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Love Psychic EMERALD

Psychic Emerald
WOW! What can I say. I had the most amazing reading with Emerald!!! Emerald has such a magic voice. I was just feeling a bit lost, luckily I miraculously found Emerald. The reading was so pleasent comfortable. I felt so happy, confident on top of the world after the reading. I can't recommend enough the supremely talented Emerald...a big thank you to you!
~Judy, QLD

Emerald is an amazing love psychic. Her reading are direct honest and caring with accurate sequences of events and timing.
~ Sz, 22/02/2014

Tarot Psychic LUNA

Psychic Luna
Luna was fantastic and so thank you - I was really pleased with her reading. She is a true psychic. Thanks again guys. :)
~ Raquel, 20/11/2012

Thank you Luna for a very positive reading. I am still very happy today after the nice words I've received.
~Alvin, 20/09/2012

Clairvoyant SOPHIE

Psychic SophieSophie is an awesome reader! Her readings are compassionate, caring, direct and very honest. She has been extremely accurate with dates and events have unfolded as predicted. It has been my good fortune to have found a reader like Sophie, so give her a call she's worth every minute.
~ Lily Anne, 20/03/2013

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All About Channeling

Channeling, in psychic language, is the process of receiving and transmitting information to and from an external invisible entity or a source in an ‘altered state of consciousness’ or trance. This state is thought-based, self-induced, or triggered by an expert. The channel loses his body-consciousness and attains a level of intelligence which is almost in sync with that of the spirits. The result is that the psychics are able to communicate with the spirits. The spirits may be good or evil. They may belong to the dead or the living; they may be of the angels or demons.

Bereft of the physical constraints, the consciousness or the spirit of the channel can fly about anywhere and communicate with the other spirits that know the ‘truth’ or ‘the solution’ to the problems, which, otherwise, remain intractable due to  our limited physical vision and mobility. The channel can sit, lie down on a couch, stand or move about the room, talk even humorously with those around him, look with his eyes wide open, make gestures, and yet he does not have his body- consciousness. As an ordinary human being, you cannot utilize your five senses, look or go beyond the wall or veil, but as a channel, your spirit or consciousness can cross over into the metaphysical world, witness and interact with the invisible entities.

Besides interacting with the entities of the lower level, a channel, depending upon the level of the evolution of his spiritual consciousness or the psychic ability, can communicate with higher spirits or guides and seek their advice about problems which not only have individual, but universal  relevance. The channels, in fact, receive signals or messages and interpret or translate them in normal human language. The accuracy of their interpretation depends upon their psychic ability. The predictions of mediums like Edgar Cayce are a case in a point. You surrender the control of the body and let the higher spirit, as per its characteristics, take a temporary possession of it. Interestingly, the channel, upon its return to his normal physical state, remains unaware of what was said or what had transpired. In this way, the channel with his psychic eye can see the coming events and make predictions about the bigger pictures of life like earth quakes, social, and political upheavals, the Russian Revolution, devastating oceanic tides, hurricanes. These predictions can benefit mankind at large.

The channels, depending upon their expertise, tap many tools to ‘channelize’ their psychic energy. They may use tarot cards, crystal balls, gems or dream analysis. They use their psychic abilities of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience. Deeply sensitive, blessed and compassionate souls utilize their psychic abilities to empathize with those who have lost their way, or the ones who are confused and depressed due to their problems. Psychic channels can communicate with the spirits of the dead, which sometimes constantly hover around those whom they fiercely loved or hated when they were in human body and their desires remained unfulfilled when they were alive.

Practically everyone has the psychic ability to be a channel to a certain degree. If you wish to be a psychic, you need to have the desire, commitment, and perseverance. This is a pursuit of occult nature. A blind and untutored attempt may cause harm to the subject. It is, therefore, always advisable to work under the guidance of some master psychic. There are, however, certain steps which you may take on your own even before seeking the guidance. You can start by finding a peaceful and quiet venue in the morning. Sit on the floor in the lotus pose or meditation style. Try to feel relaxed. Breathe in deeply a few times and try to empty your mind of all the clutter when you inhale or exhale. All this time, try to focus on your in-coming and out going breath. This will help you develop the power of concentration. Once you have attained a comfortable level of concentration, try to contact a master psychic to proceed further.

What Exactly is a Psychic?

The word ‘psychic’ has been derived from the Greek word psyche which means ‘mind or soul’. It is from this root-psyche- that words like psychic, psychism, and psychology have been derived. All these words and the subjects related to them study the nature of the psyche, its relation to man, his spiritual nature, as well as the world about him, including the astral world.

A psychic is a person who possesses extra sensory perceptions, superfine intuition, and the third eye to look clearly beyond the present veils of nature. He can also look into the past and the future. He is gifted with an uncanny ability to see, hear, and feel by using his senses other than the natural five senses. He is endowed with subtle psychic energy of an exalted and accomplished yogi.

A psychic has paranormal faculties with which he can see through the boundaries of space and time, cause and effect, as they are normally understood. He is, therefore, extraordinarily sensitive to the non-physical or supernatural forces and influences and as a result, capable of extraordinary mental processes, such as extrasensory perception and mental telepathy.

The history of every culture and civilization is teeming with psychic incidents and their magical character, which cannot be explained in terms of physical sciences. There were people who could contact the forces, powers, and beings that belonged to a more subtle plane of existence. They could see the spirits, talk to them about the present, past and future and seek their benign guidance. This guidance could be used to heal the sick, which could be done by a mere touch—the healing touch. Their advice could also be used to resolve many other issues equally vital to the human peace, happiness, and welfare.

The phenomenon of psychism can be explained by the fact that each one of us has ‘an astral counterpart’ and it is through this, our physical replicas acquire the knowledge which is otherwise beyond the five physical senses.

The ancient wisdom teaches us that there is more to the universe that meets the eye and is beyond the realm of the physical senses or that can be understood by our laboratory tests and researches. There is a vast invisible realm filled with super conscious spiritual entities which continually interact with our physical universe.

This indeed, is a fascinating subject for an ordinary man, but there is nothing magical about it. We can now see with our physical eyes (through powerful telescopes) the light that emanated from stars so distant that it took millions of years for it to reach us. It is no less than a marvel. The study of psychics at the present is only a small indicator of that marvelous world which is yet to unravel itself in the near future.

Every one of us, to some degree, has psychic powers of various types- the extra sensory perception, the sixth sense, telepathy, intuition, clairvoyance, and clairaudience. Yet we are not fully aware of their existence in the latent state or our potential to develop them. Some of us are gifted with these faculties from our birth, while others have to develop them with hard work, diligence, and study. Developing psychic powers is like developing any other talent. You need to work hard to uncover these talents and bring finesse in them by seeking the guidance of some master psychic.

You can not be a psychic, least of all a successful psychic, unless you observe certain amount of physical and mental discipline in your daily life. You have to be religious---not in the narrow sense-- and spiritual in your professions and practice. Above all you have to be compassionate towards your fellow beings, animals and the environment as a whole. This will enable you to develop empathy and understanding of those with whom you deal. The more relaxed and receptive the mind, the better you will be able to unravel the mysteries of nature.

News and information about clairvoyants, especially in the Internet is overwhelming. To help take in and weigh all the information, reviews come in handy.

Clairvoyant reviews are a good source of filtered information. Most reviews are written by individuals who tried the products or services for themselves. Most reviews are objective and tackle all sides of the situation. But it is still strongly advised to be keen and alert in believing these reviews as there are unreliable ones.

There are many types of mediums and under each type are different methods in providing readings.

Reviews can help seekers know the best type of psychic for their needs with the help of the reviewer's own experiences and analysis. Getting the reaction of different seekers about a certain clairvoyant or clairvoyant reading can help give insight on what is more effective. Reviews can also help seekers get an idea on the best psychics and avoid possible deception. Hearing stories about a certain medium can give ideas on how he works and what his specialties are.

Seekers can much easier decide the best psychic and reading for their needs when they are able to relate to the feedback that they read. Searching information on the Internet usually starts from finding the most relevant for one's need. Clairvoyant reviews come from different individuals with their own stories to tell in which seekers for sure can find almost the same as his. Reviews are like family advices. Reviews are meant to help those who need answers to their questions. The world of psychics is very complicated and intimidating especially for first-timers. They try to break the barrier between the psychics and those who seek but a little scared of the unknown - they can help seekers learn the things they need to know.

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Tut Exhibit - King Tutankhamun Exhibit, Collection: Jewelry - Decorated Scarab

The Tutankhamun Exhibit

Jewelry and Ornamentation

Decorated Scarab

Decorated Scarab

Beneath the openwork legs are two gold plates soldered together, the lower embossed with a scene, the chief features of which are figures of Tutankhamun and the gods Atum and Ra-Harakhty. The king, whose throne name Nebkheperura is engraved in a cartouche near his head, wears the so-called atef crown with ram's horns and four uraei with sun's disks above the striped royal headdress (nemes) with uraeus. A corselet covers his shoulders and the upper part of his body. A pointed kilt with apron and an animal's tail, suspended from the back of the girdle of the apron, complete his attire. The gods stand one on each side of him holding his hands, and they also are shown with pendent tails, like the king's, and wearing kilts. Ra-Harakhty, with falcon's head surmounted by the sun's disk and uraeus, extends, with his left hand, the sign of life (ankh) to the nostrils of the king. He is described in the accompanying inscription as "Ra-Harakhty, the great god of Heliopolis, lord of heaven and lord of earth." In a corresponding inscription Atum is called "Atum, lord of the Two Lands of Heliopolis, great god, lord of heaven and lord of earth." Above the king's crown is the sun's disk, flanked by uraei; at its base are seven pendent ankh symbols, relics of the Amarna custom of terminating the rays of the sun with hands holding these symbols.

In a separate compartment, beneath the feet of the three figures, is a design composed of two identical antithetical groups facing the sema sign for unification supported by intertwined lily and papyrus stems and flowers, emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt. Each of the groups has as its principal element a lapwing (Vanellus cristatus) with human arms and hands projecting from its chest and reaching towards the symbol for unification. Beneath the arms are a five pointed star and a basket, the latter serving as a perch for the bird. They are all hieroglyphic signs and in combination with the sema sign they may be translated: "Adoration by all the people of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt". The whole composition is a heraldic device recalling the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one crown by Menes, the first dynastic king.

The scarab was found in the antechamber inside a gilded chest, where it had presumably been placed by the necropolis staff when they were collecting together the objects removed by the robbers from their original containers and left in disorder scattered about the tomb. To judge from the character of the scene on the plate, its purpose was to commemorate an important event in the life of the king, which seems to have occurred early in his reign if the ankh signs at the base of sun's disk are a legacy from Amarna. What that event might be is not revealed by the inscriptions, but it is possible that it was one of the ceremonies in Tutankhamun's coronation, when "the crowns of Atum were assembled" and he was crowned either with each in turn by priests impersonating the particular god with whom a crown was associated or with one-perhaps the khepresh-that symbolized all the crowns. This scene may therefore represent Atum placing the atef crown on the king's head with his upraised right hand while Ra-Harakhty gives him life. If this is the correct interpretation, the scarab would be part of Tutankhamun's coronation regalia.

Who are we?


Why Go - Pearl Jam 9:03 PM

This made me laugh, OUT LOUD!

In some cases it's dead on!

Otherwise, it's still pretty funny! Especially when a member of NKOTB is in it!


phpChess Community Edition Multiple File Inclusion
May 07, 2007 @ 11:24:00

Users of the phpChess application for their website should take note of this new advisory posted on the Secunia website. It's related to a vulnerability that allows for multiple file inclusion, allowing for malicious code to be included. This issue is for Community Edition versions 2.x.

GolD_M has discovered some vulnerabilities in phpChess Community Edition, which can be exploited by malicious people to disclose sensitive information or to compromise a vulnerable system.

The issue surrounds the "root_path" parameter not being properly verified before the include happens. If register_globals is on, this could be overridden and malicious code could be injected. The recommended fix for the issue is to go in and correct the source code, making it validate the location of the file (and that it exists) before it is included.

tagged: secunia phpchess advisory multiple file include secunia phpchess advisory multiple file include


You're being asked to quantify usability improvements with statistics. But even with a background in statistics, you are hesitant to statistically analyze the data, as you may be unsure about which statistical tests to use and have trouble defending the use of the small test sample sizes associated with usability studies.

The book is about providing a practical guide on how to use statistics to solve common quantitative problems arising in user research. It addresses common questions you face every day such as: Is the current product more usable than our competition? Can we be sure at least 70% of users can complete the task on the 1st attempt? How long will it take users to purchase products on the website? This book shows you which test to use, and how provide a foundation for both the statistical theory and best practices in applying them.

The authors draw on decades of statistical literature from Human Factors, Industrial Engineering and Psychology, as well as their own published research to provide the best solutions. They provide both concrete solutions (excel formula, links to their own web-calculators) along with an engaging discussion about the statistical reasons for why the tests work, and how to effectively communicate the results.


Private Detective/Investigator

Work Tasks

PRIVATE DETECTIVES/INVESTIGATORS offer many services, including executive, corporate, and celebrity protection; pre-employment verification; and individual background profiles. They assist attorneys, businesses, and the public with a variety of legal, financial, and personal problems. Private detectives provide assistance in civil liability and personal injury cases, insurance claims and fraud, and child custody and protection cases. The duties of private detectives and investigators range from locating missing persons to exposing fraudulent workers' compensation claims. They gather facts, trace debtors, or conduct background investigations. Private detectives and investigators gather as much information as possible to locate assets or individuals.

Salary, Size & Growth

Entry Requirements

There are no formal requirements for most PRIVATE DETECTIVE/INVESTIGATOR jobs, although many private detectives have college degrees. Almost all private detectives and investigators have previous experience in other occupations such as insurance or collections, for companies in the private security industry, or in the military, federal intelligence, or law enforcement jobs. Training in subjects such as criminal justice is helpful. Most corporate investigators must have a bachelor's degree, preferably in a business-related field. The majority of states require that private detectives and investigators be licensed.


06/30/2015 - 11:22am

Crazy Foam, a 3-in-1 body wash, shampoo and conditioner featuring cartoon characters, will return to shelves after a decades-long hiatus.

06/26/2015 - 12:42pm

The largest supermarket operator in the United States is on fire, so it makes sense that the Kroger Co. approved its first stock split in 16 years and a 13.5% dividend increase.

06/24/2015 - 12:50pm

The Little Clinic, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroger, has expanded into Kansas, marking the company's 10th state to operate retail clinics.

06/19/2015 - 1:43pm

06/18/2015 - 9:03am

There's a lot going on at Kroger —  the company is integrating its e-commerce arm Vitacost.com, expanding its click-and-pick-up offerings beyond the Carolinas and growing its digital presence.

06/05/2015 - 3:35pm

Kroger has promoted two executives with more than 30 years at Harris Teeter between them.

06/01/2015 - 11:13am

Pharmabox has become the latest kiosk operator of health and beauty supplies.

05/22/2015 - 12:44pm

Kroger has raised almost $12 million in the past five years to support the USO.

05/11/2015 - 2:22pm

The Little Clinic has further expanded its footprint with the recent opening of clinics in Kentucky and Tennessee.


Nothing is at it seems on this episode of Fringe, as Olivia, Peter and this bookshop owner - played by Clark Middleton - search for clues.
This is a scene from the Fringe episode "Nothing As It Seems," taken as we wind down season four.

Fringe Season 4 Episode 16 Quotes

Why should I expect that because you and I are back together that everything is going to be fine and that the world is going to live up to my every expectation?

Forty percent of all the information you provided is not correct. Which as far as the tenth floor is concerned means you are not the agent they licensed.


TAKE 5 with US Youth Soccer's Donovan Eubank

Youth Sports Article TAKE 5 Good Sportsmanship

Youth Soccer Dononvan Eubank on good sportsmanship

There’s nothing like the elated feeling your children get after winning a game they’ve practiced for day and night. But that good feeling can quickly dissipate when faced with bad sportsmanship.

Youth sports are a great opportunity for kids to build self-esteem and learn the essentials of playing a game. But it’s also an opportunity for parents and coaches to teach the importance of good sportsmanship. While parents cheer for their kids on the sidelines, it’s also imperative for them to be positive role models and strong examples of what it means to be a good sport.

Our kids look to their role models, and when adults and athletes have a win-at-all-cost mentality, it can ruin the game and bring out the worst in everyone.

In this month’s TAKE 5 series, we sat down with some of the world’s top athletes and coaches to get their take on what good sportsmanship means to them.

Donovan Eubank

Donovan Eubank from Huron, TN started refereeing at 12 years old. He earned his Grade 7 badge when he turned 17. Being involved with soccer as a player and referee has guided Donovan’s behavior across all parts of his life.

1. What's the state of sportsmanship in soccer today?

Sportsmanship in soccer has steadily increased. The anti-racism campaign that began is Europe is making its way to U.S. clubs and teams which is helping players be more respectful of each other's cultures. Peter Walton's Respect program has also made a difference in the way players treat each other and the officials.

2. What specifically do you do to display good sportsmanship?

As a referee, I try to show compassion for players. I understand how the players feel on the field and I try to adjust my style to their game.

3. During your refereeing career, what's one example of an opponent displaying good sportsmanship?

During an Under-17 game I was officiating in west Tennessee, a player had an amazing shot on goal that was saved by the keeper of the defending team. After the play, both players congratulated each other on their skills.

4. What can coaches do to promote good sportsmanship?

Coaches can teach their players sportsmanship by leading by example.  Respect for opposing teams, coaches, and fans can be seen rather than taught. That is something that all coaches should strive to demonstrate to their players.

5. What is the number one thing athletes in soccer could do to improve sportsmanship in our sport?

Focus on the good of the game.

Come back next month for another exclusive TAKE 5 Interview.

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Naturalness, Hierarchy And Space-Time

Naturalness, hierarchy and space-time as invoked today in physics, will be retired sooner than later.

The naturalness "strategy" and hierarchy "problem" for building models towards theories that extend the standard model of particles and their interactions (call it STh, standard theory a la David Gross) are crumbling with the measurements of the newly discovered Higgs-like boson. I call it still H-like until we have measured it exhaustively at the LHC. Nonetheless, we have built ourselves a story for what comes after the H elementary scalar that the real world does not appear to abide by.

So, the slavery of the need to be "natural", not "finely-tuned" (very subjective notions that we should have objected to, much earlier) is being lifted as we speak, and the road to high energy might be surprisingly more complex than what we were envisioning.

Towards the end of the road, and there may be none such if the road curves back at us, there is gravity or space-time that enters the mix of physics notions that are hairy and loopy and we have to upgrade them if not retire them altogether.

On related physics ideas, the notions about the particle nature of dark matter might also crumble.

Some big revolutions (and discoveries) are in store regarding fundamental notions of our quantum universe.


Get With The Times

this is the website of tom o'dea

Nora Duggan | Trine Riel | Levi Hanes | Radek Przedpelski | Sara Wentworth | Kieran Nolan | Stephanie Dossou | Moran Been-Noon | Curated by Tom O’Dea.
Materiality is an exhibition that explores the impact of digital technology on the construction of political, social and economic life.
Featuring the work of eight Irish and International artists and researchers,Materiality examines the structures that digital technology places between individuals and information, and examines how the requirements of digital binaries tend towards the reorganisation of everything they touch.
The exhibition is a critical examination of how the digital underpinnings of the global communications network act as a substrate to condition our interaction at a social, political and economic level, having a transformative effect on our relationship to knowledge and meaning.

Last exhibited at SSMF, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Selected showcase of emerging talent.
context structure
(click images for hi-res version)
a a
some video bits
some bits of video from various projects

iamtomodea (at) gmail (dot) com


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      Talking urinal cakes speak up to curb drunk driving

      Michigan urinals aren't just giving reliefthey're offering potential drunks{}some sound advice.

      The Huffington Post reports talking urinal-deodorizers are showing up across the state, with a female voice urging men to call a cab or friend, if needed,{}to get home safely.

      Once the urinal cakes are motion activated, a recorded message plays, "Hey there big guy. Having a few drinks? Then listen up."


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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations

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Marck Biosciences Ltd. 7/8/14

Department of Health and Human Services logoDepartment of Health and Human Services

Public Health Service
Food and Drug Administration
 Silver Spring, MD  20993

Warning Letter
WL: 320-14-13
CERTIFIED MAIL
July 8, 2014

Mr. Bhavesh Patel
Managing Director
Marck Biosciences Limited
Plot No. 876, N.H. – 8
Village Hariyala, Tal Matar
Kheda 387411, India
Dear Mr. Patel:
During our October 29-November 1, 2013 inspection of your pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, Marck Biosciences Ltd. located at Plot. No. 876, N.H. – 8, Village Hariyala, Tal Matar, Kheda, India, investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identified significant violations of current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations for finished pharmaceuticals, Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Parts 210 and 211. These violations cause your drug products to be adulterated within the meaning of Section 501(a)(2)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act), 21 U.S.C. 351(a)(2)(B), in that the methods used in, or the facilities or controls used for, their manufacture, processing, packing, or holding do not conform to, or are not operated or administered in conformity with, CGMP.
We have conducted a detailed review of your firm’s response dated November 20, 2013, and note that it lacks sufficient corrective actions.
Our inspection revealed specific violations during the inspection, including, but not limited to, the following:
1.    Your firm failed to prepare batch production and control records for each batch of drug product that include documentation of each significant step in the manufacture, processing, packaging, or holding of the batch (21 CFR 211.188(b)).
a.    Our inspection revealed “unofficial” visual inspection records, signed by production personnel, with data that is different from the official batch records reviewed by your firm’s quality unit. In many of the cases reviewed, the unofficial records showed significantly more quality defects than the official batch records. For example, for (b)(4) injection ((b)(4)%), IP batch #(b)(4), the unofficial record completed by production personnel showed 200 units failing to meet specifications. Production personnel later completed the official batch record for this batch, showing only 18 units as having been rejected. During the inspection, your firm was unable to demonstrate that all units with quality defects were in fact rejected.
Your firm’s response states that, in many cases, your production personnel add extra units into the (b)(4) unit and lower the number of rejected units on the official paperwork to account for these extra units. This explanation is unacceptable for several reasons, including that this practice does not accurately represent the number of units with quality defects present in each batch in the official batch records, it obscures the number of rejected units in any given batch, and it misrepresents the number of units sterilized during each batch. Given that your unofficial and official records are discrepant, there is no assurance that your firm rejected all units that did not meet your acceptance criteria. Your firm’s response states that you have audited a random selection of 848 batch records and found a difference between unofficial and official records in 2.5% of instances. However, during the inspection, our investigators found discrepancies between official and unofficial records in 76 of 156 batches reviewed. Your response does not include an explanation as to the differences between your internal audit results and our inspectional findings.
In response to this letter, provide an updated assessment of the extent of the differences between unofficial and official records used at your facility. Provide documentation showing whether you exceeded the maximum validated number of units in the (b)(4), and explain the significance of that unvalidated condition. Describe controls in place to prevent data manipulation by your operators and supervisors.
b.    The inspection revealed your firm’s use of scratch paper containing critical manufacturing data. The data on these scratch paper records did not always match the data on the corresponding official batch records, as in the case for the amount of raw materials added to (b)(4) Suspension USP (b)(4)% Batch (b)(4). Although your firm stated that this batch was destroyed on October 18, 2013, the investigators observed that your records showed that the batch was removed from quarantine on October 25, 2013.
Your response to this finding does not explain why your production personnel used scratch paper for documenting CGMP-relevant data. In addition, the discrepancy between your destruction records and your quarantine records provide further evidence that your documentation is not accurate and reliable.
The use of unofficial and scratch paper records is not acceptable CGMP. In your response, provide assurance that the use of unofficial and scratch paper records has been discontinued and describe how your firm will prevent this practice in the future. Also describe your procedure to assure that all CGMP-related operations are documented at the time of occurrence.
c.    Employees interviewed during the inspection admitted that your firm recorded activities in batch records that were not performed.  Specifically, your head of production reported to our investigator that he completes “in process quality assurance check” fields in the batch record but does not actually perform the listed operations. In response to this letter, describe your investigation into this situation, outlining your efforts to determine the scope of data falsification within batch records and your corrective and preventive actions.
2.    Your firm failed to maintain adequate written records of major equipment maintenance (21 CFR 211.182).
FDA investigators identified two maintenance logbooks that included multiple entries describing significant equipment malfunctions, but for which no investigation into the potential effect on product quality was performed. In addition, your records do not always include information on repairs following these malfunctions. For instance, no maintenance actions or product impact investigations were recorded for out-of-limit findings during equipment calibration. In other cases, your firm determined that there was no product impact without justification. In addition, we note that ten serialized entries had been torn out of the logbooks. Your staff could not locate these records during the inspection and reported to our investigator that the entries had likely been destroyed.
Your response does not address this issue in a comprehensive manner and instead only addresses the five entries specifically discussed on the Form FDA-483 issued at the close of the inspection. For these five entries, your response does not discuss your investigations into the potential impact on product quality.  In addition, your response does not discuss any investigation into the missing records or address the root cause or extent of these deficient practices throughout your facility. In your response to this letter, include your plan for systemic improvements to be made to address these deficiencies.
a.    At the time of our inspection, your (b)(4) contract employees had not received any training on CGMP. These contract employees performed critical manufacturing operations, such as sterilizing operations. Your response states that general CGMP training would be given to contract employees, but you do not address why contractors were not trained prior to our inspection or the effect of this deficiency on product quality.
b.    The inspection revealed that your firm falsified documents designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of CGMP training. Your production head admitted to pre-filling out the answers to post-training comprehension assessment questions and entering the names of employees on these documents. Your company policies require personnel to demonstrate understanding of training through evaluation.
That a senior manager was engaged in the falsification of documents is troubling and raises questions about validity of documents generated by your firm. Furthermore, your response to the FDA Form-483 is deficient in that it fails to address the root cause or the extent of the falsification of training documents. In response to this letter, provide this information and also indicate how your systems will be changed to address these fundamental issues. Provide a summary of your investigation into the training status of all employees participating in CGMP activities at your facility. As part of this overall training summary, include an update on the training of all contract employees. Also include your current curriculum for general CGMP training.
4.    Your firm did not follow written procedures regarding storage and warehousing of drug products (21 CFR 211.142).
During the inspection, your firm was unable to locate approximately (b)(4) units of (b)(4) injection from Batch #(b)(4) that had been manufactured several weeks earlier. In a bound notebook that contained torn records, our investigators found a single intact record dated October 25, 2013, requesting the materials to package these units. Your firm’s personnel failed to produce packaging records for these units during the inspection. Both your staff members and our investigators carefully examined the entire warehouse in an attempt to locate the missing units, but the units were not found during the inspection. We have concerns that your firm may have released and distributed these units outside of the quality system. In response to this observation, you state that you found the missing units in (b)(4) boxes after the investigators left, in the same warehouse that they thoroughly checked during the inspection. However, you did not provide any photographic evidence of this discovery.
In response to this letter, provide evidence that these units were released by your quality unit prior to being distributed. Also describe any new procedures intended to achieve full accountability and control over all products in your facility, and describe any controls in place to prevent unauthorized product shipments. In addition, provide an explanation for the torn records found by the investigator, describe your document retention policies, and include details of any corrective and preventive measures you are implementing to address FDA’s discovery of these destroyed records.
6.    Your firm failed to exercise strict control over labeling issued for use in drug product labeling operations (21 CFR 211.125(a)).
Your response to this observation does not include any explanation as to why your firm allowed unused labels to remain in the production area, and lacks adequate explanation of whether this deviation has affected any production lots and led to mislabeling deviations or complaints regarding in-date marketed products.
You are responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the data generated by your firm. A firm must maintain all raw data generated during each manufacturing run. These records should be properly identified to demonstrate that each released batch was manufactured appropriately, tested, and found to meet release specifications. Appropriate record retention policies should also be in place. Our inspection discovered that your firm could not provide basic records for your products.
When destruction of documents is appropriate, you should follow a document destruction procedure that ensures documents are destroyed in a controlled manner. This would include, at a minimum, identification of the appropriate documents and retention timelines, documentation of what was destroyed, and the names and signatures of those who witnessed the destruction.
Please provide your corrective action plan that describes your commitment, procedures, actions, and controls to ensure data integrity.  This plan should include the corrective actions implemented to ensure that all managers, supervisors, and quality unit personnel are properly trained in ensuring data integrity and detecting data manipulation.  The investigation undertaken in response to FDA’s inspection should provide detailed descriptions of other incidents where your quality unit failed to ensure proper manufacturing or testing of materials and include a retrospective review of all manufacturing and testing records generated by your firm’s personnel. If other instances of missing, inaccurate, or unreliable data are found, your investigation should assess the effect of these discrepancies on the quality of the drug products manufactured at your facility.
Your data integrity expert should:
1.    Identify all instances in which unofficial and scratch paper records have been used in your manufacturing and laboratory facilities and assess the possibility of misrepresentation of data on official records in each case.
2.    Interview current and former employees to identify activities, systems, procedures, and management behaviors that may have resulted in or contributed to inaccurate data reporting in CGMP records.
3.    Identify the specific managers in place who participated in, facilitated, encouraged, or failed to stop subordinates from falsifying data in CGMP records, and determine the extent of top and middle management’s involvement in or awareness of data manipulation.
4.    Determine whether any managers identified in item (3) above are still in a position to influence data integrity with respect to CGMP requirements or the submission of applications to FDA.
5.    Audit past distribution practices and complete a detailed accounting of the distribution of all batches of product manufactured within the past two years to determine under what circumstances batches were distributed prior to release by the Quality Unit.
6.    Perform a comprehensive data integrity audit of all data submitted to FDA supporting drug applications and describe any discrepancies between data or information submitted to FDA and any “unofficial” accounting of actual data or practices onsite. This audit should include both manufacturing data and laboratory data, including data used in process validation studies and analytical method validation studies.
Please send your reply to: Mary E. Farbman, Ph.D., Compliance Officer; White Oak Building 51 Room 4234; 10903 New Hampshire Avenue; Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002.
Thomas J. Cosgrove, J.D.
Acting Director
Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality
Office of Compliance
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research


HealthBoards (
-   Celiac Disease (
-   -   Does this sound like Celiac Disease? (

DuckyGoQuack 04-07-2006 11:21 PM

Does this sound like Celiac Disease?

rheanna 04-08-2006 12:40 AM

Re: Does this sound like Celiac Disease?

One way to find out if you are sensitive to gluten is to go on a gluten-free diet for a month. This involves no needles. :) If your symptoms start to get better, then you know that was the cause. There are also other foods that may be causing your symptoms. An elimination diet can help figure them out. A dietitian or allergy doctor can help here.

Isn't it interesting that when we become freaked out because we don't know what's causing our ill health, doctors assume that we're "anxious" (it's all in our heads) and prescribe medicines to calm our nerves, but don't assume that there MAY be some reason why we're anxious.

I developed acid indigestion in my forties, which got so painful that I couldn't sleep. Once I found out about celiac disease (I called it my "cool disease I found on the internet") I learned all I could about eliminating gluten from my diet, and found that this diet helped considerably. It took about six months for the symptoms to go away entirely, and it has taken a few years before I'm not so reactive to small amounts of gluten when I eat at friend's houses. But for the most part, I'm able to live gluten-free and my whole health is much better.

Good luck on sorting out what's bothering you.

clill_IU 04-08-2006 10:06 AM

Re: Does this sound like Celiac Disease?


Nonfiction > Upton Sinclair, ed. > The Cry for Justice

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Midnight Lunch Room
(From “The Frozen Grail and Other Poems”)

By Elsa Barker

(Contemporary American poet and novelist. Catherine Breshkovsky, called “Little Mother” by the Russian peasants, was sentenced to a long term of exile in Siberia when seventy-seven years of age)
WITH little silver one may enter here,
  And yet those hungry faces watch outside
  The frosty window—and the door is wide!
The clatter to my unaccustomed ear
Of dishes and harsh tongues, is like a spear        5
  Shaken within the sensitive wounded side
  Of Silence. Soiled, indifferent hands provide
Pitiful fare, and cups of pallid cheer.
In my warm, fragrant home an hour ago
  I wrote a sonnet on the peace they win        10
Who worship Beauty! Let me breathe it low.
  What would it mean if chanted in this din?
What would it say to those out in the snow,
  Who hunger, and who may not enter in?


Mathematical Sciences Research Institute

Home > About > News > MSRI in the Media > Show

Examining the Dynamics of Ocean Mixing

  1. May 01, 2013
  2. By Erica Klarreich
  3. SIAM News
  4. http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=2065

"The science is clear," climate scientist Emily Shuckburgh told an audience of nearly 800 people at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts on March 4. "Our collective actions have generated a climate problem that threatens our future and our children's future." Shuckburgh's talk was part of the Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 Simons Public Lecture Series [cohosted by MSRI and AIM].*

The combination of mathematical modeling and observational data has created a robust understanding of climate change, as Shuckburgh demonstrated through numerous examples. The results are sobering: Even under the most optimistic assumptions about our future carbon emissions, the planet is already locked into a global temperature increase that will likely reach 2 degrees Celsius over the next century, resulting in increased floods, droughts, and other climate disruptions. And if our carbon emissions continue to grow unchecked, the temperature change will almost surely exceed 4 degrees Celsius, a scenario that, in the words of World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, "can, and must, be avoided."

In her own research, as head of the Open Oceans group of the British Antarctic Survey, Shuckburgh unites mathematics with field work to tackle one of climate science's most fundamental challenges: elucidating the interplay between global temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Her work focuses on the Southern Ocean, which plays an outsize role in the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the Earth's waters.

Of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere through human activities, about half is reabsorbed by land or ocean, protecting the planet from what would otherwise be an even more pronounced greenhouse effect. And of the ocean's portion of this carbon uptake, 40% occurs in the Southern Ocean. A vast overturning circulation connects all the Earth's major oceans to the Southern Ocean, carrying water that has been at the bottom of the ocean for many hundreds of years to the surface around Antarctica, where it exchanges heat and carbon with the atmosphere.

When the Earth's temperature increases, Shuckburgh explained in San Francisco, changes to the ice cover, the temperature of the water, and the overturning circulation of the ocean prompt the release of more carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean; this increase in greenhouse gases then causes temperatures to increase still further. It's a feedback effect that we believe has been happening, and that is likely to continue in the future, she said.

Mathematical Model of Ocean Mixing
To fully understand climate change, it is essential to explicate the workings of this "critical gateway for carbon exchange," Shuckburgh said last summer in a different setting---an invited presentation at the 2012 SIAM Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. What drives the overturning circulation? she asked. And is it likely to change in the future?

Derivation of the differential equations governing the ocean's currents from Newton's second law is well understood. Computational constraints limit the resolution of the grid on which the equations can be solved, however, and any effects smaller than this resolution can only be estimated. In particular, the grid cannot show the swirling eddy formations that arise from the Earth's rotation, and these eddies play a major role in the mixing of different ocean waters.

Shuckburgh and her collaborators have created a mathematical model for ocean mixing, including the eddies, using satellite altimetry data, which measures the height---and thus the pressure---of the ocean in different locations. From the pressure, it's possible to model the surface currents, and thereby examine the dynamics of ocean mixing.

There's no direct way to measure mixing in the real ocean to see how well the computer model performs. So as a first step toward testing the model, Shuckburgh's team has used a proxy for the mixing: a dye that the researchers released just west of the Drake Passage between Antarctica and South America in February 2009, and which they have since tracked annually as it flows through the passage.

If you stir cream into coffee, the more vigorously you stir, the more complicated the cream formations that initially arise; these formations increase the surface area over which the cream diffuses into the coffee, making the cream assimilate more quickly. In much the same way, when the dye reaches an eddy---whether in computer simulations or in the actual ocean---it swirls into a more complex structure, whose large surface area allows for greater diffusion and increased mixing. Shuckburgh and her collaborators have been tracking the evolution of the dye's contours in the ocean.

"We've sampled it in some locations to see if it has the same structure" as in the computer model, Shuckburgh said. The model "has done remarkably well."

Dye Maps and Unstable Manifolds
In the computer model, the team released dye in many slightly different locations. As might be expected in a chaotic system, the dye contours that developed over time differed significantly from each other. At the same time, the various dye maps display a structural coherence that is clear to the eye, and is common to all the different releases.

"It's slightly different in each case, but they're all falling on the same underlying structure, something related to the flow itself," Shuckburgh said. "Wherever you put the dye, it's like an underlying skeleton that the dye maps onto."

Shuckburgh's team turned to the theory of dynamical systems to try to elucidate this underlying skeleton. By calculating the velocity field of the surface currents, the researchers were able to identify the hyperbolic points---the fixed points of the flow that attract water along one direction (the stable manifold) and repel it along another (the unstable manifold). And by calculating the stretching rates (the Lyapunov exponents) as nearby points were separated by the flow, the team could determine the direction of maximal stretching--that is, the unstable manifold. It is this manifold that forms the skeleton onto which the dye maps, Shuckburgh said.

"If a blob of dye starts out close to one of the hyperbolic points, it moves toward the point along the stable manifold and then gets pulled out along the unstable manifold," she said.

To get a better sense of how well the unstable manifolds and Lyapunov exponents estimated from satellite data mirrored the reality in the ocean, Shuckburgh's team released an assortment of floats in the Southern Ocean near the estimated hyperbolic points, and then tracked the floats' paths and measured how quickly they separated.

The ship's crew didn't quite know what to make of the float releases, Shuckburgh recalled in the Minneapolis talk. "If you're sitting in the Southern Ocean telling the ship's captain, who is an old sea dog, that you're going off looking for unstable manifolds, you might as well tell him you're looking for the Loch Ness monster," she said. "They were deeply, deeply skeptical."

The research team found, however, that the floats do, by and large, follow the unstable manifolds predicted by the satellite data.

"We're applying these mathematical ideas well outside the bounds where they're strictly rigorous, but nevertheless they seem to give us important insights," Shuckburgh said. "We have reasonable confidence that this is now a good diagnostic of the amount of transport and mixing."

While the satellite data does a good job of identifying the unstable manifolds in the real ocean, it appears to underestimate the Lyapunov exponents by as much as 50%, presumably because of limitations on the resolution of the satellite data, Shuckburgh said. It may be possible, by releasing floats in additional locations, to figure out whether the exponents derived from satellite data are always off by the same amount, and to make a correction. Or, she said, the solution may simply be to wait a few years until a planned higher-resolution satellite starts to operate.

Science Policy Implications
Even this theoretical work has a direct link to policy decisions, Shuckburgh said, because the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by the Southern Ocean is so important for understanding the Earth's future climate. "There are not many steps between mathematics and policy in a lot of the work we do."

Shuckburgh dedicates significant time and energy to explaining the policy ramifications of both her own work and other climate research. She has a part-time appointment at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, and leads the Climate Science Communications Group at the Royal Meteorological Society. She is a regular speaker at climate change workshops for policy makers and for general audiences.

In her public lecture in San Francisco in March, Shuckburgh painted a grim picture of the planet's future if we fail to curb carbon emissions, and emphasized that we have years, not decades, in which to come up with solutions to this massive problem. At the same time, she portrayed climate change not just as a threat, but also as an opportunity. "If our collective actions have generated this problem, our collective actions can also help address this problem," she said.

Shifting her focus to the mathematical sciences community, Shuckburgh points out that "right now, a team is down in the Southern Ocean taking more measurements." This is just one of the many problems in climate science to which applied mathematicians could bring insight and expertise. "And Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013 will hopefully highlight some of the opportunities and encourage applied mathematicians to get involved."

Emily Shuckburgh's invited talk in Minneapolis can be viewed on the web at http://www.siam.org/meetings/presents.php.

Erica Klarreich is a freelance writer based in Berkeley, California.

*Scheduled to give lectures in the remainder of 2013 are Rupert Klein (Berlin, Germany; May 23); L. Mahadevan (Providence, Rhode Island; September 24); Martin Nowak (Minneapolis; October 8); and Emily Carter (Los Angeles; November 4). Abstracts and illustrations from previous lectures in the series can be found at http://mpe2013.org/public-lectures/mpe2013-simons-public-lecture-series/.


Geography Education
1.0M views | +290 today
Scooped by Seth Dixon
onto Geography Education!

The BRIC Countries

The BRIC Countries | Geography Education |

What are the demographic profiles of these "BRIC" countries that are increasingly looming large in the global consciousness?  While they to not quite fit the profile of more developed countries (MDCs), the BRIC countries are notable for how rapidly they are closing the gap in many metrics.

Hector Alonzo's curator insight, November 2, 2014 9:21 PM

The BRIC countries are among the top 10 riches countries in the world and this article shows data supporting the idea that by 2050, These countries will pass the top 4 countries due to their booming economies. As the countries continue their upward climb they will be closer to securing their place atop of the richest countries list.

Geography Education
Curated by Seth Dixon


Nonepileptic Seizures

Nonepileptic seizures look like true epileptic seizures. The difference between nonepileptic seizures and real seizures is that real seizures are caused by an electrical abnormality in the brain. Nonepileptic seizures have no medical cause. Nonepileptic seizures may look real to an untrained person. A neurologist can usually tell the difference between a real seizure and a nonepileptic seizure. Nonepileptic seizures may also be called pseudoseizures. They are more frequent in women.

In general, the patient is unaware that the movements are not real seizures. This disorder is caused by stress or emotional trauma. Patients often feel badly. Patients are sometimes accused of causing the seizure-like movements when they are not aware that their symptoms are due to stress. The nonepileptic seizures are real and frightening to patients with this disorder. Sometimes, nonepileptic seizures may be due to a person faking the symptoms to get something he or she wants.

The diagnosis requires the patient to be continuously monitored by:

  • EEG (electroencephalogram).

  • Video camera.

After an episode, the patient is asked about their awareness, memory, and feelings during the seizure. The family, if present, also discusses what they see. The EEG and clinical information allows the neurologist to determine if the seizures are related to abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

Medicines may be stopped if the patient has been treated for a true seizure disorder. Patient counseling is usually begun. Depression and anxiety, if present, are treated. Counseling helps to resolve stress.


Latest Entries »

I just wanted to provide a brief update and announcement: The first stage of my project, Settler Colonialism Uncovered, will be moving from the server at Michigan State University. I will forever be grateful to MATRIX and the Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative for the training and first digital home they provided. With the knowledge and confidence the supportive staff at MATRIX inculcated, I will be setting up the site on my own server to make site maintenance easier in the future. Watch this space for further updates and a link to the new site once it is up and running! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me [ashleys at].

Over the past year, I have been hard at work revising and refining chapters of my dissertation. As with most projects of this magnitude, there are many more stories that can be told within the, albeit capacious, confines of the manuscript. Stay tuned for more about the events that unfolded in the American Midwest and French Algeria as each became transformed into settler colonies.

What would a map of French colonial Algeria or the American Midwest look like if we took a humanistic epistemological approach? How would such a map change if it took into consideration the humanistic notion that space is a construct influenced by perception (of travel times, of fear, of violence, of land rights, of agricultural production, of relations with one’s neighbors, etc.)? What kind of information would such a map yield?

What if we could create maps that represented settler’s perception of space and Indigenous perceptions of that same space? What might such a comparison offer the scholar of settler colonialism?

This brief post is a thought experiment based on Johanna Drucker’s thought-provoking article, “Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display” (2011).  Drucker calls into question the uncritical application of data visualization tools to humanities projects. The digital graphical displays in common usage have been developed for and by social and physical scientists and therefore reflect epistemologies in direct opposition to those of the humanities:

Realist Assumptions & Epistemology Humanist Assumptions & Epistemology
Observer-independent Observer-dependent
Data (given information, facts) Capta (information taken, interpretations)
World as-it-is World as a construction
Knowledge is fact – based on observer-independent, verifiable, unalterable data Knowledge is constructed – based on observer-dependent, subjective, interpretations of information

Consequently, Drucker argues,

“what is needed is not a set of applications to display humanities ‘data’ but a new approach that uses humanities principles to constitute capta and its display. At stake … is the authority of humanistic knowledge in a culture increasingly beset by quantitative approaches that operate on claims of certainty. … The digital humanities can no longer afford to take its tools and methods from disciplines whose fundamental epistemological assumptions are at odds with humanistic method.” (Paragraph 6, emphasis in the original)

I would like to take her argument a step further. It is essential to apply humanistic epistemology and methods to the display of capta, and, especially for scholars of colonialism, to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and seeing in digital visualizations. It is this idea that prompted my earlier pair of questions about how settlers and Indigenous peoples viewed space, and it is a question I am currently tackling in my dissertation.  A graphical depiction of each would greatly assist a textual explanation.

For instance, I could use a series of maps of Vincennes, Indiana and the surrounding territory during the last quarter of the eighteenth century to demonstrate how French settlers, Indigenous inhabitants, and newly arrived Americans perceived this space, what influenced their perceptions, and how their views changed over time. In 1776, the village was comprised of roughly sixty French and French-Indian families who saw its borders as permeable and perceived their town as one among a network of French and Indian (and French-Indian) communities, connected by kinship ties, trade, and the navigable river system. However, when Americans arrived in the region, they often fortified their towns, erected visible borders in fences and gates, and created defensive cultural boundaries between themselves and the French and Indian inhabitants. American perceptions of the same space focused on their isolation from the states and from centers of American political and cultural activity along the Atlantic coast. Their perceptions were also influenced by the notion that they were surrounded by hostile Natives on all sides and therefore involved in a common (American) defense of land they viewed as rightfully and legally theirs.

While Indigenous views of land were initially expansive and porous, they soon began to shrink in the face of American encroachments and increasing racially-based violence.  Under the perceived persistent threat the Americans posed, Native civil and military leaders’ perceptions of their territory shrank to parallel American views. Cartographic depictions of notions of shrinking space, of military and cultural isolation based on increasing violence, and the threat Indigenous, French, and American communities felt in proximity to the others would be a powerful presentation of documentary evidence and would complement the textual argument. Such graphical displays would also honor my intention to demonstrate Indigenous perceptions, in addition to those of the settlers, to move beyond black-and-white portrayals of good/evil actors toward a complicated and empathetic understanding of the motivations, hopes, and fears of multiple actors in this shifting colonial landscape.

How scholars define the Digital Humanities is as ongoing and fraught conversation. Here I offer a simple working definition to continue the conversation about its definition and present my own approach to the field. It is not meant to be exhaustive or all-encompassing.  Please share what you believe to be the essence of DH in the comments section below!

DH is the study, exploration, and preservation of, as well as education about
human cultures, events, languages, people, and material production in the past and present
in a digital environment
through the creation and use of dynamic tools to

  • visualize and analyze data
  • share and annotate primary sources
  • discuss and publish findings
  • collaborate on research and teaching

for scholars, students, and the general public.

Stay tuned for Day of DH 2014 for a new batch of definitions! This will be hosted by MATRIX: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (Michigan State University). Check either the MATRIX website or CenterNet for updates.

Lord Dunmore’s War: The Battle for the Ohio Valley Begins

[3] Filson, 7-8.
[7] Clark to Brown, 17 June 1798.
[13] Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians, 7.

WikiMedia, Used under Creative Commons License

My Beloved brothers!

Why Constantine?

Taking Constantine

Taking Constantine

What was the big deal about Constantine? Why was France willing to expend thousands of French lives in two separate campaigns (1836 and 1837) to take the city?

Prior to the first French military campaign to conquer the province of Constantine in 1836, parts of Captain Saint-Hippolyte’s notes about Constantine were incorporated into a military report and sent to the Minister of War on August 30, 1836.

Mitchell Map of N Af 1852

In the introduction, the author writes that “Of the three Beyliks of the Algerian Regency, the most extensive, the richest, and the most important was that of Constantine in the East,” which was bordered by the sea, the Jurjura Mountains and salt marshes, and the Regency of Tunis.[1]

Not only was it important to give General-in-Chief Bertrand Clauzel a sense of location and prominent geographical features, it was also vital that he understood the value of this province. With coastal access to the north, an eastern border with Tunisia, and the desert to the south, Constantine was a hub of trade networks that connected sub-Saharan Africa, eastern North Africa, and the Mediterranean. The report observes, “Farther away is the desert whose solitude is frequently [broken] by caravans coming from the center of Africa toward Tunis and Tripoli in particular, which having frequent enough relations with Turkey, offers an avenue to products from the Tropics.”[2]

Abundance of ConstantineFrench military commanders and travelers, alike, repeatedly described the province of Constantine as the most extensive, richest, and most important of the three beyliks of Algeria, and foremost among them in the production of wax, honey, butter, wheat, barley, livestock, and coral.

It was a coveted gem and one that French administrators believed to be the linchpin of their colonial strategy and ultimate success.[3] It was therefore essential that the French conquer, survey, map, and claim as much of this territory as possible.

The French were successful in their second attempt, breaching the wall and overwhelming the city.  Their depredations in Algiers and Bône were well known to the citizens of Constantine, who preferred to risk their lives rather than try to protect their property from the avaricious French soldiers and officers.

From his perch on the cliffs at Constantine, Jean-Joseph-François Poujoulat recorded with horror the human toll of the 1837 French conquest of this Algerian stronghold:

‘I stooGorges of Rhummeld on the edge of the terrifying ravines and stared at the sloping peaks over which thousands of men and women, trusting the abyss more than the mercy of the French victors, sought to escape. Their means of salvation were ropes attached to the upper walls of the rocks.  When these ropes broke, human masses could be seen rolling down this immense wall of rock.  It was a veritable cascade of corpses.'[4]

Following the collapse of the Constantinois resistance, thousands of men and women sought escape into the gorges of Rhummel. Hundreds fell to their deaths when frail ropes snapped, and many more lost everything they had when they abandoned their property to the French, who confiscated it for the public domain.
Following the initial invasion, the French parliament insisted on at least a modicum of legality in land appropriations. The next post will explore some of the ways in which France sought to rationalize its land policies through legislation.

[1] “Expédition de Constantine: Notes extraites des Mémoires du Capitaine Saint-Hyppolyte.” 30 Août 1836. 80 MIOM 1672, no. 1. ANOM.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Note de M. Lebois-Lecomte à M. Thiers sur la situation de l’Algérie au 1er octobre 1840. F80/1673 2, Archives Nationale d’outre-mer (ANOM).

[4] Jean-Joseph François Poujoulat, Voyage en Algérie: Etudes Africaine (nouvelle edition) (Paris: Librairie d’éducation,1868), 244. Translation from Mahfoud Benoune, The Making of Contemporary Algeria, 1830-1987 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 38.

This project will focus on where, how, and why settler colonies developed in these locations and will allow users to explore the regions’ geography, how the landscape and demographics changed over time due to the influx of settlers, and how colonial administrators, settlers, and Indigenous communities experienced these changes.  Using the geospatial and temporal visualization capabilities of either Omeka/Neatline or VisualEyes, the interface will be an interactive temporal map of the focus regions with a narrative text and underneath, collections of primary sources, including sketches, news articles, treaties, transcribed speeches, correspondence, and selections from military reports and memoirs. It is my hope that this site will eventually serve as a repository for oral histories from colonized Indigenous populations so that their voices may be heard (literally and figuratively) alongside text-based sources that have historically been produced primarily by the colonizers. Thus, this project will be one step toward decolonizing historical memory and present the story of settler colonialism as it unfolded in two significant regions from multiple perspectives to encourage users to think critically about the past, especially that which feels most familiar, and develop informed perspectives about present socio-political debates.

Check out my Cultural Heritage Informatics tab above to read more about this exciting new outreach project.

Why do a comparative study? Why choose these two very different and seemingly unrelated regions? I’ve received these questions often enough that they merit an explanation. Please bear with me as my response is a little lengthy. This is a complex project! I’ve added subheadings to make navigating this post a little easier. Please ask questions or pose suggestions in the comments section below!

Why a comparative study of settler colonialism?

Little is known about how or why settler colonies formed, but as scholars of colonization, we need to understand the factors that motivated the formation of settler colonies and the processes by which they formed. Therefore, the two archetypes of settler colonialism – the United States and French Algeria – provide excellent case studies for this purpose.  Secondly, even though the métropoles chosen underwent different political transformations during this time, both were in transitory states as they sought to make or remake themselves, and the colonies in the Midwest and in Algeria were an important part of these changes.  In addition, the two regions chosen for this study possess similar geographic characteristics and were strategically significant in the colonization process.  Finally, the process of colonization proceeded through similar stages in both regions and analogous colonial structures emerged, despite the differences in demographics and metropolitan governments.

North America was one of the first early-modern settler colonies, and this study examines its evolution from a European settler colony into an American settler empire and argues that the United States also became an important model for modern settler colonialism and Indigenous policy. [1]  Likewise, Algeria has long been considered a model for settler colonialism but the process of its formation as such has not yet been studied in depth.[2] It is hoped that the comparison of these two archetypes, then, will yield powerful insights into how and why they formed that may also help us understand the development of other settler colonies.

Why the United States and French Algeria?

Both the French conquest of Algeria and the expansion of the United States into the Old Northwest Territory, the present-day “Midwest” region, marked the beginning of new colonial eras for both métropoles.  For France, the conquest and subsequent settlement of Algiers inaugurated its “second colonial empire.” As the United States fought for its own independence from England, Americans began an assault on Midwestern Native American tribes, their land, and the British who claimed the territory.  As in Algeria, settlers moved in on the heels of the military, and the young United States government became the political head of both a confederation of states and a nascent settler empire. Thus, the “conquests” of these regions marked the commencement of two settler colonies as well as significant periods of metropolitan change.  In recognition of the importance of founding moments, my study will compare the inception of these settler colonies with the understanding that they were also highly significant for the métropoles, even if recognized as such only in retrospect.

Why this time period?

In this study, I will analyze the foundational eras in the establishment of settler colonies in the American Midwest (1778 ~ 1830) and French Algeria (1830 – 1871). These periods were dynamic, characterized by substantial political transformations and encompass conquest/occupation, initial settlement, and the development of stable settler governments.  The United States metamorphosed from a colony into an independent nation whose political character changed appreciably between the Revolution and the 1830s. France, a monarchy in 1830 under the Restoration government of King Charles X, was soon overthrown by the July Monarchy of Louis Philippe d’Orleans (1830-1848), which was, in turn, ousted by the Second Republican government, and finally (for this study’s purposes) replaced by the Second Empire (1852-1871) under Napoleon III four years later.  The transformations that took place in both the métropoles and the colonies affected each other to varying degrees and in different ways in each location, but the relationship proved important in the development of the settler colonies, the establishment of settler governments, and the shape of each.

Why the American Midwest and Constantine, Algeria?

The Algerian province of Constantine and Illinois/Indiana in the United States provide an interesting and useful comparison. Both were recognized as vital to American and French colonization efforts.  Geographically, both bordered other imperial territories at the time of occupation and colonization, and both were fertile inland territories that were significant sites of agriculture.  They were also strategically significant for military purposes and provided access to lucrative commercial networks.  The indigenous populations in both areas practiced extensive agriculture, were already culturally, linguistically, and religiously diverse, and had long-established relations with the colonizers through trade.

Comparing Colonization Methods:

Preliminary research indicates that the colonization of each location proceeded in a similar manner. Colonization began in both before the métropole gave its official assent. The colonial governments were therefore left to acknowledge the colonies and craft legislation ex-post-facto, which suggests that these settler colonies began from bottom-up impulses and processes, making the actions of the settlers, Indigenous populations, and the military even more significant.

During colonization, both Constantine and the American Midwest became important sites of Indigenous resistance.  However, a number of powerful competing Native groups resided in both places, some of which saw advantages to accommodating and allying with the colonizers against neighboring Indigenous communities. French and American colonizers employed comparable methods and sought to capitalize on these divisions to achieve similar objectives. Each wanted to populate the territory with small freeholders, generally as quickly as possible by legal (treaties) or extra-legal means (forcefully acquiring land).  However, France never achieved a colony of freeholders, unlike the United States, which provides an interesting point of comparison between the two.

The nature of initial settlement, the settlers themselves, and the circumstances surrounding conquest and occupation suggest that the founding moments were important to the development of each settler colony. Colonists migrated to the American Midwest to farm, but many settlers in Algeria took advantage of the extensive trade networks and established themselves in urban communities. It is unclear in the secondary literature how many settlers in Constantine chose to farm or chose to settle in the cities. Both sought to abolish Native communities’ communal land rights by instituting various measures to force the division of land into individual holdings and developed reservation systems for Indigenous societies (in Algeria, called cantonnement).

How similar were they, really?

One important contrast between the two colonies was the significance of land to individual settlers.  While a small number of Europeans bought large tracts of Algerian land, a majority of individuals and families settled in towns, as opposed to the American Midwest, where the majority of the settlers bought land to farm.[3]  The obvious reason for this difference was the availability of houses in extant Algerian cities, which did not exist in America in the same way.[4]  Only sections of a relatively narrow band of land about 200 miles wide along the coast of Algeria was available for farming and since the military launched total war on the land and its people, hundreds of acres of trees and crops were destroyed, making it less appealing for those who sought quick returns on their investment.  There were also fewer barriers to entry into commercial networks in Algeria than there were in Indian Territory and former Indian lands.  This calls into question scholars’ assumption that land was the primary motivating factor in settler colonialism.

In the American Midwest, settlers eventually outnumbered the Indigenous population, but this was a rare occurrence in Algeria. The Indigenous cultures in each location differed from each other in significant ways, from community and family structures to their life-ways and the extent of Indigenous urbanization. Regardless, similar colonial structures developed in both places, which implies that each métropole faced similar problems in governing the territories and the people in them.

Is this comparison synthetic or organic? Did 19th c. Americans or Frenchmen draw such parallels?

In a word, yes. This study is not the first comparison of these two regions.  Nineteenth-century Frenchmen were equally interested and debated how alike (or not) the two colonial projects were.  In addition to Tocqueville’s initial study, Democracy in America, Michel Chevalier traveled to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century to compare its development with that of French Algeria, and found Algeria sadly lacking in terms of immigration and the development of industry.  However, Algerian Governor-General MacMahon wrote a rebuttal to Chevalier’s stance, which was presented before the Senate in 1870.  MacMahon maintained that, given the immense Indigenous population the French faced in Algeria, their colonization was proceeding well by 1870:

On arrival in America, the Europeans found there a territory of immense expanse, inhabited by a population, which by comparison, was insignificant.  Understanding the advantages of colonization, of civilization, they were able, without great injustice, to repel the hunters who were before them in the vast forests which covered a part of the country, forests in which these people were able to continue to live by hunting as they had in the past.

It is not the same in Algeria, where the Europeans found a limited territory, inhabited by a population of 2,500,000 inhabitants of a proud, energetic, [and] militant race, who in every case had the enjoyment of all of the country’s land, and who, moreover were supported more or less directly by the Muslim country which neighbored it. …

I regret that M. Michel Chevalier, who reported to us very interesting documents from the United States, has not I believe been obliged to visit our colony.  I think that if he had traveled not only the cities in the Littoral, but the agricultural centers of the interior, he would have had better impressions of the state of the country.  I believe it to be true to say that these centers, with the exception of a very small number, which were established principally in less-viable and unfavorable conditions, are in a satisfactory state.  The occasional hardships through three years of drought and from diverse scourges are today in great part repaired and the villages are in a state of prosperity equal at least to that of the villages of France.[5]

Thus, to understand how the French viewed Algeria, determined how to proceed with colonization, and measured their progress, it is essential to understand the process and initial results of the establishment of settler colonies in both locations.

[1] Lisa Ford, Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788-1836. Harvard Historical Studies 166. (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2010), 21.

[2] John Ruedy, Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 51.

[3] More than 60 percent of settlers in Algeria lived in urban areas. (David Prochaska, Making Algeria French, 11).  For this reason, Constantine is especially important because it was one of the largest cities in Algeria, and as Prochaska notes, “whoever controlled the urban centers, especially the major cities of the littoral, controlled to a large extent what went on in the colony itself” (Ibid).

[4] Although some American frontier homes resembled Indigenous structures, settlers would not have lived in Indian homes, even if they had had the opportunity. However, there were few occasions in which they would have been able to make the choice, as many Indigenous structures were portable and thus migrated with the Indian communities or were destroyed during frontier warfare.

[5] Patrice de Mac Mahon, duc de Magenta, “Discours au Sénat du duc de Magenta sur une pétition relative à la constitution de l’Algérie” (Paris, 1870), pp. 4-5. Centre des Archives d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence, France. File: F/ 80/ 1681. Translation Mine.

As you begin a project, consider what your goals and target audience(s) are. What story do you want to tell with your data or material? A project’s goals should motivate next steps and the decision about which tools to employ rather than tools driving the work.  That being said, here is a quick roundup of tools we discussed for research and teaching at THAT Camp Caribe 2012:

  • Sonnet generator!
  • Check out to see @schuyleresprit‘s work with GIS and Visual Eyes to show change over time
  • Cmap:
    • Use it to figure out how to position yourself theoretically or historiographically
    • Export the concept map as text to help compose arguments
    • Use color coding to organize and display connections between ideas
    • Helpful to sort out what one knows and how those ideas are interrelated
    • Great tool to start out with when ideas are “fuzzy”
  • Scrivener
    • Drafting tool
    • Can drag and drop files into Scrivener
    • Breaks down a large project into smaller ‘steps’ or pieces. Can see all components of larger project.
    • Robust metadata
    • Can keep all drafts together
    • Block-out screen
    • Confidence tool as much as productivity because of word counter
    • Split screen to compare drafts or chapters
  • Mellel:
    • Works within Styles – for instance, italicizing titles of books, name the stye “titles of books” => when you move to a new style that requires book titles underline, change the style to underline, and then everything switches.
      • Foreign words italicized
      • Block quotes
    • Integrates with Bookends (citation software)
    • Only crashed once in 4-5 years, whereas Word crashed numerous times when integrating EndNote references and using diacriticals
  • BookEnds – Citation manager
  • Zotero
    • Zotero’s Paper Machines topic modeling plug-in:
  • Evernote
  • DevonThink: similar to Evernote but with more focus on storing and organizing the material
  • Digital publishing platform. For those who would like more customizability and more plugin options, look into setting up on your own server.  Both versions allow you to both display and interpret items through robust metadata and the option to create exhibits and showcases.  For examples, see:
  • Neatline: An Omeka plugin that allows users to create timelines and maps with metadata about your items
  • Prezi: Presentation tool
  • WordPress: Set up your own class or academic blog!

Check out: for a nearly comprehensive list of digital tools!

If you attended THAT Camp Caribe and I’ve forgotten a tool we discussed, please add a note about it in the comment section below. Thanks!

Copyright, 2012, Ashley Wiersma, All Rights Reserved, research in progress, reproduction for nonprofit, educational purposes only.

ASA PowerPoint 2012

If you have suggestions or questions, please use the comments section below to continue the conversation!


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The Law

The following information should be viewed as an indicative guide to the Equality Act 2010. This is not a comprehensive guide to the Act, more an overview of the main points in relation to key equality strands.

Equality Act 2010

The aim of the Equality Act 2010 is to 'harmonise discrimination law, and to strengthen the law to support progress on equality' The Act has replaced all existing equality legislation, including the Equal Pay Act.

Protected characteristics

The following are classed as 'protected characteristics' in equality law:

The law defines a disabled person as "someone with a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day to day activities". The definition is quite broad and includes, among other conditions, Multiple Scherosis, chronic pain disorders, cancer and long term mental health conditions.

Gender reassignment

Gender reassignment is defined as 'a process which is undertaken under medical supervision for the purpose of reassigning a person's sex by changing physiological or other characteristics of sex, and includes any part of such a process'. It is sometimes referred to as a 'sex change', though this term is now considered offensive to many members of the transgender community.

It is unlawful to discriminate against someone on grounds of their: race (e.g. whether they are Caribbean or Asian), their colour (e.g. whether they are black or white), nationality (e.g. whether they are Bangladeshi or Nigerian), their national origin (e.g. whether they are Welsh or Kurdish) or their ethnic origin (e.g. whether they are Jewish).

Religion and Belief

Discrimination law covers any religion, religious belief or similar philosophical belief, but does not cover political belief or cults. Minority religions are treated with the same consideration and respect as more prominent religions. There is no exhaustive definition of these beliefs, but in a recent legal case it was determined that in order to be protected by law it must 'cogent, serious and worthy of respect in a democratic society'. There has been a tribunal case where a belief in man-made climate change met this threshold.

The Equality Act recognises sex as a protected characteristic that protects men (being a man) and women (being a woman). Pregnancy and maternity and gender re-assignment are now separate protected characteristics.

Sexual orientation

The term describes whether an individual is attracted towards people of the same sex (heterosexual), opposite sex (gay/lesbian) or both sexes (bisexual). It is not necessary to disclose sexual orientation when bringing a claim and an individual can bring a claim if they are discriminated against on the basis that if they are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual regardless of whether they actually are.

Key concepts

These legal concepts are the backbone of equality law and are consistent across the protected characteristics. An in-depth knowledge of the law is not required in most situations. For more advice on the law or to arrange a training session for your department contact

Direct discrimination

Person A discriminates against person B on the grounds of a protected characteristic. A treats B less favourably than s/he treats or would treat other people on the grounds of a protected characteristic.

'I'm not employing her because she might get pregnant' (direct sex discrimination)

Indirect discrimination

Person A discriminates against person B, if A applies to B a provision, criterion or practice which s/he applies or would apply to everyone, but:

Example: 'We are proud that all our staff are required to have university degrees, even the junior administrators' (indirect race discrimination)

If a person is treated less favourably after they have brought, or given evidence in a case of discrimination, this is unlawful.

Example: 'I lost some of my responsibilities after I made a complaint about the sexist banter in the office'

A person subjects another to harassment where s/he engages in unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of:

(a) violating that other person's dignity, or

(b) creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her/him.

For more information visit our staff anti-harassment website

Discrimination by association

This is when an individual is discriminated due to their association with another person on the grounds of a protected characteristic. For example, an individual may be subjected to harassment by their colleagues because they need to take time off to look after their disabled child. The harassment is on the basis of their child's disability not the individual's.

Positive Action

The 2010 Act permits employers to take measures designed to redress imbalances and counteract the effects of past discrimination. This is known in the law as 'positive action' and is designed to ensure that people from previously underrepresented groups can compete on equal terms with other applicants.

Employers can encourage job applications from underrepresented groups by the use of positive action statements in job adverts. It is UCL policy to do this. Appointments must be made entirely on merit, though if the situation arises that there are two equally strong candidates at interview the post can be offered to the person from an underrepresented group.

Employers can also provide training or mentoring only for a particular group, if in the preceding 12 months there were no persons from that group doing the work, or their number is small in comparison with those employed in the rest of the organisation, or in comparison with the population from which the employer normally recruits.

Reasonable adjustments

The adaptations made in the workplace to enable a disabled person to work. These can include specialist equipment, a change to the hours or location of work or a reallocation of duties. The 'reasonable' test takes into account several factors such as cost, impact on other team members, the nature of the work and space.

Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR)

An employer is allowed, when recruiting for a post, to treat job applicants differently if possessing a particular characteristic is a genuine requirement for that post. For example, it would be reasonable to require that a counsellor for female students who had experienced sexual harassment was female.

Last updated: 17th February 2015


BFYH will be closed Labor Day Weekend Friday, September 4 through Monday the 7th

Have you heard the term “chakra” or “biofield” and wondered if you have one? They are part of the energy body which lays the groundwork for all of the other systems of your body.  Two traditional modalities commonly used to maintain an optimal energy system are yoga and energy therapy. By being more sensitive to the subtle life force energy (prana), yoga is a powerful self-care tool used to maintain a balanced energy system.   An energy medicine practitioner also works with the pranic body.  By using his/her hands to assess your biofield and restore harmony and balance in your energy system, the practitioner places you in the optimal environment to maintain health or self heal.

Application To Be A Yogi

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Weeding The Inner Garden

Perhaps it was the soaked soil after several days of straight down rainfall that motivated me, but it was the first time in 2 summers that I got into the garden to weed. I used to do some pulling and transplanting in spring then leave things like watering and expansion to Mother Nature. The motto

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Yoga as Interval Training for the Body & Mind

Life requires interval training. Physically, interval training allows you to push yourself beyond your limits and increase endurance by combining blasts of energy with a recovery phase. Intensity is increased without burn out.  In yoga, we might practice interval training by releasing all the muscles in a child’s pose after a series of dynamic standing

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What Is Yin Yoga?

Most types of yoga asana are yang in nature meaning they require that we use the muscles, build heat and dynamically “do”. Yin yoga is a quiet, still practice that relaxes the muscles to stretch the deep tissue and release energy to the joints. Yin/Yang principles explain why even graceful aging includes morning stiffness. We

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