Japanese History/The Taisho Period

From Wikibooks, open books for an open world
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Taishō period (大正時代 Taishō jidai?, "period of great righteousness"), or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen (or genrō) to the Diet of Japan and the democratic parties. Thus, the era is considered the time of the liberal movement known as the "Taishō democracy" in Japan; it is usually distinguished from the preceding chaotic Meiji period and the following militarism-driven first part of the Shōwa period.

Meiji legacy[edit]

On July 30, 1912, the Meiji Emperor died and Crown Prince Yoshihito became the new emperor of Japan and succeeded to the throne, beginning the Taishō period. The end of the Meiji period was marked by huge government domestic and overseas investments and defense programs, nearly exhausted credit, and a lack of foreign reserves to pay debts.

The influence of western culture experienced in the Meiji period continued. Kobayashi Kiyochika adopted western painting styles while continuing to work in ukiyo-e. Okakura Kakuzō kept an interest in traditional Japanese painting. Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki studied in the West and introduced a more modern view of human life.

On February 12, 1913 Yamamoto Gonnohyōe succeeded Katsura as prime minister. In April 1914, Ōkuma Shigenobu replaced Yamamoto.

World War I and hegemony in China[edit]

Seizing the opportunity of Berlin's distraction with the European War (which would become World War I) and wanting to expand its sphere of influence in China, Japan declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914, and quickly occupied German-leased territories in China's Shandong Province and the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall islands in the Pacific Ocean. On November 7, Jiaozhou surrendered to Japan.

Japan's power in Asia grew with the demise of the tsarist regime in Russia and the disorder of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Siberia. Wanting to seize the opportunity, the Japanese army planned to occupy Siberia as far west as Lake Baikal. To do so, Japan had to negotiate an agreement with China allowing the transit of Japanese troops through Chinese territory. Although the force was scaled back to avoid antagonizing the United States, more than 70,000 Japanese troops joined the much smaller units of the Allied Expeditionary Force sent to Siberia in 1918.

World War I permitted Japan, which fought on the side of the victorious Allies, to expand its influence in Asia and its territorial holdings in the Pacific. Acting virtually independently of the civil government, the Imperial Japanese Navy seized Germany's Micronesian colonies.

On October 9, 1916, Terauchi Masatake took over as prime minister from Ōkuma Shigenobu. On November 2, 1917, the Lansing-Ishii Agreement noted the recognition of Japan's interests in China and pledges of keeping an "Open Door Policy" (門戸開放政策). In July 1918, the Siberian Expedition was launched with the deployment of 75,000 Japanese troops. In August 1918, rice riots erupted in towns and cities throughout Japan.

Japan after World War I: Taishō Democracy[edit]

Communism and the response[edit]

The victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 and their hopes for a world revolution led to the establishment of the Comintern. The Comintern realized the importance of Japan in achieving successful revolution in East Asia and actively worked to form the Japanese Communist Party, which was founded in July 1922. The announced goals of the Japanese Communist Party in 1923 were an end to feudalism, abolition of the monarchy, recognition of the Soviet Union and withdrawal of Japanese troops from Siberia, Sakhalin, China, Korea and Taiwan. A brutal suppression of the party followed. Radicals responded with an assassination attempt on Prince Regent Hirohito. The 1925 Peace Preservation Law was a direct response to the "dangerous thoughts" perpetrated by communist elements in Japan.

Pan asianism was characteristic of right-wing politics and conservative militarism since the inception of the Meiji Restoration, contributing greatly to the pro-war politics of the 1870s. Disenchanted former samurai had established pan asianistic societies and intelligence-gathering organizations, such as the Gen'yōsha (玄洋社, founded in 1881) and its later offshoot, the Kokuryūkai (黒竜会 Black Dragon Society or Amur River Society, founded in 1901). These groups became active in domestic and foreign politics, helped foment prowar sentiments, and supported Pan asianist causes through the end of World War II.

Taishō foreign policy[edit]

An international turning point in military diplomacy was the Washington Conference of 1921–22, which produced a series of agreements that effected a new order in the Pacific region. Japan's economic problems made a naval buildup nearly impossible and, realizing the need to compete with the United States on an economic rather than a military basis, rapprochement became inevitable. Japan adopted a more neutral attitude toward the civil war in China, dropped efforts to expand its hegemony into China proper, and joined the United States, Britain and France in encouraging Chinese self-development.

In the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions signed on December 13, 1921, Japan, the United States, Britain and France agreed to recognize the status quo in the Pacific, and Japan and Britain agreed to terminate formally their Treaty of Alliance. The Five Power Naval Disarmament Treaty agreed to on February 6, 1922 established an international capital ship ratio for the United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy (5, 5, 3, 1.75, and 1.75, respectively) and limited the size and armaments of capital ships already built or under construction. In a move that gave the Japanese Imperial Navy greater freedom in the Pacific, Washington and London agreed not to build any new military bases between Singapore and Hawaii.

The goal of the Nine Power Treaty also signed on February 6, 1922, by Belgium, China, the Netherlands and Portugal, along with the original five powers, was the prevention of war in the Pacific. The signatories agreed to respect China's independence and integrity, not to interfere in Chinese attempts to establish a stable government, to refrain from seeking special privileges in China or threatening the positions of other nations there, to support a policy of equal opportunity for commerce and industry of all nations in China, and to reexamine extraterritoriality and tariff autonomy policies. Japan also agreed to withdraw its troops from Shandong, relinquishing all but purely economic rights there, and to evacuate its troops from Siberia.

The End of the Taishō Democracy[edit]

Overall, during the 1920s, Japan changed its direction toward a democratic system of government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted deeply enough to withstand the economic and political pressures of the 1930s, during which military leaders became increasingly influential. These shifts in power were made possible by the ambiguity and imprecision of the Meiji constitution, particularly as regarded the position of the Emperor in relation to the constitution. After this period of democracy Japan's government was to become a form of military dictatorship.

  • 1912: The Taishō Emperor assumes the throne (July 30). General Katsura Tarō becomes prime minister for a third term (December 21).
  • 1913: Katsura is forced to resign, and Admiral Yamamoto Gonnohyōe becomes prime minister (February 20).
  • 1914: Ōkuma Shigenobu becomes prime minister for a second term (April 16). Japan declares war on Germany, joining the Allies side (August 23).
  • 1915: Japan sends the Twenty-One Demands to China (January 18).
  • 1916: Terauchi Masatake becomes prime minister (October 9).
  • 1917: Lansing-Ishii Agreement goes into effect (November 2).
  • 1918: Siberian expedition launched (July). Hara Takashi becomes prime minister (September 29).
  • 1919: March 1st Movement begins against colonial rule in Korea (March 1).
  • 1920: Japan helps found the League of Nations.
  • 1921: Hara is assassinated and Takahashi Korekiyo becomes prime minister (November 4). Hirohito becomes regent (November 29). Four Power Treaty is signed (December 13).
  • 1922: Five Power Naval Disarmament Treaty is signed (February 6). Admiral Katō Tomosaburō becomes prime minister (June 12). Japan withdraws troops from Siberia (August 28).
  • 1923: The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo (September 1). Yamamoto becomes prime minister for a second term (September 2).
  • 1924: Kiyoura Keigo becomes prime minister (January 7). Prince Hirohito (the future Emperor Shōwa) marries Kuni no miya Nagako Nyoō (the future Empress Kōjun) (January 26). Katō Takaaki becomes prime minister (June 11).
  • 1925: General Election Law was passed, all men above age 25 gained the right to vote (May 5). Besides, Peace Preservation Law is passed. Princess Shigeko, Hirohito's first daughter, is born (December 9).
  • 1926: Emperor Taishō dies; Hirohito becomes emperor (December 25).

Japanese History

Further Reading


Object returned by sqlite select

Hi, I am trying to build an app using ionic v4 using the ionic native sqlite plugin. The documentation provided on the website as well as the github link are proving useless. I am curious about the object returned by a select statement. When I execute a select statement than I assume the promise receives some number of rows… what is the structure of this object and how can i access each row and its corresponding data values? I’m sorry to ask such a simple question but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Thanks for your help!


Angelis Borges

Source :

Sharing love and equality

What you can expect from commentators are various uses of expression. Expression depends on personality, and this professional is able to fuse their personality effectively into their content.

Clear, concise and straight to the point - this speaker has the ability to motivate and educate the audience with the perfect balance of humor and seriousness.

Investigating …

feel the fear and
do it anyway

Nulla consequat massa quis enim !!

Let us now introduce a suitable Kanji that depicts the way Angelis Borges lives. Kanji is ingrained in the Japanese culture with each character having a different meaning. 良心 is a common trait that every successful actor must possess. We feel that the Kanji character below best captures the essence of this influencer.

This Kanji means…Consciencious

Angelis Borges is a fascinating actor who has made great contributions to society. Want to learn more? Follow their social media links below!

We hope you're even more motivated now from Angelis Borges' perspective on life.


20th-century classical music

"Modern classical music" redirects here. For modernism in music, see Modernism (music).
Periods and eras of
Western classical music
Medieval c. 500–1400
Renaissance c. 1400–1600
Common practice
Baroque c. 1600–1750
Classical c. 1730–1820
Romantic c. 1780–1910
Impressionist c. 1875–1925
Modern and contemporary
c. 1890–1975
20th century (1900–2000)
c. 1975–present
21st century (2000–present)

20th-century classical music describes orchestral works, chamber music, solo instrumental works (including keyboard music), electronic music, choral music, songs, operas, ballets, concertos, symphonies, and related forms, as well as fantasies, rhapsodies, fugues, passacaglias and chaconnes, variations, oratorios, cantatas, suites, improvisational and newly developed formal concepts such as variable and mobile forms, that have been written and performed since 1900. This era was without a dominant style and composers have created highly diverse kinds of music. Modernism, impressionism, post-romanticism, neoclassicism, expressionism, and, later, minimalism were all important movements. Atonality, serialism, musique concrète and electronic music were all developed during this period. Jazz was an important influence on many composers in this period.

At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing. At the same time, the Impressionist movement, spearheaded by Claude Debussy, was being developed in France. Debussy in fact loathed the term Impressionism: "I am trying to do 'something different—in a way realities—what the imbeciles call 'impressionism' is a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by art critics" (Politoske and Martin 1988, 419). Maurice Ravel's music, also often labelled as impressionist, explores music in many styles not always related to it (see the discussion on Neoclassicism, below).

Arnold Schoenberg, Los Angeles, 1948

Many composers reacted to the Post-Romantic and Impressionist styles and moved in quite different directions. The single most important moment in defining the course of music throughout the century was the widespread break with traditional tonality, effected in diverse ways by different composers in the first decade of the century. From this sprang an unprecedented "linguistic plurality" of styles, techniques, and expression (Morgan 1984, 458). In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg developed atonality, out of the expressionism that arose in the early part of the 20th century. He later developed the twelve-tone technique which was developed further by his disciples Alban Berg and Anton Webern; later composers (including Pierre Boulez) developed it further still (Ross 2008, 194–96 and 363–64). Stravinsky (in his last works) explored twelve-tone technique, too, as did many other composers; indeed, even Scott Bradley used the technique in his scores for the Tom and Jerry cartoons (Ross 2008, 296).

Igor Stravinsky

Italian composers such as Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo developed musical Futurism. This style often tried to recreate everyday sounds and place them in a "Futurist" context. The "Machine Music" of George Antheil (starting with his Second Sonata, "The Airplane") and Alexander Mosolov (most notoriously his Iron Foundry) developed out of this. The process of extending musical vocabulary by exploring all available tones was pushed further by the use of Microtones in works by Charles Ives, Julián Carrillo, Alois Hába, John Foulds, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Harry Partch and Mildred Couper among many others. Microtones are those intervals that are smaller than a semitone; human voices and unfretted strings can easily produce them by going in between the "normal" notes, but other instruments will have more difficulty—the piano and organ have no way of producing them at all, aside from retuning and/or major reconstruction.

In the 1940s and 50s composers, notably Pierre Schaeffer, started to explore the application of technology to music in musique concrète (Dack 2002). The term electroacoustic music was later coined to include all forms of music involving magnetic tape, computers, synthesizers, multimedia, and other electronic devices and techniques. Live electronic music uses live electronic sounds within a performance (as opposed to preprocessed sounds that are overdubbed during a performance), Cage's Cartridge Music being an early example. Spectral music (Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail) is a further development of electroacoustic music that uses analyses of sound spectra to create music (Dufourt 1981; Dufourt 1991). Cage, Berio, Boulez, Milton Babbitt, Luigi Nono and Edgard Varèse all wrote electroacoustic music.

From the early 1950s onwards, Cage introduced elements of chance into his music. Process music (Karlheinz Stockhausen Prozession, Aus den sieben Tagen; and Steve Reich Piano Phase, Clapping Music) explores a particular process which is essentially laid bare in the work. The term experimental music was coined by Cage to describe works that produce unpredictable results (Mauceri 1997, 197), according to the definition "an experimental action is one the outcome of which is not foreseen" (Cage 1961, 39). The term is also used to describe music within specific genres that pushes against their boundaries or definitions, or else whose approach is a hybrid of disparate styles, or incorporates unorthodox, new, distinctly unique ingredients.

Important cultural trends often informed music of this period, romantic, modernist, neoclassical, postmodernist or otherwise. Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev were particularly drawn to primitivism in their early careers, as explored in works such as The Rite of Spring and Chout. Other Russians, notably Dmitri Shostakovich, reflected the social impact of communism and subsequently had to work within the strictures of socialist realism in their music (McBurney 2004, ). Other composers, such as Benjamin Britten (War Requiem), explored political themes in their works, albeit entirely at their own volition (Evans 1979, 450). Nationalism was also an important means of expression in the early part of the century. The culture of the United States of America, especially, began informing an American vernacular style of classical music, notably in the works of Charles Ives, John Alden Carpenter, and (later) George Gershwin. Folk music (Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, Gustav Holst's A Somerset Rhapsody) and Jazz (Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud's La création du monde) were also influential.

In the latter quarter of the century, eclecticism and polystylism became important. These, as well as minimalism, New Complexity, and New Simplicity, are more fully explored in their respective articles.

Romantic style

At the end of the 19th century (often called the Fin de siècle), the Romantic style was starting to break apart, moving along various parallel courses, such as Impressionism and Post-romanticism. In the 20th century, the different styles that emerged from the music of the previous century influenced composers to follow new trends, sometimes as a reaction to that music, sometimes as an extension of it, and both trends co-existed well into the 20th century. The former trends, such as Expressionism are discussed later.

In the early part of the 20th century, many composers wrote music which was an extension of 19th-century Romantic music, and traditional instrumental groupings such as the orchestra and string quartet remained the most typical. Traditional forms such as the symphony and concerto remained in use. Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius are examples of composers who took the traditional symphonic forms and reworked them. (See Romantic music.) Some writers hold that the Schoenberg's work is squarely within the late-Romantic tradition of Wagner and Brahms (Neighbour 2001, 582) and, more generally, that "the composer who most directly and completely connects late Wagner and the 20th century is Arnold Schoenberg" (Salzman 1988, 10).

Main article: Neoclassicism (music)

Neoclassicism was a style cultivated between the two world wars, which sought to revive the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of the 17th and 18th centuries, in a repudiation of what were seen as exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism. Because these composers generally replaced the functional tonality of their models with extended tonality, modality, or atonality, the term is often taken to imply parody or distortion of the Baroque or Classical style (Whittall 2001). Famous examples include Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Stravinsky's Pulcinella. Paul Hindemith (Symphony: Mathis der Maler) and Darius Milhaud also used this style. Maurice Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin is often seen as neo-baroque (an architectural term), though the distinction between the terms is not always made.

Jazz-influenced classical composition

George Gershwin

A number of composers combined elements of the jazz idiom with classical compositional styles, notably:

Claude Debussy (1908)

Impressionism started in France as a reaction, led by Claude Debussy, against the emotional exuberance and epic themes of German Romanticism exemplified by Wagner. In Debussy's view, art was a sensuous experience, rather than an intellectual or ethical one. He urged his countrymen to rediscover the French masters of the 18th century, for whom music was meant to charm, to entertain, and to serve as a "fantasy of the senses" (Machlis 1979, 86–87).

Other composers associated with impressionism include Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, Isaac Albéniz, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Charles Martin Loeffler, Charles Griffes, Frederick Delius, Ottorino Respighi, Cyril Scott and Karol Szymanowski (Machlis 1979, 115–18). Many French composers continued impressionism's language through the 1920s and later, including Albert Roussel, Charles Koechlin, André Caplet, and, later, Olivier Messiaen. Composers from non-Western cultures, such as Tōru Takemitsu, and jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Art Tatum, and Cecil Taylor also have been strongly influenced by the impressionist musical language (Pasler 2001a).

Main article: Modernism (music)

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Main article: Futurism (music)

At its conception, Futurism was an Italian artistic movement founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti; it was quickly embraced by the Russian avant garde. In 1913, the painter Luigi Russolo published a manifesto, L'arte dei rumori (The Art of Noises), calling for the incorporation of noises of every kind into music (Russolo 1913). In addition to Russolo, composers directly associated with this movement include the Italians Silvio Mix, Nuccio Fiorda, Franco Casavola, and Pannigi (whose 1922 Ballo meccanico included two motorcycles), and the Russians Artur Lourié, Mikhail Matyushin, and Nikolai Roslavets.

Though few of the futurist works of these composers are performed today, the influence of futurism on the later development of 20th-century music was enormous. Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, George Antheil, Leo Ornstein, and Edgard Varèse are among the notable composers in the first half of the century who were influenced by futurism. Characteristic features of later 20th-century music with origins in futurism include the prepared piano, integral serialism, extended vocal techniques, graphic notation, improvisation, and minimalism (Dennis and Powell 2001).

Free dissonance and experimentalism

Main article: Experimental music

In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Ives integrated American and European traditions as well as vernacular and church styles, while using innovative techniques in his rhythm, harmony, and form (Burkholder 2001). His technique included the use of polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones. Edgard Varèse wrote highly dissonant pieces that utilized unusual sonorities and futuristic, scientific-sounding names. He pioneered the use of new instruments and electronic resources (see below).

Main article: Expressionist music

By the late 1920s, though many composers continued to write in a vaguely expressionist manner, it was being supplanted by the more impersonal style of the German Neue Sachlichkeit and neoclassicism. Because expressionism, like any movement that had been stigmatized by the Nazis, gained a sympathetic reconsideration following World War II, expressionist music resurfaced in works by composers such as Hans Werner Henze, Pierre Boulez, Peter Maxwell Davies, Wolfgang Rihm, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann (Fanning 2001).

Postmodern music

Main article: Postmodern music

Postmodernism is a reaction to modernism, but it can also be viewed as a response to a deep-seated shift in societal attitude. According to this latter view, postmodernism began when historic (as opposed to personal) optimism turned to pessimism, at the latest by 1930 (Meyer 1994, 331).

John Cage is a prominent figure in 20th-century music, claimed with some justice both for modernism and postmodernism because the complex intersections between modernism and postmodernism are not reducible to simple schemata (Williams 2002, 241). His influence steadily grew during his lifetime. He often uses elements of chance: Imaginary Landscape No. 4 for 12 radio receivers, and Music of Changes for piano. Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48) is composed for a prepared piano: a normal piano whose timbre is dramatically altered by carefully placing various objects inside the piano in contact with the strings. Currently Postmodernism includes composers who react against the Avant-Garde and experimental styles of the late 20th century such as Astor Piazzolla,Argentina and Miguel del Aguila, USA

Main article: Minimal music

In the later 20th century, composers such as La Monte Young, Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and John Adams began to explore what is now called minimalism, in which the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features; the music often features repetition and iteration. An early example is Terry Riley's In C (1964), an aleatoric work in which short phrases are chosen by the musicians from a set list and played an arbitrary number of times, while the note C is repeated in eighth notes (quavers) behind them. Steve Reich's works Piano Phase (1967, for two pianos), and Drumming (1970–71, for percussion, female voices and piccolo) employ the technique called phasing in which a phrase played by one player maintaining a constant pace is played simultaneously by another but at a slightly quicker pace. This causes the players to go "out of phase" with each other and the performance may continue until they come back in phase.

Philip Glass's 1 + 1 (1968) employs the additive process in which short phrases are slowly expanded. La Monte Young's Compositions 1960 employs very long tones, exceptionally high volumes and extra-musical techniques such as "draw a straight line and follow it" or "build a fire". Michael Nyman argues that minimalism was a reaction to and made possible by both serialism and indeterminism (Nyman 1999, 139). (See also experimental music.)

Atonality and twelve-tone technique

See also: atonality

Arnold Schoenberg is one of the most significant figures in 20th-century music. While his early works were in a late Romantic style influenced by Wagner (Verklärte Nacht, 1899), this evolved into an atonal idiom in the years before the First World War (Drei Klavierstücke in 1909 and Pierrot Lunaire in 1912). In 1921, after several years of research, he developed the twelve-tone technique of composition, which he first described privately to his associates in 1923 (Schoenberg 1975, 213). His first large-scale work entirely composed using this technique was the Wind Quintet, Op. 26, written in 1923–24. Later examples include the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31 (1926–28), the Third and Fourth String Quartets (1927 and 1936, respectively), the Violin Concerto (1936) and Piano Concerto (1942). In later years, he intermittently returned to a more tonal style (Kammersymphonie no. 2, begun in 1906 but completed only in 1939; Variations on a Recitative for organ in 1941). He taught Anton Webern and Alban Berg and these three composers are often referred to as the principal members of the Second Viennese School (Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven—and sometimes Schubert—being regarded as the First Viennese School in this context). Webern wrote works using a rigorous twelve-tone method and influenced the development of total serialism. Berg, like Schoenberg, employed twelve-tone technique within a late-romantic or post-romantic style (Violin Concerto, which quotes a Bach Choral and uses Classical form). He wrote two major operas (Wozzeck and Lulu).

Electronic music

Edgard Varèse, one of the pioneers of electronic music

The development of recording technology made all sounds available for potential use as musical material. Electronic music generally refers to a repertory of art music developed in the 1950s in Europe, Japan, and the Americas. The increasing availability of magnetic tape in this decade provided composers with a medium which allowed recording sounds and then manipulating them in various ways. All electronic music depends on transmission via loudspeakers, but there are two broad types: acousmatic music, which exists only in recorded form meant for loudspeaker listening, and live electronic music, in which electronic apparatus are used to generate, transform, or trigger sounds during performance by musicians using voices, traditional instruments, electro-acoustic instruments, or other devices. Beginning in 1957, computers became increasingly important in this field (Emmerson and Smalley 2001). When the source material was acoustical sounds from the everyday world, the term musique concrète was used; when the sounds were produced by electronic generators, it was designated electronic music. After the 1950s, the term "electronic music" came to be used for both types. Sometimes such electronic music was combined with more conventional instruments, Stockhausen's Hymnen, Edgard Varèse's Déserts, and Mario Davidovsky's series of Synchronisms are three examples.

Other notable 20th-century composers

Various prominent composers from the 20th century are not associated with any widely recognised compositional movement. The list below includes some of them, as well as various significant classifiable composers who are not mentioned in the preceding parts of this article:

See also

Further reading

External links


Greenwich Borough F.C.

Greenwich Borough FC
Full name Greenwich Borough Football Club
Nickname(s) Boro, The Cannons
Founded 1928 (as Woolwich Borough Council Athletic Club)
Ground DGS Marine Stadium, Eltham Palace (Groundshare at Cray Valley PM F.C.)
Chairman Perry Skinner
Manager Gary Alexander
League Isthmian League Division One South
2015–16 Southern Counties
East League, 1st (promoted)

Greenwich Borough Football Club is a football club temporarily based in Eltham Palace, London. They currently play in Division One South of the Isthmian League.

Former England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright made his non-league debut with the club in a handful of appearances in 1985.[1]

Woolwich Borough Council Athletic Club

Greenwich Borough FC was formed as Woolwich Borough Council Athletic Club in 1928 and played most of their home games at Danson Park, Welling. The club joined the Woolwich and District League and were champions at the first attempt. They also reached the final of the Woolwich and District League Cup but lost 0–3 to Fibrent Athletic at Bexleyheath Town's ground. Owing to their success, "Borough" was awarded Senior status and joined the Kent Amateur League Division 1, where they failed to build upon a bright start over a number of years. The club moved a ground at Harrow Meadow, Eltham (now built over for housing) in 1933 and briefly disbanded during World War II.

South London Alliance League

In 1948 they relinquished their Senior status to join the South London Alliance League Division 2. In 1955, Woolwich Borough Council won the South London Alliance League Division 2 title and also came runners-up in the Elizabeth Jacques Cup. The following season they won the Division 1 title and were promoted to the South London Alliance Premier Division. The club then enjoyed their most successful period ever when they won the Premier Division title for six years running from 1961 to 1966 inclusive. During this time the club was twice winners (1965, 1966) and once runners-up (1964) of the Queen Mary Cup.

In 1965 the club changed their name to London Borough of Greenwich FC following a change of London Borough boundaries. The change of name was inauspicious and the club endured a trophy less drought until winning their seventh South London Alliance Premier Division title in 1974.

London Spartan League

In 1976, the club transferred to the London Spartan League and managed to finish runners-up in the Queen Mary Cup. The club regained its Senior status the following year. In 1978, Borough celebrated its 50th anniversary by inaugurating their floodlights at Harrow Meadow with a game against Charlton Athletic in front of over 2,000 spectators. The club continued to enjoy periodic success in the 1980s, including winning the London Spartan League Senior Division title in 1980 and the London Spartan League Senior Cup in 1983.

Kent Football League

For the 1984–85 season, the club changed to its current name of ""Greenwich Borough FC"" upon joining the Kent Football League. The club finished sixth in the league but also managed to win both the Kent League Cup and the Kent Senior Trophy. In this season, a promising Sunday League player called Ian Wright made his non-league debut for the club, later going on to play for Crystal Palace, Arsenal, West Ham United and the England National Team.

In 1987, Greenwich Borough won both the Kent League and the Kent League Cup double, scoring 113 goals along the way. In 1988, Borough again won the League and hoped to progress to the Southern Football League by way of significant planned improvements to their Harrow Meadow ground which were eventually blocked by Greenwich Council.

In the 1989–90 season Greenwich Borough reached the 4th round of the FA Vase before losing 4–5 in a replay against Harefield United. The club re-entered the FA Cup in 1993 and managed to progress to the 3rd Qualifying Round before being soundly beaten 0–4 at home to Molesey.

Southern Counties East League

The 1997–98 season saw a restructuring of the Kent League (known since 2013 as the Southern Counties East Football League) and Greenwich Borough being placed in the newly formed Premier Division. The Borough finished in 5th – their highest position for 9 years – and also won both the Kent League Cup and the Kent Senior Trophy.

In 2001, Borough finished as runners-up in the Kent League Cup, losing to Ramsgate in the final.

In the 2007–08 season the Borough set a new club record in the FA Vase by beating Horley Town, Thamesmead Town, Chichester City United, Wembley and Harefield United to reach the 5th round, before finally bowing out to Hungerford Town 1–2 in a tightly contested replay. The club also achieved a 3rd-place finish in the league.

In the 2013–14 season, the club reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup before being knocked out to Worcester City of the Conference North division.

Borough originally shared Harrow Meadow with a cricket club and the distance from the changing rooms to the original football pitch caused the ground to fail league grading requirements. The club subsequently acquired full use of the facilities and were able to move onto the area formerly occupied by the cricket pitch. The ground had a clubhouse and floodlights, but no seating and only a portion of the pitch perimeter had hard standing.

The end of the 2008–9 season saw the sale of Harrow Meadow to property developers, which precipitated a number of ground sharing agreements with other local clubs including Erith & Belvedere, Holmesdale (from 2009) and Dartford (from 2013).

In 2016, the club announced a new long-term return to Eltham through a ground sharing arrangement with Cray Valley (PM) for the Badgers Sports Ground on Middle Park Avenue.[2]

Current squad

No. Position Player
England GK Ben Bridle-Card
England GK Craig Holloway
England DF Gary Borrowdale
England DF Lewis Clark
England DF Rob Gillman
Republic of Ireland DF Paddy O'Connor
England DF Nathan Paul
England DF Danny Young
England MF Gary Alexander
England MF Jake Britnell
No. Position Player
England MF Ryan Dolby
England MF Ryan Johnson
England MF Peter Sweeney
Austria FW Jesse Darko
England FW Mohamed Eisa
England FW Yacine Gnahore
England FW Francisco Mbela
England FW Michael Power
England FW Tom Youngs

Club records

Coordinates: 51°22′26.84″N 0°02′14.63″E / 51.3741222°N 0.0373972°E / 51.3741222; 0.0373972


qbit (qubit or quantum bit) is the basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classical binary bit physically realized with a two-state device.

Qbit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics.

Examples include:

Qbit can be in a coherent superposition of both states/levels simultaneously, where a classical system, a bit would have to be in one state or the other which is a property which is fundamental to quantum mechanics and quantum computing.

Bit versus Qbit#

A binary digit, characterized as 0 and 1, is used to represent information in classical computers. A binary digit can represent up to one bit of data entropy, where a bit is the basic unit of data. Typically the word bit is synonymous with binary digit.

In classical computer technologies, a processed bit is implemented by one of two levels of low DC voltage, and switching from one of these two levels to the other, a so-called forbidden zone must be passed as fast as possible, as electrical voltage cannot change from one level to another instantaneously.

There are two possible outcomes for the measurement of a qbit—usually taken to have the value "0" and "1", like a bit or binary digit. However, whereas the state of a bit can only be either 0 or 1, the general state of a qbit according to quantum mechanics can be a coherent superposition of both.

Moreover, whereas a measurement of a classical bit would not disturb its state, a measurement of a qbit would destroy its coherence and irrevocably disturb the superposition state. It is possible to fully encode one bit in one qbit. However, a qbit can hold more information, e.g. up to two bits using superdense coding.

More Information#


Pregnancies, Simplified

Miracles’s Top skilled doctors will get you in form to reach pregnancy. Reach the perfect fit you’ve always wanted

Normal Pregnancy

For the whole reproductive life of a woman only around 500 eggs are required assuming that a woman will start menstruating at the age of 15 and stop menstruating at the age of 50 , and only one egg is liberated from the ovaries every cycle ( every month ). The eggs grow within the ovaries in small fluid filled cysts called follicles. They appear like small cysts ( black in colour on an ultrasound scan). Even though several follicles start to grow in the early part of the menstrual cycle, only one will reach maturity. The other follicles shrivel up and do not produce eggs.

The follicles grow under the influence of hormones produced by a small gland inside the brain called the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland produces two different hormones, one called the follicle stimulating hormone ( FSH ) which is produced in increasing amounts in the first part of the cycle. This hormone stimulates the follicle to grow inside the ovary. As the follicle grows it produces in turn the female hormone called oestrogen( E2 ). During the course of your treatment we assess the satisfactory growth of the follicle by ultrasound scan to measure the size of the follicle in millimeters and blood tests to measure the oestrogen levels. The ultrasound scan cannot visualize the eggs. Hence we cannot assess the quality of the eggs. As the follicle reaches sufficient maturity and produces enough oestrogen hormone, the pituitary gland switches off the follicle stimulating hormone ( FSH ) and produces a quick burst of the second hormone called luteinizing hormone ( LH ) which ruptures the follicle releasing the egg 24 – 38 hours later. This time is the most fertile part of the menstrual cycle to achieve a pregnancy. There are kits available to check the presence of LH hormone in the early morning urine and thereby predict ovulation.

The ovarian follicle now starts to produce another hormone called the progesterone ( P4 ) just prior to its rupture in addition to oestrogen. The progesterone levels keep on increasing until the third part of the menstrual cycle. When you see your gynaecologist they often do a blood test on day 21 of the cycle to assess the level of progesterone to confirm the ovulation.

The ovarian oestrogen hormone acts on the uterus and starts developing the inner lining of the uterus called the endometrium. This is measured in its thickness by ultrasound scan during your treatment cycle. The progesterone hormone produced by the follicle after it has ruptured acts on the thickened endometrium and softens it so that if the fertilised egg ( embryo ) reaches the uterine cavity it can implant on the endometrium and grow as a pregnancy.

The free end of the fallopian tube with the help of finger-like projections called fimbriae picks up the egg that is liberated from the follicle in the ovary. The egg is then gradually propelled along the fallopian tube by very thin hair-like processes in the wall of the tube called cilia towards the uterus. The egg normally meets the sperm in the outer third of the fallopian tube. The sperm enters the egg and fertilises it. The fertilised egg now reaches the uterus in about four to five days and gets implanted on the endometrium already primed by the two ovarian hormones oestrogen and progesterone.

If the implantation occurs, the resulting early pregnancy produces a specific hormone called human chorionic gonadotophin ( hCG ). This is the hormone that is detected in your blood test on “day 14” of your treatment cycle if you are pregnant. The hCG hormone stimulates the now empty ovarian follicle ( corpus luteum ) from where the ovulation has taken place to produce more progesterone hormone. This progesterone helps the pregnancy to grow further. This cyclical hormone production will continue until the third month of pregnancy. By this time the placenta will produce enough oestrogen and progesterone hormone to sustain a pregnancy.

It is very important that your pregnancy is monitored for the first three months as nearly 30% of the pregnancies are lost in the first three months as miscarriage.

Help us get in touch with you

+91 44 2532 1767

Close Menu

Camp Day on 25th May 2019

We are offering INR 50,000 off on ICSI Treatment.

With complimentary Blood and Urine Tests

hurry up and get a free consultation

offering you
Rs 50,ooo oFF ON ICSI.

And a free consultation with our renowned experts.

Valid only on 25th May 2019.

Walk in Now!!


Papua New Guineans need to vote for change

12/03/2012 21:58

Papua New Guinean voters checking out a list of candidates in the 2007 general election.

By Nick Laki @ Sharp Talk

If you are a member of a community or society which is going to vote in June you need to walk out to your next street, block, corner and campaign for CHANGE that will bail this country out of corruption, fraud and malicious and dictatorial leadership. We have suffered so long and there is a need for change for the better.

In this polling period I see some of the best crop of people running for elections around the country. They will put up banners, postcards, postures etc to show to the people what they will do when they get into power. Some will come with enticing words to convince the voters, while others will lure voters with money to get into power. Whatever methods the candidates use, it will be election time and we will only find out at the time of election on who will get into Parliament.
For the voters, it will be an ultimate challenge as to whom to vote in election and that is “the decision” that will make or break this country. There is speculations that bribery, guns, violence, bulling etc will be used but it is our decision as a voter and our belief in what is right that will save this country for the future generations.
However, history has shown that people with high leadership credentials have similar characteristics and people need to identify them before putting ink on the ballot paper. There would be a number of criteria that can be used to find the best candidate for the electorates around the country. But some of the common leadership ingredients in a leader are character, knowledge, experience and vision.

This would be a critical measuring barometer as it will ask for the credibility and integrity of a person. It can be seen in honesty, trustworthiness, God-fearing, good family relationship (not broken, polygamous, etc.), leadership qualities in the family(how he/she looks after his/her own children), social lifestyle (anti-gambling and drinking), humility, meekness, goodness and good standing (both personal and professional life) in the community. A large number of members of the community break social and moral rules in their communities because with money and power, they know they can get away with it.

As we make the transition to the computer and cyber age where information and technology is vital in any sphere of life, we need qualified and informed leaders and decision makers. Leadership is about leading with knowledge and making good decisions based on best information available for the good of all people. Since we are living in knowledge-based society and world, being educated is important for leaders. At present, we have a lot semi-educated leaders who were drop-outs or unsuccessful and got into politics because they had businesses and access to resources. Not because they had leadership qualities but they had the buying power to get in. This is not an attempt to underestimate their leadership credentials and their good-standing in the community but in a crunch time, they will need to read and make decisions on their own instead of relying on advisors.

In PNG, we need a leader with a vision to lead this country. We were given a roadmap known as Vision 2050 that had some glittering outcomes but they are out-of-touch on the strategies and mechanism to achieve these goals. In a country where there is a lot of resources, people, land and money - vision and strategic leadership is absolutely necessary.

In the last 10-15 years we had a fire-fighting system of governance. Governments only responded to issues in times of emergency while areas of importance were left unattended. We are slowly becoming a time-bomb. There was no planning and resourc mechanisms in place for entire country with respect to development and resource booming opportunities. For example, when did the government think about the PNG LNG Project? Did it think of the impact that the PNG LNG Project now has on our normal lives such as housing, road and traffic issues that are problematic in our major cities now? This is a clear indication that there was no control over what happened in the country. Clearly the flood-gates are opening and all corners of government appear to be in total disarray. Worse still, resources were depleted and there is nothing to show for the money spent.

We need to change this style of leadership for the better. Whatever is going on in the court and parliament will only last for a few months. But the decision that we will make in June will determine the destiny of the country for another 5 years. If we don’t make or campaign for change in June there will be a lot of mourning and groaning and we could see the worst.
Finally when judging candidates, their vision and plans must be linked with their educational qualification and experience. And the visions and plans and qualifications must be supported by the candidate's character. PNG's greatest need is good leadership leadership. Money is not a problem - leadership is.. It is really a choice between progress and prosperity versus poverty and suffering and the decision for the future will dawn in two months.


Africa's oldest ever DNA sheds light on the mysteries of an ancient culture

Scientists have successfully sequenced genes from people who lived in Africa some 15,000 years ago – and what they found casts new light on the way communities moved and interacted as far back as the end of the Stone Age.

Understanding the history of North Africa is crucial in mapping out how human beings spread out across the continent and the rest of the world, but up until now experts have had very little genetic material to reference.

Ordinarily, DNA from remains this old would be degraded beyond reach, but researchers applied some advanced lab methods and new analysis techniques to recover ancient genomes, at least in part, from the remains of nine people who died in Morocco approximately 15,000 years ago.

The new DNA data is in fact the oldest human DNA evidence ever fully analysed from Africa, and suggests humans from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East interacted much earlier than we thought.

“A better understanding of the history of North Africa is critical to understanding the history of our species,” says one of the team, Saaïd Amzazi from Mohammed V University in Morocco.

Northwest Africa has the Mediterranean sea to the north and the Sahara desert to the south – both fairly effective barriers against populations spreading out tens of thousands of years ago.

Or so you would think.

But DNA similarities between the samples found in Morocco, and genetic data from sub-Saharan African and from the Levantine Natufians of the Eastern Mediterranean, suggests maybe people weren’t quite as boxed in as scientists thought.

While similar to these other communities in part, the genetic markers found in the people of Taforalt didn’t give a complete match to any genomes on record.

That leaves experts guessing as to where exactly this population originated from.

There was also no genetic link to ancient Europeans from Sicily or southern Spain, something else historians had wondered about.

It would seem people of those areas weren’t mixing at this time – at least based on these samples.

01 02 tool meSmall stone tools known as microliths. (Abdeljalil Bouzouggar)

The researchers focused on a burial site in Grotte des Pigeons, near the Moroccan village of Taforalt. It’s actually the oldest known cemetery in the world, so rich pickings for researchers interested in the genetic characteristics of ancient peoples.

“Grotte des Pigeons is a crucial site to understanding the human history of northwestern Africa, since modern humans frequently inhabited this cave intensively during prolonged periods throughout the Middle and Later Stone Age,” says one of the researchers, Louise Humphrey from the Natural History Museum in the UK.

The Stone Age communities who lived here are thought to have been among the first to make use of small stone tools known as microliths. This was before the agricultural revolution in North Africa, which happened about 10,000 years ago.

Further research could help experts discover more about the lineages of the people who lived and died in Taforalt, but already we’re seeing ways that modern genetic analysis can be used to shine a light on how people moved across the planet thousands of years ago.

And it’s not an isolated incident either – earlier this year, tests on ancient DNA revealed a population of Native Americans that historians had previously known nothing about.

“This illustrates the ability of ancient genetics to add to our understanding of human history,” says one of the team behind the new research, Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

The research has been published in Science.

Source link

Articles You May Like

Physicists Want to Mix Time Crystals And Majorana Fermions to Make a Quantum Computer
One of our most crucial units of time needs to change
How Kim Kardashian And The Inventor of Bitcoin Teamed Up to Write a Scientific Paper
The Battle for Storm King
Here's the amazing story behind the discovery that elements are born in stars


Open main menu

Democratic socialism

political ideology

Democratic socialism is a branch of socialism which believes in democracy as a means and an end. It is not the same as Marxism-Leninism, which establishes a single party dictatorship. Examples of democratic socialists include Salvador Allende, the democratically elected President of Chile who was overthrown by a U.S.-backed coup de etat, Evo Morales, the current president of Bolivia, and the United Kingdom Parliament's Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn.


Teen Delinquency And Its Effects On Society

963 Words Mar 4th, 2015 4 Pages
In modern society juvenile delinquency has been an issue engaged in by minors. More and more adolescents are committing delinquent crimes. Delinquency can be seen as the direct result of negative affective states. Gangs are a group of youths who collectively engage in delinquent behavior. Peer groups can provide a lot of social and emotional support for anti-social activities. Peer relations, in all cultures have been linked to adolescent behavior choices including substance abuse and delinquency. Currently there are now more than eight hundred thousand gang members in the United States and twenty four thousand gangs. In order to stop a behavior, it is great to understand what behaviors take place within the gang and also which will lead to resolve gang activity (Shoemaker, 2013).
Three main anti-social behaviors that occur within gangs are Peer pressure, parents/family, and abuse/neglect. Growing up there is always the more “popular” youths who do well socially and in school. However, children who are rejected from their peers tend to show aggressive behaviors or behave anti-socially (Siegel, 2011). In a child’s adolescence, acceptance from people weighs a lot more than it did when lets say a child was six months old. Acceptance by peers has a major impact on socialization for children. By their teams, children find that most of the times their emotional support comes from their friends if they are feeling bad. That sense of trust and being able to confide to peers without…
Open Document


Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

2 minutes

Last on

Wed 13 Jul 2016 05:43

Good morning.

How do we strike a balance between the individual and the corporate? Whether it’s in the workplace, on a football team or in our day-to-day lives, how do we look at our personal responsibilities and entitlements within the context of being part of something greater?

We all know that the 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts,' and so whether in our own families, societies, or the world at large, we must remember that we are valued and valuable parts of a greater whole.

Glory be to God forever. Amen.


Neighbour'a satellite signal lost

Due to our building work and scaffolding blocking the Neighbour's satellite dish they can't get any signal.

Builder will erect a new one on one of the scaffolds.  What's the best and cheapest way to connect this temporarily to the neighbours existing system (were based in the UK centric responses appreciated).

The neighbours dish is within 2m of our property.   We will probably buy a cheap one for about 40 pounds but how to run the cable of the new dish LNB without making holes in their walls to the sky box?  Is there an easy way to disconnect their existing cable of their LNB and buy an make to female adapter to connect our cable from our LNB to their existing cable?
Who is Participating?
I wear a lot of hats...

Rob LeaverSr. Network & Server EngineerCommented:
It's a while since I have done telecommunications in the UK, this being said Sky uses RG6 with F connectors? If this is the case then you can just use an rg6 connector as shown here:

Make up another cable with connectors and that should give you enough length.

You can also get them for RG59 if thats what sky use.

Also, if you're putting a new dish up, whats your plan to point it?

Experts Exchange Solution brought to you by

Your issues matter to us.

Start your 7-day free trial
u587162Author Commented:
> Yeah, that's the other problem.  Any suggestions?

Do you know whether the connections to the LNB in the dish can simply be disconnected and then plugged into an adapter that connects to my cable?
Rob LeaverSr. Network & Server EngineerCommented:
Yes they can be disconnected, but ensure the modem is powered off first prior to disconnection.

There should be a connection on the TRIA where you can do this.

Sorry, I do not know what sky use to point it. I know on some of the satellites I have pointed, there is a sound beep on the TRIA allowing you to point it without using a laptop. You may have to do some digging  online to see how sky dishes are pointed.
u587162Author Commented:
Rob LeaverSr. Network & Server EngineerCommented:
Transmit Assembly, It's the LNB. Force of habbit working here in Canada!

From novice to tech pro — start learning today.


Working with Office Metadata

I’ve had a chance to play a bit more with the Apache POI project and I thought I’d share a bit of code demonstrating how to read Office document metadata. Unfortunately I was not able to get this working with Office 2007, but maybe I’ll get lucky with reader Leah again! Anyway, the code:

 <cfset jarpath = expandPath("./jars2")> <cfset paths = []> <cfdirectory action="list" name="files" directory="#jarpath#" filter="*.jar" recurse="true">

<cfloop query=”files”> <cfset arrayAppend(paths, directory & “/” & name)> </cfloop>

<!— load javaloader —> <cfset variables.loader = createObject(“component”, “javaloader.JavaLoader”).init(paths)>

This is the exact same code I’ve used in my previous two blog entries so I won’t explain it again.

 <cfset myfile = createObject("java","").init(expandPath("./testdocs/Testing Reading Word Docs.doc"))>

Unlike my previous entries where I looped over a folder of documents, in this example I’m just using one specific Word document.

 <cfset doc = loader.create("org.apache.poi.hwpf.HWPFDocument")>  <cfset doc = doc.init(myfile)>

Next we create an instance of HWPFDocument. This is the specific class used for Word documents. You would use something different for PPT or Excel files. Once I create the class I pass in the file I specified earlier.

Ok, now for the fun part:

<cfset summary = doc.getSummaryInformation()>

This code retrieves a set of summary data from the document. This is another Java object itself with a set of methods to get, set, and remove document metadata. As an example:

<cfoutput> Title=#summary.getTitle()#
 Page Count=#summary.getPageCount()#
 Word Count=#summary.getWordCount()#
 Application=#summary.getApplicationName()#
 Author=#summary.getAuthor()#
 Comments=#summary.getComments()#
 CreateDateTime=#summary.getCreateDateTime()#
 Edit Time=#summary.getEditTime()#
 Keywords=#summary.getKeywords()#
 Last Author=#summary.getLastAuthor()#
 Last Printed=#summary.getLastPrinted()#
 Last SaveDateTime=#summary.getLastSaveDateTime()#
 Revision Number=#summary.getRevNumber()#
 Security=#summary.getSecurity()#
 Subject=#summary.getSubject()#
 Template=#summary.getTemplate()#
 </cfoutput>

Pretty much all of those methods should be self-explanatory, but I’ll point out some interesting ones. The getEditTime() function actually returns how long the document has been edited. I assume that is related to how long I have the document open in my application. Not sure how I’d use that but it’s cool nonetheless. getSecurity returns an integer that defines what type of security the document has (duh), and is documented in the POI API docs. (I’ve copied the values to my test CFM file attached to this entry.) Another method that I didn’t actually demonstrate above is getThumbnail(). This returns binary data for a thumbnail. The data is either in WMF or BMP format. CF can work with BMP, but my test document must have had a WMF thumbnail. I was able to save the bits to the file system but wasn’t able to actually do anything with it. My Mac wanted to use Adobe Illustrator to view it, but AI complained that the file wasn’t valid. If we can get that working, it would be cool!

So how hard is it to update the metadata?

<cfset summary.setTitle("Ray changed this doc #randRange(1,100)#")>

<!— read in my Word doc —> <cfset myfile2 = createObject(“java”,””).init(expandPath(“./testdocs/Testing Reading Word Docs.doc”))> <cfset doc.write(myfile2)>

I set a new, random title. I then create a FileOutputStream using the same file name and then simply ran the write method of the doc object. This works because the summary object pointed back to the original document, so even though I modified summary, it updated the doc object as well.

Pretty simple I think. One could wrap this up into a nice CFC and make it even simpler of course.
Download attached file.

Raymond Camden's Picture

About Raymond Camden

Lafayette, LA


What is coulrophobia and what causes fear of clowns?
Whether it’s spiders, heights, birds (just me?) or confined spaces – anyone with a crippling phobia understands the palm-sweating, stomach-churning, short-of-breath sensations that present when the terror-inducing subject is close by. The fear? It’s real. The “uncanny valley” effect It’s important to remember that clowns are people. People in elaborate costumes, but people nonetheless. As a result, they have human bodies and faces, like everyone else. But this is where problems arise. The “uncanny valley” effect is a phenomenon whereby things that look human but “aren’t quite there” are incredibly unsettling. It appears to be a fundamental reflex. Slap a pair of googly eyes


Every day I am reminded that we are living in the most exciting and transformative era in history.

In my 35-plus years in the technology industry, I’ve never experienced so much innovation, and at such an incredibly rapid pace. Tectonic changes driven by cloud, social, mobile, data science and Internet of Things technologies are transforming every industry, from transportation and hospitality to shopping and financial services.

In addition, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, clean energy, genetic engineering and other fields have the potential to profoundly reshape manufacturing, agriculture, medicine and more. Business leaders everywhere are trying to keep up with this immense wave of digital transformation.

It’s also a time when every business leader needs to consider how these digital technology breakthroughs are going to impact not just their companies, but their communities, the planet and society as a whole. These amazing innovations not only create phenomenal opportunities for economic growth, but also serious societal challenges as well. Vast numbers of jobs will be replaced by machine intelligence and robots. The increasing capabilities of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering have the potential to get beyond the control of their creators.

As a society, we are entering uncharted territory - a new world in which governments, business leaders, the scientific community and citizens need to work together to define the paths that direct these technologies at improving the human condition and minimizing the risks.

As Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, states in his new book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, “Unless public- and private-sector leaders assure citizens that they are executing credible strategies to improve people's lives, social unrest, mass migration, and violent extremism could intensify, thus creating risks for countries at all stages of development.”

It’s my belief that businesses are the greatest platforms for change and can have an enormous impact on improving the state of the world. As business leaders we in positions of influence, and responsible for more than just shareholders. We are accountable for the well being of an extended community of employees, customers and partners, as well as our fellow beings on this planet we inhabit.

This belief was further solidified for me during a meeting last year in Geneva with Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). We were discussing the tragic, unprecedented situation of one million migrants seeking refuge in Europe, and how he and the ICRC are dedicated to helping these displaced people. While he was talking, I noticed a picture on the wall of a man who I had never seen before. It was Swiss businessman Jean Henri Dunant, who I subsequently learned had the initial vision for the ICRC and was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dunant’s vision for the Red Cross grew out his experience witnessing the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in Italy during the summer of 1859. The French Army under Napoleon III and the Sardinian Army under Victor Emmanuel II had defeated the Austrian Army of Franz Joseph I. There were more than 20,000 warriors on the field dead, dying or wounded. Dunant applied his entrepreneurial and business skills to rally the local townspeople to get the wounded off the battlefield and into a stable situation. He also organized the funding for supplies and building temporary hospitals.

Following his return to Geneva, Dunant was inspired to create an organization dedicated to improving the quality of medical services on the battlefield, which led to the founding of the ICRC in 1863. Today, the ICRC continues its efforts to relieve suffering around the world, with more than 12,000 staff working in 80 countries around the world.

Dunant made a shift that I believe many business leaders want to make—applying his leadership, resources and relationships in a more humanitarian way. Only with compassion and generosity can we address the difficult challenges ahead, from the rising tide of inequality to global warming.

At my company, Salesforce, we put philanthropy at the centre of our business model from day one, leveraging one percent of our technology, people, and resources to help nonprofits around the world achieve their missions. So far, we've provided more than $100 million in grants, our employees have logged more than 1.1 million volunteer hours and we’ve given products to more than 27,000 organizations. Following our example, more than 550 companies have signed up for Pledge 1%, committing one percent of their equity, product, and employee time to their communities.

As businesses we can be financially successful, and at the same time we can make the world a better place for everyone. As business leaders, we can collaborate with our customers, employees, partners, communities, governments and institutions to create cultures of trust that put the wellbeing of our people and planet first. We can engage in corporate philanthropy with the same focus and dedication as other business investments. We can rethink our educational systems and use our resources to train the workforce of tomorrow. We can work together to ensure that this technology revolution serves humanity to its fullest potential and benefits the all citizens, not just a chosen few.

As another Nobel Peace Prize winner, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”


Ulcerative Colitis

Symptoms of ulcerative colitis

The main symptoms of ulcerative colitis are:

What causes ulcerative colitis?

Ulcerative colitis is thought to be an autoimmune condition. This means the immune system – the body’s defence against infection – goes wrong and attacks healthy tissue. The most popular theory is that the immune system mistakes harmless bacteria inside the colon for a threat and attacks the tissues of the colon, causing it to become inflamed. Exactly what causes the immune system to behave in this way is unclear. Most experts think it is a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Who is affected

It is estimated that around 1 in every 420 people living in the UK has ulcerative colitis; this amounts to around 146,000 people. The condition can develop at any age, but is most often diagnosed between 15 and 25. It’s more common in white people of European descent (especially those descended from Ashkenazi Jewish communities) and black people. The condition is rarer in people of Asian background (although the reasons for this are unclear). Both men and women seem to be equally affected by ulcerative colitis.

How ulcerative colitis is treated

In most people, this is achieved by taking medication such as aminosalicylates (ASAs) and corticosteroids.

Mild to moderate flare-ups can usually be treated at home. However, more severe flare-ups need to be treated in hospital to reduce the risk of serious complications, such as gas becoming trapped inside the colon, which can lead to swelling.

If medications are ineffective at controlling your symptoms, or your quality of life is significantly affected by your condition, surgery to remove your colon may be an option.

During surgery, your small intestine will either be diverted out of an opening in your abdomen (known as an ileostomy), or it will be used to create an internal pouch that is connected to your anus (known as an ileo-anal pouch).


Tags, history
2. The Presence of Non-Collections and the Challenge of Photographic Ecosystems

I recently attended a leaving party for a museum photographer of some 30 years service. The usual orations were accompanied by a digital slide show of his work over those last 30 years during which he had excelled in a range of museum demands. He made bundles of sticks look exciting and provided photographs of masks, chests or totem of such technical precision and virtuosic lighting that First Nations carvers in Canada could reconstitute the haptics of their traditional carving practices – retracing chisel marks. It was also a slide show of how a museum sees itself and how it performs its objects. Yet these photographs were, until that moment, invisible as a photographic practice, and above all, they are not understood as part of the photograph collection at that institution. They are non-collections, ‘just there’, everywhere and nowhere. mehr

Veröffentlicht: 23.09.2016
0 Kommentare
1. Patterns of Collecting, Institutional Mind-Sets and the Problem of Hierarchies

A few years ago I was talking to a curator of social history in a major British public museum service which I knew held substantial collections of photographs of the local region going back to the 1850s. I asked him how he thought about these photographs in his care, and how they related to the museum’s ethos and activities. To this he responded “well I don’t really – they are just there”. I have been thinking about the ‘just there’ quality of photographic collections ever since. How is it that a body of material, maybe 35,000 glass plates, of substantial importance in regional history can be ‘just there’? How are the tensions of specialness and ubiquity negotiated through institutional practices? mehr

Veröffentlicht: 15.09.2016
0 Kommentare
2. The Return of the Real (Again)

Veröffentlicht: 27.05.2016
2 Kommentare
3. Here are Lions

In ancient Roman maps, terra incognita at the edge of the Empire were marked with the notation hinc sunt leones – “here are lions”. Specific zootopes, animal-places as places of or for animals, are always connected to certain zootropes, animal metaphors and animal images. This is also the case for unknown places, to which the Roman maps seem to attest.

People, through their historically changing material and ideological practices, are part of this complex situation – along with animals and their practices. Animals thwart not only our dreams but also our bedrooms. They populate utopias and heterotopias, are assigned to certain topologies, and transcend them. Animals are ignored and loved, segregated and caged in, but nevertheless build relationships – with humans and other animals, architectures and cities, environments and ecologies. Werner Herzog’s film The Cave of Forgotten Dreams from 2010 gravitates poetically around this relationship in its search for “ecstatic truth” while dealing with the Chauvet Cave drawings in France. Dating back an estimated 30,000 years, the cave paintings are twice as old as any other visual artifacts of human history. Both the birth of man and the birth of art are depicted as one and the same act – a moment that supposedly was inextricably linked to animals and images of animals.

Veröffentlicht: 15.07.2015
0 Kommentare
2. Reading Strand’s New York Photographs: City Hall Park

In my last post, I suggested that we should rethink how we might read “politics” into the works of Paul Strand.  I put “politics” advisedly into quotes, because few photographs can translate specific political tenets or party lines into form. Apart from a unique photograph called “Skeleton and Swastika, Connecticut” contrived in 1938-39, Strand was no John Heartfield and never directly attacked scowling financiers or aggrandized noble workers in the fields in his still photographs. He remained above all an artist with a distinct social point of view, who recognized that the power to shift the public’s attention by forcing it to visually engage with the overlooked was his greatest gift. mehr

Veröffentlicht: 08.02.2015
2 Kommentare
5. After Liberalism

Veröffentlicht: 08.07.2014
9 Kommentare
4. Heart of Darkness

Veröffentlicht: 29.06.2014
10 Kommentare
3. A Tale of Two Mapplethorpes

A large retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work has just opened at the Grand Palais in Paris. It is coupled with another Mapplethorpe exhibition at the Musée Rodin where Mapplethorpe’s photographs—I am not joking—are displayed with various sculptures by Rodin.

Mapplethorpe-Rodin, exposition at Musée Rodin, Paris, from April 8 to September 21, 2014 (installation view by Abigail Solomon Godeau).

As it happens, Mapplethorpe did photograph sculptures (torsos, heads, and backs) in ways not so different from those he used to photograph living bodies, although it seems not to have mattered if the sculptures were authentic, copies, classical, neoclassical, or kitsch. Somewhat perversely (I use the term advisedly), the photographs of sculpture are in the Grand Palais show, whereas the pictures in the Musée Rodin are mostly of living bodies (or body parts) as well as the miscellaneous self-portrait or still life. More to the point, what the exhibition really demonstrates is that for good or ill, Rodin’s sculptures, plasters, or small studies have nothing whatsoever to do with Mapplethorpe’s work and vice versa. Why would they? mehr

Veröffentlicht: 30.04.2014
5 Kommentare
2. Boundary Problems: Addressing History in the Image

Veröffentlicht: 22.04.2014
4 Kommentare
4. Another Threshold

Edouard Manet’s Portrait of Emile Zola, from 1868, currently on view at the Royal Academy in London in the Manet: Portraying Life exhibition is usually interpreted as a testimony of the friendship between the artist and a writer who was one of his strongest supporters in those years. The painting shows Zola seated sideways at his work table, surrounded by papers, objects, and pictures that point to this relationship, and, it has been noted, to Manet’s own tastes: a decorated screen on the left, a pamphlet bearing Manet’s name on the desk, and above, in the top right corner of the picture, a Japanese print and a lithograph of Velasquez partly concealed by a reproduction of Manet’s own Olympia. It is to these last three objects I would like to direct my attention, in order to think about a technological and aesthetic threshold a century-and-a-half back that may or may not serve as a model for the relationship between analogue and digital photography today. mehr

Veröffentlicht: 28.03.2013
1 Kommentare
5. A Subject for, a History about, Photography

Veröffentlicht: 17.10.2012
6 Kommentare


Air to the bird, water to the fish……

– A Hindu proverb

Drivers Beware!

Supermarket queue

Office disagreement

“ I Am….”

I am intelligent and smart.
I am disciplined and orderly.
I am competitive.
I am impatient with others.
I am a perfectionist and do not suffer fools.

“The way I wound up being….”

The way I wound up being is disciplined and orderly.
The way I wound up being is competitive.
The way I wound up being is being impatient with others.

What do you notice?

Do you realise that you now have a choice?

Listening into the future

Consider the following.

Me : “ Sure, shall do.”

Now, let’s consider another exchange.

listening image

And this is when the magic happens!

Created future

Ester asked why people are sad.

-Paulo Coelho in ‘The Zahir’, 2006

In learning……. Shakti Ghosal

Mind Shift

The morning of Saturday, 25th April dawned at the base camp of the Mount Everest expedition like any other. Just before noon, Sherpa Bahadur was attempting to establish contact with the expedition team up on the slope when he was non-plussed to see the snow covered ground shift and rise like a living apparition. The last thing he remembered was an ear-splitting sound and being swept away by the shifting ground under his feet.

For days and weeks earlier, unknown to the Sherpa and his expedition mates, two pieces of the cracked Earth’s crust below, had been moving and pressing against each other, like they have been wont to do periodically for millions of years. The heat and the churning currents of the molten rocks underneath was leading to the crust crumbling and buckling with intense pressure points being created. Something had to give. And that is what happened on that fateful Saturday. As the pressure propelled the molten rocks below the crust to shift and move like a jumble of conveyor belts in disrepair, it manifested as a powerful earthquake of 7.9 magnitude on the Richter scale all over the Himalayan regions of Nepal and North India.

Witnesses later reported that the shifting avalanche began on Mount Kumori, a 7,000-meter high mountain just a few kilometers from Everest, gathered strength as it totally engulfed the base camp in the lower reaches of Everest.

For Sherpa Bahadur, a survivor of this immense natural tragedy, the shift of Earth’s tectonic plates led to a mind shift in terms of a change of focus and perception. What really mattered in terms of his relationships with his missing colleagues, the memories of all the great times they had had as they had planned for and painstakingly executed the expedition together came crowding into the mind. The pettiness of behaviours, the jealousies, the selfishness, all part of the way he had wound up being, seemed to recede. Standing amidst the destruction, carnage and sorrow, he found himself surprisingly engulfed by a peace of mind and an inner awareness of commitment.

Little did he realise it in that moment but Sherpa Bahadur had come through a Crucible event. A transformative experience that had given him an altered sense of identity and purpose. As he set about initiating efforts to rescue his missing team members, folks around him could not help but notice his strength of purpose and the nobility of his selflessness.

A crucible experience is a trial and test, a shifting of the ‘tectonic plates’ of our mind, opening us up to entirely new ways of being, of thinking and acting. As we do this, we can turn our life completely.

Steve Chandler, the author of “Shift your mind: shift the world”, says, ‘When the mind is open, it will shift. When that happens all of life becomes, momentarily, light as a feather. Light as a breeze. Beautiful! You go up to the next level of consciousness, and creativity, energy, vibration ó whatever you want, you’ve got it.’

So what is that mind shift Steve is talking about and what could one do to make it happen?

Well for a starter, we need to bring in a heightened awareness of our way of being. Only with such awareness can we hope to achieve some of the mind shifts given below.

* A Gratitude Mind Shift: ‘Do you carry that nagging feeling that somehow you have less than the other guy? Could you shift your way of being to see all that you have as a blessing?’

* A Self-Creation Mind Shift: ‘Do you find yourself blaming others and the circumstances when faced with a problem? Could you shift your way of being to seek opportunities for self creation and development when confronted with pain or difficulties?’

* Being Cause in the matter Mind Shift: ‘Do you find yourself resisting or denying problems when they arise in your life? Could you shift your way of being to acknowledge that somehow, somewhere your choices and actions might have caused these?’

* A Self-Trust Mind Shift: ‘Do you find yourself doubting your own self and seeking answers from others? Could you shift your way of being to trust your own intuition and wisdom?’

* Being committed to something bigger than yourself mind shift: ‘Do you find yourself embroiled within your own self-serving pettiness and fears? Could you shift your way of being to embrace a cause bigger than yourself and choose to be fully alive and engaged to that?’

* An Initiative-Taking Mind Shift: ‘Do you find yourself waiting for someone else to take the lead? Could you shift your way of being to be the creator, the fire starter?’

* A Present Moment Mind Shift: ‘Do you see yourself being held back by your past? Could you shift your way of being to drop that story that is holding you back so that you could recreate yourself every day?’

That crucible experience that Sherpa Bahadur had on the lower slopes of Mount Everest on that fateful day was really about a very fundamental realization. Which is this. All that we perceive and take for granted, who we know our self to be, what we assume to be true about us, others and the world in general, is not the only reality. It is this realization that allows us to achieve heightened awareness and transform ‘the way we have wound up being’, allowing us to enter a new world. It is this realization that allows us to open our mind (and heart!) to the Shifts we have spoken of.

My invitation to you, dear reader, is this. Today, right now, pick one of the above Mind Shifts that most resonates with you. Gently place it inside your psyche and begin living it. Come on, give it a try! As you open your mind to embrace, you might be astonished with the results.

In Learning……… Shakti Ghosal

Post script: The post alludes to the recent devastating earthquake in Nepal. However Sherpa Bahadur is a fictional character and has no bearing to any living person. I however have no doubt that in reality there are innumerable individuals out there, who faced with a crucible experience arising out of the earthquake, have risen to the occasion with their untiring efforts. I offer this post as an acknowledgement and homage to all such brave and selfless individuals who have been working tirelessly on the ground to support the shattered communities.

1) ‘Crucibles of Leadership’ by Warren G. Bennis & Robert J. Thomas, Harvard Business Review,
September 2002.
2) ‘Shift your Mind: Shift the World’ by Steve Chandler, Robert Reed publishers, February 2010.

That never-ending cycle of our problems and solutions…….

                                                                                – Albert Einstein

As I look at what all is making the news in the world today, I am struck by an interesting trend.

  • No sooner did nations heave a sigh of relief that the war against Global terrorism viz.Al Qaeeda in Afghanisatan had been won, one is witness to the rise of other terror groups like the Islamic State (IS) and Boko Haram in Iraq and Nigeria.
  • Initially hailed as a path breaking positive development in terms of spread of people’s power and democracy in the Middle East, the Arab Spring now faces criticism for the collapse of Governance and societal structures in a large swathe of countries like Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria,Yemen and so on.
  • As the US and Iran engage in serious talks around international controls on the latter’s nuclear plants and technology, Israel claims this is leading to a heightened risk of war in the region.
  • As oil prices collapse and the oil consuming nations of the world rejoice, the funding of green technologies and their implementation for climate change initiatives takes a back seat.

What is it that, in spite of the best intentions and efforts of nations and leaders, the world seems to perennially lurch from one negative occurrence to another? Occurrences that seem to encompass every aspect of our existence- Terrorism, Threat of War, Governance, Climate change and what have you.

Strangely, I am witness to a similar trend as I shift gears and go down to my organisational and personal level.

  • I implement an incremental volume based pricing strategy to gain a new business account. However information about this gets known to an existing customer  who then threatens to shift business away if the same low pricing is not offered. The result: lower profitability even with higher sales.
  • I recommend deviation from the company’s HR policy to help a staff faced with the settlement of high medical bills. Though I succeed with my recommendation, this opens up a Pandora’s Box of complaints about discrimination and how other similar cases got rejected in the past.
  • Based on my directive, the sales team resort to focussed selling of identified products to maximize revenues. While this gets achieved, the sales of other products suffer leading to some Principals and suppliers getting upset.

Do you notice how, inspite of the best intentions and competence, solution to an existing problem somehow becomes the harbinger of a new problem? It is as if we are in the midst of situations akin to that of a worn pipe prone to leaks. As a leak is patched at one place and pressure is put back, the pipe cracks at another place and the leakage starts again.

So, what is it really that leads to well thought out problem solving strategies heralding a fresh bout of new problems?

Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan, in their bestseller ‘The Three Laws of Performance’ (TLOP), have not only provided an answer but also a sustainable way forward approach.

As part of our survival instinct, we are conditioned to take aspects of our life experiences, of what worked and what did not, fears of what might go wrong and so on…and store them in a place so that we could refer to them, when needed, in the future. As we go through life, we keep on storing more and more such stuff in that place of ours. What do you think happens? Without us even realizing, our actions and performance get restricted to what is allowed by all that stuff we have stored from the past. We end up being on ‘safe rails’ and doing more of what we have always done. In effect we become blindsided to everything else which somehow was not in our past. Authors Steve and Dave refer to this human tendency as they argue that our thoughts, strategies and actions arise from the future as “given by our past”. They call that place where we store our past our default future.

Steve and Dave go on to explain why solutions implemented lead to new problems. They show us the trap we are liable to get into as soon as we envisage a solution. We remain blinded to the fact that the only solutions to a problem that occur for us in fact arise out  of our default future where all our past is stored. This only allows us to do what we did in the past which in fact created the problem in the first place. We thus get sucked into the never ending cycle of problems, solutions based on the past…. leading to more problems

The TLOP holds the promise of getting us out of the above problem- solution trap. So how could we do that?

First, we uncover the default futures- all that past stuff that we hold onto, consciously and sub-consciously, that exist for us as well as other stakeholders and how that clutters our thoughts in the present. In effect we start understanding how this past driven default future actually impacts how situations occur- for us and others, and how that correlates to actions and performance. So as a situation occurs negatively for us, the actions and performance correspondingly suffer.

The TLOP further state that the way to dramatically upscale our actions and performance is to alter how situations occur for us. This can be achieved through use of certain kind of language. As we gain mastery over use of this kind of language, we are able to do two things. First, we are able to close past issues and upsets, remove these out of the default future where we had carried them into and put them back where they belong, the past. Second we begin opening up space for a new Created future, a blank canvas in which we can envision something radically new, something no longer constrained and dictated by our past.

A future that addresses the concerns of all.

A future in which everyone joyfully comes to live into.

A future that now no longer needs to follow the never-ending cycle of problems and solutions.

In learning………….                                                                  Shakti Ghosal

How can I use my Context?

“But I didn’t mean—” insisted Milo.

In learning…….. Shakti Ghosal

My Context uses me.

– Kenneth Noland, American contemporary artist.

In learning……… Shakti Ghosal

Whose Business are we really in?

Whose business are you in

“No one can give you freedom but you……”
―Byron Katie

In the words of Byron Katie:

In Learning………… Shakti Ghosal

Acknowledgement: The Work of Byron Katie.


Pennsylvania federal court grants summary judgment to Firm client Novartis in Aredia®/Zometa® personal injury lawsuit.

W.D. Pa. -- United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Complex Litigation

On October 7, 2015, Judge Mark Hornak granted complete summary judgment to firm client Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation after plaintiffs failed to satisfy their proximate cause burden in a failure-to-warn lawsuit alleging that the prescription drugs Aredia® and Zometa® caused osteonecrosis of the jaw (“ONJ”).  Bock v. Novartis Pharm. Corp., No. 2:10-cv-1338-MRH (W.D. Pa. Oct. 7, 2015).

Based on the deposition testimony of the oncologists who prescribed these Novartis drugs to Mr. Bock, Judge Hornak concluded that “both physicians indicated that they would still prescribe the drug today if presented with a patient such as Bock because, in their medical judgment, the benefits of the drug significantly outweigh the risks.”  Id. at 14-15.  Judge Hornak also pointed out that Mr. Bock “consented to each of the unavoidable dental procedures that ultimately precipitated his ONJ despite being thoroughly warned as to the potential risks.”  Id. at 15.  Judge Hornak rejected plaintiffs’ argument that a summary judgment decision should be deferred until they have presented expert testimony regarding what information should have been provided in the Aredia®/Zometa® warning labels.  Id. (“the issue raised in the instant motion is proximate cause, rather than the adequacy of the warnings”).  He also rejected plaintiffs’ contention that the oncologists’ testimony lacked credibility and must be evaluated by a jury.  Id. at 17 (explaining that plaintiffs have “not pointed to any evidence in the record that might contradict each physician’s testimony” and that “a plaintiff cannot survive a well-supported summary judgment motion by simply asserting that the opposing witnesses lack credibility”).

Novartis is represented by Firm attorneys Katharine R. Latimer, Heather A. Pigman, and Rolando R. Sanchez.


Watch: Flybe plane evacuates passengers at Exeter Airport

A flybe flight was forced to evacuate more than 100 passengers from a flight on Thursday morning, after one of the engines made a loud noise followed by smoke foiling the cabin.

Passengers on flight BE4321 was due to depart for Alicante, in Spain at 7:45 Thursday morning, passenger escaped from the flybe plane using inflatable slides to evacuate the aircraft.

A passenger filmed from Exeter airport runway passengers evacuating the flight.

Flybe said in a statement the aircraft, “experienced haze in the cabin just prior to take off.

“Flybe crew took the necessary precautionary measures and all 100 passengers and five crew members evacuated the aircraft safely.

“We are taking the situation very seriously and our immediate concern is for the welfare of all those involved.”


Designing with Empathy

A presentation at Code & Creativity in in Chattanooga, TN, USA by Aaron Gustafson

Sadly, this often means we make decisions we think will be good for our “users” - that anonymous, faceless crowd - rather than actually trying to understand the perspectives, surroundings, capabilities, and disadvantages of the actual people who we are here to serve.

In this session, Aaron will explore why empathy is a good thing, how empathy empowers creativity, and how we, as a community, can inject more empathy into our work.

Buzz and feedback

Here’s what was said about this presentation on Twitter.


Performance & Race Driving Tip

Speed Secret: There is no limit to what your mind is capable of

Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a real and an imagined event. If you imagine something with enough realism, using many senses, your brain thinks it’s really happening, and will respond appropriately.

mental-imagery-guideResearchers have had weight-lifters mentally lift weights (imagining lifting weights in their mind), and guess what happened? Muscle fiber in the specific area of the body needed to lift that weight flexed and stressed, and over time actually strengthened (think about that the next time you’re laying on the couch thinking about exercising!).

Russian Olympic trainers had some of their athletes train for a period of time only using mental imagery, and they improved more than other athletes who practiced only physically. How can that be? These elite-level athletes were able to mentally play through their sport activities in so much detail, and do it so perfectly, that their brains saw it only as real practice – perfect practice. The athletes that practiced physically made some errors – that’s natural for even elite-level athletes – and so they improved their ability to make these errors.

Mental imagery, most often referred to as visualization, is an extremely powerful learning tactic. But the key is to make it real by using as many senses as possible. If you use only visual (which is where the inaccurate term “visualization” comes from), it will not be as effective as it could be. When you physically move your body, and imagine the sounds and even the smells, you’ll be “fooling” your brain in a good way.

I recommend the following process for the most effective mental imagery:

  • Spend a little time before you start doing mental imagery and write out a few bullet points of the
specific scenario you want to program. Then read it over a few times before you set it down and begin doing mental imagery. Writing a short narrative will help your mind stay focused on what you want during your mental imagery.
  • Take a few minutes to relax and slow down your mind before doing mental imagery. Close your eyes, breathe slowly, and relax you body and mind before starting to imagine a specific scenario. A relaxed mind is much more receptive to being programmed than one that’s “wired.”
  • Spend 15-20 minutes at night before going to sleep doing mental imagery, and then another 15-20 minutes in the morning to refresh what you imagined the night before.
  • The more you use mental imagery, the better you’ll get at it – and the more effective it will be. If you do it every evening, and every morning, it won’t take long for you to notice a difference in the way you perform. Use as many senses as you can, making your imagery as real as possible.
  • Make your setting as realistic as you can, too. As examples, sit in your car, sit in a chair at home that has a similar position as in your car, and/or wear your helmet and driving shoes.
  • Use mental imagery to learn a track, improve a specific driving technique, or program a mindset/attitude (how you want to behave in certain situations).

One great thing about using mental imagery to program skills, techniques and mindsets is that you can do it virtually anywhere. Better yet, it’s the only way that you can practice perfectly every time (when you do something physically, you’re bound to make a mistake or two – and therefore, you’re programming making those mistakes).

I’ve written an eBook about mental imagery that provides much more background information, and more details on how, when, and where to use it. The eBook can be downloaded for $2.99 here.