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Topper Tube, a division of Topper Industrial, the leader in the material handling equipment industry, introduced a new caster plate which increases stability. The caster plate has a standard hole pattern to use with multiple types of casters so the customer has choices. With the new Topper caster plate (Topper Tube Part No. 9000), the placement of the casters is moved to the outward extremities on the structure, increasing the stability and ensuring better mobility of the unit.
"The caster plate is durable and long lasting. It helps increase the life expectancy of the structure with which it is used. Users have more options when picking casters used with their small parts movement. Adding the plate to the caster is an efficient way to move parts from point A to point B without the fear of dropping, tipping, or being damaged. Now, with these durable casters and plates, warehouse operators and manufacturers do not have to worry about product damage," explained Eric Brown, Head of Research & Development at Topper Industrial.
Typical tube and joint caster placements are inward on the structure due to the construction with joints and the type of casters used. Tube and joint structures are generally made for low weight capacity and periodical movement. In the application when costly or fragile parts are needed to be moved every day in a sequence, the added plate to the caster and outward positioning of casters ensure the safe delivery of such parts.
To read more, go to: http://bit.ly/2sGoGQu
About Topper Industrial
For more than twenty years, Topper Industrial, (www.TopperIndustrial.com) based just outside of Milwaukee, WI, has been a leader in the material handling equipment industry. The company's product roster features industrial carts, conveyors, lifts, lifts & tilts, shipping racks, containers, casters, and cart components. From mother-daughter carts to quad steer carts to tilt carts and rotate carts, Topper's material handling solutions make delivering material line side more effective through more efficient practices. Topper Industrial has a team of experienced professional experts able to assess and provide the right product for all material handling equipment requirements.
Topper Industrial is a proud member of MHI. The Topper Industrial client roster includes Anderson Windows, Detroit Diesel, Honda, Kia Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Aramark, Johnson Controls, Whirlpool, and Caterpillar. Follow on Twitter @TopperInd. Call 800-529-0909.
Media Contact
Company Name: Topper Industrial
Contact Person: Jillian Burrow, Marketing Manager
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 262-886-6931
Address:1729 NE Frontage Road
City: Sturtevant
State: Wisconsin
Country: United States
Website: www.topperindustrial.com


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For the last few evenings I have been working on a native Mac app for Staging that talks to a Rails restful API. Rather than write the code access the resource URLs myself I thought it would be pretty cool to use Objective Resource, the Objective-c library for accessing Rails-style restful APIs, from the site:
ObjectiveResource is an Objective-C port of Ruby on Rails' ActiveResource. It provides a way to serialize objects to and from Rails' standard RESTful web-services (via XML or JSON) and handles much of the complexity involved with invoking web-services of any language from the iPhone.
There are a couple of problems with this approach however. First ObjectiveResource is designed to work on iOS (iPhones, iPod touches and iPads) only, and second it expects access to be controlled by a username and password. The API for Staging uses an X-API-Token HTTP header sent with each request.
Getting ObjectiveResource to work on native Mac
This was pretty simple, just replace all instances of
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import <AppKit/AppKit.h>
So far nothing has broken.
Getting ObjectiveResource to send a custom header
This was a little trickier and required some more invasive code changes. In Connection.h declare two new methods:
And define them in Connection.m:
Next you need to modify the request that gets called for every GET request:
The addition here is basically a for loop to loop over every header that we have configured and add them to the request object. Finally somewhere before you make any requests in your code:
Done! Now every request that GETs made will have the custom header sent along with it. You can obviously set any number of arbitrary headers using this method too, you aren't limited to my X-API-Token. It is left as an exercise to the reader to implement the same for POST requests.
It would be nice to see these changes rolled into the ObjectiveResource framework in some way.

subset: commoncrawl


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Metro is testing prototypes of a new bus-sign design. They're on display in front of King Street Center for about another week. (After that they'll be at Third & Union, at the Benaroya stop.) I went to check them out yesterday.
Here's the prototype for a sign at a major stop:
And here's the prototype for the smaller stops:
Note that the numbers are bigger and now read left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom. They are also removable, which makes the signs easier and cheaper to update.
As you can see, the route destination is now listed under the route number. This is a helpful addition, but I wonder how Metro will handle routes that don't always terminate at the same location. Some examples: 48 Rainier Beach vs. 48 Columbia City; 3 Madrona vs. 3 First Hill. Will the route be listed twice? Will there be two destinations listed under the number? (I'm not even going to touch those routes that change numbers halfway through the ride.) Then again, I suppose that's not as much an issue with the signs as with the route numbering, and that's a post for another time.
Another cool (but possibly problematic) addition: The stop numbers are now printed on the signs. This is a good thing for those of us who've tried calling Metro's automated service to find out when a route is scheduled to be at a particular stop, only to be prompted to enter a stop number, which is not available anywhere at the stop. Unfortunately, the stop numbers used by this system are not the same as the stop IDs used by Tracker and MyBus. I predict a whole lot of confused riders. But again, this is a problem that's bigger than the signs.
I love (without reservations) the rail, airport, and ferry icons and the addition of Metro's rider information number and Web address. Adding these is a good step toward making the system more usable and predictable, and making it easier for newbies to find their way around.
I must close with the disclaimer sign that was posted next to the prototypes.
This is only a test, folks, so don't start expecting to see these at your local stop anytime soon.
Of course, the testing phase is a good time for feedback. You like?


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This week in new hires, Steven Feldman was named CEO and Eric Schwartz was made chairman of the board at Gold Bullion International; Irakli Odisharia went to Commonfund; United Capital brought in three new management team members; Andy Fass joined Beverly Hills Wealth Management; and Jim Komoszewski went to Investment Centers of America.
Also, Lisa Maurer became a director at Citi Private Bank; the SEC named Paul Beswick acting chief accountant; Raymond Ferrara became the 2013 chair-elect of the CFP Board; IMCA hired Jill Ladouceur as director of creative services; and Thomas Cardwell joined Eris Group.
Feldman, Schwartz Appointed at Gold Bullion International
Gold Bullion International announced Tuesday the appointments of Steven Feldman as CEO and Eric Schwartz as chairman of the board. Former CEO Savneet Singh is assuming the role of president.
Feldman co-founded GBI in 2009, and in his role as CEO will focus on strategy and business development. He joins full time after a long career at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and specialized in real assets. He was founder and head of the investment banking firm's global infrastructure fund business and also held several high-level real estate investing and banking roles at the firm.
Schwartz is a private investor with a focus on growth-oriented companies in the financial services sector. He serves as chairman of Jefferson National and as a director of Prosper Marketplace and of Indostar Capital Finance, the latter based in Mumbai, India. Earlier in his career, Schwartz was a Goldman Sachs partner, co-headed the investment management and global equities divisions, and served on the firm's management committee.
Commonfund Taps Irakli Odisharia as New Director of Market Risk
Commonfund announced Monday that it has hired former Goldman Sachs risk management specialist Irakli Odisharia as a new director on its risk management team. He will report to David Belmont, chief risk officer, and will be responsible for enhancing quantitative market risk analytics in addition to stress testing client portfolios and funds.
Prior to joining, Odisharia was with Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a member of their market risk modeling team. He also worked in its equities division and its equity volatility group.
United Capital Adds Three to Management Team
United Capital Financial Advisers recently announced three additions to its management team: Sheri Smith, Jim Zahradnick and Brian Church.
Smith, with nearly 20 years of experience, will serve as vice president of sales and lead generation and will be responsible for creating marketing programs, prospecting tools, and client conversion and retention systems. She most recently held posts at Householder Group Financial Advisors, Charles Schwab Advisor Services and New York Life.
Zahradnick joins from Raymond James Financial Services, where he spent nearly 24 years. He will be based in Parker, Colo., and serve as director of recruiting.
Church has been appointed director of East Coast recruiting and will be based in Nashville, Tenn. He comes from AXA Advisors, where he held the post of divisional vice president. Before AXA, he was the national sales and recruiting director for hedge fund and RIA acquisitions firm Capital L Group (formerly Aegis). Beverly Hills Wealth Management Welcomes Andy Fass
Beverly Hills Wealth Management announced Tuesday the launch of its Public Agency Financial Advisory division. Additionally, the firm has appointed Andy Fass as western division marketing director and financial advisor. He will be based out of the firm's new Roseville, Calif., office and will be responsible for the growth and business development of the new division, as well as for the parent company. He will also support Steven Stahlberg, recently appointed western division director.
Fass has nearly 30 years of experience in financial services. Previously, he was a senior vice president and former branch manager at RW Baird in Northern California. He was also a district sales manager at Morgan Stanley.
Investment Centers of America Adds Jim Komoszewski
Investment Centers of America recently announced the appointment of Jim Komoszewski as regional manager and senior vice president of practice management. In his new role, he will oversee the firm's practice management program. He is based at the firm's headquarters in Bismarck, N.D., and will report to Greg Gunderson, president and CEO.
Previously, he served as first vice president and director of practice management with National Planning Corp. Before joining NPC, he was a regional vice president with Jackson National Life Insurance Co.
Citi Private Bank Names Lisa Maurer Director in Family Office Group
Citi Private Bank announced recently that Lisa Maurer has joined the firm's family office group as director. In this role, she will partner closely with regional executives and private bankers. She will report to Stephen Campbell, head of the North America family office group, and will be based in New York City.
Maurer led a family office for 10 years and served as president, responsible for all aspects of investment management, treasury and operations for an ultra-high-net-worth family office and foundation. Previously, she was an investment analyst at Hascoe Associates in Greenwich, Conn., and before that, a senior financial analyst with the Boston Consulting Group. Paul Beswick Named SEC's Acting Chief Accountant
SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro announced Monday the appointment of Paul Beswick as the acting chief accountant in the SEC's Office of the Chief Accountant. In his new role, he will oversee accounting interpretations, international accounting matters and professional practice issues. He replaces James Kroeker, who left the SEC last Friday.
Since joining the SEC in September 2007, Beswick has fulfilled a number of key roles. Most recently, as deputy chief accountant, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office's accounting group. He also served as staff director of a multiyear effort to help the SEC evaluate the implications of incorporating International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) into the financial reporting system for U.S. companies. Earlier, he was a partner with Ernst & Young.
Raymond Ferrara Is 2013 CFP Board Chairman-Elect
Raymond Ferrara was elected to CFP Board's board of directors as 2013 chair-elect at the July meeting. He will begin his duties as chairman-elect on January 1, when Nancy Kistner begins her term as 2013 chairwoman.
Ferrara is president and CEO of ProVise Management Group in Clearwater, Fla. He is a board observer for National Financial Partners and previously served on the board of directors for the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the National Advisor's Trust Company (NATC).IMCA Hires Director of Creative Services
Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) announced recently that Jill Ladouceur joined as director of creative services. In this role, she will lead marketing, production and design efforts and report to Ian MacKenzie, IMCA's deputy executive director of operations.
Since 1983, she worked as a full-time employee and independent contractor for the Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP). For more than a decade, Ladouceur has served as editor of The Standard, published by the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. She is certified as a webmaster by the National Association of Communication Systems Engineers, and has operated her own design and association consulting business. Cardwell Joins Eris Group
Eris Group announced Monday that Thomas Cardwell has joined the firm.
With over 25 years of experience as the general counsel of the Florida Bankers Association, Cardwell is also a former commissioner of financial regulation for the state of Florida, where he worked closely with other state and federal regulatory agencies including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), the Federal Reserve, the SEC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and fellow state agencies.
Prior to his appointment as commissioner, Tom was a member, partner and shareholder in the law firm of AkermanSenterfitt. His legal practice concentrated on financial services and litigation. He was the chairman and CEO of the firm for six years from 2002-2007.
Read the July 11 New Hire Roundup at AdvisorOne.


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If you have animals in your life, be they the furry kind or the human kind, you'll love Animal Love from Scraps by Missy. Full of cute little critters created from hearts, Animal Love can help you document your love for your pets. The pretty color palette of muted pinks and greens is versatile enough for all the 'loves' in your life. You'll also find pretty flowers, foliage and word art as well as beautifully patterned papers, all designed with love in mind. Also perfect for hybrid crafting, Animal Love can be used to create your own Valentine's Day cards.
You can pick up each piece for $1 each. But don't, delay, the Buffet sale is only good through tomorrow, February 5.
Let's have a look at what the Creative Team has done with Animal Love
Let's have a look at what the Creative Team has done with Animal Love


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With my post earlier in the week about how environmental regulators have designs on grilled burgers, I thought perhaps the best way to end the week was with a totally transgressive meal of grilled red meat and decanted red wine (I mean, what would Michelle and the climate campaigners say?), accompanied by a background Beat beat (you'll see). So, here it is–from Power Line Films, a 2 minute preview of the kind of nonsense that might occur if we ever get our Power Line Wine Weekend off the drawing board (plus a preview of coming attractions at the end):
JOHN adds: Steve, this is a wonderful post, one of the all-time greats. But don't keep us in suspense–who is playing the cello?
STEVE answers: It is none other than the person who Hugh Hewitt routinely refers to as "the lovely and talented Allison Hayward," or "TLAT Allison" around our house. Took up learning string instruments recently as a hobby.


text: These amplifiers use a patented trimming technique that achieves superior precision without laser trimming. The parts are fully specified to operate from 1.8 V to 5.0 V single supply or from 0.9 V to 2.5 V dual supply. The combination of low offsets, low noise, very low input bias currents, and low power consumption make the AD8603/AD8607/AD8609 especially useful in portable and loop-powered instrumentation. The ability to swing rail-to-rail at both the input and output enables designers to buffer CMOS ADCs, DACs, ASICs, and other wide output swing devices in low power, single-supply systems.


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Utilities Size Up Emission Cap for Power Plants
Coal Producers Find Relief in Certain Elements of the EPA's Plan
New federal limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would force sweeping changes in the U.S. electric system but wouldn't deliver the knockout blow to coal that mining companies and some power producers had feared.
The proposed caps on carbon emissions, unveiled by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, give both states and utilities credit for reductions they already have made, including moving from coal to more natural gas and deploying renewable energy. Burning gas produces...
To Read the Full Story


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BC Pill - Birth Control Pill is your personal birth control pill app with the app you will forget no more pills!
BC Pill will remind you every day taking your pill and shows you how many pills you must still take or how many pills you've already taken. In addition you can obtain an overview via the integrated calendar, when you have to take your pills an when not.
Basic functions:
• Blister and cycle pill view
• Clear home screen with all important information (status, occupied and
remaining pills, start and end of taking pills, forgottten pills...)
• Remind you to take your pills
• Mark pills subsequent as taken
• Change reminder messages
• Calendar overview with past and future revenue pills
• Calendar view (month and week)
• All standard package sizes are supported ( 21/7 , 24/4 and 26/2 )
• Reminder time is freely selectable
• Additional information can be stored (emotions, menstrual pain omplaints,...)
• Add notes
• Add posts to community forum
• Selectable first week day
• 3D-Touch support
Premium functions:
• Pills Taking Timeline
• Creating additional memories for example, Gynecologist appointment
• Have always a eye on your weight with a clearly diagram and many options
• Memory of buying new pills pack(s)
• Code lock before the app start (code or Touch-ID, Face-ID)
• Change reminder sound (more than 15 new reminder tones)
• Change the colors of events in the calendar for start and end of the pill, pill
days and days with additional information.
• Choose your own notification sound
• Create your own private appointments for doctor visits and much more.
• Choose between different theme colors.
• You can add an image to your posts.
• Add option to your posts.
• No advertising
• Additional 3D-Touch options
BC Pill offers one month (0,99€), six months (2,99€) or a year (5,99€) premium membership subscription plan for
"Premium membership". Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically
renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Subscriptions may be
managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Payment
will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered,
will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable
Terms of use: http://langsoftware.de/Apps/BC-Pillen-Erinnerung/Terms-of-use/
Privacy policy: http://langsoftware.de/Apps/BC-Pillen-Erinnerung/BCPill-Privacy-Policy/


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Managing a chronic health problem can be a lifelong journey for some, but with support and a better understanding of the roads before them, the journey may become easier to travel. This site offers educational videos, downloadable brochures and apps on the diagnosis, treatment and/or management of many health conditions. Use these educational tools as a roadmap to help start on the path to better health management.
If you are a health care professional affiliated with an employer, institution, or committee, or practicing in a state that restricts what items you may receive from manufacturers, we ask that you not accept or download any restricted items from this site. If you are a health care provider practicing in Vermont, we are required by state law to deny you permission to download any items or review any journal articles made available on this site.
Over time, damage to the heart and blood vessels may lead to health problems like high blood pressure, high lipids, acute coronary syndrome and heart failure. If you have questions about your condition, talk to your health care provider.
The Cardiology Health Series offers easy access to health information on many topics, including heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart failure. Browse the topics to view animated videos and downloadable brochures organized to help patients with their journey towards better health management: understanding their diagnosis, then treatment options, and finally lifestyle changes that may help them manage their health problems long-term.


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Lendl completes amateur runaway
FAIRFIELD -- She was the first in her group to finish play Wednesday, and she took her ball out of the cup, walked back to her caddie, just wiped her hand on a towel.
It looked as if Daniela Lendl had a few holes still to play. In fact, she had rolled to victory in the 44th Connecticut State Women's Amateur Championship in businesslike style.
"I just wanted to make the putt," said Lendl, 16. "I didn't want to finish with a three-putt. I was excited, but I knew (my partners) still had to make their putts. I didn't want to disturb their rhythm. "I had to keep myself calm."
Lendl did that for three days, except perhaps for the first five holes Wednesday, when she went out in 4-over par. "Finally, my dad told me to relax," said Lendl, whose father, former tennis star Ivan, was her caddie for all three rounds.
Lendl recovered, shot par the rest of the way, and finished with a three-round total of 2-over-par 218 to win by 14 strokes. That's one better than the lead she had after Tuesday's second round, in which she set a course record with a 4-under 68.
Sarah Sideranko of New Britain shot 75, low round of the day, to finish second. Daria Cummings of Monroe was one stroke behind in third.
Cummings followed back-to-back 78s with a 77 Wednesday, but she couldn't forget several short, missed putts.
"I had to get my dad out of his evening commute (Tuesday) to come to Tashua and work with me," Cummings said. "I made him miss dinner for it."
Cummings will play for the USGA State Team in Fort Wayne, Ind., next month with Stamford's Debbie Johnson and Shelton's Lisa Fern-Boros.
Fern-Boros had a 79 Wednesday, which left her in sixth place. Johnson tied for 14th.
Jennifer Tierney of Danbury tied for seventh with a 240.
That tied her with Kelly Whaley, 12-year-old daughter of onetime Greater Hartford Open competitor Suzy Whaley.
Stephanie Ko of Darien tied for 14th with a 246, but she was thrilled to shoot a 78 Wednesday and break 80 for the first time.
Another woman from Darien, Becky Montgelas, shot 77, tied for the third-best of the day, and won the senior championship with a three-day 242 (11th overall). She said she consistently gave herself good chances to make her second putts.
She also put Tuesday's emotional crush behind her. One of her four sons, Ian, had just packed for college; she shot an 84, including a 47 through nine holes.
"I was playing with a friend of mine," Montgelas recalled with a laugh. "She said, 'What're you doing?'"
New Milford's Priscilla Wargo claimed the Super Senior championship. Wednesday's 83 gave her a three-round 250.
"I got a couple of lucky bounces," she said. "I kept it straight. That's what you have to do to win."
Kate Gulemi of Fairfield had been tied for sixth after the second round, but she withdrew because she had to return to a Wednesday afternoon class at Dartmouth.


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You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Mind' category.
Cacao is the seed of a fruit of an Amazonian tree that was brought to Central America during or before the time of the Olmecs. Cacao beans were so revered by the Mayans and Aztecs that they used them as money. Montezuma, the famous Aztec emperor, had his vaults filled not with gold but with about 960,000,000 raw cacao beans.
In 1753 Carl von Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish scientist, thought that cacao was so important that he named the genus and species of this tree Theobroma cacao, which literally means "cacao, the food of the gods."
Cacao beans contain no sugar and between 12% and 50% fat depending on variety and growth conditions. There is no evidence to implicate cacao bean consumption with obesity.
Sulfur and Magnesium
Cacao is remarkably rich in sulfur and magnesium.
It seems to be the #1 source of magnesium of any food. This is likely the primary reason women crave chocolate during the menstrual period.
Magnesium balances brain chemistry, builds strong bones, and is associated with more happiness. Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD); over 80% of Americans are chronically deficient in Magnesium.
Cacao is high in the beauty mineral sulfur. Sulfur builds strong nails, hair, beautiful, shiny skin, detoxifies the liver, and supports healthy pancreas functioning. Anecdotal reports indicate that cacao detoxifies mercury because it is so high sulfur.
Stimulant or Superfood?
Cacao contains subtle amounts of caffeine and theobromine. However, experiments have shown that these stimulants are far different when consumed raw than cooked.
Consider the following: Experimental provings of chocolate by Homeopaths indicate its stimulating effect when cooked. One experiment conducted with a decoction of roasted ground cacao beans in boiling water produced an excitement of the nervous system similar to that caused by black coffee, an excited state of circulation, and an accelerated pulse. Interestingly, when the same decoction was made with raw, unroasted beans neither effect was noticeable, leading the provers to conclude that the physiological changes were caused by aromatic substances released during roasting.
MAO Inhibitors
Cacao seems to diminish appetite, probably due to its monoamine oxidase enzyme inhibitors (MAO inhibitors) – these are different from digestiveenzyme inhibitors found in most nuts and seeds. These rare MAO inhibitors actually produce favorable results when consumed by allowing more serotonin and other neurotransmitters to circulate in the brain. MAO inhibitors facilitate youthening and rejuvenation.
Phenylethylamine (PEA)
Phenylethylamine (PEA) is found in chocolate. PEA is an adrenal-relatedchemical that is also created within the brain and released when we are in love. This is one of the reasons why love and chocolate have a deep correlation. PEA also plays a role in increasing focus and alertness.
Anandamide (The Bliss Chemical)
A neurotransmitter called anandamide, has been isolated in cacao. Anandamide is also produced naturally in the brain. Anandamide is known as "The Bliss Chemical" because it is released while we are feeling great. Cacao contains enzyme inhibitors that decrease our bodies' ability to breakdown anandamide. This means that natural anandamide and/or cacaoanandamide may stick around longer, making us feel good longer, when we eat cacao.
According to research cited in The New York Times, fresh cacao beans are super-rich in antioxidant flavonols. Cacao beans contain 10,000 milligrams (10 grams) per 100 grams of flavonol antioxidants. This is a whopping 10% antioxidant concentration level! This makes cacao one of the richest sources of antioxidants of any food. Compare the cacao bean to processed cocoa powder (defatted, roasted cacao treated with potassium carbonate) and chocolates which range in flavonol content from the more common concentration of 500 milligrams per 100 grams in normal chocolate bars to 5,000 milligrams in Mars Corporation's special Cocoapro cocoa powder. Research has demonstrated that the antioxidants in cacao are highly stable and easily available to human metabolism. Cornell University food scientists found that cocoa powder has nearly twice the antioxidants of red wine and up to three times what is found in green tea. Their findings were published in an article entitled "Cocoa has more Phenolic Phytochemicals and a higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine," found in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed publication. Scientists have known that cocoa contains significant antioxidants, but no one knew just how rich they were compared with those in red wine and green tea. The Cornell researchers, led by Chang Y. Lee, chairman of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., say the reason that cocoa leads the other drinks is its high content of antioxidant compounds called phenolic phytochemicals, or flavonoids. They discovered 611 milligrams of the phenolic compound gallic acid equivalents (GAE) and 564 milligrams of the flavonoid epicatechin equivalents (ECE) in a single serving of cocoa. Examining a glass of red wine, the researchers found 340 milligrams of GAE and 163 milligrams of ECE. In a cup of green tea, they found 165 milligrams of GAE and 47 milligrams of ECE. Antioxidant ORAC levels per 100 grams:
broccoli – 890
alfalfa sprouts – 930
plums – 949
brussel sprouts – 980
raspberries – 1220
spinach – 1260
strawberries – 1540
kale – 1,770
blackberries – 2036
blueberries – 2,400
raisins – 2,830
prunes – 5,770
dark chocolate – 13,120
The ORAC test examines the antioxidant levels of various foods. The higher the ORAC score, the higher the level of antioxidants present in the food. Source: US Department of Agriculture / Journal of the American Chemical Society
Cacao and dark chocolate boost antioxidants; however, the addition of dairy products/milk cancels out the effects of antioxidants. Studies indicate that dairy products specifically block the absorption of all the great antioxidants in chocolate.
Other facts on Raw Cacao beans
- Raw Cacao is the latest Raw Super Food available on the market today.
- It is a true super food unlike anything that has come before.
- As already previously discussed, it is the highest known source of anti-oxidants by a factor of almost 5.
- It has nearly 20 times the antioxidant levels of red wine and up to 30 times what is found in green tea.
- In nature, the primary source of Magnesium is cacao (raw chocolate beans).
Raw chocolate is known to have the following properties:
- Diminishes appetite and aids in weight loss.
- · Increases sensuality and beauty.
- · Helps to heal and open the heart.
- · Nourishes the intellect and attracts prosperity.
The flavor of Raw Cacao is similar to dark, bitter chocolate one would normally buy at a store. It is great just eaten plain, with honey, or in your favorite smoothi. (or blend Cacao Beans with Coconut Oil, Almond Butter and Honey – totally divine).
One of the main differences between raw cacao and the chocolate typically available on the open market (cocoa—a processed substance) is that raw cacao has all the original healthy cacao butter, containing all the original essential fatty acids and amazing taste originally found in the bean. Raw cacao or chocolate should not be confused with other substances such as coco (coconut), kola (a nut whose flavor is used in soft drinks), or coca (the leaf of the plant from which cocaine is derived). Cocoa and cocoa butter are cooked, processed substances derived from raw cacao nibs (orbeans/nuts). All chocolate starts out as raw cacao beans (or nuts —they are actually the seed of the cacao fruit which grows on a tropical tree). Processing, cooking and roasting corrupt the delicate, complex flavor of the cacao nib (bean without the skin). Raw cacao is one of the most, if not the most, nutrient rich and complex foods known to man.
Picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Cocoa_Pods.JPG/240px-Cocoa_Pods.JPG


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Congress finds that—
the Great Sand Dunes National Monument in the State of Colorado was established by Presidential proclamation in 1932 to preserve Federal land containing spectacular and unique sand dunes and additional features of scenic, scientific, and educational interest for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations;
(2) the Great Sand Dunes, together with the associated sand sheet and adjacent wetland and upland, contain a variety of rare ecological, geological, paleontological, archaeological, scenic, historical, and wildlife components, which—
include the unique pulse flow characteristics of Sand Creek and Medano Creek that are integral to the existence of the dunes system;
interact to sustain the unique Great Sand Dunes system beyond the boundaries of the existing National Monument;
(3) the Great Sand Dunes and adjacent land within the Great Sand Dunes National Monument—
provide extensive opportunities for educational activities, ecological research, and recreational activities; and
(4) other public and private land adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument—
offers additional unique geological, hydrological, paleontological, scenic, scientific, educational, wildlife, and recreational resources; and
(B) contributes to the protection of—
the surface and ground water systems that are necessary to the preservation of the dunes and the adjacent wetland; and
the wildlife, viewshed, and scenic qualities of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument;
some of the private land described in paragraph (4) contains important portions of the sand dune mass, the associated sand sheet, and unique alpine environments, which would be threatened by future development pressures;
(6) the designation of a Great Sand Dunes National Park, which would encompass the existing Great Sand Dunes National Monument and additional land, would provide—
greater long-term protection of the geological, hydrological, paleontological, scenic, scientific, educational, wildlife, and recreational resources of the area (including the sand sheet associated with the dune mass and the ground water system on which the sand dune and wetland systems depend); and
(7) land in and adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes National Monument is—
recognized for offering natural, ecological, wildlife, cultural, scenic, paleontological, wilderness, and recreational resources; and
preservation of this diversity of resources would ensure the perpetuation of the entire ecosystem for the enjoyment of future generations.
(Pub. L. 106–530, § 2, Nov. 22, 2000, 114 Stat. 2527.)


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I'd be interested in having RTC onboard
# The newer Micro-USB receptacles are designed for up to 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal between the receptacle and plug, compared to 1500 for the standard USB and 5000 for the Mini-USB receptacle. This is accomplished by adding a locking device and by moving the leaf-spring connector from the jack to the plug, so that the most-stressed part is on the cable side of the connection. This change was made so that the connector on the less expensive cable would bear the most wear instead of the more expensive micro-USB device.
There are only a couple of reasons that I can see the justification for the mini-USB connector:1) Availability of power adaptors/wall warts with a mini-USB plug output.2) No worries about a shield "shorting out" with the mini-USB jack.


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#1: Date Formats
I can't seem to update any of the attribute fields that are defined with the "Date" type. I've tried a bunch of different formats without luck, but each results in a 500 Intneral Server Error.
Some date formats that I've tried:
Code: Select all
curl -v -u admin:password -X PUT
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" \
-d '{"id":5445646,"folderId":5539667,"title":"Termination2","templateId":5603328,"attributes":[{"name":"carNo","value":"CAR-newer"},{"name":"modDate","value":"1974-07-27 13:12:07 +0100"}] }' \
This command works fine if the modDate attribute is a String type. It only fails when it is a Date type.
Code: Select all
1974-07-27 13:12:07 +0100
1974-07-27 13:12:07
1974-07-27 13:12:07
#2: Updating standard properties
I am using the REST API (in part) to migrate documents from our old document management system. I'd like to preserve the created/published date and user. Is there any way to update those fields via the REST API? The following has no effect:
I've also tried each of these. All appear to succeed, but nothing is updated:
Code: Select all
curl -v -u admin:password -X PUT \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" \
-d '{"id":5445646,"folderId":5539667,"title":"Termination2","create}' \
Thanks for the help.
Code: Select all
"date": "2017-03-09 11:06:41 -0500"
"creation": "2017-03-09 11:06:41 -0500"
"lastModified": "2017-03-09 14:52:33 -0500"
"publisher": "User"
"publisherId": 5341184
"creator": "User"
"creatorId": 5341184


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Defender Tony Hibbert was born in Merseyside, home to Everton FC, in 1981. He won a championship with Everton's youth club in 1998 and has played with the English Premier League team since 2001. But the most critical thing you have to know about Tony Hibbert is that he had never scored a goal. Ever.
Through 309 career matches with Everton, not once did Hibbert ever find the back of the net during a match. Now, in English soccer, when you play with the same club for 10 seasons, they honor your continued service with what's called a testimonial. It's usually an exhibition at home against some less-talented international squad. Basically, it's meant as a kind of Player Appreciation Night, and it's a very prestigious honor. Tonight, while the rest of England was busy watching the Olympics, Hibbert's testimonial took place against AEK Athens.
Now, Hibbert (you might guess) is an off-the-charts fan favorite in Merseyside — the BBC considers him a "huge cult hero" among the team's supporters — and folks have been looking forward to his testimonial for months. Here's what the Guardian said back when the match was announced in June:
Long-serving Everton defender Tony Hibbert will have a testimonial against AEK Athens at Goodison Park on August 8. The 31-year-old, a graduate of the club's academy, has made 309 appearances since his Toffees' debut in 2001. And never scored. Here's hoping the Greeks will gift him a goal that night.
It was such a big deal that Wayne Rooney asked if he could play for Everton, in a move that would've reunited him with his old friend and teammate:
The Manchester United striker, who left his boyhood club in acrimonious circumstances in 2004, asked to support his former team-mate Hibbert in his testimonial against AEK Athens on Wednesday night, only for the game to clash with United's high-profile friendly with Barcelona in Gothenburg.
Hibbert said: "It was great that he asked me but it just worked out that Manchester United also have a game and he was quite upset when he realised. It says everything about Wayne that he was willing to do that. He probably would have got a bad reception but he is not fazed about that. He loves Everton. Deep down he is still an Evertonian.
Meanwhile, Hibbert was certainly feeling the pressure going into tonight's match. He even had an idea how he wanted to score if presented the opportunity:
Hibbert has never scored in 309 appearances for Everton, an unwanted club record, but claims to have no plans to take a penalty should one be awarded against AEK. He said: "Everyone has been asking me that. The manager hasn't said anything, nobody has. I would rather us win 1-0 than us get beaten 2-1 and I score the goal. I just want to win. I don't know why everyone is saying I should take a penalty either. It's an easy way of scoring, isn't it? If I'm going to do it, I want it to be a 30-yarder."
The other key thing is that the Everton fans decided long ago that when (not really if) Hibbert scored, they would riot on the field. In fact, the single comment on this YouTube video from a few months ago, showing Hibbert scoring in practice (and the crowd playfully cheering the moment), is WHEN HIBBO SCORES WE ROIT :). (You get the idea.)
Of course, Tony Hibbert scored his first career goal today, off a free kick from not quite 30 yards out. The TV broadcast video is up above, but many fans had their videocams rolling when Hibbert readied his free kick, and a few kept rolling even as they rioted. Click through for a sampling of some other fan-shot videos.


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The Business Roundtable's quarterly index of CEO confidence last month hit its highest level since the survey began late in 2002. But the latest survey was conducted in February, before the Trump administration announced protectionist tariffs on steel and aluminum. The business lobbying group warned Tuesday that those tariffs could undermine the economic benefits and CEO optimism spurred by the GOP's tax cuts and deregulation.
"By taking measures to restrict international trade, the Trump Administration risks undoing this economic progress and harming American workers and businesses who rely on trade to stay competitive in the global marketplace," Business Roundtable President and CEO Joshua Bolten said in a statement. "Rather than undermining the benefits of tax reform and regulatory relief, the Administration should move forward with a positive trade agenda that expands opportunity for American businesses and workers."


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(or Daddy or Grandma or someone else important)
MUSIC with MUMMY is a structured programme of weekly classes for pre-school children aged three and under. Its main aim is to teach basic aspects of music to young children, while having fun. Each half term the children are introduced to a different learning concept through a new theme in the songs, games and activities. The material has been specially composed to gently direct these very young children towards our clearly defined objectives.
Classes are run by trained franchisees who have been carefully selected for their suitability. No more than 10 children are accepted in each class. Children, accompanied by an adult, attend a half hour class each week. Groups are run all over the UK and in many other English speaking countries. Use our POST CODE search facility to find your local franchisee and details of classes in your area.


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For those of you who have followed my radio career since 1991, you know that I'm a patriotic fan of American sports and the Olympics always seems to capture my attention in at least some small way.
This year, with local hero Michael Phelps back in the daily consciousness, it makes sense that I'd be interested in a Baltimore guy who has already made plenty of history but is trying to nab these three medals to be the most decorated athlete in the history of the world.
He's from Towson. WNST is in Towson. I've attended two parades in his honor. As I said on my Facebook page, he's kinda a big deal around here.
On Saturday, I began my morning after the Opening Ceremonies at 4 a.m. Immediately, I saw live tweets coming Andrea Kramer and others from London regarding Michael Phelps being in the pool for heats. I turned on NBC before sunrise and watched some early morning pool action. Phelps wasn't strong but made the finals and I was intrigued by a Lochte vs. Phelps showdown "later tonight." I downloaded the NBC schedule and saw that the finals were actually happening around 1:30 p.m. our time. The website even has a "your time" vs. "London time" setting.
I literally built my day around watching Michael Phelps swim for a gold medal.
Sometime around 2 p.m. I realized that NBC's main feed was strangely nowhere near a pool and was more in "female pitch" time, doing feel good pieces on the gymnastics team and showing the already-tired Youtube girls swim team video of "Call Me Maybe" for the fourth time. I thought maybe the schedule on the web was wrong.
Sometime around 2:20 p.m. I became a little suspicious and I had the audacity to open my laptop on Facebook and Twitter and found out within 20 seconds of the end of the race that Ryan Lochte had defeated Michael Phelps soundly.
Within minutes, the global assault on NBC – via #NBCFail — had begun and I was among the millions who were duped into thinking that the biggest sporting event of the day – held in the middle of a sports Saturday in America no less – would be suppressed and embargoed by the network that paid billions of dollars to have exclusive "live" coverage of the London Olympics.
What a strange, stupid decision the folks at NBC made – a mandate to embarrass virtually everyone associated with anything "news" for their whole company.
Then, keeping with the rank and file mandate of some NBC exec in New York, on the 6 p.m. newscast WBAL-TV opted to "pretend" that the race hadn't happened yet, speaking of it in the future tense. They even did a live shot at Meadowbrook and asked the reporter to drum up "people can't wait for the race" rhetoric when every 15-year old who swims at the club had known the result for four hours.
Just monumentally embarrassing, especially for a local television station that uses "Live, Local and Latebreaking" as a trite mantra to attract people with gray hair who still think news doesn't happen until 6 p.m.
God bless Sarah Caldwell (who I like a lot) but if some suit in New York told me to do the nightly "news" and then asked me to stare into the camera with integrity and pretend I didn't know who won four hours after it was over?
Does anyone over there have a brain?
Twenty minutes later an almost contrite Gerry Sandusky offered to give the result only after pleading the viewership to turn the station off for a few seconds if they didn't want the result.
Where is Dan Joerres or someone on TV Hill to call "bullhockey" on these goofy local news embargoes, especially when the Baltimore local news leads without giving the Michael Phelps result on the network that had the live rights to it?
The equally corrupt jokers next door at WJZ-TV and the CBS Locals must've been howling with laughter in the newsroom.
It's 2012. There's this little thing called the internet that allows us to share information in a free society.
But this isn't as much about the embarrassment of WBAL-TV – heck the AM 1090 radio side proved their mettle as a news organization back during the 2006 "Free The Birds" walkout when the audio broadcast was essentially a 75-minute chant without nary a word of a protest of the Orioles that day – it's really amazing that anyone associated with NBC's news operation would bless this style of "journalism" regarding sports.
I guess nothing shocks me anymore – at the local or national media level — especially when a bunch of suits in New York smell freshly printed green money without regard to the customers.
But who exactly are they trying to appeal to by withholding the live events and pretending that anyone would tune in at 9:40 p.m. to watch a swimming race that everyone in the world had access to the result of if they cared enough to care about who won the race more than seven hours earlier?
Yesterday NBC Sports got what it deserved – a failing grade and a 2012 new media spanking in real time called #NBCFail.
In 1968, it was called "Heidi."
In 2012, it's called trending.
When will these guys learn they're not really in control of information anymore?
The world – from wars to storms, from swimming results to the corruption of corporate money in our society to guys dressed up as The Joker on shooting sprees in Aurora – goes on in real time.
Not in tape delay.


text:
Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
(written from a Production point of view)
Landon Cary Dalton (born 7 August 1963; age 57) won the Grand Prize of the first Strange New Worlds anthology competition in 1998 with his short story, "A Private Anecdote". This is his only known professional publication to date.
He currently lives in Kentucky.
External link
- Landon Cary Dalton at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
Community content is available under CC-BY-NC unless otherwise noted.


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Butterfly ballot? Absentee form instructions murky
Andrew Devereux, a Charlottesville resident studying in Baltimore, was stunned when he opened the envelope containing his absentee ballot. Even with all eyes on voting practices nationwide in the wake of Florida's catastrophic malfunction during the 2000 presidential election, it seems that Charlottesville may have a confusing ballot of its own.
On October 22, Devereux met fellow Johns Hopkins University graduate student Teresa Cribelli over coffee so that she could witness his signature on his absentee forms. But when they opened the packet, they found two sets of instructions. One set directed him to mark an "X" by his candidate's name, but a second set specifically directed him to completely shade in the box. "The wording is contradictory," he says.
During the height of the 2000 controversy, Devereux was working at the Eisenhower Center for American Studies, an arm of the University of New Orleans dedicated to political research and presidential history. "I've been following this sort of thing very closely over the last four years," he says.
Since neither he nor his witness knew what to make of the directions, he called the ultimate authority on the matter, Charlottesville registrar Sheri Iachetta. She thanked Devereux for his watchdog sensibilities and promised to change the ballot before the next election.
"We've only had one complaint," she says. "I'm not worried about it at all."
Devereux's not so sure. "I called the registrar, who said, 'Oh, are you calling about the boxes?' So obviously they had heard about this before," he recalls.
Either way, Iachetta is quick to laud the equipment's sensitivity and promised that nothing would interfere with the vote. "The scanner will take any mark in the box," says Iachetta. "We've had people send back ballots that are crumpled, and the scanner reads them. As long as it's in the box, it doesn't matter."
According to Iachetta, the ballots in question were sent out to more people than usual this year. "I've sent out 1200 absentee ballots and received almost 1000 back," she says. "That's more than we've ever had."
In this hotly contested election, political enthusiasts of all persuasions are on edge. Allegations of faulty voter registration practices have been heard from left-leaning groups in Ohio and conservative activists in Oregon.
Devereux doesn't find the Charlottesville situation comparable to more egregious situations out west. "Whether there's intent or not, when voters are disenfranchised, it's not a democracy," he says.
So what did Devereux do in the end? "I shaded it in," he says. "I hope that counts." Iachetta assures that it will.


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By Mary Logan
The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves. –Oscar Arias Sanchez
It is easy to get distracted when the world appears to be falling down around our heads. This week, the Emergist reports that he has gotten waylaid by intrusions at the personal scale, and relates those intrusions back to the principles of emergy and transformity. Here's a snippet below from his blog this week about the transformity of his education, his feelings about his competing needs of parenting at the personal scale, and the urge to give to actions at the larger scale, and the relative value and costs of education in our society. The post is warm, funny, and something that I've been thinking about this week, too. Go read it, please, and I'll wait right here while you do.
The Emergist Attacked by Two Toddlers
This blog has gone quiet for sometime, not that I haven't had anymore topics to blog about, but because my oldest toddler has learned to turn off the computer. I actually have two posts fully thought out and half written. Further complicating the process is that the older one grabs the tip of my nose whenever he wants my attention, which is all the time, while his sister sneak attacks by smearing saliva on the screen with her hands. This all significantly ups the ante to write anything.
Now this all seems like an emergetic impossibility. There has easily been spent a hundred more times money (a possible proxy for energy) spent on my life than both of their lives combined (Fig 1 or pg 285 EPS). That means that I should have a way higher transformity. Transformity is a measure of all the organizing energy that has been invested into a person or thing. Odum says that as transformity goes up then both my influence and territory should go up. How is he so wrong?… The rest is at this link…
Pretty funny, huh, that bit about the saliva on the screen? Anyone who is a parent can relate. You may even be able to relate if you have a cat. The Emergist appears to be having difficulty with some of the same issues I've wrestled with this week, with some of the same results. Drafts of more complex posts about principles get waylaid by competing demands and focus at the personal scale when chaos comes knocking.
What does he mean by transformity?
First of all, we should probably check the terms that the Emergist is using. He talks about the implied transformity of his education–reading between the lines, apparently a significant amount of money was spent. The money spent on education is an inaccurate proxy for the energy, materials, and information that support the changes in roles in a person's life, as environmental resources flow upwards through the economy and its education system, to support the student from school, to college, and beyond. This process is a hierarchy, with fewer people reaching the higher stages. Energy losses at each stage dictate that those with the highest transformity (on the right in the diagram below) have the highest emergy (or energy memory). In Emergy synthesis, the process of valuation considers the indirect and direct contributions of ecological processes using equivalents of solar energy rather than monetary metrics to consider differences in quality of energy. It approaches valuation from a donor-based or supply side independent of the more usual economic demand-based approach that is dependent on subjective values of willingness to pay. So in this discussion, the word valuation reflects the inherent value of a process, irregardless of demand, societal need, or political preference.
In a recent paper describing Human Transformities in a Global Hierarchy, Abel (2010) makes the point that educational attainment is only one measure of value within a socioeconomic hierarchy, albeit one near and dear to the hearts of academics. There are more ways to add to the cultural information storage, such as inspirational or transformational parenting during a time of great transition and experimentation. Abel explains it thusly:
Humans possess and perpetuate cultural information, and possession of differing information, for Odum, is what differentiates people within the human hierarchy described here. He provides the simple formula, "human service is evaluated by multiplying the energy expended by a human being by the transformity of that person's education and experience" (Odum, 1996, p. 230). Note that he used the phrase "education and experience." In his formulations, however, he only utilized data on educational levels. This is not surprising, since this data is readily available. However, as suggested above, other cultural information beyond formal education is essential to the construction of human hierarchy. While that information is far more difficult to articulate, its existence and importance gives us reason to accept the possibility that human hierarchy is more complicated and perhaps more expansive than Odum expected. . . . Anthropologists and sociologists have critically studied the nature of human inequality. Bourdieu has demonstrated that the information of enculturation from parents and peers, not (only) formal education, provides the distinction necessary for the reproduction of social hierarchy (Bourdieu, 1984). Information about behaviors that are appropriate and defining of social status, or information about the use of power, these are the practical reasoning from which differentiation grows. As we know, many world elites are children of past elites, forming dynasties of great power (Domhoff, 1998). The transmission of cultural information from parents and role models has surely contributed to the fortunes of successive generations (Abel, 2010, p. 2115-6).
The Emergist complains that he should have a way higher transformity than his current role of parenthood, due to his education. In terms of transformity, the energy memory vested within the Emergist (the value) is there, so his transformity is what it is, from a donor-based perspective. The issue is whether that value is being used optimally by society. And the Emergist may be selling himself short regarding the relative values of his various contributions. Transformational, creative ideas that change society are of great value, and during a time of turmoil those ideas may not be generated within bureaucratic, dogmatic educational systems. They may, instead, be passed down through more informal means such as parenting of novel thinking leading to dynasties of new world views. The systems sort through the relative values, and over time and select for the optimal empower, as I will explain below.
At the larger scale, the money spent on The Emergist's education is an inaccurate proxy for a concurrent, converging transformation of energy, materials, and information from the environmental base, through the economy, into the university, where teaching processes refine knowledge, produce students, and add to short-term information such as the internet, and long-term information, such as scientific principles in books and art and literature in humanities and our culture.
Given the energy invoked by society in moving the Emergist through the educational process, he feels the obligation to contribute more than he does when wiping his daugher's saliva off the computer screen. We can find one of the earliest reflections of some basic emergetic principles in the Bible's Parable of the Faithful Servant; "To whomever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked" (Luke, 12:35-48, World English Bible). Privilege brings responsibility and that responsibility entails accountability. Many cultures have echoed that theme, and the modern-day concept of servant leadership is a modern reflection of the idea that we must put the needs of others first when we lead, before personal needs of power, fame, or material possessions.
What happened to the popularity of John F. Kennedy's maxim for individual action that feeds back to the larger system: "Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country." Those were rousing words that struck a nerve in our country, and served to ignite a decade of rapid growth. Yet those words were also followed by more selfish instructions, perhaps, for our country's behavior at the global scale. The message for national policy was a call to arms, and a subtle sanctioning of the global reach of empire, as America began to feel her power in the 1960s. "My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man" (JF Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961 inaugural address). Our national pursuit of empire was triggered with these words, and we never looked back, energetically. Eventually, our actions mirrored our country's pursuit of empire, with selfless individual actions giving way to pursuit of power and wealth, which have brought us to overshoot and decay.
How does the principle of maximum power impact the transformity of education?
The Emergist complains that, "Transformity is a measure of all the organizing energy that has been invested into a person or thing. Odum says that as transformity goes up then both my influence and territory should go up. How is he so wrong?" The operational word here is "should." Systems that operate optimally maximize energy and emergy flows through the system, with reinforcement of pathways that optimize for maximum output. A fourth proposed law of energetics, the Maximum Power Principle states that "in the competition among self-organizing processes, network designs that maximize empower will prevail" (Odum, 1996). "Because designs with greater performance prevail, self-organization selects network connections that feed back transformed energy to increase inflow of resources or to use them more efficiently" (Odum, 2000). The later reformulation, Maximum (Em)Power, describes the maximum rate of emergy acquisition. "In time, through the process of trial and error, complex patterns of structure and processes have evolved…the successful ones surviving because they use materials and energies well in their own maintenance, and compete well with other patterns that chance interposes" (Odum, n.d.).
Therefore, efficient societies will make sure that useful education and enculturation feeds back into the system to optimize the system relative to power flows. But during rapid periods of growth, such as we have had in the United States during the past 50 years, energy may be wasted and efficiency is lower as the goal is maximum power. During descent, we will need to become much more efficient. During the transition, large mismatches between employment and the educational system that feeds it may occur. Ideally, important principles are promoted through education, and those principles are embodied through education in students, who carry them forward in society through employment or other contributions to society that maximize empower. But there are many wasteful imbalances in society, given the complexity of society, the rates of empower, and the rapid rate of change during transition. Are we focusing on the best principles to prepare people for new jobs that will evolve in a system in descent? How long will it take for the system to change, given the time lag of a long educational pipeline, rigid tenured faculty and reductionist curriculum, and the dominance of irrelevant corporate overgrowth in our complex society?
The Emergist suggests that a secure, well-educated child may be more valuable to society over the long run than either his own transformity or that of the internet. That is possible, given the role of the internet as a form of short-term memory for society of information retrieval, rehearsal, response selection, and selective attention. While the energy memory of the internet is vast, if the internet disappeared tomorrow, how would that impact society, besides a big short-term mess and accelerated descent? Which is of more value to society over the long run–a secure, well-educated child, or set of interesting blog posts that may or may not be viewed widely as shared information, and which could wink out quickly in the current environment of descent. If the Emergist places his child in daycare, and goes off to work for a living pursuing the dollar at Goldman Sachs, the GDP goes up, but what is his value to society, and how are we valuing his education? How much familial interaction is necessary to promoting healthy personhood in a complex society? Odum also suggested that pulsing maximizes empower. Perhaps optimal pulsing for humans in complex societies consists of a certain amount of familial action balanced against interactions at the larger scale? How do we balance more global actions with local as we descend?
Who's to say amidst the chaos of rapid change in a highly complex society? The thermodynamics of the situation will sort themselves out as new ways of doing and being are trialled during transition. Maximum empower will select for a more efficient society, but what structures will evolve, and how rapidly will things change? As usual, I have more questions than answers.
What is the transformity of my personal action?
The fall season is a time for shifting gears, reevaluation, and new action. The harvest moon yesterday, the autumnal equinox tomorrow, the sounds of geese honking as they begin their migrations, and the promise of snow trigger deep thoughts about personal meaning. Winter is coming.
The Emergist says:
Ignore those saying individual actions don't matter.
Ignore those saying only individual actions matter.
I would agree. Here are my thoughts on how to deal constructively with the crushing problems we face on a global scale. The focus on problems at the larger scale, which we cannot change as isolated individuals, can lead us to learned helplessness, which then leads to anxiety, and emotional/behavioral shutdown. Shutting down leads to depression and the inability to move forward either personally or on the national scale. What can we change? What are we not helpless about? What power do we have?
I am doctorally-prepared. Society and my family have contributed maximally to my education and upbringing. But I am 57 years old, and I'm weary of working the many roles and jobs that are increasingly assigned to me in those roles by systems that I do not value and that I consider irrelevant or damaging to the planet. We have the power to do and to act. We can invest our time, attention, and emotional energy where we have the power. I can divest from the old and reinvest in the new with passion and purpose if I honor my feelings and consider the highest and best use of my knowledge and skills at both the local and larger scale levels.
Free your mind, and the rest will follow. Be honest about how you feel, honor those feelings, decide what you can do, at a scale of influence that you feel comfortable at. Try new things out, and if they don't work out, don't beat yourself up. The current era is a time of radical change, and the evolution of culture will require a lot of trial and error to sort through maximum empower for a new structure for society. Use your education and skills at what you consider to be the highest and best use for promoting positive change within the system. Keep educating yourself about the changes that we need to make in society, whether through informal or formal networks of education. Find your new niche and engage your community. Think globally, and act locally. Then, if that works, reach out and try acting at a larger scale. Just keep moving forward.
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another. –-Ellen Goodman


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Unionville High School Book Sale
Welcome to the UHS Book Sale
The 2020 sales dates were:
- Friday, February 21st, NO FRIDAY SALE THIS YEAR!
- Saturday, February 22nd, 8 AM - 4 PM (Note NEW HOURS)
- $10 Bag Sale, Sunday, February 23rd, 11 AM - 3 PM.
Neighborhood collection was Saturday, January 18th, 2020:
Thanks to the student volunteers, adult volunteers and community for the continued support! You can also donate books at any UCF school.
Sale location:
Unionville High School
Gymnasium Entrance
750 Unionville Road
Kennett Square, Pa 19348
Phone (School Main Office) - (610) 347-1600
Need Directions? You can get them here.
*For more information on the Unionville and Kennett Square areas, please see the "About Unionville, PA" section to the right of this page.
Open the 2020 Used Book Sale Mailer.
About Unionville, PA
Unionville is a village in Southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Unionville High School (UHS) is in the Unionville Chadds Ford School District.
UHS is a highly-ranked school within both Pennsylvania and the USA.
You can get directions to UHS here.


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Sandy is gone, and Honeywell has new president of authorized dealer groups
Here in Hollywood, Fla. on the first night of Honeywell's annual First Alert Professional Convention, the weather is balmy and we dined on shrimp and key lime pie—and felt lucky to be here.
Not too many days ago Florida was being buffeted by the high winds generated by Hurricane Sandy, and of course other parts of the East Coast—particularly New Jersey, the state Honeywell calls home—took a beating from it early this week.
And what with the damage, loss of power and thousands of cancelled flights, some East Coast dealers areas who regularly attend this event haven't been able to make it this year.
Still, attendance tonight at the convention, called Connect 2012, looked strong. And Honeywell officials tell me that while they don't have an official count yet, they're pleased at the numbers who did make it. The conference attracts dealers from across the nation and Canada. There also are dealers from places such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. I had interesting conversations with some of those attendees at dinner.
And I'm looking forward to the first full day of the conference tomorrow. Among those we'll hear from is Marek Robinson, a longtime Honeywell employee who recently was promoted to be president of authorized dealer groups.
Robinson, with Honeywell since 1995 and most recently western region director of sales for Honeywell Systems, will be focusing on the First Alert Professional and Commercial Security Systems dealer programs. He'll be introducing himself at the convention to dealers who haven't met him yet. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say.


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Lamphun, ThailandKirsty Turner
Situated to the south east of Chiang Mai, Lamphun Province is steeped in history and culture. The province capital is the quiet town of Lamphun, which can be found 670 kilometres from Bangkok. The town is located on the bank of the Kuang River and contains many interesting attractions including ancient sites and relics, forests, mountains and pretty lakes. Lamphun is also well known as a producer of longans, the extremely sweet and delicious Thai fruit with its hard, yellow shell.
Lamphun is an area of great natural beauty. Particularly picturesque is the Mae Ping National Park, with its lush forests and the Ping River running through it. The park is also home to the seven-tiered Namtok Ko Luang and a limestone cave full of stalactites and stalagmites.
Another area of intense natural beauty is the Doi Khun Tan National Park, with its pretty orchids and lilies as well as impressive bamboo and pine forests. Namtok Tat Moei is an imposing waterfall in this park and an interesting feature is that it can be reached directly by train from Chiang Mai.
Lamphun is blessed with a large number of sites of highly respected historical and cultural importance. Wat Phra That Hariphunchai was built during the reign of King Arthitayarat, a descendant of Queen Chamthewi, around 800 years ago. Principal features of this temple include the 46-metre tall golden chedi and the Khmer-style Buddha statue. Other interesting temples in this area include Wat Phra Yuen, Wat Mahawan, Wat Chamthewi and the highly revered Wat Phra Phutthabat Tak Pha, where according to legend the Lord Buddha once stayed, leaving a likeness of monk's saffron robe and his footprint imprinted in the stone ground.
The impressive Hariphunchai National Museum is a good place to discover the area's rich and interesting history. The museum features displays of prehistoric human skeletons and objects of arts from the Dvaravati, Hariphunchai, Lanna and Rattanakosin periods. There also some interesting displays of temple art, which has been carefully collected and displayed over a period of several years.
Another way to get an idea of the area's history and culture is by visiting Ban Hong, which is the site of a warm and welcoming 1,400-year-old community dating back to the Hariphunchai Kingdom.
If you are interested in handicrafts, the cotton weaving village of Pasong makes a good day trip. Whilst there, pay a visit to Wat Chang Khao No and the bustling market places, where you can buy a wide range of cotton products.
There are a large number of interesting celebrations in Lamphun Province. Particularly vibrant is the Lam Yai Festival, which takes place in the second week of August. Also known as the Longan Fair, the objective is to promote the area's sweet and succulent the fruit. The festival features a parade of floats made from longan fruit and the Miss Lam Yai contest.
Another popular event is the Song Nam Phra That Hariphunchai which is held to celebrate the province's principal religious site and takes place in May.


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If $K = \mathbb{Q}(\alpha)$ is a number field, where $\alpha$ is algebraic, and $\mathcal{O}_K$ the ring of integers in $K$, then the set of fractional ideals over $\mathcal{O}_K$ forms a group and if we mod out by the set of principal ideals, the resulting group is finite and we call its size the class number of $K$, which we denote $h(K)$.
I have two questions regarding the class number of imaginary quadratic fields:
If we consider the function $f(d) = h(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}))$ which maps the negative integers to the positive integers, do we know that this function is surjective? That is, can every positive integer be realized as the class number of an imaginary quadratic field extension of $\mathbb{Q}$?
We know that $h(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}))$ tends to infinity as $d$ tends to negative infinity, since there are at most finitely many imaginary quadratic fields with a given class number. However, do we have a rough estimate at how large class numbers can be relative to $|d|$? That is, if we consider the function $f(D) = \max_{|d| \leq D} h(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}))$ where $d < 0$, do we have any idea how large $f$ can be relative to $D$?
Thanks for any insights.


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After taking a big consumer perception hit in the wake of losing its Apple lawsuit on August 24, Samsung began to rebound one week later.
Leading the Samsung rebound are adults aged 18 to 34. Scores among this demographic have rebounded to where they were prior to the verdict, and have even edged past Apple's scores over the past couple of days.
Another important constituency, early technology adopters, also registered a steep drop off in scores but perception has now recovered more than half of its initial drop and appears poised for full recovery.
While sales of the Samsung Galaxy S3 may have surpassed the iPhone 4S just this past month, Samsung's consumer perception has been close to Apple's all year, and has occasionally overtaken Apple, although never for very long.
Apple and Samsung were measured with YouGov BrandIndex's Buzz score, which asks consumers: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or by word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" Results were filtered for all consumers, adults who consider themselves early technology adopters, and all adults 18 to 34.
For the first three weeks of August, both Apple and Samsung were very close in perception with both adults and early tech adopters. Conversely, the group that is fueling Samsung's rebound the most, 18 to 34 year-olds, had better perception scores for Apple for most of that time period.
However, that changed once the verdict was announced on Friday, August 24. Samsung's Buzz score was cut in half from 26 on that day to 12 by August 31, while Apple rose modestly from 33 to 38 in the same period, making a 26 point difference between the two brands at the end of the month. For early tech adopters, the gap between the two brands at month's end was even wider –39 points.
As with the first two demographic groups, adults aged 18 to 34 went through a similar decline in buzz score from 32 to 10, but turned back up sharply. Samsung eventually surpassed Apple's buzz on September 5 (36 vs. 26). Interestingly, Apple's 26 buzz score for this demo is a little below where it was two days before the verdict was announced, 32.
Current trends indicate that the other two groups are also on the road to full recovery. Buzz scores among adults 18+ have increased from 12 on August 31 to 19 on September 5. The early adopter demo showed a jump from 3 to 19, the same Buzz among all consumers.


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The daily search for a great bottle of wine. Or at least an affordable one!
Just a quick update from 365corks.com. I've recently relocated to Huntington Beach, California and all that has to offer. In the coming days/weeks I'll start posting reviews again after a more than lengthy layoff. Life has a way of getting in the way of a good blog. I hope to find some decent wines and decent prices and share those with you. Stay tuned.
Estrella 2009 Chardonnay
Started out with mixed emotions about this 2009 Estrella Chardonnay. In fact, I thought I would give it 3 Corkscrews up until the point that I sat down at the computer and changed my mind settling on the 4 Corkscrews I ended up awarding. Now behind my reasoning. I was shopping in the local wine section and seeing the same old wines I see there every time I visit the store. Same prices as well with most of the stuff I've been buying around the $11-12/bottle range. Much to my surprise the Estrella was on a lower shelf and displayed a price of $4.99. Yes you read that right, $4.99! Now if you're like me the first thing that pops in your head is that this must be some crappy wine? Why else would it be priced so ridiculously low? Fortunately for the good folks at the vineyard, I'm one who will take a chance on a cheap wine in hopes that I can find an undiscovered jewel. I don't know that I can put this one in the jewel category but it is worth every cent I paid for it and then some. On the nose this wine displays lots of fruit and, how's the best way to put this, "thickness". Now I know you're saying "How can you smell thickness?" Well, you just can! Maybe bold or strong might be better words but I'm staying with "thickness". Darkish yellow in color my first taste revealed strong apple flavor and honeydew melon. A little bit of oak but not overpowering. The "thickness" I noticed on the nose was evident on the palate as well. If you don't like a bold, really tasteful Chardonnay, stay away from this one because it packs a lot of flavor in each sip. I wasn't really crazy about the finish as it had a little burn to it. If not for the $4.99 price I would have given this 3 Corkscrews but the most excellent price was what put me over the edge to 4 Corkscrews. I highly recommend this one if you can find it anywhere from $4.99 - $6.50/bottle. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine.
2010 IRONY Pinot Noir
I picked this one up at our local Wegmans having never heard anything about it. It was an act of faith as its retail price was $12.99/bottle and just about every Pinot Noir I've ever had at that low of a price point sucked! Every once in awhile you find a jewel in a lower priced wine and this is just such a jewel. My only hope is that it stays undiscovered for awhile as I'm sure once the word gets out on this wine the price is likely to shoot up. I opened it and allowed it to breathe for about 30 minutes. Not that 30 minutes is some magical number it just so happened that soon after I opened it #1 summoned me to attend to one of my many honey-dos on the old honey-do list and it was 30 minutes before my chore was complete. I poured that first glass and took a good look under the lights to see how "rich" it appeared. Not a deep ruby red like you see in Cabernet's, and some Pinot Noirs, but a medium bodied red. I've noticed that cheaper Pinots seem to be light red in color and easy to see through. Not scientific at all this peering through the glass but something I've found to be a good indicator. On the nose I picked up a little clove, cherry and maybe just a touch of vanilla. I took my first drink and slowly swirled. On the palate I noted that this was just bursting with all kinds of fruit. Cherry, strawberry, raspberry and even a little plum came to mind. A very smooth finish to say the least. I didn't taste any tannins at all. #1 was right behind me in tasting this one and also proclaimed how much she liked it. After I told her the price she liked it even more and promptly dispatched me to buy more the next day before the price went up. Haven't given a 5 Corkscrew rating in some time but this one made it easy. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine, especially this one!
Orange County, Virginia Wine, Wings & Wheels
Just a quick post regarding the Orange County, Virginia Wine-Wings-Wheels two-day event that will be held on October 22 & 23. Beautiful country and well worth the trip if you're looking for something to do that weekend. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Enjoy Life, Drink Wine!
Jaume Serra Cristalino Brut from Spain
I don't usually do a lot of reviews on champagne, or sparkling wine as it's known from countries other than France, but we had the Jaume Serra Cristalino at a recent milestone birthday party, yours truly, and I just had to jot a few lines about it. We ended up buying a case of this for the party and only had one bottle left by the end of the night. We had purchased equal amounts of red and white wine and this sparkling one was the favorite of all who attended. Light yellow color this wine is very lively when first poured. Make sure you use an appropriate stem to allow it to fully open up and to get the best flavor this wine has to offer. On the nose I picked up a slight amount of yeast with green apple and tangerine. On the palate more fruit, the green apple made another appearance, along with a slight hint of lime and possibly passion fruit. Not as dry as other sparkling wine's I've had, that's a good thing in this case, and a finish that is nice but doesn't linger. We had this with a variety of heavy finger foods and by itself as the night wore own. An informal canvas of this wine had it rated at 4 Corkscrews which I easily concur with. It retails for about $7.00 a bottle so definitely won't break the bank. Pick this one up for your next party or whenever you just want to enjoy a nice glass of cham, I mean, sparkling wine! Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Enjoy Life, Drink Wine and a little Champagne every once in awhile.
New Winery Open in Little Washington, Virginia
Just found out that a new winery has opened in our area. The Little Washington Winery in Little Washington, Virginia sounds like it will be a nice one and I plan to do a review just as soon as I can get out there. I've eaten at The Inn at Little Washington and it is truly an experience everyone should have before they die. We got a tour of the kitchen after dinner at it was just an incredible set up. It is definitely destination dining. Have a great weekend. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
2010 Cielo Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie
Tonight's review is of a 2010 Cielo Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie from Italy. We picked this one up for $8.00/bottle at The Grapevine in Warrenton, Virginia. I was looking for a wine that would stand up on its own as well as one that we could have with fish, chicken or something similar. Can't say I uncorked this one as it has the screw top that we're seeing on more and more wines. Very light gold in color on the nose this one showed hints of apricot and grass. Once I poured and allowed it to warm up just a little I tasted more of the apricot and other citrus, maybe lime, with a little hint of spice. Nice and crisp wine, a little dry but not too much, and a nice, easy finish. I ended up drinking this with a baked potato with just a touch of butter and a smattering of sharp cheddar cheese and it went together wonderfully. I originally gave this one 3 Corkscrews but after further consideration bumped it up to 4 Corkscrews due to its' great price and excellent flavor/acidity combination. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!
Virginia Wine Lover Party Tips
As a print and e-newsletter subscriber to Virginia Wine Lover Magazine I get a monthly edition mailed to the house as well as a newsletter that hits my inbox on occasion. This latest edition had a link to hosting a Virginia Wine Tasting Party along with a variety of forms that can be used in planning and hosting the party. A great idea that could be used with Virginia wines as well as any other regions you might want to include. #1 and I attended a wine tasting party several years ago and it was a blast. Come to think of it we really need to have another one at our house soon. Check it out and let me know if you have a party. I'd be glad to pass on what you and your guests discover. Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often, Drink Wine!


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'The debate is settled," said the president in his State of the Union address. "Climate change is a fact." But of course there is no debate about whether climate change is a fact: The debate is now about whether human emissions of greenhouse gases cause weather events of unprecedented intensity. President Obama argued that stringent new limits on coal-fired power plants are urgently needed "because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods." So less coal-fired electrical generation will help us avoid droughts and floods? Heedless of the absurd stretch in his own argument, the president presses on.
While the climate-science community acknowledges increasing uncertainty about the human influence on climate, the president doubles down on what he calls the "unequivocal" dictates of science. Inconvenient facts and crushing costs have led Australia, Britain, Germany, and other countries to pull back on carbon sanctions, and yet our president's initiatives expand. And although the reach of the president's dictates may be limited by law in most of the federal domain, broad executive action without a congressionally legislated foundation is no problem with today's Environmental Protection Agency's aggressive application of the broad terms of the 40-year-old Clean Air Act to protect health and welfare.
The fatal flaws in President Obama's current climate policies were on display recently at a hearing of the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, at which I was invited to testify about EPA's role in the plan. Most of the four-hour hearing was devoted not to scientific evidence but to conclusory statements by the sharply divided members of the committee. The shrill tone of statements from the left side of the dais represented evangelism for the Church of Climate Change. Member after member dogmatically proclaimed that this scientific creed was beyond dispute: Destructive climate change caused by human activity is upon us now, and aggressive action is needed regardless of the cost.
The other side of the room appropriately drew attention to developments in climate science that cast doubt on the basic theory of dangerous anthropogenic global warming, the theory that is being driven by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Even the "official" IPCC has admitted, in its recent Fifth Assessment Report, that the 16-year lull in warming temperatures since 1998 weakens the IPCC's scientific case that man-made greenhouse gases dominate natural forces of climate such as the sun. The premise of the last 25 years of IPCC science is that the earth's climate is highly sensitive to the relatively small amount of CO2 that man's use of fossil fuels adds to the natural atmospheric CO2. That premise, however, is increasingly hard to square with the evidence now gained by physical measurements (as opposed to the projections of modeling).
Most amusing is the alarmists' increasing preoccupation with "extreme weather events." Members insisted that severe weather of any stripe proves that human activity is causing a "catastrophe unfolding before our eyes" and thus, aggressive government action is needed "with the fierce urgency of now." The president also now focuses on bad weather when imposing carbon chastity by executive action. As he stated in his second inaugural address: "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but no one can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms."
In this conflation of weather and climate, the Left implicitly concedes that its speculative theory of dangerous warming is not as compelling as it once seemed. Hence, it changes the nomenclature from "global warming" to "climate change" and now to "climate disruption." The president's climate plan encourages a host of government actions to make the weather more "stable" and "resilient," as if federal regulations could wish hurricanes away.
Although typically stereotyped as "anti-science," the more skeptical members were well armed with scientific data. U.S. government records from the last century show that tornados, storms, droughts, wildfires, etc. have been neither more intense nor more frequent in recent years. Dr. Judith Curry, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Atmospheric Sciences, testified that the belief that recent extreme weather is unprecedented results from "weather amnesia." She said: "In the U.S., most types of weather extremes were worse in the 1930s and even in the 1950s, while the weather was overall more benign in the 1970s. . . . The extremes of the 1930s and 1950s are not attributable to greenhouse warming and are associated with natural climate variability."
The President's Climate Action Plan was released last summer to a tepid response. The plan is a futile, wasteful, and redundant hodgepodge of at least 50 programs and directives associated with anything green, clean, or low carbon. In need of a "Tool Kit for Climate Resilience," a "Better Building Challenge," or "Insurance Leadership for Climate Safety"? The President's Plan is there to help.
The part of the plan that caused most debate at the hearing was the EPA's proposed regulatory limit on CO2 from new and existing power plants. These CO2 standards are the first direct regulation of CO2 since the EPA's Endangerment Finding in late 2009 forced CO2 into the legal category of "pollutants" under the Clean Air Act by a wave of the administrative wand. If the EPA's CO2 rules for power plants foreshadow the EPA's future CO2 agenda, expect energy scarcity in this country, of the kind that has already occurred in Germany: Der Spiegel reports that 700,000 households are now cut off from electricity, which is three times the average U.S. price. These families now burn wood pellets imported from the U.S. for home heating.
The plan relies heavily on carbon capture and storage, but not a single successfully operating power plant in this country has been able to use that technology at scale, in spite of billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies. The EPA's proposed standards are unachievable for coal-fired power plants. The limits would force fuel switching from coal to natural gas, or to non-emitting generation from nuclear or renewable fuels.
By requiring the impossible, the EPA is arrogating to itself the power to dictate the nation's energy infrastructure. Such regulatory power runs afoul of the fundamental economic freedom enshrined in the Clean Air Act by Congress. The CAA allows private actors — not the EPA — to choose energy fuel, both process and product. Congress limited the EPA's regulatory power to mandating standards achievable through the use of technology that has been commercially demonstrated to work.
The hearing's high point unfortunately arrived near the close, after many members had fled to other hearings. Dr. Judith Curry cut a path across the current impasse between zealous believers and adamant deniers. She stressed that "both the climate-change problem and its solution have been vastly oversimplified by the IPCC science and the policy process." Increasing evidence about temperature, the sun, natural variability, sea levels, Antarctic ice, and extreme weather weakens the IPCC's assumption that man-made CO2 emissions dominate the natural dynamics of the earth's climate. Dr. Curry importantly reminded the policymakers that "CO2 is not a control knob on climate variability."
The IPCC has indeed commanded the climate-science community within an increasingly narrow politicized process of consensus. Policy responses have been limited to reducing greenhouse gases. Research options have been limited to identifying anthropogenic influences on climate and simulating these influences in models. Thus, the research was tasked to reinforce the original premise of the theory. Empirical research on natural climatic forces like the sun and water vapor, and on natural variability, has been marginalized. Although 99.98 percent of the energy in the world's climate derives from the sun, solar activity plays almost no role in our current climate variations, according to the IPCC.
The IPCC's assessment report issued in September 2013 acknowledges but cannot explain the 16-year cessation of warming temperatures. The observed decline in solar activity is most likely the cause — a force that the temperature record demonstrates was not trumped by increasing emissions of CO2.
The president could forge a meaningful international effort on the environment and climate. Let the U.S. create a multilateral group — perhaps through the OECD — to replace the IPCC. A group of responsible governments could foster observational research on natural climatic dynamics, variability, and extreme weather. Scuttle the futile policy responses of the past based on caps on greenhouse gases and sanctions on fossil fuels. Focus on local and regional mitigation of the impacts of severe weather. Land-use practices in vulnerable areas are far more apt to reduce economic damage than electric cars and carbon capture at power plants. Initiatives to transfer to developing countries the many viable emission-control technologies for genuine pollutants would indirectly reduce carbon more effectively than sanctions and fuel switching to renewable energy.
In the meantime, we owe thanks to Dr. Curry and the increasing number of courageous climate scientists who expose the fatal flaws of the IPCC, promote sound science, and understand the subtle relation between science and policy. The Senate hearing revealed the looming danger in the president's Climate Action Plan, while his State of the Union speech reflected the plan's incoherence. The plan should be stopped before America's working families, like those in Germany, are forced to suffer energy poverty in the service of faith-based climate regulation.
— Kathleen Hartnett White is distinguished senior fellow and director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.