text:
- Research
- Open Access
A minimal descriptor of an ancestral recombinations graph
- Laxmi Parida1Email author,
- Pier Francesco Palamara2, 3 and
- Asif Javed1
© Parida et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011
- Published: 15 February 2011
Ancestral Recombinations Graph (ARG) is a phylogenetic structure that encodes both duplication events, such as mutations, as well as genetic exchange events, such as recombinations: this captures the (genetic) dynamics of a population evolving over generations.
In this paper, we identify structure-preserving and samples-preserving core of an ARG G and call it the minimal descriptor ARG of G. Its structure-preserving characteristic ensures that all the branch lengths of the marginal trees of the minimal descriptor ARG are identical to that of G and the samples-preserving property asserts that the patterns of genetic variation in the samples of the minimal descriptor ARG are exactly the same as that of G. We also prove that even an unbounded G has a finite minimal descriptor, that continues to preserve certain (graph-theoretic) properties of G and for an appropriate class of ARGs, our estimate (Eqn 8) as well as empirical observation is that the expected reduction in the number of vertices is exponential.
Based on the definition of this lossless and bounded structure, we derive local properties of the vertices of a minimal descriptor ARG, which lend itself very naturally to the design of efficient sampling algorithms. We further show that a class of minimal descriptors, that of binary ARGs, models the standard coalescent exactly (Thm 6).
- Leaf Node
- Random Graph
- Sampling Algorithm
- Outgoing Edge
- Incoming Edge
The study of genetic evolution of populations is an important problem and myriad aspects of this have been studied extensively for the past few decades. This problem is regaining momentum as more and more detailed genomes of different organisms, highlighting the unexpected diversity within a species, become available [1]. There are two broad directions to studying and understanding this diversity. One is through model-based population simulation studies: this helps hypothesize various evolutionary constraints and conditions and understand the observed population structures in that context. While it is impossible to model every detail of all the genetic events, very good statistical processes summarizing the series of genetic events exist [2–4]. Moreover, model based methods have been at the heart of various demographics-aware approaches [5–7]. The second direction is to reconstruct a plausible evolutionary history given the observed population structure as extant samples of chromosomes. In the context of human data, the reconstruction of trees from genomic data under uni-linear transmission, such as nonrecombining Y chromosome (NRY) or mitochondrial data is well accepted [8]. However, evolutionary reconstruction of recombining portions of the genome continues to be a challenge. Under these conditions, the second direction is arguably hard and reconstruction methods [9, 10] have been evaluated in various orchestrated evolution scenarios [11]. In this paper, we introduce a minimal descriptor that plays a critical role in both the directions of study. Firstly, it does not compromise any detail of the genetic dynamics for simulation studies and secondly, leads itself to a structure amenable for reconstruction studies. Finally, since the minimal descriptor is very compact (as well as exact), it can form the basis for statistical inferencing methods as well.
The central mathematical object of study in this context is the Ancestral Recombinations Graph (ARG): the coalescent with recombination describes the genealogies underlying the common evolutionary history of samples of chromosomes from unrelated individuals of an ideal population [12, 13]. This is also called the standard coalescent model in literature. This object has been studied intensively in literature primarily in the context of simulations. In [14], the more general version of the ARG was studied as a random graph to address the general reconstructability question. In this paper, the attempt is to understand some inherent characteristics of the ARG from a reconstruction perspective. Not surprisingly, this has implications in simulations as well.
In the context of simulations, Hudson introduced MS the seminal implementation to sample sequences from a population evolving under the Wright Fisher model [15], It is important to point out a subtlety here. Usually under the coalescent model, the coalescence is between exactly two lineages and multiple genetic events do not occur in the same generation in the common evolutionary history. These simplifications help in defining the model as a ordered sequence of events as well as in estimating the time from one event to the next. In the software GENOME[16], instead of simulating the time to next event, the authors simulate the coalescent and recombination events at every generation proceeding backwards in time. Thus this models an evolutionary history, more general than the standard coalescent model. In the random graphs framework in [14], the genetic exchange model or mixed subgraph represented this more general model. In this paper, to avoid confusion in terminologies, we call such a general model simply the generic ARG and unless specified otherwise an ARG refers to a generic ARG. On the other hand we call the standard coalescent model as the binary ARG, for obvious reasons. While the above methods generate events backwards in time, an orthogonal approach, introduced in [17], samples the events along the sequence. This is called the Spatial Algorithm (SA) and one of its characteristic effects is that the density of recombination breakpoints increases as one moves along the sequence. Another (perhaps related) characteristic of SA is that the process is not Markovian. The Sequentially Markov Coalescent[18] introduces modifications to the process to make the structure Markovian. Based on this model, in FastCoal[19], the authors use an additional heuristic of retaining only a subset of local trees while moving along the sequence. However in all three, a probabilistic formulation of the underlying random mathematical object is not obvious. It turns out that even the Markovian structures only approximate the standard coalescent model. While each model is defined algorithmically as a sequence of precise steps, yet the reason for this lack of exactness is not clear enough to provide algorithmic modifications to close or reduce the gap with the standard model. On the other hand, the random-graphs framework [14] leads to a procedure-independent model, the minimal descriptor of binary ARGs, that is not only very compact but also exactly models the standard coalescent. Our ideas stem from a graph theoretic viewpoint of the generic ARG. We define structure-preserving and samples-preserving transforms of a generic G which maintain the invariance of the marginal genealogies and the samples (hence genetic variation patterns) respectively, called a minimal descriptor, that exactly models the generic ARG. This setting helps us in providing mathematical proofs of exactness of the model (Thms 2 and 6) as well as in deriving the other properties from the model (Thms 3-5). The local properties of the nodes lend themselves naturally to designing sampling algorithms for the method-independent model, say by modifications to Hudson's algorithm (Results section).
As seen above, ARG forms the basis for most systematic simulation studies. It is important to point out another subtlety here. An ARG is a random object and there are many (infinite) instances of the ARG. Usually, when we say that a topological property holds for the ARG, we mean that the property that holds for every instance of the ARG, i.e. the property holds with probability 1. Note that some may hold for a subset of instances (such as unboundedness).
Focusing on the topology of the ARG, and its effect on the samples, provides us with insights to identify vertices that "do not matter". Modeling these as missing nodes in the ARG, leads to a core that preserves the essential characterisitcs. We begin the exposition by recalling some important topological characteristics of the random ARG, which is defined by at least two parameters: K, the number of extant samples and 2N, the population size at a generation. A Grand Most Recent Common Ancestor (GMRCA), plays an important role in restricting the zone of interest in the common evolutionary structure. A GMRCA is defined as a unit whose genetic material is ancestral to all the genetic materials in all the extant samples [8]. Thus while the relevant common evolutionary history of some K > 1 units is potentially unbounded, it is reasonable to bound this structure of interest with this single GMRCA. Thus when a GMRCA exists, it is unique and and we say the ARG is bounded. When an ARG has no GMRCA, we call it unbounded.
The least common ancestor (LCA) of a set of vertices V in a graph is defined as a common ancestor of V with no other common ancestor of V on any path from the LCA to any vertex of V. In our earlier work [14], we presented a combinatorial treatment of the ARG based on random graphs. The (directed) graph representation is acyclic, a root is analogous to a GMRCA, and the leaf nodes to the extant samples. Though tantalizingly similar, GMRCA and LCA do not define the same entity in an ARG. The implications of this treatment relevant to this paper is summarized as follows.
The common evolutionary history of an ideal population can be modeled as a random graph. Due to the "ancestor without ancestry" paradox, the topology alone of this graph is not adequate and the nodes or edges must be embellished with additional information, which is the genetic material they transmit. Then
Theorem 1 (Par10) 1. G satisfies the bounded-degree property.
(In the random graph model, the ARG is defined on an infinite set of vertices. However, each vertex has not only finite, but a bounded number of incident edges, determined by the input parameters alone. Note that this is called the bounded-degree property, which is one of the measures of simplicity of a graph.)
2. For every G on K > 1 extant samples, there exists some M ≥ 1, such that G is the union of M overlapping trees (or forests), each with the same K extant samples. This is written as G =∪ T∈Τ T, where Τ is the set of M trees.
(Thus this Genetic Exchange Model gives an alternative parametrization of an ARG, with the number of non-mixing segments M)
3. In the embellished graph, the GMRCA is the Least Common Ancestor with Ancestry (LCAA) of all the K extant samples, where 'ancestry' is deduced from the embellishments, The topological definition of the GMRCA is as follows.: It is the LCA of the LCAs of the M embedded trees (of 2 above).
Based on (2) above, we set up the problem for studying the ARG and its structure-preserving core in the next section. Statement (3) is used in proving the existence of the structure even for unbounded ARGs as well as in computing the actual bound on the size. We show that the minimal structure displays the same graph-theoretic characteristic as in Statement (1) above. The interested reader may see Fig 6 in [14] for an explanation of the 'Ancestor without Ancestry' paradox and an illustration of its consequence in Fig 3 of the same paper.
Basic definitions
The graph description
For ease of exposition in the following paragraphs, let the edges be directed, the direction towards the more recent generation (or the leaves). In other words, the leaf (extant) nodes have no outgoing edges and the root node has no incoming edges. The edges of the ARG are annotated with genetic event and the labels are displayed in the illustrations. See Fig 1(c) for an example. An edge in G is defined to have multiple strands. In the illustrations, the multiple strands are shown as distinct colors, each color corresponding to one of the component trees 1 ≤ i ≤ M. Between any pair of vertices v1 and v2, no two strands can be of the same color. Thus the number of multiple strands, corresponding the edge, between a pair of vertices can be no more than M.
The annotations on the edges play a critical role since it is these annotations that ultimately shape the extant samples. In the paper, samples refer to extant samples. The two kinds of genetic events represented in the graph are (1) duplication events and (2) genetic exchange events. While the latter is modeled by the genetic exchange nodes, the former is modeled by labels on the edges. To keep this discussion simple, let the duplication genetic event correspond to Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). For example in Fig 1(c), the SNPs on the red tree are shown as a, b, c, d in red. Also, the exact position of the SNP on the genome does not matter. However, in the ARG, a particular ordering of the M trees is assumed and hence the SNPs of each of the M trees respect this order (this is reflected in the sample definitions below where red is the leftmost segment and blue the rightmost). Each strand of an edge is labeled by a set of genetic events (SNPs), possibly empty. A node with multiple ascendants (parents) is called a genetic-exchange node. A node with multiple descendants (children) is a coalescent node. Note that a node can be both a coalescent as well as a genetic-exchange node. In Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, a genetic-exchange node is displayed as a hatched disc. To summarize,
Property 1 (ARG properties) 1. An ARG G must satisfy the following
(a) (topology) Every node v in G must have multiple children or multiple parents (since chains are not informative).
(b) (annotations) The duplication genetic event label (say, SNP) corresponding to a position on the samples must transmit down to at least one extant sample.
Samples S(G)
Definition 1 (samples-preserving) G and G′ are samples-preserving if and only if S(G) = S(G′).
When two instances are samples-preserving, all the allele statistics, including allele frequencies, LD decay and so on are identical in the two.
1-vertex compactification
- 1.
v′ the LCA of v 1 , v 2 , .. ,v l , and
- 2.
G and G′ are samples-preserving, i.e., S(G) = S(G′).
Resolvability of nodes and ARGs
To maintain biological relevance, a "missing" node is modeled by the following vertex removal operation.
Definition 2 (G \ {v}) Given G and a node v in G,G\ {v} is obtained in the following steps.
1. For each child v c,i of v, that is in the embedded tree 1 ≤ i ≤ M,
(a) (adding new edges) this child is connected by a new edge to the parent of v in i,
(b) (annotating the new edges) the new edges between and v c,i have the same label as that of the corresponding old edges between v and v c,i , except for exactly one such new edge whose label is the union of the labels on the two edges, i.e., the outgoing edge from v to v c,i and the incoming edge from to v.
(This is to avoid introducing parallel mutations, i.e, the same label appearing multiple times on the embedded tree i.)
2. The node v with all the edges incident on it are removed from G.
See Fig 2 for an illustrative example. Notice that for the red tree, the new annotation of {d, c} is obtained by taking the union of the sets on the incoming and outgoing red edges on v, for only one (out of the two) new edges.
Definition 3 (resolvable node) Node v of G is called non-resolvable if S(G) = S(G\{v}). Similarly node v is called resolvable if S(G) ≠ S(G \ {v}).
Next, we extend the definition of removing multiple vertices from G. The following is straightforward to verify and we omit the details.
Observation 1 Given vertices v 1 and v 2 in G,
S((G \ {v1}) \ {v 2 }) = S((G\ {v 2 }) \ {v1}).
A minimal descriptor
Next we identify the vertices in G that determine the topology (as well as the branch lengths) in the M embedded trees.
Definition 4 (t-coalescent, structure-preserving) (1) A coalescent vertex in G is t-coalescent if and only if it is also a coalescent node in at least one of the M embedded trees. (2) Given G and G′, if each of the M embedded trees in G and G′ are identical in topology as well as branch lengths (in generations), then G′ preserves the structure of G and vice versa.
For example, the marked vertex in Fig 2(a) is t-coalescent since it is also a coalescent node of the red embedded tree.
Theorem 2 1. A resolvable coalescent node v is also t-coalescent in G.
2. If G′←G\U and no t-coalescent vertex of G is in U, then G′ is structure-preserving.
- (2)
The topology and the individual branch lengths of each tree i, 1 ≤ i ≤ M, is defined completely by the coalescent nodes of the tree i. Since U does not contain any of the coalescent nodes of any of the M trees, then the structure of G′ is preserved by Definition 4.
The theorem shows that the vertices that ensure the invariance of the branch lengths of each embedded tree are also resolvable, leading to the following.
Definition 5 (minimal descriptor) (1) An ARG G is a minimal descriptor if and only if every coalescent vertex, except the GMRCA, is t-coalescent. (2) An ARG G md is a minimal descriptor of G if and only if (a) G md preserves the structure of G, (b) G md is a minimal descriptor, and (c) G and G md are samples-preserving, i.e., S(G) = S(G md ) holds.
The following gives a constructive description of a minimal descriptor.
Observation 2 Given G, let U be the set of all coalescent vertices in G, other than the GMRCA, that is not t-coalescent. Let G′ ←G\U. Then G′ is biologically and evolutionary relevant as
1. (samples-preserving) the allele statistics (including allele frequencies, LD decay) in the samples in both G and G′ are identical, and
2. (structure-preserving) the embedded (marginal) trees of G and G′ are identical.
In other words, G′ is a minimal descriptor of G.
Proof: By Definition 5 (1) and the following (which can be verified), G′ is a minimal descriptor.
- (1)
It follows from Thm 2(1) that if v is not t-coalescent then v is not resolvable, hence by Obs 1, S(G) = S(G′). Then it follows that the allele statistics must be identical since the samples are. (2) It follows from Thm 2 (2) that G′ is structure preserving. Hence the topology, as well as the branch lengths, of each M embedded tree is the same in G and G′. Thus, by Definition 5 (2), G′ is a minimal descriptor of G.
Flexibilities of ARG structures
Fig 4 shows two distinct minimal descriptors for an ARG G. This is partly due to the flexibility of a network topology, in contrast to say a tree topology. For instance, we demonstrate here how seemingly unrelated nodes can be potentially merged into one with neither affecting the samples nor the embedded tree structures. This can be systematized as follows, although the merge operation, defined below, is not biologically interpretable in an obvious way.
Observation 3 Let v1and v2be two vertices in an ARG G such that (1) there is no directed path from v1to v2or v2to v1and (2) sg(v1) ∩ sg(v2) = ø. We define a node-merge operation of v1and v2as follows. ARG G′ is obtained from G by removing v1and v2and introducing a new vertex v3where the incoming edges of v3is the union of that of v1and v2and similarly the outgoing edges of v3. Then the node-merge operation is structure-preserving and samples-preserving (S(G) = S(G′)).
The first condition ensures that the merging does not introduce directed cycles in the graph thus maintaining the integrity of the ARG structure. The second condition ensures that the two vertices affect non-overlapping portions of the sample space. Hence merging the two nodes neither affects S(G) nor the embedded trees.
In fact it is even possible to merge more than two vertices and additionally, under more relaxed constraints than in Obs 3. The example in Fig 4(c) shows a "merging" of three t-coalescent nodes of (b) (shown as red, blue and green hollow circles in (b)).
Properties of minimal descriptor ARGs
Given the topology of an ARG G with the embedded (marginal) trees and annotations representing genetic events, we have seen that this defines an unambiguous genetic flow giving rise to the samples S(G). This annotation also implicity defines the segments associated with each node. The M embedded trees in G correspond to M segments on the chromosome of the K samples which is encoded by the leaf nodes of G. We assume that these M segments of interest are consecutive on the chromosomes of the samples. Thus these trees can be numbered by consecutive integers from 1 to M, the values indicating the order on the chromosomes. Thus the multiple edges of G (defined in the last section as colored edges) implies an annotation of a node v as well. We define this as sg(v) which is formalized below.
Definition 6 ( sg(v) overlap) Given node v in an ARG G, sg(v) is the set of the embedded trees that v is incident on. Two vertices v1and v2in G are said to overlap if sg(v1) ∩ sg(v2) ≠ ø.
In [14], this is defined as gm(v), however in this paper we use sg(.) to avoid confusion with the SNPs as genetic events. For example, consider the marked node v of Fig 2(a). Let the red, green and blue trees be numbered 1, 2 and 3 respecting the order in which they appear on the chromosomal segment as defined in the samples in Fig 5. Then sg(v) = {1, 2}. Also, let the leaf nodes marked 1, 2 and 3 of the same tree in Fig 6(a) be u1,u 2 ,u 3 respectively. Then
Fig 6(b) displays these segments at each node. To simplify the exposition, assume that the M segments are numbered consecutively from 1 to M.
Definition 7 (gapped/ non-gapped node) A node v in ARG G is called a gapped node if the elements of sg(v) are not consecutive. A non-gapped node is a node that is not a gapped node.
Note that when the elements of sg(v) are not consecutive, or v is gapped, it implies that while tracking the relevant chromosomal segments in the ARG, v appears to be carrying segments that matter (i.e., are ancestral to the corresponding segments of some of the samples) and are interspersed with segments that do not matter (i.e., are not ancestral to the corresponding segments in any of the samples).
On boundedness of ARGs
Theorem 3 An unbounded ARG G always has a bounded minimal descriptor.
Proof: We prove this by constructing a bounded minimal descriptor from the unbounded G. Since G is unbounded, G has no GMRCA. Obtain G′ from G by removing all coalescent vertices that are not t-coalescent. Then by definition G′ is structure-preserving and S(G) = S(G′).
By Thm 1 (2), G′ has M embedded trees. For each embedded tree T i , let L i be the set of LCAs in G. Note that the LCA of a tree is completely defined topologically. Let . Then we prove the following:
The only infinite chains in G′ originate in a vertex in L and they are disjoint.
First we need to show that any infinite chain in G′ must originate in a vertex in L. Assume the contrary that there is a chain originating in v ∉ L. Let u be an extant sample reachable from v and let i ∈ sg(u), then v must be an LCA in tree i and then v ∈ L by construction, which is a contradiction. Next we need to show that no two chains overlap. Assume the contrary that a pair of infinite chains, one originating in v 1 ∈ L and the other in v 2 ∈ L, cross paths, say at u. Since it is a chain, u is a coalescent node and not the GMRCA. If sg( v1) ∩ sg(v 2 ) = ø, then it contradicts the fact all (non-GMRCA) coalescent nodes in G′ must be t-coalescent. But if i ∈ sg( v1) ∩ sg(v 2 ), then it contradicts the fact that v 1 and v 2 are LCAs of the embedded tree i. Hence no two chains can cross.
(B) and (C) prove the statement. Then since the preconditions hold, we can apply the 1-vertex compactification to G′ by adding the new vertex v′ and obtain G″. To show that G″ is a minimal descriptor of G using Definition 5, we next assert the following three statements:
(i) S(G″) = S(G), (ii) G″ preserves the structure of G and (iii) v′ is the GMRCA of G″.
From (A) and the definition of the 1-vertex compactification process, statements (i) and (ii) hold. Also by the construction, v′ is the LCA of all the vertices in L. Hence by Thm 1 (3), v′ is the GMRCA of G″. This concludes that G″ is a minimal descriptor of G with the GMRCA v′, hence bounded.
Corollary 1 The degree of the GMRCA in a minimal descriptor is ≤ MK.
This follows from the cardinality of C in the proof. Since each segment can have no more than K LCAs, |L| ≤ KM.
Fig 7 illustrates the construction procedure used in the proof of the theorem on a simple example with K = M = 2. The corollary states that even if the underlying ARG G is unbounded, there exists a minimal descriptor with a GMRCA with not just finite but a priori bounded degree.
Back to properties of ARGs
The previous section gave a global characteristic of a minimal descriptor ARG in terms of resolvable nodes. In this section we explore properties of nodes of the minimal descriptor ARG that can be determined by studying a very local neighborhood of the node.
Theorem 4 1. If a coalescent node v, except the GMRCA, in a minimal descriptor ARG has descendants u1, u2, .., u l , for some l > 1, then for any u i , there exists u j , i ≠ j, such that
sg(u i ) ∩ sg(u j ) ≠ ø.
In other words, for each descendant u i of v there exists another descendant u j of v overlapping with u i ,1 ≤ i ≠ j ≤ l.
- 1
≤ n c ≤ M(K – 1) + 1, (1)
- 0
≤ n e ≤ K(M – 1) + M(K – 1), (2)
n v = O(MK). (3)
Proof: (1) Since, by Definition 5, every coalescent node in the minimal descriptor is t-coalescent, this must hold. (2) By Thm 3, every minimal descriptor ARG has a GMRCA. Also the GMRCA is a coalescent node. In G there are kM segments that eventually coalesce into M segments. The smallest number of coalescences occurs when all vertices coalesce into a single vertex, the GMRCA, giving a lower bound of 1. Again, by (1), since every coalescent vertex must be the coalescence in at least one embedded tree, the number of coalescent vertices, excluding the GMRCA, in a minimal descriptor ARG is no more than (K – 1)M. By Thm 1 (3), including the GMRCA introduces only one more node and this proves n c ≤ M(K – 1) + 1 of Eqn 1.
Each coalescent event of an embedded (marginal) tree can create at most one additional junction in the coalescing node.
Corollary 2 The minimal descriptor satisfies the bounded-degree property (of Thm 1 (1)).
By Corollary 1, there is an a priori bound on the GMRCA. By the theorem there is such a bound on all the other vertices. Hence the result.
Binary ARGs
The sampling algorithms incorporating the coalescent process produces ARGs that bound the indegree and outdegree of a node to two [3]. We call such ARGs as binary ARGs and they also give stronger characteristics that can be further exploited by the sampling algorithms. We find that, to prove these characteristics, it is not necessary to restrict the incoming edges of a node to two.
Definition 8 (binary ARG) A vertex in a binary G has no more than two outgoing edges, except the GMRCA.
We next identify some properties on these binary ARGs that can be again used in the sampling algorithms, if required. Consider the scenario where the genetic exchange event is restricted to recombinations. In other words if a node v has two incoming edges them the genetic material of v is split such that the left part of the segment is derived from one of the parental nodes and the right part is derived from the other parent. This is in contrast to an arbitrary segment being derived from one and the remaining from the other parental node. Next, we prove a rather unexpected property of a node of a binary minimal descriptor ARG under recombinations: the genetic material carried by a node has no gaps. This result is somewhat counter-intuitive (since it appears unduly restrictive and is counter to earlier beliefs) and is proved in (2) below.
Theorem 5 1. If n c is the number of coalescent events, n e the number of genetic exchange events, and n v the number of vertices in a nontrivial binary minimal descriptor, excluding the leaf nodes, then the following holds:
- 0
≤ n e ≤ K(M – 1), (5)
n v = O(MK). (6)
2. Let (a) the genetic exchange events be restricted to recombinations and (b) all the leaf nodes be non-gapped. Then no node in a binary minimum descriptor is gapped.
Proof (1) The proof of Eqn 4 is along the lines of that of Eqn 1. We show n e ≤ K(M - 1) of Eqn 5 as follows. By the definition of the ARG, each unit has at most M non-mixing segments, hence can have no more than M – 1 genetic exchange events. Thus there are K(M – 1) such junctions. For a recombination event to occur multiple times at the same junction involving the same or similar set of samples, it is clear that a coalescence must occur. Following the notation used in the proof of Thm 4, We next prove the following statement:
If there is some overlap in the coalescing vertices u 1 ,u 2 , then there is no increase in the number of junctions from the sum total in u 1 and u 2 to that of the coalesced vertex v.
Every non-mixing segment of v corresponds to the same non-mixing segment in at least one of the descendants u 1 ,u 2 . There can be an increase in the junctions in v if and only if a leftmost non-mixing segment in say u1, is not the leftmost in v. It cannot be a leftmost in u 2 as well, since it is not a leftmost in v. Thus it is an interior in u 2 . Thus this segment has a corresponding junction in u 2 that contributes to the junction in v without introducing an increase in the count of junctions. Since a coalescence does not increase the count of junctions, n e ≤ K(M – 1) holds. Next, Eqn 6 follows from Eqns 4 and 5. This completes the proof of Statement (1).
(2) Assume the contrary, i.e., there exist gapped nodes in G. Amongst all such nodes, consider a least node v, i.e., v is such that there is no other gapped node in all the paths from v to the reachable nongapped leaf nodes. Let v have only one child u. Since the only genetic exchange event is recombination, u must be gapped for v to be gapped. This leads to a contradiction that v is the least such node. Then v must have two children. Consider the two following cases. Case i: Let the two descendant nodes of v be coalescent nodes. By the assumption each of them is non-gapped and by Thm 4 (1) the two must overlap. Hence v must be non-gapped as well. Case ii: Let at least one of the descendant nodes of v, say u, be a genetic-exchange node. Again, since the only genetic exchange event is recombination, the segment transmitted by u to v is nongapped. Hence by Thm 4 (1) v is nongapped. Thus for v to be gapped at least one of its two descendants must be gapped, leading to a contradiction.
Comparison with the standard coalescent
We introduce a definition of equivalence of ARG instances here.
Definition 9 (equivalent ARG instances) Let G and G′ be two ARG instances with G = ∪ T∈Τ T and G′ = ∪ T∈Τ′ T where each T is a tree. G and G′ are said to be equivalent if and only if the following conditions hold. (1) S(G) = S(G′), i.e., both define the same set of samples and (2) there exists a bijection f : Τ→Τ′ such that for every T∈Τ, f(T) is isomorphic to T via an edge-length as well as leaf-label preserving isomorphism.
A graph-theoretic isomorphism definition, for the equivalence of two ARG instances, is unduly rigid and this weaker, but more relevant, definition of equivalence is derived from the typical handling of ARGs in literature [13, 17–19]. Next, we prove the following.
Theorem 6 Given an instance of ARG G, its minimal descriptor G md is equivalent to G. (In this sense, the minimal descriptor of a binary ARG is the standard coalescent model.)
The equivalence of G and G md follows from Defns 5 and 9. (Further, since the binary ARG is an alternative modeling of the standard coalescent, the minimal descriptor of the binary ARG is equivalent to the standard coalescent model.)
Furthermore, in our experiments that involved comparison with other models utilizing the recombination rate parameter, r, we enforce this parameter on the minimal descriptor to simplify the task of comparison. We observe empirically that properties such as embedded (marginal) tree branch length distribution, LD decay of samples etc match very well with that of MS[15] and GENOME[16] although the first method uses the coalescent time to the next event and the second carries out the simulation at every generation. However, that is not the case with the approximate models [17–19].
Estimating redundancy in an ARG
Recall that in G there is no vertex that has one descendant and one ascendant (Property 1 (1)). We call G reduced if it has no vertex that has only one descendant. Given G, if G′ is obtained from G by removing all and only those vertices that have single descendants then G′ is called as reduced G. Since a coalescent node cannot have a single descendant the following is easily verified: If G′ is a reduction of G then G′ is structure-preserving and S(G) = S(G′). A reduced G is a canonical form and then it is meaningful to compare the number of vertices between canonical forms.
Observation 4 If G md is a minimal descriptor of G, then the number of vertices in reduced G md , which is no more than in reduced G.
Sampling algorithm
An ARG construction has the following two independent tasks: (1) Constructing the topology of the structure including the lengths (or time estimates) of the edges. (2) Annotating the edges of the structure with genetic events, the number of the events (say, mutations) is a function of the length of the edges. The topology is a critical part of the ARG and the graph-theoretic treatment of the problem isolates the topology which has lead to various novel insights. Due to the fundamental characteristics in capturing the essence of the evolving population and its versatility, the standard coalescent approach [12, 15] can be used to estimate the lengths of the edges in the topology. Thus even with the graph-theoretic treatment of the problem, we appeal to essentials of coalescent theory for the sampling of the minimal descriptors. All the methods discussed in the background section are based on the standard coalescent model, which is analogous to the binary ARGs in this paper. Hence we focus only on this subspace of generic ARGs in this section.
Based on the models presented on this paper, there are at least two possible approaches to sampling the space: (1) One is sampling the space of standard ARGs. (2) Since a minimal descriptor is also an ARG the other approach is to directly sample the subspace of standard ARGs, corresponding to the binary minimal descriptors. In the first approach, a standard ARG is sampled and its minimal descriptor is extracted either as a post-processing step or simultaneously during the construction process. This approach has the advantage that the sampling distribution is exactly the same as that of the standard ARG, which is well studied in literature. The second approach is to directly sample a subspace of ARGs. A theoretical (time-expensive) sampling algorithm with the 'true' probabilities for a generic ARG is presented in [14]. Though extensively in use, the sampling distribution of the standard ARGs (binary) of the practical algorithms is not fully understood (see, for instance, discussions in [18]). Thus an understanding of the sampling distribution of a subspace of ARGs may be equally elusive.
There are two local properties of the vertices of a minimal descriptor: (1) every coalescent vertex is also a coalescent in one of the M embedded trees (Thm 2), and, (2) a coalescing vertex must overlap with another (Thm 4). Since these are local properties, it is possible to exploit one or both of these (related) properties in the sampling algorithms in both the above approaches. In our experiments we have used the overlap property of Thm 4 in the second approach of the last paragraph to sample the space of minimal descriptor of binary ARGs. To recapitulate, the input parameters to our sampling algorithm are: (a) N(≥ 1): population size is 2N at each generation. (b) K(> 1): the number of samples. (c) M(≥ 1) & (s0,s1,s2,…,s M ): M is the number of nonmixing segments. The lengths of the segments are (s0,s1,s2,…,s M ) that model varying recombination rates along the chromosome.
Based on the graph-theoretic treatment of the problem, we first identify resolvable nodes in an ARG, i.e. a node that has a possibility of being detected by some algorithm. A non-resolvable node has no impact on the extant samples, thus cannot be resolved without additional information. Next, we identify the structure-preserving nodes, i.e., the nodes critical to the structure of all the embedded (marginal) trees. Combining these two characteristics, we give a method-independent definition of a minimal descriptor that is both structure-preserving and samples-preserving. We prove that even an unbounded ARG has a bounded minimal descriptor. However, the 'missing' and 'extra' nodes in the model continue to be a source of unavoidable complexity.
Missing nodes & Extra nodes
Since a minimal descriptor can be viewed as a full ARG with missing nodes, then what are these nodes that are ignored? These carry some sets of the non-mixing segments and it turns out that whether they are transmitted in a single unit or in multiple units has no bearing either on the extant samples or on the embedded (marginal) trees. This also implies that if a multitude of such nodes is injected into an ARG, it will continue to be structure-preserving with no impact on the extant samples, thus giving an inflation of the putative volume of evolutionary events. Then, their complete elimination also suggests a possible deflation. Additionally, there are a myriad ways to merge nodes (see Methods) that are both structure-preserving and samples-preserving, but alter the nature as well as the volume of the genetic events. Thus it is not immediately apparent how such intense variabilities, within the invariants (structures and samples) can be effectively tackled. It is best left to the specific question being addressed and the data at hand.
Nevertheless, due to the local properties of the nodes of the models, it may be still possible to exploit these characteristics. Recall that while the nodes in the generic minimal descriptor may be gapped, no node in a binary minimal descriptor is gapped (Thm 5 (2)). Additionally the number of nodes in the minimal descriptor of both the generic and the binary ARG is O(MK) (Thms 4 and 5).
By isolating the topology of the ancestral recombinations graph, we have identified a lossless structure-preserving subgraph of the general ARGs termed the minimal descriptor ARG. We have also identified a subclass of ARGs, binary minimal descriptors, that are analogous to the standard coalescent model in literature. Two interesting observations are: (1) every ARG, including unbounded ARGs, has an a priori bounded minimal descriptor, and, (2) the decrease in the number of nodes from an ARG to its minimal descriptor is estimated to be exponential.
Authors contributions
LP conceived and designed the work. PFP and AJ carried out the experiments and contributed ideas.
I am very grateful to T Shanku for useful mathematical discussions.
This article has been published as part of BMC Bioinformatics Volume 12 Supplement 1, 2011: Selected articles from the Ninth Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Conference (APBC 2011). The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/12?issue=S1.
Authors' Affiliations
- 1000 genomes, a deep catalog of human genetic variation[http://www.1000genomes.org]
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- Padhukasahasram B, Marjoram P, Wall JD, Bustamante CD, Nordborg M: Exploring Population Genetic Models With Recombination Using Efficient Forward-Time Simulations. Genetics 2008, 178(4):2417–2427. 10.1534/genetics.107.085332PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
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- Chen GK, Marjoram P, Wall JD: Fast and flexible simulation of DNA sequence data. Genome Res 2009, 19: 136–142. 10.1101/gr.083634.108PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Arenas M, Posada D: Coalescent simulation of intracodon recombination. Genetics 2010, 184: 429–437. 10.1534/genetics.109.109736PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
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- Parida L, Javed A, Mele M, Calafell F, Bertranpetit J, Consortium G: Minimizing recombinations in consensus networks for phylogeographic studies. BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10: S72. 10.1186/1471-2105-10-S1-S72PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Mele M, Javed A, Pybus M, Calafell F, Parida L, Bertranpetit J, Consortium G: A New Method to Reconstruct Recombination Events at a Genomic Scale. PLOS Computational Biology, in press.Google Scholar
- Hudson RR: Properties of a neutral allele model with intragenic recombination. Theor Popul Biol 1983, 23: 183–201. 10.1016/0040-5809(83)90013-8View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Griffiths RC, Marjoram P: An ancestral recombinations graph. In Progress in Population Genetics and Human Evolution. Volume 87. Edited by: Donnelly P, Tavare S. New York: IMA vols in Mathematics and its Applications; 1997:257–270.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
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- L Liang L, Zöllner S, Abecasis GR: GENOME: a rapid coalescent-based whole genome simulator. Bioinformatics 2007, 23(12):1565–1567. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btm138View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Wiuf C, Hein J: Recombination as a point process along sequences. Theoretical Population Biology 1999, 55: 248–259. 10.1006/tpbi.1998.1403View ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- McVean GAT, Cardin NJ: Approximating the coalescent with recombination. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 2005, 360: 1387–1393. 10.1098/rstb.2005.1673PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
- Marjoram P, Wall JD: Fast coalescent simulation. BMC Genetics 2006, 7: 16. 10.1186/1471-2156-7-16PubMed CentralView ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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UCD UK Conferences was set up by Karl Smith, Be Kaler and Chandra Harrison. In 2014 Chandra Harrison left UCD UK Conferences as part of a move to New Zealand. The two remaining Founders and Directors are working with Julian Hirst as a Guest Curator to deliver the UCD2015 Conference.
Karl Smith
Karl Smith works on the leading edge of what business, customer and digital means, where it's going and helping clients to understand what they need to do now, to still exist in a shrinking global marketplace. He works in Digital Transformation and is also involved in defining how an open IoT ecosystem will work with blockchain and AI avatars in order to bring the massive economic and social change promised.
He has been involved in Human-Centered Design as a catalyst for Transformation and Change in organization, services, products and processes professionally since 1989. As a Strategist, Consultant and Architect; instructional designer, information architect, user experience architect and customer experience architect focused on customer engagement He works through Paradigm Interactions as an Interim Director and consultant in the fields of Digital Transformation and Strategy using Customer Experience as a catalyst for change and IoT, IoA, Smart Ecosystem Experiences.
He tends to be involved in M&A activities on the due diligence and verification side of what is being offered by a company. He also works on the integration strategy, service or product restructuring, key staffing and market proposition modeling. Lastly, he works on VC exit strategies for clients, directing a refocus of company activity, launch of new offerings using market insights and invention to get businesses in the right situation for exit.
He is also a Founder of The Ubiquity Open Standard Project and The Human Centered Design Society and (Industry Members of The All-Party Parliamentary design & innovation group in Westminster) a Global Membership Organisation. He is a public speaker on subjects including Human Centered Design, Smart Technologies, Innovation, Smart Living, Internet of Things, Ubiquity.
Be Kaler
Be, is a well known and respected recruiter, often invited to speak at conferences and offer opinion on how the User Experience market is changing and growing. She has specialised in user experience for half of my 18 year career in digital recruitment. She is an adviser and lecturer to new graduates joining the industry, coaching and nurturing new talent. I was recently invited to join the BIMA board and help work with the executive team to grow the digital industry nationally.
I am known for a slick, knowledgeable and passionate approach to recruitment, I have a vast and deep network of people at all levels of user experience and have been key to building core teams within digital agencies and internal teams in telecoms, broadcast, finance, government, retail and web and software companies.
Futureheads is an exciting digital recruitment business launched in September 2009 by four highly experienced and successful digital experts. Respected as passionate advocates of a professional, knowledgeable and no-nonsense brand of recruitment, we forge long-term partnerships with our clients, understanding their business drivers, helping them define their requirements and ultimately offering them the best candidates to suit their businesses. We bring strong ethics to our relationships and business transactions and invest time and energy in helping our candidates exceed their career expectations, nurturing alliances that continue for many years. We offer a sound knowledge of the digital industry, a vast network of contacts and an impressive track record in sourcing and securing the best talent in user experience, project management and creative & front end technology.
Julian Hirst – Guest Curator
A design and innovation leader, Julian has more than 15 years' experience working with (and for) sophisticated organisations that invest in service design and digital engagement.
In those fifteen years, we have seen UCD earn its seat at the table – and our community has helped launch a new world economy. In the next fifteen years, Julian believes strongly that the UCD community's ambition and motivations must be broader than digital. We – scientists, artists, technologists, designers, philosophers – are uniquely positioned to enable a new era, through IoT, ambient intelligence, big data, sympathetic machines, hyper-personalisation, social science, virtual reality, service design, artificial intelligence, gaming, cryptocurrency, human behaviour analysis, computer vision, security, automation, simulated worlds, digital content and engagement, machine learning, the future of defence or flight or energy or cities or media or social and civic action or cars or commerce or health or finance… it's an endlessly exciting list.
As a Director on the Board of the British Interactive Media Association (www.bima.co.uk), and a Patron of Digital Futures (www.wearedigitalfutures.co.uk), Julian works hard to support new talent entering the marketplace. This includes speaking in schools and universities, teaching in education programs, and mentoring students and professionals.
Through a boutique strategic consultancy in Marseille, Julian supports entrepreneurship and innovation in large and small businesses in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Initiatives include a recent project with The World Bank to drive economic growth in Maghreb (Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) through engagement with its diaspora.
Julian also sits on the Board of the Do-It Trust, an award-winning digital social enterprise that promotes and enables social action through Do-It.org, the UK's first and largest digital volunteering service.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has dismissed suggestions the club could re-sign Robin van Persie from Manchester United, on the eve of the Dutchman's return to north London.
Van Persie will feature for United in the Premier League clash at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, the fourth time he has played against the Gunners since clinching his move to the Premier League champions in the summer of 2012.
But amid United's slump this season, which sees them 15 points adrift of league leaders Chelsea and off the pace in pursuit of a Champions League place, reports at the start of February claimed that Van Persie could return to Arsenal.
With Arsenal having staged a genuine bid for the title this term after signing Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, the proposition of playing under Wenger is significantly more attractive than it was when Van Persie departed 18 months ago.
But prior to the visit of the champions this week Wenger said of the rumours: "I don't think that's an ideal subject for us to treat today. I think it is best we don't talk about that at the moment.
"Robin van Persie is a great player, we know that. It doesn't mean he has to score [against Arsenal on Wednesday]. It depends how we defend against him."
Van Persie scored on his return to Arsenal last season in a 1-1 draw and was roundly booed by the home support. The Dutch international had the last laugh however, winning the Premier League title in his maiden season at United.
Since his departure, Ozil has taken the mantle as the fulcrum of the Arsenal attacking threat however his recent downturn in form has coincided with a run of one win in the club's last three games, with the German coming in for criticism for his showing during the 5-1 loss to Liverpool.
However Wenger said: "Mesut Ozil? He was like everybody on Saturday - he was not in a good day. There's nobody really to ostracise from that game - we are just conscious we were not good enough.
"He didn't have the best of games, but that can happen. He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League and for me he is an exceptional player."


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- High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
- Conceived and designed by BEHRINGER Germany


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Zucchini can be watery and tasteless, or it can be delectable. The first step is choosing the right zucchini. Buy small ones, advises mbfant, who adds, "The larger it gets, the more water, more seeds, and less flavor it has."
If you sauté zucchini, it's best to cook it quickly over high heat, so it browns, say several hounds. "I find browning zukes to add a ton of great flavor!" exclaims scuzzo. Or marinate it, then grill. Hounds like to sauté zucchini with onions and/or garlic (add garlic at the end, so it doesn't burn), and top it with crumbled blue cheese, or Parmesan and lemon juice, or cilantro and lime juice. karykat likes this quick sauté of zucchini with toasted almonds.
It's also easy to make flavorful dishes incorporating grated zucchini. linguafood makes kolokithokeftedes, Greek zucchini fritters, by mixing grated zucchini with fresh mint, feta, a bit of flour and panko, and an egg. Drop into oil and fry until golden brown. "Dip into tsatsiki, and it's heaven," she says. LauraGrace makes an even simpler fritter: "A huge pile of grated zucchini with an egg and just enough flour to hold it together, salt and pepper, and maybe a bit of cayenne. Fry until very crispy and serve hot."
linguafood also likes it raw, sliced carpaccio-style, with feta and pine nuts. (Try CHOW's recipe.) paulj arranges the zucchini slices, along with sliced bell pepper and tomato, in a pool of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, saying, "It's an easy way to create a visually pleasing salad."
Board Link: Is zucchini worth eating? ;-)


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|You are in: Cricket: The Ashes: History
Wednesday, 16 October, 2002, 09:53 GMT 10:53 UK
Ashes History: 1970-2001
Australia have held the ascendancy in Ashes contests over the last 30 years and have dominated over the last decade.
England made a winning start to the 1970s, claiming a 2-0 victory under Ray Illingworth, with the pace of John Snow proving decisive.
Honours were even (2-2) in England in 1972 as bowlers - fast and spin - went to town.
Bob Massie's eight for 84 and eight for 53 on his debut for the tourists at Lord's was the pick of the bunch.
Australia regained the Ashes in emphatic fashion in 1974-75.
Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson tore into an ageing England batting line-up and the hosts won 4-1.
They also won in England that summer, as victory in the first Test was followed by three draws. Tony Greig succeeded Mike Denness as England skipper after an innings defeat at Edgbaston.
Controversy over Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket (WSC) saw Mike Brearley replace Greig in 1977. Geoff Boycott's recall and Ian Botham's call-up were key factors in England's 3-0 win.
With WSC robbing Australia of several stars, England romped to a 5-1 tour victory in 1978-79. A full-strength Aussie side gained a 3-0 revenge in 1979-80, but the Ashes were not at stake.
The next Ashes series in 1981 has gone down in cricketing legend as Ian Botham's finest hour, but it started badly for the all-rounder.
After 13 winless Tests as captain, he was replaced, after a loss and a draw, by Brearley.
England faced an innings defeat at Headingley in the third match, but Botham's 149 not out, and Bob Willis's eight for 43 sealed an unlikely victory.
Botham's bowling secured another win at Edgbaston, then a second innings 118 from 102 balls helped England triumph at Old Trafford for a 3-1 winning margin.
To and fro
The Ashes returned to Australian hands in 1982-83, with Geoff Lawson's 34 wickets and 469 runs from Kim Hughes (av 67.00) helping the home side to a 2-1 win.
Home advantage helped England, with skipper David Gower (732 runs) leading by example, take the 1985 Ashes series 3-1.
They retained them under Mike Gatting in 1986-87, winning 2-1 down under.
Chris Broad starred with three centuries in a series England dominated, taking a two match lead before losing the last Test in Sydney.
Border's team won 4-0 as England, under Gower, struggled with injuries, indifferent form and an unsettled line-up.
England were winless again in 1990-91 as Australia's fast bowlers thrived on home soil to deliver a 3-0 triumph.
Two years later, the Aussies delivered another three-match winning margin as mesmerising spin from Shane Warne (34 wickets) and solid batting right down the order secured a 4-1 triumph.
The run continued under Mark Taylor in 1994-95 as Australia continued to dominate England in all departments, winning 3-1.
Things were a lot closer in England in 1997 as the hosts hammered Australia in the first Test at Edgbaston.
But the tourists got into their stride, winning at Old Trafford, Headingley and Trent Bridge before England made it 2-3 at The Oval.
Australia ended the century with a 3-1 Ashes win in 1998-99, taking less than three days to wrap up the second Test by seven wickets.
And despite home hopes, the Australian's took their winning run to seven series with a 4-1 victory in England in 2001.
Steve Waugh's team dominated the series and, but for Mark Butcher's match-winning century at Headingley, would have celebrated a deserved "greenwash".
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South Africa's dams dropped by a marginal 0.7% last week following a persistent heat wave that engulfed most parts of the country since September.
A weekly report by the Department of Water and Sanitation released on 31 October showed that the levels dropped from 73.2% to 72.3% week on week. However, the figure is a vast improvement compared to 62.8% in the same period last year. With more rains expected during summer, the areas that experience summer rainfall will have more water to store in their reservoirs during the dry winter of 2019.
However, the department insists on every citizen continuing to save water by using it wisely and sparingly. At the moment the country has 23 440 cubic metres of water in storage. The total storage capacity for all dams and reservoirs combined is 32 320.8 cubic metres, including Swaziland and Lesotho.
The hydrology section of the department was informed by the South African Weather Services (SAWS) that the next three months would receive less-than-normal rainfall because of a weak El Nino phenomenon.
Meanwhile, citizens are advised to stay indoors as much as possible and drink lots of water to calm their bodies for the duration of the heatwave. For a quick dehydration drink, mix 6 level teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt into 5 cups (1 litre) of water. Coconut water is also great for rehydrating.
A heatwave occurs when a system of high atmospheric pressure moves into an area. In such a high-pressure system, air from upper levels of our atmosphere is pulled toward the ground, where it becomes compressed and increases in temperature.
Cape Town comes to grips with the heatwave
Cape Town had a heatwave during the last week of October. The extreme heat also affected the Cape Winelands, West Coast district, Little Karoo, southern Namakwa district and coastal regions of the Northern Cape. Maximum temperatures soared to the upper 30s and lower 40s in these regions. During high temperatures, citizens are warned against unnecessary exposure to the sun as this may result in dehydration and skin diseases.
Here is your weekly dam update:
- At 97.9%, Gauteng still leads other provinces with its dam levels, having dropped fractionally from 98% last week. It is followed by Free State with 83.3% and Northern Cape who recorded 78.3%.
- The Cape Town Dams System consisting of six dams serving mainly City of Cape Town this week is at 64.1%.
- The Eastern Cape Dam System is at 63.7% while KwaZulu-Natal sits at 58.8%.
Here are the latest dam percentages throughout the country:
For a more in-depth rainfall update, visit WeatherSA or click here. For more information on the water storage levels across the country, visit the DWS site. For a comprehensive drought status report from the Department of Water and Sanitation, click here.
Click here to Book Accommodation in Cradock, Graaf Reinett, Hofmeyer or surrounds.
Article source: https://albertonrecord.co.za/192941/water-wednesday-heatwaves-affecting-south-africas-dam-levels/


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A friend wanted to me to touch on the idea of suicide, so I decided that I would let my brain wander into the unknown. I don't condone this kind of action, but I'm sure we have all thought about a better place at one point or another.
is it a cop out how about we hop out of our bodies just for a second/
do we make the right choice we all know it's the devil that beckons/
or is it our time to go i know my mind will know when death becomes me so/
my life at times is slow as the knife draws bloods and those cuts do show/
but who will show that they care when the air is drawn from my wilting body/
as my body gets cold there goes my soul my heart my mind as i kill things softly/
but often our kind is misjudged but i have distruted this path i've chosen/
i shed societies mold when i was told at ten that my heart was molten/
that it had melted alongside the feelings i had about the life i had lead/
forcefed until i was confirmed dead mislead about the image i wish i could shed/
they even tried shock therapy and apparantly that didn't work as planned/
and made me take whatever they thought would cure what ails as my throat was crammed/
with pills with names i couldn't pronounce but they sure made me feel numb/
the doctors i wish i could grill them they didn't know that they will kill some/


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E-Commerce Executive
Lumina Datamatics Limited
— E-Commerce Executive About 1 year of work experience in the Online Retailing. My foray into Online Retail started with Datamatics eRetail & Publishing Limited in 2013 conceptualizing and creating an end to end ecommerce solution Development(Backend and frontend) Marketing, Business Intelligence and products Cataloging for an online retailer IVG-Stores(www.ivgstores.com) which are the one of the leading and fastest growing Internet Retailers with over 400 online stores. Apart from IVG-Stores, I have also worked for another online retailer such as Wal-Mart(www.walmart.com) which is the one of the world's largest Retailer helping them in data mining and product cataloging which help them to grow their online business and brand their presence in USA. Core Competencies: Proficient with E-commerce Content Management requirements. Catalog development. Production, Maintenance and Quality Assurance. Researching on products.(Collating details of products from internet) Quality analysis of information on product page. Vendor management.(SKUs, Backend pricing, Shipping) Capability of introducing creative and innovative techniques. Excellent logical thinking and problem solving abilities. Catalog Development: Includes normalizing data, content creation and moderation for products, mapping taxonomies to ensure 100% match. Creating product features, Ad-copy, attribution and image enhancement. Guiding online customers by providing appropriate alternatives and offering accessories and related items to the product. Cross-Selling and Up-Selling products.
Software Specialist
eClinicalWorks — present Software Specialist(Technical Account Manager) Core Competencies: Answering calls and assisting customers for their technical issues
University Of Mumbai
U.D University Of Mumbai


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I have opened up the "write post" window more times than I can count.
I have sat many times, with tired eyes, staring at a big blank box while the cursor blinked repeatedly reminding me of all the words that weren't being typed.
I have thought a lot about this place, this space where I've shared quite a bit of my life and all the people I've shared it with.
But I haven't written. Not much anyways.
I don't have a great excuse. There's be no traumatic event to rationalize my absence. No justification for all the comments that have gone without a response and no good defense for all of the posts I haven't read.
I'm at a crux of sorts and I really don't know what that means or what things will look like on the other side... or IF there is an other side for that matter.
All I know is that, for no good reason, I found myself reflecting on all I have shared, the stories, the pictures and so many fairly personal aspects of my life and I felt naked, exposed. I've received criticism, we all have, but this is different. This is the vulnerability that's always existed but only recently come to the forefront of my awareness and truthfully, it has silenced me.
That and life is busy as all get out.
Am I doing the wrong thing sharing? Is there a point? At some point in my 'professional' life, will it come back to bite me? Will my children resent that I've shared so many details of their lives? Will I regret writing... will I regret NOT writing?
I don't know. I just don't know.
What I do know is that I've missed this place and these people, the ones who keep coming back even when my voice is lost behind pinterest-friendly graphics and link-laden posts.
The point? I'm still here. I am here wandering around in the in-between. I am trying to navigate this insanely busy life while also sorting out what my life in blog-land might look like. Spoiler alert: I've not yet figured ANY of it out yet.
As I'm writing I'm resisting the strong urge to poll you, to see what you want from me... maybe this was my misstep from the beginning. Maybe trying to do and be all the things the internet tells you to be as a 'blogger' was too much. Maybe I need more time to figure out what this space is for me.. only, it's not like I'm rolling in spare time over here to work through all these things.
Anywho... HI and I'm okay (thank you, to you sweet and kind souls checking on me) I am just in a strange state of figuring out a lot of 'next steps'. I will get there.
In the meantime, treat each other with love and kindness, that's all the world needs right now


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Reviews - COFFIN BROTHERS 20th Birthday
John Clare
Thursday 23 June 2011
COFFIN BROTHERS 20th Birthday
Sound Lounge May 7
I had the feeling that tenor saxophonist Sean Coffin and pianist brother Greg had begun to get a little sick of my calling them Coffin Ed and grave Digger after the two Harlem detectives in the classic books by black American writer Chester Himes. If so, not surprising. I have been doing it for 20 years. But then, perhaps they have grown a little tired of bursting out of coffins like Screaming Jay Hawkins at the beginning of their shows! There's another joke they'll be a little tired of in twenty years time, in the event that I am still here to tell it.
The brothers have bands of their own and appear in a number of others, but they have kept this initially very good, now superb co-operative together for two decades. In my review of last year's Wangaratta Festival Of Jazz I nudged artistic director Adrian Jackson and strongly suggested that he put them on at this year's festival. We'll see. Drummer Simon Barker has been in there with the Coffins from the beginning and bassist Brett Hirst for the past ten years. Brett was preceded by Andy Attwood and Ashley Turner.
Once they were on stage at the Sound lounge, Sean repeated a lower mid-range note in a series of murmuring surges, with that glorious tone – so compact and full, so immaculately modulated – and Hirst played a little behind him; and for a moment I thought they were tuning up, although they sounded perfectly in tune already. The tenor notes were repeated again and Hirst played a powerful, dramatic figure, and I realised that they were under way. This was the leaping from the coffin opening in reverse (sorry, can't help myself), and it was wonderfully effective. An atmosphere had suddenly sprung up and everyone fell silent. Of course those notes were the beginning of This Much from their 2007 album Living in Apocalyptic Times. Greg and Barker joined the bass and tenor with a delicate rustle of textures and a flower-spray treble arppegio, and then they played a widely spaced chord and drum punctuation like a giant walking, and over this Sean unfolded sometimes grave and even mournful murmuring lines which rose to restrained peaks of passion replete with beautifully controlled overblowing, high burbles and rasps, and one clear high sustained hoot of such presence that all other sonic details disappeared for a moment. It was not loud, but magnetic, pure and thrilling.
The drum clattering, booming, hissing and gonging which rose and fell as the slow punctuation dropped away could only have been produced by the unique Simon Barker. His arms rarely rise high. He seems to press the sound beneath him, and it rises up around him.
Then it all stopped on a point of stillness. On the record it goes for six and a half minutes. This night it seemed to be there and gone. Perfect. This is a band.
The night before this performance I had heard an extraordinary set by the Mike Nock Trio with guest tenor saxophonist Karl Laskowski just after Nock had won the Bell Award and I had thought that anything would be an anti-climax after that. The Coffin Brothers set which ensued was a long way from that. The tunes were all distinctive in themselves and are also brilliant vehicles for improvisation. The dynamics of each piece and of the overall set were exemplary.
I noticed that on some tunes Sean seemed to have finished his solo and Greg to have begun, but Sean's lines continued softly behind the piano, which turned out to be a brilliant interlude within Sean's solo.When Greg finally took off in a full blown piano solo it was a rushing torrent, many layered, brilliantly articulated (he is one of Australia's leading pianists), stretching the great rhythm section out tight until it humjed and finally inspiring them to break up the time with crashing accents across the rhythm.
When the Bros played the title piece of their latest album – Living In Apocalyptic Times, to jog your memory – the angularity and force reminded me of all the natural and political upheavals and catastrophes that have since occured. Well, there are always upheavals and catastrophes, but this has been a remarkable run, and I am not surprised that, as I write, someone has predicted the end of the world (noon tomorrow). Still, there is also in this piece the curious blithe detachment that you often hear in the most intense, racing bop.
It has been fascinating to follow the development, as a band and as individuals in many contexts, of these brilliant musicians. I hope to hear them at Wangaratta if we are still here. Incidentally, the world will end – possibly next week and possibly in five billion years when the sun explodes. Who will be saying 'nya nya nya' then eh?


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In all the excitement surrounding Ridley's Scott Alien prequel changing forms and morphing into a spinoff project titled Prometheus, it's easy to forget that the filmmaker is still attached to bring Hasbro's Monopoly board game to the big screen in the future.
Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner recently provided an update on G.I. Joe 2 and now he's spoken out about the Monopoly adaptation as well, assuring us that Scott is still actively involved in development of the project.
Golder spoke to MTV about Scott's board game movie and had the following to offer:
"'Monoploy' is still happening, and we're developing a great story. It's a very fun take. Ridley is still the perfect creative steward, because he creates these great, fictionalized worlds. It's going to be a very fun story to tell."
The Hasbro executive went on to emphasize that Monopoly would not be a timely satire that seeks to skewer the contemporary financial landscape. He also emphasized multiple times the pic would not be Scott's answer to Oliver Stone's Wall Street, insisting that:
"['Monopoly' is] a very human and personal story... It's a fictionalized story of a family, and there's a lot of intrigue in the story. Suffice it to say, it's a story about a family with a history, and we're projecting that into current times... It's more about property ownership and of the play-pattern of the game."
Scott raised a few eyebrows last year when he spoke about his Monopoly project, indicating that it would be more a biting satirical piece about the current real estate market than anything else. He also cited the following as his motivation for becoming involved with the picture in the first place:
"I wanted to just make a movie about the idea of greed. I told [Hasbro] you know your game can turn your sweetest, dearest aunt into a demon -- a nightmare of greed. So that's what we're going to do."
There's (to put it mildly) a distinct difference in tone between what Goldner and Scott have now said about the Monopoly movie, but that's to be expected. Scott is quite capable of raising provocative and mind-tickling issues in his films, so he'd naturally be inclined to make something creative out of what little narrative material there is to the original Monopoly board game. Goldner, on the other hand, probably has less interest in turning the game into Glengarry Glen Ross 2.
James Cameron has openly criticized Hollywood's decision to turn to commercial products like board games for story material, citing Battleship as a particularly egregious example. So long as Scott remains involved with the Monopoly adaptation, though, the film should be much more than the equivalent of feature-length cinematic plug for the Hasbro product. Take that as you will.
We'll keep you posted on the development of Scott's Monopoly movie as more information is released.
Source: MTV


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I have to hand it to Staples for attempting to make a variety of their house brand pens to accommodate different tastes. In this case we have a .5 tip (small for many brands), and a needle point. I'm glad to see needle points become more prevalent as I tend to like these more than conical point pens.
I think the barrel, overall, looks somewhat like a Uniball Vision Elite.
The grip will likely remind you of a Pilot Precise, but it has a grippy material that is quite nice and comfortable to hold. The grip material is the type that does attract dust and debris but, because the pen is capped, it is not as likely to look dirty like many retractable pens do that utilize the spongy rubber material.
Not a bad design on the clip; it's functional, but does feel fairly fragile. So, what about the writing performance?
Not bad at all, but there are other, more superior options than this. I always like to try and support the underdog but, more often than not, they can not provide a better value than the big names, which is exactly the case with this offering.
At any rate, if house brands start to compete with the big name brands, it goes to show that they are listening to what people want and making the effort to win our money. At the very least, it worked on me.


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I received an invitation this morning to attend an event for university and college staff, who teach HE awards, which seeks to explain the changes that will be introduced in schools as a result of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). The event will take place on 15 May and will explain the changes in learning and assessment that are taking place and how these changes will effect the students who will be coming to universities and colleges in the future. Although the event covers all STEM subjects, the afternoon workshop is specific to Computing Science.
It sounds like a good event. Your SQA Co-ordinator should have received an e-mail about it, with details of the programme, but you can find out more by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com or book directly here.


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Have you ever tried to find computer generated art on the internet. It is kind of interesting in that there are various styles. Like POV Ray stuff, which is nice if you want photo realistic images. Then on the other end you have people with very abstract art, or my least favorite, crap created with Bryce 3d or WinFract. I really hate the last 2 since the person pretty much tries to color something in some meaningful fashion. It usually ends up looking like crap. Granted I found those programs interesting to play with, but in 10 years I have moved on. Personally I don't like the abstract art, but that is a preference. I like some of the POV Ray stuff mostly because I like realism. One thing I ran across when searching was more of an impressionist style of computer art. Some of the pictures seem to be very similar, but there are a bunch. I personally like this one of a bunch of cat tails, I think I like it because of the colors.There are some other images that I found but on a different site, that look like nice abstract landscapes and I find it pleasing. Below are both of the sites if you are interested:
John Art
Generative Art
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Posted by Andrew Webster at 7:43 PM
Labels: art, art for sale, computer generated art, random art
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Pedro 123 "OH"
London-based DJ/producer Pedro 123 is back with his new OH EP for B.YRSLF Division. The record is simple and effective, featuring only one original tune and one remix from Paris-based artist Prince Jean. Featured here, Pedro 123's title track is a mellow, half-time jam that boasts soft Rhodes and heavy percussion, which he tops with airy and sultry vocals. You can download the b-side of this EP, Prince Jean's spacious and textural remix, at no cost, here.


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This is a direct posting from the Steam News Feed for Mugen Souls.
The big day has arrived and Mugen Souls a PS3 JRPG from Idea Factory creators of the best selling Agarest series, Hyperdimension Neptunia and Fairy Fencer F. Mugen Souls has been released. Mugen Souls is priced at just $19.99, with a stunning 40% launch discount which will last until the 29th October.
– Posted by Ghostlight LTD
Other Links


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UPDATE (7:30PM EDT): Found out that hydraulic testing is on at 11 PM tonight and prep work in for those tests are on going.
Jon Ostrower just Tweeted that it appears that hydraulic testing on ZA001 is getting under way.
I do believe that ZA001 is still all alone at the fuel dock which I believe that first engine start is very close to taking place over the next couple of days. There probably won't be any other aircraft around when that happens (Boeing acting out of an abundance of caution).
Thursday, May 14, 2009
787 update
Posted by Uresh at 7:03 PM
Labels: 787, 787 Flight Test, 787-8, Dreamliner 1, LN 1, ZA001
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October 2013
Esri Developer Summit Europe
When: November 11–13, 2013
Where: London, United Kingdom
Register Today
Esri Developer Summit—Middle East and Africa
When: November 19–21, 2013
Where: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Register Today
Why Attend?
Learn about the latest geospatial development techniques, see Esri's latest technology and find out what's coming next, and talk with Esri developers and your peers.
This November, Esri will bring the expertise and excitement of the Esri Developer Summit (DevSummit) to London and Dubai. Kristina Weis, Esri digital marketing coordinator of developer products, recently spoke to Jim Barry, program manager of the Esri Developer Network, about DevSummit Europe and DevSummit Middle East and Africa. She asked him what these events will offer to developers and others interested in geospatial technology.
Weis: Why is Esri taking the DevSummit on the road to London and Dubai?
Barry: We've hosted the Esri International Developer Summit in Palm Springs, California, for the past eight years. This event has grown every year and been very successful. We've gotten a lot of requests from developers in Europe and the Middle East who said they wanted a DevSummit closer to home. We brought a DevSummit series to Europe last year that went well. But we received feedback that developers wanted a more in-depth experience rather than those single-day events. So now, each event will be for three days and include user presentations, Lightning Talks, and many other types of sessions.
Weis: Who should attend?
Barry: Four groups will really get a lot of value out of it:
Weis: What can a developer expect to get out of the DevSummits?
Barry: They will see firsthand the current and future capabilities of Esri technology and the ArcGIS platform. They also will learn what it can do, how to obtain it, and how to use it themselves.
At the same time, we give them access to the people who built the technology. They can meet with the engineers face-to-face and ask them questions. By meeting with the Esri developers, they also will have direct input and influence into how technology continues to develop.
There are also a lot of networking opportunities. They meet us, we meet them, and they meet each other. They will make connections that are productive, build alliances, find common ground, and get ideas from each other.
We'll also have optional hands-on training sessions before both summits on JavaScript and Python. Those will help you get up to speed.
Weis: Who are some of the speakers from Esri who will present at sessions?
Barry: We send the key engineers, development leads, and product managers who build and determine where the technology will go in the future. Besides making presentations, they will talk to attendees and answer their questions. They hear from and get feedback from the most sophisticated users of the software they're building. The presenters will include the following:
We'll also have many other presenters who are developers and engineers who build apps and APIs for the ArcGIS platform such as for location analytics, 3D, and many other technology components.
Weis: Will all the presentations be by Esri staff?
Barry: Not at all. We call this a summit and not a conference because "summit" represents all of us coming together to talk and share information. User presentations are a big part of the DevSummit, and they're very popular. There will be 30-minute tech presentations and 5-minute Lightning Talks from the community.
Weis: What if someone would like to present at the DevSummits?
Barry: When this publishes, we'll still be looking for 5-minute Lightning Talk presenters for the DevSummits in London and Dubai. To be considered, someone just needs to create a slidedeck and title for their talk, and e-mail that to email@example.com.
Weis: Will attendees see any new Esri technology at the DevSummits?
Barry: Yes. We will demonstrate the following:
Weis: Are there any new sessions you're excited about?
Barry: For the first time, we will host a session on managing big data in your GIS using GIS Tools for Hadoop. There also will be a session on building apps with ArcGIS Runtime SDKs that have disconnected offline capabilities.
Weis: What types of development languages and environments will there be sessions about?
Barry: JavaScript, .NET, iOS, Mac OS, Java, Flex, and a few other popular ones.
Weis: How many developers do you expect to attend?
Barry: About 500 in London and 300 in Dubai.
Registration is open now for both events. We'd love to see you there, so please register here for Europe and here for the Middle East and Africa.


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It is Poiters undone...
All of the former victories against Islam must be forgotten. Poiters, Jerusalem, the Reconquesta, Lepanto, Vienna, all undone. Birth control, abortion, the "ME" generations of the "60s", and the left have conspired against God and Christianity to hand us over the the Muslim. Forbid it almighty God! Deliver us from evil of Islam.
This video is 2 years old yet nothing has changed, so goodbye to Canada and the France of my ancestors; goodbye Britain, goodbye Holland, Germany, Belguim, Italy, Greece. Goodbye. Our souls for pleasure were given up.
1 comment:
Fear not my Catholic friend. The coming Kingdom of France shall rule the world and put a final end to all the heresy and paganism. Would you happen to know where I can get a counter revolution flag? I want to fly it on July 14 this year and probably just every day
- May 18, 2010 at 11:43 PM
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O'Neill Stairlifts offers Made in The U.S.A. Straight Stairlifts, Curved Stairlifts, Outdoor Stairlifts, Stair Chairs and Stairclimbers, Vertical Platform Lifts, Exterior Wheelchair Lifts, Wheelchair Lifts by Bruno and Harmar in Maryland, Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and all surrounding areas.
Call today for FREE In Home Consultation
30 years of reliable and quality service
O'Neill Stairlifts wants to be your first choice for stair lift installation and service in Maryland, DC and Virginia. More important than shopping for which model, is choosing a quality vendor like us. For over 20 years we have only sold this type of equipment and installed it according to the safety standards for elevators. The internet has opened a "Pandora's Box" of confusion for families and individuals in search of stair climbing assistance.
Direct sellers suggest this is like buying a home computer and just plugging it in with effortless installation. Others claiming installation send inexperienced installers from afar and try to service you from a hundred or a thousand miles away.
Most people need an experienced, reliable local (MD, DC, VA) dealer to assist them choosing the best fit and best value stair lift model for individual needs and stair space. O'Neill's quality local support brings you safe, industry trained installation and service at your doorstep.


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A lovely mix of white pearls and vibrant fuchsia pink Malaysian jade facetted beads make this a great addition to anyone's necklace collection.
I've used a white irregular shape pearl (7mm) mixed with different size jade beads (8mm and 6mm) along with a small glass spacer bead inbetween. The strong pink and white colours give this necklace a beautiful fresh look and the facetted jade beads catch the light perfectly.
A smart look which makes this a lovely necklace to wear on any occasion.
The necklace is finished with a sterling silver clasp and a bracelet and earrings can also be made up - just contact me for details.


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Myanmar security forces admit participating in killing of 10 Rohingya
Myanmar security forces took part in a massacre of 10 Rohingya in September, the army chief's office said late Wednesday, as it admitted for the first time abuses during a crackdown that sparked a mass exodus of the Muslim minority.
The massacre took place on 2 September in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine state, the Facebook post said, as tensions escalated, pitting Rohingya against security forces and ethnic Rakhine locals following the killing of a Rakhine man.
"Some villagers from Inn Din village and security members confessed they killed 10 Bengali terrorists," the office said in its post, using a pejorative term for Rohingya and blaming militants for causing the unrest in the village.
The post also gave the first confirmation of a mass Rohingya grave inside Rakhine state following an army-led crackdown on militants from the minority group in late August.
Refugees who have fled in their hundreds of thousands to neighbouring Bangladesh have given consistent accounts of massacres, rape and torture by Myanmar security forces flanked by ethnic Rakhine mobs.
Those allegations, which have been cross-checked by media and rights groups, have seen Myanmar accused of ethnic cleansing by the US and UN and prompted questions over whether the crackdown may have amounted to genocide.
But Myanmar's army has until now staunchly rebutted allegations of misconduct, clearing itself of any wrongdoing in an internal probe.
In its account of the Inn Din massacre, the army chief's office said security forces captured 10 Rohingya militants before killing them as violence engulfed the village and its surrounding area.
"Action will be taken according to the law against villagers who were involved and security members who broke the Rules of Engagement," the post added.
Much of Myanmar's Buddhist-majority population supports the army in what it calls a justified campaign against Rohingya militants, after their attacks on border guard police killed about a dozen people last August. (AFP)
Related articles on Qantara.de:
Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya: Existentially naked
Interview with Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch: "An utter failure of moral leadership"


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Mon, 28 April 2014
CT returns this week along with frequent Fourth Chair Soldier Robert Zerbe from To the Escape Hatch. In their first ever "Nerd Lunch Theater," the crew puts on a show as CT takes on the persona of Ned N. Lurch, the idiot stepson of a famous movie studio executive. Ned has managed to convince ol' stepdad to give him a shot at producing a big budget movie. In an effort to make sure this project fails, Ned is set up with three consultants who have been instructed to feed ideas into the project that will turn this into the "worst movie ever." Nerd To-Dos this week includes a whole bunch of stuff, but most importantly a rather lengthy sidebar about Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Direct download: NerdLunch_129_Worst-Movie-Ever.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:00pm EDT
Mon, 21 April 2014
CT is away once again this week, but luckily Pax and Jeeg are able to contact Jay from The Sexy Armpit on the Sludgephone. On the docket for this week is a discussion of some of the worst things the nerds have been subjected to by their significant others. The gang is all here: rom-coms, costume dramas, boy bands, quaint weekend destinations, and regionally popular card games. Our Nerd To-Dos include Captain America 2, the Bates Motel, and more Veronica Mars.
Direct download: NerdLunch_128_KillMeNow.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:00pm EDT
Tue, 15 April 2014
CT is out this week so Pax and Jeeg invite Jon Cross from the After Movie Diner to come discuss the Donnie Yen Ip Man movies. We talk about our favorite fights and favorite characters. We even discuss all the other Ip Man movies that have come out due to the popularity of the Donnie Yen movies. Nerd to Dos include the new Captain America movie, Arrow and Fringe.
Direct download: Nerd_Lunch_Episode_127_-_Ip_Man_movies.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT
Mon, 14 April 2014
Saved for posterity here on Nerd Lunch, Carlin Trammel and Mark Dury host a look back at five years of The Atomic Geeks. This show features some of the greatest clips from one of the best podcasts of all time.
Direct download: Ep_250_-_Retrospective_Clip_Show_Extravaganza.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm EDT
Tue, 8 April 2014
In the early part of March 2014, Atlanta was shaken to its core when the Nerd Lunch Podcast crew all met together in person for the first time. Also joined by Shawn Robare (Branded in the 80s) and Jaime Hood (Shezcrafti) of the Cult Film Club Podcast, the fearsome five recorded a podcast. Hear a report about the escapades of the crew during the visit in Atlanta and then follow that up by listening to them talk about what they are looking forward to seeing, smelling and doing this summer!
Direct download: NerdLunch_126_Nerd-Lunch-ATL.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 1:05am EDT
Tue, 1 April 2014
Michael DiGiovanni wraps up our Atomic Weeks theme month by joining us for a drill down on breakfast cereals. As part of our balanced breakfast, we catch up with DiGio a bit and get details on the upcoming 250th episode of The Atomic Geeks podcast. Then we cover our all time favorite cereals, highlight some of weirdest and worst, discuss the best and worst cereal mascots, and then pitch a pop-culture themed cereal for a property that never had one. Along the way we make copious use of the awesome resource that is Mr. Breakfast. Our Nerd To-Dos feature The Wire, a double helping of Fringe, the Clone Wars cartoon, and the New Adventures of He-Man.
Direct download: NerdLunch_125_DrillDown_Cereals.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:00am EDT


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As you see, I rotated the sketch and moved the main panel a bit aside.:P
Thank you for stopping by!
** Supplies **
This is just too cute Torico...
love the way your coloured him up and your layout is just perfect....
I love it Torico! Such a fab take on that sketch - gotta give it a try!ReplyDelete
Oh this is one adorable card! You colored the clown so beautifully! Thanks for playing along with us at Card Patterns.ReplyDelete
Oh what a gorgeous card! Love that clown image.


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Completion of the class XII boards brings a load of decision making. Students enroll for various prestigious institutions offering courses which they aspire to pursue. But what factors do they keep in mind while choosing their subjects or changing their previous stream? How much of it is parental or peer pressure? Does economic forces of the current market structure factor in? Or merely the zeal to pursue a stream forms the primary reason? Questions are numerous but answers are varied and subjective.
However it is always certain that a particular force is not at work single handedly. A student decides according to his or her will added with a combination of the future prospects while choosing the stream of their graduation, colleges they get into and what they specialize in, distance of an institution sometimes factors along with monetary status which plays a role especially while pursuing medical in non governmental institutions.
However following the recent trend we see a massive percentage going for technical streams like engineering or architecture. While others choose build their career in scholastic discipline or experiment with vocational courses after sorting through a wide range of career alternatives. These factors are influenced by a primary decision of choosing a suitable stream in class 12 to ensure that they are able to join the stream of their choice when they oft for graduation.
Further, outside the ambit of schools and colleges, enthusiastic students can take up courses in fashion technology, jewellery design, aviation, radio jockey or numerous other occupations which secures an entry into the job market without delay. There are numerous options provided students secure good marks to pursue a course of their choice while factoring these external possibilities.