text:
The effects of technology on Business: Technologically induced numbness
The Effects of Technology on Business
A paper delivered at the 3rd Internation Conference Promoting Business Ethics, Niagara Falls, November 1, 1996.
We need technology, and yet every new technology places new demands upon us and creates new forms of stress. We can't live with it, but we can't live without it. There is no turning back to some pre-technological Eden. Aristotle rightly described man as an animal that lives by technology. The human race lives by art and reasoning (
techne kai logismois
Other animals come as complete packages. Their sense powers and instinctive programming are infallible within the limits of their particular ecological niche. Their organs (their hardware) and their instincts (software) are tailored to specific activities. As Aristotle said, they sleep with their shoes on.
The other animals have each only way method of defence and cannot exchange it for another. Whereas the human is physically weaker, by the use of his hands he can create any tool that any other animal has.
Our weakness is our strength, as the lack of any specialized defensive organs makes us free to be versatile. Likewise, we are poorly equipped with instincts.
When we are born, we are able to breathe and swim by virtue of an interior program, call it an instinct. At a certain point the breathing instinct starts to fade and the newborn child must make a conscious effort to breathe. If he fails to make the transition, so it is thought, the result is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Our entire behavioral repetoire is made up of what Aristotle would call "art" or "
". Interestingly enough, the child learns with greater ease how to breathe if he sleeps in proximity to his parents, as has been surmised by the low incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome among cultures where that is the norm. Thus, even breathing is a piece of know-how passed on culturally.
In a broad sense, then, technology forms our environment. This environment remains unperceived unless we are separated from it, as a fish does not know what water is until it is beached. The particular technological environment wherein we are nurtured is incorporated into our being. It forms who we are. We do not need to make any special effort to learn it. Rather, it is learned by absorption. Marshall McLuhan noted the ease with which we learn when learning is put in an environmental context. We learn our native language environmentally and effortlessly. McLuhan wrote in 1968:
Archibald McKinnon, Dean of Education at the University of British Columbia, has been carrying out experiments in recent years to illustrate this principle. He has been borrowing natives from the deepest jungles of the world and exposing them to sophisticated situations wtihout any training in our Western knowledge. For example, he allows them to explore four-engine jet airplanes, and within three or four months they not only fly them but can assemble and repair any part of the mechanism of these planes.
We probably all have personal experience relating to how people relate to computer technology. Some people, children more than adults, jump right in to using the machine. Others view the machine with apprehension, hitting the panic button every time they cannot make it perform. Those who adapt to it treat it with the same familiarity as one treats a pet animal, and they learn quickly by trying different things. The apprehensive despair of learning the theoretical intricacies of files and directories. The computer, then, is for the first group part of the environment. For the second group, it is an external irritant in the environment to which they have grown accustomed.
Some may differ, but I think that the telephone is every bit as complex to use as a computer, or as the internet, but we do not have community colleges offerring courses on the use of the telephone to the apprehensive. Neither do we have prominent politicians pushing for a phone in every classroom, as they presently push for Internet Terminals in every classroom. The reasoning would be the same. After all, since you can reach anyone in the world with a phone, wouldn't it enhance the learning process to let students spend their time calling people and learning? This is the approach some educators take to the Internet.
The phone is environmental, and we have more or less learned to put it in its place. We use phones as naturally as a dog wags its tail, and we miss the phone in its absence as if it were part of our body. Possibly when the Internet is environmental, the childish enthusiasm would subside. Another consideration is that the Internet technology will change constantly, especially as to the bandwidth, or the amount of information that can be carried, and to install hardware on a massive scale in classrooms, such as some politicians have proposed, would be to burden the system with equipment that would be probably be outdated even while it is being put in place.
Aristotle pointed out that every organ, and
is simply the greek word for instrument or tool, can be understood only in relation to its utility to the organism. Every technology is likewise an extension of our own natural powers, and can be reduced back to some natural need. This is to say that technology can be understood in terms of final cause, or purpose, and that purpose is a purpose of the living human being. Every instrument or tool has objective effects, in terms of results both intended and not intended, the work done. The objective effects of technology are easy to study by conventional methods. Every invention comes from the desire to enhance an existing natural function, to accelerate it. This implies that the objective effects of technology can be studied in a quantitative manner. The objective benefits of one car over another can be measured by speed and fuel consumption. The deaths that result from the use of cars, compared with the time saved by the use of cars, and the pollution produced by various types of fuel are easily tabulated.
The subjective effects of technology are more difficult to study by conventional methods. The subjective effects are the many ways in which the user of a technology is shaped by its use. These effects cannot be treated simply in a quantitative manner. The assimilation of a new technology and technological environment creates a new type of human existence, and that is qualitative. Statistical studies based on what can be counted and measured, the accepted approach to the impact of technology, are of limited use. A statistical study is
a priori
limited in that a decision must be made to measure a certain factor, which means that the investigator must fix in stone what he is going to find before he finds it, and to reduce the complexity of change to manageable quantities. Gilbert Keith Chesterton pointed out with gentle sarcasm the self-imposed blindness of the scholar in the face of real change:
They were not merely mentioning the things they remembered, but remembering the things they were supposed to mention. Their minds had recorded only the things that were suited to the records and writing only the records that were suited to the official record office.
To be atune to the effects of technology, we cannot suppose that when some activity is accelerated by technology, the result will be simply that the same things will happen in the same way as before in every aspect except for speed. In nature, there are no linear processes that go on to infinity. If you continually heat water, you do not merely get continually hotter water, but at a certain point it boils. If a tap is dripping with regularity, increased flow does not merely cause it drip at a faster regularity, but the rhythm changes to non periodic, and then turns to a regular flow. Likewise, when the flow of information is increased, you do not merely have the same people doing the same things with added speed, but there are sudden qualitative changes in the way people live and perceive. Following past trends is not helpful, because the changes effected will be in areas that were not accepted as worthy of study. Chesterton writes of those who trust in official records: "They had not the disinterestedness or detachment of gossip." He writes:
Often they never hear the songs, because they are sung in public houses. Often they never hear of the arts and crafts, because they are not recorded in books. This sort of ignorance is indeed ignorance, but it is ignorance in arms, ignorance militant and triumphant, ignorance advancing with all its armies across a conquered land.
The point is that the specialist will always be outflanked by qualitative change. Every specialism is a creature of its particular cultural and technological environment. Specialized knowledge and practice is our human substitute for animal instinct. It works infallibly, as an instinct does, so long as it is in the context of its ecological niche. When that particular niche is destroyed, the specialist finds himself obsolete, just as a bird's navigational instincts fail when confronted with an image of the sun reflected in glass. Perhaps a more telling example, and I hypothesize here, is that of the turtles that swim vast oceans to lay their eggs. Perhaps at one time they were swimming a few miles, but with continental drift every year the breeding grounds and the feeding grounds were farther apart, as if a commuter from Buffalo to Niagara University found himself eventually travelling four days to get there. The mathematics graduate can adapt more easily to state of the art technology than the computer science graduate, since the technology taught in schools will always be several steps behind state of the art.
Technological change and the cultural change that is its companion force everyone to be both a philosopher and an artist. The attitude of the philosopher is that of taking nothing for granted, and that attitude arises only when some new perception jars the conceptual framework that no longer applies. The artist takes the environment we take for granted and puts it into relief, where we can see it for what it is. Many will be familiar with what Aristotle had to say about the value of general knowledge over specialized knowledge. The generalist may not be able to give a precise answer under every circumstance, but he can come to a correct general judgement under all circumstances because he has a grasp of general principles.
In times of stability, there is not a great need to distance ourselves from the immediate demands that we place on technology and that technology places on us. Since, however, technology changes the way that we relate to the world, we do need to have a wider view in order that the processes of change do not master us.
The starting point in ethics is that we should be in effective contact with reality through knowing the truth. To put this in other terms, ethics is not an issue in a virtual reality or a dream. Ethics comes into play when we are deliberately acting in the context of the real world. Karol Wojty a wrote in 1958:
Underlying the whole system of norms based on nature and formulated by the reason (we know that these norms are at the same time contained in Revelation) one may present the principle: in all your activity remain in harmony with objective reality. This reality is made up, on the one hand, of the acting subject endowed with a rational nature, and on the other hand, it is made up of the whole series of object-beings which this subject encounters in his activity, each one of which has its own nature. This fundamental principle, the principle that one should remain in harmony or agreement with reality, both objective and subjective reality, in one's activity, is the gauge of realism in the whole of practical philosophy, and in particular in ethics. Ethical norms are based on reality. The same faculty of reason, which in its knowing attains to reality itself, also defines the principles of activity. It is therefore no wonder that the reason introduces as a fundamental axiom into its normative function the axiom of harmony or agreement with this reality. This is precisely the axiom of realism in ethics.
The ethical primacy of retaining a true contact with reality and harmony with reality is directly involved in the question of technology. First, the technological culture itself is a reality that we must be aware of. We must perceive what is real and actual, and what is obsolete and a mere appearance, and recognize the obstacles that block this perception. Here it is important to take stock of biases that we have inherited from a previous stage of technological culture.
Second, our own technological culture will heavily bias our perceptions of the world. The user of technology finds himself focussed in a certain way by the tools that he uses. The technology will impose a certain set of priorities. If it focusses us on one thing, it causes inattention in other areas. Any technology creates a new set of mental habits. This is especially true of computers, since they do not merely extend our limbs, but extend our cognitive and perceptive faculties. The entire ensemble of information technology changes our perceptual habits not merely
per accidens
, but by design.
The introduction of information technology speeds up the amount of information that we must deal with. The result is real pain. Aristotle noted that what we feel to be painful may largely be a matter of habituation. An animal organism is normally under stress. Sight and hearing are in fact painful, but we have become used to them over the course of time. Once accustomed to a certain level of sensory input, we feel the withdrawal of sensation to be painful or distressing.
The biologist Otto Lowenstein reports that when people blind from childhood recover their sight, the flood of added stimulation is unpleasant. The first reaction is to shrink back from it all. Initially, the newly sighted cannot discern distinct objects in the chaotic jumble of sensation. When they begin to discern objects and associate them with the objects they know from their other senses, the mental pain subsides:
"At first sight" the world looks like a flat extension of meaningless patches of light, dark, and color jumbled into a quilt work. One by one objects grow out of this chaotic world, and remain unmistakably separate once they have been identified. A meaningless jumble of shapes defies description, until the demonstrator has drawn on paper one or the other specific shapes to be searched for. The saying "seeing is believing" may fittingly be reversed in this context into "believing is seeing".
At a lower level, it is like Victor Frankl's basic insight in logotherapy: it is meaning that makes life bearable.
The stress of increased sensation, however, is at a biological level, and the "search for meaning" in the flood of information is a perfectly understandable mechanism for recovering internal equilibrium. The process of recognizing key patterns, such as the blind man experiences when he first learns to pick out visual objects, involves a cultivated insensitivity to all else that is irrelevant.
The process is familiar to anyone who has learned how to drive properly. The most important skill taught in driving school is not knowledge of laws and mechanisms but an art of controlled eye movement. The driver is faced with a faster flow of visual data than is the pedestrian, and this alone places special demands on his abilities. Moreover, the consequences of mishaps are greater at higher speeds. The pedestrian may take in the sights, but the driver must check his mirrors, the status of intersections, the spaces underneath parked cars. He must be attuned to the velocities of other vehicles and the intentions of other drivers. If you can remember your earliest driving experiences in heavy traffic, you may know what it is like to be a blind man recovering his sight. When we are immersed in an increased flow of information, we must control the flow in order to remain sane.
Although Aquinas did not treat the question of technology directly, he does offer some insights that can be extended to the phenomenon of technologically induced numbness. The mind becomes what it knows, but as we each have but one mind, at any moment the mind can be informed by only one perceived object. If we concentrate on the parts of a thing, then the whole recedes from our attention. If we concentrate on the whole, the parts are present to our mind only in a confused way.
In Thomas' museum of virtues and vices, we find
caecitas mentis
(blindess of the mind), and
hebetudo sensus
(dullness of the intellectual sense). Both vices are causes by sensual imbalance. In both cases, the cause is a disproportionate pleasure that draws one's attention to the pleasurable object, and this debilitates the intellect.
The penetrating power of the intellect, what we call insight, is compromised by overpowering pleasures, and it must be protected by asceticism.
Plenus venter non studet libenter
� a full stomach does not incline us to study. Thomas speaks of the effect of the pleasures of food and sex, but it is easy to extend his reasoning to any overpowering stimulus. Physical pain and nonperiodic loud noises also impede our concentration.
We can apply the same to the engagement of attention required by any artifact that speeds up any human activity. Pleasure may impede the use of reason, when it distracts us from what the reason says we should seek.
An excess of pleasure can destroy prudential judgement, even if it leaves our ability to form theoretical judgements intact. On the other hand, delectatio, or delight and pleasure, can improve our performance.
Even a dog appears to derive pleasure from performing a task well. The pleasure that one gets from doing something well improves attention, as reasoning and reflex work together.
Since what we find pleasurable is largely a matter of habituation, all this can be applied to our practical relationship to our instruments. The inattention to vast areas of experience induced by our attention to a demanding technical task is not in itself bad. It is good and necessary. Yet if the mental habits are carried over into other areas where they are not appropriate, our habituation and pleasure work against reason. For example, the scholar has the Cartesian habit of being very cautious in coming to a conclusion. He must resist the attraction of rhetoric and verisimilitude. This habit is the basis of scientific rigor. No matter how many experiments or studies have suggested a conclusion, the next experiment could falsify it. If he carries that habit into daily life, he will be incapable of effective action, not to mention normal polite conversation.
It once occurred to me that driving could be made more pleasant if every driver was equipped with a radio that allowed him to converse with all the other drivers within visual range. Upon reflection, that would be dangerous. Communication between drivers is limited to a small number of light signals, and that is as it should be. These signals form the vocabulary of the driver. A greater vocabulary would create an information traffic jam. The driver is already putting stress on his natural ability to process information. As in other areas of life, the driver develops a selective numbness with regard to information. McLuhan writes:
The principle of numbness comes into play with electric technology, as with any other. We have to numb our central nervous system when it is extended and exposed, or we will die. Thus the age of anxiety and of electric media is also the age of the unconscious and of apathy.
The computer is capable of handling precisely quantified information a much higher speed than the unaided human. The amount of information that can be compiled and processed by a computer is quite beyond the ability of any human to digest. For this reason, the most important feature in software design is the interface, which acts as the first buffer between the user and the data. The program takes the user step by step along a certain path into his data, and itself is bound with how the user will interpret that data. It guides him through an ocean of information and does the work of filtering that information and imposing pattern upon it.
Herein lies the weakness or danger in the use of computers, and this danger has an ethical dimension. The blind man who recovers his sight must do his own work when he learns to perceive limited patterns in an ocean of sensation. The computer user runs the risk of leaving to others the task of filtering reality. Important cognitive decisions are already made for him by the flow of the program. The computer excels at linear quantitative projections, but the task of perceiving qualitative change is not like using a computer program. It is more like building a new operating system from ground up.
Like the information collectors that Chesterton mentions, management by computer tends to limit our attention to selected information. There is the story of the mathematician and physicist Mitchell Fagenbaum, who owed a major discovery to the fact that he did not have a computer. He was doing calculations to model the events in various phase transitions, such as the transition from regular flow to turbulence, or the transition for liquid to gas. Although he worked at Los Alamos, he did not have the use of a computer and had to do repetitive calculations on a Hewlett Packard 65 programmable calculator. Ian Stewart, in his book
Does God Play Dice?
, writes:
This turned out to be a stroke of luck, because the calculator was so slow that its operator had time to think about the results as they emerged. Indeed
The calculation began with an approximation of the required number and then improved it step by step. Now, the better the initial approximation, the less time the calculation took. So to save time � an important consideration when you're using a calculator � Feigenbaum starting trying to guess what the next number in the cascade might be. Soon he saw a pattern. The differences between successive numbers were in a constant ratio, each about four times as big as the next one.
Mitchell Feigenbaum had made the first step in discovering a mathematical construct as important as PI. It is called an
, the value of which is 4.6692016090. This constant is of key importance in describing how pockets of order and regularity can arise out of processes that otherwise seem to tend to chaos. Perhaps corresponding examples could be found in any institution where people have come to rely on a computer system.
By speeding up the flow of information, computers increase the possibility of overlooking errors, and therefore make it more difficult to correct errors should they enter the information flow. As illustrated by the case of Mitchell Fagenbaum, the speedup of information also makes it easy to overlook important truth, because the processing of information already has criteria by which it dismisses some facts as irrelevant. The effect of errors at any stage is also multiplied. The first Pentium chips had an error which affected certain calculations in the ninth decimal place, yet some businesses reported that the figures provided by the calculations of their old 486s disagreed with their 586s by millions of dollars.
The response to this sort of problem is often to introduce redundant data input. Then we have the paradoxical situation of computers producing more and more work, and more and more paper, instead of delivering the promised reduction of work. Perhaps it is only the realm of gossip and songs in public houses that Chesterton mentioned, but time and time again I have heard it said that record-keeping was more serviceable before computers were involved. If Fagenbaum were not already famous, he deserves to be merely for the
Fagenbaum syndrome
, for all the data that goes nowhere because it is so quickly processed.
The effects of the computer on our cognitive habits has an analogy in the older technology of writing. Just as computers evoke awe in those who do not use them, so at one time the ability to use letters evoked awe. The word "glamour" is from "grammar", which is from the greek
, or letter. Does this mean that a glamourous model is one whose prepositions are not dangling?
Socrates related a myth of how an Egyptian god named Theuth invented the art of writing. He was quite pleased with himself, and thought that he had invented an elixir for memory. He presented his invention to the god Ammon, king of Thebes. Ammon disagreed. Theuth was too enamoured of his own invention to perceive its real effect. Where Theuth claimed that letters would aid memory, Ammon said that letters do not strengthen memory, but are merely a tool for reminding. The use of letters would produce forgetfulness in those who use them. Because they could commit their words to something external to themselves, they would not practice the use of memory. Writing, said Ammon, would also produce the appearance of wisdom wtihout the substance, since a word on paper cannot be interrogated but appears to be something fixed and stable. The written word would be bandied about by those who did not understand it.
Aristotle taught that the written word is a sign of the spoken word, and the spoken word is a sign of what is in the mind or soul.
The spoken word is dependent upon the perceptions that it signifies, otherwise it is mere noise. The written word likewise depends on the spoken word. To put it into the language of Marshall McLuhan, the spoken word is an extension of the word that is in the mind, and the written word is an extension of the spoken word. The relation is like that of a vine and its branches. If the extension is cut off from its source, it is dead.
This has application in all areas of life. The media of information tend to separate the processes of direct perception and the gathering of information from the processing and interpreting of that data. Those who check inventory in a business, or who evaluate students in an educational institution, often deal with factors that cannot be reduced to numbers. The person checking inventory may decide, for example, that something should not be counted because it might be damaged, or awaiting recall, but the forms that he fills out cannot possibly be so large as let him record all such facts. The people interpreting the data are separated from these perceptions.
We expect people to be capable of writing when they have little experience in conversation. From infancy, children are continually deprived of the rich auditory environment of former times, where they would be surrounded by conversation and myth. The school system, in its present form the product of a 19th century mentality that extended the techniques of large scale production to the raising of children, is based on the idea that the raising of children should be taken out of the hands of amateurs and run more efficiently by large scale programs and specialists. Students are formed passively in habits suited to obsolescent factories, rewarded for passive punctuality. Their habits of perception are also constrained. Like the record-keepers that Chesterton mentioned, they are trained to ignore their own perceptions and the spoken word and to repeat only what can be validated by reference to a written work.
The authority of the written work, however, rests largely on the economics of producing a printed work. To this day, a considerable outlay is required to produce a book by offset presses. In some cases, it is only worthwhile if the book will sell 10,000 copies or more. The book, then, acquires prestige because the economics forces publishers to be selective. If we assume that publishers are men of good judgement, only the best works are selected for publication out of economic necessity. This lends the book prestige. The book is authoritative, the spoken word is not, unless someone has recorded that word in print. I have found academics to be suspicious of the authority of citations based on sources in the World Wide Web and other Internet media. There, at virtually no cost, anyone can publish anything and make it accessible to millions of people in less time than it takes to go to the public library.
This is an example of how the quantitive speed up of information results in several qualitative changes. The authority of the published work, and of the published author, is a result of obsolete technology. The possession of academic credentials has no weight in the new media. Also, the compartmentalization of society, where education, entertainment and business exist as separate specialties, does not stand under the new conditions. The purveyor of advertising on the Internet must provide at least the promise of learning. The provider of scientific or historical information must think of the visual impact of his work, and so becomes an entertainer. An institution that commits itself to the new technology may be forced to redefine itself.
Of course, the electronic media will not make print disappear, any more than the print media made the spoken word disappear. The electronic media does recover something that was diminished by the printed page. Print technology put an end to scholasticism. Scholasticism was the communal approach to academic questions, where disputed questions were handled in a public manner, as men would haggle for a pig in the marketplace, although the scholastic method involved many levels of formality. With the age of print, scholasticism ended. The author would work alone, writing as if holding a private conversation with himself. The private point of view and individualism entered the world of ideas. Also, the economics of print over manuscript culture produced the copyright. To this day, the university lecture is an extension of the printed page, whereas in the times of scholasticism it was the reverse.
With the Internet, with the use of e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), the conversational mode of scholasticism is resurrected. Many are anxious that writers cannot effectively protect their copyrights, and it is a well-founded anxiety. A conversation where the parties are worried about whether their words will be stolen can only grind to a halt. By the internal necessity of the medium, the copyright mentality will become extinct on the Internet. Those who insist on the right to charge people for conversation will simply be ignored.
In other respects, the use of information technology can lead to a debasement of language. This has an analogue in the transition from oral tradition to written records. The spoken word is far richer in information than the written word. The simple proof of this is that a computer file containing three spoken words, as they are spoken, is several orders larger than an ASCII file containing the same words in the form of letters. The spoken word has nuances of intonation that must always be abstracted in the written word, and for this reason, the spoken word will always be more effective than the written word. What seems to be one written word does not correspond to some perfect unity called a spoken word.
The spoken word remains the privileged medium of our most important communications. The evidence of this is that fact that people go to trouble and expense to attend conferences at all, whereas it would be easier and cheaper to send written information either by post or e-mail. The written word is a much more compact vehicle for information than the spoken word, but this comes at a cost. The computer, with the automation of logic, holds the promise not only of directing communications, but also translating them into a universal medium or languge. Lest this seem far-fetched, let us consider that it is already being done.
The Automatic Teller Machine or the Point of Sale machine may provide an
in any human language, but the information it processes is translated into an international language. The same process could be applied to any human communication. The basic principle to make it effective is that the computer system places limits on what we say, and merely provides alternative communications. This sidesteps the problem of translating ambiguous grammatical constructions and phrases. The simplest form is that in which a computer would present you with a choice of five frequent greetings. Your interlocutor, in his own language, would be presented with five possible responses to your greeting, and so on. The approach of the ATM machine could be applied to any human communication, by limiting the grammar and content through questions. It is obvious that we would lose a great deal, but given other choices that we have made as a society, we are likely to accept the drawbacks.
It is like the fast-food industry that has convenience as its main selling point. The convenience consists not in simply offering the consumer faster service, but in training him to act in a certain way, and limiting his options.
We are somewhat familiar with this approach in the use of grammar checking software. Grammar, however, is infinitely flexible. The rules of grammar, so-called, are a bookish reflection on something that already exists. What it is to say the right word in the right place cannot be defined by any set of rules smaller than the total collection of everything that is said by everyone. Any acceleration in information flow means that the complexity of language must somehow be rendered manageable. For example, the language of the Mandarins was very rich in vocabulary, and it was sustained by a class that had much leisure for study. With industrialization and mass culture in China, much of the vocabulary has been lost, perhaps permanently. I may refer again to the way in which automobile drivers communicate. A vocabulary of twenty thousand different signals would be unsuitable. Rather, drivers rely on a code of five or six signals to convey their intentions. The critics of modern culture often take a very reactionary stance to the impoverishment of language. Take the comments of Noam Chomsky:
Language is, after all, a tool for thought. If you debase the language, you debase the thought. I don't want to exaggerate the element of it, but it is one element, and one that's certainly consciously manipulated in order to introduce confusion and lack of perception.
Chomsky, like Solzhenitsyn, perceives a fact � that in mass culture language is simplified. Some of this may be a deliberate part of disinformation, as in political rhetoric. I think, however, that they miss an important point. A mass culture is a product of its means of communication and technology in general. The speed at which people live demands that communications be simplified. For example, if you go to McDonald's you are presented with a limited range of choices. You cannot request something with a little more mustard, or perhaps that the meat should be a little on the rare side. The vocabulary with which you interact with the restaurant is simplified, and nobody questions this. To think it could be otherwise would be like supposing that we should get rid of money as a common and simple measure of exchange, and institute one kind of coin for bread, another for beef, and so forth. Then the "language of money" would be enriched, but it would run counter to the whole purpose of money.
I accept it as a fact that the use of language must be adapted to the conditions imposed by our technology. It happens whether we agree to it or not. Yet Chomsky is correct when he says that the debasement of language results in a debasement of thought. For the first time, we are actually faced with the possibility that the language itself may become a corporate possession. Those who design the systems that we increasingly interact with have power to determine what tools we have for thinking. It happened with the development of literacy, and accelerated with development of printing. Rules of correct spelling followed the development of the printing press, which certainly placed the power of social communication with a certain class of people who made the rules. What we are faced with now is the rules of so-called expert systems which will limit our modes of expression along the lines drawn by programmers. Computers may overextend our capacity to communicate to the extent that the skills of spoken language will almost disappear.
I may draw on an example familiar to many people. A general practicioner after years of experience is capable of merely looking at a patient and arriving at a prudent judgement as to the illness and the cure. Any physician today who would rely on his immediate judgement would run the risk of a law suit. He must second-guess himself and submit the patient to a number of tests, and refer the patient to a specialist. All this takes time and costs money. As often as not, when the patient finally sees the specialist, he will get the same treatment that the general practicioner would have prescribed in the first place, although by then it may be too late. This is a typical case where our reliance on technology corresponds to a distrust of our own natural powers of judgement. The judgement of the general practitioner may be further compromised when medical expert systems become commonplace. Any expert system can only be a truncated version of some real individual's real accumulated knowledge, so this prospect cannot be viewed with optimism.
Information technology of any sort is a valuable extension of our natural powers of perception and reasoning, but when we rely on it exclusively, it has a debilitating effect. In the first stage when we are confronted with new technology, it absorbs all our resources of adaptation, and we tend to push it to its limits. It absorbs all our attention. If this remains the permanent attitude, the result is that we overextend our own natural powers, which the technology was meant to serve, and become the servants of the technology.
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, I, i, 980b 25-30.
Parts of Animals
, IV, x, 687a.
Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore,
War and Peace in the Global Village
, McGraw Hill, NY and Toronto, 1968, p. 149.
G.K. Chesterton,
Illustrated London News
, Feb 14, 1931, in
More Quotable Chesterton
, ed. George J. Morlin, Richard P. Rabatin, and John L. Swan, Ignatius Press, 1988, p. 431.
Illustrated London News
, Nov. 6, 1920, p. 431.
Nichomachean Ethics
, I, iii 1095 a-b;
Parts of Animals
I 639 a 1
Fr. Karol Wojtyla,
Elementarz Etyczny
(An Ethics Primer) Krakow 1979, Znak, a collection of articles that appeared in the
Tygodnik Powszechny
(Catholic Weekly( in 1957-58. My translation.
Nichomachean Ethics
, VII, 1154b6.
Otto Lowenstein,
The Senses
, quoted in McLuhan,
War and Peace in the Global Village
, p. 10-11.
cf. Victor E. Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy
Washington Square Press, NY, NY, 1963.
Summa Theologica
, Ia, q. 85, a. 4 Utrum possimus multa simul intelligere, ad 3.
Summa Theologica
, II-II q. 15, a. 3.
Utrum caecitas mentis et hebetudo sensus oriantur ex peccatis carnalibus.
I-II q. 33 a. 3 Utrum delectatio impediat usum rationis.
I-II q. 33 a. 4 Utrum delectatio perficiat operationem.
Marshall McLuhan,
Understanding Media
, McGraw Hill, NY, 1964, p. 56.
Ian Stewart,
Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos
, Basil Blackwell Inc. Oxford, 1989, p. 197.
, 274-275.
Peri Hermeneias
, I, 16a.
Noam Chomsky,
Chronicles of Dissent
, interviews with David Barsamiam, Common Courage Press, Maine, 1992, p. 43.


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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Advances in spectral deconvolution technologies are rapidly enabling researchers to replace or enhance traditional epifluorescence microscopes with instruments capable of detecting numerous markers simultaneously in a multiplexed fashion. While significantly expediting sample throughput and elucidating sample information, this technology is limited by the spectral width of common fluorescence reporters. Semiconductor nanocrystals (NC's) are very bright, narrow band fluorescence emitters with great potential for multiplexed fluorescence detection, however the availability of NC's with facile attachment chemistries to targeting molecules has been a severe limitation to the advancement of NC technology in applications such as immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry. Here we report the development of simple, yet novel attachment chemistries for antibodies onto NC's and demonstrate how spectral deconvolution technology enables the multiplexed detection of 5 distinct NC-antibody conjugates with fluorescence emission wavelengths separated by as little as 20 nm.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC), or the immunological staining and detection of cellular markers in tissue, is a mainstay technique in pathology and diagnostics research and is the current recipient of several new advances in technology; advances which may be capable of evolving IHC from its roots in limited colorimetric staining to a multiplexed fluorescence-based method capable of imaging multiple target antigens within a single tissue section. Quantum dot nanocrystal (NC) fluorescent markers in combination with multispectral imaging (MSI) technology has been a particularly exciting union that has resulted in a respectable number of promising studies over the past few years [
Quantum dot NC's are semiconductor particles with dimensions in the 1–10 nm size regime and which exhibit a host of favorable optical properties that make them ideally suited for molecular detection. In particular, NC's boast narrow, Gaussian-shaped emission spectra notably absent of red-tailing, broad excitation spectra that increase toward the ultraviolet, extinction coefficients and quantum efficiencies which are both impressively high, and a tenacious resistance to photobleaching even under intense excitation [
The advent of MSI technology has specifically addressed the difficulties surrounding the detection of multiplexed fluorescent markers from the prevalence of background autofluorescence. Multispectral imaging cameras, which may be mounted to a standard camera port on a fluorescent microscope, are capable of replacing individual emission filters optimized to detect one fluorophore each, with a single tunable liquid crystal filter able to detect multiple fluorophores with wavelength resolution down to 3 nm. By creating "spectral libraries" of all involved fluorophores from control samples, the accompanying software is capable of detecting and deconvoluting fluorescence profiles for each fluorophore involved on a
Although previous reports on the use of NC's in IHC have been successful in demonstrating the range of 2-plex to 5-plex colorimetric multiplexed staining, achieving these goals required either custom modification of the NC surface [
All monoclonal antibodies were grown in-house from either tissue culture hybridoma or mouse ascites and purified over protein G affinity column. 100 kDa and 30 kDa molecular weight cutoff concentrators were purchased from Millipore, and desalting spin columns were purchased from Princeton Separations (CS-800). n-hydroxysuccinimidyl ester 6-hydrazinonicotinamide (S-HyNic) and 4-formylbenzide (4FB) were obtained from Solulink, and phospholipids (1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (mPEG)) were purchased from Avanti Polar Lipids. 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-Me), aniline, and sulfobenzaldehyde were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
The eFluor CdSe/ZnS core/shell NC's were synthesized using standard high temperature reactions by injection of organometallic precursors into hot coordinating solvents [
The amine-reactive chemistry utilizes a bioorthogonal ligation reaction targeting available primary amine groups on the biomolecule and a complementary molecule on pre-activated NC's.
The sulfhydryl-reactive chemistry utilizes a maleimide-activated NC surface coating to target reduced thiols in the hinge region of antibodies, as diagrammed in
Male C57Bl mice were euthanized using isoflurane followed by cervical dislocation using IACUC-approved protocols. The spleen was removed and placed in ice-cold 1× PBS, pH 7.2, and rapidly frozen in 2-methyl butane on dry ice for 30 s prior to removing and embedding the spleen in OCT compound. The spleen was stored at −80 °C until sectioning. A 10
Prior to staining, sections were allowed to come to room temperature, fixed for 10 min in 100% acetone, and then gently washed with 1× TBS, pH 7.4. Nonspecific binding sites within the tissue were blocked with 1% BSA in TBS for 1 h at room temperature. Experiments were performed to optimize the concentration of NC-labeled antibodies on sections of spleen after which a cocktail of NC-labeled antibodies was prepared by diluting each of the NC-labeled antibodies to its predetermined optimal concentration. The five NC-labeled antibodies were diluted to the following concentration and combined in 1% BSA in TBS as follows: eF525-B220/20nM, eF565-PECAM-1/20nM, eF605-CD11b/5nM, eF625-CD4/5nM, and eF650-CD11c/1nM. Both positive and negative control slides were prepared using each of the NC-labeled antibodies alone as well as one slide with blocking solution and no antibodies to serve as an autofluorescence control. The blocking solution was removed from the section, and the five-color antibody solution (or single colors) was overlaid and covered lightly with Parafilm and incubated in the dark at 4 °C overnight in a humidified chamber. Sections were washed with three changes of 1× PBS and coverslipped with Fluoromount G mounting medium. The edges of the coverglass were sealed with clear nail polish.
Fluorescence intensity was imaged using an Axiovert 200 microscope equipped with a Nuance EX spectral imager (CRI). All images were taken using a 20× Plan Apochromat objective and using a 460 nm excitation, 475 nm dichroic, and 500 nm long pass emission filter. Images were taken from 500 to 750 nm at 10 nm intervals using an exposure time of 50–100 ms. A spectral library was constructed from the individually stained slides consisting of the representative spectrum of each of the NC's and the autofluorescence signal. By assigning a NC to each representative spectrum and subtracting out the autofluorescence spectrum, the Nuance software was able to differentiate each individual NC signal. The five-color slide was then imaged and each NC spectra identified and assigned a pseudocolor in the combined image.
The proper assembly of a nanoscale material, such as a NC, with a biomolecule for detection purposes would be optimal with the assembly method that produces the conjugate with the highest and most desirable activity. "Activity", in this case, may be defined as fastest reaction rate, highest avidity, brightest signal, or lowest non-specific binding, to name a few. Therefore, mounting interest is being placed on the development of new conjugation chemistries or techniques that may give the researcher control over the conjugate's activity by controlling properties such as NC:molecule stoichiometry, site-selective ligation, or molecular orientation [
The amine-reactive chemistry described here (
The sulfhydryl-reactive chemistry described in
We found that likely due to the increased surface area available for conjugation, the larger NC's (eF650NC) required a higher Ab:NC ratio of 4, and the smaller NC's (eF525NC) showed sufficient conjugate activity at a ratio of only 2. This trend was maintained for both chemistries. It should also be noted that, while higher Ab ratios may yield better performance with increased avidity, free Ab may not be sufficiently purified without resorting to the use of more rigorous purification methods like size-exclusion chromatography, that significantly increases the time and instrumentation requirements to produce a conjugate.
A comparison of the many different methods used in the literature for the multiplexed staining of tissue belies the complexity but importance relegated to this portion of the experiment. The highest successes for multiplexed staining (as determined by the degree of "plexing") have been reported by Liu
Presumably, the primary reason for research groups to go the route of secondary staining or rely on SAV-biotin interactions is the commercial availability of NC's bound to secondary Ab's or SAV-NC conjugates. Xing
To effectively stain all 5 proteins in mouse spleen, matching the appropriate NC with Ab is the first and perhaps the most critical design consideration in a multiplexed experiment. As shown in
After the challenge of NC-Ab design and direct conjugate incubation has been achieved, detecting and distinguishing each fluorophore marker becomes the next hurdle due to the possibility of spectral overlap and autofluorescence complications. Although the use of NC's for multiplexing has been shown to substantially alleviate the difficulties associated with resolving different fluorescent markers in relatively clean polymer systems [
A full description of the deconvolution algorithms designed and bundled with multispectral imaging software is beyond the scope of this paper, but is essentially the mathematical disentangling of different known spectral profiles weighted by their contribution to the total spectrum,
As a final test of the abilities of the NC-Ab direct conjugates to stain their individual targets from a cocktail formulation and utilizing the multispectral imager to effectively unmix all fluorescence wavelengths, we performed a 5-plex staining of mouse spleen tissue.
The studies described here detail two novel conjugation chemistries allowing for the rapid and facile attachment of nanocrystals to biological molecules using either ubiquitous amine groups found on most biomolecules for general attachment strategies, or less common sulfhydryl moieties for more targeted attachment. Both chemistries are used to conjugate five separate NC's to 200
This work was internally-funded by eBioscience. The authors would like to acknowledge helpful discussions with Igor L. Medintz, NRL.
Illustration of conjugation reactions. (
Autofluorescence subtraction for 605NC-CD11b stained mouse spleen. (
Selected optical properties and details of Ab-NC conjugates used in this study. Quantum efficiency measurements were measured relative to either FITC in absolute ethanol (eF525NC) or rhodamine 6G in absolute ethanol. Extinction coefficients listed are relative to the wavelength for the first exciton absorption feature [
|5.57 × 104
|20 nM
|1.12 × 105
|20 nM
|2.85 × 105
|5 nM
|5.21 × 105
|5 nM
|1.12 × 106
|1 nM


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Wwii Battle Scene
This BC covered cake was for my nephew. He gave me a long list of things he wanted on his cake. He asked that his name be spelled out with flames in the center of the cake. The tank and medical truck are hand molded from RKT then covered with fondant. All othe decorations are fondant except the barbed wire which is gumpaste. TFL.
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Ask a Mechanic Online and Get Answers to Your Car Questions
Hello, I can recommend an excellent engine builder for you. XXXXX XXXXX of B&W racing in Walterboro SC. He's been building and racing for the past 25+ years. Does great work and is affordable. He's about an hour drive from sumter.
506 S Jefferies Blvd Walterboro, SC
Phone(NNN) NNN-NNNN/p>
I can also highly recommend Jumper auto parts and machine shop in Orangeburg, SC
597 Sellers St SE Orangeburg, SC 29115


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Congratulations! You leveled up, but you aren't logged in so we can't save your points.
You don't marry someone you can live with, you marry the person who you cannot live without.
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VideoBash is your first and final stop for free funny videos, games and pictures guaranteed to brighten up your day. The funniest jokes and the most unbelievable pranks caught on tape have been collected in one spot for your viewing pleasure. This is entertainment at its best and no one does it better than VideoBash. These funny clips crackle with humor and they will definitely have you laughing till your sides hurt. Quality is our number one priority and the free funny vids here are the best of the best. There are no mediocre videos here. All the videos, jokes, pranks on VideoBash are the cream of the crop and you'll be hooked from the get go. The best part is you don't have to keep all this good stuff to yourself, you can share all the free entertainment videos with your friends.


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(April 1995)
Very interesting... I was able to create a user `is#weird' under Solaris 2.4 (see below) I was able to send and receive mail and I was able to subscribe and send mail back and forth from a mailing list... output from who testlist -- >>>> who testlist Members of list 'testlist': firstname.lastname@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com >>>> I'm running perl 2.034, majordomo 1.93, Solaris 2.4 with patches (I'll send you a list if need be) ??? the only problem I had was admintool did *not* like a `#' sign in the user id, contrary to the man page on useradd which says: login is a string of printable characters that specifies the new login name of the user, up to a maximum number of eight characters. It may not contain a colon (:) or a new- line (\n). which I guess is Sun's problem. I was able to create a user without the #, then edit passwd & shadow to add it. From there, no problems. So my guess is that if you can't add a user with a `#' that is more a problem of rev's of perl/majordomo or an OS restriction. fj..


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Buy Tickets
Tickets for all of our excursions are available online or by calling (989) 725-9464. Order yours today!
Click here for train excurions
Train Schedule
Updates to the Schedule will be posted here. Check back periodically as we expect additional events/excursions to expand the schedule.
- 21
- August 21 & 22, 2010
Howell Melon Festival
- Hour-long train rides at Howell Melon Festival
- August 21 & 22, 2010
- 28
- August 28, 2010
American Hobo Days
- Fun activities for the whole family!
- August 28, 2010
- September 11, 2010
Hamburg Railroad Days
- Hour-long diesel-powered excursions for the Hamburg Railroad Days
- September 11, 2010
- October 16, 2010
Cadillac Fall Color Steam Special
- Celebrate the glorious fall foliage behind a Lima Berkshire!
- October 16, 2010
- October 23, 2010
"Autumn in Alma" Steam Special
- Celebrate the glorious fall foliage behind a Lima Berkshire!
- October 23, 2010
- 26
- Nov. 26, 27 & 28 Dec. 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 & 19
North Pole Express 2010
- Click for more information
- Nov. 26, 27 & 28 Dec. 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 & 19
Steam Excursions
The Steam Railroading Institute is best known for their all-day steam excursions. Every year trips are scheduled and carry thousands of passenger around Michigan behind one of the largest operating steam locomotives in the United States. What are you waiting for? Hop aboard for a trip back in time when life was a little simpler!
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Diesel Excursions
Throughout the year diesel locomotive powered excursions are being offered. Take a look at our schedule to book the trip that is right for you.
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Cadillac Fall Color Steam Special
Celebrate the glorious fall foliage behind a Lima Berkshire! This year, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society's Nickel Plate Road 765 will be powering the Steam Railroading Institute's fall excursion to Cadillac, Michigan on October 16th. This extraordinary train will depart from "Scotland USA", Alma, Michigan at 9 a.m., with a planned arrival into Cadillac at 12:30 p.m. Following a 2 ½ hour visit of downtown Cadillac, the passengers will board at 3 p.m. for a scheduled 7:00 p.m. return to Alma. Coach tickets start at $125 each.
On October 23rd, NKP 765 will be hauling our "Autumn in Alma" special from the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso to Alma and return. Board at 9 AM at the Steam Railroading Institute, where we will travel to Alma, Michigan, "Scotland USA", home of Alma College. Explore and stroll through Alma's quaint downtown, and then board for any early afternoon return to SRI, where you will be able to explore the Steam Railroading Institute's Owosso Site and PM #1225, currently undergoing repair and restoration for its mandatory FRA inspection, or stroll through downtown Owosso. Coach seats are $99 for this event.
Click Here to Order Tickets Today
North Pole Express 2010
Nothing touches a childs imagination like the magic of Christmas. Share the joy this holiday season by taking the family on a magical train ride to the North Pole. This exciting four-hour journey includes hot cocoa, visits with Santa, holiday rides, model railroad displays, live entertainment, holiday crafts and shopping in the Kris Kringle Mart. Passengers will enjoy the nostalgic ambiance of riding the American rail while viewing the winter scenery of Mid-Michigan. Passengers depart from the Steam Railroading Institute in Owosso, Michigan, and will be riding the rails in vintage passenger cars that will be pulled by one of Great Lakes Central's historical diesel locomotives. General admission is $70 for adults and $40 for children (12 and under) and are non-refundable. Private coach and caboose rates also available.
NEW in 2010!!! Cocoa Class – Add an extra touch of sweetness to your trip to the North Pole by experiencing specially topped, unlimited cocoa served in your very own North Pole Express souvenir mug. This tasty option would not be complete without a homemade cookie like grandma used to make. "Cocoa Class" will enhance this unforgettable experience. $85 for adults and $55 for children (12 and under). Space is limited, so be sure to tell your friends and family to book their seats today.
2010 Dates & Times are as Follows:
|Departure Dates
|Departure Times
|Friday, November 26
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Saturday, November 27
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Sunday, November 28
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Saturday, December 4
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Sunday, December 5
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Saturday, December 11
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Sunday, December 12
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Saturday, December 18
|9:30am & 3:30pm
|Sunday, December 19
|9:30am & 3:30pm
Love Trains? Become an SRI Member
Membership has its Benefits
Show your support for the Steam Railroading Institute and sign up for a membership today! Just want the basics? Pick the Subscribing membership, giving you a basic subscription to our newsletters and notification of events. Want something more? FREE admission? Discounts? Then go for an Individual, Couple, Family, or Family Plus membership. Help us out aplenty by opting for our Donor membership, offering 8 Free admissions!
North Pole Express
Every year we carry thousands of families to the North Pole. 2010 is no exception. This magical train leaves Owosso, Michigan and goes to the North Pole. Families can enjoy this fantasy excursion where kids can talk with Santa and leave with a huge smile. Please join us for a day that will be remembered for a lifetime.
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Train Festivl 2009
America's Largest Celebration of Railroading has come and gone in Owosso. More than 36,000 people showed up to support the Steam Railroading Institute and the rebuild of Steam Locomotive #1225. If you would like to buy a DVD or Program Click Here
Looking for a great place to host a birthday party?
Want to give your child and friends a memorable experience?
Rent one of our stationary Cabooses Today!
Click Here for More Info


text: Find this wine Find this wine Bolla Valpolicella 2009 Round and smooth red, not a sipper but not a chugger. Justin likes too! Pin It Tweet 4 years ago by Rocky_88 More posts 2008 Amarone Della Valpolicella Classico Bolla Delish. 2 years ago by Lanna L. Bolla Le Poiane Valpolicella Ripasso 2011 Not as fruity as many which appeals to my tastes these days. 3 years ago by Eric F. Bolla Valpolicella 2011 Yum! 3 years ago by Erin M. Bolla Valpolicella 2011 Smooth, dark cherry, not complex 3 years ago by Marketing Bolla Valpolicella 2012 9 dollar simple red dinner wine 3 years ago by Michaelandtracey


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Flock Browser Beta
I am taking the opportunity of the summer break to try and blog more regularly.
As no detailed blog post seems to have been published on Foldera since the release of the Beta on 19 June 2006, I have decided to prepare one of my own which should be posted later this week. For the time being, here are my first impressions on the new Flock browser.
I have been trying the Flock Browser Beta 1 (v. 0.7) for Mac OS X since yesterday and must say that I was so impressed that it was pretty much an immediate adoption. I would therefore very strongly recommend it to anyone. Two of my favourite features, besides the favorites toolbar à la Safari, are:
- Flock's Photobar which allows you to view online photos from a Flickr account (yours or a friends) at the top of the browser,
- The built-in blog editor, which allows you to write and edit blog posts and which I am using to write this post. It is really user friendly and so easy to use. The way it creates very simply technorati tags is really cool.
technorati tags:Foldera, Flock, Flickr, Web2.0
Blogged with Flock


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Who We Are
Redl Sports is a family owned wholesaler of sporting goods products in the fishing, hunting, camping, marine, shooting sports and fitness & athletics categories serving customers throughout Canada.
Redl Sports, established in 1954, and owned by the McCallum family for more than 40 years, was acquired by Maurice Sporting Goods of Northbrook, Illinois in 2011. Redl continues to operate under Brent McCallum's leadership as a sister company to Maurice Sporting Goods.
Our partnership with Maurice provides many new opportunities and capabilities starting with our NEW business-to-business webstore with over 50,000 products. Available 24/7, the site offers a greatly expanded line-up of outdoor gear, competitive pricing and aggressive dealer programs and Redl's own proprietary brand products as well.
Redl's Proprietary Brands
With our unparalleled service, support, competitive pricing and quick delivery of product, Redl Sports is Canada's largest outdoor sports distribution company. We can ship to most locations in Canada overnight.
Our History
Company founded.
Redl Sports Distributor acquired by McCallum family.
Trophy XL fishing product line launched.
Angler fishing product line launched.
Redl purchases shooting sports business and adds to its product lineup.
Dragonfly fishing product line launched.
Redl introduced "RODS" - Dealer Order System.
Redl Sports Distributor acquired by Maurice Sporting Goods.
Redl moves into it's new 75,000 sq. ft. distribution center.
A beneficial partnership
A message from Brent McCallum, General Manager of Redl Sports Distributors...
"While selling the company was a big decision," said Brent McCallum, General Manager of Redl Sports Distributors, "I look forward to continuing to lead Redl well into the future while enjoying the many benefits that our new partnership will provide. Redl and Maurice have both been dedicated to our market for a long time and I could not be more pleased with the opportunity to now work together for the benefit of our customers, our employees, our business partners, and the outdoor sporting goods communities that we serve and support every day."
New opportunities
Jory Katlin, CEO of Maurice Sporting Goods, commenting on this opportunity with Redl Sports...
"Maurice and Redl have both enjoyed serving the outdoor sporting goods market in Canada for decades as family-owned businesses focused on exceeding our customers' expectations every day and providing a comprehensive assortment of national and regional brands to support their consumers' outdoor adventures. Over the years, we have developed a great deal of respect for Redl Sports Distributors and its management team and we look forward to supporting their continued growth from their base near Vancouver, British Columbia."
- Now over 50,000 products available online
- Aggressively priced dealer programs
- Online ordering 24/7
- New Camping Category
- New Marine Category
- New Fitness & Athletics Category


text:
Table Of Contents
Table 2: WIC-1B-U-V2 supported Platforms
Product Bulletin, No. 1934
End-of-Sale Announcement for WIC-1B-U WAN Interface Card (WIC)
IntroductionThis Product Bulletin serves as the formal notification of the End of Sales (EoS), and End of Engineering (EoE) for the WIC-1B-U WAN Interface Card (WIC) effective December 16, 2002. This product is being discontinued because of obsolete components, and will be replaced by a new product described below. The WIC-1B-U is a single port ISDN WIC with integrated NT-1 that is currently supported on the Cisco 1600, 1700, 2600, 3600 and 3700 Series product families.
The recommended replacement product for the WIC-1B-U is the new WIC-1B-U-V2, and it supports identical functionality, features, and performance as the WIC-1B-U. The WIC-1B-U-V2 will be supported on all platforms with the exception of the Cisco 1600 router. To allow product certification by customers, the WIC-1B-U-V2 will be available to order on the Cisco 2600, 3600 and 3700 platforms on October 28, 2002. The WIC-1B-U-V2 will be available to order on the Cisco 1700 Series on December 9, 2002. See table 2 below for key WIC-1B-U-V2 availability dates.
The WIC-1B-U-V2 is supported in all Cisco IOS feature sets. It is supported in four major Cisco IOS releases including 12.0M, 12.1M, 12.2 M and 12.2T, but is restricted to the more recent IOS maintenance releases in each. See Table 1 below for detailed IOS maintenance release support.
Table 1: WIC-1B-U substitute product and minimum Cisco IOS requirements
· Note: When using the Cisco configuration tool, the WIC-1B-U-V2 will be recommended when any of the above IOS software releases are selected.
Table 2: WIC-1B-U-V2 supported Platforms
·Note: The WIC-1B-U-V2 will not be supported on the 1600 products due to EoS /EoL announcement documented in Product Bulletin #1865.
Table 3: WIC-1B-U key End-of-Support dates for the Cisco 2600, 3600, and 3700 Series platforms
* note: Due to limited component availability and the possibility of higher than expected demands for the WIC-1B-U, the ability to fulfill all product orders up to the above specified date cannot be guaranteed. In some situations sale order conversions by Customer Service to the recommended substitute product may be required.
Table 4: WIC-1B-U-V2 key orderbility and availability dates
Cisco 1700 Series
Orderability Date December 9, 2002
FCS Date December 24, 2002
Cisco 2600, 3600, and 3700 Series
Orderability Date October 28, 2002
FCS Date November 11, 2002
Support Programs
End-of-Sale refers to the time when a product is no longer available for new system or spare purchases. It does not apply to the service and support programs for those products. Cisco will continue to support the WIC-1B-U through our SmartNet and Comprehensive Maintenance programs. Customers with either of these service contracts are entitled to 24-hour phone support through the Technical Assistance Center, and advance replacement hardware for repairs. Comprehensive Maintenance customers also receive on-site service. Customers who do not have a maintenance contract can purchase software updates and hardware repair services from Cisco to meet specific requirements rather than full service coverage. Cisco is committed to supporting these systems for a period of five (5) years after the End-of-Sale date.


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Make Out Like a BanditWednesday, April 28th, 2010
It is possible to create so much wealth that you come out feeling like a criminal. No matter if you are currently going through tough times financially, you can still succeed. Even if you are sinking in debt, there is still time to create enough wealth to achieve financial freedom. Everyone has the option of earning money, even without a high degree of difficulty. Wealth creation is the best way to solve all of your problems. You can get the money that you need to be happy, and there is no need to plan a bank robbery. You can make money fast, easily as well as legally.
If you do not currently have a steady source of income, you can find other ways to create the wealth that you need to get out of debt and start investing. For example, you may want to do a little spring-cleaning around your house. You can have a yard sale or sale all of the things you no longer need or want in an online auction. In fact, if you have access to the Internet, you have a whole world of opportunities out there waiting for you.
In addition, the Internet is a powerful wealth creation tool also because of the resources it makes available for investors to learn their trades and gain valuable knowledge. Online forums, webinars and more are available to help you become more familiar with the important details of the niche that you choose to pursue.
One of the most popular ways to make money on the Internet is through affiliate marketing. The reason for this is that it takes little skill at all to earn a significant amount of money promoting other companies goods and services. You can set up a website or blog and focus on directing traffic to those sites. The more people who visit your sites and click on your affiliate links, the more money you make.
No matter if you are able to start your wealth creation plan by buying up several hotel chains or by picking up aluminum cans on the side of the road, you have the opportunity to create as much wealth as you desire.
Sean Rasmussen
Success Communicator
Aussie Internet Marketer © 2004 – 2010


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Jester Hats by Shirley Roemer
Welcome! You are browsing as a guestWould you like to see projects made from this pattern and much more? create a free account What am I missing?
© dhglenn
Jester Hats
From the magazine:
"On the ski slope, playground, or college campus, the jester hat is 'hot' - or should we say 'cool'? Knit one for your favorite young person - smiles are guaranteed!"
You will also need three bells for the hat tips.


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By SentaiSeiya on December 22, 2012No comments
The first trailer for the animated film Saint Young Men (Saint Oniisan) is up on Youtube. This movie is based the hit comedy manga by Hikaru Nakamura, which tells the story of Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ, two unlikely roommates living together in Tokyo . In Saint Young Men, Jesus and Buddha, the founders of Christianity and Buddhism, have to deal with everyday modern life and each other. Check out the trailer for a glimpse at the upcoming film!
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text: Our Verdict This little belter will make the most of all but the most esoteric turntables. Your system deserves one For Sound, price, looks… and in that order Against No, sorry, can't think of any Reviewed on 18th July 2006 It's an old and tragic story: man meets affordable amplifier, man decides amp sounds great, then realises amp has no phono stage and won't play his records. Man wails and gnashes teeth, man begins search all over again. It needn't be this way. A phono pre-amplifier can sit between your record player and amp, boosting your turntable's weedy output to a level the amplifier can make use of. This 640P does the job admirably, bringing the joy of vinyl to systems in the £1000-£1500 territory. Brilliant sound for the cashThe 640P delivers brilliant sound for the cash playing Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, impressing across the board. It makes the most of vinyl's inherently superior timing, integrating instruments seamlessly while leaving each one secure and rigidly focused on the stage. Tempos cruise effortlessly, bass notes start and stop with straight-edged alacrity, and there's intimacy and emotional weight to voices. The Cambridge accommodates moving magnet as well as moving coil types, and features a subsonic filter to minimise any vinyl 'rumble' too. It's unobtrusive, is well made and looks good. Dust off those records forthwith! More after the break Related News Arcam rPhono preamp will make the most of your vinyl without costing the earth Tue, 10 Jan 2017, 12:50pm User review of the month, September - Rega Fono Mini A2D Mon, 03 Oct 2016, 05:32pm McIntosh Labs has a new Blu-ray player, preamp and phono stage on the way Tue, 28 Jun 2016, 10:57am Clearaudio unveils Absolute Phono and Absolute Phono Inside phono stages Thu, 30 Oct 2014, 02:55pm Audio Reference brings Musical Surroundings phono stages to the UK Thu, 26 Jul 2012, 05:11pm Accessories Azur 640P Cambridge Audio Phono amps Stay on top of your sound with What Hi-Fi? in your inbox every week Thank you for registering for our Newsletter We will send you relevant emails and updates.


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Reportedly busy editing Valkyrie and preparing for another new film, Bryan Singer is said to probably bid goodbye to "Superman: The Man of Steel".
Words are circulating that the sequel of "Superman Returns" may lose its helmer. According to a report from Variety columnist and blogger Anne Thompson, there is a big possibility that Bryan Singer won't return to shoot "Superman: The Man of Steel".
In her blog, the columnist claimed that the 42-year-old director will be too busy editing Tom Cruise-starring film "Valkyrie" and preparing for the production of "The Mayor of Castro Street". She wrote, "It is highly unlikely that Bryan Singer will return to shoot the next Superman movie. (The director is finishing up Tom Cruise's Nazi film Valkyrie, and prepping The Mayor of Castro Street)."
Apart from the news that Singer might be off from the next Superman movie, it was also reported that Brandon Routh won't be playing as Superman in another upcoming superhero flick "Justice League of America", which reportedly won't be shot until the end of the writers' strike. Allegedly, the actor will be replaced with a younger casting because the film needs a cast of youthful superheroes.


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PSRoots-L ArchivesArchiver > PSRoots > 2007-10 > 1192670538
From: Marge Reid <>
Subject: [PSROOTS] Heritage Event in Lynnwood
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:22:18 -0700
Hello, List People -
You are all invited to attend an exciting event to be held Thursday,
October 25, 2007 at Lynnwood's Heritage Park!
The Lynnwood Historical Commission is pleased to announce that a plaque
will be dedicated identifying the Wickers Building in Heritage Park as
one of Lynnwood's historic sites. The plaque will be unveiled, and
Lynnwood Mayor, Don Gough, will speak at the ceremony scheduled for 2
P.M., at the Wickers Building, 19921 Poplar Way in Heritage Park.
After the ceremony, do take a few minutes to tour the park, and visit
the other historic features the park offers - the Alderwood Manor
Heritage Association's "Heritage Cottage" has a new photo display on the
old Alderwood School; the Interurban Trolley is always a big hit with
visitors; the refurbishing of the old water tower has begun AND
there'll be cookies for visitors at the Sno-Isle Genealogical Society's
library at Humble House!
If you have roots in south Snohomish County OR if you're just curious
about Alderwood Manor, don't miss this event!
This thread:
|[PSROOTS] Heritage Event in Lynnwood by Marge Reid <>


text: Jewell is inspirational, "mission-driven" and a consensus builder who nearly doubled REI's revenues to $1.8 billion since joining REI in 2000 and will raise the profile of the industry, said company chairman John Hamlin, managing partner of the private-equity firm Bozeman Limited Partnership.Among the issues Jewell will need to navigate is the collision between a record-setting energy boom â¿¿ which has led to sharply increased drilling over the past decade â¿¿ and the desire of western communities to lure tourists and information-age workers who want to be able to play outdoors, using the gear the industry makes. Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government and public affairs for the Western Energy Alliance, said she's baffled at the hostility to energy exploration among the outdoor recreation industry. "They're not transporting their products via windmills," she said. "Their customers wouldn't be able to use all that gear in the mountains without driving in their cars." Bishop complained that REI has pushed for America's Redrock Wilderness Act, a bill that has languished in Congress for years without action because of the Utah delegation's opposition. It also helped fund nonprofits who sued to stop the Bush administration's award of 77 oil and gas leases on Utah land in 2008. He scoffed at those who argue that the West can prosper from the recreation economy. "Recreation is a great element but it's only one of the elements you need," Bishop said. "It is extremely volatile. You need a good industrial sector. You need a good manufacturing sector. You need a good mining sector."


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About The Mount Union Police Department
The Mount Union Borough Police Department is responsible for the safety and protection of The Borough of Mount Union, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, 17066. Our primary mission is service to the public. We are a full-time police department staffed by full-time and part-time police officers who are committed to the safety, protection, and security of the residents, visitors, and businesses of the Borough. The Police Department patrols the incorporated areas of the Borough of Mount Union consists of approximately one and one half square miles located in Central Pennsylvania on the border between Huntingdon and Mifflin Counties, along the banks of the picturesque Juniata River. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,504 people, 1,166 households, and 684 families residing in the borough which the police department serves.
The Department is also fortunate to have several specialized units, including a K-9 Unit consisting of a certified dual-purpose patrol/narcotic dog as well as a SCUBA team that is responsible for evidence recovery from underwater.
Please click on the officer's name for a brief biography:
|Robert K. Lippmann
|Mark E. Ewald
|Full-Time Officer
|Brian Becker
|Full-Time Officer
|Mary Persing
|Full-Time Officer
|David Buseck
Equipment and Vehicles
- Mount Union Police Department Deploys
Tasers - July 9, 2009
- The Mount Union Police Department recently purchased Taser X-26 Electronic Control Devices (ECDs). The Taser is another "tool" in the Law Enforcement Officer's "Toolbox" that will allow officers to safely control situations.
- Unit 601: 2009 Ford Crown
Victoria Police Interceptor
- This is the department's primary patrol car that was placed in service in late May, 2009. The vehicle is equipped with LED emergency lighting, and a specially designed rear passenger seat that improves officer safety during the transport of prisoners.
Unit 602: 2004 Ford Explorer - Used primarily for prisoner transports and during periods of inclement weather, the department's 4-wheel drive vehicle serves many purposes including incident support and as a back-up vehicle when needed.
Unit 603: 2000 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor


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Guwahati, Aug. 19: Gauhati High Court today asked Lakhimpur zilla parishad chief executive officer Khagen Borgohain to continue in his post if he had not handed over charge to anyone.
The high court thus effectively quashed an Assam government order dated August 13 transferring Borgohain and posting him as joint secretary in the hill areas department.
The transfer of Borgohain, an Assam civil service official, has generated statewide protests, with several organisations terming the governments act as nothing but a move to punish an honest officer for writing to the panchayat and rural development commissioner on August 7 about alleged irregularities in a scheme prepared by Lakhimpur MP Ranee Narah.
Borgohain, in his petition to the high court, said his transfer order was the result of unwanted interference by Narah, who on Saturday denied the charges levelled against her by Borgohain.
Narah had told The Telegraph, People do not know that Borgohain had sent a Rs 14-crore proposal to Dispur by keeping the zilla parishad members in the dark. I will respond with proper documents. But I must say here that I do not transfer officials.
On the basis of a writ petition filed by Borgohain, a single judge bench of justice Ujjal Bhuyan asked the petitioner to continue if he had not handed over charge yet.
The high court has also asked H.K. Mahanta, standing counsel of the personnel department, government of Assam, to submit relevant documents regarding Borgohains transfer by 2pm tomorrow.


text:
Updated at 3:46 p.m. ET
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said he takes "full responsibility for having done wrong" but insisted he "did not break the law" to cover up his extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter.
Edwards was indicted earlier today by a federal grand jury. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, making false statements and four counts of illegal campaign contributions.
In a brief statement to reporters outside the courthouse in Winston-Salem, N.C., Edwards declared his innocence on the criminal allegations.
"There's no question I've done wrong," Edwards said, adding he'll "regret the pain and the harm" that he caused for the rest of his life. But he was adamant: "I did not break the law and I never, ever thought I was breaking the law."
The charges center on more than $900,000 given to Hunter and former Edwards aide Andrew Young by Edwards' supporters Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and Fred Baron to keep the pair in hiding. Prosecutors argue that the money amounted to illegal campaign contributions because they allowed Edwards to continue with his 2008 presidential bid.
Edwards' lawyer, Gregory Craig, today criticized "an unprecedented prosecution" and vowed his client will "defend this case vigorously." Craig said there is no way anyone, including Edwards, would have known that the payments to Hunter and Young should be treated as campaign contributions.
Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer denounced Edwards' "scheme."
"We will not permit candidates for high office to abuse their special ability to access the coffers of their political supporters to circumvent our election laws," he said in a statement. "Our campaign finance system is designed to preserve the integrity of democratic elections – for the presidency and all other elected offices – and we will vigorously pursue abuses of the kind alleged today."
If convicted, Edwards could face five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the six counts.
The indictment reads as a slap at Edwards' character. "The centerpiece of Edwards' candidacy was his public image as a family man," the document begins, before giving excruciating detail about money and a coverup.
USA TODAY's Fredreka Schouten and Kevin Johnson look at the legal issues surrounding the Edwards case in this story and have more on the charges.
The indictment alleges that Edwards conspired with individuals, who are not named specifically, to accept and receive campaign contributions above what campaign finance law allowed at the time. The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2008, Edwards accepted and received more than $900,000.
Much of the case has centered on testimony from Young, who claimed in 2007 that he was the father of Hunter's daughter in order to help his boss.
Edwards initially denied the affair but admitted the relationship with Hunter, a campaign videographer, in 2008. At the time, he denied he was the father of Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn. Edwards did not admit paternity until 2010, the day before Young's memoir was released.
The saga over Edwards' affair has been a sordid chapter in the life of a one-time Democratic star. After years of winning million-dollar verdicts as a trial lawyer, Edwards appealed to voters and defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in 1998 for a U.S. Senate seat.
Edwards ran for president in 2004, emphasizing "two Americas" for the rich and the poor, and eventually became John Kerry's running mate. In 2008, staking his campaign on opposition to the Iraq war and in support of universal health care, Edwards was eclipsed in the Democratic primaries by Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Elizabeth Edwards died in December after a six-year battle with cancer. At the time, she and John Edwards were legally separated.
Catalina Camia leads the OnPolitics online community and has been at USA TODAY since 2005. She has been a reporter or editor covering politics and Congress for two decades, including stints at The Dallas Morning News and Congressional Quarterly. Follow her at @USATOnPolitics.
USA TODAY's Jackie Kucinich (@jfkucinich) and Fredreka Schouten (@fschouten) also contribute to the OnPolitics blog.


text:
- by Dryad Madame |
- Original Avatar
- | Submitted on 01/27/2013 |
- Skip
- Title: Teen Queen
- Artist: Dryad Madame
Ever wondered what a teenager Queen does rather than laze around the Hive?
She gets in wicked knife fights is what she does. Also explores the world in all its glory till creating her own hive!
- Date: 01/27/2013
- Tags: teen queen
- Report Post


text: Court: Homeowners group exempt from disclosure By on November 19, 2010 By Jimy Valenti THE COLORADO STATESMAN A federal appellate court ruling brings more questions than answers after the court ruled that a small group of Douglas County homeowners who fought annexation in 2006 did not need to disclose their finances. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that Colorado's process requiring ballot […]This content is only available to subscribers. Login or Subscribe Share this:EmailTwitterFacebook Current News, Default


text:
An analysis of used car prices show that vehicle costs are at a five-year low and are expected to drop even lower next year.
The reason the prices of used cars are dropping have to do in part with a rebounding economy that has helped boost new car sales this year.
This has meant a surge of trade-ins, which must be moved. And to do that the prices are being cut for consumers.
The average used car sold for $15,617 at a franchised dealership in the third quarter, the lowest since the same quarter in 2009, when they averaged $14,808, according to the analysis by car-pricing website Edmunds.com. Prices have been easing for most of the year, and the third-quarter average was down 2.8% from the second quarter and 0.9% from the same quarter last year.
Another used-car price watcher, Tom Kontos of Adesa Analytical Services, noted a tiny uptick in wholesale prices in October, but says the overall trend is down. (..Used car prices are still higher than they were a decade ago, however.)
Additionally, leased cars are another reasons for the used car prices being so low.
Cheap lease deals were all the rage a few years ago, as dealers pushed new cars onto drivers who didn't want to make the full purchase.
In recent years, more of those leased cars have been returned and are being sold as used.


text:
Welcome to E-Books Directory
This is a freely downloadable e-book.
The Gastrointestinal Circulation
Read this book online or download it here for free
Custom Search
The Gastrointestinal Circulation
by Peter R. Kvietys
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers 2010
Number of pages: 140
The overall objective of the book is to summarize the physiologic role of the blood and lymph vessels in supporting the overall absorptive, secretory, and motor function of the stomach, small intestine, and colon with an emphasis on the mucosal microcirculation.
More Sites Like This
|Science Books Online
|Books Fairy
|Maths e-Books
|Programming Books


text:
Diet PIlls
Take a look at this picture, there is a lot of white to make it seem clean or clinical. The reflection of the pill bottles also shows how we should think that this product is clean. The woman in the cover photo is jubilant that she fits into those old jeans, not new ones, but…Read More


text:
*This material belongs to Asia Rowe. Do not copy nor...
•But You're BLACK•
- by asia.rowe
- Rating:
- Published: 29 Nov 2014
- Updated: 22 Jan 2015
- Status: In Progress
"The human race has lost it's way. We are no longer humans. We are colors. Judged by the color of our skin, but not the color of our hearts. Humans don't know that love has no color." - Anonymous MyKai is a normal seventeen year old girl, but her life is far from normal. She is biracial and lives on the racist streets of London. She doesn't know her father and her mother is a black prostitute. MyKai is brought into the sick world of turning tricks and sucking dick for money. What happens when she is almost sold to the famous Harry Styles? How will the world react to his new dark beauty? "Could someone like you ever love someone like me?" "No." "W-why not?" "Because you're black.." *This material belongs to Asia Rowe. Do not copy nor publish this story. This story has been published and edited by Asia Rowe. ©Copyright of 2014. All rights reserved.* This is not meant to offend anyone. I myself am half black and very proud. Please don't take offense to it.
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text:
Skip to Content
This webinar will provide an overview of U.S. export regulations. Export regulations can be complicated and small businesses should seek help from qualified experts to answer specific export regulatory questions. You can find more information about this topic in chapter 10 of The Basic Guide to Exporting. A copy of the Basic Guide to Exporting is available at all SBDC and WBC service centers
Download the full video (160 Mb)
The topic areas below are considered key learning objectives for the small business counselor for this level of certification. Please review the associated links to find information that can prepare you for the Certification test. Additional resources will be added as they become available.
2. Online Document Filing Including AESDirect
3. Denied Parties Lists and Red Flags
4. Technical Compatibility and Product Standards
Business.USA.gov is an official
website of the U.S. Government.
Business.USA.gov is an official website of the U.S. Government.


text:
Most high street banks are now using automated calls to alert customers to any unusual transaction and to ask them if they have made it.
Santander says it is making around a thousand calls a day just to verify cheque payments.
But how does the customer know it's actually the bank calling and not a fraudster trying to obtain your details?
Bob Howard reports and Paul talks to Richard Koch from the bank industry body UK Payments.
Related Links:
Where is inflation going?
Inflation fell slightly this week. But the long term prognosis is not so good. Paul Lewis talks to economist and ex-Monetary Policy Committee member, Andrew Sentance, about his fears for inflation.
Related links:
Free help to cut fuel bills
Four major energy companies are offering free home insulation to any householder. You don't have to be a customer of that firm and your personal or family circumstances or income isn't taken into account. It sounds too good to be true - but it isn't if you act quickly.
There is also more money going begging for updating heating systems but that is confined to low income households of particular types.
Paul Lewis talks to Jessica Forster, Energy doctor at the Energy Saving Trust to find out what deals are available.
Bankrupts not welcome, says Coop
If you're declared bankrupt but still need a bank acccount for your wages, your benefits or to manage payments, then your choices are now much reduced.
By fifty per-cent, in fact. From this week, the Co-operative Bank has stopped offering a bank account to new customers who are undischarged bankrupts. Which leaves only Barclays on the high street willing to provide them.
Paul Lewis hears from the Cooperative Bank's Head of Banking, Robin Taylor and talks to Mike McAteer, Director of The Financial Inclusion Centre.
BBC Radio 4's Money Box is broadcast on Saturday at 1204 BST.
What are these?
Download or subscribe to this programme's podcast
Most Popular Now | 56,514 people are reading stories on the site right now.";


text:
Maurice Chevalier
(No. 10 in a series of 50 from Players Navy Cut Cigarettes)
"Maurice Chevalier was born on September 12th, 1889 in Menilmontant. His father died when he was eleven and after becoming carpenter's apprentice, electrician, printer and doll painter, he tried stage work. He won fame at the Folies-Bergere as Mistinguett's dancing partner. During the War he served in the army, and after the aristice made his London debut at the Palace Theatre. After appearing in New York he went to Hollywood and scored sensationally in Innocents of Paris. Among his latest talkies are The Way to Love and The Merry Widow."


text:
Terry R. Warness
Rebecca E. Johnson
Center for Addiction Studies
University of Minnesota Duluth
Faculty Research Supervisor:
J. Clark Laundergan, PhD
Research Funding:
Chancellor's Small Grant
January 2006
Executive Summary
This report examines characteristics of alcohol consumption among 241 male students who completed the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) campus in the spring of 2004. The purpose is to discover and describe the characteristics of alcohol consumption and consumers among UMD's male student population.
Male respondents to the NCHA survey were broken into three drinking categories based on their responses to survey question number thirteen (13) "The last time you partied/socialized, how many alcoholic drinks did you have?" The mean number of drinks for male respondents who did use alcohol was 10.12 (males who didn't use alcohol were excluded from the mean calculation). Categories of drinkers were then defined around this mean of ten drinks, and were identified as "below the mean drinkers," having consumed less than ten alcoholic drinks on their last partying occasion (N=99), and as "at or above the mean drinkers," having consumed ten or more alcoholic beverages on their last partying occasion (N=116). A third group was identified as "nondrinkers'" having not consumed any alcohol on their last partying occasion (N=26). The three groups' answers to other survey items were then compared in an attempt to describe health and lifestyle differences between these three groups. Clearly a great majority of UMD's male students are alcohol users, and a majority of them are at or above the mean drinkers, giving added importance to the implications or findings of this report.
Substantial findings described in this report are that:
There is clearly a relationship between alcohol consumption and health and lifestyle differences among male UMD students. The heaviest drinkers were found to be the most involved in risk-taking activities such as drug use, sexual encounters, and drinking and driving, despite being well informed on health issues and heavily involved in contraceptive practices in relation to the other two categories. Additionally, the heaviest drinkers were found to be the least likely to use safe drinking measures while partying, and were also found to experience the most negative consequences from drinking, in both their personal and academic lives. Trends such as these highlight the importance of programs aimed at reducing harm caused by excess alcohol consumption among college students.


text:
At 1,000,000,000,000 frames per second, a camera would be capable of tracking the passage of a single packet of light. Thanks to Ramesh Raskar and his team at MIT, we now possess this technology.
In this TED talk, Ramesh shows off his "femto-camera", a camera capable of rendering a frame once every femtosecond (one trillionth of a second), as it captures a beam of light passing through a Coke bottle. To put it in perspective, for a bullet to go the same distance at this frame rate would take over a year. The implications are profound, from imaging without x-rays to being able to see around corners, but even at this early stage to be able to see light – the very limit of speed in this universe – actually flow and scatter like waves in water is worth the price of admission alone. Astounding.