text:
The King is Dead: Myra Wolfenstein, Bluestocking
|Annette Bening in Valmont
This is a slightly-modified version of one of the pre-gens I used at GaMExpo. I felt that trying to work in the complications of the Dark Secret Hindrance would be too much for a convention game (especially since I wanted to demo the espionage and intrigue side of things more), but I've worked that in to the stats presented here. I've also incorporated Attutudes for use of the character as an NPC.
"Unless we ensure equality for everyone– regardless of gender or race – then we merely trade the tyranny of vampires for the tyranny of man."
"Myra Wolfenstein," Vindicating the Rights of Women
Myra Wolfenstein
Mortal wife of the dhampir Count Adalwulf von Stenzgard, Auda von Stenzgard lives a double life: matron of Thornburg society by day and rebel agitator by night. Writing under the pen name "Myra Wolfenstein," she articulates the case for equal rights and proposes reformations to education. Wolfenstein also works in secret to refine the psionic powers she developed through rigorous training.
Myra Wolfenstein's double life makes her privy to local anti-rebellion plans and political gossip from the capital, but also makes her vulnerable to the predations and depravities of one of the most capricious fiends in Thornmark. Thankfully, Count Adalwulf is thoroughly embarrassed that he married a human for her money, and does not take his countess to Hammerstadt. This gives her frequently weeks at a time to enact her plans in peace.
Attitude: As a member of the Bluestocking Society, Myra Wolfenstein is particularly Helpful to the oppressed members of Ananzi's Web and the Starlight Children. She is Friendly to members of the Wild Hunt (being intrigued by their outlandishness but somewhat disturbed by their ferocity) and the Zunft von Hohenheim (regarding Psionics as a science and the Zunft as fellow scientists). She is Neutral toward the well-meaning but sadly patriarchal Illuminated and the (ahem!) "entrepreneurial" Raubritters. She is Uncooperative with rough, rugged royalists of the Clan O'Naill.
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8.
Skills: Fighting d4, Investigation d8, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Psionics d8, Riding d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Streetwise d4.
Charisma: +2; Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 9 (3)
Hindrances: Dark Secret (see below),* Heroic (always helps the poor and downtrodden), Death Wish (live free or die trying), Stubborn (her voice represents all of her sisters).
Edges: Arcane Background: Psionics, Connections (Bluestocking Society), Noblewoman
Gear: Artfully-crafted metal gorget (Armor +3, neck only), formal clothing, crossbow & 10 quarrels (Range: 15/30/60, dmg 2d6, AP 2, 1 action to reload), hidden dagger (Range: 3/6/12, Str+1d4, RoF 1), plate corset (Armor +3, torso), pocket pistol (Range 2/4/8, damage 2d6-1, ROF 1, 2 full actions to reload), 85 reichsmarks in easily-hocked jewelry.
Special Abilities:
- Power Points: 10
- Powers: confusion, mind reading, stun
*If Myra Wolfenstein is revealed to have a Dark Secret, choose from or roll 1d6 on the chart below:
- 1: She is (and retroactively always has been) a dhampir herself. "Countess Auda" is, in fact, Adalwulf's incestuous sister – the missing nun Mircalla – and they are (or were) very much in love. Use the statistics for a Cunning Dhampir as she affects her escape.
- 2-3: She is Adalwulf's moroi. The spite between them is real, but it's all part of a kinky love-hate relationship the two maintain. They've been conspiring together the whole time to get Adalwulf turned into a vampire by a sponsor with the royal court (since his own father is so reluctant) – and he has promised he will raise her in turn. Use the statistics for a Viper Moroi as she affects her escape.
- 4-5: She is a disciple of Countess Erzbeta Battori, the exiled ruler of a domain conquered by the Ostermann Empire. Countess Erzbeta's cult of personality advocates a greater place for women in the vampire hierarchy; she promises to give Auda the Gift of Sathaniel in return for help in disrupting the social order of Malleus. Use the statistics for a Viper Moroi as she affects her escape.
- 6: Experimenting with the unknown powers of the human mind opened Myra Wolfenstein to corruption from strange beings beyond the stars. Without warning, she metamorphoses into a monster and attacks the cabal. Use the statistics for a Tentacled Horror as she runs amok.


text:
Outside my window... today was chilly and windy, after a few days of beautiful weather. I think it will warm back up again this week though. Goose and I took advantage of the nice weather on Wednesday and put up the Christmas lights on the porch. We waited until tonight to turn them on, and she is THRILLED.
I am thinking... that my adrenal glands aren't doing as well as I had hoped. I bumped my supplement levels back up to the full amount, and so far it's helping a little, but I am trying to be patient.
I am praying for... my father-in-law. A week ago yesterday, they estimated he probably only had days to go; a week ago today, they dropped it down to just hours. He has had ups and downs since then, but yesterday he asked to be brought out to the living room to sit for a while. Also praying for patience to wait on God's timing.
I am thankful for... every minute we have with my father-in-law.
From the learning rooms... whoof. Much of our time has been spent at the farm, so this area has been a bit neglected.
From the kitchen... whoof again. We've eaten most of our meals at the farm, too. For thanksgiving, I brought creamy corn and peppers and cheesy mashed potatoes. We had baked oatmeal a few days this week, and I also made this Pumpkin Coffee Cake. It was really good!
I am wearing... purple long sleeved shirt, pinkish purplish cords.
I am creating... umm, a few cell phone cases for the craft shop, and I have some ideas in my head for Christmas gifts that I need to get moving on.
I am pondering... that we rejoice in the hope of the resurrection.
I am reading... Real Learning: Education In the Heart of the Home
I am hoping... for a better night's sleep tonight.
I am hearing... Hubs talking to the video game he's playing. :>)
Around the house... needs some picking up, for sure.
One of my favorite things... Goose learning how to walk carefully up to a skittish cat and gently pet it. Girl after my own heart! :>)
A few plans for the rest of the week... our final Bible study session on Monday, small claims court for our little village on Thursday, and lots of time at the farm, I'm sure.
A picture thought I am sharing... Goosie and Grandpa, taken a few months ago.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Daybook for November 26, 2011
2 comments:
- Angela said...
What a great picture, and what a beautiful little girl you have!! Still praying . . .
- November 27, 2011 at 10:47 AM
- Zimms Zoo said...
Another great daybook. Praying for your fil. What a great picture of them together!
- November 30, 2011 at 4:29 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I was introduced to the Business as an Agent of World Benefit project yesterday. Rather than follow the current discourse of bashing capitalism and corporations for the damage they do to the world, the project takes a refreshing approach and inquires into how business can act as an agent for positive change in the world, while also sustaining its own profitability.
Sounds crazy – I know, but step back for a second and think about how much sense it makes. Big corporations are usually full of intelligent people; and intelligent people know that destroying the environment and squeezing an ever increasing proportion of the population into relative poverty is not a strategy for sustainable growth – or even survival. Moreover, who is better placed to make a difference on an issue like climate change than a company with the brightest engineers, billions of dollars to back them, and the selfish motive of healthy profits if they succeed?
David Cooperrider has outlined the three characteristics of model organisations he sees for the twenty first century:
- Organisations provide a domain for the elevation of strengths – they provide the processes, tools, and mission for individuals to realise and grow their own strengths;
- They enable the concentration of strengths – connecting different strengths in what Ken Gergen calls "an ever-expanding domain of relatedness". Cooperrider argues there is a multiplier effect to connecting diverse strengths, and organisation offer a platform for more and more strengths to be connected with increasing potential and novel results;
- Organisations should refract strengths outward into society. In a dawning age of collaboration, knowledge has no owner and the days of hoarding intellectual property are coming to an end. The twenty first century organisation will pride itself on sharing its ideas and designs in a collaborative way, acting as a lightening rod for further innovation.
Sound far fetched? It might be closer than you think. Melotte, a Belgian manufacturing firm is making waves with its digital 3D printing technology. Led by Mario Fleurinck, the company is using cutting-edge technology to rapidly scale down costs of manufacturing. The result is an eightfold decrease in carbon emissions (numbers to impress any environmentalist) and a revenue growth of 20% per quarter (something for the businessman too). Rather than pursuing a classic balanced scorecard however, Melotte has defined a new set of metrics. These not only highlight the root causes of the company's success, but provide a framework for the company's continued growth to benefit society in a much larger way.
Ilja Heitlager, Information Officer at Schuberg Philis told of an inquiry into what drove his company's success. It led to the IT provider bucking the trend and doing away with a generalist call centre, in favour of employees building deep knowledge of the systems of a small number of clients. Giarte, an Outsourcing survey provider has found Schubert Philis to have the highest customer satisfaction rating in the Netherlands for the last six years, with an incredible 100% of clients saying they would recommend the company to others. By connecting the knowledge within the organisation Schuberg Philis came up with a model that made redundant the challenges they faced previously. Interestingly, the same approach to change has led them to agree a mission to build an organisation that, rather than focusing on shareholder value, "will make their children proud".
Diana Whitney earlier suggested that "Appreciative Inquiry draws people who's values are in-congruent with the old methods". If Schuberg Philis' and Melotte's financial results are anything to go by, we may see a lot more organisations discovering the power of a new set of values. Welcome to the 21st century!


text:
Truly Girls at Elliott Fouts Gallery
Flight Patterns, © Deborah Hamon 2008/09
A solo exhibition of paintings from my Truly Girls series will be on view at the Elliott Fouts Gallery in Sacramento, CA. The exhibition is open from February 2 until February 28, 2013. The artist reception will be on Saturday, February 9 from 6:00 – 9:00 pm — I hope to see you there!
If you are headed to Tahoe for Winter break with your kids, please consider stopping by to see the show on your way there or back. Thanks! Check the gallery website for hours.
For more information, please visit www.efgallery.com


text:
I'm curious to know if most (any?) XML Schema processors verify their schemas using XML Schema. I'm working on XML::Validator::Schema and so far I've been validating the schema structure manually in the code. It seems that at some point I should switch over to processing the schema itself through the validator. -sam PS: For bonus points, how much wood would a woodchuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?Received on Tuesday, 7 October 2003 13:45:46 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Wednesday, 7 January 2015 14:56:03 UTC


text:
Upcoming Webinars
10 AM BST, May 21st, 2019
11 AM PT, May 21st, 2019
11 AM PT, May 22nd, 2019
4 PM PT, May 22nd, 2019
Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Webinar Strategy Questions
11 AM PT, May 29th, 2019
On Demand Webinars
Live Demos
Monday @ 2pm
Tuesday @ 10am and 2pm
Thursday @ 10am and 2pm
Friday @ 10am
(All times in PST)
Join Zoom expert Raul Montes to learn the Zoom basics: scheduling, recording, screen sharing, and more.
Why wait? We will work with your schedule!
Upcoming Events


text:
Name: Camera Shy
Duration: 72 min
Year: 1993
Director: Scotty Fox
Language: English
Country: United States
Categories: Josalyn Taylor actress, 1993, United States, English, Scotty Fox, Laurie Cameron, Jessica Fox, Ariel Daye, Josalyn Taylor, Mike Horner, Jon Dough, Randy Spears, Facial
Actress: Laurie Cameron,Jessica Fox,Ariel Daye,Josalyn Taylor
Actors: Mike Horner,Jon Dough,Randy Spears
Randy Spears is a photographer who loves his work, And his subjects. Particularly when thery're beautiful models. Like the five lovelies listed at the left. Get the picture? Director Scotty Fox did. And It'll make you shudder!DOWNLOAD FILM


text:
Interactivity has been well-defined and explored to the hilt in the current web 2.0 scenarios. But the ultimate in dynamic interactivity are augmented reality applications that revolutionize the way you interact with the natural world. Augmented Reality (AR) apps superimpose an informative and interactive layer over objects in the natural world to enrich your experience. This helps to enhance the reality in the natural world and offers more accurate and substantiated data. Remember the Layar browser and how its popularity shot up due to an ingenious use of the AR concept? GoodCore can help you develop mobile browser-base AR apps for the iPhone and the iPad. Augmented reality app development is a niche skill-set developed by GoodCore that has helped us carve a niche for ourselves in the web app development market.
As lucrative as an augmented reality app may sound; considering its booming demand, it still is a huge risk to entrust the development in the hands of a novice. Augmented reality software development requires not just skills but a visionary approach to carry out need analysis and foresight to devise solutions that cater to the needs of a global audience. GoodCore imbibes all this and positions itself as one of the best augmented reality app development companies in Malaysia. With a team of augmented reality application development experts skilled in developing AR apps based on markers, image recognition or GPS; GoodCore is your destination for all AR app development needs.
If you want to develop an application for the iPhone, the iPad, or the Android platform, look no further than GoodCore. With state-of-the-art augmented reality app development expertise, we at GoodCore are confident that we can serve every need of yours in the AR application development arena. Entrust us with your dream and watch it transform into a full-blown, wonderful AR app that takes the world by storm. Provide us an opportunity and we will change the way you perceive the natural world, that's a promise!


text:
label.m Mud Clay to create edge-driven looks with maximum texture. Hard-hold clay becomes soft and session-workable in the hands, smoothing away frizziness to provide long-lasting style with low sheen finish
Directions for use:
Rub between palms and distribute through clean dry hair, working until you create your look.
Ask a question about: Label.m Mud Clay (50ml)
Stay in touch & in style via your inbox, with the latest from Hairtrade
Not sure which colour is best for you?
We understand it may be difficult to choose the correct shade when purchasing hair extensions online.
We are here to help you out!


text:
Monday, January 07, 2013
Proclaiming Emancipation
Renewed interest in slavery is also due in part to a recent anniversary. January 1st not only ushered in 2013, it also marked the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a document issued during the middle of the Civil War. As we've talked about in class, this document has its own complicated history.
A recent op-ed by Eric Foner — yes, THAT Foner, OUR Foner — argues that the document served as an important step in the evolution of President Lincoln. Early on in the War (August, 1862), Lincoln "seemed to blame the presence of blacks in America for the conflict: 'but for your race among us there could not be war.' He issued a powerful indictment of slavery — 'the greatest wrong inflicted on any people' — but added that, because of racism, blacks would never achieve equality in America. 'It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated,' he said. But most blacks refused to contemplate emigration from the land of their birth."
Soon after, a number of events (thousands of enslaved people bravely running away; the stalemated war; the desperate need for manpower in the Union army — remember the film Glory?) conspired to bring Lincoln to a new position. This, Foner says, is "the hallmark of Lincoln's greatness" and by December of 1862 — less than a month before the Proclamation — Lincoln writes: "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present," he wrote. "We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country." Foner responds: "Lincoln included himself in that 'we.'" (See how he analyzes the word "we" here for his readers?). Here, Foner suggests, Lincoln frees his past self from his own earlier position on slavery. And on January 1st, he proclaimed the freedom of the vast majority of the nation's slaves (those enslaved people living in states of rebellion).
Look again at the image the opens this post. According to Backstory's recent podcast on the history of emancipation, this is the Emancipation Memorial created by Thomas Ball after Lincoln's assassination. The idea of a monument came from the Freedman's Bureau and the original design was a gigantic (60' tall) monument created by a woman that featured the seated (read: fallen) Lincoln and a proud and standing African-American soldier. But, without the money to pay for that statue, the decision went to an all-white charitable organization that settled on the present design.
Lincoln holds in his right hand the Emancipation Proclamation. The figure kneeling at his feet is Arthur Alexander, a formerly enslaved person living in Missouri, a border state. (Remember: the Proclamation only "freed" enslaved people living in states of open rebellion).
The document holds no meaning whatsoever to the fate of this enslaved person.
Can you see a connection between the tension in these two memorial designs and the two movies I mentioned at the top of this post? In one movie, Lincoln is the benevolent Emancipator, the one with agency (in other words, the one who gets to do something). In the other, the "star" is African-American. There is no mention of Lincoln and agency is utterly within the hands of a black man (forgetting for the moment that the director of that movie is white and that Foxx did not receive a Golden Globe nomination but that his two white co-stars did!).
In a follow-up post, I'll examine what emancipation looks like — what it would look like and what it has looked like. Until then, enjoy this video from Mr. B:
Music by Nils Frahm. "Si" from Screws
15 comments:
- Clark Kipp said...
Over break, I was able to get to a theater and see "Lincoln" featuring Daniel Day Lewis as President Lincoln. In my view, there was just tension between Lincoln and the Republican House Reps. and the Democratic House Reps. Never Lincoln had a passionate view or thought against slavery, so for the viewers of the film, one gets the impression that Lincoln would have never wanted African-Americans to stay 'separated' as he said early in the Civil War. I think Lincoln was a great man and he definitely changed over the course of the war as Foner shows us, but he was glorified a bit much in "Lincoln" in my opinion.
- January 8, 2013 at 10:00 AM
- Tom Fawcett said...
I agree with Clark that Lincoln seems to have been glorified in "Lincoln". This is interesting because of the lack of representation that Lincoln received in "Django Unchained" (which I will have to take O'C's word for because I have never seen it). Likewise, Lincoln seems to be represented in a more apparent manner in the Emancipation Memorial, than in the plan that the Freedman's Bureau had for the memorial. In the current memorial Lincoln stands tall above Arthur Alexander, as if he is the center of attention. In the Freedman's Bureau's plan, the proud and standing African-American soldier seems as if it would have attracted most of the attention, and Lincoln (sitting) would have been a side note. It seems as if the attention towards Lincoln draws a strong connection between these statues, and the movies released recently.
- January 8, 2013 at 3:38 PM
- Jeremy Noskin said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- January 8, 2013 at 4:27 PM
- Jeremy Noskin said...
Tom makes a good point about how each statue can be translated to each of the two movies. "Django Unchained" refers to the original version, while "Lincoln" is similar to the current statue. What is interesting to me is that "Lincoln" clearly poses Abraham Lincoln in a positive light, just like the current statue. However, the majority of people that have seen this statue in Washington know nothing of the original one. In comparison, I believe that "Django Unchained" was created by Quentin Tarantino as an opposite to "Lincoln", which did not AOS. Since the original statue gets little recognition, just like a slave's view of slavery, Tarantino wanted to capture the less frequently seen viewpoint. I believe that he did an excellent job capturing Django's essence and showing how other whites and even blacks reacted to a free African-American.
- January 8, 2013 at 4:28 PM
- Zach Peltz said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- January 8, 2013 at 5:16 PM
- Lily Stein said...
Today in class, Zach mentioned the idea of holiness. I see this portrayed in both Thomas Ball's Emancipation Memorial and the movie "Lincoln." From the first scene when the two soldiers are reciting Lincoln's words to him, it seems that Lincoln is being worshiped as though he is some sort of god. Similarly, the memorial portrays Lincoln in the same way. He stands tall over Arthur Alexander and because of this, it seems like Alexander is praising Lincoln as a holy figure, just like the soldiers in the movie were.
As mentioned, in "Lincoln" and in the Emancipation Memorial, Lincoln has all the agency, which might not have really been the case. Historian William Jelani Cobb wrote, "enslaved blacks poisoned slaveholders, destroyed crops, 'accidentally' burned down buildings." These actions, along with the ones Mr.O'C listed, prove that while Lincoln may have been the face of it, the enslaved people were the agents, as the first monument would have portrayed with more accuracy.
- January 8, 2013 at 8:09 PM
- Aj Watkins said...
Like Zach, I also have seen neither movies, but I still can see some major differences in the statues. The obvious difference between the two statues is who would be in control. I disagree with Tom that had the Freedman's Bureau built the statue they envisioned with Lincoln sitting, Lincoln would have been a side note. I think it is really just a question of who is glorified or in control. If the African-American soldier had been built towering over Lincoln, it would be clear that the statue shows the contribution that the African-Americans put in to end slavery. However, in the Emancipation Memorial, Lincoln is standing tall over an African-American, holding on to the Emancipation Proclamation. This statue glorifies the contributions Lincoln put forth - passing legislation to end slavery. And again, though I Have not seen either movies, I think it is quite clear that whoever stands tall is who gets the glorification of contributing to end slavery.
- January 8, 2013 at 8:24 PM
- Jerome Janczy said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- January 8, 2013 at 9:46 PM
- Jerome Janczy said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- January 8, 2013 at 9:53 PM
- Jerome Janczy said...
Following some ideas Zach brought up,
One thing I found very interesting in this post was how Lincoln said "We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country"
I believe this is suggesting that Americans must free their stereotypes towards African Americans. However, it appears this drastic change in opinion came only after he witnessed the fighting courage of the African Americans and the events in "Glory".
I believe the Freedman's Bureau statue is giving praise to the African American soldiers that helped shape Lincoln's actions with the Emancipation Proclamation and the ratification the 13th Amendment. While the current statue simply gives praise to Lincoln, even when the Emancipation Proclamation meant nothing to Arthur Alexander.
The current statue and the movie Lincoln both ignore the influence African Americans had upon their own freedom,while giving credit for their freedom solely to Lincoln.
Although, I believe Lincoln should be given some credit for his part, the continued use of this inaccurate glorification to Lincoln is quite ridiculous.
- January 8, 2013 at 10:06 PM
- Heidi Blumenthal said...
Similar to many of my classmates, I have not seen either of these new movies. So far no one has commented on the curious fact that a women created the controversial original design of the Emancipation Memorial. I know that many of you must think that I am a big Women's Rights Activist, however I think that it is very interesting how many times throughout history, like during WWI, the Civil War, etc., that women tend to side with the minorities. This statue portrayed the holly "agent" as a black soldier created an uproar, but maybe that was also due to the fact that it was created by a women. Do you think an all-white male charitable organization would sponsor a women's statue which empowered the blacks during that time? These two situations combined are highly unlikely and might be why the Emancipation Memorial looks the way it does today. As Zach said previously maybe we should make a new statue. But that will not happen until we treat blacks and whites equally, for example why would Jamie Foxx not get a Golden Globe nomination if he was the lead actor in Django Unchained, yet his two white co-stars did? Yes this may be related to their acting talent in the movie, or it might have hidden racial implications.
- January 8, 2013 at 11:25 PM
- Lily Schroeder said...
After further researching the history of the Emancipation Memorial, I thought it was interesting how a large part of funding for the memorial came from former enslaved people, yet the statue shows Archer Alexander as inferior. It does not do justice to the work the African-American people did to free themselves and their families. So why would the freed slaves fund such a memorial where their, as Jerome put it, influence upon their own freedom was ignored? Too bad Harriet Hosmer's design couldn't have been made smaller or somehow more affordable. Hosmer's design really does illustrate the freed slaves as people who have risen for their own freedom. The current memorial might even be interpreted with ambiguity. Despite the fact that it is named Emancipation, it could be argued that Archer Alexander is still enslaved. In fact, if it wasn't called Emancipation, I might think at first that Lincoln is standing in command over him.
- January 8, 2013 at 11:44 PM
- Sarah Henzlik said...
I think art is a good indicator of what a society is really like. As I read more about the memorial pictured, I learned that it is the only memorial to the Emancipation Proclamation in Washington, D.C. If a historian from hundreds of years in the future were to visit this memorial, I wonder what they would think. Would they think that Lincoln, the white man, was superior to the crouching, seemingly black man, a former slave? What does that really say about American society? How could a memorial to the implementation of a document freeing African American slaves 'in areas of rebellion' be somehow racist in its appearance? Going back to how African Americans are depicted in art forms, I think the two recently released movies really do present African Americans in different lights, similar to what Heidi B said. I have seen both movies and I think that African Americans are presented in a more powerful and empowering state in Django Unchained than in the Lincoln movie. I wonder if this was done for political reasons or just artistic license?
- January 9, 2013 at 1:34 PM
- Alexis B said...
I noticed that Doc Oc had bolded the sentence, "The document holds no meaning whatsoever to the fate of this enslaved person." I read an article in The New York Times called Dying for Freedom, which was about what happened to freed slaves after they were emancipated. Freed slaves had no money, no medical care and no home. They were very vulnerable to disease, and more died from illness than fighting for the Union in the Civil War. In order to earn money, since the freed slaves had little to no education, they provided cheap labor to Union citizens, many if not most of whom were white people. Concerning the monument, I agree with AJ when he says that Lincoln is glorified and in control because he is standing tall over the formerly enslaved man, Arthur Alexander. I also think this monument visually (and unintentionally) represents the fact that even though the slaves were free, they were still lower in society because they had to work for white people to survive. Are slaves really free if they are still trapped under the thumb of whites?
- January 9, 2013 at 8:41 PM
- Noah Quinn said...
I find Alexis' analysis very interesting and wonder for how long were blacks considered below whites in society. Blacks were "trapped under the thumb" of whites in the South during the Civil Rights movement and after recently watching the movie "Mississippi Burning", blacks were treated just as inhumanely as some of the circumstances we read in Frederick Douglass' narrative despite the century difference.
- January 10, 2013 at 5:45 PM


text:
My Softwire Internship – Ciprian
21 November 2011, by Ciprian Florescu
I am currently doing a summer internship at Softwire, and then going back to university for the final year of my course (a 3 year Computer Science course at University of Manchester).
Before starting at Softwire, all of my previous programming experience was from university and high-school projects. In particular, I hadn't worked on a 'real' software development project before. It turns out that these offer very different challenges to academic projects but can be really enjoyable to work on.
Working on such projects at Softwire proved to myself that this is what I want to do in the future – I really want to follow a career in software development.
During my internship I have worked on two projects. The first one was an external project, involving rewriting an existing website for a major media organisation (and yes, with a Softwire internship, you can work on large projects from the beginning). This project used a variety of technologies with the most important ones being Java, PHP, JavaScript, JQuery, MVC, Zend and Spring.
I was part of a team of five people, all highly qualified. Everyone in the team, and in fact people at Softwire in general, was really friendly and helpful whenever I needed any advice. This support allowed me to understand and contribute to the project quickly, which could have been difficult as it had begun before I joined. The customer was very satisfied with our final product, and I was able to make a big contribution to the project.
My second project was working on an internal application, used by Softwire employees to record their career progress. This project was originally written a year ago by another intern, and this summer we were adding additional features to the project.
The technology for this project was quite different to my previous one, and included several that I hadn't worked with before, such as ASP.NET and WCF. Again, I received a lot of support from my colleagues to allow me to pick these up quickly.
My overall experience of working at Softwire was just great. I have really enjoyed working here, it is a very friendly and fun environment with lots of morale events (organised social events). It is also a very professional environment to work in. Someone is always available to answer any questions that you have.
Another thing I particularly liked about my internship was the variety. Every project is challenging, and you are given the chance (even encouraged) to switch between different technologies, and different projects.
This ensures that you can never get bored, and also allows you to gain experience in a number of different areas. I really have learnt a lot of new things during my internship, and have gained valuable insight into professional software development.
I have had a great time working here, and have been convinced that this is the environment I would like to work in.
Tags: internships, softwire
Categories: Recruitment, Softwire


text:
That little sip of wine or beer that some parents offer their kids at a wedding or on New Year's Eve may muddle messages about alcohol, according to a new study by researchers at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. The scientists surveyed middle school students for three years to learn whether even a taste in early childhood was a predictor of risky behavior in high school.
The Internet-based study, published in the April 1st issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, included more than 500 Rhode Island school students. More than one-third of the kids surveyed reported trying their first sip of alcohol by the sixth grade, and most said that their first taste took place at home. Wine and beer were the most commonly tried beverages, usually at a special occasion, such as a wedding or a holiday, and adults were the primary source of the alcohol. Nearly three-quarters of the children were offered sips by their own mom or dad.
The study also showed that kids who sipped alcohol by the sixth grade were five times more likely to down a full alcoholic beverage by the time they reached 9th grade—26% of sippers consumed a full drink versus 5.5% of non-sippers. The earlier sippers were also four times more likely to get drunk or binge drink by early high school, and trying alcoholic beverages earlier in life also raised a child's risk for trying other substances.
Even when the researchers controlled for other factors, such as risk-taking behavior, the drinking habits of parents, and a history of alcoholism in a parent, kids who'd sipped before sixth grade had higher odds of alcohol use by their freshman year of high school.
The take-home message: Offering a child a sip of your beverage may send the wrong message, says study author Kristina Jackson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown School of Public Health.
"Parents should provide clear, consistent messages about the unacceptability of alcohol consumption for youth," Jackson advises. "Younger teens and tweens may be unable to understand the difference between drinking a sip and drinking one or more drinks. Certainly there are exceptions, such as religious occasions, so the most important thing is to make sure that children know when drinking alcohol is acceptable and when it is not."
The context of alcohol use is important, says Oscar G. Bukstein, M.D., M.P.H., medical director at DePelchin Children's Center and a clinical professor of psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, who was not involved in the research. "Often, by allowing children to sip or try alcohol on 'special occasions', the message delivered may be one of 'this is how we celebrate', we drink," Buckstein says.
He says that sipping may be associated with increased access to alcohol, too, or more lax parent attitudes and that undermines any anti-drinking messages kids hear.
April 21st is the national day to talk with your kids about alcohol. Visit Mothers Against Drunk Driving's (MADD) Power of Parents page to learn more.
by Mary Brophy Marcus, health writer, APA


text:
Meet Harley, proud owner of Barbara and Jim Berton and their yacht
Note kerchief to stabilize ears in wind!
Shadow Asendorf, proud to be caring for Pat Asendorf and Barbara Lade
Meet Rosie Baumgartner with her pups Lauren and David
Lauren, Daniel and "Emmett" Cieremans
(the redheaded one, obviously a recessive gene)
Elliot McCarthy and his cat.
Judy Baranski's Elysium True Heart (Hogan) is the first Elysium progeny to earn a Canine Good Citizen designation. Hogan proved himself at the DCNJ Match 0n Aug. 23 at 8 1/2 years of age. Congratulations Judy! We are proud of you both.
Ch. Elysium Winter Storm (Marjorie), after having delivered and raised a beautiful litter sired by Canterbury Roger v Elysium, will be going to live with Judy and Hogan.
Hogan and his new roommate, Marjorie
David & Jennifer Laurence's Lily
Melissa Martin with Am. & Can. Ch. Elysium Nick of Time (Oscar to his friends) winning her class in Junior Handlers.


text:
One green eye and one blue. In "Practical Magic," as a little girl, Sally dreams up a spell for an impossible man, one who doesn't exist — so she'd never fall in love. The petals float into the night sky, landing around her impossible man. He does exist.
Do love spells or potions really exist? You definitely wouldn't add eye of newt to a love potion, yet imagine something like a lock of hair or rose petals as the metaphoric ingredients. Intent and symbolism are powerful ingredients in magic, throughout arcane history, and in pop culture.
That's not real life, though, right?
Chemical Romance: What's Love Got to Do With It?
Real love is an emotion and a process that develops between two people, built upon experience and memory. There is no pill to pop for love. There isn't an exact spell or potion that suddenly causes the object of one's affection to fall in love with the caster.
Yet, there are particular chemicals that render the effects of Love Potion #9. When there's talk of the birds and the bees, you've likely heard of pheromones that stimulate feelings of affection, attraction, and longing. Perfumes, essential oil blends and "potions" have been created based on this science.
Any successful result of "love potions" is likely down to the placebo effect and motivation. The pheromones fire off a chemical signal, but natural attraction and personal chemistry are a real-life factor. The wearer's added boost of confidence gives the potion extra juice, leaving them feeling more centered. You are the potion, so who's to say that's not real magic?
Magic is the spark you feel when you're falling in love. Magic, at least according to a few occult studies books or pop culture, leads you to believe that it's all in the intent. You desire something so much, follow through on it and obtain it.
Yet, in real life and real love, reality is the mixer for Love Potion #9.
Amortentia: Intent, Reality, and Chemistry
Amortentia is the most intoxicating love tonic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the Harry Potter series, Horace Slughorn teaches students that amortentia has a "mother-of-pearl sheen, a steam rising in characteristic spirals and is supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us."
A key ingredient missing from most pop culture derived love potions: What attracts you? When enchanted by another, you feel compelled to learn everything about that person, who glows in your vision. Friends say you're blinded by love.
For Romilda Vane, the misplaced potion had an instant effect on Ron, yet meant it for Harry. Psychologists indicate that you decide if you fancy someone within ninety seconds to four minutes of meeting, and your attraction is based on the following:
- Body language — 55%
- Speed and tone of voice — 38%
- What they say — 7%
So much for the weight of those pickup lines.
Exactly what chemicals put you in a state of amortentia? Falling in love involves three main neurotransmitters:
- Adrenaline: The first stages of falling in love invoke your stress response. Your blood levels of cortisol and adrenaline increase. Your heart pounds faster, and you lose your ability to speak coherently — it's that instantly arrested feeling you have when you're around your heartthrob.
- Dopamine: While examining the brains of love-struck couples, scientists discovered that they had increased levels of dopamine. The chemical boosts feelings of pleasure around your heart's desire, triggering a desire and reward. Effects include increased energy, decreased the need for food or sleep and focused attention on the littlest details of the budding relationship.
- Serotonin: Can't get your lover out of your mind? Couples who were madly in love for less than six months had serotonin levels in their blood consistent with the low serotonin levels of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. You see your lover through rose-colored glasses.
Testosterone also has an effect on initial attraction. Raised levels of testosterone in the blood point women toward men with more masculine faces and men toward women with more feminine faces.
From Aphrodisiac Affection to Long-Term Attachment
When do you enter the honeymoon phase? Two major hormones correspond to the stages of attachment in relationships:
- Oxytocin: It's known as the cuddle hormone because it releases during the heights of orgasm. It also deepens feelings of attachment and also strengthens the bond between a couple when they have a baby. It's part of the response to a mother's immediate release of milk at the sound of her baby's cry.
- Vasopressin: Another chemical also released after sex, vasopressin, is a critical hormone to romantic attachment. It's known as the antidiuretic hormone because it works with your kidneys to control thirst. It seems unconnected at first, but scientists were clued into its effects when they studied prairie voles, who also form long-term pair bonds like humans. When scientists gave voles a drug that suppresses the vasopressin hormone, the partner gradually retreated from devotion and failed to protect its partner from new suitors.
The Perfect Romance is a Love Potion in Itself
The perfect chemical romance demands a balance of natural ingredients in the brain. It also depends on reality — you decide if you fancy someone within the first few minutes of meeting.
Are love potions real?
Yes and no. Perfumes, essential oil blends and other potions make their claims and have effects, but increased confidence in oneself is the most powerful effect. Real magic and real love happen naturally, and it's all in the intent.
Love and its magic exists, which begs the question: Would you try a love potion if you had the chance?


text:
New for 2012:
HAY MASTER® Inc. 2012
8 or 10 bale Convertable Bale Accumulator
Marianna, FL
Call Hay Master Inc. for a dealer near you. 334-790-7786
Prices effective September 1, 2009:
- 8-bale: $8500
- 10-bale: $10500
- 12-bale: $9500
Current price is $3000 plus freight for 8-BG Bale Grapple.
Current price is $3500 plus freight for 10-BG and 12-BG Bale Grapple.
Better to order early
Financing available
Click here for financing from Harbour Capital
Square bale hay?
Can't find labor?
Call for a free video


text:
Firstly, this is what I did in conjunction with World Bread Day, a tri-coloured bread. This is crazy, this is midnight baking. The loaf just finish baking at 11pm!
Secondly, I sincerely wanna dedicate this blog post to Happy Home Baking. This is not much of her recipe, more like her ideas and teachings that she shared with fellow bakers in order to make bread baking more fanciful. A normal loaf of bread could be turned out into many ingenious loaves if twisted here and there.
She should have participated, looking at the amount of breads and buns she made. All very nicely done and very creative. Due to the fact that she is busy coaching her kids for exam (what a nice Momma!), I've done this on behalf of her. Hence, I wanna credit back this bread to her.
Due to the lack of time, equipments and ingredients, my loaf of bread is no where near hers. Nonetheless, this is what I've done:
The brown one is tinted with 1 tsp of cocoa powder.
The green one is tinted with 1/2 tsp of pandan paste. HHB used green tea powder instead.
The white one is added with 1 tsp of milk powder instead of leaving it plain.
This are the 3 different flavours dough proving in my room, right in front of a heater.
The finger tip test. When dough is ready, poke it and it shouldn't spring back. If it does, that means the dough is not ready. If dough springs back and cover up the hole you made with your finger tip, prove longer.
Once ready, they are then kneaded into longish like and plaited like below:
My plaiting sux!
Both ends tucked down neatly.A little uneven eh?
See how ugly it is after proving. I do not have a Pullman Tin hence I placed some flat weight on top of the Pyrex pan when I prove it and bake it.
The only good thing here is that my plain colour dough did not pull away from the rest upon proving. I think the 1 tsp of milk powder kneaded into submission helps.
Upon baking and slicing. I love how each tiny rectangular slice has all three colours in one. Only pandan taste was distinct.
But really, this bread is so plain on its own. Nothing taste better than slapping a thick layer of peanut butter on a slice of warm bread, have it melt into the bread a little and eat it up!
Thank you Happy Home Baking! I've jotted down a list of long breads and buns from your blog to bake after my exam!
Finally, Happy World's Bread Day to everyone! Have you bake something yet? If not or running out of time, hurry up and run to the nearest bakery store and grab something you like and blog about it!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tri-Coloured Bread Loaf
Posted by Quinn at Thursday, October 16, 2008
2 comments on "Tri-Coloured Bread Loaf"
- zorra on October 16, 2008 at 3:43 AM said...
I love it! Thx for your participation in WBD'08!
- Happy Homebaker on October 16, 2008 at 8:12 PM said...
Dear Quinn, it is so sweet of you! I am so touched, and what a honour!
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Request IRB Review
All research involving human subjects requires approval from the IRB. Please follow the three steps below and allow two to four weeks for the IRB review process.
1. Complete the basic CITI online training course in human subjects protection relevant for your area of study. Make sure to save your Coursework Requirements Report. All Agnes Scott College affiliates are able to complete CITI courses; information on how to register can be found at https://www.agnesscott.edu/sponsoredprograms/research-integrity-CITI.html. Faculty and staff members with equivalent human subjects research certification (such as the NIH certificate) man submit them in lieu of the CITI course.
2. Complete an Application Form
Form B: Research conducted by Agnes Scott College faculty and staff (DOC 41 KB)
Form C: Research conducted as part of an Agnes Scott class assignment (DOC 42 KB)
All students must receive the same assignment and use the same research design. Otherwise, please select Category A.
Form D: Research conducted by faculty or staff external to Agnes Scott College (DOC 43 KB)
Form E: Research conducted by students external to Agnes Scott College (DOC 45 KB)
Review the IRB instructor guidelines (DOC 53 KB).
3. Disclose Your Research Instruments
If you intend to use a research instrument (e.g. a written or online survey, elicitation images or words, etc.) to collect data from human subjects, you must include this with your application materials.
Review the survey guidelines (DOC 30 KB).
4. Prepare an Informed Consent Form
If you are collecting information that can be linked to a particular human subject, or if you are interacting with the human subject, you will need an informed consent form. Informed consent forms are necessary to demonstrate that human subjects have agreed to participate in a research project. For example, informed consent is required for interviews, and whenever a human subject is being audio-recorded or video-recorded.
Sample consent form (DOC 28 KB)
Sample consent form for online surveys (DOC 34 KB)
Sample video release form (DOC 28 KB)
Once IRB approval is granted, the researcher will distribute informed consent forms, to be signed by both the human subject and the researcher. One copy will be given to the human subject and another copy will be retained by the researcher.
When are informed consent forms unnecessary?
Informed consent forms are unnecessary when research is being conducted anonymously or unobtrusively.
- Anonymous research is when data is collected on human subjects whose identity is unknown to the researcher (for example, anonymous surveys).
- Unobtrusive research is when the researcher observes human subjects from a distance and does not interact with them (or when the researcher uses documents or other materials with information about human subjects).


text:
Welcome to the Yoodo Community!
The Yoodo Community is a user-centric platform where anyone can ask a question and get it answered by tons of other users online. It's the best place to get all your network-related issues answered, and where you can also get the best tips and tricks to optimize your plan.
Welcome to the Yoodo Community! Connect with fellow users and supercharge your Yoodo experience. To get started, ask a question!
Why should I join the Yoodo Community?
Be in the know
Get access to product previews, contests, event invites, and other cool stuff. Plus, it's all free!
Make your voice heard
If you have a suggestion, speak your mind! Your feedback is the spark that will drive Yoodo to be better.
Get recognised
Are you a genuinely friendly and helpful presence to others in the community? We love that and we'd like to praise you like we should.


text:
A 2004 Psychological Horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe, originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival before being released in the U.S. the following year.
The film's premise has nine people kidnapped and shipped to a mansion with boarded doors and windows: Father Duffy, the priest; Jay, the detective; Lea, the dancer; Claire, the tennis player; Francis, the musician; Cynthia, Francis' wife; Al B, the rapper; Shona, the drug addict; and Max, the designer.
When they all awaken and meet up in the same room, a voice from a speaker introduces himself as The Watcher. He informs them that they're trapped in the mansion with 75 surveillance cameras and will not be released unless only one person is alive. The remaining player will then walk out of the house and be rewarded five million dollars. Realizing that there is no way to bust through the mansion, they decide to keep their wits and get through this game. However, as time passes, the players find themselves succumbing to greed, fear, and mistrust, causing the mansion to be transformed into a warzone, where only one will win.
This film contains examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: Several of them have their moments, with Francis being the textbook example.
- Decoy Protagonist: Boy, I bet you thought Jay, the police officer and single father, would be making it through with Lea, right? Nope!
- Downer Ending:
- Lea is allowed to walk out with her five million in a bag. However, when she goes through, she finds herself in an identical foyer with four other people that have the same bags with them, scared and on the verge of crying. She then realizes that she'll have to play a new game.
- A different ending has Lea walking up in her own apartment, finding the five million and a tape nearby. The tape plays, the Watcher telling her that along with her prize money, she earned the rights to join an exclusive survival club. As the tape ends, it shows nine new people in the same bedroom that the original nine were placed. It then dawns on Lea that she's The Watcher of the new nine.
- Driven to Suicide: Al B. It's left ambiguous whether he actually did it out of guilt for having killed Jay, or if he was killed.
- Electrified Bathtub: Subverted. Francis attempts to kill Lea by ripping a light fixation while Lea washes her hands and drop it into the sink. Lea is shocked and knocked out, but awakens later.
- Final Girl: Lea has to face Francis after he's killed the others, and is in the end the lone survivor.
- In the Back: Francis stabs Father Duffy in the back before stealing the gun from his hands.
- Sanity Slippage: Most of the players go through this as time goes on, especially Francis.


text:
Still Making 4th of July Plans? How About Skiiing?Travel News — By Ben Van Loon on June 24, 2010 at 11:28 am
Now that the USA has officially crossed over into the warm months of Summer, Americans are spending most of their time making sandcastles, not snowballs. Skiing and snowboarding are still half a year away as far as most Americans are concerned… unless you're making some late June plans to visit Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth Lakes, California. Located in the heart of the Inyo National Forest in Central California, Mammoth Mountain's claim to fame is that they have been known to keep the slopes open until July 5th, just long enough for die-hard skiers and snowboarders to celebrate Independence Day flying down the slopes in board shorts or a bikini.
Although it doesn't happen every year, Mammoth Mountain accrued over 41 feet of snow over the winter season, with at least three of those feet gathered in early April, so the resort is planning on staying open as long as the snow is sticking. Chairman and CEO of Mammoth was quoted saying,
With as much snow as we have, out customers would riot if we closed down as early as the other ski resorts. Keeping the mountain open until July 4th is what 'playing big' is all about.
Since it's not guaranteed that every year the mountain will be open this long, this Independence Day is a perfect opportunity to take advantage of a super-long ski season with the warm-weather benefits of summer.
Need more convincing? Hardingham-Gill has an entertaining write-up about her experience at Mammoth Mountain over at dailymail, wherein she details her fledgling snowboarding experience with interesting geological assessments of the mountain itself.
Mammoth Mountain can be accessed by air for as little as $69 each way and you can also get discounts on lift-tickets here if you're looking to book a last-minute trip!
[Image: skinet]


text:
'The experience on the two applications is similar to that on other AT&T phones; both are minimalist in their designs, but the music player supports a wide variety of file formats and it offers useful features, such as album art, playlists, and shuffle and repeat modes.'
'great phone'
'pretty decent mid-tier phone'
'The browser is close to useless as it can only open up simple pages and wasn't even able to load our website.'
'support for T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service, which allows users to place calls over a WiFi hotspot for unlimited nationwide calls.'
ReviewGist helps you find the best products to buy by making sense of online reviews.
We are currently aggregating 376,500 reviews
covering over 29,477 products.
© 2019 ReviewGist.com. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Recently, a student in one of my classes gave a presentation on Google, and proceeded to explain how Google ranks search results using an algorithm called…..PigeonRank: ….PigeonRank's success relies primarily on the superior trainability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.
By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters, Google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.
When a search query is submitted to Google, it is routed to a data coop where monitors flash result pages at blazing speeds. [HF – Didn't Greg Bear write a novel about this once? ] When a relevant result is observed by one of the pigeons in the cluster, it strikes a rubber-coated steel bar with its beak, which assigns the page a PigeonRank value of one. For each peck, the PigeonRank increases. Those pages receiving the most pecks, are returned at the top of the user's results page with the other results displayed in pecking order.
PigeonRank, of course, is a hoax, part of Google's 2002 April Fool's Day joke. But how did my student fall for it in 2009? Simple. He trusted Google. The first result when you search Google for "How does Google work?" is a link and a blurb purported to describe precisely that:
Trusting Google's Algorithms to Explain Google's Algorithms
{ 60 comments }
12.07.09 at 10:51 pm
I would not have thought that a college student in an Information Science course would be capable of swallowing the pigeons . . .
12.07.09 at 10:52 pm
That must have been one awkward presentation room.
12.07.09 at 11:15 pm
Seriously, though, how could a student really fall for that? It says right at the bottom that it's an April Fool's Day joke. And all the other search results all talk about "PageRank." Or is THIS an April Fool's Day joke too? If so, his calendar is off by a few months…
I think the Teaching Moment is "read the whole thing," "read multiple sources," shortly followed by "make sure you understand it."
12.07.09 at 11:44 pm
Sigh. I worked with someone that gullible ONCE (I wish I knew what college he'd gone to).
12.07.09 at 11:50 pm
The classic explanation of thought
If memory serves, one of the Platonic dialogues (Theaetetus?) has an explanation of the mecahnics of thought in terms of the flight of birds and aggregations of birds, so perhaps the April Fool's joke was just a cover story to throw people off the fact that Google actually does work by pigeon power.
Of course, to track down that Platonic dialogue, I'll just go straight to Google…
12.08.09 at 12:13 am
But, Renee, the page address was "google.com/technology"–there is no other page from a similarly authoritative source…
12.08.09 at 12:16 am
PigeonRank, of course, is a hoax, part of Google's 2002 April Fool's Day joke. But how did my student fall for it in 2009?
The gift that keeps on giving.
To complete the April Fool's aspect of the joke, I think Zimmer should publish the name of the student! Just for a few hours, long enough for the page to make it into google's cache.
12.08.09 at 12:28 am
Well, we think it is a hoax anyway. Since no one outside Google truly knows how their search ranking algorithm works, and misdirection about same is undoubtedly part of Google's security plan, perhaps they really DO use pigeons to rank searches and are protecting the secret with a purloined letter.
All those datacenters exist merely to provide warmth for the pigeon nests…
12.08.09 at 12:36 am
The idea was presumably based on this.
12.08.09 at 12:54 am
@9 What makes you think anyone inside Google knows how it works. Tim's clearly shown that it's based on classified military research…
12.08.09 at 1:32 am
Hi everyone, and thanks, Henry, for sparking the conversation here about this matter.
Yes, the student should have scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page, used multiple sources, and tapped into that skeptical part of the brain that would think twice about the use of pigeons in Silicon Valley (Silicon Alley, perhaps).
The most interesting aspect of this whole episode is that it happened while my colleagues and I are pushing for "information literacy" as a general education requirement on campus….
12.08.09 at 1:47 am
There's another somewhat related issue that came up in the climate warming stuff about a month (?) ago and has been raised again by other parties (Google, /., …) in the past day or so.
How many of you think that the results you get from typing in a query are the results that everyone else gets?
It's certainly not true between different google country domains. Within a country, Google personalizes searches and has for sometime. Now they are expanding that so users don't even have to be logged in to get different searches.
Now the question is, why do so many people think they know how google works? Google is a black box and has been, it's not a white box. Few people do google experiments. Yet most people intuitively know that my results are the same as your results even when that's not true in real life.
A month or so ago, Roger Pielke Jr., was lambasted over many things, but one thing in particular was along the lines that when he added terms to his search that should have limited and restricted results, he actually got back more results. Ha Ha Ha! What a maroon! That could never happen. Why? Because his critics know how search engines work!!!
Well, I've actually seen that same thing on many occasions. I'm not going to defend/critique Pielke Jr. on any of the other grounds, just the ground that people outside of Google actually don't know how Google works in detail, and just because you think you know how simple a search engine is, (crawl, index, search) doesn't mean a whole lot.
Shorter: Just because you think you know how a search engine works, doesn't mean you know how google works.
12.08.09 at 1:49 am
Doesn't it seem more likely that the story about the student writing the report citing *Pigeon Rank* is itself a rather implausible hoax, playing on people's willingness to believe just about any report of students' incompetence.
IOW, people believing that a student believed the hoax are being hoaxed. Or something.
12.08.09 at 2:15 am
Word on the street is that Chuck Norris heads up operations in the pigeon coop.
12.08.09 at 2:23 am
Shorter Anonymous Coward: Plato invented Google. Therefore, computer scientists should retire and study philosophy.
12.08.09 at 2:59 am
There's no way I'm buying the idea that the student was actually fooled. I'd have to have been there and seen it. C'mon.
12.08.09 at 3:39 am
@bianca – CS folks, in general, started in Philo and then moved into CS … in hopes of getting something, if not done, actually to move – even if it was just that little turtle on the screen. FWIW I'm voting for the metahoax of a pigeon rank believing student.
12.08.09 at 4:41 am
I didn't say anything remotely like that, and I assume you both read and understood my post. So do you actually have anything of substance you'd like to say about my comment, or are you going to stick with your content free silliness?
12.08.09 at 4:48 am
So do you actually have anything of substance you'd like to say about my comment
I'd say it reads an awful lot like Tom Fuller.
12.08.09 at 5:04 am
I agree with Coward, who wrote: "A month or so ago, Roger Pielke Jr., was lambasted over many things, but one thing in particular was along the lines that when he added terms to his search that should have limited and restricted results, he actually got back more results."
I did some experiments trying to use numbers of hits on Google searches to measure how likely words were to appear together. The X in "Results 1 – 10 of about X for …" jumped around all over in ways you wouldn't expect. This could be because Google is drawing the line between results and non-results in a tricky way. Since nobody is going to look through a million results, this is not a problem in practice.
12.08.09 at 5:07 am
I've noticed the difference in search results – I do or try to do a lot of narrowing down – but Anonymous Coward is being a little weird. The "expansion" mentioned involves cookies, which you have control over.
12.08.09 at 5:15 am
AC: Google is a black box and has been, it's not a white box.
I think Anonymous Coward needs to do some hard thinking about implicature and white box privilege.
(Too soon for that joke? Too late?)
12.08.09 at 9:04 am
I'm having difficulty believing the meme that some student believed the meme that Google is arranged by pigeons.
12.08.09 at 10:44 am
The opposite fallacy, disbelieving something because it was published on April 1 by a computer company, is something I did. Artisoft had something about a partnership with Apple which I dismissed as a joke but which turned out to be true.
The computer brethren take joking very seriously, and April First is certainly sacred, but not everything you read is what you expect.
12.08.09 at 11:11 am
The internet is serious business.
12.08.09 at 11:12 am
A new science: figuring out how google works. Ain't that exciting!
12.08.09 at 11:50 am
The original post on Michael Zimmer's blog has apparently been deleted. Whazzup? (See, me, I try to check my sources.) :)
12.08.09 at 12:40 pm
Don't confuse your cranks
"Shorter Anonymous Coward: Plato invented Google. Therefore, computer scientists should retire and study philosophy."
You seem to be conflating Anonymous C and myself. I'm sure the Google software engineers have disambiguation protocols they could fit you out with to help with that conflation problem, but as their solution probably involves pigeons hovering about your person as if you were some latter day St. Francis, you may want to work this out for yourself.
12.08.09 at 1:07 pm
It's pretty obvious to me that the student was not being serious … note "traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey", and the final sentence's "pecking order".
Sounds like something I'd write.
12.08.09 at 1:36 pm
But the google cache version exists (@ 8:35 EDT on 12/8/9). Do we trust google caches? Or could they be making them up to spoof us?
12.08.09 at 1:40 pm
bianca steele @11 To clarify, @10 I just meant that the Google spoof was presumably 'inspired' by the true and fairly unremarkable (and unclassified) story about a proposed bomb guidance system.
12.08.09 at 2:02 pm
Just got up and saw that my post has been removed. I have no idea how that happened. Will investigate and re-post.
12.08.09 at 2:06 pm
Blame it on the anti-google.
(or maybe your student secretly is a whiz kid)
(or worse!)
12.08.09 at 2:17 pm
Odd. Both the original WordPress post and the related images were removed from my web server account (I have since restored them). Perhaps I should look for evidence of pigeon droppings….
12.08.09 at 2:18 pm
i understand google won't return any hits at all if you google "gullible".
12.08.09 at 2:30 pm
Anonymous Coward: You were serious? I'm sorry. Really, who were you addressing your post to, who thinks they know everything about how a search engine works, yet ought to stop worrying about how a search engine works, because they'll never understand it?
Glen, Tim: How else would you explain why so many people don't understand how the system they work on works? It's got to be either a Platonic Idea that they intuit though can't explain (and OMG DON'T change that!), or else a highly "classified" secret that only Freemasons are permitted to be informed about.
Seriously, Google doesn't use ordinary logic in performing its searches. They have algorithms that decide how to make sure the top results are the ones that show up first, over and above PageRank. Yes, it would be nice if they had more obvious help for people sophisticated enough to use it, but it seems they are of the Steve Jobs "don't ever make it look complicated" school.
My guess is that the nonintuitive result counts are an artefact of the indexing system.
12.08.09 at 2:30 pm
kid bitzer's comment is so awesome that I had to try googling "gullible". It turns out that as of this moment, Wikipedia does not have an entry for "gullibility".
12.08.09 at 2:46 pm
rea said: "I would not have thought that a college student in an Information Science course would be capable of swallowing the pigeons . . ."
Well, he is a geek.
12.08.09 at 3:08 pm
bianca steele @34 Why are you addressing your remarks to me? Either explain, or leave me out of whatever it is you are talking about.
12.08.09 at 3:19 pm
Tim, the nature of the posts so far have made it clear that they are not serious. If you don't want to participate in this kind of discussion, why are you participating here with people who do? It's not like you get paid to do it.
12.08.09 at 3:50 pm
@37: "top results" sb "results most customers will want most to see"
12.08.09 at 5:15 pm
What would it mean to use "ordinary logic" in performing searches or sorts, and what would "more obvious help for people sophisticated enough to use it" consist of? Was the latter actually a sarcastic reference to SearchWiki?
12.08.09 at 5:34 pm
Salient, it would help if you had a more specific question. "Ordinary logic" means that combining two search terms returns the intersection of the result sets for each. "Better help" means pointing out on the first page that a search for "Henry Farrell" is not a search for "Henry Farrell" but rather a search for things that are more like "Henry Farrell" than the intersection of "Henry" and "Farrell".
12.08.09 at 5:58 pm
Not necessarily a terrible metaphor for the MapReduce Framework. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for claiming to be speaking metaphorically though.
12.08.09 at 6:34 pm
Ah, ok. Your answer makes sense to me, but I'm afraid I don't have any more specific a question. The idea of "better help" falls under the category of better transparency about how search results are organized, I get that now — wasn't sure if by "better help" you meant "clarify for users how to achieve better search results by modifying their input" (better transparency) or "provide access to alternative sets of algorithms and allow the advanced user to choose which algorithms are implemented when computing results to a particular search" (new functionality).
There's trouble with implementing ordinary logic, of course; no search engine could implement it strictly and stay in business for long. Trivially, a web page which contains user-desired information about "Henry Farrell" might not show up in an ordinary-logic search for "Henry Farrell," because the page itself and links to the page might only use his last name, or use Dr. Farrell, or Prof. Farrell, etc.
And people often type questions into google, and the content which answers the question often has only the slightest tangential resemblance to the words used to ask the question. For example, 'where is the closest cheap hotel to my house' is a perfectly ordinary user search. A search engine which returns the intersection of the pages indexed by {where, closest, cheap, hotel, house} would not address the user's query. Only two lexical units are important: "cheap hotel" and "my house" — but even a search engine which identifies this and returns pages indexed by {cheap, hotel, my house} won't return anything useful to the user. The relationship between these lexical units, obvious to a human reader, is hard to assess according to any general deterministic scheme (and harder when users don't follow consistent grammatical guidelines).
A more subtle example: a search for 'production assistant' (no quotes) returns results ranked completely differently than results for {production, assistant}. The latter words return, in top results, miscellany and definitions; the former returns job-oriented information which (so far as I can tell in a quick visual scan) doesn't appear in the top 100 results for either individual word.
Hence, the deployment of pigeons, a species with an uncanny sense of orientation, renowned for centuries of contribution to the advancement of human communication.
Something important wasn't clarified, either in google's informative explanation or the student's follow-up research. So I'll break the news. Those pigeons who perform exceptionally well, in terms of favorable results rankings on SearchWiki, are eventually mainlined into the system: coaxial cable is wired directly into the toes, and data is transmitted directly through the pigeon's own neural fibers, so that search results are more directly computed and stored. These results may be retrieved instantly from the pigeon at any time, and may be transmitted directly to other pigeons, a process known as "infection." By analogy, the pigeons which receive the distinction of direct system hookups are referred to as "carrier" pigeons.
I do agree with the idea that google/others could usefully introduce an option to "search by strict indexing" or some such thing, so that users who want to see only those pages which are intersections of all words typed in can do so, bypassing the pigeonization of their query entirely. The "advanced search" feature doesn't cut it. But this technique wouldn't give useful results to the bulk of searches google receives, so it shouldn't be the default setting. [bianca, I'm assuming you and I basically agree on this, since you said "for people sophisticated enough to use it."]
12.08.09 at 6:43 pm
Salient, I've only skimmed your comment and I'll have to read it later, but I don't agree with what you attribute to me. I'll have to get back to you.
12.08.09 at 8:07 pm
I would love to see the article presented to viewers of various TV "News" shows to see which audiences are the most gullible.
12.08.09 at 9:14 pm
Um, your student is still an idiot though . . .
12.09.09 at 12:35 am
bianca steele,
"Glen, Tim: How else would you explain why so many people don't understand how the system they work on works? It's got to be either a Platonic Idea that they intuit though can't explain (and OMG DON'T change that!), or else a highly "classified" secret that only Freemasons are permitted to be informed about."
People use tools quite successfully that they really don't know the inner workings or mechanics of. This is true of literally mechanical tools, and doesn't seem to surprise us, as when even a very good pilot doesn't know what makes the jet engine he uses all the time (with our lives in his hands!) work. But it's also, admittedly a bit counterintuitiuvely, true of cognitive tools. A surgeon, for example, could be quite innocent of all the epistemological theories about why science is true, or what the truth status of scientific propositions might be, and still be a much better choice to take out your gallbladder than my not very humble self, despite my status as a Board Certified and Fellowship-Trained Academic Internist (MPH and all!) who can lecture for hours on end (to proven deadly effect on my usually most unwilling audiences!) about the evidentiary basis of medicine.
For all the talk about evidence-based medicine being a good thing, and who can argue about using evidence when it's available, the evidence they're referring to is that gleaned form quantitative methods. While that's wonderful stuff, and not to be ignored, what you can do, in medicine, with numbers, is pretty superficial. The real basis of medicine is the catalogue of diseases we have laid out over the millenia. That catalogue, which is absolutely prior to all quantitative methods, since you have to be able to differentiate apples form oranges before you can count either, is based entirely on pattern-recognition. It has often been quite spectacularly wrong, and the proof, the sole proof, that we have it right in identifying a particular disease entity, is that we can then act as if there really is such a disease, and it seems to work better, kill somewhat fewer people, than if we didn't recognize such-and-such as a disease. Methodologic feet of clay! But I still would not advise refusing the antibiotic you're offered if you get bacterial meningitis just because bacterial meningitis is a construct of dubious footing.
Plato, in those bits of the dialogues that I think I sort of get (and certainly not the parts where he talks about thinking being like flight patterns of birds — eeck!), explains this on the basis of our metaxic existence. We live in the middle somewhere between reason and natural order laid down by God/the gods/whatever (and we sure are in no position to be more specific than that), and the chaotic impulses below us. We can, partly, intuitively, who knows for sure how, recognize the difference, sometimes, between impulses from above and those from below, but not with any sort of reproduceability. We're never sure if we're the victims of false order from below, or the good, reasonable order from above. We ain't God — tough luck; but some of the threads that control us like puppets are Golden. Or something like that. You buy this stuff or you don't see its point — there isn't much room in the middle.
12.09.09 at 5:00 am
I've only skimmed your comment and I'll have to read it later, but I don't agree with what you attribute to me.
Whatever my error was, I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the carrier pigeons, who have all come down with bird flu.
12.09.09 at 9:12 am
(@ Glen Tomkins, could you maybe recommend some light reading on the basis of medicine, evidentiary or not.)
12.09.09 at 5:38 pm
I don't know how many links I can add in before it will be seen as Spam, but:
Google's personalized search no longer requires the use of cookies.
Personalized search has for sometime meant results in your city and different from the results in my city.
Personalized search has for sometimes means that the results of Query(N) depend on the content of Query(N-1).
"who thinks they know everything about how a search engine works, yet ought to stop worrying about how a search engine works, because they'll never understand it?"
Bianca, I never said what you said I said the first time, or the second time. You my dear in your rantings above are a perfect example of someone who claims to know how Google works because you know how you would create a search engine. It's clear you don't know how Google works. I never said you should not strive to understand it.
My point is even if you think you know how Google works today, it's not how Google works next month. And just because you think you know what a search engine does, does not mean you know how Google works. If you want to live in the 21st century, instead of ignoring it, you may want to look further into it and not gloss over it.
(I have nothing to do with searchengineland, I ended up there after reading an article about this in the Register who's regular Google critic, Orlowski, has declared that Google has given up on search.)
12.09.09 at 6:04 pm
Google's personalized search no longer requires the use of cookies.
Thanks for the correction. I'm still not sure what the worry is.
12.09.09 at 6:30 pm
Google mysteries are part of the corporate appeal. Pigeon ranking or whatever sooper fast technique Sergey Brin and Larry Page cooked up outperformed the competition at least by a few nanoseconds (anyone remember webcrawler?) and young obscure steinford millionaires blossomed into globalist billionaires in a year or so. Google– building a better cyber-accounting system, one day at a time….
12.09.09 at 8:01 pm
@53: Let me guess: some tech support person wouldn't give you the information you thought you needed, or told you your guesses about his company's product were wrong, and you're sharing the love.
There's a reason I don't comment about topics I really care about and feel I have some responsibility to represent concerning.
12.09.09 at 10:38 pm
Anonymous Coward @53 etc. – FWIW, I at least haven't sniffed out or projected any weirdness, craziness, absurdity, worry, un- or over- seriousness, or animus against techies in what you've written. It appears quite straightforward and on-topic. (Or at least on probably the only topic this thread could sensibly gravitate to, i.e. the behaviour of Google search, or as you can perfectly well term it, 'how Google works'.)
12.10.09 at 1:48 pm
Google's personalized search no longer requires the use of cookies.
I found out recently that this is another one of those April Fool's jokes. Turns out the personalized search always worked even if you didn't bribe the IT guy with a cookie.
12.10.09 at 9:40 pm
The pigeons are real. Morons.
12.11.09 at 2:37 pm
fred p,
I've never run into a book that addresses the evidentiary basis of Medicine, so I can't say which ones might be any good, or which might be bad, or even if there are any accounts of the subject that even try to do it justice. What I have run into in practicing Medicine is the fact that the evidentiary basis is quite heterogenous from topic to topic within Medicine. (We haven't been Pasteurized, either. Medicine is sort of the raw milk among the sciences.) To put it in Kuhn-speak, some of our paradigms are almost like those that Physics has developed, in that you can move around within them using equations (e.g.., acid-base disturbances), some are hopelessly woolly and full of just plain wrong (e.g., the Kveim test, and sarcoidosis in general), but most are just way less mature than what you see in a science like Physics.
Again, in Kuhn-speak, instead of working on only one or two paradigms at a time, like Physics, Medicine has no choice but to try to keep literally thousands of paradigms spinning at the same time. Physics has the luxury of only having to pay attention to problems that seem amenable to its favored methods, amenable to summary in equations; while Medicine has to focus on every problem that's out there killing people, or even just worrying them — whether that problem happens to be amenable to equations, or amenable to nothing but prayer and fasting, or not even real, and everything that fits in the cracks between such broad categories.
Comments on this entry are closed.


text:
Kevin has a "Checkout" in the December 2010 issue of Skateboarder, the one with the switch flip of the decade on the cover. Click to enlarge. Pick it up, put it in a scrapbook, frame it, whatever. Thanks to Jimmy Marketti for the scan.
Kevin has come a long way from being the kid known for always wearing that yellow Osiris hoody at Beer Bar and claiming everything was "O.D." Now, he's better than pretty much everyone. And has better style too. (He also has some of the funniest slams and bails known to modern history.) A few key selections embedded after the jump.
And his QS debut:


text:
|Upcoming Events
We at Congregation Beth El are pleased to invite you and yours to our synagogue. Once here you will have the opportunity of enjoying our warm atmosphere and our congregational sense of caring in a casual atmosphere. Everyone is greeted with a smile and an open hand.
We offer a full range of religious services and spiritual activities. Our Friday night, Kabbalat Shabbat service begins each week at 7:00 p.m. On the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month we offer Shabbat morning services starting at 9:00 am with our Torah reading service around 10:00 am. See our calendar to the left for all of our services and events.
At Congregation Beth El we live by the dictum to "live is to learn and to learn is to live!" For this reason we offer religious training for our children, bar and bat mitzvah classes for our teenagers and a range of Jewish oriented adult educational programs.
We offer all this and more at one of Austin's most affordable rates, and no one is ever turned away.
If you have any questions, please send them to email@example.com
As we say in Texas, Y'all come visit! You hear?


text:
Steadicam Laing M35II with Vest/Arm
The Laing M35II with Vest/Arm steadicam consists of the Laing M35II Stabilizer with Vest + Arm. It's a very responsive stabilizer system that's packed with features.
The complete Laing M35II Steadicam Vest + Arm system
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam Vest
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam Arm
- 1 x Low mode Operating Bracket
- 16 x Counterweights
- 1 x Docking Bracket
- 1 x V-Mount Battery Plate
- 1 x Soft Bag
Load 6kg-16kg
Laing M35II Steadicam Arm allows the user to shoot effortlessly without strain and fatigue for long shoots. The Laing M35II Steadicam Arm is a dual spring load-spreading arm which dynamically distributes the weight from the camera, lens, and stabilizer making camera setups up to 16kg feel virtually weightless.
- Responsive Tension System
The Laing M35II Steadicam Arm has 2 fully adjustable springs that give you the ability to precisely control how much tension you want for your setup. This gives you greater sensitivity and feel when flying your camera.
- Stabilizer Compatibility
We wanted to build a vest + arm system that will work with a number of stabilizers. This modular design gives you the freedom to use other Liang Stabilizers.
The Laing M35II Steadicam Vest
The Laing M35II Steadicam Vest features a CNC Machined high-grade aluminum lockable chest plate as the core. The Laing M35II Steadicamt Vest is ultra light, easy to use, and very comfortable. Setup is a snap literally. The Laing M35II Steadicam vest features large polyester easy-snap in buckles which are height and width adjustable to give you a snug fit to minimize unwanted movement. The Laing M35II Steadicam Chest Plate has a powder coated anodize which gives it long lasting durability.
The Laing M35II Steadicam Vest is made from machine washable materials that allow your skin to breath while still being light, flexible, and snug. We outfitted the unit with Heavy duty Velcro straps and Side Release Buckles which allow you to quickly adjust the fit according to your body type. If your build is bigger than average we've got you covered. We also have extension belts to extend the coverage of the vest if you need it. You'll be up and flying in no time.
Laing M35II Steadicam Pro Stabilizer
The Laing M35II Steadicam Pro Stabilizer is the perfect stabilizer if you have a wide range of cameras from DSLR's to Pro Series cameras like a RED. It'll support up to 16kg of weight out of the box. You can also customize it to hold more weight by adding more weight, and monitors to the carbon fiber base or weight dock.
The Laing M35II Steadicam Pro Stabilizer's main feature is its newly designed frictionless gimbal. Constructed from high-grade aluminum, stainless steel, and premium bearings. The gimbal is a highly responsive, and very accurate when dealing with variables such as momentum, inertia, and gravity. Ultimately, it'll keep your camera steady and your images looking smooth like butter. All Laing M35II Steadicam Pro Stabilizer are precision tested, and balanced before shipped out for quality control. We test each product for (+/-) .2 accuracy.
The Laing M35II Steadicam release plate can adjust front and back ,left and right.
Laing M35II Steadicam V-Mount Battery Plate
The Kit comes complete with the V-Mount Battery Plate so you can power up with your favorite V-Mount batteries while adding the extra weight for the counter balance.
Laing M35II Steadicam Specs
Vest material:aluminum alloy, nylon
Arm material:aluminum alloy and piano wire springs
Sled material: aluminum alloy, Carbon fiber
Arm boom-range:75cm
Camera mount hole: 1/4, 3/8
Quick release plate size:22.8cm x 7.9cm x 1cm
Platform size: 16.2cm x 9cm x 3.5cm
Min. length: 73cm
Max. length:119cm
Upper pole diameter:3.6cm
Lower pole diameter:3cm
Counterweight: 0.125kg x 16pcs
Package dimensions:79cm x 49cm x 29cm
Sled weight:3.5kg
Arm weight:2.8kg
Vest weight:3.5kg
Net Weight: 12kg (including accessories)
Gross weight:18kg
What's In The Bag
That's right…we're even throwing in a Free Bag. The custom bag is made specifically to carry the compact Laing M35II Steadicam + Vest + Arm. You'll have all your gear ready to go for all your projects.
The complete Laing M35II Steadicam Vest + Arm system
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam Vest
- 1 x Laing M35II Steadicam Arm
- 1 x Low mode Operating Bracket
- 16 x Counterweights
- 1 x Docking Bracket
- 1 x V-Mount Battery Plate
- 1 x Soft Bag


text:
Good news everyone! :)
I am pleased to inform you that official English version of the OGSE 0.6.9.2 R2 is ready and available for download in the downloads section. It was a long process, requiring much time and effort, and I hope you enjoy the result. When translating we tried to make the text as lively and literary as possible, and to translate all the humor and idioms. The main work on translation was done by Filon - our full-time translator and editor, restyling and proofreading of texts, as well as testing of the final version was done by SimplyYuri - one of our mod's testers, working in our team almost from its very beginning.
The installation package is entirely in English, as well as all the documentation. The mod is packaged in an world-wide game version format archives. This is done in order to provide the best performance - the game engine is optimized for work with it's own game archives, and the packed version runs 10-15% faster than uncompressed, plus this eliminates little freezes due to the caching of extracted game resources from the file system. Accordingly, since this version of the mod is packaged, the "tall grass" and "widescreen scopes" options in configurator working as it should. Please note only that test all conversations in the game is impossible for us due to lack of time, so if you found a repeatable crash to the desktop in some of the dialogues in game - be sure to tell us about it, to fix that as soon as possible.
In addition to complete installation package, I've uploaded another package with the unpacked files needed to make translations into other languages - if you want to make a German or French version, you can download it. When your translation will be ready, I'll post it to our downloads section.
In case English release is inaccessible via downloads section because we repackaged it and authorization of install package takes a lot of time, I've created a mirror on our own ftp, so you can download mod directly from there: Ogse.ru
Please use this link only then English release are inaccessible via downloads section!
By this link you can in any time download latest installation package version. Sorry for any inconvenience caused by recompilation of package. There can be some problems with Steam game releases, If you experience any installing the mod - please notify me ASAP.
If you have any problems installing or running the mod, please read installation tips, which can be found at mod release download article!


text:
- Your Quote basket
- No item
At INTENSIV FILTER HIMENVIRO, we pride ourselves on our service capabilities, from spare parts, maintenance, services, upgrades, and retrofits, our service team will work with you to keep your system running effectively and efficiently.
Our engineers and technicians are trained in the field of air pollution control equipment and not just on INTENSV FILTER HIMENVIRO equipment, we are also skilled in working on a lot of other manufacturer's equipment as well. We have the capabilities and the experience to work on any piece of equipment you may have, from minor service to full retrofits from Concept to Commissioning.
Upgrades and/or Retrofits of your installations


text:
Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value. It is widely considered the most disruptive invention since the Internet itself.
We at Kellton Tech, as a part of our 'Digital Transformation' service can provide you with the state of the art Blockchain Technology so that your business can fully exploit the benefits of a smooth, efficient and fully distributed digital trail of all transactions. Capitalizing on our Ethereum capabilities and bitcoin understanding, we can build a Hyperledger-based blockchain for businesses.
Advantages of adopting Blockchain Technology
- Increased transparency of transactions to all parties involved
- Reduced end to end service duration
- Tamperproof and safe record of all transactions
- Eliminating cumbersome back office processes
Applications of Blockchain Technology
The Blockchain Technology can be brought to use in a wide range of financial and non-financial applications serving a diverse purposes in each industry. Some such applications are
- Smart Contracts: Distributed ledgers enable the coding of simple contracts that will execute when specific conditions are met
- Supply chain auditing: Distributed Ledgers provide an easy way to certify that the backstories of the things we buy are genuine. Transparency comes with blockchain-based timestamping of a date and location
- Internet of Things: Smart contracts make the automation of remote systems management possible. A combination of software, sensors, and the network facilitates an exchange of data between objects and mechanisms
- Identity Management: Blockchain Technology offers enhanced methods for proving who you are, along with the possibility to digitize personal documents. Having a secure identity will also be important for online interactions
- Land title registration: As publicly accessible data, blockchains can make all kinds of record keeping more efficient. Property titles are a case in point. They tend to be susceptible to fraud, as well as costly and labour intensive to administer
- Stock trading: When executed peer-to-peer, trade confirmations become almost instantaneous. This means intermediaries such as the clearing house, auditors and custodians – get removed from the process
- File Storage: Decentralizing file storage on the internet brings clear benefits. Distributing data throughout the network projects files from getting hacked or lost
- Crowd funding: Blockchains take this interest to next level, potentially creating crowd sourced venture capital funds
- The sharing economy: By enabling peer-to-peer payments, the blockchain opens the door to direct interaction between parties- a truly decentralized sharing economy results
Why Kellton Tech?
With established excellence in the field of ISMAC and digital integration, our additional capabilities in the Ethereum platform can support enterprises adopt this new technology and achieve superior results. We offer
a) Integration
- Blockchain Architecture
- Use case identification
- Revamping Business Models
b) Functioning support
- Integration with operations
- Performance testing and scalability
- Data Security
c) Research activities
- Blockchain Technology Research
- PoC and Pilot Projects
As a partner with IBM Watson, we are uniquely-qualified to leverage on emerging Artificial Intelligence utilities and provide best offerings with blockchain as a service.