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America is pleased to announce our formal partnership with Mirada Global, a multilingual Web site that brings together articles from Jesuit publications in North and South America. With the publication of each issue of America we will link to one article from Mirada Global.
Here is our latest offering, an examination of the "uncomfortable message" of Pope Benedict XVI:
It looks like one of the destinies that Benedict XVI, the theologian turned Pope at the age of 78, is similar to that of his predecessor Paul VI, who appointed him Archbishop of Munich, creating him cardinal in 1977- is that of being criticized by right and left alike even by those who profess themselves "Ratzingerians" and should therefore help him spread his message.
When he was elected Pope seven years ago, the media cliché that hung over Joseph Ratzinger —who had been Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for over twenty years— was that he was a conservative "panzerkardinal", a rigid custodian of Orthodoxy who had allegedly "hindered" John Paul II's push for innovation, hung over him, while in fact, remained and extremely loyal and compliant collaborator.
The imminent reconciliation with Lefebvrian traditionalists, preceded by the decision to liberalize the old Mass, cost Benedict XVI widespread dissent, even among some bishops: the Pope had intended favoring the possibility that the old pre-conciliar rite and the new post-conciliar rite could mutually enrich one another, by helping recuperate the sense of sacredness and the encounter with divine mystery in the Old Mass —at times too readjusted by slovenliness and by liturgic abuses— and the wealth of the Holy Scriptures introduced into the New Mass, into the post-conciliar mass. The attempt has only been partially successful because of certain reactions that didn't always understand the Pope's will but also because of the development of certain forms of aestheticism that bear no relevance to the essential elements of the liturgy.
But Benedict XVI has also been accused by those who expected him to be tough and implement "doctrinal rectifications". He was also expected to reaffirm Europe's Christian identity against Islam. While the left believe him to be stuck in the past and unable to read the signs of the times, the right considers him as too weak.
Also available in Spanish.
Other recent articles from Mirada Global:
The political relationship between Argentina and Chile:
Colombia, The Future of FARC
Pierre Emonet, S.J., on "The Jesuit Style":
Nicaragua, A Letter to the Left
The case against the privatization of water supplies:
Peru, Christianity and Andean culture
Cuba, Between Deterioration and Hope
Brazil, Is it time for another ecumenical council?
Guatemala, An apology for torture:
Argentina, A tribute to the late writer Ernesto Sabato
President Obama in Latin America
Peru, Runoff for president
France, Banning the burka
Panama, Open mining 'hell'
Chile, Overcoming the Crises in the Church
An appreciation of two Latin American poets
A look at rising food prices
Haiti, We should stop folling around in Haiti
Brazil, The floods of Rio de Janeiro
Brazil, For Brazil to Succeed
Argentina: A Country with Millions of "Superfluous" People?
Chile:Latin America According to WikiLeaks
Nicaragua:A Biological Cup D'etat
Like America, Mirada Global is for the general reader, not academics, and covers a variety of subjects, from religion and politics to culture and ecology. Criterio (Argentina), Mensaje (Chile) and Accion (Paraguay) are among the magazines that contribute content. (See the full list here.) Mirada Global is edited by Antonio Delfau, S.J., and features content in English, Spanish and Portugese. You can subscribe to their weekly email newsletter here.
America magazine must surely have better translators. This article was hard to read. Unless I misread the article, the inevitable assumption coming from Catholic moralists is that we can't change the rules. We have done it in with other moral issues, e.g., with usury and slavery. If science continues to conclude that homosexuality is determined rather than chosen, ought we not to pursue a relational/personal morality to shift the discussion away from the physical acts of sex? This would end the hellish world created by our Aristotelian and so-called biblical morality regarding same sex issues.
Earthquakes and Tsunamis are nature's weapons of mass destruction. Unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, where there were no such weapons, and where foreign presence is questionable, the world needs to respond to mass destruction (natural disasters) whenever and where ever it occurs.
Perhaps Blue Berets with guns (if they carry guns) are no longer needed in Haiti. The kind of help that is needed changes over time, after a disaster. Maybe, now, the world should ask Haiti what it needs... food, building materials, heavy equipment, advisors, etc..... give it to them and simply get out of their way.
If there is a need for the UN presence, however, to maintain security, then they should stay, until Haiti is stable. A significant part of the UN mission should be training of Haiti's own governmental agencies, to help Haiti get to the point where the Blue Berets are no longer needed.
Richard F. Delmonte
I´m in full agreement with Antonio Celso de Queirós article. I read both in english and Spanish and there is no substantial difference or ambiguity.
I did abandon the Catholic Church and try to go back to Jesus facts and deeds and the beginigs of our faith. They are the foundation of my faith.
I do not believe any longer in Roman dicsasteria, starting with the Pope´s infallibility.
Decadence is the consequence of retrogression instead of aggiornamiento della Chiesa.
Unfortunately John Paul II and Ratzinger were guiding the Church with the rear view, mirror, dressing it with mediatic events, children´s petting, etc. as modern politicians do.
That´s why so many, as myself, have quited practices and beliefs accumulated trough centuries of powe exertion and protection, of missionary work suported and imposed by the sword, as it was in Latin America, of full support of dictators in Spain and South America (Franco, Peron, Evita...)
Either we come back to basics and throw away all the vacuous theologizing, both dogmatic and moral, and face the incarnationn of Christ in todays and tomorrow´s´world, or the remains of the Church will be sterile though esthetic buildings, useless libraries and outdated old priests and bishops, with no followers.
Regarding the Tobin tax. Simply transferring financial assets to the Third World will not solve any problem at all. In fact it will foment corruption and violence. How do we know this? Come on . . . we have been conducting these social experiments with taxpayer funds for decades and the results are in. The primary beneficiaries of foreign aid are Hart Shafner and Marx (suits), Steelcase (office furniture), and Smith & Wesson. Also UN and World Bank employees. The losers are the poor everywhere.
Humans have lived in poverty for centuries. Only democratic capitalism has provided an escape from a dismal, primitive world into one with refrigerators, central heat and a/c, clean water, universal education, and a spectacularly diverse food supply. Problem: to take advantage of democratic capitalism, the individual must embrace personal responsibility, accept a diligent work schedule, and eschew personal vices like Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth. And drugs.
Another problem: a large proportion of the practitioners of democratic capitalism are not aware of the economic system that has made them rich. In their ignorance, and in search of intellectual superiority over their fellow citizens, they have advocated socialism. Socialism has been tried often. As it turns out, one of its principal characteristics in the real world is a requirement for a violent secret police force. By the time this fact is discovered by its erstwhile advocates it is generally too late to avoid pogroms. So sad.
It would appear that Christian charity is most appropriate for individual acts of kindness, and that seems to be what Jesus intended. Charity compelled by government just doesn't work.
Although I found the contents of the reflection very well stated, I came away feeling that it was only one-sided. Society is now embracing physician assisted suicide to a greater degree than ever before. As people of faith, we must somehow get the message out that suicide is not a "quality" option. We cannot continue proferring the "sacred card" without challenging the depression and pain part of the dying person's situation. We must demonstrate that we all need positive emotional and physical support as well as the belief of embracing the Cross of Christ in following Jesus from our earthly life to everlasting union with God.
'Liberalize' = 'legalize'
'Recuperate' = 'recover'
'liturgic' = 'liturgical'
if I'm not mistaken.


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By Ford Saeks
You might have heard the saying, "Content is King." This idea is now updated, because fresh content is the new king. By posting this fresh content, bloggers are able to add timely and valuable content for their readers, while at the same time increasing traffic to their sites, building relationships, and establishing themselves as the expert in their fields.
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The post How to Leverage Your Blog to Attract New Prospects and Grow Your Business appeared first on Home Business Magazine.
Click Here For Original Source Of The Article

subset: commoncrawl


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Boiler control from MAX! Cube to Drayton Boiler via Raspberry Pi/Vera/Mysensors.
My system is not that close, but I am in the process of getting the eq-3 ordered from conrad. I am planning on the following:
A cube gateway
Start with 7 thermostat heads (non +)
Not sure if I need the wall mount thermostats as they don't look wife friendly and was thinking about putting a mysensors temp sensor in each room.
I held off getting a device to switch my heating and water as I wasn't sure the best route, so far I have considered:
Secure dual channel zwave.
fibaro dual relay
custom home made.
I liked the idea of the horst dual channel as it automatically shuts down if the signal controlling it doesn't 'phone home' every, IIRC 20min.
Still not sure though as I need something bullet proof to make it wife friendly.
Thanks for the posting of you work I am just trying to go through it now.
Lawrence Helm last edited by
Just a question, are the eq-3 radiator valves quiet? As I have a wood burner and my thought was ramp up the heat when the fire is lit, but then once the rooms are at temperature, close the valves to minimum to keep the fire going for as long as possible, this is usually when we are sleeping
Lawrence, 6 out of 7 are quiet. One sounds like a World War 2 tank, But I have it in the bathroom, I am not sure if it was the fitting that caused the noise as it was a tight fit between the valve and the wall to get it on i.e. some amount of forced contact was made during installation. It seems to work OK.
@twisted I would prefer wall thermostats everywhere if possible as you get a live temperature to 0.1 deg. The radiator valves report temps when they open and close, at that point they know what temperature they are at. Plus you can get the thermostat where you are looking for the heat to be. I think they would be wife usable as my 75 year old Dad can work them. I have them set to show the actual temp, a push of either + or - will show the set temp and further pushes change it. The Boost gives you 5 mins of 80% valve. The sun and moon jump to pre-set comfort and eco temps and the menu/mode goes between auto/manual/holiday set points.
Pretty much if you keep it on auto and use + and - you cant go wrong. You can change the current auto set-point but it will change to the next timed temperature change when it comes around.
Just for info on how it's working, this is a day in the life of the downstairs Dining room / Extension which are almost one big room also connected to the living room by a large opening. A single wall thermostat controls a radiator in each of the two rooms. As you can see once the room is up to temp the boiler is off about 60 or 65% of the time. The heating switches to the Living room about 10pm that is why the boiler is on with no valve use shown. I set the boiler on value to 12 and the valve % is /10 to keep the temps clearly visible.
lhw455 last edited by
Registered just to post that this is fantastic, I'm only doing research at the moment, but this is exactly what I want to do, so thanks for sharing.
A question for the people who've purchased the radiator valves, which ones did you get? I see on the Conrad electronics page there are 3 (http://www.conrad-electronic.co.uk/ce/en/overview/0812043/MAX-Wireless-Heating-Control)
As far as I can see, the 2 non-plus versions offer the same functionality, but are physically different, while the plus version offers something more? What's the differnce between all of these?
Anduril last edited by
@lhw455 As far as I know the new version of this radiator valve has a new design (that one that is available a '+' version). The old ones have the longer, more diagonal design.
The difference between plus and nonplus depends on how you want to use. The normal can only be programmed by wall mount thermostat or cube. You can only set actual setpoint the the valve, but no schedule.
The plus version can be programmed at the valve (if used alone), but more comfortable with wall mount thermostat or cube. I also read somewhere that this can be secured with keycode, so children/... can not change settings, but don't know that for sure.
MikeF last edited by
@stephenmhall Thanks for this, I found it really interesting, and whilst I'm not (yet) planning to control my CH in a similar way, I took the liberty of adapting your graphing.py script to graph a number of temperatures from my Domoticz controller (similar to your examples). I'm not using a database, but I'm writing values to a .csv file every 10 minutes, creating a new file every day. My version of the script then creates an html file, which produces a webpage like that below.
I've done a few tweaks, by following the Google Charts documentation. I prefer Google Charts, as you get 'live' tooltips and can combine several data series (as with plotly), but unlike plotly you create a local webpage rather than uploading / streaming.
(Sorry if this is a bit off-topic.)
nice, I need to rework my time plot more like yours, mine is just plotting the times as text points so if there are gaps in the data it just ignores them, I need to convert to a proper time field I think.
Just to update, my system isn't working too bad, I did have a problem with the cube last weekend, all of a sudden it was just empty, no attached devices. I had to re pair everything. Also I occasionally get the set points jumping to the open widow temp even though I have no window sensors although that seems to have gone since the rebuild. What replaced it after the rebuild was a couple of the valves picking seemingly random set points at the time of a change, hitting AUTO again would apply the correct temp. I have removed the bedroom 1 valve and wall thermostat and factory reset them before re adding them to see if that helps.
What I haven't managed to get working yet is sending messages to the cube, I have a test script to set a valve/Thermostat to Manual - at a lower temp but I have been unable to get it working. probably my conversion from openhab's Java to Ptyhon that is the problem.
Finally sorted out the Max send command, it was the base64encode function of Python giving a different encoding . So now I can set mode and temperature via the web UI. I have not implemented the Auto/eco/comfort buttons at the top yet as I am not sure if it's a single command or you have to send for each rfAddress separately. Next update probably.
I seem to have fixed the random temperature changes by factory resetting and re-adding some of the valves and wall thermostats, no random changes seen lately.
Just an update, I hope my kit will be delivered by the end of the month now, so very much looking forward to trying this out! Thanks for all your hard work.
sebgudek last edited by
Hi, This is all very interesting. I bought the MAX! System 2 months ago and only one thing is missing is to control my boiler when there is no heating demand from my zones. What do I need to do to make it all work and is there any way I can access your system to control it ? What do I need to buy to make it all work like you have, please?
did any one of you manage to send S: command that works to the cube ?
I want to control changing the ECO/AUTO mode but i can't.
The eco auto message is the one I have yet to find as well. I wondered if pressing it while the MAX software is connected would save a copy of the message in the logs
I read few documentation and finnaly I manage to post something that is understood by the Cube. I got short python3 script
import socket import binascii def getBits(value): return "{0:b}".format(value) def toHex(value): return hex(int(value,2)) def get_S_String(rfAddress, roomId, temp=None, mode=None): if temp: msgH = toHex(getBits(int(int(temp) * 2)))[2:] else: msgH = mode cmdStr = "00 04 40 00 00 00 " + rfAddress.lower() + " " + roomId + " " + msgH base = binascii.b2a_base64(binascii.unhexlify(cmdStr.replace(" ",""))) return "s:" + base.decode() + "\r\n" def send_raw_data(host, port, data): s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) s.connect((host, port)) s.settimeout(2) return s.send(data.encode()) host = "10.0.0.110" port = 62910 address = "12E023" room = "02" address = "126010" room = "01" temp = "14" ## auto MODE x = get_S_String(address, room, mode="00") print(x) ## setup MANUAL temp #x = get_S_String(address, room, temp) #print(x) send_raw_data(host, port, x)
Stephen the work you have done is fantastic !
This is very useful for everybody using a MAX! Cube, regardless of the Vera. As you can read in the comments (and on other sites) the main missing feature with the MAX! Cube is a direct link with the boiler, in order to have the boiler running only when at least one valve requires it.
I strongly suggest you to work in this direction, and provide example on how to switch on/off the boiler from the Raspberry Pi directly (either wired or wireless link) when needed.
Also, you instructions in installation.txt worked fine for me but it took me a while to find them and "decode" them. First I would suggest to explicitly point to that file from README.md and second to explain what's the NeoPixel thing. I still don't know, I just assumed it could work without it but I wonder what it is.
For those of you still wonder whether the MAX! Cube is worth its money: yes yes yes! I've never found such a good solution for that price! It gave me all I need and, with Stephen's code, it's more than I can dream of.
@Lawrence-Helm they are not noisy to me but you can hear them if there's silence in the house. Noise it's very subjective of course. It sounds like a small motor turning for say 3 or 4 seconds. Once a week when they run the de-scale program, but you can set it at any point in the week. At that time they make the same noise, but for a longer time.
At the very minimum you need to buy a Raspberry Pi (around £ 30 ), a charger and an SD card and follow the instructions on www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ to install Raspbian on the Raspberry PI, then follow Stephen's instructions on the file installation.txt:
You need to know a little bit how to work on Linux do to so. If you have even a very limited linux experience, the instructions are enough, although they are very very condensed.
When the code is running you can control it simply with a browser within the same network, again this is explained in installation.txt . It is in fact nicer (and easier) to use this interface than the MAX! Cube application, although they are not exactly the same thing and you still need the official application (I believe) to set the weekly program and other things.
Thanks for all that @p_battino , Any recent updates have been in the Neopixel branch rather than the master, I have added direct relay support in that branch for those with no Vera. The main changes have been to change the local display from individual led's to a neopixel ring controlled by a WeMos D1 mini ESP2866 board. I only use the serial and I2C connections on the GPIO to talk to the ESP and an I2C real time clock board (which is not necessary if the RPi can see the interwebs ) All the buttons and outputs are done by the ESP. The neopixel Libraries are much better for the Arduino based boards.
I will post some pictures when I remember how to do that
ah got it
The connector by the WeMos is for the Relay.
@stephenmhall what I still don't get is the purpose of the Neopixel ! what's for? what are you displaying with that led wheel?
North is Boiler function On/Off, East is Max Cube state, West is Vera state, South is heating normal/On/Off. The others are a Red-Heating on, Blue Heating off heartbeat.
An update to the Mk1 version. as in this link
So, I finally got most of my bits and I have this up and running. This is quite simply awesome, but tbh I am now looking to see if there is some way to get this into node-red. I could be wrong but I am starting to see my home automation fracture into multiple different systems and my original plan was to try and keep everything to one interface where possible. Therefore I am starting to see node-red as maybe being my glue between each of them, the benefit of this is I might be able to drag in emoncms and better data analysis.
@twisted Glad to be of service I was unaware of node-red before your post, It may have brushed past my awareness but not stuck. I don't see why you could not use it if you can create decoders for the MAX messages as the Cube is happy to spit out data all day. How are you physically switching your boiler?
At the moment nodered is still at my limit of knowledge, but I am getting there. In the end I went with a dual channel SSR302 from secure. To be honest if I needed to do it again, I would probably just use a twin relay z-wave module.
I've got a system running that does exactly what you've got here, but I've not had time to finish it up, make it pretty and write the web interface. THANK YOU!
Thanks for that Stuart, always good to see it is getting used. Here is my latest live unit in its natural environment.
and a link to a video of it running on my gdrive
The video does not pick it up that good, it is less glowie than the film.
Cool. Does it say: "I'm sorry Dave..." ??
its programmed never to apologise, but I make sure it has no connection to the doors.
@Stuart-Middleton Just to let you know I have updated the master branch on Github I found an error in the MAX code I borrowed that messed up the reported temps if the actual temperature went over 25.5 as you can understand in Scotland we don't see that very often. Anyway it's fixed in the Master. Also cleaned up some errors that popped up if not using the neopixel display.
Ah, excellent thanks. I've noticed some of the temps have been reporting zero on the hot days. I'll grab it and give it a go.
I'm seeing 0.0 readings from radiators for some reason. They were all valid last night but just seem to drop out randomly. Do you know if this is a bug or just the MAX system being a bit crappy? I've not had time to look at the code yet, just thought someone may know.
And while I'm here, I can't get to the graphs on any rooms with a ' in them (i.e. Luke's Room) due to a database error (I'm guessing the DB lookup isn't escaped. I'll try and take a look at this at some point over the weekend.
![alt text]( image url)
This is problem of Max System - very often the temp is sended as 0.0 in comunication with the box
BTW, I fixed the ' issue by changing graphing.py to use urllib.unquote() on the room name then replaced a single ' with a double ''. I then had to replace the single ' again for the html print or the page just came out empty.
If they are radiators without wall thermostats 0.0's are usual. It only seems to know when it is at temperature as it crosses the preset threshold. Then it will send out a correct temp.
I have tried to save a copy of the last correct temperature to use until a new one comes in but not managed to get it working yet. I was doing a backward search through the database to find a good temperature but it was taking upwards of 3 seconds a room as my DB is about 56MB now. I tried creating a global dictionary to save them but ended up getting lost in the code
I might create a new text file like the variables to save them in as it does annoy me also. If you have wall thermostats its not a problem.
@Stuart-Middleton said:
BTW, I fixed the ' issue by changing graphing.py to use urllib.unquote() on the room name then replaced a single ' with a double ''. I then had to replace the single ' again for the html print or the page just came out empty.
Good find Stuart I will get that into the files on Github.
If you are interested I have a new branch that sends temperatures to Vera if you have one, to populate "Virtual" Thermometers, i.e ones with no hardware. It's pretty easy to add them from the developer page. You can turn the feature on and off in the variables so it will become the main branch at some point.
@Stuart-Middleton said:
BTW, I fixed the ' issue by changing graphing.py to use urllib.unquote() on the room name then replaced a single ' with a double ''. I then had to replace the single ' again for the html print or the page just came out empty.
Stuart, I have made changes could you backup your graphing.py and try my one. This should be a link.
This shows you never know what you don't know about Python I was manually removing the html %20 spaces and never thought of other non text characters. And didn't know about the urllib functions. Old dog learning new tricks.
I have added a new table to the DB to store good heating values. I only have one room without a wall thermostat so it is a bit hard for me to test for a 0.0 temp, it seems to work fine if there is a good temp from the room. would you be able to give it a go for me? the main changes are in the database.py and webui.py scripts. in the vera_virtual_thermostats branch.
make sure you back up your current files before you try just in case I breaks it :). your DB too just in case. I tend to make a copy of the whole heating folder onto my PC before using changes on my live system just in case I muck it up.
Corrected an error in the webui.py code for the 0.0 temps was causing a crash.
I'm going to try and find time to test this later. Just super busy at the moment. Stupid day job!
hehe know what you mean, 2 weeks off for me atm, good job as I just noticed the heating has been off for a while, oops.
Another tiny update to fix a problem if any of the temperatures went over 25.5 and buy tiny I mean one extra character of code in a binary format string. yesh.
Hey, just got around to trying your fix and there's a little issue. The converted name works for the web page but not for the DB query. I've changed the following line in graphing from
tempData = DB.getTemps(cleanName, currentTime)
tempData = DB.getTemps(cleanName.replace(''', "''"), currentTime)
to get it to work. Hope that helps
Now it's all happy I should really get around to connecting it to my boiler instead of just looking at the pretty graphs!
grrr, can you send me a copy of your database? I am wondering if it set the room name before the other changes if there is something extra in there.
And just to check, you are replacing one ' (quote) with two of them?
Ah, yes. My room names are already set up. Yes, replacing a single quote with two single quotes. I'll PM you my DB. It may have worked if I'd started from scratch.
OK, I have no idea how to PM you
This is my rooms table from the database
1 Living Room 12DA70
3 Hall 137F27
2 Kitchen 12DBCB
5 Master Bedroom 1245D7
4 Landing 12E19F
7 Lara's Room 12DA58
6 Luke's Room 12DA35
LOL me either maybe you cant. You could save it to google drive or dropbox and post a link i think.
kk cheers, I wonder why it is needing 2 quotes? I will have a better look.
Here is how to open a private chat. Click the persons name at the top of a post. Then click the blue three-dot menu.
Ah, sql syntax (according to a website I found) uses double single-quote to escape a single quote when used in a table.
Ok after faffing about for ages I ended up just moving your replace quote code into the database file, keeps it out of the way and seems to work ok if I simulate a room with a quote in it and without.
It is happy saving names with a quote in to the DB it is just searching after that needs it doubled. Something else learned.
Cool, thanks. I'll grab it so the version I'm running is in sync.
For @simrob problem.
I think the problem is in the database, and my code of course, With the way I developed it over time I think I added features later that cause a problem with a fresh install because It asks for the room names before it creates them. Where my database already had room names populated before I got to that point.
Could you install "DB Browser for SQLite" and have a look at the heating.db file that was created. Under brows data there should be a rooms table like mine.
"4" "Living Room" "1051D6"
"5" "Dining-Extension" "106FD5"
"2" "Bathroom" "1051DA"
"3" "Bedroom 1" "116B63"
"1" "Bedroom 2" "1163A5"
If it is empty possibly just adding one record with the correct name and a random GroupID might be enough to get it past the point where it fails so it can fully populate the table. Also I think you must be using an older version as your line numbers don't quite match what I have. Try downloading the vera Virtual Thermostats branch and see if that helps, not saying it will but that will become the main branch when I sync it up.
I will look at getting in installed again on a blank Pi so I can test and fix this properly. But hopefully putting a line of data in the DB rooms table will get you past the problem.
I have now changed the folder layout on github to make installing easier, also updated some of the files to hopefully stop the error on first run.
I tried on a blank Raspberry and it all seemed to work ok.
Give the README instructions a once over and see how it goes.
After many delays and other items got in the way I finally have almost sully working system. I do have one issue I am struggling with and that is that I can't seem to turn the boiler off once the temperatures have been met.
Also is there any way some of the configuration page could be clarified as there are a number of options I am a little unsure about.
@twisted I have added a text file to explain the variables. As for not turning the heating off, not sure, remember that normally the Max system will gradually close the valves on the radiators as the temp goes over the requested temp, you will normally get a half degree or so higher. if it never shuts off I don't understand that it just sends the same vera command with a 1 or a 0.
Just saw the explanation txt appear, thank you so much, it means I can double check what I set was correct.
Funnily I noticed as it just appeared when I was searching the code to work out a couple of bits.
René Verbeek last edited by
Is the Max Boiler Controller from eq-3 not an option to do this more easily? It was introduced by eq-3 for the British market, but is now not available anymore. Google for BC-TS-Sw2-WM to get the manual from eq-3. Maybe we should push eq-3 to reintroduce this product again.
Never seen that before, reading the instructions it looks like it switches the boiler on using a daily timer function like the room heating and and a thermostat temperature, possibly if it switches on if any of the rooms are cold that would work. Not saying mine is better but it monitors the valves and gives you heat on demand when any of the radiators call for it.
I have to say using Vera and the boiler switch attached to that is a great solution, if I could just get past one problem. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this, but I find the time taken for the valves to respond to the temperature changes is a little slow. Lets say I set the required temperature to 19c most rooms jump to 20/21 before the valves close enough to actually prevent further heating to the room.
My thoughts at the moment are to see if I can somehow directly communicate with the valves or maybe set offsets for each temp on the valves so they read a couple of degrees high.
Anyone have any thoughts?
What I do is only supply heat if valve is open more than 80% or more than 2 valves open 60% so heat shuts off at about 21.9 if you are looking for 22, then the residual heat in the radiator takes temp to about 22.2 before the room starts to slowly cool over the next hour or so down to 21.7 when the valve opens up enough to bring the heat back on.
twisted, unfortunately you can't directly communicate with the valves. AFAIK the way the work is that they initiate communication with the cube every 2(?) minutes and not the other way around. The cube just listens for the data and then sends data back to the valve. This is to conserve battery so the valve doesn't need to be active all the time. I'm sure stephenmhall will correct me if I'm wrong
As far as Cube to valves and valves to cube comms, I think it must be bi-directional as if you change anything on the cube app it happens pretty much instantly. How the cube and valves communicate could be magic for all I know they are on the 868Mhz band but what the protocol is I don't know.
I recently read about a company in Germany called busware.de that makes a Raspberry interface card that has firmware that speaks MAX protocol, I have sent them an email looking to confirm this but not heard anything back yet. If I could cut the Cube out of my system I would be very happy as it is the least reliable part, it seems to factory reset itself every couple of months.
Stuart Middleton last edited by Stuart Middleton
Ah, well, I think the cube tells you it happens instantly but queues the requests up and waits to be contacted by a valve. I think that's what the memory slot parameters are for when you get the cube data. It fills them up with outgoing data ready for when the device makes contact. I'm not 100% sure about this but when researching it a while ago (I was going to go down the 868Mhz radio route before I found your project) I'm sure I read that's how it worked. I'll see if I can find the article.
I'm having a small issue, and I can't see why. I had to reload and now every time I try to load it I get the following before it terminates. This is from fresh install.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "main.py", line 204, in <module>
File "main.py", line 96, in init
File "main.py", line 111, in doLoop
File "/home/pi/PiHeating/heatinggpio.py", line 173, in buttonCheckHeat
File "/home/pi/PiHeating/max.py", line 56, in checkHeat
File "/home/pi/PiHeating/max.py", line 486, in switchHeat
roomTemps = CreateUIPage().createRooms()
File "/home/pi/PiHeating/webui.py", line 224, in createRooms
actualTemp, roomOpen, roomMode)
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'roomOpen' referenced before assignment
That error suggests you don't have a settings file?
@stephenmhall - I'm getting a lot of issues that seem to plague the MAX system (not your excellent software of course ) where the cube forgets the valves randomly or updating timings don't get sent to the valves. I also hate that the realtime temp isn't reported.
With this said, I was wondering if you (or anyone else) had seen the BlueTooth version of the valves that they sell. And if so, has anyone taken a peek at the messages to see if the temp is reported? I'd rather control the whole thing via BT than go via the dodgy cube!
Maciej Jablonski last edited by Maciej Jablonski
Looks eq-3 at least have plans for eq-3 MAX! compatible boiler/hot water controller, the manual is already there, just cannot see the product anywhere.
Orkspalter last edited by Orkspalter
For anyone looking in having a setup like above, theres a way without extra buying the cube or the ccu2 when using homematic thermostats. Please have a look at https://www.homegear.eu , which eliminates the need of those boxes as it runs on a raspberry pi which most of us already have. You will have to add a CUL or better build yourself a NanoCUL (arduino nano + CC1101 ). Homegear does all the pairing and communication (also scripts) and best of all its converting and outputs all the communication via MQTT, so you can use Node Red.
Damn, just weeks after I changed to a Honeywell system. Talk about bad timing.
FYI, I bought a CC1101 connected it up to an RPI, setup openhab, homegear, the homeatic binding, and within minutes I had all of the devices listed and complete control over them all. Well I can say that is where it has ended, I am struggling to either find pre-written logic or writing my own to control everything. The issue isn't so much writing it as such, but choosing which system should host it. This dilemma exists, as I have everything else in my vera, I am getting into node-red, and now also have openhab/homegear in the loop, I don't want to fracture my set up too much from a control interface point. I like the idea of keeping the WAF where it is, so I will probably still need to have some sort of control via the vera and therefore one of the apps that the other half is still happy with.
I've got a CC1101 on its way from China. I'm hoping it'll be here soon. My plan was to rewrite the excellent Python code from this page to talk to them directly rather than through the cube. Currently, I don't have an off the shelf home system. I'm kind of writing it all myself as I go (maybe a mistake, I know). I'll let you know how I get on when mine arrives.
@Stuart-Middleton Although I mentioned my difficulties, I would suggest that you at least have a look at homegear and openhab (or the openhabian bundle to make it easier) as it does give great access to the devices and opens up very easy use of MQTT.
Thanks. I'll take a look at that first.
@Stuart-Middleton attached is an example of the items that get loaded when connected to openhab2 via homegear and the homematic binding.
That pretty much covers all the settings. When my radio arrives I'll hopefully be able to get it working quickly and I may come to you for help with setting it up with openhab so I can at least see a working system before I start playing with the code. Thanks
For a beginner, what shall I read (links) to understand what it means to do this. I have MAX cube and 3 actuators and I need a boiler control device. I called eq-3 and they reply they are not selling boiler controller device BC-TS-Sw2-WM (The MAX! boiler controller has been withdrawn from the market due to poor customer uptake. We do not believe there to be any devices available in the sales channel.) Thanks a lot !
They are not selling any more this. (Their answer: The MAX! boiler controller has been withdrawn from the market due to poor customer uptake. We do not believe there to be any devices available in the sales channel.)
It depends on how much of a beginner you are. If you're OK with very basic electronics, happy to install some software on a Raspberry Pi and can connect a mains voltage wire to your boiler without killing yourself, then it's pretty simple.
At a minimum, you'll need a Raspberry Pi PC, a mains relay board controllable from the Pi (very cheap on eBay) and some cable.
Thanks. Of course, I can do these. I have Raspberry Pi B and other required things. What I need to know is a schematic of connections and what software to install (on PC, on Raspberry Pi...)
Again, Thanks a lot !
The software is all written in python and is linked somewhere near the top of this post. There are instructions of how to install and use it included if I remember right.
The wiring is very simple. The boiler on output pin is defined in the software, so just change it to any GPIO pin that you want and connect your relay (3.3v I believe) to the pin and GND. I used a solid state 250v AC relay that accepts 3.3v input. Then just connect the "call for heat" wire on your boiler to the mains side of the relay. This is on your boiler schemaic, but is usually just the two wired to your wall thermostat.
I've got a combi boiler so just set it to be on all the time and let the Pi contol the heating.
Thank you a lot! I will try it and let you now the progress. I need some time to do it...
if you need any help with my software let me know, I have swapped to a Honywell system myself so no longer use it but if I can help I will.
@twisted It's arrived! I've got a CC1101 module! I presume It's just connected to the Pi via SPI? I think there's a wiring diagram on the website. I'll dig out a spare Pi and let you know what happens.
I use a diagram from homegear to connect it and it is working. No problem with connection.
I believe I used this one: [https://forum.homegear.eu/t/CC1101-no-physical-device-found/921/2]
OK, so I've got my module, connected it to my Pi and installed homegear (used the Rasbian version with homegear and openhad installed). I connected to the Pi, ran homegear -r, families select 0, pairing on and started pairing on a device. However, I don't see anything in the peers list.
So, any ideas or obvious things I'm missing?
it should be families select 4 I believe, did you go into the max.conf and uncomment all the lines under ti cc1101 module? you may need to set gpio to 25 (not 23) and don't uncomment the the additional section. Reboot, then you should see 4 max! when "sudo homegear -r", "ls"
OK, so I uncommented the settings in max.conf (I hadn't got to those) and I do get the following
But no pairing when I do 'families select 4' then 'pon' and try to pair. The device just times out and an 'ls' doesn't show any devices.
I may try a cleaner install and start again. I've been following a few posts and translating them into English, but it's still not working. It could, of course, be my hardware.
Is there a log output somewhere that shows the hardware initializing?
Sorry on the road ATM, but will look when i get home. Here is some pics of my wiring I have on my phone in case that is some use.
Quick thought did you factory reset the max! devices before trying to pair? I found mine wouldn't work until they had been reset due to the pairing with the cube.
Thanks. I'm using a different module, but the wiring looks the same. I'll try again later.
I didn't factory reset them. I'll try that.
You dont need to do reset. IT is enought to unpair with the cube. Try to set log debug in console of homegear with the option 10. Then logs should tell you what is wrong
Stuart Middleton last edited by Stuart Middleton
It looks like I've got the wrong module. I ordered from ebay about 3 months ago and the title said "CC1101 315/433/868/915Mhz Wireless Module SMA Antenna Transceiver fr Arduino New", but the description talks about a default "433 mhz". I'm not sure if it's switchable, but it doesn't seem to work. I've ordered another for the grand price of £1.95, but it'll take a month or so to get here.
demusss last edited by
I've had a Honeywell wireless programmable thermostat for several years and the LCD is now a little temperamental so was looking for something new.
Found the Honeywell evoHome, then saw a link mention the MAX! products and then I found this thread which looks like what I'm after.
Its been 8 months since the last post on here so I was wondering what ever happened to this project? Its just seems to have stopped. Is it complete?
Did the CC1101 work so that the MAX! Cube is not required?
Did @Stuart-Middleton switch over to openhab2 and homegear?
Just wondering do I use @stephenmhall code or go the openhab2/homegear route?
Hey, @demusss. I'm still using the python script talking to the MAX! Cube. It's a little temperamental but works most of the time. I finally got my hardware (CC1101) but, if I remember right, the homegear instructions listed above don't seem to work anymore. There's a missing module? I can't recall now. I'm sure I could sort it out but I just haven't had time.
Ideally, I'd like to talk to the system myself via the CC1101 and write the software myself instead of relying on OpenHAB but time is the limiting factor, unfortunately.
Maybe I'll pick it up again this weekend and try and get the CC1101 comms working.
demusss last edited by
Wow Stu, quick reply.
What you've built is basically what I'm after, but from what I've read the Cube can be temperamental.
I do have RPi somewhere, so to have a play I may get a CC1101,
MAX! Wireless wall mount thermostat - BC-TC-C-WM-4 / 131651
MAX! TRV - BC-RT-TRX-CyN / 142016A0A
I would like to control the system from my mobile so if I'm out late there's no point in the heating being on. There are some HomeMatic apps out there which work with openhab etc, but maybe using your web interface would be easier.
Hey, Anthony.
Yeah, the cube is the temperamental bit. It forgets the sensors every few weeks/months.
I have opened up the python web page to the web, secured behind a password, and it's OK to use. I mainly use it to monitor the system and look at the pretty graphs. I think the CC1101 with OpenHAB or custom software is the way to go.
Let me know if you get the Pi and CC1101 installed. I can't recall exactly what was wrong but I think it may be one of the packages that it tries to download no longer exists. It's something I really want to get fully working the way I want it, but to be honest it does a good job anyway.
Hi Anthony.
Funnily enough I went from the MAX system to a Honeywell Evo system and Domoticz as I have elderly parents and could not risk the times the max just forgot about all its radiators and either left the heating off or on all day.
Had the Evo for maybe a year now with no problems. The only thing I miss with the evo is notification as to when the heating is actually on. And being able to work on my code as I did enjoy writing it.
If you need any help with the code just ask, although it has been a while since I looked at it
angeloS last edited by
NIce post.. I was looking at adding boiler control to my max eq3 system and this looks fab


text:
Athabasca Basin and beyond
Uranium news from Saskatchewan and elsewhere for June 7 to 13, 2014
by Greg Klein
Next Page 1 | 2
Strateco turns to Saskatchewan while Quebec uranium inquiry comes under fire
For the $123 million spent on it so far, the project has a resource showing 7.78 million pounds U3O8 indicated and 19.22 million pounds inferred. It also has an underground exploration permit issued by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. But Quebec's moratorium on uranium activity has finally caused Strateco Resources TSX:RSC to shut down its Matoush camp in the province's Otish Basin. Now with a $1.4-million financing that the company hopes will save its TSX listing, Strateco's focusing on a Saskatchewan project acquired from Denison Mines TSX:DML.
In a June 12 announcement, Strateco attributed Matoush's cost-cutting closure to Quebec's refusal to issue an exploration permit. Some of the project's facilities and equipment have been sold. The company has already launched legal action over the permit refusal.
Strateco also closed a private placement to try to prevent a TSX delisting. The company raised $1.4 million from Sentient Executive GP IV, an insider.
Meanwhile a Strateco subsidiary, SeqUr Exploration Inc, issued just under 15 million Strateco shares to take on the Jasper Lake package, a 60% option on four eastern Athabasca properties totalling 45,271 hectares that Strateco negotiated with Denison late last year. SeqUr also closed a $100,000 private placement with Sentient. The subsidiary plans exploration "in the coming months."
Two days before the Strateco announcements a Quebec inquiry into uranium mining and exploration was challenged again, this time by a group of 70 "scientists and professionals from industry and academia." In an open letter distributed June 10, the group questioned the inquiry chairperson's neutrality as well as the utility of the proceedings.
Quebec's environmental watchdog, le Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), began hearings last month in a process expected to last 12 to 18 months. Until a decision is made whether to allow uranium activity, the moratorium imposed in March 2013 remains in effect. But Labrador, Greenland and Queensland have "recently lifted moratoria that they now perceive as unjustified," the group maintained.
Calling Louis-Gilles Francoeur's appointment as chairperson "perplexing," the open letter stated, "Throughout his career, Mr. Francoeur has tended to echo uranium industry critics. The BAPE is an institution founded on the principle of absolute neutrality. What would become of the BAPE's credibility if a former mining executive were appointed chairman of the commission?"
Francoeur was selected during the province's previous Parti Quebecois government.
"Exploration for and development of any mineral, including uranium, cannot go against the public interest," the group pointed out. But, the signatories argued, "We are heading into a process that was borne of uranium fear-mongering fuelled by an archaic and biased view of the mining industry." They questioned whether the hearings, with a price tag they peg at over $2 million, "should even be held."
Quoting November 2013 poll numbers, the group said Saskatchewan's uranium industry has the support of about 80% of the population, "including 76% of people in the communities and reserves of northern Saskatchewan, where the uranium mines are found."
The group also noted some environmentalists support nuclear energy, as indicated by "the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization established by the United Nations Environment Programme and free from suspicion of complicity with industry."
The 70 concluded that the industry already faces strict regulations. "It is impossible for any uranium deposit to be developed, and then mined, without the project meeting the most stringent standards and being subject to public hearings," they stated. "The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), a globally recognized agency with no ties to industry, sets the standards and has permanent monitoring and, if needed, enforcement powers over all nuclear industry activities."
The communique follows a similar challenge last month by the Quebec Mineral Exploration Association. The organization called for Francoeur to be replaced, describing his previous statements on the subject as "prejudicial and non-scientific." A coalition of Quebec natives, doctors and environmentalists, however, have argued for an outright ban on the industry.
Last month Strateco, which has previously stated its intention to take part in the BAPE inquiry, threatened legal action should Quebec not replace Francoeur.
Denison closes acquisition of International Enexco
Its takeover by Denison complete, International Enexco delisted on June 10. Expansionist Denison now holds former Enexco assets in the eastern Athabasca Basin consisting of a 30% interest in Mann Lake and an additional 20% in Bachman Lake, giving Denison full control over the latter project. The company now shares the Mann Lake joint venture with Cameco Corp TSX:CCO (52.5%) and AREVA Resources Canada (17.5%).
A spinco gets Enexco's U.S. non-uranium properties including the Contact copper project, which approaches pre-feasibility in Nevada.
The transaction went through without the public acrimony that initially ensued when Denison snatched Rockgate Capital from its proposed merger with Mega Uranium TSX:MGA late last year. At the time, Denison stated its intention to spin out its foreign assets and concentrate on the Athabasca Basin.
Next Page 1 | 2
Pages: 1 2


text:
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REMEMBER THAT JUST BECAUSE THIS IS AN AUTOMOTIVE COLUMN DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO stick to painting cars and bikes. These stencils can be used for everything from body art, to wall murals, to cake decorating, and they're made with a solvent-proof polymer, so you don't have to worry about what you paint them with because you aren't going to hurt these babies.
For our 21st installment, I grabbed Piracy, the new 6-stencil series inspired by "The Pirate" from Artool. Because so many artists liked the stylized pirate skull in Wrath of Skullmaster, it made good sense to develop a stencil series dedicated to the fine art of piracy. With a stellar lineup of Pieces of Eight, Tortuga, The O'Cursed, Flyin' Dutchman, Tell no Tales, and Jolly Rodger, how can you go wrong?
For this demo, I used elements of each stencil to create a full mural design. The number of designs you can create from this set wholly hinges on your imagination. By the way, much of this project was done in response to the feedback and suggestions
I've fielded from emails, forum comments, and Airbrush Getaway participants. Some of the favorite topics out there range from which airbrush is the best to which one gives the best detail to how many skulls can one paint in the size of a dime. Detail is fine, but if you can't airbrush to begin with, all the Microns in the world won't make you a better painter. To prove a point and because somebody challenged me to do a mural without my Micro I painted this entire demo using a Kustom Eclipse CS. Another challenge dared me to create a composite stencil design that didn't look stenciled.
Let's see how it goes!
1. After scuffing the powdercoated black metal blank with a red Scotchbrite pad, I back-masked the panel with Ultramask, a new masking productfrom Artool. Unlike AutoMask, Ultramask has the advantage of being transparent. It also comes witha backing paper for use in cutting your own stencils on a plotter. And unlike frisket, Ultramask is solvent-proof and will stick to basecoated and clearcoated surfaces.
2. To create the ripped edge of the pirate map, I airbrushed basecoat white over the furls of the Tortuga stencil. Keep the rip effects simple so you can match the stencil furls to the outline later on.
3. After cutting and unmasking the map area, I made a batch of off-white by adding some House of Kolor KK-08 Kandy Rootbeer and KK-12 Pagan Gold into BC-26 Basecoat White. I wanted this color to have a dingy, aged, parchment look. It sure has that. Don't be too even with the coat. This is one of the few times that you want poor coverage to create an aged look.
4. With the map's base done, I airbrushed the classic skull and crossed-sword design using the Tell No Tales stencil and basecoat white. I mean, really, how many pirate things have you seen without a skull and crossed swords?
5. Using Tortuga again, I airbrushed the furls for real this time. Because I only used about six of the different furls in the stencil, theywere easy to keep track of from the outline. Too few look weird, and too many look busy, so be sure to find a nice balance.
6. Now for the rest of Tortuga. With a mixture of Rootbeer Kandy and BC-25 Black Basecoat, I airbrushed the treasure path and various pirate map goodies, including a few ships from the Flyin' Dutchman stencil, and a couple of pirate flags from Jolly Rodger.
7. With the pirate map stenciled in, I freehandairbrushed some stencil lines and added fades to eliminate that pesky stencil look. Because the mural is much bigger than the stencil, I got creative with the placement of the treasure path and made the island in the map even bigger.
8. The Rootbeer and Black give the overall map a very cool aged sepia look. With the details finished, I continued to use the samecolor mix for the shading and around the furls. Be sure to keep your light source in mind.
9. To protect all my detail work, I unmasked and then re-masked the holes. Yes, I know I should have saved the negative part of the mask that I cut, but in reality it's really difficult to reposition something this large and with this many odd cuts. For me, it was easier to re-cut the sucker.
10. Lost pirate souls fill ripped holes really well, and The O'Cursed stencil was perfect for this. Filled with a bunch of damned (literally) pirates,O'Cursed is killer for rendering background ghouls in murals, or as some cool underwater zombie fest in a background graphic.
11. I wanted something in the foreground that didn't have just pirate zombies everywhere. What do pirate zombies like? Oh, yeah, money. Time for Pieces of Eight to add a whole mess of loot. Because I work primarily with kandies in these areas, a white basecoat really make the kandies pop.
12. With the white basecoat applied, I airbrushed, separately, House of Kolor KK-04 Oriental Blue, KK-12 Pagan Gold, and KK-09 Organic Green. Make sure when mixing these kandies to use only 20% of a KK color to the SG-100 before reducing. More than that will cause bleeding.
13. After returning some of the details in the coins with Pieces of Eight and the Rootbeer/Black color, I added a little KK-07 Tangerine to give the coins a more golden look. Keep the tangerine away from the blue or green or it will darken and kill those colors fast.
14. Man, I'm really digging this Rootbeer/ Black. It's very versatile, and good for detailing, dark line work, and soft blends. I brought back some life to the pirate zombies with this color. With a little shading and a little detailing, you can hardly tell that it was stenciled.
15. With more Rootbeer/Black, I finished details to my skull and crossed swords. I also separated it a bit from the background map by airbrushing a subtle drop-shadow.
16. I airbrushed the bandana with KK-11 Red Kandy, and followed it with some over-reduced BC-26 white, and my skull was just about finished. Don't go too crazy with the white. A few highlights really punch out the design, but too many will make it cartoony and lame.
17. Of course, the zombies needed glowing eyes and small bubbles floating around them.Caution: his white may appear as overspray,and will kill your colors if you're too heavy with it.
18. After unmasking everything, the furls needed highlights to make them punch out. Using the edges of the coins from Pieces of Eight to spray through, I gave the furls a nice highlight, but didn't allow the overspray to "jack up†my background.
FINAL. This turned out to be a killer mural, employing every stencil from the new Piracy series. The balance of stencil use, backmasking, and freehand work gave the painting a clean mixed media look without screaming "Stenciled!!†This further proves that you can use a medium workhorse airbrush, the Iwata Eclipse CS in this case, and still get some killer detail. Please submit your comments, suggestions, or requests for this column to firstname.lastname@example.com, or you can cruise the new Q&A forum at www.kustomkulturelounge.com. Paint to live, live to paint; and sometimes with stencils. –Fraser


text:
HOUSTON - Brian Zoubek grabbed 14 rebounds to go with his 4 points and the big man played a key role in the Blue Devils defeat of a scrappy Purdue team. BDN caught up with Brian after the game and got his thoughts on the win. BDN will be on the scene in Houston all weekend long so stay tuned for maximum coverage. BDN is the only subscription site in Houston, yet we are bringing you 80% of our interviews for free. Join Blue Devil Nation Premium for full site access and accurate and dependable recruiting information.
Just press play -


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Bone marrow aspirates provides unique and valuable research data, but cell numbers can be very low. For such critical samples you need a quality medium that you can trust. MarrowMAX™ medium arrives in your lab complete and ready to use, fully supplemented with serum, a novel human stromal conditioned medium, antibiotics, and L-glutamine. By eliminating the preparation steps and supplementation required with other bone marrow media, you save time, labor, money, and reduce the risk of contamination.
Product Information
MarrowMAX™ medium far outperforms commercially available formulations supplemented with giant cell tumor (GCT) conditioned media (Figure 1), providing consistent lot-to-lot performance (Figure 2) with a higher mitotic index and superior chromosome morphology.
|Figure 1 - Superior performance of MarrowMAX™ medium. Cells were cultured in: basal medium without conditioned medium; MarrowMAX™ medium; supplier medium (GCT-CM 1); and supplier 2 medium (GCT-CM 2) (both supplier 1 and supplier 2 media contain GCT-conditioned medium). Mitotic cells were assayed 24 hrs after plating.
|Figure 2 - Consistency of MarrowMAX™ medium. Normal bone marrow mononuclear cells were seeded at 1x106 cells/ml in 4 different lots of MarrowMAX™ medium. BrdU updake was measured by absorbance at 405 nm. Results are mean ± SEM for n = 10.
For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.
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Learn more about sustainable solutions


text:
Club Meeting is the usually on 2nd Saturday of Each Month (contact me for date)
NORTEX QRP Club is an informal group of Amateurs who get together to share ideas, stories, technical knowledge and just plain camaraderie in the area of low-power operation and kit building.
The North Texas QRP Club (NORTEX QRP)
provides a forum for those who
enjoy the thrills and challenges of building and/or operating with
low power equipment.
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Church Bemis 1200SLOWT 023 Whisper Close Elongated Closed Front Toilet Seat, Pink
This easy to clean and easy to remove toilet seat is stylish while the molded wood material provides durability and stability. The shell sculptured design provides your bathroom a unique accent, complementing your décor. Round Molded Wood Shell Design Toilet Seat with Easy•Clean & Change™ Hinge - Bone


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Statement of the NEA on Social Security Benefit Adjustment Proposals
August 27, 2013
House Ways and Means Committee
Subcommittee on Social Security
Bipartisan Proposals to Reform Social Security: Benefits Adjustments
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the Committee's proposed changes to the Social Security program. The National Education Association (NEA), along with a majority of Americans, opposes any measure that would diminish Social Security benefit payments for current and future recipients. We believe that Social Security is a social contract between the U.S. government and its citizens that must never be breached. Social Security provides unparalleled protections for millions of working men and women in this country and serve as an essential lifeline for a large number of seniors, disabled workers, and children. Almost half of retired single people and nearly a quarter of retired married couples rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their household income. Additionally, about 4.4 million children receive benefits because one or both of their parents are disabled, retired, or deceased.
At a time when employer-sponsored retirement benefits have been severely reduced or eliminated and personal retirement savings have dwindled, Social Security benefits are increasingly the supporting leg of the "three-legged stool" of economic security in retirement. The recession and the loss in home equity resulting from the bursting of the housing bubble have sharply increased the economic insecurity of many Americans, especially for those who would like to retire soon. While America's Social Security benefits are modest compared to what most other industrialized countries provide, they are essential for many of our citizens. Our nation should not cut Social Security benefits. Instead we should look to improve the adequacy of the benefits provided.
The Committee's discussion draft proposes three main changes: 1) raising the retirement age based on increasing life expectancy, 2) a benefit enhancement for long-time low-wage workers, and 3) benefit formula changes based on earnings. The changes are drawn from the 2010 Bowles-Simpson proposals. NEA makes the following recommendations for each of the three proposed changes.
- Raising the retirement age: NEA strongly opposes the Committee's proposal to index and increase the Social Security retirement age. Under current law, the normal retirement age (NRA) is 66 and will increase to 67 for those reaching age 62 in 2022 and later. Making people wait longer to collect Social Security benefits would lower income for retirees. It would also reduce lifetime benefits and would require educators and other workers to work longer or suffer economic hardship from smaller monthly checks. According to an analysis done by the National Academy of Social Insurance, each additional year an individual has to wait to qualify for social security benefits is equivalent to a benefit cut of 6.5 to 7 percent.i The Brookings Institution calculated that raising the Social Security retirement age would cut lifetime benefits by 6.7 percent for every additional year added. Although the proposal to index the retirement age to longevity plays out over many decades, the analysis of this approach by the Social Security Administration actuaries is consistent and clear future retirees will face benefit reductions that worsen with each generation. By 2080, this proposal would result in an across-the-board 15 percent cut in benefits.
The argument for indexing and raising the retirement age is that people are living longer. However, that is not the same thing as having the ability to work longer, especially for those with the physically and mentally demanding working conditions that are typical for educators. Further, cost of living does no decrease just because the overall population is living longer. Although the Committee proposes a hardship exception to limit the age increase for disabled workers, independent analyses found that few of the individuals unable to work after attaining age 62 would qualify as disabled.
- Minimum benefits for long career workers: NEA supports this provision, but recommends that it be modified to cover more individuals. Social Security's special minimum benefit provision was intended to increase the adequacy of benefits for long-term, low-earning covered workers and their dependents or survivors. However, the value of the current law's special minimum benefit, last adjusted in 1972, has withered away over time.
Millions of American workers are poorly compensated for the work they do. This is not because they do not work hard or deserve adequate compensation. Many NEA members who work as education support professionals, including paraprofessionals, bus drivers, and cafeteria workers, do not earn a living wage and are included in this group. NEA supports the Committee's proposal to enhance the special minimum benefit for long-time low-wage workers so that they may have a benefit that lifts them above the poverty line. Unfortunately, the proposed enhancement as structured requires a low-wage worker to have 30 years in covered earnings to qualify for the full benefit enhancement. This would result in very few low-wage workers qualifying for the enhancement and would thus not protect them from poverty.
According to Social Security's Chief Actuary, about 60 percent of actual "Very Low" earners, those with earnings of around $10,771, would have their benefits cut under the Bowles-Simpson proposal. They would neither qualify for a hardship exemption, nor be helped by the proposed minimum benefit. The Chief Actuary assumes that the hardship exemption would require 25 or more years of covered employment. However, the full enhanced minimum benefit proposed by the Committee would only be available to workers with 30 years of covered employment.ii It is well documented that for low-wage workers, Social Security is the primary, and in most cases, the only source of retirement income security. Low-income workers tend to have less access to pension coverage and savings, especially those who may have worked sporadically due to family responsibilities, and therefore need to rely on Social Security benefits for their income when they are older. Therefore, NEA recommends that the Committee modify its proposal so that more individuals would qualify for a benefit that will allow them to make ends meet.
- Benefit formula changes: NEA opposes the provision to change the formula for calculating benefits.
Social Security's benefit formula is applied to a worker's average indexed monthly earnings. Under current law, Social Security contributions and benefits are based on earnings that fall below an annual cap, which is $113,700 in 2013. The Committee's discussion draft changes that formula and would result in benefit cuts for moderate income earners. NEA opposes any reduction to earned benefits.
NEA supports Social Security as social insurance, not as welfare or a means-tested program. Reducing Social Security benefits to higher-income retirees would not save much money and would alter the program's philosophy and administration. While higher paid lifetime earners receive higher benefits, their benefits replace a smaller share of their past earnings than those provided to lower earners. However, the Committee's proposal is not a benefit reduction for only the very wealthy—it would also cut benefits for the middle class, according to the analysis by the Social Security Chief Actuary of the Simpson-Bowles provision (the approach included in the draft text). The Social Security Actuary's analysis found that the proposed changes in the basic benefit formula would reduce benefits. While these benefit cuts would be greatest for workers with above-median earnings, they would also significantly affect the majority of retired and disabled workers.
Impacts on other areas
Passage of this legislation may go well beyond affecting current and future Social Security recipients. Some employers that provide retirement benefits link their plan benefits directly to Social Security through a practice known as "pension integration." In such a retirement plan, benefits or contributions are coordinated with Social Security benefits or contributions to meet a specific wage replacement level. For example, if a company using an integrated plan wanted to replace 50 percent of its employees' wages at retirement, it determines what its employees' Social Security benefits will be and contributes an amount that, added to the Social Security benefit, equals 50 percent of wages. While we are not aware of any public sector plans where such explicit integration exists, public pension plans in states where public employees are covered by Social Security are implicitly integrated with Social Security in that the plans provide lesser benefits than the plans in non-Social Security states. NEA's research shows that there are usually differences between the benefits received by government employees who are also covered by Social Security with generally lower benefit formulas for those employees with Social Security coverage than those without.iii Generally speaking, employee retirement plans not coordinated with Social Security have higher benefits than those where employees are also contributing to Social Security. In addition, some plans that are coordinated with Social Security (plans in which the individual has Social Security coverage in retirement in addition to the benefit provided by the pension plan) offer an option for members who retire before they have reached the eligibility age to receive Social Security benefits. Under this option, a member may elect to receive a percentage of the their estimated Social Security benefit from the retirement system before Social Security actually begins, and then receives a reduced allowance from the System when Social Security is received, and for the remainder of their life. Changes to Social Security benefits could cause states to evaluate the effect of these changes on retirement plans that would further reduce public employees' retirement benefits. For example, reductions in Social Security benefits may create pressure on states that do not participate in Social Security to reduce their public employee pension benefits.
We thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments. We look forward to working with the Committee as considerations are made toward any adjustments in Social Security benefits.
ii See SSA, Memo from Stephen C. Goss, Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, to Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs, February 2, 2010.


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Pinball games might not seem highly sought after anymore. Whether you blame it on the death of the arcade in America or the ever-increasing complexity of modern games, you're probably under the impression that the average gamer just isn't aching to flip a ball around a flashy cabinet.
But according to Zen Studios, its last XBLA game, Pinball FX, was one of best-selling games on Xbox Live Arcade. Come October 13, the studio will launch Pinball FX 2.
It arrives as part of Microsoft's new Game Feast promotion, a Summer of Arcade-caliber lineup taking place during the holiday season. Instead of giving it the usual sequel treatment, Zen Studios is considering Pinball FX 2 as a platform -- like Hasbro Family Game Night, the "game" can be downloaded free of charge. It won't include any tables, but you'll be able to import all of your original Pinball FX content, free of charge, and add new tables via custom content packs.
Old and new tables benefit from a revamped physics engine and graphical overhaul. The new tables are way more elaborate and really invoke the feeling of playing pinball at the arcade. While the old tables won't change cosmetically once imported into the sequel -- they're far less elaborate than their newer counterparts -- they will benefit from the updated physics, which dictate more realistic behavior for the ball.
The most fun I had with the game was in the multiplayer mode. It'll work over Xbox Live, but during my demo I was limited to split-screen play. Two players have their own individual tables, but share the goal of being the first to reach a certain score. For every missed ball, a set number of points is deducted. You can calibrate this to be five percent of your total score, ten percent of your total score or you could simply turn it off altogether. Racing toward the maximum score felt hurried and quite fun.
Pinball FX 2 will also offer comprehensive leaderboard data that will tie in some Achievements for good measure. Best three friends' scores on a table and get some Achievement points. In-game prompts tell you that you're closing in on a friend's score and update you on your own personal highlights while you play, and it's all part of the goal to make the sequel a much more social experience than its predecessor and to keep players coming back. And Pinball FX 2 already feels instantly accessible, thanks to the verisimilitude offered by its enhanced tables.
By giving the platform away free of charge, Zen gives fans of the first game a free update to all of their tables with new Achievements to earn. If you're a newcomer, you still get to try out trial versions of the newer tables and, if you enjoy them, can purchase them through a content pack. The first game's tables will also be available via another content pack.
It may be easy to write off Pinball FX 2 because it takes us back to a simpler time, but that's exactly what I appreciate about it most. There are no gimmicks, no crazy game modes, no fireballs or magical modifiers; it's just the pinball you've known all your life, except you play it on your TV.
Other pinball games on Xbox 360:
Pinball FX
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection


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All the boys from One Direction are taking a couple...
Harry's twin sister23031411
- by Michelle5431 & Teresa
- Rating:
- Published: 5 Jun 2014
- Updated: 12 Jul 2014
- Status: In Progress
Elizabeth Styles is Harry Styles twin sister who ran away at the age 16 after Harry went to bootcamp for the X Factor. What happens when they meet again will harry remember her? Will there be romance? If so then which boy will win her heart?
Sorry if this is really bad it's my first movella
Sorry if this is really bad it's my first movella
Join MovellasFind out what all the buzz is about. Join now to start sharing your creativity and passion
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When you're preparing for a not quite make or break but still enormously important launch (hi, Mango!), you want your sales staff on their feet. So when Microsoft's secret shopper snoop squad discovered totally clueless employees, they scrambled. Hard.
Bloomberg reports that ol' MS is training up "hundreds" of employees to be able to actually discern Windows Phone 7 from its older, horrendous relatives. You'd think the difference wouldn't be that hard to tell—one looks beautiful and tiled, the other like a 1990 UI venereal disease—but that hasn't been the case.
We want Mango to be ripe, delicious, and successful, because a three player match is a lot better than two. Microsoft's phone push thus far has been oddly quiet, marked by a conspicuous paucity of promotion, exciting hardware, and a general "people caring" vibe. If the Mango/Nokia dream team slam dunk is going to reverberate, Microsoft needs to make sure its own people care before anyone else will. Sell those phones to moms, and the world is yours. [Bloomberg via BGR]


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Berlin, Germany, 17 March to 6 June 2010 - Over two hundred masterpieces of the Muslim world, spanning over a thousand years of history, will be shown at the Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin from 17 March to 6 June 2010. The artworks are some of the most important pieces in the collection of the Aga Khan Museum, which is due to open in 2013 in Toronto, Canada.
The collection contains some of the world's most important masterpieces of Muslim art, including:
- Pages from the Shahnama, or the Persian "Book of Kings", made for Shah Tamasp, considered to contain some of the most exquisite miniatures ever created;
- The earliest known manuscript of the Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), written in Arabic and later translated, which served as the standard medical reference in Europe for 500 years;
- One of the best preserved silk lampas Mongol Robes from the thirteenth century;
- A double page of the celebrated Blue Qur'an, a ninth century manuscript written in gold kufic script on a blue-dyed parchment.
Comprising works of art in stone, wood, ivory and glass, jewelry and metalwork, ceramics and rare works on paper and parchment, the items in the collection create an overview of the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the Iberian Peninsula to China and from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries.
Elements of the Aga Khan Museum's collection have been shown in London, Paris, Lisbon and Madrid, but the Berlin exhibition will be the largest exhibition to date. The Aga Khan believes that exhibitions such as these have an important role to play in promoting understanding, respect and appreciation for different cultures and traditions.
The exhibition is organized along two main themes: "The Word of God", and "The Route of the Travelers". "The Word of God" presents Qur'anic manuscripts and folios as well as objects related to pilgrimage, prayer and mysticism, illustrating how the sacred text was a source of inspiration both for artists and architects. "The Route of the Travelers" takes the visitor along an itinerary throughout the Islamic world, stretching from Al-Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula to the Maghreb and Sicily, to the Egypt of the Fatimids and Mamluks and on to Ottoman Constantinople, Ummayad Damascus and Ayyubid Baghdad. The route continues through Persia to Central Asia and to the India of the Moguls, each providing a glimpse of the extraordinary creativity, richness and diversity of the societies of the time, as well as the mingling of influences from Asia and Europe.
Within the exhibition, a special section pays homage to the great Persian poet Firdowsi, often compared to Homer, who finished writing his great Shahnama or "Book of Kings" exactly 1000 years ago. His work became the handbook of Shahs and Sultans, who vied with each other to obtain lavishly illustrated copies. Two such books have been digitalized, and for the first time, the public will be able to turn their pages on tactile screens.
The exhibition is held under the patronage of His Highness the Aga Khan, founder and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), and its cultural arm, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). The Aga Khan expects that the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto will become a centre of education and learning dedicated to the presentation of Muslim arts and culture in all their historic, cultural and geographical diversity. Surrounded by a large landscaped park, the museum will be housed in a 10,000 square-meter building designed by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. The Aga Khan Museum will offer unique insights and new perspectives into Muslim civilisations.
It is one of three museum projects currently under development by the AKTC. The other two are the Museum of Historic Cairo, in Egypt, and the Indian Ocean Maritime Museum in Zanzibar. The museums are part of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture's wide range of activities aimed at the preservation and promotion of the material and spiritual heritage of Muslim societies. As the cultural agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, AKTC leverages cultural heritage as a means of supporting and stimulating development.
For more information about the exhibition, please see the Martin-Gropius-Bau for information in English and German.
For more information about the Aga Khan Museum, please see the Museums site.
For press information, please contact:
At the Martin-Gropius-Bau
Ute Weingarten, Marie Skov
Tel. +49 (0) 30 25486-236
Fax +49 (0) 30 25486-235
E-Mail: email@example.com
At the Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Sam Pickens
Tel. +41 22 909 7200
Fax +41 22 909 7291
Email: email@example.com


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I love flying with other pilots because I always learn something from them. Whether it is an especially smooth radio communication style, a conscientious adherence to checklist usage, or simply confidence in the cockpit, these are pilots I like to emulate.
Then there are those pilots who teach you how you don't want to be. Thanks to YouTube we have a front row seat (or right seat, if you will) to these individuals' antics, because everybody has a cell phone with a camera.
The most recent YouTube debut is a gentleman whose behavior toward a New York Center air traffic controller has to be heard to be believed. As a bit of background, he's on an instrument flight in some very busy airspace. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, we can listen to the whole episode. The YouTube poster even provided captioning for the sometimes-hard-to-understand exchange.
Have you ever witnessed (or overheard) pilot behavior you knew you didn't want to copy? Please share in the Comments section.—Jill W. Tallman