30 Jan 2009

Michael Gove and the decline of marriage

In "Who says the decline of marriage is bad for us all? I do" Michael Gove spells out what he describes as a 'progressive' view of marriage in Scotland on Sunday, 25th January 2009. Here are some extracts:

"Why should adults be corralled into an institution invented by a church in which a majority no longer believe? Why should the personal have to become public? Why should the million different shapes that love can take be forced into the Victorian corset of mouldy vows and mildewed sentiments? Since most couples live together before they marry, and therefore few these days believe that bridal white reflects virginal purity, why go through a charade just to please parents, when the cash could pay for a new kitchen instead?

Given the strength, and gathering force, of this trend, who would dare stand against it? Who would want to be a Holy Willie, twitching and frothing at what young people get up to these days, seeking to apply the morality of a judgmental and prejudiced past in these, more liberal and tolerant, times?

But if no one points out the consequences of the marginalisation of marriage, then some of the most vulnerable in our society will be voiceless. For the drift away from marital commitment is part of a broader flight from responsibility which is weakening our society and hitting the poorest, hardest. Marriage is a constraint, it is a restriction on freedom, a corset or corral in which passions which would otherwise run free are subject to disciplines, and personal satisfaction is subordinated to social expectations. But the reason marriage imposes those constraints is to ensure that selfish adults, especially pleasure-seeking males, are placed within a structure which forces them to live up to their responsibilities towards the next generation. A society which expects men to stay married to the mother of their children is a society which places a premium on providing young boys with male role models who embody the virtues of responsibility, restraint and consideration for others.

Children become mature when they grasp the principle of deferred gratification, the idea that greater prizes accrue to those who are prepared to work, wait and share than to those who wish to eat, shoot and leave. When adults behave like children, seeking instant gratification of their desires, abandoning relationships which no longer serve their purposes in pursuit of new, more intense, pleasure they leave children in their wake who have been deprived of the most valuable of inheritances – stability and security in which to grow to maturity.

These nouns may be abstract, but the problems created by the collapse of commitment are not. When I visit primary schools I am struck by how often headteachers point to the increasing numbers of children who, aged five, are incapable of sitting still and listening, who have not learnt how to communicate even basic thoughts and grow frustrated, even violent, when their needs aren't met. The heads I talk to bracket the growth in the numbers of children arriving at school with these disadvantages with the decline in the number of households where both the birth parents still live together. In a sober, entirely pragmatic way they point out that the absence of responsible male role models has a direct effect on the behaviour of the children.

One of the most striking failures of Government over the last 10 years has been the inability of ministers to promote social mobility and make our society more equal. Improving education is crucial to helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve their potential. But making schools better isn't enough, as any teacher will tell you. The early years matter hugely, and children deserve the care of both the adults who brought them into this world...........

If we're all reviewing our economic perspectives in the wake of the credit crunch, shouldn't we also extend that same process to our most intimate concerns? Shouldn't we see personal relations less through the prism of celebrating freedom and maximising pleasure and more as a means of growing through sharing? Support for marriage should actually be a cause behind which progressives rally. We may promise to wed for richer, for poorer, but we all live in an impoverished society if more and more people choose to put me before we."

On 30th September 2008 at the Conservative Party conference, Maria Miller MP, Shadow Minister for the family, one of Michael Gove's team, announced a new policy:

This fits well with what Michael Gove is saying. But where is the action? There has been a deafening silence from the LGA for four months now.

If the Conservatives want electors to believe them, they must show some signs that they mean business.


Human Life – A Rare Oppurtunity

It is now thought that the universe began approximately 15 billion years ago, and that some 4.5 billion years ago the Earth was formed. No life existed on the planet during the early period after its formation.

With time, however, the atmosphere and environment became more suitable for the development of life. Simple substances gradually underwent a process of chemical evolution, forming compounds that were more and more complex. These eventually became the building blocks of life. The first living organisms, single-celled blue-green algae and bacteria, are thought to have appeared about 3.5 billion years ago. These simplest of life forms derived their energy from photosynthesis, a process whereby carbon dioxide and water combine in the presence of light to form the carbohydrates that power the cell’s metabolism.

The first multicellular organisms (hard-bodied animals like corals and starfish) arrived about 600 million years ago. It was only very recently in terms of these vast expanses of time, or about 100,000 years ago, that the first humans appeared. Thus an unfathomable span of time elapsed between the time of the Earth’s formation and the appearance of humankind.

It is estimated that the Earth is home to about 1.5 million distinct varieties of life. This number includes about 900,000 species of insects, 323,000 species of plants, 30,000 species of fish, 87,000 species of birds, and 77,000 different types of micro-organisms, not including viruses. If we consider the countless multitudes of other forms of life that exist on this planet, it becomes clear that even at a population of more than 5 billion, human life is a rare commodity.

Suppose it was equally possible for us to be born into this world as any one of the Earth’s countless inhabitants. If we were to divide a number even as large as 5 billion (Earth’s human population) by the vast number of all other individual living organisms on Earth, this would yield a very small number. In other words, we might say that the probability of being born a human being is extremely small.

The human being has been called the “final destination of evolution.” Regardless of the ultimate truth of this statement, it does suggest the magnificent power and potential that human life possesses, above and beyond that of other living beings. What makes human beings unique among other animals? Perhaps it is the function of the individual’s will to affect changes in himself and influence the environment. Life at each moment encompasses both body and spirit and both self and environment of all sentient beings – plants, sky and earth, on down to the most minute particles of dust. Life at each moment permeates the universe and is revealed in all phenomena.

We all have the potential to change ourselves for the better and influence others, our community and our environment in a healthy and positive way. We can therefore feel a profound sense of gratitude that we are able to possess the rare commodity called human life.

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Are any devices being developed to replace silicon chips?

Find out what devices are being developed to replace silicon chips.

Researchers are hard at work developing alternatives to silicon chips, like carbon nanotubes. [©Shutterstock, 2010]
©Shutterstock, 2010

Some devices are being developed to replace silicon chips. When transistors were introduced in 1948, they demanded less power than fragile, high-temperature vacuum tubes, allowed electronic equipment to become smaller, faster, and more dependable and generated less heat. These developments made computers much more economical and accessible; they also made portable radios practical. However, the smaller components were harder to wire together, and wiring by hand was both expensive and error-prone.

In the early 1960s, circuits on silicon chips allowed manufacturers to build increased power, speed and memory storage into smaller packages, which required less electricity to operate and generated even less heat. While through most of the 1970s manufacturers could count on doubling the components on a chip every year without increasing the size of the chip, the size limitations of silicon chips are becoming more restrictive. Though components continue to grow smaller, the same rate of shrinking cannot be maintained.

Researchers are investigating different materials to use in making circuit chips. Gallium arsenide is harder to handle in manufacturing, but it has potential for greatly increased switching speed. Organic polymers are potentially cheaper to manufacture and could be used for liquid-crystal and other flat screen displays, which need to have their electronic circuits spread over a wide area. Unfortunately, organic polymers do not allow electricity to pass though as well as the silicons do. Several researchers are working on hybrid chips, which could combine the benefits of organic polymers with those of silicon. Researchers are developing integrated optical chips, which would use light rather than electric current. Optical chips would generate little or no heat, would allow faster switching and would be immune to electrical noise. Carbon nanotubes, discovered in 1991, are being developed as wiring for ultra-miniaturized electronic circuitry. Quantum computing deals with superposition, which may allow the bits of modern computers to behave as quantum bits (qubits), further increasing the performance capabilities over silicon chips.

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Submitted by Jim Thesiger on 16 October, 2010 - 23:37

Pip refers to the smallest unit of price which is traded for a currency. In other words, pip is the smallest change of price that occurs in case of a given exchange rate.

Considering the fact that most of the major currency pairs are priced up to four decimal points, the smallest change is that of the fourth decimal point. This is equivalent to the 1/100 of one percent (also known as one basis point) in case of most of the currency pairs. If you consider the pair of US and Canadian dollar, you can say that the smallest price movement that can happen in case of the USD/CAD is $0.0001 or one basis point. Although usually the smallest price movement in case of most of the currency pairs is $0.0001 or one basis point, the smallest change does not necessarily have to be one basis point in all cases.

As far as currency trading is taken under consideration, pips are used for calculating the spread which is linked with the difference between a bid and offer. Say for example, assuming that Pound Sterling against the US dollar is currently at 1.7241/48, a forex trader will be able to buy Pound Sterling at the offer price of 1.7246 while on the other hand will be able to sell it off at 1.7241. Here the difference between the bid and offer will be the spread which in case of this particular example is five pips.

You will find majority of the brokers offering a narrow spread when it comes to the most liquid currency pairs like AUD/USD and EUR/USD where the spread can be as low as two pips. Usually the active or day traders find the currency pairs most attractive in cases where every pip matters. Currency pairs with low liquidity will usually come with wider spread. The USD/CAD currency pair can be a good example of that.

Glossary List


Nanotech 2004 Vol. 3
Nanotech 2004 Vol. 3

Characterization and Parameter Extraction Chapter 9

Mechanical Parameter Extraction of Thin-Film Coated Materials

Authors: Y. Li and K.K. Tseng

Affilation: Vanderbilt University, United States

Pages: 437 - 440

Keywords: Image Point nanoindentation, thin-film, image method, interface, distributed force

Materials coated with thin-films have become popular in many advanced applications. The thin layer of high-strength coating can improve the performance of the material. However, challenges arise when characterizing or extracting mechanical parameters for this class of material due to the presence of one or multiple layers of coating. Experimental methods such as nanoindentation and scratch test can be used to determine the mechanical properties for a given specimen. This paper presents a modeling framework for predicting the mechanical property of thin-film coated materials based on the image method. Analytical closed-form expressions for the stress distribution on a coated material subjected to a distributed loading on the surface of the coating material are derived in recursive forms. These recursive equations are implemented numerically to calculate the solutions of the problem. Theses solutions can be used to validate the experimental results of nanoindentation and scratch tests.

Mechanical Parameter Extraction of Thin-Film Coated Materials

ISBN: 0-9728422-9-2
Pages: 561
Hardcopy: $79.95


Fashion is constantly changing, and learning how to keep up isn't easy. The truth is that it's just not possible for most people! Fashion involves being unique and finding what's right for you. Read on to find advice on how to better your own fashion sense.

Neutral colors are in; try pairing black and white together. Just check out the major fashion runways and you can see this combination used often. This is great news for you as it's simple to use this in your own look. There are an infinite number of combinations that can be created with black and white.

Make sure you try bringing neutral colors on your next trip so you can mix up your outfits on the daily. You don't need to fret about clashing colors and you can put together different looks with the few pieces you have. Use scarves and belts to accessorize for a more pulled-together look.

If you are going out of town, focus your wardrobe on neutral colors that can mixed and matched at will. Having to worry about clashing colors isn't optimal when you want to reduce the number of pieces you take on your trip. Accessories will take the look from day to night, if necessary.

Women need certain apparel items to make their wardrobe complete. Dress slacks and hemmed jeans are two valuable items to always have. Of course, all women also need to have some sort of little black dress to pull out when nothing else will do.

Add your own unique touch to your style. Have some messy hair, don't button your shirt all the way, or pick out shoes that don't really match. Having a not-so-normal fashion sense will make you stand out.

As you know, it can be difficult to get the most from your wardrobe. Although there are multiple combinations that can be made, the process of actually making combinations that look fresh isn't particularly easy. You can make better fashion choices now that you have this information.

Write a comment

Comments: 1
  • #1

    szczegóły (Thursday, 19 January 2017 03:37)


Karen Bravo, Hall County Schools, Class of 2021

What is the best part about being a REACH Scholar?

There are lots of things that are good, but I think going new places is the best part because we get to discover new things.

How have you benefited from your involvement with REACH?

I have benefited from REACH by telling my parents that I will have a future so they won’t worry about my future.

How has your future outlook changed since becoming a REACH Scholar?

I thought that I was not going to college because I never had my hopes up. If I was going to go, it would be to a public college.


Tag Archive | Self Empowerment

Don’t Let Somebody Else Paste A Discount Sticker On You

You alone have the power to determine your value. Don’t let somebody else paste a discount sticker on you because you’re priceless.

When your self-worth goes up, your net worth goes up with it because we all have values, they are as much a part of us as our blood types or our genetic makeup. They are as unique to us as our individual thumbprints. Our core values determine what’s really important and meaningful to us. Values are who you are in your own deepest nature, not who you think you should be in order to fit in. They’re like a compass that points us to our “true north.” When the way you think, speak and behave match your values, life feels very good and you feel whole, content, in your power. But when these don’t align with your personal values, then things feel wrong. Life feels uneasy. You feel out of touch, discontented, restless and unhappy.

God does not love us because we are valuable; rather we are valuable because God loves us. Live your life in the Father’s estimation of its value. You are a precious piece in His “collection” His valuation of you is filled with loving purpose, let it sink in. You are precious, “worth more than many sparrows”; bought and paid for by the King of Kings whose taste is impeccable. What do you see when you look in the mirror? The reflection looking back tells a lot about you. If you see a happy, positive and ambitious person, chances are you’re going to see yourself in a bright light. If you’re waking up with a sense of direction, you have purpose. A sense of direction is often an indicator you’re on the right path to becoming who you’re meant to be in this world. On the other hand, if what you see is a mediocre, tired and unmotivated image, then your self-esteem has taken a toll. Always remember that you are priceless. Regardless of whether you’re rich or poor, tall or short, famous or not, you’re priceless. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently. Keep courage. Whatever you do, do not feel sorry for yourself because you will win in a great age of opportunity.

Have Faith and Believe In Yourself

If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them. You are a piece of the puzzle of someone else’s life. You may never know where you fit, but others will fill the holes in their lives with pieces of you. A person without faith in themselves is like a candle without a flame, though it may have a physical presence, it is not really living up to its full potential because it is not providing any light to the world. Having faith in ones own self, is a quality that breeds more qualities. Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going. Don’t let fear or insecurity stop you from trying new things. Believe in yourself. Do what you love. And most importantly, be kind to others, even if you don’t like them.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed between successful people and unsuccessful people isn’t intelligence or opportunity or resources. It’s the belief that they can make their goals happen. When someone is able to believe in themselves they are then able to dream, make plans, set goals for themselves, and be motivated and determined to do these things because of the faith they have in themselves. Those who have faith in themselves also rub off on the people around them, and usually help inspire people who are able to make a real change to the world. We must not be afraid to live as the people who we really are deep down in hearts, for in this world of darkness, every candle that is lit will help provide a great amount of light. Always remember that in order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure because there is nothing more beautiful than believing in yourself.

You Are More Important Than You Realize

YOU are important! You have a unique purpose, that only you can fulfill. What you think of yourself is much more important than what other people think of you.

No matter who you are, you can provide value. We each have an individual purpose that cannot be compared to everyone else. You have a different perspective to share. You can shed light on a situation that maybe no one else can possibly provide. You can utilize your unique experiences to help and positively influence others. In order to be the best you period, you must be willing to show yourself love by making time for yourself. In a world full of hustle and bustle it is easy to get so distracted and so far away from the notion that spending time with yourself is one of the best investments that we are able to make in our lives. We must be willing to make time for ourselves in order to realize who we really are, to figure out which directions that we want to go in life, and to be able to plan how to get there. We must also make time for ourselves because doing so will help keep us sane. Sure having company and being around uplifting positive people is definitely healthy for us, but we will always need that little bit of me time as regularly as possible in order to never forget who we are, and how important being ourselves is. At the end of the day, always remember that You Are Important. STOP comparing yourself to everyone else. Value, appreciate and learn from others, but don’t cut yourself short. We have all unique abilities and talents. Always remain Humble and Kind but believe in yourself and appreciate Your Own Value.

There is no one else in the world that comes even close to being like you. You have your own individual strengths and talents. You have your own unique perspective that provides a very special kind of insight for the world. Be sharing your experiences and viewpoints you can benefit the lives of others around you. You have faced special challenges in the world that no one else has. Life is a great big challenge for everyone, you have been bucked off the horse of life time and again, but always had the strength to climb back on. Your challenges have developed you into a stronger individual, turn your challenges into lessons and help others to learn from them. You can Provide Happiness. You can Provide Joy into the lives of others. Make sure to tell those around you whom you love and care for, how much You Do Care. Give them a hug and a smile. Not only tell them, but SHOW THEM each day. Love and care provides continuous fulfillment in your life and the lives of others, keep spreading your kindness and love. You never know whose day you may brighten. Your Love, Care and Kindness Makes a Difference. The version you are of yourself today is not who you will be in 10 years from now. During the journey of life we are meant to consistently learn and grow. The sad truth is that some people never learn this fact and stop pushing themselves to forward. Be a LEADER. Leadership is about inspiring and influencing others. Leadership is about influencing others to achieve their own Greatness. YOU can be a Leader. No matter who you are, YOU can positively influence and lead others. You can lend a helping hand. You can provide encouragement. YOU can make a difference in the lives of others. Never underestimate yourself and your capabilities. Be Passionate, Be Genuine, Be Yourself. And always remember that YOU MATTER. You Are Important.

Think Beyond Average

Nobody can be perfect. But there is still immense value you can get from debugging those inconsistencies. Making the gap between your walk and your talk a little bit smaller.

Imperfections are part of life. I think it’s sad that some people feel that because being perfectly consistent with your values is impossible, that there is no point trying to debug the inconsistencies. Some self-improvement cynicism is the result of demanding the impossible, expecting perfection instead of progress. It’s a tough world. People step on each other to rise higher and sell each other out to earn more. There are some people who just don’t want to compete. What they earn is more than enough for some people. If you have peace with it and genuinely don’t care about earning more, then this post was not meant for you. But if you picked your path just to be safe from all this chaos, then hear me out.

Step out of the crowd of average people. Enter that game and change the values on the scoreboard. Conventional wisdom is a shortcut from actual thinking. When you rely on the majority to give you career, diet and spiritual advice you avoid thinking about these issues for yourself. Often when you peel off the covering, and start to understand the systems behind it, you can come up with more satisfying and less risky solutions to your problems. You cannot take long term decisions based on what the circumstances look like today. The road you take might seem safe right now, but what about tomorrow, next month, next year? You need to think about the future. You should not lower your expectations to meet your income, you should rise your income to meet your expectations. I’m still finding new tools, but the fact that this list is small shows that self-improvement doesn’t need to be overly complicated. One good tool, if practiced, can debug a large range of problems. Personal development and unconventional choices often lead to the most success. There are a lot of people around you who are secretly working for their dreams. You only see them out doing nothing but they spend their free time working hard. Never forget that. But despite their appearance, they often hold the least risk. So work harder. Take risks. That is the only way.

Life Is Full Of New Beginnings

Do you ever feel like every area of your life is changing so fast and you’re just standing in the middle of it all, confused and directionless? You could consider a new beginning as the start of a new year. A fresh start, a new goal, a year to make your dreams come true. Be determined and persevere.

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. Beginnings could happen more than once or in different ways. You could think you were starting something afresh, when actually what you were doing was carrying on as before. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating. Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it…it’s just easier if you do.

Don’t worry about being worried. You’re heading out on an adventure and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else. When everything seemingly falls apart, it’s more important than ever to get clear on the direction you want to go in as you move forward. Focus on how you want to feel in every area of life and then start doing activities that create those desired feelings. This is about you. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon. Every time your heart is broken, a doorway cracks open to a world full of new beginnings, new opportunities. Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. One thing I know for sure is that we learn about ourselves through new experiences. So whatever the ending and new beginning is for you right now, allow yourself to be swept away by the sweet freedom that comes with it. Always remember that each day is a new life. Each moment is really a new life. What we call memories are really present thoughts. What we call anticipations are really present thoughts. No one has ever lived in any moment except the present.

Have Some Faith In Yourself

Whatever you decide to be in life, whatever goals you decide to pursue, there is one thing that is crucial to do, and that is to love and believe in yourself.
faith in how far you can go.jpg
When you’re different, sometimes you don’t see the millions of people who accept you for what you are. All you notice is the person who doesn’t. People without faith in themselves are like a candle without a flame, though it may have a physical presence, it is not really living up to its full potential because it is not providing any light to the world. Having faith in ones own self is a quality that breeds more qualities. When were able to believe in ourselves they are then able to dream, make plans, set goals for themselves, and be motivated and determined to do these things because of the faith they have in themselves.
Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong. Those who have faith in themselves also rub off on the people around them, and usually help inspire people who are able to make a real change to the world. We must not be afraid to live as the people who we really are deep down in hearts, for in this world of darkness, every candle that is lit will help provide a great amount of light. You need to have faith in yourself, too. Believe that you can set out to do what you want to accomplish. Believe that you have the skills and abilities to make something great and if you don’t possess those things, believe that you’re capable of developing them so you can get to work. Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful. And don’t forget to thank everyone who supported you, encouraged you, helped you, and loved you. You have the stellar people who cheered for you the whole way even those you never even met face to face!

Embrace Your Uniqueness And Make An Impact In Life

There are too many things in this world do not have a perfect or a definite answer. Some answer will unfold naturally as you proceed in life, while some answer will never reveal by itself unless you seek it attentively. We need to always remember that life is like a road trip without a map; as you travel along the highway of life, you stop at different places, veer off down unknown roads, change direction every now and again and sometimes, although you hate to admit it, you get lost. Sadly, there are some of who insist on taking the map with them, making sure that nothing is uncertain, that all roads are clearly mapped out and getting lost is never a possibility. In life, whenever you feel confused, frustrated, lost or do not know what you really want, you can always seek guidance from your heart. The best way to get over your fear is to do what you’re most afraid of. You’ll feel more accomplished, fulfilled, happy, peaceful, and ultimately, more alive. Let your fears fuel your passion instead of allowing them to stunt your progress. If more people allowed their hearts rather than minds to serve as their compass, this whole world would explode with passion and people following their dreams. Leave fear behind and embrace the courage within you! All of us have it, and you are no different. You are capable of accomplishing anything you set your mind to, if you just believe in the power within.

The idea of making an impact in life is nothing new. Doing things that have a profound positive effect on those around us means that we both stand out in people’s minds, and also leave a lasting impression of what is possible with the right actions and decisions. Life is a courageous journey or nothing at all.  We cannot become who we want to be by continuing to do exactly what we’ve been doing.  Choose to listen to your inner voice, not the jumbled opinions of everyone else.  Do what you know in your heart is right for YOU.  It’s your road, and yours alone.  Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.  And be sure to appreciate every day of your life.  Good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience, and the worst days give you the best lessons. Sometimes we don’t notice the things others do for us until they stop doing them.  Don’t be like that.  Be grateful for what you have, who loves you, and who cares for you.  You’ll never know how much they mean to you until the day they’re no longer beside you.  Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you.  Learn to recognize the negative thoughts you have. These are the self-doubts, the criticisms of others, the complaints, the reasons you can’t do something. Then stop yourself when you have these thoughts, and replace them with positive thoughts. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it to live. Instead of just going along in your usual way take a day off from that. And smile towards everyone you meet because if you’re lucky enough to have something that makes you different from everybody else, don’t change.  Uniqueness is priceless.


email_in.pl - The Bugzilla Inbound Email Interface

./email_in.pl [-vvv] [--default name=value] [--override name=value] < email.txt

Reads an email on STDIN (the standard input).

                           Specify multiple times to print even more.

   --default name=value  - Specify defaults for field values, like
                           product=TestProduct. Can be specified multiple
                           times to specify defaults for multiple fields.

   --override name=value - Override field values specified in the email,
                           like product=TestProduct. Can be specified
                           multiple times to override multiple fields.

Creating a New Bug

The script expects to read an email with the following format:

 From: account@domain.com
 Subject: Bug Summary

 @product ProductName
 @component ComponentName
 @version 1.0

 written here.

 It can be multiple paragraphs.

 be included in the bug description.

For the list of valid field names for the @ fields, including a list of which ones are required, see "create" in Bugzilla::WebService::Bug. (Note, however, that you cannot specify @description as a field-- you just add a comment by adding text after the @ fields.)

 @summary This is a very long

If you specify @summary, it will override the summary you specify in the Subject header.

account@domain.com (the value of the From header) must be a valid Bugzilla account.

Modifying an Existing Bug

If you do both, @id takes precedence.

Note that when updating a bug, the Subject header is ignored, except for getting the bug ID. If you want to change the bug's summary, you have to specify @summary as one of the fields to change.

Adding/Removing CCs

To add CCs, you can specify them in a comma-separated list in @cc.

The email interface only accepts emails that are correctly formatted per RFC2822. If you send it an incorrectly formatted message, it may behave in an unpredictable fashion.

You cannot modify Flags through the email interface.


Churchill: Not the Last Lion

Several fine commentators, such as Victor Davis Hanson, have embraced the theme of Churchill as “the Last Lion,” borrowing from the title of William Manchester’s compulsively readable three-volume biography of Churchill. To be sure, Churchill was, like Lincoln, extraordinary and no doubt exceedingly rare. But Manchester meant “last” literally, arguing openly that we’d never see the likes of Churchill again because his kind of large character and statesmanship is simply impossible in the modern world. Manchester wrote in 1983 (in National Review, surprisingly enough) that “If there is a high office in the United States to which Winston Churchill could be elected today, it is unknown to me.”

The category error of “the Last Lion” theme derives from the pervasive historicism of our time—the view that the flow of History fundamentally changes human character and potentialities. Manchester attributes Churchill’s greatness precisely to the extent that Churchill was a Victorian anachronism in 1940. In his fine late 1990s biography of Churchill, Roy Jenkins wrote that explaining Churchill as a product of Victorian aristocracy is “unconvincing. . . Churchill was far too many faceted, idiosyncratic and unpredictable a character to allow himself to be imprisoned by the circumstances of his birth.” John Lukacs adds: “Contrary to most accepted views we ought to consider that [Churchill] was not some kind of admirable remnant of a more heroic past. He was not The Last Lion. He was something else.” The “something else” at the root of Churchill’s greatness in 1940 derived not from being a Victorian man, but from being, in a larger sense, an ancient man—the kind of “great-souled man” contemplated in Aristotle and other classical authors.

The tides of history and the scale of modern life have not made obsolete or incommensurate the kind of large-souled greatness we associate with Churchill or Lincoln or George Washington. Of course all of us are powerfully affected by our environment and circumstances, yet the case of Churchill offers powerful refutation to the historicist premise that humans and human society are mostly corks bobbing on the waves of history. Lots of Churchill’s contemporaries were also products of the late Victorian era—many of them from the same schools Churchill attended. But no one else had Chruchill’s courage, insight, and capacities. Why was Churchill virtually alone among his contemporaries? The answer must be that they transcended their environments and transformed their circumstances as only great men can do, and thereby bent history to their will. Which means we are contemplating a fundamental human type. Leo Strauss wrote of Churchill in a private letter to the German philosopher Karl Lowith: “A man like Churchill proves that the possibility of megalophysis [the great-souled man] exists today exactly as it did in the fifth century B.C.”  (In other words, as the idea was presented in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.)

By all means let us read and enjoy all three volumes of The Last Lion.  But let’s not embrace the premise of the title.

P.S. Let me add that Victor’s piece linked above is really good and I have no quarrel with a single word.  I’m just picking on the title.  I suspect Victor largely agrees with the point I am making here.

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Assuming it was possible to time travel and change the past without paradox it would be wrong to change the past to create a new future.

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Ellen & friends celebrate freedom to read during Banned Book Week

Walter the Farting Dog, Ellen the Librarian, & Cap'n Underpants

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings.  Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.  Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.


Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong has urged ethnic groups in the country to preserve their languages and save them from extinction.
Lalong made the call on Saturday at the 2015 Gamai Cultural Festival in Shendam Local Government Area of the state, where he hails from.
He said that languages were vital tools for interacting and expressing ideas, emotions, knowledge, memories and values.
“Languages are also primary vehicles of cultural expressions and intangible cultural heritage, essential to the identity of individuals and groups.
“Safeguarding endangered languages is thus, a crucial task in maintaining cultural diversity, worldwide.
“The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO’s, recent reports on endangered languages shows that half of the 6,700 languages spoken all over the world are in danger of disappearing before the century ends.
“Already, 417 languages are almost out of use; 47 of them are in Africa and 15 are from Nigeria,” the governor said.
He also said that language remained a weapon of cultural empowerment and should not be allowed to die like many extant languages of the world.
Lalong assured that the state government, through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality and cultural associations, would ensure the streamlining of cultural festivals and boost the rich cultural heritage of the state.
He urged the Gamai to use the festival with its theme: ‘’Unity and Peace’’ to ensure peaceful coexistence among the different groups in the state.
Mr Thomas Shialsuk, President, Gamai Unity and Development Organization, GUDO, said the festival was to foster understanding between the Gamai nation and its neighbours as well as residents of Gamai land.
Shialsuk thanked Plateau people for electing their son as the governor of the state.
The chairman of the occasion and Elder Statesman, Alhaji Yahaya Kwande, urged Gamai people to support the governor to succeed.
The governor was honoured at the festival with a traditional attire and there was also display of cultural dances and a book launch. NAN


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Friday, March 31, 2017

Gulkand (Rose Preserve)

Gulkand is a highly fragrant and delicious rose preserve. Gulkand is said to have a cooling property and is usually eaten in summers. We usually eat about a spoonful of it with milk. I have also used it to make different sweets. So far, I had always bought gulkand. This year I decided to try my hand at making it from the roses in the garden.

We have been having a lovely spring and this year the rose plants are producing beautiful, and extremely fragrant roses. The roses are so fragrant, that I was very tempted to make gulkand using them. I remembered that my mom had made gulkand from the roses in her garden last year. So, I called her and she explained the process to me. Now I just had three large roses and I wanted to see how the gulkand would turn out without having to wait for the time period that the traditional method entails. So, I decided to try to experiment with instant methods and they worked beautifully. I would recommend the traditional method if you have the patience, as it produces the most fragrant gulkand, but the instant methods are also great quick recipes which produce equally flavorful gulkand. See the tips below for pros and cons of both methods.

I used three large flowers to make the gulkand. It was a small quantity but very satisfying as it was made using flowers from the garden. I began with an ounce (28 gm) of flower petals which resulted in about 1/3 cup of gulkand.

Rose petals (any color)
Water (if using instant method)

Make sure that the roses you are using are edible and are not sprayed with any toxic pesticides. Any color rose petals can be used. The more fragrant the rose, the better aroma the gulkand will have. Remove the petals from the roses, gently and then wash these very gently. To do this, fill a bowl with water, and submerge the petals in it. Gently swirl them around and remove the water. By doing this, you ensure that the petals don’t get bruised. Then, use a salad spinner and dry the rose petals out. And spread these on a cotton cloth and let them dry for a couple of hours till absolutely dry. This is an important step if you are going to use the traditional method of making gulkand. Next, weigh the petals and then weigh an equal amount of sugar. If you don’t have a weighing scale, take enough sugar to cover all the petals with sugar. You can always take a little more sugar but at the minimum it should be at least equal in weight or enough to cover the petals. Now continue with one of the methods below. See tips below on the pros and cons of each method.

Traditional method
Cut the petals and crush them lightly and place them in a glass container. Cover the petals with the sugar. Close the lid and place in the sunlight. In the evening, bring the container inside. The next morning, shake the container to mix the petals and semi melted sugar.  If you have more rose petals to add, follow the same procedures. Add a layer of the petals and cover them with sugar. Continue this till you have filled the bottle with the desired volume of petals. Keep this in the sunlight during the day and make sure to shake the bottle and stir the petal and sugar mixture. Continue this for a couple of weeks till the sugar has melted and the petals are nicely coated and have a brown hue. You can taste it at this stage and determine if the petals are the right consistency. If the temperature is high during the day, the gulkand will be formed n a week to 10 days after you have stopped adding the petals and sugar. It will take longer with milder weather.

Instant method #1
Cut the petals and crush them lightly. In a saucepan, add the sugar. Add a few spoons of water, just enough to ensure that the sugar is wet and there is enough water to stir it. Heat this and make a syrup. Add the petals and boil them for a few mins till wilted and cooked. Take off the heat and let cool.

Instant method #2
Cut the petals and crush them lightly. In a pressure cooker safe bowl add the petals, sugar and a few spoons of water. Stir it and cover the bowl with a lid or aluminum foil so that it is tightly covered and the steam created during the pressure cooking will not enter the bowl. Add water to the pressure cooker as per the directions for your cooker. Then place the bowl in the pressure cooker and cook the petal and sugar mixture for about 5/6 whistles or 4 minutes in an electric pressure cooker. Once the pressure drops, remove the bowl and remove the lid/foil gently ensuring that any water collected on it doesn’t fall into the bowl. Stir the mixture and let it cool.

The traditional method preserves the fragrance better and the gulkand will have a stronger aroma. However, it does take longer for the gulkand to get cooked in the sunlight. This is however a better method with long term storage. Since the roses are preserved in sugar and additional moisture is not added, it is a better method to make it in bulk as it will not get spoiled easily. As long as you do not introduce any moisture, it will last even an entire year.
The instant method is much faster and you will be able to eat the gulkand immediately instead of having to wait for weeks. It is better when you are planning to use just a few roses. The taste is flavorful, however the fragrance is not as strong as it evaporates a little due to the heating at high temperatures. A small quantity will last without refrigeration for a couple of weeks, but keep it in the fridge for longer storage time.

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Development that is architecturally attractive, socially responsible, environmentally sound and inclusive is desirable.  Most people don’t want high-rises built next to one or two-story single or duplex family homes, and in order to have a truly pedestrian friendly city we shouldn’t allow massive buildings to encroach on our city streets and overshadow our sidewalks.  Modestly taller buildings in some areas of our city are appropriate, but we should correct our zoning and ordinances so that they incentivize developers to include an adequate number of affordable housing units in those developments.  Designing high-rise homes that assume less than one vehicle for each unit is negligent and unrealistic.  Let’s have responsible development that improves our city instead of causing hardships for our neighborhoods.


Polarizing filters are a magical thing! With the advent of digital photography and computerized post-processing, software is now able to recreate many of the effects that creative filters were used for in the past. However, polarizers are one of the few types of filters whose effects cannot be recreated in post-processing. Polarizers change the light coming into the camera and can do some pretty amazing things!

The most common use of polarizing filters is to remove glare from water allowing you not only to see below the surface of the water, but to enhance the overall color of images containing water. But this is far from all that a polarizer can do for you!

using an ocean polarizer by Jaime Profeta

using a koi polarizer by Jaime Profeta

Purchasing a polarizing filter:

The first thing you want to make sure of is that you purchase a circular polarizer (sometimes referred to as CPol) if you are just newly stepping into the world of polarizers, as opposed to a linear polarizer. Linear polarizers will cause your in-camera light meter to be unreliable and maybe even unusable. The good news is that circular polarizers are easy to find!

As with most things photography related, you get what you pay for. Polarizers consist of more layers than a typical UV or color filter, and as a result, they are more complicated to manufacture and therefore more expensive than other types of filters. It is important that every layer be of a good quality, otherwise the filter will degrade the quality of the final image. Expect to spend a minimum of $100 on a good quality circular polarizer. (B+W and Heliopan are great brands!)

As with all filters, the size of filter that you buy is based on the filter thread of the lens you are using. However, if you would like to be able to buy just one polarizer and be able to use it on all your lenses, here’s a money-saving trick. Buy your polarizer in the largest filter diameter of all your lenses (or even bigger if lenses with larger filter threads are on your wish list). Then, buy stepping rings so that you can attach the polarizer to your lenses with smaller thread diameters.

stepping rings polarizer by Jaime Profeta

I have a 72mm polarizer, but my current lenses have 62mm and 52mm threads. I also have a 72mm to 62mm stepping ring and a 62mm to 52mm stepping ring. I use either one or both of the stepping rings depending on the lens that I am attaching the filter to. Stepping rings cost under $20, so a couple of those are far cheaper than buying a separate polarizer for each lens.

How to use a polarizer:

Start off, of course, by attaching the filter to your lens. While looking through the viewfinder, rotate the outside edge of the polarizer. You will see the colors and saturations change as you rotate the filter. When you achieve the desired effect, shoot away! As you rotate the filter through 360°, it will go all the way from minimum effect, to maximum effect, and back to minimum affect TWICE! Or to put it another way, it only takes a 90° rotation to go from minimum effect to maximum effect. Why does this matter? Well, if you’re shooting in landscape orientation and you have rotated your filter for the desired effect and then switch to portrait orientation (rotating the camera 90° in the process), you’re going to completely chance the polarization effect. Every time you change the orientation of you camera, you have to re-adjust your filter.

Polarizers are most effective when shooting at a 90° angle to the sun. So if the sun is directly to your left or right, you are going to see the most dramatic differences as you rotate the filter. If the sun is directly in front of you or directly behind you, you may not see much difference at all.

When to use a polarizer (and when not to use one):

If you want to remove glare from water to take photos of what’s below the surface, this is where a polarizer is really irreplaceable! Here is a photo taken both with and without a polarizer. I promise, there really were dolphins under the surface of the water in both photos, but the glare from the surface of the water meant that without a polarizer I was never going to be able to photograph them.

dolphins photo using a polarizer by Jaime Profeta

Polarizers are also great at boosting the overall saturation of an image and can make pretty blue skies even bluer, giving an image with more tonal contrast.

sky photograph using a polarizer by Jaime Profeta

As I mentioned above, polarizers are most effective when shooting at a 90° angle to the sun. This is something that you want to be mindful of when shooting with wide angle lenses. When using a 24mm lens on a full frame camera, you will have an approximately 84° angle of view. This means that one edge of the frame could have the full effect of polarization, while the opposite edge of the frame could have next to nothing. This can result in some pretty crazy and unappealing gradiations in the color of the sky.

wide angle photograph using a polarizer by Jaime Profeta

Polarizers are like putting sunglasses on your camera. Depending on your exact filter, they can end up giving you 1-2 stops less light. If you are already shooting at the low light limits of your camera, it may be better to forego the polarizing benefits in exchange for the additional light you can get into your camera by removing the polarizing filter.

And one of my favorite little secrets…rainbows have polarized light in them! When shooting a rainbow with a polarizing filter, it will make the colors more vibrant resulting in an almost magical quality that will have you wanting to search for the pot of gold!

rainbow photograph using a polarizer by Jaime Profeta

If you have never tried shooting with a polarizer before, I’d highly encourage you to give it a try. It can bring a new level to the natural color and contrast of outdoor photos, and it can open up a whole new world of possibilities when taking photos that include water and glass by allowing you to take control of the reflections that you are presented with.


Agricultural Produce Packer

Pack agricultural produce for storage or shipment.
picture of Agricultural Produce Packer

Quick Stats

Salary Range
$16,000 – $32,000

Data from U.S. Department of Labor

What do Agricultural Produce Packers do?

Packs agricultural produce, such as bulbs, fruits, nuts, eggs, and vegetables, for storage or shipment, performing any combination of following duties: Lines box, barrel, basket, carton, or crate with treated paper, cardboard, excelsior, or prepared padding, or inserts paper trays or separators in container. Places rows of produce in layers in containers, and inserts excelsior, shredded cellophane, or paper trays after each layer and over top layer of produce, or scoops produce into container. Wraps produce in treated paper, foil, or plastic film wrap before placing produce in container. Packs exposed top layer of produce, arranging produce in successive rows in container. Positions basket liner upside down over ring of produce on pallet and fills basket liner with specified amount of produce. Places basket upside down over filled liner on pallet. Pushes basket and pallet over conveyor rollers onto table of turning frame, clamps basket and pallet in place, and moves lever to turn basket upright. Fits lid on container and nails, wires, or tapes in place. Stamps grade, brand, and date of packing on container. Washes and trims produce, such as lettuce and carrots, preparatory to packing, working in warehouse or on harvesting machine in field. Sorts produce according to size, color, and grade before packing. May weigh packed produce and add or remove produce from container to obtain specified weight. May be designated Apple Packer; Basket Turner; Face-And-Fill Packer; Lettuce Trimmer; Ring Packer; Topper Packer; Apricot Packer; Avocado Packer; Boxer; Capper; Cherry Packer; Citrus-Fruit Packer; Crater; Crate Tier; Culled-Fruit Packer; Egg Packer; Fruit Packer, Face-And-Fill; Fruit Packer, Wrap-And-Place; Header; Lidder; Make-Up Market Worker, Truck Garden; Melon Packer; Mushroom Packer; Pear Packer; Plant Packer; Plant Wrapper; Plum Packer; Ring Facer; Seed Packer; Tobacco Packer; Tree Wrapper.

Should I be an Agricultural Produce Packer?

  • Helpful: You always keep an eye out for what other people need.

  • Also known as: Packer, Agricultural Produce

    How to Become an
    Agricultural Produce Packer

    Most Agricultural Produce Packers have no higher education and get on-the-job training. Think about earning a Certificate to increase your competitiveness in the field. Chart?chd=s:9raaaa&chl=no+college+%2878%25%29|certificate+%2822%25%29||||&cht=p3&chs=466x180&chxr=0,78,78
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Pronounced: bái jiǔ
Literally: “white alcoholic drink”
Means: baijiu, the infamously strong, horribleuniquely tasting and ubiquitous liquor distilled from sorghum or other grains that is deeply imbedded in key areas of Chinese culture.

For more, you can browse our Baijiu (白酒) topic, or see these highlights:

Wikipedia has a handy entry on it, too.


There needs to be extensive discussions before approval of Economic Reform Act, says D. Raed Fahmi

Posted: October 9, 2013 in Iraqi Dinar/Politics

10/09/2013 12:00 AM

Collect economists on the importance of the enactment of the special economic reform for its importance in removing bugs and deformation in the structure of the Iraqi economy and monounsaturated rentier and update mechanisms and systems controlling it.

This comes at a time of the oldest in which the Council of Ministers to approve the bill for economic reform has been submitted to the House of Representatives after being checked by the State Council.

Meanwhile launched an economic “morning” campaign to publicize the importance of such laws through visions and analyzes of economists, Taking continue its campaign this has met with one interested in economic affairs, Dr. Raed Fahmi, Minister of Science and Technology previous Tell us saying:

“This law is of great importance requires discussion and enriched with visions of the owners of expertise and competence, but apparently that the council could only discuss it by some specialists and representatives of organizations and government bodies and non-governmental organizations,”
he added, despite the importance of these posts, but I find the need to be given more attention across the display for discussion Extensive not narrow and enjoys the attention it deserves by the media and specialists and forces and parties, trade unions and associations of local and civil society organizations for the interest rate is the most important and broader and more comprehensive in terms of the law and out format to avoid falling into the errors. believes Fahmi need to make notes to take it out Bondj Formula One observations pointed out that in Article (1 – i) the definition of economic reform, “the restructuring of the Iraqi economy according to the principles of economics and modern requirements of the transition to a market economy. Fahmi said is worth recalling that the Constitution does not provide for expression of a market economy is subject to find the expression” Principles of Economics modern “and Article (25), the expression “… supported the latest techniques of market principles and encouraging investment” as in Article (112). Vtobeir market economy is not sufficient to determine the nature of the economic system that we turn to achieve, there is a system of social market economy in Germany, and the socialist market economy In China, as the economies mixed in Europe also fall within the forms of a market economy.

pointed out that there are different systems for market economy differs in the form and degree of state intervention in the economy and it seems that the bill tends to be understood liberal market economy where subsides when state intervention in the economy to lowest score and limited its role to jobs sovereign and play the role of “keeper.” This is reflected in the multiplicity of the reference to “free market economy” as in the material (2) and (4), for example.

said that this requires that being characterize more precisely the nature of the economic system that seeks him Iraqi state and aims his reform. If تمعنا in the articles of the Constitution 26 to 36, we find that it assumes a high level of state intervention in the economy in order to achieve the obligations and rights set forth in these materials, and if we add to that possession of state oil resources, the role of the state is present strongly in the Iraqi economy for many years to come is what makes the economic system consistent with the articles of the Constitution is closer to the “mixed economy.”

He concluded by saying that he is not accurate as stipulated in the reasons that the provisions of the Constitution calls to transform the Iraqi economy to a market economy, Valadeg be the goal of reform is to support and activate the mechanisms of action of the competitive market in the Iraqi economy for the purpose of raising productivity and efficiency in the use of material and human resources, pointing out that (a 2 – first) set the goal of law restructuring the Iraqi economy to increase productivity and ensure competition any limited objective basis on the restructuring on the economic side, but assumed that there will be a social dimension is present in the process of restructuring the consequent social effects, and not enough trying to address these effects when referring to “reduce the cost of reform.”

said the former minister that he received within the objectives of the law to achieve justice in the distribution of returns of economic activities, and the achievement of a comprehensive economic development, these goals can not be achieved unless effective intervention from the state, and Houma incompatible with the liberal model implicitly assumed in the theoretical reference to the law.

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Black People Can’t Be Racist.

The Difference Between Prejudice & Racism

“If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do.” – actor, Jesse Williams

A lot of White people, from the well-educated to the under-educated, seem to struggle with the concept of ‘Racism in America’ and who can be “Racist.”

It’s important that we continue to break this down, so everyone can better understand the scholarly differences between Bigotry and systems of Racism.

*** YES, Black/Brown people can be prejudice, bigoted, hateful, etc, but they cannot be “Racist”, in that they do not have the ability to affect ‘Systemic Racism’ against Whites. If YOU as a White person want to personally consider someone being Prejudice the same as them being Racist, that’s up to you. But that is inaccurate from a scholarly sense, and more importantly regardless of your opinion, Black people do not have the ability to impact Systemic Racism against Whites.

*** IF, Black/Brown people became the dominant ethnic groups, controlling the majority of wealth, politics, banks, and laws, and IF they were the majority of judges, lawyers, politicians, CEO’s, businessmen, police, and IF they then Systemically Oppressed White people for Hundreds of years, then they could be “Racist.”

For example, if Blacks controlled all of these aforementioned institutions FOR GENERATIONS, and IF they imposed a #OneDropRule, in which anyone with “one drop” of “white blood” was considered “White” and therefore lesser human, and without the same equal rights, then Black people could be “Racist.” There would also be some “Whites” that could ‘pass’ as Black if they had enough “black blood” and were thus viewed as Dark enough.

However, even if all of this were to occur and there was a systemic structure of Racism against Whites in America, as imposed by Black-controlled systems. Blacks, with their newfound Black privilege, would have the ability to speak out against these Racist systems and become ALLIES of oppressed White people.

Of course, this is hypothetical and opposite of our American History and the racial realities that we live in today. Again, if you want to consider ‘everyday prejudice’ and bigotry the same thing as “Racism,” go right ahead. But you would be wrong.

Therefore, this discernment between understanding basic bigotry and larger concepts of structural racism is very important if YOU are concerned with using accurate language when speaking about Racism in America, in the context of historical structures of Race in America.

All of this is based on extensive scholarship and generations of Historical study by noted academics. I did not make this up! I do however have a degree in History from the University of California, Davis, with an emphasis in Race in America and US History. Moreover, I minored in African-American studies and spent more than a year specifically studying under Professor Clarence Walker, the award winning African-American History teacher.


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Watch Kubo and the Two Strings free full movie online

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)   Back

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Ratings: 7.6 / 10 from

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Size: 752 MB
Length: 101 Minute(s)
Resolution: 720p , 1080p , 3D Bluray

In the epic fantasy, scruffy, kindhearted Kubo ekes out a humble living while devotedly caring for his mother in their sleepy shoreside village. It is a quiet existence – until a spirit from the past catches up with him to enforce an age-old vendetta. Suddenly on the run from gods and monsters, Kubo’s chance for survival rests on finding the magical suit of armor once worn by his fallen father, the greatest samurai the world has ever known. Summoning courage, Kubo embarks on a thrilling odyssey as he faces his family’s history, navigates the elements, and bravely fights for the earth and the stars.

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) poster

Movie Parental Guide

violence Moderate portrayals of violence are depicted, but without detail and justified by context. The film contains some scenes of violence where the characters are fighting with weapons such as swords or fighting off fearsome creatures like a giant skeleton and a giant centipede. Although the scenes are intense, they are depicted without any details of injury and/or bloodletting. Thus, it can be suited for younger audiences. Parental guidance is advised.
profanity "Hell" is heard a few times. "damn" is used once. Oddly enough, the MPAA description says nothing about the swearing.
alcohol One of the Sisters is briefly shown with a pipe.
frightening Any of the scenes with the two sisters would qualify. 'Kubo And The Two Strings' is an animated film about Kubo, a one-eyed boy who can play magical music that animates the paper figurines that he had created. One day, Kubo meets two eerie women who claim they were sent by the Moon King to take away his remaining eye. With the help of a Monkey and a Beetle, Kubo manages to flee and sets out to find his father's magical suit of armor to defeat the forces of evil. Official MPAA Rating: Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, action and peril

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Photos

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Director


The driving time from Texas (TX) to Wisconsin (WI) is:

19 hours, 29 minutes

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Map of driving directions from Texas to Wisconsin

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Driving time from Texas to Wisconsin

How long is the drive from Texas to Wisconsin? The total driving time is 19 hours, 29 minutes.

Your trip begins in the state of Texas. It ends in the state of Wisconsin.

If you're planning a road trip, you might be interested in seeing the total driving distance from Texas to Wisconsin.

You can also calculate the cost to drive from Texas to Wisconsin based on current local gas prices and an estimate of your car's best gas mileage.

Planning to fly a plane instead? You might be more interested in calculating the flight time from Texas to Wisconsin.

Texas (TX)

State: Texas
Country: United States
Category: states

Wisconsin (WI)

State: Wisconsin
Country: United States
Category: states

Driving time calculator

Travelmath helps you find the driving time based on actual directions for your road trip. You can find out how long it will take to drive between any two cities, airports, states, countries, or zip codes. This can also help you plan the best route to travel to your destination. Compare the results with the flight time calculator to see how much longer it might take to drive the distance instead of flying. You can also print out pages with a travel map.


Protein 101: How much do you really need?

Protein is an essential macronutrient composed of amino acids. There are nine essential amino acids that your body cannot synthesize so you must get them from the diet in order to build the proteins that your body needs. For athletes, protein is critical for recovery after workouts and muscle synthesis.

Ideally, you should consume a mix of proteins and carbs within an hour of finishing a workout to maximize recovery. What are the consequences of not getting enough protein? Fatigue, illness and injury. Studies have found that athletes who do not consume enough protein are at higher risk for injury and protein consumption can boost your immune system. This is key since immunity has been shown to be impaired up to 24 hours post workout.

The USDA recommends .8g of protein/kg of body weight, aka not very much. We are talking about 50g of protein/day if you weight 130lbs. However, the studies used to set this recommendation were done with a sedentary population. Although fat and carbohydrates are the primary fuel for exercise, some proteins get broken down too. Consequently, athletes have a higher protein requirement.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) claims that endurance runners need 1.0 to 1.6g/kg protein, up to double the needs of sedentary runners! Good sources of protein include poultry, meat, dairy, eggs, fish and soy product. However, avoid eating high-fat foods since fat can impede the absorption of amino acids. Vegetarian sources of protein, such as legumes, nuts, and whole grains, are also good sources of proteins but do not contain a complete amino acid profile (with the exception of quinoa and soy) so it is important to eat a variety (beans and rice or almond butter on whole grain toast) to get a full complement of amino acids.

What is the bottom line? If you are feeling worn down, sick or find yourself constantly injured, you many need more protein. Although carbohydrates and fat should compose a majority of an athlete’s diet, you should be getting between 10-20% of your daily calories from protein to stay healthy and capitalize on performance.


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Beautiful Widgets Weather Pack - Dharma Buttons

As seen a couple of posts ago in my Dharma clock skin, the companion Dharma weather skin is now available for Beautiful Widgets. Since I had the Dharma clock, I felt I needed a LOST weather skin to better pair with it. Something that emulated the style of the Dharma Initiative graphics and logos.

Trying to deliver all the icons for the necessary weather situations was a bit of a challenge when adhering to the two-tone Dharma Initiative style, but I'm pretty satisfied with how they turned out. Let me know if you have any other better ideas for graphics! I love hearing feedback and suggestions.

  1. Hey keep up great worklove the button Widgets! !!

  2. Is it possible to make square weather icons?

  3. Sure! I think most icons are designed in a roundish format just because they might 'gel' better with a variety of clock skins. But it's perfectly possible to make square icons. You can look for the skin pack "RealLudi" for an example of very nice looking square icons.


Renaissance and Reformation

For the purposes of this course, the Renaissance represents the beginning of modern history. It brought about a myriad of changes, economic, social, and political, from the Middle Ages. It was a time of great political, social, and economic change. However, religion probably saw the greatest change. During this time, a series of reformers began to break away from the Catholic Church, changing Christianity forever.

Renaissance Communes Oligarchies Republic The Prince
Humanism Secularism Individualism Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges Star Chamber
Christian Humanism In Praise of Folly Utopia Edict of Worms Transubstantiation/Consubstantiation
Peace of Augsburg Act of Supremacy Book of Common Prayer Puritans Catholic/Counter Reformation
Council of Trent St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre Edict of Nantes Spanish Armada The Peasant's War of 1524

Shakespeare Machiavelli da Vinci Michelangelo Raphael
Brunelleschi Gutenberg Medici family Petrarch Durer
Erasmus John Calvin Martin Luther Jesuits Ignatius Loyola
Huguenots Henry IV Philip II Elizabeth I "Bloody" Mary

  1. Describe the trends of the papacy's decline during the 14th century.
  2. What social and economic factors helped create Renaissance society?
  3. Describe the impact the Renaissance had on women.
  4. Explain how the Renaissance could be considered the start of "modern history"
  5. How did the Renaissance differed between Italy and the rest of Europe?
  6. How was science viewed by Renaissance society?
  7. How did the Catholic Church respond to the Renaissance?
  8. What are the characteristics of Renaissance art?
  9. What was Luther's fundamental religious problem?
  10. Why was the Peace of Augsburg such a revolutionary decision?
  11. How did the reformation in England differ from that in Germany?
  12. What made the reformation in Switzerland so politically unique?
  13. What were the similarities between Luther and Calvin? What were the differences?
  14. How did the Catholic Church react to the Reformation?
  15. What impact did the Jesuits have on religion Europe? The New World?

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About Garden of Riches Online Slots

Another simple yet modern slot, Garden of Riches is an online pokies NZ slot featuring 10 paylines and 5 reels. Novomatic is the company behind Garden of Riches, and has made it available for all platforms that support HTML 5.

This means that whether the player uses an Apple device, an Android, a computer, tablet, or smart phone, Garden of Riches will run well.

Along with the standard gameplay, the game also comes with some bonus content that gives it playability value, which is especially beneficial for those players that are constantly on the move.

Aesthetically, Garden of Riches is a good looking game, and should appeal to those who like the more elegant and wealthy side of life. The theme of the game is centred around a rich couple who take the player on a venture through their garden, packed with all sorts of riches.

The game is bright and colourful, and all the items of value have their own unique sheen. The game can be played for free, and can be found as a downloadable application, as well as a browser game.

Playing Garden of Riches

The imagery of Garden of Riches adds to the overall theme of the game, which can be seen effectively on the symbols. Some of the symbols in the game include diamonds rings, gemstones, roses made of gold, and more. The wealthy couple are also featured as symbols, alongside 5 different playing cards.

Every symbol in the game has a unique value, and these are the values that are calculated to ascertain how much the player will win at the end of a successful spin.

To view the values of the symbols, the rules of the game, as well as the possible combinations that can be landed, players can use the paytable display.

Although the paylines of Garden of Riches are fixed, players are able to choose how much they would like to bet. The amount that can be bet is quite extensive, and should give players the freedom to choose the amount that they are most comfortable with.

Once the betting options have been completed, players can then spin the reels manually, or use the autoplay option to start the automated spin action. As the symbols come to a stop the different combinations displayed, if any, will determine how much the player will earn in terms of winnings.

This amount can be multiplied should the special scatter symbol also happen to land.

Garden of Riches Bonus Content

The scatter symbol is the key to acquiring multiplier bonuses, and is depicted as the rich woman from the couple. If the player manages to land the scatter across all 5 reels in one spin, an automatic 500x multiplier to applied to the total bet, increasing winnings exponentially.

Landing 3 scatters on the reels, on the other hand, awards the player with ten free spins that begin straight away.

During the free spins rounds, the scatter symbol will automatically become a wild, and can act as a substitute for all other symbols in the game.

Garden of Riches also comes with a progressive jackpot that can only be activated if the player both lands 15 of the lady symbols while betting at the maximum possible bet.

Garden of Riches Verdict

This is a quality slot made especially appealing because of its compatibility with most modern devices. The bonus features and fast gameplay should keep players satisfied.


Politician's Piss on Peace River

Indigenous people are being steam rollered, again. Christy Clark and baby Trudeau are building another hydro-electric dam on the Peace River. The developers call it "clean energy" but we should all know very well that it will cause massive environmental changes.

Of all the things that humanity has done to this planet, I'd say that the wholesale rearrangement of just about every dam-able waterway, on every continent bar Antarctica, ranks just behind the plundering of the oceans. Of course, both these outrages follow far behind farming which amounts to the wholesale destruction of the most productive natural ecosystems on land. The great wild herds slaughtered to clear the land for farming.

But then, much of the more modern farming has only been achieved by daming waterways and draining aquifers... So maybe those dams really should be ranked as number one in the ecocide hit-parade.

So why are the touchy-feely Liberals all gung-ho to build yet another dam. B.C.'s Energy Minister Bill Bennett says

"We're building this based on Statistics Canada's projection of a population growth of more than a million people in the next 20 years..."
So there you have it. The problem is population growth.

But our politician's are not being honest. This population growth is not inevitible. Fertilty levels in Canada have been below replacement levels since 1972...

Population growth in Canada has been entirely engineered by politicians. Liberals and Conservatives and NDP alike, they have all been hell bent on using immigration as a tool to raise population.

Mr Trudeau has a deliberate policy to raise population.

Mr Trudeau has deliberately chosen the path of ecocide.

Mr Trudeau chooses to run roughshod over indigenous ways.

Perhaps, in a fit of munificence, he'll toss the indigenous a little taxpayer coin by way of compensation. Never, never, never! Perhaps, one day, Trudeau will apologize on behalf of Canada. Never, never, never! Canadian's do not own the crime. The crime belongs only to the politician's who push population growth.


Stress Fat Facts

An unfortunate truth is that stress is a fact of life, and now the latest research reveals that is also keeping us fat. Chronic stress can make it difficult to lose weight for even the healthiest of eaters, and can even trigger weight gain.

When presented with stress, the body reacts by sending out a rush of adrenaline which triggers your fight or flight response. In addition, you will receive a flood of Cortisol which sends a message to your body to replenish lost energy even if no energy was expended. Cortisol production will continue as long as stress continues which can increase appetite and cravings. Cortisol also encourages your body to hold on to fat, especially fat around the stomach and organs. This can cause problems such as increased cholesterol and high blood sugar.

Compounding the problem is that most people will reach for sweet, salty, or high-fat foods because they trigger the pleasure center of the brain which reduces tension. This comforting effect can become addicting, so when stressful events occur, it becomes a routine to reach for unhealthy foods.

Furthermore, when the production of Cortisol increases, testosterone decreases. This drop in testosterone can cause a decrease in muscle mass which translates to fewer calories burned, and the likelihood of gaining weight.

On Monday, I will discuss ways to help deal with stress and which will help ward off the critical effects of Cortisol.


What is osteopathy?

“To find health should be the object of the doctor.

Anyone can find disease.”

A. T. Still DO

All the parts in the body work together continuously. All parts of the body are related. If in any part of the body a problem arises (for instance in the back, feet, an organ, the jaw, …) then the whole body will adjust to compensate for this problem and to continue to function in the best possible way. Complaints do not necessarily occur at the location of the cause.

Osteopathy is a complete system of evaluation and treatment, based on scientific medical knowledge. Osteopathy is a wonderfully gentle, hands-on therapy. An osteopath is trained in a wide variety of manual techniques to evaluate and rebalance tensions, imbalances, loss of motion, rhythms in tissues throughout the body. The choice depends on the conditions of the patient and the disorder to treat.

Osteopathy is a 100% natural way of healing, no medication is involved. An osteopath has highly developed palpatory skills and uses only her or his hands to search for loss of mobility through the whole body.

In this way, the osteopath examines the structural system (muscles, joints, skeletal, fascia…), the visceral system with all the organs (liver, intestines, lungs, uterus, bladder, …) and the craniosacral system (facial zones, meninges, jaws, sacrum,…). An osteopath may discover and remedy problems which are not obvious on scans or X rays.

Osteopathy is a holistic therapy. The osteopathic treatment focuses on the body as a whole, addressing the anatomical, physiological, neurological and functional relation within and between all body tissues and structures.

Free mobility of all body tissues is necessary to allow a good circulation of fluids, a balanced conduction of neurological information and a chemical and mechanical balance. This will allow the body’s possibilities for self-correction and self-healing.

For optimal functioning muscles, joints, organs, membranes, nerves and other tissues should be able to move freely in relation to each other. This allows the body to adapt to changing circumstances, inside and outside the body. The body itself is always striving for an optimal function. Symptoms and/or diseases arise if the body can not adapt to signs.

This holistic approach, which includes the psychological and emotional state, is the key to long-term well-being and can address the cause for a disease or complaint.


Myrto Founda
Περισσότερες ιδέες από το Myrto
Bellinzona: An Architectural Jewel | The Blogazine - Contemporary Lifestyle Magazine
Calçada portuguesa - Pedras Portuguesas, Praça do Toural, Guimarães, Portugal …
Hufton + Crow | Projects | Vieux Port Pavilion
Pavillon, Vieux Port, Marseille, Foster + Partners
Piazza del Duomo, Pistoia, Toscana
The city of Athens was founded in the Neolithic period. It was founded on the hill, known as the Acropolis, because hills can be most readily fortified. The pick of the rock of the Acropolis was quite flat, which makes it easy to build on.  In the beginning they put religious structure on the Acropolis.  The city begins to grow over time around the rock of the Acropolis and around 6th century BC, the market palce "Agora"  was founded.
Aristotelous square from above ~ Thessaloniki
VISIT GREECE| Monastiraki square, Athens. Monastiraki (little Monastery) is an old part of Athens city, which nestles under the Acropolis. Monastiraki square is the hub of life around here and the main street leading off takes one to narrow streets with many artifacts to buy and sell!
Δημήτρης Χαρισιάδης, Πλατεία Συντάγματος, Αθήνα 1956


Sentence Examples with the word VOCATIONAL

The Springfield public school system is excellent, and in addition to the regular high school there are a technical high school, a vocational school, and a kindergarten training school.

He was a member, generally ex officio, of the Federal Council of National Defense, the National Forest Reservation Committee, the Federal Reserve Banks organization committee, and chairman of the Federal Board for Vocational Education.

The course curriculum has always offered contemporary, vocational subjects relevant to the needs of the Gaidhealtachd and the wider Gaelic community.


Tag Archives: Process Analytics

Time series analysis tools in Visual Process Analytics: Cross correlation

Two time series and their cross-correlation functions

Time series analysis tools in Visual Process Analytics: Autocorrelation

Autocorrelation reveals a three-minute periodicity
Digital learning tools such as computer games and CAD software emit a lot of temporal data about what students do when they are deeply engaged in the learning tools. Analyzing these data may shed light on whether students learned, what they learned, and how they learned. In many cases, however, these data look so messy that many people are skeptical about their meaning. As optimists, we believe that there are likely learning signals buried in these noisy data. We just need to use or invent some mathematical tricks to figure them out.

In Version 0.2 of our Visual Process Analytics (VPA), I added a few techniques that can be used to do time series analysis so that researchers can find ways to characterize a learning process from different perspectives. Before I show you these visual analysis tools, be aware that the purpose of these tools is to reveal the temporal trends of a given process so that we can better describe the behavior of the student at that time. Whether these traits are "good" or "bad" for learning likely depends on the context, which often necessitates the analysis of other co-variables.

Correlograms reveal similarity of two time series.
The first tool for time series analysis added to VPA is the autocorrelation function (ACF), a mathematical tool for finding repeating patterns obscured by noise in the data. The shape of the ACF graph, called the correlogram, is often more revealing than just looking at the shape of the raw time series graph. In the extreme case when the process is completely random (i.e., white noise), the ACF will be a Dirac delta function that peaks at zero time lag. In the extreme case when the process is completely sinusoidal, the ACF will be similar to a damped oscillatory cosine wave with a vanishing tail.

An interesting question relevant to learning science is whether the process is autoregressive (or under what conditions the process can be autoregressive). The quality of being autoregressive means that the current value of a variable is influenced by its previous values. This could be used to evaluate whether the student learned from the past experience -- in the case of engineering design, whether the student's design action was informed by previous actions. Learning becomes more predictable if the process is autoregressive (just to be careful, note that I am not saying that more predictable learning is necessarily better learning). Different autoregression models, denoted as AR(n) with n indicating the memory length, may be characterized by their ACFs. For example, the ACF of AR(2) decays more slowly than that of AR(1), as AR(2) depends on more previous points. (In practice, partial autocorrelation function, or PACF, is often used to detect the order of an AR model.)

The two figures in this post show that the ACF in action within VPA, revealing temporal periodicity and similarity in students' action data that are otherwise obscure. The upper graphs of the figures plot the original time series for comparison.

Seeing student learning with visual analytics

A radar chart of design space exploration.
A histogram of action intensity.

A scatter plot of action timeline.

A digraph of action transition.

On the instructional sensitivity of computer-aided design logs

Figure 1: Hypothetical student responses to an intervention.

Figure 2. An indicator of statistical reliability.

The first paper on learning analytics for assessing engineering design?

Figure 1
The International Journal of Engineering Education published our paper ("A Time Series Analysis Method for Assessing Engineering Design Processes Using a CAD Tool") on learning analytics and educational data mining for assessing student performance in complex engineering design projects. I believe this is the first time learning analytics was applied to the study of engineering design -- an extremely complicated process that is very difficult to assess using traditional methodologies because of its open-ended and practical nature.

Figure 2
This paper proposes a novel computational approach based on time series analysis to assess engineering design processes using our Energy3D CAD tool. To collect research data without disrupting a design learning process, design actions and artifacts are continuously logged as time series by the CAD tool behind the scenes, while students are working on an engineering design project such as a solar urban design challenge. These "atomically" fine-grained data can be used to reconstruct, visualize, and analyze the entire design process of a student with extremely high resolution. Results of a pilot study in a high school engineering class suggest that these data can be used to measure the level of student engagement, reveal the gender differences in design behaviors, and distinguish the iterative (Figure 1) and non-iterative (Figure 2) cycles in a design process.

From the perspective of engineering education, this paper contributes to the emerging fields of educational data mining and learning analytics that aim to expand evidence approaches for learning in a digital world. We are working on a series of papers to advance this research direction and expect to help with the "landscaping" of  those fields.

Visual learning analytics based on graph theory: Part I

All educational research and assessment are based on inference from evidence. Evidence is constructed from learner data. The quality of this construction is, therefore, fundamentally important. Many educational measurements have relied on eliciting, analyzing, and interpreting students' constructed responses to assessment questions. New types of data may engender new opportunities for improving the validity and reliability of educational measurements. In this series of articles, I will show how graph theory can be applied to educational research.

The process of inquiry-based learning with an interactive computer model can be imagined as a trajectory of exploring in the problem space spanned by the user interface of the model. Students use various widgets to control different variables, observe the corresponding emergent behaviors, take some data, and then reason with the data to draw a conclusion. This sounds obvious. But exactly how do we capture, visualize, and analyze this process?

From the point of view of computational science, the learning space is enormous: If we have 10 controls in the user interface and each control has five inputs, there are potentially 100,000 different ways of interacting with the model. To be able to tackle a problem of this magnitude, we can use some mathematics. Graph theory is a trick that we are building into our process analytics. The publication of Leonhard Euler's Seven Bridges of Königsberg in 1736 is commonly considered as the birth of graph theory.

Figure 1: A learning graph made of two subgraphs representing two ideas.
In graph theory, a graph is a collection of vertices connected by edges: G = (V, E). When applied to learning, a vertex represents an indicator that may be related to certain competency of a student, which can be logged by software. An edge represents the transition from one indicator to another. We call a graph that represents a learning process as a learning graph.

A learning graph is always a digraph G = (V, A) -- namely, it always has directed edges or arrows -- because of the temporal nature of learning. Most likely, it is a multigraph that has multiple directed edges between one or more than one pair of vertices (it is sometimes called a multidigraph) because the student often needs multiple transitions between indicators to learn their connections. A learning graph often has loops, edges that connect back to the same vertex, because the student may perform multiple actions related to an indicator consecutively before making a transition. Figure 1 shows a learning graph that includes two sets of indicators, each for an idea.

Figure 2. The adjacency matrix of the graph in Figure 1.
The size of a learning graph is defined as the number of its arrows, denoted by |A(G)|. The size represents the number of actions the student takes during learning. The multiplicity of an arrow is the number of multiple arrows sharing the same vertices; the multiplicity of a graph, the maximum multiplicity of its arrows. The multiplicity represents the most frequent transition between two indicators in a learning process. The degree dG(v) of a vertex v in a graph G is the number of edges incident to v, with loops being counted twice. A vertex of degree 0 is an isolated vertex. A vertex of degree 1 is a leaf. The degree of a vertex represents the times the action related to the corresponding indicator is performed. The maximum degree Δ(G) of a graph G is the largest degree over all vertices; the minimum degree δ(G), the smallest.

The distance dG(u, v) between two vertices u and v in a graph G is the length of a shortest path between them. When u and v are identical, their distance is 0. When u and v are unreachable from each other, their distance is defined to be infinity ∞. The distance between two indicators may reveal how the related constructs are connected in the learning process.

Figure 3. A more crosscutting learning trajectory between two ideas.
Two vertices u and v are called adjacent if an edge exists between them, denoted by u ~ v. The square adjacency matrix is a means of representing which vertices of a graph are adjacent to which other vertices. Figure 2 is the adjacency matrix of the graph in Figure 1, the trace (the sum of all the diagonal elements in the matrix) of which represents the number of loops in the graph. Having known the adjacency matrix, we can apply the spectral graph theory to study the properties of a graph in relationship to the characteristic polynomial, eigenvalues, and eigenvectors of the matrix (because the adjacency matrix of a learning graph is a digraph, the eigenvalues are often complex numbers). For example, the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix may be used to reduce the dimensionality of the dataset into clusters.

Figure 4. The adjacency matrix of the graph in Figure 3.
How might learning graphs be useful for analyzing student learning? Figure 3 gives an example that shows a different behavior of exploration between two ideas (such as heat and temperature or pressure and temperature). In this hypothetical case, the student has more transitions between two subgraphs that represent the two ideas and their indicator domains. This pattern can potentially result in better understanding of the connections between the ideas. The adjacency matrix shown in Figure 4 has different block structures than that shown in Figure 2: The blocks A-B and B-A are much sparser in Figure 2 than in Figure 4. The spectra of these two matrices may be quite different and could be used to characterize the knowledge integration process that fosters the linkage between the two ideas.

Go to Part II.