Winter weather already creating dangerous driving conditions

Winter weather already creating dangerous driving conditions

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI (WLOX) - Freezing temperatures and winter precipitation are creating dangerous road conditions for drivers in South Mississippi. Emergency crews are responding to multiple crashes on roadways across the coast.

We're told there are several crashes on I-10 in Harrison County. In Pearl River County, emergency management officials are asking people to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.

Law enforcement and emergency management agencies continue to keep a close eye on the weather and the roads.

Harrison County Emergency Management Agency Director Rupert Lacy urges people to stay off the roads unless necessary. If you have to travel, give yourself extra time and turn on your head lights.

When braking be sure not to slam on brakes to avoid sliding.

"I-10 and I-110 are elevated. The concern is that they are higher up so the temperature is different. They don't have the ground heating them up," Lacy explained. "We haven't had sunlight in a couple of days. So the ground isn't even as warm as it normally is, and the ground is saturated due to the rain we've had."

With a colder ground and extremely cold temperatures, Lacy said we have a good chance of seeing parts of roadway with black ice, which is a bad combination for your vehicle.

"Your sidewalk could look dry, but tomorrow night when your temperatures drop and there's moisture, you could see black ice," he added.

Lacy urges motorists to wait until the sun comes up before driving.

"Let the sun come up and let the temperatures gradually come up around 8:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. before you head out," Lacy said.

"Inland areas will likely see freezing temperatures once again Saturday night, so always use caution on the roads in the early morning hours," said Duncan.

Jackson County EMA Director Earl Etheridge said motorists need to use caution on Highways 63, 90 and 613 where they cross the rivers, and also on Highway 614 and Fort Bayou Bridge.

Lacy said the coldest weather and freezing temperatures Saturday morning will be what his office will be monitoring.

"There will be delayed openings across the board," Lacy said. "We'll likely see roads with black ice because of moisture."

Copyright 2017 WLOX. All rights reserved.


CallHealth offers two key services - Diagnostics@Home and Facilitation - to help customers enjoy convenience as well as save time when it comes to meeting their diagnostics and imaging needs.

For tests which require the customer to visit the Diagnostics Centre or Imaging Centre, CallHealth provides facilitation services.

Benefits to you

Since we recommend you to our customers, you can expect a higher inflow of patients and an increased business opportunity with zero additional investment.

To drive business on the fast growth track, CallHealth will undertake joint promotion programmes and marketing campaigns with Associates like you.

Optimal Utilisation
of Infrastructure

The challenge of optimal utilisation of your infrastructure facilities can be overcome thanks to the growing number of customers and better time management with our systems.

Access to
New Age Analytics

Our cutting-edge business intelligence and data analysis tools are at your disposal to provide detailed business analytics for fast, systematic growth of your organisation.

Diagnostics@Home and Facilitation process

A typical diagnostics cycle begins with a Call Centre Officer recording a service request followed by either a visit from the Mobile Health Officer or a call from the facilitation officer who then schedules a visit to the chosen diagnostic centre. The tests are then conducted and reports delivered to the patient by a CallHealth Officer.

Selection Rule Engine - Diagnostics Centres

To determine the most appropriate Diagnostics/ Imaging Centre for the customer as per specifications and requirements, and also to evenly distribute opportunity, we have developed a technology driven Selection Rule Engine. The first and the most fundamental rule is that the choice of the customer - if he chooses to exercise it - determines the Associate Diagnostics / Imaging Centre he visits. If he asks CallHealth to recommend, then the Selection Rule Engine applies a set of selection criteria for filtration to the universe of our Associate Diagnostics/ Imaging Centres in orderto arrive atthe MostAppropriate Service Associate (MASA).

The technology driven CallHealth Services Rule Engine (SRE) determines the Most Appropriate Service Associate (MASA) as per requirements and/or on the basis of fair distribution principles the filtration process involves applying a set of rules to the universe of CallHealth associates in order to arrive at the MASA applied.

CallHealth deals with various categories of associates including Hospitals, Specialists, Imaging Centres, Diagnostics Centres, Fitness Centres etc. Hence we have defined a general set of rules, which are then customized and applied to each associate category if applicable.

The General Rules used by CallHealth are as below:

  1. Serviceability
  2. Cost
  3. Reach
  4. Availability
  5. General Customer Rating
  6. Fair Distribution

For associate category Diagnostics Centre, the rules given below are applicable. These rules are applied for filtration in descending order.

  1. Serviceability
  2. Reach
  3. Availability
  4. General Customer Rating
  5. Fair Distribution

The rule of Cost is not applicable for associate category - Diagnostics Centres, due to reasons described in Annexure B.

This filtration process is depicted visually on page 2

Definition of Rules:

1. SERVICEABILITY: An Associate Diagnostics Centre should have the service sought by the customer in its portfolio of services. Example: If the customer requires CT Scan that a particular Diagnostics Centre does not have, that Associate will be regarded not capable of servicing the client. The Serviceability filter will filter-out that Associate Diagnostics Centre in determining an Associate for that customer.

2. COST: Not Applicable for this associate class, since we are offering standard rates for Diagnostics tests to the customer.

3. REACH: A classification of an associate based on the distance from the locality of client's home. Customer-reach falls under the following two categories,

  1. Category A: Diagnostics Centres within 10 km of customer locality - where a locality is the area in which the customer resides.
  2. Category B: Diagnostics Centres beyond 10 km of customer locality.

ANNUXURE C contains the list of 'localities' in Hyderabad

First preference is given to Category A, unless there is a short fall in the Fair-Distribution-Set of having at least two members in each category. Any shortfall in having the minimum set of associate Diagnostics Centres should be covered by expanding the reach distance and borrowing from Category B.

4. AVAILABILITY: This is about a service being available at the required point in time. Example: If a customer is to be tested on a specified day and time, the rule of a Diagnostics Centre having slots available for testing should be fulfilled.

5. CUSTOMER RATING: CallHealth encourages customers to rate their service experience with respect to each associate Diagnostic centre. Weighted averages of those Diagnostic centres are used while guiding the customers when they seek help in making a choice.

6. FAIR DISTRIBUTION: This criterion is about selecting a single Associate Diagnostics Centre from the Fair-Distribution-Set (FDS) as per Proportionality Principle (PP).

How the Services Rule Engine (SRE) works

A .Customer Choice: The first and the most fundamental rule is that the choice of the customer - if he chooses to exercise it - determines the Associate Diagnostics Centre he goes to.

B .Waterfall Method: The number of 'Potential Associate Diagnostics Centre's keeps shrinking as the filtration happens from rule 1 to 4 in that order For example, if some of the associate Diagnostics Centres do not have the facility for the required test, the 'serviceability criterion' eliminates those Diagnostics Centres from the list. Also these rules are our general filtration rules and some rules may not apply to some categories of associates. For example , the next rule criterion - 'cost', is not applicable for the associate category of Diagnostics Centres, since currently CallHealth offers standard rates to the customer for Diagnostics services. This shortlisting process continues till rule four.

C. Customer Seeking Guidance (CSG): Rule number five is about the customer seeking guidance and wanting to make an informed choice. Remaining Associate Diagnostics Centres after applying rules 1 to 4 are ordered based on General Customer Ratings (GCR).

In case the customer has used one of the Associate Diagnostics Centre's services earlier, he would be first asked if he wants to choose the same doctor. Should the customer ask for an alternative, three top rated Associate Diagnostics Centres are then presented to the customer for a choice to be made. Customer would be presented with the next three rated Associate Diagnostics Centres and more if the first three are not sufficient.

Example: Say, the total number of Associate Diagnostics Centres (the number of Diagnostics Centres CallHealth has relationship with) is 50 in Hyderabad. After applying filtration procedures from rule 1 to rule 4, let us say, that the number comes down to 7. As per CSG rule, these Diagnostics Centres are ordered from 1 to 7 based on customer ratings. The highest-rated-Associate-Diagnostics Centres, say the one that is rated 4.5 on a scale of 5.0, gets ranked as number one. The least rated Diagnostic Centre, say the one that is ranked 3.6, gets ranked as number 7.

We are just launching our services and generation of statistically valid customer ratings will take some time, till we have a certain minimum number of customers who have rated an associate. In the interim, the selection and ordering of 3 diagnostic centres after applying rules 1-4 will be done by the system on a random basis.

When the customer is unable to make a choice or when he explicitly asks CallHealth to make a choice, the Most Appropriate Service Associate (MASA) will be selected from the Fair Distribution Set (FDS) following Proportionality Principle (PP).

D. Fair-Distribution-Set (FDS): When the customer leaves the choice to CallHealth, selection is made out of the limited Associate Diagnostics Centres left after applying rules 1 to 5, called the Fair-Distribution-Set. Generally speaking, FDS covers only those instances where the customers have not made a choice by themselves.

Example: While the total number of Associate Diagnostics Centres of CallHealth may be 50, after applying filtration rules 1 to 5, the FDS Associate Diagnostics Centres for a given transaction may be only 7.

E. Proportionality Principle (PP): The computer system automatically records the time of selection of Associate Diagnostics Centre for the customers. Therefore, the computer system is aware of last time that each of the members of the FDS served a customer. Each eligible member in the FDS is sorted based on its last selection time in a chronological order (earliest to recent with earliest at the top) and PP follows a simple method of selecting the Associate Diagnostics Centre that is at the top of this chronologically sorted list. Proportionality Principle follows a simple method of selecting an Associate Diagnostics Centre that served its Last-FDS-Customer- Earliest (LFCE).

Example: If Associate Diagnostics Centre 'A' served Last-FDS-Customer at 3pm yesterday, 'B' at 10am yesterday and 'C' at 11am today, 'B' gets selected because it served the Last-FDS-Customer-Earliest. It is to be noted that the customers that were served by the Associate Diagnostics Centres as chosen by the customers directly are disregarded for the purpose of applying Proportionality Principle.

Associate Having POP : When the choice is left to CallHealth, the general rule adopted is to give the associate Diagnostics centre, that has allowed us to set our Point-of-Presence in their premises (Associate having POP), twice the number of customers compared to associate Diagnostics centres where we do not have a POP co-located.

The computer system first determines if there is any Associate Diagnostics Centre having POP, among the FDS members. If there is none then proportionality principle is directly applied. If there is, then the system allocates twice the number of customer slots for this associate in the current cycle of selection. One Cycle of selection is defined as the filling up of all available slots for all associates.

Example: If associate 'X', 'Y', and 'Z' qualify and If Associate 'X' is co-located with our POP, then Associate 'X' would get 2 slots versus another Associate who has not co-located with us. So Associate 'Y' and 'Z' would get one slot each in this cycle. So in this cycle, a total of 4 slots have to be filled.

F. Most Appropriate Service Associate (MASA): The Selection Rule Engine (SRE) always selects a single Associate Diagnostics Centre driven by the rules and principles stated above. As the SRE is mostly driven by technology, there is minimal time and effort on the part of the Call Centre Officer (CCO) in gathering additional information. The average estimated time for determination of MASA is 1 or 2 minutes.

G. Confidentiality: The actual data of Associate Diagnostics Centres that determine the ordering of Associate Diagnostics Centres when the customer seeks guidance (CSG) or selection based on Proportionality Principle (PP) are closely guarded and kept confidential - only accessible to system administrators. Information can be furnished to respective Associate Diagnostics Centres on request to indicate their position vis-à-vis the general averages.

H. Transparency: In the spirit of transparency, CallHealth welcomes Associate Diagnostics Centres to bring up any deviations from the Selection Rule Engine criteria. A sub-committee that oversees application of Services Rule Engine will provide clarifications in an open manner, without compromising Associate Diagnostics Centre or Customer confidentiality. The sub-committee also takes corrective action to plug any deficiencies in the SRE or eliminate implementation gaps.

I. Stakeholder Engagement Centre (SEC): SEC hosts all the Selection Rules Engine (SRE) information for the Associate Diagnostics Centres to access at all times. This is viewed as an integral part of the Associate agreement with Diagnostics Centres. Services Rule Engine functioning is reviewed and updated periodically after taking into consideration any valid suggestions made by Associate Diagnostics Centres as stated above.

Stakeholder Engagement Centre (SEC)

The Stakeholder Engagement Centre SEC is a Cloud computing platform that brings together Associates like you. Customers, Investors and Officers of the company under one virtual Space.

Our team will provide you with all necessary training to efficiently operate the intuitive software. We do understand the busy schedule of your staff and the time constraints they face. However, spending a little time on training will lead to better coordination between the Diagnostic Lab and CallHealth.

CallHealth will be introducing a mobile app to access the SEC very shortly.

Commercial Proposal

For Diagnostics Lab / Imaging Centre services, CallHealth will bill the customer and collect payments for all the services availed by the customer.

At the time of registration, the rates of all tests for CallHealth customers will be mutually agreed between the Diagnostics Lab / Imaging Centre and CallHealth. Every month, the Diagnostics Lab / Imaging Centre needs to raise an invoice on CallHealth for all the tests conducted in their facility through CallHealth which will be directly transferred into Associate Diagnostics Lab / Imaging Centre's bank account via NEFT / RTGS, within fifteen days of receipt of the bills. Complete transparency is maintained as you can log on to the Associate Portal to view the transaction history.


In the News

USTRANSCOM hosts non-lethal weapons training

By Senior Airman Melissa Estevez 375th Air Mobility Wing

The United Stated Transportation Command hosted their fifth Non-lethal Weapons Familiarization event Aug. 30, 2018, at the Illinois National Guard Training Area in Sparta, Illinois.

Representatives from the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, conducted familiarizations for 45 shooters from the local police department, local Sheriff's department, 126th Air Refueling Wing, 375th Security Forces Squadron, and the 375th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

“The objective of the non-lethal weapons FAMFIRE event was to educate leadership, planners and forces regarding non-lethal weapons capabilities,” said Sloan Cox, USTRANSCOM joint non-lethal weapons program manager and Combatant Command non-lethal weapons liaison.

Representatives from companies, such as Safariland and PepperBall, demonstrated weapons and ammunitions. Once demonstrated, shooters were able to try out a variety of weaponry.

Participants fired from 12-gauge M870 shotguns, M203 40mm grenade launchers and FN303R compressed air launchers. These weapons are usually considered lethal but when the ammunition is interchanged with rubber bullets, bean bags, etc., they are used for crowd control or adherence.

They were also able to view a sting-ball grenade flash bang, TASER and a modular crowd control munitions demonstration.

 “I went in knowing next to nothing about non-lethal practices and learned a lot in just a couple of hours,” said Senior Airman Luis-Jose Hernandez, 375th LRS special vehicle maintainer. “I enjoy shooting the weapons. They’re so good at what they’re designed to do.”

Non-lethal weapons provide warfighters with escalation-of-force options when lethal force is not the best first response. Non-lethal weapons are intended to have reversible effects on personnel and materiel.

“These types of munitions are an asset that could gain an aggressor’s compliance,” said Cox. “All personnel that would be in a position to utilize one of these weapons systems have been trained and certified by a certified trainer.”

“The event was a huge success, anytime you can get local police agencies mixed with local Air Force security forces together to focus on a common goal it is a win,” said Cox.


Shut Up, Addison Del Marco

Addison Del Marcos’s article gives the false sense of hope that a piece of theoretic substance could appear on the pages of The American Conservative. But two sentences into the piece and this initial optimism evaporates into instant disappointment.

Del Marco begins his “critique” of cinema with a disclaimer: he never goes to the movies nor is he a fan of the medium- as if to caution, if not, divulge his unreliable opinion that will proceed. He admits, however, that his parents influenced him to appreciate the movies, as if we are to presume that their expertise is somehow conferred upon Del Marco through some furtive system of cinephilic inheritance. But like a stubborn son, he watches movies-and begins his critique of it- with a myopic pre-conception about an art form that relies deeply on an open perspective. Ironic, I know.

His title betrays the illusion that he will engage the theoretical discourse among film scholars over the death of cinema. Like fatalists such as Guy Debord who laments, “Le cinema est mort,” or Jean-Luc Goddard who claims, “Fin de cinema” in the conclusion of his film, Weekend; or Antoine Lumiere’s grievance that “Cinema is an invention without a future.” Does he even know any of these scholars and filmmakers, let alone that this debate exists? And if he does, his non-existent reference demonstrate reckless authorship, if not incompetence.

Admittedly, although minimal elements of this debate are peppered sparingly throughout his article, this generous observation is only given in the spirit of Christmas. His piece is not about the death of cinema as it purports, but a mere whiny complaint about his dissatisfaction with Hollywood’s cliché plot lines.

To believe that Hollywood is the cinema is not only pathetically foolish, but reveals his unsophisticated understanding of film. But as should’ve been expected, such sophisticated enterprise of the mind should not be expected from those like Del Marco: conservatives who purport a certain level of authority over a subject they frankly, know nothing about.


That was all the time it took for me to spot three blogworthy things for ponderingmar today. First up, a LOLavi:

The first clue was when everyone in Savoir Hair was thrown into stark, brilliant relief. The second clue was the alien glow. The third clue was when I set World to midnight and cammed around to see:

But that was not all! Hop behind the cut…

Permit me to show you a small screencap from the official Second Life Wiki, all about rendering local lights (which is what facelights are made from) –

Note the section I have highlighted.

Now, since facelights are usually given full transparency, you need to View Transparent (CTRL+ALT+T) to see them. This shortcut tints them bright red. Count this female avatar’s individual facelights with me:

TWELVE. Six of those are utterly useless and aren’t adding anything but extra prims to the avatar. Who in hell made that thing?! Not only did they overdo the lights, it looks as though they set each one to maximum brightness and maximum radius.

That wasn’t all I found in my 15 minutes in-world. No sooner had I landed at Hairspray, than someone teleported in in top of me. I stepped aside so she could land, and while the world was rezzing around me, so was she. To be fair, I know sometimes clothes can take a long, embarrassing time to fully rez, but both she and I were standing there for five minutes, and no skirt or pants rezzed. I can only assume it was a full-blown Hair Emergency that made her go shopping in her knickers:

Lastly, on wandering into Savoir Hair, I was dimly aware of a small pink meringue nest. On closer inspection, I decided it was one of those little dollies that my Gran puts over the loo roll:

I cammed closer.

And then I cammed too close. EEK!

After that, Mar teleported home for a lie-down.


Unemployment further down

In the period October-December 2007, the seasonally adjusted unemployment figure stood at 314 thousand, i.e. 6 thousand down on the period September–November. Over the last six months, the number of unemployed fell by an average of 7 thousand a month.

Compared to the period October-December 2006, unemployed was reduced by 76 thousand. The most substantial decrease occurred among 25 to 44-year-olds. Unemployment also declined among young people and over-45s. Female unemployment decreased more than male unemployment.

In the period October–December 2007, an average of 4.0 percent of the total Dutch labour force were unemployed, as against 5.0 percent in the same period the year before. The unemployment rate for women was obviously higher than for men: 5.0 percent and 3.2 percent respectively. In the past months, the unemployment gap between men and woman has narrowed.

In 2007, the total number of unemployed averaged 344 thousand. This is almost 70 thousand down on 2006. Unemployment declined across the board. The decline is as large as the decline of 2006 relative to 2005.

Unemployment, seasonally adjusted

Unemployment, seasonally adjusted


Adopt Trees and Improve Your Business

Transparent Tree Adoption Solutions

What Can You Do With EcoMatcher?

Reward Programs

Give specific trees as a reward for participating in a market survey.

Engagement Programs

Give specific trees and make your team part of your sustainability journey.

Loyalty Programs

Give your customers specific trees instead of a plastic item.

Event Programs

Allow event participants to offset their carbon foot print with a number of specific trees.

How It Works

① Farmers plant the trees; tree data incl. GPS is recorded with our TreeCorder app.
② Tree records and tools are easily accessible via our API based TreeManager.
③ Trees can be used for reward, engagement, loyalty and event programs.
④ Trees can be tracked and (social media) shared via our TreeTracker web app.

The New Sustainability – Regeneration

Doing less harm is no longer enough. The future of sustainability lies in regeneration: seeking to restore and replenish what we have lost.

People are already operating from a sustainability mindset. They are increasing the pressure on brands, calling for greater transparency and pushing for more sustainable options.

EcoMatcher believes that businesses have an opportunity to play a decisive role in the sustainable future, putting regeneration at the heart of strategy and improve their business.

Why EcoMatcher?

Through EcoMatcher:

   You can adopt newly planted trees;
   You know everything about every tree you adopt, even the farmer;
   You know that all trees are planted by vetted tree organisations;
   You help to address deforestation and regeneration;
   You can easily set up reward, engagement, loyalty and event programs;
   You have access to online reports;
   You improve your business!

EcoMatcher partners with sustainable farming organizations around the world, specialized in tree planting. These organizations have been carefully selected and vetted by us.

EcoMatcher provides those organizations funding and financing to increase their impact, technologies to improve their operation and a platform to market themselves globally.

Some of Our Clients

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If you leave your email we will send you FOR FREE a sample tree.

*we promise to use your email with care.


Arsenal takeaways in Manchester City loss

Arsenal’s bid to get their English Premier League season off to a positive start fell abruptly as they lost 2-0 to Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium.

The defending champions continued to look like a well-oiled machine against the Gunners as they dominated the early parts of the game until Raheem Sterling eventually opened the scoring for the visitors.

Bernardo Silva would eventually double City’s lead and Unai Emery’s first Premier League game ends in a loss in front of the London crowd.

There were many things to talk about for both sides, with City largely getting positives from this match in their bid to win back-to-back Premier League titles.

As for Arsenal, their hopes of becoming one of the title contenders took a big hit in their first game and they are certainly hoping that things get better moving forward.

Here are a few talking points in the Gunners’ loss against Pep Guardiola’s men.

Ahead of their match-up against Manchester City, Arsenal needed to be at their best against the defending champions.

Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are two of the team’s best creators and many believed that their presence on the pitch should help the Gunners against their rivals.

Placed on either sides of the pitch, Emery’s formation did not seem to benefit both playmakers as they cut frustrated figures for most of the night.

Between the two, Ozil seemed to be struggling more as he was not like his usual fluid self. Normally smooth with the ball and creative with passing, the German misplaced passes and seemed to be out of sorts for most of the game.

Mkhitaryan was not as wasteful but failed to make an impact at all. He made one cross and lost in duels against the City defenders, He was thoroughly neutralised in the contest.

Naturally, this resulted in the lack of service towards Pierre-Emerick Aumabeyang to try and attempt a shot at goal.

The arrival of Uruguayan Lucas Torreira at the Emirates was a very welcome sign for Arsenal fans as they believed the midfielder would inject new life in the team’s system.

Brought in from Sampdoria for over €30 million, many believed that Emery would find a way to put him in the midfield alongside other stars like Ozil. Unfortunately, the new manager had other ideas as Torreira was not in the starting XI.

Instead, Emery relied on Aaron Ramsey, Matte Guendouzi and Granit Xhaka to operate the middle of the pitch.

The youngster Guendouzi had a lukewarm debut for the Gunners as he showed some potential at times but was wasteful with other chances given to him.

As for Ramsey, he often joined Aumabeyang in the attack but was unable to really make a difference as well as he left the game without a goal to his name.

Xhaka was nowhere to be found as well and many were relieved to see Torreira come in the 70th minute to replace the Swiss midfielder. Many believe that this switch should be made more permanent and that the investment paid for Torreira must result in him creating chemistry with other Gunners on the pitch.

Another thing that everyone noticed was the absence of Alexandre Lacazette in the starting XI to help Aumabeyang in the scoring duties.

During the pre-season, the two strikers were often paired together up front, and it resulted in eight goals in only four games together.

This led to many hoping that the two would form a partnership to terrorise defenders but Emery had other plans in this as well.

As said earlier, Ramsey was often deployed as the player who can link up with the former Borussia Dortmund striker up front but at times Aumabeyang was the lone threat in Arsenal’s final third.

Thankfully, Lacazette made his entry in the 54th minute of the game and it changed the complexion of the contest as Arsenal were finally in it. The two were threatening and had their chances for a goal if not for the City defence recovering in the final moments.

Emery should try and continue this partnership that flourished in the pre-season and they might be the Gunners’ best chance against stifling defensive teams.


The Karoo will soon become a key site in the hunt for aliens

2018-10-03 10:09

South Africa’s radio telescope is joining an international initiative that is seeking signs of intelligent life in the universe.

Watch: The quietest town in America — where cellphones are forbidden

2018-08-22 10:38

The area is home to the largest steerable telescope in the world.

SA celebrates MeerKAT launch with dramatic Milky Way black hole image

2018-07-13 09:02

South Africa has officially unveiled its MeerKAT radio telescope and it has produced the clearest image yet of the super massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.

Amazing satellite photos show how alien trees are being wiped out in Cape Town

2018-09-20 07:31

A data scientist is using satellite imagery to provide reliable long-term data to measure efforts to make space for indigenous vegetation, and curb water lost to alien invaders.

An astounding image of the massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, courtesy of Africa's new super telescope

2018-07-13 10:24

The composite captures the Milky Way, 25,000 light-years away from Earth.

2018-07-12 06:29

Astronomers will use the precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) to help probe the history of the universe – and figure out where the fuel for forming stars is coming from.

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gvA Update

The United States is the country listed here not among the top richest countries in the world. Qatar, a peninsular Arab country with Doha as its capital, and also known for its futuristic skyscrapers and other ultramodern architecture is the wealthiest country in the world using PPP per capita gdp which stood at $132,870 in 2015. South Africa, although the most sophisticated economy in subsaharan Africa is not among the top 4 wealthiest countries in Africa, using PPP GDP.

Posted: Nov 2nd, 2016 @ 09:06:45 AM


(603) 485-1807

Specials Schedule:

Classes will be visiting 4 specialists in a repeating pattern. The pattern will not change so if there are days off (scheduled or unscheduled), we will always move to the next special in the rotation.

Example: If there is a snow day on a “Blue” day, the next day we are at school our class will still go to their “Blue” day special (students DO NOT “miss” that special).

  • Please see your child’s teacher webpage for their specific specials schedule.


Spring meets the most beautiful self

Who said, the most beautiful scenery, always in the distance. And I, always, is just a light person, do not matter near, or far away. As long as the heart is clear, it must be spring.

Winter gradually, in the warmth of the new spring, I have a life of tenderness blossoming into a sea of flowers, alone. Like the wind, the discrete, the world is not happy, also not affected by love. Lean against the corner of time, hold a ray of sunshine, dye the fragrance of the flowers, the dew boil tea, quiet look at the time. In a flower red between low eyebrow, a bouquet of qingquan shallow smile, time is not old, the years have feelings.

I always feel that life is the most beautiful encounter, whether I meet a person or meet a beautiful scene, it is fate. The moon is sitting, walking in the rain, flowers in the wind, whispering in the wind. How many beautiful past, with the passing away, and how many destined to the fate of the oath to meet.

Buddha said: "all laws are born, all are fate. Accidental meeting, suddenly look back, doomed each other's life, only for the eye to meet the moment. The fate is destroyed, the edge is empty."

People have sorrow, the moon has the profit and loss, the building has been abandoned, the life float, all is so. Every turn is another expectation; Every parting is for a better meeting. Do not go to huaigu, also do not think of today, only put down all the shackles of the heart, alone leaning on the railings, watching the long wind and blue waves, watching the clouds.

Life, need not sharp edge, and let time to grind the corners, with the temperature of the sun, melt residue in the heart of a little cool. Hope heaven and earth day and the moon, will be boundless and boundless in the heart. With this vast expanse, you can sit in the quiet good years, and see the hidden distance. And life, even more because of the breadth of the heart, can be more intrinsic, bright and thorough.

Through the sunshine of the bath, the love of the grass, I will feel the heart of a feeling, sowing. Meeting the rain, is a rain of nourishing; When I meet the wind, it is a free ride. Meeting flowers is an amazing attachment; To meet the butterfly is to be affectionate.

The beauty of all those paths, even a dream, is enough to fill your years. Casual or emotional, affectionate or heartless, but come, will take heart to deep flavor; After walking, also will be remembered.

And we, just need to take a flower open posture, arbitrary origin and margin. The dust has never been like water, why do you love? The bright fireworks in the night sky, never to tell people, it turned into the dust of the silence, is a kind of warmth. It would be better to leave behind only the end of prosperity and desolation, but to break, but not to grieve. If you are sad, you can mourn for it, but you can't change its persistence. After years, gradually understand, the original only calm, is the most elegant self. There is no sorrow in the world, no matter how the moon goes down.

In fact, all meet, there is a farewell; All departures will be met in another way. Meeting is the best thing in life.

Meet all people, not meet the best of you. Keep a pear flower like snow, quiet with a pool of plain lotus lotus, with a kind of quiet and elegant, look at the time in the casual age. Blossom, listen to the rain; Flowers fall, the wind. You come, I greet; You go, no. Even though I am in the sea, I am still in the corner of this time. The mountains and rivers are all visitors, and I am the only one who has stopped in the crossing.

Outside the window, a curtain of light rain is the heart of the heart, I carry a side of cloud, the number of feelings. When the rain stopped and the butterflies fluttered, I knew that under the rainbow bridge, the wind was blowing, and it was the most beautiful of all. You know, you know, it's the golden age.

The depth of the season, the need for our careful taste, gentle touch, only to know the thickness of its deposits. With a ray of sunshine warm in the heart, with a piece of cloud from the feeling. Let us take a pair of wings and let us fly to the open sky. In the most tranquil state of life, meet the most beautiful fate, the most beautiful self.

[ 投稿者:huwiri at 18:48 | huwiri | コメント(0) | トラックバック(0) ]

簡単演算認証: 8 x 1 + 5 =
名前: [必須]


Download Basic principles of operation and applications of fuel injection

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stoichiometric air:fuel ratio (which therefore burns normally), while the
remaining air is either completely free of any petrol or has a very small amount
of petrol mixed in, i.e. it is very weak.
This small pocket of mixture is directed by the airflow within the combustion
chamber so that it is directly exposed to the spark plug. When the spark occurs,
therefore, it is only this pocket or cloud of mixture that ignites and combusts.
Figure 17 Homogenous mixture formation
It is possible to operate with weak mixtures of up to 20:1 (or slightly higher)
before misfiring occurs. These weaker mixtures provide good economy and low
emissions of most pollutants. In practice, maximum torque and power are
usually achieved with slightly richer air:fuel ratios of around 12:1 but with
higher emissions of some pollutants.
Since the early 1990s in Europe, emissions regulations have resulted in engines
operating with air:fuel ratios that are generally close to the stoichiometric value
for most operating conditions. This allowed catalytic converters to convert
most of the pollutants into harmless gases. Operating at stoichiometric air:fuel
ratios throughout the mixture effectively means that the mixture should be
homogenous under all engine operating conditions.
Stratified mixture formation
With stratified mixture formation, a small isolated pocket or cloud of air:fuel
mixture is created within the cylinder; the remainder of the air is effectively
pure (Figure 18). In reality, it is possible to have a pocket of mixture with a
Figure 18 Stratified charge mode
The combustion of this isolated cloud of mixture is used to heat up all of the
remaining air, thus producing expansion of the gas within the cylinder. If the
remaining 'fresh air' does in fact contain a small quantity of petrol (forming a
very weak mixture), it will combust slowly, which will in fact assist in the
expansion of the gases.
It should, however, be noted that a stratified mixture formation will not
produce as much energy or force within the cylinder as a fully homogenous mix
of air and petrol, because only a small percentage of the full charge of air in the
cylinder is used to generate the heat. With homogenous mixtures, the full
charge of air is mixed with petrol, and therefore all of the mix combusts. It is
Document related concepts

Opto-isolator wikipedia, lookup


Sonnet of light, shadow and illusion

Program Notes
This fixed media work combines light and shadow to show the mix of traditional, oriental and modern aesthetics of Chinese poem. Music/Sound made by Chenyu Sun. Video made by Shengyuan He.

Biographical Sketch
Chenyu Sun is an interactive designer and musician based in Brooklyn. Generally, the purpose of her work is to influence people in arts ways and make people aware of nature and their surroundings. By exploring the innovative and technical possibilities of media production and musical works, her works let viewers physically engage with different media that include both individual and cooperation works with music, videos, interactive technology installations, games, animations and electromechanical sculptures.


Samplings On The Fourteenth @ Berjaya Times Square Hotel

An enchanting view of Kuala Lumpur's skyline from the 14-th floor. An exquisite restaurant which serves authentic French and Italian cuisine. It's undeniable that their service is professional and the atmosphere gives me the tranquil feeling which indeed allows me to enjoy my dinner here.

Seafood Combinations (RM84nett)
Grilled salmon, sea bass, prawns, sea scallops and baby lobsters. Served with meuniere sauce and sautéed spinach. If you are in dilemma of choosing what to eat and you are a seafood lover, this would probably be your best choice. Seafood platter of everything delicious. Everything served was really fresh, Especially the grilled salmon, I can say that it's cooked perfectly by just looking at how the chef makes a few cut on it. Meuniere sauce enhances the seafood so well
and I really enjoyed my dinner.

Hokkaido Scallop (RM96nett)
Served with baked potatoes and garnished with grilled vegetables and sauce (Béarnaise / porcini & morel mushrooms / bordelaise sauce / Sarawak peppercorn / truffle oil beef jus). Don't underestimate the portion of it as it is actually quite fulfilling even though it looks small. Scallops were really fresh and succulent. Like how the way they cook it.

Creme Brûlée (RM21nett)
Coffee and ginger creme brûlée with orange sorbet and pistachio tulle.
It is so scrumptious and i couldn't get enough of it. Everything was just right in portion. Just the right touch of sweetness, and it is one of the best creme brûlée I have ever had. Definitely coming back for this. The presentation does not only make it seem nicer, it actually makes it taste nicer as well. As they say, we eat with our eyes too.

Definitely a tranquil yet romantic restaurant to dine in especially with your other half :)

14th Floor, East, Berjaya Times Square, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Opening hours: 12pm - 2.30pm (Lunch)
6.30pm - 10.30pm (Dinner)
Closed on Sunday and Public Holidays


Summer Knight
Summer Knight
805 886 1261805 886 1261

Property Taxes

How is a home’s value determined?
You have  several ways to determine the value of a home. An appraisal is a professional  estimate of a property’s market value, based on recent sales of comparable  properties, location, square footage and construction quality. A comparative market analysis is an  informal estimate of market value performed by a real estate agent based on  similar sales and property attributes. Most agents offer free analyses in the  hopes of winning your business.

How do property taxes  work?
Property taxes are what most homeowners in the United States pay  for the privilege of owning a piece of real estate, on average 1.3 percent of  the property’s current market value. These annual local assessments by county or  local authorities help pay for public services and are calculated using a  variety of formulas.

What does Prop 13, 60 and 90 mean for me?
Since its passage, Proposition 13 prohibits property tax increases until property ownership is changed.  (Except for annual increases to the base year value which are limited to the inflation rate, as measured by the California Consumer Price Index, or two percent, whichever is less.)

If either spouse is over age 55 when their residence is sold, PROP 60 allows for you to transfer the Prop 13 assessed valuation from the old home to the new.  The rules are: it’s a replacement of a primary residence with a new home of equal or lesser value within the same county.  This is also allowed once in your lifetime, and a spouse who has done it before ‘taints’ both spouses.

PROP 90 allows counties to elect to accept transfers of Prop 13 values for moves from other counties when a primary residence is replaced with a less expensive home. Thus if you are over 55 and move into a county which accepts Prop 90, you may take your old, lower Prop 13 home value with you.

Are property taxes deductible?

Are taxes on second homes deductible?

What is an impound account?

Where can I learn more about appealing my property taxes?

Santa Barbara County Assessor’s office: (805) 568-2550 or go online to:


Posts Tagged ‘exploitation’

Last month, Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (whose important work I have written about before), issued a tweet about the new poverty and healthcare numbers in the United States along with a challenge to the administration of Donald Trump (which in June decided to voluntarily remove itself from membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council after Alston issued a report on his 2017 mission to the United States).

The numbers for 2017 are indeed stupefying: more than 45 million Americans (13.9 percent of the population) were poor (according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure*), while 28.5 million (or 8.8 percent) did not have health insurance at any point during the year.

But the situation in the United States is even worse than widespread poverty and lack of access to decent healthcare. It’s high economic inequality, which according to a new report in Scientific American “negatively impacts nearly every aspect of human well-being—as well as the health of the biosphere.”

As Robert Sapolsky (unfortunately behind a paywall) explains, every step down the socioeconomic ladder, starting at the very top, is associated with worse health. Part of the problem, not surprisingly, stems from health risks (such as smoking and alcohol consumption) and protective factors (like health insurance and health-club memberships). But that’s only part of the explanation. But that’s only part of the explanation. The rest has to do with the “stressful psychosocial consequences” of low socioeconomic status.

while poverty is bad for your health, poverty amid plenty—inequality—can be worse by just about any measure: infant mortality, overall life expectancy, obesity, murder rates, and more. Health is particularly corroded by your nose constantly being rubbed in what you do not have.

It’s not only bodies that suffer from inequality. The natural environment, too, is negatively affected by the large and growing gap between the tiny group at the top and everyone else. According to James Boyce (also behind a paywall), more inequality leads to more environmental degradation—because the people who benefit from using or abusing the environment are economically and politically more powerful than those who are harmed. Moreover, those at the bottom—with less economic and political power—end up “bearing a disproportionate share of the environmental injury.”

Social and institutional trust, too, decline with growing inequality. And, as Bo Rothstein explains, societies like that of the United States can get trapped in a “feedback loop of corruption, distrust and inequality.”

Voters may realize they would benefit from policies that reduce inequality, but their distrust of one another and of their institutions prevents the political system from acting in the way they would prefer.

But what are the economics behind the kind of degrading and destructive inequality we’ve been witnessing in the United States in recent decades? For that, Scientific American turned to Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz for an explanation. Readers of this blog will be on familiar ground. As I’ve explained before (e.g., here), Stiglitz criticizes the “fictional narrative” of neoclassical economics, according to which everyone gets what they deserve through markets (which “may at one time have assuaged the guilt of those at the top and persuaded everyone else to accept this sorry state of affairs”), and offers an alternative explanation based on the shift from manufacturing to services (which in his view is a “winner-takes-all system”) and a political rewriting of the rules of economic game (in favor of large corporations, financial institutions, and pharmaceutical companies and against labor). So, for Stiglitz, the science of inequality is based on a set of power-related “market imperfections” that permit those at the top to engage in extracting rents (that is, in withdrawing “income from the national pie that is incommensurate with societal contribution”).

The major problem with Stiglitz’s “science” of economic inequality is that he fails to account for how the United States underwent a transition from less inequality (in the initial postwar period) to growing inequality (since the early 1980s). In order to accomplish that feat, he would need to look elsewhere, to the alternative science of exploitation.

While Stiglitz does mention exploitation at the beginning of his own account (with respect to American slavery), he then drops it from his approach in favor of rent extraction and market imperfections. If he’d followed his initial thrust, he might have been able to explain how—while New Deal reforms and World War II managed to engineer the shift from agriculture to manufacturing, reined in large corporations and Wall Street, and bolstered labor unions—what was kept intact was the ability of capital to appropriate and distribute the surplus produced by workers. Thus, American employers, however regulated, retained both the interest and the means to avoid and attempt to undo those regulations. And eventually they succeeded.

What is missing, then, from Stiglitz’s account is a third possibility, an approach that combines a focus on markets with power, that is, a class analysis of the distribution of income. According to this science of exploitation or class, markets are absolutely central to capitalism—on both the input side (e.g., when workers sell their labor power to capitalists) and the output side (when capitalists sell the finished goods to realize their value and capture profits). But so is power: workers are forced to have the freedom to sell their labor to capitalists because it has no use-value for them; and capitalists, who have access to the money to purchase the labor power, do so because they can productively consume it in order to appropriate the surplus-value the workers create.

That’s the first stage of the analysis, when markets and power combine to generate the surplus-value capitalists are able to realize in the form of profits. And that’s under the assumption that markets are competitive, that is, there are not market imperfections such as monopoly power. It is literally a different reading of commodity values and profits, and therefore a critique of the idea that capitalist factors of production “get what they deserve.” They don’t, because of the existence of class exploitation.

But what if markets aren’t competitive? What if, for example, there is some kind of monopoly power? Well, it depends on what industry or sector we’re referring to. Let’s take one of the industries mentioned by Stiglitz: Big Pharma. In the case where giant pharmaceutical companies are able to sell the commodities they produce at a price greater than their value, they are able to appropriate surplus from their own workers and to receive a distribution of surplus from other companies, when they pay for the drugs covered in their health-care plans. As a result, the rate of profit for the pharmaceutical companies rises (as their monopoly power increases) and the rate of profit for other employers falls (unless, of course, they can change their healthcare plans or cut some other distribution of their surplus-value).**

The analysis could go on. My only point is to point out there’s a third possibility in the debate over growing inequality in the United States—a theory that is missing from Stiglitz’s article and from Scientific American’s entire report on inequality, a science that combines markets and power and is focused on the role of class in making sense of the obscene levels of inequality that are destroying nearly every aspect of human well-being including the natural environment in the United States today.

And, of course, that third approach has policy implications very different from the others—not to force workers to increase their productivity in order to receive higher wages through the labor market or to hope that decreasing market concentration will make the distribution of income more equal, but instead to attack the problem at its source. That would mean changing both markets and power with the goal of eliminating class exploitation.

*The official rate was 12.3 percent, which means that 39.7 million Americans fell below the poverty line.

**This is one of the reasons capitalist employers might support “affordable” healthcare, to raise their rates of profit.

Special mention

TMW2018-07-11color  Patriotism is at an all-time low among Americans, according to a new poll.

Special mention

600_212749  border-separation-1200

The goal of mainstream economists is to get everybody to work. As a result, they celebrate capitalism for creating full employment—and worry that capitalism will falter if not enough people are working.

The utopian premise and promise of mainstream economic theory are that capitalism generates an efficient allocation of resources, including labor. Thus, underlying all mainstream economic models is a labor market characterized by full employment.

Thus, for example, in a typical mainstream macroeconomic model, an equilibrium wage rate in the the labor market (Wf, in the lower left quadrant) is characterized by full employment (the supply of and demand for labor are equal, at Lf), which in turn generates a level of full-employment output (Yf, via the production function, in the lower right quadrant) and a corresponding level of prices (P0, in the upper quadrants). If the money wage is flexible it is possible to ignore the top left quadrant, because, in that case, the equilibrium real wage, employment and output are Wf, Lf and Yf, respectively, whatever the price level. With flexible money wages, the aggregate supply curve is independent of the price level and is represented by YFYF.

That’s the neoclassical version of the story. The Keynesian alternative is that the aggregate supply curve is relatively elastic below full employment and the wage rate is fixed by institutions, and therefore is not perfectly flexible. In such a case, aggregate demand determines the level of output, which will normally fall below the full-employment level.

And so we have the longstanding argument between the two wings of mainstream economics—between the invisible hand of flexible wages and the visible hand of government spending. But, equally important, what the two theories of macroeconomics have in common is the ultimate goal: full employment. In other words, both groups of economists presume that the aim of capitalism is to generate full employment and that, with the appropriate policies—free markets for the neoclassicals, government intervention for the Keynesians—capitalism is capable of putting everyone to work.

But the argument also goes in the opposite direction: capitalism works best when everyone is working. That’s because capitalist growth (e.g., in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita, the green line in the chart, measured on the left) is predicated on the growth of the labor force (the the red line, measured on the right).

fredgraph (1)

Mainstream economists also argue that a low work rate is an important cause of low incomes and high poverty. They argue that, when considering different policy interventions for this population—including improving educational attainment, raising the minimum wage, and increasing the number of two-earner families—the most beneficial intervention for improving incomes is to assume that all household heads work full-time.

Finally, mainstream economists argue that, in addition to increasing incomes and decreasing poverty, work has an additional benefit: it gives people dignity and a sense of self-worth. The idea, as articulated for example by Brad DeLong, is that having a job gives workers an honorable place in society, which presumably they are deprived of if they receive some kind of government assistance—whether in the form of payments from one or another anti-poverty program or a universal basic income. “Just giving people money” (according to Eduardo Porter) disrupts the incentive to work and undermines the “social, psychological, and economic anchor” associated with having a job.

That’s why there’s such an intense debate these days over the participation rate of U.S. workers. Even though the unemployment rate has fallen to historically low levels (and now stands at 3.8 percent), the lack of participation—whether measured in terms of the labor force participation rate (the blue line in the chart) or the employment-population ratio (the red line)—remains much lower than it was a couple of decades ago.* According to mainstream economists, that’s why rates of growth in output and incomes have slowed. There simply aren’t enough people working.

Once again, there’s an ongoing discussion among mainstream economists about the causes of that decline and what to do about it. More conservative mainstream economists tend to focus on the supply side of the labor market and the unwillingness of workers to make themselves available—mostly because they’re benefiting from some part of the social safety net (such as disability insurance, welfare, or government health insurance). Liberal mainstream economists also worry about the supply side (especially, for example, when it comes to women, who might not be able to work because they don’t have adequate childcare) but put more emphasis on the demand side (for example, the elimination of specific kinds of jobs based on international trade, automation, or the effects of economic downturns). Underlying this debate is a shared presumption that more people working will be better for them and for the economy as a whole.

Even portions of the Left accept the idea that the goal is to move toward more work. Thus, for example, both modern monetary theorists and Bernie Sanders argue in favor of a government job guarantee. The idea is that, if private employers can’t or won’t make the decisions to hire workers and create full employment, then the government needs to step in, as the “employer of last resort.” Again, the presumption—shared with those in both wings of mainstream economics—is that the goal of the current economic system and appropriate economic policy is get more workers to work more.

The utopianism of full employment is so entrenched, as a seemingly uncontested common sense, it’s difficult to imagine a different utopian horizon. But there is one, which emerges from at least three different theoretical and political traditions.

In the Marxian tradition, more work also means more surplus labor, which benefits all those who manage to get a cut of the surplus—but not workers themselves, who fall increasingly behind their employers and others in the small group at the top. That’s because, as employment increases, more workers are performing both necessary and surplus labor. Therefore, even assuming the rate of surplus extraction remains constant, the total amount of surplus created by workers increases. But, of course, the rate itself often increases—for example, as a result of competition among capitalists, who find ways of increasing productivity, which tends to lower the amount they have to pay to hire their workers (as I explain in more detail here). So, what appears to be an unalloyed good in the mainstream tradition—more jobs and more workers—is an economic and social disaster from a Marxian perspective. More workers produce more surplus, which is used to create a growing gap between those at the top and everyone else.

Then there’s the broader socialist tradition, which attacked the capitalist work ethic and claimed “The Right to Be Lazy.” Here’s Paul LaFargue back in 1883:

Today, in the United States and around the world, the capitalist work ethic still prevails.

And there’s a third tradition, one that directly contests the idea that participating in wage-labor is intrinsically dignified.

According to Friedrich Nietzsche (in his 1871 preface to an unwritten book, “The Greek State”), the dignity of labor was invented as one of the “needy products of slavedom hiding itself from itself.” That’s because, in Nietzsche’s view (following the Greeks), labor is only a “painful means” for existence and existence (as against art) has no value in itself. Therefore, “labour is a disgrace.”

And if slaves—or, today, wage-workers—no longer believe in the “dignity of labour,” it falls to the likes of both conservatives and liberals to ignore the “disgraced disgrace” of labor and create the necessary “conceptual hallucinations.” And then, on that basis, to suggest the appropriate government policies such that the “enormous majority [will], in the service of a minority be slavishly subjected to life’s struggle, to a greater degree than their own wants necessitate.”

Nietzsche believed that, in the modern world, the so-called dignity of labor was one of the “transparent lies recognizable to every one of deeper insight.” Apparently, neither wing of mainstream economists (nor, for that matter, many today on the liberal-left) has been able to formulate or sustain such insight.

Contesting the utopianism of full employment with a different utopian horizon creates the possibility of imagining and creating a different world—in which work acquires different meanings, in which the distinction between necessary and surplus is redefined and perhaps erased, and for the first time in modern history workers are no longer forced to have the freedom to sell their ability to work to someone else and achieve the right to be lazy.

*The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the labor force participation rate as the share of the 16-and-over civilian noninstitutional population either working or willing to work. Simply put, it is the portion of the population that is currently employed or looking for work. It differs from both the unemployment rate (the number of unemployed divided by the civilian labor force) and the employment-population ratio (the ratio of total civilian employment to the 16-and-over civilian noninstitutional population).

So, the Marx ratio is not Marx’s ratio.

Special mention

209048  F79F4276-5F9D-4578-8BD0-3FBC93251CF7


Why is hedging important? What is good ag marketing? How do I improve my marketing?

Walk away from this webinar with answers!

Learn about the importance of having a structured ag marketing plan that incorporates all the tools available to you as a producer! Broker Jake Swart hosts this exclusive hedging education webinar to show you examples of how using futures & options along with the sale of physical grain bushels can benefit your operation. Created specifically for producers, this webinar provides insights from a pro about the importance of using the board in your plan.

View the Recorded Webinar >>

Watch Now

About the Presenter: Jake Swart

Jake Swart is a Junior Futures & Options Broker. jake-swart-180x180He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jake initially interned for Daniels Trading while still attending college, and it was at the firm where he gained an excitement about the markets that propelled him into a career as a broker after graduation. He became Series 3 licensed with the National Futures Association (NFA) during his internship and maintained his license until joining Daniels as a full time broker. He has dedicated himself to learning as much as he can about the futures industry and he is using that knowledge to assist his clients every day.


Identify your vulnerabilities before attackers do

Cyber crime is a growing problem, costing businesses and the government millions each year.

Although there are many ways to secure systems and applications, the only way to truly know how secure you are is to conduct an assessment or series of tests, often called a penetration test.

By performing a penetration test, you can emulate the actions of a malicious attacker, giving you a more accurate representation of your security posture at any given time.

Pen tests can be automated with software applications or they can be performed manually, or by using a combination of both methods.

The main objective of penetration testing is to identify security weaknesses and vulnerabilities. A vulnerability is a security hole in a piece of software, hardware, operating system or business process that provides a potential vector to attack the system.

A pen test can also be used to test an organisation’s security policy compliance, its employees’ security awareness and the organisation’s ability to identify and respond to security incidents.

PCI DSS and ISO 27001

Compliance with the PCI DSS and ISO 27001 will usually require regular penetration tests to identify any potential vulnerabilities, ensuring that the organisation has a comprehensive understanding of its risks and treatment options.

By performing controlled attacks, a penetration test can uncover security flaws and vulnerabilities in a realistic way.

There are two approaches to conducting penetration tests. Since the two types of tests are very similar, IT Governance uses the terms ‘level 1’ and ‘level 2’ to avoid confusion. Some organisations refer to the terms ‘vulnerability assessments’ (level 1) and ‘penetration tests’ (level 2).

Penetration testing places more emphasis on gaining as much access as possible (literally breaking into the network or system) while vulnerability testing places the emphasis on identifying those areas that are vulnerable to a cyber attack.

A level 1 penetration test will stop just before compromising a system, while a level 2 penetration test will go as far as they can within the scope of the contract.

IT Governance has a table explaining the differences between the two types of tests.

Conducting both types of penetration test involves reconnaissance – gathering information about the target, identifying potential weak spots and entry points – and then reporting back on the findings. A level 2 penetration test will also include an additional step attempting to gain access to the system or network.

Should the testers successfully compromise the network, the vulnerability is classified into a threat level for the organisation – typically low, medium or high. Most credible penetration testing companies will conclude with a detailed report on the security findings along with thorough recommendations for treating the vulnerabilities.

IT Governance provides a variety of fixed-price, level 1 penetration tests, including network infrastructure, web application and wireless network penetration tests. Alternatively, for a level 2 penetration test, contact us now for a quote.


John McCain

  • The United States of America 2018-09-07 12:22

    The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

    I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration

  • John McCain - Trump 2018-09-07 11:47

    By Hanif Ghaffari

    Why is Trump worried about McCain's death?

    TEHRAN - President of the United States, Donald Trump, is worried about the death of Arizona Senator John McCain. This concern has intensified in recent days and has been affected by various factors. Accordingly, there are some points that need to be addressed and analyzed:

  • John McCain 2018-09-01 10:56

    By Hanif Ghaffari

    Missing dreams of failed Senator

    TEHRAN - Death of Arizona's radical senator has been covered by almost all the U.S. media as an important subject. During his political life, McCain had an extended hostility towards the Iranian regime and nation. The report of John McCain's death, the extremist, hostile and anti-Iran senator of Arizona, was widely reflected in the western news sources.

  • John McCain 2018-08-28 10:39

    By Javad Heirannia

    McCain is gone now but he was hawkish to the end

    TEHRAN - Senator John McCain was one of the most influential figures in the American political and military structure. Washington's policies on Afghanistan, Iran, Russia and other countries was influenced by McCain's opinions. His influence on the Pentagon was also evident. His continuing violation doctrine in Afghanistan and his hostile views on Russia have restrained Trump from improving relations with Moscow. In the case of Iran, McCain was an advocate of regime change.

  • John McCain 2018-08-26 14:27

    Hawkish U.S. Republican Senator John McCain dead at 81

    Hawkish U.S. Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, infamously known for backing U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as supporting foreign-backed terror groups in Syria, has died at the age of 81.


Driving question : How do capacitance and resistance values determine the time of discharging?

In this activity students use the voltage sensor to measure the potential across a capacitor as the capacitor discharges. They determine the time constant of the circuit. They investigate the effect of changing the capacitance of the capacitor and changing the resistance of the resistor on the time of discharging

Topic: Electric fields,
Concepts: Capacitance, Potential across a capacitor,
Grade level: High School (14-18 years),
Activity type: Data logging,
Sensors: Voltage sensor,
Interface requirements: Single analog sensor input,

The Student Worksheet gives investigation instructions for students.

Download worksheet

Download teacher notes

The Science Background describes the scientific principles that underlie the activity.

Download science background

Download activity Discharging a capacitor (with CoachLab II+) (.cma7)
Download activity Discharging a capacitor (.cma7) Download result Discharging a capacitor (.cmr7)


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About Unicontin®-E

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Unicontin®-E is a methylxanthine drug used in for long-term control of reversible airway obstruction caused by asthma or COPD. The medication is marketed by Modi-Mundi Pharma Pvt. Ltd. and produced by T.C. Health Care Pvt. Ltd. It contains Theophylline that belongs to a class of drugs called methylxanthines. The active ingredient has diuretic, smooth muscle relaxant, bronchial dilation, cardiac and central nervous systems stimulant properties. Theophylline works in the airways by relaxing muscles, opening breathing passages, and decreasing the lungs' response to irritants. The Unicontin®-E will not work for sudden asthma attacks once they start. For this purpose, you will need a fast-acting ‘rescue’ medicine.

- asthma;

- chronic bronchitis.

MOA (mechanism of action):

Theophylline has two main functions in the airways of patients with reversible (asthmatic) obstruction: smooth muscle relaxation (i.e., bronchodilation) and suppression of the response of the airways to stimuli (i.e., non-bronchodilator prophylactic effects). Theophylline relaxes the smooth muscle of the bronchial airways and pulmonary blood vessels and reduces airway responsiveness to histamine, methacholine, adenosine, and allergens. The active ingredient contained in Unicontin®-E competitively inhibits type III and type IV phosphodiesterase (PDE), the enzyme responsible for breaking down cyclic AMP in smooth muscle cells, possibly resulting in bronchodilation. Theophylline also binds to the adenosine A2B receptor and blocks adenosine-mediated bronchoconstriction. In inflammatory states, it activates histone deacetylase to prevent transcription of inflammatory genes that require the acetylation of histones for transcription to begin.

The tablets should be taken a whole with a glass of water every 12 hours, with or without food.

- Adults and children over 15 years of age (weighing more than 45 kg (99 lbs)) - 300 to 400 (mg).

- Children from 6 to 15 years of age (weighing less than 45 kg (99 lbs)) - 12 to 14 mg per 1 kg (2 lbs) of body weight per day as a single dose, usually in the morning or divided and given two times per day.

- Children from 6 to 12 years of age - use and dose depends on the body weight and must be determined by your doctor.

- Maximum dose is 600 mg per day.

Missing a dose

If you miss a dose of Unicontin®-E you should take it as soon as you remember. If it is the time for the next dose you should continue your regular dosing schedule. Do not exceed the doctor’s recommended dose.

Side effects

The most common side effects associated with Unicontin®-E are:

  • - headache
  • - nausea
  • - abdominal pain
  • - vomiting
  • - diarrhea
  • - upset stomach
  • - difficulty in sleeping
  • - anxiety
  • - restlessness
  • - palpitations
  • - dizziness
  • - seizures
  • - rash

Do not take the medicine if you are allergic to Theophylline or any other components of Unicontin®-E.

Do not use the medication if you have porphyria (a rare disease of the blood pigments).

Do not drink alcohol while taking the pills, as it raises the risk of more side effects.

Avoid smoking while taking the medicine as is may worsen side effects.

Do not consume caffeinated beverages in large amount while taking Unicontin®-E.

Do not take Unicontin®-E if you have high blood pressure or any other heart problems.

Do not use the medication in the reversal of bronchospasm in acute asthma attacks, including Status Asthmaticus.

Do not take the drug if you have an over-active thyroid gland (hyperthyroidism).

Do not use the medicine if you have a stomach ulcer.

Do not take the pills if you suffer from seizures, fits or convulsions.

Do not use Unicontin®-E if you have liver disease.

Do not combine the medication with the use of adrenergic drugs (sympathomimetic), barbiturates,carbamazepine, phenytoin, nevirapine and rifampin, erythromycin, beta blockers, clarithromycin, calcium channel blockers cimetidine, hormonal contraceptives, disulfiram, doxycycline, estrogens, fluvoxamine, isoniazid, ketoconazole, mexiletine, nefazodone, protease inhibitors, quinidine, some fluoroquinolones, and large doses of allopurinol.

Do not take the tablets during pregnancy or while breastfeeding without consulting your doctor.

Do not give Unicontin®-E to children under 6 years of age.

Q: What is Unicontin®-E used for?

A: This medication is a bronchodilator, prescribed for asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other lung diseases. It works by relaxing the muscle around the airways in the lungs.

Q: How to take the medication?

A: The tablets should be swallowed as a whole with a glass of water every 12 hours. Unicontin®-E is to be taken with food. Theophylline pills are designed to work properly over 12 hours. If a tablet is crushed or chewed the entire 12-hour dose may be absorbed rapidly into your body, which can be dangerous, causing serious problems such as an overdose.

Q: Can I take this medicine during pregnancy or while breastfeeding?

A: It is not recommended to take Unicontin®-E if you are pregnant or breastfeeding unless prescribed by your doctor.

Q:Are there any food restrictions while taking Unicontin®-E tablets?

A: Avoid taking large amounts of caffeinated beverages and do not consume alcohol, as it raises the risk of more side effects. Do not forget to monitor your sugar level regularly while taking this medication, as it may affect blood sugar level.

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"Thank you for the emphasis you’ve given on this particular project. We’re all in," said John Thrasher, president of Florida State University in Tallahassee and a former Republican member of the Florida Senate.

Bethune-Cookman University, a private school in Daytona Beach and one of the state's historic black colleges and universities, joined Scott's challenge voluntarily, citing the importance of the governor's message to employ graduates in high-demand areas.

Scott issued similar challenges to the state's 28 state colleges and 48 technical colleges to boost post-graduation employment of their students also.

He's offering no resources -- financial or otherwise -- to assist the institutions in meeting his challenge. However, the governor's office points out that Scott supports increasing higher education funding.

Scott has recommended that the Legislature boost performance-based incentives for higher education to a record-high $500 million in the 2016-17 budget, which lawmakers will craft in the coming weeks. Scott's budget proposal would increase performance funding dollars by $100 million, only half of which is new dollars; the other half would have to be reallocated by the universities from their base-operating budgets.

Several university presidents' solutions to meeting Scott's "Ready Set Work" challenge appeared to involve costs -- such as hiring faculty for new majors or staff for career programs.

University of Florida officials said they hadn't yet crunched the numbers, but FSU officials told the Herald/Times thaty they estimate spending altogether $1.6 million toward various initiatives, noting the money will come out of the university's pre-eminence dollars.

Provost Sally McRorie said in a statement those investments include $800,000 toward "expanding our Career Center, adding Career Liaisons embedded in our largest majors, hiring more advisors and new resources of predictive data for academic and career success, and mapping academic and career milestones for every student in every major."

They're spending another $800,000 on "entrepreneurs-in-residence who help our students learn the necessary skills to become successful entrepreneurs in whatever career field they may pursue and are opening College of Business classes to students from any major," McRorie added.

Meanwhile, other university presidents advised Scott and the rest of the Florida Cabinet that while university administrators focus on educating and employing their students in high-demand areas, the state should also focus on better preparing K-12 students for college and, later, careers in science, technology, engineering and math (or STEM) fields.

They said the state's contributions should include a focus on hiring skilled teachers and also improving technology resources, facilities and infrastructure at schools.

"One of major challenges in urban areas is the digital divide. ... A lot of students don't have access to the internet," said Mark Rosenberg, president of Florida International University in Miami. "We have to be much more aggressive in the pathways of K-8 to have teacher prep and to ensure that they also have adequate facilities."

He got agreement from some Cabinet members.

"If we’re looking at the supply chain of students that we’re going to hold you responsible for, we really ought to be identifying ways to attract the type of STEM talent in the K-12 system and make sure they have the technologies to accomplish that," Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said.


Research paper topics, free example research papers

Research paper example essay prompt: Welfare State - 1322 words

Welfare State The role of welfare within our society has always been controversial. This problem emphasizes the need to understand the roles of variable factors when pertaining to the subject of welfare within our society. The proposed analysis will address the phenomenon of welfare assistance and several factors which may contribute to the increase or decrease of welfare assistance to the poor in 4 ways: (1) by defining major concepts and any other concepts about which there is likely to be misunderstanding (2) by further examining the past history pertaining to the subject of welfare assistance within the United States; (3) by developing the formulation of a hypothesis which will provide for an explanation of welfare; and finally (4) determining whether or not the benefits of welfare assistance outweigh the cost. Ultimately, the purpose of this research analysis is to investigate variable factors that may contribute to the increase or decrease of welfare assistance. This cost benefit analysis is an attempt to explain the tentative assumptions of others pertaining to the subject of welfare, in order to determine and explain the relationship of welfare to the economic cost and benefits. Cost-Benefit Analysis Before welfare assistance can be analyzed there is a need to define the terms that will be used.

Policies like welfare assistance are worthwhile only if the benefits to society are greater than the costs. When choosing among a set of policies, the policy with the greatest net benefit (benefit over cost) should be chosen. Hence, this is where the term cost-benefit analysis comes from. Cost-benefit analysis is a technique for determining the optimal level of an economic activity such as welfare. In general, an activity such as welfare assistance should be expanded as long as it leads to greater benefits than costs. In purely economic terms, does the benefit of welfare assistance justify the costs of welfare assistance? (Mishan 13) Why Use Cost-benefit Analysis? Since 1981, government agencies have been required to perform cost-benefit analyses called Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIA's) for all major regulations within the United States.

Many statutes require that cost-benefit analysis be undertaken and the results be reported to Congress (Mishan 2). Cost-benefit analysis can also be a good way to measure how effective a policy such as welfare assistance has been, or to find ways in which a program can be improved. But, regardless of how it is used, the preparation of a cost benefit analysis provides a useful framework for consideration of the possible effects of a proposed policy. Past History of Welfare Assistance One of the first welfare programs to provide income support to the poor was a federally backed plan called the Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) program. This legislation was introduced with the establishment of the Social Security program during the Great Depression. (Rowley, and Peacock 43) The ADC program which had started nearly sixty years ago is now better known as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which provided a federal entitlement to economic support for single parents with children younger than 18 who fell below a threshold of assets and income (Rowley, and Peacock 44). Federal guidelines allowed for each state to set its own predetermined needs standards for families of different sizes and living locations.

Both the federal government and the states supplied funding for the AFDC program (Rowley, and Peacock 50). In 1996 Congress adopted the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program by enacting the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act which ultimately changed the structure of federal financial assistance to the states thereby abolishing the AFDC program. Another social welfare program was the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Congress established the Supplemental Security Income program in 1972, with payments beginning in January 1974. It replaced the former Federal-State programs of Old-Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Blind (AB), and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD)( Myles, and Pierson 9).

An individual may have qualified for payments on the basis of age, blindness, or disability. Any person aged 65 or older was also eligible. President Richard Nixon enacted the Supplemental Security Income program with the signing of the Supplemental Social Insurance Act. The benefits under this program were originally targeted to the elderly who did not qualify for social security and the blind and disabled whose income and assets fell below the specified thresholds. A third major welfare assistance program is the Medicaid program.

The Medicaid program is a health care support program targeted toward the poor. Medicaid was originally suppose to provide the same health care to the poor as privately insured Americans received with their health care programs. (Myles, and Pierson 9) The Medicaid program was originally set up so all families who qualified for AFDC or SSI were automatically entitled to Medicaid benefits. Today, Medicaid is the major mechanism for financing health and long-term care for the poor in the United States. As such, the Medicaid program covers the medical expenses for over 35 million Americans at a cost of more than $152 billion a year (Myles, and Pierson 12). Explanations for Welfare Although the United States is a country with an extensive amount of economic resources, problems still transpire. One such problem occurs with not the amount of resources but actually how those resources are distributed among its citizens.

Because of this, some citizens live in squalor or complete poverty while others live in luxury. This poverty dilemma in the United States is usually referred to as an income distribution problem. (Sharp, Register, and Grimes 382) For example, some citizens have an annual income of several billion dollars while other citizens have no income whatsoever. The incidence of poverty in the United States is usually referred to as the poverty rate. The figure below shows the trend in the poverty rate between 1960 and 1995.

During the beginning of the 1960s, 22.2% of the population, or 39.9 million individuals, officially lived in poverty. During the 1970s the incidence of poverty fell to 12.6% of the population. Since 1970, the poverty rate has steadily increased to 13.8% of the population in 1995, or 7.5 million families. The figures are even greater among certain family groupings such as single family households headed by females with children under the age of 18. In fact, the highest rates of poverty are found among this group living below the poverty threshold level.

(Sharp, Register, and Grimes 202) Table 1 shows the poverty threshold levels in 1995. Table 1 Poverty threshold levels in 1992 Family Size Threshold Level 1 $7,763 2 9,933 3 12,158 4 15,569 5 18,408 6 20,804 7 23,552 8 26,237 9 or more 31,280 Again, the poverty issue affects a large portion of the United States population. It is because of the reasons mentioned above that social welfare programs have been established to help alleviate the suffering of the poor within our society. But, what causes poverty? At first, this would appear to be a simple question to answer. However, many factors are at play in determining the actual causes of poverty.

They include low quality of resources, low market values on the services they provide in a market, low productivity, low pay of the poor due to low levels of education and training, misfortune, small or no inheritances, and discrimination. (Sharp, Register, and Grimes 206) Because of the many factors involved there is no one simple answer to what is the actual cause of poverty. Does the Benefit of Welfare Assistance Outweigh the Cost? Now that there is a general understanding of the establishment of social welfare programs, the next question to answer should be does the benefit of welfare assistance outweigh the cost? Beginning with the introduction of the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program, the United States has been at a turning point with social welfare programs. For example, during 1980 the expenditures for the old welfare program, AFDC, was $5.4 billion while the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC, also a social welfare program), was $2.0 billion. The annual cost of the EITC grew from $2 billion to $12 billion between 1986 and 1992.

By 1996, annual outlays reached $25 billion, almost double the level of federal expenditures on AFDC (see Table 2). While part of this growth is due to a rising demand, the main reasons for expansion have been ...

Related: social welfare, welfare, welfare programs, welfare state, supplemental security income

Research paper topics, free essay prompts, sample research papers on Welfare State


Attachment in infants and toddlers

Cicchetti D, Barnett D. Rooted in attachment theory, Attachment Parenting has been Attachment in infants and toddlers extensively for over 60 years by psychology and child development researchers, and more recently, by researchers studying the brain.

The effort involved in repair can even deepen trust, increase resiliency, and build a stronger relationship. Disinhibited symptoms of RAD. In fact, developing your nonverbal communication skills can help improve and deepen your relationships with other people of any age.

Signs and symptoms may include: These include the caregiving and punitive behaviours also identified by Main and Cassidy termed A3 and C3 respectivelybut also other patterns such as compulsive compliance with the wishes of a threatening parent A4. Your efforts to love them will have an impact—it just may take some time.

A child whose needs are ignored or met with a lack of emotional response from caregivers does not come to expect care or comfort or form a stable attachment to caregivers. Treatment for reactive attachment disorder usually involves a combination of therapy, counseling, and parenting education, designed to ensure the child has a safe living environment, develops positive interactions with caregivers, and improves peer relationships.

The relation between adverse childhood experiences and adult health: If they are being purposefully defiant, follow through with the pre-established consequences in a cool, matter-of-fact manner.

It would more true to view it as a natural way for the child to cope with, and survive in, a world that still seems overwhelming and threatening at times. No one looks at, talks to, or smiles at the baby, so the baby feels alone.

Child-parent attachment following early institutional deprivation. They did not exhibit distress on separation, and either ignored the caregiver on their return A1 subtype or showed some tendency to approach together with some tendency to ignore or turn away from the caregiver A2 subtype.

Correlates of attachment at school age: Attachment security in pre-schoolers with and without externalizing problems: The key is to remain calm, yet firm as you interact with your child.

Infants & Toddlers

Consideration of the complex and long-term implications of childhood relationships does not sit comfortably in a cash-strapped, time-strapped, evidence-based, label-based, protocol-based system which selectively protects the narrow focus at the expense of the bigger picture.

Nonverbal communication tips for secure attachment Nonverbal cues are sensory signals communicated by a certain tone of voice, touch, or facial expression. You maintain your regular adult pace while attending to your child.

University of Chicago Press; Attachment allows emotional regulation before infants can self-regulate. Try to maintain predictable routines and schedules.Reactive attachment disorder is a rare but serious condition in which an infant or young child doesn't establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers.

Reactive attachment disorder may develop if the child's basic needs for comfort, affection and nurturing aren't met and loving, caring. Psychology Attachment Behavior: Find Out When to Expect the Constant Clinging or the Letting Go of Mom's Skirt!

Within developmental psychology attachment refers to the emotional bond that exists between an infant and his or her primary caregiver (typically his or her mother). Attachment in children is "a biological instinct in which proximity to an attachment figure is sought when the child senses or perceives threat or discomfort.

Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Other Attachment Issues

Attachment behaviour anticipates a response by the attachment figure which will remove threat or discomfort". Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and Other Attachment Issues Symptoms, Treatment, and Hope for Children with Attachment Disorders.

Attachment is the deep connection established between a child and you, their primary caregiver, that profoundly affects your child's development and their ability to express emotions and build.

Attachment in children

Reactive attachment disorder is a problem in which a child is not able to easily form a normal or loving relationship with others. It is considered to be a result of not forming an attachment to any specific caregiver when very young.

Attachment in infants and toddlers
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