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Head of School
Now in his third year as Head, Mr. Mayer comes to the School with more than two decades of professional experience. HIs various educational roles include teaching faculty, department chair, college counselor, community service director and most recently, upper school principal at the Westtown School in West Chester, PA, where he managed the budget, staffing, and all aspects of student life for a school of 400 students – 300 of whom were boarders. Mr. Mayer has also led several education initiatives and continues to serve as a leadership consultant to independent schools. A father of four, Mr. Mayer resides near campus with his wife, who is also an educator.
- firstname.lastname@example.com email
- +39 06 575 0605 phone
Business Manager
- firstname.lastname@example.com email
- +39 06 575 0605 phone
A native of Genova, Italy, she moved to Rome in 1996. Prior to her role at St. Stephen's, she spent the majority of her career in finance and operations. After working in a small shipping company in Genova, Grazia joined Deloitte, a worldwide leader in auditing, where she gained valuable professional experience over a period of five years as Senior Auditor working with various industries and scores of companies. In 1987, she was hired in Milan to be the manager of the Financial Consolidation Department of SAES Getters S.p.a., a world leader in electronic components, and part of the Fiat Group. Two years later, she was named Cost Accounting Manager at Apple Computer, also in Milan. Her husband's work took the family to Florence and there Grazia joined Gucci where she remained for four years as Budget and Reporting Manager until the family returned to Milan in 1994. She was appointed Finance Manager of C&K Systems, a US multinational electronic manufacturing company, but work took her husband to Rome where she joined St. George's British International School as Bursar. After four years there, she moved to London with her husband and then returned to St. George's School in 2002 where she remained until 2013.
Assistant Head, Academic Affairs
- email@example.com email
- +39 06 575 0605 phone
In her extensive career with the school, she has taught the gamut of higher math courses and has also held a number of other positions, including head of mathematics, faculty representative to the EXCOM, trips director, trustee and college counselor. In her current role as Assistant Head for Academic Affairs, she continues to teach math while providing guidance and feedback to fellow teachers, handling students' issues and organizing coursework and syllabuses, among other duties. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Ms. Dostert earned a BA from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She also has a Laurea in mathematics from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. Prior to teaching at St. Stephen's, she enjoyed a singing career at Folkstudio, taught math at an American college in Rome and was a lecturer in Logic at the University of Rome, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia.
Alex Wreth
Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning
- email@example.com email
Alex has been an international school educator since 1999, a profession that has taken him to Japan, Austria, Germany, Australia and the UK. He has taught English A, German A, Spanish ab initio, TOK and Theatre and also works for the IBO as workshop leader, examiner and school inspector. Before becoming a teacher, he briefly worked in corporate communication as well as editing a bilingual learner's dictionary for Oxford University Press. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge, Frankfurt University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.


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The information below pertains to administrators with a legacy subscription who use our Viewer License Manager to manage access.
Please see this article for information on managing a current learner subscription.
Administrators can use the Viewer License Manager to manage viewers and their access to training:
- Sign in to the website.
- Click your name (top right corner of screen). A drop-down menu will appear.
- select My Account
- Then, select the Viewer License Manager link on the left side of the screen.
Adding viewers
Click the "Viewers" tab. In the text box beneath "Add Viewer," enter the person's email address. If they don't have an account on our site then you'll be prompted to let us create it. (no prompt = they already had an account and you've now just linked it to your license). If we create a new account, the viewer will get an email saying its been created and the email contains a link to get them to our site and set a password.
If they already had an account they will still receive an email (if you leave the "Send E-mail Notification" box checked) letting them know they've been linked to the license, but the email won't include new account instructions.
Giving a viewer access to specific training
Click the viewer's name. Click "Assign Products." Click the subscription to see a list of the available courses. Select the courses you want to give access to and then click "Save." Remember that when new training courses are released, you will have to add this course to a viewer's assigned products for them to be able to view it.
To give a viewer access to all training, select the box next to the subscription name, and click "Save."
Creating groups
Go to the Groups tab. In the text box beneath "Add Group," enter the name you want to give the group and click "Add." The group name will appear in the black box. To add viewers to this group, click the plus icon next to the group name. In the expanded box, you'll see all of your viewers. Select the viewers you would like to have access to all training and click "Save." Then click the "Assign Products" tab.
Remember that when new training courses are released, you will have to add this course to the group's assigned products in order for viewers of that group to access the training.
Giving a group access to all training
Create a group as outlined above. In the "Assign Products" tab, select the box next to the subscription name, and click "Save."
Making changes to a viewer or group
The "Send Email Notification" check-box is also in effect when you make any changes to a Viewer or Group. For example, when you assign a course to a viewer, they'll get an email letting them know. Toggle this check-box on or off as needed.
Deleting viewers
Adding a viewer account links that account to your license. The "Delete Viewer" link beside their entry DOES NOT DELETE their account, it only un-links it from your license.
Making a viewer an admin
After adding a Viewer and refreshing the page (F5 in most browsers), you'll see a "Make Admin" link next to the viewer's name. If you make a viewer an admin, they will have the ability to add viewers, create groups, assign training, run reports, etc.

subset: commoncrawl


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Yunmai Business Card Recognition SDK by Yunmai Followers
The Yunmai Business Card Recognition SDK by Yunmai allows developers to integrate business card recognition capabilities into their applications for iOS 6+, Android 2.3+, and PC (Windows XP+ and Linux). It takes an average of 2.5 seconds for the service to recognize a business card with a character recognition rate of greater than 98%. This SDK recognizes 15 languages, including English, Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Russian, and many European languages.


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On March 30th, Trinidad and Tobago celebrates Shouter Baptist Day, and we look at the history of this religious group, drawing on information of Rt. Rev. Eudora Thomas book "A History of the Shouter Baptists in Trinidad and Tobago", published by Calaloux Productions, Ithaca, New York, 1987.
The Spiritual Baptists, called "Shouters" in Trinidad and Tobago, had been suppressed by both the colonial and the independent governments for many decades. Nevertheless, the group prevailed and, in spite of being a relatively small minority, has inspired a national holiday since the 1990s.
Like Santeria in Cuba and Brazil, Voudoun in Haiti, and Shango in the British Isles: the Spiritual Baptists are a syncretic African-Christian faith that goes back at least two centuries, to the days of slavery. Being a philosophical belief system, it did not come into being at a specific moment, but evolved over a long period of time. Due to this, and due to the fact that it evolved often "undercover" in the undocumented slave population makes the exact roots of the Spiritual Baptist shrouded in the mists of history.
The Africans who settled in the Americas and in the Caribbean came from various parts of West and Central Africa, as the map shows. Up to today, we do not describe their origins with their "nationalities" (the present-day borders were drawn by the European colonisers at random, disregarding traditional tribal borders), but with their tribal ethnicity: Yoruba, Ibo, Dahomey, Mandingo, Congo, Rada, to name but a few.
The Yoruba were the largest group to come to the West Indies. It is to them that, according to Thomas, the forms of worship of the Spiritual Baptists are mostly attributed. In the slave society, where the Yoruba mixed with people of other tribal origins, Christian concepts of the dominant European culture were mixed with pan-African customs to create the syncretic forms of religious expression. Thus, the bell-ringing was borrowed from the Europeans, and the chanting from the Africans. Anointing can be found in both the Catholic and African religions.
"Handclapping and chanting, which are manifestations of the Shouters, are a substitute for the drums and shac-shacs of African custom," writes Thomas.
In the West Indies, the Spiritual Baptists were soon ousted by the Europeans. They aren't called Shouters for nothing: were simply too loud! All this chanting, shouting, bell-ringing and hand-clapping infringed on the more delicate European sense of propriety. It definitely smacked of some barbaric African cults. Laws were passed against those disturbances. The Catholic and Protestant churches too were worried about that their efforts to Christianise the African population would be undermined by the Shouters. Way into the 20th century, it was often the leaders of the established churches who opposed the revocation of the ordinances that forbid the Spiritual Baptists in the British West Indies, and not the colonial government.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the "Ordinance to Render Illegal, Indulgence in the Practice of the Body known as the Shouters", was passed on 27 November, 1917. The Anglican church was then between leaders, Bishop John Francis Welch served up to 1916, and Bishop Dr. Arthur Henry Anstey was consecrated in 1918. The Roman Catholic church was headed by Archbishop John Pius Dowling. The governor was Lieut. Col. Sir John Chancellor, after whose wife Lady Chancellor a street was named.
The bill was introduced by the attorney general, Sir Henry Gollam. He acted in accordance with the government's practices in St. Vincent, where the "Shakers" had been banned from worshipping in 1913.
"According to his statement, the Shouters' form of worship, which was introduced to the island from the neighbouring island of St. Vincent, was an 'unmitigated nuisance'," writes Thomas. "A Shouter meeting would make the neighbourhood where it took place unfit for residential occupation." She continues to give names of several leaders of the Shouters who had to suffer for their faith after 1917: Teacher Patrick of Sangre Grande served a three month prison term for conducting baptisms in a river; Leader Roach earned himself the name "Braveboy" for preaching at street corners in spite of rotten eggs being pelted at him; Leader Harold Lackeye was put into prison for six months for preaching but put on bond; Leader Smith of Roxborough was beaten and arrested for conducting a baptism; and Pastor Guiton of Tunapuna was raided several times and had to pay high fines.
On March 30th, 1951, the Ordinance that banned the Shouters was repealed. Pastors Griffith and Balfour were depicted on the front page of the local newspapers. Two months later, on May 22, the ban was also lifted in St. Vincent by the colonial administration. The spokesman in the Legislative Council for them there was Vincentian George McIntosh, whom Thomas quotes:
"In view of the fact that the poorer classes of this Colony are in deplorable, poverty-stricken condition because Government is unable to remedy conditions and ... religion being the only means whereby these depressed people can find comfort in their misery and as the Superintendent of Police and His Honour the Administrator have colluded to deprave these people of their right to religious freedom in the Colony."
During the years of slavery in the Caribbean, African slaves had a need to maintain their spiritual health in order to cope with the terrible conditions they lived in. In the new environment, Europeans tried to Christianise them; many of the Africans also brought their own, powerful belief structure into the equation.
"The religious propagation, with the stunning magical power of the African medicine man, so strongly influenced the African inhabitants that they started to borrow from their own myths and religious practices until they had established a variant form of the faith," writes Thomas.
If the importation of those myths and practices was very strong, they superseded the Christian forms, i.e. in Voudoun or Shango. But the same syncretic borrowing took place in the religious practice that eventually became the Shouters, or Shakers as they were called in St. Vincent, or Tie Heads as they were called in Barbados.
But why did the slaves not accept Christianity? Was it merely a manifestation of their inner opposition against the slave master, in spite of the outward adaptation to the system?
Thomas writes that Christianity was never really fully adopted by certain African tribes because of its monotheism (which, as anthropologists would tell you, was also the problem in ancient and middle-age Europe, hence the translation of various pre-Christian religious concepts and personalities into God's son, Mother of God, patron saints etc.). To those tribes, both Christianity and Islam would have forbidden a part of their world view in that was based on nature and ancestor worship. What happened in the case of the Spiritual Baptists was that they adopted the concept of baptism and the Holy Ghost from the Christian missionaries. Thomas adds: "mourning, talking in tongues, healing preaching, and teaching of the gospel according to the diverse gifts manifested by the Holy Ghost."
From their African ancestors, the Shouters inherited other practices, e.g. the incantation of traditional Christian hymns in a pattern that leads to shouting, or the hand-clapping and "shaking", which imply African participatory patterns. In comparison, physical manifestations during worship are very reduced in European Christian churches. The Vincentian Shakers were banned after an incident where the shaking and vibrations of a group had frightened the governor's horse so much that he fell off!
In Trinidad, the first recorded leaders of a syncretic African-Christian religious cult was Papa Nanee, who has been described earlier in the Digest as the founder of the Rada community in Belmont. He was also a healer, a role which is part and parcel of Black syncretic movements in the New World. The Shouters give their spiritual leaders the title "Teacher" or "Elder". Teacher Farnum was a leader in the late 19th century, who spread the Shouter Baptist faith from her little shack off the Tunapuna road. Other significant leaders were, according to Thomas, Pastor Bowman in Arouca, Pastor William Cox, his wife Irma and his son Douglas, who established a mission in 1904 in Tunapuna, and Pastor Theophilus Ottley, who was believed to have started a church in Laventille.
In 1987, Rev. Thomas wrote:
"The Shouter Baptists celebrate their Day of Emancipation for religious observances, and efforts should be made to commemorate this day during their lifetime."
This year, it will be the 50th anniversary of their Day of Emancipation, and Eudora Thomas' wish has been granted on a national basis.
Today, in world where car engines and blaring television sets seem to be the soundtrack of our lives, it seems strange that the Shouter Baptists had been banned for 34 years on grounds of the noise level they create during worship. When we put up our feet on Friday coming, let us think a minute about the reasons for their coming into existence as a church with distinct religious practices, and let us give acquiescence to the fact that their movement is, in fact, one that finds parallels everywhere in the New World.


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I saw so much that took my breath away during my tour of Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands it's difficult to know where to start when it comes to relating my best wildlife sightings.
But since raptors are among my favourite birds I have decided to begin with the condors I saw in Ecuador.
Condors are the largest flying land birds with a 10.5ft wingspan and the Andean condors I saw at the Zuleta Andean Condor Research Centre were very impressive.
This rehabilitation centre has some captive birds but also has a feeding station supporting wild birds. Although the condor is a national symbol for Ecuador, its future is seriously threatened due to habitat loss, trophy-hunting and secondary poisoning and there are only 60 condors left in the whole of Ecuador.
The Zuleta hacienda is dramatically situated in a deep forested valley high in the mountains and on the way there we saw a spectacled bear moving through the steep valley sides.
This Andean bear is named for the white markings on its short face which make it look as though it is wearing an outsized pair of spectacles.
I only spotted the bear because I was watching a condor through my binoculars as it swept down the valley and the condor flew straight past the bear – as if it was guiding me to it.
The bear was too far away to photograph but we stopped to watch it as it moved through the undergrowth before continuing on our way to the research centre.
As our car arrived at the feeding station, a female condor landed on a cliff, stopped for a while then flew off. Then a male chased her down the valley.
It was a fantastic welcome and I rushed to get my camera trained on the huge wings of these birds as they swept along the skyline.
I saw a total of five condors that day and watched them spellbound as they glided so gracefully against the skyline.
It was interesting to see how they lifted their huge bodies off the ground. A condor can weigh up to 25lbs.
As I watched I noticed one condor was using the updrafts at the ridge of the valley to gain lift off. I decided I would climb to the top of the ridge the following day on the off chance of a flyby.
I set off early but the pick-up that I had hired to take me there got stuck half way and I had to walk the rest of the way. It was only one kilometre but at an altitude of 10,000 feet and 30kgs of gear on my back it was hard work.
When I arrived at the viewing platform I felt confident it had been worth it. The view was spectacular.
But then, after one and a half hours of waiting, I saw a condor on the opposite side of the valley trying to lift on the updraft.
It was a young bird, about three years old, only just developing a white collar round its neck but yet to get the white band on its wings.
It wasn't long before an older bird joined it, also trying to find lift. It occurred to me that I had climbed to the wrong side of the valley especially when a third condor appeared on the far side of the valley.
I tried to remain positive. This was my only chance to photograph them on this trip as I was due to leave that afternoon.
Then at 12pm my guide suddenly let out: "Condor! Condor!" and we watched as a pair flying in tandem swept down the valley towards us.
This time they came right to us and pitched and turned in front of us. It was spectacular. I would have waited three days for that moment. I felt privileged to get it in just three hours!
And it wasn't over yet. Again and again the pair flew by, once at just 20m away. You could hear the wind as it rushed over its wings.
It is incredible how such huge birds can look so effortless in the air.
This was the dominant pair in the area and they seemed to be quite inquisitive about our presence. I saw them later on the opposite cliff top.
The stood close to one another, rubbing their heads together and preening in a touching courtship display.
Ecuador is big mountain country with big birds to match and I left feeling I had spent the day amongst giants.


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July 12, 2012
Badger Cull Court Decision Is A Devastating Blow for Badgers
HSI/UK's Bern Convention challenge now offers the last hope for badgers
Update: On 19 July 2012, the Badger Trust lodged an appeal in response the failure of the Judicial Review, as mentioned below, to block the badger cull in England.
Humane Society International/UK is extremely disappointed that the Badger Trust's Judicial Review proceedings have failed to halt the UK government's proposed English badger slaughter. HSI/UK's Bern Convention complaint is now the badgers' last hope.
HSI UK has issued the following response:
Mark Jones, veterinarian and Executive Director of Humane Society International/UK, said:
"Today's High Court judgement is a devastating blow for badgers and for the protection of our wildlife. HSI UK's complaint at the Council of Europe's Bern Convention may now be the badgers' last hope and we are determined to do everything we can to prevent this bloody and pointless slaughter. Right from the start, the cull has been robustly challenged by scientists and conservationists alike, and yet the government has ignored the evidence in favour of appeasing farmers and landowners with a license to kill. As signatories to Bern, the UK has an obligation to keep the badger population out of danger, an obligation that is undeniably abused by the plan to shoot and kill the vast majority of these magical animals in local areas. England's badgers are relying on Bern to succeed where the High Court has failed."
In January this year HSI/UK lodged an official complaint against the English badger cull with the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention) in Strasbourg. HSI/UK believes that the government's plans to license the culling of badgers clearly breach its obligations as a signatory to the Convention. The Bern Secretariat has confirmed it is not satisfied with the response it has received from DEFRA and it will give further consideration to the complaint later this year.
Badgers are listed in Appendix III of the Bern Convention and as such the government is committed to regulate their exploitation to keep populations 'out of danger.' HSI UK believes that the proposed slaughter of badgers constitutes a breach of Bern on three grounds:
- Killing badgers will not solve, or even significantly reduce, the problem of TB in cattle.
- The proposed slaughter will seriously disturb badger populations.
- The UK government is not doing enough to ensure that stringent cattle-based measures to control TB in cattle are imposed or enforced before resorting to wildlife extermination.
- Donate
Donate to HSI UK to support our efforts to save animals from cruelty and neglect Donate
- Sign Up
- Take Action


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7 Questions – Ben Southall, Winner of the 'Best Job in the World'12th June 2012 | Jackie Hutchings
I've just met Ben Southall as part of a trip to the Great Barrier Reef with Tourism Queensland and took the opportunity to ask him 7 Questions. Born and bred in the UK, Ben famously won the "Best Job in the "World" competition and is now the official Ambassador for Queensland Tourism.
1. What inspired you to enter the 'best job in the world' competition?
Having just returned from a year-long expedition around Africa, I had been back in the UK for ten days when the advert for the Best Job went viral. A couple of friends in different parts of the world emailed me the details and I thought "that'd certainly be interesting". With no job planned or in the pipeline, I had nothing to loose by putting together the one-minute YouTube video that was required. The idea of living on the Great Barrier Reef, travelling, diving and writing about it seemed too good to be true!
2. What's been your best experience ever since working and living in Queensland?
I'd say the experiences I've had that involve up-close-and-personal experiences with wildlife are always the ones to stand out. I kayaked up the Queensland coastline for four months and during that time came pretty close so some huge marine creatures. Watching a female Humpback Whale give birth was awe-inspiring. Seeing the young one take its first breath was something that'll stick with me forever.
3. What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?
Having travelled extensively throughout Africa over the last decade had exposed me to some pretty challenging situations. Whilst I was driving through Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, a woman walked out in front of my Land Rover without looking, I bumped her and after seeing a foreigner behind the wheel, dropped her shopping bags and started screaming. Within seconds, I was surrounded by a baying mob of locals all shaking the car and shouting at me. I had no option but to drive through them and up the central reservation to the nearest police station which was only just up the road luckily. As I arrived at the gates, the guard spotted the oncoming rabble and slammed the gates behind me, shot his gun in the air and calmed the mob down. My legs were shaking so much! It all ended pretty amicably. She had a hospital check up and nothing was bruised or broken and we all went on our way!
4. What's been your best dive ever and why?
One of my favourite dives had to be at Lady Elliot Island, on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. The visibility is always amazing and manta rays love to hang out there as the island is located at the edge of the continental shelf. I remember on one dive we started off with around ten appearing, then a close call with a big loggerhead turtle, a very friendly leopard shark and always in the background the sound of the humpback whales. Interactions with nature are amazing but this was just TOO cool!
5. What's your view on the proposed coal mining on the Queensland coast?
I'm not a scientific expert and therefore can only comment of the value of tourism to Queensland. Tourism is an industry worth $18billion to the state's economy and directly employs 221,000 Queenslanders. The GBR is a passion of mine, one of the great natural wonders of the world, widely acknowledged as one of the best managed and healthiest coral reef ecosystems in the world. The tourism experiences on offer in Queensland and particularly the GBR are best practice and many operators are independently certified by Ecotourism Australia.
6. What do you love most about Australia?
Simple. The fact I can live the vast majority of my life outdoors. The consistent daylight hours and beautiful weather mean that I don't have to lock myself indoors for five months every year!
7. It's 2017, what's happened?
I've just got back from driving across Asia and Europe to the UK after completing the second of my year long expeditions around the world. Sophee and I are expecting our first baby and intend heading back to Australia to have it! We left China after living there for two years working for a company promoting tourism in Australia. Something along those lines anyway!


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I honestly can't believe the week we've had here, but the news I must report. Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds have taken a left turn into Splitsville, USA after they tied the knot 2 years ago. Could it have anything to do with the fact that he was just named People Magazine's sexiest man alive? Hmmmm.... I really thought those kids were gonna make it.
The folks here in the ITTKWGMI offices would like to thank our first on the scene Senior Correspondent in Laguna Beach.


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|Chris Pook, Deputy Director of Green Economy, at the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
Energy efficiency was affirmed by Government officials from two departments on Tuesday as being by far the cheapest way of meeting the UK's climate commitments and decarbonising its electricity grid.
Speaking at The Energy Event at Birmingham's NEC, Trevor Hutchings, Head of Strategy and Delivery, DECC, and Chris Pook, Deputy Director of Green Economy, at the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), both referred to sources of research, including studies by McKinsey, which show that most measures to reduce energy usage have negative costs, compared to building more energy generation plant or carbon capture and storage.
Trevor Hutchings said that DECC's Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO) is still compiling its evidence base, since its formation earlier this year, and will publish its recommendations in the autumn.
The key challenges, he said, were how to drive innovation to cut costs of both manufacturing and installation, and how to speed up installation.
Thinking up ways of getting the public onside and engendering behaviour change to make it the social norm for people to save energy, is also part of EEDO's work.
Hutchings said that he regarded it as an early success that the UK had played its part in the negotiation of the Energy Efficiency Directive.
This deal, struck in June, was formally adopted by the European Parliament yesterday in Brussels. It clears the way for the Directive to enter force by the end of October, and sets a voluntary 20% energy saving target for the whole of Europe.
However, earlier this month, Greg Barker cast doubt on whether the UK had really signed up to a 20% target, when he responded to a Parliamentary question from Zac Goldsmith by saying that the target "applies to the European Union as a whole. The UK does not currently have a target to reduce primary energy consumption by 20% by 2020 relative to business as usual.
"Under article 3 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the UK is required notify the European Commission of its indicative target for final energy consumption in 2020 by 30 April 2013."
EEDO will play its part in overlooking the implementation of the Directive, Hutchings said.
The Coalition for Energy Savings believes that the Directive is only a first step towards making energy efficiency the prime consideration for European energy policy. It believes it can secure at least 15% energy savings by 2020, up from the currently projected 10%.
"It is the first time that the EU has established binding annual energy savings targets, combined with a broad range of new energy efficiency improvement requirements covering the whole energy system, from energy generation and distribution to consumption and building renovation," said Stefan Scheuer, Secretary General of the Coalition for Energy Savings.
Speaking for BIS, Chris Pook said that the department had signed up to the carbon budgets set by the Committee on Climate Change. "It aims underpin our policies, but determining those policies is complex," he admitted. "Electricity market reform, the Green Deal, and the carbon price floor, are all problematic."
The division in Government over energy policy is even more apparent since the Cabinet reshuffle, with Vince Cable's speech on his industrial strategy yesterday overshadowed by calls from business leaders to get the rest of the Cabinet on his side, if he wants it to be a success.
At this week's Energy Event, energy-intensive users expressed delight at the recent ministerial appointments. Andrew Bainbridge, Chairman of the Major Energy Users' Council, said that at last they might "see some sense" in government energy policy. These users are worried that a planned carbon price floor will raise their electricity costs above those of European rivals.
The MEUC is encouraging its members to take on board energy efficiency, however, and launched yesterday the third in a series of workbooks linked to training sessions, called How To Accelerate Your Energy Efficiency Training Programme, written by Dr John Ryan.


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[Listen] Magnetic Man - "Perfect Stranger" Feat. Katy B
First, this awesome group of producers (Skream, Artwork and Banga) brought us their dope single "I Need Air" and now they're back with another joint titled "Perfect Stranger" featuring Katy B. The track has already hit radio airwaves in the UK and is set to appear on the groups upcoming self titled album when it drops this October. Check it out below!
Magnetic Man - "Perfect Stranger" Feat. Katy B by Some Kind of Awesome


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Welcome to all! Lurkers, Ebay customers, and fellow bloggers are all appreciated here.
This giveaway is open to anyone who happens to stop in to read, but especially for all of you who are on my bloglist as followers because you have kept me entertained for the past 4 1/2 months since I've started my blog. You've taken me in, welcomed me and encouraged me with my work and I've very much appreciated that support....and your business!
I've said it before and I'll say it again; This is absolutely my favorite penny rug to make.
I've made hundreds of different penny rugs over the years, so it really is quite a compliment to the designer. (Click on the pictures to see all the detailed sewing on this tablerunner)
For me, since I design my own patterns, it's fun to take a break from being in penny rug designing mode and just make a penny rug from the instructions in front of me ...designed by someone else. This design always challenges me because of it's difficulty but then rewards me when it's finished because of it's beauty. So this is the penny rug that I will be giving away. It measures 12" x 28 1/2". All but the black wool background is my own hand-dyed or overdyed wool. The backing is a nice homespun cotton in a plaid that blends nicely with the colors of the wool. I've attached my owned signed and dated label on the back too.
As well as this popular Wool Blueberry Pinkeep listed. Please take a click over to visit my Ebay listings. It's a slooooow month for wool items so your business is much appreciated!


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One hundred million uncleared landmines lie in the fields and alongside the roads and footpaths of one-third of the countries in the developing world. Claiming over 500 victims a week, landmines are weapons of mass destruction in slow motion.
Firstly the gunpowder used was hygroscopic,
absorbing water from the air consequently loosing its explosive ability,
and secondly fougasses could only be detonated by lighting a powder
trail, which was subject to the effects of rain, wind and moisture.
The earliest description of a pressure-operated landmine is provided by the German military historian H. Frieherr von Flemming in 1726. In his book he describes what a fladdermine (literally meaning a flying mine) looked like. It consisted of a ceramic container with glass and metal fragments embedded in the clay containing 0.90 kilos (2 lb) of gunpowder, buried at a shallow depth in the glacis of a fortress and actuated by someone stepping on it or touching a low strung wire. Although this was the first reported pressure-operated mine, it was not until the second half of the 19th century that these mines became a regular feature of warfare.
The development of the electrical initiation system in the second half of the 19th century greatly improved the utility of the fougasse by allowing reliable and instant firing. The Russians pioneered the use of electricially-initiated fougasse when it was used during the siege of Silistria 1828 1829 but at the time the technical details were kept top secret and not disseminated.
Even at that early date, the use of mines raised strong feelings, with many judging them as "unworthy and improper to the conduct of war". But by the end of the war these mines (or torpedoes as both land and water mines were termed during this period) had sunk 29 ships and damaged 14 others. The ability of a cheap mine to destroy an expensive warship was an irresistible economic argument for its deployment.
During the winter of 1862-63 Rains worked on designing a primer that would explode from the slightest pressure. After losing the forefinger and thumb of his right hand, he decided to settle for a pressure of 3.1 kilos (7lb). By 1863 his mines were being widely and successfully used throughout that period. The Civil war experience demonstrated the longevity of mines in the ground. In 1960 five landmines with Rains fuses were recovered nearly one hundred years after they were laid with the powder still quite dangerous.
Mines only began to appear on a large scale in 1918, as an answer to another new piece of weaponry; the assault tanks. To combat the growing number and effectiveness of American tanks, the German needed to design new weapons. Initially they used artillery shells dug into the ground and covered with wooden boards, to give it a wide pressure plate. But these improvised mines proved to be unreliable and time consuming to lay. In early 1918 the produced a mine that could effectively be used against tanks.
Early in the war tripwire activated mines were laced within wire entanglements but because they tended to be as dangerous for both sides this type of mine laying was phased out. Throughout the war anti-personnel mines and booby traps were laid in abandoned positions in anticipation of an enemy advance. AP mines were also adapted from artillery shells, although the fuses used were manufactured specially for use in this role. The shells were buried vertically with the fuse level to the ground. Such a device would mean certain death for anyone who detonated it and for those close by. The German's used several different types of mines and improvised booby traps during the conflict. The South Africans fighting in the German controlled South-west of Africa were so outraged by the employment of these devices that on several occasions soldiers had to be restrained from killing prisoners who had defended their positions with mines, especially the pipe mine.
A pipe mine was made by packing dynamite into a T piece of ordinary 0.63 cm (1/4 inch) water pipe. A glass tube in the cross piece held the detonating compound. A thin steel rod in the long part of the T had one end resting on the glass tube; the other projected about a 1.27 cm (1/2 inch) above the ground. When stepped on the rod broke the glass tube and detonated the charge. This was one of the first mines designed to maim rather than to kill outright.
Mines as we know them today were actually developed during World War II (1939 45) and put to wide use, principally as an anti-tank device. These mines were large, clumsy and easily redeployed by the opposing forces - and often re-laid against the tanks belonging to the original mine layers. For this reason the smaller anti-personnel mine (AP) was developed, designed to prevent enemy soldiers from removing the anti-tank mines (AT). At this time its use was, on the whole, controlled, targeted at soldiers and linked to specific military objectives.
The Germans entered WW II with just 2 types of anti-tank mines and one anti-personnel mine. By the end of the war they had manufactured 16 different types of anti-tank mines, 10 different types of anti-personnel mines and employed many different types of booby traps (improvised devices). From 1942 they fought almost constantly on the defensive, placing increasing importance on mines as a weapon of attrition and produced 'almost a new arm of warfare'.
In 1940 French troops encountered a new device that leapt out of the ground before detonating. It was nicknamed the 'silent soldier'. The Schrapnellmine was the size of a beer can and was activated by a three-pronged push device or a pull igniter attached to a tripwire. When fired a cannister was launched about one meter in the air by a primary charge before it was detonated by a secondary charge scattering 350 steel balls out to a range of 150 m.
Towards the end of 1944 American soldiers first came across non-metal mines in Lorraine, France. In a single minefield they found 12,000 mines made out of bakelite plastic or wood, which made them not as easy to locate with metal detectors. By 1945 the US Army recorded that mines were responsible for 2.5% of fatalities in combat and for 20.7% of tank losses.
During the WW II hostilities there were many large minefields put down in North Africa to act as impassable barriers. Many of these locations were either unmapped, markers were lost, or sand drifts have tossed them about. Today most of these minefields remain in these hazardous deserts. In Europe landmines were not used extensively until the end of the war, when both sides of the conflict were involved in the dispersement of mines. Minefield clearance is still being undertaken today in places like Holland, while in France land is still claimed by landmines.
Since World War II the proliferation, production, sale and trade in landmines has run out of control. The face of the earth has been scared with more than 400 million mines since 1939, with 65 million of these laid in the last 20 years.
During the Korean War (1951 1953) nearly ten different countries relied on anti-personnel mines for defence The fields were so thick with AP landmines they were a constant threat even to the faction who laid them. There are accounts of armies losing too many troops during marches through the feared, uncharted minefields.
The Vietnam/American War (1958 1968) saw entire villages surrounded by landmines, which were hand laid or dropped from the air. Nobody kept full records of the mines laid and it was almost impossible to do so for the mines dropped from aircraft. Many of these mines still posing threats to local people decades later.
Angola (1975 present day) is considered to be the most mine-infested country in Africa. Mine-laying was done from 1975 to the present with little effort to record and map the minefields. Roads leading into the heart of the country were heavily mined and major towns were surrounded by AP and AT mines.
In Mozambique many of the different factions were responsible for the mine-laying at different times and in different places with all the minefields unmarked or mapped. In early 2000 Mozambique and surrounding countries experienced some of the worst flooding in living memory. These floods caused all the mines to move and consequently pose new threats to the local population.
In Cambodia, 1978 present day, all the warring factions used mines. Most of the mine laying occurring in the North Western provinces by Pol Pots Khmer Rouge and targeted the civilian populations. Humanitarian groups have demined areas just to have them re-mined again. Although the monthly injury rate has fallen in the past years from 300 victims per month down to 100 victims per month, Cambodia has more amputees per capita of the population than any other country in the world.
Afghanistan is one of the three most heavily mined countries in the world. Most of the land was mined from 1979 to the present day and is especially heavy along borders with Iran and Pakistan. Over 30 different types of mines have been found there.
It is estimated that each day over 70 people are killed or injured by anti-personnel mines.
Today there are an estimated 110 million anti-personnel mines in the ground around the world and another 100 million in stockpiles. Between 5 and 10 million more mines are produced each year.
Mines recognise no cease-fire and long after the fighting has stopped they continue to maim and kill.
The stark reality is that there are more mines deployed every day than are removed by deminers. It can cost 100 times more to remove one mine than the cost to produce one. The cheapest mines can be acquired for a few dollars, while the United Nations has estimated clearance costs for one landmine can be as much as $1,000 US. More than 50 countries have manufactured about 200 million anti-personnel landmines in the last 25 years.
Land mines are containers of explosive material with detonating systems that are triggered by contact with a person or vehicle. They are designed to incapacitate that person or vehicle through damage caused by an explosive blast and metal fragments. Military advantages are gained from taking out of action another 3 abled bodied soldiers to carry the injured one, as well as lowering the moral of the enemy as they forced to listen to their comrade/s screaming in pain.
What makes anti-personnel mines so abhorrent is the fact that they are designed to maim and not to kill, as well as the indiscriminate nature it selects victims. Anti-personnel mines cannot distinguish between the footfall of a soldier and that of a child. Unlike bullets and artillery shells, mines are not aimed or fired, instead they lie dormant until a person or animal triggers their detonating mechanism.
Half of all people die from a landmine injury,
Mines are seldom found by themselves and are often laid in triangular groups of 3 or more. If a mine is laid properly it should be impossible to tell it is there. Most minefields are unmarked and so there are often few clues to show that it is a mined area. An unsuspecting passer-by may have no idea that there is a danger until it is too late.
Warring groups use landmines to defend positions as it provides a first warning signal of advancing enemy. Land mines are often used to prevent people and vehicles from moving through certain areas, and to channel them onto certain routes from which they can not deviate. The most common use of mines in civil conflicts is to protect economic and social targets such as bridges, dams, oil, gas and water pipelines and railroad stations from attack or sabotage by the enemy.
Increasingly over the last two decades, land mines have come to serve not only as military weapons but also as political weapons. Many parties to civil conflicts have sought to instill a sense of dissatisfaction and chaos in the civilian population, based on the perceived impotence of the government to protect them from mine casualties.
Large tracts of agricultural land are rendered unusable, wreaking environmental and economic devastation. Refugees returning to rebuild their lives in war-ravaged countries face the deadly landmine obstacle. Landmines are now a daily threat in Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Somalia, and dozens of other countries.In addition, by laying mines in agricultural fields and plantations, around irrigation systems, in forests necessary for firewood, and in villages themselves, groups of combatants have succeeded in driving large numbers of civilians out of rural areas and into large cities and towns, adding enormously to the social and economic burdens of those in control of the cities. In some places, such as Cambodia mines are even used by civilians as a way to make a living; scrap metal collection; fishing and to protect their property.
There are estimated to be around 110 million anti-personnel mines in the ground and another 100 million stockpiled around the world. More than 350 different types of anti-personnel mines exist. Even if no more mines are ever laid, they will continue to maim and kill for many years to come. Bold steps must be taken now to save future generations of innocent civilians. If sufficient funds are provided, deminers from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines ICBL say that mine clearance necessary to restore daily life to near normal levels may be achieved in years, and not the decades once predicted.Worst Affected Countries:-
According to the information gathered from the extensive Landmine Monitoring Project by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the following countries suffer from some level of mine contamination.
Africa (26 countries)
Americas (9 countries)
Asia-Pacific (17 countries)
Europe and Central Asia, (25 countries)
Middle East and North Africa, (16 countries)
Landmine Production Human Rights Watch/Arms Project has identified almost 100 companies and government agencies in 48 countries that have manufactured more than 340 types of anti-personnel landmines in recent decades. They include more than one dozen countries and more than 150 landmines not previously publicly identified anywhere. The available evidence suggests that China, Italy and the former Soviet Union were probably the largest producers and exporters of anti-personnel mines in recent years, though not necessarily in that order. Though official data would seem to place the United States far behind, field reports from mine clearance groups suggest that the U.S. must have been in the front ranks in the not-too-distant past. HRW/Arms Project estimates that manufacturers have probably produced an average of between five and ten million anti-personnel landmines per year in recent decades, roughly ten times the production volume previously reported in the trade press.
Combined global production of anti-personnel mines (excluding delivery systems and accessories) is probably worth at least $50 million to $200 million annually. In addition to the three mentioned above, the following countries (not ranked by their order) have also been among the world's larger producers in recent years:
Eastern Europe
Western Europe
Although China, Italy and the former USSR rate as the top exporters, many developing nations are becoming increasingly active in landmine production and trade. A recent study by the US Defence Intelligence Agency obtained under the Freedom of Information Act names China, Egypt, Pakistan and South Africa as new "ambitious marketers of landmine munitions deeply involved in high technology proliferation." Other countries which probably rate as significant exporters of anti-personnel landmines in recent years include Belgium, Chile, Greece, Israel, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and the former Yugoslavia. The United States was once a significant exporter. Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that the United States has exported more than 4.3 million anti-personnel mines since 1969. In the past decade, however, the US exported about 150,000 anti-personnel mines.
INTERNATIONAL LAWThe 1983 Landmines Protocol is deeply flawed and has been routinely ignored by nearly all landmine users. The complete failure of the Landmines Protocol to control landmine use, its failure to conform to the requirements imposed by customary humanitarian law, and the extreme devastation that has resulted from mine warfare, necessitates a ban on the production, stockpiling trade and use of landmines.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, who provides an introduction to "Landmines: A Deadly Legacy," successfully pressed the US Congress to enact a legal ban on the export of landmines in 1992. A three-year extension of that ban has just passed the Senate. Proper application of customary international humanitarian law already requires a ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines.
Furthermore, the basis in disarmament law for a ban on indiscriminate weapons that cause unconscionable harm provides a strong foundation for prohibiting production, stockpiling and transfer of landmines.
In the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) successfully lobbied for the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on their Destruction (1997 Mine Ban Treaty) By September 1998, 40 countries had ratified the treaty, thus making the treaty international law on 1 March 1999. Since the treaty became law, countries may no longer sign it, they must accede. Those countries which have already signed, must still ratify in order to be fully bound by the ban provisions.
Throughout history many military leaders have written negatively about the way landmines are used and their results.
it was not war but murder
The rebels have been guilty
of the most murderous and barbarous conduct in placing torpedoes within
abandoned works near wells and springs; near flagstaffs, magazines, telegraph
offices, in carpet bags, barrels of flour, etc
I shall make the prisoners
remove them at their peril.
(neither a) proper nor
effective method of war.
Mine warfare is an unpleasant
business. It is foreign to our character to set traps cold bloodedly,
or to kill a man a fortnight in arrears so to speak, when you yourself
are out of harms way; and most British soldiers who have experienced
it will own a rooted dislike of mine warfare in principle and in practice.
There is too, something fairly derogatory about becoming a casualty from
a mine; as a weapon of war it lacks the distinction of a shell or bullet.
If one has to lose a foot (or ones life) it seems rather more respectable
somehow for it to be done by a shell rather than a mine.
Croll, Mike, History of Landmines. Pen and Sword Books, November 1998.
International Campaign to Ban Landmines website, http://www.icbl.org/
Oneworld.net, Landmines: Background Information website, http://www.oneworld.org/guides/landmines/index.html
Goliath: Landmines, the Invisible Goliath, Paul Hubbard & Joseph Wehland July, 1997, http://library.thinkquest.org/11051/history.htm


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4 Google Ad Tweaks To Optimize Local Search Marketing
Generating relevant leads within your local area and target demographic usually involves a combination of organic SEO, local search marketing, social media, and paid search campaigns like Google Adwords. Within this broad-based approach, there are a few easy tweaks you get make the most of your Google ad spend that will optimize your local search marketing campaigns. For the most part we recommend using Google Adwords Express but for those trying to get a little fancy this article is for you. Google Adwords can really be as sophisticated and targeted as you make them, depending on your time restraints. These 4 tricks will help you get the ball rolling towards optimal results for localizing your ads, and it will only take only a few minutes, enjoy:
These 4 tweaks will help you get the ball rolling to optimize local search marketing results with Google Adwords, enjoy:
Allotting a greater percentage of your advertising budget to specific geographic areas is easy, free, and effective. Rather than increasing your budget, try spending it more wisely with regard to local business and commerce. To do so, go to the Settings tab of your campaign and click on Locations. Click through the states and cities and select the ones in which you'd like to focus your budget. You can increase this by whatever percent you'd like. Most people begin with a 10% increase, but if you're focused exclusively on local business you might want to start even higher.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title="2. Add a Location Extension" icon_type="selector" list_icon="Defaults-circle-arrow-right"]
Google Ads Extensions are great free features that make your ads bigger and more comprehensive. This is great because it provides more detail, but also because it dominates the field of view for the audience. Adding a location extension will bring up your location on Google maps on the righthand side of your ad. This is great for highlighting location and aligning yourself within the neighborhood businesses. To do so, click on the Ad Extensions tab, select Location in the View field, and create one or more locations for your business.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title="3. Add a Call Extension" icon_type="selector" list_icon="Defaults-circle-arrow-right"]
Within the same field of options for Ad Extensions, you'll find Call Extensions. This is simply a telephone number listing under your ad. This listing is great because it allows potential customers to get in touch with you directly, without ever clicking through to your website (or costing you any money for an ad click). If you're very focused on local business, this will also give you an opportunity to show off you area code. Those looking for something close will recognize the area code and know immediately that you are local. Note: if the area code isn't important, you can allow Google to provide a Google talk number that will trackable in their analytics.[/info_list_item][info_list_item list_title="4. Language and Location Restrictions" icon_type="selector" list_icon="Defaults-circle-arrow-right"]
Under your settings tabs, be sure you are restricting your ads from being shown outside of your target city, region, or country. You should also make sure that your ads are only being shown to those who are using the internet in English (unless of course your website is not written in English). This is key to saving your advertising dollars for those for whom your ads are relevant.[/info_list_item][/info_list][bsf-info-box icon_type="custom" icon_img="11455″ img_width="30″ icon_size="32″ icon_color="#333333″ icon_style="none" icon_color_bg="#ffffff" icon_color_border="#333333″ icon_border_size="1″ icon_border_radius="500″ icon_border_spacing="50″ icon_animation="pulse" title="We can help manage and Optimize Your Local Search Marketing Campaigns like Google Adwords" read_more="title" link="url:http%3A%2F%2Fsmbengine.com%2Fquote-for-services%2F|title:Local%20Search%20Marketing%20Quote|" read_text="Read More" hover_effect="style_2″ pos="left"]
Local Search Marketing can greatly benefit from optimized Google Adwords accounts using the methods mentioned above and other strategies. Contact us to learn how we can manage all this for you.[/bsf-info-box]


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About Me
My bio is a story like Forrest Gump, I've done so much in the time that I've been on this earth. Stories that are life shattering and some times unbelievable. However im one who has learned from my past mistakes and errors, choices and decisions, b/c of my last choices and decisions, gifted me 60 month sentence from the ones I love most.
I was sent to the b.o.p for those who don't know that is the Bureau of Prisons. I've had all the big cars,women,money vacations,champagne and even great opportunities and I would have given it all up for my FREEDOM if it were possible.
Now that i have been released on this aug 4th 2010 back into society with a new mind set, I plan on making a big difference in my self image. You find out how many friends You have when your locked behind bars. Still I blame no one but myself for the bad choices and decisions that I made. One of the most IMPORTANT things I learned is that Life Is Not a Practice Session.
The time for practice is over. Practice time was while we were growing up. Practice time was while we were in school. We are now full participants in the game of life and our opponent is human mediocrity. In the absence of intense and intelligent human activity, the weeds of failure will move in to destroy the small amount of progress that our efforts have created. We cannot afford to wait for the "two minute warning." We cannot afford to wait until the last few minutes to discover that our game plan wasn't working. And we cannot afford to wait until the last few ticks of the clock to become intense about life's opportunities.
We must challenge ourselves right now with a new level of thinking, and drive ourselves toward a new level of achievement.
We must impose upon ourselves a new discipline, and develop a new attitude about life that motivates us and inspires others.
We cannot keep waiting for a foolproof opportunity to come by before we force ourselves to get serious. We must identify our opportunity and embrace it. We must breathe our talent and our vigor and our new sense of urgency into its existence and discover all that we can do.
We cannot allow ourselves to dwell upon the risks in every opportunity. Instead, we must seize the opportunity that is inherent in every risk, knowing that we must sometimes run the risk of going too far in order to discover how far we really must go.
And that is how my mind set is at this time. So here is something for those who want to try something new check out Cash King Programs.


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Lost Surfboards just signed 24 year old Brasilian surfer Tiaguinho Arraes to their team and dropped this rad welcome edit to introduce him. The Rio de Janeiro native like beer, punk rock, and girls, and hates contests. Sounds like a perfect combination to us.Profile Tiaguinho Arraes,
This video was submitted by magarao.


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500 ml
Code: BET0021 | Over 20 pcs in stock
GLS - 4 days to Helsinki, Turku, Tampere
Monday 25.2.2019
Product description Bettina Barty Red Line
The Bettina Barty Red Line body lotion will give your skin the hydration it needs and make it velvety soft.
- hydrates skin deeply
- leaves the skin soft and smooth
- has a pleasant fragrance
How to use:
Apply to clean skin and massage in gently until completely absorbed.
- Skin type
- all skin types


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Disgruntled veteran lights himself on fire to protest VA at Georgia Capitol
An Air Force veteran Tuesday set himself on fire while "wearing a vest lined with fireworks and flammable devices," officials said in an email.
The 58-year old man from Mableton, Ga., had been "disgruntled" with the Veteran Administration system, according to Commissioner Mark McDonough of the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
A Georgia State Patrol trooper quickly put out the fire with an extinguisher, and the man was transported to a hospital, McDonough said. About 85 percent to 90 percent of the man's body has been burned, according to local reports. Authorities did not identify the man or provide details on why he was unhappy with VA but said he was able to speak during transport.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the man parked his Nissan Sentra on side of the Capitol after 10:30 a.m., walked toward the west entrance of the building and lit himself on fire.
The man "doused himself with some kind of flammable liquid," GSP spokesman Mark Perry said.
Perry told reporters the vet did not indicate he had additional explosives but officials chose to check the area "out of an abundance of caution."
Officials said they do not believe anyone else was injured.
Nearby streets have been closed off, and judiciary buildings and the Capitol have been evacuated, according to a local public radio station. Children at the Central Presbyterian church daycare were moved by workers to a nearby church, according to AJC.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Atlanta Police are on scene alongside the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who inspected the car using K-9s and a robot, according to local reports.
Officials told local news there was a sign in the windshield with a phone number on it. "Please don't call that number," Perry told AJC, fearing it might be connected to another device.
The incident occurred in the middle of a news conference about a "hands-free" driving law set to go into effect July 1.
Gov. Nathan Deal, R, was not at the Capitol during the fire, according to his spokesman.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs told The Post, it cannot "comment on the specifics of this Veteran's case due to patient privacy laws, the department is ensuring he receives the VA care that he needs."
Officials said they are waiting to notify family members before releasing the name.
Erin B. Logan covers breaking and national news for The Washington Post. She has previously interned for the nonprofit Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, National Public Radio, Blavity and Nashville Public Radio.


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The peak season for English peas is short, says Jacques Qualin, chef de cuisine of The Phoenician's J&G Steakhouse. "At the beginning of spring, the peas are really tender and sweet." So, once in a while – not every year – Qualin puts sweet pea soup on the menu for about 6 to 8 weeks to take advantage of the season.
Qualin likes this dish because it's fragrant and fresh and "you get so much flavor from the peas," he says. "It's full of flavor, but it's so simple."
For those who want to try the recipe at home, but don't have a whipped cream charger, you can buy one at Sur La Table and other kitchen stores. Check out your local farmers' market to find fresh English peas.
Sweet Pea Soup with Parmesan Foam
2 cups onions, small dice
1 tbsp. garlic, sliced thin
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. salt
1 ½ quarts water
1 ½ lbs. fresh sweet peas, blanched in salt water (1 ½ tsp. salt)
In a rondeau pan (or sauce pan), combine oil, onions, garlic and salt and sweat covered until totally soft. Add the water and bring to a boil. Let boil for one minute, and then cool over ice until very cold. In a blender, puree until totally smooth with blanched peas.
Parmesan foam
½ qt. heavy cream
6 oz. Parmesan, shredded finely in food processor
1 Thai chili, split
½ bunch thyme, tied with a string
2 tsp. salt
Combine all in a pot and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and then let steep for 15 minutes. Remove thyme, then puree cream in a blender until smooth. Pass through a chinois (fine strainer), season with salt and load into whipped cream charger with 2 N2O cartridges. If cold, warm until just above body temperature before loading. Must be served warm.
Sourdough croutons
Sliced sourdough bread
Olive oil
Cut bread into ½ inch dice and sauté in olive oil. Season immediately with salt.
To serve
Put a generous spoonful of croutons in the center of a warm bowl and cover the surface of the bowl with the Parmesan foam. Heat the soup and aerate. Pour into bowl.


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Back to square 1
I got the results from the latest biopsies. No abnormalities found, so clearly no cœliac disease, no indication of anything else either. The physician explained that most of the time Irritable Bowel Syndrome does not have any identifiable explanation, so there we are.
2 comments:
- thnidu said...
Oh, good. It would be even better if your bowels got more even-tempered.
- 07:15
- kai said...
Actually, a tip the physician gave me was to use those tourist tummy pills. Have been experimenting with them for a couple of weeks. Will let it go for a few more months before I decide they work. Promising so far, though.
- 13:47
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Did the environmental movement start in the suburbs? (Book Review)
We get a lot of books sent to us for review and don't get to all of them. I assign them to my students at Ryerson School of Interior Design, and have built a website with hundreds of reviews. All follow a format of introduction, discussion of the relevance to sustainable design, and opinion. This year there have been some wonderfully written reviews of books that I had not read but now will; On Earth Day it seemed appropriate to publish this one by Emily Wunder.
Crabgrass Crucible – Suburban Nature & the Rise of Environmentalism in Twentieth-Century AmericaChristopher C. Sellers
While there is no shortage of literature detailing the socio-political implications of suburban sprawl, Christopher Sellers' work is unique in drawing a positive correlation between suburbia, and a most unlikely concept – environmentalism. In his most recent work, and building on his previous works detailing the political intricacies of environmental protectionism, Sellers suggests that it was the political and social outrage of the suburban community in the 1950's and 1960's that gave rise to the modern environmentalist framework. Sellers argues that contemporary environmentalism can trace its roots to the preservationist attitudes of American suburbanites attempting to protect and preserve their natural world, however constructed it may have been. Beginning in the post-war era, Sellers details changing demographics as individuals migrated from city-centers to a liminal boundary between the alienating rural and the increasingly industrialized urban. It is here, he claims, that affluent individuals found ways to integrate with nature through a paradoxical synthesis of domestication and preservation.Partly anecdotal and partly social psychology, Sellers' work succeeds at establishing an organic, and admittedly compelling, grass-roots beginning to concerns about nature preservation. He examines specific cases that demonstrate the powerful sentiments amongst suburbanites to protect their constructed habitats against the encroaching threats of both the urban industrial and the rural agricultural. From lobbying against the use of DDT to instituting "fresh air" initiatives to combat against smog, suburbia is presented, by Sellers, as the last outpost of naturalism. Complementing his work is a plethora of quantitative data in the forms of charts, maps and statistics demonstrating how the social milieu of suburban environmentalism is reflected in the demography.
The importance of Sellers' work cannot be overstated. As designers it is imperative for us to recognize not only the practical implications of Sellers' claims but also, and perhaps more importantly, recognize how Crabgrass Crucible can change how we, as designers, think about the spaces that we create, and those we create them for. Practically speaking, Sellers offers insight into contemporary environmentalism and the concerns that they may harbour. This may prove hugely valuable as we attempt to conceptualize ways to incorporate not only sustainability, but also integration between the organic and the inorganic, into our design philosophies. I would suggest that Sellers goes further, however, and suggests that it is not sufficient to create merely a contrived sense of nature, true sustainability must take into account the direct and indirect consequences of a designed space, from inception to completion. Sellers' concretizes this attitude with his discussion of DDT and hexavalent chromium, invisible but highly impactful byproducts of careless industry.
The ability of Sellers' work to change social attitudes towards nature is also important. He demonstrates that those newly constructed suburbanites were intent of defending what they saw as the last vestige of civilized nature – their environmental vigour came from a newly established sense of ownership in their "crabgrass" habitats. This shows that functional space, whether a residence or office building, can allow people to achieve this same kind of attitude towards the natural world, a sense of invested reciprocity in its defense and protection. As designers we cannot ignore the long-lasting, and often unforeseen consequences of our work and the powerful psychological attitudes they may illicit, from nostalgia to unity with nature – both sources of power in Sellers' work.
What is so uniquely insightful about Sellers' work is precisely what makes it such an enjoyable read, its ability to trace a hugely important socio-political movement like environmentalism to its grass-roots origins through anecdotes and organic concerns of real people. I think it is important to recognize that the social zeitgeist, even amongst the social elite, can have a monumental impact on social and political action…that resonates and is adopted at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum. In as many ways as Sellers' work is humbling it also challenges presumptions about the origins of one of the most important geopolitical issues facing humanity today – preservation of the natural world and regulating threats against it.
Most who confront this work, I suggest, would be equally surprised to learn of the imperative role suburbanites played in planting the seeds of modern environmental thought. Although, in reflection, it is precisely here, in the transitional space between the untamed natural and the highly industrialized urban that such a movement would find its greatest foothold for positive action. As a designer, I commend Sellers' work for demonstrating that design can operate in much the same "space" as suburbia did in the 1950's, blurring the lines between raw materials and the natural world while incorporating, at a fundamental level, sustainability as a driving imperative. We, as designers, can create spaces that remind individuals of the natural world that we occupy and Sellers provides the paradigmatic framework from which designers can create in, rather than on, the natural world.
More at Crabgrass Crucible
Crabgrass Crucible – Suburban Nature & the Rise of Environmentalism in Twentieth-Century America
Christopher C. Sellers
2012 University of North Carolina Press
Emily Wunder is completing her third year at Ryerson School of Interior Design. She hails from St. Mary's, Ontario.


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|This is from our visit in Jan 2013.
This weekend we got to sit around and visit. We all went out for a little bit. I just hated that my husband missed almost all of it because he was working. Next time we'll have to do some planning so we all can visit. I foresee a trip in my near future.
I cooked up a storm just prior to their arrival. Saturday we had pulled pork sandwiches, pasta salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and strawberry pie. On Sunday I made beer-brined chicken, salad, and corn on the cob. Diane surprised me with a homemade carrot cake, which is my favorite. It was a great weekend filled with laughter and food. What a way to end the month of May.
I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.
~ Farmgirl


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Do we owe psychotherapists something more than noble lies and fairy tales in our translations of fMRI results?
The press release below was placed on the web by the University of Ottawa and refers to an article published in PLOS One. As I have noted in blog posts here and here, the PLOS One article is quite bad. But the press release is worse, and introduces a whole new level of distortion.
Comparing the article to the press release or my blog posts. You can get a sense of the nonsense in the press release. I will summarize the contradiction between these sources in my comments interspersed with excerpts from the press release.
True love creates resilience, turning off fear and pain in the brain
OTTAWA, May 1, 2014— New research led by Dr. Sue Johnson of the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology confirms that those with a truly felt loving connection to their partner seem to be calmer, stronger and more resilient to stress and threat.
In the first part of the study, which was recently published in PLOS ONE, couples learned how to reach for their lover and ask for what they need in a "Hold Me Tight" conversation. They learned the secrets of emotional responsiveness and connection.
If you go to the PLOS one article, you will see no mention of any "Hold Me Tight" conversation, only that couples who were selected for mild to moderate marital dissatisfaction received couples therapy. The therapy was of longer duration than typically been provided in previous studies of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). At completion, the average couple was still experiencing mild to moderate marital dissatisfaction and would still have qualified for entry into the study.
So, for a start, these were not couples feeling "loving connections to each other," to the extent that the authors assume their quantitative measures are valid.
The second part of the study, summarized here, focused on how this also changed their brain. It compared the activation of the female partner's brain when a signal was given that an electric shock was pending before and after the "Hold Me Tight" conversation.
The phrase "changed the brain" is vague and potentially misleading. It gives the false impression that there is some evidence that differences in fMRI results represent enduring, structural change, rather than transient, ambiguous changes in activity. Changes in brain activity does not equal change in structure of the brain. It seems analogous to suggesting that the air-conditioning coming on rearranged a room, beyond cooling it down temporarily. Or that viewing a TV soap opera changes the brain because it is detectable with fMRI.
Before the "Hold Me Tight" conversation, even when the female partner was holding her mate's hand, her brain became very activated by the threat of the shock — especially in areas such as the inferior frontal gyrus, anterior insula, frontal operculum and orbitofrontal cortex, where fear is controlled. These are all areas that process alarm responses. Subjects also rated the shock as painful under all conditions.
Let us ignore that there is no indication in the PLOS One paper of a "Hold Me Tight" conversation. It is a gross exaggeration to say that the brain "became very activated." We have to ask "Compared to what?" Activation of the brain is relative, and as the neuroscientist Neurocritic pointed out, there is no relevant comparison condition beyond partner versus stranger versus being alone. Nothing to compare them to and such fMRI data do not have anything equivalent to the standardization of an oven thermometer or a marital adjustment measure.. And the results are different than the press release would suggest. Namely,
In the vmPFC, left NAcc, left pallidum, rightinsula, right pallidum, and right planum polare, main effects ofEFT revealed general decreases from pre- to post- therapy in threat activation, regardless of whose hand was held, all Fs (1, 41.1 to 58.6) >3.9, all ps <.05. In the left caudate, left IFG, and vACC, interactions between EFT and DAS revealed that participants with the lowest pre-therapy DAS scores realized the greatest decreases from pre- to post-therapy in threat related activity, all Fs (1, 55.1 to 66.7) $6.2, all ps <. 02. In the right dlPFC and left supplementary motor cortex, interactions between handholding and EFT suggest that from pre- to post- therapy, threat-related activity decreased during partner but increased during stranger handholding, Fs (1, 44.6 to 48.9) = 5.0, ps = .03 (see Figure 5). [Emphasis added]
Keep in mind that these results are also derived from well over 100 statistical tests performed on data from 23 women and so they are likely due to chance. It is difficult to make sense of the contradictions in the results. By some measures, activation while holding both strangers and husbands' hand decreased. Other differences were limited to the women with lower initial marital satisfaction.
It is also not clear what decreased activation means. It could mean that less thought processes are occurring or that thought processes take less effort. An fMRI is that ambiguous.
It is important to note what we are not told in the article. We are led by the authors to expect an overall (omnibus) test of whether changes in brain activity from before to after therapy will occur for when husbands' hands are held, but not strangers or alone. It is curious that specific statistic is not reported where it should have been. It is likely that no overall simple difference was found, but the authors went fishing for whatever they could find anyway.
There is no mention in the paper of ratings of the shock as to degree of painfulness. There are ratings of discomfort.
We need to keep in mind that this experiment had to be approved by a committee for the protection of human subjects. If in fact the women were being subject to painful shock, the committee would not have granted approval.
The actual shock was 4 mA. I put a request out on Facebook for information as to how painful such a shock would be. A lab in Australia reported that in response, graduate assistants had been busy shocking themselves. W with that amperage could not produce a shock they would consider painful.
However, after the partners were guided through intense bonding conversations (a structured therapy titled Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy or EFT), the brain activation and reported level of pain changed —under one condition. While the shock was again described as painful in the alone and in the stranger hand holding conditions (albeit with some small change compared to before), the shock was described as merely uncomfortable when the husband offered his hand. Even more interesting, in the husband hand-holding condition, the subject's brain remained calm with minimal activation in the face of threat.
Again, there are no ratings of painfulness described in the report of the experiment. The changes occurred in both husband and stranger handholding conditions.
The experiment explored three different conditions. In the first, the subject lay alone in a scanner knowing that when she saw a red X on a screen in front of her face there was a 20% chance she would receive a shock to her ankles. In the second, a male stranger held her hand throughout the same procedure. In the third, her partner held her hand. Subjects also pressed a screen after each shock to rate how painful they perceived it to be.
Here we are given a relevant detail. The women believed that they had a 20% chance of receiving a shock to their ankles. It is likely that the anticipation was uncomfortable, not the actual shock. The second condition is described as having their hand held by a male stranger. Depending on the circumstances, that could either be creepy or benign. Presumably, the "male stranger" was a laboratory assistant. That might explain why the actual results of the experiments suggest that after therapy, handholding by this stranger was not particularly activating of areas of the brain that it had been earlier.
But, the press release provides a distorted presentation of the actual results of the study. This presentation seems to indicate that the EFT it had occurred between the first and second fMRIs had produced an effect only for the condition in which the woman's hand was held by a partner, not a stranger.
The actual results were weak and contradictory. They do not seem to be overall effects for free versus post therapy fMRI. Rather, effects were limited to a subgroup of women who had started therapy with exceptionally low marital satisfaction and persisted after they had therapy. The changes in brain activation associated with having their handheld by a partner were not different than a changes for having their hand held by a stranger.
These results support the effectiveness of EFT and its ability to shape secure bonding. The physiological effects are exactly what one would expect from more secure bonding. This study also adds to the evidence that attachment bonds and their soothing impact are a key part of adult romantic love.
How this could be accurate? The women did not have a secure bonding with the stranger, but their brain activation nonetheless changed. And apparently this did not happen for all women, mostly only those with lower marital satisfaction at the beginning of therapy.
From the press release, I cannot reconstruct what was done and what was found in the study reported in PLOS One. A lot of wow, a lot of shock and awe, but little truth.
Surely, you jest, Dr. Johnson.


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Kilkenny's unique version of 'Operation Transformation' may have more to do with body shape than mass, and it is progressing well.
The Cats are not into weight loss as heralded by the popular TV show. Instead, manager Brian Cody's 'Operation Kilkenny' has more to do with body shape - of the team, that is - and by the end of the current Allianz National Hurling League and before the start of the Leinster championship the actual make up of the team as we have come to known and expect it could be so different.
Here we are three games into a testing League campaign, with each team for each game different to the last, and yet the Cats remain firmly on track to make the knock-out stages. The manager and selectors are treading a fine line in trying to win matches and at the same time give new players game time, but right now the call has to be: 'so far, so good'.
"We are doing okay," was the keep it cool comment from Mr Cody after Galway, albeit a Galway team without their Portumna contingent, were seen off with more ease than the scoreline might suggest at Nowlan Park on Sunday. "I said at the start of the League we would try and look at players to build as strong a panel as we possibly can. There's a lot of players getting game time and you'd certainly be happy with them."
"The attitude continues to be top class," came the reply. "We're competitive and we are working hard for each other. There's a realisation that places are
up for grabs."
Funny sort of game
The winners played without Henry Shefflin, Eoin Larkin, Michael Fennelly, Michael Rice, J.J. Delaney, Brian Hogan and Colin Fennelly, who scored 3-5 the last day against Tipperary, outside the listed 26 players, and still they won.
It was a funny sort of game in ways. Galway might have scored three goals during the first half. Kilkenny might have scored three more during the second period. Galway finished well, and out-gunned the opposition by 1-4 to 0-1 during the closing 12 minutes, but still they never had the look of a winning team.
"There wasn't much in it at the finish," insisted Galway boss, Anthony Cunningham. "We were happy with our battle in the last 20 minutes, but there was a while when we were off it. It's all about performances and we saw certain things that went well but we need to do that for 70 minutes."
For Kilkenny there is a lot of encouraging news surrounding the squad. Richie Hogan went really well at centre-forward on Sunday. He won some lovely ball in the air. Every time he gained possession he looked capable of scoring.
Geoff Brennan did exactly that during a storming opening when he snatched three points in 14 minutes. Mark Kelly is making tremendous progress at full-forward. His blistering pace on the turn and in full flight, and his fearless approach, have him at the head of the queue of the 'could make it men'.
Padraig Walsh, on the strength of a very good second half, is moving in the right direction too. Brian Kennedy continues to grow in self belief, a point underlined by a neat back pass to his 'keeper, an all too rare happening in hurling.
Cillian Buckley was terrific as a link man. He was always available to take a pass from a colleague, and especially Jackie Tyrrell, during the closing half when he was on the ball a lot. Emerging full-back Michael Walsh did little wrong, and while goalie Eoin Murphy was very busy cleaning up bits and pieces, he did it all with a nice touch and impressive vision.
Oh yes, fans favourite Walter Walsh had another good outing. The lad's game is improving, and his shooting, especially when he gets to do it at pace from the right wing, is hugely impressive. Lester Ryan continues to look the part at centre-back, but one gets the impression he is ready to perform is just about any position.
The team didn't leave fans waiting long to get warmed up. The ball was in the Galway net within 80 seconds of the start. Mark Kelly did the planting, and just like against Tipperary, it was at the end of a bustling run. A second goal in the dying seconds of the half by the on fire Richie Hogan, after a flick on by Jonjo Farrell, left the visitors in a bit of trouble when 0-8 to 2-11 behind.
In fairness to Galway, they might have goaled three times during that half. Cathal Mannion set up Davy Glennon in front of the city end goal in the eight minute, but Lester Ryan foiled him. Glennon looked to be through again in the 19th minute, but Niall Healy's hand-pass was over cooked and it missed the intended target. Then in the 21st minute Conor Cooney had a 20-metre free blocked out following a foul on Healy.
At one stage in the half the winners led by 1-5 to 0-2, and such was the zest in the hurling of Hogan, Brennan (Geoff), Walsh (Walter) and Kelly that they threatened a rout. That group plundered 2-7 between them by the break, with Hogan the leader with 1-2.
Galway were unable to make any real gains for a good spell after the turn. Passing the 52nd minute the divide was still nine points (2-14 to 0-11) after Richie Hogan had plucked a Kilkenny puck-out from the sky before scoring. Conor Cooney pulled back a small score for the losers before Jonjo Farrell had a goal disallowed after Kelly forced 'keeper, Colm Callanan into a blinding save, although the latter failed to control the sliotar. The call against Farrell was that he was in the square, apparently.
In the 62nd minute Farrell was unlucky again when lurking around the square, this time failing narrowly to get the final touch after a shot by Kelly came back into play off the left upright. Further on Walter Walsh was deprived of a big score, again by the brilliance of Callanan after T.J. Reid ripped open the visitors defence.
On 57 minutes T.J. Reid lofted over a free from Kilkenny to leave them within sight of victory when 2-15 to 0-12 clear. Within 60 seconds Galway had the ball in the net at the other end after Cooney blasted home a penalty following a foul on the industrious and ever threatening Gearoid McInerney (2-15 to 1-12). The topped the scoring exchanges from there to the end, but the match was beyond rescue.
Scorers: Kilkenny - Richie Hogan (1-3); T.J. Reid (0-6, four frees); Walter Walsh, Geoff Brennan (0-3 each); Mark Kelly (1-0); Jonjo Farrell (0-1). Galway - Conor Cooney (1-7, goal penalty, six points frees); Niall Healy (0-4); Gearoid McInerney (0-3); Iarla Tannian, Padraig Brehony (0-1 each).
Kilkenny - Eoin Murphy, Conor Fogarty, Michael Walsh, Jackie Tyrrell, Brian Kennedy, Lester Ryan, Cillian Buckley, Geoff Brennan, Padraig Walsh, Walter Walsh, Richie Hogan, Joe Brennan, Jonjo Farrell, Mark Kelly, T.J. Reid. Subs - John Power for J. Brennan 48th min; Padraig Phelan for G. Brennan 60th min.
Galway - Colm Callanan, David Collins, Shane Kavanagh, Johnny Coen, Aidan Harte, Iarla Tannian, Daithi Burke, David Burke, Padraig Brehony, Cathal Mannion, Gearoid McInerney, Davy Glennon, Niall Healy, Conor Cooney, Jason Flynn. Subs - Niall Burke for Mannion 46th min; Paul Killeen for Flynn 52nd min; Padraig Landers for Glennon 53rd min.
Referee - Colm Lyons (Cork).
Attendance - 8,496.


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Welcome to my MotoGP art and Superbike art website. My aim is to provide the highest quality, stylish and affordable hand drawn pictures of the leading contemporary riders in action.
My interest in MotoGP started in the mid-nineties, with a trip down the M6 riding pillion on my uncles' Ducati, to watch Carl Fogarty win both races at the Donington round of the 1995 World SBK championship. He would go on to win the World title for his second year running. From that point on I was hooked!
I feel privileged to reflect this motorbike racing passion through my artwork. Each picture is hand drawn and crafted with care and precision, producing a highly realistic and accurate picture. I hope you can enjoy them!
I absolutely love my Vintage leather blazer - leather jackets leather jackets I bought from leathermall.


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Posts Tagged Abraham Mateta
Disability group presses for charter alterations ahead of polls
The Zimbabwe National League of the Blind (ZNLB) has engaged the three political parties in the inclusive government seeking alterations of clauses in the draft constitution that affect people within the Disability Movement ahead of a general election set for this year.
ZNLB Disability Rights and Advocacy Officer, Abraham Mateta says although members of the Disability Movement are going to vote at Saturday's referendum, negotiations with political parties for a possible alteration will continue.
"There are various levels of engagement that have been commenced which include talking to political parties to register unhappiness with the contents of the draft," Mateta said.
"We are going to the referendum this Saturday where people will choose to either reject or accept the draft constitution but we are still lobbying for alterations of clauses on disability so that they look more like human rights in nature as opposed to charity and welfare."
Mateta said according to the COPAC draft constitution, disabled persons' rights are subjected to the availability of resources.
"There is a resource conditionality, it imprints in the mind of those who will implement that disability is very expensive because you don't find that condition with other groups except the elderly and sometimes children, that should be the first thing to be removed," said Mateta.
"We are also talking about self-representation, the current draft constitution does not give that right to persons living with disabilities, it looks at these people as individuals with only social and recreational rights but we are saying disabled persons should have political and economic rights."
Mateta said the final draft constitution should have captured the people's views as represented in the National Statistical Report.
"We are arguing and making efforts to convince them that it is in the national interest to frame the content of the draft based on best international practices as well as the content in the National Statistical Report," Mateta said.


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Tim Lloyd Manager
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Analogue versus IP Cameras
It is said that IP or "Network" cameras will cause the death of analogue cameras due to their superior high-definition image quality. However, analogue CCTV cameras continue to offer greater efficiency, lower cost and higher overall reliability.
Analogue and IP cameras are similar in many ways; in both technologies the lens projects the image to the analogue image sensor where the signal is then converted to digital using an analogue-to-digital converter. The signal is then processed by the cameras on-board digital circuitry (DSP). In IP cameras the video is compressed and encoded internally then sent to the NVR (Networkable Video Recorder) via IP (Internet Protocol). In an analogue camera the signal is converted back to analogue and sent to the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) where it is compressed and encoded.
Advantages of Analogue systems over IP systems:
- Analogue systems are cheaper than IP systems - IP cameras can be up to three times more expensive than their analogue equivalent. DVR's are cheaper than NVR's and power supplies are cheaper than (POE) Power Over Ethernet switches. Generally there is less hardware used on an analogue system. Analogue systems are also less labour-intensive, are easy to install and require little to no network and configuration skills.
- Real-time images can be viewed from analogue systems -As the image from an analogue camera is compressed at the DVR, the image can be viewed live from the camera with no latency. IP cameras have latency and 'lag' for up to two seconds which can lead to over-correction issues if an operator needs to track something from a PTZ camera.
- Cable distances to Analogue cameras can be greater -Using active Baluns on Cat5E cabling, the video signal can be transmitted up to two kilometers to the DVR. IP camera cable distances are restricted by structured cabling regulations which limit the cable distance to 100 metres between the camera and the network switch.
- Analogue video signals are more reliable - Analogue video traffic is not subject to any networking issues or risks such as bandwidth limitations, network congestion, varying bit rates, large file sizes, viruses and latency. Once installed the analogue systems are very reliable and require little maintenance.
- Analogue systems are compatible with any brand of camera- Any analogue camera can plug into any DVR. IP systems use NVR's which need the correct protocol installed to communicate with each camera. Different brands of NVR and camera may not be compatible with each other and may not be able to communicate.
Advantages of IP systems over Analogue systems:
- IP systems have superior image quality -IP cameras can deliver high definition images of up to 8 megapixels in resolution, compared to a maximum of 650TVLine (equivalent to 0.4 megapixel) in analogue cameras.
- IP systems can use the existing network infrastructure -Unlike analogue cameras, IP cameras don't have to be wired back directly to the recording device, they can be wired to the nearest network hub or switch and the existing network infrastructure can be used to carry video signals to the NVR, eliminating the need for un-necessary wiring.
- IP systems have superior wireless capabilities -IP cameras have the flexibility to integrate with a wireless network and are virtually unlimited in terms of expansion. Analogue wireless cameras use radio frequencies and are limited to about sixteen cameras before they reach full capacity.
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