Wednesday, 4 April 2018

Classical music as symbolism

With his Divan orchestra, Daniel Barenboim shows how equality before a common goal creates cooperation and reconciliation between cultural and political enemy camps. He says, that Israel will only be safe after justice has been done to the Palestinians. Thinking this symbolism through, one arrives at the conclusion that the only solution of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is the creation of a new country in which both groups have equal rights and equal shares in the benefits of Israel's Westernized society. This would mean a secular society run on the rule of law, human rights, individual freedom of both culture and religion, in combination with a strict protection of a safe public space. A new name for this new state would be an appropriate symbol of renewal - Judea?

But an orchestra can only function within a strict discipline of a professional, time-tested tradition, and led by a leader. Only through the application of a functional framework, such reconciliation between enemy groups can develop. Democratic orchestras without conductors inevitably descend into discord and incapacity to reach professional standers - some rare examples excepted.

The brutal reactions in these days by the Israeli army: shooting unarmed protesters against the occupation, further undermines any justification of claims of legitimacy of the Israeli people. The waiting is for new generations who are prepared to get rid of ever-bleeding wounds from the past and turn historical experience into something constructively new and just.

Tuesday, 3 April 2018

Identity politics and hyperliberalism

Thus an interesting article in the Times Literary Review by John Gray. If freedom from traditions go hand in hand by selective deconstruction of identity (exclusively exercised on traditional values, not on minorities), the result is the tyranny of bland conformity, because every individual is different and in the same time, somehow similar. How the human mind creates the very result it set out to overcome:

Wednesday, 28 March 2018

The lessons of history

"Our preoccupation with the last war, as revealed in films such as 'Dunkirk', is to him striking: 'It seems to express a mood, and yet a lot of things that have happened recently have done so because the generation that is running the world has no memories of it. The world we grew up in was created by people who were terrified the war could happen again, and they tried to make sure it wouldn’t. Less nationalism, more cooperation. Now real fascist rhetoric is creeping back into the mainstream. The old taboos are fading because of lost memory.'"

Ian Buruma - current editor of the New York Review of Books - in a recent interview in The Guardian.

With the last century gradually eroding in the memory of so many ignorant, uneducated people, oblivious of history and suffering from a failed education, old ghosts come back to haunt us. This is not a normal process, but a dangerous accelleration of the usual generational forgetfulness: in a society obsessed with utopia and progress (progress as getting forward on the time line of history, not progress in terms of improvement), the lessons of history get lost, and history may be repeating itself.

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Fluctuating stasis

"If there is such a thing as the march of history in music, it is certainly not a uniform movement; on the contrary, the more closely it is examined the more it is seen to be varied, tumultuous, and contradictory. There are always individuals and groups who are out of step: some drag back, some press forward ahead of the crowd, some move in other than what seems to be the prevailing direction. Moreover, each individual, if his work is of any significance at all, has something to say that is unique and that cannot be adequately subsumed under any general description of the period."

Donald  Jay Grout in 'A History of Western Music', WW Norton & Co, New York / London 1980, page 401.

In the light of this common-sense observation, any prescriptive idea about how contemporary music should sound, can be considered uninformed and totalitarian.

But Grout still looks upon history as if on a time line, with a 'forward', and thus also a 'backward', so that the composer who is presenting something original and unusual, is seen as producing something 'new' on the time line, instead of something original in the context of his historic environment. So, Debussy is 'avantgarde' in the context of his time, while it would be better to see his work as something very original. The confusion of historical placing and artistic value and meaning has created the absurdity that works are judged artistically according to their being 'new' on the historic time line, instead of their intrinsic value.

For instance, Stravinsky's Octet is often hailed as a groundbreaking work leading into his neoclassical period, giving it an importance which is partly the result of its historic placing. But is it a good work on its own accord? Stravinsky has expressed himself very positively about Satie, because he gave him a couple of hints for his neoclassical aesthetic (although he could not bear Satie's regularity), and compared Ravel negatively to Satie by labelling him (Ravel) as conventional. What a blunder.... Ravel is an infinitely more gifted artist than Satie, whose limitations shaped his originality. The artistic qualities and personal character of Ravel's work should, by now, not be subject to doubt: almost all of his works are original master pieces. But Satie seemed to explore an aesthetic which became trendy in the Parisian twenties, so his position on the time line gave him a reputation not altogether balanced by the musical substance of his works.

The same problem with Wagner: 'Tristan' is considered the non plus ultra of premodernism, leading towards atonality, while 'Meistersinger' and 'Parsifal' are often suggested as being 'less important' in comparison because their idiom does not match Tristan's extraordinary chromaticism. But 'Meistersinger' could also be considered the result of a restorative impulse, with its neobaroque elements, and 'pointing towards' the postmodern situation as predicted by Leonard B. Meyer in his 'Music, the Arts, and Ideas' where he describes the future of 20C music as probably resulting in a situation of a 'fluctuating stasis', a bold idea when the book was written: 1967, when modernism raged through music life. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London). In a fluctuating stasis, aesthetic ideas bubble-up and take-on some prominence for a while, only to withdraw into the background of public awareness again to make place for other ideas, and all of them circulate within a cultural field which can be best described, metaphorically, as a space in which historical possibilities freely float to be reworked and/or developed free from historical determination.

The German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970) came-up with the idea of a 'Kugelform der Zeit', a metaphor where all different times exist together in one mental space, without a 'time line'. He tried to realize this in his controversial opera 'Die Soldaten', which is a twelve-tone 'Totaltheater' where indeed things happen simultaneously - a rather literal interpretation of his idea. But the timelessness of his Kugelform idea touches on an a-historical vision which may only become better understood in the 21st century: nowadays, with so many sources of information being accessible, many different approaches of 'contemporary music' are being written and presented, in which what happened in history is repeated, developed, interpreted, reworked, restored, - including postwar modernism (sonic art), surprisingly. But it is a truly good prospect if pluralism is more widely accepted and works judged according to their artistic merits instead of their style or historic references.

Sunday, 25 March 2018

Belgian integration experiment

The current political tensions in Europe are no longer the usual little tremors structurally part of democratic processes, but signify the important question about the future of the continent. The difficult relationship with Russia, the apparent withdrawel of the USA, Great Britain's exit from the EU, are all part of this pandora's box, but the most troubling is how to deal with the many immigrants - both the millions of second and third generation of (mostly muslem) immigrants and the many newlings, fugitives from war and devastation. As we know, the regular islamist attacks within Europe keep it awake to this ongoing, disruptive problem, fuelling the destructive influence of rightwing extremist parties (supported by Russia). The integration of non-European immigrants, people coming from countries with a very different cultural and political history, is thus one of the most important challenges for a Europe if it wants to preserve its character in the future.

Belgium has, so far, produced the greatest number of young muslem men who went to Syria to fight for IS, an embarrassing proof of an enormous failure of integration: where immigrant groups feel completely excluded from society and locked-up in an existence of poverty, destitution and isolation, without hope on a normal life, the morally underdeveloped of this group are vulnerable to a narrative which seems to answer all the longings which have been so drastically frustrated by experience. No doubt, one has to be very primitive to begin with and carry around a burning, vengeful need to destroy, to believe the archaic nonsense of those diabolical 'warriors for Islam'. But integration in a society where people will feel accepted as anybody else and with similar chances, will raise the treshold to destructive violence considerably.

An interesting experiment in the Belgian town of Mechelen appears to demonstrate the obvious solution. The town has a large immigrant community, mainly consisting of muslem families, and a ruling party: Open vld - Groen, which has provided the mayor, Bart Somers, who has developed a strategy to counter the incredible problem of many towns and cities in Belgium where hundreds (!) of young men have gone to Syria to help IS. This strategy is an example for every community in Europe. There are two lines of action: a) an intense educational program at all schools about civilized behavior, the development of social awareness and skills, and wide-spread sports programs where children learn to deal with each other and handle difference and freedom; and b) a zero tolerance strategy towards disruptive behavior both in public space and at schools across the board, with lots of police officers monitoring streets and markets, and with two police officers related to every school who immediately come-in where pupils misbehave and, when necessary, arrests are made. This policy has been in operation for many years, and while other towns have produced many disaffected youngsters going to Syria, Mechelen had none, and most people appear to be very happy about the improvements in public space. Of course, chances on employment have to fulfil the promises of the program, but it appears that this is working as well. The process does not touch the cultural customs of immigrant families, which - of course - are unrelated to the radicalisation of disaffected youngsters, and prepare young people for living as Europeans, being part of a society type which is universal, based upon enlightenment values, human rights, tolerance and hence: a protected individual freedom. Only in such way can European society be preserved for the future.

If culture as such can freely live under the umbrella of a secular, enlightenment society, would not the typical European culture as it has developed over the ages: its visual arts, architecture and music, disappear? As we know, this character has already disappeared in every cultural field in terms of new creation, and only its museum culture (the museums, the architectural monuments, the musical institutions like orchestras and opera houses) are kept alive through subsidies (mainly) and sponsoring (sporadically). If this heritage is to survive the 21C troubles, and - maybe - provide an impulse for a Renaissance, understanding the richness and meaning of this heritage should be a natural part of such educational programs as being practised in Mechelen, and it should be an important part of the policies of the European Union. The Mechelen way of treating the integration problem is a hopeful sign that it is indeed possible to find a fruitful solution to the problem.

Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Value and success

What would be, in our days and in music life, the relationship between value and success?

In a world where value is eroding, chances on success are slim. Chasing success then inevitably means: neglecting value, because worldly success requires that one gives the world what it wants, instead of what it needs - that would be value. But there are quite some musicians who square the circle and are successful by dedicating themselves to value. How can that be? In those cases, it becomes clear that it is not the conventional trajectory that has been followed, but an independent one expressing the artist's innate individuality and identity. Inevitably, they arouse both enthusiasm and controversy. But they have been able to convince enough people that they offer something that they need, and that is an instinctive, not a rational or worldy process. But how can that be, in a world where value is eroding? In music life, the existing repertoire trains the listener and the performer in value, because that was the reason this music survived the ever changing, superficial historical circumstances and ephemeral fashions. And this training is entirely instinctive. Thus it forms an emotional and aesthetic learning trajectory, relatively independent from worldly concerns.

Obviously, I am talking about performers here, not composers.

Monday, 26 February 2018

Music education: an invisible loop

How does commercial materialism destroy human capital? And how is it related to the erosion of culture? A good example is the contemporary way universities are, in general, run. The university’s relatively new status as a business means that it desperately needs students, and that it will feel the need to make it as easy as possible for everyone, anyone, to enrol. This results in lowering standards all around, the neglect of subjects which don't promise future quick financial profits (but which are crucial for the development of a mature, sophisticated, educated person), and the inevitable devaluation of degrees. Instead of the formation of educated and cultured people before they enter society - 'Bildung' - universities produce more or less functioning cogwheels in the big machine of 'the market', the 'place' where everything in life is measured according to its price and nothing to its value. In the market place there are no 'goods' that are an absolute value in themselves, but there are only prices.

Culture can only exist as a value in itself, otherwise it is not culture. Value in itself presupposes distinction, the notion that there are things that are better than other things, not based upon their price but upon their value; on this idea the whole concept of human civilizational development is based. The conservatories and music faculties in the West, offering musical education in both practical musicianship, theory and composition, are thus facing a dilemma: producing more musicians than can find a position in the central performance culture or the new music circuit, is necessary to keep the institution on the rails, and producing many more composers than can ever make a living on composing or/and find public recognition through performances, may seem to safeguard the art form's status, but on the expense of young lives getting stuck.

While young performers can, with great effort, possibly find a place in ensembles or orchestras, young composers who are supposed to contribute to the art form are left in the dark, unless they find a way into the community which makes-up, in every country, the 'new music circuit' which is kept upright by artifical means: state subsidies, special community programs, private donations by people or businesses interested in a touch of 'contemporaneity' to enhance their status or brand. Within the circuit, aesthetic and ideological myths form the filter which makes sure that aspiring newcomers conform to the indoor climate, which needs to assert itself against the 'bourgeois, commercial' classical performance culture; here, modernism and its watery progeny mixed with pop is of great help. Here we see a connection between materialist market forces and fake idealism: the low level of 'totally free' modern music mores makes it easy to teach at the educational institutions which need as many students as possible, who - after their educational trajectory - flock to the island of the circuit which is the only place where eager young composers could hope to find a safe haven, but where they will have to conform to aesthetic standards which are nowhere explicitly stated but are nonetheless functioning as they are functioning in any community which feels threatened by an 'indifferent or hostile world'. So, the more easy musical education is made to allow great numbers of young people to enter the institutions, the more members will populate the modern music circuits, which will increasingly give the impression to the outside world of a florishing art community, without any means to assess the real artistic value because all the forces at work are determined by market forces, overtly or covertly. The irony is, of course, that the usual contemporary music aesthetic is supposed to be an expression of pure artistic idealism as a contrast to the base, bourgeois and materialist society; in reality it is a product of the very market forces that it claims to counter.

How could this situation be improved or solved? I think the only possible way to reduce market forces is to tackle the problem at the beginning of the trajectory: education. An artistic framework is necessary to create a mental territory where artistic, and not market forces determine a student's development. Then, there has to be a link between the educational period and the practical one, which directs the attention to the only musical place where artistic standards are still in place, albeit beleagered by the very same market forces: the traditional, central performance culture. The logical conclusion is, that education of budding composers can only be functional if related to this culture, in the same way as instrumentalists are prepared for concert life. In this way, an alternative could be created to the meaningless loop of useless, market-driven mythology that still defines so much  contemporary music in the 21st century, and the central performance culture could then be injected with new life in accordance to its own culture so that it may develop and create connections with real, contemporary life.

Invisible for audiences, and often also for the musicians, the orchestral circuit is under many threatening pressures: the financial one (market forces), the political one (state subsidies being dependent upon political programs), the ideological one (classical music 'no longer being relevant enough for contemporary society'), so that the subject of contemporary music seems to be entirely futile to the orchestra's survival. Focussing on the core reason of its existence: its value as an absolute good to the benefit of society as a whole, may open the doors to the awareness that new music which relates to its performance culture and its artistic values, can actually help the institution to survive in difficult times. The same goes for the educational institutions, but there, the idea that standards have to be independent from the number of students that enrol, will inevitably require serious sacrifices which may have unwelcome consequences for staff and institution. As is now the case, often the existence of the educational institutions is based upon the sacrifices the students are unwittingly making - not to speak of the art form itself - but the location where sacrifices have to be made, is obviously at the institution.

Saturday, 3 February 2018

Stoking fear

"11 November 2017. Independence Day in Warsaw, Poland. The police estimated that 60,000 people marched in the largely young crowd. Many chanted ‘Fatherland’, their banners read: ‘White Europe’, ‘Europe Will Be White’ and ‘Clean Blood’.  The Wall Street Journal reported that some of the marchers had flown in from Hungary, Slovakia and Spain, and waved flags and symbols that those countries used during their wartime collaboration with Nazi Germany. Polish state television called the procession a ‘great march of patriots’."

A populist neo-nationalism based upon ignorance of history is bubbling-up at many places in Europe. This shows the importance of knowledge about history, understanding the past, and learning from it. Also, the fact that so many immigrants have become Europeanized, showing that culture is independent from ethnicity, nationality, religion even, is not understood enough. It merely takes a couple of generations to completely diffuse any strongly anti-European feelings among immigrant communities, and this has nothing to do with wearing head scarves.

This is where culture and the understanding of what it is, becomes crucial, as well as the understanding of what European civilization is supposed to be. Rightwing extremist parties in Europe lay the groundwork for fascist outbursts and the destruction of the European idea: its civilizational and cultural unity, and its ability to build bridges and to accomodate differences between groups.

"The fear of immigrants threatens to destroy the very social and political fabric, culture, tradition, religion and way of life that Europeans want to protect."

Culture, in the sense of offering a humanist narrative, should counter these tendencies wherever it can.

Addendum 20/2/18:

An interesting review of 'Europe's Fault Lines: Racism and the Rise of the Right' by Liz Fekete throws further light on the issue. The author convincingly asserts that the dismantling of the welfare state has put a strain on all Europeans and, instead of questioning the policies that brought this about, they have joined rightwing politicians in blaming people they see as “scroungers.” (quote)

These strains are felt strongest among the people who did not share in the economic 'boom' before 2008 which benefitted 'the cosmopolitan elites', so: the poor 'whites' and the disenfranchised populations in the countryside who feel their 'normality' being threatened, vote for extremists as a protest and hope for reform.

What we witness here however, is the lowest of the lowest sentiments, crawling like rats from their holes where they have been lounging for decades - when being marginalized by the world above - and now, with the help of the new communication gadgets, demand power in the public arena:

When New Right leaders promise a return to the strong welfare state of the past, they do so under the condition that it be ethnically and racially bounded. With this modification, they enforce a range of patriarchal, racist, and homophobic values that draw on “noble” ideals of purity and national honor, whether they look to the Third Reich, the dream of a Greater Hungary (that would stretch into Romania and Slovakia), the male-led family “uncontaminated” by gender equality or tolerance for gay and queer people, pre-Ottoman Balkan Christianity, or pure-blooded Viking masculinity. Such visions are often, it seems, accompanied by torch wielding men and border militias with attack dogs. (quote)

The barbarians in our midst. The only remedy is a) a much stronger civilizational and cultural instruction and information effort across the board of the educational systems; and b) the strongest possible enforcement of law based upon the modern Enlightenment values of social democracy like equality and civil citizenship, which have been established in the West, with ups and downs, but with the greatest efforts, over the last two hundred years, and which have not been finished and internalized enough in the lower strata of European society.

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

Academic speaking out

Thus Christian Smith, professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame (USA), at the website of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

It will be clear that art music, being part of what has been called 'the humanities', is part of the same context, not only in the USA but also in Europe.

Tuesday, 23 January 2018


Hammond’s bill passes both houses of the General Assembly

Even as the state continues working on the state budget impasse, other work is getting done in Springfield.

One bill that was almost unanimously passed in the house this week would add cell phone companies to the list of entities that are required to provide location information for non-custodial parents, or putative fathers for the purpose of establishing a child’s paternity or establishing, enforcing, or modifying a child support obligation.

Republican State Representative Norine Hammond of Macomb sponsored the bill and says that the information provided would include home telephone number and address, cell phone number and email address. It would not provide real-time GPS location.

In the past companies have requested the Department of Children and Family Services provide subpoenas before they’d disclose location information.

The bill passed the senate last month with near unanimous approval and now moves to the Governor’s desk.

The bill is HB2812.


RBGLSprites Documentation

The RGBLSprites library provides a replacement for the REALbasic SpriteSurface
control that was recently deprecated and will eventually be removed from

RGBLSprites is built on top of the RBGL library, which provides access to
cross-plaform, hardware-accelerated drawing in REALbasic via OpenGL declares.

RBGLSprites should run on any Mac OS X 10.4 or higher system and any Windows
XP or Vista system.

RBGLSprites has been tested on RB2007r5 and RB2008r4. Earlier or later
versions may be supported but have not been tested.

To use RBGL in your project, first copy and paste the RBGL module from the
rbgl sprites.xml project into your own, then copy and paste the RBGLSprites
module. If you are upgrading from an earlier version, delete your existing
RBGL and RBGLSprites modules first.

The RBGLSpriteSurface class replaces the REALbasic SpriteSurface control.
Unlike the original SpriteSurface, it is a subclass of Canvas, and so
inherits all of its methods.

RBGLSpriteSurface Properties

ClickToStop as Boolean

  If this property is set to true, clicking the mouse while the
  RBGLSpriteSurface is running will cause it to stop. True by default. Unlike
  the original SpriteSurface, you cannot set this value in the IDE, you will
  have to set it in code if you wish to change it's value.

FrameSpeed as Integer

  This property is slightly misleadingly named - it should really be called
  "FramePeriod". It represents the length of a frame in ticks (60ths of a
  second). A value of 1 will yield a framespeed of 60fps, a value of 2 gives
  30fps, and so on. A value of zero means that the surface will render each
  frame as quickly as possible. This value currently defaults to 2, as this
  was the common setting for a lot of original SpriteSurface projects. Unlike
ScrollX as Integer

  The horizontal scroll offset of the surface in pixels (read and write

ScrollY as Integer

  The vertical scroll offset of the surface in pixels (read and write property).

SurfaceTop as Integer
SurfaceLeft as Integer
SurfaceHeight as Integer
SurfaceWidth as Integer

  These properties were originally ued to specify the dimensions of the
  SpriteSurface when launched, but in the RBGLSpriteSurface they are completely
  ignored and retained only for backwards compatibility. Use the Top, Left,
  Width and Height properties of the RBGLSpriteSurface to control its dimensions
  instead, just like an ordinary Canvas control.
TileWidth as Integer
TileHeight as Integer

  In the original SpriteSurface, the size of background tiles was hard-coded to
  64x64 pixels. RBGLSpriteSurface uses this as the default, but with the
  TileWidth and TileHeight properties you can set the tile dimensions to
  anything you like. If you are not using the tiles, you may ge a slight
  performance boost from setting the tile width/height to match the
  RBGLSpriteSurface dimensions as it will not have to call the PaintTile
  event as often.

Backdrop as Picture

  This image will be tiled over the background of your RBGLSpriteSurface. It can
  be any size - it has no relationship to the TileWidth and TileHeight
  properties. It is drawn before the PaintTile events are called, so will appear
  underneath any other drawing that you do in the surface.
SpriteCount as Integer

  The number of active sprites attached to the surface. This number does not
  include sprites that have been marked for deletion but not yet removed.

RBGLSpriteSurface Methods

Attach (S as RBGLSprite)

  Use this method to attach a sprite to the surface. Note that a sprite may be
  assoicated only with a single surface at any given time, so if the sprite is
  already attached to another surface, it will be removed from that surface

  Terminate execution of any current run event. The behaviour is currently
  identical to the Stop method.
KeyTest (KeyCode as Integer)

  Test if the specified key was pressed during the current frame. This method
  is equivalent to calling Keyboard.AsyncKeyDown().
NewSprite (Image as Picture, X as Integer, Y as Integer) as RBGLSprite

  Creates a new RBGLSprite with the specified position and image, attaches it to
  the RBGLSpriteSurface, then returns it. It is probably better to create your
  own RBGLSprite subclasses for new projects and instantiate them yourself
  using the new operator, but this method is retained for backwards
PaintTile (X as Integer, Y As Integer)

  In the original SpriteSurface this would force the specified tile to be
  redrawn in the next frame. Currently the RBGLSpriteSurface redraws every
  visible tile each frame anyway, so this method does nothing. It is retained
  for backwards compatibility, and may be used for something in a future

Remove (S as RBGLSprite)

  Detaches the specified sprite from the surface.

Run ([Async as Boolean], [Priority As Integer])

  Runs the RBGLSpriteSurface event loop, causing the surface to be repeatedly
  redrawn and the collision and update events to be called for each frame. By
  default the Run method executes syncronously, which means that execution halts
  until the Stop or Close methods are called, or the user interrupts the
  execution some other way, such as by clicking. The RBGLSpriteSurface run
  method features an enhancement over the original however: The optional Async
  argument allows you to run the surface asyncronously using a thread. On
  Windows a timer is used by default instead of a thread because the program
  will crash on quit if the thread is still running. The timer performance is
  slightly worse than the thread, so you can override this with
  a constant if you need the higher performance and are prepared to work around
  the crashing issue. If the async property is set to true then the Run method
  will return immediately instead of blocking until the loop terminates. The
  optional Priority parameter can be used to control the thread priority (see
  the Thread documentation in the language reference for more detail). The
  Priority parameter is ignored when using a timer.
Scroll (dx as Integer, dy as Integer)

  Scrolls the surface by a given horizontal and vertical amount. This is
  equivalent to setting the ScrollX and ScrollY properties manually, but note
  that dx and dy are relative to the current scroll offsets, not absolute.
Stop ()

  Stops the execution of the Run loop. Currently this is the same as calling
  Close ().
Update ()

  Forces the NextFrame, Collision and PainTile events to be called a single
  time, prior to redrawing all the sprites. This method can be used to implement
  your own event loop instead of using the Run () method.
Clear ()

  Removes all sprites from the surface.

RBGLSpriteSurface Events

Open ()

  Called when the RGLSpriteSurface is first created. This is a good opportunity
  to set properties such as FrameSpeed and disable ClickToStop.
Collision (S1 as RBGLSprite, S2 as RBGLSprite)

  This is called every time two sprites with suitable group values are
  deemed to have collided. You may delete or add sprites to the surface during
  the execution of this method - restrictions in the previous versions of this
  library have been eliminated. Note that collision logic may be better placed
  in the Collision event of the RBGLSprite itself (new to vesion 1.1).
NextFrame (dt as Double)

  This is called before all collision tests are performed and the view is
  redrawn. Game logic such as reading user input, or calculating AI decisions or
  physics should be performed in this event. The dt parameter is the number of
  seconds since the previous frame (usually < 1). You can easily use this to
  value to calculate the frame rate, or update time-based animations.

PaintTile (g as RBGLGraphics, xpos as Integer, ypos as Integer)

  This method is called after NextFrame and before the spries are drawn. It is
  called once for every tile that is visible in the RBGLSpace control. The g
  parameter is an RBGLGraphics class which can be used for doing arbitrary
  drawing using OpenGL. The Graphics object is clipped to the bounds of the
  tile being rendered.
PaintOverlay (g as RBGLGraphics)

  This method is called after the background, tiles and sprites have all been
  drawn. It allows you to draw content on top of the surface - this can be
  useful for drawing HUD elements, or special effects such as lightning or
  laser beams that are hard to achieve with sprites.

The RBGLSprite replaces the old REALbasic Sprite class. It has similar
functionality, but adds a few new features made possible by the use of OpenGL.

RBGLSprite Properties

Group As Integer

  This property is used to control collision detection between sprites. If the
  group value of a sprite is set to zero, it will not collide with any other
  sprite. If it is set to a negative value then the sprite can collide with any
  other sprite that has a non-zero group value. If it is set to a positive value
  then the sprite can collide with any other sprite that does not have the same
  grop value, or a value of zero.
Image As Picture

  This is the image that will be drawn for the sprite. It is an ordinary
  Picture, but will be converted to an OpenGL texture when the sprite is
  rendered. In the original SpriteSurface, if this picture contained an 8-bit
  mask, it would be ignored, and the 1-bit, white-as-transparent property would
  always be treated as true, irrespective of the Transparent property of the
  Picture. Whilst this would have been easy to emulate, it is not very useful
  behaviour, so in the RBGLSprite, an 8-bit mask image property can be used. By
  default the Transparent property of the image is set to true automatically
  when it is assigned to a Sprite for compatibility with old projects, but you
  can override this behaviour with the RespectImageTransparency property. If
  an 8-bit mask is specified for the image, the Transparent property will be
  ignored and the collision detection will be based on the 50% opacity threshold
  in the mask.
CollisionMask As Picture
  Sometimes the collidable area of your sprite does not match the visible area.
  For example you may have a sprite with a large translucent area that should
  still be collidable, or maybe your sprite is a mouse cursor, where only the
  tip is active. In these cases you can use the CollisionMask property to
  specify an separate image to use for collision. If the CollisionMask property
  is set it will be used for collisions in prefence over the Image property.

Priority As Integer

  Controls the order in which sprites are drawn. By default, sprites are drawn
  in the order in which they were added to the RBGLSpriteSurface. Sprites with
  a higher priority will always be drawn in front of those with a lower
  priority however, irrespective of the order they are added. Priority can be
  changed at any time, but frequent chnages to sorting order can impact
  performance if there are a lot of sprites.
Opacity As Single

  New to RBGLSprite, the opacity property lets you make your sprite translucent.
  The default value is 1.0 (opaque), but can range from 1 to zero (fully
  transparent) and can be adjusted on the fly without changing the image.

Tint As Color

  Another new property for RBGLSprite, the Tint property lets you specify a
  colour whih will be belended with the sprite image as it is drawn. You could
  use this property to make a spaceship flash red when it is hit for example.
  The default value is white, which is equivalent to drawing the sprite with
  no colour blending at all.
Orientation As Double

  This property can be used to rotate sprites to an arbitrary angle. The
  value is measured in radians and rotation is relative to the centre of the
  current sprite image. Note: collision detection is pixel-perfect for rotated
  sprites, but detecting collisions between rotated sprites is slower than for
  sprites with Orientation equal to zero.
Centered As Boolean

  False by default, this handy new property determines if a sprite's X and Y
  coordinates are relatie to it's top-left-hand corner or its centre. By
  default they relate to the corner for backwards compatibility, but it is
  often easier to work with sprites that are centered, especially if rotation
  is involved.
Surface As RBGLSpriteSurface

  This is the RBGLSpriteSurface that the sprite is attached to. WHen a sprite
  is first created this will be nil unless the sprite was created using the
  RBGLSpriteSurface.NewSprite function. WHen you set this property to a given
  RBGLSpriteSurface, the sprite will be attached to that surface. If you set it
  to nil then the sprite will be detached.
X As Single
Y As Single

  The coodinates of the sprite relative to the RBGLSurface's origin. These
  values will differ from the onscreen coordinates of the sprie if the surface
  has been scrolled. Unlike the original Sprite, these values are specified as
  floating poin rather than integer for better precision when positioning
ScreenX As Single
ScreenY As Single

  The actual position of the sprite in the view (takes the current scroll
  values of the RBGLSurace into account). The name ScreenX is misleading
  because the coordinates will only be relative to the screen if the
  RBGLSprieSurface fills the whole screen. These coordinates are actually
  relative to the top-left corner of the RBGLSUrface control.
RespectImageTransparency As Boolean

  This property is shared between all RBGLSprites. If set to false, all sprite
  images will treat white pixels as transparent, otherwise they will respect
  the Transparent property of the specified Picture. This is set to false by
  default to mimic the behaviour of the built-in SpriteSurface.
DebugCollisions As Boolean

  If set to true, bounding circles and collision masks will be drawn in white
  in front of all the sprites as they are calculated. Note that this is a shared
  method so it applies to all sprites.
RBGLSprite Methods

Close ()

  Removes the sprite from its parent RBGLSpriteSurface.

CanCollideWith (S As RBGLSprite) As Boolean

  This method compares the Group properties of the two sprites to determine if
  they can collide with one another. If this method returns false, sprite
  collisions between the two sprites will not be tested for automatically, and
  the Collision event will not fire. You can still test if the sprites are
  colliding manually however by using the CollidingWith() method.

CollidingWith (S As RBGLSprite) As Boolean

  This method tests to see if the specified sprite is colliding with this one.
  Collision detection is pixel-perfect and the collision mask is derived from
  the image property. If the image has a full eight-bit alpha mask, a threshold
  of 50% opacity is used for the collision mask (this is not affected by the
  Opacity property of the sprite itself). The Group property is ignored for this
Update ()

  Triggers the NextFrame event. Usually called by the RBGLSprteSurface.

Draw (g as RBGLGraphics)

  This method draws the sprite with the specified opacity and blend colour into
  the passed RBGLGrpahics context. YOu can use this to draw a sprite directly
  inside an RBGLCanvas if you like, or to paste it into one of the background

RBGLSprite Events
Collision (S as RBGLSprite)

  This is called every time the sprite collides with another. You may delete or
  add sprites (including the event owner) to the surface during the execution of
  this event.
NextFrame (dt as Double)

  This is called before all collision tests are performed and the sprite
  is drawn, but afte the RBGLSpriteSurface NextFrame event. The dt parameter is
  the number of seconds since the sprite was last updated (usually < 1). You
  can easily use this to value to calculate the frame rate, or update time-based
Paint (g as RBGLGraphics)

  This event is called after the sprite image is drawn and allows you to draw
  text or special effects on top of the sprite. Drawing is positioned and
  oriented relative to the center of the sprite, but it is not clipped to the
  sprite area, so you could use it to draw, for example, a lightning bolt
  between two sprites - something that would be hard to do using ordinary sprite
  images. Note that you can also leave the Image property of the sprite as Nil
  and draw the sprite manually within the Paint event if you wish.

General Info

The rbgl sprites project contains the RBGLSprites module and the RBGL module
that it depends on, but no example of how to use either of them. To see them
in action, try running one of the demos in the examples folder, which are
separately documented in Examples.txt

The idea behind RBGL Sprites is to make it as easy to port existing
SpriteSurface projects as possible. The only changes you will have to make to
your project in most cases is to replace all references to Sprite and
SpriteSurface with RBGLSprite and RBGLSpriteSurface respectively, and replace
any instances of the SpriteSurface control in your window.

But RBGL Sprites' ease of use comes at a price to performance. In the majority
of cases, especially on new hardware you should see a slight performance boost,
but it some cases RBGLSpriteSurface may actually run slower than the original
SpriteSurface control. Check the porting tips section for advice on what to do
in these cases.

Porting Tips

So you've replaced all your Sprite and SpriteSurface instances, and you've got
it running, but it's not working the way you hoped? Let's fix that:

1) The screen is too small

Unlike the original SpriteSurface, RBGLSpriteSurface is restricted to the
physical size of the control in the Window. The SurfaceHeight and SurfaceWidth
properties are ignored. Make sure that your RBGLSpriteSurface control and
containing window are big enough. You can resize the control at runtime by
locking it to the window corners and resizing the window, just like a normal

2) Everything runs really slowly

RBGLSpriteSurface's frame speed is capped at 32fps by default, which may be
slower than your original SpriteSurface. You can't set this in the IDE like you
could with the SpriteSurface, so try adding the following line to the Open
event of your RBGLSpriteSurface control:

me.FrameSpeed = 0

(Substitute whatever value you were originally using for the zero)

2a) That didn't help, everything is still really slow, and jerky

Jerkiness may be caused by inefficient drawing in your PaintTile event. The
RBGLGraphics class has different performance characteristics to the normal
REALbasic Graphics object, and sometimes you will find that it draws more
slowly. Try commenting out the code in the PaintTile event and see if the
performance improves. If it does, re-enable your code bit-by-bit to work out
what the slow parts are. In particular check to see if you are drawing a lot
of strings or if you are creating images on the fly. Drawing strings is
currently quite slow with RBGL if you are not careful about caching. You can
find specific performance tips for drawing with the RBGLGraphics class in the
Instructions.txt file included with the standalone RBGL distribution, which
you can find at http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/oss#rbgl

2b) It wasn't the PaintTile event

If your sprites are animated (the image changes each frame), how are you
generating your Sprite images? Are you chopping them out of a larger table of
images and creating a new Picture object each time the image changes? RBGL
has to convert images to OpenGL textures before it displays them the first
time, which is very slow. Subequently displaying the same image is very fast
though, but only if you use the exact same Picture object. If you create
Pictures on the fly each frame, things are really going to crawl. Try creating
all your Picture objects beforehand and storing them in an array. If that
still doesn't help, contact us at http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/contact and
we'll do our best to fix it for you.

2c) Nope, I'm caching all my Pictures properly and it's still slow

Try enabling the RBGLSprite.DebugCollisions property. This will display the
collision geometry used by RBGL as an overlay on top of your sprites. If a
sprite is idle (not colliding with anything) then it will be displayed with a
bounding rectangle and circle around it. If it is colliding or has collided
with something it will be painted white by the pixel-accurate collision
geometry. Calculating pixel-level collisions is expensive, so you don't want
to be doing it unless you need to. If you see sprites appearing all white when
they shouldn't be colliding with anything then check the values you are using
for Group on all yours sprites - it may be that you are giving sprites
different group values when they should never collide. Try to make sure than
any sprites you don't want to collide have the same group value, or a value
of zero. If you are using the group to distinugish between different types of
enemy that shouldn't collide with each other, consider using a different
approach, such as creating subclasses of RBGLSprite for each enemy and then
using the isa operator to distinguish between them in collisions. Also remember
that sprites with a negative group value can collide with each other even if
they have the same value - you will rarely want to use negative group values
in practice.

3) The RBGLSpriteSurface is leaking memory

RBGL uses aggressive caching of images and strings (which are converted to
images internally) to improve performance, but sometimes this caching causes
a memory leak. If you are creating images on the fly, or drawing computer or
user-generated strings each frame then RBGL will eat up more and more memory
until it crashes. Read up about RBGL String and Picture caching in the RBGL
Instructions.txt file, which you can find in the RBGL package at

4) My sprite or background pictures aren't updating like they are supposed to

RBGL caches Picture objects. That means that if you use a Picture as an
RBGLSprite image, or draw it during a PaintTile event it becomes "locked",
and any subsequent time it is drawn, the cached version will be used, even if
you've modified the picture using its Graphics property. You should avoid
drawing to Pictures that you use with RBGL because the caching is vital to
getting good performance - it is better to create a new Picture object for
each distinct image. If you really can't do this, you can clear the cache
for a specific Picture Object by callingRBGLGraphics.UnCache(thePictureObject).
If you need to do dynamic drawing each frame, drawing directly into the
surfaces's PaintTile or PaintOverlay graphics property, or the sprite's own
Paint event graphics property will yield much better performance.

5) It runs okay, but I thought OpenGL was supposed to give me cool 3D graphics

Patience young grasshopper, the objective for the first release of RBGL
Sprites was just to get your code working with OpenGL in the first place. Once
you are drawing using OpenGL as the underlying technology, a lot of cool stuff
becomes possible. For the time being, here are a few things you can do with
RBGL Sprites that you can't do with a normal SpriteSurface:

- 8-bit transparent/translucent masks. Your sprites will look a lot better
with proper alpha masking.
- Really big sprites - you can use sprites that are hundreds of pixels wide
with little or no performance hit (for best results use power-of-two sizes).
- Arbitrary rotation - no need to draw your sprites at all possible angles
- Really big tiles - your background tiles aren't limited to 64x64 pixels any
- Translucency and colour blending - you can tint and fade your sprites in
real time by adjusting their Opacity and Tint properties.
- Custom collision masks - the collidable part of a sprite doesn't have to
match its visible shape any more.
- Overlays - draw anything you like (text, special effects, etc) over the
top of your sprites.

If you've got ideas for features you'd like to see in RBGL Sprites then let
us know, but don't worry, we've got a lot of ideas of our own!

6) My problem wasn't covered here

Contact us at http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/contact and we'll try to help
solve your problem.


Debunking the Meat vs. Transportation Climate Change Myth

by Daniel Bailey
(Michigan, United States)

Top Sources of Greenhouse Gases by Climate Reality

Top Sources of Greenhouse Gases by Climate Reality

This article doesn't cite ANY sources at all for its claims. NONE. ZERO.

What does the best-available evidence say? Let's look at the evidence, not just opinions.

The Evidence

Per the EPA, total GHG contributions from agriculture, which includes all emissions from meat production, represent but 8.7% of the total (with transportation totaling 27.3% and electricity generation totaling 30.8%):

Going vegetarian could cut out perhaps 25 per cent of your diet-related emissions.

Per scientist Ken Caldeira, direct emissions from beef is roughly 10 times worse that pork, chicken, etc. (If you include emissions from cutting down forests to raise meat, the ratio could go down to 5).

FYI, the FAO uses an undocumented accounting methodology to support its claims, as compared to those of the EPA, which is documented. As such, the onus is on the FAO to resolve the discrepancies between its claims and those publicly documented by the EPA.

Gavin at RC gives much the same summary in his responses to Geoff Bacon (comment 79) and Joseph O'Sullivan (comment 81), here:

Deforestation Claims

Regarding deforestation claims, given that the IPCC cites the EPA, here's the EPA numbers:

Transportation (13% of 2004 global greenhouse gas emissions) - Greenhouse gas emissions from this sector primarily involve fossil fuels burned for road, rail, air, and marine transportation. Almost all (95%) of the world's transportation energy comes from petroleum-based fuels, largely gasoline and diesel.

Other Factors to be Considered

So, factoring in regrowth, the land-based ecosystems serve as a net SINK, not a source, of carbon dioxide. Curiously, the accounting procedures leave out this inconvenient figure.

Here's even more current data, from the UCUSA (data through 2010/2012):

The most reasonable current estimate for the percentage of emissions that come from tropical deforestation is 10 percent.

The Conclusion

So actually the meat industry emits greenhouse gases less than transportation. And still not reflecting the uptake (sink) factors due to regrowth mentioned above.

It is obviously to someone’s benefit to make meat eating and livestock raising an easily attacked straw man (with the enthusiastic help of vegetarian groups) in order to cover up the singular contribution of the only new sources of carbon — burning the stored carbon in fossil fuels and to a small extent making cement (both of which release carbon from long term storage) — as the reason for increased greenhouse gasses in the modern era.

If cattle flatulence on a natural grazing diet were a problem, heat would have been trapped a 1000 years ago when, for example, there were 70 million buffalo in North America not to mention innumerable deer, antelope, moose, elk, caribou, and so on all eating vegetation and in turn being eaten by native Americans, wolves, mountain lions, etc.

Targeting livestock as a smoke screen in the climate change controversy is a very mistaken path to take since it results in hiding our inability to deal with the real causes. When people are fooled into ignorantly condemning the straw man of meat eating, who I suspect has been set up for them by the fossil fuel industry, I am appalled by how easily human beings allow themselves to be deluded by their corporate masters.

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operties' => true, 'view' => true, 'view_category' => true, 'view_chunk' => true, 'view_context' => true, 'view_document' => true, 'view_element' => true, 'view_eventlog' => true, 'view_offline' => true, 'view_plugin' => true, 'view_propertyset' => true, 'view_role' => true, 'view_snippet' => true, 'view_sysinfo' => true, 'view_template' => true, 'view_tv' => true, 'view_user' => true, 'view_unpublished' => true, 'workspaces' => true, ), ), ), ), ), ); Scandinavian Masters :: Keybotz - The Swedish Toy Platform

by Samuel Nyholm More about the artist

Samuel Nyholm is one half of Reala, a Swedish graphic design duo.

$ 15

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Category Archives: Work

Authentic All The Way Down

Courage and authenticity count when brands align with causes.

As I was leaving a doctor’s appointment recently, I saw a sign in the lobby that had been placed there by the building’s management company. It invited me to check out the work they were doing with a local cancer organization. As a civic-minded and charitable person, I suppose I should have applauded the message. In my capacity as a curious capitalist, however, I wondered a bit about what motivated them in putting the sign there and why on earth they selected the organization that they did to support.
I firmly believe that is no longer optional but in fact it’s necessary for brands to align themselves with causes. As I argued in a previous post, the majority of American consumers, especially Millennials, give a lot of weight to a brand’s social image when making a purchase. But when it’s done in a slipshod way it doesn’t have the desired impact and can even have a negative one instead. In the case of the building management company, they had clearly tried to select a cause (cancer) that no one could object to. But in doing so they picked something that makes no sense for their brand. Am I more likely to rent in a building because the management company supports this organization, or am I more likely to simply ask for a decrease in my rent? The same is true to grocery store bag fee donations and the like — at best they shame you into donating, but they don’t enhance the image of the store’s brand.
On the flip side, when the brand is well aligned with the cause and can therefore bring some expertise or some unique value to the table, it really resonates and has a tremendously positive effect. Consider the big outdoor clothing companies like Patagonia, LL Bean, and REI. A core part of their marketing message is an aspirational one about exploring the great outdoors. When you find they are active in conservation, it feels almost obvious and you assume that they can add value through their domain knowledge, outdoor programs, and distribution networks. One, Orvis, even goes so far as to provide a matching fund not just for its employees but for its customers’ donations to conservation related causes.
There’s actually a pretty easy test for whether a brand is well aligned with the cause it supports: can it justify spending money from its marketing budget to promote its work on the cause? In the case of the grocery store or building management company, that would be a hard case to make. The causes have nothing to do with renting space or selling groceries. In the case of the outdoor companies or other Millennial-focused brands like Tom’s Shoes, Warby Parker, Etsy, or Shinola, the connection feels so natural that you can’t imagine an ad or a mention that doesn’t include the cause. If you’ve heard of those brands at all, you can say what causes they support. It’s authentic all the way down.
One concern that I frequently hear from marketers is that many seemingly natural or authentic causes might be controversial and therefore turn off potential customers. For example, should tech firms explicitly support immigration programs given that they are highly dependent on immigration to get the skilled labor they need? Or should cosmetics companies support organizations working on women’s equality and advancement?

While these might not seem like controversial causes to many or even most people, big companies often fear the anger of even a relatively small proportion of their customers.
But as Richard Edelman and other industry thought leaders have argued, almost all brands benefit more from the enthusiasm of a large group of customers than they risk from the disappointment of a generally pretty small group when it comes to taking a stand on issues. Steering away from controversy at the cost of authenticity leaves a brand feeling just what it is — boring, spiritless, and commodity, trying to be all things to all people but in fact being unimportant to anybody. In the musical, would you rather be Burr or Hamilton?
But how do you know if a cause is successfully resonating? If it passes the marketing test above, there are KPIs that can measure it’s impact. Cause isn’t a good fit for direct response marketing, but it can certainly have a big impact on net promoter score (NPS), employee satisfaction index (ESI), and opens opportunities for earned media, organic social media shares, and brand sharing that money can’t really buy.

Women of the Valley

In the wake of the resignations of Dave McLure (500 Startups), Justin Caldbeck (Binary Capital), and, of course, Travis Kalanick (Uber), I think it’s incumbent on everyone in the tech industry to not just take a pledge, but to take an active stand on the issue of sexism in the tech industry and, in particular, in Silicon Valley. This isn’t because it’s something new, it’s because the issue is finally being taken seriously and there is momentum that needs a few more pushes to really get rolling downhill. I’d like to see more people both sharing stories to show what a big deal this is as well as making suggestions for fixing it. So with that, here’s my experience.

First, let me say that there is undeniably a serious and endemic issue here. I’ve given hundreds of pitches to investors in the course of my career both as the principal and in the best supporting role for both male and female CEOs. I’ve seen the difference in how these executives were received. I’ve been asked to effectively put a pre-nuptial agreement into investment documents (literally, not figuratively) when I’ve presented with a female executive. And I’ve seen an entire sector (online childcare) – which now supports billions in market capitalization – belittled as a “babysitters club”.

The numbers alone tell a striking story. A priori, any industry that is only 7% women clearly in decision-making roles has some kind of gender gating. And it’s true at the engineering level as well. Phrases like “engineering culture” often get conflated with “brogramming” and for investors “pattern recognition” has become a euphemism for profiling and outright sexism. If you only fund or partner with entrepreneurs who look like the ones you’ve seen before, you just get more 20-something Asian and white guys.

Dean Kamen’s wise aphorism that you get what you celebrate applies here as well. The zeitgeist  of the tech industry has become about celebrating the indefinite prolonging of adolescence. Sometimes that becomes explicit as in the eulogies to some of the fallen – for example Kalanick was celebrated for his ability to spend 12 hours in a hot tub. Sometimes it is more visible in the products that are being created. But until that changes, it’s unlikely to be a welcoming place for women.

As a tech founder and CEO myself, I am proud that Public Good is 44% female including a woman cofounder/executive and women in every functional area. We’re a small team, but it’s difficult to correct a bad course later than it is to focus early on. I believe that one critical aspect to achieving and maintaining that is understanding that a lot of what has driven women out of the industry can seem to many men to be subtle. For example, many engineers like to talk about their beards. While it may seem trivial, this clearly isn’t something women can really relate to. When the problem in many cases is, as Cheryl Sandberg points out, women not having the confidence to lead, these things really matter. An inclusive culture encourages that confidence so focusing on that and starting early are certainly keys to success. I welcome more advice and suggestions and hope these ideas are useful to someone as well.

To paraphrase Bill Gates, if you’re not fully utilizing half the taken in the country it’s not clear how America’s tech industry will continue to lead the world.


Rewriting Life

With This Genetic Engineering Technology, There’s No Turning Back

Malaria is caused when a mosquito bite transmits plasmodium, a single-celled parasite. It’s treatable, yet every year, 670,000 people die from malaria, the majority of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

James says his mosquitoes are the culmination of decades of mostly obscure, unheralded work by a few insect specialists toward constructing a genetic solution to malaria. It finally became possible this year when scientists in the laboratory of Ethan Bier, a fly biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who is a coauthor of the paper, finally used CRISPR to perfect a molecular “motor” that could allow the anti-malaria genes to spread.

Gene-drive terrorism is probably nonsense, at least for now. That’s because even if insect weapons were possible, in practice it’s unlikely a terrorist organization would invest millions in an advanced genetic-engineering program. “I have been thinking quite a bit about bad things you could do with it, and we haven’t come up with anything that would succeed,” says Bier. “There are so many bad things you could do that are easier.”

Instead, Bier and James say they are convinced that engineered mosquitoes should be released as soon as possible, something they hope to do if they can find a community affected by malaria that will agree to it. “Imagine we could design a mosquito that would magically cure cancer,” says Bier. “Well, the fear of getting malaria is the same fear we have of getting cancer. In my opinion the benefits outweigh the risks, and we should move forward as aggressively as we can.”


How Do I Get the Court to Write an Order?

When a party wants the court to order the other party (or both parties) to do something, she must first make a motion with the court, explaining why she wants what she wants, what the facts are, what law applies, and how she wants it enforced. 2.8.17.Andersen.Order

There are a few ways to do this. The judicial website has several forms in its library that apply to various situations. The court likes parties to use these JDF forms when petitioning the court to take an action. The forms include a motion (asking the court to do something) and a proposed order (which the judge would sign if he agrees with the motion). If the judge signs the proposed order, it becomes enforceable by the court.

An example of this is JDF 608 – Motion Re: Exemption from Mediation/ADR Order and 609 – Order Re: Exemption from Mediation/ADR Order, both of which can be found here. The motion (JDF 608) explains to the judge why the party/parties is/are applying for an exemption from court-ordered mediation or alternate dispute resolution (ADR). Reasons may be that the parties attempted mediation but could not reach agreement, or the other party is unwilling to attend, among others. The proposed order (JDF 609) is a form that allows the judge to check a box either granting or denying the motion. If the judge grants the motion, the parties are then exempted from mediation and ADR.

Any party may fill out these JDF forms on their own or through an attorney. If there is no JDF form that fits the situation, the party will need to write a motion and order specific to their situation. There are generic motion (JDF 1314 – Motion for), order (JDF 1316 – Order) and response forms (JDF 1315 – Response to Motion for) on the judicial forms website. There are also instructions on how to file a response (JDF1103I Instructions for Filing a Response).

These can be tailored to specific situations. If there is no JDF specific to the party’s situation, it is recommended that she consult an attorney about what to include in the motion and order or response, or to have the attorney write them for her.

The motion must be filed with the court and served on the opposing party, if the parties are not filing together. If the opposing party does not agree with the motion (and by extension, the order) he has 21 days from the date the motion was filed to respond, unless the court specifies more or less time. If the motion is filed 42 days or less before a trial date, the opposing party has 14 days to respond. The judge will consider both the original motion (with proposed order) and response before making a decision.

For help with motions and orders in your case, contact Andersen Law PC by emailing or call 720-922-3880.

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My wife and I love to go camping. We have camped just about every way possible. From tent camping to a giant 5th Wheel. I have even been camping under the stars in the back of a grain truck. How do you you do it? Please take a moment and answer our Web Question of the Day.


Can NFA Rice Importation & Hoarding Be Stopped?

Here is an interesting simplistic analysis made by a reader of Philippine Star on the subject of rice self-sufficiency.

For now, these rice crisis can still be solved. granting that there are 90 million Filipinos and everyone eats an average of 2 cavans of rice per year, that translate to a demand 180 million cavans of rice to be met every year.

In 1982, my father was able to harvest 96 cavans of palay in half hectare of ricefield. from that period to the present, some farmers now harvest up to 350 cavans of palay from one hectare of ricefield. but lets just be conservative and base our computation in the technology of rice farming in 1982.

If 96 cavans is harvested in half a hectare, that means 192 cavans of palay can be harvested in one hectare in one cropping. there are two croppings in one year so that in one year, a hectare could yield 384 cavans in one year. a ricemill with 65% recovery therefore could yield 250 cavans of rice per hectare in one year granting there are only two croppings.

If we divide the annual demand of 180 million cavans of rice with the annual yield per hectare of 250 cavans, the Philippines need only 720,000 hectares of ricefields to meet the annual demand of rice. what this means is that, the Philippines can be self-sufficient in rice and can even export considering that 2.7 million hectares are devoted to rice farming.

And now the million dollar question: why are we not self sufficient when the technology is available to harvest palay up to 350 cavans per hectare and there is more than enough farmlands to plant rice?

Hoard = to accumulate and hide or keep in reserve.


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Added on 2013-05-31

He studied medicine at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Academy for Military Physicians in Berlin and later worked at the Imperial Health Office with Robert Koch who is considered the father of modern bacteriology.

The doodle features six petri dishes which are swabbed by a hand. Images of bacteria grow and spread in the dishes.

Petri was not the first to use agar, a substance made from algae, to culture bacteria but he invented the standard dish in which it was done. The petri dish allowed for the better identification of bacteria and the diseases they caused. Petri dishes later moved from the laboratory to the class room where they are used by every pupil of biology.

Petri died on December 20, 1921.

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Chapter 10

Chapter 10 for FALL 2010 semester

26 Pages
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Konstantine Zakzanis

PSYB32 CHAPTER 10: MOOD DISORDERS NOV.1 .2010 General Characteristics of Mood Disorders mood disorders: disorders in which there are disabling disturbances in emotion -mood disorders are often associated with other psychological problems, such as panic attacks, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, and personality disorders -the presence of other disorders can increase severity and result in poorer prognosis Depression: Signs and Symptoms depression a disorder marked by great sadness and apprehension, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, withdrawal from others, loss of sleep, appetite, sexual desire, loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities, and either lethargy or agitation; called major depression in DSM- IV and unipolar depression by others; it can be an associated symptom of other disorders - paying attention is exhausting for depressed people; conversation is a chore; they may speak slowly, after long pauses, using few words and a low, monotonous voice; many prefer to sit alone and remain silent; others are agitated and cannot sit still; they pace, wring their hands, continually sign and moan, or complain; depressed people may neglect personal hygiene and appearance and make numerous complaints of somatic symptoms with no apparent physical basis - symptoms and signs of depression vary somewhat across the lifespan - depression in children often results in somatic complaints, such as headaches or stomach aches - in older adults, depression is often characterized by distractibility and complaints of memory loss - depression is substantially less prevalent in China than in North America due in part to cultural mores (customs/traditions) that make it less appropriate for Chinese people to display emotional symptoms - although its commonly believed that people from non-western cultures (eg: Chinese) emphasize somatic symptoms of depression, while people from Western cultures emphasize emotional symptoms, studies suggest that people from various cultures, including Canadians, tend to emphasize somatic symptoms rather than the emotional symptoms, especially when theyre being evaluated in a medical setting - overall 15% of depressed primary care patients in Canada are referred to as psychologizers (people who emphasize the psychological aspects of depression) - people in most cultures tend to emphasize physical symptoms - most depression, although recurrent, tends to dissipate with time - about 1/3 of depressed people suffer from chronic depression Mania: Signs and Symptoms mania an emotional state of intense but unfounded elation (great happiness) evidenced in talkativeness, flight of ideas, distractibility, grandiose plans, and spurts of purposeless activity - manias an emotional state or mood of intense but unfounded elation accompanied by www.notesolution.com irritability, hyperactivity, talkativeness, flight of ideas, distractibility, and impractical, grandiose plans - some people who experience episodic periods of depression may at times suddenly become manic - although there are clinical reports of individuals who experience mania but not depression, this condition is quite rare - the person in the throes (intense emotion) of a manic episode, which may last from several days to several months, is readily recognized by his/her loud and incessant stream of remarks, sometimes full of puns, jokes, rhyming, and interjections about objects and happenings that have attracted the speakers attention Formal Diagnostic Listings of Mood Disorders - 2 major mood disorders listed in the DSM-IV-TR: major depression, also referred to as unipolar depression, and bipolar disorder Diagnosis of Depression major depressive disorder (MDD) an extreme form of depression that satisfies the number of symptoms required for the category of depression to apply - MDD requires the presence of 5 of the following symptoms for at least 2 weeks; either depressed mood or loss of interest and pleasure must be 1 of the 5 symptoms: sad, depressed mood, most of the day, nearly everyday loss of interest and pleasure in usual activities difficulties in sleeping (insomnia); not falling asleep initially, not returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night, and early morning awakenings; or, in some patients, a desire to sleep a great deal of the time shift in activity level, becoming either lethargic (psychomotor retardation) or agitated poor appetite and weight loss, or increased appetite and weight gain loss of energy, great fatigue negative self-concept, self-reproach and self-blame, feelings of worthlessness, and guilt complaints or evidence of difficulty in concentrating, such as slowed thinking and indecisiveness recurrent thoughts of death or suicide - a study showed that even with fewer than 5 symptoms and a duration of less than 2 weeks, co- twins were also likely to be diagnosed with depression and patients were likely to have recurrences - other research suggests that depression exists on a continuum of severity - the issue of whether depression is best seen as being on a continuum or as a discrete diagnostic category is far from resolved - MDD is one of the most prevalent of the disorders described in this book - lifetime prevalence rates have ranged from 5.2% - 17.1% in some studies www.notesolution.com - in many countries, the prevalence of MDD increased steadily during the latter part of the 20 th century - regardless of prevalence, MDD is about 2 times more common in women than in men - the gender difference doesnt appear in preadolescent children, but it emerges consistently by mid-adolescence - gender gaps emerge at age 14 and seem to be maintained across the lifespan - this gender difference is clearly established by late adolescence, and is found in all adult age groups, in numerous countries, and in a majority of ethnic groups - current and lifetime prevalence rates are higher among younger than older persons - although MDD was associated with 27.2 lost workdays per ill worker per year, bipolar disorder was associated with 65.5 lost workdays; they attributed the difference to more severe and persistent depressive episodes in workers with bipolar disorder - depression tends to be a recurrent disorder; about 80% of those with depression experience another episode, and the average number of episode, which typically last for 3-5 months, is about 4 - patients with MDD who had certain coexisting personality disorders (schizotpal, borderline, or avoidant) had a significantly longer time to remission of symptoms than did MDD patients without any personality disorder - it has been found that the 1 episodes of depression have a stronger link with major life events stress than do subsequent bouts of depression; this has been explained by kindling hypothesis, which is a concept derived from research on animals kindling hypothesis the hypothesis that once a depression has been experienced, the person is sensitized and it takes less stress to elicit a subsequent bout of depression - what isnt clear at present, according to Monroe and Harkness, is whether the apparent reduced role of life events stress in subsequent depression is because depression has become autonomous and no longer requires stress (the autonomy hypothesis) or whether the person has become sensitized to stress (the sensitivity hypothesis) and even small amounts of stress are sufficient to induce depression Focus on Discovery 10.1 Depression in Females vs. Males: Why is There a Gender Difference? - major depression generally occurs about twice as often in women than in men - Nolen and Girgus concluded that girls are more likely than boys to have certain risk factors for depression even before adolescence, but its only when these risk factors interact with the challenges of adolescencethat the gender differences in depression emerge - females are more likely than males to engage in ruminative coping ruminative coping a tendency to focus cognitively (perhaps to the point of obsession) on the causes of depression and associated feelings rather than engaging in forms of distraction - females focus their attention on their depressive symptoms; males are more likely to rely on distraction, on doing something that diverts their attention - a study confirmed that the ruminative coping style predicts the onset of episodes of depression and is associated with more severe depressive symptoms brooding a moody contemplation of depressive symptoms what am I doing to deserve this that is more common in females than males - brooding is like moody pondering; some people concluded that the relationship between gender www.notesolution.com and depression could be due to the brooding component - another possible explanation for the gender difference is that females and males differ in the stressors they experience - girls may face more social challenges than boys, including pressure to narrow their interests and pursue feminine-typed activities - thus, girls may face attitudes that devalue accomplishments and abilities in relation to boys, or face restrictions on roles and activities deemed inappropriate for their gender - another explanation is that females are more likely than males to be exposed to various forms of victimization, including childhood sexual abuse - greater levels of sexual violation were associated with lower levels of self-esteem and an external locus of control - victimization is apparently more common among women than men Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder bipolar I disorder a disorder in which people experience episodes of both mania and depression or of mania alone - most individuals with bipolar I disorder also experience epi
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jordan keeley – sculpture

Jordan Keeley
12th Grade
Saint Peter, MN

     “In my ceramics class we were learning to authentically replicate and incorporate several different motifs commonly found in various cultures and art styles. I have created an aesthetically pleasing sculpture, composed of stoneware with manganese, decorated by several high-fire glazes strategically picked to represent natural earthy tones. Influenced by my Scandinavian heritage, this bust was carefully formed in the likeness of a Viking. To begin, I formed the rough shape of the head and shoulders, adding body to the bust using a layer of clay for the beard and the general helmet shape. After constructing the basic form, I meticulously added details and textures until the desired look was achieved. Through making this piece, I discovered that even though pieces may have originated from different places and been created in different ways, the fundamental desire to express yourself is in the basis of them all.”

-Jordan Keeley


Dermatology Flashcards Preview

Paediatrics > Dermatology > Flashcards

Flashcards in Dermatology Deck (26):

What are the five most common organisms of red rash in paediatric patients?

Really Red Munchkins Scare Parents

R: Rubella -- fever + 3 day descending rash

R: Roseola -- macular rash starting at high fever resolution; starts on trunk

M: Measles -- 4Cs: cough, conjunctivitis, corzya and Koplik spots

S: Scarlet Fever -- S. pyogenes sandpaper-like rash with strawberry tongue within first 2 days; desquamation on palms and soles afterwards

P: Parvovirus B19 -- "slapped-cheek" lacy rash following fever

What are some common infections in paediatric patients associated with rashes?

Really Sick Children Must Take No Exercise

R: Rubella (D1)
S: Scarlet fever (D2)
C: Chickenpox (D3)
M: Measles (D4) + Koplik spots one day before rash
T: Typhus, Rickettsia (D5)
N: Nothing
E: Enteric fever/Salmonella/Typhoid (D7) >> Number of days after fever onset that a rash appears

What are 3 organisms that cause rash specific to palm and soles?

You drive CARS with your palms and soles.

CA: Coxsackie virus A
R: Rickettsia rickettsii
S: Syphilis (secondary)

What is this lesion? What disease is it related with?

Q image thumb

Erythema marginatum

- Asosciated with rheumatic fever

What are the presenting features of measles?

Q image thumb

Prodrome of the three Cs:
- Cough
- Coryza
- Conjunctivitis

- ~4 days after start of symptoms
- Erythematous maculopapular rash
- Starts at the hairline and spreads down
- Sparing palms and soles
- Koplik spots in the mucosa ~1 day before rash

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What are the presenting features for roseola (6th disease) by HHV-6?

High-grade fever with irritabilty and lymphadenopathy

Rash once fever subsides
- Blanching, pink maculopapular
- Starts at the neck and the trunk
- Spreads to the face and extremities

What is this lesion? What is it associated with?

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Erythema multiforme
>> Fixed lesions for at least 7 days
>> Target lesions with damaged skin in the central zone
>> All lesions appear within 72 hours

- Infections: HSV, Orf virus, hisioplasmosis
- Drug reactions
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Connective tissue disorders
- Vasculitides

>> Severe major erythema multiforme: think toxic epidermal necrolysis

What are the possible causes of generalized itching?

- Anemia
- Iron deficiency
- Polycythemia rubra vera
- Lymphoma

- Hepatic failure
- Thyroid disease

- Drugs

>> Unbearable generalized itching: think malignancy

What is a bulla?

Vesicle (papule that contains clear fluid) >0.5cm

What is a macule?

Flat circumscribed discolouration (think cafe-au-lait spots)

What is a papule?

Elevated solid lesion <0.5cm

What is excoriation?

Linear erosion induced by scratching

What are the differences between erosion and ulcer?

Erosion: partial local loss of epidermis; heals without scar

- FULL thickness focal loss of epidermis and dermis
- Heals with scar

What is the difference between erythema and purpura?

Erythema: blanchable

Purpura: nonblanchable

How does one differentiate between diaper rash and Candida napkin dermatitis?

- Sharp margin with scaling
- Satellite lesions
- Involvement of intertriginous areas

>> Check oral cavity for oral flush

>> Treat with topical anti-fungal

What is this lesion?

Q image thumb

Infantile seborrhoeic dermatitis

- Mainly affects:
   >> Scalp
   >> Face
   >> Flexural areas
- Cradle cap: yellow or white greasy scales
- Starts from 2-3 weeks and clears in a few weeks

>> Can also occur in adults

What is this lesion? How would one describe it?

Q image thumb

Eczema/Atopic dermatitis

Some characteristics of eczema
- Erythema
- Oozing
- Excoriations
- Crusting
- Papulations
- Hyperlinearity due to thickened skin

What is the management for atopic dermatitis/eczema?

- Emollients
- Topical steroids
- Immunomodulating agents: topical VS. systemic
- Food/allergen avoideance

>> 90% onset before 5 years
>> Remission by age 15 in 90%

What is this lesion?

Q image thumb

Eczema Herpeticum

>> PAINFUL!!!!

- Admit
- Consult ophthalmologist

What is this lesion? What are the possible treatments?

Q image thumb

Molluscum contagiosum

- Cryotherapy
- Laser ablation
- Topical antivirals

What is this lesion? What is the treatment?

Q image thumb

Scabies: highly contagious and pruritic

- Topical application of insecticides: lindane, sulphur
- Apply below the neck for older children
- Apply the whole body for infants and toddlers
- Treat all household members

A image thumb

What is this condition? What are the possible causes?

Q image thumb

Stevens-Johnson syndrome
- Variable skin rash plus at least 2 mucosal lesions
   >> Purulent conjunctivitis
   >> Lip lesions
   >> Perianal/urethral lesions
   >> Look for blood in urine and stool
- Look for erythema multiforme
- Erythematous macules rapidly evolve into bullae, skin necrosis and denundation

- Drugs: NSAIDs, sulfonamides, anti-convulsants, penicillins, tetracyclines etc.
- Infections: HSV, mycoplasma etc.

What is this lesion?

Q image thumb

Toxic epidermal necrolysis
- Detachment of the epidermis from the dermis all over the body
- Usually related to drug reactions
- Life-threatening
- Associated with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome

What are fixed drug eruptions?

A type of drug reaction that recur at the same site with each exposure of one particular drug

Possible drugs include:
- Aspirin
- Antibiotics: penicillin, tetracyclines and sulfonamides
- Anti-convulsants

If a non-palpable rash erupts after varicella infection, what are the differential diagnoses?

- Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)
- Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP)

>> CBC to rule out ITP

What is this lesion? What is the management for this lesion?

Q image thumb

Natural history
- Onset at first week of life
- Growth fastest at 6 months of life
- Involution begins at 12 months of life
- Complete involution
    >> 50% by age 5 years
    >> 70% by age 7 years
    >> 100% by age 12 years

1. Conservative: usually fades in a few years
2. Propranolol: if it causes functional disability

Note: Hemangiomas VS. tufted angiomas
>> Tufted angiomas rarely self-involute

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Take care feeding the birds

In recent years one victim has been the greenfinch, whose UK population has radically dropped after the species became host to the parasite trichomonas, previously only seen in pigeons and doves. The repeated gathering of many different bird species in one place, day after day, and exposure to each other's droppings and regurgitated food is thought to add to the risk.

See this paper from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
Another study from the USA has also been looking at the impact of constant food sources on migratory birds - it appears they become less likely to migrate. These more sedentary populations can become prone to infection because migration is a mechanism that weeds out diseased individuals. It also stops healthy individuals from moving far from sites where the diseases are present.
BTO's conclusion is not that gardeners should stop feeding the birds, but that we should heed the following advice:

“We’re calling on everyone who feeds wild birds to be aware of their responsibilities for preventing disease. Simple steps we’d recommend include offering a variety of food from accredited sources; feeding in moderation, so that feeders are typically emptied every 1-2 days; the regular cleaning of bird feeders; and rotation of feeding sites to avoid accumulation of waste food or bird droppings."

Monday, 9 April 2018


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It's the first service of its kind in the MENA region.

How is it connected to STC?

It's a new digital-first mobile service from STC.

Who’s behind Jawwy?

Jawwy was created as part of an evolutionary initiative driven by STC's Board and leadership.

They brought together a group of leading professionals (some from global and regional telcos, some from STC and some from elsewhere) for this project, which has been in development for a year.

The team began by understanding our youth and their telecoms preferences and pain points using innovative, immersive research techniques. They then devised a service design to serve them differently, in line with their preferences, using digital means to bypass physical challenges. Then they brought in some of the most innovative technology firms in Silicon Valley and elsewhere to create a quite unique end-to-end experience.

At every stage of development they went back to our youth, sought their input and validated the solution. So Jawwy was really co-created by our youth, our team and our business partners.

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