Privacy v freedom of information: inherently incompatible?
Given that there are differences between the New Zealand and Australian legislative schemes, the issues that arise at this interface may not be resolved in the same way in Australia.
A recent decision of the New Zealand High Court illustrates the potential for conflict between freedom of information legislation promoting openness and transparency, and legislation protecting privacy.
In Director of Human Rights Proceedings v Commissioner of Police  NZHC 1286 (14 August 2008), the New Zealand High Court considered the relationship between the Official Information Act 1982 (NZ) (New Zealand's equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)) and the Privacy Act 1993 (NZ).
How is this New Zealand case relevant to Australian law?
Both the New Zealand and Australian freedom of information enactments recognise that official information may contain personal information and that the disclosure of official information may impact upon an individual's privacy. Section 9 of the Official Information Act 1982 (NZ) provides that good reason for withholding official information exists where the withholding of the information is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons (s 9(2)(a)) unless the public interest outweighs the considerations favouring withholding the information (s 9(1)). Section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) contains a similar balancing exercise in considering whether disclosure would involve the unreasonable disclosure of personal information about any person, including a deceased person.
Likewise, both the New Zealand and Australian Privacy Acts recognise that disclosure of personal information may be authorised under other legislation (most significantly, freedom of information legislation). Both the Privacy Act 1993 (NZ) and the Privacy Act 1989 (Cth) contain Information Privacy Principle 11 providing that personal information is not to be disclosed unless certain specified exceptions apply. Both Acts provide an exception where the disclosure is required or authorised by or under law: Privacy Act 1989 (Cth), section 14 Information Privacy Principle 11(1)(e), Privacy Act 1993 (NZ) contained in a separate section, section 7(1).
Director of Human Rights Proceedings v Commissioner of Police is relevant in Australia given the general similarity between the relevant legislation and the almost identical wording contained in section 7(1) of the New Zealand Privacy Act and Information Privacy Principle 11(1)(e) of the Australian Privacy Act providing that Principle 11 does not apply where the disclosure is authorised or required by law.
The case concerned an appeal by the Director of Human Rights Proceedings against a decision of the Human Rights Review Tribunal rejecting a claim for breach of privacy stemming from the release of information about a domestic violence incident. The police had been called to an incident involving the complainant and her partner, as a result of which the police temporarily removed the complainant and her children from their home. Although no charges were laid, the police completed a domestic violence report. On being told of the incident, the children's father questioned the complainant who denied that the incident had taken place. In response to an application by the children's father under the Official Information Act, the police released the domestic violence report to him believing that, as he was the children's father, he was entitled to it and because the privacy interests of the parties were minor.
The complainant claimed that there had been a disclosure of personal information in breach of principle 11 and brought proceedings under the Privacy Act claiming compensation for emotional harm she allegedly suffered as a result of the release of the report.
In response to the claim, the police relied upon section 48 of the Official Information Act which confers an immunity from civil liability where information is released "pursuant to" that Act in good faith. The police also relied upon section 7(1) of the Privacy Act which provides that nothing in Information Privacy Principle 11 derogates from any provision in any other enactment which "authorises or requires" personal information to be made available.
The Human Rights Review Tribunal dismissed the complainant's claim. The Director of Human Rights Proceedings brought the appeal to the High Court to obtain clarification about the interface between the Official Information Act and the Privacy Act. The Court noted that the purpose of the former is to make information held by public agencies (which may include personal information) more freely available where the purpose of the latter is to protect personal information from disclosure.
How did the New Zealand High Court resolve these claims?
On the claim that section 48 of the Official Information Act applied, the Director argued that for the release of information to be "pursuant to" the Act, the police must have first correctly identified the relevant interests (ie, those requiring protection and those favouring disclosure) and then considered those competing interests in good faith. While the Director stopped short of arguing that the decision had to be correct before the section 48 immunity were attracted, he argued that the Tribunal had to examine the police's decision-making process. This process, it was said, was deficient because there were no public interests favouring disclosure and the police had taken into account an irrelevant consideration (ie, that the requestor was the children's father). Thus, it was argued, that the police had not released the information "pursuant to" the Act. The Director argued that the immunity conferred by section 48 should not be interpreted so as to render privacy rights "completely nugatory" or to deprive the complainant of a remedy under the Privacy Act.
The Court rejected this argument, holding that the Tribunal was not required to consider the police's reasoning processes or the correctness of the decision when applying the Official Information Act. All that was required for the section 48 immunity to apply was that the police released the report in the honest belief that the Act required disclosure. That interpretation accorded with the legislative intention behind section 48 to confer a wide immunity. The Director's interpretation, the Court thought, would have an inhibiting effect and undermine the benefit of the immunity. While that left the complainant without a remedy, as a decision to release information is not subject to review, Parliament could have amended section 48 when it enacted the Privacy Act.
A key difference between the New Zealand and Australian legislation is that the immunity conferred by section 91 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) is far more limited. Section 91(2) provides that where the Minister or delegate makes a bona fide decision that access was required by the Act to be given then no action lies for defamation, breach of confidence or infringement of copyright. A second key difference is that the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) contains a procedure to be followed where it appears that a person might reasonably wish to contend that a document is an exempt document as a document affecting personal privacy: section 27A.
The High Court also rejected the Director's argument on the scope of the Tribunal's role in considering the police's application of section 7 of the Privacy Act. The Director had argued that the Tribunal should have considered the quality of the police's decision-making process to determine whether the Official Information Act "authorised or required" the information to be released. The High Court considered that if the Tribunal was intended to review the quality of the exercise of discretion, the Privacy Act would have said so expressly. Section 7 was not intended to provide an alternative or additional basis for the review of decisions under the Official Information Act. In the Court's view, the expression "authorises and requires" in section 7(1) of the Privacy Act is "simply a descriptive phrase, describing the type of provision which over-rides Principle 11. It does not import the need for a qualitative assessment to be done on a case by case basis. Much clearer words would have been required to achieve that". The Court was reinforced in its conclusion by the fact that the Director's interpretation would result in the Tribunal applying the provisions of other enactments outside its expertise.
Director of Human Rights Proceedings v Commissioner of Police illustrates the tension that can exist at the interface between freedom of information legislation and privacy legislation. The objective of promoting open and transparent government can sometimes come into conflict with the protection of an individual's privacy. Given that there are differences between the New Zealand and Australian legislative schemes, the issues that arise at this interface may not be resolved in the same way in Australia. The decision of the New Zealand High Court, however, demonstrates what conflicts can arise and how the issues are being resolved in New Zealand.


What is good and what needs to be fixed with veteran's healthcare benefits? The number of patients being served by the Department of Veterans Affairs medical system has been increasing in recent years. The quality of care and patient satification has improved significantly from the mid 1990's when the condition of veteran's hospitals has sunk so low that most of them were considered filthy, short of essential medical supplies and offering treatment bordering on barbarism. However, veterans are still complaining that it takes too long for them to schedule appointments. The veteran medical system does not cater for all veterans but for those who meet determined criteria. This should not be the case since these are the people who selflessly gave up their lives to fight wars that ensure Americans and the whole world is safe. Therefore, the veteran medical system should provide the most up to date medical care to all veterans.
Eligibility - to be eligible a veteran must have been on active duty military service for 24 continuous months, they must not have been dishonorably discharged from the military and your level of income should be below the set minimum limit.
Enrollment- Veterans may enroll with the Department of Veterans Affairs at any time they deem convenient. To apply, a veteran completes Form 10-10EZ, which can be obtained from any Veteran Affairs health care facility or regional benefits office. They can also apply online.
Services covered - the services covered are outpatient diagnostic and treatment services, preventative care services, inpatient diagnostic and treatment services, long-term care and prescriptions.
Co-payments- some veterans and low-income veterans are eligible to receive health care benefits. Co-payments are made by those veterans who have exceeded the set yearly income thresholds and whose who have more than $80,000 in property.
Priority Groups -In order to balance the demand on the Veterans medical system, veterans are divided into priority groups. The groups are as follows: There are eight priority groups.
Disability Benefit - The Department of Veterans Affairs offers to disability programs. Disability pension, which pays pension to veterans who are unable to work and also to surviving spouses and children of veterans. Disability compensation is only paid to veterans with service-connected disability.
Readjustment Counseling Services - The department offers outreach and readjustment counseling services through community based Veteran centers in all states. The centers provide counseling for combat veterans and their families to help them transition properly from the military to life as a civilian. The centers also offer bereavement counseling for immediate members of service men who have died in the line of duty while they were on active duty.
The veterans who participate in this programs receive free medical examinations .this includes laboratory and diagnostic tests.


After developing an implantable sensor to measure pulmonary artery pressure, Harry Rowland hit upon the missing link: The data wasn't getting to medical professionals who, if they saw early warning signs, could treat patients before a patient's health deteriorates catastrophically.
His company is conducting the first clinical trials to see whether Rowland, CEO and co-founder of Endotronix, has also hit on a solution. In 2016, the company introduced the Cordella Heart Failure System. It starts with readings taken by the implant, which are beamed wirelessly to a book-size reader and then transmitted to a cloud-based database for analysis. "With our device in place, a clinician can see how the patient is doing at home before the heart fails, then adjust medication," Rowland says.
Heart failure, when the heart muscle weakens and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs, is the No. 1 cost to Medicare and cause of hospitalizations in elderly patients. Its toll on the global economy is a staggering $108 billion annually.
Rowland and Dr. Anthony Nunez, a cardiothoracic surgeon, co-founded Endotronix in Peoria in 2007. The company is personal for them. Both witnessed family members suffering from heart failure. (Nunez is no longer with the company.) Now based in Lisle, Endotronix has a headcount of 60 with backgrounds in science and technology. Even the company's marketing director has a Ph.D. in biology. In April the company drafted John Flavin, who previously ran the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, to be CFO.
The privately held company is pre-revenue. It has raised more than $50 million, including a Series C of $32 million in 2016. A significant amount of its funding has come from an undisclosed multinational corporation. Rowland expects to do another funding round this year to support further expansion and a pivotal study for the Food & Drug Administration.
Early this year, the company's Cordella pressure sensor was implanted in the first human, in a clinical trial in Belgium. Endotronix plans to test it in 10 people in Europe to assess the device's safety and efficacy. Rowland says the product won't be commercially available in the U.S. until late 2020 at the soonest.
Endotronix will have competition. Abbott already is in late-stage trials to prove a heart failure monitor of its own. But Dr. Charles Bruce, a professor and cardiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., says the Endotronix product does more, by incorporating information on blood pressure and weight and using data analytics to try to improve detection of heart failure.
The company's microsensor, housed in a glass shell coated in silicone, is "really one of the core innovations of Endotronix," says Rowland, 38, "a military brat" who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. "Oftentimes a patient won't know they're worsening. They won't even feel it, but the pressures inside their heart are rising." Cordella is "like the canary in the coal mine."


PART-1-Help at "Home" PART-2-Help at "User center" PART-3-Help at "Money"
<1>Beijing time & work time: In Pruany.com, all the time is Beijing time!Including the order time and work time, etc.Please according to individual condition, arrange time.
<4>Site navigation: Into different web site category.
<5>Exchange rate: Pruany.com exchange rate according to the people　s bank of China　s exchange rate, updated daily.
<6>Quick search: Don　t need to log in, quick query order.
<7>International freight query: Choose the country, fill in weight, can query international transportation and freight.Pruany.com international freight is 100% correct, customers can inquire on the transport　s official website.
<8>Announcement: Pruany.com corporate events, the latest trend, the matters needing attention, etc.
<9>Login or register: Can enter the center of the user after the user login, complete order project!A new user, please click "new user registration", as a member of the Pruany.
<10>Advertisement: Corporate event or holiday arrangements.
<11>Member of the dynamic: The activities of the user.
<12>Shopping process: Simple shopping process summary, search for more instructions please enter the "HELP", or contact customer service or send E-mail.
<1>User basic information,Changes in the "Personal information".
<2>"Create new order", "offline order download", "station letter".
<3>"Have price difference",Order in the red part is the price difference of project!Click on the payment, please.
<4>After Create new order, generate did not add the order.Click the "Add product" Add commodity connection.
<5>"Order Name" this group of number stands for the order.Order name format is: D + digital number (number is the only).
<6>"Start" is the beginning of the order of time!The order to complete the payment to start.
<7>"Balance" is the Balance of this order.
<8>"Online recharge", when the order balance isn　t enough to cover the cost of the order, click recharge.
<9>Click the "Add product" Add commodity connection.
<10>"Account details", click can query the current order payment details in detail.
<11>"Num." is decided according to add the time order of goods.
<12>"status" : Without payment, Buying,Have problem,Refund,Waiting for goods,goods have arrived,Waiting for weight,Need pay freight,Waiting for send,Has been sent.
<13>"Art.No." : after the arrival of the goods, after workers detection, the only identification number.
<14>Total price = quantity ＊ (unit price + freight).
<15>"Time" : the goods Time of payment.
<16>"Message" : staff dialogue with the customer　s Message.
<17>"Remarks" add goods, fill in the information and upload pictures.Later, only the look, can　t change.
<18>Above: the need to pay the amount;Below: the already paid amount.
<19>"Goods original box": In Create new order, can choose according to their own needs to retain or delete.
<20>"Address": In Create new order, can choose according to their own needs to choose from.
<21>"Parcel freight": According to your choice of the mode of transportation and the amount of pay the .
<1>"Payment details" fall into "individual account" and "order account".
<2>"Personal account" balance and charging.
<4>"Order account" need to type in the "order name" to complete the search, can query classification.
<7>There are 4 kinds charging way, and 5 kinds of payment way. "charging":Money prepaid phone to "personal account" or "orders account" in the balance, and waiting for use.
<8>Fill in the information according to the requirement, approved finish prepaid phone, the balance of amount will be displayed in the "personal account".These top-up way can　t refund!Can only exist in "personal account".
<9>Use the "personal account" balance payments.
<10>Use "Paypal" charge to "order the account". Then, Use the "order balance" payment. Single use Paypal payment orders, can refund.


Making a comparison of composite decking materials to wood. Both materials have their pros and cons, and here are a few of both to those considering building a deck in the near future.
Wood It's natural-looking, which makes it work better aesthetically in an outdoor setting. It possesses a certain, inimitable feel to it as well. Comes in a variety of species of wood, such as cedar, oak, cherry and Pressure Treated. It's also hard to beat in terms of finding all the right sizes with which to work, including supporting beams and joists. All-wood decking materials are also less expensive - at least in the short run. A comparison of composite decking materials to wood would not be fair without mentioning these facts.
Composites are created by combining wood by-products such as sawdust, wood shavings, or wood fibers with plastic (in one form or another ) that composites require no sealing, staining, sanding, or painting periodic cleaning to stay beautiful for years to come - no need for sanding, staining or painting, ever. - While wood, on the other hand, will need these maintenance chores done every year or two. You also never need worry about the cracking or splitting associated with wood in composite materials.
The downside of fake wood in a comparison of composite decking materials includes several things. For one, it's often impossible to find all the support pieces necessary, so treated pine must be used for joists and beams. You will also come up short when it comes to the colors in composite decking.
Although the choices are good, they all fade with time. With wood, you can always re-stain or re-paint, but with composites, the material will have to be replaced. Along with fading, composites also do not handle stains from grease, wine, or other such substances well. If the offending stuff is not cleaned off immediately, you will have the stain for the life of your deck - unless you're willing to replace the planks.
Composites can set you back up to twice as much as what you'd pay for all-wood deck-building materials. When you factor in the possibility of needing to replace materials after staining mishaps and/or fading, this creates an even greater strain on the price comparison levels, with wood weighing in as a better deal for most.
Of course, if you're willing to pay more for not having to do the extra maintenance that an all-wood deck requires, a comparison of composite decking materials to wood won't make you change your mind. There's really no right or wrong, it's just a matter of preference.
In this article, we are going to describe how to stain pressure treated decks properly. There are a few decisions that need to be made when staining a deck and we will help you figure out what supplies and technique is right for your deck and situation. A lot of people feel that pressure treated decks do not need to be stained, so we will cover why you would want to stain a pressure treated deck in the first place. So, if you are thinking of staining your deck that is made from pressure treated lumber, you have found the article that you need to assist you with the job and the planning.
Normally when you purchase the pressure treated lumber is has not aged much. Most pressure treated wood you buy has only been sitting several days, so if you get the opportunity, you can ask the lumber yard how seasoned the wood is when you buy it, otherwise assume it is fresh. If you squeeze the end of a piece of pressure treated wood, you will notice the liquid coming out. That is how wet it is when you buy it, so painting over non-weathered wood decks will cause the stain not to cure properly and can even ruin the protection of the treated lumber. So definitely wait the proper amount of time before staining your deck.
Applying stain to a deck is pretty straight forward, but there are some tips and tricks that will assist you during the process. First of all you don't want to spread the stain on too thick. Many people with little experience think that they need to put the stain on thick to better protect their deck. That is incorrect.
Next, you want to be sure to paint in good weather. For oil or solvent based stains, it needs to be anywhere from 40 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and it needs to be at least 50 degrees if you use water based stain. And you need to make sure it will remain at least the 40 or 50 degrees for 24 hours after you stain the deck so it will dry properly. So don't stain you deck if you know it is going to fall below 40 degrees at night even though it may be warm duri8ng the day. A lot of people in northern states have to pay closer attention to the night time temperatures when staining their decks. Likewise for people in southern or western states, be careful that it won't get too hot. A lot of people in warmer climates like to do the staining early in the morning before it gets too hot, but make sure the temperature is not going to rise much higher than 90 degrees within 24 hours of staining your deck.
1. Prepare the surface. If it's a new deck, just make sure it is free from dirt and sediment. If it is older, make sure any old finish is removed first. A pressure washer will usually do the trick. If you use a pressure washer, don't turn up the pressure too high or it can damage the wood, particularly on older decks. 1500-2400 psi is plenty of pressure for washing pressure treated decks. You local retailer of paint supplies will usually carry special cleaners for decks.
2. Allow the surface to dry. The deck needs to be moisture free before you apply the stain. When using a commercial deck cleaner or anything that makes the deck wet, you have to allow time for it to dry completely before staining. Depending on how wet it is and the weather outside, it can take from 12 to 24 hours to dry.
If you live were the sun is beating on the deck relentlessly, and then be sure to get a stain that has some U-V protection. Ask the retailer or read the labels carefully to see if the stain offers U-V protection. Many of the clear stains have U-V protection.
While heavily advertised, some experts highly recommend that you stay away from Thomson's water sealer or deck stains. So we recommend going with an oil-based stain such as Sherwin-Williams' Deckscapes brand. It comes in clear or a variety of tints. So it will work for almost any situation.
Most clear sealants are not recommended for use on treated lumber, so be careful what you buy and always consult a professional before making a purchase, Paint Stores, are normally staffed with knowledgeable employees that will help you find the perfect stain for your situation.
Be sure to wait until your pressure treated lumber is dry enough before applying the stain though. Remember, if you can squeeze the wood with a pair of large pliers and see water come out, it is too wet to stain! That's an old trick that still works today.
That's about all there is to it, it is not rocket science, but you need to pay attention to certain aspects of what you are doing when staining a pressure treated deck. If you pay attention to the tips and tricks in this article, your stained deck project should go smoothly. So, good luck on your project and be safe. And most of all give us a call we'll be glad to assist you in any aspect of your project.


The msgctl() system call performs some control operations on the message queue specified by msqid.
IPC_STAT Gather information about the message queue and place it in the structure pointed to by buf.
IPC_SET Set the value of the msg_perm.uid, msg_perm.gid, msg_perm.mode and msg_qbytes fields in the structure associated with msqid. The values are taken from the corresponding fields in the structure pointed to by buf. This operation can only be executed by the super-user, or a process that has an effective user id equal to either msg_perm.cuid or msg_perm.uid in the data structure associated with the message queue. The value of msg_qbytes can only be increased by the super-user. Values for msg_qbytes that exceed the system limit (MSGMNB from <sys/msg.h>) are silently truncated to that limit.
IPC_RMID Remove the message queue specified by msqid and destroy the data associated with it. Only the super-user or a process with an effective uid equal to the msg_perm.cuid or msg_perm.uid values in the data structure associated with the queue can do this.
The permission to read from or write to a message queue (see msgsnd(2) and msgrcv(2)) is determined by the msg_perm.mode field in the same way as is done with files (see chmod(2)), but the effective uid can match either the msg_perm.cuid field or the msg_perm.uid field, and the effective gid can match either msg_perm.cgid or msg_perm.gid.
The msgctl function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
The cmd argument is equal to IPC_SET or IPC_RMID and the caller is not the super-user, nor does the effective uid match either the msg_perm.uid or msg_perm.cuid fields of the data structure associated with the message queue.
An attempt is made to increase the value of msg_qbytes through IPC_SET but the caller is not the super-user.
The command is IPC_STAT and the caller has no read permission for this message queue.
The msqid argument is not a valid message queue identifier.
cmd is not a valid command.
The buf argument specifies an invalid address.
Message queues appeared in the first release of AT&T V .


Basically, I have to admit that I am a Valvophobe. I would give you the dictionary definition of that word, but it has been sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall's porch since . . . Anyway, you get the idea. A Valvophobe is someone who doesn't like tubes in their 1986 stereo systems.
Harvey Rosenberg, the not-unflamboyant President of New York Audio Labs (NYAL), recently sent me a curious little black box he is purveying. Christened with the unlikely name of "SuperIt," this device turned out to be a hybrid tube/MOSFET phono preamp. When I say phono preamp, I mean just that! It has inputs for a phono cartridge, line-level outputs on the back, and that's it! No switching facilities, no tape monitor, no high-level inputs, only a DIP switch, accessible from the back, which allows the user to match cartridge loading. There are two potentiometers on the front: Volume and Balance.
The internal construction is good, and the parts, while not of ARC calibre, are certainly not cheap. The power supply feeds well-regulated voltage both to the plate circuit of the tubesthree name-on-request 12AX7s, with no markings of any kind, not even tube numbersand to the MOSFETs.
Why design a phono-only preamp, I hear you asking? Good question. Harvey says that it was designed to give owners of Japanese receivers and mid-fi preamplifiers the taste of tubes. They can just plug the SuperIt into the auxiliary jacks on their receiver, preamp, or integrated amp, and bypass the cheap transistor phono stage sported by most equipment of this ilk. The improvement should be dramatic.
Well, I don't know about owners of cheap mid-fi gear. My guess is that most of them have abandoned phonograph records altogether in favor of CDor cassette! Where, then, do I think the SuperIt fits into the scheme of things? Why, it exists to ensure the conversion of valvophobes among the upper mid-fi and lower high-end audiophile community into valvophiles. For this task, the SuperIt is perfect.
Rather than use the SuperIt fed into the spare line-level input of my (transistor) preamp, I used it to drive my three-way crossover and power amps directly. The SuperIt readily lends itself to this arrangement. First, it has more than enough gain for the task (about 60dB), and the balance and volume controls make a main preamp redundant. Second, the MOSFET output stage means that the inputs of my passive crossover are essentially fed from the same kind of load as they would be from my transistor preamp. This would not be the case if the SuperIt were a tube-only design, even it used a cathode follower.
How does it sound? Just fine! The SuperIt has that elusive harmonic rightness said to characterize the best tube electronics. This is most noticeable at the top end, where the glaring hardness featured by many solid-state designs is most annoying. The SuperIt is smooth and sweet. Strings take on that special velvet-like sheen that says "This is real. This is what music sounds like." Brass instruments have the bite they have in the concert hall, and woodwinds have rarely sounded so mellow. The ability to do right by these instruments, the bulk of whose energy is in the midrange, will attest to any component's competence in this region.
The SuperIt's bass really surprised meit is quite exceptional. Records had a firm, tight, well-articulate foundation that I have rarely heard before. Certainly my reference preamp (a semi-custom solid-state design) exhibits nowhere near the weight and control in the low bass that I find with the SuperIt.
On the debit side, I find that when compared with a live performance (or, for that matter, some correctly miked master tapes), the SuperIt seems to gloss over small details in the sound, almost as if to say "This bit is too difficult, I'll skip it." I must admit, however, that this characteristic has lessened over the weeks, to the point where it is now only noticeable in direct comparison with master tapes or with my reference preamp. I might also add that the transistor glare that my reference unit contributes to the sound of records is now much more annoying than the SuperIt's slight sin of omission.
In the imaging department the SuperIt is a mixed bag. My reference is better at localizing instruments in spacealthough this aspect of the SuperIt's performance also improved dramatically during the "burn-in" periodbut the SuperIt has a better-defined soundstage. The soundstage is wider, higher, and deeper than I have experienced before, stretching far beyond the edge of the speakers, yet with clearly delineated boundaries. There seems to be a little narrowing of width in the back, but this is a very minor quibble.
I also find that the SuperIt reproduces music with much more apparent dynamic range than does my reference. When the orchestra gets louder, it does so without any of the congestion that seems to plague many designs.
Another aspect of the NYAL preamp which surprised me was its signal/noise ratio. In days of old, tube preamps (especially their phono stages) hissed. Among other reasons, this was due to the nature of tubes. Being thermionic devices, they work by the heat-propelled movement of electrons from cathode to plate. Such electron movement, by definition, involves the production of noise, so I was not expecting the quietness of the grave from the SuperIt. Wrong again~! In spite of this preamp having some 20dB more gain than most solid-state preamps (60dB at 1kHz instead of the usual 40dB), it is dead quiet. Only by cranking the volume control full-up was I just barely able to discern hiss from the speakers. Pretty impressive performance from what I believed to be basically a dead technology.
The NYAL SuperIt is not perfectbut what is? It is a helluva lot better overall than many highly touted transistor designs. This is all the more astounding when you consider that it sells at a price more befitting a mid-fi phono cartridge than a high-end phono preamp. It does many things well and some things superbly. It is true to the sound of music, and would be a grand introduction for anybody to the attractions of tubes. Be forewarned, though: tubes are addictive!
Please remove my name from the roll of Valvophobes. But don't put me on the Valvophile list quite yet. Having tested the thermionic waters and found them agreeable, I am up for getting wet. I look forward to trying other NYAL products, or maybe a Conrad-Johnson. Who knows?
... did you use your Super IT?
It was soon replaced by an NAD 1020 preamp, which had better buttons, a subsonic/infrasonic filter (giving it an advantage for LP playback) and even cost less than the Hafler preamp in kit form. It was a great match with the Hafler DH-200 power amp.
But, it wouldn't have had that "euphonic and romantic" tube sound quality.
I love the post-industrial look of the device. I've just become the proud owner of a Gilmore Lite Mk 2 and it is very similar. Any colour as long as it's black...wasn't that Henry Ford's famous quote?


Apple's annual filing with the SEC provides plenty of tidbits about the company's performance over the past year. CNET breaks some of the big ones down.
Apple has released its 10-K annual filing, a full rundown of its fiscal year which wrapped up last month.
While there aren't too many surprises given what's found in the company's quarterly reports, it provides a good rundown of some of the company's key metrics over the course of the past 12 months, some of which have been summarized below.
Apple's building space, which it has owned or leased, jumped from 10.6 million square feet, to 13.2 million square feet this year. In its filing, Apple notes that it's going to demolish 2.6 million square feet of that around Cupertino, Calif., to build its second corporate campus, which has yet to be approved.
The company increased its retail space by half a million square feet, which is not too surprising considering it added 40 new retail stores during the course of the year, most of those being outside the U.S.
Apple's advertising expenditures went up 35 percent from last year, reaching $933 million.
Apple's research and development expense came in at $2.4 billion, up from last year's $1.8 billion. Though taking a deeper dive, that number's not keeping up with revenue growth as my ZDNet colleague Larry Dignan points out.
Apple's employee count jumped by 14,400 people between this year and last year, reaching 60,400 full-time equivalent employees. The company also added an extra 100 full-time equivalent temporary employees and contractors, topping 2,900 people.
Despite iPod net sales dropping $821 million (or 10 percent) from last year, and Apple selling 15 percent less iPods units than it did during 2010, Apple made more per iPod sold. Why's that? More people are buying the touchscreen-based iPod Touch than the other iPod models.
Apple's net sales of "music related products and services" reached $6.3 billion for the year, up 28 percent from last year's total. That includes net sales from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBookstore, which Apple says grew 33 percent year over year.
Apple's portables business grew 36 percent compared to last year's total, with desktops growing 4 percent.


The more than a million inhabitants of Sydney, Australia, lined the shore of Sydney harbor or were on boats that filled the Sydney harbor. The hour was just before midnight December 31, 1999. The occasion was the bidding farewell to the passing year, century, millennium and the welcoming of a new year, century, millennium-something that none of the living would experience again. The bell tower of the old Sydney Post Office was pealing out the hour; and at the strike of 12, there was a burst of fireworks such as no one had ever seen before. Rockets and colors filled the sky welcoming in the new year, century, millennium. Although there were similar fireworks in scores of cities around the world, none equaled that which was demonstrated that evening in Sydney, Australia.
One of the remarkable features of that occasion was a brilliantly lighted word suspended from the Sydney harbor bridge-one word in immaculate copperplate script: ETERNITY. Why that one word? Why that script? In a sense, it was a memorial to a most unusual man. In a very real sense, it was a sermon in one word-a sermon preached an estimated five hundred thousand times on the pavements of Sydney and even other cities far beyond the boundary of that most populous Australian city.
Arthur Stace is a little-known man, very slight in build and stature (only five foot three). He was born in 1884 in a slum area of Sydney. Both his father and mother were alcoholics as were also his two brothers; and his sisters were the "madams" of a brothel, having learned their trade well from their mother. As a small child, he was totally ignored. He reported that many a night the children slept under the house on burlap bags because of the drunken violence being enacted in the house above them.
From almost his earliest age he became a petty thief, stealing milk and bread and whatever he could find in garbage buckets just to survive. His two brothers eventually died of alcoholism; and, as mentioned, his sisters had a brothel. Arthur, at the age of 12, was already a heavy drinker and was frequently dragged in by the police in a drunken stupor. He went to work in the coal mines at the age of 15, having never spent a day in school. He could barely write his own name.
During World War I he enlisted in the Australian forces and served as a stretcher bearer in France and the war fields of that horrible conflagration. A slight injury damaged one of his eyes. When he returned from France, he took up his old lifestyle of heavy drinking and petty crime. One of his occupations was to be a lookout for authorities and warning the gambling dens and brothel proprietors when police authorities were near. On one occasion, drunken, he staggered into a police station and asked to be locked up, but was refused. He left grumbling, "They lock me up when I don't want to be; and when I want to be, they won't."
In the grips of the Great Depression, there was widespread unemployment; and an Evangelical Anglican Church had what they called a Meeting for Needy Men. He, along with hundreds of other men, would gather, not to hear the preaching, but to get a cup of hot tea and some rock cake. On August 6 of 1930, Arthur wandered into one of those meetings. He noticed that around the edge and at the doors there were some well-dressed men, very different from the majority of those who were in the large hall. He turned to the man sitting beside him and said, "Who are those blokes?" The answer was "They're probably Christians." Arthur said, "I'm having a go at what they've got."
The speaker that day was an outstanding evangelist by the name of Ridley, and Arthur Stace listened attentively as the simple plan of salvation was preached. After his cup of tea and rock cake, he went across the street to the University Park and, falling down under a large fig tree, cried out "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." His was a genuine conversion to Christ. For the next 37 years, his life was a living testimony to God's saving and keeping power. Later he testified "I went in to get a cup of tea and a rock cake, but I met the Rock of Ages."
It was about two years later that, again, under the preaching of an evangelist, he was confronted with the word "Eternity." With the evangelist shouting out that word repeatedly, it found entrance into Stace's heart. He left the hall, went out, and kneeling on the pavement with a piece of chalk that he had in his pocket, he wrote that one word "Eternity." He testified later that he could hardly write his own name; and had he been asked, he would not have had the vaguest idea how to spell the word eternity. But as he knelt there on the pavement, he wrote in beautiful copperplate script that one word. For the next 33 years, he would rise before daylight; and, roaming the streets of Sydney or whatever other city he was in, he would in beautiful script write that one word sermon.
For many years it was unknown who it was that was "defacing" the pavements of Sydney, until one day his pastor found him writing that word. He became known as Mr. Eternity. On rare occasions he would alter the message by writing "Obey God," but it is estimated that over five hundred thousand times he wrote the word "Eternity" somewhere on the pathways of his home city. Even after his death, the word "Eternity" in his characteristic script was found written inside the bell on the clock tower of the Sydney Post Office. How he reached that elevated area and wrote inside the bell, no one knows; but it was so characteristic of his script that it had to be his doing.
He never did learn to read, and any correspondence had to be read to him. When he was in middle age, he finally married; and it was his wife who would read the letters to him and then, as he dictated, respond to the many letters that came to Mr. Eternity.
Arthur Stace was also a street preacher. He would go to one of the most frequented crossroads of the great city of Sydney. His method of preaching was unique. He would put his Bible on the pavement, cover it with his hat, and then walking around that hat, would point at it and say, "It's alive! It's alive! It's alive!" People would gather and wonder what was under his hat, and he would keep saying "It's alive!" Finally, after he had collected a crowd of people, he would lift his hat, pick up the Bible, and tell them that the Word of God was alive and was abundantly able to transform sinful lives into ones redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Although he could not read, he had memorized long portions of Scripture; and as far as the hymns of the faith were concerned, he knew every stanza of many of the great hymns that have blessed the church of Jesus Christ for years.
Arthur was a tireless worker for God. He was 46 years old when he was saved and was married at age 57. On the 30th of July, 1967 at the age of 83, Mr. Eternity suffered a massive stroke and was ushered immediately into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The word "Eternity," in very large copperplate script and cast in metal, is in the pavement of Sydney Square. That word, "Eternity," that in brilliant lights shown suspended from the arch over the Sydney Bay Bridge at the millennial celebration, still shines. It is estimated that over two billion people have seen the word and have been confronted by its simple but profound message: ETERNITY. Where will you spend it? There are only two places, and a hell-bound sinner who came to Christ changed his destination to that of Heaven. In a moment of time, this illiterate man was changed from a citizen bound for the pit of Hell and became an ambassador for the heavenly home. He was bold in his testimony for what Christ had done for him and what He could do for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. May we likewise be bold, biblical, and believing in our ministry.


Hi all, I hope I am in the right section.
I plan to use the HC-SR04 to measure the level of waste in bins over time.
I was wondering if once I upload the code onto the Arduino, hook up the battery pack, and the sensor; if I was to then leave it for a day, is there a way for me to record what was measured and then see what the level changes over time were, when I hook it back up to my laptop?
Easiest way to do this is to use a NodeMCU or WeMOS (or other board with ESP8266 processor). It's got WiFi connectivity built in, and plenty of Flash (4 MB for the ESP12E modules used on those two boards) to store your waste levels. In deep sleep mode it will run on batteries for a long time.
Thank you, would I need to amend the code in some way so it stores the levels on the NodeMCU, or would it do it automatically?
Also, do you know of a way to implement a time stamp of sorts when each level measured?
Of course you have to tell the code to store the data, and how (write a file on SPIFFS).
Timestamp: easy, just make sure you have the current time. Get it over NTP if you have WiFi available or connect a RTC. Then store it as UNIX timestamp for easy processing.
Just to add onto this. If you want to store timestamps in your local time instead of UTC (that is what you get from an NTP server) then you can use this github repository code to parse the local timezone file (you can get the local timezone file from this path /usr/share/zoneinfo from any linux machine or from the github itself).
Thank you both, I am incredibly new to this, I will try to look into what you bot have talked about, but I may have some follow up questions if that's ok? First, I will purchase a NodeMCU.
If you know your timezone you can just hardcode an offset :-) Good enough for most purposes.
I found sketches for activating the HC-SR04; NTP server pooling; and simple file creation. I am just not sure how I would put these all together in a way that would give me waste levels with a time stamp, that I could then see at a later date when I plug the NodeMCU back into the laptop?
I would suggest going for the Lua firmware instead of the usual arduino based C++ firmware of setup() and loop(). Lua firmware is event based programming and lets you handle events asynchronously. Plus it is easier too!
So using the RTC module NodeMCU would keep a real time clock in the background. You make up a timer that does distance sensing using HC-SR04 in the handler part and inside the handler itself you open up the file and write the distance value along with timestamp (rtctime.get()). You can just unplug the NodeMCU from the setup and then plug it into the computer and use "ESPlorer" to see the values you had put inside the filesystem (if using in built file system it is SPIFFS or else you can use a simple SD Card too).
I had a similar project and I ended up using microSD card with 512 MB size (pretty cheap around 3$ per SD card). Just a caution if you do not use SD card and end up using the in built flash storage (which is around 4 MB) then that storage has limited "write cycles", that means you can write to any file limited number of times. Once the limit is over your NodeMCU is dead and you have to buy a new NodeMCU, therefore it is just easier to swap out the microSD card instead of buying new NodemCU's everytime. Also it is more easier to remove micro SD card (to check the values) than removing the whole NodeMCU from the setup. Plus microSD cards last longer too.
If you use a 3.3V processor you will need to source an HCSR04 that will work at 3.3V. Most HCSR04 sensors that I have seen are 5V devices.
I had a similar project and I ended up using microSD card with 512 MB size (pretty cheap around 3$ per SD card).
I pay less for 4GB ones - which are the smallest available here.
For most data logging the built-in flash is more than enough, though.
I was looking into writing SPIFF files, but all the examples I saw were of transferring a file on to the NodeMCU instead of transferring data that the NodeMCU generates onto it. How would I do the latter?
Also, If I were to leave the NodeMCU on sensing levels for 5 days, would you say there is enough built-in flash for that?
If I were to leave the NodeMCU on sensing levels for 5 days, would you say there is enough built-in flash for that?
Most likely (your data) <<<<<< (SPIFFS file system size), but only you would know for sure.
Thank you, I found a code for SPIFFS below, and I think it writes instead of just reading, how would I merge this with the ultrasonic sensor code, to then store the data?
file.print(), file.println() and file.write() are the functions that write data to file - in your case, your distance data. Write it at a reasonable interval.


I am very confused with some equipment at work (video encoders). They have 6 Ethernet ports: 2 for management and 4 for data. But the data ports are labelled like 2 for data input and 2 for data output. I wonder why they should be different, if an Ethernet port trasmit and receive at the same time.
The unit has four Ethernet ports - two for data input, and two for data output and will respond to ARPs, pings and other low-level Ethernet traffic. The ports are accessible via RJ-45 connectors on the rear panel of the chassis. These are labeled Ge 1, Ge 2, Ge 3 and Ge 4. Ge 1 and Ge 2 are used for data input, while Ge 3 and Ge 4 are data output.
What you have isn't a generic networking device. It's basically a MPEG encoder chip with networking wrapped around it.
To reduce jitter to the minimum there is likely one ethernet bus on the ingress side of the encoder chip and another ethernet bus on the egress side of the encoder chip. The management ports run to ethernet ports on the supervising CPU.
You may not even be able to arc up a TCP link on the input and output ports. A lot of studio video codecs only support the expected packets on the input (such as UDP containing MJPEG images) and only generate the encoded packets on the output (such as UDP containing MPEG-2). To allow IP to work they'll bridge the ethernet bus into the supervisory CPU so that the CPU can generate ARP and so on.
I'm no video coding expert, but what I assume it the case is that these encoders have dedicated ports for receiving the video stream and dedicated ports for sending the encoded stream. On the first set of ports you connect recording devices (e.g. IP based security cameras), on the second set you connect the network which needs to receive the encoded streams. The encoder sends and receives on all interfaces of course, the ports just have a different function, a bit like the difference between a LAN and a WAN port on a consumer grade network.
Likely this is done for user interface reasons. While it's physically, and logically possible to send and receive on any interface, you may gain some convenience by telling the end user which ports to use rather than letting them decide. For non-networking people this is easier than forcing them to reconfigure the software just because someone wants to move around the plugs and a sender is now a receiver.
From a networking perspective, this sounds easy. But from a programmatic perspective, you have to bind a specific conversation to a specific interface and a specific port (regardless of whether they are on the same physical layer 2 or layer 3 network).
Also since real-time en/de-coding requires strict real-time processing, the software may optimize communication on an interface for real-time encoding or decoding (possibly both, but you can theoretically always gain some performance by optimizing for a single use). Even the OS could optimize each interface for a specific purpose (Google for real-time operating systems). A really high-end system could even optimize the hardware for a specific purpose.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged ethernet video or ask your own question.
Why does 10BASE-T and 1000BASE-TX Ethernet have two Tx signals?
Why does 10Gbps ethernet claim PAM16 encoding then use a squared DSQ128 constellation?


The clay-court season that begins in earnest this week and picks up steam as it moves through Europe in the coming weeks - culminating in the French Open in late May or early June - promises to be both intriguing and unpredictable.
The reflexive answer to the question is a hearty yes. Nadal is the defending champion - as well as a mind-blowing 11-time winner - at the grandest clay event of them all, the French Open.
Beyond that, he owns the record for most wins at the prestigious Masters 1000 tournaments (33), largely because the "King of Clay" has played with otherworldly consistency at the clay Masters events.
The caveat is that Nadal's chronic injury woes seem to be getting only worse. In March, he had to withdraw from Indian Wells with tendinitis in his right knee just hours before his scheduled semifinal match against career rival Roger Federer.
Going back as far as the Paris Masters in the fall of 2017, Nadal has withdrawn or retired from five of his past eight hard-court tournaments - including two of the past three hard-court majors.
Nadal has fared much better on clay due to the soft, forgiving nature of the surface, but he'll turn 33 during the French Open.
Still ranked No 2 in the world, he has been training on clay at home on Mallorca and has not hinted at any difficulties. But then, nobody expected him to withdraw with a wrist injury from the French Open before his third-round match in 2016, either.
If Nadal stays healthy, he'll likely add to his Masters titles record - and make it an even dozen wins at Roland Garros.
Williams, who is 37 and still trying to get traction in her post-childbirth comeback, has faced injury or illness in all three tournaments she has entered this year.
She rolled an ankle during her quarterfinal meeting with Karolina Pliskova at the Australian Open, opening the door on a sensational comeback win by her rival.
In the other two events, she retired during her second match at Indian Wells and withdrew from Miami after playing once. The reasons cited were, respectively, a viral illness and a knee injury.
While Williams has the WTA tour's best career record on clay (166-34, an 83 per cent winning percentage), she is playing a reduced schedule that leaves her little room for error - or seasoning - as she tries to equal Margaret Court's all-eras record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
The only clay event Williams is committed to so far in 2019 as preparation for the French Open (where she's won three of four finals) is the Italian Open in mid-May.
The clay in Rome has a golden tint, and it usually plays a little faster than the French Open's red terre battue. That makes it an excellent choice if Williams is looking to get a few matches under her belt, but a less wise choice for dialing in her red clay game.
Williams won the Italian Open three of the past four times she has entered it, most recently in 2016.
Federer told ESPN.com back at the Laver Cup in late September that his main motivation for the return after skipping the clay circuit in 2017 and 2018 was his basic love of the game. But in Miami last month, the 37-year-old icon also implied that skipping clay altogether might not have been as beneficial in the long term as he expected.
He feels hard training and a few rugged baseline battles on clay may leave him in better stead in the long term - provided he continues to enjoy excellent health.
Federer explained that he wanted to play the clay segment in an open-minded, "relaxed" manner, without overly worrying about results. So don't expect miracles, he warned in his media conference after winning the Miami Open: "I'm not very confident," Federer admitted.
"To be honest, I didn't play one point - not one shot on clay, I don't believe - last year. Two years ago I played two days. I don't know, I didn't even remember how to slide [on clay] anymore. I'm taking baby steps at this point."
The final weekend of WTA play in North America this past weekend featured four finalists (in Charleston, South Carolina, and Monterrey, Mexico) with great name recognition: Madison Keys vs Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka vs Garbine Muguruza.
All but Keys have been ranked No 1 and have won Grand Slam singles titles. But none had won a tournament yet in this year of disruption. Keys and Muguruza finally cracked the code, but expect more of the same volatility in the months to come.
Barely 1,000 rankings points currently separate the seven top players in the WTA.
With her win in Monterrey, Muguruza became the first player more than 22 years of age to win a hard-court event this year.
The WTA's 16 tournaments this year still have not produced a single repeat winner.
Australian Open champ and still No 1 Naomi Osaka barely cracks the .500 mark with her career record on clay (22-21), her best result a third-round loss to Keys at Roland Garros last year. Simona Halep, the defending champion at the French Open, is hanging in there at No 2 but hasn't won a tournament on any surface since last August and her coaching situation is muddled. Two-time French Open champion and perennial contender Maria Sharapova is recovering from a shoulder injury, but she's 31 and hasn't won an event since October 2017.
Recent young champions like Bianca Andreescu (Indian Wells), Ashleigh Barty (Miami), Belinda Bencic (Dubai) and Aryna Sabalenka (Shenzhen) rate high on the list of clay contenders. Andreescu and Barty have excellent shot variety - always an asset on clay - while Bencic has a fine command of strategy and Sabalenka can hit spectacular winners from anywhere on the court.
Alexander Zverev won just one match in March, and he continues to underperform at Grand Slam events. But he's still just 21 years old, ranked No 3 and standing head-and-shoulders above his Next Gen peers. Zverev already has three Masters titles (two on clay) in his collection of 10 wins. Tsitsipas, up to No 8, seems to be closing the gap. The 20-year-old from Greece leaped into the limelight last year when he reached the final at Barcelona before bowing to Nadal.
Thiem, currently No 5, was the runner-up to Nadal last year at the French Open. He bamboozled Federer in the recent Indian Wells final.
Eight of his 12 career titles were earned on clay - and so were all three of his wins against Nadal (who leads the series 8-3).
He has the stamina and power to beat anyone on clay, and he has been waiting patiently for his moment to arrive.


Most lawsuits begin when someone prepares and files with the court a legal document called a complaint. The next step is to have a copy served upon the person or entity sued, which may be by the county sheriff or by a private civil process server. If you've been served with a civil complaint in Pennsylvania, you have a limited time to respond to it, and choices to make about how to respond.
Respond to a civil complaint in Pennsylvania by filing an answer, with or without new matter, or attack the complaint by filing preliminary objections or a demurrer.
What is a Civil Complaint in PA?
If someone wants to sue you in Pennsylvania, he gets the ball rolling by filing a civil complaint. This can be a court form that he fills in with the facts, or it can be a written document that sets out what his claim is against you. If the complaint is based upon a writing (such as in a breach of contract action), the writing must be attached to the complaint.
After the complaint is filed, the filer, called the plaintiff, has to get a third party to personally hand it to you. This is called personal service, and it is required under Pennsylvania's rules of civil procedure. The person who does this signs a declaration of service stating exactly when and where the document was served and files it with the court. The complaint may be served by a civil process server or by the county sheriff, depending upon your county's local rules. Once you receive the complaint, you have 20 days to to file a response.
If you do not file a response to the complaint within that 20-day period, the person suing you must send you a letter advising you that in 10 days, she will be requesting a default judgment from the court. Once the 10 days from the date of the letter have passed, she can ask the court for a default judgment. The court may grant a default judgment if there is proof that you were served with the document but failed to file any response and proof that you received the 10-day letter.
Assuming that you want to avoid having a default judgment entered against you, you need to file a response to the civil complaint. You have two choices: either answer the complaint or else attack it.
Many people respond to a complaint by filing an answer. An answer must be in writing and it must admit or deny the charges made in the complaint. You set out the answer in paragraphs numbered to correspond with the complaint, stating the facts and law you rely on in admitting or denying each one. You can also include any new matter you want to plead (in most other states, these are called "affirmative defenses"). These are basically objections to the complaint that you must plead, including defenses such as a violation of the statute of limitations.
You must prepare your answer or preliminary objections and file them with the court. You also have to serve them on the other party. If the other party has an attorney, you can give your response to the attorney instead.
If you have filed an answer, both parties can begin exchanging evidence in discovery. If you filed preliminary objections, the court must rule on these first, and may give the other side an opportunity to file an amended complaint to remedy the issues. If you file preliminary objections and the other side fails to respond to them within 20 days, the court may rule in your favor and dismiss the complaint as long as the other party was served with a copy. Check the court rules for your county to learn how preliminary objections are resolved in your court.
Spengler, Teo. "How to Respond to a Civil Complaint in Pennsylvania." , https://legalbeagle.com/8683923-respond-civil-complaint-pennsylvania.html. 04 November 2018.


Generate various reports of students, staff, admissions, library, transport, fee activities etc, which are accessible for better and competent administration of school. EduSys has arsenal of reports at Campus Users disposal which are envisoned for the end user perusal.
Board recommended Annual Comprehensive Achievement Report, Cumulative Record, CCE Register for CBSE, ICSE and SSC curriculums are also available for electronic submissions.


Russia should take airstrikes on Syria as a warning over its use of chemical weapons, Theresa May has said.
"There have been many instances when we have seen them using those chemical weapons."But I believe it should also be a message to others that the international community is not going to stand by and allow chemical weapons to be used with impunity."Mrs May said chemical weapons had "all too often" been used in recent times."I think it is right that the international community has come together and said we will not accept this," she added.The airstrikes on Syria were carried out in a joint operation between the UK, US and France.US President Donald Trump announced the "precision strikes" on Friday night.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the military action against Syria was "legally questionable" and makes real accountability for war crimes less likely.He said: "Bombs won't save lives or bring about peace. This legally questionable action risks escalating further, as US defence secretary James Mattis has admitted, an already devastating conflict and therefore makes real accountability for war crimes and use of chemical weapons less, not more likely."Mr Corbyn said he would be pushing for the Government to release the legal advice it received ahead of the strikes.On Saturday afternoon the Government published advice it said it had received, which said the UK "considers that military action met the requirements of humanitarian intervention".It said the Syrian regime has been using chemical weapons since 2013, killing nearly 1,000 civilians and injuring hundreds more which "constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity".:: Syria airstrikes: What did military action hit?
The document said it was "highly likely" the regime would seek to use chemical weapons again despite the international law prohibition on the use of chemical weapons..It said the UK and its international partners have continually tried to alleviate the humanitarian suffering caused by chemical weapons use in Syria at the UN Security Council but have repeatedly been blocked by the regime and its allies, naming Russia."Since 2013 neither diplomatic action, tough sanctions, nor the US strikes against the Shayrat airbase in April 2017 have sufficiently degraded Syrian chemical weapons capability or deterred the Syrian regime from causing extreme humanitarian distress on a large scale through its persistent use of chemical weapons," it said.
"There was no practicable alternative to the truly exceptional use of force to degrade the Syrian regime's chemical weapons capability and deter their further use by the Syrian regime in order to alleviate humanitarian suffering."The action was highly targeted, necessary and proportionate to alleviate humanitarian distress and "therefore legally justifiable" it added.
Syria: Who attacked which sites?
"The action was the minimum judged necessary for that purpose."Mrs May has been heavily criticised for not recalling Parliament to put the plans to a vote and will go before the Commons on Monday to answer questions about her decision, insisting there was no "alternative path".However, there have been plenty of MPs, including some Conservatives opposed to action in 2013, who have publicly backed the prime minister.Mr Trump said Syria's use of chemical weapons in Douma was a "significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime".After the announcement, the US said strikes had been launched at 9pm EST (2am BST) and had destroyed important infrastructure at three sites connected with the Syrian regime's chemical weapons programme.General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the allied strikes destroyed three main chemical weapons facilities.:: Syria airstrikes: What did military action hit?
They included a scientific research facility in the Damascus area, a chemical weapons storage facility west of the city of Homs and a third location that contained both a command post and a chemical weapons equipment storage facility in the same area, the US military added.Russia reacted with fury to the attacks with President Vladimir Putin denouncing the airstrikes as an "act of aggression".In a statement from the Kremlin, Mr Putin said Moscow was calling an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.He said: "Russia in the most serious way condemns the attack on Syria where Russian military servicemen help the legitimate government to fight terrorism."Moscow's ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov warned that "such actions will not be left without consequences".
The Syrian government, which denies the chemical attack, said the strikes were "brutal, barbaric aggression" by western powers and vowed to continue to "restore security and stability in all corners of the country".State news agency SANA, quoting an official in Syria's foreign ministry, said: "The barbaric aggression will not affect in any way the determination and insistence of the Syrian people and their heroic armed forces."This aggression will only lead to inflaming tensions in the world and threatens international security."
French president Emmanuel Macron said: "Our response has been limited to the capabilities of the Syrian regime relating to the production and use of chemical weapons."We cannot tolerate the trivialisation of the use of chemical weapons, which is an immediate danger for the Syrian people and for our collective security."


Today, low-e insulating glass units are indispensable for energy-efficient construction. Our sedak isotherm range satisfies the highest insulating and quality requirements. sedak isotherm glass relies on a neutral coating, with currently required Ug-values, to achieve effective thermal insulation.
As double or multiple glazing units with virtually invisible finish treatments, sedak isotherm glass is hardly distinguishable from conventional insulating glass. The benefits of this glass are: good color rendering, high light transmittance, and optimum thermal insulation.
[Translate to English:] Als Zwei- oder Mehrfach-Isolierglas mit fast unsichtbarer Veredelung ist es äußerlich kaum von gewöhnlichem Isolierglas zu unterscheiden: An- und Durchsicht erscheinen farbneutral, verbunden mit einer hohen Lichtdurchlässigkeit und optimaler Wärmedämmung.


Of paired starting hands at blackjack, four-four probably causes the greatest confusion. When and why is it best to stand, hit, double down, or split the pair? And, how costly is second-best?
The standard for answering these questions is basic strategy - the decisions yielding the greatest expected return on each blackjack hand. Violate basic strategy and you still may win. You may even do better than by playing the strict percentages. But you're fighting the laws of probability harder than necessary. And you're sacrificing a theoretical edge on your bet.
Nobody stands on totals of eight because hitting, at least, can't hurt and may help. Players seldom double on eight, either, and happily since it's the best option only under rare circumstances.
1) If your game doesn't let you double down after you split a pair, always hit four-four.
2) If you're allowed to double after splitting and the game is dealt from a single rather than multiple decks, split when the dealer shows a four, five, or six. Otherwise, hit.
3) If you may double after splitting in a game dealt from multiple decks, split when the dealer shows a five or six. Otherwise, hit.
Some solid citizens misplay four-four because they don't know blackjack is more than just luck. Others, who "go by the book," may be going by the wrong book. The ambiguity arises from the "if" clauses in the three-part rule. Basic strategy is sometimes given without clearly specifying the conditions under which it applies. So, you may be hitting four-four against a five, following a rule that assumes no doubling after splits, when this option is allowed and splitting would be preferred.
What penalties do incorrect decisions impose? Here are the figures for a six-deck game in which players can split pairs once and double after splitting.
Say you have a $10 initial bet and receive a four-four versus a dealer's six. Your expected profit is $1.61 splitting and $1.24 hitting. Expectation is positive either way, but you theoretically give the casino $0.37 by hitting rather than splitting.
Suppose, instead, you had four-four and the dealer showed a five. Expected profit would be $1.07 splitting and $0.34 hitting. Violating basic strategy is equivalent to handing the dealer $0.73 for every $10 initial bet.
Conversely, assume you bet $10 and receive a pair of fours against a dealer's four. If you split the pair, your expected gain is $0.09, compared with $0.48 by hitting. Your theoretical penalty is $0.39.
These are the most common and also the least potentially expensive errors. Improperly playing other hands for the assumed rules all involve splitting when basic strategy dictates hitting. Doing so trims your expectation for a $10 initial bet as follows on the indicated dealer upcards: $1.40 on two, $0.92 on three, $2.20 on seven, $2.29 on eight, $2.57 on nine, $3.19 on 10, $3.13 on ace.
Are these differences worth bothering to learn a special rule for a hand that doesn't occur very often? Is it worth splitting fours against a five or six to gain a theoretical $0.73 or $0.37, putting an additional $10 at risk in the process? Should you forget about that Ferrari Testarosa and buy a GEO Metro because it gets better gas mileage and has lower total carbon emissions?
Against debt passed down to posterity.


Lawmakers on the Senate education committee released a proposed bipartisan rewrite of the nation's main special education law last week that jettisons two controversial measures outlined in the House version of the bill.
What did senators omit from their plan for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Discipline language that would put the burden on parents to prove that their children's disabilities caused them to break school rules; and an extension, with parents' approval, of the interval between the writing of students' individualized education plans, or IEPs, from one year to three.
Both of those provisions in the House version of a reauthorized IDEA have come under heavy fire from parents, advocates for special education, and some lawmakers.
The introduction of the Senate committee's bill differed even in tone from the House version's March 19 debut. After likewise talking of producing a bipartisan bill, Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee instead wound up releasing their own version.
But on June 12, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the panel's ranking minority member, sat elbow to elbow as they unveiled their work.
"In the past, IDEA reauthorization has been a divisive and partisan process," Sen. Gregg said. "Senator Kennedy and I were determined to come together to make this a bipartisan process."
To carry on in that cooperative spirit, Sens. Gregg and Kennedy said politically sensitive measures such as school choice in special education and a provision of "full funding" for the IDEA would be reserved for Senate floor debate.
But the Senate version put a different spin on several important matters.
Discipline of students with disabilities, for example, is one of the most sharply debated issues in the field. The Senate panel's version would maintain current law by requiring schools to perform reviews of whether students' disabilities played a role in misbehavior. The House would strip away that requirement, asking schools to perform such reviews only at the request of parents.
Moreover, the House version would allow schools to suspend students with disabilities for up to 45 days for not only the most serious infractions such as bringing a gun to school, or incidents involving drugs, but for any violations of the schools' codes of conduct. But the Senate version would only add the category of causing "serious bodily injury" to the list of offenses worthy of long-term suspension.
The discipline provisions in the House bill sparked criticism from some lawmakers, parents, and advocacy groups, as well as from President Bush, who said in a written reaction to the bill that students' disabilities should be a consideration in discipline.
In an effort to reduce paperwork, the House would let parents choose three-year IEPs for their children. But the Senate version makes that same concept into a transitional plan for older students, offering the option of a three-year IEP only to students ages 18 to 21.
While the House version would require special education teachers to be "highly qualified" in the core subjects they teach, the Senate version would not. The Senate bill would require that special education teachers be certified only in special education, which reflects more realistic expectations, Senate aides say.
"Today's bipartisan proposal represents a real commitment to IDEA," Secretary of Education Rod Paige said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Chairman Gregg and Ranking Member Kennedy and their colleagues in Congress to reshape and strengthen IDEA."
Patti Ralabate, the professional associate for special needs for the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, said after a quick review of the Senate bill that she was pleased about some aspects of the bill, and troubled by others.
"We are disappointed not to see full funding addressed," said Ms. Ralabate, referring to what many see as a nearly 28-year-old federal promise to give states a subsidy for each special education child equal to 40 percent of the average cost of educating students overall.
"We are happy that the qualifications for special education teachers are more clear," she said.
"Discipline Split at Heart of IDEA Overhaul Debate," this issue.
"IDEA Opens Doors, Fans Controversy," Nov. 29, 2000, from our special anniversary series, "IDEA 25: Progress and Problems."
"Presidential Candidates Focus on Spec. Ed.," July 12, 2000.
"Schools Need Rules When It Comes to Students With Disabilities," Commentary, March 1, 2000.
"States Lax in Enforcing IDEA, Study Asserts," Feb. 2, 2000.
"Brain-Dead in School," Commentary, Sept. 22, 1999.
"Bringing Special Education Students Into the Classroom," Jan. 27, 1999, from our series Lessons of a Century.
Read the text of S.1248, Reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, posted by the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Read the version of IDEA passed by the House of Representatives: HR 1350, posted by THOMAS, the official site for congressional information.
In "Why Tests and Standards Can't Solve School Problems," conservative columnist Phyllis Schlafly discusses accomodations made for children with disabilities during testing.


How can I Prepare Myself for a Police Fitness Test?
Hi, I have just applied for the police and am waiting on the date I have to do a fitness test. This test consists of running a mile and a half in 12 minutes.
I am worried I can't prepare myself as I am not a big runner.
Are there any exercises that can improve my fitness so I can pass my police fitness test.
Thanks for your question about your upcoming police fitness test. You are not the only one wanting do a 1.5 mile test in a certain timeframe! In the last month alone I must have answered four or five questions about the dreaded 1.5 Mile / 2.4 km test.
I would first suggest to check out my answers to related questions on the Running Training Q&A Page.
Not sure how long till your test and what your current fitness level is, so don't know how aggressive you need to be in your training approach. Are you reasonably fit, but you need some improved fitness to make the 12-minute cut or are you in more dangerous territory? This will determine what you need to do exactly.
You say you are not to keen on running.
There is a certain principle in exercise, that is called the specificity principle. It states that the best training you can do for a certain race or test is to do training specific to that race.
So, for a running test, it makes a whole lot of sense to run.
Although it is best to run regularly to prepare for your police fitness test (i.e. at least three times per week), you could consider skipping one of these runs, but then compensating this with bike rides. Bike riding is an excellent activity that will also boost your cardiovascular system with the additional benefit that it does not put the same stress on your lower legs as running does.
Swimming is good exercise for a general body-workout, and provides you with some cardiovascular benefits as well, but not as much as running and bike riding.
Another great cardiovascular activity is the rowing trainer. Disadvantage is that it trains the arms more than the legs, but it definitely helps to build up your stamina.
Other alternatives are certain aerobics classes that put emphasis on cardio like steps etc.
It's not for everyone, some guys feel a bit self-conscious in those classes, especially when the class is dominated by girls.
Whatever you do, you'd better start preparing. Get into a regular training regime, three times a week at least, anything more is great. Any race over 800 metres is predominantly an aerobic affair, so, eventhough you need some speed, it is predominantly your cardiovascular system that needs to be trained. So do lots of running or other cardio to give yourself the best chances of success!
Best of luck with your police fitness test.


This study examines to what extent a banking crisis and the ensuing potential liquidity shortage affect corporate cash holdings. Specifically, how do firms adjust their liquidity management prior to and during a banking crisis when they are restricted in their financing options? These restrictions might not result from firm-specific characteristics but also incorporate the effects of certain regulatory requirements. I analyse the real effects of indicators of a potential crisis and the occurrence of a crisis event on corporate cash holdings for both unregulated and regulated firms from 31 different countries. In contrast to existing studies, I perform this analysis on the basis of a long observation period (1997 to 2014 respectively 2003 to 2014) using multiple crisis indicators (early warning signals) and multiple crisis events. For regulated firms, this study makes use of a unique sample of country-specific regulatory information, which is collected by hand for 15 countries and converted into an ordinal scale based on the severity of the regulation. Regulated firms are selected from a single industry: Real Estate Investment Trusts. These firms invest in real estate properties and let these properties to third parties. Real Estate Investment Trusts that comply with the aforementioned regulations are exempt from income taxation and are punished for a breach, which makes this industry particularly interesting for the analysis of capital structure decisions. The results for regulated and unregulated firms are mostly inconclusive. I find no convincing evidence that the degree of regulation affects the level of cash holdings for regulated firms before and during a banking crisis. For unregulated firms, I find strong evidence that financially constrained firms have higher cash holdings than unconstrained firms. Further, there is no real evidence that either financially constrained firms or unconstrained firms increase their cash holdings when observing an early warning signal. In case of a banking crisis, the results differ for univariate tests and in panel regressions. In the univariate setting, I find evidence that both types of firms hold higher levels of cash during a banking crisis. In panel regressions, the effect is only evident for financially unconstrained firms from the US, and when controlling for financial stress, it is also apparent for financially constrained US firms. For firms from Europe, the results are predominantly inconclusive. For banking crises that are preceded by an early warning signal, there is only evidence for an increase in cash holdings for unconstrained US firms when controlling for financial stress.


For me, the worst thing about makeup has always been taking it off. It's always that one last thing you have to do before you go to bed, and if you don't, you instantly regret it when you wake up. When you're tired, makeup removing wipes are a godsend because they're so quick.
That convenience comes with a big price tag, but you can make your own wipes a lot cheaper, with the added benefit of using products you already love. They're super easy to make and customize for your skin type, and only require a few materials.
The wipes themselves are just regular paper towels cut in half. The solution is part oil, part cleanser, and some water. Oil is a natural makeup remover, and the one used most commonly is coconut oil, but you can use olive, castor, or another oil if you prefer.
To make the solution, start with about two cups of purified water and add one to two tablespoons of oil. You can include a few squirts of your favorite cleanser if you want, but it's not necessary. Warm the solution in the microwave or a saucepan just long enough to melt the oil if it's solid.
Now, cut your roll of paper towels in half, place it in a container with an airtight lid, and pour the solution over the towels. After soaking for a few minutes, the cardboard tube should be easy to remove.
The wipes will keep anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the climate and the container you keep them in. To keep bacteria away and prevent them from molding, you can add a few drops of tea tree oil to the solution before pouring it on the wipes.
Have you ever made your own makeup remover wipes? Share your experience (and recipe) in the comments.
My Homemade Wipes Mildewed and I Kept Them in the Fridge.
I used extra virgin coconut oil, water and a little lavender essential oil. Will the tea oil prevent this?
I love using the cooled wipes to remove my make up.


These alley-cats from Boston (U.S.) have a career that is as distinctive as is their musical style. They have been strikingly described as Boston’s answer to Joe Strummer’s call to arms, playing an integrated combination of dub, ska, rock steady guitars, the odd touch of metal, and a resultant sound best described as ‘punk reggae’. Lyrically, the band hits home with songs concerning the issues of day to day living combined with outright critique on politics. In a nutshell: Jaya The Cat embody the integrity, passion, and attitude that define punk rock and reggae.
Jaya's career has run an unusual course since the band's formation in the mid 1990’s in Massachusetts. They started out playing at keg-parties and local clubs for short money and beer, then moved out to California in 1997 to check out the west coast music scene. Alas, the the high rents and lack of housing avalible in San Francisco in the late 90's turned out to be more than the band was prepared to deal with, and Jaya was put on indefinite hold. In the spring of 2000, Geoff Lagadec and Dave Smith scraped up some cash, booked a weekend at the ‘Slaughterhouse Studios’, put together a rhythm section and ended up cutting 10 tracks under the guidance of producer Mark Allen Miller. A short time later, and back in Boston, the Cats hooked up with ‘Gold Circle Records’ (who signed the band without ever having seen them). Joined by Ben Murphy on bass and ex-Shadows Fall drummer David "the Germ" Germain, the release of their debut album “Basement Style” was a fact, and tracks like ‘Are You With Me’ hit main radio stations across the US like K-Rock and WFNX - Boston.
In support of the release Jaya went on to tour successfully through the United States. Noteworthy are their gigs at the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ infamous ‘Hometown Throwdown’ and a leg of the renowned ‘Vans Warped Tour’ between July and September 2001. The summer of 2002 saw them in Europe performing at major festivals like ‘Pukkelpop’ and ‘Lowlands’, followed by a extensive club tour that fall.
After the demise of ‘Gold Circle Records’, and in light of the recently booked successes in Europe, Jaya The Cat signed to ‘4Tune Records’ in Amsterdam and returned to ‘Slaughterhouse Studios’ for a second full-length album. Shortly after the release of “First Beer of a New Day” in the Netherlands, Ben Murphy and Dave Smith exited the band leaving Geoff and The Germ behind: not that this setback slowed Jaya down. The band relocated to Amsterdam and have since recruited an international pool of friends to fill the job of bass and lead guitar. It is safe to say the Cats have rocked the stage non-stop since their arrival in Europe. The release tour and the countless shows since have been played with guest musicians such as Jan Jaap Onverwagt and Brian Tjon Ajong (bass player and guitarist for the Dutch rock band Green Lizard), Alejandro Londoño Montoya, (Agresión, Cultura Tres), Jordi Nieuwenburg (ex-Wealthy Beggar and Nederlands air-guitar champion), Steven Brautigam (Cropduster) and most recently Yanko Brekov (Artery). The album and the single ‘Final Solution’ were critically acclaimed by music magazines all over Europe, and a number of the songs where featured in skate/snowboard videos produced by companys such as Freeride and Matchstick Productions. They have also appeared in a number of independent films as well as the synicated television drama "The Shield".
In 2004 the band released a live CD/LP dubbed “Ernesto’s Burning”. The album was recorded during a show at Ernesto’s in Sittard, the Netherlands where notable bands such as The Slackers and 50 Foot Combo have recorded shows for live releases in the past. Hooking up with local bookers and agencies abroad, Jaya has hit the boards in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, playing countless clubs and summer festivals like the ‘Burgberg Festival’ (on the ruins of a medieval castle), Austria's‘Weissenfest’ , the ‘Virus Festival’ in Eindhoven in 2005, and the popular ‘DutchSka Festival’ in February 2006. Since their move to the Netherlands, the band has shared stages with the likes of Shortbeach Longbus, The Slackers, NOFX, Manu Chao, received airplay on the main Dutch radio-/ and television stations, and played most of the core podia the country has to offer.
Throughout 2006, the Cats have been hammering away on new songs for a third studio album as well as expanding their live show to include keyboards and an onstage bartender / percussionist. When not on the road, the band has been in and out of ‘Source Studios’ in The Hague, cutting new tracks under the guiding ear of producer Oscar Bor. Once again Jaya The Cat has written an album that's a guaranteed good time, brimming with spirited party anthems, and politically fueled punk songs that lyrically reflect both their lives in Europe and the state of the world today.


After reading a job description how do you see yourself fitting in with this job?
I have taken time to study the job description before applying for the position_________( What ever position that you applied for ) and I am still confident that I can perform in this role to the best of my ability.
The reason I applied for this job is because I am passionate about ( The job that you applied for ) and I have a good working knowledge of ______________( Job Descriptions).


A new poll of the Massachusetts Senate race shows Rep. Edward Markey Edward (Ed) John MarkeyWarren praises Ocasio-Cortez in Time 100 The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump, Dems prep for Mueller report's release Flight attendant association warns climate change is increasing dangerous air turbulence MORE leading Republican Gabriel Gomez by only four percentage points, an early indication the race is much closer than expected.
According to a poll from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, Markey takes 44 percent support to Gomez's 40 percent.
The firm tweeted out the poll's topline numbers. It is the first survey of the general election field, following party primaries on Tuesday.
Markey entered the race heavily favored to win the seat in blue-leaning Massachusetts, which went more than 60 percent for President Obama in 2012.
Gomez was the preferred pick among establishment Republicans, who believe he'll be able to appeal to centrist and independent voters, which make up more than half of Massachusetts's electorate.
The son of immigrants and a former Navy SEAL, Gomez also has an appealing personal story that he highlighted throughout the primary race.
Markey maintains a strong fundraising lead and received more votes in the primary than all the Republican candidates combined. He's also got the help of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Michelle Obama Michelle LeVaughn Robinson ObamaWarren praises Ocasio-Cortez in Time 100 Beyoncé in 'Time 100' profile: Michelle Obama empowers black Americans Time 100 list almost half women for the the first time MORE has already scheduled a fundraiser for the candidate in Boston. President Obama could help out as well.
There is precedent for a GOP upset in a Massachusetts special election, however, and Republicans privately muse that Gomez could be the next Scott Brown, who orchestrated a surprise upset over Democrat Martha Coakley in the 2010 Senate special election.
Brown ran as a Washington outsider at a time when dissatisfaction with Washington was high. Gomez is hoping to replicate that appeal in his race, attempting to turn Markey's nearly four decades of service in Congress into a liability.
Gomez senior adviser Lenny Alcivar said the poll was evidence that Massachusetts voters are looking for an outsider candidate.
"This poll is more proof that Massachusetts wants an outsider in Washington who will put aside politics to deliver results for Massachusetts, not career politicians beholden to the special interests," he said.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky dismissed the poll and citEd Markey Edward (Ed) John MarkeyWarren praises Ocasio-Cortez in Time 100 The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump, Dems prep for Mueller report's release Flight attendant association warns climate change is increasing dangerous air turbulence MORE's record in comparison to Gomez's as evidence of his strength over the Republican.
"Polls will be all over the place, but Ed Markey has a strong record of fighting for issues that matter to Massachusetts voters and national Republicans are going to have a hard time propping up Gabriel Gomez who is anti-choice, sides with big banks over the middle class and supports a GOP agenda that would devastate Social Security and Medicare," he said.
The 2010 race remains fresh in the minds of Massachusetts Democrats, and they've pledged that it won't happen again. But a single-digit lead is an uncomfortable spot for the presumed frontrunner less than two months from Election Day. The election will be held June 25.


We take a look, and present an extract from a forthcoming article by one of the nominated authors, neurosurgeon Henry Marsh.
The shortlist for the 2015 Wellcome Book Prize has been announced. Including two novels and four non-fiction books, the shortlist 'captures a diverse range of subjects and perspectives, from brain surgeons to historic trailblazers, anxiety sufferers to survivors of loss'. All, according to Chair of Judges Bill Bryson, 'examine the human relationship with health and how it affects us all: for good, and sometimes for ill'.
The Iceberg: a Memoir (Atlantic) is by Marion Coutts, a young artist whose husband developed a brain tumour and eventually died. 'You feel almost as if you are reliving this experience with her in real time', Bryson commented. Professor Frith said 'it deals with death and grief, in a wonderfully poetic way'.
Alice Roberts' shortlisted book The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us (Heron) is described by Bryson as one which gives 'a lot of information about things that we really ought to know about, but it does it in a way which is thoroughly absorbing and engaging.' It has a chapter on head and brain.
Professor Frith describes 'My Age of Anxiety' by Scott Stossel (Windmill Books) as a 'totally honest look by the author at his own crippling fears and attempts to overcome them. The book can be recommended to psychologists as being almost comprehensive in its coverage of research in possible treatments and for its informative footnotes.' Bryson calls it 'at times unexpectedly hilarious, but mostly just moving and touching'.
'All my Puny Sorrows' by Miriam Toews (Faber) is described as 'a startling demonstration of how to carry on with hope and love and the business of living even when grief loads the heart.' Professor Frith notes that 'it deals with suicide and the helplessness of the bystanders'.
Last but by no means least is Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh (Weidenfeld & Nicolson). Marsh is a Consultant Neurosurgeon with over four decades of experience, and his book has been described as 'painfully honest' by fellow author Ian McEwan. 'It talks a lot about the joys and triumphs of success,' Bryson comments, 'but it is also unstinting in talking about failures and the limitations of what doctors can sometimes do.' Marsh has written an article for The Psychologist on his understanding of brain and behaviour, and the role of psychology in his work. It is due for publication in June, but we present an extract from it here.
The winner of the 2015 prize will be announced on 29 April 2015.