Public Release:

A virtuous cycle: Safety in numbers for riders

University of New South Wales

International research reveals that as cycling participation increases, a cyclist is far less likely to collide with a motor vehicle or suffer injury and death - and what's true for cyclists is true for pedestrians. And it's not simply because there are fewer cars on the roads, but because motorists seem to change their behaviour and drive more safely when they see more cyclists and pedestrians around.

Studies in many countries have shown consistently that the number of motorists colliding with walkers or cyclists doesn't increase equally with the number of people walking or bicycling. For example, a community that doubles its cycling numbers can expect a one-third drop in the per-cyclist frequency of a crash with a motor vehicle.

"It's a virtuous cycle," says Dr Julie Hatfield, an injury expert from UNSW who address a cycling safety seminar in Sydney, Australia, on September 5. "The likelihood that an individual cyclist will be struck by a motorist falls with increasing rate of bicycling in a community. And the safer cycling is perceived to be, the more people are prepared to cycle."

"It's a positive effect but some people are surprised that injury rates don't go up at the same rate of increases in cycling," says Sydney University's Dr Chris Rissel, co-author of a 2008 research report on cycling.

"It appears that motorists adjust their behaviour in the presence of increasing numbers of people bicycling because they expect or experience more people cycling. Also, rising cycling rates mean motorists are more likely to be cyclists, and therefore be more conscious of, and sympathetic towards, cyclists."

Safety concerns are among the most significant barriers preventing Australians from cycling, including among those who cycle regularly, according to the report, titled Cycling: Getting Australia Moving. Despite this, over 1.68 million adults cycled in 2006, an increase of almost 250,000 since 2001. During this period, Australian capital cities experienced an average 22 percent increase in bicycle journeys to work. The city of Melbourne led with a 42 percent increase, while the city of Sydney lagged the field with a nine percent increase. 2006 figures reveal that 12,132 Sydneysiders cycle to work.


XF 1.5 How to make it so someone can't post in a forum without X number of posts?

Active member
Okay, so I have a classified section on my website. I want to make it so that users need at least 25 posts to be able to post in the classifieds (unless they are a paid member). Is there a way to easily do this?

Active member
Ahhh, got it!

Let's say I want to apply this to all Registered users. Can I revoke the permission for the Registered group to post in the classified forum and then after 25 posts make it so that all Registered users automatically upgrade to say 'Super Registered' users which then have the ability to post in the classified forum?

Additionally I would create a paid member group that bypasses this altogether so they don't need 25 posts to start s new thread in the classifieds.

XenForo moderator
Staff member
You can have both a paid user upgrade and a user group promotion which promote members to the same user group.

So it could be a payment or 25 posts.


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Sports and Math -- Why do they have to be different?

Is coaching and teaching different?  So this year I am coaching HS volleyball, and this is not a post on that.  But it is a post about why do we feel there is a difference between coaching a sport and teaching math -- because I think most people think they are different.

A key to coaching is not to talk too much, and it really is tough.  You show them a skill quickly and then give them a chance to replicate and we develop, we make them better - we coach.  Math teaching should be exactly the same - we need to lecture less.

All too often we seem to think we can talk our way to their understanding.  I have been working hard at making flipped videos for my Algebra class and while I rarely lectured more than 20 minutes - these videos are falling between 4 to 8 minutes.  So what was I doing the other 14 minutes?  (A post for later)

I just need to work on guiding more, talking less.  And remind myself, repeatedly, that students learn from doing, not listening (and I would argue a minority really listen and understand when I do lecture).  But the key will be too talk less and have the students do more.  It is time to become a math coach, get the players active and develop.


Heat storage in Nordhavn

The purpose of the analysis was to investigate the utility of the storage in its interaction with the CHP system of the Greater Copenhagen area in the short and long term. The project clarified which elements create the utility value of the storage and how the utility value would be affected by changes in the framework conditions in the long term. As an example, the impact of increasing amounts of wind power in the surrounding energy system was examined as well as the effect of geothermal energy and solar power in the CHP system of the Greater Copenhagen area.

The analysis was carried out using the modelling tool Balmorel, which contains a detailed description of the district heating system in Copenhagen.

The project was initiated in December 2010 and completed in April 2011.

Last update 17-Jul-2015

Further information:

Jesper Troelsgaard Werling

Helge Ørsted Pedersen

GEO: 55.675932, 12.575096


you need
  • - detergent for delicates;
  • - soda;
  • - glycerol;
  • - cow's milk;
  • - blue;
  • - milk;
  • - vinegar;
  • - washing machine;
  • - a laundry bag;
  • - starch, iron and gauze as needed.
Before wash tulle , shake the dust (well, if you can do it not in a closed room) and make sure that it did not have any hooks, clipsand other metal fasteners from the eaves.Separate the white lace curtains of color and wash both are always alone.
contaminated tulle recommended to soak for a couple of hours in a large amount of warm water with a solution of soap or washi
ng powder or gel for gentle wash.You can also use the special industrial detergent tulle are offered in some stores household chemicals.
Experienced hostess added to the water to soak tulle tablespoon of baking soda.You can also use a small amount of glycerol.It is extremely important not to overdo it - usually two tablespoons of pharmaceutical agents is sufficient for a fairly large amount of water (about 10 cans).From these additives hard water becomes much softer and wash lace curtains gives a very good result.
For washing white tulle always sparing use detergents.Your task - not only wash away dirt with many curtains, but do not damage the delicate fibers.You should not pour detergent into the water in large amounts, preferably in advance to prepare the cleaning solution at the rate of a tablespoon of tools for delicate fabrics per liter of water.Thoroughly stir the resulting mixture, and only then proceed to wash tulle.
To update white tulle , slightly sun-bleached, it is advisable to use a bluing and normal cow's milk.First, wash the contaminated product in warm soapy water, and then place it in another water, diluted with methylene blue and a little milk.After such washing curtains will look much more attractive.
wash tulle must be very thoroughly rinsed several warm waters, while on the surface of the liquid does not cease to appear dirt and foam.At the end of rinsing, use gauze curtains cool water with dissolved in it a spoon of vinegar - it gives the product a special shine.
When using an automatic washing machine, place contaminated tulle in a special bag for laundry.Some umelitsy gently fold the curtain in an old white pillow case and fix the edge of the fabric a few stitches.So while washing it will remain in the expanded state, not svorachivayaas in a tight, difficult to wash out, the lump.To properly wash tulle in the machine, set a gentle wash cycle and turn off spin.


Package : kigo

Package details

Summary: Go board game for KDE

Kigo is an open-source implementation of the popular Go game.

Go is a strategic board game for two players. It is also known as igo
(Japanese), weiqi or wei ch'i (Chinese) or baduk (Korean).
(playing pieces, now usually made of glass or plastic) on the vacant
intersections of a grid of 19x19 lines (9x9 or 13x13 for easier games).

License: GPLv2 and LGPLv2 and GFDL

Maintainer: neoclust

List of RPMs


Let's beat cancer sooner

Credit: Flickr/CC BY 2.0

There’s a lot of confusing information and advice out there around sugar.

It’s been made the villain of our diet, but where does the consensus lie between how sugar and cancer are linked?

Does it cause cancer? Does sugar feed cancer cells, making them grow more aggressively? And how does the sugar we consume through food and drink affect our health, and what can be done about this?

In this post we’re taking a long hard look at sugar.

We’ll focus specifically on sugar and cancer, busting some myths and covering what researchers are studying in the hopes of finding new ways to treat people with cancer.

And we’ll cover why the amount of sugar in our diets is cause for concern. A high-sugar diet can be bad news when it comes to cancer risk, but not for the reasons that often appear in the headlines.

But first the basics, what our bodies need sugar for and where it comes from in our diet.

Glucose – the fuel of life

Search for sugar and cancer on the internet and it doesn’t take long to find alarming warnings that sugar is the “white death” and “cancer’s favourite food”.

But this idea that sugar is responsible for kick-starting or fuelling a cancer’s growth is an over-simplification of some complicated biology. Let’s start with what sugar actually is.

Sugar comes in many different forms. The simplest form is just as a single molecule, such as glucose and fructose. These molecules of simple sugars can also stick together, either in pairs or as longer chains of molecules. All of these combinations of molecules are carbohydrates, and are our body’s main source of energy.

The form of sugar most of us will be familiar with is table sugar, which is a simple sugar that dissolves in water and gives things a sweet taste. Its proper name is sucrose, and it’s made up of crystals of glucose and fructose. Table sugar is refined, meaning it’s been processed to extract it from a natural source (usually sugar beet). Unprocessed foods can be high in simple sugars too, for example honey (also made mostly of glucose and fructose) is nearly pure sugar.

As chains of sugar get longer, they lose their sweet taste and won’t dissolve in water anymore. These chains are called polysaccharides and form a large component of starchy foods. Starchy foods such as rice, bread, pasta and vegetables like potatoes might not taste sweet, but they are high in carbohydrate too.

Sugar, in some form, is in many things we eat. And this is good, because our bodies rely heavily on it to work.

Nearly every single part of our body is made of living cells. And it’s these cells that help us see, breathe, feel, think and much more.

While their jobs in the body may differ, one thing all these cells have in common is that they need energy to survive and perform their duties.

Cells somehow need to turn nutrients in our diet into a form of energy that they can use, called ATP. It would take a long time to explain this (if you’re interested you might want to read more), but simplistically the process starts with glucose.

Glucose is the basic fuel that powers every single one of our cells. If we eat or drink things that are high in glucose, such as fizzy drinks, the glucose gets absorbed straight into our blood ready for our cells to use. If a starchy food, such as pasta, is on the menu, the enzymes in our saliva and digestive juices break it down and convert it into glucose. And if for some reason there’s no carbohydrate in our diet, cells can turn fat and protein into glucose as a last resort, because they need glucose to survive.

It’s here that sugar and cancer start to collide, because cancer is a disease of cells.

Sugar and cancer

Cancer cells usually grow quickly, multiplying at a fast rate, which takes a lot of energy. This means they need lots of glucose. Cancer cells also need lots of other nutrients too, such as amino acids and fats; it’s not just sugar they crave.

Here’s where the myth that sugar fuels cancer was born: if cancer cells need lots of glucose, then cutting sugar out of our diet must help stop cancer growing, and could even stop it developing in the first place. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. All our healthy cells need glucose too, and there’s no way of telling our bodies to let healthy cells have the glucose they need, but not give it to cancer cells.

There’s no evidence that following a “sugar-free” diet lowers the risk of getting cancer, or boosts the chances of surviving if you are diagnosed.

This is particularly important for cancer patients, because some treatments can result in weight loss and put the body under a lot of stress. So poor nutrition from restrictive diets could also hamper recovery, or even be life-threatening.

A sticky end for sugar research?

Although there’s no evidence that cutting carbohydrates from our diet will help treat cancer, important research has shown that understanding the abnormal ways that cancer cells make energy could lead to new treatments.

Back in the 50s, a scientist called Otto Warburg noticed that cancer cells use a different chemical process from normal cells to turn glucose into energy.

Healthy cells use a series of chemical reactions in small cellular ‘batteries’ called mitochondria. The Warburg Effect, as it was dubbed following Otto’s discovery, describes how cancer cells bypass their ‘batteries’ to generate energy more rapidly to meet demand.

This shortcut for making energy might be a weakness for some cancers that gives researchers an advantage for developing new treatments.

Firstly, it opens up the potential for developing drugs that shut down cancer cells’ energy-making processes but don’t stop healthy cells making energy. And researchers are testing drugs that work in this way.

Secondly, the abnormal processes in cancer cells can also leave them less able to adapt when faced with a lack of other nutrients, like amino acids. These potential vulnerabilities could lead to treatments too.

But these approaches are still experimental, and we don’t know yet if treatments that starve cancer cells are safe or if they work.

It’s certainly not grounds for cancer patients to try and do it themselves by restricting their diet during treatment – and going back to our earlier point, it could be dangerous to do so.

If sugar doesn’t cause cancer, why worry about it?

Cutting out sugar doesn’t help treat cancer, and sugar doesn’t directly cause cancer. Why then do we encourage people to cut down on sugary foods in our diet advice?

That’s because there is an indirect link between cancer risk and sugar. Eating lots of sugar over time can cause you to gain weight, and robust scientific evidence shows that being overweight or obese increases the risk of 13 different types of cancer. In fact, obesity is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking, which we’ve written about many times before.

It’s added sugar we’re mainly concerned with when it comes to weight gain, not sugar that is naturally found in foods like fruits and milk or healthy starchy foods like wholegrains and pulses (which people should be eating more of*).

How can I cut down on added sugar?

The easiest way to lower your added sugar is to cut down on sugary drinks, which are the largest source of sugar in the UK diet.

Most sugary drinks, such as fizzy drinks and energy drinks, have more than the recommended daily maximum amount of added sugar in one serving alone. And while these extra calories promote weight gain, they offer no other nutritional benefits.

Multiple cues push us as customers to stack junk food into our shopping baskets, even if we weren’t planning to

– Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK

Other obviously sugary foods such as sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits are all best kept as treats too. But some foods that have hidden high amounts of added sugar may surprise you. Some breakfast cereals, ready meals (including ‘healthy’ ones), pasta sauces and yoghurts can have shocking amounts of sugar added to them. Reading nutrition information labels and checking the ingredients list can help you choose lower sugar options.

While there are steps you and your family can take to cut down on added sugar, making these changes can be easier said than done. And it’s here that governments need to lend a hand.

“Multiple cues push us as customers to stack junk food into our shopping baskets, even if we weren’t planning to,” says Professor Linda Bauld, our cancer prevention champion based at the University of Stirling. “That’s why we want the Government to help create a better food environment where the healthy choice is the easy choice for everyone.”

We’re delighted that the sugar tax has just passed through the House of Commons. It could prevent millions of cases of obesity, therefore obesity-linked cancers in the future, by reducing the amount of sugar the nation consumes in fizzy drinks.

Another area we’re watching closely is the Government’s plan to reduce the amount of sugar in the types of foods that are very popular with children.

No sweet endings

The story about sugar and cancer is complicated.

On the one hand, sugar itself doesn’t cause cancer, and there’s no way (at the moment) of specifically starving cancer cells of glucose without harming healthy cells too.

There’s also no evidence that adopting a diet very low in carbohydrate will lower your cancer risk or help as a treatment. And for patients, getting adequate nutrition is important for helping their bodies cope with treatment.

But we’re concerned about the amount of added sugar people are consuming because it’s promoting weight gain. And being overweight or obese increases the risk of least 13 types of cancer.

*While foods like fruit, milk and healthy starchy foods are high in carbohydrate, they have other important nutritional benefits. We should all be eating more whole fruits, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses as these nutritious foods are also high in fibre – this not only helps your body digest the natural sugar more slowly (which helps you keep a healthy weight), it also reduces the risk of bowel cancer.

Read our comment policy

Emma September 5, 2017

Hi John,
Thanks very much for your message.

You’re correct, PET scans work by measuring how quickly cells use glucose – cancer cells consume glucose more quickly than most normal cells which shows up in scans.

This article was focused on sugar in our diets and the risk of developing cancer in the first place. But researchers are looking very hard into the situation for cancer patients, because some small studies have suggested that having a diet high in sugar might help some types of cancer grow and spread (here is an example But this field of research is still at a very early stage and we’re a long way from knowing whether either reducing sugar consumption or treatments that stop cancer cells using getting and using sugar will benefit cancer patients.

Lots of foods contain carbohydrate in some form – either as a simple sugar which your body can absorb and use quickly, or a more complex polysaccharide (a long chain of sugars) that your body needs to break down before using it as fuel. Fruits and starchy vegetables (including potatoes, peas, beans and corn) contain carbohydrate, but they are much lower in sugar than obviously sweet foods and sugary drinks and have other nutritional benefits (for example providing a good source of fibre, vitamins and minerals) so it’s a good idea to get your 5 a day. And there’s no evidence that other sweeteners help cancer develop or grow.

During chemotherapy it’s really important to make sure you get enough calories to help your body cope with treatment, so please talk to your doctor if you are considering any significant dietary changes.

We wish you all the best for your treatment,
Emma, Cancer Research UK.

John Bailey September 1, 2017

This article causes some concern for me. When I was injected with radioactive glucose at a recent PET scan, the site of tumours was inferred by wherever the glucose gathered. Isn’t this an indicator of thefact that cancer cells greedily consume sugar? I do realise that every cell in the body needs sugar for energy production, but it is naturally present in fruit and vegetables.

Perhaps it’s the refined stuff that the body hasn’t evolved itself to handle adequately? I’m really concerned at the moment, because I would not like to think that I’m providing the body with unnecessary sweeteners thinking that they’re fine, when in fact they’ll be supplying the fuel that will nourish the cancer stem cells’ fermentation.

I dread another course of R-CHOP therapy for a possible recurrence of non-Hodgkins.

Randy Force August 28, 2017

Rubbish. Inaccuracies abound in this article. Just one for example. The body doesn’t convert fat to glucose. It converts it to ketones. Other than blood, CNS, and cancer cells, everything in your body is perfectly happy with ketones as a primary fuel source.

Xin-Hai Li August 27, 2017

Very interesting thinking to find the abmormal growth mechanism of cancer cells. Suggest to think about why the cancer cells grow very slowly with the aged people (around 80 years old) while they grow very rapidly among the young patients.

Kevin Nengia August 11, 2017

As far am concerned sugar is a big factor in cancer growth and spread. I agree that that almost all the food(starchy foods) have sugar but food fibre takes time to be absorbed in the body and is more healthy than other sugars. In addition, taking moderate sugary foods and carbohydrate is key in cancer recovery, my wife’s breast cancer case opened my eyes.
This report is business oriented to promote conventional treatment. If I may ask is science the only way of knowing?

Share Valleau August 8, 2017

This is irresponsible reporting. You have no citations, and you cannot possibly promote the idea that sugar is not bad for you, obesity is. I have done extensive research and have survived three cancers without chemo or radiation. After surgery, I credit faith, diet (including organic eating), stress alleviation, exercise, beneficial herbs and knowledge. The only way to effectively fight cancer is to make one’s body an inhospitable host for it to take root and spread. Cancer proliferates in people with sugary diets, regardless of weight.

Emma Smith August 7, 2017

Hello Shelagh,
All sweeteners are tightly regulated and rigorously tested for safety by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Plenty of research has been done on steviol glycosides (a ‘natural’ sweetener) and in 2010 EFSA reviewed all the available evidence, and concluded that they are not linked to cancer and have set guidance for the food industry on how much to use in food and drinks. There is also strong evidence that artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, do not increase the risk of cancer.
Best wishes,
Emma, Cancer Research UK

David Bastow August 5, 2017

Cancer research is all about treatment and not the cure. The treatments are surgery, drugs, chemo and radiation. All of these come with a high price tag and do NOT cure cancer. Thousands of people have CURED cancer by dietary changes. No research is being done on this because there is no money in it ($$$). This is tragic and disgraceful.
I am angry!!

Shelagh Shields July 27, 2017

What about truvia, and steviol glucoside? Are they Ok? Simple answer please. Thanks

Rajeev Samuel July 26, 2017

All lies – lions and tigers don’t require “Glucose”

Sean Andrews July 25, 2017

How about you take a look at this article that shows a direct connection with sugar consumption and cancer.

Gail Keating July 24, 2017

Thankyou so much for the sugar article. So easy to understand and so balanced. I shall spread it around as it is so difficult to get accurate and credible information once the media has hyped a topic.


As coaches, we’ve all learned the value in asking those open-ended questions. You know…. the ones that are meant to promote discovery… to expand the conversation rather than to shut it off. We try to avoid those yes/no questions lest the “coachee” answer with a simple yes or no.

That has always seemed a good enough reason to avoid those types of questions – making sure we don’t stifle the conversation.

Lately, however, I’ve become increasingly aware of another – maybe even a more beneficial – reason for avoiding the closed-end yes/no question.

It seems to me that yes/no questions can have the effect of dampening hope, while those open-ended questions are great opportunities to instill hope.

In a coaching conversation several months ago, my coach asked me a question that sounded something like this:

“Well Bill, is there anyone who could help you with that?”

I don’t remember my response, but I remember wondering to myself IF there was anyone… and I quickly dismissed it in my mind….convinced that I didn’t have any options there.

Then a few minutes later, he asked another question:

“Bill, who would be the best person to help you with that?”

The subtle difference in that question made all the difference in the world to me. I began thinking about who I might enlist to help me with the project and came up with a list of four people I could ask.

He asked essentially the same question both times… but the slight difference in HOW he asked the question was significant to me. The first question allowed me to believe there was no help out there for me. The second one created an expectation that SOMEONE out there COULD help. It gave me hope!

After reflecting on that conversation, I was sold on the idea that yes/no questions dampened hope, while open-ended questions instilled hope. I’ve incorporated that principle into my coaching and have seen the power it brings to those conversations.

How are you using open-ended questions?

What other ways are you bringing hope into the lives of those you are coaching?

What examples to you have of times when you’ve been given hope in a coaching conversation?

What will you do next?


“It is the mark of the mind untrained to take its own processes as valid for all men, and its own judgements for absolute truth”
— Aleister Crowley

There is something comforting in believing that one has found the answer to ourselves and how we fit into the universe in which we liveWhen I was younger and just starting out on the voyage of spiritual (and self assuming they are two different things) discovery, I thought I had found the answers many times. At first, rejecting the religion in which I was raised, I became an atheist. I found all kinds of convincing arguments that there was nothing outside the realm of science and that anyone who believed otherwise was delusional. Then I started learning a bit about extrasensory perception and also meeting people who had faith in various things and I found it beautiful. I started questioning my lack of belief. This led directly to a series of experiences first with the Unification Church, then to Chrismatic Christianity then into various other schools of belief. Each time I found an answer, convinced myself that it was THE ONE AND ONLY ANSWER and that all others were mistaken. Eventually tho I would find some inconsistency, some flaw in the belief and I would if not reject it when the next ONE AND ONLY ANSWER came along, would bury it in the junk room of my subconscious along with the books I would someday write and old dreams I had about what I would do when I grew up (I am still waiting for this to happen).
Each time I had the conviction that I had found the answer, I had an equal need to tell everyone else they were mistaken and would shoot down any arguments to the contrary. It was much later on during the time that I all but gave up on finding answers, convinced that there was one but it could never be found that I stepped down from being the personification of certainty.
When I once again started an awakening of awareness, so different from being a truth seeker but sharing certain of the same intellectual quest aspects, I came to realize that the best anyone can have is approximations. As Ken Wilber says, everyone is right but partial. If everyone is right to some degree, you can question their assertions but you cannot tell them outright that they are wrong or mistaken. These days I become greatly puzzled when I find people whom I respect, unwilling to challenge their beliefs. They become quite offended when someone suggests something outside their truth and when challenged, they tend to devolve from reason to intractability. They so identify with their beliefs that they see every question as a personal attack and react accordingly. I welcome challenges to my process as each question brings me greater understanding. I doubt that I will ever have more than rare glances into absolute truth (and those during peak experiences) and so any that I put into words will have some degree of inaccuracy. That’s Ok though. I have learned to enjoy the lack of certainty as much as I enjoy the quest.
Blessings, G

Click on images to see full-sized:

Star Man's DreamStar Man’s Dream by G A Rosenberg

Radial CallRadial Call by G A Rosenberg


In this research, robotic tele-collaboration using a network with communication time delay was discussed. Recently, collaboration tasks have rapidly emerged in many possible applications such as plant maintenance and telesurgery, because multi-robot collaboration can have a significant advantage over a single robot in such cases. Problems and several noticeable results have been reported in a single teleoperation system. However, the effect of time-delay would pose a more difficult problem to the tele-collaboration and seriously affect its performance. In this work, first, some of the constraint on performance in multiple teleoperation applications was examined. Then, the time-delay effects on the collaboration were investigated through several experimental studies. Finally, a method to cope with the time-delay in multiple teleoperation systems was proposed exploiting the virtual thickness modification scheme.

Fig: Tele-Operation

Fig: Operator


IMVU or I.M.V.U…. that is the question!

We i.e. IMVU have been around for over 10 years… and pretty much all of those years, our customers have pronounced our name in a variety of ways with “imvu” (sounds like I envy you) and I.M.V.U. (all spelled out) being the most popular. Even in our offices, we have team members saying it both ways.

So what is the correct way to say IMVU? Brett, our CEO and Matt, our co-founder recently had that discussion right here in our lobby.

As you can see, we are going to have to wait for the discussion to continue before we can tell you what is the correct answer, however, one answer is never wrong – FUN! Yes you can just IMVU “fun” and you will always be right.

Next up: The mystery of what IMVU stands for – though we can bust the myth of it being “Instant Messaging Virtual Universe” right now!


Principles of Probabilistic Programming

Joose-Pieter Katoen

RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Abstract: Probabilistic programming is en vogue. It is used to describe complex Bayesian networks, quantum programs, security protocols and biological systems. Programming languages like C, C#, Java, Prolog, Scala, etc. all have their probabilistic version. Key features are random sampling and means to adjust distributions based on obtained information from system observations. We show some semantic intricacies, argue that termination is more involved than the halting problem, and discuss recursion and run-time analysis. We also show some applications to the analysis of randomised algorithms and Bayesian networks.

June Andronick, UNSW, Australia,

Rustan M. Leino, Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA

Towards a Contract-Based Model of Evolving Software Architecture

Zhiming Liu

Centre for Research and Innovation in Software Engineering (RISE)

Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Abstract: The sustainable development of most economies and the quality of life of their citizens largely depend on the development and application of evolutionary digital ecosystems. The characteristic features of these systems are reflected in the so called Internet of Things (IoT),

Smart Cities, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Systems of Human-Machine-Things, and Data Centers. Compared to the challenges in traditional ICT applications that engineers used to face, system and software development is to develop and integrate new components or subsystems, new applications and front end services that depends on the infrastructures of existing systems. This has to deal with the complexity of ever evolving architectures digital components, physical components, together with sensors and smart devices controlled and coordinated by software. The architectural components are designed with different technologies, run on different platforms and interact through different communication technologies. Software runs in these systems for data processing and analytics, computation, and intelligent control. However, the critical requirements of applications of these systems should not be compromised, and thus critical components need to be “provably correct”. In this tutorial we argue, for development software in these emerging systems, the need of a foundation for the combination of traditional software engineering, AI (or knowledge-based engineering) and the emerging Big Data technologies. We discuss how an interface theory could play a core role in this foundation for seamless combination of different models, methods and tools for software development, AI and Big Data, as well as for system integration. Based on these motivating discussion, propose a research agenda towards the development of the contract-based model of component-based design to continuously evolving software architectures for inter-networking systems.


Fear the Hunted

Her memory is blank. Her name is not her own. Found in a field, covered in bleeding lash marks, Troy of Cathylon searches for a new life. Taken in by outlawed scholars, trained in a city hidden beneath desert sands, she masters the lore of a supernatural stone called elaa and joins an uprising that could overturn the present regime. Hunted for her ability with the powerful blue stone that seems to do anything she wills, and a book containing the scholars' secrets, every move she makes brings her enemies closer - a zealous new ruler, traitorous warriors, and a ruthless commander - who recognize her from her past. Enemies who hold the answers to it. Their first encounter erased her memory. Their second will end her life.


Email patriotmarch.us

Make government answer

"Citizen Grand Jury web site"

There is something seriously wrong, When a government fears it people and when a people fear the government

"Vote of No Confidence web site"

"We the People" must reassert our need to return the Federal Government back to the limits of the US Constitution and return all Constitutional rights to the People and the States in that order.

Our Local, State and Federal governments must give the sections of our State and Federal Constitutions that allow any legislation they wish to consider. Any subjects not specifically allowed will not be brought up for discussion.

Any amendments passed after the tenth amendment will be scrutinized to determine if the amendment to the US Constitution infringes upon the peoples rights and freedom (liberty), if the amendment does not pass the "liberty" test it should be repealed.

Our elected must not be above the law, if there is any abuse of power as determined by a Citizen Grand Jury http://riseupforamerica.com/, the legislators will be tried by impeachment proceeding, if found guilty will be subject to the criminal code.

H.R. 450

We need to remind Congress, the Senate and President of their limited authority granted in the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

"What that means is that the Founding Fathers intended our national government to be a limited government, a government of limited powers that cannot expand its legislative authority into areas reserved to the states or to the people,"


brain and spinal fMRI

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that is able to demonstrate where the brain is functioning (fMRI) is a relatively new development that has had a significant impact on our understanding of brain function and our ability to detect changes as a result of injury. The focus of research in my lab builds upon important new developments that enable fMRI of the spinal cord and brainstem.  This work will significantly enhance the benefit of fMRI for neuroscience research, and eventually for clinical assessments.  One key advantage of adding spinal cord fMRI to conventional brain fMRI is the ability to study distributed networks, such as related to pain or central sensitization, across the entire CNS from the cord to the cortex.

Current projects are focussed on 1) characterizing the effects of traumatic spinal cord injury, and 2) understanding pain processing.  Both of these projects involve combined brain, brainstem, and spinal cord functional MRI.

Magnetic resonance imaging of neuronal function in the human spinal cord has been developed to the point that it can accurately demonstrate activity in response to a variety of sensory stimuli, painful stimuli, or motor tasks.  It has also been demonstrated to detect changes as a result of traumatic injury and multiple sclerosis.

Methods have been developed to overcome (or at least reduce) the key challenges of 1) magnetic field differences in different materials (bone, tissue, air),  2) movement caused by the heart beat and breathing, and 3) the small physical dimensions of the spinal cord.

Software has been developed specifically for spinal cord and brainstem fMRI analysis.  This includes methods to reduce image artifacts, correct for movement, carry out the analysis, and convert the results into a spatially normalized form that is the same for every person.  Group analysis to characterize consistent features of how spinal cord and brainstem function are affected by injury, or disease, or normal differences in responses to different sensations can also be carried out.  In addition, software has been developed to carry out analyses to identify connectivity between regions that are working as part of a network.

Example of the most sophisticated connectivity methods that have been applied to the spinal cord and brainstem to date. This figure shows the connectivity between regions in response to two different timing patterns of hot thermal stimulation of the hand. The "block" stimulus is a constant heat at 45 C, whereas the "stepwise" gradually increases in steps to 45 C, and produces a different sensation, with more of the transient response to changes in temperature.   The connectivity was calculated using structural equation modeling (SEM).

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| Last Updated:: 28/12/2016

51 facts about environment

Pollution Facts

Whether one likes it or not, pollution is one the most ignored concept in the modern world. Here are some shocking facts on pollution which give a quick glance through of how this destroyer is up to creating havoc on the earth.

What is Pollution?

Pollution can be described as contamination of air, water and soil by introduction of a contaminant into a natural environment, usually by humans that are harmful to living organisms. The most common forms of pollution are air pollution, water pollution, agricultural pollution and land pollution.

Pollution is defined by The American Heritage Science Dictionary as the “contamination of air, water, or soil by substances that are harmful to living organisms. Pollution can occur naturally, for example through volcanic eruptions, or as the result of human activities, such as the spilling of oil or disposal ofindustrial waste.”

51 facts on Pollution are . . .

1 Pollution is one of the biggest killers, affecting more than 100 million worldwide.
2 More than 1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to safe drinking water.
3 5000 people die every day as a result of drinking unclean water.
5 Pollution kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100 million mammals every year.
7 Approximately 46% of the lakes in America are extremely polluted and hence risky for swimming, fishing and aquatic life.
9 United States produces 30% of the world’s waste and uses 25 % of the worlds natural resources.
15 China is the world’s largest producer of carbon dioxide. United States is number 2.
16 Almost 80% of urban waste in India is dumped in the river Ganges.
17 Noise pollution is the most neglected type of pollution.
19 Acidification of the ocean is the worst type of pollution. Oceans are becoming more acidic rue to green house emissions from fossil fuel.
24 Major oil spills like those in the Gulf of Mexico, is the the worst type of pollution due to consistent oil spills in the water body which spreads everywhere else.
29 Antarctica is the cleanest place on Earth protected by anti-pollution laws.
34 Cadmium is a dangerous pollutant that kills foetus’ sex organ cells. It is wide spread in many things that we eat and drink.
35 It takes only 5 days for a jet stream in Chine to carry the air pollution to the United States.
36 Pollution in China can change the weather in United States.
38 A single person in United States produces 2 kilograms of garbage every day.
39 The UAE is one of the biggest waste producer and water consumer.
41 Most of the hazardous pollutants that are discharged in the atmosphere each year are released to surface water, ground water, and land, combined.
47 Places which are near to high traffic roads, seaports or railyards are dangerous place to live or work as they contain more concentrated levels of air pollution.
48 In cities, where there is huge traffic and vehicles run bumper-to-bumper, the pollutants in the air can seep into your car making the air you breathe inside your car up to 10 times more polluted than typical city air.
51 Public transportation and car pooling can help you to reduce air pollution and save money up to a great extent.

[Source :]


Does Quitting Social Media Makes You Happier?

Social media websites have become a part and parcel of our lives. In addition to the numerous positive advantages which it has, it also has certain negative aspects to it as well.

Whenever you’re on social media, you would be always addicted to checking the latest post as well as the latest status updates. This, in turn, would make you pretty anxious. Also, you would not be able to concentrate on anything for a longer period of time without checking your social media profiles.

That is why your day-to-day life would get impacted if you’re staying for a longer period of time on social media. The other side of the coin is that the social media effects are so much, wouldn’t quitting social media make us happier. We would look into this aspect of social media today in our article.

Related Read – Social Media Dangers for Teens: How to deal with them ?

Reduced anxiety:

Only your social media profiles, you would be checking for updates every few minutes. In real life, you would not be contacting any person in order to get the updates every few minutes.

That is why, once you’re able to quit social media and when you’re able to get used to your life without social media, you would not be that much anxious. You would have patience enough to wait for the news or the updates to reach you via the off-line mediums. That is why your anxiety would certainly get reduced.

Plenty of saving of time:

If you look into the amount of time which you are spending on social media on a daily basis, you would realize that it is immense. Most of this time is the productive hours.

That is why, when you’re able to limit the usage of social media, it automatically becomes easier for you to save a significant amount of time. This is another advantage which you would get.

No peer pressure:

Whenever you’re looking into your social media profile, people would often post the pictures while traveling as well as going to new places in order to just make their friends jealous.

That is why, in peer pressure you also try to visit new places or have new experiences in order to make your life more exciting. However, this is not required at all.

That is why, whenever you’re quitting social media you would no longer be able to come under peer pressure and enjoy the activities which you cannot afford in the 1st place.

So, while social media can be positive in some aspects of your life but you need to keep in mind that when it comes to utilizing social media, there are many positive aspects which negative aspects do not equalise.


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pH Neutralize can be simply poured into any container of any acidic liquid to adjust pH to safe levels for proper disposal.

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part of immediate transformation of forebrain telencephalon AAO:0010479 BAMS:CB BAMS:CH BAMS:IV BAMS:Tel BM:Tel BTO:0000239 CALOHA:TS-1018 DHBA:10158 EFO:0000912 EHDAA2:0001982 EMAPA:16652 EMAPA:16910 EV:0100165 FMA:62000 From an evolutionary standpoint, the telencephalon is the most recent brain structure: the amphioxus does not have this structure as a morphological entity. Overt telencephalon is present in the hagfish and lamprey to receive numerous input fibers from various parts of the CNS, similar to gnathostomes.[well established][VHOG] GAID:621 HBA:4007 In mammals the cortex covers almost the whole of the cerebral hemispheres. In ray-finned fishes and most pronounced in teleosts the roof plate of the embryonic telencephalon extends laterally with the effect that the paired alar plates forming the hemispheric walls roll out lateroventrally in a process called eversion. This is unlike the development in other vertebrate groups. [ZFA:0000079, ISBN:3764351209] In ray-finned fishes the inner surfaces of the lateral and ventral regions of the cerebrum bulge up into the ventricles. In the amniotes, the cerebrum becomes increasingly large and complex. In reptiles, the paleopallium is much larger than in amphibians, and its growth has pushed the basal nuclei into the central regions of the cerebrum. In the most primitive living vertebrates, the hagfishes and lampreys, the cerebrum is a relatively simple structure receiving nerve impulses from the olfactory bulb. MA:0000183 MAT:0000421 MBA:567 MESH:D013687 MIAA:0000421 Organ component of neuraxis that has as its parts the cerebral cortex, cerebral white matter, basal ganglia, septum and fornix, as well as subcortical gray and white matter structures[FMA:62000]. PBA:128011350 Part of the forebrain consisting of paired olfactory bulbs and cerebral hemispheres. Part of the forebrain consisting of paired olfactory bulbs and cerebral hemispheres.[AAO] TAO:0000079 The anterior and dorsal forebrain neuromere, includes the olfactory bulb. Kimmel et al, 1995.[TAO] The cerebrum of birds has evolved along different lines to that of mammals, although they are similarly enlarged, by comparison with reptiles. However, this enlargement is largely due to the basal ganglia, with the other areas remaining relatively primitive in structure. UBERON:0001893 UMLS:C0039452 VHOG:0000283 XAO:0000012 ZFA:0000079 cerebral cerebrum dolphins are the only species (other than humans) to have cerebra accounting for as much as 2 percent of their body weight. endbrain relationship loss: develops_from presumptive telencephalon (TAO:0000571)[TAO] supratentorial region telenencephalic uberon regional part of brain structure with developmental contribution from neural crest future telencephalon


An Inspector Calls - Themes

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Social Class

* Social class infulences the Birlings' behaviour and causes them to treat people differently.

* The message is about social responsibility, so class plays a central part in the plot.

* The characters in the play represent their classes. Priestly challenges their views and behaviour in order to challenge the class hierarchy.

* The upper classes are portrayed as having a limited sense of social responsiblility.

* Priestly uses the play to reveal the unfairness of the class system - he uses the Birlings as egaggerated caricatures of all the bad qualities he thought the ruling classes had.

* Priestly presents the working class as victims of the class system.

* Priestly suggests class clouds people's judgements.

* Priestly presentsof Eva/Daisy as more honourable than the middle/upper class.

* The higher classes didn't question the class system as it worked for them.

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Generation Divide

* The Inspector causes a rift between old traditionalists and yound idealists.

The Older Generation:

- Priestly present Mr & Mrs Birling as having very traditional views. They think that they know best.

- They represent the views of the ruling class.

- By questioning their old-fashioned, personal views, Priestly also questions their obsession with social class. He suggests the class system is out of touch and needs to be reformed.

The Younger Generation:

- The younger generation are ambitious, determined and motivated.

- The younger generation challenge the authority of their elders. This threatens Birling.

- The younger generation learn their lesson. There's a chance for an equal and fairer society.

Older vs Younger: Gerald Croft is a young man who's old in his attitudes. He's shallow & stubborn.

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Men and Women

* In 1912, men and women had different roles in the familiy and society. In the play, the men and women start out as stereotypes.

- They're supposed to be obsessed with "pretty clothes", shopping and weddings, all of which is shown presented in Sheila.

- They're protected against "unpleasant and disturbing" things.

- Stereotypical female trates include pride, vanity and jealousy.

- Sheila is accused of being hysterical, a state often associated with women at the time

- Preoccupied with work and public affairs.

- Feel it's their duty to rescue/ protect women.

- They're allowed to sleep around before marriage.

* The young women challenge the stereotypes. Eva/ Daisy questioned her boss' decision, Eva/ Daisy refused to rely on a man to save her and turned down stolen money, and Sheila interrupts and challenges everyone at different times.

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* The play's purpose is to show the importance of social responsibility.

The character's views are challenged:

- Birling thinks that community responsibility is "nonsense".

- Mrs Birling believes that they have no responsibility for the working class.

- Sheila realises it was irresponsible to get Eva/ Daisy sacked out of spite.

- Eric realises that his actions were responsible for ruining Eva/ Daisy's cchances of a new life.

Social responsibility is the Inspector's main focus. His final speach summarises his lesson about responsibility.

* The play reveals a lot about Priestly's Socialist ideas. It promotes social responsibility and criticises the problems caused by class divide.

* An Inspector Calls tries to make the audience question their social responsibilty.

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* J.B. Priestly uses the play, An Inspector Calls, to expose a string of lies and deceit found within each character.

* Priestly presents deceit as a destructive force that eventually pulls us down, as shown with the Birlings and Eva Smith.

The presentation of deceit in the characters:

- Eva/Daisy uses deceit to survive. She lies about her name when in search of help.

- Arthur Birling is living a lie. In the play, it is evident that his family aren't as high up in society as they would like to think, and they are more concerned about keeeping up appearances than being a close family unit.

- Sybil Birling is revealed a liar when she claims to have never met Eva Smith.

- Gerald Croft lies about his whereabouts over the summer, and lies to cover up his affair with Eva/Daisy.

- Sheila Birling lies to the manager at Milwards when she claims Eva/Daisy was rude to her in order to get her fired.

- Eric Birling Is presented as living a lie full of deceit. He lies about his alcoholism and seducing Eva/Daisy. He also stole £50 from the Birling family business.

- Inspector Goole is deceitful when he lies about who he is. However he also liks to the theme of deceit as he uncovers the Birling family's web of lies.

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Resignation in Japanese Poetry

Murasaki Shikibu, if not dissected psychoanalytically, represents a landmark of women literacy in the history of the world. As court lady in the ancient Japanese empire of the Fujiwara period, Murasaki pens down what is seldom referred to as the first novel in the world.
Murasaki is able to write a sort of historical account of her period due to the proliferation of Chinese language in the elite circle of Japan. Daughter of an imperial aristocrat, she was exposed to the learning of Chinese which was seen as a status symbol for the high ranking families in the region. Even though Japanese relations and actual cultural importations from China were put to halt by her time, she does create a cultural bridge between the prosperous Chinese civilisation and her own northern city of Heian Kyo (modern day Kyoto).
In her massively popular The Tale of Genji, we see quite an insightful account of Japanese socio-cultural life of the early eleventh century. Out of many themes, what marks the depth of the entire novel is the spiritual element that Murasaki is able to grasp and reflect upon the circumstances of her real life. After the death of her husband we see the reflection of Buddhist ideas of impermanence and universal transience in the poetry of Murasaki who herself was a devout Buddhist.
Buddhism (Tendai) came to Japan from the Chinese hills and became the dominant religious faith during Murasaki’s time. The Mahayana Buddhism and its principle of resignation from the sorrows of the world reflected heavily in the Japanese poetry of the ancient period; even though the same wasn’t followed to the letter in practice.
Japanese Buddhism was fascinated with the concept of fleeting nature of the world and the same can be seen in this poem from the Nirvana Sutra:

Brightly coloured though the blossoms be,
All are doomed to scatter.
So in this world of ours,
Who will last forever?

So in Japanese Buddhism, the memento mori should not be a grinning skull but the images such as scattering of blossoms or the yellowing of autumn leaves, which served to remind them that all beautiful things must soon pass away.
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Izumi Shikibu
The host full of women Japanese writers of the period include one of the most emotionally intellectual poetess Izumi Shikibu. In her poetry, we can find an outspoken lamentation about death and illness. This is an excerpt from a splendid and one of the heart warming poems she composed, and this one, she wrote on her death bed:
Yo no naka wo
Nani ni tatoemu
Kogiyuke fune no
Ato no shiranami.
Yo no naka wo
Nani nagekamashi
Hana miru hodo no
Kokoro nariseba
Kuraki Yori
Kuraki michi ni zo
Haruka ni terase
Yama no ha no tsuki.
This was translated by Arthur Waley:
This world of ours –
To what shall I compare it?
To the white waves behind the boat
As it rows away at dawn
This world of ours –
Why should we lament it?
Let us view it as we do the cherries
That blossom on the hills
Out of the dark
Into the dark path
I must now enter:
Shine on me from afar,
Moon of the mountain fringe
The same lamentation about the fleeting nature of life can be seen the sombre dispositions of Murasaki Shikibu. The Tale of Genji is heavily preoccupied with evanescence and death. She writes (in her diary) – ‘If only I had been more adoptable and respond to the pleasure of this fleeting existence with a little more youthful enthusiasm! In her verse she writes:
Like the waterfowl that play there on the lake
I too am floating along the surface
Of a transient world
Apart from lamentation about the sorrows of life, we see a sense of understanding of the transience nature of the world. Another Japanese writer Sei Shonagon writes about the death of her mother –
The moaning period had come to an end and as usual time was hanging heavily on hands. I took out my psaltery and, as I dusted it, plucked occasionally at the strings. Now there was no longer a taboo on playing music, and I reflected sadly on the transience of this world.
And finally Murasaki writes –
As I walk across the bridge
That spans the Ford of Yume
I see that this world of ours too
Is like a floating bridge of dreams
Japanese poetry of the ancient period cumulatively reflects the theme of resignation, an ideal so central in the teaching of Buddhism. Even though the subject matter focused on resignation, the very act of writing and creating a body of literature that is homegrown, shows a complete opposite of it. As the eleventh century marks the blossoming of Japanese indigenous culture, after centuries of Chinese and Korean imitation, the idea of democratisation of art and the aesthetics itself have something to cry and take pride at the same time.

Spain’s Infamous “Sun Tax” – Would it stand the Test of Legality ?

Spain has imposed a support levy on the producers of solar energy in order to deflate the looming deficit in the energy sector of the country. The tax is supposed to help the government in cashing upon the growing demand for solar energy in order to run the government operated grid.

Spain’s energy sector has hit by two pronged attack

  1. The decline in the investments in renewable energy sector
  2. The rising rate of import of energy

In 2014, the government of Spain had withdrawn the subsidies from the renewable energy sector, a move which was a shift from the “Feed-In Scheme” followed by most of the European countries. Under this scheme, the producers of renewable energy are given subsidies in the form of technology cost cuts and minimum support revenue. The withdrawal was later backed by the Supreme Court which upheld the constitutionality of the same and left the renewable energy producers knocking the doors of EU and other arbitrations.

The second problem arose for the fact that Spain imports 80% of its energy supply, expending 40.5 billion Euros annually which is 4.5% of its GDP. This trend became even more unfortunate by the growing rate of renewable energy consumption in the country. People who installed solar panels not only consumed energy by themselves but also saw it as a commercial opportunity to sell the surplus electricity produced from such panels. This further concentrated the fiscal burden on the government and the tariff deficit soared to 34 billion Euros; even when 95% people still receive electricity at Tariff of Last Resort (TLR) rate which is governed by the government.

It is in this backdrop, that the Spanish government came up with a tax on Photovoltaic System (PV) owners. The key features of this policy are:

  1. PV systems up to 100 kW are prohibited from selling electricity. Instead, their owners are required to donate the extra electricity to the grid for free
  2. For PV systems up to 100 kW, the owner of the installation must be the owner of the contract with the electricity company. Moreover, before installation, permission must be sought from the electricity supplier and the Spanish government
  3. Community ownership is prohibited altogether for all sizes of self-consumption systems

After establishing the law, what comes next is the test of legality where the piece of legislation is made to stand the principles of rule of law, non-arbitrariness and fairness. Likewise, the sun tax needs to pass the legality test vis-à-vis Spanish Constitution and EU Directive on Renewable Energy.

The constitutionality test of sun tax attracts two provisions of the Spanish Constitution – Article 9.3 that establishes principle of legal certainty and non retroactivity of punitive provisions and Article 106.2 that puts an obligation on government to compensate individuals for losses suffered by them due to administrative action. Even though the retroactive application of PV Systems tax does violate Article 9.3 by setting a punitive provision even for those persons who had already established the PV systems, the Supreme Court’s multiple rulings denying the unconstitutionality of cut in feed-in tariff (subsidy to renewable energy sector) makes it near impossible for the Constitutional Court to have a different interpretation of Article 9.3 vis-à-vis retroactive taxation. Moreover, proving legal uncertainty in this matter would be difficult as the Electricity Sector Law 54/1997 authorizes the government to modify its energy policies as long as the modifications are objective and non-discriminatory. So the only way to move ahead with Article 9.3 is to show how the aforementioned tax does not pass the test of objectivity and non-discrimination as laid down in the Electricity Sector Law for it does not give any reasonable explanation for differentiating between the class of PV Systems Operators and other electricity suppliers.

The major bottleneck in moving Constitutional Court to strike down PV Systems tax as unconstitutional is Article 162 of the Constitution. Since the sun tax is a Royal Decree-Law (as it was ratified by the Parliament), as per Article 162, the appeal for unconstitutionality of such law can only be moved by the Prime Minister, President, Ombudsman, 50 members of Parliament or 50 members of senate. It disenfranchises the Union of PV Systems owners, people who are most severely hit by this law, to move the Constitutional court for the ultimate remedy. The only way through which they can approach the court is when the actual application of the law, for instance deciding the rate of tariff, causes some discrimination for which an appeal can be filed only to an ordinary court asking it move an appeal of unconstitutionality in the Constitutionality. This indirect procedure is highly uncertain and depends on the mercy of the ordinary court to endorse an appeal to the Constitutional court.

Since it is very difficult to strike down the PV Systems tax as unconstitutional, an effective remedy can be to approach court under a liability suit asking for compensation for the loss caused by an administrative function. However, even in that case the loss has to be real, concrete and of economic value.

Other legality test for the policy is the one posed by EU Directive 2009/28/EC. Clause 8 envisages a mandatory target of 20% contribution from renewable energy in the total energy production by member states by the year 2020. In addition to this, Clause 19 asks the member states to constantly evaluate energy policies and ensure that they are aligned to meet the aforementioned target. The sun tax policy is anything but the compliance of both of these clauses. Therefore, as of present, there are 6 petitions pending in the EU court challenging the cut in feed-in tariff and 9 petitions challenging the sun tax.

Another challenge under International Law comes from the Energy Charter Treaty to which both Spain and the EU are signatories. Article 10 of the Treaty obliges the signatories to provide fair and equitable treatment to the investors of the other contracting states, to respect the obligations entered into vis-à-vis contractors, and not have a differential treatment between foreign and domestic investors. Moreover, International Arbitration Tribunals have upheld the protection of legitimate expectation of investors to have a stable and predictable legal and administrative framework. This Article is largely in line with general protection guaranteed under Article 9.3 of Spanish Constitution. Since, this policy is already shown to be violative of Article 9.3 of Constitution; it would be safe to call it violative of Article 10 of the Treaty also. Now that the discrimination has been established, the investors can move either domestic courts or international arbitrations to challenge the discriminatory policy under Article 26 of the Treaty. Pending arbitrations such as EDF v Hungary and Vattenfall AB, and Vattenfall Europe Generation AG & Co KG v Germany, show that Article 26 can be applied in EU member states also.

It is quite obvious that the tax on PV Systems will have an adverse effect on the cause of environment protection. At the post COP 21 era, where commitments have been made to move towards greener and alternative sources of energy, this move comes across as a move backwards.

Instead of taxing renewable energy to support conventional energy market, the government of Spain should have accepted the voluntary or obligatory quota scheme as followed in Sweden. Under this system, producers of renewable energy are given certificates for every unit of electricity they produce. Moreover, in some areas the electricity supply chains are obligated to take a quota of electricity from renewable energy producers. Therefore, the producers of solar energy are able to sell electricity in energy market at equal price and have full access to the demand. This system ensures balancing of electricity consumption and production on the basis of market forces of demand and supply and either way the energy sector market is benefitted with revenue. This scheme will also reduce tariff deficit for the system ensures reduction of support cost as it is operated through competition.

Since there is abundance of sunlight in Spain and people are also choosing renewable sources of energy, the abovementioned scheme is a much better choice than the sun tax for the former will encourage growing foreign as well as domestic investments in the energy sector, hence reducing the deficit. On the contrary, the sun tax will repel the investors; increase the burden on government to provide support cost for conventional grid energy.

With abovementioned arguments in context, the people of Spain shouldn’t be charged for sunlight, a public resource so central to their cultural and folk practices. I hope the sun would set on the tax and the jubilation would again sing – Sale el sol.

Cezanne’s Large Bathers: A Commentary on Neurological Perception of Reality

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The Large Bathers by Paul Cezanne (1898-1905)
Famously termed as the father of Modernist Art, Cezanne through his seminal work named Large Bathers, captured the historical shift of aesthetics in European art. A painting that took seven years to complete and was in process of being completed till Cezanne’s death, has become a celebratory piece that represents the genesis of modernism and the revival of impressionism in European aesthetics.
1. Art Appreciation
The painting has been made by keeping the geometrical construction in mind which was quite prevalent in the perspective art of renaissance; especially the use of triangles. We can see the division of painting into three triangles. The first two triangles show the groupings of six women on each side of the painting and the third triangle is the larger figure that contains both these triangles as well as the background of the painting and meets at the point where the two trees meet in the sky. Such geometrical construction is used to create balance in the artwork.
We can see the reflection of Classicism here which is very similar to the famous work named Diana and Actaeon by the late renaissance Venetian artist Titian. In both these works there has been attempt to visualise human nudity in public space by making human body a primary language of expression (a heavy characteristic of the entire Classical Art). Even if we focus on the two standing women in the picture, the one in the left (woman striding from the tree) looks similar to the 18th century sculpture of goddess Diana and the one in the right, with the positioning of her knees, shows uncanny resemblance to the ancient sculpture of Venus de Milo.
However, this is also a major shift from Classicism for its lack of detailing in the depiction of human body. Now this is where this painting becomes fascinating.
  Image result for diana and actaeon

Diana and Actaeon by Titian (1556-1559)

Inspired by the Impressionist school of art that focuses on elements of art such as light and colours rather than objects, Cezanne here brings back our focus on the fact that it is the element and not the object that is the subject matter of this painting. One can say that this is the purest form of commentary on Classicism where the Classical fascination and technique is used to make something which is a complete deviation from the Classical school. This is evident from the bodies of the women in the painting. Instead of showing sensuality, there is heavy abstraction. So much so that the white marks on the bodies are nothing but the display of the canvas itself for the painter did not choose to paint these spaces. By doing so, he takes out attention from the beauty of a woman’s body to the shapes and forms that represent it (elements of art).
Cezanne’s focus on abstraction is evident from the figures on the two extreme ends of the painting where these figures are not even completed and are represented in a sketched form. Also, two figures in the background,  a man and a horse, are also represented in the most abstract form possible, thereby restricting our appreciation to the elements such as colours (beautiful shades of blue and orange) and shapes. The use of flat strokes to depict the sky and the leaves, also weighs towards impressionism and abstraction.
2. Art Philosophy and History
The most striking theory of this painting is its heavy commentary on movement. The mixture of Classical subject matter and Impressionist technique shows the historical shift in the European art practice of the period – which is a shift from perspective realism of renaissance to the abstraction and use of elements of art. If we look into the painting, we can see that it is divided into three parts:
First part is the representation of Classical art by the depiction of nude women bathing in public.
Second part is the river that separates the the first part and the background.
Third part is the background where we see a man moving away from the painting to another direction.
It is said in one of the interpretations that the man in the background is Cezanne himself and his movement depicts an act of moving away from the traditions of Classical art to a practice that is more elemental in nature. Another example of movement, is the swimmer, who also being distanced from the first part, is shown in moving abstraction.
The other theory that is vocal in this painting is that of alienation. At least six women in the painting are looking away from the audience; and the ones that are staring within the space of painting, have blurred faces. In addition to this we can see spaces in the figures which are left white and shows the bare canvass, which to much of conspiracy theories, can be associated with an external force interrupting the artwork or the purest expression of nudity – which is, no colour at all! Well, all this representation of alienation is there because Cezanne was heavily influenced by the Impressionists. However, it also creates an element of chaos and spontaneity in the painting. Something which takes me to this idea of Dissolving and Becoming
The burring figures in the painting as well as the use of flat strokes give this impression that either the scene is captured during its dissolution or during its becoming. This Dissolving-Becoming dichotomy is synonymous with the process through which we perceive reality.  The velocity in which the mind captures the everyday display of reality and processes it is so fast and chaotic that we lose out on understanding or knowing that exact moment when perception takes place. That exact moment when external signals are processed into knowledge. And this is precisely what can be read in the disturbances of this painting. If we refer to my previous piece on Alan de Button’s Art as Therapy, we can bring his idea of the role of art in creating emotional equilibrium to this painting. Cezanne’s construction of chaos makes the viewer use to neurological process of perception to understand the process of perception itself – which is an affair so fast that it reduces the reality to indiscernible representations. It is this understanding of the role of art that not only designated Cezanne as a father of modernism but also made his works an inspiration for future schools such as cubism.

Art as Emotional Equilibrium

Divorce in Moscow, 1966 by Eve Arnold
A Divorce in Moscow by Eve Arnold (1966)

This picture is one of the most celebrated examples of how art takes the position of a moral canon to teach us about emotional equilibrium in life. Surfacing in Alan de Botton and John Armstrong’s “Art as Therapy”, this picture shows a couple unconsciously becoming a language of grief in public while being perched on a court bench. While man’s face is lost in obscurity, something that may flow from his complete loss of understanding of this relationship, the woman finds herself under the light and hence becomes the focal point of the artwork. The scarf adorning woman is silently staring at a space within the picture showing signs of being lost in contemplation. The ‘would have been(s)’ of life are coming back to haunt her as she prepares to embrace a so called ‘immoral’ act of taking divorce. This idea of contemplating the choices is the central argument of the artwork; for the representation of oblivion through the figures in the background show the smallness of one’s tragedy in others’ eyes.
Alan de Botton argues that art can be an attempt to encourage our better selves through coded messages of exhortation and admonition, i.e., art can help us in balancing our emotional life by exposing us to emotions that stops us from fulfillment or equilibrium. For instance, a fighting couple may not be able to evaluate the level of grief they might face at the day of divorce and this artwork might make them aware of that. Therefore, art for de Button is important in creating equilibrium in ourselves.
Moreover, the very fact that the picture lacks normative attitude and shows the scene as it is shows that art doesn’t claim the space of moral canon as understood by the society. Rather, it shows the consequent side of not abiding to a particular moral standard and leaves the choice to the spectator.

On Existence

On Existence

If sub consciousness is to be formed by the social rules of my being,

On Earth,

Could I ever dream of an island where sexual liberty

Is the only form of freedom, where

Emotions are put in the ball sack and consent speaks from the vagina.

If my conscience is made up of a billion neurons that possess infinite degree of freedom Then I

Shall not be talking about sex with a friend I met a week ago, or any friend from tinder, wait? Are we supposed to make friends on tinder?

And if you say yes, then are you telling me to be friends with a person who reduced the elements of my identity to a set of five pictures showing smiles that have been captured only to be stolen from the moment they lived in, for me to get objectified and to let a mobile screen decide whether I’m Left or Right?

But wait, there’s still tinder on my phone, and maybe

Grindr or Her, maybe hidden or encrypted for in my world

Sexuality craves for privacy and privacy is a privilege.

In my world,

Or should I say,

The world I’m subjected to,

My existence is timed by the clocks of capitalism and the dogma of the metaphysical

My existence is not a space that I carve out for myself but a void I’m subjected to fill in,

But this, this is your world, the world

Plagued by the science of religion and religious faith in science

So I choose to live in my world,

Not escape, but live

A world where memories are not atoms and molecules of thermodynamics so that I can choose to fill the unfinished painting with my own colours

A world where emotions are not correlative with circumstances and I can be non-conforming to the expected norms of emotional behaviour, I can

Be happy for the greatest tragedy for I know it is not greater than my will to be happy

A world where happiness is all pervasive and the moments of grief are merely my disability to trace happiness in the most ordinary of manifestations

A world where being human is not to make mistakes and fall but to be strong and achieve one’s own spirituality

In my world, my existence is not defined by the realities of the physical world around me, but

By the diversity and freedom that I know I’m made up of.

So, if my consciousness and sub consciousness ever sit to have a meaningful conversation on a dinner table..

Never look for me in the physics of this world,

But in the relativity of mine, where

Cosmos, gizmos and Homos (Sapiens) coexist

On What it Means to be a Human

I have not been much of a success on dating apps. Like unread books in my library, these set of ‘romantic constructions’ just glare at me from my mobile screen hoping to be touched and looked into. Despite such blatant apathy I’m unable to delete them. I often find myself split into a binary while addressing a momentary excitation to just pull them off the roots. Rather, I often end up using them while thinking of doing the contrary. Why?

If you’ve ever followed my writing, you would know the river that I am. While flowing through territories of life, I often have people embarking upon me. And I; I carry them to their intended shores. However, the approaching spring of this year has put me to think about the larger question of self. What and where am I in all this processes I flow through?

I often defend my falling to the fact that I’m a human. I reduce my identity to a digital shot of a frozen smile snatched away from the moment it belonged to because a ‘prospect lover’ on the other side of the screen wants to ‘know me more’. Why? Because I’m a human. I make mistakes. I need to make my knees weak so that I can be held in alien arms. To be loved and understood in language and gestures that is not mine but I somehow construct to help others in understanding myself. And an excuse for all this and many more being – I’m a human!

It pains me to think that how conveniently we have alienated the idea of being self contented and emotionally strong to a metaphysical state of being. I’m expected to reach a sense of spirituality to put my life in order; spirituality which itself has been taken away from my own soul. This “meta-humanizing” of something so essential to our existence is anything but celebratory. To me, it is a construction of a digital world that has done to the idea of being human a slippage of meaning.

I think we need to understand this association of alienating oneself from one’s own answers with humanness is very dehumanizing. It is this illusion of humanity through which we have to look for the real one. And look no far but within. It is not your falling that makes you human but your strength to survive it. To me, it is that flicker of light I see in a distance, the only light in girthed darkness, and I know it is my calling. That flicker of light is no one but myself; moving a little away from this to reach a somewhere there.

From ‘Looking-Into’ to ‘Living-Into’: Theorizing Existentialism in Cinema

In the early scenes of L’avenir (Things to Come) we see a French artist resting in peace at a place where he wanted to consume himself to the music of winds and sea till the eternity. Commenting on the same, Heinz tells Nathalie that music is not only felt, it is seen. As the movie progresses, we see Nathalie experiencing the same contradiction, a semiotic rather, in her own self. We see her exploring and experiencing the various interpretations of herself, a development of an empathy she creates with the space and circumstances. In a cinematic construction that enables it, we see Nathalie oscillating from a life which she ‘thinks’ of being hers and the life she somehow indulges herself into. It is the fascinating movement of her identity from the past to the present to the future and the constant divergence of it all that made me question the idea of linearity and unity of life and identity.

Extrapolating Nathalie and contextualising her to the actress who ‘played’ that character on screen – Isabelle Huppert, I see an extension of this idea. In her interview to Stephen Colbert, when she was asked with a cliché of what is acting, she quite resolutely replied that it is anything but ‘acting’. She said that it is the denial of oneself as one exists in order to be someone else. This is something way more than merely method acting. This is a more psychological and physiological process of ‘looking-into’ the object of consideration. As the German Romantic philosophers or English Aesthetic School might call it active empathy, I would partially agree to that construction, only to extend it to a more complex idea of ‘living-into’.

Image result for Isabelle Huppert in L'avenir

I begin with the question of ‘self’. It’s an existential question that requires understanding of the two components or elements that are in a dialogical relationship in order to raise this doubt in the first place. Rachael Corbett raises this point while asking that if we work on an assumption that we consist of something self then what makes us think that the other is devoid of that self? In the present case the two components that I shall consider are – the actor and the character.

The uniqueness of cinematic empathy is that the object and subject are both representational of an interconnected signified. For instance, what it means to be a human is not only reflected in the artist but is also extended to the character. So, it would be a woman playing a role of a woman, or a man, so on and so forth. This nature of duality separates it from the Man and Nature duality of Johann Gottfried Herder. Unlike Herder’s association of ‘human elements’ such as consciousness to non-human elements such as nature; the characters possess humanness in themselves and the same is not artificially extended. This shall also be distinguished from David Hume’s concept of sympathy because there is no recognition of the ‘beauty’ of the character in either relative or absolute terms. Rather the nature of the character is not adjudged by the actor from any representational signifier. There can be slight similarities of this idea with the anthropomorphosis effect as elaborated in Friedrich Theodor Vischer’s operational symbolism, although the presence of magical-symbolism thinking in his theory is the one that frictions the synonymous relationship between the two.

Moving away from Vicher, there isn’t a consciousness of ‘self’ completely present during a cinematic process of acting. As Isabelle Huppert herself confessed in her interview to The Hollywood Reporter, ‘the moment and space of acting is not completely conscious or unconscious in the actor’s head. It is characterised by the state of mind where one is halfway lost of oneself and halfway in gain of someone else.” So Ms Huppert believes that an actor, during the process of acting, occupies a space (both physically and psychologically) that is separate from the socio-temporal space of the actor’s existence.

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Desiree Navab (2004)

The idea that an actor can escape the ‘existence’ that is often synonymous to having a body and be someone else, it itches me to question this very synonymy. Occupation of a space would require some magnitude of mass in the thing that is occupying it. Therefore, it would be safe to say that the fact that a thing occupies a space, that it possesses mass, it henceforth exists. Since, an actor escapes to possess a space which is separate from the space occupied by her when she is not enacting a scene, it could be a plausible extension to say that she goes on to occupy a space that her body (body that she carries when she’s not enacting) does not occupy. So, the process of acting associates some sense of mass in the non-material existence of the idea of the character. It is this mass which is transferred to the actor when she escapes from the mass of the original body. The presence of mass in the non-material idea of the character would now lead us to believe that such an idea exists. Thus, the character itself exists. It may be non-material (devoid of body) but it exists. So much so, that it would safe to say that the character’s existence is independent, and perhaps, predates the existence of the actor.

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Annegret Saldau (1976)

So, why did I recognise the existence of a non-material idea that possesses mass? Well, let’s talk about Descartes here. In his Meditation II, the French philosopher says that the reason that I doubt is because that I think. Therefore, there should be a thinking thing that exists. Since, I think, I am a thinking thing. Therefore, since I think, I exist. When it came to the question of body, he said that the only reason that I know the existence of body is due to perceptible sensations, which can possibly be the deception of the demon. But the fact that he thinks that whether his body exists or not shows that thinking thing (mind) exists. Thus, it is possible for him to exist even when he does not have a body because he has the thinking thing (mind). This duality between mind and body get further detailing in Meditations V and VI where he states that he knows that clear and distinct ideas are true. Therefore, every idea that he can conceive clearly and distinctively shall be true. Since he perceives mind and body to possess clear and distinct ideas, that is ‘thinking thing’ and ‘extension’ respectively, mind and body are two distinct things. Since, these are two different things; the existence of one does not depend on the existence of another.

I’m not saying that this theory completely follows the duality principle of Descartes, because saying so would mean that Leibniz’s Law of Indiscernible Identities would be a perfect criticism to it. On the contrary, The Leibniz Law is a plausible ally of this. The idea that two things that are completely distinct cannot resemble each other satisfies me to create a distinction between the character and the actor. Since there exist distinctions in the characteristics or properties of these two objects, we cannot say that the actor resembles herself or continues to carry the identity of herself while providing material existence (physicality) to the character. Although, the fact that the humanness of both the entities is not affected at all, or sometimes the language, voice or inhibitions continue to persist in the transformation, we cannot fixate the aforementioned Law of Indiscernible Identities here without certain meticulous reservations.

While pondering upon Leibniz, I went further ahead to the concept of ‘bringing about materialism or physicality to the idea of the character’. When the actor escapes the materiality of her original being, she goes on to provide the character her material existence. Well, how does this happen? I believe that the actor’s original body is a mere carrier of the identity that the actor represents. The idea of representation that works here is similar to the one present in the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure. He says that language is a system of signs where each sign is a combination of a form (signifier) and a particular meaning (signified). Moreover, the relationship that occurs between the signifier and the signified, that goes on to produce a linguistic sign, is created by a convention (usage). Let’s see this in the context of what we use to define ourselves? Or how we define ourselves? We don’t say that I am a particular person because I have a pair of legs and limbs. Perhaps, we don’t say that so as to reemphasise our understanding of identity which is something more than the animalistic existence and distinctive from others in some way.

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Ferdinand de Saussure

The aforementioned argument proves that we have a perceived understanding of ourselves, of who we are, of our existence, which is based on the way we represent ourselves through language. So for instance, if I begin to think about my friend or a colleague in their absence, I would use representational signs of a language to make sense of their existence. ‘He’s very funny’, ‘she’s quite witty’, all of these sentences reduces our existence to a representational system based on language that focuses more on how we ‘come across’ than what we ‘consist of’. This further enables me to think that if it is our representation that defines our existence, then such existence can be understood beyond the presence of the body itself. Therefore, it can be concluded that the body is a mere carrier of an actor’s identity and when she enters the process of ‘becoming’ a character, the same body becomes a material representation of the identity of the character.

Since, I have established the duality of identity and body and the transformation of material representation from the actor to the character, there is not much left for me to deliberate upon but to reckon.  So this is what I think it is – when an actor chooses to take up a certain character, she enters a process of becoming where she moves away (hence denies) from the existence (if existence depends on recognition of itself) of her original identity in order to give existence to the identity of the character. The spacio-temporal existence and reality of the transformed actor (character) is separate from that of the original actor (we can probably say that it replaces the space occupied by the actor for that moment of enactment). The now existent mind of the character gets its body with the material transfer of mass from the actor to the character (since body is nothing but a carrier of identity). Therefore, during the process of a scene, it is the character that exists and not the actor. The reality is associated with the cinematic construction and not the contrary.

Since everything has been said quite contently, I cannot help but raise few questions by keeping this theory as a premise. One of the most prominent of them being that if it is the character that exists during the shooting of a scene, and not the actor then who should get the remuneration that flows from the aesthetic appreciation of that art? Is it justified to create a personality cult around the original figure of the actor when it is the figure of the character that created that psyche among the masses? This, and a lot more triggers my mind for further deliberations and inquiry.

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Words of Viola Davis: Crossing the ‘Fences’ of the Great Man Tradition

“…The fact that we breathe, live a life and are God to our children means that we have a story and it deserves to be told…”

There cannot be a contention to a thought that Viola Davis offered a memorable performance in the cinematic adaptation of August Wilson’s iconic play Fences. Even though her performance underlines her underappreciated presence in Hollywood, the subject matter of her character in the movie is a more fascinating discourse to delve into. Starting from the very decision of adapting a play into a movie to the definitive selection of screenplay and uncoloured construction of dialogues, the presence of this movie and especially of Viola Davis’s interpretation of the idea that it represents comes across as a major challenge to the established traditions of storytelling in American cinema.

When Viola Davis began to deliver her winning speech at Screen Actors Guild Awards (2017), she quite distinctively mentioned the word ‘history’. While expressing what this recognition means to her and to the idea that this film stands for, she said that it is not often that a movie is made to display the story of an average man who happened to be a man of colour. The speech delivered by Viola Davis is a direct attack to the concept of theorizing prevalent practice in both literary and historical studies known as the Great Man Tradition.

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Credits: Huffington Post

Coined by the 19th century historian and commentator Thomas Carlyle, the Great Man Tradition in historical studies is a concept that chooses to understand history from the existence of the ‘great men’ who had occupied decisive and substantially prominent or heroic positions in the society. Such was the conviction of Carlyle that in his book titled On Heroes, Hero-Worship and Heroics of History, he goes on to comment that the ‘history of the world is nothing but the biography of great men’. This idea resonates in Machiavellianism as well which stands of inculcating duplicity and cunningness in general conduct or statecraft. The idea of looking at history from the lens of who is termed as a ‘hero’ focuses on making a retrospective study an instrument for guiding the socio-cultural development of future actions and psyche. The understanding of the nature of history itself has been shortened at one hand by focusing the subject matter on certain prominent figures and on the other hand it has been displayed to be widened by associating it with the understanding of present dogmatic trends and the construction of some kind of future course of action.

There have been many criticisms to this tradition mainly coming from the realms of feminism and Marxist studies. However one that mounted the most was the one given by scientist and sociologist Herbert Spencer who refuted to see these ‘heroes’ in an isolated form. To Spencer, these cult personalities do not occupy these positions on their own or do not exist outside the social relations of their society. It is the social factors prevailing at that time that create a favourable or enabling environment for certain figures to occupy influential positions. So, when Hollywood period dramas celebrate Jackie Kennedy or Lincoln, they get quite deferential by not focusing much on the role played by sociological forces in the construction of personality cult around these figures. However, the practice of building a climax and anti-climax in the narrative of the art has somehow pushed the movies slightly away from the great man practice, but only procedurally and not substantially.

It is in this backdrop that Viola Davis, in front of the entire fraternity, proclaims that the stories of an average man or woman deserve to be in the canon of any narrative that has been built out there. She is reiterating the process of alleviating the common person to the books of history or probably the democratization of the discourse on history itself. The character that she plays is a prejudiced class within a class that has been systematically prejudiced. The slow or ‘real’ movement of her body and corresponding emotions in the space of performance represents the plight of dialectic of sex that has haunted the fight for gender equality since generations. She is painstakingly ‘natural’ and she wants us to know that how unfair this ‘naturalization’ is. This plight and the outburst that followed is a political statement in itself. Through Rose, Viola Davis brings drama at the doorsteps of a minority household; a set of cinematic expressions to the unexpressed desires of a coloured woman.

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Credits: Vanity Fair

As Viola Davis went on to thank her husband and her daughter, and as crowd was left with no choice but to applaud, I could not help myself but think what we have done to deserve an actor like her. Even before Fences, her Oscar nominated performances in The Doubt and The Help reflect her sheer commitment to break away from the great man tradition of storytelling. And as the recognition comes ridiculously late, I hope the very coming of it will also bring the change in the way cinema chooses to represent itself in the cultural industry.


Uma Thurman And Gems

Uma Thurman has been seen around town in a carnelian necklace, which is a gem said to improve happiness and vitality. Gem therapy is nothing new, and those who believe in them say that particular gems emit energies that can affect well-being and mood. If you are considering participating in the gem phenomenon, other healing gems include roselle for lower stress and amethyst for wisdom, although you will need more than a quirky gem to be smart.