Affordable Access

Vitamin D and parathyroid hormone and bone mineralisation in adults with cystic fibrosis.

Publication Date
  • Research Article

Vitamin D and parathyroid hormone concentrations were assessed in 31 adults with cystic fibrosis (mean age 24, range 17-52 years), in 28 of whom the bone mineral index in the forearm was also determined. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D was subnormal in eight patients, of whom five were receiving vitamin D supplements in standard doses. 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and parathyroid hormone concentrations showed no consistent abnormalities. The bone mineral index was lower in patients with cystic fibrosis (p less than 0.02) than in controls. Five patients with unequivocally reduced bone mineral index had a subnormal mean serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and significantly worse lung function than the other patients. There was a positive correlation between age and bone mineral index (r = 0.68, p less than 0.001). Thus a significant proportion of patients with cystic fibrosis living in a temperate climate are at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Osteopenia is common and is probably related to a combination of hypovitaminosis D, delay in puberty, hypo-oestrogenism in women, and reduced physical activity, rather than to secondary hyperparathyroidism. Since most patients with deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D were receiving oral supplements, parenteral vitamin D supplementation may be appropriate for selected patients who are unable to maintain adequate 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations despite oral vitamin D supplements.


Let’s get uncomfortably honest for a minute. CEOs are concerned about business results. They are paid to drive shareholder value, which is a function of three things: revenue growth, company profitability, and how efficiently an organization uses their assets.

Historically, that mentality has pervaded the way organizations value learning and how they invest. Most L&D organizations have been built for scalability, efficiency, and standardization.

Technology for most L&D teams is a way to deliver more, at a lower cost, with more consistency. The problem with that mentality is our learners aren’t one size fits all, or even one size fits most. It’s no surprise then that only 18% of employees would recommend their organizations training and development opportunities.

What this tells us is that the focus on efficiency, not engagement, doesn’t bode well in the workforce. The good news is that some organizations, like Caterpillar, are breaking the mold.

If you go to industry events or keep up on articles and blogs in the learning space, you’re probably seeing increased conversation about engagement, and a whole new crop of tools popping up that are the result of solving the learning problems of today. While great resources, the most valuable information comes from those that have embraced the digital revolution, and are leading the charge to better the employee development experience.

Caterpillar’s Mike Miller, Division Manager of Global Dealer Learning, was interviewed by Todd Tauber of Degreed on his evolving approach to L&D and training. Here are some of our favorite excerpts from the conversations.

Todd: Caterpillar seems to be aiming for more of a balance between efficiency and flexibility in learning. How are your strategies and approaches for developing capabilities in your workforce shifting?

Mike: To be honest with you, Caterpillar has never really lost the focus that people are our competitive advantage. The big change that we have going forward and the shift that you’re seeing in our strategy is less of a one-way conversation where we put out packages to one that’s community-led.

With a community-led strategy, we have turned on solutions and content that allows everybody to contribute, and so by having the population rather than a handful of people working on learning, we are able to obtain organization capabilities far easier because we have well over 300,000 people contributing.

Todd: How’s Caterpillar rebalancing the people, the time, the money, so that you can manage less and empower more?

Mike: There are still formal programs at Caterpillar. But people were looking for the next step: what is past the formal program? We’ve moved to a three-tier approach on our content. It includes making all of our content easily accessible on our mobile phones. And then we want to have onsite support, meaning at the time you have a question and/or an issue, we really can help you solve that, right? And last, where we need to, we’ll still do instructor-led training because there are places we still need to do certification or accreditations.

If you look at these components, we’re really trying to do put an ecosystem together that allows people to contribute and consume on demand as they need to.

Looking to empower your workforce to consume content on demand like Caterpillar? Set up your Degreed profile today!


Keynote Theatre

Hosting the foremost thought leaders from the legal profession, including internationally acclaimed and top-rated visionaries, the line-up at this year’s Legalex is simply unmissable. Speakers will deliver their outlook on the future of the legal profession and more specifically will be looking at the impact of AI in Law, and to identify issues facing the industry and highlighting ways of tackling this as a business.

Tuesday 28th March

Wednesday 29th March

Miranda Brawn - Diversity Leadership Foundation

Diversity & Culture is key to LawTech

The importance of Diversity & Culture in the LawTech industry is vital to today's economy. The lack of diversity in technology is a cultural issue. Miranda Brawn will explain why LawTech will be more culturally diverse in the future and how it will benefit your organisations from a financial and moral perspective. This is a must for any business wanting to succeed in the 21st century.

Osman Ismail - DPS Software & Cloud

Why the Cloud is good for your firm’s bottom line

Osman will be discussing cloud-based practice management systems. He will show Spitfire, DPS iTime and DPS SafeChat- the suite of full Software-as-a-Service that gives firms unrivalled flexibility. He analyses On premise vs Cloud setups and evaluates costs, security and overall benefits of each solution. He will then show the pros and cons of each setup. Osman will discuss hosting service providers and what to look out for, including dangers and pitfalls, contract dos and donts.

Lauren Riley - The Link App

Client communication & how to differentiate your firms offering

Avoid a major area of complaints for law firms. A guide on the best software-as-a-service technologies for the business of law from one of the UK’s best known entrepreneurial lawyers. Some tips on how to avoid the pitfalls and how technology is helping law firms add value and stand out!

Steve Billot - Symphony Legal Ltd

Can having a non-executive help a law firm's management?

Can having a non-executive help a law firm's management? Keynote Theatre In the last few years there has been an increasing pressure on law firms to demonstrate that they are effectively managed. This has included the SRA Principal 8 – effectively requiring the firm to be run as a “business” and increasing challenges from lenders along similar lines. Some firms have employed non-lawyer CEOs whilst others are utilising a non-exec advisor. This seminar will look at the SRA requirements under Principal 8, consider some thoughts on corporate governance issues for law firms, look at the need for a non-exec and comparison to a full-time CEO, consider how might a non-exec role be scoped and give some examples of how the role has been used.

Adam Bullion - InfoTrack

Tech that challenges and evolves the law firms of tomorrow

InfoTrack Investigate & Argue How Law Firms Can Use Disruptive Technology to Impact Staff Satisfaction, Driving a Firms’ Profitability.

Jane Malcolm - Solicitors Regulation Authority

Legal services regulation: Changes, choices and challenges

Jane Malcolm looks at how regulation is changing in what is a time of change in the legal sector and further afield.


Non-Mormon categorization of Mormons as “Christians”

Jesus calls the fishermen to follow him.

Mormons strive to be true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The assertion that Latter-day Saints are not Christian has at its base the idea that the Latter-day Saints don’t meet the definition of the word “Christian.” But the meanings of words are determined by usage and acceptance.  If a definition is widespread (used by many people), persistent (used over a long period of time), and established (accepted by individuals and organizations that are respected and assumed to be knowledgeable) then its use is likely appropriate.

The attempt to define “Christian” in such a way as to exclude Latter-day Saints (and many other groups that are generally considered to be some kind of Christian denomination or religion) is really the recent work of a minority group within Protestantism.  The nearly-universal and nearly-2000-year-old usage of the word “Christian”–which refers generally to those who regard Jesus as divine and as the route to salvation–has clearly included unorthodox groups that disagree, sometimes sharply, with the teachings and practices of those who claim to be able to define Latter-day Saints out of the Christian fold.

In short, the complaints about Mormons’ inclusion in “Christianity” say relatively little about Mormon beliefs, and instead reflect some Protestant groups’ beliefs about the falsity of Mormonism.

The following are some organizations and resources that classify The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as Christian.  The range of sources–from encyclopedias to media outlets to government organizations–supports the fact that the definition of “Christian” includes Latter-day Saints.

Those with different beliefs remain Christians

Members of the Church do not object when other Christians point out that the Church differs in doctrine from other faiths.  If it did not, there would be little point in yet another denomination.  Members also are not offended or troubled when other Christians announce that they regard the Church as mistaken on certain points of doctrine–if Christians did not regard other denominations as deficient in some way, there would be only one church.

Members object, however, to self-serving definitions of “Christian” that seek to exclude all those who do not share the critics’ theology.  Latter-day Saints regard themselves as Christian because they have promised to follow Jesus Christ, whom they regard as divine, the Son of God, and the only route to salvation.

If critics are using the term “Christian” to imply something about theology instead of the importance and role of Jesus in the worship and faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they owe it to their audience to make their meaning clear.  Claims that Mormons are not Christians implies to most listeners that Mormons do not worship, honor, or follow Jesus Christ.  This is simply false.


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Mingis on Tech: Diving into Windows 10 Creators Edition and the future of OSes By IDG.TV Coming soon to a PC near you: Windows 10 Creators Edition. But what's much less certain is what comes after that for PCs, and Macs and mobile devices. A voice-activated future, anyone? ...Read More »
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Digital Propensity: An Investigation of Video Game and Information and Communication Technology Practices

Boaventura DaCosta (Solers Research Group, USA), Angelique Nasah (Solers Research Group, USA), Carolyn Kinsell (Solers Research Group, USA) and Soonhwa Seok (The Center for Research on Learning—eLearning Design Lab, University of Kansas, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-495-0.ch052
OnDemand PDF Download:

There is a growing interest among educators to use video games in the classroom as part of the curriculum to meet the educational needs of today’s students. This may be justified, in part, by claims in recent years about today’s technology-savvy students and their adept use of information and communication technology (ICT). However, such claims have not been accepted without scrutiny; indeed, the relationship between games and learning has been tempestuous over the years. This chapter sought to identify the gaming propensity of postsecondary students (N = 580) through the use of a questionnaire. Age, gender, and socioeconomic status were examined as factors that might explain why students play games. Results suggest that age, gender, and socioeconomic status are composite factors that contribute to gaming, but not the most important consideration in terms of general ICT usage. The findings raise a number of implications for educators, educational policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, instructional technologists, and game developers across both the education spectrum and the entertainment industry in terms of the use and development of video games.
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Statements such as “Don’t bother me, Mom—I’m learning!” (Prensky, 2006) have become synonymous with the idea that today’s students are fundamentally different from those of past generations as a result of their information and communication technology (ICT) use. Typically referred to as Digital Natives (Prensky, 2001a), but also commonly called the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998), the Millennial Generation (Howe & Strauss, 2000) and Generation M (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005), these students are viewed as native speakers of the digital age. That is, they were “born digital” (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008) into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They have grown up in a culture so fundamentally different in the technology sense that they are much more adept at using ICT than their counterparts from prior generations. What’s more, this exposure has fundamentally changed the way in which they process information (Prensky, 2001a, 2001b) to the extent that they posses learning preferences foreign by today’s educational standards. Some commentators have even gone as far as to conclude that education is not keeping pace with the needs of our students with reference to these changes (Prensky, 2001a; Tapscott, 1998).

Key Terms in this Chapter

Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Term that describes the general processing and communication of information through technology. In the case of the current study, it includes a number of technologies, such as mobile technology; email; two-way instant messaging; chat rooms; blogs; personal web pages; online shopping rating systems; download of images, audio, and video; and video games. These technologies have been classified into the following constructs: ICT use preferences, Internet use preferences, online media activities, digital communications, ICT-facilitated learning activities, ICT-facilitated social/economic activities, and video games.

Active vs. Passive: Prensky believes digital natives take a much more active approach to learning. They are not interested in the traditional teacher-centered model, but instead prefer learning by doing. A departure from prior generations who much rather read a manual than figure things out through trial and error.

Game-Based Learning: Considered a branch of serious games by many, it is rooted in the belief that games, if used properly, can be leveraged in the learning process.

Twitch Games: A type of game that requires the player to react quickly to circumstances in order to continue playing (Jones, 1997), such as the game © Tetris.

Random Access vs. Step-by-Step: According to Prensky, if digital natives work at twitch speed, it only makes sense these same individuals would prefer gathering information through random access rather than step-by-step means. Prensky indicates this shouldn’t be a surprise given the Internet is a networked web of information all interrelated via hyperlinks. This new structuring of information “has increased their [digital natives] awareness and ability to make connections, has freed them from the constraint of a single path of thought, and is generally an extremely positive development” (Prensky, 1998, ¶ 12). This is yet another cognitive departure from prior generations who value and prefer step-by-step approaches.

Serious Games: An initiative whereby video games are targeted outside of entertainment to include education, training, health, and public policy (Serious Games Initiative, 2006).

Digital Propensity: The degree (e.g., frequency) to which individuals use various forms of ICT in their everyday lives.

Technology as Friendly vs. Technology as Foe: While digital natives embrace technology and see it as part of everyday life, prior generations generally fear it, tolerate it, or will never trust it. Prensky contends digital natives see being connected or having access to a computer as a necessity; while at best, prior generations are forced into learning it due to changing culture.

Play vs. Work: In step with Prensky’s stance on learning using games, he states digital natives enjoy learning through play and learning doesn’t have to be a laborious activity, but instead could be seen as a game incorporating complex cognitive tasks. Prior generations, on the other hand, see learning as a task, which involves work.

Payoff vs. Patients: Prensky suggests that digital natives are willing to put in the effort if the expected level of payoff is there. Essentially, “what you determine what you get, and what you get is worth the effort you put in” (Prensky, 1998, ¶ 26). Today’s students expect immediate feedback and payoff for their efforts, where their older counterparts may show much more patients and willingness to wait for the payoff.

Twitch Speed vs. Conventional Speed: A term more than likely taken from twitch games. Essentially, twitch speed encompasses digital natives gathering information at the same pace as playing a twitch game and might explain why Prensky and others (Gee, 2003) are in favor of games for learning. Prensky (1998) insists humans have always been capable of processing information at faster speeds, the only difference is while in the past this was only achieved by a subset of the population (i.e. jet pilots, race-car drivers, etc.), it has now moved into the generation at large (particularly as a result of game play). This is in contrast to prior generations which Prensky contents prefer to gather information at a slower more traditional pace.

Connected vs. Stand-Alone: Prensky believes that having grown up in the digital age, digital natives are accustomed to working with asynchronous communications, with email being the primary example, even though much of the communication technologies available today are synchronous, such as cell phones and instant messaging. The point Prensky attempts to make is digital natives are accustomed to being connected or networked, and as a result, are capable of utilizing technologies which prior generations would not think of. Examples include posting a question to a forum, as opposed to making a phone call and a leaving message.

Parallel Processing vs. Linear Processing: Prensky suggests that digital natives have grown up multitasking, whether it be watching TV while doing homework or listening to music while interacting with a computer. And because of this, they are much more adapt and willing to parallel process. Their brains simply support it. Unlike prior generations, who are not as adept and are much more comfortable with the linear processing of information.

Video Games: Digitally-based games, found across a number of platforms to include computer, game console, and handheld device.

Fantasy vs. Reality: Prensky insists digital natives, for whatever reason, indulge in fantasy play, which pervades their lives. And the computer has made this easier and more realistic; much to the opposite of prior generations.

Drill-and-Practice: An instructional practice that can be used to promote the acquisition of skills and knowledge through repetition.

Digital Native: Term, credited to Marc Prensky, that describes a generation of students born into the digital age, who are much more adept at using ICT than their counterparts from prior generations, showing signs or traits never before seen. These students are also commonly called the Net Generation (Tapscott, 1998), the Millennial Generation (Howe & Strauss, 2000) and Generation M (Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005).

Graphics First vs. Text First: Prensky suggests that digital natives have been continuously exposed to mediums which use high-quality graphics with little or no accompanying text. This has considerably sharpened their visual sensitivity. They are much more comfortable starting with visuals as a result. Prior generations, on the other hand, prefer text before graphics. In their case, graphics should supplement the text, not the other way around.

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Surprised Markets

After a decade of a steady appreciation against the US dollar, investors had become accustomed to the stability and growing strength of the yuan. Thus, while a somewhat insignificant change compared to exchange rates that can sometimes move double-digit percentages over several days, the more than 3% drop had investors rattled.

U.S. stock markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), S&P 500 and Nasdaq, as well as European and Latin American markets fell in response to the devaluation. While some argue that the move is a sign that China’s economy is performing worse than expected and the move is an attempt to make exports more attractive, the PBOC indicated that the devaluation was motivated by other factors. (For more, see: China’s Economic Indicators, Impact On Markets.)

Devaluation: Just the Result of Free-Market Reform Policies

China’s president Xi Jinping has pledged the government’s commitment to reforming China’s economy in a more market-oriented direction ever since he first took office over two years ago. That and the fact that China is determined to be included in the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR) basket of reserve currencies makes the POBC’s claim that the devaluation was the result of measures taken to allow the market to have a more instrumental role in determining the yuan’s value more believable. One professor at Cornell University indicated that the move should help China’s case for SDR reserve currency status and claimed that it was also consistent with China’s “slow but steady” market-oriented reforms.

Many are skeptical of China’s commitment, arguing that the new exchange-rate policy really hasn’t changed and is still akin to a “managed float;” the devaluation is just another intervention and the yuan’s value will continue to be closely monitored and managed by the PBOC. The skeptics believe that the move was further evidence of China’s continued exchange-rate manipulation in order to boost its sputtering exports. (See also: 5 Economic Effects Of Country Liberalization.)

Devaluation Consistent with Market Fundamentals

With the devaluation occurring just days after data showed a sharp fall in China’s exports, many believe that China's insistance that the move was motivated by market-oriented reforms is just a convenient excuse. The Chinese government claimed that its exports had fallen 8.3% in July from the previous year. As the news is evidence that its interest rate cuts and fiscal stimulus were not as effective as hoped, many interpret the devaluation as a desperate attempt to stimulate China's sluggish economy and keep exports from falling further.

Washington was especially incensed, as U.S. politicians have been claiming for years that China has kept its currency artificially low at the expense of American exporters. Some believe that China’s devaluation of the yuan is just the beginning of a currency war that could lead to increasing trade tensions. Despite the fact that a lower valued yuan does give China somewhat of a competitive advantage, China has readily dismissed the idea that this was the reason for the recent move, and perhaps there are reasons that they can be believed.

While the drop in the value of the yuan was the largest in 20 years, the yuan is still stronger than it was only a year ago in trade-weighted terms. Over the past 20 years, the yuan has been appreciating relative to nearly every other major currency. This includes appreciation against the US dollar. Essentially, China’s policy has allowed the market to determine the direction of the yuan’s movement while restricting the rate at which it appreciates. But, as China’s economy has slowed significantly in the last number of years while the U.S. economy has done relatively better, a continued rise in the yuan’s value no longer aligns with market fundamentals.

Understanding the market fundamentals allows one to see the small devaluation by the PBOC as a necessary adjustment rather than a beggar-thy-neighbor manipulation of the exchange-rate. While many American politicians may grumble, China is actually doing what the U.S. has prodded it to do for years—allow the market to determine the yuan’s value. So long as there are no major declines in the yuan’s value going forward it appears that the PBOC can be taken at its word. (For more, see: What Causes A Currency Crisis?)

The Bottom Line

Despite surprising markets and being critiqued for exchange-rate manipulation, China has a good reason for the recent devaluation of the yuan. With slower growth in China and a strengthening US dollar, allowing the yuan to depreciate is in line with market fundamentals. Regardless of the fact that China’s exports may get a boost from the deprecating yuan, the move is consistent with the Chinese government’s commitment to let the market play a greater role in determining economic outcomes.

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Optimising Battery Life:

What to do to save battery life to last you the remainder of your day (until you can get your phone to a charger). These tips should not be employed on a daily / regular basis (YOLO), but in cases of emergencies. I’m sure you’ve all found yourselves in this scenario. Outings that are longer than 8 hours usually mean you’ll need to employ the following tactics:

Lower Default Ambient Brightness

It might be harder to read / see your screen, but this will definitely help you conserve those milliamps of battery life that might save you! This can be quickly adjusted by bringing up the Control Centre (Swipe up from the bottom of the screen).

Force Close all your apps through Multitasking

Force close all the applications that you will not be using until you can get yourself to a charger. Double click the home button and swipe up for all open apps. After you use an app from here, force close it.

*Please note that you should only force close apps that you will not be using again in the short-term. Contrary to popular belief, force closing apps actually uses more power, if you're constantly booting the apps up and force closing them unnecessarily.

Turn 4G (LTE), or even data off

This is mostly a last resort option. Even being connected to 4G / data drains a significant amount of battery life. This technique is helpful if you really have to conserve battery for phone calls only.

Bad & Spotty Reception Zones

When in or travelling through a bad reception zone, your phone will continually try and hunt for reception. This will kill your battery pretty quickly if you are stuck in that bad reception zone for too long. You’ll feel your phone getting hot without even using it. Temporarily turning off 4G and or data will help until you get into a better reception zone.

Keep your phone out of the sun / hot places

This is a general electronics battery rule, where a hot battery / device will consume more electricity because it runs less efficient at higher operating temperatures. It is also good to keep your screen out of the sun as it damage it, if left there for too long.

Buy a Portable External Battery (charger)

If you’re someone who is out for periods longer than 8 hours and heavily rely on your iOS device, trust me on this, even following all my tips, your battery will not last you. If this is you, then you should definitely consider investing in a portable power bank battery solution. There are a few really good options out there, some that can charge 4+ devices at once, and some small enough to fit on your key ring.

I am currently using a Phonesuit Flex Pocket Charger (as pictured above) and find that it is enough to get me through most of my busy days. It has just enough capacity to charge your phone one full cycle and a bit (110%) and is small enough to carry around in my pocket.

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What next for your systematic review – Fully define your research hypothesis or question.

So you have decided that you are going to put together a systematic review and you have managed to persuade some of your colleagues and peers to be co-authors. What might you do next to get the review done?

Have a meeting.

The first thing I would recommend is that you get everyone who is to be involved together to define the problem. This is important because everybody will come to the table with different mind sets and different backgrounds, and also prior knowledge. Together you can make sure that everyone is agreed as to what problem will be addressed.

However, you should not go beyond that in the meeting, rather once the problem has been clarified you should end the meeting and get everybody to think of what hypothesis or question your review will be addressing. This way you will not end up with just the point of view of the most respected author or the person who shouts the loudest. Also, I find that my best ideas come when I am not really thinking directly about them and by leaving time to think you provide the opportunity for people to synthesise what was discussed and come up with any solutions or points that need clarification that were missed during the meeting.

This thinking time should not be extensive and should be defined during the meeting by booking the next meeting in for a couple of days later.

Have another meeting

Everybody has hopefully now thought about the issues and come up with ideas for the hypothesis. At this second meeting you will review everybody’s ideas. Let each person present their ideas in turn without allowing any questions to ensure that people are not intimidated and only present part of what they have come up with.

Once everybody’s ideas have been presented you can then discuss the merits of them all and finesse the hypothesis until you have it agreed by all authors. At this point you will need to discuss any limits people feel will be necessary for the systematic review, will it be limited for example by date, inclusion criteria, size or specific endpoint measures. These limits will be very important once the search has been run as you will typically need to filter huge numbers of abstracts to determine the few that will be included and as suggested by the type of review your process needs to be systematic.

What next?

The next step, once the hypothesis or question has been defined, is to define the search and that will be discussed in the next post.

I have taken a lot of the ideas for this post from an Accidental Creative podcast episode I listened to on brainstorming. This episode can be found here and is well worth a listen.

Some thoughts on systematic reviews

I remember that in my first year of university (in 2000) we were taken to the library and shown how to search the Beilstein Handbook of Organic Chemistry to identify previous instances of reactions we might be interested in. There was a wall of books and it was quite intimidating. However, I never had to look at those books because there was also an online searchable database which made the task much easier. I cannot imagine how much time must have been spent by chemists searching for reactions and reaction conditions, that was suddenly freed up by taking the data online.

This has happened with most data sources and we can now search through records of journal publications and patents with ease. This I believe has led to the increase in the publication of the systematic review and the decrease in the importance placed on narrative reviews. It has changed so much that, nowadays, before many research projects are fully initiated, a systematic review is undertaken to explore, among other things, what is already known about the topic and whether the research project is novel. Owing to their inclusion of all available, relevant data systematic reviews are considered the pinnacle of evidence in evidence-based medicine [Wikipedia]. This is, in my mind, embodied by the Cochrane Collaboration, which has a handbook on how to perform systematic reviews for inclusion in their database.

It is, therefore, important that all researchers understand what a systematic review is and how to perform one. In addition, it is important to know what to do with the output. Is it okay to summarize the data, or should it be synthesised in some way, either through meta-analysis or narrative synthesis. Furthermore, we need to be able to judge the quality of published systematic reviews so that we can judge their quality and determine whether there is any bias inherent in them, or flaws in the methods used.

The PRISMA Statement

The PRISMA Statement is a great help, as it details everything to be included in a systematic review and its planning and I have found this useful when planning, performing and writing up systematic reviews, as it provides a useful checklist to bear in mind.

I want to start my systematic review. What should I do?

The very first thing you need to do is ensure you are asking an interesting question that is relevant and that you are asking it in the correct fashion. You should discuss your idea with colleagues who work in the same field and have similar interests, and also read any relevant papers that you are aware off. This might highlight aspects that you are unaware of or have overlooked. It will also provide the groundwork for the next step, which is putting together your hypothesis and developing your search strategy which will identify the references that will potentially be included in the review. You should also work out who your co-authors will be and each person’s role. For example, you will need somebody to do the search and at least two people to go through the results separately and someone to adjudicate any conflicting views about whether or not to include a manuscript in the review.

Once this is done you are ready to think about actually starting work on your systematic review, and I shall offer my thoughts on those steps in the next few posts.

Why we are not uncreative

I have recently got back into listening to podcasts and enjoy those discussing productivity and creativity. This morning I was listening to the Accidental Creative podcast and Keith Sawyer was discussing his book Zig Zag: The Surprising Path to Greater Creativity. One of the points discussed was that about 80% of creativity is learned. This seems surprising at first but when I considered it, it seemed right.

I have read a number of books (including Austin Kleon’s excellent Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative) that highlight the need for side projects as these encourage creativity. This is because if we focus on one area only we are likely to be stuck in one way of thinking and this can impact our ability to be creative.

Many people (including David Bohm and Steve Jobs) have emphasised that creativity is not just doing art or design. rather it is coming up with something new and making unexpected connections. When we consider creativity in this way, it is odd that some people are ‘creatives’ and others are not. We often do not consider scientists to be creative, when they can be some of the most creative people there are.

Why is there confusion about creativity?

I think that this confusion about creativity, with many people claiming they are not creative, starts at school. We are either classed as academically gifted or creative or persistent or musically-gifted. Often those who decide to do science are not encouraged to do anything artistic, instead focusing on science and maths to the detriment of other studies.

At school, science and maths are about remembering facts and applying equations, rather than trying to prove new things or question established hypotheses. This school-work is not creative and sets a mindset that can last throughout our lives. When we get to university we may do some research and suddenly we are faced with a completely different subject. We have the knowledge that we need to apply, developing experiments that may prove or disprove our hypothesis. If things don’t work, we need to create different experiments to confirm the results or different pathways to what we desire. This is different from at school where if something didn’t work we just needed to redo it, as it was guaranteed to work if we did it correctly.

What do I do to increase my creativity?

I have found that making sure I have a hobby increases my creativity. This means that rather than watching TV in the evening, or sitting reading a book I am trying to develop new skills. I love printed art and zines (Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Mini Comics), and would eventually like to put together my own. As such, I am trying out linoprinting and collage, and have for several years been taking photos on my walk to work. These on there own are unlikely to increase my creativity, however, the planning and getting ideas for the prints means that my mind is active and coming up with ideas unrelated to work. These can then eventually lead into ideas for work and for other areas of work.

I cannot say for sure that this works, but it is a lot of fun!

Why should you write less in your presentations?

For work I sometimes get to go to conferences and see many presentations in a few short days. However, when I go to these presentations I often find that everything I need to know is written on the slides and that I do not need to listen to the speaker to fully understand what is being discussed. When this happens I tend to read ahead on the slide and might potentially miss valuable information that is spoken whilst doing so, as well as getting a bit bored whilst waiting for the next slide to appear. I expect that many of you have also experienced this and when you read about presentation technique you frequently get to hear the phrase ‘death by PowerPoint’ which relates to this phenomenon.

What can you do to avoid this?

It might seem drastic, but the way to avoid this trap is to put significantly less text on your slides. Rather than detailing your objective on a slide you could include a prompt (e.g. ‘What was the objective?’) that you would then talk around, or you could include a figure or table but not your thoughts on the table. This way people will have to listen to what you have to say to be able to fully understand what is being presented. An extreme version of this is the Takahashi method where only a single word or short phrase is on each slide to act as a prompt, forcing the speaker to talk about what they are doing and engage with the audience. The Lessig method is similar.

But what if I forget what I am talking about?

It is better to have notes and to practice your presentation to make it as smooth as possible and have it memorable, rather than having a boring presentation. People will forgive you glancing at your notes to remind yourself of a pertinent point and will feel more engaged. These can be included as slide notes in PowerPoint or written separately as a text document.

Where can I find out more about making my presentations better?

I found the book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds to be extremely informative, and their is a blog by the author this book that is good. It can be found here.

Also slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations: The Art and Science of Presentation Design by Nancy Duarte is excellent. There is a free multimedia version of her book Resonate online which is about visual storytelling to improve presentations.


The Coca Cola brand in India

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Coca cola is the worlds leading soft drinks company. Coca cola invested over $1bn between 1993 and 2004 on their bottling in Kerala. Most businesses have to consider the impact of their activities on stakeholders. Coca-Cola is no exception but their operations in the southern Indian state of Kerala have caused widespread concern and a string of claims and counter-claims by residents of the local community and the company.

Tuker's 5 model

Is it profitable?

Yes, the investment has enabled coca cola to make a higher return. Coca Cola reported a modest growth in the profit margin from their conducts in India.

Is it legal?

Yes. Coca cola received £1.5m subsidy and help with its legal issues by the local government in India as an encouragement of their investment in India. It's difficult to create a direct link of the overexploitation of ground water by Coca cola.

Is it fair?

The fair decision depends on who you are. The issue is that Coca cola makes money as an ambition. It does so within the local law, and provides to the local community, hence is tacitly supported by the local community at large.

If we take the local people prospective who will be working in the company, the bottling plant in their village have provided them with job.

However, their conducts have drastically reduced availability of water for irrigation purposes.

Is it right?

The decision maker has to make an ethical assessment of the rights of the poor community, the issues concerning human health and environment caused by Coca cola bottling operations against the economic benefits of the investment. Other information that can be helpful in making a judgement would include Coca cola's range of initiatives to improve the quality of life of its customers, the workforce, and society at large.

Is it sustainable?

The sustainable answer is a difficult one, as it means using less water to create coke or shipping it in which has adverse affects on national water levels as well as fuel transportation affects on environment.

Profitability vs. corporate social responsibility

Definitions of profitability and Corporate Social Responsibility?

Profitability is the ability of a firm to make profit.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the decision-making and implementation process that guides all company activities in the protection and promotion of international human rights, labour and environmental standards and compliance with legal requirements within its operations and in its relations to the societies and communities where it operates.

Not all businesses behave in socially responsible manner. There are people who would argue that it is not the job of business organisations to be concerned about social issues and problems.

There are two schools of thought on this issue:

In the Free market view, the job of business is to create wealth with the interests of the shareholders as the guiding principle. The companies see profit as their main objective.

Â R Freeman,Â Strategic managementÂ :a stakeholder approach(Pitman 1984)Â

The corporate social responsibility view is that business organisation should contribute to the economic, environmental and social sustainability of communities through the ongoing engagement of stakeholders, the active participation of communities impacted by company activities and the public reporting of company's policies and performance in economic, environmental and social arenas.

If we take the free market view "the social responsibility of business- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profit so long as it stays will the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception or fraud." [Milton Friedman,1970, American economist]

From an investor's perspective, the purpose of the business is to maximize profits. But that's not the purpose for other stakeholders--for customers, employees, suppliers, and the community. Each of those groups will define the purpose of the business in terms of its own needs and desires, and each perspective is valid and legitimate.

Many people will readily accept the arguments that caring about customers and employees is good business. But they might draw the line at believing a company has any responsibility to its community and environment.

The corporate responsibility view

Businesses do not have an unquestioned right to operate in society. Those who are involved in the management of business activities should realise that they depend on the society. They rely on inputs from society and on socially created institutions. There is a social contract between entities and society involving mutual obligations that society and business recognise each other.

The profitability against corporate social responsibility:

The moral imperatives of the company are simply to maintain the production of products and services in profitable manor.

The only social responsibility of business is to maximise its profit. The efficient use of resources will be reduced if businesses are restricted in how they can operate.

The pursuit of social goals has an effect on business's primary objectives which is to make maximise profit. Corporate management cannot decide what is in the social interest. The cost of implementing CSR will be passed on to consumers resulting in a reduced economic efficiency and profit. The corporate social responsibility puts unnecessary responsibilities on businesses rather than on government or individuals.

(Smith's, The Theory of Moral Sentiments)

The argument for socially responsible behaviour would be that it is ethical thing to do; it improves the entity's public image which will be beneficial to the firm in long term. It helps to correct the social and environmental problem caused by the businesses such as wastes, water consumtion, Co2 emission etc..

It aids the attraction and retention of staff

It attracts green and ethical investment

It attracts ethically conscious customers

It can lead to a reduction in costs through re-cycling

It differentiates the firm from its competitor and can be a source of competitive advantage

It can lead to increased profitability in the long run

The CSR behaviour attracts ethically conscious customers who are concerned in green and more ethical investments.

The conclusion is there are many conflicting interest in a capitalist system.

There are some parties affected adversely by the externalities caused by the activity of the firm. Some people benefit from the activity of the firm, some people who are affected adversely as well as positive manor by the conduct of the firm, and it is the government duty to moderate all these conflicting interest.

How successfully an outcome is achieved depends on the availability of solutions to the externalities, the extent of the demand of the product for the company and amount damage the companies conduct causes to the environment

This is balanced against the tax revenue and the opportunity cost of moving the factory or production of the company. In essence the moral imperatives of any party involved are different depending on how they benefit or are affected by the conduct of the company.


October 2014, by So-Young Kang

Simplicity is often mistaken for being easy, quick and not requiring a lot of work. Actually, it’s much easier to be complicated, than to be simple and concise. Simplicity requires refinement, the ability to call out what is most important, and to be able to communicate that in a way that even a child can understand. Simple does not mean quick and efficient. Simple does not mean simple in thought.

Where people are overwhelmed with information, time is limited and people are already stretched, simplicity is critical.

The most difficult parts of work are not to create a 100-page document listing out every single possible scenario and pages and pages of analysis or data. One of the best trainings I ever received was when I was at McKinsey where I learned the power of the executive summary.  The value is in the ability to synthesize and bring out the most relevant points and to draw insights from the information. No matter how complex the project, I was constantly pushed to come up with the one-slide executive summary, which usually consisted of a few bullet points. Six months of work simplified down to 5-6 bullet points on one slide?!?! Really? YES. YES. YES.

When one does not understand the power of simplicity, it could seem overly simple or something that could have been written in an hour. Of course, the actual writing of the few bullets only took a few minutes. But what does it take to get there – to that level of simplicity and clarity?

img-kiss01 img-kiss02
Art pieces by Kuni Yazawa from White Ship, Japan

Let’s look at this piece of art. When I asked my friend, artist Kuni-san about what this collection meant, he paused and said “Nothing. I did not ascribe meaning to it and took the freedom to just create. I wanted the art piece to emerge from my motions.” What he created was quite beautiful using stitching and cloth.

In my curiosity, I asked, “So if it’s so free and easy, can anyone including me, create the same beautiful piece?” He paused and then shook his head, “Probably not yet.” He has been an artist for over 30 years refining his craft. He has spent many years learning many different skills as an artist, from painting to sculpture, to design. He has accumulated well over the 10,000 hours of practice that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his book Outliers to achieve mastery. It was only after he achieved some level of mastery in his craft did he have the freedom to create, innovate, and let go of any preconceived notions of what to create.

He was able to intentionally remove the many layers of structure to go back full-circle to a state of simplicity, nothingness, and pureness. The journey was not a direct one. It was one that involved the exploration of self and identity, mastery of skills, and the development of a craft. It’s this journey that gave him the freedom and space to create beautiful pieces that we call a ‘piece of ‘art’ and perhaps mine would be ‘child’s play.’

The ability to simplify complex ideas and concepts requires deep clarity of thought and a deep understanding of the subject matter. A sure sign that someone is unclear or lacks full understanding is when they describe something using overly complex language, terminology, or phrases. A test I like to use is the “5-year old test.” If you are able to explain any concept (no matter how complex such as astrophysics or neuroscience) to a 5-year old child and they can understand you, then that is a sign that you may have true mastery over that topic. If not, it requires deeper understanding and study or the accumulation of more experience.

So how do you keep it simple?

  1. Conceive it – Take time to clear your mind and thinking. Pray. Meditate. Be mindful.
  2. Share it – Communicate to refine and make sense of your ideas and thoughts. Sketch. Share. Prototype.
  3. Refine it – Cut out what’s not necessary and shape it. Remove. Shape. Synthesize.
  4. Invest in it – Take the time to build mastery in your area of expertise. Study. Practice. Teach.

What do you have true mastery over? How can you keep it simple?


I.Q. tests are traditionally viewed as a quantitative measure of a person’s intelligence. Children who score very well on I.Q. tests are often tracked into programs for the “gifted,” while those who do very poorly are tracked into “remedial” programs. Despite their prevalence, the true meaning and import of I.Q. tests are subjects of some controversy in the fields of education, psychology, and neuroscience.

Over the past year, the subjects of intelligence, a possible biological basis for intelligence, and ways to improve intelligence have all received a significant amount of media attention. This article is a short review of some of these studies.

There seem to be two main camps on the subject of intelligence. In one camp are the researchers who not only support the concept of I.Q. as a measure of intelligence, but also believe that there is a biological switch that governs this intelligence, such as a gene or some kind of brain chemical. These researchers also believe that I.Q., and thus intelligence, can be improved by external means, such as through dietary supplements or specific learning exercises.

In the second camp are the researchers who reject the concept of a single definition of intelligence and suggest instead that human intelligence is too complex a mesh of qualities which cannot be measured by a single score on a single test. These researchers also believe that intelligence can be improved, but only by incorporating a much wider definition of intelligence than is currently in place in our society.

Let’s start with some of the studies that fall into the first camp of opinion on I.Q as a measure of intelligence.

In July 1999, researchers at the University of New Mexico announced a study linking levels of two brain chemicals to performance on I.Q. tests.

William Brooks and his colleagues used brain-imaging techniques to measure levels of choline and N-acetylasparate (NAA) in the brains of 26 healthy volunteers.

The researchers found that people with low levels of choline and high levels of NAA tended to have the higher scores on I.Q. tests. The researchers suggested that a manipulation of the levels of these brain chemicals, such as with dietary supplements, could increase I.Q. scores.

Methods for increasing I.Q. scores abound in the press and are also the focus of a number of academic articles.

The well discussed and much publicized “Mozart effect” stems from a Wisconsin study that suggests that listening to Mozart boosts IQ. Although a number of later studies suggest that the effect may not be as powerful as originally thought, many preschools have instituted programs such as “Mozart hour” to give their students the music’s perceived benefits.

Popular dietary supplements such as gingko biloba and phosphatidylserine are advertised as brain enhancement products that improve mental functions such as problem solving and memory, although there is very little scientific evidence to support these claims. There is even a firm out of Beverly Hills that offers a product called “Brain Gum”. Their promise for the product is encapsulated in their phone number: 1-888 “IQ BOOST”.

In the field of child development, Linda Acredolo, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis, has found that babies who are taught sign language starting at the age of 11 months tend to have higher average IQs when they reach second grade than their peers who were not taught sign language (scores were 114 for the sign language proficient, 102 for the non-signers).

Behavioral experimentation on mice is a traditional tool for the study of gene manipulation on intelligence. Last September, researchers at Princeton reported that genetically engineered mice that over-express a particular form of the brain protein called the NMDA receptor perform better at a number of behavioral tasks than normal mice. The researchers suggest that this receptor could be a target for treating learning and memory disorders-this creation of a mouse that performs well on memory tasks has been described as a possible first step in making human beings “smarter”.

One question should be considered: Does performance on I.Q. tests really tell us something concrete about a person’s intelligence? This leads us to the second camp of researchers-those who argue that traditional I.Q. tests do not tell the whole story.

Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard University, proposes the theory of “multiple intelligences” in which there are at least eight different types of intelligence, all of which must be taken into account when establishing a vision of a person’s abilities and potential.

Michael Howe, a psychology professor at Exeter University, has spent ten years studying the development of high achievers, such as Mozart, Michael Faraday and Isaac Newton. In his book Genius Explained, Howe argues that most “geniuses” don’t have some ineffable quality that promotes their intelligence above that of the general population. He argues that what distinguished these admittedly remarkable people was incredible persistence and devotion to their particular field of interest. Howe believes that sheer intelligence as measured by an I.Q. test won’t automatically lead to success without the added qualities of determination and perseverance.

Another researcher, Dr. Ken Richardson, also argues that the idea of an I.Q. score is too strict of a limit on the definition of intelligence. In his book The Making of Intelligence he suggests that the idea of a single cause or kind of intelligence is not supported by our ever-increasing understanding of the mind and its functions. His main idea is that intelligence is not a static thing that is coded for us by our genes, but is instead a result of a dynamic interaction between the mental process with which we represent the world and the culture in which we live. According to Dr. Richardson, society has as much an influence on our intelligence as do our genes.

Thomas Edison’s famous definition of genius as 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration suggests that intelligence is as much a product of nurture as it is of nature. However, it is the question of the origin of that mysterious 1% that fuels much of the interest in I.Q. scores, memory enhancing drugs, and mind-boosting music. Research results from the “smart mouse” and from the New Mexico study on brain chemical levels suggest that there may in fact be a biological quality, be it gene or chemical, that is the seat of that extra brain power that details the difference between “smart” and “not-smart”, “gifted” and “remedial”. Researchers like Gardner and Richardson argue instead that the brain is too plastic and complex for intelligence to be limited by the actions of a single gene, chemical or concept of I.Q..

All of this intriguing research tells us that, just as in so many areas of science, more time and study is necessary before we can hope to find a clear answer. In the end, the final answer to the question of intelligence will most likely be a multi-layered vision of human potential that combines all of these studies in biology, psychology and cultural context.

Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby before Your Baby can Talk. 1999.

Howard Gardner. Frames of the Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. 1983.

Howard Gardner. Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the Twenty-First Century. 1999.

Michael Howe. Genius Explained. 1999.

Ken Richardson. The Making of Intelligence. 1999.

Tang et al. “Genetic enhancement of learning and memory in mice,” Nature. September 2, 1999.


Cybernetics and Second-Order Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the science that studies the abstract principles of organization in complex systems. It is concerned not so much with what systems consist of, but how they function. Cybernetics focuses on how systems use information, models, and control actions to steer towards and maintain their goals, while counteracting various disturbances. Being inherently transdisciplinary, cybernetic reasoning can be applied to understand, model and design systems of any kind: physical, technological, biological, ecological, psychological, social, or any combination of those. Second-order cybernetics in particular studies the role of the (human) observer in the construction of models of systems and other observers.

Author: Francis Heylighen & Cliff Joslyn

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Iconic & Original Absinthe Accessories

When it comes to Absinthe, there is one factor, which is, to many, more important than the Absinthe itself: The Absinthe Accessories. In our article about Absinthe Rituals you already found out, why they are pretty important. In the following article we want to provide you with an overview about the most iconic Absinthe Accessories.

Original Absinthe Accessories: Spoons

Once can say, an Absinthe spoon is the most iconic Absinthe accessory. Because Absinthe spoons are only used for drinking Absinthe. They have no other function. With other accessories, like Absinthe glasses or carafes it is different. They were and are often used as well for other drinks.    …Continue reading “Iconic & Original Absinthe Accessories”

Absinthe as a gift for Christmas

Absinthe as a gift for Christmas: The Starter Set

What is an Absinthe Glass?

To drink Absinthe the traditional way, you need to have an original Absinthe glass. But what exactly makes a glass an Absinthe glass? We will give you the answer and inform you this week about Absinthe Glasses.

Absinthe Glass: The historic evolution

In its early days Absinthe has been served in the same glasses as every other drink. Since Absinthe has a deeper cultural meaning and gained in popularity a specific design became popular. As you most certainly know a glass for Absinthe normally has a short thick stem, as well as a reservoir in order to measure how much Absinthe you need to pour for one serving. Such a glass is called ‘reservoir glass’. The Pontarlier design was the first specific Absinthe glass. It has as well another indicator, a faceting, to help adding the right amount of water. In the following picture you can see these design characteristics:    …Continue reading “What is an Absinthe Glass?”

Absinthe Spoons and their usage

Welcome back, glad to have you here! Absinthe Spoons are an important accessory of the Absinthe culture. This week we will give you some more information about this iconic accessory: The Absinthe Spoon. We will briefly explain how to use an Absinthe spoon, in case you are new to the world of Absinthe. Additionally, we present some historical facts about their usage. There are as well many different spoon designs available. Therefore we will give you as well an overview about the different styles.

Why do you need Absinthe Spoons?

Back in the 19th century, people had a sweet tongue. Bitter flavors did not meet the taste of many customers. Therefore it became apparent really quick, that sugar should be added to Absinthe. But, chemically spoken, sugar does not mix with alcohol, which Absinthe is mostly made of. This is why you have to add water, in order for the sugar to be dissolved due to a lower percentage of alcohol.    …Continue reading “Absinthe Spoons and their usage”

The new Slipstream Absinthe Pipe Ritual

Absinthe Fountain Classic – The best fountain on the market

By mid November we will get the best Absinthe fountain: The Classic Absinthe Fountain. It really is the best Absinthe fountain on the market. Therefore, when you are planning to buy a metal fountain, we recommend to wait a bit. Don´t purchase inferior quality fountains (the ones we all dealt with the last couple of years…) somewhere else, you will definitely regret it.
   …Continue reading “Absinthe Fountain Classic — The best fountain on the market”

Absinthe Brouilleur Terminus

“Bienfaisante”, this was the marketing claim for the famous French Absinthe Terminus. Bienfaisante means beneficial and was refering to the healthy qualities of this fine spirit. Indeed Absinthe helps against stomach problems, but of course such a glorification of the spirit is a typical example of how advertising was made during the 19th century. Below, in our gallery, you can see the original 1892 poster for Absinthe Terminus. On the poster two famous stage personalities of the day are shown: Constant Coquelin and Sarah Bernhardt. Benoît-Constant Coquelin (23 January 1841 – 27 January 1909), known as Coquelin aîné (“Coquelin the Eldest”), was a French actor and one of the greatest theatrical figures of the age. In 1900 Coquelin toured in America with Sarah Bernhardt, appeared on Broadway’s Garden Theatre in a production of Cyrano de Bergerac (Bernhardt played Roxane). He made his only film, the duel scene from Cyrano de Bergerac with sound recording on phonograph cylinder. The film is thought to be the first ever made with both color and sound. Besides this iconic advertising Terminus Absinthe is also known for several Absinthe accessories. They produced for example an Absinthe fountain decorated with the French cock and the famous Terminus Brouilleur. This legendary Brouilleur is now available as an authentic reproduction. Although the inscription on the Brouilleur is now different, to avoid misunderstandings of what is the original item. In the 19th century Terminus used the following wording:    …Continue reading “Absinthe Brouilleur Terminus”

Absinthe Brouilleur Auto Verseur back in stock!

These Absinthe Brouilleurs were out of stock for a long time. Now we received new stock! This delightful dripper is an exact replica of the famous “Auto verseur”, originally produced by the absinthe maker Cusenier. It was a popular accessory in the mid-19th century. The dripper is fascinating, as the water flows over a see saw into the absinthe glass. You simply place the dripper on top of the glass and add water to the reservoir bowl. The balancing mechanism (see saw) underneath allows small amounts of ice water to flow into the waiting absinthe glass. As soon as the water touches the absinthe, you will experience the beautiful louche.

Absinthe Decanter Portieux in stock!

You know, we are always on the search for authentic absinthe reproductions to create this unique feeling of nostalgia. Now we have a new cool absinthe accessory available. The Absinthe Decanter Portieux. It is a dual-mouthed Absinthe carafe. Why? Because it was like this back in the old days and it has a perfect functionality: One large hole is for filling the decanter with water and ice. The other one is a small spout for a precise and fine water drip during the traditional Absinthe ritual. The dual-mouthed Absinthe decanter is the one and only carafe especially made for use with Absinthe. Former originals were produced during the years between 1910-20. Below you can see the original 1914 barware catalogue from the French glass manufacturer Portieux. We hope you will have a good time with this unique absinthe accessory, enjoy your journey….

Absinthe Spoon Paris 1889 Silver Plated

Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated in 1889…? No? That´s not of a problem! When you decide to get our Absinthe of the Month Heritage Verte you will never forget this date. Why? Because every bottle is accompanied by one silver plated Paris 1889 Absinthe spoon. This Absinthe spoon is an authentic reproduction of the Absinthe spoon which was made for the festivities in 1889.

And here are some more interesting information about the world famous Eiffel Tower: The tower is named after its architect and designer Gustave Eiffel. The project was proposed in 1884 as the eyecatcher of the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889. It should mark the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Over 700 design proposals were handed in, but Eiffel’s tower proved to be the most popular. Maybe you already knew these facts but did you know the following…?

The design was not originally meant for Paris, but for the Universal Exposition of 1888 which was held in Barcelona, Spain. The Spanish rejected the design; only then did Eiffel enter it for consideration for the 1889 fair in Paris. Imagine the Spanish would have liked the design!

Cheers and always look on the bright side of life!


The ring fibula

Brooches and fibulae were worn from ancient times to pinning clothes and as a status symbol. They were worn by all classes, except for the lower classes. This article elaborates on the different types ringfibulae that were worn in the early Middle Ages.
The circular ring fibula and the disc fibula brooches were the most common in the early Middle Ages. Some specimens, such as Tara and Hunterston brooches are richly decorated. This decorated specimens almost always made by goldsmiths from a monastic community. The fibula was usually both practical and symbolic. However, some were clearly not practical, because they had a long pin of 20 to 30 cm.
The ringfibulae can not be clearly dated. Most brooches with ornaments come from the time when the Vikings in Ireland and Scotland had colonies. The Vikings took various parts of the brooches and added some new elements. At the beginning of the last century the Irish brooches are typed. However, this characterization is quite outdated and can be taken as a guide only loosely.

early ringfibulae
The first type ring fibula were easily made and worn from the 3rd century and came in the 4th or 5th century, toward Ireland. The type may be caused by the renewed trade contacts between the Western and Eastern Roman Empire and the Germanic fashion that inspired it. These brooches were in use during the Roman domination, but became more popular around the early Middle Ages. Perhaps this was because the brooch was a status symbol or by changes in fashion trends. This type of fibula was taken over by the pagan Saxons.
5th and 6th century brooches were more derived from Roman design and were often decorated with stylized animal motifs. Between the 6th and 7th century fibulae became more decorated. Most early copies were made of iron or bronze and its design much easier than the later models. Brooches were decorated with stylized animal motifs or with simple grooves in the metal.

The ring broken fibula
The broken fibula ring was worn only in Ireland and to a lesser extent in Scotland. He is, as the ring fibula, circular, but the circle is broken and the two ends are often wider than the ring. The opening could fall over the pin, which was often very long. A variant is the pseudo-broken ring fibula, where the opening is closed with a strip of metal. Pictures from Ireland show that the broken fibula ring with the pin upwards and the opening was worn down.
The Old-Irish texts warn that the brooch could injure other people because of its large pin and therefore had to be used safely. Probably men wore the brooch on the shoulder and females on the chest. The brooch was used to keep in place the brat, a circular shell. He was supported by both citizens and clergy.
The value of the brooch depended on the material, size and decoration. Most luxury brooches have a base of copper, bronze or iron and plated or inlaid with gold. But is made of pure gold only Derry 9th century brooch. The ends of the brooches were beaten flat of the 6th to the 9th century, so there was more room for decoration. Some brooches are also complete works, which have invested thousands of hours of work.
The broken ring fibula seems to be a typical Irish brooch, but was taken over by the Picts who were setting him in a whole other Pictish art style. They were almost certainly made by silversmiths, trained in monasteries. These jewelers also probably made the designs for illuminations of manuscripts. Few of the broken ringfibulae have been found in tombs and the ones that are found in graves, like the grave Norwegian Westray in the Orkneys, it seems clear that he has changed owners.

From the end of the 8th century the Vikings pillaged monasteries in Scotland and Ireland. Shortly afterwards they built winter quarters and then whole cities on the islands such as Dublin, Cork and Waterford. These were the first towns in Ireland and soon they grew to international trade centers.
The Scandinavians who settled in Ireland and Scotland, were far outnumbered compared to the original population. Soon, customs and traditions were taken apart and there was a Norse-Gaelic culture. One of the technological traditions that took over from the Celtic culture was the frequent use of the ring broken fibula. Of course, the Vikings were already familiar with the ring brooch, which she wore in a unique variant. The newly created brooches were adorned with a unique art style that was not clear Scandinavian or Celtic. The brooches were worn by both Celts and by Vikings and gradually replaced the older types of brooches. These brooches were worn in the same way as their predecessors and probably they served also as a status symbol. This type of brooches is found throughout the Viking world. Possibly they were a commodity as artwork. It was not until the late 11th century until brooches slowly fell into disuse. At that time there was a new type of ring broken fibula introduced: the thistle fibula. This type was used extensively in Ireland and Scotland.


What’s the difference between trace and debug in ASP.NET?

 Posted by ArticlesMaint on 9/16/2009 | Category: ASP.NET Interview questions | Views: 16927

Answer: -
Debug and trace enables you to monitor the application for errors and exception with out VS.NET IDE. In Debug mode compiler inserts some debugging code inside the executable. As the debugging code is the part of the executable they run on the same thread where the code runs and they do not given you the exact efficiency of the code ( as they run on the same thread). So for every full executable DLL you will see a debug file also as shown in figure ‘Debug Mode’.

Trace works in both debug as well as release mode. The main advantage of using trace over debug is to do performance analysis which can not be done by debug. Trace runs on a different thread thus it does not impact the main code thread.

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Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs for Applicants

Q: When is the deadline?
A: The 2017 initial deadline is January 22nd at 11:59 PM. However, we do accept applications after the deadline.

Q: Who judges applications?
A: All admissions decisions are made by the Festival faculty.

Q: Can I apply after the initial deadline?
A: Yes! Applications are accepted until all studios are filled.

Q: Am I eligible for scholarship?
A: Yes, scholarship is awarded based on both merit and need. If you would like to apply for scholarship, please complete the scholarship page on our Decision Desk application. Please refer to the Financial Assistance page for more information.

Q: How do I apply for an RA position?
A: Please refer to Financial Assistance page.

Q: When do I receive admission results?

Q: Can the application fee be waived?

Q: Can I have feedback on my audition videos?
A: Due to the many applications we receive and process, we are unable to provide feedback.

A: Please call the Festival office. We may be able to update the application.

Q: What is the age range?
A: There is no specific age limit, however most admitted applicants are between 13 and 30.

Q: Can I link a YouTube video for my media submission?
A: No, all submissions must be uploaded to Decision Desk via media file. If your media exists on YouTube or another video site and you do not have the original file, there are many free online services that allow you to download an existing YouTube video onto your desktop.

A: Please upload a placeholder document indicating that you will provide necessary documentation when available. When you receive your tax forms, you can then email them to the Festival and we will add them to your application.

Q: I applied for both sessions, but if admitted, can only can attend one or the other. Possible?

A: There is no order to our waitlist. Should a spot open, the faculty reconsider each applicant on the wait list. If you are accepted, you will hear from the Festival immediately. Please understand that our waitlist is very fluid and we do not maintain a large list. Chances of being accepted from the wait list are quite high.

FAQs for Admitted Participants

Q: How do I get to campus?
A: Please refer to the Travel and Visa page.

Q: When is my final balance due?
A: May 1.

Q: Where do I live on campus?
A: Please refer to the Campus Life page.

Q: Can I receive a recording of my performances?
A: Yes! All campus performances are recorded.

Q: What should I wear?
A: As a summer festival, day to day dress is very casual. Please bring comfortable walking shoes and clothing for both hot summer days and cool evenings. Concert dress is formal.

Q: Can I be refunded?
A: All payments are non-refundable. However, if you have a documented medical emergency, we are at times able to reimburse room and board costs.

Q: What is the daily schedule?
A: Please refer to the Festival Schedule page.

Q: Is there a campus map?

A: If you have been given permission to arrive after 6:00 PM on Saturday, please go to the Bowdoin College Summer Programs Office in Coles Tower (#68 on map) to pick up your registration packet and room key. If you have not done so already, please let us know if you need to arrive late. When you arrive at your residence, please have an RA (resident assistant) check you into your room and sign your room condition form. The RA’s can also help you find any information you missed.

Q: Where do I live on campus?

Q: Is the campus safe?

A: Although we encourage harpists to bring their own instruments, distance often prohibits this. The Festival works with a harp rental company based in Boston, MA. Please contact the Festival and we will arrange for a harp to be brought to campus. The participant is still responsible for the rental and cartage fees.

Q: Can I arrive late or leave early?

Q: Do international participants need to make special travel arrangements?
A: Please refer to the Travel and Visa page.

Q: How do I find out about my private lessons?

A: Chamber music assignments are made at the beginning of each of our 3-week sessions; no assignments are made in advance. Placement auditions are held in the morning on the first Sunday of each session. Be prepared to play 2–5 minutes of a solo piece of your choice. On the first Tuesday, chamber group assignments are posted in the information room at 12 Cleaveland Street. Chamber music coaching schedules for each three-week session are as follows: Wednesday and Friday the first week; Monday and Thursday the second week, and Monday and Wednesday the third week.

A: Please check the Festival Insights page.

Q: Can I receive mail at the Festival?
A: All mail should be addressed:

c/o Bowdoin International Music Festival
6300 College Station, Brunswick, ME  USA  04011-8463.

Q: Can I bring a car?
A: Participants may park in the Coffin Street lot, near Osher Hall.

Q: Should I bring music?
A: Please bring solo material (along with the collaborative piano score) for your private lessons. The festival will provide music for your chamber group(s). The Bowdoin College Beckwith Music library is also open for use. Remember to bring your ID card in order to check out music.

Q: How do I play in a masterclass?
A: You are encouraged to attend all masterclasses. Selection of players for each class is at the discretion of the instructor. To play in a masterclass, ask your instructor to recommend you.

Q: When do I perform?
A: The Young Artist Series feature participants performing in Bowdoin College’s Studzinski Recital Hall. Community Concerts allow Festival participants to gain performing experience in front of appreciative audiences at off-campus venues. To be selected for these concerts, each chamber group or solo performer must be recommended by his or her instructor. Fellows and advanced participants are often selected to perform in our Subscription Series and Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music.

Q: Where will I live at Bowdoin?
A: Please see the Campus Life page.

Q: Where do I eat at Bowdoin?
A: All participants on the meal plan eat in the award winning Thorne Dining Hall. Its menu can accommodate most dietary needs. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served Monday through Saturday, and brunch and dinner are served on Sunday. Participants who are not on the meal plan are welcome to eat in the dining hall, but they must pay the cash price for meals. For participants who are not on the meal plan, a grocery store and several restaurants and cafés are within walking distance of the campus. We also provide weekly trips to grocery stores and other shopping locations.

Q: Are there any non-musical activities at Bowdoin?
A: Please see the Campus Life page.

Q: Where do I practice?

Q: How many participants does the Festival host each summer?
A: 250.

Q: Can you tell me about the Bowdoin College?

Q: Can you tell me about the town of Brunswick?

Q: Wifi, computers, phones?
A: There is campus-wide wifi and public computers are available throughout campus. Every residence hall room has a campus phone (the number is posted on the phone). If there is an emergency or you are having trouble reaching someone on campus, please call the Festival’s main phone number 207-373-1400 or Campus Security at 207-725-3314.


Frequently asked questions about Comparative Agility

Here you will find basics information about Comparative Agility.

If you need additional help, feel free to contact us.

Comparative Agility is the world’s largest agile assessment tool and a cloud-based continuous improvement platform aimed at helping organizations continuously improve the way they create value.

Comparative Agility helps change agents cut through the noise and focus their energy, time and investments where it makes the most impact:
a) Leaders: Business leaders typically have a great idea of what challenges their organization is faced with - the problem is understanding which challenge is more pressing than the other. Comparative Agility helps amplify the voice of the teams – at all relevant levels of the organization, regardless of size. This helps leaders quickly know where to focus and make investments where it matters the most.
b) Coaches and Organizational change agents: Comparative Agility gives you visibility at the team, program and organizational levels - it shines a light - but it is up to you to dig further and then understand the "why" behind the results. In other words, Comparative Agility does not give you answers by itself - it provides insight so you can ask better questions. As coaches and organizational change agents, that is core to our job and critical for continuous improvement efforts overall.
c) Team members: The Retrospective is perhaps the most important ceremony in Scrum and critical to continuous improvement efforts. Yet, Retrospectives can often get stale and unproductive. Comparative Agility provides actionable data that the team can use to help spruce up their continuous improvement efforts and challenge themselves beyond traditional "Start-Stop-Continue" activities.

Using predifine set of questions:
1) Comparative Agility collects anonymous data from team members regarding how they work in a variety of contexts
2) provides a way for change agents to aggregate the results at various levels
3) compare the data against context-specific baselines and uncover insights regarding opportunities for improvement and how they can help teams where they need it the most.

Comparative Agility is a collection of statements that directly targets behaviors that support the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto and the concrete practices outlined in frameworks such as Scrum, XP and others. Thus, by responding to these statements, you'll get an idea of the degree to which your teams are working in an agile manner, based on these proven practices.

The authors of the survey, Mike Cohn and Kenny Rubin, are recognized experts in the industry and have decades of experience observing how teams work and what leads to (or what does not lead to) positive performance outcomes. Comparative Agility started out with more than 120 statements that detailed what they believed were the key elements of working in an agile manner, across the 8 dimensions of agility. As they started to analyze the data, they recognized that some of the statements did not provide sufficient "lift" from others - that is, a certain statement could explain the impact of another statement - so it was found to be superfluous.

Statisticians from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill spent additional time analyzing the data to understand the relative impact of each statement - and further remove those that did not adequately "explain" the data (removing spurious statements). After this culling was completed, Comparative Agility was reduced down to about 80 statements - each statement found to be significant in exampling an agile way of working.

Comparative Agility is used by all types of organizations, from industry-leading, billion dollar multinational companies to small and nimble start-ups. Since Comparative Agility can be tailored to fit any given organizational size, the tool is appropriate for a variety of contexts.

A Collector is a unit in which data is collected at the team level. Collectors can be combined and aggregated to provide a near limitless perspective tailored to organizations of any size.

The data is captured through a survey that records responses in a "Collector", a collection of data points at the team-level that is otherwise anonymous. Thus, although we can identify which team a given data point is associated with, we do not track any other user information.

Comparative Agility works best when people who respond to the survey can feel confident that their responses are completely anonymous so they can feel safe to respond honestly and accurately to the various statements being presented. If you are asked to identify your role, this can quickly remove any sense of anonymity.

Comparative Agility is about comparing teams, programs and organizations against meaningful baselines, not individuals or individual teams. The one exception to this is when we’re comparing a respective team to itself – at a different point in time.
We understand, the enterprise agility is not about achieving a given state or "5-star" standard, it's about continuously improving the way you operate as an organization. By tracking how teams are perceiving they are working, change agents can quickly identify where they may provide meaningful help – in a context-sensitive manner.

Let’s start with an analogy: The Dow Jones is a collection of companies that combined create an expression of the state of the American stock market and the economy overall.

In other words, when people want to understand whether or not the "Market" is up or down from the day before, they will refer to an Index such as the DJIA (or S&P500, Nasdaq or others). The point is that the Index is a snapshot of the market by which other stocks can easily be compared.

When a given stock is doing well, that is all well and good, but what's more important is how that stock is doing relative to the market overall. If you bought Google and ended up making 10% year-over-year, that is nice, but you would be disappointed if the market overall was moving at 25% YOY growth in the same period. In other words - performance is relative.

Comparative Agility works in much the same way. Rather than creating some artificial standard (like an Agile CMMI model or equivalent) and state that "thou shall work this way", we think it's more instructive to measure how teams out there are actually working and then compare ourselves to them, so we have a practical baseline.

If we find that we are comparing favorably in Technical Practices to the World Index over all - and our score is a 3.8/5 for instance - that may not make us happy, but it helps us understand that this is a challenging area and that others are struggling with the same thing. It also tells us that we should celebrate the success we're having - after all, if we're doing better than the World, we're clearly doing something right!

The Agility Index is thus an excellent way to capture a baseline - a place to start. But the real power of Comparative Agility is to leverage the tool when comparing your organization (the collection and individual teams) to themselves over time. In the end, business agility is about constantly improving the way you work. Comparative Agility is a critical tool to help you drive your organization-wide continuous improvement efforts.

The CA-IF is a comprehensive continuous improvement framework of which Comparative Agility is a core component. The other components include a Modified Open Space session, Individual Interviews and a collection of Objective Metrics. The CA-IF offers an efficient, scalable and multifaceted approach for embedding continuous improvement in the organization.

a) An interactive user guide is available for all users who signup to Comparative Agility.
b) Personalized e-mail support and webinars are available for users with premium accounts.
c) Enterprise users, in addition to e-mail support and webinars, will receive help with analysis, onsite training and in-person guidance as part of their initial account setup.

Yes; onsite training is available through certified CA instructors. Contact us for more information.


Learn More
Assessment of vocal imitation requires a widely accepted way of describing and measuring any similarities between the song of a tutor and that of its pupil. Quantifying the similarity between two songs, however, can be difficult and fraught with subjective bias. We present a fully automated procedure that measures parametrically the similarity between(More)
Song imitation in birds provides good material for studying the basic biology of vocal learning. Techniques were developed for inducing the rapid onset of song imitation in young zebra finches and for tracking trajectories of vocal change over a 7-week period until a match to a model song was achieved. Exposure to a model song induced the prompt generation(More)
Current technology makes it possible to measure song development continuously throughout a vocal ontogeny. Here we briefly review some of the problems involved and describe experimental and analytic methods for automatic tracing of vocal changes. These techniques make it possible to characterize the specific methods the bird uses to imitate sounds: an(More)
Rat exploratory behavior consists of regular excursions into the environment from a preferred place termed a home base. A phase plane representation of excursions reveals a geometrical pattern that changes during exploration in both shape and size. We first show that with time and repeated exposures to the same large environment there is a gradual increase(More)
A male zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, kept with its father until adulthood develops an imitation of its father's song motif. We report here that the completeness of this imitation was sensitive to the social or auditory context in which the bird grew up: the greater the number of male siblings in a clutch, the shorter the mean duration of the song motif(More)
The dichotomy between vocal learners and non-learners is a fundamental distinction in the study of animal communication. Male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are vocal learners that acquire a song resembling their tutors', whereas females can only produce innate calls. The acoustic structure of short calls, produced by both males and females, is not(More)
Songbirds spend much of their time learning, producing, and listening to complex vocal sequences we call songs. Songs are learned via cultural transmission, and singing, usually by males, has a strong impact on the behavioral state of the listeners, often promoting affiliation, pair bonding, or aggression. What is it in the acoustic structure of birdsong(More)


Back in 2013, a lot of attention focused on a Third Amendment claim against Henderson, Nevada police officers. I wrote about the case here. The Third Amendment, which forbids the “quartering” of “soldiers” in private homes without the owner’s consent, is often the butt of jokes because it is so rarely litigated. But in this case, a Nevada family claimed that local police had violated the Amendment by forcibly occupying their home in order to gain a “tactical advantage” against suspected criminals in the neighboring house.

In this recent ruling, federal district court Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed the Third Amendment claim [HT: VC reader Sean Flaim]. Although it occurred several weeks ago, the ruling seems to have gotten very little attention from either the media or legal commentators outside Nevada. That is unfortunate, because the ruling raises important issues about the scope of the Third Amendment, and its applicability against state and local governments. Here are the key passages from the opinion:

In the present case, various officers of the HPD and NLVPD entered into and occupied Linda’s and Michael’s home for an unspecified amount of time (seemingly nine hours), but certainly for less than twenty-four hours. The relevant questions are thus whether municipal police should be considered soldiers, and whether the time they spent in the house could be considered quartering. To both questions, the answer must be no.

I hold that a municipal police officer is not a soldier for purposes of the Third Amendment. This squares with the purpose of the Third Amendment because this was not a military intrusion into a private home, and thus the intrusion is more effectively protected by the Fourth Amendment. Because I hold that municipal officers are not soldiers for the purposes of this question, I need not reach the question of whether the occupation at issue in this case constitutes quartering, though I suspect it would not.

This reasoning is very plausible and quite possibly correct. But it may too readily conclude that “municipal police” can never be considered soldiers for purposes of the Amendment. When the Amendment was enacted in 1791, there were virtually no professional police of the sort we have today. The distinction between military and law enforcement officials was far less clear than in the world of 2015. Moreover, many parts of the Bill of Rights were in part inspired by abuses committed by British troops attempting to enforce various unpopular laws enacted by Parliament.

In sum, Judge Gordon may well be right that the officers involved in this case are not plausibly considered soldiers under the Third Amendment. But he is too quick to conclude that no “municipal police officer” could ever qualify as such.

It is also worth noting that the Third Amendment is (along with the Seventh Amendment) one of the few parts of the Bill of Rights that has not yet been “incorporated” against state governments by the Supreme Court. Judge Gordon follows a 1982 Second Circuit decision in concluding that the Amendment does apply to state governments. I think that is almost certainly the right conclusion. Over the last few decades, leading scholars on different sides of the political spectrum have converged on the conclusion that the Fourteenth Amendment was originally understood to incorporate all of the individual rights protected by the Bill of Rights. It would be anomalous for courts to refuse to apply the Third Amendment to the states when almost all of the rest of the Bill of Rights does apply to them. A future Supreme Court decision on the subject would need to address the issue in more detail than Judge Gordon gives it here.

The difficult issues raised by the militarization of police forces suggest that it may be time to stop treating the Third Amendment as just a punchline for clever legal humor. Contrary to popular belief, there have been some egregious violations of the Amendment in the past, and we should not be too quick to assume such things won’t recur.

Finally, although his ruling dismissed the Mitchells’ Third Amendment argument, Judge Gordon did allow many of their other claims to go forward, including causes of action under the First and Fourth Amendments, and violations of federal and state statutory law. The first part of the judge’s opinion is a harrowing summary of the plaintiffs’ description of what the officers did to them. If the Mitchells’ story is true (the police obviously have their own version of events), it is clear that the officers engaged in illegal and deeply troubling abuses of power against innocent civilians – regardless of whether their actions violated the Third Amendment or not.