text:
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2003
- Messages
- 57,865
- Location
- Eblana
It gets worse! NASA vid at link.
Russians assured world not ending
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing11.html
Last week, Russia's government decided to put an end to the doomsday talk. Photograph: De Agostini/Getty Images.
Nasa: Why the world won't end
The Irish Times takes no responsibility for the content
or availability of other websites
There are scattered reports of unusual behaviour from across Russia's nine time zones.
Inmates in a women's prison near the Chinese border are said to have experienced a "collective mass psychosis" so intense that their wardens summoned a priest to calm them. In a factory town east of Moscow, panicked citizens stripped shelves of matches, kerosene, sugar and candles. A huge Mayan-style archway is being built - out of ice - on Karl Marx Street in Chelyabinsk in the south.
For those not schooled in New Age prophecy, there are rumours the world will end on December 21st, 2012, when a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.
Russia, a nation with a penchant for mystical thinking, has taken notice.
Last week, Russia's government decided to put an end to the doomsday talk. Its minister of emergency situations said on Friday that he had access to "methods of monitoring what is occurring on the planet Earth," and that he could say with confidence that the world was not going to end in December.
He acknowledged, however, that Russians were still vulnerable to "blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, floods, trouble with transportation and food supply, breakdowns in heat, electricity and water supply."
Similar assurances have been issued in recent days by Russia's chief sanitary doctor, a top official of the Russian Orthodox Church, lawmakers from the State Duma and a former disc jockey from Siberia who recently placed first in the television show "Battle of the Psychics." One official proposed prosecuting Russians who spread the rumor - starting December 22nd.
"You cannot endlessly speak about the end of the world, and I say this as a doctor," said Leonid Ogul, a member of parliament's environment committee. "Everyone has a different nervous system, and this kind of information affects them differently. Information acts subconsciously. Some people are provoked to laughter, some to heart attacks, and some - to some negative actions."
Russia is not the only country to face this problem.
In France, the authorities plan to bar access to Bugarach mountain in the south to keep out a flood of visitors who believe it is a sacred place that will protect a lucky few from the end of the world. The patriarch of Ukraine's Orthodox Church recently issued a statement assuring the faithful that "doomsday is sure to come," but that it will be provoked by the moral decline of mankind, not the "so-called parade of planets or the end of the Mayan calendar."
In Yucatan state in Mexico, which has a large Mayan population, most place little stock in end-of-days talk. Officials are planning a Mayan cultural festival on December 21st and, to show that all will be well after that, a follow-up in 2013.
Russians can be powerfully transported by emotions, as the Rev Tikhon Irshenko witnessed during his visit to Prison Colony No. 10 in the village of Gornoye.
In an interview with the Data news service, Rev Tikhon said he was summoned to the prison in November. The wardens told him that anxiety over the Mayan prophecy had been building for two months, and some inmates had broken out of the facility "because of their disturbing thoughts." Some of the women were sick, or having seizures, he said.
"Once, when the prisoners were standing in formation, one of them imagined that the earth yawned, and they were all stricken by fear and ran in all directions," the priest said.
He lectured the inmates about the signs of the apocalypse according to the New Testament, he said, and after that "the populist statements about the end of the world were dispelled and the tension eased."
More common are reports about panicky buying. In Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryatiya region, citizens have reportedly been hoarding food and candles to survive a period without light, following instructions from a Tibetan monk called the Oracle of Shambhala, who has been described on some Russian television broadcasts. A similar account appeared in a local newspaper in the factory town of Omutninsk, about 700 miles east of Moscow.
Viktoria Ushakova, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, told the Interfax news agency that she ran the article as entertainment on the last page of her newspaper, in a section entitled "Relax" that also includes crossword puzzles. The ensuing panic, accompanied by a barrage of calls from distraught readers, lasted for a week and a half and then spread to nearby villages.
"I checked myself today," she said. "There are no candles in all of Omutninsk."
Last week, lawmakers in Moscow took up the matter, addressing a letter to Russia's three main television stations asking them to stop airing material about the prophecy.
"You get the sense that the end of the world is a commercial project," Mikhail Degtyaryov told the newspaper Izvestiya. "Just look at how many swindlers are trying to make money on this affair, starting from the pseudo-magicians, ending with people selling groceries and other rations."
Though news outlets are likely to pay a price for this episode, Maria Eismont, a columnist for the newspaper Vedomosti, argued that the government's recent embrace of archaic religious conservatism set the stage for apocalyptic thinking. At the blasphemy trial against the punk protest band Pussy Riot last summer, she noted, the young band members were sentenced in part on the basis of writings by Orthodox clerics from the seventh and fourth centuries.
"It would be unfair to consider Omutninsk a unique site of flourishing mysticism," she wrote. "If Cossacks in operatic costumes march in downtown Moscow, and the State Duma is quite seriously considering introducing punishment for the violation of believers' feelings, then why shouldn't people living in a depressed town a thousand kilometres from Moscow not buy matches out of a fear of cosmic flares?"
As the first three weeks of December melt away, Russians will approach the deadline with their characteristic mordant humor. An entrepreneur in the Siberian city of Tomsk, for example, has sold several thousand gag emergency kits, a cleverly packaged $29 package including sprats, vodka, buckwheat, matches, candles, a string and a piece of soap.
The motto on the package is a classic refrain of the Russian optimist: "It can't be worse."


text:
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — A marathon spelling bee between two Kansas City-area students who exhausted the initial word list last month ended after 29 more rounds Saturday when the eventual runner-up stumbled over the word "stifling."
For more than an hour, seventh-grader Kush Sharma, 13, and fifth-grader Sophia Hoffman, 11, went toe-to-toe in the continuation of the Jackson County Spelling Bee, which began two weeks ago but had to be extended after the two breezed through the word list provided by the Scripps National Spelling Bee, then 20 more words picked out of the dictionary.
The contestants had no problem correctly spelling words like "boodle" and "slobber," often asking the moderator for a word's origin, definition or part of speech. But at the end of the 28th round, Sophia appeared puzzled when attempting to spell "stifling," and even more so when the bell rang to indicate she had gotten it wrong.
Following a lengthy break to listen to audio of the round to make sure Sophia had heard the word correctly, the judges ruled that she had misspelled it, meaning Kush could claim the title if he correctly spelled his word in the 29th round.
After being given his final word, "definition," Kush drew chuckles from spectators watching from a different room in the Kansas City Public Library when he asked for the definition. He promptly spelled it correctly and won the bee.
The end of the match brought to a close a whirlwind two weeks for Kush, a student at Frontier School of Innovation in Kansas City, and Sophia, a Highland Park Elementary School student in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit.
Three days after they finished in a tie on Feb. 22, both of their families were flown to New York to make television appearances on CNN and "Good Morning America." The two said they had become close friends because of the experience.
"I was pretty sad when she got that word incorrect," said Kush, who now moves on to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May. "That's the game, you know? It's going to come down to one person, whether you're friends or not."
Sophia said she was excited that she made it so far in the bee and that she planned to compete again next year. Kush said he, too, would be back, and he wouldn't be surprised if the two dueled even longer next year.
Mark Hoffman, Sophia's father, called his daughter a tough kid who gained a lot from the competition despite the emotionally upsetting conclusion.
"I think it is part of the growth of the kids to learn how to work through disappointment and come out stronger," he said.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Senate Approves $60.4 Billion Sandy Aid Bill
The Senate on Friday approved a $60.4-billion emergency aid package for victims of Hurricane Sandy that had been backed by Senate Democrats.
Democrats had to turn back Republican efforts to cut programs such as $150 million in fisheries aid that Republican lawmakers said was unrelated to the storm that hammered the East Coast late in October. The measure cleared the Senate on a 62-32 vote, with 12 Republicans supporting the bill. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) was the only Democrat to vote against the bill, but he later switched his vote to support the measure.
The bill faces uncertain prospects in the House, where GOP leaders appear reluctant to move quickly on a big spending bill in the final days of a lame duck session. Congress's attention is focused on talks over the so-called "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and automatic spending cuts.
Sandy was blamed for at least 120 deaths and battered coastline areas from North Carolina to Maine. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were the hardest hit states and suffered high winds, flooding and storm surges. Sandy damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey. In New York, 305,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed and more than 265,000 businesses were affected.
Senate Republicans failed on an amendment for a smaller package of about $24 billion in aid for Sandy, which was the most costly natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and one of the worst storms ever in the Northeast.
House GOP leaders have not said how they plan to proceed. But House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers of Kentucky has said Congress should probably begin with a smaller aid package for immediate recovery needs and wait until more data can be collected about storm damage before approving additional money next year.
Calling the need for emergency disaster relief "beyond urgent," Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) issued a statement in which he called on House leadership to bring the bill to the floor when the house reconvened on Sunday, with first votes scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
"I am confident that if a vote is called, my colleagues in the House will do the right thing and provide the necessary votes to pass this bill, so that those in the most devastated areas will have the resources needed to effectively rebuild," he said.
Rep. Paul Ryan, the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee and a leading House fiscal conservative, has criticized the Democratic bill as "packed with funding for unrelated items, such as commercial fisheries in American Samoa and roof repair of museums in Washington, D.C."
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), urged House leaders to "put this bill on the floor quickly and allow a vote." If the House balks, Schumer said, the Senate bill provides "very good groundwork" for seeking Sandy aid next year.
The measure includes $11.5 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's chief disaster relief fund and $17 billion for community development block grants, much of which would help homeowners repair or replace their homes. Another $11.7 billion would help repair New York City's subways and other mass transit damage and protect them from future storms. Some $9.7 billion would go toward the government's flood insurance program. The Army Corps of Engineers would receive $5.3 billion to mitigate flood future risks and rebuild damaged projects.
Senate Republicans said much of the spending in the Democratic bill was for projects unrelated to Sandy, such as $150 million for fisheries disasters that could go to Alaska as well as Gulf Coast and New England states. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), sought to strip the fisheries funding, but his amendment failed.
To court votes, Democrats last week broadened some of their bill's provisions to cover damage from Hurricane Isaac, which struck the Gulf Coast earlier this year. A provision was added to the $2.9 billion allotted to Army Corps of Engineers projects to reduce future flooding risks; the coverage area for that program will now include areas hit by Isaac in addition to Sandy. Democrats also shifted $400 million into a community development program for regions suffering disasters, beyond areas struck by Sandy.
A Coburn amendment to reduce the federal share of costs for the Army Corps of Engineer projects to reduce future flooding risks also failed.
Most of the money in the $60.4 billion bill — $47.4 billion — is for immediate help for victims and other recovery and rebuilding efforts. The aid is intended to help states rebuild public infrastructure like roads and tunnels, and help thousands of people displaced from their homes.
"It will actually put people to work in their own communities, rebuilding their own communities," said Sen. Barbara Mikulsk (D-Md.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Coburn, two frequent critics of government spending, targeted what they called "questionable" spending in the Democratic bill, including $2 million for roof repairs at Smithsonian Institution museums and $58 million in subsidies for tree planting on private properties. A McCain amendment to strip the tree subsidies failed.
Republicans also criticized $13 billion in the Democratic bill for projects to protect against future storms, including fortifying mass transit systems in the Northeast. Republicans said however worthy such projects may be, they are not urgently needed and should be considered by Congress in the usual appropriations process next year.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that only about $9 billion of the $60.4 billion proposed by Democrats would be spent over the next nine months. The Democratic bill included many large infrastructure projects that often require years to complete, but Republicans said the CBO estimate of such drawn-out spending undercuts the urgency of the Democrats' aid package.
More than $2 billion in federal funds has been spent so far on relief efforts for 11 states and the District of Columbia. FEMA's disaster relief fund still has about $4.3 billion, and officials have said that is enough to pay for recovery efforts into early spring.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are receiving federal aid.
This article appeared in print on page 1 of edition of Hamodia.
To Read The Full Story
Are you already a subscriber?
Click "Sign In" to log in!
Become a Web Subscriber
Click "Subscribe" below to begin the process of becoming a new subscriber.
Become a Print + Web Subscriber
Click "Subscribe" below to begin the process of becoming a new subscriber.
Renew Print + Web Subscription
Click "Renew Subscription" below to begin the process of renewing your subscription.


text:
Rhine river cruises are probably the most popular of all European river cruises, although many "Rhine Cruises" are in fact day-trips down one particularly attractive section of the Rhine between Boppard and St Goar. The Rhine itself is one of Europe's major rivers, originating in the Swiss Alps and covering five countries. For over 2,000 years, this legendary river has greatly influenced the history, culture and economy of Europe. Some riverboats sail only on the Rhine River (known as the Rhein in Germany), while others combine the Rhine with other waterways in Germany, Austria, Hungary or the Netherlands.
Rhine-Main-Danube Cruises
Rhine-Main-Danube river cruises have become very popular, chiefly because the boats are getting more luxurious (and therefore acceptable to more travellers for longer trips) and there is a far greater variety of port experiences available, from tiny picturesque villages and famous castles to major cities like Amsterdam, Cologne and Basel. We did an Amsterdam-Budapest river cruise (Rhine-Danube) in 2005 with my 89 year-old mother and found it a good option for both her and ourselves. The next time we did a long trip on the Rhine again was a journey from Vienna to Paris in 2013 and that was very enjoyable as well.
A Side-Trip on the Moselle River
Cruises on the Moselle River (known as the Mosel river in Germany) are often combined with Rhine river cruises (see our Rhine-Moselle river cruises page), often slipped in as a two day side trip to Bernkastel and Trier before returning to the Rhine. Whatever itinerary you choose, a Rhine river cruise allows you to experience some of Europe's most interesting river ports and enjoy spectacular views.
A purely Rhine river cruise might start in Antwerp, travel through the heartland of Germany, along the border of France and into Switzerland, ending up at Basel. That means you get the famous Rhine castles – more than any other river valley in the world, they claim – see the legendary Loreley Rock (yes, that is the correct spelling), visit Cologne with its UNESCO World Heritage Gothic Cathedral, explore the village of Rüdesheim and Siegfried's Musikkabinett, possibly visit Heidelberg on an excursion from Speyer, then sample the French-German ambience of Strasbourg on the way down to Basel over the border in Switzerland.
OUR ADVICE: All the major cruise operators such as Viking, Uniworld, Avalon, AmaWaterways, Scenic and Tauck compete aggressively on the Rhine and they have their most luxurious and up-to-date boats plying this river. Rhine river cruises are also sold by many tour aggregators and if you are choosing a cruise with them, concentrate on the ship you want to travel on and the itinerary (of course, there's also price!). Be sure to check out our "Things to watch for" page too!


text:
Well, this is news.
MTV, VH1, and CMT sent out a press release this morning announcing that on July 4th, which they're calling "Music Independence Day" (!) (!!), they will "dedicate their channels exclusively to music."
ALL DAY LONG. If by "all day long," you mean "from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern and Pacific." (Hey, what's a day, right? 12 hours, 24 hours, these are semantics.)
You might think that MTV, VH1, and CMT would not need a special declaration to devote a 12-hour block to music, but you would be wrong. IT'S MUSIC INDEPENDENCE DAY, WOOOOO! The way for artists to get in on it, it turns out, is to sign up on the Artist Platform. You might think the Artist Platform would be where a band is raised above a screaming crowd to fight Labelzilla, but in fact, the Artist Platform is an MTV/VH1/CMT portal for artists to have their own pages, sell stuff to fans, and even get a chunk of the ad revenue. And some early returns suggest that it's doing at least some good for some bands.
So all you have to do to get in on this whole 12-continuous-whole-entire-hours-of-music extravaganza is sign your band up with MTV's effort to become the new online social home of bands and artists. (At the time Artist Platform was announced in August 2012, they explicitly stated it was meant to replace the success MySpace had for a long time in providing social support for musicians.) In return, people will be able to communicate with your band online (where else can they do that, after all?) or leave you a "tip."
They'll spend those 12 hours introducing folks to the bands from Artist Portal who are lucky enough to make the cut, as well as serving up plenty of existing superstars, both through their own music and through other artists they love.
The level of irony in calling it "Music Independence Day" when you're supposed to get to your fans through the gritty upstart known as Viacom is rather breathtaking, but hey – if you've been complaining that MTV isn't about music anymore, you're about to get your way for 12 continuous, delicious, synergy-creating hours.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
A new study shows little evidence that exposure to chemotherapy in the womb in the second and third trimesters leads to health problems or developmental delays in childhood
Children in the study whose mothers had an average of three to four cycles of chemotherapy during pregnancy were subjected to a battery of tests to assess their general health, intelligence, and behavioral development.
The tests suggested that fetal exposure to chemotherapy after the first trimester is not associated with developmental and health issues.
Intelligence scores were significantly lower among children who were born prematurely, but early delivery, and not exposure to chemotherapy, was thought to be the cause.
Researcher Frederic Amant, MD, PhD, of Belgium's Leuven Cancer Institute says the findings make it clear that planned early delivery to avoid such exposure should be avoided in most cases.
"This is a common practice, but it is not a practice that can be supported," Amant says. "After the first few months (of pregnancy), exposure to chemotherapy appears to be safer than premature delivery."
Chemo After First Trimester Safe
As many as 1 in 1,000 pregnancies occur in women who have malignancies requiring treatment, according to one study.
Although there is general agreement that chemotherapy should be avoided during the first trimester of pregnancy — when the birth defect risk is greatest — there is less agreement about the safety of exposure to cancer drugs later in pregnancy.
Until now, there has also been little follow-up of children born to women treated for malignancies during pregnancy, Amant says.
The new study, published in the journal The Lancet, included 70 exposed children whose average age was just over 2 1/2. The youngest child in the study was 1 1/2 and the oldest was 18.
Two-thirds of the children were born early and were less than 37 weeks' gestation at delivery.
The children underwent standard IQ tests, along with tests to assess their heart function, hearing, and physical and behavioral development.
Measures of behavior, general health, hearing, and growth were all within the normal range, but IQ scores were lower for the children born prematurely.
The researchers concluded that IQ scores increased by an average of 11 points for each additional month of gestation.
Chemo Findings 'Reassuring'
Although Amant and colleagues say larger studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm their findings, they conclude that exposure to chemotherapy during the second and third trimester is generally safe with few long-term harms for babies.
"The clinical message is threefold," Amant says. "First, fear of chemotherapy is generally no reason to terminate a pregnancy. Second, fear of chemotherapy is generally no reason to delay treatment when pregnant. And third, delivery should not be rushed to avoid exposing the fetus to chemotherapy."
Women's cancer specialist Diana Contreras, MD, says the study confirms what most oncologists now believe.
Contreras directs the division of gynecology oncology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York.
"These findings are not earth-shattering, but they are very reassuring," she says. "And it is very helpful to be able to show patients a study that confirms what we are telling them."
American Cancer Society Chief Medical Officer Otis Brawley, MD, agrees.
"This is not a big surprise," he says. "We have been giving chemotherapy to women who are pregnant for a long time."
He adds that some chemotherapies are avoided — such as the drug methotrexate — because they are known to increase the risk of birth defects.
"But many of the most commonly used cancer drugs do not cross the placental barrier and we have had good outcomes with these drugs," Brawley says.
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD


text:
Home » Rock climbing in Mt. Elgon Rock
Rock climbing in Mt. Elgon Rock
Climbing takes place outside the park at Sipi. There are 14 climbs requiring various levels of rock scaling techniques, and all equipment can be hired from the Sipi Falls Tourist Guides Association.
The toughest is a 35m climb while the easiest is 15m. Both command a picturesque view of the main falls and the Karamoja plains.


text:
Are you ready for the bucket list trip of a lifetime?
6 Heatherbloom
Austin, TX 78738
Toll Free: 1-866-418-1063
Toll Free: 1-866-418-1063
""We had a 15 person trip to Oktoberfest this September and the whole trip, end to end was brilliant. All of our party was more than pleased with all aspects - Bucket List Events exceeded our expectations and we are thankful for such a fun and smooth trip!!
"""Me and my friend recently booked a trip with Toby and his crew for the running of the bulls and needless to say it was fantastic. Everyone worked so hard to make the trip as easy and fun as possible. They completely took the guess work out of the whole trip. One of the best trips I ever took and I will be booking my next event with them for sure."
""Traveled with my parents, wife, and two oldest boys this year and Bucket List Events did not disappoint. First class service! The Hospitality area and base camp were fantastic. Shuttle to and from the course made it stress free. Wednesday practice round allowed my sons to high five the vast majority of current players and legends of the game. The North Augusta home that was secured for us was nothing short of amazing. I would not hesitate to use Bucket List again and quite certain my family will on other future events.
""Toby & co. put together an incredible Pamplona experience for a large group of us. Can't recommend them enough.
""The team at Bucket List Events saved my bacon when my son and I wanted to go to the 2018 Champions League Final in Kiev. The logistics of arranging the tickets, accommodation and ground transport for such an event can be harrowing if 'going it alone', to say the least (we tried!). When we found out about Bucket List Events they made it entirely stress-free. The whole package - top-notch seats at the stadium, accommodation in the perfect location, airport transfers and guided tour of the city was brilliant.
""Our Masters experience was wonderful. Brian and his staff were great and the accommodations superb. A true Bucket List event!
""Bucket List Team - We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and getting to know you guys. My husband was able to accomplish one of this dreams. We look forward to another Bucket List trip with you guys in the future!
""G'day from Sydney! - Bucket List Events looked after my family for Comic-Con San Diego last year and it was fantastic - many thanks!
""Thank you, Bucket List Events. Y'all were awesome and over the top, we can't thank you enough!
""Loved our Oktoberfest experience with Bucket List events! Our small and large tent reservations were perfect and watching the parade from our hotel window was icing on the cake. Toby and team were excellent hosts - insuring our Oktoberfest time was a ton of fun?


text: RICHARD BANCROFT, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Farnworth in Lancashire in 1544. He was educated at Cambridge, first at Christ's College and afterwards at Jesus College. He took his degree of B.A. in 1567 and that of M.A. in 1570. Ordained about that time, he was named chaplain to Richard Cox, then Bishop of Ely, and in 1575 was presented to the rectory of Teversham in Cambridgeshire. The next year he was one of the preachers to the university, and in 1584 was presented to the rectory of St Andrew's, Holborn. His abilities, and his zeal as a champion of the church, secured him rapid promotion. He graduated B.D. in 1580 and D.D. five years later. In 1585 he was appointed treasurer of St Paul's cathedral, London, and in 1586 was made a member of the ecclesiastical commission. On the 9th of February 1589 he preached at Paul's Cross a sermon on St John IV. 1, the substance of which was a passionate attack on the Puritans. He described their speeches and proceedings, caricatured their motives, denounced the exercise of the right of private judgment, and set forth the divine right of bishops in such strong language that one of the Queen's councillors held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the crown. In the following year Bancroft was made a prebendary of St Paul's; he had been Canon of Westminster since 1587. He was chaplain successively to Lord Chancellor Hatton and Archbishop Whitgift. In June 1597 he was consecrated Bishop of London; and from this time, in consequence of the age and incapacity for business of Archbishop Whitgift, he was virtually invested with the power of primate, and had the sole management of ecclesiastical affairs. Among the more noteworthy cases which fell under his direction were the proceedings against "Martin Mar-Prelate," Thomas Cartwright and his friends, and John Penry, whose "seditious writings" he caused to be intercepted and given up to the Lord Keeper. In 1600 he was sent on an embassy, with others, to Embden, for the purpose of settling certain matters in dispute between the English and the Danes. This mission, however, failed. Bancroft was present at the death of Queen Elizabeth. He took a prominent and truculent part in the famous conference of prelates and Presbyterian divines held at Hampton Court in 1604. By the King's {James I] desire he undertook the vindication of the practices of confirmation, absolution, private baptism and lay excommunication; he urged, but in vain, the reinforcement of an ancient canon, "that schismatics are not to be heard against bishops"; and in opposition to the Puritans' demand for certain alterations in doctrine and discipline, he besought the King that care might be taken for a praying clergy; and that, till men of learning and sufficiency could be found, godly homilies might be read and their number increased. In March 1604 Bancroft, on Whitgift's death, was appointed by royal writ President of Convocation then assembled; and he there presented a book of canons collected by himself. It was adopted and received the royal approval, but was strongly opposed and set aside by Parliament two months afterwards. In the following November he was elected successor to Whitgift in the see of Canterbury. He continued to show the same zeal and severity as before, and with so much success that Lord Clarendon, writing in his praise, expressed the opinion that "if Bancroft had lived, he would quickly have extinguished all that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva." He was as lenient with the offences of the orthodox as he was rigid in suppressing heresy and schism. In 1605 he was sworn a member of the Privy Council. The same year he engaged in a contest with the judges, and exhibited articles of complaint against them before the Lords of the Council; but these complaints were overruled. His aim was really to make the ecclesiastical courts independent of the law by speciously magnifying the royal authority over them. He enforced discipline and exact conformity within the church with an iron hand; and over 200 clergymen were deprived of their livings for disobedience to the ex animo form of subscription. In 1608 he was chosen Chancellor of the university of Oxford. One of his latest public acts was a proposal laid before Parliament for improving the revenues of the church, and a project for a college of controversial divinity at Chelsea. In the last few months of his life he took part in the discussion about the consecration of certain Scottish bishops, and it was in pursuance of his advice that they were consecrated by several bishops of the English church. By this act were laid the foundations of the Scottish' Episcopal Church. Bancroft was "the chief overseer" of the authorized version of the Bible. He died at Lambeth Palace on the 2nd of November 1610. His literary remains are not extensive, but show him to have been an able writer.


text:
As you may know, Japan has lower per capita carbon emissions
than any Western European country. For that reason, I asked my friend,
Sean Saskamoto, who recently moved to Japan and who blogs at I'd Rather Be In Japan,
to check in with us every so often. I thought we might be able to learn
a little something about "happier planet, happlier people" lifestyles
from Sean's experience there.
Here is Sean's latest dispatch:
is a Zen Buddhist monk, and he's a teacher at the high school where I work. He
teaches calligraphy, which is a traditional art in Japan. Like high schools in
America, there are many clubs that students here can join.
In the calligraphy club, students practice the art of painting Japanese Kanji, the Chinese characters that make up part of the written language. Painting calligraphy is an old tradition in Japan, and the characters look lovely, even to my untrained eye.
Kawagishi-sensei has been teaching calligraphy for over 30 years. My Japanese isn't good enough to speak much with him, but a couple of times a week we try to chat. I noticed that every day he drinks his tea in a special teacup on his desk. It's a beautiful ceramic cup. The rich, textured colors shine in the light, and I assumed it must be new because it's so polished.
When I asked him about it, he told me that he'd bought it with his first paycheck as a teacher, thirty-five years ago. It was made in a famous Japanese style called Aritayaki. This cup of his has seen him through three and a half decades of his life. Every day he uses it, and it's still a gorgeous cup.
What struck me was how much this cup must mean to him by now. It also seemed very kind to the environment to use just one cup in all that time. I know that if you took all the cups I've used over the past thirty years, they would probably need their own landfill. How many paper cups, Styrofoam coffees, coke bottles, water bottles...how much glass and plastic have I used and thrown away in the course of my days over the years? Too many to be sure.
Apart from the simplicity of using one cup is the fact that it's made of clay. It was dug from the earth, molded by hand, glazed and fired in a kiln. It made me think that consumption itself isn't necessarily bad. There are ways to own things that can be fun, and even meaningful, and also friendly to the environment. What if everything I owned was acquired to celebrate an occasion, and lasted a lifetime?
Colin Beavan (that's me!) is now leading a conversation about finding a happy, helpful life at Colinbeavan.com. If you want to know how people are breaking out and and finding authentic, meaningful lives that help our world, check it out the blog here and sign up to join the conversation here.


text:
The Technology Entertainment Design Conference has been a great source for interesting presentations and in 2006 they started publishing their talks online. This week they published a list of the top 10 most popular talks. There are quite a few tech related ones and we've covered some of this work before: [Jeff Han]'s multitouch demos, [Johnny Lee]'s Wiimote hacking, [Blaise Aguera y Arcas] demoing a zoomable interface, and finally for a bit of fun [Arthur Benjamin]'s Mathemagic.
[via Waxy]


text:
Insurance in Farmington Hills, MI
Insurance • Car Insurance
28552 Orchard Lake Rd,
Farmington Hills ,
I've gotten to know many local families as an Allstate agent in Farmington Hills. I enjoy being a part of the community, and building local relationships is one of the best parts of my job. I look forward to getting to know you and helping you to find the solutions that meet your needs. I'm committed to helping Farmington Hills residents assess their immediate and long-term needs and choose options that will help them achieve their goals. When you want to explore options for protecting your home, personal property, or financial future, I'm available to answer your questions. If you're already a customer, I'm ready to review your coverage so that you can make any necessary adjustments to fit your changing needs. Call, email, or visit my agency in Farmington Hills today.
Worldwide > United States > Livonia, MI > Insurance


text:
Published by OnyxNeon in August 2007.
Price: $34.95
Date: August 2007
50% of this book's proceeds will go to The Perl Foundation.
You can purchase it from amazon.com, powells.com.
If you aren't familiar with mod_perl, it's a combination of Perl and Apache. Apache is the most popular free and open source webserver that delivers most of the pages on Internet. Perl is a very popular programming language, that used to be the language of choice for web-programming (though now many other languages are widely used, some more popular than the others). And finally mod_perl allows programmers to develop the software in Perl and take advantage of a very rich API that Apache provides (and which is not available through the CGI interface). For more information see: http://perl.apache.org/.
mod_perl 2, the next generation of the Apache Perl module, gives you full access to the Apache 2 internals via the Perl programming language, just as mod_perl 1 gave you access to Apache 1. New features in Apache and Perl make mod_perl 2 even more powerful and useful than before, allowing you to quickly write and deploy fast, robust web applications.
As with any major upgrade, there are new features and key changes to mod_perl from the 1.x generation. The mod_perl 2 User's Guide explains these key changes and demonstrates the tools that you can use to port modules and migrate your existing code. Improvements in Apache 2 and mod_perl 2 include:
testing framework, useful for Perl and non-Perl
Apache modules, allows you to develop fully-tested web applications
to verify features and guard against regression.ModPerl::Registry
and override methods
as needed.This guide provides installation and configuration
guidelines, as well as descriptions of all of the ways you can plug into
the Apache request cycle. You'll also learn how to write mod_perl handlers
to deliver content with rapid response times and to leverage your existing
CGI scripts with ModPerl::Registry
Whether you're new to mod_perl or migrating from mod_perl 1, the mod_perl 2 User's Guide will give you the information you need to get up and running on Apache 2 and mod_perl 2.
An interview with Jim Brandt by Andy Lester.
Check out the Practical mod_perl book, by Stas Bekman and Eric Cholet. Full content of the book is available online. update: unfortunately the original domain used to host that book: modperlbook.org wasn't renewed and now is used by a spammer. The contents of that site can now be found here.
Stas also created a site where you can read free online books. You of course are familiar with his oldest site is stason.org.
© 2007-2017 StasoSphere


text:
"For their decisive advances in elucidating the dynamics of strongly coupled supersymmetric field and string theories. The deep physical and mathematical consequences of the electric-magnetic duality they exploited have broadened the scope of Mathematical Physics."
Dr. Witten received his BA at Brandeis University in 1971 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976. After four years at Harvard University as a postdoctoral fellow and Junior Fellow, he joined the faculty of Princeton University. He has been Professor of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study since 1987. He is known for his work in elementary particle theory, especially quantum field theory and string theory, and their mathematical implications.
Dr. Witten's awards include the Alan T. Waterman Prize, the Fields Medal, and the Award in Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the New York Academy of Sciences, among others.


text:
Even the Innocent Should Worry About Sex Offender Apps (Op-Ed)
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
The average citizen may not feel that they have anything to fear from the rise of apps that promise to identify sex offenders in their area but they are part of a worrying trend that should act as a warning about what happens when personal data is flattened out and sliced up into apparently user-friendly services.
Sex-offender-locator apps proudly boast that they can help users find sex offenders in their local area. But they aren't, of course, actually detecting anything. US federal law mandates that every state must collect information on convicted sex offenders and make it available to the public online. Sex offender locator apps take this freely available data and repurpose it.
After loading the app on your phone, you are presented with a map of your surrounding area and an icon, such as the commonly used blue dot, to show your own position. As you move around your neighbourhood, the app tracks your movements and the blue dot moves accordingly. At the same time other dots or pins also appear on the screen. These are most often coloured red and indicate the address of a registered sex offender. Clicking on a pin opens a profile containing an image of the sex offender, some personal data such as their age, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and address, and a list of convictions together with the date of those convictions.
At first sight these applications seem helpful. Many parents would want to know if there was a sex offender living next door for understandable reasons. And since SORNA mandates that local police forces should notify communities when sex offenders convicted of more serious crimes move into their neighbourhood they aren't necessarily providing much more information than users would receive without an app.
There is a crucial difference though. As well as informing residents, SORNA also mandates that crime prevention teams work with local communities to explain how to keep children safe, how to talk to them about stranger danger and sexual abuse and how to deal with having an offender living in the local vicinity.
It is this contextualisation that is notably absent from the sex offender identification apps that are currently available. It is always good to know who we are living next to but without further resources such knowledge becomes at best meaningless and, at worst, the root of paranoia and fear.
The mapping illusion
Reoffending rates for sex offenders are far lower than many other crimes but these apps don't give you that information. They might provide you with a sex offender's last known address but fail to tell you that an alarmingly high percentage of convicted sex offenders have no fixed abode.
And it's important to note that even though SORNA is a national law, different states have drastically different rules for which crimes will land you on the sex offender register. Few would argue that a violent child rapist should be included but in some states, you can end up on the register for having consensual sex in a public place or even urinating in an alleyway.
Then there is the mapping of sex offenders. Maps are amazing things. They tell us where things are – most of the time, when they work. Google Maps is only as accurate as the last time it was updated. The same can be said for these applications.
Worse still, the SORNA mandated databases are, frankly, a mess. There is no funding to implement SORNA and as a result, the information contained in them is often out of date and sometimes incorrect.
The mapping techniques employed by sex offender apps are therefore doubly illusory. The live tracking of our own movements by these apps belies the inaccuracies of the databases and suggests that what we are seeing is up to date, perhaps even being provided in real time, when in fact it isn't.
Mapping us all
You may not feel concerned about this. You may think that sex offenders deserve what they get. But the prospects of people being affected in the same way, even if they've never committed a crime, are on the horizon.
In the UK, for example, discussions are ongoing about making patient records and data held by the NHS available to third parties. It has not yet been decided how these third parties will use this data but already companies have been found to be offering mapping services based on the information.
You may have been depressed in your teenage years. You may have even contemplated suicide. You may now be living a healthy, happy life and have long forgotten those anxious adolescent years. But if you reported it, if you sought help or advice from the NHS, then that record is still there.
And when data becomes compressed by third parties, when it gets flattened out into one single data stream, your present and your past collide with potentially huge ramifications for your future.
When it comes to personal data – of any kind – we not only need to consider what it will be used for but how that data will be represented, and what such representation might mean for us and others.
Sharif Mowlabocus does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now
Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Most Popular
By Ben Turner
By Ben Turner
By Harry Baker


text:
You would think Reuters actually means "Swedish", as in "ethnic Swedes", the descendants of the Vikings. And you would be wrong.
AFP names the two as Hassan al-Mandlawi, 32, and Al-Amin Sultan, 30.
AFP names the two as Hassan al-Mandlawi, 32, and Al-Amin Sultan, 30.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two Swedish men were sentenced to life in prison on Monday for "terrorist crimes" in Syria in 2013, a Swedish district court said in a statement.
The two men, aged 32 and 30, were convicted of assisting in executions in Syria.
During a search of one of the men's homes, police had found a USB stick containing films showing the killings, the court was told.
In a video shown in court by the prosecutor, masked men stood around three men on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs.
Two of the victims have their throats slit. The head of one is cut off and held up for display. Their captors - including the men identified by the prosecutor as the two Swedes - are seen cheering.
The court argued that since the killings and the video intended to seriously intimidate the population of Syria, the two men's actions should be considered a terrorist crime.
"They didn't hold the knife, but otherwise they were highly involved," prosecutor Agnetha Hildning Qvarnstrom said during the trial.
The court did not name the organization the men fought for but said it was proven that the men sympathized with a regime based on sharia law and the creation of a caliphate.


text:
For many entrepreneurs, having a great product idea is the easy part. The real challenge lies in bringing that idea to life, otherwise known as product development. Although each entrepreneur's process is different, there are certainly some steps that are necessary regardless of what kind of product you are creating.
To ensure you have thought through each element of your product, we recommend talking to an experienced professional or mentor.
Lucky for you, we rounded up 8 professionals who have successfully developed and brought their products to market. Below are their essential steps to an effective product development process!
Know Where the Marketing Message Will Work Best
Aside from patent research, designing and other legalities involved with new product development; knowing where the marketing messages will work best is often the most important part of testing the concept. Does the user understand, need, or want the product or service? Answering that question first will lead to a smoother product development process.
- Dr. Marc M. Batschkus, Archiware
Negotiate with your Suppliers
Product development can be an exciting process for most and we can often overlook two very important steps. One, always negotiate with your suppliers. And two, never be afraid to let your biggest customers in on the plans for your next product. This is the best way to get viable feedback as to whether or not this product is something they are excited about or could live without.
Negotiating seems like a given, but I find that most people's excitement supersedes their focus on bringing a cost-effective product to the market. Even if you are the most expensive product in your category, it has to be cost-effective to some degree in order to make money. The best way to do this is to negotiate with your suppliers and never stop exploring your options. My favorite saying is, "The worst anyone will ever tell you is no." So negotiate until you can't. Lastly, you can never go to market with a product in which you aren't sure if there is a demand. You may think your customers need this product, but they are the experts in their business, you are just here to build it for them. Don't be shy, and let them inside the gates to get some feedback. More than likely, your customers want more products out of you so gauge their interest.
- Cameron Ross Steiner, Director of Sales and Product Development
Identify a Market Need
A simple step in the product development process that is often overlooked is identifying a market need. Some motivated entrepreneurs get so excited about their next big idea and start designing and developing a product right away without asking themselves if there is enough of a need for their product among consumers.
- Kayla Centeno, Markitors
Practicality is so important during product development because it can be the one thing that can cost you your entire R&D budget. If the price, availability, distribution, or packaging are not practical for your market, then you will see zero return. Make sure that you are always considering the practicality of your products during the testing phases of development.
- Francesca Yardley, Threads
Invest in High-Quality Materials
The product development process is a crucial point where a business must stop and look at the details of developing their product. Quality is what matters. Quality is what is going to retain customers. When in the development stage, it is important to go beyond the cheapest option and truly invest in high-quality materials that are going to create the best product that keeps customers coming back. Do not go beyond your financial means, but at the same time, put yourself in the customer's shoes and ask if this is a product you would repurchase again and again.
- Peter Babichenko, Sahara Case
Test New Hypotheses
Innovate and Adapt. As part of every release of a product, there should be an additional sprint/iteration for teams to spend time on innovation and testing new hypotheses. This is imperative in order for organizations to stay relevant and retain business agility.
- Debra Hildebrand, LurnAgile
Product Appeal Testing
No one goes out to make a product that is unappealing. However, if you don't properly survey your target market, it is very possible you are building a product only you like, not your customers. Run a quick survey with some target consumers to make sure the product features and benefits resonate with them.
- Layton Cox, Marketing Consultant
I have found that you can try and plan for every potential issue or scenario, but you will almost always encounter something you didn't and couldn't plan for. Allowing yourself to be flexible in your product launch timeline is key. If you need to present a more rigid timeline to your team, adding extra production or QC time (think weeks) to your launch schedule will allow for unplanned roadblocks. If you're lucky, you will be ahead of schedule, and if you're not so lucky you'll be right on time.
- Heather Corey, Beautylish
Copyright © 2023 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


text:
The veterinary industry is headed in a bad direction with higher debt loads, more seats in classes and less job prospects. We need to encourage our associations to do something about it.
There always seem to be two sides to every story, and the question of whether veterinary medicine is suffering a glut of practitioners is one such issue. This month, two veterinary practice consultant colleagues—Mark Opperman, CVPM, and Sheila Grosdidier, RVT, debate the question of whether veterinary medicine is a glass half-full or half-empty. Who do you agree with? Tell us in the comments here.
A few months ago, in covering the American Veterinary Medical Associations's new workforce study, AAHA Trends magazine wrote, "The veterinary profession is experiencing a problem with excess capacity, and the AVMA expects that problem will persist at least through the next decade if the industry doesn't take action."
I, for one, don't get it. Also according to the AVMA, the starting salary for graduating veterinarians is down this year while, at the same time, student debt has increased. It took a New York Times article to bring this information to the forefront, but still, no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Because I teach at several veterinary schools every year, I have the opportunity to talk to future veterinarians, and they are definitely concerned and frustrated by the situation. No longer are they assured of a job upon graduation and, for many, all they are guaranteed is that they will have significant debt when they graduate. But that's not where the problem ends. Did you know that most veterinary schools are increasing the number of "seats" in their classes and that two new veterinary schools are scheduled to open in 2014 ?
So while we increase class sizes and add schools, today's graduates aren't assured of finding jobs when they graduate. If they do find a job, they'll probably be paid less than those who graduated before them. And, oh wait, their debt load will also be much higher.
So, what do we do? I say the state and national associations should be actively involved in this problem and helping to resolve it. When the dental profession faced a similar problem years ago, I'd always applauded the American Dental Association's decision to step in and regulate the number of dental schools. Turns out that's not what happened.
According to an article published on Veterinary Information Network, "The truth is that dental schools, like all colleges and universities, operate independently from the professions for which they train. The decisions to close schools were made individually by their parent institutions. 'There was no guiding hand behind this at all,' says Richard Valachovic, president and CEO of the American Dental Education Association. 'Things just happened.'"
So, to me, this is a big problem and I don't see anyone doing anything about it. Maybe the "market" will take care of itself. But if we look to the dental profession, we may get a glimpse of our future. Eric Solomon had a close-up view of dental school closures. At the time, he served as assistant director for application services and resource studies at the American Dental Education Association. "I was the one who had to tell everybody what was happening with their applicant pool," Solomon told VIN. "The applicant pool was falling off the table."
Solomon believes that only a dropoff in student demand compels a decision as momentous as closing a school. "As long as you have the demand for the profession, it will be hard for the profession to say, 'We need to cut back,'" he told VIN.
That's sad. To my thinking, professional associations and institutions have a vested interest in reducing school enrollment and should be proactive in controlling their numbers. I think the profession should encourage our state and local associations to take a more active role in controlling the number of "seats" being made available and the number of schools opening up. Is it fair to new graduates that they are leaving school unsure if they will have a job, with a substantial debt load and an uncertain future?
The "Management Matters" blog features the writing of veterinary practice management consultants Mark Opperman, Sheila Grosdidier and Monica Dixon Perry. Come back every month for their unique take on current and future trends in veterinary practice as well as tried-and-true tips for improving patient care, team member morale and practice revenue.
Check out Sheila Grosdidier's opinion on where the industry is headed
Veterinary scene down under: Shedding light on why the veterinary profession matters, and more news
February 28th 2024Updates on the dairy veterinarian running a consultancy supporting farmers with business leadership, governance, and human resource management advice; and the veterinarian shining a light on why the veterinary profession matters.
Read More


text:
For breakfast, Jake takes six plastic vitamin bottles out of the cupboard and empties one of each onto the counter: iron, B-12, zinc, C, E, and a multi for good measure. He yawns, lines the tablets up on his hand, takes a diet Mountain Dew from the refrigerator, and washes them down in a single fizzy gulp. The shock of cold carbonation gives him a head rush. He has to steady himself on the refrigerator door.
At the table, his mother is drinking coffee and flipping through the mid-week Quartzton Enterprise, "Voice of the Vermillion Range." Her navy blue sweatshirt says "taconite rocks!"
"Are you sure you don't want any cereal," she says dutifully.
Jake wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "Give me a break. I'm three pounds over."
That's the tantalizing start to Chelsey Johnson's "Escape and Reverse," a longer-than-traditional short story of 41 pages that took the visiting assistant professor of English at William & Mary years to write but almost no time to have recognized for its craftsmanship.
"Escape and Reverse" has been published as the fifth "Ploughshares Solo," a new, digital-only branch of the literary magazine based at Emerson College in Boston and devoted to individual long stories. It is available to download to Kindle tablets from Amazon.com.
Johnson wrote the first draft of the story several years ago while a student in a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa and revised and rewrote it over the years. When she heard that Ploughshares was starting a digital publication, she submitted her work.
"You know usually you wait three months or six months, or 10 months to get a reply from a publisher," she said. "I heard back from them in three weeks."
"Escape" is the story of Jake Persson, a high school wrestling star having trouble making the weight he is assigned to compete at, hence the diet of vitamins and Diet Dew. Jake's school, located in northern Minnesota's Iron Range, is a contender for the state championship, an unexpected development that has the town of Quartzton giddy with excitement as regional competition approaches.
Though thoroughly committed to his school and his sport, and quietly confident that he will lead his team to the title, Jake has suddenly begun grappling with issues of far more importance in his life than athletics.
A raft of personal experiences brought Johnson to the story. She is from the north central woods of Minnesota, close enough to the Iron Range that she vividly remembers her high school team competing against theirs, especially the wrestlers.
While teaching at Iowa, she assigned her class to read the screenplay and see the film "My Beautiful Launderette," the story of two men who fall in love. On their final exam, Johnson asked the class to recall all of the reading assignments and to list one character they would like to spend the day with.
One student – a wrestler – mentioned the lead character from "Beautiful Launderette" and said he would want to know how he and his lover were faring.
"I didn't know anything about him or whether he just had this compassionate streak or was interested in the character, but that was the seed of the story," Johnson said. "I imagined 'What would that mean if you were a star wrestler and you secretly had these feelings?'
"It seems so obvious that wrestling is sort of transparently homoerotic, but in my high school, wrestling was really popular and everyone really compensated with this intense machismo. It attracted bad-ass guys; it engenders this hyper masculinity but at the same time there's an interesting tension there."
Johnson poured herself into a wrestler's life, researching their often-bizarre diets – vitamins and diet Mountain Dew is a favorite – the exercises they do to keep weight off, and wrestling techniques perfected by one of America's great wrestlers ever, Iowan Dan Gable. She also delved deeply into Minnesota's Iron Range industry.
"I really like to research because it's like productive procrastination," she said laughing.
Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
"Chelsey Johnson takes a familiar coming-of-age genre and breathes new life into it," wrote one reviewer.
"A beautifully woven story that doesn't sacrifice language, care, and precision," wrote another "The action moves at perfect pace . . . I grew attached to Jake within just a few minutes of starting the story . . . I couldn't get enough of this world of mining towns, wrestling diets, and adolescent sexual tension."
Ironically, one person's criticism – "the ending was too abrupt" – is precisely one of the things Johnson likes most about writing short stories versus novels.
"Endings can be unresolved," she explained. "It doesn't have to be wrapped up. With the novel there's all this pressure to do something 'satisfying.' The reader has all of these invested hours and days and you have to tie up every loose end.
"I really like the long (short) story. It's a good length for me in that I get to put in all of the detail of a novel, but also have that elegance and structure and shapeliness that you can give a short story."


text:
The Buddha of Swat, carved on a cliff in the seventh century, was dynamited by the Pakistani Taliban in 2007. Now it has been restored, a powerful symbol of tolerance in the traumatized Pakistani valley.
The holy figure, depicted in a lotus position at the base of a granite cliff in northern Pakistan, was severely damaged by Islamist insurgents in an echo of the Afghan Taliban's complete destruction of its more imposing counterparts at Bamiyan in 2001.
For some, it was a wanton act of vandalism that struck at the heart of the area's unique history and identity.
It felt "like they killed my father", says Parvesh Shaheen, a 79-year-old expert on Buddhism in Swat. "They attack… my culture, my history."
The Buddha sits in Jahanabad, the epicenter of Swat's Buddhist heritage, a beautiful valley in the foothills of the Himalayas.
There the Italian government has been helping to preserve hundreds of archaeological sites, working with local authorities who hope to turn it into a place of pilgrimage once more and pull in sorely needed tourist dollars.
A decade ago, the militants climbed the six-meter (20-foot) effigy to lay the explosives, but only part of them were triggered, demolishing the top of the Buddha's face. Another, smaller fresco nearby was torn to pieces.
For Shaheen, the statue is "a symbol of peace, symbol of love, symbol of brotherhood".
"We don't hate anybody, any religion — what is this nonsense to hate somebody?" he says.
But other Swatis, less familiar with history and in 2007 not yet traumatized by the full brutality of the Taliban, applauded the attack and took up the argument that sculpture was "anti-Islamic".
Like their counterparts in neighboring Afghanistan, the Pakistani Taliban are extremist insurgents who terrorized the population in the name of a fundamentalist version of Islam, banning all representation in art and for whom the idea of a non-Islamic past is taboo.
The episode became a marker for the beginning of the Taliban's violent occupation of Swat, which would only end in 2009 with heavy intervention by the Pakistan army. By then, several thousand people had been killed and more than 1.5 million displaced.
Land of Buddhism
The population of Swat has not always been as it is today, mostly conservative Muslim, where cultural norms dictate that women wear burqas.
Instead, it was for centuries a pilgrimage site for the Buddhist faithful, especially from the Himalayas. The Vajrayana school even consider it a "holy land", from where their faith originated.
They continued to visit right up until the 20th century, when borders hardened with the independence of British India and creation of Pakistan in 1947.
Now the vast majority of Pakistan's population are Muslim, and its religious minorities — mainly Christians and Hindus — are often subject to discrimination or violence.
Buddhism for its part disappeared from the region around the 10th century AD, driven out by Islam and Hinduism.
Its golden age in Swat lasted from the second to the fourth centuries, when more than 1,000 monasteries, sanctuaries and stupas spread out in constellations across the valley.
"The landscape was worshipped in itself," says Luca Maria Olivieri, an Italian archaeologist who oversaw the restoration of the Buddha.
"The pilgrims were welcomed by these protective images, sculptures and inscriptions, arranged along the last kilometers (miles) before arriving," Olivieri explains.
Religious tourism
Rehabilitation of the site has not been easy, he says. Carried out in phases, it began in 2012 with the application of a coating to protect the damaged part of the sculpture.
The reconstruction of the face itself was first prepared virtually in the laboratory, in 3D, using laser surveys and old photos.
The last phase, the actual restoration, ended in 2016. Olivieri says the reconstruction is not identical, but that is deliberate, as "the idea of damage should remain visible".
The Italian archaeological mission in Swat, which he directs, has been there since 1955 — though it was briefly forced from the valley during Taliban rule.
It manages other excavation sites and supervised the restoration of the archeological museum in Mingora, the main city of Swat, damaged in an attack in 2008.
The Italian government has invested 2.5 million euros ($2.9 million) in five years for the preservation of Swat's cultural heritage, striving to involve the local population as much as possible.
Now authorities are counting on the Buddha's recovered smile and iconic status to boost religious tourism from places such as China and Thailand.
Years after the Taliban were ousted, the valley is largely rejuvenated, though at times security is still tense, with an attack killing 11 soldiers in February this year.
Some people in Swat also see the Buddha as a tool for promoting religious tolerance.
Fazal Khaliq, a journalist and author living in Mingora, thinks the threat to cultural heritage has been "minimized" through education and the use of social networks to spread a "soft, good" image.
However, "the majority of people who are not young, educated — they still do not understand" its importance, he admits.
Meanwhile the museum in Mingora now welcomes mullahs "who like Buddhism", says its curator, Faiz-ur-Rehman.
"Before Islam, this was our religion," he says.


text:
Summary talk entries for the Pluto Science Conference continues. This is from the morning of July 24, 2013th on the topic of "Composition."
Dale Cruikshank (NASA Ames) set the stage with a spectra-rich presentation and gave an overview talk about the "Surface Compositions of Pluto and Charon." Putting it in context, even 45 years after Pluto was discovered, we did not know much about Pluto only where it was in the sky and its rotation period. That rapidly changed when Dale and colleagues saw strong evidence for solid methane on Pluto in 1976 (Cruikshank, Pilcher, Morrison, 1976 Science 194, 835), Jim Christy discovered the companion moon Charon in 1978, and repeated observations were made of Pluto and Charon in the 1980s.
Spectroscopy, the technique which spreads light into different wavelengths, has been a powerful diagnostic tool for the identification of molecular species, and therefore tells us the composition of the object. Low-resolution (R~100-500) spectra is sufficient to identify ice-solid features which are characterized by wide features, but higher resolution (R~1,000-10,000s) helps constrain models that determine temperature and also . New Horizons' LEISA spectrometer covers the 1.25-2.5micron spectral band, with resolution R~240, and a mode of R~550 between 2.10-2.25 microns, making it ideal for identifying solid features. It's proximity to Pluto during the July 2015 fly-by provides unprecedented spatial resolution. Compared to ground-based & Hubble spectral measurements which can only provide full-disk (~1500km/pix) measurements (because Pluto appears only in a few pixels), New Horizons' LEISA will provide the true "first look" at the composition of Pluto at 6.0km/pix (global) with some patches at 2.7 km/pixel.
Images in this blog entry show flux (measure of amount of light) or albedo (measure of reflectance) versus wavelength.
Pluto's near infrared spectrum (Grundy et al 2013) is rich in identifiable diagnostic solid materials, nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO). A comparison with Triton's spectrum over the same wavelength is shown. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is suspiciously absent from Pluto's atmosphere.
Pluto's mid-infrared (Protopapa et al 2008) show a series of methane bands. The gap at 4.2 microns is due to CO2 absorption from the Earth's atmosphere.
Pluto's UV Spectrum from HST (Stern et al 2012) also indirectly supports the presence of organics.
What do we know about the surface of Pluto? The major surface ice components are methane (CH4), nitrogen (N2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Some of the CH4 is pure, and some may be dissolved in N2. N2has been seen in two crystalline phases and the thickness should be at least a few centimeters. CO, may or may not be dissolved in N2. Ethene (C2H6) has also been detected (De Meo et al 2010). Suspected species, not yet detected, are Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Predicted species include those from atmospheric chemistry, surface chemistry and other radicals.
There are tantalizing hints that HCN and other nitriles (where you have a carbon with three bonds to a nitrogen molecule with the 4th bond to another atom or group) are potentially present (Protopapa et al 2008). If confirmed, the presence of HCN opens up a series of chemistry pathways that enable Pluto to be a pretty complex place.
HCN Chemistry pathways. HCN has not been confirmed to exist on Pluto, but suggested. If present, a whole set of possible chemistry becomes possible.
These ices are white but Pluto has a colored surface. It's actually quite red. The coloring on Pluto is hypothesized to be due to the presence of tholins, a complex organic molecule formed by ultraviolet irradiation of simple organic compounds.
Geometric albedo (measure of reflectivity) of Pluto as a function of wavelength. See how red it looks?
The Surface of Charon. Charon has an intriguing different kind of surface than Pluto. There is water (H2O) ice, perhaps crystalline ice, and ammonia (NH3) hydrate. But there are no CO, CO2, N2 or CH4, all which are present (or predicted) for Pluto. The nature and source of the ammonia is under debate. Could it come from below the surface and diffuse up or come from cryo-volcanism?
Predictions for New Horizons. It will be hard to find HCN with LEISA due to its spectral resolution as there is a strong methane band nearby. Dale Cruikshank thinks it will be challenging as well to find alkenes.
The mystery of the missing CO2 on Pluto remains. Carbon dioxide is seen on Triton (see above), whose spectra is very similar to Pluto. Dale Cruikshank looks to NASA's JWST (James Webb Space Telescope, a 6.5 m diameter visible infrared space telescope) as the proper tool to make this detection. New Horizons LEISA instrument has probably to low a resolution to detect CO2 features around 2 microns.
Will Grundy (Lowell Observatory) talked next on the "Distribution and Evolution of Pluto's Volatile Ices from 0.8-2.4 micron spectra." He reported on an IRTF (3.5 m telescope) SpeX (spectrometer) Pluto monitoring program spanning 10 years. The SpeX instrument provides R~1000 NIR spectroscopy over 0.8-2.4 microns. A recent paper on their findings can be found at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013Icar..223..710G (Grundy et al 2013 Icarus 223, 710-721).
They would obtain disk integrated hemisphere spectra because Pluto fills the SpeX slit, but during the course of this long monitoring they probed a variety of longitudes. Below are the longitudes on the Pluto that they probed. Each green point is the center of a particular pointing. This is overlaid on the best albedo (reflectance) vs. longitude surface map of Pluto from Marc Buie. In the coordinate system shown in this image, 0 deg longitude is facing Charon, with 180 deg longitude anti-Charon.
Species abundance (measured as equivalent width) as a function of Pluto longitude. They have found that max CO amount is correlated with the 180 E region (anti-Charon), whereas largest amounts of CH4 is in the 270 E region. Equivalent width is a calculation of the depth of an absorption feature with respect to the absence of the feature at nearby wavelengths (continuum). When plotted against time, or in the case above, against spatial location (longitude location on Pluto), it can tell you something about the abundance variations of that molecular species.
In summary, they have found that ice distributions seem heterogeneous (mottled, not smooth). The NIR spectra show intriguing parallels between Pluto and Triton. From this 10 year period of observations they find that CH4 is increasing but CO and N2 is decreasing. They have also observed non-uniformities in both time and longitude.
With a 10 year Earth program they have only observed ~5% of a Pluto year, so perhaps they will start seeing seasonal changes? For a more lengthy discussion on suggested Pluto seasons, see this later blog post entry.
Predictions for New Horizons. Will Grundy is eagerly awaiting New Horizons LEISA's infrared spectral data. The instrument will have much higher spatial resolution than these "global hemisphere" maps with the SpeX instrument. The spacecraft's closest approach geometry will be the anti-Charon hemisphere (180 deg E). This will be ideal for probing the strongest CO signatures.
Noemi Pinilla-Alonso (University of Tennessee) provided a talk on "IRAC/Spitzer Photometry of the Pluto/Charon System." With warm Spitzer/IRAC they took images in four bands probing the 3-5 micron range. Their intent was to look for the mid-infrared spectral signatures of N2, CO, CH4 ices and tholins, all which had discovered in the near-infrared (1-2.5 microns). They covered 8 longitudes with their observation set.
Results. Their data confirms the surface heterogeneity that was measured by HST (Marc Buie). They also found their "slopes in color with wavelength" do have a longitude dependence and fall into two groups 160-288 deg Longitude and 234-110 deg Longitude. Both N2 and CO are also found to be strong at 180 deg Longitude at mid-IR wavelengths. This agrees with Will Grundy's measurements at shorter wavelengths from the IRTF (see above, this blog entry).
Jason Cook (SwRI) presented a talk on "Observations of Pluto's Surface and Atmosphere at Low Resolution." Intrigued by the ethane (C2H6) detection (De Meo et al 2010), he got the new idea to look for it this in old data he took in 2004 using the Gemini-N NIRI instrument, with R~700 (low resolution) spectroscopy. In his analysis, he had to include the C2H6 ice contribution to make a fit of ice abundances to the data. He was able to fit multiple methane bands and derive comparable amounts that agrees with other published methane detections at higher resolution.
Implications for New Horizons. The big take-away is that low resolution spectra with high signal precision are capable of detecting Pluto's atmosphere. New Horizons LEISA spectra has R~500 so this data example is an excellent comparative data set. He is eager to talk with others who have low-resolution spectra of Pluto or Charon to apply the new analysis techniques.
Next, Emmanuel Lellouch (Observatoire de Paris, France) gave a talk on "Pluto's Thermal LightCurves as seen by Herschel." He ended his talk sharing tantalizing science on TNO temperatures from thermal measurements with Herschel and optical measurements used together to measure the diameter, albedo, and thermal inertia. They derive that TNOs have low thermal inertia (2.5 +/- 0.5 MKS), lower than Saturn's satellites (5-20MKS), Pluto (20-30MKS), and Charon (10-20 MKS). More details can be found at http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2012/EPSC2012-590-3.pdf.
Moving further out beyond the Spitzer/Herschel far infrared, into the sub-millimeter range, Bryan Butler (NRAO) talked about "Observations of Pluto, Charon and other TNOs at long wavelengths." As you go to longer wavelengths, you are less affected by solar reflection. You become dominated by the thermal emission from the body itself. But the emission at these wavelengths will be weak such that building highly sensitivity instruments is key, such as ALMA (in Chile) or updated VLA, called the EVLA (in New Mexico). They have been using ALMA and EVLA to observe Pluto and Charon in 2010-2012 and they had to remove the background contribution as Pluto had been moving through the galactic plane in this period.
The path of Pluto is shown with the green line that appears to make loops. This is the path of Pluto projected against the sub-millimeter. The enhanced horizontal signal is strong submillimeter thermal emission from the plane of the Milky Way. This caused an undesired extra background signal that needed to be removed from data taken in the 2010-2012 time frame.
What's Next? They wish to use ALMA to study Pluto & Charon and also attempt to detect Nix & Hydra, if they fall on the larger size. ALMA will be used to observe TNOs and will have the capability to resolve the largest TNOs like Eris (size ~2400 km diameter). They predict they can make high-SNR images of Pluto, but barely resolve Charon within a short observation time. To get high-SNR images of Charon would take more observatory time than they think would be awarded for a single object.
Switching away from the infrared and sub-millimeter and moving back to the ultraviolet Eric Schindhelm (SwRI) gave the final talk in this session entitled "FUV Studies of Pluto and its Satellites: From IUE to New Horizons." IUE took the first UV spectra of Pluto in 1987-1988. This was confirmed with HST using the FOS (Faint Object Spectrograph) instrument in 1992. After 17 years, the HST COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph) instrument was used to observe two different longitudes, and they found some differences between the two data sets. The COS data indicated an absorption feature at 2000-2500 Angstroms (see Dale Cruikshank talk summary above), and it was suggested this is a hydrocarbon creating this feature.
Eric Schindhelm next described New Horizon's Alice instrument measurements and predictions for the Pluto and satellites during the New Horizons fly-by. He also summarized that more lab H2O, NH3 and CO2 ice FUV reflectance spectra is needed for interpretation of these data sets.
Predictions for New Horizons. Pluto's UV reflectance spectra will be limited due to faint signal and atmosphere absorption. Nix and Hydra will be barely detectable in FUV. Charon's albedo for wavelength longer than 1200 angstroms should be detectable and they expect to get albedo, color and composition. They also expect to distinguish between different mixing ratios of the ices (ratios of H2O to NH3, H2O to CO2, etc.) with the UV spectra obtained by New Horizons.
Although the predictions for detecting Pluto's surface composition in the UV with New Horizons' Alice instrument are expected to be limited, the Alice instrument will also be measuring Pluto Atmosphere (and searching for an atmosphere around Charon), which is its main purpose and directly addresses a prime Group 1 science goal.
Bring on the spectra!


text:
Both the Vajrayana and the Zen emphasis is on fully expressed performance of reality, not its cognitive knowledge or interpretation, which reflects the valuing of actual bodhisattvic working over theoretical dictums......Therefore, the strong emphasis in much of Zen training is the mindful and dedicated expression of meditative awareness in everyday activities.
Visions of Awakening Space and Time, Dogen and the Lotus Sutra by Taigen Dan Leighton.
Thus, cleaning the toilet wholeheartedly, non-attached to discriminative thought is the expression of buddha-reality, as is daily recitation of the Heart of the Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra. For some of us, there is really a problem with chanting, recitations and ceremony. For others, its cleaning the poop-stain on the inner bowl of the toilet. Training comes, not-so-much of being proud to declare that poop doesnt bother you; but in taking refuge in Buddha, letting go the conceptual prejudices and embracing the opportunity to fully pay attention to something, like ceremony, that you discount and dislike. And we all can certainly replace any of the examples with activities that we are prime to avoid or denigrate: shoveling snow in bitter cold, grocery shopping, balancing the checkbook...even sharing more of your own thoughts and concerns with those you care about (Refrain from being stingy in providing either Dharma or personal resources)
And to do so, not with resignation (as if that were conceived as truly letting go), but with dedicated expression of meditative awareness.
As Taigu once declared (and I sorely paraphrase) Let the noise of the street, the busyness of the crowd on the sidewalk, the sewer gas emanating from the manhole cover at the street intersection and all things that you engage next, and next, and next be your daily sutra.


text:
Perhaps the best ride of the year. Certainly the most beautiful. Doreen and I spent the weekend in central Switzerland in Grindelwald – right in front of the famous Eiger north face.
Saturday's ride, started in Grindelwald and climbed to Grosse Scheidegg. It's a steep, stunning route – and car free for the last 8 or so kilometres. While Doreen did the climb at her own pace, I rode ahead and at the top continued higher along non-paved farm roads.
The profile above is just for the climb to Grosse Scheidegg. The road is suitable for road bikes. But beyond requires a mountain bike.
The path I followed led to First. The top of a ski lift. It's a wonderful route. Sometimes very steep, sometimes downhill, always with the Eiger and other peaks in my face.
Descending from First, I took the direct route back to Grindelwald. Parts of this descent (above Bort) are extremely steep. My GPS once flashed 31%. No idea if correct, but I did have to push twice as too steep to safely descend – admittedly, in part due to a dire need for new brake pads. 😉


text:
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rep.-elect Jerry Anderson, R-Price, recounts an old saying about Utah's coal country: "Democrats meet at the courthouse; Republicans meet in the phone booth."
Mike Dmitrich, a retired Democratic legislator who represented Carbon County and surrounding areas for 40 years, recalls the oft-repeated lore that the last Republican elected in Carbon until recently was back in the 1940s "and he was shot in office."
Times have changed.
More Republicans than Democrats are now registered in Carbon County. The GOP holds a majority on the County Commission. And Anderson last week defeated incumbent Rep. Christine Watkins, D-Price as Democrats lost the last Utah legislative seat they held outside of Salt Lake County.
With that, the 2013 Utah Legislature which will be 81.7 percent GOP overall will be the second-most Republican of the last 80 years, according to Brigham Young University political science professor Adam Brown. It is behind only the 84.5 percent majority that Republicans held in 1967.
Every one of the 19 Democrats left on Capitol Hill after the Nov. 6 election represents some part of Salt Lake County.
Gerrymandering • Democrats blame their sliding numbers largely on gerrymandering of district boundaries by Republican majorities. But the GOP argues that it comes simply because Utahns especially in rural areas are conservative and drawn more to their party because of its stands on social issues and its more pro-development positions on public-lands ranching, mining and oil drilling.
Democrats are trying to figure how to reverse the trend. They take some encouragement from Utah history where both parties at different times held huge majorities only to lose them a short time later.
"This is a direct result of gerrymandering," says Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis. He notes Republicans won 61 percent of the total combined vote in Utah's four congressional races. But not only did the GOP win three of those four U.S. House seats, but will hold a 61-14 edge in the Utah House (81.3 percent Republican) and a 24-5 margin in the Senate (82.8 percent Republican).
A Salt Lake Tribune analysis of election results show the median margin in Utah House races was 72 percent to 28 percent for Republicans, and in the Senate was 80 percent to 20 percent.
"Those numbers are prima facie [self-evident] evidence of gerrymandering by Republicans," Dabakis says. "They have far more offices than they deserve from the votes they received because of how they twisted boundaries."
"It's not because of redistricting," says Utah Republican Party Chairman Thomas Wright. "It's totally demographics and the fact that rural Utahns, especially, are conservative and find more in common with the Republican platform than they do with the Democratic."
Anderson said both redistricting and demographic shifts contributed to his coal-country win over Watkins by a close 51-49 percent margin.
He said his district was redrawn to add much of agricultural Duchesne County, "which is quite heavily conservative. That quite closely balanced out the Democratic vote in Carbon County," where coal miners had traditional ties to unions and the Democratic Party.
Growing conservatism • But Anderson said the area is becoming more conservative, too, and drawn to the more conservative GOP. "We actually have more registered Republicans in Carbon County than Democrats right now, and two of the three county commissioners are Republicans."
Dmitrich said one reason is "Carbon County is no longer a union county. There is only one coal mine left that is union."
There's also a growing view that GOP pro-development stances may be better for coal, said Anderson. He said that was shown by campaign signs that said, "Vote coal get rid of Obama."
The day after the election coal magnate Bob Murray laid off 102 miners at his West Ridge mine, blaming Obama's "war on coal."
While Dmitrich says redistricting is likely the key factor in losing Watkins' seat, he concedes that environmental stands by national Democrats have hurt and he said the national party's more liberal stands on things from abortion to gun control hurt in other Utah areas recently.
"We used to control Ogden and Weber County, but lost it" largely because of national liberal stands by his party as the area became more conservative, he said. "And we used to control Tooele County, and lost it. Now we've lost coal country," Dmitrich said.
Democrats last held legislative majorities in the Utah House in 1975, and in the Utah Senate in 1977.
Wright notes that urban areas where the Democratic Party has done well historically have had slow growth in recent decades, while rural and suburban areas that support the GOP more have seen faster growth so they have been gaining legislative seats. He said that has more to do with GOP gains than any gerrymandering.
Mormon compatibility • Dabakis says he knows his party must make a case that it is not too liberal, and also that its stands are compatible with beliefs of the state's heavily Mormon population especially in rural areas that are more LDS than urban areas.
"Democrats are completely compatible with LDS ideas, and given the [Republicans'] dramatic move to the right over the last few years, LDS people are probably better represented by Democrats because they are more moderate," Dabakis argued.
A 2004 state government history of elections show shifts of control in the Legislature can come fast, which may give Democrats some hope. For example, it said Democrats held all Utah Senate seats in 1897, but the party lost control by 1903. On the other hand, Republicans held 95 percent of Utah Senate seats in 1927, and lost its majority two years later.
Wright said that is not lost on Republicans.
"It's a mandate when you have over 80 percent of the Legislature being Republican, and the people are saying, 'We trust you,' " he said. "If we use the trust appropriately, I think the trend [of growing GOP majorities] will continue. If we misuse the trust, then we stand in jeopardy of losing seats over time."
2013 Utah Legislature majorities
House • 61-14 for Republicans, 81.3 percent second-highest in the past 80 years, behind 85.5 percent in 1967.
Senate • 24-5 for Republicans, 82.8 percent matches the previous record for the past 80 years, in 1983.


text:
BIO-key to Feature New Version of PocketCop Software
Wall, NJ—BIO-key International Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: BKYI), a leader in finger-based biometric identification and wireless public safety solutions, today announced that it will be showcasing its latest mobile data solution for BlackBerry® smartphones at the 32nd Annual Law Enforcement Information Management (LEIM) Conference, to be held May 7-9 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN.
The LEIM Conference, sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), brings together public safety IT decision-makers from across North America to evaluate the latest automated solutions for mobile computing and other law enforcement applications.
BIO-key will be demonstrating its industry-leading PocketCop® solution that delivers secure access to federal and state law enforcement and motor vehicles databases from handheld devices. PocketCop version 3.5, released in March, has been optimized for BlackBerry smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM). BIO-key is a member of the BlackBerry® ISV Alliance program.
With PocketCop software, police officers and investigators can quickly and easily identify a wanted person or stolen vehicle directly from a BlackBerry smartphone. One of the key, new end-user features available in this latest release is CAD integration, allowing PocketCop users to receive dispatch information directly from the agency's computer-aided dispatch system and send status updates to CAD silently and securely. This scanner-proof automated feature minimizes radio communication between the dispatcher and the officer in the street, which is especially critical in surveillance and undercover operations.
Also being featured at BIO-key's booth (#113) is a unique in-vehicle docking solution from Impatica, Inc. of Ottawa, ON. The Impatica In-Vehicle Dock is an integrated touch screen that provides an expanded view of a BlackBerry smartphone display and quick access to PocketCop software and BlackBerry functions. The docking solution incorporates an easy-to-use touch keyboard as well as support for an external keyboard and other peripherals. Because the BlackBerry smartphone can be quickly connected or disconnected, the Impatica In-Vehicle Dock is ideal for law enforcement officers who need mobile data access while both in and outside the vehicle. Designed for in-vehicle mounting, this innovative solution is less expensive than purchasing a separate laptop system, potentially saving thousands of dollars per user.
"Early reaction to our In-Vehicle Docking system has been phenomenal," said Michael Doyle, Chairman and CEO of Impatica. "We are very excited about working with BIO-key and RIM to offer law enforcement agencies a more convenient, flexible and less expensive way to provide mobile data to their officers and investigators."
According to Mike DePasquale, CEO of BIO-key, "Our PocketCop solution on BlackBerry smartphones and the Impatica In-Vehicle Dock demonstrate BIO-key's ongoing commitment to enhance officer effectiveness and safety. With PocketCop software, officers equipped with their smartphone, have immediate and instantaneous access to national, state and local databases giving public safety agencies the ability to outfit all their field personnel with this cost effective mobile data system."
About BIO-key
BIO-key International, Inc., headquartered in Wall, New Jersey, develops and delivers advanced identification solutions and information services to law enforcement departments, public safety agencies, government and private sector customers. BIO-key's mobile wireless technology provides first responders with critical, reliable, real-time data and images from local, state and national databases. BIO-key's high performance, scalable, cost-effective and easy-to-deploy biometric finger identification technology accurately identifies and authenticates users of wireless and enterprise data to improve security, convenience and privacy and to reduce identity theft. Over 750 police departments in North America use BIO-key solutions, making BIO-key the leading supplier of mobile and wireless solutions for law enforcement. (http://www.bio-key.com)