I have been anxiously awaiting this moment, the time in which I can write a blog post on our pilot study with Vium, formerly Mousera. Perlstein Lab had an opportunity to work with Vium starting about one year prior to their out-of-stealth launch, and I am itching to tell you about their company and the pilot project we conducted.

As we were approaching the end of our NPC primary screens, we started the process of looking for CROs to conduct mouse studies (PK, tox  and efficacy) for the NPC disease R&D pipeline. During that process, Ethan was connected to Vium’s cofounder Tim Robertson by Cindy Wu, cofounder of Experiment. At our first meeting with their team, it was immediately apparent that we are like-minded companies with similar goals. While our technologies are very different, Vium complements our goals in making the drug discovery processes more efficient. Through digitizing mouse experiments, they are lowering the cost of mouse studies, reducing the animal handling during breeding and experimentation, and incorporating sensor and computer vision technologies to capture metrics that throughout the history of mouse experimentation were previously unavailable. I encourage you to check out the details of their technology by contacting them directly, but bottom line, this allows for mice to be studied in a more natural environment with minimal human handling affecting results and importantly for our needs, higher resolution on characterization of disease models, including the tracking and potential discovery of early and novel endpoints.

Being excited at the opportunity to work with Vium while they were in beta, we decided it would be best to run a pilot study through their novel platform to replicate results in the literature and potentially uncover novel metrics to monitor disease. Since the first disease we are working on in our high-throughput drug discovery pipeline is Niemann-Pick Type C, we wanted to validate that mouse model with Vium’s technologies. We designed a pilot study with the assistance of Vium’s team to test 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin, currently in clinical trial, in the NPC NIH mouse model, BALB/c Npc1m1n (Npc1nih/nih). Breeding pairs were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory and sent to Vium for colony generation.

So what did our study look like? Well we quickly found out that breeding the NPC NIH mice did not yield expected mendelian ratios, however this has since been resolved, meaning our homozygous animal population at that time was small. Although, with each round of breeding, the number of homozygous animals per litter increased, and we obtained enough homozygous NPC animals for our study. Our study consisted of three treatment groups, Npc1 KO Vehicle, Npc1 KO Cyclodextrin at 4000mg/kg and WT Vehicle; eight, seven and eight animals per group, respectively.  All animals were treated starting at D7 (Day 7).

In the literature it is reported that cyclodextrin, once per week given subcutaneously at 4000mg/kg, reverses the NPC disease phenotype in mice. So we set out to replicate those studies using Vium’s novel digital platform. We measured motion, respiration, weight and lifespan. Both motion and respiration were measured with Vium’s cage sensor technology, so the data were constantly being collected and live streamed. Not only were we collecting sensor data, but also video, so we could check in on our mice and observe their movements and behavior at any time, including between 10pm and 12am when I like to send emails, as Vium knows. Body weights were collected one to two times per week and blood was collected at two timepoints during the study, D25 and D59.

We took the study out to 84 days, but of course some animals reached humane endpoint prior to the end of the study. Based on the lifespan metric used by most in the NPC research community as a mouse study endpoint, it was observed that KO Cyclodextrin treated animals live significantly longer than KO Vehicle (Figure 1). As shown below, all KO Vehicle animals die by around D60 while the KO Cyclodextrin animals live beyond D70 and some to the end of the study. One thing to note, is that a few KO Vehicle animals could not tolerate the D59 blood draw and succumbed shortly after. As described in the literature, Npc1-/- animals given the same dose at the same age display a lifespan increase by almost 50%. Our results are on trend with that observed result. Of course we have to take into account factors such as a small n per treatment group, as well as potential variances in severity of disease which may lead to differences in lifespan measurements between our study and what is published. Taking that into account, we believe our results reflect the observed results in the literature.

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 10.57.57 AM

Figure 1. Cyclodextrin-treated KO animals survive longer than vehicle treated KO controls

Not only do KO Cyclodextrin animals live longer, but they also maintain their body weight longer than the KO Vehicle treated animals (Figure 2). KO Vehicle animals start to show significant weight decline starting around D45, but the cyclodextrin treated animals do not display the same decline in weight. In fact, they maintain weight an average between 15 and 20g post D45. The weight does plateau, and does not continue to increase as seen in WT Vehicle animals, but they do maintain a healthy weight until the end of the study. Weights were measured one to two times per week, one time being prior to dosing with 4000mg/kg cyclodextrin.

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 11.00.58 AM

Figure 2. Cyclodextrin-treated animals maintain body weight longer than vehicle treated KO controls

In addition to lifespan and weight measurements, we captured novel metrics from the continuous sensor technology in the Vium digital cages, motion and respiration. WT Vehicle animals maintain high levels of activity daily, whereas KO Vehicle treated animals show a decline in motion or activity (Figure 3) around the same time, ~D45, as the decrease in weight is observed (Figure 2). Cyclodextrin-treated animals show a similar increase in motion from D20 to approximately D45 as the other groups, but when the KO Vehicle animals begin to decline, the cyclodextrin-treated animals maintain activity longer, more similar to what is observed with the WT Vehicle animals. Something to note is these data were collected on single housed animals (WT Vehicle n=6, KO Vehicle n=5 and KO Cyclodextrin n=4).

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 11.02.31 AM

Figure 3. Cyclodextrin-treated animals maintain activity levels similar to activity levels of WT Vehicle animals

For respiration rate, we observed similar results as we did with activity (Figure 4). As mice aged, breathing per minute decreases. WT Vehicle and KO Cyclodextrin animals show decreased breathing rates over time, but follow a similar trajectory to each other, whereas KO Vehicle animals have a steeper rate of decline in respiration rate. This could be due to a number of factors. KO Vehicle mice might take fewer breaths per minute, due to the progression of NPC disease. Or, since the KO Vehicle mice are less active, they might also have a decreased respiration rate as compared to animals that are more active. It is interesting nonetheless and a metric we are looking into using in future studies once we tease apart the aforementioned variables, since it has been shown in the literature that Npc1-/- animal models have  pulmonary abnormalities, reflecting what is observed in NPC patients.

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 11.04.15 AM

Figure 4. Cyclodextrin-treated KO animals and WT Vehicle animals have a similar respiration rate over time

In addition to the metrics mentioned, we collected blood twice during the study. We measured multiple metabolites, but what is shown in Figure 5 and Table 1 are measurements for ALT, AST and cholesterol at D25 and D59, including the standard deviations. As reported in the literature and seen in our results, ALT and AST levels are elevated in KO Vehicle animals as compared to WT Vehicle animals. However, cyclodextrin treatment prevents the ALT and AST levels from becoming elevated to the levels of KO Vehicle animals, and remain more similar to the values from control WT Vehicle animals. This is seen at both timepoints, D25 and D59. In the literature, with this same dosing regimen, it was shown that Npc1-/- mice show improved liver function based on plasma ALT and AST levels.

However, there are conflicting reports as to what happens to cholesterol levels in the plasma post treatment with cyclodextrin. Taylor et al reported that cyclodextrin does not alter the levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream up to 12h post treatment. Our results were similar to that finding although our timepoints of cholesterol measurement varied depending on when animals reached humane endpoint. Another study, conducted by Ramirez et al, determined that cyclodextrin lowered Npc1-/- cholesterol levels in the plasma back down to WT levels. In both of these studies Npc1-/- cholesterol levels were higher than that of WT Vehicle animals.

WT Vehicle, KO Vehicle and KO Cyclodextrin treated animals in our study all have similar plasma cholesterol levels at D25 and D59. Npc1-/- animals do not have higher cholesterol levels on D25 or D59 than the WT levels, and additionally cyclodextrin treatment does not alter those values significantly. Without knowing all of the details from each study, some of the differences between these studies could be due to variability in severity of disease across animals, a small n in each group in our study, differences in mouse strains, or variability in times of collection post cyclodextrin administration.

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 1.23.38 PM

Figure 5. Cyclodextrin-treated animals maintain reduced ALT and AST enzyme levels as compared to KO Vehicle animals

Metabolite WT Vehicle KO Vehicle KO Cyclodextrin
ALT (U/L) D25 53.3 ± 15.8 90.2 ± 18.7 42.8 ± 3.4
AST (U/L) D25 60.3 ± 1.9 237.6 ± 27.5 90.2 ± 7.5
Cholesterol (mg/dL) D25 131.5 ± 4.6 121.8 ± 12.4 104.4 ± 12.8
ALT (U/L) D59 54.5 ± 7.2 289.0 ± 100.5 109.5 ± 15.5
AST (U/L) D59 93/.8 ± 17.8 610.3 ± 195.4 196.8 ± 30.7
Cholesterol (mg/dL) D59 147.8 ± 7.2 148.3 ± 17.9 128.5 ± 8.0

Table 1: ALT, AST and cholesterol levels in plasma of D25 and D59 mice

Again, this pilot study was performed on a small number of animals, but even with the small n, the results are striking. This pilot study run at Vium was successful in reproducing trends in the literature and allowed us to capture new metrics using their digital cage technology. Vium’s technology is ever expending, so while we only collected motion and respiration continuously, there are additional continuous measurements and analyses available since their launch. We look forward to continuing our mouse study work with them in the future. Special thanks and shoutout to Ria Lim, Laura Schaevitz, and the technical staff at Vium who put a lot of time into assisting us with study design and implementation. They continue to help us with developing optimal ways to run mouse studies and capture and analyze established and novel metrics!

(c) Can Stock Photo / alptraum

Translate »


What Kind of Oil Does a Toro Lawn Mower Use?

Toro lawn mowers with four cycle engines use SAE 30 weight oil with a API service classification of SF, SG, SH, SJ, SL, or higher of any brand. Synthetic oil can be used after five hours of use.

The Toro Motor Company was founded in 1914 to supply motors to The Bull Tractor Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Toro name was chosen because of the relationship with The Bull company. The company shifted its focus to lawn mowers and developed the first motorized mower for golf courses called the Standard Golf Machine. MTD owns Toro as well as Murray, Troy-Bilt, Poulan, Yard Man, Bolens and Cub Cadet.


Thought Gang

Thought Gang is a collaboration between legendary director and musician David Lynch and his longtime composer Angelo Badalamenti. They recorded the music for their first album throughout the early 1990s, and it is seeing the light of day for the first time in 2018. The esoteric jazz side-project of Lynch and Badalamenti evolved from the seeds of Twin Peaks’ trademark slow cool jazz and blossomed into more experimental pastures: horizonless vistas of acid-soaked free-jazz, laced with spoken word narratives and sprawling noisescapes.


120 cm tine harrow

En stock

Détail du produit

The purpose of the tine harrow is to pull out weeds that are at the seedling phase. This is a tried-and-tested method and is commonly used on large crops. Terrateck has therefore worked on the principle in order to create a very effective manual tool. This tine harrow is very popular thanks to its incredible capacity to adapt to different crop configurations, given the range of widths available and the option to adjust the position of the user when working. The double row of spikes increases the surface in contact with the soil using springs, which produces the best possible results.

Reference T.OM.HEM120
Width 120cm
Weight 5kg
Warranty 1 year

No customer reviews for the moment.


Top 10 Untouchable Movie Roles

All the best movie characters that you just can't see anyone else playing.

The Top Ten

1 The Joker (Heath Ledger) - The Dark Knight

Jack Nicholson's performance was great but Heath Ledgers performance as The Joker is one that may never be topped. - egnomac

Ever see Jack Nicholson's performance? Not bad at all - Billyv

2 Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) - The Godfather Vito Andolini Corleone is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather and in Francis Ford Coppola's film series based on the novel, where he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and, as a young man, by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II.
3 Forest Gump (Tom Hanks) - Forest Gump
4 Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) - The Wizard of Oz
5 Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) - Indiana Jones Franchise
6 Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) - Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp, is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. He is a pirate in the film series.
7 Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff) - Harry Potter Franchise
8 Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) - Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory
10 Tony Montana (Al Pacino) - Scarface Antonio Raimundo "Tony" Montana is a fictional character and the villain protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface.

The Contenders

11 Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) - Star Wars
12 Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) - Dr. Strangelove
13 The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - Terminator Franchise
14 Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) - Pink Panther
15 Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) - Lawrence of Arabia
16 Freddy Kruger (Robert England) - A Nightmare on Elm Street
17 Lt. Col Kilgore (Apocalypse Now) - Robert Duvall
18 Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) - Apocalypse Now
19 Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) - Casablanca
20 Jules Winfield (Samuel L. Jackson) - Pulp Fiction
21 Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) - Star Wars Sheev Palpatine (also known by his Sith identity Darth Sidious and publicly as Senator Palpatine, then Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, and later Emperor Palpatine) is a fictional character and one of the primary antagonists of the Star Wars franchise, mainly portrayed by Ian McDiarmid.
22 Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) - Rocky Robert "Rocky" Balboa is the title character of the Rocky film series. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who also portrayed him in all eight Rocky films.
23 T'Challa / Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) - Black Panther
24 Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) - To Kill a Mockingbird
25 James Bond (Sean Connery) - James Bond Franchise
26 Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) - Bourne Franchise
27 Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) - Iron Man
28 Peter Quill / Star Lord (Chris Pratt) - Guardians of the Galaxy
29 Ella aka Cinderella (Lily James) - Cinderella 2015
BAdd New Item


There has been an age old question that scientists could not answer: Why is the flu most prevalent in winter? Fever, sore throat, cough, body pains and nausea all signal the onset of this debilitating condition. A fascinating new theory seeks to explain why flu takes hold during the winter months and why it infects mostly the elderly and those who are more sedentary.

Dr. John Cannell is the chief author of a landmark theory that postulates that influenza epidemics are intimately linked to declining vitamin D levels. In California, Dr. Cannell works with patients at a maximum-security hospitals for the criminally insane. In recent years, he had become aware that vitamin D is a unique compound with profound effects on human immunity. He lists bone health, cancer prevention and blood pressure lowering effects as an indication that “vitamin D is really quite different from other vitamins.”

Dr. Cannell postulated that many of his patients, because of their confinement and other factors, might be low on vitamin D. Testing for vitamin D proved him right, his patients were very low in this important nutrient. He began prescribing 2,000 IU per day for all the patients in his ward. Subsequently a flu epidemic epidemic broke out in the ward below his, then rather quickly all wards seemed to be affected – except his. “My patients had intermingled with patients from infected wards before the quarantines” he wrote, “I felt certain that my patients had been exposed to the virus – but none of them contracted the flu.”

This rather convincing evidence should have you checking your vitamin D intake. How many days do you get direct rays of the sun on even 20 percent of your body, much less a majority? Most will say: Never! We have become phobic about sun exposure and it has led to a massive amount of deficiency present in our society.

Let’s Talk Health offers Dense Bone – a 2,000 IU vitamin D capsule for those who wish to supplement their diet with a real preventive amount.

Joann from California says…

“I have been taken Dense Bone for over four months now. My back doesn’t hurt like it did, had injuries to my back. Had to struggle to get up. Dense Bone does the trick.”

, , ,

Add a Comment:


IIBI logo evolution

The Institute introduced its present logo in 2005. The desire to update the logo was driven by a desire for a strong brand identity and ambitions to continue to be recognised both domestically and internationally.

A conscious decision was made to retain some elements of the IIBI identity, the crescent and IIBI letters. The crescent, however obvious it may have seemed for an Islamic identity, was considered a valuable element to retain due to the IIBI brand equity it held, and of course the positive connotations of the crescent in an Islamic context. The challenge was to develop the identity that used a very established and well known symbol in a more contemporary and original manner. This was achieved through the pairing of the traditional crescent shape with a contemporary approach to the typography.

The result made up of a three crescent symbol represents the IIBI's aims of education, promotion and implementation of Islamic banking and insurance practices and incorporates the IIBI acronym - along with the new logotype. The Institute's slogan 'Discovering New Perspectives' has also been reintroduced and now forms an integral part of the IIBI brand. These elements now combine in a variety of formats (and colours) across the IIBI's communications providing flexibility for the Institute's users. The new three crescent symbol and acronym placement simply have great stand out: it sits proud and looks upwards. The IIBI letters at an upwards angle reflects IIBI forward momentum and acknowledging the Creator.

The IIBI current logo is not a new design. It comes directly from the previous design where the initials IIBI are embraced within the crescents, looking up to the Creator. The only real change that has been made is to stand IIBI in bold alongside the upward facing crescents to represent an institution that is confident in the transmission of knowledge promoting an understanding of new perspectives in economics, banking, finance and insurance embracing fairness and justice in dealings.


Amazon’s smart-speaker Alexa ‘leaks’ private conversation to random number — RT US News

A US couple was horrified to find out that their private conversation was recorded by Amazon’s Echo voice-controlled device and sent to a work contact. Amazon blamed the “extremely rare” incident on an unlikely sequence of events.

The family discovered that their Alexa virtual assistant had effectively briefly turned into an eavesdropping device only after they got a call from one of the husband’s employees, who told them he had received a recording of their private conversation, KIRO reported.

The immediate assumption of the employee was that the digital helper had somehow been hacked, as he called on them to shut all Echo devices down immediately. At first, the pair found it hard to believe that the smart-speaker might pull such a trick single-handedly and send their conversation to some random contact.

Read more

A customer walks out of the Amazon Go store in Seattle, Washington © Jeffrey Dastin

“At first, my husband was, like, ‘no you didn’t!’ And the (recipient of the message) said ‘You sat there talking about hardwood floors.’ And we said, ‘oh gosh, you really did hear us,” the wife, identified only as Danielle, told the site.

She said the pair had unplugged all Echo devices that they relied on to control heating, lights and security at home. Immediately after, she contacted Amazon. An engineer tasked with checking her activity logs confirmed her account of events and repeatedly apologized for the mishap. In a written statement to KIRO, Amazon called the incident “an extremely rare occurrence,” vowing to take measures never to let this happen again.

In a more detailed explanation of what could have provoked the ‘glitch,’ the company told TechCrunch that Alexa, which is supposed to be activated upon hearing its ‘name,’ had most likely mistaken some of the words in the conversation for an eerily coincidental string of commands.

“Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list. Alexa then asked out loud, ‘[contact name], right?’ Alexa then interpreted background conversation as ‘right,’” Amazon explained.

However, the woman that lives in Portland, Oregon, has said that she did not hear the smart-speaker trying to warn her that it was about to send the recording.

The woman, who said she “felt invaded” by a sudden and utterly uncalled-for breach of privacy on the part of Amazon, has not been satisfied with expletive apologies and demanded a full refund for the Amazon’s invading services, something the online giant refuses to provide, KIRO cited her as saying.

“I’m never plugging that device in again, because I can’t trust it,” she stressed.

Instead, Amazon reportedly offered the family to remove Alexa’s communications feature, so their use of Echo systems will be limited exclusively to smart home applications.

While Amazon tried to downplay the concerns of its know-how’s penchant for spying on its owners, the company is currently embroiled in another privacy-related controversy over its (inadvertent) contribution to mass surveillance with new facial recognition technology.

Its retail giant’s critics argue that by selling its “Rekognition” technology, which can identify, track and analyze people in real time, to US law enforcement and local authorities, Amazon threatens civil freedoms. Slamming the new big brother-like technology, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that it “raises profound civil liberties and civil rights concerns.”


Security breaches and service interruptions have been abundant in the news over the past year.  As the leader of your growing technology organization, you need to take steps early to ensure that your customer data is safe and service continuity is maintained.  Leakage of sensitive data or a site outage due to an attack can quickly become an overwhelming issue.  In this post, I’ll outline a set of activities that should encompass a basic security program.  This is geared towards a small to mid-sized team (less than 30 engineers), supporting an application delivered over the Internet.

If you store or process credit card information through your application, you may already be familiar with PCI standards.  The PCI Security Standards Council is a body of companies from the payments industry.  They maintain a standard, called the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which details security related requirements in order to achieve compliance for processing credit card data.  At Zoosk, we maintained a PCI level 2 compliance.  I found the PCI DSS to be a useful reference for structuring a security program.  Whether or not you have to be PCI compliant, the PCI DSS details many industry best practices to secure sensitive data. In the event you are breached, if you followed PCI DSS, it is fair to claim that you implemented reasonable security practices. I recommend reading through the spec.  Where you see references to cardholder data, simply replace that with what you consider to be your set of sensitive customer data.

If you aren’t sure what customer data would be considered sensitive, it’s best to be inclusive.  The formal definition of personal identifiable data is determined by each state, as part of their security breach notification laws.  California provides a pretty encompassing definition:

(e) “Personal information” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is capable of being associated with, a particular individual, including, but not limited to, his or her name, signature, social security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. “Personal information” does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records.

With that introduction, here is a list of considerations for structuring your security program, loosely modeled on the requirements outlined in the PCI DSS.

First, while not delineated directly in the PCI Spec, it is important that you establish clear ownership for the security program.  As the senior technology leader, you are ultimately responsible.  But, you will not spend the majority of your time focused on security.  In a fast-growing start-up, where the priority is on shipping product, trying to distribute ownership of security or instructing all your engineers to use “good security practices” will not work.  I recommend designating an individual on the team as the owner of the security program.  Ideally, this represents a full time job, in which case you are hiring a security lead.  If your team is small or budget-constrained, then you should assign this role to a software or devops engineer, and ensure that they are able to dedicate significant time to this effort.

I personally think that hiring a dedicated security professional onto your team is the best guarantee that security matters are addressed.  A team size of 10-20  engineers represents a good point to transition to a full-time security lead.  Of course, if your product is a SAAS application in the payment processing space or stores sensitive data for other companies, then this should be your first hire.

Secure the Network

The most basic element of your security posture is to secure the perimeter of the network which hosts your production systems.  This means examining all access points from the Internet to your production environment.  Create a detailed list of all the IPs, ports, protocols and services which are expected to be exposed to the Internet.  This exercise should also include outbound traffic.  Detail IPs, ports and protocols that would be used by your applications to connect to outside services.  This is important, as unusual outbound traffic is often an indicator of a compromised server (for data exfiltration, ping back to bot net, etc.).

Once you have a detailed list of allowed traffic patterns, you would want to apply these to the device that controls access into and out of your network.  Usually, this is a dedicated firewall or router, that allows authorized inbound/outbound traffic and blocks everything else.  If you are hosting through a PaaS or IaaS vendor, you will want to investigate what type of capabilities are available to accomplish the same function.

PCI requires that your network topology be documented, along with this list of allowed traffic patterns.  Changes to firewall rules must be formally approved.  Also, you should harden your actual network equipment.  Limit access to the equipment, shut down unnecessary services and maintain strong passwords.  No matter how much you restrict traffic to your production network, if your firewall or border router is compromised, then nothing else matters.

Access Controls

Once you have mapped out all of your production systems and limited network access to them, determine who should have access to your production systems.  “Who” is usually defined as a set of people, but can also be automated processes.  Access can represent all forms of connections, including at the operating system level (i.e. SSH) and services level (apache, mysql, ldap).  It is helpful to organize your people by role (sysadmin, developer, release engineer, etc.).  Then, you can generalize access controls by role.

The goal of access controls is to limit access to systems/services to only those individuals who absolutely need it.  While this may sound counter to having an open and agile culture among your engineers, it dramatically reduces the risk surface area in case of compromised credentials.  For example, a data analyst who only needs access to a reporting server should not have a credential that could be used to access the database.  It’s not that you don’t trust your people.  The problem is that anyone can accidentally fall prey to a phishing scheme or type their credentials into a compromised machine.

An access control process also includes ensuring that your users have strong passwords, which are changed frequently.  Consider mandating password vaults like 1Password for individuals or a shared repository like Onelogin.  Finally, define a process for granting access to new employees and shutting down credentials for departing employees.  I have been surprised at past companies to see active credentials for employees who left the company long before.

Storage of Sensitive Data

Personally identifiable customer data should be stored in a manner that offers more security than other types of data.  For credit card data, PCI requires the following:

  • The data be stored in a one-way encrypted form.
  • The key used to encrypt the data should be stored in a separate device from the database. Restrict access to the encryption key to the least number of personnel. Change the encryption key periodically.
  • Minimize the amount of sensitive data kept.  This primarily refers to data retention.  Maintain the fewest number of back-ups necessary for operational continuity and delete the rest.  There have been cases of sensitive customer data sourced from a forgotten database back-up.
  • Isolate the database containing the sensitive customer data onto a separate network with a firewall access point.

Even if you don’t process credit cards, you should seriously consider taking similar approaches with the storage of your sensitive customer data.

Monitoring and Testing

Access to the database storing your sensitive data should be monitored and logged.  This includes both user and service access.  For each request, you should log the query that was run.  This log data can be a very useful indicator of suspicious activity.  For example, if a normal user  pattern is to only access one record at a time, then a select query for all records in a table would be suspicious.  Also, monitor and log operating system or file system changes on the servers hosting your database, as well as the  application servers providing a path to it.  Installation of new files, for example, can indicate an active hack on the server.  Network activity should also be monitored.  As mentioned previously, outgoing traffic is often the best indicator of a potential security event happening.  Most system compromises will involve a call back to a server on the Internet to retrieve rootkit code, or to exfiltrate data.  Monitoring should be automated with logic to distinguish suspicious activity from normal.  Security events should be manually reviewed as soon as possible.

Your perimeter should be tested periodically.  This takes the form of penetration testing.  Basic automated scans can be run against your externally facing systems, looking for known vulnerabilities.  Usually, these automated scans perform a basic set of tests for service misconfigurations or open ports.  Many vendors, like McAfee, offer this service.  These automated scans can be supplemented by true penetration testing, in which a white hat attempts to break into your systems.  The white hat will initially run an automated scan across your IP space, followed by targeted attacks on any perceived vulnerabilities.  I have used Rapid7 for this type of penetration testing in the past with great results.  The output of penetration testing will be a list of possible exploits that you need to have your team address.

Vulnerability Management

You should have a process in place for tracking and acting upon vulnerabilities that are announced for the software packages that you are using.  An example of a type of publicized vulnerability is Heartbleed.  When a vulnerability like Heartbleed is publicized, your team should be able to quickly address the vulnerability through system patches.  Beyond closely monitoring security newsfeeds, you can automate this vulnerability detection with a vendor tool.  Products like AlienVault USM will scan all your production systems from the inside, looking for known vulnerabilities in the software versions you are running.  This differs somewhat from penetration testing, in that the focus for vulnerability management is from the inside of your network.

Incident Response

If a security event is reported, the incident response process kicks off.  Incident response encompasses the activities taken to assess and address the security issue. Incidence response involves a designated team of individuals, who follow a formal sequence of steps.  Those steps should be documented in advance in the Incident Response Plan.  An Incident Response Plan can include contact information for key department heads, protocols for communications and methods for collecting evidence.

Other Considerations

  • Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS).  A DDOS attack represents a condition where large amounts of network traffic are directed at your production systems in an effort to overwhelm them and take down your services.  Mitigating a DDOS attack involves analyzing all incoming network traffic and filtering out the attack traffic.  This can only be accomplished at scale by one of the DDOS mitigation services, like Akamai or Imperva.  In these cases, you will route your network traffic through their scrubbing center.  The clean traffic will then be sent back to your systems for processing.  This return path is usually though a private network link.  Set-up of this configuration requires several days.  If your company is hit by a DDOS attack, the last thing you want is to start the process of engaging with a DDOS vendor while your site is down.  Do not assume that your data center bandwidth provider or cloud vendor will handle this.  Often, they will simply blackhole your IP space (route to null) to get the traffic to stop.
  • Keep Perspective.  After you set up your security program, you will likely surface potential security events frequently.  In my experience, a high percentage of security events (over 90%) will be false positives.  However, they are all very scary.  So, it’s important to do the investigation work, but maintain calm until you have a full understanding of the event.


2019: Year Of Anticipation

2018: The Revisiting

The Geeks look back at their predictions and see what pleased them and what did not.

2018: Year Of Anticipation

What are the Geeks looking forward to this coming year and what are they “meh” about? Take a look and see!


News ID: 111006
Published: 0812 GMT February 04, 2015

Obama urged to recognize Iran's nuclear right

Obama urged to recognize Iran's nuclear right

A senior Iranian lawmaker has urged US President Barack Obama to assent to the reasonable nuclear demands of the Islamic Republic.

"Despite the internal and international pressure on Obama not to come to a final nuclear deal with Iran, he should recognize the inalienable right of the Iranians to peaceful nuclear technology," Mehdi Davatgari, a member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Iran Daily on Wednesday.

The parliamentarian said the US executive and legislative branches are entangled in a controversy over nuclear talks with Iran. "Obama pretends that he is trying to reach obvious solutions to a nuclear deal with Tehran while the Congress voices strong opposition," he said.

Davatgari stated that Israel and Saudi Arabia also exert pressure to dash the hopes of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and major world powers.

The MP said if Obama intends to be considered as independent, he should ignore such pressures and admit that Iran is entitled to peaceful nuclear technology.

The lawmaker underlined that the Islamic Republic has always complied with international frameworks and standards.

Davatgari pointed to the reaction of the Iranian parliament vis-à-vis the US Congress, saying: "The Majlis is an independent branch and makes decisions based on national interests."

He said the imperious manner of the West is a cause of concern — the epitome of which is embodied in the US Congress.

The parliamentarian pointed out that the hostile approaches of the US Congress vindicate the right of the Majlis to counter the call.

Davatgari further supported the enrichment of uranium to 60 percent if the West refuses to recognize Iran's civilian nuclear activities. "The Majlis found it expedient to propose plans to enrich uranium to 60 percent to uphold national interests," he said.

He said the lawmakers have approved the first urgency of the proposal to enrich uranium by the high percentage. "The approval of the proposal's urgency means that MPs may deal with the proposal away from administrative procedures and discuss it in an open session," Davatgari said.

"The proposal entitles MPs to perform their legal duties and pass a legislation for 60-percent enrichment, if they deem it necessary."

Security Key:
Captcha refresh
Page Generated in 0/6910 sec


multicellular organismal response to stress Gene Set

Dataset GO Biological Process Annotations
Category structural or functional annotations
Type biological process
Description Any process that results in a change in state or activity of a multicellular organism (in terms of movement, secretion, enzyme production, gene expression, etc.) as a result of a stimulus indicating the organism is under stress. The stress is usually, but not necessarily, exogenous (e.g. temperature, humidity, ionizing radiation). (Gene Ontology, GO_0033555)
External Link
Similar Terms
Downloads & Tools

54 genes participating in the multicellular organismal response to stress biological process from the curated GO Biological Process Annotations dataset.

Symbol Name
ADCYAP1 adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide 1 (pituitary)
ADCYAP1R1 adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide 1 (pituitary) receptor type I
ADRA2A adrenoceptor alpha 2A
ADRB1 adrenoceptor beta 1
ALS2 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 2 (juvenile)
BCL2 B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2
BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor
CACNA1B calcium channel, voltage-dependent, N type, alpha 1B subunit
CALCA calcitonin-related polypeptide alpha
CCK cholecystokinin
COMT catechol-O-methyltransferase
CRH corticotropin releasing hormone
CRHR1 corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 1
DBH dopamine beta-hydroxylase (dopamine beta-monooxygenase)
DEAF1 DEAF1 transcription factor
DRD1 dopamine receptor D1
DRD4 dopamine receptor D4
EDNRB endothelin receptor type B
FBXL20 F-box and leucine-rich repeat protein 20
GABRA5 gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor, alpha 5
GCH1 GTP cyclohydrolase 1
GJA4 gap junction protein, alpha 4, 37kDa
GNG7 guanine nucleotide binding protein (G protein), gamma 7
GRIK2 glutamate receptor, ionotropic, kainate 2
GRM7 glutamate receptor, metabotropic 7
HDAC5 histone deacetylase 5
IDO1 indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1
LGALS1 lectin, galactoside-binding, soluble, 1
MAPK8IP2 mitogen-activated protein kinase 8 interacting protein 2
MDK midkine (neurite growth-promoting factor 2)
MECP2 methyl CpG binding protein 2
NEUROD2 neuronal differentiation 2
NMUR2 neuromedin U receptor 2
NOS1 nitric oxide synthase 1 (neuronal)
NPY2R neuropeptide Y receptor Y2
NR2E1 nuclear receptor subfamily 2, group E, member 1
NR4A2 nuclear receptor subfamily 4, group A, member 2
PDE8B phosphodiesterase 8B
PENK proenkephalin
PPP3CA protein phosphatase 3, catalytic subunit, alpha isozyme
PRKCG protein kinase C, gamma
PTEN phosphatase and tensin homolog
RELN reelin
RET ret proto-oncogene
SLC6A2 solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter), member 2
TAC1 tachykinin, precursor 1
TRPA1 transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily A, member 1
UCN urocortin
USP46 ubiquitin specific peptidase 46
VDAC1 voltage-dependent anion channel 1


A Checklist For Improving Product Design

There is a saying that what costs $10 to fix in design, costs $100 in production and $1000 out in the field. Good designs are more cost efficient to produce, have less defects in manufacturing and are generally more reliable in the _FBP5218-2field. What common design mistakes should you avoid in your next product development effort? Here are eight issues we’ve seen:

Issue 1: Lack of Proper Protection on I/O (Inputs/Outputs).  Most devices need to take input signals and output a signal to other devices out in the field.  These are generally connected via hard wiring.  This hard wiring can be susceptible to external electrical noise or power surges due to other devices or lighting strikes and electrostatic discharge (ESD).  When this happens, it is very possible for this unwanted noise to be induced onto the wiring going back into your system.  Sometimes minor, but sometimes major damage can occur making the product malfunction.  To prevent this, it is vital to design protection circuits that shunt the unwanted energy to ground.

Issue 2: Lack of Proper Power Conditioning.  For any electrical product, it is important that the incoming power is conditioned to accommodate fluctuations in power, brown out conditions, missing AC cycle and power outages.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this.  Many active ICs have some power conditioning built in and some even have the ability to monitor the power.  Otherwise, utilizing simple resistors, capacitors and inductors in various topologies accomplishes sufficient power conditioning for most designs.

Issue 3: Design for Manufacturability (DFM) Guidelines Ignored. As I always say, you only design a product once, but you build it many, many times.  Following good guidelines not only controls cost, but also ensures good quality.  Follow proper spacing when routing traces, placing vias/pads, and placing components.   Maintaining minimum distances to stay within “standard” capabilities for both fabrication and assembly results in good quality at a lower cost.

Issue 4: Design for Test (DFT) Guidelines Ignored. Process control requires a mechanism to monitor the process.  Electrical test can serve as that mechanism.  Providing at least one testable-sized via for each net on your design is good practice.  Test fixturing has become more of a commodity these days so the cost of fixtures has dropped significantly.  Keep the test pad (which can be a via) at least 35 mils diameter size and minimum 75 mils diagonal spacing to adjacent test pads.  Keep test pads minimum 75 mils from body of component and 25 mils from a component lead.  Following these two design guidelines will allow for good test coverage utilizing a lesser cost fixture.

Issue 5: Insufficient Filtering of Integrated Circuits (ICs). Placing filter capacitors (aka bypass caps) onto each IC is required to provide enough localized potential energy to allow the IC to switch properly.  The other function they serve is to filter out AC (or DC ripple) voltage as not to interfere with the function of the part.  Not having bypass caps in place may cause the IC to switch states unintentionally.

Issue 6: Insufficient Bulk Capacitance. Bulk capacitance is required to maintain proper voltage levels throughout the entire board.  Depending on board size, there may be multiple sets of bulk capacitors used.  Because the power source or power supply may not be able to provide sufficient power to all parts of the board, the bulk capacitors help provide the additional energy as needed. In other words, they help load level the supply(s).

Issue 7: Insufficient Protection for Uncontrolled Incoming Power Loss. Linear regulator protection is required to account for uncontrolled incoming power loss.  When this occurs with insufficient protection, the current will want to go through the regulator in the wrong direction, possibly damaging the component.  Ideally, a diode should be provided to shunt the current around the regulator instead of through it.

Issue 8: Failure to Utilize PCB Design Good Practices. Most products sold into market need to comply with certain agency standards, i.e. U.L., FCC, CSA, CE, etc.  In order to pass many of these standards, employing sound EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) practices is key.  The compatibility part of EMC means that a design cannot emit any electromagnetic interference nor be effected from induced electromagnetic interference.  Following the practices mentioned previously will all help with ensuring the product complies with EMC requirements.  Additionally, if you remember what was taught in basic circuits class, current (I) flowing through a wire will create an electric field.  As a result the more wires carrying current, the more fields are produced.  And a trace on a board is really nothing more than a wire.  So keeping all wires a short as possible with the least amount of resistance reduces the magnitude of the electric field(s).  These can be mitigated by providing sufficient power and ground planes which ultimately reduces ground loops.  And one more thing to remember, a loop of wire with current traveling through it is really an antenna!  This is not good for passing EMC testing.

Can Your Contractor Really Help Your Team Build Better Product?

Many companies assume that regional electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers are more focused on building product, than helping customers build it better. That couldn’t be farther from the truth at Burton Industries. Engineering strength is one of one of our key advantages. For over 35 years, our team has been telling customers to ‘bring it on.’ Here are few examples of the problems we’ve solved:

Cost Reduction teamcrop

Many of our customers face competitive cost pressure but have limited redesign options. Our team can help. For example, in one measurement device product line we were able to apply our value engineering skills and reduce the cost of three assemblies by 12, 14 and 16 percent, respectively. The cost savings was achieved through a combination of identifying drop-in replacements for several components and eliminating some manufacturing processes.

Failure Analysis

In another case, we helped a customer address a field return issue on a system controller. Our engineering team performed failure analysis on the field returns using an outside laboratory and found no issues with the components. Further analysis showed that the problem was in the customer’s documentation. On the same assembly, a customer-initiated ECO had changed a component in error and created performance issues in the assembly. Our team worked with the customer’s team to evaluate and re-layout the board. The re-layout of the board corrected the design issues and reduced unit cost by $7.87.

When a customer transferred an industrial product subassembly from another contract manufacturer, we found that design for manufacturability (DFM) analysis had never been performed. Not surprisingly, the product had a history of quality issues. Our analysis found incorrect land patterns and spacing, incorrect hole sizes, slot dimensions and locations that were missing. Components were also placed too close to the PCB edge.  We were able to re-layout the printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) to correct these issues.

Legacy Product

In yet another case, a medical OEM had a legacy product that needed redesign support. Our engineering team worked with customer’s engineering team to gradually convert the older PTH product to SMT, and provide DFM/DFT recommendations. The end result was more manufacturable product and improved component availability.

These are just a few of the many challenges our team solves on a day-to-day basis. We stand ready to provide a wide range of engineering support, including: design for manufacturability and test recommendations, smooth new product introductions, product lifecycle management recommendations, cost reduction suggestions and test strategy optimization.


Reset A A Font size: Print

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. John CIPOLLINA, Defendant–Appellant.

Decided: April 27, 2012

PRESENT: SCUDDER, P.J., SMITH, FAHEY, AND SCONIERS, JJ. The Legal Aid Bureau Of Buffalo, Inc., Buffalo (Vincent F. Gugino Of Counsel), for Defendant–Appellant. Frank A. Sedita, III, District Attorney, Buffalo (Michael J. Hillery Of Counsel), for Respondent.

Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him upon a jury verdict of, inter alia, reckless endangerment in the second degree (Penal Law § 120.20), assault in the second degree (§ 120.05[3] ), and unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle in the third degree (§ 270.25). We reject the initial contention of defendant that Supreme Court erred in failing sua sponte to order a competency hearing (see People v. Tortorici, 92 N.Y.2d 757, 765–766, cert denied 528 U.S. 834; People v. Morgan, 87 N.Y.2d 878, 879–880; see also CPL 730.30[2] ). Shortly after defendant's arrest, the court ordered that defendant undergo a competency examination pursuant to CPL 730.30. Two psychiatrists then independently examined defendant, and each determined that he was not an incapacitated person. Due to concerns raised by defense counsel, the court ordered that defendant undergo another set of competency examinations shortly before trial. The same two psychiatrists again independently determined that defendant was not an incapacitated person. “[I]t is perfectly well settled that a trial court is entitled to give weight to the findings of competency derived from the ordered examinations” (People v. Ferrer, 16 AD3d 913, 914, lv denied 5 NY3d 788, citing Morgan, 87 N.Y.2d at 880; see CPL 730.30[1] ). “ ‘Moreover, [we] note[ ] that defense counsel did not request a hearing and, as it has been observed, [defense] counsel was in the best position to assess defendant's capacity’ “ (People v. Chicherchia, 86 AD3d 953, 954, lv denied 17 NY3d 952, quoting Ferrer, 16 AD3d at 914; see People v. Taylor, 13 AD3d 1168, 1170, lv denied 4 NY3d 836). The court also “ ‘had the opportunity to interact with and observe defendant ․, [and thus] the court had adequate opportunity to properly assess defendant's competency’ “ (Chicherchia, 86 AD3d at 954).

Defendant contends that, with respect to his conviction of assault in the second degree (Penal Law § 120.05[3] ), the evidence is legally insufficient to establish that he caused the injuries to the police officer who was struck by another patrol car arriving on the scene after defendant abandoned his vehicle following a high-speed chase and the police officer had pursued defendant on foot. We reject that contention (see People v. Carncross, 14 NY3d 319, 325–326; see generally People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495). It is well settled that, “[w]here a defendant's flight naturally induces a police officer to engage in pursuit, and the officer is killed [or injured] in the course of that pursuit, the causation element of the crime will be satisfied” (Carncross, 14 NY3d at 325). “Liability will attach even if the defendant's conduct is not the sole cause of [the injuries] ․ if the actions were a sufficiently direct cause of the ensuing [injuries] ․ [A]n act qualifies as a sufficiently direct cause when the ultimate harm should have been reasonably foreseen” (People v. DaCosta, 6 NY3d 181, 184 [internal quotation marks omitted] ). Contrary to defendant's further contention, we conclude that, viewed in the light most favorable to the People (see People v. Contes, 60 N.Y.2d 620, 621), the evidence at trial is legally sufficient to support the conviction of reckless endangerment in the second degree (see § 120.20; see generally Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d at 495). In addition, viewing the evidence in light of the elements of the crimes as charged to the jury (see People v. Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 349), we conclude that the verdict is not against the weight of the evidence (see generally Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d at 495).

Defendant consented to the annotations on the verdict sheet and thus waived his present contention that the verdict sheet was improperly annotated (see CPL 310.20[2]; People v. Brown, 90 N.Y.2d 872, 874; People v. Hicks, 12 AD3d 1044, 1045, lv denied 4 NY3d 799). Additionally, defendant failed to preserve for our review his contention that the count of the indictment charging him with unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle was duplicitous (see People v. Sponburgh, 61 AD3d 1415, 1416, lv denied 12 NY3d 929), and we decline to exercise our power to review that contention as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice (see CPL 470.15[6][a] ).

We reject the further contention of defendant that he was denied effective assistance of counsel (see generally People v. Caban, 5 NY3d 143, 152; People v. Baldi, 54 N.Y.2d 137, 147). Finally, the sentence is not unduly harsh or severe.


19 January 2020, Sunday, 19:14
The Wait Is Nearly Over

Energy Ministry: Decision on nuclear power plant construction is political, and there is no disputing about it

The Energy Ministry of Belarus states that a decision on the nuclear power plant construction is not a topic for public discussion.

It is stated in the answers to complaints received by Belarusian citizens from this state institution, “European Belarus” website writes.

Earlier several hundreds Belarusians sent letters to the Energy Ministry demanding to stop construction of the nuclear power plant in Astravets because it makes no economic sense, and biased estimation of the nuclear power plant impact on environment, which considerably minimizes ecological threat.

“The proposed project of NPP-2006 with VVR-1200 reactors is untried (only 2 reactors of such type work in the world), unreliable (as exploitation of the NPP in China and two similar reactors VVER-440 and VVER-1000 in different countries showed), and electricity produced by it is too expensive (21 cent per 1 kWh as the Russian side states),” the citizens wrote in their addresses.

“A statement about the possible impact of the Belarusian nuclear power plant on the environment” should be recalled the ordering party, as mistakes in the “statement” cannot be corrected immediately, as they have principled and even concept-base nature. Besides, many important parts are absent there, and in general, the “Statement” falls short of the requirements of the order of holding evaluation of environmental impact stipulated by the Decree number 30 of the Natural Resources and Nature’s protection ministry of June 17, 2005,” the complaint reads.

The authors of the letters confirm their demands by reference to “Critical remarks concerning Belarusian nuclear power station’s preliminary environmental impact statement” prepared by the Belarusian Green Party, “Scientists for nuclear-free Belarus” movement, “Ecoprotection!” group (Russia), “Ecodom’ NGO (Belarus), scientific monographs and official documents.

In its answer the Energy Ministry offers arguments against, offering facts in favour of the nuclear power station construction, saying that the decision to construct the nuclear power plant was adopted in January 2008 by the Security Council of Belarus considering economic, ecological and social consequences of such a decision. But the main argument of the ministry is in the end of the letter of the ministry: “We attract your attention to the fact that the political decision on NPP construction in Belarus had been adopted, and it is not subject to public discussions,” the answer reads.

In other words, the authorities do not care about citizens’ opinion on the nuclear power plant construction, which expediency is at least debatable.

However, the public was not asked for advice in the issue of the nuclear power plant construction earlier as well. Representatives of many independent ecological and human rights organisations were not allowed to take part in “public hearings” in Astravets in early October. Instead of them the audience was filled by some people. Each of them was given flags and posters advertising NPP construction. The building where the hearings were held, was cordoned off by riot police, entrance roads to the city were closed by police. And Russian ecology expert Andrei Ozharovski was arrested when he tried to bring into the building the documents criticizing the official report on environment impact, and sentenced to 7 days of arrest on “petty hooliganism” false charges.


Lowdown profile - Egoiste Gallery British artist Lowdown is a strong presence in the redefining of painterly portraiture for the twenty-first century. Harnessing the textural possibilities of spray paint on canvas, Lowdown creates larger-than-life portraits that fuse figurative realism with gritty urban aesthetics. His work often references religious icons, playing with light and shadow in order to venerate his subjects and sanctify the role of art in contemporary society. Capturing intense expressions and concentrated stares, Lowdown’s portraits hint at the profound thoughts behind each face, and challenge the viewer to look beyond the surface, towards a deeper contemplation of every work of art.


4 Ways to Turn Problems into Opportunities

A team struggled with people leaving before the end of organizational meetings. You could simply tell people not to leave.

I asked, “How do you want people to feel at the end of the meeting?”

I based my question on Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman explains that people remember peaks and ends.

You can’t control someone’s peak experience, but you can control what happens at the end.

The goal:

The team decided they wanted everyone to walk out with a smile on their face.

Define goals in specific language. “We succeed when people smile at the end of the meeting.”

The question becomes, “What will you do to put a smile on people’s faces at the end of your meeting?”

4 ways to turn problems into opportunities:

#1. Tap into creativity.

There’s nothing creative about telling people what to do. But creativity takes patience and courage.

Creativity requires you to get comfortable NOT knowing.

A quick solution is the end of creativity and the beginning of self-justification.

#2. Seek elegance.

There’s nothing elegant about telling people what to do.

#3. Develop an opportunity.

Anyone can solve a problem.

Turning problems into opportunities is leadership.

#4. Answer the big question, “What do we really want?”

Connect to higher purpose, not simply a quick solution.

Problem-solvers want something to go away.

Solution-seekers create something new.

The team decided to involve children at the end of the meeting. The result: everyone smiled.

Blame or responsibility:

Telling reluctant people what to do is embedded with blame. Creating an experience that causes a smile is responsibility.

Blame causes anger and exempts from responsibility.

Responsibility creates challenge and prevents finger-pointing.

If you reject the responsibilities of leadership, please get out. All you are is a black sucking hole dragging organizations down.

How might leaders turn problems into opportunities?

Creative Problem Solving (Mind Tools)

The Basics of Creative Problem Solving (Innovation Management)

15 Best Creativity Tips (Leadership Freak)


471 m
341 m
24,43 km

Visualizado 8 vezes, baixado 4 vezes

próximo a Kalinić, Požeško-Slavonska (Hrvatska)

A medium difficulty hiking trail in the hills that mostly follows the marked hiking route. The trail starts at Međa, road pass Podcrkavlje - Ruševo through Dilj. The trail first goes west to the highest Dilj gora's peak - Cinkovac (461m n/v). After that we return to the pass and continue near the peak Orlovac (435m n/v), where you can't go because there is an army there. Than it goes over the peak Degman (460m n/v) which is the second highest Dilj gora's peak , all the way to the top of Marsonia mont (440.3m n/v) which is also the highest peak of the Brodsko posavlje region. After that, we return and descend to lake Sovsko jezero (330m n/v), which is also called the "Blue Eye of Slavonia", because it is in a small, round, natural depression that reminds the eye with its shape and dark blue-green color.

1 comment

  • Foto de goran.adelsberger

    goran.adelsberger 17/set/2019

    The trail can be visited in all seasons, and it is also suitable for mountain cyclists. In the summer, when vegetation is lush, hiking marks are often lost, so it is advisable to have a map and a compass and/or GPS device. This route is close to Slavonski Brod and is easily accessible.

You can or this trail


NEW Shipping fee ranges from $7.00 to $15.00 for orders ~~FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $75.00. ENTER CODE "SHIPFREE" (Applies to Expedited Shipping Only)

Hydrating and Moisturizing Your Skin- There is a Difference Between the Two!

Your skin is the largest organ in your body and it’s so important to keep it hydrated and moisturized. When you have well hydrated skin your complexion looks plump, healthy and youthful. There are many factors that affect skin hydration:

Skin types
Genetics, hormones, environmental irritants and diet can affect your skin

Healthy hydrated skin contains ceramides, a natural skin moisture barrier. As we age, the production of ceramides decrease. We lose elasticity in the skin, which causes dryness and wrinkles. Hydrated skin will help prevent oily skin, because dehydrated skin will produce more oil to compensate for the lack of moisture.

Environmental irritants
When the cells get the proper amount of hydration they can flush out environmental toxins effectively. Dehydrated skin is less resilient to environmental irritants.  Sweat, heat sun cold and wind can be a challenge for your skin to stay hydrated.

The Canada food guide recommends at least 8 glasses (2 litres) of water a day, or more during hot weather or after exercise. We found a simple way to decide how much water your body needs daily - take your body weight and divide by 20. This will give you the amount of 8oz or 250 ml glasses of water that you need to drink per day. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you need to increase your fluid intake by 24 to 32 ounces depending on how much you weigh.

Eat nutrient rich water-based fruits and vegetables such as avocados, bell peppers, berries, cucumber, spinach and kale, kiwi fruit and oranges.

Using the wrong moisturizer
There is a difference in hydration and moisturizing. Dehydrated skin lacks water and needs to be hydrated. Hydration will make skin soft, but with no oil to protect from evaporation the skin will remain dry.  Dry skin means the body is not producing lipids cells on its own.  The result is dry, itchy and flakey skin with a dull appearance.  Dry skin lacks oil and needs to be moisturized.

Hydrators can prevent dry skin, moisturizers help the effects of dry skin.

Carrier Oils
Jojoba, Olive, Avocado, Grape Seed Oil, Coconut, Sweet Almond, Hemp Seed, Argan, Hazelnut, Sunflower SeedNeem and Cranberry Seed Oils all have various additional benefits for the body aside from moisturizing the skin (or hair), and can also be used on their own.  Various essential oils can be added to hydrate the skin, and because most essential oils have antiseptic and antibacterial properties they can clean the skin at the same time.  Always dilute essential oils with a carrier oil.

Essential Oils to Aid in Hydration
Sandalwood, Chamomile, Palmarosa, Neroli, Lavender, Rosewood, Myrrh, Ylang Ylang, and Geranium

Essential Oils for Moisturizing
Orange, Lemon, Lime, Bergamot

Some of these essential oils have photo-toxic properties and exposure to the sun must be avoided after application to the skin. Refer to the information on each essential oil page on the website for any cautions, as well as information on child safety, shelf life, batch dates, pet safety, and potential benefits of each essential oil.

The information on this site is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. It is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please review all information regarding any medical condition or treatment with your physician. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking medical treatment.

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published


Enter the number you wish to produce per minute, the calculator will try to find a possible solution to provide a valid production chain.
You can drag the network graph with the mouse, zoom in/out with the mouse wheel.
Items to produce
Needed per minute
Coal1.5x Coal
Iron Ore1.5x Iron Ore
Steel Ingot1x Steel Ingot
Foundry1x Foundry5x , 15x , 20x


Earthwalker, by Kellie Wallace

Noah is an angel whose job relies on collecting human souls who aren’t ready to leave their vessels. To his brothers Michael and Gabriel, he is just another rookie, earning his arch angel wings. When Noah catches an earth bound demon in his form stealing a soul, he is sent back to Heaven to plead his case. But no one believes him. He is banished from heaven for a crime he didn’t commit, given one year on earth to find the demon responsible for his framing. If he fails to do so, he will be dragged to hell for eternity.

On his first day on earth he meets publishing assistant Fern Holliday who helps him get back on his feet. She is reluctant in getting close to him, but agrees to help Noah find the demon. By following the signs Michael sends him, Noah and Fern travel the world in search of the demon. They grow closer every day until Fern is struck down by a mystery illness. Noah is at loss at what to do as her condition worsens. Before the year is up and he returns to heaven empty handed the demon appears agreeing to be taken back, only if Noah takes Fern’s soul to Lucifer.

Will he follow the strict rules of heaven or succumb to his heart? Meanwhile Lucifer’s army is growing stronger.


There’s a tendency amongst many of us to have surface level relationships. I think I’ve noticed this, fought against this, been guilty of this, and struggled with this my entire adult life, and I still see it rear it’s head above the water in many people’s lives around me on a regular basis. From the looks of it, others fight against it and struggle with it as well.

In our culture, we’ve been programmed towards independence. The minute someone crosses a line, our walls go up and we do our best to let others know that they can’t cross those boundaries that we have set up. But this is actually counterproductive to the gospel’s influence in our lives. In many ways, our understanding of Christian friendship and Christian relationships is shaped more by the culture around us than by Scripture. When society tells us that people shouldn’t “invade” into our personal lives and “”judge” us and “tell us what to do” (all buzz words), we have a choice to make. We shall either embrace those cultural commitments or allow Scripture to shape our actions. For example,

” But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. 3:13)

If we truly love each other than we should desire others to be softened by the gospel, nor hardened by how deceptive sin can be. We should desire people’s freedom, not oppression. Sometimes that means we have to exhort each other, face to face.

Now I know this can be abused and that some of our experience has causes us to be a little gun-shy. That’s understandable and I agree that sometimes what passes as “exhorting” is simply everything but exhortation. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here, okay?

Let’s be friends by exhorting each other, in love.

What do you think? Why is exhorting others and receiving exhortation so difficult?


Nursery for Twins

Designed for two very lucky babies, this nursery room uses a neutral colour palette to create a calm space for the new arrivals. This client opted for our Woodland Animals artwork as not only is it a playful but also gender neutral.


Protest rally to be held in Kutaisi today

Opposition and civic activists will hold a protest rally at 2:00pm in Kutaisi city, Imereti region today.

Earlier today, the leaders of the European Georgia party will hold a march from Kikvidze Square to the building of the regional administration.

Davit Bakradze, the leader of the European Georgia party, vows the peaceful protest will continue a political solution is found.

“There will be rally and a peaceful march in Kutaisi. Everything will be peaceful and non-violent like in previous days. Such actions will continue in various cities and regions of Georgia. The Georgian Dream and Ivanishvili need to understand that the political crisis created by them, will end not when they use riot police against the people, or by holding counter rallies, but when we find a political solution to the deadlock created by the ruling party. Rallies in Tbilisi and Rustaveli will also continue. The government should know that the public will not stop and step back,” Davit Bakradze said.

Banking on action: How ADB achieved 2020 climate finance milestone one year ahead of time


Why Get Tested?

More people die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than from any other cause. CVD includes chest pain (angina), heart attack (myocardial infarction) and stroke. Many cases of cardiovascular disease can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle, or by medications, but to manage these factors, people at high and intermediate risk need to be detected.

Currently, conventional risk factors, such as whether an individual smokes or has a family history of CVD, are analysed to predict the risk of a CVD event occurring in the next 10 years. Increasingly, genetic factors are being implicated in CVD, and it is becoming clear that assessing a person’s genetic makeup is an important component of providing a true picture of individual risk.

Expanding Our Testing Service

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the greatest cause of death in the developed world. CVD is a broad term for a wide range of diseases that affect the heart and blood vessels. StoreGene's unique Cardiovascular Risk Profiling service is designed to accurately estimate an individual's risk of suffering a unspecified CVD event in the next 10 years. However, we are also developing testing services that will allow us to estimate an individual's risk of developing specific cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular associated diseases over a given time frame. Along with our current Cardiovascular Risk Profiling service, we are currently offering testing for FH, a genetic based disease that leads to high cholesterol levels. In addition, we are currently developing risk profiling test services for Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D).

How to access StoreGene's testing service?

StoreGene currently offers its exclusive testing service through our growing network of partner healthcare providers. Each healthcare provider is assessed for its suitability to offer StoreGene's testing service. As part of our service we provide physicians with the necessary training to accurately interpret each client's report which details their results and any associated risks. StoreGene's operating structure of maintaining the physician to client relationship ensures that each client report can be comprehensively explained with any client queries addressed immediately, in person. Contact us to learn more about our testing services or see a list of our current service providers below.

Questions Answered

Q. What is anonymised client information?

A. Anonymisation is the process of turning information into a form which does not identify individuals and where identification is not likely to take place. This information has client identifiable information removed from it, and in its place has an anonymous traceable ID applied. This traceable ID is securely stored by StoreGene.

Q. What will happen to my saliva/blood sample?

Q. What is client-identifiable information?

Q.What is done with the information obtained from collected saliva/blood by StoreGene?

Q. Who will see the risk results?

Q. Who is the average person a client is compared with?

Q. Do clients have to disclose their test result to insurers?


© Michael Simku

False Memories

Presentation by Michael Simku

'False Memories' is a documentary research project that investigates the impact of fiction and storytelling on knowledge production in digital information infrastructures. The project will be realised as web-series, with several episodes currently in production. Each entry looks at the topic from a specific angle and tries to develop a unique narrative perspective. This presentation offers an insight into the ongoing research and production process.

Detailed description of the pilot episode:
False Memories (Pilot)
4K, 23 min.

By 2020 China will become the largest market for film, videostreaming and entertainment worldwide. One of the goals that drives this development is a highly political one: The vision to establish a new world center for fictional storytelling that competes the imagery and narratives told in the West. At the same time Western production companies try to access this tightly restricted commercial arena by adjusting their products to its rigid censorship guidelines.

Meandering between documentation and speculation, 'False Memories' explores the impact as well as the future potential of powerful cinematic universes. It combines material shot in the recently established and now biggest film studio in the world, the 'Oriental Movie Metropolis' in Qingdao, with images reflecting influential cinematic narratives like superhero movies or iconic cartoon characters. Thus the film draws lines between the construction of memories, the means of fictional storytelling and its political impact.

Michael Simku, born 1985 in Steyr, Austria. Lives and works as an artist, filmmaker an art educator in Vienna. He studied Art and Media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His work was awarded at the Austrian American Short Film Festival  and with a Media Literacy Award. It has been presented in institutional shows and festivals like Diagonale (AT), Anthology Film Archive (US), Crossing Europe (AT), Kunsthalle Wien (AT).

In the context of exploring questions related to the future of work and what ‘a good life’ could mean through our 'Artscience practises’ seminar this year. What could be an ecological way of working together, also with fish, glaciers, objects, models, or stories? How are we shaping cross-species solidarities and how are they forming us? Through lectures, workshops and excursions we want to investigate different types of relationships between entities and and experiment with assembling strategies through the winter and summer semesters.

Fact Box

False Memories
January 13, 2020, 14:00h
Salzgries 14, 2nd Floor, 1010 Vienna – Art & Science Studios


Philippine cuisine is in the Guy Sano Country Mall. This has become a reasonable shops to visit for many Japanese.
You can enjoy the performance of the blind band in the store.

Cebu City and Mactan Island are popular Philippine restaurants where stores are located.
There is also an affiliated store "Hukad". Because there are many menus, you can enjoy various Philippine cuisines.

Maribago Gril

Popular Filipino restaurant in Mactan island. The large site there are a lot of cottage, full also Asian mood.
Price is also affordable, many, you can enjoy delicious Filipino amount per dish.
But, are crowded always in the popular restaurant, it is slow the food comes out. Please wait a leisurely patiently.

Seafood City

Seafood restaurant in the "Grand Compaction Center" about 5 to 10 minutes from Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, or Ayalamol and its suburban hotels as well.
Fresh seafood dishes full of stomach, please enjoy it to your heart 's content.

Cebu City It is an Italian restaurant of the 5-star hotel "abaca" group in "Design Center" of ASFortuna street.
The two-story building with full glass is illuminated by a warm orange light at night, you can also enjoy an elegant and fashionable atmosphere.
TAVOLATA has changed some menus according to the ingredients that were picked up on that day so that customers can enjoy the best ones at any time.
Please listen to today's recommendations.

Just next to J Center of ASfortuna st., A full-fledged Western restaurant just opened in March 2016.
Japanese chefs with more than 20 years' experience in Japan offer original menus that stick to materials as well.
Lunch menu, course menu is also available.
Dessert is also delicious!

Tsay Cheng

A luxury Chinese restaurant located in the "Grand Convention Center" located in the middle of Ayala Shopping Mall and Waterfront Cebu City Hotel. Why do not you eat delicious Chinese cuisine in a white coordination shop?

Mediterranean restaurant located in the place of taxi 5 minutes from Marco Polo Hotel. Please enjoy delicious cuisine while relaxing in the atmosphere of calm atmosphere with woodgrain tone. It is adjacent to the " Bellini " bar and you can relax at the bar after a meal slowly.

MB’s Restaurant

Mactan Island Mactan German restaurant in the vicinity of the Doctor's General Hospital. Personally, I think that it is Italian cuisine, which is Americanized, but I would say that it is German cuisine because there is Frankfurt!! Spaghetti and the pizza is recommended for 3~4 people. Completely changed to the bar at night, then many foreigners are coming.

The Pink House Restaurant

French cuisine restaurant that uses the street pink building its name. The store is also a unique stylish atmosphere, you can enjoy a delicious French cuisine. About 5 minutes by taxi from JY Mall, located in the position of about 10 minutes walk from Haroruzuhoteru.
In the "La vie Parisienne" in the adjacent French bakery cafe, you can eat the delicious bread in the open terrace.
Of course, take-away possible. French cheese and ham, also sells like wine.


Tolkien Gateway

Revision as of 14:26, 1 August 2015 by (Talk)
Sage - Middle-earth.png
General Information
Other namesEnnorath, Endor
LocationArda, east of Belegaer
DescriptionA continent set between two oceans
RegionsRohan, Gondor, Mordor, Arnor, Rivendell, Lothlórien, others
GalleryImages of Middle-earth

The Westlands of Middle-earth

Early Arda

Western Middle-earth with deluged Beleriand

The continent of Middle-earth is the main setting of most of the stories of the legendarium. There are a few stories that take place in Aman (like some chapters of The Silmarillion) and Númenor (like the Akallabêth and Aldarion and Erendis).

In fandom, the term "Middle-earth" is used to refer to Tolkien's secondary world or fictional universe in general, including its pantheon and cosmology. Tolkien himself used the term loosely at times to refer to his creation.[9]

Being actually The Atlas of Arda

As a result, Middle-earth is used synonymously as "Arda" as a more recogniseable term for titles such as The Atlas of Middle-earth, even while its subject is beyond the scope of the strict geographical definition of the continent of Endor. Even Christopher Tolkien, while publishing the early drafts and manuscripts of his father, he titled the series The History of Middle-earth,[9] thus equating the term "Middle-earth" with the Legendarium. Wikipedia is also an example of this usage, with article names such as Elf (Middle-earth) and the (somewhat erroneous) Arda (Middle-earth).

The term "Arda", which refers to the whole world proper, first appeared in The Silmarillion[9] and is a more technical term. But the term "Arda" is sometimes appropriately used to refer to the world of Tolkien, seen in example in the names of Encyclopedia of Arda or Ardalambion.

Another misuse of the term is the equation of "Middle-earth" with the mapped regions, as seen in the maps to Lord of the Rings. Actually these regions are just the Westlands of Middle-earth, being the north-western portion of the continent. Actually how far Middle-earth extends to the East and the South of the map is unknown. Although Mordor is seen to the south-easter corner of the map, it doesn't mean it belongs to the south-eastern Middle-earth, as there are presumably other lands to the east and south.[10] Karen Fonstad has attempted to reconstruct the entirety of the continent, beyond the Westlands, based on an early map by Tolkien.[11]

Middle-earth and the Old World

In his earliest drafts of the Legendarium, The Book of Lost Tales, the mythology had more direct connections with our history: Littleheart compares the Fall of Gondolin with the fall of "Bablon", "Ninwi" and "Trui".[12] The Mannish language of Taliska was based on Gothic.[13] Britain was supposed to be former Tol Eressea that was driven towards the Great Lands, with Ireland (the Isle of Iverin) being a part that broke from it. The main character Ottor Wǽfre was intended to be the father of legendary figures Hengest and Horsa who conquered England from the Guidlin, the Brithonin and the Rumhoth. In a later sketch, the Elves were from the region of Luthany before it was pulled out of the mainland and became an island.[14]

Tolkien envisioned his stories to take place on our world, in an imaginary historical period and contains the essentials of the northwestern Europe. He did not see his stories to happen on a "remote globe in 'space'" as was the case with other contemporary fiction.[15]

As for the later legendarium, The Shire not only was conceptually based on rural England[16] but also was expressly stated to be "in this region"[17], "the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea".[18] Concerning the Shire, Tolkien stated that he intended it to correspond about to the latitude of Oxford, which would result to other Middle-earth locations to correspond (but not necessarily equate with) real-life locations. For instance, Pelargir would fall to about the latitude of ancient Troy.[19] This enabled Andreas Moehn to make more correspondences, and even project the Westlands on a real map of Europe.[20]

On the other hand, Tolkien designed his maps to accomodate the mythology, and was conscious that they did not fit the ancient Earth, as understood by contemporary archeology and historical geology.[21][17]

Portrayal in adaptations

Middle-earth has been depicted in a variety of adaptations of Tolkien's work -- the most prominent of which have been the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies by Peter Jackson. Middle-earth has appeared in animation in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings and Rankin/Bass' adaptations of The Hobbit and The Return of the King. Middle-earth has also been adapted for numerous video games such as The Lord of the Rings Online and War in the North and tabletop role-playing games like the Middle-earth Role Playing system by Iron Crown Enterprises.

See Also

  8. Tolkien Journal II, 2 p. 1
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Middle-earth - Usage and misunderstandings", Wikipedia (accessed 19 January 2020)
  10. Robert Foster, The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, entry "Middle-earth"
  11. Karen Wynn Fonstad (1991), The Atlas of Middle-earth
  13. J.R.R. Tolkien, "Quenya Phonology", in Parma Eldalamberon XIX (edited by Christopher Gilson), "The Comparative Tales", p. 22
  14. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, "The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales"
  15. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 183, (undated, probably written 1956)
  16. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 190, (dated 3 July 1956)
  18. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, "Prologue"
  19. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 294, (dated 8 February 1967)
  20. Andreas Moehn, "A Meridional Grid on the Middle-Earth Map", Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages (accessed 19 January 2020)
  21. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 169, (dated 11 September 1955)


Liberty Science Center Winter Fun #LSCWinterFun

kids museum

The Liberty Science Center in nearby Jersey City, NJ has a ton to do for kids and families. They recently opened the Largest Planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. This alone makes it worth a visit.

“It is Liberty Science Center’s greatest experience yet–the largest and most technologically advanced planetarium in the entire Western Hemisphere. The only three that are bigger are in Beijing, China, and Nagoya and Niihama, Japan.”

The kids had an amazing time watching the live show in the domed theater. The seats we were in were pretty high up, but you can choose seats closer to the ground should you want to. The speaker used a laser pointer to show different stars and constellations in the sky, and made the sun rise and set as you watched in just a few seconds. He was also able to zoom in and out of very specific locations- one of which being the science center itself. You and your kids can see the stars at different times of the year as the speaker zooms around and gives explanations of each constellation.

There are several shows you are able to see at the planetarium at this time, Sesame Street, Laser Wonderful, and Black Holes.

liberty science center

You can now see the International Sherlock Holmes show and Doc McStuffins Exhibits now at the Liberty Science Center. These temporary exhibits are a lot of fun, and part of what makes the LSC so much fun.

Liberty Science Center and Thomas & Friends Explore The Rails #LSCThomas&Friends

The Liberty Science Center has so much to keep kids and families active and learning, you can easily spend the whole day there and not see half of what there is inside (and don’t forget outside, weather permitting).  Right now, if you take the kids to the museum, you can visit the Island of Sodor and see your favorite tank engine, Thomas.

“Visit the Island of Sodor at Liberty Science Center!

In Thomas & Friends™: Explore the Rails, kids can learn, play, and solve problems with Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends while immersing themselves in locations from the beloved TV series.