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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2012 (1726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
There is little doubt retired grassland researcher Duane McCartney is a deserving candidate for the award the forage industry is bestowing on him at the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association annual meeting in Toronto later this month.
But the recipient of the association's first-ever leadership award is also the first to say his career-long pursuit of better grazing systems for the beef industry is part of a much bigger story -- how a sector caught in a catastrophe was able to transform itself and land on its feet.
McCartney is internationally recognized as the "face of extended grazing" for his work during the past two decades in helping cattle farmers realize there is merit in the old adage: Cows were meant to walk and grass was meant to stand still.
"As a kid, I didn't like to feed cows in the winter," McCartney says when asked why he started exploring extended grazing systems while working for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in the early 1990s.
He knew it was doable. After all, there were ranchers in Alberta who had been overwintering cow herds in pastures for more than 30 years. After the snow came, the cows grazed on strategically placed large round bales or on cut hay that was left in long swaths beneath the snow.
"The researchers didn't create this thing," he says. "The farmers created it. All the researchers did was look at the systems, look at the economics, look at the herd-health aspects and put the extension packages together."
But extended grazing wasn't widely practiced. Back then, most cow-calf producers spent their summers baling and hauling hay to winter feed yards and then hauling the manure back out to the field.
Then in May 2003, disaster struck with the force of a tsunami. The discovery of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) caused Canada's export markets for beef and cattle to disappear, virtually overnight. And they didn't reopen for years.
The crisis forced producers to rethink tradition. "Farmers were looking for a way of still being viable and they were looking for anything that would lower costs," McCartney says.
Publicly funded researchers working with producer groups showed ranchers how they could significantly lower production costs with little capital investment required -- something that is highly unusual in modern agriculture.
"We basically found that we could lower the cost of wintering cattle by about 45 per cent compared to the traditional way," McCartney says. "That was mainly because you didn't have to haul the feed to the feed yard, you didn't have to bale it or chop it for silage, you didn't have to haul the manure out and you didn't have the feed losses in the feed yard. Plus there was a big reduction in the amount of equipment you needed, and a lot less labour.
"We basically look at being able to extend the grazing season as the biggest cost saving that ever hit the beef industry," he says.
In order to deliver on the concept, researchers embarked on a multidisciplinary mission to identify the best practices from an economic and environmental perspective, the best herd genetics and the best pasture forages.
Many producers were initially skeptical, fearing their cows wouldn't be able to find the feed through the snow. "Cows can successfully graze in two feet of snow as long as they can see the hump in the snow where the swath is," McCartney says. And because the herd is following those swaths across the field, the manure is naturally spread.
In less than a decade, virtually all of the cow-calf sector in the Canadian beef business has moved toward some form of extended grazing, ranging from several weeks later in the fall to some producers doing it year-round.
Ultimately, the conversion came down to timing and producers' receptiveness to new ideas. It is unlikely this transformation would have happened as quickly without the extra pressure the BSE crisis placed on producers to squeeze costs out of their operations. Old traditions -- even inefficient ones -- die hard.
"It was harder on the people to change than it was for the cows," McCartney says.
Making it happen took leadership, to be sure, but it was a team effort on many levels, starting with Canada's commitment to public research. When confronted with a disaster in agriculture, governments can deliver aid that props up the status quo, or they can invest in research that gives producers tools to adapt. This was a case in which the latter paid off in spades.
Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator. She can be reached at 204-792-4382 or by email:


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The TRADE Act of 2008's Provisions on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines
Mike Palmedo
October 14, 2008
Rep. Michaud has introduced legislation in the House that would require a review of existing Free Trade Agreements, and create rules on what types of provisions can be included in future ones. The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act of 2008 includes a brief section on the intellectual property chapters of future agreements. Sec. 4(b)(7)(B) is meant to ensure that strict patent rules do not limit access to generic medicines.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REQUIREMENTS. - If the agreement contains provisions related to the protection of intellectual property rights, such provisions shall-
… (B) include only terms relating to patents that do not, overtly or in application, limit the flexibilities and rights established in the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted by the World Trade Organization at the Fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar on November 14, 2001, particularly the flexibilities and rights relating to the promotion of access to medicines and the issuance of compulsory licenses on grounds determined by member states;
This broad language aims to exclude from future FTAs various TRIPS-Plus intellectual property provisionsfound in earlier ones. These provisions included not only restrictions on compulsory licenses, but also patent extensions past the international 20-year norm and the obligation to grant second use patents. However, this reference to "terms relating to patents," which would exclude provisions on linkage and data protection sought by industry and included in most of the FTAs.
Most of the recent FTAs have included "linkage" requirements, which prohibit health regulators from approving generic drugs while the originator's product is still under patent. However, one of the compromises in the "New Trade Policy for America" was to remove the requirement from the Peru, Panama and Colombia FTAs. In the US companies have abused linkage (as established by the Hatch-Waxman Act) by filing additional patents of questionable merit on their products to extend their monopolies.
Every FTA from NAFTA forward has included a requirement that countries institute a period of data exclusivity for five years or longer. This is a period of time during which generic competitors cannot win regulatory approval to sell their product based on safety and efficacy data generated by the originator's clinical trials. (Generic firms show regulators that their products are bioequivalent to the approved brand name product, and therefore do not have to conduct their own clinical trials. Recreating the originator's trials would take years, would be prohibitively expensive, and would involve additional placebo-based tests on humans.)
Data exclusivity can prevent a generic drug from coming to market even in instances where a compulsory license has been issued or a patent has expired. A 2007 Oxfam briefing paper on the effect of the US-Jordan FTA on medicine prices found that data exclusivity instituted by the Jordanian government delayed generic entry for 79% of the drugs that came to market in the five years after the FTA went into effect.
Though it is does not specifically refer to public health flexibilities or the well-publicized gains from the Doha Declaration, Sec 4(b)(7)(D) goes farther in protecting access to medicines. This provision requires that future trade agreements
ensure that the access of the public to essential medicines and to technologies critical to preventing climate change is not obstructed by any provision of the agreement relating to the protection of intellectual property.

subset: commoncrawl


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With the UK government's Digital Britain report due tomorrow, it's not surprising that today has seen a crop of announcements from media companies touting their digital credentials.
Three claimed "firsts" announced today are Virgin Media's "unlimited" music downloading partnership with Universal Music; broadcaster Five allowing full-length programmes to be embedded (YouTube-style) in third-party websites; and video streaming site Blinkbox offering pay-per-view Warner Bros movies, from the Dark Knight to Casablanca. Read more


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By jameskinney
My title alludes to Don Shebib's iconic Canadian movie version of the Iliad—the classic account of the collective journey brought back from beyond the margins of the known—from the creature comfort of the status-quo or the cozy confines of the Hobbits' shire, in the case of J.R. Tolkein's novel, The Hobbit.
Teaching, for me, is a story of adventure, of audacity and derring-do. The complimentary aspect of teaching is, of course, learning and the two are mutually interdependent aspects of the same thing—a journey of transformation that, necessarily, brings tectonic shifts in our collective worldview that in turn changes the way we see ourselves and the way in which we engage the world. It is a process of invigoration whereby our lives are given deeper meaning and purpose.
I suppose I chose the awkward, Canadian version of this iconic journey for its allusion to the film whose lack of polish gives it a certain honesty and rawness that lacks the gloss of something that has been overly refined. Refinement and process for me are anathema to the sort of real and visceral learning that typically happens when we wade into uncharted territory—all else is sophistry and formulaic to my mind and this can be the source of some philosophical inconsistencies teaching in a Community College with its traditional emphasis on what the Sophists referred to as "techne."
I am greatly influenced by the Greek philosophers and, although I derive inspiration from pioneers in holistic education like Rudolph Steiner, I am a Platonist at heart.
I see my role as a catalyst in the ongoing process of the personal transformation of those with whom I am privileged to share time along the path of an incredible adventure that leads us ever forward toward the unknown horizons of a shared dream. Along the way, we listen and help to draw out one another's hopes, fears and dreams in order to facilitate the process of mapping the route that we have travelled and to reflect on that journey in order to provide a contextual narrative that will help to ground our decisions for setting course for new, uncharted shores. I embrace the wisdom of Poet Robert Frost in his classic "The Road Not Taken."
I encourage my fellow travelers to be explorers as opposed to tourists—to eschew the proven, vicarious and rote in favour of the novel and risk-laden experiences that enrich the threads of one's personal narrative and make life and learning interesting and engaging. I encourage trust—trust in oneself, in others and in the possibilities of meeting the unknown. Trust in oneself breeds confidence in one's abilities to face the unscripted challenges of life. School can too often be nothing more than a "canned experience" that mitigates risk and seeks to contain and restrain by delivering standardized, routinized and predictable outcomes that are at odds with the unpredictable and intractable nature of everyday existence. Trust in others is an essential ingredient of our collective identity. It is the glue that binds us and enables us to do things collectively in a way that transcends the limitations of the individual and allows opportunities for our collective energies to be given sublime, concrete expression. It engenders a form of free and responsible citizenship whose greatest goods come from active participation in the co-creation and co-stewardship of the common good.
A long history in improvisational theatre has taught me the value of collaboration and the importance of both giving and receiving of offers of talent and ideas and how, when we collectively surrender our egos and allow for a space where co-creation can occur, the results can often be sublime. I have learned to accept that failure is an inevitable and important consequence of this sort of experimental and experiential approach to collective creation. I am not interested in what one knows, rather, I am more interested in learning about what we don't know today—tomorrow and sharing in the process of how we achieved these insights—the narrative of the road. To that end, collaboration is an important dimension of the learning activities in my environment.
Teaching and learning for me constitute an environment that is complex and highly interdependent. It is a whole that transcends its mere constituent parts. It brings many entities into highly complex relationships that, when cultivated, help us to find who we are in these relationships and to experiment with different aspects of ourselves in relation. It is an ecology of deep personal—even spiritual growth and revelation that intertwines relationships forged in a communal search for meaning.
The ecosystem of learning is not limited to clichés of Teacher, Student, Class, School, etc.. I believe that it is an integral part of the broader social, political, psychological and spiritual ecosystem that serves as a space where all dimensions of our collective lives from the rote and banal activities of the everyday meld with our boldest experimentation, where failure and triumph, grieving and celebration meet one another with the sole purpose of allowing us to collectively dream of a brighter tomorrow and to set about investing in this belief through audacious creative endeavours that will bring our dreams to fruition.
The learning ecosystem is an economy of transformation that values the sharing of ideas and earnest effort as its currency. It is an engine of change that facilitates our collective migration from the status quo towards a more sublime ideal. It is a story that has been in the making since the dawning of humanity and one that we continue to write. It is a collective narrative that takes form in informal discussions with faculty and students, formal strategy and planning meetings within the institution, negotiations between management teams and union heads, assignment creation and execution, marking, revision, daily communications with all stakeholders, writing job and grant recommendations, counseling, performing and participating in surveys, posing and answering questions, listening, speaking up, advocating, admonishing, facilitating, meeting, joining, refreshing, participating, excelling, failing, observing, reporting, measuring, analyzing, phoning, emailing, SMSing, Facebooking, Ryppleing, Reaching out, liaising, apologizing, owning, etc..
The reductionist, hierarchal and categorical view of this economy of transformation that sees only teacher, learner, class, school, etc. is an anachronism of the industrial era—a mechanistic view of reality and is out of touch with the hyper-connected 24/7 internet age. The age of instant, ubiquitous and searchable knowledge challenges us to see ourselves in new ways, governed by new relationships in this new techno-cultural milieu. We have been radically interconnected to a degree where paradigms of time, place, authority and knowing take on a radically new dimension that I have heard referred to as a "digital pentacost" in reference to the Christian tradition where people are born into a new time wherein all nations share in the discovery of life changing spiritual vision that cannot be predicted or contained—allowing them to break from status quo ways of being and moving to a new ethic that embraced an open mind to the possibilities of the future. This was a time when traditional paradigms of knowing and communicating were superceeded by new (spiritual) abilities that could transcend barriers of time, space and even language.
We live in this time where embracing the comfort of the known ways of being and doing will certainly result in a continuation of our unsustainable destruction of our ecosystem and our very humanity. There is a pressing need for us to be brave enough and audacious enough to wander down a new path together and the teaching and learning environment can create the sort of climate that is appropriate for seeding such a transformation.
I don't think that this is something that we can teach in the classic sense of filling the empty cup, rather it is a decision that we must invest in together on all levels by all stakeholders and that we must have courage to move quickly and decisively to walk the walk together and take "the Road not taken!"
To this end I have spent the last 9 years struggling with the challenges that our new ecosystem presents for teaching and learning. During that time I have worked on developing a teaching methodology dubbed RISK-based learning (Rapid Integration of Skills and Knowledge) that uses collective, crowd-sourced approaches to dealing with rapid technological change and its corollary of obsolescence. I have given over 12 presentations to University and College educators from Montreal to San Jose on this topic and was recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Innovation in Teaching & Learning in 2007. I have enjoyed the privilege of being an active member of both the Adobe Education Leaders and the Apple Distinguished Educators groups where we work to advocate best practices in the integration and use of technology in teaching and learning.


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Distributed Computing Theory, Old and New
The 2010 "Women in Theory" workshop was hosted by Princeton's Center for Computational Intractability and is intended for graduate and undergraduate students working in theoretical computer science. It features technical talks and tutorials by senior and junior women in the field.
The motivation for the workshop was two-fold: to deliver an invigorating educational program and to bring together women from different departments in order to foster a sense of kinship and camaraderie.
The workshop features a keynote by Princeton University President and distinguished biologist Shirley M. Tilghman on "The Role of Women in the Sciences." It also features a keynote by Newsweek's Jesse Ellison on "The State of Women in the Workplace."
For coverage of the 2008 Women in Theory workshop, see this video.


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ECS P67H2-A Review: A visit back to Lucid's Hydraby Ian Cutress on 7/21/2011 9:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Lucid
22 Comments
Back to Article
anandtech pirate - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkthat last photo on the first page makes the board look crooked.
also, where's the evo3d review? Reply
Gigantopithecus - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkAgreed - some board flexing is to be expected, especially after mounting a massive aftermarket hsf and installation into the case, but that looks a bit ominous for a brand new board straight outta the box! I know it's not terribly reasonable to think less of a board for such a thing, but I can't help but raise an eyebrow as to why a premium board looks like that.
...Otherwise, thanks for the very thorough review, thanks Ian! Reply
connor4312 - Monday, October 17, 2011 - linkLikely (hopefully) just some lens distortion that wasn't fixed in PS. Reply
Hargak - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkThe word ECS still gives me nightmares. I'm sure things have changed.. I still twitch from flashbacks of early MSI boards.. Reply
randinspace - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkI can't believe you actually ran that many combinations in that many programs for Hydra! It made for quite the fascinating read so great job. Reply
ckryan - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkare very hit and miss lately.
First, if you're a in the business of designing, building, and selling mainbords, why would you try to kick your customers in the [insert place to kick here] with such a prickly, useless UEFI? Further, some of the engineers presumably have sight, so that it left the facory with that kind of graphical uefi is unbelivable. Just looking at the color pictures of the uefi made my eyes hurt with it's yellowish-green and greenish-yellow text on a schizophrenic background. Asus clearly has the (far and away) best graphical UEFI, but the graphical part isn't neccessary if you design the text part is a half way decent fashion. The BIOS and UEFI make or break a board. For instance, Zotac has some good boards with not so great BIOSs, either with dubious or broken or missing functions. Biostar has improved in this area, but was using a text UEFI, then released a grapical upgrade for their 1155's (I have not tried it yet, but have seen some pictures) company that makes boards that should have no excuse for bad BIOS/UEFI designs is Intel (though you could make the case that everything they do should be better). To their credit, they've improved over the last decade substantially. Their DP67BG mainboard had a less than savory UEFI back in January, but has since improved to an almost excellent system. But not graphical, which is okay. I'd rather have a decent text system than graphical one any day of the week, or in ECS's case, never. I just don't get a lot of the decisions mainboard manufacturers are using, especially when this seems like the one area where Taiwanese firms AREN"T "copy and pasting" and just plain stealing from one another. Reply
philosofool - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkI honestly don't see the point of GUI BIOS, but I've never used one. The only advantage I can see is building in mouse roll-over stuff so that when I mouse over the menu option, it shows me what's nested in there, but you can do that with arrow key selection too. Reply
ckryan - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkI think, when done well, a graphical UEFI can provide more information and options. It doesn't actually do anything better per se. In my opinion, no bios provides nearly enough information on settings and options anyway, but some are just abysmal. Even in the mobo's manual you will find vague descriptions which border on absurd. If you do a lot of digging (and you own an Intel extreme series board) you can find Intel's BIOS/UEFI manual which and a performance tuning guide which provides some good guidance about which settings do what and why you would need to use them. If you had only been using AMD, and then switched to a Z/P Sandy Bridge board, you'd probably be a little confused about the options due to the new OC paradigm. I believe that the best motherboard can be ruined with a terrible BIOS or UEFI. UEFI is pretty cool, but if you can't make a good text only implementation, how the hell are you going to make a passable GUI? I'm perfectly happy with a well designed text based UEFI, but I will admit that as much time as I spend with BIOSs and UEFIs, Asus' slick GUI system is clearly in a class by itself. If I were new to the game, I would want something like that on my first build. There just isn't an excuse for terrible BIOS/UEFIs in the year 2011. Reply
wifiwolf - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkI for instance have been surprised my Asus board gui enables instantly booting from whatever device by clicking in that device in boot section of the bios. Was a nice surprise. Reply
Nataku - Friday, July 22, 2011 - linkhonestly speaking, for beginner/intermediate users that didn't have to deal with dos, the mouse option does help
besides, we gotta move forward at some point :P Reply
MWilliamson - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkAn excellent review Ian; I'm impressed by how many combinations you tested under Hydra. While I'm currently not looking to build another system, I have found Hydra to be an interesting concept, and I'm waiting for it to mature to the point where it is valid for all configurations.
What I wished to comment on though, was your comment in the Gaming Benchmarks:
"Metro 2033 is the Crysis of the DirectX 11 world (or at least until Crysis 2 is released)..."
Crysis 2 HAS been released, and has been available since April. Granted at the time of release it did not support DirectX 11, due largely in part to it being launched simultaenously on PC and consoles, a recent patch (released June 27th) has added its DirectX 11 feature set, and another patch increased the texture quality for PC gamers, both of which are actually optional, free upgrades. The most recent version, 1.9, also added a demo level which can be run via the in-game console; personally I have no experience with that side of things, since I played through for the storyline, but it is there, and I'd imagine its something you could add to your benchmarking suite, should it suit whatever your requirements are. Reply
IanCutress - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkMany thanks on the update :) Not had much time to play games recently, but at some point I want to update the GPU drivers in my reviews also. Updating GPU drivers essentially removes all previous GPU results, so it might be worth having a look at the games I test as well at the same time.
Ian Reply
MWilliamson - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkYou're most welcome, I had thought that was a possibility :) Reply
Igen - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkHard to tell from the pics, but are those heatsinks riveted on? Would make mods/repairs difficult. Reply
DanNeely - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkThe southbridge sink has what look like plastic fasteners; I'd assume they're pushpins of some sort. The moftset/etc sinks are harder too tell because of the angle and not being perfectly in focus, but if you look at the fastener in the lower right on the 5th pic the recessed area shows two indents that look like they're in the right spots to be part of a philips head which is otherwise out of sight. A high resolution vertical image/bottom image would really help. Reply
Uritziel - Friday, July 22, 2011 - linkMOFTSET lol! I'm going to start saying that :) Reply
Death666Angel - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkThe green color of the ECS mainboard bars in the graphs for gaming makes little sense here, because then we don't know which resolution was used, as the resolution is identified as the colors. Though of course the higher resolution has most likely the lower fps numbers, it still looks odd. :-)
Good review though! Reply
HangFire - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkYou got 3? Wow. My old ECS C2D board had one (two if you count the CPU).
ECS has really moved up over the years. Reply
fausto412 - Thursday, July 21, 2011 - linkthis solution is junk. Reply
dhiiir - Friday, July 22, 2011 - linkI believe that the best motherboard can be ruined with a terrible BIOS or UEFI. UEFI is pretty cool, but if you can't make a good text only implementation, how the hell are you going to make a passable GUI? I'm perfectly happy with a well designed text based UEFI, but I will admit that as much time as I spend with BIOSs and UEFIs, Asus' slick GUI system is clearly in a class by itself. If I were new to the game, I would want something like that on my first build. There just isn't an excuse for terrible BIOS/UEFIs in the year 2011.I like online shopping,but don't know where have a good store to buy . I have a friend said that a shop is very good. -.www.upsfashion.com- I went. Really good. Things are cheap, fashion,. Owner has a good attitude. I am really happy to buy things there. Reply
erple2 - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - linkLooks like the spammers are getting slightly more advanced in this day and age. Reply
etamin - Friday, August 12, 2011 - linkNice to see all those combinations being tested, but why was 580+580 in SLI not included? Reply


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Did you know?
Wild animals tolerate horse riders closer to them than they do vehicles or people on foot.
A handy three hours' drive from Johannesburg, Polokwane Game Reserve guarantees a high-quality, low-cost wildlife experience where you can see plenty of game, forests of aloes and unusual birds.
In fact, Polokwane Game Reserve is something of an open secret among the birding fraternity. This is probably the easiest place to spot South African specials like the short-clawed lark as well as the Kalahari scrub-robin, ashy tit, zitting cisticola and burnt-neck eremomela. You might also see the unreasonably beautiful violet-backed starling.
Most of the rich grasslands around the city of Polokwane in Limpopo have been converted to agriculture. This reserve is one of the last places you'll find particular kinds of vegetation like the fertile Pietersberg Plateau False Grassland habitat.
That's because the fertile soils it grows on have mostly been snapped up by surrounding agriculture. But the nutritious grasses support some very rare species, like sable and tsessebe antelope. You could also see less finicky creatures like the white rhino. There are also giraffe, zebra, impala and more than a dozen more mammal species.
Polokwane Game Reserve is 3 200 hectares in size and is one of the largest municipal reserves in the country. It has an excellent network of roads, so you can easily drive yourself around for game viewing. If you prefer your wildlife experiences on foot, there's a 21km long hiking route. If you're really energetic, you can do it in a day, but there are overnight facilities too.
There's also a less strenuous 5km trail, perfect for a morning's ramble, or you can book a morning or evening game drive.
But if you're up for something more exotic, you can do some horse-riding through the reserve with a local operator. And not just any an amble through the bush either. Apart from morning rides, lunchtime rides (including a sumptuous spread) or sunset rides with sundowner snacks, you could also opt to ride by full moon through the bush – an experience you will never forget.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Polokwane Game Reserve
Tel: +27 (0) 15 290 2331/3
Nature's Way Adventure Safaris
Tel: +27 (0) 15- 263-6473
Cell: +27 (0) 83-380-2322
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Best time to visit
Summers can be extremely hot (although this is when you'd see most birds). This area is very pleasant from March to November.
Tours to do
Nature's Way Safaris organises horse rides in the reserve, and can also take you to the biodiversity-rich Blouberg mountains, the biggest baobab tree in the region, and a cycad forest.
Get around
You have the option of walking, driving or game-viewing by horseback. You could even explore it by mountain bike.
Length of stay
You could head off here for a day or a half-day excursion.
Where to stay
Polokwane itself has many guest houses, hotels and B&Bs, but the reserve also offers self-catering accommodation.


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The Australian dollar has pushed above US94¢ to a new 2014 high after a shock fall in the unemployment rate.
The local unit rose as high as US94.40¢ on Thursday, its strongest level since mid-November, after it surged by half a cent on the back of the stronger-than expected jobless figures from the Bureau of Statistics.
But the exchange rate weakened slightly shortly after, as exports for China — Australia's largest trading partner — dropped by 6.6 per cent in March from a year ago, official customs data showed. The dollar was buying US94.03¢ late Thursday.
Imports fell by 11.3 per cent for a trade surplus of $US7.71 billion ($8.2 billion). The imports and exports figures were both below forecasts. Even so, imports from Australia increased from $US7.2 billion to $US8.9 billion, a 8.5 per cent increased from a year ago.
Early on Thursday, the dollar rose to US93.99¢ after the US Federal Reserve's meeting last month revealed the central bank's members were concerned a shift in the median projection of interest rates could overstate the move towards an earlier start for rate hikes.
"The [Federal Open Market Committee] appeared to backtrack on the hawkish tones the market assumed from the March meeting," Nomura interest rate strategist Martin Whetton said.
"The tone of the statement will likely give some pause for thought on the likelihood of higher market rates in the near term, though as always, the FOMC's actions and market reactions, should remain data-dependent."
The US dollar jumped in mid-March when Fed chair Janet Yellen said interest rates could rise six months after the tapering of its stimulus program ended, which markets had read as a stance towards a more hawkish stance.
The Australian dollar has appreciated in recent months after the Reserve Bank of Australia's shift to a neutral monetary policy stance in February. It has also been supported by the sharp reductions in short positions on the local dollar, meaning fewer investors were betting on further falls in the currency compared to a rise.
The rise so far this year has made the Australian dollar one of the best-performing G10 currencies against the US dollar, and a further move upwards in the short-term towards US95¢ could be possible, currency strategists said.
"We have seen increased volumes coming into the Australian dollar along with record short-covering over the last two weeks," ThinkForex senior markets analyst Matt Simpson said.
"When you combine this with greenback weakness, then the baby-bull run we are witnessing begins to make more sense. But I don't see this lasting too much longer."
The recent rally could also prompt RBA governor Glenn Stevens to start jawboning again about the need for a weaker exchange rate, UBS interest rate strategist Matthew Johnson said, adding the currency was about 6 per cent overvalued according to the central bank's models.
The rising currency could also lead the RBA's to revise its growth forecasts, he added.


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Cue great excitement. All those pre-written articles and commentaries on the S&P 500 passing its previous closing highs can be rolled out, and there is something for the 24-hour TV to talk about other than the rather small queues at banks in Cyprus.
Just a couple of small flaws: Read more


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Birthstone Star Heart Initial Charm 10kt Gold Z45
Now how adorable and cute is this? What a pretty custom color personalized name pendant charm! This is a 3-dimensional (solid back double plate) 10kt Yellow Gold Diamond Cut Fancy Zirconia Crystal Birthstone Color Star with Cut Out Heart Design Custom Initial Charm Pendant Aprx: 1" across by 1" tall Available in any birthstone color desired. Available in any letter or number for price advertised. Use our store links above or below to order this item online. Send letter or number for order in the COMMENTS section of the PayPal Checkout order form. In case you forget to add the letter or number when ordering, send to email@example.com.


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Used 2013 BMW Sedan Values
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BMW Prices & values: BMW describes its cars as the "Ultimate Driving Machines." BMW's luxury cars and uniquely styled SUVs are powerful performers with highly-crafted detailed car buyer options. BMW also produces many of its vehicles in the United States, including the BMW X5 and BMW X6. Start your BMW car shopping research below with prices, specs and reviews or browse BMW deals.
Select a used 2013 BMW Sedan model
(2018 - 1952 including exotics and classic cars)
2013 BMW 3 Series
Now available in an all-new wagon trim, the 2013 BMW 3 Series is a compact entry-level luxury vehicle offered in sedan, coupe, and convertible (hardtop) trim levels.
2013 BMW 5 Series
A mid-size luxury sedan with a plethora of features, the 2013 BMW 5 Series is available with either RWD or AWD.
2013 BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo
Relatively unchanged for 2013, the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo mid-size luxury liftback with advanced AWD.
2013 BMW 6 Series
Adding a four door sedan to its lineup, the 2013 BMW 6 series returns with coupe and convertible trim levels.
2013 BMW 7 Series
Refreshed for 2013, the BMW 7 Series is one of the most recognizable full size luxury sedans on the road, capable of achieving 28 mpg highway.
Returning to the BMW lineup after a two year hiatus, the 2013 BMW M5 is the performance-oriented variant of the 5-Series, capable of reaching 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds.


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Assessment |
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Cognitive Psychology: Attention · Decision making · Learning · Judgement · Memory · Motivation · Perception · Reasoning · Thinking - Cognitive processes Cognition - Outline Index
A cognitive map (also: mental map or mental model) is a type of mental representation which serves an individual to acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations and attributes of phenomena in their everyday or metaphorical spatial environment. The concept was introduced by Edward Tolman in 1948.[1]
Cognitive maps have been studied in various fields, such as psychology, education, archaeology, planning, geography, cartography, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, management and history.[2] As a consequence, these mental models are often referred to, variously, as cognitive maps, mental maps, scripts, schemata, and frames of reference.
Cognitive maps serve the construction and accumulation of spatial knowledge, allowing the "mind's eye" to visualize images in order to reduce cognitive load, enhance recall and learning of information. This type of spatial thinking can also be used as a metaphor for non-spatial tasks, where people performing non-spatial tasks involving memory and imaging use spatial knowledge to aid in processing the task.[3]
The neural correlates of a cognitive map have been speculated to be the place cell system in the hippocampus[4] and the recently discovered grid cells in the entorhinal cortex.[5]
Neurological basis Edit
Cognitive mapping is believed to largely be a function of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is connected to the rest of the brain in such a way that it is ideal for integrating both spatial and nonspatial information. Connections from the postrhinal cortex and the medial entorhinal cortex provide spatial information to the hippocampus. Connections from the perirhinal cortex and lateral entorhinal cortex provide nonspatial information. The integration of this information in the hippocampus makes the hippocampus a practical location for cognitive mapping, which necessarily involves combining information about an object's location and its other features.[6]
O'Keefe and Nadel were the first to outline a relationship between the hippocampus and cognitive mapping.[4] Many additional studies have shown additional evidence that supports this conclusion.[7] Specifically, place cells, pyramidal cells, and grid cells have been implicated as the neuronal basis for cognitive maps within the hippocampal system. Numerous studies by O'Keefe have implicated the involvement of place cells. Individual place cells within the hippocampus correspond to separate locations in the environment with the sum of all cells contributing to a single map of an entire environment. The strength of the connections between the cells represents the distances between them in the actual environment. The same cells can be used for constructing several environments, though individual cells' relationships to each other may differ on a map by map basis.[4] The possible involvement of place cells in cognitive mapping has been seen in a number of mammalian species, including rats and macaque monkeys.[7] Additionally, in a study of rats by Manns and Eichenbaum, pyramidal cells from within the hippocampus were also involved in representing object location and object identity, indicating their involvement in the creation of cognitive maps.[6] However, there has been some dispute as to whether such studies of mammalian species indicate the presence of a cognitive map and not another, simpler method of determining one's environment.[8]
While not located in the hippocampus, grid cells from within the medial entorhinal cortex have also been implicated in the process of path integration, actually playing the role of the path integrator while place cells display the output of the information gained through path integration.[9] The results of path integration are then later used by the hippocampus to generate the cognitive map.[10] The cognitive map likely exists on a circuit involving much more than just the hippocampus, even if it is primarily based there. Other than the medial entorhinal cortex, the presubiculum and parietal cortex have also been implicated in the generation of cognitive maps.[7]
Parallel Map Theory Edit
There has been some evidence for the idea that the cognitive map is represented in the hippocampus by two separate maps. The first is the bearing map, which represents the environment through self-movement cues and gradient cues. The use of these vector-based cues creates a rough, 2D map of the environment. The second map would be the sketch map that works off of positional cues. The second map integrates specific objects, or landmarks, and their relative locations to create a 2D map of the environment. The cognitive map is thus obtained by the integration of these two separate maps.[10]
Generating the cognitive map Edit
The cognitive map is generated from a number of sources, both from the visual system and elsewhere. Much of the cognitive map is created through self-generated movement cues. Inputs from senses like vision, proprioception, olfaction, and hearing are all used to deduce a person's location within their environment as they move through it. This allows for path integration, the creation of a vector that represents one's position and direction within one's environment, specifically in comparison to an earlier reference point. This resulting vector can be passed along to the hippocampal place cells where it is interpreted to provide more information about the environment and one's location within the context of the cognitive map.[10] Directional cues and positional landmarks are also used to create the cognitive map. Within directional cues, both explicit cues, like markings on a compass, as well as gradients, like shading or magnetic fields, are used as inputs to create the cognitive map. Directional cues can be used both statically, when a person does not move within his environment while interpreting it, and dynamically, when movement through a gradient is used to provide information about the nature of the surrounding environment. Positional landmarks provide information about the environment by comparing the relative position of specific objects, whereas directional cues give information about the shape of the environment itself. These landmarks are processed by the hippocampus together to provide a graph of the environment through relative locations.[10]
History Edit
The idea of a cognitive map was first developed by Edward C. Tolman. Tolman, one of the early cognitive psychologists, introduced this idea when doing an experiment involving rats and mazes. In Tolman's experiment, a rat was placed in a cross shaped maze and allowed to explore it. After this initial exploration, the rat was placed at one arm of the cross and food was placed at the next arm to the immediate right. The rat was conditioned to this layout and learned to turn right at the intersection in order to get to the food. When placed at different arms of the cross maze however, the rat still went in the correct direction to obtain the food because of the initial cognitive map it had created of the maze. Rather than just deciding to turn right at the intersection no matter what, the rat was able to determine the correct way to the food no matter where in the maze it was placed.[11]
Criticism Edit
In a review by Bennett[8] it is argued that there are no clear evidence for cognitive maps in non-human animals (i.e. cognitive map according to Tolman's definition). This argument is based on analyses of studies where it has been found that simpler explanations can account for experimental results. Bennett highlight three simpler alternative that cannot be ruled out in test of cognitive maps in non-human animals "These alternatives are (1) that the apparently novel short-cut is not truly novel; (2) that path integration is being used; and (3) that familiar landmarks are being recognised from a new angle, followed by movement towards them."
Related term Edit
A cognitive map is a spatial representation of the outside world that is kept within the mind, until an actual manifestation (usually, a drawing) of this perceived knowledge is generated, a mental map. Cognitive mapping is the implicit, mental mapping the explicit part of the same process.[12] In most cases, a cognitive map exists independently of a mental map, an article covering just cognitive maps would remain limited to theoretical considerations.
In some uses, mental map refers to a practice done by urban theorists by having city dwellers draw a map, from memory, of their city or the place they live. This allows the theorist to get a sense of which parts of the city or dwelling are more substantial or imaginable. This, in turn, lends itself to a decisive idea of how well urban planning has been conducted.
See alsoEdit
- Developmental topographical disorientation
- Direction perception
- Fuzzy cognitive map
- Schema
- Spatial imagery
- Spatial memory
- Spatial organization
- Spatial orientation (perception)
- Visual thinking
- R. M. Kitchin (1994). Cognitive Maps: What Are They and Why Study Them?. Journal of Environmental Psychology 14: 1-19.
- R. G. Downs and D. Stea (1973). Image and Environment: Cognitive Mapping and Spatial Behavior.
- E. C. Tolman (1948). Cognitive Maps in Rats and Man. Psychological Review 55: 189-208.
- J. O'Keefe and L. Nadel (1978). The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map.
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Is it possible to build a contact page and be able to store the emails in a data base using just html?to get more elaborate is php the way to go or should i just grab some of these stand alone contact sheets and not know what the markup is doing unless i study it? so many ways to go and it seems like a waste of time just trying to pick a path never mind actually doing it. help...............frustrated as always
No, you need some kind of programming language (like PHP) to connect with the database.
However, there are lots of 3rd-party email services that give you simple HTML code to place on your website (an email signup form) which will automatically store the entered email address in their own database. In this way, you can (for example) let people subscribe to your mailing list through your site without you having to do anything, and then when you want to do a mailout, you just log into that 3rd party site, create your email, and it sends out to all the addresses in the database.
Such services include CampaignMonitor and MailChimp.
Of course, this may not be what you are looking for, but I though it was worth mentioning. If you just want a normal contact page (with a contact form) you don't really need to store email addresses in a database anyway, do you? What is your aim here?
thanks ralph,I realized after a little reading that php was needed. I made a form then realized there was no way to store the info. Went to a third party "Freedback" and got one form for free. My next move is to find a way to give away a free mp3 song download after anyone submits their name and email to my site. Too involved to write my own on this one? Third party again? appreciate you following me on my slow progression while building my site. thanks again.
When a form is submitted, the user normally lands on a thank you page (either a new page or the same page with different content on it). On that thank you page you could have a download link. Should be pretty simple, actually.
[I've moved this to the PHP forum.]
hey ralph,"freedback" does have a place where I can place a website address. I'm not exactly sure what you're saying. Do I make a seperate page on the website with some coding that allows the 'subscriber' to get just one song from me? Or is it something that freedback allows? I'm lost in the way files are manipulated between third part services because of limitations. I know there are places if you pay that make this a little easier. I need a breakdown of how the transfer occurs or how I could make a download link that allows just one song for the subscribers trouble. Am I using the right terminology here? thanks for getting back. I got my contact page working ok in the fact that I can send them the freebie the long way. I just give them an attachment when I get their email. I figured I could work this our later. It would be nice if it was automatic though. Sorry to bother you. I am still a rookie so have patience. thanks ralph.
I'm not sure how Freedback works, but when someone fills in the form and submits the message on your site, what appears on screen next?
hi ralph,it goes to a screen that says powered by freedback. there is a loading bar and when full comes up with a form sent message and a button 'continue'. After clicking on 'continue' another screen comes up with "thank you for your submission" the info is displayed that I asked for in my contact page and then goes back to my contact page. thanks again.
Hm, I wonder if you can reset it to land on a different page—one with a download link. In the Freedback setup, was there a point where you chose the original contact page as the final destination ... or does Freedback choose that automatically?
hey ralph,when you go to freedback they set up your contact page for you. question boxes, radio buttons, etc. about 6 different options. after you do this they write the code for you. ( old html ? sitepoint book says to take out certain parts of their code and replace it with sitepoints. ) it got a bit confusing and i just copied and pasted their code section to the right area on my contact page. it worked so I was happy. I will try and fix it when I get more detailed later. Just trying to get the website to function on each page at this point. I don't think you can get in there because after all it is a freebie. Anything I add might not jive with what they are giving me. Got an idea of some code I could add? I would have to add it at the source ( freedback ) before I pasted it to my contact page. thanks for getting back again.
OK, checking the SitePoint book (Build you own website...) on page 285 is says:
After adding the form fields, there will be further options to complete. Choose the option to show Freedback's Thank you page. Alternatively, you can send the user to your own customized Thank you page, which can be done at a later stage if you prefer.
That bit in bold is what I was talking about. You could create your own landing page with a link to the downloadable file and then tell Freedback to land your visitors on that page.
hi ralph,so I make up a thank you page which the subscriber goes to ( heartbeatsoundsmusic.com/thankyou ) and which also has a 'free mp3' button there. Okay so far but how would I let them pick one of my 40 songs without coming back for more? Will they even get sent back to my website? I'm not sure how that part works. I'm not sure of how to start the coding for this. would I have to make a link for each song? Sorry usually I am copying from an example and not making original code. I will look around for examples. thanks.
My suggestion was based on this:
I assumed there was a single file you wanted to give away once someone had subscribed. If you want to give people a choice, that's getting a little more elaborate and might require something more fancy. This would be a good time to provide specific details about how you need this to work.
I was thinking I would need a language that offers choices ( like a flow chart in computer programming ) like yes and no, true or false. I believe php or javascript does that. Which way should I go in your opinion? Anyway, that's why I was holding off on this portion of finding or making the code for this page. Until the emails start pouring in I can do it the long way and send whatever song they want as an attachment with their email when I log it in my temporary data base. Trying to get more email traffic coming my way and I need to learn some marketing skills through the google videos etc. Lots of sideroads to starting an internet business. The coding will probably become the easiest part aside from creating original songs from scratch, getting better musicians to play in my studio, my own playing, singing, producing, the whole marketing thing and since I really don't want to start gigging again ( too old for that lol ). I'm dreaming I can be the Beatles reincarnate and do every thing from the studio. lmao. lol. Anyway I' sure you catch my drift. Baby steps in this new world of coding are getting a little bigger thanks to you. Really appreciate your input. I like challenges and I will get this sucker off the ground.


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A nationally recognized speaker on balanced living and generational trends, Jim Cartmill is CEO of Let's Talk Health, a nutritional supplement company. First elected in 1990, Cartmill is the longest serving member on the Sweetwater school board.
Cartmill has received large campaign contributions from SGI in the past, including in 2010 when he received $20,000 from the firm, a year in which the firm at one point had contributed nearly one-third of the money raised by Sweetwater candidates.
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