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Oct. 7 (UPI) -- An Idaho man was recognized by Guinness World Records after correctly identifying 11 ice cream flavors while blindfolded -- and nearly getting 12.
David Rush, who has broken more than 100 Guinness records to promote STEM education, was filmed taste-testing ice cream for one minute and attempting to guess the flavors.
He correctly identified 12 flavors, but only managed to say half of the name of the final flavor -- java chip -- before the timer ran out.
Guinness determined he tied the previous record of 11, set by Mohameed Ahmad Darwish at a Kuwait mall in 2013, and Rush's name was added to Darwish's on the record-keeping organization's web site.


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Brown University students convince Brown Corporation to divest from HEI Hotels & Resorts, 2008-2011
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In 2008, students at Brown University's Student Labor Alliance, a group of about 15-20 members, began a campaign to persuade their university to halt further investment in HEI Hotels Resorts. HEI, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is one of the largest hotel management companies in the US and manages hotels such as Hilton, Hyatt, and Westin. HEI received significant fundraising from the investments of elite academic institutions, such as Brown University, an elite private university located in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as Yale, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Chicago. HEI employees and workers' rights organizations, as well as the National Labor Relations Board, accused HEI for violating workers' rights, including anti-union intimidation and overworking employees. s.
In September of 2008, members of the Brown Student Labor Alliance (SLA) approached the Brown investment office about the university's closed book policy regarding their investment records, since they could not yet confirm whether Brown had invested in HEI Hotels and Resorts. However, the SLA urged Brown to halt any future investments, if they were in fact already invested in HEI, and to encourage peer educational institutions who had invested in HEI to do the same. The university later (exact date unknown) confirmed that it had invested in HEI since 2004. The students in SLA pointed to the fact that the University had previously emphasized the importance of aligning their investments with their ethical values, and asserted that the University must therefore take a stand against HEI's alleged workers' rights violations. Brown's investment office directed the students to bring their concerns to the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP), composed of Brown University faculty, staff, alumni, and students. On 27 October 2008, nine students from the Brown SLA submitted a letter to the Brown Daily Herald, the university's newspaper, which shared these events, clarified the purpose of their campaign, and urged community members to sign their petition.
In the campaign's beginning stages at the end of 2008, SLA hosted a variety of events to rally student support behind this campaign. On 26 October 2008, SLA brought an employee of the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach, California to speak about negative experiences at her hotel ever since HEI bought it four years before. SLA distributed and displayed posters to inform the students about HEI's alleged workers' rights violations and explain why Brown should should stop investing in HEI. They set up information booths from which they talked about their campaign, and even set up mattresses and bedding and invited their fellow students to make the bed in order to understand and empathize with the taxing physical labor involved in hospitality work.
For most of 2009, SLA presented their concerns to a variety of committees. After first refusing to confirm whether they invested in HEI, Brown eventually revealed that they had first invested in 2004. However, the University claimed they did not have sufficient evidence of HEI's mistreatment of their employees to take any further action.
SLA and other individuals of the student body continued to apply pressure to the administration of Brown University throughout 2009. Their actions included rallies, protests, and picketing, marching into University Hall with vacuums and mops to 'clean up Brown's investments,' and collecting signatures for their petition. The Brown SLA also used the school newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald, and their own website to inform the rest of the community of their actions.
On February 1, 2010, members from Brown SLA met with the president of Brown University, Ruth Simmons. On February 9, the day before the Brown Corporation was to meet, activists from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), of which Brown SLA was an affiliate, flooded Brown Chancellor Thomas Tisch with phone calls. Students rallied outside the Brown Corporation meeting on February 10, 2010. In response to this student pressure and activism, President Ruth Simmons wrote a public letter to HEI CEO Gary Mendell, warning him that if Brown discovered truth in the workers' rights allegations against the company, Brown would have to reconsider continuing to invest in the company. Although this was a letter of warning rather than of action, President Ruth Simmons' letter was a milestone in the campaign, since she was the first university leader to publicly express concern regarding the workers' rights allegations against HEI.
The campaign was relatively quiet between February and October of 2010. However, at the end of October, Brown students and HEI workers from across the nation, including those at Brown University, declared a week of action against HEI hotels. On November 2, 2010, student activists acted out a mock "wedding" between the Brown Investment Office and "HEI Corporate Greed." This tactic, which involved music, costumes, wedding invitations, and culminated in a march down to the Investment Office, was video recorded and uploaded onto the Brown SLA website.
On December 6, 2010, the Brown Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) recommended that Brown University not invest further in HEI Hotels and Resorts due to "a persistent pattern of allegations involving the company's treatment of workers and interference with their efforts to unionize, combined with repeated settlements." In February of 2011, the Brown Corporation affirmed the recommendation, and it became official college policy.
The ability of Brown Student Labor Association to reveal Brown's investment in HEI, collect student support beyond members of SLA, and gain the support of larger labor organizations such as the United Students Against Sweatshops, led to Brown University being the first institution to publicly declare that it would not invest further in HEI Hotels and Resorts due to the various allegations made against the treatment of their workers, which included cases of anti-union intimidation. The Brown Corporation did not withdraw existing investments, but instead pledged to not invest further HEI. As Brown SLA had hoped, this campaign influenced similar campaigns in peer universities invested in HEI, including Yale, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, and Notre Dame.

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One of Swansea's most talked about restaurants, Juniper Place, has been served a Swansea BID Extra Mile Award for outstanding customer care.
The quarterly awards recognise businesses of all kinds throughout the Swansea BID area whose staff go the extra mile to keep their customers and clients happy. They are also designed to give local businesses a boost for the hard work they carry out day in, day out to help keep the City Centre vibrant and unique amid challenging conditions for UK retail.
Juniper Place, and its sister company Old Havana, has been bringing extra colour and buzz to York Street since the end of 2017, with David Bellis and David Wakely, of Refining Dining Co, at the helm. Notable for its warm atmosphere, elegant menus and its popular Cygnet Gin cocktails, the restaurant has made a real impact on the City Centre dining scene, despite being in relative infancy.
David Bellis, co–director of Refining Dining Co, alongside Dai Wakely, who both also own Li'l London and popular South Wales brand, The Meatery Steakhouse, says of the award: "I'm very pleased to see Juniper Place win an Extra Mile Award and I'm proud of our team for consistently giving our customers a warm welcome and attentive service.
"Setting up a restaurant is a big investment of time, money and emotions and the Juniper Place journey has been an adventure for us. Both Dai and I have really ensured that we invest in our town, which is home to both of us and to help the city thrive was so important. It is noticeable that so many of our customers have very quickly become regulars and they are very appreciative of what we do. Increasingly, I think people feel they have a vested interest in helping businesses that they value, to succeed. We put our heart and soul into everything we do – from the menus to the produce, our own brand Cygnet gin, our service and our events. We are pleased to see the ongoing regeneration of the City Centre taking shape and we feel this is a good time for business men and women to invest in Swansea. We expect the SA1 regeneration to bring more people to our corner of town to sample what we do. They will all be made very welcome."
Amelia Rudman, from Swansea BID, said: "We are delighted to present our Extra Mile Award to Juniper Place. The restaurant has become, in a very short space of time, one of the most popular spots for diners, in a City Centre that has never been better served for great places to eat.
"Of course, when people go out for a special meal they aren't just expecting to sit down to good food, they also want to be able to relax and to feel welcome, appreciated and looked after. This is very much the ethos at Juniper Place and this ethos will, we are sure, help to keep it at the top of people's menu. It is important that we all go the extra mile to support our City Centre businesses and to let them know when they are doing a great job. So we would encourage anyone who has enjoyed a great customer care experience, to let them know, and to let Swansea BID know by emailing: [email protected] so they can be considered for an Extra Mile Award."
The winning businesses will receive a winner's rosette, window sticker and website artwork so they can shout about their great customer service, and they will be profiled on the Swansea BID's website. https://www.swanseabid.co.uk/news/
Previous winners of the Extra Mile Award have been: The Gamers' Emporium, Chic & Elegant and Valley Mill.Tags: BID, Cygnet Gin, Extre mile Award, Juniper Place, Old Havana, Swansea BID


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FlowxoWeb design
A chatbot service that needed a landing page redesign and a visual refresh of their public facing identity.
Before continuing with the visual design phase we developed the wireframes and put all the content and ideas in place. This enabled us to focus solely on the visual end of things later on.
The redesign was geared towards explaining some of the features visually and developing an illustration style with a more modern and fresh feel to it.


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NEW YORK (AP) — The city's campaign to scare smokers with grotesque images of decaying teeth or a diseased lung wherever tobacco products are sold was struck down Wednesday by a federal judge who concluded that only the federal government can dictate warnings that must accompany the promotion of cigarettes.
U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff handed a victory to the nation's three largest tobacco manufacturers and the retailers who sell their products when he ruled on the legality of a 2009 city Board of Health code change requiring the display of smoking cessation signs where tobacco products are sold.
"Even merchants of morbidity are entitled to the full protection of the law, for our sake as well as theirs," Rakoff said. He released the written decision just days before an agreement among the parties to delay enforcement of the rule was to expire on Saturday.
He said the federal Labeling Act, first enacted in 1965, sought to balance public and commercial interests with a comprehensive federal program to deal with cigarette labeling and advertising. He said it was created in part to prevent "diverse, nonuniform and confusing cigarette labeling and advertising regulations." Part of the law dictated that no state law could impose a requirement or prohibition with respect to advertising or promotion of cigarettes, he noted.
The city also banned smoking in indoor workspaces, increased cigarette taxes, initiated educational campaigns and promoted smoking cessation programs.
As part of his ruling, Rakoff included some of the statistics that encouraged the city to enact the regulation: that one-third of smokers die of tobacco-related diseases and roughly 7,500 people die in New York City from smoking annually — "more than from AIDS, homicide and suicide combined."
As part of the campaign, the Department of Health designed three signs for tobacco retailers to display. The judge said they contained "graphic, even gruesome images" of a stroke-damaged brain, a decaying tooth and gums and a diseased lung along with the phrase "Quit Smoking Today — For Help, Call 311 Or 1-866-NYQUITS."
Nicholas Ciappetta, a city attorney who handled the case, said the city was "disappointed that this important health initiative was rejected by the court."
"We are studying the decision and considering our legal options," he said.
Floyd Abrams, a lawyer who represented store owners, said the ruling will come as a relief to retailers who had agreed to post the advertisements even though they were not yet required to do so.
He said the store owners lost some business from even nonsmokers who "didn't want to look at disgusting images" as they tried to buy candy bars, cookies and other items.
Abrams said the city could legally put anti-smoking advertisements around the city but could not force the messages on store owners.
"One legal problem was that they were forcing others to say it for them," he said, although Rakoff decided he did not need to address First Amendment claims in his ruling.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement that it was "disappointed in and strongly disagrees with today's ruling."
It added: "Tobacco companies that are trying to prevent these messages from being seen should be ashamed of themselves."
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
I wonder if there's any verification that the gross images presented are incontrovertibly caused by smoking, and nothing else, or just selected to be disgusting.
Bob: individuals who run businesses have the right to sell their products without having to dispaly images designed to make people not buy them. Also, individuals who use a product have a right to do so without government fearmongering.
No one epitomizes the corporate state more than Michael Bloomberg
RE going back to nazi Germany, Hitler was the first to ban cigarettes smoking, no one in his entourage would dare smoke a cigarette in front of him.
"Hitler was the first to ban cigarettes smoking (sic)".
And when was that…other than in your nicotine-addicted head, that is? View any newsreel footage and you'll see an abundance of smokers; civilians and soldiers alike.
I take offense with this remark I think it is William Manchester who mentioned it but I'm not sure, what I remember for sure is that this law was found in the German archives stored in Washington I also remember that the law was deemed impractical and not applied.
I will have you notice I wasn't about your un-addicted head.
Truth is not the absence of propaganda!
This judge is even more ignorant than our so-called teachers, legislators, executives. Since when do corporations have the same natural rights as natural persons? Corporations are creations of the State, and inasmuch they may be regulated insofar as the government deems it the public interest so to do. Rights are perfect, privileges are imperfect rights. Privileges such as advertising, limited liability, etc. come with a price: accountability. There is no freedom of speech or freedom of the press for corporations; those are OUR perfect rights. Corporations must keep accounts, pay taxes, follow regulations. Natural persons who do these things, while remaining unenfranchised (not licensed like lawyers, doctors, architects, notaries, etc.) are not free men but slaves. Take your rights back from the corporate state!
worse are those ads on tv that come on at dinner time…so gross
Also note they used a guy here with dirty finger nails. Talk about subjective journalism
Yes we are trying to move to a society ,similar to Nazi Germany's. Look at what happened in Arizona, or NYC's stop and frisk law.
"In this country we know what is good for you!!" "Now where are your papers?"
Not to worry. Soon, very soon, we will have prohibition on tobacco. Tobacco has just about been demonized enough for the next step. Thank you Michael Bloomberg for your support of anti-smoking legislation. Full prohibition is right around the corner.
Then, we will go after your caffeine. Bye bye soda & coffee – decaf only!
These pictures just don't work. We have them in Ontario and people buy the packs anyway. Also people buy metal cases to put them in and toss the card board. Waste of $ and time.


text: Jim Smith 530 Posted August 15, 2012 [quote user="Militant Canary"]Indeed, Indy. I agree.But that doesn''t really answer my question.Is it simply because the media reported our alleged interest as soon as Hughton arrived- making the rather dumb-arse connection between our need for a CB, Chris Hughton and Curtis Davies, rather than any genuine solid interest?[/quote]I can tell you (reliable source I trust) we definitely were very interested in Davies. Whether or not we are now we have Turner I am not sure. As for Garrido he sounds like potentially a very good signing and it would be reassuring to see another left back come in. Although i''ve not seen any of the games i have the perception that Tierney has struggled a bit this pre-season so it will be good for him to have some genuine competition. I suspect that Garrido will actually become first choice in that position is he signs.Moderate concern at the suggestion he lacks a bit of pace not because I think it means he personally will struggle but more due to the fact that we don''t seem to have any quick defenders and I still see that as our achilles heel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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An efficient positive potential-density pair expansion for modelling galaxies
Rojas-Nino, A, Read, Justin, Aguilar, A and Delorme, Maxime (2016) An efficient positive potential-density pair expansion for modelling galaxies Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 459 (3). pp. 3349-3355.
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We present a novel positive potential-density pair expansion for modelling galaxies, based on the Miyamoto–Nagai disc. By using three sets of such discs, each one of them aligned along each symmetry axis, we are able to reconstruct a broad range of potentials that correspond to density profiles from exponential discs to 3D power-law models with varying triaxiality (henceforth simply 'twisted' models). We increase the efficiency of our expansion by allowing the scalelength parameter of each disc to be negative. We show that, for suitable priors on the scalelength and scaleheight parameters, these 'MNn discs' (Miyamoto–Nagai negative) have just one negative density minimum. This allows us to ensure global positivity by demanding that the total density at the global minimum is positive. We find that at better than 10 per cent accuracy in our density reconstruction, we can represent a radial and vertical exponential disc over 0.1–10 scalelengths/scaleheights with four MNn discs; a Navarro, Frenk and White (NFW) profile over 0.1–10 scalelengths with four MNn discs; and a twisted triaxial NFW profile with three MNn discs per symmetry axis. Our expansion is efficient, fully analytic, and well suited to reproducing the density distribution and gravitational potential of galaxies from discs to ellipsoids.
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|13 April 2016
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There is the classic college textbook definition. It is straight forward, but it doesn't really begin to get involved in the gray area definitions. Then there is the more extended definition as used in accounting and customarily in the traditional business setting. Really getting into higher thinking and use of the terms comes into play when discussing value. Finally, there is the relationship to each other with regards to economics and the evolving concept of wealth. They are similar to the theory of the Yin and the Yang of life itself.
The following sections describe these various levels of use. For most readers, they'll be satisfied with the textbook answer. For those of you desiring to reach a higher level of understanding of these two terms and their respective relationship with each other – continue reading. When you have finished, you'll appreciate the proper use of tangible and intangible especially in the proper context and how sophisticated business people express themselves using tangible and intangible.
Tangible and Intangible – Textbook Definition
The college textbook answer is relatively straight forward. The following is what college teaches the business student in regards to tangible and intangible:
The most widely accepted definition is 'a three dimensional physical item'; something you can touch. Extended definitions include 'affected by the law of gravity' and so on. In the world of business we refer to these as physical assets and they include your traditional fixed assets found on the balance sheet:Real Estate and Improvements
- Equipment
- Vehicles
- Tools
- Furniture and Fixtures
At the other extreme, the best answer is that 'none of the five human senses can detect the item'. Makes sense, because in business, you can't see or touch the intangible items. The traditional intangible assets include:
- Patents and Copyrights
- Goodwill
- Closing Costs
- Research and Development Expenditures
- Rights
Most of these assets are located in the 'Other Assets' section of the balance sheet.
Simply defined as the difference in physical and non-physical, business students are taught the classic definition of tangible and intangible. But in accounting, we broaden the definitions and take into consideration some historical issues related to the terms.
Tangible and Intangible – Accounting Definition and Use
What is interesting is that in accounting, the national standards setting board uses a modified definition of these two terms. A great example of this is the asset 'Software'. Now the classic definition would have this asset fall into the intangible group. The reality is that in accounting, we actually class this asset as a tangible asset. This relates to one of the tenets of accounting which refers to consistency. If we have always called it a tangible asset, well then, let's be consistent and continue to call it tangible. How on earth did it start out as a tangible asset? Well, it relates to technology. Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's, the software was built into the equipment. In those days, there really was no way of transferring information between computers. Computers were physically entire rooms of banks of tubes and then transistors. The earliest form of transporting data was the use of the 12" floppy disk. Even then, you didn't and couldn't transfer software, you could only transfer data. Effectively, software was in a physical state and nontransferable.
Well, in the late 80's, software was developed, most notably operating systems that you could load onto computers. In those days, computers were huge machines the size of several volumes of encyclopedias. You could purchase software on 5 ½" floppies and load what you needed onto your 286k ram device. But still, the larger corporations purchased the entire package for their companies. The world of accounting finally adapted the rules but still stuck with its concept of transferability. If the software is purchased off the shelf and is regularly updated, it should be expensed to the books or recorded as intangible asset. If the software is essentially custom designed and a function of your property plant and equipment (PP&E), then it is considered a part of the PP&E, nontransferable and is recorded as a fixed asset on the books of record. The profession generally uses the $100,000 point as the minimum value before consideration as a component of PP&E.
On the flip side of this are physical assets that are documented as intangible. Goodwill is a prime example. In general, goodwill is the excess price paid for a business (group of assets). The current accounting standards require the physical assets purchased in this deal to be recorded as tangible assets and the excess price paid as an intangible asset. But unlike a patent or other intellectual property that can be sold separately, goodwill cannot be sold unless you sell the entire group of assets as originally purchased. Many accountants argue that the goodwill purchased should be allocated to the fixed assets whereas others argue it is still intangible. Because of the complexity involved, our profession as reevaluated this asset and now no longer amortizes its costs but requires an annual evaluation of the value of goodwill. If the value has decreased, then accounting requires a mark-down of this value by expensing the change to the income statement. So much for being consistent, huh?
Now I'm going to end with another odd aspect of tangible and intangible. In accounting, this term is only used with non-monetary assets. Some financial assets which can exist as physical in nature such as inventory and work in process are not considered tangible for accounting purposes. On the other side, financial assets such as receivables, investments and cash are not considered intangible either. Don't be confused, they are not tangible. The profession has figuratively excluded current assets from the definitions of tangible and intangible.
As we explore this gray area of the definition of tangible and intangible, accounting excludes current assets from the example list for these two terms. In addition, it has adapted the terms to fit some odd situations as illustrated with software and goodwill above. Now we are really exploring the gray territory of tangible and intangible and this is where we get involved in using these terms in regards to qualify value.
Tangible and Intangible – Advanced Business Issues
Now that you understand the textbook answer and the accounting use of the terms tangible and intangible, it is time to reveal how the terms are used in more advance business conversations. As our society changed over the last 50 years, more emphasis has been placed on intellectual property. You can see it with the balance sheets of many companies. The Other Assets section is now beginning to expand and increase in value due to the shifting of our economic dynamics. We are no longer an agricultural or manufacturing country. We are headed towards the age of information exchange. Some industries have gained ground in the calculation of the gross domestic product (GDP) including health care, entertainment and technology. All of these industries have utilized more intellectual property recently to provide value to our society and therefore gained a greater share of our GDP.
As further proof, the most recent history of IPO's for many organizations such as Facebook and Twitter have sold at amounts well beyond their fixed asset values. This means the excess value is intangible in nature. As a business entrepreneur, you need to fully understand how to value intangibles.
There are some more differences in the attributes related to tangible and intangible. Tangible assets are depreciated over functions of time or utility. Intangible assets are amortized over their EXPECTED benefit period. Evaluating intangibles is more subjective than tangible assets. To further complicate this subjective requirement, accounting requires the enterprise to demonstrate separability from other assets. This is easy for certificate based intangibles such as patents or copyrights. But identifying separation from the physical assets is much more difficult when valuing research and development costs, contractual rights and some legal rights.
Furthermore, measuring their economic value is different between these two types of assets. Tangible assets can be easily and very accurately measured using the net present value formula applied against future cash flows. Whereas, intangibles can best be measured using an active market for similar intangibles. A good example is mineral rights. The underlying physical asset giving rise to the rights have a known market and therefore the business can accurately value the rights. As a businessman, you need to remember one important attribute related to intangibles, they are more subjective in nature as it relates to their book value.
Tangible and Intangible – Economic Relationships
Surprisingly, both types of assets need each other in order to capture their value in cash. In a typical business enterprise, the tangible assets are operated using intangible assets, mostly acquired knowledge, to produce the final product or deliver service to the customer. To acquire cash from an intangible asset, tangible assets must be applied to create the product for the consumer. Think of Coke, their formula and brand require the application of equipment and distribution to put a product on a shelf for ultimate purchase. There is a Yin and Yang effect going on here.
In addition, as our economic foundations move towards intangible assets, many investments in the market still utilize traditional accounting formulas which are tangible based to value their worth. Understanding the valuation principles of intangibles moves you towards being a more sophisticated business entrepreneur. If you use this understanding well, you can garner more wealth. Act on Knowledge.


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Founded in 1996, Thinking Systems is a worldwide recognized innovative leader in the highly competitive Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) industry. It is the proud recipient of Frost & Sullivan's North American Molecular Imaging Informatics Product Leadership Award and Technology Leadership Award for Cardiovascular PACS (CVPACS) and is highly rated by KLAS. Thinking Systems Corporation develops and markets the industry's most comprehensive and feature-rich cloud-based PACS and RIS (Radiology Information System) solutions available today.
Thinking Systems' ThinkingPACS™ and ThinkingRIS™ are installed worldwide in leading hospitals, research institutes, imaging centers, and doctors' offices, including Florida Cancer Specialists, Orlando Health, Jackson Health System, University of Miami Health System, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, Kaiser Permanente, Kettering Health Network, Lancaster General Health, CHI St. Luke's Health, Mary Washington Healthcare, University Hospital Network (Canada), SickKids (Canada), MyHealth Centre (Canada), Primary Health Care Limited (Australia), Prince of Wales Hospital (Australia), Guangdong General Hospital (China), etc.
Thinking Systems embraces a vision of excellence through promoting:
Thinking Systems is dedicated to achieving excellence through:
Thinking Systems promotes continued excellence through:


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The Naked Scientists
An EnglishClub Site of the Month (May 2014)
The Naked Scientists is a science podcast and Q and A radio show developed by a team of scientists and researchers from the University of Cambridge. High-intermediate and advanced learners will enjoy listening and following along with the podcasts and interviews. Creator Dr. Smith says that the goal of his team is to "help people enjoy science as much as we do and, at the same time, to have fun." The reason they call themselves the "naked scientists" is because they try to strip down science to the bare essentials in order to make it understandable to the general public. Some members of the team speak quite quickly, so English learners will find the transcripts very useful. Students who are studying for standardized academic tests, such as TOEFL, will find this site very useful. The recordings are in British English and can be downloaded or listened to online.


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Fun for the Whole Family!
Originally created between 1958 and 1971, these recordings, in their entirety (writing, art work, sound effects, music, voices, taping) were the feverish work of two young men, Jim Copp and Ed Brown.
Playhouse is pleased to present all nine of the original LPs on compact disc, iTunes & CD Baby as well as two "Best of" compilations. Featured in The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times, and national public radio, these timeless recordings are available directly from Playhouse Records.
Miss Goggins & The Gorilla
Little Claude
The Dog that went to Yale
Jim Copp Performs "Agnes Mouthwash & Friends"
Mary McGurky McGinty Maguire


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Search MichaelWhelan.com
This all-time favorite Elric painting is finally in print again! Printed by Michael himself, so you can be assured of its color quality.
STORMBRINGER is also available in a set with SAILOR ON THE SEAS OF FATE and ELRIC AND THE SINKING CITY.
Giclée Print on Fine Art Paper, Produced in the Whelan Studios and Hand-signed in Pencil in the White Border
Conservation Framing: Dark Gray Acid-free Mat, Archival Plexiglass, and Dark Wood Frame
All content © 2007–2020 Michael R. Whelan. All rights reserved.
Site developed & maintained by Michael Everett


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Caroline Donegan pledged support 2020-07-01 10:15:56 +0100
Stay in the EU and build a better Europe
As Greens, we are proud of the leadership Caroline Lucas has shown in resisting Brexit and steering the country towards a more positive future. We are also proud of the work our Green MEPs have done in the European Parliament, upholding the rights of EU citizens affected by Brexit and resisting attacks on the high environmental standards forged by the European Parliament. This is all at risk if we leave the EU.
The Green Party supports a People's Vote on Brexit, with staying in the EU as one of the options on the ballot paper, to help find a genuinely democratic route out of the Brexit chaos.
Green MEPs are working to build a better Europe. They are tackling the problems that cannot be solved in one country alone. They say,
Our Green vision of Europe is that of a Europe that champions the greening of our economies, which will allow good new jobs to be created. That pursues social and generational justice and inclusive democracy. That protects its citizens and empowers them. That cherishes diversity and upholds the rule of law. That promotes international peace and the Sustainable Development Goals. We owe it to our children and we owe it to the world. We want to renew the promise of Europe. We stand for the European project. We will work to push back against and isolate those who try to convert valid criticism of deficiencies and mistakes into an anti-European, extremist and xenophobic roll-back. We say no to a Europe of nationalisms.
Greens won the most votes of any Remain party in the last European election nationally and in the South East. Greens are now the UK's largest Remain party in the European Parliament.
Will you pledge your vote to stay and build a better Europe?Pledge your vote
Caroline Donegan
Caroline Donegan is following this site, wanting to find out more about the South East Green Party.


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Magnetite nanoparticles for the preparation of ultrapure RAFT polymers
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) and the application of a strong external magnetic fields were used to separate living chains from dead chains prepared by the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) process, by using Z-functional RAFT agents that are strongly attracted to the MNP surface. The MNP dispersion was mixed with a 32% HCL solution and the organic phase containing the oleic acid and the polymer was extracted and dried to give the extracted polymer. The RAFT functional chains in the unextracted polymer result from the ligand exchange process in the extraction step, which does not attach all RAFT functional chains to the MNP surface. The results also show that the extension data for the unextracted polymer show a significant fraction of high M polymer that apparently contains some RAFT groups.


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Marriage Equality. Everyone has a view about it and if the polls are to be believed more than 65 percent of Australians support it, so what's all the fuss?! Marriage equality advocate, Liam Ryan, explains why it's important to his family.
One of my children asked me a simple question last week: "Daddy why does Mummy have a different last name to Mama?"
You see, I have three beautiful children with two beautiful lesbian mums, and our family life has never been viewed as a 'disadvantage', as some would have us believe. At five years old, my daughter doesn't see anything 'different' about having two mums - but she has cottoned on to something a bit odd about them not sharing a last name like most of her friends' parents.
While last names can be changed, my daughter's question is still symbolic of the many inequalities that come with not having equal rights to marry in Australia.
Marriage equality continues to be a hot debate here.
At a time when many feel like the world is going backwards, people are speaking up and making sure their voices are heard! Frankly, it's liberating to be a part of.
But beyond the political, marriage equality is, above all, personal.
You see, for me, marriage equality is definitely about being able to get married, but it's also about not being considered a second class citizen by the country I call home.
It's about basic human rights.
The big reality here is that there is no alternative to marriage. No matter what you're told by opponents of marriage equality, anything less than marriage is second rate.
To those detractors who continue to cry "won't somebody please think of the children?!", the truth is – I am.
I believe that both mothers of my children – after eight solid years together and three healthy, happy kids – should be able to celebrate their relationship legally and legitimately in front of their nearest and dearest.
There is no way that declaring their love and commitment to each other and finally getting married could be anything but a treasured memory and a beautiful moment for our family.
To anyone reading this who doesn't support marriage equality, hear me when I say we are not a threat to you or your families or your loving marriages.
We merely want to have the same right to share what many of you have.
So, yes, let's think of the children, but maybe not just the ones who were born exclusively to heterosexual parents.
Families come in many different forms: solo mums, solo dads, two mums, two dads or, like us, a Mama, a Mummy and a Daddy. How could two people committing their love to each other in front of their family and friends be a bad thing? I don't get it and neither do my kids.
Marriage Equality: It's only fair. Be heard at equalitycampaign.org.au.


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« EelmineJätka »
(Assistant Socretary to the Royal Geographical Society of England.)
| shore, the shallowness of the water far out
around the mouth of the great river not perPARÁ.
mitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the Arival-Aspect of the country_The Park river-First
signal was hoisted for a pilot. It was with : walk in the enburbs of Pará-Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the suburbs ---Leaf-carrying Ant-Sketch
deep interest that my companion and myself, of the climate, history, and present condition of both now about to see and examine the beau. Para.
ties of a tropical country for the first time, I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wal. gazed on the land where I, at least, eventually lace, in a : Inall trading vessel, on the 26th of spent eleven of the best years of my life. To April, 1848 ; and, after a swift passage from the eastward the country was not remarkable the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on in appearance, being slightly undulating, the 26th of May, off Salinas. This is the with bare sand-hills and scattered trees ; but pilot-station for vessels bound to Pará, the to the westward, stretching toward the mouth only port of entry to the vast region watered of the river, we could see through the capby ihe Amazons. It is a small village, for. tain's glass a long line of forest, rising appar. merly a missionary settlement of the Jesuits, ently out of the water ; a densely-packed situated a few miles to the eastward of the mass of tall trees, broken into groups, and Pará river. Here the ship anchored in the finally into single trees, as it dwindled away open scu, at a distance of six miles from the in the distance. This was the frontier, in
this direction, of the great primeval forest street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, characteristic of this region, which contains our road lay acruss a grassy common into % 80 many wonders in its recesses, and clothes picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest, the whole surface of the country for two The long street was inhabited by the poorer thousand miles from this point to the foot of class of the population. The houses were of the Andes.
one story only, and had an irregular and On the following day and night we sailed, mean appearance. The windows were withe with a light wind, partly aided by the tide, out glass, having, instead, projecting lattice up the Pará river. Toward evening we casements. The street was unpaved, and passed Vigia und Colares, two tsbing vil. inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people lages, and saw many native canoes, which were cooling themselves outside their woors seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of people of all shades in color of skin, Eurothe dark forest. The air was excessively close, pean, negro, and Indian, but chiefly an unThe sky overcast, and sheet lightning played certain mixture of the three. Among them almost incessantly around the horizon, an ap- were several handsome women, dressed in a propriate greeting on the threshold of a coun. sloveply manner, barefoot or shod in loose try lying close under the equator! The slippers ; but wearing richly decorated earevening was calm, this being the season rings, and around their necks strings of very when the winds are not strong, so we glided large gold beads. They had dark expressive along in a noiseless manner, which contrast- eyes, and remarkably rich heads of hair. It ed pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to was a mere fancy, but I thought the mingled which we had been lately accustomed on the squalor, luxuriance, and beauty of these womAtlantic. The immensity of the river struck en were pointedly in Birmony with the rest of us greatly, for although sailing sometimes at the scene ; so striking, in the view, was the a distance of eight or nine miles from the mixture of natural riches and human poverty. eastern bank, the opposite shore was at wo Abe houses were mostly in a dilapidated contime visible. Indeed, the Pará river is dition, and signs of indolence and neglect thirty-six miles in breadth at its mouth ; and were everywhere visible. The wooden palut the city of Pará, nearly seventy miles from ings which surrounded thy weed-grown garthe sea, it is twenty miles wide ; but at that dens were strewn about, broken .; and bogs, point a series of islands commences, which goals, and ill-fed poultry wandered in and contracts the river view in front of the port. out through the gaps. But amid all, and
On the morning of the 28th of May we ar. compensating every defect, rose the overrived at our destinatiou. The appearance of powering beauty of the vegetation. The the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highe massive dark crowns of shady mangoes were est degree. It is built on a low tract of land, seen everywhere among the dwellings, amid having only one small rocky elevation at its fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and Southern extremity ; it therefore affords no many other tropical fruit-trees; some in amphitheatral view from the river ; but the flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of white buildings rooferl with red tiles, the ripeness. Here and there, shooting above numerous towers and cupolas of churches the more dome-like and sombre trees, werde and convents, the crowds of palm-trees reared the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing above the buildings, all sharply defined aloft their magnificent crowns of finely cut ilgainst the clear blue sky, give an appear. fronds. Among the latter the slim assai :ance of lightness and cheerfulness which is palm was especially noticeable, growing in
hemas the city in on all sides landward ; and curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, ter toward the suburbs picturesque country minating in a head of feathery foliage, inexhvuses are seen scattered about, half buried pressibly light and elegant in outline. Ook in luxuriant foliage. The port was full of the hougbs of the taller and more ordinary native canoes and other vessels, large and looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved small; and the ringing of bells and firing of parasites. Slender woody lianas hung in rockets, announcing the dawn of some festoons from the branches, or were sus. Roman Catholic festival day, showed that pended in the form of cords and ribbons ; the population was astir at that early hour. while luxuriant creeping plants overran alike
The impressions received during our first tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled uver walk, on the evening of the day of our ar palings in copious profüsion of foliage. The rival, cau never wholly fade from my mind. superb banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which After traversing the few streets of tall, I had always read as forming one of the gloomy, convent-looking buildings near the charms of tropical vegetation, here grew with port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and great luxuriance : its glossy velvety-green shopkeepers ; along which idle soldiers, leaves, twelve feet in length, curving over the dressed in shabby uniformas, carrying their roofs of verandas in the rear of every house, ::muskets carelessly over their arms, priests, The shape of the leaves, the varying shades iDegresses with red water-jars on their heads, of green which they present when lightly : 8ad-looking Indian women carrying their moved by the wind, and especially the connaked children astride on their hips, and trast they afford in color and form to the other samples of the motley life of the place, more sombre hues and more rouuded outline were seen: we passed down a long narrow
of the other trees, are quite sufficient to account for the charm of this glorious tree.
Strange forms of vegetatiun drew our atten. try extends close up to the city streets ; intion at almost every step. Among them were deed, the town is built on a tract of cleared the different kinds of Bromelia, or pine-apple land, and is kept free from the jungle only plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped by the constant care of the Government. leaves, in some species jagged or foolhed The surface, though everywhere low, is mlung their edges. Then there was the slightly undulating, so Ibat areas of dry land bread-fruit-tree-an importation, it is true; alternate throughout with areas of swampy but remarkable for its large, glossy, daik- ground, the vegetation and animal tenants of green, strongly digitated foliage, and its in- ihe iwo being widely different. Our resi. teresting history. Many other trees and dence lay on the side of the city nearest the plants, curious in leaf, stem, or manner of Guamá on the borders of one of the low and growth, grew on the borders of the thickets swampy areas which bere extends over a por. along which lay our road ; they were all at- tion of the suburbs. The tract of land is in. tractive to new-comers, whose last country tersected by well macadamized suburban ramble, of quite recent date, was over the roads, the chief of which, Estrada das Mon. bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morn- gubeiras (the Monguba road), about a mile ing in April.
long, is a magnificent avenue of silk-cottun. As we continued our walk the brief twi. trees (Bombax munguba and B. ceiba), huge light cummenced, and the sounds of multi- trees whose trunks taper rapidly from the farious life came from the vegetation around. ground upward, and whose flowers before The whirring of cicadas ; the shrill stridula- opening look like red balls studding the tion of a vast number and variety of field branches. This fiue road was constructed crickets and yrasshoppers, each species sound. under the governorship of the Count dos ing its peculiar note; the pluintive hooting of Arcos, about the year 1812. At right angles tree frogs--all blended together in one con- to it run a number of narrow green lanes, tinuous ringing sound-thouudible expression and the whole district is drained by a system of the teeming profusion of nature. As night of spiall canals or trenches through which came on, many species of frogs and loads in the tide elbs and flows, showing the lowness the marshy places joined in the chorus ; their of the site. Before I left the country, other croaking and drumming, far louder than any- enierprising presidents had formed a number: thing I had before heard in the same live, of avenues lined with cucoa-nut palms, being added to the other noists, created an alpoud and other trees, in contigliation of almost deafening din. This uproar of life, I the Moguba road, over the more elevated ar afterward found, never wholly ceased, night diier ground to the north-east of the city, or day: in course of time I became, like On the high ground the vegetation has an as other residents, accustomed to it. It is, how- pect quite different from that which it pre. ever, one of the peculiarities of a tropicalo sents in the swampy parts. Indeed, with the at least a Brazilian-climate which is most exception of the palm-trees, the suburbs here likely to surprise & stranger. After my re- have an aspect like that of a village green at turn to England, the death. like stillness of home. The soil is sandy, and the open comsummer days in the country appeared to me mons are covered with a short grassy and as strange as the ringing uproar did on my shrubby vegetation. Beyond this, the land first arrival at Pará. The object of our visit again descends to a marshy tract, where, at being accomplished, we returned to the city. the bottom of the moist hollows, the public The fire-flies were then out in great numbers, weils are situated. Here all the lines of the Sitting about the sombre woods, and even city is washed by hosts of noisy pogresses, the frequented streets. We turned into our and here also the water-carts are filledhammocks, well pleased with what we had pajuted hogsheads on wheels, drawn by bud. seen, and full of anticipation with regard sucks. In early morning, when the sun to the wealth of natural objects we had come sometimes shines through a light inist, sod tu explore.
everything is dripping with moisture, this
part of the city is full of life : vociferous During the first few days we were em negrves and wrangling Gallegos, the pro. ployed in landing our baggage and arranging prietors of the water-carts, are gathered our extensive apparatus. We then accepted about, jabbering continually, and taking their the invitation of the consignee of the vessel morning Crams in dirty wine-shops at the to make use of his rocioba, or country-house street corners. in the suburbs, until we finally decided on & Along these beautiful roads we found much residence. Upon this we made our first to interest us during the first few days. Subessay in housekeeping. We bought cotton urbs of towns, and open, sunny, cultivated hammocks, the universal substitute for beds places in Brazil, are tenanted by species of in this country, cooking utensils, and animals and plants which are mostly differ. crockery, and engaged a free vegro, nanied ent from those of the dense primeval forests. Isidoro, as cook and servant of all work. I will, therefore, give an account of what we Our first walks were in the immediate sub- observed of the animal world, during our ex. urbs of Pará. The city lies on a corner of plorations in the immediate neighborhood of land formed by tbe junction of the river Pará. Guamá with the Pará. As I have said be. The number and beauty of the birds and fore, the forest which covers the whole coun. insects did not at first equal our expectations.
· The majority of the birds we saw were smail compact and velvety in texture. The shape and obscurely colored ; they were indeed of its head and its physiognomy are very similar, in general appearance, tu such as are similar to those of the magpie ; it has light met with in country places in Eugland. Oc- gray eyes, which give it the same knowing casionally a fluck of sınall paroquets, green, expression. It is social in its habits, ani with a patch of yellow on the forehead, builds its nest, like the English rook, on trees would come at early morning to the trees in the neighborhood of habitations. But the near the Estrada. They would feed quietly, nests are quite differently constructed, being sometimes chattering in subdued tones, but shaped like purses, two feet in length, anii setting up a harsh scream, aud flying off, on suspended from the slender branches all round being disturbed. Humming-birds we did the tree, some of them very near the ground. not see at this time, although I afterwar. The entrance is on the side near the bottom found them by hundreds when certain trees of the nest. The bird is a great favorite were in flower. Vultures we only saw at & with the Brazilians of Pará : it is a noisy, distance, sweeping round at a great height, stirring, babbling creature, passing constantly over the public slaughter-houses. Several to and fro, chattering to its comrades, and is fly-catchers, finches, ant-thrushes, a tribe of very ready at imitating other birds, especially plainly-colored birds, intermediate in struc- the domestic poultry of the vicinity. There iure between fly-catchers and thrusbes, some was at one time a weekly newspaper pubof which startle the new-comer by their ex- lished at Pará, called The Japim; the name traordinary notes emitted from their places being chosen, I suppose, on account of the of concealment in the dense thickets; and babbling propensities of the bird. Its eggs also tanagers, and other small birds, inhabit- are nearly round, and of a bluish-white color, ed the neigbborhood. None of these had & Speckled with brown. pleasing song, except y little brown wren of other vertebrate animals we saw very (Troglodytes furvus), whose voice and melody little, except of the lizards. They are sure resemble those of our English robin. It is to attract the attention of the new.comer often seen, hopping and climbing about the from Northern Europe, by reason of their walls and roofs of houses and on trees in strange uppearance, great numbers and vari. their vicinity. Its sung is more frequently ety. The species which are seen crawling heard in the rainy season, when the monguba. over the walls of buildings in the city are trees shed their leaves. At those times the different from those found in the forest or in Estrada das Mongubeiras has an appearance the interior of houses. They are unpleasantquite unusual in a tropical country. The looking animals, with colors assimilated to tree is one of the few in the Amazons region those of tbe dilapidated stone and mud walls which sheds all its foliage before any of the on which they are seen. The house lizards new leaf-buds expand. The naked branches, belong to a peculiar family, the Geckos, and the sodden ground matted with dead leaves, are found even in the best-kept chambers, the gray mist veiling the surrounding vege- most frequently on the walls and ceilings, to tation, and the cool atmosphere soon after which they cling motionless by day, being sunrise, all combine to remind one of au- active only at night. They are of speckled tumpul mornings in England. While loiter- gray or asby colors. The structure of their ing about at such times in a balf-oblivious feet is beautifully adapted for clinging to movd, thinking of home, the song of this and running over smooth surfaces; the bird would create for the moment a perfect under side of their toes being expanded into illusion. Numbers of tanagers frequented the cushions, beneath which folds of skin forin a fruit and other trces in our garden. The series of flexible plates. By means of this two principal kinds which attracted our at apparatus they can walk or run across a tention were the Rhamphucælus jacapa and smooth ceiling with their backs downward ;
the plated soles, by quick muscular action, both are dull in color, but the male of Jacapa exhausting and admitting air alternately. has a beautiful velvety purple and black The Geckos are very repulsive in appearance. plumage, the beak being partly wbite, while The Brazilians give them the name of Osgus, the same sex in Episcopus is of a pale blue and firmly believe them to be poisonous ; culor, with white spots on the wings. In they are, however, harmless creatures. Those their habits they both resenible the common found in houses are small ; but I have seen house-sparrow of Europe, which does not exothers of great size, in crevices of tree trunks ist in South America, iis place being in some in the forests. Sometimes Geckos are found measure filled by these familiar tanagers. with forked tails; this results from the bud. They are just as lively, restless, bold, and ding of a rudimentary tail at the side, from wary ; their notes are very similar, chirping an injury done to the member. A slight rap and inbarmonious, and they seem to he will cause their tails to snap off, the loss almost as foud of the D'ighborhood lif man. being afterward partially repaired by a new They do not, however, build their nests on growth. The tails of lizards seem to be houses.
almost useless appendages to the animals. I Anothur interesting and common bird was used often to amuse myself in the suburbs, the Japím, a species of Cassicus (C. icterono- while resting in the verandah of our house tus). It belongs to the same family of birds during the heat of midday, by watching the as our starling, magpie, aud rook, and has a variegated green, brown, and yellow ground. rich yellow and biack plumage, remarkably lizards. They would come niably forward,
and commence grubbing with their fore feet eni color from the surrounding soil, which and snouts around the roots of herbage, search- were thrown up in the plantations and ing for insect larvæ. On the slightest alarm woods. Some of them were very extensive, they will scamper off ; their tails cocked upin being forty yards in circumference, but not the air as they waddled awkwardly away, evi. more than two feet in height. We soon dently an incumbrance to them in their lligut. ascertained that these were the work of the
Next to the birds and lizards, the insects Suübas, being the outworks, or domes; which of the suburbs of Pará deserve a few remarks. overlie and protect the entrances to their vast I will pass over the many other orders and subterranean galleries. On close examinafamilies of this class, and proceed at once to tion, I found the earth of which they are the ants. These were in great numbers every- composed 10 consist of very minute granules, where, but I will mention here only two agglomerated without cement, and forming kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants an many rows of little ridges and turrets. The inch and a quarter in length, and stuut in difference in color from the superficial soil of proportion, marching iu single tile through the vicinity is owing to their being formed the thickets. These belonged to the species of the underscil, brought up from a consider. called Dinoponera grandis. Its colonies con- alle depih. It is very rarely that the ants sist of a small pumber of individuals, and are are seen at work on these mounds; the en
liances seeem to be generally closed ; only now and then, when some particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. The entrances are small and numerous ; in the large billocks it would require a great amount of excavation to get at the main galleries ; but I succeeded in removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and then I found that the minor entrances cor verged, at the depth of about two feet, to one broad elaboratelyworked gallery or mine, which was four or five inches in diameter.
This habit in the Saüba ant of clipping and Saüba or Leaf-carrying Aut.-1. Working minor ; carrying away immense quantities of ler:vt's 2. Working-major; 3. Subterranean worker.
has long been recorded in books on natural established about the roots of slender trees. history. When employed on this work, Vieir It is a stinging species, but the sting is not processions look like a multitude of animate: so severe as in many of the smaller kinds. leaves on the march. Iu some places I found There was nothing peculiar or attractive in an accumulation of such leaves, all circular the habits of this giant among the ants. pieces, about the size of a sixpence, lying Another far more interesting species was the on the pathway unallended by ants, and at Saüba (Ecodoma cephalotes). This ant is some distance from any colony. Such heaps seen everywhere about the suburbs, march- are always found to be removed when the ing to and fro in broad columns. From its place is revisited the next day. In course of habit of despoiling the most valuable culti- time I had plenty of opportunities of seeing vated trees of their foliage, it is a great them at work. They mount the tree in mul scourge to the Brazilians. In some districts titudes, the individuals being all worker. it is so abundant that agriculture is almost minors. Each one places itself on the sur. impossible, and everywhere complaints are face of a leaf, and cuts with its sharp scissorbeard of the terrible pest.
like jaws a nearly semicircular incision on The workers of this species are of three the upper side ; it then takes the edge beorders, and vary in size from two to seven tween its jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches lines ; some idea of them may be obtained the piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop from nthe accompanying wood-cut. The to the ground, where a little heap accumu. true working-class of a colony is formed lates, until carried off by another relay of by the small-sized order of workers, the workers ; but, generally, each marches off worker-minors as they are called (Fig. 1). with the piece it has operated upun, and as The two other kinds, whose functions, as all take the same road to their colony, the we shall see, are not yet properly understood, path they follow becomes in a short time have enormously swollen and massive heads; smooth and bare, looking like the impression in one (Fig. 2), ihe head is highly polished; of a cart-wheel through the herbage. in the other (Fig. 3), it is opaque and hairy. It is a most interesting sight to see the vast The worker-minors vary greatly in size, some host of busy diminutive laborers occupied on being double the bulk of others. The entire this work. Unfortunately they choose calbody is of very solid consistence, and of a tivated trees for their purpose. This ant is pale reddish-brown color. The thorax or quite peculiar to tropical America, as is the middle segment is armed with three pairs of entire genus to which it belongs ; it somesharp spines; the head, also, has a pair of times despoils the young trees of species similar spines proceeding from the cheeks growing wild in its native forests ; but seems bebind.
to prefer, when within reach, plants importIn vur first walks we were puzzled to ac. ed from other countries, such as the coffee count for large mounds of earth, of a differ- and orange trees. It bas not hitherto huen


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Sunday, August 29, 2010
In My Mailbox (6) + Puppies
7 comments:
Molly always hops in the pictures I take of my quilts.ReplyDelete
Glass is great, and I've heard amazing things about A Northern Light. I want to read it really badly.ReplyDelete
You've got a great haul, and I'm going back to comment on your post regarding the drama I missed. Hopefully it adds to the discussion. :)
gotta love a cat in a bag! or a cat with books! The dogs are adorable as well.ReplyDelete
Love the photos. What kind of dogs are they...veryhandsome, and well The good looking kitty --goes without saying LOLReplyDelete
How nice that you and your husband are best friends with the spouse of the other's best friend (does that make sense...you know what I mean, right?) :)ReplyDelete
Bibliophile - the dogs are both Great Danes and they are the sweetest dogs that either of us have ever had. They have the best personalitites!ReplyDelete
BookGirl - It is so nice that we're all such good friends. We have a blast!
They are just so cute. I love them. More pictures! More pictures! :)ReplyDelete


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I received this Beautiful Blog Award from Sharon of
Check out her blog and all her fantastic tutorials!
Thank you so much Sharon♥♥
Pass this along to 3 blogs that you think are beautiful in every way.
I pass this along to -
Mary of Country Bug
Raps of Easy PeasyTuts
Carol of Hugahav's Haven
Carol of Hugahav's Haven


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Although the rat is a preferred model in many fields of biomedical sciences, the inability to generate germline competent embryonic stem (ES) cells was a major drawback for research activities that aimed to elucidate gene functions. Several alternative strategies like N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) or transposon-mediated mutagenesis were developed successfully for this species. Countless experiments in many laboratories around the world were undertaken to overcome this problem. Eventually, the successful establishment of rat ES cells and rat-induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was reported, 27 years after the first reported generation of mouse ES cells. Furthermore, the application of zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) to early-stage rat embryos demonstrated effectively that another way existed for generating knockout rats. ZFNs require only the standard techniques that are used to produce transgenic animals and are expected to comprise a major tool for the gene-targeted generation of knockout animals. These newly developed tools, in conjunction with the solid basis of the rat in the area of physiological and behavioral experiments, will not only close the gap between the rat and the mouse as the mammalian genetic model of choice, but also boost the significance of the rat as a model animal in research laboratories around the globe.
The rat, Rattus norvegicus, began its career as a laboratory animal in Europe in the 1850s and became the first mammalian species to be domesticated for scientific research. Its suitable size and easy handling might have been major selective points in early animal experiments that were part of studies on breeding, behavior, psychology, nutrition, endocrinology and genetics, among others topics.
The history of the rat as a model organism
The rat is now well known as being the most important animal for safety or toxicological testing of chemical compounds, including drug candidates. Since the development of inbred rat strains by King in 1909 (Lindsey, 1979), over 700 rat strains that comprise inbred and outbred strains of various natures (spontaneous mutant, congenic, recombinant inbred, consomic, transgenic, etc.) have been developed and are accessible through rat resource centers such as The National Bio Resource Project for the Rat in Japan (NBRP-Rat; http://www.anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp/nbr) and the Rat Resource and Research Center (RRRC; http://www.nrrrc.missouri.edu/). The development of these strains was based on a broad genetic background, which is very helpful for the exploration of gene functions in heterogeneous populations. This genetic variability that is made available by numerous rat strains gives an enormous advantage to the laboratory rat. When the research community began to move away from mammalian species such as dogs or cats around 40 years ago, the accessibility of physiological, behavioral and learning parameters was the decision criteria that lead to the rat being the model of choice. Studies on the cardiovascular system and drug response tests required a variety of administration methods, invasive operational strategies and repetitive sampling for which a minimal body size and moderate life span were compulsory. Also, learning and behavioral phenotypes can only be accessed in animal models that show at least a minimal ability to respond to the test parameter in question. Then, the rat turned out to be the most appropriate model for scientific reasons, as well as for economic reasons (cost/performance). Accordingly, the physiology of the rat, describing all major organs and their interactions, has been studied extensively and has been instrumental in creating a foundation for systems biology.
However, the most significant tool in the field of functional genomics during the last two decades is the discovery of ES cells. These cells were derived first from mouse blastocysts in 1981 (Evans and Kaufman, 1981) and this work allowed subsequently for the generation of various kinds of knockout and knock-in mice that were used to understand gene functions. Numerous attempts have been made to derive ES cells from the rat but, until recently, all had failed. Instead, sophisticated approaches such as the yeast-based screening assay of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU)-mutated G1 offspring (Zan et al., 2003; Chen and Gould, 2004), transposon-tagged mutagenesis in the rat (Kitada et al., 2007), or unique archives of mutagenized rat sperm (Mashimo et al., 2008) were used to induce genetic mutations. Although the ENU-based mutants offer the advantage that serial allelic variations of targeted genes, in addition to knockout mutants, can be obtained, targeted modifications of specific DNA regions are difficult to achieve. ES cells are still the tool of choice for manipulating genomes in the context of functional genomics. Because ES cells did not exist in the rat, the utilization of this species in genetic experiments has been restricted for many years, despite the advantages conferred by the size and physiological accessibility of this animal. The utility of the rat as a model organism has now changed.
Rat ES cells
In the Rat Genomics and Models meeting at Hinxton, UK in December 2008, two major breakthroughs were presented that will lead to a paradigm shift in genetic research. Austin Smith reported on the successful generation of germline-competent rat ES cells and Aron Geurts demonstrated the simple generation of knockout rats using zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs). Although the latter discovery describes a relatively new technology that was applied to mammalian species, the story on rat ES cell development was rather long and troublesome (Brenin et al., 1997; Prelle et al., 1999; Vassilieva et al., 2000; Buehr et al., 2003). One reason for this long journey was the genetic background of the teratoma developing mouse strain 129, from which the first mouse ES cells were derived. These cells required an empirically determined culture medium that is efficient for only ES cells that are derived from a few mice strains. However, strain 129 is considered an exceptional strain in terms of ES cell development. Fetal calf serum, a key component of this original culture medium used for strain 129-derived ES cells, stimulates various differentiation programs and initiates cell commitment. Unfortunately, these serum-based conditions served as the basis for the majority of the experiments that aimed to derive rat ES cells from the inner cell mass (ICM) of rat blastocysts. The reasoning for this was that extrinsic factors are required to sustain the pluripotent status of ES cells. However, it became more and more evident that these conditions only describe the particular situation for strain 129-derived ES cells and cannot be transposed on to the rat or other mammalian species. Growing knowledge on early-stage differentiation processes, as well as a paradigm shift on how pluripotency is defined (Silva and Smith, 2008; Ying et al., 2008), eventually allowed less empirical but more systematic approaches to derive rat ES cells from the ICM of rat blastocysts. The assumption that pluripotency exist for some cells at a particular stage in blastocysts led to the hypothesis that the suppression of signals that trigger cell differentiation is key for the successful derivation and propagation of ES cells, rather than stimulation by 'pluripotent factors'. As a first step, extrinsic factors like serum and serum substitutes were removed from the ES medium. This was not sufficient to prevent differentiation since the autocrine production of fibroblast growth factor 4 (FGF4) and the associated induction of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) kinase (MEK) pathway drive the cells into committed lineages (Kunath et al., 2007). The blockade of this MEK-ERK pathway and the removal of extrinsic factors were helpful for sustaining mouse ES cell self-renewal (Ying et al., 2008), but were not sufficient for the derivation of rat ES cells. Thus, it was reasoned that interference in the activity of another pathway became necessary. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) plays a crucial role in various anabolic pathways and is active upstream of β-catenin as part of the Wnt signaling cascade. Limiting the activity of GSK-3 mimics canonical signaling of Wnt through β-catenin accumulation; together with MEK-ERK inhibition and serum-free culture conditions, the stability of pluripotent cells then improves dramatically. Under these conditions, ES cells could be generated from mice strains that were found formerly to be resistant to the production of ES cell clones from their ICMs. These conditions proved to be sufficient for several ES cells derived from various mice strains, but the addition of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) seemed to be helpful for the initial generation and long-term passage of such lines (Nichols and Ying, 2006; Silva and Smith, 2008; Ying et al., 2008). The proof of concept of 'the ground state of pluripotency' was shown subsequently by applying these conditions to the rat blastocyst. Either of the so-called 'three inhibitors' (3i) or 'two inhibitors' (2i) conditions (Fig. 1) resulted in the successful generation of germline-competent rat ES cells when combined with LIF-producing feeder cells (mouse or rat embryonic fibroblasts, MEF or REF, respectively) (Buehr et al., 2008; Li et al., 2008). Similarly successful results were obtained for a close relative of the ES cell, the induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell (Li et al., 2009). Slightly modified 3i conditions were used to successfully sustain the pluripotency of reprogrammed rat liver cells as stable iPS clones that could produce rat chimeras. However, germline competence has not been demonstrated yet, but this can be expected in the near future, probably by means of 2i conditions. What is still missing are knockout rats that have been derived using stem cells. This is already in the pipeline for several laboratories that are dealing with the newly developed rat ES/iPS cells and we can expect to see these rats soon.
Other cell types and technologies are also being explored as avenues to create genetically modified rats (Table 1). Spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) cultures have been developed already for the rat but have proved resistant to attempts at producing successful homologous recombination events (Shinohara et al., 2006). The nature of the SSCs is different from ES cells, but the advantage of SSC-derived knockout rats would be guaranteed germline transmission. In any case, the next step will be to produce the first rat ES/iPS/SSC cell-derived knockout rat. As mentioned above, another gene-targeting technology has proven successful for generating knockout rats: ZFNs. Briefly, artificial customized zinc fingers, 3–6 fingers that can bind to up to 20 base pairs of DNA, are bound to the cleavage domain of the endonuclease FokI. The RNA of this construct is injected into the pronucleus of fertilized oocytes. The RNA is then translated and the resulting ZFN is specific at targeting the genomic region, as determined by the artificially constructed zinc-finger sequence. Two of these molecules form a dimer and cut the genomic DNA. Following this, the internal repair machinery of the cell has several courses of action that it can pursue. However, a process called non-homologous end joining takes place frequently. As the name alludes to, the repaired double strand often results in the creation of a nonsense mutation and, therefore, a knockout animal. Although this technology is still in its infancy for use in mammals, it can be expected to become a method of choice for producing 'simple' knockout animals in the near future, whereas more complex strategies that include sophisticated, multi-step genetic modifications will be the preferable area in which ES/iPS/SSC cells are being used.
A bright future for rats
The use of both ES/iPS/SSC cells and ZFNs will become core applications in the biomedical sciences, which will use the rat as a model organism to elucidate gene functions and for the generation of animal models of human diseases. These methods will allow the development of rat models to address scientific questions where mouse physiology and morphology have presented challenges when addressing human disease. In particular, cardiovascular, neurological and behavioral studies, or experiments that require repetitive sampling, should make the rat a preferred model organism for many human diseases. The accessibility of phenotypes will eventually guide scientists to the most informative mammalian knockout, be it mouse or rat.
The authors declare no competing financial interests.


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The internet has made transactions easily and we can shop from anywhere at anytime with ease. But online shopping has its own shopping ease, most popular retail or eCommerce websites have been cloned by online fraudsters to swindle and deceive unsuspecting persons there by making them lose their money. If you are are not begin careful, you may fall for this scam because the fake website look so much like the original websites. Few tips are listed below to help you spot a fake eCommerce website.
The URL is/are suspicious
The URL of most eCommerce websites are usually simple and not hard to remember. If the URL is complicated and different from what you normally see on websites you use, it is most likely to be fake, so you need to be more careful before making a purchase.
The language use on the website
Once you do not understand what is written on website well or you are not familiar with the language used , also if you notice so many spelling mistakes and poor translation then you have to be worried its a red flag.
Contact information
A good serious E-Commerce business normally have an official email address with there name and not a Gmail account or Yahoo account.
When the prices are too good to be true
People generally love cheap offers, anywhere they can get things cheaper. When the prices of the item displayed are too fantastic and very much low that the prices you normally buy, if the particular product/item can never be available at the price, it is a sign to scam you. For example, if a bag of N50,000 is being sold for 4500 its too good to be true.


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FBI announces it will not change July decision on Hillary Clinton's emails
– Daily Mail UK
"The FBI has announced it will not make any changes to its July decision on Hillary Clinton's emails, meaning the Democratic nominee will not be charged.
Congressman Jason Chaffetz tweeted out the massive news on Sunday afternoon.
'FBI Dir just informed us "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Sec Clinton",' Chaffetz wrote.
Speaking to reporters with Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio, Director of Communications Jennifer Palmieri confirmed the camp had seen Comey's letter.
'We have seen Director Comey's latest letter to the Hill. We are glad to see that he has found, as we were confident that he would, that he has confirmed the conclusion that he reached in July, and we're glad that this matter is resolved,' Palmieri said.
The investigation was reopened on October 28 – sparked by a DailyMail.com story that revealed Anthony Weiner was sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old girl. The emails in question were found on Weiner's laptop.
Reacting to the news shortly after 4pm, Donald Trump claimed Hillary in being protected by a 'rigged system'.
….Continue reading @ Daily Mail UK
After Review of New Emails Comey Informs Congress That FBI Has 'Not Changed' Conclusions On Clinton Emails
– Mediaite
"Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) sent out a tweet today explaining that FBI director James Comey informed him that there had been no change in the conclusions the FBI had in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.
It was reported after Comey sent the initial lettersaying new information had come out that it was related to Anthony Weiner and the investigation into his sexting. Weiner shared a laptop with his estranged wife Huma Abedin and it was stated that a number of emails related to Clinton were on the laptop.
After the news hit, CNN immediately offered reaction to the breaking story."
….Continue reading @ Mediaite
– In light of this new announcement, Comey's first letter announcing a re-opening of the Hillary email server investigation, that is, Comey's initial move 11 days ahead of a presidential election makes no sense.
Worse Comey now announces new news 2 days before the election. On any level this is just wrong, regardless of party or faction.
Why would the FBI interpose itself in the middle of a major election? Perhaps Comey's hand was forced in some fashion by higher powers?
In that light the following article needs to be taken in consideration. /CJ
"It's a struggle taking place at the highest levels of power. Coups, counter-coups and a civil war between the elites. And at the center of it all is one of the America's most experienced intelligence operatives.
Yes, there is a nonviolent civil war within Washington, according to Steve Pieczenik, deputy assistant secretary of state under men such as Henry Kissinger and James Baker.
Pieczenik served in the State Department for 20 years. He battled terrorism in the 1970s and, using his training as a psychiatrist, created pioneering tactics and strategies used in hostage situations. He contributed to the success of the Camp David Accords in 1978 by building psychological profiles of the key negotiators.
Since leaving government, he's been a strategic consultant for groups such as the RAND Corporation and the United States Institute of Peace. Most famously, he formed a partnership with author Tom Clancy to co-create the "Op-Center" and "Net-Force" books and eventually authored several books of his own, including the thriller "State of Emergency," which posits a second civil war.
And now, this consummate insider, one of the most experienced policy makers and crisis managers alive, says a nonviolent civil war is raging within Washington."
…..Continue reading @ WND


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Agencies Primarily Blame Clients for Inefficiencies, According to This Productivity Report
Survey finds many ad professionals feel unproductive
A majority of advertising professionals don't think their agencies are operating as efficiently as they could be—and in most cases, they blame clients.
That's the primary takeaway from the 2018 Agency Productivity Report from Canadian software company Function Point in partnership with the Agency Management Institute, or AMI.
"While a lot of agencies are highly productive, there are many areas we all seem to fall short on," Chris Wilson, Function Point CEO, said in the report. "As a result, work suffers, staff morale suffers and the organization's bottom line suffers."
Function Point surveyed 406 professionals from creative agencies, internal marketing departments and service firms in the U.S. and Canada, and found that 67 percent of agencies believe they overservice half of their clients, while 29.8 percent estimate they overservice between 70 and 90 percent of their clients. More than four in 10 respondents said they don't track their team's time accurately, and 68.8 percent often face communication breakdowns, which they blame on inaccurate or incomplete briefs with too many last-minute changes.
When asked to assign responsibility for missed deadlines, a majority of the respondents pointed squarely at their own clients.
Many agency respondents fear enforcing rules like strict deadlines on clients. The report showed that nearly half of participants fail to manage conflicts between creatives and clients.
"I think some of our account team is nervous about making the client mad or seeming demanding," one unidentified chief operations officer explained in the report.
It's no better on the creative side—48.5 percent of creative respondents noted there "are no repercussions" for employees who overservice clients, and therefore, it continues to happen.
"The difficulty with overservicing is that the client begins to expect that level of service, even if it's beyond what they're paying for," an unidentified brand manager said in the report. "It becomes very challenging to realign expectations later on."
Function Point, whose software products focus on time management, offered some tips including measuring and tracking employees' time as accurately as they measure a campaign's performance; putting clients on retainers to better track changes and improve planning; demanding a thorough creative brief session; and adopting project-management software (which the report found resulted in increased productivity for 74.9 percent of respondents).
The Agency Productivity survey was conducted from November through mid-January. Function Point and AMI said they decided to make the annual productivity report available upon request to the public this year to allow agencies and marketing professionals to improve their operational models.


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New Musical Theater of San Francisco accepts original works for various production purposes. Please follow our guidelines for ongoing works.
New Musical Theater of San Francisco is seeking original, small-venue musical theater pieces to produce at The Alcove Theater on an ongoing basis.
We are looking for exciting, accessible, easy-to-market content that will appeal to our Union Square audiences who hail from all over the US and all over the world.
Musicals must have a cast of eight or less; musical arrangements for solo piano, or high quality digital recordings.
To Submit:
E-mail the following to firstname.lastname@example.com
1. synopsis
2. character breakdown
3. complete list of songs
4. MP3 recordings of five songs
5. sheet music for one song (lead sheet or score). This is to show us that legible music can be made available to singers and musicians.
We will contact you if there is a need for more material.
Anne Nygren Doherty
Artistic Director
New Musical Theater of San Francisco


text: Today we celebrate one year of adventure and traveling the world. We've had our share of ups and downs, but ultimately we've met our goal of traveling around the world together for one year. In total we visited 19 countries, logged over 87,000 kilometers/57,000 miles and only got denied entry into one country. After sifting through the thousands of … Continue reading Photo Journal: A Year Traveling the World!