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Proof Of Heaven
A Neurosurgeon's Journey Into the Afterlife
Paperback, 196 pages, Simon & Schuster, List Price: $15.99 |purchase
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Book Summary
A Harvard-trained neurosurgeon shares a minute-by-minute account of his religiously transformative near-death experience and revealing weeklong coma. He describes his scientific study of near-death phenomena while explaining what he learned about the nature of human consciousness.
Awards and Recognition
85 weeks on NPR Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List
Note: Book excerpts are provided by the publisher and may contain language some find offensive.
Excerpt: Proof Of Heaven
A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
-- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
When I was a kid, I would often dream of flying.
Most of the time I'd be standing out in my yard at night, looking up at the stars, when out of the blue I'd start floating upward. The first few inches happened automatically. But soon I'd notice that the higher I got, the more my progress depended on me — on what I did. If I got too excited, too swept away by the experience, I would plummet back to the ground ... hard. But if I played it cool, took it all in stride, then off I would go, faster and faster, up into the starry sky.
Maybe those dreams were part of the reason why, as I got older, I fell in love with airplanes and rockets — with anything that might get me back up there in the world above this one. When our family flew, my face was pressed flat to the plane's window from takeoff to landing. In the summer of 1968, when I was fourteen, I spent all the money I'd earned mowing lawns on a set of sailplane lessons with a guy named Gus Street at Strawberry Hill, a little grass strip "airport" just west of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the town where I grew up. I still remember the feeling of my heart pounding as I pulled the big cherry-red knob that unhooked the rope connecting me to the towplane and banked my sailplane toward the field. It was the first time I had ever felt truly alone and free. Most of my friends got that feeling in cars, but for my money being a thousand feet up in a sailplane beat that thrill a hundred times over.
In college in the 1970s I joined the University of North Carolina sport parachuting (or skydiving) team. It felt like a secret brotherhood — a group of people who knew about something special and magical. My first jump was terrifying, and the second even more so. But by my twelfth jump, when I stepped out the door and had to fall for more than a thousand feet before opening my parachute (my first "ten second delay"), I knew I was home. I made 365 parachute jumps in college and logged more than three and a half hours in free fall, mainly in formations with up to twenty-five fellow jumpers. Although I stopped jumping in 1976, I continued to enjoy vivid dreams about skydiving, which were always pleasant.
The best jumps were often late in the afternoon, when the sun was starting to sink beneath the horizon. It's hard to describe the feeling I would get on those jumps: a feeling of getting close to something that I could never quite name but that I knew I had to have more of. It wasn't solitude exactly, because the way we dived actually wasn't all that solitary. We'd jump five, six, sometimes ten or twelve people at a time, building free-fall formations. The bigger and the more challenging, the better.
One beautiful autumn Saturday in 1975, the rest of the UNC jumpers and I teamed up with some of our friends at a paracenter in eastern North Carolina for some formations. On our penultimate jump of the day, out of a D18 Beechcraft at 10,500 feet, we made a ten-man snowflake. We managed to get ourselves into complete formation before we passed 7,000 feet, and thus were able to enjoy a full eighteen seconds of flying the formation down a clear chasm between two towering cumulus clouds before breaking apart at 3,500 feet and tracking away from each other to open our chutes.
By the time we hit the ground, the sun was down. But by hustling into another plane and taking off again quickly, we managed to get back up into the last of the sun's rays and do a second sunset jump. For this one, two junior members were getting their first shot at flying into formation — that is, joining it from the outside rather than being the base or pin man (which is easier because your job is essentially to fall straight down while everyone else maneuvers toward you). It was exciting for the two junior members, but also for those of us who were more seasoned, because we were building the team, adding to the experience of jumpers who'd later be capable of joining us for even bigger formations.
I was to be the last man out in a six-man star attempt above the runways of the small airport just outside Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. The guy directly in front of me was named Chuck. Chuck was fairly experienced at "relative work," or RW — that is, building free-fall formations. We were still in sunshine at 7,500 feet, but a mile and a half below us the streetlights were blinking on. Twilight jumps were always sublime and this was clearly going to be a beautiful one.
Even though I'd be exiting the plane a mere second or so behind Chuck, I'd have to move fast to catch up with everyone. I'd rocket straight down headfirst for the first seven seconds or so. This would make me drop almost 100 miles per hour faster than my friends so that I could be right there with them after they had built the initial formation.
Normal procedure for RW jumps was for all jumpers to break apart at 3,500 feet and track away from the formation for maximum separation. Each would then "wave off" with his arms (signaling imminent deployment of his parachute), turn to look above to make sure no others were above him, then pull the rip cord.
"Three, two, one ... go!"
The first four jumpers exited, then Chuck and I followed close behind. Upside down in a full-head dive and approaching terminal velocity, I smiled as I saw the sun setting for the second time that day. After streaking down to the others, my plan was to slam on the air brakes by throwing out my arms (we had fabric wings from wrists to hips that gave tremendous resistance when fully inflated at high speed) and aiming my jumpsuit's bell-bottomed sleeves and pant legs straight into the oncoming air.
But I never had the chance.
Plummeting toward the formation, I saw that one of the new guys had come in too fast. Maybe falling rapidly between nearby clouds had him a little spooked — it reminded him that he was moving about two hundred feet per second toward that giant planet below, partially shrouded in the gathering darkness. Rather than slowly joining the edge of the formation, he'd barreled in and knocked everybody loose. Now all five other jumpers were tumbling out of control.
They were also much too close together. A skydiver leaves a super-turbulent stream of low-pressure air behind him. If a jumper gets into that trail, he instantly speeds up and can crash into the person below him. That, in turn, can make both jumpers accelerate and slam into anyone who might be below them. In short, it's a recipe for disaster.
I angled my body and tracked away from the group to avoid the tumbling mess. I maneuvered until I was falling right over "the spot," a magical point on the ground above which we were to open our parachutes for the leisurely two-minute descent.
I looked over and was relieved to see that the disoriented jumpers were now also tracking away from each other, dispersing the deadly clump.
Chuck was there among them. To my surprise, he was coming straight in my direction. He stopped directly beneath me. With all of the group's tumbling, we were passing through 2,000 feet elevation more quickly than Chuck had anticipated. Maybe he thought he was lucky and didn't have to follow the rules — exactly.
He must not see me. The thought barely had time to go through my head before Chuck's colorful pilot chute blossomed out of his backpack. His pilot chute caught the 120-mph breeze coming around him and shot straight toward me, pulling his main parachute in its sleeve right behind it.
From the instant I saw Chuck's pilot chute emerge, I had a fraction of a second to react. For it would take less than a second to tumble through his deploying main parachute, and — quite likely — right into Chuck himself. At that speed, if I hit his arm or his leg I would take it right off, dealing myself a fatal blow in the process. If I hit him directly, both our bodies would essentially explode.
People say things move more slowly in situations like this, and they're right. My mind watched the action in the microseconds that followed as if it were watching a movie in slow motion.
The instant I saw the pilot chute, my arms flew to my sides and I straightened my body into a head dive, bending ever so slightly at the hips. The verticality gave me increased speed, and the bend allowed my body to add first a little, then a blast of horizontal motion as my body became an efficient wing, sending me zipping past Chuck just in front of his colorful blossoming Para-Commander parachute.
I passed him going at over 150 miles per hour, or 220 feet per second. Given that speed, I doubt he saw the expression on my face. But if he had, he would have seen a look of sheer astonishment. Somehow I had reacted in microseconds to a situation that, had I actually had time to think about it, would have been much too complex for me to deal with.
And yet ... I had dealt with it, and we both landed safely. It was as if, presented with a situation that required more than its usual ability to respond, my brain had become, for a moment, superpowered.
How had I done it? Over the course of my twenty-plus-year career in academic neurosurgery — of studying the brain, observing how it works, and operating on it — I have had plenty of opportunities to ponder this very question. I finally chalked it up to the fact that the brain is truly an extraordinary device: more extraordinary than we can even guess.
I realize now that the real answer to that question is much more profound. But I had to go through a complete metamorphosis of my life and worldview to glimpse that answer. This book is about the events that changed my mind on the matter. They convinced me that, as marvelous a mechanism as the brain is, it was not my brain that saved my life that day at all. What sprang into action the second Chuck's chute started to open was another, much deeper part of me. A part that could move so fast because it was not stuck in time at all, the way the brain and body are.
This was the same part of me, in fact, that had made me so homesick for the skies as a kid. It's not only the smartest part of us, but the deepest part as well, yet for most of my adult life I was unable to believe in it.
But I do believe now, and the pages that follow will tell you why.
I'm a neurosurgeon.
I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976 with a major in chemistry and earned my M.D. at Duke University Medical School in 1980. During my eleven years of medical school and residency training at Duke as well as Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard, I focused on neuroendocrinology, the study of the interactions between the nervous system and the endocrine system — the series of glands that release the hormones that direct most of your body's activities. I also spent two of those eleven years investigating how blood vessels in one area of the brain react pathologically when there is bleeding into it from an aneurysm — a syndrome known as cerebral vasospasm.
After completing a fellowship in cerebrovascular neurosurgery in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom, I spent fifteen years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School as an associate professor of surgery, with a specialization in neurosurgery. During those years I operated on countless patients, many of them with severe, life-threatening brain conditions.
Most of my research work involved the development of advanced technical procedures like stereotactic radiosurgery, a technique that allows surgeons to precisely guide beams of radiation to specific targets deep in the brain without affecting adjacent areas. I also helped develop magnetic resonance image–guided neurosurgical procedures instrumental in repairing hard-to-treat brain conditions like tumors and vascular disorders. During those years I also authored or coauthored more than 150 chapters and papers for peer-reviewed medical journals and presented my findings at more than two hundred medical conferences around the world.
In short, I devoted myself to science. Using the tools of modern medicine to help and to heal people, and to learn more about the workings of the human body and brain, was my life's calling. I felt immeasurably lucky to have found it. More important, I had a beautiful wife and two lovely children, and while I was in many ways married to my work, I did not neglect my family, which I considered the other great blessing in my life. On many counts I was a very lucky man, and I knew it.
On November 10, 2008, however, at age fifty-four, my luck seemed to run out. I was struck by a rare illness and thrown into a coma for seven days. During that time, my entire neocortex — the outer surface of the brain, the part that makes us human — was shut down. Inoperative. In essence, absent.
When your brain is absent, you are absent, too. As a neurosurgeon, I'd heard many stories over the years of people who had strange experiences, usually after suffering cardiac arrest: stories of traveling to mysterious, wonderful landscapes; of talking to dead relatives — even of meeting God Himself.
Wonderful stuff, no question. But all of it, in my opinion, was pure fantasy. What caused the otherworldly types of experiences that such people so often report? I didn't claim to know, but I did know that they were brain-based. All of consciousness is. If you don't have a working brain, you can't be conscious.
This is because the brain is the machine that produces consciousness in the first place. When the machine breaks down, consciousness stops. As vastly complicated and mysterious as the actual mechanics of brain processes are, in essence the matter is as simple as that. Pull the plug and the TV goes dead. The show is over, no matter how much you might have been enjoying it.
Or so I would have told you before my own brain crashed.
During my coma my brain wasn't working improperly — it wasn't working at all. I now believe that this might have been what was responsible for the depth and intensity of the near-death experience (NDE) that I myself underwent during it. Many of the NDEs reported happen when a person's heart has shut down for a while. In those cases, the neocortex is temporarily inactivated, but generally not too damaged, provided that the flow of oxygenated blood is restored through cardiopulmonary resuscitation or reactivation of cardiac function within four minutes or so. But in my case, the neocortex was out of the picture. I was encountering the reality of a world of consciousness that existed completely free of the limitations of my physical brain.
Mine was in some ways a perfect storm of near-death experiences. As a practicing neurosurgeon with decades of research and hands-on work in the operating room behind me, I was in a better-than-average position to judge not only the reality but also the implications of what happened to me.
Those implications are tremendous beyond description. My experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness, that human experience continues beyond the grave. More important, it continues under the gaze of a God who loves and cares about each one of us and about where the universe itself and all the beings within it are ultimately going.
The place I went was real. Real in a way that makes the life we're living here and now completely dreamlike by comparison. This doesn't mean I don't value the life I'm living now, however. In fact, I value it more than I ever did before. I do so because I now see it in its true context.
This life isn't meaningless. But we can't see that fact from here — at least most of the time. What happened to me while I was in that coma is hands-down the most important story I will ever tell. But it's a tricky story to tell because it is so foreign to ordinary understanding. I can't simply shout it from the rooftops. At the same time, my conclusions are based on a medical analysis of my experience, and on my familiarity with the most advanced concepts in brain science and consciousness studies. Once I realized the truth behind my journey, I knew I had to tell it. Doing so properly has become the chief task of my life.
That's not to say I've abandoned my medical work and my life as a neurosurgeon. But now that I have been privileged to understand that our life does not end with the death of the body or the brain, I see it as my duty, my calling, to tell people about what I saw beyond the body and beyond this earth. I am especially eager to tell my story to the people who might have heard stories similar to mine before and wanted to believe them, but had not been able to fully do so.
It is to these people, more than any other, that I direct this book, and the message within it. What I have to tell you is as important as anything anyone will ever tell you, and it's true.
From Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander. Copyright 2012 by Eben Alexander. Excerpted by permission of Simon & Schuster.


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When an employee leaves your organization, do you delete or disable their Active Directory account? Our SOP is to disable, export/purge the Exchange mailbox, and then after "some time" has elapsed (usually quarterly), delete the account.
Is there any need for that delay? After exporting and purging their mailbox, why shouldn't I delete the account right then and there?

subset: commoncrawl


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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) Purdue figured out how to slow the pace - and still score a little, too, Wednesday night.
Terone Johnson finished with a career-high 25 points and D.J. Byrd scored nine of his 15 during a key 19-3 second-half run, sending the Boilermakers past No. 11 Illinois 68-61.
Byrd sealed the game with a three-point play with 20.1 seconds to go.
The Boilermakers (7-6, 1-0 Big Ten) have won three straight and are over .500 for the first time this season. They have won eight straight over the Fighting Illini.
Illinois (13-2, 0-1) was led by Brandon Paul with 15 points and Joseph Bertrand with 14, but managed only one basket during a decisive 5 1/2-minute stretch of the second half. Illinois has lost eight straight conference road games, dating to a Jan. 4, 2012 win at Northwestern.
Its losing streak against Purdue is the school's longest against a Big Ten foe since dropping nine straight to Purdue from 1996 to 2000.
Still, it took everything the Boilermakers had to hang on when Illinois rallied from a 10-point deficit over the final 3 1/2 minutes to close to 63-61.
But Byrd put that away by grabbing an inbounds pass, tossing in a layup, drawing a foul and hitting the free throw to make it a two-possession game.
It looked like Illinois' misery might end when it opened the game by going 6 of 10 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. That helped them hang on to a 33-31 halftime lead. The Illini extended the margin to 45-39 when Tyler Griffin hit a 3-pointer with 12:03 to play.
But Byrd and 7-foot freshman A.J. Hammons rallied Purdue.
After Johnson scored on a putback, Byrd knocked down a 3 to make it 45-44. Hammons scored on a short hook shot to give Purdue the lead and Byrd followed that with consecutive 3s. When Johnson drove in for a layup Purdue led 55-48 with 6:36 to play, and they led by as much as 61-51 with about 3 minutes to go.
This time the Illini closed the deficit to 61-58 with the second of two 3s by Paul 3s with 1:45 left.
After Purdue's Ronnie Johnson scored, Richardson answered with his only 3 of the game to make it 63-61 with 28.4 seconds left.
But Byrd closed it out with the three-point play on Purdue's next possession.


text: Atisha, the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist scholar and saint, came to Tibet at the invitation of the king of Western Tibet, Lha Lama Yeshe Wo, and his nephew, Jangchub Wo. His coming initiated the period of the second transmission of Buddhism to Tibet, formative for the Sakya Kagyu and Gelug traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. Atisha's most celebrated text, Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, sets forth the entire Buddhist path within the framework of three levels of motivation on the part of the practitioner. Atisha's text thus became the source of the lamrim tradition, or graduated stages of the path to enlightenment, an approach to spiritual practice incorporated within all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.


text: A video clip of Jay-Z striking up a casual conversation with an elderly passenger on the subway is making the rounds, following yesterday's release of the rapper's latest documentary "Where I'm From." The soft-spoken lady, who seemed to be unaware of who she was talking to, has been identified as Ellen Grossman, a 67-year-old Brooklyn-born artist. For more details, check out The Guardian's interview article.


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Witch Head Nebula – IC 2118
The Witch Head Nebula, also known by its official name, IC 2118, is a very faint reflection nebula in the constellation Eridanus. It was nicknamed the Witch Head because it looks like a profile of a wicked witch. The nebula is illuminated by the bright star Rigel in Orion. It lies at a distance of 1,000 … [Read more…]


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Powermat was the first company to popularize the idea of charging mobile devices through inductive, or wireless, charging. A new gadget, the $99.99 Powermat 24-Hour Power System, promises to provide just what its name suggests. The first Powermat product under the venerable Duracell brand, the 24-Hour Power System indeed serves up wireless charging plus a backup battery to keep phones from dying when you're out on the town. Still, though handsomely styled and compact, for now the Power System is most useful for iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S3 owners.
Duracell Powermat 24-Hour Power System keeps you covered (pictures)See all photos
If you're familiar with Powermat's past line of wireless charging devices, the Duracell Powermat 24-Hour Power System won't prove to be too much of a shocker. That's because it isn't a huge leap forward in terms of functionality or overall design. Just like the Powermat products before it, the 24-Hour Power System primarily consists of a flat and compact rectangular charging pad with smoothly curved corners. The mat itself is available for purchase separately for $49.99 and comes in a choice of white or black.
While older Powermat products had a matte coating, I like the glossy surface this new Powermat series sports, and the metallic-silver accents that run along the mat's edges and bottom side. I'm sure this aesthetic choice wasn't an accident since it's strongly reminiscent of modern iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Android handsets. Two adhesive strips sit on back of the Powermat that help keep the charger secure when placed on tables or desktops. Thankfully these strips aren't permanent, so you can pick the mat up and repeatedly reposition or remove the strips if you choose.
Duracell also bundles with the Power System either a special case for the fourth-generation Apple iPhone (4 and 4S) or one that fits the Samsung Galaxy S3. Both cases enable these phones' batteries to be charged wirelessly via the Powermat. While the stock iPhone case comes in a range of seven colors, Duracell only ships the Galaxy S3 version in white. The company, however, just announced a new partnership with case customizer Coveroo that will allow people to stencil their own cases with personalized paint jobs.
The third piece of this Powermat's puzzle is the Portable Backup Battery. The battery, a square unit about the size of a small tape measure, is both compact and light (2.9 ounces). It also is clad in the same futuristic styling as the Powermat charger.
With the inclusion of the Backup Battery, it's clear that Duracell envisioned its product as offering users extra power on the go. Also, while the charging pad itself isn't precisely meant to pack up neatly for travel, it weighs just 6.4 ounces (9.28 ounces with battery) and is about a third of the size of competing products such as the Energizer Dual Inductive Charger. The Powermat's AC adapter is crafted with an eye toward mobility as well, featuring a wide channel where the cord can be wrapped and neatly stowed.
At its core the Duracell Powermat 24-Hour Power System is designed to be just what its name suggests, a charger built to cover mobile phone users around the clock. To this end the Powermat charger features two spots to accommodate two devices. Depending on which version of the Power System you buy, you'll be able to charge either a Samsung Galaxy S3 or fourth-generation iPhone wirelessly right out of the box using the bundled special case.
One nice flourish I've always liked on Powermat products is how certain it is when you're charging successfully. When you begin to place a Powermat-equipped phone on the mat you first feel a strong magnetic tug that's hard to ignore. This pull guides you down to connect the device with the mat with a solid thunk. If that wasn't enough of a clue, the mat chimes with an audible rising tone and illuminates a small LED when the connection is made. Pulling a device off of the mat causes a falling chime to play and switches off the light.


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In the ongoing hunt for stable, pension-like retirement income sources, deferred income annuities (or DIAs) are heating up as an increasing number of insurance carriers have begun to offer the products.
Unfortunately, many clients continue to view DIAs only as a type of longevity insurance that can protect against the risk of outliving traditional retirement savings. As the market for these products expands, however, this common view has become more and more inaccurate—causing many clients to miss out on a product that can function as a powerful component in any retirement income portfolio.
Keeping current with respect to the flexible nature of these products can mean the difference between creating a well rounded retirement income portfolio or missing the opportunity to purchase when the time is right.
DIAs: Common Misconceptions
In many cases, when clients hear about deferred income annuities, they think of an annuity product that requires an extended deferral period in order to begin payouts when the client reaches old age. While this type of product can be extremely useful in protecting the client against the risk of outliving his or her assets, many clients feel that the investment will be wasted if they do not live through the extended deferral period.
In reality, however, this form of longevity insurance is only one type of deferred income annuity, and many DIAs allow the client to choose to start receiving income within as little as 13 months—or as long as 45 years—after purchasing the contract. Clearing up this common misperception can vastly expand the use of deferred income annuities among clients—especially when they discover the flexibility that the DIA product can offer.
Finding Flexibility With DIAs
While clients have the option of choosing an annuity starting date that begins relatively quickly or far into the future with DIAs, these products often will allow the client to change the annuity starting date that he or she originally chooses. This gives the client flexibility, as circumstances can change over a longer deferral period.
Along the same line, DIAs can also protect against inflation risk by providing for cost of living adjustments that can give clients certainty that their income needs, which are always difficult to anticipate, will be met, even if the annuity starting date is as far as forty-five years into the future.
Many deferred income annuities also allow clients to collect nonguaranteed dividends over the life of the annuity product. Clients have the option to collect the cash dividends offered or can reinvest the dividends into the annuity product to increase the guaranteed income stream.
This option gives clients the flexibility to invest dividend income elsewhere in strongly performing equity markets but also allows them to keep the added income within the secure annuity product in a down market.
Further, while a traditional annuity will usually require the client to make one large lump sum payment to purchase the annuity, many deferred income annuities allow the client to make multiple contributions. This lets the client spread the purchase over a period of time prior to the income starting date, which can alleviate some of the downside risk of locking a large portion of his or her savings into the contract with no expectation of return for several years.
The expanding market for deferred income annuities has made these products increasingly useful for clients looking to lock in a secure retirement income source—dispelling the common misperception that these products are only useful in protecting against extended longevity, however, is crucial to helping clients see the ever-increasing utility of the DIA.
Originally published on National Underwriter Advanced Markets. National Underwriter Advanced Markets is the premier resource for financial planners, wealth managers, and advanced markets professionals who provide clients with expert financial and retirement planning advice.
To find out more, visit http://info.nationalunderwriteradvancedmarkets.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/gZJbgqu_YQI%5D
After briefly dabbling in a pro MMA career again in 2010 at DREAM.13, Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siliga returned to the K-1 kickboxing promotion later in the year.
At the December event, the American-Samoan striker took on kickboxing legend Peter Aerts in the quarterfinal round of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final.
And it proved a one-sided affair.
Each week HDNet and MMAjunkie.com release a new and exclusive fight from the ever-growing HDNet Fights video library. Stunning knockouts, slick submissions, shocking finishes and legendary brawls are the norm for this weekly feature.
Aerts vs. "Mighty Mo" is no exception.
Aerts (100-27-1), a three-time K-1 world champion, had two won of his previous three bouts and 11 of the previous 16. At 40 years of age and with the mounting wear and tear of a 22-year and 100-plus-fights career, many wondered if the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix would be his final shot at a fourth title. Against Siliga (16-11), a one-time K-1 world champion, he faced a fellow fighter entering the twilight of his career who had lost seven of his previous 10 bouts.
So which veteran would pull of the victory and meet Semmy Schilt in the semifinals?
Check out the embedded clip for the answer.
Each week MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) and HDNet Fights (www.hdnetfights.com) team up for "HDNet Fights Vault," which offer a new and unique video from the organization's ever-growing fight library. The weekly feature is a continuation of a long-standing partnership between MMAjunkie.com and HDNet. For more information on HDNet, which broadcasts more MMA events than any other TV outlet, visit www.hd.net.


text:
|Institution Type:
|Private not-for-profit
|Campus Setting:
|Mid East Large City
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Master's degree
|Level of Institution:
|Four or more years
Boricua college is well established. The programs are very heplful. it also have an excellent envoirnment for learning.…
It's a small local college but i've found my experiences there pleasant the instructors and staff at both brooklyn campuses have encouraged and helped me to reach my goals. their…
All the teachers and staff are welcoming and i haven't had no trouble since I've been in the school.Read More


text:
Important Facts
An Upward Bound currently exists within this institution.
Upward Bound is part of a series of programs (TRIO) established by Congress to help income deficient Americans enter college and graduate. Student Support Services, Talent Search, Educational Opportunity Centers, and Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement are also part of TRIO.
The Upward Bound program allows the students to participate in a six-week Summer Residential Program where they have the opportunity to live on a college campus which enables them to take part in various cultural and recreational activities as well as attend classes daily.
Angela Bassett (Oscar-nominated actress), John Quinones (ABC news correspondent) and Ben Watson (Memphis' very own WMC Action News 5 news anchor) were all participants of an Upward Bound program.
For more information contact Ouida Pope-Warren, Director, at email@example.com or call 901-333-5117.


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Area ski slopes ready for action - and snow
As frigid temps begin to hit, ski slopes across the state are eager to start their most popular season -- ski and snowboarding time.
Ski Sundown, based in New Hartford, said that they're ready to open their trails "as soon as possible."
With temperatures rising and dropping iratically, ski slopes are waiting until it is cold enough -- below zero -- to make snow. Besides low temperatures, man-made snow requires a certain amount of humidity.
As Thanksgiving weekend shows promise of "perfect snow" weather, according to Bob Switzgable, Ski Sundown President and General Manager, the hope is that the trails will be open Saturday.
Other ski slopes, Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall, Ski Butternut in Great Barrington, Mass and Mount Southington in Southington are targeting the first weekend of December -- Dec. 1 and 2 -- to open the trails.
Woodbury Ski Area, typically the first ski area in the Northeast to open, opened their trails on Oct. 13 for skiing, snowboarding and tubing.
Powder Ridge in Middlefield will not open for the season again due to new ownership taking over, the sale of which closed Sept. 13. The new owners hope to have the ski runs open by Dec. 31, 2014.
"We have 14 trails and plan to have them all open at some point in the season. We are hoping to start our snow making soon depending on the weather forecast," said Ed Beckley, spokesperson for Mount Southington. The four other local ski areas have similar plans for starting out the winter season of fun.
"We plan on having three to five trails open by the first two weekends of December," Switzgable said. "We're excited to get started. Everything is ready."
Mount Southington will be continuing its Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge, a sponsored race open to anyone. Prizes will be awarded as well.
"People from all over New England travel to this event, and it is just a really fun day for everyone," Beckley said.
As there was a drought of snow last year, the ski slopes are ready for a busier season with the forecasted large amount of snow this winter.
"People seem to be really excited this year, and we're ready to go," said Trish Morrissey, director of guest services. "It will be a busier and more exciting season than last year."
On the bright side for skiers and snowboarders, "regardless of the amount of snow, it is always cold enough in New England to make snow," Morrissey said.
If swooping down the trails isn't exciting enough, the local ski areas are open until 9 or 10 p.m., depending on the day, for night skiing and snowboarding with lights ready to illuminate the trails.
Lessons for beginners and even those trying to perfect their skills are offered at the ski areas as well.
Ski Butternut offers a $75 package for first time skiers and snowboarders which includes a lift, lesson and rental for one day and a $100 lift, lesson and rental package for beginner's second, third and fourth times on the snow.
Ski Sundown charges $78 for a first time ski or snowboard package inlcuding lift, lesson and rental fees.
Even though most pre--season specials just ended at Ski Sundown, one remains. Skiers and snowboarders can purchase a 12--pack pass for $239, good for 12 weekday visits and equaling out to be about $19 per visit.
Sunday Nov. 25 will be the end of season passes and discounts for Mohawk Mountain.
"We are 100 percent snow making and we're excited to open and start making snow," said Switzgable.
For more information on season passes, hours of operation, lessons and pricing at the local ski areas, visit www.mohawkmtn.com, skisundown.com, skibutternut.com, www.woodburyskiarea.com, www.mountsouthington.com and powderridgect.com.
Reach Sarah Bogues at 860--489--3121, ext. 328.


text:
My graduation ceremony for my Masters degree was on Wednesday. This is my second time graduating, so I at least knew what to expect this time. Last year I was really nervous but this year I thought I had it a bit better in hand - until one of my tutors commented on how nervous I'd looked just before going on stage.
In contrast to last year, there was no time to mingle after the ceremony, and therefore no time to take photos once I'd returned my gown. It was freezing outside (I'm sure I looked a sight sliding around on the ice in my stilettos) but we managed to get one or two snaps afterwards when I went out for lunch with my parents.
It's such a shame I didn't manage to get a full-length photo of the outfit (without the gown) where I'm standing up, as this dress really deserves it. It's a slinky little late 50s number, which was given to me for my birthday by my cool auntie (we all have one, right?); it used to be a favourite of hers so I guess we're keeping it in the family. She also gave me the late 50s shoes which only just fit me, but match very well. I'm also wearing a new bolero from Collectif (seems to be sold out now, sorry!) because I wanted something to help keep the cold weather at bay.
My lipstick is American Beauty by Bésame which I really love, and my jewellery is marcasite. The necklace and earrings were a graduation present from my parents which my mum chose partially because she loves her own marcasite jewellery, and partially for its vintage credentials (although this jewellery is new, not vintage). The bracelet is borrowed from my mum, who coincidentally also chose to wear marcasite jewellery with her outfit as she has more than one set.
As for what's next - who knows, but I'm aiming high!
18 comments
Way to go, sweet Helen! What an amazing, truly admirable accomplishment! I'm thrilled for, and totally proud of you, my lovely friend!ReplyDelete
Here's to everything amazing that the next chapter of your life holds in store for you!
♥ JessicaReplies
Thank you, I'm thrilled all the hard work finally paid off.Delete
Congratulations!! May the world open up to endless possibilities! and you looked stunning. :)ReplyDelete
Yay! Great job, Helen!!! A master's degree is a LOT of hard work! Not to mention, your outfit IS fantastic. I like the blend of classy professional and sparkly whimsy. :)ReplyDeleteReplies
It was *such* hard work but really enjoyable as well!Delete
congratulations!!!!! may all your future dreams come true...ReplyDelete
great choice of a song!
Congratulations! A master's degree - that's amazing. I'm sure you've got a bright future ahead of you.ReplyDelete
You look really lovely, that lipstick is smashing on you. And it's awesome that your cool aunt also has cool clothes that happen to fit you. I'd be raiding her closet nonstop.
Jessica, Zella MaybeReplies
It's really great that we share a similar taste in clothes, obviously I take after her haha :)Delete
- Anonymous27 January 2015 at 21:09
Congratulation! :)))ReplyDelete
- Anonymous27 January 2015 at 22:04
Congratulations! And you look beautiful!ReplyDelete
Stunning outfit. Congratulations.XReplyDelete
Congratulations and fantastic work! Absolutely lovely pictures :)ReplyDelete
Congrats, you look absolutely stunning! Cheering you on in all your future endeavors!ReplyDelete
Thank you everyone for your lovely congratulations messages! I'm so pleased to have finished the course and am looking forward to the next thing.ReplyDelete
Congratulations, such a great achievement. Your auntie's dress is marvellous.ReplyDelete
Congratulations on your wonderful achievement! You look beautiful. Cheers to a big bright future for you!!!ReplyDelete
Congrats girl ! and yes we all have one cool auntie, i definitely know of whom you're speaking about there ! hahaReplyDelete


text:
2 search results
Agribusiness Management and Marketing
Agribusiness Management and Marketing is designed to provide a foundation to agribusiness management and the free enterprise system. Instruction includes the use of economic principles such as supply and demand, budgeting, record keeping, finance, risk management, business law, marketing, and...
- Grade Range: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Postsecondary
Scope and Sequence: Agribusiness Management and Marketing
CTE TEKS - Implemented 2017-2018, adopted in 2015Agribusiness Management and Marketing course scope and sequence within the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career Cluster® summarizes the content to be taught, and one possible order for teaching the units of instruction. A...
- Resource ID: 19272
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text:
It does not say for how long but I honestly thought PM would not renew their contract with the Scuderia. This is a positive sign from the sponsor meaningFerrari will remain with tobacco sponsor Philip Morris and its Marlboro brand for the near future, after announcing it has renewed its long-term deal.
Although no Marlboro logos have appeared on the car since cigarette advertising was supposedly banned from F1 in 2007, Ferrari has maintained the use of the red and while colours in its livery and corporate branding.
Back in 2010, however, Ferrari had to remove a barcode design from its car after there were suggestions it was subliminal advertising for Marlboro.
The partnership between Philip Morris and Ferrari began more than 40 years ago, and since 1997 it has been title sponsor. A statement issued on Monday said the new deal was multi-year.
Philip Morris' previous contract had been due to run out at the end of this year, but the association between the two companies was always likely to continue thanks to the arrival of former Philip Morris marketing man Maurizio Arrivabene as Ferrari team principal.
money still being pumped in.


text:
World Rugby has launched a defence of its under-fire Nations Championship concept, insisting the proposed annual tournament can earn the sport €5.86 billion in 12 years.
The global governing body hosted crisis talks with rugby's top power brokers in Dublin on Thursday.
Despite revealing details of a proposed multi-billion pound investment deal with sports marketing company Infront, World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont admitted resistance remains in some quarters to the Nations Championship plans.
"I would like to thank my union, competition and player representative colleagues for their candid, constructive and positive contributions," said Beaumont.
"There was strong recognition that World Rugby's Nations Championship proposal, based on a true pathway for all, has been developed with great care, extensive evaluation and with the global game at the forefront of our thinking.
"We are encouraged that the format revisions and robust financial model has been well received.
"Everyone, not just the established teams, will benefit, accelerating the development and competitiveness of the global game.
"However, as you would expect in an ambitious, complex and multi-stakeholder project, not everyone is in full agreement on the way forward, including the matter of promotion and relegation, but we will continue to engage and consult.
"This is a pivotal time for the game. Only by keeping the best interests of the global game at heart will we be able to achieve something truly impactful for the future success and sustainability of the game."
Six Nations bosses are understood to be opposed to the idea of promotion and relegation, that underpins World Rugby's Nations Championship concept.
World Rugby wants to launch a new cross-hemisphere contest in 2022, where the winners of the Six Nations will face off with the top team from an expanded, six-team Rugby Championship.
Leading players have criticised World Rugby's lack of engagement over the entire issue, insisting they have been ignored.
And Six Nations chiefs are expected to continue to rail against allowing promotion and relegation in their own competition, while also pushing for a new financial deal of their own, with CVC Capital Partners waiting in the wings to invest.
Top players had pre-empted the meeting by demanding a seat on World Rugby's executive committee, and the governing body responded by pledging to work with the International Rugby Players organisation and club bosses over the proposals.
World Rugby moved to outline its position on Thursday ahead of the crunch talks however, with a lengthy statement.
The statement read: "At the meeting of unions, competition owners and international player representatives, World Rugby outlined details of a game-changing competition model that delivers a true pathway for all unions through a three-division format and a system of promotion and relegation.
"The proposed format would be underpinned by a record commercial partnership with leading global sports marketing company Infront, guaranteeing almost £5billion for investment in the sport over an initial 12-year period (of which more than £1.5billion is guaranteed incremental revenue for the world game).
"The proposed business model covers both media and marketing rights but does not include any sale of equity in the competition and therefore full control of the competition and its revenue redistribution model would be retained by the unions, the current major competitions and World Rugby."


text:
Massachusetts voters have elected Democrat Elizabeth Warren to the U.S. Senate, rejecting Republican incumbent Scott P Brown in favor of a first-time candidate who vowed to "work her heart out" for the middle class.
The 63-year-old Harvard Law School professor and consumer advocate prevailed over Mr. Brown in the most expensive Senate race in the country, becoming the first woman ever elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.
"This victory belongs to you. You did this. You did this," Ms. Warren told her supporters in a victory speech interrupted by load chants of "Warren, Warren, Warren."
She pledged to fight for families who have been "chipped at, squeezed and hammered" and said she would fight to make sure "millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share."
"You taught a scrappy first-time candidate how to get in the ring and win," she said to her backers. "You let them know you want a senator that will be out there fighting for middle class all of the time. And you elected the first woman senator, too," she said. "All of you have had my back and I promise you, I'll have your back," Ms. Warren said thanking what she called, "the single best grass-roots army" the state had ever seen.
The contentious $70 million race that unfolded amid a highly partisan national election returns the seat long held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to the Democratic ranks and could be a factor in which party controls the Senate.
Polls showed a tight race heading into Election Day and today's outcome derails Mr. Brown's rise to power and popularity that began Jan. 19, 2010, when the Wrentham state senator surprised many with an upset special election victory to serve out the remaining three years of Mr. Kennedy's term.
Mr. Brown consoled his supporters at the Park Plaza Hotel saying, "I don't want to see any sad faces. We ran a fantastic campaign." He congratulated his opponent in his concession speech and said he accepted the results.
"If you run for office you have to be able to take it either way, winning or losing," Mr. Brown told them. "She won it fair and square folks and she has won a high honor winning the people's seat. It's absolutely been a wonderful ride and I want to thank you for the honor of being your United States senator," he said.
He said he didn't regret a single decision he made in his less than three years in the Senate and hinted that he's not leaving politics permanently.
"There are no obstacles you can't overcome, and defeat is only temporary," he said to loud cheers.
State elections officials said there was a historic turnout and there were still long lines of voters waiting to cast ballots after the 8 p.m. closing time in many precincts. Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray said Democrats put on the best get out the vote operation ever in Worcester County.
Warren supporters who jammed into the ballroom of the Copley Fairmont Hotel tonight erupted with euphoric shouts and howls when they saw the three major networks project Ms. Warren as the winner shortly before 10 p.m. They also cheered with glee as state-by-state wins by President Barack Obama were announced on giant television screens set up for them to watch election coverage.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick thanked Ms. Warren for showing political courage to get into the race, saying "Our next great senator is a person with backbone."
Renewing his promises to repeal Obamacare and battle tax increases and deficit spending, Mr. Brown attacked Ms. Warren's character and career, laid claim to political independence and asked voters to back his hope to find bipartisan solutions to the nation's deep economic problems.
"I'm nobody's senator except yours," Mr. Brown vowed in his closing ads, asking voters to "Vote the person, not the party" in the intensive and high-priced campaign that left the race too close.
But Ms. Warren took the upper hand today as Democrats launched highly developed "get out the vote" operations that saw thousands of campaign volunteers canvassing neighborhoods for months to target supporters and ensure they got to the polls.
At a final campaign stop at the Broadway Diner in Worcester yesterday, Ms. Warren laid out what she thought was at stake in the election.
"This truly is about what kind of a people we are, what kind of a country we are going to build," she said. "The people of Massachusetts can keep a senator who stands with the millionaires and billionaires or they can elect a senator who will be out there every day fighting for working families."
Throughout the campaign, Ms. Warren disputed Mr. Brown's claim to political independence, pounding on his record of opposing Obamacare, job creation bills, birth control coverage, and middle-class tax cuts, unless taxes were also cut for the top 2 percent.
In three debates, millions of dollars in television ads and on the stump, she said voters, "deserve a senator you can count on all of the time, not just some of the time."
Ms. Warren also pledged to back federal investments in education, research and infrastructure and to oppose any cuts in Social Security and Medicare benefits, while getting substantial help from most of the state's teacher, fire and building trades unions. Her campaign was bolstered by coordinated support from the state's major Democratic figures, including Gov. Deval L. Patrick and Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the state's congressional delegation and a coalition of Central Massachusetts Democrats led by U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern.
Ms. Warren began her first run for elective office last year, encouraged by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to enter the race. She secured a direct path to the November election when delegates to the state Democratic convention in Springfield denied immigration attorney Marissa DeFranco enough votes to force a primary.
Her candidacy was not without bumps.
In debates, Mr. Brown kicked off their first two of three debates with accusations that Ms. Warren falsely claimed Native American heritage to get hired to teach at the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard Law School decades ago.
But Ms. Warren defended her family heritage claims as being based on accounts that she grew up with in her family. She cited testimony from officials who hired her at Harvard that she did not use the claim to get hired and the Brown campaign was unable to document the accusations that she "checked the box" as a minority when she applied for jobs at those schools.
Mr. Brown's campaign promoted his everyman image, support for Boston sports teams, dedication to veterans, his claim of political independence and successes in getting several bills passed with bipartisan support.
Both candidates barnstormed the state for weeks in the final phase of the campaign, which was brought to a halt a week before Election Day when Hurricane Sandy shut down the state and forced cancellation of the last debate in Boston.
Mr. Brown made the decision not to participate in a rescheduled debate Thursday, opting for a final five-day bus tour across the state, drawing rebukes from Ms. Warren. He brought in Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to campaign with him, but avoided appearances with GOP nominee Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
Ms. Warren, meanwhile, barnstormed the state in her hybrid Ford Escape, embracing crowds and building local volunteer networks. Both candidates held numerous campaign events in Central Massachusetts, which was viewed as a key swing county in the statewide vote.
Priyanka Dayal McCluskey of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.


text:
"Martha Marcy May Marlene," starring Elizabeth Olsen in the title role, as a young woman who decides she needs to leave the cult she's been a part of for the past two years, made its world premiere at Sundance Friday in front of a packed house at the Eccles theater.
Writer-director Sean Durkin is the prototype of a Sundance success story, having first made the short film "Mary Last Seen" about a young girl who goes on a road trip with her boyfriend, lured by the promise of paradise. The film was honored at Cannes last year. Now he's in Park City with a sequel to the short, one he developed as a part of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab.
Olsen, little sister of the famous twins, gives a remarkably assured and brave turn as Martha, as we watch her try to adjust to life back with her sister (Sarah Paulson) and brother-in-law (Hugh Dancy). And John Hawkes plays the cult's seductive and manipulative leader. The film unfolds with Marcy having increasingly more terrifying flashbacks to her days with the cult, memories brought on by the most mundane acts of domesticity. The tension mounts until the final moment, which sucked all the air out of the room.
The premiere earned a loud ovation, after which, Durkin discussed the process of developing the projects.
"As I was working on the feature and trying to get it made last year, it just wasn't ready, but I wanted to direct something, so we decided to make ("Mary Last Seen"). ("Martha Marcy May Marlene") is about when she leaves. And I had done all this research and learned all these methods about how people get involved, and I just wanted to do a short that was an example of those different stages.
"I wanted to do something about a cult that was contemporary. Often times movies that deal with them are period, or rather, set in the '60s or '70s, and kind of over-the-top. And I wanted to do something contemporary; that I thought would be real. I studied all different groups and really found that the methods of manipulation and the abuse—it's all the same, whether it's religion, no matter what religion it is, there's a consistency. And then a friend of mine, as I started writing the script came forward, and was very generous and shared with me her experiences. She had been through something similar, and so a lot of the particular incidences within the cult are based on her experience."
Durkin was not alone in having friends confess to their experiences with such groups. Elizabeth Olsen, too, found she had a number of friends with stories to tell.
"Know that it's not this fictitious, exaggerated thing, that actually I know a few people, when I told them I was doing this movie told me, 'Oh, yeah, my parents ere in a cult. And then I was born into a cult. And then we ran away,'" said Olsen. "It's everywhere. And so it's not this like this crazy outlandish… It's rooted in something that's very real—that's taboo."
U.S. & World
"Martha Marcy May Marlene" is running in the U.S. Dramatic Competition.


text:
A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
Cato's Letters, or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. In Four Volumes. (London: Witkins, Woodward, Walthoe, and Peele, 1737). https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1735,
A facsimile of the 1737 edition. Almost a generation before Washington, Henry, and Jefferson were even born, two Englishmen, concealing their identities with the honored ancient name of Cato, wrote newspaper articles condemning tyranny and advancing principles of liberty that immensely influenced American colonists.
The text is in the public domain.
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.


text: My research interests are in string theory and related topics, with a focus on the interplay between string theory and quantum field theory. Currently my work is centered on aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence in various dimensions. For instance, I have recently investigated higher spin gauge theories in AdS4 and their 3d CFT duals. Another research direction that I am pursuing is the calculation of quantum corrections in the AdS5 x S5 superstring sigma model, and comparison to the strong coupling expansion of certain observables in the 4d N=4 SYM theory. I am also interested in the dynamics of certain non-local operators in gauge theories, such as Wilson loops, and their dual string theory description.


text:
Bourgeois hopes history in NL Central helps this spring
GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Outfielder Jason Bourgeois is among the non-roster players in Reds camp this spring seeking a job. Free agents in similar spots are often signing their deals in the days and weeks just before Spring Training opens.
Bourgeois, 32, didn't spend much time guessing the market. He signed his Minor League contract with the Reds early, on Oct. 24, 2013.
"It's been an attractive team to me for the last couple of years because of the atmosphere that they bring day in and day out," Bourgeois said Sunday. "It's been a winning club the last three or four years. It just seemed like a good fit, especially being back in the National League.
"I've had success in this division. I was kind of itching to get back to it."
Bourgeois played for the Brewers in 2009, and 2010-11 with the Astros when they were still in the NL Central. His best season came in '11, when the Houston native batted .294 with a .323 on-base percentage and 31 stolen bases.
During 2012 Spring Training, the retooling Astros traded Bourgeois to the Royals.
"That was a tough situation," said Bourgeois, a lifetime .259 hitter with a .305 OBP. "I really didn't want to leave home. But it is a business. They were doing some things over there, rebuilding wise. The trade was a little shocking. I didn't understand Kansas City's plans for me."
Bourgeois split the 2012 season between Kansas City and Triple-A Omaha. Last season, he spent most of the year with the Rays' Triple-A club in Durham, but played nine big league games and hit .188 (3-for-16).
With the Reds, the right-handed-hitting Bourgeois is hoping to land a spot as the fourth or fifth outfielder. He's comfortable playing at Great American Ball Park, where he has hit .303 (10-for-33) with a .361 OBP.
"I like hitting there. I like playing there," Bourgeois said. "It's good. It's a short ballpark. It's good for defense. I've had some success hitting there. It's a cool little place to play."


text:
Ceiling Kitty – see European report
Hightail – "Strange things can happen," said D. Wayne Lukas while talking about sending out a maiden to tackle more successful runners in Friday's $500,000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint. "Actually, I don't think he's your average maiden," Lukas added.
The trainer said Hightail wasn't considered for the race early, but, he said, "The [Breeders' Cup] people called me and told me the race was coming up light, so we decided to come in."
Hightail galloped 1 1/2m Wednesday.
Merit Man – The undefeated son of With Distinction appears to be all that trainer Robert Hess Jr. asked for when he was looking at 2yo horses in training at the Ocala Breeders Sale in April. He told one of his sale scouts to find him an athlete, not necessarily a horse with a fancy pedigree that he might not be able to afford.
So here's Merit Man, unbeaten in two starts, a bargain at $75,000 and the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the Juvenile Sprint.
"He is a great athlete," Hess said. "He is a beautifully balanced horse with a great stride. And I've learned since getting him that he has a great mind, too. And that's a bonus. His mind could let him do some things that maybe his pedigree wouldn't."
In Merit Man, Hess will be saddling his third Breeders' Cup starter, finishing third with River Special in the 1992 Juvenile and fourth in the 2008 Juvenile Fillies with Dave's Revenge.
His take on the upcoming Friday race: "We're ready and may the fastest horse win."
South Floyd – The Rick Pitino co-owned colt galloped 1 1/8m Wednesday at Santa Anita with exercise rider Humberto Gomez aboard.
Jack Sisterson, an assistant trainer to Doug O'Neill largely responsible for acquiring the colt at an OBS sale, guessed that Pitino would find a way to break away for a few minutes from his busy schedule as University of Louisville basketball coach to watch South Floyd in the Juvenile Sprint on television Friday.
"I made it a point to chat with the coach when I learned he liked horses," explained Sisterson, who attended the University of Louisville on a soccer scholarship. "He came down to Del Mar this summer, but now that it's basketball season, it's difficult for him to check. South Floyd is named after the street the practice arena is on."
Sweet Shirley Mae – Ice Wine Stable's Sweet Shirley Mae galloped approximately 1 1/4m to 1 1/2m under exercise rider Lindsey Molina.
Sweet Shirley Mae will give trainer Wesley Ward a starter in the Juvenile Sprint for a second consecutive year. Last year at Churchill Downs, the Ward-trained Holdin Bullets ran third in the inaugural running of the race.
Molina said that Ward is in Florida this week and would not be here for the Championships.
Super Ninety Nine – Though he has made only one start – a tally in a straight maiden race this month at Santa Anita – the Pulpit colt Super Ninety Nine is one of the favorites for the second edition of the Juvenile Sprint, which will be the first Breeders' Cup race presented on Friday's program.
The good win and the fact that he's only got to beat six rivals in the 6f race are certainly part of why he's been looked on so kindly. But a further element in the equation falls on the fact that his trainer is the Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who won last year's first running of the race with Secret Circle and has a well-deserved reputation as an excellent trainer of both young horses and sprinters.
Along with all but one of his 10 starters, the trainer watched Super Ninety Nine train at Santa Anita Wednesday morning, who was out early with his 7:45 Breeders' Cup set.
How was the colt doing Baffert was asked? He gave it a thumbs up.


text:
Give Phil the credit
In the Hook's "Hot Seat" article of last week ["Rosé-colored glasses: Robert Harllee's wine-tinted world" July 7, 2005] an important fact was omitted. Since the interview was conducted in the shop between answering the phone, tasting with salespeople, and helping customers, my answer on the origin of the Market Street Wineshop was either too short or garbled.
Philip Stafford opened the Market Street Vine Shop in December 1979. Due to archaic Virginia alcohol laws, the original name was "Vine Shop" since wine could not legally be part of a store's name. The character and flavor of the Wineshop that continues to this day was created by Philip and his successor, David Fowler, from whose estate I purchased the existing shop in December of 1986.
Philip also briefly owned The Cellarmaster on Elliewood Avenue that he purchased from Halsey Blake-Scott (currently the owner of the phenomenal Sneak Reviews video store). The choice of the cellar location, the playful punning signs, the gestalt of our shelves and wooden-wine-crates merchandising, and the desire to find great unknown wines were all begun by Philip. I'm lucky to be able to continue what he started. My ex-partner Bill Bird talked me into purchasing the shop with him, for which I'm still grateful.
After he sold the shop, Philip started a wine importing business, USA Wine Imports in New York City, that handles the physical and legal aspects of bringing wine into the US for many small importers. Many wines in our market are imported by his company. He continues to run that business from Charlottesville where he now lives with his wife and daughter and where he has planted a small vineyard.
In December 1986 there were many good places to buy wine in Charlottesville: The Boar's Head Inn Store (managed by Elinor Howell, currently of In Vino Veritas in Keswick), the Rio Road Wineshop (my predecessor, David Fowler, was a one-third partner), the Monticello Wine Club (run by Bill Curtis, who is now the owner and chef of Tastings), Fleurie at Barracks Road (owner Tom Calder is now a wine importer. We stock some of his wines), and Foods of All Nations.
Robert W. Harllee
Owner, but not the creator of the
Market Street Wineshops, Uptown & Downtown


text:
Abstract and Keywords
European mountain regions are diverse, from gently rolling hills to high mountain areas, and from low populated rural areas to urban regions or from communities dependent on agricultural productions to hubs of tourist industry. Communities in European mountain regions are threatened by different hazard types: for example floods, landslides, or glacial hazards, mostly in a multi-hazard environment. Due to climate change and socioeconomic developments they are challenged by emerging and spatially as well as temporally highly dynamic risks. Consequently, over decades societies in European mountain ranges developed different hazard and risk management strategies on a national to local level, which are presented below focusing on the European Alps.
Until the late 19th century, the paradigm of hazard protection was related to engineering measures, mostly implemented in the catchments, and new authorities responsible for mitigation were founded. From the 19th century, more integrative strategies became prominent, becoming manifest in the 1960s with land-use management strategies targeted at a separation of hazardous areas and areas used for settlement and economic purpose. In research and in the application, the concept of hazard mitigation was step by step replaced by the concept of risk. The concept of risk includes three components (or drivers), apart from hazard analysis also the assessment and evaluation of exposure and vulnerability; thus, it addresses in the management of risk reduction all three components. These three drivers are all dynamic, while the concept of risk itself is thus far a static approach. The dynamic of risk drivers is a result of both climate change and socioeconomic change, leading through different combinations either to an increase or a decrease in risk. Consequently, natural hazard and risk management, defined since the 21st century using the complexity paradigm, should acknowledge such dynamics. Moreover, researchers from different disciplines as well as practitioners have to meet the challenges of sustainable development in the European mountains. Thus, they should consider the effects of dynamics in risk drivers (e.g., increasing exposure, increasing vulnerability, changes in magnitude, and frequency of hazard events), and possible effects on development areas. These challenges, furthermore, can be better met in the future by concepts of risk governance, including but not limited to improved land management strategies and adaptive risk management.
Keywords: mountains, hazards, risk management, prevention, dynamics, exposure, vulnerability, risk governance, adaptive management, Europe
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text:
Nutritional Info
2 cup sugar
3/4 cup eggnog
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp rum flavoring
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup marshmallow cream
3 cup white chocolate morsels
2-16oz pkgs vanilla candy coating
1 Tbsp nutmeg, for garnish
In large pot, bring sugar, eggnog and butter to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes (rolling boil). Remove from heat and mix in rum flavoring and 1 tsp nutmeg.
Pour mixture into a mixing bowl (or use an immersion blender). Add in marshmallow cream and white chocolate morsels. Blend until completely melted and incorporated (took about 1 1/2-2 minutes). Pour into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
When set, remove by lifting parchment out of pan and lay on cutting board. Cut into bite size pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and return to cookie sheet. When all truffles have been rolled, put in freezer for one hour.
Melt vanilla candy coating (according to package directions) and put in a deep glass or bowl. Using a toothpick, dip each truffle into melted chocolate, tapping the excess off. Set onto parchment lined cookie sheet.
Immediately sprinkle with a tiny pinch of nutmeg. Repeat for remaining truffles. Allow to set about half an hour in refrigerator.
Serve cold and enjoy!


text:
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Do you live close to me? Do you get to peek into my knitting bag? If so you probably know that I have made many of these little shrugs. I have knitted them on vacations, from different yarns, in many sizes for sale, you may even own one that you have purchased at the open house at the studio tour.
My daughter owns them in all colors of the rainbow just because. And you can't beat the versatility when you live in a place like this - it can be super hot during the day, but cools down quickly, when the sun sets.
And they are cute, right?!
This one I finished on a New Years getaway to Palm Springs in 2012, glitz was added to celebrate the occasion!
Whenever I made one I planned to put the pattern into perfect a format, so that I can eventually sell it.
I kind of did, when I made this version two years ago for a knitting class, but it needed some polishing. Before I could get that done one of the used yarns was discontinued, so it was all wrong. Again back to square one.
Now finally just a few weeks ago I found the perfect yarn to combine with the lovely Blue Skies brushed Suri Alpaca, which works so well for these, it's Colorando by Plymouth Yarns.
I knitted the new version within days and corrected my original pattern. Bam.
The Yarn Store at Nob Hill carries it now and this latest green version of the "Enchanted Shorty Shrug" hangs on their wall as a visual teaser!
Happy sigh.
And if you would kindly share my joy….I have made the pattern available for knitters through Ravelry, which is a dream come true.
I am now a designer on Ravelry.
Another happy sigh and a happy dance! It's such a great thing when dreams come true!
I sure hope that your week was as successful and happy as mine!


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Hello Kitty Meet And GreetGreetings!
Categories: Events,
J.P. Laurel Avenue, Lanang, Davao City
Dec. 28, 2013, 3 a.m.
Get up-close with Hello Kitty herself in a rare meet and greet on December 28 at the Atrium. #HelloKittyParisAtSMLanangPremier #HelloKitty #Sanrio
|SM Lanang Premier
J.P. Laurel Avenue, Lanang, Davao City
|Telephone: (082) 2850943-45
|Fax: (082) 2850964
|Email: email@example.com
|Website: http://www.smsupermalls.com/smlanangpremier
SM Lanang Premier, the second SM mall in Davao City and the first premier mall in Mindanao, is the region's largest shopping complex and lifestyle hub and key convention destination. With over 85,000 sqm of leasable area, it takes the shopping experience to a whole new level with its modern structure, trailblazing design, upscale retail mix, diverse dining options, larger than life entertainment and attractions, and world-class convention facilities.
SM Lanang Premier opened its doors to the public on September 28, 2012. It is the 46th mall of the SM Supermalls and the 4th SM mall in Mindanao.
The design of SM Lanang Premier is very distinctive, a landmark in metropolitan Davao. Inspired by Origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper-folding, SM Lanang Premier boasts of a folded building design concept made up of intricate folds but form a simple
Mall Hours: 10:00am - 9:00pm
Source: http://www.smsupermalls.com/smlanangpremier/information
|Related Promos
|Pet Costume Parade!
|Halloween Thrills Treats
|Halloween Thrills
|Pre Holiday Sale
|Aldo Shoes
|John Ford Coley - LOVE OVERLOAD Over Asia
|The Hunger Games Catching Fire
|The Davao Gourmet Collective
|Kipling bags
|1 Day Christmas Toy Sale


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02 April 2013 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
Allied applies for heart patch approval in US
Singapore: Allied Healthcare has lodged its Premarket Notification 510(k) Submission for CardioCel in the US. The FDA 510(K) submission is a major step in Allied's strategy to gain marketing approval for CardioCel in the US.
CardioCel is a cardiovascular tissue patch used to repair heart deformities including repairing and reconstructing heart valves. CardioCel has unique properties making it suited for use by surgeons as a regenerative cardiac repair tissue, as well as delivering key benefits to patients as compared to existing surgical approaches.
"The US is the largest global market for regenerative medicine and this is therefore a key milestone for Allied. Our US opinion leaders are very supportive of our application and key centers are ready to use CardioCel when approved by the FDA," said Allied Healthcare Group MD, Mr Lee Rodne.
This 510(K) submission is part of a global strategy to gain marketing approval for CardioCel. The company is anticipating the initial approval in Europe with its CE Mark mid-2013. To date the company has received strong support from key opinion leaders due to the benefits the product offers both patient and surgeon and has already been authorised for early access via the Authorised Prescriber Scheme in Australia.
"This is a significant milestone for us. Gaining approval gives us commercial entry into markets, as well as offering patients and surgeons a superior product with key differences and advantages from products currently used. CardioCel's potential to prevent additional revision surgeries for patients later in life will also be of enormous benefit to the patient community," said Mr Rodne.


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Page View
Almada, André Alvares d', fl. 1594, et al. / Brief treatise on the rivers of Guinea
Part I (1984)
Chapter 18. How the Manes wished to conquer the land of the Soussos, who live beyond the Sapes in the interior, and what happened between them. [translated text], pp. 36-42 and 43
Page 39
This material may by protected by copyright law (e.g., Title 17, US Code).| For information on re-use see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright


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Knock out your next design with a colorful LED Matrix display realized by a unique board that can make designing easier when trying to impress your audience with moving RGB LEDs built into a cost effect panel. Using a SmartLED Shield driven by a Teensy via I2C is all explained by SparkFun in the following project, check it out!
Courtesy of SparkFun
The PixelMatix SmartLED shield for Teensy makes it easy to connect to RGB LED matrix panels! The shield makes it easy to connect to the 16 pins required to drive the display, connects an external 5V supply to power the display and Teensy, and brings out the Teensy's free signals to a convenient header.
In this tutorial, we will explore some of the examples provided with the SmartLED shield using different RGB LED matrix panel sizes.
Required Materials
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
RGB LED Matrix Panel
You will need a panel. The following has been tested to work with the examples provided.
Heads Up! The comments in the example code indicate that the known working width are: "32, 64, 96, 128". As for the height, the known working sizes are: 16, 32, 48, 64. If you dig into the library, the known working scan rates are:
For example, if you are trying to use a 32x32 panel with a 1:8 scan rate, it may not display as expected.
To control the panel using the SmartLED shield, you will need a Teensy.
You will also need a 5V power supply. A 5V wall adapter and barrel jack adapter is the easiest way to connect power to the panel and Teensy. However, there are other methods depending on how you are powering the panel.
Additional Components
Depending on your setup and how you are controlling the panel, you may need these additional components.
Depending on your setup, you may need pliers, a soldering iron, solder, and general soldering accessories.
Suggested Reading
If you aren't familiar with the following concepts, we recommend checking out these tutorials before continuing.
Hardware Overview
Teensy Footprint
The SmartLED shield makes it easy to connect to RGB LED matrix panels. As opposed to wiring to 16 pins on the RGB LED matrix panel, you simply sandwich the shield between a Teensy and the IDC connector! The top of the board is where you would insert the Teensy populated with straight headers. The bottom of the shield includes female headers to make a secure connection.
Adjacent to the Teensy footprint are additional pins that are broken out for easy access for prototyping or soldering wires directly to the shield.
For more information about the reserved pins on the SmartLED matrix shield, check out the image below for the pins that are used to drive the RGB LED matrix panel and APA102 LEDs.
Image Courtesy of PJRC and PixelMatix
Tip: If you are prototyping with the shield, try grabbing some square header pins, jumper wires, and a breadboard to connect. Make sure that the jumper wires are square pins for a secure connection with the female header populated on the bottom of the SmartLED shield.
IDC Connector
The shield breaks out the RGB LED matrix panel's IDC pins. Simply align the silkscreen with the panel's input and stack it on like a backpack. As an alternative, you can use an IDC cable and the included 2x8 long, centered header pins. Just make sure to align the cable's red wire with the silkscreen labeled RED WIRE.
The shield includes additional 4-pin JST SM connector pair to connect a strip or matrix of APA102 LEDs from the SmartLED Shield.
Removable Mounting Holes
The shield includes mounting holes by each corner of the board. They can be used to mount the shield when using the IDC cable. They are held to the rest of the board with mouse bites. Each of the mounting holes can be removed using pliers. The image below shows highlights the mounting holes with red lines along the mousebites.
Tip: If you are using a Teensy 3.5/3.6 with headers populated beyond the 1x14 pins along the side of a Teensy, you will need to snap off the mounting hole below pin 13.
ADDX Pins and Logic Levels
Certain panels may require 5V logic levels, which may not be enough with the Teensy's output pins. While you can try to wire all 16 pins from the Teensy to the IDC cable, it is not the most reliable connection. The panel may flicker or fail to display properly. The SmartLED shield was designed to include level shifting buffers to safely and reliably control the RGB LED matrix panels.
Hardware Assembly
If you have not already, solder the male header pins on your Teensy before connecting. We will be using the 1x14 header pins on each side of a Teensy but you can also solder additional pins or or wires depending on your setup.
After soldering and removing the flux from a Teensy, stack the Teensy on the SmartLED shield. Make sure to face the USB connector in the same direction as the 4-pin JST SM connector.
Align the IDC connector breakout on the SmartLED shield with the IDC connector on your RGB LED Matrix Panel. The location of the IDC connector depends on the manufacturer of the panel but usually it will be located on the left side relative to the arrows pointing up and toward the right.
Tip: If you received a shield with the 2x8 header pins installed and decide to add the shield to the RGB LED matrix panel's IDC connector as a backpack, you can remove the headers from the shield. Otherwise, you can leave the 2x8 header pins inserted and connect using the IDC cable.
Once connected, the back of your RGB LED matrix panel should look similar to the images below. On the left, a Teensy 3.2 was connected to a 64x64 panel with 3mm pitched LEDs. On the right, a Teensy 3.6 was used for a 32x32 with 6mm pitched LEDs.
If you have not already, attach a 5V power supply to your RGB LED matrix panel's power cable. If you are using a power supply with a barrel jack, you can use a female barrel jack adapter and screwdriver to get a quick and dirty connection between the spade and barrel jack.
The connection should look similar to the image below. Depending on your 5V power supply, your setup might be slightly different.
Then slide the polarized power cable for the RGB matrix panel into its respective mating connector. The red wires should be connected to the 5V pins while the black wires connected to the GND pins.
For the scope of this tutorial, we will connect 5V USB power directly to the Teensy's USB connector. This is separate from the power supply that is powering the RGB LED matrix panel. Depending on your setup, you can use the same power supply that the RGB LED matrix panel is using by connecting to either the Teensy's V+ and GND pins or the APA102 JST SM connector. Just make sure that the voltage is regulated at 5V.
Heads up! When powering the Teensy via the micro-B connector, make sure to hold the connector against the PCB with your thumb and index finger while inserting the cable to avoid pulling the USB connector off. If you plan on moving the panel frequently, you may want to consider connecting power the Teensy from either the SmartLED shield's V+ and GND pins, or the APA102 JST SM connector.
Alternative Connections
There is an option to daisy chain the panels together if you are within the limits of the SmartLED library. Simply connect the output from the first panel to the input of the second panel. Make sure to provide power to each panel through the 4-pin polarized connector.
As explained earlier, you can try to wire all 16 pins from the Teensy to the panel's IDC cable. It is not the most reliable connection. There is a higher probability of wiring incorrectly or a connection becoming loose. For more information on trying the connection, check out the table below. This connection is not possible when wiring to a 64x64 panel due to the extra 5th addressing pin.
Heads up! When manually wiring the board to the panel, make sure that the latch pin is connected to both pins 3 and 8 on the Teensy! Doesn't the SmartLED shield sound good right about now?
Image courtesy of PixelMatix: Manually Connecting Teensy and Panel
Software Installation
Note: This example assumes you are using the latest version of the Arduino IDE on your desktop. If this is your first time using Arduino, please review our tutorial on installing the Arduino IDE. If you have not previously installed an Arduino library, please check out our installation guide.
Teensyduino Add-On
If you haven't used Teensy before, you'll need to download and install the extension for the Arduino IDE called Teensyduino from PJRC. This will also install the drivers for the board. Follow the instructions on installing the add-on before continuing on.
Install Library
Louis Beaudoin has written an amazing library to control the RGB LED matrix panels. You can obtain these libraries through the Arduino Library Manager. Search for SmartMatrix3 and you should be able to install the latest version. If you prefer downloading the libraries manually you can also grab them from the GitHub repository:
Compatibility: When trying to use other examples that were written for other platforms (such as the Serial Paint Example for Arduino Uno or Arduino Mega), they may not be compatible with the Teensy due to the different chipset.
Library Overview
For an overview of the functions, check out documentation in the MIGRATION.md file from the GitHub repository.
Example: Feature Demo!
There are a few examples from the SmartMatrix library for the SmartLED Shield. For the scope of the tutorial, we will be highlighting three of the examples.
Feature Demo!
Let's start with the feature demo. After installing the library, click File > Examples > SmartMatrix3 > FeatureDemo.ino in the Arduino IDE. Once open, there are a minimum of 4 lines to modify to get the example working with your matrix panel:
Heads Up! The comments in the example code indicate that he known working width are: "32, 64, 96, 128". As for the height, the known working sizes are: 16, 32, 48, 64. If you dig into the library, the known working scan rates are:
For example, if you are trying to use a 32x32 panel with a 1:8 scan rate, it may not display as expected.
64x64 Panel with 1:32 Scan Rate
Let's try modifying the example code to work with the 64x64 panel with a 1:32 scan rate. The SmartLED shield is required to address the extra 5th ADDX pin on the IDC connector.
Parts Needed
To follow this example, you would will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Wishlist for 64x64 Panel with 1:32 Scan Rate Example SparkFun Wish List:
Modifying Code
Adjust the code by simply:
Upload Code
When the changes are completed, select the Teensy board definition with the associated COM port and click upload. You should see the feature demo running. This includes scrolling text, animations, shapes being drawn, brightness changing, and refresh rate changing.
Daisy Chained 32x64 with 1:16 Scan Rate
Let's try modifying the example code to work with two 32x64 panels with a 1:16 scan rate. In this example, we manually wire the connection to a Teensy 3.2.
Parts Needed
To follow this example, you would will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Wishlist for Daisy Chained 32x64 with 1:16 Scan Rate SparkFun Wish List:
Modifying Code
Modify the original code by:
Upload Code
When the changes are completed, select the Teensy board definition with the associated COM port and click upload. You should see the same demo running but for a matrix size of 32x128!
Example: Matrix Clock w/ the DS1307 RTC Module
In this example, we will be using the DS1307 RTC module with the SmartLED Shield, Teensy 3.2, and 32x32 panel with 1:16 scan rate. We will use the included 2x8 header and IDC cable instead of mounting the shield on the back of the matrix.
Parts Needed
To follow this example, you would will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Wishlist for Matrix Clock w/ the DS1307 RTC Module Example SparkFun Wish List:
Setting Up the DS1307 RTC Module
If you have not already, solder right angle headers to the RTC module.
Make sure that you installed PJRC's DS1307RTC and Time libraries with the Teensyduino add-on. You can check by viewing the Arduino program folder where the files were installed under. In this case, it was in the "…Arduino\hardware\teensy\avr\libraries" path.
If it is not installed, you can run the Teensyduino add-on installer again to add the associated files. Under Libraries to Install, make sure that the checkbox is checked off for DS1307RTC and Time libraries.
Circuit Diagram 1
Make the following connection between the DS1307 breakout board and Teensy stacked on the SmartLED shield. If you used right angle headers on the DS1307 breakout board, you can use four M/F jumper wires to connect.
Hookup Table 1
Upload Code
In the Arduino IDE, open File > Examples > DS1307RTC > SetTime.ino. The sketch will automatically set the date and time for the RTC from the compiler once you upload. You will need to run this code if the battery was removed or the time does not match your time zone. Select the Teensy board definition with the associated COM port and click upload. To check if the clock matches your computer's time, simply open the Arduino serial monitor set at 9600 baud. You should see an output similar to the one shown below.
DS1307 configured Time=13:00:47, Date=Nov 12 2018
Troubleshooting: If you are receiving an output similar to the one below, check your connections or disconnect/connect the USB cable from the Teensy before opening the serial monitor again.
DS1307 Communication Error :-{
Please check your circuitry
Now that the clock is configured, let's output the time to the 32x32 panel!
Circuit Diagram 2
Adjust the SDA and SCL wires as shown in the diagram below.
Hookup Table 2
Notice that the wires are in a different location and flipped? Well that's because the I2C pins are redefined for the SmartMatrix Shield! Make sure to move the pins and switch the order that they are connected.
Modifying Code
Next, open the MatrixClock.ino example by clicking on File > Examples > SmartMatrix3 > MatrixClock in the Arduino IDE. Since we are using the SmartLED shield and the 32x32 panel with 1:16 scan rate, there is only one line of code that needs to be adjusted. We just need to:
Upload Code
Once the code has been adjusted, select correct board and COM port to upload to the Teensy 3.2. Connect the IDC cable to the SmartLED shield with the 2x8 male header pins. Then add power to the panel and Teensy to view begin viewing the time!
Example: Animated GIFs
Heads up! The Animated GIFs example was written for a 32x32 panel. If you are using it with a different size, you will need to either re-center or adjust the GIF size. For example, when a 32x32 GIF is displayed on a 64x64 panel, it will begin displaying from the upper left hand corner of the panel.
In this example, we will take advantage of the built-in microSD card on the Teensy 3.6 to display animated GIFs on a 32x32 panel with 1:16 scan rate.
Parts Needed
To follow this example, you would will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
Wishlist for Animated GIFs Example SparkFun Wish List:
If you haven't already, solder the headers on the Teensy 3.6. Then insert the development board into the SmartLED shield's socket.
Tip: If you want to take full advantage of the pins on the Teensy 3.5/3.6, you will need to add headers beyond the 1x14 pins along the side of a Teensy and snap off the mounting hole below pin 13.
Right angle headers would be better for a low profile behind the RGB LED matrix panel. You can also solder wire to the connections depending on your setup.
You may notice that there is a GitHub subtree called "AnimatedGIFs @ …" that was pulled into the SmartMatrix library's examples folder. However, the folder may not have been included when installing the library via the Arduino Library Manager. If you do not see the folder from the Arduino IDE under File > Examples > SmartMatrix3 > Animated GIFs, you will need to download and unzip the files from this repository:
Once the folder is unzipped, make sure that the AnimatedGIFs.ino file and all associated files are under the same folder name called "…/AnimatedGIFs" as shown in the image below.
Modifying Code
Open the AnimatedGIFs.ino example. Since the defaults kMatrixWidth, kMatrixHeight, and kPanelType are already set for the 32x32 panel with 1:16 scan rate, we just need to:
Upload Code
Once the code has been adjusted, select correct board and COM port to upload to the Teensy 3.6.
Adding GIFs
The next step is to add the …/gifs folder into the microSD card. Remove power from the Teensy 3.6 if a microSD card was inserted in the socket. Connect to the memory card using a card adapter or microSD USB reader. Copy and paste the …/gifs folder into the root directory of the memory card.
Safely remove the memory card from your computer by ejecting or unmounting the microSD card. After removing the memory card from the adapter or USB reader, insert it into the built-in microSD card socket on the Teensy.
Note: Unlike certain microSD card sockets, the microSD card will not click in when inserted into the Teensy.
Stack the board on the panel's IDC connector.
If you have not already, add power to the panel. Then add power to the Teensy. The Teensy will begin displaying the GIFs that were included in the folder. Pretty neat!
Diffusing the LEDs
The animations may be hard to view as you can see on the image on the left. To help diffuse the light, a translucent material placed in the front of the panel to blend the pixels. The image on the right used a piece of white paper to blend the individual pixels. For long term installations, try using frosted acrylic as used in the Aurora project.
Adding MOAR GIFs
Looking for more GIFs? Try checking the GIFs provided in the Aurora project:
Simply copy any file with the *.gif extension and include it in the …/gifs folder as explained earlier. The 10x weather GIFs are neat animations if you want display the current weather on a panel for your next cloud connected IoT project!
You can also do a custom search for 32x32 GIFs on Google.
Resources and Going Further
Now that you've successfully got your SmartLED shield for Teensy up and running, it's time to incorporate it into your own project!
For more information, check out the resources below:


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Hello readers, if you like this page, don't forget to "Like" it !
Another nail polish post 🙂
Bobbi Brown recently launched Dessert Twilight collection. There are three nail polishes in this collection; Turquoise, Twilight and another one which only sold together in a set (I could not find the name). It's exciting to see Bobbi Brown releasing a limited nail polish collection. I don't know whether Bobbi Brown has released any nail polish in the past but since I am too curious about the quality of their nail polishes, I know I should get my hands on any of these colors 🙂
Initially I almost picked twilight because of it's beautiful shimmer but I thought I have had few polishes that looks quite similar to twilight. I decided to get turquoise because it looks unique and unusual.
Firstly, I am going to write a review on the brush of this nail lacquer. Sorry if the picture of the brushes does not look appealing 🙂
As you can see, Bobbi Brown's brushes is very thin. It's quite similar to Chanel's. However it's shorter than Chanel. Bobbi Brown's brush is not wide at all. It's the same length as Essie but I feel that it's thinner is size too. I prefer wider brushes like OPI's or Ciate's. It helps me to apply nail polish easier and faster. Whereas with Bobbi Brown's brush, it would take 2-3 times of application of each nail (especially the thumbs and the middle finger). I had no problem with the handle; the length and the size is good for me to control the nail polishing process 🙂
Now I'd like to compare Turquoise with other blue nail polish I have in my stash.
Obviously none of them are dupe. At first I thought Turquoise would look similar to Dior Nirvana. Surprisingly, they look very different. China Glaze For Audrey is the lightest among them all and OPI Ski Teal We Drop has the darkest tone among the four.
In the pictures below, you can see the swatches of this nail polish. The texture of this nail polish is not fantastic, it's a little bit thick to apply but still manageable. It took two coats to achieve full opacity. This nail polish lasts perfectly for 5 days with me. On the next day I start to see some chips on few of my nails (FYI I do wash dishes, type on keyboard everyday)
Final Thought:
Turquoise is a unique shade to own. Especially this is from Bobbi Brown that has never released any nail polish collection before (correct me if I am wrong here). The formula is not the best among many brands out there; I did not have the best time of nail polishing process because its formula. However it's not that streaky until it's very frustrating to apply (I had that experience before with some other brands 🙁 ) In conclusion, I think this is a nice to have product but definitely not a must have product.
I also has posted a review on one of Bobbi Brown's lip gloss from Dessert Twilight Collection. You can read it here
Have you seen Bobbi Brown's Nail Polish in the counter? 🙂
Thank you for reading.