feels pleasing to the eye. Images that feature knolling tend to be set against a contrasting solid background.\n\n\n\n42. White space\n\nWhitespace, often known as negative space, refers to the area of a design left blank. It’s the space between graphic elements, images, copy, and anything else on the page. Even though it’s known as white space, it can be any color.\n\nAn excellent example of white space is the Google homepage. It’s almost filled with whitespace to encourage users to focus on the search bar:\n\n\n43. Resolution\n\nThe resolution of an image determines the quality. As a rule of thumb, the higher the resolution, the higher the quality. A high-resolution image will be clear and crisp whereas a low-resolution image will feel a little pixelated and blurry.\n\n\n44. Contrast\n\nContrast occurs when two elements on a page are different. For example, it could be different colors between the text and the background color or dark vs. light colors.\n\n\nOne of the main reasons to use contrast in your designs is to grab attention. For example, the infamous iPod silhouette adverts were so memorable because there is a huge contrast between the white iPod and earphones and the bright background and silhouette.\n\n\n45. Saturation\n\nSaturation refers to the intensity or purity of a color. The more saturated a color is, the more vivid or brighter it appears. Whereas desaturated colors, appear a little duller.\n\n\nHighly saturated images tend to stand out and draw attention, therefore giving the appearance of carrying more weight than less saturated images. If you’re adding a text layer over a picture and would like it to stand out, using a less saturated background can be a great way to do so.\n\n46. Blur\n\nBlur makes images more unclear or less distinct. Using a blur can be a great way to make text stand out when overlaid onto an image. When you put text over an image, the two elements can form a somewhat competitive relationship (example on the left below), a little blur can make the text stand out more and appear much more readable (on the right below).\n\n\n47. Crop\n\nWhen you crop an image, you’re cutting away and discarding the unnecessary portions of the image. Cropping allows you to change the emphasis or direction of an image.\n\n\n48. Pixel\n\nA pixel is a minuscule area of a screen (the word comes from “picture element”). Pixels are the smallest basic unit of programmable color on a computer and images are made up of many individual pixels.\n\n49. Skeumorphism\n\nSkeuomorphism is when a digital element is designed to look like a replica of the physical work. For example, think iPhone’s calculator or Apple’s newsstand where the bookshelf and magazines look and feel like they do in real life.\n\n\n50. Flat\n\nFlat design is a minimalistic approach that focuses on simplicity and usability (almost the opposite of Skeuomorphism). It tends to feature plenty of open space, crisp edges, bright colors and two-dimensional illustrations.\n\n\n\n52. Raster\n\nRaster images are made up of a set grid of pixels. This means when you change the size of stretch a raster image it can get a little blurry and lose some clarity.\n\n53. Vector\n\nVector images a made up of points, lines, and curves. All of the shapes within a vector are calculated using a mathematical equation which means the image can scale in size without losing any quality. Unlike rasters, vectors won’t get blurry when scaled. You can find some great vector images to use within your designs on sites like Vecteezy.\n\n\nOver to you\n\nI hope you found this dive into design terms and definitions helpful. It’s amazing how fast marketers can pick up tools like Canva and Pablo to create beautiful looking images.\n\nI’m curious to hear if there are any other design terms you hear regularly and would like some clarification on? Feel free to share any questions or thoughts in the comments below.\n\nFurther reading:\n\nLooking for a better way to share on social media?\n\n\nStart a 14-Day Free Trial\nWritten by Ash Read\n\n\n  • Hi Ash,\n    This is amazing. It is so important that we use images in today’s world and I do but…. I’ve learned a lot here. When it comes to text, I’m always playing around, now I’ve learned what things stand for and it will be easier for me to choose instead of that hit and miss I’ve been spending time on.\n\n    I love the way you have explained The Golden Ratio. This is something I was trying to do when I put up a Facebook Ad. I have such a better understanding of it now.\n\n    I’m bookmarking this post because it is so useful and I thank you so much for putting this all together. A must share!\n\n\n    • Hey Donna,\n\n      Great to hear you found this one interesting. Text is such an interesting one to tackle, I’ve spent countless hours in photshop playing around with different tools and never quite understood what they were doing until I dived a little deeper into design. So glad the golden ratio explanation helped out a little, too.\n\n      Thanks a million for your comment, Donna. Please feel free to reach out if we can clear up any other design questions.\n\n\n  • This is absolutely brilliant, Ash! Thank you for your in-depth analysis.\n    Great post!\n\n    • Thanks @disqus_abramov:disqus 🙂\n\n  • Excellent Article 🙂\n\n    • Thanks, Tahir! Much appreciated 🙂\n\n  • Johnny Trash\n\n    This is everything I actually learned in Graphic Design 101 and maybe a little more. You explain these terms in very understandable language and chose the perfect terms to identify. You can bet i’ll be sharing this post with the fledgling web designers I mentor.\n\n    • Wow, thanks so much @johnnytrash:disqus 🙂 It’s made my day to read your comment. So glad you found this one interesting and appreciate you sharing it 🙂\n\n  • Ademola Abimbola\n\n    Awesome post! I learned a lot. Thanks for sharing.\n\n    • Thanks for reading @mauconline:disqus\n\n  • Hi, Ash. Your post is great and very useful. Still, I think you have to outsource the design part for your product or business. Yes, it’s good to have some knowlegde about design, but let the masters do their job. My 2 cents 😉\n\n    • Heya @@adinajipa:disqus 🙂 Great point! I completely agree that key design tasks should be handled by the pro’s, you can’t beat a working with a top designer. I think a little understanding of design is super helpful for tackling smaller tasks like social media images and can also help when communicating with designers. Appreciate the comment 🙂\n\n      • Yep, that little understanding keeps you efficient on your tasks.\n\n  • Calvert Trust Exmoor\n\n    useful thanks, great listicle. We think you might have got a bit over enthusiastic with the ‘e’ key on 41 though! 🙂 “90-degreeee angles”\n\n    • Thanks so much for sharing, that’s a great spot 🙂 Just updated this one.\n\n  • cindyboogle\n\n    We love to watch movie more than reading a book. This shows we are more attracted towards colours , videos and images. Therefore to attract costumers these days we need to make our website more attractive and unique taking help from http://www.acompworld.com. Beauty has its importance.\n\n  • Wow, Ash.\n\n    I didn’t expect a full-on course on web design at all. I’ve learned quite a bit about composition from your post. I especially like what you shared on typography since I’ve never know how to combine fonts, or things like hierarchy and leading… there’s a lot learn!\n\n    Usually I’d just copy which ever letter combination that has on Canva templates but you make me one to try my hands at this sometimes. On a scale of 1 – 10, how complicated do is the art of typography?\n\n\n    P.S. Buffered!\n\n  • Vera\n\n    Hi Ash, as a non-designer I enjoyed your post extremely especially the visuals that you provided.\n    However, I disagree with the comment on serif fonts for headlines. The ‘little feet’ as I call them when I teach fonts in presentations were invented to guide the eyes along a line in a paragraph. Therefore, a headline doesn’t need those.\n\n  • Amber Williamson\n\n    really great – thanks Buffer!\n\n  • John Smith Jr\n\n    Hi I am a longtime professional marketer and designer as well with a MBA and a MArch. This is great post and a great read for non designers. But to be clear knowing the rules does not make you a professional player. Great design is like great positioning and product marketing – you need to have a different, valued , and differential product that is easily distinguished from others – i.e. templates are not going to do it. Template and cookie cutter design sounds appealing but in the end you look – well the same. I am all in favor of DIY – but also lets not try and say DIY is going to replace the skill of someone with decades of experience. Experience that knows a design deadend before it arrives.The human eye absorbs visual data 60,000 times more efficiently than type and even small errors and incongruities are quickly picked up and magnified in visuals.\n\n    If your budget permits hire a professional – otherwise keep reading and practicing and you can go a long way by yourself.\n\n  • Janet Reasoner\n\n    Great post! I’m working on a website revision and this is extremely helpful. I do have one question, however. You say “Though there are no set rules for when to use a serif or sans serif font, it’s suggested that sans serif fonts should be used for online body text and serif fonts for headlines and print.” But I notice that this page uses a sans serif font for the headlines and headers and a serif font for the body text. Am I just confused or is this a mis-typed sentence?\n\n  • This list is so very awesome. Feel sort of embarrassed that there were a few terms in here that weren’t necessarily new to me, but my understanding of them was a bit vague. I’ve been in and around design for over 10 years, so thanks for the refresher Ash!\n\n    Think it’s vital for marketers today to not just have an understanding of design but even more technical knowledge, like a bit of HTML/CSS. Not saying they need to be able to build a webpage, but be able to understand limitations and and possibilities.\n\n  • psgganesh\n\n    Wow, clarity from the first line to last, thanks Ash\n\n  • Jeremy Christopher\n\n    Nice. Curious what 51 was though.\n\n  • Marta Aw\n\n    Very helpful. Thanks.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7379897832870483}
{"content": "18 and Battling to Feel Beautiful, Inside and Out\n\nBy Isha\n\nAs a young adult, I constantly feel a pendulum of emotions. Today’s emotion is obligation and insecurity over social appearance. I’ve grown in a society where one’s beauty and personality is valued. Thankfully, I’ve been able to see how one doesn’t need a lot of makeup or popularity to be seen as attractive. However, I still feel obliged to do whatever it takes to make myself look even more beautiful. Sadly, I know why I feel like this. I look to the girl next to me, my best friend, the girl who’s always next to me, and see something shining. Something that glows inside of her. Something that makes people want to talk to her and respect her, more so than they do to me. I want to tell myself that she spends time on her appearance and so that’s the reason for her glow. But that only reaffirms to me that I must put in time and money to become physically and socially attractive to people.\n\nI don’t spend time on my hair and makeup. I am way too tired and lazy to do any of that in the morning. I used to enjoy putting on eyeliner every morning and sorting my crazy hair. My middle school self loved the trial and error that came along with discovering myself and my styles. But as school became more difficult and my acne got rougher, I justified to myself that I’d rather get more sleep and focus more on my studies than on my appearance. Now when I look around, I feel that I should use makeup to fill in the gaps of my appearance. I’m not that tall or lean and so some eyeliner and hairspray should make up for that.\n\nI’m not fishing for compliments. I look in the mirror some days and see a glowing and gorgeous person. But today, and some other days, this is how I feel, standing next to someone who turns heads when I barely stand out. I can see that she doesn’t understand why this bothers me so much. Why should I even think about this vs. do what makes me happy? But I’m a philosophical person; someone who attempts self-development by tackling that what bothers me. What bothers me right now is how unhappy I am with how I appear to people, and how this could possibly affect the people I’ll meet and even possibly date. I know I am in way over my head, and slightly naive, to even think of bringing love into this conversation. But sometimes, that’s what it comes down to. Attractiveness and love go hand in hand. From psychology, I learned that someone’s physical characteristics are the first major factor in people’s attraction towards one another. So how can I not help but feel that my goofy, hometown girl self is going to get in the way of what I could’ve been?\n\nOverall, being friends with someone who spends a lot of time, energy, and money on her social appearance has made me feel obliged to do the same, to also be able to turn heads or be viewed as something more than just ‘pretty’. When you spend a lot of time with someone who does just that, it’s not easy to feel another way. I can gladly blow dry my hair to perfection and wing my eyeliner every day, but I know I should only do it if it makes me happy. I shouldn’t have to find faults in my appearance so I can dive into fixing myself.\n\nThe problem here is how I compare myself to others. If I want to feel prettier, there are other ways of doing it. One would be seeing how pretty I am naturally. Finding confidence in who I am as an everyday person. And yeah, that person may lack sexiness or a striking glow, but I’m working on that. Maybe one day I’ll turn heads because I’m smiling so much over how good I feel about myself. In the meantime, I’ll keep doing what I do. I’ll try not to nitpick myself. And I won’t feel bad about if I decide to spend some time and energy on myself. It’s all about what makes me happy. A simple concept but hey, we’re all still learning.\n\nTo learn more about our By Teens-For Teens community, visit our website or contact a teen ambassador.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.738864541053772}
{"content": "International Justice\n\nCJ354 Endicott College\n\nTag Archives: US\n\nThe U.S Announces its take on the Crime of Aggression\n\nIn 2010 the ICC held a Review Conference in Kampala that would suggest an amendment to the Rome Statute that would allow for the ICC to prosecute crimes of “aggression. The American Society of International Law gathered to discuss this amendment at their annual meeting earlier this month. Not surprisingly, the U.S stance on the expansion of the ICC’s power was negative; the panel sited three reasons to oppose the crime of aggression that would take effect in 2017 if ratified.\n\nFirst the ASIL raised concerns that a crime of aggression would deter member countries from aiding in joint military action for risk of legal prosecution. They claim that these military endeavors could be the actions needed to prevent the very crimes that the ICC wishes to stop like atrocity crimes. The ASIL argues that mobilizing allies to intervene in humanitarian catastrophes is difficult enough as is, and an addition legal deterrent would hinder the process further.\n\nSecond the US is worried that the aggression law would limit the international communities ability to resolve conflicts. The idea is that if two countries are willing to end a conflict through mutual cooperation, the crime of aggression law could upset this balance by forcing the leaders of the countries involved to be prosecuted for their crimes. The ASIL speculates that the ICC could insist that these crimes be investigated at any cost and thus disturb fragile diplomatic efforts.\n\nThird the ASIL points out that the ICC is struggling as is to apprehend defendants and “sustain a record of effectiveness” in prosecuting atrocity crimes and an added responsibility would be too much for the ICC. The panel also pointed out that crimes of aggression would be deeply political and could compromise the court’s obligation to impartiality.\n\nWhile the ASIL brings up valid points, It seems that this report is another example of the US shying away from the ICC in fear of its own prosecution. No doubt the US could be considered to have committed crimes of aggression in territories within the courts jurisdiction so the ASIL’s stance is not surprising. Here is the report do you think the ASIL is genuinely concerned with the state of International Law or its own self interests?\n\nPutin and Russia Lift Ban on Missile Sales to Iran\n\nOn Monday, President Vladimir Putin approved the delivery of a missile system to Iran. The missile system could possibly complicate the negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program that Washington has been working so hard on. Additionally the sale potentially undermines the efforts of Obama’s administration to sell Congress and foreign allies on the nuclear deal. This is problematic since the U.S. and Iran are still struggling to complete the deal. Also if Iran has advanced air defense missile, Israel and/or the U.S. will have a harder time threatening Iran with airstrikes if they ignore agreements. No timetable has been announced for the deliverance of the weapons to Iran, but the sale was suspended five years ago because of a flurry of UN sanctions against Iran.\n\nRussia has said that the missile sale will not complicate negotiations; instead it will help Iran along. They believe that the missile they are selling (S-300) is a defensive weapon and does not pose a threat to Israel. The Obama administration fears that this deal could be the first of many between Russia and Iran including a deal that would exchange food for oil and this would raise potential sanctions concerns.\n\nA display of S-300 missiles in Russia. These are the missiles that are being sold to Iran.\n\nWhile Iran has denied repeatedly that it is using its civilian nuclear program to mask their efforts of building a bomb, much of the West is dubious. Arming Iran with missiles is not appeasing these fears.\n\nRead more here.\n\nInternational Perspectives on the U.S. Election\n\nGlobal Views on the U.S. Election\n\nWith election night drawing closer by the hour, it is interesting to take a minute to pause and step back from the US perspective on the election, and consider this election through the eyes of the international community. The New York Times posted a video entitled “Global Views on the Election” which present the views and opinions of individuals from outside of the US concerning their interpretation of the Obama administration thus far and their evaluation of Governor Romney’s proposed policies. \n\nThe participants in the video talk candidly of whether or not they felt that President Obama was a felt presence in their own state governments and how they predict the potential nomination of Governor Romney could impact their countries’ politics. It is therefore interesting to consider how the actions of our President and the policies recommended by Governor Romney are interpreted on the international scale and just how representative the role of President of the United States is to the rest of the world. For me, it really put this election into the perspective.  When considering the greater framework of the world of international politics, it is interesting to understand how the United States is perceived by others, especially when considering, at least myself personally, am most definitely not up to date on government elections in many other nations around the world. This video, for me, was the reminder that this election does not just effect Americans, but will also potentially impact the lives of individuals around the world. \n\nThe Emergence of Justice Norms\n\nAn interesting article from the Guardian reports that Winston Churchill favoured executions and life imprisonment without trial for Nazi leaders. These revelations come from this week’s declassification of the diary of Guy Liddell, who was the head of counter-espionage at MI5 (so a pretty reliable source). Churchill’s position was opposed by before Stalin, who wanted to use trials as propaganda, and Roosevelt, who felt the American public would want trials. It seems Liddell also personally disliked the idea that Nazi leaders would be prosecuted for waging a war of aggression because of the precedent it set.\n\nThis article made me think about where the concept of transitional justice has developed and disseminated from. I think often the US claims responsibility for the emergence of universal human rights and transitional justice citing American exceptionalism, the Bill of Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in shaping the UN’s Universal Declaration, etc. The rest of the world seems to reject this position – perhaps because concepts of human rights and transitional justice are so ingrained in society that everyone would like to claim responsibility (and take the US down a peg). However, reading the Guardian’s article, it does seem that the impetus for transitional justice sprung from America. I’m interested in what everyone else thinks about the beginnings of transitional justice. Often I think I’ve been too dismissive of the role of the US in shaping normative values about justice, especially as other states and actors, such the EU/UN/any number of NGOs, are the current transitional justice vanguard. So should the US be credited more for the emergence of transitional justice?\n\n\n\n\nUnited States of Transitional Justice\n\nThe United States is no friend of the ICC, sure, but it has been supportive and instrumental in other forms of transitional justice (including independent tribunals), not to mention the NGO leadership from the US. Yet, I continually wonder about the missing legacy of transitional justice within the US itself. As we have studied, mechanisms such as TRCs can be essential to establishing a common understanding of a legacy of mistreatment: an understanding that is occasionally critical to establishing a stable human-rights bound culture. On the flip-side, it is thought that these processes might re-open wounds, shaking national stability and driving groups apart in to “victims” and “perpetrators”. When it comes to our own history, I wonder how addressing our own injustices might affect us now. The mass slaughter of Native-Americans, the extensive slavery of Africans and their descendants, or the internment of Japanese-Americans all seem to be topics that our national mythology has only briefly addressed. Are there benefits to revisiting these unfortunate periods? Would a stronger congressional acceptance of abuses perpetrated against native tribes affect our current treatment of minorities as a whole? Would further revealing to the public view the extent of slavery improve our understanding of lasting economic inequality? Or, on the other hand, might these measures only propose racial divisions of a “forgotten” past. Can we still “transition” from the past?\n\nUS and Universal Jurisdiction\n\nI know that today in class we talked a lot about universal jurisdiction and I did some research and found the answer to the US and its stance on universal jurisdiction.  What I found was that the US does not exercise universal jurisdiction.  The article that I read states that the US “is concerned that the exercise of universal jurisdiction by other states may result in politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens by foreign courts.”  This stance seems to come in handy especially in consideration with Iraq since complaints of war crimes were filed against George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet.  It is convenient for political purposes but I’m wondering what your own personal take on it is.  Should the US exercise universal jurisdiction or not?\n\nWhat I read came from the American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court.  It is a question/answer type document about universal jurisdiction and the ICC which I think may be good just for some all around general information.  The link is:\n\nThe United States and the International Criminal Court\n\n\nUSA and the ICC from the Coalition on the International Criminal Court\n\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6425266861915588}
{"content": "What is BiPAP?\n\nBiPAP is a treatment for sleep disordered breathing that uses two pressures during the breathing cycle – an inhale pressure and an exhale pressure. BiPAP, also referred to as a BPAP or bilevel positive airway pressure resembles CPAP except for the additional pressure setting.\n\nBiPAP is a registered trademark of Respironics.\n\n\nWho Uses BiPAP?\n\nHistorically, bipap has been used to for the treatment of patients with sleep apnea who are unable to tolerate CPAP. It has also been used for patients with central sleep apnea and pulmonary disorders that benefit from a ‘pressure gradient’, or difference in two pressures. When to use bipap or cpap.\n\nCPAP, BiPAP machine\nBiPAP machine\nASA sponsor\n\nBilevel PAP is often used in patients who need respiratory assistance, or in patients with COPD. The differential in inspiratory and expiratory pressures aids in the removal of excess carbon dioxide CO2.  BPAP machines often are programmed to reach higher pressures than most CPAP machines. Some Bilevel PAP machines are able to reach 25 and 30 cm/H2O. While most CPAP devices reach 20 cm/H2O. When the inspiratory pressure is equal to the expiratory pressure, it is equivalent to CPAP – it is a continuous pressure. For example 25/25 cm/H2O = 25 cm/H2O.\n\nAs mentioned in other pages, the supplies for a BiPAP are the same as CPAP supplies. The filter, mask, hose, humidifier are often interchangeable.\n\nSome BiPAP and CPAP devices utilize addon features for comfort that assist in improving compliance.\n\nHistorically, BiPAP was more expensive than CPAP. BiPAP is often used when CPAP is not tolerated by the user. There are new technologies that increase comfort with CPAP.\n\nBiPAP is sometimes used in patients who have pulmonary (lung) issues, like COPD. The difference in pressures helps to eliminate extra CO2 carbon dioxide gas from the body.\n\nDisclosure: Some compensated affiliate links on this website. We receive compensation in the form of commissions or other payment from some of the companies whose products we list.\n\nPhilips DreamCPAP\n\nThere are frequent improvements in BiPAP  supplies and technology. With the increasing demand for treatment of sleep disordered breathing disorders, BiPAP manufacturers are constantly upgrading the technology. Keep up to date on this website for changes in bipap supplies online.\n\n\nShare This:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.913986325263977}
{"content": "53 Following\n\nA Reciprocal Love Affair With Books\n\n\nCurrently reading\n\nMiles Morales: Spider-Man (A Marvel YA Novel)\nJason Reynolds, Kadir Nelson\nProgress: 206/261 pages\n\nBuddy Read time! Reading progress update: I've read 41 out of 81 pages.\n\nLetters To The Damned - Austin Crawley\n\nMy Overdrive app compressed the text down to 81 pages, so I'm reading very, very text crowded pages, and that's something of an obstacle. It's making some of the longer descriptions sort of feel like they take forever. (I still think the entire driving chapter could have been edited down. I get that it's supposed to show how far out and out of the way he's going, but it seemed like LOTS of exposition.)\n\n\nI'm curious to see how witchcraft/paganism plays into this, with the green and the May Day celebration. And I like that Cris is sort of an outsider in his own world, and then he's been transplanted to this alien planet (as he himself muses.)\n\n\nThe last thing I read was the bull, and while I'm aware if I tried to describe it to someone else, they'd sort of say, So what? LOL! But in the context of the story, and with Sarah's warning, it was hair-raising.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6439557075500488}
{"content": "Management Information Systems (33:623:370) \nProfessor Eckstein\nCollege In-Class Exercise\n\nIn this exercise, we will design a database for a small college. \n\nWe want to keep basic information about courses, instructors, and departments.  We need to keep information about students' schedules for the current semester, and their grades from prior courses (we may also store their schedules from prior semesters if we wish).  We also want to store instructors' schedules for both the current semester and past ones.\n\nThe college consists of departments, identified both by their full names and by unique three-letter codes such as ENG, MTH, CIS, MAN, and so forth.  One particular instructor is designated as the chairperson of a department.  We want our system to be able to store the current chairperson for each department (we don't need information about past chairpersons).\n\nEach instructor has a home department.  We wish to store the home department, and to keep basic contact information on each instructor, including name, office address, email, and office phone. \n\nCourses are identified by a three-letter department code and a three-digit course number, such as ENG101.  Each course has a name and a description. \n\nCourses may have multiple sections, which are identified by one additional letter appended to the course name, as in CIS223A.  Sometimes there is only one section of a course (in which case it is usually \"A\"), but sometimes there are multiple sections, as in ENG101A, ENG101B, and ENG101C. \n\nEach semester, a single instructor is responsible for each section.  This instructor is usually in the same department as the course, but does not have to be.  Each section also has a room number and a time slot, such as MWF10AM, for Monday/Wednesday/Friday at 10 AM.  You want to store a table of time slot codes and their meaning. Sometimes a course can have more than one section in the same time slot.\n\nEach semester, a student can take multiple courses.  You want to use the database to store student schedules, that is, the sections being taken by each student each semester.  Once the semester is over, you want to store the student's grade in each class.\n\nFinally, you want to store contact information for each student (name, campus address, phone number, and e-mail).  After their first few semesters, the students declare themselves as having a single major in a department.  They may also declare a single minor in a different department.  You want the system to store major and minor information for all students.  Neither multiple majors nor multiple minors are allowed. \n\nDraw a database outline and an entity-relationship diagram.\n\nAdditional complication 1:  (straightforward) Add to the database a table of classrooms, and have it remember what room each section is in (this enhancement is straightforward).\n\nAdditional complication 2:  (more complicated)  Modify the database to accommodate \"cross listing\" of courses -- for example, the same course may be offered as both CIS230 and MTH251.\n\nAdditional complication 3:  (challenging)  Add to the database the ability to remember which time slots conflict with one another.  That is, the MWF1PM time slot conflicts with the MW1-2:30PM time slot.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9164942502975464}
{"content": "Venus is the goddess of love. It is her responsibility to see that all sentient creatures find their loves, or at least gain confidence as far as romance goes. This role has evolved over the eons, as her original purpose was simply to ensure procreation among species. As such, she works closely with Palutena and oversees the love fairies, including Kyu.\n\nAs the goddess of love, she argues she can't limit herself to one lover, and as such is quite amorous. This has a tendency to make other deities take her less seriously.\n\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9984986186027527}
{"content": "Coping with Criticism\n\nby Dr. MaryAnn Diorio\n\n\nNone of us likes to be criticized, but few, if any, of us will go through life without experiencing criticism. In fact, the more we stand up for something, the more we will be criticized.\n\nSo how do we handle criticism when it comes our way? Here are some tips that have helped me:\n\n1) Consider who has given you the criticism. Is it someone who loves and cares about you? Is it someone who has authority over you, such as a parent, a husband, a pastor, a boss, or a teacher? Or is it someone who doesn’t particularly like you or who is jealous of you? The source of the criticism is important in determining its validity, although valid criticism can also come from our enemies.\n\nCriticism that comes from someone who has our best interests at heart should be considered seriously because that person’s motive is usually sincere. On the other hand, criticism that comes from an enemy may be jaded by that person’s bias against you. Nevertheless, the wise person does not immediately dismiss criticism, regardless of the source. Rather, he continues to the next step.\n\n2. Look at the criticism objectively. Do not allow it to upset you, but rather, ask yourself if there is any truth in it. If there is, humbly accept that truth and use it as a catalyst for change. When considered in this manner, criticism can be a tool to help you grow as a person.\n\nAll of us have blind spots. Sometimes it takes another person’s insight to reveal to us areas in our lives that are causing us problems. For instance, a person may be repelling people because of his sarcastic attitude and yet not realize that his sarcasm is costing him friends. When this is pointed out to him by a well-meaning person, he should humbly examine his attitude and correct it, if necessary.\n\n3. Once you’ve distilled the truth, if any, from the criticism, throw the rest of the criticism away. Don’t think about it any longer. If you dwell on the false part of the criticism, you will do nothing but upset yourself. Criticism is usually an opinion and is only as trustworthy as the person giving it. Remember: Nothing can upset you unless you give it permission to upset you.\n\nIn short, the rule of thumb regarding criticisim is this: If the shoe fits, wear it. If it doesn’t, don’t. Deep down inside, we usually know when a criticism directed at us is true or not. If it is, don’t give in to pride by trying to shrug it off or argue your way out of it. As the Scriptures say, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). On the contrary, take the criticism like a man—or woman—and become a better person because of it. # #\n\n\n\ngreatness-ebook-cover-072516You Were Made for Greatness\nby MaryAnn Diorio, PhD\n\n\nTo order, click here.\n\n\nTo learn how to be born again, click here.\n\n\n\n\n\nMaryAnn Diorio, PhD\nCertified Life Coach / Certified Behavioral Consultant /\nCertified Biblical Counselor / Certified Professional Résumé Writer\n\nTo contact Dr. MaryAnn directly:\nFor general information:\n\nAuthor Website:\n\nCopyright 2000-2017. All Rights Reserved.\n\n…Exalting Jesus Christ, and Him Alone…", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.969762921333313}
{"content": "Lunes, Abril 17, 2017\n\nDoes My Small Business Need a Firewall?\n\ncloud security image\nIn the I.T. industry, we get this question quite frequently.  A small-business owner will ask, “Do we need a firewall?”  From a security standpoint, the answer is almost always “yes.”\n\nFirst, what is a firewall?  Put simply, a firewall is a device that inspects the information coming into and (in some cases) out of your office computers.  The firewall examines the information, compares it to a set of pre-established rules, and either allows the information to continue flowing or stops any data that violate the rules.  Firewalls can be either software based or hardware based.\n\nSoftware Firewalls\n\nA software firewall is a program that runs on your computer similar to an antivirus or anti-malware program.  The firewall software looks at the data being sent and received by the computer on which it’s installed and makes the “good / bad” determination right there at the computer level.\n\nThe benefit of a software firewall is that it can adapt to your specific computer, your specific usage patterns, and the specific program that’s running on your computer at this moment.  For example, you may need different firewall rules when you’re playing a computer game versus when you’re doing research on some shady internet topic.\n\nThe downside of software firewalls are that they have to run on each and every computer on a network—they each have to be individually purchased, configured, and maintained.  Also, a user could disable the software firewall if he or she knew what they were doing.  Additionally, software firewalls cannot be installed on network attached devices such as printers, security cameras, and other potentially vulnerable devices.\n\nHardware Firewalls\n\nA hardware firewall is a physical computer-like device that is plugged in and sits between your internal office network and the outside internet.  In your home, you might have a wireless router attached in this manner.  In fact, many consumer grade wireless routers have a built-in firewall application.  The consumer grade version is far less capable and robust than that needed for a business application, however.\n\nThe benefit of a hardware firewall is that there is only one device to buy and configure…and it protects everything on the network all at once.  Also, a hardware firewall can examine much more data much more quickly because it is a dedicated unit and is not competing for computer resources like a software based solution would have to do.\n\nThe downside of a hardware firewall is the technical expertise required to install and maintain it.  Hardware firewalls can be much more robust units and therefore require some level of I.T. skill to properly configure.  Also, the firewall will require regular updates to the firmware (the software running inside the firewall) to patch security holes and take advantage of the latest technologies.  Unlike your computer, a hardware firewall will not notify you when it requires an upgrade.  Fortunately, there are many companies that specialize in managed network security that will gladly assist with this part.\n\nDo We Need a Firewall?\n\nIf your company processes credit cards or in any other way collects customer information then yes, absolutely, without a doubt you need a robust firewall solution—it’s the #1 rule in the PCI compliance requirements.  If your company has proprietary internal data that you do not want getting out in the open then, yes, you need a firewall.  In fact, the only company I can think of that doesn’t need a firewall is one which has no secrets, no confidential or proprietary information, and stores absolutely no client data…and I can’t think of a single company that fits into that category.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6494590044021606}
{"content": "The reserve analysis is an analytical technique used to update the reserves kept against risk. For instance, if a risk goes away, the associated reserve could be reallocated. The PMBOK defines reserve analysis as \"an analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in the project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost, or funds for a project.\"\n\nRelated: determine budget, control costs, tools and techniques, estimate activity durations, contingency reserve, schedule, budget\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9694564938545227}
{"content": "\"Beware of the Dog\" is the 20th episode of season three of the British medical drama, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, and the twenty-first episode of the series overall. It was directed by George Spenton-Foster with a teleplay written by Alistair Bell. It first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom on May 16th, 1965.\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999919533729553}
{"content": "Wolfgang in his wolf form\n\nWolfgang was a minor villain in the film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night which is based on the comic book Dylan Dog.\n\n\nWolfgang belongs to a clan of werewolves living in New Orleans which are enemies of the vampires. Wolfgang fights with Dylan Dog when Dylan comes to ask questions about the werewolf that killed Elizabeth Ryan's father, he is defeated by Dylan which uses a silver fist ring. He later reappears with other wolves when Belial is resurrected by the turned out evil Elizabeth, they kill her and defeat Belial, by killing her they also avenge their master Gabriel.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9848112463951111}
{"content": "Contact Us\n\nUse the form on the right to contact us.\n\n\n2700 N Hwy 17, Suite H\nMount Pleasant, SC 29466\n\n\n\nPlantar Fasciitis\n\nfoot cupping.jpg\n\nWhat is fascia?\nFascia, also called connective tissue, is a cling-wrap-esque layer of tissue that surrounds our muscles. When we injure an area, it causes the fascia to “bunch up” and “stick” to the muscles, rather than glide smoothly along the muscle. In recent research analyzing the amount of nerve endings in the fascia, they have discovered that fascia can transmit 10 times the information, including pain signals, to the brain than muscle. This means that when the fascia is injured or not moving freely, the nerves are sending pain signals to the brain. This is where cupping is so effective.\n\nHow cupping works with treating plantar fascia\n\nCupping therapy has been shown by researchers to alter the tension within the fascia. Cupping is performed by using glass or medical-grade silicone cups that are simply applied on to areas that need treatment, once the proper suction is created, the therapist moves the cup over the affected areas to relax the tissues and induce a relaxed and more mobile state in the fascia.  \n\nCupping reduces local inflammation, breaks up scar tissue and enhances blood circulation in the feet. In addition, cupping has a homeostatic effect by balancing the parasympathetic and sympathetic nerve signals in the feet. In this way, cupping therapy sends a signal to the brain to initiate the healing process.\n\nCupping massage therapy is offers successful treatment to relieve pain, restore flexibility, and prevent structural deterioration of the feet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6309154629707336}
{"content": "Hussein Ibish\nNOW Lebanon (Opinion)\nJuly 26, 2011 - 12:00am\n\nLast week I had a fascinating debate with David Ha’ivri, an extremist Israeli settler—an event loosely connected to a conference of the pro-settler Christians United for Israel organization.\n\nI call Ha’ivri an extremist settler for two reasons. First, many settlers are living in the occupied Palestinian territories not for ideological reasons but for practical ones. They have been induced to do so by generous Israeli government subsidies. Second, Ha’ivri’s worldview—that all the occupied territories belong exclusively to the Jewish people and that Palestinians there are not entitled to national or political rights—is by any standards extreme.\n\nHis vision involves permanent Jewish rule in all of Palestine, but no citizenship or votes for the Palestinians in the occupied territories.\n\nIn our exchange, Ha’ivri opened with a recitation of Jewish theological claims to all of the “land of Israel,” including the occupied territories, interspersed with a tendentious narrative about recent history. He and the audience, mainly of his supporters, probably expected me to counter with a tendentious Arab historical narrative or Muslim theological arguments.\n\nI did neither. I pointed out that those arguments exist, and are as passionately held on the other side, but equally unhelpful. In his opening he never mentioned the word Palestinian, and neither described the problem nor suggested a solution.\n\nI continuously emphasized that there are two peoples of approximately equal numbers in a small area who show no signs of being willing to share power or abandon their national agendas. Therefore, the only way to avoid continuing and intensifying conflict is a solution that involves creating two separate states.\n\nMy main point was that this was not so much a debate between an Arab and a Jew, as one between a modern mentality and a medieval one. Modern thinking, I explained, recognizes both the inherent rights of individuals as human beings and the rights of self-defined peoples to national self-determination. Medieval thinking, on the other hand, relies on holy texts and symbols, and conceives of people not as individuals and groups of individuals, but as fixed categories in a divinely ordained hierarchy. Though he was born in New York, Ha’ivri really believes that he possesses many rights in Palestine that Palestinians do not.\n\n\n\n\nWhile I recognized the deep Jewish attachment to the land, neither Ha’ivri nor most others in the room showed any signs of acknowledging the deep Palestinian history, attachment and presence in it. His arguments, such as they were, boiled down to this: We have returned; we are not leaving; God is on our side. The organizers were distributing a pamphlet entitled “This Land is My Land,” which says it all.\n\nYes, I told him, you are there and you are a reality everyone must deal with rationally. But Palestinians are also there in equal and growing numbers, and they have the same rights you do, but you do not factor them into your thinking in any realistic manner. I noted neither he nor anyone in the audience would ever agree to be denied their basic rights, as he was suggesting Palestinians should, and that they would fight to restore them if they were taken away. To this, he offered no answer.\n\nThe whole conversation was, not surprisingly, deeply reminiscent of a debate I once had on Iranian TV with a leader in Gaza of Islamic Jihad. Nonetheless, some audience members plainly were listening to me and left with at least some challenging and unfamiliar ideas to grapple with.\n\nHa’ivri was amiable enough, but his mentality is extremely dangerous to Palestinians and Israelis alike. If mindsets like his guide Israeli policy, it would probably drag both Palestinians and Israelis, much of the region and possibly the world, into an apocalyptic cataclysm. This, sadly, is what some of Ha’ivri’s Evangelical friends, intoxicated with fantasies of a “second coming,” are gleefully anticipating.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7477379441261292}
{"content": "Repatriate Games - Can Portfolio Rebalancing Explain the Dynamics of Equity Returns, Equity Flows, and Exchange Rates?\n\nFollowing the tremendous growth in international equity flows over/of the last two decades, is it time to reassess the impact of asset allocation on global equity markets? INSEAD Associate Professor of Finance Harald Hau and Princeton's Hélène Rey examine the symbiotic relationship between exchange rates, equity flows and market performance, to examine causes, effects and some unacknowledged motivations behind portfolio rebalancing between the US and major equity markets across Europe and Asia.\n\nby Harald Hau, Hélène Rey\nLast Updated: 23 Jul 2013\n\nRapid expansion of global hedge fund products and the increasing prominence of international finance have combined to lead tremendous growth in international equity flows over the last two decades. As a result of this heightened activity, equity flows have arguably become an important determinant of short-run supply and demand of foreign-exchange (FX) balances. In this journal article, INSEAD Associate Professor of Finance Harald Hau and Princeton's Hélène Rey argue that global portfolio rebalancing, motivated by efforts to limit exchange rate risk exposure, has a significant impact on FX rates and equity market returns. The study examines these effects through performing empirical analysis on bilateral equity flows between the United States and five equity markets: France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.\n\nThe first hypothesis argues that equity price changes motivate portfolio rebalancing. When, for example, foreign equity markets outperform US markets, geographic asset weights automatically shift, increasing FX risk exposure for US investors. To manage risk, foreign holdings will be reduced to restore previous levels and comply with investment mandates. Repatriation of foreign equity wealth increases demand for dollar balances, appreciating the dollar, given a price-elastic currency supply. This effect is most applicable to equity portfolios where FX risk is typically not hedged. In the second hypothesis, portfolio rebalancing occurs as a response to FX rate innovations.\n\nWhen foreign currency appreciates, foreign asset values (as measured in home currency) increase. Again, higher FX risk exposure will induce foreign outflows to restore pre-shock levels of FX risk. This effect is similar to the first hypothesis, with the key difference being that excess foreign gains are currency-based, instead of resulting from differential market performance in base currency terms. The third hypothesis argues a reciprocal effect, where FX rate changes and excess foreign returns are also caused by increased equity flows. Equity inflows into the home country lead to demand-based appreciation of home currency, and also induce excess market returns of the home equity market. This argument assumes again a price elastic supply of currency balances and equity, which results from limited arbitrage in the FX and equity markets.\n\nThe data confirmed the role of equity returns as a catalyst, as excess foreign equity returns were consistently followed by equity flows from foreign countries to the United States. Investors reduced FX exposure after foreign wealth share increased in all countries examined, supporting the first hypothesis. The exchange-rate impact was immediate and positive in each case, with the US dollar appreciating as equity funds flowed into the United States. A 4-percent excess return in French equity brought an average 5-percent equity outflow from France to the United States, leading to a 2-percent dollar appreciation. The second hypothesis was supported by the fact that a positive shock to the dollar (USD appreciation relative to foreign currency) led to US equity outflows to each of the five countries studied. Here, portfolio balancing could be observed as equity was reallocated away from markets after excess returns occurred. The third hypothesis also found support, as international-equity portfolio shocks were found to impact exchange rates and influence excess equity returns. Equity flow innovations produced persistent excess returns in foreign equity markets in each of the five countries. The FX rate impact was also persistent as portfolio flows from the United States to the five foreign markets examined, depreciated the dollar significantly. Variance decomposition revealed that equity-flow shocks and relative equity-return shocks explain between 10 and 20 percent of the FX variance, increasing to 20 percent for all five countries during the period 1997-2004.\n\nAs such, international data on equity-market returns, equity portfolio flows and exchange-rate returns prove to be consistent with effects of dynamic rebalancing of foreign equity positions by global investors, demonstrating that portfolio rebalancing plays a very significant role in the supply, demand and price levels of FX and equity markets worldwide. As the importance of international equity flows grows further, we can expect these channels of asset price determination to become even more prominent.\n\nAmerican Economic Review, May 2004\n\nFind this article useful?\n\nGet more great articles like this in your inbox every lunchtime\n\n\nGet your essential reading delivered. Subscribe to Management Today", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9572926163673401}
{"content": "Ashley Spero\n\nHendersonville, NC\n\n“I believe ancient, indigenous and futuristic archetypes exist within all of us; morsels from past lives, love and new experiences, waiting to be unearthed and explored. I hope that upon viewing my work, the viewer experiences a moment of child-like awe, an arousal, and a reminder that the universe cradles endless layers of magic and mystery waiting to be revealed. I want to bring alive tribal dances, occult secrets, talking animals, sexual flowers, primitive love, plant medicine, eternal playfulness, and a unique, tiny porthole into the boundlessness of beauty, creation and imagination.\n\nMy work is all about color, vibrancy, energy, and most of all, growth. Art as a tool for spiritual and emotional growth is what keeps it a part of an infallible string tying us forever together. I believe in this process, I am uncovering a visual aesthetic to express an indescribable, intuitive, emotional world and share it.\n\nEnergy is my muse and art is my ceremony. My paintings and sculpture are crafted from hand-cut wood and intricately painted with bright, vibrant acrylics. Through these works, I strive to create a tangible form that serves as a shrine, homage, and humble tribute to the beauty of life and the magnificent intricacies of our Universe. Each piece providing segue to an emotional experience, and becoming a totem in the process of weaving together a language for our collective spiritual consciousness.”\n\n-Ashley Spero", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9768953323364258}
{"content": "Treasury Bill: Money Market Instrument - QS Study\ntop logo\n\nTreasury Bill\n\nA Treasury bill is principally an instrument of short-term borrowing by the Government maturing in less than one year. Treasury bills are issued in the form of a promissory note. They are highly liquid and have assured yield and slight risk of default.\n\nT-bills are well accepted with institutional investors because, being backed by the government’s full trust and credit, they come adjoining to a risk free investment. They are issued at a price which is lower than their face value and repaid at par. The difference between the price at which the treasury bills are issued and their redemption value is the interest receivable on them and is called discount. These debt obligations are issued in maturities of four, 13 and 26 weeks in various denominations as low as $1,000.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5515912175178528}
{"content": "Practical information on wrongful death lawsuit claims\n\nA wrongful death claim is different from a normal neglect lawsuit due to the fact that it is not applied for injuries by the individual who is injured. A wrongful death lawsuit claims that a victim was killed by the carelessness or carelessness of another individual or entity, and is filed by the target’s survivors. It is interesting to note that a kind of case did not exist under the typical law principles that were passed from England to the united states hundreds of years ago because people believed that the case to compensation died with the sufferer. Throughout the years, an increasing number of states have passed wrongful death legislations to supply compensation for individuals who could have been harmed from the death of the sufferer. All states presently have a form of a wrongful death claim that usually follows the exact same principles.\n\nwrongful death cases\n\nNonetheless, due to the fact that each state prepared their statutes separately of each various other, a wrongful death insurance claim will certainly have distinctions from one state to another. There are some principles that make an application for all wrongful death cases as well as play a role in determining the amount of compensation provided. The majority of states provide an enduring partner, next of kin or children to declare recovery with this kind of insurance claim. Sometimes an enduring spouse could even have the ability to bring a claim even after a separation. The surviving beneficiaries could sue anybody who triggered the injuries that sped up the death as long as there is no legal exception. Among the most common legal exemptions is family resistance, which implies that a person is protected by Tim Ryan and Associates law versus a suit brought by any participant of their household.\n\nThis regulation has actually just recently been disregarded by a variety of states, and also a personal injury lawyer could assist you figure out if your instance applies for an insurance claim. It is important to note that a wrongful death case is separate and eliminated from criminal charges, as well as neither proceeding influences the other. Wrongful death statuses likewise do not apply to a coming fetus, and the law mentions that an individual does not have a distinctive legal condition up until they are birthed active. If you have lost a loved one in an unnecessary death, you may be considering if you ought to file a claim. Despite whether the action that triggered the death was on purpose done or otherwise, the objective of a wrongful death lawsuit is in order to help the survivors relieve the economic problem produced by the death. In order to achieve success in your wrongful death claim, you should prove the actual root cause of the death.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5168685913085938}
{"content": "Let everything happen\n\n7 08 2017\n\n\nWhat the horse knows: Life Lesson: No 10\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHow to worry\n\n19 06 2017\n\nWhat the horse knows: Life Lesson No: 9\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat the horse knows No. 3\n\n12 03 2017\n\nFile 12-03-2017 17 09 15\n\nLife lesson No. 3: Truth\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\ndsc_0318Sheranni and Dragonfly on the move.\n\nWhat the horse knows No: 2\n\n5 03 2017\n\n\nFriendship between species is special. Sheranni with Rebecca.\n\nLife Lesson No 2: Friendship\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBody Talk\n\n25 10 2016\n\n\nGoats know about presence. An irritated goat lifts her chest, arches her neck, stiffens her gaze and may tip her horns toward the source of irritation. An irate goat tucks her chin to her chest and charges with her forehead, horns angled to wound. She might also stomp with both front feet and grunt. Get on the wrong side of a goat and she will use persuasively powerful body language to insist that you change your mind.\n\nWhen she is not sleeping in the sun, staring at the feed shed or snatching blackberries from the brambles, the life of a goat is pretty much taken up with power, influence and control. Observing Betty, as I do most days, and her companion Bill, I’m often amused by the sheer physical energy they will display when riled. ‘Back off’ in goat language means feet planted and head held high. What’s interesting is that ‘back off’ in human language also amounts to pretty much the same thing. We talk of ‘standing our ground’ when we want to get our point across and it turns out that a simple occupation of space can be far more effective than a strongly worded argument.\n\nPresence is now a subject for serious academic study. Harvard Professor Amy Cuddy’s TED talk\n\n how our body language shapes behaviour has been viewed by millions and her ideas have been shared by individuals and in colleges, schools, sports teams and businesses. Amy Cuddy showed how adopting power poses including the dynamic Wonder Woman hands on hips pose alters our thinking and improves performance. Her research shows that just a couple of minutes adopting this expansive pose especially before a stressful situation such as an audition or job interview is enough to prime the body to feel strong, grounded and present. On the other hand, collapsing the body by hunching over a device (labelled the ihunch or text neck) has the opposite effect. Constricting body language, it appears, limits our ability to think clearly, act decisively and even has an impact on working memory.\n\nAccording to Cuddy: ‘The Body shapes the mind, and the mind shapes behaviour. But the body also directs itself.’ In her book Presence, Cuddy tells the story of how she nearly missed out on an academic career after a car accident left her with a devastating brain injury. After months of physical and cognitive therapy, she was told that she shouldn’t expect to finish college. She ‘never in a million years’ expected to become a Harvard professor. ‘I just wanted to make it through each week without losing hope. To make it through a class without thinking about dropping out…I had no concrete goal in mind. I just wanted to feel a bit more like myself, a bit sharper, a bit less like I was watching from inside a glass bubble and a bit more like a participant in what was happening.’\n\nAs children, we participate in the world naturally, partly because we don’t find it nearly as difficult to fully inhabit our bodies as we do when we eventually become adults. Children walk, run, climb, swim, dig around and throw things with much less effort and deliberation than their more self-aware adult selves. As adults, we are generally more careful and less spontaneous with our physical movements. For example, it is rare for a grown man to throw himself on the floor of a supermarket and demand a chocolate bar, even when he is desperately hungry, or lift his legs and swing between the arms of two indulgent friends just for the fun of it.\n\nThe French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty observed that the world is more problematic for adults because grown-ups mostly have to take into consideration other people’s perceptions. The child has ‘no knowledge of points of view. For him men are empty heads turned towards one single, self-evident world where everything takes place, even dreams, which are, he thinks, in his room, and even thinking, since it is not distinct from words.’\n\nAt some point children learn that they are separate from the world, and this separation creates distance and a point of view, coloured and shaped by many different experiences and influences. Instead of living within the world, fully enfolded in being in the world, adults become more detached from the world. Perhaps one of the many reasons why we enjoy watching children and animals at play is that this reminds us of what we have lost. Often as adults we must relearn how to fully experience the world and we often choose to do this through ‘play,’ physical and creative means such as sport, dance or music.\n\nMerleau-Ponty reminds us that we experience the world primarily through our bodies. Indeed there would be no perceived world without our bodies to experience it. All our thoughts, perceptions and experiences are filtered through our senses, which are embodied. We don’t have to live in our heads all the time; we can recognise that the body gives us direct access to the world. Merleau-Ponty’s arguments are revitalising because philosophy and much of psychology have long been viewed as disciplines of the mind alone with the question of the body being side-lined. Philosophy in particular has found it hard to escape the straitjacket of thinking that regards minds as pure and bodies as messy.\n\nPlato’s solution to the problem of the body was to claim that it corrupted the mind and needed to be controlled like an unruly horse needing the guiding hand of the charioteer of reason. The body was inferior because it couldn’t think in the abstract; the body couldn’t understand the nature of goodness. The body was simply the vehicle for the highest part of us: the indestructible soul, which would eventually be reborn with another body. In other words, we didn’t need to bother with the body because we could always get another one.\n\nAs he sat in his dressing gown in his Bavarian cabin one cold winter, French philosopher Descartes infamously separated mind and body through a process of elimination that reduced the fundamental part of all that makes us human to thinking itself. The body was cast off like a snakeskin, an inconvenient truth that Descartes chose to ignore, stepping over it on the way to the more scintillating ideas of the mind.\n\nMerleau-Ponty returns the body to the human condition by reminding us that the body takes us through the world. We cannot navigate without it. We experience life through our bodies and what we come to know and understand is lived experience instead of reflections or abstractions of the intellect. If I understand him correctly, and his work is not easy to read: there is no little us inside our heads doing all the mental processing of our daily experience like a superfast computer delivering data. There is only us in the sitting room or the car or the bath. ‘Truth does not inhabit the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself.’\n\nThis means – I think – that the world is not a blank slate upon which we project our carefully-constructed human dreams, dramas and demands, but rather a living field of existence of which the body is an expression. Perhaps given these ideas, we could adjust our mind-set to allow more priority to our bodies as a way to make sense of the world. Maybe we could even use this strange way of thinking to build a stronger, more resilient, less anxious and self-doubting way of life. I’m hoping that the goats will be my daily reminder not to forget my own body and to power pose when necessary. Thank you Bill and Betty\n\nBut Hitler was a vegetarian\n\n3 11 2015\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWonder work\n\n19 10 2015\n\nBelinda with Sheranni\n\nWhen I tell people I teach philosophy and I also work with horses, they often ask whether there’s a connection. How do you get from philosophy to horses? I understand the link is not that obvious. Philosophy is an abstract indoor sport practised mostly by men in book-lined rooms. Horses, on the other hand, are physical creatures of the outdoors that require a lot of looking after mostly by women in muddy wellingtons. Indeed, it has taken me many years of practising philosophy and horsemanship side by side to properly see how the two connect. Once I made the connection, though, I began to see links everywhere, and that’s when life started to get really interesting.\n\nPlato says that philosophy begins in wonder, and that was my starting point with horses. Early in my life I was drawn to horses because they were something to wonder about, to think about and dream about. The quality of my wondering about horses was very different to the quality of my wondering about dogs and other domestic animals, including the cats and rabbits and guinea pigs I grew up with. Horses enabled me to think and feel more deeply. Horses opened my mind to imaginative possibility, which changed as I developed and matured from someone who just wanted to ride horses to someone who considers horses as valuable teachers for humans. I recognise this opening as the beginning of an intense philosophical journey.\n\nIt’s tricky to talk about animals meaningfully. For some reason people get prickly about it. The usual defence mechanism is the charge of anthropomorphism. It is considered wrong to talk of animals as if they have human characteristics and human emotions, but as the philosopher Mary Midgley points out every new thing we meet has to be understood in human terms. We can’t invent a special language to discuss animals any more than we can invent a special language to discuss God. She notes that the concept of anthropomorphism is very old, and applied to early Christians who believed that God morphed into a human shape. The understanding of animals was added on to the end of the early definitions of the concept and is not really central, more of an afterthought.\n\nAs Midgley says ‘Anthropomorphism is a remarkable concept. It may be the only example of a notion invented solely for God, and then transferred unchanged to refer to animals.’ Nowadays the term is used quite forcefully against those who would like to open up the debate about our relationship with animals. It makes me think of how we humans like to have everything so neatly categorised: us in one box, animals in another.\n\nPerhaps the reason is to maintain our superiority. We humans think we’re so special. We invented language and art and comedy. We invented science, sport and religion, but not necessarily in that order. We can climb mountains, visit the moon and design buildings that stagger the imagination. Let’s not forget the internet, the new wonder of the modern world. Our achievements are living proof of the genius that calls itself humanity.\n\nExcept that only a tiny bit of us is actually human. A little over one per cent of a human being is human. Think about it one point three per cent of you is responsible for your human achievements and for your human mistakes. One point three per cent got you to where you are today. The rest of you belongs to the chimpanzee.\n\nWe share an immune system with our closest relatives chimpanzees, gorillas and orang utans, the structure of our blood proteins is the same and the circuits of our brains. We are much more similar to animals than we think.\n\nWhich brings me to horses. The limbic system in the mid-brain of a horse, (that’s the mammal bit) is nearly identical to the limbic system of the human brain. The Limbic system is responsible for social and emotional responses, as well as blood flow and heart rate. What is remarkable about horses is that they can mirror our emotions and ways of thinking back to us very accurately indeed. Horses are very good at showing us what we don’t want to know! Which is why they are such valuable teachers in the field of human development.\n\nAnimals are part of our continuing human story. Understanding animals can take us beyond anthropomorphism and into new arenas of thought and, yes, wonder. Over the past year of developing a social enterprise which connects socially isolated people to horses, I’ve been exploring this story and getting people to think of themselves more as social animals in order to develop wisdom, wonder and well-being in their lives. The stories they have shared with me have inspired and challenged me to think differently. New thinking always feels like a gift and this is one that I hope to share with you over the coming weeks and months.\n\nElen with Dragonfly\n\nImagine being seven again and finding wonder in every encounter.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.919697105884552}
{"content": "My Journey with Anathema\n\n\n\n\nAnathema band photo\n\n\n\n“An answer won’t come from me\nConfront your own worst enemy\nWhat does your mirror see\nIs it time to face up to me?”\n\n\n\n“Cos no matter what I say\nNo matter what I do\nI cant change what happened\nNo matter what I say\nNo matter what I do\nI cant change what happened\nNo no I can’t change”\n\n\n\n\nIt makes me wanna cry, just another distant satellite…”\n\n\nOfficial Page:\n\n\nA Review of Mathias Grassow & John Haughm’s Album “Aurae”\n\n\n\nWhen one first hears the word “drone” the first images that come to mind are soundscapes that meander and lead the listener to a lull of catharsis and introspection. The tones and sound effects put the listener into a waking sleep, and helps the listener expand their imagination to even greater depths. One thing you will notice about drone music is the fact that you cannot “rock out” or dance to it. All you can do is listen and let your mind wander to the outer reaches of the universe.\n\n\nPhoto By: Veleda Thorsson\n\nMathias Grassow & John Haughm’s latest collaborative effort “Aurae” deliberately gives this effect when you hear it closely. I have been super interested in their project for years now because I have an appreciation for the work Haughm has done through Agalloch and Pillorian, and after multiple listens loved the work of Grassow. There are moments in life when you just need to relax and forget about the chaotic world around you. The music found in “Aurae” is a perfect soundtrack to calm these moments in life. I have never heard an album that has immediately relaxed me and intrigued me in balanced doses. There is an unwavering sense of expanse and infinite when hearing “Aurae”. I see images of empty, rolling landscapes of green and wind-touched stalks of wheat blowing in the breeze that parallels with my own heartbeats. There is sense of wistfulness while being lost in the fog of shadows and light in the music. And the bleak, barren landscapes the music invokes gives glimpses of doorways that lead somewhere else to a place beyond the body and even soul.\n\n\nThe brilliance of this album is that it gives listeners different experiences, one person could feel an emotion different to another person when listening to “Aurae”. When one could feel peace and serenity the other could feel suffocating anxiety. Drone music has this kind of effect which makes it such a fascinating sub-genre of music. There have been some drone albums that made me feel uncomfortable or even disturbed while others made me feel pensive and relaxed. This dichotomy is one of the key components to a successful drone album, and “Aurae” effectively does this seamlessly. The calm, tranquil art of Grassow melded with the oppressive darkness of Haughm’s music delivers an album that puts your mind through millions of emotions/feelings and somehow puts you into a better state of mind after multiple listens. If you are looking for something unique and different to listen to I would give “Aurae” a chance, if you want to journey into the astral plane “Aurae” will guide you there.\n\nRating: 8/10\n\nJohn Haughm Bandcamp:\n\nMathias Grassow Bandcamp:\n\n\n\nImperium Dekadenz Interview\n\n\nImperium Dekadenz have been around for 10+ years writing some incredible black metal that is both unique and very introspective in nature. When I found out about them I noticed their albums were highly reviewed and to no surprise when I heard their album “Dis Manibvs” my mind was blown about how good, powerful and emotional it sounded. So many images came to my mind when hearing the album. I really wanted to know more about how Imperium Dekadenz came up with their concept as well as inspirations for songwriting. Horaz (vocals, guitars and keyboards) one half of the band took time out of his busy day to answer my questions. He has some great answers and really sheds light into the whole process of what makes Imperium Dekadenz write stellar albums consistently.\n\nFirstly, since releasing “Dis Manibvs” the reaction so far has been positive, what do you think of the recognition you are receiving as of late?\n\nHoraz: That album ended up being an immense amount of work (next to our daily jobs and businesses). Besides the time and money we invested in it there were also many emotions that took over in the recording process.. Of course it feels good to get that recognition from all these people around the world. We feel our message was understood and if we read reviews like your’s we are happy that we are able to create such intense emotions and mind-images.\n\nCan you describe to the readers what made you conceptualize the ideas of “Dis Manibvs’? Is there any specific or interesting moments that happened when you recorded the album?\n\nHoraz: The title is Latin and means “To the Gods of Death”. I had that idea when I went to the Emperor Nero exhibition in Trier (Germany) and found all these Roman tombstones signed with “D.M.” or “Dis Manibus” (also used with Dis Manibus Sacra). It came to my thought that our whole life is geared on death (hopefully the correct expression, hehe) and somehow it could be understood as the meaning of life, as our hope is to have a good death. The concept of the album has different scenarios handling that topic with different experiences, views and stories.\n\nWhat is the creative process like for Imperium Dekadenz? And what made you come up with the name “Imperium Dekadenz”?\n\nHoraz: Vespasian and myself start with a new song separately and if the main structure is done the other one is adding his ideas on to it. The good thing here is that it gives us various options we can run with, because if for example Vespasian does not like a new idea of mine the song will be discarded or completely revised. I think it is important that you only start the songwriting if your heart has really something to say. Meaning, you cannot force the creation of a good song, there must be a kind of salvation to put your emotions and thoughts into it. The name is inspired by the 70s movie “Caligula”. It’s about the Roman Emperor Caligula and his cruelties in ancient Rome. We love history and especially ancient history including the Romans, Greeks, Celts, Egyptians, Germans and other tribes, but it is not any main concept of the band.\n\n\nWhen I listen to your albums I get a huge sense of triumph and even closure in the albums I have heard. Did you intentionally write your music this way? What made you want give the music such a powerful and emotional resonance?\n\nHoraz: To answer that question is similar to answer on the question “how magic happens?”, hehehe. Certainly it is the mixture of the different characteristics of Vespasian and me and also our different tastes and inspirations. As I already said, the most important point is to create emotional art if your heart has really something to say. The foundation of each song has to be an emotional expression of a moment in your life, the hard work comes later for the details. Maybe it is also an advantage that we start the songwriting separated. I do not know if it would be the same to create a song together with 5 band members in a rehearsal room.\n\nWhen listening to “Dis Manibvs” it immediately reminded me of the many various styles of black metal from Depressive, Cascadian (Wolves in the Throne Room/Agalloch) to classic Scandinavian 90s black metal, in your opinion what black metal category would you place Imperium Dekadenz?\n\nHoraz: It is dark, rough, atmospheric and emotional art, based on 90s Norwegian Black Metal and Doom Metal. We listen to Metal for over 20 years now, starting with demos and Cannibal Corpse cassettes on the playground to the point of obsession. Also many YouTube sessions thru all the genres and other music influences on Vespasian’s couch. I think it is correct, you can hear many influences, but on the other hand there is absolutely no band that sounds like Imperium Dekadenz.\n\nThe United States black metal scene is always growing and changing as the years go by, in your opinion what do you think of the state of black metal and even metal today, specifically in the United States?\n\nHoraz: To be honest I have no overview of the US scene. I am not a typical scene character. I am more interested in the art itself instead of the bands and the guys behind it. My experience is that you are often disappointed if you meet any band members or to give more attention to a band’s background. I think that is safe bet, because how could someone present himself in a normal situation (for example somewhere backstage)  if you only know him as metal star. That can only fail. Well the BM scene today… or be more exactly the Post Black Metal scene, is not my personal taste. Somehow the whole appearance of these bands is too flat… I don’t know…. Basically I think it is a good thing that after all these years “Black Metal” (if you can call it still Back Metal) is one of the genres that still changes regularly.\n\n\nWhen listening to “Dis Manibvs” there is a seemingly spiritual connection in the music that is almost cosmic in nature, how important is Imperium Dekadenz’s metaphysical thoughts to the creative process?\n\nHoraz: It’s hard to describe the connection between “metaphysical thoughts” and the creative process. But to describe our way until the goal is reached is simple… you have to put all your passion, emotions, time, money, sweat, blood, knowledge and skills into it… from the first tone you play on your guitar until the last adaption on the mastering. We do not spend time finding out why we sound how we sound, we spend it to create art.\n\nThere is undeniable imagery of Nature within your albums artwork and lyrics, what is it about the natural landscapes of Germany that makes you write this way?\n\nHoraz: We grew up in one of Germany’s most remarkable landscape, the Black Forest. It is similar to a Scandinavian landscape with high mountains and dark forests. I always loved to be outside in these woods until the night falls. I think that forest is one of the reasons why I fell into love with Black Metal. It is still a very important source of energy for me and I still try to be there as much as possible. And yes… I also think that you always hear the forest in these songs.\n\nCurrently what are you both listening to as of late? Do you recommend any particular albums for our readers to check out?\n\nHoraz: I am currently listening to Murg (Sweden), Vemod (Norway), Glerakur (Iceland), Abyssion (Finland) and Skepticism (Finland).\n\nDigital StillCamera\n\nAre there plans in the works for Imperium Dekadenz to tour the United States? Have either of you spent much time in the U.S.?\n\nHoraz: We have never visited the US yet, but it is one of our big goals! We had no luck so far, but we have high ambitions and we really hope to start a US Tour one day.\n\nImperium Dekadenz has been around for over 10 years now, in this time span do you think your ideas and concepts have evolved? What direction do you hope to take the band in the future?\n\nHoraz: I think it is natural thing for an artist to evolve the whole band thing. I think we did a good progression during all these years with finding new elements and improving the old strengths. It was always our main goal to intensify the emotions on each upcoming album and we will still follow that path in the future.\n\nIf you could describe your music to someone who may not be into metal but is interested in branching out how would you describe it?\n\nHoraz: Be ready to make a journey towards your within.\n\nAnd finally do you have any parting thoughts/words for our readers?\n\nHoraz: Stay active, stay awake, fathom the darkest parts of your soul and keep the flame burning. Thank you for your support!\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFour Female-Fronted Bands You Need to Hear\n\n\n\n\nThe Gathering\n\n\n\nMost Accessible Album: “How to Measure a Planet?”\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEmma Ruth Rundle\n\n\nCaptured by: Adam Gasson\n\n\nMost Accessible Album: “Some Heavy Ocean”\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWorm Ouroboros\n\n\n\nMost Accessible Album: “What Graceless Dawn”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMost Accessible Album: “More Constant than the Gods”\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImperium Dekadenz “Dis Manibvs”\n\n\nI have spent a ton of time trying to find new things to listen to. I love all of the albums I have in some way or another but I just needed to hear something new and unique. I heard about the band Imperium Dekadenz from one of my friend’s and started listening to some songs by them. After hearing their music with much greater attention to detail I was immediately staggered by how good these guys are. Hailing from Germany Imperium Dekadenz arrived through the fogs and mists of the black woods and have created an epic album called “Dis Manibvs” that came out in August of 2016.\n\nThe best way I can describe the overall vibe of the album is sorrowful, ancient and triumphant. The songs seemingly blend into one another like a tapestry of stars and planets. The vocals remind me of yearnings for times of old and final breaths of stars dying into the black of space. There is a cosmic, polytheistic and natural energy when every note is played. There is strong feeling of melancholy in the way the instruments harmonize and crescendo. There are multiple things that standout in “Dis Manibvs” one of them standing out above all others is the drumming of Vespasian. They are powerful, emotional and thunderous like the heavens, blast beats sound like oaks growing and expanding in the rain, and the cymbal crashes remind me of bolts of lightning turning the night sky white. There is a real feeling of the gods speaking when you hear some tracks of “Dis Manibvs” and whatever they are saying is being conjured through Imperium Dekadenz.\n\n\nI can say when I hear this album my mind goes into a different place entirely, all the negativity and pain of life disappears and I feel like I am lost on a battlefield after Ragnarok. I see corpses around me, blood in the grass, mud and destruction everywhere. But I am not looking at the ground but the sky above. I can see stars clear and bright, clouds passing through the moon and treetops. I can see the dull light of dawn on the horizon and the ghosts of the dead wandering aimless among the piles of the dead. I know even after the brutality and violence of the battle that I lived and the gods had plans for me hidden from my view. I could only find the answers by moving forward and leaving the death behind me. My eyes scan to the east as I see the sun rise and notice glimmers of light as the sun shines over the vast raging river cutting through hills and valleys, a place to be cleansed of the blood and filth of the night before. These are the images and feelings “Dis Manibvs” evokes when listened to and it stays with you long after.\n\nThe songs that stand out most on this album are “Still I Rise” a triumphant, hopeful song about letting the past rot and being only aware of the present and seeing the future in a gauze of ether. The guitars are incredibly bombastic and immediately invoke these feelings and it just stays with you as a fond memory of the past you do not want to lose. The next song that is incredible is “Dis Manibvs” a slow, doomy black metal track which cascades like waterfalls and a steady warm rain. There is a sense of longing in this song, it is almost depressive in nature but it nonetheless is a song that can help with feelings of guilt and grief. The final song that stands out is “Volcano” it reminds me thoroughly of an old Emperor song it sounds like chaos melded with calm and develops images of a civilization on the brink of collapse through utter natural destruction. There is a sense of closure in this song, after the eruption and screams of thousands there is silence and it permeates through everything and leaves you utterly speechless in where the album will go next.\n\nImperium Dekadenz - Ragnarök 2014\n\nCaptured by Dvergir Photography\n\nWhen the album ends the feelings, senses and thoughts stay with you like a vivid dream. You see yourself floating aimlessly in the infinite sky and see the god’s beckoning you to paradise. You find yourself at peace after the destructively beautiful sounds and images of “Dis Manibvs” and just want to play it again and again. The story Vespasian and Horaz crafted with such care, diligence and passion is something that will remain in your memory long after listening. An album that allows you to always hear new things and experience new visions is an album worth listening to. Be blown away by the utter perfection of this album and let it stick with you for the rest of your days.\n\nRating 9/10\n\n\n\n\n\nA Conversation with Jason W. Walton\n\n\n\nBassist Jason W. Walton of Khorada, ex-Agalloch, Snares of Sixes, Self Spiller, Nothing, Dolven, Especially Likely Sloth and many other musical acts has been a pillar in the Pacific Northwest metal community. He was one of the original members of Agalloch and then went on to do a new and highly-anticipated project Khorada with fellow ex-Agalloch band members Don Anderson, Aesop Dekker and Aaron John Gregory of Giant Squid. I wanted to learn more about his music projects, vision and hope for the future in regards to being a musician. Me like many others are waiting with bated breath to see what Khorada will sound like in the meantime we can look forward to hearing his new project Snares of Sixes which he talks about at length in the interview below.\n\n\n\nYou have been working on multiple projects for many years now, out of all the works you have done what do you think stood out the most to you as an artist?\n\nJWW:  Albums I’ve been a part of stand out to me for different reasons. Agalloch’s “The Mantle” jumps to mind immediately because of the critical acclaim it received and how that afforded us to tour and bring Agalloch to places we never imagined going.  On the other hand, the debut Snares of Sixes ep that I just finished stands out as well, because that was a beast of a record and is easily my most ambitious recording to date.  Every recording I’ve been a part of has been important or noteworthy to me, because each acts as a stepping stone and a learning experience for the next one.\n\nA lot of your works are tied to electronic, ambient and drone scapes what made you want to go this direction? What about this style do you like most?\n\nJWW:  I first started working in these styles because I loved the freedom it afforded me.  I loved being able to work alone.  I could compose, record and perform entirely by myself if I wanted, and didn’t have to rely on others to get work done.  The nature of the music itself is basically limitless as well and I feel very free to do whatever I can possibly imagine.  \n\nIs there any new or interesting things you can update our readers with about Khorada?\n\nJWW:  As of right now, there is not much to report.  We have news coming soon, but as of right now I can tell you that we are deep within writing our debut album.  I feel like we are at the point where we have found our voice as a band, and are refining our sound.\n\nWhat direction do you hope to accomplish with Khorada?\n\nJWW:  I don’t really want to use too many descriptors or make too many comparisons just yet, as the music can still change quite a bit at this point.  We all came into this being very aware of our previous bands, and not wanting to repeat those themes, or ideas. Obviously, when you have ¾ of Agalloch in a new band, there are going to be some undeniable elements of Agalloch in Khorada, and of course, there will be things reminiscent of Giant Squid as well, due to AJ’s large role in Khorada.  \n\n\nIn regards to your influences and points of inspiration what are some triggers that allow you to create and conceive new ideas?\n\nJWW:  It really depends on the band. Khorada is lyrically and thematically controlled by AJ.  Of course we all have ideas thrown in here and there, but that is largely AJ’s department.  For a band like Snares of Sixes or Self Spiller, I typically focus on a single idea, or a feeling, and work around that. Self Spiller’s “Worms in the Keys” album was written around themes of travel, homesickness, allergies and being caught in an unfamiliar space. The Snares record I just finished is literally about Kombucha, yeast and bacteria.  Many of these ideas have come from books I’ve read, or experiences I’ve had.  \n\nYou have done many tours over the years, in your eyes what do you think was the most memorable?\n\nJWW:  I think the most memorable tour for me was the first time we went to Europe. Most of us had never been to Europe before, so playing to audiences all over Europe was unreal.  Also we had a month long tour with Fen in Europe, and that tour was highly enjoyable.  Usually for me, I remember stand out shows, or places, not necessarily tours. London, Copenhagen, Lithuania, Tel Aviv, Bucharest. These are the places and shows that are the most memorable for me.\n\nYou have been working with Don Anderson, and Aesop Dekker for many years now, what about them do you admire most and with this new chapter in your life has your creation process changed at all with them?\n\nJWW:  Don and Aesop are amazing musicians, and my closest friends. They always push me and challenge me as a musician. Aesop rarely plays the same way twice. He is always trying new things and is not afraid to experiment. This pushes me to be quick on my feet and forces us to lock in together and feed off of each other. Don’s command of the guitar is inspiring. He knows enough theory to be dangerous, but loves punk enough to not be a snob. Within an hour of Agalloch breaking up, the three of us had a group text going about what we were going to do next. There was absolutely no reason for us to stop playing together.\n\nHave you taken on even more songwriting duties with Khorada, and if so what are some ideas you decided to run with?\n\nJWW:  Writing as a bassist is a very odd thing. Of course writing basslines to existing guitar parts is one thing, but writing the foundation is tricky. It’s very hard to listen to a line of singular notes and imagine what can come out of that. We did that with Agalloch once. I wrote the foundation to “Birth and Death of the Pillars of Creation” this way and it was very rewarding.  We are trying a similar approach with Khorada but AJ and Don are writing the lion’s share of the music.  \n\nIf you could think of three words to describe Khorada’s sound what would they be?\n\nJWW:  Hungry, heavy and beautiful.\n\n\nDo any of your outside interests help you conceive new ideas at all?\n\nJWW:  Most definitely. My love of cooking heavily informed the Self Spiller debut, and a couple years ago I became quite passionate about brewing Kombucha which was the inspiration for Snares of Sixes “Yeast Mother” EP.  \n\nAnd finally where do you hope to see yourself as a musician in 2017?\n\nJWW:  In 2017 I plan to record with Khorada, and hopefully start booking some shows with them as well. I also plan on releasing the Snares EP, and recording more Snares. I’ve also assembled a live band for Snares and we hope to start performing this Winter or Spring.\n\n\n\nThe Dreaming Metal Muse Returns\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA Review of Twilight Force’s “Heroes of Mighty Magic”\n\n\nSalutations Warriors, Mages and Unsavory Sorts,\n\nI the scribe of dreams has received a wonderful album tied to the realms of fantasy and legend. The fantastical music was created and then sent to the masses to bring hope and life back to the damned and forsaken. I have had the pleasure to review the wonderful album “Heroes of Mighty Magic” by the warrior bards Twilight Force. This album is not only a new road for power metal to venture on but a road that is encompassed by the magical roots of power metal in every conceivable fashion. Images of elves, dwarves, wizards and rogues ooze in every word, riff, flourish and tone. “Heroes of Mighty Magic” is an album needed in this time of utter despair and cynicism.\n\nThe vibrant and warm colors of the album art introduces you to a world devoid of darkness and hate. The image of a dragon breathing life back to the world is eerily metaphorical and gives a sense that there is still hope left in a world filled with negativity and disillusionment.Once you hear the first calls and choirs of battle in “Battle of Arcane Might” you can tell that Twilight Force is here to stamp out the vile evils of the world with machine gun riffs, soaring solos and emotionally positive vocals.\n\nThere is an inherent sense of vast landscapes dotted with castles, magical towers and forests as far as  the eye can see. The beautifully invigorating sounds of the keyboards is what really makes “Heroes of Mighty Magic” work on multiple levels. There is a sense of wonderment, magic and dreams with each note being pressed. I sometimes feel lost in a magical wood filled with sprites, dryads, and sylvan folk of note when the keyboards are being played. There is an epic sense of adventure and when guitars, bass and drums are infused with the keyboards then it makes the moment all the more memorable and uplifting.\n\n\nThe songs are consistent and have varying degrees of speed and aggression incorporated into the music. There are moments of pure calm and then moments of golden horns blazing and warriors charging into battle. “Heroes of Mighty Magic” is an album that needs to be listened to when you are feeling sad and despondent. After multiple listens it will put you into a state of mind filled with memories, nostalgia, and long hours into the night playing Dungeons and Dragons where your imagination can run free. There is a sense of confidence in the music of Twilight Force, when there are moments of cheese and eye-rolling you know that they make this music purely out of the joy of it and could care less about the opinions of others. This alone makes “Heroes of Mighty Magic” just an enjoyable listen.\n\nThe ability to get lost in a mesmerizing world of colors, magic and fantasy worlds is what this album offers. When you are feeling utterly depressed and hopeless spending an hour listening to this album in its entirety will put you into a better state of mind. When you thought your imagination was decimated because of the harshness of reality, Twilight Force delivers an album that brings back not only the magic of being a child again, but the ability to bring back your imagination from the realm of shadow. I can guarantee if you spent a long time not being able to feel those moments in life that this album brings that feeling back like a tidal wave. Let your mind wander free and immerse yourself in the godlike might and glory of the sapphire dragon as it flies back into your dreams.\n\nHumble Regards,\n\nThe Dreaming Metal Muse\n\nRating 8/10\n\n\nWhy I Love Power Metal…And you Should Too\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n“On wings and winds we ride\nTowards a land so green\nTake me across the horizons\nTo the forest of destiny\nWhen we reach that place\nSo far beyond the sun\nWhere hopes and dreams come true\nIn the forest of destiny”\n\n~Twilight Force~", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7921232581138611}
{"content": "Kikyz1313 . The Infinite Artist\n\nUser Rating: 5 / 5\n\nStar ActiveStar ActiveStar ActiveStar ActiveStar Active\n\n\n\nShe received a BFA from Autonomous University of Queretaro and had her first solo exhibition at the Museum of the City (Queretaro City, Mexico). She has completed an artist residency at the Nordic Watercolor Museum in Skärhamn, Sweden.\n\nShowed in several art fairs and group exhibitions in the USA, Berlin, and London as recently presented her second solo show entitled 'The Progeny of Chaos' in Los Angeles, California.\n\n‘Through my work, I am trying to build an emotional momentum, one that rouses the intellectual exercise of questioning one's vision of reality. While looking at my artwork, the viewer will begin to experience a series of diametrically opposed thoughts and emotions. Initially, they may feel overwhelmed by the obsessively intricate and highly detailed forms, the composition, the technical skill and the pleasant color vibrations but as an analytical shift in perception slowly overtakes them, the viewer unwittingly grasps the artwork’s inescapably wretched and subversive subject matter. This new clarity forces the observer to re-engage with the work and rethink their initial opinions until, in some way or another, the shift takes place and the observer's perception of natural things expands to include elements such as disease and death itself. While these types of human experiences are often veiled, the artwork truly embraces them and functions as a reminder of our ephemeral existence and places in doubt our vain and materialistic way of understanding life.This intellectual exercise will continue to expand until the conceptual structures of the artwork, particularly it’s elemental lack of apparent reciprocity, unwaveringly pushes the viewer to put them together into the same aesthetic context. In turn, a new meaning evolves and gives birth to a poetic paradox, a concept that I have been developing for 6 years and include in each piece that I produce.I also want to share my own vision of life and what I think matters the most. Maybe the viewer will engage with my work in such a way that it encourages introspection or solves an issue, or possibly they may become morally disturbed and confused; but whatever the outcome, the ultimate intention of my work is to open a dialog and incite thought and reflection, which I think must be the primordial pursuit of contemporary art.\n\n\nThe Artist & Gumiño\n\n\nWhat's your name? Why kikyz1313?\n\nMy name is Laura Ferrer, but I have rarely used that name in life. \n\nSince a child, I’ve always been called Kiki causing through the years to be a nickname with I identified myself better, and even introduced myself as Kiki instead of Laura.\n\nSo in my teenage years, at the time when I started to consider an artistic life, It felt natural to keep using Kikyz as an artistic name.\n\nThe full kikyz1313, on the other hand, is a silly story that goes back to my asthma haunted years, when I was a very delicate 4-year-old child that spent the whole days inside the house playing and drawing.\n\nI was always advised by my father to sign every single dumb drawing I made with my name, so I then figured ‘kikyz1313’ would make it. \n\nI kept using that signature because it felt right, it had a warm familiar feeling to it.\n\n\n ‘Sorrow´s piercing dart’ 2016 . Graphite, watercolor and white acrylic on paper\n\n\nDescribe your path to becoming an artist.\n\nI guess it started like most of the artists; with the luck of never stopped drawing.\n\nSince a child, I used to attend to summer art classes with other kids, just for the fun and because I had no use in other disciplines like dancing, martial art, swimming courses, (I tried them all) and was terrible at camping experiences.\n\nSo drawing was always the little shelter where I was better at it, I guess I just got stuck with it and kept doing it until I realized that an artistic journey would be the only life fitting for me. And as everyone else who think that for making a life you need a school degree; I, at the age of 18 went for it and graduated from the local University of Visual Arts, which said I was an artist.\n\nI’m still not comfortable enough with my work to call myself an artist, not even the beginning of my career, but I did realize that in order to be recognized and noticed I needed to give impeccable and unique artworks to the world, and that’s something I’m still driven to do.\n\n\nWhere is your studio and where are you from?\n\nMy studio is inside our home in the province of Mexico, in a small Catholic district called ‘El Pueblito’ (Spanish for ‘Little Town’) and I am from a small growing city called Querétaro, which is a 10-minute ride from my studio and a very conservative place as well.\n\n\n‘The tender for another´s pain’, th’ unfeeling for his own . 2016 . Graphite, watercolor and white pastel on paper\n\n\nTell me about where you grew up and how your childhood influenced your ideas about creativity\n\nI never moved from the same place, and the same city, so I’ve witness the transition from small town to growing city, and everything that involves that; the huge contrasts of thinking in where fervent Catholicism clashes with social hypocrisy and cultural shame and contradictions where prehispanic ingrained feeling of ‘pride’ opposes to the high desire to flee the country and be from somewhere else.\n\nMexico is a land full of contrasts and contraries, and I believe that growing up with such an ambivalent way of thinking and the narrow social circle I was since little, made me wonder and question this very same train of though, influencing in a big way what I am and what I do.\n\n\nHow would you describe your work?\n\nI would describe them, as small-enclosed scenarios of poeticized human tragedy.\n\n\n ‘Ghosts from a griesly sweet scent’ 2016 . Graphite, watercolor and white pastel on paper\n\n\nWhat motivates you as an artist?\n\nI think that the first thing that always comes to my mind is the motivation to reach the imaginary ‘self’ that’s living in my head. \n\nI always picture the look of an artwork or I picture an image of myself of ‘How I would like to be’ (emotionally, intellectually and even physically) and day-by-day, drawing-by-drawing I try to get closer to the idealized image of things, in hopes I can achieve it.\n\nSo far I’m maybe far from reaching it, but this one of the thing that drives me to continuingly improve myself in every aspect of my life.\n\nOn the other hand, there is always the motivation of staggering others with what you do. To bleed yourself in that piece of paper so you can thrill an audience with something they have never seen. To achieve that something that pierces the gut and lives in the consciousness: one that can change perceptions and one that allows you to be remembered.\n\n\nTell us a little about these portraits that live in your paintings’ worlds. Who are they and what are they up to?\n\nThey portray my personal understanding of human condition: the contradictions, the senseless behaviors, the gained knowledge, my obsessions, the blindfoldedness and fears I perceive in myself thus others, all jumbled in, floating or resting over and under different symbols. Decorated with intrinsically beautiful things with the sole purpose to fool us in that personal world.\n\n\n‘A soulfully denature’ 2013 . Ink and watercolor on paper\n\n\nYou do have a very distinct, recognizable style.\n\nThank you, but I honestly find myself wondering if nowadays that is a compliment or a weak spot.\n\nIt’s a very nice feeling to know that all the imagery you’ve been working on for 6 years is solid enough to let the artwork speak for it own, but I must say that this is also a dangerous place that at long term may cause us to fall in the common place and in repetition, instead of moving forward to improvement. \n\nThis easy way may be very appealing when most of the times there’s a fright to feel rejected by our peers, institutions, or our audience.\n\nBut, does anyone would really like to be held in a place of pleasing others even when a satisfied mind is at risk?\n\nThis is something I’m constantly scared of, and I try my best to never see myself in such situation, even when there is always a big load of insecurities and economic uncertainty. I think I rather resist this dreadful possibility with the opposite: and do a lot more confronting and obscure artworks, a lot more obsessive and critical, to find different mediums and techniques so maybe I can achieve that unexpected and higher perception of reality that I’m looking for.\n\n\nTell me about the first time you considered art as an actual career.\n\nIt surely was in my teenage years, just before the last year of high school. \n\nI was advised by my family to think about what would I do for the rest of my life even when I wouldn’t be paid for it… The answer was easy, as at the time I enjoyed to draw a lot and an artistic life was never a such a crazy idea since my mother paints a lot.\n\nSince then, I considered art not only as a career but also as a way of life in which I promised to commit myself entirely.\n\n\n‘Devouring smile’ 2017 . Graphite, watercolor and pastel on paper \n\n\nDid you have any mentors along the way?\n\nI sadly never had mentors, not even in college, but in my first years in the artistic trade did have a couple of artists near me that inspired me a lot to be better. \n\nI think the one that really pushed me into the world of drawing would be Román Miranda, who was the first artist I knew who lived from art and who worked on graphite and paper with some very intricate and fantastic compositions.\n\nAt that time I didn’t even know that one could live solely from drawing!\n\nHis work opened my eyes, and even when I saw his work in persona after 3 years, I kept some postcards of his work and only by looking at them was a reminder of where I wanted to be in the future.\n\nToday he is still a huge inspiration, and I’m happy to call him a close friend.\n\n\nAre your family and friends supportive of what you do?\n\nAbsolutely, my family has been a huge beacon of support and encouragement since always, and there is no possible way I could ever repay or thank them enough.\n\n\n‘A slumber embrace’ 2014 . Graphite, watercolor and white pastel on paper\n\n\nWhat advice would you give to a person starting out? \n\nI would say that: forget about success, forget about fame, and forget about money.\n\nDo an introspective search for as long as you need and search for that significant thing in yourself that turn your soul on fire, that keeps you awake at night thinking and that it’s relevant enough to share with the world. \n\nThen, build yourself artwork that speaks for that and most important:  don’t ever try to please anyone, but you.\n\n\nHow does where you live to impact your creativity? \n\nWell… the way Mexico is have really shaped entirely my whole being. The way I think, the way I over saturate my compositions, the obscure imagery, the symbols I choose, the muted smog-like colors, the subject matters I describe in my work, etc.\n\nThey are all projections of what I’ve seen and lived in this place.\n\n\n‘Laughing while crying’ 2016 . Graphite, watercolor and white pastel on paper\n\n\nDo you have a favorite book?\n\nThe favorite(s) are changing constantly but I find myself always coming back to the 1900’s horror fictions authors, these past days with Arthur Machen and more of his fantastic short stories.\n\nI also have a very special place in my head for ‘Fahrenheit 451’ by Ray Bradbury and ‘The Gods Themselves’ from Isaac Asimov.\n\n\nWhat is your current album on repeat?\n\nRight now I don’t have and specific album, though I do insanely obsess over an album in time to time. But right now I’m constantly repeating on my headphones a lot of dark ambient, drone, doom and black metal music.\n\n\n‘The child inside’ 2017 . Graphite, watercolor and pastels on paper\n\n\nWho is your role model?\n\nIt’s curious but that’s a question I’ve never asked myself, so this is the first time I’m actually putting thought on it, and I’m not completely sure If I’ve had a role model in the past or today. But I’m certain there have been a handful of artists that have marked significantly my career and deeply influenced my artwork.\n\nOf course, there’s been always the aspiring feeling to be like Dürer or as strikingly raw as Goya, but mostly in the past year, I’ve been highly influenced by the chaotic compositions, staggering bright colors opposing to the muted grayish tones in the paintings of Justin Mortimer.\n\nI knew his work a couple of years ago and since then I noticed my works started to become a lot more chaotic, random and less narrative. In fewer words: driven only by gut. And it’s something I’ve been admiring a lot in Justin Mortimer’s work, that impromptu selection of the characters, figures, and backgrounds always transporting us to a not so distant parallel universe of blurred memories and reveries.\n\nI hope to achieve that feeling through my works some day, even though my technique and intentions are completely different.\n\n\nWhat was the best advice given to you as an artist?\n\nYou could say I live a sort of a secluded life, in a tiny social circle; therefore it’s very uncommon to find myself chatting in person with someone else and even less about my work. So the only strong advice or critics I’ve ever had are coming from my husband (painter/draftsman as well) who, after a week of being sick, found me half of the day crying of stress, advised me that we have to choose wisely our battles, never take more compromises that we can get. We have to know our limits and work based on them. And in worst case scenario, when it’s too late to refuse, then THE HELL WITH IT, that my health and mental stability were first and it’s better to ‘fail’ the commitment than seriously harming myself in order to fulfill other’s expectations.\n\nThose days I think I was very close to a metal breakdown, and after his advice I’ve learned to work wisely, resulting to enjoying a lot more what I do.\n\n\n‘Silencio’ 2016 . Graphite, pastels and watercolor on paper\n\n\nWhat is your dream project?\n\nI’ve had a strange idea of making paper artworks that change with the intervention of the audience resulting in different narratives.\n\nSomething like the pop-up and interactive paper books we find for kinds, but with very obscure and realistic imagery.\n\nIt’s not so dreamy but a little far from doing them right now.\n\n\nIs there anything you want to do in the next 2 years? \n\nAn oil painting series. I’m currently teaching myself oil painting and about to end a workshop I’m attending. I’m very excited to keep practicing and maybe in the near future make very intricate compositions with very vibrant colors. I wish to make a series of medium formats and if they end up decent, to present them in a public o private space.\n\n\n\n\nRead more in the Issue 4\n\n\n\n\nThe largest online Artists Gallery and Community", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8122664093971252}
{"content": "Friday, October 05, 2007\n\nTopos and Topos2\n\nAndre Willers\n7 Sept 2007\n\nFor Ermeine on request .\n\n\n“Physics from Fisher information” by B.R.Frieden ISBN 052163167X : see in general , or search for “mining the Oort” ,\n\nTopos is simply a new name for non-Aristotelian logical systems .\nGauss saw it , but did not publish , deeming it too controversial . (He hated controversy.)\nRussell and Whitehead proved that A and not-A is less than the Universum .\nGodel’s work was a consequence of this .\n\nWhat does it mean?\nIf you say that something exists (say A) , it means it must be defineable in some way , separate . In other words , the person talking about A plays a role , he defines it . Even using a symbol like A makes it separate .\n\nBut there is then always something left over . The indefinables . In other words , A and not-A is not the Universum .\n\nThis has been rigorously proved . It is obvious from the above .\n\nTrue is defined as existing . Existence is defined as defineable . Something that is not defineable then is true and not-true . The essence of quantum systems .\n\nIf you have read and understood what I wrote before , you know more about these systems than the Topos authors .\n\nUnless a Wright-proof (ie an undeniable physical gadget ) results , these theories become froth on the gales of history .\n\n\nTopos is a typical publish or perish phenomenon . Dress up old , known things in a new guise . Some quotes from the Topos paper :\n“Intuistionic logic” : what does not fit , gets swept under the carpet . They should get a fuzzy logic Roomba .\n“Heyting algebra” : fuzzy logic , as used by your fridge or microwave , but a neat term .\n“Sets” is used in the argument : sets? Sets are a number of similar identifiable items , these being identified and counted by the hypothetical observer . This directly contradicts the basic assumption of Topos .\nNotice how classical set theory warps if you add the hidden assumption of somebody doing the defining and counting .\n\nTopos is not a very good attempt . Frieden did better .\n\n\nTopos 2\nAndre Willers\n10 Sept 2007\n\nFor Ermeine on request .\n\nSources: The topos articles.\n\n“Physics from Fisher information” by B.R.Frieden ISBN 052163167X\nAlternative Topos-type derivation of physical laws . : see in general , or search for “mining the Oort” , “Topos ” , Transcendent numbers ,etc.\n\nTopos (plural topoi) is simply a new name for non-Aristotelian logical systems .\n\nPerhaps I should clarify a bit , as my previous post could do with some expansion .\n\nThe Aristotelian system . Binary logic .\nDefinition : Something is true or not-true . The middle (ie something that is both true and untrue) is excluded .\n\nOur purest expression of this is in computers : binary language (1 or 0) .\nNow translate this into reality .\nCurrent flow is equivalent to 1\nNon-Current flow is equivalent to 0 .\nBut how are we to distinguish between a string of 0’s and somebody cutting the wire ?\n\nWe cannot , except by way of a third signal . In computers , timing is used (pulses of current at varying times .)\n\nCan you see the uncertainty inherent in this worldview ?\nUsing two variables to describe a 3-variable environment . There is always uncertainty . Hence quantum systems .\n\nTry to construct different ways . It is not possible . There is always a different third state , denoting no-signal .\n\nFor example , (+1) + (-1) = (0) … three states .\n\nThe reason is in (A) U (~A) < n=\"1\" yn=\"0\" yn=\"1\" yn=\"any\">1\nY+N+YN=any . Strong godlike . YN>1\n\nFor example , to describe a real thing we have to say:\nReality(Class =1, Y=1) for our traditional Aristotelian reality.\nReality(Class =2, Y=0.9 , N=0.02 , YN= 0.08) for our Quantum reality.\nReality(Class =3, Y=0.7 , N= 0.1 , YN=0.3) for our creative , bootstrap,weak godlike reality.\nReality(Class =4, Y=0.7 , N= 0.1 , YN=5) for strong godlike intervention reality.\n\nWhy the Classes of Reality ? Because of the phenomenon known as “wave-function collapse” . This is a Procrustean human system whereby the Y,N,YN of Class 2 realities are summated and then selected : the lowest summation of YN value is selected as the “wave-function collapse” . High N values are ignored . This is called quantum physics –Copenhagen interpretation . (This is already breaking down from experimental evidence. )\n\nThe “reality” is that there is no wave-function collapse . The thingies happily keep on being what they are . Humans pick the creamy , chocolate ones and ignore the rest . Typical .\n\nTopoi as formulated do not take the observer into account . This limits them to distributive-logic systems . The Mathematician plays the role of the observer .\n\nUnfortunately , science requires replication of experiments by different observers (ie distributive-logic . )\nYet we routinely use quantum devices with a high degree of certainty . The trick is in two parts :\nExpand the quantum bubble (ie , move closer to macro-state)\nQuantum-tunneling is a transfinite process found everywhere , on macroscopic scale as well .\nSee : : photon tunneling of up to 1 meter was experimentally verified , using very simple apparatus . See also New Scientist 18 Aug 2007 p10 “ Light seems to defy its own speed limit.”\nTunneling seems to play a role in fusion and fission processes . Indeed , if tunneling over macroscopic distances is routine , why does cold-fusion not occur regularly ? Maybe it does/did . Ref natural Okra fission reactor in North Africa .\n\nJupiter’s energy budget seems to indicate that some low-temperature fusion reactions are occurring because of meson-tunneling between large crystals formed in the atmosphere and sheared in two by violent storms .\n\nThe Sun’s energy output is too high for its temperature . This crack is papered over by postulating additional energy formation in the corona . But this is exactly where heightened fusion because of tunneling would be expected . This layer is also very susceptible to magnetic effects from the planets . Thus , Earth’s weather, via the Earth’s magnetosphere can have an effect on the sun’s surface fusion energy production . The effect is non-linear , so even small changes in earth’s magnetosphere can have large effects on the surface fusion on the sun .\n\nConsciousness : quantum effects have long been postulated . The general prevalence of macro-tunneling makes this 0.99 likely .\n\nSee “Non-locality” , , etc\n\nError-correction (Pinch)\nSet “Usable=True” .\n\nThen pinch your apparatus from a higher uncertainty to a lower uncertainty . This is a system like a transistor , or in general most non-linear amplifying devices .\n\nNote that the entropy inside the device decreases , a general prerequisite for life .\n\nTrial-and-error in a system designed to pinch Class2->Class1 Realities will give a fairly reliable quantum based system . (Like your computer , hifi,etc)\n\nDitto for Pinches of Class3->Class2->Class1 Realities , but the viability decreases drastically as YN increases . This is the definition of lifeforms like humans , advanced computers , etc .\n\nClass4 pinches : highly dangerous . Not recommended unless you are a god .\n\nSee Prediction below .\n\nPrediction and Postdiction .\n\nLet YN>0 , like in the observable Universe .\nThis means that there are finite (0Define the paths as AB(1) , AB(2) , …,AB(n)\nIf any particular path AB(i) lies within the lightspeed cone from B , then any point on it can be accessed from A without violating relativistic (and thus causal) constraints . Note that the mechanism is probably tunneling .\n\nThere is some good news and some bad news .\nThe good news is that prediction is possible .\nThe bad news is that only a future AB(i) , not the future can be predicted .\nThe future is at B , where all the possibilities AB(i) are summed .\n\nA further limitation is that only the futures entangled with A can be predicted . Influences outside AB path or outside the light cone cannot be predicted .\n\nAlgorithms for sampling AB(i) pathways can easily be constructed for Reality Class2 , and indeed are (quantum devices).\n\nA corollary is that prophecies and mind-constructed scenarios are the same .\nSeeing some futures are equated with intelligence and creativity . There is no functional way of differentiating them . Some think that the ability of the brain to pick up these small lengths on alternate futures is the human ability to foresee and create .\n\nThe problem here is that humans think that what they foresee is THE truth . Hence prophets like Cayce , hypnotic progression , etc do not realize that what they see are but one pathway , one possible future .\n\nCreating algorithms for Reality class 3 systems is thus indistinguishable from intelligence and creativity enhancement .\nThis will involve powerful forces in the human sphere .\n\nJust collating all the prophecies won’t hack it either . The prophet has to be entangled and free of Aristotelian prejudices . Nobody qualifies .\n\n\nThe past is even more unknowable than the future . Literally .\n\nSince for paths AB(i) , we can also have DB(j) , postdiction from B has to involve both pathways . Even if there is a wave-function collapse , the AB and DB paths cannot be distinguished .\n\nFor Class 3 and better realities:\nFord was right . History is bunk .At best , it is an intellectual exercise .\n\nOh well .\n\n\nNo comments:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9941508173942566}
{"content": "دانلود مقاله ISI انگلیسی شماره 13169\nعنوان فارسی مقاله\n\nسرمایه گذاری مستقیم خارجی و بیکاری جستجوگر : نظریه و شواهد\n\nکد مقاله سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی ترجمه فارسی تعداد کلمات\n13169 2014 16 صفحه PDF سفارش دهید 11110 کلمه\nخرید مقاله\nپس از پرداخت، فوراً می توانید مقاله را دانلود فرمایید.\nعنوان انگلیسی\nForeign direct investment and search unemployment: Theory and evidence\n\nPublisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)\n\nJournal : International Review of Economics & Finance, , Volume 30, March 2014, Pages 41-56\n\nکلمات کلیدی\nتجارت -      سرمایه گذاری مستقیم خارجی -      جستجوی بیکاری -      اصطکاک های بازار کار -\nپیش نمایش مقاله\nپیش نمایش مقاله سرمایه گذاری مستقیم خارجی و بیکاری جستجوگر : نظریه و شواهد\n\nچکیده انگلیسی\n\nThis paper proposes a simple multi-industry trade model with search frictions in the labor market. Unimpeded access to global financial markets enables capital owners to invest abroad, thereby fostering unemployment at the extensive industry margin. Whether a country benefits from foreign direct investments (FDI) in terms of unemployment depends on the respective country's net-FDI, measured as the difference between in- and outward FDI. The link between FDI and unemployment derived in the model is tested using macroeconomic data for 19 OECD countries on unemployment, FDI, and labor market institutions. Results support the model in that net-FDI is robustly associated with lower rates of aggregate unemployment.\n\nمقدمه انگلیسی\n\nThe ongoing integration of product and labor markets has stimulated a lively debate about the pros and cons of globalization. Supporters often stress the beneficial effects that arise due to increased export opportunities, whereas globalization's detractors are usually more concerned about job losses due to heightened competition from so-called low-income countries. Economics can contribute to this debate in that it can rationalize the fear that more intensive global economic-interdependency generates by identifying the merits and downsides of this process and by quantifying the labor market outcomes of the potentially opposing effects. The public debate that surrounds these issues has frequently been characterized by a lack of clarity regarding the definition of globalization and a failure to account for different elements of this process which may have contrasting implications for domestic and international labor markets. This paper focuses on the implications of capital mobility for domestic and international labor markets by proposing an empirical test on the link between FDI and unemployment. The test is based on a simple multi-industry model with unemployment due to search frictions. Closely related to Dutt, Mitra, and Ranjan (2009), I incorporate Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) search frictions into a trade model. However, capital markets are integrated, which facilitate the study of foreign direct investment and its effects on equilibrium unemployment. Moreover, the trade model employed features a continuum of industries. Thus, the outcome of the model is different from previous studies in that the effect is ex-ante ambiguous and highly depends on whether a country is the FDI receiving or sending country.1 The intuition behind that result is that FDI directly affects intermediates (labor) demand at the extensive margin through endogenous adjustments of capital costs. The adjustments in production costs trigger an expansion of the FDI receiving country's range of active industries through higher competitiveness in industries located close to the former cutoff. This boosts demand for intermediates and thus reduces equilibrium unemployment. To the best of my knowledge, this paper is the first focusing on the unemployment effects of global sourcing in a model with a continuum of industries from both an empirical and a theoretical perspective. Lin and Wang (2008) present empirical evidence on the effects of capital-outflows on equilibrium unemployment, but their analysis does not feature the distinction between inward and outward FDI. This distinction is crucial at least in the model presented in the theory section of this paper where the sign of the effect is different depending on whether a country is the receiving or the sending country. The empirical strategy is borrowed from Dutt et al. (2009), or Felbermayr, Prat, and Schmerer (2011b). Also closely related to this paper are two contributions by Mitra and Ranjan (2010) and Davidson, Matusz, and Shevchenko (2008) both focusing on the employment effects of outsourcing in trade models with search frictions. Mitra and Ranjan (2010)propose a two sector model with one input factor labor. In their model outsourcing decreases equilibrium unemployment. Outsourcing in Davidson et al. (2008) forces some of the high skill workers to search for jobs in the low skill sector. This stirs up job competition in the low skill sector and thus triggers a rise in unemployment. Bakhtiari (2012) focuses on the effects of offshoring on low-skilled wages. The model predicts that offshoring 0.5% of unskilled jobs is associated with a 0.3% rise in unskilled real wage. Kohler and Wrona (2010) highlight the existence of a non-monotonicity between offshoring and unemployment. They identify channels through which offshoring can affect demand for intermediates at the intensive and extensive margin. The two opposing effects lead to an outcome where the sign of the effect hinges on the level of offshoring. Also closely related is an emerging literature on the labor market effects of globalization. Brecher's (1974) seminal paper about the labor market effects of a minimum wage in the Heckscher Ohlin model can be seen as a foundation for a large and emerging literature about the employment effects of globalization. Davidson et al., 1988 and Davidson et al., 1999 incorporated the Pissarides search and matching framework into a Heckscher Ohlin type of trade model. Moore and Ranjan (2005) investigate the link between trade liberalization and skill-specific unemployment in such an extended Heckscher Ohlin framework. More recently the spotlight has been directed towards the popular Melitz (2003) international trade model. Egger and Kreickemeier (2009) show how rent-sharing with heterogeneous firms that pay fair wages helps to explain the residual wage inequality and the so-called exporter wage premium. Trade liberalization in their approach increases wage inequality. Helpman and Itskhoki (2010) and Felbermayr, Prat, and Schmerer (2011a) analyze potential employment effects in a heterogeneous firms model with search frictions. Based on their earlier study, Helpman et al., 2010a and Helpman et al., 2010b investigate the effects of globalization on wage inequality and unemployment when workers and firms are heterogeneous.\n\nنتیجه گیری انگلیسی\n\nThis paper advances a simple multi-industry trade model a là Dornbusch et al. (1977) or Feenstra and Hanson, 1996 and Feenstra and Hanson, 1997 with imperfect labor markets due to Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) type of search frictions. Wages in this setup are jointly determined by labor market institutions and international trade, thereby affecting the equilibrium rate of unemployment at the intensive and extensive margin of labor demand. This two-dimensional causality between foreign direct investments and wages (unemployment) also permits the study of changes in the exogenously given labor market institutional environment. Institutions itself remain unaffected by firm behavior or trade so that wages are set according to the conditions in the labor market. Conversely, policy makers may influence labor market outcomes by readjusting labor market institutions. The model proposed above suggests that such a reform would necessarily affect trade, wages and unemployment in all countries integrated through trade in goods and capital. The paper's major contribution is to test and to quantify the opposing effects at the intensive and extensive margin of labor demand by confronting the model with data taken from the OECD. The main hypothesis derived in the theory chapter is that FDI-receiving countries tend to have lower rates of unemployment, whereas an increase in FDI-outflows increases equilibrium unemployment. The model can be used to address many questions related to trade, labor market institutions, foreign direct investment and unemployment. Relaxing the strict assumption of homogeneous labor for instance would give rise to inequality. Thus, trade and foreign direct investment would shape the observable income distribution that arises due to different skills of workers employed by different types of intermediate good producers. Schmerer (2012) discusses skill-biased institutional changes in such a framework. Introducing worker heterogeneity would also enable us to study the effects of FDI and outsourcing on the sorting of heterogeneous firms into the continuum of industries that differ with respect to labor requirement.7 The newly introduced Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) search and matching mechanism within the Feenstra and Hanson model also opens a novel channel through which changes in the workers' wage rate initiated by changes in labor market reforms induce capital flows between the integrated countries.8 For exogenous interest rates, a loss in competitiveness due to the labor market reform would lead to excess capital supply in the contracting and excess-demand in the expanding country. A more involved model extension that features imbalanced trade in a setup with at least two periods may be used to study the role of labor market institutions on imbalanced trade through shifts in competitiveness between different countries. Most interesting may be an extension of the empirical analysis. The model already features some interaction between foreign direct investment, outsourcing, and unemployment. Trade in intermediates is one crucial assumption in the model, which could be discussed in more details. Especially, interesting would be an extension where trade in intermediates incurs transportation costs. One may study the interaction between transportation costs of trade in intermediates, labor market institutions, and FDI. Moreover, the channel could be tested using the same data as employed in this paper.\n\nخرید مقاله\nپس از پرداخت، فوراً می توانید مقاله را دانلود فرمایید.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8126904368400574}
{"content": "My Homepage\n\nTips On How To Get Great Muscles\n\nWhat is something that you do not like about yourself? Are there things about your body that you wish you could change and dwell on? If so, then now is the time to change the way you think and start changing your body. This article is a great place to learn how to do this. Read on for great information to build up your muscle mass fast.\n\nIf you are searching to build up muscles, visit aumento massa muscolare\n\nA common mistake people make when working out is focusing on speed rather than technique. Performing your workouts slower takes more control and sheer strength, and will increase aumento massa muscolare the effectiveness of your workout. Do not rush, and be sure to properly do these exercises.\n\n\nChange your routine around. Like any workout, things can become boring, which can keep you from doing them. Switch up your workout to include different exercises, and work different muscle groups every time you go to the gym. By keeping your workouts new and different, you will stay interested in and committed to your muscle-building routine.\n\nDon't try to build muscle while doing intensive cardio workouts. Cardio is helpful to keep in shape, but a lot of it can slow down your efforts to improve muscle mass. Focus on a healthy balance between cardio exercise and weight training.\n\n\n\nIt may be possible to make yourself appear larger than you do already. The way to do this is to specifically train your shoulders, upper back and torso. This creates the illusion of a smaller waist and a larger frame overall.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7473747730255127}
{"content": "MCZR: Haftar’s vision is different from 17th February’s\n\nMCZR: Haftar’s vision is different from 17th February’s\n\n\n\nThe Military Council for Al-Zintan Revolutionaries (MCZR) said, on Wednesday in a statement, that it is now sure that the general leadership of the army that led by General Khalifa Haftar had appointed personalities from the military figures of the Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in high military and security positions.\n\nAl-Zintan Military Council stated that these newly appointed army figures are pursuing strategies to form armed forces with a radically different vision of the vision and goals of the revolution of 17th February.\n\nThe Military Council added that the attempts to seduce the tribes for the sake of forming army alliances would further divide and fragment the country.\n\nThe statement stressed that the armed change that happened in the revolution of 17th February was against the regime that spoiled all aspects of the life in Libya. It added that that change wasn’t against a particular city of a tribe in the country.\n\nThe statement called all political and military leaderships to revise their decisions and consider the high interests of the homeland.\n\nIt is worth mentioning that Haftar issued, days ago, few decisions to appoint four military commanders who were working in Gaddafi’s regime, including the former commander of one of the battalions of Gaddafi, Al-Mabrouk Sahban", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998134434223175}
{"content": "Oct 152014\n\n\n\n“According to our analysis, repeatedly stated in these columns and in many radio and television stations in Latin America, Russia and the Muslim world, the Islamic Emirate is a creation of the United States tasked with ethnically cleansing the region in order to remodel it. Everyone can see that the soothing declarations of US leaders are belied by their military action on the ground, not against, but in favor of the Islamic Emirate.\n\nThe Coalition has conducted six waves of bombings in Kobané. It never targeted positions of the Islamic Emirate and has caused it no loss. However, it holds at a distance further south and west, the Syrian Arab Army which fails to open a breach to save the people.”\n\nAnd just in case we don’t get it, the NATO/USAMO ‘partners’ in Ukraine are ‘remembered’ by those last facing them in WAR:\n\n\n\n Posted by at 10:58 pm", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989789128303528}
{"content": "Tennis Elbow\n\nTennis elbow is the common name given to pain that radiates from the outside part of the elbow joint.  While it can occasionally be seen in tennis players with faulty technique, most often it occurs in office workers and manual laborers who tend to hold their wrists in an upward position for long periods of time. \n\nThe correct name for this condition is extensor ‘tendinopathy’.  The cause is frequently due to overuse of the wrist extensor muscle group, which causes collagen disarray in the tendon where it inserts onto the outside bone of the elbow.   Tendons do not have a good blood supply and therefore it is common for the condition to become very painful and chronic. \n\nPhysiotherapy can help the tendon heal by using a number of modalities and techniques including deep tissue massage/frictions, acupuncture, mobilisation, ultrasound, taping and eccentric exercises.  Specific braces can also be fitted to alleviate the pain while the tendon heals.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9870894551277161}
{"content": "Summon Cluster (サモンクラスタ)\n\nSummon Cluster\n\nCreated by\nNotable Users\nEucross agents\n\nThe Summon Cluster (サモンクラスタ, samon kurasuta) or Friend Summon (召喚盟友, shoukan meiyu) is a technique existing in the Astreiz Era of the Summon Night universe.   \n\n– Disclaimer –\n\nThis article content is done through a deep analysis of events and elements in the game. However, none of the following information are directly confirmed as true by the creators and are subject to changes given any official material that contradicts it.\n\n\nAccording to the information given by the Manager, The Summon Cluster is a ability to call those who wish to help a summoner. When someone give a type of \"ID code\" to the Eucross Bureau, the summoner is becomes able to summoning this someone at any given time, only needing a centain amount of Mana for activation. However, many are the complications existing to do this process, as a result, the one summoned has a very short amount of time to help, normaly the enough to execute one single attack, but since they tend to be very powerful allies, those single attacks peer summoning can be very helpful during though situations for a summoner.\n\n\nThe true nature of this technique is still unknown. It seems that it could be something executed through Loreilal's technology, since a ID code is necessary for it to be possible, and only registered creatures can be summoned. This could mean that the Summoning process is actually a Teleportation done my machines in the Eucros HQ. In past entries in the series, it was seeing that Loreilal already has this technology for a long time, so this is very possible. However, seeing how even low-class criminals can also use this technique, this possibility seems a bit unlikely (Unless this was merely something that the creators add to make the game more difficult and fun, even if it doesn't make sense with the setting).\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8263750672340393}
{"content": "You are here\n\nProcedure for conducting election of Officers of the Board\n\n\nThe ISOC By-Laws discusses Officers, their terms and, in general terms, the election process for Officers in Article VI.\nThis procedure provides additional rules and guidelines for the Board of Trustees regarding the election of Officers of the Society when elections are required by the By-Laws.\nThe Board elects from its membership a Chair, and also elects the other Officer positions of President, Secretary and Treasurer, positions that are not limited to being filled by a Trustee. \n1. Term of Officers\nThe terms of officers is defined in the By-Laws.\nElection of officers shall be conducted as the first order of business of the Annual General Meeting, in accordance with this procedure.\n2. Protocol of the Meeting to Conduct Election of Officers\nThe President shall preside over the initial part of the meeting to elect Officers of the Board. Immediately following the election of Chair of the Board, the elected Chair of the Board shall assume office and preside over the remainder of the meeting. The remaining statutory officer positions are then elected.\nAll voting Trustees in office who are present at the meeting may vote in officer elections. Trustees who participate remotely via electronic means such that they can contemporaneously hear all other Trustees at the meeting, and be heard by all other Trustees at the meeting, shall be deemed to be present at the meeting. Pre-voting and voting by proxy are not permitted for election of officers.\n3. Statutory Officers to be Elected\nThe following statutory positions shall be elected, in the following order:\n  • Chair\n  • President\n  • Secretary\n  • Treasurer\n4. Nominations\nNominations, including self-nominations, must be submitted to the Board by a Trustee in office or who will take office at the start of the meeting of the board in which this election process is to be used, in writing or by electronic mail, or orally at the meeting.\nNominations for a position are accepted until the start of voting for that position. A nomination will only be valid if the candidate declares orally at the meeting, or in writing or by electronic mail prior to the meeting, that the candidate is willing to take office if elected.\nA candidate who fails to be elected for a position may be nominated for a subsequent position.\n5. Voting\nAny candidate may make a statement to the Board regarding their candidature. The presentation of such a statement shall take no longer than five minutes. The order of candidates' statements shall be determined by the Officer presiding over the election using a random selection process.\nTo be elected, a candidate must receive votes marked with his or her name from a majority of the trustees then in office.\".  Ballots should be cast marked with the name of an announced candidate or with the word “abstain.”  A candidate can withdraw at any time from subsequent votes.\nIn the case there are more than two candidates running and none receive a majority of affirmative votes in a vote, the vote is rerun with only the candidates receiving the two highest vote counts eligible. (This may result in more than two candidates being eligible.)  The vote is retaken in the case of a tie for first place. The presiding officer uses a coin toss to choose which candidate is to remain eligible if the tie persists after the fifth vote or upon the request of the majority of the trustees voting.  A new call for candidates is made and the voting process restarts in the case where there is a single candidate but that candidate does not receive enough affirmative votes.\nVoting will be by secret ballot. Two people, who must not be Trustees, selected by the Officer presiding over a vote will act as tellers.\nTrustees who participate remotely in a manner such that they can hear the proceedings of the meeting and be clearly heard by all other attendees, shall vote by privately conveying their vote to an election teller.\n6. Record of the Meeting\nThe minutes shall record the candidates nominated for each position and the elected candidate.\nA candidate may request that the statement made to the Board in respect of their candidature be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.\n7. Removal from Office\nThe process for the removal of Officers is defined in the By-Laws.\n8. Casual Vacancies\nIf an office is vacated, the position may be filled during a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees, using these election procedures.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5029542446136475}
{"content": "Indi's story with Biliary Atresia is similar to many of our children. However, Indi's father Mat used his photographic talent to look at her journey in a different and creative way.\n\n\nThis portrait is of my daughter, Indi, aged 4 years. Indi was born with Biliary Atresia and had a Liver Transplant at 7 months old.\nI am constantly inspired by Indi's strength and really wanted to show her fighting spirit and the scar she wears courtesy of her battle.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThis image is a portrait of my daughter Indi who has survived a liver transplant.\nWith this image I wanted to pay homage to all the anonymous organ donors and their families. Because of them, my daughter has been given a second chance at life.\nIndi is now moving out of a dark period of her life and stepping into the light of living!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.991448163986206}
{"content": "Define and Describe on Cyclotron - QS Study\ntop logo\n\n\n\nCyclotron works on the principle that a charged particle moving normal to a magnetic field experiences magnetic lorentz force due to which the particle moves in a circular path.\n\n\n(i) Maintaining a uniform magnetic field over a large area of the Dees is difficult.\n\n(ii) At high velocities, relativistic variation of mass of the particle upsets the resonance condition.\n\n(iii) At high frequencies, relativistic variation of mass of the electron is appreciable and hence electrons cannot be accelerated by cyclotron.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999821782112122}
{"content": "Sunday, May 22, 2011\n\nGhost points is the term used in WFTDA StatsBook used to track points earned for skaters the Jammer didn't actually pass.\n\nToday's rule is not an actual rule from the WFTDA rule book. Instead it deals with multiple scoring rules, all which fall under the term \"ghost points.\" Ghost points is a designation for points tracked on the WFTDA StatsBook scoring sheet. The StatsBook is the official WFTDA stats tracking package used for WFTDA sanctioned bouts and tournaments, and has also become the standard for most non-WFTDA leagues. The scoring sheet included in the StatsBook has several boxes in which the scorekeeper may track what are called ghost points. As such, the term has become mainstream and is used commonly in rules discussions, including many on this page. To help clear up many questions that have been posted regarding ghost points, I felt it a good idea to explain the mystery behind ghost points. There are several ways to earn these points.\n\nThe most common are Not On The Track points, which are section 8.5 of the rules. These were covered about a couple weeks ago on this page. You can find the archived Rules of the Day at:\n\nThere are most subrules of 8.5 that haven't been covered so it is a good idea to read the whole section.\n\nThe next common type of ghost point is the Jammer Lap Point, has not been covered here yet. The rule for that is:\n\n8.6.6 Jammer Lap Point: If one Jammer completely laps the opposing Jammer, she will score one (1) point each time she fully laps her.\n\nA Jammer Lap Point is earned anytime a Jammer completely laps (skates an extra lap past) the opposing Jammer, even if she has not scored any other points.\n\nAnother type of ghost point is points awarded for out of play skater ahead of the engagement zone when the jam ends. The archive link for that is:\n\nThe same rule is also covered in 8.6.7.\n\nThe last type of ghost point, and one often missed, doesn't even exist Scoring section 8, but rather is included under Penalty Enforcement section 7. It is: A skater may re-enter the track in front of opposing skaters who are out of play. If a Jammer is eligible to score (having completed her initial pass prior to being sent to the penalty box), she will immediately earn points for passing out-of-play Blockers that are behind her upon re-entry.\n\nThese are all the types of ghost points in the rules. However, while these rules exist, the term \"ghost points\" does not exist at all in the rules, and is not an Official term.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9723907709121704}
{"content": "San Francisco and East Bay water managers are warning that a plan to overhaul the state's water system could result in draconian restrictions and rationing in the Bay Area and possibly undermine water rights that are more than 100 years old.\n\nThe San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which combined serve approximately 3.7 million people in the Bay Area, fear that in dry years they could be forced to give up water to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.\n\nThey also believe the plan could jeopardize their legal rights to water that could instead be sent to parched regions of the Central Valley and Southern California.\n\n\nThe comprehensive package of water bills intended to improve the way water is distributed in much of California failed to get enough support to win legislative approval as it was rushed through Sacramento earlier this month. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met with legislative leaders this week and is pushing lawmakers to reach a compromise on the plan, and he may call a special session if lawmakers are close to an agreement, a spokesman said.\n\nBut unresolved questions about the plan could zap the votes of Bay Area Democrats, some of whom see the proposal as a water grab by Southern California.\n\n\"I'm not saying 'absolutely no,' but I'm not willing to turn over the keys to the store,\" said Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco. \"With swimming pools in the desert and lawns in the desert, how do you justify (diverting water) and say you need more water for people to live?\"\n\nPart of the plan could lead to the creation of a canal that would divert as much as 6 million acre-feet of water a year around the delta and into pumps that flow to Southern California and other parts of the Central Valley. That water - roughly enough to serve 24 million people - now flows through the delta, helping to dilute salty water, and into the pumps.\n\nDrought worry\n\nIn dry years - such as the current three-year drought - Bay Area water agencies fear they would be forced to give up substantial amounts of water from their systems to keep the delta from turning into a giant mud pit.\n\nIf that were to happen, \"in future dry years our ability to serve our customers becomes more difficult and the prospect of rationing becomes more real,\" said Randele Kanouse, lobbyist and special assistant to EBMUD's general manager.\n\nThat utility district, which serves parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, imposed 15 percent mandatory rationing in spring 2008 that was rolled back earlier this summer. Kanouse said residents could be forced to ration even more if the agency must send water to the delta in dry years rather than piping it from Pardee and Camanche reservoirs to the East Bay.\n\nBay Area water districts are also concerned about another and perhaps more far-reaching issue: that the plan will create an avenue to undo water rights that guarantee cities, irrigation districts and other municipalities the ability to take a certain amount of water from the state's rivers.\n\nSan Francisco has rights dating to the 19th century that allow for taking about 400 million gallons per day from the Tuolumne River. The water is stored at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.\n\nAssemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who sits on the committee that crafted the legislation, insisted the water bill does not contain any language that would jeopardize water rights. The bill states that water rights would not be affected, but the city of San Francisco wanted to go further and asked lawmakers to explicitly protect its existing water rights.\n\nHuffman said trying to insert language that protects San Francisco would be impractical because that would mean the bill would have to do the same for all other cities, counties or agencies that have water rights.\n\n\"I get that they guard their water rights quite jealously, ... but at some point it becomes silly,\" he said, adding that he thinks San Francisco should do more to help repair the delta and solve the state's water crisis.\n\nWording details\n\nSan Francisco officials, and even as disparate an interest as the California Farm Bureau Federation, disagree with Huffman's assessment of the bill. They said the bill contradicts itself in some places and is so far-reaching that they see an avenue for changes in rights.\n\n\"We want to have the conversation with the Legislature so we can tell them why we think that's true,\" said Laura Spanjian, an assistant general manager with the San Francisco PUC. That desire is common among many agencies' officials who believe they were not consulted on a number of issues as the package was rushed through Sacramento.\n\nThe water managers worry that state leaders will jam the legislation through the Legislature over the next few weeks. Schwarzenegger does not want to see any water rights changed, said spokesman Jeff Macedo.\n\nEven still, one official with the state Department of Water Resources said he understood the confusion.\n\n\"There's just so much unknown that there's enough space for everyone to have concerns,\" said Kasey Schimke, assistant director of legislative affairs for the department. \"I think those concerns should be addressed or at least vetted.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7107528448104858}
{"content": "\nThe Travel Directory brings together the best travel sites from around the world to form a comprehensive, user-friendly online information resource for all travellers. Whether you want to go scuba diving in Thailand, or simply be inspired by other people's travel writings, the Travel Directory is here to point you in the right direction.\n\nEstablished in 2006, offers latest information about travel services, tours, agent, business travel, shopping, adventure travel, lodging, travel accessories, transportation, and other travel related. With, you will prepare easily your holiday or business trip, customize it according to your own preferences and budget, and book it online worldwide.\n\n\nFacts about Travel\n\n- Mexico City is sinking at an average rate of 10cm a year, 10 times faster than Venice.\n\n- The Trans Canada highway begins in Vancouver (B.C) and ends in St John's (Newfoundland). It's 7,821km.\n\n- The Vatican City is the world's smallest independent state and has a population of just 800 it's own anthem and coins!\n\n- The shortest scheduled airline flight is from the Scottish island of Westray to its neighbor island, Papa Westray. The flight is 2 minutes!\n\n\nGreat Resource: - Find a travel information around the world\nA Comprehensive worldwide travel directory, Find a travel service, hotel booking directly with a hotel owner web site, The best site for the visitors who want to gain travel information around the world. - Travel Directory\nTravel Directory includes travel preparation, destination guide, specialty travel, transportation, lodging, travel image galleries, travel tips, travel pulications, travel insurance, travelougues, and more.\n\nTravel Directory & Guide - Travel Axis", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9987488985061646}
{"content": "\n\n  • Define and evaluate the advantage of utilizing magnetic resonance as a diagnostic tool in body imaging.\n  • Identify the various artifacts encountered in body MR imaging and how to suppress or minimize the artifact for optimal imaging.\n  • Review the MR pulse sequences that adequately enhance image quality in body imaging.\n  • Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing contrast enhancement in body MR imaging.\n  • Recognize the importance of proper patient set up for MR body imaging to enhance image quality.\n  • Discuss the future advances that will greatly improve image quality of body imaging\n\n\n\n\nThere are no prerequisites for this course.\n\nTarget Audience\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6748707294464111}
{"content": "You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2016.\n\nRoy asked:\n\nI’m writing this in hopes of getting a response, over the past few years I’ve grown increasingly interested in philosophy. Books from Socrates and Plato have captured my imagination, along with leaving me with more questions than I already had. As I dive down deeper into philosophy I find myself wanted to know more, wanting to read more into philosophy. My question is where should I start, how can I become more infatuated with philosophy?\n\nAnswer by Geoffrey Klempner\n\nYou remind me of myself, Roy. Around 1971. I’d just left my job as a photographer’s assistant. I think the first book I picked up from the local library was ‘Volume something’ of the collected dialogues of Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett. As I wrote back in 1999,\n\n“I discovered that philosophy and I were made for one another. It was a whirlwind romance. I revered Kant and idolized Plato. I went on endless philosophical walks. Instead of my beloved camera, I carried a notebook. In October 1972, I enrolled as an undergraduate at Birkbeck College London. From day one, I had set my heart on becoming an academic philosopher.” (My Philosophical Life).\n\nThings didn’t turn out quite the way I’d planned, but that is another story. If you are very bright, then maybe a life in academia might suit you. But it can also be a recipe for heartbreak. A recent message posted to the Philos-L list described the suicide of a mid-40s member of the ‘academic precariat’ in Australia:\n\n\nWhere to start? It actually doesn’t matter too much. Follow up leads. Follow your nose. The Pathways Introductory Book List has some suggestions for reading. Or you could join Pathways to Philosophy and have the opportunity to have up to 30 essays reviewed — and shared with other Pathways students if they are up to the required standard.\n\nThe most important thing is to sort out your motivation. I once wrote:\n\n“You can philosophize for sheer enjoyment. Or because you want to change the world. Or to develop and hone your mental powers. Or out of insatiable, childlike curiosity. Or because your very life depends upon it” (Pathways to Philosophy: Seven Years On).\n\nEach of these alternatives (they are not mutually exclusive) will determine the approach you take to study. Infatuation is a great thing but will it last? How will you feel about this after four decades? The best advice I can give is don’t let your other interests fall by the wayside. Keep up a lively interest in the world around you. Don’t neglect your friends and your relationships. In other words, be as Normal as you can be — in a world where many of the good people you will meet don’t care too much about the ultimate questions of philosophy.\n\n\nDavid asked:\n\nI have a question about the implications of John Rawls’ two ‘principles of justice’ namely:\n\n\nMy question concerns the second part of principle 2. Suppose there is a social or economic inequality which, if allowed, would reduce the wellbeing of the worst off 1 per cent of society by (say) 1 per cent, but would increase the wellbeing of everyone else by (say) 10 per cent. Suppose this inequality has not much to do with the principle 1. Would it be disallowed under Rawls’ theory?\n\nAnswer by Paul Fagan\n\nThe questioner here is focussing upon Rawls’ ‘difference principle’ which may be understood quite simply as a mechanism whereby any moves to benefit society must principally benefit the disadvantaged sectors of society. In A Theory of Justice (1999 Belknap Press) Rawls states that:\n\n“An inequality of opportunity must enhance the opportunities of those with the lesser opportunity” (p.  266).\n\nTaken at face value, we should really consider the least advantaged to hold a veto over society. For any planned move, if least advantaged’s position does not improve, then the move should not go ahead.\n\nHence, the suggestion here would almost certainly be disallowed in any form of Rawlsian governance. The suggestion is seemingly grafting a form of utilitarianism onto the second principle whereby the whole stock of goods in a society increases and the average holding would increase. Rawlsian philosophising moved away from the existing utilitarian distributions of goods.\n\nThat said, actually measuring how the least advantaged’s position has improved may provide some practical problems and Rawls himself suggested at least two measures: In illustrating the difference principle via the ‘distribution of income’ (pp. 67-68), should it be gauged in terms of monetary improvement? Or should it be measured over  longer timescale where the ‘appropriate expectation in applying the difference principle is that of the long-term prospects of the least favored extending over future generations’ (p. 252).\n\nAn interesting essay by Christopher Heath Wellman entitled ‘Justice’, that differentiates between differing types of distributions in society, including Rawls and Utilitarianism, may be found in The Blackwell Guide to Social and Political Philosophy.\n\n\nMakheu asked:\n\nDiscuss the claim that what historians of philosophy do is not philosophy, and that contemporary philosophers can learn little if anything from the history of their subject. Philosophers should concern themselves with real problems not with history.\n\nAnswer by Geoffrey Klempner\n\nThis is a nice question. From my own experience of study, the heyday for the attitude you describe was the 50s, during the period of so-called ‘ordinary language philosophy’. There may well have been other times when this attitude was prevalent.\n\nInspired the later work of Wittgenstein in Cambridge, a parallel movement in Oxford headed by J.L. Austin saw the job of the philosopher as untangling the knots (for Wittgenstein, ‘therapy’) which our thinking gets into because we misunderstand our own language. We repeatedly fall victim to illusions generated by idiom and grammar.\n\nOn this view, the history of philosophy is the history of error. Undergraduates studied Locke or Berkeley, Descartes or Leibniz in order to learn to identify the points where misunderstanding of language led these thinkers astray. It was not considered important to understand historical context (as Russell had sought, brilliantly, to do in his History of Western Philosophy). Social milieu and history were irrelevant. The value of the study of history was as a source of useful examples for the philosopher to learn from.\n\nThis was a philosophy more radical that Marx, who believed in the importance of the history of philosophy, even though according to his ’11th thesis on Feuerbach’ all previous philosophers in his view had erred. The young Marx’s doctoral thesis on the Greek philosophers Democritus and Epicurus was a model of scholarship.\n\nAs it happens, I subscribe to the Philos-L e-list for professional philosophy. From the constant stream of posts on the list, one gets the impression that every obscure aspect of the history of philosophy is now an object of intense study. There aren’t enough topics to go round, in contemporary philosophy or history of philosophy, to satisfy academic philosophers labouring to meet publishing requirements for tenure — not to mention the constant flow of new PhD students looking for original thesis topics.\n\nReal problems? Ask a professional philosopher and they will tell you that all the problems they study are real. If some, or most of the problems seem too obscure to the layperson that is only because without the benefit of a doctorate one lacks the discernment necessary to see them. — Of course, they would say that, wouldn’t they?!\n\nAfter forty plus years of study, I would be hesitant in identifying the ‘real’ problems of philosophy. My supervisor in my Oxford days, John McDowell, once told me that the main source of his motivation to philosophize was the things other philosophers said. (A few decades earlier, G.E. Moore had said something similar.) It’s a view and an approach that I can understand, even though my motivation is different. I find myself gripped by problems: that is the source of my impulse to philosophize.\n\nOn either of these two views, McDowell’s or mine, it isn’t necessary to be disrespectful to the history of the subject. For that one needs to be in the grip of an ideology, for example the ideology of ‘ordinary language philosophy’.\n\nAs a physicist, you can study the history of physics if that aspect of the subject interests you. There are always lessons to learn from the past. But you don’t do physics by studying what Newton or Rutherford said. You design and perform experiments, put questions to nature.\n\nBy contrast, there’s no equivalent in philosophy to the Large Hadron Collider. You have to look into your own mind. What philosophers said in the past is important because you don’t want to repeat their mistakes. On the other hand, any progress they did make with a problem that grips you is something you can build on. It’s not necessary to start from scratch. That’s pretty valuable, provided that you are not blinded by ideology.\n\nAs a postscript I would like to insert a plug. Our own Philosophical Connections on the site authored by Dr Anthony Harrison-Barbet gives a very good overview of the interconnections of 100 plus philosophers in the Western tradition, using a unique hyperlinked index. Look up your favourite philosopher and try it out for yourself. I warn you, it’s addictive!\n\n\nKamyar asked:\n\nI have two questions if it’s all right.\n\nFirst of all, I want to know do humans really need god and in a bigger sense absolute faith in something other than the physical world (let’s call it religious beliefs).\n\nAnd if we indeed need it, will there ever be a time that we can truly be free of every form of religion and religious beliefs?\n\nAnswer by Gideon Smith-Jones\n\nKamyar, first of all I want to say that it is brave of you to give your location as Teheran, Iran. You must know that Iran is one of the countries where ‘apostasy’, i.e. atheism, is punishable by death according to the Iranian state’s enforcement of religious law.\n\nYou must also know (unless you are very naive) that right now in Iran there are persons who spend their working days in darkened rooms in front of computer monitors, whose only job is to scour the internet for evidence of any Iranian national who expresses his or her belief in atheism. Iranian bloggers have been arrested, beaten up, subject to kangaroo ‘religious’ courts.\n\nFrom my own experience, I know that there are many Iranians, both those of faith and those without faith, who are devoted to the pursuit of truth. In Iran, they keep a low profile. Whatever passes as study of ‘philosophy’ in Iranian universities is something that has no place in any genuine philosophical tradition.\n\nWould we be better off getting rid of religion?\n\nKarl Marx, looking forward to a time when religion would no longer be needed described religion as the ‘heart in a heartless world.’ Things are still so bad for so many people that I would not take away the comforts of religion from them, even though it is a false comfort.\n\nThe sad fact is that human beings are weak. Those of us who reject religion are tempted make a god out of something else. Even materialism, or science, have an innate tendency to be deified, so I would not even consider ‘faith in a physical world’ as free of the taint of religion.\n\nThat said, I believe that the time will come when gods are no longer needed, when human beings accept their finitude and the inevitability of death without recourse to fantastical fairy tales about punishment and reward, ‘holy’ texts whether of science or religion, obsessive-compulsive ritual — and judicial murder.\n\n\nSanty asked:\n\nWere the Ancient Greeks correct in thinking that mathematics is an absolute truth?\n\nAnswer by Helier Robinson\n\nYes, definitely. But you have to understand that the truth that is absolute is mathematical truth, not empirical truth. All the mathematical truths that the ancient Greeks discovered are as true today as they were then — Pythagoras’ Theorem, for example. It does not matter what language a mathematics book might be written in, the mathematical statements proved in it will be true in any other language.\n\nIt does not matter what mathematician discovers a new mathematical truth, if he proves it then all other mathematicians will agree that it is true. It may be modified under special circumstances, but is otherwise absolutely true: for example, a right-angled equiangular triangle is impossible in Euclidean geometry, and that is absolutely true; but it is possible in spherical geometry. In spherical geometry, which is geometry on the surface of a sphere, the shortest distance between two points is a great circle; lines of longitude are great circles, as is the equator. One equilateral triangle is formed by the lines of zero longitude, longitude 90 west, and the equator — and this is a right-angled equiangular triangle, possible in this geometry because all triangles in this geometry have their interior angles sum to more than 180 degrees, unlike Euclidean triangles which sum to exactly 180 degrees.\n\nThe history of logic is interesting in this context. Formal logic was invented by Aristotle and developed by the medieval philosophers. It is a logic of classes (hence our word ‘classification’). Modern symbolic logic is a logic of truth-functions and, in quantificational logic, a logic of sets — and sets, basically, are classes. All of this is derivative from the logic used by mathematicians, which has never been formalised but which includes sets and functions and valid argument forms such as modus ponens and modus tollens and all the other valid argument forms of formal logic — as well as purely mathematical argument forms such as mathematical induction, and concepts not appearing in formal logic, such as numbers, shapes, equations, and algebraic and topological structures. So if you are interested in reasoning, study mathematics, not logic.\n\n\nPolly asked:\n\nI was wondering if there is any other way of thinking besides deduction and induction, and I want an example. \n\nI understand by “thinking” the action of being able to comprehend smthg, and explain it. I know that by “comprehend” you could think about many things (the same for explaining) but what I want to grasp is if there is any other method besides the ones named above but parallel to them. \n\nCould be an example from mathematics or chemistry or.. well…\n\nAnswer by Craig Skinner\n\nThere is indeed, namely abduction.\n\nPut simply, the essential features of each are as follows.\n\nDeduction: a conclusion necessarily follows from (is entailed by; is a logical consequence of) the premises. So, if premises are true, conclusion must be true. But deduction tells us nothing new, because the conclusion is implicit in, is already contained in, the premises.\n\neg  Premise 1.    All Scots are drunks\n\nPremise 2.    Craig is a Scot\n\nConclusion: Craig is a drunk\n\nInduction:  from “expect more of the same” or “the future will resemble the past” we infer a likely, but not guaranteed conclusion. Unlike deduction this is not logically watertight, it is only probabilistic, but on the other hand it tells us something about the world.\n\neg   Premise: the sun has risen every morning for as long as we can remember.\n\nConclusion: the sun will rise tomorrow morning.\n\nBecause the world has exhibited regularities for eons, evolution has hardwired induction into sentient species. My dog for instance, is right now looking expectantly for her walk because she has had one around this time of day for years.\n\nInduction notes regularities but doesnt explain them eg why the sun rises.\n\nAbduction: here we infer the best explanation for the facts, so that abduction is also called “inference to the best explanation (IBE)”. It may not always be the right explanation, so that the conclusion, as with induction, and unlike deduction, is not guaranteed. However, unlike deduction and induction, it explains things, and is widely used in everyday life, in science, in medical diagnosis. Most of Sherlock Holmes’s “deductions” are actually abduction eg\n\nPremise 1: the dog didnt bark in the night\n\nPremise 2: dogs dont bark at friends\n\nBest explanation: the intruder was known to the dog\n\nWe can update our estimate of the likelihood of our explanation in light of new evidence, and this iterated process can be systematized using Bayesian analysis. Abduction and Bayesian analysis are widely used in the field of Artificial Intelligence.\n\n\nBooks by Geoffrey Klempner\n\n=== Solve this riddle ===\n\n\nOctober 2016\n« Sep   Nov »\n\nAsk a Philosopher home page\n\ncounter for wordpress", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9658858776092529}
{"content": "Maine web design\n\nHow do you get business via your website? The first task is ensuring that your website is an aesthetically pleasing and free from errors. Equally important is generating traffic to the website via search engines. At After Five by Design, we provide professional web design and web development and create websites that reach their aims and goals. Focusing on conversions and leading the customer through the sales funnel, we make sure that clear calls for actions nudge the customers into the right direction. When it comes to SEO, we know that unless a website has gone through the exercise of search engine optimisation there is little possibility of achieving a valid ranking that generates business.\nAfterFive by Design\n11 Fieldstone Lane\nSanford Maine\nME 04073\nPhone number 2076513299", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9978500008583069}
{"content": "Greek ELSTAT released the unemployment figures for 2014Q3 today which marked the fall of the unemployment rate to 25.5%, down from 27.2% during the corresponding quarter of 2013. Given the positive outlook of the release I ‘d like to take a closer look at the details of Greek employment and if this drop of the unemployment rate really signifies a substantial improvement of the economy.\n\nBased on various tables of the quarterly employment figures I have constructed the following table of certain numbers that I feel are important:\n\nGreek employment 2013Q3 - 2014Q3\n\nPersonally I usually pass through the unemployment rate and go straight to the employment figure. As we can see, although unemployment dropped by 91 thousand people (compared to the same quarter of 2013), employment increased by 53 thousand which resulted in the labor force decreasing by 38,000. What is even more interesting is the fact that a large part of the drop in the labor force was due to a fall of the population over 15yr (-30,000). Obviously the fall in the unemployment rate becomes much less impressive if one looks only at employment while the (steady) fall in the 15+ population and the labor force are certainly not positive signs for the future.\n\nTaking a closer look at the unemployed we see that the fall in that category was only due to people who were unemployed for less than a year while the long-term unemployed actually increased by another 10 thousand to reach close to 930,000 persons. These opposite movements are a worrying sign for the future since they might be indicators for the presence of hysteresis among the long-term unemployment. This will make reducing unemployment much more difficult (given that short-term unemployed are only 6% of the labor force with long-term unemployment reaching 19%).\n\nMoving to employment we observe that the increase came almost entirely from part-time employment. If one also notices that under-employment was the major driver of employment (with under-employed now being close to 6.8% of employment) it is clear that employment growth is driven mainly by short-term, part-time unsecured jobs which probably pay very low salaries. The fall in the unemployment rate actually hides an increase in under-utilization of labor which finds it very hard to enter into full-time steady jobs while long-term unemployed seem to be left out of even these part-time employment opportunities.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6752656698226929}
{"content": "Crime Scene Cleanup and why it’s important to get it cleaned up fast\n\nDeath can be messy. Not just figuratively, but literally in many shocking ways, eg., blood on the walls of a living room. Luckily, for many people, they have only seen this from watching TV shows like “Law & order” and “CSI.” These shows show you what happens after the death of an individual. Crime-scene investigators, police officers, coroners, paramedics show up collect evidence, check on the victim, ask questions, record the crime scene and remove the body. But what happens after that is rarely shown. Learn More.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998488426208496}
{"content": "Q: Is abortion proportionalism, utilitarianism or natural law?\n\nA:Kind of a mixture between utilitarianism and natural law I'd say. There are many reasons people seek abortion. Usually what it comes down to is that they know c...Read More »\n\nQ: Why do our intuitions about the morality/legality of abortion sup...\n\nA:Everyone would prefer if no moral consequences attached to the things they want to do. Or calories to the things they want to eat. Alas, it's not so. So, there ...Read More »\n\nQ: What advise would a utilitarian give a pregnant teen that wants a...\n\nA:Depends on what life the teen would have by having the baby. If it would be like today in the US with the majority quit school, not go to college, ending up on ...Read More »\n\nQ: To what extent is Utilitarianism a useful method of making decisi...\n\nA:Well let's see the greatest good for the greatest number - does the foetus (UK spellin) have the same claim to happiness as a fully formed person such as it's m...Read More »\n\nQ: Utilitarianism and Kantianism applied to abortion.\n\nA:I'm not sure where you get this. A Kantian presumably would say that no one should adopt a rule for themselves regarding abortion that could not also be a unive...Read More »\n\nabortion and utilitarianism\n\nAbortion. This essay is an analysis of abortion in utilitarian terms. Compared to some writings on abortion, it is very short. And it is short for good reason: .\nUtilitarianism. Utilitarianism is teleological, concerned with ends or outcomes. Utilitarians would ask whether having an abortion brings about the greatest good. Utilitarianism - Kant - Natural Law - Situation Ethics\nEthical issues include Abortion, Euthanasia, Genetic Engineering, War, Infertility .Bentham s Hedonic Calculus makes Utilitarianism the easiest ethical theory to .\nIf abortion caused more general misery than happines (and this might be the case if a majority is dismayed by it), a utilitarian would have to .\nOn Singer s Utilitarian Argument about Abortion. Richmond Journal of Philosophy 17 (Spring 2008). Keith Crome. Is Peter Singer s Utilitarian Argument about .\nIts provisions allowed an abortion to take place if two doctors agreed that. the mother s life is.Utilitarianism is a teleological approach to ethics. They would say .\nIn this case there are several different factors that contribute to the decision to have an abortion. First you have the four children that already .\nPopular Q&A\n\nAny more abortion stories like this?\nIs there even anything wrong with this baby? Just because the other pregnancies were unsucessiful doesn't mean that this one will be. I would definitely at least wait to see if there was something majorly wrong with this baby or not before even considering it.\n\nDo abortion clinics refuse service to mothers in their third trimester?\nIn the US, most states refuse abortions beyond 20 weeks, because after that they are deemed partial birth abortions. Very rarely will you ever find a doctor or clinic willing to do it after 16 weeks. Some say it is because that is around the time a gender can be determined making the fetus...\n\nTwin abortion?\nYes, it's called selective abortion. Most women can carry twins without serious complications so this is done more commonly in women with carrying 3 or more babies. Usually they were getting fertility treatments and had several eggs \"take.\" The embryos which are not growing as well are the...\n\nHow much does a chemical abortion cost in Arizona clinics?\nAfter checking with Google, it appears that there are a number of different prices for a medical abortions in the AZ area, which is the same nationwide. The cost varies from $295 to $800 depending on the type of treatment you are looking for. I listed a few sites including the Google that I...\n\nJudaism Views on abortion?\nThe orthodox and many of the conservative follow the scriptures and view abortion as sin. While most of the reform consider it ok. Psalms 139:13-16 For You formed my inward parts- You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made- Marvelous...", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946403503417969}
{"content": "an essential mineral in human nutrition with a wide range of biological functions. Magnesium is involved in over 300 metabolic reactions. It is necessary for every major biological process, including the production of cellular energy and the synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins. It is also important for the electrical stability of cells, the maintenance of membrane integrity, muscle contraction, nerve conduction and the regulation of vascular tone, among other things.\n\nFoods Referencing magnesium\n\nOrange   Pineapple   Prune   Raisin   White Potato", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000090599060059}
{"content": "(redirected from Guamanian)\nAlso found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia.\nRelated to Guamanian: Guahan\n\n\n(gwäm), Chamorro Guåhan, officially Territory of Guam, the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands (see also Northern Mariana IslandsNorthern Mariana Islands\n, officially Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a self-governing entity in association with the United States (2010 pop. 53,883), c.185 sq mi (479 sq km), comprising 16 islands (6 inhabited) of the Marianas chain (all except Guam), in the W\n..... Click the link for more information.\nor Agaña\n, city (2010 pop. 1,051), capital of the island of Guam, W Pacific, in the Mariana Islands. It is the administrative center of Guam, and many of the city's economic activities are related to the provision of goods and services to\n..... Click the link for more information.\n\n\n\n\nHuman artifacts dating from c.1500 B.C. have been found on Guam, but the first settlement may have occurred as much as 500 or more years earlier. Archaelogical evidence suggests that early settlement may have occurred in two waves, with the first occurring c.1500 B.C. or before and the second occurring c.A.D. 1000. Visited in 1521 by Ferdinand MagellanMagellan, Ferdinand\n, Port. Fernão de Magalhães, Span. Fernando de Magallanes, c.1480–1521, Portuguese navigator who sailed for Portugal and Spain. Born of a noble family, he was reared as a page in the royal household.\n..... Click the link for more information.\n, Guam was claimed and controlled by Spain until 1898, when it was taken by the United States in the Spanish-American WarSpanish-American War,\n1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists.\n..... Click the link for more information.\n\n\n\n\n\nan island in the western Pacific, the largest in the Mariana Islands; US possession. Area, 533.5 sq km. Principal city, A gaña.\n\nThe southern portion of the island, with higher elevation (up to 405 m), is of volcanic origin and composed of andesites, whereas the north is low lying with a structure of coral limestone. The coast is for the most part precipitous and fringed with coral reefs. Earthquakes are frequent. The island has a tropical, trade-wind climate, with an average temperature every month of the year of about 26° C and annual precipitation of about 3,000 mm. There are tropical rain forests on the southern and eastern mountain slopes; in the north there are xerophytic grassy savannas.\n\nGuam was discovered in 1571 by Ferdinand Magellan. At the end of the 17th century it was seized by the Spaniards; in 1898, as an outcome of the Spanish-American War, it became a possession of the USA. In the course of World War II it was occupied from December 1941 to July-August 1944 by Japanese forces, and after the war it became one of the largest US naval and air bases in the Pacific.\n\nApproximately one-half of the island’s population consists of indigenous Chamorros (about 50,000; 1969 estimate). Some 40,000 are Americans, primarily military people and personnel servicing the naval base. The inhabitants also include Filipinos, mainly Ilocanos (about 10,000), and Ha-waiians. English is the official language. Catholicism is the religion of most (about 95 percent) of the people. Economic activities include the growing of corn, coffee, bananas, sugarcane, taro, and other tropical crops, as well as fishing and logging.\n\n\nGuam has been a territory of the U.S. since 1898, but has been allowed autonomy in local affairs since 1950; native inhabitants are citizens of the U.S. but cannot vote in U.S. elections.\n\nCapital: Hagatna (Agana)\n\nNicknames: Tano I’ManChanorro (Land of the Chamorros); Where America’s Day Begins; America’s Paradise in the Pacific\n\nBird: Totot (also known as the Mariana fruit dove or love bird; Ptilinopus roseicapilla) Flower: Puti tai nobio or bougainvillea (bougainvillea spectabilis)\n\nHymn: “Guam Hymn” (“Fanohge Chamorro”)\nLanguages: Chamorro; English\nTree: Ifil or Ifit (Intsia bijuga)\n\n\nGovernment web site:\n\nOffice of the Governor\nUfisinan Maga’lahi\nExecutive Chambers\nPO Box 2950\n\nHagatna, Guam 96932 011-671-472-8931 fax: 011-671-477-4826\n\nLieutenant Governor PO Box 2950 Hagatna, Guam 96932 011-671-475-9380 fax: 011-671-47-2007\n\nPublic Library System Nieves M. Flores Memorial Library 254 Martyr St Hagatna, Guam 96910 011-671-475-4573 fax: 011-671-477-9777\n\nLegal Holidays:\n\n. Our Lady of Camarin DayDec 8\nAll Souls DayNov 2\nLiberation DayJul 21\n\n\nan island in the N Pacific, the largest and southernmost of the Marianas: belonged to Spain from the 17th century until 1898, when it was ceded to the US; site of naval and air force bases. Capital: Aga?a. Pop.: 165 000 (2004 est.). Area: 541 sq. km (209 sq. miles)\nReferences in periodicals archive ?\nWhat's more, the Guamanians are offended that Iran hasn't scheduled the game for the usual venue--Azadi Stadium in Tehran.\nHe continued by asserting that there is a divergence in the degree to which Chamorros want to exert more influence or control of Chamorro identity within Guamanian institutions.\nTable 2: Number of Articles, by Thematic Content for Native, Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders Population Focus Asian/Pacific Native Theme/Subtheme Islanders Hawaiians Samoans Social problems Cultural conflict 2 4 1 Health 5 0 0 Elder care 3 0 0 Cultural competence Individuals 0 0 1 Families/groups 4 3 1 Communities 3 2 1 Total 17 9 4 Population Focus Chamorros/ Theme/Subtheme Guamanians Total Social problems Cultural conflict 1 8 Health 0 5 Elder care 0 3 Cultural competence Individuals 0 1 Families/groups 1 9 Communities 0 6 Total 2 32\npdf#search='ORGANIC% 20ACT%20OF%20GUAM%20AND%20RELATED%20FEDERAL%20 LAWS' (noting Guamanian disapproval of constitution).\nGuamanian populations also gleaned insects from the host web, stole host food bundles, fed with the host and appeared to occasionally attack, kill and feed on the host.\nWhy, then, collect the information, much less pry further into whether we are Guamanian or Cambodian or some other type of Asian/Pacific Islander?\nIn the Laotian community, for example, 19 percent of births are to teen mothers and in the Guamanian community, 17 percent of births are to teen mothers.\nSince long before the first contact of westerners with native Guamanians (or Chamorus(1)) in 1521, fish has been the primary source of protein for the islanders.\n1%) ([dagger]) Polynesian alone Native Hawaiian alone Samoan alone Tongan alone Micronesian alone Guamanian or Chamorro alone Some other race alone 14,619 (5.\nConcentrations of zinc and iron in the brains of Guamanian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and parkinsonism-dementia.\nAsian Pacific Islander Chinese Hawaiian Filipino Samoan Japanese Guamanian Asian Indian Carolinian Korean Fijian Vietnamese Kosraean Cambodian Melanesian Hmong Micronesian Laotian Northern Mariana Islander Thai Palauan Bangladeshi Papa New Guinean Bhutanese Ponapean (Pohnpeian) Borneo Polynesian Celebesian Solomon Islander Ceram Tahitian Indochinese Tarawa Islander Indonesian Tongan IwoJiman Trukese (Chuukese) Javanese Yapese Malayan Maldivian Nepali Okinawan Pakistani Sikkim Singaporean Sri Lankan Sumatran\nAll eyes will be on the new generation of Guamanian athletes to see if they can go further at the 5th EAG in Hong Kong.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8951222896575928}
{"content": "Friday, June 22, 2012\n\nBaucus Farm Bill Amendment Bad for Forests\n\nDespite the ecological reality that beetle-kill is part of healthy functioning forest ecosystem, Montana Senator Max Baucus successfully added an amendment to the Farm Bill that would provide additional funds ($200 million) to log beetle-killed trees as well as “stream line” the process of getting out timber sales. Baucus stated this would be “good news” to the timber industry. Here’s a link to one news report on the Baucus amendment.\n\nI don’t blame the Senator for his lack of ecological knowledge. And I am sure he had the best intentions, however, his amendment is “bad news” for our forests.\nAmong the incorrect assertions made by Baucus is the idea that dead beetle-killed trees increases fire risk. Except for the “red needle” stage, there is no conclusive evidence that dead trees contributes to any greater fire risk. Indeed, there is some research that suggests that dead trees are less prone to fire, especially once the needles and small branches are worn off over time.\n\nGreen trees, by contrast, have flammable resins that under conditions of drought and high winds can sustain high intensity blazes.\n\nBaucus’s press release also furthered the misconception that beetle kill leads to a “loss” of the forest. In fact, beetle related mortality is seldom more than 50% of the trees in any forest. The naturally thinned forests that beetles create leads to increased growth rates among the remaining trees.\n\nDead trees not a wasted resource as implied by timber industry propaganda. Rather they are important for many wildlife species. Up to 45% of all bird species depend on dead trees for some part of their survival including feeding, roosting, and nesting. Dead trees that fall into streams contribute to as much as 50% of the fish habitat in aquatic ecosystems. Dead trees in streams also provide bank stability reducing water velocity and thus erosion.\n\nIn addition, dead trees are an important biological legacy to the future forest. The physical presence of dead trees is critical to future forest growth. Dead trees stacked on the ground capture water and concentrate it on the ends of logs where it can enhance seedling growth. The snags left by beetles provides some shade for tree saplings, and acts like a snow fence to trap snow in the winter adding to the water infiltration of the forest soil. The slowly decomposing boles are an important source of nutrients to the future forest.\n\nLogging is not a benign activity. The disturbance that accompanies logging can enhance the spread of weeds. Logging roads are a major source of sedimentation in our streams and one of the major factors in the decline of many native fish populations. Logging activities can displace or disturb sensitive species from grizzlies to elk. Logging removes biological legacy, in effect, starving the forest.\n\nFinally, to put the $200 million Baucus proposes to subsidizes timber operations in perspective, consider that in 2011 the entire 151 million acre national wildlife refuge system cost only around $500 million to operate. Could we not better spend $200 million on other conservation work?\n\nWhile Senator Baucus’ amendment may have had the best intension, it’s bad news for taxpayers who will pay for the destruction of our forests, not to mention the long-term degradation of our forest ecosystems.\n\nThursday, June 7, 2012\n\nPopulation and Biodiversity Loss\n\nPopulation and Biodiversity\nThe Parable of Isle Royale\n\nIsle Royale in Lake Superior is a national park. Besides its fame as a park, Isle Royale is also famous for its wolf and moose populations. The island provides a unique experimental design of what happens when populations are permitted to grow without restraint.\n\nThe story begins with the immigration of moose to the island sometime in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Some speculate that moose swam to the island or crossed on ice in winter. No matter how they got there, they existed on the island for five decades without wolves. By the 1920s the moose population increased to more than 3000 and as a consequence of over browsing, the moose population crashed in the 1930s. The moose population languished for a while, and then began to grow again.\n\nJust after World War II, wolves migrated to the island, most likely over the ice in winter. Wolves preyed on moose, and for a few decades, wolves and moose seems to sustain a relative equilibrium. Then in 1980, the wolf population crashed after the introduction of canine parvovirus.\n\nReleased from wolf predation, the moose population soared to new heights inflicting tremendous damage to the island’s plant communities. As before the moose population crashed with 2000 moose starving to death in one four month period! The moose population now remains at around 500 animals, far below their original high numbers due to the damage sustained by the island’s plant community as a consequence of too many moose.\n\n\nThere are lessons for human population in the Isle Royale example as well as other tales that could be told. Continuous population growth can lead to habitat degradation, great suffering for the dominant animal, and eventually a lowered carrying capacity due to habitat destruction.\n\nHuman populations may be like the proverbial moose population. We have been released from predators that might otherwise keep our numbers in check and somewhat sustainable. Mind you I have no wish for a major pandemic, famine, warfare or other factors that once held human numbers in check. But I do think there are plenty of signs, that humans, like the moose of Isle Royale, are degrading the carrying capacity of Planet Earth—which is, after all, the only habitable island we know of in the Universe.\n\nDespite the seriousness of population growth as an agent of planetary damage with serious potential repercussions for human survival, there is a tendency for the majority of people to ignore the issue.\n\nThere are many on both the left and right ends of the political spectrum who feel human population growth is not a problem or at the very least a manageable problem. Typically the right opposes any discussion of population reduction because of conservative religious views or a business model that requires endless growth to maintain economic prosperity. The left tends to downplay population based on social justice grounds—that the world’s poor are blamed for population growth, while the world’s richest countries enjoy the benefits of excessive consumption.\n\nBoth support their respective positions often by arguing that as a result of technology we will rise to the occasion and help us get through any shortages we may face be it energy, food, or space. In a sense the worldviews of the left and right are not appreciably different when it comes to techno optimism.\n\nI am inclined to agree that technological advances often change assumptions about limiting factors—what’s available to use and at what cost can change dramatically due to technological innovations. At one time salt was more valuable than gold, but technological innovations has made it so common we can buy it for pennies. So I am loath to discount how technology can rapidly change predictions and assumptions about the availability of critical resources.\n\nBut the problem is that technology does not come free. There’s a huge ecological cost to technological fixes. Even if you could grow sufficient food for 10 billion people, one has to consider what’s driving that food production. The price of food does not reflect the real costs.\n\nIt’s the mining that produces the metal to make the plow. It’s the gas drilling that provides the fertilizer. It’s the oil drilling that provides the fuel to power the trucks that moves the food to people. It’s the dams that provide the water storage for irrigation of fields. And even more so today the computers that calculate the amount of water to spread or the exact percentage of pesticide to apply and so on. Behind that food production is long technology train that is pulling a lot of cars—each taking a bite out of the Earth’s biodiversity, land and water to feed a growing human population.\n\nOf course, I’m generalizing here, and there are many shades of gray and degrees of buy-in to the various perspectives. But there are few on either side of the right or left who agree that human population growth poses a grave danger to the Earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity, much less a threat to humanity as well.\n\nThe debate over population has largely focused on whether outright population growth—primarily in the less developed countries is a threat– and/or whether consumption of natural resources by developed countries is really the problem for sustainability. In reality this debate is not helpful since both are problematic. Both issues need to be addressed. Depending on how you define sustainability, we are already likely well past any sustainable society.\n\n\nThere are physical limits to the Earth and its life support systems. And though technology can unleash abundance where previously there was scarcity, ultimately this means there are limits to population growth. There is only so much agricultural land, fish in the sea, fresh water to drink, oil and coal to burn, and so forth. Where and when we reach those limits is a matter of debate, and for many of these resources, limits may be more regional in nature. But what can’t be debated is that all of these are finite. I don’t doubt that humans are clever and innovative, and some of these resources will be replaced or used far more efficiently in the future.\n\nNevertheless, just the physical need for housing, and providing basic needs for an expanding human population will place new demands on Planet Earth whether we impose strict limits or not. What we have in terms of ecological limitations is a planet that is already overtaxed if one uses the appropriate metrics like biodiversity loss.\n\nIt would be unfortunate to simply try to determine what number of humans could be supported on Earth if we were to completely exploit any of these resources. I think it misses an important philosophical question.\n\nIn the simplest terms, some define sustainably only in terms of human population. Can the Earth sustain 10 billion or whatever number one chooses to use? I think it probably can.\n\nHowever that may be the wrong question. Human sustainability ought to be a question of quality of life. And when that is the objective, we clearly need to reduce our population and consumption. For human impacts on the planet’s natural capital; its forests, its oceans, its ecosystems, as well as air, water, air, and wildlife are already showing severe degradation and/or loss of resources that are critical to human health and happiness. Impoverishment of ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, loss of beauty and exhaustion of critical minerals, and energy supplies all threatens to jeopardize the continued habitation of humans on the planet.\n\nEven if we could succeed in supporting a population of 9 or 10 billion people that doesn’t mean that number is good for the Earth and good for people. Do you really want to live in a mega city with wall-to-wall apartments much like a packing plant at a CAFO factory (Confined Animal Farming Operation)? Can anyone argue that this provides a quality of life?\n\nIf one answers in the negative, and says they would prefer to live in less crowded conditions with abundant clear air, clean water, abundant wildlife, and beautiful surroundings than it really demonstrates that we must do something about population. It is a choice. Inaction is a choice by default.\n\n\nThere are other considerations other than merely whether human population can be sustained in some fashion. We have a moral obligation not only to the overall quality of life for humans, but also a responsibility for other life on Earth. As many have pointed out we are on the verge of a massive new extinction. The world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate. Studies have shown that biologically diverse ecosystems are more productive, so these losses, if nothing else, have the potential of reducing the ability of the Earth to sustain human population.\n\nHabitat loss is the biggest driver of extinction. And much of this habitat loss is a direct consequence of human population growth and the need to support more and more people. For instance, agriculture already claims an astounding 40% of the Earth’s total land area. This figure is not difficult to doubt if you have ever stared out of a plane window while flying over the Great Plains and Midwest. What you see is mile upon mile—for thousands of miles—is croplands that have virtually replaced the native prairie ecosystem.\n\nWhen you consider there are huge areas of permanent ice like Antarctica as well as the boreal forests that cover much of Siberia and Canada, such numbers are shocking. Agriculture, by its definition, is the production of one or a few species of plant and/or animal at the expense of native species. And the amount of land devoted to agriculture is expanding as a direct result of human population growth. The existing agricultural land use is a major driver of species extinction and biodiversity loss. Increasing agricultural conversion will likely hasten biodiversity losses.\n\nNo one wants to say to anyone that they have to suffer hunger or even starvation. And it seems sensible to suggest that population reduction is really the only way we can guarantee adequate nutrition for people without continuing to drive more and more species over the brink to extinction.\n\nAnd even when species are not driven to extinction, they may be so reduced that they are functionally extinct. Globally, large predators have been shown to have significant influence upon ecosystem function. Yet large predators are among the most imperiled animals on the Earth. In many parts of the world they are functionally extinct.\n\n\nThus far I’ve mostly made the argument for population reduction based on how it might improve things for human society. But humans are not the only species on the Planet. Ethically we have a moral obligation to share the Planet with other life. I recognize that most people will see human life as most important, and that is completely natural. Yet it’s also an important human trait that we have compassion for other lifeforms. And if one feels that we have a moral obligation to share the Earth with the other millions of species inhabiting the Earth and being an agent of their extinction is morally wrong than we should look again at how population growth is contributing to species extirpation.\n\n\nProponents who discount population growth or suggest that the rising tide of humanity is already self- correcting and that globally population growth is tapering off. Tapering off isn’t good enough. While some countries are experiencing reduced fertility and in some places like northern Europe or Japan, population growth is no longer at replacement, globally human population is still growing at an astounding rate.\n\nDespite these positive shifts in demographics in some countries, we are still adding 80 million people to the Earth every year! And some suggest that somewhere on the planet we’ll be building the equivalent of a city of a million inhabitants every five days from now until 2050. This multiplier effect due to demographic inertia will cause significant population expansion for decades to come.\n\nA good example is the country of Ghana. In 2010 there were 20 million people in this impoverished country. The average number of children born per woman was 4. Even if the fertility level decreased dramatically to replacement rate of 1.1 children per mother 2020, we would see Ghana’s population continue to grow for 40 more years before it would stabilize at 40 million.\n\nThere are additional social issues, particularly concerning pregnancy and women’s health. An alarming 1400 Afghanistan women per 100,000 die in childbirth or complications from pregnancy, compared to 5 deaths per 100,000 in countries like Denmark. Of course, that is mostly a factor of poverty and lack of good medical care, but it is also a factor of how many children women in each country typically have. The more children you birth, the higher the chances that one of them will be problematic. Maintaining and providing good medical care while your population is exploding is difficult if not impossible as well.\n\nAs many note, education of women can significantly reduce population growth. But there is a chicken and egg situation here. One of the main barriers to education is poverty. In poor countries providing even a minimum education for women is made more difficult by the sheer number of children requiring schooling.\n\nHappy pronouncements that we can feed more people through new agricultural techniques and other techno-fixes, ignore the fact that more a billion people already live in extreme poverty. It’s difficult to see how adding 2-3 billion more people can make it any easier to relieve poverty.\n\nThere is evidence that overall mortality and absolute poverty are declining, especially for the world’s poorest people. However, with that decline in mortality and economic growth come new demands upon the Earth.\n\nDespite the fact that some parts of the world consume the bulk of natural resources, per capita consumption is increasing even among the poorest people. While this is likely a good thing given the extreme poverty, it does not bode well for the Earth.\n\nIn addition, most assertions that we can feed, house, cloth, educate, and employ 9 or 10 billion people requires continuing ever deeper into dependency on high tech solutions and massive inputs of energy. Intensive agriculture using genetically modified crops, an abundance of pesticides, irrigation, and the conversion of more and more the Earth’s surface to growing crops at the expense of native ecosystems. We are already nearing the limits or perhaps exceeding the limits on what can be captured by nets and trollers from the world’s oceans. Decline in larger fish across the world has serious implications for ocean ecosystems. And most of the world’s grazing lands are suffering from livestock induced degradation, soil erosion, and weed invasion.\n\nAnd unless one presumes everyone is going to live a bare existence lifestyle, providing even a reasonable amount of light, heat, and power for production and transportation of “things” requires more and more energy production. Whether this is derived from burning of more fossil fuels or nuclear energy and/or massive wind farms, solar fields, hydroelectric, and other more renewable energy sources, the end result is more and more of the Earth is mined, drilled, and/or converted to energy production.\n\n\nPart of the hysteria over population voiced by some is that declining population growth will lead to economic stagnation. As one commentator said recently “ It’s an irony that aging doomsayers like Ehrlich and Holdren may not live long enough to behold come to fruition in their lifetime, but to achieve the very goals they claim to be aiming toward, there may be only one hope for the human species: Bring on the babies. “\n\nThe Population Reference Bureau reported that in 2011 US population grew by just 0.7%. Immigration was down, and more people survived than were born. This is causing some to wring their hands over what is sometimes called the demographic decline. They predict that aging population and lack of births will lead to economic decline and a collapse of society. Just look at the aging population of Japan and its slowing economy we are told, ignoring the fact that Germany and a number of other European countries have low reproduction rates as well as strong economies.\n\n\nI’m generally an advocate of natural regulation—or letting nature take its course. But when it comes to human population collapse, I’d rather see alternatives. We are, we are told by those who suffer from too much hubris, (often the same ones saying we don’t have a population problem) that we are clever and intelligent. Well an intelligent person, and even one that might not believe we have a serious population problem, would at least use the precautionary principle which says in the absence of better information you seek the alternative that has the least potential for long term damage.\n\nCertainly advocating population reduction can have few down sides that I am aware of, especially if done with a sense of justice and fairness. Even though I do not want to be viewed as a techno optimist, I have to admit that we have the “technology” in the form of birth control, plus education, and access to medical facilities to limit our population. It seems in light of the on-going biodiversity loss as well as other crisis’s exacerbated by population growth (like global climate change) that we can begin a global effort to bring human population more in line with global carrying capacity. And global carrying capacity in my view means not significantly contributing to accelerated species extinction, excessive pollution, and the rapid consumption and/or degradation of finite resources.\n\nI’m afraid that if we don’t use our brains, we’ll follow a path much like the Isle Royale moose—a major population crash with a much depressed and infinitely poorer surviving population of humans. But even worse, we may be taking down a lot of the Earth’s heritage of diversity and landscapes in the process.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7769500017166138}
{"content": "Jens Ambrosius Underbjerg & Klaus Vejlgaard Just\n\n\nWhere did we come from? How have humans and the rest of life on Earth evolved through time? What is the link between the development of life and the geological phenomena and processes that have taken place over millions of years.\nIn the book Evolution - The Development of Life and Earth, the focus is on these issues.\nThe book is designed in such a way that it can be used at several educational levels in biology and geography classes in upper secondary or high school, as well as further education colleges and adult education centres, or in interdisciplinary courses related to the topic of evolution and the development of life and earth.\nThe book acts as a journey back in time illustrating the impact of major geological events and the biological stages of evolution. In the course of working through the book, readers will gain an understanding of the development of the earth and the development of its life, and be able to recognize the connection between geological events and biological evolution. The reader will specifically work with evolution and evolutionary principles, such as \"natural selection\". Acquaintance is also made with some of the evolutionary scientists  who have had the greatest impact on the theories’ development, for example Charles Darwin.\nThroughout the book there is focus on knowledge not only being conveyed through the text, but also through a series of interactive features in the form of images, film, animations and student-motivating assignments. The reader is actively  involved in examining the issues that the book explains.\n\n\nNyeste udgivelser i denne kategori\n\nChemical Compounds - Elements and Chemical Reactions\n\nBremsespor og standselængder - beregning i bevægelse\n\nStomp - musik og bevægelse i idræt\n\nAtomkernens energi - radioaktivitet", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988989233970642}
{"content": "006: Estate Planning w/ Matthew Bogin\n\nToday we talk to Matthew Bogin about Estate Planning\n\n1) What are the basics to an Estate Plan?\n\n2) What are some things to consider when getting a Power of Attorney?\n\n3) How often should you review your estate plan?\n\n4) What can you do prior to meeting with an attorney to create an estate plan, to streamline the process?\n\n5) What are some of the objections you hear most frequently?\n\n6) Are there any additional considerations for families with children who have disabilities or aging parents who may be losing mental capacity? \n\nGet the Money Flow System To Easily Track your spending\n100% privacy. \nNo games, no B.S., no spam.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9462933540344238}
{"content": "Elasmosaurus sm\n\nElasmosaurus as it appeared in Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy\n\nElasmosaurus was a large plesiosaur (the largest of the long necked Plesiosaur kind) from the Late Cretaceous Period. Its neck was so long that when it was discovered, it was thought to be the tail, leading American Palaeontologist Edward Drinker Cope to humiliate himself when he published a reconstruction of the great marine reptile with the neck being the tail and the head being on back-to-front on the end of the tail - which is archenemy Othneil Charles Marsh picked up on when he got to handle the specimens himself and realised (much to his amusement at the expense of his great rival of the 'Bone Wars' no doubt) Thanks to Othneil Charles Marsh, we have an accurate reconstruction of the huge 14 metre long Elasmosaurus - last and largest of the Plesiosauroid Plesiosaurs. There is a similar species of almost the same size as Elasmosaurus called, Thalassomedon, from a slightly earlier part of the Late Cretaceous (the two cousins probably met)\n\nWalking with DinosaursEdit\n\nElasmosaurus didn't appear in the main walking with dinosaurs series.\n\n\nElasmosaurus was one of the hazards in Hell's Aquarium (Nigel's nickname for the Most Dangerous Sea of all time), in Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy Even so, they seem to be benign and passive creatures, gently migrating through the sea; however, this could be due to their task of migrating and nothing else. Still, as their primary prey is small fish, there is no apparent reason for them to attack the humans (though one is seen to investigate the ROV Camera with its jaws open)\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8873139023780823}
{"content": "Page Hero - Credit by Exam\n\nCredit by Exam\n\nXSL Content\n\nResearch Methods in Psychology\n\nCatalog number: PSYx365\n\nDescription: Corresponds to a one-semester course in research methods in psychology. Measures understanding of the course material as well as the ability to apply this understanding in specific research situations. Focuses on the following content areas: experimental psychology and the scientific method, research ethics (APA Guidelines), alternatives to experimentation (nonexperimental designs), basic concepts of experimental research, experimental research designs, data analysis and interpretation, and writing research reports. Assumes knowledge of content typically learned in courses in introductory psychology and elementary statistics. (M", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7818883061408997}
{"content": "A 400-year-old painting that might have been executed by Italian master Caravaggio has been found in an attic in southern France.\n\nEric Turquin, the French expert who retrieved the painting two years ago, says it is in an exceptional state of conservation and estimates its value at around €$120 million (NZ$197 million).\n\n\nIt was revealed at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (local time).\n\n\nCalled \"Judith Beheading Holofernes,\" it depicts the biblical heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general.\n\nIt is thought to have been painted in Rome circa 1604-05.\n\nTurquin told the press conference that there \"will never be a consensus\" about the name of the artist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7304922342300415}
{"content": "I wanted to introduce you to a short three part series detailing the steps to take a paper report and re-create it in the TapRooT® VI software.\n\nTechnically Speaking is a weekly series that highlights various aspects of the TapRooT® VI software and occasionally includes a little Help Desk humor.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9993888139724731}
{"content": "Solved thread\n\n\nDo model relationships only work with ids (numbers) ?\n\n\nI have an existing database that works with varchars(255) as foreign keys. When I try to build relations with \"$this->belongsTo('publisher', 'Publisher', 'name');\" and \"$this->hasMany('name', 'Modpack', 'publisher');\" I get a non object error when I use: {{ }}. In other projects where the foreign keys are based on ints I never had an issues with it, which is makeing me wonder.\n\n\nOhh wow. I only needed to writhe Publisher uppercase that it understands I want the relation and not the column..", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9946404695510864}
{"content": "Joint Committee on The Draft Communications Bill Minutes of Evidence\n\nNote by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the meaning of \"Customer\", \"Consumer\" and \"Citizen\"\n\nIn the draft Bill\n\n  Generally, the term \"customer\" is used throughout the Bill to refer to individuals or businesses who use or seek to use electronic communications networks and services or associated facilities, or whom providers seek as users of those things.\n\n  The draft Bill only uses the terms \"consumer\" and \"citizen\" (except in the term \"Consumer Panel\") when referring to existing legislation that uses these terms: clause 248 uses consumer in applying concurrency under the Fair Trading Act and clause 4(5) uses the term \"citizen\" in implementing the EU Directives.\n\n  The exception to this is the name \"Consumer Panel\". The duties of the Consumer Panel are all set out in terms of \"domestic and small business customers\", which are any customers who do not themselves provide networks, services or associated facilities or have more than 50 workers (workers in this context includes employees and volunteers). The Panel is called the Consumer Panel because we believe that this will be more meaningful to those customers, and to align it with the terminology used for similar bodies elsewhere (eg the Financial Services Authority Consumer Panel).\n\nIn the Policy document\n\n  In the Policy document we have generally used the terms \"consumer\" or \"citizen\" rather than \"customer\" when talking about interest of members of the public. This follows the general approach in the White Paper. Whilst there is no absolutely definitive boundary between how the two terms are used, generally the term \"consumer\" is used to indicate the purchaser or other user of a service, normally based on an economic relationship (either direct or indirect) between the individual and the service in question. Typically, though not exclusively, such interests arise in relation to networks and services rather than content.\n\n  Meanwhile, the term \"citizen\" relates to the individual as a member of society, and enjoying the rights and responsibilities such membership confers. In the electronic communications sector, these tend to arise mainly in the content area, where more cultural aspects, such as harm and offence, access to a wide variety of high quality programming, and the handling of political issues assume importance. Frequently, where we are talking about the interests of citizens in relation to broadcast content we have referred to \"viewers and listeners\". The two terms are not used exclusively, and frequently we refer to both consumers and citizens to emphasise that both the economic and cultural relationships are included.\n\nJune 2002\n\n\nprevious page contents next page\n\n\n© Parliamentary copyright 2002\nPrepared 5 August 2002", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8272534608840942}
{"content": "Street Style ft. Lauren Shumovich\n\n\nWhat happens when you put sporty mesh and sheer together on one runway? Together, they merge their vertical lines and come together to give you one of the hottest spring trends, and that is the caged effect. Alexander McQueen, Dior, Gucci and Calvin Klein are all about it and its versatility of interpretation. As sporty as this caged openwork can be, designers are upscaling to sporty chic. Mesh is on a creative spree from the giant caged openwork to the tiny teardrop-shaped holes and zig-zag patterns. So let’s tune down the runway look for more of an everyday look and what do you get…Continue Reading.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9773421883583069}
{"content": "I am part way through Max Gallo’s Mussolini’s Italy (1974)- an account of the rise and fall of Fascism in Italy. I had no knowledge of this period except for the sketchiest sense of Il Duce and an image of his jutting jaw, his rescue by German commandos after Italy’s capitulation and then his ignoble demise. I am astonished at the political factions and factors that allowed Fascism to take root. Mussolini was educated to be a teacher, practiced journalism and moved around in the political spectrum from socialist to anarchist to fascist, always an opportunist. There were several moments when he avoided disaster and continued forward in his progress to power. He was a clever manipulator of competing political and social interests and had a rare skill for reading public opinion and manipulating people and politicians. He was astonishly immoral and made use of violence and intimidation as a matter of course. His rise to power by 1923 inspired Hitler to make his attempt at a coup in Munich in 1923. The Nazis were arrested at that point and HItler sent to prison where he wrote Mein Kampf.\n\nInger Stevens\n\nCaught the 1969 thriller movie, House of Cards, starring George Peppard and Inger Stevens. A movie i had seen many years before on TV. She looked stunningly, achingly beautiful in it. I have fond memories of her from her successful TV show, The Farmer’s Daughter. I found a collective biography of actresses who died young and read about Stevens. She was beautiful, talented, worked to help others and died senselessly at the age of 37.\n\nleopard coat spots – work style change\n\nI am going to offer you some free advice. Remember it is free and that its actual value may not be any greater than its cost. The cost to you is a couple of minutes of reading time.\n\nCan you answer yes to these questions:\n\nMost days I feel I am just keeping pace with things?\n\nMost days I feel like I am just treading water not swimming to the island I am trying to reach?\n\nI seem to spend all my time on stuff that is not very important?\n\nIf you answered yes then you might want to look at changing the pattern of spots in your “leopard coat”. Here are a couple of suggestions for change that might help you feel more effective.\n\n\nChange 1: Instead of taking all your phone calls as they come in and dropping whatever work you are currently doing, have the staff take a message. Try to force calls into a block of time of your choosing. If you do your best “heavy thinking process” work in the morning, dedicate all your morning to that work and make call backs in the afternoon.\n\nChange 2: Read your email first thing in the morning and then forget about it for the rest of the day. Hard to do but constantly checking email is a time waster.\n\nChange 3: Is it necessary for you to handle ALL the details that you are currently handling. Can you not delegate more items to staff.\n\nChange 4: Tell staff to accumulate materials for your consideration and signing and come to see you once a day or twice a week not on a per piece basis.\n\nChange 5: As an experiment track your time for a week and generally track phone calls, unplanned visitors, solitary work, administration, strategic work, long range projects, or MLRB (minimum level to run the business). It is possible you will find the results surprising. You may find that you are spending next to zero time on strategic work.\n\nChange 6: Urgency grid is a four zone grid of choice in which you quickly decide what value in importance and what value in urgency a piece of work possesses.\n\n1 Urgent and Important\n\n3 Urgent but not important\n\n2 Not urgent but Important\n\n4 Not urgent and not important\n\nThere is a real human nature tendency to do items that fall into #4 because usually they are easier to do and give us the false reassurance that we are accomplishing at least something with are time. When in truth if we never get to them, there is no meaningful impact.\n\nChange 7: Time estimation – most people tend to underestimate how long it takes to do work. A good rule of thumb is to make a guess of the time you will need to get something done, then double it and add fifty per cent.\n\nIf you are doing this for the first time increase your estimate by another 50 per cent.\n\nMost initial estimates automatically assume all will go perfectly. Most work does not go perfectly smoothly.\n\nIf your piece of work or project involves more than one person, add time.\n\nIf those people work in different physical locations (buildings) or different time schedules in the same building, add time.\n\nIf this work involves getting the approval of other people in one or many steps, add time.\n\nOne sure way to predict the amount of time is to stop and guess how many times you will have to talk to someone involved in the work, then based on past experience recall how easy it has been to reach that person by phone, by email or letter or in person.\n\nLastly be sure to think about how important the work is to you and to consider if it is a top priority or last priority with the people you will need to participate and cooperate with to accomplish it.\n\nAl Pacino in 88 minutes\n\nI didnt enjoy this as much as i hoped going in. Thriller about a forensic psychiatrist who receives a cell call informing him he has 88 minutes left to live. It was a little muddled to me but did show up in a slightly deficient way the true meaning in cinema story telling between shock and suspense. The audience has to be told things before they happen for suspense to build. Too many things in this plot move ahead with no effort to keep the audience informed. A lot of the time we have no idea where we are going or why. One major problem with the character of Dr. Graham (Pacino) he is painted with too many flaws and is basically unsympathetic, although every female character is enamoured with him.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6347641348838806}
{"content": "Flight MH370 includes 12 Malaysian Freescale staff, and KL-based IBM executive\n\n\nThe Q&A session included the following responses:\n\n- Validity of last night's new analysis:  \"As you would also appreciate the prime minister came out himself to share that he has been given fairly credible leads that would point to where the plane ended its flight,\" said Jauhari. \"As he mentioned that position is very far away, very remote from the nearest landmass. After 17 days we could only bring ourselves to one conclusion.\"\n\n- Handling of families: \"Our focus is really to ensure that we provide care with the families as we move forward. It's not very easy, it has been 18 days and yesterdays announcement was really painful, a very painful fact for us,\" he said.\n\nOperational update: the Doppler effect ised in the new calculation\n\n[0530pm MYT, 25 March 2017]  Minister Hishamuddin led the SAR update, which included the Civil Aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the Malaysia Airlines chief executive Jauhari and Inspector-General of Police [IGP] Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar.\n\nHishamuddin delivered a  statement, which included the following:\n\n- The investigation has now turned into a complex phase with the release of technical and logistical information. New challenges including managing resources in the search effort,\n\nLast night, the prime minister announced the new calculation from Immarsat and AAIB. Immarsat developed a second innovative technique, which made use of the Doppler Effect, and the flight's velocity was calculated and concluded the final position in the southern part of the South Indian Ocean west of Perth.\n\nThis is not the final position. There is evidence of a partial handshake, which is subject to ongoing examination. At 0011 to 01.15 UTC,  the aircraft no longer was able to communicate. \"More work needs to be done ... this is a developing situation,\" he said.\n\nThis type of analysis has never been done before in accident analysis, he added.\n\nOperational updates: the search in the northern corridor has been called off. All search efforts are now focused in the southern part of the South Indian Ocean covering a reduced area of 469,407 sq nautical miles.\n\nTwo Korean aircraft left to go to Perth. Due to bad weather, no flights from Perth took place today.\n\nThe Doppler Effect\n\nNews release on Malaysian Ministry of Transport's Facebook page follows: - \n\n\n\nOn 13 March we received information from UK satellite company Inmarsat indicating that routine automatic communications between one of its satellites and the aircraft could be used to determine several possible flight paths.\n\nInmarsat UK has continued to refine this analysis and yesterday the AAIB presented its most recent findings, which indicate that the aircraft flew along the southern corridor.\n\nAs you have heard, an aircraft is able to communicate with ground stations via satellite.\n\nIf the ground station has not heard from an aircraft for an hour it will transmit a 'log on / log off' message, sometimes referred to as a ‘ping’, using the aircraft’s unique identifier. If the aircraft receives its unique identifier it returns a short message indicating that it is still logged on. This process has been described as a “handshake” and takes place automatically.\n\nFrom the ground station log it was established that after ACARS stopped sending messages, 6 complete handshakes took place.\n\nThe position of the satellite is known, and the time that it takes the signal to be sent and received, via the satellite, to the ground station can be used to establish the range of the aircraft from the satellite. This information was used to generate arcs of possible positions from which the Northern and Southern corridors were established.\n\nRefined analysis from Inmarsat\nIn recent days Inmarsat developed a second innovative technique which considers the velocity of the aircraft relative to the satellite. Depending on this relative movement, the frequency received and transmitted will differ from its normal value, in much the same way that the sound of a passing car changes as it approaches and passes by. This is called the Doppler effect. The Inmarsat technique analyses the difference between the frequency that the ground station expects to receive and that actually measured. This difference is the result of the Doppler effect and is known as the Burst Frequency Offset.\n\n\nWhile on the ground at Kuala Lumpur airport, and during the early stage of the flight, MH370 transmitted several messages. At this stage the location of the aircraft and the satellite were known, so it was possible to calculate system characteristics for the aircraft, satellite, and ground station.\n\nDuring the flight the ground station logged the transmitted and received pulse frequencies at each handshake. Knowing the system characteristics and position of the satellite it was possible, considering aircraft performance, to determine where on each arc the calculated burst frequency offset fit best.\n\nThe analysis showed poor correlation with the Northern corridor, but good correlation with the Southern corridor, and depending on the ground speed of the aircraft it was then possible to estimate positions at 0011 UTC, at which the last complete handshake took place. I must emphasise that this is not the final position of the aircraft.\n\nThere is evidence of a partial handshake between the aircraft and ground station at 0019 UTC. At this time this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work.\n\nNo response was received from the aircraft at 0115 UTC, when the ground earth station sent the next log on / log off message. This indicates that the aircraft was no longer logged on to the network.\n\nTherefore, some time between 0011 UTC and 0115 UTC the aircraft was no longer able to communicate with the ground station. This is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft.\n\n\nIn Annex I (attached) there are three diagrams, showing:\n\nDoppler correction contributions:\nDoppler Correction contributions modified\nMH370 measured data against predicted tracks:\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9770548343658447}
{"content": "posted by .\n\nThe refractive index of a medium changes with the wavelength of incident light. Typically, the shorter the wavelength the larger the refractive index.\n\nFused quartz has a refractive index of 1.47 for indigo light of 400 nm in wavelength, and a refractive index of 1.46 for green light of 550 nm in wavelength.\n\nIf rays of indigo and green light enter fused quartz from air, making an angle of 45º, the angle that separates two rays as they travel through the fused quartz is closest to ...\n\n\nTest on monday. Help please\n\n  • Physics -\n\n    Both rays bend by nearly the same amount, so the answer will be one of the smaller numbers.\n\n    The angle of refraction (measured from the normal to the surface) is given by\n\n    sin Ar = sin Ai/N, where Ai is the angle if incidence (45 degrees in this case)\n\n    For the indigo ray,\n    sin Ar = 0.4810 Ar = 28.75 degrees\n    For the green ray\n    sin Ar = 0.4843 Ar = 28.97 degrees\n\n    Take the difference\n\nRespond to this Question\n\nFirst Name\nSchool Subject\nYour Answer\n\nSimilar Questions\n\n  1. Physics - EM spectrum\n\n    Here's the question: which part of the electromagnetic spectrum has a refractive index of 1.45 in glass?\n  2. Organic Chemistry - Refractive Index\n\n    Hi, I have a question that I don't know if I am on the right track to answering. If two samples of organic liquids give the same refractive index reading, are the two liquids the same?\n  3. Physics\n\n    The refractive index of a material is different for different wavelengths and colours of light. For most materials in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum, shorter wavelengths have larger refractive index compared to longer …\n  4. physics\n\n    Calculate the frequency in hertz, wavelength in nm, and the velocity in m/s of light inside a material with a refractive index of 1.39. In vacuum, the light has a wavelength of 514.5nm\n  5. physics\n\n    monochromatic light of wavelength λ=800nm illuminates normally a thin liquid film with nf =4/3 and t=500nm lying on a glass of refractive index n=2.5 The liquids refractive index can be continuously increased up to some limiting …\n  6. Physics HELPP !!\n\n    The antireflecting coating works best if its refractive index is the square root of the refractive index of the lens inthe eye glasses. a) determine the refractive index of the lens that gives the best results\n  7. Physics\n\n    1. For a particular piece of glass the refractive index for X- rays of wavelength 1.60 X 10^-6 less than unity. At what maximum angle, measured to the surface , must a beam of X-rays strike the glass to undergo total internal reflection?\n  8. physics\n\n    White light illuminates an oil film on water. Viewing it directly from above, it looks red. Assume that the reflected red light has a wavelength of 615 nm in air, and that the oil has a thickness of 2.430e-7 m. What is the refractive …\n  9. physics\n\n    Light of certain wavelength in a vacuum has wavelength of 438 nm if it propagates in water and 390 nm if it propagates in benzene. Calculate the ratio of refractive index of water to the refractive index of benzene.\n  10. Physics\n\n    A non-reflecting single layer of a lens coating is to be deposited on a lens of refractive index n = 1.7. Determine the refractive index of a coating material and the thickness required to produce zero reflection for light of wavelength …\n\nMore Similar Questions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9970602989196777}
{"content": "Before entering into a construction contract, companies must be sure to secure written contracts with all parties. This is particularly important when several related entities, all part of the same parent company, are each involved in the construction project. If companies fail to do so, they can be left without recourse against a subcontractor whose error delays the project.\n\nThe economic loss rule prevents tort actions for economic losses without physical damage, such as lost profits. Actions for purely economic losses may be maintained only by parties to the contract or contractual beneficiaries. In Federal Insurance Co., et. al. v. Fredricks, Inc., 2015 Ohio 694, an Ohio appellate court relied on this rule to hold that future tenants of an under-construction warehouse could not recover from a negligent subcontractor.\n\nJ.P. Holding Co. is the parent company of Carter Express, Inc., Carter Logistics, LLC and Pasco Enterprises. Pasco contracted to purchase land from the City of Vandalia, Ohio to build a Cross Dock facility where Carter Express and Carter Logistics would be tenants. Pasco hired a general contractor without a written agreement. The general contractor entered into a written contract with a subcontractor to erect a pre-engineered steel framework. The contract identified Pasco as the property owner; and, though aware Carter Express would be a tenant, the subcontractor believed the contract intended to benefit Pasco, as the property owner.\n\nThe subcontractor failed to use adequate bracing to secure the steel framework, causing it to collapse during a storm. Pasco, J.P. Holding, Carter Express and Carter Logistics all sued the subcontractor for damages caused by the delay in the project’s completion due to the collapse. The trial court determined only Pasco could recover for economic damages as an intended beneficiary of the contract. The trial court also determined that J.P. Holding, Carter Express and Carter Logistics could not recover against the subcontractor because they lacked an ownership interest in the property.\n\nBy definition, economic losses are intangible, and thus recovery is permitted only in contract. As a result, non-parties to the subcontract generally may not bring suit. J. P. Holding, Carter Express and Carter Logistics sought to sue based on a narrow exception to this general rule, which allows a non-party suit if there is a sufficient nexus between the parties. Prior Ohio cases held that the degree of control exercised by the non-party can create such a sufficient nexus, but this court limited that rule to cases involving design professionals, and would not extend it to subcontractors. In this case, that prevented J.P. Holding, Carter Express and Carter Logistics from recovering against the subcontractor.\n\nThose entities also sought to recover as third-party beneficiaries to the subcontract. They argued that the subcontract was intended to benefit them, permitting them to sue as third-party beneficiaries to the contract. Under Ohio law, absent ambiguous language, the terms of the contract determine who is an intended beneficiary. Here, the court found no ambiguity. Pasco was identified as the property owner and none of the other entities were mentioned in the subcontract. The subcontract referenced documents naming the other entities, but that alone did not make the other entities intended beneficiaries. The court also focused on the subcontract’s indemnification language, which extended only to Pasco as the owner.\n\nFinally, J.P. Holding, Carter Express and Carter Logistics claimed that their indirect economic loss was caused by tangible property damage when the framework collapsed. Collectively, they argued that J.P. Holdings, as parent company, should be permitted to recover on behalf of the future tenants. Such a theory can permit recovery, but only when the party seeking recovery was the property owner. Here, Pasco was the property owner. Though all the entities are related, only Pasco had an ownership interest in the property. The purchase agreement with the City of Vandalia was signed by Carter Express, but specified that Pasco was buying the property, and that Pasco ensured the city revenue from employee’s income taxes. The court would not disregard the separate identities of each corporate identity to permit entities other than Pasco to recover.\n\nThis case offers several important reminders for anyone engaging in large commercial projects in Ohio. First, the economic loss rule continues to bar suits in tort for purely economic damages in Ohio, such as lost profits. Second, written contracts are crucially important to preserve rights and allocate risk of loss. In this case, Pasco failed to insist on a written contract with the general contractor because of a longstanding relationship. As a result, the economic loss doctrine prevented recovery from the subcontractor. Finally, written contracts must be explicitly clear. The outcome of this case would have been different if, for example, the indemnification language named Pasco and all related entities as beneficiaries rather than simply indemnifying the owner of the property.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8244965076446533}
{"content": "What is the difference between descriptive and analytical writing? Which is better?\n\nIn order to break into the top bands in any GCSE literature essay, a student must write analytically, not descriptively. Rather than merely detailing what has happened in a story, one should strive to explain the significance of moments in the story, comment on the effects of individual linguistic choices, and draw conclusions. A simple way to ensure one writes analytically not descriptively is to opt to start sentences with the word 'When' and never 'Then'. \n\nExample\" Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby\n\nBad descriptive writing: \n\nThen Tom arrives at the scene of the accident and, seeing the large crowd, exclaims 'That's good. Wilson'll have a little business at last.' \n\nGood analytical writing:\n\nWhen Tom arrives at the scene of the accident his callous, joking exclamation 'That's Good. Wilson'll have a little business at last' demonstrates Fitzgerald's sophisicated use of Nick Carroway as narrator as the line adds a level of dramatic irony. Owing to Fitzgerald's complex narrative stucture, the reader, unlike Tom, is fully aware that Tom's mistress, Myrtle, has just been hideously killed by Gatsby's car. It is ironic that Tom is making fun of the accident because he will be utterly devastated as soon as he realises who it is that died. \n\n\nNicholas O. GCSE English tutor, 13 plus  English tutor, A Level Engli...\n\n2 years ago\n\nAnswered by Nicholas, a GCSE English tutor with MyTutor\n\n\n\n£36 /hr\n\nBryony S.\n\nDegree: English Literature (Bachelors) - Exeter University\n\nSubjects offered:English, English and World Literature+ 2 more\n\nEnglish and World Literature\nEnglish Literature\nEnglish Language\n\n“Hi there! I'm Bryony, I'm a passionate English 2nd year student at the University of Exeter with great enthusiasm and teaching ability.”\n\n£30 /hr\n\nVicky H.\n\nDegree: Dentistry (Masters) - Leeds University\n\nSubjects offered:English, Science+ 12 more\n\nHuman Biology\nEnglish Literature\nEnglish Language\n.BMAT (BioMedical Admissions)\n-Personal Statements-\n-Oxbridge Preparation-\n-Medical School Preparation-\n\n\n£18 /hr\n\nCharlotte H.\n\nDegree: Classics and English (Bachelors) - Oxford, Regent's Park College University\n\nSubjects offered:English, Classical Civilisation+ 1 more\n\nClassical Civilisation\n\n“Mind-map-enthusiast, preparing for Summer exams so will be revising all my revision techniques and perfecting them, benefitting both me and my students!”\n\nAbout the author\n\nNicholas O.\n\nCurrently unavailable: no new students\n\nDegree: English Literature (Bachelors) - Durham University\n\nSubjects offered:English, -Personal Statements-\n\n-Personal Statements-\n\n“Hi, I'm Nick, and I'm an English Literature Finalist at Durham University. I'm passioniate about literature and keen to tutor and mentor English at any level. ”\n\nMyTutor guarantee\n\nYou may also like...\n\nPosts by Nicholas\n\nExplain the difference between synecdoche and metonymy.\n\n\nOther GCSE English questions\n\nWhat is a topic sentence and why should I use them?\n\nHow do I revise for an English exam?\n\nHow can I prepare to write an essay?\n\nHow should I approach a poem?\n\nView GCSE English tutors\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8213239908218384}
{"content": "She is Tracie's younger sister and also a member of the \"Jewel Knights\", the elite force of the \"Royal Paladins.\" Also a possessor of a red \"Magic Jewel.\" She is rated as the best in the squad when it comes to archery, and is able to accurately shoot down her prey several hundred meters away with one shot without any support from magic. Usually she'll support her elder sister, who is fighting in the front lines from the rear but she does not mind moving to the front depending on the situation. Her arrow shoots through the skies in the speed of sound, colouring its trail in red and will surely score a bulls eye on her target. The nickname of \"Stinging\" is not just for show.\n\nThe Jewel Knights\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9785348176956177}
{"content": "Frequently Asked Questions\n\nCan a C-DIFF specimen be collected in a sterile container?\n\n\nC-DIFF specimens should be collected in only sterile containers with no additives.\n\nCan I use any other swab for a strep test aside from the Dacron swab?\n\n\nNo, Gamma only accepts the Dacron swab for strep testing.\n\nHow long is a C-DIFF specimen viable for testing?\n\n\nC-DIFF specimens are viable for 24 hours at room temperature or five days refrigerated. Do not freeze the specimen.\n\nCan a micro albumin test be collected in the same container as a C&S?\n\n\nNo, a micro albumin must be collected in a sterile specimen container that contains no additives.\n\nWhat identifiers need to be on a specimen to keep it from being rejected?\n\n\nAny specimen submitted to the laboratory for testing must include two identifiers. The identifiers must include the patients FULL first and last name and either the social security number or date of birth. This applies to all specimens whether it is blood, urine, stool, or culture swabs. If the patient has demographic labels, it is acceptable to use a demographic label on the specimen.\n\nWhat do I need to know about timed draws?\n\n\nTimed draws should be ordered with as much notice as possible. Gamma requests a facility schedule a timed draw with customer service with 24 hours advanced notice as company policy. If less than 4 hours notice is given, Gamma will try to accommodate the facility, but in some cases medication may have to be held until the phlebotomist can arrive or the timed draw rescheduled for a later date or time. Timed draws such as a VANC peak and trough cannot be made a recurring order.\n\nHow can the hemoglobin and hematocrit be so different from early morning draws to a draw in the afternoon?\n\n\n: Blood Pooling - morning blood draws from bedridden patients can lead to artifacts in testing results. A patient that has had little activity overnight can succumb to a phenomenon often referred to as blood pooling or hemoconcentration. That is blood drawn from the arm is not at equilibrium with the rest of the body and can lower blood counts—most alarming is a low hematocrit or hemoglobin level. This can lead a medical director to conclude that the patient requires a blood transfusion, and if it is a LTC patient, they may be transported to a local hospital, only to be retested and the hematocrit or hemoglobin level is not nearly as low as previously indicated.\n\nThe process of getting the patient to the hospital has re-equilibrated the blood components and they are more normal and often less alarming, not requiring any intervention. Of course such a transport is not only a concern to the patient and their family members, but represents a considerable expense to the facility or other payer. Furthermore, the laboratory that performed the early morning blood draw is questioned about the quality of the testing result — unfairly so, based on the postural state of the patient.\n\nSuch low hematocrit or hemoglobin results, resulting from hemoconcentration, complicate the setting of a threshold for clinical intervention and perhaps a blood transfusion. New evidence from studying 19 different studies, representing over 6,000 patients, concluded that hemoglobin thresholds greater than 7-8 gm/dl triggered unnecessary transfusions without adverse associations of mortality, cardiac morbidity, functional recovery or length of hospital stay.\n\nThe bottom line is that a facility with a patient who has a low hemoglobin result might be advised to retest the patient following some activities that help equilibrate the blood components, prior to transporting the patient to an ER and potentially transfusing a patient unnecessarily. The study suggests that panic values for clinical intervention might be best set at levels of less than 8 gms/dl hemoglobin without adverse patient affects.\n\nWhat can cause erroneous elevated potassium levels?\n\n\nAnswer: 70% of erroneously elevated potassium levels are caused by pre-analytical (variables before measurement occurs) variables. The red blood cell has a high intracellular concentration of potassium, and anything that causes the leakage of potassium into the extracellular (serum) environment will result in erroneous elevated potassium levels. Below are some pre-analytical variables that can cause falsely elevated potassium levels:\n\nSpecimen Collection Issues\n\n• Excessive fist clenching during the sample collection releases potassium from skeletal muscle. Instruct patients not to clench their fist.\n\n• Prolonged tourniquet application causes rupture of red blood cells, which release the potassium. The tourniquet should be on no longer than 1 minute, and released once the vein is entered.\n\n• Improper order of draw can cause carryover of potassium from anticoagulant tubes.\n\n• Collection using small gauge needles, such as butterfly needles, can cause the red blood cell to rupture, therefore releasing potassium into the serum.\n\n• Improper tube mixing can interfere with the clotting process. Plastic clot activator tubes require gentle inversion to ensure activation of the clotting process. Do not shake the tube, as this will rupture the cells and cause potassium to leak into the serum.\n\n• Mislabeled Specimens can cause results to be reported on the wrong patient. Always verify the patient identity before drawing the sample and properly label the tubes before leaving the patient.\n\nProcessing/Handling/Transporting Issues\n\n• Delays in processing and transporting can cause the release of potassium from red blood cells. Separate serum from the red blood cells within 2 hours of collection\n\n• Improper centrifugation can cause lysis of the red blood cells and the leakage of potassium. Do not run a centrifuge continuously for long periods of time, which allow it to build heat.\n\n• Poor barrier formation in gel barrier tubes can cause the potassium to leak out of the red blood cells into the serum. Always follow the tube manufacturer’s instruction.\n\n• Recentrifugation of the original gel barrier tube can cause mixing of serum above and below the gel. If a tube must be recentrifuged, make sure that it is within the 2 hour time limit.\n\n• Freezing whole blood causes the rupture of the red blood cells, releasing potassium into the serum. Make sure that specimens are stored correctly.\n\nPhysiologic Factors\n\n• Thrombocytosis can cause potassium elevation due to the platelet release of potassium during the clotting process.\n\n• Anticoagulant therapy and liver disease induces delay in the clotting process. Allow 1 hour for good clot formation.\n\n• Dehydration can result in elevated serum electrolytes.\n\n• Hyperventilation by an anxious patient can cause an increase release of potassium into the serum.\n\n• Serum and plasma potassium values are different. Serum potassium values are higher than plasma due to the release of platelet potassium during clotting. Reports of differences range from 0.1-0.4 meq/L. Be aware of the differences.\n\n\n• Hyperkalelmia occurs in about a third of the patients being treated with spironolactone and trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole.\n\n• Penicillin VK and Penicillin G can deliver a substantial potassium load to patients; this can be significant when it is administered to diabetic patients or others who may have chronic kidney disease.\n\n• Nonsterodial anti-inflammatory drugs and heparin can provoke hyperkalemia in susceptible patients.\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions\n\nWhat are the different ways a facility can receive laboratory results?\n\n\nIt is possible for a facility to receive results by fax, online through iConnect, or EMR.\n\nWhat does the asterisk * mean on my lab results?\n\n\nThe asterisk is for billing purposes only.\n\nWhat is required on requisitions?\n\n\nNursing staff may use patient demographic labels on the requisition. If patient demographic labels are available the following information is still required on the requisition: date to be collected, signature of the nurse filling out the requisition, test(s) ordered and diagnosis.\n\nIf demographic labels are not available for the patient, the nursing staff must fill out the requisition with all the required fields. Required fields include the following: date to be collected, signature of nurse filling out the requisition, full last and first name of the patient, date of birth, gender, social security number, room number, physician, complete billing information, test(s) ordered and diagnosis.\n\nHow do I get patient demographic labels?\n\n\nIf the patient already has labels and needs more, attach a demographic label to the requisition and check the box next to patient labels in the supply area of the requisition.\n\nIf the patient is a new resident, fill out the requisition in it's entirety, mark the box next to patient labels in the supply area, and attach a facesheet to the back of the requisition.\n\nWhen can I expect lab results?\n\n\nGamma will result all routine in-house testing within 24 hours of being drawn. Tests considered \"send outs\" will be resulted within 3-5 days of being drawn. Cultures will be resulted out within 48-72 hours of being received at the testing site.\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions\n\nQ: What businesses must comply with HIPAA laws?\n\n\nA: Any healthcare entity that electronically processes, stores, transmits, or receives medical records, claims or remittances. The keyword here is electronic.\n\nQ: What is Protected Health Information (PHI)?\n\n\nA: Information collected from an individual by a covered entity that relates to the past, present or future health or condition of an individual and that either identifies the individual or there is basis to believe that the information can be used to identify the individual...and thus must be protected.\n\nQ: What is HITECH and when does it go into effect?\n\n\nA: Stands for the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The HITECH Act provides over $30 billion for healthcare infrastructure and the adoption of electronic health records (EHR). According to the Act, physicians are eligible to receive up to $44,000 per physician from Medicare for meaningful use of a certified EHR system starting in 2014.\n\nQ: What is a Covered Entity (CE)?\n\n\nA: Any business entity that must by law comply with HIPAA regulations, which include healthcare providers, insurance companies, and clearinghouses. In this context, health care providers include doctors, medical, dental, vision clinics, hospitals, and related health caregivers.\n\nQ: Does the HIPAA Security Rule require data encryption over a network?\n\n\nA: The HIPAA Security Rule require encrypt ions only when individually-identifiable health information is sent over a public network, such as the Internet. Encryption is not required for other network connections, such as Intranets.\n\nQ: What are the penalties for HIPAA non-compliance?\n\n\nA: Fines can be up to $250,000 for violations or imprisonment up to 10 years for knowing abuse or misuse of individual health information.\n\nQ: HIPAA-ready vs. HIPPA-compliant – what is the difference?\n\n\nHIPAA-ready refers to software and other products used by the healthcare industry that complies with HIPAA guidelines. HIPAA-compliant refers to the actual physicians, clinics, and insurance companies that are in compliance with HIPAA regulations.\n\n\n\n1717 West Maud Poplar Bluff, MO 63901 \nPhone: (573) 727-5600\nAdministration Fax: (573) 785-0753\nCustomer Service Fax: (573) 785-2369\nFront Desk Fax: (573) 727-5686\nBilling Fax: (573) 785-0125\nHR Fax: (573) 727-5627\nLab/Processing Fax: (573) 727-5689\n\nPrivacy Practices\nCustomer Satisfaction Survey", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5097194910049438}
{"content": "Jack Harris\n\n\nJack Harris’ songs take a compassionate look at things both common and uncommon, and see them differently. They are literate, curious songs, often in character, always intriguing. His latest album, ‘The Wide Afternoon’, assembles 11 new songs, rooted in Folk and Blues traditions, telling real and imagined stories._mg_7366\n\n\n\nThose days are gone, along with most of Jack’s youth and vigour, but he’s still happy to find himself touring extensively, bringing his riveting live show to appreciative audiences, and making as much music as he can.\n\n\nSouthwell Festival", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9917389154434204}
{"content": "SuperNats XXI\n\n\n2018 Pro Tour\n\n\nPKC California\n\n\nPKC Texas\n\n\nPKC Maui\n\n\nCan-Am PKC\n\n\n\nSKUSA Pro Tour\n\nChampionship Points Standings\n\nChampionship Points System\n\nPoints are calculated based on your finishes in the Heats and Main. There are also bonus points for Pole and the fastest lap during the Main. There is 1 race drop for the 2017 Pro Tour 6-race season to calculate the final championship points (WinterNationals, SpringNationals and SummerNationals)For more information please see the Points System page.\n\nTo view the points full screen, CLICK HERE , otherwise scroll the window below to view the current points.\n\nSKUSA expire date column notes\n\n  1. SKUSA allows points to be earned ONLY with a current membership (or within 45 days of membership lapsing).\n  2. If the SKUSA expire date is highlighted YELLOW it is within 45 days of lapsing.\n  3. If the SKUSA expire date is highlighted PINK it has lapsed, but it is within the allowed 45-day grace period to renew your membership without losing your ability to earn points.\n  4. If the SKUSA expire date is highlighted RED it has expired and you have lost your ability to earn points.\n  5. Yellow, pink and red highlights are based on the last date of the most recent event.\n  6. Points will not count towards the final championship with an expired membership. \nTotal points with one drop column note: Ties are broken by comparing main finish position(s).\n[ dne = did not enter ] [ cnc = cancel ] [ dns = did not start ] [ dnf = did not finish ] [ dq = disqualified ]\n\nPast Seasons\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8758427500724792}
{"content": "Press Review\n\nby Kessa De Santis of electroniclink/off-Broadway\n\nWRECKED is the result of the ambitious attempt to fuse THE ORESTEIA and THE TROJAN WOMEN, with several other Greek plays serving as connecting points. At the heart of things, Orestes is on trial for matricide, but this play evolves through a series of non-linear incidents, with different points in time being interwoven and even coexisting onstage to make a larger point. In killing Clytemnestra, Orestes has continued a long family history of murder and retribution. What WRECKED examines is the struggle of the various characters, and what it takes to, perhaps, end the cycle of violence.\n\nAmidst the rage and tragedy that defines the WRECKED universe, there is a wickedly fun interpretation of Zeus as a smarmy, lounging deity who manipulates mortals and demigods alike with the slightest of gestures, only to sit back smoking as war, murder and destruction overcomes the landscape. Presiding over Orestes’ trial, Athena appears only as a mouth in live action projections that loom over the stage. Interesting, and again, emphasizing the sense of supernatural control. Down on the ground, the women have the meatiest roles. There is the tormented Cassandra, Queens Clytemnestra and Hecuba, the doomed Iphigenia, the distraught Electra, and Helen, who had a little something to do with the Trojan War.\n\nThe entire design suggests the ruins of a city, but it never overwhelms, though the scenes are non-stop. The women walk in soiled slips, and the periphery of the set hints at the structures that once stood. Again utilizing overhead projections, the images ranged from buildings in ruin to live images from the production of WRECKED in progress.\n\nWRECKED is clearly a work that was created by people who love the source material for people who love the source material. So, if you go in, say, unaware of the source of Cassandra’s frustration, you can still enjoy the play, but you would be missing something crucial. I liked it!\n\nCopyright Theatre LILA, Inc. website by LaniusDesign", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9907768368721008}
{"content": "Information: Albums\n\n\nOur albums offer a new level of sophistication in design and presentation. Individually handcrafted by artisans, we use the finest materials to create our albums. Every album is made from rich, smooth, heavyweight fine art paper and fabric. Choose from over 18 elegant Japanese bookbinding fabrics and Swiss ribbons. \n\nCypress albums are simple, unique and elegantly designed to highlight your images.” \n\n- Cypress Albums \n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.999950110912323}
{"content": "Thermals Part 1: Collectors, Wicks and Triggers\n\nBy Will Gadd\n\nPart one of a three-part series on thermals written from a paraglider’s perspective.\n\nThe crux of cross-country flying often lies in correctly answering the question, “Where’s the next thermal?” If you could answer that question correctly even 90 percent of the time then life would be very, very good. I think it’s key for every XC pilot to develop his or her own system for understanding thermals, then continuously refine it. Only in this way will the pilot actually learn something with each “success” or “failure.” I often hear students in clinics I teach say, “Ah, I sort of knew that, but this simplifies things a lot.” That’s the goal: To have a simple, clear system that you can refine each season to produce better results. I broadly split my thermal-prediction model into two parts: ground-based thermal prediction ideas, and sky-based thermal clues. This article is my attempt to explain to myself and anyone who finds it interesting how thermals form on the ground and how to find them efficiently, part two will deal with the sky, part three with staying flying thermals.\n\n\nI call potential thermal generating areas, “collectors” because they collect the sun’s energy and release it as warm air or thermals, a process any successful XC pilot should be very interested in. I think the air in collectors tends to warm up as the sun heats the ground, first releasing relatively slowly and steadily (early morning mountain thermals are the best example of this), followed later in the day by more violent “sets” or cycles in much the same way waves hit a beach. Imagine small waves coming in continually, then a big set ripping through, followed by small waves again. If you find a good collector, you can often maintain in a zero over it and wait for a good set to go through; if you’re low, this may be your only chance.\nCollectors are all about sun. If there’s no sun, then there’s probably not much air leaving the ground (cold fronts and other very unstable air masses are exceptions). When looking at any potential thermal collector, I first ask, “How long and at what angle has the sun been shining on the collector?” A perfect collector would be at right angles to the sun for hours. I first learned this lesson flying in the ’96 US nationals when all the top pilots flew to the sunny but lee side of the ridge and I went to the windward side where the sun was just starting to hit. I sunk out, they didn’t. At the time I thought this experience was bad luck; luck had nothing to do with it, the slopes simply hadn’t been in the sun long enough.\nThe next factor that determines how much the air heats up is the surface the sun is striking. For an excellent analysis of surface thermal theory, read Reichman’s Cross-Country Soaring. Basically, dry surfaces with a lot of trapped or sheltered air will produce the best thermals. Late-season cereal (wheat, oats, etc) crops are dry, hold a lot of still air, and consequently release some of the best thermals. Dry shrubbery also works well; rocky terrain with a lot of dead airspace between the rocks works well, but takes longer to heat up. Moist ground cover absorbs the sun’s energy and uses it to evaporate water, a cooling process that kills thermals.\nWind tends to destroy thermals by continuously mixing the air in potential collectors, preventing it from either reaching the temperature at which it will leave the ground or turning what could have been a decent thermal into a ragged mess, especially close to the ground. A large line of hedges or trees around a very dry but bushy field will often hold a nice still “pocket” of air. You can experience thermals on the ground by just walking around; sunny, dry spots protected from the wind will be warmer. As odd as it might sound, I’ve learned a lot by simply walking in the mountains and feeling the cool air in the pines, contrasted with the warm air on avalanche slopes or other treeless areas. The more protected and sunny a collection area is, the warmer it will be and the better chance you as a pilot will have of going up. This means that the best thermals are often found in sunny lee areas; this is no problem if you’re high and fly above them, but you have to make your own decisions about how much rotor you want to play with if you’re lower. This isn’t an article about safety.\nMany pilots believe black pavement such as that found in big parking lots or roads will be a good thermal source; although pavement is black and absorbs tremendous amounts of energy, it often doesn’t work very well because there is nothing to “hold” the air in place; if you watch birds soaring above a parking lot or freeway, they will almost always be turning very small circles and not gaining much altitude. The thermals are frequent, sort of like grease popping off a skillet, but frequently unusable. Interestingly, a parking lot filled with cars generally works better than one without cars because the cars hold dead air nicely. A road can be good “wick,” but more on that below.\nThe anti-collector is of course a lake. Cool, reflective, moist, often windy. You will almost never find a thermal that comes from a lake. That is not to say you won’t find thermals over lakes, but they aren’t coming from the lake itself very often. One exception may be very late in the day when the relatively warm water releases heat, but I’ve very seldom seen this happen in a strong enough manner to produce usable thermals. Long glides over lakes in the evening are often quite buoyant, but don’t count on “magic” air too often or you may be swimming.\n\nPassive Triggers (and wicks)\n\nI believe thermals have some form of surface tension, and tend to track along the ground before releasing, sort of like oil up a wick. I call the point at which the thermal leaves the wick a Passive Trigger. The most PT is the top of a sharp peak; there will often be a cloud over it from 9:00 in the morning until sunset, even as the sun rotates from east to west. First the east facing slopes warm, wick up the hill and release, then the south-east facing slopes, then the south slopes, followed by the west-facing slopes at the end of the day. However, the thermal comes up the wick to the same passive trigger. Think about the “House thermals” at your local site; what’s really happening with each one as the sun rotates? If you’re high then you can fly straight to the wicking top of the peak, but if you’re low then you need to fly to the sunny side of the peak and then climb out. Ridges often work the same way, with convergences happening if both sides of the ridge release at the same time.\nWhen mountain flying I look for PTs where I think bubbles might break their tension and lift off; ridges above protected slopes in the sun and places where a ridge forms a mini-summit for thermals to break off at (like water running down your arm and falling off at the elbow) seem to work best. Two or more ridges coming together are better than one, each ridge increases the chance that you’ve picked the right wick. If you’re bored, take a spoon and stick it into a glass pot of boiling water some time, it nicely illustrates how all this works.\nLarge rocks are often good wicks and passive triggers, as they tend to pierce the surface tension and also release “bullet-style” thermals, allowing larger pockets of air to also leave the ground.\n\nActive Triggers:\n\nI am starting to believe that cloud shadows will often act as active triggers also; I have flown enough sites now where the forward edge of a cloud shadow will produce dust devils as the shadow advances across the ground, something like a mini cold front lifting the warm air up. It’s a theory, but it does seem to work some of the time.\n\nHow to apply all of this:\n\nOn any given day thermals reach a certain height before stopping, a distance between the ground and cloudbase or the top of the usable climbs. I call anything below half this distance “low,” and anything above it “high.” For example, if cloudbase is 6,000 feet above ground level, then I think I’m high over 3,000 agl and low below this point. This article deals with making decisions while in the “low” zone. If you’re low, head for collectors that are in the sun and have been for a long time. Be very careful flying into cloud shadows; if you’re low, it’s very rare to climb up out of a cloud shadow. Connect the collectors with the potential wicks and triggers; sunny meadows below a sunny ridge in a light lee with puffy clouds directly above are perfect. If you’re on the shady side of a ridge then you’re in the wrong place and need to find some sun in a hurry. A big brown field with a small knoll on the downwind edge could be good, or a big dry grassy field that meets a busy Interstate. I try to fly over as many potential collector/wick/trigger combinations as possible. If I get even a consistent “zero” on my vario while low, I’ll stop and circle until a thermal “set” comes through. Of course, if you see a hawk going up like mad or a big dust devil spinning off the back of a tractor, well then things get simpler. I won’t mess with weak thermals if I’ve just topped out a climb and am starting a glide, there’s no point as they will probably end soon anyhow. I will stop for anything solid once I get into my “low” zone.\nIt’s important to understand that the lift and sink generally balance each other out, especially in relatively small areas. If your climb rate is 1,000 fpm, expect at least 1000fpm+ sinking air when leaving the thermal. If the thermals are large, expect big areas of sink. If you’re in an area of violent sink, then somewhere close by is probably a violent thermal. You should ask, “where’s the collector, where’s the wick, where’s the trigger, attack!” Collectors also tend to draw air into them as they release; you will often notice an increase in your ground speed as your near a thermal. Your glider will also often pitch ahead by a few degrees as the air accelerates toward the thermal, and your heavier body lags. Older gliders will generally fall slightly behind you as they hit a strong thermal but be very pressurized (you can feel this in the brakes). Wind gusts or turbulence may cause an glider to fall back behind you as well, but the pressure will not be as high in the glider. This is a great way to tell if you’re entering a thermal or have just found a wind gust. If the glider is pressurized harder, then you’ve found a thermal. No pressure, no thermal. Newer (’99 and on) or higher performance gliders usually surge forward into a thermal, no matter how strong it is, but the feeling of increasing brake/glider pressure is the same.\nFinally, remember that the wind slopes thermals; if you’re relatively low and coming into a collector then it won’t matter much, but the higher you are the more downwind of their source you’ll need to be to intercept the column.\n\nThe system above may be largely wrong, but it’s the best one I’ve developed yet. Each year it seems to get a bit better, and each year I look back and think, “Oops, was I ever wrong about that!” I try to honestly look at each flight and think, “What worked? What didn’t?” Why did I sink out and someone else succeed? Good pilots create their own thermal luck remarkably consistently. So good luck developing your own system, that’s the one that matters!\n\nComments are closed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8422642946243286}
{"content": "post #1 of 1\nThread Starter \nHi, just letting u guys know this is my first post on\n\nSo for a long time I was adamant that I would never OC my computer.. that is until yesterday when I suddenly got an all mighty urge to test out my new H50 cpu cooler.\n\nOn to the point: My knowledge of PC's is ok, my knowledge of OC'ing is a bit limited. I understand all the contributing factors to overclocking (heat, voltages, RAM timings etc) but I'm still not confident to fiddle with settings. So of course i read some forums and guides, most were atleast in some way helpful....\n\nSo heres my setup!!\n\nPSU: 750W Corsair HX\nCPU: i7 920 @ 3.36Ghz\nRAM: 3x2gig GEIL EVOTWO 2000Mhz\nGPU: HD 5870 CF(x2)\nand an H50 Corsair CPU cooler\n\nPrograms that I'm using to test:\nCore Temp\n\nSo I managed to get my RAM stable at about 1900Mhz this morning with no problems, as well as my CPU very comfortable at 3.36Ghz (21x) but I'm still unsure of how to now get the best timings. My recommended settings are: 9-9-9-28 and 1.65V. Which seem really loose..\n\nWhat ive actually set DRAM voltage at is 1.66V (recommended by a well praised walkthrough on overclocking the 920) but have refrained from tightening the timings just yet.\n\nI tried increasing my CPU but it isnt stable at 3.8Ghz, thats with CPU voltage pushed up to 1.20V which should be sufficient..\n\nMy questions are: is my PSU going to be a contributing factor in overclocking?? 750W is cutting it fine with 2 5870's.\nAny ideas why my CPU is unstable at 3.8Ghz even with sufficient Voltage?\nWhat to do about my RAM timing? try 8-8-8-24 and see if that's stable? Increase voltage past 1.66?? Is tightening the timings even going to provide a performance gain??\n\nIm really unsure and it's difficult to track down information specific to my setup or problems.. So thanks in advance!!", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6387927532196045}
{"content": "Screensavers of fantasy\n\nFantasy in your computer\n\nAnimated fantasy Screensavers\n\n37 fantasy screensavers to download and install on your Windows 7, Windows 8, Vista, XP or other operating system computer. Download now the screensavers of fantasy that has been downloaded 45.779 times, protect your screen and your monitor during the waiting times. Enjoy our new animated 3D screensavers and software for PCs for your monitor of fantasy. This website has 3564 files to download, that has been downloaded by 3.456.743 users!\n\nDo you believe in magic? Do you like fairy tales? In this category you will find the best screensaver mythology, fantastic animals, mythological creatures and incredible creatures. All characters in mythology and legends as fairies, wizards, the witches, dragons, elves and other magical beings. Fantastic animals like unicorns and Pegasus, born of human imagination. In this category you will find the best screensavers of fantasy, mythology, fantastic animals and incredible creatures, all in free screensaver. If you like fantasy creatures screensavers, browse this category and discover them.\n\nScreensavers of Fantasy\n\nfantasy Screensavers\n\nFree fantasy screensavers\n\n\nHuman beings have magic legends to fill the world, we believe in magical beings living in forests, in the sea or in the sky. We need to believe that magic and fantasy in the world, so we have fantastic animals and other beings that we even religion. The things we can not explain we give a touch of mysticism with belief in supernatural beings and fantastic. If you like screensavers of fantastic creatures, navigating this category and see the most fantastic creatures. All cultures have their legends and stories, each village had its legendary characters filled them with fear or hope. Beings that live in the forests, in the mountains or in caves, we give magic to nature and the world around us. Supernatural or magical powers of witches, wizards and witches that scare us, but also have their charm and stories of these people have very original. Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena. Stories help us understand the world and give teachings and education tend to see the world or moral teachings. Take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9891554713249207}
{"content": "Category Archives: Speech\n\nSong of Hope\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Art of Speaking\n\n\nThere’s only one way to learn how to speak to an audience. Practice. And once you practice enough, you start to see what speaking actually is.\n\nSpeaking is the art of self-improvement, of believing in yourself and others. Everyone has their own style to hone into something wonderful, and no one can be exactly like anyone else. Personalities shine through in speaking styles and the way you interact with an audience. Speaking is the art of becoming who you are.\n\nOne thing I learn, over and over again (perhaps I haven’t really learned after all), is that in order to give a good speech, you have to believe in it. You have to be positive. Without a positive attitude to bring a message to life, you’re dead in the water. With a can-do attitude, you’ll have the energy to shine, and people will take notice.\n\nIt translates to every area of life. Whenever you need to take initiative and make something yourself, believe that you can. Believe you have something to share, because you do. This is what turns your spark of light into a lighthouse beam.\n\nImpromptu Prompt\n\n\nElizabeth Gilbert\n\nIt’s hard to know how to write a bestseller. In fact, I’ll admit it—I don’t know what the secret is. But I do know a little about creativity.\n\nYour creative and imaginative abilities thrive with practice, like most skills. For content producers like me, being able to think up new ideas and implement them is a skill worth cultivating. And, as Albert Einstein said:\n\n\nCreativity isn’t just being original. It’s rehashing and reshaping ideas that came before yours, in new and imaginative ways.\n\nOne of the best activities I know of for practicing creative thought is the dreaded impromptu speech. When I competed in high school, my speech coach told us:\n\n“Impromptu is the easiest speech to give. Why? No preparation. And impromptu is the hardest speech to give. Why? No preparation.”\n\nWhen you draw a random topic and have all of 2 minutes to concoct a coherent and engaging 5-minute speech, your poor strained mind will soon learn what it is to be creatively productive. And so my mind did. After many flounders, and too many speeches to count, my creative faculties rose to the task. Now, every time I write a blog post, or rush towards a NaNoWriMo word count goal, or even just speak casually, I use the skills I practiced with impromptu speaking.\n\nTry impromptu! Find a local speech league and sign up. If you want a crash course in creativity, nothing matches the 2 minutes deadline and 5 minute speech.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8336455821990967}
{"content": "Christian Environment\n\nHCA recognizes that formal schooling is less a mechanical, scientific equation and more a cooperative, personal nurturing of individual lives. This is why creating a school culture that supports learning, friendship, and love – a Christian Environment – is one of HCA’s three guiding principles. Education research has verified what personal experience indicates – that a safe, welcoming school environment increases student achievement and personal satisfaction.\n\nWhat is a Christian Environment? A school’s environment is a complex phenomenon that begins with first impressions of campus, individual encounters with teachers and other students, and continues with how policies are implemented and enforced. A Christian Environment is one that takes its lead from Christ’s own example and from the principles for living found in God’s Word. We want the experiences that a child has at HCA to help develop his heart toward God, not away from Him.\n\nWhy do we believe in a Christian Environment? Whether its philosophy of education is admitted openly or not, every academic institution does in fact own a philosophy, guiding its leaders to include certain elements they consider helpful and to exclude certain other elements they consider harmful. The administration and teachers at HCA hold a Christian philosophy of education which guides not only the formal policies and functions, but more importantly, the casual interactions and life connections with students, parents, and the public. We do not believe that a Christian spirit of love and excellence can replace the work of regeneration in a student’s heart, but that it will prepare the heart’s soil to more readily receive both academic and eternal truths. Famous American statesman, Daniel Webster, affirmed the importance of Christian principles when he wrote, “whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens”.\n\nHow do we create a Christian Environment? HCA’s policies and expectations for both staff and students are built off of Christ’s own summary of God’s law – love the Lord with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31). Behavior that violates these two principles is prohibited in policy, lovingly corrected in practice, and avoided in our personal life example. Likewise, behavior that puts others and God ahead of self is encouraged in policy, praised in the classrooms, and modeled by the teachers.\n\nWhat are the effects of a Christian Environment? The results of this kind of school culture are widespread and positive. Students are free to study hard, push their limits, and develop their talents without fear of bullying, discrimination, or favoritism. Parents are secure in knowing that their children will be taught, disciplined, and corrected in love. Teachers are able to focus on inspiring growth and learning without constant interruptions or resistance. We see from both precept and experience that when a man pleases the Lord, he can make even his enemies to be at peace with him (Prov. 16:7).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9973973035812378}
{"content": "News, info, etcetera…\n\n(With some small-talk, and a little propaganda.)\n\nViewing: (page 3)\n\nUpdates & perspective.\n\nSnippets (104) about what we're doing.\n\n\nWarming up the band.\n\n(1 minute read.)\n\nHow much can one guy do?\n\nWaaaaay-back at the start, I touched-on the demo-tape nature and purpose of what's here initially…\n\nIn speaking about the site, I said 'Consider it a 'demo tape' interim conversation-opener prepared for prospective partners, associates, advertisers, listeners and anybody else who may be interested.'\n\n\nIt stinks.\n\n(5 minute read.)\n\nThe essence of marketing?\n\nWith age, I become more peaceful and peaceable. So 'rant' is something in which I rarely indulge.\n\nBut, as I've now learned by abstaining from alcohol longer than was probably necessary or wise, a little 'expressive outlet' can be healthy. So here's something from years ago, and about which I still feel strongly.\n\n\nSay what?\n\n(2 minute read.)\n\nThe speaking of things.\n\nOne of the key outsourcing requirements here is of course voicework… for announcements, ads, and voicing of written articles.\n\nI initially approached it some time ago, then paused because I wasn't able to easily find suitable voices… and after listening to a few demos it quickly becomes difficult to objectively assess.\n\nMy issue isn't that the work is poor. On the contrary, it's generally to a high standard. But it's not what I want.\n\n\n\n(1 minute read.)\n\nThe case for don't do it yourself.\n\nHaving earlier outlined how I want to get reassigned to free-floating background role within six months, that's a process which begins now with outsourcing.\n\nI'm aware this could be considered unrealistic, amid suggestions of 'just wanting to get others to do the work for me'… but I know how easy it is to get locked into 'working for' the business, rather than working on it, and thus hindering development.\n\n\n\n(2 minute read.)\n\nMutual benefit.\n\n'Money, Honey.' outlines how, in bootstrapping this venture, we're expecting flexible payment arrangements with those whom we contact-in… including barter for airtime and deferred payment.\n\nIt's a big world, in which there's a lot of people doing the stuff we need done… it's straightforward, not particularly difficult, and among the many who can easily do it are those who'll be happy to collaborate in this way.\n\nBeing realistic rather than cynical, 'some will, some won't… next'.\n\n\nView all (104) NOTES »\n\nNever miss a Note… get updates by email or rss.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7576391100883484}
{"content": "Instantly Ageless - It’s been called “facelift in a bottle”, is a powerful anti-wrinkle microcream that works quickly and effectively to diminish the visible signs of ageing. The revolutionary ingredient is argireline: a peptide that works like a facelift—without needles or surgery.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9643189311027527}
{"content": "Lady Gaga, Pinkwashing Israel’s Warcrimes against Palestinians Hurts Queers\n\nDear Lady Gaga,\n\n\nWe will attempt to explain the situation and our request to you not to perform in Israel, and encourage you to contact us or PACBI (the Palestinian Campaign for Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel), if things are still unclear by the end of this letter.\n\nA few paragraphs can’t even begin to express the devastation wreaked on the Palestinian people in the past 63 years. Palestinians are living under a brutal military regime which practices policies of apartheid in what is known as Israel and the Occupied Territories. The army that controls everyday Palestinian life, at the barrel of a gun, is Israel’s army. This means that Palestinians depend on the mercy of this army, controlled by the Israeli government, which has been murdering, maiming, arresting civilians (including children), all the while stealing their lands by extreme and brutal force.\n\nWhile illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories flourish, under the guise of “natural growth”, Palestinian land is being robbed, homes are being demolished, whole communities left homeless, in the occupied territories as well as inside Israel. Additionally inside Israel; While Palestinians are given a citizen status, there are an abundance of discriminatory laws against them, which disallow the return of indigenous refugees (which is their right, as stipulated by international law), confiscate land at the state’s will, severely infringe political participation, and make a mockery of their right to life (as explained here).\n\nIn the midst of all this desperation, however, there’s a long history of Palestinian resistance and in 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, unions and groups, among them LGBT rights groups and women and youth organizations, united in one voice, asking the international community, institutions, states and corporations, to stop cooperating with Israel. Thus the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement was born.  We stress: If Palestinians had equal rights in Israel and in the occupied territories, under the law of Israel, they would have probably not appealed to the international court and communities.\n\nHow is this relevant to you? Much like the appeal made to artists in the 80’s, who considered performing in Sun City, South Africa, we are appealing to you now. In the asymmetry of relations between the growing state of Israel and the shrinking lands of Palestinians, performing in Tel Aviv is a deeply partisan act. The appeal to you, Lady Gaga- as an individual, as an artists and creator of culture, as an influential celebrity- is this:  Please do not entertain apartheid! Please remember that a Palestinian queer who is a fan of your music and lives in the occupied West Bank, 20 minutes away, will not be permitted by Israel to come and see you in Tel Aviv, solely based on the fact that they are Palestinian.\n\nWe also appeal to you as queers, who are watching the state of Israel commit its crimes against the indigenous of this land, in the name of LGBT rights. This strategy of using LGBT rights is so obvious by now, that it’s been identified and even named. It’s called Pinkwashing and it’s been thoroughly documented. It seems to us a severe and cynical breach of our rights that the state of Israel tries to distract the world with our hard-earned gains, while brutally crushing a people. We ask you not to participate in this cynical attempt to whitewash the blood on the state’s hands. We ask you not to cooperate in hurting queers in the region. We ask you not to perform in Israel until it respects all human rights, queer or straight, Jewish or Palestinian.\n\nIsraeli Queers for Palestine\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5204118490219116}
{"content": "Jetty at St. Paul’s Islands repaired\n\nTransport Malta fixed the jetty on St. Paul’s Islands.  The jetty allows visitors to enjoy the conjoined islands which are only accessible by boat.\n\nBack in 1575, seafaring corsairs chased a certain Marco di Maria.  The latter navigated his vessel inside the channel between the Islands and Malta.  The Corsairs followed and ran aground.  The Knights managed to capture them and the Grand Master gave the islands to di Maria.\n\nGrand Master Lascaris built a defensive tower on the islands.  A farmer eventually converted the tower into a farmhouse and lived there until before the second world war.\n\nIt is believed that the area is where St. Paul had shipwrecked, hence the name of the Islands and the statue erected there in 1845.\n\n(Source – Wikipedia)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7163026332855225}
{"content": "Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe\n\nWhat is PBIS?\nPositive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) is a process for creating a safer and more effective school. This approach teaches students to be responsible, respectful and safe. PBIS is highly researched and evidence-based system for teaching behavioral expectations throughout the school. PBIS supports the safety and success of ALL students.\n\nPBIS Purpose Statement\nThe purpose of implementing Positive Behavior Interventions ans Supports at Southview \nis to...\n- Increase positive behaviors throughout our school- Create a sense of community between home and school\n- Create consistent language, expectations, and consequences\n- Gather and use data to guide decision-making\n- Raise student achievement", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.0000079870224}
{"content": "Brazil's finance chiefs upbeat on life under Lula\n\nBRAZIL - Brazil's economic authorities have held out the possibility of a significant recovery in the country's battered financial markets following a likely leftwing victory in Sunday's presidential run-off election.\n\nPedro Malan and Arminio Fraga, finance minister and central bank chief, respectively, in interviews with the Financial Times, highlighted the sharp improvement of the country's external accounts, additional commitments to sound economic policies by the frontrunning leftwing Worke", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7149936556816101}
{"content": "Learn More\nHIV protease (PR) is a prime target for rational anti-HIV drug design. We have previously identified icosahedral metallacarboranes as a novel class of nonpeptidic protease inhibitors. Now we show that substituted metallacarboranes are potent and specific competitive inhibitors of drug-resistant HIV PRs prepared either by site-directed mutagenesis or cloned(More)\nWhile the selection of amino acid insertions in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase (RT) is a known mechanism of resistance against RT inhibitors, very few reports on the selection of insertions in the protease (PR) coding region have been published. It is still unclear whether these insertions impact protease inhibitor (PI) resistance(More)\nHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) encodes an aspartic protease (PR) that cleaves viral polyproteins into mature proteins, thus leading to the formation of infectious particles. Protease inhibitors (PIs) are successful virostatics. However, their efficiency is compromised by antiviral resistance. In the PR sequence of viral variants resistant to the PI(More)\nExpression of genes in the gapA operon encoding five enzymes for triose phosphate interconversion in Bacillus subtilis is negatively regulated by the Central glycolytic genes Regulator (CggR). CggR belongs to the large SorC/DeoR family of prokaryotic transcriptional regulators, characterized by an N-terminal DNA-binding domain and a large C-terminal(More)\nRubredoxin from the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus (Pf Rd) is an extremely thermostable protein, which makes it an attractive subject of protein folding and stability studies. A fundamental question arises as to what the reason for such extreme stability is and how it can be elucidated from a complex set of interatomic interactions. We addressed this(More)\nPURPOSE To characterize the relationship between superparamagnetic ferritin-bound iron and diffusion tensor scalars in vitro, and validate the results in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS The in vitro model consisted of a series of 40-mL 1.1% agarose gels doped with ferritin covering and exceeding those concentrations normally found within healthy human gray(More)\nHIV protease (PR) represents a prime target for rational drug design, and protease inhibitors (PI) are powerful antiviral drugs. Most of the current PIs are pseudopeptide compounds with limited bioavailability and stability, and their use is compromised by high costs, side effects, and development of resistant strains. In our search for novel PI structures,(More)\nDarunavir is the most recently approved human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease (PR) inhibitor (PI) and is active against many HIV type 1 PR variants resistant to earlier-generation PIs. Darunavir shows a high genetic barrier to resistance development, and virus strains with lower sensitivity to darunavir have a higher number of PI resistance-associated(More)\nLopinavir (LPV) is a second-generation HIV protease inhibitor (PI) designed to overcome resistance development in patients undergoing long-term antiviral therapy. The mutation of isoleucine at position 47 of the HIV protease (PR) to alanine is associated with a high level of resistance to LPV. In this study, we show that recombinant PR containing a single(More)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9250313639640808}
{"content": "Los Llopis was a Cuban band that recorded few songs in Spain during the sicties. fue un grupo musical de Cuba que hizo algunas grabaciones en España durante los años 1960. Manuel Llopis \"Ñolo\" was a Cuban born in La Habana in 1934 that went to the USA, when she used to play the steel guitar. In 1959 they played at \"Pasapoga\", the most famous Music hall at Madrid, covering English rock verisons. They were pioneers in mixing rock and latin rhythms.\n\"Witch Doctor\" is a song written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., and released in 1958 by Liberty records under the name David Seville, a character whom Bagdasarian portrayed. The song tells the story of a man in love with a woman who initially does not return his affections. Longing for her companionship, the man goes to see a wicht doctor for advice. The wise witch doctor replies, \"Oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang\" (a phrase which is repeated four times as the chorus of the song). At the middle of the song, the man tells the woman he loves about his asking the witch doctor for advice. The first cover version was recorded in 1958 by Don Lang, charted in top 10. This song has also been covered by Sha-na-na and in Spanish by Manuel \"El Loco\" Valdés.\n\nNo comments:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9939319491386414}
{"content": "Functions of the Family\n\n| January 7, 2016\n\nUse APA format for this assignment and sources cited alphabetically\n\nChoose an area of study from the following list:\n\nMiddle East\nSub-Saharan Africa\nSouth America\nCentral America\nNorth America\nWestern Europe\n\nAccording to the family functions outlined in this lesson, describe how the responsibility for performing the six functions is\n\ndistributed in yourfamily and explain how your family performs each of the functions.\nIdentify and describe each function of the family as it exists within your assigned culture.\nWhat characteristics and behaviour patterns would be present in adysfunctional family?\n\nCategory: Essay\n\nAbout the Author (Author Profile)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7000011205673218}
{"content": "quarta-feira, 20 de janeiro de 2010\n\nOs M&Ms dos Van Halen\n\nEstava aqui eu em pesquisas para a redacção de um \"hospitality rider\", uma lista que por vezes acompanha outra documentação importante na contratualização de um espectáculo, onde ocasionalmente se encontram aquelas famosas exigências absurdas, quando, por falar nisso, deparo-me com esta história espantosa:\nVan Halen requested in the technical rider that a bowl of M&Ms be provided in their dressing room with the brown ones removed (failure to do so would not only mean that the band would not perform, but the venue would still have to pay the full fee). The objective of this wasn't due to any excesses on the part of the band, but was a method to determine how much attention to detail the crew at a local venue paid to the requests specified in the rider. Should the bowl be absent, or if brown M&Ms were present, it would give band members reason to suspect other, legitimate, technical and safety issues were also being performed poorly or were outright overlooked. David Lee Roth stated in his autobiography that this request was done as a result of faulty workmanship at a venue on an earlier tour which nearly cost the life of a member of Van Halen's road crew, as well as $85,000 damage to the venue and their own equipment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.607971727848053}
{"content": "Module Leader:\nVladimir Mikhailov\n2016-2017 Spring\nSocial Sciences\n\nThe module builds on ‘Introduction to Economics.’ Whereas that module was devoted to laying down the foundations of economic thinking and applying such thinking to macro concepts, this one will be all about the small constituents of the economy: individuals and firms. We will learn about the pros and cons of taxation, examine the rationale behind governments’ dislike of monopolies, and try to understand why economists believe that competitive firms necessarily make 0 profits. Similar to the ‘Introduction’ module, we will have 8 sessions of one hour each. That means that you will have a new problem set every 2 weeks, so that students need to be prepared to work hard on the details of the material.\n\nIn the first two weeks we will discuss how markets work, what elasticities are, and how governments should use taxation. We will also discuss how those concepts interact with the way in which markets create and split welfare between producers and consumers. In week 3 and 4 we will  introduce the concept of utility in some detail and take a deep look at how consumers make choices. We will also pick up some simple game theory along the way in order to understand what ‘thinking strategically’ means. In sessions 5 and 6 we will focus on the theory of the firm. We will spend some time on finding out what a firm is, what decisions it makes and what constraints it faces. We will then compare and contrast the main types of market structure, such as perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly. In the final sessions we will cover a range of important topics in microeconomics. A discussion of externalities will education students about best policies for reducing air pollution. We will introduce the concept of public goods to understand why no one pays out of their own pocket to build roads and bridges. Finally, as we investigate the sources of income inequality we will ask ourselves why the rich get richer.\n\nLike the ‘Introduction’ module, this course will be based on Greg Mankiw’s “Principles of Economics” textbook.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9991421699523926}
{"content": "Daniel Ricciardo Photobombs Valtteri Bottas\n\nImage of Daniel Riccardio Photobombing\n\nA funny and mischievous Daniel Ricciardo photobombs an unaware Valtteri Bottas in one of the racing events they’re both up to.\n\nIn the picture, the Finnish racer Valtteri Bottas was interviewed by a female reporter. He seems to answer the question thrown by the journalist when Australian racer photobombed the interview. He posed for a while in the middle of the journalist and Bottas while making a funny face in front of the camera. It was a hilarious photobomb especially that Bottas seemed to be unaware of the whole scene. It looks like they won’t race against each other, proving that they’re playing a fair game that ends on the race track.\n\nRiccardio was often dubbed as the class clown of F1.\n\nHe’s currently racing in the Formula One for Red Bull which he has been with since 2014. He replaced Mark Webber in the team after Webber announced his retirement.\n\nMeanwhile, Bottas is currently competing as a Mercedes Finnish racer in the Formula One. He achieved his first victory just this year’s Russian Grand Prix when he finished the race as first. Adding to his recent racing achievement is the one from the Austrian Grand Prix.\n\nThis photobombing scene happened on the Austrian Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship. The race finished off with Bottas winning, having a time of 1:21:48.523. Ricciardo finished off as third with 6 seconds behind Bottas.\n\nThe other winners of the race include Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) tailing on the second, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) on the fourth and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) on the fifth place.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7156515121459961}
{"content": "Eligibility For Disability Benefits With Traumatic Brain Injury\n\nTraumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. TBI typically occurs when there is injury to the brain following some type of trauma to the head.   The top causes o f TBI are car accidents, firearms and falls and these injuries usually cause internal bleeding or swelling in the brain.\n\nTBI can be categorized as mild or severe.  A brain injury can be classified as mild if loss of consciousness and/or confusion and disorientation is shorter than 30 minutes.  Severe brain injury is associated with loss of consciousness for more than 30 minutes and memory loss after the injury or penetrating skull injury longer than 24 hours.\n\nYou may be eligible for disability benefits if you are not performing substantial gainful activity and meet or equal a social security listing.  Although there is no specific listing for traumatic brain injury, listing 11.18 for cerebral trauma directs cases to be assessed under listings 11.02, 11.03, 11.04 or 12.02 as applicable.\n\n11.02 Epilepsy – convulsive epilepsy, (grand mal or psychomotor), documented by detailed description of a typical seizure pattern, including all associated phenomena; occurring more frequently than once a month, in spite of at least 3 months of prescribed treatment.With:\n\nA. Daytime episodes (loss of consciousness and convulsive seizures) or\n\nB. Nocturnal episodes manifesting residuals which interfere significantly with activity during the day.\n\n11.03 Epilepsy – nonconvulsive epilepsy (petit mal, psychomotor, or focal), documented by detailed description of a typical seizure pattern including all associated phenomena, occurring more frequently than once weekly in spite of at least 3 months of prescribed treatment.With alteration of awareness or loss of consciousness and transient postictal manifestations of unconventional behavior or significant interference with activity during the day.\n\n11.04 Central nervous system vascular accident. With one of the following more than months post-vascular accident:\n\n\n\n12.02 Organic mental disorders: Psychological or behavioral abnormalities associated with a dysfunction of the brain. History and physical examination or laboratory tests demonstrate the presence of a specific organic factor judged to be etiologically related to the abnormal mental state and loss of previously acquired functional abilities.\n\n\nA. Demonstration of a loss of specific cognitive abilities or affective changes and the medically documented persistence of at least one of the following:\n\n1. Disorientation to time and place; or\n\n2. Memory impairment, either short-term (inability to learn new information), intermediate, or long-term (inability to remember information that was known sometime in the past); or\n\n3. Perceptual or thinking disturbances (e.g., hallucinations, delusions); or\n\n4. Change in personality; or\n\n5. Disturbance in mood; or\n\n6. Emotional lability (e.g., explosive temper outbursts, sudden crying, etc.) and impairment in impulse control; or\n\n7. Loss of measured intellectual ability of at least 15 I.Q. points from premorbid levels or overall impairment index clearly within the severely impaired range on neuropsychological testing, e.g., Luria-Nebraska, Halstead-Reitan, etc;\n\n\nB. Resulting in at least two of the following:\n\n1. Marked restriction of activities of daily living; or\n\n2. Marked difficulties in maintaining social functioning; or\n\n\n4. Repeated episodes of decompensation, each of extended duration;\n\n\nC. Medically documented history of a chronic organic mental disorder of at least 2 years’ duration that has caused more than a minimal limitation of ability to do basic work activities, with symptoms or signs currently attenuated by medication or psychosocial support, and one of the following:\n\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9074304103851318}
{"content": "Saturday, 25 March 2017\n\nWhy Middle Schools Should Have an Elective Program\n\nDid you know what career you wanted to pursue when you were a child? I know I do, but the problem is that kids earlier that grade 9 don’t have access to resources that will allow them to find out about their dream job. I know that incorporating an elective program in grade 6 will allow students much more choice not only in their education, but also in their future endeavours. If students earlier than grade 9 were given the opportunity to customize their education, they wouldn't waste time of subjects that don’t matter or apply to them in this “One size fits all” school system.\n\nPersonally I want to be a lawyer or an entrepreneur when I grow up, but school does absolutely NOTHING when it comes to my education to help me prepare for court cases or how to get investors to invest in my potential company. I believe that schools are distracted when it comes to students and want to focus on subjects like math and science when they are completely irrelevant to people who want to pursue jobs that wouldn’t entail exponents or chemistry.\n\nElectives would allow students to be exponentially more productive in school because they’re surrounded by people with similar interests who are focused on subjects that they like and are good at. It also gives lots of opportunities for kids who aren’t sure about what they want to do to  get a better understanding about what the job is really about. Students will gain a better understanding of what they’re good at while also striking a balance about what they like as well. I believe that like every other industry, the education sector must evolve and embrace new changes with an open mind. Subjects like Law and Business are only offered in high school, which for kids who want to pursue law or business studies they have to wait for 9 years to even get a grasp at the career they think seems interesting.\n\nThe happiness and motivation to succeed will go off the charts should the District School Board implement programs which allow students a broad range of choice and customization to their individualized learning.\nIn conclusion, I strongly believe and encourage that electives be incorporated as part of standard learning because it will help students gain a better understanding of their ideal job, enhance the way they learn and grow and give them the element of choice they need to succeed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6071299314498901}
{"content": "LDL cholesterol\nSenior Health\n\nNo Association Between “Bad Cholesterol” and Elderly Deaths\n\nA University of South Florida professor and an international team of experts have found that older people with high levels of a certain type of cholesterol, known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), live as long, and often longer, than their peers with low levels of this same cholesterol.\n\nThe findings, which came after analyzing past studies involving more than 68,000 participants over 60 years of age, call into question the “cholesterol hypothesis,” which previously suggested people with high cholesterol are more at risk of dying and would need statin drugs to lower their cholesterol.\n\nAppearing online IN June 2016 in the open access version of the British Medical Journal, the research team’s analysis represents the first review of a large group of prior studies on this issue.\n\nA release from the university quotes Diamond as saying, “We have known for decades that high total cholesterol becomes a much weaker risk for cardiovascular disease with advancing age. In this analysis, we focused on the so-called “bad cholesterol” which has been blamed for contributing to heart disease.”\n\nAccording to the authors, either a lack of association or an inverse relationship between LDL-C and cardiovascular deaths was present in each of the studies they evaluated. Subsequently, the research team called for a reevaluation of the need for drugs, such as statins, which are aimed at reducing LDL-C as a step to prevent cardiovascular diseases.\n\n“We found that several studies reported not only a lack of association between low LDL-C, but most people in these studies exhibited an inverse relationship, which means that higher LDL-C among the elderly is often associated with longer life,” said Diamond.\n\nDiamond also points out the research that suggests that high cholesterol may be protective against diseases which are common in the elderly. For example, high levels of cholesterol are associated with a lower rate of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Other studies have suggested that high LDL-C may protect against some often fatal diseases, such as cancer and infectious diseases, and that having low LDL-C may increase one’s susceptibility to these diseases.\n\n“Our results pose several relevant questions for future,” said study leader and co-author health researcher Dr. Uffe Ravnskov. “For example, why is total cholesterol a factor for cardiovascular disease for young and middle-age people, but not for the elderly? Why do a substantial number of elderly people with high LDL-C live longer than elderly people with low LDL-C?”\n\nDiamond and colleagues have published a number of studies relating to the use and possible misuse of statins for treating cholesterol. Those studies, including their recent paper published in the medical journal Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, which demonstrated that the benefits of taking statins have been exaggerated and are misleading.\n\n“Our findings provide a contradiction to the cholesterol hypothesis,” concluded Diamond. “That hypothesis predicts that cardiovascular disease starts in middle age as a result of high LDL-C cholesterol, worsens with aging, and eventually leads to death from cardiovascular disease. We did not find that trend. If LDL-C is accumulating in arteries over a lifetime to cause heart disease, then why is it that elderly people with the highest LDL-C live the longest? Since people over the age of 60 with high LDL-C live the longest, why should we lower it?”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9757505059242249}
{"content": "Can I Have A Puppy? What To Consider Before Getting A Puppy For Your Family\n\nWagging Tails Pet Sitters in CTSooner or later, every parent is likely to hear: “Please, can I have a puppy?”\nRather than dodge the question, parents should consider whether their family is ready for a pet.\nParents should weigh the pros and cons of adding a pet to the household before agreeing to a child’s request. A pet can teach children responsibility and become a wonderful addition to a family, or it can be a burden. \nFamilies should consider the following before deciding.\ncharlie-yellow-lab-puppy-wagging-tails-midday-dog-walker-berlin-ctWho will care for the pet? Families should agree beforehand who will be responsible for feeding, walking, bathing and cleaning up after the pet.\nDo you have space for a pet? Families living in apartments or townhouses may prefer a cat, a bird or fish, rather than a Labrador retriever. Check the library or Internet to learn more about different types and breeds of pets to determine the one most suitable for your family.\nOwning a pet is time consuming and may be expensive. Family members should realize that they may have to give up other activities to properly care for a pet. If the prospect seems too daunting, parents may suggest waiting until the child is old enough to help care for an animal.\nChildren between the ages of 8 to 10, are at a reasonable age to learn and understand the responsibility of  caring for a pet. The bond they develop with their new puppy, will be for a lifetime. Wagging Tails Pet Sitting & Mobile Grooming Service\nWagging Tails Pet Sitters & Mobile Groomers, a 22 year pet care company in CT, recommends the whole family meet the animal before deciding to take it home. Owning a pet is a long-term commitment, so think carefully before adopting a furry new family member.\nMake sure everyone is fully on board and in agreement before making this commitment.\n\nImportant Things To Know Before Adopting A Kitten\n\nAre you prepared to become a pet owner?wagging tails pet sitter in ct\n\nAdopting a cat is a joyful event in every family. But cats bought at first glance can cause a big surprise and unfortunately sometimes a great disappointment, too. Many unwanted cats end up in the streets or animal shelters because of people’s irresponsibility or inconsistent pledge.\n\nIt is not only joy but also a great responsibilitykittens 2\nIt is important to know that if you buy a pet, you will have to take responsibility for it. You should never buy a cat as a result of a sudden resolution. As a pet owner you are required to take responsibility for an adopted living creature, you must take care of it not only when it is fit as a fiddle but also when it is ill for the rest of its life. The following guide is for those who are to become cat owners for the first time in their lives.\n\nWhere should you get your kitten?\n\nIt is very important where you get your cat because it does matter what experiences your future cat has gained during the very first part of its existence. If you would like a pedigree cat then it is worth the trouble to look for a breeder who will kindly show you his or her animals and can provide you with information on the advantages and disadvantages of the different varieties.\n\nYou can buy cats in pet shops, too. You can buy healthy, well-bred, well-kept kittens in some of the better pet shops. Kittens are catered for their special needs in these specialized shops, for example, they are provided with runways, toilet boxes, and things to climb on and to play with.\nBut it is more common to adopt a kitten from our local shelters,,  or to pick up a stray cat from the street.  In this latter case you should also take into account the different parasites such as mites, fleas, ticks, worms, or the appearance of latent diseases. Adopting a kitten from a local pet shelter is definitely the best option in our opinion!\n\nHow old the cat should be that we intend to adopt?baby kittens open eyes Wagging Tails Pet Sitting & Mobile Grooming foster kittens\n\nIt is not simple to place an animal in a human’s habitat and it is also true for cats. Kittens should stay with their mother and siblings until they are 7 or 8 weeks old, because it is essential for their sense of safety and it is essential for their healthy development. During this time they can learn what things can be dangerous for them such as dogs, strangers, cars, etc. The fact that they have accustomed way too much to their original surroundings can cause problems for those cats that are older than 9 or 10 weeks. They can have hard time getting used to their new environment, they often wander off or run away.\n\nWould you prefer a female cat or a tomcat?\n\nYou should make a decision about your cat’s sex well in advance because a she-cat and a male cat can cause totally different problems.\n\nKeeping of a mature male cat involves many unpleasant things because by the time a tomcat becomes sexually mature he gets into the habit of spraying. You can prevent this if you have your cat neutered in time. Due to their instincts, tomcats often wander off, fight with the other male cats of the neighborhood and by doing this they get wounds, bruises and parasites easily. They can acquire or pass on incurable diseases such as FIV or leucosis. If you forbid him to go out, he will meow desperately. Female cats are smaller, gentler, they like petting and cuddling much better than male cats but they can also cause a lot of problems when they become sexually mature. Around the time when they become 5 or 6 months old, they become sexually active, which recurs in 14-week periods. During this time, they run away and look for a partner if they have a chance to do so. They give birth to 2 or 3 litters of kittens a year.\nTo prevent the inconveniences that are due to this frequent labor and to avoid certain diseases it is recommended to neuter female cats, as well. Animal protection associations also suggest that you should have both girl and boy cats neutered. Nowadays these operations are considered routine procedures and they are absolutely painless.\nPlease spay or neuter your kitten.\n\nWould you like to adopt a pedigree or an ordinary domestic cat?\n\nRare, registered pedigree cats are sold for hundred or thousands of dollars while you can put your hands on mixed cats for free, or a small adoption fee. There can also be significant differences among the different varieties concerning intelligence. For instance, there can often be deaf cats among the white ones and there are the so-called over-bred silly varieties and those types that require special treatment. You are not recommended to keep such cats even if they are award winning and you can afford them. Although crossbreeds are wilder and harder to domesticate than pedigree cats, they are better to keep as hobby pets since they are tougher and more resistant to diseases. And last but not least their character is more similar to real cats.\nWhichever kitten you choose, be prepared and dedicated to a long life together. Well cared for cats can live up to over 20 years of age! Wagging Tails Pet Sitting & Mobile Grooming LLC", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5808005332946777}
{"content": "I feel it in the back of my head\n\nFirst published:\nTuesday 24 February 2015 4:15PM\n\nI feel it in the back of my head is a series of works for radio and the moving listener. Creators Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey aim to choreograph your everyday listening, by tapping into the experiences of people who work with sound and space, professionally.\n\nOver the course of the series, Flynn and Humphrey collaborate with dancers, the farming community in East Iceland,  the particular insights of a deaf-blind pianist/piano tuner, interpreters, virtuosic musicians and singers and indigenous Australian writers to create a 'radio instructional' for listening, whether at home, at work, in the car, on public transport, or walking the dog.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9611773490905762}
{"content": "The Rustic Dining Room Tables Idea\n\nrustic dining room tables pinterest\n\nIn ancient times, dining room is designed in the simple decorations without any concept. It is only used as a dining room so that people do not care about the aesthetic value. However, along with the development of interior design, modern people do not only pay attention to the function of room, but also the aesthetics of the decoration. When you are bored with modern design, rustic dining room tables are the most attractive alternative. What is the rustic? It is the concept that highlights the rough and unfinished textures. It is chosen for it is unique and different from the other classic designs. The colors on the rustic concept tend to be dark and powerful. When you choose the rustic table, you must pay attention to the raw materials.\n\nMost rustic tables are made of wood. Choose pure hardwood materials such as teak, mahogany, walnut, maple or oak. Perhaps the price of hardwood is slightly more expensive, but it is very durable to use for decades. In addition, do not choose the composite wood for the rustic dining room tables. It is a mixture of hardwood and fine materials that are compressed into the board shape. Although it is durable, it is not as strong as hardwood. After determining the type of material, you also need to make sure the model of table. It must be adjusted to the size of the dining room.\n\nFor the small space, you are advised to choose an oval table. On the other hand, a rectangular table is very suitable for the large dining room since it can accommodate many people. The dimensions of rustic dining room tables also need attention. For the standard size, the table usually has a height of 28-30 inches. The important thing is that the table can provide the sufficient space above the knee and the balance size to the elbows when you sit down.\n\nGallery of The Rustic Dining Room Tables Idea", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9988963007926941}
{"content": "Rents increased across most of the UK as a stamp duty hike for buy-to-let landlords came into force, an index has found.\n\nBut the report from private rented sector insurance provider HomeLet found that, so far, the pace of growth in rental prices has \"barely changed\" from what it was before the tax hike.\n\nA three percentage point stamp duty increase was imposed on people buying second properties, including landlords, on April 1 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nStamp duty has been abolished in Scotland, but similar tax increases were also introduced there to prevent distortions in the housing market.\n\nLandlords are also facing a financial squeeze due to restrictions on their tax breaks. It has been suggested that in the longer-term, tenants may see the extra costs passed on to them through increases to their rent.\n\nRead more: 5 ways to buy your first home a LOT faster - everything you need to know to step onto the property ladder\n\nWhere it's worst\n\nVent your Rent\n\nHomeLet said rents on new tenancies signed on UK rental property outside London over the three months to April were on average 5.1% higher than a year earlier.\n\nIt said: \"That was barely changed from March's figure of 4.9%, with rent rises having remained in a very narrow band since the beginning of the year.\"\n\nExcluding London, the average rent across the UK is now £764 a month, HomeLet said. Across the UK, the North West of England was the only region where average rents were lower than a year earlier, falling by 1% to £659 a month on average.\n\nNorthern Ireland and Yorkshire and the Humber were the only areas where average rents were lower month-on-month, with falls of 0.7% and 0.2% respectively. In Northern Ireland, the average rent is £608, while in Yorkshire and the Humber it is £627.\n\nRents in Scotland are rising faster than anywhere else in the UK, with an 11.4% annual increase taking the average monthly figure to £704, the study found.\n\nIn Wales, rents saw a 4.3% annual increase, taking them to £597 on average.\n\nIn London, rents on new tenancies signed over the three months to the end of April were up by 7.7% on a year earlier, taking the average rent in the capital to £1,543.\n\nThis marks the third month in a row that London has recorded this rate of increase, HomeLet said.\n\nRead more: Unhappy tenants are shaming their landlords online by venting about poor living conditions\n\nTenants feeling the pain\n\nAs part of referencing for around 350,000 prospective tenants a year, HomeLet processes information which includes the rental amount agreed, enabling it to report trends within the private rented sector.\n\nThe latest index is based on new tenancies across February, March and April. HomeLet is part of the Barbon Insurance Group.\n\nMartin Totty, chief executive officer of Barbon, said landlords will \"no doubt be feeling the squeeze\".\n\nHe said: \"We will have to see whether landlords try to pass their higher costs on, whether buy-to-let property investment diminishes in popularity and whether tenants are able to afford further increases in rents.\"\n\nWhat you can do to bring it down\n\nIf the cost of your housing is outstripping your ability to pay it, there are a few things you can do to bring it down.\n\nIf you're renting, here are three ways to deal with landlord's threatening to raise your rents.\n\nIf you want to get on the housing ladder fast, you're probably going to have to compromise.\n\nHere are three ways to speed up your journey onto the property ladder.\n\n  1. Move - House prices in some areas of the country are dramatically higher than in others. If you move to Glasgow, for example, you can buy FOUR houses for the same price as one in London. Of course, not every city has the same job opportunities. But it's worth considering.\n\n  2. Save more - Saving 5% of your disposable income may have worked in the 1980s, but these days it clearly will not get you on the housing ladder. Check out how these super savers put away the cash and don't forget to make sure you're getting a good rate on your savings .\n\n  3. Use a scheme - There are a number of schemes to help first-time buyers - you can learn more here . And if you think house prices in your area are still too high, consider shared ownership instead.\n\nOh, and here are 8 places you can live that are way, way cheaper than a house.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.859522819519043}
{"content": "August 18, 2017\nThe Most Valuable\nInformation Free To All\n\nA Roadmap to Peace and Security\n\nOn Sept. 20, 1961 the US and USSR signed the McCloy-Zorin Accords. It was partly the work of both a Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and his Democrat successor, John. F. Kennedy and was an agreement not only for nuclear disarmament-- but total disarmament. At the time of signing, Kennedy was President and Nikita Kruschev was the leader of the USSR. Through this landmark Accord, US citizens were to continue to be guaranteed the right to bear arms according to the Constitution, while “all military forces, bases, stockpiles, weapons, and expenses were to be ended.”\n\nWhy so little is said today of the McCloy-Zorin Accord and its historic implications provides evidence why nuclear arms-- despite their senselessness-- are still with us. Some will say so little is said of the Accord because it didn’t achieve its objectives of world peace. They will say trying to achieve peace may be noble, but it is futile. Man will always want to wage war and thus we must be prepared to win war.\n\nThirteen months after the McCloy-Zorin Accord was signed, for thirteen days in October, the world was brought to the brink of total, permanent annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US and USSR possessed 70,000 nuclear warheads and the USSR had tested the largest nuclear weapon ever-- a 1,500 Kiloton bomb-- 1,000 times the size of the 15 kiloton Hiroshima bomb. If there had been nuclear war, it is almost a certainty human life on earth would have ended.\n\n\nDuring the crisis, Kennedy reached out to Kruschev personally to ask him for his help to push back “forces that were pushing us to nuclear war”. Just thirteen months earlier, Kennedy and Kruschev were given the opportunity to learn more about each other, to discover the beliefs and values they shared. The Accord was public acknowledgement by both great nations that they had to start somewhere to eliminate the mindset, material and pursestrings of war. Far from being a failure, the Accord may have produced precisely the hope of its design-- peace-- when all civilization was at stake.\n\nToday we are pushed to believe that the military and its weaponry is essential for our peace and security. And yet this Accord proves that the two greatest political minds at the time believed something entirely different. What might have happened to the world if both men, over a few days in Sept. of 1961, had not the courage to proclaim their faith in man-- rather than their fear of man-- in writing for all the world to see?\n\n*Download the remarkable 855-word McCloy-Zorin Accord, which may yet serve as a roadmap to peace, here.\n\nby Chris Theodore", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8224086165428162}
{"content": "OLYMPIA -- Advocates for the homeless will commemorate the state and national Homeless Persons' Memorial Day with a vigil in Olympia today.\n\nSince 1990, organizers have used the first day of winter and the longest night of the year as a reminder of the struggle many homeless people have simply to stay warm and survive on the streets. This past year, more than 100 people without housing died in the state from natural causes, murder, suicide or exposure.\n\nOrganizers will read the names of those who have died homeless in the past year during a service beginning at 4 p.m. on the steps of the state Capitol.\n\nOther services, including candlelight marches and graveside services, will be held in more than 125 cities across the country.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9421899318695068}
{"content": "Rececinde (A Coruña, Bergantiños)\n\nVillage Rececinde has a population of 77 people.\n\nThe nearby cities are: Coristanco (3.8km), Carballo (7.2km), Laracha (A) (16.9km). The closest historical/cultural place is village Corme-Aldea that is in a distance of 15.4 km and village Laxe (18.5 km).\n\nThe closest airports are: LCG - A Coruña - Alvedro (34.5 km) and SCQ - Santiago de Compostela - Lavacolla (44.7 km)\n\nRegion: Bergantiños\nProvince: A Coruña\nMunicipality: Coristanco\nLocation status: Village\nPopulation: 77\nPostal codes: 15147\nOfficial Website:\n\nMap of Rececinde\n\nPhotos of Rececinde\n\nOther locations and places in this municipality:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9559658169746399}
{"content": "Sentence Examples with the word nitrogenous\n\nThese vessels are the nitrogenous excretory organs.\n\nThey have appeared independently in connexion with a change in the excretion of nitrogenous waste in Arachnids, Crustacea, and the other classes of Arthropoda when aerial, as opposed to aquatic, respiration has been established - and they have been formed in some cases from the mesenteron, in other cases from the proctodaeum.\n\nFurther, it is pointed out by Korschelt and Heider that the hinder portion of the gut frequently acts in Arthropoda as an organ of nitrogenous excretion in the absence of any special excretory tubules, and that the production of such caeca from its surface in separate lines of descent does not involve any elaborate or unlikely process of growth.\n\nView more\n\nThis, like the excretion of the sundew and other insectivorous plants, contains a digestive ferment (or enzyme) which renders the nitrogenous substances of the body of the insect soluble, and capable of absorption by the leaf.\n\nThese plants will not only grow on poor sandy soil without any addition of nitrogenous manure, but they actually enrich the soil on which they are grown.\n\nThus, then, alike for maintenance, for increase, and for the exercise of force, the exigencies of the system are characterized more by the demand for the digestible nonnitrogenous or more specially respiratory and fat-forming constituents than by that for the nitrogenous or more specially flesh-forming ones.\n\nThe enclosed alga is protected by the threads (hyphae) of the fungus, and supplied with water and salts and, possibly, organic nitrogenous substances; in its turn the alga by means of its green or blue-green colouring matter and the sun's energy manufactures carbohydrates which are used in part by the fungus.\n\nThe cereal crops (wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize); the cruciferous crops (turnips, cabbage, kale, rape, mustard); the solanaceous crops (potatoes); the chenopodiaceous crops (mangels, sugar-beets), and other non-leguminous crops have, so far as is known, no such power, and are therefore more or less benefited by the direct application of nitrogenous manures.\n\nThe most commonly used nitrogenous manures are nitrate of soda, nitrate of potash and sulphate of ammonia, the prices of which are constantly fluctuating.\n\nThe water taken up by the root from the soil contains nitrogenous and mineral salts which combine with the first product of photo-synthesis - a carbohydrate - to form more complicated nitrogen-containing food substances of a proteid nature; these are then distributed by other elements of the vascular bundles (the phloem) through the leaf to the stem and so throughout the plant to wherever growth or development is going on.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7299429178237915}
{"content": "Only show results in Virginia? Ok\n\nreductive chlorination Applications\n\n  • Premium\n\n    Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP)/Redox\n\n\n\n  • Premium\n\n    Early Warning Systems for Drinking water\n\n    Drinking water supply and distribution systems around the world (a critical and interdependent component of a nation’s infrastructure) are vulnerable to both intentional and accidental contamination. Unusual water quality may serve as a warning of potential contamination. The available physico-chemical sensors utilize general water quality parameters, such as free chlorine, oxidation reduction potential (ORP), total organic carbon (TOC), turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, chloride, ammonia, nitrate to detect the contamination. Generally, one or more of these water quality parameters will change due to the injection of a contaminant. However, no single chemical sensor responds to all possible contaminants nor can they give any indication of the potential toxicity of complex mixtures.\n\n    By microLAN B.V. based in Waalwijk, NETHERLANDS.\n\n  • Enhanced anaerobic biodegradation for the soil and groundwater industry\n\n    Enhanced anaerobic biodegradation is the practice of adding hydrogen (an electron donor) to groundwater and/or soil to increase the number and vitality of indigenous microorganisms performing anaerobic bioremediation (reductive dechlorination) on any anaerobically degradable compound or chlorinated contaminant. The most commonly targeted chlorinated groundwater contaminants are primarily used in industry as degreasing agents and include: Perchloroethylene (PCE), Trichloroethylene (TCE), Dichloroethylene (DCE), Vinyl Chloride (VC).\n\n    Other anaerobically degradable compounds include: carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, methylene chloride, certain pesticides/herbicides, perchlorate, nitrate, nitroaromatic explosives (TNT, RDX), dyes and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s).\n\n    By REGENESIS based in San Clemente, CALIFORNIA (USA).\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9473286867141724}
{"content": "Activation keys\n\nSorcerer King (Steam Gift/RU+CIS)\n\nAffiliates: 0,05 $ — how to earn\nPay with:\ni agree with \"Terms for Customers\"\nSold: 2\nRefunds: 0\n\nUploaded: 29.07.2015\nContent: text (63 symbols)\nLoyalty discount! If the total amount of your purchases from the seller Cxpoh76 more than:\n1500 $the discount is2%\n500 $the discount is1%\n\n\nCxpoh76 information about the seller and his items\nofflineAsk a question\n\nSeller will give you a gift certificate in the amount of 1,64 RUB for a positive review of the product purchased..\n\n\nAbout this game\n\nYour world is about to come to an end in this new fantasy strategy game from Stardock. You´re in a struggle against the ever ticking Doomsday counter to save your world from the Sorcerer King before he can cast the Spell of Making to become a god and destroy the world. You´ll explore the land and encounter hundreds of quests along the way as you expand your kingdom, learn powerful new magic spells and choose who will be your friends or rivals. Can you last long enough for the final showdown? Can you stop the Sorcerer King?\nKey Features:\nThe Sorcerer King - This is not a fair fight. Your opponent is more powerful, and his onslaught against the Shards you must protect is unending. Stand up to fight, or appear to submit to his will until the time is right.\n\nCrafting - Rather than researching better weapons and armor, players must uncover the recipes and gather the components to build more powerful items through battle and adventure.\n\nEnchanting - Use the unique talents of your chosen sovereign to imbue equipment with magical properties that customize your forces´ capabilities far beyond anything you´ve seen in a fantasy strategy game to date.\n\nUnique Skills - Rather than a shared research path, each sovereign increases their power in unique ways. Building great armies, wielding the Forge of the Overlord, intervening in tactical battles, and even bending the earth to their will.\n\nAdventure - Hundreds of individual hand-written quests litter the landscape, bringing a little humor to the apocalypse thanks to the talents of Cracked writer Chris Bucholz.\n\nRivals - Remnant factions cling to life in the Sorcerer King´s world, but they can not hope to defy him alone. Ally with them to gain their unique champion unit and what help they can provide ... or wipe them out to claim their land and loot for yourself.\n\nEndgame - Winning requires using all the game´s systems - crafting, enchanting, heroes, armies, magic spells, and more - to create a single army strong enough to storm the Sorcerer King´s fortress and prevail in the final battle.\n\nINSTANTLY after the payment you receive a unique activation link GAME STEAM!\nATTENTION !!! Activate the game only in the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia\n\nAdditional information\n\nAfter the purchase is necessary to:\n\nPlease leave feedback for buying! You are not complicated and we are pleased!\n\nFor every positive review you get a small bonus on your next purchase!\n\nAfter the purchase, you will immediately get a link to activate Gift!\n\nAll Gift Buy only through official channels and are transferred to the current account of the seller and have a 100% guarantee!\n\n\nNo feedback yet.\n1 month 3 months 12 months\n0 0 0\n0 0 0", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.799490213394165}
{"content": "\n\nChocolate Oolong\n\nThis award-winning dark oolong tea grows on soft and nutrient rich soil in the mountainous regions of Thailand. Because it is grown at high elevations, the tea plants grow at slower rates and develop complex flavors but does not become harsh or bitter. As a result, this oolong tea has a unique sweetness and a multi-layered profile with flavors reminiscent of cocoa, raisins, black cherries, and dried fruit. When brewed, the Chocolate Oolong has a brilliant red infusion and a rich, full body.\nTry Chocolate Oolong with\n\nSlightly lemony and warming with sweet notes\n\nMild flavor with a slight hint of sweetness\n\nLight and minty with an intensely aromatic scent\n\nPleasant vanilla and licorice-like flavors\n\nTry Chocolate Oolong in our pampering Glowing Girl house blend\nTasting notes\nRich, smooth mouthfeel with complex flavors reminiscent of cocoa, raisins and dried fruit\nCaffeine Level\nDeliciously sweet aroma reminiscent of caramelized fruit and chocolate\nConsumption of tea is generally well tolerated. Some people may experience side effects such as insomnia or restlessness due to the caffeine found in tea. We recommend that you consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before drinking tea or using any herbal products, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, on any medications, or have any allergies.\nThe statements on this page have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please consult your healthcare practitioner prior to use, especially if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have allergies or medical conditions.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nForgot Password", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9869794845581055}
{"content": "Get a FREE analysis of your donors and a FREE trial of Campaign Manager software.\n\nThe biggest sin in fundraising is not to ask; the second is not to ask for enough. We will overlay your latest finance report with our software to provide a detailed analysis of your supporters’ contribution history to find out how much money you would have raised from existing donors – if you had asked for the optimal amount.\n\nAnd while asking for the optimal amount is critical, so is knowing how to ask. Asking for money is hard and it’s very personal. There are certain things that you should know: If your supporter has a birthday in the next 90 days; whether or not a supporter has family members who could have also contributed the maximum? The identities and charitable giving patterns of donors who gave to like-minded candidates and causes, but nothing to you. Know your donors; and make the ask count.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9233272075653076}
{"content": "Climate: Past, Present & Future\n\nClimate: Past, Present & Future\n\nOf butterflies and climate: how mathematics helps us to better understand the atmosphere\n\nApplied mathematics is often seen as an obscure field, which the general public has no hope of ever understanding. In the context of climate science, this is far from the truth. In fact, many mathematical concepts and ideas applied to the study of the climate system stem from intuitive arguments. While their implementation can be very complex, understanding the basic ideas behind them does not require a PhD in Science.\n\nThe Lorenz 1963 attractor, often known as the “Lorenz Butterfly”. Author: Paul Bourke (\n\nFor example, this is the case of some recent developments in the field of dynamical systems analysis applied to atmospheric data. The atmosphere changes continuously and in many ways: for example, winds become stronger or die down, temperatures rise or fall and rain comes and goes. Understanding this evolution is important in many domains, from weather forecasting to air traffic management to catastrophe response services. The basic idea of the dynamical systems approach is to visualize the evolution of the atmosphere as a series of points connected with a line, which form a trajectory. The figure above shows a well-known example of such a trajectory: the so-called “Lorenz butterfly” (Lorenz, 1963). Now imagine focusing on a specific variable – for example daily surface temperature – and a specific region – let’s say Europe. We can build a trajectory, similar to the one shown above, describing the day-by-day properties of this two-dimensional (latitude by longitude, just as in a geographical map) temperature field. From day to day, the temperature varies therefore each day corresponds to a different point along the trajectory. In the case where two days are very similar to each other, they will correspond to two points very close together. On the contrary, if they show very different temperatures, the points will be further apart. If the similar days are well separated in time, for example occurring during different years, the trajectory representing surface temperature over our chosen region will therefore return close to a point it had previously visited, meaning that the closeness of the points and their distance in time do not always correlate. In the figure below, for example, the three turquoise dots are close to each other and also correspond to successive days along the atmospheric trajectory. The two red dots correspond to temperature configurations similar to those of the turquoise dots, but are separated from the latter by several days.\n\nThe continuous black line represents an idealized trajectory, while the circles correspond to successive days along the trajectory. The arrows indicate the direction the time goes.\n\nThis way of visualizing the atmosphere might seem bizarre, but it can give us some very powerful insights on how the climate system works. Consider, for example, summer heatwaves in Europe. The most severe ones can persist for several days and can have major impacts on human health, the environment and the economy. As can be intuitively understood, their persistence is due to the fact that the large-scale atmospheric conditions causing them are also persistent. If we return to our atmospheric trajectory, this will mean that we have a large number of points which are close to each other and successive in time – such as is the case for the three turquoise dots in the figure above. Namely, the trajectory moves very slowly and for several days the large-scale circulation only changes very slightly. In mathematical terms, this is a “sticky” state, and again the name is very intuitive! Analyzing the stickiness of the atmospheric states help us to predict how long a given circulation configuration is likely to last, thus providing useful information for weather forecasts.\n\nThe next natural step is to try to predict what the atmosphere will do once it has left a sticky state. Dynamical systems theory can again help us. It is in fact possible to define another quantity called “local dimension”, which tells us how complex the state of the atmosphere is. Once again the word “complex” here means exactly what you imagine: a complex temperature state will be one with lots of small, complicated spatial patterns. A simple state will be one with only a small number of large-scale features: for example, a day with high temperatures across the Mediterranean region and cold temperatures over most of Continental and Eastern Europe. Returning to our trajectory, these complex (or high-dimensional) and simple (or low-dimensional) states can be interpreted as follows. In the simple case, it is easy to predict the direction the trajectory will take in the future. This is the same as saying that all similar states evolve in a similar way. So if we want to forecast tomorrow’s temperature and we know that today is a “simple” state, we can look for states similar to today in the past years and we know the evolution of today’s state will be similar to that of these past states. In the complex case, on the contrary, it is very difficult to predict what the trajectory will do in the future. This means that similar atmospheric states will evolve in very different ways, and looking at past days with similar temperatures to today will not help us to forecast tomorrow’s temperature. A complex, high-dimensional state will therefore be more challenging for weather forecasters than a simple, low-dimensional one.\n\nNow imagine looking at a very long climate dataset, for example covering the last century. If the climate system is always the same, one would expect the trajectories for the first and second half of the century to be indistinguishable. If, however, the climate is changing, then one would expect the trajectories representing it to also change. To make an analogy, imagine taking your heart rate. If you measure it on two different days while you are at rest, the number of heart beats per minute will probably be equal. In this case the system – which is here your body – is always in the same state. However, if one day you take your heart rate at rest and the following day you take it while you are running, the results will be very different. In this case something in the system has changed. In just the same way, if the climate system is changing, its “pulse” – namely the trajectory – will change with it. The trajectories of the two half-centuries in the dataset will therefore look different, and their local dimensions and stickiness will display different properties – for example a different mean value. The same two indicators that can help us improve weather predictions at daily to weekly timescales can therefore also help us to understand how climate varies across the centuries.\n\nThe dynamical systems approach can be applied to a wide range of scientific problems beyond the examples discussed above. These range from turbulence in fluids to the analysis of financial datasets. Picturing such a complex system as the atmosphere as a “spaghetti plot” is therefore an excellent example of an intuitive mathematical approach that can help us advance our knowledge of the world around us.\n\nEdited by Célia J. Sapart.\n\nReference: Lorenz, E. N. (1963). Deterministic nonperiodic flow. J. Atmos. Sci., 20(2), 130-141.\n\nCorals, the thermometers of the past!\n\nCorals, the thermometers of the past!\nName of proxy\n\n\nType of record\n\nOceanic variability\n\n\nFringing reefs, barrier reefs, or atoll\n\nPeriod of time investigated\n\nMainly the last 200 years\n\nHow it works\n\nWhat we usually picture as a coral is actually a colony of tiny living animals called coral polyps, which are closely related to jellyfish or anemones. They live in symbiosis with photosynthetic algae called Zooxanthellae (Figure 1).\n\nFigure 1: Schematic of a coral with its individual parts (modified from Veron, 1986).\n\nEach polyp secretes a skeleton made of aragonite -a form of calcium carbonate- whose chemical composition depends on ambient oceanic and climatic conditions. Coral skeletons can therefore serve as monitors of the past oceanic and climatic variability through time (Figure 2).\n\nFigure 2: X-radiographs and coral images (modified from DeLong et al., 2011).\n\nCorals are distributed in the tropical belt mostly in the central and western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean. These areas are also the most affected by climate variability such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. At interannual time scale, this phenomenon influences worldwide patterns of sea surface temperature (SST). Our present understanding of ENSO variability is limited by the short duration of instrumental records. In the current context of climate change, we need to understand the past variability of this phenomenon to be able to predict its future evolution. A proxy for past SST changes in the tropical oceans is therefore highly desirable to extend the length of the instrumental record.\n\nKey Findings\n\nCoral skeletal Sr/Ca have been shown to be an accurate tracer (“proxy”) of SST at many sites (Corrège, 2006). There is an inverse relationship between coral Sr/Ca values and SST conditions, with low Sr/Ca values corresponding to high SST environments and vice versa. Regression of coral Sr/Ca to instrumental SST (Figure 3) leads to a calibration equation that allows reconstruction of SST variability further back in time. SST records that span at least the last 200 years allow to differentiate the contributions of natural climate variability from those that are anthropogenically forced (Solomon et al., 2011). These results place coral as a perfect tool to reconstruct past oceanic variability which leads to a better understanding of past climate variability and a tremendously useful record to help predict future changes.\n\nFigure 3: Time series of Sr/Ca from a living coral from New Caledonia and local SST (left). Calibration of Sr/Ca vs. SST. Sr/Ca appears to be a robust SST tracer (right).\n\nFurther readings\n\nCorrège, T. (2006), Sea surface temperature and salinity reconstruction from coral geochemical tracers, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 232(2-4), 408-428, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.10.014.\n\nDeLong, K. L., J. A. Flannery, C. R. Maupin, R. Z. Poore, and T. M. Quinn (2011), A coral Sr/Ca calibration and replication study of two massive corals from the Gulf of Mexico, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 307, 117–128, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.05.005.\n\nSolomon A, et al. (2011), Distinguishing the roles of natural and anthropogenically forced decadal climate variability: Implications for prediction. Bull Am Meteorol Soc, 92:141–156.\n\nVeron, J.E.N. (1986), Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Angus and Robertson:London/Sidney.\n\n\nEdited by Caroline Jacques and Célia Sapart\n\nDefrosting the freezer. Climate change and glacial meltwater\n\nDefrosting the freezer. Climate change and glacial meltwater\n\n Why are glaciers important?\n\nGlaciers cover around 10% of the global land surface. This includes the large ice sheets (e.g. in Greenland and Antarctica) as well as smaller ice caps and valley glaciers (e.g. in Iceland, Norway and New Zealand). Figure 1 shows the current distribution of glaciers around the world.\n\nFigure 1 – The global distribution of glaciers around the world from the GLIMS glacier database. Source:\n\n\nGlaciers play an important role in moderating global and local climate, but they are very sensitive to changes in climatic conditions. Currently, around 90% of the world’s glaciers are retreating. Under current IPCC predictions of future global warming and climatic changes, many glaciers will have disappeared by 2100. Figure 2 shows the temperature for different parts of the globe in 20167 relative to average (‘normal’) values. Red and yellow colours mean that temperatures are hotter than usual, and it is clear that most of the world is warming. The Arctic is warming especially quickly, and is several degrees (°C) warmer than normal. Glaciers here will therefore be especially sensitive to climate change.\n\nFigure 2 – Global average (mean) surface temperature January-June 2016 relative to long-term conditions. Red and yellow colours indicate higher temperatures than normal. Source:\n\n\nGlaciers contain around 75% of the world’s freshwater. Many of the world’s rivers are fed by meltwater from glaciers and mountain snowpacks. These include major rivers such as the Ganges and Brahmaputra, where meltwater from Himalayan glaciers and snow makes its way downstream and, together with river water from other sources such as monsoon rains, eventually supplies over 1 billion people.\n\n\n\nWhat are the key issues?\n\nAs climate change continues, and global air temperature rise leads to enhanced glacier melt, there are a number of key considerations:\n\nHow will glaciers respond to climate change? – Will they disappear?\n\nHow will glacier melt affect water flow downstream?\n\nHow quickly might these changes happen?\n\n\nHow will glacier melt affect river systems?\n\nHere we consider some of the impacts of glacier retreat on river flow, but there are also many other impacts, including: changes to river water chemistry, and impacts on ecosystems – the plants and animals living in and around the rivers\n\n  1. Turning on the tap\n\nIncreased glacier melt produces more meltwater, which means that rivers will have a higher flow and more water will be transported downstream. However, this situation is likely to last only temporarily, because…\n\n2. Turning off the tap \n\nEventually (usually over several decades or longer), if a glacier melts fully, there will be no meltwater feeding into rivers downstream. Some rivers, that are fed by water from multiple sources (such as rainfall) do not rely on glacial meltwater and will not be greatly impacted by the disappearance of glaciers in their headwaters. Other rivers, especially those in mountain catchments, are supplied only by snow and ice melt. The disappearance of glaciers would therefore have major impacts on their water supply – the equivalent of turning off a tap. We know that many glaciers are melting rapidly, and some are predicted to have disappeared over the next few decades.\n\n3. Changing lanes \n\nIn some places, as a glacier retreats, the meltwater streams may change course entirely and flow in a different direction. This has been seen recently in Alaska, where meltwater from the Kaskawulsh glacier has undergone a major transformation in its drainage pathway in the space of only four days. Meltwater previously flowed northwards, supplying the Slims River, but recent glacier retreat has caused a shift in the drainage pathway, and it is no longer favourable for the water to flow north, and the Slims has almost entirely disappeared. Instead, meltwater has been diverted towards the south to the Alsek river. This event has highlighted that major transformations in glaciers and river systems, in response to climate change, can happen in the blink of an eye. See a full news report on the changes here and the full research article here.\n\n4. The four seasons\n\nClimate change can also affect seasonality – the timing and duration of the seasons in a year. For example, with increased global warming, we might expect some parts of the planet to experience a longer warm season. Climate change might also affect the duration and intensity of precipitation (e.g. rain and snowfall) events and storminess. Changes in seasonality are already being felt in some parts of the world. In some parts of the Arctic, the Spring melt season, and therefore the onset of river flow, is starting earlier than it has done in the past. Such changes will influence when and in what quantities meltwater is transported downstream. Continued monitoring of climatic conditions, glacier and river behaviour will allow us to more fully understand the changes that are occurring in glacial environments in response to global temperature rise.\n\n\nIn summary\n\n  • We know that global climate change is influencing glacier behaviour. Some glaciers are responding rapidly to climate change – over years and decades – and many will have melted completely by 2100.\n  • As glaciers melt they produce more meltwater, which increases the flow of river systems downstream.\n  • But if glaciers melt entirely, the meltwater ‘tap’ will be switched off. This may have major impacts on river systems that rely on meltwater inputs – such as in high mountain regions where meltwater is the dominant source of river water.\n  • We have seen recently in Alaska, that glacier retreat can cause meltwater drainage to change direction in a matter of days.\n  • Understanding glacier and river response to climate change is therefore key for our ability to prepare for future scenarios.\n\n\nHelpful resources\n\nThe following links provide information, data, graphics, and videos about glaciers, glacier melt, meltwater, and climate change. There is something suitable for all age groups.\n\nNational Snow and Ice Data Centre\n\n\nINTERACT Arctic Monitoring programmes\n\nNASA Climate\n\n\n\n\nOstracods, the sentinels of past oceanic circulation\n\nOstracods, the sentinels of past oceanic circulation\nName of the proxy\n\n\nType of proxy\n\nPaleoenvironment proxy\n\n\nAll types of aquatic environments but here we will focus on marine waters\n\nPeriod of time investigated\n\n\nHow does it work?\n\nOstracoda are crustacean of millimetre size which have inhabited all types of marine environments from the Ordovician to today (e.g. Salas et al. 2007) and colonized continental water bodies during the Carboniferous (Bennett et al. 2012). They are characterised by their bivalve calcified carapace articulated dorsally which encloses and protects the soft parts and appendages of the animal (Figure 1). The majority of Ostracoda live on or in the sediments: they are consequently highly sensitive to their environment.\n\nWhat are the key findings that have been done using this type of proxy?\n\nThroughout their history, marine Ostracoda inhabiting deep seas had very different morphologies from the contemporary shallow water species: thin shells, long, hollow and delicate spines and no eye spots (although this point is discussed; Figure 2). Based on the study of sediments, associated organisms and analogies with modern-days Ostracoda, ostracodologists concluded that those animals developed in low energy environments ranging from 500 to 5000 m depth in connection with global ocean cold water supplied by ice-caps (Lethiers & Feist 1991). This discovery provided a unique window into the oceanic circulation through geological times and the existence of a cold deep-water layer. The presence and characteristics of these Ostracoda have been cornerstones in understanding that the thermohaline circulation has not been constant through the Phanerozoic but rather existed only during the Late Ordovician, the Carboniferous-Permian interval and from the Eocene to today (Benson 1975).\n\nFigure 2. Simplified geological time scale with Eras and Periods of the Phanerozoic. On the right are reported some archetypal deep-sea Ostracoda from the literature (for all photos, scale bar is 100 µm). A: Processobairdia spinanterocerata Bless & Michel, 1987; B: Cristanaria katyae Crasquin-Soleau, 2008; C: Gencella taurensis Forel, work in progress; D: Pedicythere klothopetasi Yasuhara et al., 2009.\n\nToday, this field of research is very active as Ostracoda are the only metazoans regularly fossilized in deep-sea sediments over an extremely long period of the history of Earth. Their long fossil record spanning 5 mass extinctions and periods of extreme climatic changes make them precious tools to unravel the response of deep-water ecosystems to past climatic changes and the rhythms of their recovery. The extreme sensitivity and history of these peculiar animals make them sentinels of deep-sea ecosystems facing ongoing global temperature increase and acidification of marine waters.\n\n  • Bennett, C.E., Siveter, D.J., Davies, S.J., Williams, M., Wilkinson, I.P., Browne, M., Miller, C.G. 2012. Ostracods from freshwater and brackish environments of the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland: the early colonisation of terrestrial water bodies. Geological Magazine, 149, 366-396.\n  • Benson, R.H. 1975. The origin of the psychrosphere as recorded in change of deep sea Ostracode assemblages. Lethaia, 8, 69-83.\n  • Bless, M.J.M., Michel, M.P. 1967. An ostracode fauna from the Upper Devonian of the Gildar-Monto region (NW Spain). Leidse Geologische Mededelingen, 39, 269-271.\n  • Crasquin-Soleau, S., Carcione, L., Martini, R., 2008. Permian ostracods from the Lercara Formation (Middle Triassic to Carnian?, Sicily, Italy). Palaeontology, 51, 537-560.\n  • Lethiers, F., Feist, R. 1991. Ostracodes, stratigraphie et bathymétrie du passage Dévonien–Carbonifère au Viséen Inférieur en Montagne Noire (France). Geobios, 24, 71-104.\n  • Salas, M.J., Vannier, J., Williams, M. 2007. Early Ordovician Ostracods from Argentina: their bearing on the origin of Binodicope and Palaeocope clades. Journal of Paleontology, 81, 1384-1395.\n  • Yasuhara, M., Okahashi, H., Cronin, T.M. 2009. Taxonomy of Quaternary Deep-Sea Ostracods from the Western North Atlantic Ocean. Palaeontology, 52, 879-931.\n\nWritten by Marie-Béatrice Forel\n\nEdited by Célia Sapart and Caroline Jacques\n\n\nGet every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.\n\nJoin other followers:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8341919779777527}
{"content": "Megumi Kaminashi & Takeru Kaminashi\n\nMegumi and Takeru are Nozomi's younger siblings. She cares deeply about them, and wanting to bring her family out of poverty.\n\nNobuo Kaminashi\n\nDespite saying that he will do anything for her daughter, Nobou runs away when Nozomi asks for money.\n\nMitsuki Kaminashi\n\nMitsuki is Nozomi's late mother. At some point, Mitsuki was hospitalized. When Nozomi was still a child, Mitsuki eventually passed away, while Nozomi helplessly cried. Right before her death, Mitsuki told Nozomi, as the eldest daughter, to take care of her siblings.\n\n\nSayaka Miyata\n\nSayaka is Nozomi's first opponent after she decides to try Keijo, defeating her on their trial match. They later participate in both the first and second exam. Their bond grows on the second exam, when Sayaka is threatened by Sachiko Yamikumo, as Nozomi cheers her up. Following Nozomi's defeat at the hands of Hanabi Kawai, Sayaka also cheers her up, telling her to get stronger together. Both get the same room upon entering Setouchi Keijo Training School. Despite this, Sayaka is occasionally bothered with Nozomi's careless tendencies, such as stripping naked in front of her without explaining anything. Nozomi also tends to make fun of Sayaka's bust size.\n\nMei Matsumoto\n\nNozomi meets her on the first exam. While Nozomi takes the exam on her first try, Matsumoto has been participates three times, but is never unable to pass at all. Thus Nozomi nicknames her \"Repeater\". Nozomi thanks her for giving a helpful instance on the final test of the first exam.\n\nYuko Oshima\n\nNozomi first meets her on the first exam. However, they start to get along on the second exam.\n\nYume Miki\n\nMiki is Nozomi's first opponent on the final exam. Nozomi states that Miki is stronger than her when they fights. However, Nozomi is able to defeat her.\n\nHanabi Kawai\n\nHanabi is Nozomi's last opponent on the final exam. Nozomi praises Hanabi upon knowing that Hanabi is capable of targeting any weak spots in the human body. In turn, Hanabi respects Nozomi greatly. Since Hanabi is too talented in sports, her friends are irritated, but Nozomi is the first to be able to rival her. Thus, thanks to Nozomi, Hanabi is finally able to enjoy sports for the first time.\n\nNon Toyoguchi\n\nBoth are fellow Room 309's residences. Nozomi addresses Non by her first name. In turn, Non calls her \"Nozomin\". Both have clumsy tendencies.\n\nKazane Aoba\n\nBoth are fellow Room 309's residences. During the \"Hip-Toss\" training, Nozomi figures out that Kazane is able to predict the landing spot by using her right hand. Thus, she decides to get along with her. In turn, Kazane is initially irritated, as Nozomi keeps forcing her. However, after asking for advise to her sister, Kazane began to get along with Nozomi. After the end of the \"Hip-Toss\" training, Nozomi gives her some confidence.\n\nKotone Fujisaki\n\nKotone is Nozomi's opponent on the class exchange match. Nozomi is surprised upon knowing that Kotone's butt is almost moving automatically. However, Nozomi is not impressed as Kotone claims that she doesn't interest to fight in Keijo. As such, Kotone always turns her back to her opponents. However, Nozomi is the first to be able to make Kotone turns around to show her face. In turn, Kotone claims that Nozomi is the first opponent that she really wants to defeat. After being defeated by Nozomi, Kotone learns how to enjoy being compete with someone in Keijo matches. When Nozomi figures out that Kotone is a fujoshi, Nozomi claims that it is not weird to have an interest towards men.\n\nMio Kusakai\n\nMio knows Nozomi as Hanabi tells her about Nozomi. Mio first meets Nozomi on the day of the entrance ceremony, and immediately starts to flirt with her. Mio later routinely teases Nozomi.\n\nRin Rokudo\n\nNozomi first meets Rin right after her fight against Nagisa Ujibe. Rin states that Nozomi is stronger than anyone in the regular class, thus Nozomi needs to advance to the Elite Class. Upon entering the Elite Class, Nozomi and Rin are on good terms.\n\nAtsuko Yoshida\n\nBoth are fellow Infighters and are on good terms.\n\nUsagi Tsukishita\n\nAs Mio's admirer, Usagi feels jealous of how Nozomi gets closer to Mio. Despite this, when Nozomi states that she will invite Usagi to lunch with Mio, Usagi refuses, claiming that she just wants to admire her. While Nozomi considers that her personality is annoying. After being defeated by Nozomi, Usagi learns how to enjoy fighting in Keijo.\n\nSaya Kogatana\n\nNozomi and Kogatana are in the same team on the final battle of the East-West War. Kogatana tries to help Nozomi, when she is cornered by Kaya Sakashiro, but Kogatana is defeated. After officially become Keijo players, the two are on good terms, as Nozomi helps her to invent a new technique.\n\nSetouchi Keijo Training School\n\nNagisa Ujibe\n\nUjibe is one of the teaching staff at Setouchi. Nozomi already knows about Ujibe since the second exam. She tends to make fun of Ujibe for being fat, calling her \"Walrus\". Despite this, Nozomi still respects her greatly. Upon graduating, Nozomi is willing to bow down while stating that she will never forget what she has learned from Ujibe.\n\nHitomi Hokuto\n\nHokuto is one of the teaching staff at Setouchi. Nozomi claims that Hokuto only gives physical training to her and her friends, which causing them exhausted. Despite this, Nozomi still respects her as she defends Hokuto and Kobayakawa when Suruga's teacher mocks them.\n\nMiku Kobayakawa\n\nKobayakawa is one of the teaching staff at Setouchi. Nozomi tends to ignore Kobayakawa during her lecture. In turn, Kobayakawa tends to shoot Nozomi by using a pen to rebuke her. Despite this, Nozomi still respects her as she defends Hokuto and Kobayakawa when Suruga's teacher mocks them.\n\nSuruga Keijo Training School\n\nMaya Sakashiro\n\nNozomi and Maya share the same nickname for being called as the \"Ribbon Girl\". Maya stops Nozomi when she tries to approach her mother, Ayako Sakashiro for mocking Setouchi's faculty. Thus, Nozomi and Maya start to share a rivalry. Nozomi fights Maya on the final battle of the eleventh East-West War, and ultimately manages to defeat her. Right after the end of the East-West War, Maya helps Nozomi in order to rehabilitate her breasts. Initially, Nozomi is confused on why Maya tries to help her. As such, she presumes that Maya feels responsible. Nozomi then asks Maya to have a rematch, which Maya agrees while telling that she will not lose again.\n\nHikari Muromachi\n\nHikari warns Nozomi right before the final match of the eleventh East-West War. Despite this, Hikari is later able to get along with her. Hikari is willing to congratulate her. Moreover, Hikari states that she is interested with Setouchi's training method.\n\n\nTaichi Omotenishi\n\nTaichi is Nozomi's neigbour. Before Nozomi attends Setouchi Keijo Training School, both attend the Shinkou High School. Initially, Taichi opposes Nozomi to compete in Keijo. However, after being defeated Taichi accepts Nozomi's decision.\n\n\nNozomi calls him \"Koba-sen\". He is Nozomi's teacher during her time in Shinkou. Kobayashi tells Nozomi each time she gets an offer to join athletic colleges. However, Nozomi always refuses since she decides to become a Keijo player. Kobayashi then warns her for competing in Keijo, bringing her to the Keijo Stadium. Despite this, Kobayashi tells her that Nozomi should decide her career on her own.\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6093055009841919}
{"content": "ScaleSafe FAQ’s\n\nQ.  What does the ScaleSafe system do?\n\nA.  The ScaleSafe system prevents mineral scale buildup in equipment such as water heaters, boilers, heat exchangers, cooling towers, pressure washers, ice machines and domestic water systems. It also removes existing scale over a period of time, while inhibiting corrosion.\n\nQ.  Why do I need to remove and prevent scale buildup?\n\nA.  Scale buildup on heat transfer surfaces causes metal fatigue which can result in premature equipment failure. It also acts as an insulator thereby reducing heat transfer efficiency with a resulting increase in energy consumption. The high cost of fuel alone makes it increasingly important to maintain scale free equipment systems. A 1/4″ coating of scale on a heat transfer surface can require 55% more energy than normal to attain the same temperature.\n\nQ.  How does the ScaleSafe system prevent scale buildup and remove existing scale?\n\nA.  The ScaleSafe system prevents scale by acting as a scale inhibitor. It distorts the almost perfect cube like shape of the calcium molecule. This distortion prevents the formation of crystalline calcium carbonate by not allowing the calcium molecules to buildup on each other. To remove scale, ScaleSafe simply combines with the calcium in the precipitated calcium carbonate. This combining action does two things:\n1.) ScaleSafe slowly breaks down the crystalline matrix of the calcium carbonate allowing it to be released into suspension. These minerals remain in suspension until they are removed by normal periodic maintenance procedures such as blowdown.\n2.) ScaleSafe combines with calcium carbonate to form calcium phosphate which is deposited as a microfilm coating on all wetted surfaces.This coating acts as a deterrent to both scale and corrosion.\n\nQ. How does ScaleSafe inhibit corrosion?\n\nA.  As previously stated, eventually all surfaces that have been wetted with ScaleSafe will be coated with a protective microfilm of calcium phosphate. Calcium phosphate is well known as an excellent scale and corrosion inhibitor. This microfilm coating does not increase in thickness as it is continually washed off and replaced by the flow of treated water.\n\nQ.  How long does it take to see results after installing the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  As a preventative for scale buildup, the result can be seen immediately since there will be no increase in calcium carbonate precipitate buildup. The rate of scale removal depends on water velocity, scale density and water chemistry. Generally, the process of scale removal will be evident within 30 days.\n\nQ.  Will ScaleSafe work on all types of water?\n\nA.  In field applications as well as laboratory tests have proven that the ScaleSafe system is effective on virtually all types of water, however it is always best to allow us to review a recent analysis of your water should a question arise.\n\nQ.  What size ScaleSafe system do I need?\n\nA.  ScaleSafe comes in 3/4″, 1″, and 1 1/2″ inch line sizes. Each model has a corresponding minimum and maximum flow rate based on GPM (gallons per minute). Select a model that is compatible with the GPM flow rate for your system. Situations requiring higher than specified flow rates can be managed by installing multiple units with a parallel manifold.\n\nQ.  How do I calculate the restriction rate for the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  No pressure drop, other than standard pipe friction, occurs within the ScaleSafe system.\n\nQ.  Is any additional equipment necessary besides the ScaleSafe dispenser?\n\nA.  Pre-filtration is recommended on all units. The ScaleSafe system is designed to work by venturi, and the venturi orifices are very small. The chance of a piece of debris clogging one or both holes is a very real possibility. A standard spin down sediment filter with a drain valve for purging sediment is sufficient. Filters can either be provided with the system or purchased separately.\n\nQ.  What is the delivery time on a ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  All standard products can be shipped from inventory, therefore most orders are shipped within 2 days. If for some reason an item is not in stock or is a special order, you will be advised of a ship date when your order is placed and confirmed.\n\nQ.  Who installs the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  The purchaser is responsible for installation.\n\nQ.  How long does it take to install a ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  The average installation time is less than two hours.\n\nQ.  Is the ScaleSafe system a filter?\n\nA.  No, the ScaleSafe system is a non-mechanical method of dispensing water treatment chemicals directly into a water system.\n\nQ.  Does all of the water have to flow through the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  The ScaleSafe system is designed to dispense 4-6 ppm. In order to consistently receive this dosage all of the water in a system should pass through the unit. However, in some instances, 1-2 ppm is an adequate dosage rate. In this instance, a bypass manifold may be used as a convenient way to blend untreated water with treated water thus allowing a lower dosage rate than standard. (NOTE: Use of a lower than standard dosage rate depends on your specific application and water parameters. Your ScaleSafe representative can advise you and explain this in detail.\n\nQ.  What happens to the pipes and equipment once the scale is removed?\n\nA.  After scale removal, the piping system will remain clean, however, the entire system should be thoroughly inspected for leaks, In some instances, e.g. old piping, scale could have been the only thing that was preventing existing pipes, valves and tanks from leaking.\n\nQ.  What is the pressure rating on the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  Models SHF 415 & SHF 410 are rated at 100 psi.  All other commerical models are rated at 125 psi.  ScaleSafe Home is rated at 80 psi.\n\nQ.  Is ScaleSafe safe to use in potable water?\n\nA.  Yes, the ScaleSafe system meets all ANSI, NSF60 and USDA standards for potable water.\n\nQ.  What maintenance is required with the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  Venturi orifices should be inspected regularly to insure that they are clear. Pre-filters should be purged on a regular basis to remove any debris buildup. Empty sump must be replaced when product is depleted.\n\nQ.  Does the ScaleSafe system have to be mounted in any certain direction?\n\nA.  The ScaleSafe dispenser head must be mounted horizontally, with the sump directly below the dispenser head. The system will be stamped with either an arrow or be marked “inlet and outlet” indicating the direction of flow of the water through the system. Incorrect mounting may cause the unit to overfeed resulting in excessive product use.\n\nQ.  What are the temperature limitations for the ScaleSafe system?\n\nA.  All models except EHT units are rated up to 85 degrees farenheit. Keep in mind that to prevent scale formation the water must be treated prior to heating.\n\nQ.  What happens to the minerals once they are placed in suspension in a closed loop system?\n\nA.  If the system remains closed, the minerals will remain in suspension until a saturation point is reached. At that time the solution must be diluted in order to prevent precipitation of minerals. This can be accomplished either manually or automatically depending on the system.\n\nQ.  What happens to suspended minerals in an open circulating system like a cooling tower?\n\nA.  Mineral concentrations will build up over a period of time and must be diluted manually, automatically or on a continuous bleed-off once the total dissolved solids (TDS) reach a predetermined level. This is the same procedure that must be followed when using any water treatment and is commonly referred to as cycles of concentration.\n\nQ.  Does the ScaleSafe system pollute the water?\n\nA.  No. One of the major benefits of the Scale Safe system is that it uses no hazardous ingredients.\n\nQ.  Does the ScaleSafe produce soft water?\n\nA.  Technically it does not since the calcium and magnesium salts remain in the water. However, the results will be very similar to soft water because hard water problems are eliminated by the ScaleSafe system.\n\nQ.  When ScaleSafe is removing scale from the plumbing, will scale come off in large enough pieces to cause problems?\n\nA.  Generally no, the scale is dissolved as previously described and is placed into suspension so that it passes through the system unnoticed. However, in older systems and systems that have heavy existing scale buildup there is the possibility that some larger pieces of scale could be worked loose. All systems should be monitored on regular basis to prevent this type of occurrence.\n\nCopyright © 2013 Webb Supply Company", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7884058952331543}
{"content": "How To Not Get Strong\n\nIf you’ve read Anti-fragile by Nassim Taleb, you will know that the last article or two I have written have actually been partly inspired by what I’ve learned in his book.  He talks about via negativa, which is a theological way of looking at what is good/desirable/positive by examining what something is not.  I’d like to discuss the steps one could take to the path of weakness (with reasons of course), so you can be sure to avoid these steps to get strong.\n\n\n1. Don’t lift heavy weights.  Weak people stick with light weights.  Getting strong means getting jacked.  Being a jacked guy is out right now (see Bieber) and girls will turn into boydbuilders if they lift anything over 5 pounds (true story).\n\n\n2. Never lift below 20 reps.  Lifting in low rep ranges does nothing but boost your ego.  You will probably injure yourself from lifting in lower rep ranges anyways, search pubmed for validation of this statement.  Also there is not way to get a decent pump if you lift in low rep ranges, so what’s the point?\n\n\n3. Don’t progress.  NEVER increase the weight you lift, NEVER increase the sets you do.  Don’t even think about doing more work in less time.  If you try a rep PR you’d may as well jump off a bridge.\n\n\n4. Don’t work hard.  If you’re in the gym, you should dress incredibly well, be well groomed and smell amazing.  You aren’t in there to sweat or any of that shit.  If you sweat at all you may as well go home because you might grow or gain strength, which we know is a huge no-no.\n\n\n5. Perform only single joint exercises.  Listen, squats will mess up your knees, you may as well contact an orhopod if you are even thinking of squatting. Deadlifts will make your spine explode (I’ve seen it happen 12 times, literally).  If you ever want control a female on top of you don’t bench, you won’t be able to lift anything after your tricep is torn, your shoulders are frozen and your pec is completely torn off the bone.  If you ever want to be able to put the box of your favourite cereal up on your fridge or lift your hands above your head then don’t press anything overhead.  You will injure yourself doing these exercises.  My body aches from even writing this.\n\n\n\nEgo Depletion, Willpower, and Food (addiction?)\n\nDat Willpower.\n\nI’m currently reading a very interesting book that doesn’t really have much to do with fitness.  It’s called The Self Illusion by Bruce Hood.  I came over a very interesting sub chapter that talked specifically about ego depletion, I have heard of this term before somewhere, but never got a chance to really explore any of the research based around it.\n\n\n\nYou may have heard the current cliche ‘the brain is like a muscle.’  It technically isn’t (as it’s made as fat), but in terms of physiology, both muscles and the brain run from glucose.  So the brain, like muscles, only have a certain amount of output to give out before succumbing to fatigue.  This has been researched in the field of addiction.\n\n\nMatt Field has researched the interplay of impulsivity and cognitive processes.  Bruce Hood explained an interesting study by Field at a presentation (from The Self Illusion).  Subjects were to watch a crazy Japanese horror movie called Audition.  Half the audience was to watch the movie without showing emotion, turning away, or showing any disgust to the gory parts of the movie.  The other half was instructed to act as they normally would when watching crazy shit!  After the movie the participants filled out a bogus questionnaire, then were allowed to drink as much beer as they pleased as a reward for partaking in watching a horror movie (sign me up).  The subjects who didn’t show emotion drank half as much as the audience who cringed and gasped at the brutality of the movie.  The studies’ conclusion was that individuals who showed emotion, sapped their willpower and massacred booze instead of drinking in moderation.\n\n\nField believes that self-control and willpower is an important foundation for the development of addiction.  If you are continuously ‘sapping stores’ from the self-control/willpower resources, negative consequences will show up in other areas, such as addiction to drugs, alcohol, food, etc.\n\n\nSo what does all this have to do with eating?  Well, there are many events happening to you on a daily basis.  Any kind of stressor, whether that be work-life; marital problems; attempting to conform; watching a scary movie etc, can and will sap your willpower.  This may result in you lacking the willpower to stay true to your current diet, or exercise regimen.\n\n\nHabits and Environmental Factors\n\nI’ve talked about habits in the past.  This ties directly into changing habits for a healthier lifestyle.  When most people attempt to diet, they decide to all-together stop eating something.  That right there is an exercise in self-control/willpower in regards to what you eat regularly.  Which is why I don’t think (there are a few exceptions) that you should fully cut out anything from your diet.  Allow yourself to consume what you want, albeit in smaller doses or less frequently.  This way you are killing two birds with one stone.  You’re eating more healthier foods, and not sapping all your willpower by doing it.  Which then allows you to stay on the boat rather than fall off to a cold, lonely death (which is where most diets end up).\n\n\nMy spectrum of eating properly has altered drastically from when I was younger.  For me, it feels odd not consuming a crap load of protein with every meal.  It seems odd that some people consume dessert every night.  Since I’m healthy, these are good viewpoints to have.  Although I never really stress about food, I’d say it’d be healthier to stress about not getting enough protein in then stressing about not have cookies and ice cream in your kitchen.  \n\n\nThese are the things I try to teach clients and readers.  To attempt to create new eating heuristics that will last for hopefully a lifetime and not 1 week.  Ideally I’d love for these new habits to form as quickly as possible.  However, as Dr. Yoni Freedhoff pointed out in a recent article, there really is an incredibly large variance in the time it takes for people to form new habits.  Dr. Freedhoff showed research which displayed a period of 18 to 254 days for a habit to form “automatically.”\n\n\nThe important thing to remember, is try and stick with a new habit for an extended period of time.  A habit might also be an environment factor that will suck less willpower out of you.  This is conjecture, but I would venture to say that decreasing psychological stress could also help aid you in having willpower to eat better rather than wasting it on being upset  (or add negative emotion here: ____).  A stressed out individual might even benefit from seeing a physiologist or even a psychiatrist to help them with whatever issues they may have.\n\n\n\nIf you have ever reduced a stressor in your life and it’s helped you improve your image of yourself, whether it was through eating better or exercising more, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6492584943771362}
{"content": "Pregnant females, injuries, and shedding\n\nFirst a quick general update: Spring courtship seems to be over; I have not seen a courting pair since 16 May. Since the end of May, the pregnant females have taken up refuge in ideal shelters where they can thermoregulate optimally. Females 39 and 41 are now in the same shelters where they gave birth last year (but not together) and Female 47 is with 39. Female 54 is by herself and has not moved since we implanted a transmitter and released her on 23 May. Neither 47 nor 54 were telemetered last year so I have no history for them. These soon-to-be mothers are all maintaining body temperatures within a couple of degrees of 30C (86F). The males and Female 53 (not pregnant?) have been hunting, mostly hanging around California ground squirrel burrows for the past month as the squirrels produce the first pups of the season (more on hunting ground squirrels) and the body temperatures of these foraging snakes has varied widely compared to the pregnant females (more on body temps).\n\nIn my last post, I showed you a photo of an unidentified rattlesnake in the refuge with Female 41 – the same refuge where Females 41 and 43 had babies last year. (You may remember that Female 43 was found dead at the refuge last October; click here for that account) While I could only see the new snake’s nose and a small area of flank at the first encounter, I saw her twice more over the next eight days. She was shades of dark brown, while Female 41 is quite pretty with chocolate brown dorsal blotches on a gray background. During the subsequent two sightings, I could also see the new animal’s rattle, which was long and unbroken (i.e., she still had her birth button). Then a week ago, I found Female 41 and the new rattlesnake basking next to each other and was able to capture the new animal (CROR55).\n\nThe first thing I noticed was that she was pre-shed. That is, her eyes and new rattle segment were milky white (more about shedding below). The next important discovery was that she is, indeed, a female – and quite heavy…maybe pregnant. A photo of her snout (bottom photo, below), when compared to the nose in the photos of the unidentified rattlesnake on 3 June (top photo, below) confirms that she is the same animal.\n\nunidentified Crotalus oreganus under log at Refuge 03 on 03 June 2015, Effie Yeaw Nature Center Origonal RAW IMG_7382.CR2\n\nI have numbered some landmark scales in these photos that you can compare but also compare the size and arrangement of surrounding unnumbered scales. And while the fine pigmentation of the individual scales is obscured in the pre-shed photo, I have circled some larger pigmented areas that are visible. Keep in mind that the photos were taken from slightly different angles, making some scales that are visible in one hard or impossible to see in the other. The size, number, and arrangement of nose and crown scales on these rattlesnakes are a bit like fingerprints on primates: they are individually unique, so far as we know. Also note the whitish eyes and how the scales on her nose appear a bit swollen in the pre-shed photo.\n\nAs I examined her further, I made another interesting discovery: she has sustained a serious injury to her abdomen sometime in the past. Although well healed now, her skin is scarred on the dorsal midline 575 mm (23 in) from her nose (her body length, excluding tail [snout-vent length or SVL] is 720 mm [28 in]). Furthermore, her body is noticeably narrowed at the scar (photo below) and her abdomen is hard and dense to the touch for several inches on both sides of the scar.\n\nFemale CROR 55 Original RAW IMG_7555.CR2\n\nNonetheless, she looks and acts healthy and might, indeed, be pregnant. I could feel two masses in her anterior abdomen that were consistent with fetuses but could not differentiate anything posteriorly where her abdomen is apparently scarred internally. She would normally be a great transmitter candidate but I elected to release her without one because of the suspected internal scarring where the transmitter would be implanted, plus I did not want to damage her skin as she prepares to shed.\n\nThis brings up the point that life is not easy for these snakes. In addition to this healed injury to Female 55 and the death of Female 43 last year, you may remember that I processed and released a small male (CROR44) early last December that had recently sustained some significant trauma from a predator, including a deep penetrating abdominal wound that I suspected would prove fatal over the winter (more details). While processing Male 52 early last month, I removed a “foxtail” (a seed from one of the non-native Bromus grasses that blanket the preserve) from his cloaca (cloaca defined). This little floral harpoon had not yet caused much damage but I don’t know what would have prevented it from burrowing into his abdomen and causing a potentially fatal injury. My point is that these rattlesnakes, despite their formidable reputation, are susceptible to constant hazards.\n\nShedding (the technical term is ecdysis) is the sloughing or molting of the outer epidermal layer (the stratum corneum) in scaled reptiles. This corneal layer is a matrix of keratin (the same material as your hair and fingernails – and the rattlesnake’s rattle!) infused with lipid (fat) molecules that greatly slows the passage of water through the skin. Because this matrix is acellular (contains no cells), it cannot grow. Thus, as the snake grows, this layer must be replaced periodically. When the time comes, the snake’s body produces a new corneal layer under the old one. This creates the blue or whitish tint, most notable in the eyes. In rattlesnakes, a new segment is produced at the base of the rattle during each shed, which is also whitish at this stage. Once the new corneal layer is ready, the snake’s body secretes fluid between the old and new layers, separating them and softening the old one. When this fluid is secreted, the whitish color disappears (the eyes clear) and the snake is ready to shed. They then rub their face on any available surface and start to peel back the old layer from around the nose and mouth (photo below). They continue rubbing, eventually crawling out of the old “skin,” leaving it inside-out, usually in one piece.\n\nA 10-day-old Northern Pacific Rattlesnake beginning his post-partum shed while being processed during my El Dorado Hills field study.\nA 10-day-old Northern Pacific Rattlesnake beginning her post-partum shed while being processed during my El Dorado Hills field study. (Also note the “birth button” at the end of her tail)\n\nI’ll leave it there until next time, when I’ll explain rattle growth and trying to estimate age from the rattle.\n\n\nThe effect of drought on rattlesnakes\n\nField studies of rattlesnakes indicate that they cease most movement when water stressed and remain in their established home ranges, rather than migrating into developed areas in search of water, despite frequent claims to the contrary.\n\nIn my last post, I mentioned witnessing Females 41 and 47 feeding, as well as finding new Female 53, who was very heavy and likely pregnant. Since then, I have come across Female 41 eating another vole, found another new female (#54) that is heavy and definitely pregnant, and come across a fat but unidentified rattlesnake in the refuge where Females 41 and 43 had babies last year. I could only see the face and a bit of a flank of the unidentified animal (photo below) so I couldn’t even determine sex.\n\nunidentified Crotalus oreganus under log at Refuge 03 on 03 June 2015, Effie Yeaw Nature Center Origonal RAW IMG_7387.CR2\n\nIt could be a male that has just eaten a ground squirrel pup – but it is more likely another pregnant female. We now have five telemetered females (39, 41, 47, 53 and 54) and all are in great shape, with three either confirmed or likely pregnant and the others in good shape to reproduce although I have not yet had my hands on them this year to palpate for fetuses.\n\nThis brings up a timely point: This will obviously be a good year for rattlesnake reproduction in our area, despite being in the midst of an historic drought. Since the news media often quotes “experts” claiming drought “drives rattlesnakes out of the hills and into yards looking for water,” this is a great opportunity to set the record straight about how drought affects rattlesnake movement.\n\nWe live in a Mediterranean climate, historically characterized by warm dry summers and cool wet winters. Even during years with “normal” precipitation, vast tracks of mountains, foothills and many valley areas have no surface water between late spring and the return of winter rains in November or December – yet they support healthy populations of rattlesnakes. Herbivores (insects, rodents, etc.) get most of their water from the plants they eat and rattlesnakes get water from eating the herbivores. The bodies of terrestrial vertebrates are usually composed of 65–75% water, so eating a 100 gram (3.5 ounce) rodent is like drinking about 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of water for a rattlesnake (plus the nutrients and energy gained). Make no mistake, rattlesnakes suck droplets from various surfaces, including their own skin, deposited by rain and dew (photo, below) and they will certainly drink from standing water when it’s available. But especially during summer and fall, these other sources are not available and virtually all of the water a rattlesnake needs is obtained from its prey.\n\nadult Crotalus s. scutulatus (Mohave Rattlesnake) drinking rain water near Apple Valley, San Bernardino County, California, USA [wild animal, in situ]\nMohave Rattlesnake drinking rain water from its own body. [Cardwell, M. D. 2006. Rain-harvesting in a wild population of Crotalus s. scutulatus (Serpentes: Viperidae). Herpetological Review 37:142-144.]\n\nRattlesnakes are models of low energy physiology. As ambush predators, they move comparatively little and rely largely on anaerobic metabolism. Their sedentary lifestyle combined with the corneal layer of their skin (full of water-blocking lipids) dramatically lowers the amount of water that passes into and out of their bodies – known as “water flux.” Nonetheless, multiple studies have shown that the most significant mechanism for water loss in terrestrial snakes is evaporation, with about 75% being lost through the skin and the remainder via exhaled breath.\n\nDuring my four-year field study (2001–2004) of Mohave Rattlesnakes in southern California, I was able to compare behavior, including average daily movement and reproductive effort, between the severe drought year 2002 and 2003–2004, when rainfall returned to average or above average. I found that average daily movement during 2002 was less than one third of 2003–2004 averages. And while I encountered dozens of courting pairs during the two non-drought years, I observed a male courting a female on only one occasion in 2002. Yet these rattlesnakes continued to eat at a rate indistinguishable from the non-drought years, based on scats deposited in holding containers and later analyzed. These snakes were reducing exposed surface area (and, therefore, evaporative water loss) by remaining coiled and immobile, covering much of their skin within their coils. They even buried their coils partially in loose soil at times, covering additional skin area. Remaining stationary eliminated their ability to find and court mates but, as sit-and-wait ambush predators, it allowed them to continue to hunt – and obtain the body water of their herbivorous prey. They also positioned themselves behind vegetation and ground contours in 2002 to avoid wind and sun, both of which increase evaporation rates. You can find more details in my MS thesis.\n\nWe have seen similar behavior in Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes in recent years at my El Dorado Hills study site, where the rattlesnakes remained tightly coiled and stationary in deep chaparral on north-facing slopes during particularly hot dry summer weather. At Effie Yeaw, all of the rattlesnakes caught by staff around the ponds during the past year, as well as the telemetered rattlesnakes I have found there, have been males found during the courtship season. The females have remained in the woods, away from water sources. While the snakes will drink when they find the ponds (or other water sources), that’s not why the males are there… they’re wandering around looking for females! And, yet, the females are now fat and pregnant.\n\nDrought probably does not affect rattlesnake movement until it becomes locally severe, as it did at my Mohave Rattlesnake study site in 2002. When the snakes start to become water stressed, they don’t set out into uncharted territory looking for surface water. Rather, they stop moving and hunker down where they can best reduce evaporative water loss while still striking any prey that wanders by. Currently, if the preserve at Effie Yeaw Nature Center is any indication, there is lots of annual plant growth and the vole and ground squirrel populations are thriving – and so are the rattlesnakes.\n\nSo when people find a rattlesnake in their yard during a drought, the most likely explanation is that it is a male looking for receptive females and the drought is not severe enough locally to stress the rattlesnakes. When they are truly water stressed, rattlesnakes move less – not more – than usual. Unlike most large mammals that have much higher metabolic and water flux rates and require standing water to drink, there is no evidence that rattlesnakes leave their established home ranges looking for water, despite the popular belief to the contrary. They do just the opposite.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5664880275726318}
{"content": "Breaking News\n\nShekarau states readiness to develop Kano\n\nBy Suzan Edeh\n\nBauchi — Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State has expressed his government’s determination to provide effective services towards sustainable development of the state.\n\nShekarau made the pledge in Bauchi during the opening ceremony of a two-day retreat organised for Directors and civil servants the state.\n\nShekarau maintained that the retreat was organised to provide civil servants the enabling environment that would inspire them to provide good services that would in turn maintain development of the state.\n\nShekarau, who was represented by his Deputy, Alhaji Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo, said his administration was not ignorant of the contribution of the state civil servants, stressing that there is need for continual development, hence the need for the retreat which is the third of its kind since assumption of his administration.\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9691211581230164}
{"content": "Category Archives: Thinky\n\n\nThe Habit of Kindness\n\nIMAGE: Tiny Bouquet, a miniature bouquet of wildflowers a dear friend gave me in Italy. (Prints available)\n\nOne of the initial challenges for starting a practice of meditation and mindfulness is, paradoxically, it seems too easy. At first pass, sitting still and not thinking about anything while focusing on breathing sounds like something anyone can do: simply exist quietly for a while. I quickly learned that it is actually the opposite of zoning out or contemplation. Being able to sit with both a full and clear mind is the culmination of everything else done in life to get to that place, and it is a lifelong challenge that changes you as a person.\n\nIn his revelatory “An Essay on Landscape Painting,” the 11th century Northern Song Dynasty painter and scholar Kuo Hsi described his father readying himself to paint:\n\nOn a day when he was to paint, he would seat himself by a bright window, put his desk in order, burn incense to his right and left, and place good brushes and excellent ink beside him; then he would wash his hands and raise his ink-well, as if to receive an important guest, thereby calming his spirit and composing his thoughts. Not until then did he begin to paint. Does this not illustrate what he meant by not daring to face one’s work thoughtlessly?\n\nApproaching life with balance and mindfulness is the essential preparatory work to sit with a clear conscience, to find joy and peace in meaningful meditation rather than feeling trapped with anxiety, daily frustrations or confusions, regrets, or the mental and spiritual equivalents of a cluttered desk or dirty hands. Instead of receiving an important guest, we are meeting ourselves, in a wordless conversation about existence between the world and our spirits. To be in a moment, to fully inhabit it, we have to be a full self. That starts with being honest, being aware, and being kind.\n\nNew Forest – Lichen and moss provide the foundation for new plant growth on a fallen tree, continuing the cycle of renewal and regrowth in a forest. (Prints available)\n\nCultivating an instinct of kindness every day makes a habit of compassion. It is too easy to ignore or compromise the internal voice that suggests, “This is wrong,” or, “I should help,” instead telling ourselves we can’t be late, we need the money, other people treated me the same way, or the most discouraging, “I can’t do anything to change that.” I have always believed it takes extraordinary courage and intelligence to be truly kind as an adult, but it’s an instinct every person has once the conscience develops. It is crucial to keep society from suppressing it and to cling to hope and the belief that our conscience is telling the truth, to know that old Jiminy Cricket feeling of uneasiness should be heeded.\n\nPerhaps the most powerful tool in kindness is empathy, or feeling with another’s heart. It is not enough to ponder how we might feel if something we see happening to someone else were to happen to us – we need to understand how that person feels in the actual situation we see. It starts with observation without judgment, objectively listening and gathering information before we start trying to solve other people’s problems or tell them why their feelings are wrong. It seems common to tackle large issues like racism or poverty with a sketchy and vague sense of the issues, but I don’t often see people stop to ask, “How does that feel?” I think we can be too quick to dismiss the validity of political, spiritual, or personal beliefs because they don’t make sense with how we approach the world. We brush them off instead of trying to wrap our heads around them, which is ultimately an unkind thing to do. Expanding our sense of willingness to inhabit another person’s experience is an act of profound kindness, and if we make it a habit, we gain different lenses with which to understand our own experiences.\n\nSeaside Goldenrod – (Solidago sempervirens) is uniquely saltwater tolerant, a cheerful display of bright yellow flowers at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Jersey. (Prints available)\n\nA second key to kindness is integrity. We should not offer kindness because it makes us look good to other people or gains an advantage of indebtedness. Like anything worth doing, being kind is its own reward. It is important to be consistently kind if it is to become a habit, and to be kind to everyone, not just those people we think are currently most “deserving.” I regularly examine my thoughts for often-unconscious stabs of unkindness: wishing for someone to fail, enjoying hearing about the misfortune of someone I don’t like, feeling relief that I am in a better situation than another person, or dismissing people I don’t understand with disdain or pettiness. It can be hard to break the habit of cruelty that we learn from a young age because it is rooted in competitiveness and the American notion of “winning” or success. Redefining success away from money, material possessions, titles, accolades, appearance, or esteem goes against everything we’re socialized into believing, but it opens the door to far greater rewards.\n\nMy goal in life is to be kind to every person I meet, to make life easier or more pleasant for others when I can, to open people’s eyes to thoughts or moments of beauty they may not have seen, and to leave everyone a little more loved than I found them. I know that the only way I can do that is with an uncompromised habit of kindness and compassion, but I’m only human. It is a lifelong project.\n\nWeathered Hydrangea, slightly faded by summer rains, perhaps all the lovelier for it. (Prints available)\n\nThat brings me to the third critical tool of kindness: forgiveness. We cannot grow or help others if we cannot forgive. I include forgiving oneself, having a sense of compassion as deep for one’s own missteps as those of others when forgiveness is earned. When I want to comfort people, I usually say some variation of, “It’s okay,” or, “Hey, that happens to us all.” I don’t typically hold grudges when a friend says something unkind in a bad mood, so I am trying to forgive myself the same way, rather than cringing every time I relive a moment when I blurted out something rude instead of a compliment or when I wished someone ill because my feelings were hurt.\n\nPeople sometimes do unkind things, but most aren’t fundamentally unkind. Often they are not paying attention, they are preoccupied with worry, they are afraid, or they are proud. I am learning that understanding what people are going through makes it much easier to forgive these shortcomings, and instead see them as opportunities to help. My own lapses and times of unhappiness are helping me grow, but only if I let myself. That starts by forgiving mistakes and acknowledging that everyone always needs to grow. None of us were born perfect, and none of us stays kind without effort.\n\nSpray of Pink, flowers in front of a peach-colored wall in the Cinque Terre, Italy. (Prints available)\n\nAs I continue on this path of mindfulness and nurturing compassion, I am keeping notes on experiences and moments that bring me clarity or deeper understanding. It is kind to be generous with what we learn. The most important tool in kindness that I’ve found so far is awareness: of the self, of the world, and of others. We cannot grow or change, nor help others, if we don’t start by making ourselves aware of where there is hurt or suffering, or where we have a chance to do better. It can be truly painful to be aware, especially in recognizing how we impact others, but it’s imperative.\n\nOnce our eyes are open, we see these challenges everywhere. It can be overwhelming, but it’s okay. It happens to us all, and we have each other to help.\n\n\nFail Better\n\nIMAGE: In the Face of Loss. Spent hydrangeas poking through drifts of snow after a blizzard, a metaphor for unexpected beauty in the face of loss. (Prints available)\n\nAt any given time, I can give a lengthy list of things I’ve failed at. Relationships, jobs, ill-conceived Halloween costumes, diets, securing funding for the last 3 semesters of my chemistry degree… you name it. Depending on my mood, I can also list many reasons why I’ve failed, but until recently I haven’t recognized what an asset fully-appreciated failing can be.\n\nIt’s generally understood that failure is crucial to learning and growth, and I can’t imagine how dull life might be to constantly succeed or win all the time (DJ Khaled’s anthemic proclamation notwithstanding). The way we rise to challenges and hardships makes us who we are.\n\nLast spring my parents and I went on a walking tour through a restricted section of Sandy Hook’s Gateway National Recreational Area, where we visited one of the oldest holly forests in the US. One of my favorite details in looking at these massive, sprawling trees was seeing the ways they’ve failed and overcome obstacles. Studying the knots and eyes from lost branches, the patterns of growth where the tree compensated its balance with new branches, scars in the bark, and how they’ve twisted and turned to reach better light, you can see a tree’s full gnarled history and learn so much about where and how it’s growing.\n\nThe same is true for people, in examining their attitudes, beliefs, and how they approach new challenges in life. We wear our history in our faces, posture, language, and even voice, and however much we may think we can hide it, we are constantly communicating past pain, loss, joy, victory, sorrow, hope, failure, and how we grew through it – or didn’t. Humans can have a strange tendency not often seen in nature to regress in the face of failure, overriding biological instincts to thrive in favor of social ones, like the fear of appearing foolish if we try something new and fail or if we open our heart and get rejected. Self-consciousness is a peculiar quality, as is the protection of emotions or reputation over our instincts, but it is also at the base of some forms of compassion; that is a double-edged sword of civilization and the conscious mind. Some people have a withdrawal instinct like a spiritual withering, a leaf curling up and browning despite ideal conditions of water, nutrients, and light, while other seemingly indomitable people better resemble wildflowers growing relentlessly out of sheer rock beside of a waterfall out of virtually nothing.\n\nTenacity – a tiny yellow wildflower growing in the mists of Goðafoss, a spectacular waterfall in the Bárðardalur region of Iceland. (Prints available)\n\n(I have a lot of photos of the life of plants because I think about this stuff all the time.)\n\nSometimes we fail because we’re not ready to succeed or we know deep-down we don’t want to succeed in that particular way. Anyone who has sabotaged a job that came easily but felt hollow, or a relationship with a person who was great on paper but didn’t make their heart sing, knows the peculiar feeling when success feels like a let-down. Sometimes we get what we think we wanted, and it feels so empty and unsatisfying that we realize we enjoyed it more when we were just imagining and wishing for it. When I really think about the things I’ve failed at, I can’t name a single one where I would have been happier to have succeeded; that path wouldn’t have brought me to where I am now. Even the disappointments that sting the most take on a “wasn’t meant to be” feeling in retrospect, and however I may regret them in the moment, I wouldn’t change much of anything now.\n\nOther times we fail because of dumb luck or lousy timing. We meet someone amazing, but it’s at the worst possible time career-wise, so we can’t get a relationship going. We come down with bronchitis when we needed to be at 100% and let our bosses down, or tank a critical exam because we were feverish and wheezing with pneumonia (I am an absolute expert at poorly-timed illness). We total the car we need to get to work, a hurricane sweeps our home away, we join a company just before they begin downsizing, we pass up an amazing opportunity because we’re short on cash, we decline an invitation to a networking event that could have been life-changing because we just need to catch up on sleep. There is a prevailing motivational myth that if something matters enough, we can just find a way, but that doesn’t usually work in reality. “Excuses” are sometimes just what happened.\n\nI have had uncanny bad luck at reconnecting with an artist I admire because I’ve had exams, been required to stay late at work, or been grotesquely sick at every opportunity. Thus far, I haven’t been financially independent enough to declare, “I don’t care if you fire me, I’m going to this gallery opening!” just as parents can’t actually abandon the child who needs care when they get sick at the worst possible time. To characterize unavoidable set-backs as “not wanting it enough” is a disservice to everyone, and it prevents us from nurturing and helping one another when we can.\n\nSeedlings stretching for the pale afternoon light on a windowsill in Brooklyn (Prints available)\n\nAs a society, we tend not to acknowledge the role luck and timing (and yes, privilege) play in success either. Just as the “find a way” myth overvalues tenacity or perseverance, there is an ego-driven myth that people succeed because of raw talent, perfectly-developed innovation, or some strength of character that makes them somehow destined for victory. For every one of the limitless tiny things that fell into place just so for one person to succeed, any one of those things could have knocked someone else off track, no matter how brilliant their ideas, good their heart, sound their business plan, or determined their character.\n\nIt is not necessarily as cut and dry as, “If you wanted to succeed, you should have had the sense to inherit a profitable business from your billionaire father,” but it can be as simple as missing the subway car with your would-be soulmate on it because you didn’t want to rush by the lady with a cane walking slowly down the stairs in front of you. Getting turned down for your start-up loan because the bank rep you happened to meet with is racist or sexist. Missing the cut for grad school admissions because the person reading your application assumed anyone using the word “juxtapose” was a pretentious pseudointellectual. Being upset about a mass shooting and your date thinking you just weren’t clicking. Life happens, and it’s fundamentally unfair, and a lot of really good and deserving people fail all the time. Because we treat failure with shame instead of openness, we may never even know what they were trying or why they failed, burying cures for cancer, new inventions, inspiring art and music, the next great American novel, or the solution for the global economic crisis and a plan for world peace along with their aspirations.\n\nMonsoon Clouds, darkening the sky before the first major rainfall in Orchha, India. (Prints available)\n\nWhen I fail, my first response is to look for all the reasons why it was my fault, including ridiculous things like why I shouldn’t have trusted my team members to do their jobs competently. In addition to being terrible for my self-esteem, it extends way beyond things I can control, and beating myself up about failure is often completely useless. As a holdover from an education where I considered a B as much a failure as an F, I tend to way over-do assignments, and even when clients or bosses are thrilled, I focus on the imperfections and my regrets about the way the project was run.\n\nI’m working on being a lot chiller, though my skin still crawls at people who say, “Done is better than perfect” or some other variation of “Good enough” when they know they can do better. But because I am always micro-analyzing my failures – real or imagined – I’ve become agile at thinking on my feet, improvising for creative problem-solving, improving efficiency and procedures, and constantly assessing situations to see how things might be done more efficiently, more economically, or more beautifully. A lot of the growth in my artistic process has come from failing miserably at what I was trying to do, then innovating in the way I steer out of the disaster I’ve made. And I’ve learned a lot about how to treat people from the ways I’ve failed in friendships and romance.\n\nThe more I fail, the better I am getting at it. I frequently use the metaphor of sailing (which I fail at somewhat regularly). When you first learn to sail, it is with the assumption that the conditions will be steady and ideal, but in reality sailing is a never-ending series of irregular gusts of wind and sudden current changes that make it impossible to simply set a course and stick with it. Good sailors meet each new obstacle with flexibility and learn from them, maybe capsizing the boat a dozen or so times before they learn to recognize a pratfall and head it off. When sailing, you have to pay constant attention and regularly make adjustments, yet even if you do everything as planned, a power boat might buzz by and throw a wake that forces you to tack rapidly, a gust might blow across the stern and cause you to unexpectedly jibe, or you just plain miscalculate how much water you have left and run aground.\n\nLife is, in so many ways, what happens between when you set your course and what you actually encounter on the water, and no two sailors have the same run of it. The only part that truly matters is to keep sailing and to resist the (sometimes constant) urge to pull in all your sheets and give up. And of course, you have to learn to trust your equipment, just as it is crucial to trust your judgment, your sense of what you want and don’t want in life, and to follow your moral compass even when it feels precarious.\n\nWet Rhododendron (prints available)\n\nI am working at embracing failure as an opportunity, learning and improving each time, and looking carefully at what I’ve done and what I haven’t done to end up where I am. Instead of wearing my past failures as constraints on the future, I am owning them and taking pride in how I’ve developed because of them, like a fantastically-branching holly tree. In addition to the big material areas like my career and finances, I am looking at the smaller failures too – times I didn’t communicate as carefully as I should have, when I didn’t give as much of myself as I wanted, when I was pointlessly selfish, when I didn’t speak up or help as much as I meant to, or when I wasn’t as fully open and honest as I strive to be. As we sail along, we should constantly refine our craft at being human and treating others well. When I look at those failings or feel consumed with regret for how I’ve treated someone, I see extraordinary potential for growth and development: I know in my heart I can do better. My sense of failure is a recognition that I have it in me, which is empowering beyond belief.\n\nIf we fail better, which is to say fail more mindfully and openly, with a forgiving spirit, the amorphous shape of regret takes on specifics. If we look at them closely instead of distracting or excusing ourselves, I believe we can learn how to be kinder, more compassionate, and ultimately stronger, more honest, open, and beautiful people. That’s the course I plan to sail anyway.\n\n\nHealing Vibes: My First Sound Bath\n\nMany of the coolest things I’ve done in my life have been spontaneous, last-minute “that sounds interesting” kinds of decisions. The night before the Women’s March, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a post about a sound bath hosted by the Acoustic Mandala Project, whom I knew about through Brooklyn Raga Massive. As I happen to be working on a series of art pieces based on sacred geometry and mandalas, their name jumped out at me, and I asked my mother if she’d like to go directly after the march. We agreed it would be a stark contrast and hoped we wouldn’t be too tired to fully experience it, but we were both so intrigued we couldn’t resist. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the better decisions we’ve ever made.\n\nA sound bath is a meditative experience using specific frequencies of sound (kind of like notes or tones) that – forgive the pun – strike a chord in people. The mathematical relationship among the frequencies touches something visceral and fundamental in the body and mind, and people generally experience incredible healing and a profound meditative experience. These guys carefully explained the concepts, how they derived the tones and discovered the ways different sounds resonate with one another to form chord-like harmonies. They blended electronically purified tones with raga-inflected rhythms, instrumentation, chimes, flutes, and singing bowls struck in person to make an unbelievably rich tapestry of sound and vibrations. I don’t mean vibration in the sort of airy-fairy sense, but actual physical vibrations that coursed through the body head-to-toe for several minutes at a time. But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.\n\nAfter the introduction, everyone in the group laid down on yoga mats in a wobbly semi-circle, covered with woven blankets and wearing eye masks. After our day of marching and feeling so connected with women and humanity on a universal level, it was a vertiginous dive into the mind and the self. The first few minutes felt like a psychedelic clearing-out of everything my mind had been processing, just loads of colors and shapes, invented cartoon characters, and as close as what I imagine LSD hallucinations might look like. I typically experience mild synesthesia in response to sound (which is part of why I am so obsessed with music), so any time I close my eyes and listen, it’s a bit like watching abstract paintings swim around. The purity of these tones evoked something much more intense and emotional than usual, which I felt to be the core of myself. The sound bath lasted a bit more than an hour, I think, with various instruments and tones being introduced, moved around the room, and bringing our bodies and minds on an extraordinary journey with them.\n\nI have spent a lot of time trying to wrap my head around the idea of resonance, as it was the basis for the NMR research we did at Pratt and generally a very cool concept (I highly suggest reading more about acoustic resonance and then helping me explain it better). If you imagine two frequencies of energy like waves in the ocean that run into one another, they first go higher (amplification) then move together thereafter (sympathetic vibrations) at a sweet spot that causes more waves around them. It’s a bit more complex, but certain frequencies resonate in relationships that form chords that just feel right, like the brightness of the I-III-V relationship of major triads in music.\n\nThey had a pair of singing bowls that not only resonated with one another, but did so in a I-V relationship (I think – it might have been I-IV), so that when one was struck by the feet and the other by the head, the body joined in the brightness of that sound, and you could literally feel every molecule of yourself vibrating like an open chord. Maybe it is helpful to picture a bunch of particles spinning in random directions. When the tones were struck, imagine every one aligning like a crystalline grid and briefly spinning in the same direction, in a way that made the mind experience pure joy and luminous energy. There is more neuroscience and physics to it, but the sensation was like having goosebumps all over, shivering with pleasure, and feeling every part of oneself melt into another state.\n\nPrayer wheels at Sarnath, the site of the bodhi tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment.\n(Prints available)\n\nI thought that might be the height of the experience, but it continued through a whole bunch of other similar body and mind sensations, choreographed in waves and beautiful complexity. It felt like my soul was dancing, simultaneously a particle and a wave in some quantum state of existence and non-existence. I felt utterly, completely free, like metaphysical flying, but also intensely grounded and connected with the raw physicality of being human.\n\nThe “finale” of the sound bath is one of those sensations I will keep with me the rest of my life. They went around to each person and struck tuning forks to a pitch that once again resonated perfectly with the softer tones washing over the room, then placed the forks on everyone’s foreheads. I am struggling to think of any way to describe it except as a soul-level orgasm. The frequencies are known to be healing, for reasons not yet fully understood, unlocking blocked emotions and energies within the body and kind of making them sing. Having this pure vibration reverberate from the head through the entire body for several minutes of exquisite being-in-this-moment presence is like nothing I’ve ever known before. I’ve never felt more awake, yet at peace, aware of everything in my mind, yet open. It was like stretching, seeing stars, and slipping through a crack into some surreality of pleasure and beauty.\n\nI was afraid of the come-down from such a great high, that as the vibrations ceased all the muddy and dark stuff in my brain would gunk it up again. I was astonished to find that never happened. I wasn’t able to pinpoint when the vibrations ceased – I just kind of rode the wave back into myself. I preserved the clarity and purity of that moment for the rest of the session – and since then – as if all the little subatomic particles in my mind and body got right and just stayed that way.\n\nWhen we took our eye masks off, I saw everyone else’s eyes were wide and shining like mine, as they described things they felt and “saw” and experienced throughout. It was the spiritual equivalent of the sun coming out from behind clouds after rain and lighting up the mind like the sky. My mother described dramatic visuals in shades of purple, which are supposed to be associated with the crown chakra in meditation. I joked with her that purple is the color I’ve always associated with her, so of course her soul would be purple too.\n\nI am still mesmerized by what an extraordinary experience it was, and I doubt I can ever adequately convey to someone what it felt like in that moment. When I think back, it reminds me of the time I jumped off a cliff into a glacial river in Iceland – saying the words and telling the story kept horrifying me every time I repeated it, like I still couldn’t believe I’d actually done that. This sound bath was a similar sort of jumping-off-a-cliff into something exhilaratingly beautiful and unknown, and yet at the same time, diving within, to the parts of my mind and existence I know best because they’ve been with me all along. I will cherish it forever.\n\nBe with this moment\n\nAs I have mentioned previously, I quote romantic comedies with a somewhat comical frequency in my everyday life. One of the more unexpectedly profound moments in Sweet Home Alabama (spoiler alert) is when Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) tells her fiancé Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) that she can’t marry him:\n\nAndrew, you don’t want to marry me.\n\nI don’t?\n\nNo. No, you don’t, not really. You see, the truth is I gave my heart away a long time ago. My whole heart, and I never really got it back. And I don’t even know what else to say, but I’m sorry. I can’t marry you. And you shouldn’t want to marry me.\n\nSo this is what this feels like.\n\nThe simplicity of his statement, paired with his shocked expression as he struggles to process everything she’s said and what it means for his life, is a touchstone of cinematic empathy for me (it’s okay to make fun of me for that). I picture Patrick Dempsey’s stupefied face every time I hurt someone or watch someone struggle with disappointment, and I can’t count the amount of times I’ve stood stunned myself in the face of heartbreak, identifying with him completely. His response is most typically how I process let-downs now, usually echoing his exact words to myself. So this is what this feels like.\n\nThe scene continues as his overbearing mother, played brilliantly by Candice Bergen, shouts, “That’s it?! You’re just gonna let her humiliate you with some bullshit about an old husband?” Dazed, he replies in the same calm, detached manner, “Yeah, I think I am. Excuse me.”\n\n(I really love this movie.)\n\nFor as long as I can remember, I have adopted a style of depersonalization to cope with fear, hurt, upset, anger, disappointment, and so on, detaching and looking at the situation from the outside as an abstraction. I frequently cite a point of trivia from neuroscience that seemingly conflicting emotions, such as dread and excited anticipation, are identical signals in the brain – it’s simply a matter of interpretation whether they are experienced as positive or negative. Stepping outside oneself, upsetting events are still novel, and in a certain light, our capacity to hurt or fear or experience anything intensely can be kind of abstractly beautiful. I guess that’s why depersonalization works. We can step back and say, “Wow, I can actually feel my heart sinking, how about that.”\n\nI have felt myself resisting conscious experiences since the election, either sinking into altered consciousness / escapism, or sublimating and floating somewhere outside of myself. I am either deep under the sea or up in the clouds, with no desire to deal with the sinking ship of emotions in the present tense. Not surprisingly, that has its own problems, especially when so much of my mental health strategy involves being as Present as possible. I am on familiar ground here, and I have caught myself hiding inside my mind, but I don’t want to be emotionally sequestered anymore and especially not for the next four years.\n\nI’ve been reading books on meditation and philosophy lately, especially Thích Nhất Hạnh. They have been incredible and perfectly-timed reminders that we have a seemingly infinite capacity to bear pain or hurt from others and that the resilience of the human spirit comes, always, in compassion and being fully present. Quite literally getting on the ground (through sitting meditation) and being with this moment.\n\nIn Pema Chödrön‘s excellent book Living Beautifully: with Uncertainty and Change, she outlines the importance of groundlessness and why we should not resist situations that cause trepidation or an unsettled sense of confusion in the universe. Citing the concept of samsara, which she defines as going around and around, recycling the same patterns, she identifies kleshas as the force behind the samsara turbine of pain. Kleshas, she explains, are the “conflicting emotions that cloud the mind,” such as anger, pride, jealousy, and despair, which are the mind’s attempt to escape groundlessness. When we give in to them, our preexisting habits are reinforced, and the wheel continues to spin, paradoxically keeping us even more inescapably trapped in the feeling of groundlessness.\n\nInstead, Chödrön and everyone who’s gotten further in Buddhism 101 than me recommends trying to be even more present, feeling every feeling, reflecting on ourselves having these feelings, and while not obsessively dwelling on the kleshas or just going numb, living through these moments. By being with them, instead of trying to get away from them, and facing reality head on, we can find meaning and inspiration to make changes. In short, take the Patrick Dempsey approach, “So this is what this feels like.”\n\nI have found myself stepping back a lot, limiting the amount of attention I can give to news items (I suspect there will be no shortage of think-pieces and disheartening headlines on our ensuing chaos), trying to keep political conversations focused and specific, seeking positive action instead of anger or despair, choosing my battles or when to walk away, and trying to get into the present tense with this surreality, which includes a lot of world and existence outside of our government and the unconscionable behavior of some of my fellow Americans. Slowly, I am starting to find a path – not out, but through – that gives me a tiny bit of hope and reassurance. It’s not terribly pleasant, but hey, at least I’m feeling again.\n\nI already resent the amount of mental energy and emotion I have spent on this election and the current state of politics in the world, but I am resolved to not let it be in vain. I’m going to transform it into more beautiful thoughts, ideas to help people and the environment, substantive art, acts of compassion, and energy toward progress.\n\nI am reclaiming my present. So this is what this feels like.\n\nOn being single and turning 35\n\nWhen I was young, I took certain biological conditions of my existence for granted. I assumed I would find the love of my life in college or shortly thereafter, that we’d get married, and that I’d have children in my early to mid 20s. My mother was 25 when she had me, and her mother was 25 when she had her. I realized as I approached my 25th birthday that I would not be following that tradition, but surely, I thought, it was right around the corner. I believed I’d met the right person and that our life was leading in that direction. I was laughably wrong.\n\nThis November I turn 35, which I have customarily treated as the expiration date on my childbearing years. I’m not sure where I got that number, although since Facebook thinks all I’m interested in is menstruation and reproduction, articles on fertility pop up all the time. In one from The Atlantic originally published in 2013 called “How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby?” which came up again this weekend, I re-read how a lot of our culturally-accepted understanding that 35 is the start of fertility decline is based on French birth records from 1670 to 1830. And today I read how the one thing I believed to be true, that all a woman’s eggs are present at her birth, may not be true.\n\nFrida Kahlo, The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and Señor Xolotl, 1949, oil on Masonite.\n\nIn truth, I rather enjoyed the poetry and Keanu “whoa” moment of a meme I saw once (and of course can’t find now), declaring, “The egg that became you formed in your mother’s body when she was in your grandmother’s womb.” That’s a pretty profound expansion of one’s physical existence beyond the borders of known consciousness. But it’s also okay with me if that’s not accurate. I know of many examples in my family and others where women continued having healthy babies well past 35 and 40, and my doctor, like everyone else in my life, says I worry too much and my age shouldn’t be an issue. But I think she’s assuming I’m not going to hit pause for another 5 or 10 years while I get the rest of my life together and find a suitable partner.\n\nBeyond feasibility, there are other factors to consider in having a baby, like the increased odds of some chromosomal mutations and genetic aberrations with age, or whether I personally should be passing down my DNA at all. Maybe the love of my life turns out to be someone who’s unable to have children in the traditional way, or maybe it turns out I’m unable to carry a child to term (you don’t really know until you get pregnant, right?). I always thought I’d have plenty of time to work those questions out, but I’ve wasted a really lot of it. And I would like some time to get to know the person with whom I’d be creating another life and be reasonably confident the world would benefit from a combination of us.\n\nSelf Portrait as the Sea, 2016, digital collage\n\nSo turning 35 is a bit sad for me. Even if it’s not the actual end of my chances to have biological children, it’s a lot closer to the end than 25 was, and I haven’t made any better progress in dating men who want to marry me and start a family. If anything I’m back-sliding on that front. Men my age like to freak out when I say upfront that yes, I want a real relationship and yes, I’d like to get married and have children sooner than later. Maybe I’m supposed to pretend I don’t care or that I’m so chill all I’m thinking about is brunch tomorrow, but that would be a lie. I’m not trying to waste more time, but I’m also not going to settle for the wrong person just because he might be my last chance. I’d rather be alone forever than unhappy with the wrong person again. I’ve always been okay with adoption, an option that would give me more time, but that’s by far the more difficult and expensive path, and from what I understand, preference is still given to married couples with healthy bank accounts. I don’t imagine saying, “I don’t know, I’ll trust the universe and figure it out” is the best approach to getting approved to adopt as a single parent if it goes that way.\n\nOccasionally in quiet moments preceding mortality-based “What the hell am I doing with my time on this planet?” type panic attacks, I like to ask myself, “Do I even want children?” I think about the ways my life would change, how expensive and exhausting and challenging kids are, and I can’t honestly say I know for sure I’d be a good mother. I’m nurturing, I try to do right by people, I have a pretty strong sense of responsibility when it comes to caring for pets or other people’s children, so I assume I could get my act together for my own, but I don’t actually know if that’s true. Would I be able to put on a good face in the depths of depression and act like everything’s okay so my kid has a normal childhood, or would I make them miserable and unhappy because I still can’t manage my brain chemistry and need a lot of quiet time? Children can’t process that stuff easily, and I don’t want to damage someone I’m supposed to be encouraging to dream and hope and love.\n\nI’ve always believed I wanted a family because I had a pretty great childhood and family means so much to me. Some bad things happened, I had some struggles, but my parents were always there for me and helped me through it. We had a lot of fun, and I am so grateful that my parents made our family such a priority – we ate dinner together every night, no matter what, and we all talked about our day, discussed current events, and truly knew each other as people. I dream of having that, instead of eating by myself at midnight if I get around to cooking. I’m very close with both of my parents and my brother as adults, and so in addition to the years of cute little people cruising around and energetic family life, I’d like substantive relationships with my children as adults too. My mother recently told me she and my father had a “No Assholes” policy when we were kids, which is to say they would not tolerate brattiness, unkindness, temper tantrums, selfishness, materialism, passive consumption of media, lying, or any of the things that would enable us to grow up into boring, asshole adults. They were quite young when they had kids, so their intent was to raise people they enjoyed being around. And then they spent a lot of time with us and did their best to help us be good people (they still do). I think that’s what I want.\n\nBut… I don’t want it with the wrong person. I have dated some great guys, but also some appallingly terrible ones, and I worry about my judgement and ability to pick the right person for me. I have deals with a few friends and family members that if they ever see me dating someone who seems like another jerk, they need to tell me immediately and not let me waste time trying to spare my feelings. I tend to only see the best in people and latch onto it, so I need to start being slightly more objective and honest with myself about misgivings, if the plan is to have a child with a man whom I hope to be the love of my life.\n\nI know a lot of people who have chosen not to have children, and it seems like they have very happy, full lives. I also know a lot of single parents who are happier than they ever were in a relationship with their children’s parent. Maybe the universe has something different in mind for me than I’d always planned for myself. I know I will do my best to find the meaning and beauty in whatever iteration of family life or solitude I end up in, but I’d like it to be by choice and not by default. I have been saying for a while now that if I were still single when I turned 35 I’d adopt a cat, and I’m having commitment issues even with that. How will I know when it’s the right time to move on from plan A to something else? When do I stop looking for a life partner and just enjoy men’s company for what it is? Or does it just happen quietly one day, when some more time has passed, and I ask myself why I kept sabotaging relationships and clinging to my solitude, then decide I must not have wanted a family after all?\n\nFujikasa Satoko, Plant Growth, 2013, stoneware with matte translucent glaze, at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts\n\nI have spent most of my adult life trying to fix the things I think are wrong with me and trying to make my life better (it’s been one of the themes of this blog since 2014 at least). All of my goals for personal growth, improved health, financial stability, positive life experiences, cultivating relationships with truly good people, and aligning my existence with my values are directly compatible with meeting a soulmate and raising a family, so it’s not like I necessarily need to shift focus or do anything differently. If anything, I should probably focus more on them while I can, since I’m not sure I would be able to get a lot of exercise and meditation in with a newborn around.\n\nI recently read the infinitely-quotable book How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh, who always makes life seem so simple and gentle. He uses an extended metaphor of gardening for how to bring love from oneself out into the world to share with others. I was especially taken with a line on aspirations:\n\nIf you have a deep aspiration, a goal for your life, then your loving of others is part of this aspiration and not a distraction from it.\n\nI’ve been thinking about this over and over, as I think about what goals I want to set for my 35th birthday. I need to adjust my mindset to one where love, and nurturing my relationships with love, are back at the center. If I want to bring love and family into my life, I need to make myself a garden where love can grow (both metaphorically and yuck, yes, physically). Whatever form that takes, I need to welcome it with gratitude, and I know I won’t get there any sooner by being impatient about it.\n\nSo this year I am going to try to actually celebrate, instead of grieve, and be grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, instead of resentful that time passed with no more progress toward a family. I will try to enjoy the unanswered questions and unsettled conditions as mysteries of possibility yet to unfold. I’m going to keep trying to be more open and honest and present day to day, to be more of myself even when it would be easier to give up, curl into a ball, and make decisions I’ll regret years from now. I always tell other friends who are upset about being single that you can’t meet the love of your life until you’re both who and where you need to be, to be right for each other. So maybe it’s time to start taking my own advice and make the best of things as they are, instead of how I might wish them to be.\n\nAnd maybe it’s time to look into adopting that cat.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9091427326202393}
{"content": "An Unusual Relationship\n\nEvangelical Christians and Jews\n\nYaakov Ariel\n\nNYU Press (publisher)\n\nis generally accepted that Jews and evangelical Christians have little in\ncommon. Yet special alliances developed\nbetween the two groups in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Evangelicals\nviewed Jews as both the rightful heirs of Israel and as a group who failed to\nrecognize their true savior. Consequently, they set out to influence the course\nof Jewish life by attempting to evangelize Jews and to facilitate their return\nto Palestine. Their double-edged perception caused unprecedented political,\ncultural, and theological meeting points that have revolutionized\nChristian-Jewish relationships. An Unusual Relationship explores the\nbeliefs and political agendas that evangelicals have created in order to affect\nthe future of the Jews. Additionally, it analyses Jewish opinions and reactions\nto those efforts, as well as those of other religious groups, such as Arab\nvolume offers a fascinating, comprehensive analysis of the roots,\nmanifestations, and consequences of evangelical interest in the Jews, and the\nalternatives they provide to conventional historical Christian-Jewish\ninteractions. It also provides a compelling understanding of Middle Eastern\npolitics through a new lens.\n\nRelated Titles\n\n\n\n\nGoodreads reviews for An Unusual Relationship", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9270318150520325}
{"content": "\n\nJasper Jones movie review: a modern Australian classic\n\n\nCraig Silvey’s 2009 novel Jasper Jones is a bit of a modern classic, telling a dark, moving and often quite funny story of prejudice in Corrigan, a small West Australian town in the 1960s.\n\nSupportBadgeThe book has picked up several awards and plenty of adult and teenage fans since its release, and has been called, perhaps a little reductively, Australia’s answer to To Kill a Mockingbird. Much like To Kill a Mockingbird, it features a young protagonist, 13-year-old Charlie Bucktin, who comes to the realisation that justice isn’t as simple as they once believed. \n\nAnd much like To Kill a Mockingbird, it now has an intelligent, lively, and deeply affecting screen adaptation.\n\nThere’s a strongly held fear and anger at the core of his community, but Charlie (Levi Miller), a young, bookish caucasian boy, has rarely had his eyes opened to it. That is until Jasper Jones (Aaron McGrath), a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy who seems to be blamed for everything bad in Corrigan, knocks on Charlie’s window late one night.\n\n“[Toni] Collette, in particular, is heart-breaking as Charlie’s oft-neglected but loving mum Ruth.”\n\nHe takes Charlie to the scene of a terrible crime and begs for his help in covering it up, fearing he’ll be blamed for the crime he didn’t commit. Jasper knows he’ll have to solve the mystery himself and only fellow outsider Charlie can get him out of this mess.\n\nThe film doesn’t fully explain why Jasper asks for Charlie’s help when the pair barely know each other, nor why Charlie immediately decides to keep Jasper’s secret and dive into the midst of a dangerous web of lies.\n\nBut once you accept that premise, it’s a wonderfully engaging ride, using a murder mystery to explore the dark underbelly of Australian society in the 1960s.\n\nDirector Rachel Perkins’ film is remarkably restrained for a narrative packed so full of twists and turns, and that’s due largely to excellent and firmly realistic performances. It certainly has moments of visual flair, and manages to look at familiar Australian settings from surprising angles (both literally and figuratively), but it’s the dialogue, straight-forward storytelling, and scene work that drives this film.\n\nThe presence of Toni Collette and Hugo Weaving in pivotal supporting roles lend the film some of its best moments. Collette, in particular, is heart-breaking as Charlie’s oft-neglected but loving mum Ruth, reaching her own breaking point as the small-town summer heats up and starts to suffocate.\n\nThe younger cast members are all fantastic, but Levi Miller’s turn as Charlie is astonishing, carrying the entire film with a mixture of intense, nervous energy and curiosity.\n\nPerkins has stayed very true to the novel, with a screenplay penned by Silvey himself and Shaun Grant, keeping Charlie at the absolute centre. When he sees the abuse doled out to Jasper, or his best friend Jeffrey Lu (a very charming and funny Kevin Long) and his Vietnamese family, it’s really only a brief glimpse of what these characters go through.\n\nThis is a story of racial prejudice told through the eyes of a young white protagonist, but putting an Indigenous filmmaker like Perkins into the directors chair brings a new and enriching perspective to the narrative: the way she juxtaposes young Jeffrey’s success in saving the Corrigan cricket team, with the way his parents are treated by the town’s racists, reminds that acceptance of difference in Australia is often conditional and only temporary.\n\nAt first, given that Miller’s Charlie is so charismatic, intelligent and likeable, it feels as though the film might go down the white saviour path, but it becomes obvious soon enough that Charlie isn’t equipped to save anybody.\n\nThe characters who have been cast aside by this town have small wins and moments of redemption, but the fault lines in Corrigan ran far too deep for Charlie to even start solving the biggest problems.\n\n\nJasper Jones is in cinemas from March 2\n\n15 responses to “Jasper Jones movie review: a modern Australian classic\n\n  1. Prior to seeing the film, I knew little of the Jasper Jones story however I was struck by the many references that had been made to it being Australia’s To Kill a Mockingbird.\n\n    Whilst similarities can be drawn what really stood out for me was the efforts the film itself sought to make this reference, albeit at a somewhat subliminal level.\n\n    An obvious linkage was when Charlie is searching for evidence to uncover the killer he is seen in the library researching a number of sources which included Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. At the same time Eliza is seeking to access and “research” another book by Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.\n\n    These two Capote novels serve as a link between Charlie and Eliza. In part it establishes their companionship and drives their shared journey of discovery.\n\n    These two novels also serve as a link back to To Kill a Mockingbird. When Capote was researching the crimes that inspired In Cold Blood he was accompanied by Harper Lee during his visits to Holcomb, Kansas. Their companionship and shared journey of discovery has been well documented.\n\n  2. I enjoyed the book and was looking forward to the movie, which I found riveting and involving. Sadly in a movie there is just not time to explore the lives of the minor characters, eg. the Lus, and I was glad that they included Jeffrey’s great cricketing achievement. However the wonderful dialogue between Charlie and Jeffrey in the book was treated sketchily because it was outside the main plot lines, and I missed it. Overall though, very true to the book, and thought it was wellcast.\n\n  3. Far and away the best Australian film ever and instantly in my top five all time favs. Finally we have a director who understands how to use music effectively to build suspense and draw us into the characters and situations. Beautifully shot, especially the night sequences by the billabong. The whole film had a magical quality for me.\n\n  4. After enjoying the book I have been looking forwards to watching the film…and was not disappointed. The characterisations by both the young and older, more experienced actors were exactly as I imagined them and often exhibited a level of complexity and dimension that made them entirely believable. The world of a small country town in the 60’s has been brilliantly recreated and there was much excellent cinematography, notably in the nighttime bush scenes and the New Years Eve celebrations. Sound and lighting effects are appropriate and seamless.This is much more than a simple coming of age story. The narrative is original and multi-layered and deals with such universal themes as racism, bigotry, family tensions, ignorance, guilt and innocence and young love.Far and away one of the best Australian films in recent years.\n\n  5. A beautifully shot film, with magnetic performances by the young cast … but the story was full of holes. A teenage girl goes missing, and the authorities suspect foul play, because they bring up police from the city and talk about ‘dragging the river’. Yet there appears to be no effort made by anyone to search for the girl. The father seems to just go off to work as if nothing is amiss; and the younger sister just swans around renewing her library books and going to fireworks displays as if nothing is wrong, yet she, of all people, knows there is. Toni Collette’s character seems to go from being very happy – dancing with Charlie, playing cards , to suddenly being so unhappy she has to leave town. Meanwhile, chief suspect Jasper escapes custody, but nobody goes looking for him, either. Finally, Charlie’s bedroom in the middle of the harsh West Australian summer has louvered windows and no fly screens? He should have been dead from mosquito bites. And Eliza is sitting in her room on 31 Dec with the (fly screen less) window shut?\n\n  6. First I must say I found the film a pleasant way to spend two hours. But just as I understand it’s not possible to be partly pregnant, Jasper Jones in wanting us to believe that a film can be partly plausible. The basic premise of Charlie and Jasper being together is very difficult to acccept. In the film, Corrigan never looks genuinely small town – or is it shown as a bigger town than it should be. The film also has too much plot. All of Hugo Weaving’s character is little more than a red herring. I won’t mention the credibility of the cricket match. Where Jasper Jones really glowed was in the characterisation of Geoffrey and Dan Wyllie as Charlie’s father. Sorry to have reservations, especially as I’ve always loved the novel and recommended it to so many friends.Barry\n\n  7. I have seen the film and it is all that has been said and more. I think it easily surpasses the much awarded Moonlight .\n    For one, you will be able to hear every word of the dialogue!\n    And for two, it is both thoughtful and thought provoking.\n\n  8. Five stars for this magnificent film. In this deplorable era of mumbling, I understood every word uttered by every character. The camera work, especially in the karri forest at nightime, was bewitching. The author of the book did a remarkable job of transferring to the difficult medium of a film screenplay. The film and its many talented actors must sweep the pool at AFI Awards and it deserves international acclaim. Rachel Perkins, keep bringing her on!\n\n    1. Unfortunately, the clarity of the dialogue was TOO clear in the case of Jasper Jones who obviously sounded well educated, but he was illiterate!\n\n  9. Saw the film at a pre-release through Belvoir st theatre. Absolutely loved it. The way it is put together is actually amazing. Best film I have seen for years.\n\n  10. very interesting review. personally, the trailers i’ve seen have enticed me to go check it out. congratulations to all of those involved! it’s a wonderful tale…\n\n  11. Hey Ben,\n    I know its not the done thing, but I just wanted to say a big thanks for your review. It means a great deal to our team that you appreciate what we have made. Rachel\n\n    1. Just keep up the amazing work Rachel… if you are in Darwin (or Alice) it would be great to interview you for VAMPtv (arts vodcast for NT remote schools)… check…\n\n\n\n\nNewsletter Signup", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5127871036529541}
{"content": "Protecting patients and promoting quality in healthcare are generally accepted goals for providers and employers.  However, even with the positive purpose and intent behind exclusion screening, complicated decisions must be made to achieve appropriate allocation of resources. Stakes are high due to the potential impact on patient care, individual employees, and the entire organization, so it is essential to understand the different exclusion lists.\n\nSeveral entities present the need for screening: General Services Administration’s System for Award Management (GSA SAM), the OIG List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE), and multiple state specific exclusions lists. Also, a National Provider Data Bank (NPDB) receives and discloses reports on practitioners.  \n\nExclusion screening is an important step since most potential reimbursement for providers hinges on eligibility of their employees to receive payment (even indirectly) from government funds. It’s worth noting that the risk goes beyond participation in Medicare and Medicaid because many health plans require participating employers to certify that none of their employees or other personnel are excluded from participating in any state or federal healthcare program.\n\n\nGeneral Services Administration’s System for Award Management GSA/SAM\n\nRegistration with SAM is necessary to do business with the US government. In July, 2012, GSA migrated its Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) and other systems to the new System for Award Management (SAM). SAM is a comprehensive database that federal agencies can use to determine the eligibility of individuals or entities to participate in their programs.\n\nSAM includes OIG’s exclusions but also includes debarment actions taken by federal agencies. The OIG has no authority to impose civil monetary penalties (CMPs) on the basis of employment of (or contracting with) a debarred person.\n\nIt isn’t necessary to set up an account to check the GSA/SAM.  However, it does require a few steps to complete the screening. Additional information regarding SAM and debarment is available. Free help with registration is also provided on the site.\n\n\nThe OIG List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE)\n\nIn April 2016, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) updated its policy statement relating to the criteria it considers in determining whether to exclude an individual or entity from participation in federal healthcare programs.\n\nOIG exclusion does not affect a person’s ability to participate in other government procurement or non-procurement transactions. The effect of OIG exclusion is to preclude payment by federal health care programs for items or services furnished, ordered, or prescribed by the excluded party.\n\nProviders should use the LEIE as the primary source of information about OIG exclusions because the LEIE is maintained by OIG. The list is updated monthly and provides details about persons excluded, such as the statutory basis for the exclusion action, the person’s occupation at the time of exclusion, the person’s date of birth, and address information.\n\n\nState Medicaid Exclusions\n\nNearly forty states have exclusions lists.  Ideally, states would share this information with the OIG and all exclusions would be detected through the LEIE each month.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case. A state may automatically exclude an individual excluded by OIG but the opposite isn’t always true.\n\nMany states maintain exclusions lists with screening required as a condition of participating in Medicaid.   Other states recommend checking the state list as best practice without making it a requirement. For example, New York states that it is best practice to check their exclusions list every 30 days.  \n\nIn order to thoroughly screen, an employer would need to check every state exclusion list along with the LEIE on a monthly basis.  Realistically, risks and benefits must be weighed by an organization to determine appropriate expenditure of resources.\n\n\nNational Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB)\n\nNPDB provides a national repository of reports to enhance professional review efforts and prevent healthcare fraud and abuse with the ultimate goal of protecting the public. The NPDB receives and discloses reports on health care practitioners, providers, and suppliers, as well as health care organizations. These reports are submitted by authorized organizations as mandated by federal law. These laws determine the types of actions that can or must be reported to the NPDB. A detailed list of reportable actions is available in the NPDB Guidebook.\n\nThe importance of NPDB is discussed less often than other screenings. However, most providers agree with Antique Nguyen of Precheck that “patient safety is the backbone of healthcare and the NPDB plays a critical role in protecting patients from unfit, excluded practitioners”. Interested individuals and organizations can learn more through self-query.\n\n1467 Total Views 1 Views Today", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9522690773010254}
{"content": "Best American Flags in Vashon WA 98070\n\nProudly Made in the USA American Flags around Vashon WA 98070\n\nA nationwide icon that has the names “The Stars and Stripes”, “Old Glory”, and “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the American flag is among the extremely identifiable symbols on the planet today. This is mainly as a result of the standing of the United States as one of the most prominent nations in history. The American Flag is the third oldest of the National Standards of the globe – older compared to the Union Jack of Britain or the Tricolor of France. It is unique in the deep as well as honorable importance of its message to the whole globe. It represents a message of nationwide freedom, of individual liberty, of optimism, as well as of nationalism.\n\nWho created the American Flag?\nExactly what does the American Flag represent?\nWhy is the American Flag vital to American community?\nWhere can I buy American Flags?\n\nWho created the American Flag?\n\n\nPhoto via Wikimedia Commons\n\n\nWhat does the American Flag represent?\n\nThe flag initially flew over thirteen states along the Atlantic coast, with a population of some three million individuals. Today it flies over fifty states, extending across the continent, as well as over multiple islands of both seas; and many owe it obligation. It has actually been brought to this happy position by love and also sacrifice. People have actually progressed it and heroes have actually died for it.\n\n\n\nIt incarnates for all the human race the spirit of freedom and the marvelous belief of human liberty; not the freedom of unrestraint or the liberty of license, but a unique ideal of equal opportunity for life, liberty and also the quest of joy, guarded by the demanding and also soaring concepts of duty, of morality and of justice, and achievable by obedience to self-imposed laws.\n\nTwo times told tales of national honor as well as splendor cluster thickly about it. It births witness to the immense development of our national limits, the development of our natural resources, and also the superb framework of our people. It forecasts the victory of prominent federal government, of civic and also spiritual freedom as well as of national decency throughout the globe.\n\nWhy is the American Flag important to American culture?\n\nThe American flag is essential because it represents the independent government as defined under the United States Constitution. Add to that, it additionally represents the background, ideas and values of its residents. As a democratic country, its people adhere to all-important values such as freedom, justice and equal rights. Furthermore, the flag likewise symbolizes the numerous achievements of the nation as well as the pride of its people.\n\nThis nationwide icon reminds people, not only in the state of Washington, but throughout the entire USA about the different crucial aspects of the Declaration of Independence. It is a complex symbol, which stands for the liberty as well as legal rights of Americans. Drifting from the soaring pinnacle of American idealism, it is a sign of enduring hope.\n\n\nWhere can I find American Flags?\n\nYou possibly already discovered this, but there are a lot of locations where you could obtain American flags. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the flag you are going to buy ought to be “Made in United States of America”.\n\n\nThe flag represents national self-reliance as well as prominent sovereignty. It is not the flag of a ruling family or imperial house, yet of the millions free people welded right into a country, one and also indivisible, unified not only by community of interest, yet by crucial unity of view and also function; a country differentiated for the clear specific perception of its people alike of their tasks as well as their privileges, their commitments and their legal rights.\n\n\nVashon ZIP codes we serve: 98070", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.919441819190979}
{"content": "Abbot General Gedikian Passes Away\n\nVENICE–The oldest member of the Venice Mekhitarist Catholic order–former Abbot General and Patriarch–Bishop Hmayak Gedikian passed away at 5:30 a.m. in Rome.\n\nBorn in 1905 in Trabizon–Bishop Gedikian was ordained a priest in 1921–after being saved by a family during the Genocide and later attending the Mekhitarist Seminary in Istanbul.\n\nIn 1964 he was elected Abbot General of the Mekhitarist order. In 1971–he was ordained a bishop.\n\nIn July of 1976 he was named Patriarch and served that position until 1982–following which he retired and moved to Rome.\n\nBishop Gedikian was an influential figure at the Mekhitarist order. He authored numerous books and was an expert in church constitutional matters. He also translated numerous religious texts from Latin to Armenia. He leaves behind a vast collection of unpublished works.\n\n\nDiscussion Policy\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6150339841842651}
{"content": "27 luglio 2006\n\nProclaiming Christ in the Amazon\n\nInterview With Bishop Castriani\n\nTEFE, Brazil, JULY 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Sergio Eduardo Castriani is no stranger to the jungle.\n\nHe is the bishop of the Tefe Prelature, which extends over an area the size of mainland Italy and is located in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon region.\n\nIn this excerpt of his interview with ZENIT, Bishop Castriani, 52, speaks of the beauty and challenges of being the head of this jurisdiction.\n\nIn general, the population lives on the banks of the rivers that flood during the rainy season. They are descendants of the rubber workers and chestnut sellers. About three-quarters of the 215,000 inhabitants are Catholic, served by 14 priests.\n\nQ: How is Jesus Christ and the Church's message presented to the natives?\n\nBishop Castriani: Virtually all the native groups already have or have had for centuries contact with the Church; that is, the Church is not just arriving there now.\n\nWith very rare exceptions, these native groups, including the nomads, who are also the most isolated, have already had contact with the Church. This contact has come about through an evangelization which at times has been a bit hasty, through sacramentalization and through devotions.\n\nBecause of this, the majority of the native groups are Catholic in the sense that they have been baptized. They have Catholic devotions and feel themselves part of the Church. A work of evangelization is being carried out with them, taking into account their identity and history, but it is an endeavor of evangelization to deepen the faith, that is, to believe in Jesus Christ and at the same time to continue to be natives, preserving their culture.\n\nIt is different with those who still have their traditional religion. They are groups in which people approach the Church with respect but with an attitude of dialogue. And dialogue presupposes that I am truly very convinced of what I believe, but that I respect that which the other believes.\n\nIt is, in the first place, a dialogue of life, that is, of coexistence, of humanly respecting one another and then, little by little, of revealing their own interior, creed, and of not having papers written ahead of time.\n\nThat is, when one enters into dialogue, one does not know what point will be reached, because if dialogue is to convince the other to adhere to one's own faith, then it isn't dialogue, it is proselytism. Only God knows where dialogue will end, and it is he who knows how much time will be necessary.\n\nQ: What is the situation of sects in the Amazon? Is there concern?\n\nBishop Castriani: It is a concern as it is in the rest of Brazil. I think that in the Amazon the presence is less compared to other areas of Brazil. Although many have abandoned the Church, not all have; they are not the majority.\n\nMoreover, our communities and churches are full; we have much work in the Amazon, the Church is very alive, with many young people, many guides; people want to study, to learn, to participate.\n\nThere is also a vocational movement that is beginning to work very well. It is a paradoxical situation, in the sense that there is an invasion of these religious movements but there is also a great rebirth in the Catholic Church.\n\nIt is difficult to know where it will end, but I don't believe in a conquest of the Amazon by Protestant churches and Pentecostalism, I believe this has a limit. However, all the Pentecostal churches look to the Amazon; they invest, send people and have a plan to conquer the area.\n\n3 commenti:\n\nfalco348 ha detto...\n\n\nupssidetown ha detto...\n\n\naliscia ha detto...\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9095627665519714}
{"content": "Tuesday, November 19, 2013\n\nFog And Richard Cory\n\nFog and Richard CoryThe poem is basically an extended of a spot , a very rich successful musical composition , named Richard Cory . The cashier of the poem spends a full three quarters , the attempt three stanzas , of the poem only complimenting this man . He portrays this Richard Cory as the rival of all those around him , the object of each(prenominal)one s attention as we people on the pavement looked at him . He refers to Cory as a gentleman from sole to crown , and even uses wrangle that sounds suited to describe royalty when he calls Cory Clean well-off , and imperially slimThe second and third stanzas go on in much the same way . In the second stanza , the storyteller describes Cory s friendly caste . In the narrator s eye s , Cory continues to be the perfect , polite gentleman , as he was ceaselessly human when he talked . Cory was certainly not the picture of a snobbish or rude man . Cory was also a very popular fellow , as he fluttered pulses with a simple Good-morning . Add that he glittered when he walked , and Cory is an poignant fond figure indeedIn the third stanza , the narrator s picture of Richard Cory s perfect find oneself is completed , as the narrator goes on to tell us just somewhat Cory s financial success and his refined genius .\nCory is depict as richer than a king and schooled in every adorn To finish this wonderful picture of this wonderful man the narrator simply says we thought that he was everything / To make us inclination tha! t we were in his placeHowever , the poem takes a sudden , sulky convolute in the last stanza Robinson does this by root bring out a little more about the narrator In the first two lines of the fourth stanza , the narrator says So on we worked , and waited for the comfortable / And went without meat and cursed the bread This is obviously a recognition to the narrator s own light financial and social accede . For the narrator , work is a place of fantasm and rigor where you simple wait for the light For the narrator , at that place is no meat to eat at dinner-time , and after so umpteen meals without it , you begin to curse the cheap bread that you do ache to eat . This is a sharp and stark direct contrast to the fairy-tale manage glory that is the life of Richard Cory , and reminds the reader of the poem that for every Cory in the world , there is someone less rose-colored face upon that same Cory in aweAlso , this revelation puts everything that the narrator has g ive tongue to about Cory into a new light . As a poor , destitute man /woman , the narrator had every confession to be envious or jealous of Cory s draw in life--not just envious , but downright mingy , and vengeful of Cory . However , not one bad member about Cory passes from the narrator s lips . This speaks volumes about Cory s character , and makes the reader recollect that peradventure this...If you want to get a full essay, coif it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9799521565437317}
{"content": "Our strategic planning of therapeutic areas for development of new and generic drugs, as well as cellular products is based on the in-depth analysis of the patient population needs in the Russian Federation for various medical products and treatments. Currently, we are pursuing research and development of therapies for the following diseases and pathological conditions.\n\nThe abnormal growth of blood vessels, stimulated by VEGF, is one of the pathogenetic mechanisms of retinal damage and vision loss in such common diseases as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Ranibizumab, which is a modified form of Bevacizumab, was successfully used for treatment of the wet (exudative) form of age-related macular degeneration and macular oedema due to retinal vein occlusion.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000009536743164}
{"content": "Thursday, 29 December 2016\n\nThe fabric of magic is woven into our existence\n\nI can say with full certainty that the world we inhabit is inherently magical. To walk through a natural structure crafted from giant trees that have thrived since modern comforts were inconceivable is to witness magic. Magic, to me, is a feeling. It's also a fabric that overlays the physical world - a membrane forged of collective psychology, of stories thousands of years old.\n\nA few months ago I was sunning myself on the Greek island of Crete, looking out into the azure sea at a dragon. At first glance this rocky structure looked much like an island and I'm sure to the untrained eye it could easily be mistaken for one. But locals knew differently. The shape was definitely dragon-like - a creature that has been turned to stone and sits in the sea for eternity. \"Nonsense,\" you might say. But can this membrane of folklore not allow this island to be both a physical geographic place and a dead serpent at the same time?\n\nFor me, magic exists alongside the mundane. These stories of supernatural beings and brave heroes form an overlay on this scientific world. One shouldn't exist without the other when it comes to analyzing the world around us. It's important to know that the Devil's Arrows are both a megalith erected by pagan ancestors and the literal weapons of a dark being. There is no use in 'debunking' the latter because the story is just one part of what makes these stones what they are today.\n\nI used to subscribe to the materialistic school of thought - that the only importance lied in physical things that we could evidence. Everything else can be discounted. I am not religious but I know gods walk the earth within this magical membrane. Our very weekday names have been shaped by Woden, Freya and Saturn - can we ignore them as if they don't play a part in our world experience? Absolutely not.\n\nI believe that life is much richer when we make room for the magical, the sublime. Over the past few years I've softened my position as a staunch atheist and have sang songs of and drank to the old gods. Not because I think they're listening, but because of what they represent.\n\nAs the world becomes a more uncertain place it's important to remember that it's also wonderful and brimming with secrets. While certain people want to tear others apart, we must remember that our shared stories, this fabric of magic, brings us together, no matter where you are in the world.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7082751989364624}
{"content": "If we were to make a list of favorite garden vegetables, you probably wouldn't find eggplant very near the top of the list.  While it may not be as popular as the tomato, it does produce good yields of fruit, which can be used in a wide variety of dishes.  In addition, it is somewhat attractive, and has been used on occasion in ornamental plantings.\n\nEggplant is another member of the nightshade family (solanaceae), which also includes tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes.  Like other solanaceous crops, eggplants were once considered less-than-desirable as food, if not actually poisonous.  In the 16th century, it was known as the \"mad apple\", because it was thought that consumption would lead to insanity.\n\nOriginally, eggplant was found in two regions of the world.  Smaller-fruited types came from China, and larger-fruited types came from India.  The name of \"eggplant\" was chosen because of the shape of the small-fruited varieties which are similar to eggs.  Today, we can grow either type, or hybrids of the two types.  This has led to a wide selection of sizes, shapes, and colors.  There are even small, white varieties, which do come close to looking like eggs.  These can make unusual ornamental plants.\n\nLike tomatoes, eggplants love hot weather, and do their best during mid-summer.  Daytime temperatures of 78 degrees are optimal.  Nighttime temperatures are best above 68 degrees.  Eggplants will grow in warmer weather, but may fail to set fruit if temperatures get too high.  If drying winds accompany the high temperature readings, pollination may be prevented.  However cooler weather will bring a return of fruiting.  When fall arrives, eggplants slow their growth, and fruits do not develop.\n\nThe best time to harvest eggplant is when they are young, approximately 1/3 to 2/3 of their mature size.  If you press lightly on the side of the fruit with your thumb, the flesh should readily spring back.  If it does not, the fruit is too mature.  Another indicator of maturity is the skin color.  Fruit which is still optimal will have a high gloss, but over-mature fruit may look dull, with possible bronzing.\n\nWhen selecting varieties to grow, choose those which have disease resistance.  Some of the diseases which are problems in tomatoes can also attack eggplants, such as verticillium wilt.  Be sure to rotate your crops each year, and this will lessen the likelihood of disease.\n\nInsect pests can be a problem, especially flea beetles.  These are small, black beetles, about 1/16 inch long.  They feed on the leaves, making many small holes.  In severe cases, they can actually destroy the plant.  Even if your eggplant survives, they can still stunt the plant and reduce yields.  If flea beetles are a problem, you will need to maintain a regular spray schedule in order to harvest a crop.\n\nAs a final thought, remember that these plants are normally vigorous growers, producing large fruits.  This means that they will need plenty of moisture, especially on sandy soils.  During the hot weather that makes them thrive, be sure to give them regular water.  You'll soon be giving eggplant to your neighbors.\n\nTim Baker, Northwest Region Horticulture Specialist, University of Missouri Extension\n\nUniversity of Missouri Extension programs are open to all", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7170448899269104}
{"content": "Would You Elect Watson for President?\n\n  • Print\n\nwatson president\n\n\"The time is coming when AIs will have better judgment than most politicians.\"\n—Joshua Davis\n\nImagine that you were given two choices for the next president. The first choice is a person from a different political party with a set of policies or beliefs that you strongly disagree with. The second choice is an AI designed by a party with the sole purpose of achieving the policies you like. Which would you choose?\n\nComputer scientists are now designing AI-based systems that are able to outperform humans in a wider and wider range of tasks.\n\nEventually, says Joshua Davis at WIRED, AIs will also prove themselves superior when it comes to human governance.\n\nThis idea may sound a little too sci-fi for many right now, but \"the time is coming,\" he says. We spoke to him recently on our podcast (see Man vs. Machine – Who Will Govern Us Better?) about this radical idea, what it might look like to have an AI as President of the United States, and whether this is even possible from a constitutional standpoint.\n\nHumans Are Not Good at Governing\n\nFirst, it wasn’t the current political climate that spurred Davis to raise this idea, he noted. Rather, it came from examining the nature of our current political system in relation to how AI is evolving.\n\n“We vote for people, more often than not, based on the way they look, their hairstyle, or the way they talk,” Davis said. “These are not really at the heart of the issues.”\n\nTo Davis, human personality—particularly our tendency to be drawn into scandals—has gotten in the way of governance. History, he says, shows that we’re not very good at governing ourselves.\n\nAt the heart of Davis’ argument is the fact that artificial intelligence has been outperforming humans at specific tasks for a long time. For example, in 1996 the program Deep Blue beat then-world-champion Garry Kasparov at chess. More recently, AI created by Google beat the world’s leading Go players.\n\nGo is considered by many to be even more complex than chess, and many top Go players were astounded with how quickly the program was able to master the game and win 60 games in a row.\n\n“It was doubly remarkable because of the way that it won,” Davis said. “It won by doing things that Go players had never seen before. It won by innovating. It won by creative, strategic thinking.”\n\nThese traits typically were thought to be possessed only by humans. But they’re exactly the traits we also want in a political leader.\n\nThe Road to POTUS AI\n\nOver the course of the evolution of artificial intelligence, we’ve seen the model for developing an AI change. The first attempts involved feeding answers to questions into a system.\n\nMore recent approaches employ what is called deep learning or neural networks, where AI processes a data set and draws conclusions for a given problem, Davis noted.\n\nUsing this approach, we’re seeing applications that are increasingly impressive. For example, a group of researchers used a neural network to identify skin cancer by submitting thousands of images of skin cancers to the program.\n\n“The AI was better at identifying skin cancers than a group of doctors who had spent their entire careers training to identify cancer,” Davis said.\n\nThis isn’t to suggest that we’ll see an AI candidate in the next election cycle, however.\n\n“We’re obviously not there yet,” Davis said.\n\n“A Purer Form of Democracy”\n\nWith AI sophistication growing rapidly, the reality is, it’s increasingly possible to feed any kind of information into a system to optimize whatever process or field in consideration.\n\nWhen it comes to running a country, “the question is, would an AI do better than a human?” asked Davis. “Humans are far from flawless. … To me, there’s a lot about humanity that causes problems when it comes to governance.”\n\nHe would like to see politicians make decisions based on the greater good, especially one with the added benefit of being scandal-free.\n\n“In some ways, it could be a purer form of democracy,” Davis said.\n\nOne possibility is each party develops their own AI which people elect to track progress on issues of their choosing. Another possibility is that political parties fade altogether and, instead, the presidency might become a policy platform, with the sum total of majority votes dictating what policies the AI president choses to implement.\n\nThe Question of Constitutionality\n\nSome may object that this future scenario is implausible since it would not pass the US Constitution's elibility requirements for a US president.\n\nCertainly, technology-embracing countries outside of the US could decide to do this or Constitutional ammendments could be made but, as it currently stands, the three requirements for US President are that they must be at least 35 years of age, they must have been a US resident for fourteen years, and, thirdly, they must be a natural born citizen.\n\nThe Framers likely never imagined a machine taking this role but if such a system were \"Made (or born) in the USA\" and been in use for at least 35 years (residency doesn't necessarily apply in this case), then, by all means, it seems that there's no constitutional reason why we couldn't elect an AI as president.\n\nFurthermore, as faith in AI over humans becomes more prominent, especially among tech-loving Millennials, this may actually be driven from the bottom-up as voters increasingly make Watson their write-in candidate.\n\nConsider Watson for President:\n\nThe Watson 2016 Foundation is an independent organization formed for the advocacy of the artificial intelligence known as Watson to run for President of The United States of America. It is our belief that Watson’s unique capabilities to assess information and make informed and transparent decisions define it as an ideal candidate for the job responsibilities required by the president.\n\nWatson is a system of computer software processes used for answering questions posed in natural language, initially developed by IBM for the quiz show Jeopardy! Watson compiles information from a variety of sources into multiple terabytes of data used as reference for generating responses. The more information Watson is able to consume, the more informed its decision making capabilities become. It's also capable of accepting information from any resource, allowing the possibility to analyze different perspectives and political agendas on a particular subject.\n\nWatson marks a shift in machine learning in that it was designed to compete against humans using natural language processing in both accuracy of answer as well as speed. It must understand a question, use the key information elements in the question to analyze an immense wealth of data, and derive the top candidates for answers. This is a task all politicians undergo on a daily basis, including the president, and could be more suitably and efficiently executed by an artificial intelligence.\n\nListen to our daily interviews with leading guest experts by clicking here.\n\n\nAbout FS Staff", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8271468877792358}
{"content": "Activity Index\n\nACTIVE Project\n\nSign up to the A.C.T.I.V.E. project and access six sessions for £1 per session (one session per week). Complete the attached registration form and take it to your nearest participating Tempus Leisure facility.\n\nDragon Leisure Centre - Bodmin\n\n  • Core and Stretch - Monday - 10.30am - 11.30am\n  • Aerobics - Tuesday - 10am - [...]\n\nAerial Fitness\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJapanese martial art, Aikido, is based on spherical movements where an attacker's force is used against them. The main techniques are joint immobilisations and throws using the opponents momentum.\n\n\nAmerican Football\n\nAmerican Football is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone.\n\nThe ball can be advanced by carrying it (a running play) or by throwing it to a team-mate (a [...]\n\nAmerican Square Dancing\n\nSquare Dancing is folk orientated and involves four couples (eight dancers) arranged in a square with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. The dance was first described in 17th century England but was also quite common in France and throughout Europe and bears a marked similarity [...]\n\n\nAngling is a principal method of sport fishing where catch and release is increasingly practiced by recreational fishermen. Size limits apply to certain species, meaning fish below and/or above a certain size must, by law, be released.\n\nFishing seasons are set by localities to indicate what kinds of fish may be caught [...]\n\nAqua Zumba\n\n\n\nAquathons are a continuous two staged race involving swimming and running. They are similar to triathlons with the key difference being the lack of a cycle leg, and have been around in various forms since the early 20th century in ocean lifeguard competitions. The modern international standard lifeguard distance is 400m run, [...]\n\n\nHistorically, archery has been used for hunting and combat, while in modern times, its main use is that of a recreational activity. Competitive archery involves shooting arrows at a target for accuracy from a set distance or distances. This is the most popular form of competitive archery worldwide and is [...]\n\nArm Wrestling\n\nVarious factors can play a part in success during an arm wrestling match. Technique and overall arm strength are the two greatest contributing factors alongside arm length, muscle and arm mass/density, hand grip size, wrist endurance and flexibility, and reaction time.\n\nIn competitive arm wrestling, both contestants stand with their arms placed on [...]\n\nArtistic Skating (roller)\n\nArtistic roller skaters wear boots with wheels instead of blades, but skating disciplines are very similar to those found in ice-skating, which include; figure skating, freestyle (individuals performing jumps and spins), pairs (two people performing jumps, spins, and lifts), dance couples, solo dances, and team skating (similar to synchronized skating [...]\n\n\nAthletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking. The simplicity of the competitions, and the lack of a need for expensive equipment, makes [...]\n\nAustralian Rules Football\n\nAustralian rules football, also known as Australian football or Aussie rules, is played between two teams of 18 players on the field on either a football ground, a modified cricket field or similar sized sports venue. The game's objective is to move the ball downfield and kick the ball through the [...]\n\nActivity Search", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8826143741607666}
{"content": "\n\nThe Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) announced that it has filed the first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) on behalf of its clients, two principal developers of BusyBox, against Monsoon Multimedia, Inc. BusyBox is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems and is open source software licensed under GPL version 2.\n\nOne of the conditions of the GPL is that re-distributors of BusyBox are required to ensure that each downstream recipient is provided access to the source code of the program. On the company's own Web site, Monsoon Multimedia has publicly acknowledged that its products and firmware contain BusyBox. However, it has not provided any recipients with access to the underlying source code, as is required by the GPL.\n\n\"We licensed BusyBox under the GPL to give users the freedom to access and modify its source code,\" said Erik Andersen, a developer of BusyBox and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit filed yesterday in Manhattan Federal District Court. \"If companies will not abide by the fair terms of our license, then we have no choice but to ask our attorneys to go to court to force them to do so.\"\n\nThe complaint filed by SFLC on behalf of the BusyBox developers requests that an injunction be issued against Monsoon Media. It also requests that damages and litigation costs be awarded to the plaintiffs. A copy of the complaint is available here.\n\n\"Free software licenses such as the GPL exist to protect the freedom of computer users. If we don't ensure that these licenses are respected, then they will not be able to achieve their goal,\" said Eben Moglen, Founding Director of SFLC. \"Our goal is simply to ensure that Monsoon Multimedia complies with the terms of the GPL.\"\n\nThe lawsuit, \"Erik Andersen and Rob Landley v. Monsoon Multimedia Inc.,\" case number 07-CV-8205, will be heard by Senior District Judge John E. Sprizzo of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9901671409606934}
{"content": "Tomandy Gallery Shop\n\n25 E. Patrick Street - Frederick, MD 21701 - - 301-639-2707\n\nCopyright Tomandy Gallery. All rights reserved.\n\n\n​Jeff Hall, Sculpture\n\nJeff Hall, sculptor\n\nJeff's ceramic sculpture has been shown internationally and his architectural sculpture adorns government buildings, churches and estates in and around the Washington D.C. area, as well as the east coast, including two commissions for the US capitol building, the Marin Corp administration building, the Turkish Embassy and the Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC.\n\n\"I enjoy using the figure to examine greater things than our selves. My interest in time is evident in most all of my own work. Time figures into a deep and inexhaustible wealth of ideas relating to the earth, the universe and the cultures of man. I focus on monumental and god like figures that are not bound by the laws of physics. Eliminate gravity and anything is possible. A strong pose represents humanity at its best. While the human body itself is beautiful, the mind affects body language, where beauty and inner strengths can be realized. The figure is more than just a body in motion, it is also a mind at work. I generally don’t concern myself with scale relationships within a sculptural piece.  In that respect the image becomes a little surreal.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9970210790634155}
{"content": "Where Did the Road Go?\n\n\nFind Wren at https://liminalroom.com/\n\nFind Adam at http://conspirinormal.podomatic.com/\n\nFind Red Pill on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/redpilljunkie/\n\n\n\n\nWDTRGPart 1 of 2 of a conversation with Greg Bishop and Jeff Ritzmann about how people lose their way studying fringe topics. We also get into Jeff's work on UFO photos, and much more...\n\nJeff can be found at http://numinousden.blogspot.com/\n\nGreg can be found at http://radiomisterioso.com/\n\nThe outro music is from David Wirsig, from his Teachers Choice EP, a song entitled Dave's Ghost.\n\n\nStrangeFamiliarsFor episode 13 we talk with Jim Pyre. Jim is a Strange Familiars listener and he reached out to us with some of his experiences with the strange and paranormal. We talked about will-o-the-wisps, the fae folk, grassman, hatman and more – including some thoughts about what may be behind some of these phenomena.\n\nWe’ll be featuring listener stories on occasion and we would like to do compilation shows featuring multiple listeners – so even if you just have a short encounter, we would love to hear from you.\n\n\nEpisode 13 notes and links:\n\nYou can find Jim‘s blog at http://www.JimPyre.com\n\n\nMichael Andersonhttps://drekka.bandcamp.com\n\n\n\ninstagram: @strangefamiliars\n\n\nIntro and background music by Stone Breath – which is our band. You can find more at http://stonebreath.bandcamp.com\n\nThe song which closes the episode is My Offering from the forthcoming Stone Breath album, Witch Tree Prophetshttps://stonebreath.bandcamp.com/album/witch-tree-prophets\n\n\n\n\n945210CBB0EB8C343AB2CF7019D64FBD525810725E0353E7C1pimgpsh fullsize distrSo this show is in response to a short bit Peter Benard recorded after listening to our June 9th Show on Fiction and the Paranormal. Although he misquoted me a couple of times, overall his points were excellent, so this show is in response to his response. We clear up what he seems to have misunderstood, in case anyone else did as well, and then build off of the points he made. Overall, this show is about how to stay sane, and not get caught up in the beliefs these things create. \n\n\nYou can hear Peter's Bit Below, if you want to listen to that first. It is not necessary, but it will give you a better idea of where we are coming from as we go into this. \n\nAnd here is the email Peter send us; \n\n\"I have a lot of respect for the older episodes of \"Where Did The Road Go\" but I think Seriah has become too involved with certain other people who are unconsciously intent on creating a new religion of Forteanism in which the majority of logical thought is labeled heresy.\n\nI recorded thsi for PQ Ribber's show, but I don't know when he's going to upload it. My long-winded commentary, interrupted by me taking a picture of a robin and avoiding crazy(er) people.\nIt's reached the point where Seriah recently expressed GUILT about listening to fiction about horror and wondered openly if horror fiction POLLUTES THE EVIDENCE POOL of paranormal research.\n\n\"Pollutes the evidence pool\" is to Forteans in 2017 what \"Trump and Russia\" is to MSNBC and CNN in 2017. It excites the cult members while making everyone else see you as completely batshit crazy. \n\nKeel told me to NEVER BELIEVE ANYTHING ABOUT ANY OF THIS STUFF. Once you start believing anything, then YOU WILL GO INSANE.\n\nHence, my attraction to Andy Kaufman-style pranking, like Mullah Nasrudin, Robert Anton Wilson, and other heretics before me. To drive you SANE. If pranks make you ANGRY instead of making you LAUGH, then YOU are the one who most needs to be pranked. Pranksters pull pranks TO REMIND YOU THAT YOU BETTER STOP BELIEVING IN SHIT for the sake of your own sanity. If you're wondering if it's heretical to listen to FICTION, then you need to take a break and go listen to ANYTHING else for a while. Take a break. Watch a comedy. Go see a band play, man. Don't make up random fortean rules based on the limited thinking of the people who collect Bigfoot or UFO paraphernalia then beat yourself for sinning against these arbitrary and weird rules. \n\ncough cough Blink 182 cough cough\n\nIf your first assumption is not ALWAYS that it was a prank, then you've become a cult member and a believer, and you have no ability to claim being involved in scientific inquiry. All of forteana is just a collection of stories. A collection of stories is not a \"pool of evidence,\" it's FOLKLORE. Horror fiction is also essentially folklore. You ask if folklore is polluting folklore! That's not logical thought. Anyone who has read RAW knows that's only ghost words based on dogma instead of the reality(ies) in front of your nose. \n\nYou guys fret about how to be taken more seriously by people outside your little circle. If you ACTUALLY want to understand that, listening to my audio would be a good place to start. Or you can get angry at me for liking and respecting you enough to spill my guts for you. My next appearance in Boston I'm being lumped in with a Simpsons animator and a Grateful Dead t-shirt artist, nothing in my world is changed if you heed my words or not. \n\nEnd of mansplanation\"\n\nPage 2 of 83", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7563086748123169}
{"content": "Looking for the Sunrise\n\nJune 1, 2008\n\nLooking for the Sunrise\n\nI’m not looking for the sunset,\nAs the swift years come and go;\nI am looking for the sunrise,\nAnd the golden morning glow,\nWhere the light of heaven’s glory\nWill break forth upon my sight,\nIn the land that knows no sunset,\nNor the darkness of the night.\n\n                                 I’m not going down the pathway\n                                  Toward the setting of the sun,\n                                 Where the shadows ever deepen\n                                   When the day at last is done;\n                                   I am walking up the hillside\n                              Where the sunshine lights the way,\n                                    To the glory of the sunrise\n                                    Of God’s never-ending day.\n\n                                 I’m not going down, but upward,\n                                     And the path is never dim,\n                                For the day grows ever brighter\n                                     As I journey on with Him.\n                                So my eyes are on the hilltops,\n                                  Waiting for the sun to rise,\n                                  Waiting for His invitation\n                              To the home beyond the skies.\n\n                               Albert Simpson Reitz, June 1953\n\n\nJanuary 28, 2008\n\nThe essence of God’s forgiveness lies in His word and in His mystery.\n\n Because although God sends us the message, it is our task to decipher it.\n\n Because when we open our arms, the earth takes in only a hollow and senseless shell.\n\n Far away now is the soul in its eternal glory.\n\n Because it is in pain that we find the meaning of life and the state of grace that we lose when we are born.\n\n Because God in His infinite wisdom puts the solution in our hands.\n\n And because it is only in His physical presence that the place He occupies in our souls is reaffirmed.\n\nFrom “Pan’s Labyrinth”", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6448676586151123}
{"content": "Chanca Piedra – Phyllanthus niruri\n\nFamily: Euphorbiaceae\n\nHeight: 30-40cm\n\nPhyllanthus niruri is a herb that laboratory tests show may inhibit calcium oxalate crystal formation, protect the liver and have analgesic properties. This plant has a long history of safe use in Amazonian and Ayurvedic herbal medicine.  Also known as Quebra Pedra in the Rainforest and Bhumi Amla in India\n\nConstituents: Alkaloids, astragalin, brevifolin, carboxylic acids, corilagin, cymene, ellagic acid, ellagitannins, gallocatechins, geraniin, hypophyllanthin, lignans, lintetralins, lupeols, methyl salicylate, niranthin, nirtetralin, niruretin, nirurin, nirurine, niruriside, norsecurinines, phyllanthin, phyllanthine, phyllanthenol, phyllochrysine, phyltetralin, repandusinic acids, quercetin, quercetol, quercitrin, rutin, saponins, triacontanal, tricontanol\n\nActions: Analgesic, antibacterial, antihepatotoxic, anti-inflammatory, antilithic, antimalarial, antimutagenic, antinociceptive, antispasmodic, antiviral, aperitif, carminative,choleretic, deobstruent, digestive, diuretic, febrifuge, hepatotonic, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic,hypotensive, laxative, stomachic, tonic, vermifuge.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9960461258888245}
{"content": "Housesitting – a few tips for beginners\n\nHouse and pet sitting means moving around, a lot.  It’s probably not the lifestyle for those of you out there who enjoy a slow paced and predictable routine. But if you’re not fazed by the thought of packing all your belongings and moving every few weeks to an entirely different location, then read on! Scheduling…\n\nTravelling light\n\nOne hundred CDs, four hundred books, 5 different kitchen tools to stir your soup. It’s a human condition to collect and fill our houses with things. How do we cope, given that we move so often? An insight into the housesitters wardrobe.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.994847297668457}
{"content": "Morlaix Lock\n\nWrite a Review\nMorlaix, France\n48° 35' 18.96'', -3° 50' 8.02''\nMorlaix Lock\nMorlaix Lock\nMorlaix Lock\nPartly cloudy starting tomorrow morning.\n63℉W at 15 knots\nYou might also consider...\n\n\n\n\nNo reviews yet! Be the first to write a review of Morlaix Lock.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8366330862045288}
{"content": "Welcome back to a feature I’m doing this summer called “The Road to The Defenders.”  The concept is pretty simple.  Between now and August I am going to be watching the Netflix MCU shows a second (or third) time through in the build up to the monumental team up hitting Netflix on August 18th.  I won’t be reviewing the shows per se, more just reflecting on the way the episodes feel with the full scope of the first two and a half years of the project now in view.  In particular, I want to explore what feels different in retrospect from the first viewing.  For those who haven’t watched these shows yet, I will give a SPOILER WARNING that I’ll be talking about the shows without concern for revealing anything that happens in the story lines.  This week we continue with Daredevil.  If you would like to catch up, part one is here and part two is here.\n\nEpisodes Watched: Daredevil Season 1, Episodes 9-13\n\nA word on Ben Urich to begin.  Vondie Curtis-Hall is absolutely brilliant in the role.  Many fans and critics alike have lamented his early death, and I too wish he was still around.  (Imagine if he could appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming!)  But ultimately his death gives an important gravitas to the series as a whole.  When Fisk kills him it is an important link in the chain between unethical visionary and crime lord.  This is the point at which fans no longer can sympathize fully with the Kingpin as a character.  His back story is understandable.  To this point, he has largely killed bad people, or at least limited his actions to death via intermediaries or intermediaries of intermediaries.  But this is the murder of a character we love with his bare hands.  This allows us to be fully on team Daredevil for the finale.\n\nGoing back a bit, episode nine may be my favorite episode in all of Daredevil.  My personal education background is in theology and I see a lot of bad TV writing with theological (particularly Christian) themes.  Everyone thinks they can throw in an image of a guy with his arms outstretched and meaningfully evoke Christology.  This episode, however, nails so many things.  The discussion of Satan and modern theological thinking on Satan is exquisite.  Peter McRobbie acts like an actual priest may act, instead of the false dichotomy of so many TV pastors between a paragon of virtue and a sadistic abuser.  While that interest may be peculiar to me, it really matters for character development. Matt Murdock as a character functions on the infamous “Catholic guilt” but also on the philosophical nexus between faith, law, and intuition.  Often the righteous thing is not the legal thing nor the thing we want to do.  The war between the Catholic, the lawyer, and the vigilante that rages in Murdock’s head is what makes him a character worth returning to, over and over again.\n\nThe Foggy and Matt fighting is something that really is a double edged sword in the series, between seasons.  In season one, it makes sense to me.  Foggy has every right to feel like Matt has been deceptive.  Any person would be upset by the revelation, and the fact that others like Claire are relatively chill with the vigilante thing suggests imbalance on their part, not Foggy’s.  When it gets to Season Two and Foggy is still fussing about things, that’s when I find it boring and repetitive.  The near split of Nelson and Murdock here is dramatic and character driven, but in the next season, it seems like moving pieces in place for The Defenders.  (In fairness to the writers, this is a troupe in the comics I find exhausting as well.)\n\nThese episodes are the part of the show where narrative wandering happens.  The first six episodes where a well-defined arc and episodes seven, eight, and nine were careful retellings of the childhoods and young adult years of Matt and Fisk.  By episode nine it feels a bit like the writers said, “How do we fill this out for another five episodes?”  That’s not to say that they aren’t enjoyable or that there aren’t good moments in the episodes.  One can just acutely feel the difference between the laser-like focus of the first half of the season and the more circumlocutious path of that second half.  This distinction is a little sharper on a rewatch, because you can see the elements that really matter and the elements that don’t really matter, either in shows to come or in the final outworking of the season’s plot.\n\nPerhaps the most egregious example of this slowing of the plot is the entire subplot of Mrs. Urich.  Ben’s wife never serves any purpose in this show.  The several scenes of Ben fighting the insurance system are completely tedious.  One could argue that it is her illness that gives Karen an excuse to take Ben to Mama Fisk’s assisted living facility.  The problem, however, is the only reason he wants to give up on the exercise at all is his sick wife.  So she creates the problem that she solves.  All of that unnecessary plot shenanigans does nothing for the show except to make Karen a bit of a monster.  It allows Ben’s death to be her fault, instead of just part of his work.  Ben’s wife eases those feelings, but again they wouldn’t exist if the extra wife plot wasn’t there to begin with!\n\nOne thing that saves some of that lack of focus is the way several episodes end with a truly shocking twist.  Both the death of Wesley at the hand of Page and the death of Urich at the hands of Fisk are truly stand out moments of surprise for the viewer.  Most fans likely remember those moments clearly, while not really remembering the other 43 minutes of the episodes.  This is a great technique to encourage the binge watcher.  Each episode feels like it gives you a huge reason to keep going.\n\nKaren Page’s killing of Wesley also further sets up a plot that still dangles unresolved, more than two years later.  What is Karen’s past?  Was her question (“Do you think this is the first time I’ve shot someone?”) mere bravado, or does she have a truly dark past?  This season builds up the question, with Urich finding something that gives even him pause.  Season Two then sort of hints it’s a car accident.  But we still don’t fully know.  That mystery about Page is great, but it needs a major pay off.  Her handling of the gun suggests that Karen has some heavy life experiences.  The reveal of those needs to live up to the build-up.\n\nMadame Gao, Nobu, and the Hand deserve a quick paragraph.  Those in charge clearly saw the long game of these series, leading into The Defenders.  Rewatching the episodes the build up of later reveals are clearly seeded.  The strongest example is when Nobu dies.  Gao mentions that his body is “being prepared for what’s next.”  The first time I watched the show I figured that meant burial and I don’t think I was alone.  Many were shocked when Nobu reappeared in the second season.  The dialogue is clearly an allusion to what they know will come, however.  Often in shows with complicated continuity like with these shows there are little errors and points where it is obvious that no plan for the next steps existed.  This universe is well planned.\n\nThe final episode I found far more fulfilling than upon first viewing.  Perhaps the greatest triumph of the show is the way that the story of Murdock and Fisk are interweaved so thoroughly.  One very subtle way is Fisk’s several allusions to Scripture and faith.  He is a foil to Matt in that he is deeply aware of the Bible yet does not believe.  This use of religion is obviously more than coincidence, because of the prominent place his “man of ill intent” speech.  (Also his scenes about not praying play off of Matt’s frequent visits to confession.)  Throughout the show religion, “my city,” plays on eyesight and vision, metaphors of shadows and masks, and other themes are always used for both Daredevil and the Kingpin.  (The two characters even use the same tailor!)  They are dual protagonists in many ways, despite Murdock clearly being the hero of the story.\n\nIn the end, this is what makes Daredevil Season One the greatest of the Netflix shows to this day, in my opinion.  The show is “grounded” but not in the ways that make it unfun.  Physics or biology never get in the way of Daredevil’s powers or ability to get a billy club to bounce back to him.  Ninjas are a real part of the universe, no fuss made.  Instead, the grounding is in the real to life writing.  These people talk and think like people.  Their life stories make sense and feel real.  Most importantly, the villains are just as rich as the good guys.  Ben Urich and Karen Page are great characters, but so are Wesley and Owlsley.  That focus on the humanity of characters makes this show stand out above and beyond almost every other superhero TV property, Marvel or otherwise.  The only other comparable show that springs to mind is Jessica Jones, our topic next time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8071602582931519}
{"content": "I'm a 22 year old artist currently residing in Dublin, Ireland with a bunch of pet rats and my cocker spaniel Boss.\n\nI've been painting and drawing for pretty much all of my life, on and off. I try to experiment a lot with different styles and subjects. My first love has always been painting horses, but besides that I do the occasional portrait, still life or horror scene as I see fit for the moment. I find inspiration in the little things, but as I am a perfectionist I don't produce as much art as I should do if I wanted to make a living out of it. Then again, I believe it's about quality - not quantity.\n\nI have decided to sell some of my originals as they are accumulating and taking up space, but at the same time I want to give everyone the option to buy a print of my artworks. Some artworks will only be available for print, as I want the originals to stay in my personal collection.\n\nI also have a good lot of my photographs available for print. Because there are loads of these I will most likely keep updating this bits at a time.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6953921318054199}
{"content": "Reconstructing the future: Sustainable Minority Return in Kosovo\n\nPublication Date\n\n\n\nThe phenomenon of forced migration in response to the violent ethnic conflicts in the 1990’s has given the international community the precarious task of facilitating the return of millions of refugees and IDPs who have voluntarily chosen to return “home.” In the wake of violence, the reintegration of forced migrants into their former villages of mono or multi ethnic makeup has the potential to agitate a relatively calm post conflict period rendering it intractable or conversely, foster conditions aimed at transforming relationships that will engender a sustainable return and lead communities towards reconciliation. Consequently, the presence of IDPs, ex-combatants, and refugees are a threatening daily reminder of the enemy, a past that the present has not reconciled and the communities receiving returnees remain unwilling to share scarce resources to reconstruct an unpredictable future together. With a logical emphasis on the immediate physical needs that comprise physical reconstruction such as security, house construction and preparation of a multi-ethnic market economy, social reconstruction which encompasses the long term psychosocial needs, is often overlooked leaving returning and receiving communities vulnerable once a conflict has lost its appeal to donor countries and funding begins to dwindle. It is at this fragile moment when communities begin to reweave the social fabric that at one time held them together. This paper seeks to explore the role of UNMIK, UNHCR, NGOs and other stakeholders that include national and local leaders, involved in the minority return process in the western region of Kosovo, the methods used to promote sustainable return, the needs of the returning and receiving communities and the efficacy of conflict transformation tools such as inter-communal dialogue to create sustainable conditions for co-existence.\n\n\nCommunity Psychology | Human Geography | International and Intercultural Communication\n\nThis document is currently not available here.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9922391176223755}
{"content": "Scientists Find Evidence of New Super Planet in our Solar System\n\nJanuary 21, 2016\n\n\n“It’s a bad idea to consistently say we have now reached the end of the solar system” – Batygin\n\n\n\nObservation and Discovery\n\n\n\n“They were pointing out that there was something funny going on in the solar system, but nobody could really understand what it was. Ever since they pointed it out, we’ve been scratching our heads.” – Brown\n\n\n\n\nSEE ALSO: Wanderers: A futuristic look into interplanetary habitation\n\nWhat’s it look like?\n\nThrough modeling of planetary orbits, Brown and Batygin, predicted that the orbit of this new ‘super earth’ would need to be about 20,000 earth years, equivalent to 6 billion miles away from the sun. Even still, this is enough to affect all of the known planets’ orbits. The biggest question from many surrounding this announcement is ‘why haven’t we seen this yet?’ The only reason we can see other planets is because the sun’s light reflects off of them and back towards earth. The theorized super earth is likely so far away that unless you were looking for it, it would be too faint to find. The amount of light reflected by a planet actually decreases by 16 times when you double the distance.\n\n\n[Image Source: NPR]\n\nIt’s Out There\n\nThere is good news however, the astronomers believe that there are telescopes in existence capable of finding the planet. In fact, they are so sure of the 9th planet’s existence that they are willing to bet it’s out there, and are even pointing others in the direction to look. Part of this confidence comes from study of past research. From looking at this work and compiling all the data, all previously unexplained orbital data seem to point towards the existence of a 9th Planet.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9834426045417786}
{"content": "Acta Biotheoretica\n\n, Volume 59, Issue 2, pp 185–200\n\n\nOpen Access\nRegular Article\n\n\nAs a reflection on recent debates on the value of wild animals we examine the question of the intrinsic value of wild animals in both natural and man-made surroundings. We examine the concepts being wild and domesticated. In our approach we consider animals as dependent on their environment, whether it is a human or a natural environment. Stressing this dependence we argue that a distinction can be made between three different interpretations of a wild animal’s intrinsic value: a species-specific, a naturalistic, and an individualistic interpretation. According to the species-specific approach, the animal is primarily considered as a member of its species; according to the naturalistic interpretation, the animal is seen as dependent on the natural environment; and according to the individualistic approach, the animal is seen in terms of its relationship to humans. In our opinion, the species-specific interpretation, which is the current dominant view, should be supplemented—but not replaced by—naturalistic and individualistic interpretations, which focus attention on the relationship of the animal to the natural and human environments, respectively. Which of these three interpretations is the most suitable in a given case depends on the circumstances and the opportunity for the animal to grow and develop according to its nature and capabilities.\n\n\nIntrinsic value Wild animals Domestication Specific and non-specific care Capabilities \n\n1 Introduction\n\nIn recent decades we have seen growing attention being paid to the moral position of wild animals, as they are increasingly being affected by human activities. Worldwide, their territories are increasingly fragmented, contaminated, and disturbed by for example, transport activities and facilities, tourism, urban development, and agriculture. Between 1970 and 2007, the populations of almost 30 percent of vertebrate species in the world declined with species in tropical areas appearing to be especially vulnerable (WWF 2010).\n\nHowever, it is not only socioeconomic developments that affect animal wildlife. The increasing meddling of humans in the natural world is also illustrated by the rise of the discipline of conservation medicine, implying human interventions in wildlife populations to reduce zoonotic threats to both human and animal populations (Meffe 1999; Daszak et al. 2000). Also ecological research and nature conservation efforts have an impact on the welfare of wild animals (Putman 1995; Swart 2004; Minteer and Collins 2008). For example, transponders and transmitters are implanted in the wild animal’s body to investigate its physiology and behaviour under natural circumstances (Wilson and McMahon 2006; Casper 2009).\n\nAnother development is the re-introduction of wild animals to restore damaged natural areas. Such introductions or reallocations of animals may have negative consequences for their welfare (Minteer and Collins 2008). For example, otters taken from natural areas in Eastern European countries have been introduced into Dutch reserves in order to increase the naturalness or ecological functioning of these areas. However, this may have a negative effect on the welfare of these animals (see e.g. van ‘t Hof and van Langevelde 2004, 2005; van Liere and van Liere 2005).\n\nNot only wild animals that are being brought into such areas; domesticated animals—especially ungulates—have also been introduced into natural areas, with the intention that they will ‘dedomesticate’ and return to a natural way of life in succeeding generations. A well known and widely discussed case is the introduction of Heck cattle and Konik horses into the Oostvaardersplassen reserve in the Netherlands since the early 1990s to increase the naturalness of these areas. Winter is a difficult period for these animals because of the limited availability of food and the weather conditions. Several times it has led to starvation among these animals and subsequently to political and public unrest (ICMO 2006; ICMO2 2010). Supporters of this de-domestication management claim that intervention to prevent starvation will ultimately undermine the self-sufficiency of the population and will inhibit its adaption to the existing circumstances. They argue that high mass starvations also incidentally happen in other natural reserves, for example the Serengeti reserve in Africa (Vera 2009). However, critics argue that humans have bred these animals and introduced them into the reserve. Moreover, their natural habitat has been limited by fencing and natural forces as e.g. predation do not affect their populations. From this standpoint, they should primarily be considered as kept animals that fall under human responsibility (RDA 2005).\n\nDiscussions about the moral position of wild, semi-wild animals, or captured wild animals not only involve welfare considerations. When an wild animal’s welfare is not at stake the increased human interference with them may nevertheless be morally questioned, as the moral standing of wild animals is also determined by wildness itself. For example, in several countries there has been a heated public debate on the fate of wild animals in circus. NGOs in several countries have protested against the use of these animals in circus, not only for presumed welfare reasons, but also because they consider this as an infringement on the dignity and intrinsic value of being wild (see also Kiley-Worthington 1990; Radford 2007; Hopster et al. 2009; Keulartz and Swart 2009).\n\nThe Dutch Flora and Fauna Act also recognize the moral state of being wild. It explicitly mentions the intrinsic value of wild animals. Based on this Act the governmental guidelines regarding the hospitalization of seals state ‘that people should respect the inherent individuality of animals living in the wild. This means that interventions involving the intrinsic value of the animal can only be permitted in extraordinary circumstances. Hospitalization of animals that are ill, wounded, or otherwise in need is an intervention affecting their intrinsic value. After all, the inherent individuality of an ill, wounded or dying animal living in the wild must also be respected’. (LNV 2003: p. 7, our translation).\n\nThus, according to the latter line of reasoning, the intrinsic value of wild animals implies non-intervention even if this leads to the reduced welfare of the animals concerned, whereas the recognition of intrinsic value of animals falling under our direct responsibility, as is the case for kept and domesticated animals, implies taking care of their welfare. The apparent contradiction between the principle of non-intervention for wild animals and the principle of taking care of the animal that falls under our responsibility was usually resolved by excluding wild animals from our circle of responsibility. For example, Verhoog (1999) states, [b]y making an animals survival and well-being dependent on human action, man has become responsible for it, whereas such responsibility does not exist with respect to wild animals (Verhoog 1999, p. 274). Similarly, Norton (1995, p. 105) argues that [b]y deciding to respect their wildness, we have agreed not to interfere in their daily lives or deaths.\n\nHowever, this way of reasoning seems to fail to take account of the increasing interference of humans with wild animals as described above. Both the principle of non-intervention and that of taking care of their welfare seem both to be applied. The concept of the intrinsic value of wild animals and what is meant by wildness or domestication therefore needs to be elucidated. In this article we aim to analyse both issues. We will begin by examining the concepts of wild and domesticated animals and argue for recognizing several classes of dependence of animals on their environment. On this basis, we explore the meaning of the term ‘intrinsic value’ in more detail. We argue that a distinction can be made between three different interpretations of a wild animal’s intrinsic value: a species-specific, a naturalistic, and an individualistic interpretation. In our opinion, which of these three interpretations is the most suitable in a given case depends on the opportunity for the animal to grow and develop according to its nature and capabilities and also on practical circumstances.\n\n2 Domestication, Wildness and Dependence\n\nAccording to Dutch law, a wild species is a species that is naturally found in the wild (Staatsblad [Bulletin of Acts and Decrees] 2002).1 Due to the increasing human interference with wild animals in and outside the human sphere and de-domestication experiments this definition is not clear-cut. The concepts of domestication and wildness should therefore be more clearly defined. To begin with, we can distinguish between a biological approach and a ‘sociological’ approach to domestication. According to the biological definition, domestication must be considered as a process by which animals adapt to humans and the environment they provide. As a consequence, the phenotype of the animal will change compared to their wild counterparts. Subsequently, genetic changes may occur over generations (Price 1999). Some species appear easier to domesticate than others because their genetically determined characteristics naturally conform better to human systems. This is sometimes called ‘pre-adaptation’ and it applies in particular to herd animals and social animals with behaviour patterns based on a hierarchy of dominance. When keeping or domesticating these animals, humans take on the role of leader of the herd or group (Smith 1998; Kiley-Worthington 1990; Palmer 1995).\n\nThe sociological approach to domestication primarily considers domestication as a process by means of which animals function in or form a part of human social systems and/or practices. In other words, domestication brings animals under human dominion, making them dependent on human society with respect to their social organization, territory, reproduction and food supply (Clutton-Brock 1989; Hettinger and Throop 1999). From this perspective, keeping wild animals in a zoo is a form of domestication, even if it is possible to allow the animal to maintain its original biological characteristics and behaviour. The same can be said, for example, about systematically giving supplementary food to wild animals, as sometimes happens for hunting purposes. Changes in biological characteristics as a result of domestication are according to this sociological view secondary changes, an adaptation to the human environment in which the animal lives (Clutton-Brock 1981, p. 21).\n\nThe sociological definition of domestication has a wider scope, as it also includes captive wild animals and feral animals that are more or less dependent on human settlements for their subsistence. However, both approaches share the aspect of dependence. Wild animals are free from human interference and only dependent on a well-functioning relationship with their natural environment, whereas domesticated animals and animals under human dominion are dependent on humans for their subsistence. Thus, in general, domestication implies a shift towards human dependence and de-domestication a shift towards natural dependence.\n\nWe have used these two perspectives on domestication to hypothesize a number of classes of dependence of an animal on its environment. Firstly, we distinguished three levels of human dominion over animals: animals that live in the wild and are not or barely dependent on humans; animals that have a medium level of dependency on humans, for example, non-captive animals that depend on humans and therefore live close to human settlements; and animals that live under human dominion, being highly dependent on human care. Secondly, we distinguished between animals that adapt easily or are already well adapted to human environs (and thus domesticated from a biological point of view) and animals that are not adapted or hardly to adapt (and thus still wild according to the biological definition). The combination of these two dimensions produces six hypothetical classes of human dependence, as shown in Table 1.\nTable 1\n\nSix hypothetical classes of on the dependence continuum\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWild animals that live in their natural habitat and that do not easily domesticate or adapt to human environs\n\n\n\n\nWild animals that will domesticate or adapt to the human environs rather easy\n\n\n\n\nAnimals that seek out human environs as a result of the decline of their habitat, such as the polar bear\n\n\n\n\nFeral animals and synanthropes (house mice, sparrows)\n\n\n\n\nWild animals from category I that live in zoos or circuses\n\n\n\n\nPet animals, livestock, wild animals from category II that live in human environs as zoos and circuses\n\n3 The Species-Specific Interpretation of Intrinsic Value\n\nAnimals are increasingly recognized as having intrinsic value, that is, there is a recognition that animals that fall under our responsibility are also part of our moral circle, and whether these animals flourish is also our concern. In general, this concept implies that the animal’s nature and capabilities must be respected and that its interests must be taken into account.2 However, the growing moral attention paid to animals has been often focused only on kept or domesticated animals (Waelbers et al. 2004), thus animals we have considered as class V or VI in Table 1. But even this attention is rather from a rather recent date (Singer 1990; Regan 1983). Arthur Schopenhauer claimed that there was a sign hanging before the door to Western ethics reading, ‘Tiere müssen draußen bleiben’ (‘Animals must remain outside’), and for a long time this was the case. This way of thinking was inspired by the influential ethics of Immanuel Kant who stressed the idea of a rational and autonomous human being. Animals had no place in such a system. Although this opinion was widely shared, it did not mean that all behaviours towards animals were permissible or acceptable. Rather, the moral place of animals was derived from their supposed effects on the interrelationship between humans. The thought was that animal abuse would lead to moral corruption, for ‘who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men’ (Kant 1997, p. 240).\n\nMany modern philosophers are also unclear about the moral position of animals. For example, John Rawls recognizes that animals are part of our moral circle, but he excludes them from his own theory of justice, which, like Kant’s approach, is based on the idea that some kind of rationality is necessary in order to fall under a moral code (Rawls 1971, p. 512). However, utilitarian philosophers as e.g. Singer (1990) avoid the issue of rationality and consider animals to be within our moral circle because they possess the morally relevant ability to suffer. ‘The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but Can they suffer?’, according to the famous and often cites statement by Bentham (1823). According to Peter Singer, an intrinsic value is something that is good or desirable in itself (Singer 1993, p. 274). Thus, avoiding suffering may be considered as an intrinsic value (as it is for humans) but this does not imply the intrinsic value of animals themselves.\n\nRegan (1983), building on Kant’s concepts, does however offer a theoretical foundation for the intrinsic value of animals themselves. The basis for attributing intrinsic value to human beings, according to Regan, is found in their status as autonomous subjects. Regan introduces the term ‘subject-of-a-life’, which is broader than the definition of a person on which Kant based his ethics. According to Regan, animals are, like humans, subjects-of-a-life. They have subjective experiences, can experience the quality of their lives, and enter into and maintain relationships with others. Regan claims that, just like a human being, an animal has an ‘inherent value’, implying that an animal also has moral rights. Thus, an intrinsic value is ascribed to an individual animal on the basis of it being a subject-of-a-life, meaning that it may be considered morally questionable for humans to utilize animals even when there is no suffering involved. If wild animals are seen as subjects-of-a-life, the implication is that we should leave them alone. ‘Let them be’, as Regan says (1983, p. 361). This entails refraining from domesticating wild animals or bringing them into a human environment. For Regan, however, the respect for an animal’s wild state derives from its status as a subject. In his view, animals to which the concept of subject does not apply cannot be ascribed intrinsic value. On this basis, he restricts intrinsic value to mammals that are at least 1 year old. An animal’s wild state—which of course does not depend on species or age—is not by itself a sufficient reason to ascribe intrinsic value to that animal.\n\nRegan’s approach was criticized as anthropocentric because it takes the human consciousness paradigm as a starting point (Verhoog 1999). As an alternative, the biocentric approach, which was put forward by Paul Taylor (1986), assumes a different premise on the basis of which to attribute intrinsic value to animals. Taylor states that all organisms have ‘inherent worth’ because, as ‘teleological centres of life’, they have a good of their own. This good consists of fulfilling their capabilities and satisfying their needs in a manner suited to their species. Therefore, they deserve moral consideration without exception.\n\nIn answer to the question of why having an individual good is morally relevant, the Dutch bio-ethicists Bart Rutgers and Robert Heeger state that a situation in which the good of animals is realized is better than a situation in which that good is not or only partially realized (Rutgers and Heeger 1999). According to these authors, ‘[t]he term “inherent worth” expresses a substantial claim: the animal’s intactness and its species-specific capacities and functions constitute a value towards which an attitude of moral respect is appropriate’ (Rutgers and Heeger 1999, p. 44). Such respect for animals is expressed, in particular, through respect for an animal’s integrity, which is defined as ‘the wholeness and completeness of the animal and the species-specific balance of the creature, as well as the animal’s capacity to maintain itself independently in an environment suitable to the species’ (Rutgers and Heeger 1999, p. 45).\n\nWhat does this mean for the wild animal? Just as in Regan’s view, we can posit that a wild animal in its natural environment is probably best served by remaining in that environment. However, it does not automatically follow that wild animals kept in captivity should be placed in a natural environment. The good of wild animals kept in human surroundings may in theory also be served by keeping them in those surroundings. What the good of the creature might be and what the human role is in determining that good remains unclear. For example, the question can be raised whether the introduction of wild or semi-wild animals into nature reserves and their being left to their fate serves the good of those animals, as living a natural life may also lead to suffering due to bad living conditions (Klaver et al. 2002; Swart 2007).\n\nBoth the subject approach and the biocentric approach consider the individual animal in terms its species characteristics (or higher biosystematic concepts). Thus, according to Regan’s approach, an animal is considered a subject-of-a-life because of the neuronal capabilities of mammals (older than 1 year), whereas the biocentric approach holds that animals must satisfy their species-specific needs, for example a pig must be able to root, a rodents must be able to gnaw, and dog must be able to form social bonds within a pack, whether with humans or other dogs. Because of this focus on species-specific characteristics and needs we may label these approaches species-specific interpretations of the intrinsic value of animals.\n\n4 The Naturalistic Interpretation of Intrinsic Value\n\nThe species-specific approach, described above ignores however the strong dependence of wild or freely moving animals (animals we have put in classes I to IV of Table 1) on their natural or semi natural environment. An alternative is the contextual approach, in which the animal is considered strongly in relation to its environment (Swart 2005, 2007). Animal ecology and animal behavioural sciences show that wild animals have a complex relationship with their environment. Animals are constantly exchanging information and material with their natural environment and are greatly dependent on it. The quality of the environment is essential to the question of whether the animal can subsist. However, we must be careful not to form a romantic idea of this natural state. Animals that live in the wild, free from human interference, can suffer greatly from diseases and harsh circumstances. Nevertheless, for wild animals in general, it is not their individual well-being which indicates the degree to which they can flourish, but the degree to which they are able to lead a natural life in terms of foraging for food, reproducing, avoiding enemies, etc. (Swart 2004).\n\nUnfortunately, as already mentioned in the introduction, this natural condition is increasingly becoming an exception. Wild animals increasingly find themselves adrift in this landscape, not only as a result of the reduction and fragmentation of their natural habitat, but also due to climate change and increased transport and tourism. At the same time, built-up areas and infrastructure increasingly limit the animal’s freedom of movement. Nature reserves are mere islands in an ever-advancing landscape of human civilization.\n\nAssuming that the intrinsic value of wild animals indeed implies non-intervention in their lives and that they are able to flourish in their natural, non-disturbed habitat, we must take measures to protect that habitat and restore it where necessary and possible. The responsibility for carrying out such measures can be seen as considered as the ‘naturalistic interpretation’ of the wild animal’s intrinsic value. The naturalistic interpretation is related but not identical to the ecocentric or holistic approach to intrinsic value (Callicott 1989). The ecocentric approach is also contextual in nature as it stresses the animal’s role in the ecosystem of which the animal is a part; however, the value placed on the animal is instrumental and derived from the intrinsic value of the ecosystem. In contrast, the naturalistic approach is based on the idea that the animal should be viewed in terms of its dependence on nature and thus not in terms of its instrumental relationship to the natural environment.\n\n5 Specific and Non-Specific Care\n\nSwart (2005) introduced the term ‘non-specific care’, for care focused on maintaining and developing the natural environment of the wild animal so that it can lead a natural life. As the counterpart of non-specific care, Swart (2005) suggests ‘specific care’ for animals kept by humans, including domesticated animals. These animals are entrusted to our care or are placed in human environments, and are therefore dependent on us for their welfare and needs. So we may conclude that the naturalistic interpretation of intrinsic value implies non-specific care for wild animals, whereas the species-specific interpretation leads to specific care for kept and or domesticated animals.\n\nThe care model of Swart (2005) applies the concept of a continuum between ‘wild’ and ‘domesticated’ that was put forward by Klaver et al. (2002). Accordingly, specific and non-specific care also relates to the level of wildness or domestication by degrees, respectively. Although both types of care exclude each other to a certain extent, they do not rule each other out completely since there may be good reason to provide specific care when an animal happens to find itself in distress. In comparison, non-specific care of domesticated animals is required by legislation to prevent their exaggerated exploitation (Swart 2005, p. 259). For instance, the Dutch Animal Health and Well-being Act (Gezondheidsen welzijnswet voor dieren) lists both species-specific and general requirements pertaining to shelter, hygiene and veterinary care for animals.\n\nThe practical applicability of the care model was recently illustrated by a report of the Second International Commission on Management of the Oostvaardersplassen concerning the management of the introduced animals in this nature reserve. The Dutch government had established this committee because of public concern as described in the introduction of this paper. The commission refers to the care model and concludes that the introduced herbivores (especially Heck cattle and Konik horses) must be considered as ‘in between fully wild and domesticated/managed’ and that ‘both specific care (…) and nonspecific (…) cares has to take place to reflect the moral and ethical considerations for these animals’ (ICMO2 2010: 46). See also: Keulartz et al. 1998a, b; Klaver et al. 2002; Vorstenbosch et al. 2001; Waelbers et al. 2004; Swart 2005, 2007; Keulartz 2009; and Gamborg et al. 2010 for reviews and discussions on the case of introduced animals in the Oostvaardersplassen.\n\nBased on the concept of domestication and dependence of animals on their environment, discussed above, we have adapted the care model by using the animal’s dependence as the X axis, rather than the wild-domesticated continuum used in the first version (Swart 2005). Accordingly, we have hypothetically located the various classes of dependence from Table 1 in the model (see Fig. 1).\nFig. 1\n\nNon-specific and specific care on the continuum ranging from natural to non-natural habitats for animals. The Roman numerals refer to the classes of dependence or human dominion, given in Table 1. Adapted from Swart (2005)\n\n6 The Capabilities Approach and Individualistic Interpretation of Intrinsic Value\n\nThe species-specific approach of intrinsic value emphasizes specific care for domesticate animals. In addition, also wild and semi-wild animals living in non-natural conditions, such as zoo and circus animals, need—as long as they are in the human environment—specific care geared to the animal’s species-specific characteristics and the particular human environment in which it lives. Such animals are more or less dependent on humans to realize their own good in accordance with their species-specific capabilities. This attention to an animal’s capabilities is also found in the philosophy of Martha Nussbaum (2006). She derives her ‘capabilities approach’ from the work of the economist and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, who uses the concept of human capabilities in order to study questions of justice and development in society. The core of Sen’s approach is that a just division of goods in a society will give the members of that society the opportunity to realize their essential or basic capabilities (Sen 1979). Nussbaum applies this idea to the question of justice for animals. In her view, individual animals of all species deserve a fair chance to flourish; in other words, to be able to fully develop the capabilities and capacities which are specific both to their species and to their individual characters. According to Nussbaum, to be a living entity, to have a healthy life, to experience pleasure, pain or emotion, or the power to behave in a certain way or to play, all such capacities imply that animals possess a moral worth. Humans have the moral responsibility towards animals that fall under their dominion to ensure that they can actually realize these capabilities.\n\nNussbaum attaches great importance to the possibility for animals to enjoy a certain measure of sovereignty and to live an autonomous life. As many others she admits that the habitat of wild animals is in increasingly restricted by human activities, meaning that these animals are less able to flourish. Therefore, Nussbaum argues in favour of what we earlier called non-specific care: care for the living environment (habitat) of animals. In addition, she points out that many species have evolved in a long-lasting symbiotic process with humans, resulting in mutual dependence. In these cases, the concept of specific care also applies.\n\nIt is clear, then, that the lives of many animals are variously intertwined with human activities and with the care of animals in a specific or non-specific sense. We cannot casually abandon wild animals to their fate. Nor can we, as many romantics would wish, release kept animals into the wild without any form of human intervention. However, it is indefensible not to allow animals under human dominion to develop their natural capabilities. Nussbaum makes the case for a form of paternalism which is sensitive to the individual nature of the animals entrusted to our care. This would be a kind of care that allows animals to flourish. Zoos and wildlife parks can play a part in this because, unfortunately, an increasing number of animal species are better off in these places than in the wild, simply because their habitats are seriously threatened.\n\nThe capabilities approach can do justice to the dynamic character of the interaction between species-specific behaviour and the environment. The intrinsic value of animals implies that the care of animals for which humans are responsible, should not be measured against the ideal of a wild environment but rather by the possibilities that a given environment offers to animals to realize their natural capabilities. Apes, for instance, require the possibility of explorative behaviour, but that need can be met in a variety of ways—by searching for food, for example, but also by playing computer games. In the same way, tigers must be able to express their predation behaviour. In a natural environment this would occur by hunting prey, while in a zoo this could be achieved by providing a ball on a rope which the animal can ‘hunt’.\n\nThe capabilities approach suggests, along with care geared towards species-specific needs, attention to the needs and capabilities of the individual animal. In addition, in Nussbaum’s view, care for kept animals does not exclude the idea that animals may be made to do the things which humans require of them. As part of her paternalistic approach, Nussbaum states that domesticated and/or kept animals, like children, can benefit from training and discipline, as long as their species-specific and individual capabilities are taken into account.\n\nThis last point is of particular importance in the case of animals connected to humans in a task-related capacity, such as dressage horses, guide dogs, or circus animals. If they are to succeed, the emphasis must be on individual care, a form of specific care that not only focuses on species-specific characteristics, but also and especially on the individual nature of the particular animal. Animals that carry out these sorts of specific tasks usually have a particularly close relationship with humans based on mutual trust (Haraway 2006, 2008). Rather than Jeremy Bentham’s famous question ‘Can animals suffer?’ Donna Haraway prefers to ask the question, ‘Can animals play? Or work?’ In her opinion, training animals is not equivalent to subduing or oppressing them. Haraway bases her ideas in part on the work of the trainer and philosopher Hearne (2007), who emphasizes the reciprocity of working relationships between humans and animals, and the fact that they can both find satisfaction in successfully developing and practising their own capabilities and talents.\n\nResponsibility towards animals in working relationships, according to Haraway, can be seen as ‘response ability’: the ability to listen to animals and to respond to their needs and desires. This reciprocal relationship also implies the animal’s cooperation. Whether a particular situation is morally permissible or reprehensible depends in part on the degree to which animals can ‘protest’ in cases where their individual wants are not met and where they are forced into docility.\n\nThe view that the animal should be able to work, in so doing, can develop its capabilities, is supported by recent insights gained through research into stress in animals. The classic view, the so-called ‘homeostatic model’, assumes that the animal’s well-being is guaranteed if challenges and stress factors in the environment are at a minimum. According to the ‘allostatic model’, however, an animal possesses physiological and behavioural characteristics that enable it to deal with and adapt to a range of stresses and challenges. Training and stressful experiences can maintain this range and possibly even extend it. However, both too few and too many challenges decrease this range and create reduced resistance, leading to such issues as stereotypical behaviour, panic behaviour and the related problems of well-being (Korte et al. 2007).\n\nWe regard the capabilities approach as a refinement and concretizing of the biocentric idea of an animal’s ‘own good’. In particular, the focus on animals’ individual characters and capabilities, which, just as in humans, can differ noticeably among animals of the same species, avoids the more species-specific perspective of the biocentric approach. This leads to what could be called individual care for animals. We can therefore refer to an individualistic interpretation along with the naturalistic and species-specific interpretations of intrinsic value. This places animals’ flourishing in a broader perspective.\n\n7 A Contextual and Pluralistic Approach to Intrinsic Value\n\nThus far, various interpretations of the intrinsic value of the animal have been distinguished and placed in context. In our pluralistic approach, the environment, in which the animal lives or matures, and its capability to flourish in that environment determine which interpretation is most suitable and which type of care the animal requires. This contextual approach regards ‘the animal in its environment’ as the analytical unit. This can vary from a natural to a human environment (see also Table 1), in which a distinction can be drawn between a naturalistic, a species-specific, and an individualistic interpretation of intrinsic value.\n\nAccording to our approach, the animal must be able to anticipate and respond to the demands of its environment and to learn from its experiences. This is reasonably obvious in nature. However, it applies to human environments where the animal can undergo learning experiences and challenges as substitutes for natural learning experiences and challenges. In our opinion, the species-specific interpretation, which views the animal as rather separate from its environment, must be supplemented—and not replaced—by naturalistic and individualistic interpretations which focus attention on the dependence of animal on their natural or human environment and their capacity to live in the natural or human environment.\n\nThe naturalistic interpretation of intrinsic value implies a negative obligation to guard the animal against human interference and a positive obligation to protect or improve the wild animal’s environment (see also Wenz 1988). Animals located in classes I and II in Table 1 should therefore only be brought under specific human care for urgent reasons. Regan’s ‘let them be’ is the starting point in this view.3\n\nUrgent reasons for specific care can arise particularly in the case of animals that live freely in proximity to humans but nevertheless show very little adaptation to humans (which we have classified as Class III in Table 1). Often these animals seek out human environs because of a reduction in their natural habitat. The naturalistic interpretation of the intrinsic value of these animals urges us to improve their original living conditions.\n\nThe situation may be different for synanthropes, that is, animals which live freely in proximity to humans and which are also adapted to human environs (Class IV, Table 1). Specific to these animals is the fact that they themselves seek out human environs. From the point of view of the species-specific interpretation of intrinsic value, it follows that we must consider the possibilities and limitations of these animals’ capability to adapt to the human environment.\n\nAnimals that are insufficiently adapted to human environs but nevertheless kept by humans for example in circuses belong to class V in Table 1. Their moderate or minimal adaptation to human conditions would indicate that there is a large chance that humans fail in allowing them to flourish. Suitable living environments, which will sufficiently meet their species-specific and individual needs, should be sought for these animals. This may be a zoo, a wildlife park, or possibly the wild, depending on the animal’s species-specific and individual characteristics.\n\nThe intrinsic value of animals kept by humans and well adapted to human conditions (Class VI in Table 1) seems at first sight not to be a principal issue. This includes house pets, animals used for production, certain domesticated circus animals and animals used in sport, such as dressage horses or dogs which perform obedience trials. These animals can flourish under these circumstances as long as they receive adequate, species-specific and individual care. In general, nature can serve as a source of inspiration for designing environments that will enable the animals to flourish.\n\nHowever, this group may also include species that are considered wild because the species naturally occurs in the wild (see Staatsblad [Bulletin of Acts and Decrees] 2002). In most cases, this concerns animals whose ancestors were wild but which have been kept by humans, sometimes for generations. This includes e.g. some circus animals and some zoo animals such as camels and elephants. However, the mere fact that animals of the same species live in the wild is not a sufficient reason to place these animals in a more natural environment, as it does not take into account the interests of the individual animal. Nevertheless, in cases where it is proven that these animals are capable of living under more natural conditions, from the point of view of respect for the ‘potential wildness’ of the animal (Keulartz et al. 1998b)—which can be seen as a capability—reintroduction of the animals should be considered, providing that their well-being will not be substantially harmed and the environment is indeed available for such a return. In many cases such conditions are not fulfilled for such a return and we should provide them with proper type of care and the opportunity to flourish under less natural conditions. What that opportunity entails and to what extent it is called for depends on the species-specific and individual characteristics and capabilities of the animals.\n\nSwart (2005, p. 260) argues that the model of specific and non-specific care is neutral with respect to the act of domestication, or de-domestication as it only describes the required types of care as a function of the level of wildness or domestication. However, if we recognize the naturalistic or species-specific and individualistic interpretations of intrinsic value of animals we may ask whether domestication and de-domestication, thus moving an animal along the axis of wild and domesticated, is really neutral. Taming or keeping a wild animal is not in accordance with its naturalistic intrinsic value, whereas introducing a domesticated animal into the wild may offend its species-specific or individualistic intrinsic value. However, as discussed above, re-introduction or de-domestication of captured wild or semi-wild animals may be desirable sometimes. In addition, externally legitimated reasons, for example eco-ethical considerations may overrule considerations based on the recognition of the animal’s intrinsic value we have worked out here.\n\nMoving an animal along the axis of dependence in Fig. 1 should be done very carefully as it may have negative welfare consequences or offend the animal’s intrinsic value. However, the allostatic model of well-being described above, implies the existence of a range of conditions under which an animal can flourish. This can be utilized when deciding on the acceptability of (re)introduction experiments. Not only does this range enable a change in living conditions, is also possible to train individual animals and extend their resistance within these new living conditions. However, it must be clear that an evolutionary and therefore genetic adaptation to another, more natural environment occurs at the level of populations and often takes generations to complete in cases of domesticated animals. An animal, which is seen as wild and which is under human care does not necessarily need to be placed in a more natural situation—this may even be undesirable. Decisions on these issues should be guided by the practical circumstances and knowledge about the animal and its environment.\n\n\n  1. 1.\n\n    With the exception of cats, dogs and a list of other species which are allowed to be kept for specific purposes of production.\n\n  2. 2.\n\n    Some authors use a different term for what we here call intrinsic value, such as inherent value or inherent worth. In general we will refer to intrinsic value in this artile, but will indicate the terms as used by other authors.\n\n  3. 3.\n\n    According to a letter from the Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), the CITES regulations forbid removing a number of animal species, such as tigers and elephants, from the wild, but this is still possible for other species (Verburg 2009).\n\n\n\nThis article was prepared as follow-up to a research project on the intrinsic value of circus animals that was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), The Hague. We thank the editors of the special issue of Acta Biotheoretica and the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions, which significantly contributed to our thinking on the complex issue of the intrinsic value of animals.\n\nOpen Access\n\n\n\n  1. Bentham J (1823) Introduction to the principles of morals and legislation, 2nd edn, chapter 17, footnote. Accessed 18 Dec 2010\n  2. 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WWF International, GlandGoogle Scholar\n\nCopyright information\n\n© The Author(s) 2011\n\nAuthors and Affiliations\n\n  1. 1.Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Science and Society Group (SSG), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG)University of GroningenGroningenThe Netherlands\n  2. 2.Applied Philosophy GroupWageningen UniversityWageningenThe Netherlands\n  3. 3.Institute for Science, Innovation and SocietyRadboud UniversityNijmegenThe Netherlands\n\nPersonalised recommendations", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9400755763053894}
{"content": "Until Vijay Seshadri won the Pulitzer for poetry earlier this year for his book 3 Sections, I had never heard of him before. Born in Bangalore, India in 1954, he came to the United States when he was five. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He teaches poetry and nonfiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. I am really glad he won the Pulitzer because otherwise I might never have heard of him and his book, 3 Sections is well worth reading.\n\nIt is not a mystery why the book is called 3 Sections because it actually has three sections. The first and longest section is poetry, mostly one to at most two pages long. The second section is a prose essay about salmon fishing called “Pacific Fishes of Canada.” The third section is one long poem called “Personal Essay” which is, perhaps, an essay in the form of a poem. The Pulitzer committee describes the book as a “collection of poems that examine human consciousness, from birth to dementia.” They make it sound as though the book has a progression of some kind beginning with birth and ending with dementia. But this is not the case. I am certain there is some kind of logic behind the arrangement of all the pieces in the book, there generally always is, but it is not something I found especially noticeable. I just liked the poems a lot.\n\nI also like Seshadri’s voice. It is firm, assured, sometimes funny, sometimes sad. His lines have a pleasant pacing, slow, but not so slow they become plodding. The slow movement of his lines serves to soften the firmness of his voice. He is not melodic but he is at times soothing. Seshadri’s language is straightforward, everyday. Though this does not mean that he doesn’t have some fantastic and startling images:\n\nTherefore is he choked in the coils\nof his being’s enormous Ponzi scheme\n(Yet Another Scandal)\n\n\nSelf-esteem is leaking and oozing\nover the concrete floor to pool around the feet.\nIts color is the pink color of anti-freeze. The air is stringent\nwith the smell of anti-freeze.\n(The People I Know)\n\nAnd while Seshadri’s voice is firm and his language plain, one could even say grounded, he manages to write a number of poems that approach the spiritual. Here is the entirety of a short one, “Imaginary Number,” to give you an idea:\n\nThe mountain that remains when the universe is destroyed\nis not big and is not small.\nBig and small are\n\ncomparative categories, and to what\ncould the mountain that remains when the universe is destroyed\nbe compared?\n\nConsciousness observes and is appeased.\nThe soul scrambles across the screes.\nThe soul,\n\nlike the square root of minus 1,\nis an impossibility that has its uses.\n\nOne of my favorites in the collection is called “Memoir.” Here is a taste:\n\n\nAnd one October afternoon, under a locust tree\nwhose blackened pods were falling and making\nilluminating patterns on the pathway,\nI was seized by joy\nand someone saw me there,\nand that was the worst of all,\nlacerating and unforgettable.\n\nHumiliated by joy. But isn’t it true? Those moments of pure joy when we are and aren’t ourselves, should someone see us in such a moment, we are so very embarrassed by it. I wonder why that is?\n\nI am not quite sure how the second prose section fits into the book. The narrator gets a job on a fishing boat during salmon fishing season. There is one sentence that really stood out for me:\n\nmy duties were light enough to give me plenty of time to indulge my invented self, my sea-going fictional self, and wallow in my version of the well-documented affliction that causes people to live in literature rather than life.\n\n\nAnd the final section, “Personal Essay,” is a marvelous, somewhat meditative poem on consciousness, identity, and reality. One of my favorite lines in the poem is this:\n\nClouds oversized, exaggerated in the pale sky, drawn with a crayon by a kid,\nwhich confirms that we are in a fabrication, maybe even in a mistake,\nmaybe even in a cartoon.\n\nThere is a wonderful poem called “Rereading” in which David Copperfield is taken to task for dismantling the lives of the Peggotys in their cozy beached boat upon the strand. And I was also pleased about “Three Urdu Poems.” I love ghazals, a poetic form in which the couplets tend almost towards aphorism at times. I love trying to puzzle out how the seemingly unrelated lines actually do relate and form a whole. It is not a form that those who write in English use very often so they always get my attention when they turn up.\n\n3 Sections is a great collection, full of all sorts of gems. And for those who don’t really consider themselves poetry readers but would like to read poetry now and then, I bet you’d like this one too.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9083277583122253}
{"content": "Anyone for Pie?\n\n\nThe pie that is chocolate is missing a piece.\nThe pie, which is chocolate, is missing a piece.\n\nBesides making you hungry, the two sentences have a lot in common; however, they also have some important but subtle differences. It’s learning the subtle differences that can help you use the words that and which correctly. For example, the first sentence about the chocolate pie implies there is more than one flavor of pie, but only the chocolate pie is missing a piece. The second sentence states that there is only one pie and it has a piece missing. It also offers a side note to let you know that the pie is chocolate, but that fact is not considered as important as the fact that a piece is missing. (Obviously the second sentence wasn’t written by a chocoholic.)\n\nThe word that introduces restrictive clauses, or clauses that supply essential information to the intended meaning of the sentence. This is information that the reader needs to know to understand all that the sentence states and implies. However, the word which introduces non-restrictive clauses, or clauses that supply non-essential, supplemental information to the sentence, and if left out won’t change the sentence’s meaning (stated or implied). When trying to decide whether to use that or which, ask yourself these questions:\n\nIf I take out the clause, does my sentence’s meaning remain the same? If it does, you should use which; if it doesn’t, then use the word that.\n\nDoes the sentence feel as if it needs a comma? If so, this might indicate that you need to use the word which, because the clause it introduces is preceded by a comma. (The pie, which is chocolate, is missing a piece.)\n\nSo, when you’re putting together your sentence and wondering if you need to put in a that or a which, you need to think about what the point of the sentence is. What is it that you want the readers to know—do they need to know that a piece of pie is missing, or that a piece of chocolate pie is missing. Now, before you run out and get yourself a piece of chocolate pie, try the short quiz I’ve included below.\n\nThe four sentences below need either the word that or which. Determine the word needed based on whether the adjoining information is necessary for the reader to understand the message or whether the information is just nice to know.\nNote: Remember to place a comma before any clause introduced by which.\n\n  • The user guide should only contain instructions [that/which] were verified.\n  • The application requires a logon and password [that/which] prevents unauthorized access.\n  • The report shows every account [that/which] has been closed in the past 30 days.\n  • They canceled yesterday’s ABC project meeting [that/which] was already rescheduled twice.\n\nThe answers and explanations are below:\n\n\n  • The user guide should only contain instructions [that/which] were verified. The information “…that were verified” tells us exactly what type of instructions. You need the additional information to clarify the sentence; therefore, you need to use that.\n  • The application requires a logon and password, [that/which] prevents unauthorized access. The information that the logon and password prevent unauthorized access is interesting, but it isn’t essential; therefore, you need to use a comma and the word which.\n  • The report shows every account [that/which] has been closed in the past 30 days. Because the report is only showing accounts that were closed in the past 30 days, you need to use that; otherwise it would read as if the report were showing every account.\n  • They canceled yesterday’s ABC project meeting, [that/which] was already rescheduled twice. The information about the meeting being rescheduled twice is not essential to understanding that the ABC project meeting was canceled; therefore, you need to put in a comma and use which.\n\nSo, now go ahead and get that piece of pie.\n\nTelling the Story\n\nescortingcoverDo you know the difference between a novel and a non-fiction book? A non-fiction book is based in truth. However, the biggest mistake that non-fiction authors make is equating truth with a dry recitation of facts rather than the telling of a story. Despite your history teacher’s attempts to bore you with lists of dates and tables of facts, history can (and is) actually interesting. People want to know why something happened or why someone acted or reacted as they did. They want to understand the reason for events, and that’s where your story telling ability comes in. You need to show them why; you need to give them the story surrounding the event.\n\nAll stories, both fiction and non-fiction, are just that—stories. When writing a memoir, biography, or other bit of non-fiction, you still need to follow the same guidelines as an author writing a novel; however, you have a major advantage. Your story is already loosely defined for you. You have the timeline, timeframe, characters, major conflicts, and key dramatic elements, all you need to do is add the story components.\n\nYou need to develop your characters so that your readers can see them the way you do—are they shy, dynamic, geeky, or ne’er do well? The characters need depth, life, purpose, and motivation to go along with that dramatic moment. Does the moment you’re recording have to do with star-crossed lovers, a robbery gone wrong, a heroic deed, or just a crazy moment that changed the character’s life? You also need to build up the environment. What was the time period like, the culture, and the society? Help your readers understand your character’s perspectives, actions, and reactions. (For instance, the American culture and societal mores are much different today than they were in the 1970’s and understanding that can help the reader connect with the character and their plight.)\n\nAlso, just as a fictional character has wants, needs, fears, and motivations, so do your non-fictional characters. By using a first- or third-person point of view, action verbs, and a show-not-tell writing style you can catapult your readers into the story and help them appreciate the little slice of true life that you are sharing with them.\n\nHere’s an example of a memoir that, while historically accurate, is rather dry:\n\nIn 1973, Terry got a job for the local newspaper. She did many jobs while there, such as typesetting, layout and design, and bundling (which is the bundling of flyers, ads, and other inserts with the paper). However, her favorite job was junior reporter.\n\nHer first really major story involved the murder of a local schoolteacher. When the body was discovered, Terry was at the school to cover the latest protests.\n\nHere is that same example, but written in a more story-like way:\n\n1973 was a tumultuous year. It was the time of flower power, (Viet Nam) war protests, hippies dropping out, dropping in, and dropping acid, flag and bra burnings, and it was the year that Terry saw her first murder victim.\n\nAs a junior reporter for the local paper, she was at the school covering the latest protest when the screams ripped through the air.\n\n\nNow, which memoir would you rather read?\n\n4 Free Marketing Tools for Authors\n\nThis slideshow requires JavaScript.\n\nMost authors are not sales people. We tend to be loners and introverts, rather than extroverts and life-of-the-party types. Because of this temperament, many of us find that selling our books doesn’t come easily. Yet, without a bit of marketing, our books and other writings are unnoticed and often overlooked.\n\nFor each reader out there, there are at least a 1000 books that “hit the shelves” every day. Yet, without something to entice readers to find them, most of these books may never find a single reader, and many may only be found by the author’s friends and family. Yet, every book has 4 free, built-in sales and marketing points that many of us authors overlook.\n\nEvery time you, as the author, publish one of your works, you need to provide:\n\n  1. A book cover\n\nThink about it. What makes potential readers select a book written by an unknown author from an overwhelming list of unknown authors? The cover. Whether at a brick and mortar book store or online, a winning cover can make potential readers stop and check out your book. You need to create a cover that is unique and eye-catching, but the design also has to visually convey what your book is about. If your story is about space exploration, don’t show an image of a haunted house. And if it’s about vampires, don’t use space ships (well…unless it’s a book about space vampires). Worst of all, though, don’t give potential readers a blank cover with just the title and your name on it. That says you don’t care enough about the readers to even try to entice them.\n\n  1. A book synopsis\n\nI remember at a book conference, one of the guest author panelists said, if you can’t summarize your story, then you don’t understand your own plotline. What is the main arc of your story? What is it your characters are trying to do, solve, resolve, or accomplish? But don’t get side-tracked by subplots, just summarize the main idea of your story.\n\nEvery distribution site I’ve seen asks authors to provide a summary of the book (some even ask for two summaries—a long summary consisting of 1000 words, and a short summary containing only 200 words). That’s where you can really shine; after all, writing is what you do, right? So, give the reader something great.\n\nIf a potential reader has stopped to consider your cover, the next thing that reader will want is an overview of what the book is about. Give your potential readers the high-points of the story; give them a reason to want your book over someone else’s. There are millions of science fiction, romance, and murder mystery stories out there, why should they read yours?\n\n  1. An author write up\n\nMany readers also want to know something about you, the author. They want to know who you are and what makes you tick. They need to know what makes you worthy of their time, or what qualifies you to be an author on a specific topic? However, when you answer these questions, don’t go overboard, yet don’t be too skimpy, either.\n\nSome authors feel that they need to include their whole resume in their author bio; while others feel they don’t need to include any information at all. The truth of it is, many readers of fiction and non-fiction want a way to relate to you as a person; it helps them decide whether they want to give your work a chance. For instance, if you put in your author bio that you love chocolate, potential readers can go, “Ooooh, so do I.” Or perhaps you are a volunteer, a mother, or a person who rescues animals, if it relates to your book topic, tell the reader. It helps them relate to you, and it helps them accept that you just might know something about your book topic.\n\nYou especially need to include some biographical information if the book is non-fiction. That’s because potential readers are even more insistent on knowing that the author is someone they can trust to give them information on this particular topic. Potential readers want to know that if the book is about art history that you have the knowledge, background, or credentials to write knowledgably about that topic.\n\n  1. A book sample\n\nSome authors shy away from including book samples. Perhaps they feel they don’t need to give away their hard work. Yet, how else can potential readers gauge whether your writing style and their reading styles will mesh? How do they know they want to travel the story world with you as their guide if they can’t see your writing style? In a brick and mortar store, a reader can always pull the book off the shelf and read a sentence, a paragraph, or even several chapters. If you don’t give them the same chance when shopping online, then you’re tossing away possible sales.\n\nAs an author, you need to give the reader every possible chance to find you, find out about you, and to find out about your characters and your story. Personally, as a reader, the above-mentioned 4 items are key to whether I’ll buy your book. So, make sure you include them; because, when you use them, and use them well, you make your book shine.\n\nIt’s Now Free on Amazon, too! finally caught up with the other distributors, so now you can get Mastering Meditation free for your Kindle, too. Try some of the different meditations from the book, and see which of them works for you.\n\nDo you wonder what types of lives you might have lived previously, or what lives you might live in the future? Using the regression and progression meditation techniques included in the book can help you find out. The book also contains some examples of past and future life memories.\n\nSo, download your free copy today, and happy reading! (Please don’t forget to write up a review and post it ; )\n\nCover Design by DL-Designs and Digital Art\n\nMastering Meditation…\n\nThis slideshow requires JavaScript.\n\n\nIt’s FREE, and it’s coming soon!\n\nDid you ever want to try meditation but didn’t know what type? Or maybe you didn’t know there were different types of meditations? Well, there are. And in my soon-to-be-released FREE book, Mastering Meditation, you can check out the different types of meditation, try some of the different meditations from the book, and see which of them works for you. Do you want to relax? Or are you looking for help or guidance?\n\nDo you wonder what types of lives you might have lived previously, or what lives you might live in the future? Using the regression and progression meditation techniques included in the book can help you find out. The book also contains some examples of past life memories as recalled by me and several others who have used these meditation techniques. So, get ready…this FREE book is coming soon.\n\n\n\nIt’s how we live; it’s how our realities are created; and it’s the name of the new 2-book set available from most online book retailers.\n\n\nI’ve combined my near death experiences and death escort experiences with the years of information received regarding relationships of all sorts (spouses, companions, friends, co-workers, and family).\n\nLife is all about the choices we make in our everyday lives. How we choose to act and react to the stimuli around us and the actions and reactions of others. Sometimes we choose to react in love, and sometimes we choose fear. Every choice is a valid one, but each one also has consequences and spawns further actions, reactions, and choices.\n\nEach of my books shows examples of how choices affect our lives–little choices and major choices–and how every day we are constantly making thousands of choices without even realizing it.\n\nIf you have enjoyed the articles in this blog, then you will love the books, I’m sure. I hope each of you finds something meaningful and helpful in my writings and I will continue to answer your questions as best I can.\n\nHappy Reading!\n\n(Check it out at Smashwords!)\n\nThe 5 Keys to Building a Character\n\nThis slideshow requires JavaScript.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMannerisms/Traits: These are the tics or compulsions that a character displays consistently. For example, the character paces when nervous or agitated, chews gum or tobacco, hums to him- or herself, blinks excessively, clicks a pen without realizing it, taps the end of a pencil on the desk all the time, bounces his or her foot, plays with his or her hair or runs his or her fingers through his or her hair, chews his or her fingernails, rubs at a scar on his or her chin, cheek, nose, etc., stutters, or laughs inappropriately.\n\n\n\n\n\nWith all this new information at hand, she again asked us to describe her as if describing a character in one of our stories, and the results were profoundly different. For example:\n\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8173651695251465}
{"content": "Woven Network is set up to directly benefit, through a set of membership services, entrepreneurs and researchers working in the role of insects in the human food chain. Indirectly, through supporting its members, the company will also benefit the wider public across the Globe that need sustainable, alternative sources of protein.\n\nThe company aims to achieve the following for the UK:\n\n  • To create a voice on behalf of the ‘insects for food and feed’ UK community to speak to the public, UK Government, UK Govt agencies and EU bodies.\n  • To demonstrate the scale of the emerging sector and enable collective action to reflect this.\n  • To attract more entrepreneurs and businesses into the UK and into the sector by demonstrating the opportunity, and making the UK a strong location from which to operate.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.998026430606842}
{"content": "Are you in compliance?\n\n\nFor an Example of a Successful Transition to IFRS, Look North\n\nRobert Herz | October 30, 2012\n\nThe Securities and Exchange Commission staff issued a final report this summer on its work plan on International Financial Reporting Standards. While the report provides a thorough and thoughtful discussion of the many areas addressed by the SEC staff in their over two-year examination of whether, when, and how to incorporate IFRS into financial reporting by U.S. issuers, it does not contain any recommendations to the Commission on a potential path forward. \n\nMoreover, the introductory note to the report states that “additional analysis and consideration of this threshold policy question is necessary before any decision by the Commission concerning the incorporation of IFRS into the financial reporting system for U.S. issuers can occur.” With potential changes in leadership of the SEC a distinct possibility following the presidential election, it now seems that any further action by the Commission on this important matter is unlikely to occur until well into 2013 at the earliest.\n\nAlthough the SEC staff report does not contain any recommendations on a path forward, it does discuss a number of issues and challenges that would be associated with outright adoption of IFRS for U.S. issuers and why some sort of endorsement process under which the Financial Accounting Standards Board would be charged with reviewing IFRS standards for potential incorporation into U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles might help avoid or alleviate many of these issues. In that regard, the SEC had issued a paper in May 2011 on a possible method of incorporation of IFRS into U.S. GAAP involving an endorsement approach, which some have termed “condorsement.”  The Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), which oversees FASB, sent a letter to the SEC in November of 2011 detailing their thoughts and recommendations on such an approach.\n\nA number of countries have already transitioned via an endorsement process from their national accounting standards to IFRS for their listed companies and other “publicly accountable entities.”  Canada provides a recent and interesting example of a country that through careful planning and a lot of hard work was able to successfully make this transition. And while there are certainly very important differences between Canada and the United States—including the size and breadth of their economies and capital markets, and in the legal and regulatory systems surrounding financial reporting—Canada had accounting standards that in many cases were based on or similar to U.S. GAAP, and, as in the United States, its public companies are subject to quarterly reporting requirements.\n\nThrough serving as a member of the Accounting Standards Oversight Council of Canada (AcSOC) since early 2011, I have been able to better understand and appreciate how our neighbor to the north made this transition. Like the FAF in the United States, AcSOC has oversight responsibility over the two Canadian accounting standards-setting boards, the Accounting Standards Board of Canada (AcSB) and the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of Canada (PSAB). For a number of years, AcSB had been pursuing a deliberate policy of trying to converge its accounting standards with U.S. GAAP. That seemed to make sense in light of the significant economic and trade linkages between the two countries. In 2006, however, after extensive consultation with Canadian stakeholders, AcSB, with the support of AcSOC and the Canadian Securities Administrators, decided to change course and transition to IFRS for listed companies, other publicly accountable entities, and certain governmental enterprises. Canadian accounting standard setters cited several reasons for the change in course, including the perception that U.S. GAAP standards were too complex and detailed for the Canadian market, the growing use and acceptance of IFRS around the world, and a belief that moving to IFRS would better enable Canadian companies and capital markets to remain competitive on an international basis.\n\nAccordingly, in 2006, AcSB issued a Strategic Plan that outlined an approach to move to IFRS through a systematic process of convergence and endorsement.  It called for the changeover to occur starting on Jan. 1, 2011, and laid out a number of issues that would need to be addressed and actions by various stakeholder groups that would be needed in order to facilitate a smooth and successful transition.  While the goal was to be able to fully converge to and endorse IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board without modification, AcSB issued three omnibus exposure drafts covering the body of IFRS, laying out the IFRS requirements, contrasting them with the corresponding existing Canadian standards, and specifically soliciting input into reasons why AcSB should either reject or modify particular provisions of IFRS.  AcSB also conducted significant outreach activities to help constituents understand the issues, challenges, and potential effects of the change to IFRS and to learn about constituents' perspectives and concerns about the process.  And for their part, Canadian listed companies and other affected entities began identifying and working through the data, systems, and other changes they would need to make to implement IFRS in 2011 and auditors, securities regulators, accounting educators, and users also began to plan for the changeover.\n\nWhile Canada is not the United States and the United States is not Canada, the Canadian process and experience in moving to IFRS may provide some relevant and valuable insights if and when the SEC resumes its consideration of this subject in the U.S. context.\n\nThe change occurred as planned starting on Jan. 1, 2011, with most of the affected companies having now reported for more than a year using IFRS.  How did it go? Pretty well, by most accounts.  AcSB and AcSOC have been closely monitoring the process and while there have inevitably been some issues, overall the implementation seems to have gone quite smoothly without any noticeable disruption or impact on the Canadian capital markets.  But that's not to minimize the hard work that was required by the companies and by many other stakeholders in the Canadian reporting system to achieve this outcome.  \n\nWhile AcSB decided not to reject or modify any aspects of IFRS, based on the comments it received on the three omnibus EDs and on other input it received from constituents, it did decide to delay the implementation in Canada of two specific aspects of IFRS to enable Canadian-listed companies and other affected entities to continue to use their current practices pending possible changes to IFRS by IASB. The first of these relates to accounting by investment companies where IASB currently has an ongoing project that would more closely align IFRS with the approach used in Canada and the United States.  The second deferral relates to accounting for rate-regulated activities where the existing Canadian standard is quite similar to U.S. GAAP in allowing for the capitalization of certain costs that are recoverable by an entity subject to rate regulation.  IFRS does not specifically address this subject, but some believe that under the general principles of IFRS such costs are not eligible for capitalization and would therefore need to be written off in implementing IFRS.  However, IASB is currently considering whether to undertake a project on accounting for rate-regulated activities.\n\nI think it is also noteworthy that over three hundred Canadian companies are also foreign registrants that file in the United States with the SEC.  As allowed by the Canadian Securities Administrators, many of those companies had adopted U.S. GAAP in both their Canadian and U.S. filings. While a few of them have now switched to IFRS, most of them have decided, at least for now, to continue to use U.S. GAAP.  So that, together with the two deferrals discussed above, means that not all Canadian-listed companies have adopted IFRS. Nevertheless, the switch to IFRs represented an important and broad-based change in the Canadian reporting system that overall, as noted above, seems to have been successfully accomplished.\n\nSo what does AcSB do now in terms of standard-setting activities?  The organization continues to have direct standard-setting responsibility for Canadian private companies and not-for-profit activities. Interestingly, in connection to the planned changeover to IFRS for Canadian-listed companies  and certain other entities, AcSB decided to develop specific  “made in Canada standards” for its private companies and not-for-profits, which were implemented in 2011 and 2012, respectively.\n\nAcSB also continues to have responsibility for reviewing and endorsing new standards being developed by IASB.  That is accomplished  though close monitoring of IASB projects and developments by AcSB and its staff, issuance of “wraparound”  EDs by AcSB for public comment  explaining proposed changes in IFRS and soliciting input on whether  there are unique circumstances in Canada that would warrant AcSB rejecting  or modifying the particular IFRS for use in Canada, extensive ongoing outreach activities with Canadian stakeholders on these matters, and deliberation by AcSB  before endorsing a new IASB standard for use in Canada.  As part of the endorsement process, AcSB also carefully considers the completeness and quality of IASB's due process in developing a standard, including whether  that process has been free from undue political influence  and has given due consideration to stakeholder input.  AcSOC also reviews AcSB's due process, both in establishing standards for Canadian private companies and not-for-profit entities and in evaluating and endorsing new IFRSs for use in Canada, as well as PSAB's due process for setting public-sector accounting standards.\n\nAcSB and AcSOC also provide input to IASB and to the IFRS Foundation on a variety of matters, including on IASB's agenda and on due process enhancements.  Additionally, AcSB and AcSOC provide staff support to Patricia O'Malley, a former member of IASB and former chair of AcSB who currently chairs the International Forum of Accounting Standard Setters that provides input to IASB on technical matters. Paul Cherry, another former chair of ACSB, now chairs the IFRS Advisory Council, which is IASB's main standing advisory group. And both the IFRS Foundation board of trustees and IASB's interpretations committee have a member from Canada.  In short, AcSB, AcSOC, and Canada are active and important participants in the IFRS world.\n\nWhile Canada is not the United States and the United States is not Canada, the Canadian process and experience in moving to IFRS may provide some relevant and valuable insights if and when the SEC resumes its consideration of this subject in the U.S. context.  In that regard, I hope the United States as the world's largest capital market and national economy will continue to play an important role in the development of the international financial reporting system.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9483380317687988}
{"content": "Article Text\n\nFRI0138 The importance of cystatin c as a predictor of accelerated atherosclerosis in premenopausal non-diabetic patients with rheumatoid patients\n  1. I. Holc1,\n  2. A. Pahor1,\n  3. R. Hojs2\n  1. 1Dept. Of Rheumatology\n  2. 2Dept of Nephrology, UMC Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia\n\n\nBackground Life expectancy in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is reduced by 3-10 years mainly due to cardiovascular diseases. Cystatin C is a basic microprotein, widely distributed in human tissues and body fluids. Cystatin C has been shown to be elevated in the synovial fluid of patients with RA, compared to patients with other joint diseases. The renal function is an important determinant of coronary atherosclerosis, and serum cystatin C is a novel, accurate measure of the glomerular filtration rate and a predictor of cardiovascular events and mortality, as stated by Maahs et al. Cystatin C has been reported not to be dependent on age, gender or muscle mass. Cystatin C has been demonstrated to be better predictor of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events than serum creatinine.\n\nMethods The study group comprised of 68 premenopausal non-diabetic female RA patients. Forty healthy subjects, matched by age and sex, were selected as a control group. RA was diagnosed according to the 1987 revised criteria of the American College of Rheumatology. Ultrasound examination of carotid arteries was performed. Results of intima media thickness (IMT) and plaques were statistically studied and correlated with cystatin C and some other risk factors for atherosclerosis as well as with CRP and disease activity score-28 (DAS-28).\n\nResults The IMT in patients was 0.63±0.10 mm and in controls 0.51±0.09 mm (p=0.000). Patients had statistically significant more plaques than controls - 17 versus 2 (p=0,006). The mean value for cystatin C in patients with RA was 0.69 ± 0.14 g/L, and in the control group the mean value was 0.67 ± 0.08 g/L. We did not find a statistically significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). We correlated cystatin C and IMT. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient calculated was low (r=0.153) and not statistically significant (p>0.05). We calculated Pearson’s correlation coefficient between cystatin C and plaques. The correlation coefficient was low (r=0.161) and not statistically significant (p=0.165).\n\nConclusions We did not find any differences between the study group and the control group in cystatin C levels, nor did we find any correlation with the atherosclerotic changes in RA patients. Therefore, we cannot conclude that cystatin C would be a predictor of accelerated atherosclerosis in RA patients as is in patients with chronic renal disease and in patients with diabetes. Considering the statistically significant difference in IMT and number of plaques in RA patients’ group and control group we could conclude that the atherosclerosis is accelerated even in premenopausal non-diabetic RA patients. However, the pathogenesis could be connected with inflammation more than with classical risk factors for atherosclerosis as is cystatin C.\n\n\n  1. Hansen T, Petrow PK, Gaumann A, Keyszer GM, Eysel P, Eckardt A, Bräuer R, Kriegsmann J. Cathepsin B and its endogenous inhibitor cystatin C in rheumatoid arthritis synovium. J Rheumatol. 2000 Apr;27(4):859-65.\n\n  2. Maahs DM, Ogden LG, Kretowski A, Snell-Bergeon JK, Kinney GL, Berl T, Rewers M. Serum cystatin C predicts progression of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis in individuals with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes. 2007 Nov;56(11):2774-9.\n\nDisclosure of Interest None Declared\n\nStatistics from\n\nRequest permissions\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8765190243721008}
{"content": "Sunday, August 13, 2017\n\nGet Your Hands Out of Those Pockets If You Want to Engage With This World\n\nI’m beginning to grow suspicious of the harmful effects of wearing pocketed clothing items.\nIt started with hoodies. They’re so darn comfy, right? But I noticed that when I wear a hoodie, I feel like I’m in my own little cocoon, and I have no particular desire to let anyone else into my cocoon. I become more withdrawn, cuz hey, I’m happy in my cocoon. Everyone else can go away.\nSo I stopped wearing hoodies in social situations.\nThen there were pocketed dresses. Designers finally figured out that women want pockets in their dresses (equality with pants!), so more dresses come with pockets these days. I started wearing pocketed dresses to teaching gigs, thinking how nifty it’d be to keep a whiteboard marker in my pocket. It was indeed nifty, but again, I noticed something: I used way less body language when explaining concepts. See, once my hands made their ways into my pockets, they really had to want to come out. They didn’t deem it worth it most of the time, as they highly value warmth. My teaching got worse as a result.\nSo I stopped wearing pocketed dresses for teaching gigs.\nThen there are jackets. I taught improv to a bunch of high schoolers yesterday, and it was their very first time doing improv, so they were understandably shy and resistant. The hardest cases? The teens in bomber jackets. Their hands were clearly very accustomed to resting inside those pockets, and it was a matter of great will to get those hands out in order to pass a clap or catch a sound ball. I injected new games on the spot designed specifically to get their hands out of their pockets, to remind their hands that indeed, the world outside the pockets is a fine place indeed. See, even if the mind and majority-body of those teens wanted to improv, their hands had to overcome an awful lot of inertia to get them fully engaged in it.\nI don’t get to tell other people what to wear, of course, but if I was any sort of strict improv teacher, I’d institute a no-pockets rule, AKA a hands-out-and-ready-to-engage-at-all-times rule.\nSo: pockets. Lovely inventions for storing things, absolutely. Surprisingly effective at decreasing our desire to engage with our whole body in the world though.\nAnd thus concludes a blog post about pockets. 😀\n\nCoding: A Hobby for the Waste-Adverse\n\nI love creating things and I’m a high energy individual. I can spend all day creating things, enjoying both the process and the output.\nFor most of my adult life, I’ve channeled my creative energy into coding. I studied Computer Science in college, and went on to jobs at Google, Coursera, and Khan Academy. Even in my year of “recovering from corporate life” between Google and Coursera, I spent my time coding web apps and browser extensions for fun and no-profit. ☺\nThis past year, I got back into other forms of creativity. I learned woodworking and laser cutting, making signs and jewelry out of wood. I worked on a Burning Man art project with a team, turning a giant gumball machine into an LED ring dispenser. I ran art events with my partner, showing other people the joy of painting for fun. I adore the sensory aspect of those forms of creativity —the smell of wood when I sand it, the gooeyness of paint — the feeling of using my body in the creative process.\nThis summer, I finally returned to coding as my full-time form of creativity. And actually, there’s a big part of me that breathes a sigh of relief: the part of me that doesn’t like to accumulate excess and create waste.\nTo create things that live outside the digital world, I need to acquire the supplies, shape them into the thing, and then discard or donate the unused part of the supplies. Sometimes, I can “reclaim” the supplies, like when I pick up driftwood on the beach, but then I still need to acquire the tools, like the woodburning iron, power drill, etc. I also need to find a place to store the newly created item or someone to give it away to. I sometimes sell things on Etsy, but then, I need to acquire the shipping supplies.\nTo create things that live in the digital world, I only need my laptop, electricity, and a bit of disk space. I can share things easily with others (without needing new disk space!), and if I’m done with them, I can delete things to reclaim that disk space. I can acquire “supplies” by a quick download, and easily delete supplies I no longer need.\nIsn’t that great? It’s great! A way to use up my creative energy without excessive accumulation and waste! Phew!\n\nThis post is not a declaration that everybody should stop creating physical things, or even that I will stop creating physical things. This is also not a thorough analysis of the overall sustainability of a world of digital technology.\nThis post is simply an observation of a benefit of coding that I hadn’t truly appreciated before. Thank you, coding.☺\n\nSunday, May 7, 2017\n\nMy Morning Practice\n\n(Spoiler alert: it’s not just meditation.)\n\n\n\nThe Setup: My Altar\n\n\n\n\nThe Prerequisite: Waking Up Early\n\nSetting my Intention\n\n\nSitting Meditation\n\n\n\n“Cleansing Breath”\n\n\n\n\n\nNeck Stretches\n\n\n\n\n“Bending in the Four Directions”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe Compassion Prayer\n\nMay all beings be free from suffering\nMay all beings be free from fear and anger\nMay all beings find peace and joy\nMay all beings have a mind at ease\n\nClosing Gesture\n\n\nThursday, April 20, 2017\n\nWhat is the difference between ambition and discontent?\n\nI am honestly trying to figure this out right now.\n\n“Ambition” is defined as “desire and determination to achieve success.”.\n\n“Discontent” is defined as “dissatisfaction with one’s circumstances”.\n\nIs it possible for one to desire to achieve success, if they are not dissatisfied with their circumstances?\n\nOr, to bring this out of abstract realm and put my skin in the game: is it possible for me to desire to achieve success, without a dissatisfaction with my circumstances?\n\nIt seems theoretically possible. I could think “Well, things are alright right now and I’ll be content if they stay this way, but it’d probably be better if I was able to improve this thing, so I’ll try that out.”\n\nSometimes I do have that mindset. But after I put thingX on my TODO list and the fantasy of finishing thingX taunts me, my mindset soon turns to “Gosh, I just won’t be satisfied until I improve this thing! And look at all these other people and things taking up my time, preventing me from getting thingX done! I really really want to get it done!”\n\nMy preference for achievement turns into a desire, and that desire turns into an obsession, and that obsession turns into anxiety.\n\nWhy does preference turn into desire? Why can’t I avoid discontenment?\n\nLet’s take a tangent into etymology land, to see what it yields.\n\nThe word “content” comes from Latin contentus, meaning “contained, satisfied”, as in “their desires are bound by what he or she already has.” Thus, the state of discontent is when your desires reach outside what you already have. You must achieve that thing outside of you in order to become content again, and hope that you can keep that thing inside your bounds.\n\nThe word “ambition” comes from Latin ambitionem, meaning “a going around”, as in the act of going around to solicit votes — “a striving for favor, courting, flattery; a desire for honor, thirst for popularity”. Apparently in its early uses, ambition was always used pejoratively, and the positive sense is only from modern times.\n\nI must say, that was a very interesting detour. So much is contained within the etymology of those two words.\n\nThe original meaning of ambition is certainly one that’s bound to end in discontentment. If my desire to achieve things is literally to become popular, then the bounds of my desires are reaching far outside myself — to a possibly infinite extent. Once I’ve gained the favor of 100, why wouldn’t I want to gain the favor of 1,000? I cannot be content — I cannot be self-contained — if my desires depend on the votes of others.\n\nBut we could argue that the new meaning of ambition is a different one, and that you can have a desire to achieve success not because you personally need the good favor, but because you recognize a problem in the world and you see that you have the capabilities to fix it. That seems reasonable.\n\nNow let’s go into a Buddhist critique (from an amateur).\n\nDesire is suffering. Desire is a form of attachment. Attachments are dangerous because of how strongly they stick to the mind. They make it hard to see truth, they make it hard for the mind to be free and open to all the possibilities of the world, they constrain the limits of the self.\n\nDesire can be contrasted with preference. You are attached to your desires, you are not attached to your preferences. If the world changes such that you can’t follow your preferences, you can just go with the flow.\n\nWhat if ambition could be a “preference to achieve success”? What if I could prefer to achieve thingX, but not be bothered if it can’t happen for some reason? That does seem nice, as it’d mean never spiraling from desire to obsession to anxiety.\n\nThe risk to it is that, in actuality, I might be able to achieve thingX, but I let some other false belief get in the way of that achievement (like a subconscious belief that I’m not capable). If I am not driven by mad desire, then I may miss out on potential personal growth.\n\nThat means that I must be very honest with myself. I have to admit everything that affects my ability to achieve thingX, and question how real those obstacles are. I also have to admit when I no longer think it’s useful to achieve thingX. Finally, I have to admit when a preference has turned into a desire, and when that attachment has clouded my other admissions.\n\nIt sounds hard, especially when desire is the standard modus operandi. But I do think it may be possible, to cultivate a form of ambition that is compatible with a sense of contentment.\n\nThinking through this has been most helpful. Thank you for reading.\n\nMonday, April 17, 2017\n\nI stopped listening to music\n\n…And I didn’t miss it.\n\nI spent the fall on a 4-month retreat at a Buddhist institute in Berkeley. We did a lot during that retreat — meditating, Tibetan yoga, group discussions, work practice — but music wasn’t an integral part. The closest we came was our daily chanting and one workshop on mindful listening.\n\nI wouldn’t actually notice the lack of music until I came back into the real world for visits each Sunday. Then, when a song came on, I would really hear it. I’d often find myself dancing or singing along to it. My body and mind found it such an entertaining novelty.\n\nThere were after-effects, though. Song lyrics would stick in my head and stay for days, pulsing through my head as soon as I woke up. My mind would try to understand the lyrics, to figure out what they meant for my life and how their values should be applied. I didn’t mind that for a few songs where the lyrics cohered with the rest of my life, but for many pop songs, that was very much not the case. Pop song lyrics are based on romantic fantasies, oversimplified idealized worlds that rarely exist. It doesn’t serve my mind well to hold my own life up to the expectations of pop song worlds.\n\nI became more careful about what songs I exposed my mind to. When my partner made playlists for our housework, I asked him to prefer songs without lyrics. If I got cravings to dance, I put on beautiful instrumental music or simply danced without music.\n\nNow that the retreat is over, songs are actually a big part of my life — but they are songs that I am singing to myself. They’re either made up songs, like lyrics about hungry cats set to the Muppets Blue Danube, or they’re songs from my childhood, like the entire Lion King soundtrack.\n\nAs it turns out, my mind already has enough songs to keep it entertained for this lifetime. I am certainly open to hearing new songs, but I will no longer go through effort to go out and find them.\n\nIf you’re curious about how music affects your mind, try spending two weeks without any or just two weeks with non-lyrical musical. Notice how your mind feels, and notice how it feels when you bring it back into your life.\n\nRegardless of how your mind responds, it is an interesting experiment to try and you will learn something about your mind and music.\n\nEnjoy the silence! :)\n\nSunday, April 16, 2017\n\nAvoiding concept overload on the BART\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWalk with wide angle vision\n\n\n\n\n\nJourney to the land of no billboards\n\n\nCatch the breeze of incoming trains\n\n\nPlay the consonant game with posters\n\n\n\nMeditate the minutes away\n\n\nWhat do you do?\n\n\nMonday, April 3, 2017\n\nDrying out my thought loops\n\nThey say that 90% of our thoughts are repetitive. Actually, I don’t know who “they” is, but I say that 90% of my thoughts are repetitive.\n\nThe first time I have a thought, it may be quite nice. It might be a new idea or a pleasant feeling of gratitude. It can also be not so nice, like regret over the way I’ve worded something or dread of some upcoming event.\n\nBoth of those kind of thoughts repeat, the pleasant and the unpleasant. For me, the idea thoughts are the most persistent. My brain simply adores figuring things out, and when there’s a new idea that’s not completely fleshed out, it desperately wants to fill in all the details. It will even write the code for a program in my head. And when there’s some aspect it can’t figure out, like for something beyond my current skills, it will go at it even harder. For days, weeks, months.\n\nAt first, the idea thoughts are pleasant. But as my brain hammers on them, they become tiring. Why won’t my mind let go of them?? I often imagine taking a (metaphorical) drill to my head and just emptying them out. I even painted that one day:\n\npainting of drill to head\n\nIt’s hard for my brain to convince my brain not to figure things out. It’s been doing it for 30+ years now, it’s gotten quite good at it, and the skill has gotten it many places. In the competition to be the best neurons in my brain, the figure-it-out neurons have been winning for a long time.\n\nBut now I’m on to them. Now I’ve seen that they’ve taken control of my brain, and that they simply have too much control. I’ve got a plan. I’m drying them out. I can’t prevent the thoughts from starting up in my head, but I can prevent them from going on for many minutes. I can interrupt their flow.\n\nMy technique of choice: continuous chanting. It’s been a few months since I graduated from a 4 month Human Development Training retreat, and I’ve been chanting ever since, every day, all day, for as long as my roommates can take it. Sometimes that chanting turns into singing silly songs to myself; sometimes it turns into nonsense poetry. But the technique works just the same. You see, during that retreat, I discovered that my mind has multiple tracks. Even during continuous chanting, my mind can keep thoughts going on another track. But at least with chanting, those thoughts can’t go as far, since they don’t have as much time/space as before. There’s also increased awareness of how far they’ve gone, likely due to the cognitive overhead involved in keeping them going. Here, a technical diagram:\n\nSome thought loops are very strong, trying to scream louder than the chant track. When that happens, it’s sometimes because a thought actually needs to be processed. I start with the most lightweight processing I can do, scribbling it on a piece of paper. If the thought still screams because it doesn’t think the paper’s good enough, I can write it down digitally. If it’s still persisting after that, then I talk over the thought with a friend. That’s often the first recourse in our society, but for me, it’s the last recourse, because talking things over can solidify thoughts more than necessary and it involves putting thoughts into other people’s heads, too.\n\nThere are other thought loops that don’t need processing; they just need a BIG interruption. These are my top 3 favorite ways of clearing my mind:\n\n  • The Ursonate: A rhythmic nonsense poem. You can watch my favorite verse progression, or read my post about learning it.\n  • Manjushri chant: A Tibetan mantra which can be chanted with an increasing tempo until it gets so fast that no thoughts can squeeze in. Usually a teacher leads it, but I also made a little web version for myself.\n  • Kum Nye: A form of Tibetan Yoga with slow poses. Some of the poses bring up such intense bodily feelings that they clear my mind as well. You can learn Kum Nye from Nyingma Institute or a book.\n\nTo properly use my chant-the-thoughts-away techniques, I’ve found that I also need to avoid incompatible activities. Mostly, that means avoiding listening to music or watching concerts. I’ve found that I can’t chant while listening to someone else’s audio track, but I can still think (A LOT). Therefore, no music listening for me. That’s okay, I make my own!\n\nNow you might be wondering: is it working? Are my thoughts drying out? Yes and no. I’m noticing much less unnecessary negative thoughts, like judgments about other people or about myself. I do still have many brainstorming thoughts, but they’re not as all-consuming as before.\n\nI’ve noticed it’s particularly important that I employ these techniques after a happening, event or conversation. In the past, I’d often get in loops of rehashing and regret, which would turn an experience negative. Now, the experience is what it is, without one aspect of it being multiplied by my mind. It’s also important to dry thoughts out while I’m working on something I find difficult, as negative self-judgments can also easily multiply and get in the way of progress. It’s all about not letting the mind make a thought bigger than it needs to be, if it needs to be there at all.\n\nMy techniques are obviously very much inspired by having spent months on a Tibetan Buddhist retreat and experimenting with everything we learned there. But your mileage may vary. Also, your mind may work completely different from mine. Or you may not have any need for these techniques. Who knows? I do not know your mind. But I know mine much better now, and I’m going to try my best to retrain it.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8753106594085693}
{"content": "martes, 17 de mayo de 2011\n\nEmployee Training: Essential Tool for HACCP and GMP Compliance\n\n\nIn a recent National Institute of Food and Agriculture survey, 65% of the establishments surveyed characterized training as very important, with highest interest in the areas of HACCP regulatory updates, cleaning and sanitation, detection and control of pathogens and Escherichia coli regulations. Reasons given for not having a training program included lack of time, lack of funds and lack of access to appropriate training resources. Higher overall knowledge scores were achieved by participants who recognized the importance of training, had computer access and participated in an ongoing training program at their plant.\n\nAccording to the study perhaps the biggest challenge in SSOP compliance is managing employees, specifically communication and retention of required training materials. Finding the time and resources to provide successful and relevant employee training is challenging and time consuming. Also the importance of training for new employees is widely accepted and understood, but ongoing training for existing employees is a crucial task that is frequently overlooked\n\nChanges in cleaning staff, raw materials, chemicals, seasons and many more variables impose challenges on any sanitation program and timely, reliable feedback on its effectiveness is vital. In order to obtain this feedback, enterprises should use different evaluation systems that go from simple writing test, to monitoring softwares that can measure if there`s any organic material on a surface which would indicate problems in the cleaning process.\n\nAporte: Alejandra Avendaño\n\n\n1 comentario:\n\nThomas Klinger dijo...\n\n\nHACCP training", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9023914337158203}
{"content": "Dolphins may have a spoken language, new research suggests\n\nRare dolphin birth caught on camera\nRare dolphin birth caught on camera\n\n\n    Rare dolphin birth caught on camera\n\n\nRare dolphin birth caught on camera 01:13\n\nStory highlights\n\n  • Dolphins may communicate in different pulses which resemble words and sentences\n  • But scientist says more, open-water testing will be needed to confirm dolphin language\n\n(CNN)A conversation between dolphins may have been recorded by scientists for the first time, a Russian researcher claims.\n\nTwo adult Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, named Yasha and Yana, didn't interrupt each other during an interaction taped by scientists and may have formed words and sentences with a series of pulses, Vyacheslav Ryabov says in a new paper.\n    \"The (pulse) exchanges reminds us of an exchange with sentences between two people,\" Ryabov told CNN.\n    \"I think it's very early days to be drawing conclusions that the dolphins are using signals in a kind of language context, similar to humans,\" he told CNN.\n\n    'A highly developed spoken language'?\n\n     Bottlenose dolphins leap off the Southern California coast.\n    Using new recording techniques, Ryabov separated the individual \"non coherent pulses\" the two dolphins made and theorized each pulse was a word in the dolphins' language, while a collection of pulses is a sentence.\n    \"Dolphins are producing these packs of pulses without interrupting each other which let's us suggest that each of the dolphins listen to one another before it starts its own pack of pulses,\" he told CNN.\n    In his paper, published in the St. Petersburg Polytechnical University Journal: Physics and Mathematics last month, Ryabov said the pulses could be considered a highly developed spoken language.\n    He called for humans to create a device by which people could communicate with dolphins.\n    Russian military looks to recruit dolphins\n    russia recruits dophins pkg asher_00013613\n\n\n      Russian military looks to recruit dolphins\n\n\n    Russian military looks to recruit dolphins 01:46\n    \"Humans must take the first step to establish relationships with the first intelligent inhabitants of the planet Earth by creating devices capable of overcoming the barriers that stand in the way of ... communications between dolphins and people,\" he said.\n    \"If we boil it down we pretty much have two animals in an artificial environment where reverberations are a problem ... It wouldn't make much sense for animals (in a small area) to make sounds over each other because they wouldn't get much (sonar) information,\" he said.\n    \"It would be nice to see a variety of alternate explanations to this rather than the one they're settling on.\"", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7538106441497803}
{"content": "San Juan, Ibiza\n\nHotels in San Juan: Casa Naya\n\nHotels in San Juan: This hotel offers guests a relaxing holiday at the heart of Ibiza island, surrounded by nature, peace and quiet and great views. It is set in a rural area, close to dining options and the most enchanting beaches in Ibiza, the hippy markets and the nightclubs. Balafia, where guests will find the nearest restaurants, is 2 km away and it is 4 km to the centre of San Juan, 6 km to Benirra/Xarraca and 8 km to the tourist centre of Portinatx. The Cuevas can Marça are also 8 km away and it is 10 km to the Cuevas d'Es Cuieram. Ibiza Airport is 22 km away. This country house hotel comprises a total of 10 rooms including 2 suites and 2 junior suites. Facilities on offer to guests include a lobby area with a 24-hour reception and check-out service, a hotel safe, a currency exchange facility, a games room, communal areas and a TV lounge with satellite TV and digital satellite channels. The younger guests can let off steam in the children's playground and there is a taxi service, car hire, breakfasts and home-cooked meals for groups, as well as emergency and medical services. There is a wine cellar with a fireplace, conference facilities including a meeting room, WLAN Internet access throughout the hotel and a restaurant serving breakfast and lunch. Guests can also take advantage of the laundry service and there is parking for those arriving by car. It is also possible to hire bicycles on the premises. The comfortable rooms and suites all come with a private bathroom with a shower/bathtub and a hairdryer and offer a king-size or double bed. They are equipped with a telephone, satellite TV, a radio, Internet access and a safe. They have a small kitchen with a minibar, a fridge, a microwave and tea and coffee making facilities. Furthermore, individually regulated hot and cold air conditioning is provided in all accommodation as standard and all feature either a terrace or a balcony.\n\nAreas of Ibiza", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9552903175354004}
{"content": "Skinks are reptiles that appear in The Lion Guard universe. They live in the Pride Lands.\n\n\nStriped skinks are bronze and yellow. Fire skinks have bright colors of red, gold and black. Males are bulkier while females have flatter heads and wider jaws.\n\n\nSkinks are reclusive lizards that can be found in forests and grasslands. They have a habit of burrowing underground to avoid both predators and prey. Skinks feed on a variety of insects such as crickets that make up most of their diet. They also have the ability to detach their tails to distract predators in order to escape and then regenerate them within a few months.\n\nNotable Skinks in The Lion Guard\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9793972373008728}
{"content": "The Technology Test is a level in Serious Sam: The First Encounter and Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. It has no connection to the game's single player campaign nor a deathmatch level.\n\n\nSerious Sam is warped into a large, outdoor area with a temple on each side and is only armed with a Military Knife and Schofield .45. The design of the temples depends on the game the Technology Test is in. In The First Encounter, it is Egypt-themed, while The Second Encounter version is Mayan-themed. Each temple has different special effects to test if the player's computer can run them. The temples are surrounded by either a never-ending desert or grass field, depending on the game it is in.\n\nThe left temple leads to the Temple of Models, which shows off diffuse shading, specular shading, environmental mapping, bump mapping, translucency and transparency, multiply and add blending, particles and various models in fog. The rendering techniques are shown via a Utah Teapot, a model often used to test various rendering techniques.\n\nThe right temple leads to the Temple of Effects, which shows off the rendering effects basic texturing, texture layers and blending mode, mirrors and reflective surfaces, portals, haze, volumetic fog, procedural textures, lens flare and animating lights.\n\nThere are no weapons, enemies, nor exit in the level, since this level is meant to test out various effects in a safe environment.\n\n\n\n  • This level first appeared in Test 1, where it was used for Croteam to test special effects on various computers.\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.743384063243866}
{"content": "How FG can salvage Naira – Johnson Chukwu\n\n\n\n“The Federal Government should seek a $10billion currency support line from its trading partners; set a limit for the falling Naira,  fix infrastructure and pursue the diversification drive with vigour”.\nThese are the pieces of advice by a cross-section of Nigerians on how best to salvage the Naira, whose worth continues to fall like a heavy Lead at the black market.For instance, as at yesterday, it was quoted at N455 to the dollar on the black market. Even last month,the currency was sold at N495 per dollar. “From a technical standpoint, the Naira is heavily bearish and this negative momentum could open a path towards 500 and potential higher against the Dollar on the black market exchange”, says Lukman Otunuga, a Research Analyst with Forex Time (FXTM) on an online investment note.\nBut how can the nation reverse this trend?\nMr. Johnson Chukwu, the Managing Director of Cowry Assets Management Limited, advised the Federal Government to seek bilateral or multilateral loans to buffer the currency since the CBN can not do so.\nHis words: “The only thing government can do is to enter into agreement with a multilateral financial agency or a bilateral financial agreement with one of our trading partners to provide financial support, budget support or currency support line of a minimum of $10billion to the government through central bank so that the government will be in a position to meet legitimate demand for forex. The key thing is that confidence has been punctured. Investors , both local and international, complain that we dont have the reserves to meet all the maturing obligations or all our obligations. So they are not bringing in their money. If we want  that change, we need to get a currency or budget support line that is huge enough, that is large enough to ensure that we, as a country, can meet all foreign currency obligations as they are unfolding.As of today, CBN can no longer convince both international and local investors, that it has the muscle to do that. So it has to leverage on entities such as  multilateral financial agencies like the World Bank, the IMF,bilateral partners like China or any of them to give the investing public that confidence that the country have the resources  to meet all its obligations.”\nHe, however, warns: “If the situation persists, the contracting economy will accelerate, so you are going to have a high level contraction.If we do not stop the deterioration in the exchange rate because most companies can no longer afford to bring in their raw materials and equipment they need for manufacturing purpose.The cost of consumables is going to adjust upward to the level that  majority of Nigerians can no longer afford to buy basic necessities of life.”\nProfessor Garba Sheka, Professor of Economics at Bayero University, Kano, advised that Nigerians should shun patronage of foreign goods in order to conserve the scarce forex.\nIn Good Morning Nigeria, an NTA programme, the universituy don also urged  that diversification should be pursued vigorously.\nHis words: “There should be vigorous campaign to enlighten Nigerians to start patronising goods made in Nigeria. That will reduce our import dependence significantly.\n“Again, we  should set a target. We should not allow the currency to float like that.The CBN should have a target like the US and other countries have. W e should not allow the market forces to determine the currency rate completely. We should also reject completely or drop the idea of selling the national assets in order to support the economy. I dont think that is a very good advice .It is a very wrong advice, and I think government would not take that.\n“To boost the value of the Naira is a question of diversifying the economy. Of course, diversification requires huge amount of money to put the infrastructure in place.Then to come up with good policies so that prices of our manufactured goods and other goods can be competitive in the world market.\nAs for Professor Olanrewaju Olaniyan of Economics Departmnet of the University of Ibadan,the monetary authority should close the exchange rates gap between the official and black market.\n“Once you have the gap between the official rate and black market rate at that large,which is close to 35 per cent of the value, then it gives opportunity for arbitrage.”\nPeople understand that they can make profit by just buying that particular currency, holding for some time and sell it.So the solution to that is that we need to close that gap. Unfortunately, the ability of policies to close that gap is also limited during the structure that we have now. The economy is stagnant and there is high inflation.So both policies have to be worked out very carefully and  keenly for us to be able to reduce that.It will not be in the interest of the economy to go extremely floating it now because at the rate at which the Naira is going, if we completely float it, the Naira will soon hit something like N800 to N900 per dollar. But even when the CBN can not afford to float and still peg, you still require your reserves as a background so that it can hold forte for you. One thing we need to do is to find a way of shoring up that our reserves in such a way that we can do that. Those are the quick things that I know that we can do now, but the longer ones are to diversify; increase agric output. But agric output essentially has problem in the sense that the farmers are extremely poor, and they are not poor because they are not producing. They are poor because the farm produce aggregate prices are extremely low.There would still be need at a point in time for government to assure farmers that they will get value for their efforts.\nDiversification is key in the longer terms.And for us to diversify into manufacturing that can give us these foreign currencies, our infrastructure has to be improved.In the last couple of years, we have seen some improvement.This improvement must translate into the perception of the manufacturers .", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7138828039169312}
{"content": "Fullsix Sale\n\nSekri Valentin Zerrouk advises Motion Equity Partner on the sale of Fullsix, an independent group in communication and digital marketing, to Havas.\n\nSekri Valentin Zerrouk’s tax, employment, and corporate teams were involved in the drafting of the Vendor Due Diligence report. The M&A team has been retained to negotiate several letters of intent with potential buyers and to assist in the negotiation of the contractual agreements required to carry out the transaction, such as the share purchase agreement and shareholder’s agreement.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9271495938301086}
{"content": "Question: A firm has a task to carry out that involves\n\nA firm has a task to carry out that involves opportunities to shirk with little probability of detection. If it can hire a non-shirking employee for this task, it will make a lot of money. Its strategy for finding a non-shirker is to pay a very low wage at first, then increase the wage gradually each year so that, by the time the worker has been with the firm for 10 years, he will be earning more than he could elsewhere. The present value of the wage premiums in the later years is larger than the present value of the shortfall in the early years.\na. Explain how this strategy helps to attract a non-shirking employee. Would the same strategy work if the probability of detecting shirking were zero?\nb. Explain why the ability of the firm to implement this strategy might depend to an extent on its own reputation in the labor market.\n\nView Solution:\n\nSale on SolutionInn\n  • CreatedDecember 12, 2014\n  • Files Included\nPost your question", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6463000774383545}
{"content": "Sunday, December 25, 2011\n\nFeathered Star Serpent Reborn\n\nThe timing of Comet Lovejoy is in itself pretty spectacular. The comet's approach was detected on December 2, 2011 by astronomer Terry Lovejoy in Australia. It was identified as a Kreutz sungrazer, fragments of a giant comet that broke apart in the 12th Century. NASA suggest this was the Great Comet of 1106. Well, on December 16, 2011 Comet Lovejoy flew through \"the hot atmosphere of the Sun\" and emerged intact. This fact alone raises many questions about the nature of comets and what is really going on close to the surface of the Sun.\n\nAre Kreutz Sungrazer comets remnant parts of a larger original Quetzalcoatl \"Feathered Serpent\" Comet? According to Mayan Prophecies, the green feathered robe of the snake/serpent rise in the East.\n\nDecember 2011, during the Winter Solstice period - the three days where the Sun stands still (December 22, 23, 24), Comet Lovejoy rises in the East just before Sunrise [as seen from the Southern hemisphere] .. the comet's tail is green.\nNASA astronaut Daniel Burbank, commander of the ISS watched the comet from the orbiting Space Station: “Two nights ago I probably saw the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in space and that’s saying an awful lot because every day is filled with amazing things. Just before the sun came up, the Earth’s limb was lit up as a thin sliver of blue and purple and then there was this long, green arc that extended probably 10 degrees or so from the horizon,” said Burbank.\n\nBurbank described the tail of Comet Lovejoy as a green glowing arc at least 10 degrees long.\n\nThe Mayans were not only observing cosmic cycles; but they understood the cycles .. where you have COSMOS as a perfect mathematical witness (timing of events). One could say that during the time when the green feathered star meets the Sun and like a Phoenix is reborn from the fires, in the time when the Sun's return marks the new cycle .. great change will happen on the Earth.\n\nComet Machholz & The Return of Kukulkan\nQuetzalcoatl is composed of two words: quetzal + coatl. Quetzal refers to feathers and coatl refers to a snake thus the traditional translation of Quetzalcoatl is “feathered serpent.”\n\nYet quetzal does not simply refer to any old feathers of any old bird. Quetzal refers specifically to the bright green tail feathers of the Resplendent Quetzal bird from southern Mexico. Of all the birds the Maya and Aztecs could have used to represent Quetzalcoatl, they chose the Resplendent Quetzal. Why?\n\nThe Resplendent Quetzal, known simply as the Quetzal to Mexican peoples, is known for its brilliant green feathers. More specifically, the Quetzal was known for its long green tail feathers. The tail feathers of the Quetzal are longer than the entire body length of the bird. A bird that flies across the sky with a really long tail is a logical choice if the Maya intended to represent a comet.\n\nThey would use the timing of the planets, stars, comets and galaxy to signify quantum timing of events; because the ancient ones knew that cycles affect humans as well as affecting seasons, growth, harvest, earthquakes, changes in sea level. These are natural changes in cycles that have been going on for hundreds of thousands of years.\n\nIf you understood those long-count cycles then you would give reference points that people can see with their own eyes. Natural changes in cycles could also be observed as changes in weather parameters, changes in the seasons, temperature changes as well as cosmic - seen in the heavens - changes.\n\nThere are probably smaller disruptive climate/weather cycles on this planet - like ripples crossing on the surface of a pond. During natural occurring climate disruption cycles, seasons for growing cannot be counted upon, there is severe flooding or drought, severe storms, probably more powerful earthquakes.\n\nComets were likely associated with upheaval and disaster, because the ancient stargazers used them as a cosmological clock to understand where we are now within the greater and smaller cycles.\n\nSun Charged Comets\nHumans rarely look at relationship of events. For example, the comet is not plunging through and \"surviving\" the encounter with the Sun's atmosphere .. in my view the Sun is charging or recharging the comet. The observed vortex like serpentine tail is part of a not well understood interaction between the Sun and the comet (feathered serpent of the skies). See: The Electric Comet\n\nTuesday, December 13, 2011\n\nSoul Beyond Time\n\nLooking back .. looking forward across time ..orbs of light hovering silently above Planet Earth at the end of 2011 looking into the eyes of 2012...\n\nWhat is light? What is the mind? The soul, obviously\n\nObvious: easily seen, recognized or understood.\nLatin - lying in the path / in the way .. right there in front of you.\n\nWhat does it mean when something is lying in the path right there in front of you? Apart from that it is obvious? The PATH .. the WAY .. is not always physical. In other words, when difficulties arise and individuals or communities have to overcome those difficulties .. awareness of the path [beyond physical existence] can often form the future.\n\nIf the soul is a \"time traveller\" then the spirit inhabiting 3D physical reality is navigating THE WAY ... Which may sound strange to anyone not aware of the ancient cultures of Japan (Zen), Tibet (Buddhism), China (Tao), Keltic, Toltec, Mayan, Native American, Egyptian, Mu, Lemuria, Atlantis .. and so on ..\n\nLooking back at yourself across the bridge of time implies all time and space.\n\nThe way implies all aspects of the soul being able to stumble on \"the obvious\" .. right there in front of you on the path .. on the way .. past-present-future. All is one. All is oneself.\n\nOn Earth each culture was given the task to retain the original spirit, the obvious, sitting there on the path. The source of life on Earth, the source of life, the source of human beings and of creation. However, the path contains the past, the present and the future .. as one .. undivided.\n\nSoul Beyond Time\nWhat if you would meet yourself on \"The Path\" .. ??\n\nWho you are across the illusion of time and space. The past looking into the eyes of the future. The guidance coming from yourself. The compass being the navigation of your soul. You being the pilot of the ship. Life being the ocean. Your body being the ship. The spirit being the energy that moves the ship...\n\nIf you see yourself across the bridge of time .. looking straight at you .. past-present-future .. then time has no meaning. Perhaps you come across yourself on the path. North - South - East - West. Surely, the soul has all directions in its field.\n\nThe Earth has all directions in its field .. North - South - East - West .. where North would not exist without East and West would not exist without South. It is the same with the soul. It is the same when all directions within a human being look inwards.\n\nHumans have \"polarity\" [North and South / East and West] with a core .. the center of the cross .. holding everything together. Some called it the Sun, some called it the Soul. In Alchemical traditions North - South - East - West exist and can be observed; but the core holding it all together is the Alchemical element turning base metal into gold.\n\nIf I were an \"Alchemist\" I would be looking for myself on \"The Path\".\n\nWednesday, December 07, 2011\n\nOur World Is Changing [..Us]\n\nI wanted to call this post \"What An Amazing day\" !! Which it was .. I have never seen or experienced a day like today. We had (in Germany) strange warmish Santa Ana type winds. Then add to that a chorus of clear blue skies, then dark storm clouds, then bright rainbows, then clear blue skies, then clouds from nowhere, hail, rain, high winds, then no winds and now clear blue skies.\n\nWe see in the world news that Los Angeles, California was recently whacked with unusually powerful Santa Ana winds. Really, one would have to go ask the Chumash... unfortunately, they were all but wiped out.\nBrian Fagan: The Chumash\n\n\n\n\nThis has nothing to do with \"Climate Change\" [The Idiots guide To Reality] .. the closest word is TRANSFORMATION. Whatever this transformation it effects all things. This is a transformation of the cycles and currents, the weather, the atmosphere, water, volcanoes, atmospheric temperatures, humidity, wind currents, Jet Stream, ocean currents all the way down to us humans and animals.\n\nThe mild temperature (for December) with weather more akin to March / April .. all the Seasons in one day. Bright blue skies and sunshine, dark grey storm clouds, bright rainbows, light rain, and then suddenly out of nowhere a slow turning downward pressure that moved through the town like something out of a dream.\n\nThat downward wind pressure was like a giant gentle tornado of leaves without any cloud. It punched the side of a building and the whole plaster facing just crumbled to the street below. I never saw anything like that in my life. The rotating wind was not even violent. Yet, it hit the building with a frequency that fractured the plaster covering the bricks.\n\nBehind the storm wind came a low dark cloudy rainstorm filled with light hail-stones. The storm winds were not cold. These were not icy storm winds. A lot of the hail fell as mushy rain. The wind was not blustery; but pleasant. It seems the twisting rotation power - as slow moving as it was - was enough to take down large trees.\n\nWe humans, as well as the animals and plants, are simply going to have to adapt to this transition / transformation.\n\nSunday, November 20, 2011\n\nHemp! Mercedes of Southern Europe!\n\nI don't pretend I can see the future ...\nIs Hemp the Mercedes of Southern Europe?\n\nLet's start with Spain and Greece... You see EUROPE is not created out of banks, central banks, governments and Chinese imports! Europe is the on-the-ground co-operation between people living in Europe. It does not matter if they speak French, Spanish, German, English, Italian or Greek. It also does not matter what currency they use, because the ultimate currency is \"trade\" .. which means exchange.\n\n1. Any resource (not banks) is an \"economy\"\n2. Bankers deal in other peoples money (resources)\n3. Humans trade resources\nE=HR² (Economy equals Human Resources squared)\n\nPrinting debt is not going to bring Southern Europe out of a recession.\n\nHEMP is the Mercedes of plants. You take Industrial hemp and you grow it all around Southern Europe. Local producers turn the hemp fibers into many different resources used by humans. You can make fabric for clothing, bedding, insulation materials. You can make paper using hemp fibers. You can make computer covers and electronic main boards out of hemp (that do not heat up when used).\n\nHemp materials can be used in car production. Hemp fibers can be used to make structured flooring materials. The fibers are an alternative for wood. Compressed hemp can be used to make tables and chairs. Hemp can also be used in all areas of house construction. It can be used as a filter material. The list is endless...\n\nEvery country in Europe would benefit from the production of hemp fibers and materials. Europe would be less dependent on imports from China and from the rest of the world. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal (even France) could become exporters of hemp materials and of hemp products.\n\nOnce you've got that going the Europeans could start planting natural mixed forest trees. Not planting them in straight lines; but planting them like a natural forest. In fifty years all of Europe could receive benefits from those trees, as well as altering the climate to the benefit of all.\n\nClimate Change? C0² ???\n\nClimate change began (in modern times) with the Romans cutting down the great forest that covered most of Northern and Southern Europe. All we have done in the last two hundred years is to accelerate the destruction of the forests all over the entire world.\n\nTherefore, a carbon tax is not going to benefit the climate - planting trees will!\n\nIt is really very simple .. you have hemp growing everywhere all over Europe together with the planting of natural forests. Let's call it the \"Greening of Europe\". There you have your natural production all over the land that people can use as a \"resource\" whether those people have money or not.\n\nIn other words .. when you have wealth .. let's say sixty to seventy percent are producing wealth of resources. Then you can allow those who do not have such a great amount of wealth to use resources to support themselves (like hemp growing wild or growing all over the town). Because hemp will save you and save your children's children, by saving the planet '-)\n\nHemp Forests\nAs I said .. I don't pretend to see or know the the future.\nBut can you see those hemp forests growing?\n\nSaturday, November 12, 2011\n\nWhere Is Europe's Gold!\n\nThe big question recently being asked is: Where is Europe's gold? Italy say they have their gold and France apparently have their and some of Germany's gold. No one really knows how much of Europe's (Germany's) gold is held in the US.\n\nThere is an interesting Interview by Jim Rickards: The US Wont Give Germany Their Gold. He suggests that The US hold most of Germany's and other countries gold reserves. He also suggests that whoever owns the gold can make the \"future\" world currency...\n\nTracking Down Germany's Gold\nTime For Accurate Accounting!\n\nWill Germany purchase Italy's gold to stop it leaving Europe for China? As the Chinese - it has been speculated - wanted Europe's gold up front as collateral for any loan. All of Europe's gold can be used in the future to create a European (world) trade currency of value.\n\nThere has been a lot of Europe bashing over the past few months, with especially negative commentary from the US and from the London. These comments are mostly opinions rather than anything real. We have a world where each monkey-ego party looks down on all the other monkeys .. haha!! Try looking in the mirror.\n\nEurope Seek Balance\nWhen you look at the situation from a sociological perspective the whole world picture really gets quite interesting. A lot of the criticism coming from the American continent has been that Europe will never create a United States of Europe, they are too divided - socially, economically and politically.\n\nTake a look at North and South America. Canada in the North, American in the middle and Mexico in the South are no different than Northern and Southern Europe. In Canada, the French speaking block want to partition Quebec and one of the issues of secession include a return to historical boundaries that predate the Confederation of 1867.\n\nThen you have the Canadian/American question. Two distinct regions that fought to remain as they are. Each maintains their own currency and political agenda. Then in the South, radically different from their Northern partition is Mexico. This is not really much different from Europe. I have not even reached the issue of Indian RESERVATIONS...\n\nAt least Europe did not place racially different cultures on reservations. When the US try to tell Europeans how to get their act in order .. perhaps first they need to address the current situation (that they created) of Native Americans living in terrible states of poverty inside the reservations. Indian Removal Act 1830\n\nNo one moved the Greek people onto reservations and took all their land, their resources, their heritage. At least the various cultures in Southern Europe still have their connection to the land, their heritage and their way of life. Sort out the reservation issues and then tell Europe how to fix their problems.\n\nThe European Dream\nIn a similar way to North America, there is Northern Europe with a totally unique culture (the Nordics), with France in the middle (the Gauls) and Southern Europe with their own totally different dynamics to those in the North (Mediterranean cultures).\n\nWho knows? Maybe France can act as the diplomatic navel bridging North and South. The colder Northern landscape of Europe is more like Canada, France is like America (in-the-middle) and the warmer Southern landscape of Europe is similar to Mexico.\n\nI disagree that the unique cultural heritage of each European country has to be ground down into a standardised EU corn-powder. It is a mistake to underestimate that uniqueness (diversity) can co-operate on the highest level. In other words, each culture has their own uniqueness and out of that comes a wider co-operation / working together. Because it is in everyone's interests to work together on a higher planetary level.\n\nThe most interesting question for the EU is: Which language? In attempting to create a \"European Identity\", which language will glue the pages of the book together? French? Italian? German? English? Spanish? How many generations will it take to stop the Germans speaking German or in another vein how many generations will it take to get the French to speak German? As one example. Across in North America the Mexicans have not yet given up speaking Spanish...\n\nBeing in the middle, I think France is perfectly placed to mediate (or bridge the gap) between North and the South. The French understand both Northern and Southern cultures. You need to look at this through the eyes of an engineering project. When you build a bridge, structural tension have to be matched with flexibility and some form of shock absorbers.\n\nI personally see three interacting forces at work in Europe: The North, France in the middle and the South.\n\nDanger of Losing Values\nThe gamblers and institutionalists who created this economic mess have no sense of affinity to any culture - and that should be a warning sign. Those individuals who could not care less who they harm or who they bring down (as long as they survive), are exactly those who lack a unique identity, a sense of culture, a sense of wider belonging and a sense of social and cultural responsibility.\n\nIt may be that two main regions of Europe have to interact and co-operate with a third orbiting region learning to interact almost like a controlled orbit. This would give time (10/15 years) for the orbiting regions to come into the trade landing zone. In my imagination each part would support the other; but co-operation would be each at their own levels\n\nInstead of North America where the Native tribes were wiped out or moved onto reservations .. you would have a European hub coordinating flight paths, trade, exchange, beneficial projects and energy security - each at their own level. The stronger Northern zone would support the Southern zone in a structured environment where both can co-exist in harmony.\n\nIf you have a system in place where the growing problems of the South do not drag down the Northern economies, then the stronger Northern economies can support Southern Europe. It does not matter how you value the special currency exchange, because the core principle behind your actions are unity - strength and co-operation.\n\nWednesday, November 09, 2011\n\nEl Hierro: Dreams of The Future\n\nAs of 09-11-2011, just off the coast of El Hierro (Canary Islands) underwater volcanic activity is creating land. The underwater volcanic cone is growing towards the surface of the sea, sending out a bubbling Jacuzzi of turbulent water, volcanic debris and volcanic gasses.\n\nThe really amazing thing is the nature of this ongoing underwater eruption. The less volatile basalt magma is being produced as well as a more explosive silicon dioxide rich magma, and both forms are erupting out of the active underwater volcanic vents.\n\nIn my imagination I would surmise that we are witnessing the building blocks process of land renewal. One form of magma creates (or provides) a solid foundation, while the other form (silicon dioxide) glues it all together. It is not clear whether this erupting magma will settle underwater, changing the coastline water depths - or if this will be a long term above sea level land creation just off the Southern coast of El Hierrro.\n\nSome weeks ago I saw media headlines, that there is no way this eruption will create land (an island) .. and I think how stupid can people get? Our physical life span as humans is short .. but our spirit wisdom has a much greater span and knows many things. In the \"future\" you are going to see people listening to these events through the mind-of-spirit, which is where our ancestors drew their deeper understanding of nature and cosmos from.\n\nHere we have this totally amazing event and a lot of people don't yet understand. Over the last 2,000 years humans have been programmed to look at life through a fragmented knowledge microscope. Therefore, land rising or sliding into the sea is separate from the economy, politics, trade, society ... but we are soon going to find out that changes in the physical form of the planet are not divided from economy, politics, trade and society.\n\nWhen things get tough, too many people start predicting dark things. If life is not \"stable\" human thoughts create turbulence to add to the real-time events. For example, economic commentators recently speak only negatively about Europe. When I did my Tarot card reading for the Euro, I thought to myself: This reading is ridiculous. It's like, the Euro is never going to survive.\n\nThe Dream\nSo, the eruptions around El Hierro are increasing and the volcanic cone is growing towards the surface of the sea .. Greece appears to be in chaos and Italy is not far off as the attacks on the Euro continue. The volcanic activity around El Hierro is showing us that we are actively entering a time of changes that we cannot \"control\". It is not just this island, there is going to be a lot more.\n\nI have this dream where I see what seems like the island of Crete or Southern Greece. I see the people there surrounded by beautiful surroundings and a lot of light. I did not see suffering, I did not see chaos - I saw balance. In the dream people were people again. Something new was happening. People were working together and there were local markets and free exchange.\n\nThis dream was not only a physical environment, it was an environment of the PSYCHE .. an energetic and emotional environment where anyone in Europe would want to go and be part of to find peace and wind down. In the dream it was a \"learning environment\" where knowledge and teaching was also being TRADED or shared. You see, humans are THE economic resource out of which all else comes into being.\n\nIn other words, the human interacting with the environment and with each other (society) creates trade, exchange of knowledge, co-operation, exchange of value and love. This is what we have lost over the last 2,000 years. But we are going to find it again. It's called COMMUNITY. This time a Planetary Community.\n\nThe Euro\nI was still thinking it is looking bad for the Euro, regardless of what Greece does. They may have to return to the Drachma? I had another dream. It was called: The new Euro. I guess it is like stepping-stones taking society over a cross-current to the other side where something new will come into being.\n\nAs the old system falls apart there are these currency wars. Beggar thy neighbor to save yourself. Attempting to destroy the Euro. The question arose, what would the world have left? The U.S. Dollar? The Swiss Frank? The Yen? They all devalue their currency to be more competitive... Then you have the Chinese Yuan - pegged to the U.S. Dollar. In the International game of financial Chess, the Chinese castled their king (the Yuan) and the queen - which can move in any direction on the board is probably their gambit (Gold) to win the match.\n\nIt will take China years to prepare a stable Chinese Gold currency standard, and the world is burning NOW.\n\nThat leaves Europe and Russia. The move towards a solution has to be a Planetary solution. It cannot simply be a few nations. Meanwhile around the world there are going to be amazing changes. Forget tectonic plates grinding against each other. This planet has an astonishing capacity to transform its physical environment. We live on a very dynamic world.\n\nIn order to understand why economy, politics, trade and society are not separate from El Hierro type events .. just look at the levels of disruption that can effect a small island economy. This ongoing eruption of hot lava into the sea alters the ocean floor, kills fish, boats and planes have to avoid the area, it creates uncertainty. It has its advantages in that tourists may travel there out of interest; but others may avoid the island out of fear.\n\nThe interconnection between physical reality, the Earth, nature and the inner state of the human psyche - how we think and how we act - is far greater than we realise. There is also an underrated resource inside human beings that is also an undivided part of nature .. that is the spirit. When the spirit of man connects to the spirit of nature there is balance in all things.\n\nOngoing El Hierro Eruption\nEarthquake Report: Eruption Activity Updates\nEarthquake Report: Economic Impact of Aerial Eruption\n\nUndersea Volcano 70 Meters from Surface\nVolcanoDiscovery: El Hierro Updates\nVolcanic Activity Could Last Months\n\nMonday, October 24, 2011\n\nThe Euro: Lenormand Card Reading - Success\n\nI decided to do a four card reading for the Euro!\n\nWhen there is so much turmoil and a rush for all parties to jump in to push things in their favour. The struggle and the often calculated turmoil creates confusion. They create a lot of waves. Are those waves big enough to sink the Euro? Is it a good thing for the Euro to sink?\n\nIn terms of the I Ching or Sun Tzu, it is not always a good thing to retreat and give way losing all the ground that you have gained. Sometimes, retreat and loss can be worse than standing your ground and finding a solution.\n\nOf course, when great pressure is put on a fractured situation all parties desire to run in different directions and save only themselves. However, if retreat leads to loss of everything one has gained (and worse), then running away is not a valid option.\n\nTo gain some clarity I decided to do a simple four card reading for the direction of the Euro using, Madame Lenormand: Cartomancie Francaise / French Cartomancy.\n\nOne could say there are sort of \"seismic tremors\" around the Euro .. and key players are using the media to predict a catastrophic eruption that will destroy all European economies. To a lesser extent there are people who suggest that the tremors will not lead to a destructive eruption and that running away may create a disaster.\n\n\"Trust Yourself\"\n31. The Sun - 35 The Anchor - 27. The Letter - 34. The Fish\n\nThe Sun - Use your talents and trust yourself. The Anchor - You should insist; you have what it takes to do it, all you need is time. The Letter - can be \"good news\" or a warning; plans are at risk. The Fish - Act quickly without losing your head: Success.\n\nI would imagine that the Euro may possibly lead to a future paradigm change in world currency / currencies. However, old institutions never welcome paradigm changes - so this brings resistance and fear. The old paradigm system often creates patterns of behaviour to which those parties are attached. However, this reading would indicate that the change is greater than the sum of our actions.\n\nSometimes in life situations arise where one cannot go back to the old system one has left behind. In terms of Germany and other countries the old currency would have had to have been left in place to accompany the Euro. That would have been Franc/Euro in France and DM/Euro in Germany etc. But once you have made a certain type of action going back can often be made impossible.\n\nI feel that these four cards indicate there would have to be a new \"going forward\" rather than going back to the old. In fact, the NEW is already here with the rising Sun - and so I would imagine that even if Europe tried to go back they would still have no choice but to come around and try to reconnect with \"The New\".\n\nThe attempt to destroy the Euro is based on damaged principles. The old way of doing business cannot extend its reign into the changing energies of the future. If you have an old fixed wing plane flying people to a destination and a new anti-gravity ship that is much more advanced, then who will travel in the fixed wing plane?\n\nThose European countries who did not join the Euro made tactical mistakes they do not want to correct. It may be that in the future Scotland, Ireland and Wales change this around leaving only London out in the cold...\n\n31. The Sun is creation, strength and success [this is probably the powerful ideal the Euro was formed under]. 35. The Anchor is stability, security, a haven [providing a haven of protection to the trade ships (society)]. 27. The Letter is information, creative ideas, a message, good news or can be a warning [That news in itself is a part of the process / journey of the Euro]. 34. The Fish is success in business, wealth, money, prosperity [this can lead to a new level of good fortune].\n\nBecause the cards compliment each other and all support (together) and show signs of growth, advantage, fortune, well-being, stability and a haven ... it would seem absurd to go back to square one and start again from the past.\n\nThe Letter, appearing between The Anchor and The Fish implies \"communication\". It also implies how we think or view something. In other words, what is communicated in the letter? How does the written word influence our minds? The danger aspect is that the word can also indicate an (organised) attack on the Euro and signal a threat. Because of the positive outlay of the cards I see the \"threat\" as minimal in its power as the key factor in the journey is the fundamental character of the Euro: Strength, safety, stability, communication and good fortune / success.\n\nSunday, October 16, 2011\n\nIceland's Katla Seasonal Harmonic\n\nMaybe there is just nothing happening and the world's media are desperately looking for an attention headline to grab the attention of the \"99 %\" .. and so they grab at the slightest volcanic tremor in or around Iceland. The recent media blah blah is the imminent eruption of the Katla volcano. In reality something else is taking place .. but what do they care?\n\nIf you want to know about eyafjallajökull, Grimsvötn, Katla or Laki - then ask the people in Iceland.\n\nIn the last two weeks [October 1st to the October 15th 2011] there have been cycles of undersea earthquakes around Iceland apart from tremors under the Katla volcano. This does not mean that a volcanic eruption is taking place.\n\nWest of Iceland\n2011-10-06 -- 57.95°N 32.58°W -- Mag5.6 REYKJANES RIDGE\n2011-10-05 -- 57.97°N 32.59°W -- Mag5.3 REYKJANES RIDGE\n2011-10-05 -- 58.00°N 32.66°W -- Mag4.7 REYKJANES RIDGE\n\nIceland Region\n2011-10-16 -- 63.52°N 22.54°W -- Mag3.9 ICELAND REGION\n2011-10-15 -- 64.07°N 21.42°W -- Mag3.8 ICELAND\n2011-10-15 -- 64.06°N 21.41°W -- Mag3.8 ICELAND\n2011-10-09 -- 63.62°N 19.11°W -- Mag3.5 ICELAND\n2011-10-05 -- 63.65°N 19.10°W -- Mag4.1 ICELAND\n2011-10-05 -- 63.65°N 19.09°W -- Mag3.9 ICELAND\n2011-10-04 -- 63.66°N 19.14°W -- Mag3.3 ICELAND\n\nDepending on the season and the rotational tilt of the Earth, the distance from the Sun, the cycle of the Moon and the position of other planets we humans either see triangulation of endlessly rotating earthquakes or one major earthquake is triggered. It is normal to see day-by-day - week-by-week - month-by-month sequences of earthquakes all around the planet. There is no way to predict when or how a volcanic eruption will take place.\n\nFor example, seismic activity under Canary Island, El Hierro resulted in an undersea eruption reducing the numbers and magnitude of the following tremors. No one could have predicted that. In fact, it is just as well that the volcanic pressure was released out at sea and not directly on the Island itself. These are the unknown and surprising dynamics of Nature that modern man barely understands.\n\nIt may be that undetected underwater eruptions are happening or have been happening around the vast ocean floor from which the Island of Iceland emerges. Therefore, the seismic activity around Katla volcano is a harmonic of the overall activity below the ocean floor. The last thing the people of Iceland need in October 2011 is an eruption from Katla.\n\nIceNews reported ...\nIceland volcano: media continues to play up possible Katla eruption.\nIcelandReview commented ...\nForeign Media Speculate on “Imminent” Katla Eruption\n\nKatla volcano could erupt at any time ... or it could erupt in 2012 - 2013 - 2014 ... the eruption of Katla is not something anyone can predict. It is not really something anyone wants to happen. No one knows how violent that eruption could be. There is also the aspect of observing \"what is\" rather than speculating on what \"should be\".\n\nReal events as they unfold in 3D \"what is\" are the catalysts of \"the future\". Once an eruption takes place it affects climate, weather patterns, rainfall patterns, temperatures and it affects the farmers, the local populations, neighbouring countries and air travel. When an eruption takes place - it affects \"the future\". At the moment our collective future is that no eruption is taking place.\n\nSunday, October 09, 2011\n\nBermuda Azores Canary Islands Triangle\n\nMost recently seismic activity began to rattle under El Hierro the smallest of the Canary Islands. On Friday 7 October, 2011 a magnitude 4 quake hit the middle of the North Atlantic near the Azores Islands, Portugal. On Monday October 3, 2011 two magnitude 4.5 quakes rattled an area 130 km off Bermuda.\n\nOn Saturday 8 October, 2011 a magnitude 4.3 tremor was El Hierro's largest quake so far in a long series of seismic tremors to be detected around the Island.\n\nIf you draw a line from Canary Islands seismic activity to the Azores, then to Bermuda and back to El Hierro .. what kind of a triangle is that? Would you call that a \"Scalene Triangle\" .. I am not sure? Let's say it is a triangle. I have this theory that earthquake activity display triangular harmonics of any give size.\n\nBy \"Triangular Harmonics\" I mean that I don't believe that earthquakes are random events created by the smashing together of tectonic plates. The weakness of smashing or sliding tectonic plates theory is that the effect would not be location-restricted as claimed by scientists who propose this theory.\n\nWhen you watch the daily seismic activity maps over a period of time, you start to realise that tectonic plate theory does not answer what you are seeing on those maps.\n\nI see larger and smaller seismic [harmonic] triangulation events that probably reveal another hidden structure to the physical planet. In other words the physical structure of rock and earth is overlaid onto a precise mathematical geometrical structure. The underlying structure conducts energy / magnetism. On our 3D level volcanoes play a part in that essential structure.\n\nOn the opposite side of the Canary Islands one cannot ignore Sicily [Mount Etna] .. maybe triangular is the wrong word .. as the harmonic resonance is not flat but is a -hedron in nature. Tetrahedron, octahedron .. I mean the harmonic is not LINEAR and does not travel across the land or under the sea as a flat wave. The seismic harmonic is greater than the focal point of measured activity.\n\nGeologists claim that Bermuda is a volcanic sea mountain that formed from the mid Atlantic ridge. The Bermuda Islands form the edge of a volcanic caldera. The archipelago of the Azores are composed of nine volcanic Islands. The Canary archipelago comprises seven main volcanic Islands.\n\nIs it possible these three hot spots of recent activity are not isolated incidents unrelated to each other?\n\nNo one knows why the quakes under El Hierro are slowly increasing in magnitude. The concern would be not only that there may be a potential eruption from one of the volcanic vents on the island; but a large magnitude earthquake may potentially set of landslides. Of course, one has to take the Canary Islands as a whole. Although the Islands are separated by water - underground they are connected by volcanic activity.\n\nI am not a scientist - but I would imagine that the same forces of nature created all the Islands on the Canary island chain. I would also imagine that there is an unseen connection between the Canary islands, the Azores and Bermuda. For fun I decided to type into the search engine: \"mystery of canary islands\".\n\nYouTube: Mummies & Pyramids\n\nI may be wrong .. but is it possible that the Canary Islands, the Azores and Bermuda did not rise as tiny volcanic Islands out of the sea as described by modern geology .. that these Islands are a result of surrounding land falling into the sea. In other words the Islands are what is left of catastrophic landslides, a sudden rise in sea level and catastrophic Earth Changes?\n\nFor those of you with imagination here is a link to Bibliotecapleyades:\nAtlantis Forgotten\n\nSunday, September 25, 2011\n\nEl Hierro Canary Island Earthquake Tremors Alert\n\nThe earthquake activity has increased below the smallest of the volcanic Canary Islands, El Hierro. Volcanic Risk Alert has been increased to yellow - see: Earthquake Report\n\nA new series of tremors under El Hierro have increased in magnitude over the last few days.\n\n2011-09-25 27.70°N 18.08°W Depth14 Mag2.8 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-24 27.69°N 18.07°W Depth14 Mag3.1 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-24 27.70°N 18.08°W Depth14 Mag3.3 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-23 27.77°N 18.09°W Depth16 Mag2.5 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-23 27.71°N 18.03°W Depth19 Mag2.9 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-23 27.68°N 18.05°W Depth11 Mag2.5 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-23 27.68°N 18.06°W Depth12 Mag2.7 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n2011-09-22 27.67°N 18.04°W Depth14 Mag2.8 El Hierro (Canary Islands)\n\nEl Hierro has the largest number of volcanoes in the Canary Island chain. Scientists suggest that the Island has experienced at least three volcanic landslide collapses, creating tsunami or mega tsunami waves.\n\nI discovered interesting information about tsunami's in the Atlantic...\n\nTsunami Warning\nIslands of volcanic origin, such as the Canaries, have an especially large potential for triggering a tsunami. That the Canaries constitute a danger was shown 300 000 years ago when a part of the island El Hierro slid into the sea, triggering a mega-tsunami which carried rocks as high as a house for many hundreds of metres into the interior of the east coast of what is today the USA. The danger of a similar island collapse is seen by scientists particularly at the island of La Palma in the Canaries. Here, following a volcanic eruption in 1949 almost half of the mountain range of 20 km moved westwards towards the sea, leaving a large tear in the volcanic basalt. In the event of a fresh eruption, a huge part of the volcano could loosen itself due to differences in the types of rock and diverse water deposits within the now active volcano. As a result, the densely populated east coast of America would be massively threatened. According to a computer simulation by Stephen N. Ward and Simon Day, a tsunami (purple-red on the graphics) would rush across the Atlantic if the slopes of the Cumbre Vieja.volcano were to collapse into the sea.\n\nThursday, September 22, 2011\n\nHimalayan 6.9: Dodecahedron 27th Parallel North\n\nA devastating 6.9 earthquake in the mountainous Himalayas sent landslides rumbling down the rocky slopes, which is a major signature of earthquakes in a mountain region. It makes earthquakes extremely deadly for the people living in these areas. One does not only have to contend with falling buildings; but there is the enormous danger from the slopes of the mountains themselves.\n\nThe September 18 Sikkim/Nepal earthquakes hit a vulnerable region. The point is that no one really totally understands what is taking place. We struggle to survive - but we fail to understand.\n\nThe only way I can explain it is that the unseen structure of the Earth is like a dodecahedron. Something that we do not see holds together the physical structure of the planet. Just as the human skeleton has structure, the inner Earth also has 'structure'. The 'bones of the planet' are connected based on the same Sacred Geometry that gives structure to humans, animals, fish and birds.\n\nThe reason it is important to be aware of and understand the larger structure, is because the whole structure is moving - expanding/contracting. Therefore, one sees related earthquakes or volcanic activity on the same parallel. The magnetic grid gives life to the Earth and regulates all things. The grid regulates atmosphere, temperature, weather patterns, rainfall or drought, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It is a complete unified system\n\nHumans have designed their world to mimic Nature. All human devices have an electrical principle, including vehicles such as cars, boats and planes. All aspects of our world requires an electrical generator or battery - we live and function from an electrical grid, where the current is the unifying principle behind all functionality.\n\nThe September 18 series of quakes hit the Himalayas around Latitude 27°N\n\n18-SEP-2011 - 13:54:18 Lat 27.38N - Mag 4.6 SIKKIM, INDIA\n18-SEP-2011 - 13:11:57 Lat 27.45N - Mag 4.8 SIKKIM, INDIA\n18-SEP-2011 - 12:40:48 Lat 27.73N - Mag 6.9 SIKKIM, INDIA\n\nWhat caught my attention was the 2.8 on Latitude 27.67°N on September 22, Canary Islands.\n\nMost likely the Earth's physical mass sits on an underlying geometrical framework/structure in the same way that a computer operating system gives functionality to a desktop system. You don't see the code behind the visible functions. Most humans live on the planet and do not see the code behind the land under their feet. Who cares if the inner planet is built on a dodecahedron type structure?\n\nWhat if the land and sea floor structure has a 'virtual reality' existence based on energy that can change. What if it can be upgraded in a similar way to an operating system upgrade. What if energy can change the physical land mass.\n\nEven if it could change - even if it was designed to change - it would still have to have a basic geometrical order, otherwise it could tear the planet apart. The geometrical order would be the crystal-magnetic dodecahedron base operating system. As long as you maintain the geometry of the basic source planetary structure, you can overlay almost anything onto that living holograph.\n\nLarge magnitude earthquakes on the 27th Parallel North in the Himalayas create landslides. So do larger earthquakes around the 27th Parallel North on the Island of El Hierro, Canary Islands (Spain). The Island of El Hierro is historically know as a tsunami danger. Volcanic eruptions and severe tremors release landslides. In the Himalayas the land slides down the mountain into the valleys and on El Hierro the land slides into the Atlantic Ocean.\n\nWednesday, September 14, 2011\n\nReturn To A GOLD Standard\n\nIf you pay attention to the stories being written, the world is in a crisis. To be more specific - the world is in an economic crisis of massive proportions. Greece will or will not default. That was a discussion played out over the USD some weeks ago: default or no default. In the background there are advocates for a return to a \"gold standard\" to stabilize the world's currencies.\n\nWhat is a market? What is currency? What is an economy?\n\n\nThese tools are an external component of your mind and how you bring order to your world. Therefore, markets, trade, currencies and economics are tools we use to interact with the 3D physical world. You could use theft, deception, fraud and manipulation to get what you need; but then there would be chaos as everyone would be using deception as a trading tool.\n\nMarkets, currencies and economies are all external manifestations of the way your mind works, they are extensions of your thoughts and of your strengths or fears. How you interact with the world creates economics and trade using a currency of exchange.\n\nLet's take Greece as one example. If I was trying to sort out the imbalance of struggling forces, which are CAUSING instability, the first thing to understand is that all the different views are creating a mass of disturbance and not solving anything. The different and fractional forces fighting over Greece are causing more problems for that country. If there is a hole in the boat one has to practically fix the hole.\n\nWhere is it going to be fixed? Only at a local level.\n\nAs I said: Economies are the result of peoples actions within society. An economy exists as a tool \"a servant\" of the people and not that people exist as a tool \"a servant\" of the economy.\n\nIf I was a modern Greek hero I would work for the return of the \"Gold Standard\" as a true alchemical process within the consciousness of man. The reason it is the gold standard is because it is the highest standard of integrity and purity. The standard from which mankind has fallen into the state he is in today. A loss of integrity, a loss of honor and a loss of higher values.\n\nThe true return of the gold standard is through change in our behavior. People don't lie to each other, greed is not the primary driving force, people do not steal from each other, people do not cheat each other. The same goes for institutions, banks and politicians.\n\nFrom street level all the way up to the lawmakers no one trusts each other. The people do no trust the politicians and the politicians do not trust the people. On an international level Europe do not trust Greece and Greece do not trust Europe. Each party has something to hide. Power groups co-operate to hide their dirty laundry while blaming society for the dirt and the mess.\n\nIf humans cannot trust each other, it does not matter what you base the currency on - the situation wont be healed. If groups are cheating each other then they will cheat with gold or silver as they cheated with paper currency. Give a dog a bone...\n\nThe real issue and the real crisis is a human one leading to a greater political and economic chaos. It became 'normal' behavior to lie. It became 'normal' behavior to cheat. Greed is the alpha trait of the alpha dog. Greed and a loss of humanity became a ruling psychology in politics as well as in markets.\n\nWhat everyone is not paying attention to nor understanding is that these behaviors are 'energies' - they are magnetic frequencies that have cause-and-effect. In other words the internal house you are living in is an energy-field of greed, lies and deception with an equal magnetic value.\n\nWhen the alpha quality is greed then the future outcome is chaos, loss of value(s), collapse, conflict.\n\nI personally see the return of the 'gold standard'. I think a lot more people out there are seeing and feeling the same thing. That the alpha value is no longer lies, cheating, greed and deception; but that from base society people discover and apply new value.\n\nFor example, local people invest at a local level using their own people's bank to finance projects they benefit from on a local level. Finding a sense of self-worth, self-responsibility and application.\n\nCheating and lying on a large scale causing suffering to thousands of people will leave a bigger scar on the deceiver than it leaves on those who suffered as a result of mans inhumanity to man. Go back to Ancient Egypt .. the weight of the scars of greed are not only weighed in 3D terms.\n\nIf a persons heart is corrupt - nothing outside is going to change that. Change of heart does not come from outside. The Golden Rule / the builders Plumb Line to measure the foundation of the heart is not held by an outside hand. The plumb line measuring the exactness of the heart is only held by the hand of the inner heart. Each one of us holds the Golden Rule to our own heart.\n\nIn that connection to the Inner Golden Rule, the application of a true Alchemical Gold Standard is the foundation.\n\nMonday, September 05, 2011\n\nEarth's Climate Could Be A Lot Worse\n\nAs bad as things may seem we people of Planet Earth in 2011 do not have such a bad climate... it could be a lot worse than it is. In fact, our ancestors had to deal with dramatic weather changes a lot worse than we have today. Changes in weather and geography that send landmasses and coastal continental boundaries under the sea.\n\nWeather conditions on Earth are going through rapid change - causing the climate to change - but that is normal for this planet.\n\nThe changing weather patterns are not MAN MADE .. it is a natural part of living on this planet - dramatic change is part of living down here. A mind that is not able to adapt to extreme shifts in climate is unnatural. To show you why that is look all around you at NATURE.\n\nIf adaptations to rapid shifts in global climate was not normal for the creatures of Earth, then they would find it almost impossible to survive. As scientists and biologists are finding out .. plants, animals, fish, birds and insects rapidly adapt to changes in temperature/climate.\n\nLet's all get some perspective here '-)\n\nLet's move our focus from the ponzi \"man-made climate\" scheme to look at areas where humans really do a lot of serious damage. The main area of damage is that humans kill a lot of animals, birds, plant and tree species, fish and insects (bees). Humans kill all these species for a number of reasons:\n1. Eating animal meat\n2. Over fishing\n3. killing dolphins/whales\n4. Cutting down trees\n5. Pesticides\n6. Habitat destruction\n7. Pollution [oil spills etc]\n\nFor example, we don't have to cut down all these trees over the last 100 years .. we can grow HEMP !!\n\nSimple things like paper and plastic alternatives = Hemp. Just simple solutions that work for us and that work for our planet. Changing from pesticide/industrial fertiliser agriculture to organic/permaculture gardening farming. Another simple solution is to design or use cities/towns as natural food growing areas. You know! People plant fruit trees, any trees, vegetables, herbs, everything green... all over the towns and cities - on public land\n\nOn the sea shores and out at sea key areas are designated no-fishing zones.\n\nYou can easily create micro no-fishing zones [they do not have to be giant areas] .. just areas where no-one can fish and where fish and shellfish populations can recover.\n\nIf you want to talk about \"Climate Change\" then lets talk about the effect humans have on animal climates, fish climates, insect climates, tree and plant climates, bird climates... Let's deal with that FIRST - without always thinking only of ourselves.\n\nMy favorite is the mystery of Atlantis .. but even if you don't think that Atlantis ever existed - the facts are that humans have survived a lot worse than people today. Finding Atlantis\n\nWednesday, August 24, 2011\n\nEarthquakes 38th Parallel North\n\nI don't know how I came to this .. it began when I noticed that the recent Colorado 5.3 and the later Virginia 5.9 earthquakes in the U.S. were both shallow quakes and seemed to be hitting the same circle of latitude.\n\nThe Virginia earthquake at a depth of 5 kilometers was measured 38° Northern latitude and the earlier Colorado/New Mexico earthquake at a depth of 4.9 kilometers was measured 37.13° Northern latitude. From my research I then realised that the long series of earthquakes (aftershocks) hitting Japan are revealing seismic stress between the latitudes of 37° North and 38° North.\n\nI am not a Geologist and so I had to go back and do some bare bones research on those earthquakes.\n\nThe 9.0 Honshu, Japan quake hit at 38.32°N, on March 11 2011 .. and this was a long series of quakes (or aftershocks) that continue to rattle the 38th Parallel .. although the shocks have subsequently moved down to rattle the 37th parallel over the last few weeks.\n\n09-03-2011 Honshu, Japan - 7.3 - 38.51°N\n11-03-2011 Honshu, Japan - 9.0 - 38.32°N\n11-03-2011 Honshu, Japan - 7.7 - 38.07°N\n07-04-2011 Honshu, Japan - 7.1 - 38.25°N\n10-07-2011 Honshu, Japan - 7.1 - 38.04°N\n23-07-2011 Honshu, Japan - 6.4 - 38.93°N\n\nSince March 2011 this narrow band of seismic activity has been relentlessly shaking an area between 36°N and 38°N off the coast of Japan .. where an area within those latitudes have experienced 6.0+ 7.0+ aftershocks. More recently, Greece experienced a 5.0 at a depth of 5.6 kilometers at latitude 38.40°N. Next came 5.3 Honshu, Japan at latitude 38.40°N and another 5.1 Honshu, Japan at latitude 38.43°N. \n\n07-08-2011 Patras, Greece - 5.0 - 38.40°N\n11-08-2011 Honshu, Japan - 5.3 - 38.40°N\n17-08-2011 Honshu, Japan - 5.1 - 38.43°N\n\nIn the area of Japan one would not be surprised by aftershocks at the same northern latitude as the 9.0 on March 11, 2011. In the U.S. seismic experts were said to have dismissed claims that the 5.3 August 23 earthquake in Colorado and the 5.9 earthquake on August 23, in Virginia are connected.\n\nBoth quakes registered at a depth of 5 kilometers, with the Colorado quake close enough to the latitude 38°N .. but they are not connected in any way.\n\n23-08-2011 Colorado, USA - 5.3 - 37.13°N\n23-08-2011 Virginia, USA - 5.9 - 38°N\n\nIf they are not connected then we wont be seeing many more 5.0+ or 6.0+ earthquakes anywhere near the 38° northern parallel.\n\nWhat if they are connected? If this level of unusual seismic activity around the 38° northern latitude is connected - would it not be a good idea to find out why, in order to understand what is taking place?\n\n38th Parallel North\nIt is an interesting latitude. One that has an almost mysterious and civilization changing connections. The 38th Parallel passes straight through Athens, Greece. Mount Etna, Sicily lies between 37°N and 38°N. The 38th Parallel runs straight through the Mediterranean Sea. It also runs through Shandong Province, China - known for its mysterious mirages [Penglai city 37.50°N].\n\nThursday, August 18, 2011\n\nOops! Wrong World! Wrong Coordinates!\n\nI seriously think I ended up being born in the wrong world on the wrong planet and in the wrong dimension! I know I walked through the time portal door and somehow I ended up here .. on this planet .. in this time in history and it is totally the wrong place and the wrong time.\n\nFor example, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal that China now has a gigantic appetite for importing corn. Okay! That's cool .. why not? Then you read the article and your whole world gets turned upside down... Like a future world of overweight, sick, diabetic Chinese.\n\nThe reason I had these thoughts is the reason China is importing more corn than the planet can grow!\n\nThe reason is they are eating more pork and the Chinese farmers have been advised to feed the pigs corn. So, it's not like real people will be eating the corn; but pigs will be eating the corn so that people can eat the pigs. That makes sense and I am seriously trying to rediscover the correct co-ordinates to the place I was supposed to go to - instead of ending up down here.\n\nIt is not eating the pigs that could widen the waist size of the Chinese... Its the corn syrup. That is why I seriously need to find the right coordinates to get off the planet. Can you imagine the effect on gravity billions of fat Chinese will have on the rotation of the planet? It may even change Earth's orbit around the Sun.\n\nYou have to read the article laying out why China wants so much corn.\n\nApparently, there is a growing demand (in China) for sweet drinks sweetened with corn syrup. As if sweet drinks sweetened with corn syrup is essential to maintaining and sustaining life. This is where I know that someone sent me to the wrong \"Incarnation Co-ordinates\". I am working right now to get that sorted out.\n\nGo and research - high fructose corn syrup - in your favorite Search Engine and see what jumps out of the monitor at you and then you may know why I am convinced that I am on the wrong planet.\n\nHere we are in 2012 (Sorry! 2011) and on the one hand you have people in Africa starving to death and on the other hand you have a whole industry of consumption where those who have food are sick and dying of malnutrition, because the food they eat is pure indulgence. The \"health benefits\" of these processed foods are well documented.\n\nWhen I was growing up everyone was eating pork and drinking sweet fizzy drinks .. but not me. I would eat the potatoes, the carrots, the cabbage and the cauliflower .. but I would look at the lumps of iffy coloured meat and I never liked the look of that stuff and I very quickly stopped eating it.\n\nAll those brand name sweet drinks .. those \"treats\" for the kids .. I did not like them either. I liked home made Dandelion and Burdock Lemonade or simply water. I really should have realized then that there had been a serious router error when I arrived in this insane world where people live to eat rather than eat to live.\n\nIndia - who already went the way of China - are facing an increasing diabetes problem and overweight. The people in India can read English; but none of them would ever read anything like: William Dufty's, Sugar Blues. Let's be honest .. no one in China is going to educate themselves to Corn Sugar °-)\n\nOkay, human beings are on a fast lane to extinction .. but at what cost to the planet? Why are humans so greedy? It's as though no matter how much they get it is never enough. The pork, the chicken, the beef, over fishing the oceans. With this self-indulgent diet the men become impotent and so the black markets in tiger bones and rhino horns increases as the money pours there to kill these animals to 'cure' their sickness.\n\nThe funny part is this so-called civilization has some fear of HELL .. you know .. a much worse place than here. I think their idea of \"hell\" is somewhere they cannot indulge themselves. Somewhere - a world - where they cannot feed this desire for desire - because already most of them are living inside their own self-made self-created \"hell\" at the expense of everything else around them.\n\nTo see China go the way of America .. means we need new co-ordinates - fast.\n\nTuesday, August 09, 2011\n\nThe Future Oceans: Smaller Fishing Boats\n\nThe European union are trashing fish stocks and are trashing the oceans - damaging the sea floor with bottom trawling and giving the fish no-chance with factory trawlers...\n\nFeeling concerned, we were recently talking to \"ourselves in the future\" to find out how they overcome this monolithic oceanic environmental disaster.\n\nIn the next 300 to 500 years fishing the oceans will become an \"extinct preoccupation\" for mankind. One of the reasons for this is compassion. Unlike the people living on the planet today, who live inside a non-sustainable bubble of perpetual greed [living to eat rather than eating to live] .. people in the future do not have this beginning of the Century sickness.\n\nThe people in the future have compassion.\n\nNaturally, people today can also have compassion [the future is now] .. but let's be realistic .. today's world suffers from abnormal greed (consumption) = get it while you can and get as much as you can at any cost.\n\nYou may ask how can anyone connect with the future?\nIt is very easy .. you look back from the future at yourself now °-°\n\nBeing concerned for the oceans and this most ancient unexplored habitat, the question is not really about fishing quotas .. the question is the way humans behave on the oceans. It is not what we do, but the way that we do it. The real problem is the massive greed of these giant factory trawlers and the ease with which modern fishing trawlers can locate fish shoals\n\nWe were told - looking back from the future - that in the first phase the way they dealt with over-fishing was not to focus on quotas; but to reduce the size and numbers of the fishing boats. In the first phase all bottom trawling is totally banned.\n\nThe way to control the size of catch is to reduce the size of the trawlers catching the fish. Giant factor trawlers will eventually be extinct (like the dinosaurs).\n\nObviously the numbers of trawlers allowed to fish on one day will also be reduced. In the beginning each group of trawlers have a certain window [restricted time period] in which to fish and return to shore. The groups are rotated and these restrictions allow dwindling fish stocks to recover from the massive over-fishing taking place on all the oceans of the world.\n\nThe biggest change to fishing the oceans will take place on land. Gradually, over time, humans will stop eating fish. Some of you may be horrified at the though; but this is the way it will go .. because the people of tomorrow are not the people of today. The reason most people today cannot comprehend this is because the 3D vibration is too dense [focused on personal greed].\n\nAs you see, the problem facing mankind and the Earth - of the rapidly dwindling ocean fish stocks - is not such a great problem if you apply intelligence .. all you have to do is ban factory trawlers .. reduce the size of the fishing vessels .. reduce the numbers of fishing vessels allowed to fish at any one time and ban bottom trawling of the oceans.\n\nEventually, mankind stops fishing altogether .. and by then humans are living in and on the oceans as well as on land.\n\nFriday, July 29, 2011\n\nSeismic Swarms Under South Canary Island Volcano\n\nIn the last week 720 earthquakes have been registered on the South Canary Island volcano known as El Hierro. Irish Weather have a very good update on these seismic swarms and the history of this small volcanic Island.\n\nThe Southernmost Island in the Canary Islands chain formed from a series of eruptions .. and in terms of the Earth's geological history is still actively forming. It has been 200 years since the last eruption on El Hierro, which is covered in hundreds of volcanoes. The Canary Islands formed from the summits of an undersea volcanic mountain range that is still active today.\n\nIn 2009 researchers explored the underwater Casablanca Seamount, lying at the eastern edge of a long chain of undersea volcanoes that formed the Canary Islands and thought to be extinct. The scientists found evidence of fresh lava flow, the area was teeming with life. Although these areas have experienced a quiet period in tectonic activity - the problem with volcanoes is that they have a much longer activity time scale.\n\nVolcanoes have activity cycles that span hundreds of years and some volcanoes have activity cycles that span thousands of years. In my opinion, the Earth itself has its own volcanic activity cycle that can trigger many eruptions worldwide within a key period of activity .. I think we are experiencing this greater cycle now. The movement of the plates may unfold as a hundred years of tectonic change - which is nothing in terms of the Earth's time cycle.\n\nThe other part of this is something neither science nor religion address. Religion states that: God created the Earth (past tense) .. and science ignore the other state entirely. The other state is that the Earth is in a permanent state of transformation (creation) .. not in the distant past .. but it is endlessly so. The beauty of this is not that life WAS created; but that life is endlessly BEING created. It doesn't stop. It is an ongoing process.\n\nIslands of Fire\nNot all volcanoes form where tectonic plates meet.\n\nDon Anderson, \"Volcanic Bombs\"... Over the past decade, his work at the California Institute of Technology has made him famous for his belief that mantle plumes simply don't exist. Forget fountains from the centre of the Earth, he says: volcano chains are due to cracks or rents in tectonic plates. After all, plates stretching 10,000 kilometres are unlikely to remain perfectly unbroken. Break the skin and it seems reasonable that molten rock would flood up to fill the gap. Bingo, you've got a volcano - without a mantle plume.\n\nLife Is Not An Accident\nThe Sun, the Earth [the entire Galaxy] together maintain the conditions for life here on this Planet. Humans live on the Earth, orbiting the Sun - which orbits the Galactic Center. The Earth maintains temperature, oxygen levels, moisture levels, precipitation etc. In my view, a big part of the Earth's life supporting climate system relies on volcanoes. Modern science have totally underestimated the regeneration effects of volcanic ash, gasses, water vapor and unseen elements in maintaining life on Earth.\n\nWe are currently seeing a gradual increase in volcanic activity around the globe. I don't think current volcanic science can account for that nor even take it into consideration. Science has become monocular, rather than observing the larger picture behind the small event. The changes that devastated the ancient world were not isolated incidents. There were earthquakes, tsunamis and catastrophic eruptions that affected every civilisation at that time.\n\nIt is not only the Earth. We can look out and see shared signs of change in the Sun, in Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The effects sweep through the whole Solar System, as though we are one organism - as though we are all part of one body.\n\nI imagine that this effects the whole Galaxy. The Native Peoples called it a \"purification\". I see it as a living intelligent 'operating system', from which humans based their science of computers. I don't think we are coming up with anything new. We are copying nature .. which means someone knows about the background force.\n\nOur ancestors based their sciences on this force. One can see evidence of this in the alignments of megalithic structures, in pyramids, in ancient temples above and below ground and in the design of ancient cities .. most of which now lie hidden under the sea. They were not worshiping 'gods', they used ART as a science. Look around you - at nature - it is what the Earth does .. which is to use Art as a science.\n\nThursday, July 21, 2011\n\nFuture Design: End of Power Grids\n\nFuture Design - Volcanoes: Design Tectonics, are going to revolutionize our world. In the next few years scientists are going to find new compounds and new organisms issuing forth from volcanoes around the world. So, pay attention! Our future is being created from the Dragon Volcano's Breath!\n\nFuture Design: End of Power Grids - in a way is also due to the changes these ongoing volcanic eruptions will bring to the Earth and to humans living on the Earth. Volcanoes don't just spew ash, water vapor and lava .. volcanoes emit forces we don't even know exist.\n\nSome words that come to mind are: magnetic ash, vapor magnetic eruption, local magnetic field eruption, volcanic radiation (it's an energy / source), volcanic electricity .. and there is a lot of activity we don't yet have words for. For example, science will discover that the biggest part of an eruption is an unseen energy that radiates across the land and fills the atmosphere. This radiation can alter or effect the winds circling the Earth.\n\nWe are seeing that now, as a significant number of serious eruptions have taken place in a short time span from Eyjafjallajökul in March, 2010 until the current eruptions of Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Iceland has a larger role to play in the long term mixture of gasses, water vapor, particles and electro-ionic ash emissions high into the Earth's atmosphere. The reason all this will lead to the end of the Power Grids is not due to the eruptions alone; but the effects they have on the weather and the climate.\n\nTake some of the big European producer economies. They could only sustain themselves from monolithic central grids, because the climate was mild, there was an extended historic fall in major eruptions (world's volcanoes), and there has been no real weather disruption or Solar flares to worry about in our modern electronic world. The problem now is that volcanoes do not only affect the Earth; but they cause an interchange in the magnetic relationship between the Earth and the Sun, as well as alterations in magnetic density between the Earth's outer atmosphere and what we call 'space'.\n\nIt is rather simplistic; but 'space' is everything outside the Earth's biosphere.\n\nCentral power grid's supply masses of energy over long distances. They are not 'eco-friendly' - as they are not so efficient - and they are very vulnerable to power disruptions. That is what we are headed for: multi levels of power disruptions over long periods of time. Either people will realise now that it has to change or people will adapt and create new local systems as the power surge goes down and it becomes clearly non-efficient.\n\nIn the future, science will discover plant like materials to create 'solar nets'. This will be a fine mesh material that captures energy and that can easily be placed on the roof or fitted to outer walls, used like a mosquito net and can even be added to sailing vessels or community areas floating on water. The 'solar mesh' will capture energy during the day and at night. You may wonder how they capture energy at night; but that happens when people begin to realise that the night (after the Sun goes down) is packed full of energy.\n\nThe Earth stores energy on the night side.\n\nThese solar nets will capture energy at night in a much more efficient way than during the day. They just soak it up. You can imagine what this will mean for impoverished rural communities all over the planet. What this will mean for Africa and Nepal etc. This future discovery is going to revolutionize their lives. Volcanoes are going to make all of that happen.\n\nSo much new science is going to come out of volcanoes - you have no idea! They are the great alchemists of this planet. Volcanoes bring us life. They hold secrets that we have no idea exist. The most surprising secret of all is that sustained eruptions of volcanic materials and energy affects the human mind. Eruptions do not only bring life to the planet; but they affect biological man, his brain and his mind. That is very important to understand.\n\nModern man began to look OUTSIDE at the world seeing himself separate from the OUTER environment he was studying. Future man will understand that he is PART of the environment - not only in consciousness; but biologically. The volcano particles become part of us. They enliven the biological animal changing his/her structure magnetically as well as chemically. Humans will begin to understand that information from these particles also comes into our bodies and into our minds.\n\nYou brain - including the major organs and glands - is continually carrying out chemical analysis of your environment. It analyses and responds to pollution, toxins, ions, yeasts, fungi spores, oxygen levels, moisture levels and micro-nutrients. Heavy metal toxins can damage the tissues - but living organic micro-nutrients in the air can nourish the tissues. Depending on the levels of moisture or dryness in the air the brain alters the breathing capacity right inside the lungs. When you are healthy you don't even notice the change.\n\nSo, all our brains have been analysing the changes in air chemistry since the first major volcanic eruption and some of that is being built into the inner structure of the cells and into the tissues, also into the tissues of the brain. Really, this is where all our 'discoveries' come from across the ages of man. The brain - acting on its own in-built intelligence - analyses the environment and sends the information to our consciousness. The brain tells us what we need to know and we respond to that information with 'science'.\n\nFrom 2013 we are going to see a massive shift to local energy sources - and by local I mean at house level. There are too many factors weighing down on the way we do things today. Monolithic central power grinds are no longer sustainable. When the disruptions begin to hit industry, as in Japan, then it would be self-destructive to try and hold together a paper house in a hurricane.\n\nMonday, July 11, 2011\n\nMid-Atlantic Iceland To The Mediterranean\n\nAlmost running through the middle of Iceland is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the divide between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Iceland's Hekla and Katla volcanoes stand on either side of the ridge in the Southern part of Iceland.\n\nHekla began showing signs of unrest around June 5, 2011 - as sensors began to pick up unusual movements in the Earth's crust. Mount Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes, usually erupting every ten years. However, Hekla has been quiet for the past eleven years in terms of active eruptions - the last eruption took place in February, 2000. Moving South-East to Katla, one of the largest volcanoes on Iceland, a big melt sent floodwaters cascading across the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, with floodwaters making their way to the sea destroying two bridges on the way down.\n\nThere is a very nice video by on Irish Weather showing the changes in the glacier and the extent of the flooding. The flooding took place on July 9, 2011 following the slight tremors at Hekla days earlier.\n\nI personally, think that the July 9 eruption at Etna is related to what was happening on Iceland. The reason is the upward movement of the African Plate. I don't see it as the African Plate simply moving upward; but that the plate is twisting - almost rotating - as this movement triggers changes all the way from Iceland to Southern Italy and the Mediterranean. In a way Iceland is still in a primordial state as the glaciers continue to form the landscape and perhaps so is the Mediterranean.\n\nEarthquake Report: Etna Erupts 9/7/2011\n\nThe ongoing plate boundary activities not only show signs of tectonic stress release; but there is also the process of changing landscapes, tectonic design, rifts forming, volcanoes erupting, earthquakes and tsunamis. All this is part of Europa's ancient past: A volcano avalanche in Sicily 8,000 years ago triggered a devastating tsunami taller than a 10-story building that spread across the entire Mediterranean Sea, slamming into the shores of three continents in only a few hours. Ancient Tsunami Devastated The Mediterranean\n\nAlthough this was a truly spectacular event of its time, smaller eruptions and avalanches occur on Mount Etna until today.\n\nA devastating tsunami every century in the Mediterranean\n\n\nIn our time the beautiful Mediterranean appears stable and peaceful .. it is a seismic active region .. but no one has seen the kind of devastation experienced in 1628 BC at the end of the Minoan Civilisation and later in 365 AD when 50,000 people lost their lives in Alexandria. In today's world we imagine that the past 2,000 years of tectonic stability is normal and usual for the Earth ...\n\nIceland & The Mediterranean\nOkay, Iceland is way up in the North Atlantic, an Island of \"Ice and Fire\" .. covered in glaciers with active volcanoes and in my view still forming in an almost primordial state. The landmass emerges from the backbone of the \"Mid-Atlantic Ridge\". Sicily and Mount Etna live down South in the Mediterranean, where temperatures can rise - on average - to 35°C [95°F]. Iceland and Sicily do not seem to have a lot in common; but historically they may be related.\n\nPeople today do not seriously consider that we live on a dynamic changing Planet, on which landmass upheavals are common. Two thousand years may seem a lot to humans who live up to 80/90 cycles around the Sun - but two thousand years is less than a nano-second to the Earth. In my mind the events, in 1628 BC that ended the Minoan Civilisation and devastated the Mediterranean coast, were part of a much bigger picture of events that probably stretch all the way to Iceland.\n\nIrish Tree Rings and an Event in 1628 BC\nIn prehistoric times, oaks growing on the surface of Irish raised bogs were recording rare extreme events.\n\nThese extreme events are characterized by the simultaneous occurrence of the narrowest rings in the lifetime of trees throughout a wide geographical spread of sites.\n\nSignificantly the dates of these extreme 'narrowest ring' events coincide with the estimated dates for major volcanic eruptions as recorded in the Greenland ice-cap. One of these events occurs in the decade of the 1620s BC and coincides very precisely with a previously suggested volcanic event at 1626 BC (now 1627 BC) put forward by LaMarche.\n\nOne is led to the inevitable conclusion that some major hemispheric event took place in the decade of the 1620s BC, and a strong circumstantial case can be constructed that the event was volcanic in origin. Since the dating is based on precisely dated tree rings no further refinement of the date of the event - probably 1628 BC - is required. Thera Foundation\n\nI do not think that everything unfolded in 1628 BC .. but that generally there was an age of upheaval affecting probably the entire world. However, at the same time unusual catastrophic changed affected much of Europe, altering Scandinavia and reaching all the way to Iceland. Although some researchers point to a possible asteroid impact, already we are seeing increasing tectonic upheaval worldwide with no asteroid impact. If anything, it is more likely effects from the Sun and the orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as well as the Moon.\n\nSaturday, July 09, 2011\n\nGreat Changes To The Human Mind\n\nNaturally - the current 3D obsessed human being focuses on 3D physical survival .. which is a primary mistake as the human (and animal) 3D forms are a tiny drop in the ocean of the human soul and of the spirit. Some of my best friends are trees .. others are volcanoes .. others are clouds .. then there is the wind .. then there is the rain .. rivers bring water and the oceans are rich in fish...\n\n\"Great Changes To The Human Mind\", will be much greater than changes to the 3D world (on which we depend physically).\n\nAll humankind, on all continents, are entering a thousand year revolution, in which the SOUL will imbue the SPIRIT with energy and light .. but do not be afraid of the 'shadows' because darkness is the container in which the light shines brightest of all .. all duality is born of the light and the dark .. neither is good and neither is bad .. yin and yang are one.\n\nFirst there is an incredible change happening in the heavens above our heads .. but what are the heavens? Well, we are the heavens!! We are born from the heavens and we passage the heavens when we leave the Earth. We come and go .. and this process has taken place for many millions of years.\n\nFor those of you who have the sensitivity to look deeply at the sky .. pay attention to the light .. watch the depth of colour .. you will see the changes ahead.\n\nOrdinary science and ordinary 3D thought sees only what it invents - interprets - measures in its own terms .. but there is a much greater change (challenge) approaching, that will totally dwarf all thought, all measurement and all interpretation. We may inhabit 3D bodies; but we are SPIRIT walking on Earth representing the SOUL.\n\nThe greatest challenge that lies ahead for human beings is the \"Great Change To The Mind\". Of course, the mind is beyond all limitations of human thought .. but the human being has to be able to be one with the mind - without methods or techniques and without fear.\n\nIt is not about volcanoes, it is not about continental shift, it is not about 3D transformation of the physical environment (all of which will take place) .. it is about the integral structure of the human mind and the relationship to universal mind. It is not even a question of extra-terrestrials and other world Galactic Federations .. because the beginning and the end lie within our consciousness.\n\nEach human consciousness is a universe in itself. Soon, scientists will begin to rediscover ALCHEMY and its true meaning.\n\nThe whole universe is inside us and we are inside the universe.\n\nRealising this will create a much greater change on Earth than any physical 3D upheaval or physical transformation. Such a transformed mind can easily deal with the radiation contamination spreading from Fukushima. We cannot currently deal with the man-made radioactive contamination, because we are fragmented, partial and at odds with our planetary environment.\n\nExtraordinary change is coming to our world. The tectonic shift lies within.\nThis is a change of consciousness, a change of the workings of the mind.\n\nFriday, July 08, 2011\n\nDesign Tectonics: Extraordinary Beauty of Colour\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThursday, June 23, 2011\n\nDesign Tectonics: Volcanic Cloud Alchemy\n\nOn June 21 Solstice, 2011 and on June 22 after the Full Moon Eclipse there has been amazing cloud alchemy in the skies over Europe. Months before the May 2011 Grimsvötn eruption there was generally a growing lack of rainfall, and no thunderstorms, no lightning. Rainbows had almost become 'extinct' as the skies above showed less natural cloud cover.\n\nSince the Grimsvötn eruption there have also been a number of spectacular ash cloud eruptions exploding from volcanoes around the world. The explosive eruption of Puyehue, Chile and the Nabro volcano, Eritrea with continued eruptions of volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.\n\nOne of Russia’s largest and most active volcanoes erupted Friday sending ash more than 10,000 feet into the air. Officials said a much larger eruption is \"likely\".\n\nShiveluch has had over 60 large explosive eruptions during the past 10,000 years. Catastrophic eruptions took place in 1854 and 1956, when a large part of the lava dome collapsed and created a devastating debris avalanche. The last significant eruption ocured in late May 2011 resulting in ash being sent to a height of 7.5 kilometres above sea level. The ejection was accompanied by an earthquake at the volcano that lasted more than 10 minutes.\n\nIt is difficult to capture the endless exchange of cloud colours that are evolving as the ash particles and unseen elements interact in the Earth's atmosphere. As the Sun was setting on June 23, the clouds revealed their composite characters. There were colours up there I have never seen .. I wonder if volcanoes had a part to play in Turner's paintings...\n\nHigh levels of ash in the atmosphere during 1816 the \"Year Without a Summer\", led to unusually spectacular sunsets during this period, and were an inspiration for some of Turner's work.\n\nAs the Sun was setting on June 22, the nature of the clouds were like lazy drifting volcanic dragons of the sky. The human eye is better suited to viewing living colour and light. Cameras just cannot capture those ephemeral colours.\n\nIn those drifting clouds were sulphur yellows, dark-orange and browns .. magenta-browns, burgundy reds with dark ash greys buried in the deepest part of the clouds. I have never seen such a range of colours expand and transform within the few minutes of one Sunset. This is not just 'colour' those clouds have life in them. Volcanoes are clearly the great Alchemists of the Earth.\n\nEven more than that, theories that particles, gasses and ash emitted from volcanic eruptions only affect the upper atmosphere is ... idiotic, to say the least. Of course the particles known and unknown enter the lower atmosphere and the soil. Not only are we breathing in these particles, but they fall as rain.\n\nAt least eighty percent of the life giving alchemical forces emitted in volcanic explosive eruptions are unaccounted for in terms of current knowledge. Each volcano has its own variety of gasses, water, elements, particles, electrical charge, distribution of ions, micro-nutrients, metals, crystals, density of aerosols and things we just do not have any knowledge of (as yet).\n\nEach volcano is a Master Alchemist and at times where different eruptions coincide all over the world, the alchemical forces collide and interact in the Earth's atmosphere, changing the chemistry, altering the alchemy of the skies. We breathe it in as the elements form moisture.\n\nSolar Pulse\nThere is one other major force we have not yet discovered in volcanic ash, water and lava .. that is the influence of the Sun. Solar flares do not simply zap through the planet like a passing storm .. the magnetic oscillations charge up water and lava. Rivers, ground water, aquifiers, lakes, ice flows and lava are all charged by the particles of the Sun.\n\nWe drink the water .. plants animals and trees take in the water and we become part of the Sun's evolution. Probably evolution is the wrong word .. I mean transformation. The lava also transmutes the quantum molecular information from the Sun into frequencies that we can absorb, and sends this signal out into the atmosphere communicating through chemistry, alchemy, electrical charge, magnetic charge, particles and gasses.\n\nWe become magnetised by the Sun.\n\nWe are effected by this whole process in so many ways. Turner expressed this in the form of his magnificent paintings; but all of us are effected whether we know it or not. If you pay attention, you are going to know it, feel it and be able to express the \"art\" of the Sun in your own way.\n\nIn a way we are the Sun's work of Art .. well the whole planet is the Sun's painting .. \"work of art\" .. but who is the ARTIST? In a strange way we are the artist - but that is getting ahead of the discovery!\n\nThe ancients knew what they were talking about when they said: The Sun of the Creator... but we are not talking about 3D human form. Yes! The human beings on Earth are affected by this spiritual cosmic process; but we humans are not the source of that intelligence .. at our best we are the canvas on which the cosmic painting is completed.\n\nIf you want to really understand this process keep watching the skies and keep watching the clouds, the weather, the alchemy unfolding in front of your eyes and you will see your own transformation in those clouds up there .. because what is up there is in your lungs and in the cells of your body .. and what is your body? Your body is a mirror of the spirit.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5509074926376343}
{"content": "England 3-0 Scotland\n\n\n\n\nSlovenia 0-0 England\n\nEngland were fortunate to come away with a point following their trip to Slovenia. The best chances of the game went to Slovenia, who were denied by some excellent saves from Joe Hart, notably at the start of the second half. The big story before the game was that Rooney was being dropped for Dier, but Dier and Henderson both had poor games in the middle of the park and put the defence in trouble. Going forwards, England struggled to create chances and any kind of a threat only seemed to come in the final third of the game after Townsend was brought on from the bench. However, the threat posed by England was rare and Oblak only had one save to make when Lingard shot from 25 yards. The point keeps England top of the group, but with the exception of Hart’s saves, there were no positives to take from this game in terms of player performances from the game. Whilst England will remain favourites to qualify from the group, it is incredibly difficult to see how they will make a big impact at the World Cup (assuming they qualify) with performances like that.\n\nLet me know what you thought about England’s performance by leaving a comment below.\n\nEngland 2-0 Malta\n\nEngland recorded a 2-0 victory over Malta in a World Cup qualifying game at Wembley. Both of England’s goals came in the first half; Daniel Sturridge scored the first with an excellent guided header from 12 yards and Dele Alli doubled the lead by stabbing home a rebound from his own shot. Hogg made a couple of good saves for Malta, especially in the first half. England controlled possession throughout the game, but struggled to create good chances. Too often, the ball seemed to go sideways or backwards and was often slow and narrow, particularly in the final third. Much was made about how England controlled possession, but this would be expected against a team ranked 176 in the world. In summary, whilst England have gained another three points in their qualifying campaign, it was a disappointing performance and they will need to play better to win in Slovenia.\n\nWales 4-0 Moldova\n\nWales won their opening game in their World Cup qualifying campaign against Moldova. It was a game they were expected to win, with Moldova at home being seen as the easiest of their fixtures. However, it was still a tough test as while Moldova don’t win many games, it’s rare for them to get beaten by a large margin.\n\nFor the first half hour, Wales seemed to struggle to apply consistent pressure and complete passes successfully, especially in the final third. The game changed in the final seven minutes of the first half as a Gareth Bale cross from the right was met by Sam Vokes to open the scoring with a header. With a minute to go until half time, Joe Allen doubled the lead with a shot from the edge of the area. Wales were gifted a third five minutes into the second half when a Moldovan defender passed directly to Bale, who ran into the area and coolly finished past the goalkeeper. Wales were more fluent in the second half and had Moldova under pressure for much of the time. The fourth was added in stoppage time when Bale was fouled in the area and stepped up to score a penalty and take himself within 4 goals of the Welsh goalscoring record.\n\nSlovakia 0-1 England\n\nEngland won the opening match of their World Cup qualifying campaign with a fortunate victory in Slovakia. The kindest thing that can be said about the first half is that the referee didn’t add too much in the way of stoppage time – in Football Manager, we would have been reading that surely the second half could only get better. England had a reasonable amount of the ball, but threats from either team were rare. England were more threatening in the second half, helped by Alli coming on for Henderson and Skrtel deservedly being sent off for stamping on Kane. Lallana hit the post, whilst with seconds to go, Walcott tucked the ball away, but it was ruled out for offside, which seemed to confirm that despite having a man advantage for 35 minutes, Slovakia were going to be able to hold out for a point. With the last kick of the game, Lallana got the ball out of his feet and fired through the goalkeeper’s legs for the winner.\n\nEngland had plenty of the ball, but struggled to look threatening with it for long periods of time. Too often, there seems to be no change of pace and it can become narrow. However, the biggest problem is that England players don’t seem to commit opposing players; the only two runs I can remember in which Slovakian players were taken on were by Walker and Stones. If the passing in the final third lacks accuracy, this can make it difficult to create good chances as players are not being moved from their defensive positions. Meanwhile, when Slovakia broke and threatened in the first half, England still looked vulnerable. Allardyce has a lot of work to do.\n\nLet me know your thoughts about the game. Who impressed? Who didn’t? What did England do well? Where can they improve?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5287362933158875}
{"content": "Hi Bucky!\nFirst I wanted to say that you're an awesome teacher I'be watched many of your videos.\nI started to develop an IOS app using Swift and I know what I want but don't know how to do it.\n\nOur company works with SQL database that is on pgAdmin Server and I want to create a simple app that has one simple table that reads data from the table and update the table in the app according to the changes in the database.\nMy question is:\nShould I open a simple tableview in Swift or I need to create database ?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9217144846916199}
{"content": "Mark Rothko\n\nDate Of Birth:\n25 September 1903\nDate Of Death:\n25 February 1970\nPlace Of Birth:\nDvinsk, Russianow Daugavpils, Latvia\nBest Known As:\nAbstract expressionist painter of 1958's \"Black on Maroon\"\n\nName at birth: Marcus Rothkowitz\n\nMark Rothko was one of the most highly-regarded painters to emerge from the New York art scene after the end of World War II. Born in Russian-controlled Latvia, he emigrated with his family to the United States, settling in Portland, Oregon in 1913. His academic success in high school led to a scholarship at Yale University, but he dropped out during his second year and moved to New York City in 1923. There he found his niche in a crowd of like-minded artists (sometimes called \"the Ten\") and he began painting. During his career he became less and less interested in representational art and more drawn to art as a transcendent experience. Between the mid-1920s and the end of the 1940s, Rothko's paintings evolved from distorted figures and pseudo-primitive figures to less distinct figures known as \"multiforms,\" then finally to the large, rectangular fields of color for which he became famous. His work is considered an example of Abstract Expressionism, though Rothko eschewed such labels during his career. His most famous works are untitled or have unmemorable titles such as \"Black, Maroons and White\" (1958), \"Four Red\" (1957) and \"No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red).\" A key figure in modern 20th century painting, Rothko was an art world celebrity during his lifetime, and his reputation as a tortured artist was guaranteed for eternity when he slashed his own arms above the elbow and bled to death in 1970.\n\nExtra Credit:\n\nContemporaries of Rothko’s include Jackson Pollock and\nGeorgia O’Keeffe.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.964167594909668}
{"content": "Chemistry 101\n\nposted by .\n\nAluminum reacts with sulfur gas to form aluminum sulfide. Initially 1.18 ml of aluminum and 2.25mol of sulfur are combined.\n1. write a balanced equation?\n2. what is the limiting reaction?\n3. what is the theoretical yield of aluminum sulfide in moles?\nHow many moles of excess reactant remain unreacted?\n\nI will take any help I can on this one please?\n\n  • Chemistry 101 -\n\n    ml of aluminum? Hmmmm. So get the denstiy of aluminum, and convert the ml to mg. This is odd, check your problem.\n    Now convert the mass of Al to moles.\n\n    2Al+ 3S>>>Al2S3\n\n    Notice for each mole of S, you need 2/3 mole of Al. If you do not have that much of Al, then Al is the limiting reageant.\n\nRespond to this Question\n\nFirst Name\nSchool Subject\nYour Answer\n\nSimilar Questions\n\n  1. CHEM-last part prob.\n\n  2. chemistry\n\n    Just checking an answer... I was given Aluminum + Sulfur yields.. & I was to finish & balance & answer the questions. 2Al + 3S => Al2S3 If 1 mole of sulur reacts, how many moles of aluminum sulife are produced?\n  3. Chemistry\n\n  4. chemistry\n\n    aluminum reacts with sulfric acid to produce aluminum sulfate and hydrogen gas. how many grams of aluminum sulfate would be form if 250 g H2SO4 completely reacted with aluminum?\n  5. Chemistry- Equation\n\n    Aluminum reacts with sulfuric acid to produce aluminum sulfate and hydrogen gas. How many grams of aluminum sulfate would be formed if 250 g H2SO4 completely reacted with aluminum?\n  6. Chemistry\n\n    Write a balanced equation: Aluminum reacts with aqueous hydrochloric acid to form hydrogen gas and aqueous aluminum chloride. I think: Al+HCl(aq)-->H(g)AlCl(aq) But I don't really know if I am doing it right or not\n  7. Chemistry\n\n  8. applying stoichiometry\n\n    10.0 g aluminum reacts with 66.5g bromine to form 65.0g aluminum bromide. determine the limiting reactant and calculate the theoretical and percent yield. once the reaction has occured as completely as possible, what mass of the excess …\n  9. Science (chemistry)\n\n    Write a balanced chemical equation and state the reaction type for each of the following reactions: a.) nitrogen gas reacts with hydrogen gas forming ammonia (NH3) b.) carbonic acid breaks down to form carbon dioxide gas and water …\n  10. Chemistry\n\n    Aluminum oxide is formed by reaction of excess oxygen with aluminum. 4 Al(s) + 3 O2(g) -> 2 Al2O3(s) Calculate the mass of aluminum required to form 18.2 kg of aluminum oxide if the reaction has a percent yield of 83.4%.\n\nMore Similar Questions", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9097253680229187}
{"content": "Counselors shouldn't express beliefs\n\n\n\nI am writing in response to the Augusta State University lawsuit alleging religious discrimination concerning a student's beliefs about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.\n\nI also am a graduate counseling student at a different university, and was told at the interview that \"you can have whatever opinion or beliefs you desire, but it is unprofessional and potentially harmful to express it.\"\n\nJennifer Keeton alleges that writing papers and undergoing diversity classes are forcing her to change her beliefs, but I disagree. Changing your opinion and simply not expressing it are two starkly different things. When a client comes to see you, they often are in a vulnerable, emotional state. If someone in a position of power informs them they are \"wrong,\" this statistically increases the likelihood of suicide or harm.\n\nUniversities do not make up diversity procedures to be ornery or disrespectful to students' beliefs -- these are professional guidelines and regulations followed in the counseling field. If universities do not correct behaviors that counselors cannot exhibit for safety reasons, they are not only at risk of losing their accreditation, but they are setting up students for failure.\n\nMs. Keeton would be fired for these behaviors in the workplace. If she cannot follow national guidelines for the profession, perhaps she should consider other scholarly pursuits.\n\n\nFri, 08/18/2017 - 02:40\n\nRename expressway\n\nFri, 08/18/2017 - 02:39\n\nAsk: What if …?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9009734988212585}
{"content": "SOMETHING NEW! This house is a mixture of fresh and warm contemporary like you have never seen before. The house is designed to take advantage of beautiful mountain views from a new perspective. It is thoroughly modern and filled with natural and organic materials. The house features a stunning arching metal roof, an expansive front portal, and sleek “floating” walls throughout. Additionally, the gourmet kitchen and master suite are elegant and functional. These 2,878 square feet of living space are built for today’s lifestyle.\n\nDriving Directions\nFrom the Big I, take I-25 north to Paseo Del Norte west. Turn right (north) on Unser Blvd. Turn left (west) on Wellspring. Turn left (west) on 21st Ave. Left (south) on 15th Street. Right (west) on 22nd Ave. Left on 13th Street. The home is on the SW corner of 13th Street and 22nd Ave.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9968127012252808}
{"content": "\n\n\n\nIncreased intracranial pressure and brain edema\n\nAuthors: Dietrich W, Erbguth F.\n\nIn primary and secondary brain diseases, increasing volumes of the three compartments of brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, or blood lead to a critical increase in intracranial pressure (ICP). A rising ICP is associated with typical clinical symptoms; however, during analgosedation it can only be detected by invasive ICP monitoring. Other neuromonitoring procedures are not as effective as ICP monitoring; they reflect the ICP changes and their complications by other metabolic and oxygenation parameters. The most relevant parameter for brain perfusion is cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), which is calculated as the difference between the middle arterial pressure (MAP) and the ICP. A mixed body of evidence exists for the different ICP-reducing treatment measures, such as hyperventilation, hyperosmolar substances, hypothermia, glucocorticosteroids, CSF drainage, and decompressive surgery.\n\nValsalva manoeuver, intra-ocular pressure, cerebrospinal fluid pressure, optic disc topography: Beijing intracranial and intra-ocular pressure study\n\nAuthors: Zhang Z, Wang X, Jonas JB, Wang H, Zhang X, Peng X, Ritch R, Tian G, Yang D, Li L, Li J, Wang N.\n\nPURPOSE: To assess whether a Valsalva manoeuver influences intra-ocular pressure (IOP), cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSF-P) and, by a change in the trans-laminar cribrosa pressure difference, optic nerve head morphology.\nMETHODS: In the first part of the study, 20 neurological patients (study group 'A') underwent measurement of IOP and lumbar CSF-P measurement in a lying position before and during a Valsalva manoeuver. In the second study part, 20 healthy subjects (study group 'B') underwent ocular tonometry and confocal scanning laser tomography of the optic nerve head before and during a Valsalva manoeuver.\nRESULTS: During the Valsalva manoeuver in study group 'A', the increase in CSF-P by 10.5 ± 2.7 mmHg was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than the increase in IOP by 1.9 ± 2.4 mmHg. The change in CSF-P was not significantly (p = 0.61) correlated with the change in IOP. During the Valsalva manoeuver in study group 'B', IOP increased by 4.5 ± 4.2 mmHg and optic cup volume (p < 0.001), cup/disc area ratio (p = 0.02), cup/disc diameter ratio (p = 0.03) and maximum optic cup depth (p = 0.01) significantly decreased, while neuroretinal rim volume (p = 0.005) and mean retinal nerve fibre layer thickness (p = 0.02) significantly increased.\nCONCLUSIONS: The Valsalva manoeuver-associated short-term increase in CSF-P was significantly larger than a simultaneous short-term increase in IOP. It led to a Valsalva manoeuver-associated decrease or reversal of the trans-laminar cribrosa pressure difference, which was associated with a change in the three-dimensional optic nerve head morphology: optic cup-related parameters decreased and neuroretinal rim-related parameters enlarged. These findings may be of interest for the pathogenesis of glaucomatous optic neuropathy.\n\n\n\n\nShort-duration hypothermia after ischemic stroke prevents delayed intracranial pressure rise\n\nAuthors: Murtha LA, McLeod DD, McCann SK, Pepperall D, Chung S, Levi CR, Calford MB, Spratt NJ.\n\nBACKGROUND: Intracranial pressure elevation, peaking three to seven post-stroke is well recognized following large strokes. Data following small-moderate stroke are limited. Therapeutic hypothermia improves outcome after cardiac arrest, is strongly neuroprotective in experimental stroke, and is under clinical trial in stroke. Hypothermia lowers elevated intracranial pressure; however, rebound intracranial pressure elevation and neurological deterioration may occur during rewarming.\nHYPOTHESES: (1) Intracranial pressure increases 24 h after moderate and small strokes. (2) Short-duration hypothermia-rewarming, instituted before intracranial pressure elevation, prevents this 24 h intracranial pressure elevation.\n\n\nAuthors: Ridha MA, Saindane AM, Bruce BB, Riggeal BD, Kelly LP, Newman NJ, Biousse V.\n\nPURPOSE: To determine whether MRI signs suggesting elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) are preferentially found in patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) than in those with cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT).\nMETHODS: Among 240 patients who underwent standardized contrast-enhanced brain MRI/MRV at our institution between 9/2009 and 9/2011, 60 with abnormal imaging findings on MRV were included: 27 patients with definite IIH, 2 patients with presumed IIH, and 31 with definite CVT. Medical records were reviewed, and imaging studies were prospectively evaluated by the same neuroradiologist to assess for presence or absence of transverse sinus stenosis (TSS), site of CVT if present, posterior globe flattening, optic nerve sheath dilation/tortuosity, and the size/appearance of the sella turcica.\nRESULTS: 29 IIH patients (28 women, 19 black, median-age 28, median-body mass index, 34) had bilateral TSS. 31 CVT patients (19 women, 13 black, median-age 46, median-BMI 29) had thrombosis of the sagittal (3), sigmoid (3), cavernous (1), unilateral transverse (7), or multiple (16) sinuses or cortical veins (1). Empty/partially-empty sellae were more common in IIH (3/29 and 24/29) than in CVT patients (1/31 and 19/31) (p<0.001). Flattening of the globes and dilation/tortuosity of the optic nerve sheaths were more common in IIH (20/29 and 18/29) than in CVT patients (13/31 and 5/31) (p<0.04).\nCONCLUSION: Although abnormal imaging findings suggestive of raised ICP are more common in IIH, they are not specific for IIH and are found in patients with raised ICP from other causes such as CVT.\n\n\nSubscribe to Noninvasive ICP RSS", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9853544235229492}
{"content": "The Best Cute and Funny Kids playroom Ideas\n\nKids playroom must be designed in special attention to the comfort and safety aspects of any furniture and materials in the room. This is done to maintain the safety of children while in the playroom. Because Children are very active, you need to use blunt furniture in the edges and sides to avoid the risk of a child will get hurt while nudging or touching the furniture. Blunt furniture design is also one of very popular interior design in this year. It is specifically designed for parents who care about the safety and comfort of their children. Combine the furniture with bright colors that suit the character of your child.\n\nMake Kids Playroom as Comfortable as Possible.\n\nCompleteness and cleanliness are the factor that can increase the comfort of children in the playroom. Complete the playroom with a variety of toys preferred by your child. For the girls, complete their playroom with their favorite characters and toys. For example, you can provide Barbie, Hello Kitty, or Disney Princess characters. As for the boy, you can provide a variety of masculine toys such as toy cars, robots and various sports accessories. Put some cabinets and storage areas to accommodate all the toys. By providing this, playroom will keep clean and tidy.\n\nThe Benefit of Playroom for Children\n\nThere are so many reasons parents provide a special playroom for their children. The room is deliberately designed separate with children’s bedroom in a few considerations. Firstly, with a separate playroom, kids will be more comfortable and free to play and explore their imagination. Secondly, the toy will be stored neatly without mixed with other child’s stuffs. And lastly, the child’s bedroom will be kept clean and tidy because it is not mixed with a variety of toys that can bring dirt in the bedroom.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8789964318275452}
{"content": "Saturday, October 25, 2014\n\nLiszt's Dante Symphony\n\n   Dante's Divine Comedy, as we have seen, made a tremendous impact on Western literature and solidified its position in the Western canon. It comes as no surprise, then, that the literary work spawned creations in other media as well. We've already discussed the paintings and drawings of Doré, Dali, et al., but we have yet to discuss in detail the music that the poem inspired. Two notable programmatic musical pieces (works that relate the story of the Comedy through music) include Franz Liszt's Dante Symphony (S. 109) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini. Both can be argued to be fantasias (especially Francesca) because of their deviations from contemporary conventions (they were essentially symphonic hipsters), and the influence of Liszt's piece on Tchaikovsky's is evident in the similar portrayal of the Second Circle of Hell. Because Liszt's piece is more encompassing, I will discuss it:\n   The Dante Symphony guides us through the Hell and Purgatory, but not Heaven. I think that this forces listeners to think about the idea of Heaven rather than have it be presented to them. Relating to Forms, Heaven is impossible for humans to accurately portray in any medium, be it speech, painting, music, etc. Liszt does, however, give the listener a taste of paradise at the end with the Magnificat. It is the only choral segment of the entire piece, and Liszt gave very specific instructions on hiding the choir from the audience's view to portray an angelic presence. Initially, Liszt had made the Magnificat even flashier than it already is to appease his mistress (she was a princess); however, his level-headed friend, Richard Wagner (should ring a bell or two... or three), talked some sense into him, telling him that the flashiness misrepresented Heaven. Now, on to the symphony itself:\n   The symphony begins in lento with Liszt's portrayal of the Gates of Hell (0:00-0:35 in the video below). This introduction, along with much of the symphony, is written in D minor, which key Liszt, quite appropriately, associates with Death (please listen to Liszt's Totentanz, written also in D minor, it's a personal favorite of mine and is very suiting for Halloween. Further, the Dante Symphony includes a large amount of tonal ambiguity, unlike pieces such as Totentanz. This deviation seems to contribute to treachery of Hell.\n   Soon--and indeed at varying times throughout the entirety of the Hell portion--the tempo accelerates, referencing the mounting terror and gravity of sin as Dante and Vergil descend. To demarcate the circles of Hell, Liszt uses a pronounced descent motif whenever Dante and Vergil are going deeper into Hell.\n   When they reach the Second Circle (that of the lustful), Dante encounters Francesa da Rimini just a he does in the Inferno. To convey the image of the tempestuous winds that Dante describes, Liszt uses rapidly ascending and descending chromatic scales. Tchaikovsky mirrored this technique in his Francesca.\n   Finally, the symphony is written in two movements (one of Hell, one of Purgatory) of ternary form. In ternary form, the composer introduces one segment, introduces a second one, and then returns to the (often augmented) first segment (called a recapitulation). This ABA structure mirrors the primary structure of the tercets in which Dante wrote his Comedy (aba bcb cdc ... rhyme scheme) and, by consequence, references the Trinity.\n   Alright, no more rambling: here's Franz Liszt's Dante Symphony as performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the conducting of Daniel Barenboim. Enjoy!\n\nNo comments:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9931805729866028}
{"content": "Islam Aly\n\nMarginalia 2 \n\nOne-of-a-Kind. 3.2 x 4.3 x 1.3 \"; 10 sections with four folios. Handmade dyed flax paper. Pochoir, two needle Coptic sewing. Leather-covered embossed Islamic binding.\n\nMarginalia 2  is inspired from Arabic commentaries that were written in different books. These commentaries have a unique shape, and layout. It usually would contrast with the geometrical design of the page. The commentaries played an important role in the transmission and transformation of knowledge. I wanted to show the beauty of their calligraphy on the handmade flax paper. I choose different parts of these commentaries and started repeating them on the page.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9998049139976501}
{"content": "How to Make Environment Friendly Buildings\n\nHow to Make Environment Friendly Buildings\nHow to Make Environment Friendly Buildings\n\n\n\nIn the next 15 years, 2 billion more people are expected to move to the world’s cities, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.\n\n\n[ Join: Environment Protection Movement of India ]\n\n\nThe Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) Programme aims to foster a clearer understanding and appreciation of sustainable buildings among relevant stakeholders and to identify the knowledge, resources and incentives required to build, maintain and use them.\n\n\n[ Why Insecurity Persists in India’s Food Security Act ]\n\nThe Programme is led by Finland’s Ministry of Environment, and co-led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Green Building Council (WGBC) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).\n\nSome 18 expert organizations, including UN Habitat, have been confirmed to participate in its Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee (MAC).\n\n“In a world where more than a billion new homes are estimated to be needed by 2050, it is absolutely clear that sustainability should begin at home,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP.\n\nThe SBC Programme will focus on five key work areas. It will:\n\n1. Establish, promote, and enable conditions for sustainable buildings and construction policies;\n\n2. Support and promote sustainable housing;\n\n3. Enhance sustainability in the building supply chain;\n\n4. Reduce climate impact and strengthen climate resilience of the building and construction sector;\n\n5. Enhance knowledge sharing, outreach and awareness raising.\n\nThe Programme is one of the six so far approved under the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, and is the fifth to be launched.\n\nProgrammes on consumer information, sustainable tourism including eco-tourism, sustainable public procurement, sustainable lifestyles and education have already been launched, while the sixth programme, on sustainable food systems, will be launched later this year.\n\nThe 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP) is a global framework that enhances international cooperation to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns in developed and developing countries.\n\nIt provides capacity-building and technical and financial assistance to developing countries and economies in transition, and encourages innovation and cooperation among countries and stakeholders. UNEP serves as the Secretariat of the 10YFP and administers its Trust Fund.\n\nPhoto courtesy: UNEP\n\nRMN News\n\nRakesh Raman", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6008745431900024}
{"content": "Category Archives: Best practices\n\n\nInnovation Everywhere\n\nInnovationIn a recent article by BCG, Casting a Wide Innovation Net, they explain how the best innovators gather ideas from a variety of sources, such as employee ideas, internal sources, and customer ideas. The cornerstone for maintaining this information are the software systems that can tie together disparate organizations and people while enforcing security.\n\nInternal vs. External Innovation\n\n\nTurnover by Industry\n\nThere is a lot of debate about the scope of innovation management, principally, whether it should include “external” participants or just “internal” participants.  So, are you missing something if you focus your innovation efforts inwardly?\n\nThere several good reasons for working only with internal people. First, it tends to be easier to manage innovation from internally-based sources because you know the work environment and control management, resources, rewards, and other organization-based factors.   Secondly, there is typically less junk, less quantity, more focused innovation, and better understanding of the total competitive environment.\n\nThere are also many good reasons for including external participants as well.  First, there is a significant amount of research that concludes  “outsiders” are better able to solve problems.  Second, the perception organizations become stagnant and aren’t capable of creativity unless new people/ideas are brought into the mix.  Let’s examine both of these reasons.\n\nOutsiders Solve Problems better than Internal People\n\nI don’t dispute that external people are better able to solve problems and inject creativity, however, even these “outsiders” have peripheral knowledge of the problems at hand.  That is, if you are trying to solve complex electrical engineering issues, then you will most likely have to include engineers.  While you have a very good chance of solving the problem by uninterested, distant people (i.e., a mechanical engineer who spent time with electrical engineers or an accountant who used to work at an engineering firm), they still have to grasp the nature of the problem.  Two pieces of research capture the essence of this thought:\n\n  • At the Harvard Business School, Karim R. Lakhani created a process for “broadcasting” tough scientific challenges to outsiders.  They found that people with expertise on the margins of the challenge quickly offered tenable solutions; almost a third of the “unsolvable” challenges were solved.\n  • It’s a time-tested phenomenon. In the book, See New Now: New Lenses for Leadership and Life, de Jaager and Ericson report, “A study of the top fifty game-changing innovations over a hundred-year period showed that nearly 80 percent of those innovations were sparked by someone whose primary expertise was outside the field in which the innovation breakthrough took place.”\n\nInternal People are Stagnant\n\nAnother aspect of internal vs. external is the notion that long-term employees are not capable of coming up with new solutions because they are jaded on past experiences, i.e., “We already tried that”, and the problem overcoming the not-invented-here syndrome.  However, consider an organization with 10% turnover per year.  In five years, approximately 40% of the organization will be new.  There are new positions, new thoughts, information on competitors, new information on technologies, and so on.  So with this many new people, how much not-invented-here mentality will you really have?  You can have it, but management has to actively promote it.  Also, many long-term employees become disillusioned with management’s lack of follow-through, lack of resources, and low priority for innovation.  These are issues that are much easier to solve internally.\n\nIn conclusion, the difference between the results you’ll get from internally-based innovation versus externally-based innovation can be very similar.  If it’s not, then look to your management to instill a better innovative culture.\n\nApollo 13 Timed Challenges\n\nApollo 13 Command Module\n\nApollo 13 Command Module\n\n\n\nThe Timed Challenge uses:\n\n  • Focused Problem Solving\n  • Management Participation\n  • Strategic Goals\n  • Employee Engagement\n  • Limited Resources, and\n  • Time Constraints\n\nto inspire creativity and innovation.  One of the most outstanding real-world examples of  Timed Challenges is the Apollo 13 event that turned a near-certain disaster into a spectacular save.  Apollo 13 had taken off from earth on its way to the moon with 3 astronauts on board.  Shortly after takeoff, there was an explosion that severely incapacitated the rocket and put the lives of the astronauts in jeopardy.  While there were many technical issues that were solved by Mission Control, one of the most critical was that the astronauts were running out of oxygen to breathe–their expired CO2 was not being removed and they were getting lethargic and hypoxic.  They was no question that they would die before they could return to earth.  To solve this issues, engineers had to use their limited resources (supplies available to the astronauts in the space capsule) to adapt equipment so that a “square filter would fit into a round filter” as quickly as possible.  Clearly it was a matter of life and death, and it required engineering experts in all fields to collaborate and engage.\n\nClearly it worked, and the astronauts made it safely back to earth.\n\nThere were many other innovations made during the entire flight that saved the crew.  It’s been over 45 years since this happened, but the methods and principles are just as applicable today.  Read the full story here.\n\n\n2015 Innovation Best Practices Survey\n\nAn Innovation Best Practices survey conducted by MindMatters Technologies (republished in Forbes) reveals that a significant percentage of workers believe that their efforts are not sufficiently appreciated or managed within their organizations.\n\n\n  • Three of four respondents (77%) said their ideas are poorly analyzed or reviewed by their companies,\n  • Four of five people who took the survey (81%) said their firms do not have the resources needed to fully pursue the innovations and new ideas capable of keeping their companies ahead in the competitive global marketplace,\n  • Half the respondents (55%) said their organizations treat intellectual property as a valuable resource,\n  • One in seven (16%) believed their employers regarded its development as a mission-critical function,\n  • Almost half (49%) believe they won’t receive any benefit or recognition for developing successful ideas.\n\nOne of the most outstanding results was the question, “Do you believe that there are adequate resources available to pursue new innovations and ideas in your organization?”, where over 80% answered negatively.  Unfortunately, this is typical in many organizations, and it is one of the leading reasons why I’ve seen innovation fail.   In the most extreme cases, it turns the entire innovation process upside down by forcing the innovators to justify (again) their ideas to someone who has to “make resources available.” It usually means that resources are taken away from another project and/or that the threshold for getting the resources is extremely high. If management is truly committed to innovation, then the innovation team is trusted with a “budget” to make resource allocations. We already know that not all innovations will be successful, and making an upfront resource commitment means that management is committed for the long term–a critical element of success.\n\nTake a Break for Productivity\n\n\n\nCreativity and Innovation\n\nWalk your way to Creativity\n\nCreativity and InnovationIn a recent Journal of Experimental Psychology article, Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking, by Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz of Santa Clara University, the researchers looked at ways that walking could be used improve your creativity and thinking skills.  While there had been plenty of anecdotal evidence for such a correlation, there was never a thorough scientific study. What they were able to determine, was that people who walked, were more likely to be more creative than those who did not walk. They defined creativity as the number of ways that people come up with different uses for particular object, such as how you might use a tire. They compared this creativity, against normal mental capabilities, such as determining the answers to tests that required particular answers (as opposed to free thinking). They found that walking had no improvement over these “convergent thinking” tests versus “divergent thinking” tests.\n\nDuring the course of their research, they were able to demonstrate an 81% increase in creativity associated with walking. And you’ll be in good company if you do the same–Aristotle Steve Jobs, and Nietzsche, all made walks part of their daily routine. Unfortunately, researchers were not able to come up with any reason why walking actually improved creativity, but they did empirically test it and determined it to be true. So, if you want to improve yourself, go for a walk–it’ll do you good.\n\n\nInnovation in Recessions\n\nthick_arrow_up_5575Successful innovation in recessions was examined in a Harvard Business Review article, Roaring Out of Recession, by Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria and Franz Wohlgezogen.  They looked at increases in sales and earnings during a recession, and the strategies that were employed.  The goal was to determine the best strategy during a recession.  The strategies were grouped into four general categories:\n\n\n  1. Prevention-focused,\n  2. Promotion-focused,\n  3. Pragmatic, and\n  4. Progressive organizations.\n\nPrevention-focused organizations focus on cost cutting and avoiding losses–a purely defensive strategy.  Within this category, the authors examined two major subcategories:  employee reduction and organizational efficiency.  These types of organizations are risk-averse, and will “batten down the hatches” when a storm approaches.  As a general strategy, prevention is the worst, however, organizations that pursued organization efficiency (vs. employee reduction) were more successful in this category.\n\nPromotion-focused organizations focus on building assets and marketing–a purely offensive strategy.  The thought is that during a downturn, by investing in your core assets and building your branding, you’ll hold onto your current customers and build new ones.  Compared with organizations that pursue the prevention-focused strategy, they tend to do better.   The authors divided this category into market building and asset building.  In general, building marketing worked more effectively than building assets.\n\nPragmatic organizations do everything.  The pursue both offensive and defensive strategies, in essence, throwing everything they have at the problem.  This strategy is significantly better than either defense or offense alone, but is still not the most optimal.  In this case, they don’t “fine tune” the amounts of each type of strategy, and waste resources.\n\nFinally, there are the pragmatic organizations.  They too pursue both offensive and defensive strategies, however, they only pursue operational efficiencies (with respect to prevent-based methods), and pursue both marketing and asset/capital investment with respect to promotion-based methods.  With this strategy, the financial outcome compared with the next best method, as measured by sales improvement is nearly 40% greater, and the improvement with respect to earnings is nearly 160% greater.\n\nSo, the bottom line is you keep your employees, and make capital investments that improve operational efficiency and marketing development–two areas that are best addressed with innovation.  Your people are your best asset, again.\n\nBest Leadership style for Innovation\n\nA recent bit of research by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in the Harvard Business Review looked at the types of leadership qualities most likely to spur employee engagement, or in other words which employees were the most happy/(or not) with their jobs. Generally, they grouped individual leaders as either Drivers or Enhancers. Specifically,\n\n\n\nThey drew on research from nearly 150,000 interviews (with approximately 30,000 leaders). Not surprisingly, employees believed that the leaders who were the best enhancers were considered to be the best at engaging employees. However, after carefully reviewing the survey results, they discovered that the leaders who had the best employee engagement scored highly in BOTH areas–as drivers and enhancers.\n\nFrom an innovation perspective, this fits neatly with much of what I’ve seen in many organizations.  Leaders in innovation must get people to focus and stretch on important goals, while acting as role models and providing feedback.  The Challenge methodology provides a framework for building and maintaining this structure and helps guide organizations to innovation success.\n\nInnovation Requires a Process\n\nInnovation isn’t the only creative area where a process is beneficial.\n\nI read an interesting post by Kevin Eikenberry on how creativity is more effectively enabled with a process. While I have long seen the poor results of organizations that fail to embrace any type of process/system for innovation, I never really considered the parallels in both writing and improvisation.  Since Kevin is a writer he speaks specifically to this element demonstrating how he uses a process to facilitate his writing, such as writing during a specific time of the day, collecting articles, and forcing associations using metaphors.  Another interesting comparison is improv.  I had originally thought that improv was based entirely on the actor’s skill.  Although these types of actors are very skilled, they also follow several rules and “practice” different types of exercises to hone their abilities.\n\nIt’s tempting to just start innovating by pulling a group of people together and brainstorming.  However, research and results have shown time and time again that the organizations that run innovation as a process are substantially more successful.\n\nInnovation Project Funding\n\nremove_riskOne of the most important factors in innovation is funding. Without it, your ideas are worthless, even the small ones. When people think of funding, they initially think money, and they’d be correct. However, money is only one form. Funding might be allowing someone time off of a project to complete an innovation, or providing them a team to divide up tasks. It’s also necessary to talk about funding from the very start of innovation. Whether it’s explicitly stated or not, your innovators will gauge their participation (or lack of participation) based on whether or not your organization has the ability to follow through on the innovations that are created–therefore funding is critical.\n\nOnce project have started, funding obviously continues to play a strong part.  While many organizations periodically rank and evaluate projects for either moving forward or abandoning, they typically look at a myriad of factors, such as marketing, manufacturing, and competition.  One way of categorizing all of your analysis factors is on the amount of risk that is removed.  Consider an entrepreneur and venture capitalist.   The venture capitalist invests in the company for the primary purpose of helping the entrepreneur remove risk.  For example, I’m given money to build a prototype to answer the question of “Can it be build quickly and inexpensively”.  When you are managing many projects, the best way to look at a go/no go decision is a) did the funding in the current stage remove risk (and did it remove enough risk) and b) is the funding for the next phase being used to reduce the next set of risks.  This is why venture capitalists are not interesting in “paying salary” they are interested in remove risks.  Try this the next time you evaluate a project.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8671166300773621}
{"content": "U.S., South Korea begin military exercises as North ends armistice\n\n(CNN) -- A new joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States began Monday amid heightened tensions across the region.\n\n\n\n\nThe latest exercises fall under the shadow of North Korea's army declaring invalid the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, an article in Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, reported Monday.\n\nWith the declaration, Pyongyang made good on its threat to nullify the armistice.\n\nNorth Korea previously warned it could carry out strikes against the United States and South Korea.\n\n\n\nMilitary exercises a threat?\n\n\nThe United Nations Command notified the North Korean military on February 21 of the exercise dates, noting that Key Resolve is an annual joint exercise that is not related to current events on the Korean Peninsula.\n\nThe U.N. Security Council unanimously passed tougher sanctions against North Korea Thursday targeting the secretive nation's nuclear program, which followed successful missile and nuclear tests.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9691023230552673}
{"content": "Measuring time.\n\nSometimes I have odd ways of judging how time passes. When I was a kid my family would take vacations that required long drives. At least once a trip my brother and I would ask how much longer, since actual time means little to a six-year-old we would be told time in shows or movies. We understood how long an episode of “Batman” or the movie “Cool Runnings” was and we knew by the time we were done watching we would be there.\n\nThe strange things things from childhood always stick. I often judge time in this odd way. I remember in college being asked how long it took me to complete a project, and I would give them the list of movies I watched while working on it. That was the first time I understood that this was not a normal time scale, but that has never stopped me from using it.\n\nOver the past few months I have caught myself using odd ways to measure time and mark the passing days. Sometimes I try to remember how many bars of soap or tubes of toothpaste I have gone through. I have changed my toothbrush twice and am almost through another bottle of face wash. Somewhere around five months ago I lost count of how many boxes of tissues I have gone through. Over the past six months I have bought myself flowers around a dozen times and have managed to kill only one of my plants.\n\nI don’t know if this is a healthy way to mark time passing, but it is how I have gotten used to watching it go by. There is no official list, and I could be off by quite a bit on my mental count, but it helps me to see that time moves forward. A bar of soap and a tube of toothpaste are being used slowly but surely just like I am getting better every day.\n\n\nTime Machine.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOld friends. \n\nI have always loved going to museums. They are one of my favorite places to reflect, see things from a different perspective and visit old friend. I always feel like I walk out of a museum in a better mood and a better person then I went in. I have so many wonderful memories wondering around and getting lost in painting hung halls.\n\nmagGrowing up I remember going to the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) with my family. There are some paintings or sculptures I stand in front of and it’s like I’m a kid again listening to my mom explain something. There is a painting of a woman cutting onions, a sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, and how can I forget the mosaic upstairs. My mom would ask my brother and I what it was, and we couldn’t leave it until we came up with the name of it.\n\nGoing to such a familiar museum right now is perfect, I haven’t been to the MAG in far too long. Everything was in a slightly different place from how it used to be. It echoes the way I feel about things right now. I’m still me, more so than ever, but things feel slightly off and not where I expected them to be. Of course, as with life, in museums there are new things to explore and find comfort in.\n\nEven with things moved around I still know what pieces I am drawn to, what ones I call friend. Wherever there is a Rodin, Monet, Degas, Rockwell, O’Keefe, Picaso and so many other favorite artists, I know I am among friends. \n\nMAG2 .jpg\n\nWhen things are hard, I think it is best to remember your roots. Take solace in the things that have always given you comfort, it is the best way to remember who you are and who you want to be.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7366612553596497}
{"content": "Frequently Asked Questions                                \n\nWhy might we need two interpreters for this assignment?\nSign language interpreting is both mentally and physically demanding. In accordance with industry standards, certain assisngments i.e. legal, highly technical, lengthy, or fast-paced platform assignments, require more than one interpreter. Team interpreting increases the level of accuracy and decreases the likelihood that either interpreter will suffer a Cumulative Motion Injury (CMI). The most common injuries are to the wrist (carpal tunnel syndrome), the arm (tendonitis), the shoulder (bursitis), and the back.\n\nDoes the interpreter need any information in advance?\n\nHow do I utilize Interpreting Services?\nRequests for services should be made in advance to ensure availability of interpreters. New Clients will need to create an account before scheduling services. Contact requests@GulfStatesInterpreting.com or call 850-296-9478. To check for interpreter availability or to schedule in advance contact scheduling@GulfStatesInterpreting.com or call 850-296-9478.\n\nAre Services available in my area?\nVRI Services are available to clients anywhere in the U.S. Gulf States provides on-site services in a variety of areas across the southeastern U.S. To check for interpreter availability or to schedule in advance contact scheduling@GulfStatesInterpreting.com or call 850-296-9478.\n\nWhat situations are appropriate to use VRI?\nGeographic areas that do not have sufficient, qualified interpreters\nWhen immediate communications are needed i.e. on-demand walk-in or emergency services\nOne on one or small group meetings\nMeetings or events where participants take turns speaking\nMedical situations where the patient or family member who is deaf can clearly see the screen without straining or causing injury\nIn some situations, VRI is used only until a qualified, on-site interpreter arrives i.e. Law Enforcement, Emergency room\n\nWhat's the difference between VRI and VRS?\nVideo Remote Interpreting (VRI) is a fee-based service for meetings and events where, typically, the interpreter is in a different location from the meeting participants.\n\nVideo Relay Services (VRS) is a free service mandated by federal law and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that allows a deaf person and a hearing person to communicate over a phone connection. The deaf person communicates in sign language with the Video Interpreter (VI) through an internet video connection.\n\nWhat situations are not recommended for VRI?\nTo include, but not limited to, the following:\nSituations that are sensitive in nature\nSituations involving young children, those who use sign language other than ASL, or who use idiosyncratic language patterns.\nSituations with participants with low vision or other secondary disabilities that may prevent them from properly using the remote interpreter.\nSituations that require access to on site activities and speakers that cannot be accessed remotely.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.558342456817627}
{"content": "Te Kete Ipurangi Navigation:\n\nTe Kete Ipurangi\n\nTe Kete Ipurangi user options:\n\nFair Shares\n\nAchievement Objectives:\n\nAchievement Objective: NA1-1: Use a range of counting, grouping, and equal-sharing strategies with whole numbers and fractions.\nAO elaboration and other teaching resources\n\nSpecific Learning Outcomes: \n\nFind halves and quarters of sets, regions and objects by sharing.\n\nFind simple fractions of regions.\n\nFind fractions of sets by sharing.\n\nDescription of mathematics: \n\nNumber Framework Stages 3 and 4\n\nRequired Resource Materials: \nPlastic glasses\nPlay dough\nPaper circles\nA length of paper\nSliced bread (to make sandwiches)\nPaper bags of 20 cubes\nPlastic jars (for example, peanut butter jars)\nPlastic teddies\n\nThe students must come to know common vocabulary for fractions, particularly halves, thirds, quarters (fourths), fifths, and tenths.Initially, the emphasis is on unit fractions, like 1/2 and 1/4, that have one as the numerator. However, it is important to introduce non-unit fractions, like 3/4 and 2/5, when learning opportunities permit.\n\nIt is important to expose the students to both continuous models, such as lengths and regions, and discrete models, using sets of objects. A significant development for the students is to use their whole number strategies to anticipate the result of equal sharing. This is easier with halves and quarters than with thirds and fifths, as halving is linked to doubles addition and subtraction facts.\n\nUsing Materials\n\nProblem: Show the students the length of paper and tell them that it is a strap of liquorice.“I have this big liquorice strap, and I’m going to cut it in half to share it between Tyler and Briar (two students from the group). I’m going to run my scissors along the strip, and Tyler and Briar will tell me when to stop.”\n\nRun the scissors slowly along the strip until one student calls, “Stop.”\n\nCut the strip at that place and give the caller the passed over part and the other student the remainder.\n\nDiscuss whether the sharing has been fair (it may not be). Ask for other ways to cut the strip in half so that each half is the same length. Folding will be a likely reply. The two pieces can be placed beside or on top of each other to check that they are equal.\n\nRecord one-half using both words and the symbol, 1/2 . Discuss why the number two is the denominator. The denominator gives the number of equal parts that one (whole) is divided into.\n\nTell the students that you want them to find half of some other things.\n\nSet up the following examples:\n\n“Cut the blob of play dough in half.”\n\n“Pour half of the water into one glass, leaving half in the other.” (Start with two glasses, one full of water.)\n\n“Cut this pizza in half.” (Start with a paper circle.)\n\n“Give half of these lollies to Tyler and the other half to Briar.” (Start with a bag of cubes.)\n\n“Cut this sandwich in half.”\n\nLet the students attempt the challenges in small groups. Discuss the ways they shared each item fairly.\n\nBroaden the discussion by posing each of the previous challenges but requiring the students to partition into quarters. For example:\n\nPut one-quarter of the water in each glass. (four plastic glasses)\n\nSome students may discover that halving one-half gives one-quarter.\n\nRecord one-quarter using words and the symbol, ¼.\n\nUsing Imaging\n\n\nFill a plastic jar to the top with equal-sized plastic teddies. Count out the teddies to see how many the jar holds when full. Provide each group of students with a plastic jar, a thick rubber band, and one teddy. Tell them that they are to work out how far up the jar half of the teddies would come and mark where that level would be.\n\nPutting the rubber band around the jar and sliding it up and down is a good way to show the level.\n\nDiscuss their predictions, looking for the use of number knowledge, like simple doubles, to estimate half of the teddies and for equalising in their prediction of the level.\n\nThe jar can be filled and the teddies shared into two equal sets, counted, and put into the jar to confirm the students’ predictions. Pose the same problem requiring quarters, thirds, or fifths to broaden the students’ knowledge of fractions. Note that finding thirds and fifths of shapes and lengths can be difficult as it involves concepts of angle, area, and volume. Students’ inability to equally share may be due to these factors rather than the fraction concept. Encourage students to work from part to whole, that is, given a fraction they have to recreate the whole. For example:\n\n\n\n“This is one-quarter of a shape. “This is one-third of a set.\n\nWhat is the shape?” How many objects are in the set?”\n\nUsing Number Properties\n\nThe students’ lack of strategies for division will limit their ability to apply numberproperties. Examples provided should include simple halving and quartering. For example: half of six (1/2 of 6), one-quarter of eight (1/4 of 8).", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7116401195526123}
{"content": "Archives for category: Cloud\n\nStorage performance is core to application performance and data access.  When we talk about storage performance, we typically talk about IOPS and throughput, but there is a third variable, latency.  Latency measures the time it takes for storage to respond to a request or instruction issued by the CPU.    The lowest latency is achieved by delivering data from memory at the speed of memory.  The typical latency is at 1us.  If data could be delivered at such latency, we would have a highly efficient server architecture, but  there are a number of factors that prevent out ability to see latency at that level.\n\n  • Application latency – the inherent architecture of the application may make it impossible to achieve microsecond latency.  Typical operations add to the overall latency.\n  • Local file system – since DRAM is volatile, data that requires persistence must be committed to persistent media before an acknowledgement is returned.  The local file system is responsible for taking blocks off DRAM and copying them to other media on the I/O bus.  A common Linux file sytsem such as XFS or EXT4 add as much at 250us.  Even with the replacement of DRAM with NVDIMM (persistent memory), the latencies remain at minimum at 250us.  Though 250us may seem like nothing, in a typical database environment the reduction of 250us alone would increase IOPS and throughput per core by 350% and 410% respectively.\n  • Network – When data travels over the network, whether it is FC or IP, there are added latencies.   Most all SSD/Flash arrays deliver performance at 1ms or more latency.  If SSD/Flash is sitting on the PCIe bus, that latency may be reduced to  a range between 500 and 800 microseconds.  Recently, a new protocol has been developed to allow shared storage (SAN) to deliver the same latency as storage on the PCIe.   This is the NVMe standard.\n  • Drive media – Flash has a lower latency profile than HDD; it is not surprising since HDD is a mechanical device where the speed with which the platters spin correlates to the time it takes for the data to be pulled off the drive.  Flash is not a mechanical media and doesn’t have the same delays built in.\n\nOf course we can’t leave out IOPS and throughput.  IOPS measures how many operations can be performed per second while throughput is how much data can be transferred through a given pipe.  Depending on the application, one of the other of these metrics will be more relevant.\n\nFor applications that stream data sequentially require more bandwidth and are therefore more concerned with throughput.  Thoughput may be calculated by the total bandwidth of the drives in a given system, the controllers, and the network.  Even if you have a system capable of delivering gigabytes of data, it still needs the network to carry the data.  There is often an imbalance between the network and system capabilities.  Recently a client expressed concern exemplifying this issue.  As a research institution there is a lot of data created by the labs and then processed by the investigators.  The challenge they are facing is that the amount of data being created and moved to a centralized location is much greater than what the network can handle.  As a result, they are unable to transfer data over the wire; some use tape or don’t move data at all.\n\nIOPS  measures the number of operations a drive or a system can perform.  We have seen huge gains with the adoption of SSD/Flash.  Where a 15K RPM drive has the ability to deliver around 180 IOPS, a flash drive has the ability to deliver thousands of IOPS.  About 10-15 years ago storage administrators would be forced to over-provision capacity in order to get enough drives in a RAID set to deliver required number of IOPS.  As an example:  if your application needed 1 TB of data and 1,500 IOPS, using 15K drives at 300GB of capacity each an administrator would have to provision 4 drives to reach required capacity and 9 drives to reach the required IOPS.  Today,  capacity and IOPS can be balanced.\n\nNot all applications require microsecond latency, thousands of IOPS and gigabytes of throughput, but with higher performance, when properly designed, the system can perform at a much higher level of efficiency, both operational and financial.  Next time we talk about performance, let’s make sure we are clear what performance we need.\n\n\n\n\nThe noise complicates the conversation.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI spend a lot of time talking to end users about their needs, what is working and what is not.  What surprises me often is the view they have of the cloud.  Cloud is cheaper, it is more agile, it is deployed instantly…..There is no argument that conceptually, using a public cloud is easier than provisioning servers on premise, though outsourcing an application to a SaaS provider is even easier.  And yet, there are gotchas in each scenario.  Here are a few things I learned recently:\n\n  • SaaS providers today provide application availability SLAs, not data integrity or availability SLA.  This means that data loss or accidental anything has no affect on the service provider’s compliance with their promises.  In other words, if the data is that important to you, you need to back it up.  Seems like a simple concept, except that you don’t have a dedicated server or an application instance; this is a multi-tenant environment and there is nothing to put an agent on for a backup.\n  • Putting data in the cloud seems like the safest place for it to be.  The cloud provider says so.  You pay $x per GB per month and the provider stores your data.  Data placed in the cloud is stored either in a RAID, mirroring, or erasure coded configuration within the chosen data center location.  If you used to replicate your data between sites so you have some business continuity or disaster recovery…well,  you don’t automatically get it with cloud.  The providers only store in a single location and if you want to have your data in a separate location, you have to pay a separate fee.  This means if you are paying $0.01/GB/Mo, which is about $120/TB/Year, only applies to one data center. If you want a second location, that will be an additional $120/TB/Year.\n  • We love the idea that we can provision whatever resources we need, both compute and storage.  Sounds really good; I can provision what I want and need and it is available to me immediately unlike when I have to ask my IT folks to give me a virtual machine.  That is not exactly how it works.  Most cloud providers offer a variety of templates that can be selected.  These are machines that have been already designed with CPU, memory, cache, and storage.  If you need more of something and less of the other, you just have to use what is given to you.  At times, this means that your machines may be either over-provisioned in some areas or under-provisioned in others.  Though there is always a cost attached to each resource, it might be insignificant to the value the end user sees in the service.\n  • We often look at other companies using cloud services and say to ourselves, well, if they are using it for all their IT needs, why shouldn’t I.  One common example is Netflix.  Here is a question to ask one self, what is my business model and what are the dependencies and drivers of my business.  This is a really important question because whether you can benefit economically and operationally from the cloud will depend on your business.  As an example:  if you are Netflix and you are providing a streaming service, you need to support as many streams as possible for a single asset for many different assets.  If we equate each stream is a user and each user presents a revenue amount, paying on the fly for more resources is covered by the value creation of such resources.  On the other hand, a less dynamic business like pharma or oil and gas conduct numerous studies that may become revenue producing over time.  Their investment must go as far as possible in order to contain investment costs.  The business driver for Netflix is agility; the business driver for oil and gas is cost containment. Speaking of costs, did you know that IaaS is not less expensive than infrastructure on premise?\n\nIt may not seem like I am a fan of cloud, but I am.  I remember back in 2000 when we were trying to figure out how to better utilize resources by sharing them across departments and even organizations.  We didn’t have the right technology then, but we are on our way to having it now.  What cloud really offers is the promise of even greater efficiency than just virtualization and with greater efficiency, lower cost and more productivity per dollar spent.  If we change the conversation from cloud first to what drives my business, then we can come up with an architecture that consists of on premise and cloud environments where the decision to use or the other will be based on what serves my needs in the most cost effective, relevant way.\n\nMy job requires me to be at the intersection of customer buying products and services and the industry creating and bringing to market technology.  I have found that there is a great disconnect between what the industry is hyping and what is really possible.\n\nFor a number of years now we have been touting the cloud as the answer to all our infrastructure aches and pains.  “If you go cloud, you will have more flexible, just what you need, less expensive services” the trade magazines and pundits claim.  The reality though is, “it depends”.\n\nThe concept of utility computing has been around for some time. Back in the boom there were a number of companies attempting to provide storage as a service, shared infrastructure, etc.  I actually worked for one of these companies, Genuity.  What really defines utility based services is the delivery of a service just in time and the payment for such service based on consumption.  That is how the electrical services work.  And if we all needed the same exact service varying only in the quantity of it, then we would be set, but application infrastructure doesn’t run that way. If you poll organizations that have standardized on VMware as an example.  They all may have and even run application such as MSSQL Server or MySQL or another common applications, but the demands of these applications on the infrastructure will be different in every situation.\n\nWhen customers ask me about cloud or how to get there, usually because someone higher up has decided that cloud is the way to go, I first ask them what it means to them.  I then try to understand the drivers behind wanting to go to the cloud.  Here are some reasons that make sense:  spikes in demand, seasonal applications or projects, don’t want to manage my application, don’t have a secondary site for my backups or DR.  The most common way to embrace the cloud actually aligns with some of the traditional business concepts such as ‘focus on your core competency and outsource secondary services’.  This means if an application or service is not core to your organizations business objectives, then consider outsourcing it.  Best examples of this include email outsourcing (Office365, gmail, other email services), email archiving, CRM, telephony and conferencing, backups, and file sharing.  It also makes sense that if you need some resources for a short period of time, it is more likely to be cost effective to go to the cloud than to procure it in house.\n\nOf course we should keep in mind that not all clouds are the same and that not all applications are the same.  The traditional enterprise applications are highly dependent on the underlying infrastructure to perform while newer cloud-centric applications have build much of those dependencies into the application it self.  This means that your Oracle db may not work well in EC2 but your MongoDB will have no issues.\n\nFinally, if we are talking about utility we are talking about operational costs.  If the goal is to achieve OPex rather than CAPex, cloud is not the only answer.  There are traditional outsourcing offerings in the market that allow you to consume as an OPex, even if the infrastructure is dedicated to you.  There are specialty service providers that offer services for specific applications where the infrastructure is shared but the application is yours and yours alone.  At the bottom of all these options is operational leasing.\n\nI am not saying that cloud is not great and that it is not reality.  What I am saying is that we have to be careful when we refer to cloud.  We need to qualify what we mean, what, expect.  The technology continues to evolve; there is a lot of innovation in the industry today and we are making great progress to making cloud more ubiquitous.  Part of it designing and building applications that run better on commodity infrastructure; part is enabling quality of service and custom service delivery in a multu-tenant environment.  If you think you want cloud, just make sure you have a clear idea of what that means to you.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5074177384376526}
{"content": "\n\nTake the rain –\n\n\nSo I moved to Portland.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSurrender My Luv\n\nThere are ideas that are floating just outside of my consciousness.  I find myself trying to grasp them at least long enough so that they can take form in a way that I can understand.  Dancing outside on the fringes of what I know are concepts that I will soon embrace as truth.  The wisdom of the universe is sitting quietly waiting for me to open up and finally know that it has always been there, to remind me of what I have always known.  The universe is calmly and with love and gentle expectancy teasing my awareness to widen.  I don’t know if the pictures I am seeing are things that have already happened or if they are things I have yet to experience.  Then, as I write this I understand that it is both.  It is what I have done, am doing and will do all designed together into a beautiful picture of truth. I understand that all of this is the key to where I am going or who I am becoming.  And so it is clear that I am to surrender.  I am to surrender to the unknown that is already known.\n\nHealing Is Personal\n\nWe all desire to have a healthy physical body, healthy mental outlook and healthy emotional experiences but how we get to that place is a very personal experience.\n\nWhy is it that even the most aware of us humans believe it is okay for us to tell others how they need to heal themselves?  It is always interesting to me when I am a member of such a conversation and I hear one human say to another, “This is how you heal and this is the only right way to do it.”  Even when someone has education, training or personal experience I always question it when they tell me that their way is the only option.\n\nThe truth is, as much as all sides are loath to admit it, people heal with western medical treatments AND people heal with eastern, energetic, holistic, herbal treatments.  The healing is personal and will always be based on the human’s body, human’s experience but the soul’s experience/desire/agreement will always take priority.  No one can heal someone else, ever.  They may hold the keys to help the other unlock their own healing if the client is willing but no one can “make” someone else heal if that someone is not in a place to allow it.  Question anyone who tells you otherwise.\n\nSpiritual Chaos?\n\n\n\n\n\nSometimes you just need to lay on the floor and cry\n\nI spent part of yesterday afternoon laying in the middle of my living room floor crying.  I mean really crying.  You know those sobs that rack your body and make you a snot machine?  Yup, that is what I did while my Tobey and the kittens sat there watching me.  Now, if you are reading this and you know me at all you have already seen me cry.  I cry when I am sad, angry, touched and happy.  If you don’t know me you probably never want to as I am sure that the earlier sentence has just scared you away.  Ha!  Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that crying is a natural part of being human, for me.  And, I embrace it for anyone and everyone who is interested!\n\nSee, I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to put up blocks when there is something I do not want to face or to do.  I can be VERY stubborn and sometimes it takes me breaking down in the middle of the living room floor in tears to finally let go and allow the inner guidance/higher self/divine wisdom come out.  As the voice of the Divine said to me  yesterday “You don’t need to let me in – you  need to let me out”.  These sessions are always clearing and cleansing for me.  I surrender and let go of how I think it should be and let myself be shown what can be.  Well, I saw it and it is beautiful.  I understand that my fear of being judged has kept me in a holding pattern of sorts.   As soon as I fear that I will be judged I am judging someone else.  It is amazing how it works out.  I love the paradox of life.\n\nAnd so it is time to jump off of the cliff, again.  I know that I am already being held so the “jumping” is only in my experience of being human.  My spirit is already flying.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9053749442100525}
{"content": "water, transfer print, sea, sky, rock - object, scenics, wave, auto post production filter, beauty in nature, cloud - sky, beach, shore, surf, horizon over water, nature, tranquil scene, rock formation, rock, cloudy, tranquility\n\nWant to buy this photo?\n\n\nInstagram Millan Gradin", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9999997615814209}
{"content": "technology, focus on foreground, photography themes, communication, close-up, camera - photographic equipment, indoors, retro styled, selective focus, old-fashioned, lens - optical instrument, black color, number, car, wireless technology, photographing, text, music, still life, digital camera\n\nWant to buy this photo?\n\n\nPhotography hobby", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9920045733451843}
{"content": "Published on\n\n  • Be the first to comment\n\n  • Be the first to like this\n\nNo Downloads\nTotal views\nOn SlideShare\nFrom Embeds\nNumber of Embeds\nEmbeds 0\nNo embeds\n\nNo notes for slide\n\n\n  1. 1. 1.) In what ways does yourmagazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real magazines?\n  2. 2. Masthead: The masthead is Similarities: the biggest text on the page which is used to clearly shows the name of the publication and to attract the audience to buy the magazine. In addition Prop: Both artists are wearing a the magazine has an image of prop, my artist is wearing a microphone which has a sunglasses which has reference to hip hop which reinforces to the target connotations of “coolness” which audience that this is a hip hop from my research proves what magazine. artists are stereotypical viewed as. The other artist as uses a prop, which is a religious crucifix. Image: The image shows who the magazine is revolved around and who is featured in the magazine. In addition both images us affects which is done to make the magazine stand out from the text and background in order for the target audience to see the artist which may then lure them into buying the magazine Background Colour: Both magazines use a backgroundColour scheme: Both magazines use the same colour colour to make the text around itscheme throughout which makes the magazine seems stand out more in order to catchmore professional which will lead to the target audience the target audiences eye whichhaving a positive view on the magazine. This may attract will lead to them reading the textthem to buy the magazine as psychologically them believe which may then lead the targetthey will be receiving the same high quality and audience into purchasing theprofessionalism in the features of the magazine. In addition, magazine.this will lead to the magazine having it’s own individualidentity which will separate them other magazine making itunique which will encourage the target audience to buy thismagazine now and in the future.\n  3. 3. Pull quote: The professional magazine uses a convention called a pull quote, this is a something that an artist has said somewhere in the interview. A pull quote particularly in the hip hop magazine genre usually has something that is really unorthodox, the reason it has been put on the front cover as it is the only thing the audience can see and by seeing something unconventional they will be enticed to buy the magazine in order to see why the artist has said this. Header: The professional magazine uses a convention called a header. I have not used a header for numerous reason one being I had many cover lines and I also used a footer which gave the target audience plenty of information on what features are inside the magazine. Therefore there was no reasons for me to include a header in my magazine. Another reason was because it would take up a lot of space on my magazine and I would therefore have to make my surrounding conventions such as my cover lines, masthead and image smaller which would make my magazine seem amateurish and less professional which would repeal the target audience from wanting to buy the magazine. Barcode/ Price: The barcode must appear Camera shots: The camera shot of the on any magazine so that the retailer is able artists are different as my magazine to sell the magazine to the public. Issue/Website information: The uses a close whereas the professional professional magazine has a magazine uses a mid shot to show a The price must appear also appear on any large proportion of the artist. issue date which is used in nearly magazine so that the potential costume all professional magazines in knows how much the magazine is costs. order to show the audience that it is a recent magazine which will encourage them to buy theFooter: In my magazine I use a convention magazinecalled a footer located at the bottom of thepage. I decided to use a footer as I wanted togive the audience a greater insight into whatis in the magazine and the target audienceare likely to find at least one thing that isappealing which may persuade them to buy Differences:the magazine.\n  4. 4. Similarities: Contents title: Both contents page have the title ‘Contents’ this is done to inform the reader that this is where he/she can go find topics Logo: Both magazines use a logo which is an that are in the magazine plus, it abbreviation or symbol of the masthead. I used also provides the page numbers in this because most music magazines have this order for them to find the topic. so I wanted to try and use as many conventions as I could in order to make my contents page appear professional which would therefore lead to a larger percentage of my target audience Reviews: Both magazines offer wanting to buy my magazine. the target audience reviews on the latest artists and albums. I decided to use this convention as it would lead the target Cover line: My contents page along with audience to believe they are the professional Q contents page both use getting the latest reviews of the cover lines. The example in both of these in hip hop genre, encouraging the text ‘FEATURE’ These shows the target them to buy the magazine. audience what topics are inside the magazine in order to persuade them to read them. Magazine Information: Both magazines offer the reader a website to visit in order to get more information on hip hop. I decided to useMain Image: Both contents pages use a this convention as it is present in mostimage of a music artist in order to attract the magazines so I wanted to make my magazinestarget audiences eye towards the page. The have the highest amount of professionalismimage of the artist is present of the contents possible as it would lead to more of my targetpage as conventionally it is of the artists audience wanting to purchase my magazine.which is the interview who is revolving.I chose this convention for many reasons,one being the colour of the image differedgreatly from the background colour and Colour scheme: Colour schemes are used in bothsurrounding text which caused the image to magazines as it makes the page stand out and thestand out from the page and appear more surrounding text becomes more visible. I decided to usevisible. Furthermore, the main image is an this convention as it found in most music magazines so Iimportant convention to have on the contents wanted to use as many traditional conventions aspage because from my research I discovered possible in order to make my magazine appearthat if a magazine has a well known it entices professional which would lure my target audience tothe reader to go to read. purchase the magazine\n  5. 5. Differences: Barcode scanner: My magazines offers the reader a barcode scanner to access the website of my magazine. The reason why I decided to use this convention as it is present in nearly all music magazines, so by using it I thought it would make my magazine to look professional.Issue data: One difference between these twomagazines is that the Q contents page gives thereader the date and year in which the magazinewas issued in. I decided not to use this featureas I found it to be irrelevant and who notimprove my contents page is any way.Furthermore, I would had to adjust my wholecontents page in order for it to fit in which wouldbe time consuming and damage the image ofmy contents page.\n  6. 6. Similarities: Text: Both double page spreads have text of what has occurred in the interview which is important as this is one of the attracts of a magazine and major cause for the target audience to buy the magazine.Pull quote: Both Double page spreads havea pull quote this provides the audience withsomething the artist has said, usually it issomething very controversial as it makesthe target audience want to know why theartist has said that and therefore the pullquote will lead to the target audiencewanting to buy the magazine. Main Image: Both of these double page spreads both share a main image. This is because the main image adds colour to the page, aids the surrounding text to stand out more and makes the page as a whole become more visually appealing.\n  7. 7. Company publication name: The professional magazine mentions the name of the publication whereas with my one it does not. The reason I did not mention the name of my magazine was because I believe it was more important to have it on the front cover rather than the double page spread as the audience would know the name of the magazine before they look inside. However, I believe this is something I should have used but, I could not even if I chose to as I did not have the space and to find space would result in decreasing the size of the text and main image which was lead the quality of the magazine being tarnished along with the look of professionalism Differences:Colour: These two double page spreads differ as with mydouble page spread it uses different colours for the textregarding the interview. I chose to do this as it brightensthe text and makes it more eye catching and clearlydifferentiates the text spoke by the artist and theinterviewer. The professional double page spread uses thesmall colour for the text about the interview which is inblack. This makes the magazine seem dull and because itis one a light background it does the aid itself or thesurrounding text and images in becoming more visible\n  8. 8. Text: The text was clearly the most important thing to have as a double page spreads purpose is to discuss an artist or band. My double page spread along with the professional one use the same font and size throughout as this assist the professional look which will lure my target audience to buy my magazine. Furthermore the text is spilt into different sections just like the professional magazine, this makes the text easier for the reader to see and understand and also improves the presentation of the double page spread which is a major factor target audiences look at when buying a magazine which I acquire from my questionnaire and focus group research. Similarities:Main Image: My double page spread along with Title: Both double page spreads use athe professional one both have a main image. title. This was important as it discussingThis was crucial to have as it would not seem right who the text is about and also mentionsto not have an image of the artist I am discussing which artist the magazine is choosing tobecause when I looked at professional magazine, talk about. This adds to the professionalin there double page spread there was always an look of my double page spread as all theimage of the artist they are discussing. professional double page spread IFurthermore, the image makes the page become analysed in my research had a title whichmore noticeable as if there was only text this could shows that my magazine is using theto the target audience not wanting to buy the conventions of real life magazines.magazine as it would look more like a newspaperrather than a magazine about their hobbies andinterests.\n  9. 9. Differences: Text wrap: The professional double page spread uses a tool on In – Design to wrap the text around the image. I did not use this tool as I did not feel that it looked good and therefore decided not to do itColour: A difference between theses two double page spreads is that withmine I use a mixture of darker and whereas with the other image it usesa light image. The reason why I used a darker colour for my image isbecause it makes it stand out from the light background colour which iscream. The reason why I decided to use the colour black for my text isbecause it makes with the image and colour of the title which keeps to thecolour scheme making the page look more professional. Furthermore , itmakes the text and image stand out and appear more presentable whichwill lead to the target audience wanting to purchase my magazine.\n  10. 10. 2.) How does your media productrepresent particular social groups? My magazine represents social groups through: • Race • Gender • Age •Social class.\n  11. 11. Age:Age is presented in my magazines as the image is of a artist ages of 16-19, this means thatonly young people who fit into this age category are eligible to read this magazine or listen tothe hip hop. This therefore disregards and other aged audiences such as elderly or middleaged people are to read the magazine. Furthermore, another way which age is presented isthat the hip hop artists are aged 28-35 year olds.This leads to the stereotypical view that only people within this age can be hip hop artists, soby using a young hip hop artist it challenges the ideology and emphasises that anyone nomatter what age can be hip hop artists.\n  12. 12. Race:Race is presented in my music magazine as on my front cover I have a close up of a white artists. Frommy research on my chosen genre which is hip hop, I came to learn that hip hop was created by theAfrican American black community and even in the present day it is seen as a predominantly black artform. However, there are some white hip hop artists and by using a white artist I am breaking thestereotypical view that only black people are hip hop artists. Which is presenting the people with whiteethnicity to have the rights to listen and perform in hip hop as black people. Furthermore because I amnot using a stereotypical black artist as many other professional magazines do, I am showing my targetaudience that this is a magazine for people of all colours therefore making it more appealing to the hiphop and other audiences leading to the public wanting to buy my magazine.\n  13. 13. Gender:Gender is also represented as I use a male artist which is present on my front cover, contentspage and double page spread. Although hip hop is a genre shared by both male and female hiphop artists it is stereotypically viewed to only inhabited by male artists. So by using a male artist Iam contributing to the ideology that this is a genre whose artists are only male.Moreover, mise-en-scene is relevant when representing gender as the clothes used are hoodieswhich is mainly worn by males so therefore this is another indication that my magazine is targetedat male audiences. However, in my cover lines I do mention a few female hip hop artists whichemphasises that my magazine is not biased against females and that is represented both maleand female audiences.Furthermore the colours used also represent this magazine add the sense that it is only for malesas the colours used which are dark blue, black, red and green are masculine colours leading tomy magazine to be aimed at male audiences.\n  14. 14. Social Class:Social class in presented in my magazine through mise-en-scene by the clothes that my artist iswearing. Hoodies are stereotypical viewed to be for people of a low class such as C2, D and E,therefore this leads to the stereotypical ideology that this magazine and the hip hop genre itselfis only for lower class individual. Another way the clothes represent social class is the hats my artist is wearing called a snapback. This is a very popular piece of clothing worn by hip hop artists and fans however,stereotypes have emerged with lead to this type of hat being associated with the lower andworking class background and also hip hop. Therefore, this reflects the target audience, fansand artists of hip hop to be of a low social class.\n  15. 15. 3.) What kind of media institution might distribute your media productThe media institution that might distribute my media product is HarrisPublications. The reason why Harris Publications might distribute my magazine isBecause it is the genre that they have experienced in as they have publisherMany magazines in this genre with is hip hop. Some hip hop magazines whichIt is publishes are:• King magazine• Scratch magazine• XXL magazine\n  16. 16. Why might Harris Publications might distribute my magazine:Harris publications might distribute my magazine as they have a publishers over75 magazines titles who have been in the publishing business since the 1950’s.Harris publications is an American publication company as mentioned publishesmagazines such as King, XXL and Scratch. These are very successful magazineswhich are attracts hundreds of millions of readers a year.As mentioned Harris publication as been publishing for 62 years. So from this it isclear they have a wide knowledge of how to attract their target audience to buytheir magazine. Plus, as mentioned they own King, XXL and Scratch which aresuccessfully hip hop magazines which is the same genre of my magazine so theywill therefore know how to distribute it to the target audience.Harris Publications already distributes hip hop music magazines so they wouldhave the knowledge and expertises to lure a wide and varied audience to buy theirmagazines. Plus, even though Harris Publications is extremely good at targetingthe hip hop target audience, it is also good at targeting other genres of music andother audiences as they had been previously publishing 20 years before thecreation of hip hop therefore, this is clear evidence that Harris publications canlure and appeal other target audiences to buy there magazines.\n  17. 17. 4.) Who would the audience be for your magazine?My magazine focuses on the genre of hip hop which has a wide and varied audience ofdifferent ages, social class, gender ethnicity and psychographic profile.However, I needed to find the specific target audience for hip hop in order to make mymagazine appeal to them so they will be purchased to buy it. To do this I conductedqualitative research in the form of a focus group and quantitative research in the form of aquestionnaire. Age:I discovered that my target audience for my magazine would be males aged 11 – 20. Ireason why my the age my target audience would be in this is a popular genre for youngteenagers as they are the main fans for this genre. However the reason why early adults intheir 20’s would be my target audience is because some of the artists are there own age sothey feel they can relate to them and their current lives and problems. Social ClassThere are many different social classes who listen to hip hop and buy hip hop magazinesbut, from my research I discovered that these people are within the lower and middle class.The reason why some of my audience would be in the located in low class is because someartist discuss there problems living in poverty and how they turn turned their life from ‘ragsto riches’, this uses emotional manipulation to make the people within the lower class theyto can turn their lives around so they listen to hip hop and buy their magazines in the hopeof getting a better life. The demographics of my target audience would be located in GroupE which are students or Group D which are semi skilled manual workers.\n  18. 18. Gender:Any gender may like hip hop and hip hop magazines however, I needed to find thegender that mostly buys hip hop magazines so that I could target my magazinetowards them so that they are lured to buy it. From my questionnaire I discoveredthat it is mainly males who buy hip hop magazines so when constructing mymagazine I made sure that I used conventions that attracted the male audience sothat they would be persuade to buy my magazine. Although males are targetaudience I also gathered information which was females also listen to hip hop andbuy hip hop magazines. So although my magazine did primarily aim at the maleaudience I did add a few female conventions to ensure that my magazine appeals tothe whole audience so that they too would be persuaded to buy the magazine alongwith the male audience. Ethnicity:Hip hop is presently one of the most popular and favoured music genres in the musicindustry which appeals to make people with different ethnicities however, from myresearch the main two ethnicities that listened to hip hop mostly were a audiencewho were either white or black. The reason why hip hop is popular with black peopleis because hip hop originated within the black community and hip hop is primarilybased with black hip hop artists therefore they can feel they can relate to them.However, in recent years there has been an include in white hip hop artists andtherefore, whites audiences have increased. So I therefore had to includeconventions that appeal to both black and white audiences.\n  19. 19. Psychographic profiling:Another way my target audience was identified is through their psychographic profile, this is targetingthe audience directly through their needs and desires. After researching he age, gender, social classand ethnicity of my target audience it was fairly to find out what they wanted in a hip hop magazine as Iwas able to just ask them which made sure my results was correct and accurate.To find out what my target audience wanted in a magazine I conducted primarily research in the form ofa focus group where I asked various questions such as: ‘Why do you like hip hop? What conventions doyou like about hip hop magazines? What conventions do you dislike about magazines?’ Thesequestions gave me clear and specific answers which was easy to interpret so I therefore used thereinformation so that my magazine would be more appealing towards the whole target audience. The four Cs:I believe that my target audience can be classed as mainstreamers. Mainstreamers are audiences whoare concerned with stability and security, they want to buy well recognised bands. This is an importantaspect of my target audience as they will only want to buy renowned and well know magazines, thiswas important when I came to construct my own magazine as I would have to use the codes andconventions of other professional magazines to ensure that it appealed to mainstreamers so that theywould then buy my magazine.However my target audience could also be classed as aspires. Aspires are audiences who are seekingto improve themselves and their lives. My evidence of this is from my research I discovered that peoplelisten to hip hop as they wish to be like the artist and get everything else that follows such as fame,money and success. Therefore when constructing my magazine I wanted to some my target audiencehow successful my artist is in order to send out a message that they too can be like him, which ismisleading them encouraging them to buy the magazine.\n  20. 20. 5.) How did you attract your audience:After conducting all my research it was information that I then used my researchfindings in a way that would attract my target audience to buy my hip hop magazine.One way I attract my audience was by using cover lines that had masculine colourssuch as red, blue, green and black. As my target audience mainly consists of males Ineeded to use colours that males generally like, so by using the colours they likedwhich I found from my research this will lure they towards the magazine and couldthen persuade them to buy the magazine.\n  21. 21. The masthead ‘VOICE’ also attracts my target audience because from my focus group I discoveredthat some people listen to hip hop because it creates a voice for their problems. So by me having themasthead ‘VOICE’ it makes the target audience feel that the magazine can relate to them, thistechnique is called emotional manipulation and will persuade the target audience to buy themagazine. In addition the cover line ‘Latest news on artists’ makes the target audience feel they aregetting the most up-to-date news on their favourite artist, this will tempt will then tempt the targetaudience to buy my magazine.Another cover line that attracts my target audience is ‘Exclusive Interview: KANO’ The word exclusivecreates the impression that this interview can only be found in this magazine and also that themagazine is so good the artist only wanted to talk to this magazine, this will encourage the targetaudience to buy this magazine as the contents can only be found here and no where else. Moreover,if the name of famous and well known artist in on the front cover this will immediately catch the targetaudience’s eye as they will be familiar with seeing his name a lot, therefore this cover line will thenlead to the target audience taking an interest in my magazine and could possible lure them topurchase the magazine.\n  22. 22. Another way I attracted my target audience is by mentioning artists they like and know in mycover lines, which I found out from my focus group and questionnaire. If they see artists they likethey will be encourage to take interest in my magazine and may lead to them buying mymagazine. I also mentioned a few female artists in my cover lines just to make sure that I alsotarget female audiences as they are also an important factor in terms of my audience.An additional way I attracted my target audience was by adding a footer. The reason why thiswould attract my target audience is because I am offering them additional things they can receive ifthey buy this magazine and it is fairly logical that one out these six possible topics will persuadethem to take interest in this magazine and could potential lead them to buy the magazine.\n  23. 23. 6.) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I then edited my image by I then made my masthead by using removing it from the backgroundFirstly I began constructing my the text tool to write of text. For the by using the filter extract tool. Imagazine by putting a colour on image of the fist and microphone then used the rubber tool tomy background. To do this I located inside the masthead I used remove any tiny traces of theselected the background layer, the crop tool and linked the layers background. I then placed itselected the paint bucket tool together and used the move tool to within the middle of the page byand chose the colour I wanted. place it within the letter O. using the move tool\n  24. 24. I then added a footer by the shape tool and selecting a rectangle. I then I then added a main cover outline it on the bottom of the pageI then added cover lines line. Again I achieved this byonto my front cover by using and used the paint bucket tool to add using the text tool and then the colour green to make it stand outthe text tool. I then used the moving it into the position Imove tool to position the from the surrounding texts and other wanted by using the move colours.text anywhere I wanted on tool. I then used the paintthe page. After I was bucket to add colour to the I then added writing to the rectanglesatisfied where the cover text. I then added an outline but selecting the text tool. After I wasline was located I used the to the main cover line by pleased with the size and font of thepaint bucket to add colour to adding an effect and going text I added the colour white by usingmy text. to the stroke tool. the paint bucket tool and added a black outline by using the stroke tool.\n  25. 25. I then added a price andbarcode. For the price Iagain used the text tool totype of the text and thenused the paint bucket toolto add the colour. For thebarcode I used one fromthe internet as there wasno possible way for me tomake my own.\n  26. 26. Technologies used whilst constructing your magazine?\n  27. 27. Internet:The internet was one of the most important and useful pieces of software inregards to constructing my magazine and searching for information about the hiphop genre. The internet was effective as it allowed me use search engines such as‘Google’ to look at professional magazines and decided what codes andconventions to use and not use on my magazine. It also allowed me go ontowebsites such as slide share and blogger so that I could upload my coursework.Through the internet I was able to obtain information of the history of hip hop andhow it was created and by what community which aided me when I came toconstruct my magazine. It also allowed me to get images of hip hop artist, bandsand magazines to put on my coursework.\n  28. 28. Microsoft word 2003:Microsoft word 2003 was another piece of software is used through my coursework. Itwas effective as it allowed me to write my coursework on the computer so that I couldthen upload on my account on blogger. Microsoft word was useful as it saved me thetime and effort on writing it on a piece of paper and then scanning it through thescanner magazine and then uploading it onto blogger, so therefore it was a very timesaving, time efficient, faster and easier alternative. Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003:Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 was also piece of softwareI used through mycoursework. This piece of technology was effective as it allowed me to put imagesonto my coursework and to write text about the topic. Microsoft office PowerPoint isvery similar to Microsoft word 2003 expect this allowed me to use images whichlooked more visually clear.\n  29. 29. Abode Photoshop Cs3:I used this piece of software to make my front cover of my magazine. From using itpiece of software I have learnt:• How to use and search for different fonts• How to edit images• How to add effects onto my images• How to add a background colour onto my page• How to separate an image for the background\n  30. 30. Computer:The ‘stone’ computer is a piece of hardware I used for all tasks in my courseworkexpect for the making drafts of my magazine. Which the computer I would be unableto use it’s software such as the Internet and Abode Photoshop CS3 and thereforecould not make my magazine. Abode In Design CS3:Another piece of software is used was Abode In Design CS3 which was effective asit allowed me to construct my contents page and double page spreads. For me thiswas the most challenging piece of software as I had not used it every much andtherefore only knew how to use a few out of it’s many tools.. However, eventually Idid learn how to use this program which allowed my to create my contents and\n  31. 31. Memory stick:This is the memory stick I used to transport files I had done onto othercomputers to upload them to my blog. Lumix Panasonic DMC – FS62 digital camera:This is the camera I used to take all of my original images to use on myfront cover, contents page and double page spreads.\n  32. 32. Slide share:I used slide share to convert my PowerPoints onto my blog. This was effective aswithout this piece of software I would be unable to post PowerPoints onto my blogcould therefore not complete sessions of my coursework. Blogger:I used blogger in order to post my coursework onto the internet so that the examinerand mark my coursework. This was effective as without it I would be unable to presentmy coursework to him/her and could therefore not complete the course.\n  33. 33. 7.) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product ?My skills and knowledge on the software and hardware have improved since thepreliminary. When using Photoshop for the preliminary task I did know have to use a fewtools but not as much as I now know, it I believe it is accurate to say that my knowledge ofPhotoshop and my skills of using it’s tools have improved.\n  34. 34. Extract tool: A tool which I learnt whilst constructing my music magazine with the extract tool. This allowed me to easilyand quickly remove a section of the image I wanted from the background by simply highlighting the outline ofthe image I wanted to be remove I believe it is evident that not only have I expanded on my knowledge ofPhotoshop but I have also developed my skills since the preliminary as I was able to find this tool myself anduse it correctly for the first time which I believe shows that I generally have a good understanding of how touse Photoshop and it’s programs. This tool is very accurate and the tool corrects itself if you have made amistake therefore eliminating any chances of error to occur.\n  35. 35. Artist Tool:Another tool I learnt how to use effectively and accurately was the artistic tool. I already knew how to use thistool as I used it on when constructing my college magazine for my preliminary and used it my music magazinehowever, I did not know you could use it on images. Above is an example of how I used it on my artist as hisface and clothing has an affect which I achieved by using the artistic tool and clicking on poster edges out ofthe many other different affects. I believe this shows my knowledge has improved as I am now able to usetools on a variety of thing which now include images, text and background.\n  36. 36. Adjustments Tool:Another tool I have learnt since my constructing my preliminary task is the adjustments tool. This toolallows you to selected an image, background or text of your choosing and to change it’s colour whilstsince making it have a realistic effect. I never knew this tool existed when making my college magazineat the preliminary so for me to now discover it shows that I have experimented with different tools andtherefore my skills and knowledge of Photoshop excelled. The images above show what the image ofmy artist have originally looked like before I used the adjustments tool to change the colour andappearance and I my opinion it makes the image become more noticeable and looks more visiblyappealing", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7971373796463013}
{"content": "Cleu Alarm App\n\nSoundCloud intergration feature.\n\nLive site: Cleu App\n\nTools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Axure, MixPanel, HTML, CSS, jQuery.\n\nDescription: I designed a solution to integrate SoundCloud into the Cleu Alarm app in order to allow the user to wake up to new music everyday. After researching a large cross-section of Cleu's users, I discovered that one of their main pain-points was that they could not stay awake after the alarm activated and would fall back to sleep.\n\nSoundCloud would be used to discover new music for the user based on their favorites stored in their account. When a user wakes up to newly discovered music, their intended motivation would be to stay awake in order to find out who the artist is and to continue listening to the song.\n\nThe MVP for this solution, however, was to simply attach SoundCloud to the alarm app so that a user could select a song from their SoundCloud account. The UX process included research, wireframing and a clickable prototype to show how this integration could be acheived. Additionally I designed and built a jQuery Parallax desktop site to launch the app for iOS8.\n\nAdvertising for the app launch, 2014.\n\nMixpanel Analytics\n\nThe Alarm's features were recorded by a cusomtized analytics dashboard to track the user's preferences. The most useful data I obtained was the user's preference of wake-up time, snooze button hits per day, when the alarm was disabled and what alarm sound was used. I used the analytics to determine which pathway the users currently take to set an alarm which in turn would help me determine how they might prefer to navigate to their SoundCloud library.\n\nMeasuring KPIs with Mixpanel.\n\nAPI Hooks\n\nIn order to retrieve the kind of useful information from the User's SoundCloud account that I needed in order to allow the user to access their library, I needed to research the API of the source. I found a lot of useful hooks that I could pass on to the developer to aid in our discussion about the possibilities and challenges of my project.\n\nIdentifying key APIs for relevant info retrieval.\n\nDesigning a Solution\n\nUsing a Task Analysis and results of the Analytics, I determined how the user would access SoundCloud. By wireframing user flows from my discovery phase and conducting extensive user testing on these wires, I discovered the most popular path a user could follow in order to select sounds from the SoundCloud library and add them the Cleu App Sound Library. After the user has added the sound/music to the library, they can then play that sound/music or select it as their alarm sound. This is all acomplished using native iOS gestures.\n\nCreating wireframes to visualize my research.\n\nPrototyping the Interactions\n\nIn order to show the client how the user flow interactions worked, I made an interactive prototype in Axure. To show realism in the navigation I simulated slide and tap gestures using Axure's Javascript cases. Additionally, I incorporated variables to manipulate data collected from the user's naviagation path. After more user testing and feedback analysis on the prototype I discovered how the user prefers to choose a sound from their sound/music source. The sound library is updated with the name of the new sound using variables and the user's personal details were also collected via introductory onboarding screens and used to persoanlize the user's experience.\n\nUsing an interactive prototype to test my assumptions.\n\nBuilding a Parallax site to showcase the App's features\n\nAs an addition to the intergration of SoundCloud I designed and built a promotional website to show off the main features of the app in anticipation of the iOS8 release. I designed a single page site that was unique in the way that it displayed information. As the user scrolls down the page, jQuery (Skrollr) and CSS3 move images and text up from the bottom of the site to display the features of the app. This style of animation relies heavily on timing and a heavy use of CSS3. To give the site a calm and serene visual aesthetic, I edited and embeded a full screen video into the background that loops over in a seemless fashion. Since the animation is controlled with CSS and jQuery, I was able to fix the video background to be stationary while the animate images and text moves over the top of the video throughout the entire site.\n\nI built a Parallax site to market the app in time for Apple's iOS8 release.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8981598615646362}
{"content": "Discovery of Sodium in the Atmosphere of Mercury\n\n+ See all authors and affiliations\n\nScience  16 Aug 1985:\nVol. 229, Issue 4714, pp. 651-653\nDOI: 10.1126/science.229.4714.651\n\n\nThe spectrum of Mercury at the Fraunhofer sodium D lines shows strong emission features that are attributed to resonant scattering of sunlight from sodium vapor in the atmosphere of the planet. The total column abundance of sodium was estimated to be 8.1 x 1011 atoms per square centimeter, which corresponds to a surface density at the subsolar point of about 1.5 x 105 atoms per cubic centimeter. The most abundant atmospheric species found by the Mariner 10 mission to Mercury was helium, with a surface density of 4.5 x 103 atoms per cubic centimeter. It now appears that sodium vapor is a major constituent of Mercury's atmosphere.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9694575667381287}
{"content": "Bangkok (Template:IPAc-en[1]) is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Template:Lang, pronounced Template:IPA-th) or simply Krung Thep (Template:Audio). The city occupies Template:Convert in the Chao Phraya River delta in Central Thailand, and has a population of over 8 million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people (22.2 percent) live within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in terms of importance.\n\nBangkok traces its roots to a small trading post during the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 15th century, which eventually grew and became the site of two capital cities: Thonburi in 1768 and Rattanakosin in 1782. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam—later renamed Thailand—during the late 19th century, as the country faced pressures from the West. The city was at the centre of Thailand's political struggles throughout the 20th century, as the country abolished absolute monarchy, adopted constitutional rule and underwent numerous coups and several uprisings. The city grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailand's politics, economy, education, media and modern society.\n\nThe Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their regional headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a major regional force in finance and business. It is an international hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a regional centre for the arts, fashion and entertainment. The city is well known for its vibrant street life and cultural landmarks, as well as its notorious red-light districts. The historic Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the nightlife scenes of Khaosan Road and Patpong. Bangkok is among the world's top tourist destinations. It is named the most visited city in MasterCard's Global Destination Cities Index, and was named \"World's Best City\" for four consecutive years by Travel + Leisure magazine.\n\nBangkok's rapid growth amidst little urban planning and regulation has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure systems. Limited roads, despite an extensive expressway network, together with substantial private car usage, have led to chronic and crippling traffic congestion, which caused severe air pollution in the 1990s. The city has since turned to public transport in an attempt to solve this major problem. Five rapid transit lines are now in operation, with more systems under construction or planned by the national government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.\n\n\nTemplate:Main article\n\nFile:La Loubere map of Bangkok (English).jpg\n\nThe history of Bangkok dates at least back to the early 15th century, when it was a village on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, under the rule of Ayutthaya.[2] Because of its strategic location near the mouth of the river, the town gradually increased in importance. Bangkok initially served as a customs outpost with forts on both sides of the river, and became the site of a siege in 1688 in which the French were expelled from Siam. After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Empire in 1767, the newly declared King Taksin established his capital at the town, which became the base of the Thonburi Kingdom. In 1782, King Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I) succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank's Rattanakosin Island, thus founding the Rattanakosin Kingdom. The City Pillar was erected on 21 April, which is regarded as the date of foundation of the present city.[3]\n\nBangkok's economy gradually expanded through busy international trade, first with China, then with Western merchants returning in the early-to-mid 19th century. As the capital, Bangkok was the centre of Siam's modernization as it faced pressure from Western powers in the late 19th century. The reigns of Kings Mongkut (Rama IV, 1851–68) and Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868–1910) saw the introduction of the steam engine, printing press, rail transport and utilities infrastructure in the city, as well as formal education and healthcare. Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932. It was subject to Japanese occupation and Allied bombing during World War II, but rapidly grew in the post-war period as a result of United States developmental aid and government-sponsored investment. Bangkok's role as an American military R&R destination boosted its tourism industry as well as firmly establishing it as a sex tourism destination. Disproportionate urban development led to increasing income inequalities and unprecedented migration from rural areas into Bangkok; its population surged from 1.8 to 3 million in the 1960s. Following the United States' withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973, Japanese businesses took over as leaders in investment, and the expansion of export-oriented manufacturing led to growth of the financial market in Bangkok.[4] Rapid growth of the city continued through the 1980s and early 1990s, until it was stalled by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. By then, many public and social issues had emerged, among them the strain on infrastructure reflected in the city's notorious traffic jams. Bangkok's role as the nation's political stage continues to be seen in strings of popular protests, from the student uprisings in 1973 and 1976, anti-military demonstrations in 1992, and successive anti-government demonstrations by the \"Yellow Shirt\", \"Red Shirt\" and \"Light blue Shirt\" movements from 2008 onwards.\n\nAdministration of the city was first formalized by King Chulalongkorn in 1906, with the establishment of Monthon Krung Thep Phra Maha Nakhon (Template:Lang) as a national subdivision. In 1915 the monthon was split into several provinces, the administrative boundaries of which have since further changed. The city in its current form was created in 1972 with the formation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), following the merger of Phra Nakhon Province on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya and Thonburi Province on the west during the previous year.[3]\n\n\nThe etymology of the name Bangkok (Template:Lang, pronounced in Thai as Template:IPA-th) is not absolutely clear. Bang is a Thai word meaning \"a village situated on a stream\",[5] and the name might have been derived from Bang Ko (Template:Lang), ko meaning \"island\", a reference to the area's landscape which was carved by rivers and canals.[2] Another theory suggests that it is shortened from Bang Makok (Template:Lang), makok being the name of Elaeocarpus hygrophilus, a plant bearing olive-like fruit.Template:Efn This is supported by the fact that Wat Arun, a historic temple in the area, used to be named Wat Makok.[6] Officially, however, the town was known as Thonburi Si Mahasamut (Template:Lang, from Pali and Sanskrit, literally \"city of treasures gracing the ocean\") or Thonburi, according to Ayutthaya chronicles.[7] Bangkok was likely a colloquial name, albeit one widely adopted by foreign visitors, whose continued use of the name finally resulted in it being officially adopted with the creation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.\n\nWhen King Rama I established his new capital on the river's eastern bank, the city inherited Ayutthaya's ceremonial name, of which there were many variants, including Krung Thep Thawarawadi Si Ayutthaya (Template:Lang) and Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (Template:Lang).[8] Edmund Roberts, visiting the city as envoy of the United States in 1833, noted that the city, since becoming capital, was known as Sia-Yut'hia, and this is the name used in international treaties of the period.[9] Today, the city is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (กรุงเทพมหานคร) or simply as Krung Thep (กรุงเทพฯ). Its full ceremonial name, which came into use during the reign of King Mongkut, reads as follows:Template:Efn[3]\n\nTemplate:ListenTemplate:Quote The name, composed of Pali and Sanskrit root words, translates as: Template:Quote\n\nTemplate:Listen The name is listed in Guinness World Records as the world's longest place name, at 168 letters.[10] Thai school children are taught the full name, although few can explain its meaning as many of the words are archaic, and known to few. Most Thais who recall the full name do so because of its use in a popular song, \"Krung Thep Maha Nakhon\" (1989) by Asanee–Wasan and will often recount it by singing it, much as an English speaker might sing the alphabet song to recite the alphabet. The entirety of the lyrics is just the name of the city repeated over and over.\n\n\nTemplate:Main article\n\n\nThe city of Bangkok is locally governed by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). Although its boundaries are at the provincial (changwat) level, unlike the other 76 provinces Bangkok is a special administrative area whose governor is directly elected to serve a four-year term. The governor, together with four appointed deputies, form the executive body, who implement policies through the BMA civil service headed by the Permanent Secretary for the BMA. In separate elections, each district elects one or more city councillors, who form the Bangkok Metropolitan Council. The council is the BMA's legislative body, and has power over municipal ordinances and the city's budget.[11] However, after the coup of 2014 all local elections have been cancelled and the council was appointed by the government on 15 September 2014. The current Bangkok Governor is Police General Aswin Kwanmuang, who was appointed by the military government on 26 October 2016[12] following the suspension of the last elected governor M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra.\n\nBangkok is subdivided into fifty districts (khet, equivalent to amphoe in the other provinces), which are further subdivided into 169 subdistricts (khwaeng, equivalent to tambon). Each district is managed by a district director appointed by the governor. District councils, elected to four-year terms, serve as advisory bodies to their respective district directors.\n\nThe BMA is divided into sixteen departments, each overseeing different aspects of the administration's responsibilities. Most of these responsibilities concern the city's infrastructure, and include city planning, building control, transportation, drainage, waste management and city beautification, as well as education, medical and rescue services.[13] Many of these services are provided jointly with other agencies. The BMA has the authority to implement local ordinances, although civil law enforcement falls under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.\n\nThe seal of the city shows Hindu god Indra riding in the clouds on Airavata, a divine white elephant known in Thai as Erawan. In his hand Indra holds his weapon, the vajra.[14] The seal is based on a painting done by Prince Naris. The tree symbol of Bangkok is Ficus benjamina.[15] The official city slogan, adopted in 2012, reads: Template:Quote\n\nAs the capital of Thailand, Bangkok is the seat of all branches of the national government. The Government House, Parliament House and Supreme, Administrative and Constitutional Courts are all located within the city. Bangkok is the site of the Grand Palace and Chitralada Villa, respectively the official and de facto residence of the king. Most government ministries also have headquarters and offices in the capital.\n\n\nFile:Bangkok satellite city-area.jpg\n\nThe Bangkok city proper covers an area of Template:Convert, ranking 69th among the other 76 provinces of Thailand. Of this, about Template:Convert form the built-up urban area.[16] It is ranked 73rd in the world in terms of land area by City Mayors.[17] The city's urban sprawl reaches into parts of the six other provinces it borders, namely, in clockwise order from northwest: Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Chachoengsao, Samut Prakan, Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom. With the exception of Chachoengsao, these provinces, together with Bangkok, form the greater Bangkok Metropolitan Region.[18]\n\n\nBangkok is in the Chao Phraya River delta in Thailand's central plains. The river meanders through the city in a southward direction, emptying into the Gulf of Thailand approximately Template:Convert south of the city centre. The area is flat and low-lying, with an average elevation of Template:Convert above sea level.[19]Template:Efn Most of the area was originally swampland, which was gradually drained and irrigated for agriculture via the construction of canals (khlong) which took place throughout the 16th to 19th centuries. The course of the river as it flows through Bangkok has been modified by the construction of several shortcut canals.\n\n\nThis intricate waterway network served as the primary mode of transport up until the late 19th century, when modern roads began to be built. Up until then, most people lived near or on the water, leading the city to be known during the 19th century as the \"Venice of the East\".[20] Many of these canals have since been filled in or paved over, but others still criss-cross the city, serving as major drainage channels and transport routes. Most canals are now badly polluted, although the BMA has committed to the treatment and cleaning up of several canals.[21]\n\nThe geology of the Bangkok area is characterized by a top layer of soft marine clay known as Bangkok clay, averaging Template:Convert in thickness, which overlies an aquifer system consisting of eight known units. This feature has contributed to the effects of subsidence caused by extensive ground water pumping. First recognized in the 1970s, subsidence soon became a critical issue, reaching a rate of Template:Convert per year in 1981. Ground water management and mitigation measures have since lessened the severity of the situation, although subsidence is still occurring at a rate of Template:Convert per year, and parts of the city are now Template:Convert below sea level.[22] There are fears that the city may be submerged by 2030.[23][24][25] Subsidence has resulted in increased flood risk, as Bangkok is already prone to flooding due to its low elevation and inadequate drainage infrastructure resulting from rapid urbanization. The city now relies on flood barriers and augmenting drainage from canals by pumping and building drain tunnels, but parts of Bangkok and its suburbs are still regularly affected by flooding. Heavy downpours resulting in urban runoff overwhelming drainage systems, and runoff discharge from upstream areas, are major triggering factors.[26] Severe flooding affecting much of the city occurred recently in 1995 and 2011. In the latter, most of Bangkok's northern, eastern and western districts became inundated, in some places for over two months. Coastal erosion is also an issue in the gulf coastal area, a small length of which lies within Bangkok's Bang Khun Thian District. Global warming poses further serious risks, and a study by the OECD has estimated that 5.138 million people in Bangkok may be exposed to coastal flooding by 2070, the seventh highest among the world's port cities.[27]Template:RP\n\nThere are no mountains in Bangkok, the closest mountain range being the Khao Khiao Massif, located about Template:Convert southeast of the city. Phu Khao Thong, the only hill in the metropolitan area, originated in a very large chedi that King Rama III (1787–1851) decided to build at Wat Saket. The chedi collapsed during construction because the soft soil of Bangkok could not support the weight. Over the next few decades, the abandoned mud-and-brick structure acquired the shape of a natural hill and became overgrown with weeds. The locals called it \"phu khao\" (ภูเขา), as if it were a natural feature.[28] In the 1940s surrounding concrete walls were added to stop the hill from eroding.[29] Template:Clear\n\n\nLike most of Thailand, Bangkok has a tropical savanna climate under the Köppen climate classification and is under the influence of the South Asian monsoon system. It experiences three seasons, hot, rainy and cool, although temperatures are fairly hot year-round, ranging from an average low of Template:Convert in December to an average high of Template:Convert in April. The rainy season begins with the arrival of the southwest monsoon around mid-May. September is the wettest month, with an average rainfall of Template:Convert. The rainy season lasts until October, when the dry and cool northeast monsoon takes over until February. The hot season is generally dry, but also sees occasional summer storms.[30] The surface magnitude of Bangkok's urban heat island has been measured at Template:Convert during the day and Template:Convert at night.[31] The highest recorded temperature of Bangkok metropolis was Template:Convert in April 1979,[32] and the lowest recorded temperature was Template:Convert in January 1955.[33]\n\nTemplate:Weather box\n\n\nBangkok's fifty districts serve as administrative subdivisions under the authority of the BMA. Thirty-five of these districts lie to the east of the Chao Phraya, while fifteen are on the western bank, known as the Thonburi side of the city. The fifty districts, arranged by district code, are:\n\nFile:Khet Bangkok.svg\n  1. Phra Nakhon District\n  2. Dusit District\n  3. Nong Chok District\n  4. Bang Rak District\n  5. Bang Khen District\n  6. Bang Kapi District\n  7. Pathum Wan District\n  8. Pom Prap Sattru Phai District\n  9. Phra Khanong District\n  10. Min Buri District\n  11. Lat Krabang District\n  12. Yan Nawa District\n  13. Samphanthawong District\n  14. Phaya Thai District\n  15. Thon Buri District\n  16. Bangkok Yai District\n  17. Huai Khwang District\n  18. Khlong San District\n  19. Taling Chan District\n  20. Bangkok Noi District\n  21. Bang Khun Thian District\n  22. Phasi Charoen District\n  23. Nong Khaem District\n  24. Rat Burana District\n  25. Bang Phlat District\n  1. Din Daeng District\n  2. Bueng Kum District\n  3. Sathon District\n  4. Bang Sue District\n  5. Chatuchak District\n  6. Bang Kho Laem District\n  7. Prawet District\n  8. Khlong Toei District\n  9. Suan Luang District\n  10. Chom Thong District\n  11. Don Mueang District\n  12. Ratchathewi District\n  13. Lat Phrao District\n  14. Watthana District\n  15. Bang Khae District\n  16. Lak Si District\n  17. Sai Mai District\n  18. Khan Na Yao District\n  19. Saphan Sung District\n  20. Wang Thonglang District\n  21. Khlong Sam Wa District\n  22. Bang Na District\n  23. Thawi Watthana District\n  24. Thung Khru District\n  25. Bang Bon District\n\nThe BMA uses several schemes to organize the districts into groups for administrative and general planning purposes. The scheme adopted in 2004 used twelve characteristic groups.\n\n\nBangkok's district areas often do not accurately represent the functional divisions of its neighbourhoods or actual land uses. Although urban planning policies date back to the commission of the \"Litchfield plan\" in 1960, which set out strategies for land use, transportation and general infrastructure improvements, actual zoning regulations were not fully implemented until 1992. As a result, the city grew organically throughout the period of its rapid expansion, both horizontally as ribbon developments extended along newly built roads, and vertically, with increasing numbers of high rises and skyscrapers being built in several commercial areas.[34] The city has grown from its original centre along the river into a sprawling metropolis surrounded by swaths of suburban residential development extending north and south into neighbouring provinces. The highly populated and growing cities of Nonthaburi, Pak Kret, Rangsit and Samut Prakan are effectively now suburbs of Bangkok. Nevertheless, large agricultural areas remain within the city proper, in its eastern and western fringes. Land use in the city consists of 23 percent residential use, 24 percent agriculture, and 30 percent used for commerce, industry and by the government.[16] The BMA's City Planning Department is responsible for planning and shaping further development. It has published master plan updates in 1999 and 2006, and a third revision is undergoing public hearings in 2012.[35]\n\nFile:พระบรมราชานุสาวรีย์ พระบรมรูปทรงม้า.jpg\n\nBangkok's historic centre remains the Rattanakosin Island in Phra Nakhon District. It is the site of the Grand Palace and the City Pillar Shrine, primary landmarks of the city's foundation, as well as many important Buddhist temples. Phra Nakhon, along with the neighbouring Pom Prap Sattru Phai and Samphanthawong Districts, formed what was the city proper in the later 19th century. Many traditional neighbourhoods and markets are located here, including the Chinese settlement of Sampheng. The city was expanded toward Dusit District in the early 19th century, following King Chulalongkorn's relocation of the royal household to the new Dusit Palace. The buildings of the palace, including the neoclassical Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, as well as the Royal Plaza and Ratchadamnoen Avenue which leads to it from the Grand Palace, reflect the heavy influence of European architecture at the time. Major government offices line the avenue, as does the Democracy Monument. The area is the site of the country's seats of power as well as the city's most popular tourist landmarks.\n\nFile:View from Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Bangkok (7053110333) cropped.jpg\n\nIn contrast with the low-rise historic areas, the business district on Si Lom and Sathon Roads in Bang Rak and Sathon Districts teems with skyscrapers. It is the site of many of the country's major corporate headquarters, but also of some of the city's infamous red-light districts. The Siam and Ratchaprasong areas in Pathum Wan are home to some of the largest shopping malls in Southeast Asia. Numerous retail outlets and hotels also stretch along Sukhumvit Road leading southeast through Watthana and Khlong Toei Districts. More office towers line the streets branching off Sukhumvit, especially Asok Montri, while upmarket housing span many of its sois.\n\nBangkok lacks a single distinct central business district. Instead, the areas of Siam and Ratchaprasong serve as a \"central shopping district\" containing many of the bigger malls and commercial areas in the city, as well as Siam Station, the only transfer point between the city's two elevated train lines.[36] The Victory Monument in Ratchathewi District is among its most important road junctions, serving over 100 bus lines as well as an elevated train station. From the monument, Phahonyothin and Ratchawithi / Din Daeng Roads respectively run northward and eastward linking to major residential areas. Most high-density development is located within the Template:Convert area encircled by the Ratchadaphisek inner ring road. Ratchadaphisek is lined with businesses and retail outlets, and office buildings also concentrate around Ratchayothin Intersection in Chatuchak District to the north. Farther from the city centre, most areas are primarily mid- or low-density residential. The Thonburi side of the city is less developed, with fewer high rises. With the exception of a few secondary urban centres, Thonburi, as well as the outlying eastern districts, consist mostly of residential and rural areas.\n\nWhile most of Bangkok's streets are fronted by vernacular shophouses, the largely unrestricted building frenzy of the 1980s has transformed the city into an urban jungle of skyscrapers and high rises exhibiting contrasting and clashing styles.[37] There are 581 skyscrapers over Template:Convert tall in the city. Bangkok was ranked as the world's 8th tallest city in 2016.[38] On the other hand, as a result of economic disparity, many slums have emerged in the city. In 2000 there were over 1 million people living in about 800 slum settlements.[39] A large number of slums are concentrated near the Bangkok Port in Khlong Toei District.\n\nTemplate:Wide image\n\nParks and green zonesEdit\n\nFile:Aerial view of Lumphini Park.jpg\n\nBangkok has several parks, although these amount to a per-capita total park area of only Template:Convert in the city proper. Total green space for the entire city is moderate, at Template:Convert per person; however, in the more densely built-up areas of the city these numbers are as low as Template:Convert per person.[40] More recent numbers claim that there is only 3.3 m2 of green space per person, compared to an average of 39 m2 in other cities across Asia. Bangkokians thus have 10 times less green space than is standard in the region's urban areas.[41] Green belt areas include about Template:Convert of rice paddies and orchards in the eastern and western edges of the city proper, although their primary purpose is to serve as flood detention basins rather than to limit urban expansion.[42] Bang Kachao, a Template:Convert conservation area in an oxbow of the Chao Phraya, lies just across the southern riverbank districts, in Samut Prakan Province. A master development plan has been proposed to increase total park area to Template:Convert per person.[40]\n\nBangkok's largest parks include the centrally located Lumphini Park near the Si Lom – Sathon business district with an area of Template:Convert, the Template:Convert Suanluang Rama IX in the east of the city, and the ChatuchakQueen SirikitWachirabenchathat park complex in northern Bangkok, which has a combined area of Template:Convert.[43]\n\n\nHistorical census populations[44]\nYear Population\n1919 437,294\n1929 713,384\n1937 890,453\n1947 1,178,881\n1960 2,136,435\n1970 3,077,361\n1980 4,697,071\n1990 5,882,411\n2000 6,355,144\n2010[45] 8,280,925\n\nThe city of Bangkok has a population of 8,280,925 according to the 2010 census, or 12.6 percent of the national population.[45] However, there are only 5,692,284 registered residents, belonging to 2,672,423 households.[46] A large number of Bangkok's daytime population commutes from surrounding provinces in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, the total population of which is 14,565,547. Bangkok is a cosmopolitan city; the census showed that it is home to 81,570 Japanese and 55,893 Chinese nationals, as well as 117,071 expatriates from other Asian countries, 48,341 from Europe, 23,418 from the Americas, 5,289 from Australia and 3,022 from Africa. Immigrants from neighbouring countries include 303,595 Burmese, 63,438 Cambodians and 18,126 Lao.[47]\n\nAlthough it has been Thailand's largest population centre since its establishment as capital city in 1782, Bangkok grew only slightly throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. British diplomat John Crawfurd, visiting in 1822, estimated its population at no more than 50,000.[48] As a result of Western medicine brought by missionaries as well as increased immigration from both within Siam and overseas, Bangkok's population gradually increased as the city modernized in the late 19th century. This growth became even more pronounced in the 1930s, following the discovery of antibiotics. Although family planning and birth control was introduced in the 1960s, the lowered birth rate was more than offset by increased migration from the provinces as economic expansion accelerated. Only in the 1990s have Bangkok's population growth rates decreased, following the national rate. Thailand had long since become highly centralized around the capital. In 1980, Bangkok's population was fifty-one times that of Hat Yai and Songkhla, the second-largest urban centre, making it the world's most prominent primate city.[49]\n\nFile:Chinatown bangkok.jpg\n\nThe majority of Bangkok's population are of Thai ethnicity,Template:Efn although details on the city's ethnic make-up are unavailable, as the national census does not document race.Template:Efn Bangkok's cultural pluralism dates back to the early days of its foundation; several ethnic communities were formed by immigrants and forced settlers including the Khmer, Northern Thai, Lao, Vietnamese, Tavoyan, Mon and Malay.[3] Most prominent were the Chinese, who played major roles in the city's trade and became the majority of Bangkok's population—estimates include up to three-fourths in 1828 and almost half in the 1950s.[50]Template:Efn However, Chinese immigration was restricted from the 1930s and effectively ceased after the Chinese Revolution in 1949. Their prominence subsequently declined as most of younger generations of Thai Chinese have integrated and adopted a Thai identity. Bangkok is still nevertheless home to a large Chinese community, with the greatest concentration in Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown. The majority (91 percent) of the city's population is Buddhist. Other religions include Islam (4.7%), Christianity (2.0%), Hinduism (0.5%), Sikhism (0.1%) and Confucianism (0.1%).[51]\n\nApart from Yaowarat, Bangkok also has several other distinct ethnic neighbourhoods. The Indian community is centred in Phahurat, where the Gurdwara Siri Guru Singh Sabha, founded in 1933, is located. Ban Khrua on Saen Saep Canal is home to descendants of the Cham who settled in the late 18th century. Although the Portuguese who settled during the Thonburi period have ceased to exist as a distinct community, their past is reflected in Santa Kruz Church, on the west bank of the river. Likewise, the Assumption Cathedral on Charoen Krung Road is among many European-style buildings in the Old Farang Quarter, where European diplomats and merchants lived during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Nearby, the Haroon Mosque is the centre of a Muslim community. Newer expatriate communities exist along Sukhumvit Road, including the Japanese community near Soi Phrom Phong and Soi Thong Lo, and the Arab and North African neighbourhood along Soi Nana. Sukhumvit Plaza, a mall on Soi Sukhumvit 12, is popularly known as Korea Town. Template:Clear\n\n\nFile:Bangkok skytrain sunset.jpg\n\nBangkok is the economic centre of Thailand, and the heart of the country's investment and development. In 2010, the city had an economic output of 3.142 trillion baht (98.34 billion US dollars), contributing 29.1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). This amounted to a per-capita GDP value of ฿456,911 ($14,301), almost three times the national average of ฿160,556 ($5,025). The Bangkok Metropolitan Region had a combined output of ฿4.773tn ($149.39bn), or 44.2 percent of GDP.[52] Bangkok's economy ranks as the sixth among Asian cities in terms of per-capita GDP, after Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka–Kobe and Seoul.[53]\n\nWholesale and retail trade is the largest sector in the city's economy, contributing 24.0 percent of Bangkok's gross provincial product. It is followed by manufacturing (14.3%); real estate, renting and business activities (12.4%); transport and communications (11.6%); and financial intermediation (11.1%). Bangkok alone accounts for 48.4 percent of Thailand's service sector, which in turn constitutes 49.0 percent of GDP. When the Bangkok Metropolitan Region is considered, manufacturing is the most significant contributor at 28.2 percent of the gross regional product, reflecting the density of industry in the Bangkok's neighbouring provinces.[54] The automotive industry based around Greater Bangkok is the largest production hub in Southeast Asia.[55] Tourism is also a significant contributor to Bangkok's economy, generating ฿427.5bn ($13.38bn) in revenue in 2010.[56]\n\n\nThe Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is located on Ratchadaphisek Road in inner Bangkok. The SET, together with the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) has 648 listed companies as of the end of 2011, with a combined market capitalization of 8.485 trillion baht ($267.64bn).[57] Due to the large amount of foreign representation, Thailand has for several years been a mainstay of the Southeast Asian economy and a centre of Asian business. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranks Bangkok as an \"Alpha−\" world city, and it is ranked 59th in Z/Yen's Global Financial Centres Index 11.[58][59]\n\nBangkok is home to the headquarters of all of Thailand's major commercial banks and financial institutions, as well as the country's largest companies. A large number of multinational corporations base their regional headquarters in Bangkok due to the lower cost of the workforce and firm operations relative to other major Asian business centres. Seventeen Thai companies are listed on the Forbes 2000, all of which are based in the capital,[60] including PTT, the only Fortune Global 500 company in Thailand.[61]\n\nIncome inequality is a major issue in Bangkok, especially between relatively unskilled lower-income immigrants from rural provinces and neighbouring countries, and middle-class professionals and business elites. Although absolute poverty rates are low—only 0.64 percent of Bangkok's registered residents were living under the poverty line in 2010, compared to a national average of 7.75—economic disparity is still substantial.[62] The city has a Gini coefficient of 0.48, indicating a high level of inequality.[63] Template:Clear\n\n\nTemplate:Main article\n\nFile:Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram 07.jpg\n\nBangkok is one of the world's top tourist destination cities. MasterCard ranked Bangkok as the top destination city by international visitor arrivals in its Global Destination Cities Index 2016, ahead of London with more than 21 million overnight visitors.[64] Euromonitor International ranked Bangkok fourth in its Top City Destinations Ranking for 2016.[65] Bangkok was also named \"World's Best City\" by Travel + Leisure magazine's survey of its readers for four consecutive years, from 2010 to 2013.[66]\n\nAs the main gateway through which visitors arrive in Thailand, Bangkok is visited by the majority of international tourists to the country. Domestic tourism is also prominent. The Department of Tourism recorded 26,861,095 Thai and 11,361,808 foreign visitors to Bangkok in 2010. Lodgings were made by 15,031,244 guests, who occupied 49.9 percent of the city's 86,687 hotel rooms.[56]\n\nBangkok's multi-faceted sights, attractions and city life appeal to diverse groups of tourists. Royal palaces and temples as well as several museums constitute its major historical and cultural tourist attractions. Shopping and dining experiences offer a wide range of choices and prices. The city is also famous for its dynamic nightlife. Although Bangkok's sex tourism scene is well known to foreigners, it is usually not openly acknowledged by locals or the government.\n\nFile:Khao San Road at night by kevinpoh.jpg\n\nAmong Bangkok's well-known sights are the Grand Palace and major Buddhist temples, including Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. The Giant Swing and Erawan Shrine demonstrate Hinduism's deep-rooted influence in Thai culture. Vimanmek Mansion in Dusit Palace is famous as the world's largest teak building, while the Jim Thompson House provides an example of traditional Thai architecture. Other major museums include the Bangkok National Museum and the Royal Barge National Museum. Cruises and boat trips on the Chao Phraya and Thonburi's canals offer views of some of the city's traditional architecture and ways of life on the waterfront.[67]\n\nShopping venues, many of which are popular with both tourists and locals, range from the shopping centres and department stores concentrated in Siam and Ratchaprasong to the sprawling Chatuchak Weekend Market. Taling Chan Floating Market is among the few such markets in Bangkok. Yaowarat is known for its shops as well as street-side food stalls and restaurants, which are also found throughout the city. Khao San Road has long been famous as a backpackers' destination, with its budget accommodation, shops and bars attracting visitors from all over the world.\n\nBangkok has a reputation overseas as a major destination in the sex industry. Although prostitution is technically illegal and is rarely openly discussed in Thailand, it commonly takes place among massage parlours, saunas and hourly hotels, serving foreign tourists as well as locals. Bangkok has acquired the nickname \"Sin City of Asia\" for its level of sex tourism.[68]\n\nIssues often encountered by foreign tourists include scams, overcharging and dual pricing. In a survey of 616 tourists visiting Thailand, 7.79 percent reported encountering a scam, the most common of which was the gem scam, in which tourists are tricked into buying overpriced jewellery.[69] Template:Clear\n\n\nThe culture of Bangkok reflects its position as Thailand's centre of wealth and modernisation. The city has long been the portal of entry of Western concepts and material goods, which have been adopted and blended with Thai values to various degrees by its residents. This is most evident in the lifestyles of the expanding middle class. Conspicuous consumption serves as a display of economic and social status, and shopping centres are popular weekend hangouts.[70] Ownership of electronics and consumer products such as mobile phones is ubiquitous. This has been accompanied by a degree of secularism, as religion's role in everyday life has rather diminished. Although such trends have spread to other urban centres, and, to a degree, the countryside, Bangkok remains at the forefront of social change.\n\nA distinct feature of Bangkok is the ubiquity of street vendors selling goods ranging from food items to clothing and accessories. It has been estimated that the city may have over 100,000 hawkers. While the BMA has authorised the practice in 287 sites, the majority of activity in another 407 sites takes place illegally. Although they take up pavement space and block pedestrian traffic, many of the city's residents depend on these vendors for their meals, and the BMA's efforts to curb their numbers have largely been unsuccessful.[71]\n\nIn 2015, however, the BMA, with support from the National Council for Peace and Order (Thailand's ruling military junta), began cracking down on street vendors in a bid to reclaim public space. Many famous market neighbourhoods were affected, including Khlong Thom, Saphan Lek, and the flower market at Pak Khlong Talat. Nearly 15,000 vendors were evicted from 39 public areas in 2016.[72] While some applauded the efforts to focus on pedestrian rights, others have expressed concern that gentrification would lead to the loss of the city's character and adverse changes to people's way of life.[73][74]\n\nFestivals and eventsEdit\n\nFile:Ratchadamnoen King80 arch.jpg\n\nThe residents of Bangkok celebrate many of Thailand's annual festivals. During Songkran on 13–15 April, traditional rituals as well as water fights take place throughout the city. Loi Krathong, usually in November, is accompanied by the Golden Mount Fair. New Year celebrations take place at many venues, the most prominent being the plaza in front of CentralWorld. Observances related to the royal family are held primarily in Bangkok. Wreaths are laid at King Chulalongkorn's equestrian statue in the Royal Plaza on 23 October, which is King Chulalongkorn Memorial Day. The present king's and queen's birthdays, respectively on 5 December and 12 August, are marked as Thailand's national Father's Day and national Mother's Day. These national holidays are celebrated by royal audiences on the day's eve, in which the king or queen gives a speech, and public gatherings on the day of the observance. The king's birthday is also marked by the Royal Guards' parade.\n\nSanam Luang is the site of the Thai Kite, Sport and Music Festival, usually held in March, and the Royal Ploughing Ceremony which takes place in May. The Red Cross Fair at the beginning of April is held at Suan Amporn and the Royal Plaza, and features numerous booths offering goods, games and exhibits. The Chinese New Year (January–February) and Vegetarian Festival (September–October) are celebrated widely by the Chinese community, especially in Yaowarat.[75]\n\n\nBangkok is the centre of Thailand's media industry. All national newspapers, broadcast media and major publishers are based in the capital. Its 21 national newspapers had a combined daily circulation of about two million in 2002. These include the mass-oriented Thai Rath, Khao Sod and Daily News, the first of which currently prints a million copies per day,[76] as well as the less sensational Matichon and Krungthep Thurakij. The Bangkok Post and The Nation are the two national English language dailies. Foreign publications including The Asian Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Straits Times and the Yomiuri Shimbun also have operations in Bangkok.[77] The large majority of Thailand's more than 200 magazines are published in the capital, and include news magazines as well as lifestyle, entertainment, gossip and fashion-related publications.\n\nBangkok is also the hub of Thailand's broadcast television. All six national terrestrial channels, Channels 3, 5 and 7, Modernine, NBT and Thai PBS, have headquarters and main studios in the capital. With the exception of local news segments broadcast by the NBT, all programming is done in Bangkok and repeated throughout the provinces. However, this centralised model is weakening with the rise of cable television, which has many local providers. There are numerous cable and satellite channels based in Bangkok. TrueVisions is the major subscription television provider in Bangkok and Thailand, and it also carries international programming. Bangkok was home to 40 of Thailand's 311 FM radio stations and 38 of its 212 AM stations in 2002.[77] Broadcast media reform stipulated by the 1997 Constitution has been progressing slowly, although many community radio stations have emerged in the city.\n\nLikewise, Bangkok has dominated the Thai film industry since its inception. Although film settings normally feature locations throughout the country, the city is home to all major film studios. Bangkok has dozens of cinemas and multiplexes, and the city hosts two major film festivals annually, the Bangkok International Film Festival and the World Film Festival of Bangkok.\n\n\nFile:Bangkok Art and Culture Centre building.jpg\n\nTraditional Thai art, long developed within religious and royal contexts, continues to be sponsored by various government agencies in Bangkok, including the Department of Fine Arts' Office of Traditional Arts. The SUPPORT Foundation in Chitralada Palace sponsors traditional and folk handicrafts. Various communities throughout the city still practice their traditional crafts, including the production of khon masks, alms bowls, and classical musical instruments. The National Gallery hosts permanent collection of traditional and modern art, with temporary contemporary exhibits. Bangkok's contemporary art scene has slowly grown from relative obscurity into the public sphere over the past two decades. Private galleries gradually emerged to provide exposure for new artists, including the Patravadi Theatre and H Gallery. The centrally located Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, opened in 2008 following a fifteen-year lobbying campaign, is now the largest public exhibition space in the city.[78] There are also many other art galleries and museums, including the privately owned Museum of Contemporary Art.\n\nThe city's performing arts scene features traditional theatre and dance as well as Western-style plays. Khon and other traditional dances are regularly performed at the National Theatre and Salachalermkrung Royal Theatre, while the Thailand Cultural Centre is a newer multi-purpose venue which also hosts musicals, orchestras and other events. Numerous venues regularly feature a variety of performances throughout the city.\n\n\nFile:Sepak Takraw Bangkok.jpg\n\nModern Bangkok has developed a strong spectator sport culture. While muay Thai kickboxing matches at Rajadamnern and Lumpini Stadiums are regularly broadcast on television, the sport has mostly been overtaken in popularity by association football. Several foreign leagues and competitions, especially England's Premier League, have large followings in Bangkok as well as other Thai urban centres. In recent years, the Thai Premier League has been gaining popularity. BEC–Tero Sasana based in Bangkok and Muangthong United based in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region are leading clubs.[79]\n\nWhile sepak takraw can be seen played in open spaces throughout the city, especially by the working class, football and other modern sports are now more of the norm. Western sports were introduced during the reign of King Chulalongkorn, and were originally only available to the privileged. Such status is still associated with certain sports. Golf is popular among the upwardly mobile, and while Thailand's more famous clubs are in the countryside, there are several courses in Bangkok itself. Horse riding takes place in a couple of exclusive clubs in the city. Horse racing is very popular in Bangkok and betting on horses is legal. There are two racecourses in Bangkok: \"Royal Bangkok Sports Club\" and \"Royal Turf Club of Thailand\".\n\nThere are many public sporting facilities located throughout Bangkok. The two main centres are the National Stadium complex, which dates to 1938, and the newer Hua Mak Sports Complex, which was built for the 1998 Asian Games. Bangkok had also hosted the games in 1966, 1970 and 1978. The city was the host of the inaugural 1959 Southeast Asian Games, the 2007 Summer Universiade and the 2012 FIFA Futsal World Cup.\n\n\nTemplate:Main article\n\nFile:Makkasan Interchange at night by Mark Fischer.jpg\n\nAlthough Bangkok's canals historically served as a major mode of transport, they have long since been surpassed in importance by land traffic. Charoen Krung Road, the first to be built by Western techniques, was completed in 1864. Since then, the road network has vastly expanded to accommodate the sprawling city. A complex elevated expressway network helps bring traffic into and out of the city centre, but Bangkok's rapid growth has put a large strain on infrastructure, and traffic jams have plagued the city since the 1990s. Although rail transport was introduced in 1893 and electric trams served the city from 1894 to 1968, it was only in 1999 that Bangkok's first rapid transit system began operation. Older public transport systems include an extensive bus network and boat services which still operate on the Chao Phraya and two canals. Taxis appear in the form of cars, motorcycles, and \"tuk-tuk\" auto rickshaws.\n\nBangkok is connected to the rest of the country through the national highway and rail networks, as well as by domestic flights to and from the city's two international airports. Its centuries-old maritime transport of goods is still conducted through Khlong Toei Port.\n\nThe BMA is largely responsible for overseeing the construction and maintenance of the road network and transport systems through its Public Works Department and Traffic and Transportation Department. However, many separate government agencies are also in charge of the individual systems, and much of transport-related policy planning and funding is contributed to by the national government.\n\n\nRoad-based transport is the primary mode of travel in Bangkok. Due to the city's organic development, its streets do not follow an organized grid structure. Forty-eight major roads link the different areas of the city, branching into smaller streets and lanes (soi) which serve local neighbourhoods. Eleven bridges over the Chao Phraya link the two sides of the city, while several expressway and motorway routes bring traffic into and out of the city centre and link with nearby provinces.\n\nFile:Bangkok traffic by g-hat.jpg\n\nBangkok's rapid growth in the 1980s resulted in sharp increases in vehicle ownership and traffic demand, which have since continued—in 2006 there were 3,943,211 in-use vehicles in Bangkok, of which 37.6 percent were private cars and 32.9 percent were motorcycles.[81] These increases, in the face of limited carrying capacity, caused severe traffic congestion evident by the early 1990s. The extent of the problem is such that the Thai Traffic Police has a unit of officers trained in basic midwifery in order to assist deliveries which do not reach hospital in time.[82] While Bangkok's limited road surface area (8 percent, compared to 20–30 percent in most Western cities) is often cited as a major cause of its traffic jams, other factors, including high vehicle ownership rate relative to income level, inadequate public transport systems, and lack of transportation demand management, also play a role.[83] Efforts to alleviate the problem have included the construction of intersection bypasses and an extensive system of elevated highways, as well as the creation of several new rapid transit systems. The city's overall traffic conditions, however, remain bad.\n\nTraffic has been the main source of air pollution in Bangkok, which reached serious levels in the 1990s. However, efforts to improve air quality by improving fuel quality and enforcing emission standards, among others, have been largely successful. Atmospheric particulate matter levels dropped from 81 micrograms per cubic metre in 1997 to 43 in 2007.[84]\n\nAlthough the BMA has created thirty signed bicycle routes along several roads totalling Template:Convert,[85] cycling is still largely impractical, especially in the city centre. Most of these bicycle lanes share the pavement with pedestrians. Poor surface maintenance, encroachment by hawkers and street vendors, and a hostile environment for cyclists and pedestrians, make cycling and walking unpopular methods of getting around in Bangkok.\n\nTemplate:AnchorBuses and taxisEdit\n\nFile:Bangkok Mercedes-Benz bus.jpg\n\nBangkok has an extensive bus network providing local transit services within the Greater Bangkok area. The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) operates a monopoly on bus services, with substantial concessions granted to private operators. Buses, minibus vans, and song thaeo operate on a total of 470 routes throughout the region.[86] A separate bus rapid transit system owned by the BMA has been in operation since 2010. Known simply as the BRT, the system currently consists of a single line running from the business district at Sathon to Ratchaphruek on the western side of the city. The Transport Co., Ltd. is the BMTA's long-distance counterpart, with services to all provinces operating out of Bangkok.\n\nTaxis are ubiquitous in Bangkok, and are a popular form of transport. Template:As of, there are 106,050 cars, 58,276 motorcycles and 8,996 tuk-tuk motorized tricycles cumulatively registered for use as taxis.[87] Meters have been required for car taxis since 1992, while tuk-tuk fares are usually negotiated. Motorcycle taxis operate from regulated ranks, with either fixed or negotiable fares, and are usually employed for relatively short journeys.\n\nDespite their popularity, taxis have gained a bad reputation for often refusing passengers when the requested route is not to the driver's convenience.[88] Motorcycle taxis were previously unregulated, and subject to extortion by organized crime gangs. Since 2003, registration has been required for motorcycle taxi ranks, and drivers now wear distinctive numbered vests designating their district of registration and where they are allowed to accept passengers.\n\nRail systemsEdit\n\nTemplate:Main article\n\nFile:BTS Skytrain over Sala Daeng Intersection.jpg\n\nBangkok is the location of Hua Lamphong Railway Station, the main terminus of the national rail network operated by the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). In addition to long-distance services, the SRT also operates a few daily commuter trains running from and to the outskirts of the city during the rush hour.\n\nBangkok is currently served by three rapid transit systems: the BTS Skytrain, the underground MRT and the elevated Airport Rail Link. Although proposals for the development of rapid transit in Bangkok had been made since 1975,[89] it was only in 1999 that the BTS finally began operation.\n\nThe BTS consists of two lines, Sukhumvit and Silom, with thirty stations along Template:Convert. The MRT opened for use in July 2004, and currently consists of two line, the Blue Line and Purple Line. The Airport Rail Link, opened in August 2010, connects the city centre to Suvarnabhumi Airport to the east. Its eight stations span a distance of Template:Convert.\n\nAlthough initial passenger numbers were low and their service area remains limited to the inner city, these systems have become indispensable to many commuters. The BTS reported an average of 600,000 daily trips in 2012,[90] while the MRT had 240,000 passenger trips per day.[91]\n\nTemplate:As of, construction work is ongoing to extend BTS and MRT, as well as several additional transit lines, including the Light Red grade-separated commuter rail line. The entire Mass Rapid Transit Master Plan in Bangkok Metropolitan Region consists of eight main lines and four feeder lines totalling Template:Convert to be completed by 2029. In addition to rapid transit and heavy rail lines, there have been proposals for several monorail systems.\n\nWater transportEdit\n\nFile:Watertaxi on the Khlong Saen Saeb.JPG\n\nAlthough much diminished from its past prominence, water-based transport still plays an important role in Bangkok and the immediate upstream and downstream provinces. Several water buses serve commuters daily. The Chao Phraya Express Boat serves thirty-four stops along the river, carrying an average of 35,586 passengers per day in 2010, while the smaller Khlong Saen Saep boat service serves twenty-seven stops on Saen Saep Canal with 57,557 daily passengers. Long-tail boats operate on fifteen regular routes on the Chao Phraya, and passenger ferries at thirty-two river crossings served an average of 136,927 daily passengers in 2010.[92]\n\nBangkok Port, popularly known by its location as Khlong Toei Port, was Thailand's main international port from its opening in 1947 until it was superseded by the deep-sea Laem Chabang Port in 1991. It is primarily a cargo port, though its inland location limits access to ships of 12,000 deadweight tonnes or less. The port handled Template:Convert of cargo in the first eight months of the 2010 fiscal year, about 22 percent the total of the country's international ports.[93][94]\n\n\nBangkok is one of Asia's busiest air transport hubs. Two commercial airports serve the city, the older Don Mueang International Airport and the new Bangkok International Airport, commonly known as Suvarnabhumi. Suvarnabhumi, which replaced Don Mueang as Bangkok's main airport at its opening in 2006, served 52,808,013 passengers in 2015,[95] making it the world's 20th busiest airport by passenger volume. This amount of traffic is already over its designed capacity of 45 million passengers. Don Mueang reopened for domestic flights in 2007,[96] and resumed international services focusing on low-cost carriers in October 2012.[97] Suvarnabhumi is undergoing expansion to increase its capacity to 60 million, which is expected to be completed by 2016.[98]\n\nHealth and educationEdit\n\n\nFile:Chulalongkorn University Auditorium High View.JPG\n\nBangkok has long been the centre of modern education in Thailand. The first schools in the country were established here in the later 19th century, and there are now 1,351 schools in the city.[99] The city is home to the country's five oldest universities, Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Kasetsart, Mahidol and Silpakorn, founded between 1917 and 1943. The city has since continued its dominance, especially in higher education; the majority of the country's universities, both public and private, are located in Bangkok or the Metropolitan Region. Chulalongkorn and Mahidol are the only Thai universities to appear in the top 500 of the QS World University Rankings.[100] King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, also located in Bangkok, is the only Thai university in the top 400 of the 2012–13 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[101]\n\nOver the past few decades the general trend of pursuing a university degree has prompted the founding of new universities to meet the needs of Thai students. Bangkok became not only a place where immigrants and provincial Thais go for job opportunities, but also for a chance to receive a university degree. Ramkhamhaeng University emerged in 1971 as Thailand's first open university; it now has the highest enrolment in the country. The demand for higher education has led to the founding of many other universities and colleges, both public and private. While many universities have been established in major provinces, the Greater Bangkok region remains home to the greater majority of institutions, and the city's tertiary education scene remains over-populated with non-Bangkokians. The situation is not limited to higher education, either. In the 1960s, 60 to 70 percent of 10- to 19-year-olds who were in school had migrated to Bangkok for secondary education. This was due to both a lack of secondary schools in the provinces and perceived higher standards of education in the capital.[102] Although this discrepancy has since largely abated, tens of thousands of students still compete for places in Bangkok's leading schools. Education has long been a prime factor in the centralization of Bangkok and will play a vital role in the government's efforts to decentralize the country.\n\n\nFile:Mahidol University.jpg\n\nMuch of Thailand's medical resources are disproportionately concentrated in the capital. In 2000, Bangkok had 39.6 percent of the country's doctors and a physician-to-population ratio of 1:794, compared to a median of 1:5,667 among all provinces.[103] The city is home to 42 public hospitals, five of which are university hospitals, as well as 98 private hospitals and 4,063 registered clinics.Template:Dead link [104] The BMA operates nine public hospitals through its Medical Service Department, and its Health Department provides primary care through sixty-eight community health centres. Thailand's universal healthcare system is implemented through public hospitals and health centres as well as participating private providers.\n\nResearch-oriented medical school affiliates such as Siriraj, King Chulalongkorn Memorial and Ramathibodi Hospitals are among the largest in the country, and act as tertiary care centres, receiving referrals from distant parts of the country. Lately, especially in the private sector, there has been much growth in medical tourism, with hospitals such as Bumrungrad and Bangkok Hospital, among others, providing services specifically catering to foreigners. An estimated 200,000 medical tourists visited Thailand in 2011, making Bangkok the most popular global destination for medical tourism.[105]\n\nCrime and safetyEdit\n\nBangkok has a relatively moderate crime rate when compared to urban counterparts around the world.[106] Traffic accidents are a major hazard, while natural disasters are rare. Intermittent episodes of political unrest and occasional terrorist attacks have resulted in losses of life.\n\nAlthough the crime threat in Bangkok is relatively low, non-confrontational crimes of opportunity such as pick-pocketing, purse-snatching, and credit card fraud occur with frequency.[106] Bangkok's growth since the 1960s has been followed by increasing crime rates partly driven by urbanisation, migration, unemployment and poverty. By the late 1980s, Bangkok's crime rates were about four times that of the rest of the country. The police have long been preoccupied with street crimes ranging from housebreaking to assault and murder.[107] The 1990s saw the emergence of vehicle theft and organized crime, particularly by foreign gangs.[108] Drug trafficking, especially that of ya ba methamphetamine pills, is also chronic.\n\nAccording to police statistics, the most common complaint received by the Metropolitan Police Bureau in 2010 was housebreaking, with 12,347 cases. This was followed by 5,504 cases of motorcycle thefts, 3,694 cases of assault and 2,836 cases of embezzlement. Serious offences included 183 murders, 81 gang robberies, 265 robberies, 1 kidnapping and 9 arson cases. Offences against the state were by far more common, and included 54,068 drug-related cases, 17,239 cases involving prostitution and 8,634 related to gambling.[109] The Thailand Crime Victim Survey conducted by the Office of Justice Affairs of the Ministry of Justice found that 2.7 percent of surveyed households reported a member being victim of a crime in 2007. Of these, 96.1 percent were crimes against property, 2.6 percent were crimes against life and body, and 1.4 percent were information-related crimes.[110]\n\nPolitical demonstrations and protests are common in Bangkok. While most events since 1992 had been peaceful, the series of protests alternately staged by the Yellow Shirts and Red Shirts since 2006 have often turned violent. Red Shirt demonstrations during March–May 2010 ended in a crackdown in which 92 were killed, including armed and unarmed protesters, security forces, civilians and journalists. Terrorist incidents have also occurred in Bangkok, most notably the 2015 Bangkok bombing at the Erawan shrine, and also a series of bombings on the 2006–07 New Year's Eve.\n\nTraffic accidents are a major hazard in Bangkok. There were 37,985 accidents in the city in 2010, resulting in 16,602 injuries and 456 deaths as well as 426.42 million baht in damages. However, the rate of fatal accidents is much lower than in the rest of Thailand. While accidents in Bangkok amounted to 50.9 percent of the entire country, only 6.2 percent of fatalities occurred in the city.[111] Another serious public health hazard comes from Bangkok's stray dogs. Up to 300,000 strays are estimated to roam the city's streets,[112] and dog bites are among the most common injuries treated in the emergency departments of the city's hospitals. Rabies is prevalent among the dog population, and treatment for bites pose a heavy public burden.Template:Efn Natural disasters, on the other hand, are rare. While the severe floods of 2011 adversely affected Bangkok, no deaths were reported in city itself. Such extreme flooding is uncommon, although limited flooding does occur regularly in some neighbourhoods.\n\nInternational relationsEdit\n\nFile:Protesters at 2009 Bangkok Talks on Climate Change.jpg\n\nThe city's formal international relations are managed by the International Affairs Division of the BMA. Its missions include facilitating cooperation with other major cities through sister city agreements, participation and membership in international organizations, and pursuing cooperative activities with the many foreign diplomatic missions based in the city.[113]\n\nInternational participationEdit\n\nBangkok is a member of several international organizations and regional city government networks, including the Asian Network of Major Cities 21, the Japan-led Asian-Pacific City Summit, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, the ESCAP-sponsored Regional Network of Local Authorities for Management of Human Settlements in Asia and Pacific (CITYNET), Japan's Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, the World Association of the Major Metropolises and Local Governments for Sustainability, among others.[113]\n\nWith its location at the heart of mainland Southeast Asia and as one of Asia's hubs of transportation, Bangkok is home to many international and regional organizations. Among others, Bangkok is the seat of the Secretariat of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), as well as the Asia-Pacific regional offices of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).[114]\n\nSister citiesEdit\n\nBangkok has made sister city and/or friendship agreements with twenty-seven other cities in sixteen countries, Template:As of.[115] They are:\n\nSee alsoEdit\n\n\n\n\n\n  1. Template:Cite web\n  2. 2.0 2.1 Template:Cite web\n  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Template:Cite book Reproduced in Template:Cite web\n  4. Baker & Pongpaichit 2005, pp. 37–41, 45, 52–71, 149–150, 162, 199–204.\n  5. Template:Cite web\n  6. Wongthes 2012, p. 37\n  7. Template:Cite web\n  8. Template:Cite journal\n  9. Template:Cite book\n  10. Template:Cite web\n  11. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, p. 86.\n  12. Template:Cite journal\n  13. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, pp. 80–82.\n  14. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, p. 78.\n  15. Template:Cite web\n  16. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named BMA_geo\n  17. Template:Cite web\n  18. Template:Cite book\n  19. Template:Cite journal\n  20. Template:Cite book Quoted in Baker & Phongpaichit 2005, p. 90.\n  21. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, p. 35.\n  22. Template:Cite journal\n  23. Template:Cite web\n  24. Template:Cite news\n  25. Template:Cite news\n  26. Template:Cite journal\n  27. Template:Cite journal\n  28. Old photo (around 1900) of dilapidated prang from the collection of Cornell University Library (last access 2009-09-24).\n  29. Template:Cite web\n  30. Template:Cite web\n  31. Template:Cite journal\n  32. Template:Cite web\n  33. Template:Cite web\n  34. Krongkaew 1996, p. 322.\n  35. Template:Cite web\n  36. Template:Cite book\n  37. Hamilton 2000, pp. 465–466.\n  38. Template:Cite web\n  39. Template:Cite web\n  40. 40.0 40.1 Template:Cite journal\n  41. Template:Cite news\n  42. Template:Cite journal\n  43. Template:Cite web\n  44. Template:Cite book\n  45. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named 2010_census_1\n  46. Template:Cite web\n  47. Template:Cite web\n  48. Crawfurd 1830, p. 215.\n  49. Template:Cite journal\n  50. Template:Cite book and Template:Cite book cited in Template:Cite book\n  51. Template:Cite web\n  52. NESDB 2012, pp. 26, 39–40, 48–49, 62–63, 218–219.\n  53. Naudin (ed.) 2010, p. 85.\n  54. NESDB 2012, pp.48–49, 62–63, 218–219.\n  55. Naudin (ed.) 2010, p. 83.\n  56. 56.0 56.1 Template:Cite web\n  57. Stock Exchange of Thailand 2012, pp. 22, 25.\n  58. Template:Cite web\n  59. Yeandle 2012, p. 5.\n  60. Template:Cite web\n  61. Template:Cite web\n  62. Template:Cite web\n  63. Moreno et al. 2008, p. 194.\n  65. Template:Cite web\n  66. Template:Cite web\n  67. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, pp. 63–69.\n  68. Template:Cite book\n  69. Template:Cite journal\n  70. Hamilton 2000, p. 468.\n  71. Template:Cite journal\n  72. Template:Cite news\n  73. Template:Cite news\n  74. Template:Cite news\n  75. Thavisin et al. (eds) 2006, p. 72.\n  76. Template:Cite web\n  77. 77.0 77.1 Template:Cite book\n  78. Template:Cite news\n  79. Template:Cite news\n  80. Template:Cite web\n  81. Template:Cite web\n  82. Template:Cite news\n  83. Template:Cite journal\n  84. Template:Cite news\n  85. Traffic and Transportation Department, p. 154.\n  86. Traffic and Transportation Department, pp. 112.\n  87. Template:Cite web\n  88. Template:Cite news\n  89. Template:Cite journal\n  92. Traffic and Transportation Department, pp. 113–122.\n  93. Template:Cite web\n  94. Template:Cite web\n  95. Template:Cite web\n  96. \"In With the Old\", Aviation Week & Space Technology, 1 January 2007.\n  97. Template:Cite news\n  98. Template:Cite news\n  99. Template:Cite book\n  100. Template:Cite web\n  101. Template:Cite web\n  102. Template:Cite journal\n  103. Template:Cite journal\n  104. Template:Cite web\n  105. Template:Cite web\n  106. 106.0 106.1 Template:Include-USGov\n  107. Template:Cite book\n  108. Template:Cite journal\n  109. Template:Cite web\n  110. Template:Cite web\n  111. Traffic and Transportation Department, pp. 138–144.\n  112. Template:Cite news\n  113. 113.0 113.1 Template:Cite web\n  114. Template:Cite web\n  115. Template:Cite web\n  116. Template:Cite web\n  117. Template:Cite web\n  118. Template:Cite web\n  119. Template:Cite web\n  120. Template:Cite web\n  121. Template:Cite web\n  122. Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link\n  123. Template:Cite web\n  124. Template:Cite web\n  125. Template:Cite web\n  126. Template:Cite web\n  127. Template:Cite web\n  128. Template:Cite web\n  129. Template:Cite web\n  130. Template:Cite web\n  131. Template:Cite web\n  132. Template:Cite web\n  133. Template:Cite web\n  134. Template:Cite web\n  135. Template:Cite web\n  136. Template:Cite web\n  137. Template:Cite web\n  138. Template:Cite web\n  139. Template:Cite web\n  140. Template:Cite web\n  141. Template:Cite web\n  142. Template:Cite web\n  143. Template:Cite web\n  144. Template:Cite web\n  145. Template:Cite web\n\n\nExternal linksEdit\n\nTemplate:Sister project links\n\nAd blocker interference detected!\n\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7057216167449951}
{"content": "custom essays\n\n\nPosts Tagged ‘how to write a good report’\n\nStrategic Guidelines on Good Report Writing\n\nDecember 19th, 2011 No comments\n\nWriting a business report or creating a project for some other area, you need to first of all take the time to generate a plan for report writing. The specialists in writing a business report stick to the opinion that the amount of effort and planning you put into your project will show in the writing quality. Our quick guidelines of how to write a research report will help you to cope with per-writing, writing, editing, drafting, proofreading processes you should get through on the way to high quality paper.\n\nOnce you’ve made up your mind with the topic of the paper, your task is to gather material from a great number of sources  such as articles, books, interviews and reports. It is recommended to document the research source (chapter, title, database, research format and page number) in order to have the information for proper source citation.\n\nOne of the tips on how to write a good report is that you, as the author of the project, should read and make analysis of the research, circling, highlighting or underlining any important detail you meet.\n\nThe other important instruction on how to write a research report is to generate a report draft that is based in the outline you’ve worked out. Start with easy-to-follow and concise introductive section that will provide your reader with the purpose or idea of the report. Every paragraph of your project should start with a main idea, and follow with support material taken from research collected and citing sources as they are utilized. End up the report by providing the restatement of the purpose or the idea of the project.\n\nMake sure to edit and review the report. Focus on logic, organization, proper sources citation, grammar and whether your work supports the purpose and answers all the questions your reader may face with on the topic. Revise your project is necessary and proofread it by identifying any errors in spelling, grammar or style mechanics.\n\nWork on a title, or cover, sheet for the paper. Provide the report title, date and author’s name.\n\nAvail of online writing service tips on how to write a good report in case you cannot cope with the given task.\n\nHelp on Book Report Writing\n\nSeptember 23rd, 2011 No comments\n\nYou’re assigned with an assignment to write a book report to show your professor you understood the book you’ve read. In other words, writing book report means you have to tell what you think about the book and its author.\n\nA lot of professors have their own requirements on how to write a report on a book, that is why you have to get familiar with them. Nevertheless, writing book report includes some common tips and recommendations that may be helpful.\n\nHow to write a good report? Start with an introductive section.\n\nRemember, the introduction should involve:\n\n  • The author and the name of the book (for instance, “Romeo & Juliette” by William Shakespeare)\n  • The reasons why you’ve given preference to this book\n  • What type of story have you read? (fantasy/adventure/horror/family/detective etc)\n\n\nSmoothly proceed to the body of the report. This section is for you to have enough space to describe the elements of the book: its plot, theme, characters, mood, settings etc. You can provide your personal viewpoints about the book after the description.\n\nThe plot of the book involves what is happening is the story. Point out the main conflict or event of the book. What has happened as a result? What happens at the end of the book? But be careful for it is not recommended to re-tell the whole story.\n\nThe characters of the book are individuals (sometimes non-human beings) the book is written about. The protagonist – that is how the leading character of the book is called. Describe him in detail and provide information about the other characters. Do they play any role in the story? Do they help the main character? Are they friends/enemies?\n\nThe place and the time when the events of the story take place are called the setting of the book. When all the events are happening in the story – long time ago or nowadays? Do the characters live in another country or in your motherland? Is it a real/imaginary world? How much years/months/weeks/hours passes in the book?\n\nThe key idea of the book is the theme. Among the examples, one can point out the importance of parents-kids relationship or how not to loose humanity in a big city. Tell your reader what you think about the theme of the book and why you think like that.\n\nHow to write a good report on a book? Answer the question below that may help you to cope with the task:\n\n  • Do you find the story interesting? Why? And why not?\n  • What’s your favourite part of the story and why do you like it?\n  • What kind of feelings the book you’ve read has touched in you?\n  • Would you recommend this book to someone?\n  • Would you like to get familiar with the other works by this author?\n\n\nWrite a couple of sentences to end up and sum up what you’ve just said. Provide your opinion on the whole story and tell your reader what you’d like him to know about the book and give him the reason to want to read the story from cover to cover.\n\nWriting a Business Report in 8 Simple Steps\n\nSeptember 1st, 2011 No comments\n\nPeople are often found searching on questions like how to write a research report or how to write a good report etc. Before we talk about how to write a research report, it is important to understand what a report actually is. A report is based on fact and it is written to inform the reader about a certain thing.\n\nWriting business report is not at all difficult once you understand the correct format of writing it.\n\n  1. Make the first page your title page. It should have your report title, your full name and the date on which you are supposed to submit it.\n  2. Proceed with writing an executive summary. This is for those readers who do not have much time to go through the whole report. Write an overview of the report and summarize the conclusion. Mention the important recommendations etc. All this should be done in one single page.\n  3. Make a table of contents in which you should include all the topics with their page numbers.\n  4. Write an introduction and in which you are suppose to introduce what the following pages are about.\n  5. The body is supposed to have headings and subheadings giving the reader a clear picture of what that particular section is about. This is the main part of your report and all the important details should be written here.\n  6. Conclude your main body in the end. Keep it short and do not write any irrelevant thing.\n  7. Write recommendations from which the reader would take help to solve the issues mentioned in the report. Make sure you have checked them as the reader might follow them. Write it in bullet form to make it easy for the reader to read.\n  8. In the end, there should be an appendix where you should give a detailed account of all the resources which you have used to build your report.\n\nFollow these steps and writing a business report would not be a difficulty anymore.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9956772327423096}
{"content": "Dear Dr. Barchas,\n\nFor the past two days, my cat has decided to eat very little, even of her favorite foods. She is female and 15 years old. She doesn’t appear sick as she is still purring, playing a bit, and isn’t lying around. Any suggestions?\n\n\nThe essence of Linda’s question has been put to me a number of ways over the years, but it generally boils down to this: A cat is not eating but seems fine in every other way. She’s still playful, she’s not vomiting or suffering from diarrhea, and there’s no coughing or sneezing. The only thing that’s wrong is that she’s not eating. Is the cat sick?\n\nThe answer is yes. It is not normal for an animal, whether cat, dog, or human, to go two days without eating when you’re serving up palatable food. Cats don’t lose their appetites unless something is wrong.\n\nIn these situations I recommend that you put yourself in your cat’s shoes (so to speak). Unless you were on a crazy diet, I’ll bet the last time you went two days without eating (or with dramatically reduced food consumption) you were sick. Since cats don’t go on crazy diets, it should be assumed that any cat in the same situation has a problem.\n\nThe nature of the problem can vary. Many conditions cause appetite loss. They range from minor issues (food poisoning, intestinal bugs, stress) through bigger ones (early kidney disease, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal foreign bodies) up to the biggest problems imaginable (cancer, life-threatening complications of diabetes, and end-stage kidney disease).\n\nIn many instances, diseases that suppress appetite also cause other symptoms. Food poisoning — more frequently referred to as “dietary indiscretion” — and intestinal bugs usually cause diarrhea or vomiting. Kidney disease may cause increased thirst and lethargy. Liver disease may cause lethargy, vomiting, or jaundice. Inflammatory bowel disease and foreign bodies may cause vomiting or diarrhea.\n\nHowever, every one of these problems, as well as several others, may manifest with poor appetite as the only symptom. I am sorry to say that cancer is especially notorious for this — and unfortunately cancer is not uncommon in 15-year-old cats.\n\nAny cat who goes off her food should see a vet. A thorough physical exam may reveal subtle weight loss that was not noticeable at home. The exam, combined with blood and urine tests and diagnostic imaging (X-rays or ultrasound) can usually get to the bottom of the problem.\n\nFinally, be aware that cats with poor appetites often also do not consume sufficient water. The risk of dehydration is yet another reason to get to the vet quickly when a cat stops eating.\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9469012022018433}
{"content": "Cheaters: more American women admit to adultery\n\nAmerican women close the cheating gap still\n\nAmerican women, who trail men when it comes to making money, leading companies and accumulating wealth, are closing the gap on at least one measure: cheating on their spouses.\n\nScarlet Fu reports on Bloomberg Television's Market Makers.\n\nSource: Bloomberg", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9044798612594604}
{"content": "Coaster booze ban: It’s the wrong approach\n\nThe North County Transit District (NCTD) is scheduled to vote this month on a proposal to ban all alcoholic beverages from Coaster trains.\n\nA closer look reveals that the ban is an excessive and overreaching solution for a narrowly-defined public safety problem.\n\nThis is not the first time this issue has been raised. Last year, NCTD staff and transit enforcement officials cited excessive alcohol consumption as a problem, contributing to train crowding, fights, noise, littering, and underage drinking, particularly during the baseball season. In response, a total alcohol ban on Coaster trains was proposed, but was quickly tabled after the NCTD received “robust public feedback” on the issue, including a U-T San Diego editorial which denounced the proposal as “overkill.”\n\nThe current proposal would rescind NCTD’s alcohol policy, “Ordinance No. 2,” which allows open containers and alcohol consumption on trains until 9 p.m. In their recommendation for rescinding Ordinance No. 2, District staff state that “NCTD’s most compelling concern remains the attendant liability and risk to passengers and crew associated with the safety concerns created by consumption of alcohol on board COASTER.”\n\nThe proposal follows a Board evaluation of the recent “Civility Rules” public awareness campaign on Coaster trains, as well as increased transit enforcement.\n\nAs a Coaster rider, I understand the concerns for public safety. Still, a total alcohol ban is an extreme approach to addressing alcohol-related misconduct. It ignores the fact that most alcohol consumption does not result in intoxication or misconduct. It penalizes responsible adults who occasionally enjoy a beer or glass of wine on board. Complaints about misconduct aren’t likely to end with a ban – NCTD data reveals that alcohol-related incidents still occur on District buses and light rail trains, where alcohol bans are already in place.\n\nReasonable alternatives can be effective in preventing unwanted incidents. For example, Amtrak’s alcohol policy prohibits private stock alcohol consumption while allowing beer and wine sales on trains. This approach allows Amtrak to limit public alcohol consumption, prevent underage drinking (IDs are checked at the time of sale) and stop public intoxication (it is illegal to serve intoxicated individuals). Trash and littering are also curbed, as passengers aren’t allowed to bring their own beer or wine bottles on board for consumption.\n\nThe Coaster will always be an important transit option for many San Diego residents, who in addition to commuting, want to attend special events, concerts, and nightlife responsibly. It helps keep intoxicated drivers off the road, protecting our public safety. Young, loud crowds will undoubtedly still be taking Coaster trains in the evening hours, regardless if the ban passes. The better approach is to make on board alcohol consumption manageable under current transit enforcement staffing levels. Adopting the Amtrak policy would ensure this.\n\nAddressing safety concerns with a more measured approach can help NCTD manage transit enforcement better, while also protecting the personal freedoms of responsible adults on board.\n\nVince Vasquez is a Carlsbad resident. \n\n\nLog in with your credentials\n\n\nForgot your details?", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5495530962944031}
{"content": "Interoperability with MediSapien Connect™\n\nPopulate your EHR sections from transcription with MediSapien Connect.\n\nDictation to Documentation to EHR\n\nMediSapienConnect inserts your clinical documentation into your EHR, placing both narrative and structured text into the appropriate sections.\n\nCall toll-free to request a demo: 800.546.5633\n\nEHR population with your phone\n\nSection-level insertion of structured data into your EHR\n\nLegacy text scanned with OCR for EHR population, or attached as PDF\n\nEHR conversions\n\nEHR implementation\n\nLeverage the structured data for Analytics\n\nUsing dictation is 2.5x faster than typing for EHR population. Read our press release:\nNIH-Funded Study Shows Improved EHR Usability and Efficiency with Dictation-Based NLP Entry.\n\n“Clinicians spend many hours interacting with unwieldy systems documenting patient records. MediSapien is a promising instrument that may serve to reduce the cognitive burden on clinicians and enable EHRs to be instruments of clinical communication and tools that can greatly enhance patient care.” – David Kaufman, PhD, quoted in ZyDoc press release\n\nLegacy Data Conversion\n\nConvert unstructured narrative text to the following code languages: SNOMED-CT, CPT-4, ICD-9, LOINC, RXNORM, and others.\n\nEMR Data Capture by Dictation\n\nPhysicians can now have the option of using dictation for EHR data capture in addition to using the keyboard and mouse.\n\nSemantic Search for Concepts\n\nSemantic search is powerful because it enables accurate reporting on data originated in a narrative, unstructured format.\n\nMeaningful Use Applications\n\nIf unable to accept structured codes, EMR providers can create a workaround to a MediSapien webpage.\n\nDictation to structured data\n\nUtilizing natural language processing optimized for universal healthcare data\n\nThis suite of services enables physicians to wield the power of structured medical data while retaining the convenience of data entry by dictation\n\nMediSapien extracts ICD-9, ICD-10, CPT®, RxNorm, LOINC®, and SNOMED-CT® codes from unstructured text such as dictation and legacy documentation, and outputs structured data for exchange via CCR/CCD/CDA and insertion into EHRs.\n\nAn Innovative, Customizable Solution for Healthcare Analytics:\n\nContact us for more information, or for a free demo:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8309012651443481}
{"content": "Markus Markus - 1 year ago 99\nActionScript Question\n\nMaking class vars available to external itemRenderer classes\n\nI made a custom itemRenderer, and need to access a variable in my Project file (mxml). How can I make my public var available in the custom itemRenderer file?\n\npublic function lang_f(trans_short:String):String{\nif(outerDocument.language == \"de\"){\n\n\nAnswer Source\n\nTo go along with Constantiner's answer, if you still need to access that variable, you can access the variable in your itemRenderer using outerDocument:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5733379125595093}
{"content": "Massachusetts Appeals Court Allows Dog Bite Case Against Landlord to Proceed\n\nThe Massachusetts Appeals Court has allowed the claim of a child who was bitten by a dog to proceed to trial against the landlords, even though the landlords did not own the dog.  The ruling reverses a lower court ruling in favor of the landlord.\n\nThe plaintiff was ten years old when he was attacked by a pit bull named Tiny. Tiny belonged to another tenant in the same 4-family building. Tiny had been found in the woods and adopted by the family. Tiny had demonstrated some aggressive behavior prior to the date of the incident.  The plaintiff’s family maintained that they had lodged multiple complaints with the landlords about not just the presence of the dog, but also its aggressive behavior. The landlords were also informed that Tiny was allowed to roam unrestrained, a violation of the Waltham leash law. The landlords claimed they had no knowledge that the dog might be dangerous.\n\nThe landlords had a no-dog policy for the premises, but failed to enforce that policy with regard to Tiny.  In fact, the plaintiff’s family had previously given up its dogs because of the landlords’ policy.\n\nOn the date of the incident, Tiny was sitting on a porch, unrestrained, then ran across the yard, jumped a fence, and bit the plaintiff who was playing in the neighbor’s yard. The ten-year old had mulitiple dog bite injuries to his leg.\n\nThe Superior Court judge ruled that the landlords were not negligent, and that the fears of the pit bull were “subjective.”  The Appeals Court disagreed.\n\nIn Massachusetts, a third party such as a landlord, is not liable under the Massachusetts strict liability statute governing dogs. While a dogs owner or keeper is strictly liable for injuries caused by their dog, a third party can be liable only if he or she is negligent. A landlord does not insure that the property will be safe, and has a duty to use reasonable care for the premises.  Thus, in this case, the plaintiff is required to prove that the landlord knew or should have known of the dangers of the dog.  The landlords could not be held liable just on the fact that the dog was of a dangerous breed, but could be held liable if they had knowledge of its dangerous behavior.\n\nThe Appeals Court also noted that negligence cases are ordinarily best left to a jury’s consideration, since the cases often turn on disputed facts. Given the disputed facts in this case, namely whether the landlord had received reports of the dog’s dangerous behavior, the case was sent back to the Superior Court for trial.\n\nThe name of the case is Nutt v. Florio, Appeals Court No. 08-P-81 (October 19, 2009).  \n\nDog Bite Cases in Massachusetts\n\nOrdinarily, dog bite cases in Massachusetts will be against the owner of the dog under strict liability principles pursuant to Massachusetts law. If you have been bitten by a dog or attacked by another domestic animal, you should seek prompt legal assistance once you have undergone necessary medical treatment.\n\nThe attorneys at Breakstone, White & Gluck have decades of experience handling dog bite and animal attacks, not just against the owners of the animals, but also against negligent property owners under theories of premises liability. Call our experienced dog bite lawyers today for a free consultation. 800-379-1244.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7970894575119019}
{"content": "• Iran: Storm Clouds Gather\n\n    Storm clouds continued to gather around Iran, sending jitters through financial markets, bringing old Western allies closer together and creating diplomatic challenges -- and political opportunity -- for President Bush.\n\n    Capping a week of growing tension, Iran vowed that it would end cooperation with the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, barring inspectors from its nuclear sites, if it is referred to the U.N. Security Council. The U.S., United Kingdom, Germany and France called for a referral after Iran...\n\n    Popular on WSJ", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9778446555137634}
{"content": "Jane Austen\n\nBy | December 19, 2016\n\nJane Austen pdfJane Austen synopsis: Jane Austen is now what she never was in life, and what she would have been horrified to become—a literary celebrity.\n\nAusten’s novels achieved a timelessness that makes them perennially appealing. Kipling and Churchill found solace in her writings during times of war and illness. Mark Twain had a love/hate relationship with her work. And then, there’s our celebrity culture: the television hit Pride and Prejudice, the award-winning 1995 film Sense and Sensibility, and all the remakes and prequels and sequels. Modern-day Jane Austen fans just can’t seem to leave her characters alone.\n\n“Janeia” is the author’s term for the mania for all things Austen. This biography captures the varied sides of Austen’s character and places her Christian faith in a more balanced light and with less distortion than has been achieved previously. It is a delightful journey through a life spent making up stories that touched the lives of millions.\n\nJane Austen\n\n“I was riveted by Leithart’s excellent biography of Austen, the woman who profoundly influenced me to search for the universal truth in my novels. I was able to see the flesh-and-blood woman I’ve admired since my teens. Highly recommended for Janeites like me!”\n\n–Colleen Coble, best-selling author of The Lightkeeer’s Daughter\n\n1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)\n", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9853172898292542}
{"content": "MAUDUDI, MAULANA ABUL ALA (1903-1979) Maulana Abul Ala Maududi started his public career when he was only 24 years old He published a collection of essays entitled Al-Jihad fi al-Islam (Jihad in Islam) that caused a stir among Islamic scholars In 1933, he took over as editor of a monthly magazine, Tarjuman al-Quran The magazine offered an interpretation of the Koran that emphasized that Islam as revealed to Muhammad, its prophet, did not make a distinction between the spiritual and the temporal worlds In 1941, Maududi decided to enter politics by establishing the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) (the Party of Islam) For six years, however, from 1941 to 1947, Maududi and the JI opposed Muhammad Ali Jinnah, his All-India Muslim League, and their demand for the creation of Pakistan, a homeland for the Muslim population of British IndiaMaududi’s opposition to the idea of Pakistan was based on the belief that nation states could not be reconciled with the concept of the Muslim ummah (community) that included all Muslims The ummah could not be divided by borders that separated countries Once Pakistan was born, Maududi decided to move to the new state and established himself and the JI in Lahore Installed in Pakistan, he turned his attention to creating an Islamic state in the country established by Jinnah and the Muslim League\n\nMaududi’s program consisted of two parts First, he wished to define strictly the meaning of being a Muslim, excluding all those who deviated even slightly from subscribing to what he defined as the basic tenets of Islam Second, he wanted Pakistan to adopt an Islamic political system rather than a system borrowed from the WestMaududi’s first serious confrontation with the state of Pakistan came in 1953, when he led a movement against the Ahmadiya community The movement turned violent, and martial law had to be imposed before law and order was restored in the country A military court sentenced Maududi to death, but the sentence was later reduced Maududi had to wait more than 20 years before the Ahmadiyas were declared to be non-Muslims This action was taken in 1974 by the administration of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto It was during the early years of the regime of President Zia ul-Haq that Maududi’s views had the greatest impact on Pakistan Zia made several attempts to introduce Islam into the country’s political and economic structures Although Zia was not successful in the area of politics, he introduced a number of Islamic financial instruments\n\nThese included the imposition of taxes such as zakat and ushr\n\nWhat do you think?\n\n0 points\nUpvote Downvote\n\nTotal votes: 0\n\nUpvotes: 0\n\nUpvotes percentage: 0.000000%\n\nDownvotes: 0\n\nDownvotes percentage: 0.000000%", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6658872365951538}
{"content": "Seed magazine has a great article about the future of science… It’s writes –\n\nIn the early 1920s, Niels Bohr was struggling to reimagine the structure of matter. Previous generations of physicists had thought the inner space of an atom looked like a miniature solar system with the atomic nucleus as the sun and the whirring electrons as planets in orbit. This was the classical model.\n\nBut Bohr had spent time analyzing the radiation emitted by electrons, and he realized that science needed a new metaphor. The behavior of electrons seemed to defy every conventional explanation. As Bohr said, “When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.” Ordinary words couldn’t capture the data.\n\nSeed: The future of science…Is art? Link.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8690640926361084}
{"content": "Mahalakshmi Devi\n\n\nLakshmi or Mahalakshmi is the Hindu Goddess of wealth, fortune, love and beauty, the lotus flower and fertility. Representations of Mahalakshmi (or Shri) are found in Jain and Buddhist monuments, in addition to Hindu temples. Generally thought of as the personification of material fortune and prosperity, she is somewhat analogous to the Greco-Roman Aphrodite or Venus, as she also represents eroticism and is similarly thought to have originally “borne of the sea” in her most famous myth, as did those love goddesses.\n\nThe appearance of goddess Lakshmi is related to an ancient story. Durvasa the short-tempered sage once presented Indra, the king of the gods (devas) with a garland of flowers which would never wilt. Indra gave this garland to his elephant Airavata. Sage Durvasa saw the elephant trampling the divine garland and cursed Indra, for he had shown disrespect to the sage. The sage cursed Indra that he and all the gods would lose their power because it had made them so proud and vain. Due to the curse, the demons vanquished the gods out of the heavens.\n\n\nAmongst the host of divine gifts which appeared from the ocean, goddess Lakshmi appeared and then chose Shri Vishnu as her consort, as only He had the power to control Maya (illusion). Because of this, Lakshmi is also called the daughter of the sea; since the moon also appeared from the ocean during the churning, the moon is called her brother. Alakshmi, the goddess of misfortune, is Lakshmi’s older sister. She is said to have also arisen from the sea of milk.\n\nYou are able to post comments by logging in through facebook.\n\n\n\nComments are closed.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6251840591430664}
{"content": "Friday, October 15, 2010\n\nTCO 2010 Finals Hard\n\nWith no better idea of spending some time on the Las Vegas - New York plane, I've decided to try coding the hard problem from the TCO 2010 finals (statement linked). This took me 26 minutes and I got 618 points in the practice room — knowing the solution in advance and using IDEA instead of a simple text editor (rng_58's time in the finals was 48 minutes, for 463 points).\n\nI hope the code with the below explanations can serve as a semi-editorial while we're waiting for the official editorial.\n\nWhat is TopCoder Mod Dash?\n\nAt this year's TopCoder Open, I've naturally enjoyed watching the algorithm and marathon competitions. However, there was one more which I enjoyed and found very watchable and intense: the Mod Dash competition. So here's a small educational video about what this competition is about:\n\nThere's also another video that I've made at the TCO, which is the usual overview of the arena. It is a bit boring, but just in case, here it goes:\n\nTopCoder Open 2010 Algorithm Final Round\n\n\n\n\n\n13:25 - the introduction has started.\n\n13:29 - 1 minute before the start.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n13:44 - a submit on easy from Klinck.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14:00 - rng_58 submits the medium, too.\n\n\n\n14:04 - dzhulgakov submits.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n14:51 - and he submits!\n\n\n\n\n\n15:01 - ACRush successfully challenges Louty's solution!\n\n15:02 - and there goes dzhulgakov's easy.\n\n\n\n\n15:10 - let's wait for the systests...\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThursday, October 14, 2010\n\nTopCoder Open 2010 Algorithm Wildcard Round\n\nHere will go the comments for Algorithm Wildcard Round of TopCoder Open 2010.\n\n18:22 - it's very quiet in the arena, since most people who are not competing went to enjoy the fabulous Las Vegas (or just went to their rooms to get some sleep?). Most of algorithm competitors are here, though, even the ones who're not competing.\n\n18:27 - I'm sitting in front of dzhulgakov's and syg96's screens. Hope that those two won't disappoint us, as rng_58 did in the semifinal.\n\n18:30 - go!\n\n18:30 - the easy problem: you start with N distinct numbers, and then can swap two adjacent numbers M times. How many different sequences can you get?\n\n18:31 - N and M are up to 2000.\n\n18:32 - so if a sequence X has Y inversions (pairs of indices such that the numbers at these indices are not in the same order in the original sequence), then we can get it using Y, Y+2, Y+4, ... swaps. The problem is thus reduced to counting sequences which have at most M inversions, and have the same amount of inversions modulo 2. I think this is done via quite simple DP - if you know the first number, you know how many inversions it creates, and then continue with the rest. This should work in O(2000^2).\n\n18:35 - everybody is doing the easy problem, no variability from the contestants this time.\n\n18:37 - PaulJefferys has submitted and then found out that his code TLs on (2000, 2000) :( Thanks Rustyoldman for the pointer!\n\n18:40 - oh, AS1_PML30 has pointed out that my above solutions works in O(2000^3).\n\n18:40 - dzhulgakov submits! And the DP is not so difficult to code in O(2000^2) by noticing that we can use accumulated sums to process each state in O(1).\n\n18:42 - the medium problem: you're given at most 50 cards of form \"+2\", \"*3\". You shuffle then randomly, and then lay them down next to \"0\" to get an expression like \"0+1-2*3\", which is equal to -5. What is the expected value of this expression?\n\n18:44 - first, we can notice that the order of \"+\" and \"-\" cards is not important. We can imagine the problem as starting with one \"0\" card and several \"+X\" and \"-Y\" cards, and then we need to place all \"*Z\" cards next to one of the starting cards, and the order of doing so for each starting card matters.\n\n18:47 - maybe one can just do DP on the number of remaining cards of each type (\"*1\", \"*2\", ..., \"*9\", \"*0\")? That should be at most 5^10 states, which is about 10 million, but the transition will be quite slow.\n\n18:54 - or maybe we can rely on the fact that we only need to find the expected value somehow? People seem to be at a loss around here.\n\n18:54 - it turns out it's just me who's at a loss. Let rng_58 explain.\n\n19:00 - still discussing the solution...\n\n19:09 - so we need to calculate the expected value for each additive term, then sum those up. That means we should calculate just one number that depends on the multipliers: the expected multiplier for each additive term. At the simplest, we could iterate over all possible at most 5^10 compositions of a multiplier and average those with appropriate weights (some factorials multiplied and divided :)).\n\n19:11 - bmerry suggests we can do it even faster: let's add multipliers one by one, and keep track of the expected value of the product if we have exactly k multipliers for each k, and the number of ways to get exactly k multipliers. Then this will be just something like O(50^2).\n\n19:13 - another spectator reminder from Rustyoldman: everybody had submitted the easy and everyone is doing the medium... Not anymore! grotmol has opened the hard!\n\n19:15 - here's the hard problem: how many ways are there to select some cells in a H times W rectangle such that no cells in one row are closer than K from each other?\n\n19:16 - and the juicy part is that H, W and K are up to 1 billion!\n\n19:19 - one simple part of solution by Onufry: we can forget about H and just take the answer to the power of H and subtract 1 in the end.\n\n19:21 - another idea is that we need to calculate the number modulo 100003 which is a relatively small prime number.\n\n19:25 - people are thinking about the hard problem. Most contestants are working on the medium, still no submissions. Two have opened the hard.\n\n19:26 - dzulgakov submits the medium! I'm not sure what exactly his solution does, but it separates the additive and multipliers, and does some factorials afterwards :) He passed all examples.\n\n19:32 - four people have submitted the medium now. The communal wisdom suggests that if we fix the number r of rooks in one row, then the number of ways is (W-K*(r-1)) choose r. Where do we go from here?\n\n19:34 - and that's where the small prime number calls into play! In order to calculate a choose b modulo p, we can write both a and b in p-ary system, calculate digit-by-digit \"choose\" numbers, and multiply them. And to calculate those, we can pre-calculate all factorials modulo p and their inverses.\n\n19:39 - so if the number r is relatively small, say, up to 10 million, we can do this. And when it's more than that, it means K is not more than 100 and thus we can do the usual matrix multiplication to find the number of ways (using recurrence f(n)=f(n-1)+f(n-K)).\n\n19:41 - this solution was brought to you by ploh, Onufry, bmerry and jdmetz :)\n\n19:44 - bmerry suggests we can avoid the matrix multiplication by grouping the r's which are the same modulo p and applying the above theorem about the number of combinations to each of those sums.\n\n19:47 - nobody is writing anything that resembles a solution for the hard. Paul has calculated inverses modulo p, gmark has found the answers for small parameters and is staring at them. Unless we're missing a really simple solution, no hard will be solved in this round.\n\n19:50 - izulin and grotmol are still working on their mediums, all others either do nothing or recheck their solutions.\n\n19:52 - I believe there were no submissions in the past 30 minutes. dzhulgakov, Vasyl, syg96 and PaulJefferys have two problems (in this order), tomek, izulin, gmark and grotmol have one problem (in this order). Each of the groups of four is separated by less than 50 points, so any challenge in the first group brings the challenger to the top (and probably to the finals :)).\n\n19:55 - The coding is over. I wonder what is the best strategy for the challenge phase. The medium has expected values so I bet it's pretty hard to fail the systests if you pass examples. Maybe when all numbers are multipliers, or when there are no multipliers at all? For the easy I can only imagine the tricky case when M is more than N*(N-1)/2.\n\n20:01 - tomek tried the maxtest against gmark.\n\n20:03 - the challenge phase is pretty calm, most people take a long time to read one solution.\n\n20:05 - but just one challenge from syg96 or PaulJefferys can change who goes to the finals!\n\n20:10 - a desperate last second challenge by gmark, and that's it. Waiting for the systests!\n\n20:18 - most people agree that probably no solution will fail. More interestingly, Ivan Metelsky has confirmed that our solution for the hard is the expected one!\n\n20:23 - Vasyl's and syg96's mediums have failed. dzhulgakov and Paul go to the finals! Stay tuned tomorrow for the coverage of the finals.\n\n20:27 - here's the reason for the failure of the mediums: if you add up all additive terms in advance, you pass. But if you first multiply them and then add up many numbers, and when the expected answer is ZERO, but the multipliers are big - you're doomed, since small error relative to the product of the multiplier becomes big absolute error. That's a cool bug to fail to :)\n\nWednesday, October 13, 2010\n\nTCO 2010 Algorithm Semifinal 2\n\nHere will go the comments for Algorithm Semifinal 2 of TopCoder Open 2010.\n\n12:56 - announcement complete, 3 minutes before the start. Will be looking at rng_58's screen during the first minutes.\n\n13:00 - Into the fray!\n\n13:01 - the easy problem: given several points on the plane, what is the maximal possible f(X) over strings X of the given length L consisting of \"LRUD\" characters. f(X) is defined as the probability of a robot starting at (0,0) will end at one of the given points if it performs each command with probability 1/2.\n\n13:02 - L is up to 50, the number of locations is also up to 50. Thinking...\n\n13:07 - rng_58 has started coding. It seems that the solution is quite straightforward: iterate over the number of \"L\", \"R\", \"U\" moves - the number of \"D\" moves is the rest. Then we need add up the probabilities of hitting each cell, which can be calculated using pre-calculated arrays of \"what is the probability to get number x if we sum a (-1)'s and b (1)'s, each with probability 1/2\". We need O(50^3) for calculating these arrays, and then O(50^3) possible strings will take just O(50) time each, which should be fast enough.\n\n13:09 - rng_58 seems to have coded exactly this, probably has an off-by-one error somewhere.\n\n13:11 - found the bug, submitted! ACRush and PaulJefferys have submitted as well. rng_58 is testing the maxtest and verifying the code, not moving on to the next problem yet.\n\n13:12 - here goes another problem (not sure if it's medium or hard): given an even amount (up to 50) of boxes with given amount of gold and cost for each, you need to split them into two halves such that each half has the same (n/2) amount of boxes, and the sum of average costs per gram for the two halves is the minimum possible.\n\n13:14 - the amounts and costs are up to 500.\n\n13:27 - Suppose we fix the total weight of all boxes in one half. Then we sum two fractions where the sum of numerators is constant, and the denominators are given. It's obvious that to minimize this sum, we need to minimize the numerator of the fraction with the lower denominator. That leads us to the following DP: out of first a boxes, we took b boxes with total weight w - what is the lowest total cost to achieve that (we can get the highest by looking at the complement)? This should have running time of 50*50*50*500 which seems too big. rng_58 seems to have coded and submitted this. He hasn't tested it on maxtest yet.\n\n13:28 - he's ran the maxtest, and the solution is very fast. Why?\n\n13:29 - probably since 50 should actually be 25 in the above formula.\n\n13:29 - rng_58 still doesn't feel confident enough to go to the hard. Let's take a look at the hard ourselves.\n\n13:30 - the problem statement of the hard is amazingly simple. Given three arrays A, B and C of at most 34 elements each, find the number of ways to choose at least k indices such that if we sum the values of A, B and C for the chosen indices, the A's sum is the largest.\n\n13:32 - as dzhulgakov correctly suggests, 34 suggests this will be meet-in-the-middle :)\n\n13:33 - rng_58 is still thinking about this, and so are we.\n\n13:35 - there's a cool constraint that k isn't more than 7, so all sufficiently large sets are allowed. Inclusion-exclusion? We're at a crossroads :)\n\n13:36 - the numbers are up to a billion, so no help here. Let's forget about k first and solve the problem about the total number of ways.\n\n13:43 - together with Dmytro, we seem to have solved the one with no k: if we build a vector (A[i]-B[i], A[i]-C[i]) for each i, we need to calculate the number of sets of vectors such that their sum is in the 1st quadrant (has both coordinates positive). Suppose we split all vectors in two halves, and calculated all possible sums for each half. Then we iterate over the sums of the first half in the order of increasing x-coordinate, and build a range-sum tree by y-coordinate of the vectors from the second half that add up to a positive x-coordinate with the ones we've chosen from the first set. Then we need one range-sum query to find the number of elements in the second half that will pair with the given element from the first half.\n\n13:50 - and now let's remember about k. Since k is small, we can instead find the number of sets with less than k elements, and subtract it from the overall count. And in order to do that, we can modify the above meet-in-the-middle algorithm so that splits the sums for each half into buckets with the given amount of indices, and... Wait! Since 34*33*32*31*30*29/1*2*3*4*5*6=1344904, we can just iterate over all subsets of at most k-1 elements and verify the condition for them. So this part of the problem is very easy :)\n\n13:53 - now that we're done with the problems, let's take a walk to other people's monitors and discuss the submitted solutions.\n\n13:54 - ACRush was struggling with TL in his hard solution, and now he's getting WA on one of the examples.\n\n13:55 - People have pointed out that the range-sum tree is tricky here since the values are pretty huge, so you need to \"compress\" the indices and be very careful.\n\n13:56 - there's a Studio competitors announcement during the round over the loudspeakers. That should be extremely annoying to the contestants.\n\n13:57 - ACRush has fixed the bug and submitted! (or maybe it was not a bug but just some debugging run?)\n\n13:59 - RAD seems to be getting memory limit in the medium. No wonder, since it seems to be a requirement to do the DP remembering only 2 outermost rows instead of all of them :)\n\n14:00 - liympanda is also debugging his hard problem, but he has a binary search inside his solution for some reason. Maybe it's just for compressing the coordinates?\n\n14:01 - no, he's using it to calculate the answer. That looks strange.\n\n14:03 - griffon is still struggling with the easy. That strategy doesn't work, as I've rigorously proven in the first round :)\n\n14:04 - PaulJefferys seems to be generating all sums, so that should be the part of meet-in-the-middle. He still has a long way to go.\n\n14:05 - ACRush seems to be debugging his hard on a testcase of his own. I'm not sure if he's just testing it or if he's found some issue.\n\n14:08 - Onufry submits the hard! His solution has very funny 6 nested loops in the end to iterate over all combinations to take the k parameter into account.\n\n14:10 - going back to rng_58 - he seems to have got the solution ready, was testing it for some time, and finally submits!\n\n14:12 - rng_58 prepares a large testcase and tests his solution...\n\n14:13 - works in 0.229s!\n\n14:14 - tomekkulczynski seems to have the correct idea in the hard as well, and he's also splitting the sums into buckets as we've suggested above before we saw the easier approach for the k part.\n\n14:15 - 9 minutes to go in the round. ACRush and rng_58 have three, tomek, Paul and gmark have the first two, Onufry had only the hard, griffon has nothing, all others have only the easy.\n\n14:17 - wata is doing the hard, and seems to work on some kind of meet-in-the-middle. However, the past 24-hour marathon seems to have taken its toll and he's writing code quite slowly. Somehow ACRush doesn't seem affected :)\n\n14:19 - it's a bit sad that we can't view the competitors' code now, as we could endlessly speculate about possible bugs. Well, we'll have to watch them during the challenge phase and do our best!\n\n14:21 - meanwhile, liympanda submits the hard.\n\n14:22 - PaulJefferys is reading up some STL docs. I'm guessing he ran into problems with the range-sum tree. He seems to have given up.\n\n14:24 - most people seem to be debugging frantically in the last minute. Onufry still can't get his easy to pass the examples. izulin submits the medium. A good challenge target?\n\n14:27 - the problems all seem to be more difficult on the time limit side and not on the correctness side; so I'd expect all challenges, if any, happen because of time limits.\n\n14:31 - izulin's medium is downed by RAD. ACRush has looked at it before that but decided not to challenge.\n\n14:32 - rng_58 seems to be reading the chat history to verify if izulin's easy has already been challenged (I'd guess for time limit?). Hey, you can use right click --> history for that!\n\n14:33 - another good shot by RAD! Onufry goes down. Let's look at RAD's screen :)\n\n14:34 - a point for RAD - he first checks the history to make sure the problem hasn't already been challenged, as in that cases chances are probably much lower. That's what I should be doing!\n\n14:35 - unsuccessful challenge on liympanda. RAD's challenge for the hard seems to be just large and random. So there's high chance liympanda will pass the systest.\n\n14:36 - judging by RAD's successes, we'll see quite a few solutions failing systests as well.\n\n14:37 - ACRush is looking at tomek's 500 very carefully.\n\n14:39 - another two unsuccessful challenges for RAD. That probably makes sense since he's (almost?) the lowest scorer on the easy.\n\n14:39 - tomek brings Paul's easy down! Yes, I expect the systests to be quite eventful.\n\n14:44 - Paul says his easy has failed because the coordinates in the input can be up to 100, even though the length of the string is at most 50, so he only had a small array and probably died because of strange out-of-bounds access results.\n\n14:46 - RAD told that his goal was at least +125, so he just challenged almost blindly. Worked out for +100, but not anymore :(\n\n14:49 - everybody waiting for the results. It seems that ACRush and rng_58 are pretty solid, and will get into the finals even with one problem failing.\n\n14:50 - actually that's not true. rng_58 can be fourth if his hard fails.\n\n14:51 - so the systests only brought w_'s easy down. The finalists are ACRush, rng_58 and liympanda. tomekkulczynski, gmark, PaulJefferys and izulin go to the wildcard.\n\n15:00 - Ivan Metelsky the Algorithm Coordinator told that the results for the second semifinal are as expected, while they wanted much more people to solve the medium in the first semifinal. Stupid me for not opening it :(\n\n15:02 - speaking about the hard problem of the first semifinal - people have rightly pointed out that the inner DP actually runs in O(25*25), for the total running time of 1000*25^3, which is fast enough. The author of the problem can solve the problem in 1000*25^2 - so here's some homework for you :)\n\n15:03 - that's about it for the semifinals! Stay tuned later today for the coverage of the Wildcard round that starts in 3 hours 30 minutes.\n\nTCO 2010\n\nThe bad news (for me :)) is that I've crashed out of TopCoder Open 2010. Somehow got stuck in the easy problem for most of the contest, then somehow decided to open the hard instead of the medium and didn't manage to solve it in time.\n\nHere's the solution for the hard that I had in mind at the end of the contest:\n  • First, iterate over all possible cutoff scores between 0 and 1000, and over lastCutoff (last person to score exactly cutoff points), between 1 and 25.\n  • For each such pair, calculate two arrays using DP:\n    • What is the probability that out of first x persons, exactly k will advance (that means, score above cutoff, or equal to cutoff if their number is less than or equal to lastCutoff).\n    • The same for last x persons.\n  • In calculating those arrays, we make use of the fact that all scores are independent, so the DP is quite straightforward; we need to remember that we've already fixed the score of person lastCutoff to cutoff (but this still has probability of 1/n, not 1).\n  • After we've got those arrays, let's calculate the probability of each person a advancing, and being b-th highest ranked person in the finals. This is quite easy now: we need to multiply the probabilities of:\n    • b-1 people to advance from the first a-1 persons\n    • k-b-1 people to advance from the last totalPersons-a persons\n    • a-th person advancing. Here we need to keep in mind that if a is equal to lastCutoff, this should be the fixed 1/n probability since we're only interested in the case where he scores cutoff points.\n  • And finally we accumulate the above probabilities by semifinal number, to get the answer for the problem.\nThis has complexity of O(1000*25*(25*25+timeOfInnerDP)). The obvious implementation of the inner DP runs in O(25*25*25), processing each state in O(25) operations. 1000*25^4=400M, so this will probably already run in time (since the number of states is not 25*25 but 25*25/2, and so on), but I have the feeling that since the inner DPs are very similar, we can try to run all of them in such a way that each takes just O(25*25). Ideas?. The inner DP actually runs in O(25*25) since each state is processed in O(1), so the total runtime is good enough. I was so close during the round!\n\nThe good news is that I'll now have a lot of free time at the TCO and will do live commentary on all 3 remaining Algorithm rounds: Semifinal 2, Wildcard and Finals. I will post the commentary both here and on the TopCoder blog. Stay tuned :)", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.869191586971283}
{"content": "01 February 2006\n\nPenniless Pampering Stocks - RDEN\n\nBlog Hog Jonathan Last started me down this perfumed path with a passing thought on our generation's futile struggle to financially surpass our parents. So in that quest to make some cash, I eventually found myself at Yahoo! Finance's small cap growth screen. There I found Elizabeth Arden (RDEN). I then moseyed over to the usual places (Morningstar and SmartMoney) for some sweet smelling insight. I found that RDEN is a dog, the runt of the litter. Here are some fundamentals and grades:\n\nTicker - 5-yr Sales Growth - Net Profit Margin - PEG - Price/Cash Flow - ROE/ROA - On-Balance Volume Index - Morningstar Grades (Growth, Profitability, Financial Health)\n\nRDEN - 1.08 - 3.6 - 1.34 - 10.4 - 13.1/4.5 - 91 - (B, C-, C-)\nEL - 7.37 - 4.9 - 1.53 - 13.9 - 22.6/9.9 - 476 - (B, A, A)\nACV - 8.71 - 6 - 1.55 - na - 14.4/9.5 - 215 - (B, A, A+)\nIPAR - 22.74 - 5.5 - 1.74 - 20.3 - 11.8/6.3 - 133 - (A, A-, C+)\nPARL - 10.33 - 11.3 - na - 16 - 19.9/15.5 - 142 - (A, B, B)\n\nRDEN has the weakest fundamentals and growth. Even its volume indes shows that the Street is ignoring this stock in favor of some more attractive offerings.\n\nSpeaking of dogs, here are some flattering picks of two of the faces of RDEN:\n\n\nBlog Hog John Coumarianos pointed me to Estee Lauder (EL). EL's brands are not tied to individuals who can age less-than-gracefully, or quickly revert to their natural Cinderella-after-midnight trailer trash state upon marrying a Cletus. EL's brands include Beautiful, White Linen, and Pleasures--all timeless, pristing, evocative names.\n\nParlux (PARL) and Inter Parfums (IPAR) have classy brands as well. PARL has the licenses for Todd Oldham and Perry Ellis scents. IPAR manufactures and distributes Burberry, Paul Smith, and, um, Celine (but they looove her in Vegas...and in Quebec).\n\nAlberto-Culver (ACV) owns TRESemme, a sponsored product featured on the Best Reality Show, Project Runway. Why is it the Best? Because if I'm compelled to tune in every week to a show about fashion designers, AND Heidi Klum is shaped like an over-inflated kickball, then the show is doing many things right.\n\nEL and ACV are the established players getting tremendous notice by the Street, at least according to their trading volumes. PARL and IPAR are smaller growth plays that are getting also getting some notice. To me, they are the difference between floral and musk scents; just depends on your nose and personal taste. They all seem fine.\n\nAny thoughts from my seven or eight readers?\n\n\nAnonymous said...\n\nCan we talk about what Citi Trends has been doing? It hit 48 this week. We need some more of those my man!\n\nPJP said...\n\nYes, yes, yes...it is a realistic outcome for many and if we don't watch out then we might have abd credit as well. Fortunately, you folks can go here to fix those problems...\n\nbad credit mortgage loan late credit repair fix free", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9611825346946716}
{"content": "What is Wheelchair Basketball\n\nBasketball does not just have to be strictly regulated by the rules of the game of indoor wooden court. There are actually many different versions of the game that bring basketball to a whole new level.\n\nVariety is one of the things that makes basketball so popular sport. With all the ways to play this game, it is not surprising that people around the world play the game. This is true no matter who they are, how old they are or in what limitations they may be physically.\n\n\nWheelchair basketball, as the name suggests, is played in wheelchairs. The chairs are designed in such a way that they move in the court quickly and easily. In addition, they are made so that the players can be flexible, as well as traditional basketball players. Wheelchair basketball is a major sport that is regulated by the International Federation of Wheelchair Basketball (IWBF).\n\nBasketball images gallery\n\nRelated News:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7795109748840332}
{"content": "The ÖSD is a central language testing and assessment system with unified standards, which is not linked to any specific language courses. ÖSD exams correspond to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and “Profile deutsch”.\nThe ÖSD sees itself as a communicative-oriented examination system which aims to assess foreign language competence in real-life situations.\nThe ÖSD supports a pluricentric view of languages: all standard varieties of German as spoken in Austria, Germany and Switzerland are considered equal. The ÖSD tries to take account of the many varieties of German in its exams, so that candidates can cope in all German-speaking countries. This means that the receptive tasks in particular (reading and listening skills) are based on texts from all three German-speaking countries.\n\nÖSD exams are based on the following basic principles:\n\n1. Close contact with reality:\n\n  • If possible, texts and tasks are authentic and adapted to real-life situations. The situations in which speaking take place are chosen for their relevance and representativeness. This not only includes the authenticity of texts and tasks but also their situational context.\n\n2. Test formats:\n\n  • The tasks should reflect the abilities of the candidates as closely as possible, i.e. when testing listening skills, the results should not be distorted by a task that also asks for excellent writing skills, a good memory or successful oral production. Conversely, no valid conclusions as regards productive skills such as writing and speaking can be drawn from multiple-choice tests. In these cases, more open tasks are preferred.\n\n3. Skills :\n\n  • To obtain a comprehensive and balanced picture of a person’s language competence, ÖSD exams are divided into different parts. The ÖSD differentiates between individual communicative skills (reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing skills, speaking) and combined communicative skills (for example listening and speaking: conversation; reading and writing: correspondence).\n\n    Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling are regarded as secondary aspects of communicative competence and are, thus, only implicitly checked and assessed.\n\n4. Assessment:\n\n  • The more open and direct a language exam is, the higher the demands placed on examiners and assessors.\n    We do not only provide precise assessment guidelines and criteria but also run intensive courses for examiners in which assessment training is carried out in order to ensure reliable evaluation and assessment.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8006435632705688}
{"content": "131 terms\n\n\nanswers from test 1 and 2. definitions, terms, etc for final exam review\nthe academic discipline of criminology uses scientific methods to study the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior\nCaesar Beccaria. 1700's, one of the first scholars to develop a systematic understanding of why people commit crime.\n-the idea that people want to achieve pleasure and avoid pain\nClassical Criminology\nlet the punishment fit the crime\n-theoretical perspective suggesting that people have free will to choose criminal or conventional behaviors\n-people choose to commit crime for reasons of greed or personal need\n-crime can be controlled by the fear of criminal sanctions\nfather of criminology\n-man that referred to offenders as \"born criminals\"\nindividuals interact with various people, organizations, institutions, and social norms as they mature and develop\nCritical Criminology\nthe writings of Karl Marx have had a great impact on critica crim\n-faults the economic system for producing the conditions that lead to high crime rates\ndeviant act becomes a crime\na deviant act becomes a crime when it is deemed socially harmful or dangerous and is defined, prohibited, and punished under criminal law\nConsensus view of crime\nimplies that crimes are behaviors that all members of society consider to be repugnant, be they rich and powerful or poor and powerless\nconflict view of crime\nsees society as a collection of diverse groups who are in a constant and continuing struggle to gain political power in order to advance their economic or social situation\nencouraging revenge\nnot a legitimate social goal of the criminal law\namerican legal system\ndirect descendent of british common law\nCode of Hammurabi\nthe most famous set of written laws of the ancient world was a code based on punishment via physical retaliation 'an eye for an eye'\nunder common law, it a royal judge successfully applied a ruling in a number of different cases and published that ruling in order that other judges cold apply the ruling in their subsequent decisions, the ruling would become a precedent\nserious crimes\nminor crimes\nprimary source of crime data collected by the FBI\nnonreporting issue\nrates per 100,000 total U.S. population\nyouth crime\nThe reporting accuracy of self-report studies is impacted by\nthe \"missing cases\" phenomenon.\nToday's violent crime rate as decreased by nearly 40%.\nBetween 1991 and 2008, homicide rates dropped 40%.\non July 1st with a temperature of 80 degrees\nthe level of hormone activity in the brain\nproliferation of handguns\nFranklin Zimring and Gordon HAwkins believe this to be the single most significant factor seperating the crime problem in the US from that of the rest of the developed world\nlaw enforcement practices\nUCR data associates social class with crime, indicating higher crime rates in inner-city, high poverty areas. an alternative explanation for the association between social class and crime is this\n% of female chronic offenders\npersistence and desistence\n50% lower\nWomen are more likely to be victimized by someone they know.\nthe cycle of violence.\ntarget vulnerability\nresearch on males and females indicates a strong association between victimization and ___.\nRoutines Activity Theory\nthe view that victimization results from the interaction of three everyday factors: the availability of suitable targets, the absences of capable guardians, and the presences of motivated offenders\nVictim risk diminishes rapidly after age\nguardians decreased as a result of increased female participation in the workforce\nCrisis Intervention Programs\nprograms that assist victims who feel isolated and vulnerable and who are in need of immediate or emergency services\nvictim precipitation theory\nVictim-Offender reconciliation programs\nmediated face to face encoutners between victims and their attackers that are designed to produce restitution agreements are called:\na neighborhood with educational and residential properties\nTarget anagonism\nvictim advocates.\nat the end of the 19th century, the popularity of the classical approach began to decline as ____ criminologists focused their attentions on internal and external factors, such as poverty, IQ, and education, rather than personal choice and decision making\ncost-benefit analysis\nGary Becker\n-criminals engage in cost benefit analysis of crime\nedge work\nthe high or excitement of successfully executing illegal activities in dangerous situations\ncrime discouragers\nmechanical forms. cameras, lighting, etc\ngeneral deterrence\nconcept of general deterrence holds that the decision to commit crime can be controlled by the threat of criminal punishment\nperception of punishment\npeople who believe that they will be caught if hey commit crime are the ones most likely to be deterred from committing criminal acts\nResearch on the immediate impact of well-publicized executions:\ncertainty of punishment\nseductions of crime\nsocial classes\nculture of poverty\nTrait theory\nthe most abundant androgen, has been linked to criminality\nlocations with the highest conc. of lead also report highest levels of\nbrain scanning techniques using electronic images suggest which of he following statements is true\nboth violent criminals and substance abusers have impairment in the pre-frontal lobe\nCultural deviance theory combines elements of _____ and social disorganization theories.\nin adoption studies, which of the following strongly predicted a childs criminal behavior\na criminal biological father\ncontagion effect\nStrain theory holds that crime is a function of\nconflict between people's goals and means.\nShaw and McKay explained crime and delinquency within the context of\nthe changing urban environment and ecological development of the city.\ngenetic theory holds that criminality-producing traits are\naccording to the psychoanalytical perspective, the _____ develops as a result of incorporating within the personality the moral standards and values of parents, community, and significant others\nFreud developed ______ psychology that has remained a prominent segment of psychological theory ever since\nsocial learning theory holds that\npeople learn to be aggressive through their life experiences\npsychopaths and crime\npsychopaths tend to continue their criminal careers long after other offenders age out of crime\nsocial classes\nsegments of he population whose members have a relatively similar portion of desirable belongings, and who share attitudes, values and norms\nOscar Lewis argues that the crushing lifestyle of lower-class areas produces _____ that is passed on from one generation to the next\nculture of poverty\naccording to Shaw and McKay a ____ neighborhood is an area wracked by extreme poverty and suffering high rates of population turnover\ncommunity deterioration\nas working middle-class families flee inner-city poverty areas, the most disadvantaged population is consolidated in urban ghettos. the phenomenon results in a poverty:\nconcentration effect\nwhen members of he lower-class are unable to achieve symbols of success via conventional means they feel anger, frustration, and resentment, referred to as :\nMerton's social adaptation most closely associated with criminal behavior\nculturally defined goals and socially approved means for obtaining them\nWalter Miller identified the unique conduct norms that define the lower-class culture and that often clash with conventional values -> not one of these norms\nCohen's theory of delinquent sulbcultures focuses on social conditions that prevent lower-class youths from achieving success legitimately. Cohen labesls this form of culture conflict as:\nstatus frustration\nsocial process theories share one basic concept:\nsocial control theory suggests that\nrelative deprivation\nGeneral Strain Theory\ncultural transmission\nSocial reaction theory suggests that\nparental efficacy\nTroubled kids do so out of necessity rather than desire.\nAdolescents who do not receive affection from their parents during childhood are\nattend religious services\nnot one of the major principles of differential association\ndifferential associations may vary in meaning, reliability, and intention\nEdward Sutherland's differential association theory states that :\ncriminal behavior is learned like any other behavior\nCrime appears to be intergenerational.\nNeutralization theory points out that\nAttacking someone who is arguing with a friend.\nCriminals sometimes neutralize wrongdoings by maintaining that the crime victim \"had it coming\". example of which technique of neutralization\ndenial of responsibility\nWhat does Topalli's research on street criminals indicate?\nstreet criminals do not experience guilt that requires neutralization\nTravis Hirschi states that the social bonds a person maintains with society are divided into four main elements. not one of these elements\nHirschi tested the principal hypothesis of social control theory. While evidence was strong and supportive, what is the most controversial aspect of his conclusions\nany form of social attachment is beneficial , even to deviant peers and parents\nDelinquency may lead to weakened social bonds, not vice versa.\nthe boyhood friend of a convicted murderer is interviewed by the media and reports that the offender was withdrawn, suspicious, and negativistic as a youth. this is an example of\nretrospective reading\ndeviance amplification\ncrime control agencies\nAccording to conflict theorists, societal conflict promotes crime by\ncreating a social atmosphere in which the law is a mechanism for controlling have-not members of society.\nAccording to critical theorists, crime is a\npolitical concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes.\nsurplus value\nSupranational criminology is a specialization of critical theory that focuses on which type of crimes?\nwar crimes\nstate (organized) crime\nSome government experts use the \"ticking Bomb scenario,\" to justify which type of state crime?\nWhile mainstream criminologists criticize critical criminologists, what do critical criminologists accuse mainstream criminologists of doing?\nselling out their ideals for the chance to receive government funding\nAccording to Messerschmidt's views in Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Crime what factor explains why females in society commit fewer crimes than males?\ndouble marginality\nJohn Lea and Jock Young, leaders of the leftist realism movement, contend that\nthe poor are doubly abused, first by the capitalist system and then by members of their own class.\nGirls growing up in ______ are socialized to fear legal sanctions more than males; consequently, boys in these families exhibit more delinquent behavior than their sisters.\npaternalistic families\nWhich of the following is true regarding restorative justice programs?\nRestoration programs have been part of peacekeeping in Asian, Native American and Native Canadian communities for centuries.\nA number of restorative justice experts, including Gordon Bazemore, have suggested that restorative justice should be organized around the principle of\nthe integrative methodology in the early research of _____ formed the basics of todays developmental approach\nEleanor Glueck and Sheldon Glueck\nLatent trait theorists believe human development is controlled by a master trait present at birth or soon after that results in\nan increased propensity to commit crime.\nthe authority conflict pathway\nWhy is early onset an important factor in crime?\nBecause early onset of antisocial behavior predicts later and more serious criminality.\nOne of the key principles of life course theory is that\nthe seeds of a criminal career are planted early in life.\nbecause it assumes that human character is selfish, self-serving and hedonistic, the general theory of crime is criticized for\nmisreading human nature\nWhich empirical evidence supports the general theory of crime?\nLow self-control is significantly related to antisocial behavior and the association can be seen regardless of culture or national setting.\nWhich of the following statements regarding gender differences and the general theory of crime is accurate?\nThere is little evidence that males are more impulsive than females.\nAccording to latent trait theory, when does a latent trait appear?\nat birth or soon after", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9194233417510986}
{"content": "Ups and downs: More challenges for autonomous car development\n\nThe automotive world will continue developing in 2016, especially with news that one of its defining trends is still in a state of flux. \n\nThe pursuit of safer and more fuel efficient vehicles is a challenge for automotive manufacturers.\n\nThe pursuit of safer and more fuel efficient vehicles is a challenge that's involving more than just established automotive brands, especially as self-driving cars appear to be the answer to many of the industry's current problems. \n\nHowever, it remains difficult for fleet managers to get a concrete idea of how these trends will affect their roles in the coming years. While the technology is making progress, and elements of it have already surfaced in new cars, the complicated web of rigorous testing procedures and regulatory pressures could be holding these systems back. \n\nFord ramps up autonomous development\n\nWhile pared down versions of self-driving cars are already available in some vehicles through systems such as autonomous emergency braking, fully fledged examples are unlikely to be in the hands of consumers for a few more years. \n\nThe technology is rapidly coming together, however. Google doubled its fleet of these vehicles over 2015 and, more recently, Ford expanded its testing regime. \n\nFord will launch its first major autonomous testing program on public roads, with the company announcing that a fleet of its vehicles will hit Californian streets. Not only are these vehicles self-driving, they're green cars too, as Ford Fusion Hybrids will lead the charge.\n\nFord president and CEO Mark Fields stated the company is reaching beyond its usual resources to achieve these goals, noting the initiative will bridge the gap between the tech world and the automotive one. \n\n\nCalifornian streets are the scene for autonomous testing. Californian streets are the scene for autonomous testing.\n\nPossible roadblock for autonomous vehicles\n\nOvercoming the technological boundaries is not the only challenge for manufacturers investing the development of self-driving cars. In most places around the world, transport and vehicle regulations aren't prepared for self-driving vehicles, a fact which could prompt a rapid revision of the road rules as the technology develops. \n\nThe state of California set a notable precedent for these cars recently, with draft legislation stating that autonomous vehicles must have a driver behind the wheel. As many of the leading developers of these cars test on these streets, the decision is likely to have a significant impact on their future evolution.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8286648392677307}
{"content": "Lean Pharma\n\nThe continuous pricing pressure on drugs means that the pharmaceutical industry does not only need to deliver a patient-safe quality product, they must also produce it at the lowest possible cost. Therefore most pharmaceutical companies have (extensive) improvement programs deployed in their manufacturing area. Lean concepts such as TPM, SMED, 5S and visual management are in place to ensure a drug can be formulated, filled or packed within the smallest timeframe and at the lowest cost possible.\n\n  • Jan Van Loon\n  • January 12, 2017\n\nBut how many improvement projects are conducted on production-supporting processes? How lean or defect-proof are they? Many of these processes are established to ensure product quality and although they might, by definition, not directly add value to the product, they may add a significant cost if not executed in an efficient and effective manner.\n\nAn example of these production supporting processes is the deviation handling process. Unfortunately not every manufacturing (or laboratory) activity goes according to plan and deviations from standardized procedures occur. These deviations must be documented and their impact on quality and compliance must be assessed. The cause should be determined and corrective and preventive actions must be defined and approved by the responsible parties. As the process lies on the critical path to product release, and deviations with quality impact might be subject to regulatory notification timelines, it’s essential that this process runs efficiently, without compromising on the quality of the outcome. Bearing in mind that the most ‘lean’ way of deviation handling is to have no deviations at all, it is of major importance to identify the true root cause of a deviation and prevent it from reoccurring.\n\nBut it’s not only the deviation handling process that impacts the product release. Laboratory testing and batch record review increase lead times as well. While pharmaceutical laboratories often have continuous improvement initiatives such as Lean Laboratory, it is noticed that they are hard to maintain when the workload is rising. The batch record review process is a very administrative and time-consuming process, and often forgotten when it comes to continuous improvement efforts. What must be reviewed, when and by whom? Often parameters are systematically reviewed due to a one-time deviation, but this is hardly ever the best solution. The more different products a company has, the more challenging it becomes to define a standard way of working and implement a lean approach.\n\nToday, most continuous improvement programs focus on manufacturing processes. However, once manufactured, the product’s critical path to release is determined by laboratory and quality assurance processes. As a result, today’s challenge is to make these processes time- and cost-efficient so their impact on the supply chain stays as low as possible. Therefore they should be part of an improvement program that emphasizes on waste elimination (to ensure an effective process), standard work (to ensure a repetitive process) and visual management (to ensure a controlled process). Continuous improvement can be enforced by assigning resources that become available by conducting improvement projects to the further analysis and improvement of the standard.\n\nDo you need some advice on how to tackle these challenges? Ordina’s Quality and Compliance team has the knowledge and experience to assist you in doing this.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8895336985588074}
{"content": "History of Algebra\n\n\nBy the time of Plato, Greek mathematics had undergone a drastic change. The Greeks created a geometric algebra where terms were represented by sides of geometric objects, usually lines, that had letters associated with them. Diophantus (3rd century AD), sometimes called \"the father of algebra\", was an Alexandrian Greek mathematician and the author of a series of books called Arithmetica. These texts deal with solving algebraic equations.\n\nThe word algebra comes from the Arabic language (الجبر al-jabr \"restoration\") and much of its methods from Arabic/Islamic mathematics. Earlier traditions discussed above had a direct influence on Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (c. 780–850). He later wrote The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, which established algebra as a mathematical discipline that is independent of geometry and arithmetic.\n\nThe Hellenistic mathematicians Hero of Alexandria and Diophantus as well as Indian mathematicians such as Brahmagupta continued the traditions of Egypt and Babylon, though Diophantus' Arithmetica and Brahmagupta's Brahmasphutasiddhanta are on a higher level. For example, the first complete arithmetic solution (including zero and negative solutions) to quadratic equations was described by Brahmagupta in his book Brahmasphutasiddhanta. Later, Arabic and Muslim mathematicians developed algebraic methods to a much higher degree of sophistication. Although Diophantus and the Babylonians used mostly special ad hoc methods to solve equations, Al-Khwarizmi was the first to solve equations using general methods. He solved the linear indeterminate equations, quadratic equations, second order indeterminate equations and equations with multiple variables.\n\nThe Greek mathematician Diophantus has traditionally been known as the \"father of algebra\" but in more recent times there is much debate over whether al-Khwarizmi, who founded the discipline of al-jabr, deserves that title instead. Those who support Diophantus point to the fact that the algebra found in Al-Jabr is slightly more elementary than the algebra found in Arithmetica and that Arithmetica is syncopated while Al-Jabr is fully rhetorical. Those who support Al-Khwarizmi point to the fact that he introduced the methods of \"reduction\" and \"balancing\" (the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation) which the term al-jabr originally referred to, and that he gave an exhaustive explanation of solving quadratic equations, supported by geometric proofs, while treating algebra as an independent discipline in its own right. His algebra was also no longer concerned \"with a series of problems to be resolved, but an exposition which starts with primitive terms in which the combinations must give all possible prototypes for equations, which henceforward explicitly constitute the true object of study\". He also studied an equation for its own sake and \"in a generic manner, insofar as it does not simply emerge in the course of solving a problem, but is specifically called on to define an infinite class of problems\".\n\nThe Persian mathematician Omar Khayyam is credited with identifying the foundations of algebraic geometry and found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation. Another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī, found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function. The Indian mathematicians Mahavira and Bhaskara II, the Persian mathematician Al-Karaji, and the Chinese mathematician Zhu Shijie, solved various cases of cubic, quartic, quintic and higher-order polynomial equations using numerical methods. In the 13th century, the solution of a cubic equation by Fibonacci is representative of the beginning of a revival in European algebra. As the Islamic world was declining, the European world was ascending. And it is here that algebra was further developed.\n\nFrançois Viète’s work at the close of the 16th century marks the start of the classical discipline of algebra. In 1637, René Descartes published La Géométrie, inventing analytic geometry and introducing modern algebraic notation. Another key event in the further development of algebra was the general algebraic solution of the cubic and quartic equations, developed in the mid-16th century. The idea of a determinant was developed by Japanese mathematician Kowa Seki in the 17th century, followed independently by Gottfried Leibniz ten years later, for the purpose of solving systems of simultaneous linear equations using matrices. Gabriel Cramer also did some work on matrices and determinants in the 18th century. Permutations were studied by Joseph Lagrange in his 1770 paperRéflexions sur la résolution algébrique des équations devoted to solutions of algebraic equations, in which he introduced Lagrange resolvents. Paolo Ruffini was the first person to develop the theory of permutation groups, and like his predecessors, also in the context of solving algebraic equations.\n\nAbstract algebra was developed in the 19th century, initially focusing on what is now called Galois theory, and on construc tibility issues. The \"modern algebra\" has deep nineteenth-century roots in the work, for example, of Richard Dedekind and Leopold Kronecker and profound interconnections with other branches of mathematics such as algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. George Peacock was the founder of axiomatic thinking in arithmetic and algebra. Augustus De Morgan discovered relation algebra in his Syllabus of a Proposed System of Logic. Josiah Willard Gibbs developed an algebra of vectors in three-dimensional space, and Arthur Cayley developed an algebra of matrices (this is a noncommutative algebra).\n\nNo comments:\n\nPost a Comment\n\nDo leave your feedback on the comment box below.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.6614795923233032}
{"content": "lunes, 28 de enero de 2013\n\nVerifying Listeria killing via an innocuous indicator in foods\n\nVerifying Listeria killing via an innocuous indicator in foods.has the same rate of degradation when subjected to heat as Listeria.\nThe industry uses heat treatment as an additional safeguard to kill off pathogens in products such as ready-to-eat foods, which involve minimal cooking after processing. Amylase has the same rate of degradation when subjected to heat as Listeria and is harmless if ingested.\n\nA Norwegian food researcher devised the method as one of two ways to test the reliability of heat treatment methods in eliminating Listeria monocytogenes in food. The other procedure involved examining the effect of heat treatments on actual Listeria cells encapsulated in alginate beads. However, because this involves the use of a pathogen, food safety rules dictate that it can’t be used on production lines.\n\nBy contrast, the simulation method could be and consequently provided a more trustworthy picture of Listeria control under plant conditions. The organization partnered a fish cake manufacturer on the research.\n\nBurgers and fish cakes were often fried or grilled on both sides, but this was still not sufficient to completely kill all Listeria pathogens. It is known that manufacturers validate their own lines in an incomplete way. Many measure the core temperature at the end of the line, but that may not be enough, you need to see if there are cold spots in some of the burgers.\n\nResearchers had also been testing the survival rate of Listeria monocytogenes encapsulated in alginate beads after microwave heat treatment in a lab context through this method you  can introduce Listeria directly in line. It is easier to use a harmless enzyme when conducting research in real production lines, as this avoids contamination of the processing equipment and foods.\n\n\n\nNo hay comentarios.:", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9579978585243225}
{"content": "\n\nMen's health issues are an area that Echo Pharmacy can help with. When we compound, we listen so that your medication is customized and you get the most benefits from it.\n\nSome concerns that we can help with are:\n\n- Erectile dysfunction\n- Low libido\n- Loss of zest for life\n- Prostrate and bladder health\n- Aches and Pains\n- Fungal Infections, athletes foot, jock itch\n- Hair loss\n- Excessive sweating\n- Chronic Bad Breath\n- Aging Skin\n\nIn addition, the compounding pharmacist may be able to include nutritional support to help maintain your health.\nOne of the many benefits of using a compounding pharmacy, such as Echo Pharmacy, is that we have the ability to alter the dosage form of a drug, from a tablet or capsule to a topical form.\n\nTopical forms can include creams, lotions, ointments or gels that are applied directly to the skin. The topical preparation allows the drug to be absorbed through the skin and enter the bloodstream, bypassing the intestinal tract and reducing\nthe risk of side effects.\n\nWe work along with your physician and you, to improve the quality of your life. In this way, you get the most from your medication with the least amount of side effects. Most of our compounded medications contain no dyes or\nartificial ingredients.\n\n\n\n- Decreased Libido –muscle mass\n- Impotence\n- Osteoporosis\n- Heart Disease\n- Sleep Disorders\n- Depression\n- Anxiety\n- Strength and Stamina\n\n\nAs men age and some of these symptoms appear it could be due to male menopause also known as andropause. These symptoms are usually due to decreasing levels of testosterone or increasing levels of estrogen.\n\nThe answer may be as simple as a compounded cream applied daily to bring your levels back into balance and restore your vitality.\n\nAt Echo Pharmacy, we can help you along with your doctor, address your individual symptoms or concerns to formulate a compounded prescription solution to fit your unique body.\n\nMen's Health Compounding\n\nMen's Health Compounding\n\nMen's Health Compounding", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.9989398717880249}
{"content": "Over the years, we have encountered many situations where compounding has been an effective solution.\n\nSwallowing issues:\nMany times, we hear that a child can’t take pills, but we can compound a medication into a different dosage form, for example:\n\n- liquids that can be flavored\n- lollipops\n\n- lozenges\n\n- topical gels & more\n\nWhat happens when a child is sick with nausea and vomiting?\nWe can compound a medication into a suppository or dosage form that would be tolerable. We work closely with you, your physician and child to find an effective solution for many conditions including:\n\n- Pain relief\n- Malabsorption\n- Thrush\n- Skin conditions\n- Cold sores\n- Diaper rash\n\nMany children with special needs can be helped when we make medications  SUGAR FREE,  DYE FREE, GLUTEN FREE and PRESERVATIVE FREE\n\nPediatric Compounding\n\nPediatric Compounding", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 1.000008463859558}
{"content": "Gunite Start-Up Procedures\n\nPool Start Up Services\n\n\n\nNo one should be allowed in the pool until it is completely filled, water chemistry has been adjusted, and we have started up the pool pump.\n\nOnce the pool is built, we will begin filling it with water. Please keep a close eye on your pool and turn off the water once it reaches the middle of you skimmer. You do not want the pool to overfill or flood.\n\nWe will start up the pool equipment to filter the water and begin the curing process of the pool finish. We will want the pump to run for about 30 days, 24-7 and then you can adjust the pump time depending on the time of year. March-November 10-12 hours a day, December-February 4 hours a day.\n\nWater Chemistry\n\nWe will start up your brand new pool and adjust the water chemistry.\n\nIf you have a salt water pool, we will leave the correct amount of salt for you to add after 30 days. Adding the salt earlier can damage the pool finish.\n\nOnce you have added the salt and the water temperature is over 60 degrees, your system will produce chlorine. During the fall or winter when the water temperature is below 60, you may need to keep a small amount of chlorine in your pool. Once the water temperature reaches about 60 degrees in the spring, the system will start producing your chlorine again.\n\nHere are some of the steps that we will go over with your water chemistry.\n\nFor the first 30 days, test your water every 3 days with the simple test strips we provide.\n\nIt is extremely important to keep the PH and Alkalinity in check during the cure phase. PH will increase as the pool cures. You will need to reduce this by adding Muriatic acid so that the PH reading is in the low range of 7 – 7.2 Acid should carefully be added to the deep area of your pool. Do not pour directly over steps or shallow areas.\n\nIf your pool has a plaster or quartz finish, you will need to vigorously brush all surfaces with the steel brush we provide for the first 30 days. This helps in the curing process. Your pool surface is very delicate during the cure phase. Do not allow any lawn fertilizers or foreign material in the pool.\n\nIf your pool has a Pebble Tec or Pebble Sheen finish, you will only need to brush the pool a few times. This is done simply to knock loose any of the small pebbles that did not attach.\n\nMake adjustments to your water per the directions on each container of chemicals.\n\nAlways dilute the chemicals in a bucket with water (water first) and never mix them together, before adding to the pool.\n\nPool chemicals are added directly to the pool except UV Block . This is added to the skimmer.\n\nAfter 30 days, start testing your water once a week and make adjustments as necessary.\n\nIf you have a salt water pool, you will be making adjustments to your chlorine output a few times a year to dial in the proper range that is recommended.\n\nRemember a crystal clear pool does not mean that the chemistry is correct. Testing and balancing the water each week will prevent corrosive water conditions that can damage your pool.\n\nIf you have a pool heater, do not turn it on for the first 30 days to allow the finish to cure properly.\n\nAdd water or drain water so that it is at the middle of the skimmer for proper surface cleaning.\n\nRemove toys and floats after swimming so that the skimmers will not be blocked.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.5525603294372559}
{"content": "Wednesday, February 28, 2007\n\nA gripefest about language use\n\nPeople have always complained about others’ use of the English language, and have looked back to previous generations as golden ages of English while bemoaning the language of the youth of today. Julie Blake covered the history and background to such complaints about language change in her Bilious Pigeon lecture at the last SFX Language Conference, and it’s now an article in the February emag (in the LRC).\n\nA recent discussion in class about the conversion of the noun text to the verb to text and younger people’s use of the past tense form “I text you yesterday” rather than what I thought was the “right” past tense form “I texted you yesterday”, is maybe a case in point. To me, as a 30-something English teacher, it seems normal to say “text” in the present tense and then add the –ed inflection in the past tense. But for (I think) everyone in the two A2 classes that was strange, abnormal, weird, just…extra. Even Gbemi’s dad thinks it’s weird and he’s probably older than me. So, who’s right? Well, we all are to some extent, but if the usage of text as a past tense continues to spread, then you’ll be standard in your use and I’ll be just a bit old-fashioned and non-standard in mine. Then I'll start to moan about the youth of today having no respect.\n\nLikewise, the trend towards missing out prepositions like “to” in utterances like “I’m going Peckham”, or “You going library” seems to growing beyond casual, colloquial use into more formal settings. Maybe that too will spread to become the standard form among a whole generation. There’s probably someone researching it now.\n\nBut in wider society (i.e. away from SFX and Sarf LDN) many, many people have their own linguistic bugbears, and two websites have called for their readers to add their own.The response has been huge. According to\nThe Language Log blog, “at the New York Times, Dick Cavett's inaugural blog post \"It's only language\" now has 761 comments. And across the Atlantic, on the Telegraph's web site, readers have devoted more than 1,270 comments”\n\nOld favourites like like being “over-used” in speech (“And I was like “yeah?” and she was like “whatever”) and doubling-up of prepositions (“He’s Damon out of Blur” or “She’s inside of the house”) all appear, but there are many others too, like complaints about the verb to rob being used to describe thefts from houses as well as people. “The house was robbed” is seen as wrong by some of the contributors; they argue it should be “The house was burgled” as only people can be robbed. Have a look for yourselves.\n\nBut, as The Language Log points out, lots of these so-called wrong usages have actually been around for hundreds of years and the more recent ones are just matters of personal taste. Like so many prescriptive attitudes to language change, there are deeper social factors at work, and these are not just complaints about language but about a changing society.\n\nUnderneath it all, lies something a bit more psychological too: the need for people to get together into communities – either real or virtual – and hold gripefests about language. As\nthis article discusses, the unease that the gripers feel about abuses of their language, is probably more to do with social and psychological issues than it is to do with language itself. And the article goes on to ask where this will lead us.\n\nThe recent Lynne Truss and John Humphrys phenomenon - and David Crystal’s excellent response to both of them\nhere and in his book The Fight For English - show us that many people feel insecure about “correct” usage and how they will be judged by others if they speak incorrectly, while others are quick to correct us on our errors. But, equally, there are many people who go around blissfully unaware that they are being judged, looked down upon and condescended towards, by “correct” speakers. What the study of language at GCSE, A Level and beyond should be able to do is make all speakers of language aware that one person’s “incorrect” usage is another’s code-switching, and that so long as we all have some grasp of Standard English, we shouldn’t write off others’ language as inferior.\n\nUseful for:\nENA5 - Attitudes to Language Change\n\nSunday, February 25, 2007\n\nThe lexical patterns of liars\n\nIf you’re emailing a teacher with excuses for not being at a lesson, not giving in coursework or being late, and you’re telling porkies, beware; new software has been developed which can – according to this article in The Sunday Times - spot lies through your lexis.\n\nThe software has been designed by a team at Cornell University led by Jeff Hancock, and scans messages to discover a number of lexical patterns and trends, which might indicate that the writer is lying, with a 70% success rate so far.\n\nOne of the main giveaways is the length of a message. E-mails that mask a lie have, on average, 28% more words than truthful messages. “When you’re lying, you are trying to give a credible story so you provide more detail, you are in persuasive mode,” said Hancock.\n\nLiars are also more likely to use third-person pronouns, such as “they” and “he”, in a bid to distance themselves from a lie because of the guilt associated with it.\n\n“People also tend to use negative emotional terms because they feel uncomfortable when they are lying,” said Hancock. “So they tend to use terms like ‘sad’, ‘angry’, ‘unhappy’ and ‘stressed out’.”\n\nAnother telltale sign of a fib is the overuse of “sense terms”, such as “see”, “feel” and “touch”, which Hancock believes are employed to build up an elaborate and evocative account of a scenario that may never have happened.\n\nFinally, liars tend to use fewer “causal phrases” to minimise the chances of being caught out. So, for example, a person conducting an illicit affair is less likely to say they were unable to get home early last night because they were with someone else. “They will just say, ‘Sorry, I couldn’t meet you’ and be deliberately vague,” said Hancock.\n\nEmail is often described as a blunt tool, which doesn’t convey the nuances and tones of real face to face conversation, and it’s often blamed for misunderstandings between people. So, can a computer programme really reveal lies in people’s email style? There are skeptics, including psychologist, Peter Collett who says “The thing about lying is that a lot of it can be picked up from body language when you talk, it’s got something to do with the timing, the pacing and the actual utterances,” he said. “How can you get software to spot all this? With e-mails you are just left with lexical patterns”.\n\nBut with so much communication now carried out by email, maybe we’ve all developed our own styles – our own email idiolects - and the technology can work to reveal our little white lies. Or the big fat ones, like when my children try to get sweets and biscuits out of me by saying that I’m not bald. So, don’t try that one at college…\n\nThursday, February 22, 2007\n\nDying dialects\n\n\"It's been dying for some time and it will just die a natural death. I was brought up in the fishing industry, which has died out, and the dialect has gone as the place changes.\" So says Bobby Hogg, 87 years old and one of possibly two or three surviving speakers of a particular fisherman's dialect from Cromarty in the Highlands of Scotland.\n\nIn an article in The Scotsman newspaper this week, linguists and cultural historians had a look at the looming disappearance of another local dialect - not just a regional dialect but an occupational one too - and the significance of it to the rest of us.\n\nAnd it's not only in sleepy fishing villages that local dialects appear to be dying out, but in the urban heart of Scotland too. In a linked article, Miriam Meyerhoff, a professor of sociolinguistics at Edinburgh University looks at the ways in which the influence of southern English, American and Australian has changed the lexis and phonology of Scottish English.\n\nSo are we seeing the death of regional varieties of English, smothered under a blanket of mass media-driven metropolitan mumbling? Well, yes and no; as lots of recent research by linguists like Dave Britain at Essex University, Sue Fox at Queen Mary's University and Paul Kerswill at Lancaster University (among others) has shown, while dialect levelling is clearly taking place - local differences gradually blurring as wider and regional ones take hold - new dialects are also being created.\n\nHave a search under multi ethnic youth dialect or multi cultural london english in the search bar at the top of this page, to find a host of articles about new varieties of English, or better still, post your own examples here as comments.\n\nUseful for:\nENA5 - Language Varieties\n\nFriday, February 09, 2007\n\nFaggots swimming in gravy\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUseful for:\nENA1 - Language & Representation\n\nWednesday, February 07, 2007\n\nThe Importance of Context (and Prepositional phrases!)\n\nThis post is quite a technical but interesting one. It talks about clause structure and hopes to show how prepositional phrases help us identify ambiguity and in doing so show us the importance of context.\n(Yes I did get it from a supervisor but where's the harm in sharing the fun?)\n\nLet's analyse the following sentence on a phrasal level:\n\nI saw a man with a telescope in the park\n\nMost noticeably, there are four noun phrases\n(noun phrases tell us what exactly we are talking about in terms of entities/things):\n-'I' (remember phrases can in fact be one word when dealing with clause structure),\n-'a man',\n-'a telescope', and\n-'the park'.\n\nThere are also two prepositional phrases\n(I have recently been enlightened that these tell us not only about spatial relationships- 'on', 'above', 'underneath', etc- but also relationships regarding general awareness of things i.e. 'with', and 'between'):\n-'with a telescope', and\n-'in the park.'\n\n(I tried to argue that 'saw a man' was a verb phrase but I was told that was pushing it, so we'll disregard those but post if you agree with me that it so could be identified as one! Moving on Charissa..)\n\nPrepositional phrases (pps) are meant to tell us something about how these nouns and entities are related to each other right? Like what they are doing and who has them and stuff.\nNow, bearing this is mind-\nwhere is the man? I looked at my supervisor like duh- the man is in the park stupid.\nWhere are you if you are referring to yourself as 'I'? 'I'm watching the man in the park with me.'\nWhere is the park? 'Around me'\nWhere's the telescope? My response: 'it belongs to the man, so it's in the park also?' (by this time I'm not even sure myself now- there is a term for this which I really need to revise. Anyhow..) The argument goes thus:\n\nIs it not possible, that the pps have decieved you? You cannot possibly know where the man is and the park is etc simply by looking at the sentence- that is if we assume this is a complete sentence, as we have been given no punctuation to signal this is so.\n-What if the park was one of those parks with telescopes fitted in? you could be watching the man with the park's telescope but the man may not be in the park himself.\n-What if the telescope was by your bedroom window? You could be looking into the park through the telescope at the man, the man doesn't necessarily have to have the telescope.\n\nDidn't really enjoy the insinuations that I'd be the one watching men through telescopes (I don't for the record), nevertheless the point is clear. With literature, and indeed the texts we get in textual analysis papers, this ambiguity is removed and we wouldn't even be considering what the circumstances of these entities were. Literature builds up characters and tells us more about what we need to know, so that language becomes revealing of situations and places and events. Literature, in a way, makes pps safe and reassuring to us because it serves an adverbial or adjectival function. But, if we get one of those texts that begin with clauses such as the one given above, then these prepositional phrases become important for us to analyse as it'd be a major part as to how we're recieving the text and why we're making the technical judgements we are about the text at work.\n\nOf course this is just one example of how language complicates literature in an interesting way.\nHonestly, I'm not sure can't tell you how to directly apply this complication to a question, but perhaps if we consider what doesn't add up about the text given, pps would be a way in. What do you think?\n\nFarewell for now..", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.8583332896232605}
{"content": "Golden pastels\n\n vintage kimono\nzara shoes\n\nAh here we go, a little bit of anticipated beach-posing.. how could I not? I revived this beautiful belt on a cold winter day and frankly felt a bit confused how to make it work with all the clothing that had to be worn to survive. But I did the right decision bringing it with me to Thailand, most of my skirts look weirdly naked with out it now. Truly one of those things you don't know how much you really need until it's there, sitting securely on your waist.", "pred_label": "__label__1", "pred_score_pos": 0.7211896181106567}