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Willow Smith happens to celebrate her birthday on one of the best holidays on the calendar – Halloween – and mom Jada just couldn’t resist posting the most adorable throwback of her baby girl decked out in a spooky costume.
“To my little princess of all things… you are 16!!!!! I love you my little spooky girl:) You make me so proud. Happy Birthday! Your mom,” Jada tweeted.
The message was accompanied by a throwback photo of Willow dressed as a little vampire princess.
To my little princess of all things… you are 16!!!!! I love you my little spooky girl:) You make me so proud. Happy Birthday! Your mom. pic.twitter.com/Bf09OgGbhZ
No word what the singer, activist, and artist has planned for her 16th birthday or if she’s getting dressed up for Halloween. Maybe she’ll bring back the vampire princess costume or go as herself.
Back in 2010, when asked what she planned to be for Halloween, Willow said, “I’m gonna be myself, and I’m gonna go around the neighborhood saying, ‘Do you like Willow Smith?’ And then I’m gonna be like, ‘Ta-da! It’s me.’ ”
Still, Willow may have other things on her mind after recently joining protests in North Dakota against the Dakota Access Pipeline, so maybe she hasn’t even had time to come up with a costume idea.
Either way, whether protesting or celebrating with Halloween festivities, we hope Willow has a happy birthday.
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GMAT/GRE
The admissions committee takes into consideration your highest test score. The Tuck application allows students to report all valid GMAT and/or GRE test scores taken within the last five years. If you have scored better on one test in the verbal section and better on the other in the quantitative section, we will consider your highest quantitative and highest verbal scores. We will not, however, combine scores from different tests to create a new total score.
We require that you submit your self-reported GMAT or GRE scores, so you should plan to take the test in enough time to receive a score to self-report. Please note that you do not need to submit an official GMAT or GRE score with your application. This step is required only for admitted students, who have 30 days from the date of enrollment to submit their official score reports. Test scores an applicant self-reports must be valid as of the date they apply. If test scores will expire prior to October 1 for Round 1 applicants, January 14 for Round 2 applicants, or April 8 for Round 3 applicants, the applicant must email us their name and applicant ID so Admissions can pull their official test score report.
Taking and submitting the results for both tests is up to you. Submitting both test results does not adversely or positively affect your candidacy. If you have taken both tests and wish to include them in your application you must self-report both scores on the application. If you submit your application with the results of one of the tests (GMAT or GRE) and later take the other test, you may not add the new score to your submitted application. GMAT and GRE test results must not be more than five years old. If you have taken the test(s) multiple times please report all valid scores taken within the last five years.
All candidates with a bachelor's degree from an accredited undergraduate institution are encouraged to apply to Tuck. There are no minimum GMAT, GRE or GPA scores required. Refer to our class profile to see the statistics regarding last year's incoming class. However, we encourage you to consider the ranges, not just the averages, to realize the diversity of successful applicants for admission.
Tuck seeks applicants who possess outstanding academic abilities. The GMAT score is just one of the many criteria we consider. When evaluating a candidate's ability to handle the coursework at Tuck, we consider the following: prior academic performance, the results of the GMAT or GRE, results of the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language™), IELTS (International English Language Testing System) or PTE (Pearson Test of English Academic) (if applicable), the nature of past coursework, and the nature of the applicant's professional experience.
Tuck does not have a minimum GMAT or GRE score requirement — admitted students have a range of scores. But if you do not score well on any part of the GMAT or GRE, we encourage you to take the exam again in an effort to improve your score.
Transcripts
No. Tuck seeks qualified applicants from all backgrounds, including those who do not have traditional business experience. If you do not have previous exposure to quantitative concepts, you may take classes in the following areas to help prepare for the rigors of Tuck's curriculum: microeconomics, financial accounting, statistics, finance, and Excel.
Tuck accepts the TOEFL® (Test of English as a Foreign Language™), IELTS (International English Language Testing System), and the PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English Academic) to demonstrate English proficiency. All nonnative English speakers must self report results (scores and percentiles, if applicable) from either the TOEFL®, IELTS or the PTE Academic. This requirement is waived for applicants who have recently lived for at least three years in an English-speaking country or who received a degree from an institution outside the U.S. where instruction is in English. It is not necessary to seek our pre-approval or submit documentation to prove eligibility for this waiver. Results must not be more than two years old. For information on how to register for the TOEFL exam. Visit www.ets.org/toefl for information on registering for the TOEFL, and use code 3351 to send TOEFL scores to us. Visit www.pearsonpte.com for information on registering for the PTE. Visit www.ielts.org for information on registering for the IELTS and use Dartmouth College, Tuck School of Business to send your IELTS score to us.
Yes. You must scan and upload transcripts that include course names, course numbers, dates, grades, courses taken pass/fail, incomplete courses, and dropped courses from every undergraduate institution at which you have taken courses and received a grade.
If you attended institutions other than those from which your degrees were granted, you will be required to scan and upload your academic transcripts from each institution (transfer coursework, domestic or study-abroad programs, post-graduate non-degree coursework, etc.). You will be required to scan and upload a copy of the academic transcript issued by the institution(s) from which you obtained your undergraduate (bachelor’s or first) degree and any advanced/graduate degrees. If your transcript is not in English, you must scan and upload a copy of it that has been translated into English.
Request letters of reference (LORs) from two people who can comment on your qualifications for Tuck’s admissions criteria. The best letters come from references who can demonstrate that you are smart, nice, accomplished and aware. If possible, your current direct supervisor should write one of your LORs. If you cannot provide an LOR from a direct supervisor, include a brief explanation in the optional essay section. LORs from professors who did not supervise professional work, family members or personal acquaintances do not enhance your candidacy.
Your reference must be the sole author of your LOR. Drafting, writing, or translating your own reference, even if asked to do so by your reference, violates Tuck’s admissions policies and Tuck’s Academic Honor Principle. You are responsible for informing your references of this policy.
References who cannot write in English may write in a native language and have the LOR translated by an outside translation service. Do not translate the LOR into English for your reference.
You are responsible for notifying your references of your application deadline and ensuring your LORs are submitted on time. We review your application only if both LORs are received by your application deadline. Otherwise, we will move your application to the next admission round. If you would like to make changes to your list of references, please contact us at [email protected].
Application process
No. An essential part of our MBA program is the two-year experience of being a member of the Tuck community. It is this shared experience that makes the Tuck MBA program unique. The Tuck experience is unique not only in its curricular aspects, but also by the relationships that students build with their peers, the faculty, and the administrators. Only a full two years will allow our students to experience and fully appreciate this singularity.
We do not require that candidates hold a bachelor’s degree in order to be considered for admission. We do give very, very strong preference to applicants who have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, and it will be extraordinarily rare for an offer of admission to an applicant without a bachelor’s degree. However, a lack of a bachelor’s degree is not automatically disqualifying for candidates who can otherwise demonstrate unusual and extraordinary proficiency across our four criteria.
We do not typically admit applicants who have already earned an MBA. If you hold a similar graduate degree that is not an MBA, use the optional essay to explain why you need an MBA in addition to your prior degree. We consider the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from Indian universities to be the equivalent of an MBA and typically do not admit applicants who have earned this degree.
In general Tuck does not offer admission to applications with less than 2-years of professional work experience. On average, Tuck students have five years of full-time work experience before entering Tuck, but given the broad range of experience in each class, it is the quality, not the quantity, of an applicant's experience that is relevant in the evaluation process.
It is to your advantage to apply as early as you are ready. The admissions committee cannot predict the quality of future applications, and is therefore inclined to admit well-qualified applicants early in the process. In addition, early application ensures that you will receive a decision earlier. However, it is important not to rush your application. We encourage you to take the time necessary to submit a thoughtful, well-prepared application. Regardless of the round in which your application has been submitted, the admissions committee will give full and fair consideration to your candidacy. Regardless of which round you intend to apply in, we recommend submitting your completed application a day or two prior to the published deadline, which may help to alleviate the anxiety that often accompany last-minute submissions.
Waitlist
The size of our waitlist varies from year to year. In recent years, we have extended waitlist offers to more than 100 candidates. This size fluctuates as candidates are admitted from the waitlist, update us about their plans for the upcoming year, or decide to remove themselves from the waitlist.
The number of applicants admitted from the waitlist varies from year to year as it is dependent on the applicant pool, enrollment from early rounds, and the quality of applications from later rounds. Our waitlist offer means that we consider you a legitimate candidate for admission to Tuck in an upcoming round.
The Admissions Committee will review your application again in each subsequent application round. You may be offered admission, your waitlist status may be extended, or you may be released and encouraged to reapply next year.
We provide application feedback to waitlisted candidates after May. In select cases at our discretion, we may contact you before May to offer feedback. However, we cannot accommodate requests for feedback until May. You are neither required nor encouraged to request feedback before May.
This will be a pause in our communication. We acknowledge this may feel unusual and uncomfortable. Please know that this pause does not mean we are forgetting your candidacy, or presuming that your interest in attending Tuck has diminished. We will consider you for admission in each upcoming application round, which requires additional evaluation. In the interim, please take time to reflect on your application. If you have significant updates to your candidacy, please share them by writing to the Tuck Admissions email address.
Our financial aid colleagues will work individually with all candidates who are admitted from the waitlist. There is no required action to take before then. If you have additional questions, please write to the Tuck financial aid office at [email protected]. Last year, 66% of Tuck students applied for financial aid.
We at Tuck affirm both our unwavering support of our international students and our commitment to global engagement. International students make up nearly one third of current students at Tuck, and their diversity of experiences, ideas, and dreams enriches learning and the lives of their classmates in countless ways.
While uncertainty remains, so does Tuck’s commitment to maintaining a talented, diverse, and globally-engaged student body. As the situation continues to evolve, rest assured that we will stay up to date on developments that could impact our international applicants and the broader Tuck community. More information is available through Dartmouth's Office of Visa and Immigration Services.
International applicants may apply in any round; however, for applicants who cannot secure a U.S. visa by August 1, admission may be deferred to the following year. U.S. visa eligibility forms will be made available to all accepted international students. These forms cannot be processed until the student has paid his/her enrollment deposit. Verification of financial support is required for all enrolling international students. Tuck provides assistance in facilitating the U.S. visa process through the Dartmouth Office of Visa and Immigration Services (OVIS). Please visit Dartmouth's Office of Visa and Immigration Services for further details.
Over one-third of Tuck’s student body is international and Tuck’s Ambassador Program helps international applicants easily connect with current students. We encourage you to reach out to an Ambassador.
Tuck is unable to sponsor individual visits to campus and may only support students who have been admitted to and plan to enroll at the school. When you register online for an interview or spring term visit you will receive a confirmation email with your name and the date and time of your scheduled visit.
If you are not quite ready to apply during this application cycle, but would like to visit the campus, we offer class visits without an interview during the spring term only. While we would like to provide this option throughout the year, limited classroom seating requires us to give priority to applicants who are also interviewing while on campus. We ask that you please support this effort by not registering for a visit only, until the spring term when you may sign up for a class visit, lunch, tour and Q&A session with an Admissions Officer. You may also attend one of our recruiting events throughout the year.
We also request that your interview be completed during the same application cycle in which you are applying.
We put a lot of effort into providing a comprehensive visitation program for all visitors. In addition to the scheduled interview, applicants will have an opportunity to attend a lunch and campus tour with current students, as well as a Q&A session with a member of the admissions team. Depending on availability, there is also an opportunity for prospective students to visit a first-year core class (prospective students cannot choose which class they will attend). If you are not sure about applying to Tuck, or you are not planning to apply during the current cycle, please visit us during the spring term and attend a class without an interview. You may also attend one of our recruiting events throughout the year.
Our renowned small class sizes limit the number of visitors we can accommodate. Depending on availability, prospective students accompany first-year student hosts to class. By sitting in on first-year classes, prospective students can gain firsthand insight into the rigors of the core curriculum. Also, the opportunity to observe a class allows you to gain a sense of the total first-year Tuck experience—allowing you to appreciate the demands and benefits of our residential MBA program. Please note that we do not offer class visits on Fridays, except in September.
There are only two class visit times: 8:30am and 10:20am. Your class visit time will depend on the time you choose to interview.
Class visits are available Monday – Thursday with a few exceptions. You will not be able to select the class you will attend, as prior arrangements are made with the professor and only certain classes are available for visitors.
Please be on time for your interview, since being late may impact your class visit. Class visits are hosted by current students, so it’s important that you are prepared to meet with your host at least ten minutes prior to your designated class visit time. Being late for your interview could prevent you from participating in a class visit since prospective students are required to be in the classroom prior to the start of class.
If you are considering bringing your partner with you to campus, your partner is more than welcome to attend all events except for your interview and class visit. Please email us the following information at least one week prior to your visit: your partner's first name, last name and the date that you are registered to interview.
If you have any questions regarding partner and family life at Tuck please let us know.
Scheduling an Interview
All interviews are scheduled through our online system, which you can view on our Search Events/Interviews page. All interviews are available on a first-come, first-served basis and tend to book quickly. We invite you to schedule your interview as soon as possible.
Applicants cannot request an off-campus, virtual or alumni interview. If you are not able to interview on-campus, your application will be reviewed by the Admissions Committee. After reviewing your application the committee may decide to invite you for an interview. Invitational interviews may be offered either on-campus or virtually. It's important to note that not all candidates will be invited for an interview and there are no specific beginning or end dates for interview invitations.
The Admissions Office puts a great deal of time and effort into making sure that each individual has the best possible visit by scheduling meetings with current students and Admissions Officers. While we encourage all applicants to make the most of their visit to Tuck, due to the high volume of visitors we cannot accommodate special requests such as meetings with professors, Research Centers, or student groups.
Admissions Officers are not able to meet individually with prospective students. They are however, more than happy to answer questions during the scheduled Q&A session.
Interview Details
No, however, we invite interested applicants to take advantage of our open interview policy. Tuck offers all applicants the opportunity to interview on campus in Hanover. Interviews are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis, so request an interview as soon as you decide to apply. If you have not been able to interview by the deadline, the admissions committee may invite you to interview if they feel it is necessary. Because we cannot invite all applicants to interview, if you would like to guarantee an interview, you should schedule an on-campus interview. Tuck does not conduct student-initiated interviews off campus.
No. You may interview prior to submitting your application. Actually, many applicants find it helpful to interview early so that they can experience Tuck’s unique environment first-hand and still have time to make edits to their essays before clicking submit.
Interviews on campus are scheduled primarily with admissions associates (second-year students) and occasionally with members of the admissions committee. Off-campus interviews with an admissions committee member or admissions associate are scheduled by invitation only. The name of your interviewer will not be given prior to your interview date and time. All interviews are evaluated equally, regardless of location or interviewer.
We will ask questions that will help us assess your qualifications for our four criteria: smart, nice, accomplished, and aware. We believe these skills are essential for success not only in the Tuck MBA program, but also as a business leader.
Travel/Lodging
Free parking is available at Dewey Field Lot (37 Dewey Field Road, Hanover, NH 03755) with visitors parking in the A Lot. Please be aware that parking can be challenging at Dartmouth and at times there can be heavy traffic in Hanover. Plan ahead and allow yourself at least an extra 15 minutes to find parking and walk to Tuck. You may also opt to take the Advance Transit Shuttle which arrives and departs from this lot frequently (7:00am-10:00am every 10 minutes and from 10:00am-3:00pm every 30 minutes). Please make sure you check their schedule ahead of time if you wish to take the shuttle.
Once you have parked your car you must call the Dartmouth Parking Office and register your vehicle. Please call them at 603-646-2340 and leave a brief message with your name, where you are visiting, the vehicle make and color, as well as the license plate state and number. Not registering your car may result in a fine.
Important Note about Parking
Dewey Field Lot, Lot A is the only parking lot our visitors have permission to park in. If you park in a different parking lot, you may be subject to fines or required to move your car which could, in turn, make you late for your interview and/or class visit.
You may also opt to park in downtown Hanover where there are several lots offering hourly parking. Note that on-street meters are limited to two hour parking. All paid lots are owned by the town of Hanover. Tuck has no control over these lots and cannot reimburse you for parking charges.
The Dartmouth Coach travels directly to Hanover, NH from either Boston, MA (Logan Airport and South Station) or NYC (Wells Fargo Building, 150 East 42nd Street). The Coach arrives right in Hanover, NH and eliminates the need to rent a car. The bus stop is a short walk from Tuck, as well as from the two hotels (Hanover Inn and Six South St Hotel) in Hanover. Please note that the Dartmouth Coach is not owned or operated by Dartmouth College.
Renting a car to travel to Hanover will offer additional lodging options and scheduling flexibility. Please be aware that bus service in the area is limited and you will need to plan well in advance. Renting a car or taking the Dartmouth Coach bus service is often a better option.
Boston, MALogan Airport (120 minutes away)
Logan is the closest international airport and most convenient option since the Dartmouth Coach travels directly from Logan to Hanover, NH.
Manchester, NHManchester-Boston Regional Airport (80 minutes away)
From this airport you can rent a car and drive to Hanover or use either of the two shuttle services available; Upper Valley Shuttle or UVRide.
Lebanon, NHLebanon Municipal Airport (15 minutes away)
If you are flying into the Lebanon, NH airport please note that there are very limited public transit options. Please plan well in advance.
Due to the high volume of visitors each year Tuck does not provide accommodations. Due to the high volume of visitors each year, Tuck does not provide accommodations and current students are not able to host prospective students.
If you choose to take the Dartmouth Coach it would be most convenient to book a hotel room in Hanover. There are two options; the Hanover Inn and the Six South St Hotel. We suggest that you book a room at either of these options as soon as possible since they can sometimes fill up quickly. If they are already fully booked, the Courtyard by Marriott (Lebanon, NH) has a complimentary shuttle service to and from Dartmouth, and the Norwich Inn (Norwich, VT) is a short distance from an Advance Transit bus stop.
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Blowtorch Your Blubber*
Get a leg up in the war against body fat with fat burners - a great addition to a proper fat loss and diet program. It's time to overcome those stubborn fat-burning plateaus.
Containing a wide variety of ingredients such as green tea extract, caffeine, yohimbe, branched chain amino acids and a variety of herbs, vitamins, and minerals - fat burners are potent fat fighting products designed to have your back when you need it.*
Fuel Your Inner Furnace*
HEAT UP FAT LOSS WITH BURNERS, CONT.*
Fat Burners are commonly used to support:
Energy levels*
Your body's ability to burn fat as fuel*
Fast Metabolism*
Muscle preservation during fat loss*
Mental acuity and focus*
Normal appetite and minimized cravings*
Continue reading to learn more about fat burners, and which one is best for your fat-burning vendetta!
Start Your Fat-Burn-Athon*
GO THE DISTANCE WITH A STIMULANT-FREE FAT BURNER
If you're looking to blast fat but don't want stimulants, stimulant-free fat burners are a great alternative! Designed with a blend of natural ingredients such as oils, roots and plant extracts, stimulant free fat burners optimize fat burning.* Common stimulant-free ingredients include:
Green Tea Extract
L-Carnitine
CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid)
Ginger
Cayenne
Grapefruit
Designed to be useable by a wide variety of people, using stimulant-free fat burners as recommended is a great spark to ignite your fat furnace!
Blast Stubborn Fat*
THERMOGENIC FAT BURNERS MAY BE THE ANSWER
When it comes time to fight those last stubborn pounds, you're going to have to bring out the big guns. Saddle up with a thermogenic fat burner and get to it! On a restricted diet and a high intensity workout program, supplementing with a thermogenic fat burner may allow you to:
Target your body fat receptor sites and release stored fat *
Boost your energy
focus
and concentration *
Minimize food cravings*
With stimulants like: [B}Caffeine, Yohimbine, Synephrine[/B] and Guarana - and other fat burning components like: CLA, L-Carnitine and Green Tea Extract - you can help get on track with your fat loss goal! *
Max Out Fat Burning*
YOUR FAT BURNER CAN HELP YOU REACH YOUR POTENTIAL*
Always start out with the lowest dose recommended on the product label - this is the most efficient way to test your response to the product.
Only increase the dosage of the product according to product recommendations, and never consume more than the maximum recommended dosage.
Taking your fat burner about 30-60 minutes before your workout is best. If you plan on taking two doses per day, take one early in the morning and one in the late afternoon.
NOTE: Consult a physician if you are on any other medications or have any preconditions before taking the product for best results.
Fire On All Cylinders
A FAT-BURNER STACK MAY HOLD THE KEY
One thing to remember is that you don't have to use a fat burner all on its own. If the particular fat burner you're taking doesn't have all the ingredients you'd like in it, consider stacking it with another.
Just be sure to read up on the ingredients in the products you're stacking to make sure they are safe to use in combination. For example, if you want the natural effects of a stimulant-free fat burner and the energizing effects of stimulants, try pairing caffeine with any stimulant-free fat burner.
Using a fat burner stack is great for fine-tuning your fat loss, making sure you're able to take the products that work for you. With a wide variety of products to choose from, you're sure to find the stack that fits your goal!
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In the summer of 1943, seventeen year old Beryl (or Natalie
as she would prefer to be called) began to write in a diary she named Dolores. A
regular event has been seeing off local boys with a hug, kiss and promise to
write at Union Station as they head off to war. However none of these
departures could compare to saying goodbye to her cousin and best friend
Carmen. Natalie describes life in war-time Toronto, attending dances with
servicemen, seeing newsreels about invasions and reading lists with the names of
those who would not return. She would join the war effort working first at The
John Ingalls Company making machine guns, then for De Havilland making
Mosquitoes.
I was first introduced to Bernice Thurman Hunter’s books in elementary
school with her trilogy about a young girl growing up in Toronto during the
Great Depression. “Booky” instantly became one of my favourite books. However
it wasn’t until recently that I came across The Girls They Left Behind after
all these years. While I do plan to purchase a copy for my own at some point, I
couldn’t wait to read it especially after I saw it on the shelf at my local
library.
In The Girls They Left Behind, Natalie is feeling left
behind as the boys she grew up with are sent away to war. The author wrote this
story with her own memories from that time period in mind. Fortunately young
women of the past several generations haven’t had to deal with losses of the
magnitude from Thurman Hunter’s generation. Though I felt that she wrote the character
of Natalie with traits that girls of today could still relate to.
The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the cultural
and setting references from that time. Including the fashion, responsibilities,
family dynamics and more specifically the locations around the city. It gave a
quick glimpse of life in Canada during the turbulent years of war. The diary
and letter style format made for a fast and enjoyable read.
Unfortunately Bernice Thurman Hunter was in the middle of
writing Natalie’s story when she passed away in 2002. Her daughter Heather Anne
Hunter would complete writing it in her honor and I believe she would be proud
of how it all came together.
The Girls They Left Behind is young adult fiction, but I
would recommend it to anyone who is interested in historical fiction focusing
on the home front during wartime.
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Search: Rumi Love's Ripening
Profiles
Herman Hesse, the painted bird by Jerrzi Kronski,
anything by bell hooks and Micheal Pollan, RumiFavorite quote:“The
gazelle and the lion, the ewe and the wolf, are four opposites,but
when they sense the Hunter near, all are intermixed.”Excerpt From:
Mevlanna Jalaluddin Rumi. “Love'sRipening.
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New Zealand: South Island West Coast Drive
This post will show you a long drive in New Zealand, down the South Island West Coast. We will take State Highway 6 from Punakaiki Pancake rocks and drive down to Lake Matheson and Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. From the glaciers our 370 km drive will continue to Haast where we will turn inland.
What is driving in New Zealand and on its South Island West Coast like, in an area of rugged coastline, stormy seas and green rainforests?
Lake Matheson with Mount Cook in the background, New Zealand South Island West Coast
West Coast is beautiful, the green coastline is backed by New Zealand’s highest mountains. The mountains also make that West Coast is far away from everything: only 40 000 people of New Zealand’s total of 4,5 million live here.
No cities exist on the West Coast, people live in isolate houses and small settlements. They don’t even have an internet connection outside the villages.
West Coast: Part of Our South Island Trip
West Coast is a part (section number 2) of our South Island round trip for which we rented a campervan.
To get to West Coast we crossed the mountains along the Arthur’s Pass road from Christchurch and to leave West Coast we took the road to Queenstown across Haast Pass. These are the two main roads leading to the West Coast. Plus there is a third road in the north, the Buller Gorge road from Nelson.
South Island West Coast Drive on the Map
The map shows our South Island West Coast driving itinerary, 5 hours of driving without stops which I of course don’t recommend. You will want to stop, often.
We stayed three nights on the West Coast, first in Greymouth in the north, then in Franz Josef Village in the middle and last in Haast at the south end before turning inland.
I will show you West Coast attractions from north to south. The first attraction is Punakaiki and its Pancake Rocks.
Punakaiki Pancake Rocks
South Island West Coast drive: pancake rocks
Have you ever seen piles of petrified pancakes? I have. In Paparoa National Park near the small settlement of Punakaiki. These piled stones really look like pancakes. They are layers of limestone, separated by thin bands of soft stone.
There are thousands of piles like this in Paparoa and that all looks dramatic. The piles have not been like this from the beginning of time, they have been formed by sea storms and rain during thousands of years and they will be formed in the future.
Dolomite Point Walk to the Pancakes
Pancakes and the ocean
To see the pancakes you only have to take a 25 min loop walk from the information centre on main road. Most of the pancakes are at the Dolomite Point so that’s what the name comes from. The Dolomite Point walk is an easy walk and the first part is accessible.
Punakaiki Pancakes
Petrified pancakes of Punakaiki
But look at these layered limestones, Paparoa National Park pancake rocks! To view the small photos in a bigger size, click on them.
The rockes are in Paparoa National Park, South Island West Coast.
Pancake rocks and rainforest
Truman Track Rainforest Walk
South Island West Coast drive: Truman Track rainforest
Paparoa National Park offers more walks. The 15-minute Truman Track takes you through a rainforest to a rugged coastline with caverns and blowholes.
Truman Track caverns become blowholes at high tide and during storms. The wind pushes the water into the cavern from where it explodes high up with a spray.
Walking on Truman Track, Paparoa National Park
Truman Track vegetation, Paparoa National Park
Punakaiki Beach
A South Island West Coast beach
Truman Track also leads to Punakaiki Beach. Punakaiki Beach is sandy and looks pretty, but the weather doesn’t make you want to swim. It’s a cold and rainy day, like many other days in this area. The South Island West Coast is a high rainfall area. It rains 5000 mm a year.
And there’s one more walk, a 2 hour walk to a limestone formation that’s called the ballroom overhang. But to see more of the West Coast we skipped that walk and headed 43 km south to Greymouth, first driving in a deep rainforest.
Punakaiki to Greymouth
Driving in New Zealand: raod and rainforest
Greymouth with its 13 500 inhabitants is the largest town on the West Coast. It’s and old gold and coal mining town and it still is the center of a coal mining area.
Greymouth also is a greenstone town. It is that since the 14th century when the Maoris settled in the area in. They came to West Coast for greenstone, jade, that they found at the mouth of the Grey River. You can learn about greenstone at the Greymouth Jade Boulder Gallery.
West Coast cattle
As the biggest resort on the West Coast Greymouth has developed to an adventure center that offers commercial tourist activities: drafting, dolphin watching and so on.
But we didn’t want to take any tourist activities in this weather so we took State Highway 6 from Greymouth to the next settlement that has a nice name, Hokitika.
Hokitika
The beach of Hokitika on a stormy day
Hokitika is in a stormy location. It was rainy and windy and there had been a huge storm a week before cutting trees in forests and gardens. But this weather is not bad at all, there was a time when 32 shipwrecks occurred on Hokitika coast, all within three years.
Photos of Hokitika, New Zealand West Coast drive
Hokitika was an important town during the gold rush and many buildings still remain from that time, like the clock tower and the Carnegie Library that you can see on the photos.
To see all 22 historical buildings you can walk a marked heritage trail and to see glowworms there’s a glowworm walk.
And since Hokitika too is a tourist town there are more attractions: an aquarium, a gold-mining museum, a kiwi centre and jade galleries.
Hokitika to West Coast Glaciers
Driving down the South Island West Coast
But it’s still 150 km to the glaciers where we booked the next night so we have to drive again.
South Island West Coast roads are good and there’s hardly any traffic. I like the place names in road signs : Lake Mahinapua 10 km south of Hokitika, followed by Pukekura, Harihari, Whataroa. The village of Ross 28 km south of Hokitika has a gold-mining museum with the largest gold nugget found in the region.
New Zealand road
West Coast Jade Rivers
This is what South Island West Coast rivers look like
West Coast has many pretty rivers and many of them contain jade. But it’s not the jade that gives the rivers their colour, it’s small particles that come from melting glacier ice. West Coast rivers are mountain rivers and we are approaching the glacier mountains.
More river photos
Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers
Franz Josef Village, New Zealand
And then, the mountains got higher and we reached Franz Josef Village, a small mountain village where we stayed a night in the rainforest, bathed in hot pools and looked for kiwis in a kiwi house. And above all: we hiked to two glaciers, the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers.
Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers
These are the only two of the 140 New Zealand glaciers that reach down from 3000 m to the rainforest at only 250 m.
So we walked to both glaciers. It was not a long walk so almost anyone can do it. You can read about the glaciers and our glacier walks in my post New Zealand: Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. The post also tells more about Franz Josef Village.
In this post we will continue our trip south and the next attraction is only 6 km from Fox Glacier Village: Lake Matheson.
Lake Matheson
South Island West Coast scenery
The Glacier country also has lakes and the most famous of them is Lake Matheson. Lake Matheson is what you see on all New Zealand postcards. On calm days the lake shows stunning mirror-like reflections of Aoraki Mount Cook and the other snow-capped tops next to it.
They say the reflection looks best in the early morning so we made a morning trip to Lake Matheson, the reflecting lake on New Zealand South Island West Coast.
These photos are from the village where you turn to Lake Matheson from State Highway 6. We saw some pubs where walkers were sitting outside having their breakfast and some other buildings looked like hotels.
Walking to Lake Matheson
New Zealand West Coast drive: view from the Lake Matheson road
To see Lake Matheson and the postcard view: take a 40 min walk (20 min one way) from the Lake Matheson Cafe car park. The track crosses the river to an ancient rainforest with kahikatea and rimu trees, the exotic forest makes you believe you are in a fairytale forest. Never seen a forest like this!
Less than halfway along the lake is the Jetty viewpoint where you can watch the world famous reflection.
Lake Matheson from the Jetty viewpoint
Can you see the dark brown colour of the river and the lake? That’s what makes the reflection so special. The dark colour comes from organic humus in the water.
If you like you can continue and take the circuit track around the lake. There are two more lookouts with similar views, the View of Views at the top of the lake and the Reflection Island on the opposite side.
The walk around the lake will take approximately 1,5 hours and it’s all the way forest.
Bruce Bay and Lake Moeraki
After Lake Matheson the State Higway 6 runs through a forest until it meets the Tasman Sea at Bruce Bay at the mouth of the Mahitahi river.
The pretty beach is partly sand, partly moraine from the glaciers and it must be a windy place most time of the year. At least there’s tons of drift wood that Ocean waves have carried to the beach.
From Bruce Bay it’s still 80 km to Haast, forest again. And then, in the middle of the forest there’s a lake with a strong blue colour, Lake Moeraki.
Lake Moeraki, the blue lake
Knights Point Lookout
Knights Point Lookout further down the South Island West Coast
Just south of Lake Moeraki is the scenic Knigts Point Lookout with great views of the Haast area coastline and the Tasman Sea. The viewpoint was built in 1965 when the road from the glaciers to Haast opened. So the road opened first in 1965?
Enjoying the views
If the timing is right you might spot seals, dolphins and penguins.
There should be a penguin colony and the best time to watch them is August to November on late afternoon or early morning. Penguins only exist in the southern hemisphere so try to see them once you are in New Zealand.
Ships Creek
One more stop: Ships Creek
Ships Creek is our next destination, a wonderful place for a stop. There is a river mouth and a sandy beach with fine sand dunes and some driftwood. I liked the lagoon with dark brown river water.
Ships Creek beach, South Island West Coast drive
White sand and a brown lagoon
Ships Creek has two short walks. The 30 min Dune walk takes you along the beach to a small dune lake and the Kahikatea Forest Walk, maybe a bit more than 30 min, brings you through a Kahikatea swamp forest to a forest lake with seabirds. This is a place for bird lovers!
On a nature walk
Ship Creek with its two beautiful nature walks is worth a stop. They have built good boardwalks on the dunes and through the dense coastal swamp forest so it’s very easy to walk here.
West Coast coastline
And our last West Coast destination is Haast, before State Highway 6 turns inland.
Haast
State Highway 6 bridge crossing Haast River
Haast really is a small community. It only has 300 inhabitants, one or two general stores, a gas station, some dining and accommodation for visitors – and a possum and merino gift store. So there’s not much to see in the township itself but the surroundings are magnific: the Haast area has been declared the South West New Zealand UNESCO World Heritage Area.
We arrived at Haast in the evening and continued our journey the next morning so there was no time for more activities than a walk on Haast Beach, along a side road to the fishing village of Jackson Bay (36 km south).
Haast Beach
Driftwood on Haast beach, New Zealand
Walking along Haast beach, South Island West Coast drive
Haast is on the western edge of Mount Aspiring National Park. My next post will show you the UNESCO listed national park as we drive inland from Haast:
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I've seen people in the comments below use this, but I've also seen some unecessary workarounds to achieve it. So I thought I'd clarify, even though it is shown in the documentation. You CAN reference non-static parent methods, as in other languages. For example...
This will output both "attempting something." and "done." As you might expect, it also works if the parent method is protected. Users of other languages may have tried defining static and non-static methods with the same name. This is why that doesn't work ("parent" can refer to both static and non-static methods, and there's no way to differentiate them).
However, you CANNOT use the "parent" keyword to reference the parent's variables. When in a class, "parent" will always look for static variables. For example, this results in an "Access to undeclared static property" fatal error:
It appears that parent refers to the base class of the subclass in which the method is defined, not the subclass in which the method is exceuted. This behaviour is consistent with other object-oriented languages. PHP's documentation is a bit unclear here, so I had to test it (PHP5.2.6).
Regarding the example above, I believe the result is misleading, if you're inferring that the $this in Class One's OneDo method refers to One.
If that wasn't your conclusion, then my apologies-- I misunderstood you.
But if it was, it might save trouble to note that $this is effectively an alias for $o (a Class Two object). $v is available to $o, and that's how it's being picked up. $this is $o in that example, not One (One is a class and has no implementation).
Sorry but my example above it's correct only if there's one class that inherits by another class. If the hierarchical tree is deeper than 2 my example doesn't work. The result is a infinite loop cycle.Why? Because the only instanced object is the B class (in my example).
I agree with "anonymous coward". That syntax seems silly in a constructor and only results in an extra function being called. The only time the parent will ever change is if you change the extends expression in your class definition.
However, the parent:: syntax is very useful when you need to add extra functionality to a method of a child class which is already defined in the parent class.
I'm new to PHP, but it seems to me that this is simpler and cleanerthan the solutions discussed here, with the only disadvantage being thatwhen you change the name of your superclass you have to change oneline in your subclass.
What am I missing? Are there advanced PHP-OO considerations thatmake this code undesireable??
<p>When using the technique suggested by "<b>minoc at mindspring dot com</b>" on this page - USE EXTREME CAUTION.</p>
The problem is that if you inherit of a class that uses this kludge in the constructor you will end up with a recursive constructor - unless that new class has a constructor of it's own that by-passes the kludged constructor.
What I am saying, is you can use this technique as long as you can ensure that each class you inherit from a class containing this technique in the constructor has a constructor class of it's own that does not call the parent constructor...
On balance it is probably easier to specify the name of the constructor class explicitly!
If you make this mistake the symptoms are pretty easy to spot - PHP spirals into an infinitely recursive loop as soon as you attempt to construct a new class. Your web-server will returns an empty document.
class Subclass extends Superclass {//initialize() is inherited://BUT so is constructor
function extra_stuff($arg) {echo "extra stuff " . $arg;
}}
THE constructor is the function who's name is the same as the class that it is defined within.AND remains the constructor even in extended classes, until redefined.
Think of the constructor as a seperate function from all the others. As if PHP looks at your class and makes a copy of the function of the same name as the class and calls it "Constructor".
You can also create a function within the extended class with the same name as the constructor in the parent class without re-writing the constructor. Because you are not altering the "Constructor" function.(BUT any redefined variables are used in the constructor, as expected)
Combining the above suggestions with the "Pull Up Constructor Body" refactoring from Fowler (http://www.refactoring.com/catalog/pullUpConstructorBody.html), I found an elegant way to inherit constructors in PHP. Both superclass and subclass constructors call an initialize() method, which can be inherited or overridden. For simple cases (which almost all of mine are), no calls to parent::anything are necessary using this technique. The resulting code is easy to read and understand:
I've been scouring through the comments but haven't been able to find an example of how to use variable overriding. The manual hints that it is possible, but there aren't any examples. See the code for what I want to do:
Outputs "Hello Bobby.", the fact that B does not define test() means that A's test() is called, it should also be noted that test() is called in the context of an 'A' class, so if you try and call parent:: in A's test() it will correctly fail.
It's also worth noting that parent:: also works fine in a static method, eg <?php C::test(); ?> still outputs "Hello Bobby.", and you can even do <?php B::test(); ?> which correctly outputs "Hello ", even though we're calling a static method that lives in an ancestor class!
I was originally impressed with this language, and I got curious about its object-oriented features so I started applying them - but this whole this/self/parent thing is ridiculously stupid - it's confusing - I've been coding in C++ and C# - PHP's OO sucks! I also heard from an online source many people who use PHP avoid its OO features. Now I know why. It's stupid.
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Tina Maze made history yesterday, and not just as the first world champion to double as a Slovenian pop star. At 31, she's now the oldest female skier to have won gold in a Championship event.
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Maze wouldn't care for that introduction, though. As she laughingly implored reporters yesterday, "Hey, guys, I don't want to be the 'oldest!'" Instead, she wants to be the best. In every discipline. Including in the final three events at these World Championships.
That's ambition.
For those less obsessed with the strange world of ski racing, it's worth noting that most skiers specialize in just one or two events: either the speed disciplines of downhill and super-G, or the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. (The fifth discipline, the combined, pairs a downhill run with a slalom run). Then there's Maze, the only racer to not only ski five events, but to be a major medal contender in all of them: she's one of just three women in history to have won every discipline in a single season. Already this season, she's grabbed gold in slalom, G.S., and now downhill.
Olympic skiing began this morning—men's downhill, airing on tape delay at 11 a.m.—and if…
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She's shown that versatility this week. At the super-G on Tuesday, the first women's race of the Championships, Maze took silver, coming just 0.03 seconds behind her rival and friend, Anna Fenninger. On the Friday downhill, she edged out Fenninger by 0.02 seconds to clinch gold. Before the Championships, she told herself a showing like this would already have been good enough.
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"I was thinking if I do downhill and super-G well, then I should go home and just get ready for Maribor," the next World Cup race, in her home country. "But that's just not me. I just think I have a chance to win some more medals here. So I'll just stay here."
There are a couple of reasons why being able to rock every single discipline is so impressive. For one, each draws on an entirely different sets of skills. For slalom, the most technical, turny discipline, it's all fast feet and quick thinking. For downhill, the fastest and craziest, you need nerves of steel and thighs (and endurance) to match.
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On a more immediate level, every hour you're training for one discipline is an hour you're not training for another. In fact, even in the morning before her downhill race, Maze said, she wasn't devoted to visualizing her downhill form or carefully inspecting the course, as all her competitors were: she was training for the giant slalom. That was time away from downhill, and also required a mental switch as quick-change as a slalom turn: a turny, flatter G.S. is far different from a screaming-steep downhill.
Maze obviously has the full spectrum of skills—and the mental agility to pivot between them. On her skis, too, she displays that same sense of ease. The other downhill competitors got thrown around by the course, which was just turny enough to make their lines singularly crucial. (The more turns there are, especially at 80 mph, the easier it is to get late on one gate, then later on the next, and even later on the next, meaning a single microscopic error can lead to you scrubbing a ton of speed, at best, or getting jerked out of the course altogether, at worst.) The snow was also harder, with some micro-ruts that had developed over the past couple of training runs, and you could see their skis getting jounced around. Not Maze: soft and supple all the way down, putting just enough pressure on her edges to carve strong turns, but never looking rigid, letting her glide with, and right over, whatever terrain or texture popped up.
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Over the course of a 16-year World Cup career, Maze has started 388 World Cup races. She's medalled in 75 of them. That doesn't count the 29 World championships races she's started (with medals in eight), or the 13 Olympics races (four of which she medalled in). In total? Maze has run 430 of the world's toughest races against the top competition—and earned a spot on the podium in more than a fifth of them.
One thing that's helped, Maze pointed out yesterday, is that she's healthy, which makes a huge difference to whether she can take on every discipline over the course of an event or of a season. And in the high-risk sport of ski racing, "healthy" doesn't mean that she eats her Wheaties and does planks at the gym. It means that Maze is one of very few racers who hasn't sustained a serious injury from an on-hill crash.
At her age, that's practically a miracle: the other names near her in the results list, many of them much younger than her, can often be recognized by their injury histories alone. (Lara Gut, 23, bronze: dislocated hip; Nicole Schmidhofer, 25, fourth: fractured left ankle and partial hamstring tear; Lindsey Vonn, 30, fifth: multiple ACL tears,among other injuries.) Never being injured is "my big thing," Maze acknowledged. That's why, sometimes, she'll take a course a little more conservatively than the other girls, not throwing herself into an especially risky turn to eke out another millisecond of speed unless she feels pretty confident in doing so. "I'd rather stay healthy than be fast," she said.
Still, being on the hills year-in, year-out, with no break for injury or discipline, takes its toll. Mikaela Shiffrin, the 19-year-old Olympic gold medallist in slalom, told me in an interview in the fall that when she became the World Cup champion of slalom in 2013, edging out Maze, the veteran took it in stride. Maze also imparted some advice. "She was upset with herself for being that close and letting it slip away, but she still came up to me, and she shook my hand, gave me a hug, congratulated me," Shiffrin said. "And she was like, 'Don't do every event, ever.' She said, 'It's too tiring.' Because at that point she had had 23 podiums and 16 wins in one year and she'd just had a knockout season and she was tired. I think she was still tired, two years later."
Mikaela Shiffrin's style is sure-footed and rhythmic. Like the best slalom skiers, she sets up …
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So is it too early to talk about retirement? Asked if she thought it was time to spend more of her energy, say, free-skiing from now on (or making more music videos), she was noncommittal. "I don't think about that. I think about this season. I don't want to think so much forward," she said.
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Would the decision be in March? No, she said. "July."
But first, there are three more races at these World Championships—and, possibly, three more podiums to climb.
Freelance journalist Amanda Ruggeri, a former ski racer, writes for publications including the BBC, The Globe and Mail, and The New York Times. After nearly five years of living (and skiing) in Italy, she now lives in Brooklyn, where she has learned that when it snows, her new neighbors do not share her enthusiasm.
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It’s not just a technical degree,it is an outstanding opportunity
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At this time the application process for the 2018/2019 program year is closed but you can download an application for the 2019/2020 program year.
Please frequently check back to this site for Summer Open house dates.
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Download our information brochure on great educational and career opportunities and the corresponding application form!
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For further inquiries, you may also call Human Resources at 570-602 3941.
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Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano reportedly was seeking a 10-year deal worth $300 million when he becomes a free-agent this offseason.
But the Yankees brass said that Cano is still a marquee player but are not prepared to offer Cano a contract that substantial, especially after giving third baseman Alex Rodriguez a 10-year, $275 million deal six years ago.
"We'll see. I know that is a number that is out there now. We'll see if he gets it, how much he wants to be in New York. But, again, I can promise it is going to be a very, very solid offer that we do make because we are going to try. We are going to try the best we can to keep him."
The 30-year old Cano hit. 314 with 27 home runs with 107 RBIs this season, and it's clear that the Yankees want to re-sign him.
"I'm optimistic and I know that we are going to make him a very, very good offer," Steinbrenner said. "Is anybody an absolute must-to-sign? No. And that's nothing against Robby. [It's] just not reasonable to assume that about anybody. We are going to do what we can. We've certainly conveyed to Robby we want him back and we want him to be a career Yankee. We'll just have to see what transpires here."
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Director Jean-Paul Clemente says his production stays true to Richard O'Brien's original, with subtle winks to the film (starring Tim Curry) through set design and audience participation -- but his characters aren't parodies.
"Even Rocky Horror has an underlying basis in reality," he says.
Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through August 10, with late night 10:30 p.m. shows Saturday, July 27, and Friday, August 2 and 9. Tickets are $22 and $25, available at www.desertstages.org or 480-483-1664. -- Janessa Hilliard
Eva Vega
De Monica Studio
Lit Lounge @ SMoCA Lounge
Lit Lounge don't stop. Having routinely filled SMoCA Lounge to capacity, the event migrated to the big Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts theater across the way in May and filled that. Now it returns to the exclusive vibe, sharing a taste with "outsiders" via a wild streaming simulcast in the Center's Stage 2 with lobby bar. A multiple litgasm, if you will (and we know you will).
Afterward, the overflow audience can travel an alleged 15 feet and join in celebrity worship, additional drinking, and running around Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art until it closes -- all the sweet ish that fans of the live show are there for, but for half the price of the already-sold-out-before-press-time SMoCA Lounge seats ($5 vs. what was $10).
Pirate Mud Wrestling @ Revolver Records
Perhaps no question is asked with less sincerity than "What did you do this weekend?" People ask it because it would be rude not to, but unless you did something really out of the ordinary your answer ends up being a chore for both parties. You have to try to find a way to make eating two boxes of Franken Berries and watching three seasons of Frasier seem interesting; they have to make it seem like they're interested.
A possible cure for this awkwardness is to spend your weekend doing something so outside the box that it demands people's interest, which may be all the reason you need to attend DREAD's Pirate Mud Wrestling Saturday, July 27, at Revolver Records, 918 North Second Street. The event, which starts at 7 p.m., will feature pretty much exactly what the name advertises: members of a pirate-themed performing troupe mud-wrestling against each other. -- Ed Kummerer
Equality Walk Afterparty @ Lustre Bar
Walking 101 miles outside in the middle of the summer is borderline insane, but HERO does it every year for good reason. Equality walkers trek one mile for every year that Arizona has been a state without giving full rights to its LGBTQ community. The HERO walkers will travel all over the state over the course of 11 days, visiting 15 county seats to raise awareness about LGBTQ rights. HERO founder and director Meg Sneed acknowledges that the equality walk is no easy task, "but so is denying LGBTQ people the right to marry the one they love," she says. The Maricopa County leg of the walk concludes with a swanky Equality walk afterparty at Lustre Bar, where you can donate to HERO and congratulate this year's walkers.
Drink for a good cause on Saturday, July 27, starting at 8 p.m. at Hotel Palomar's Lustre Bar, 2 East Jefferson Street. This all-ages event has no cover, but donations are encouraged. Call 602-253-6633 or visit www.facebook.com/herophx. -- Melissa Fossum
Courtesy of Cassandra Uhl
Etsy Panel Discussion @ MADE
Browse the discussion boards at Etsy.com for a few minutes, and you'll quickly see that just because someone has opened a digital storefront doesn't mean they have a clue how to run it. Let alone run it well. The "Etsy Success" discussion group has some 1,574 pages of questions regarding the best ways to sell custom work, how to get social media followers, and the most cost-effective boxes for shipping, among a multitude of other things.
Instead of perusing those numerous Q&A sessions, Phoenicians who want to up their Etsy game can attend an hourlong panel on the matter when MADE art boutique hosts a trio of creatives well-versed in proper play. The Etsy Success Panel Discussion will feature Sebastien Millon, Cassandra Uhl, and Matt Hinrichs. In addition to taking questions, they'll talk about their experiences and the best practices for starting and running a solid Etsy shop.
Learn from the pros from 10 to 11 a.m. at 922 North Fifth Street. Admission is free. Participants may register by calling the store at 602-256-6233. More information is available at www.madephx.com. -- Becky Bartkowski
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Low carbing for a year and losing over 90 lbs. didn't affect my blood pressure. I am now on a calcium channel blocker for another condition and my blood pressure is usually (not always) in the normal range with this medication.
I'm not sure how much you want to lose, but my weight loss didn't really affect my BP until I'd lost about 100 lbs. I never had really 'high' BP, but it was borderline 'worrisome,' and I hoped it would go down with weight loss. It did, but not all that much. I mean it's in the ideal range now (120/70), but it was only about 140/85 when I was my heaviest.
If your BP is rising for other reasons than weight, the loss won't really help.
At the time my BP was 'worrisome,' my primary doctor gave me a Rx for a diuretic because he said that for women with moderately high BP, studies showed that a diuretic was effective. Apparently hormonal shifts cause water retention in women that can elevate BP. That was great because BP meds are very powerful, and it was nice to try the diuretic. It worked, so if you want to do something now, you might ask your doctor about this.
I took over a year to bring my blood pressure down to normal. I was at ideal weight for about 6 months before it began to drop. Once it dropped it did not rise again and it has been 4 years since I stopped medication.
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I really appreciate this post. I’ve been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thank you again! “All that is gold does not glitter not all those that wander are lost.” by J. R. R. Tolkien….
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing a little research on that. And he actually bought me lunch since I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch! “They may forget what you said, but they will…
with you. below, we take a look at our top tips when it comes to writing a successful blog comment and actually getting something from it!read the blog first – it is vital that you read the blog all of the…
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With an elastic skin the production of collagen gets affected which leads to stretch marks in numerous places of our physique like bikini region, ..
It is triggered mainly when a person gains weight and the skin grows rapidly causing stretch marks. Even although our skin occurs to be quite elastic overstretching might lead to stretch marks. It typically takes place at the time of puberty when girls and boys body go by means of a speedy adjust, in the course of pregnancy or when you happen to gain or lose weight.
With an elastic skin the production of collagen gets affected which leads to stretch marks in several locations of our physique like bikini area, stomach, thighs, hands, breasts, hips, legs and even buttocks. Even even though the stretch marks seem to be normal from outside the stretching come about inside.
The lower layer of the skin which gives it strength and elasticity tend to get thinner and uneven. As the skin is very transparent the blood vessels can be easily seen. Due to which the stretch marks happen to be observed. Guys suffer from stretch marks as well. These stretch marks usually disappear after period of time, but that as well can stretch based upon the marks you have.
Stretch mark starts creating to pregnant ladies on the abdomen throughout the second half of the pregnancy. The skin stretches to accommodate a developing baby which develops comparatively as there are stretch marks on the skin.
At times the skin color plays a part too. According to the skin color the mark may possibly begin as a pink, reddish, brown, or dark brown color. Be taught further about this page is not affiliated by visiting our unique web resource. These reddish-brown marks fade steadily with passage of time which later on looks like shining silver lines.
Due to pregnancy your skin gets stretched a lot fundamentally close to the abdomen and breasts. These are caused partially due to hormonal changes. Females who have weaker collagen tend to get a lot more stretch marks than the others and may possibly take even far more time to heal.
Analysis has showed that due to the frail pelvic floor ligaments women suffer from stretch marks. This can be corrected by undertaking pelvic floor workouts to avoid any incontinence of urine. To research additional info, consider checking out: go here. Bodybuilders also get stretch marks due rapid growth of their body comparable to pregnant women.
Remedial measures for stretch marks
- Applying collagen creams, even though its advantages are still unclear so check it up with your physician before applying any lotions
-Cocoa butter creams are stated to do wonders to your skin as it softens scars
-Applying olive oil and Vitamin E oil which would support in obtaining rid of the stretch marks
-Mixture of 1/two cup virgin oil, 1/four cup aloe Vera gel such as liquid of 6 Vitamin E capsules and liquid from four Vitamin A capsules mix then together and retailer it in the fridge to be applied everyday
-Have a healthy diet which has plenty of protein and is wealthy in Vitamin C and Vitamin E, which assists in tissue growth
-Mixture of any carrier oils like avocado, sweet almond, jojoba mixed with drops of lavender and couple of drops of chamomile can still do wonders on your skin
-Massaging your physique with most of these oils would tone your body producing it a lot more supple and soft
-There is laser treatment which can be done when they are still sore and red
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To begin with, when you go to docs.google.com from the Safari browser on an iPad, Google automatically redirects you to a mobile version of the site. I could tell immediately because A) the site looks completely different than what I am used to seeing in the Chrome browser on my laptop, and B) the URL in the address bar redirects to docs.google.com/m.
With my iPad, a free Wi-Fi hotspot, and Google Docs, I can work just about anywhere.There is a search bar at the top of the browser, three buttons to filter the view (Home, Owned By Me, and Starred), and then a list of the various documents I have created--separated by day. I wanted to write this post, so I needed to figure out how to start a new document. The paper and pencil icon at the upper-right is small and not very obvious, but it's not impossible to find. I suppose that should be obvious since I am typing this.
When you click on the Create New button in the standard Google Docs mode, you get a drop-down list where you can choose from document, spreadsheet, presentation, form, drawing, collection, or from template. From the mobile version of Google Docs, when you tap the little document icon it takes you to a new page called Create New where you can choose between only two types of files--Spreadsheet or Document.
Below the two radio buttons, is a text field labeled Title with the word "Untitled" in it. I tapped the radio button next to Document, then tapped the text field to give my file a name. I started typing, then realized that the word "Untitled" was still at the beginning. I hate when a field is pre-populated, and the text starts typing at the end of the pre-populated text rather than replacing it. It's annoying. Just leave the text field empty. Anyway, I deleted the word "Untitled", assigned a name to my file, and tapped the Create button.
The next screen took a little getting used. There is a small section toward the top for typing text, with a bar at the "bottom" that lists the currently logged in Google account in the middle, with a Sign Out button on the left, and a Help button on the right. But, the reason bottom is in quotations is that below this bar is a massive amount of unused space that takes up about two-thirds of the iPad display. I tried it in portrait and landscape--either way there is a huge section of useless space.
But, if you tap in the blank section above that bar, the virtual keyboard pops up so you can start typing. In this mode, though, it is more like a text editor than a word processor because you don't have access to any formatting options or additional features. There is no way to make text bold, or add an image, or change the line spacing. You can just type text.
Oddly, though, once you get this deep into the process Google offers you the choice to switch to the normal Google Docs mode. There is a drop-down arrow at the top right that has two choices on it: Print, and Use Desktop Version. At the "bottom", just under the bar described earlier, and above the massive wasted space is a line that says "View document in: Mobile | Desktop" with Desktop being a link you can tap.
I tapped the Use Desktop Version in the drop-down list at the top and first got a warning from Google Docs that my browser does not fully support Google Docs and that some features may not work properly, but I clicked past it and voila! The familiar menu options and tool bar appeared and I could work with my document just as if I were using my laptop.
For some, being forced to use the virtual keyboard might be a major drag on productivity. But, I have to say that overall I don't see any reason I could not just jump onto Google Docs on my iPad from any Starbucks, McDonald's, or other free Wi-Fi hotspot and get down to work.
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President Trump is on his way home from his historic meeting with North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, in Singapore. There, the two leaders agreed to set aside decades of tension between their countries and launch a new era of cooperation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The past does not have to define the future. Yesterday's conflict does not have to be tomorrow's war.
SHAPIRO: Kim renewed North Korea's pledge to denuclearize but gave no details to back that up, and Trump made a surprise announcement. He said he's halting joint military exercises with South Korea. NPR's Scott Horsley was there.
((SOUNDBITE OF CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: It was a day carefully choreographed for the cameras, from the leaders' first handshake on the red carpet outside a resort hotel through a lunch of stuffed cucumbers and sweet and sour pork. By early afternoon, when the president sat alongside the North Korean leader in an elegant wood-paneled room, Trump said he and Kim had formed a very special bond.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: Spent a lot of time together today - a very intensive time. And I would actually say that it worked out for both of us far better than anybody could've expected.
HORSLEY: Trump and Kim signed a joint statement that the president described as pretty comprehensive even though it's just over one-page long. In the statement, Kim reiterates his vague promise to work towards denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. There's no detail about what that means, no timetable and no indication of how disarmament might be verified. North Korea has a long history of backsliding on its nuclear promises. Trump says he believes - this time - Kim is serious about dismantling his nuclear arsenal.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: He was very firm in the fact that he wants to do this. I think he might want to do this as much or even more than me because they see a very bright future for North Korea.
HORSLEY: For his part, Trump promised to guarantee North Korea's security, but the statement does not say how the U.S. plans to do that. Both North Korea and China would like to see the U.S. withdraw many of its troops stationed in South Korea. Trump says he'd like that, too, though not right away.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: We have - right now - 32,000 soldiers in South Korea. And I'd like to be able to bring them back home, but that's not part of the equation right now. At some point, I hope it will be but not right now. We will be stopping the war games.
HORSLEY: By war games, Trump means the joint military exercises the U.S. regularly conducts with South Korea. News that the president is halting those exercises appear to catch officials in Seoul off guard even though they generally support improving ties between the U.S. and Pyongyang. Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution says there's no great military loss in suspending the joint exercises with South Korea, but he warns Trump's talk about a potentially big troop drawdown sends an ominous message about the depth of America's commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.
MICHAEL O'HANLON: But it does inject a note of instability or doubt for our allies, even for other countries like China and Russia, and I don't think it's particularly constructive.
HORSLEY: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who's been tapped to lead the follow-up negotiations, is headed to Seoul and Beijing this week to explain what's happened so far. As for Kim, who's speaking here through an interpreter, he's already gotten much of what he wanted from the summit. International sanctions against North Korea have begun to weaken, and Kim now has the prestige of standing toe-to-toe on the world stage with the president of the United States.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SUPREME LEADER KIM JONG UN: (Through interpreter) We had a historic meeting and decided to leave the past behind. The world will see a major change. I would like to express my gratitude to President Trump to make this meeting happen.
HORSLEY: Even those who criticized Trump's handling of the summit say talking with North Korea is preferable to exchanging threats, as the two leaders were doing last year. Trump says he looks forward to visiting Pyongyang one day, and he told reporters he would absolutely invite Kim to a follow-up summit at the White House. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Singapore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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ABSTRACT
CovR/CovS is a two-component regulatory system in group A Streptococcus and primarily acts as a transcriptional repressor. The D53 residue of CovR (CovRD53) is phosphorylated by the sensor kinase CovS, and the phosphorylated CovRD53 protein binds to the intergenic region of rgg-speB to inhibit speB transcription. Nonetheless, the transcription of rgg and speB is suppressed in covS mutants. The T65 residue of CovR is phosphorylated in a CovS-independent manner, and phosphorylation at the D53 and T65 residues of CovR is mutually exclusive. Therefore, how phosphorylation at the D53 and T65 residues of CovR contributes to the regulation of rgg and speB expression was elucidated. The transcription of rgg and speB was suppressed in the strain that cannot phosphorylate the D53 residue of CovR (CovRD53A mutant) but restored to levels similar to those of the wild-type strain in the CovRT65A mutant. Nonetheless, inactivation of the T65 residue phosphorylation in the CovRD53A mutant cannot derepress the rgg and speB transcription, indicating that phosphorylation at the T65 residue of CovR is not required for repressing rgg and speB transcription. Furthermore, trans complementation of the CovRD53A protein in the strain that expresses the phosphorylated CovRD53 resulted in the repression of rgg and speB transcription. Unlike the direct binding of the phosphorylated CovRD53 protein and its inhibition of speB transcription demonstrated previously, the present study showed that inactivation of phosphorylation at the D53 residue of CovR contributes dominantly in suppressing rgg and speB transcription.
IMPORTANCE CovR/CovS is a two-component regulatory system in group A Streptococcus (GAS). The D53 residue of CovR is phosphorylated by CovS, and the phosphorylated CovRD53 binds to the rgg-speB intergenic region and acts as the transcriptional repressor. Nonetheless, the transcription of rgg and Rgg-controlled speB is upregulated in the covR mutant but inhibited in the covS mutant. The present study showed that nonphosphorylated CovRD53 protein inhibits rgg and speB transcription in the presence of the phosphorylated CovRD53in vivo, indicating that nonphosphorylated CovRD53 has a dominant role in suppressing rgg transcription. These results reveal the roles of nonphosphorylated CovRD53 in regulating rgg transcription, which could contribute significantly to invasive phenotypes of covS mutants.
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SK top Group B; OpTic crush NRG to finish second
SK Gaming have nailed down the top spot in Group B after defeating Misfits, who have been leapfrogged by OpTic in the table following a 16-3 thrashing of NRG.
With SK and Misfits level on points at the top of the table, the clash for the first place began with a dominant start from the Brazilians, who strolled to a 7-1 round after recovering from a lost pistol round. Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan then took matters into his own hands, clutching a 1v2 to bring SK's streak to an end.
That individual action sparked a great run from the North Americans, who shut down any chances of SK stringing rounds together again, reducing the gap to 9-6.
SK top Group B to avoid a potential FaZe semi-final match-up
The second half was a complete one-way street from the get-go. After losing the pistol round and the following anti-ecos, Misfits won the first full buy round to keep themselves in the race. However, their hopes of finishing at the top of the group were soon quashed as SK ran all over the North American defence, winning four rounds straight to lock down the map, 16-7.
Meanwhile, OpTic and NRG faced each other on Cobblestone for the all-important playoff spot. Many had expected this to be a close contest after the North American had acquitted themselves quite well on the first day of the event, but it ended up being a one-sided affair, with the European mixture cruising to a 12-3 lead on the Terrorist side after constantly countering their opponents' few round wins.
OpTic ran over NRG
Carrying their momentum into the second half, OpTic quickly wrapped things up, with Adam "friberg" Friberg hammering the final nail into NRG's coffin with a triple kill spraydown.
The final group match was a Nordic classic between NiP and North, two teams already out of the race for the playoffs. A lively start from NiP saw them take a 6-2 lead after constantly denying North the chance to string any rounds together, but the Danes then tightened up their defence and won seven rounds straight to pick up a 9-6 lead.
NiP recovered from a 15-10 deficit to beat North in OT
North overcame a slow start to the second half and brought the scoreline to a 15-10 advantage with a 1v4 clutch from Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen, but they failed to deal the finishing blow, allowing NiP to force overtime - in which the Swedes would run riot.
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"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
Where People Won’t Be Afraid of Difference
“Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of the saints. If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note. Aristotle has told us that a city is a unity of unlikes,6 and St Paul that a body is a unity of different members.7 Heaven is a city, and a Body, because the blessed remain eternally different: a society, because each has something to tell all the others—fresh and ever fresh news of the ‘My God’ whom each finds in Him whom all praise as ‘Our God’.” -C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
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Thursday, March 25, 2010
An ancient therapy which involves bees stinging patients to cure their ailments is causing a buzz in China.
Doctors at a traditional Chinese medical clinic in northeast Beijing say the therapy has been proved effective in curing bone and joint diseases, as well as other problems.
The bee therapy dates back over 3,000 years in China, though it was only officially authorized as a legal medical service in 2007.
Doctors at the Kang Tai Bee Clinic keep the insects in regular beehives on the clinic grounds. When the patient is ready, the doctor uses tweezers to pick up bees one by one and places them on the acupoint of the suffering joint…
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Play Pack – 8 printable toys
Play Pack – 8 printable toys
$4.00
These easy paper toys are the perfect extra bit of fun for the kids in your life. Make paper planes, whirligigs that twirl to the ground, a chomper monster whose moving mouth will talk your ear off, and a cootie catcher full of things to do. Stuff them in Christmas stockings, pull them out for a long roadtrip, mail them to your favorite far away kid, or save them for a long school break. These toys are ready at a moment’s notice!
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Beginning of a dialog window, including tabbed navigation to register an account or sign in to an existing account. Both registration and sign in support using google and facebook accounts. Escape will close this window.
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Description
The perfect gift for any star gazer, this 2cm glass pendant contains a high resolution image of The Small Magellanic Cloud Galaxy and is set into a silver plated base which comes on either a 16" or 18" sterling silver chain. The rounded glass cabochon has a slightly magnifying effect which enhances the overall appearance. It is presented in a black jewellery box and has a beautiful Valentines card with information of the galaxy on the reverse and is left blank on the inside for you to write your Valentines message or greeting.
Reviews
I purchased these as a wedding gift for my hubby. I gave them to him the night before the wedding so he could wear them on the day, he's not just my world but my entire universe and he loves them, thank you!
We take intellectual property concerns very seriously, but many of these problems can be resolved directly by the parties involved. We suggest contacting the seller directly to respectfully share your concerns.
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Cold Turkey
Home for the holidays get-together for the eccentric Turner clan goes from bad to worse when estranged daughter Nina makes a surprise visit home for the first time in 15 years. Nina clashes with her stepmother Deborah, and sister, Lindsay, while half-brother Jacob tries to keep a massive...
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Rey came with a mask, which can be attached to the face by plugging it into a small hole underneath the chin
The headdress and the goggles are not removable
The backpack and the belt can be taken off the figure
Rey is able to hold the included staff well in both hands
Rey looks great overall, but we would have liked to see some weathering on the clothing or some Jakku sand on the boots
The figure fits well onto the included Speeder, but it will take some time to get Rey situated just right
The handle bars and the foot rests on Rey's speeder can be moved up and down which helps to get Rey's hands/arms and legs/feet positioned easier
Rey's Speeder has three panels which can be opened, one on the top and two on the right hand side, when they are opened they'll reveal the engine inside the speeder (this is particularily impressive when the entire panel is taken off on the right hand side)
There were two attachements included which plug into the bottom front of Rey's Speeder
The display stand plugs firmly into the bottom and it helps to balance Rey's Speeder out beautifully
The net can be attached to four hooks on the left hand side of Rey's Speeder
The included junk pile has enough room to fit into the net and there are two holes on the speeder where it can be plugged in
Rey's Speeder is phenomenal, the toy captures the look of Rey's Speeder perfectly and the ability to open several panels gives collectors the opportunity to recreate different scenes from Star Wars: The Force Awakens
We highly recommend Rey's Speeder, it displays beautifully and it includes a Rey figure which has not been available outside of this set before
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The Left and Terror
The Jihadis will return. We know this, in the same way that we know about death and taxes. Thanks in large part to the weakening of our defensive efforts under the new administration, there will be further attacks against this country’s population, perhaps even worse than those of 9/11. (This week’s attack by Nidal Malik Hasan serves to underline the threat.)
When this attack occurs, we will see an end to all the nonsense. Our present drift regarding terror policy is occurring only because Americans have been encouraged to put unpleasant realities at a distance, to live in a dream world where all the bad stuff happens to other people. 9/11 has ceased to signify. Terrorism has become a matter of bad manners. As my grandfather might have put it, this country is in for a rude awakening.
When it comes (and sad to say, it will need to be even worse than the Hassan attack) people will want answers and action. They will get both. Few things move faster than a frightened politician, particularly a politician frightened by his own constituents. Fearful pols will see to it that current efforts to undermine American security will come to an abrupt halt. The law enforcement paradigm will be overturned. The attempts to “Mirandize” Islamist terrorists — to turn them into esoteric versions of American street criminals, protected by the same legal constraints — will cease. Contingent efforts to criminalize American security officials doing their best to protect the country will be curtailed. All the deeply complex questions fabricated over the past few years will be abruptly simplified.
But there is one thing that will not be addressed: the role of the American left.
The American left is unparalleled at wriggling out of deadly cul-de-sacs of its own creation. Consider how many times since the Vietnam War this country’s left has involved itself in activities that in saner epochs would have resulted in lengthy jail sentences. Support for the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran FMLN, the Nuclear Freeze movement (a KGB operation from start to finish), cooperation with Palestinian and related terrorist groups. In each case, the left continued its involvement until the bitter end; and in each case skipped off with no consequences. This offhand attitude toward sedition has its roots in the excesses of the witch-hunt era. The aura of martyrdom donned by the left since the early 50s has bought them a free pass for over half a century.
The myth concerning the left and the terror conflict asserts that American leftists pulled together with the rest of the country until such Republican Saurons as Cheney, Rove, Ashcroft, and their puppet W simply went too far: persecuting innocent citizens, impugning the Constitutional rights of the poor Jihadis, and shocking the world with their viciousness and brutality. As the sole exemplars of moral purity in the millennial world, the left had no choice but to begin “speaking truth to power”.
My own experience suggests otherwise. In September 2001 I had a part-time position as copy-editor for a small but well-known national magazine. Within days of 9/11 — and I mean days; not weeks or months — while the smoke was still rising, I began receiving copy containing pieces suggesting that the terrorists — Moussaoui in particular — were poor, misunderstood victims in need of therapy. That there was far more to the event than appeared — one short piece contained the first suggestion I saw of what was to become known as the “Truther” movement. But possibly the worst was a call for the assassination of John Ashcroft by one of the magazine’s regular writers. Calling the editor’s attention to this, I was told that it was not necessarily Ashcroft, since the writer did not mention his full name. (It was “John A.”, or something of that sort.)
I simply exploded. I’ve seen a lot from lefties – we all have. There’s no limit to their nastiness, their vindictiveness, their callousness. It’s this lack of everyday morality that truly distinguishes them from the mass of Americans. So I shouldn’t have been shocked. But I was, and I was not willing to accept it. My main gig at the time was five blocks from the WTC, and hundreds of people I had known in passing were no longer of this earth. My patience for the kind of thing I was seeing was strictly limited.
I wrote a short memo outlining my objections. What I got in reply was a blast of vituperation accusing me of slander, McCarthyism, and promoting censorship. That last was quite true; that’s exactly what I was doing. But wartime changes things — certain activities that are perfectly acceptable in times of peace have to go by the board. Or did (editor’s name here) really think that he’d breeze through airport security as usual on his next business trip?
In the midst of the exchange I received further copy. It contained more of the same. I sent it back with an ultimatum. I got more abuse in reply, and so I walked.
That’s how it looked from my small corner. No lag time, no hesitation — left-of-center writers knew what was required of them and produced it. There were similar signs on the wider public stage — Michael Moore berating the Jihadis for their choice of targets, Some obtuse blurt from Susan Sontag. That nameless pol in San Francisco blaming America first. But much of the left decided the better part of valor lay in keeping their mouths shut — courage is not a widely-displayed trait in that crowd either.
Of course, it didn’t remain that way. First came the niggling over the Patriot Act, followed by Fahrenheit 911, the incisive foreign policy analyses of Ward Churchill, and Cindy Sheehan’s assorted campouts. But it was Iraq that proved to be the crack through which the left wriggled back to its accustomed status. Abu Ghraib was the fulcrum by which leftists were able to turn public trust and support of the anti-terror campaign to nagging doubt. Justified shock and disgust at the Abu Ghraib photos was amplified by the media in their expert fashion. Within months, such doubts had expanded to include not only the war effort in Iraq, but the overall conduct of the war against terror. Rarely has the misbehavior of a few malcontent backwoodsmen had such heavy consequences.
Not a single aspect of the U.S. policy was left unaffected. The foreign wiretapping program (“listening in on U.S. citizens”), the bank surveillance effort, the terrorist rendition program, and of course Gitmo, all received the Abu Ghraib treatment. Those images of tormented Iraqi prisoners had a deep and extended impact: if Abu Ghraib could happen, why couldn’t all the rest happen too? That quivering sense of doubt was all the left needed to put themselves back in the sedition business big time.
We know where it led to. We have reached the point where successful programs are being abandoned, where national defense has taken a back seat, and where decent men out to protect their homes and fellow citizens are being targeted for legal sanction. The left has gained a shoddy and partial triumph. Though they could not destroy the despised Bush administration or throw away Iraq, they have the consolation prize of shutting down all those evil programs and betraying the people of Afghanistan. No fall of Saigon or Watergate this time around, but they’ll make do.
There is only one way this will end: people are going to die. Americans will be killed in large numbers and under the most horrifying circumstances in attacks that could very likely have been prevented. And when this occurs — as it must — what will the left do? The same as they did after 9/11. Grab a kid-size American flag from somebody else’s hand and stand waving it frantically until the moment of potential retribution is safely past.
What motivates this kind of behavior? The answer lies in the leftist worldview, which is simplicity itself. (It has to be simple, designed as it is to be comprehended by workers, peasants, and college students.) The world is divided into oppressors and victims, with history a dialectical struggle between the two. The oppressor is anyone who holds power, the victims everyone else. By definition, the U.S., as the worlds reigning power, is an oppressor state. In fact, the greatest of all oppressor states, worse than Assyria, worse than Rome, worse than Hitler’s Germany, because it has craftily convinced much of the world that it is no such thing.
As for the Jihadis, they are victims in arms — revolutionaries acting against the imperial state, like the Viet Cong and the Sandinistas before them. Islam, reactionary politics, contempt for women — none of that matters, as long as they are active against the common enemy. And the role of the Western leftist is to support and assist these heroes, exactly as occurred with all the revolutionary movements in the past. By “speaking out”, by “defying authority”, and above all by undercutting any efforts to combat the new revolutionary vanguard. But what of the real victims, you ask, all the innocents left scattered like broken, burnt dolls in New York, and Bali, and London, and Madrid? “Little Eichmanns”, in the immortal words of the renowned plagiarist, Ward Churchill. Or perhaps you prefer ancient the leftist slogan: “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
Clearly, American leftists cannot act otherwise. They can never be truly patriotic in the real sense, in the sense of sacrifice and overcoming doubts, of valuing their country as a larger expression of family and neighborhood. To ask that of them is to ask them to give up their higher allegiance, to demand that they stop being leftists, stop being progressives, stop being the world’s holy fools. And that is to ask too much.
This is a historically unique situation, a product of the modern temperament. Never before would effective treason by a large minority have been tolerated, particularly involving such crucial sectors as media, academia, and education. This is not a stable condition, and it cannot be maintained for long. There is no reason why it should be.
So how do we respond? We’ll pause here to allow the loud cry of “Hang ‘em all!” to roll over us and commend everyone involved for their enthusiasm, if not their prescription. But what we need, though perhaps not as final, is something effective and workable within with contemporary social norms.
The first step is not to buy their story. There is nothing wrong with the fact that we believed the left the first time around — it involved an unprecedented event. They assured us that 9/11 was different, a good war, the war against reaction, that they could support in good conscience. We were obliged to listen — they were fellow citizens, after all, those who had died screaming amid flames their friends and acquaintances as well. But now we know it as a lie, one that they will inevitably repeat. So we must turn away. And that can be a problem. Understanding the limitations of human nature, conservatives have a tendency to hand out second chances whether deserved or not. This is commendable under most circumstances, but not these, not when lives are at stake. We yank drunk drivers out of cars; we must also yank leftists out of the public sphere.
The second step is to identify them. Call them out by name, relentlessly and repeatedly. Note how scarcely a day goes by without some (often dozens) of disparaging references to Gov. Palin. The left knows how this is done, how to assure that the public overlooks nothing and forgets nothing. Turnabout is fair play. Again, conservatives tend to be squeamish, to hesitate before pointing fingers. There is no excuse for that here. As the old saying goes: don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
The third step is to target them, isolate them and render them harmless. The question is how we go about it. The left itself may well have put the weapon in our hands. The attacks against Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, among many others, have been so noxious and vicious as to change the way such tactics are currently received. The public has become hardened to such attacks. Much is accepted now that would not have been accepted even a few years ago. We need to take advantage of this. Ask questions, poke around, find out where the bones are buried and use the shovel. The left threw out the rulebook: now they need to pay the consequences. (This is not unprecedented. In fact, it’s a historical commonplace. Few are aware that Joe McCarthy was supported by the Communist Party in his Senate run — the CPUSA loathed his opponent, Robert LaFollette, Jr., as the son of one of their deadliest enemies during the Progressive era. The Tailgunner is supposed to have studied their tactics of bullying and humiliation with interest.)
Van Jones should act as our model. A few years ago, it wouldn’t have mattered that Jones was associated with a nut cult like the Truthers. Now everything matters, and everything goes under the microscope. Jones was a critical figure to the administration, one for whom they were willing to put their reputations on the line to save. It made no difference. Once exposed, and hammered, and spotlighted, he was shown the door and wished luck with his further endeavors. For this outcome, he has no one to thank but his own comrades on the left.
Need we ask if all of them have something hidden, something they’d truly rather not see in the light of day? They all do. Consider Barney Frank. Consider Bill Ayers. Consider Ward Churchill. Under the old dispensation, he might well have been given a pass for his more vicious remarks under “freedom of expression” as understood in this fallen age. But that wasn’t all — far from it. Ward turned out to be a plagiarist, hustler, cheat, and poser of master status. When it all poured out, even as left-wing a campus as Boulder had to cut him loose.
Nobody on the planet earth quite equals the left for simple worldly corruption. The Renaissance princes might have been able to teach them a thing or two, but nobody else. Dig, and you will find. While digging, we might wish that things were different, that we could operate in as civil a manner as many of us would prefer. But we are not at the moment living in a civil epoch. No one reading these words ever has. We know of such a world once — where decency is honored and nobility is a way of life, only because we have read about it. We are living in a different period now, a period in which our opponents feel completely at home. We cannot allow ourselves to be backed down by thugs such as these. To paraphrase Boccaccio: any tactic against such would-be tyrants is legitimate.
There is a difference between dissent and desertion, criticism and undermining. That difference has been lost amid a fog of relativism in the past few decades. But behind that fog, the hard stone of reality remains. It’s no longer a game. People are going to die because of the actions taken by this country’s leftists. Recognizing those differences has become a matter of life and death.
The terror conflict is a two-front war. It always has been, as reluctant as we have been to admit it. The time to open the second front is coming.
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Head decoding chip PA1100 characteristics: 1, and support single, and double, and three rail magnetic article card decoding; 2, and built-in RAM cache data; 2, and using simple, without external resistance capacity; 4, and support pros and cons to swipe; 5, and support automatically gain; 6, and sup...
This document describes in detail the use of ucosII kernel and features, are indispensable to the development of MCU RTOS operating system information. Easy to learn and to find the appropriate information...
[Cython] is a programming
language based on Python, with extra syntax allowing for optional static type
declarations. It aims to become a superset of the [Python] language which gives it high-level, object-oriented,
functional, and dynamic programming. The source code gets translated into
op...
Description of tasks:
1. The set of words of a dictionary ( dictionary contains the meaning of the words in the source language and the target language ) used to set the transfer in the form of a list.
2 . The task must perform the following operations :
A) coding : the creation of a list of word...
There is a QT reference documentation detailing the QT classes that are defined, very clearly, is indispensable for researchers developed using QT as reference documentation, can find the definition of a class, you can also follow the function to find, it's very convenient, personal feeling than MSD...
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The Cockroach Species File (CSF) is an up-to-date taxonomic catalogue of the world's cockroaches, excluding fossil species. Cockroaches belong to the order Blattodea (sometimes known as Blattaria) as too do the termites. In the past termites were thought to be a separate order, Isoptera, but recent work confirms that they are in fact blattodeans.
The CSF includes c. 6,700 scientific names (all ranks, valid and not valid) and c. 4,600 valid species are recognised. Images of museum specimens (especially types), plus pictures of living cockroaches are slowly being added.
NOTE: The spellings of the scientific names in the CSF, plus the names of their
authors and the year of their description are now more accurate than in the previous
world catalogue of cockroaches, which was compiled by Karlis Princis (1893-1978)
and published between 1962 and 1971. In addition the synonomy and higher classification
of most taxa is up-to-date, unlike Princis' catalogue. Having said this, there are
still likely to be errors, so if you find any please inform George.
To see information contained in the database, use the links across the top of the
page. Click on
Search to find a specific taxon or other kinds of information. Clicking
on Taxa will make the
order Blattodea your current taxon unless you have previously moved to a different
taxon in this session.
This website and database use Species File Software. Information about the
design and use of SFS may be found on a separate website.
Please send comments and questions about the database and its development to George
Beccaloni
(send mail). When referencing this website, please use the following
format: Beccaloni, G. W. 2014.
Cockroach Species File Online. Version
5.0/5.0. World Wide Web electronic
publication. <http://Cockroach.SpeciesFile.org> [accessed 11 July 2014*].
* Please give the precise date you used the BSF. Use http://Cockroach.SpeciesFile.org to bookmark this website.
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P0632 OBD-II Trouble Code: Odometer Not Programmed – ECM/PCM
P0632 code definition
The P0632 trouble code detects that the PCM is unable to read the odometer.
What the P0632 code means
The P0632 code is a generic, but fairly uncommon OBD-II trouble code that signals an odometer issue. In the case of the P0632 code, the powertrain control module (PCM) is unable to recognize the reading from the odometer.
What causes the P0632 code?
The P0632 trouble code is almost always caused by a PCM that needs reprogramming.
This can occur because:
The PCM was replaced or repaired without being reprogrammed
The battery in the vehicle became discharged
Damaged electrical components, such as wires, connectors, and fuses
Defective PCM.
What are the symptoms of the P0632 code?
A vehicle with the P0632 trouble code will usually have an illuminated Check Engine Light on the gauge cluster. In most cases, the vehicle will be incapable of starting.
How does a mechanic diagnose the P0632 code?
The P0632 code will be diagnosed using a standard OBD-II trouble code scanner. A certified technician can assess the code using the freeze frame data from the scanner, and can also check for any additional trouble codes that are present. If the mechanic notes multiple trouble codes, then they will need to be addressed in the order in which they are displayed. The mechanic should then reset the trouble codes, restart the vehicle, and test to see if the P0632 code remains. If the code does not remain, then it was probably in intermittent error, or an inaccurate trigger.
If the P0632 trouble code remains, then the mechanic will visually inspect the electrical system, and replace any blown fuses, loose or corroded connectors, or short or open wires. Next, the mechanic will need to find out the history of the PCM, to know if it requires programming. If the PCM was recently replaced or repaired, then a reprogram will almost surely fix the issue. If not, the mechanic should ask the vehicle’s owner if the battery has died recently; if it has, then a reprogram is in order. If none of these things have occurred, then the PCM will need to be replaced.
After any component is replaced or reprogrammed, then the mechanic should again reset the trouble codes, restart the vehicle, and check to see if the P0632 code is still present. This helps the technician know as soon as the code has been resolved.
Common mistakes when diagnosing the P0632 code
The most commonly made mistake when diagnosing this code comes from a failure to follow the OBD-II trouble code protocol. It’s important for mechanics to always abide by the protocol in step-by-step order, to avoid erroneous repairs, and ensure an efficient inspection.
Often PCMs are replaced without first checking to see if they merely require reprogramming.
How serious is the P0632 code?
In most cases, a vehicle with the P0632 will refuse to turn on, so the car should be inspected as soon as possible.
What repairs can fix the P0632 code?
Repairs for the P0632 trouble code are:
Reprogramming of the PCM
Replacement of the electrical components
Replacement of the PCM
Additional comments for consideration regarding the P0632 code
If the PCM does require replacement, it will also need to be reprogrammed upon installation.
Need help with a P0632 code?
YourMechanic offers certified mobile mechanics who will come to your home or office to diagnose and repair your vehicle. Get a quote and book an appointment online or speak to a service advisor at 1-800-701-6230.
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AUT 123 Powertrain Diagn & Serv (2 Credit Hours)
Class Hours: 1Lab Hours: 3Clinical/Work Experience Hours: 0Prerequisites: Take DRE 097Corequisites: NoneThis course covers the diagnosis, repair and service of the vehicle powertrain and related systems. Topics include fundamental operating principles of engines and transmissions and use of proper service procedures for diagnosis, service and removal and replacement of major components. Upon completion, students should be able to perform basic service and diagnosis of the powertrain and related systems, and to perform in vehicle repairs and remove and replace components.
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Saylor.org's Cell Biology/The Cell Nucleus and Gene Expression
As you learned in BIO101, the cell nucleus is the storage area for all genetic material and constantly full of activity. The nucleus in fact contains not only DNA, but RNA and protein as well. This unit will take a detailed look at chromosomes, the cell nucleus, gene expression, and expression regulation. When we refer to “expression regulation,” we are talking about the fact that not all genes are expressed in the cell at the same time. After all, though a liver cell and a nerve cell have the same genome (and thus the same DNA), they look and act completely differently. How does this happen? The answer is regulated gene expression!
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What AMP PD partners are saying
Celgene
“Parkinson’s disease is a complex, progressive and heterogeneous disease, which is particularly difficult to treat,” said Rupert Vessey, President of Research and Early Development, Celgene Corporation. “Since every person is unique, a targeted approach may have the potential to bring highly effective therapies and high-value care to patients with this disease. The investments needed to discover and develop these life-enhancing medicines can substantially improve health outcomes, and reduce the cost of failing to appropriately target treatment, estimated to be tens of billions of dollars every year.”
GlaxoSmithKline
“Parkinson’s disease requires new medicines,” said Min Li, Senior Vice President and Head of Neuroscience, GlaxoSmithKline. “Seeking insights into disease biomarkers by applying state of the art analytics in a collaborative partnership is an important pathway to meet this need. GSK is excited and proud to be part of this initiative to further evolve our understanding of disease and accelerate medicines to patients.”
The Michael J. Fox Foundation
"The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, industry partners and thousands of research volunteers have built robust datasets and biosample banks ripe for inquiry with the latest technologies. Leveraging those previous investments and partnering together can move us faster toward greater understanding of Parkinson's and therapies to slow or stop disease, patients' greatest unmet need,” said Todd Sherer, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Pfizer
“A challenge as big as Parkinson’s disease needs the collective focus of the entire R&D ecosystem. I’ve seen first-hand what we can accomplish when we come together with a common goal. Pfizer is proud to join the AMP PD and the effort to better understand the drivers of this devastating disease.” Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., President of Worldwide Research and Development, Pfizer.
Sanofi
“We are excited to partner with other scientific leaders across the health care sector to advance the understanding of Parkinson’s disease,” said Tanya Fischer, MD, PhD, Global Project Head of Early Development for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Sanofi R&D. “We look forward to working together to help identify and validate new therapeutic targets and develop biomarkers to improve clinical trial design, with the goal being to accelerate the development of new treatment options for patients affected by this devastating disease.”
Verily
"There's a lot of rich data in these publicly-funded data sets that currently exist in siloed repositories, and our vision in creating this knowledge portal is to empower synthesis of these data to potentially generate new insights into Parkinson's Disease," stated Andy Conrad, Chief Executive Officer, Verily. "A platform that organizes complex molecular, clinical, imaging and, ultimately, biosensor data for easy research and querying does not yet exist, so this work is important and will take significant effort."
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iOS 6 accounts for 15 percent of Apple mobile users after its first day
Uptake of Apple’s latest mobile operating system looks brisk, with iOS 6 said to account for about 15 percent of mobile traffic from Apple mobile devices (in the US) after its first 24 hours.
The iOS update was released on 19 September and can be downloaded by eligible iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users (if their hardware isn’t too “old” to use all of the features).
Although some people might be holding off, especially due to the controversy over the removal of Google Maps and the debut of its not-so-well received Apple replacement, that hasn’t stopped plenty of users becoming early adopters and migrating from iOS 5 to the new version 6.
TechCrunch reports that data monitoring services ChartBoost and Chitika both reckon iOS 6 was being used by about 15 percent of North American iOS users by the end of its first full day. It’s not yet clear if this proportion will be the same for other parts of the world.
Peering deeper into the data, ChartBoost says that iPhone owners were the quickest to upgrade, with 17 percent of unique users (these stats obviously don’t include the iPhone 5 as that’s only gone on sale a couple of days after the release of iOS 6 itself), followed by the iPad (13 percent) and iPod touch (9 percent).
In comparison, it took iOS 5 around five days to reach a 20-percent level when it first launched. The contrast is more stark with Android, as it took nearly eight months for Android 4.0 to reach the same level of use among ’droid mobiles. However, that comparison is less fair due to the way that Apple makes its OS updates available to all compatible devices at the same time.
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Former Medina Mayor Jane Leaver remembered for dedication, service
Jane Leaver is shown in the Medina mayor’s office in 2008 before the end of her last term. (GAZETTE FILE PHOTO)
Former Medina Mayor Jane Leaver died at the Cleveland Clinic late Tuesday night after a four-year battle with lung cancer.
She was 49 years old.
Leaver was the first and only woman to serve as the city’ mayor, from 2002 to 2009. She was the Ward 1 member of Council in 1998.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Jane’s long courageous battle with lung cancer,” her family said in a statement released by Cindy Fuller, former Council president and longtime friend of Leaver’s.
“She was one of the strongest people we have ever known and what she would want as a result of this would be to strongly encourage everyone to trust your gut if you think something is wrong and get tested.
“In the words of Jane, ‘I fought the battle with the help of my faith, friends and the caregivers at the Cleveland Clinic.’ ”
As mayor, Leaver was instrumental in helping the city overcome a budget shortfall and passed income tax reform in 2003, which set aside a specific percentage to be used for infrastructure improvements.
She told The Gazette in 2008 that laying off 70 city employees in 2001 because of the deficit was one of the hardest decisions of her life.
“I would not have wished the first two years of my term on anybody,” she said. “Talk about a crash course in financial survival.”
She responded by putting the tax increase on the ballot in 2002, but the initiative failed. She succeeded in 2003. In 2008, she announced that she would not seek re-election in order to spend more time with her husband, Jim, and two daughters, Jordyn and Jamie.
“I would like to leave office and the one thing that people remember me as is one of the hardest-working people they ever met and that I left the city in sound financial condition,” Leaver told The Gazette in 2008. “That will be a very successful eight years in office by my definition.”
Mayor Dennis Hanwell said the team Leaver put together as mayor was influential when he had to make the decision to leave the relative job security of being police chief to make his successful run for mayor in 2009.
“I wanted to maintain that same management team,” he said. “She was very detail oriented and methodical and had the ability to think things through — not only the decision, but the implications — and did a good job of relying on the staff she put together to come to the best solutions for the city.”
Hanwell said former colleagues will remember Leaver as a hardworking and dedicated mayor.
“Mayor Leaver was an exceptional and well-respected leader. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Mayor Jane Leaver,” Hanwell said.
Councilman Bill Lamb, at-large, said the city is mourning the loss.
“It’s a shame because she died so young,” he said.
Council President John Coyne, who took Leaver’s place as Ward 1 councilman when she resigned, said his thoughts and prayers are with the Leaver family because he recently lost his mother and grandfather.
“As mayor, she had the best interest of the city always at the forefront of her decisions,” he said. “She loved the city of Medina and wanted to make it the best it could be.”
Leaver was a resident of Medina County since she was 10 years old. She graduated from Cloverleaf High School in 1983 and the University of Akron in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in social work.
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Tag: Best Casino Games
US Online Casinos have had a huge and swift success in switching from the traditional brick and mortar casinos to the internet. Talking about internet technology, virtually every business is online today. The casino industry isn’t different here. On the other hand, gamblers and casino players applaud this development. The reason for celebrating being you can play online at the comfort of your chair at home and still the result is interesting just like a physical casino. Online casinos or internet casinos have numerous advantages over traditional casinos. To both owners and players, this industry is becoming interesting each coming day.
What Game Packages Will You Find With US Online Casinos?
US Online Casinos comes with a variety of games for gamblers. You will find your favorite games ready waiting for you to play. In addition, varieties here mean new games are loaded to online casino platforms as they’re developed. The result here is getting fresh and interesting games that players want to explore. Unlike traditional casinos, here you have plenty of time to experiment and learn a new game before you go live. While, many fans find this as an opportunity to explore the casino industry, others see it an opportunity to perfect their skills for their interesting games.
What Makes US Online Casinos Popular?
US Online Casinos are popular for their timely mechanisms. These casinos operate on a 24 hour clock giving gamers a reason to enjoy their favorite games anytime they find convenient. In addition, everyone is busy nowadays; a time that everyone is busy, the time wasted travelling to a casino site can now be utilized elsewhere. Nevertheless, plenty of time doesn’t mean you relax back choosing the game you want to make bucks at that time is a challenge. For one, there are similar games and interesting games. Second, the numerous benefits of choosing one game over another.
What Are the System Requirements for US Online Casinos?
Most US Online Casinos are PC systems friendly. These casinos use software that is compatible and run on all computer systems including, Windows and Apple. As if that’s not enough, they also run on mobile devices such as feature phones and Smart-Phones. These applications ensure no one is left out of gaming whether using a mobile device or a computer. Online Casino developers say that the technology is at its best disposal. That’s why it can allow creating software that virtually runs on any device as long as it allows internet access.
Do Us Online Casinos Offer Bonuses?
Us Online Casinos offer juicy bonuses. This is what drives traffic on-site to find out what gaming is on over so as to reap from it. Casino bonuses are usually advertised on the casino’s website. In addition, this bonus makes any new game popular within days of introduction. Why? Because new game attract abnormal huge bonuses. Usually, players want to be the first ones to benefit from the huge offer hence they must work hard to learn the new game and proceed to live gaming.
Advantages of online casinos
When you choose to gamble through the USA Online Casinos there are many benefits one could actually enjoy. The difference between the physical casinos and the online casinos are something that one should experience personally to envy the facilities available online. People who have played online would never prefer to go to the physical casinos as it offers convenience, comfort and saves time and money.
How are USA Online Casinos much safer?
One of the major advantages of the USA Online Casinos is the safety is assures you of. You are always at the risk of being an easy target for all the thugs or criminals who eye on people who carries cash out of the casinos. This could be even worse if the player is a female and especially in the odd hours. Due to this a female player should always accompany a male for security reasons. These situations could totally be avoided while you are choosing the USA Online Casinos. Because almost all the transactions of winning money will be wired to the player’s bank account.
How can USA Online Casinos be useful in saving money and time?
Another fact about physical casinos are that one should have to always spend time and money on travelling and fuel that is required to reach their favorite casinos. While you choose to play with the USA Online Casinos this is totally avoided as you will be playing at your own preferable place which will be more comfortable compared. You can also fix the time according to your convenience as there is no particular opening or closing time to these online casinos.
How do USA Online Casinos provide you with much wider options of games?
Another drawback of casinos that are land based is that they have too much of limitations when it comes to the factor of slot machines. But when you choose the USA Online Casinos you get a wide range of options on different slot machines. This also means that you do not have to wait for hours waiting for your turn in the queue to play on the slot. Since there is number of slot machines available online all you would have to do is just start playing the moment you sign in.
How do USA Online Casinos provide more offers in slot games?
When you choose to play the slot machine games with the USA Online Casinos you will see that they have plenty of slot machines to accommodate many players. Since they have a large number of online players they also have a good amount of financial profit. This will allow them to offer various bonuses of better percentage and different promotions and also offer progressive jackpots. Before choosing any online sites one could actually compare the deals and choose the best.
Conclusion
People who have visited physical casinos would have experienced how frustrating it could get while they have to deposit cash. They would have to run around a lot to make any kind of deposits. The reason behind this they face denial from almost all banks while they tend to deposit money for gambling reasons. But while you choose the USA Online Casinos all these difficulties are completely avoided.
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How to capture/log all processes cpu utilization of Linux Server through a perl script?
How to find Total CPU Utilization, Resource utilization of a Linux System.?
I am running a backup from my windows system on to the Linux server. I want to capture CPU Utilization, Resource utilization through Perl script of that Linux system. i want like, it will aggregate all the statistics from a start point of time to end point of time of any particular operation
My inputs for my perl script should lie the Server ip only ?? please help to get the correct perl script
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Ask a personalized offer:
Special offer: Insurance Bundle Deal
As one of the few selected Microsoft Cloud ISV Embed partners for Europe, Realdolmen can deliver a bundled offering on Microsoft Dynamics 365 (online) licenses** combined with Traviata at a very low price:
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If you thought you were the only one who can't get the Taylor Swift single "Shake It Off" out of your head, you're not alone. The Broadway cast of Mamma Mia! has released their own music video to the new hit song.
The single was released Aug. 18 in anticipation of Swift's upcoming album "1989." Check out the cast of Mamma Mia! singing and dancing to "Shake It Off" below.
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He said: "When you lose the derby, I cannot lie, it was a tough day, a very tough weekend for us and for our fans because it is a game your life depends on for the next week.
"I like to train but I prefer to play as many games as possible. After the defeat against Man City, we have the chance to fix it tomorrow. We want to do it, we want to show the fans we are here to win every game."
He added: "This match is a good challenge for all of us. The way we have reacted we have to show in this traditional stadium against a historic team. I like football and I like to play against the best teams and Feyenoord is one of them in Holland."
Herrera also explained how he feels towards United boss Jose Mourinho when he said: "We are very, very comfortable with this manager. Every training session we are enjoying. I feel very good when I have played. I feel his confidence every day and I think all my team-mates are the same."
While Mourinho has omitted Antonio Valencia, Luke Shaw, Jesse Lingard, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Wayne Rooney from the 20-man squad that flew to the Netherlands on Wednesday afternoon, Phil Jones is an injury absentee.
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Login
User accounts are created the first time you enter an abstract or register for a conference. To create an account click one of these links. If you have an account but do not know your password, click Reset Password, below.
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Music Vid: Tyga/Drake – Still Got It
I am really feeling this Tyga video. It’s off his AMAZING album Careless World: Rise Of The Last King and it has an 80s/90s feel in a Harlem setting. Teyana Taylor makes a cameo and the video is super throwback with big cell phones, beepers and LL Cool Jish hats. LOL check the vid by clicking below for more.
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ESPN has acquired the rights to the new college football playoff, the network announced on Wednesday.
The deal is for 12 years and, according to SportsBusiness Daily, the deal is expected to be worth about $500 million per year.
ESPN has reached a 12-year deal for the new college football playoff. (Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
The agreement will begin after the 2014 season — including January 2015 — and continue after the 2025 regular season — January 2026.
The championship game, semifinals, additional bowl games and related programming will be included in the deal.
“Because of college football’s widespread popularity and the incredible passion of its fans, few events are more meaningful than these games,” ESPN president John Skipper said. “We are ecstatic at the opportunity to continue to crown a college football champion on ESPN’s outlets for years to come, the perfect finale to our year-round commitment to the sport.”
“We are delighted to continue our relationship with ESPN for 12 more years," Executive Director of the BCS and the future college football playoff Bill Hancock said. "ESPN’s outlets provide numerous opportunities to bring this iconic event to the fans. Folks are going to love this playoff and the attention ESPN will give to it.”
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Your Source For Transit Oriented Development News
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is pleased to announce the Late Night Sponsorship program, a unique opportunity for a limited number of firms to show support for extended public transportation service in the core of Boston.
Late Night T Sponsorship is a high profile community service opportunity which will improve Boston’s night time experience by providing patrons and workers worry-free, safe, affordable and convenient transportation.
Your Sponsorship Advertising Will Get Noticed!
22 million tourists visit Boston and Cambridge every year
14 million people view T bus advertising every month
90% of Bostonians live less than 5 minutes from a train station or bus stop
80% of adults 18-34 years of age in Boston are exposed to T advertising every week
1/3 of Bostonians use the T to commute to work every day
Greater Boston has 100+ major colleges and universities
Metro Boston is home to 20+ major hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and other health care facilities, operating 24/7 and employing shift workers
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The Women's March on Washington—plus sister marches around the world—brought more than one million women together in solidarity. In D.C., Gloria Steinem took to the stage to deliver her keynote speech, underscoring the importance of acting together to work for a more connected world. Celebrities from Alicia Keys to America Ferrera joined her to take a stand and share their words of wisdom and hope as well. The day was full of monumental moments as women the world over made history. Here are some of the most memorable quotes from the Women's March on Washington, to keep the momentum going.
"We are mothers. We are caregivers. We are artists. We are activists. We are entrepreneurs, doctors, leaders of industry and technology. Our potential is unlimited. We rise."
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
"[Remember] we are not afraid, that we are not alone, that we will not back down, that there is power in our unity and no opposing force stands a chance in the faith of true solidarity."
"We are here not merely to gather, but to move. And our movements require us to do more than just show up and say the right words. It requires us to break out of our comfort zones, and be confrontational. It requires us to defend one another when it is difficult and dangerous. It requires us to truly see ourselves and one another."
"Let us fight with love, faith, and courage so that our families will not be destroyed. I also want to tell the children not to be afraid, because we are not alone. There are still many people that have their hearts filled with love. Let's keep together and fight for the rights."
"If we—the millions of Americans who believe in common decency, in the greater good, in justice for all—if we fall into the trap by separating ourselves by our causes and our labels, then we will weaken our fight and we will lose. But if we commit to what aligns us, if we stand together steadfast and determined, then we stand a chance of saving the soul of our country."
Paul Morigi/Getty Images
"Continue to embrace the things that make you unique even if it makes others uncomfortable. You are enough. And whenever you're feeling doubt, whenever you want to give up, you must always remember to choose freedom over fear."
"This is the upside of the downside. This is an outpouring of energy, and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life. It is wide in age, it is deep in diversity, and remember, the Constitution does not begin with 'I the president'; it begins with 'we the people.'"
"Don't get frustrated—get involved. Don't complain—organize."
Head to the comments to share your experiences from the Women's March with us.
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Last week, we reflected on the past and how our view of it affects our present. We revealed that each of our pasts extends beyond ourselves, born of a combination of all those who have gone before us. That was the easy part.
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. From the past we reap many lessons and levels of understanding. It might require some digging, but the past is nothing if not known. The future, on the other hand, frustrates even the most carefree spirit with its inability to be grasped and mastered.
Though many have tried to divine it, the future remains largely unknowable. The very reality of that great unknown breeds anticipation, which, in turn, manifests in two forms: fear and hope.
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270-444-6115
COVID-19 UPDATE--Reopening Soon!
Updated: May 2
We have a date! Governor Beshear has announced a #HealthyAtWork gradual reopening of the businesses in Kentucky and we are (at the moment) scheduled to reopen to foot traffic May 20th. YAY!! We closed to foot traffic as of March 21, 2020. So it will be 2 full months we've had to shut our retail showroom. Ouch. And it hurt! Business is down 70%. Yeah. I know! Ouch. BUT! The good news is our online and call in orders have been a life saver. Also, we were thankful to be among the first 75 small businesses to receive the Paducah City Grant for $2,000 to help with payroll, rent and utilities.
In addition, business been very good for the last few years (thanks to all of you!) and I've been using that surplus to expand our inventory and stash away for a rainy day. Little did I know it was going to rain for 60 days! All that to say, the Rock Shop is on solid ground and was prepared to weather the storm. We appreciate all your support and we'll be excited to see our customers again soon.
Now. Here's the deal. We still have a nasty virus that can and does kill without mercy. So we must be smart about this. There will be some government guidelines we will need to follow. Here's what we at the Rock Shop are doing to keep you (and us) safe.
1. IF YOU ARE SICK--EVEN JUST A LITTLE. EVEN IF IT'S NOT CORONAVIRUS... EVEN IF YOU JUST HAVE A LITTLE SNIFFLE... IF YOU HAVE A TEMPERATURE OR HAVE HAD A TEMPERATURE WITHIN 48 HOURS DO NOT COME TO THE STORE. If you love the store and us as much as you say, help keep us, and our customers safe. We have NOTHING that is worth someone dying over. Karma's a bitch. DON'T DO IT.
2. We will limit how many customers will be allowed in the store at any one time in order to achieve the 6' social distancing guideline. We think that will be about 10. Once in the store, we'll ask any customers to honor that safe space to keep one another healthy.
3. You MUST wear a mask while shopping. Please bring your own, but if you forget, I'll have a disposable for you to use. We will also be wearing masks.
4. You will be asked to use the Hand Sanitizer when you come in the store.
5. We have installed 'Sneeze' guards at the Pay Station, the Ring Counter and the Zen Den. These areas are difficult to maintain the safe distance, hence the plexi guard.
6. We will maintain a schedule of disinfecting and wiping down the surface areas throughout the day.
As more guidelines are announced, we will implement them. I'll keep you posted.
When we open, we will have a psychic reader on site for readings. I know everyone needs answers! Masks and the plexi shield will be used to keep you safe. I will not be doing any tuneups for a while, as it's hard to maintain a distance on that. Classes will likely resume in mid June. Class sizes will be controlled.
In the meantime... Our online store is always open and I continue to work hard to expand the scope of products I have available online. If you need something we can also act as personal shoppers and do a phone or video chat to help you shop virtually, you can email us with your needs, message us on any of our social media pages or call 270 444 6115 and we will either ship or make available for Curbside Pickup.
Can't wait to see everyone! In the meantime... stay #HealthyAtHome and safe. xo ~Susan
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DeRosa may move to Phillies
DeRosa may move to Phillies
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By Barry M. Bloom and Marty Noble
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MLB.com |
LAS VEGAS -- The anticipated absence of Chase Utley for an extended period has prompted the Phillies to become involved in the Cubs' pursuit of Jake Peavy. The Philadelphia Inquirer said as much in its Tuesday editions, reporting the Phillies seek to acquire versatile Mark DeRosa from the Cubs.
The newspaper said the Phillies were working on a complex trade that would import DeRosa, who would provide insurance for Utley at second base and fill, at least partially, the club's vacancy in left field.
DeRosa, the one-time quarterback for Penn, would move from the Cubs to the Phillies, who would send pitcher J.A. Happ to the Cubs, possibly with another prospect. The Cubs would then move Happ, the second prospect and more to the Padres in a package for pitcher Peavy, the 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner.
The Inquirer reported that the Orioles might be involved in the multiclub deal. "Three teams, possible," the paper quoted a Phillies source as having said Monday night. "Four, doubtful."
Ruben Amaro Jr., the Phils' new general manager, declined to comment about the possibility of being involved in a Peavy trade, although a source said there have been talks. Pat Gillick, the outgoing GM who is now a consultant with the club, said on Tuesday morning that he has no detailed knowledge of the talks.
Utley, the All-Star second baseman, underwent surgery on his hip and is expected to miss at least two months of the season. The void in left field is the result of Pat Burrell filing for free agency. Burrell is not expected to re-sign with the Phillies.
DeRosa, 34 in February, appears to be an ideal fit for the Phillies. He batted .285 with 21 home runs and 87 RBIs in 149 games for the Cubs last season, playing six positions including second base (96 games) and left field (27). He is signed for the 2009 season for $5.5 million.
Amaro said on Monday that there was a lot of general interest in infielder Jason Donald, who played for bronze medal-winning Team USA during the Summer Olympics in Beijing and was recently named to the Arizona Fall League's All-Prospect team
The Padres have been attempting to move Peavy, their ace, who is owed $63 million over the next four seasons. The Cubs have been the main target since a deal with the Braves collapsed last month, but a match between the Padres and Cubs hasn't been found, so San Diego GM Kevin Towers has said a third or fourth team might be needed to get a deal done.
Towers said Monday that a deal with the Cubs will most likely need to take place this week at the Winter Meetings or he expects to halt the process of trying to move Peavy, the 27-year-old who won the National League Cy Young Award and that league's pitching Triple Crown just one year ago.
Towers wouldn't comment on the Phillies being a possible go-between to get Peavy to the Cubs, saying only on Monday that "there's a package there that would please us."
Meanwhile, Amaro said he continues to talk with myriad clubs and agents about filling his club's holes, which also includes one that could be created by the possible departure of veteran left-hander Jamie Moyer via free agency.
According to an SI.com report, the Phillies are believed to have offered Moyer a two-year deal for about $14 million. Moyer is said to be looking for $18 million over two years. At the same time, the Phillies are said to be one of several teams to make an offer to free-agent right-hander Derek Lowe.
Amaro declined to talk about players on other teams he might be talking with, but said that obtaining a starting pitcher would not necessarily preclude the re-signing of Moyer.
"You can never have enough pitching," Amaro said.
"We've spent the day trying to crystallize some of the things we want to do," Amaro said. "We've had some sort of discussions with each of the 29 other clubs. Our desire is trying to improve this team."
As far as Burrell goes, Amaro said he's had no substantive talks about bringing back the right-handed slugger, who had three homers and eight RBIs in 14 postseason games.
The Inquirer also reported that the Phillies retain interest in left-handed-hitting, free-agent outfielder Raul Ibanez to play left. However, Ibanez would make the Phillies' batting order unbalanced once Utley returns. Utley and Ryan Howard also bat left-handed, and without Burrell, the club would lack a right-handed power presence in a ballpark tailored for right-handed hitters.
Ibanez, 36, batted .305 in 187 at-bats against left-handed pitching with the Mariners last season. He batted .293 with 23 homers and 110 RBIs overall, playing in all 162 games.
But opponents would be more likely to throw left-handed pitching at the Phillies whenever possible, and that seemingly would serve to defuse Howard's potent home run bat.
Ibanez is considered a favorite of Gillick, a one-time Mariners GM, the paper said. Gillick, is in Las Vegas for the Winter Meetings.
If the Phils don't get DeRosa or Ibanez, they may pursue free agent Juan Rivera, a right-handed hitter who played for the Angels in 2008. He could become part of a left-field platoon with left-handed-hitting Greg Dobbs.
The Phillies also have spoken with the Twins regarding outfielder Delmon Young.
Barry M. Bloom and Marty Noble are reporters for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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Sunday, February 13, 2011
DC Direct Clowns around with Harley Quinn!
I've been greatly enjoying DC Direct's Cover Girls of the DC Universe Statue Series, based on artwork by Adam Hughes, but I didn't pre-order the Harley Quinn installment of the series because she isn't a character that I'm particularly interested in. When I saw the statue in person, however, there was a little but important detail that made me decide to buy it. What was it? Read on..
This series continues to impress me, and I'm obviously not the only one - I noticed that my Harley was one of 8000, which is an incredible edition size for statues these days! One of the things I really appreciate in this line is that the translations from Hughes' art to the sculpt have been pretty much flawless, and Harley Quinn is no exception. I love the pose that Hughes chose for this, and it's been brilliantly executed in this piece. Hughes certainly knows how to draw the female form, and Jack Mathew's sculpt has conveyed that skill beautifully into three-dimensional form!
A good sculptor can give different elements of a design different senses of texture and weight, and Mathews has accomplished that here very expertly. The tassels at the ends of Harley's jester hat and cowl look like tassels - you have to touch them to see they're sculpted. Another example of this is the great wooden look that Harley's mallet has.
Even the best design and sculpt can be let down by a poor paint job, but there's no danger of that here. I tend to prefer matte finishes to pieces, but the shinier, reflective paint used here really suit Harley's outfit and accentuate its design of contrasting colours. It also helps her matte--painted mallet appear to be made of different materials. My statue has a flawless paint job.
Last but not least, what was it that made me decide to buy this beautiful piece when I saw it? It may sound a but macabre, but it was the blood spatter on the head and lower handle of Harley's mallet. It wasn't the gruesome aspect of this that appealed to me, but rather the humorous element that turned this statue from a good looking piece to something I decided I wanted to have on my shelf. Adam Hughes is very skilled at instilling a little "wink" to the viewer in his designs, and it's been very well done here!
I've passed on the Batgirl statue which was next up after Harley as it just doesn't gel with the rest of the series for me, but am very much looking forward to the future of the series, with Poison Ivy out shortly. Stay tuned for more Cover Girls of the DCU reviews!
I was surprised by the ES too. Poison Ivy is also fairly large at 7,000. Speaking of which, be SUPER careful in placing the shovel in her hand. I saw one that broke it's little finger almost immediately. I think that the best approach would be to place the handle in her hand first, and then try to slide the other end into the base.
And it actually is possible for there to be paint problems with Harley. Mine has a spot on her leg where the black paint is non-glossy, and I saw where someone else had a worse problem (though I forget where I saw the comment).
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In this summer’s look at sabermetrics and hockey, I have looked at the Corsi Number as an alternative to +/- ratings. Because Corsi Numbers include far more events (all shots directed at the goal) they may be more accurate than +/- which only includes goals scored, as long as the events included are meaningful (are blocked shots and missed shots meaningful?). The best source for Corsi Numbers online is behind the net. It treats Corsi Numbers as a rate stat (per unit of time). I think a more reasonable place to start in analysis is with the raw counting numbers. I have already listed the top 20 players by Corsi Number. Here are the worst 20 Corsi Numbers in the 2008/09 regular season.
When I listed the 20 players with the top Corsi Numbers in 2008/09, the name on the list that most surprised me was David Moss of the Calgary Flames. Moss ranks tenth in the league last year with a +343 Corsi. Moss is not a reasonable choice to be called the best player on his team, while any of the other top 20 players all might be (at least if you neglect other teammates who made the top 20). Moss is a 25 year old who completed his third NHL season (his first full NHL season). He played largely on the Flames third and fourth lines, but managed to chip in 20 goals and 39 points. This placed him tenth in Calgary’s scoring list. The secret to Moss’s success is he is the best puck controlling player who did not play on the top two lines under Mike Keenan.
Ever since there stopped being a valid player transfer agreement between the NHL and the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, both sides have been fighting over players. The first major battle was over Alexander Semin who played in Russia during the lockout year and the year after it despite a valid NHL contract. That was sorted out and he came to the NHL. Though he has become an NHL star since then, he was not one at the point of the fight over his rights. The Russians attempted to fight the transfer of several players to the NHL including Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, but the NHL was able to get any player they wanted and Russia was only successful in getting some NHL rejects (such as prospects Roman Voloshenko and Igor Grigorenko). The NHL had been able to get their way in any important case until Alexander Radulov left Nashville for the KHL.
In this summer’s look at sabermetrics and hockey, I have introduced the Corsi Number as an alternative to +/- ratings. Let’s take a look at some of the players with the best Corsi Numbers from the 2008/09 regular season. The best online source for this information is behind the net, but it treats Corsi Numbers as a rate stat (giving them per minute of ice time). I think it is a much more logical starting point to look at the raw counting numbers. This is how we most frequently view +/- ratings and should be best comparable to Corsi Numbers. In the adjustment process, we may wish to treat them as rate stats, but not at this point.
I like to write a career perspective when future Hall of Famers retire. Today Joe Sakic is expected to announce his retirement in a press conference in Denver. This retirement is one that I feel close to because I grew up near Joe Sakic and first met him (though I doubt he would remember) when I was a four or five year old child and Sakic was a slightly older child starring in Burnaby Minor Hockey.
Joe Sakic was born on July 7, 1969 in Burnaby, British Columbia. He grew up playing in the Burnaby Minor Hockey Program. He was first noticed by scouts in 1985/86 playing for the Burnaby Selects of the BC Amateur Hockey Association when he scored 156 points in 80 games. This was good enough to get him a three game tryout with the Lethbridge Broncos of the WHL. Lethbridge moved to Swift Current the next season and this is where Sakic became a junior star. In his first full junior season, Sakic scored 133 points in 72 games and was named to the WHL East Second Team All Star, WHL East Rookie of the Year and WHL East Player of the Year. This was good enough to get him selected by the Quebec Nordiques 15th overall in the 1987 entry draft.
In this summer’s look at sabermetrics and hockey I have began by looking at +/- ratings and the results of a couple standard methods of their adjustment. +/- ratings are sometimes considered a problematic starting point. One problem is “signal to noise” there may be slightly over 100 goals scored in even strength for a given player in a given season. Their +/- is the difference between the goals for and the goals against. If there are a few fluke events they can carry the majority of the signal (i.e. if a player is on for a few fluke goals those goals can greatly influence their +/-). One way to try to get around this is to increase the number of events we are looking at. Buffalo Sabres goaltender coach Jim Corsi has pioneered another metric. Why not keep track of all even strength shots directed at the net both for and against a team when a player is on the ice. This includes goals scored, shots on goal, blocked shots and missed shots. The NHL keeps enough data in its games online that this can be calculated for each game. The main benefit of this method is that it gives roughly sixteen times the number of events for a player that standard +/- does. This is intended to increase the signal to noise (in experimental physics any counting number has an experimental error that scales with its square root so in principle the Corsi Number could be four times better).
The Chicago Blackhawks appear to have made a very big procedural mistake. Six of their players, Cam Barker, Troy Brouwer, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Aaron Johnson and Kris Versteeg (many reports have called this group the Chicago Five - it is unclear if that means one of these six is not involved), may have not received qualifying offers correctly. If this is the case, these players would become unrestricted free agents. Apparently, these players had their qualifying offers mailed to them on June 29th. The deadline for players to receive their qualifying offers is 4PM ET on June 29th (early stories incorrectly listed July 1st as a deadline). Usually, qualifying offers are sent by courier or by fax to the player’s agent, but this was not done in these cases.
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I have written about the top 20 and worst 20 adjusted +/- ratings when adjusted as a counting stat from last season. This is not the only way to adjust +/- ratings. Gabe Desjardins of behind the net calculates them in a different manner. He calculates the */- per minute when a player is on the ice and his team’s +/- per minute for the team when a player is off the ice and compares them to make an adjustment. This uses +/- as a rate statistic. As a result, his method is better at finding players who do not play as many games or as much playing time than the previous method.
Here are last year’s top 20 adjusted +/- ratings by this method (among players with 50 or more NHL games played):
One question I have tried to think about is how good a team would be if they could sign unrestricted free agents in order to completely fill their roster. This summer and last summer I made 23 man all star rosters of UFA players. Assuming one team signed all of those players in a given year, how good would they be? 22 of the 23 players on the 2008 team signed in the NHL (with Jaromir Jagr signing in the KHL). They had a total salary cap hit of a little over $101 million for the season. Given a $56.7 million NHL cap this team is clearly unfeasible as an NHL club.
In order to get a bit of a handle on how good this team might have been, we can look at their 2008/09 NHL numbers
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Two students at Portland Arts and Technology High School got some career help Monday.
Colin Lavigne of Portland and Evan Lunn of Gray both won $1,000 scholarships to Universal Technical Institute for coming in first place at a recent auto skills competition.
They also won a tool box worth $10,000 for PATHS.
Advertisement
Both teens talked about how the scholarships would assist them.
"In the first year, it teaches you a lot of stuff you can apply to other things, like you can apply some of the stuff you learned to auto body, you can apply some of it to machining, you can apply some of it to welding. You just learn a lot that can be used to other parts of any career," Lunn said.
"It feels good to have it pay off in such a noticeable way. Like with the toolbox, it's a tangible thing that we got from it, and scholarships," Lavigne said.
Lunn also got another scholarship worth $10,000 for coming in first at the Skills USA competition in Bangor earlier this month.
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My only critique of the critique, is not about Alan's article, but that the website complains of competing interests in ISSN, which I agree with but, you can't have your cake and eat it to. I'd say being the poster boy for intermittent fasting is a competing interest in itself. We all have competing interests in one form or another, even when money is not involved. For instance, I have an absolute disdain for certain popular strength coaches, I can't help it, when they are irresponsible, loud-mouthed, money grabbing DB's. So, my personal disdain is a competing interest in itself. You have to question what I say when it is a critique of their ideas. I just may be a little better at expressing my ideas in an intelligent fashion . So, hopefully, my arguments and explanations shine through. And this is all we can ultimately hope for, not perfection, but integrity.
However, when it comes to the ISSN it's a bit ridiculous to own a supplement company, like one that sells protein supplements, and claim you have no competing interests when it comes to people 'eating more often' and at least several of the regular author's there are "all up in the money" in regards to supplement companies. Meal replacements and the like are going to be one of the main avenues for frequent meals. But this is hardly new..the issn has been making position statements like this one for quite a while and they are all questionable, at best, but that doesn't mean they are all bunk. It's easy to yell competing interests..but I'd advise to judge it own it's own merits or you'll be throwing out every other paper you see by the same token.
I do agree with Alan's critique of the ISSN position stand, but I'm not comfortable with mixing factual statements with facts that are still under research.
Reading John Berardi's name next to recommendation for more frequent meals is fine if its an article on T-rag. But here it really does seem that to an extent they are thinking of their wallets first. However, some of the statements made are well researched, so thats a plus for ISSN, however as I mentioned earlier I feel something is amiss somehow.
but I'm not comfortable with mixing factual statements with facts that are still under research.
Then you may as well not worry about this kind of stuff at all. There are very few "factual statements" to be made but it is always going to be the same. Science is not absolute, as you well know, especially nutrition related science.
Science is not absolute, as you well know, especially nutrition related science.
Agreed. But I think what the ISSN position stand is also trying to gloss over this fact, by throwing in statements that still need further research. Of course in nutrition science, what is held as a fact today maybe changed tomorrow with further research, but why throw in things that are relatively more debatable(because they need more research) than stuff which has been more thoroughly researched.
What I mean is statements like this:
Increased meal frequency appears to have a positive effect on various blood markers of health, particularly LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and insulin.
Increasing meal frequency appears to help decrease hunger and improve appetite control.
Those seem questionable. It makes you thibnk why they would suggest such a think. Especially since when most of us think increasing meal frequency, the first thing to come to our mind is MRP's or protein powders/bars.
Agreed. But I think what the ISSN position stand is also trying to gloss over this fact, by throwing in statements that still need further research. Of course in nutrition science, what is held as a fact today maybe changed tomorrow with further research, but why throw in things that are relatively more debatable(because they need more research) than stuff which has been more thoroughly researched.
Okay, I catch your drift. The thing is, ISSN is a "sports nutrition organizaton" that also has its own journal. This is an important distinction. You would not see regular scientific journals making such "position statements". You might see editorials..but they are editorials. So they are saying, this is our interpretation, where we stand, on the evidence thus far. This no different than the NSCA having a position stand on some training question, which they do as well. To some extent, we always have to interpret and have the science inform what we do, therefore we have a "stand" on it. It's always good not to get entrenched in such a fashion as this.
Given that…what you are saying is that, sometimes, there is not enough evidence to take a stand. Absolutely, I could not agree more. This is the problem with public declarations from institutions…they can't say "its too soon to draw any conclusions, we don't know enough." Creating institutionalized knowledge is all this is about and I am against it on principle.
The thing is, ISSN is a "sports nutrition organizaton" that also has its own journal. This is an important distinction. You would not see regular scientific journals making such "position statements". You might see editorials..but they are editorials. So they are saying, this is our interpretation, where we stand, on the evidence thus far. This no different than the NSCA having a position stand on some training question, which they do as well.
Oh I though they were like a scientific journal ( like Lancet or something similar).
Given that…what you are saying is that, sometimes, there is not enough evidence to take a stand.
Yeah thats exactly what I wanted to say…lol that exactly sums up what I meant.
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Showtime in Branson: So who needs hip anyway?
Alan SolomonTribune staff reporter
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers, these are people of the land, the common clay of the new west. You know ... morons."
--The Waco Kid, in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" (The attribution for the quote as published has been corrected in this text.)Chicago audiences thought Gene Wilder's line in that 1974 movie was hilarious.
There's a real good chance Jim Stafford, if he saw the film, didn't laugh at all.
And let's be clear about this: Whatever Jim Stafford is--singer, songwriter, comedian, businessman, husband and father--he is not a moron.
What we're dealing with is a cultural divide that, to a degree, defines Branson. And the amiable Stafford, a man from an "itty-bitty town in Arkansas" in his 16th season headlining at his own theater here, can articulate it as well as anybody.
"A while back," he said, sipping from a bottle of water in his dressing room, "somebody came by from, I think it was [a high-profile Eastern newspaper] and said, `I'm here to do a story on what's hip in Branson.'
"And I said, `Let me tell you . . .'--I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but I said, `What's hip about New York City? What's hip about anything?'
"I said, `I just went to see a show there called `The Producers' . . . "
Quick note: "The Producers," like "Blazing Saddles" a Mel Brooks product, was a smash hit on Broadway and won a record 12 Tony awards. I saw it with the original stars, Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, in Chicago. Most outrageously funny show I've ever seen. Back to Jim.
". . . and I said, `One of the first jokes I saw was the old "Walk this way" thing' . . . "
Another quick note: In Chicago, that line--Brooks borrowed it from another of his movies, "Young Frankenstein," and yes, it's an old joke--got a huge laugh. Back to Jim.
" . . . `and the blond with the big boobs and the guys with the funny outfits, and the oldest tiredest jokes I've ever heard in my life.' I mean, guys in Branson wouldn't do some of that stuff.
"But it was `hip' in New York. It was `cool,' I guess. And I thought to myself, `I don't know what it is.'"
There are 49 theaters in Branson, with two more in the works, and more than 100 shows. Contrary to impressions carried by most folks who have never been here, the shows aren't all variations of "Hee-Haw" and the Grand Ole Opry.
Ten years ago, according to Dan Lennon, vice president of marketing for the Branson Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, maybe 75 percent of the shows were country shows. "It's about 45 percent now," he said.
"I know there are some older acts here," Stafford said, "and there are some country acts, and it has a kind of a country feel about it, but there's more diversity here than people think.
"The Shanghai Circus is terrific. And we have magicians and we have a big band [Les Brown Jr., playing his dad's hits]--that's 20 pieces up there and real excellent musicians--and we have Cirque . . . "
And Andy Williams (sharing the stage with Petula Clark) and Shoji Tabuchi and Yakov Smirnoff (both do country, but not necessarily this one).
"Presleys' Country Jubilee"--not those Presleys--has been on The Strip in Branson since 1967, longer than "Cats" did Broadway. "The Baldknobbers" have been there since '68. Andy Williams, on the same Strip that couldn't keep Wayne Newton, is in his 14th season in his own Moon River Theatre.
What do they have in common? Hard to figure.
How can a guy who loved both "Blazing Saddles" and "The Producers"--me--still look forward to every visit (this was my fourth) to Branson?
Some things defy explanation.
"There's a great commercial in England that kind of applies to this," said Stafford. "It was a beer commercial. Now, it sounds weird to compare a place like Branson to a beer commercial, but the beer commercial was this: `I haven't tried it, so I don't like it.'
"That might be how we might want to look at this town. `Don't dislike it until you tried it.'"
And after you try it, as the preacher said to the new sheriff in "Blazing Saddles":
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Visitors of all ages are invited to Pérez Art Museum Miami to kick off the museum’s free, monthly program featuring a day of art-making, family-friendly gallery tours, performances and more!
This month, celebrate Miami’s new cultural port, by building personalized model boats inspired by PAMM’s bay-front location and artist Hew Locke’s installation of suspended sea vessels, which hang from the ceiling at the museum’s entrance. Get pumped up with “First Beat,” a special drum performance taking place throughout the museum. Each hour, on the hour, 12 female drummers (from Miami and New York City) will fill PAMM with beats that were intended to be performed exclusively by men, but were re-written to be performed by everyone! Visitors will be invited to create their own percussion instruments and join in the fun! The commissioned performance is composed by Mindy Abovitz, founder and publisher of Tom Tom Magazine, the only publication dedicated to female drummers.
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How Texans could be affected by sequester
Here are some of the services and budget amounts the White House says Texas could lose this year if the sequester goes into effect.
By By Hearst Washington Bureau and San Antonio Express-News
on February 25, 2013 10:30 AM
Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News
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The Joint Base San Antonio system, which includes Fort Sam Houston, has 20,000 civilian workers who could be furloughed when the federal budget sequester begins Friday. Fort Sam is facing a $26 million reduction. The sequester calls for $2.4 billion in reductions affecting 34,734 jobs at Army installations alone — the most of any state.
Here are some of the services and budget amounts the White House says Texas could lose this year if the sequester goes into effect. less
The Joint Base San Antonio system, which includes Fort Sam Houston, has 20,000 civilian workers who could be furloughed when the federal budget sequester begins Friday. Fort Sam is facing a $26 million ... more
Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News
The Joint Base San Antonio system, which includes Fort Sam Houston... Photo-3070603.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Education: $67.8 million for primary and secondary education, potentially affecting the jobs of 930 teachers and aides. About $51 million for Education for Children with Disabilities.
Education: $67.8 million for primary and secondary education, potentially affecting the jobs of 930 teachers and aides. About $51 million for Education for Children with Disabilities.
Photo: JERRY LARA, San Antonio Express-News
Education: $67.8 million for primary and secondary education,... Photo-2871488.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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College aid: Around 4,720 fewer low-income students would receive college aid, and around 1,450 fewer students will get work-study jobs.
College aid: Around 4,720 fewer low-income students would receive college aid, and around 1,450 fewer students will get work-study jobs.
Photo: Lisa Krantz, San Antonio Express-News
College aid: Around 4,720 fewer low-income students would receive... Photo-3990358.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Head Start: Services would be eliminated for about 4,800 children.
Head Start: Services would be eliminated for about 4,800 children.
Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
Head Start: Services would be eliminated for about 4,800 children. Photo-4226587.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Environment: $8,467,000 for clean water and air quality, along with prevention of pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. $2,235,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.
Environment: $8,467,000 for clean water and air quality, along with prevention of pollution from pesticides and hazardous waste. $2,235,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection.
Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News
Environment: $8,467,000 for clean water and air quality, along... Photo-3689116.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Law Enforcement: About $1,103,000 cut from Justice Assistance Grants.
Law Enforcement: About $1,103,000 cut from Justice Assistance Grants.
Law Enforcement: About $1,103,000 cut from Justice Assistance... Photo-2804047.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
Vaccines for children: $665,000 for vaccinations for measles,... Photo-1485116.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Public health: $2,402,000 to help upgrade the ability to respond to public health threats, including infectious diseases and natural disasters. $6,750,000 in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse. $1,146,000 for HIV tests. less
Public health: $2,402,000 to help upgrade the ability to respond to public health threats, including infectious diseases and natural disasters. $6,750,000 in grants to help prevent and treat substance abuse. ... more
Photo: Alex Washburn
Public health: $2,402,000 to help upgrade the ability to respond... Photo-3771403.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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STOP Violence Against Women program: Up to $543,000 for services to victims of domestic violence.
STOP Violence Against Women program: Up to $543,000 for services to victims of domestic violence.
Photo: Lisa Krantz/[email protected]
STOP Violence Against Women program: Up to $543,000 for services... Photo-1684290.57395 - San Antonio Express-News
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Nutrition assistance for Seniors: $3,557,000 to provide meals for seniors.
Nutrition assistance for Seniors: $3,557,000 to provide meals for seniors.
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Forums - C# Corner
Passing different lists of data to view from controller
Jan 11 2019 4:02 PM
First, I am getting data in parsedArray below,
JArray parsedArray = JArray.Parse(stringData);
I have a user defined type list named QuestionAnsweList. Now, For each parsedproperty I have initialized parsedproperty.name as my question and parsedproperty.value as my answer. I want to send Note with question answer whenever I find "/" in the question else send only question and answer in a list. Also, I want to send same Note question answer to be sent together so that I can print them together in view.
List<QuestionAnswer> QuestionAnswerList = new List<QuestionAnswer>();
foreach (JObject parsedObject in parsedArray.Children<JObject>())
{
foreach (JProperty parsedProperty in parsedObject.Properties())
{
string Question = parsedProperty.Name.ToString();
//string Answer = Convert.ToString(parsedProperty.Value);
if (Question.Contains("/"))
{
string[] Notes = Question.Split('/');
QuestionAnswer aNoteQuestionAnswer = new QuestionAnswer();
aNoteQuestionAnswer.Note = Notes[0].ToString();
aNoteQuestionAnswer.Question = Notes[1];
aNoteQuestionAnswer.Answer = Convert.ToString(parsedProperty.Value);
QuestionAnswerList.Add(aNoteQuestionAnswer);
}
else
{
QuestionAnswer aQuestionAnswer = new QuestionAnswer();
aQuestionAnswer.Question = Question;
aQuestionAnswer.Answer = Convert.ToString(parsedProperty.Value);
QuestionAnswerList.Add(aQuestionAnswer);
}
}
}
return View(QuestionAnswerList);
}
QuestionAnswer Class :
publicclass QuestionAnswer
{
publicstring Note { get; set; }
publicstring Question { get; set; }
publicstring Answer { get; set; }
}
My View :
@model IEnumerable<EnracProject.Models.QuestionAnswer>
<table class="table table-bordered">
@foreach (var QuestionAnswers in Model)
{
<tr>
<td>@QuestionAnswers.Serial</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>@QuestionAnswers.Note</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Question : @QuestionAnswers.Question</td>
<td>Answer : @QuestionAnswers.Answer</td>
</tr>
}
</table>
In the table, I want Question and Answers to print in a trow tag. but Whenever a "/" question found in the controller I want to bind all those questions and answers print them here like In a row note then question answer . There can be many questions answers under same name note.
How can I solve this problem? I have given my tried code of controller model and view
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}
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Why Beyonce’s Baby Bump Was Missing
Beyonce pregnancy conspiracy theorists have been buzzing all weekend after seeing her perform on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” with The Roots on Friday night. Her belly appeared to be flat, but it’s not because a fake baby bump deflated. Beyonce’s performance was reportedly filmed three months ago, even though it aired on a new show.
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An AMD-commissioned report claims Intel's practices hurt the industry on a massive scale
According to a recent AMD-commissioned study by research firm ERS Group, Intel gained approximately $80 billion USD in monopoly profits over the course of 11 years since 1996. ERS Group director Dr. Michael A. Williams, said that while gaining billions in profits is normal for a company of Intel's size, Intel gained an extra $60 billion by using anticompetitive business practices. Essentially, Dr. Williams' report claims that Intel overcharged for microprocessors and other related products.
Intel has been in a legal situation with the European Union for the last several years, being a prime target for antitrust investigations. Just recently, Intel disputed the EU's claims that its business practices negatively impacted the market and consumer spending. Intel claimed that many if not all complaints were directly from AMD and not customers at all. True enough, most of the complaints filed to the EU have been by AMD and companies that received subpoenas from AMD to release information.
"We are confident that the microprocessor market segment is functioning normally and that Intel's conduct has been lawful, pro-competitive, and beneficial to consumers," said Intel senior vice president and general counsel Bruce Sewell in a statement.
According Dr. Williams' report, Intel collected roughly $141.8 billion USD in profits from 1996 to 2006. The report subtracted normal competitive profits as well as economic profits and something called "assumed advantage profits" of 5%, leaving Intel with $60 billion in monopolistic profits. Despite assumptions using what the report called "standard economic methodologies," it is impossible to determine exactly just how much extra profit Intel gained from a monopoly.
"To be conservative, the study next provided Intel with a generous assumption that 5 percentage points ($28 billion) of its economic return were attributable to legitimate advantages. That left the $60 billion monopoly profit figure," indicated the report.
Assumptions aside, Intel has done very well over the last several years. Its price structure however has not changed drastically -- flagship processors always carry a big premium while lower models always give the better value. Intel's halo processors typically carry a price tag of roughly $1,000 at retail; Intel value processors occasionally fill a sub-$60 price point.
An area outside of the legal system where AMD constantly competes with Intel is in prices. Over the last two years, the price war between AMD and Intel has been nothing less than beneficial to the consumer. AMD recently cut prices on its multi-core processors, giving another shot in the arm to Intel. In this back and forth price cutting, AMD essentially reduces its potential profits. Intel traditionally competes by using heavy marketing campaigns that run on a global scale, but AMD's marketing strategy heavily focuses on the U.S. market -- a small percentage of the overall global market.
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To the enthusiast market, one would think that. And from that perspective I would agree.
However, majority of world-wide computer buyers do not research the performance differences between C2D and X2, Pentium and A64, etc. They buy based on price and what they get for the price - in the basis that more is better. More memory, hard drive space, DVDRW vs DVD/CDRW, larger monitor, etc. Most people that purchase computers from the major manufacturers: Dell, HP, Acer buy retail because its for business or they do not know enough about computers to research, build, and support their own. Its no secret that Intel has a major leg up when it comes to the number of retail computer offerings of Intel vs AMD computers it the market.
There for to us, sure we buy based on performance, price, and overclockability. But the average user buys based upon a packaged price, not performance per megahert.
If that is all that the standard has to be, "dominant power" in the EU, then every small town resteraunt owner should sue McDonalds for having crushing local dominant pricing power.
My take on the above report:
quote: It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
A fine example of using an economist and statistics (and we all know what statistics are) to make an eye-popping claim, a propaganda tactic to make a huge claim and then hope that a smaller one that previously wouldn't of been accepted will be when compared to the previous massive claim.
And even if Intel has been a naughty boy, we should just be thankful AMD survived because at this point it'd do more harm to the processor market breaking up Intel in to multiple CPU firms (if it would even be possible) or sticking them with a huge fine (which would be passed on to customers in higher prices / lower performance sooner or later). Would those actions satisfy government lackey's that get a thrill out of sticking it to big, evil American companies? Yep. The rest of us though would just suffer.
The difference is that you don't see McDonalds selling their products to restaurant chains so they are the majority of the supply chain. It's not just about being in a dominant position, it is being in a dominant position and then preventing people from going to the competition. In this example, it would be like McDonalds forcing restaurants to buy their beef from them, and if they dared to buy from somewhere else, supplies "might be delayed" to the point where the restaurants are afraid to buy from a third party.
That is the anti-competitive sorts of behavior Intel has been accused of doing, where there was a threat, or an encouragement not to buy from the competition, at risk of retaliation.
Now, AMD is not claiming that they should have gotten all of the "monopoly money" the report claims that Intel has gotten, but shows a motive for Intel to keep their monopoly position. $60 billion is a LOT of money, and if you figure that $20 billion has been gotten as a result of unfair business practices over the years that should have gone to their competitors, that's grounds for a fair amount of it to go to Intel's largest competitor if AMD wins the lawsuits.
A lot of elements are not intended to show that AMD should get all the money, but instead just add fuel to the fire when it comes to the legal battle. No matter how impartial judges may be, if there is continued news that shows that Intel has been accused of improper business practices around the world, it WILL add to a pattern of what Intel business practices are.
I do remember when Asus released their first K7 Slot A motherboards that the product was sent out in a plain white box with no fancy packaging of any kind(unlike their Intel motherboards). The general feel, based on comments posted from all over, is that Asus was afraid of losing supplies of chipsets if they hyped their AMD based motherboards as much as they hyped their Intel based motherboards. The K7M was an AMD chipset based board as I recall, one of the first from a big name in the industry to support the AMD Athlon. It was NOT common to find a motherboard to support the new AMD chips in those days. Keep in mind that before the Athlon, AMD processors would work in the same motherboards as an Intel processor since the socket type was the same. This meant that motherboard manufacturers did not need to worry about supporting chips from both manufacturers.
quote: If that is all that the standard has to be, "dominant power" in the EU, then every small town resteraunt owner should sue McDonalds for having crushing local dominant pricing power.
This analogy is quite terrible. Unlike Micky-D's, Intel's customers aren't the end user, it's the OEM that sells the machine to the consumer (when was the last time you bought a CPU directly from Intel?). Because Intel supplies critical components to OEMs, they have significant bargaining power. From the claims I've read, Intel has used this leverage to convince OEMs to sell less AMD products, sell no AMD products, or delay the sale of AMD products. Intel can do this because AMD cannot supply enough CPUs for entire OEM orders (Intel can).
This lawsuit happy world that we live in has people questioning the validity of every lawsuit. However, if AMD's, The EU's, Japan's, and Korea's claims (all have filed against Intel) are true, and Intel's anti-trust activities have significantly hurt AMD's opportunity to make revenue, then the consumer loses.
quote: or sticking them with a huge fine (which would be passed on to customers in higher prices / lower performance sooner or later).
Where have you been? If AMD wasn't pricing aggressively, how much do you think you'd be paying for a Core2? Notice how this time, when AMD's product is not competative, Intel's prices are lower than the last time this happened (P4)? Since the lawsuits, we've seen better prices from Intel. Heck, we've even seen Dell start selling AMD products. Coincidence?
quote: Because Intel supplies critical components to OEMs, they have significant bargaining power. From the claims I've read, Intel has used this leverage to convince OEMs to sell less AMD products, sell no AMD products, or delay the sale of AMD products. Intel can do this because AMD cannot supply enough CPUs for entire OEM orders (Intel can).
Looking from this high-level, isn't a company SUPPOSED to try and get their products purchased rather than that of the competitor? Wasn't AMD trying to get their products used instead of Intel's, and doing so by any legal method they could muster? There may be problems in the methods used, but the goal of selling your company's products to customers rather than having the competition's being bought by those customers seems to be a proper and honorable goal.
quote: Where have you been? If AMD wasn't pricing aggressively, how much do you think you'd be paying for a Core2? Notice how this time, when AMD's product is not competative, Intel's prices are lower than the last time this happened (P4)? Since the lawsuits, we've seen better prices from Intel. Heck, we've even seen Dell start selling AMD products. Coincidence?
Also note that Intel changed "administrations" a few years ago, that may have had an influence as well.
Just to be clear, AMD charges that Intel intentionally locked AMD out of the pre-fab computer market by offering price specials to companies (Dell, HP, then-Compaq, IBM, all the various laptop manufacturers) who agreed to exclusively sell Intel-Inside. If anyone here has any sort of memory, the only computers that you could order which contained AMD procs were lower-end E-Machines and the like... All of the major OEM's had deals with Intel.
For 110 years, under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and action by a buisness which would make it difficult for their competitors to access markets is illegal. What Intel did was against the law. This lawsuit on the other-hand supercedes the post-C2D by at least 6 years, 8 in some territories.Intel will likely have to pay for their practices in Europe, however the conservative court-packing that the last 20 years has seen leaves their fate in the US unsure.
That doesn't make alot of sense to me. Many deals are made to exclusively sell one type of product over the other, or simply to favor that product.
If I remember correctly, there was an article here about Sony and Blockbuster entering a deal to favor Blue Ray. If Sony went out to every seller around and got this same deal, then they would be anti-competitive? I'd just call that smart managers on Sony's part.
I don't think that the laws are the same when it comes to "standards", but also, there is no monopoly in place when it comes to the HD market at this point, since standards are still trying to be set by the different players.
It's not the "type" of product that falls under the laws, it is the branding that does it. If one COMPANY is a dominant force, then that company needs to be careful of the monopoly laws, but there wouldn't be laws about engine types used in cars, just if the engines were supplied by only a handful of companies with one huge dominant player that was using questionable business practices for that player.
From that perspective, the whole Verizon vs. Vonage legal battle ALMOST falls into this category except that there are multiple phone companies around, which means that Verizon is NOT a monopoly in the traditional sense. I have seen that calls between Verizon land line services and VOIP or other cell phone carriers tend to be less reliable than from Verizon cell phone service and Verizon land lines. That could be grounds for a good lawsuit too.
True. I fit the stereotype - I am an enthusiast, but I buy Intel for compatibility.
My original first impressions of AMD were back in the 486 days and they weren't as favorable. I've also owned AMD K5's and have had issues with the VIA chipset drivers. I've seen Half-Life run too fast on AMD's and applications fail to launch on Athlon's. Eventually, somethings got to give and it's usually my spending dollar.
I don't know where AMD stands today, but it is going to take something more than a sub-performing Core 2 wannabe to get me to look at AMD offerings again.
Uhh, just for the record 9nails, AMD cpu's traditionally have less errata than Intel CPU's, generation after generation. And when you factor in that most high-end applications and games are optimized for both platforms (SSE and 3DNOW!) there is little...very little room to cry 'compatibility.'
If you're thinking of the 'Compatible with Windows' statements that AMD, Cyrix, and IDT had to use back in the day, that was because people were ignorant of the x86 architecture, much like yourself, that they needed a little reminder that its really 'Apples to Apples' in the end.
It's is, and always has been, a battle of performance, price, flexibility, and owner loyalty. Compatibility has never been a debatable topic.
Personally, I base my tech purchases on the current situation, not the situation as it was nearly 10 years ago (5 generations in electronics). AMD hasn't had "compatibility" problems since the slot-A days, when VIA's chipsets were causing all sorts of problems.
Really big companies also tend to be quite conservative in buying habits. And IT managers likewise. For instance...
An IT manager has to purchase 1000 computers, probably from Dell or HP. If processor even comes up, regardless of his personal preference, he/she will most likely go with Intel. Why? Because they are the major player in the market. And it's an unfortunate fact in the business world that if there is a problem with these computers it goes like this.
If they are Intel, upper management will say "it's an Intel problem, no way to predict it, get IT on the fixes".
If it's an AMD/other processor, they'll say "AMD? Who authorized this second rate stuff, I want some heads". And the IT manager will be pounding the pavement.
Bottom line, in big business, taking risks will get you a big gain, or loss. On procurements, anything but the mainstream largest supplier is a risk, calcuated or otherwise. Most people are very careful about risking their jobs. Unless they are too young to care or know, or rich enough that it doesn't matter.
For some reason people are acting like this lawsuit was only brought forward when the core 2 duo came out, and it is against the core 2 dou that people believe amd is suing for, well it isn't. AMD is suing for mostly past things intel did to make their very compeptetive products such as the very competetive k6 and k7 cpu's and where intel made it very hard for them to operate, telling companies that they wont get such low prices if they stock amd cpu's and other activities. This isnt only about how intel treated the market during the core 2 dou years but also how the market was run during the k6, k7, and the k8 years.
It was just a year ago that no one wanted to pick up an intel product, I bet people will be singing a different note if amd had a competeive product to the q6600's. The thing is that AMD's legal fight with Intel encompasses all the way to the beginning not the idiot's that are on this sight who seem to think that amd only is arguing about how the am2 isn't selling as well as the core 2 duo.
Also to those people who think AMD is spending all there money on lawsuits is wrong, if you want an example of that go look at SCO not AMD.
@swatx Intel had nothing on amd for years and you make it sound like amd can come out with the worlds best product in 6 months, while it took Intel something like 3 years to come out with a competitive product to AMD's k8.
> "AMD is suing for mostly past things intel did ...such as the very competetive k6 and k7 cpu's and where intel made it very hard for them to operate..."
The problem is that, during that period, AMD was gaining market share hand-over-fist, culminating in their actually outselling Intel at the retail level. AMD wasn't being squeezed out of the market-- for every reseller who refused to stock AMD chips, dozens of others gladly did so. There were even a few AMD-only VARs in existence
AMD is suing because of monopolist tactics in OEM channels, not retail channels.
OEMs were encouraged to buy 90-100% Intel chips, so they didn't have any capacity left over to buy AMD chips.
Intel did this by offering them special prices. Let's say Intel was going to sell CPUs to Dell, and Dell expected to fill 1 million orders in the next time period.
Intel would offer Dell: The first 500,000 CPUs you buy are $200 each. The second 500,000 CPUs you buy are $100 each.
Dell would then logically choose to buy 1 million Intel CPUs, for an average price of $150 each, because they could make a lot more money that way than if they went 50/50 Intel/AMD.
Because of those kinds of deals, Dell was 100% Intel for a very long time, and other OEMs were 90%+ Intel.
I'm not a lawyer, so I can't tell you if that's a monopolistic pricing scheme. I can't tell you if Intel will be found guilty and have to fork over billions of dollars. But that's what the case is about, it's not about the retail channel.
Don't try and mix in facts or you might confuse him. He is obviously one sided, and thinks just because for a small period of time that Intel got out sold in a small sector of the market that it proves Intel didn't commit any anti competitive actions through out the whole history of Amd and Intel.
A quantity discount, as he described it, is a monopolist tactic; perfectly competitive firms never price discriminate, as their products are homogenous commodities and face a single market-determined price.
Not that it's a bad thing -- there is no perfectly competitive market, and all firms are either bordering on failure or act as monopolists. Just saying; it's a monopolist profit maximizing tool. A competitive farmer in a competitive grain market would never offer or accept a quantity discount.
It's also not necessarily predatory pricing. But then the question becomes at what point is a firm being competitive and the next, with that extra penny off, they become "evil" and "predatory" -- too capitalist for their own good. The real debate is what do "evil" monopolists do and to what degree do they do it that all the other "good" monopolists don't do, and how bad does the "evil" monopolists have to be before getting punishment, and if they are that evil, do we punish them even if it hurts the consumer and the economy.
quote: A quantity discount, as he described it, is a monopolist tactic; perfectly competitive firms never price discriminate,
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. Graduated pricing schemes based on quantity are common practice worldwide. Unless, of course, you price at or below cost for the sole purpose of driving someone out of business, which clearly wasn't an issue here
It's been a while since I read the Complaint; my memory was hazy. Actually, it's worse than either one of us described. Intel was giving a retroactive discount so the OEMs would have to buy 90% Intel to get any discount at all.
The result was that AMD had to sell their processors at a much lower price to get any business at all.
The class action that was filed back in January that claimed that Intel paid Dell over a billion dollars a year in kickbacks not to buy chips from AMD?
Well, you should because AMD has been beating that particular drum this week as evidence that the European Commission is on the right track in charging Intel with antitrust.
The only problem is that suit was withdrawn back in May, a fact AMD neglected to mention.
Seems the court refused to let Bill Lerach, the guy who filed it, be the lead lawyer for all the class actions filed against Dell after it was discovered that the SEC was investigating Dell.
Lerach of course was a partner in the old Milberg Weiss Lerach mob that took American companies for billions in dubious class actions over the years and is now under indictment itself for paying plaintiffs kickbacks.
Of course. A company's primary function is to encourage others to buy its products in favor of its competitors. When does such behaviour constitute an abuse of monopoly power? By standard antitrust law, you judge by the effects on the marketplace. Not the effect on individual competitors...but the end result to the consumer.
In the period in question, competition flourished. Prices dropped dramatically, new products were introduced at a dizzying pace, and consumers were treated to more choice in the marketplace than ever before. The CPU market was, in fact, one of the healthiest, most vibrant examples of competition to ever exist. The consumer benefitted, and by this touchstone, there was no abuse of monopoly power.
> "Because of those kinds of deals, Dell was 100% Intel for a very long time"
But dozens of other OEMS were *not* 100% Intel, and AMD was in fact gaining market share quickly. Consumers always had a choice as to which product to buy, and competition was not only preserved, it flourished.
> "Intel would offer Dell: The first 500,000 CPUs you buy are $200 each. The second 500,000 CPUs you buy are $100 each"
As others have pointed out, this isn't true. Intel allowed certain OEMs cobranding dollars to be used to advertise the OEMs products, on the assumption that, if the company was selling only Intel chips, advertising its products was essentially advertising Intel's.
As long as competition is preserved, such vertical-market arrangements benefit consumers.
I had no clue AMD was out selling Intel in the retail space with the k6's and k7's. Enlighten me with some actual numbers, then just some blanket statements.
Even if AMD was outselling Intel in the retail space during the so called glory days of the k8 it only encompasses retail! Intel was still out selling them, even when they(AMD) had a much better and effiecent chip. I wouldnt call 17% during the *glory days* a great number.http://news.com.com/AMD+surpasses+Intel+in+U.S.+re...
> "This only happened AFTER Intel stopped their "rebate program" due to pressure from the lawsuit... "
Dell was Intel-only till the very end of 2005, long after AMD began its rapid market-share rise. That leaves only two possibilities. Either the rebate program was still in existence, or Dell had reason enough to be exclusively Intel without the program. Either way, its bad news for the AMD lawsuit.
Still worse is the fact that most other OEMs began selling AMD chips well before this date, in fact as soon as AMD had a competitive product...plus the usual lag time due to normal big-business latency. Dell is a big company, but its still well under 20% of the total computer marketplace. If AMD had been barred 80% of the total market, the suit would likely have merit. But 20% is a far cry from monopoly share.
quote: It was just a year ago that no one wanted to pick up an intel product,
If you ever thought this was the case, you are delusional. The majority of computers users never knew that AMD had a faster chip, and wouldn't have cared. Intel had/has the name and the rep. Perception is everything in business.
"A politician stumbles over himself... Then they pick it out. They edit it. He runs the clip, and then he makes a funny face, and the whole audience has a Pavlovian response." -- Joe Scarborough on John Stewart over Jim Cramer
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Additional Information
Aesthetic and functional garden furniture adds an extra dimension to outdoor living. Would you like your design to be light, clean, pure ? Or would you rather have a piece of furniture that moves the comfort of your living room outdoors? It is simply a matter of personal choice - comfort and quality.
Our aim is to give you the full benefit of the long and bright summer days. The outdoor living area must meet your need for balancing party, peace and quietness. Cane-line has made maintenance and the right choice easy for you. Imagine the perfect summer setting and you know which model suits you.
Brand
Cane-line
Collection
Cane-line Avenue
Designer
Cane-line Design Team
Materials
Stainless steel and teak or stainless steel and HPL
Care Notes
TEAK
Teak is a close-grained hardwood with a high natural oil content which gives the teak furniture a beautiful smooth surface. Teak furniture is hard wearing and highly resistant to decay and almost immune to rain, frost, snow or sun. The furniture is supplied untreated and will develop a patina over time. If you wish to treat your teak furniture, we recommend using teak oil - be aware that this will make the wood darker! Cane-line's teak is supplied from WWF-GFTN members in Indonesia, whose teak originates from Perhutani. This means our teak comes from responsible managed forests.
HIGH PRESSURE LAMINATE
Compact laminate is a very suitable material for outdoor use. The material is resin-impregnated paper, compressed under very high pressure creating a strong top with a scratch-resistant surface. These table tops require basically no maintenance and can remain outdoors all year round. Compact laminate will naturally fade slightly at the edges over time. In order to maintain the deep black color, the edges can be freshened up by rubbing a little linseed oil on them. It is recommended that you cover the table with a furniture cover in the autumn and winter period.
STAINLESS STEEL
Stainless steel is extremely weather proof. However tarnishing can occur in the form of flash rust. This can be removed by using a stainless steel cleaner. Regular cleaning with soapy water can protect the surface of the stainless steel and thus minimize the effects of chlorine, etc. It is also advisable to wipe the frame with acid-free oil at least twice yearly to minimize tarnishing.
Details
Find your favourite design in our comprehensive outdoor collection. Dining-, café-, side- and removable tables.
Aesthetic and functional garden furniture adds an extra dimension to outdoor living. Would you like your design to be light, clean, pure ? Or would you rather have a piece of furniture that moves the comfort of your living room outdoors? It is simply a matter of personal choice - comfort and quality.
Our aim is to give you the full benefit of the long and bright summer days. The outdoor living area must meet your need for balancing party, peace and quietness. Cane-line has made maintenance and the right choice easy for you. Imagine the perfect summer setting and you know which model suits you.
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A North Carolina sheriff has suspended five deputies for their actions at a Donald Trump rally in which a black man being escorted from the event was allegedly assaulted by a white man in attendance.
A statement from Cumberland County Sheriff Earl "Moose" Butler on Wednesday said three deputies were demoted and suspended without pay for five days. Two other deputies were suspended for three days without pay, and all five were put on probation for 12 months.
Butler launched an investigation after a video showed a man with a cowboy hat hitting a black man being led from the Fayetteville arena by deputies March 9. Officials said the deputies had their eyes on the stairs when the man was hit.
Authorities charged a 78-year-old man with assault and disorderly conduct.
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5:00 p.m.
Exit polls from Tuesday's primaries are suggesting that Democratic voters aren't willing to embrace the leftward shift that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is pitching for the nation.
Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton won four of the five states that voted Tuesday, with Missouri still too close to call. In all five states, at least half of the Democratic voters said they preferred to maintain President Barack Obama's policies.
No more than a third of voters in any of the Democratic primaries said they preferred a more liberal trajectory.
That dynamic suggests that Sanders faces an uphill battle as he tries to narrow the delegate gap. Clinton now leads by more than 300 pledged delegates.
Among Republicans, front-runner Donald Trump continues to dominate among voters who describe themselves as angry about the state of the nation. Trump also benefits from the large number of Republican primary voters who say they want a president from outside the political establishment.
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3:45 p.m.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley says her "prayer" is that Sen. Ted Cruz can come out on top of the Republican presidential race ahead of Donald Trump.
Having endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio, who ended his campaign Tuesday after a humiliating loss to Trump in Florida, Haley said Wednesday that she would support the eventual nominee, but that she's praying it is Cruz.
Haley declined to say whether Ohio Gov. John Kasich should quit, only mentioning that "I personally don't see it."
Kasich won his first primary in Ohio on Tuesday, picking up all the delegates in the winner-take-all contest, but he is still running a distant third in the race.
A withdrawal petition was filed Wednesday. The decision comes a day after Rubio lost his home state of Florida and suspended his campaign.
In February, Pennsylvania's secretary of state had accepted Kasich's candidate paperwork to get on Pennsylvania's April 26 ballot. But the court challenge had questioned whether Kasich's campaign collected enough valid voter signatures.
The Kasich campaign's lawyer had agreed that Kasich's paperwork was eight valid signatures short of the 2,000 required, but he maintained that the challenge was invalid because it was filed after the deadline.
The ad on Trump's official Instagram account begins with footage of Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in martial arts and a man who appears to be an Islamic State fighter pointing a gun at the camera.
"When it comes to facing our toughest opponents," it reads, "The democrats have the perfect answer..."
The ad then cuts to footage of Clinton in Nevada earlier this year, barking to mimic an ad she'd been describing to supporters.
It ends with footage of Putin laughing and the words: "We don't need to be a punchline!"
Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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12:50 p.m.
The Republican presidential debate scheduled for Monday in Salt Lake City has been canceled after front runner Donald Trump and John Kasich said they would not attend.
Karen Boe, a spokeswoman for the Salt Palace Convention Center, said they were informed Wednesday morning that the event was being scrapped.
Donald Trump said Wednesday morning he would not participate because "we've had enough debates." Trump said Wednesday on Fox News that he's committed to a big speech the same night.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich's spokesman then said he won't debate without Donald Trump onstage.
The debate was scheduled a day before Utah's caucus and Arizona's primary.
It would have been the first presidential debate held in Utah.
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2:25 p.m.
Hillary Clinton has sent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin a letter saying she was mistaken in her recent comments about coal.
On national television Sunday, Clinton declared she was going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, suggested that that Clinton didn't care about coal miners.
Clinton was touting her plan released last year to put $30 billion toward protecting the health benefits of coal miners and their families.
Spokesman Jonathan Kott said Manchin was extremely upset and followed up directly with Clinton, her senior advisers and President Bill Clinton.
House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokeswoman says he "will not accept a nomination" to be the Republican running for president — even if his predecessor, John Boehner, nominated him.
The possibility of a Ryan nomination at a contested Republican Party convention started when he said in a CNBC interview, "There are a lot of people running for president. We'll see. Who knows?"
Former House Speaker John Boehner jumped on the comments, saying he would support Ryan if Republicans can't nominate any candidate at the convention. His spokesman, Dave Schnittger, said Boehner made the comments Wednesday at a conference in Boca Raton, Florida.
But Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong moved quickly to quash any talk of Ryan becoming the nominee.
"The speaker is grateful for the support, but he is not interested," she said in an emailed statement. "He will not accept a nomination and believes our nominee should be someone who ran this year."
Former House Speaker John Boehner says he'd support his successor, Wisconsin's Paul Ryan for president if Republicans cannot nominate any candidate at their national convention this summer.
Boehner, who has endorsed John Kasich, tells the Futures Industry Association that if Republicans can't agree on the first ballot to nominate Donald Trump, Kasich or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, he's "for none of the above."
Boehner adds, "They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee."
The comments were first reported by Politico.
Boehner spokesman Dave Schnittger is responding that Boehner's "His off-the-cuff comments this morning were about a hypothetical scenario in which none of the current candidates are able to secure the nomination at the convention."
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8:44 a.m.
Donald Trump says he will not participate in the next GOP presidential debate on Monday in Utah because "we've had enough debates."
The front runner for the Republican presidential nomination said Wednesday on Fox News that he's committed to a big speech the same night.
Trump says he didn't know about the March 21 event until Tuesday night, when he won critical primaries in Illinois, North Carolina and Florida.
Without Trump, the only two onstage would be Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who won his home state in the same contests Tuesday, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. It would be a clash of potential alternatives as each man maneuvers to claim the mantle of credible alternative to the brash billionaire who has controlled the race for months.
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7:57 a.m.
Donald Trump says Republican senators who are trashing him in public are calling him in private because they want to "become involved" in his presidential campaign, eventually.
Trump didn't name any senators in his interview on MSNBC the morning after his wins in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina Tuesday night. But he said the Republicans include some who appear on the morning talk shows saying, "Donald Trump, we have to stop him." Trump added that they "are calling me to work out a deal" to "become involved. They see things here that they've never ever seen in the Republican Party."
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7:33 a.m.
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says that if the GOP tries to deny him the party's nomination even if he's within reach of sufficient delegates at convention time, "We'd have riots."
Trump tells CNN's "Newsday" Wednesday morning he's brought large numbers of people into the party — "The really big story is how many people are voting in these primaries," — and he says "if you just disenfranchise these people, I think you would have problems like you've never seen before."
He tells anchor Chris Cuomo, "I wouldn't lead it," but said unrest could happen.
Trump cited a hypothetical scenario where he'd go to the Cleveland convention in July with roughly 1,000 delegates and a rival would show up there with 500.
He said he believes he will nail down the nomination before the convention and said he couldn't imagine failing to get the party's nomination virtually "automatically" in such a scenario. Trump said "I don't even want to think about" what he'd do if he's in such an advantageous position but still does not become the nominee.
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Join us for a "St. Patrick's Day" celebration. Enjoy stories, songs, finger-plays and a craft. We hope you bring your sweet tooth because we are baking and decorating a batch of leprechaun cupcakes, as an extra special treat!
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Tag Archives: it outsourcing company
Following the audits conducted in our Orléans headquarters, and Brasov and Sibiu delivery centers, the Afnor auditors confirm our ISO certification!The audit allowed them to identify many strong points, which highlight:
a rich prospecting and customer-focused system based on a rather exhaustive process that is constantly evolving,
high level activities regarding recruitment, collaborator integration and training, which is seldom a characteristic of other companies,
diverse and evolving tools implemented to support our processes,
real and visible activities of continuous improvement, which allow us to achieve better results with less effort.
But this year 2 observations have also been raised for the first time. They highlight some gaps we had already found during the internal audits and to which the auditors wanted to draw our attention:
Outsourcing your IT services goes beyond trusting a third party with the creation of a product or solution. The process must be part of a real corporate strategy entailing an engaging and productive approach. This is why we have always taken time to explain to our clients what we do, how we do it, and what the costs are. But in order to understand how the entire process works, maybe you should first come and visit our delivery centers.
What are the benefits of this discovery circuit? Among other things, you can:
check out your service provider’s premises
speak to your collaborators face to face
better understand their culture and share your own corporate culture
spot the constraints that a long-distance relationship may bring along
After convincing world-class startups all over Europe and now already serving 3 American clients in Cincinnati and Boston, it became obvious to Pentalog that time had come to dedicate a special offer to the US market and locate a first operation team in Boston.
Skill Pipe!
After a deep study of Boston startups, we noticed that despite the incredible number of world-class students there, they are never enough to cover the inextinguishable imagination of MA startup creators! Furthermore, the number of powerful VCs creates a permanent acceleration of IT salaries. Hence the insolvable deficit of programmers most of the ventures suffer, slowering roadmap execution.
So basically our idea is simple: creating a virtual pipe of IT skills by connecting the Romanian, Moldovan and Vietnamese capabilities to the Boston Startup hub through a local
The results of the Digital Services Companies seem to follow the same pattern. They vary between bad and very bad. Almost all big actors have registered low sales figures and in this context managers will surely start reconsidering burden sharing. This makes me ask myself what’s the purpose in preserving sales forces that are already more or less unproductive and most of the time outdated (not Anglophone enough, not cloud compliant, not 2.0 compliant, and stuck to an obsolete business model)?
Converging forces sustainably call for a reduction of the sales forces. Obviously, the movement of market concentration matches the referencing methods used by large groups. They both lead to the concentration of trade flows in the hands of an increasingly low number of interlocutors on each side.
The gross margin, confined between a client
We were stunned! For 80€ per day and per person, Cosmina and I have rented two work-spaces at CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center), in Boston’s main cluster, founded by the MIT giants.
The other day I posted on Facebook a short video that speaks for itself about the place dynamics: today 500 companies share this unique space and invent an intense social life. Most of the people you come across are their own employer at this stage, which does not prevent them from having already raised up to $500 000! Some of them have raised a few millions and are counting now their first employees.
What I love most about this place is its entrepreneurial environment. It seems to have no equivalent on the west coast Berkeley or Stanford or at least not of this dimension.
Pentalog has just published 3 high level documents on support and R&D issues for wireless technology companies. Actually this would be also relevant in most sectors that use communication technologies (radio, GSM, WiFi, BT, Wimax…).
Based on the 5-year experience in outsourcing with 80 engineers specialized in customer support, who work in the front line with the clients of our client (global leaders in mobile telephony), we were able to simultaneously grasp the 3 dimensions of such a project, right under the nose, at that time, of the Indian and French giants:
responsibility
hyper-scalability
cost optimization
This incredible experience resulted from a great collaboration between France and Romania, and was based on large skills transfers which demanded the implementation of a very strict SLA, as well as world-wide business travels (China, Korea, India, USA,
Anevia, a solution and service provider for interactive TV and video on demand (VoD) on different supports (TV, computers, mobile telephones) has entrusted Pentalog with the industrialization of its product testing process with the aim of optimizing quality while reducing costs. Since 2009, a dedicated team of 5 persons from our Vietnam-based offshore delivery center has been in charge of these activities.
François Gombault, Professional Services Manager at Anevia, has given us more insights:
Pentalog: Why have you decided to outsource your project?
F. Gombault: We have resorted to an outsourcing company in order to gain immediate expertise withproduct testing and software testing, skills that already existed inside our company, but which required full-time specialists. We had to build up a dedicated team and outsourcing made it possible within a very short
After a two-week-trip on the West coast of the U.S (see articles here and here), Pentalog has been reconsidering the idea of a new destination. This time we are planning a trip to the East coast, to Boston (April 30th – May8th 2013).
Capital of the state of Massachusetts, Boston is among the top 10 most economically powerful cities in the world (see table, source McKinsey Global Institute, May 2012).
Boston is a famous higher education center with a strong emphasis on scientific, engineering and technological education and research (Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, Boston University). This city is the second technological cluster after California’s Silicon Valley, a complete ecosystem ready to adopt and promote the emerge of products, services and innovative business models.
We consider Boston as a possible destination to
After a second semester of 2012 characterized by a gradual performance slowdown in terms of both growth and profitability, Pentalog had a rapid recovery at the end of the year by reducing bench time rates by half (slowing down the recruitment, process and optimizing the staff). This rate is currently lower than 3%. Additionally, we have reduced the allocated budget to social and event marketing. The management’s focus shifted toward new business opportunities.
Pentalog has reasons to be happy. Our clients place our offer higher and higher in fields like e-commerce, telecom industry, soft R&D or consulting in Information System.
Now including a consulting department that is quickly joining the league of the sector leaders, Pentalog‘s overall offer of industrialized software production (mastering costs, quality and deadlines) draws more and more clients willing to use only one player, able to fully engage its responsibility. Overall means that thanks to the joined forces of Pentalog Institute (consulting and technology) and its historical nearshore and offshore capacities, we are now able to intervene on ergonomics, technical architecture, implementation of software factory and as far as production of course, in the best quality and price conditions. This complete cycle for performing software or web operations is integrated by
In these election times, in France as well as in the USA, this is a popular word. Easy to use and definitely catchy, it reconciles the extreme left, the extreme right, the extreme center and the elderly. It works almost on its own! There is a risk involved, meaning the potential for a lot of foolish economic decisions, but in general politicians and journalists tend not to care about it.
For example, we systematically forget to say that, when an Indian company orders 127 Airbus planes (which will bring 10 billion to the South-West of France and Northern Germany), this happens because there are more and more Indians who can fly due to earning higher incomes. Of course we want to sell these Airbus planes to them! But it would be even better if the
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Veranda Highpointe
Veranda Highpointe is a luxury apartment community in South Denver. The community is known for its over-the-top amenities - including Denver's only lazy river - social vibe, high-end (and ridiculously roomy) apartments and ideal location. Now leasing studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
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Surgical Procedures
Turbinate Reduction
Turbinate Reduction
Internal Nose Structure
Turbinates are structures on the inside of your nose that help to heat and humidify the air you breathe. Sometimes these structures can be enlarged and obstruct your nasal passages. If you have experienced prolonged, difficult nasal breathing and you are found to have enlarged nasal turbinates during consultation, Dr. Champagne can perform a turbinate reduction to improve your ability to breathe through your nose.
WHO IS A GOOD CANDIDATE?
If you experience persistent nasal obstruction and difficulty breathing through your nose despite medical management, you may be a candidate for reducing the size of the turbinates found on the inside of your nose.
WHAT IS THE RECOVERY?
Nasal packing will be removed 24 hours after turbinate reduction, and you will then start a regimen of nasal saline rinses for the next week. Nasal congestion should be expected for the first two weeks. Since surgery is performed on the inside of the nose, there are no external sutures or changes to the nose.
OTHER BENEFICIAL PROCEDURES:
SCHEDULE A PERSONALIZED, CONFIDENTIAL CONSULTATION:
Please contact Dr. Champagne to schedule a personalized, confidential consultation with our facial plastic surgeon, Dr. Jason Champagne. During your consultation, Dr. Champagne will address your goals and answer any questions you may have regarding turbinate reduction or any other procedure we offer.
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Tipping in Botswana
Our travellers often ask, ‘How, who and how much should we tip on safari in Botswana?’ To help you to avoid awkward situations, below is some guidance on tipping in Botswana, the issues involved and the etiquette of doing so.
The local economy in Botswana: issues around tipping
As is common almost the world over, tipping in Botswana is always voluntary, and should depend on the quality of service received. It’s never compulsory, but we’d encourage visitors to tip to appreciate good service, while remaining mindful of the impact of this on the community.
Tipping can be a significant component of the income of those in service industries, including waiters, guides and trackers. Be aware, though, that there is a fine balance between tipping enough, and tipping too much. You may not think that tipping too much could cause problems, but it can: excessive tips can throw out the local economic balance.
For example, consider the job of a park ranger. Done properly, it’s an important job. A senior park ranger will need to be well-educated, knowledgeable, and will probably have had many years working for the government in various national parks. By local standards, the Botswana government will pay a fair wage for this job, but government employees are not usually top earners. However, having educated and competent people in this job is very important for the good of the parks, and the visitors who come to them.
By contrast, a camp hand who carries bags and helps out generally at a safari camp in Botswana, is also very necessary. However, s/he doesn’t need the same level of education, or experience, and doesn’t shoulder the same level of responsibility. If such a casual helper gets overly large tips – adding up to, say US$500 a month – there’s a danger that this job will end up paying more than a park ranger’s job.
In such a case, thus responsibility and remuneration will have become very unbalanced. Where’s the incentive for a ranger to put in more effort and take on more responsibility if he’ll be paid less than a camp hand? If unchecked, this could result in park rangers quitting their posts to become general camp hands, to the detriment of the park and its visitors.
So keep in mind the importance and extent of the work someone is doing for you, when you tip them.
Who to tip when on safari in Botswana
Before thinking about the amount or how to tip, think about who to tip. Many people work to make your travel a success. Consider:
Tipping guides
Your safari guide will be one of the most important people in making your safari a success. With this in mind, many places suggest tipping him/her separately, to ensure that they get the tip they deserve.
Tipping the back of house team
There are a lot of people who work behind the scenes to make your trip a success, including the chefs, the kitchen team, the maids and the housekeeping staff. To cover all of these ‘back of house’ people, many camps have a ‘general staff tip box’ – the proceeds of which are divided equally between the staff.
Tipping the managers
We’re sometimes asked if travellers should tip camp managers. Of course they are important, but would you tip the owner of a restaurant? Generally, we don’t think so: we wouldn’t usually recommend that you tip the manager. Of course, if they helped you with something outstanding or very extraordinary, you might find yourself making an exception to this rule.
Normally in Botswana you tip the guide separately, as you’ll spend most of the time with them, and the rest of the staff together. It is unusual to tip a camp manager.
When to tip
We’re sometimes asked about when to give tips, and it’s an important question. The options are:
After each activityAt the end of each dayAt the end of your stay
The answer is very clear: always tip just once, and always at the end of your stay at each safari lodge or camp.
Guides don’t expect a tip after each activity, and tipping this way would pressurise the guide to ‘perform’ for the guest who is tipping – whilst probably distorting the relationship between him/her and the guests as a whole. It would certainly put your fellow guests in a very difficult position if you were offering tips this frequently, and they were not.
How to tip
Most camps and safari lodges in Botswana have a ‘tip box’, and often their own tipping policy. Sometimes the ‘tip box’ will be for all the staff; sometimes it’ll be for the staff excluding the guides; occasionally it’ll be arranged differently.
Some camps explain their tipping policy in the literature left in their rooms. If not, ask the manager and, if there’s a tip box, find out who shares the proceeds of this. You can then decide whether to put everything into the box, or to tip some members of the team separately and more directly. In most Botswana camps, guides, trackers, mokoro polers and butlers are usually tipped directly; other staff are usually lumped together into the ‘general staff tip box’. But this varies, so do ask!
Travellers often ask if they can tip by credit card – and the answer depends entirely on the camp, their accounting practices and their ability to process cards. However, this isn’t the norm, and it makes it difficult to direct your tip to precise team members. It’s much more common to tip with cash, with the preferred currency in Botswana being Botswana pula or, failing that, US dollars, South African rands, or even euros or GB pounds.
One excellent idea is for well-prepared guests to bring a small supply of envelopes with them, perhaps with a note inside on which a ‘thank you’ could be written. Towards the end of your stay, you can name the envelopes for the people or groups of people whom you wish to tip, put the appropriate cash tip into each, then either hand them out to individuals or put them into the general tip box.
How much to tip
Bear in mind that all we can offer here is guidance from our experience in Botswana. In the end, tipping depends on your personal opinion and your individual satisfaction – moderated by some understanding of the issues mentioned above.
Given that, we’d recommend that for good service, our travellers tip around:
US$10 per guest per day for a group guide
US$20 per guest per day for a private guide
US$5 per guest per day for mokoro polers, trackers or a butler
US$5 per guest per day for the general staff
To put these suggestions in perspective, bear in mind that the Gross National Income (GNI) is about US$17.84 per person per day in Botswana. This is a reflection of the average income of Botswana's citizens.
In contrast, the equivalent GNI in the UK is about $US118.74; in the United State about $US150.58; in New Zealand about US$109.80; and in Germany about US$125.45.
Gifts as a tip?
If you’re returning to a camp, it is a lovely gesture to bring personalised gifts for the people there, for example for the guide or butler. This isn’t done commonly, but is always appreciated. Favourite items include pens and books – especially wildlife guides (eg: comprehensive and detailed field guides).
Tipping is a sensitive issue, but there is no need to feel embarrassed. It’s a normal part of a service industry in Botswana, as it is in restaurants in many countries. Just remember that relatively affluent visitors can have a big impact on the local economy: tipping does influence the economic and social balance – so keep that in mind when you tip the staff during your safari in Botswana.
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Full-Color Tumbler & Sunglasses Set
We've paired up a fun set to create a spectacular duo you won't be able to resist. This set is perfect for a beach theme. Set features a 16 oz. tumbler with lid and your choice of background graphic and black sunglasses with a neon temple.
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NASA's fleet of Earth-observing satellites constantly circle the globe, completing their orbits every 90 minutes. They give us invaluable information about everything from our weather and climate, to the way we use our land, to the air we breathe. This video highlights some of the newest satellites in the fleet, including the versatile Suomi National Polar-orbiting (NPP) satellite, a partnership between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Aquarius, which measures sea surface salinity and is a joint project between NASA and the Space Agency of Argentina. While many of the images are "true color" or photorealistic in nature, this video also includes data visualizations, which help scientists see data in useful new ways, and computer models, which help us understand interconnected Earth systems and make projections into the future. Curious about ...
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Superfresh Growers' journey from dinosaur trees to robotics
January 05, 2018
It's cold and snow-covered in eastern Washington, and Superfresh Growers is looking at how to improve its fruit for this year. With a lot of options for new orchards, the company discusses the transition from dinosaur trees to new trellis systems that allow for automation and robotics.
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Time to Disable Social Security Disability Insurance
The Academy Awards are presented to the best acting performances of the year. A very select group has claimed this award. But millions of people receive acting awards each day pretending that they are disabled and can no longer work.
These people don't get a little statuette, but they can earn $1,111 per month and $300,000 over the course of a lifetime from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In addition, after a 24-month waiting period, SSDI beneficiaries qualify for Medicare benefits.
The Heritage Foundation's Foundry newsletter reported that the Social Security Administration (SSA) distributed $175 billion in disability benefits to about 15 million recipients in 2011. The report noted that about 15 percent, or $21 billion, of those benefits are improperly awarded each year to persons who are not disabled, placing a significant financial strain on a program whose coffers are projected to be depleted in three years.
"An 18-month investigation released last year by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., found that more than a quarter of recipients in 300 randomly selected cases were awarded disability benefits by the SSA despite questionable evidence."
I recently talked with MacMillin Slobodien, executive director of Our Generation, on my Made in America radio show, who told me that "despite its humble beginnings as an insurance plan for long-tenured workers with the misfortune of becoming disabled before retirement, SSDI has ballooned into a $135 billion behemoth threatening to collapse under its own weight, and to take a bite out of Medicare on the way down."
He added, "Left unchecked, decades of loose standards and poor enforcement may soon culminate in thousands — if not millions — of deserving recipients being deprived their rightful benefits."
The 2012 Social Security trustees' report projected that the disability trust fund will be exhausted in 2016 — two years sooner than last year's report and sooner than any other federal entitlement trust fund.
An 18-month investigation by a Senate subcommittee found that in more than 25 percent of cases reviewed, evidence confirming disabilities was "insufficient, contradictory or incomplete." The staff reviewed 300 decisions in which individuals were awarded disability benefits by administrative law judges.
A 2011 internal SSA report echoed the findings, showing a national error rate of 22 percent.
According to Slobodien, in 1970, the SSDI program could be financed with a payroll tax rate of only 0.8 percent of wages; today, the cost of SSDI has tripled relative to the 1970 level. Disability benefits now make up 18 percent of all Social Security costs, up from only 10 percent in 1990. In fact, the number of people on SSDI in 2012 exceeded the entire population of New York City, at 8,733,461 participants.
Recent research has shown that the rising cost of SSDI is not principally the result of an increase in disabling illnesses, but policies that make qualifying for benefits easier. These policies open benefits to the more marginally disabled, raising costs for taxpayers.
In addition to the loosening of eligibility requirements, the principal drivers of SSDI growth are increasingly attractive benefits and an applications process that has become incapable of distinguishing between truly disabled workers and those who should be rejected. As Slobodien's Drivers of SSDI Growth report demonstrates, these three effects have combined to create a modern SSDI very different from the one envisioned by its architects.
Going forward, it is essential that Congress take significant steps to rein in SSDI's growth. To do nothing — to continue to prioritize the able bodied over the truly infirm — is far worse.
Some recommendations have been put forth that can address the rising issue of SSDI fraud:
• Include greater oversight power for the SSA by administrative law judges who make SSDI decisions;
• Add "experience rating" for disability payroll taxes so employers who can keep individuals with disabilities on the job will be rewarded with lower taxes, while those who shift workers onto SSDI will pay more; and
• Require employers to carry private disability insurance to cover benefits for a short period until SSDI takes over.
Workers with legitimate disabilities who qualify for SSDI should by all means receive benefits. They earned them and they are entitled.
But the danger is that fraudulent claims will wipe out SSDI so that future deserving disabled workers will have no safety net. That would be a crime.
Noting that prior to the SSDI program going broke, Forbes magazine stated, "Congress will have to address SSDI's shortfall, which would reduce benefits by 20 percent. When the SSDI fund fell short in the past, Congress reallocated payroll tax dollars from the Old Age and Survivors program to DI. But now, many Republicans are likely to oppose such a step without major program reforms. This is an opportunity to take a serious look at the program — not just to save money but to better address the needs of working people with disabilities."
We can address the expansion of SSDI fraud by creating an economy that produces jobs. This would go a long way to help solve the issue by putting Americans back to work, and reversing the reliance on SSDI, a sad testament to what far too many consider their ultimate career destination.
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Seychelles Forward Platform Wedges
July is here and summer is in full swing. Time to beat the heat with these shoulder-baring looks. Our style experts paired easy-to-wear dresses and tops with some of the season's best sandals and booties for simple chic looks that are perfect for hot summer days. …
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Re-Excite my generator ***UPDATE***
November 27th, 2005, 03:26 PM
Generator stopped putting out the juice, my dad said I need to re-excite it, by putting juice (6VDC) to the brush wires while it's running to jump-start the field.This naturally, scares the bejeebees outta me, any thoughts?
Hmmmm,I understand the exciter field idea. Can't say as I have ever heard of it being done manually though.What kind of generator are you talking about?Maybe some of the electrical engineers on here will help you out.AK Chappy
Comment
When a generator sits for quite some time, the two magnets (on two poles generator) loose its residual magnetisim. Exiting the field means to polarize the magnets. To give it magnetic strength by inducing(exite) low voltage onto the field.
Comment
Originally posted by --GQ--: When a generator sits for quite some time, the two magnets (on two poles generator) loose its residual magnetisim. Exiting the field means to polarize the magnets. To give it magnetic strength by inducing(exite) low voltage onto the field.
You gonna hold the wires for AZF GQ? Acutally makes sense as those magnets are created as opposed to being natural.
Comment
do not do that its an altenator not a generator. it does not use the same regulation setup that the old time auto generators used. the field is set up in the stator and picked off by a set of sliprings on the rotor.if you short or attempt to polarize the altenator fields your gonna have smoke.most generators use a seperate field current to regulate output. if its a permmanant magnet style set up the mags are not connected to anything anyway as its a permmanant magnet. I would suggest a service manual and some reading on DC and AC generating teqniques.
no tech questions by PM, they wont get answered.
you have to be trusted by the people that you lie to .
Comment
Professor rodbolt, all the GEN. setup that i came across has at least two windings ( on two poles gen.) of small guage wire on each magnet isolated from the main windings which is connected to connecting points on the GEN. set. It should be labeled "excite". The low voltage current does not travel thru the slip rings. In any case the low voltage will not damage the GEN. since the Main windings are of heavy guage wires. 6 volt is mearely an insect biting on an elephant. And the "exiting" is done prior to starting the engine. Boomyal having experienced paralling 3 phase alternators when i was in college to get my EE, I have all the confident. There are no wires to hold. Simply clip the leads from the 6v battery to the "exite" leads on the GEN. Let it sits a bit for the magnet to gain strength. On big GEN. set, the exite voltage is perminant. It is used to control the out put voltage.Then again just to be safe, each GEN. set up may differ. Refering to your GEN. manual is never a bad idea.
Comment
AZF... Go here web page Then go to page 7. It will tell you how to excite your generator (flash the field)Another way.....Field Flashing of Portable GeneratorsThis tip comes from the Briggs & Stratton Customer Education Department. As an alternative to flashing a rotor winding with a battery applied to the brushes, an electric drill may be used. Follow these steps to flash the generator:Plug the electric drill into the generator receptacle. (Cordless drills do not work)If the drill is reversible, move the direction switch to the forward position.Start the generatorWhile depressing the trigger on the drill, spin the drill chuck in reverse direction. This will excite the field and the generator will now produce electricity. If spinning the chuck one direction does not work, try spinning the chuck in the other direction as you may have the reverse switch positioned backwards. Use caution not to get your hand or other materials caught in the chuck. As soon as the field is excited, the generator will produce power and the drill will turn on.The reason this works is because the electric motor in the drill will act as a small generator when spun backwards. The magnets in the drill's motor induce a voltage into the motor windings, which is fed back through the trigger, cord and into the generators receptacle. From there it goes into the power winding of the stator. The voltage going through the power winding creates a magnetic field, which is intensified due to the iron core of the stator laminations. The rotor intersects this magnetic field as it is spun past the power winding, thus inducing a voltage in the rotor winding. Once current flow is present in the rotor winding the rotor has been flashed.If either of these two ways do not work you have other problems.
Comment
"Flashing the Field" was actually a button labeled flash on the generators we used in the military (I am going back almost 25 yrs). I would follow the directions that Trent listed .... who know's we could be calling you Sparky soon!
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I run alot of different power equipment off my generac on my truck. Some of it needs to have the generator "excited". For instance I have a Hilti Hammer for busting frost that will not work until I start a drill with it first. Every time I shut off the hammer I have to re start with drill. I found if I leave a battery charger "for my battery operated tools " pluged into the AC outlet of generac, I don't have to re excite each time.
Comment
Just finished, and it worked great!Gen wouldn't start, so removed side covers, removed fuel lines, dumped old fuel, flushed lines, pulled bowl off carb, cleaned it, checked float, changed oil, reassembled, pulled cord a few times with switch off, then switched it on and it took one pull to start, and it ran like a dream. Took it out of garage, plugged in the AC drill (used the "drill" method mentioned above), and it barely took even 1/64th of a turn of the drill and WHAM! it was producing power!Ran it for quite a while, it ran great. I feel so good that I did it, and I didn't need to take it to a shop and pay $$$ for something I could do.Thanks all for the help and encouragement.
Comment
the reason why I posted not to try it and reccomended the service manual is about a month ago I had to replace some very expensive control boards on a 2 cyl water cooled kohler cause someone tried to "Polarize" it. they used a 9v battery. fried about 400 dollars worth of stuff. when it comes to working on portable gensets you really need to know how the genset is designed. some are actually altenators and others are DC generators fed through a solid state inverter. one italian model I had the pleasure to play with used a DC generator fed through a rotary converter. wont touch one again though. for the hassle I could have bought the blowboater a new genset and come out ahead. glad to see your flash worked though if anyone ever runs into a single cyl diesel ruggerini genset from the 70's run away.
no tech questions by PM, they wont get answered.
you have to be trusted by the people that you lie to .
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Friday, October 30, 2015
Some can recall a time when our campuses of higher education were zones where free speech thrived. That was another era, though. Today's students want speech restricted. How did it come to this?
The results of a poll that should be shocking, but sadly aren't, show that 51% of students favor their "college or university having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty."
Oddly, 95% say that "the issue of free speech" is important at their college or university, while 73% believe that the First Amendment is "an important amendment that still needs to be followed and respected in today's society." Only 21% told the Buckley Free Speech Survey that it is "outdated" and "can no longer be applied in today's society and should be changed."
Maybe these findings are not so odd, after all. In today's America, "free speech" and "First Amendment rights" tend not to include any expression that doesn't conform to left-wing ideology.
Seven years ago, almost two entire college generations in the past, the Acton Institute observed, "Students at colleges and universities who articulate conservative and traditional views are at particular risk of bullying and indoctrination by campus administrators and faculty who are zealous ideologues."
In that same commentary, author Ray Nothstine noted, "Some administrators practice a brand of radicalism intent on punishing students who dissent from the ideology of the campus power structure."
This, says Nothstine, is a danger to free society because "students (will) become accustomed to having their rights limited and will be more lethargic in countering possible oppression from a growing and intrusive state."
Remember, this was written in 2008. Students, it seems, are now fully accustomed to being told what they can and cannot say, and what they can and cannot think, and are just fine with it. In fact, they apparently want more restrictions.
The conditioning of minds begins early. High school kids are suspended for mild expressions of faith; elementary school students can be forced to undergo psychological evaluations if they draw a picture of Jesus on the cross; kids who wear shirts with the American flag or name of a conservative group are sent home to change; schools monitor students' social media for speech that administrators don't like; and sixth-graders have been assigned to "revise" the "outdated" Bill of Rights.
Perhaps worse than all of the above is the failure of teachers to present or even tolerate alternatives to what they're teaching.
As disturbing as it is, this is the educational world where our children are growing up. Free speech and expression are tolerated only when in accord with the left-wing doctrine of faculty and administrators.
Survey: 49% of College Students Feel ‘Intimidated’ When Expressing Beliefs Different From Professors
Forty-nine percent of U.S. college students admit they feel “intimidated” when they express beliefs or opinions that differ from their professors, according to a new nationwide survey of 800 undergraduates.
When researchers asked: “Have you felt intimidated to share your ideas, opinions or beliefs in class because they were different than your professors and course instructors?” 49 percent responded that they did, including 14 percent who said this happens “frequently”.
Fifty percent of survey respondents also said they felt intimidated by classmates when sharing different or unpopular beliefs.
The vast majority (95 percent) of students surveyed said that the issue of free speech is “important” to them, and 87 percent agree that listening to those with whom they disagree has educational value.
However, despite their strong support for free speech, a majority (51 percent) of students favor on-campus speech codes even though only one in 10 believes that colleges should regulate speech even more than they do now.
More than half (52 percent) of the students surveyed think that their college or university should forbid certain people with a history of “hate speech” from speaking on campus even though the same percentage also believes that the First Amendment does not make an exception for speech that some consider “hateful”.
And nearly three-quarters of student respondents (72 percent) favor disciplinary action for “any student or faculty member on campus who uses language that is considered racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise offensive.”
According to a demographic profile of students who agreed to take the online survey, 44 percent described themselves as “liberal”, 32 percent as “moderate”, and 20 percent as “conservative”. Forty-two percent said they were Democrats, 29 percent identified as Independents, and 26 percent as Republicans.
The survey was sponsored by the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale University, which was founded “to increase intellectual diversity” at the Ivy League school and other college campuses. It was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates between September 19th and 28th.
“The survey results confirmed some of what we expected, but they also revealed troubling surprises,” executive director Lauren Noble said. “It is the opinion of the Buckley Program that university campuses are best served by free and open speech, but lamentably, that opinion is anything but unanimous.”
How technology can help with Australia's (and the world's) educational problems
But no substituite for a demanding curriculum -- JR
A recent UN Education Agency commissioned report [PDF/2.3MB] estimated that at least 250 million of the world's primary school age children are unable to read, write or do basic mathematics at all. The same number of children are also struggling to improve to a functional level, and this is not a problem linked solely to developing countries.
In Australia, as in many other developed countries, we are facing the very real possibility that, in the near future, the generation approaching retirement will be more literate and numerate than the youngest adults.
Solving Australia's challenges or the problem of global illiteracy and innumeracy is a huge task but it's essential if we are to improve the health, wellbeing and life chances of the world's children.
I would argue that there has never been a better time to be in education. The technology we have available to us now means that the difficulties of the past shouldn't constrain our future or, more importantly, our children's future.
I believe that this is achievable and that the answer lies in making learning both accessible and efficient. The opportunities that technology opens up in this regard are just astounding and, in terms of learning, it can be of tremendous assistance.
Mastering skills such as number recognition, automatic recall of times tables or being able to smoothly blend groups of letters to form words takes time. It is therefore vital that children are motivated and engaged sufficiently to persevere.
Technology is a tool to help learning not a replacement. A number of people are of the opinion that technology shouldn't be used in education. I fundamentally disagree. Technology can be used to improve learning. It is ubiquitous to children's lives these days and to take it away seems false. You would not go into a hospital and say "I don't want modern treatment, please give me what worked in the 1940s or '50s"!
Technology isn't just an aide to the child it can give so much to the teacher, parent, education system. Technology can help reveal to us how children learn which, in turn, enables us to teach in better ways. We are able to identify the areas of the curriculum that children struggle to grasp.
For example if you go back five years and ask most maths teachers what basic skills children find difficult and they would have flagged division as one of the hardest.
In fact the data from millions of records, in scores of countries, suggests otherwise. Subtraction is the element that children find the most challenging. Once they have mastered that area then others fall more easily into place.
Technology cannot and does not replace the great teacher but it can bring in others into the equation who can be also hugely supportive and motivational to the child.
In my experience technology that opens the door to the child's support group to take an active role in education will have the biggest impact on learning and help us radically improve life outcomes for millions of children.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Some Common Core nonsense
You must not know too much or think for yourself. Rigid adherence to a formula is required: Very Leftist, very Fascist
AN ONLINE post of a third grade maths quiz has caused a firestorm after it showed a student was marked down even though they gave the correct answer. The quiz, posted to Reddit, has caused outrage because the student was marked down purely for the way they calculated the right answer.
Focusing on basic whole number multiplication, the first question asked the student to calculate 5 x 3 using repeated addition.
The student answered 5+5+5 = 15, but this was marked incorrect by the teacher who advised the accurate answer was 3+3+3+3+3=15.
Question two was equally as contentious with the student being asked to draw an array to solve 4x6.
For their answer, the student drew six rows of four dashes, but this was marked incorrect by the teacher who advised the correct answer was four rows of six dashes.
New York high school math and physics teacher Frank Noschese said the questions were part of the Common Core standards — an educational initiative in the US detailing what students should know in English and maths at the end of each grade. “The standards just lay out what kids should know and be able to do, not actual lessons,” he told Tech Insider.
Mr Noschese said while Common Core stipulates goals for knowledge in each grade, the specific interpretation of these standards is up to the discretion of individual states, districts and teachers.
“If the teacher specifically said ‘5x3 means five groups of three and 4x6 means four groups of six’ these answers are wrong because of the teacher’s forced interpretation,” he said.
“But mathematically, what the kid did is also valid. Kids likely know that five groups of three is equal to three groups of five.”
We frequently hear about American students’ low-test scores in science and math, and everyone from the PTA to candidates for the White House is rightly concerned with how to improve them. Indeed, this concern is a major part of our national conversation. And those who worry about our educational system often suggest that better instruction in these areas could help solve America’s economic, fiscal, and social problems, too.
Certainly, there are plenty of good reasons to boost our efforts in science and math. But we should not lose sight of the fact that there are other subjects in which we face a similar challenge. Regrettably, American students perform even worse when the topic is American history.
At first, this might seem somewhat less worrisome. But in fact, if our students are failing to learn the very basics about what it means to be American -- which is a condition for good citizenship -- this is at least as fundamental a challenge for our country as our students’ technical skills.
It’s easy to forget that, since our nation is based not on a shared ethnic background or cultural heritage but instead on shared ideas, being American actually requires us to know something. It requires us to learn about our country’s founding principles and our Founding Fathers. And it requires us to appreciate how these principles and the Founders’ ideas have contributed to keeping Americans free.
Our Declaration of Independence states, “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” To be American is to affirm these fundamental ideals. We need our students to learn, understand, and develop an appreciation for them.
Historically, America did a remarkable job of ensuring that new generations as well as new immigrants to the United States learned about American history and as a result, learned how to be American. But in recent decades, the collapse in American history education has caused our national memory to begin to slip away.
The lack of knowledge about our country’s past is at least as great a challenge as we face with science and math education, and recent results of a Department of Education National Assessment of Educational Progress survey suggest how significant that challenge is: Just 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 12 percent of twelfth-graders are at grade-level proficiency in American history. (These numbers are even lower than the percentage of students who are proficient in math nationwide.)
What does this mean? Only one in three fourth-graders can identify the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Less than half understand why George Washington was an important leader in American history. And most fourth-graders don’t know why the Pilgrims left England.
These are alarming findings. They suggest that we’re letting our shared understanding of what it means to be American disappear. And they imply that part of fixing our educational system -- part of properly preparing our young people for adult life -- must include making students familiar with American history.
It is in this spirit that I have written a series of bestselling children’s books to help young people learn American history with Ellis the Elephant. In this series Ellis learns about American Exceptionalism, Colonial America, the American Revolution, westward expansion, and much more. In my latest book, Christmas in America, Ellis discovers the joy of Christmas and how this special holiday has been celebrated throughout our nation’s history.
Visits to historic sites like George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon or Independence Hall in Philadelphia are also wonderful ways to inspire a love for American history. And of course, interactive online courses, television programs like Liberty’s Kids, and educational games like Oregon Trail can teach important history lessons, too.
There are many things young people need to learn before they’re ready to accept the full responsibilities and privileges of life as an adult citizen, but surely what it means to be American is among the most important. To help pass on this history to the next generation of Americans is one of our schools’ most important tasks--and an obligation for each of us, as well.
Freedom of speech and rigorous debate no longer accepted in practice at Australian universities
OUR universities do not sit in some sort of moral or ethical vacuum and so changes at these institutions have ripple effects into broader society. One only needs to look at the sexual revolution or the anti-Vietnam War movement to see the influence that universities have over the wider world.
This is why change away from an acceptance of freedom of speech at our universities is so concerning.
My experience as a student magazine editor for the past year has shown me that freedom of speech no longer has de facto acceptance on campus. Universities are no longer a place of inquiry or rigorous debate. Academic censorship is rife.
Take Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish environmentalist who sought to establish a research centre at the University of Western Australia and Flinders University. At both institutions he has faced resistance form students who staged protests and leveraged their student bodies to prevent such a centre from being established.
Their rationale? They do not agree with his findings and they’re not prepared to engage in debate.
Lomborg’s situation is strikingly similar to that of Galileo when he posited that Earth revolves around the sun, and not vice-versa. The church was not willing to hear out the argument and simply cast Galileo out.
If anything exemplifies the dangers of academic censorship it is the case of Galileo. How do we expect our society to advance when new ideas cannot be discussed because of an unwillingness by some precious, self-centred students?
These same students also want to limit free expression by mandating the use of “trigger warnings”, as well as censoring books they find uncomfortable or challenging. A “trigger warning” is a device that has emerged in the past two decades that seeks to warn a reader where a post traumatic reaction may be induced based on the content.
This has gone from warning of a discussion about rape to now including things such as ‘‘how many calories are in a food item’’ and “drunk driving’’. The discussion of these things doesn’t actually harm anyone, it’s just that students now demand to live in a cotton-wrapped world.
Great works such as The Great Gatsby, Metamorphoses and Mrs Dalloway have been banned from university reading lists simply because some self-absorbed students find the content emotionally challenging and upsetting.
Seemingly anything that infringes on a student’s apparent “right” to feel comfortable is cast out and banned from campus (including Mexican themed parties).
Further, the attitudes of the ever-increasing number of “social justice warriors” towards those who they disagree with is creating an environment that is not conducive to the exercise of speech, of free thought, and of debate.
You risk being labelled “fascist scum” if you happen to be of conservative ilk or simply opposed to communism or radical feminism. If you seek to express a view that doesn’t conform to that espoused by the revolutionary socialist groups on campus, then you are “racist”.
Don’t support gay marriage? You’re “homophobic”. Not a fan of unisex toilets? “Transphobic”. Radical, self-obsessed students have initiated this massive smear campaign against any opponents and in doing so they have significantly shifted the threshold, at least on campus, of these terms.
Naturally, people don’t like to be labelled as “racist” or “homophobic” and so the liberal use of these terms by these radicals is only shutting down speech and debate.
I simply ask: How would Galileo get on in today’s university?
My bet is that he would be driven out by an angry horde, upset that a “cis gendered”, heterosexual white male had dared to challenge the view of an oppressed, incredulous minority without even so much as including a trigger warning.
Who cares about deregulation? The real issue at our universities is the erosion of freedom of speech.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Politicians across the country like to claim that they’re all in favor of local control of education—until parents and their locally elected officials actually start trying to exercise it.
The small New Hampshire town of Croydon is a case in point.
Like many small towns in New Hampshire, Croydon does not have public schools to serve all grade levels so it contracts with education providers in neighboring towns. At issue now is the Croydon School Board’s decision to allow five elementary students to attend the neighboring Newport Montessori School. As Watchdog.org’s Steve Mac Donald explains:
"State law allows towns to pursue these agreements, sending taxpayer education dollars to any accredited school, public, charter, or private, even in neighboring states, with the exception of religious schools. The local board, at the behest of voters, negotiates contracts and approves taxpayer-funded tuition payments to those schools. The money follows the student."
This plan has been in place for high school students for more than 25 years. Back in 2007 the Croydon school board began investigating ways to expand similar options for elementary school students. When it unveiled its choice plan for this school year, the state board cried foul and has threatened to withhold some $39,000 in state funding.
State Board Chair Virginia Barry, who insists that “the districts’ legal obligations must supersede parental demands,” claims letting public dollars follow students to schools of their parents’ choice violates state law.
"There are communities on the borders of Vermont and Maine who send their kids to Vermont and Maine private schools. They are not controlled by the state Board of Education at all."
Former State Supreme Court Justice Chuck Douglas agrees with the Croydon Board, and insists that Barry’s interpretation of state law is incorrect. As it stands now, the Croydon School District plans to fight the state in court.
Meanwhile there are several commonsense realities the court and parental rights’ defenders within and beyond New Hampshire should keep in mind. As Bill Walker recently argued in the Nashua Telegraph:
"Why are high state officials spending our tax money to fight diversity in education? It’s not because they don’t believe in diversity for their own children.
For the members of the political classes and government-employee unions, choice is assumed to be their children’s birthright. President Obama’s children go to private school. Gov. Maggie Hassan’s children went to private school. In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the public-school teachers send their own children to private school, and they are right to do so. ...
Canada has had publicly funded school choice since the 1800s. In the province of Alberta, less than half the students go to the geographically closest school.
More than half of U.S. states have some sort of school choice program. ...
Choice is a long tradition in New Hampshire. The town of Derry sends its children to Pinkerton Academy; Coe- Brown Academy receives public students as well. The Rivendell District that serves Orford magically mingles its tax funds with those from another state.
New England towns have always put education above arbitrary political barriers; students have crossed state borders for hundreds of years."
Walker is right. Using public funds for personal education choices is not an earth-shattering idea.
Vermont and Maine have had town tuitioning voucher programs since 1869 and 1873, respectively, and more than 9,000 students are currently using publicly-funded vouchers to attend schools of their parents’ choice in those states.
In fact, public schools across the country are spending more than $1.4 billion on private school programs, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Nationwide, parents of nearly 130,000 students ages 6 through 21 with disabilities are also using federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds to send their children to the private schools they think are best for their children, including religious, parochial schools. (My tally is based on 2013 data from the U.S. Department of Education Child Count and Educational Environments, 2013.)
And let’s not forget, currently, nearly 9 million college students nationwide are using more than $32 billion in Federal Pell Grants to attend the colleges and universities of their choice, public and private, nonsectarian and religious alike.
Right now more than 24,000 New Hampshire undergraduate students are using more than $81 million in Federal Pell Grants to attend postsecondary institutions, including more than 11,000 students who are using nearly $38 million in public funds to attend the private and proprietary postsecondary institutions of their choice. (See U.S. Department of Education, Table 22.)
Finally, New Hampshire enacted one of the country’s most unique tax-credit scholarship programs in 2012. It allows businesses to take credits against their state taxes for contributions to non-profit scholarship organizations so parents can send their children to the private or home school programs of their choice.
Children are not creatures of the state, and public school officials in Croydon should be commended for their efforts to put the best interests of children ahead of petty, parochial politics.
Social scientists have long accepted that religious faith tends to dwindle among college students. However, a new study shows that the highly educated's loss of faith varies among nations.
Comparatively religious nations, such as the U.S., Turkey, Mexico, Italy and Israel, tend to see the strongest reduction in religiosity among the college-educated, according to research by sociologist Philip Schwadel of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
And, in more than one-fifth of the nations he studied, including New Zealand, Sweden, Russia and South Korea, higher education actually has a positive effect on religiosity. That could be because the highly educated tend to be more heavily involved in organizations and thus more likely to join and attend church.
"The results illustrate considerable cross-national differences in both the impact of higher education and the social significance of religiosity," Schwadel said. "In some nations, the highly educated are less religious than other citizens, in other nations they are more religious."
To examine the impact of higher education across nations, Schwadel used data from more than 46,000 people from 39 nations collected in the 2008 International Social Survey Programme, which asked a series of questions related to religious beliefs and activities.
Schwadel found that a university degree has a positive effect on religiosity in nine nations, a negative effect in 18 nations and no significant effect in 12 nations.
The study involved predominantly Christian nations and sheds little light on whether higher education has a different impact on non-Christian nations. Data was collected from 23 countries in Europe, seven from Asia or the Middle East, and three from South America. The U.S., Mexico and the Dominican Republic were included, as were South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Less than 4 percent of the respondents were Muslim, 2 percent identified as Buddhists and less than 2 percent identified with other East Asian religions. About 70 percent of the Muslims participating in the survey were from Turkey.
"Although the non-Christian nations in the sample did not unduly influence the results, this may change with a more diverse sample, particularly since there are generally higher levels of religious practice and belief in majority Muslim nations," Schwadel noted.
Schwadel developed a scale to measure religiosity among individuals in each nation based upon survey responses about frequency of prayer; strength of belief in God; self-identification as being religious; and frequency of attending religious services. On average, people in the Philippines were the most religious, while people in the Czech Republic were the least religious.
Other factors considered included percentage with university degrees, race, gender, age and gross domestic product. The study also accounted for whether participants lived in urban areas, whether they lived in a communist or former communist country, and how much religion is regulated in their nation.
Although respondents with university degrees reported relatively low levels of religious participation, Schwadel said the secularizing effect of higher education should not be exaggerated. Sex, age and marital status appear to be stronger factors in whether people are religious, he noted.
Schwadel found no association between a nation's average level of higher education with levels of religious belief among its people. However, rising per capita gross domestic product strongly correlates with declines in a nation's religiosity, suggesting that a different measure of modernity may be at play.
While those who live in a communist or former communist nation are less likely to be religious, Schwadel found that variation in the effect of higher education on religiosity is not related to whether a nation is communist or formerly communist. He studied nine such nations: Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Ukraine.
The negative effect of higher education on religiosity seen in relatively religious nations could be the result of less educated segments of the population emulating the beliefs adopted by the highly educated, Schwadel said.
"Secularity may be a form of status differentiation for the highly educated in relatively religious nations, but it cannot serve that function in relatively irreligious nations," he said.
Schwadel called for more long-term study of how social networks and cultural capital influence the relationship between higher education and religious belief.
Schwadel's study was published in the most recent issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Illinois School District Is Standing Up to the Federal Government’s Bullying Over Transgender Students and Locker Rooms
Township High School District 211, like many school districts, is wrestling with how to balance the interests of transgender students with the privacy rights of other students. Here’s what the district does to accommodate transgender students, according to a newsletter the school emailed Oct. 12:
"Transgender students can “use restrooms in accordance with their gender identity, as there are private stalls available.”
Transgender students “can participate on sex-identified sports teams.” In other words, if you were born as male and have a male physique, you can play on the girls team if you identify as female.
“[T]ransgender students have access to a support team with extensive training in addressing the identity development needs of adolescents. This support team, in partnership with the student and parents, works through the options available for sex-specific facilities, as well as name and gender references on school rosters.”
However, that’s not good enough for the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), according to the school district’s newsletter, penned by Superintendent Daniel Cates:
The OCR has taken the position that the district’s decision to not allow unrestricted access to the locker room is inadequate and discriminatory. The OCR has directed that transgender students should have full access to sex-specific locker rooms for changing during physical education classes and after-school activities. Likely litigation and enforcement action, including the potential loss of federal education funds, may be imposed by the OCR.(emphasis mine)
Read that again: a school district is facing the loss of federal funds because they won’t allow a student born the opposite-sex access to a same-sex locker room and now that student has filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.
When I contacted the Office of Civil Rights to confirm the school was representing what the OCR was threatening to do accurately, a spokesman told me “we don’t discuss the details of our investigations,” but didn’t deny the school district’s assessment of the situation.
This is insane.
This is not a situation where a school is turning the other way as a transgender student faces bullying or assault. In fact, the school has instead instituted several policies that should satisfy the interests of transgender students without grossly disrupting the learning environment. What’s left is a very narrow situation relating a time when people are changing in an open room.
In fact, according to a Chicago Tribune editorial published Oct. 19, the school has even floated the idea of a compromise that would allow transgender students access to the locker rooms:
District 211 is willing to provide private dressing stations within its locker rooms—not just one, but six to 10, Cates says. They could be used by any student who is uncomfortable changing clothes in front of anyone else for any reason.
You’d think that would be good enough. You’d think wrong. The editorial continues:
Problem solved, right? No.
The sticking point is that while they’d be available to all students, they’d be mandatory for one. The district would require the transgender girl to use the stalls. That’s not acceptable to the Office of Civil Rights, which insists on the same rules and accommodations for all students.
The school district met with federal officials Wednesday, but it’s not looking like they’ll change. “We continue to work with OCR in a conscientious attempt to reach a resolution regarding this individual case,” said Tom Peterson, the district’s communications director, in a statement, according to the Daily Herald.
Is the federal government really on solid legal ground? A letter sent to District 211 from conservative legal groups Alliance Defending Freedom and Thomas More Society disputes that:
Allowing students to use opposite-sex restrooms and locker rooms would seriously endanger students’ privacy and safety, undermine parental authority, violate religious students’ free exercise rights, and severely impair an environment conducive to learning. These dangers are so clear-cut that a school district allowing such activity would clearly expose itself to tort liability. Consequently, school districts should reject policies that force students to share restrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex.
Didn’t it also used to be the case that if a school district allowed a person with male anatomy to undress in front of a bunch of girls it would be considered unlawful sexual harassment?
But legalities aside … what about common sense? Where is the role for the local authorities, for the school district superintendent, to exercise their own judgment, in light of what they know about the community and the schools, and decide the best way to balance transgender students’ requests with other students’ rights and expectations?
And what about non-transgender students? Sure, I think it’s likely that some of them would have no problem with sharing a locker room with a transgender student. But what about some of the others? What about the adolescents, already embarrassed about their changing bodies, who do feel uncomfortable changing in an open room with someone whose anatomy may not match the gender he or she now identifies with?
Do we really want the federal government to insist that those adolescents’ preferences need to be ignored, overridden?
The national conversation tends to revolve around the wants and preferences of transgender students. But it’s not transgender students, but those who support locker rooms being restricted to those born a particular sex at birth, who are facing the federal government’s bullying right now.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
‘Liberal academics let censorship happen’
The demand for equality that emerges on college campuses today is primarily underpinned by two things: identity politics and a perception of individuals as suffering from trauma. Students have become attached to the particular trauma they identify with; they see it as a badge of honour and any perceived slight becomes a threat to their sense of who they are.’
More than a decade after the publication of his book, Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, Professor Donald Downs is not positive about the state of academic freedom. ‘Things go in cycles’, he tells me when we meet. ‘In the 1980s and 90s, censorship was driven by political correctness. There was some blowback and things got a little better. Now censorship is coming back as liberty and equality are increasingly pitched against each other. This time it’s students who, in the name of equality, are demanding a climate free from offence, waging a war against microaggressions and calling for trigger warnings. Students are leading the way in stifling intellectual dissent and academics don’t know how to handle this. Too often they just acquiesce.’
Downs, softly spoken and thoughtful, seems an unlikely free-speech champion. Indeed, he initially supported speech codes when they were introduced at the University of Wisconsin, where he has been professor of law since 1980. It was the experience of watching his colleagues’ ‘lives and careers ruined by censorship’ that provoked his change of mind. Although, as he tells me, he had always been careful to draw a distinction between the rhetoric and targeted application of hate speech. In Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, published in 2004, he charts the attacks on free speech that began to take place across American universities in the late 1980s, and the campaign he helped coordinate at Wisconsin to get speech codes overturned.
Downs notes that the speech codes introduced at this time had more to do with promoting a general climate of sensitivity and diversity than with tackling specific incidences of prejudice. This broad-brush approach demanded a code to cover every eventuality and allowed policies to proliferate. The University of Michigan, he tells me, had 20 separate policies at one point, dealing with such things as climate, harassment, speech and diversity – ‘they were being made up as they went along’. Although these codes were often written and implemented by administrators who had little understanding of the academic environment, Downs is clear that faculty cannot be let off the hook: ‘They let this situation happen.’ Liberal academics, often politically sympathetic to the issues covered, generally trusted administrators to implement policies appropriately. To criticise speech codes, Downs remarks, ‘was to make a statement that you were insensitive to racism or sexism and few were prepared to do this’.
Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus provides a startling snapshot of a particular point in the battle against campus censorship: ‘During most of the twentieth century, threats to academic freedom came from the political right, and from outside institutions of higher learning. The new attacks on free thought that arose in the later 1980s turned this pattern on its head: they have arisen from leftist sources inside the ivory tower.’ The book also provides a salutary lesson in how free speech can be regained. Downs emphasises throughout that ‘rights won through politics and legislation are more likely to change people’s thinking because majorities have to be convinced to agree’.
However, Downs offers readers far more than just a historical record and campaign manual. He explores the social and political developments that have resulted in censorship being seen as a progressive rather than an authoritarian force. He tells me that when a society has a strong sense of itself and of its own culture, it can afford to be tolerant of dissent. When society is not strong, but ‘existentially insecure’, ‘illiberal elements can come to the fore and people become dogmatic’. He argues that this pervasive insecurity, which began to afflict the Western world in the late 1980s, has also had an impact on individuals. ‘People have begun to feel more insecure and vulnerable. They readily identify as victims and define themselves by traumas, real or imagined.’ He argues that many of the original advocates of speech codes shared a view that students needed an ‘administrative apparatus to support their self-esteem, psychological wellbeing and identities’. He is clear: ‘In reality this represented a return of in loco parentis legislation to campus in a new and politicised guise after its banishment in the 1960s.’
Interestingly, he locates the origins of much of today’s campus censorship in the political legacy of the Free Speech Movement (FSM), the student rebellion against campus censorship at Berkeley in the mid-Sixties. Although ostensibly concerned with free speech, from the outset the movement was ‘torn between libertarian and moralistic impulses’. He reminds me there was never a ‘golden age’ of free speech on campus and it would, for example, have been impossible for representatives of the US military to have had a platform on campus at the time of the Vietnam War. ‘Free speech was important to FSM but mainly as the vehicle by which to address more substantive political concerns, including the nourishment of solidarity. Even at Berkeley, one of FSM’s lasting legacies is not free speech but censorship by the students themselves.’
The influence of ‘an anti-liberal New Left’ led to notions of political solidarity being replaced by a concept of equality premised upon sensitivity to individual differences. Downs argues that this view, which has taken root on college campuses, demands ‘ideological conformity’ and ‘stifles thought’. In Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, he suggests that identity politics, with its obsessive focus on what divides rather than unites people, exploits marginal differences ‘to thwart the process of individual self-determination and discovery’. He is not at all opposed to diversity but he understands that ‘diversity works best when it is allied with liberal principles of freedom – not when it conceives of liberal freedom as an enemy’. Ironically, this new identity-driven emphasis on equality and diversity proves to be ‘surprisingly paternalistic’ as it ‘construes individuals as too weak to withstand the rigours of critical discourse’.
Downs is pleased to see signs of an emergent backlash against campus censorship. But he’s adamant that it’s the views underpinning censorship that really need to be challenged. He has the intellectual and political insight needed to pick apart the identity politics and the perception of trauma that has infected university communities. Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus is a great starting point for those prepared to join him in battle.
Obama administration, sharing blame, calls for limits on school testing
Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation’s public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful.
Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to “reduce over-testing” as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools.
“I still have no question that we need to check at least once a year to make sure our kids are on track or identify areas where they need support,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, who has said he will leave office in December. “But I can’t tell you how many conversations I’m in with educators who are understandably stressed and concerned about an overemphasis on testing in some places and how much time testing and test prep are taking from instruction.
“It’s important that we’re all honest with ourselves,” he continued. “At the federal, state, and local level, we have all supported policies that have contributed to the problem in implementation. We can and will work with states, districts, and educators to help solve it.”
Teachers unions, which had led the opposition on the left to the amount of testing, declared the reversal of sorts a victory. “Parents, students, educators, your voice matters and was heard,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of
The Obama administration will urge Congress to limit the time students spend on testing to 2 percent of total school time.
And even some proponents of newer, tougher tests said they appreciated the administration’s acknowledgment that it had helped create the problem, saying it had done particular damage by encouraging states to evaluate teachers in part on test scores.
But the administration’s “testing action plan” — which guides school districts but does not have the force of law — also risks creating fresh uncertainty on the role of tests in America’s schools. Many teachers have felt whiplash as they rushed to rewrite curriculum based on new standards and new assessments, only to have politicians in many states pull back because of political pressure.
Some who agreed that testing has run rampant also urged the administration not to throw out the No. 2 pencils with the bath water, saying tests can be a powerful tool for schools to identify weaknesses and direct resources. They worried that the cap on time spent testing — which the administration said it would ask Congress to enshrine in legislation — would only tangle schools in more federal regulations and questions of what, exactly, counts as a test.
“What happens if somebody puts a cap on testing, and to meet the cap ends up eliminating tests that could actually be helpful, or leaves the redundancy in the test and gets rid of a test that teachers can use to inform their instruction?” asked Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, an organization that represents about 70 large urban school districts.
Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and one of the most vocal proponents for higher standards and tougher tests, said, “There’s plenty of agreement that there’s too much testing going on.” But, he added, “we have to be careful, as with anything federal, that it doesn’t lead to unintended consequences.”
The administration’s move seemed a reckoning on a two-decade push that began during the Bush administration and intensified under President Obama. Programs with aspirational names — No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top — were responding to swelling agreement among Democrats and Republicans that higher expectations and accountability could lift the performance of US students, who chronically lag their peers in other countries on international measures, and could help close a chronic achievement gap between black and white students.
States, led by the National Governors Association and advised by local educators, created the Common Core standards, which outlined the skills students should have upon graduation, and signed on to tests tied to those standards.
But as the Obama administration pushed testing as an incentive for states to win more federal money in the Race for the Top program, it was bedeviled by an unlikely left-right alliance. Conservatives argued that the standards and tests were federal overreach — some called them a federal takeover — and called on parents and local school committees to resist what they called a “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching.
On the left, parents and unions objected to tying tests to teacher evaluations and said tests hamstrung educators’ creativity. They accused the companies writing the assessments of commercializing the fiercely local tradition of US schooling.
As a new generation of tests tied to the Common Core was rolled out last spring, several states abandoned plans to use the tests, while others renounced the Common Core, or rebranded it as a new set of local standards. And some parents, mostly in suburban areas, had their children opt out of the tests.
Duncan’s announcement — which was backed by his designated successor, John B. King Jr. — was prompted in part by the anticipation of a new survey from the Council of the Great City Schools, which set out to determine exactly how much testing is happening among its members.
That survey, also released Saturday, found that students in the nation’s big-city schools will take, on average, about 112 mandatory standardized tests between prekindergarten and high school graduation — eight tests a year. In eighth grade, when tests fall most heavily, they consume an average of 20 to 25 hours, or 2.3 percent of school time. The totals did not include tests like Advanced Placement exams or the ACT.
There was no evidence, the study found, that more time spent on tests improved academic performance, at least as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a long-standing test sometimes referred to as the nation’s report card.
“Because so many actors are adopting and requiring tests, you often find a whole portfolio of tests not being very strategic,” said Casserly, the council’s executive director. “It’s often disjointed and disconnected and incoherent in many ways, and it results in a fair amount of redundancy and overlap.”
Still, he said: “We don’t think tests are the enemy. We think there’s an appropriate place for them.”
The administration said it would issue “clear guidance” on testing by January. Some of the language of the announcement Saturday was general; it said, for example, that tests should be “worth taking” and “fair.” Like new guidance from many states, it underscored that academic standards and curriculum are to be fleshed out locally.
But it also said that tests should be “just one of multiple measures” of student achievement, and that “no single assessment should ever be the sole factor in making an educational decision about a student, an educator or a school.”
Still, it emphasized that the administration was not backing away entirely from tests: The announcement said tests should cover “the full range of relevant state standards” and elicit “complex student demonstrations or applications of knowledge and skills.”
Hillary Clinton didn’t become Washington, D.C.’s #1 Girl Gone Wild by winning wet T-shirt contests but by offering the most seductive plan on college affordability. Here’s how we can beat her at her own wild game…
Hillary knows Obama won the youth vote in two consecutive presidential elections by promising to erase the burden of college loans. She also knows the average college student graduates with $33,000 in debt. Finally, she knows independents and Republicans are offering young voters little by way of a counter offer.
Today I’ll lay out a three-step proposal we can use to counter Hillary’s offer to strip $350 billion out of the economy over ten years and make college tuition “free.”
Mrs. Clinton tries not to look or sound like a spring breaker at the beach,favoring matronly pantsuits and frequently mentioning that she’s a “grandmother.” She pitches herself as a boring yet trustworthy “Mrs. Clause”—handing out free college tuition while wearing a Santa suit. But, beneath the surface, it’s crystal clear that Hillary is the wildest girl in Washington.
Here’s how independents and Republicans should fight back on behalf of college students and offer a more meaningful college affordability solution.
1.) Helping Millions of Jobless College-Educated Millennials
Together, we must expose a story that the Obama administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) quietly released this month: there are 6.5 million (6,455,300 to be exact) more Millennials with college degrees than there are jobs for them now. Furthermore, when you account for all the jobs forecasted to be created between now and 2022, the BLS says there still will not be enough jobs.
Translation: You’d likely be better off investing four years and $100,000 into starting your own company than getting a college degree because there are will be an oversupply of Americans with degrees through at least 2022.
The greatest weakness in Hillary’s sales pitch to young voters is her premise that a college degree is necessary for success.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ralph Lauren, LeBron James, Michael Dell and Rush Limbaugh are only a few examples of people who rose to the top of their field without a college degree. In fact, dedicating four years to obtaining a degree could have doomed their careers. And we wouldn’t be using technology products that we now take for granted, like iPhones and Microsoft software.
The truth is that we must recover our economy in order to employ young people and taking $350 billion out of the economy will not help. No matter how many “free” degrees a young person obtains, they still won’t get interviewed for job openings that don’t exist when companies cannot afford to expand and hire.
GOP candidates should start educating young people on these facts so they don’t fall for Hillary’s plan, which relies on them buying into her false premise that college is necessary for career success.
2.) A Better Proposal (Hint: Concealed Carry)
Here’s a proposal: we will match Hillary’s experiment to spend $350 billion over ten years on college education, but we have one condition. Our one condition is: the only schools that get funds are those that will allow professors, staff and students to carry concealed firearms on campus.
College campuses are now one of the most deadly places in America; in the past few weeks alone we’ve had four shootings. Republicans have an opportunity to stand up and say that no young person should be pressured by a self-serving politician to choose between the safety of their life and a free education.
Clinton is not going back to college anytime soon and, even if she were, she has lifetime Secret Service protection. She’s unperturbed by the prospect of walking to chemistry class and running into the next Christopher Harper-Mercer, Steven Jones or Elliot Rodger. She doesn’t face the dangers that your children face.
Hillary is capitalizing on the fact that we haven’t done a good job of informing our children of two stories within American history which they are too young to intuit from their experience: One, gun free zones didn’t always exist in America. Two, ever since Bill Clinton pushed hard for gun free zones there has been an uptick in mass violence and today we are at a historic high.
3.) Emphasize Entrepreneurship
A final way in which we can resonate with Millennial voters on the topic of college education is by emphasizing how our free market policies will allow them to become successful entrepreneurs. This is because 70 percent of Millennials say they aspire to be independent and work for themselves someday, according to research from Deloitte.
PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel launched a scholarship program proving that Millennials are willing to give up a four-year degree for the opportunity to be an entrepreneur. Republicans should expand upon Thiel’s message by showing young people that a pricey college degree is optional for career success.
College degrees aren’t worth what they used to be. Ivy League students are hiring writing tutors and Harvard Business School grads are complaining they feel unprepared for the modern workforce. This is because increasing federal aid to institutions of higher learning encourages them to raise their prices without improving the quality of education.
Republicans will be seen as “student advocates” if they hold colleges and Democrats accountable for profiting off the backs of students and endangering their lives in gun free zones. We will attract young people with the message that success is not one-size-fits all. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s plan will leave students in the same position as they are now—in debt and unemployable.
For more information and history that you can offer Millennials about student loan debt and gun free zones, you can also read “Let Me Be Clear.”
Share this with every young person in your life—before their life is forever set back by the policies of Girl Gone Wild Incognito, Hillary Clinton.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges
None of this is surprising in the light of the way Leftist academics have gone hysterical about minor matters, such as "micro-aggressions", "trigger warnings" etc. Students have been TAUGHT to feel threatened and helpless amidst the rough and tumble of everyday life. They have been taught that they must be protected from evil influences by their elders at all times.
And the relentless attacks on Christianity have not helped either. Christianity gives people guidelines about how to behave and comfort amidst distress. I was greatly helped by the behaviour guidance I received from Christianity in my teenage years. I was given wisdom that I could have got from nowhere else. So although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I sent my son to a church school and encouraged his interest in the faith.
In a world where all values and traditions are questioned, young people can be forgiven for feeling confused and alienated -- not knowing which way to jump or how to behave wisely. Christian teachings put their feet back onto the path of tried and true values
And the assistance of the clergy and Christian youth workers is valuable but often not accessible on campus. They would once have done much of the personal counselling and support that is now being demanded of academics -- JR
A year ago I received an invitation from the head of Counseling Services at a major university to join faculty and administrators for discussions about how to deal with the decline in resilience among students. At the first meeting, we learned that emergency calls to Counseling had more than doubled over the past five years. Students are increasingly seeking help for, and apparently having emotional crises over, problems of everyday life. Recent examples mentioned included a student who felt traumatized because her roommate had called her a “bitch” and two students who had sought counseling because they had seen a mouse in their off-campus apartment. The latter two also called the police, who kindly arrived and set a mousetrap for them.
Faculty at the meetings noted that students’ emotional fragility has become a serious problem when it comes to grading. Some said they had grown afraid to give low grades for poor performance, because of the subsequent emotional crises they would have to deal with in their offices. Many students, they said, now view a C, or sometimes even a B, as failure, and they interpret such “failure” as the end of the world. Faculty also noted an increased tendency for students to blame them (the faculty) for low grades—they weren’t explicit enough in telling the students just what the test would cover or just what would distinguish a good paper from a bad one. They described an increased tendency to see a poor grade as reason to complain rather than as reason to study more, or more effectively. Much of the discussions had to do with the amount of handholding faculty should do versus the degree to which the response should be something like, “Buck up, this is college.” Does the first response simply play into and perpetuate students’ neediness and unwillingness to take responsibility? Does the second response create the possibility of serious emotional breakdown, or, who knows, maybe even suicide?
Two weeks ago, that head of Counseling sent us all a follow-up email, announcing a new set of meetings. His email included this sobering paragraph:
“I have done a considerable amount of reading and research in recent months on the topic of resilience in college students. Our students are no different from what is being reported across the country on the state of late adolescence/early adulthood. There has been an increase in diagnosable mental health problems, but there has also been a decrease in the ability of many young people to manage the everyday bumps in the road of life. Whether we want it or not, these students are bringing their struggles to their teachers and others on campus who deal with students on a day-to-day basis. The lack of resilience is interfering with the academic mission of the University and is thwarting the emotional and personal development of students.”
He also sent us a summary of themes that emerged in the series of meetings, which included the following bullets:
Less resilient and needy students have shaped the landscape for faculty in that they are expected to do more handholding, lower their academic standards, and not challenge students too much.
There is a sense of helplessness among the faculty. Many faculty members expressed their frustration with the current situation. There were few ideas about what we could do as an institution to address the issue.
Students are afraid to fail; they do not take risks; they need to be certain about things. For many of them, failure is seen as catastrophic and unacceptable. External measures of success are more important than learning and autonomous development.
Faculty, particularly young faculty members, feel pressured to accede to student wishes lest they get low teacher ratings from their students. Students email about trivial things and expect prompt replies.
Failure and struggle need to be normalized. Students are very uncomfortable in not being right. They want to re-do papers to undo their earlier mistakes. We have to normalize being wrong and learning from one’s errors.
Faculty members, individually and as a group, are conflicted about how much “handholding” they should be doing.
Growth is achieved by striking the right balance between support and challenge. We need to reset the balance point. We have become a “helicopter institution.”
Reinforcing the claim that this is a nationwide problem, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently ran an article by Robin Wilson entitled, “An Epidemic of Anguish: Overwhelmed by Demand for Mental-Health Care, Colleges Face Conflicts in Choosing How to Respond" (Aug. 31, 2015). Colleges and universities have traditionally been centers for higher academic education, where the expectation is that the students are adults, capable of taking care of their own everyday life problems. Increasingly, students and their parents are asking the personnel at such institutions to be substitute parents. There is also the ever-present threat and reality of lawsuits. When a suicide occurs, or a serious mental breakdown occurs, the institution is often held responsible.
On the basis of her interviews with heads of counseling offices at various colleges and universities, Wilson wrote:
“Families often expect campuses to provide immediate, sophisticated, and sustained mental-health care. After all, most parents are still adjusting to the idea that their children no longer come home every night, and many want colleges to keep an eye on their kids, just as they did. Students, too, want colleges to give them the help they need, when they need it. And they need a lot. Rates of anxiety and depression among American college students have soared in the last decade, and many more students than in the past come to campus already on medication for such illnesses. The number of students with suicidal thoughts has risen as well. Some are dealing with serious issues, such as psychosis, which typically presents itself in young adulthood, just when students are going off to college. Many others, though, are struggling with what campus counselors say are the usual stresses of college life: bad grades, breakups, being on their own for the first time. And they are putting a strain on counseling centers.”
In previous posts (for example, here and here), I have described the dramatic decline, over the past few decades, in children’s opportunities to play, explore, and pursue their own interests away from adults. Among the consequences, I have argued, are well-documented increases in anxiety and depression, and decreases in the sense of control of their own lives. We have raised a generation of young people who have not been given the opportunity to learn how to solve their own problems. They have not been given the opportunity to get into trouble and find their own way out, to experience failure and realize they can survive it, to be called bad names by others and learn how to respond without adult intervention. So now, here’s what we have: Young people,18 years and older, going to college still unable or unwilling to take responsibility for themselves, still feeling that if a problem arises they need an adult to solve it.
Dan Jones, past president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, seems to agree with this assessment. In an interview for the Chronicle article, he said:
“[Students] haven’t developed skills in how to soothe themselves, because their parents have solved all their problems and removed the obstacles. They don’t seem to have as much grit as previous generations.”
In my next post I’ll examine the research evidence suggesting that so-called “helicopter parenting” really is at the core of the problem. But I don’t blame parents, or certainly not just parents. Parents are in some ways victims of larger forces in society—victims of the continuous exhortations from “experts” about the dangers of letting kids be, victims of the increased power of the school system and the schooling mentality that says kids develop best when carefully guided and supervised by adults, and victims of increased legal and social sanctions for allowing kids into public spaces without adult accompaniment. We have become, unfortunately, a “helicopter society.”
If we want to prepare our kids for college—or for anything else in life!—we have to counter these social forces. We have to give our children the freedom, which children have always enjoyed in the past, to get away from adults so they can practice being adults—that is, practice taking responsibility for themselves.
Seventy-three percent of American eighth graders tested below the proficiency level in geography last year, according to a report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Analyzing nationally representative test data from the U.S. Department of Education, GAO found that only 27 percent of eighth graders nationwide scored at either the proficient (24%) or advanced (3%) level on standardized geography tests in 2014.
Nearly half (48%) exhibited only partial mastery of the subject, and a quarter (25%) scored below basic competency on the geography tests.
The 2014 results showed virtually no improvement since 1994, when 4 percent of eighth graders tested at the advanced level, 24 percent at the proficient level, 43 percent at the basic level, and 29 percent were below basic competency, the GAO reported, even as Americans become increasingly dependent on location-based technologies such as GPS (global positioning system).
“Geography is generally taught as part of social studies, but data show that more than half of eighth grade teachers reported spending a small portion (10 percent or less) of their social studies instruction time on geography,” the report to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Humans Services, Education, and Related Agencies stated.
Although “research suggests that K-12 education is critically important for learning the fundamentals of geography,” GAO’s analysis of teacher survey data found that geography skills - “such as spatial dynamics and connections, use of maps and globes, and other countries and cultures” – were typically taught just “one or twice a month.”
Even though geography is defined as one of 10 core academic subjects in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), states do not have to include it in their mandatory assessments.
As a result, educators said they were under “pressure to emphasize other subjects” such as math, reading, and science, and that “allocating resources for geography education was challenging in the face of greater national and state focus on tested subjects.”
However, the lack of proficiency in geography among three quarters of eighth graders is worrisome because the need for future workers who have advanced geographic skills is increasing.
“According to the Department of Labor, employment of specialists in geography, or geographers, is projected to grow 29 percent from 2012 to 2022 – much faster than the average 11 percent growth for all occupations,” the GAO report noted.
“Among the many activities that can depend on analysis of geospatial data are maintaining roads and other critical transportation infrastructures, quickly responding to natural disasters…and tracking endangered species,” it stated.
Education Dept. Urges Schools to 'Better Support Undocumented Youth'--And Help Them Apply for DACA
The U.S. Education Department is out with a new "Guide for Success" that suggests the "important" ways teachers and school administrators can support the growing number of "undocumented youth" in the nation's public high schools and colleges.
"The Department hopes that educators, schools, and campuses will, as they see fit, draw upon the tips and examples in this Guide to better support undocumented youth and, ultimately, move us closer to the promise of college and career readiness for all," the guidance says.
Undocumented children "represent one of the most vulnerable groups served by U.S. schools," and therefore "it is imperative that educators and other personnel understand the unique needs of these students and receive high-quality training and support on how to best serve them."
The guide reviews the rights of undocumented students; explains non-citizen access to federal financial aid and private scholarships; and offers "tips for educators" on how to support undocumented youth in high school and college.
At the top of the "tips" list: Share information about President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which gives temporary legal status to children who were brought to this country illegally by their parents.
Since the program began in 2012, more than 680,000 young people have received a temporary reprieve from deportation, and another 400,000 may become eligible in the next few years, the guide notes.
Beyond reducing "the stigma of being undocumented," DACA gives illegal aliens access to internships, "stable transportation and housing," and paid work experience.
In addition to promoting DACA, high schools are urged to "embrace and value" the diversity and cultural backgrounds of all students.
Specifically, teachers should "understand the cultural and educational backgrounds" of their students; they should "model multicultural sensitivity"; they should "engage in self-reflection to address personal biases and increase multicultural competence"; and they should "incorporate discussions around diversity and immigration into instruction."
High schools also should "consider establishing safe spaces" where undocumented children can "share, engage with their peers, and build a school-based support system."
Beyond all the diversity and multiculturalism pointers, the guide urges secondary schools to help undocumented students understand how they can get into -- and pay for -- college.
Among other things, teachers and school administrators should "encourage scholarship sponsors to change their policies to be inclusive of undocumented students."
And finally, teachers and school administrators should "be empathetic and build positive relationships with undocumented youth and their families." This includes speaking to families in their own language, hiring interpreters if necessary.
'Undocumented Immigrant Awareness Day'
The tips for higher education include the creation of "open and welcoming environments" by hosting an "undocumented immigrant awareness day" on campus; educating all students "about the challenges and strengths of undocumented students, such as by hosting an Undocumented Week; and "each day, highlight(ing) an issue faced by undocumented students or celebrat(ing) an accomplishment of the undocumented immigrant community."
There's much more in the guide, which states that these are only suggestions: "The U.S. Department of Education does not mandate or prescribe practices, models, or other activities in this Guide," it says.
The Education Department plans to release a similar resource guide for early-learning and elementary school settings in the coming months.
John King, who is now performing the duties of the deputy education secretary, introduced the new guide during a roundtable with undocumented students at San Francisco State University, which is described as a leader in supporting the success of undocumented youth.
"The university has advisers to help undocumented students successfully navigate financial aid options and other university resources, as well as a task force of faculty, staff and students dedicated to supporting the academic, professional and personal success of undocumented students and prospective students," the Education Department explained.
San Francisco, of course, is a sanctuary city, which does not honor routine requests from federal immigration officials to keep criminal aliens in local jails until immigration officials can take custody of them.
On July 1, a Mexican national -- released because the local sheriff's department refused to honor an ICE detainer -- shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle as she strolled with her father along the San Francisco waterfront.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
UK: Children aged 11 who can't write their own name: Popularity of computer games means secondary school pupils lack basic skills
My son played computer games from age 2 onwards without restriction. So how come he got a degree with first class honours in mathematics and now works as a computer programmer? Computers have become just a whipping boy
Children are arriving at secondary school unable to write their names properly amid the growing popularity of computer games.
They are still struggling with basic handwriting by the age of 11 or 12 because couch potato lifestyles mean they are not developing the correct motor skills, say experts.
The warning comes as fears grow about an increasingly sedentary generation, which is addicted to playing on computers, iPads and mobile phones at an ever earlier age.
The issue was debated by teachers and handwriting experts at a discussion in central London last week, the Times Educational Supplement reported.
Melanie Harwood, who provides handwriting coaching in schools, said: ‘I’m seeing children as old as 11, 12, who can’t write their own names and they’re being passed through the system.
‘Some children are being bullied because of their handwriting. Their friends are taking pictures of their writing and tweeting it. ‘Kids comment on the writing, saying: “They’re not very bright, because their handwriting isn’t very good”.’
She added: ‘Good God. It’s horrific. You can’t have that.’
Charlotte Clowes, deputy head at St Alban’s Catholic Primary School in Macclesfield, Cheshire, pointed out that children need to build up their ‘gross motor development’ – shoulder, elbow and wrist movement – before moving on to the fine motor skills required for handwriting.
But, with the advent of computer games, sedentary children’s development is being held back. She said: ‘One might link that to not doing things we all did – playing in the playground.
‘As schools, we need to make sure that we’re providing opportunities for motor skills to be developed, gross and fine. It’s not just about getting straight to handwriting.’
Dr Angela Webb, chairman of the National Handwriting Association, stressed that once handwriting has been taught, it needs to be practised.
‘It is largely a motor skill,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t expect to be good at the violin without practising.’
She said it was wrong to assume handwriting was irrelevant to children’s lives. Students are still expected to sit exams with pen and paper, for example.
Handwriting still forms part of the primary school curriculum. Ofsted, the school inspection body, has added handwriting to its assessment list, which means that the legibility of pupils’ written work can now affect the rating a school receives.
But secondary pupils are increasingly typing their essays on computers, and there is concern that children may eventually lose the skill of handwriting.
Experts have previously warned that vital developmental stages are being skipped as young children learn to type on a keyboard before putting pen to paper.
In 2011, Nardia Foster, former chairman of the Voice teaching union, said: ‘I’ve come across children who have gone through primary, secondary and got to A-levels and they’re still not forming their letters properly. ‘They say, “I don’t like to do joined-up writing. It’s too hard. I’m not going to do it”.’
She added: ‘Children are being encouraged to be on a computer before they can write.’
This College Dropped a Conservative Speaker for the Most Pathetic of Reasons
Colleges were once a place where young minds went after high school to grtow intellectually by debating controversial ideas. In the era of political collectness, they have morphed into a honeycomb like structure of safe zones where students coalesce into tiny little groups, striking a defensive pose, their fingers pressed firmly in their ear canals and their tongues and lungs clacking out NANANANANAs like a bunch of mewling infants. Ah milennials. This week, a conservative speaker critical of modern feminism was the latest victim of the new campus culture:
"A student group at Williams College that hosts speakers who challenge the campus's biases has rescinded a speaking invitation to Suzanne Venker, a conservative author and vocal critic of feminism, in response to furious condemnation from other students.
The decision to disinvite Venker is steeped in irony, given that the group's lecture series is called “Uncomfortable Learning,” and the sole reason for ditching Venker seems to be that she was a good fit."
In an embarrassing turn of events, the left wing radicals who demanded more ideological diversity on campus have all but shut it down now that they're running the show. Their complete domination of the academy has lead to what was once controversial becoming the conventional wisdom. It's amazing that now that these former radicals are the empowered unversity establishment, they've conveniently abandoned their commitment to ideological diversity in favor of die hard left wing indoctrination. What good is truth when you have ideology?
Paul Ryan seems set to succeed John Boehner as House Speaker as early as next week, but Mr. Boehner deserves credit for using his final days to renew and expand a successful school voucher program in Washington, D.C., that President Obama and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly tried to kill.
These Opportunity Scholarships provide poor kids—almost all black and Latino—with a lifeline out of failing schools. Originally passed in 2003 when Mr. Boehner chaired the House Education Committee, it has survived several Democratic assassination attempts. These included a 2009 poison pill amendment that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin attached to an omnibus spending bill designed to phase the program out
It appeared Mr. Durbin’s nasty work would prevail, but Mr. Boehner kept the issue alive and persuaded Mr. Obama to agree to restore funding as part of the 2011 budget deal. On the House floor this week, Mr. Boehner pointed out that, of the 12th graders who used a scholarship last year, 90% graduated—and 88% enrolled in college. The House bill that passed keeps the program going for five years and removes limits on the number of eligible students.
“This issue is personal to me,” Mr. Boehner says, “and it has been for a long time. But frankly, it ought to be personal to everyone in this chamber. Those of us who work here, who make a good living here, owe something to the kids in this city. We owe the kids in this city a chance—a fighting chance.”
Democrats will filibuster the scholarships in the Senate, which means someone other than Mr. Boehner will have to fight to have them added to another must-pass bill. Let’s hope someone else cares as much as the Ohio Republican.
Background
Primarily covering events in Australia, the U.K. and the USA -- where the follies are sadly similar.
The only qualification you really need for any job is: "Can you do it?"
Particularly in academe, Leftism is motivated by a feeling of superiority, a feeling that they know best. But how fragile that claim clearly is when they do so much to suppress expression of conservative ideas. Academic Leftists, despite their pretensions, cannot withstand open debate about ideas. In those circumstances, their pretenses are contemptible. I suspect that they are mostly aware of the vulnerability of their arguments but just NEED to feel superior
"The two most important questions in a society are: Who teaches our children? What are they teaching them?" - Plato
Keynes did get some things right. His comment on education seems positively prophetic: "Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.”
"If you are able to compose sentences in Latin you will never write a dud sentence in English." -- Boris Johnson
"Common core" and its Australian equivalent was a good idea that was hijacked by the Left in an effort to make it "Leftist core". That made it "Rejected core"
TERMINOLOGY: The English "A Level" exam is roughly equivalent to a U.S. High School diploma. Rather confusingly, you can get As, Bs or Cs in your "A Level" results. Entrance to the better universities normally requires several As in your "A Levels".
The BIGGEST confusion in British terminology, however, surrounds use of the term "public school". Traditionally, a public school was where people who were rich but not rich enough to afford private tutors sent their kids. So a British public school is a fee-paying school. It is what Americans or Australians would call a private school. Brits are however aware of the confusion this causes benighted non-Brits so these days often in the media use "Independent" where once they would have used "public". The term for a taxpayer-supported school in Britain is a State school, but there are several varieties of those. The most common (and deplorable) type of State school is a "Comprehensive"
MORE TERMINOLOGY: Many of my posts mention the situation in Australia. Unlike the USA and Britain, there is virtually no local input into education in Australia. Education is mostly a State government responsibility, though the Feds have a lot of influence (via funding) at the university level. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).
There were two brothers from a famous family. One did very well at school while the other was a duffer. Which one went on the be acclaimed as the "Greatest Briton"? It was the duffer: Winston Churchill.
Another true modern parable: I have twin stepdaughters who are both attractive and exceptionally good-natured young women. I adore both of them. One got a university degree and the other was an abject failure at High School. One now works as a routine government clerk and is rather struggling financially. The other is extraordinarily highly paid and has an impressive property portfolio. Guess which one went to university? It was the former.
The above was written a couple of years ago and both women have moved on since then. The advantage to the "uneducated" one persists, however. She is living what many would see as a dream.
The current Left-inspired practice of going to great lengths to shield students from experience of failure and to tell students only good things about themselves is an appalling preparation for life. In adulthood, the vast majority of people are going to have to reconcile themselves to mundane jobs and no more than mediocrity in achievement. Illusions of themselves as "special" are going to be sorely disappointed
On June 6, 1944, a large number of young men charged ashore at Normandy beaches into a high probability of injury or death. Now, a large number of young people need safe spaces in case they might hear something that they don't like.
Perhaps it's some comfort that the idea of shielding kids from failure and having only "winners" is futile anyhow. When my son was about 3 years old he came bursting into the living room, threw himself down on the couch and burst into tears. When I asked what was wrong he said: "I can't always win!". The problem was that we had started him out on educational computer games where persistence only is needed to "win". But he had then started to play "real" computer games -- shootem-ups and the like. And you CAN lose in such games -- which he had just realized and become frustrated by. The upset lasted all of about 10 minutes, however and he has been happily playing computer games ever since. He also now has a First Class Honours degree in mathematics and is socially very pleasant. "Losing" certainly did not hurt him.
Even the famous Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci (and the world's most famous Sardine) was a deep opponent of "progressive" educational methods. He wrote: "The most paradoxical aspect is that this new type of school is advocated as being democratic, while in fact it is destined not merely to perpetuate social differences, but to crystallise them." He rightly saw that "progressive" methods were no help to the poor
"Secretary [of Education] Bennett makes, I think, an interesting analogy. He says that if you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, Federal, State, and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you're liable to be given more money to do it with." -- Ronald Reagan
I am an atheist of Protestant background who sent his son to Catholic schools. Why did I do that? Because I do not personally feel threatened by religion and I think Christianity is a generally good influence. I also felt that religion is a major part of life and that my son should therefore have a good introduction to it. He enjoyed his religion lessons but seems to have acquired minimal convictions from them.
Why have Leftist educators so relentlessly and so long opposed the teaching of phonics as the path to literacy when that opposition has been so enormously destructive of the education of so many? It is because of their addiction to simplistic explanations of everything (as in saying that Islamic hostility is caused by "poverty" -- even though Osama bin Laden is a billionaire!). And the relationship between letters and sounds in English is anything but simple compared to the beautifully simple but very unhelpful formula "look and learn".
For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.
"Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts. Nothing else will ever be of service to them ... Stick to Facts, sir!" So spake Mr Gradgrind, Dickens's dismal schoolteacher in Hard Times, published 1854. Mr Gradgrind was undoubtedly too narrow but the opposite extreme -- no facts -- would seem equally bad and is much closer to us than Mr Gradgrind's ideal
The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"
A a small quote from the past that helps explain the Leftist dominance of education: "When an opponent says: 'I will not come over to your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already. You will pass on. Your descendents, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time, they will know nothing else but this new community.'." Quote from Adolf Hitler. In a speech on 6th November 1933
I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learned much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.
I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!
Discipline: With their love of simple generalizations, this will be Greek to Leftists but I see an important role for discipline in education DESPITE the fact that my father never laid a hand on me once in my entire life nor have I ever laid a hand on my son in his entire life. The plain fact is that people are DIFFERENT, not equal and some kids will not behave themselves in response to persuasion alone. In such cases, realism requires that they be MADE to behave by whatever means that works -- not necessarily for their own benefit but certainly for the benefit of others whose opportunities they disrupt and destroy.
Popper in "Against Big Words": "Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying. In return, he owes it to his fellow men (or 'to society') to represent the results of his study as simply, clearly and modestly as he can. The worst thing that intellectuals can do - the cardinal sin - is to try to set themselves up as great prophets vis-à-vis their fellow men and to impress them with puzzling philosophies. Anyone who cannot speak simply and clearly should say nothing and continue to work until he can do so."
Many newspaper articles are reproduced in full on this blog despite copyright claims attached to them. I believe that such reproductions here are protected by the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. Fair use is a legal doctrine that recognises that the monopoly rights protected by copyright laws are not absolute. The doctrine holds that, when someone uses a creative work in way that does not hurt the market for the original work and advances a public purpose - such as education or scholarship - it might be considered "fair" and not infringing.
Comments above from Brisbane, Australia by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former teacher at both High School and university level
There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)
NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here
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Lorikeet Lodges
Ashmore Palms has 8 Lorikeet Lodges, each with ramp access. These unique, self-contained cabins are popular with families seeking well-appointed holiday cabins that provide ease of access for prams, strollers and wheelchairs (with assistance).
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Campaigning ends for seven LS seats in Bihar
Patna, April 28: Loudspeakers fell silent today in seven Bihar Lok Sabha constituencies where polling would take place on April 30 in the fourth of the six phase elections in the state.
The seats are Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Madhepura, Darbhanga, Samastipur (SC, Reserved), Begusarai and Khagaria falling in the Kosi river belt.
Prominent among the 94 candidates are JD(U) President Sharad Yadav from Madhepura, who was being challenged by RJD's Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, former Union Minister and BJP leader Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav from Madhubani, cricketer-turned BJP leader Kirti Azad from Darbhanga and his challenger former Union Minister and RJD leader M A A Fatmi.
There are also five women nominees in fray. An electorate of 1.12 crore electors would exercise their franchise in 10521 polling stations. Among star campaigners were BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi who held election meetings at Saharsa, Madhubani and Darbhanga on April 24, after he filed his own nominations from the Varanasi constituency, besides party colleague Sushma. Other campaigners were Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD President Lalu Prasad.
No big leader from Congress campaigned for this phase of the elections. While BJP sought votes to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister, the rival parties concentrated on stopping 'communal forces'. Polling would end at 4:00 PM in three Assembly segments of Mahisi in Madhepura and Simri Bhakhtiyarpur and Aluali in the Khagaria seat.
It would end at 6:00 PM in other places. Repoll would also be held in Sahebpur Kamal Assembly seat in Begusarai district. The repoll was necessitated after former minister Parveen Amanullah resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet and also gave up her Assembly seat to join AAP. Altogether 59,000 personnel of the central paramilitary forces and state police and two helicopters would be deployed during the elections.
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About US
WATSON RECYCLING
A Family Tradition Since 1989
Watson Recycling is a third generation recycling facility which has been in operation at the same location in Rochester MN for over twenty years. It was started by Rodney Watson and in the early years was primarily focused on recycling paper, plastic, and aluminum products. Customers collected and brought in a wide variety of newspapers, tin and aluminum cans, glass bottles, and other recyclables which were weighed on a scale and paid for according to weight. In the early years prices ranged from two cents per pound for glass and paper to twenty three cents per pound for aluminum cans.
The company then evolved into providing a sorting facility for Watson Rubbish Removal’s curbside recycling. We started a route truck to pick up glass bottles from local bars and high grade paper from local printing shops. As the local and worldwide economy changed and grew; Watson Recycling changed with it. Our focus shifted to more valuable commodities such as aluminum cans, copper, brass, and stainless steel.
We are excited to show you the next step in our progression. Our new state of the art facility will accept all types of metals including scrap vehicles, tin, iron, and steel. We strive to be conscious of the environment and take care of it for our future generations as well!
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iPhone coming to China Unicom, this time for real
At last word, China Unicom was denying that it had signed a pact with Apple for 5 million of the American firm's touchscreen iPhone. Now, in the midst of reporting their interim financial results for 2009, the carrier announced that they have agreed to a three year deal with Apple that will allow them to start selling two different models of the device starting in the 4th quarter of this year.
The original story we reported suggested that Apple had discounted the handsets aggressively in order to get their foot in the door of a country with as huge a population as China. While the wholesale and retail pricing is not known, it is thought that China Unicom will offer a custom version of the iPhone 3GS model with Wi-Fi disabled, and the 3G. Considering that this deal is not exclusive, there could be more news concerning the handset and China before too long.
All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2015 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team
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Strict Standards: Non-static method Registry::getInstance() should not be called statically in /home/alocalza/public_html/defaults_setup.php on line 198NEXDIGITAL (PTY) LTD - Repro House - Approved Local
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Quicklinks
Related Product Information
Adaptation of Cell Cultures to a Serum-Free Medium
Intended Use
GIBCO TM products for hybridoma culture have been designed and optimized for the serum-free growth of a variety of hybridoma cell lines and production of monoclonal antibodies.
Introduction
Traditional hybridoma culture media requiring serum supplementation have in recent years been replaced by a variety of commercially available serum-free formulations. Many serum-free formulations contain proteins (e.g., insulin, transferrin, albumin) and/or protein hydrolysates and lysates. As a result of a trend towards greater levels of media definition and the need for replacement of components of animal origin with non-animal derived materials, many serum free media formulations are considered unacceptable for certain applications. Hybridoma-SFM and PFHM II represent a spectrum of serum-free products for growth of hybridomas and monoclonal antibody production. Hybridoma-SFM is a serum-free, low protein (20 μg/mL protein as insulin and transferrin) medium that supports growth and monoclonal antibody production of a variety of hybridoma cell lines. PFHM II is a protein-free, chemically defined medium that is intended as a monoclonal antibody production medium, although it also has been used to grow a variety of hybridoma cell lines.
Features
PFHM II
Hybridoma-SFM
Protein-Free
X
Contains insulin and transferrin
X
Contains Phenol red
X
X
Contains surfactant*
X
Contains inorganic iron
carrier**
X
Precautions
* PFHM II does not contain a surfactant. If used for agitated suspension culture, supplement with 0.1% PLURONIC F-68
** Medium should be pre-screened to determine potential interference of inorganic iron carrier(s) with antibody detection and/or purification method.
Hybridoma-SFM and PFHM II work well for a variety of hybridoma systems, but will not grow cholesterol dependen cell lines (e.g., NS0 and derivatives) without further supplementation. Supplementation with a lipoprotein preparation or other source of cholesterol will be required for cholesterol dependent cell lines. Addition of antibiotics should not be used as a substitute for proper sterile technique. In most instances, antibiotics are neither necessary nor advised. However, in those instances where antibiotics are desired, most general antibiotics are compatible with PFHM II including penicillin/streptomycin, gentamicin, anti-PPLO, linocin and Fungizone. It is important not to use the following: kanamycin sulfates, neomycin sulfates or penicillin/streptomycin/neomycin mixtures
Instructions for Use
Physical Conditions
37° C + 0.5°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5 - 10% CO2 in air. Caps of flasks should be loosened to permit gas exchange. Cultures may be grown in stationary suspension culture (e.g., T-flask) or in agitated suspension culture (shaker or spinner flasks). Adequate headspace should be provided to facilitate gas exchange. (e.g., for a 125 mL shaker flask, use no more than 35 mL culture volume). Shaker flasks should be rotated at 125 - 135 rpm; agitation speed in spinner flasks will depend upon the impeller design. Protect cultures from light.
Adaptation of Cells to Serum-free or Protein-free Media
A sequential adaptation protocol may be necessary if direct adaptation does not work. In both cases, the cells should be in mid-logarithmic growth phase with high (>90%) viability. Success of the adaptation method will depend upon the particular hybridoma cell line and the culture conditions employed. It is recommended that backup cultures in the original medium be maintained until success with the new medium has been achieved.
A. Direct Adaptation
Transfer hybridoma cells growing in serum supplemented medium to serum-free medium which has been prewarmed to 37° C. Seeding= density should be double the normal seeding density for the cell line. Incubate the cells at 37° C in a humidified atmosphere of 5-10% CO2 in air.
NOTE that it may be necessary to subculture more than once into a given mixture of serum supplemented : serum-free medium until the cells become acclimated. It is advisable to keep a backup culture in the previous media mixture until the cells have adapted.
Prepare the required volume of cryopreservation medium and hold the medium at 4° C until use (make cryopreservation medium on day of intended use).
Pellet the cells from culture medium at 100 x g for 5 minutes. Resuspend the pellet in the pre-determined volume of 4° C cryopreservation medium.
Dispense aliquots of this suspension into cryovials according to the manufacturer’s specifications (e.g., 4.5 mL in a 5.0 mL vial).
Achieve cryopreservation in either an automated or manual controlled rate freezing apparatus following standard procedures (1° C decrease per minute).
Frozen cells are stable indefinitely under liquid nitrogen.
1 Note that conditioned medium should be obtained from a high viability, midlog culture of cells.
Recovery from Cryopreservation
Recover cultures from frozen storage by rapid thawing of a vial of cells in a 37° C water bath with shaking just until the medium thaws.
Transfer the entire contents of the vial into the appropriately sized vessel so that the cells are seeded at 5 x 105 cells/mL of complete growth medium.
Incubate the culture in a humidified atmosphere of 5-10% CO2 in air at 37+0.5° C. Do not centrifuge the cells a they are extremely fragile upon recovery from cryopreservation.
Maintain the culture between 5 x 105 and 10 x 105 viable cells/mL for the first two subcultures following recovery; thereafter, returning to the normal maintenance schedule.
Quality Control
GIBCO specialty media for hybridoma applications are performance tested using either a myeloma or hybridoma cell line. Additional standard evaluations are pH, osmolality and tests for the absence of bacterial and fungal contaminants.
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Olfa 45mm deluxe rotary cutter with curved handle for increased comfort during use. As well as standard 45mm rotary cutting blades, the cutter will also fit 45mm pinking blades for a zig zag effect on the cut piece. The rotary cutter comes with a double safety mechanism to lock the blade safely away when not in use.
This special 50th anniversary edition value pack includes the deluxe rotary cutter with standard blade, plus a spare 45mm endurance blade, proven to last twice as long as a standard blade. Usually retailing at £6 or more, the endurance blade is included absolutely free!
All our rotary cutters should be used with a rotary cutting mat to preserve the life of the blade.
UK: This item will be sent via Royal Mail first class, estimated delivery time 1-3 days.
Europe: This item will be sent via Royal Mail Airmail, estimated delivery time 3-5 days.
Rest of world: This item will be sent via Royal Mail Airmail, estimated delivery time 5-7 days.
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Thursday, December 13th 2012 10:59:29am
Installing insulation is one of the most cost-effective initiatives when it comes to lowering a building’s heating and cooling costs.
The key to achieving maximum benefit, however, is proper installation of the product.
For anyone considering such an improvement project, the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) has made it even easier to properly install insulation by developing a three-part series of instructional videos.
These videos demonstrate best practices and tips for getting the best performance from the installation of fibre glass, rock and slag wool batt insulation - from pre-insulation through to post-inspection.
The newly revamped NAIMA Canada website also contains information on the sector’s economic and environmental contributions, building codes & standards information, and information on Canadian incentives & rebates programs.
“Insulation is always a good long-term investment,” says Jay Nordenstrom, Executive Director of NAIMA Canada. “It is a low risk renovation, with great return on the upfront costs. Whether you install insulation to reduce your heat loss or to combat high air conditioning bills, it provides consistent energy savings year-after-year, from the minute it is installed.”
NAIMA Canada is the association for North American manufacturers of fibre glass, rock wool, and slag wool insulation products doing business in Canada. Its role is to promote energy efficiency and environmental preservation through the use of fibre glass, rock wool, and slag wool insulation, and to encourage the safe production and use of these materials. Visit NAIMA Canada’s website at http://www.naimacanada.ca.
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This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
What’s the Difference Between Broadband and Narrowband RF Communications?
The debate between broadband and narrowband communication techniques is leaving many engineers and radio-deployment specialists debating the benefits of enhanced data rates and long-range reliable communication links.
Although the wired-internet communications industry is currently at the center of the broadband-versus-narrowband debate, similar discussions are happening in the RF communications industry. Increased data rates—the obvious benefit of broadband communications—are enticing investments in broadband technologies. For the wired-internet communication industry, the chief challenges being faced are laying broadband-capable data pipes and switching networks.
1. The sharp peak response of a narrowband signal requires high-performing filters, which are precisely adjusted to avoid attenuating the active signal.
Outside of that industry, however, there are many more physical factors that limit the implementation of broadband systems. These issues are prompting the debate over narrowband or broadband solutions. This discussion takes into account both applications and customer requirements, as many of these applications require military/public-safety-grade reliability and performance over impressive ranges.
At the center of this debate is broadband communications (also sometimes referred to as wideband). This term generally applies to the use of frequency ranges beyond those used by narrowband communications. For its part, narrowband refers to communications that use frequency content within the coherence band of a frequency channel. Generally, it refers to frequency operation that is narrower than broadband. Of course, these definitions somewhat depend upon applications as well. As a result, it is easier to focus on particular technological solutions and the physical behavior behind the different approaches (Fig. 1).
All applications share a set of most-desired parameters: communications that have the highest data rate, use the least spectrum, consume the least amount of power, have the longest range, and are the most resistant to interference. To ensure a high data rate, however, the frequency spectrum used must be increased. This step invariably lowers the power, range, and resistance to interference.
These tradeoffs comprise the critical differences between broadband and narrowband RF communications. For most applications requiring long-range, low-power, and reliable communications, narrowband tends to be the dominant choice. If high data rates are necessary, techniques like cellularization, coding gain, and others are used to mitigate the decreased range and resistance to interference. But this is done at the cost of power.
According to Bruce Collins, product manager for Cambium Networks, “In narrowband solutions (channels below 500 kHz), the smaller channel bandwidths have lower thermal noise. So in order to achieve a similar signal-to-noise ratio, a lower receive level is needed. Thus, a lower transmit power is required. This lower transmit power leads to reduced power consumption, enabling solar-powered solutions and/or extremely long battery life.
“Additionally, the lower frequency bands used by narrowband systems (sub-1-GHz) propagate much further, due to physics,” he continues. “Again, this reduces power requirements for the same distance or increases the range for the same power consumption.”
Regarding power-conscious applications, which often require battery power or the low-power necessities of wireless-sensor-nodes (WSNs), Collins notes, “Narrowband provides better distances per watt of power consumption than broadband. This is critical from the remote node, but less so for the access point or hub location.” These factors are particularly relevant for public-safety voice applications, alarm systems, critical distributed sensors, and vital machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
In large oil fields, for example, the automated protection systems require low-data-rate and long-range reliable communications of the flow sensors at oil pumps. These pumps can be many miles apart and even beyond line-of-site trajectories of each other. A broadband system would most likely cost significantly more to implement in this scenario. It also could require many repeaters/cells to ensure the necessary reliability.
Conversely, if the application required video streaming or other sensor systems that produce massive amounts of data, there would be little recourse beyond a broadband system. “The lower power consumption of narrowband systems will also lead to a lower cost for remote applications,” Collins says. “Cost is a premium at the remote site.” These cost factors are key to the debate between the two technologies.
According to Mark Faulkner, vice president of RF Integrated Solutions Engineering at Microsemi, “There is a fundamental gain-bandwidth transistor-matching tradeoff. Transistors can be matched to optimize their highest gain, power, or efficiency performance over a narrow bandwidth. A broadband transistor match yields less gain per stage, which requires more amplifier stages to achieve the equivalent overall performance.”
As circuit complexity increases, design time rises and yields often decrease. “The addition of extra stages for the broadband amplifier draws more current and reduces efficiency,” says Faulkner. “In addition, broadband-transistor matching networks contain a higher number of reactive elements, which add losses that become significant at millimeter-wave frequencies.”
2. As narrowbanding progresses, a greater number of channels will be available in a highly demanded section of spectrum. (Courtesy of Oklahoma.gov)
Many applications—such as military radios, smart metering, oil/gas monitoring, and public safety—have historically used narrowband communications for their increased range and reliability. With the growing demand for advanced surveillance and more data-heavy applications like video streaming, however, public-safety and other industries are looking into the benefits of broadband technologies.
Yet their needs are directly at odds with the shortage of available spectrum and the FCC’s narrowbanding policies. As of January 1, 2013, all business-industrial and public-safety bands from 150 to 512 MHz were shrunk from 25 to 12.5 kHz in an effort to reduce spectrum—an approach called narrowbanding (Fig. 2).
Undaunted by these challenges, discussions continue to focus on the implementation of broadband systems for public-safety and even military networks. For example, there is an increasing call for public-safety officers to be able to stream live videos of their responses to criminal activity and investigations. In addition, emergency-medical military responders need to be equipped with high-data connections in order to stream real-time medical procedures and provide direction. These applications require significant amounts of data. Custom implementations could easily climb beyond the budgets of military and public-safety organizations.
3. The addition of coding gain to a broadband signal adds data, but requires more spectrum. (Courtesy of Texas Instruments)
A proposed solution to these cost troubles is to use commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, such as 3G and 4G/LTE data systems. Using these common backbones would ensure that public-safety, business-industrial, and military technologies could readily operate despite shifting FCC standards. The challenge then becomes securing these networks, although many sophisticated software- and hardware-based solutions are designed to security specifications.
Another challenge is sufficient infrastructure for these communications. Supporting such high-speed data may not be a significant challenge for stable urban environments. For military applications, though, there is the added concern of deploying stable, and often mobile, cellular networks (Fig. 3).
The IoT Angle
IoT/IoE applications are unique in that they call for millions of interactions for low-power sensors, which will be distributed throughout the environment. Those sensors will need to be developed alongside data-hungry machines with extremely fast data pipes.Complicating these debates is the existence of a seemingly endless amount of machines that are expected to soon become connected, requiring both high data rates and low power/reliability. This trend, known by buzzwords like the “Internet of Things (IoT)” and “Internet of Everything (IoE),” is encouraging developments and planning that are weighing the benefits of narrowband versus broadband solutions.
“With IoT/IoE applications, there will really be an explosion of volume with low-data-rate devices,” notes Collins. “These devices need less power and don’t even need a constant connection. Some data may need to be pulled or it may need to send small amounts of information, which means narrowband.”
Keep in mind that not all IoT/IoE applications will just be machine-to-machine remote data reporters. As Collins points out, “The other end of that is a destination security video camera, which would require broadband data rates. It is an interesting discussion, as it combines two opposite ends of the spectrum. Certainly, IoT is very important to narrowband, if you are just controlling a thermostat or flipping a switch.”
Invariably, many of the latest applications will need both narrowband and broadband systems. The question is how to merge the two technologies on a standards and device-infrastructure backbone. With a sufficiently expansive cellular infrastructure, the data backplane could be used to carry both high-data-rate applications and many low-data-rate applications from low-power (albeit plentiful) sources.
“Many application operators will likely go with configurable hybrid systems, which combine the best aspects of narrowband solutions for long range and lower power and broadband solutions for high-capacity video surveillance and remote-office applications,” says Collins. “From one standpoint, the networks will be hybrid—narrowband plus broadband, still based on a common IP backhaul utilizing a common management infrastructure and secure access.
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The Benefits of Acupuncture on Fertility
Acupuncture has been proven to hold many health benefits, and among those is its ability to aid in fertility.
Fertility refers to the ability of an individual to produce reproductive components of the right quality and quantity, which in turn leads to conception. However, many couples find themselves unable to conceive children due to problems with their reproductive health.
The male and female reproductive systems are very complex and a number of complications may occur when trying to conceive; however, Western Medicine has found intricate ways of correcting many of these issues. Some of the most common methods to promote fertility or achieve conception in Western Medicine include hormone therapy and in-vitro fertilization. However, there are other effective methods that are non-invasive and have been practiced for generations.
Acupuncture has been proven as an effective treatment for fertility, which relies on concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The theory behind Traditional Chinese Medicine, as it relates to infertility, is that there is an imbalance in the flow of energy, or Qi, which is disrupting the reproductive cycle, and therefore preventing conception. By rebalancing the flow of Qi, an acupuncturist can help a couple achieve their goals of successfully starting a family.
How Does Acupuncture Achieve This?
The link between acupuncture and reproductive health has to do with stress. An individual’s stress response can lead the body to produce certain steroids, which in turn affect reproductive health and capacity. Stress has an effect on the release of hormones by the endocrine system that is quite complex, but can provide an explanation as to why many have issues with fertility. Acupuncture has been proven to help relieve stress related to chronic pain, while also offering a therapeutic session that results in improved emotional stability.
How Does Stress Affect Fertility?
Stress is a survival mechanism that our bodies have, which is also known as the “fight or flight” response. During this response, the body undergoes a series of hormonal and chemical changes that will help an individual survive a potentially dangerous situation. The release of adrenaline and cortisol, for example, help the individual reach an instant level of alertness, followed by a surge of energy that will help them fight or escape.
Among the hormones released in response to stress are the steroid hormones known as glucocorticoids. Studies show that glucocorticoids affect fertility through their effect on the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis, or HPG axis (Whirledge, 2010). During this process, the body makes survival a priority and reallocates its resources to maximize the chance of survival, in turn suppressing the reproductive axis.
Glucocorticoids and the HPG axis
The release of glucocorticoids by the adrenal cortex plays a role in survival. These steroid hormones trigger what is known as gluconeogenesis, a process in which the body generates glucose, in this case to fuel the “fight-or-flight” response. However, excess levels of glucocorticoids have an effect on the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and reproductive organs.
At a hypothalamic level, glucocorticoids suppress the release of gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH), which in turn decreases the release of luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary gland. Both luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone have important functions in the male and female reproductive systems. For example, luteinizing hormone in women helps trigger ovulation, and follicle stimulating hormone helps regulate the menstrual cycle and produce eggs.
Therefore, using acupuncture to reduce stress can have a direct effect on fertility and reproductive health.
<h2>For more information on acupuncture at Santa Cruz CORE, contact us at (831) 425-9500.</h2>
Sources:
Whirledge, Shannon, and John A. Cidlowski. “Glucocorticoids, Stress, and Fertility.” Minerva Endocrinologica. U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2010. Web. 09 May 2017. .
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Christian Carino
Lady Gaga–a.k.a. Stefani Germanotta–was recently spotted frolicking in the Hamptons with boyfriend/CAA-agent-to-the-pop-stars Christian Carino; the New York Post reports the pair were also seen touring a property in Montauk. The singer was apparently smitten enough with a $5.9 million three-bedroom unit at Gurney’s Residences oceanfront resort at 272 Old Montauk Highway to return for a second look.
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Who Advises Romney on Foreign Policy? Bolton, Senor… Neoconservatives - Shush Walshe and Chris Good report that Dan Senor left the Ryan campaign trail to deal with these foreign policy developments. They report that Romney has long sought to distinguish himself from the president by drawing a contrast between weakness and strength, and his posture is reflected in the team he's chosen, peppered with luminaries from the Bush administration. http://abcn.ws/ScPGNO
What's an Apology? - Here's a bit of a political rhorsach test for the day. Is this 9/11 statement, issued before the embassy in Cairo was breached, an apology for American values?
"The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims - as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."
Mitt Romney thinks so. And all of his perceived problems follow - ascribing that statement to President Obama, attacking him over it on September 11th, doing so before all the facts from the situation in Libya were known, and forcefully defending all of these decisions on Wednesday stem from that assessment.
Romney's confrontation with foreign policy in this case is not unlike John McCain's confrontation with economic policy and the Wall Street bailouts in 2008. In both cases, the candidate is thrust off-balance by developments - mirror image - not in their milieu.
How would McCain have handled this in 2008?
Today he was on the Senate floor with Lindsay Graham and Joe Liberman talking about the not sure what other word you should use but dead seems a little insensitive state department employees and urging Americans not to lose faith in Middle East Democratic movements.
Stay Tuned for Jon Karl's interview with McCain
Obama, Now Okay with Being Political on This, Says to CBS - "It appears that Governor Romney didn't have his facts right ." - http://abcn.ws/PjyAxq
On the Cairo Embassy Statement - "It didn't come from me. It didn't come from Secretary Clinton. It came from folks on the ground, who are- potentially in danger. And, you know, my tendency is to cut folks a little bit of slack- when they're in that circumstance- rather than try to- question their judgment- from the comfort of a campaign office."
On Mitt Romney - "There's a broader lesson to be learned here. And I think- you know, Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to- shoot first, name later. And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that. That- you know, it's important for you to- make sure that the statements that- that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you've thought through the ramifications before you make 'em."
Ultimately, the details of when the U.S. Embassy made its first statement and to whom it was directed and whether it was before or after the walls were breached and how it interplays with tweets… all of those facts are somewhat beside the point. Although you can follow all of the developments - http://bit.ly/QSg7YP
And you can expect a more robust foreign policy debate, including focus on Obama's record in the Middle East, in the days to come.
(Emily Friedman reports, by the way, that Romney is not currently getting official security briefings.)
What does the situation in Libya, involving fundamentalists there and sparked it seems by a fringe c-rate movie linked to fundamentalists here, say about what kind of statesman Mitt Romney would be?
First, he was quick to respond. Perhaps too quick.
"I don't think we ever hesitate when we see something in violation of our principles," Romney said today.
And he drew a bright line about the attack on the embassy, regardless of who was responsible, which he termed a "breach of the sovereignty of our nation."
"I think it's a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values, that instead when our grounds are being attacked and being breached, that the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation. An apology for America's values is never the right course," he said at an event that was quickly transformed from a campaign rally to a news conference today.
None of this should be a shock. Michael Falcone notes that there was similar language in the Tuesday night statement he released. That statement has been criticized for politicizing the tragedy before all the facts were known.
Romney's book: "Never before in American history has its president gone before so many foreign audiences to apologize for so many American misdeeds, both real and imagined," Romney writes in the book. "There are anti-American fires burning all across the globe; President Obama's words are like kindling to them."
His mid-summer foreign trip was another foreign policy appetizer in which the candidate banged through three countries, offending some with his opinions on British security and his thoughts on Palestinian work ethic.
Slain Diplomat Chris Stevens Slipped Into Libya on a Cargo Ship During Revolution-During the early days of the Libyans' fight to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, Christopher Stevens wrangled a ride on a Greek cargo ship and sailed into the rebels' stronghold city of Benghazi. He arrived at a time when the crackle of gunfire could be heard each night. http://abcn.ws/QKe8va (Amy Bingham)
Obama Vows Justice for Slain Diplomats-President Obama today strongly condemned a deadly overnight attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, calling the murder of four Americans there an "outrageous and shocking" act and vowing to "bring to justice the killers." http://abcn.ws/Qd4pLW (Devin Dwyer)
Obama Ad Misleads on AARP Position on Romney-The Obama campaign has released their third new TV ad in 24 hours, a 30-second spot invoking the AARP Voter Guide to discredit the Romney-Ryan Medicare plan. http://abcn.ws/OGI1Yl (Devin Dwyer)
Paul Ryan Releases First TV Ad for His House Seat-Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, a seven-term congressman from Wisconsin, released his first television advertisement of the 2012 election cycle, as he goes for two jobs at once: Ryan's seeking re-election to his House seat as he campaigns with Mitt Romney for the White House. http://abcn.ws/QJGDJk (John Parkinson)
Obama Resurfaces in Favorability, Re-opening the Popularity Gap-Barack Obama crossed into majority favorability among registered voters for the first time since spring in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, further evidence of a convention boost. Mitt Romney trails in popularity, albeit with a number near his own high. http://abcn.ws/NnLwpn (Gary Langer)
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Birthday Cakes Part 4: Ladybug Cake
My youngest daughter is a big fan of ants. She loves her books that have ants in them, she loves the ants that enter our house, she loves to draw ants (actually, she draws dots and says “Look, an ant”). So, a couple days ago she turned 2, and I wanted to make a beautiful cake for her. BUT: have you ever seen an ant cake? I haven’t… I DID find some ant cakes on the internet, but I couldn’t figure out how to make them (e.g. here). So I was looking further and on my favorite site I found this really beautiful ladybug cake. My daughter likes ladybugs – not as much as ants, but enough to be happy with a ladybug cake, I thought. It’s a 2-layer cake, originally filled with cream, but this was too heavy for my taste, so I replaced the cream filling with a mixture of mashed chocolate coated marshmallows and quark. The other ingredients that might be difficult to find in the US are toffifay and mikado sticks (also known as pocky). But you can make the legs, antennae and the eyes with other sweets, too. The result was a really cute-looking cake, but it was a little dry. It was really good the second day, though, when the frosting and the filling had soaked the cake. Here’s what you need to make this cake:
Ingredients:
margarine for the spring form
250 g/ 8,82 oz margarine/ butter
200 g/ 7 oz sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs
200 g/ 7 oz all-purpose flour
75 g/ 2,65 oz cornstarch
3 tsp baking powder
2-3 tblsp milk
1 bag (100 g/ 3,53 oz) milk chocolate icing
2 toffifays
200 g/ 7 oz powdered sugar
3 tblsp lemon juice (use the lemon you peeled the zest off)
red food coloring
12 chocolate coated marshmallows
250 g/ 8,82 oz quark
3 tsp lemon juice
M&M’s
8 mikado chocolate sticks (pocky)
2 small plastic bags
Line spring form with parchment paper and grease upright rim with margarine.
Soften chocolate icing by putting bag in warm water for 10 minutes or microwave (if bag is microwaveable). Coat head with chocolate icing and make eyes with toffifays. Let dry. Remove bottoms from chocolate coated marshmallows.
Mash tops of chocolate coated marshmallows with a fork, add quark and 3 tsp lemon juice and stir well. Coat bottom layer with marshmallow/ quark mixture. Put head and wings on bottom layer. Draw mouth and eyebrows on head with white and red frosting from plastic bags by cutting off a tiny edge of the bags. Insert two mikado chocolate sticks as antennae and 6 sticks as legs.
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MAKit Yourself Black & Crystal Bracelet & Earrings MAK4340
SKU:MAK4340
A$28.00
A$12.00
A$12.00
Unavailable
This stunning bracelet matches our little black necklace...great for all occasions. You get all the bits and pieces along with instructions all you need to add is stretch cord. 1mm is the best cord for this project.
Review on Word of Mouth Online (5 Stars)18th December 2014 10:19 pm"Always helpful, extremely friendly, quick to reply to questions or concerns. Have been a customer for a few years now. Thanks to them, have the beading bug!"
Review on Word of Mouth Online (5 Stars)22nd December 2014 5:02 pm "Great customer service, prompt, good selection of products, great all round experience as a customer. Problem is, because they are so good I spend more."
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Enjoy Our Free Return Shipping
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Pro-Lok GL650 Trigger Lock - California Approved Gun Lock GL650KD
Product Discontinued by Manufacturer
Pro-Lok GL650 Trigger Lock - California Approved Gun Lock GL650KD has been discontinued by Pro-Lok and is no longer available. Our product experts have helped us select these available replacements below.
You can also explore other items in the Gun Locks category yourself to try and find the perfect replacement for you!
The Pro-Lok GL650 Gun Lock is the largest selling and most popular California approved trigger lock. The ProLock GL650 Gun Lock offers some unique features that no other lock provides. This weapon trigger lock is self-adjusting to the thickness of most trigger guards on most firearms. As quickly and easily as it is to remove the ProLok GL-650 while in the "instant access" mode for the authorized user, it is difficult and seldom accomplished by an unauthorized user without the knowledge beforehand. Additionally, for extra deterrence, while in the "key locked level 2" mode, an additional step other than the key is required.
Gun-Lok takes great pride when they receive phone calls and letters from firearm owners who say that they love the features of this lock and as a result, this lock has changed their mind and they now will lock their firearm. This lock also receives praise from firearm owners that desire additional deterrence from a standard keyed lock.
The uniqueness of the Pro-Lock GL650 Trigger Lock has something to offer firearm owners with different wants and needs. Equally liked by firearm owners is that you can switch the level of deterrence at anytime that you choose and as often as you choose. Whether you want instant access, additional deterrence, accidental discharge cable protection (on many firearms) or the ability to use a cable to secure the firearm, this lock offers you more options than any other external lock available.
With over 4,000 firearm models certified, the Gun-Lok GL650 Trigger Lock is the most versatile trigger lock available today.
Features of ProLok GL650 Trigger Gun Lock GL650KD:
Instant Access mode opens in less than 2 seconds - but only if you know the special trick.
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Forget The Stop, You've Got Options
To become a successful trader you need to have two important skills: the ability to pick the right markets and the ability to think on your feet if/when the market turns on you. While there are many techniques and strategies that are designed to help you develop the ability to make these investment decisions, conventional trading wisdom has always insisted that the proper way to protect yourself from losses is to use a stop. While stops are sound in theory, there are several inherent problems, but these can be overcome by using options to limit your losses instead.
Disadvantage of Using Stop LossesOnce the price of a stock surpasses the predefined entry/exit point, the stop order becomes a market order. On the face of it, a stop order looks like a great tool. You pick a trade, and if the market moves against you, your stop is triggered and you are kicked out of the trade.
Unfortunately, a stop is much like the emergency brake in your car. While the emergency brake can do the job, there is little finesse or control in how and when the car stops. In other words, when a stop is triggered and it becomes a market order, almost anything can happen.
Three situations consistently occur in trading that expose the inherent flaws of stops and their inability to really protect you from loss when you need them the most. Whether it's fast-moving markets, consolidating markets or fundamental shifts in supply and demand, stops pigeonhole traders to jump shop! This is an unnecessary one-size-fits-all solution, which could be better handled by using options to ease out of positions, shift market time frames or reverse your market position without exposing yourself to more risk than if you had used a stop by itself.
An Alternative SolutionWhen you compare stops and options side by side, options have some properties that are clearly favorable for those looking to protect a position. Let's look at how the use of stops and options stand up to fast-moving markets.
When you use a stop-loss order in a fast-moving market, there is no guarantee that you will receive the price at which you set your stop. In fact, because stops are a reactionary tool designed to get you out of the market immediately when you are losing money, there is a good chance that the price at which your trade will be filled will be worse than the price you set in the order. This is known as slippage.
For example, if you go long a gold futures contract at $880 and set your stop at $870, you would hope that you have locked in a guaranteed loss of no more than $1,000 ($1 decline in contract price = $100 loss). However, if your stop is triggered in a fast-moving market, it turns into a market order and you may not exit the market until $865, creating a total loss of $1,500 and losing 50% more than you had anticipated.
On the other hand, if you use an option instead of a stop in that same fast-moving market, you can guarantee that you will not lose more than the strike price of the option, $870.
Advantages of Using OptionsOf course, you have to pay for the option, but two things work in your favor. First, out-of-the-money options typically cost less than in-the-money options. Also, options that are in the opposite direction of the current market's movement tend to have less volatility, which tends to make them less expensive. The use of an option in this way is known as a hard stop and it is the easiest way to directly control slippage while managing loss.
Consolidating markets are the second market type that stops have a problem navigating. It is quite rare for any market to move straight up or straight down. Along the way, the market will pull back. Unfortunately, you never know if the pullback is simply a market that is consolidating or if there is a fundamental shift in the market's direction. Since stops treat both situations the same, when a stop is triggered, you are forced out of the market. You can do little if the market was simply consolidating and halts the move against you and begins to move in the direction of your original position. This is known as the whipsaw effect.
Because stops are an all-or-nothing proposition, they leave little room for the market's constant consolidating and retracement behavior. This has the effect of you potentially being right about the market, but being stuck on the sidelines because you were stopped out. A well-placed option can have the opposite effect. If you place an option where you would have placed your stop, you will be able to hold on to a losing futures position slightly longer. Even if the Delta of the option is different from the underlying futures, as you lose money on the futures position, the option helps offset some, if not all, of your losses as it increases in value. This gives you the necessary breathing room to determine whether the market is consolidating or changing.
By having an option in place of a stop during fundamental shifts in the market, you will be able to diminish the impact in two ways. First, you insulate yourself from moves that aggressively erode your futures position, because the option is gaining at the same pace. Second, if the shift is not drastic enough to cause a limit move, but it does signify that the market is no longer moving in the direction of your original position, you can "leg out" of your position without chasing the market. You exit the losing futures position and hold on to the winning options position, with little need to incur any more commission expenses than necessary.
The Bottom LineOver the years, the difficulty of using stops alone has been recognized. However, options present a clear alternative to using stops to manage losses. In order to succeed at this strategy, however, you must look at trading in the same way that money managers do. Money managers look at the interdependence of futures and options contracts and the built-in risk management relationship that they have with one another to diminish their losses. By taking this approach, they are able to use finesse and control to protect themselves from fast-moving markets, consolidating markets and fundamental shifts in supply and demand.
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Get your writing noticed by having your own unique handwriting style. Perhaps you want to clean up your writing because it is sloppy or hard to read, or maybe you are looking to develop a unique and memorable writing style. Either way, developing your own writing style takes a lot of practice and creativity. Begin by mastering the basics of penmanship and lettering and then try creating a unique and personalized handwriting style.
Steps
Method1
Developing Basic Handwriting Skills
1
Learn to hold your pen comfortably. In order to develop basic penmanship skills, you should begin by learning how to hold your pen properly. Comfort is obviously the most important element when it comes to holding a pen or pencil, but you should also make sure that you are evenly distributing the pressure. For example, try and balance your pen evenly between your thumb, pointer, and middle finger. This will help you avoid cramping when you write and will give you the most control over your lettering.[1]
Hold the pen close to the tip for better grip and control.
2
Experiment with different writing utensils. In order to create a unique and personal penmanship, you should also find a pen or writing utensil that is comfortable to you. Pens can come in a variety of different types, most commonly ballpoint and gel, and you may find that you prefer one over the other. Consider the comfort level of the pen, thickness of the ink, and level of control you have while writing when testing out new pens.[2]
3
Analyze your handwriting. In order to create your own writing style, you will want to start by analyzing your current handwriting and looking for any areas or things that you would like to change. Try copying out a few paragraphs of text from a book or the internet in order to see any patterns in your writing that may emerge. Once you have analyzed the lettering, try writing the same passage again and this time concentrate to correct or change some of the things you didn’t like about the initial writing. Pay specific attention to the following features of your handwriting:[3]
Spacing
Slant
Style
Height of letters
Consistent baseline for letters
Dotting your i’s
Method2
Creating a Unique Handwriting Style
1
Look up fonts and handwriting styles on the internet. Try a simple google image search to find unique ideas. Try searching penmanship styles and see what different types of lettering you can uncover. This is a great way to get ideas and choose a style that fits both your personality and penmanship style.
Pinterest also has numerous different ideas for writing fonts that you may want to explore while creating a unique handwriting style.
2
Copy handwriting that you like. Do you have a friend, family member, or colleague whose handwriting you like? Closely examine their handwriting and try to determine exactly what it is that you like about the style. Perhaps you are drawn to the way their letters flow together, or the consistency in size. Once you have discovered what you like about their writing try to incorporate some of their technique into your own penmanship.[4]
Try tracing their writing. The more you practice the easier it will be to bring some of their writing style into your own handwriting.
3
Create consistent letters. Regardless of the type of handwriting you have decided on, cursive or print, you should create a set of consistent letters that you like and that look good together. When you write a letter the way you like it- with the appropriate height, curve, and slant- continue to write that letter over and over again and fill up an entire page. This will help you develop consistent lettering that is unique to your own individual style.[5]
Try writing a full page of upper and lower case letters for each letter in the alphabet.
4
Find a handwriting style that matches your personality. Many people believe that you can learn a lot about a person from studying their handwriting. Think about the type of person you are and try and come up with ways to make your personality shine through in your unique handwriting style. For example, if you are considered tough you may want to develop bold and angular lettering. Similarly, if you are an organized and tidy person, allow that to be reflected in your handwriting by creating crisp, neat, and uniform letters.
Method3
Practicing Your Handwriting
1
Use your handwriting on a daily basis. In today’s vastly digital world, many people can go days at a time without using their own handwriting. If you want to develop your own handwriting style, it is important that you practice handwriting daily. Although this may seem like a boring chore, there are ways to make writing fun:[6]
Start a daily handwritten journal.
Write letters to your friends and family. Who wouldn’t love to receive a handwritten note?
Write your name and practice your signature.
2
Slow down your handwriting. While you are in the process of learning new handwriting skills, it is important to concentrate and write slowly. Writing neatly takes a lot of control, so you should not rush your writing while you are trying to change or create a new handwriting style.[7]
3
Ask someone to read your handwriting. Once you have successfully developed a personal handwriting style, write a paragraph and ask a family member or friend to read it. If they can read the paragraph without any difficulty, congratulations, you've made your own personal handwriting script! If they have trouble, either practice more, or try to clean up the script. It is important to make sure that your handwriting is legible and easy to read.
Community Q&A
Try one style of handwriting for a certain amount of time, then if you find yourself wanting to change it, compare it with your 1st new handwriting style to see which one is better. If you like your old one better, stick with it. If not, try the new style for the same amount of time as you did the 1st. Repeat as necessary.
How long would it take on average to develop your own handwriting style?
wikiHow Contributor
It is difficult to measure this in a specific period of time because it really depends on how often you are practicing. For the quickest results make sure that you use your handwriting daily and try to write as much as possible.
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SADA Systems is thrilled to announce a new partnership with Intelisys Communications, the nation’s leading Technology Services Distributor (Master Agent). This groundbreaking partnership agreement will allow SADA to bring Microsoft cloud solutions and supporting managed services to a broader sales channel.
“SADA is very excited to be partnering with Intelisys, expanding our sales channel to offer best-in-class cloud solutions along with SADA’s consultative and deployment services on a national level,” stated Tony Safoian, CEO & President, SADA Systems. “We see the partnership between Intelisys and SADA Systems as a key component to our business strategy to help even more organizations make their transition to the cloud a hassle-free experience, ultimately providing them with even more opportunities to innovate and collaborate.”
“New opportunities for partners are opening up through channel innovation like the CSP program,” said Cindy Bates, Microsoft’s Vice President of SMB. “We are delighted to see organizations such as Intelisys and SADA Systems take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate and bring new value to their customers.”
“This partnership with SADA Systems presents a tremendous opportunity for so many of our Sales Partners and their customers,” said Andrew Pryfogle, Senior Vice President, Cloud Transformation, Intelisys. “The vast majority of businesses utilize Microsoft software, in some capacity, every day. The difference that SADA brings is not the licensing, but the support experience that allows customers to leverage Microsoft technology to solve problems for their businesses. SADA is committed to this relationship, they are committed to our channel, and they are committed to delivering an outstanding customer experience for cloud-based deployments, to ensure customers get the greatest value out of the lifetime of their technology investment. We’re going to do great things together as we continue to educate the best Sales Partners in the industry.”
Effective immediately, Intelisys Sales Partners can sell a complete suite of Microsoft cloud solutions—including Office 365, Azure, Skype for Business (Lync), Dynamics CRM Online, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS), Power BI, SharePoint Online and Yammer—to their customers, as well as upsell to a complete solution that incorporates SADA’s full range of managed services and support expertise, wrapped around product licenses. Under the agreement, SADA Systems will also become a sponsor of Intelisys Cloud Services University, expanding their cloud expertise through the channel’s leading cloud sales education platform.
Is Office 365 Just Office in the Cloud?
Short answer: No—it's so much more! Learn how Office 365 adds security, mobility and speed to processes. This eBook will explain how combining familiar tools with powerful additions like Power BI, OneNote, and OneDrive can help your business manage and tackle more tasks.
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SuperTrim 500
by ·
March 8, 2018
SuperTrim 500 – These days we live such a hectic life that taking care of ourselves becomes a secondary thing. We often consume unhealthy food which has a lot of calories in form of fats, sugar, high salt, etc, which leads to weight gain and eventually obesity. Though there are numerous other causes of obesity and undesired body weight, still living an unhealthy or sedentary life is one of the top causes for it. If you too are a bit or too much overweight and have tried almost everything to shed that burden without any success then you should get SuperTrim 500, the amazing and effective weight loss supplement that is made with natural ingredients and has transformed the lives of countless people.
What is SuperTrim 500?
Made with natural ingredients, SuperTrim 500is a powerful weight loss supplement which aids in weight loss by burning excess fats, boosting the metabolism and promoting lean muscle mass formation. It is free of unwanted chemicals and fillers and is manufactured in the labs that are certified by the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The consumption of this supplement enables a person to put down all the unwanted weight even without giving up your favourite foods or even working out intensively in the gym. Thus, consuming this supplement not only leads to weight loss, it also gives you a lean muscular physique and a healthy life.
It is extracted from the roots of a plant belonging to the mint family which is primarily found in Asian nations of India, Nepal and Thailand. This ingredient has been used in the Ayurvedic medicine for its numerous health benefits one of them being the ability to aid weight loss effectively and quickly that too without starving yourself or working out intensively. It also leads to the formation of lean muscles giving the person a slim yet toned body. Its consumption is known to accelerate the fat burning process and in some clinical studies, it has shown the increase in testosterone levels.
Forskolin has been a popular ingredient in several weight loss supplements and its consumption means that the person is not required to drastically alter their lifestyle to lose weight. It burns fats, boosts the metabolism and raises the energy level of a person for more activity throughout the day which aids in burning more calories. Thus it prevents from regaining the lost weight. Thus, consuming SuperTrim 500, which contains a good amount of this amazing natural ingredient,regularly and according to the suggested dosage helps a person lose several pounds and live a healthy lifestyle.
How does SuperTrim 500 work?
Since SuperTrim 500contains Forskolin, which aids in losing access weight by promoting fat burning, there are a number of people who use it and benefit from it. The effectiveness of this supplement lies in the fact that it works pretty quickly and efficiently. When it is consumed, it burns the fats stored in the cells by increasing the levels of cAMP which releases the stored fatty acids from within the adipose tissue. Then this fat is burned to release the energy to keep a person active throughout the day. This leads to the consumption of more calories and in turn faster weight loss. It works to burn fats especially around the belly, thighs, buttocks, etc.
This economic supplement helps you save plenty of money as you don’t need to spend on useless fad diets or designer foods that sound foreign. It also works even if you do not workout, so you save a lot of time; though if you do like to workout then no one is stopping you.
What are the benefits of SuperTrim 500?
The consumption of SuperTrim 500, the natural weight loss supplement,regularly will help you in a number of ways. The major benefits of consuming this formula are –
It is capable of burning fats even from the belly which is nearly impossible to get rid of
It also promotes the formation of lean muscles for a toned physique
It boosts the metabolism for better food utilization and preventing it from getting stored in the body as fats
It converts the stored fats into energy, thus raising the body’s energy level and making you active
It maintains optimum weight and thus prevents the occurrence of several diseases or health issues
Are there any side effects of using SuperTrim 500?
Since SuperTrim 500is made using a blend of natural ingredients and it is clinically tested, therefore, it does not cause any undesired side effects or health complications. You just need to make sure that you follow the dosage instructions and consult your doctor if you have any prior health condition.
What is the dosage of SuperTrim 500?
SuperTrim 500comes in a bottle of 60 capsules which will last for an entire month as one is supposed to consume just 2 capsules in a day. You can consume it with a glass of water before or after a meal. You should keep in mind that while consuming the supplement, try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy and if possible, workout a little. And for best, long-lasting results, consume it for at least 2 to 3 months.
If you like, you can also consult your doctor before consuming the supplement.
What are the precautions?
When you get your supply of SuperTrim 500, you should keep certain points in mind –
It is meant to be consumed by the individuals who are above 18 years
It should be kept away from the reach of children
It should be stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight
Always follow the dosage instructions and never consume more than 2 capsules
Try and abstain from alcohol, drugs while you consume the supplement
Pregnant women and nursing mothers should not consume it
While accepting the package, make sure to check the seal. If the package is tampered with or the supplement’s seal is broken then do not accept the package and immediately contact the customer service
Where to buy SuperTrim 500?
You can get SuperTrim 500only online and it is always preferable that you get it from its official website, the link to which is given below. Once you are there, just fill out a form and make the payment to place your order which will get dispatched within 24 hours and will reach you in just 3 to 5 working days.
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Editorial Review
Ancient myths make a splash at Arena StageBy Peter MarksWednesday, February 20, 2013
The first word uttered in Mary Zimmerman’s luminously liquid pageant of ancient myths is “Bodies,” and how fitting that proves to be. Over the 100 shimmering minutes of “Metamorphoses,” a fleet squad of 10 actors finds ever more enchanting ways of embodying Roman poet Ovid’s stories of divinity-assisted transformation.
Whether the scenario is Hunger (Ashleigh Lathrop), clinging torturously to a cursed woodsman (Chris Kipiniak), or loving Baucis and Philemon (Tempe Thomas and Doug Hara), entering eternity as a pair of intertwining trees, Zimmerman’s elastic crew, with guile and muscle and humor, matches the lyricism of the tales with its own lyrical variety of shape-shifting.
Zimmerman has been represented in Washington by a storybook “Pericles,” vigorous “Argonautika,” melodic “Candide” and beguiling “Arabian Nights.” But it is “Metamorphoses” -- the play-in-the-pool she unveiled 15 years ago at her home base, Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre -- that has become her signature work, one that in exporting it to Broadway, won her a Tony in 2002 for best director of a play.
Now, Zimmerman mounts it in Arena Stage’s Fichandler space, for its first presentation with an audience on all sides, and in the largest pool ever built for its waterborne theatrics. The results intensify the dramatic impact and amplify the beauty. Having seen “Metamorphoses” both on Broadway and at Lookingglass, I can attest that Arena’s production is not only the most serenely alluring, but also the most affectingly performed.
Five of the actors in the Fichandler were also in the Broadway version, and so veterans such as Hara, Kipiniak, Raymond Fox, Lisa Tejero and Louise Lamson carry out their assignments with the polish of long acquaintance. Fox is particularly strong as a King Midas, whose every gilded footstep is accompanied by an unsettling chime, and Lamson’s Alcyon wades with palpable anguish into the water, waiting for a seafaring Ceyx (Geoff Packard), who’ll return only in her dreams. The others immerse themselves with just as much conviction, making the Arena ensemble the most persuasive I’ve encountered.
Zimmerman’s theatrical addiction is classical texts, and her fix has always come in translating literary metaphors into physical images that delight modern sensibilities. The knock on her is that on occasion, an academic twee-ness infects the work (she happens to be a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University). One can see in “Metamorphoses” the intrusion at times of triteness, as when Midas foreshadows tragedy by repeatedly shouting at his daughter, “Be still for once!” Or when Hara’s Phaeton, wearing shades and lounging on a float, languidly complains about the inattentiveness of his father, Phoebus Apollo, otherwise known as the god of the sun.
These moments, though, are the exceptions. More often, the director-adapter, working from David Slavitt’s translations of Ovid, homes in on a touching quality of the myths, to give body to the ineffable, to explain aspects of interior life in terms of divine gifts and punishments. Grief, regret, desire, selflessness, vanity: All are couched in “Metamorphoses” in vivid picture-stories that provide to spectators a bit of graspable context, and in some cases comfort.
Thus, in the account of Orpheus (Packard) and Eurydice (Lauren Orkus) -- first related here in Ovid’s form and then again, in a variation by Rainer Maria Rilke -- we watch in horror as Orpheus squanders his last chance for happiness. His momentary lapse, turning to glance at Eurydice and in so doing dooming her to hell, becomes a function of a most understandably and sympathetically human of attributes: curiosity.
In other vignettes, inspiration springs from the mind and hands of costume designer Mara Blumenfeld, who devises a sheer party dress of glittering light for the goddess of the rainbow, and a familiar pair of feathery wings for Eros, here played proudly in the altogether by Hara. T.J. Gerckens’s lighting and the original music by Willy Schwarz ensure, meanwhile, that the cascade of unfolding drama is tastefully illuminated and scored.
Then there’s that majestic pool, designed by Daniel Ostling to fill the center of the theater and look as if the Fichandler required lifeguards all year round. (Playgoers seated closest to its perimeter are, in fact, given splash guards.) The gods are perched on platforms over the corner exits, and characters in Ovid’s myths descend a poolside flight of stairs, leaving the impression of Hades as a subterranean steam room. For the rest of us, “Metamorphoses” is as graceful and easy on the eyes as a synchronized dive off a 10-meter springboard.
PREVIEW: Aqua
culture
By Nelson PressleySunday, February 10, 2013
Here’s what happens when your stage is a pool, which is how it is with playwright Mary Zimmerman’s famous '
Metamorphoses': In the theater, patrons get wet.
Audiences in the first few “splash zone” rows may find towels in their seats at Arena Stage, where Zimmerman and her longtime team of designers and performers have brought their singular play. “We go though 50 or 60 towels a night,” says stage manager Cynthia Cahill. That’s towels for audiences, actors, and mop-up duty by the crew, because:
Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses,” based on Ovid’s myths, has been an unusually fabled and durable phenomenon on the recent theatrical landscape, especially for a non-musical. Zimmerman started it at Northwestern University in 1996, where she was (and still is) teaching. Two years later it was produced professionally by Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre and Zimmerman was a MacArthur “genius” grant winner.
By 2002 the show was on Broadway. Its tales of transformation featured such familiar figures as Poseidon and Narcissus, and the themes of love, suffering, loss and redemption were particularly moving in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The water was spectacular, but also a fluid metaphor for change; Zimmerman won a Tony for her direction.
Last fall it was revived as part of the 25th anniversary season at Lookingglass, where Zimmerman is a company member. That show -- the same one now playing at Arena -- features all the designers and many of the actors who have been with “Metamorphoses” since the early days in Chicago. Yet water issues persist as everyone adjusts to the vast rectangle of Arena’s Fichandler space.
“I don’t know that I’d say it’s a well-oiled machine,” says set designer Daniel Ostling. “But we have a clearer sense of what works and what doesn’t.”
Costume designer Mara Blumenfeld says, “Because the water places so many demands on the technical elements, it’s never just a simple remount. There is a lot of wizardry behind the curtain.”
Here, then, are some of the liquid’s lessons, or the Tao of the Pool:
The water
Arena will feature the biggest “Metamorphoses” pool yet, and the first that’s not resting on a floor. Beneath the Fichandler stage, a forest of iron poles holds up the pool’s structure. That’s also where you’ll find the drainage buckets that catch water sloshing onto the pool deck, plus the pump and two water heaters.
The actors’ contract calls for the water temperature to be 99 degrees or above. During the show, the pump and heaters are turned off to eliminate sound and the vibrations that can ripple the water’s surface. The water cools considerably, but the show is only 90 minutes long. When the pool’s not in use, the crew uses a standard cover (a material similar to bubble wrap that floats on the surface) and an additional tarp to preserve heat.
“That helps a lot,” says stage manager Cynthia Cahill, who worked on last fall’s Lookingglass production.
Back in 1996 at Northwestern, there were no heaters or pumps. The pool was drained each night and refilled each day -- which is what Synetic Theater is doing in Crystal City for its current watery staging of “The Tempest.” In 1998 with Lookingglass, everything backstage stayed moist: When the crew dismantled the set after eight months, they found mushrooms and hay growing under the stage. (One character chews a piece of straw during the show, and some seeds fell out.)
Now the backstage systems are designed to capture water, thanks mainly to a pathway of troughs. The troughs feature webbed rubber mats so sopping actors don’t slip as they dash on and off.
For soundproofing, the hallways backstage are carpeted. Each theater brings its own arsenal of challenges for water management, and carpeting is a new one for the “Metamorphoses” team.
To protect the carpet, a plastic tarp covers the floor and runs about four inches up the walls. As the cast rehearses, Cahill eyes the tarp warily.
“I hope this doesn’t turn into a Slip ’N Slide when it gets wet,” she frets.
“The audience needs to see the water,” Ostling says, and in that respect the Fichandler is ideal. The seating is steeply raked and rises above the stage, although that creates its own issues of lighting and reflection, since Ostling and Zimmerman don’t always want you to see to the pool’s bottom.
It’s the first time this production has been in the round, but that doesn’t mean major changes for the set, which is largely pool and deck. For traction, the deck is lightly gritted and sealed, though on this Sunday the sealant is mysteriously coming up in spots. Waiting for a scene to begin, an actor peels up a fat strip of sealant like a kid peeling dried skin.
“That was a mistake,” Cahill murmurs.
The deck usually needs re-gritting every two or three weeks, but the sealant shouldn’t be coming up already. They will re-apply it Monday. It will take 13 hours to cure.
The deck can play havoc with:
“It basically acts as a cheese grater,” Blumenfeld says of the gritted floor.
The primary challenge, though, is the water, which Zimmerman says makes costuming “super, super hard. There are so many fabrics you can’t use.”
Colored fabrics have to be synthetic, because natural fibers bleed. Blumenfeld has seen disasters: a black brocade skirt that leaked its inky color into the water. A red velvet dress not meant for the pool, but which bled anyway when a drippy actor brushed against it.
Even wash tests can’t guarantee how a fabric will react in the pool’s chemicals. “Sometimes they go rogue on you,” Blumenfeld says.
But time and progress have made certain things easier, like the skirt for the character Isis. It lights up, and originally that was done with battery operated Christmas lights. Now the effect is created with smaller, brighter, more delicate LEDs.
“The execution is more elegant and refined,” Blumenfeld says. “The spirit is the same, but we’re older and wiser. And we have more money and technology at our disposal.”
Indeed, Louise Lamson remembers the days of ignorance and youth, trying to keep warm between scenes by draping a wet costume on top of electric space heaters before putting it back on.
“It was still wet,” Lamson says. “But at least it was warm-wet.”
Now the actors often have doubles of the same costume, sometimes even triples and quadruples to cope with two-show days. And, critically, they have “hot boxes”: small changing rooms warmed by portable radiators.
After running through a notably splashy scene, Chris Kipiniak and Ashleigh Lathrop take turns practicing the backstage costume changes in one of the Fichandler’s four temporary hot boxes, smoothly transforming from wet to dry. Cahill, watching, notes that Arena’s wardrobe assistants may eventually choose to wear bathing suits as they peel damp duds from actors, as some of the Lookingglass crew did last fall.
Other basics: Obviously, lotion is verboten (it makes the pool greasy), and makeup must be waterproof. But Lamson -- like Kipiniak, a veteran from her student days at Northwestern -- reports that even weather can be a factor for the aquatic actor. The Chicago cold, for instance, can dry a body out, and “We have to take care of our skin in a different way.”
Have the comfort issues all been solved in 16 years? Kipiniak says, “When you’re a college student, comfort means a different thing.” In other words, then they didn’t much care, and now it’s all so sophisticated that there’s a “bible” on water management and even a show mantra: “The water always wins.”
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So as we know satan or @satan is one of @seth's acounts that sometimes he cames to hell and fills hell with lava and spikes and leaves...i think seth has to do something with this names like this.
This SATAN guy on forums is being mean...well his name is satan but he is using this name to be mean :P i know he is new but i think mods/devs have to watch his posts...and if he continue's to be mean he MUST get banned from forums. So at last is he a mod/dev or he is just a player trying to be mean?
minha1234
07-11-2013, 07:36 PM
Well, it is a forum, so people can express their opinions. I've seen countless people being mean and they weren't banned.. Maybe SATAN should get a warning of some sort. It's not @Satan, if it was, he/she would have a Super Moderator rank. I'm also pretty sure that @Satan is Seth.
SATAN
07-11-2013, 07:41 PM
I BELIEVE I'VE BEEN WITHIN MY CONFINES OF THE USER AGREEMENT THAT I SIGNED IN WITH. I'VE SEEN WORSE POSTS ON THE FORUMS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I'M SAYING, I'M AFRAID YOU'LL HAVE TO IGNORE ME, AS I HAVE TO DO TO OTHER FORUMERS I FIND OFFENSIVE. OR BORING.
'TIS A DIFFICULT THING SOMETIMES... LOATHING FORUMERS. BUT YOU'LL GET USED TO IT.
PERHAPS INSTEAD OF STARTING A THREAD ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HATE ME, PRIVATE MESSAGE ME. I'D HATE TO SEE DRAMA STARTED BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE ME...
*EVIL LAUGHTER*
Jesus Christ
07-11-2013, 07:48 PM
It saddens me to see so much hate, aggression, and conflict. Love thy neighbor, that is all I ask of you. Love your neighbor for whoever he or she is. Human nature is naturally corrupt, It's divine to overcome your natural instincts and to replace them with love for one another. Do not be offended by other people's remarks. Forgive them for their mistakes as I have taught. Even if their mistakes harmed you or someone of value to you.
SATAN
07-11-2013, 07:55 PM
It saddens me to see so much hate, aggression, and conflict. Love thy neighbor, that is all I ask of you. Love your neighbor for whoever he or she is. Human nature is naturally corrupt, It's divine to overcome your natural instincts and to replace them with love for one another. Do not be offended by other people's remarks. Forgive them for their mistakes as I have taught. Even if their mistakes harmed you or someone of value to you.
As a man of honor and justice I believe despite the name, SATAN has done nothing wrong and has actually helped a few peasants. Don't open your mouth before you learn of the matters at hand.
SlaSHadow
07-11-2013, 08:26 PM
Well, unless he's offended anybody, which he hasn't, there's no need to hate on him.
TheDarkWolf
07-11-2013, 08:29 PM
He's hilarious. Along with some other accounts. :p
SATAN
07-11-2013, 08:32 PM
THAT'S RIGHT. HATERS GONNA HATE. WHAT, DON'T YOU LOVE ME?
BY THE WAY, NOBODY HAS PRIVATE MESSAGED ME. SO I GUESS FORUMERS IN GENERAL WHO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME WOULD RATHER DO IT IN PUBLIC, RATHER THAN PRIVATE. THAT'S FINE, TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME.
Abdolhai talebi
07-11-2013, 08:37 PM
THANKS, JESUS. WISE WORDS. PERHAPS ABDOLHAI TALEBI WILL TAKE HEED TO THEM.
OK MR.SATAN! But i DONT hate you...i just hate your words....because when some drama happens and some one does a bad thing you support him...(i realy hate real satan in my real life)
But for real...WHY DO WE HAVE SATAN AND JESUS IN FORUMS???!
Augustus Caesar
07-11-2013, 08:40 PM
OK MR.SATAN! But i DONT hate you...i just hate your words....because when some drama happens and some one does a bad thing you support him...(i realy hate real satan in my real life)
But for real...WHY DO WE HAVE SATAN AND JESUS IN FORUMS???!
Bah, your words on this thread have been more hurtful than those of the ruler of the underworld.
Thomas Jefferson
07-11-2013, 08:40 PM
OK MR.SATAN! But i DONT hate you...i just hate your words....because when some drama happens and some one does a bad thing you support him...(i realy hate real satan in my real life)
But for real...WHY DO WE HAVE SATAN AND JESUS IN FORUMS???!
WHY DO WE HAVE YODA,DARTH VADER,THOMAS JEFFERSON,GEORGE WASHINGTON, EMPEROR AUGUSTUS CEASER ON THE FORUMS???
Augustus Caesar
07-11-2013, 08:42 PM
WHY DO WE HAVE YODA,DARTH VADER,THOMAS JEFFERSON,GEORGE WASHINGTON ON THE FORUMS???
It has only taken but a soul to break my heart. I have been forgotten by the third president of America, who will remember me?
The world, because I am an emperor, and I am the embodiment of power.
Beggy4786
07-11-2013, 08:45 PM
THAT'S RIGHT. HATERS GONNA HATE. WHAT, DON'T YOU LOVE ME?
BY THE WAY, NOBODY HAS PRIVATE MESSAGED ME. SO I GUESS FORUMERS IN GENERAL WHO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME WOULD RATHER DO IT IN PUBLIC, RATHER THAN PRIVATE. THAT'S FINE, TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME.
Guys saten is a differant account made by Seth. If you don't beileve me go to the wiki made by redbone an search saten.
ADMex1
07-11-2013, 08:45 PM
OK MR.SATAN! But i DONT hate you...i just hate your words....because when some drama happens and some one does a bad thing you support him...(i realy hate real satan in my real life)
But for real...WHY DO WE HAVE SATAN AND JESUS IN FORUMS???!
I'm a Satanist
SATAN
07-11-2013, 08:47 PM
OK MR.SATAN! But i DONT hate you...i just hate your words....because when some drama happens and some one does a bad thing you support him...(i realy hate real satan in my real life)
But for real...WHY DO WE HAVE SATAN AND JESUS IN FORUMS???!
DRAMA IS WHAT I LIVE FOR. YOU CAN'T FAULT ME FOR THRIVING IN THE EPITOME OF EVIL AND CHAOS. WHO DO YOU THINK CREATED IT?
I CAN'T FAULT YOU FOR HATING. IT'S SUCH A GOOD, STRONG WORD. WHY DON'T YOU QUIT SPAMMING ABOUT HOW YOU HATE ME, AND GO PLAY INSTEAD? YOUR OPINIONS OF FAKE FORUMER PROFILES ARE MEANINGLESS.
STOP THE SPAM AND POINTLESS THREADS, AND I'LL DISAPPEAR FOREVER.
Thomas Jefferson
07-11-2013, 08:47 PM
It has only taken but a soul to break my heart. I have been forgotten by the third president of America, who will remember me?
The world, because I am an emperor, and I am the embodiment of power.
What are you talking about your on there.
minha1234
07-11-2013, 08:49 PM
Guys saten is a differant account made by Seth. If you don't beileve me go to the wiki made by redbone an search saten.
In-game, yes he is. But on the forums, no. Seth isn't someone who would troll the forumers :sweatdrop:
Augustus Caesar
07-11-2013, 08:49 PM
What are you talking about your on there.
You forgot to mention the most important of all, me. Clearly.
Thomas Jefferson
07-11-2013, 08:51 PM
You forgot to mention the most important of all, me. Clearly.
Emperor Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Divi Filius Augustus
Augustus Caesar
07-11-2013, 08:54 PM
Emperor Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Divi Filius Augustus
Ah, feels good. Not that I need such pleasantries.
Greenswe
07-11-2013, 09:05 PM
This is non-growtopia related, and belongs here (http://www.rtsoft.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?4-RTsoft-Tavern)
I have no idea who he really is, but the forums is getting a bit to chaotic.
~Greenswe
NightNinja
07-11-2013, 09:10 PM
this the most hiliriaus thread everxD
Augustus Caesar
07-11-2013, 09:10 PM
This is non-growtopia related, and belongs here (http://www.rtsoft.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?4-RTsoft-Tavern)
I have no idea who he really is, but the forums is getting a bit to chaotic.
~Greenswe
It is more than a simple "he".
Confucius
07-12-2013, 12:03 AM
WHY DO WE HAVE YODA,DARTH VADER,THOMAS JEFFERSON,GEORGE WASHINGTON, EMPEROR AUGUSTUS CEASER ON THE FORUMS???
Man who forgets Confucius, be forgotten too.
Augustus Caesar
07-12-2013, 12:08 AM
Man who forgets Confucius, be forgotten too.
You shall not expect to be acknowledged when you have not spoken up before.
Cyber Detective
07-12-2013, 12:10 AM
This look like a job for - The Cyber Detective. I am here to crack the case, does anyone have any evidence for me to work with?
tony26
07-12-2013, 12:13 AM
Dont feed the troll. You're only giving him reasons to lash out at you.
P.S THESE POST GO IN THE RT TAVERN. I'll spell that out for you.
Cyber Detective
07-12-2013, 12:14 AM
Dont feed the troll. You're only giving him reasons to lash out at you.
From my evidence, I believe Satan is a woman. May you please check his/her IP address so we can find out who this beast really is on the inside, behind his/her computer.
ADMex1
07-12-2013, 12:20 AM
Dont feed the troll. You're only giving him reasons to lash out at you.
P.S THESE POST GO IN THE RT TAVERN. I'll spell that out for you.
Oh Tony. Its spelled RTsoft Tavern. :p
RAPTOR784
07-12-2013, 12:25 AM
Oh Tony. Its spelled RTsoft Tavern. :p
Lol always I believe that is right as well....:p:p:p:p
Abdolhai talebi
07-12-2013, 05:09 AM
DRAMA IS WHAT I LIVE FOR. YOU CAN'T FAULT ME FOR THRIVING IN THE EPITOME OF EVIL AND CHAOS. WHO DO YOU THINK CREATED IT?
I CAN'T FAULT YOU FOR HATING. IT'S SUCH A GOOD, STRONG WORD. WHY DON'T YOU QUIT SPAMMING ABOUT HOW YOU HATE ME, AND GO PLAY INSTEAD? YOUR OPINIONS OF FAKE FORUMER PROFILES ARE MEANINGLESS.
STOP THE SPAM AND POINTLESS THREADS, AND I'LL DISAPPEAR FOREVER.
Ok..ill quit spamming about me hating you...and after this thread i wont care about your posts...i wont even read them...and the next time i hate someone ill handle it via private massage
optimuswhat
07-13-2013, 04:20 AM
I love these users. Hey, will we have... Oh... Wait... I don't think we need...
I've said enough. Satan can probably read my mind. Enough is said...
CarloRay
07-13-2013, 08:37 AM
DRAMA IS WHAT I LIVE FOR. YOU CAN'T FAULT ME FOR THRIVING IN THE EPITOME OF EVIL AND CHAOS. WHO DO YOU THINK CREATED IT?
I CAN'T FAULT YOU FOR HATING. IT'S SUCH A GOOD, STRONG WORD. WHY DON'T YOU QUIT SPAMMING ABOUT HOW YOU HATE ME, AND GO PLAY INSTEAD? YOUR OPINIONS OF FAKE FORUMER PROFILES ARE MEANINGLESS.
STOP THE SPAM AND POINTLESS THREADS, AND I'LL DISAPPEAR FOREVER.
Creepy picture!(sorry for reviving thread!:sweatdrop:)
SlaSHadow
07-13-2013, 09:21 AM
Creepy picture!(sorry for reviving thread!:sweatdrop:)
PM's dude. Come on!
Edit: 100th post!
CarloRay
07-13-2013, 03:23 PM
PM's dude. Come on!
Edit: 100th post!
Well, its too creepy for me to click it and PM him! *creeped out face with the mouth open*
SuperJ
07-13-2013, 04:31 PM
THANKS, JESUS. WISE WORDS. PERHAPS ABDOLHAI TALEBI WILL TAKE HEED TO THEM.
Hold on SATAN I think hes right you are pretty mean to all the forumers, BUT IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE AND GOOD I WILL TELL THIS VILLIAN TO HALT! Lol, I am going Super Hereo style
I BELIEVE I'VE BEEN WITHIN MY CONFINES OF THE USER AGREEMENT THAT I SIGNED IN WITH. I'VE SEEN WORSE POSTS ON THE FORUMS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I'M SAYING, I'M AFRAID YOU'LL HAVE TO IGNORE ME, AS I HAVE TO DO TO OTHER FORUMERS I FIND OFFENSIVE. OR BORING.
'TIS A DIFFICULT THING SOMETIMES... LOATHING FORUMERS. BUT YOU'LL GET USED TO IT.
PERHAPS INSTEAD OF STARTING A THREAD ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HATE ME, PRIVATE MESSAGE ME. I'D HATE TO SEE DRAMA STARTED BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE ME...
*EVIL LAUGHTER*
@satan i know seth came and wrote this......
cuz well..... you seth is you..... muhahhahah i found your secret identety
yoyotje2011
07-26-2013, 09:12 PM
It saddens me to see so much hate, aggression, and conflict. Love thy neighbor, that is all I ask of you. Love your neighbor for whoever he or she is. Human nature is naturally corrupt, It's divine to overcome your natural instincts and to replace them with love for one another. Do not be offended by other people's remarks. Forgive them for their mistakes as I have taught. Even if their mistakes harmed you or someone of value to you.
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
I almost hit a German biker with my cab door
That's right, last night I went to go see a press screening of Body of Lies (I will let you know what I thought of it in a bit). Trying to get the 9:30pm bus back to NJ I quickly hopped into a cab and headed to Port Authority. The clock was quickly approaching departure time. The cab pulled over into the cab lanes outside of Port Authority. I swiped my credit card and opened my door. All of a sudden, I hear some guy yelling and see this guy on his bike stop short a few inches from my door. He was biking between my cab and the cab sitting next to me. He was wearing no helmet and if he wasn't paying attention or was any less skilled with the use of his breaks, he would have been on the ground. He started screaming at me with his German accent and I screamed back. But I was too determined to catch the bus so I quickly fled to my gate. I hope you are reading this, German bike rider with no helmet. Why are you riding your bike between cabs in front of the Port Authority? What is wrong with you? I was just getting out of the cab (curbside) and you yell at me?
Let me get back to the movie, Body of Lies. It's one of those terrorist/CIA flicks that jumps back and forth to locations around the world. It's brilliantly directed by Ridley Scott and will keep you on the edge of your seat. Leonardo carries this movie completely. Russel Crowe doesn't do much for me. The most impressive thing about his performance is that he gained 50 pounds for the film. The other brilliant performance in this film is given by Mark Strong. He is excellent. If you're looking for an action packed thriller I recommend this one. I actually found this movie to be quiet disturbing and terrifying because it all seems so real and it is. Body of Lies is based on a novel of the same name by author David Ignatius, a veteran journalist who covered the CIA and Middle Eastern affairs for 10 years for The Wall Street Journal before joining The Washington Post, where he is currently an associate editor and columnist. The film is very well paced and goes by very quickly. The major disappointment for me was the ending. For some reason, I went into the film expecting a surprise ending and wanted more of a twist. Bottom line: On the Evan Almighty scale of 1-10 I give Body of Lies a 7.
I took a walk to Whole Foods yesterday for lunch and I spotted Sarah Silverman having lunch at a table on the sidewalk at Think. I'm a big fan of Sarah so this was definitely an exciting sighting. Exciting sighting, I like that.
Umm okay, so robots are pretty cool right? Well this just freaked me out a bit:
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Politico: Trump Goes After Rubio in South Carolina
During a campaign event in South Carolina, Politico reports, Donald Trump singled out Marco Rubio for criticism:
Donald Trump is a uniter, not a divider, he said on Wednesday.
He had just trashed Marco Rubio, whose stock has been rising following Jeb Bush’s less-than-stellar performance in last week’s debate and Scott Walker’s Monday withdrawal from the race.
…
He twice knocked the Florida senator’s spotty attendance record and called him a “lightweight” — a dig he’s also aimed at Rand Paul and Bobby Jindal — in pushing back against Rubio’s criticism that Trump has not delved into foreign policy specifics. (“You don’t want the enemy to hear what you’re doing,” Trump explained.)
Trump has been ramping up his attacks on Rubio in recent days. On Tuesday he tweeted, “Senator Marco ‘amnesty’ Rubio, who has worst voting record in Senate, just hit me on national security-but I said don’t go into Iraq. VISION.”
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Extreme
Dorian Yates Looks at His Old Bodybuilding Pictures Joe Rogan and Dorian Yates take a look at pictures of Dorian during his bodybuilding days. What Dorian says after looking at his old bodybuilding pictures is surprising to say the least! Someone being so into bodybuilding and sculpting their physique to perfection has had a dramatic change in how he sees 40
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Como piotr_h começou a jornada do(a) design de logotipos
Nome da empresa
Visão geral
First of, we are about a dozen people (6 coders, 6 office girls and 6 warehouse workers or so), young, fun, wild, ready to take tha market. And we want to communicate that.
We are a spin-of of an established manufacturer specializing in "Information enriched logistics". Meaning we ship crates and boxes (oldschool) but using quite sophisticated self-developed software (Web 2.0) for that.
We offer services at the joint between retail and logistics. This includes spare-part logistics, returns processing, drop-shipping, billing and very sophisticated track and trace (offering options like "bill credit card in the moment the package are delivered to the doorstep") and the like.
We are different from the logistics industry by our approach to customer relationship. Instead of "contact us to get in touch with our sales staff" we publish our prices online and have a "enter your credit card to get your customized after-sales website and phone number online within the next 20 minutes" approach. Easy, automated, cheap and self-service. Call it "utility logistics".
Conte para a gente quem é você e quem é seu público alvo
Small Online Retailers, eBay Powersellers and the like (very technology friendly) and logistics companies like trucking firms etc. (very conservative and inexperienced in Internet business models).
Requisitos
We are looking for a stand alone logo in approximately square format.
We also want a variant with the logo incorporating the company name. The company name is is "Kyberlogi" or "Cyberlogi" (choose whatever fit's better). This variant can be of arbitrary proportions (meaning it does not need to be square).
It should look good when printed in black and white on a 300 dpi laser printer as a letter head. It should also work reasonably well when printed in about 3x1 cm size with 200 dpi on a shipping label. And finally it should also work in color in a Web browser.
A package or a box as part of the logo might look nice but we leave this up to you.
We require a RGB vector image (AI format) containing Logo and Logo with Name in RGB and b/w variants.
No rights of 3rd parties can be violated, all the work must be original.
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Jenny McCarthy: I Deserve Great and Donnie Wahlberg Is Great
"If every relationship leads you to the next person and it leads you to what you want and what you don't want, I feel like I deserve great and he's great," The View cohost said Saturday while hosting a party at 1 OAK in Las Vegas.
"It's new," she said. "I took a year off [from dating] but I said if I meet someone who makes me stop that year off, it's someone who I need to pay attention to."
On Saturday, after McCarthy, 40, and Wahlberg, 44, took in the Boyz II Men concert at Mirage and dinner at Stack, they hit the club with several friends. In the club, the couple danced together, appeared blissfully happy, and seemed unaware of anyone else in the 16,000 square foot space.
At a VIP table above the deejay booth, McCarthy, donning a black long sleeved cocktail dress, sipped a few drinks and clung to her boyfriend and her sister. Aside from a reporter nearby, it was a rare moment of privacy for the best-selling author.
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War of the Roses
PC Review
TDF reviews Fatshark's latest online offering, the brutal medieval online multiplayer beast that is War of the Roses
We presume bloodshed was common during the medieval periods, life comically harsh and cheap. While it wasn’t all serfdom and starvation, certain periods stand out due to their inherent violence, the inability of any one power group to wrest control and dominate the land. One such period can be found in the late fifteenth century with the Wars of the Roses, a series of pivotal battles for the crown of England between two cadet branches of the House of Plantagenet. So called because the heraldic symbols of the houses of Lancaster and York were a red and white rose respectively, the War of the Roses represented a period where if you were anyone you had no choice but to choose a side. Honour, duplicity, conviction and might all played their parts in the Wars, ultimately creating a period which is ripe for exploration and entertainment.
Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine any other period of English medieval history upon which it would be more appropriate to base an online multiplayer medieval battle game. Developers Fatshark (of Lead and Gold fame) clearly know their historical stuff, and this spills into the wider game much further than simply the setting. Picture War of the Roses as a mixture of Team Fortress 2’s DeGroot Keep and Mount and Blade and you will begin to get a flavour for the concept of the game although you won’t have done it nearly enough justice. Essentially War of the Roses rolls up competitive multiplayer battles with compelling melee warfare - instead of giving you guns and grenades you are instead armed with swords, axes, halberds and all sorts of other goodies useful for pummelling up close, all in battles of up to sixty-four people. It’s shocking that no one has managed this before, but the change in weaponry, scenery and control system breathes new life into the classic genre otherwise known as killing strangers online.
Eat your heart out Assassin's Creed!
The thing is, this is so much more than simple charges and weapon spam. There aren’t people rolling around trying to shotgun one another in the head or aiming for sneaky insta-kills. Instead the melee combat with War of the Roses is far more nuanced, an advanced version of that seen within Mount and Blade if you will. When attacking with a melee weapon you can do so in one of four directions – overhead swing, thrust and a left or right swipe. Each of these has a corresponding parry, meaning reading your opponent is essential to successful warfare. Each swing or thrust is controlled by moving the mouse and left clicking; laborious wrist movement soon becomes a practiced flick as you quickly zone into the control system, with parries controlled in essentially the same way but by using the right mouse button. A parry not only protects you from your opponent’s attack, but renders them unable to parry themselves for a short amount of time, hopefully allowing you a window of opportunity. It’s a holistic system that rewards experience and skill, with each incremental gain in either having a noticeable effect on your own performance.
It’s not all about the melee though as ranged combat plays as large a role in the proceedings as you would expect for a game set in this timeframe. Choosing to play as either an archer or a crossbowman unlocks a whole new feel to the battlefields. Archers have a limited number of arrows, and when firing they can only keep their bow pulled at full draw for a few scant seconds. Crossbowmen can prove extremely deadly with the right amount of accuracy, but the painful reloading time ensures that you will have to play much more of a sniper than support role (although there is an active reload mini-game that can be utilised to speed this up). Both types of projectiles are affected by various amounts of drop once they have fired, ensuring that missile spam is far less effective than considered and skilful shooting. It’s a bit withdrawn from reality to present the archers and their ilk of the time period as single target hunters, but their implementation in game is well balanced.
If you ever see this happen in game you are totally boned
Returning to the recurring theme of skill, it’s abundantly clear that this is a game that not only expects you to know what you are doing (and to be able to do it) but demands it. Unlike most other games with melee elements the hit boxes within War of the Roses are miniscule with each weapon requiring practice and more practice to actually be able to hit with it; too close and you’ll ping off your enemy with your weapon’s haft, too far away and you’ll swing around in thin air. Not only do you actually need to hit with your weapon however, but you also need to hit somewhere on your enemy that you can actually damage. If you swing with a one hander that smacks a plate breastplate you will, unsurprisingly, cause no damage. A thrust with the same sword that hits an armour chink or, even better, a face, will cause some of the most satisfactory damage you have wreaked in any game.
Talking about faces, the game provides a fairly innovative method of dealing with the medieval practice of dressing yourself up like a tin can robot. Options abound for defensive headgear, which is great given the number of archers attempting to head shot you at any particular point. Players are free to dress themselves up in anything up to and including a full frogmouth helm – however, if you do pick a helmet option that looks like it would give your character an obscured view, then in game you will get an obscured view. This can be quite restrictive when it comes to some of the full plate options, although helmets that have a visor have an option to flip the visor up thus giving you a full view again. While you probably don’t want to spend your entire time within War of the Roses looking at a couple of letterboxes worth of view these helms do give a new dimension to combat, protecting your face from those errant archers and thrusting swordsmen alike. The restricted view adds to the exhilaration of melee, with both combatants circling wildly whenever they lose direct view of their opponent. It doesn’t make you immune to damage however as your armour still retains weak spots, and skilful players will always seem like they can open you up and spill your blood with no effort at all.
Helms with a restricted field of vision, er, restrict your field of vision
However, even after you have been upsided in the head with a mace the game isn’t necessarily over. First of all instead of being knocked down you could just be cut open so badly that you have started bleeding all over the place. In this case you have ten seconds in which to swing wildly and hopefully incapacitate your attacker and then bandage yourself back up to a healthy status. The bleeding mechanic means that most duels reach a stage where at least one player needs to move out of their considered manoeuvring and into all out attack, thus ensuring you don’t get stuck in never ending circling jousts. Secondly, unless you are dealt critical damage to a spongy part when you are defeated you will collapse to the ground in a knocked out state. After ten seconds you can yield and then respawn, but until then you are at the mercy of your enemies or teammates. Your team can assist you back to your feet and bring you back into the fight, whereas your enemies can engage in a brutal five second execution which you are forced to watch in first person from your prone position. The viciousness of these deaths are perfectly in keeping with the overall feeling of the game, the death sequences so much more meaningful than those found in most shooters. Again, a common multiplayer theme has been taken and just made better by the fact that it is being performed in a medieval setting. Fantastic stuff.
However, to get to the stage where you are the one dominating takes time, and unfortunately you are given virtually no handholding when you first begin this journey. The four default classes the game provides exist at various stages between ‘useless’ and ‘nearly useless’, with the single-player training mode proving itself particularly anaemic and of virtually no assistance. Your first battles are likely to be frustrating affairs that leave you squeaking with rage as you waft ineffectively at thin air whilst everyone you meet cuts you up as if you were made of butter. The action gets a little easier once you unlock the Footknight, but really you need to keep with it until you have enough to unlock a custom class and some gear. It only takes a couple of hours, but those hours do nothing to showcase the real joy of War of the Roses and it’s a real worry that players may well be lost to the game forever at this most nascent of stages.
The thing is, even with this painful learning process, War of the Roses is utterly addictive. Until you learn how to swing your sword the majority of your efforts will be in vain, but that one connection will feel so sweet you will be compelled to continue along the learning process. And that first time you manage to smash that bastard in the plate armour who has been murdering you for games right in the face for ninety direct damage? That will be one of your greatest gaming moments of 2012 I guaran-damn-tee.
As with most multiplayer games hugging the objective seems like a difficult concept for some
Away from the battle mechanics the previously mentioned custom classes provide you with somewhat of a micromanagement timesink. Individually most items and perks are cheap enough, allowing you to build a fairly rough and ready chap by around the time you hit level ten, but most of the items available for purchase have hidden depths for you to explore. Armour comes in a range of unlockable colours and designs but the system really shines when it comes to the weaponry. Hafts, forging style, fighting stance and other options are available, allowing you to tinker each custom slot into something as close to individual as online gaming can get. Combined with your (entirely decorative) personal crest, War of the Roses provides you with the opportunity to spend as much time playing outside of the battle as in.
With this much variation in place it should come as no surprise that there are several concerns surrounding the question of balance within the game. Flavour of the moment complaints seem to focus mainly on the ubiquity of plate wearers wielding two handed weapons as well as on the ability of certain weapons to be spammed, thus removing the need to use them skilfully. Various other quibbles exist with certain hit boxes appearing a little larger than expected, or slashing damage from certain swords over-damaging on plate, but otherwise the game seems well rounded. Of course, in any one-on-one situation you could find yourself facing a load-out which by design can dominate yours, but as War of the Roses is intended to be played as a team game that’s not really an issue that impacts the wider meta-game. Indeed, as the majority of players both skill and level up most of them tend to drift away from plate armour and two handed weapons and back towards medium armour with a shield and more advanced one-handers. War of the Roses hasn’t been out long enough to determine what the load-out of choice will be for a fully mature game, but the size of the battles combined with four custom load out slots should ensure that you can find a set-up that can work with whatever enemies you are given.
THIS....IS....MEDIEVAL ENGLAND!
It’s a shame then that with this great set of mechanics as a base that Fatshark have given us only two modes to play with. Of these two the ‘Conquest’ mode is generally more compelling than the simplistic ‘Team Deathmatch’, especially if you are playing solo on the public servers. While the map rotations give you enough battlegrounds to fight over for now, the longer term future of the game will depend on whether new modes and maps can be trickled down to players on a semi-regular basis. It’s pleasing to see therefore that a permanent support team has already been announced for War of the Roses and while no additional details are available on the feature pipeline it can only be hoped that this support can deliver additional content soon to help the game remain as fresh as it feels now.
In essence then, War of the Roses is a piece of sheer genius encapsulated in what feels like an incomplete shell. The core mechanics and gameplay will make you sing with joy, but the fact the game shipped with half as much supporting content as it should have will sully the experience somewhat. Recycled concepts are made to feel fresh in their new setting, and the masculine cry of ‘Killstreak!’ as you hit your first multikill not only doesn’t feel out of place but just makes you wish that every medieval re-enactment had a commentator following the stronger competitors. If you have any interest in competitive online play or swinging virtual swords around then you owe it to yourself to buy War of the Roses now. The first few hours will be painful, but the feeling of achievement will be all the sweeter once you have cracked the nut of skill.
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