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Cross-machine communication
Lenze Knowledge #8
The whitepaper OMAC PackML provides an insight into the topic of cross-machine communication based on standardized information models (PackML). It explains what lies behind the term PackML and how the standard is structured, but above all it focuses on the benefit argumentation from the user's point of view. Real examples from Procter & Gamble, Velux and Arla Foods show the advantages of using PackML from the end user's point of view. The examples of Mettler Toledo and the ProMach Group illustrate how machine manufacturers also benefit from the use of PackML. The mentioned references and testimonials can be used in daily sales work.
Business Models for Industry 4.0
Lenze Knowledge #7
As digitalization progresses, new doors are constantly opening to customers, processes and data that were previously closed, or at least could not be used economically until now. Who doesn't dream of the disruptive business model with which the market is conquered and which leaves the competition left behind astonished.
But it's not that simple. A good portion of luck is needed to get there. In addition, success is based on a combination of a fundamental understanding of the success factors of innovation, organizational skills and hard, small-scale work, which places learning progress in the foreground and not the achievement of target figures. This whitepaper establishes the relation between these topics and brings the hyped topic "new business models" back to the ground of mechanical engineering reality.
Industry 4.0 speaks OPC UA
Lenze Knowledge #6
There is no industry 4.0 topic without communication, all assets –devices, modules and machines– are communicating in all directions. And again and again you hear OPC UA.
But what is behind it? Where does it come from? And what is it good for?
The whitepaper answers all these questions and also explains why OPC UA is more than just another fieldbus system.
The Digital Twin
Lenze Knowledge #5
Mechanical engineering is subject to constant time and cost constraints. Meeting deadlines, ensuring compliance with agreed-upon specifications, and making last-minute software adjustments during commissioning with the customer breathing down one's neck. When problems occur, it is often the case that multiple attempts are required before the prototype fully complies with customer requirements. But when this happens, the cost estimate goes out of the window. Digital engineering provides a way out of this dilemma.
Today, a wide variety of highly specialized software tools are already in use to develop, simulate, distribute or manage machines. However, many of the available solutions are still isolated solutions and in many places a continuous digital process chain is missing. The whitepaper accompanies a robot through the complete product life cycle and uses various examples to explain the vision behind the digital twin and the benefits it promises in the very different phases.
Cloud computing in mechanical engineering
Lenze Knowledge #4
As part of the Digital Transformation Cloud Computing is on everyone's lips - but what exactly is it and how can the OEM benefit from it?
The Whitepaper provides detailed basic knowledge about cloud computing and the associated service models. It shows the advantages for the OEM and gives tips on how the implementation can be simplified. The paper looks at the risks and pitfalls cloud users might face, helps choosing the right cloud model and details the different billing methods. It's a hands-on approach on cloud in the production process and delivers many concrete examples on how the cloud enables progress through data analysis and processing.
The software dilemma in mechanical engineering
Lenze Knowledge #3
Digitalization is changing mechanical engineering drastically. The complexity of machines as well as the degree of individualization are increasing and new services and business models are developing. Therefore the software effort is increasing exponentially. This calls for new ways and means to make programming more effective.
However, additional specialist know-how alone is not the answer. In order to benefit from modern design methods, the organization of processes has to change. The Whitepaper explains in a hands on way which aspects of the status quo pose problems and shows how mechanical engineering can develop further. It focusses on the fast adaptation of machines to the requirements of customers, on how to make the design process more efficient by using agile methods as well as on the question of how to assure consistent quality in software development.
Functional Safety
Lenze Knowledge #2
Machine safety regulations determine that the OEM must guarantee the safety of a person, machine and the environment throughout the entire life cycle (and all operating modes). If the management does not follow suit, it is liable for the consequences - possibly even with private assets.
There are many duties to be exercised which are determined by numerous laws and guidelines. The Whitepaper provides an overview of the legal requirements, gives tips on the implementation and consequences of non-compliance. The paper also deals with the interaction of safety and security. While the two topics used to be often seen as opposites, Safety and Security have now become close "sisters" which both need to be considered and executed conjointly. The paper also looks at opportunities that arise from Functional Safety. Three concrete examples show how security pays off directly. For those who want to look into the matter more deeply the paper provides a list of interesting literature, which -along with norms and guidelines- include particularly important interpretation papers.
The digital challenge
Lenze Knowledge #1
Our first Whitepaper pragmatically describes the steps you must take to master digitalisation. It also takes account of the fact that the transition from traditional product management to innovation management also requires adjustments in the corporate structure and the corporate culture. The white paper also includes basic technical information, it clarifies the way the different issues are connected, gives tips on overcoming obstacles, and makes suggestions for further reading.
The Whitepaper is primarily addressed to company directors and those responsible for management.


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Peerless Cars Limited was a British automaker only in business for a few years during which they built around 325 GTs using the Triumph TR3's drivetrain wrapped in a sexy fiberglass body. This is what it's like to race one today.
The latest story from Petrolucious is about a father who is really happy to see his son continue racing with the same car he used to drive for all those years. Yet a 1959 Peerless GT is not what you would call an ideal racer.
It's heavier than it should be, and with barely more than 300 ever built, it's on the rare side too.
Than again, people race one-offs and prototypes at Goodwood all the time, and a late-fifties British sports car really only makes sense driven properly. By men wearing gloves.
Photo credit: HHA124L

subset: commoncrawl


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Worst of the Worst: 2011-12 Bobcats vs. 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ersApril 27, 2012
Count the Charlotte Bobcats as supporters of the NBA's lockout-shortened 66-game schedule. The franchise and its fans couldn't be put out of their misery soon enough.
In honor of their woeful achievement in finishing with a record of 7-59 and winning just 10.6 percent of their games, the worst winning percentage in NBA history, we decided to pit the Bobcats against the team they "overtook," the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. That squad finished with a 9-73 record and won just 11 percent of their games. Using our NBA simulation engine, we "played" the Bobcats and 76ers against each other 1,001 times, calculating win percentage and average points scored.
|2011-12 Bobcats vs 1972-73 76ers
|Avg Score
|Charlotte Bobcats
|Sample Boxscore
|vs Philadelphia 76ers
|Simulate Matchup
After 1,001 simulations, the Bobcats fell to 76ers 54.3 percent of the time, further solidifying their candidacy for the title of the worst team in NBA history. While it's hard to proclaim Philadelphia held any advantage–really, how can a roster with a 9-73 record assert any type of authority–it appears the 76ers benefited from a higher-scoring offense, as Philly averaged 104.1 points per game in their ill-fated season.
Granted, the environment in the game was a different beast back in the day, as Philadelphia's scoring figure would lead the league in 2012. Alas, the Sixers' scoring trio of Fred Carter, John Block and Tom Van Arsdale, all of whom averaged between 17.7 and 20.0 points per game that season, proved to be the difference in this battle of the beleaguered, as the Bobcats simply lacked the offensive firepower to match their destitute foes. Charlotte countered with leading scorer Gerald Henderson, who averaged just 15.1 points per game.
As a team, the Bobcats managed a league-worst 87.0 points per game in the 2011-12 season. Defensively, they were only slightly better, surrendering 100.8 points per game, the fourth-highest total in the NBA. It should come as no surprise that the Bobcats gave up nearly the same figure, 101.0 points per game, in the simulation.
|NBA's Worst
|Charlotte Bobcats
|Philadelphia 76ers
|Providence Steam Rollers
|Dallas Mavericks
|Denver Nuggets
Very little went right for the Bobcats this season. The ineptitude included one stretch from January 16 to February 15 in which they lost 16 consecutive matches. But the grand finale began after a win against the Toronto Raptors on March 17, their last victory of the season. Since that time, the Bobcats have been on the losing end in their final 23 games, tied for the third-longest losing streak in league history.
Speaking of 23, Michael Jordan earns the distinction of having been involved with both the best and worst teams in NBA history. While with the Chicago Bulls during the 1995-96 season, Jordan led the team to an NBA-record 72 victories, an 87.8 win percentage and a championship over the Seattle SuperSonics. Now as owner of the Bobcats, Jordan is largely responsible for assembling the players, coaches and management that submitted the worst season to date.
So what's next for the Bobcats? Unfortunately, having 13 fewer wins than the next worst team, the 19-46 Washington Wizards, does not ensure the franchise any additional ping pong balls in the 2012 NBA draft lottery.
Technically, the Bobcats will have a 25 percent chance of claiming the No. 1 pick. However, if past lotteries are any indication (the NBA instituted the weighted lottery system in 1990), the Bobcats' odds are even lower than that. The team with the worst record has won the lottery only three out of 22 years, or 13.6 percent of the time. In other words, if the Bobcats are hoping to add Kentucky phenom Anthony Davis to the roster, they should brace for more disappointment.


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Sanctity in God
The followers of the path towards perfection from the beginning of their journey until the point where they reach final peace witness a great deal which must remain hidden from the eyes and hearts of the earth-bound inhabitants of the material world, and a consideration of these states and stations would be beyond the scope of the present article. What is important here is the question of sanctity in God (Wilayat-Ilahi).
When the travellers on the spiritual path reach the stage of Divine Unity and enter into the proximity of God, they let go totally of what they had possessed up to that time, for they have come to know that everything belongs to God.
They give up the false claim of "owning" things and of being independent in this ownership. It is then that an indescribable tranquility and repose comes over them and they are released absolutely from all pain, fear and sorrow.
"Lo! those who say: Our Lord is Allah, and afterward are upright, the angels descend upon them saying: Fear not nor grieve, but hear good tidings of the paradise which ye are promised. We are your protecting friends in the life of the world and in the Hereafter." (Qur'an 41: 30-31).
Lo! verily the friends of Allah [those who possess sanctity, wilayah] are (those) on whom fear (cometh) not, nor do they grieve." (Qur'an 10: 63).
It is at this point that worldly joys, sorrows, successes and failures appear to them as all the same, and having found a new existence they view the world and all that it contains in a new light.
"His he who was dead and We have raised him unto life, and set for him a light wherein he walketh among men, as him whose similitude is in utter darkness?" (Qur'an 6:122).
And in the end they and everything they possess belongs to God, and God to them: "Whoso is near to God, God is nigh unto him."


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Report: Paulus to SyracusePosted by nvr1983 on April 23rd, 2009
After weeks of speculation about where he would end up (Michigan? Duke? Green Bay?!?), it appears that former Duke point guard Greg Paulus has made a decision about where he will be playing next year. The former Gatorade National High School Football Player of the Year has decided to go from the hardwood of Cameron Indoor Stadium for the FieldTurf of the Carrier Dome next year. [Ed. Note: Interestingly Cameron Indoor, which is well known for its small size and the heat that Dick Vitale whines about on every telecast, has air-conditioning. The Carrier Dome (as in the HVAC company) does not.]
Unlike at Duke where he lost his starting point guard job as a senior, Paulus (a native of Manlius, NY just outside of Syracuse) will likely step into a position where he should compete for the starting spot on a team that went 3-9 last year, but did manage to win at Notre Dame (one of the colleges that recruited Paulus as a QB out of high school). Although Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone named Ryan Nassib as his starting QB less than a month ago, I think Marrone may let a National High School Football Player of the Year compete for the job.
Assuming that Paulus enrolls at Syracuse, it raises an interesting question of how Syracuse (a basketball school even during the days of Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison) will embrace one of the most despised players in college basketball. Based on their wholesale acceptance of Eric Devendorf, I think the fans at Syracuse will take to Paulus, who is less demonstrative (and doesn't have any accusations of violence against women to his name) especially if he can make their football team respectable again.
Bonus Question: How many games will Paulus play at QB before he gets sacked and someone performs a mock tea-bagging? I'm going with game #2 at Penn State on September 12th. Fortunately, I don't see anybody on the Syracuse schedule that is a big enough rival of Syracuse to have a repeat of this.


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Really, you didn't see it??
Okay, so my disgruntledness is making a brief appearance. I am not typically the kind of architect who conceives of crazy, esoteric designs. But I understand, and respect from an artistic point of view, those who do. Sometimes it helps to keep your theoretical viewpoint sharp, but it's not practical. Usually I just look at the designs and sigh, or laugh. But this one really has me ticked.
MVRDV, a dutch firm, has created a design for two towers in Korea. If you are worth your architecture salt, then you have see these already on the news or on some blog you follow – so it should be a review. But in case you haven't, I feel the need to post these for consideration. The towers are under international scrutiny and criticism because they resemble the NYC Twin Towers…and not in their architectural hey day, but at the very point when two planes hit and destroyed them and their inhabitants on 9/11. MVRDV has claimed that they did not see the resemblance at all in their design, but critics the world over are questioning their design savvy and their responsibility as architects if they were so blind to the implications. I agree with the critics, except one, who for some reason thinks that architecture may embody whatever ideal it wants for the sake of art…Washington Post architecture critic, Phil Kennicot says:
"The controversy seems part of a larger cultural effort to make the events of September 11, 2001 somehow sacred, to use the meaning of the terrorist attack for larger, more overbearing cultural control. So now it is being deployed against contemporary architecture, not because there is anything inherently offensive in this design (which may or may not be an intentional reference to 9/11), but because the emotions generated by the attack have been co-opted by one part of the political and cultural spectrum.
Architects have long been exploring ways to turn buildings inside out, to peel away their external skin, to represent them as if melting or hurtling through space. The metaphor to "explode" a building might well be used as a positive architectural value, to open up space, break down formal strictures, allow multiple points of access. So even if the Dutch design firm, MVRDV intended a reference to 9/11, there's no reason that reference should be read as mocking or ironic. It might easily be seen as an effort to freeze frame a traumatic event, in architectural form, and neutralize its shock and pain."
Really? Am I the only one having trouble seeing where common sense is apart of this critique? I am all about exploring form and metaphor, but really guys, sometimes there is a line that ought naught be crossed. Not because it is done intentionally or because there may be an opportunity for exploration, but because of the basic dignities granted to humanity. It's not necessary, find a different version of this form and metaphor, its just a question of being sensitive. Architects have a responsibility to people as well as art. Art should never supercede the experience of your user, at least that's my opinion. You may disagree.


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'christmas' tag.
This essay is going to be a bit jarring for some of you.
There are a lot of things we do at churches that would be foreign to the church Jesus started:
- Youth Groups
- Choirs and Bell Choirs
- Men's Ministry
- Receptionists and Offices
- Robes and Liturgy
- Ordination
- Christian Counseling
- Christian Schools
- Cantatas
- Full-time Ministry People
Now please hear me; all of these things can be good things. They're just not essential to what church is, or Jesus would have at least mentioned that we might try them.
The problem is, glance at that list again and you'll see that these "markers" have become the very distinctives of church life. We assume that church is about doing them and promoting them.
So here's a question: Does Jesus want our churches to have food banks?
It seems assumed by all, that charity work is the essential work of the church. But is that true?
Now, before you think that I'm some kind of anti-poor-people wingnut, let me go on record by saying that I believe that it is the responsibility of any society to feed its:
- Widows and Orphans
- Disabled Veterans
I would add children to that list, since children are poor through no fault of their own.
I would also add that there are times of famine throughout the world, and that the Christians have been and should be at the point of the spear in responding. The Apostle Paul gathered an offering for the upcoming famine in Jerusalem.
Able bodied men (and women) should be working. And families should be the first line of defense. Solve the family problem and you solve the hunger problem. Divorce shreds the fabric of extended families and real people fall through the cracks.
It seems obvious to me, also, that most of the panhandlers in our midst (at least in the US) are mentally ill. We used to institutionalize them. I still think we should. For their own good, and out of love for our neighbors who can't make their own good decisions.
I think it'd be a great idea for you to have a food bank at your church, especially if you feel led by the Lord to do so. We don't have one. Not out of principle, but because we don't feel led by God to do so, at least at this point. We work hard to empower single women who were considering abortions, usually because of poverty, to make a path toward sustainable life: http://hisnestingplace.org It's what we feel called to do and we hope it's helping.
The truth is, however, that much charity work (giving a man a fish) actually reinforces poverty, rather than teaching a man to fish. Giving to a panhandler (which I sometimes do and can't explain why) rewards begging. And we all know that begging and more giving to beggars is not the answer to the problem of poverty, so why reinforce it?
I am struck and saddened by the level of obesity of those waiting in food lines in the USA. Many going back home to cable TV. Many of whom smoke while in line. There is a food bank across the street from my house, behind the library, and a bus stop just feet from my door. Much food gets left behind at the bus stop (stuff they decided not to keep). More than you think, as you picture it.
Let's discuss, as responses to this essay, ways to end poverty. I believe that it is possible. Jesus said "the poor will always be with you," but not that the poor would always be with us, 20 centuries later. There has been much progress against poverty in my lifetime. Breathtaking progress, to speak the truth.
But it doesn't come through:
- Wealth redistribution (left wing answer). It ends up being forced, and then fails.
- Rugged individualism (right wing answer). The strong just get stronger and the weak can't keep up.
It comes through great creativity, the Spirit of God, and relational solutions.
The truth is, poverty is a curse. And people need to be taught out of it. Here are some suggestions, meant to help. Some may work. Some maybe not.
- Teaching children out of poverty mentality and into abundance mentality. Not reinforcing victim mentality. In schools and in churches.
- Providing better public transportation so those who can't afford cars can get to work.
- Making it harder to get divorced. Divorce compounds poverty. Encouraging people to have babies IN marriages. Not just in church, but in all of our schools.
- Abolishing welfare "as a way of life" for able bodied adults.
- Strengthening extended families and teaching them to care for the "least of these" in their midst.
- Trying to focus your help on those with whom you are willing to go the distance (e.g. the Good Samaritan). You can't do this with everyone. Quality of aid over quantity.
- Re-establishing public healthy living communities for the mentally ill. Homelessness is expensive! In Canada, it costs $110,000 per year per person (money spent on homeless divided by number of homeless) to care for these people (homeless) who are moving targets. Not sure what the American number is, but it can't be too different.
- Stop selling lottery tickets, 40 oz beers, etc. in underclass neighborhoods. Redline them if you have to.
- Re-establishing Christian mutual aid (common in NT times). Church members would receive from the offerings when there was need. This kept the giving relational. The Mormons are the only ones still doing it well.
- Incentivize entrepreneurial immigrants (e.g. South Asians) to settle in underclass neighborhoods. This may have done more to help blighted US neighborhood economic development than anything else.
There is great reason for optimism. Poverty is much less a curse than it was a couple of generations ago.
What are some of your ideas?
If you have a food bank, great. But let's think beyond the foodbank.
Waiting to hear from you…
Come worship with us for two minutes!
Christmas Eve worship at Robinwood Church in Huntington Beach, California, 2009
CLICK ON for video.


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Carlos 'n Charlie's restaurant on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, will be having its last last call on Monday. But don't bother coming by boat.
The restaurant has been a lakeside hotspot since it opened in 1995. Back then, docking at the restaurant's wharf was a popular way to take in the party atmosphere, which part-owner Pete Clark describes as like "a cheap Spring break movie."
Speaking to Weekend Edition Sunday, Clark says "lots of people, most of them in their swimwear" would come to Carlos 'n Charlie's in their loud powerboats to soak up the fun and sun.
No more.
A historic, years-long drought has left the restaurant's dock high and dry. So, Labor Day will be the last bash before it closes for good.
"If you'd asked me five years ago, I wouldn't have been able to even see it," Clark tells Weekend Edition Sunday guest host Wade Goodwyn. "The water went down and kind of stayed down."
Low water, high water, it used to be part of a yearly cycle, he says. Carlos 'n Charlie's has "been through floods and droughts, but nothing that's lasted this long."
"After the first year, we expected that the next year would be better," he says.
"We rode through it and the next year came. We did that again, and the next year came and we did it again," he says. "We just can't continue doing that."
Clark says after one last party on Labor Day, the restaurant will "auction off some of the mementos" so that customers can take a piece of the place home with them.
Carlos'n Charlie's is an Austin, Texas, institution. The bar and restaurant with its huge decks overlooking Lake Travis has long been the place to be in the summer. Boaters dock and landlubbers drive over to dance and sing along with the bands, watch fireworks on the Fourth of July, and, of course, put away plenty of burgers, burritos and beer. But that's all changed. Over the last three years, the water level in Lake Travis has dropped so much that you can't get there by boat anymore. And tomorrow, Labor Day, will be Carlos'n Charlie's last big bash. Pete Clark owns the place with three partners, and he joins us now from member station KUT in Austin. Pete, welcome to the show.
PETE CLARK: Thank you.
GOODWYN: Take us back to Carlos'n Charlie's and what it's like when the water's up.
CLARK: For people that have never seen it before, I like to explain it as, you know, maybe a cheap spring break movie. Lots of people - most of them in their swimwear - loud boats pulling up, elbow-to-elbow crowds dancing barefoot on the dance floor all night, you know, just a real party.
GOODWYN: So what happened?
CLARK: The water went down and, you know, kind of stayed down. I've been working on Lake Travis for 28 years, and if you'd asked me five years ago whether this was even possible, I wouldn't have even been able to conceive it. We've certainly seen it go up and down several times, been through floods and droughts but nothing that's lasted this long. That's what's really getting us is, you know, the roll of the dice if, you know, gee, will it come back next year? Maybe, maybe not.
GOODWYN: Well, of course, at first you expected it to. You expect it in the winter. We'd get a lot of rain, as Austin and the hill country usually does, and Lake Travis fills back up.
CLARK: That's correct. I mean, after the first year, we said, OK, next year will be a better year. And we rode through it and the next year came and we did that again. And the next year came and we did it again and we just can't continue doing that.
GOODWYN: What are you going to do for the last weekend?
CLARK: Well, we're having kind of a final last call, if you will. We've got one of our favorite bands out of Houston, a band called Rat Ranch. And then on Monday, we're actually going to auction off some of the mementos, if you will. You know, let our customers come in and take a little piece of Carlos'n Charlie's home with them that they can put in their man cave or their backyard patio, things of that nature.
GOODWYN: Well, Pete Clark is the owner of Carlos'n Charlie's on Lake Travis in Austin. Pete, good luck.
CLARK: Thank you.
GOODWYN: And you can go to WEEKEND EDITION's Facebook page to see a photo of Carlos'n Charlie's and the damage the drought has wrought. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Microsoft Xbox One 1TB Bundle with 10 Games, 2 Controllers, 3 Month Live Gold with Carry Case
Microsoft Xbox One 1TB
**Note : Limited Stock. Warrant only for Console.
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I'd appreciate your help. I'm finishing up a presentation on high-impact nonprofit e-newsletters, to be delivered next week to a group of NY metro area organizations.
The participants range widely in their nonprofit marketing expertise, as they do in their interests and needs on the topic. Always the case, right?
A reliable strategy I use to make a workshop valuable for those of diverse experience levels is integrating many case studies. Everyone can learn from them, no matter their level of experience. So I ask…
What are the top two e-newsletters you get from nonprofit orgs, and what makes each one successful? Please comment by clicking the comments link under this post or email me directly.
Thanks much for your input! In a few weeks, I'll share out the list you provide of great nonprofit e-newsletters and the keys to their success.
P.S. Learn how to strengthen your e-newsletter here:
- How to Nurture Strong Relationships with E-News and Blog Readers
- Avoiding Filters–11 Keys to Improved Email Deliverability


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In Spring Integration if we use int-ws:outbound-gateway, once a message is associated to the request channel, the Spring Integration container add the SOAP header information and sends the SOAP payload to the target system to be processed. Most of the time, this is what is needed, but sometimes, we just need the integration layer to act as a proxy. The SOAP payload coming from the source system is just handed to the target system retaining all the properties of source system like security, enrichment and others.
In this case the trick is instead of using int-ws:outbound-gateway, we should use int-http:inbound-gateway and int-http:outbound-gateway. This way you can fool the target system to accept this as a SOAP message. We can also make it aware what soapAction we need to execute is a below,
<int-http:inbound-gateway id="webservice.inbound.gateway" request-channel="http.outbound.enrich.in" reply-channel="ws.outbound" name="/receiveGateway" supported-methods="POST" /> <int:header-enricher input-channel="http.outbound.enrich.in" output-channel="ws.inbound"> <int:header name="Content-Type" value="text/xml;charset=UTF-8" /> <int:header name="SoapAction" value="http://www.webserviceX.NET/ConversionRate" /> </int:header-enricher> <int:channel id="ws.outbound" /> <int-http:outbound-gateway id="webservice.outbound.gateway" request-channel="ws.inbound" reply-channel="ws.outbound" url="http://www.webservicex.net/CurrencyConvertor.asmx" expected-response-type="java.lang.String" />
The Spring Integration flow is as below,
I hope this blog helped you.


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How can Hypnotherapy & NLP help me overcome depression?
Hypnotherapy and NLP focus on effecting change at a deeper level of our unconscious mind, it is extremely helpful in relieving the symptoms of and dealing with the causes of depression. This helps you feel in a stronger, more resourceful and positive.
The reasons why hypnotherapy is so effective at relieving the symptoms and often the causes of depression lie in the fact that the routes of depression reside within our unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is the part of us that controls our beliefs, feelings, emotions and behaviours. It is our unconscious mind that is responsible for getting us deeply absorbed in erroneous or negative patterns of thinking, behaving and relating to others that are often the primary symptoms of depression.
Because Hypnotherapy and NLP focus on effecting change within the unconscious Mind. During therapy you will learn how to retrain your thinking, so you to responses are more resourceful and positive. Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy proves to be a fast and effective means of teaching people new ways of thinking. It is also an enjoyable route, for accessing new possibilities for feelings and behaviours, in a quick and integrated manner
People who have been diagnosed or labelled with depression, say that depression feels like a black curtain of despair coming down over their lives, or that they have no energy and can't concentrate. Others feel irritable for no apparent reason; others have extreme difficulty sleeping. But while the symptoms of depression may vary from person to person, one thing is clear; it is one of the most debilitating conditions of modern times but can be treated, and you can overcome it.


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Raising money for creative arts and culture
Raise money for your creative projects. From youth music funding to organising a dance or art class - we'll help you raise money with support from your community.
There is never enough government funding to support all the creative arts and cultural programs that can benefit your community, meaning local authorities often have to decide what they support with very limited funds.
Crowdfunding provides a way for individuals and groups to raise money to support their creative arts and cultural projects. Whether that be paying for infrastructure, supplies or staff for events, it offers an alternative way to get your artistic project going.
Art for Brighton Birth Centre
Justine raised nearly £500 to pay for a specially designed piece of art to be created for the window of the Brighton Birth Centre, so that expectant mothers can enjoy it.
Dance workshops for refugees
The MegMazLadies Project needed £300 to fund a series of dance workshops for women seeking asylum in Leeds, to help them integrate into the community.
Bursaries for young musicians
Thiruvarur wanted to provide two bursaries for young musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds who wouldn't otherwise get the chance to pursue their music career.
Others have raised money to:
Fund a fashion show
Raise money for student final year art exhibition
Fund a pottery group to improve mental health in local community
Other crowdfunding categories:
How does crowdfunding work
What is crowdfunding, and how can you use it to fund your appeal.
Become a crowdfunding superstar
See how to tell your story, update your supporters, and share your page to achieve success.
How to verify your account
Find out how to verify your account so that you can begin receiving funds.


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CCS08-Chettinad Cotton saree with temple thread border and Kalamkari blouse
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First wash preferably Dry wash.
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Selena Gomez: First Post-Split Pictures!
Selena Gomez walks through LAX Airport looking somber while catching a flight on Saturday (November 10) in Los Angeles.
The 20-year-old actress was seen for the first time since her split with boyfriend Justin Bieber after over a year and a half of dating.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Selena Gomez
Earlier this week, Selena wrapped production on her show Wizards of Waverly Place and posted a photo of her and her castmates saying goodbye.
"That's a wrap.." Selena captioned the photo. Check it out here!
10+ pictures inside of Selena Gomez…
Posted to: Selena Gomez


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PCL-TRCS is ready to start! Due to the extreme level of interest, we have received an impressive number of great applications, and therefore have decided to bump the number of projects/slots to 8. It is therefore our pleasure to announce the dream team that will be working on TRCS for the next 3-6 months!
- Frits J. Florentinus, from Eindhoven University of Technology, will be working on automated noise filtering during TRCS. Frits has been responsible for an implementation of the classical Lu and Milios alignment implementation as well as other scan matching techniques in PCL's registration library.
- Mattia Di Gaetano, from Polytechnic University of Ancona, and Technical University of Denmark, will be working on automated noise filtering for TRCS. Mattia has been using PCL in the past, but this will be his first contribution as a developer.
- Aravindhan K Krishnan, from Arizona State University. Aravindhan has already been a PCL developer for a while now, and he will be working on automated point cloud registration during TRCS.
- Thomas Mörwald, from Vienna University of Technology. Thomas has joined the PCL development team recently and has already been pushing the core functionality towards NURBS fitting, among other contributions. During TRCS, Thomas will be working on best fit feature estimation.
- Justin Rosen, one of our PCL developer veterans, will be working on out of core techniques for massive point cloud datasets. Justin has already been involved and co-developed code in PCL dealing with octree structures, visualization, as well as filtering techniques for large datasets.
- Shaohui Sun, from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), will be working on change detection. Shaohui brings an extensive experience on volume reconstruction and 3D registration methods from his own research work at RIT.
- Alexander Velizhev and Sergey Ushakov, from Moscow State University. Alexander and Roman Shapovalov are part of the old GSOC 2011 crew and they have already made contributions to PCL in the area of 3D keypoints and descriptors estimation. During TRCS, Alexander and Sergey will be working on automated feature extraction. Their plan is to incorporate a novel region growing algorithm as well as object extraction via graphcuts from point cloud data.
- Ping Yang, from Idaho State University, will be working on automated decimation. Ping brings a lot of experience on open source GIS software (see his web page for more details).
We would like to thank all the other candidates for their excellent proposals! We already started following up with each of them individually, as this is just our second code sprint and there are many more to come!
[Note: the new blogging page for TRCS will be up within the next few days at http://pointclouds.org/blog/trcs/.]


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If you ask someone in a given field of endeavor "What is critical to success?" they'll most likely focus on one or two key elements. For instance, in Hollywood, someone might point to the director and the stars as critical. A football fan might mention the head coach and the quarterback. In the IT world, a discussion of enterprise applications will likely turn to critical systems such as ERP and CRM.
True, these top level people and systems are fundamental to success. But it's a bit shortsighted to believe that they are the only reasons for success. There are plenty of other areas that are also critical, even if they aren't as obvious. After all, the greatest director in history and the world's biggest stars can't make up for a lousy movie script. And there are plenty of examples of sports teams that had a great coach and a superstar player but failed to succeed because they were lacking in other areas.
In enterprise technology, it's easy to identify a list of essential applications that expands well beyond the usual suspects. If you don't immediately think of email as critical, try spending several hours without it. And you can get by without the company website and document management system, except of course when you need that one piece of information vital to a big sale or a time-sensitive project.
While many may not think of so-called "tier 2" applications as critical, companies quickly find out just how significant those systems really are if they go down for any amount of time.
This misconception can create real problems. That's because applications seen as tier 2 usually don't receive the same level of attention when it comes to uptime, performance, and reliability. Tier 1 systems such as ERP run on high-end servers (with the most redundancy) and are attached to the fastest and most reliable storage networks and infrastructure. In contrast, tier 2 applications end up with basic storage, most likely run over the corporate network, and have only limited protection against downtime and poor performance.
For many companies, this is how things work—until they experience a major downtime event that wakes them up about how important these tier 2 applications really are. And then it's a mad scramble to ensure that these applications are more reliable, have increased storage capabilities, and receive the faster connections that truly critical systems require.
But smart companies are already treating these tier 2 applications as the vital services they are. And they know a secret: It really isn't that difficult to do. These companies have a deeper understanding of their key applications and don't base their idea of "criticality" on traditional thinking. Instead, they break the status quo by ensuring that their entire IT infrastructure provides a reliable, high-performance base for all the applications they rely on.
For example, one key area where many companies can improve today without much upfront work is in their virtual environments. Aberdeen research has found that so-called tier 2 applications like email and departmental websites are much more likely to be running in virtual environments than tier 1 applications. As part of the movement to migrate enterprise virtual infrastructure to high-performance and reliable servers and storage, smart companies can simultaneously boost the performance and availability of their tier 2 applications—treating them more like critical applications.
The end result is that companies don't have to treat their tier 2 applications like afterthoughts. Instead, they can build a flexible environment that doesn't force them to compromise.
After all, you never know how important those tier 2 applications could turn out to be. In this year's Super Bowl, while stars like Tom Brady had good games, the biggest play of the Super Bowl (the goal line interception to seal the win for the Patriots) was made by Malcolm Butler, an undrafted player from a small college who most people had never heard of (basically the NFL version of a tier 2 application). And in your organization, that small departmental website could turn out to the Malcolm Butler that makes your business successful.


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Airbus A380-800
The finishing touch
Airbus A380-800
Painting the A380 is like icing a cake – the highlight of the production process. Doing the job right involves spray guns, masking tape and lots of attention to detail
They call it ballet, but nobody's dancing. After all, getting 24 masked painters to spray-paint the body of the world's largest commercial aircraft snow-white in 60 minutes is no mean choreographic feat. That's right, 60 minutes for 1,500 square meters of aircraft. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake lasts one-and-a-half hours. The A380 paint job is a performance that no-one should miss.
The ballet takes place behind the closed doors of the Airbus paint shop in Hamburg's Finkenwerder district. The shop is 31 meters high in places and its 22,365 square-meter footprint beats that of an apartment block in Manhattan. The shop has a sophisticated ventilation system, too. Nine heat exchangers capture over 70 percent of the thermal energy for recycling. A complete exchange of air takes place up to 18 times an hour. That's a displacement volume of just under 700,000 cubic meters.
The professional paint shop makes an ideal stage. In a large, windowless space the lead actor is bathed in brilliant artificial light. Teleplatforms hover up and down the sides of the sleeping giant, while technicians in white suits, helmets and breathing masks, spray the surface of the plane evenly from a distance of about 30 centimeters; back and forth like table tennis in slow motion.
This one-hour ballet is the climax of a process that actually takes two weeks. First the plane's outer surfaces are sanded and cleaned; then, landing gear, antennas, doors and windows are all covered with impermeable protective sheeting and masking tape before the first coat, a chromate-free primer, is applied. Next comes an intermediate coat that will enable ecological removal of the upper coats every eight to ten years. This is followed by a layer of white paint. "There are many different kinds of white," production manager Berndt Ahrens explains, "cold white, glacier white." The shade of white used by Lufthansa recalls snow glistening in the midday sun.
The white whale takes six hours to dry, after which marking film that has already been cut to size is put in place and the lettering is sprayed on. The aircraft is not demasked until the final coats are dry. This is when the plane reveals its personal ID, its Lufthansa registration number in dark blue on white, and the dark blue Lufthansa lettering up to 1.80 meters high. Now follows the last act, the great pièce des résistance, when two clear coats are applied, sprayed on by hand. These coats take 24 hours to dry. The finished paint job is a mere 0.2 millimeters thick, the paint weighing only 650 kilograms. That's amazingly little for an aircraft of this size and a big fuel-saving factor, too.
For the finale, the huge plane is unwrapped. Gleaming and sparkling, it awaits its first passengers.


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Eric Jaffe
Eric Jaffe is the former New York bureau chief for CityLab. He is the author of A Curious Madness and The King's Best Highway.
Bus bunching is a regular source of frustration for riders and city transit agencies alike. When buses on a particular route clump together it means crowding for the lead bus (as it stops longer to pick up more passengers), slower speeds and wasted capacity for the one behind (as it waits for the bus ahead of it and carries fewer riders), and a less reliable schedule for riders in general.
Usually transit agencies address bunching by building in slack time at certain "control points" on a bus route. That gives buses the chance to get back onto a fixed schedule or headway (the amount of time between buses). This approach can help alleviate bunching some, but it often requires a good bit of work on the part of drivers in terms of making adjustments, and it's often ineffective in cases of serious disruptions, such as a breakdown or inclement weather.
In an upcoming issue of Transportation Research Part B, John Bartholdi III and Donald Eisenstein propose a method of bus coordination that abandons the concept of tightly-managed headways or schedules. Without the restriction of meeting pre-specified targets, drivers instead follow the flow of traffic, and natural headways emerge over time. The result is a "self-equalizing" system with less bunching and more reliability, the authors write:
Under our scheme headways are dynamically self-equalizing and the natural headway of the system tends to emerge spontaneously. Headways also become self-correcting in that after disturbances they reëqualize without intervention by management or even awareness of the drivers.
The system outlined by Bartholdi and Eisenstein imposes simple adjustments at control points based on an equation whose goal is to both reduce the mean headway on a line and increase overall uniformity of headways. Because the calculation operates independent of a fixed schedule, adjustments can be made at any number of control points. When systems want more headway stability, say for longer routes, all they have to do is add more control points.
"The result is that headways are constantly adjusted to become more nearly equal," the authors write.
The researchers recently tested their model on the most popular bus line on the campus of Georgia Tech (Bartholdi's affiliation). The 3.3-mile looped route carries 5,000 riders a day and experiences both morning and evening rushes as well as heightened congestion near class change. The route strives for a constant 6-minute headway by giving several minutes of slack at two control points, but even with those provisions it usually falls behind its preset pace.
For the study, Bartholdi and Eisenstein told drivers to abandon their schedule, ignore headways, and drive with the flow of traffic. When they reached a control point the "self-equalizing" equation computed their next departure time. Compared to average headways recorded on the same day for two weeks prior to the experiment, the new system reduced headway and increased stability (the "self-equalizing" model appears in red):
The model held up to subsequent studies as well. In one case the researchers tested the severity of their "self-equalizing" system by taking an entire bus out of operation. While headways are expected to rise to around 18 minutes in such a situation, their model achieved gaps of 17 minutes. And in simulated tests of an 18-mile bus route in Chicago (Route 63), the new model outperformed target-schedule systems in both light and heavy ridership conditions.
Bartholdi and Eisenstein attribute the success of their system to its flexibility. Rather than relying on accurate forecasts of headway, which requires guessing at traffic flows, the "self-equalizing" system responds to traffic in the moment. Bus drivers seem to like it, too; after the Georgia Tech experiment, drivers told the researchers they enjoyed focusing on safe driving as opposed to worrying about a predetermined schedule. And because it's less bunchable, riders will consider the system more reliable. The authors conclude:
This [system] reduces work for management, and simplifies the job of the drivers, who can focus purely on flowing with the traffic. And most importantly, it provides better service to riders.
Top image: Flickr user ansoncfit, via Creative Commons
The short-term rental market is reeling from the coronavirus-driven tourism collapse. Can the industry's dominant player stage a comeback after lockdowns lift?
We must prepare for a protracted battle with coronavirus. But there are changes we can make now to prepare locked-down cities for what's next.
What do we know so far about the types of places that are more susceptible to the spread of Covid-19? In the U.S., density is just the beginning of the story.
Renters in apartments and houses share more than just germs with their roommates: Life under coronavirus lockdown means negotiating new social rules.
Because of coronavirus, millions of tenants won't be able to write rent checks. But calls for a rent holiday often ignore the longer-term economic effects.


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This was published 6 years ago
Australian Paradox author admits sugar data might be flawed
The author of a key study used by the soft drink industry to contend that sugar is harmless has admitted it might be flawed.
He's the man who just wont quit. And Rory Robertson may just have won a significant victory in his battle against the obesity and associated disease that is plaguing Australia.
In fact, the only thing the financial markets economist has quit is sugar, something he credits with allowing him to lose a significant amount of weight.
And now, after nearly two years of campaigning from Robertson, the author of a key study used by the soft drink industry to contend that sugar is harmless has admitted it might be flawed.
Professor Jennie Brand-Miller made the admission in a Radio National Background Briefing program broadcast Sunday morning.
Known as 'GI Jennie' for her work developing the glycemic index and the so-called low GI diet Professor Brand-Miller is the co-author of a paper entitled The Australian Paradox that argues that per capita sugar consumption has been sliding during the three decades in which obesity has been climbing.
The Australian Beverages Council has used the data to support it's argument that health authorities trying to reduce obesity rates should not target Australians' consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks.
Robertson has maintained that the data used to support the argument is flawed, and has waged an ongoing campaign to have it corrected.
He is even offering $40,000 of his own money to anyone who can show there really has been a consistent and substantial decline in total refined or added sugar consumption over the past 30 years as claimed by the paper.
Sydney University has responded to complaints about the paper by appointing an external investigator.
In the program, Professor Brand-Miller continues to maintain that Australia "is unique".
"Australia is actually bucking the trend with respect to added sugars there is good evidence that we are not increasing our intake," she says.
But when told one of the graphs in her paper belied her claim that "per capita sales of sugar-sweetened beverages have decreased by 10 per cent" she says she might have meant to refer to market share.
"It might be that a key word came out, which is normally... a key word has come out," she tells the program.
Robertson tells the program that he might not be a nutritionist but that he has spent his "whole professional career" examining data and charts.
The paper relies on Food and Agriculture Organisation figures which show total consumption of sugar fat since 1999. Robertson says this is the year the Australian Bureau of Statistics stopped publishing sugar consumption data because it was unreliable.
He says the FAO simply published a flat line after that because they used an algorithm which republished the last available number.
In the program Professor Brand-Miller said she had assumed that the FAO obtained its information from other sources.
The Beverages Council cites the paper on its website and praises it in the program saying its findings imply "efforts to reduce sugar intake may not reduce the prevalence of obesity".
Peter Martin was economics editor of The Age between 2014 and 2018. He is a former Commonwealth Treasury official and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.


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AAO-HNS Statement of Support for the Great American Smokeout
ALEXANDRIA, VA — The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) is helping to "finish the fight against cancer" by supporting the Great American Smokeout on Thursday, November 21. Ear, nose, and throat (ENT) manifestations of tobacco use—smoked, chewed, or dipped—include cancer of the lips, mouth, throat, and voice box (larynx); chronic rhinitis and sinusitis; chronic cough; gum disease; and precancerous lesions of the mouth and throat. Putting out the smoke can help prevent these conditions from developing, and improve ENT health.
"Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Supporting the Great American Smokeout is one more way that we can take a stand against tobacco use, and help increase public awareness of its negative effects, especially to areas that our physicians treat within the head and neck," said Dr. Richard W. Waguespack, president of AAO-HNS and its Foundation.
The Great American Smokeout is an observance the American Cancer Society has led since 1976. It is held on the third Thursday of November. Smokers are encouraged to use the Smokeout date to make a plan to quit, or plan in advance to quit smoking that day. Information about the impact smoking has on the ears, nose and throat can be found on www.entnet.org. More details about the Great American Smokeout, including resources for quitting smoking can be found at www.cancer.org/smokeout.
About the AAO-HNS
The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, one of the oldest medical associations in the nation, represents about 12,000 physicians and allied health professionals who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the ears, nose, throat, and related structures of the head and neck. The Academy serves its members by facilitating the advancement of the science and art of medicine related to otolaryngology and by representing the specialty in governmental and socioeconomic issues. The organization's vision: "Empowering otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons to deliver the best patient care."


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- Former WWE star Hakushi turns 46 years old today.
- After being missing in action for a few shows, Randy Orton returned to action at last night's SmackDown live event in Columbia, South Carolina. He defeated Alberto Del Rio.
- The Usos teamed with Rey Mysterio at last night's show in Columbia, defeating Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal. They tweeted and called it a career highlight, dedicating the match to the late Umaga:
"Big highlight in our careers tonight! Jus teamed up with @reymysterio !!! Thanks uso!! #ThisOneIsForUmaga R.I.P"


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The house in Brentwood where Marilyn Monroe died was on sale Monday for $3.6 million.
The Spanish colonial revival home with four bedrooms and three bathrooms on 5th Helena Drive is where the actress died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1962.
Built in 1929, the home and swimming pool are on 23,000 square feet of land, according to the website of David Offer of Prudential California Realty.
The house is behind tall gates on a cul de sac.
The website describes the home as a "sprawling and very special," and "the crown jewel and largest property of all the Helenas (one of Brentwood's most romantic and coveted locations) affording lovely vistas and great privacy & seclusion yet in close proximity to San Vicente shops & restaurants and the Sunday Farmer's Market."
Monroe died on Aug. 5, 1962, at age 36.
According to the Los Angeles Times, she had recently purchased the home for $75,000.
For Sale: House Where Marilyn Monroe Died
Monroe died at the Brentwood house in 1962
The house in Brentwood where Marilyn Monroe died was on sale Monday for $3.6 million.


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CNHIDEE Usb Christmas Decor India Lakshmi Godness Seven Colors 3D RGB Lamp Touch NightLight Lampara as Children RGB Led Light
About this 3D Table Lamp
- Lamp Pattern: India Lakshmi Godness Seven Colors 3D RGB Lamp
- Light Color: Seven Colors Touch Changeable(Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Violet, White)
- Light Base: Black & Square PC Base with USB Connector
- Material for Lamp Pane: Arcliy Glass Pane
- Package: 1x Lamp Base, 1x Arcliy Glass Pane, 1x USB Cable
- Height for This Lamp: 24.0cm(240mm)
- Compatibility: This 3D lamp can be used with Laptop, Computer, USB Power Bank, USB Power Adaptor, and any other device with USB Connector.
Easy to Use for this 3D LED RGB Lamp
- Connect the Lamp to the Power Source via USB Cable
- First Touch will Power on the Lamp in Red Light Color
- Second Touch will change the Light Color to Green
- Third Touch will change the Light Color to Blue
- Fourth Touch will change the Light Color to Yellow
- Fifth Touch will change the Light Color to Cyan Violet
- Sixth Touch will change the Light Color to Violet
- Seventh Touch will change the Light Color to White
- Eighth Touch will give a full Specturm of automatic Lighting Color Mixing
(Attention: pls remove the plastic wrapped on the Lamp pane and the protective film before Putting it in the lamp Base)
Features for the Colorful RGB 3D Lamp:
- Colorful Light: Seven different light color can be changable(contrlled by touching), or keep the light in one color, very beautiful.
- Touch Function: Very Covinient to power on and off, smart and neat
- Losts of Design Themes for Your Option: You have a wide selection of themes to match any occasion or desired application.
- Various Applications: It can be a decorative lamp, sleep lamp, table lamp,and so on. Applications are only limited to your thought(s).
- Energy Saving: LED lights are more energy saving than the CFL and the incandescent lamp.
- Environment friendly: Not contain Pb and Hg, no pollution, green lighting.
- No Radiation: There is no buzzing noise and UV radiation during use. Provide us a quiet safe environment.
- No flickering


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COVID-19 Response
Best Weekend Ever!
In response to the COVID-19 virus, we are hosting our weekly Experience online through our Facebook page! If this is your first time at Waterline Church, welcome to The Best Weekend Ever, where you are a VIP! We are so glad you're here! We want you to feel comfortable and have an opportunity to connect. Every week is designed to be uniquely relational and relevant to life. Together we will sing, pray, laugh, drink coffee while your kids have an amazing time in a fun and safe environment!
Plan a Visit
Here are a few important details to help you prepare for your first visit to Waterline Church.
Pastors John & Danielle
You can tell a lot about people by who they love, what they love, and how they love.
Locations and Times
Check out The Waterline Experience on Sundays at 10:30am on our Facebook Page. @WaterlineChurch
Family Ministry
Waterline has uniquely designed a program that empowers the entire family for success.
Next Steps
Wherever you are in life, whatever is going on, you will always have a next step to take as you grow at Waterline Church.
We want to help you connect into the Waterline Family.
Last Weeks Teaching
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John Freed - June 9, 2019
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Next Steps
Welcome to the journey!
We see life as a journey. You never take the same path twice and every path is different, leading to unique destinations. The Christian journey is built around the idea that the Christian life is not a religious adoption or a religious lifestyle, but a life journey, walked with God and others. Wherever you are in life, whatever is going on, you will always have a next step to take as you grow.
Join a Life Group
Waterline Life Groups are where people are taking next steps together. Join one of Waterline's 10 Life Groups and you'll learn why we at Waterline Church believe Life is Better Together.
The Grow Plan
Waterline's Grow Plan consists of 2 classes to help you become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
We believe the church is not somewhere you go, you are Waterline. We know that God is moving through His church, and we want you to be a part of it. There are more than 40 ways you can get involved at Waterline.
At Waterline we've baptized more than 150 people who have chosen to go public about their faith in Jesus and communicate to the world their heart-felt commitment to following Him.
What people are saying
Waterline Church loves to hear from YOU! What did you think? What did God do in your life at Waterline Church?
"Waterline is where I first allowed Jesus into my life. I was later baptized there as well. Love this church!"
"Very welcoming. Felt so at home. Everyone was so friendly, fun and helpful. Highly recommend!! God is great!!"
"I have never felt a greater sense of belonging. My faith isn't the only thing growing through this church, this family. My love, happiness, confidence and friends are as well."
"I have really enjoyed that last two Sundays! The music is wonderful and the preaching. Oh my, the spirit has moved me so much! It had been a blessing to be a part of your congregation!"
Check Out Our Past Series
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Get in touch with us! We'd love to hear from you. We're happy to answer any questions, help you connect at Waterline, or help you take a next step spiritually.


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WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., met Saturday to discuss the debt limit and government shutdown, aides said.
Also Saturday, President Barack Obama met at the White House with Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington, to discuss their options after the House rejected Democrats' efforts to hold a vote on ending the budget impasse and Senate Republicans filibustered Reid's proposal for a bill to extend the federal government's borrowing authority until after the 2014 elections.
The White House did not immediately issue a statement on the substance of the meeting.
Reid and McConnell were discussing the potential for a bipartisan compromise based on a proposal by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to fund the government for six months and raise the debt ceiling until Jan. 31, The Hill reported.
"The fact that they're actually talking for the first time represents significant progress," said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas.
"The real conversation that matters now is the one that's taking place between McConnell and Reid," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "We're at place where something important has evolved."
Senate Democrats Saturday rejected Collins offer earlier in the day, with Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland arguing a six-month funding bill is insufficient.
Collins' proposal included a two-year delay in a tax on medical devices whose purpose is to help cover the cost of the Affordable Care Act.
The Senate voted 53-45 in favor of moving Reid's bill to a floor debate, but 60 votes were required. The bill would raise the federal borrowing limit by more than $1 trillion, The Hill reported.
The White House issued a statement saying it was "unfortunate that the common sense, clean debt limit increase proposed by Senate Democrats was refused a yes or no vote today."
"This bill would have taken the threat of default off the table, and given our nation's businesses and the economy the certainty we need," the statement said. "With five days until the government runs out of borrowing authority, Congress needs to move forward with a solution that reopens the government and allows us to pay our bills so we can move on to the business of achieving a broader budget deal that creates jobs, grows the economy and strengthens the middle class."
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, held a closed-door meeting with GOP members Saturday and reported afterward the situation remained deadlocked despite the looming expiration of the government's borrowing authority, which the Treasury Department has said will arrive Oct. 17.
Boehner had no official statement after Saturday's meeting, but Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told reporters Boehner told his troops there was "no deal" and "no negotiations."
Rep. Paul Labrador, R-Idaho, said the House was looking to Republicans in the Senate to push through a spending deal because the talks with the House had stalled.
"It's up to the Senate Republicans ... the president rejected our deal," he said.
President Barack Obama told business leaders during a conference call Friday he was hopeful a deal would be reached this weekend, USA Today said.
The House proposal calls for negotiations with Obama on entitlement and tax reform in exchange for a short-term increase in the debt ceiling. Obama has not agreed to the proposal, which The Hill said leaves Boehner in a political jam between determined conservative Republicans and the public backlash against the GOP.
Boehner appeared to be getting some additional pressure from Republican allies to get a deal done that would reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, The Washington Post said Saturday.
Leaders of the business community met with White House officials on Friday for a closed-door briefing on the standoff.
"I do think we need to act. We need to combine and concentrate our efforts to succeed," said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "But the equation is complicated and requires very good information."
Republicans on Capitol Hill played down the notion the Republicans had no coherent strategy in its dealings with the administration.
"There are plates spinning everywhere. Everybody's now trying to work on this," Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., told The Hill. "It is just confusing to try to figure out what's the deal that's actually getting traction."


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Flavie Halais
Flavie Halais is a French freelance journalist, blogger and filmmaker living in Montreal, Canada.
MONTREAL, Canada — In 1999, Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental health sciences and microbiology at Columbia University, popularized the idea of large-scale urban agriculture by releasing a conceptual model for vertical farms. Crops would grow inside tall city buildings, using very little land to produce bounties of food that would not need to be shipped far to be eaten. With nine billion people worldwide to feed by 2050, and close to 70 percent of them residing in cities, bringing food production into dense urban areas had long been seen as a logical step toward sustainable living, and Despommier's work seemed to take us in the right direction.
Fifteen years later, despite many experiments with farming inside city buildings, the first large-scale vertical farm, as envisioned by Despommier, has yet to be built. The urban farming industry, still in its infancy, is struggling to address the engineering challenges that make growing food in cities a costly business. Sales and distribution have also proven harder than almost anybody imagined. "What's been lacking," says Mohamed Hage of Montreal, "are players who will do it at a true commercial scale, with the right business model."
Hage is trying to fill exactly that gap with his company, Lufa Farms. His path to scaling up urban agriculture is not vertical but horizontal. In 2011, Lufa set up the world's first commercial rooftop greenhouse on top of a wide industrial building in northern Montreal. The area, a nondescript industrial zone bordered by two highways and an outdoor mall full of big box stores, doesn't turn up in design magazines. But this is where Hage, after spending hours painstakingly scouring Google Earth, found the perfect rooftop for his next-gen greenhouse.
The 31,000 square-foot facility (2,900 square meters) uses hydroponics, a technique that uses water to deliver nutrients and therefore requires no soil. Lufa's methods exclude pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, and use biological pest control to get rid of harmful bugs. The greenhouse is computer-monitored, recirculates 100 percent of irrigation water and composts all organic waste. And in a cold-weather region with a growing season of four to six months, Lufa works year-round, growing enough tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis, and lettuce to help feed 10,000 people in the Montreal area.
Lufa's biggest innovation has little to do with farming techniques or architecture: It's marketing and e-commerce. Lufa sells its produce through a complex distribution system that puts to shame the usual get-what-you-get offerings of farm co-ops found in many North American cities. For a minimum of $30 a week, Lufa customers select what goes into their basket through a fancy online marketplace. (Sicilian eggplants have never looked sexier.) To fill out its product offerings, Lufa partnered with a slew of other local food makers to provide customers with all kinds of products, from fresh bread to dairy, to herbs, honey, and dry beans.
Orders close at midnight on delivery day—and then the magic happens. Each producer receives an order indicating exactly how many baguettes, liters of milk, or pounds of potatoes are needed. Everything gets cooked, picked, prepared, bottled, packed, then shipped overnight to Lufa's warehouse to be assembled in crates, and finally sent in the morning to more than 150 pickup points throughout the city.
This order-based system drastically cuts down waste, both on the producer's side and in Lufa's warehouse, since there aren't any unsold products to be discarded from store shelves. It also considerably reduces packaging. By this remarkable logistical feat, Lufa may very well have solved one the biggest problems plaguing our global food system. Some 40 percent of food in the United States goes straight to landfills uneaten. And about 1.3 billion tons of food destined for human consumption get lost or wasted each year globally, discarded anywhere along the supply chain, from farmland to supermarkets and restaurants.
Eating food that's grown locally and sustainably is a fantastic and increasingly popular idea, but it's also expensive. Producers tend to drown under marketing and distribution costs, and struggle to find retail channels for their products. To assume that urban farms can escape that trap because of their extreme proximity to consumers would be a mistake; getting food to consumers has proven a logistical nightmare for them as well.
A pillar of the new "farm-to-table" economy is to facilitate marketing and distribution for local producers and limit the number of intermediaries along the supply chain. That challenge has proven perfect for a number of new tech companies hungry for new retail sectors to "disrupt."
One of them is Good Eggs, a San Francisco-based company operating an online marketplace similar to Lufa's in the San Francisco Bay Area, New Orleans and Brooklyn. Good Eggs considers itself a "local-food aggregator," pooling together the marketing and distribution needs of many farmers who are often invisible to supermarket chains and find themselves limited to alternative channels such as farmer's markets. "A lot of the urban farms that we work with are not able to sustain themselves through traditional food retail channels," says co-founder and CEO Rob Spiro. "The margins are too slim, and the volume requirements are too high. So they end up selling to restaurants."
Good Eggs is determined to beat the supermarket, which it thinks will enable the model to go to scale. So the company has made it possible for customers to order throughout the week, rather than weekly, and is offering free home delivery. "If you're less convenient than the supermarket, even if the food is better and better for the world, it's going to be really hard to reach a mainstream audience," Spiro says.
Whether flexibility and convenience can ultimately bring costs down enough to reach the mainstream remains to be seen. For now, the food sold by Lufa, Good Eggs and similar providers like Farmigo might be cheaper than what you'll find at the organic food store or at the farmer's market, but it's still out of reach for households working with a tight budget. Good Eggs is planning to begin accepting food stamps, a form of government assistance for low-income families in the United States. But can local food aggregators work for the typical middle-class supermarket shopper?
For Lufa, logistics at the distribution level are just one of many sources of headaches. To build its first greenhouse, Lufa not only had to match the building's structural requirements—using soil to grow root vegetables isn't possible, for example, because it would put too much strain on the roof. It also had to respect the myriad rules and regulations imposed by local building and fire codes, from the number of bathrooms or parking spaces to the amount of glass used. "We had questions along the lines of, 'Will birds hit the greenhouse?'" recalls Hage. "Because it's all glass, and there's lots of trees inside, so you have to go and do the right kinds of studies to show that no, birds do not hit the greenhouse."
Other roadblocks reveal just how unprepared cities currently are for urban farming on the scale Lufa has in mind. Lufa can't be considered an agricultural business, for instance, and therefore can't claim the same tax rebates as other rural farms in the rest of Canada. Yet it still has to pay rent every month. Such types of policy changes, although welcomed by cities, could be entangled in bureaucratic procedures for years.
Last year, Lufa opened its second farm, a 43,000 square-foot (4,000 square-meter) rooftop greenhouse—the world's largest—in the northern suburbs of Montreal. This time, the structure was integrated into a brand-new building. Hage thinks building new will be important to scaling up urban farming—it allowed Lufa's architects and engineers to work with structural challenges more easily. (A company spokesman says the second greenhouse was "significantly cheaper" on a per-square-foot basis than the first one, which cost about $3 million to build.) The new farm is crammed with lots of new features: a system that increases air pressure inside the greenhouse prevents undesirable bugs from entering, and a chamber regulates airflows in order to maintain optimal growing conditions.
Lufa is also developing its own in-house technology. The company has just received a patent for a system that allows it to grow 30 percent more food on the same area. Meanwhile, the IT team is developing a suite of iPad apps for greenhouse management. One of them, which helps manage insect populations, will soon be made available to all organic growers. "We've decided it's too valuable for us not to be going out to the world and saying, 'Use it for free,'" says Hage.
Lufa's greenhouses become profitable as standalone units within about 18 months of construction. The company as a whole doesn't expect to become profitable until later this year or next year, as much of the revenue is being channeled back into growth activites.
Lufa's long-term goal is to become a provider of technology for property developers, real estate owners, or businesspeople who wish to set up a rooftop farm on top of a building—any building. The company's third greenhouse, which will be in Boston, will reflect some of the latest innovations cooked up by the team. "What we're doing in Montreal and Boston is only to be able to have a test bed to be able to demonstrate our technology," says Hage. "Every farm we build is a new R&D facility."
No one on Lufa's founding team had ever worked on a farm or in the food industry. Hage himself was running a software company; his business partner Lauren Rathmell was a biochemist fresh from McGill University. Yet they thought this was precisely the type of mindset needed for the urban farming sector to take off. To this day, Hage sees Lufa primarily as a tech and systems venture; most of the company's budget goes to engineering and IT, with the e-commerce platform and logistics operations raking up the largest share. "Really," Hage says with a laugh, "it's farming with more software than farmers."
This story originally appeared on Citiscope, an Atlantic partner site.
Will COVID-19 change how cities are designed? Michele Acuto of the Connected Cities Lab talks about density, urbanization and pandemic preparation.
In places where most child cares and schools have closed, in-home family daycares that remain open aren't seeing the demand — or the support — they expected.
A group of U.S. economists, academics and policymakers say the Covid-19 pandemic is an opportunity to fix the economy — and the planet — for the long term.
As the coronavirus crisis forces changes in transportation, some cities are building bike lanes and protecting cycling shops. Here's why that makes sense.
We must prepare for a protracted battle with coronavirus. But there are changes we can make now to prepare locked-down cities for what's next.


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National Shiba Inu Rescue provides courtesy listings for Shibas in need of a new, loving forever home. All dogs adopted via a posted courtesy listing must be spayed/neutered prior to adoption and are the responsibility of the adopting party. Listings are added by regional Shiba rescue groups, independent rescuers, all-breed rescue groups, and individual Shiba owners who need to rehome their dogs.
National Shiba Inu Rescue is an online service provided by volunteers. We do not place any dogs nor do we have dogs in our care.


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Opi holographic nail polish
I was back to blogging for about two seconds before this bomb was dropped on me: Holos – there's a ton of them out there now and… they come in green. Having reached the peak of my nail polish collecting in 2009, this was practically unheard of for me. My first encounter with this unicorn, the green holo, was the glorious Glitter Gal Lizard Belly. It wasn't too long before everyone told me about A England and the mantra was "you need all of these, right now." I was lemming about three-quarters of their line, particularly their holos. With that said, I've had these for months but it took me forever to photograph them because I didn't want to just swatch them. I loved them so much I really wanted to actually wear them. And, sadly, although I have a lot more nail liberty now than I did before, I still can't go balls to the wall all the time so getting this post together took a hot minute.
A England Dragon *deep breath* a sage green holo. The holo in these polishes is pretty subtle, definitely not blingtastic at all. In my opinion, the holo is neither linear nor scattered – a better description would be "ambient," like a shimmery interference. Application was good but the formula was a smidge on the thick side, perfect at two coats but I did three. Dragon is my favorite of the three polishes featured in this post because this shade of green was very flattering to my skin-tone.
A England Saint George is a teal leaning dark green holo. *swoon* Like Dragon, the holo is fine grained. This was my New Year's Eve NOTD! Application was comparable to Dragon – this is three coats, but it would have been fine at two. It's a bit of a stainer, so beware of sloppy application. Please excuse my gross flairy ring-finger nail. This photo was taken when I was struggling with peelies a few months back. My nails tend to flair like that when they're weak. Taking biotin and switching back to my old holy grail base-coat that was unfortunately discontinued before its time, Sally Hansen Nail Quencher, really helped with the terrible peeling. My failed attempts to find a new go-to base-coat will be the topic of many anguished posts to come.
Last but not least, A England Lady of the Lake, a dark grape ambient holo. This shade is consistent with Dragon and Saint George in terms of look and application. This is my current NOTD. As you can see I had to nubbinize so I used that as an excuse to holo-it-up – looooooove it. Generally, I have a lovehate relationship with purples. I feel like purple is so over done: the "red" of "wacky" colors, if that makes sense. But, like with red, I'm a hater until I actually wear a purple polish, then I remember why everyone loves the color so much. It's just gorgeous. Not to keep making excuses for my sub-par nail situation but please also excuse this photo. Since the past few weeks were so rough, I fell off the wagon in terms of keeping up with my moisture regime – these cuticles are the sad, sad result. womp womp.
This was my first foray into A England and I'm hooked. A England is the brain child of Adina, an evil nail polish genius. (You can follow her on twitter @aenglandtweets). I feel like if we knew each other in real life we'd be total besties… a love for nail polish, legends & myths, a gothic aesthetic, and a touch of anglophilia … um, sign me up for that life long friendship. A England is an indie brand and hails from the United Kingdom. [edited – thank you Chia & Aglaya for catching that for me] Although A England used to ship to the U.S. they are no longer able to ship internationally. However, you can get them from U.S. retailers like Ninja Polish and Llarowe for $10. You can get additional information about where to buy A England here.


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RAHS teacher publishes e-book
Submitted by plarkin on Fri, 08/22/2014 - 2:41pm
Tanner tackles far-reaching effects of depression, suicide
Roseville Area High School English and drama teacher Sam Tanner has written an "unmarketable" book. And he's OK with that.
Tanner, 34, will begin his eighth year of teaching at RAHS this fall with a newly-published e-book to his name. The e-book, entitled "Shot Across the River Styx," deals with the topic of suicide in a personal way.
"It's a strange combination of half fiction, half real life," Tanner explained of the e-book. "The book is a really kind of personal way of trying to articulate what it means to make the choice not to commit suicide, and the other side as well."
Not a 'downer'
"Shot Across the River Styx" started as an assignment in one of Tanner's creative writing classes as he pursued his doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in education. The story is written about Tanner's friend, Nick, who took his own life about ten years ago as a young man in his 20s, and Tanner's stepfather Jim's suicide two years ago.
"It was almost as though I was trying to conduct a funeral service of my own," he said. "I don't really know if I had processed the grief [even after 10 years]. It was very therapeutic for me."
Tanner, now a husband and father to an eight-month-old, says suicide is complex and difficult to understand, and can leave family and friends grieving for many years.
"[The book is a way of] honoring a friend of mine, making my own sense of his act [and] figuring out how to take something so destructive and create something optimistic out of it. I think that's part of what it is to be human."
After he had gotten the words out on the page, Tanner said he "shopped around" for book agents, but with no luck.
That may have been due to agents' hesitance about Tanner's approach.
Like all human experience, there were moments of humor and glimpses of joy in the grief and anger he and other survivors experienced. And Tanner followed his imagination in working out "what might have been" in passages of fantasy.
"The subject matter was kinda heavy, and I wrote about it in a light, humorous way," Tanner said. "The genre was a little memoir and magical realism...not very marketable in terms of what most agents are looking for."
Sticking to his vision
After reaching out to local authors for advice, Tanner learned that many book agents can require authors to modify their stories to sell more copies.
"I hadn't written it to make any money," he explained. "So a buddy of mine convinced me to publish it on my own as e-book."
Taking it even a step further, Tanner and his friend Ben Ptacek created a do-it-yourself online publishing company called The Daily Publishing. The two hope to launch the website this fall.
"We really seriously researched this. Our running joke is that we put so much work into a project that will probably sell 10 copies."
Tanner says he has two more books in the works to form a trilogy. The next book is about his mother, and the next will be about his teaching experience.
He says his students are aware of "Shot Across the River Styx," and in fact, a former student of his, Michael Swearingen, created the illustrations.
"It's funny ... as a teacher, you get so insulated at a high school that it becomes your audience," Tanner said. "I wanted to go outside of that."
Tanner says although he's "written a lot of weird things in the past," he wanted to get this project to a wider audience, "even though I couldn't as a marketable text."
Most of all, he hopes to inspire others to take on difficult struggles with the clarifying tool of writing it all down.
"And kids, please do try this at home," Tanner writes in the disclaimer before the beginning of the e-book. "Making sense of an enormous, complicated universe is a good thing to do."
"Shot Across the River Styx" is available on Amazon. For more information about Sam Tanner, visit www.samjtanner.com.
Johanna Holub can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 651-748-7813. Follow her on Twitter @jholubnews.
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For each day of their coverage of The Championships, ESPN commissioned a timelapse video from production company The Seventh Movement. This video showcases the entirety of their work in London. Thom McCallum walks us through how they got it done:
Instead of the birds eye view of a tennis match that you're used to seeing on TV, we set out to shoot Wimbledon from an entirely different perspective . We had the new Stage One motion control system from Dynamic Perception and the Omni Tracker 360 degree time-lapse system rocking and rollin. We shot over 250 time-lapse sequences, 100,000 frames in 10 days on Canon 5D3, 5D2, 7D, and the RED Scarlet. We shot Wimbledon at its quietest during the day when there was no one on the grounds. We were firing as fans raced up Murray Mound to get a seat to watch the Finals. And after everyone left and the sun set, we set out to capture the venue at night. The weather was unpredictable and often times it turned out to be a disaster; set up a shot and it starts pouring. As soon as we put all 4 cameras away, the rain would stop and we had to set right back up again.
Also, there are some really funny drunk dudes at the end.