Monthly Archives: October 2014

An Indian space craft successfully entered Mars’ orbit, marking it as the first interplanetary mission for the country making India in the processof being the first Asian nation to reach the Red Planet— and the first nation in the world to successfully reach Mars on its first attempt.This post is devoted to raise awareness about the patent laws related to outer space.

As we all know patentsare granted by state or national governments to inventors.Patents are territorial and are only enforced within the jurisdiction of the granting government. For example, holder of a U.S. patent may only be able to enforce the patent against someone who is using, making, sellingor importing the patented invention within the United States. Hence, the owner of the invention must file a separate patent application in countries of his interest, i.e where he wishes to obtain exclusive rights to his invention.

Above limitation in implementing rights granted by patents raises a pertinent question while discussing patents in space domain  –whose territory is space?

Laws pertaining to outer space

In this context it will be worthwhile to examine laws concerning outer space.

Space law can be described as an area of the laws governing activities in outer space that are applicable to national and international law. International lawyers have been unable to agree on a uniform definition of the term “outer space”, although most lawyers agree that outer space generally begins at the lowest altitude above sea level at which objects can orbit the Earth, approximately 100 km (60 mi).

Outer Space Treaty

The Outer Space Treaty, formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. It is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law. The treaty was opened for signature in the USA, the UK, and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, and entered into force on 10 October 1967. 102 countries are parties to the treaty, as of May 2013, while another 27 have signed the treaty but have not completed ratification.

Responsibility for Activities in Space

Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty deals with international responsibility, stating that “the activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty” and that States Parties shall bear international responsibility for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities.

Sovereignty in Outer Space

On 20 December 1961, the United Nation passed a resolution 1721 as follows;

(a) International law, including the charter of the United Nations, applies to outer space and celestial bodies,

(b) outer space and celestial bodies are free for exploration and use by all States in conformity with international law and are not subject to national appropriation.

Article II of the Outer space Treaty states “outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. Hence outer space is not subject to sovereignty of any state. It is regarded as a “Res Communis”, that is it is a public domain or public property.No one nation may claim ownership of outer space or any celestial body. So, outer space is not owned or controlled by anyone and it is available for anyone to use for any purpose. This does not mean that States that areexploring and using outer space cannot exercise any degree of authority.

As far as an object launched into outer space is concerned, in accordance with Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty, the State on whose registry such an object is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over that object, and over any personnel thereof.

Importance of IPR in Space Regime

Space technology has been for a long time one of the most advanced technical areas, and outer space activities are, in fact, the fruit of intellectual creations, it is only in recent years that intellectual property in the field of space activitiesis raised.

The reason is that:

  • Space activities are increasingly now shifting from being state owned to private and commercial activities

Intellectual property protection is critical to fostering innovation in space research and exploration. Without protection, inventors would not reap the full benefits of their inventions and would in turn focus less on research and development.

Case Study: International Space Station (ISS)

As the International Space Station nears completion, the issue of Space-related Intellectual Property Rights (SIPRs) is becoming increasingly important. The partners in this adventure, the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada and the Member States of European Space Agency (ESA), are working together to establish a legal framework to define the rights and obligations of each of the partner states, as well as their jurisdiction and control over their ISS elements.

Experiments to be carried out on the ISS cover human physiology, biology, biotechnology, medicine, biology, science and technology. The pharmaceutical sector in particular has been identified as an area that will benefit from experiments carried out on the ISS.

These factors raise the question of which laws apply to such experiments? For instance, if a scientist/astronaut invents a medical treatment while on board the ISS, which patent law can be used to protect it? Also, can the use of patented inventions be protected in outer space?

The complexity of the legal regime concerning IPRs for the ISS lies in the fact that the ISS consists of different modules provided by different partners. Different IP laws from different ISS Partners can coexist; as each partner registers their flight elements and retains jurisdiction, control and ownership over them.

In order to protect the exclusive rights of inventors, intergovernmental agreement on the ISS was signed on 29 September 1988 by the United States of America, Japan, Canada and ten other member states.

Article 21 of the International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) recognises the jurisdiction of each partner’s courts and allows for national laws to be applied in the modules belonging to the partners. This means that the different IP laws of each partner have to coexist, that is in the event an invention occurs on the Space Station, ownershipof invention will be determined by the ownership and registry of the Station’s element in which the invention has taken place.

For instance, if an invention is realised in a USA space element the USA Patent Act will be applicable as the invention is deemed to have occurred on US territory or for example, an invention made on a Japanese Element will be deemed to have occurred in Japan.

An invention created by an enterprise astronaut on ISS will be patented in the nation that has jurisdiction over the module where the invention took place, not the nation of the inventor.

105 of 35 U.S.C. (Inventions in Outer Space)

The USA is the only country that has enacted an explicit provision related to inventions in outer space.

The USA Patent Act (re. 35 U.S.C.§ 105(2003)) states that any invention made, used or sold in outer space on board a spacecraft that is under the jurisdiction or control of the USA is considered to be made, used or sold on US territory, except where an international agreement has been concluded that states otherwise.

Apart from the USA, however, only Germany modified its patent law prior to the signing of an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on the ISS, to ensure that its patent law can be applied to inventions created on board an ESA registered module.

Apart from these two countries, the national patent laws of no other country contain provisions that would make national patent law applicable on board a spacecraft.

Space Legislation in India

India, like most other countries, has no provisions related to space legislation.

India is a party to all international space treaties, which form the main body of international space law. India has also played a significant role to adopt legal principles by the U.N. General Assembly Resolutions, which provide for the application of international law and promotion of international cooperation and understanding in space activities.

Thus it is for the Parliament of India to take the starting step in the direction of enacting a law for India for the purpose of the effective regulation of various aspects of India’s space policy. Because of recent national and global developments, active involvement of the private sector in country’s space programme, commercialisation of space activities and the agreements made nationally and globally with various agencies, governments, international and intergovernmental organisations, there is a huge need of space laws in India.

The second most important reason for a space law in India is that having successfully demonstrated their implicational capabilitiesnow the Indian space activities have become vastly diversified and have come to stay. Hence to facilitate inter-departmental coordination it is important to make legal norm related to space inventions.

Thirdly, there is a need to clarify applicable legal norms and rules relating to both public laws and private law aspects of space activities, as demonstrated by the experience of developed countries like USA and Germany.

Fourthly commercialisation of the space products is establishing and a vast space activities and space market where India plans to and has already begun to sell its space products.

Therefore, there is need for India to enact a National Space Legislation as soon as possible.

Space provides sufficient opportunities for many joint venture programmes for various innovative applications towards the cause of human kind. A harmonized system of IPR regime for the outer space is needed. The harmonized system should take into account the interests of developing countries and promote moral and ethical usage of Outer Space for the benefit of the entire humanity.

About the Author: Ms Harsha Rohatgi, Patent Associate, Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys and can be reached at:

Practice of Patent Asserting Entities: Boon or Bane: Global Innovations

Patent troll relates to a person or company that enforces its patents against one or more alleged infringers in an opportunistic and unduly aggressive manner, often with no intention to manufacture or market the patented invention. Various terms such as patent trolls, patent monetization companies, or patent assertion entities are used for such entities; however, irrespective of term used, it solely talks about companies that conduct very little research to create new ideas and produces no products. Instead, they hold patents in which they were not involved at any level: ranging from designing, manufacturing or process associated with that patent. Their main aim is to sue similar patent holder firms or to extract license payments under the threat of lawsuits or actual litigation to enforce their demands.

A more polite and neutral name used for them is “Non-Practicing Entities” (NPE’s). Non-practicing entities include legitimate institutions such as start-ups, technology transfer agencies, universities, research organizations inter alia.

Modus Operandi of patent trolls

Patent trolls usually gather together large portfolios of patents, which they purchase from companies that are going out of business, from firms that have developed technology that they don’t intend to pursue on a particular technology, or from individuals who are lacking funds to develop their inventions or ideas. Further, the trolls look for successful products that use the technology covered by their patents and demand a licensing fee. Because patent suits are expensive to defend, the target company is most often willing to settle out of court.

Trolls accumulate patents related to a target company. By purchasing many patents focused on one area, they are able to bring up so many occasions of possible infringement which further makes it harder and more expensive for the target company to defend the suit. They also sue multiple defendants so that the legal cost per defendant is reduced but makes for a large overall potential payback.

On the other hand, as a matter of practice, lawyers are paid on a contingency basis – they are only paid if they win the case. That reduces the cost further of the  trolls. On the other hand cost for the accused infringer is sky-high and if they try to fight the case, there is no quick way to end the litigation and achieve success in the litigation.

The patent trolls may also claim a share in total revenue from the product although patents may cover only a small aspect of the technology. The award can amount to millions for a successful product.

From various sources, it is believed that 97 percent of infringement suits in U.S. are settled before trial rather than risk judgement irrespective of the merits of the case and also the cost of patent litigation (bringing or defending a patent lawsuit is expensive, with legal costs and lawyers’ fees reaching into the millions of dollars) works to patent trolls advantage, too. Further adding to the list of advantages for trolls, if a defendant company loses a suit, it may be liable for treble damages in a case of wilful infringement.

The result is a situation where the accused infringer faces so much of a burden of fighting the court case that it becomes appealing to pay some lesser amount to make the litigation go away.

Patent Trolling in India

The practice of patent trolling was prevalent and practiced in India in the Information Technology and Communications sector till 2005 prior to passage and enactment of the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 after which there was steep decline in trolling activities.  The reason for this decline is nothing but the inclusion in the 2005 Act of a list of non-patentable subject matter which includes Software domain which is considered to be most significant domain involved in patent trolling among others, imposition of stringent deadlines for pre-grant opposition, introduction of post-grant opposition, as well as the introduction of a variety of other provisions such as compulsory licensing.

Pertinently patent law in India do not aims to prohibit the existence of patent trolls but threatens its existence.  For instance, Indian patent law makes it mandatory that a (granted) patent be worked or used in India. However otherwise, if a patent is not used in the territory of India within a period of 3 years from the grant of patent, compulsory licensing might be invoked.  Also, the Indian Patents Act makes it mandatory to file statement of working of a patent at the end of each financial year. And if the patent holders fail to file such a statement, he may be liable for a fine and/or imprisonment.  Hence in India, patent trolling does not pose any major threat to any entity seeking opportunity to enter the Indian market in view of the amendments to the laws which fairly controls the patent troll activity in India.

While patent trolls are a major threat in many countries they are not a viable option to operate in India In view of provisions incorporated in Indian Patent Laws vide Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005.  It can be observed that while the other countries are plagued with patent troll activities, the Indian system strived fairly to control the problem of patent trolls.  May be US and other developed countries need to take a leaf out of Indian Patent Laws to curb the menace of patent trolls instead of criticising IPR regime.

About the Author: Mr Sitanshu Singh, Patent Associate, Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorneys and can be reached at:

Emcure’s Notice of Motion succeeds against Corona Remedies: Bombay High Court

In the recent decision of Bombay High Court in the case of Emcure Pharmaceuticals v Corona Remedies, the Hon’ble court decided on the issue of deceptive similarity, acquiescence and balance of Convenience in favor of Emcure Pharmaceuticals.

Facts of the case:

The plaintiff’s trademarks ‘OROFER’ and ‘OROFER XT’ are registered as word marks since 1996 with the trade mark registry in class 5 in relation to medicinal and pharmaceuticals preparations for iron  deficiency, anaemia, methylcobalmin deficiency, folic acid deficiency, zinc deficiency and so forth.

On, 10 January 2006 the plaintiff became aware of the advertisement of the defendant’s trade mark ‘COROFER’ in the Trade mark Journal 1371. However on 17th December 2007, Plaintiff sent Cease and Desist notice to the Defendant through their attorneys. Thereafter the Defendant’s registration was opposed by the plaintiff on 20th December 2007 claiming inter alia prior and original adopter of the mark ‘OROFER’ in class 5 and due to prolonged and extensive use, the mark exclusively connotes to the plaintiff only and would cause confusion and deception among potentials if used by any other entity.

The plaintiff also sent second Cease and Desist notice to defendants on 26th June 2009. Moreover on dt. 7th September 2013 filed infringement suit against the defendants. The Plaintiff also filed the notice of motion for interim relief injuncting the defendants from using the impugned trademark in any manner thereof.

Issues Involved:

  1. Whether the defendant’s mark is deceptively similar to the Plaintiff’s mark?

  1. Whether the fact that other marks exists with the word “FER” is determinative, in that the use of this word or abbreviation by the Defendant cannot be said to constitute an infringement of the Plaintiff ’s marks?

  1. Whether it constitutes a valid defense if it be shown that Plaintiff is not the first user of the impugned mark?

  1. Whether Plaintiff’s claim stands defeated if the alleged delay is proved? And if the knowledge of the Plaintiff regarding the Defendant’s use is shown, hasnot the Plaintiff acquiesced in the Defendant’s use of its rival marks? Whether S. 33 is limited to a later registered trade mark?

Issue 1:

The court held that the true test is to juxtapose the two marks and then analyze the likely effect on the mind of a person of average intelligence and imperfect recollection. In the present case the entire mark of the plaintiff is incorporated in the defendant’s mark which makes it deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s mark. Thus there is no difference between the plaintiff’s mark and the defendant’s mark except for the addition of the preceding letter ‘C’.  The court also relied on the case of Boots Company PLC v. Registrar of Trade Marks & Anr. Wherin it was held CROFEN to be deceptively similar to BRUFEN. Thus the court held that the Defendant’s mark is confusingly and deceptively similar to the Plaintiff’s mark.

Issue 2:

The court held that the fact is inconsequential that there exists other mark with the term FER in them. Moreover in view of the fact that the defendant itself has sought for the registration of the mark with the term FER, defendants cannot claim lack of distinctiveness.

Issue 3:

The defendants claim that the markl ‘OROFER’ is already used by one Advent Laboratories Patna who is prior user since 1983 and the mark is registered on 24th September 1985. The plaintiff however denied the contention and claimed that the mark was filed on proposed to be used basis and there is no evidence of its actual use. Moreover Section 28(3) and Section 12 provides for co existence of the marks on the register where both the proprietors do not have exclusive rights over each other, however as against third party each of them has full rights against the third party. The court held that in the present case the defendant is the third party and not the concurrent user.

Issue 4:

The court held that mere delay in filing the suit in no way defeat the rights of the registered proprietor and which is not firmly settled by various case laws. (Relied Medley Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v Twilight Mecantiles Ltd. & Anr) Moreover it is also settled principle that in law question of acquiescence arises where the proprietor being aware of the rights and the infringement of the mark but fail to sue without a positive act of encouragement. And this is not the defence available to the infringer.

The court held in reference to acquiescence that “Acquiescence is a species of estoppel, a rule in equity and a rule of evidence.  Essential  to the acquiescence  doctrine  is  that  it  is  accompanied  by  an encouragement  or an inducement:  he who possesses a legal  right must have encouraged the alleged violator of that right in acting to the latter’s detriment, confident in the knowledge that the former is not asserting his rights against the violator. Acquiescence is not mere negligence or oversight. There must be the abandonment of the right to exclusivity”.

The court on the question of delay, acquiescence and honesty of adoption, relied on Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v Sami Khatib and Hindustan Pencils and Schering Corporation and held that even if it is assumed that the defendant’s adoption was honest, the defendant had the means to discover the plaintiff’s mark and particularly in view of the fact of plaintiff’ opposition to the defendant’s mark, the continued use of the mark by the defendant was at its peril. Moreover the onus of proving the honest and concurrent user lies with the defendant and the defendant fails to prove the same. However the defendant also fails to produce the sales figure. Hence question of acquiescence did not arise. (Relied on Win Medicare v. Somacare Laboratories Ltd)

The defendant further claimed that the S. 33 also applies to the unregistered mark whereas the court rejected the argument and held that the “S. 33 operates in a well defined and circumscribed set of circumstances. It cannot possible oust every other plea of acquiescence”.


Manfredini, Francesco Onofrio Composers Composition Music

(1684-1762) Italian violinist and composer. He became the head of music at St. Philip's Cathedral in Pistoia in 1727, where he remained until his death in 1762. As a composer he left very little, with just 43 published works and a handful of manuscripts.

    Top: Arts: Music: Composition: Composers: M: Manfredini, Francesco Onofrio

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The growing trend of in-store DJs

Perhaps an in-store DJ could bring back memories of a great night out, leading to a purchase of a new party outfit? Or perhaps an in-store DJ could increase your heart rate, therefore increasing your excitement and causing you to make more of an impulsive decision than you wouldn’t normally make?

Music has a surprisingly strong influence on what products consumers buy and how much they’re willing to pay for them, according to a new study from psychological scientists Adrian North and Lorraine Sheridan of Curtin University and Charles Areni of Macquarie University. North and colleagues hypothesised that specific songs or musical genres could prime congruent concepts in a person’s memory, ultimately shifting people’s preferences and buying behaviour.

“Several studies have indicated that the upmarket stereotype of classical music is associated with customers being prepared to pay more for the same products than when other musical styles or no music are played,” North says.

This makes a motivating case for upmarket stores in New Zealand, suggesting that perhaps the proposal for in-store live music, such as DJs, could be profitable in the New Zealand market place.

In Australian-owned menswear store Culture Kings, the presence of an in-store DJ is constant. Culture Kings prides itself on creating an exhilerating atmosphere, and present some of Australia’s leading DJs performing daily.

Closer to home, music retailer Real Groovy has long had DJs playing regular sets at its Queen St store. Liquorland has used DJs in-store as well.

The challenge for those seeking to emulate the offering will be selecting what sort of background music would be most suitable to your business and your shop’s customer demographics.

This story first appeared at The Register.


Thoughts About Glass Electrolytes

19 Mar 2017

In a recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, they discussed a recent paper from the John Goodenough lab. I figured I’d take a look at this paper and see what’s inside. They propose a type of battery where there’s a lithium-metal reduction on both sides of the cell. Overall, the electrochemical results they show are impressive: very high capacities with good cyclability at a decent cell potential (between 2.5 and 2.7V); though not quite as impressive as the press-release makes them sound. However, I’m not clear on how they think this reaction actually happens. Many of the clarifying details are missing, which makes it hard to properly evaluate. Regardless of the electrochemical mechanism, though, if the results can be reproduced reliably, then great!

There’s really two parts to this paper. The first is the use of a solid, glassy electrolyte to overcome the limitations of using metallic lithium anodes. Dendrite formation is a major problem and, as such, modern rechargeable batteries use graphite, resulting in a lower energy density and cell potential. Their strategy also avoids the flammable, toxic liquid electrolyte, which would be nice. If the results are reproducible, this technique could be combined with existing cathodes to give a nice increase in energy density. To be clear, though, the idea of using solid or polymer electrolytes in not new.

The second part seems to be a fundamentally new mechanism for constructing batteries. Based on the schematic they’ve drawn in figure 4, it looks like they’re oxidizing lithium metal at the anode, and then reducing lithium metal at the cathode. The anode part is fine; that’s the standard discharge reaction for lithium-metal batteries. However, having the same reduction/oxidation (“redox”) half-reaction taking place at both the cathode and the anode would give a cell potential of 0V; that is, the battery wouldn’t be able to store any energy. They claim that:

The Fermi level of the lithium plated on the carbon–copper composite cathode current collector is determined by the Fermi level of the cathode current collector, whereas the Fermi level of the lithium anode remains that of metallic lithium, but the cell voltage is determined by the energy of the redox couple of the unreduced redox center.

The implication here is that the potential of the cathode redox couple is raised by the presence of copper. It’s not clear to me why the Fermi level¹ of plated lithium would be the level of the current collector. It is true that the chemical potential of metallic lithium would be higher than that of metallic copper, and if they were proposing an alloying mechanism, then the Fermi level would be influenced by the copper. However, they’re claiming that the lithium plates on to the copper. Presumably, anything beyond the first several atomic layers of lithium wouldn’t really be influenced by the presence of copper underneath. A simple test would have been to replace the copper with aluminum and see what affect this has on the potential, but they didn’t perform this experiment.

It’s also not clear to me what the role of the sulfur, ferrocene or manganese-oxide redox center is. The idea that these redox centers are not reduced during the reaction suggests that they serve a catalytic role, which the authors confirm in the introduction. These redox centers therefore can’t influence the thermodynamic potential of the cell, only the kinetic barriers that must be overcome to initiate redox². This would effectively raise the potential needed to charge the cell, but lower the potential achieved on discharge, and so doesn’t explain the asymmetry between the cathode and anode potentials.

Having said all that, the images they show combined with the extremely high full-discharge capacities do seem to confirm that they have moved all the lithium through the glass from one electrode to the other. If this can be reproduced, then I have an opportunity to improve my understanding of some of these foundational electrochemical principles.

There are a few other things I think are missing from the paper. First, it’s unusual that no cyclic-voltammetry (CV) was done. CV is an electrochemical technique that sweeps across a range of potentials, and the current response at each point gives information about which redox processes are occurring as well as the inherent kinetic barriers in the system. It’s a standard technique for characterizing new materials that operate by known mechanisms, let alone an entirely new mechanism such as this one.

The press release claims

high volumetric energy density and fast rates of charge and discharge

neither of which are reported in the paper. The paper does claim “high volumetric energy density” (Joules per mL) in describing previous work on sodium anodes, but never actual reports the values they achieved, instead opting for gravimetric energy density (Joules per gram). To be fair, volumetric energy density is hard to calculate for a system like this, and gravimetric values are far more common. Regarding their rate capability, they show reversible electrochemistry data at 0.25C and 0.1C rates, which would corresponding to charging your car in 4 and 10 hours respectively³. Not bad by any means, but I would characterize this as “moderate”. The authors even describe this towards the end as “The cell voltages and rates are acceptable.”, which I agree with.

In summary, the results look promising but I await replication and better description of what’s actually happening. For a paper that sounds as revolutionary as this one does, it’s noteworthy that it’s only 6 pages and has only 5 references, 3 of which are from the authors’ own research group. This is not the first paper to report “a safe, low-cost, lithium or sodium rechargeable battery of high energy density and long cycle life.” but somehow those claims never seem to be as transformative as promised. From the paper:

All that remains to be optimized is the thickness of the solid glass electrolyte, the loading and choice of the redox center in the composite cathode to provide a required voltage, and optimization of the rate of ion transfer across the cathode/electrolyte interface to obtain a desired rate performance of the stored electric power.

So what, about 5-10 years maybe…?

1) The Fermi Level for a species can be (non-rigorously) described as the work needed to add an electron to a material. Since battery chemistry is all about moving electrons around, Fermi levels are a key concept for understanding the underlying thermodynamics.

2) This is similar to how enzymes can only influence the rate of a bio-chemical reaction, not the underlying thermodynamic states; a second, higher-energy, reaction (eg ATP –> ADP) must be coupled to the reaction of interest in order to reverse the reaction arrow.

3) This description needs a large asterisk next to it. The authors only charged the cell partially in 10 hours but also have a significantly larger capacity than conventional materials, so it’s difficult to compare this in a “your car charges in 4 hours” kind of way.


Our Google RISE-supported 21st Century Skills Clubs in Amsterdam Southeast are important research and development environments for us.  Our classes are 50% girls, 50% boys with the kids coming from mostly minority, low income families. Almost all of them have no previous exposure to computer science and programming.

Most of our other after-school programs attract kids from more affluent backgrounds who have already attended coding classes and whose parents actively encourage them to engage with technology.

These differences in students don’t matter. Because what we see in our students, including those in Amsterdam Southeast, is the same: curiosity, engagement and a willingness to try, experiment and learn.

We have had to adapt our curriculum and develop new lessons to give our students in Amsterdam Southeast a solid foundation to understand core computer science concepts such as algorithms, commands, programming and automation. We’re integrating much more technological literacy to show them the link between what they learn in class and the technology which surrounds them in everyday life.

We’re including a stronger emphasis on design processes and rapid prototyping to help them become comfortable working with tangible objects and expressing their creativity. (Many of these kids have never built anything or played with LEGO or other building blocks.) And, no different than the other students we teach, we are challenging them to work in teams to learn how to collaborate and communicate effectively with each other.

Some day, and hopefully soon, computational thinking, computer science and technological literacy will be mandatory subjects in primary schools around the world.

Just teaching these subjects is not enough. We as educators need to learn how to teach these subjects effectively so that all students, regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status or learning challenges, are prepared to navigate a world full of technology and perhaps become innovators and inventors.

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Breaded Pork Medallions

These medallions are great served with risotto or saffron rice, or toss quartered new potatoes and sliced carrots in a bowl with some olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.  Slice the meat thinly so the pork cooks all the way through.

2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 lb. pork tenderloin cut into 8 medallions
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 Tablespoon chopped, fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Rub mustard over pork.  Combine thyme, salt, and pepper with panko in a shallow dish.  Dip both sides of each pork medallion in the panko mixture.  Heat a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat.  Add the olive oil, covering the bottom of the pan.  Add pork and sauté two minutes on each side.  Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serves: 4


Benitec's Hepatitis B Therapy Reduces HBV DNA by 98.5% In Vivo

SYDNEY, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Benitec Biopharma Limited (ASX: BLT; NASDAQ: BNTC; NASDAQ: BNTCW) is pleased to announce that BB-HB-331, a DNA-directed RNA interference (ddRNAi) therapy targeting the hepatitis B virus (HBV), demonstrates robust and durable suppression of HBV in vivo following a single administration.

Benitec's ddRNAi technology is a unique combination of gene silencing using RNA interference coupled with the long term therapeutic potential of gene therapy. BB-HB-331 is comprised of an AAV8 capsid and recombinant DNA engineered to express three short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that target and inhibit viral RNA expressed from three well conserved regions across multiple HBV genotypes.


Forum für akustische Kunst

Denken, Schreiben

CfP: “Sound and the Public”

Für die Spezialausgabe zum Thema “Communication and the Public” werden noch Beiträge gesucht. Diese können bis zum ersten März 2017 eingereicht werden.

Der gesamte Call folgt hier:

“Call for papers
Guest Editors
   Sound as a constitutive element in the formation of public life is
exemplified by urban public concerts, the everyday sound of a church
every Monday in Tiananmen Square. In virtual space, the sharing of music
files and all sorts of sound files organize public life underlined by
shared tastes and ideologies. Sound in public is also a domain of
policing relative inclusion and exclusion, of constituting citizenship
along axes of race, class, gender, and nationality. And environmental
noise that makes the atmospheric perceptible is subject to legal and
techno-rational regimes of control. We envision this special issue as
joining the already rich literature on sound and the public, while
amplifying less well addressed areas of affect, sense, and materiality.
Our understanding of the public is expansive, encompassing public
feelings, public rituals, public space, public sphere, public speech,
the networked public, the transient public, and the mediated public. We
seek articles on sound’s capacity and role in creating, enhancing,
complicating, or disintegrating the public. Here we ask, how does sound
helps us understand current situations of the public as lived, imagined,
and sensed? How does a public organize itself acoustically – through
listening, feeling, or orienting toward one another? How does sound
serve as force, object, or “actant” in composing publics?  Subjects
might include but are not limited to:
-       listening as public sense -       sound art in public space
-       sound, memory and collective identity
-       field recording and listening as public engagement
-       acoustic gentrification
-       sound and listening as a mode of engaging the public
-       sound and alternative or counter publics
-       municipal noise ordinances and the inequalities of urban publics
-       how sound and listening contribute to the formation of an
affective public -       how the materiality of sound sustains or
disrupts public affects
-       the acoustic sense of publics
   We are primarily seeking research articles and theoretical essays,
but short reflective essays in a forum/symposium and book reviews or
review articles are also welcome.  Manuscripts should not exceed 9000
words in length (inclusive of references, tables, figures, appendices,
and endnotes).  The manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th
edition (2009).  For details of manuscript styles, please refer to

Send papers to Jing Wang (adelwangjing@zju.edu.cn) and Marina Peterson
(petersm2@ohio.edu) by March 1, 2017.”

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When Things Really Are Messy

There are times in my life when life gets really messy. When laundry piles up and the dishes don’t get done and there is darkness.

There are times in my life when everything routine comes to a grinding halt. In such times, I wonder how it all got this messy.

In my messy life, I often get lost in the details.

In my messy life, I frequently forget the importance of taking care of myself first.

In my messy life, I often forget that it is okay to ask for help.

I am emerging from a season of messiness in my life. I see the light in my life for the first time in a long while.

In this season, it is vital to keep going and to clean up the mess one piece at the time. I have to remember that it does not all have to be done at once. One load of laundry at the time, one clean dish at the time, one misplaced household item back in its place at the time. One to-do list at the time, I am going to clean this mess up one item at the time.

I am going to clean this life up– one thing, one step at the time.

How I Get Things Done

I am still working on the concepts in this post. I still work daily to feel satisfied with the amount of things I get done in the day. I am coming from a place of disorder and (more than) slight chaos stemming from health problems with which I’ve struggled for the past few years. So, my solutions for time and task management come from that particular place. This solution is a good place to start when one hasn’t been tracking (or in some cases, doing) tasks for an extended time: like, months or maybe even years at a time.

I keep track of everything I do in a paper calendar. J, my husband, can keep track of everything “in the cloud,” through apps on his phone, but I do best when I can take a pen and paper and keep track of everything… physically marking off tasks as the task is completed. I feel more successful after each check mark. At the beginning of the year (or when they are first on sale the Fall prior to the beginning of the year), I buy a calendar. Matters not what format the calendar takes. Mine is a simple one that only has one line per date, with no actual day even marked. It works for me, wouldn’t work for everyone. Find one that suits you.

If you prefer this method of tracking tasks on paper, the calendar can be as fancy or as plain as you like. I have tried homemade calendars in the past, but I have found that it is much less bulky to just buy the calendar, within an appropriate budget, than to buy all the supplies for making a calendar and putting it in a big, bulky binder. The binder and supplies ended up being equally and in some cases, more costly than just the one-time purchase of a pre-made, relatively plain calendar. This may not be true or suitable for everybody. It has just been what I find works for me.

Next, I keep a separate, additional notebook. I prefer simple, unmarked, small, bendable ones that fit in my purse. My notebook is not spiral bound. My calendar fits inside the small notebook, so I can always keep them together and access them whenever I need to do so.

So, anyway….tasks get listed on lines…one page for each single day, in the plain notebook. As I complete a task, I check it off. Simple as that. I look at the calendar once or twice a day. That’s it, at this point.

I don’t track time with my task list. I used to schedule out, by the hour, various tasks and I found– for me– tracking my time is a recipe for feeling like a failure. That having been said, my meetings and appointments are scattered few and far between at this season of my life, so the way I budget my time is far more relaxed at the moment. My style is likely is not the case for a lot of people.

Even so, I have found that not watching the clock as I complete a task is actually a recipe for success. Back when I was tracking time with my task list, I’d get so caught up in keeping up with the time that I didn’t pay adequate attention to the task at hand. Or worse– I’d feel like a failure when I didn’t fit all the tasks into the time frame I had set aside. I wasted years of low self-esteem in large part due to this method of time and task management.

The important takeaway, for me, with task lists has become this: it is, indeed, okay if I do not complete every. single. last. task on my list. I can’t predict the future, so I can’t predict what unexpected things may come up in my day to make it such that I cannot complete a given line item on my task list. When I don’t complete a task from my list, it simply gets moved to the task list for the next day until it is completed.

There are different schools of thought as to what order tasks should be done, such as most difficult task first. However, I always put some leisure and hobby activities on my list along with the chore-type tasks. I see results a little more slowly than others might and I still put the difficult tasks on my list to be done. I see the leisure and hobby-type items, such as my crochet projects, as a sort of reward for doing other tasks less, well, fun. However, the reward does not always follow the chore-type task….sometimes I’ll crochet first thing in the day. My own energy levels and the types of chores on the list for the day determine in what order my list-conquering activities occur.

Also: I don’t worry about completing my list in the order that I make it, nor do I try to predict at the outset of the day the order of the tasks in which I will complete them. At my stage of goal-related work, I am simply trying to complete the list in any way possible. My method for task completion  is going to be flexible as I get better with finishing tasks.

My goal, besides getting things on my list done: to be gentle with myself through the entire process. I want to push myself in order to grow, but I do not push so much that I get discouraged and give up on the task list completely. Feeling good about the process is key, for me, to lasting change.

I hope some of these ideas give somebody, somewhere, some hope. Behavioral change is, indeed, possible… I am living proof that such is the case.

Let Light In

Note to self: remember to open the blinds.


13254897_10154308788338489_984063975006541879_oI have been to France once. I have seen a lot of people who talk to themselves on the streets, especially in Paris. I, first, thought they were crazy. But then I accidentally found that  experts had discovered that a conversation with yourself can be a route to achievement and success. « Why thinking outloud is usefull? We start to think faster.A conversation with yourself helps you concentrate.Saying to your thoughts out loud helps you to put them in order. Talking to yourself both calm you down and energize you. »I followed. As a result, it helps me to better concentrate, makes me focus more on my studies, and gives me some pretty brilliant ideas while talking to myself; and more important, it helps me pronouncing better my german language.

This could be the reason why most world’s great scholars and scientists come from France; especially Paris. When people talk to themselves, it does not mean that they are crazy. It means that they are genious.

Special message : when next time, people say « Are you crazy, why you talk to yourself?« , you answer « I don’t care what bitches say, I care what makes me feel better« .


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"Which of the Two?" by Joselyn Guaman ('18)

Where is he? Where did he go? He’s been missing for a year now, nobody ever found him. Dead or alive he is still missing. He was my twin.

Who was the oldest?

I still can’t forget how it happened. Every now and then it comes back to me.

That day we watched the sunset as we did ever since we were little, except he was different. He had an empty look in his face, no emotions… wasn’t happy, wasn’t sad. His eyes told me he wasn’t there. I asked him what was wrong and he simply smiled and kept looking at the sunset. He was scaring me so I spoke no more about it. As soon as the sunset finished I saw it… I saw it in him… his determination, his anger, his anxiety. I didn’t want to know! I didn’t need to know! He attacked me! He said I was the reason why his dreams couldn’t come true, I was to blame for his suffering and that only one dream could come true… that he could no longer be by my side. Why did he do that? He was the only one that understood me, he was the only one who I trusted... I didn’t mean to do it, I didn’t do it… he was the one… he is to blame. Was I the oldest? Or was he the oldest? Who am I? Where am I? He’s still missing… nobody could find him. No dream came true.


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Jeans Length

Jeans is the name. Sir James Jeans.

What determines the size of the structures that we see in the universe? Stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the cosmic filaments? A very prominent role is played by Jeans length (or Jeans mass, or Jeans criterion).

Suppose we have a cloud of some kind of self-gravitating matter. This cloud will tend to contract under its own gravity unless some other force - pressure - prevents it. Two numbers turn out to be central: the free fall time, or the time takes for the gravitational attraction to pull the cloud together and time it takes a sound wave to cross the cloud. If the free fall time is less, the cloud will collapse before pressure has a chance to present organized resistance. In practice, this means that clouds smaller than the Jeans size (free fall time greater than time for sound to cross the cloud) won't contract.

In the early universe, the speed of sound is nearly that of light, so that the Jeans size is comparable to the cosmic horizon size. After the universe cools enough for atoms to form by recombination of positive and negative charged particles, the Jeans size plummets abruptly, by many orders of magnitude. Consequently, the largest scale features fragment into much smaller contracting pieces of a trillion solar masses or less - galaxies. Larger structures become fragmented into clusters or superclusters of galaxies.


Friday, November 14, 2014

The meaning of life

E. O. Wilson has completely disappointed me in the end.

Entering college, freshmen were asked to read his book The Future of Life, which I thought would be a horrible, sentimental, general plea for saving the environment, a book which can do no one any good because despite how fascinating animals can be, depictions of our vastly differing biomes here on Earth inspire no one to rush out and give up electricity and modern convenience and renounce their cars. Instead, Wilson’s The Future of Life gave us the facts. He gave us facts that as an 18 year old I didn’t understand we could quantify, facts that we had only hoped at and facts that were dismally depressing about the state of our environment. It was inspiring, interesting, clear, well-written. I have recommended it to numerous friends over the years.

A Harvard entomologist and world-renowned ecologist, Wilson is a pretty smart guy. He knows a lot, and importantly he can synthesize and coalesce a lot of technical information into very clear writing. However having just finished reading his most recent book, The Meaning of Human Existence, I would have to say that Wilson’s ability to integrate information and ideas seems not to extend past any discipline that ends with ology.

Throughout the book, Wilson vaguely encourages the humanities, not for any great contribution they have made to human existence but because they represent this particular human condition of bungling through reality with our particular senses and emotions. He notes several times, in fact, that religion and philosophy (which he seems to conflate) sought to explain the universe at one point when there were no structures for scientific study, but now seem to consist of nothing but dogma.

Wilson believes science explains everything. That all we need to know about the universe, about our minds, can be and will be eventually be determined by science. He writes, “The self-contained worldview of the humanities describes the human condition - but not why it is the one thing and not another. The scientific worldview is vastly larger. It encompasses the meaning of human existence - the general principles of the human condition, where the species fits in the Universe, and why it exists in the first place.” He’s right - the humanities and science do have different goals and means of investigation and purviews. And I think he’s right that human existence has been molded by the physical world, by evolution, by the universe, but I’m not sure a study of the physical world, of the universe necessarily points back to human existence.

Here’s the deal, I think science is fascinating. And more than fascinating, I think it’s important work. Our scientific exploration of the natural world is the key to understanding where humans came from, how and why we act in particular ways, how our planet fits into the universe, how medicine can cure ills, and one day how to effectively use resources not only to prevent destroying the planet but perhaps also to equalize the human condition and reduce suffering. But even if neurobiology and cognitive science can one day show that our human quest for meaning in life is located in a certain connection of neurons, a trait related to a particular gene, what then does that say? Science cannot describe how we exist - it can just describe the material conditions of the universe.

I do not believe we should all be scientists. I don’t think we all want to be. Some of us want to explore in different ways. And though I believe scientific discovery is vital, we lived, unhappily or not, for millennia without the knowledge we have today. Modern medicine has been lifesaving, but a new, thinner computer we could live without if we needed to. Every human should be able to think like a scientist, should be able to think critically and understand modern methods and theories and knowledge. We should be able to reflect on science in the humanities, just as science historically has been influenced by philosophy and art. I do not think that perfect scientific knowledge is the only end goal of human existence nor do I believe that it will solve all our problems.

This book was an apologia for E. O. Wilson. As an early contributor to the evolutionary theory of inclusive fitness, decades later he now conclusively puts that theory to rest. And this book contains some remarkable connections described in well-written, easily digestible form concerning the human condition, human behavior, human evolution, and the social nature of several species on Earth. This book is a justification of a man's life's work. The one thing Wilson does not do is provide us something new here. He doesn't address our needs and projections and desires and lives as human beings. He doesn't address our drive for meaning and fulfillment. And while he does explicate how we fit into a larger picture of the Earth and the universe, he does not address the meaning of human existence.

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Enquest Files

The Great Enquest was a jury of twelve men which were drawn from the corresponding sheading each six months. Members of this jury would serve in both civil and criminal cases relating to their sheading. The Enquest files (which begin in 1688) are bound volumes of disparate documents which describe the business of the Enquest itself. In particular they typically records details of trials (called Inquisitions) including the names of those involved, summaries of each of the witness statements and a formal record of the verdict.

It is not clear to me whether such documents survive prior to 1688. (The Libri Placitorum or Libri Scaccarii typically appear only to report on the consequences of a guilty verdict.) The Libri Causarum and (to an extent) Libri Cancellarii contain the corresponding details for the Consistory and Chancery Courts respectively.

An index

There is a manuscript multi-volume chronological index to the Entrust files and various other record series (including petitions). This begins in 1687 and in held in accession MS10071.


Friday, April 17, 2015

Stages and Periods in Archaeology-Part II

Continuing from the last post regarding the stages and periods of archaeology development upon which the scientist lays out his finds and interpretations, and the effect that has on the rest of us who try to integrate science achievement with the truths of our divine heritage and knowledge.
    Archaeology, of course, is the study of the past largely through material remains, but also through history and written or textual remains such as diaries, legal documents, and maps. The Obviously, the Book of Mormon could certainly be considered one of the latter, which fits into historical archaeology, such as the Chilam Balam, Popoh Vuhl, and the Mayan pik hu’un (codices) found in Mesoamerica, which play an important role in archaeology of that area.
Normally historians examine written material such as these, however, when it comes to the Book of Mormon, other than for Latter-day Saints, historians disregard the record as having any value whatever in their fields of research. Yet, the more we understand about archaeology and its workings, the closer we come to recognizing how the Book of Mormon fits into past and current discoveries of the ancient Americas.
    As for the actual remains, they are used to determine three primary objectives of archaeology of the site: 1) determine the age or chronology, 2) culture and lifeways of the people (food, clothing, housing, material culture, technology and objects that were used during the period, and 3) explain the causes and consequences of changing human culture.
    There are three stages of interpretation for the archaeologist while examining the past: 1) reveal and describe the form of the physical evidence (collection of information from the site, followed by an assessment of the remains found), 2) analyze remains to determine their past purpose and function within the overall context of a site (determine the importance of the position of the artifacts within a site), 3) determine, interpret, and understand why the cultures changed through time.
The uncovered archaeological remains can be classified into three distinct categories: 1) Artifacts or movable objects fashioned by humans, such as ceramics or projectile points (arrowheads); 2) Features or non-portable objects, such as hearths or grave sites; and 3) Ecofacts or natural remains not directly impacted or altered by humans, such as pollen and animal bones.
    As stated in the last post, in Archaeology, stages and periods are different kinds of units used to organize archaeological evidence so that it can be interpreted in terms of cultural change.
    Stages are units of cultural similarity; Periods are units of time (contemporaneity; one thing being contemporary with another).
    However, within a single small area, cultural units, which are closely similar are usually also nearly contemporary, so that stages are equivalent to periods. Yet, when the problem is one of matching local sequences over a large area, stages established on the basis of uniform criteria can be expected to give a different matching from periods, because of the effects of diffusion; the latter being the case of refining of cultural chronologies that rely fundamentally on notions of diffusion of goods and ideas between groups of people, or the spread of a cultural pattern from one culture to another.
Diffusion, therefore, is based on the belief that independent invention was the property of only a select few in prehistory and that the transmission of ideas occurred through contact, and are defined as “the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system; emphasizing the importance of novel concepts or technology.” It is based almost entirely upon interaction, that is, contact among individuals and social groups and the mechanism by which cultural traits diffuse both through internal and external contacts, called interaction spheres.
    The process is known in archaeology by numerous “names” or “labels,” such as epidemic, or contagious, or spatial, or hierarchical diffusion, the latter as in an innovation spreading between large centers first and then out to smaller towns and villages. Problems arise in this determination when the agents of change do not spread innovation to centers first, or when they do not proceed through official (political) channels.
    The point is, the determination of such is very subjective on the part of the archaeologist who interprets his findings based on certain established criteria that has been accepted in the scientific arena as being the foundation for such connections.
    In the early days of archaeology, before the 20th century, transoceanic diffusion (how settlements and artifacts came to appear in the Americas) was the accepted base of all findings. However, since Cyrus Thomas’ work in 1894, such thinking was considered racist (American Indians were not capable of building the mounds, etc.) and it was no longer necessary or proper to invoke transoceanic diffusion to explain American Indian cultural patters, which no longer were attributed to transoceanic means.
Different schools of thought appeared: Sir Elliot Grafton Smith (left) attributed all development from a beginning in Egypt; while the Viennese school of anthropology believed that Asia was the source of all innovation; however, regardless of which culture was identified as mother of all others, anthropology of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was of the view that diffusion, migration, and invasion were the main processes that affected change in prehistory.
    While some thought diffusion was solely a migratory process; others felt that innovation was the result of gradual spread of ideas rather than exclusively migratory. There were those who felt the migration of humanity from the Eastern to the Western Hemispheres occurred over a Beringia Land Bridge between Siberia and Alaska, others felt South America was populated by eastward movement across the Pacific from India and Indonesia. Others leaned toward internal migrations within a country, like the Germans, while others, especially the English, accepted development from successive waves of external migrations. The point is, no one had a clear view and archaeology/anthropology did not have a singular view of their beliefs.
    In regard to “Stages,” which can be used to relate local archaeological sequences to one another, and are sometimes called “simple stages” (defined by the presence or absence of a single feature), and “complex stages” respectively.
Therefore, the difference in judgment of a Pre-Ceramic or Ceramic culture is determined from finding or not finding pottery shards at a site. Thus, this single feature determines the classification, and determines the age in which a settlement is placed (3500 to 1800 B.C., or 1800 B.C. to 1500 A.D.), which is a considerable difference for a single feature to determine. Of course, it is not that simple, but the idea of how judgment plays such a significant role in dating should be clearly understood. Nor can it be said that radiocarbon dating will overshadow such a judgment determination, since every lab requires an identification of the dating period the archaeologist is looking for in the dating process. Thus, when stating pre-ceramic, the lab knows that dates should fall between 3500 and 1800 B.C.—perhaps that is why about 50% of all radiocarbon dates are discarded by the labs in reaching the final dates they provide from testing. We are not suggesting falsifying here, only that tests are conducted in manners that take into consideration those the field investigation arbitrarily concludes.
    All of this is meant to show that while we accept archaeology and anthropology (geology, evolutionary science, etc.) today without question, buying into their dates, epochs, eras, stages and periods as having meaningful and inarguable accuracy, they are little more than hypothesis of the past, developed over time, without particular insightful knowledge, and certainly with a singular view.
    This singular view has created a false knowledge today of our past, our heritage, and the time frames in which prehistory occurred. It is important that we, in searching for the truth in the scriptural record, clearly understand the fallacious beliefs that have spawned an all-invasive false knowledge about that past and the events we sometimes attempt to fit into it. When the Olmec lived is basically unknown by calendar date, as when the Valdivians, Caral, Wari and others lived in Andean Peru. What we can conclude is that they lived within a certain frame of reference, and that the Book of Mormon tells us exactly when that period existed. Archaeology merely helps us place certain groups within that greater understanding and within a relationship to one another. The scriptural record tells us who they were.

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Read, Run, Ramble

How To Be A Good Wife by Emma Chapman

How To Be a Good Wife - Emma  Chapman

Thank you to St. Martin's Press via Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this novel!

I'm going to lead with - WHAT A SLEEPER READ!!

Seriously, I had a hard time in the beginning. I knew something was up, but things seemed to be moving terribly slow so at about 50%, I was getting nervous. Shortly after, I was no longer nervous, but instead was pumped up, intrigued, angry, flabbergasted...you name it - I was feeling it! My heart RACED the entire rest of the novel which I devoured in under two hours - totally worth the wait.

Chapman can definitely write some psychological drama! Readers will be curious from page one. What is going on with Marta? Something has to be going on with Marta. She's a nice enough woman. Good wife (hell, she has the book). Good mom. But something is off. She's seeing things, seeing people. Why? What's wrong with her? What caused it? And, oh by the way, what the heck happened to her parents that caused her so much trauma that her husband, Hector, had to save her?

Throughout the book there are little quotes from the book (How To Be A Good Wife) Marta received on her wedding day from her mother-in-law. Sadly, Marta is judging herself and her wifely ability on these archaic standards and she frequently thinks of herself as a failure - to her son and her husband. Hearts will ache for Marta as she fumbles through this spot in her marriage. Standing by while her son moves on and out with his life. All the while trying to piece together small memories that Hector has always provided her.

Chapman is planting seeds the whole way. They are small seeds and readers will feel like connections are being made, but they don't actually get made until it is time - I love that. This novel jumps up, bites ya, and then drags you down a windy, heart-racing path! Then the end, oh HOLY HOTCAKES, the end!! I just have feelings and suspicions and...OHMYGOSH the end.

Find this and much more at Read, Run, Ramble


"SCRUZIA" ... a very infrequently updated weblog ...

A small metadata adventure

My nephew Ben, his friend Chance, and I went on a backpacking trip in mid-July (7/12 through 16th), from Twin Lakes (northeast of Bridgeport) into Yosemite. Here are the pictures from the Twin Lakes trip:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dlandauer/IgLTwinLakes The actual trip report will be in another posting. [Linked here]

I had a small problem to solve once we got back: Ben had one of my cameras, and I had another. Each one can set the "creation time" in the JPEG file's metadata, but the two cameras' internal clocks were not synchronized, and I wanted to send them up to Picasa in chronological order. The rest of this weblog entry isn't really about the backpacking trip (read the pictures' captions for that, or the forthcoming trip report), but more about how I solved the time-synchronization problem.

[This turns out to be a problem others have run into, and there's a Linux program called "jhead" that can do this kind of date manipulation. But writing the small Python program was quick and somewhat entertaining...]

I did some bulk file renaming to make the filenames lowercase, remove some leading zeros, and make the camera names -- Lumix and Sony -- clearer. I run Mac OS X, which has a command called "sips" (Simple Image Processing System"?); I used it to extract the recorded times for each photo, and listed each time and its corresponding filename into a text file. After another couple of global substitutes, I had a Python array containing the filenames and their nominal times, like this:

pix_and_times = [
  [ 'lmx50553.jpg', '2009:07:10 07:06:45' ],
  [ 'lmx50555.jpg', '2009:07:11 12:15:30' ],
  [ 'lmx50795.jpg', '2009:07:16 16:08:07' ],
  [ 'lmx50796.jpg', '2009:07:16 16:50:09' ],

  [ 'sony6308.jpg', '2009:07:12 05:36:12' ],
  [ 'sony6309.jpg', '2009:07:12 05:36:22' ],
  [ 'sony6524.jpg', '2009:07:16 06:06:31' ],
  [ 'sony6528.jpg', '2009:07:16 06:07:48' ],
  [ 'sony6529.jpg', '2009:07:16 06:08:25' ]
The next question was, when and where did we take any pictures that I knew were from around the same time? What I came up with was that on our last hiking day, in Kerrick Meadow, we saw a pair of Mountain Chickadee chicks, running around on a muddy streambed, and I knew we had both taken pictures of them. So I found a couple of the corresponding photos
Lumix chick Sony chick

and figured out that they were 12 hours and 23 minutes apart.

Armed with that knowledge, I wrote 50-some lines of python that renamed the files so that their filenames, sorted alphabetically, would also be in correct chronological order. The guts of the code:

  # Make an object for each photo
  pixobs = map(Pixob, pix_and_times)

  # Parse the dates of the photos, and adjust my notion of the creation
  # time for only the sony ones.
  for ob in pixobs:

  # Sort by adjusted date
  pixobs.sort( date_cmp )

  # Print out a "mv" command to rename each file with a name
  # that will sort the way we want.
  for nr, ob in enumerate(pixobs):
    print 'mv ' + ob.fn + ' ' + aatrans(nr) + ob.fn
The aatrans function translates an integer between 1 and 676 into 'aa', 'ab', 'ac', ... 'zx', 'zy', 'zz'

  def aatrans ( nr ) :
    qq = nr // 26
    rr = nr % 26
    return atoz[qq] + atoz[rr]
Finally, I ran the shell on that output, resulting in files with names like these interleaved ones, from somewhere in the middle:

(At some point, I'll figure out how to put the python source code somewhere on the web. Note that it doesn't include the bulk renames and sips data extraction.)

My favorite part of this is how well the time-alignment was demonstrated. After aligning the photos via the chicks, I went back and looked at this sequence of photos taken as we were climbing the snow and rocks towards Burro Pass. I took a photo of Ben, way up on the rocks above us, then I zoomed way in and took another one, nine seconds later. In between those two shots, the sorting program placed the picture that Ben took, of me taking one of those pictures! Here's that sequence:


The Law (La Loi)

THE LAW (previously released in the US as Where the Hot Wind Blows) stars Gina Lollobrigida, Marcello Mastroianni, Yves Montand, Melina Mercouri, and Pierre Brasseur. Lollobrigida plays Marietta, the gorgeous housekeeper to Don Cesare (Brasseur), the patriarch of a small Mediterranean coastal town. Lusted after by many men, including Francesco (Montand), the son of a local crime boss, Marietta has her own desires, consisting of the poor Enrico (Mastroianni). Determined to secure the dowry that will enable her to marry Enrico, Marietta connives the men of the town by turning the tables on them using their own vicious drinking game which they call "The Law." Haden Guest, Director of the Harvard Film Archive called the film "a totally underrated and underappreciated gem."


Stuttering Group Therapy

One of the great challenges of stuttering is the feeling of "Nobody else I know has this problem." Well, as they say at the NSA, you are not alone. Working through your communication struggles alongside others is an incredibly powerful change-maker. We believe very strongly in the power and effectiveness of group therapy, and are excited to help you connect with others as you move along your speech journey.

The Basics

Groups are made up of 3-6 participants with 1-2 clinical staff. Groups and staff are consistent, so you will see the same people from week to week. Meetings are 60-90 minutes long (depending on the group). While therapy takes place in a group setting, each participant will develop individual goals and assignments that are unique to his or her needs.

Because the supportive group dynamic and accountability are foundational to successful group therapy, regular attendance is required. Group therapy means we're depending on everyone to show up! While we build in some flexibility for illness, travel, and emergencies, it is expected that group members will attend at least 75% of all meetings. Group spaces are limited, and so attendance is used to ensure your "spot" in the group remains active.

What happens in group therapy?

Our groups heavily follow the Avoidance Reduction model developed by Vivian Sisskin, blended with principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a framework commonly used at speech IRL. These approaches incorporate work in all three areas of stuttering: physical, mental, and emotional. Individuals develop their own treatment plans, with guidance from clinicians, as to how they would like to approach their stuttering. Examples of goal areas from each domain include:

Physical work: reducing secondary behaviors, reducing struggle and tension, eliminating use of filler words, improving eye contact, making speech "easier", making speech more "forward-moving"

Mental work: learning about speech and stuttering, understanding mental states related to stuttering, learning psychology techniques, changing thoughts and attitudes towards speaking and stuttering

Emotional work: reducing negative reactions to stuttering (fear, anxiety, panic, etc.), increasing speaking confidence, dealing with difficult speaking situations

What if I'm already in individual therapy?

You can do both, either, or "take turns"! Individual therapy is a very different process and experience than group therapy, and each model has its strengths and weaknesses. If you're currently in individual therapy, we do not require that you stop individual therapy to sign up for group. Similarly, if you are only interested in group therapy, you do not need to sign up for individual therapy.

While group therapy requires consistent attendance, individual therapy can be flexible. Many clients choose to flexibly incorporate individual sessions to complement the work they do in group, but this is not required.

We believe very strongly in the effectiveness of group therapy at speech IRL. If you're currently working with one of our staff individually, and would like to take a break to explore group therapy, your clinician will not be offended! We encourage discussing this with your SLP and figuring out what makes sense for you.

Will insurance pay for group therapy?

One goal of group therapy is that it is low-cost enough to be affordable regardless of insurance. The per-session rate equates to $40 per hour of therapy, which is the same (or less than) most co-pays for speech therapy.

If you would like to submit receipts to your insurance, we will provide you with the documentation to do so upon request. You are responsible for submitting claims to insurance on your own.

What kind of results can I expect from group therapy?

Studies of similar stuttering therapy models have shown that  participants make gains both in physical speech change and social-emotional well-being, with good maintenance of gains in three-month follow-up measures.

There is no "cure" for stuttering, and this type of therapy is no exception. The goal is to equip you with tangible skills and knowledge to effectively manage your physical stuttering, mental-emotional reactions, and the way it affects your life. And make a few friends along the way!


Locking doors the best way to prevent theft: RCMP

Taking simple, every day precautions can protect Stettler and area residents from being the victims of theft, as most thefts are...

Taking simple, every day precautions can protect Stettler and area residents from being the victims of theft, as most thefts are crimes of opportunity according to RCMP Sgt. Phil Penny.

Penny, the Stettler RCMP detachment commander, said that it’s more likely to see thieves rummage through unlocked vehicles than it is to see a thief cause damage to gain entry to a vehicle.

“The glass break(ing) causes more noise, may cause injury and is oftentimes more associated with the person attempting to get something of value that is visible.”

Keeping valuables out of sight can help prevent theft, but if valuables are stored in a trunk, in glove compartments or under seats and the doors are left unlocked, the unlocked doors “defeat the purpose” of the precautions.

“It’s a good practice to take any valuables out of the vehicle entirely, if it’s practical to do so,” Penny noted.

A lot of people in central Alberta, especially the less urban areas, don’t feel it’s necessary to lock up because they’re not in a city, but that is a mistake, Penny said.

“The most significant example I witnessed in downtown Stettler this summer was seeing a newer pickup truck parked just off Main Street, front windows rolled down and the keys in the ignition,” he said.

Both urban and rural residences have pros and cons, Penny said. In an urban centre, it’s easier for a thief to blend in, but the chances of being seen or recognized is higher. In a rural area, there is a less likely chance of being seen, but area residents are more familiar with situations that are out of place.

“We understand the mindset associated with living in a small town, but strive to educate property owners to properly secure their property in an effort to keep from being victimized,” Penny said.

In Dec. 2015, two people were linked to 10 break and enters or thefts where they accessed unlocked vehicles and garages in one night.

Property crimes are some of the hardest crimes to solve, according to RCMP. In many cases, police know who is behind the crime but do not have enough evidence to prove it in the court of law.

Even when police do have enough evidence, the process can be lengthy.

With various circumstances bogging down court proceedings, it can take more than a year after arrest before the matter winds its way through court.


Text utils – Clipboard managers

Clipboard managers are the category of application which is built on top of clipboards(for someone who is new to computers, Clipboard is a black-box in your modern computers which saves the things when you a say cut/copy and it will give a copy of what it has copied when you say paste.)

When you are working on text extensively, whether it be coding,blogging or whatever, think how cool it will be when an application saves everything that you have copied and you can ask it for the history of things that you have copied. Such application are called Clipboard Managers.

This helps you a lot especially in the times when you have to copy multiple portions of a document or even multiple files from different locations. You can copy everything one by one. And paste it one by one by accessing the history.

This post is just a suggestion on one of my favorite clipboard manager, Clipx. In a typical clipboard when you copy a content it will replace the existing content.
With Clipx you can have the history of clipboard saved and access it when you require, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+V.

Also recommend a plugin called Clipx Stickies.