There are a lot of fantastic entries in the Shoujo genre of anime/manga. Today’s show is Yona of the Dawn. It is similar to Garo in some ways, such as being set in a medieval-like time period and the journey to taking down a ruler. Yona however is a more engaging watch, which is mainly due to the focus of the story. The show explores the themes of betrayal, leadership, friendship, and courage. It’s a must-watch for any anime fan.

Yona’s first episode is standard, almost too standard. And that’s the point: to make the viewer think this is going to be something of a stereotype of Shoujo anime. The focus for most of the episode is on the Princess narrating her love for her childhood friend Soo-won. Romance is a primary factor of this genre, so the question always has to be, “what will make this particular show stand out?” The episode answers that question in the climax when Soo-won murders Yona’s father, King II. This scene 24 episodes later still feels like the most powerful of the show. Everything preceding it points to a happy adventure in the kingdom with Yona about to pronounce her love for Soo-won. This scene forces the viewer to rethink that assumption and changes the atmosphere of the story going forward.

Episode 2 focuses on the Princess and her bodyguard Hak escaping the castle. The viewer is fully engrossed here, not knowing what to expect. In many ways Yona mirrors what the viewer is feeling. She’s shocked while trying to adapt to the situation. From here, the show becomes a survival, and then a journey both outward and inward. The outward part plays out much like an RPG. We have the main character going from village to village meeting diverse characters and “treasure searching.” However, instead of objects the goal is to find and recruit people in order to take back the kingdom.

The inward part of the journey is Yona discovering how to be a warrior and leader. It’s amazing to look back at Episode 1 and jump to Episode 22 when she makes her first kill to save her friend. The character development is fantastic. Yona never ceases to be a likable, engaging protagonist. This is enhanced by her ongoing narration as viewers get to hear things from her perspective, know her feelings, etc. She goes from being distressed to a person of courage willing to put her life on the line to help others. This is why the scene of her firing her arrow at Kumji is such a powerful one; it’s the culmination of her past development.

Aside from Yona, the greatest character is easily Hak, the “Lightning Beast.” His character arc remains pretty much the same, which is being a bodyguard for the Princess. The first few episodes were especially great in showing the unique relationship between the two. Hak is typically portrayed as rather serious, which is why it’s always a treat to hear his narration. Early on it was very interesting to hear what he was thinking about on Soo-won killing the King. He’s just as shocked as Yona, but doesn’t have the luxury of getting depressed because he has a scared duty to protect her. Later, he has to deal with the fact that he has feelings for her. As a bodyguard, is it a good thing to let those feelings take over? It’s a tough question he has to ask himself, especially since Yona doesn’t look at him in a romantic way. This subplot is never overplayed nor underplayed. The viewer is left wondering at the end of Episode 24 what will become of it.

Soo-won is a fascinating character. He is the “antagonist” yet the writing rarely seems to portray him as outright evil. His killing of King II for “the greater good” and subsequent scenes gives the indication that he is genuinely concerned about the kingdom. We do see glimpses of a more deceptive side at times, but again he’s not a cackling tyrannical dictator. The fact that he has personal ties with Yona and Hak (as seen in the excellent backstory portrayed in Episode 3) makes the conflict all the more engaging.

King II isn’t around long but his presence is felt throughout the show. The interesting aspect of his character is that a lot of the kingdom didn’t like the way he ruled. A very powerful scene was when Yona ran into a dying man. He claimed that it was the King’s pacifism as the cause of the former’s village being in ruin. So, this gives the viewer an ongoing mystery: was II truly a good king? Did he really have a dark past, as Soo-won claimed? These questions the writing smartly leaves open-ended. This also has Yona question whether her father did things right as a king. It’s engaging to see her decide in the final episode that she has to go against her father’s wishes of complete peace and take up a sword to fight for the kingdom.

After the first few episodes the show focuses on Yona searching for the Four Dragon Warriors. This is where the RPG element comes into play. Each Dragon Warrior (aside from Zeno) has his own mini-arc as the Princess enters the villages. The writing does a solid job at making them diverse. The longest arc is Jae-Ha’s. Some might say it took too much time away from Soo-won’s story, but it helped cement Yona as a warrior princess. Plus, the heartwarming moment with Yona and the pirate captain was excellent. The most disappointing arc by default is Zeno’s. Of course, after the long pirate saga it didn’t make sense to have another multi-episode arc exploring another Dragon Warrior. This sadly then forced Zeno to appear basically out of nowhere and by the end he’s given no backstory. Hopefully in Season 2 he will be explored a little more.

The animation is excellent, as are the fight scenes. There aren’t many standout battles unfortunately, because a good number of them are just against hordes of minions. The best single battle might be early on with Soo-won versus Hak. This was a nice tease for a future showdown between the two. There are quite a few side characters, the most prominent being Yun whom becomes a main character. He’s definitely good, but the writing does sometimes take it overboard with his yelling. (Not to mention the tiresome self-calling “beautiful boy genius.”) Even though the plot is rather serious, the show does like to have fun with itself with comedic scenes. Sometimes they’re effective, but often they border on just being too silly. (Such as some of the bickering between Hak and Kija.)

Overall, Yona of the Dawn is a fantastic watch. At its core it’s about a princess moving past betrayal and becoming a warrior. Yona is a great focus, and her narration greatly enhances the viewing experience. The cast of characters is nicely utilized, especially Hak. The ongoing plot with Soo-won is intriguing to watch unfold. While not perfect in some spots, Season 1 is excellent. Hopefully its sequel will be formally announced soon.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time Review

Yu-Gi-Oh is a franchise most people have fond memories of thanks to the iconic 4Kids dub. (To this day, I can’t get Yugi’s iconic “it’s time to d-d-d-duel!” out of my head.) The original manga ended years ago, but has been continued by a show adaption and anime sequels. (Subsequently, there have been manga adaptions of the latter.) The animes have one coherent continuity, and Bonds Beyond Time brings the main characters of the original, GX, and 5D’s together for an adventure. The film is certainly a treat for longtime fans of the franchise. It’s impossible not to smile the entire time and is recommended to watch with other fans especially.

The film is fully geared toward longtime fans. And why shouldn’t it be? This is purely meant to be a fun crossover 10th anniversary celebration of the first anime. It’s not totally inaccessible to newcomers thanks to the extended intro, but it’s mainly for people whom have been following the anime/manga throughout the years. The story is very good, though sadly can’t be developed too much due to the rather short run-time. The idea of the three heroes uniting against a doomed future is an awesome concept, and for the most part it’s executed well. If the film had an extra half hour it would have been enough to fully develop the story and showcase better how the characters meet.

The intro does a very solid job at recapping the three series. (The only negative I have is that the first segment doesn’t feature Bakura/Zorc, when they were the true main villains.) The film then jumps into a fantastic sequence with Jaden dodging blasts from Stardust Dragon in a ruined city. Since we’re so used to simply seeing the monsters in the dueling format, it’s a treat to see them in real-time causing destruction. This set the tone for the rest of the film. Jaden, along with Yusei and Yugi, get adequate screen time. Yusei has the most, mainly because this film was released during the 5D’s anime. Yusei is a perfect counterpart to the more carefree Jaden. They’re both heroes, but the latter is laid-back while the former more serious. Yugi is more of an amalgam of the two. All three personalities play off each other well.

Paradox is a pretty standard antagonist. The idea of someone from the future going back in time to stop duel monsters from destroying his world was a fantastic idea. This at first gave Paradox dimension as a character, but sadly he ended up being just another villain that enjoys seeing people die. It would have been far more interesting to see a more somber take, focusing solely on his goal to save the future which would have made the viewer question if he was truly evil or not. Instead, the film opted for the more generic route and just made him another bad guy.

The film’s middle to last act is basically one big duel. Longtime fans will have a blast following along, mainly of course to see how the different main characters battle together. The writing throughout the film is pretty solid and gives the impression of a summer blockbuster, much like The Avengers. The dialogue, to put it bluntly, is simply fun. The three characters meeting happens rather suddenly, but nothing bad. The only dialogue sequence I didn’t care for was when Yusei told Yugi that “it’s alright to destroy Stardust Dragon.” This is technically an emotional well done scene until you realize that Stardust wouldn’t actually get destroyed, because the card would still be there. So these lines are rendered irrelevant. The soundtrack is great throughout. Each main character has distinctive themes, and there’s a fantastic amount of choir accompanying the dragon summonings.

Overall, as an anniversary celebration Bonds Beyond Time delivers. The characters are dynamic and excellent to watch together. The animation looks beautiful and there’s a lot of great monster cards to see. (From the newer Cyber End Dragon to the classic Dark Magician.) The tone is very good, having great balance of danger and pure enjoyment. The short run-time does hurt the development a little, making the film almost seem like just an extended episode. Also, while not a bad character, the motivations behind Paradox is a greatly missed opportunity. At the end of the day though, the film is a must-watch for all Yu-Gi-Oh fans.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic “Buckball Season” Review


Opinion | Criminal Justice

In the fraught landscape of national politics, criminal justice reform is providing hope that Republicans and Democrats can agree on something. The First Step Act  - which Mitch McConnell has promised to bring to the senate floor, following passage in the House and the President's endorsement - would expand good time credits, strengthen bonds between prisoners and their families, better prepare inmates for reentry, and retroactively reduce the harsh and unjust disparity between crack and cocaine sentences.

Much of the answer lies in the deep distrust that underlies and pervades many aspects of our criminal justice system. Time and time again, common-sense sounding policies - like money bail to prevent flight risk and sentencing guidelines to increase consistency - have instead entrenched wealth and race-based inequities.

While we applaud the use of evidence to reduce recidivism, the reliance on factors like a person's history, educational background, and other demographic factors to classify them risks exacerbating and further embedding historical and institutional patterns of bias, particularly against individuals of color. The exclusion of juvenile lifers is also an issue.

In the context of prison risks and needs, the Senate version of First Step acknowledges the problem. It requires the Attorney General to consult with an Independent Review Committee when developing its tool. It requires regular reporting not only on overall recidivism - which, at 83 percent at 9-years at the state level, is unacceptably high - but also unwarranted disparities among similarly classified prisoners of different demographic groups. Importantly, it requires the system to be based on dynamic, not just static, factors within the prisoner's control.

These steps would invite collaboration and innovation in designing fairer assessment systems - an admittedly difficult task. Greater transparency would also create trust and accountability. Where "trust me" doesn't work, "see for yourself" just might.

These small changes - prior to passage or in implementation - would go a long way to operationalize the checks and balances badly needed by our criminal justice system. They would spur data-driven innovation and discovery of what works. They would pave the way for not just a First Step but a new direction for our criminal justice system.


BEPER is an Italian brand, born among the walls of Verona.

Between the bends of the River Adige, we find Verona, a stunning city and one of the sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Verona is a magic site of a completely harmonious integration of artistic elements from several different historical epochs. 2.000 years of history encased in its walls.
Arena, the monument that is most symbolic of Verona, has known around the world as opera stage.
The Verona of Shakespeare is a legend known all over the world, thanks to the immortal story of Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed lovers.
Nowadays, this fabulous city is one of the most admired and visited places in the world.


Gastric and Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma Market Growth, Trends, Analysis and Forecast

Gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (G/GEJAC) represents the majority of gastric cancer cases worldwide. It is the fifth most diagnosed cancer globally, and the third most common cause of cancer death in the world. The major treatments for G/GEJAC are chemotherapy-based, but targeted therapies such as HER2 and angiogenesis inhibitors have been approved and are being added to chemotherapy regimens since 2010 and 2014, respectively.

The US is a large G/GEJAC market due to high treatment rates of advanced diseases and higher drug prices than in the rest of the 8MM. Increased sales of G/GEJAC therapies over the forecast period will be driven by increasing disease incident cases, the rapid uptake of newly approved Cyramza, and the approval and increasing uptake of expensive pipeline agents, such as anti-PD-1 immunotherapies and a HER2-targeted therapy.

Browse full report with TOC@

- Overview of G/GEJAC including epidemiology, etiology, symptoms, diagnosis, pathology and treatment guidelines as well as an overview on the competitive landscape.
- Sales forecast for the top drugs in the US from 2014-2024.
- Analysis of the impact of key events as well the drivers and restraints affecting the US G/GEJAC market.

Reasons to buy

- Stay ahead of the competition by understanding the changing competitive landscape for G/GEJAC.


___ squash (ridged vegetable)

On this page will find the solution to ___ squash (ridged vegetable) crossword clue. Simply click on the clue posted on USA Today Crossword on December 31 2017 and we will present you with the correct answer. If there is a chance we have missed the answer you are looking for, feel free to contact us and we will get back to you with the answer as soon as possible Crosswords are a great way to keep your mind working, it has proven to be an excellent learning process for both kids and adults. Solving a crossword a day, can keep your brain healthy by keeping it challenged.

CLUE: ___ squash (ridged vegetable)
Answer: ACORN

Done with ___ squash (ridged vegetable)? Go back and see the other crossword clues for USA Today Crossword December 31 2017 Answers.


aly mostafa aly mostafa

Reading lesson about Endless energy
Intermediate level

In this lesson,Ss will read about renewable energy through a text about three different resources of power.,Biomass,human waste and Crowd Farm.The lesson starts by brainstorming the connection between three pictures of the resources to creating energy.Then Ss read the text for global understanding.After that they read for specific information.And finally,there will be a discussion about what problems their country needs to tackle and relevant solutions to those problems.

Abc Page,33
Abc 2 Handouts

Main Aims

  • Skill:Reading about energy,Ss will have improved their reading for gist and specific information by skimming and scanning.By the end of the lesson they will have learned advantages and disadvantages of renewable resources of power.

Subsidiary Aims

  • Skill:Speaking about energy issues.By the end of the lesson,Ss will be able to discuss problems that their country faces and how to tackle them.

Warmer/Lead-in (5-5 minutes) • To get Ss interested in the topic which is about renewable resources of energy especially the latest ones and those of the near future.

T shows three pictures of Biomass,nappies and Crowd Farm that the text is all about.Then T asks Ss how these pictures could be connected to creating energy. So students work in pairs looking at pictures and try to guess the connection.Ss feed back to the class.T should not say whether their predictions were right or wrong until they start reading and find out themselves.

While-Reading #1 (10-10 minutes) • To focus on fast reading for gist (skimming) and to check text against predictions made beforehand.

T shows folded HO,(pg.33 of coursebook) that he is going to distribute pointing at the text and asking the students to read it very quickly (skimming) in three minutes and not to look at the folded part yet so they figure out whether their predictions were right or not. T checks by ICQs .After reading,T asks Ss to look at the folded part where they find 2 questions., the first about the title to the text they choose from three options.The second is a straightforward about the countries mentioned in the text.Then Ss give feedback.

T shows the next HO, and asks Ss to read again the text and to decide whether the sentences in the activity are (T) , (F) or the text doesn`t say (D) .Ss correct if the sentence is false.T sets 5-7 minutes for reading and answering the questions individually then check pairs then whole class feedback.

Post-Reading/Listening (15-15 minutes) • A sort of pyramid discussion will be useful for practising a range of functions, including agreeing and disagreeing, negotiating, summarising, and putting forward an argument.

T divides the class into four groups,and asks each group to discuss a problem that their country faces and how to tackle it.after five minutes , two groups join another two reforming two bigger groups who exchange with each other their perspective and agree on on problem to be more important.After that all students stand up and each student looks for a partner from the other group to share with him/her the problem discussed within their own group.T monitors and notes down any errors or good language to feedback at the end of the lesson.

Web site designed by: Nikue


Adapting and Responding To One’s Environment

Organism, to Organization, to Institution Series – Part 9

(A single cell organism is a building block of life. When multiplying, how can you prevent it from becoming an institution where the organism can easily die or become lost in its structure? The following blogs in this series will examine the Church as an organized institution or an organism built on relationships.)

Let’s look at the church through the eye’s of Katrina Scherbern’ view or Organism Organization where she defines seven characteristics. Let’s look at her fifth and sixth one:

5.     Living things respond to their environment

6.     Living things adapt to their environment

Being “Missional”, a current church buzzword, is associated with going beyond church culture by responding and adapting to one’s environment. When the church loses being salt and light, it loses its brilliance and flavor and becomes ritual and lifeless.  The concept of being in the world but not a part of it does not mean to be exclusive.

Jesus commanded to love your neighbor as yourself, but when immersed in only a Christian culture, loving becomes easy, not sacrificial or forgiving. Loving your neighbor means responding to those outside one’s cell and adapting to their environment. Jesus was also criticized in his day for eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, those unclean by Jewish Law, but He knew His Church would one day be outside the realm of Jewish tradition and open to the gentiles.

Again the five fold is important in implementing this principle. The evangelist is needed to rebirth, so that all things are new!  A shepherd’s nurture, caring, and kindness is effective in bringing about acceptance, then openness in receiving the gospel. Teachers are needed to teach the practicality of how to love your neighbor, not just preaching at them. Prophets can “read their mail” as Jesus did to the woman at the well in order to bring them into the kingdom of God. Apostles have insight as to how to be the most effect cell in winning new people into their group, how to nurture and develop them, spiritually feed them, and release them when mature.

An five fold church or cell, led by the Holy Spirit will seek direction on how to win the lost, nurture and care for their needs too, ground them in the faith, bring spiritual life to their stagnant one, and help them grow and develop. All this is what Jesus meant when he told Apostle Peter to feed My sheep.

If the Church is to win the world for Jesus, it must infiltrate the world and environment where it has been placed. As different cells have different purposes, so a church cell can be an urban cell, a suburban cell, a cell with outreach, a cell with compassion, a cell with… on and on. Diversity is important to the nature of the body of the Christ, and responding and adapting to different environments can only come through diversity.


Clients include...

X Japan

Malou Beauvoir

Haitian-American performing artist Malou Beauvoir, is a captivating, highly emotive singer-songwriter and actor who brings to her artistry the unique amalgamation of her multi-cultural influences and experiences. A citizen of the world, she has lived in the US, Europe and Haiti, and traveled extensively; each culture she has encountered has impacted and informed her in different ways, reinforcing her openness to different perspectives and forms of spirituality.

Born in Chicago to Haitian parents, Malou was raised in New York, growing up with brother and rock phenomenon Jean Beauvoir (The Ramones, Kiss). She moved to Paris at 15 to attend the American University and pursue her artistic passions. Juggling both art and business while earning an MBA and a senior position in the high-tech industry, by the end of the 1990s she devoted herself exclusively to singing and acting, securing engagements in venues around the world — from Dubai to Rio, Beirut, London, and Paris, where she performed for two years as lead singer at the renowned Paradis Latin. She currently splits her time between Brussels and New York, continuing to travel around the world.


How Did Demonetization Hit the Economy?
Latest Article

How Did Demonetization Hit the Economy?

Author: Thamanna Abdul Latheef   15 Jun 2018

How Did Demonetization Hit the Economy?

As per the data released by the government, at least 73,000 deregistered companies deposited Rs 24,000 crore in bank accounts after demonetization that was announced on 8 November 2016. The data shows that 1.68 lakh out of 2.26 lakh companies which have been deregistered had deposited cash into their bank accounts after the announcement of demonetization of high-value currency notes.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs had cancelled the registration of 2.26 lakh companies that had not been carrying out business activities for long suspected they were being used for illegal fund flows

Any headline jobs numbers thus need to be examined more closely. Pessimists are right when they argue that demonetization and GST caused waves of layoffs in the informal sector, which employs the bulk of Indian workers. Many were fired in the months after demonetization when employers didn’t have the cash to pay them.

The RBI cues

The RBI’s approach to the demonetization impact on the economy is bit perplexing, but the obtrusive caution is hard to ignore. In its latest bi-monthly policy review, the central bank has already cut the FY17 growth forecast to 7.1 percent from 7.6 percent, but not taking into account the full impact of demonetization shock.

The RBI indeed acknowledges that there will be ‘short-run disruptions in economic activity in cash-intensive sectors such as retail trade, hotels and restaurants and transportation, and in the unorganized sector’. But the RBI’s larger assumption seems to be that there will be a recovery beyond the short-term pain of cash-crunch.

In short, the RBI has no clue at this stage what the demonetization will do to the economic growth. It primarily attributes the loss of growth momentum in the second quarter to the downward revision and to the as yet unclear effects of note ban. This means, if things turn bad, the 7.1 percent growth projection could be revised downwards even further to 6-6.5 percent.

Job loss

There are indications of the severe hit to the employment in the informal sector post the government announcement of Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes as illegal tender on 8 November. More than 90 percent of India’s workforce still earn their wages in cash. These consist of hundreds of millions of agriculture workers, construction workers and so on. The pain and suffering of these segments, which constitute the majority are not quantifiable, but no government can shun the responsibility of massive losses in the country that is a consequence of a “well thought-out”, conscious policy action, which according to RBI governor Urjit Patel, “wasn’t done in haste”.

According to a report in the Financial Express, which quotes unnamed industry officials, “As many as 4 lakh people, mostly daily wagers, may have either lost their jobs or shunned work temporarily due to the lack of payment so far, and the number is only going to grow if the cash crunch persists.”

Even the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the labour wing of BJP’s ideological parent, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has raised an alarm about the huge hit on job losses. “Under the new government, 1 lakh and 35 thousand job opportunities have been created so far but 20 lakh people have lost their jobs," Baij Nath Rai, president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, told media. This is a serious situation indeed in a country where job creation is already a massive challenge. The onus, yet again, falls on the Modi government here.

There are no two thoughts on the intentions behind the demonetization exercise but when ultimately a cost-benefit analysis is done, and if the government finds little luck on recovery on unaccounted cash, the cost of this whole exercise will be enormous, far outweighing the gains that may include more people moving to non-cash transactions.

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Political-Cartoon,Funny Political Cartoon
Political-Cartoon,Funny Political Cartoon


Elizabeth Linder

elizabeth linder

Elizabeth Linder founded and led Facebook’s EMEA region Politics and Government division.

She was instrumental in building links between the social media giant and branches of government and politics around the world. Now heading her own consultancy, The Conversational Century, she aims to improve the conversation between the public, business, and political leaders. She is also a Senior Consulting Fellow at Chatham House where she leads the think-tank’s Connectivity Initiative and advises on the future of foreign policy in a connected world.

A California native, Elizabeth started her Silicon Valley career at YouTube, just after its acquisition by Google. Her work there coincided with the 2008 presidential election and the nascent use of social media and user-generated content to debate policy and express opinions. She worked with both of the main parties, who felt they’d lost their usual control over how stories were being told, to navigate this new environment.

Facebook approached Elizabeth to help them understand and further the company’s role in politics and society. She worked on the firm's presence around the world, promoting its potential in business and politics, and accompanying Mark Zuckerberg on his first European tour. Looking at how politics and diplomacy were failing to understand the new digital narrative space she helped start Facebook’s Politics and Government division. In London she established the division’s EMEA concern, working with parliaments, royal households, politicians and interest groups on their Facebook presence and on the soft-power influence of social media.

A communicator rather than an engineer, Elizabeth also found herself increasingly representing Facebook and the wider tech sector to other industries as well as governments. As such she tackles some of the criticisms levelled at the sector from fake news and tax bills to encouraging an insular, male-dominated work culture. She also looks broadly at the intersection of technology, politics, business and society from the effects of AI to the millennial workforce.

TwitterTwitter @elinder


Your conveyancer nearby otherwise on the web will likely enjoy a good deal of time in your file and certainly will present separate advice, rather than the spiel all auctions recognize you want to notice. It will always be advisable to opt for a business which recommended for you by a pal otherwise somebody who has skilled all services themselves. Checking reviews of the organizations on the web will allow you to create an educative decision.

Seller Ones conveyancer regarding the seller might coordinate aided by the buyers conveyancer to fix a perfect occasion for the settlement. Ones date out of settlement is actually talked about inside agreement out of Sale and is determined inside consultation with one another. This May rely on mutual benefits additionally the occasion given by that the banking institutions to accomplish their formalities.

Most associated with legal spadework required to ensure that you efficiently navigate the net out of formalities needed in a genuine property transaction is done by on conveyancer. Conveyancing solicitors in PB Legislation, the best well-known law firm do most of the legwork required to conclude a house deal.

There are also ways that per conveyancer will allow you to down alongside legal counsel to actions. You will end up informed towards legal documents that have to be given to the buyer to perform their settlement. Good conveyancer will also contact their mortgagee while having this released in the day of settlement. Generally, almost all documents to legal counsel are going to be offered for your requirements to ensure any confusion or even last-minute hitches may be avoided.

Conveyancing try a vital component in almost any property transactions, whether or not its domestic, advertisement, or even commercial real estate. Thus, conveyancing lawyers has the pivotal role to relax and play in each phase associated with undertaking. Home conveyancer facilitates your move contract and payment and helps to ensure that within the move out of name process, your client meets each statutory commitments and that his/her rights have always been protected. It is crucial for both the customer while the vendor to own the conveyancer on board while each need to satisfy specific circumstances within the agreement out of purchase and whatever deviation can result in unwarranted litigation at a later date.

The majority of legal advice to per buyer is explaining on stipulations regarding the agreement concerning purchase. The client is has made aware of special stipulations being critical to your purchase. Similar is true of on Vendors agreement quite. As an example, provided there are whatever preparation restrictions to following expansion or renovation to your homes or any delicate tips, the client is has made aware of these. These types of is stated with on conveyancer. Therefore, it is usually recommended your conveyancer experiences on contracts before the customer symptoms it.

Seller Their conveyancer will go through the Contract of purchase as well as counseling we assuming a selected circumstances need to be included quite. These types of great circumstances have always been client-centric, thus legal counsel needs to build that contract accordingly. A good example might illustrate this particular component better. If you like another buy payment in order to coincide because of the offer payment date, essential action will be taken with that conveyancer to make it likely. This really is interesting if you are exchanging at exactly the same time and never want the long-drawn-out duration between your two.
There are also ways that one conveyancer will allow you to away using legal counsel plus actions. conveyancing You will be told about the legal papers that have become given to the customer to perform all payment. A great conveyancer may also contact their mortgagee and have now it released on the day of payment. Overall, almost all papers plus legal counsel are going to be available to you to ensure any other misunderstandings as last-minute hitches can be avoided.
Seller Ones conveyancer goes through the Contract concerning Sale then advice your when all specific temperatures have to be included quite. These exclusive temperatures is client-centric, and therefore a lawyer has to construction some sort of contract accordingly. An illustration might illustrate your component improve. If you'd like one other buy payment in order to coincide utilizing the sell payment date, necessary action will be taken simply by some sort of conveyancer to make it viable. That is worthwhile if you are exchanging at the same time and never wish the best long-drawn-out cycle between the a couple of.
There try another boon towards buyers. In case whatever adjustments are expected before settlement, all conveyancer will likely make sure that you spend the costs linked to the property from the date of settlement only. You'll, consequently, prevent investing like utility fees such as h2o furthermore electricity bills ahead of the settlement date. You will also try to be aided to determine the statutory charges that have become paid and depends on the price of the property while the State where in fact the property is situated.


We all headed to Federation Square to watch the free concerts after the fireworks. We saw a few people get arrested, but overall it was a pretty good time. A lot of police on hand to make sure everything goes smooth.


Friday, 7 November 2014

Praeceptum Googlus

Say that you wanted to indulge in a little reactive wankery and create for yourself a little motto in Latin in response to someone’s quote from Thomas Aquinas.  Say that you went, as one often does, to Google and looked for a Latin to English translator.  Say that you were surprised to see that Google has its own little translator.

You’d be impressed, right?

However, there are some interesting bugs.  I know that Latin is pretty precise, so that when you have the right declensions and whatnot, you’ll know precisely what is being done by who to whom and why.  English, however, is a little less precise.  So I typed in my potential motto and checked out the result.  However, I know that errors can creep in so I reverse translated it to see what I got, then I did it again and again until I reached linguistic equilibrium (where back translation resulted in no change):

·                     English – A wise man knows that god does not exist
·                     Latin – Vir sapiens , scit non est deus
·                     English – A wise man , knows that there is no God
·                     Latin – Vir sapiens , scit quod non est Deus
·                     English – A wise man , knows that is not God
·                     Latin – Vir sapiens , scit quod non est Deus,
·                     English – A wise man , knows that I is not God,
·                     Latin – Vir sapiens , scit quod non est Deus,

True enough, I suppose.  A wise man knows that I am not god, even if he (the wise man) doesn’t know me.

To be honest, I really did want a slightly more wankery-rich motto (and one that was less sexist), so let’s look at what that turns out to be:

·                     English – When all truth is known and all that is known is truth, the wise shall know that there is no god
·                     Latin – Cum omne quod cognoscitur , cognoscitur et verum est verum, quia non est Deus sapiens
·                     English – When all that is known is known and the truth is the truth , because God is not a wise
·                     Latin – Cum omne quod verum est , et cognoscit , quia Deus non est sapiens
·                     English – Since everything which is true, and knows , because God is not wise
·                     Latin – Cum omne quod est verum, et quia Deus est sapiens
·                     English – When everything that is true , and as God is a wise man
·                     Latin – Cum, quod verum est, quod , cum Deus sit sapiens
·                     English – When the Lord, that the truth of it is, that , since God is the wise man
·                     Latin – Cum de Domino, quod verum est, quod , cum Deus sit sapiens
·                     English – In the case of the Lord, as it is true, that, since God is the wise man
·                     Latin – In casu , ut dictum est, quod , cum Deus sit sapiens
·                     English – In that case, as has been said , that, since God is the wise man
·                     Latin – Quo in casu, ut dictum est , quod , cum Deus sit sapiens
·                     English – In this case, as has been said , that, since God is the wise man
·                     Latin – In hoc casu, ut dictum est , quod , cum Deus sit sapiens

What the …?  We go from saying that there is no god to saying that god is a wise man?

Is this a problem with Latin or Google?  Let’s see.  I’ll do the same with Swedish (since I can do that manually anyway, so I can keep an eye on what it is doing):

·                     English – A wise man knows that god does not exist
·                     Swedish – En vis man vet att gud inte existerar
·                     English – A wise man knows that God does not exist

·                     Swedish – När all sanning är känd och allt som är känt är sanning , skall den vise vet att det finns ingen gud
·                     English – When all truth is known and all that is known is the truth, the wise man knows that there is no god
·                     Swedish – När all sanning är känd och allt som är känt är sanningen , vet den vise mannen att det inte finns någon gud

Ok, one was pretty much perfect (the capitalisation of “god” doesn’t really matter) and some sexism crept in via the English in the other, but they are both essentially correct.  Why the dog’s breakfast with Latin?

Swedish and English are both from the same root languages (via the Angles and Saxons) so perhaps we could try a completely different one?  I happen to know a bit of Thai also, note that while Thai does borrow some Sanskrit and Pali words, via its Buddhist heritage, the majority of common words are of Austric origin.

·                     English – A wise man knows that god does not exist
·                     Thai – คนฉลาด รู้ว่า พระเจ้า ไม่ได้อยู่
·                     English – A wise man knows that God does not exist

·                     Thai – เมื่อ ความจริง ทั้งหมด เป็นที่รู้จักกัน และสิ่งที่ เป็นที่รู้จักกัน เป็น ความจริง คนที่ฉลาดจะ รู้ว่า ไม่มีพระเจ้าอื่นใด
·                     English – When the truth is known and what is known is the fact that intelligent people will realize that there is no God .
·                     Thai – เมื่อ ความจริง เป็นที่รู้จักกัน และสิ่งที่ เป็นที่รู้จักกัน เป็นความจริงที่ คนฉลาด จะรู้ว่า ไม่มีพระเจ้า
·                     English – When the truth is known and what is known . It is true that the wise man knows no God .
·                     Thai – เมื่อ ความจริง เป็นที่รู้จักกัน และสิ่งที่ เป็นที่รู้จักกัน มันเป็นความจริง ที่ คนฉลาดรู้ว่า ไม่มี พระเจ้า

Now with the more wankery-rich motto Google clearly struggles due to the lack of punctuation in Thai, so a human might need to get in there to change a word or two to tie the concept of truth back to what is known (delete มัน and the space before มัน, and possibly replace the last ที่ with ก็), but it’s not the complete cock-up observed with Latin.

So why does this happen with Latin?  My suspicion, and it’s only a suspicion, is that Latin has been used for in the rough order of two thousand years to discuss god related stuff and there are biases in its use that prevent complex phrases which convey that god does not exist.  Note that this does not stop very simple phrases from expressing the concept, or is there:

·                     English – There is no god
·                     Latin – Non est deus
·                     English – There is
·                     Latin – est
·                     English – The
·                     Latin – est

What?  Ok, how about this:

·                     English – god does not exist
·                     Latin – deus non est,
·                     English – God does not exist ,
·                     Latin – Deus non est ,
·                     English – God is not ,
·                     Latin – Deus autem non est ,
·                     English – He is not God,
·                     Latin – Et non est Deus ,
·                     English – And there is no God ,
·                     Latin – Et non est ultra Deus ,
·                     English – And there is no God ,

For some reason it wants to add in the “et”.  Let’s look what happens when we take that out:

·                     Latin – Non est ultra Deus
·                     English – There is no God
·                     Latin – Non est Deus,
·                     English – There is no God ,
·                     Latin – Non est Deus ,
·                     English – There is no God ,

Take out the comma and remove the capitalisation of “deus” and we are soon back to a string that ends up flipping between “the” and “est”.

The lesson on this, apparently, is that if an athiest wants a motto that is full to the brim with wankery, he or she should stick with Swedish or Thai and avoid Latin altogether.

Or not rely on Google.

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

A short maths problem

I can explain all my problems with mathematics in a single word: I can't count.

Friday, 31 October 2014

My journey to atheism

Hi, I'm Sthitapragya, this is my story of how I became an atheist.

I recently learned that I am an apatheist. I did not even know that such a classification of atheists existed. An apatheist is someone for whom the existence or the non-existence of God are irrelevant.  So how did I reach this stage? By starting as a theist, of course.

I was born into a Hindu family. My father was not particularly religious in the sense that like other Hindus there were no rituals or ceremonies observed by my family. But my home was strewn with books on Hindu philosophy which my father was obsessed with. The thing about Hindu philosophy that most people can never grasp is that it is quite distinct from Hindu religion. So I was never really exposed to Hindu religion in my home but Hindu philosophy was everywhere. My father is an orator of sorts and he used to talk about philosophy with me since I was very young. And he was interesting. I remember a time when we sat for 13 hours straight discussing Hindu philosophy. Him talking and me listening and I never ever got bored.  But he never forced his ideas on me. He just explained things to me when I went to him with a question.

At a very early age, I got attracted to the Swaminarayan sect (if you have heard of it). So I started praying to Swaminarayan. My father, when he saw my interest, got me all the paraphernalia needed to worship the Lord ritualistically and even taught me how to do it. Pretty soon I grew out of it and stopped. Then I moved on to the Bhagwad Gita, which is the equivalent ( but not really) of the Bible for Hindus. I remember at the age of 16, telling my dad that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the Gita. He just said, “very good, so now read the Ishopanishad.” So I started reading the Ishopanishad. I was very confused and very interested in knowing God. It was an obsession for me. That was all I could think about all day. Then the uncertainty started creeping up on me. I realized that life was just a routine. You, get up, you do your ablutions, you eat, go to college, come back, eat and go to sleep to do it all over again. Then you get married, have kids, but the routine remains the same. So what is the point of life? Am I just supposed to do this every day and then die? It sounded so horrible that I started going into a depression, sure that life had no meaning or purpose. This went on for some time. I lost all interest in life, and even my friends started worrying about me.

Then one day, I had an “episode.” I was sitting with my friends having tea at a stall. So I was sitting on a rock and there was a small wild bush in front of me. On that bush was a very small white flower. I was sitting there, admiring that tiny flower, and suddenly, I KNEW. It came to me from everywhere. God exists. Complete and total conviction. It changed me instantly. I just know life had a meaning and a purpose. God existed. I felt relieved and exultant at the same time. The conviction was so total, it is indescribable. I was just suddenly sure about EVERYTHING. God existed and all was right with the world. There was a meaning and purpose to life. I just didn’t know it yet. Now, armed with this new found conviction that God existed, I moved on to learn what the meaning and purpose of life were and what I was supposed to do.

That is where the problems started. As long as I brought God into the equation, nothing made sense. Remove Him, everything made sense. But I already was convinced that God existed. So I decided that my definition of God was wrong. So I started re-defining God. I went from Brahman, to love, to the whole universe. I concluded and understood that God was impersonal and that He was just observing everything. This kind of made sense and there were not many contradictions. So I remained comfortable in that.

But a conversation with my brother changed everything for me. He told me, "you guys simply refuse to accept the POSSIBILITY that everything came out of nothing." First, obviously, I rejected that concept as ridiculous. Then I homed in on the key word. POSSIBILITY. It occurred to me, how could I be so arrogant as to be SURE about something which no one else was sure of? So I started questioning where the surety came from. Took me very long but I figured out that I NEEDED God. For some reason, maybe years of conditioning, needing protection,  whatever it maybe. So I asked myself, what if there is no God? What would it change? What would be different? Is it possible that we came out of nothing? So, I went out of my comfort zone and started reading scientific stuff which was very tough. Took me about a decade, but I concluded that the LIKELIHOOD of everything coming out of "Nothing" ( note the nothing in quotes) was more than the rapidly disappearing likelihood of God. I stopped believing in luck.  Or Magic. I realized that what science could not answer meant "the unexplained". It did NOT mean automatically, “God did it”. Lightening was God for ancient men. Turned out to be  so wrong. We just moved on to more complex definitions of God. Slowly, but surely, I ended up having no logical reason to accept the existence of God and even more importantly, the SIGNIFICANCE of God.Now it does not matter to me, either way. The existence OR non-existence of God makes absolutely no difference to me at all whatsoever. Now I am not a non-believer. I believe that God is a hypothesis which is unproven. I am simply rejecting an unproven hypothesis.

I am an atheist now. But I remain a Hindu because Hinduism encompasses all. I think people cannot grasp the concept that Hinduism is not predominantly a religion but a culture with religion as a part of it. So if Hinduism likes something from your religion they will simply adopt it. We have Hindus who pray to Muslim saints too. So yes, I am a Hindu who is an atheist.

Now I find that I am an apatheist which basically means that to me, God is irrelevant. Whether God exists or not, I am convinced it does not matter one whit.

Thursday, 30 October 2014

FAQ Me - Why do atheists call themselves "atheists"?

Why do atheists call themselves atheists instead of "not religious"?

Depending on what you mean by the term "atheist", you'll probably find that a lot of atheists aren't actually atheists.

Atheism is a term thrust on those who don't believe, and this is why some atheists say they are atheists in the same sense as they are not collectors of stamps. We are being defined by just one of very many things we don't do (that is, we don’t believe in a god). You might believe that an atheist positively and actively believes that there is no god and there actually are some atheists who think like this.  Usually they have argued themselves into a very high level of confidence that the existence of a god is impossible and taken the step to actively believe that there is no god. For most of us, however, this final step isn't necessary or would be inappropriate.

I, for one, have a very high level of confidence that there is no god. I don't actively believe that there is no god, in part because there are so many gods and so many versions of the supposedly "one true god" that I don't know precisely what I should actively disbelieve. It's easier to simply not believe. If that makes me a non-theist rather than an atheist, I am more than happy with that, which is why I frequently refer to myself as a non-theist. But I'll accept atheist, agnostic, agnostic atheist, weak atheist, soft atheist, apatheist, irreligious, non-religious, infidel and so on. If pushed, I'll accept strong atheist and/or hard atheist (if my high level of confidence that there is no god is translated to mean active belief that there is no god) and even anti-theist (since I do find some theists irritatingly condescending and there are only certain types of people from whom I will accept condescension). I'll accept materialist, physicalist, rationalist, monist and "scientistic" (as well as scientist (and also "physicistic" as well as physicist)). I'm not an apostate though, since I have never signed up to a religion in the first place, nor have I ever believed on an informal basis. Sometimes I am even described as a pagan, but that's not quite right, but if you loosely interpret "pagan" as meaning "not holding to of the main world religions", then it could work. Describing atheists as pagans also works for those people who misguidedly consider atheism to be a religion in and of itself, but that just makes them wrong on two counts.

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

God-Botherers Incorporated, How May I Misdirect You?

Does it occur to anyone else that there is some division of labour going on with theists, almost like they are part of some vast non-profit corporation with at least three distinct divisions: the sales department, the legal department and the in-service support department? If, when a sales representative starts spurting proselytising type guff, a non-theist challenges the notion of what is being proselytised ... the guy from the sales department says "Oh, you are arguing against me? I'll have to refer you to legal."

So the non-theist obligingly trots off to the legal department and begins presenting a case, at which point the defending theist (technically known as an apologist) will ask "What particular sort of god are you talking about here?" The non-theist will say something along the lines of it being the theist's responsibility to define their god, to which the defending theist will say "Oh no, fleshing out the meaning of god for you is the sales department's responsibility, we just do defence. If you want to argue god with us, you have to provide the definition. Of course that definition will be wrong, and we'll laugh mockingly at your naive understanding, but we can't tell you the right definition because, as already stated, that is the sales department's responsibility."

So the somewhat irritated non-theist trots back to the sales department and challenges them to define their god. "Oh dear", they say, looking despairingly at the non-theist, "It sounds like you are arguing again ... you'll have to deal with legal."

Of course, the legal, sales and in-service support departments never talk to each other so the legal department can happily mock the non-theist for foolishly accepting any details accidentally disclosed by the sales or the in-service support departments as indicative of any tenets of the faith.

Just because people talk on and on about a specific type of god every week at church, this doesn't mean that this is the sort of god they actually believe in. How foolish would we have to be to think that?

In this scenario, I guess that theologians divide their time between marketing and product development.

Saturday, 18 October 2014

We are alone

In his intermittent attempts to be sceptical, Rene Descartes wrote “je pense, donc je suis” and, later, “ergo cogito sum” – or, in English, “I think, therefore I am”.  Much later, Thomas Nagel waxed lyrical on the difficulties associated with knowing what it is to be a bat.

A fusion of these two concepts may bring us to the conclusion that while we may be, precisely what we are being is not necessarily quite so clear.  Moreover, the ramification of Descartes declaration is not so much that we know that we exist because we can think, but that we cannot know that others exist, because we have no first-hand experience of their thinking – and, per Nagel, we cannot know what it is like to be another person thinking.

Therefore, I suggest, we are all of us totally, inescapably, irrevocably alone.  Inside our heads we experience no thoughts but our own.  The thoughts of others (if indeed they exist) are not, and will never be, accessible.  We most certainly can interact with other beings that appear (at least on the surface) to be similar to us and it seems reasonable to assume that these other beings have minds that are similar to our own, but we will never truly experience those minds.

If there is ever a foundational argument that firmly grounds “individualism”, then surely this is it.  Each of us, in our inescapable isolation, can only act as an individual.  We cannot act as a collective, even if our individual actions may contribute to a collective.  Any motivation to act in the best interests of others ultimately comes back to a response to our own personal considerations of the pros and cons associated with such action.  We may occasionally act in the interests of others and to the detriment of our own, but we never do so with our entire being screaming at us that we don’t want, at any level, to act in such a fashion.  (See Physical Survival and Legacy Survival.)

The argument for “individualism” has a home-team advantage as well, in that all individuals, acting and thinking as individuals, are going to have some level of native bias towards themselves, as individuals.  A universal declaration that the individual’s rights and strivings are to be held in higher regard than the rights and strivings of any collective is going to encounter far less resistance than any attempt to subsume the individual into some vague grouping.

Or does it?

Humans are social animals.  While certain individuals might survive into old age as hermits, the species relies on social groupings in which pair-bonding and child-raising take place.  Therefore, there is an adaptive tendency among humans to consider themselves as part of a social group, irrespective of whether or not they can experience, directly, the minds of others in that social group.  Each individual can, however, contribute to a mutual experience of community and feel some “ownership” of that community.

It could be argued that this need to interact with other humans is “hardwired” and there is some neurological and sociological support for this notion, for example the (human) face recognition ability that we all have and the suffering that follows from social isolation.

Little wonder, therefore, that when a society virtually turns its back on itself (as a community) and wholehearted, uncritically embraces extreme forms of “individualism”, there are going to be consequences.

There are other factors, however.  The populations of the West are, without exception, ageing populations (albeit Europe is ageing far more quickly than the US) and as age increases sociability decreases.  Think for a moment, if you are fortunate to have progressed past your 20s, how socially active you and your peers were in your late teens and early 20s.  Now compare that to the social activity of the average 40 or 50 year old.

Absent the continual interactions of communities based on interdependence, the friendships of our youth fade away and our fixation on “individualism” means that new friendships, should we make them, are less close, less intimate and, ultimately, less rewarding so we may become increasingly less motivated to pursue new friendships.

Perhaps the problem that Lokee has recently highlighted is that this trend has accelerated.  People are becoming less truly social earlier in life.  Social anxiety appears to be on the rise although this may be due to an increased willingness to talk about and address the problem.  Unfortunately, when people come to understand that making friends isn’t always going to be as simple as it was when we were children, some will give up on the endeavour entirely.

Another possible factor is the wholesale change in our entertainment habits over the past century or so.  Consider the options available in 1914, although we might ignore those associated with World War 1.  Certainly there were solitary pursuits such as reading and writing, and hobbies such as gardening or model building or various collection activities – for those who had the material wealth to need entertainment.  However, much of what was available as entertainment involved interacting with other people – even if that entailed sitting next to them at a play or concert or at the village green watching some sport or another.

Fast forward to shortly after World War 2 and movie theatres have become far more commonplace.  More importantly television was beginning to appear.  At that time, however, movies were still rare enough that when a new one came out, pretty much anyone who had the economic wherewithal to attend would see it.  Televisions were rare enough, and novel enough, that family and friends would cluster around a single set and would share the experience of viewing a show.  At this time, these entertainments were still community events and the broad sharing of the experience allowed people to feel connected in some sense.

Compare that to today.  The sheer number of movies being released (many directly to digital) means that only certain “blockbusters” and the occasional “movie as social phenomena” truly qualify as community events.  And that’s only if people choose to watch these movies, given that there are so many other options available: multiple television channels (cable and free-to-air), internet cat videos, philosophical flame sessions on reddit and/or slothing around in a haze induced by your synthetic drug of choice (or simple alcohol for the purists among us).  This bewildering array means that the chances that you and your neighbour share a substantially common experience of life become vanishingly thin.

This in turn means that our ability to simulate, with any fidelity, what is going on in the minds of those living around us is severely diminished and we become increasingly disconnected from each other.  So, although we might share some of our loneliness on little islands of shared culture with our nearest friends and families, we are increasingly alone.

What should we do about it?  If I understand Lokee correctly, reading between the lines a little, one option is to jettison a toxic devotion to “individualism” that acts as a demotivation with respect to any attempt to reconnect with others to create some form of community.   We must remember, of course, that if we embark on such an attempt we do so as individuals and that we are completely welcome to seek a meaningful connection with others with our own best interest firmly in mind … for it is not good to be alone, neither for others nor for ourselves.

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

The Myth of the Self-Made Man

By Lokee...

Whether it’s Batman standing atop a building, John Wayne casting a shadow in an empty desert, Ayn Rand’s character Howard Roark, or the array of reports we’re handed of people who “go-it-alone” and become millionaires, one story that is tightly-woven throughout western culture is that of the self-made man. A person who breaks free from the pack, to make it on his own, and apparently succeed without the need for, or help from, social connections.  The problem with this story is it’s a myth and one that on closer inspection has evolved from a reality in which people, whether they like it or not, have always needed other people, and as far as research can predict, will always need other people.

This myth has been embraced and held up as a symbol of western individualism since the time of the “Wild West”.  If this unrealistic myth is the template western society and thus its people use when planning how best to approach their life, in order to experience success and happiness, what are the consequences?

Every time I talk to my friends, switch on the television, read the newspaper or browse the Internet, I’m confronted with the following two underlying themes, depression and loneliness.  Depression is at the highest it’s ever been in western culture, affecting not only adults, as it typically used to, but youth as well. It accounts for more of the burden of disease than heart disease or cancer, with suicide ranking in the ten leading causes of death for the overall population, and the number one cause of death for people under 40.

There is also good evidence to suggest that the number of people experiencing social isolation or loneliness is increasing dramatically. Moreover in a number of studies people have reported a reduction in the number of people they could call close "confidantes", with the number being zero for as many as 25% of participants. What makes the increase in social isolation and depression even more troubling is that they are related, meaning where you find one, you often find the other.  Still more concerning is that those who experience depression require social support structures to be in place in order to aide their recovery.

I, along with many others, argue that the increases in both depression and social isolation are related to the effects of living in a western individualist society, in which myths of self-made men and going-it-alone are foolishly held up as a good idea, and even something to be idolised.

It seems fair to say we live in an individualist society. The extreme form of western individualism is defined by the motivation to become self-reliant, where the independent individual is valued and individual rights are trumpeted.  Going further, it could be argued that extreme individualism is about severing oneself from the obligations of and commitment to the group, in order to decide for yourself what is in your best interests, and to look out for those above everything else (think of Howard Roark).  There are two problems with this form of individualism, one of which is supported by countless studies, the other is a matter of muddled definitions, however both share similar consequences, which is that people are failing to get their needs met due to erroneous notions.

Firstly, those who argue for this extreme form of individualism have confused autonomy (self-government) with independence. They believe that in order to have a sense of control over their lives and to be free to be themself, they require a limited to non-existent social structure, the absence of which will support them to achieve, by not being present (the unconstrained self-made man).  This is however not the case, as the concept of autonomy shows. Autonomy is defined by the ability to make your own informed decisions, to act according to your own beliefs, to be responsible for your own life path, and therefore authentic.  None of these things require severing yourself from those around you, and as Self Determination Theory shows, autonomy and relatedness (social connections) actually go hand in hand. In fact, it’s through our social connections that we are better able to grow and develop who we are. For who else do we learn and gain support from, but others?

It should really come as no surprise (research has consistently demonstrated that we are social animals after all) that there is over-whelming evidence to demonstrate that for people to have any chance of happiness they need to have a strong sense of relatedness. Not only, as cynics like to suggest, as a survival strategy (safety in numbers), although evolutionarily-speaking that appears to be how the need came to be hard-wired into us, but because people need a network of family and friends that they not only feel connected to, but that they can depend on, feel supported by, and confide in. As I stated above, social isolation is consistently positively related to depression, and even more than this social isolation is related to ill health, stress and the shortening of life.  In addition, those who have their relatedness needs met have better health, live longer and are more likely to experience well-being and happiness. Yet this form of relatedness, while a basic human need, is thwarted by the extreme form of western individualism, in particular when autonomy is confused with independence.

Before I go any further (in order to pre-empt some criticisms), I would like to clearly state that I recognise the many benefits that come from living in the West, and I am by no means advocating that we rid ourselves of individualism or capitalism altogether. I am suggesting that it would appear that we’ve gone too far in one particular direction (the myth of the self-made man), which has led to the problems I describe. This is also why I’m defining the kind of individualism and capitalism I’m critiquing, as extreme, the kind of individualism that denies that we are in fact dependent on, and influenced by, others.

In addition, within Psychology there is a branch dedicated to studying human well-being and happiness, and while there is much disagreement and debate about what definitively contributes to a person feeling happiness, there appears to be consensus with respect to Self Determination Theory.  Self Determination Theory argues that people require the following needs to be met, in order to experience a level of happiness; those are autonomy (self-government or a sense of control over your life), competence (a feeling of skill or ability in a choice of activities) and relatedness (good connections with family and friends).  In the extreme form of individualism highlighted above, we can already see that two of those needs aren’t going to be easily met; autonomy because we’re made to reach for independence instead and relatedness because we’re made to think we need to and are better off going-it-alone.

The myth of the self-made man and thus the extreme individualist element of western society is also the setting for not only our materialism, but in turn our pursuit of extrinsic goals. Materialism, otherwise known as consumerism places material wealth, and the accumulation of assets, as the primary goal of our daily lives.  Within the context of Psychology, materialism is demonstrated when people value, and are motivated towards attaining goals aligned with, the accumulation of possessions, attractiveness and popularity, or put more simply, money, fame and image.  These are described as extrinsic goals or are seen as forms of extrinsic motivation, because people are engaging in activities for the environmental incentives, such as money, praise, attention, approval and public recognition. In other words, “Do this and you will get that” (Reeve, 2009, p. 113).  This is in contrast to intrinsic motivation or intrinsic goals where people engage in an activity for the sake of the activity or rather they engage in an activity to experience the inherent satisfaction it brings.  Studies have shown that people who are focused on extrinsic goals or who are extrinsically motivated experience less well-being and poorer health, with the addition that they very rarely ever feel satisfied.  In fact, further studies have shown a positive correlation between materialism, narcissism, egocentrism, a lack of empathy for others and depression, as well as anxiety.

While intrinsic motivation and intrinsic goals are positively correlated to greater well-being, happiness and satisfaction. As Reeve (2009) states, “it (intrinsic motivation) is worth nurturing and promoting because it leads to so many important benefits to the person, including persistence, creativity, conceptual understanding, and subjective well-being” (p. 112). Adding more weight to the argument that autonomy, competence and relatedness are the driving force behind a person’s actions is that intrinsic motivation emerges from these psychological needs.
Extreme western individualism also teaches us that the onus of success or failure is on the individual (we’re all doing it alone after all, like the myth of the lone Cowboy), so if for whatever reason, you can't succeed to the level that is mythologized within the culture because of, for example, socioeconomic status, education, family, or environment, then the individual is to blame. There's little to no social support structure and the burden is placed on the individual’s shoulders alone. When we consider that statistically speaking this person is also more than likely suffering from depression and social isolation, we get a rather bleak picture of what it’s like to be an individual in the West.

Everything research has shown us about people and what will guide us towards a level of well-being and happiness is that we need others.  Yet much of what is promoted by the individualist West and the myth of the self-made man is that a person can and should do it alone.  This conflict has led to people struggling to find happiness, and often instead finding depression and social isolation.  If we want to get ourselves back on track we need to show this myth for what it is, a fictional story that is not reflective of reality.  We need to demonstrate that social support, family, friends and community are not only important, but integral to an individual’s life.  We need to stop suggesting that being autonomous requires that you be independent, or that to be an individual requires you to be free of a group.  For of all the myths I described above, Batman had Alfred, the traditional cowboy was actually not a lone wolf but generally an employee on a farm, the Wild West survived only as long as it did because communities were formed and the American military brought in, Rand’s Howard Roark is seen by many who study, teach, or are in business and politics, as an example of what not to do, while her philosophy within that particular text is widely and heavily criticised, and the self-made millionaire, well the reality varies, but they often have family, friends, co-workers, business connections and so on.

There are some truly enlightening ideas and thus quotes by some of the most respected thinkers throughout history on friendship, but I’m going to end on one that always brings a smile to my face…

There's also an interesting show that describes the science and philosophy behind friendship here: - Series 15, Episode 13 "Falling in Friendship"

Thursday, 2 October 2014

Is the Universe Expanding at the Speed of Light?

The short answer to the question “Is the universe expanding at the speed of light?” is “Yes, it is!”  Or, rather, I think it does and I will, shortly, explain why.  But first have I have to give you the slightly more involved answer.

The slightly more involved answer to the question “Is the universe expanding at the speed of light?” is “No, of course it isn’t!”

If the universe were uniformly expanding at the speed of light, we could not exist – everything would be zooming away from everything at the speed of light and that would make things difficult.  Clearly what we see in our vicinity is not receding at the speed of light – not in the least because we can see it!  We are actually moving towards our nearest neighbours.  The Canis Major Dwarf galaxy, is 25,000 light years from us (actually closer to us than the centre of our own galaxy) – and would be moving away from us at about 500 m/s – if it wasn’t being “eaten” by our galaxy, which has a notional speed of between 130 and 600 km/s in the direction of the Hydra constellation.  Andromeda, the nearest “proper” galaxy (being a spiral galaxy rather than a dwarf galaxy or a cloud), is 2,540,000 light years away and in the direction that we are moving.  If it weren’t for the fact that we are due to collide in about 3.75 billion years, Andromeda and the Milky Way would be moving apart at about 50,000 m/s – but this is not enough to overcome whatever is putting us on the collision course.

However, if we look at more distant galaxies, what we see is that the further away they are, the faster they are moving away from us.  The relationship between the distance and the speed of recession is given by the Hubble Constant.  Over the past four years there have been at least four measurements:

  • 2011 (Hubble) ~71.5 to ~76 km/s/Mpc
  • 2012 (Spitzer) ~72 to ~76.5 km/s/Mpc
  • 2012 (WMAP – after 9 years) 68.52-70.12 km/s/Mpc
  • 2013 (Planck – after four years) 67.03 to 68.57 km/s/Mpc

We can be reasonably confident, therefore, that the value of the Hubble Constant lies somewhere between 67.03 and 76.5 km/s/Mpc.  (These are the figures I used for working out how fast our neighbours “should” be moving away from us.)

The bottom line is that, if something is sufficiently far away from us, the speed of recession could be the speed of light – we can’t see things that were receding at the speed of light (relatively to us) at the time that light was emitted from it, because that light will never reach us, but we can see the light from distant galaxies that was emitted billions of years ago and it has been calculated that these galaxies are currently receding at greater than the speed of light (noting that there is a simultaneity problem associated with distant moving objects, the concept of “now” or “currently” gets a little vague when there is no causal chain to keep us on track).

This is not, however, what I mean when I say that I think that the universe is expanding at the speed of light, because we could in one sense be saying that the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light.  I don’t think that that is the case.

To explain as simply as possible, I have to work through a hypothetical and hope that the reader realises at the end that this hypothetical might not actually be that hypothetical after all.  First though, I do have to briefly explain about Planck units.

Planck units are natural units based on the properties of free space alone.  Their relationship to each other is such that, in terms of Planck units, the speed of light in a vacuum is 1, the gravitational constant is 1 and so on.  These units are, however, awkward to use on an everyday basis.  One unit of Planck time is equal to about 5.39106×10−44 seconds, while one unit of Planck length equals about 1.616199×10−35 metres.  Planck energy units, on the other hand, are relatively huge: 1.956x109J.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that the Planck length and the Planck time represent the smallest possible division of space and time.  Let’s further say, hypothetically, that the universe is expanding at precisely the speed of light … in other words, that for every unit of Planck time, the universe gets one unit of Planck length larger.  Putting this in a table:

Age of the Universe in Planck units
Breadth of the Universe in Planck Units

This isn’t terribly complicated, I’m just adding one unit to time and one unit to breadth.  However, we can look at this in a slightly more complicated a way.

For every unit of Planck time, we add 1/n units of Planck time for each unit of Planck length that exists.  I’ll put this in a table to explain:

# of Planck Time units
Increment/Planck Length
# of Planck Length units

This means, that for every unit of Planck length (1), we add one unit of Planck length (1), divided by the number of units of Planck time (Npl).  This means that the rate of expansion would be, at any given time:

Ho     = 1 / Npl (in units of Planck length, per unit of Planck time, per unit of Planck length)

Let’s say, however, that we wanted to know how many units of Planck length would be added for another unit of length.  How about if we used a megaparsec (Mpc)?  There are 1.91x1057 units of Planck length in a megaparsec.  This would result in:

Ho     = 1.91x1057 / Npl (in units of Planck length, per unit of Planck time, per megaparsec)

Let’s say that we wanted to know the rate of expansion at 8.08x1060 units of Planck time into the expansion of the universe:

Ho     = 1.91x1057 / 8.08x1060 (in units of Planck length, per unit of Planck time, per megaparsec)
       = 2.36x10-4 units of Planck length, per unit of Planck time, per megaparsec

This is interesting, but the units aren’t particularly accessible, so let’s convert the Planck units to kilometres and seconds:

Ho     = 2.36x10-4 * (metres per unit of Planck length) * (kilometres per metre) / (seconds per unit of Planck time)
       = 2.36x10-4 * 1.616199×10−35 * 0.001 / 5.39106×10−44
       = 70.75 km/s/Mpc

This might be a familiar number.  This is partly because 8.08x1060 is the current age of the universe (13.8 billion years).  In other words, if the universe is expanding at a rate of one unit of Planck length per unit of Planck time, we would expect to see a Hubble Constant of … pretty much exactly what we measure it to be.

Now, I am not saying that the universe is merely getting broader, because no matter what direction we look, we see the same rate of expansion for objects at the same distance.  I’m also not saying that some distant edge of the universe is moving away from us at a rate of one unit of Planck length for each unit of Planck time.  The added space appears to be evenly distributed throughout the universe, very much like the whole “fabric of space-time” were being stretched which is consistent with the concept that space-time is expanding as would the rubber of an inflating balloon.

If my “hypothetical” is right, then we should be able to determine the age of the universe from the Hubble constant and/or the Hubble constant from the age of the universe because they are the reciprocal of each other.  Of course, neither are particularly easy to tie down, so we might just find that the values are close but not identical.  If we find that the Hubble Constant and the reciprocal of the age of the universe diverge, then naturally my “hypothetical” won’t hold any water.  It would, however, be interesting to see if it is consistent with other observations.


The Dealers

The Dealers are a very professional live five piece Christchurch band who play music from the 60's, 70's, 80's and beyond.

A strong point of the group which comprises keyboards, guitar, bass and drums is it's harmonies and particulary the vocal ability of it's lead female singer and all members of the band who also sing.

Each member of The Dealers brings a wealth of musical knowledge, versatility, individual talent and experience which blends together to create a musical atmosphere which will entertain, cater for and appeal to all age groups and musical tastes and will ensure that your function will be a successful and enjoyable event.

Altogether - a great deal from The Dealers.


Category Archives: Field

Do you know how weather affects cricket?

So today we’re going to talk about weather, and look at how weather impacts the game of cricket.

As you know cricket is an outdoor sport and is generally played in the summer. However, cricket is different in that it is heavily impacted by the weather, as opposed to other sports such as football.

Cricket can’t be played if rain is falling, and this is due to a number of reasons.

If it is raining, then the bowlers may have difficulty controlling the ball, players may generally struggle to see the ball and the pitch has to remain dry to prevent it being damaged further.

As you can probably tell, rain delays therefore take time out of the game and that does eventually mean that the strategies and tactics must also change depending on the game situation.

Not only that, but the weather has huge impact on playing conditions.

So how do playing conditions change depending on the weather?

You may able to notice that the ball starts to the grip the pitch, or that the ball deviates through the air more dramatically. The pitch could have also slowed down considerably. This can all give the fielding team a huge advantage as it becomes more difficult to score.

The impact of weather resulted in rain rules being introduced, however this was only in the limited over format of the game. These rules are known as the Duckworth-Lewis and it usually involves the adjustment of the target runs and the overs allocated to the batting team.

So as you can probably tell, weather has a huge impact on cricket. It is not only rain, but also wind, dew or humidity which can affect the playing conditions. These conditions can affect the pitch itself and also influence the movement of the ball either through the air or off the pitch.

So it is important to note, that experience cricketers pay attention to weather conditions and they also understand how conditions can affect the pitch and the game situation.


More Comments on Sandy from a Climate Perspective

Professor Paul Roundy recently presented a good post looking at whether or not one could make a connection between climate change and Hurricane Sandy. This topic is relevant to the public but is also intellectually stimulating, and I hope that the reader is excited about climate and rare events like Sandy as I am!

First, there is no meaningful distinction in the physical world between storms “caused by climate change” and “not caused by climate change.” The changing climate is not some mysterious external force occasionally acting on the atmosphere and oceans. Rather, the background environment upon which all storms form is different than it was half a century ago. All the phenomena we study in atmospheric science is ultimately “caused” by the atmosphere, so it naturally follows that a gradual change in atmospheric conditions will have some influence on all types of weather events. This is true even if those events are within the bounds of historical variability.

No one has currently done a formal attribution study to sort out what role human influence may have had on the probability of this “megastorm” occurring, so care must be made in making any connection to climate change. There’s still a broader context worth exploring however. To better understand the links between past/current/future climate and the environment in which Hurricane Sandy was embedded in, it is first worth arming ourselves with some understanding of the most salient features of Earth’s atmosphere and how it might change in a future world.

As shown in the following cartoon, the weather in mid-latitudes (polewards of about 30 degrees) is characterized by the existence of belts of westerly jet streams in each hemisphere (that are strongly linked to the distribution of precipitation, cloudiness, and mid-latitude storms). Weather variations are intimately tied to dips and bumps in the jet stream. The atmospheric circulation becomes dominated by the large-scale “eddies” within the storm tracks that transport large amounts of energy poleward. These eddies feed off of the energy associated with horizontal temperature differences (e.g., caused by the unequal distribution of solar heating over the planet). The situation is a bit different close to the equator, where horizontal temperature gradients are relatively weak, the influence of Earth’s rotation is less important, and the circulation is dominated by a giant overturning “Hadley cell” (if Earth were not rotating, such a cell would extend to the Poles instead of breaking down into transient eddies).

Hurricane Sandy originated in the tropics and hugged the east coast of the United states as it migrated poleward. Instead of being pushed out to sea, Sandy was compelled to come inland owing to the background winds associated with anomalously cold air over much of the eastern United states, and unusually warm air to the North (as shown in the next figure, below, showing temperature changes relative to normal, on Oct 28). As discussed by Professor Roundy, this is associated with a cyclonic Rossby wave breaking event (which are strongly linked to “blocking patterns” such as the one during Sandy preventing it from rapidly moving North, and often associated with severe weather or heat waves).

The interaction between the tropical storm, the mid-latitude trough that brought in cold air (see Ross Lazear’s post) in addition to several other factors, like a full moon to amplify high tides, all conspired to set up the storm that resulted in over 50 deaths, left millions without power, and is estimated to cause over $20 billion in damage.

The Climate Connection

Much discussion has centered around whether or not climate change could make the environment for Sandy more favorable. There are two key components to this: a thermodynamic component (primarily associated with higher temperatures and more energy in the system) and a dynamic component, related to the circulation responses such as those outlined above.

The Earth is currently receiving about 1 “extra” Watt of energy over every square meter of the planet (“extra” meaning the planet is receiving more energy at the top of the atmosphere than is shedding heat back out to space). The Earth’s temperature is a slave to the energy flows into and out of the planet, so this “radiation imbalance” scenario demands that the planet heat up. The extra energy is enormous when averaged over the planet, and is energetically similar to exploding over 700,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs every day for 365 days during the year. Much of this “energy imbalance” goes into the oceans, but is also associated with a warming atmosphere and melting ice. As mentioned before, this must have some impact on the background environment in which storm systems form, even if natural variability is large enough to prohibit confident detection of a long-term human signal.

We can thus identify a few thermodynamic players which are likely to be relevant for future storms, namely warmer sea surface temperatures (favorable for more intense hurricanes) and sea level rise associated with warmer ocean water (expanding due to higher temperatures) and melting from ice sheets and glaciers, which can only act to amplify the effects of surges and flooding that have great destructive potential. In fact, Sandy spent most of its lifetime tracking along waters which were exceptionally warm (previous figure), and at least a small contribution to that “exceptional warmness” was a long-term trend in sea surface temperatures in this region. More immediate causes of exceptionally warm/cool waters reflect natural variability, such as the amount of storminess in the region, or responses associated with El Nino/La Nina variations. However, in the case of Sandy, transformation into a hybrid “tropical and mid-latitude storm” came about as a winter storm that had previously dumped snow in Colorado merged with Sandy that could feed on mid-latitude temperature contrasts. Cold air, in a sense, ended up helping Sandy along.

Sea levels have also risen in this part of the world. Sea level rise is not uniform over the planet, as shown in the graph below (a map of sea level trends over the period 1993-2012). This spatial distribution is owing to the effects of where wind tends to “pile up” water, atmospheric pressure differences, and even due to the gravitational influence of the giant ice sheets. For example, the large rates of sea level rise in the western tropical Pacific and the fall in the eastern Pacific over the period has been attributed to an increase in the strength of the trade winds in the central and eastern tropical Pacific over the same time period. Over on the Atlantic coast of North America, where Sandy was influential, there has been recent acceleration of sea level rise (~3-4 times higher than the global average). This can only amplify the impact of surges from Sandy-like storms in the future.

Sea level trends (1993-2012) using the satellite altimeter record

The next piece of the puzzle is to consider possible dynamical changes to tropical and mid-latitude “storminess.” Many of the aspects of this problem are still poorly understood, arguably much moreso than the sea level and thermodynamic changes. There is no evidence that the frequency of tropical cyclones has increased over the historical record, and not much reason to suspect they will do so in the future, although there is evidence that the number of the most intense hurricanes has increased (particularly in the North Atlantic basin). In the mid-latitudes, one of the most robust predictions of future climate change is a poleward shift in the storm tracks, though the mechanisms for why this should be the case is still an active area of research. (I have to differ from Professor Roundy’s post a bit and say that there are papers arguing for both increases and decreases in future “wave breaking” events, as well is in blocking patterns like the one associated with Sandy- from some recently submitted results of others, blocking frequency appears to decrease slightly in the North Atlantic in model simulations being used for the next IPCC report to be released in 2013, associated with the poleward migration of the storm tracks). This is still a topic of current research though.

Although many complex factors come into play here, a useful framework to begin with when interrogating this sort of question in the mid-latitudes is to consider the temperature difference between low latitudes and high latitudes (recalling that this is a critical ingredient in the atmospheric circulation) and how that difference might change in a new climate. It is also well-known to atmospheric scientists that horizontal temperature differences are directly related to the manner in which wind speed changes with height, and so changing the temperature patterns can influence the strength, variability, and location of the jet stream. Temperature contrasts make the world go around!!

Global warming is expected to produce warming nearly everywhere, but some regions more than others, as illustrated in the cartoon below, showing a vertical cross-section of the atmosphere (from the equator to the pole in the horizontal direction, and from the surface to outer space in the vertical). The “+” regions indicate areas expected to warm in the future climate, with the size of the “+” sign indicating the magnitude of the temperature change. The “tropopause” is the region that separates two distinct layers of atmosphere- the troposphere where we live, and where most weather occurs, and the stratosphere above.

The distribution of temperature changes in a future climate.  Think of east-west variations as being ignored, so information is only here for north-south and vertical changes

The above diagram shows that in a warmer climate, one expects that near the surface, the Polar Regions will warm a bit more than the equator (particularly in the Arctic). Since the equator is warmer than the poles, this corresponds to a decrease in the pole-to-equator temperature gradient. High in the atmosphere however, the situation is reversed. The tropical upper atmosphere warms more than the tropical surface, while the amplification we seen at the polar surface does not communicate much to the tropopause. In fact, once you cross the tropopause region (which is lower in the Polar Regions), temperatures are expected to decrease with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere! This all corresponds to an increase in the pole-to-equator temperature gradient higher up and near the jet level where much of the interesting weather is communicated to the surface. At an even more complex level, there is seasonality to consider (the lower atmospheric Polar amplification is largely confined to transition seasons and not in summer) and the tropopause is expected to migrate upward in a warmer climate. It is still not quite clear what the net effects of these opposing forces will be.

All of this makes for some really really interesting science, with intellectual pursuits that rival finding extraterrestrial life or discovering subatomic particles. Dissecting these questions in a satisfactory way is going to need to involve a “marriage” between two somewhat different disciplines of atmospheric science 1) climate dynamics, which is often concerned with long-term statistical behavior (with “short term” variations often swept under the rug), and 2) dynamical synoptic meteorology, which is generally not concerned with the longer term changes to atmospheric energy flows, ice sheets or sea ice, etc.

Chris Colose


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Bartels, Martin; Titschack, Jürgen; Fahl, Kirsten; Stein, Ruediger; Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig; Hillaire-Marcel, Claude; Hebbeln, Dierk (2017): Multi-proxy palaeo-data of sediment core GeoB10817-4 from N-Spitsbergen including benthic foraminifera, IRD, stable isotopes, grain sizes and biomarkers. PANGAEA,, Supplement to: Bartels, M et al. (2017): Atlantic Water advection vs. glacier dynamics in northern Spitsbergen since early deglaciation. Climate of the Past Discussions, 13, 1717-1749,

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Atlantic Water (AW) advection plays an important role for climatic, oceanographic and environmental conditions in the eastern Arctic. Situated along the only deep connection between the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, the Svalbard Archipelago is an ideal location to reconstruct the past AW advection history and document its linkage with local glacier dynamics, as illustrated in the present study of a 275 cm long sedimentary record from Woodfjorden (northern Spitsbergen; water depth: 171 m) spanning the last ~15,500 years. Sedimentological, micropalaeontological and geochemical analyses were used to reconstruct changes in marine environmental conditions, sea-ice cover and glacier activity. Data illustrate a partial breakup of the Svalbard-Barents Sea Ice Sheet from Heinrich Stadial 1 onwards (until ~14.6 ka). During the Bølling-Allerød (~14.6-12.7 ka), AW penetrated as a bottom water mass into the fjord system and contributed significantly to the destabilisation of local glaciers. During the Younger Dryas (~12.7-11.7 ka), it intruded into intermediate waters while evidence for a glacier advance is lacking. A short-term deepening of the halocline occurred at the very end of this interval. During the early Holocene (~11.7-7.8 ka), mild conditions led to glacier retreat, a reduced sea-ice cover and increasing sea surface temperatures, with a brief interruption during the Preboreal Oscillation (~11.1-10.8 ka). Due to a ~6,000-years gap, the mid-Holocene is not recorded in this sediment core. During the late Holocene (~1.8-0.4 ka), a slightly reduced AW inflow and lower sea surface temperatures compared to the early Holocene are reconstructed. Glaciers, which previously retreated to the shallower inner parts of the Woodfjorden system, likely advanced during the late Holocene. In particular, as topographic control in concert with the reduced summer insolation partly decoupled glacier dynamics from AW advection during this recent interval.
Median Latitude: 79.800000 * Median Longitude: 14.199950 * South-bound Latitude: 79.800000 * West-bound Longitude: 14.199700 * North-bound Latitude: 79.800000 * East-bound Longitude: 14.200000
Date/Time Start: 2006-08-05T00:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2006-08-05T22:57:00
6 datasets

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Biometric Comparison

Biometric Comparison is the process where the Biometric Token obtained by the Biometric Sample Processing is Compared to the Biometric Template typically though some Pattern-recognition algorithm

The output of the Biometric Comparison the determination of Authentication

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