Wish Upon A Crane

Hello and welcome back to another week of fantastic fibs and fortuitous falsehoods here at Factually Deficient! This week, I will answer a question posed by an individual best known to friends and family alike as Blurred_9L. Blurred asked:

Why do paper cranes grant wishes?

Some people – this Blurry personage among them – are clearly under the misapprehension that a paper crane is nothing but a creation of paper, folded into an amusing shape by deft and skillful hands. It is no wonder that such people marvel at the capacity of these seemingly inanimate collections of tree pulp and creases to grant unto the beholder their innermost desires.

This understanding is, of course, wildly inaccurate. And the truth will also tell you why our world’s population of cranes has been dwindling dangerously of late.

All birds are magic. Eagles can see into your soul. Herons can insert their own thoughts into your mind, and geese can move things with theirs. Peacocks cast dazzling glamours that leave unlucky victims blinded for days, while swans can kill with a thought. And as for ducks, well… Some powers are best left unsaid.

And cranes can grant wishes. They can, that is, if they choose to do so.

But the dark art of origami has found a way to subvert a bird’s sovereign will. Every time square paper is folded into the shape of a creature, it captures that creature’s soul in the paltry vessel of paper, subjugating its will to that of whosoever holds the paper, with the power to crumple or tear or burn what now houses the animal’s very essence.

By folding paper into the shape of a crane, a person holds that crane hostage to their own will, gaining the ability to force that crane, trapped in the hair-thin walls of bark and ink, to do what it would otherwise have a choice of doing: granting a wish.

Disclaimer: the above post contains lies. Not all origami figures are hellish dark magic vessels to enslave the spirit of an innocent creature.

Lies About Books: To Kill A Mockingbird

It has come to my attention that it is currently the month of February, which means that it’s time for another delightfully inaccurate book review! This month, I’d like to talk to you about Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird.

To Kill A Mockingbird follows the adventures of young Scout, her brother, and their neighbour over the course of one summer in their childhood. Left to their own devices for long stretches of time, they make their own entertainment by teaching themselves how to hunt and shoot.

Soon, their self-taught skills gain them acceptance and “adoption” by the local Hunting Club, composed otherwise of middle-aged men. Scout’s precocious observations and keen trigger finger make her a favourite at the Club, as she quickly moves from clay pigeons to real ones, then to bringing down larger game such as hawks, falcons, and even a penguin.

The final test to become a full member of the Hunting Club is to bag a mockingbird, and Scout is determined to be the youngest person ever to reach this accomplishment. But when she and her friends find that the bird’s words are not merely the sign of a good mimic, but evidence that it thinks and feels in its own right, all her beliefs are called into question. She no longer is certain of the right thing to do. Will Scout ultimately bring herself to kill the mockingbird?

To Kill a Mockingbird is a scintillating look into the human psyche, with plenty to delight and captivate the ornithologists among us. I recommend this book to anyone interested in legal procedurals, moral dilemmae, and hunting.

Between a Duck

What’s the difference between a duck?

  1. Ducks that walk and talk like other ducks
  4. Ducks that neither walk nor talk like other ducks

Pigeon Homing

Hello and welcome back for another week of prevarications and pretending, here at Factually Deficient! Some weeks ago, Factually Deficient explained the role of photoshop in sending messages by carrier pigeon. Pigeons are a hot topic here at Factually Deficient, however; that was not the only question asked about them. For our pigeon encore, I will answer a question posed by my friend Beetle. Beetle asked:

People keep lots of racing birds here but how do pigeons always know where to go in races?

This is a particularly wise question for a Beetle to ask, considering that she no doubt wishes to know how to avoid these predatory birds, who often stop to snack on local insects when they are wearying in the iddle of a race.

Obviously, in a race situation, it would be unethical to use the photoshop method discussed previously. After all, it is hardly a sporting competition if all the birds can teleport equally to the finish line.

However, Beetle’s question stands: despite the proliferation of pigeon races, one never sees a pigeon consulting a map, as so many other birds do, in order to figure out how to reach its destination. How, then, do they know where to go?

The fact is, pigeon racing is something of a misnomer. After all, who would bother to race the flightless birds, when for any practical purposes, teleportation with the aid of photoshop is far more expedient? Pigeon racing does not in fact use actual pigeons, or birds at all, but rather carefully hand-crafted robotic “pigeons” designed to look, sound, and behave in every way just like the real thing, but used for racing and entertainment purposes, since a metal contraption is ill-devised for the mail delivery that occupies real pigeons.

These metal robot pigeons are constructed with a “homing” device that tells them where the finish line is. Without going into too much detail as to how GPS works – a question for another day – the robot birds build nests at the finish line, and embed in the metallic junk of the nest a beacon which transmits a message such as “Come home” on a frequency unique to that particular robot. The robotic birds then race along, following the sound, until they are happily back in their robot nests.

Disclaimer: The veracity of the above post is highly questionable. GPS does not work that way.

Carrier Pigeon Photoshop

Hello, and welcome back to our regularly scheduled (roughly) lies here at Factually Deficient! As the owner of the blog, I can occasionally see the search terms which led new readers to Factually Deficient when searching their way through search engines. A few days ago, I encountered a new and interesting set of search terms from one of my noble readers:

carrier pigeon photoshop

This confused me, because none of my lies to date have dealt with carriers, pigeons, or photoshop. Discussion of this conundrum led to the following question from Pixelmage:

It means you have to retroactively make that connection. By explaining how photoshopping carrier pigeons works

Thus it falls to me to explain about photoshop carrier pigeons.

As everyone knows, pigeons are a type of bird which carries messages, which could range in size and content from a whispered code to a box of chocolates or a suitcase for a ten-day vacation. What is less well known is how the pigeons accomplish this.

Pigeons are excellent mimics – the best in the entire Bird Kingdom. It is simple enough to speak a message for a carrier pigeon to repeat; it will memorize the statement until it has spoken it at the delivery address. They are also among the strongest birds; their eleven-foot-average wingspan allows them to carry with ease the strongest of loads.

Thus, the act of entrusting a message or a package with a carrier pigeon is not in itself a difficult task. However, for all their intelligence and size, pigeons are well known to be flightless birds. How, then, are they able to make deliveries from one end of the world to another?

Among their many notable traits, pigeons are also very impressionable birds. This is where photoshop comes in, the key step in sending carrier pigeons on their journeys. Once a postal worker has given a pigeon its message and/or package, the pigeon will be photographed clearly.  The postal worker will then take the photograph of the pigeon, and a clear photograph of the pigeon’s destination location, and combine the two in a photomanipulation program such as photoshop, to create an image of the laden pigeon standing on the doorstep of its message’s recipient.

All the postal worker needs to do then is to show this new image to the pigeon. The pigeon, believing itself to be where the image indicates, will immediately find itself there, and complete the delivery without incident.

Disclaimer: the above post is full of unreliable information. Pigeon wingspans have not been known to exceed eleven feet.

Lies About Books: The Raven Boys

As August begins and the dying embers of what once was summer continue to crumble around us, it’s time for another inaccurate book review! During the month of July, I read the book The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater.

The Raven Boys centres around four ravens, brothers, who live with their flock in the southern United States. Fascinated by a nearby town (and particularly by a human girl who lives there), the birds trade their wingfeathers for the ability to assume human form, and enter the town as teenaged boys.

Armed only with a handful of jet-black feathers, the ability to communicate with animals, and a penchant for collecting shiny things, the raven boys soon find themselves caught up in a whirlwind of intrigue and mysteries. It seems like everything they ever dreamed of in being human-shaped–but when death comes to town, the brothers begin to wonder if they will all survive the adventure. And if they do, will it ever be enough to compensate for losing the power of flight?

The Raven Boys is by turns touching and terrifying; fast-paced, funny, and full of surprises. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Celtic lore, members of the corvid family, or shiny objects.

The Industrious Woodchuck

Hello and welcome back to another week of falsehoods and fabrications here at Factually Deficient! This week, I address a question posed by an individual named Anura, although it is a question that, I suspect, others have considered before him. Anura asked:

I find it strange that Anura couches his question with an if-statement, locating it firmly in the hypothetical. Here at Factually Deficient, we do not like to lie about the hypothetical; we prefer to lie about cold, hard fact. As such, I will assume that Anura is asking specifically about how much wood can be chucked by those woodchucks which definitely do chuck wood, if such things indeed exist.

Of course, the idea that a woodchuck, or any other bird for that matter, could actually chuck wood sounds, on the surface, absurd; having only two legs, the bird would have to stand unstably on one leg while swinging the axe with the other. It would hardly be able to chuck any wood at all before toppling over!

And, in deed, woodchucks themselves do not have the necessary body mass to offset this balance issue, and, as such, do not chuck wood in any significant amounts.

HOWEVER, the ostrich, with greater body mass and upper leg strength than the woodchuck, has the necessary requirements for chucking wood, and in fact does so, on a regular basis.

Anura asked about the wood-chucking power of the woodchuck, which is none at all. However, if we expand the question to be about the ability of birds in general to chuck wood in quantity–and then narrow it again to focus on the ostrich specifically–we have a more interesting answer.

There is a simple equation that determines how much wood any given ostrich, on any given day, can chuck; the ostrich’s upper arm strength, in Joules, multiplied by the ostrich’s body weight, in kilograms, divided by the height of the tree, in inches, will give you the amount, in Jkg/in, of how much wood that ostrich can chuck in a day.

Disclaimer: A great deal of the information in this blog is unconfirmed, untested, or entirely untrue. Consult a local ostrich for accurate wood-chucking data.

Silly Geese and Ugly Ducklings

Hello and welcome back to another week of reliably unreliable information here at Factually Deficient! After a three-week foray into the realm of history, I think it’s time I answered another science question.

As such, I would like to address the following question from the incomparable Tohrinha:

What’s the correct way to play Duck Duck Goose?

This is a question that has plagued the human race throughout the ages, and I congratulate you that you have finally asked one of the few people actually able to answer it accurately– I, who have made a lifelong study of ducks and their games, and perhaps the only person still living who has learned directly from a duck how this game is supposed to be played.

First of all, this game can only be properly played in the spring– late March or early April, ideally– when the Canadian Geese are returning from their southern sojourns that took place over the winter. A game of Duck Duck Goose at any other time of the year is mere pantomime, and the players will have to find some way to simulate the actions of the geese.

In order to set up the game, one needs to gather a group of ducks, some other birds of one’s own choosing, and stand with them together in an open field– preferably one where geese are known to frequent, but any field will do if you are confident that your birdcalls will be loud enough.

The participants begin by letting all the birds fly free in the field, requesting of the birds that they fly low enough to run the risk of collisions with people’s heads. Every time a player sees a bird approaching someone’s head, he or she must shout “Duck!” while ducking his or her own head. When this happens, the birds, for their part, will call out loudly, attracting (with any luck) the geese.

When a goose, returning from the winter, approaches, everyone must shout, all together, “Goose!” and dive for the ground while trying to hold a bird carefully but tightly to their chests. Each time a goose lands, everyone not holding a duck is out of the game, until at last there is one winner, and a field full of freshly-arrived geese (not to mention the ducks and all the other birds).

This game is highly enjoyable for everyone involved, ducks, humans, and other birds, and provides the returning gese with a warm and convivial welcome from their winter detainments.

Disclaimer: Many of the assertions in this blog are not entirely accurate. The writer cannot speak for all birds.


Bauer il Palazzo (Deluxe Suite)

San Marco 1413/D, Venice, Veneto, 30124
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Hotel Details

## Overview Bauers Il Palazzo is a stunning 5-star hotel offering luxury accommodation in the heart of Venice. Highlights include fine dining, a modern wellness complex, stunning Venetian Gothic architecture and an excellent location on the Grand Canal. ## Location San Marco is a historic central district surrounding the world-famous St Mark's Square. It boasts a wealth of beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings. Nearby places of interest include the Doge's Palace, St Mark's Basilica, the Bridge of Sighs, Harry's Bar and the ornate palaces of the Grand Canal. San Marco Vallaresso water bus stop is located in the vicinity, providing fast and easy access to other popular Venice destinations. ## Exterior The hotel is housed in an 18th-century Venetian Gothic palazzo, its highly decorative brick facade featuring elegant window frames and white stone balconies. ## Leisure Facilities Facilities include a modern fitness centre, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and a spa complex offering a range of massages and wellness treatments. Chargeable Wi-Fi is available throughout the premises. ## Rooms Deluxe Suites are approximately 45sqm and decorated in a sumptuous, traditional style with Murano glass chandeliers, antique furniture and beautiful patterned fabrics and wallpaper. Amenities include air-conditioning, a flat-screen satellite TV, separate sitting area, mini-bar, work desk and safe. The marble en-suite bathrooms feature a bathtub, shower and luxury toiletries. ## Restaurant and bar De Pisis restaurant serves contemporary Mediterranean cuisine with a subtle Asian influence, its opulent setting decorated in the elegant style of Venice in its heyday. Guests can enjoy exquisite snacks, light meals, stunning Grand Canal views and delicious cocktails at 7th-floor Settimo Cielo, whilst the chic, interior B-Bar offers live music and sumptuous modern decor. A buffet breakfast is provided every morning and there are also plenty of dining opportunities in the vicinity. ## Other Information The hotel has a 24-hour reception.


Gandhi Speaks the Truth

The similarities between the times when India was ruled by the British and the state of the world today are strikingly similar. The Britishers would have loved to impose the surveillance society and tyrannical laws that exists today, particularly in the US and UK.

Everyday the media does its best to convince us that a little loss of Freedom and Liberty here and there is alright for National Security purposes. Terrorism seems to be the Mantra for those in power to control the actions and thoughts of the populace. The majority is disarmed through fear and propaganda about Wars, Pandemics and Economic crises that leads to them living in an environment of insecurity and hopelessness. Meanwhile, the Government is busy privatizing the gains to a few and socializing the losses to many, and expanding it’s Empire overseas with Illegal wars. And, if it senses opposition building in the public, it makes use of false flag attacks to confuse them and justify it’s actions.

Gandhi may be dead, but his message still remains as relevant as it was more than 50 years ago, and it would serve us well to listen and ponder what he had to say when the people of India were being oppressed by the tyrannical British Empire. Because, eventually, History might just Repeat itself. ist seit 2007 das erste freie Videoportal Deutschlands, welches frei zugängliche Videos in Form von Berichten, Dokumentationen, Diskussionen, Filmen, Interviews, Livestreams, Musik-Videos, Serien, Trailer, Video-Clips und Vorträge in einer Mediathek vereint.

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Adorno is one of the leading cultural thinkers of the twentieth century. This is the first detailed account of Adorno's texts on music from a sociological perspective. In clear, non-technical language, Robert Witkin guides the reader through the complexities of Adorno's argument about the link between music and morality and between musical works and social structure. It was largely through these works Adorno established the right of the arts to be acknowledged as a moral and critical force in the development of a modern ...

Adorno on Music 2005, Taylor and Francis, London, England

ISBN-13: 9780415162913

Adorno on Music 1998, Routledge, London, England

ISBN-13: 9780415162920

Trade paperback


Public Release:

Navy evaluating second electromagnetic railgun innovative naval prototype

Office of Naval Research

The EM Railgun launcher is a long-range naval weapon that fires projectiles using electricity instead of traditional gun propellants such as explosive chemicals. Magnetic fields created by high electrical currents accelerate a sliding metal conductor, or armature, between two rails to launch projectiles at 4,500-5,600 mph.

The Navy is pursuing development of the launcher system through two industry teams--General Atomics and BAE Systems--to reduce risk in the program and to foster innovation in next-generation shipboard weapons.

"It's exciting to see how two different teams are both delivering very relevant but unique launcher solutions," said Roger Ellis, EM Railgun program manager.

General Atomics has delivered its prototype launcher to Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division, where engineers have engaged in a series of tests similar to the evaluations conducted on the prototype demonstrator made by BAE Systems that arrived on Jan. 30.

"We're evaluating and learning from both prototype designs, and we'll be folding what we learn from the evaluations into the next phase of the program," said Ellis.

Both General Atomics and BAE Systems are commencing work on concept designs for a next-generation prototype EM Railgun capable of increased firing rates. This includes continued development of automatic projectile loading systems and thermal management systems for the barrel. Officials plan to evaluate the concept designs at the end of the year.

The EM Railgun is an Innovative Naval Prototype being managed by ONR's Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department. The two prototype demonstrators incorporate advanced composites and improved barrel life performance resulting from development efforts on laboratory railgun systems located at the Naval Research Laboratory and NSWC-Dahlgren Division.

The EM Railgun laboratory demonstrator based at NSWC-Dahlgren Division fired a world record setting 33-megajoule shot in December 2010. One megajoule of energy is equivalent to a 1-ton car traveling at 100 miles per hour.


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Using a cDNA microarray 12 differentially expressed genes were identified in a multidrug resistant (MDR) cell line K562/A02. The differential expression of sorcin, which was one of the 12 genes, has been confirmed by Northern blot. To determine the clinical role of sorcin, we have measured its expression in leukemic blast cells of 65 acute myeloid leukemia(More)
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Polyurethanes with regular and controlled block arrangement, i.e., alternating block polyurethanes (abbreviated as PUCL-alt-PEG) based on poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL-diol) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was prepared via selectively coupling reaction between PCL-diol and diisocyanate end-capped PEG. Chemical structure, molecular weight, distribution, and(More)
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• This Executive Order Raises Both Costs and Complexity

    This is a more intensive process than the current one, calling for even more resources, obviating the argument.

    Regarding your editorial “Obama’s Immigration Rebuke” (Feb. 18): The administration and Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel’s argument in defending President Obama’s executive order on immigration—that it needs to exercise prosecutorial discretion in deportation proceedings because of limited resources—is fundamentally flawed. How is it that the resources available to the Department of Homeland Security are going to be used more efficiently by adopting the executive order’s policy?

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By adding a second parameter, Conway and Maxwell created a new distribution for situations where data deviate from the standard Poisson distribution. This new distribution contains a normalization constant expressed as an infinite sum whose summation has no known closed-form expression. Shmueli et al. produced an approximation for this sum but proved that it was valid only for integer values of the second parameter, although they conjectured it was also valid for non-integers. Here we prove their conjecture to be true and discuss for what range of parameters the approximation can be accurately applied.


S e e k a g o

(Projection/Performance Installation 2013)

SeekagoPerhaps we were meant? To live in breaths that hold life, passion, sorrow,and joy. They opened the door and it all started… Seekago is five experimental films that in their entirety tell a love story of two characters, the Traveler and the Bagged Woman. It begins with birth and death, into journey and experience, to love and sacrifice, to survival and community, and finally transcendence into a world beyond. However, each film in the series also works independently as an individual piece telling its own story, commenting on areas of human and environmental ecology.

SEEKAGO is Breathing, Asphalt, The Chicken and the Coyote, Feast, and Flight.

Seekago can be presented on many platforms: as a film, as a projection installation, or as a performance.

Zero1 Garage San Jose, Sub Zero Festival

chickeninforest3-1-1We performed live Maquettes from the film series Seekago as well as installed six projection installations throughout the gallery.  The show was a complete success drawing over 2500 people.,

We Seek They Seek

Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

This Performance was an experimental melding of vultures, robots, and leaches to tell the story of decomposition and rebirth.  This installation was strictly performance based where the characters used the entire space of the Museum as well as the surrounding blocks to tell the lives and deaths of the Characters.  After the Performance we held a question and answer.

ZERO1 Biennial San Jose California 2012

Directed by Tina Matthews, eve Warnock and Colin McDonald

Denizen is a performance, sound, and video projection based work that draws inspiration from local native mythology.  It explores life and the therefore imminent approach of death; using the Coyote as a central character.  The coyote is a native to the California area and has prospered through all the human developments. Even though its natural habitat is being reduced, its population has grown by assimilating to the human culture and living off human bi-products. In the time of the Ohlone people, native to the bay area, the coyote was a main figure of their mythology; portrayed as a character of wit and cunning and contributing to the creation of humankind. The coyote is an instigator, and an animal that has the ability to adapt, while remaining wild and uncontrolled.

Through song and movement, an expression of origin and ancestry will be explored – illustrating successes, failures, and tactics of survival.  Silicon Valley, on the leading edge of technology, modernity, and progress, gives context to Denizen, a piece questioning:  Do we adapt our materials and knowledge to re-unite with our animal ancestry, or do we continue our current path, separating ourselves further and therefore creating an alien nation?

01-defining-1Denizen was highlighted in this Article in the NEA ARTS magazine

NEA ARTS: Defining Creative Placemaking: A Talk with Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

In September 2012, NEA Design Director Jason Schupbach talked with Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, authors of Creative Placemaking, a white paper commissioned by the Mayors’ Institute on City Design

 Queen Mae and the Bells

Modern Opera troupe that performed guerilla in the streets, museums, universities, and galleries

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Tag Archives: cmb

Ionospheric effects not detrimental to EoR detection from ground : CAASTRO Research

The Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) is the time in the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies formed and re-ionised the neutral hydrogen. Indirect information about the EoR has been obtained from the Cosmic Microwave Background and spectra of the distant quasars. However, the bulk of information about the physical parameters of the EoR is encoded in the 21cm line (1420 MHz) from neutral hydrogen redshifted into the low radio frequency range 200 – 50 MHz, for redshifts of 6 < z < 30.

The observational approaches range from large interferometer arrays to single antenna experiments. The latter, so-called global EoR experiments, spatially average the signal from the entire visible sky and try to identify the tiny signature of the EoR (of order 100 milliKelvin, which is a few orders of magnitude smaller than the Galactic foregrounds) in the sky-averaged spectrum. This extremely challenging precision requires very long observations (hundreds of hours) to achieve a sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, ground-based global EoR experiments are affected by frequency-dependent effects (i.e. absorption and refraction) due to the propagation of radio-waves in the Earth’s ionosphere. The amplitude of these effects changes in time. There has therefore been an ongoing discussion in the literature on the importance of ionospheric effects and whether the global EoR signature can feasibly be detected from the ground.BIGHORNS_Sky_avg_SN_integr

The team of CAASTRO researches at Curtin University, led by Dr Marcin Sokolowski, used three months’ worth of 2014/2015 data collected with the BIGHORNS system with a conical log-spiral antenna deployed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory to study the impact of the ionosphere on its capability to detect the global EoR signal. Comparison of data collected on different days at the same sidereal time enabled the researchers to infer some properties of the ionosphere, such as electron temperature (Te≈470 K at night-time) and amplitude and variability of ionospheric absorption of radio waves. Furthermore, the data sample shows that the sky-averaged spectrum indeed varies in time due to fluctuations of these ionospheric properties. Nevertheless, the data analysis indicates that averaging over very long observations (several days or even several weeks) suppresses the noise and leads to an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the ionospheric effects and fluctuations are not fundamental impediments that prevent ground-based instruments, such as BIGHORNS, from integrating down to the precision required for global EoR experiments, provided that the ionospheric contribution is properly accounted for in the data analysis.

Publication details:

The impact of the ionosphere on ground-based detection of the global Epoch of Reionisation signal

Polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

PLANCK Reveals First Starts Were Formed Much Later Than Previously Thought

New maps from ESA’s Planck satellite uncover the ‘polarised’ light from the early Universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars formed much later than previously thought.

The history of our Universe is a 13.8 billion-year tale that scientists endeavour to read by studying the planets, asteroids, comets and other objects in our Solar System, and gathering light emitted by distant stars, galaxies and the matter spread between them.

Polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background Credit: ESA/PLANCK
Polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

A major source of information used to piece together this story is the Cosmic Microwave Background, or CMB, the fossil light resulting from a time when the Universe was hot and dense, only 380 000 years after the Big Bang.

Thanks to the expansion of the Universe, we see this light today covering the whole sky at microwave wavelengths.

Between 2009 and 2013, Planck surveyed the sky to study this ancient light in unprecedented detail. Tiny differences in the background’s temperature trace regions of slightly different density in the early cosmos, representing the seeds of all future structure, the stars and galaxies of today.

Scientists from the Planck collaboration have published the results from the analysis of these data in a large number of scientific papers over the past two years, confirming the standard cosmological picture of our Universe with ever greater accuracy.

History of the Universe Credit:ESA
History of the Universe

“But there is more: the CMB carries additional clues about our cosmic history that are encoded in its ‘polarisation’,” explains Jan Tauber, ESA’s Planck project scientist.

“Planck has measured this signal for the first time at high resolution over the entire sky, producing the unique maps released today.”

Light is polarised when it vibrates in a preferred direction, something that may arise as a result of photons – the particles of light – bouncing off other particles. This is exactly what happened when the CMB originated in the early Universe.

Initially, photons were trapped in a hot, dense soup of particles that, by the time the Universe was a few seconds old, consisted mainly of electrons, protons and neutrinos. Owing to the high density, electrons and photons collided with one another so frequently that light could not travel any significant distant before bumping into another electron, making the early Universe extremely ‘foggy’.

Slowly but surely, as the cosmos expanded and cooled, photons and the other particles grew farther apart, and collisions became less frequent.

This had two consequences: electrons and protons could finally combine and form neutral atoms without them being torn apart again by an incoming photon, and photons had enough room to travel, being no longer trapped in the cosmic fog.

Once freed from the fog, the light was set on its cosmic journey that would take it all the way to the present day, where telescopes like Planck detect it as the CMB. But the light also retains a memory of its last encounter with the electrons, captured in its polarisation.

“The polarisation of the CMB also shows minuscule fluctuations from one place to another across the sky: like the temperature fluctuations, these reflect the state of the cosmos at the time when light and matter parted company,” says François Bouchet of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France.

“This provides a powerful tool to estimate in a new and independent way parameters such as the age of the Universe, its rate of expansion and its essential composition of normal matter, dark matter and dark energy.”

Planck’s polarisation data confirm the details of the standard cosmological picture determined from its measurement of the CMB temperature fluctuations, but add an important new answer to a fundamental question: when were the first stars born?

“After the CMB was released, the Universe was still very different from the one we live in today, and it took a long time until the first stars were able to form,” explains Marco Bersanelli of Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy.

“Planck’s observations of the CMB polarisation now tell us that these ‘Dark Ages’ ended some 550 million years after the Big Bang – more than 100 million years later than previously thought.

“While these 100 million years may seem negligible compared to the Universe’s age of almost 14 billion years, they make a significant difference when it comes to the formation of the first stars.”

The Dark Ages ended as the first stars began to shine. And as their light interacted with gas in the Universe, more and more of the atoms were turned back into their constituent particles: electrons and protons.

This key phase in the history of the cosmos is known as the ‘epoch of reionisation’.

The newly liberated electrons were once again able to collide with the light from the CMB, albeit much less frequently now that the Universe had significantly expanded. Nevertheless, just as they had 380 000 years after the Big Bang, these encounters between electrons and photons left a tell-tale imprint on the polarisation of the CMB.

“From our measurements of the most distant galaxies and quasars, we know that the process of reionisation was complete by the time that the Universe was about 900 million years old,” says George Efstathiou of the University of Cambridge, UK.

“But, at the moment, it is only with the CMB data that we can learn when this process began.”

Planck’s new results are critical, because previous studies of the CMB polarisation seemed to point towards an earlier dawn of the first stars, placing the beginning of reionisation about 450 million years after the Big Bang.

This posed a problem. Very deep images of the sky from the NASA–ESA Hubble Space Telescope have provided a census of the earliest known galaxies in the Universe, which started forming perhaps 300–400 million years after the Big Bang.

However, these would not have been powerful enough to succeed at ending the Dark Ages within 450 million years.

“In that case, we would have needed additional, more exotic sources of energy to explain the history of reionisation,” says Professor Efstathiou.

The new evidence from Planck significantly reduces the problem, indicating that reionisation started later than previously believed, and that the earliest stars and galaxies alone might have been enough to drive it.

This later end of the Dark Ages also implies that it might be easier to detect the very first generation of galaxies with the next generation of observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

But the first stars are definitely not the limit. With the new Planck data released today, scientists are also studying the polarisation of foreground emission from gas and dust in the Milky Way to analyse the structure of the Galactic magnetic field.

The data have also enabled new important insights into the early cosmos and its components, including the intriguing dark matter and the elusive neutrinos, as described in papers also released today.

The Planck data have delved into the even earlier history of the cosmos, all the way to inflation – the brief era of accelerated expansion that the Universe underwent when it was a tiny fraction of a second old. As the ultimate probe of this epoch, astronomers are looking for a signature of gravitational waves triggered by inflation and later imprinted on the polarisation of the CMB.

No direct detection of this signal has yet been achieved, as reported last week. However, when combining the newest all-sky Planck data with those latest results, the limits on the amount of primordial gravitational waves are pushed even further down to achieve the best upper limits yet.

“These are only a few highlights from the scrutiny of Planck’s observations of the CMB polarisation, which is revealing the sky and the Universe in a brand new way,” says Jan Tauber.

“This is an incredibly rich data set and the harvest of discoveries has just begun.”

A series of scientific papers describing the new results was published on 5 February and it can be downloaded here.

The new results from Planck are based on the complete surveys of the entire sky, performed between 2009 and 2013. New data, including temperature maps of the CMB at all nine frequencies observed by Planck and polarisation maps at four frequencies (30, 44, 70 and 353 GHz), are also released today.

The three principal scientific leaders of the Planck mission, Nazzareno Mandolesi, Jean-Loup Puget and Jan Tauber, were recently awarded the 2015 EPS Edison Volta Prize for “directing the development of the Planck payload and the analysis of its data, resulting in the refinement of our knowledge of the temperature fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background as a vastly improved tool for doing precision cosmology at unprecedented levels of accuracy, and consolidating our understanding of the very early universe.

More about Planck

Launched in 2009, Planck was designed to map the sky in nine frequencies using two state-of-the-art instruments: the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI), which includes three frequency bands in the range 30–70 GHz, and the High Frequency Instrument (HFI), which includes six frequency bands in the range 100–857 GHz.

HFI completed its survey in January 2012, while LFI continued to make science observations until 3 October 2013, before being switched off on 19 October 2013. Seven of Planck’s nine frequency channels were equipped with polarisation-sensitive detectors.

These scientists are members of one or more of four consortia: the LFI Consortium, the HFI Consortium, the DK-Planck Consortium, and ESA’s Planck Science Office. The two European-led Planck Data Processing Centres are located in Paris, France and Trieste, Italy.

The LFI consortium is led by N. Mandolesi, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy (deputy PI: M. Bersanelli, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy), and was responsible for the development and operation of LFI. The HFI consortium is led by J.L. Puget, Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud), France (deputy PI: F. Bouchet, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (CNRS/UPMC), France), and was responsible for the development and operation of HFI.

Source: ESA


domingo, 7 de setembro de 2014

Perfil - Sara Blake

ZSO or Sara Blake, if you like. she is illustrator, fine artist, and designer, living and loving in New York City.

ZSO (pronounced |zo|) is a collection of letters that I find aesthetically and phonetically beautiful, culled together from some personally significant people, places, and things. Together they make a sound much like “so,” the adverb which means "to such a great extent.” She is  a person of extremes, for better or worse (most often the latter), so the ring of it was fitting, and the moniker has since stuck for good.

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Culture, Rational Choice, and Economic Development.

Okay, here are my thoughts with a little more elaboration. Once I know what the heck I mean when thinking of culture, I think I'll write a paper on it. If you have any disagreements, please let me know! Debate can only clarify my thoughts.

What is culture? Culture is the sum of knowledge that is irrational – that is neither logically consistent nor empirically verifiable. Why do people have knowledge that is irrational? Because there exists uncertainty – uncertainty in the way that Frank Knight meant it, as the fundamental ignorance of the future that a probability distribution cannot be applied to it, in other words, something that cannot be insured against, to differentiate it from risk. If there is certainty, or if there is an objective probability distribution of something, then all action collapses into rational action, as there is an objective constraint that can be maximized.
So when do we run into uncertainty? As Douglass North notes, much of human history has been the story of bringing our understanding of the physical world out of uncertainty into certainty, and thus changing our knowledge of it from irrational, ie religion, witchcraft, etc., into the rational, or functional relationships between things. By doing so, we have made human interaction more complex, so that uncertainty has increased – while primitive hunter gatherers had to construct an irrational system in order to understand the world, their interpersonal relations were relatively rational: those within the family were to be protected and had enumerated roles; women bore children and gathered resources, men hunted, and outsiders were threats. Given this worldview, the ends that individuals pursued could be rationally planned; the means which people pursued those ends were fraught with true uncertainty – would dancing a certain way bring rain? Would eating the brains of your enemies give you their power? Primitive culture, then, is primarily found in the means that people use to pursue common ends.

In the modern world, the physical world is much more predictable. We still do not know exactly what the weather will look like tomorrow, but we know that we cannot affect it by dancing, and we have a fairly good idea what causes the weather that does occur. True uncertainty these days lies in two places – in ourselves, and in other people. Our culture has developed in order to help us deal with this aspect of human life. Our lives are non-ergodic, to use the term that North uses. An ergodic system is one which returns to a previous state; our selves never regress to a previous state – at every moment of time we are a different person that we were previously, and we can never know who we will be in the future. The ends we pursue are irrational – determined by our culture. There is also uncertainty in other people, how they will react to things, their motivations, etc. How we perceive other people and their motivations has enormous implications for the functioning of the economy: if we believe people are primarily well intentioned, then cooperation and coordination are going to be easier, and the economy will do better than if we never trust the motivations of others. If we see someone innovating in some way, and we believe that this innovation will lead people to do things we don’t approve of, then we will try and quash the innovation.

Again, the only reason for culture is this fundamental uncertainty about the world. If the ends we pursue we all well defined, and the means of pursuing them were all simple functional relationships, then there would be no question what society should look like, and there would be no differences across societies. But given uncertainty things must be interpreted – and the way people interpret things is irrational.
Now, uncertain does not mean completely random, and irrational does not mean completely arbitrary. Psychological studies show that personality is relatively fixed for most people after the age of 30, which makes planning for oneself much easier. The fact that people engage in projects that are long term implies that we expect our future selves to want to pursue similar ends as our present self. And people’s culture is based on reasonable interpretations of past events. This is why we as economists can talk about it – while culture is inherently individual, it is based on shared events and a mental framework which has parts to it which are shared with similar people.

So what does this have to do with how economists usually talk about culture?

1) Culture as preferences – This shows us that culture and preferences are not the same thing. Culture is certainly important in determining the ends which an individual pursues, but it is not the same thing. The preferences of the primitive tribe – the desire to eat, sleep away from exposure, reproduce, etc, are all instinctual, given by genes. As these lower level needs are met, then culture can shape the ends that people pursue

2) Culture as capital – Insofar as the irrational beliefs of people lead to production being better coordinated, culture can be thought of as capital. It is really the same thing as sociologists and mainstream economists talk about social capital, though.

3) Comparative Cultural Advantage (a la Lavoie and Chamlee-Wright) – It is useful to talk about comparative advantage when we talk about the production of goods or services which are consumed. Culture certainly shapes the productive capacity of a country or group of people, but countries do not compete on margins of culture. So saying that a country has a comparative cultural advantage in work ethic is ultimately meaningless, but saying that the attitude towards work affects a country’s comparative advantage in automobile production is valid.

4)Culture as a constitution – this metaphor, made by Storr and John, is useful in the sense that both arise out of the desire to limit uncertainty. If the actions of public officials were known with certainty, then a constitution would be unnecessary, just as culture would be unnecessary without uncertainty.

Should we even talk about culture?

As rational choice theorists, we take ends as given and analyze only the means used to attain those ends. If culture is, today, primarily about the selection of ends, then economists should ignore it and stick to the means used to attain those ends.
The problem arises when the question of economic development comes up. Economic development is never the intended goal of individual actors, but the unintended consequence of those actors in building an economy which makes coordination and cooperation easier. The economist can talk about economic development in three ways.

1) As students of society, we can look at the ends which people pursue which tend to lead to increased economic cooperation, and those ends which people pursue which do not. There need not be any comment about the desirability of the ends, or even the desirability of improved economic cooperation. The rational choice theorist must stay silent on such matters. What he can speak up on is the compatibility of means with stated ends – as Mises and Hayek were in the calculation debate, arguing that socialism and economic performance superior to capitalism were inherently incompatible.

2) As people who believe that improved economic coordination is inherently better for humanity, we can be preachers advocating for ends which lead to economic development, and we can help reframe the actions of others, in particular merchants and innovators, in a positive light. This is the economist as preacher, and is the goal of economists like Deirdre McCloskey, who wants to recast the Bourgeoisie as heroes. The economist here is ultimately usurping the stated ends of individuals with her own, but doing so through persuasion rather than coercion.

3) The economist, finally, can be the planner. There is one case in which the choice of an individual has to do with economic development – that of the policymaker. The policymaker has a vested interest in the economic performance of the society he has influence over, so the economist in advising him can legitimately advise usurping the ends of individuals in society through coercion. The morality of so advising is questionable.

  1. Ryan,

    After attempting to read these two posts on culture, I basically have no idea what you are talking about. Are you explaining culture, or ideology?

    I don't really know what you mean by "irrational" or "rational" here. Irrational like "not directed at ends"?

    But yeah, I'm confused.

  2. So, I make the distinction between three types of knowing: Certain, risky, and uncertain. If we have well-defined ends and well-understood means (ie, certainty), then rational choice is simply the process of solving an engineering problem. Riskiness is where there are objective probabilities ex ante that describe the situation, so choosing is simply a matter of risk aversion.

    Uncertainty is where there is no known/inferred ex-ante probability distribution something will happen. The knowledge about these situations will be culture, of which ideology is a subset (at least as I view it...). To people who believe the rain is connected with their actions, the rain will be uncertain (rather then risky, which it is to us) so the way people interpret the connection between their actions and rain will be cultural. Above, when I say 'rational' I mean 'the choices of a determined problem' and irrational as 'the knowledge of a poorly determined problem'. In the praxeological sense it's all rational.

    Basically, if I'm not making sense it's because I'm still confused.


In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person’s will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime, or in connection with a child custody dispute. In some countries such as the United States a large number of child abductions arise after separation or divorce when one parent wishes to keep a child against the will of the other or against a court order.

Probable Penalties & Consequences
Conviction for kidnapping can generate punishment from three, five, or eight years in state prison. For a child younger than fourteen years old the prison term increases to five, eight, or eleven years. If murder during a kidnapping, first degree murder resulting in a sentence of life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty.

Representing Clients Charged with Crimes

Mark Waecker’s commitment to superior performance and results consistently achieves favorable settlements or dismissals.


Division of Health SciencesThe Harriet and John Wooten Laboratory

Health Sciences Campus

Dr. Tuan Tran

Dr. Tuan Tran

Associate Professor, Psychology

Other web sites:
Department of Psychology

My research involves studying rodent models of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

The main neurodevelopmental disorder I have focused on is fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which includes fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other maternal alcohol-related deficits. Rodents are used to help explain the phenomenology, teratology, and neuropathology seen in human cases of FASDs. Currently, I am examining whether early alcohol exposure in rodents leads to learning deficits as measured by eyeblink classical conditioning, the most well-studied form of associative learning in mammalian neuroscience. To determine whether the early alcohol insult also results in brain dysfunction that correlates with the behavioral deficits, I use a variety of histological, histochemical, and morphometric techniques. It is hoped that answers about alcohol's impact on brain-behavior relationships can be better understood in animals, and in turn guide research that examines chemical or behavioral therapies that minimize or prevent such a deplorable condition in humans. Currently, we are examining the potential benefits of micronutrients such as choline and antioxidants such as vitamin E in minimizing the detrimental impacts of fetal alcohol exposure on the brain and behavior.

In terms of neurodegenerative disorders, I am examining behavioral and cognitive deficits in triple-transgenic (3xTg-AD) mice that bear the PS1-M146V, APP-Swe, and tauP301L mutations - mutations that are hallmark features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In collaboration with investigators at Brody School of Medicine, we hope to test the feasibility of experimental therapeutic agents that have gained much interest as of late in minimizing the impact of AD in animal models.


Walking the Amazon

On 9th August 2010, Ed Stafford became the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River in South America from the source to the sea. He walked for 860 days. No-one had ever done what he attempted.

“Truly extraordinary… in the top league of expeditions past and present.” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Ed filmed and blogged his deadly journey and engaged followers all over the world for two and a half years. His epic adventure made headline news, featuring in over 900 articles and on every major news channel in the UK and United States.

His mission complete, Ed’s footage from the trip was made into a Discovery Channel documentary and was sold to over 100 countries. He also wrote about his adventures and his book, Walking the Amazon, has been translated into Mandarin, Ukranian, Polish and Spanish.

His tale of true grit, bravery and determination to succeed against all odds has led to him being described by The Daily Mail as; “Britain’s most intrepid hero since Scott of the Antarctic” and “A true hero” by The Times.

Visit the Walking the Amazon website


Procedures & General Eligibility

WE DO NOT accept individual applications. Applicants must apply through their home institution and should identify through their Study Abroad Office if an association with us exists or is in the process of being arranged. Students at a US college or university which does not at the present time have an affiliation with OPUS may apply to this program through other affiliated universities.

Institutions of post-secondary education, whether private or public, interested in arranging a program in Oxford through the auspices of OPUS should contact us.

Prospective applicants should be in their Junior Year and have a minimum GPA of 3.4 in their major and 3.2 overall. The major GPA score of most participants tends to be above 3.8. Additional criteria for admission include the submission of an example of a written piece of work by the student, a statement of purpose, and recommendations from two faculty members.


Astronomers Uncover a 'Transformer' Pulsar

  • An international team of scientists using a fleet of orbiting X-ray telescopes, including NASA's Swift and Chandra X-ray Observatory, has discovered a millisecond pulsar with a dual identity. In a feat that has never before been observed, the star readily shifts back and forth between two mutually exclusive styles of pulsed emission -- one in X-rays, the other in radio.

    The discovery, say scientists, represents a long-sought intermediate phase in the life of these powerful objects.

    This animation illustrates how an old pulsar in a binary system can be reactivated -- and sped up to a millisecond spin -- by accreting gas from its companion star.

    "This transitional object took us decades to find, and it provides us with a unique opportunity to observe a pulsar's intense magnetic field in action," said Sergio Campana, an astronomer at Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy, and a co-author of a paper on the object that appears in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Nature.

    What flips the switch from X-rays to radio and back is the rise and fall of gas streaming onto the pulsar from a normal companion star.

    A pulsar is a magnetized neutron star that emits regular pulses of light. A neutron star is the closest thing to a black hole that astronomers can observe directly, compressing half a million times Earth's mass into a ball no larger than a city. Once the core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova, a neutron star is so dense that a teaspoonful weighs as much as a mountain.

    Millisecond pulsars combine incredible density and powerful magnetic fields with extreme rotation. The fastest one known whirls at 43,000 revolutions per minute. Astronomers think they achieve such speeds because these pulsars reside in binary systems with normal stars.

    During part of their stellar lives, gas flows from the normal star and falls onto the neutron star, heating to millions of degrees and emitting X-rays in the process. The pulsar's magnetic field directs the infalling gas onto its magnetic poles, producing hot spots that rotate with the neutron star and give rise to regular X-ray pulses.

    The gas rains onto the pulsar's surface with incredible force, producing X-rays in the process, and ultimately coats the neutron star in a layer of hydrogen and helium fuel. When this layer reaches a certain depth, the fuel undergoes a runaway thermonuclear reaction and explodes, creating intense X-ray bursts. Over time, the gas stream also gradually speeds up the pulsar's rotation.

    After about a billion years, the gas flow from the normal star declines and eventually stops, putting an end to X-ray pulses powered by the accretion of gas. But thanks to its increased spin and intense magnetic field, which together produce radio emission, the neutron star could continue operating as a radio pulsar.

    On March 28, the European Space Agency's (ESA) International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory detected a flash of X-rays from a previously unknown source. This object, dubbed IGR J18245-2452, was observed by Swift's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) the following day, resulting in a more precise position. This enabled astronomers to place the source at the core of the globular star cluster M28, which is located about 18,000 light-years away toward the constellation Sagittarius.

    "Swift provided the first accurate, subarcminute localization of the X-ray burst, which allowed for the additional discovery of the pulsar's radio waves by the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA)," said Jamie Kennea, a Swift team member at Penn State.

    A week after the discovery, a team led by Alessandro Papitto of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, directed ESA's XMM-Newton satellite toward the object. It detected X-ray pulses, which indicated a neutron star spinning once every 3.9 milliseconds or at about 15,000 rpm. By analyzing changes in the arrival times of these pulses, the scientists established that the pulsar was joined by a small companion star less than one-fifth the mass of our sun. The two stars orbit each other every 11 hours.
    On April 5, the team detected variable radio emission with ATCA, but then, two days later, the object fired off an intense burst of X-rays carrying the tell-tale signature of a thermonuclear explosion on the surface of a neutron star.

    "Swift's Burst Alert Telescope was dynamically triggered by X-ray bursts from this star, which allowed its XRT to rapidly confirm the thermonuclear character of this explosion," said John Nousek, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and director of the Swift Mission Operations Center at Penn State, which controls the spacecraft's science and flight operations.

    With the pulsar's spin and orbital characteristics in hand, a team led by Alessandro Papitto of the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, compared them to parameters for known radio pulsars in M28 and found a perfect match with PSR J1824-2452I.

    Observations later that month using NASA's Chandra observatory pinpointed the location of the X-ray source, but radio observations performed around the same time failed to detect radio emission. Astronomers using the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in Australia, the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia then began an intensive campaign and were able to sporadically detect the pulsar's radio emissions.

    Within weeks, the same pulsar showed clear evidence of accretion-powered X-ray emissions, as indicated by thermonuclear explosions, and rotation-powered signals at radio wavelengths. What was going on?

    Papitto and his team think the answer lies in the interplay between the pulsar's magnetic field and variations in the gas flow from the companion.
    During periods when the mass flow is less intense, the magnetic field sweeps away the gas and prevents it from reaching the surface and creating X-ray emission. With the region around the neutron star relatively gas free, radio signals can easily escape and astronomers detect a radio pulsar.

    Astronomers had expected these kinds of changes to occur on million-year timescales. But thanks to an international fleet of space-borne telescopes and support from many observatories on the ground, scientists now have uncovered the truth of IGR J18245-2452, the amazing quick-change artist among pulsars.

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Sound dampening

Insulating glass units become sound dampening when the different glass layers oscillate at different frequencies. With only a few exceptions Vitral use single layer glass outside and laminated safety glass inside – i.e. glass with different frequencies.

The choice of glass in combination with frame profiles, which also has a sound dampening effect, gives total roof glazing solutions with good sound dampening properties.
In very noisy surroundings the sound dampening effect can be further improved by optimizing individual glass thicknesses.
A large part of Vitral’s products are sound tested and the sound dampening properties are documented.
Please contact Vitral for advice about your specific project.


Macronutrients, commonly referred to as macros, are the nutrients we eat in large quantities that provide us with energy. There are three types of macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat.

The first macronutrient is the carbohydrate. Carbs are commonly believed to be the enemy when it comes to weight loss. This is not true! As someone who exercises, carbs are an essential part of your diet. Carbs serve as the main fuel source when our muscles are working hard. If you don’t provide your body with carbs, it will breakdown other chemical compounds (like protein) to use as a fuel source, which can hinder your ability to achieve weight loss or weight gain goals.

There are, of course, some carbs that are better than others. Good carbohydrates mainly fall in the class of vegetables and fruits. Most people don’t even realize these healthy foods are actually carbs. Eating multigrain or whole wheat options when it comes to bread and rice is better than eating white. Similarly, oatmeal or bran cereals are healthier carb choices than colorful cereal brands. Carbs to avoid include pastries and desserts, sodas and artificial syrups, and thick and doughy white breads or grains.

The next macronutrient is protein. Meals or snacks that contain protein are great choices to feel satisfied for longer amounts of time. This ensures that snacking or overeating is kept to a minimum, and intense hunger won’t strike as often between meals.

Eating all your protein in one meal is not as effective to your diet as getting your protein in smaller portions throughout the day. Since eating high protein snacks in small portions throughout the day is ideal, try a handful or two of trail mix in a Greek yogurt and later on have hummus with vegetables. Don’t just limit your protein intake to dinner like most people do. Eating two hamburgers for dinner and calling that your total protein for the day is not going to help your body get to your set goals. In fact, doing that may hinder you from reaching your goals because you then force your body to process excess protein. Eating too much protein at once can cause your body to have a higher nitrogen balance and work harder to expel the waste.

Aside from lean meats, like chicken or ground beef, foods that are healthy and good sources of protein include eggs, Greek yogurts, legumes (such as beans and peas), hummus, and a variety of fish (salmon, trout), so try to mix things up!

The last macronutrient is fat. Don’t be scared by this! Fat should also be an essential part of your diet. There are such things as “good” and “bad” fats. Fats you want to avoid are usually solid at room temperature, like butter. These are the fats associated with poor cholesterol levels and higher risk of heart disease.

“Good” fats are in foods like avocados, seeds (like flax), almonds, pecans, yogurt, and fish like salmon. These fats help keep your cholesterol levels healthy! The best part about “good” fats is that if you are conscientious of the protein and carbohydrates you consume as mentioned above, these fats are, for the most part, already included in your diet and you don’t need to add them. Eating eggs, fish, legumes, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and the other sources mentioned above all contain the “good” fats you need.

A fourth, but no less important, component to any healthy diet is water. Water is crucial to all of our body’s functions and most people don’t even drink it! Water helps us stay alert, energized, and helps every other body process stay normal. When it comes to diet, most of the time when we feel hungry, we are actually just thirsty. Try to have at least 8 glasses per day, or more, depending on how much you are sweating during your workouts, how active you are, your size, and other health considerations.

Try cutting back as much as possible on drinking carbonated sodas, as they contain empty calories, lots of sugar, and have no nutritional value. Even juices that you think are healthy, like orange juice, should only be had in light moderation, since they contain lots of sugar and empty calories. To see more reasons on why you should drink more water, refer to this article here.

Now that you have more knowledge on what essential nutrients your diet should consist of, try to incorporate a variety of the good foods mentioned above into your daily meals. Eat responsibly and see how smoothly your body will function when it’s getting what it really needs.

10 Reasons to Drink More Water Now

Water makes up most of our planet. It also makes up most of our bodies. Maybe that’s why it’s so vitally important… So important that we wouldn’t even survive 3 days without it. Here’s why you should definitely start drinking more water right now. In fact, you should probably go fill up a glass and sip as you read this article.

  1. You Are Water 60% of your body is water. Water is a key component to almost every single chemical process that occurs in your body. You cannot digest food, maintain a normal temperature, use your muscles, transport waste and nutrients, or even think straight if you don’t have enough water in your system. So to function properly on all cylinders, drink water.
  2. Healthier Skin – Do you have dry skin? Are you breaking out? Can you see red, blotchy patches on your face? Do you have eczema? One solution for all of these skin issues is drinking water. Water helps expel toxins that can cause skin inflammation and irritation. For brighter skin, drink water.
  3. Fatigue Fighter – Feeling tired? Eye lids heavy? Can’t concentrate? These symptoms indicate dehydration. Drink up.
  4. No More Mr. Cranky Pants – Are you often irritable, cranky, or just in a bad mood? This is often a sign of dehydration that most people miss! Drink more water and watch as your mood improves and your mind gets clearer.
  5. Immune System – Drinking water and staying hydrated can help our bodies fight bacteria and viruses, so you’ll likely experience fewer illnesses. Being adequately hydrated also combats congestion and can keep your sinuses clear.
  6. Diet Control – Most of the time when we think we are hungry, we are really just thirsty. Control your portions and unnecessary snacking by drinking a glass of water between and before meals.
  7. Joint Protection – Water naturally lubricates our joints. So when you work out, you won’t feel quite so sore, won’t crack your joints with every movement, and won’t irritate your knees when you do those squat jumps!
  8. Prevent and Cure Hangovers – Alcohol messes with our hormones and leads to dehydration. Prevent dehydration when you know you’ll be drinking by having plenty of water before and after you drink. Similarly, if you wake up the next morning with a headache and nausea, drink water to re-hydrate.
  9. Prevent Headaches – Migraines and headaches can be triggered simply if you are dehydrated. If you’re prone to either, drink more water!
  10. Cancer Prevention – Recent studies indicate that maintaining proper levels of hydration can actually help you lower your risk for certain cancers, including colon cancer, bladder cancer, and even breast cancer. (Don’t believe me? Check out this link and this link.)

There you have it.  Hopefully you’ve been convinced of the value in our most basic human need: water.


Nos. 12-70882, 12-70981.

RODOLFO ARTEAGA-GODINEZ, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney General, Respondent. BRENDA TORRES-PONCE, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS, III, Attorney General, Respondent.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

June 16, 2017.

Rodolfo Arteaga-Godinez ("Arteaga") and his wife, Brenda Torres-Ponce ("Torres"), are Mexican nationals and lawful permanent residents in the United States. On July 6, 2006, Arteaga and Torres attempted to enter the United States with a third Mexican national, Maria Olicema-Hernandez ("Olicema"), who was not a lawful permanent resident but who presented Torres's mother's lawful permanent resident card to immigration agents. The agents determined that the card did not belong to Olicema and arrested her, Arteaga, and Torres. Arteaga and Torres were later charged with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(E)(i) for "knowingly . . . assist[ing] . . . [an]other alien to enter . . . the United States in violation of law."

Before an immigration judge ("IJ"), Arteaga conceded his removability and petitioned for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a).1 The IJ concluded that Arteaga met the requirements for relief under § 1229b(a), but the IJ nonetheless denied Arteaga's petition "as a matter of discretion." Arteaga appealed the IJ's decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA"), and the BIA affirmed.

Arteaga now petitions for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of his application for cancellation of removal. He also petitions for review of the BIA's denial of his motion to remand his case for reconsideration in light of our decision in de Rodriguez-Echeverria v. Mukasey, 534 F.3d 1047 (9th Cir. 2008). We dismiss Arteaga's petition for lack of jurisdiction in part, and we deny his petition in part.

Before a different IJ, Torres contested her removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(E)(i), and filed two motions to terminate her removal proceedings. The IJ denied both motions and ordered Torres removed to Mexico, and the BIA affirmed the IJ's decision and order. In a separate appeal, Torres petitions for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's decision and removal order in her case. We deny Torres's petition for review.

I. Arteaga's Petition for Review

We lack jurisdiction to review the BIA's decision in Arteaga's case insofar as it affirms the denial of Arteaga's application for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a). See 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(2)(B) ("[N]o court shall have jurisdiction to review [] any judgment regarding the granting of relief under . . . [8 U.S.C. §] 1229b."). In reviewing such a decision, we have jurisdiction to decide only "constitutional claims or questions of law." Id. § 1252(a)(2)(D).

The BIA did not commit legal error in affirming the IJ's denial of Arteaga's application. First, the IJ's adverse determination as to Arteaga's credibility was not based on "trivial inconsistencies that under the total circumstances have no bearing on [Arteaga's] veracity." Shrestha v. Holder, 590 F.3d 1034, 1044 (9th Cir. 2010). When he was first arrested, Arteaga told immigration agents that his wife had planned the July 6, 2006 smuggling attempt and had solicited his help. Then, before the IJ, Arteaga testified that he had planned the smuggling attempt as a favor to Olicema's brother, who was a coworker of his. Far from being "utterly trivial," id. at 1043, the IJ reasonably concluded that this inconsistency demonstrated that Arteaga was "willing to . . . manipulate the truth in order to obtain a perceived advantage for his wife's case." The IJ also reasonably determined that the inconsistency undermined Arteaga's credibility with regard to certain claims otherwise favoring cancellation of removal—such as his son's alleged asthma and his mother's alleged limited mobility—which were supported only by Arteaga's own testimony.

Nor did the IJ fail to "provide a specific and cogent reason for rejecting" Arteaga's explanation for the inconsistencies between his testimony and his prior statements to immigration agents. Rizk v. Holder, 629 F.3d 1083, 1088 (9th Cir. 2011). Arteaga testified that Torres had initially told him to "blame everything on [her]," and that he had done so in his interview with immigration agents. Before the IJ, however, Arteaga stated that "it was wrong" to blame his wife when in fact "[he] was the one who did everything," and so he gave the true version of events in his testimony.

The IJ provided a "cogent reason" for rejecting this explanation: Arteaga claimed that Torres had told him the fabricated story that they both later told immigration agents "while they were both detained in a holding cell with many other people," seated ten to twelve feet from one another, during brief intervals when they "pass[ed] the[ir] child back and forth between [them] to make the child stop crying." The IJ found it "very difficult to believe that somebody would be able to transmit a story so rich in detail and be able to later on narrate it with all the details if it was told in such a manner." Instead, the IJ thought it more likely that Arteaga was "trying to protect his wife," who was "not eligible for cancellation" under § 1229b and who was "claiming that . . . she was not culpable" for the smuggling attempt.

The BIA also properly denied Arteaga's motion to remand. Arteaga argues that the statements he made to immigration agents after his arrest were inadmissible in his immigration proceedings because he was never "advised of . . . [his] right to be represented" or warned that "any statement made may be used against him . . . in a subsequent proceeding," as required by 8 C.F.R. § 287.3(c). See id. (requiring immigration agents to notify an alien of these procedural rights after the alien has been "arrested without warrant and placed in formal [removal] proceedings"). Arteaga's motion relied on our decision in de Rodriguez-Echeverria, in which we held that an alien is "arrested" within the meaning of section 287.3(c) when his "freedom . . . to walk away" is "restrained." 534 F.3d at 1051. Because de Rodriguez-Echeverria was decided after Arteaga's immigration proceedings concluded, Arteaga argues that the BIA should have remanded his case to the IJ for further consideration. We review the BIA's denial of a motion to remand for abuse of discretion. Movsisian v. Ashcroft, 395 F.3d 1095, 1098 (9th Cir. 2005).

The BIA did not abuse its discretion by denying Arteaga's motion to remand. Immigration agents questioned Arteaga after he was "arrested without warrant," but before he was served with a Notice to Appear ("NTA") for removal proceedings. Thus, regardless whether Arteaga was "arrested" within the meaning of section 287.3(c) at the time of questioning, Arteaga had not yet been "placed in formal proceedings," and the agents' obligation to notify Arteaga of his rights under section 287.3(c) had not yet attached. See Samayoa-Martinez v. Holder, 558 F.3d 897, 901 (9th Cir. 2009) ("Formal removal proceedings do not commence until [immigration agents] ha[ve] filed an NTA in the immigration court.").

II. Torres's Petition for Review

Torres urges three grounds for granting her petition for review. First, like Arteaga, Torres argues that her statements to immigration agents were inadmissible in her removal proceedings because they were taken in violation of 8 C.F.R. § 287.3(c). Second, she claims that substantial evidence did not support the IJ's determination that she "knowingly" participated in the July 6, 2006 smuggling attempt. Finally, she argues that she was denied due process when the government failed to make "reasonable efforts" to make the immigration agents who interviewed her available for cross-examination in her removal proceedings.

"Where, as here, the BIA has reviewed the IJ's decision and incorporated portions of it as its own, we treat the incorporated parts of the IJ's decision as the BIA's." Molina-Estrada v. I.N.S., 293 F.3d 1089, 1093 (9th Cir. 2002). We review for "substantial evidence" the BIA's and IJ's "[f]indings of fact, such as whether an individual engaged in alien smuggling." Gonzaga-Ortega v. Holder, 736 F.3d 795, 800 (9th Cir. 2013). Legal questions are reviewed de novo. Id.

Torres's argument that she was denied her procedural rights under 8 C.F.R. § 287.3(c) fails for the same reason as Arteaga's: An alien's rights under that section do not attach until the alien has been "arrested without a warrant and placed in formal [removal] proceedings." Id. (emphasis added). Because Torres was interviewed on July 6, 2006, and her NTA was not filed until four days later, section 287.3(c) did not apply to her at the time of her interview. See Samayoa-Martinez, 558 F.3d at 901.

Substantial evidence supported the IJ's conclusion that Torres knew of (and in fact orchestrated) the July 6, 2006 smuggling attempt. This evidence included Torres's statements to immigration agents in which she stated that "she made the arrangements to smuggle Olicema into the United States" and that "she acquired her mother's resident alien card in order to provide it to Olicema to use it to enter the United States." Indeed, Torres does not dispute that her statements support the IJ's conclusion. Instead, she simply argues that her "entirely plausible" alternative account should have been afforded more weight.2 Because Torres fails to demonstrate that "any reasonable adjudicator would be compelled to conclude" that, contrary to the IJ's and the BIA's finding, Torres's later story was in fact the true one, 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(4)(B), we decline to grant her petition on this second ground.

Finally, Torres was not denied "a reasonable opportunity to confront the witnesses against . . . her." Hernandez-Guadarrama v. Ashcroft, 394 F.3d 674, 681 (9th Cir. 2005) (quoting Saidane v. I.N.S., 129 F.3d 1063, 1065 (9th Cir. 1997)). The government stated on the record before the IJ that it was willing to "get all of the officers . . . that were involved in the incident to testify" in her removal proceedings. But Torres never actually called any of those officers to testify. Thus, Torres was afforded "a reasonable opportunity" to cross-examine the officers, id. (emphasis added), and her failure to take advantage of that opportunity did not amount to a violation of her statutory or due-process rights.

III. Conclusion

Insofar as Arteaga's petition seeks review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of his application for cancellation of removal, the petition is DISMISSED. Insofar as Arteaga's petition seeks review of the BIA's denial of his motion to remand, it is DENIED. Torres's petition for review is DENIED.

PREGERSON, J., dissenting:

I dissent. I wish to make two points concerning the unfairness of our immigration laws in the case before us.

First, this case reveals the inequity of our court's cramped interpretation of 8 C.F.R. § 287.3(c). Under that regulation, noncitizens arrested without warrant by an immigration officer are required to receive Miranda-like advisals. However, our court has held that the right to receive those advisals attaches only after a Notice to Appear has been filed in an immigration court. See Samayoa-Martinez v. Holder, 558 F.3d 897, 901 (9th Cir. 2009). This rule was brought to bear on petitioners Rodolfo Arteaga-Godinez and Brenda Torres-Ponce, as they were detained and interrogated without advisals several days before the government filed a Notice to Appear. The statements obtained during those interrogations were then used against the petitioners in their removal proceedings.

In a case like this, the initial interrogation—which usually occurs before the government has filed a Notice to Appear—is often the only interrogation. If a detainee is not read his or her rights before that interrogation, the Miranda-like advisals from § 287.3(c) are rendered meaningless. After all, what is the use of warning a person that "any statement made may be used against him or her" when the government has already conducted its interrogation, filed a Notice to Appear, and often has no need to obtain any further incriminating statements? How can courts defend a practice that purports to offer noncitizens an important procedural right, yet only does so when that right has little, if any, value?

Second, this case is another example of the cruelty with which our immigration laws tear families apart. Rodolfo came to the United States in 1990 at age 9 and became a lawful permanent resident in 1994. Brenda came to the United States in 1990 at age 7 and became a lawful permanent resident in 2004. Rodolfo and Brenda were legally married in September 2001. At the time of their removal proceedings, the couple had a United States citizen child, and Brenda was pregnant. Rodolfo has consistently worked in construction and aspires to attend college to become a welder. Brenda has worked at a medical office and volunteers at her son's school.

Rodolfo and Brenda maintain a close and strong bond with their family in the United States. Rodolfo's mother, three of his brothers, and one sister are all permanent legal residents of the United States, and he has another sister who is a United States citizen. Brenda's parents are both lawful permanent residents and her brother is a United States citizen. If Rodolfo and Brenda are removed, their children will either grow up in the United States without their parents or be compelled by circumstances beyond their control to move to a country they do not know. I decline to be a party to such an unkind and cruel result.

** The Government's unopposed motion to consolidate these two appeals, appearing at docket number 30 in case number 12-70882 and docket number 42 in case number 12-70981, is GRANTED. The panel unanimously finds these cases suitable for decision without oral argument. Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). These cases are ordered submitted as of June 12, 2017.
1. Section 1229b(a) provides that "[t]he Attorney General may cancel removal in the case of an alien who," inter alia, "has been . . . lawfully admitted [to the United States] for permanent residence for not less than 5 years" and "has resided in the United States continuously for 7 years." (emphasis added)
2. Though Torres claims that her statements were "coerced," she does not argue that they were obtained in violation of the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause. See Gonzaga-Ortega, 736 F.3d at 804. Thus, any such argument is waived. Martinez-Serrano v. I.N.S., 94 F.3d 1256, 1259 (9th Cir. 1996) ("Issues raised in a brief that are not supported by argument are deemed abandoned.").

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The One about Dining at Yamakyuu Udon in Iyashi no Sato NENBA (Japan)

Iyashi no Sato NENBA (known as “The Healing Village”), one of Japan’s famous villages for beautiful thatched houses is one of the gorgeous locations to see Mt. Fuji. But while the summer time may give you the best photography for the region, we traveled the area in March during cloudy, snow and rainy conditions. So, unfortunately, we had no clear sight of Mt. Fuji.

Surrounding the thatched houses is the woodforest known as Aokigahara Jukai.

While the villages were known for its thatched houses, unfortunately a typhoon devastated the village back in 1966 and in 2006, the villages traditional thatched roofed houses were reconstructed and the location reopened as a traditional village.

Before traveling to the area, I recommend checking out the weather reports in advance to know what kind of weather will be in the area, so you can wear the appropriate clothing.

Once you arrive, you will see few locations that serve food but the area is known for its handmade soba.  But also known for their udon.

For those not familiar with soba, it’s the Japanese name for buckwheat and thin type of noodles made from buckwheat flour.

The other dish was udon which uses a thicker wheat flour noodle.

So, we dined at Iyashi no Sato Nenba at Yamakyuu Udon.

Taking friends who have only tasted ramen in America, they were caught off guard by how delicious soba and udon in Japan is. Especially when its prepared well and is bursting with flavor.

The food is well-priced and can be purchased for 1000 yen or lower. Also, the area is known for its soft ice cream, so these are definitely dishes worth trying when visiting Iyashi no Sato NENBA.

Dennis A. Amith


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Official Reality Number

Monarch-verse, Earth-Monarch, Ruler Earth

First Appearance

MARVEL Monarchs #1

 Earth-81648 is the reality designation for MARVEL Monarchs

About 2 Billion years ago, the Celestials came into an existence, an echo of the previous universe, Earth-81647, which collapsed due to unknown circumstances. The Celestials watched over the first formation or life on countless planets, archiving the DNA of each stage of the evolution of all species in case something were to happen.

At some unknown point around 8,000 years ago, the Future Foundation, having travelled back in time from 2013, altered the genetic code of a small group of humans, giving them the X-Gene, and thus creating the Mutant race. It also called the divergent strain of Eternals, who quickly ascended into a sub-dimension dubbed 'Knowhere'.

  • Earth-81648 features reimagined versions of MARVEL characters. Origins are a mixture of the Mainstream and Ultimate Universe along with original ideas.

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This summer, I participated in a month-and-a-half-long internship with an international law firm. Overall, I had a fantastic experience, and I got to meet a range of interesting people. However, having only finished my first year of college, I wasn’t qualified to do much, and as a result there were times I found myself incredibly bored.

 In those moments of idleness, my over-thinking brain began to analyze everything, from how I felt in the moment to whether this job was really for me. If you know me, you know that I am an intense, outgoing person. I’m an actor, a dancer, and a shower-singer; I talk nonstop to anyone about everything; I literally skip down the street; I’m that extremely bright, chirpy, and annoying person who screams “GOOD MORNING” at you while you’re still grumpy at 9 a.m.

 Sitting behind a giant wooden desk facing an archaic desktop computer, I started to feel a little bit caged. I realized that though I loved the work (e.g. bringing justice to a company who’d been cheated by another), I wasn’t a fan of sitting until my derrière went numb. Chances are you too will find yourself behind a desk at some point in your life, so if you’re someone with a giant personality, an active imagination, and an abnormal amount of restless energy like me, you might want to consider ways to keep your desk from becoming your dungeon.

 This summer, I found myself taking two approaches to do just this. First, I tried to keep awake by being busy. Second, I found ways to relax and recharge.

 Below, you will find some pointers:

  1. RUN AROUND AND BOTHER EVERYONE. The moment I found myself sitting, sighing, and nearly crying out of boredom this summer, I decided to make quick rounds of the office to ask if I could be of service to anyone. If you do this, even if your colleagues end up giving you pretty demeaning tasks, at least they see your face and get to know you, which might lead to them trusting you with bigger, more interesting tasks later on.

  2. BRING A NOTEPAD. This can be either physical or electronic–the important thing is that you have an outlet for creativity. If you like to draw, spend your free time sketching. When sitting down aimlessly, your mind can wander, so instead of letting it get to the frustrating place of “what am I doing with my life,” sketch a scene, character, person, outfit, or whatever else is on your mind. If, like me, you are incapable of drawing, turn to writing instead. Write a thought catalog, diary, article, or story, and put your active imagination to good use. Trust me, even if it’s not “real work,” it looks a lot better than just drumming your fingers on your desk, or scrolling zombie-like through your Instagram feed.

  3. MAKE EXCITING LUNCH PLANS. Conversely, if you have a really busy day wherein you are trapped behind your desk with a 30-page translation due before lunch, make sure that you have something exciting to look forward. For example, if you are in a familiar city, plan lunches with old friends so that can look forward to trading gossip and stories. If you are a nostalgic history buff like me, make a list of non-mainstream historical places you can walk to and explore. Otherwise, try out different food places because there is nothing more exciting to look forward to than an interesting and flavorful meal.

  4. BRING YOUR HEADPHONES. There will be days when, after hours of sitting, reading, and typing, you will want to tear your hair out. If you are not in a rush, take five to ten minutes to put down your work and plug in. I’ve found that putting on an inspiring playlist wakes me up and helps me recharge. If you are a dancer, listen to a song that you know the choreography to. You might get a couple of strange looks when you mark moves absentmindedly, but hey, who cares? And even if you’re not a music person, maybe watching a funny video on BuzzFeed is what you need to energize. Don’t feel guilty for not working when you should be. Just remember that these breaks are not slacking off – they are a way of recharging so that you can be more awake and do a better job.

 These are some things I did to make sure that I didn’t waste a moment drowning in dark thoughts or overeating the chocolate chip cookies in the office kitchen. These methods might work for you, and they might not. Not everyone likes creative outlets like music and sketching, but the main purpose of this article is to convince you that there are many simple ways you can make a day more exciting for yourself. The most important thing is that you don’t waste your time and energy being bored, or scrolling through your social media accounts depressing yourself because of the fun-looking pictures of your friends in Santorini or Ibiza.

 Whatever you did last summer, you had an opportunity to learn, and you’re here now, so why dwell in your feelings of FOMO? Perhaps now, on idle days, you can get up and try to engage with people in your office. It will both give off a better impression of you as a worker and make you more excited about your environment. And on days where work gets too much and you feel like a caged phoenix, step out of your cage for consistent and strictly timed breaks.

Above all, no matter who you are, try to keep your imagination going. If your job means something to you, try to do it your way. If, however, you really can’t stand it, don’t do it to please or impress your parents/partner/cat. Remember that your creativity, your outgoing personality, and your passionate nature are all gifts that will someday take you where you belong.