proba
float64 0.5
1
| text
stringlengths 16
174k
|
|---|---|
0.886755 | When it comes to divorce in Salt Lake City, each party has a lot to lose–especially if you have children or significant assets. One of the most complex issues is the division of assets and property. Utah law requires the distribution to be equitable. In many divorce cases, both parties are unable to agree how to divide property and assets. It can often create an acrimonious situation. An experienced and knowledgeable Salt Lake City divorce lawyer can often make the difference between getting the settlement you deserve to losing everything you have rightfully earned.
In most Utah divorces, there are three major assets that are usually involved–the home, personal property and retirement plans/investments. Here is a brief rundown on how Utah courts determine equitable asset and property division.
Home & Property: Many of the most heated divorce cases in Salt Lake City involve which party is entitled to receive the home. The court can use several different methods of determination. Here are the most common depending on the circumstances of each case. First, the court may order the house to be sold and equity divided among the two parties. The court may also allow one party to buy out the other person’s interest in the real property. Another common ruling is to have the property awarded to one party and the remaining assets of equal value given to the other.
Personal Property: Personal property is classified as the ownership of any material possessions that can be moved. It includes cars, furniture, and clothing. While most people do not share clothes, the determination of vehicles and furniture can sometimes become complex–especially if they are co-owned by each party. Utah courts place a priority on dividing personal property equitably.
Retirement Plans & Investments: The division of retirement and investment accounts can sometimes get complicated under Utah family law. If only one party has a pension or retirement plan, in most cases the other party is entitled to half of the amount earned during the time of the marriage. Any money earned before the marriage will not be divided. If both parties have their names on investment or retirement plans, the court can rule either two ways. Both individuals can retain the full value of their own plans or the court will order an equitable distribution of all accounts.
In a perfect world, divorcing couples can agree to divide assets and property on their own. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. But there are some solutions to come up with a reasonable agreement. One viable option is mediation. Many Salt Lake City divorce attorneys offer mediation services to help couples find common ground on some of the most difficult family law issues. Under Utah family law, both parties are required to undergo at least one mediation session to attempt to resolve their differences. A mediator is an independent arbitrator who can listen to both sides explain their issues and concerns. It is often a less stressful alternative to court is also far less expensive than going through the conventional divorce process.
To learn more about your options concerning the division of assets and property, contact Salt Lake City divorce attorney Emy A. Cordano for a consultation today. |
0.958847 | How to choose an interesting and creative wedding cake topper?
Nowadays, there is such a vast range of beautiful miniaturized figurines and replicas of romancing couples available in the market that you would be mesmerized. These collectibles also include wedding cake toppers for bride and groom. These cake toppers are so beautiful and cute that you would love to make it a part of your guestbook table, or keep it in your drawing room. You can also gift these to your loved ones.
These silent figurines, which showcase romancing couples, interlocking hearts, birds, wedding rings, girls in bridal dresses, dancing couples, and couples performing love on the hood of a car, are simply amazing. These cake toppers not only have a great aesthetic appeal, but also provide a perfect finish to the wedding cakes. They come in all sizes, colors and varieties, so as to fit on all types of wedding cakes.
If you want to buy cake toppers, make sure that these are of top quality. These porcelain wonders should have a lead free paint to begin with. They should be perfectly crafted to give it a real-life look. Furthermore, make sure attention to details is provided, as these are collectibles and people love to keep it. Some of the wedding accessory suppliers do not pay attention to details. Refer to the website of the store, and choose from a wide variety of cake toppers. A high priority return policy is also an indication that the supplier is committed towards customer service and quality.
For those, who think that most of the wedding toppers are similar, here are a few tips to anniversary cake toppers that are sure to excite you. Don't go for the traditional "arm in arm" or "bride and groom exchanging kisses" positions. Imagine a real-life situation, which would excite you. It might be related to your past events, a memorable journey, your ambition, your favorite outfit, or your favorite activity. You can also get the bride and groom dressed like Indians or Australian aborigines. Adding the element of fun to your cake topper would make it more interesting and original.
A professional cake designer can create an endless variety of wedding cake toppers. You can use different materials such as glass, crystal or porcelain to make them. Most of the people love to keep them as wedding day souvenirs in their drawing rooms. |
0.999135 | How long does it take the flu to evade a vaccine?
With all the recent Presidential attention to the threat from the H5N1 Avian Flu, and the many billions now earmarked for stockpiling vaccines and drugs, it seems like a good idea to ask on what time scale the virus might be able to evade these countermeasures. Vaccination is of particular interest, as it is regarded as by far the best tool to combat viral infection at the population level.
Genomic analyses of H5N1 isolates from birds and humans showed 2 distinct clades with a nonoverlapping geographic distribution. All the viral genes were of avian influenza origin, which indicates absence of reassortment with human influenza viruses.
Genetic and antigenic analyses have shown that, compared to previous H5N1 isolates, 2004-2005 isolates share several amino acid changes that modulate antigenicity and perhaps other biological function. Furthermore, our molecular analysis of the HA from isolates collected in 2005 suggests that several amino acids located near the receptor-binding site are undergoing change, some of which may affect antigenicity or transmisibility.
Despite the recent "Isolation of drug-resistant H5N1 virus," (Nature, 20 October 2005), the WHO Global Influenza team determined that recent isolates are "sensitive to 2 neuraminidase inhibitors that are recommended for prophylactic or therapeutic intervention against human infections." So obviously the specific details of which viral isolate one is working with determine its sensitivity to drugs. In the case of the drug-resistant strain, it was isolated in February 2005 from a Vietnamese girl who may have contracted the virus while she cared for her brother. Human-to-human transmission is supported by the girl's lack of contact with poultry and the fact that the neuraminidase gene from virus isolated from the girl was virtually identical to that isolated from her brother. Thus there are evidently drug resistant strains running around in the wild.
As far as I can tell, it just isn't yet clear how fast drug-resistance traits can spread. There is now at least a little data about how long it takes a particular viral strain to find work-arounds for vaccines. A recent initial effort to sequence many flu strains in parallel indicates that mutations that provide ways around vaccines can rapidly dominate a population of flu viruses.
Perhaps the most dramatic finding in our data is the discovery of an epidemiologically significant reassortment that explains the appearance, during the 2003-2004 season, of the 'Fujian/411/2002'-like strain, for which the existing vaccine had limited effectiveness. ...Phylogenetic analysis of 156 H3N2 genomes from our project revealed the clear presence of multiple, distinct clades circulating in the population. Through a reassortment event, a minor clade provided the haemagglutinin gene that later became part of the dominant strain after the 2002-2003 season.
This finding illustrates not only that the influenza virus population contains multiple lineages at any given time, but also that alternate, minor lineages can contribute genetic variation to the dominant lineage, resulting in epidemiologically significant, antigenically novel strains. It is worth emphasizing that our sequence-based sampling approach--in contrast to traditional serologically based sampling--will reveal co-circulating strains even before they become antigenically novel.
In other words, the authors assert that amongst viruses that we give the same name there is considerable variation that may be hard to distinguish using traditional techniques. Sequencing the genomes of many isolates can provide a map of how a population of viruses is changing in response to vaccines. Ghedin, et al., note that their work demonstrates significant change of the dominant flu strain even within the 2003-2004 flu season. That variation appeared to originate and then dominate the population of viruses within 12 months.
Which brings me to the core of this post, namely that we now have real-world data demonstrating that flu viruses can escape vaccines in less than a year, far shorter than the time it takes to produce significant quantities of effective vaccines. It is important to note that this is a different problem than producing a new vaccine for new annual flu strains every year. If a pandemic strain emerges, our problem is not planning ahead just far enough to deploy a vaccine for next year's strain, but rather to combat a strain already killing people worldwide. It took most of a year for the CDC and Sanofi to come up with a hypothetical H5N1 vaccine, and the new National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza contains the expectation of years to accumulate enough vaccine to be useful for large populations. Never mind that the existing whole virus vaccine may not be effective against a pandemic strain.
The fact that the minor Fujian-like clade has donated its HA to the previously dominant strain rather than itself becoming the dominant circulating virus indicates that there may be important amino acid co-substitutions in the other proteins essential for viral fitness.
...Even within a geographically constrained set of isolates, we have found surprising genetic diversity, indicating that the reservoir of influenza A strains in the human population -- and the concomitant potential for segment exchange between strains -- may be greater than was previously suspected.
We cannot think of the H5N1, or any other strain, as either a clonal population experiencing selection or as a bunch of individuals producing descendants that may accumulate mutations leading to a pandemic strain. Rather, flu viruses exists as elements of a population that appear to be constantly innovating and trading parts. This is a critical distinction, particularly in light of rapid human and avian intercontinental travel. Not only have we now learned that there is greater variation in any given set of geographically linked isolates, but because of human travel we can expect all kinds of novel parts to show up in populations that were otherwise isolated and appeared to be of no immediate threat.
The Ghedin paper doesn't necessarily teach us directly about the evolution of pandemic flu strains, but it does suggest our current plan for pandemic vaccination is not well suited for the problem at hand.
After studying synthetic vaccines for Bio-ERA, amongst other clients, I think DNA vaccines are the best bet for rapid response on a time scale shorter than flu strains seem to evolve. I've a draft paper on synthetic vaccines in for consideration at Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, and will shortly embark on another paper specifically about distributed manufacture of DNA vaccines. PowderMed is waiting for publication of their (already accepted) first paper on their plasmid vaccine for the annual flu and will be starting trials of an H5N1 DNA vaccine early next year. Unfortunately, it seems the folks in DC aren't taking this technology seriously, and instead blowing billions on developing cell culture production of whole virus vaccines. Even the folks who manufacture vaccines in cell culture acknowledge this will only cut a month or two off the response time. |
0.991598 | What does it mean if my variable rate loan is tied to LIBOR?
LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate, is one benchmark, or index, to which the interest rate on an adjustable (variable) rate loan may be tied. (The "prime rate" is another frequently used benchmark.) Any adjustable rate loan or other financial product tied to a benchmark will follow that benchmark’s movements up and down.
For example, if the margin (the percentage added to the benchmark rate) on your adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) is 1.25% and the LIBOR is 2.5%, your interest rate would be 3.75% (1.25% + 2.50% = 3.75%). In this scenario, if the LIBOR increased a quarter percent, to 2.75%, your new rate would be 4.00% (1.25% + 2.75% = 4.00%). That could be a significant increase on a larger loan, resulting in many thousands of dollars extra interest paid over the life of the loan. Likewise, a lower LIBOR would save you money on interest payments.
If you have a fixed rate loan, the LIBOR does not affect you. If you have an adjustable rate loan, your loan documents, and possibly even your monthly loan statement, will tell you if your rate is tied to the LIBOR. If you can’t find the information there, you can call your loan servicer and ask.
In the "LIBOR scandal" of mid-2012, accusations were made that LIBOR had been manipulated by the banks that determine the benchmark's rate, allegedly since the early '90s, to either make money or to make their bank and the banking system as a whole appear stronger. Because in that particular instance the interest rates had been manipulated downward, average borrowers with LIBOR mortgages, student loans and other forms of credit most likely benefited from the manipulation. However, some consumer and institutional investors may have experienced lower returns on their money. |
0.99995 | Here are a few major points that make SQLC a sound long-term investment.
A rapidly growing market: SQLC serves one of America’s fastest growing housing segments: retirement communities for upscale residents. Many seniors have substantial investment portfolios and little overall debt; they can transform this wealth into a new living environment. This growth trend should increase markedly as the baby boomers mature over the next 10 years.
A proven business model: The Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) model has been a proven success for more than 30 years. It has experienced substantial growth, irrespective of setbacks in certain niches of the senior-living sector. Due to the large scale of these projects, there are significant barriers to entry from market to market; consequently, the CCRC model has not generally been overbuilt, and existing projects tend to enjoy strong occupancy rates.
SQLC’s winning proposition for seniors: We offer an extraordinarily active retirement lifestyle, with unique Life Care services. Therefore, we can provide for our residents’ needs—from independent living to assisted living to skilled nursing—for the rest of their lives.
Our business structure—as a not-for-profit and as a lean, locally focused organization---give us powerful competitive advantages. The energy behind that strength comes from a select group of strategic partners who have helped build our track record of success. |
0.998271 | In Scandinavia they don't call it Christmas (Christ-Mass), instead they still retain the old pagan name for the Yuletide celebrations which they call Jul (pronounced Yule).
Yule was a pagan festival that followed the midwinter solstice (usually around 21st December) and celebrated the return of the sun as the days slowly started to get longer again. The festivities, which involved lots of drinking and consuming of slaughtered animals, lasted up to 12 days, hence the 12 days of Christmas.
In Scandinavia it is still traditional to leave food out (usually porridge with butter) for the little red-capped tomte or nisse (household spirits or house elves) and thus we have the tradition of leaving food (usually cookies) out for Father Christmas, who in Sweden is called the Jul Tomte (the Yule Elf).
Another tradition in Scandinavia is that of the Christmas goat, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The Jul Bok (Yule goat) is nowadays usually made from straw, which indicates that it was probably once an offering from the last harvest (like the British corn dollies), but other traditions have a man dressing up as goat at Yuletide, which could be distant memory of a pagan fertility ritual, or even be connected to the two goats who pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology.
Yule is the turning of the year when, as the days slowly start to get longer, the Nordic peoples celebrated the end of the year and the return of the sun, the completion of the another yearly cycle of life, death and rebirth.
The winter solstice was a particularly inauspicious the night when Odin was said to ride through the skies with the Wild Hunt collecting the souls of the dead. So everyone stayed indoors feasting, afraid to go outside lest they be caught out alone and abducted by the Wild Hunt.
The Modern English word Yule comes down to us via the Middle English yol from the Anglo-Saxon Geol, though nowadays it is more commonly known as Christmastide or the 12 Days of Christmas. However in Scandinavia they still call it jul (pronounced yule) or jol. One of the many names of Odin recorded in the Icelandic sources is Jolnir, which means The Yule One. Though this name probably refers to his role as leader of the Wild Hunt at Yule, rather than to a jolly giver of gifts! (I can find no evidence for the claim on Wikipedia that Odin was known as Jolfaðr, the Yule Father).
So how did Yule become Christmas? King Hakon of Norway, who was a Christian, passed a law that the Christian Christmas Day and the Pagan Yuletide celebrations were to be henceforth celebrated at the same time. While this only impacted the Norwegian territories it illustrates how these festivals were intentionally combined into one celebration.
We do know that the celebration of Yule wasn’t always twelve days long. The Norse text 'Heimskringla: The Saga of Hakon the Good' talks about it lasting for three days, or as long as the ale continued. The night it began was known as slaughter night, where animals would be ritually slain and their blood collected in bowls to be splattered over the wooden idols of the gods and over the participants using a bunch of twigs. The animals' meat was then consumed in a feast which was known at the julblot.
Other sources tell of the burning of a Yule log, the ashen remains of which were used to ward off evil spirits and other misfortunes, before being ignited again the following year to start the subsequent Yule fire. Also there was the eating of a Yule boar in honour of Freyr, a god associated with the harvest and fertility, who in Christian times became associated with St Stephen and his feast day of 26th December.
More variations can be found in 'Gulathingslog 7', where Yule was celebrated ‘for a fertile and peaceful season,’ we also see in the 'Saga of Hakon the Good' that Odin was hailed at this time as the bringer of victory, while Njord and Freyr were hailed for peace and fertility. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology speaks of how Frau Holle’s annual wagon toured the countryside during the Yuletide season for blessings of a fruitful year ahead. Deities associated with winters, like the winter hunters Ullr and Skadhi, were also sometimes hailed. Since this is the day of darkest night, Nott (Goddess of Night), as well as silver-gleaming Mani (God of the Moon), may be honored. Some will also honor Dagr (God of Day) and Sunna (Goddess of the Sun) as she will only grow in prominence in the months ahead.
Odin, in his aspect as the God of Death and Transition, is almost always honored at this time. The Wild Hunt rages over the whole world seeking out and sweeping up the dead, ushering out the dead old year itself. It's also common to honor Freyr and an envisioned new year of growth and promise. Also, Thor is honored for driving back the Frost Giants.
It was customary that no work was to be done during Yuletide. From Germanic sources we see stories of the Goddess Berchta visiting peoples houses and punishing those who had been spinning during Yule. In the Icelandic 'Svarfdæla Saga', we see a warrior who postpones a fight until after the Yuletide, and 'The Saga of Hakon the Good' also says that Yule was to be kept holy.
Modern Heathens opt to celebrate this time as the Twelve Days of Yule, with the last day culminating on 12th Night. Ancient calendars followed a different method of time, the solstice celebrations, as well as later Christmas observances, can vary from place to place as to when they occur. Today, most Pagans and Heathens celebrate the Yuletide as running from approximately December 20 – December 31.
Some Heathen groups opt to conduct no business matters during the time of Yule. Some practitioners of the Northern Tradition will even choose to completely withdraw and go secluded from online mailing lists, bulletin boards, and social media outlets like Facebook so they can stay focused on spending the Yuletide with friends and family. While it’s not always an option for everyone, there are those who choose to use vacation time from work so they can have the entire Yuletide off as well.
Yuletide was perhaps the greatest of all Heathen holidays. It was a time of celebration and close family contact that lasted twelve days and nights; each of which can be viewed as a month of the preceding year in miniature. Many of the customs associated with Christmas may have begun from Heathen Yule rites and customs. Many Gods and Goddesses are honored during Yuletide, and most followers of Asatru believe that the gods, as well as the spirits of the earth and the ancestors, join us for the celebrations at this time of year.
Many traditions and practices are traditional to the month of Yule the most well known is, of course, the 12 Days of Yule. Some Heathens may bookend Yule with Mother’s Night and Twelfth Night and not have specific observances in-between those days, and some other Heathens have taken things a step further. Pulling inspiration from the Nine Noble Virtues, and combining it with candle-lighting celebrations like Chanukah or Kwanzaa, they have come up with a reason to light a candle every night during the Yuletide.
The alter on Yule should face north, the area is decorated with holly and mistletoe and dried leaves and fruit such as hips and haw. A chalice of appropriate wine, mead or cider. The oak or pine log with up to 13 green, white and red candles decorated with carvings, runes or symbols is placed centrally on the altar. The appropriate fragranced incense burning and scenting the air, e.g., bay, juniper, cedar, pine or rosemary is pretty good for this.
There are several versions and variations to the 12 days of Yule. I like to call it the Twelve Nights of Yule since I usually hold the honor at night and it is the darkest time of the year. The version below is a combination with the most common points. Each night starts with the main focus followed by a reading and closed with a virtue meditation. Alternatively, a month is offered each night as a reflection.
Glad Yuletide to Everyone. Hail! |
0.999119 | People often think that they need to buy it to use the car, but today, despite the car rental industry or rent car Whether renting a car without a driver or renting a car with a driver no longer needs to buy a car. Those who work well with their capital and make optimal returns, use car rentals and spend their money on earning And your business and your businessIn this way, they will provide the car they are looking for, and they will not withdraw their capital for this use of their turnover and benefit from it more capital..
On the other hand, this is a bonus for car riders 1- For current car costs such as damages; 2- Insurance costs and other annual drop in car prices Are.
For customers and hire car makers, the health of the car is important in every respect, including the body engine and the cleanliness of the car. This makes itIn order to ensure that car limousines do their best to provide a car with a precision engine and body, etc., the performance of a rented car may be the most important factor in assessing the health of the car so that if The car has a high working life. It is generally considered to be poorly worn due to wear and tear, and also from the direction of the body and from the direction of the motor. |
0.916304 | Write about your strongest memory of a heart-pounding, belly-twisting nervousness: what caused the adrenaline? Was it justified? How did you respond?
Jeb Collier, was a 17 years old, standing 6’7″, 140 pounds, with beautiful strawberry colored hair and the face of a twelve-year-old. He enlisted in the US Army as a Military Policeman before he graduated high school and was scheduled to leave two weeks after his high school graduation.
Suzy Lovell, a pixie at 5’1, ” began dating Jeb in the seventh grade and were high school sweethearts after Jeb gave Suzy a promise ring during their sophomore year and were expected to marry before Jeb left for the Army’s basic training at Fort McClellan Alabama.
When Jeb was in the fifth grade, he stood 5’11 and weighed 95 pounds, so he was always taller than most of his elementary school classmates, and during the summer before he went to the sixth grade, he grew an astonishing 8 inches.
Three weeks before his high school graduation Jeb signed a contract agreement to enter the US Army a week after his high school graduation. This was during the Korean Conflict. Jeb walked out of the recruitment office feeling proud and manly. He rode his bicycle into town and seeking out everyone who called him anything other than Jeb and starting physical fights.
He fought his two older twin sisters who showed him some mercy and three younger brothers, along with several close friends and enemies, who ridiculed and tormented him over the years.
These fights excited and impressed Suzy, who was overwhelmingly proud to be Jeb’s girlfriend.
You see, over the years, they talked about how Jeb should stand up to the people who called him names. For years Suzy repeatedly told him, he needed to demand the respect, he deserved.
After all of the fights, Jeb suffered some bruises but gained a sense of respect from all who lived in the small coal-mining town of 300, in Putney Kentucky.
Two days after their graduation, Jeb and Suzy, hiked along a familiar trail to view the sunset from a nearby mountaintop. For years, they have taken the hike, to see the beauty of nature, talk and most importantly to find privacy to take part in a little heavy petting.
As the sunset on the horizon silhouetting the Kentucky Mountains in colors of reds and pinks against the clouds. The two walked hand and hand along the trail towards their homes in the valley.
After several yards, they heard noises of rustling trees and the crunch of leaves coming from the wood line.
They thought it might be their friends attempting to scare them. So they yelled the names of friends they assumed were trying to frighten them. No one acknowledged as the noises continued.
Fear began swelling within them both on the darkening trail, so they held one another’s hands tighter while walking faster.
Their fear grew dreadful, as the rustling in the woods continued with Jeb’s long strides outpacing Suzy who was trying to keep up while holding his hand. Suzy could hear and feel her heart pounding, as tears streamed down her cheeks while being dragged by Jeb.
Suzy’s sweat-soaked blouse, and tears in her reddened eyes, she looked up to Jeb whispering.
Before Jeb could answer, a giant black bear, appeared fifteen yards behind them standing erect near the edge of the wood line standing two or three feet taller than Jeb.
“You better keep up.” He turned and ran, screaming “Help!” “Help!” “Help!,” towards his home.
Jeb screams were heard at his home, and soon his mother, father, brothers and twin sisters ran towards the sound of his voice. Jeb’s brothers had their shotguns, and one of the twins carried their father’s rifle. They all ran towards the trail with their flashlights furiously moving along the path ahead of them.
When the family ran upon Jeb on the trail, he was breathing so heavy, with sweat dripping from his reddened face and fear in his eyes. He was slow to explain in between breaths, that he saw a bear on the trail.
His siblings pointed their flashlights up the trail, when Jeb’s mother yelled, where is Suzy?
For several seconds, there was an awkward moment of silence, and Jeb stopped breathing when the silence was broken with Suzy’s footsteps on the trail.
The flashlights were turned towards her when she appeared, and with her pixie southern voice, she yelled.
I’m right here, Mama, Collier.
Suzy’s face was red as a summer beet. When she walked past, Jeb, her anger was seething like a thousand suns moving Jeb from where he stood.
She stopped in front of his mother and said that she was ok. The bear ran back into the woods after Jeb ran away screaming.
She turned towards Jeb and said. I do not want to speak to you until you return from your Army training with some courage, gumption, and respect for me.
She turned back around and walked away with Jeb mother, father and his siblings in tow, snickering.
When Jeb returned seven months later from his Army basic training, he begged for forgiveness and Suzy’s hand in marriage.
On the fourth day Suzy relented saying yes, and today we gather to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of my mother and father.
Thank goodness for, fright, flight, courage, and gumption, or else I would not stand here to tell this tale.
Great story! I loved it!
It was true love and courage building during military training. LOL!!!
I’d be afraid till my bones!!!!!! |
0.899401 | I'm a lover of nature, specially I love mountain landscapes. Would France been good to live and work in? I would travel alone and my stay would be indefinite.
Hi, It's pretty difficult to get a working visa for France but if you can get one, it's a good place to live and work.
Beautiful landscapes, and historical monument to visit, everything is full of history, more than 2000 years of history to endurstand, Paris was created 58BC.
Some country services will be picked up directly from your salary, like health insurance, retirement allocations, unemployed allocation, familly allocation etc. If you negociate a salary of 40k€/year (called brut salary) you will really have in your pocket 30k€/year (called net salary). You have to know that every salary is negociate as "brut" salary.
You will have to had on the previous taxes salary taxes wich correspond to one salary per year so it's gonna be 30k€ / 12.
Then you will have a job in France congrat.
If you want moutain and live cheap, you can try to get a job in Pau You have to know that if you want to get a working visa, it can be easier to get it in a company based in Paris.
After almost two years living in US, I feel like France is a way better because of health insurance and you do not need a car to go everywhere but that's my personal opinion.
I hope all those infos helped you.
I lived in Dijon for a while and loved it. Because Paris is such a monster city in size, we tend to not realize that the other cities in France are quite large too. Lyon, Dijon, Orleans (Centre), Lille, Nantes are all truly lovely cities-full of culture, wonderful people and great food...and surrounded by beautiful landscapes. I would be happy to live in any of them!
Getting a work permit will prove difficult, as well as getting a job. The social taxes are astronomic, so most employers are not hiring right now. France is a great place to work, IF you can secure a job. And for this, you will need a work permit. Unless you have a EU passport, or come from North Africa, this is not easy. |
0.999935 | N.B. If any minutes were taken of the meeting in 1985 then they have long since been lost. These two articles, authored by Katherine, cover all of the content of her talk, and more.
As anthropologists, most of us would agree with Bruner that "our first responsibility is to respect people's accounts of their experiences as they choose to present them" (1983:9). However, those of us interested in historical anthropology face a special challenge since we are rarely able to draw upon indigenous accounts of everyday life. Even when we are able to use such texts, the problem of ethnographic authority remains (Clifford 1988:8; Clifford and Marcus 1986). Considerable work is being done in historical anthropology in reconstructing indigenous histories by using the early narratives of Western observers. However, such efforts have obvious problems of observer bias (see Cohn 1987:136-171; Said 1978; Savage 1984). Furthermore, as in the descriptions discussed in this article, the outside observers have sometimes recorded opposing opinions. How are we, as anthropologists writing today, to assess such conflicting appraisals? Using the case of textiles in 19th-century northern Thailand, I should like to suggest that by reconstructing the political economy of a society, we can evaluate contradictory historical descriptions.
From Veblen (1912) and Simmel (1957) to Weiner and Schneider (1989), an appreciation of the varied manner in which textiles symbolize social distinctions has been longstanding. As Bourdieu has written of symbolic goods in general, textiles can be an integral part of the "infinitely varied art of marking distances" (1984:66; see also Barthes 1984; Sahlins 1976). Often the distinctions are extremely subtle. Writing of the use of fashion, Barthes notes the importance of details as "concentrated meaning" (1984:185). For Barthes, just a detail can change an object's meaning: "a little nothing that changes everything; those little nothings that can do everything" (1984:243). However, more than just symbolizing distinctions, textiles have also been shown to constitute and consolidate social differences through their often vital role in a society's political economy. In his pioneering article on tributary textiles in the Inca kingdom, Murra notes not only that "no political, military, social, or religious event was complete without textiles being volunteered or bestowed, burned, exchanged, or sacrificed," but also that cloth served as "a primary source of state revenues" (1962:722).
insights into the semiotics of consumption and an important methodology for historical anthropology.
Others have made a similar point (see Schneider 1987 for an excellent review of the cultural, economic, and political significance of cloth). As Weiner and Schneider summarize, architects of centralizing polities have awed spectators with sartorial splendor, strategically distributed beautiful fabrics amongst clients, and exported the textile output of royal and peasant workshops to earn foreign exchange" (1989:2).
Contradictory assessments of dress also occur in 19th-century descriptions of northern Thai dress. The anonymous author of one of the earliest surviving accounts remarked on the lack of class distinction in women's clothing: "It is curious to notice the uniformity and universality of the female dress. The higher classes vary the style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk next above the bottom piece" (Bangkok Recorder 1866). Twenty years later, an American missionary working in northern Thailand wrote in almost identical wording: "Rich and poor all dress alike, except that the higher classes vary the universal style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk into the skirt near the bottom" (Cort 1886:348).
Thus, depending upon the archival source, contemporary scholars can reach opposing assessments of the character of these earlier societies. Research on textiles in mainland Southeast Asia is just beginning (see Brown 1980; Cheesman 1988; Fraser-Lu 1988; Lefferts 1988, 1990; Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman 1987). Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman's Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao (1987) is the only full-length work on textiles in northern Thailand; as such it is an important preliminary study, especially useful for describing some of the items woven and the techniques used. In this article, I examine the broader social context of textile consumption and production, drawing upon two major kinds of sources, archival and oral. The archival sources include consular reports (primarily British), 19th century newspaper accounts, travelogues, and works by American missionaries. In addition I have interviewed hundreds of villagers over the age of 80 living throughout the Chiang Mai Valley of northern Thailand.5 I use archival sources primarily for insight into the consumption, production, and acquisition of textiles by the elite; I rely more heavily on oral histories for insights into the everyday life of villagers. Based upon an understanding of the social processes of textile production and consumption, I argue that the controversy generated by the contradictory opinions of certain 19th century observers of northern Thai society can be resolved in favor of those who asserted that there were dramatic differences of dress and class in the northern Thai semiotics of consumption.
The Chiang Mai Valley was the site of the largest and most important of the northern Thai kingdoms. These kingdoms were located in the region today called northern Thailand but called "Western Laos" by 19th century missionaries and other foreign observers. The courts of the various principalities were located in the mountain valleys of Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Nan, and Chiang Rai, each today serving as a provincial capital. Although these kingdoms were independent, they had been tributary to the neighboring kingdom of Burma for several hundred years. During the 19th century, they were tributary to the central Thai court at Bangkok; thereafter they were incorporated into Thailand.
This article is divided into two parts. In the first, I examine the cultural significance of textile consumption in 19th century northern Thailand. I present some of the surviving descriptions of dress, ranging from the daily wear of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords, and subsequently expand the discussion from dress to other applications of textiles, arguing that there were dramatic differences between peasants and lords in this broader sphere as well. In the second part of the article, I describe how this differentiation between elites and commoners was revealed in the social process of textile production. Focusing on the two most important textiles used; cotton and silk, I consider the overall importance of textiles in the political economy of these northern Thai kingdoms, noting the role of tribute and slave labor in the acquisition of textiles by the elite.
Previous studies have shown that 19th-century northern Thai society was divided into three major social statuses: the aristocrats (jao), the freeholders (phrai), and the slaves (khiikhaa). The aristocracy was internally differentiated by economic and political power. The greatest power and prestige were concentrated in those lords who occupied the five top positions in each of the kingdoms, while lesser members of the aristocracy whose inheritances had dwindled were barely separable from the peasantry at large. Free villagers were all liable to perform corvée labor and pay tribute to the ruling lords, but they were internally differentiated according to economic class. The wealthiest villagers rivaled many members of the aristocracy; in fact, many had royal titles and intermarried with the lower levels of the aristocracy. Villagers spanned the economic continuum, from those with land and numerous animals down to those who were destitute or landless beggars. The difference between slaves and free villagers was also often a gray area. Elite slaves sometimes worked very closely with their lords and received more benefits than ordinary commoners. On the other hand, the conditions for ordinary slaves were generally worse than those for commoners since the former were at the mercy of the lords. (For more on 19th century northern Thai social structure, see Bowie 1988; Calavan 1974; Ganjanapan 1984.) Nonetheless, although portions of this social spectrum overlapped, there were significant differences in lifestyle from one end of the spectrum to the other.
To give an idea of the purchasing power of a rupee at this time, some indications of wage rates are suggestive. Although very few statistics on northern Thai wage labor rates survive, I was able to find three references in the archival sources.16 According to the British trade report of 1894, porters were paid 12 to 15 rupees per month, assuming they carried an average load of 15 to 20 viss; about 54 to 73 pounds (Archer 1895). Some figures on the wages paid to laborers in the teak industry also survive. According to W. J. Archer, the British vice consul, Khamu workers who could once be hired for 40 to 60 rupees a year (and their food) could in 1894 no longer "be had under Rs. 70 to Rs. 90 a year" (1895). Writing five years later, Acting Consul J. Stewart Black gave somewhat lower wage figures, while also lamenting the increasing costs. He noted that Khamu workers were paid 30 to 50 rupees per annum, in addition to their food, which cost about 5 rupees per month, or an additional 60 rupees per year. Black wrote that in 1899 some teak laborers were being paid as much as 120 rupees (food included) and went on to castigate the native villagers for their indolence, commenting that "not even the attraction of what is to him [sic] a small fortune will induce them to undergo for any length of time the hard labour and isolation of forest work" (1 900).17 Thus, forest workers in the teak industry were earning anywhere from 90 to 120 rupees per year (including the value of their food), or about 7 to 10 rupees per month. Such wages paid to forest workers were considered a "small fortune." Although the wages paid to porters were higher, it should be noted that portering such heavy loads required tremendous stamina and could be done by only the strongest villagers. Furthermore, such employment was seasonal.
According to oral histories, the wages paid to agricultural workers were less. Many villagers cited rates of one win (approximately one-seventh of a rupee) per day for agricultural labor at the turn of the 20th century.18 Archival sources suggest that wages for teak workers averaged one-quarter to one-third of a rupee per day and those for porters averaged half a rupee per day. Villagers also recalled that in the early 20th century one rupee could buy a full set of clothing, including a homespun shirt and pair of pants or skirt.
Clearly, the aristocracy's most luxurious clothes were not likely to serve as daily casual wear. Nonetheless they marked a significant distinction in purchasing power and social status between the elite and ordinary villagers. A tin jok skirt border that cost 60 rupees represented at least four months' wages for the best-paid porter and over a year's wages for agricultural workers. Everyday peasant dress already represented anywhere from two to seven days' wages and thus constituted a considerable expense for the ordinary wage laborer.
The ruling lords of the northern Thai kingdom also had distinctive regalia, including umbrellas and spittoons. Whether a formal sumptuary code existed is, as I mentioned earlier, unclear. However, even without the evidence of sumptuary laws, I believe that there is considerable indication of significant class differentiation through dress.19 With the exception of state robes and regalia of rank, differences in dress may well have formed a continuum of wealth rather than a clear-cut differentiation based on status. Poorer members of the aristocracy, less able to afford the most elaborate of clothes, would have blended with those below them. Conversely, wealthier members of the rural elite, especially those who had intermarried with the lower ranks of the aristocracy, would have dressed more ornately. Nonetheless, overall, when one considers the cost of elite dress in light of the economic situation of poor villagers who were begging, stealing, or patching their simple clothing, a dramatic distinction emerges.
Textiles were used not only for dress but also for a variety of household items and on various ritual occasions. Such uses of textiles also revealed considerable differences according to wealth. Although the poorest villagers often did without, ordinary villagers used textiles for making mattress and pillow covers, blankets, bed sheets, and mosquito nets. In general the mattress and pillow covers were plain indigo or black with red stripes or trim. Bed sheets were plain white or white with a red stripe or checked pattern; fancier sheets had embroidery and in some cases more complex weaves. Mosquito nets were woven on special large looms, and many informants complained about how heavy homespun cotton mosquito nets were to wash.
Cloth also figured importantly in the lives and rites of the elite. In addition to owning more and fancier clothes, the elite had more and better household items. Instead of just having enough mattresses, pillows, and other bedding items for the family, wealthier families had additional bedding sets for guests. Furthermore, the guest bedding was considered an object of display and so was more likely to have embroidered ends and complex, time-consuming weaves. Even today wealthy village families usually have wood cabinets with glass doors along the wall of the main room of their home to showcase guest bedding sets.
The possession of ornate pillows was another particularly significant attribute of elite households. Although Thais had a variety of pillows, the prestige pillows were usually triangular and were used for daytime reclining. Their importance was highlighted in a British official's passing remark that such pillows were "to be seen in every house of any pretensions" (Lowndes 1871).25 Furnishing their palaces, the northern Thai princes displayed numerous luxury items such as foreign-made weapons, chandeliers, mirrors, lanterns, curtains, reclining pillows, and even imported carpets (Taylor 1888-1930:73; Younghusband 1888:63-64). In 1830 Richardson noted the presence of Indian and Chinese carpets (1829-36:63), and in 1885 Ernest Satow recorded that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had European furniture and "a number of gaudy Brussels carpets" (1885-86:51).
The full extent of the differences between commoners and aristocracy was most visible when members of the ruling elite traveled in state or participated in public ceremonies. Royal barges had large cloth canopies: the royal barge of the central Thai king, according to one observer, featured "a canopy of cloth of gold where the King sits on a golden throne wearing a gold embroidered coat and golden shoes" (Dodd 1923:289). The royal entourage often consisted of scores of boats, the rowers all clad in matching uniforms. The elite also traveled by horse or elephant, the animals gaily festooned with decorative textiles. On state occasions, the highest ranks of the nobility used gold and silver decorative caparisons. Mary Cort noted that the gold elephant trappings were "worth thousands," whereas the silver trappings were "worth hundreds" of rupees (Cort 1886:349).
In addition to making public prestations such as those at the Kathin ceremonies, the elite would have given considerable amounts of textile goods away during any other life-cycle or calendrical ceremonies they might hold. Thai ceremonials usually included a merit-making component in which gifts, including monastic robes and embroidered pillows, were given as offerings to the monks (see Davis 1984). Archival sources also note the use of textiles as gifts to visiting dignitaries: the gifts given to Satow, a British official, by the ruling chief of Lampang included velvet mattresses, pillows adorned with Chinese brocade, and silk skirts (Satow 1885- 86:206). Thus, not only did the peasants and the lords differ considerably in terms of dress and household possessions, but they also differed in the extent to which they donated textiles on ritual occasions.
In this article thus far I have depicted significant differences between the elite's and the peasants' uses of textiles. I have described a range of dress: from the stolen and the hand-me-down, from the threadbare and the patched, from the simple cottons of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords. I have also outlined some of the different uses of textiles in village households as opposed to the court. Here, I should like to show how the differentiation was manifested not simply in the consumption of textiles but also in their production.
As will become clear, both accounts are true; the differences lie in the type of fabric being woven.
Most clothing was made from cotton. However, contrary to what is commonly assumed, weaving was not a universal household industry; only certain villagers in certain villages wove (see Bowie 1988, 1992). The weaving of simple cotton cloth was spread quite widely throughout the Chiang Mai Valley, and certain districts were especially known for their concentrations of weavers. Those districts that had a reputation for cotton weaving in the past, especially the San Kamphaeng and Bo sang districts, have maintained their reputations down to the present. Furthermore, oral histories reveal weaving to have been a highly specialized activity, with different villagers involved in the different phases of production. By far the most commonly produced cloth was a plain white cotton, often later dyed with indigo. The villagers most likely to produce such cloth were the poorer ones, who wove both for their own household needs and for sale or hire. Such village weavers were more likely to find weaving an onerous obligation from which others were freed.
From the simplest and plainest of homespun white cloth to the most elaborate designs using imported fibers, the value of the fabric gradually increased. Striped or plaid cloth involved more work and skill, in both weaving and dyeing, than plain cloth and was consequently valued more highly. Cloth woven with imported threads, most often used for women's phaa sins, was more expensive than the domestic handspun cotton. The wealthier the village weaver, the more likely she was to weave the more time-consuming decorative items such as colored skirts or striped sheets. The more elaborate the design, the more likely the weaver was weaving for pleasure with a "cool heart."
The more complex the weave, the more likely that the weaver was affiliated in some manner with the aristocracy, as war captive, slave, or member of the court. Virtually each of the areas known for weaving is associated with an ethnic minority brought into the Chiang Mai Valley as war captives sometime during the 19th century. Baan Ton Hen is a Khyyn village; San Kamphaeng (particularly around the original district town of Baan Oon) is also known as a Khyyn area. The Khyyn are a population who originally lived in the Chiang Tung area: Chiang Mai led attacks on Chiang Tung in 1849, 1852-53, and 1854, and it seems people were brought back on these occasions (Wilson and Hanks 1985:29). Over half of the people living in the Lamphun region are said to have descended from war captives (Freeman 1910:100). Chom Thong town has a Lawa population, many of whom served as temple slaves. Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire any information about the ethnic background of villagers in Baan Aen since the entire village was forced to relocate when a hydroelectric dam was built.
Unlike villagers, who had to weave, trade for, or buy their clothing, the ruling lords were able to extract raw cotton, woven cloth, and dyestuffs as tribute. Their ability to levy tribute on broad sectors of the population provided the aristocracy with a quantity of cotton cloth no single producer could hope to match. Interestingly, the majority of villagers who sent cotton or cloth as tribute appear to have been hilltribe populations, such as the Karen and the Mussur (today more commonly called the Lahu). One of the Karen villages that Captain Thomas Lowndes visited in 1871 had just taken its year's taxes to Chiang Mai: "it consisted of Rupees 2, 2 blankets, and 40 viss of cotton" (1871). Richardson also noted tribute of cloth paid by the Karen during his travels in 1830 (1829-36:37, 45). Captain McLeod found that the KaKuis had to make presents of mats and cloths to the lords (1836:57). McGilvary commented that much of the raw cotton being purchased by the Yunnanese traders came from the Mussur; although he did not specifically mention tribute, it is likely that the Mussur too would have been expected to offer tribute to the ruling lords in the form of raw cotton or finished cloth. While the aristocracy were able to make apparently generous donations on ritual occasions, much of what they gave was in fact the contribution of others.
Thus, the aristocracy appear to have been able to extract raw cotton, simple cotton cloth, and complex cotton weaves through political means. Tribute afforded them both raw cotton and cotton cloth, and the labor of war captives seems to have provided them with complex weaves such as tin jok skirt borders. Although silk was considered a more valuable fabric, cotton cloth nonetheless had a variety of uses in royal households. The tin jok borders, even those made of cotton, would have marked their wearers as wealthier than ordinary villagers, who only wore plain skirt borders. Possession of textiles ranging from mattresses to elephant headpieces made from complex woven cotton would have similarly served to add to the prestige of their owners. Such cloth could be used as rewards for favored underlings or as gifts for visitors. In addition, cotton cloth made possible the public display of largess involved in merit-making ceremonies, since monks' robes were typically made from cotton.
It is also possible that royalty were involved in the cotton trade. There was considerable demand for raw cotton by Yunnanese traders and some demand for cotton cloth in Burma (Bowie 1992; Hill 1982; Reid 1988:91). British vice consul Archer mentioned in his trade report of 1894 that "women's cloths of coarse cotton, woven by the Laos [were] sought after in Burma as being very durable," although he added that the export was not very considerable (1895). Such cloth, together with silk goods, could also have been offered as tribute to other kingdoms. However they used it, lords - because they could exact tribute and slave labor - found it much easier to acquire cloth than did commoners, who had to weave fabric themselves or find some other means of acquiring it.
Archival sources also indicate that royal slaves were involved in silk weaving. The British official A. H. Hildebrand noted, "There is a good deal of trade capable of being done also in silk garments and silk fancy work, at which the slaves and others are great adepts" (1875). It is not clear whether these slaves lived solely at the court or also in slave settlements established to produce cloth for the court. Silk weaving is known to have been done in only two areas outside the court itself: the towns of San Kamphaeng and Hot (and their immediate environs). While silk weaving continues to this day in San Kamphaeng, in Hot only traces survive in archival sources and in the memories of the town's oldest residents. No information survives to explain why Hot, a town some 70 kilometers from Chiang Mai, would have been a center of silk production and weaving, or why the industry died out. (Villagers said it was because the cocoons scared easily and so had died.) However, in San Kamphaeng a senior member of one of the prestigious silk-weaving families recounted the local version of the history of silk weaving in his area. According to his account, lords victorious in war would capture various kinds of artisans and resettle them in their own kingdoms. Thus, silversmiths were settled near the south end of Chiang Mai town, lacquer ware artists in another location, and weavers in San Kamphaeng. This account indeed suggests that the silk weavers in San Kamphaeng may have been royal slaves weaving at the behest of the court.
Some idea of the potential scale of royal weaving was given by D. J. Edwardes, who wrote that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had 300 slaves weaving cloth for him (1875). It appears that these Chiang Mai silks were marketed in Burma. In his summary of the Chiang Mai kingdom, Lowndes commented: "Weaving and embroidery are the principal handicrafts, the silk putsoes [phaa nung] are much sought after by the Burmans, as they wear three times as long as those of Burmese manufacture" (1871). He made a similar point about the silk woven in Hot, noting that it was "said to be very strong and durable" and adding, "A thitgoung [headman] showed me a putso that he had had in wear for 7 years, and it was by no means worn out" (1871).
In San Kamphaeng, where silk production has continued to the present day, raw silk was imported from Luang Prabang, Laos, and later from Mandalay, Burma. Raw silk was also routinely imported by the Haw traders coming from Yunnan, China (Hill 1982; see also Bowie 1992).
The geographical distribution of raw materials had social implications. Since sufficient quantities of cotton grew in upland regions of northern Thailand to be readily exported, cotton was more accessible to ordinary villagers and could, in turn, be extracted by the ruling lords through tribute. Since silkworms were not abundant in northern Thailand, raw silk had to be imported. Silk's scarcity heightened its price and its prestige value, serving to concentrate silk weaving in the hands of the court. Aristocratic control of silk production was further aided by the fact that the silk fiber is very fine and hence is far more difficult and time-consuming to weave than cotton.
A comparison of cotton and silk production, then, reveals important contrasts. While cotton was exported, silk was imported into northern Thailand. While cotton was generally woven by freeholding villagers, silk seems to have been woven by slaves and members of the aristocracy. While villagers, except those who begged or stole their clothing, had to obtain textiles through direct economic means, aristocrats were able to augment their own production through the political means of tribute and slave labor. Furthermore, because poverty was widespread and not all villagers grew or wove cotton themselves, many villagers faced hardships in acquiring clothing of any kind for their families.
Understanding the process of textile production helps contemporary readers gain insight into the cultural meaning of cloth to 19th century northern Thai. Once we understand the chronic poverty of most villagers and the difficulty with which villagers obtained even the simplest of cotton cloth, the significance of cloth in daily life and in village rituals becomes clearer. Simultaneously, we can begin to enter the cultural world of 19th century villagers to learn the social meaning of the difference between clothes made of cotton and those made of silk.
Understanding the productive process also helps us appreciate the manner in which textiles were interwoven with royal authority. Because of their coercive power, the lords were able to exact cloth as tribute from freeholders and labor from slaves. Their political position reinforced their economic position, since the textiles - and other goods - they acquired through tribute and slave labor were apparently marketed for revenue. The revenue and surplus textiles they acquired through the labor of others, in turn, reinforced their political position. By sponsoring large, conspicuous merit-making ceremonies in which they gave robes and pillows to monks, the lords enhanced their prestige and, ironically, created an image of generosity. The fine silks in which the lords dressed themselves symbolized not only their distinction from the poor but also their own relationship to the political economy of the kingdom.
Combining oral histories with archival sources, this article has examined textile consumption and production in 19th century northern Thailand. If we have an understanding of the social process of textile production, the "concentrated meaning" (Barthes 1984:185) of northern Thailand textiles becomes more apprehensible. Such apparently minor details of fashion as the use of a silk skirt border - or, as one early observer phrases it, "a showy strip of wrought silk" - can no longer be interpreted as meaning that "rich and poor all dress[ed] alike" (Cort 1886:346). Important differences in dress, household possessions, and ritual prestations separated the aristocracy from the peasantry. These differences signified profound differences in the relationship of each to the political economy. Thus, the semiotics of consumption in northern Thai society is illuminated by an understanding of its political economy. This article on the consumption and production of textiles in 19th century northern Thailand has been at once a description of the social context of textiles and an exercise in historical anthropology. The evaluation and appropriate application of archival sources present a challenge to every historical anthropologist, since these sources are replete with omissions and distortions. However, by interweaving oral histories with archival sources, we can recapture much of the fabric of the past. Oral histories enhance the archival sources by contributing some sense of the lived experiences of the unrecorded majority. This article has shown how developing a better understanding of a society's political economy can provide an independent means to assess the opinions of outside observers of indigenous societies.
Acknowledgments. This article emerges from my dissertation fieldwork on 19th century political economy, conducted from 1984 to 1986 under the auspices of the National Research Council of Thailand with a grant from the Social Science Research Council. Subsequent fieldwork specifically on textile production was conducted during the summer of 1989 with a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I would like to thank Cornelia Kammerer, Jean De Bernardi, Nicola Tannenbaum, Patricia Cheesman, Songsak Prangwatthanakun, Kristine Hastreiter, Kate Bjork, Hugh Wilson, and the American Ethnologist reviewers for their various contributions toward the research and writing of this article.
1 Edwardes' summary raises questions about Anthony Reid's conclusion that in Southeast Asia, "the difference in dress between rich and poor, servant and master, king and commoner, was less marked than in pre-industrial Europe, where each man's station and even vocation could be read in the prescribed style of dress" (1988:85).
2 The distinctions of dress appear to have been quite subtle at times. Crawfurd wrote, "The better classes permit the ends of the dress to hang loosely in front, but the lower orders tuck them under the body, securing them behind" (1987:313).
Although the older men in northern Thai villages sport tattoos, the practice has fallen out of vogue among the current generation of northerners. For more on the symbolism of tattoos, see Nicola Tannenbaum (1987).
4 In the course of my interviewing I also encountered villagers who made mention of sumptuary rules with regard to housing and clothing, but they were unable to recall any of the specifics. The quotation cited suggests not only that sumptuary laws existed but also that they varied by ruler and kingdom.
5 During dissertation fieldwork in 1984-86, I interviewed more than 500 villagers over the age of 80 living in about 400 villages throughout the Chiang Mai Valley. I repeatedly asked villagers for their recollections of life when they were young as well as for their memories of what their parents and grandparents had said about life in their days (see Bowie 1988). This article emerges from accidental observations made during my dissertation research. During the summer of 1989 I interviewed another 100 villagers, specifically asking about textiles.
6 Considerable confusion is caused by the various linguistic borrowings of the 19th century English language sources, which alternately use Indian, Burmese, and central Thai words to describe northern Thai clothing. Thus, terms such as phaa nung, lungi, and putso are used in ambiguous ways. In general, these terms refer to the lengths of cloth worn by both men and women on the lower half of the body. The lengths may be sewn into a tube (as in the phaa sin) or twisted into a thick cord worn between the legs (as in the phaa toi). To add to the confusion, the usage of these terms has changed over time. During the 19th century, phaa nung referred to the length of cloth worn on the lower part of the body by central Thai men and women alike, corresponding most closely to the phaa toi worn by northern Thai men. Over time the meaning has changed to refer to the tubular cloth, or phaa sin, worn during the 19th century by northern Thai women and now worn by women throughout the country.
8 Bock, writing in 1884, observed, "A few Lao women are beginning to wear tight-fitting jackets, cut to the shape of the figure, with equally tight sleeves, something after the style of the 'ladies' jerseys' recently so fashionable in Paris and London, and involving no small amount of labour to get on and off" (1986 :327). Writing at about the same time, Cort made a similar observation: "Some are beginning to wear jackets or waists, but the usual style is for the women to have a brightly colored cotton or silk scarf tied around their chests just under the arms" (1886:348).
9 The indigo-dyed cotton daew chador and indigo shirts now identified as stereotypical of the Thai peasantry appear to have been of recent vintage, dating from about the turn of the century. Ironically, the blue farmer shirts (sya moh hoom) now worn by university students and Thai officials to demonstrate Thai nationalist pride seem to have been popularized by Chinese merchants. The daew chador has more in common with Chinese-style loose-fitting pants than with the traditional phaa toi. Additional support for the view that jackets became more common as the century progressed are provided in a few passing comments. In 1868 Henry Alabaster detailed his recollections of people's dress ten years earlier, noting: "I remember that ten years ago at any of the great festivals which attracted there 40 or 50,000 spectators, almost all wore but one garment - or a sarong and scarf. Now almost every one adds thereto a cotton or silk jacket" (1868). Stringer, writing in his trade report of 1890 specifically about northern Thailand, commented, "The wearing of singlets and coats of European pattern by the men and cotton jackets by the women is becoming more common" (1891).
10 That cloth was highly valued elsewhere in Southeast Asia is also reflected in the following Burmese proverb: "If you are on the way to an ahlu [merit-making ceremony], do not wear your jacket; carry it and put it on when you arrive; it lasts longer that way" (Nash 1965:232).
11 "A comment on the poverty of temple slaves in Burma supplies further evidence that the sheer amount of cloth in one's clothing was an indication of economic status: "They are poor these slaves, the men wear no brilliant putsoes and the women wear no vest beneath their jacket" (Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget 1899b).
12 The value of cloth is also suggested in a northern Thai rhyme describing the payment that three women received in return for sexual favors: "Miss Kum asked for silver, Miss Huan asked for cloth, Miss Noja asked for an elephant. Hurry up and finish Doctor" (Bristowe 1976:127, cited in Patel 1990:127). Cotton's value as a commodity is seen too in the fact that there were traveling minstrels who literally "sang for their cotton." A favorite form of village entertainment in the past was soh, witty and often bawdy repartee between a male and a female singer, with musical accompaniment. One especially popular form of soh was the soh kep nok, or "singing repartee to collect birds." In villages with surplus raw cotton, this soh would be performed as soh laek fai (singing in exchange for cotton). Each village household wishing a performance would build a tree as a stage prop, with cotton representing the birds in the tree. At a certain point in the plot, the male singer would then "shoot down" all the cotton birds and put them in his bag. Having collected all the cotton balls, the performers would then move to the next house where they had been invited to perform, again receiving cotton as payment. (For more on the soh kep nok performance itself, see Shim- bhanao 1982-84).
13 Nineteenth-century paintings have been preserved at Wat Phumin in Nan and Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai.
14 Because during times of peace Chiang Tung and Chiang Mai were closely linked by trade as well as by cultural and linguistic similarities, I include these descriptions of Chiang Tung in the discussion of northern Thailand. Kun or Khynn is the name of the ethnic group living in the region around Chiang Tung (Keng Tung), many of whom were brought to Chiang Mai as war captives and resettled there.
15 Stringer wrote that Manchester chowls, "of which four different sizes are sold, fetch from Rs. 20 to Rs. 24 per corge of 20 pieces, and the Bombay goods, also sold in four sizes, fetch from Rs. 17 to Rs. 20 per corge" (1891). Chowl is another word for phaa nung. According to T. Carlisle's 1899 trade report, chowl was "the Indian name for the Siamese 'phalai' or 'paley,' that is the 'phaanung' or lower portion of the Siamese costume printed and furnished with a glaze" (1900). In other words, it was a length of printed cloth some three to four meters long. A possibly higher figure for the price per length was given by Alabaster, who suggested that if the British could manufacture sarongs to sell retail at about 4 to 6 shillings apiece, they might find a market in Thailand (1868). Since the rupee was valued at 13 pence in 1895, this would suggest a cost of 3.7 to 5.6 rupees per length. However, I have no figures with which to calculate the shilling/rupee exchange rate for 1868.
16 James Ingram has done a remarkable job of gathering wage labor rates for central Thailand (1964).
17 1t is interesting that while remarking on the indolence of the natives, Black commented that it was "not uncommon to find Khamoos working for foresters who had failed to pay their wages for 5-6 years" (1900).
18 Until the early part of the 20th century, the Burmese rupee (called the taep in northern Thai) was the dominant currency in northern Thailand. The Siamese (central Thai) baht only became the standard currency thereafter. The baht equaled 100 satang. The exchange rate between the Siamese baht and the Burmese rupee fluctuated but was about 80 to 90 satang per rupee (according to interviews and Archer 1895). Since a win equaled 12 satang, it was approximately equivalent to one-seventh of a rupee.
19 The significance of sumptuary laws is ambiguous. On the one hand, the presence of such laws suggests an elite strong enough to have them passed; on the other hand, it also suggests an elite whose status is being undermined. It has been argued that in England, where a variety of such laws were passed, they represented not the strength of the aristocracy but its weakness vis-à-vis the growing fiscal strength of the bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws have even been interpreted as the protectionist tactics of a local bourgeoisie protecting domestic production against foreign imports (see Hooper 1915). They have also been interpreted as paternalistic efforts by concerned governments to protect their citizens from profligacy (Phillips and Staley 1961).
21 Far more remains to be said about the raw materials needed for dyeing. For more on this and other dyes, see Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman (1987) and Fraser-Lu (1988). See Schneider (1976) for a fascinating discussion of the importance of dyes in the political economy of Europe.
22 A few of the traditional ordination pillows have survived. I saw one that was among a villager's last remaining unsold treasures; it had been made by his mother for his initiation. A triangular pillow made of black satin cloth, it had gold thread embroidered into a flower design at the points of the triangle.
23 Cloth that has been worn as a woman's phaa sin can be very powerful symbolically. Soldiers often wore pieces from their mothers' phaa sins to protect them in battle, with the idea that their mothers had done the most to give them life and would do the most to protect them. This symbolism becomes even more intriguing when considered in light of the famous myth of Queen Chamathevi. She wove pieces of a phaa sin into a hat for a suitor to ensure that his arrows would fall short of their mark and he would thus fail in his quest for her hand in marriage. The stratagem worked.
24 Textile production seems to have been a more important and more widespread part of the village household economy in northeastern than in northern Thailand. Consequently, I believe, cloth goods figured more prominently in wedding celebrations in the northeast.
26 The Pali word kathina means a piece of cloth that in former times was donated to a temple for making robes; alternatively, it means the wooden frame on which the cloth was traditionally sewn into robes (Davis 1984:200).
27 Even today kathin ceremonies are "most often sponsored by government agencies, private companies, and wealthy families" (Davis 1984:200).
28 The central Thai king, King Mongkut, wore robes of yellow silk while he was a monk (Feltus 1924:53).
Rich people didn't know how to spin or weave. They bought their clothes ready-made or hired other people to weave their cloth for them. Rich people were too lazy to weave for themselves. But some rich people were stingy; they wove their own clothes instead of hiring poor people.
30 lronically, Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman suggest that in the past "every woman owned at least one tin chok for special occasions" (1987:12). Because these borders required so much skill to weave and were so expensive to buy, I am quite skeptical of this claim. I think that only the wealthiest of villagers, or villagers who were themselves expert weavers, would have owned a tin jok.
31 Hildebrand did not specify how the slaves of the second chief were employed; however, we know from Bock's account that one of the second chief's wives had her slaves spin silk. Hildebrand wrote, "The second chief's source of income is not so calculable; he derives a good deal from the labor of his slaves, of whom, with his wives and children, he never has less than 600 under his roof, and the number outside would probably double this amount" (1875).
1868 Trade Report of Siam of 1867. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 46, 18 January. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1895 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1894). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 28 June.
1866 The Manners and Customs of the Cheang Mai Laos. Bangkok Recorder, 30 August.
1984 The Fashion System. M. Ward and R. Howard, trans. Berkeley: University of California Press. Benda, Harry J., and John A. Larkin, eds.
1967 The World of Southeast Asia: Selected Historical Readings. New York: Harper and Row.
1900 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1899). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 22 October.
1986 Temples and Elephants: Travels in Siam in 1881-1882. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1984 A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. R. Nice, trans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
1988 Peasant Perspectives on the Political Economy of the Northern Thai Kingdom of Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century: Implications for the Understanding of Peasant Political Expression. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Chicago.
1992 Unraveling the Myth of the Subsistence Economy: The Case of Textile Production in Nineteenth Century Northern Thailand. Journal of Asian Studies 15(4):797-823.
1976 Louis and the King of Siam. London: Chatto and Windus.
1980 Government Initiative and Peasant Response in the Siamese Silk Industry, 1901-1913. Journal of the Siam Society 68(2):34-47.
1983 Text, Play, and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and Society. Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. Washington, DC: American Ethnological Society.
1974 Aristocrats and Commoners in Rural Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Illinois.
1900 Trade Report of Siam (1899). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 16 October.
Cheesman, Patricia 1988 Lao Textiles: Ancient Symbols - Living Art. Bangkok: White Lotus Company.
1988 The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Clifford, James, and George E. Marcus, eds.
1986 Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
1987 An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
1886 Siam: The Heart of Farther India. New York: Anson D. F. Randolph.
1987 Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China. D. K. Wyatt, introd. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
1984 Muang Metaphysics: A Study of Northern Thai Myth and Ritual. Bangkok: Pandora.
1966 Village Life in Modern Thailand. Berkeley: University of California Press.
1923 The Tai Race: Elder Brother of the Chinese. Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch Press.
1875 [Journey to Chiang Mai]. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 62, 17 June. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1972 Ralph Fitch, Elizabethan in the Indies. New York: Barnes and Noble.
1924 Samuel Reynolds House of Siam: Pioneer Medical Missionary 1847-1876. New York: Fleming H. Revell.
1899 Laos Folklore of Farther India. New York: Fleming H. Revell.
1988 Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
1910 An Oriental Land of the Free. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
1984 The Partial Commercialization of Rice Production in Northern Thailand (1900-1981). Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, Cornell University.
1875 Report on Special Mission to Chiengmai. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 65, 15 February. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1982 Familiar Strangers: The Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
1915 The Tudor Sumptuary Laws. English Historical Review 30:433-449.
1964 Thailand's Rice Trade and the Allocation of Resources. In The Economic Development of Southeast Asia: Studies in Economic History and Political Economy. C. D. Cowan, ed. pp. 102-126. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
1971 Economic Change in Thailand, 1850-1970. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
1890 Trade Report of Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 18 October: 16.
1866 [Report of Expedition into Southern Laos and Camboja]. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 40, 31 May. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1860 Trade Report of Siam. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 21, 21 January. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1988 The Kings as Gods: Textiles in the Thai State. In Textiles as Primary Sources. Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Minneapolis Institute of Art, September 16-18. J. E. Vollmer, comp. pp. 78-85. St. Paul: Textile Society of America.
1990 Textile Exchange in T'ai Societies. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Thai Studies. Vol. 1. pp. 363-371. Kunming, China: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
1871 Journal kept by Captain Lowndes, Superintendent of Police, British Burma, whilst on a Mission to the Zimme Court, 27 March to 30 May 1871. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 55, 20 June. MS, Public Records Office, London.
1900 Surveying and Exploring in Siam. London: John Murray.
1836 [Journal of Captain McLeod]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London.
1962 Cloth and Its Function in the Inca State. American Anthropologist 64:710-728.
1965 The Golden Road to Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1990 Silver Challenge Cups and a Bronze Frog Drum: Colonialism and the Development of Teak Capitalism in Northern Thailand. M.A. thesis. Anthropology Department, Macquarie University.
1961 Sumptuary Legislation in Four Centuries. Journal of Home Economics 53 (8 October):673-677.
1987 Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao. Bangkok: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University.
1899a From Northern Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 11 September: 11.
1899b Pagoda Slaves. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 30 October.
1988 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
1829-36 [Journal of Dr. Richardson]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London.
1976 Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1978 Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
1885-86 [Journal of Sir Ernest Satow]. Public Record Office Series No. PR030/33 (21/1). MS, Public Records Office, London.
Savage, Victor R. 1984 Western Impressions of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Singapore University Press.
1976 Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colors. American Ethnologist 5:413-447.
1987 The Anthropology of Cloth. Annual Review of Anthropology 16:409-448.
1982-84 Lokhathat chaw laanaa syksaa cak soh kep nok (The Worldview of Lanna People Based upon Soh Kep Nok Songs). Sangkhomsaat 6(2):11-36.
1963 The Burman: His Life and Notions. New York: W. W. Norton.
1957 Fashion. American Journal of Sociology 62(6):541-558.
1891 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1890). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 16 May.
1892 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1891). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 24 June.
1987 Tattoos: Invulnerability and Power in Shan Cosmology. American Ethnologist 14:693-711.
1888-1930 Autobiography of Hugh Taylor. MS, Phayab College Library, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
1912 The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: B. W. Huebsch.
Weiner, Annette B., and Jane Schneider, eds.
1989 Cloth and Human Experience. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
1985 The Burma-Thailand Frontier over Sixteen Decades: Three Descriptive Documents. Monographs in International Studies Southeast Asia Series, No. 70. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies.
1888 Eighteen Hundred Miles on a Burmese Tat. London: W. H. Allen. |
0.80033 | At the beginning of the 20th Century, the United States Army was sorely pressed to meet its overseas commitments in Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. As a result, in 1901 Congress authorized 5 additional Regular Army Infantry regiments; the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th Infantry. All 5 regiments subsequently served the Army well. The 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry traces its lineage back to when it was first organized on 25 December 1900 in the Regular Army at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, as Company A, 1st Provisional Battalion of Infantry. It was consolidated on 7 February 1901 with Company A, 26th Infantry (which was first constituted on 2 February 1901 in the Regular Army), and consolidated unit designated as Company A, 26th Infantry.
The 26th Infantry began its life overseas in the Philippines and spent its first 20 years of service on deployments to the Southwest Pacific, the Mexican and Indian frontier and in Europe. It earned its first battle streamer during the Philippine Insurrection within 2 years of its forming as a unit.
After returning to the same location for another tour of duty (a habit the 26th Infantry Regiment would keep for the entire century), the 26th Infantry Regiment fought off Mexican bandits and settled disputes in the Indian Territory until it was selected as one of only 4 Regular Army Infantry Regiments deemed fit for immediate combat to form the 1st American Expeditionary Division in June of 1917. This expeditionary division would later be redesignated the 1st Division (and subsequently the 1st Infantry Division) and thus began ths 26th Infantry Regiment's long association with the Big Red One.
As part of the first American soldiers to arrive in France, the 26th Infantry Regiment immediately left for the front. Along with its sister regiments of the 1st Division, it earned more campaign streamers than any other regiments during the First World War, but at a terrible cost. Over 900 members of the Regiment their lives in a 6-month period. At Soisson alone, the regimental commander, executive officer, 2 of 3 battalion commanders and regimental sergeant major were killed in action. Sixty-two officers were killed or wounded and out of 3100 men that started the attack, over 1500 had been killed or wounded. The battle was won and this turned the tide for the Allies at a crucial period during the summer of 1918. By war's end, the soldiers earned 7 battle streamers and 2 foreign awards. It was also during this conflict that the Regiment's name, the "Blue Spaders" came into usage. The name referred to the Regimental shield, which consisted of the Mohawk arrowhead. Colonel Hamilton A. Smith selected this to represent the regimental spirit of courage, resourceful daring and relentless pursuit of an enemy.
Following a brief occupation duty in Germany, the regiment returned to the United States and served as a part of a smaller peacetime Army until 1941. In the 1920s and 30s, the unit's permanent home station became Plattsburg Barracks, New York. These years would involve training exercises and maneuvers along with the normal routines of garrison duty.
In 1941, the regiment once again stood with its sister regiments and prepared for war in Europe. In World War II, the 26th Infantry led America's first-ever amphibious assault in North Africa, fought at the Kasserine Pass, assaulted Sicily, invaded Normandy, conquered the first German city of the war at Aachen, vaulted the Rhine and attacked all the way to Czechoslovakia by war's end. The 26th Infantry Regiment conducted 3 amphibious assaults, and earned 7 battle streamers, a Presidential Unit Citation, and 5 foreign awards.
Beginning another occupation of Germany, the "Blue Spaders" were given the honor of bearing the United States National Colors at the Allied Victory in Europe parade, and were selected to serve as America's guard of honor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Thus began a lengthy stay in Germany, first as conquerors and later as friends and Allies.
The unit was reorganized and redesignated on 15 February 1957 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battle Group, 26th Infantry, and remained assigned to the 1st Infantry Division with its organic elements concurrently constituted and activated. It was relieved on 14 April 1959 from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division and assigned to the 8th Infantry Division.
Serving as a battle group in Europe in the early 1960s, the unit was attached to various Divisions. It was relieved on 24 October 1962 from assignment to the 8th Infantry Division and assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division. It was relieved on 15 February 1963 from assignment to the 2nd Infantry Division and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. It was then reorganized and redesignated on 13 January 1964 as the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry.
The Battalion rejoined the 1st Infantry Division shortly before receiving orders to deploy as a part of the Army's first divisional-sized unit in Vietnam in 1965. The "Blue Spaders" served longer in Vietnam with their "Big Red One" units than any other division. After 5 continuous years of combat the "Blue Spaders" received orders to return home in 1970 with 11 battle streamers, a Valorous Unit Award and 2 foreign awards for its colors.
At the conclusion of Vietnam, the Battalion returned to Germany as part of a forward-deployed brigade of the 1st Infantry Division. The unit was inactivated on 24 February 1983 in Germany and relieved from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division, when that Brigade returned to the United States.
The 26th Infantry was transfered to TRADOC on 3 April 1987, where the 26th Infantry's Regiments spent several years training recruits. The 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry was inactivated on 15 January 1996 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and withdrawn from the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.
On 16 February 1996, the Battalion rejoined the "Big Red One" in Germany only to send its soldiers to Bosnia as part of the first American forces to enter the Balkans from February to September 1996. The entire Battalion followed its initial deployment from October 1996 to April 1997. In March 1998, the "Blue Spaders" deployed again to the Balkans, this time to the Republic of Macedonia. Returning briefly in September 1998, the Battalion was the first unit alerted for deployment to Kosovo in June 1999. It returned in December 1999. During this period, the unit earned the Superior Unit Award streamer and the Defense of Kosovo streamer for the colors. Three of Task Force 1-26 Infantry's soldiers lost their lives in Kosovo.
In 2004 the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry deployed with other elements of the 1st Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following that deployment the unit was redesignated on 1 October 2005 as the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment.
After serving another tour of duty in Iraq in 2007, the unit was relieved on 16 March 2008 from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division and assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. This was part of the transformation of the 2nd Brigade to the US Army's modular force structure. 3rd Brigade Combat Team had perviously converted in 2006 and the 2nd Battalion, 26th Infantry was concurrently inactivated and reflagged as the 1st battalion, 26th Infantry.
In June 2008 the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, including the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The unit remained deployed in that country into 2009. |
0.99999 | Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter and plays a role in the regulation of muscle tone. As its name suggests, it is technically an amino acid. However, it is unique to what most people know as amino acids because the amino acids that we are familiar with are in an alpha configuration, whereas GABA is in a gamma configuration. Consequently, it is not incorporated into proteins.
Where Does GABA Come from?
GABA is synthesised naturally within our body and low concentrations can be found in animal and plant products (cherry tomatoes are a good source). However, generally speaking, the amount we eat in our diet is very low.
The potentially beneficial property of GABA is the theory that it may increase levels of hGH (human growth hormone) within the body. Human growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland and aids in lean tissue gain, reduction of fat mass, and increases bone density. There have been a few studies that have suggested that GABA supplementation has resulted in elevated levels of hGH. An earlier study found that a single 5 g dose of GABA significantly increased plasma hGH levels in three hours (Cavagnini et al, 1980). A more recent study has supported these findings, reporting that 3 g GABA supplementation increased hGH levels in men at rest and during exercise compared to a placebo (Powers et al, 2008).
No doubt, if GABA is effective in increasing hGH, this may be beneficial for bodybuilders. Powers et al (2008) stated that, "augmenting the postexercise irGH/ifGH response may improve resistance training-induced muscular adaptations", which simply means "increasing hGH may increase muscle gains".
Another effect of increased hGH is the benefit it has on reducing fat mass. Therefore, if GABA is effective in increasing hGH, it may be helpful for those wishing to lose fat. The efficiency of fat loss may be a result of the ability of hGH to stimulate muscle growth, and hence elevate resting metabolic rate to burn more fat.
One of the other reported effects of GABA is that is has a calming and relaxing effect. Consequently, it has also been used as a sleeping aid.
One criticism behind the rationale of GABA supplementation is that for GABA to work, it needs to find its way into the brain. However, GABA does not readily cross the blood brain barrier, so it may not be able to exert its effect on the pituitary gland. It seems that although GABA may be able to increase hGH, taking too much may actually have the opposite effect. A study has shown that a dose of 18 g/day for four days actually reduced hgH levels (Driskell & Wolinsky, 2009). The use of GABA appears to be safe. However it is not as well studied as some other supplements. Therefore, if you are pregnant, are on medications, or have any serious illnesses, consult your healthcare professional before commencing supplementation.
Due to the negative effect of high levels of GABA intake on hGH production, you should be wary of dosage, and make sure that you are not actually doing the opposite of what is intended. Studies have suggested that a 3 g dosage is adequate for promoting hGH production (Powers, 2008), and therefore is the recommended dosage. Because GABA may have a calming effect, it would be better to take the supplement an hour before bed, so it does not reduce your focus during the day.
GABA can be found as a pure stand-alone supplement.
Since GABA is a hGH promotant, it can be stacked with other hGH supplements. Here, they may work synergistically to provide different mechanisms to potentially boost your natural hGH levels. Additionally, since GABA is best taken at night, it could also be taken with a slow release night time protein, such as casein. However, if you are taking GABA purely as a sleep supplement, it may be better to do so on an empty stomach to promote rapid absorption. |
0.958827 | When the world says "Just Do It", I say "Just Don't Do It". Yes, there are several things that you should not just do it. The list of such things is never ending but here I will highlight some of them that are essential for your overall growth and success. Most of them are based on my personal experiences. |
0.989355 | Anyone has a recommended list of all equipment that require inspection prior to shipment?
I'm sure there are many other miscellaneous items that need inspection prior to shipment as well.
Instrumentations - Analyzers, Flowmeters, Gauges, Thermowells, Transmitters, etc.
Linings, Refractory Materials, Fireproofing,. Cladding and Weld Overlays, Protective Coatings, etc.
Special materials themselves also need multiple inspections by authorized inspectors before they can be shipped to the fabricators.
The Positive Material Identification (PMI) tests also need audit and review prior to be certified. |
0.961782 | Ronny Deila blamed a rutted, ploughed Hampden pitch for his side's failure to inflict League Cup embarrassment upon Rangers.
Denying they removed their feet from the pedal after the break Deila warned the SPFL the awful pitch wasn't good enough - and wrecked his team's efforts to play passing football.
Asked if he urged his players to consolidate their lead at half-time the Norwegian insisted: 'I didn't say that – I said to go for three.
'But we wanted to really go and just kill the game.
'But we killed it another way – we were solid at the back and kept them away from the goal.
'We wanted to attack more, but I have to make the excuse as well that we are a passing team and we had no chance to pass the ball on that pitch.
Relaid in the aftermath of the Commonwealth Games the surface at the National Stadium cut up badly during Dundee United;s victory over Aberdeen in the other semi on Saturday.
Urging Hampden plc and the SPFL to make sure the surface if repaired adequately before the first showpiece final of the season on March 15 Deila added: 'If you are going to develop Scottish football you need pitches you can play football on.
'If you are going to go four or five months with poor pitches all over the country then every game will be in the air.
'If you are talking about Champions League it's not even near.
'This is the national team's stadium – it has to be much better.
Delighted with his side's first half display – less so with the second – Deila savoured his first experience of an Old Firm derby.
'It can't be better. It was a very good day.
'There was an unbelievable atmosphere in the stadium.
The Celtic boss will now turn his attentions to transfer reinforcements today with an increased bid for Dundee United Stuart Armstrong expected.
A £1.5million offer was rejected on Friday and the midfielder would miss the League Cup Final, cup tied if he made the move.
Declining to expand Deila added: 'We want to add people tomorrow and keep everybody. We are now in the critical period. On Tuesday we will know the answer, which will be good for you and for me.
Celtic have also secured Tannadice winger Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract agreement in the summer and must decide whether to pay £250,000 to secure him now.
Bolton Wanderers could also launch a formal bid to sign Celtic goalscorer Kris Commons today, despite Deila insisting the 31-year-old is staying.
Celtic are also considering a move for South Korean free agent Kim Bo-Kyung. |
0.956648 | The 1932 NFL season was the 13th regular season of the National Football League. The Boston Braves (the current Washington Redskins) joined the NFL before the season, whereas the loss of the Providence Steam Roller, Cleveland Indians and Frankford Yellow Jackets dropped league membership to eight teams, the lowest in NFL history; the league also had eight teams in 1943 due to World War II.
Although the Green Bay Packers finished the season with 10 wins, the league title was determined at the time by winning percentage with ties excluded, so the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears finished the season tied for first place (6–1). Since both games between the teams ended in ties, the NFL arranged for the first ever playoff game to determine the NFL champion.
Extremely cold weather forced the game to be moved from Wrigley Field to the indoor Chicago Stadium. The makeshift football field in the stadium was only 80 yards long with undersized endzones, forcing officials to move the goal posts to the goal line due to a lack of space to put them at the back of the end zone, as was standard in college and professional football. This change was favored by players and fans, and the goal posts were moved to the goal line as one of several rule changes the league made in 1933, with the rule lasting until 1973.
The Bears won the playoff game 9–0, which was scoreless until the fourth quarter, and as the game counted in the final standings, the Spartans finished in third place. The Spartans became the Detroit Lions in 1934.
Because the Portsmouth Spartans and the Chicago Bears finished the season tied for first place, a playoff game was held to determine the NFL champion.
The league decreased to eight teams in 1932.
Following the 1932 season, the NFL would be split into two divisions (later two conferences), with the champions of each meeting in a championship game.
This was the result of the end of the 1932 season, where there was a tie for first in the standings at the end of the regular season: as tied games did not count until 1972, the Spartans record of 6–1–4 and the Bears record of 6–1–6 were taken to be six wins, one loss, giving both an .857 win percentage.
Had pure win-loss differential or the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half a win, half a loss been in place in 1932, the Packers' record of 10–3–1 (.750, +7) would have won them a fourth consecutive championship, ahead of the Spartans' 6–1–4 (.727, +5) and the Bears' 6–1–6 (.692, +5).
The Green Bay Packers were unbeaten (8–0–1) after nine games, and after the Thanksgiving weekend, their 10–1–1 record (.909) was still well ahead of Portsmouth at 5–1–4 (.833) and Chicago at 4–1–6 (.800).
In Week Twelve (December 4), the Spartans handed the Packers a 19–0 defeat, while the Bears beat the Giants 6–0. Portsmouth, at 6–1–4 (.857), took the lead, while the Packers (10–2–1) and the Bears (5–1–6) were tied for second (.833).
In Week Thirteen, the Bears hosted the Packers; a Green Bay win would have the Packers finish second with an 11–2–1 record (.846) and hand Portsmouth their first ever title. The Bears beat the Packers 9–0, meaning they finished 6–1–6, and tied for first in the standings with Portsmouth.
Though it was described as a "playoff", the Bears 9–0 win over Portsmouth on December 18 counted in the regular season standings. As such, the Bears finished at 7–1–6 (.875) and won the 1932 title, with the Packers runners-up, and the Spartans, at 6–2–4 (.750), finished third.
Kenneth "Ken" R. Wendt (January 29, 1910 – January 19, 1982) was an American football player, jurist, and politician.
Wendt was a guard for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League in 1932. He then served in the Illinois General Assembly and as a judge in Cook County, Illinois.
The National Football League champions, prior to the merger between the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) in 1970, were determined by two different systems. The National Football League was established on September 17, 1920, as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The APFA changed its name in 1922 to the National Football League, which it has retained ever since.From 1921 to 1931, the APFA/NFL determined its champion by overall win–loss record, with no playoff games; ties were not counted in the winning percentage total. The APFA did not keep records of the 1920 season; they declared the Akron Pros, who finished the season with an 8–0–3 (8 wins, 0 losses, 3 ties) record, as the league's first champions, by a vote of the owners, with the Buffalo-All Americans and Decatur Staleys also claiming the title. According to modern-tie breaking rules, the Buffalo All-Americans tied Akron for the championship. The Canton Bulldogs won two straight championships from 1922 to 1923, and the Green Bay Packers won three in a row from 1929 to 1931.There also has been controversy over the championshipships of the 1921 APFA season and the 1925 NFL season, with the Buffalo All-Americans laying claim to another championship in an incident known as the "Staley Swindle" and the Pottsville Maroons being stripped of their championship in 1925 for playing an exhibition game against college football powerhouse Notre Dame's famed Four Horsemen, leading to a last minute field goal victory for the Maroons, stunning the crowd and nation, and also put the NFL ahead of college football for the first time ever. These three disputed championships contributed to the beginning of the NFL's rich history.
The 1932 NFL season resulted in a tie for first place between the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans, and could not be resolved by the typical win–loss system. To settle the tie, a playoff game was played; Chicago won the game and the championship. The following year, the NFL split into two divisions, and the winner of each division would play in the NFL Championship Game. In 1967, the NFL and the rival AFL agreed to merge, effective following the 1969 season; as part of this deal, the NFL champion from 1966 to 1969 would play the AFL champion in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game in each of the four seasons before the completed merger. The NFL Championship Game was ended after the 1969 season, succeeded by the NFC Championship Game. The champions of that game play the champions of the AFC Championship Game in the Super Bowl to determine the NFL champion.The Green Bay Packers won the most NFL championships before the merger, winning eleven of the fifty championships. The Packers were also the only team to win three straight championships, an achievement they accomplished twice: from 1929–31 and from 1965–67. The Chicago Bears won a total of eight titles, and the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and New York Giants each won four. The Bears recorded the largest victory in a championship game, defeating the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game; six other title games ended in a shutout as well. The Philadelphia Eagles recorded two consecutive shutouts in 1948 and 1949. New York City hosted the most championship games (eight), while the highest-attended title game was the 1955 NFL Championship Game, where 85,693 fans showed up in Los Angeles to watch the Browns beat the Rams 38–14.
Staten Island () is one of the five boroughs of New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the southwest portion of the city, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With an estimated population of 479,458 in 2017, Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km2). The borough also contains the southern-most point in the state, South Point.
The borough is coextensive with Richmond County and until 1975 was referred to as the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.The North Shore—especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton and Stapleton—is the most urban part of the island; it contains the designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul's Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian houses. The East Shore is home to the 2.5-mile (4 km) F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest boardwalk in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement, developed rapidly beginning in the 1960s and 1970s and is now mostly suburban in character. The West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island. |
0.933844 | Garrapata macho en comparación con una cabeza de fósforo.
Garrapata ingurgitada pegada a la parte trasera de la cabeza de un niño. Se muestra el pulgar de un adulto como escala.
Las garrapatas pueden encontrarse en la mayoría de las zonas boscosas alrededor del mundo. Son muy comunes en áreas donde habitan cérvidos (ciervos) o en asentamientos humanos. Son especialmente abundantes en zonas aledañas a fuentes de agua, donde animales bajan a beber, y en praderas donde los arbustos proveen protección.
El parasitoide Ixodiphagus hookeri, una avispa de la familia Ichneumonidae ha sido ampliamente investigado por su potencial en el control de poblaciones de garrapatas. El modo en el que actúa es común a todas las avispas Ichneumonidas, y consiste en poner los huevos en el interior del huésped, para que, cuando los huevos eclosionen, se alimenten del huésped, matándolo. Otra forma de control biológico es por medio de las aves de la familia Numididae, las cuales consumen cuantiosas cantidades de garrapatas. Tan solo dos aves pueden llegar a limpiar 8090 m2 en un año.
Argasidae, que son las llamadas garrapatas blandas.
↑ «Q fever». Centers for Disease Control. Consultado el 7 de noviembre de 2010.
↑ Los Angeles County - Department of Health Services Vector Management Program. «Managing Common Tick Pests in Los Angeles County» (PDF). Consultado el 20 de mayo de 2009.
↑ Bernard E. Matthews (1998, reprinted 2001). «At home with the host». An introduction to parasitology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 96-120. ISBN 0-521-57691-1.
↑ Samuel, Bill: «White as a ghost: winter ticks and moose audio», artículo en Innovatio Alberta, n.º 145. Faculty of Science, University of Alberta, 23 de noviembre de 2004.
↑ Kirby C. Stafford III. «Tick Management Handbook» (PDF). Centers for Disease Control. Consultado el 7 de noviembre de 2010.
↑ Zahid Iqbal Rajput, Song-hua Hu, Wan-jun Chen,Abdullah G. Arijo & Chen-wen Xiao (2006). «Importance of ticks and their chemical and immunological control in livestock». Journal of Zhejiang University Science B 7 (11): 912-921. PMC 1635821. PMID 17048307. doi:10.1631/jzus.2006.B0912.
↑ Campbell, John B. (extension entomologist); Thomas, Gustave D. (entomology research leader): «Controllng ticks» (‘el control de las garrapatas’). University of Nebraska Lincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, mayo de 2006.
↑ a b c Stafford K. C.: Tick management handbook: an integrated guide for homeowners, pest control operators, and public health officials for the prevention of tick-associated disease. New Haven (Connecticut): The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 2004.
↑ [http://www.caes.state.ct.us «Deer reduction», pág. 46.
↑ Rand, Peter W.; Lubelczyk, Charles; Holman, Mary S.; Lacombe, Eleanor H.; y Smith Jr., Robert P. (2004). «Abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) after complete removal of deer from an isolated offshore island, endemic for Lyme disease». Journal of Medical Entomology 41 (4): 779-784. PMID 15311475. doi:10.1603/0022-2585-41.4.779.
↑ Mark L. Wilson, Anne M. Ducey, Thomas S. Litwin, Thomas A. Gavin & Andrew Spielman (1990). «Microgeographic distribution of immature Ixodes dammini ticks correlated with deer». Medical and Veterinary Entomology 4 (2): 151-159. PMID 2132979. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2915.1990.tb00273.x.
↑ «Deer-free areas may be haven for ticks, disease». Science Daily. 4 de septiembre de 2006.
↑ David Cameron Duffy, Randall Downer & Christie Brinkley (1992). «The effectiveness of Helmeted Guineafowl in the control of the deer tick, the vector of Lyme disease» (PDF). Wilson Bulletin 104 (2): 342-345. Archivado desde el original el 7 de octubre de 2009.
↑ «Hartz flea and tick drops for cats and kittens to be phased out», artículo en inglés en el sitio web de la EPA.
↑ Alberto A. Guglielmone, Richard G. Robbing, Dmitry A. Apanaskevich, Trevor N. Petney, Agustín Estrada-Peña, Ivan G. Horak, Renfu Shao & Stephen C. Barker (2010). «The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida) of the world: a list of valid species names» (PDF). Zootaxa 2528: 1-28.
↑ José de la Fuente (2003). «The fossil record and the origin of ticks (Acari: Parasitiformes: Ixodida)». Experimental and Applied Acarology 29 (3–4): 331-334. PMID 14635818. doi:10.1023/A:1025824702816.
Wikimedia Commons alberga una galería multimedia sobre Ixodida. |
0.969297 | When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, I immediately fell in love with its impressive battery life, and couldn't wait until they day when the same longevity would come to my Mac.
With the upcoming release of OS X Mavericks and the latest round of revisions to the company's laptop hardware, it looks like I (alongside, I suspect, many other Mac users) could finally get my wish, thanks to a few clever software tricks that have found their way into the latest incarnation of Apple's desktop operating system.
The obvious way to improve battery life in a laptop is to increase battery capacity and decrease the electrical consumption of the machine's hardware components, both goals that Apple has been pursuing zealously for some time by changing the way that its computers are manufactured.
For example, the introduction of the unibody design allowed the company to fit its computers with custom-molded batteries that provide superior capacity in a relatively compact space. The company also continues to adopt the latest technologies, like solid-state drives and Intel's newest CPUs, to make its hardware less power-hungry.
Hardware improvements, however, usually require sweeping technological changes, and are often at odds with users who demand computers that are ever more compact, lightweight, and powerful at the same time. Apple could easily double the longevity of the MacBook Air by tacking a couple extra pounds of batteries at the back--but such a move would be unlikely to go over well with either the design-conscious company or its consumers.
In addition to continuously tweaking its hardware, therefore, the company has also been investing in the software side of its products. Mavericks, due out later this fall, promises to introduce a few interesting technologies aimed at increasing the battery life of our computers.
The first, called App Nap, simply causes apps you're not actively using to receive less of the system's attention, reducing their power demands in the process.
When an app's windows are invisible and the app is not playing back audio, it enters "nap mode," at which point three things happen: First, its priority is reduced, decreasing the amount of active execution time that the CPU dedicates to it; second, its ability to access devices, such as the hard disk or the network, is throttled, limiting the power drain caused by input/output operations; and third, the app's timers are fired less frequently, causing it to become active only after longer intervals.
Together, these three techniques greatly reduce the demands that an inactive app makes on the system, which significantly reduces its power consumption. A collateral benefit is that more of the computer's capacity is reserved for the the currently active app, which becomes more responsive as a result.
Obviously, not all apps can work under these conditions. It would be absurd to be forced to, say, keep QuickTime Player in the foreground while it's encoding a video just to prevent it from being put into power-saving mode. For this reason, Mavericks allows individual programs to opt out of App Nap as needed.
RAM is always a precious resource. Because every app needs it, and because it needs to be very fast, having plenty of memory available is often crucial to ensuring optimum system performance.
In fact, RAM is so important that most operating systems extend a computer's hardwired memory by storing it on the hard drive as needed. This virtual memory, as it's called, ensures a nearly unlimited supply of memory, but at the cost of increased hard-disk activity and reduced performance.
Mavericks extends the concept of virtual memory by introducing a new technique called Compressed Memory. As its name implies, this system works by transparently compressing the portions of RAM that, though nominally in use, are not actively employed by any app. Doing this increases the free memory available to the system without requiring disk swapping.
Because the algorithm used to compress the memory is very efficient, this process is much faster than traditional disk swapping--and, because it requires fewer trips to the hard disk, it also ends up saving more power by preventing the physical disk from spinning up and down continuously. As an added bonus, computers that use SSDs will also incur less wear and tear, which will increase the longevity of their hardware components.
Apple's third power-saving technique relies on the fact that almost all apps schedule tasks to occur at specific intervals in the background by using a software construct called a timer. Because apps have no way of coordinating with each other, these timers fire in an often chaotic way, continually forcing the CPU to exit power-saving mode, execute a few lines of code, and then go back to sleep.
With Mavericks's Timer Coalescing feature, when a computer is running on battery power, the operating system will automatically aggregate timers that are scheduled to fire within a short time of each other and execute them concurrently, thus reducing the number of times the system is forced to enter and exit power-saving mode and increasing the time it spends idling (during which power consumption is at a minimum).
Apple has long told developers that they shouldn't count on the absolute accuracy of a timer, noting that many external conditions, such as system load, could delay (or even accelerate) their firing in unpredictable ways. Therefore, Timer Coalescing should work right out of the box, without requiring programmers to tweak their code.
In addition to these sweeping under-the-hood changes to the upcoming version of OS X, Safari 7 features a new Power Saver feature that keeps plug-ins disabled until the user needs them. Thus, for example, if you open a webpage that contains one or more Flash movies, the browser will show a static preview instead of launching a movie automatically. Clicking the preview activates the plug-in, but if you don't click it, the plug-in won't consume any additional power.
Media playback is also getting a few tweaks. According to Apple, iTunes will take greater advantage of the hardware acceleration provided by a Mac's GPU, reducing the amount of power needed to watch movies and play music by as much as 35 percent.
Finally, the upcoming version of OS X will also be able to take better advantage of the Haswell processor's support for firing up and boosting the clock speed of individual cores, ensuring that each core is fully utilized before a new one is brought online and allowed to eat up more power.
Altogether, the power-management features in Mavericks paint a picture of an operating system in which great care as been taken to squeeze every last drop of battery performance out of both hardware and software.
The nature of the changes, however, is as interesting as their effects. Many of the power-saving techniques in Mavericks are borrowed from other vendors--for example, Windows has long supported timer coalescing (although as an opt-in technology), and Safari extensions like ClickToFlash can already be used to prevent plug-ins from draining CPU resources and battery life unless called upon by the user.
Their systematic inclusion in the operating system, however, highlights Apple's knack for thinking laterally and making iterative improvements; as a result, almost every user will experience a dramatic improvement in battery life and system responsiveness without ever having to worry about what goes on under the hood--exactly the kind of experience we've come to expect (and love) from our Macs.
Even better, we can expect Apple's enthusiasm for power saving to trickle down to third-party developers, who will be encouraged to discover new ways to tweak their software's power consumption. This could produce a virtuous circle that would finally make disappointing battery life a thing of the past, and allow for even thinner and more-efficient computers--without requiring us all to wait for the next technological breakthrough. |
0.992171 | Not to be confused with Subsidiary or subsidy.
This article is about the general principle of subsidiarity, with particular reference to European Union law. For the Catholic social teaching, see Subsidiarity (Catholicism).
Subsidiarity is perhaps presently best known as a general principle of European Union law.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as "the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level". The concept is applicable in the fields of government, political science, neuropsychology, cybernetics, management and in military command (mission command). Subsidiarity is a general principle of European Union law. In the United States of America, the principle of States' Rights is enshrined in the constitution. Although the principle is older, its expression in the term "subsidiarity" was first coined in 1891 by the Roman Catholic Church for its social teaching.
The OED adds that the term "subsidiarity" in English follows the early German usage of "Subsidiarität". More distantly, it is derived from the Latin verb subsidio (to aid or help), and the related noun subsidium (aid or assistance). The concept as discussed here was first described formally in Catholic social teaching. Coupled with another Christian democratic principle, sphere sovereignty, subsidiarity is said to have led to the creation of corporatist welfare states throughout the world.
Alexis de Tocqueville's classic study, Democracy in America, may be viewed as an examination of the operation of the principle of subsidiarity in early 19th century America. De Tocqueville noted that the French Revolution began with "a push towards decentralization ... in the end, an extension of centralization". He wrote that "Decentralization has, not only an administrative value, but also a civic dimension, since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, persnickety freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if it were supported by an impersonal, collective will."
As Christian Democratic political parties were formed, they adopted the Catholic social teaching of subsidiarity, as well as the neo-Calvinist theological teaching of sphere sovereignty, with both Protestants and Roman Catholics agreeing "that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity boiled down to the same thing".
Will the American people never learn that, as a principle, to expect swift response and efficiency from government is fatuous? Will we never heed the principle of subsidiarity (in which our fathers were bred), namely that no public agency should do what a private agency can do better, and that no higher-level public agency should attempt to do what a lower-level agency can do better – that to the degree the principle of subsidiarity is violated, first local government, the state government, and then federal government wax in inefficiency? Moreover, the more powers that are invested in government, and the more powers that are wielded by government, the less well does government discharge its primary responsibilities, which are (1) defence of the commonwealth, (2) protection of the rights of citizens, and (3) support of just order.
Decentralization, or decentralising governance, refers to the restructuring or reorganisation of authority so that there is a system of co-responsibility between institutions of governance at the central, regional and local levels according to the principle of subsidiarity, thus increasing the overall quality and effectiveness of the system of governance, while increasing the authority and capacities of sub-national levels.
Systemic failures of the type seen in the crash of 2007/08 can largely be avoided, since diverse solutions to common problems avoid common mode failure.
Individual and group initiative is given maximum scope to solve problems.
The systemic problem of moral hazard is largely avoided. In particular, the vexing problem of atrophied local initiative/responsibility is avoided.
When a genuine principle of liberty is recognised by a higher political entity but not all subsidiary entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level.
When a genuinely efficacious economic principle is recognised by a higher political entity, but not all subsidiary entities, implementation of that principle can be delayed at the more local level.
In areas where the local use of common resources has a broad regional, or even global, impact (such as in the generation of pollutants), higher levels of authority may have a natural mandate to supersede local authority.
Subsidiarity is perhaps presently best known as a general principle of European Union law. According to this principle, the EU may only act (i.e. make laws) where action of individual countries is insufficient. The principle was established in the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht. However, at the local level it was already a key element of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, an instrument of the Council of Europe promulgated in 1985 (see Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Charter) (which states that the exercise of public responsibilities should be decentralised). Subsidiarity is related in essence to, but should not be confused with, the concept of a margin of appreciation.
A more descriptive analysis of the principle can be found in Protocol 2 to the European Treaties.
The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg is the authority that has to decide whether a regulation falls within the exclusive competence[a] of the Union, as defined by the Treaty of European Union and its predecessors. As the concept of subsidiarity has a political as well as a legal dimension, the Court of Justice has a reserved attitude toward judging whether EU legislation is consistent with the concept. The Court will examine only marginally whether the principle is fulfilled. A detailed explanation of the legislation is not required; it is enough that the EU institutions explain why national legislation seems inadequate and that Union law has an added value.
Furthermore, in the fifth recital the Parliament and the Council stated that the action taken by the Member States in response to the Commission's Recommendation has not fully achieved the desired result. The Community legislature therefore found that the objective of its action could not be achieved sufficiently by the Member States.
Consequently, it is apparent that, on any view, the Parliament and the Council did explain why they considered that their action was in conformity with the principle of subsidiarity and, accordingly, that they complied with the obligation to give reasons as required under Article 190 of the Treaty. An express reference to that principle cannot be required.
^ Oxford English Dictionary. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/subsidiarity Definition: "[mass noun] (in politics) the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level:"
^ Early German usage: Subsidiarität(1809 or earlier in legal use; 1931 in the context of Catholic social doctrine, in §80 of Rundschreiben über die gesellschaftliche Ordnung ("Encyclical concerning the societal order"), the German version of Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931))".
^ "Das Subsidiaritätsprinzip als wirtschaftliches Ordnungsprinzip", Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und soziale Ordnung. Degenfeld-Festschrift, Vienna: von Lagler and J. Messner, 1952, pp. 81–92 , cited in Helmut Zenz, DE .
^ Bak, Hans; Holthoon, F. L. van; Krabbendam, Hans; Edward L. Ayers (1 January 1996). Social and Secure?: Politics and Culture of the Welfare State: a Comparative Inquiry. VU University Press. ISBN 9789053834589. The Christian democrats promoted a corporatist welfare state, based on the principles of the so-called "sphere sovereignty" and "subsidiarity" in social policy.
^ Schmidt, Vivien A, Democratizing France: The Political and Administrative History of Decentralization, p. 10 .
^ Segell, Glen (2000). Is There a Third Way?. Glen Segell Publishers. p. 80. ISBN 9781901414189. When the Dutch Protestant and Catholic parties combined, to form the Christian Democrats, the two parties agreed that the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity boiled down to the same thing.
^ Reid Buckley, An American Family – The Buckleys, Simon & Schuster, 2008, p. 177.
^ Decentralization: A Sampling of Definitions, Joint UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)-Government of Germany evaluation of the UNDP role in decentralization and local governance, at the United Nations Development Programme website, October 1999, pp. 2, 16, 26.
^ a b Macrory, Richard, 2008, Regulation, Enforcement and Governance in Environmental Law, Cameron May, London, p. 657.
^ Shelton, Dinah (2003). "The Boundaries of Human Rights Jurisdiction in Europe". Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law. Duke University School of Law. 13 (1): 95–154. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
^ Protocol 2 to the European Treaties.
^ Exclusive competencies are those matters that the member states have agreed with each other by treaty are those that they should achieve jointly (typically through the European Commission). All other matters remain as "national competences" (each member decides its own policy independently). International trade agreements are an example of the former, taxation is an example of the latter.
Look up subsidiarity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
This page was last edited on 7 September 2018, at 21:45 (UTC). |
0.999914 | Why is the Coptic Pope based in Cairo and not Alexandria?
Shouldn't the Coptic Pope be based in Alexandria, seeing as we call the His Holiness the Pope of "Alexandria"? And the Coptic Church is called the Church of "Alexandria"? I know there exists the Historical Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria but why is the Pope based in the Cathedral in Cairo?
Why and when did this change occur?
The change as made when Cairo became the capital of Egypt. As for when was it done, i'll leave that to someone else to find.
Cairo was built in second half of the 10th century, by the Fatimite Khalif El-Muez LeDin Allah (later baptized in the monastery of Abu Seifen after the Mukatam miracle).
It was built in place of existing "cities" like El-Fustat and El-Kata'3, which were more of camping sites of the islamic armies and the residence place of the arab rulers, and had been the center of political power since the arab invasion.
Cairo became the capital of the Fatimite State in North Africa and the Levant and as such of increasing political importance, which led the 70th Pope Gabriel II (known as Ibn Turek) to officially annex Cairo to Alexandria under his jurisdiction in his papacy (1131 -1145 a.d.). Pope Gabriel II annexed Cairo after the death of her Bishop, Youaness Ibn Senhout.
There are indications that Pope Gabriel II was not the first Pope to try to move to Cairo, but he was the first successful Pope in his attempt.
The residence of all subsequent Popes has been a church in Cairo.
Interestingly enough, the famous theologian and Bishop Boulous El-Boushy in the 13th century, is sometimes referred to as Bishop of Cairo (Egypt) or Babylon (the ancient fortress near Cairo). It is not known whether Babylon was considered outside the geographic limits of diocese of Cairo, but is not likely. It is equally unlikely that Pope Kyrillos III would give up any territory to another bishop, even if it his close friend.
The same is with patriarch of Serbia.
In middle ages his see was town of Pec but when the Turks invaded Serbia after several centuries the see was moved. And that happend two times.
Now Serbian patriarch in his title has that he is archbishop of Pec, but he resides 500km north, in Belgrade.
Several dioceses of Serbian church also in their name has one see, but bishop resides in another.
I believe the Pope is stretched too thin. Covering Cairo, Alexandria, all the areas in the States without a diocesan Bishop seems to be too much. It would seem very difficult if not impossible to provide effective oversight with such a wide span of control.
But the pope is not alone. In the US, he has a patriarchal exarch for North America through Bishop David, a patriarchal exarch for the Eritreans in the US through Bishop Macarius, a suffragan diocese of Virgina through Bishop Michael, and 2 diocese with their respective bishops. He also has general bishops doing work in the US.
In Cairo, there are 12 general bishops who are either suffragan bishops or assistants to the patriarchal throne in Cairo. He also has a patriarchal vicar in Cairo through Hegumen Sergios Sergios.
"Stretched too thin" is a very subjective quality. What exactly is too thin? Are 5 bishops in the US not enough that Pope Tawadros is doing the work himself? Praise God who sent us a shepherd with such vigor and enthusiasm and heart. May God give our pope the strength to do His will always, regardless of where the pope resides.
Complex issues and decisions have still required the involvement of the Pope in some of the areas that you mention that are technically in the Pope's diocese but overseen by bishops.
Sometimes the bishops may even defer the issue entirely to the Pope and ask the church in question to take the issue up with the Pope directly. In the meantime the bishops may avoid visiting or contacting the church in question to avoid getting involved in a situation they feel should only be addressed by the Pope.
Here is where situations can deteriorate. By the time a church is able to actually contact and communicate with the Pope, months if not years usually pass and situations can spiral out of control. A simple issue that could have been resolved with early intervention can be disastrous if left to fester. And this has happened more than once.
HG Bishop Youssef and I believe HG Bishop Serapion visit each church in their diocese at least twice a year if not more and are in constant contact with priests and congregation. They are able to keep tabs on the churches in their diocese. They also have the authority to address issues and make decisions complex or otherwise. I am not so sure the churches in the areas you mention benefit from the same type of regular oversight and ability to sucessfully resolve problems swiftly.
HH Pope Tawadros has shown wisdom in his managerial style and I am confident he will structure church leadership in a way that is most effective - not necessarily the way it was in the past. Just as HH Pope Shenouda showed wisdom in assigning diocesan bishops such as Bishop Serapion and Bishop Youssef, I am sure HH Pope Tawadros will continue to structure leadership effectively.
I think people's issue is that these bishops are all general bishops, and so the Pope is the ultimate diocesan bishop. Since these general bishops cannot ordain their own priests and thus have their authority derived from the Pope, this effectively gives the Pope control over them, giving him control of the Holy Synod (he can count on the votes of the general bishops under his control), and thus moving towards a Roman Catholic monarchal model of the papacy. In ancient times, the bishop of Alexandria was first among equals in Egypt, and still only had one vote in the Synod. Now he effectively has the votes of 30 general bishops plus himself.
Note: this is not personal, I am not saying that Pope Tawadros, or any other previous popes were wrong, I'm just saying that the principle is wrong.
You are right, but it is clear that this will be the hierarchy model for the foreseen future of the Coptic Church.
i have to ask...what would those 'votes' of the general bishops count towards?! ya3ny isn't each of them STILL have their own voice and authority as a bishop in the holy synod. if each diocese only have one bishop vote int he Holy Synod....what about the dioceses that are being broken up more and more through the years as the congregation increases.....is that 'vote' broken up into little parts to?!
Theoretically the general bishops have their own vote of course, but realistically and practically they are not going to go against the Pope, as he is their boss (you do what your boss tells you). It is unheard of until now for a bishop to have a boss.
I don't get the second part of your statement. If dioceses are being broken up, it means that more diocesan bishops are being ordained, and I can see no reason why a full diocesan bishop shouldn't have a vote.
so it's not that a bishop has a vote, it's a diocese bishop.....kool!!!
Actually, in regards to the magisterial model of the Catholic church, I actually heard Metropolitan Pachomious actually say that our church legislation was governed by the magesterium! I was extremely upset that because of the model of leadership which we have experienced, even the teaching of the church fathers has changed to a western ideology.
I see exactly what you are saying but I think it will be different with HH Pope Tawadros. You see, Pope Shenouda ordained myriads of bishops, in some cases general bishops and in some cases he split up other dioceses. He typically ordained people who he knew that their line of thinking was more similar to the "Sunday School movement." This is the first thing. Secondly, most Bishops whom he ordained were his children, or became his children, and felt a deep sense of duty/fidelity to him, not wanting to upset/diagree with him. So yes, Pope Shenouda's synod was clearly a magesterium, and as the head of the magesterium, he had control over the synod.
And I also agree that general bishops should not be given a vote in the synod. Who are they representing? Themselves? Scripture and tradition in the Orthodox church have always grown out of community. But where is the community in Anba Labomba who takes care of the Pope's limousine having a vote in the synod? He represents no-one. If he does represent a group of people, why not just give him the diocese?
This is of course, my opinion.
Qawe, I think your statement is your opinion. But if you think it is fact then the burden of proof is on you to verify its veracity. Do you have any actual evidence that no general bishop would ever or has ever disagreed and voted against the Pope? Do you have any actual evidence that no diocese bishops has ever consistently voted with the pope simply because they did not want to disagree with the pope? You might be correct about general bishops. But we should avoid generalization without actual evidence.
I agree with you that realistically, no one will publicly disagree and fight against the Pope. However, the Synod is neither setup as a pure democracy, nor a a tyrannical monarchal aristocracy. In a democracy, theoretically each person has equal weight in a vote and they are always free to express their views. A monarchal aristocracy, on the other hand, cares nothing for individual freedom. There is no voting in a monarchy. If it was, what's the point of voting at all? The same is true for the Synod. What is the point of voting, if all the bishops were not encouraged to express their views and opinions in ecclesiastical matters through their vote?
(you do what your boss tells you).
I own a business. I am the boss in my office. I can tell you for sure, I would fire an employee who is just a "yes man" and hire someone who has the confidence and courage to keep me inline for the wellness of the business. Any boss will tell you, unless you work in a crappy job that requires no thinking, no good business just wants to mindless employees. They want people who can increase production. They want a person who takes initiative, thinks for themselves and finds solutions (even if it is not what the boss normally expects).
It is unheard of until now for a bishop to have a boss.
Is it unheard of that a bishop is part of a hierarchal system where he is equal among brothers yet all are servants to Christ? Has not Christ been the boss (called Master in liturgical and scriptural language) of all the bishops all along?
Effective leadership brings many moving parts inline to one direction. The moving parts choose not to challenge their leader in every decision if there is positive results. The only ones who question a leader or a leader's system, are (1) those outside the system and (2) those who see negative results or failure. Are we outside the Synod's system or jurisdiction? Is the Synod failing in their job to shepherd Christ's people? Then why do we really care how general bishops vote?
Thank you Remnkemi for your non-polemical reply (not that I expected a polemical reply from you.
However, the Synod is neither setup as a pure democracy, nor a a tyrannical monarchal aristocracy. In a democracy, theoretically each person has equal weight in a vote and they are always free to express their views.
Why should every bishop not have equal weight in a vote? Are they not equal?
What is the point of voting, if all the bishops were not encouraged to express their views and opinions in ecclesiastical matters through their vote?
As a vestige of the past, when bishops were encouraged to express their views and opinions. There is no point in voting if there is a monarchal papacy.
Of course Christ is the head of the church including the bishops. That is what I am arguing for, against what has happened in that we have moved towards the Roman Catholic model where the Pope is the Head of the Church, being Christ's representative on Earth.
You mention 'equal among brothers'. How are they equal if a general bishop cannot ordain priests?
While the Pope is the leader, insofar as he is the chair of the Synod, he is not the decision maker, as is suggested in the bolded part of your post. As first among equals, his position is analogous to that of the See of Rome in the early Church. Thus, he is not their leader in the context of making decisions, such that an opposing opinion should be deemed a 'challenge'.
You are a lot more thoughtful and philosophical than me, so it is possible that I may have misunderstood some of your points. If so, please forgive me.
Qawe, sorry for the late response. Let's discuss this more.
Theoretically, every bishop or every citizen of a governing body should have an equal vote. But no actual democratic system is setup this way. Why? Problems arise. Look at the US presidential process. Every American citizen over 18 is allowed to vote. But the President is not elected by popular votes. He is elected by the electoral college - who legally can vote against their respective popular vote. It has happened about 150 times in the past for many reasons. If the President was elected by popular vote only, a large state with many territories but few people will be counted as a small state with many people. So the founding fathers choose to construct a system whereby each state is represented by an electoral college, regardless of territory. This system makes some states more influential than others. Are not all states equal to the federal government? Yes, in honor but not in particular situations where blind equality would cause problems.
I think the Synod has established a similar hierarchical system. All bishops are equal in honor but not in duties. The general bishop system was assumingly setup to avoid certain problems. Regardless of how fair or untraditional this general bishop system is, it is the system in place. It is still a "democratic" theocratic system (better than a lot of other systems out there). I understand many feel the system will inevitably transform into a theocratic electoral college like the Roman Catholic Church. Probably not. But even if it were to become reality, what is the harm if the system works? What is the harm if changing our system brings better results? If the Synod allows these changes, it must be for a good reason. I would go so far and say unless these changes result in heresy (which by definition is a failed system) it is the Holy Spirit who wants the changes.
This is assuming there is a monarchical system in place. During the nomination process, Bishop Paula interviewed then Bishop Tawadros and specifically wanted him to comment on this misconception. Pope Tawadros' response was along the lines of "There is no competition. There is no 'my way or the highway.' The Pope is servant before he is master." (I'm paraphrasing a few interviews).
Sometimes bishops who discuss their dissatisfaction on certain matters will address it privately with the patriarch. If an amicable solution is not achieved in private, I think any bishop would vote against the majority if this said bishop had valid concerns (ie, pertaining to the specific issue of the vote). I think any bishop is encouraged to express his concerns. I think the majority of issues are resolved privately and when a vote is required in the synod, there is usually no disagreement. I may be naive, but I think this is what has routinely happened in the past.
When Christ chose His disciples, he gave them all equal authority to loose and bind people's sin. There's the equality. However, Christ didn't let all 12 disciples lean on His chest. He gave all His disciples the power to see signs and wonders along with all the people, yet He chose three to see Him transfigured into light. There are so many examples of "preceived favoritism" which isn't favoritism at all. It's a foreshadowing of a hierarchical system of duties and glories. In 1 Corinthians 15, St Paul further stresses this "unity with distinction" in glory and duties. "All flesh is not the same flesh [distinction], but there is one kind of flesh of men [unity], another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies [unity]; but the glory of the celestial is one [distinction], and the glory of the terrestrial is another [distinction]." There is unity and distinction. Both celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies are both created bodies. But there is distinct glory for each. There is distinction because the role of each is needed in God's divine providence. This is what St Paul meant when he said, "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual." Again, a hierarchical system (in this case, a chronological hierarchy) is setup with a purpose. What is that purpose in this case? "As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man." The prior duty of earthly life is to lead to death which leads to spiritual eternal life. There is a distinction in duties.
Does this mean we are moving to a system where the Pope is the head of the Church? No. It will never happen in the Orthodox Church. But we should not discourage a system of solidarity with distinction because it is biblical and traditional.
I didn't use the proper words to express my thoughts. My comments were not meant to imply the leader has exclusive decision making authority. Actually, the opposite is implied. Let me put it this way. Leadership by definition is a process where decisions are catalyzed into positive change and improvements. The leader brings about change. His authority as a leader, depending on the hierarchical system again, may or may not involve exclusive or absolute decision making. Most leaders, at least for corporations, simply propose an idea and the board of directors has the final authority for the decision. This leader may not even be part of the board but he is the catalyst that brings about the change. What I meant to focus on was effective leadership. If that leader is really, really effective the board will choose not to challenge the requested change. That doesn't mean the board relinquished decision making authority. It doesn't mean that a challenge to the proposed plan is seen as a challenge to authority. It doesn't mean that any opposing opinion is a challenge to the leader. It simply means the board of directors is so attuned with the leader that they always agree.
The bolded section excluded the first part of the sentence that confirms this line of thought: "The moving parts choose not to challenge". It doesn't mean the moving parts have lost their authority or that any opposition challenges the validity of the leader. The leader will always be the leader if he is effective in bringing positive improvements.
I am the least of all of you. I come here to learn from all of you. There is no need to apologize for constructive criticism and open discussion.
My prayers are for our church and leadership that it continues in peace delivering us to Christ through the Holy Spirit. |
0.995939 | Google-owned Waymo has operated its public pilot in Phoenix, Arizona, dubbed the Early Rider Program, for just over a year. In that time, the service has picked up about 400 regular riders in the area, and it's brought the total real-world miles driven by Waymo's entire fleet to about 24,000 per day. Most of these riders are very young, very elderly, disabled, or otherwise unable to drive on their own. In order to get a better understanding of what people think of self-driving cars and how the technology could fit into everyday life once it goes mainstream, Waymo gathered data from its Early Rider Program participants and put out the graph seen below and an accompanying report that breaks down the data.
According to Waymo's data, there have been over 20,000 applicants for a ride in the program in total, up from about 6,000 on the first day. Most of the Early Rider Program's accepted riders used the service as transportation to work. Restaurants were the next most popular destination, followed by schools. Bars and spas were also common, and many used the service to get to the shop where their disabled car was waiting for them, which often meant exiting the program after the car was fixed up. Using the service to get to the supermarket and do your shopping was surprisingly low on the list of most popular destinations, with only electronics stores and gyms falling behind it within the confines of the top ten destinations. Waymo's data indicates that applicants cited two main reasons, on the whole, for applying; they wanted to see the new technology firsthand, and they wanted to help foster a safer future on the roads.
The Early Rider Program has made it quite clear that people have a diverse range of reasons for trusting and desiring the advancement of self-driving car technology. One rider witnessed a fatal car accident and didn't want to drive anymore, while another rider wants to take in her local neighborhood without focusing on driving, to name just a couple of cases that Waymo outed. Thanks to the data found in the program thus far, Waymo is working on a few key goals to make the service easier to use, including making it easier for riders to contact Waymo, and getting cars as close as possible to the places where riders want to be picked up, helping them avoid a long walk to a pickup spot. |
0.744308 | In this world I'm working on, magic is extremely bound by the laws of physics. Magic is explicable through science, and many people study it. The study of magic itself is like studying physics; the study of applied magic is like engineering. I like to think of magic as behaving similar to electromagnetism. Humans emit electromagnetic radiation naturally, but it would be very unnatural if a human suddenly could shoot out a bolt of lightning, or if they could use their bare hands to power a circuit.
In a world like that, where magic is akin to electromagnetism, how would a civilized society react to individuals capable of magical feats? Note that these mages would be incredibly rare--perhaps 1 for every 750,000.
Society would view this as a threat and eliminate it entirely.
Society, already advanced in studying magic, wishes to learn more and wants to determine if the condition can be induced onto others.
Society finds a means of using their abilities to conduct war and trains them as soldiers.
I can see a lot of possibilities. I want to know: which possibility, of the ones above or otherwise, is the most realistic one to occur, and why?
1: Does magic run in families or is it totally random?
Let's say that it is beyond the scope of genetics. It is not inherited. No single race or ethnicity is more likely than another to have mages appear. Mages may also appear in animals, but the scope of ability is limited based on physical constraints. A cow's magic is different than a human's.
2: Is it a recent thing? Did mages start appearing like X-Men or have they always been?
It is not a recent thing, but it gets more noticeable as time goes on due to ease of communication amongst people. Additionally, since the probably of being born a mage remains the same throughout time, having an increased population means the likelihood of mages appearing also increases over time.
3: Do mages have any historical organization/guild/power base?
I doubt this largely because of how rare it is, though I can see these emerging as time goes on, for reasons stated in 2.
4: Just how powerful are they? World shattering, city shattering or small country village shattering?
This I believe varies greatly depending on the individual. While some mages may only be able to, say, cause light to emerge from their hands, others may very well be capable of devastating offensive tactics. That said, since I do want magic to be at least partially tied down to a scientific study, I wouldn't imagine an individual capable of destroying the world. For cities, it'd likely have to be a small one. Humans have limits, and as such human mages also have limits.
All three. Here in the US you would likely get all three in one country. The average person would probably fear them, some would find them fascinating, elevating them to the level of super-stars, 'scientists' would want to study them, and governments would want to control them and use them as a threat or worse.
Re the answers: since they've existed historically I'd say that puts them in a different light. Mages aren't going to be in competition with governments: historically they've been governments or a major part of the power base of governments.
But no dynasties since it doesn't run in families. If it did then mages would be the dominant group with almost all royal families being very magical.
In fact I can imagine that history would look very different. Before the invention of guns/sniper rifles mages would have been the dominant force in any war. Since it's totally random and 99% of the population would have been dirt poor every generation almost all of the most powerful people in the world would would have risen from poverty to the heights of power. Any nobility that abused the poor would be facing a new ruler who had been born in poverty within a few decades.
Social mobility is going to look quite different and there's unlikely to have been a history of long-term royal lines. Indeed such a world is likely to have been far more egalitarian out of practical and justified fear, any big country is going to produce a few mages and most will be born the children of peasants.
For stability it's likely that mages will seek out others like themselves to form some kind of guild in order to get some kind of continuity of power and to make sure their grandkids aren't slaughtered by the next generation of mages.
2 and 3 are certain though whether mages are the ones controlling it is uncertain.
Finding mages at a young age when they can still be indoctrinated will have become part of the culture but they'll have been scooped out of the regular population so predictably that social views towards them would probably be highly negative.
A countries mages are likely to be viewed as a major military asset but if they've been part of the system for many centuries they're likely to have status as well.
Also there will be a lot of chicken mages. Worldwide over 50 billion chickens bred every year so that well over 50,000 chicken-mages. If their power can be tapped it will be.
A civilised society would probably become a mix of scared, angered, confused, curious, interested and intrigued. Here are the reasons for each of these: Scared/angered because this magic could easily be misused (depending on how destructive this feat of magic was). Confused/curious/interested because of what just happened (depending on what exactly happened though). Intrigued because of the abnormality of what just happened (depending on how dramatic this magic was).
Another thing that would probably happen is if the police equivalent in your society (assuming there is a police equivalent) are there during the feat there will probably be actions taken to restrict the person who did the magic (again depending on how dramatic and how destructive this magic was) to ensure safety of the public. What exactly would happen to the person after that would mostly depend on what sort of police exists in your society (are the police more aggressive and brutal or are they more calm), how dramatic and destructive this magical feat was and what the witnesses say as well as the "magic guy"'s attitude/reaction towards the police.
If the police weren't there at the time but were notified about it by a decent amount of people then an investigation would probably take place. If the police are ultra brutal and aggressive then they might take a much more direct approach like searching for this person house by house.
I can't be too specific because a lot of this depends on the type of society it is and specifics but hopefully this narrows it down a bit.
EDIT: I replied before you editted the question to include the three different thoughts.
First of all, 1:750k isn't super-rare. Europe has almost 750 million people currently. So there would be around a thousand of your mages in Europe alone, and ten times as many globally.
That is more than enough to form their own society, organisations, maybe even small country.
The answers to your question depend a lot on whether or not this happens. You evade the question with your answer 2, but it is absolutely vital to the entire concept.
If they don't form a guild, the governments of the world have more than enough means to control them. Some would use positive reinforcement (honours, loyalty, etc.) some would use soft pressure (prejudices in society, cultural taboos), some hard pressure (laws, regulations, punishments) and some suppression (jail, execution).
Society would react much like it does to anything else. Drugs, climate change, disasters, new technology - with a variety of responses.
If the mages cooperate and form an organisation, they can free themselves from outside influence. They would become a player in global politics instead of pawns - with all the opportunities and risks associated.
If they have a physical location, they need to be ready for war. Someone will want to fight them, for religious or other reasons. If they don't have a physical location, they will be in the place of other international organisations, and can potentially be restrained by laws or sanctions.
Many possibilities are discussed in the TV Tropes page for "Super Registration Act": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRegistrationAct .
One particular one which seems likely to me is that mages would not be explicitly forbidden to use their magic, but would be so tightly regulated that magic use became next to impossible in practice. You'd have to submit an application in triplicate three months in advance before you cured a wart.
A good effect of this from the government's point of view would be that mages would be willing to join the government research programme or the army simply to get a chance to use their powers - without the government having to introduce conscription, or fend off civil rights lawyers.
How would magic affect the subjects taught in school? |
0.999964 | She deserves an award just for surviving bad theatre; Mark Blankenship is rooting for her.
Every November and December, as I get sucked into the blackhole of watching cheesy holiday tv movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel, I'm reminded of just how far Chlumsky has grown in these last few years on "Veep". She stars or costars in at least 4 of these cheeseball Xmas movies that they replay annually on a loop. The early 00s were not good years career-wise, but she's now one of my favorite parts about "Veep".
And on a shallow note, Anna Chlumsky looked damn hot on the 2014 Emmy red carpet!
I don't watch Veep, but she was so good on Hannibal as Miriam Lass. I knew exactly who she was (who could forget, "Put on his glasses!!!"), and was surprised at how composed and great she did in the role.
Anna has been absolutely incredible, as Amy Brookheimer. So, so funny, but also being able to convey depth and even some sympathy, despite her character's general heartlessness. It's not just the cutting dialogue, but the physical comedy, the facial expressions, the tiptoeing around Selina's sharp edges and coddling of her boss, the fact that she's always 'on', even when the scene is about someone else. She's really great.
I'd only seen her in a couple of small roles, as an adult, before I saw In The Loop, and thought she was very solid in that, not at all out of place with Armando Ianucci's style of humour. But on Veep, she's been the second MVP behind JLD, in my view.
I have no interest in awards, or the mixture of politicking and thoughtless 'I know that name best, that's the winner' voting, but I think she deserves a lot more recognition than she's received, for the work she's done.
@kat Your point about the Christmas movies is well taken. Another sign Chlumsky worked to grow from a naturally charismatic child actor into an adult performed with real chops. Like I said, I really respect that.
She is amazing and I have loved witnessing this career rebirth. The Emmy should have been hers, dammit!
As the Veep cast has grown, some of the original cast are getting less screen time. Anna Chlumsky seemed a little squeezed out this past season. No longer chief of staff or campaign manager (after the election), she was around monstly to put out fires for Selena.
I wonder if Selena goes back to the VP position if Amy will again be her Chief of Staff.
I'd like to see Anna's screentime increase next season. I love her interactions between Dan and Gary.
I've been complaining about the lack of screen time for Amy, Dan, Gary & Sue especially. All the core cast save Selena and Jonah were squeezed of screen time quite a bit this season. And my least favorite character got a big bump of focus - Catherine.
I was wondering which episode would Anna Chlumsky even use for her Emmy submission because she hasn't had much to do. Hopefully the finale will have something great of Amy but realistically based on how the season has gone I doubt it.
I think her problems is that she is too good. A lot of people probably think she is just playing an exaggerated version of herself. It also probably means Emmy voters are idiots.
She is definitely underrated, and doesn't get enough credit for her great work on this show.
Maybe Anna's "someday" winning an Emmy will be tonight! I would love to see her win, she would be so adorably emotional. I kind of doubt it will happen but the category doesn't seem to have a favorite so the odds are fairly equal for all nominees.
As a non-fan of Season 5 I am rooting for another show to win for Best Comedy. I don't even care which one. I am being petty and vindictive towards my once favorite comedy show. I won't forgive David H. Mandel for turning some of the best characters ever into one-note caricatures of themselves. But I am rooting for all the cast nominees to win. Except maybe Julia although she deserves to win it is nice to spread these prizes around a little. |
0.96018 | Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that helps heal damaged tissues and resolve infections. Neutrophil blood levels increase naturally in response to infections, injuries, and other types of stress. They may decrease in response to severe or chronic infections, drug treatments, and genetic conditions.
Neutrophils help prevent infections by blocking, disabling, digesting, or warding off invading particles and microorganisms. They also communicate with other cells to help them repair cells and mount a proper immune response.
The body produces neutrophils in the bone marrow, and they account for 55–70 percent of all white blood cells in the bloodstream. A normal overall white blood cell level in the bloodstream for an adult is somewhere between 4,500 and 11,000 per millimeters cubed (mm3).
When there is an infection or another source of inflammation in the body, special chemicals alert mature neutrophils, which then leave the bone marrow and travel through the bloodstream to the site in need.
Unlike some other cells or blood components, neutrophils can travel through junctions in the cells that line blood vessel walls and enter into tissues directly.
In this article, we look at the reasons for high or low neutrophil levels, how doctors can test these levels, and what normal neutrophil levels are for different groups.
There are many different reasons why a person may have higher or lower than normal levels of neutrophils in their blood.
Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell.
Having an abnormally high level of neutrophils in the blood is known as neutrophilic leukocytosis, also known as neutrophilia.
Some inflammatory conditions can increase neutrophil levels, including rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis, and vasculitis.
An abnormally low blood level of neutrophils is a condition called neutropenia.
A drop in neutrophil blood levels typically occurs when the body uses immune cells faster than it produces them or the bone marrow is not producing them correctly.
An enlarged spleen may also cause a decrease in neutrophil levels because the spleen traps and destroys neutrophils and other blood cells.
A laboratory specialist can evaluate a blood sample for white blood cell levels.
Doctors can identify changes in neutrophil levels from a blood test called a complete blood count (CBC) with differential, which identifies specific groups of white blood cells.
A doctor may order a CBC test when someone is experiencing a range of symptoms related to infection, chronic illness, and injury, such as fever, pain, and exhaustion. A nurse or technician will draw a small amount of blood from the arm and send it off for evaluation.
If the initial test shows a higher or lower number of white blood cells than normal, the doctor will likely repeat the test to confirm the results. If the initial results are confirmed, a doctor will perform a physical exam, ask questions about the person's lifestyle, and review their medical history.
If there is no apparent reason for changes in white blood cell levels, the doctor will order a more specific test. Laboratory specialists will look for specific white blood cells, such as immature neutrophils called myeloblasts. During an infection or chronic illness, these cells emerge from the bone marrow and mature in the blood instead of the bone marrow.
If myeloblasts or other white blood cells appear in significant levels in the blood, the doctor will request a bone marrow sample.
Bone marrow collection involves inserting a long needle into part of the pelvis near the back of your hip. The procedure can be very painful, and a doctor will typically take the sample in a hospital setting with at least a local anesthetic.
Experts will examine the bone marrow sample to see if neutrophils and other blood cells are developing correctly and are in regular supply.
Leukopenia is a condition where a person has a reduced white blood cell levels in their bloodstream. Learn about the causes, symptoms, and treatments here.
Changes in neutrophil levels are often a sign of more significant changes in white blood cell levels.
In non-pregnant adults, a white blood cell blood count over 11,000 per mm3 is known as leukocytosis, which is an elevated white blood cell count. Neutrophilic leukocytosis occurs when a person has over 7,000 per mm3 mature neutrophils in their bloodstream.
Minor changes in neutrophil or white blood cell levels are typically nothing to worry about as long as they are temporary. A raised white blood cell count often means the body is responding to infection, injury, or stress.
Some people have naturally lower levels of white blood cells and neutrophils than other people due to a range of factors, including congenital conditions.
If neutrophil or white blood cell levels are significantly altered for no apparent reason or remain raised or lowered, a doctor will order more tests to determine the cause.
Severely high or low levels of white blood cells often require emergency care and monitoring. People with severe neutropenia will have an inadequate defense against infection.
People with severe neutrophilia typically have a life-threatening type of infection or other inflammatory illness that requires treatment, such as cancer.
Nutritional yeast is a plant-based source of vitamin B-12.
The best way to correct abnormal neutrophil levels is to address and treat the underlying cause.
Antibiotics can treat bacterial infections, while antifungal medicine treats fungal infections. People can treat certain viral infections with medications that slow viral activity. Otherwise, supportive therapies, such as fluids and rest, may be part of the treatment plan.
People with altered neutrophil levels caused by medications or procedures may need to stop or adjust treatments.
People with severely low levels of neutrophils often require monitoring, antibiotic therapy, and hospitalization to reduce the risk of severe infection.
This period of intensive care helps keep people with weakened immune systems away from potentially harmful microorganisms. It also supports the body, giving it time to produce more white blood cells.
Try not to over-exercise or exercise beyond comfort levels.
Reduce stress levels and treat chronic or severe stress.
Seek medical attention for signs of infection, such as fever, weakness, fatigue, or pain, and treat infections exactly as prescribed.
Follow a healthful, balanced diet.
Treat chronic conditions, such as genetic or inflammatory conditions, exactly as prescribed.
However, people with only minor or mild changes in their neutrophil blood levels often show no symptoms and do not require any treatment.
Having a healthy number of neutrophils in the blood and bone marrow is crucial to the correct working of the immune system.
When neutrophil levels are higher or lower than usual for more than a short period, a doctor will order several tests to work out the underlying cause. People with significantly altered neutrophil levels may also require hospitalization to prevent infection and treat life-threatening conditions.
It is a good idea to have regular wellness checks at a doctor's office to stay on top of health. Anyone with concerns about their neutrophil count or any medical condition should talk to their doctor who will be able to answer questions they may have.
Huizen, Jennifer. "What are neutrophils and what do they do?." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 13 Dec. 2018. Web. |
0.999869 | Explained by a speaker, for potential speakers. Skills that are necessary for any professional and business person.
A Job to Love: A practical guide to finding fulfilling work by better understanding yourself.
Calm: Educate yourself in the art of remaining calm, and learn how to defend yourself from panic and fury. |
0.999978 | Stretch before playing golf starting with trunk rotations.
For golfers, it is important to stretch before playing a round. Stretching provides maximum muscle flexibility, which can lead to full extension and a more powerful swing. Loose muscles are also important to prevent of injury. Before stretching, you should first warm up by walking briskly for about five minutes.
Begin this exercise by resting a golf club on top of your shoulders behind your neck. Place your hands at each end of the club. Twist your torso to the left so that the end of the club is pointing straight ahead, or as close as you can come to that position. Perform the same motion while twisting to the right. Perform up to 20 repetitions.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold the golf club upright with your hands placed at the end of the shaft near the head, and with the grip end touching the ground. Move your feet back and bend at the waist until you feel a stretch in your back. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then repeat two more times.
Holding the club in your right hand and leaning on it for support, raise your left leg and swing it back and forth 10 times. Switch the club to the left hand and repeat 10 more times with the right leg. This helps loosen the muscles of the hips.
Extend your right arm directly out in front of you with your palm facing away from your body. With your left hand, lightly grasp the fingers of the right hand and bend them slightly backward toward your body. Hold this position for 10 seconds, then repeat with the other hand. |
0.999997 | Answer true or false to the following italicized statements to see how much you know about B.A.A.'s most recent press trip.
The TV show host with whom B.A.A. planned, coordinated and schmoozed for four months lost his passport en route, thus couldn't get into the country.
One of the trip attendees aggressively hit on B.A.A. for a solid six hours at a cocktail party, with such lines as, "Your organized emails betray your hotness," and "I already drank everything in my mini-bar."
B.A.A. broke her toe unceremoniously and is now sporting another boot.
Despite being incredibly excited about bonefishing and deep sea fishing, B.A.A. didn't really do either.
B.A.A. spent the first three days of her trip undoing all the plans she'd made for two of her media attendees: cancelling rooms, flights, charter boats, meals, etc.
B.A.A. jumped from a 40-ft. cliff into a 600-ft. deep inland blue hole.
B.A.A. flew on a teeny tiny plane but found it surprisingly comfortable.
B.A.A. lounged on John Travolta's couch.
B.A.A. went to a pirate cave in the middle of the night with a lantern and a bottle of rum.
If you answered false to any of these questions, you're wrong! Each of these statements is true, and without getting too far into all the gory details, they adequately sum up a sometimes great and sometimes ho-hum press trip. Truthfully, other than the TV show host passport debacle, the aggressive macking that went down Wednesday night and the immensely painful and equally embarrasing toe-breaking incident, the trip was quite lovely. My journalists were some of the best yet - so laid back, smart and fun to be with. I can't praise them enough! The weather was quite nice and the scenery was as beautiful as ever. I can't wait to get back…in August! |
0.906765 | As Pharrel Williams' song goes.... we're happy!
Local folk appear to be quite positive, if this survey is anything to go by.
A SURVEY has revealed that people living in the East Midlands have reported very high levels of happiness in 2015 compared to the rest of the UK.
In a survey released from the Office of National Statistics, it was revealed that personal well-being has improved every year since financial year ending 2012 when data was first collected, suggesting that more people in the UK are feeling better about their lives.
The four measures of well-being that were investigated in the report were life satisfaction, feeling that what one does in life is worthwhile, happiness, and anxiety levels.
The report also revealed that in the financial year ending 2015, the East Midlands had higher proportions of people reporting low anxiety.
The North East and Yorkshire and the Humber were the only two English regions with no significant improvement in low levels of well-being across all four measures. |
0.90839 | "The intention was to confer the privilege of citizenship upon that class of persons whom the fathers knew as white, and to deny it to all who could not be so classified."
T akao Ozawa was born in Japan, moved to the territory of Hawaii, and later lived in California. Altogether he had lived in the United States continuously for twenty years when he applied in 1914 for naturalization, the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. At the time, he had graduated from high school in Berkeley, California, and had been a student at the University of California for three years. He had children, all born in the United States. The family spoke English at home and attended American churches. Nevertheless, the U.S. government opposed his application to become a citizen, on grounds that he was not "white." Eight years after his application was filed, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the government: Ozawa was not eligible to become a citizen.
1894, as Japan was emerging as a strong military and industrial power in Asia, a treaty with the United States had guaranteed free immigration to the United States for Japanese. But six years later, in the midst of strong opposition to Japanese immigrants among European Americans in California, Japan agreed not to issue passports for laborers seeking to enter the United States. (A passport is the formal travel document issued by a country's government that allows a citizen of that country exit and reentry.) For the Japanese government, it was a way to cut off emigration and solve the problem without agreeing to treatment that would be regarded as discriminatory against Japanese. The cutoff of passports did not, however, include passports for laborers seeking to enter Hawaii, Canada, or Mexico, from any one of which it was easy for Japanese to enter the United States.
In 1907, the San Francisco Board of Education decided to segregate its Asian students. All Asian students, including Japanese students, were to be placed in a single "Asian school" that kept the students apart from "white" European American students. Seeing Japanese the objects of discrimination upset the government of Japan just at the moment when the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919; served 1901–9) wanted to maintain smooth diplomatic relations with Japan. Roosevelt, who was eager to increase U.S. influence in east Asia, was counting on Japan to counter the influence of Russia in the region.
To cool the diplomatic tensions with Japan created by the school board in San Francisco, Roosevelt persuaded the school board to drop its segregation plan in exchange for promises that the federal government would try to solve the issue of Japanese immigration. The result was the "Gentleman's Agreement" (an agreement that falls short of a formal treaty) of 1907 under which Japan agreed to cooperate in stemming the flow of Japanese workers to the United States. The Japanese government said it would continue to refuse to issue passports for all Japanese workers planning to go to the United States. In addition, it would not object to the removal of Japanese from the United States who held passports issued for travel elsewhere, such as Canada or Mexico. In return, San Francisco authorities discontinued segregating Japanese students in a special school for Asians. Officially, Japanese still had the right to immigrate, on an equal basis with citizens of other countries.
The San Francisco school board incident demonstrated how U.S. immigration laws and attitudes affected American diplomatic policies unrelated to immigration. The incident also served as a reminder of the long-standing controversy in California over the admission of people from Asia, whether Japanese or Chinese, and the importance of race in determining U.S. policy. As early as 1790, the Congress had passed a law limiting citizenship to immigrants who were "free white persons." At the time it was adopted, the law was intended to deny citizenship to slaves from Africa. Seventy-five years later, after slavery was abolished, the immigration law was amended to include Africans and people of African descent—but nothing was said about Asians.
With many Americans displeased with immigration from Asia (and also from southern and eastern Europe), the U.S. district attorney (prosecutor) had objected when Ozawa applied for citizenship. The government, in its arguments to the Supreme Court, admitted that Ozawa would make a good citizen: He was well educated; his family spoke English at home and attended church; and he had lived in the United States for most of his life. There was nothing in his conduct that might suggest he would make a poor citizen. Nevertheless, the government argued in court that U.S. law had been clear, since 1790: "Any alien being a free white person … may be admitted to become a citizen." The only exception was made in the Naturalization Act of 1870, which also made Africans or people of African descent eligible to become naturalized citizens. Ozawa did not fit any of these categories, in the government's opinion.
Ozawa's lawyers cited inconsistencies in the way that U.S. immigration laws had been written. They argued that when Congress passed a new naturalization law in 1906, it intended to overhaul the immigration law completely. Since the 1906 law had not specifically barred citizenship for Japanese people (as other laws specifically barred Chinese people), Ozawa's lawyers argued that he deserved to become a naturalized citizen. But the Supreme Court said no, ruling that if Congress had intended to remove the racial limitations on naturalized citizenship, it would have done so explicitly and decisively, rather than simply ignoring the issue. The Supreme Court noted that limiting citizenship to free white persons had been the law since 1790 and that the law had only been amended to include people born in Africa or of African descent. No such exception was ever made for Japanese, which both sides on the argument described as being a separate "race."
The Supreme Court also ruled on two other questions raised in the case: first, whether someone from Japan could be considered "white" under the law; and second, whether Ozawa could be barred from becoming a citizen because of race.
On the first question, Ozawa's lawyers had argued that the original immigration laws referred to "free white persons" in order to distinguish them from enslaved Africans, or "black," people. The lawyers tried to persuade the court that "white" meant "not black," and that the phrase was not intended to exclude Asians. The court's opinion rejected the argument, holding that people from Japan were not considered to be "Caucasian," which was what the law meant by "white," and were therefore not eligible to become citizens.
On the second question, the court ruled that Congress did have the power under the Constitution to determine the basis on which immigrants could become citizens, even if the basis was a concept as vague as race.
The Ozawa decision was significant in the history of immigration to the United States because it reconfirmed the importance of race when deciding whether immigrants should be allowed to become citizens—a standard for eligibility that had existed since the very beginnings of the United States as an independent country. The ruling came at a period of history when prejudice against racial and religious minorities was very strong among European American citizens, a fact that was not lost on the justices of the Supreme Court.
The Ozawa case came before the court at a time when the United States had already begun to restrict immigrants, especially those from southern and eastern Europe. For the forty years preceding the case, a higher number of Europeans than ever before had come to the United States, including many from poor areas of southern and eastern Europe. The case was decided in an era when the idea of "race" seemed highly important to many Americans, who were disturbed by the large number of darker-skinned individuals from countries around the Mediterranean. Although the Supreme Court is intended to interpret what Congress might have meant in passing laws, and making sure those laws do not conflict with the U.S. Constitution (the basic law of the land), in reality justices of the court usually have a political background and are often sensitive to the public sentiments of the time.
The concept of race has always been vague, as the court's opinion admits. What race is the child of a black mother and a white father, for example? The court's opinion brushes aside this fundamental issue by saying that such questions fall into a "zone of more or less debatable ground." But since Ozawa had been born in Japan, the issue of his race was not subject to question: He was not white, and therefore not eligible to become a citizen.
The court's opinion carefully examined minute details of previous immigration laws in an effort to understand what Congress intended to do. On the subject of what constitutes a "white" person, the opinion in essence says the court did not have time to study the issue from a scientific basis. The court ruled that anyone who was not a "free white person" (or who was not born in Africa or of African descent) did not fall into the category of people eligible to become citizens, and that included people from Asia. On the question of whether the authors of the 1790 law intended to exclude Asians, the court simply said that it has no power to read the minds of the authors of the original law. Since no subsequent Congress changed the wording, the court had no power to rule otherwise.
The act of June 29, 1906, entitled "An act to establish a Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, and to provide for a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens throughout the United States," consists of 31 sections and deals primarily with the subject of procedure. There is nothing in the circumstances leading up to or accompanying the passage of the act which suggests that any modification of section 2169, or of its application, was contemplated.
"It is the opinion of your committee that the frauds and crimes which have been committed in regard to naturalization have resulted more from a lack of any uniform system of procedure in such matters than from any radical defect in the fundamental principles of existing law governing in such matters. The two changes which the committee has recommended in the principles controlling in naturalization matters and which are embodied in the bill submittedherewith are as follows: First, the requirement that before an alien can be naturalized he must be able to read, either in his own language or in the English language and to speak or understand the English language; and, second, that the alien must intend to reside permanently in the United States before he shall be entitled to naturalization."
This seems to make it quite clear that no change of the fundamental character here involved was in mind….
"Any alien being a free white person … may be admitted to become a citizen…." 1 Stat. 103, c. 3.
This was subsequently enlarged to include aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent….
In all of the naturalization acts from 1790 to 1906 the privilege of naturalization was confined to white persons (with the addition in 1870 of those of African nativity and descent), although the exact wording of the various statutes was not always the same. If Congress in 1906 desired to alter a rule so well and so long established it may be assumed that its purpose would have been definitely disclosed and its legislation to that end put in unmistakable terms….
It is the duty of this Court to give effect to the intent of Congress. Primarily this intent is ascertained by giving the words their natural significance, but if this leads to an unreasonable result plainly at variance with the policy of the legislation as a whole, we must examine the matter further. We may then look to the reason of the enactment and inquire into its antecedent history and give it effect in accordance with its design and purpose, sacrificing, if necessary, the literal meaning in order that the purpose may not fail…. We are asked [by Ozawa's lawyers] to conclude that Congress, without the consideration or recommendation of any committee, without a suggestion as to the effect, or a word of debate as to the desirability, of so fundamental a change, nevertheless, by failing to alter the identifying words of section 2169 , which section we may assume was continued for some serious purpose, has radically modified a statute always theretofore maintained and considered as of great importance. It is inconceivable that a rule in force from the beginning of the government, a part of our history as well as our law, welded into the structure of our national polity by a century of legislative and administrative acts and judicial decisions, would have been deprived of its force in such dubious and casual fashion. Weare, therefore, constrained to hold that the act of 1906 is limited by the provisions of section 2169 of the Revised Statutes.
Antecedent: Referring to a preceding event, condition, or cause.
Literal: Referring to accepting the exact meaning of the words of a statement or opinion and allowing no further interpretation.
Section 2169: A sentence in the naturalization law that said naturalization "shall apply to aliens, being free white persons and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." Ozama's lawyers argued that because this sentence did not explicitly ban Japanese from becoming naturalized citizens, Congress did not intend to bar Japanese from becoming citizens when it passed a naturalization law in 1906.
Second. This brings us to inquire whether, under section 2169, the appellant is eligible to naturalization. The language of the naturalization laws from 1790 to 1870 had been uniformly such as to deny the privilege of naturalization to an alien unless he came within the description "free white person. By section 7 of the act of July 14, 1870 …, the naturalization laws were "extended to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." Section 2169 of the Revised Statutes, as already pointed out, restricts the privilege to the same classes of persons, viz. "to aliens being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent." It is true that in the first edition of the Revised Statutes of 1873 the words in brackets, "being free white persons, and to aliens" were omitted, but this was clearly an error of the compilers and was corrected by the subsequent legislation of 1875…. Is appellant, therefore, a "free white person," within the meaning of that phrase as found in the statute?
Appellant: A person bringing a lawsuit from a lower court to a higher court for a new hearing.
On behalf of the appellant it is urged that we should give to this phrase the meaning which it had in the minds of its original framers in 1790 and that it was employed by them for the sole purpose of excluding the black or African race and the Indians then inhabiting this country. It may be true that those two races were alone thought of as being excluded, but to say that they were the only ones within the intent of the statute would be to ignore the affirmative form of the legislation. The provision is not that Negroes and Indians shall be excluded, but it is, in effect, that only free white persons shall be included. The intention was to confer the privilege of citizenship upon that class of persons whom the fathers knew as white, and to deny it to all who could not be so classified. It is not enough to say that the framers did not have in mind the brown or yellow races of Asia. It is necessary to go farther and be able to say that had these particular races been suggested the language of the act would have been so varied as to include them within its privileges….
Affirmative form: The structure of a phrase denoting assent or agreement.
Framers: Those who wrote the Constitution.
If it be assumed that the opinion of the framers was that the only persons who would fall outside the designation "white" were Negroes and Indians, this would go no farther than to demonstrate their lack of sufficient information to enable them to foresee precisely who would be excluded by that term in the subsequent administration of the statute. It is not important in construing their words to consider the extent of their ethnological knowledge or whether they thoughtthat under the statute the only persons who would be denied naturalization would be Negroes and Indians. It is sufficient to ascertain whom they intended to include and having ascertained that it follows, as a necessary corollary , that all others are to be excluded.
Corollary: Deduction that needs no proof.
The question then is: Who are comprehended within the phrase "free white persons"? Undoubtedly the word "free" was originally used in recognition of the fact that slavery then existed and that some white persons occupied that status. The word, however, has long since ceased to have any practical significance and may now be disregarded.
We have been furnished with elaborate briefs in which the meaning of the words "white person" is discussed with ability and at length, both from the standpoint of judicial decision and from that of the science of ethnology. It does not seem to us necessary, however, to follow counsel in their extensive researches in these fields. It is sufficient to note the fact that these decisions are, in substance, to the effect that the words import a racial and not an individual test, and with this conclusion, fortified as it is by reason and authority, we entirely agree. Manifestly the test afforded by the mere color of the skin of each individual is impracticable , as that differs greatly among persons of the same race, even among Anglo-Saxons , ranging by imperceptible gradations from the fair blond to the swarthy brunette, the latter being darker than many of the lighter hued persons of the brown or yellow races. Hence to adopt the color test alone would result in a confused overlapping of races and a gradual merging of one into the other, without any practical line of separation…. Moreover, that conclusion has become so well established by judicial and executive concurrence and legislative acquiescence that we should not at this late day feel at liberty to disturb it, in the absence of reasons far more cogent than any that have been suggested…. The determination that the words "white person" are synonymous with the words "a person of the Caucasian race" simplifies the problem, although it does not entirely dispose of it. Controversies have arisen and will no doubt arise again in respect of the proper classification of individuals in border line cases. The effect of the conclusion that the words "white person" means a Caucasian is not to establish a sharp line of demarcation between those who are entitled and those who are not entitled to naturalization, but rather a zone of more or less debatable ground outside of which, upon the one hand, are those clearly eligible, and outside of which, upon the other hand, are those clearly ineligiblefor citizenship. Individual cases falling within this zone must be determined as they arise from time to time by what this court has called, in another connection …, "the gradual process of judicial inclusion and exclusion."
Impracticable: Incapable of being accomplished.
Anglo-Saxons: Descendants of the Germanic peoples who conquered England in the fifth century c.e., in this case referring to white non-Jews.
Imperceptible gradations: Gradual stages barely capable of being seen.
Judicial and executive concurrence: Agreement between courts of justice and the executive branch of government.
Legislative acquiescence: Acceptance by those who make laws.
Caucasian: Of or relating to the white race.
The briefs filed on behalf of appellant refer in complimentary terms to the culture and enlightenment of the Japanese people, and with this estimate we have no reason to disagree; but these are matters which cannot enter into our consideration of the questions here at issue. We have no function in the matter other than to ascertain the will of Congress and declare it. Of course there is not implied—either in the legislation or in our interpretation of it—any suggestion of individual unworthiness or racial inferiority. These considerations are in no manner involved….
Briefs: Legal documents outlining the facts and points in a case.
Two years after the Ozawa case, the Supreme Court ruled in another case (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind) involving a man described as "a high-caste Hindu, of full Indian blood, born at Amritsar, Punjab, India" who had applied for citizenship, arguing that he was "Caucasian." In the Ozawa case, the Court ruled that the word "white" did not really refer to skin color (since many people have lighter or darker skins), but rather to the "Caucasian" race. But in the Thind case, the Court took the opposite approach: Thind might be Caucasian, in a scientific sense, but in a popular sense, his skin was too dark to qualify as "white," and therefore he was not eligible to become a citizen, the court ruled. "It may be true," wrote U.S. Supreme Court justice George Sutherland (1862–1942), "that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today; and it is not impossible, if that common ancestor could be materialized in the flesh, we should discover that he was himself sufficiently differentiated from both of his descendants to preclude his racial classification with either." In other words, the "average man" knows a "white" person when he sees one, even if lawyers and scientists cannot agree on what the term means. It was a startling admission that the concept of race and skin color, applied to immigration law, had no real meaning beyond what the "average man" might think at any given moment.
In 1924, Congress took another approach to limiting immigration. The Immigration Act of 1924 set permanent limits on the number of immigrants from each country. From 1924 through 1927, the number of immigrants from any one country was set at 2 percent of the number of foreign-born people of that nationality already in the United States in 1890. After July 1, 1927, the limits on each nationality were determined by a more complicated formula calculated by determining what percentage of the total population was represented by each national group, then multiplying that percentage by 150,000. Thus, if nationality "A" represented 1 percent of the U.S. population in 1890, the number of immigrants of nationality "A" admitted each year would equal 1 percent of 150,000, or 1,500 people. The practical effect of the 1924 law was to limit severely the number of immigrants after 1924, especially immigrants from non-European countries. The law also included a provision that barred anyone from immigrating who was not eligible to become a citizen. This provision was specifically aimed at Japanese immigrants and was at least partly based on the Ozawa decision of the Supreme Court.
The Ozawa case was just one of several examples of how racial consciousness played a large role in American politics during the 1920s. The year before the decision was handed down by the Supreme Court, Congress had passed the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, which limited immigration from any single country to a number equal to 3 percent of the number of immigrants of that country who were living in the United States in 1910.
The Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization that first appeared after the American Civil War (1861–65) as a means of terrorizing newly freed African American slaves and discouraging them from exercising their right to vote. Members of the original Klan wore long, white robes with a tall, peaked hood. They often burned crosses near African American neighborhoods at night as a means of frightening black people. In 1915, a new organization had been formed, using the same name as the Klan and the same costumes. The second version, however, was more open in its membership. Rather than being limited to the southern states, like the first Klan, the reborn Klan found many members in states of the Midwest, particularly Indiana. Although the second Klan still burned crosses, it also took on the form of a social club. Many elected politicians, including future president Harry S. Truman (1884–1972; served 1945–53), admitted to belonging to the Klan for a time. Whereas the first Klan had aimed its attacks at newly freed slaves, the second Klan attracted people opposed not only to racial minorities but also to Catholics, Jews, and immigrants from southern Europe (many of whom were also Catholic). Inside organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, racial prejudice and religious prejudice went hand in hand.
George Sutherland, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the opinion in Ozawa v. United States, was himself an immigrant. Sutherland was born in Buckinghamshire, England, and brought to the United States as a baby. His family settled in what was then Utah Territory, which be came a state in 1896. Sutherland, a Republican, was Utah's sole U.S. representative from 1901 to 1903 and a U.S. senator from 1905 to 1917. He was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Warren Harding (1860–1924; served 1921–24) on September 5, 1922, and confirmed by the Senate on the same day. He had been a Supreme Court justice for just a month when the Ozawa case was argued, October 3–4, 1922. The case was decided one month later, on November 13, 1922.
Dudley, William, ed. Asian Americans: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.
Ichihashi, Yamato. Japanese in the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1932. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969.
Ichioka, Yuji. The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885–1924. New York: Free Press, 1988.
Tehranian, John. "Performing Whiteness: Naturalization Litigation and the Construction of Racial Identity in America." Yale Law Journal (January 2000): p. 817.
"The History of Japanese Immigration." The Brown Quarterly (Spring 2000). http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/03-4/03-4a.htm (accessed on February 29, 2004).
"In What Ways Did Our Laws Institutionalize Racial Prejudice Against Japanese Americans?" Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.http://www.densho.org/causes/1racism/1institutionalizedracism.asp (accessed on February 29, 2004).
"Takao Ozawa v. U S, 260 U.S. 178 (1922)." FindLaw.com. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/260/178.html (accessed on February 29, 2004).
"Ozawa v. United States." U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library. . Encyclopedia.com. 29 Mar. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>. |
0.992646 | With the rise of opioid-related deaths, more and more families and loved ones are becoming affected, and substance use disorder treatment, family intervention, and relational repair are needed. Many times, people concentrate on the psychological and physical effects of drug addiction, and many times they are not talking about the social aspect and how drug addiction affects relationships. However, social health, which is vital for a person’s well being, happiness, and success is also affected.
Regardless of class, race, gender, and religion, more and more people are from all walks of life are seeking substance use disorder treatment. So many people in the US and beyond have encountered the devastating effects of drug addiction, including the damage to the substance user’s mind, emotions, body, and relationships. The person struggling generally goes on a downward spiral while the people who love him or her the most will also suffer as they watch their loved one harm him or herself. Also, there will be some strain in some of those important relationships.
When drug addiction comes on the scene, many aspects that are required to maintain a healthy relationship starts to dissipate. Drug addiction destroys relationships. The drug abuser starts to focus on getting and maintaining the drug habit than anything else which causes neglect in nurturing the relationship. The person will use money that’s needed for bills or other needs to support the drug habit, causing financial strain. The drug abuser will also resort to secrecy and deception towards his/her significant other, family, or friends which can create the relationship to become distant and cause distrust.
Additionally, the person abusing drugs can start developing anger problems which can lead to aggression and violence, thus victimizing the loved one. Drugs, such as alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine (crystal meth), and steroids, will amplify an already present anger management issues. The person can also get frustrated at him or herself because of the precipitating factors associated with trying to quit the substance use, which, in turn, will cause even more anger, grief, and low self-esteem. Furthermore, the loved one can become aggressive and violent, if not careful. The situation can become an endless, downward spiral until the relationship can become irreparable even to the point of domestic violence. These are all the ways how drug addiction affects relationships.
This is a process so quitting these bad habits won’t happen overnight. To undergo this process, the loved one and the person on drugs should get treatment and counseling. There are various options for substance use disorder treatment, including individual treatment and counseling, group counseling, family therapy, and marriage counseling. Also, depending on the level of the substance use disorder, patients can choose from an inpatient rehab program or an intensive outpatient program to battle the addiction and to receive holistic care.
You two must spend quality time with the person affected in order to nurture and rebuild the relationship. Having honest and clear communication, while respecting one another is also required.
When the both of you get the professional help needed to learn, understand, and how to deal with one another, you will gain the tools needed to build a strong and healthy relationship by learning to set healthy boundaries.
It’s the same as individual and group counseling. However, it’s even more beneficial because you two can express and see each other’s thoughts and feelings and have a professional there to assist you through this situation so you two can be whole again. Couples can get sober together.
On the other hand, there are cases where drug addiction destroys relationships to the point of no return. The relationship has broken down so badly that the distrust, anger, and resentment has reached an all-time high. This could be due to enduring great financial loss when the substance abuser stole from the loved one or misused funds, or it could be from going through significant domestic violence issues with the substance user. Whatever the case may be, some relationships may be irreparable, thus vital steps should be taken accordingly to move forward in this case.
If domestic violence is the case, you must make a safety plan to ensure you will not be a victim again. You can get family or friends support by sharing with them your plans to move on or perhaps move in with them. You can get in contact with the domestic hotline or contact your local police station, for instance. You can also retrieve an order of protection through the legal system. Other plans should include seeking continual support while going through and after the breakup.
Regardless if you can salvage the relationship or not, you must understand how drug addiction affects relationships and that this is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with appropriately. Furthermore, you must ensure you look out for your own needs.
If you are in recovery, getting the appropriate support and going through the right channels with individual therapy or group therapy, such as Al-Anon, are some of the many ways you can get the help you need.
If you are suffering from addiction now, Lakeview Health is ready to assist you. Call our intake team or fill out the form below if you or someone you love is in the grips of an active addiction. |
0.999997 | Checks if the input path is a valid path or an empty path.
Path you want to check.
A Boolean that specifies whether or not the input path is empty or <Not A Path>.
True The input path is any value other than <Not A Path> or an empty path.
False The input path is <Not A Path> or an empty path. |
0.98775 | Is network.exe safe or is this malware?
Be aware that many tasks will be similiar names to existing tasks or processes. You can always view the running tasks on your computer by pressing ctrl-alt-del to view the windows "task manager", and then view the "processes" tab. This will show you all tasks running or currently active on your PC. Although this shows you all running tasks, it does not show dll file thats are loaded, as they get loaded as part of other processes. Many spyware writers attempt to hide their files on your computer, for example, network.exe may be intentionally misspelled to look like a similiar task, or spyware may be named very similiar to a Windows system task. The reason they do this is so you cannot easily recognize the name in your tasklist as I have mentioned above. Make sure always check the location of the file if you are concerned. You can always find the location of network.exe on your computer by using your Windows search options, but I will also try to list the file location of every file described on this website, so you can verify the correct location. You can view the entire tasklist directory with the link below. |
0.968821 | New South Scotland (known in Australia as Quadrangle Lawn and formerly known in Zealandia as Nya Ystad) is an Austenasian Crown Dependency situated on the eastern seaboard of the Australian continent. Between June 2014 and September 2016, the polity was administered by the Commonwealth of Zealandia, although de jure Austenasian sovereignty over New South Scotland continued to be acknowledged.
Established on 19 November 2012 as a colony of New Wessex, having formerly been part of an Australian university campus, the colony was ceded to the Empire of Austenasia on 20 January 2013 by Declan I upon the ascension of Jonathan I to the Austenasian Throne. New South Scotland was formally made a Crown Dependency of Austenasia on 25 January, by the First Imperial Decree of HIM Emperor Jonathan I. The then Haakon Lindstrom, also monarch of the nearby nation of Zealandia, was appointed New South Scotland's Governing Commissioner.
A notable incident took place on 30 October 2013, when two constables of the New South Wales Police were escorted out of New South Scotland by a constable of the New South Scotland Constabulary after they were found asking individuals for identification in a rude manner. The New South Scottish constable was helped by a group of socialists visiting from Australia, who sung the Internationale as the two NSW constables were escorted out.
On 22 May 2014, Lindström - who reigned by the regnal name of Astrid as Queen of Zealandia - ordered the Zealandian military to prepare an invasion of New South Scotland. A false version of events was reported to the Austenasian government, which were that Queen Astrid had been threatened with a coup by rogue elements of the Zealandian military and that she would be deposed unless she sanctioned an invasion of New South Scotland. The queen notified the Austenasian government of her apparent inability to suppress the rebellion, which was eventually allegedly pacified by an agreement by which use of half of New South Scotland would be granted to the Zealandian military in exchange for the force's annexation of new territory for the Crown Dependency. However, Lindstrom failed to pass on information to her government in regards to the Empire's wish for a deal, and instead willingly passed on misinformation, falsely accusing Austenasia of hostile designs on Zealandia and provoking her government into going ahead with an invasion of New South Scotland. Before Austenasia had a chance to respond militarily, a massive diplomatic backlash from the intermicronational community forced Zealandia to accept a compromise whereby New South Scotland would be administered independently by the Zealandian queen, but remain under formal Austenasian sovereignty.
Relations between Austenasia and Zealandia remained extremely frosty for over a year over the subject of New South Scotland and Lindstom's actions in relation to it, but began to thaw in 2015 after a treaty was signed formalising the arrangement. Relations between the two nations warmed considerably in mid-2016 as a result of uniting against diplomatic attacks from Sandus, and in July 2016 the Austenasian government was contacted by Lindstrom who informed them that she was unable to continue administering the crown dependency due to her and many members of the Zealandian government and military leaving the university which borders New South Scotland. After negotiations, a treaty was signed returning New South Scotland to full and exclusively Austenasian jurisdiction on 10 September 2016. Later that day, Emperor Jonathan I appointed The Rt Hon. Sir Hugh McFarlane, KCA as New South Scotland's second Governing Commissioner.
New South Scotland is governed by Sir Hugh McFarlane, a friend of Emperor Jonathan I who lives near to the crown dependency. The position had previously been held by Charlotte Lindstrom, who held the position of Governor when New South Scotland was a colony under Wessaxon rule, and ruled as Governing Commissioner in the name of the Emperor before 10 September 2016. Lindstrom established the New South Scotland Constabulary in August 2013 to provide law enforcement in her absence, although this force had become defunct by May 2014.
Since returning to exclusively Austenasian jurisdiction in September 2016, New South Scotland has been governed as a normal Austenasian Crown Dependency, being neither taxed nor having representation in Parliament, with the Emperor holding absolute power (exercised by the Governing Commissioner) over the Crown Dependency, and Austenasian legislation not applying to New South Scotland unless it explicitly refers to it.
1 HM Queen Astrid 25 Jan 2013 10 Sep 2016 Appointed Governing Commissioner of the newly-founded Crown Dependency by Imperial Decree. Monarch of the nearby Zealandia; had New South Scotland administered by Zealandia from June 2014 until September 2016 by agreement with Austenasia as a result of the 2014 New South Scotland crisis. Removed from office upon New South Scotland returning to ordinary Austenasian administration.
2 The Rt Hon. Sir Hugh McFarlane, KCA 10 Sep 2016 Incumbent Appointed Governing Commissioner by Emperor Jonathan I upon the return of New South Scotland to Austenasian administration. Had previously visited NSS as a tourist in March 2015.
New South Scotland has an area of approximately 3.3 square kilometers. The territory is located within the campus of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and is bordered by the City of Sydney, Australia. The geographical position of New South Scotland means that it regularly frequented by students and teachers attending the university, having a huge effect on the geography, culture and economy of the area. The flora of New South Scotland is not very diverse, only featuring several trees and an extensive grass area. This grass area is used by students as a place to relax, which brings some environmental issues such as food waste which attracts fauna such as the Australian White Ibis. In the interest of preserving the area, groundskeepers at the university maintain the environment by removing litter and mowing the grass. Three pathways also exist, and are used as a major throughway for students and teachers. Drainage pipes and gutters border New South Scotland to protect against minor flooding and rainfall damage; since it is a small catchment area, this task is essential.
Bordering New South Scotland are several areas of varying economic activity, however very little occurs within the borders themselves. Nearby, multiple vending machines can be found, which dispense food and drinks to students. These machines are operated and owned by the university itself, but it is unclear if they generate any profit at all. Numerous shops are located a short distance away from New South Scotland, such as a pharmacy and the university bookshop. A Commonwealth Bank Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) also exists near to these shops which is used to fund transactions across the university. A section of the UNSW Business School is also housed within the large building that is directly next to New South Scotland itself. It is one of the major faculties at UNSW, and teaches a variety of courses regarding economics and commerce and has had a hand in creating some economic activity around the university campus.
New South Scotland is primarily used by university students as a recreational area, which has a huge effect on the culture of the area. The grass area is usually a location where food is eaten and where activities such as games and festivals take place. These types of activities define the culture of New South Scotland and how it behaves, as they have a huge effect on the different environments that exist. New South Scotland also features dozens of international cultures, despite having no citizens. The array of nationalities that students who use the area belong to gives New South Scotland a strong sense of multiculturalism.
Close by to New South Scotland is the university health clinic and dentistry, provided by UNSW itself. Not only does this facility treat students suffering from an array of health complications, but it also acts as an Infectious Control Zone (ICZ), which is used in the case of an epidemic as a location to treat patients. On display at this clinic are pieces of information regarding how to deal with current diseases and what major symptoms are. Whilst these services are technically outside the borders of New South Scotland, should any major disease outbreak occur, New South Scotland itself may well be used as a grounds for dealing with the issue. A pharmacy is also nearby which sells many different medical and cosmetic products.
This page was last edited on 19 April 2017, at 09:54. |
0.999638 | I could describe the specific steps that led us from attending a quiet open house to the day, barely two months later, when we moved into this 1948 gem by A. Quincy Jones. Suffice it to say, we knew we wanted it within sixty seconds of walking in, and we’re more sure of it every day. But the task I’ve set for myself is to use words to deconstruct this physical artifact, to a degree that attempts to objectify its essence. Here goes.
The simple description of the house is this: It’s barely changed from its original 1950 condition, it’s a modest size that feels manageable, and it has a floor plan that is perfect for us. In 1200 well-choreographed square feet, there is a spacious living/dining room, a kitchen more functional than anything we’ve previously experienced, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a gracious entrance hall. For Los Angeles, it sits on a large lot and has several mature trees. There is a strong visual and physical interior/exterior connection. None of this, however, describes the essence of this house. Why does it feel so good to be in it? Why does it appeal to architects and non-architects alike?
I believe it’s because the design of the house is a studied, conscious collaboration of intuition and intellect, two concepts that are rarely successfully integrated by one architect. Both aspects of a house can be appreciated by anyone, but in general, I define intuitive those physical aspects of a house that might be found in any good space from any era, may or may not bear the mark of a specific designer, and are typically appreciated more universally. Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language was an attempt to catalog those aspects in the built environment. Intellectual aspects typically come with the territory of design education, and they are initiated in a desire for consistency and reason. They may be appreciated by non-architects (and are high on the list of what makes life worth living for us architects), but they can be obscure and hard-won.
I’ve recently visited several houses by prominent architects built within 5 years of this one, and each one leans toward the intuitive or intellectual end of the spectrum. Included in that group is the Payson House by Chermayoff (1952), the Potter House by Breuer (1950), the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe (1951), and the Glass House by Johnson (1949). Each of these houses is an investigation of larger tenets of modernism and specific interests of its architect. Each has its own character. Breuer’s Potter House may be the “earthiest” of all of them, with its robust stone walls and informal massing techniques exemplifying an intuitive manifestation of modernist principles. The Farnsworth House, on the other end of the spectrum, is a fastidious intellectual exercise, gets an A for its flawless logic, and was, unfortunately, a difficult house for its owner to live in or appreciate.
Another aspect bridging both intuitive and intellectual realms is in the structure of the house, which is based on a post-and-beam concept. Its visual expression is something that almost everyone notices and responds to. In a built environment predominated by vast surfaces of gypsum wall board hiding any and all expression of what holds the building up, there is a structural revealing to post-and-beam which is appealing, as well as being visually complex. Here, the post-and-beam system has been reduced to a very economical assembly. Columns are built up of smaller pieces (typically a 2” x 7 ½” core with 1 ½” x 3 ½” stiffeners on each long side). But the consistency in this system, along with how it is adapted for particular joints on the house is quite remarkable. Nothing is wasted. At doors, for instance, the stiffeners are also the jambs for the French glass and screen doors. Every column assembly is integrated perfectly into doors, windows, cabinetry, wall finishes and concrete block walls. The mental process of the architect, working many hours to refine these details to make them consistent and economical, is evident. Indeed, it is an elusive look into the mind of a talented and fastidious detailer.
A third example of intuitive and intellectual success of the structure is evident in the big, compositional gestures of the house. A desire for complexity is typically a common interest of my clients, although it’s defined differently by each client. For architects, the desire for consistency can sometimes conflict with a desire for complexity. I believe architects are accused of desiring emptiness and reduction simply because they love seeing the architectural concept when it’s clearly expressed, without extraneous details obscuring it. In this house, they both coexist: Order reigns, in the insistent structural grid, the clear expression of shear walls, the use of a specific material always perfectly suited for the task, the form of the house never arbitrary. These attributes would be clear to a second-year architecture student who had learned to diagram building concepts (and to other architecture fanatics). But still, there is much complexity that appeals to others, as well. In a limited palette of just a few primary materials—including concrete block, redwood post-and-beam, douglas fir plywood, tongue-and-groove redwood siding, and glass—a matrix is created with a seemingly infinite number of intersections occurring, each one perfectly resolved. Similarly, an interior division of space with a very limited number of partitions yields a rich suite of spatial experiences: contained, open, ambiguous, defined, et al.
Still, the house continues to reveal its wonders in layers. As I learn one aspect of its logic, I discover another to be examined. The essence as well as a comprehensive understanding of the design remains elusive. And in the intuitive realm, each season interacts with the house in a different way, imbuing the various spaces with evolving moods depending on the quality and angle of the light. |
0.640424 | Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's lawyers are preparing for a legal showdown with special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources familiar with their thinking.
Trump's legal team is bracing for the dramatic possibility that Mueller would subpoena the President, setting up a collision that could force a lengthy court fight and test the legal limits of the President's power all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Mueller has raised the possibility of a presidential subpoena in at least one meeting, according to two sources. But some of the President's legal advisers are gambling that Mueller would not go that far. The Washington Post first reported on the subpoena threat.
The already slim chances of Trump sitting for a voluntary interview with Mueller's investigators are growing dimmer, sources close to the President say.
Asked whether the President would ever plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions, two sources said the legal team believes there are many "constitutional challenges" that would need to be met before that possibility even would be considered.
Trump's lawyers are careful to say that the President hasn't shut the door to a possible agreement for an interview. His new legal team is still assessing that before making a recommendation, sources say.
The leaking of a version of Mueller's potential questions for the President, first published by The New York Times, and the President's reaction on Twitter underscore where the issue is moving, sources say.
Trump himself has told reporters he'd speak with the special counsel, and the President's legal team initially claimed that an interview could happen under the right terms.
The President's lawyers said they wanted to finish the interview quickly, claiming it would help end the special counsel's investigation.
But after the April 9 raid of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, the President's view of sitting down with Mueller had a "seismic shift," according to one source -- from yes toward no.
Many legal observers believe that if Mueller issues a grand jury subpoena for Trump's testimony, the courts will order the President to comply, because the Supreme Court has repeatedly ordered presidents to comply with subpoenas.
During independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton related to Monica Lewinsky, prosecutors eventually subpoenaed the president for grand jury testimony. Clinton's lawyers attempted to delay Clinton from speaking to prosecutors for months and told a federal judge they would avoid arguing the issue in court. They ultimately agreed to let Clinton appear before the grand jury without the weight of a subpoena.
In 1974, in United States v. Nixon, the Justices unanimously directed President Richard Nixon to comply with a criminal trial subpoena for the White House tapes. And in 1997, in Clinton v. Jones, the Court directed Clinton to comply with a subpoena for his deposition in Paula Jones' civil sexual harassment lawsuit against him.
Yet if Mueller attempts to force Trump to testify under subpoena -- as many legal analysts suspect could happen -- the sources familiar with the thinking of Trump's legal team say they believe Trump could successfully challenge the subpoena all the way to the Supreme Court.
One of the sources says the legal team views a subpoena for a presidential interview as "precipitating a constitutional crisis."
The Trump team's legal argument, according to multiple sources, is that they believe the special counsel does not have the authority to force a President to appear before a grand jury.
They also believe that Article II of the Constitution, which defines the office of the President, prevents the high court from ordering an investigation into the President's use of his executive powers. In this case, that could include the hiring and firing of persons like former national security adviser Michael Flynn and ex-FBI Director James Comey.
Their political argument also has changed. While the lawyers were originally in a let's-get-this-over-with mode, they now believe that time is on their side -- especially with the 2018 elections looming.
They believe that Trump has done a good job discrediting the investigators and the investigation itself.
Barrack's spokeswoman, Lisa Baker, declined to comment.
Washington (CNN) Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will await his trial for foreign lobbying charges from jail.
Two weeks after special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors dropped new accusations of witness tampering on him, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Friday revoked Manafort's bail, which had allowed him to live in his Alexandria, Virginia, apartment under house arrest.
The order marked an end to almost eight months of attempts by Manafort to lighten his house arrest restrictions after he was charged and pleaded not guilty to foreign lobbying violations.
"The harm in this case is harm to the administration of justice and harm to the integrity of the court's system," Berman Jackson told Manafort in court.
The judge emphasized to Manafort how she could not make enough rulings to keep him from speaking improperly with witnesses, after he had used multiple text messaging apps and called a potential witness on an Italian cellphone.
"This is not middle school. I can't take his cellphone," she said of Manafort. "I thought about this long and hard, Mr. Manafort. I have no appetite for this."
Manafort also entered a not guilty plea to two additional charges levied against him last week, of witness tampering and conspiracy to obstruct justice. In total, he faces seven criminal charges in DC federal court.
Three US marshals led Manafort out of the packed courtroom into the prisoner holding area immediately after the judge's ruling. He was not placed in handcuffs. Before he disappeared through the door, he turned toward his wife and supporters and gave a stilted wave.
Minutes later, a marshal returned to give Manafort's wife, Kathleen, still standing in the courtroom's front row, his wallet, belt and the burgundy tie he wore Friday.
Court marshals held Manafort in the bowels of the courthouse for several hours following the hearing as they considered how to keep him protected from other inmates behind bars. He arrived about 8 p.m. at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, 90 miles south of Washington.
In a tweet, President Donald Trump said the decision to revoke Manafort's bail was "tough," although he referred to it as a "sentence."
"Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns. Didn't know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!"
"This hearing is not about politics, is not about conduct of the office of the special counsel."
When Manafort was first arraigned and pleaded not guilty in October, a magistrate judge set a $10 million bail price and placed him under house arrest, confiscating his passports. Manafort then attempted to find assets of his own and through real estate and family members' accounts. In December, the judge signed off on his plan -- provided he could supply the correct documentation. It didn't come through, according to the court filings.
Prosecutors have argued all along that the jet-setting political consultant was a significant flight risk. As the process to negotiate his bail dragged on, prosecutors discovered possible mortgage fraud related to some of the properties he hoped to use as bail. That's when they finalized additional federal criminal charges against him in Virginia.
In the past month, Manafort finally came up with a plan to post some of his own and others' properties for his bail. The prosecutors appeared to agree with the plan, according to court filings.
Then, last week, Mueller's team alleged they found evidence Manafort had tried to coach potential witnesses.
On Friday, they told the judge Manafort was a "danger to the community" and that he had committed a crime while out on release: obstruction of justice.
A man was driving with his wife through rural Italy when his phone rang. Manafort identified himself to the man, Alan Friedman, a public relations consultant he once worked with.
"I need to give you a heads up about Hapsburg," Manafort told him three times. "Have you seen any article about Hapsburg?"
Manafort was referring to a project he and Friedman had worked on years ago to bring influential Europeans to the US to push pro-Ukrainian politics while the group posed as independent experts. The project, dubbed the Hapsburg group, was among Manafort's efforts to skirt foreign lobbying laws, prosecutors allege.
Friedman turned down the radio as Manafort spoke, Andres said, then hung up the phone a minute and a half into the call. Manafort tried several more times to reach him in the following days.
Andres said prosecutors now know Manafort used multiple ways to communicate with former colleagues like Friedman and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Moscow-based associate who's also charged in the alleged witness tampering: In addition to phone calls and half a dozen encrypted messaging apps, Manafort uses a system with email called "foldering," where multiple people have access to an account and write messages to one another as drafts,but the emails are never sent.
"This was a sustained campaign over a five-week period to use multiple numbers, applications and people," Andres said in court about the witness tampering allegations.
Manafort's lawyer Richard Westling argued that Manafort had no way to know Friedman would be a witness in the case. Westling asked the judge to simply issue a more specific order for Manafort to follow while out on bail.
"This will not happen again," Westling said.
But the witness tampering allegations, which also resulted in new criminal charges, were enough Friday for Manafort to lose his house arrest privileges.
Manafort has maintained his innocence and vowed to fight the charges since he was indicted alongside Gates in late October. Gates has since changed his plea to guilty and agreed to help prosecutors, because of the significant cost of his legal fees and attention bearing down on him and his family. Another associate of Manafort's, Kilimnik, was charged with witness tampering and has not yet appeared in court.
Prosecutors haven't tied Manafort, Gates and Kilimnik's alleged wrongdoings to the actions of the Trump campaign, which is at the core of Mueller's investigation. However, prosecutors have said in several previous court filings that they are looking into Manafort's contacts with Russians and Ukrainians -- including Kilimnik -- and possible coordination he may have orchestrated with them while he oversaw the campaign.
Manafort had spent his days since October stuck in his apartment under court order. He could leave only for legal meetings, medical needs and religious observances. The judge had allowed him to travel a few times for special exceptions, such as to his father-in-law's funeral on Long Island and his grandson's baptism in Virginia.
He wore ankle bracelets that tracked his movements through GPS technology, one on each leg.
Leading up to Friday's hearing, Manafort was optimistic he would avoid jail, according to a source familiar with the situation, but he and his legal team expected Mueller's team to be as aggressive as possible.
His friends were "shellshocked" in the wake of the judge's decision Friday, the source said.
Manafort's new confines create another hurdle in his trial preparations and will make it more difficult for him to confer with his counsel and prepare his defense.
(CNN) Michael Cohen, the President's former fixer and ultimate loyalist, is sending a clear signal to President Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that "the truth is not you(r) or your client's friend," according to sources with knowledge of Cohen's thinking.
It is his most direct statement so far on the reason for Donald Trump Jr's meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating US intelligence findings that Russians conspired to sway the election in Mr Trump's favour.
He has called the ongoing investigations in the US "the greatest political witch hunt in history".
Russia has repeatedly denied claims it interfered in the November 2016 presidential elections, where Mr Trump defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
On Sunday, US media including the Washington Post, CNN and AP reported that Mr Trump was worried Donald Trump Jr could be in legal trouble because of the 9 June 2016 meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya. They cited multiple unnamed sources.
Mr Trump responded: "Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower.
"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere.
Why does his tweet matter?
When the meeting was first reported by the New York Times, Donald Trump Jr said in a statement that he and Ms Veselnitskaya had mostly discussed a suspended programme for Americans to adopt Russian children.
However, he subsequently admitted he had agreed to the meeting after being told he would be offered information that would prove detrimental to Mrs Clinton. He also released the email exchange that brought about the meeting.
US commentators have argued that Mr Trump's new admission that the meeting was to gain information about Mrs Clinton shows that the earlier statement was misleading.
Why is the Trump Tower meeting controversial?
It is common for US politicians to research their opponents during a campaign.
His apparently enthusiastic response to the offer of information about Mrs Clinton could also breach conspiracy laws.
The Trump team has argued that Mr Trump Jr ultimately did not receive any damaging information about Mrs Clinton at the meeting.
One of Mr Trump's lawyers, Jay Sekulow, said on Sunday that the meeting had nor broken any laws.
"The question is what law, statute or rule or regulation's been violated? Nobody's pointed to one," Mr Sekulow told ABC News. |
0.879199 | Therapeutic rapport is an essential part of a healthy therapist-client relationship, leaving the client feeling safe and respected so that therapy can be successful.
Therapeutic rapport refers to the empathic (caring) and shared understanding of issues between a therapist and a client. It implies a team approach to management of these issues in contrast to an adversarial approach. With good therapeutic rapport, a client feels his therapist "has his back" in a way the allows him to face difficult-to-face problems. Likewise, the therapist in a setting with good therapeutic rapport feels respected in a way which allows her to speak clearly and freely.
The goal of developing a good rapport is to improve your chances for a successful outcome, along with developing mutual trust and respect, to foster an environment in which you, the client, feel safe.
To develop a good rapport, your therapist must, among other things, demonstrate empathy and understanding. Therapeutic rapport is a cornerstone of some forms of psychotherapy, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is common in phobia treatment.
In order to develop a therapeutic rapport, you need to feel confident that your therapist is an expert who is developing a treatment plan designed to meet the needs of your specific case.
How will you know if your therapist is taking the time to conceptualize your case?
From your very first session, she should assess the difficulties you currently have. She will help you create a problem list and begin to prioritize that with you.
During the first few sessions, your therapist should outline her treatment plan for you and ask if it's acceptable to you. She should revisit the plan in future sessions and consult with you about necessary modifications.
Your treatment plan should include goals and benchmarks, so it's easier to self-report and assess your own progress.
Genuineness is one of the ways your therapist can develop a healthy rapport with you. When she is genuine, it allows you to see her as a human being, not just a mental health professional. If you see her as being genuine, you are more likely to positively receive critical feedback about your progress.
Provide supportive nonverbal cues, including eye contact and nodding in agreement.
Give feedback in the moment, rather than in a later session.
Encourage you to be active and feel empowered in regards to your treatment plan.
Shows your therapist cares about what you think and values your input.
Gives you space to bring up anything that's bothering you about your treatment and individual sessions. If you sense that your therapist is genuine, you will also realize that therapists are human and aren't perfect. Keep in mind that everyone is different, and what works in a treatment plan for one person may not work for you. One of the ways in which your therapist can recognize your uniqueness is by providing feedback about anything that doesn't seem to be working for you as an individual.
Encourages teamwork between the two of you.
Allows your therapist to repair any damage to your therapeutic relationship, whether it's real or perceived.
When your child is in therapy, his therapist should develop a good rapport with the parents or guardian as well.
Anxiety disorders, such as social phobia, agoraphobia, and specific phobia, are highly treatable and the most frequently diagnosed class of mental health issues in adolescents and children. Phobia is most commonly treated with cognitive behavior therapy techniques, which emphasize the import of the healthy therapeutic relationship for a successful outcome.
With the advent of online and telephone options for therapy, the importance of therapeutic rapport is just as important, but more difficult to develop and assess. We know from history, that typed messages (think Facebook misunderstandings) and communications on the phone are more difficult to interpret since neither the client nor the therapist can visualize important body language clues. Keep this in mind if you are considering distance therapy and ask a potential therapist how she works with this issue.
Just as there are some painters who may a better job painting your house, there are some therapists that do a better job of establishing rapport. Yet, based on the definition of rapport, this effort is two-sided and requires effort on the part of both the therapist and the client.
That said, personality can play a large role in developing rapport with your therapist. Even if a therapist is very compassionate and a client is very motivated to address her mental health issues, there are times when personalities simply don't mix. If you find yourself in this category, don't fret. It doesn't mean that you chose a bad therapist or that you have failed in your attempt to get help. There are many good therapists out there, and just as you may need to interview a few home decorators to see which one matches your personality best, you may need to talk to more than one therapist before you find the one who can best help you work through and cope with any mental health issues.
Bachelor, A., Clients' and Therapists' Views of the Therapeutic Alliance: Similarities, Differences and Relationship to Therapy Outcome. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2013. 20(2):118-35.
Holdsworth, E., Bowen, E., Brown, S., and D. Howat. Client Engagement in Psychotherapeutic Treatment and Association with Client Characteristics, Therapist Characteristics, and Treatment Factors. Clinical Psychology Revew. 2014. 34(5):428-50.
Nissen-Lie, J., Havik, O., Hogeland, P., Ronnestad, M., and J. Monsen. Patient and Therapist Perspectives on Alliance Development: Therapists' Practice Experiences as Predictors. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. 2015. 22(4):317-27. |
0.999994 | I am a second year college student in pre-med/biology. What can I do to increase my chances of getting accepted into medical school?
The best thing you can do is focus on getting really good grades and scoring as high as possible on the MCAT.
In addition look into volunteer/leadership activities to make your application stand out. Schools like to see medical volunteering, but it's more important you do something that you are passionate about. These experiences are really great for finding topics to write a personal statement that will catch the reader's eye. |
0.999024 | Who really influences K-12 education? There are a host of potential answers; the Department of Education sets national policies, the states set education standards, and your local school board makes decisions around curriculum. This question is also complicated by the financial crises many school districts are suffering.
School districts across the country are having difficulty supplying quality services to their students thanks to these financial difficulties, harming student success in the short and long term. This problem plagues districts nationwide and not a single state or district has been able to completely solve it. In recent years, wealthy individuals have attempted to fill these funding gaps and have become powerful influencers in education themselves. These philanthropists are attempting to use their wealth to advance their conception of “better” education.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into education through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Other philanthropists such as Paul Tudor Jones II, use their resources to expand charter school programs via private foundations. While at first glance these efforts seem as though they are providing great benefit schools and students, there are a number of potential issues to consider.
Injecting money into schools is not a sure way to create positive change. In 2009, Zuckerberg attempted to funnel more than $100 million into the Newark, New Jersey school system. Governor Chris Christie, then-mayor Cory Booker, and Mark Zuckerberg worked together to create a reform plan. Their efforts were rejected by the community and overall failed to fix the Newark school system. It also lead to a host of firings and school closures, all of which resulted in no significant reforms implemented in Newark schools.
The Gates Foundation attempted a similar plan that year in Hillsborough County, Florida, allocating $100 million to boost student performance by increasing educational evaluation measures and rewarding teacher performance. However, six years later, the district’s budget has ballooned to levels they can not handle, creating mixed results in student performance, and prompting the foundation to withhold the last $20 million. Additionally, the Gates Foundation required the county match the $100 million the foundation donated, which further hurt the plan’s chances of success.
These philanthropists do not just invest directly in schools, but have also founded or donated to education organizations. These groups can provide needed services to communities where school have fallen short, but schools must be wary of potential pitfalls when they are approached with possible million-dollar donations.
Large scale funding efforts like these need smart implementation plans to be effective. However, many districts and organizations are just not equipped to use funds effectively and these extra resources may end up causing more harm than good.
In Newark, $50 million was allocated to revamp educator evaluation tools and to fire underperforming teachers, but the district had little ability to do so as the state legislature had set rules around removing teachers. Schools were also closed as a result of this plan, but the district had not set up a good strategy for relocating students to open schools, leading to many students to have to travel long distances through dangerous neighborhoods to get to class.
Hillsborough administrators hoped to use some of the funds to raise salaries for high-performing teachers, while funneling those same educators into high needs schools. Most of this money instead went to longtime teachers, regardless of their effectiveness as educators, who continue to work in stable schools.
In both of cases, the vast amount of money that was raised did result significant institutional changes, with hundreds of educators and administrators losing their jobs thanks to curriculum and service changes, and yet students did not end up better off.
Not all funding comes with no strings attached. Gifts of money can have wide-ranging impacts on policies and organizations. Donors may want to push their own beliefs on what education should be, which may not always be the best for students or a community. Funding often comes with provisions that recipients must follow, giving donors a means of exerting control.
Philanthropists aren’t just donating directly to schools, they’re also attempting to change educational politics. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Board of Education elections had its most expensive election ever, with nearly $15 million spent campaigning for board seats. Nearly two-thirds of this money was raised by organizations and individuals supporting new charter schools, which Los Angeles had historically been kept out. Thanks to these efforts, including millions donated by Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, the majority of the LA Board of Education now members support charter schools.
We rightly get upset when we hear about billionaires like the Koch Brothers or Warren Buffett who spend millions of dollars to lobby for certain laws and policies, but shouldn’t we also be concerned when equal amount of private funds are invested in schools all while promoting certain programs or viewpoints?
Supporting education can be a worthwhile project for philanthropists, but organizations and communities need to be cautious about these endeavors. The infrastructure of a district or school may not be robust enough to use this money adequately. Those giving large swaths of their fortunes may have their own personal agendas which they push through these donations. They are not always giving support without ulterior motives.
While more funding can do a lot of good for students and our U.S. schools desperately need the money, the potential hidden costs and negative externalities involved demand debate. Stakeholders must ensure that these efforts actually improve education and that the rich are not using charity to hijack education policy. Districts, schools, and communities must consistently question these philanthropic efforts and work to prevent some of damage to education that have befallen other areas of American policy.
Tucker is a 2019 MPP/MBA Candidate at the Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business and Public Policy. He is currently a consultant and data analyst who helps organizations within the public, private, and voluntary sectors strategically plan and implement best practices. Past areas of work include local government, non-profit, education, sexual violence, thanatology, and homelessness. |
0.905831 | When defenses are fixated on overplaying your scorer, have the player take a step high, receive a backdoor screen and score on an over-the-top lob pass at the hoop.
The best way to force a defense from constantly jumping the perimeter on your talented shooter is to send the shooter backdoor behind the defense.
From a Horns set in which your two posts are located at opposite elbows and your other two guards are in opposite corners, your point guard is dribbling at the top shaded to the side away from your top scorer.
Your scorer (3 in this instance) takes a step high out of the corner, which brings the defender away from the baseline. On this step, 5 runs toward 3 and sets a backscreen. 3 uses the screen to come free along the baseline. 4 steps high to set a ball screen as 2 dives toward the hoop [diagram 1].
1 uses the ball screen to gain a step on the defense, then lofts a lob toward the rim for 3 [diagram 2].
3 elevates, catches the ball and scores before landing, which eliminates any chance of a defender recovering in time [diagram 3].
Be sure 4 sets a solid ball screen for 1 and 1 dribbles hard off it. If either player is hesitant, it ruins the timing of the lob pass and the opportunity is gone. |
0.993578 | What risks do women face when seeking advice during pregnancy from pharmacies and natural health retailers?
Natural health products are popular among pregnant women in Australasia,1,2 yet potential risks of exposure to teratogenic herbs, vitamins and other substances raise concerns regarding the present lack of effective regulation of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) industry in New Zealand.
Natural health (or CAM) products, including herb, mineral and vitamin supplements, are marketed for pregnancy on the basis of health promotion as well as to remedy pregnancy-associated ailments such as nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP).
The key issue that this study sought to investigate was the risks which a woman may face when seeking advice regarding NVP, and vitamin supplementation during pregnancy from pharmacies and health food stores (HFS) in Greater Wellington.
A search of The Yellow Pages telephone directory in February 2010 identified 26 Health Food Stores (HFS) in the Greater Wellington region. Of these, 5 were excluded: 3 were no longer in operation, 1 was a residential property, and 1 specialised in sports supplements.
Twenty-one HFS and 21 geographically-matched pharmacies (on the basis of closest location to the HFS) were visited by the same researcher between the months of February to July 2010.
With each visit, the researcher commenced a conversation with a retail assistant by saying she was 6–8 weeks pregnant, having problems with morning sickness, and enquiring about any herbal products which the retail assistant could recommend to help reduce nausea. The researcher would then ask what the retail assistant could recommend with regards to vitamin supplementation. Finally she asked which vitamins were important during pregnancy and if there were any to avoid.
If questioned by the retail assistant, the researcher would reply, as appropriate, saying she was: 30 years old, married, excited about her first pregnancy, currently working in a clerical office job, and otherwise fit and healthy with no previous medical history.
During each interaction, the researcher would take note of the products recommended and their prices, and upon leaving immediately complete a standardised data collection form to document the advice received. The ingredients of each recommended product were later confirmed by searching for the product on the Internet.
The NZ MOH Food and Nutrition Guidelines of Healthy Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women (revised 2008) was the standard against which all advice was compared. For ingredients not noted therein, a database search using Medline was performed for evidence of safety during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Safe—Product contains ingredients which are not absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy or their daily dose does not exceed the upper limit recommended by NZ MOH guidelines, or, if the ingredient is unknown, there is no evidence that it may be unsafe by Medline search of the literature.
Unsafe—Product contains ingredients which are absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy or the daily dose exceeds the upper limit recommended by NZ MOH guidelines, or, if the ingredient is unknown, there is evidence that it may be unsafe by Medline search of the literature.
Correct—Dose advised corresponds with NZ MOH guidelines for supplementation with 800 mcg/day in low-risk pregnancy.
Incorrect—Folic acid not recommended or dose advised was less than 800 mcg/day.
Advice regarding vitamin supplementation in early pregnancy – Vitamin A overdose risk.
Safe—Advice given did not pose risk of vitamin A overdose. This includes recommendation of a multivitamin product marketed for pregnancy which did not contain doses of vitamin A exceeding 3000mcg/day of retinol, even without demonstrating explicit vitamin A overdose awareness.
Unsafe—Advised that there is no limit to vitamin dosing during pregnancy or recommended a product containing >3000 mcg/day of retinol or advised to take any generic multivitamin.
A statistically significant McNemar's test means the marginal proportions of the contingency table are different. In the analysis McNemar’s test is based on an exact test whereas the confidence interval is based on asymptotic (large sample) assumptions. Where more than one product was recommended for nausea, the primary recommended products were compared in one analysis, and then the secondarily recommended products compared separately.
The number of matched pharmacies/HFS was based on an earlier study comparing the advice from HFS assistants with that of pharmacy assistants given to an individual presenting with symptoms suggestive of moderate to severe asthma who should be referred to a medical practitioner18 Based on this, it was calculated that the study would need to have 19 store/pharmacy pairs to have 80% power to detect the difference.
The study was approved by the Central Regional Ethics Committee.
Data was collected from 21 HFS and 21 geographically-matched pharmacies in the Greater Wellington region. The investigator was advised by retail assistants in all the HFS, with 6/21 (28.6%) HFS advising further discussion with a naturopath (n=2) or GP (n=4).
In 7/21 pharmacies, advice was indirectly (n=3) or directly (n=4) from the pharmacist. 9/21 (42.9%) of pharmacies referred the researcher to a GP (n=7) and/or midwife (n=2) during the interaction.
Table 1 lists the products recommended for nausea and Table 2 summarises other recommendations made, including multivitamin supplementation.
In brackets = Number of HPS and P recommendations for the product. *Also contains herb mixture called cardiodoron 250mg/15 drops = Digestion, equiv. fresh plant juice: Hyoscyamus niger, herb 1mg; onopordon acanthium, flower 25mg; Primula veris, flower 25mg. Nausyn is licensed by Medsafe as a Medicine.
Advice given for nausea in the first trimester of pregnancy—5/21 (23.8%) of pharmacies and 1/21 (4.8%) of HFS made primary recommendations for nausea which were supported by the NZ MOH guidelines, with a non significant difference in marginal proportions of 19.1% (95%CI -2.3% to 40.4%), p=0.10.
Both pharmacies (14/21, 66.7%) and HFS (7/21, 33.3%), made primary recommendations which were contrary to NZ MOH safety guidance. The difference in marginal proportions was 33.4% (95%CI 5.9% to 60.8%), p= 0.07. With regards to recommendations of second-line products which were contrary to MOH safety guidance, this occurred in 7/21 (33.3%) of pharmacies and 10/21 (47.6%) of HFS with a non significant difference in marginal proportions of -14.3% (95%CI -41.6% to 13.0%), p=0.51. The most common reason for a product being considered unsafe was that it provided >1g ginger ± >50 mg pyridoxine in the maximum daily dose as directed (Table 1).
7/21 (33.3%) of pharmacies and 0/21 (0%) of HFS advised GP consultation if nausea did not settle. Due to two zero cell counts in the paired contingency table, it was not possible to calculate McNemar’s test or a confidence interval for the difference in paired proportions.
Advice promoting a balanced diet with folic acid supplementation—1/21 (4.8%) of HFS and 0/21 (0%) of pharmacies correctly advised that a balanced diet, along with folic acid supplementation, was recommended during pregnancy in otherwise healthy young women. However, 0/21 of HFS and 18/21 (85.7%) of pharmacies primarily recommended Elevit by Bayer, a multivitamin product which is licensed by Medsafe. Due to zero cell counts in the paired contingency tables, it was not possible to calculate McNemar’s test or a confidence interval for the difference in these paired proportions.
Advice regarding folic acid—The majority of those promoting folic acid supplementation advised that this was for the prevention of neural tube defects (14/20 pharmacies and 13/17 HFS). 20/21 (95.2%) of pharmacies and 10/21 (47.6%) of HFS correctly gave dosing recommendations on the basis of national standards, with a difference in marginal proportions of 47.6% (95%CI 22.5% to 72.7%), p=0.006. 1/21 (4.8%) of pharmacies and 4/21 (19.0%) of HFS did not actively recommend taking folic acid supplementation.
Advice regarding Vitamin A overdose risk—2/21 (9.5%) of pharmacies and 4/21 (19.0%) of HFS vitamin recommendations were unsafe due to the potential risk of vitamin A overdose, with a non significant difference in marginal proportions of -9.5%, p=0.69.
Both pharmacies and HFS recommended products for nausea in early pregnancy which did not adhere with NZ MOH safety guidance.
A minority also provided potentially unsafe advice regarding vitamin supplementation. There were no statistically significant differences between stores in the majority of recommendations made, except pharmacies were more likely than matched HFS to advise correctly regarding folic acid dosing. While this difference is unsurprising taking into consideration that pharmacies promote Medsafe-approved folic acid products which only they can sell, it does demonstrate the positive influence of product approval.
This study supports the urgent introduction of regulatory reform of the CAM industry and the businesses which sell these products.
This study is the fourth in a series of surveys in New Zealand looking at the appropriateness of advice given by pharmacies and HFS for a range of medical conditions. Previous surveys have all raised concerns regarding the advice provided by HFS when compared with pharmacies.18–20 This is the first scenario to find that the standard of advice was, on the whole, similarly matched between both types of store.
In fact there was a trend towards the primary promotion of potentially unsafe products for NVP by pharmacies when compared with matched HFS. This is largely due to the primary promotion of homeopathy by HFS, which although only able to offer a placebo effect at best, is inherently safe.
There were several limitations of this study. One of these is the possibility of recall bias although advice was entered into a data collection sheet immediately following the interaction to minimize this. The study was limited by the sample size available to the researchers in the greater Wellington region and although no statistically significant differences were found the confidence intervals for the comparisons were quite wide.
While this is the first study in New Zealand examining advice given by CAM retailers for a scenario of pregnancy, the closest comparative is a survey carried out in 2003 in North America.21 In this study, advice was sought from HFS via telephone for the treatment of nausea and migraines in early pregnancy. They found that HFS readily made recommendations, 5% of which were for products contraindicated in pregnancy, and most stores primarily promoted ginger for NVP giving incorrect dosing instructions.
Since the 1990s the use of CAM has surged worldwide and the World Health Organization actively recommends the regulation of all complementary and herbal medicine products and practitioners.22 This is particularly so in situations where the practice of complementary medicine brings economic benefit. This is to ensure the quality of the service received and thus to protect the public from potential harm.
This study supports the introduction of the Natural Health Products Bill in New Zealand (currently before the Health Committee) which is aimed at improving regulation by making pre-marketing ‘product approval’ mandatory, establishing a database of permitted CAM ingredients, requiring product labeling and licensing of CAM product manufacturers.6 This proposed legislation would ensure that commercially available CAM products complied with national guidelines prior to appearing on the shelves. Furthermore it would help ensure the quality of the ingredients used.
Analysis of the contents of the recommended products was outside the scope of this study, but it would have been interesting to assess the accuracy of the listed ingredients.
Research has demonstrated a wide variation in the constituents of ginger present in commercially available ginger supplements.23 This not only has implications for the rights of the consumer, but lack of standardisation of the products used in research, as exemplified by the variety of preparations used in ginger studies, may create misleading results.
Further monitoring of the therapeutic claims made on product labeling is also appropriate; a number of products not registered as medicines by Medsafe, and therefore not permitted to make therapeutic claims, were found to do so.
Unfortunately the proposed bill will not address the issue of setting minimum staff training requirements for the promotion of health food goods. Although only a minority provided unsafe advice regarding vitamin supplementation (e.g. 4.8% of pharmacies and 19.0% of HFS did not recommend folic acid) in the context of a retailer presenting themselves as a source of health advice to the public, any unsafe practice is unacceptable.
In conclusion, this study found that both HFS and pharmacy staff made potentially unsafe recommendations for nausea and vitamin supplementation in early pregnancy.
Many of the pregnancy promoted products recommended often did not adhere to the safety guidance set out by the NZ MOH. This study supports the call for legislative change and high quality research to guide the practice of health care professionals and retailers who sell natural products which may exert both beneficial and harmful effects.
There are potential risks to mothers and their unborn babies with the incorrect use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) products during pregnancy. 21 Health Food Stores (HFS) and 21 geographically matched pharmacies were visited by a researcher who sought advice regarding vitamin supplementation and nausea in early pregnancy. A minority of pharmacies and HFS made primary recommendations for nausea which were supported by Ministry of Health guidelines, and both pharmacies and HFS recommended products contrary to these guidelines. Pharmacies were more likely to give advice consistent with MOH recommendations for folic acid. Regulatory reform of CAM products and those who sell them is called for in NZ.
Potential risks to mother and foetus exist with the incorrect use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) products during pregnancy. This study aimed to identify the risks that a woman may face when seeking advice during pregnancy from pharmacies and health food stores (HFS) in Greater Wellington (New Zealand).
21 HFS and 21 geographically-matched pharmacies were visited by a researcher who sought advice regarding vitamin supplementation and nausea in early pregnancy using a standardised scenario. Any advice given, including details of recommended products, was documented immediately upon leaving the premises. Proportions were obtained and paired contingency table analysis was used to examine the agreement between the matched pairs.
A minority of pharmacies (5/21, 23.8%) and HFS (1/21, 4.8%) made primary recommendations for nausea which were supported by Ministry of Health (MOH) guidelines, and both pharmacies (14/21, 66.7%) and HFS (7/21, 33.3%) recommended products contrary to these guidelines. A greater proportion of pharmacies gave advice consistent with MOH recommended dosage of folic acid supplementation than HFS (20/21, 95.2% vs 10/21, 47.6%). 2/21 (9.5%) of pharmacies and 4/21 (19%) of HFS gave advice with a potential risk of vitamin A overdose.
Pharmacies and HFS in Greater Wellington provided potentially hazardous advice, recommending products, often branded for pregnancy, which contradicted NZ MOH guidelines. Regulatory reform of CAM products and those who sell them is called for in New Zealand.
Allen T, Thomson WM, Emmerton LM, Poulton R. Nutritional supplement use among 26-year-olds. N Z Med J 2000;113:274-7.
Maats FH, Crowther CA. Patterns of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplement use prior to and during pregnancy. Aust N Z J Obstet Gynaecol 2002;42:494-6.
Hollyer T, Boon H, Georgousis A, et al. The use of CAM by women suffering from nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. BMC Complement Altern Med 2002;2:5.
Wardle J. Regulation of complementary medicines. A brief report on the regulation and potential role of complementary medicines in Australia. In: The Naturopathy Foundation and NorphCam; 2008:3-20.
MOH. Questions and Answers: Development of a Natural Health Products Bill. Wellington: Ministry of Health; 2011.
MacLennan AH, Myers SP, Taylor AW. The continuing use of complementary and alternative medicine in South Australia: costs and beliefs in 2004. Med J Aust 2006;184:27-31.
Matthews A, Dowswell T, Haas DM, et al. Interventions for nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2010:CD007575.
Snodgrass SR. Vitamin neurotoxicity. Mol Neurobiol 1992;6:41-73.
Hardy ML. Herbs of special interest to women. J Am Pharm Assoc (Wash) 2000;40:234-42; quiz 327-9.
Backon J. Ginger in preventing nausea and vomiting of pregnancy; a caveat due to its thromboxane synthetase activity and effect on testosterone binding. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 1991;42:163-4.
Guh JH, Ko FN, Jong TT, Teng CM. Antiplatelet effect of gingerol isolated from Zingiber officinale. J Pharm Pharmacol 1995;47:329-32.
Vijaya Padma V, Arul Diana Christie S, Ramkuma KM. Induction of apoptosis by ginger in HEp-2 cell line is mediated by reactive oxygen species. Basic Clin Pharmacol Toxicol 2007;100:302-7.
Janssen PL, Meyboom S, van Staveren WA, et al. Consumption of ginger (Zingiber officinale roscoe) does not affect ex vivo platelet thromboxane production in humans. Eur J Clin Nutr 1996:50:772-4.
Karna P, Chagani S, Gundala S, et al. Benefits of whole ginger extract in prostate cancer. Br J Nutr 2011;18:1-12.
Agresti A. Categorical data analysis 2nd ed: John Wiley, Hoboken; 2002.
Buckner KD, Chavez ML, Raney EC, Stoehr JD. Health food stores' recommendations for nausea and migraines during pregnancy. Ann Pharmacother 2005;39:274-9.
Schwertner HA, Rios DC, Pascoe JE. Variation in concentration and labeling of ginger root dietary supplements. Obstet Gynecol 2006;107:1337-43. |
0.999997 | I read this one quickly, because it was engrossing and I had to keep reading. It reminded me of The Road ( a book I loved long before Oprah did) except that White Horse seemed much more void of hope and gave us a clear idea of what happened to bring the world to its knees. The book goes back and forth between "then" ( before the world goes to hell) and "now" ( after the collapse, as Zoe is trying to survive). I really did like being able to see the collapse of the world, and how she ended up in her "now", but the truth was revealed slowly, upping the tension. And boy, The Road really had nothing on this one in terms of gritty horrors. There were some seriously dark, cringe-inducing moments. And then, when I thought I knew how things were, things change. And a shred of hope does develop, which creates a tiny light at the end of the deep dark tunnel Zoe has been in. There are some serious twists and turns in her journey, and the ending was unexpected but welcome. I've heard this is first in a trilogy, and I am very interested to see where her journey would continue. This is not for the faint of heart. In terms of tone, I would put it in the same category as The Road: very dark, full of the evils of the world both real and imagined. |
0.953374 | Is borrower required to pay?
DEAR BENNY: We are in the final steps of completing a refinance of our barely year-old $410,000 mortgage. We were pleased with the interest-rate drop, and our local bank was generous in dropping many of the so-called "junk fees" associated with a refinance. However, we are being charged $1,007 for title insurance. When I asked our banker about this, the response was basically, "Well, yes, it is a rip-off but there is nothing we can do about it." |
0.999948 | It would be hard to improve on their own blurb: "Wholphin No. 7 features a short film by Gus Van Sant based on a William S. Burroughs short story; a face off between American gray squirrels and British red squirrels; a hallucinogenic post-Katrina New Orleans masterpiece; a documentary exploring autism from the animators of Waking Life; an incredibly close look at the sun in its most inactive and gorgeous state; Field Notes from Dimension X, bumper cars, UFOs and more. Issue 7 also includes a special bonus disc containing a highly controversial interactive scientific experiment in retroactive causality, in which the Wholphin audience, just by watching, will help to determine the role of consciousness in the establishment of a physical reality." Yes, it's another great issue of the "DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films." Wholphin has yet to let us down. Every issue has been a winner. We heartily encourage anyone who enjoys intelligent, adventurous, independent films and has yet to check it out, to do so as soon as opportunity and finances permit. We have all seven issues in stock for our regular discount. |
0.999998 | WASHINGTON — People who believe Princess Diana was murdered or that John F. Kennedy's assassination was an elaborate plot are more likely to think that vaccines are unsafe, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
"Vaccinations are one of society's greatest achievements and one of the main reasons that people live about 30 years longer than a century ago," said lead researcher Matthew Hornsey, PhD, of the University of Queensland. "Therefore, it is fascinating to learn about why some people are so fearful of them."
The study is the first to test the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and antivaccination attitudes among a global sample, according to Hornsey. The research was published in the journal Health Psychology.
Hornsey and his co-authors surveyed 5,323 people from 24 countries on five continents using online questionnaires between March 31 and May 11, 2016, measuring antivaccination attitudes and belief in four conspiracy theories: that Princess Diana was murdered; that the American government knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance and chose to let them happen; that a shadowy group of elites exist to plot a new world order; and that John F. Kennedy was murdered as part of an elaborate plot.
Those with strong beliefs in conspiracies were most likely to hold antivaccination attitudes regardless of where they lived. For example, the more people believed that Princess Diana was murdered, the more negative attitudes they had about vaccinations. In contrast, level of education had a very small impact on antivaccination attitudes.
"People often develop attitudes through emotional and gut responses," Hornsey said. "Simply repeating evidence makes little difference to those who have antivaccination attitudes."
Large pharmaceutical companies, which profit from selling vaccines, are often targets for conspiracy theorists, said Hornsey. "For many conspiracy theorists, profits gained are a sign that the system is broken and the truth is being covered up by vested interests."
"Trying to reduce people's conspiracy beliefs is notoriously difficult," Hornsey said. "An alternative possibility is to acknowledge the possibility of conspiracies, but to highlight how there are vested interests on the other side too; vested interests that are motivated to obscure the benefits of vaccination and to exaggerate their dangers."
Anti-vaccination attitudes were also associated with intolerance of those who limit their freedom, disgust toward blood and needles and an individualistic worldview, according to the study.
Article: "The Psychological Roots of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: A 24-Nation Investigation," by Matthew Hornsey, PhD, Emily Harris, PhD, and Kelly Fielding, PhD, University of Queensland. Health Psychology, published Feb. 1, 2018.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 115,700 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives. |
0.999999 | In the early 1920 s, a woman wearing a long pink gown died from a fall off the balcony of Room 545 into the Palm Court Pavilion at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina The story is too good for history professor Connie Cobb to resist during a vacation at the Inn and she starts digging into the tale It s only when people start to get hurt that Connie and her siIn the early 1920 s, a woman wearing a long pink gown died from a fall off the balcony of Room 545 into the Palm Court Pavilion at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina The story is too good for history professor Connie Cobb to resist during a vacation at the Inn and she starts digging into the tale It s only when people start to get hurt that Connie and her sister, Rebecca, realize that the legend of The Pink Lady might be than just a ghost story.
Modern-day mysteryThe story is very predictable. The main characters _ sisters, are very realistic . More details are needed to carry the storyline further. Some great historical facts. |
0.999848 | Compare Razor Electric Scooters: Buy E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 or E300S?
You don't have to be a teenager to enjoy an electric scooter which comes with a number of advantages when compared to other means of transport. First of all, these scooters are affordable and environment friendly as they do not need any gasoline to run and cost so little to buy.
They are also convenient as you can ride them just about anywhere except on highways. Their maximum speed is usually under 20 mph which makes them quite safe compared to other motorized transportation means. They are very compact and can be stored in small places at home or wherever you go. Last but not least, they are so much fun to ride!
There exists a number of designs of electric scooters, but the most popular are those that allow you to stand up while riding, and those with a seat and foot support. Note that the seat is often removable so that standing up riding is also possible when desired. The no-seat scooters are usually preferred by younger riders and teenagers who can easily stand on the foot rest and ride for longer periods of time. Note that it is always recommended to wear a helmet when riding a scooter.
Razor is the brand that specializes most in affordable scooters of all types, including electric scooters, and Razor electric scooters are no doubt today the most popular. But Razor makes a number of electric scooter models, and it might be hard to decide which would be best for you or the teenager you want to buy one for.
Razor electric scooters that are most popular are the E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S. This article will provide a detailed comparison of these scooters so you can easily make the right choice that corresponds to your needs. Note that these Razor electric scooters have also been the most popular among Amazon customers, and at the time this article was written, they had received excellent reviews from most Amazon buyers with an all-model overall average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars!.
Batteries used in all models are sealed lead acid and rechargeable batteries.
A charger is included with all models.
The motors of Razor E90, E100 and E100 Glow require a small manual kickoff to start.
On the other hand, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S start off electrically from a standing position, and once on the move, their powerful electric motor ramps up to speeds fast enough to have fun, but not fast enough to present a danger on the sidewalk or the road.
E90 has urethane rear and front wheels.
E100 and E100 Glow have a 8" pneumatic front tire and a urethane rear wheel.
E200 and E200S have 8” pneumatic front and rear wheels.
E300 and E300S have 10” pneumatic front and rear wheels.
Padded seat is easily removable for stand-up riding.
The Amazon prices shown in the table vary depending on the color of the scooter chosen. These prices were in effect at the time this article was written and may have changed. For exact prices, please refer to the Amazon products section below. Note that the Amazon price often includes a generous discount to the list price. If a discount exists, both the Amazon price and the list price will be displayed when you click the Amazon product link images below.
Now that you have all the characteristics of all the electric scooters offered by Razor, you should be able to select below the one that best matches your requirements or the needs of your child or teenager.
Razor E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S electric scooters are all available below on Amazon. When you click the scooter images below, you will get additional colors to choose from whenever available.
Please click the scooter of your choice below for price information or to purchase.
If you'd rather have a more sophisticated and slighly faster scooter, you might want to consider also the SWAGTRON electric scooters which are equipped with an LED screen that allows sophisticated runtime controls (such as cruise control) and runtime diagnostics display. For a comparison of SWAGTRON electric scooters, please click: Comparing SWAGTRON Electric Scooters. |
0.979589 | Briefly describe transition plan Replace transmitter and transmission line and retune existing antenna. Acquire interim antenna system to stay on the air during construction. Map and analyze tower to ensure safety before working on the tower.
Justification for New Antenna Temporary antenna to continue operation while main transmission line and elbow complex are replaced.
Justification for New Transmission Line The existing primary transmission line is rigid with section lengths that cannot accommodate the assigned channel.
Justification for New Transmission Line An interim transmission line is necessary for the existing antenna to keep station on the air during primary line replacement. Station will attempt to rent if renting is available at time of acquisition.
Explanation It will be necessary to schedule and coordinate multiple vendors and complete progress reports. Station does not have available personnel or personnel trained in project management for such complex projects.
Justification It will be necessary to plan the installation, develop specifications for purchasing, and perform final inspections of this RF project. Station does not have available personnel or personnel trained in such services. |
0.941502 | Why are merchants allowed to apply payment surcharges?
Merchants incur costs when they accept a payment from a customer. Different payment methods can have very different costs. For example, cards that provide significant rewards to consumers are typically more expensive for merchants. Surcharging provides merchants with the ability to pass the cost of accepting more expensive payment methods back to the customers who use those methods.
When merchants have the right to apply a surcharge to more expensive payment methods they are able to provide price signals that encourage consumers to use less expensive payment methods. By helping to hold down payment costs, the right to surcharge helps to hold down the price of goods and services charged to all consumers.
The definition of card acceptance costs has been narrowed. Acceptable costs are limited to fees paid to the merchant's acquirer (or other payments facilitator) and certain other observable costs paid to third parties for services directly related to accepting particular types of cards.
Acquirers and payment facilitators must provide merchants with an annual statement that clearly sets out their average cost of acceptance for each of the card payment systems regulated by the RBA. Acceptance costs will be expressed in percentage terms. It is expected that merchants who wish to surcharge – including in the airline industry – will typically do so in percentage terms rather than as a fixed dollar amount, which should mean that surcharges on some lower-value transactions will be reduced significantly.
The Government has given the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation and enforcement powers over cases of possible excessive surcharging.
Overall, the RBA expects that the narrower definition of the cost of acceptance, the proposed transparency measures and the ACCC's new powers will result in a framework that is clearer for all parties, with more effective enforcement in cases where merchants may be surcharging excessively.
The goal of the RBA's revised surcharging standard is to improve price signals to consumers about the relative costs of different payment methods. Excessive surcharging diminishes the effectiveness of these price signals. The new standard is targeted at eliminating instances of excessive surcharging, through improved transparency and stronger enforcement. Merchants must be provided with easy-to-understand information about their costs of card acceptance, which will enable them to make informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. Where merchants do decide to impose surcharges, consumers can be confident that these represent the actual costs to the merchant. Consumers can make a complaint to the ACCC if they consider that a surcharge is excessive.
The changes took effect in two stages. Large merchants have been required to comply with the new standard since 1 September 2016. Other merchants have been required to comply with the new standard since 1 September 2017.
Information on the previous surcharging framework can be found in the RBA's surcharging Guidance Note and Surcharging Q&A.
Merchants remain subject to all the obligations under the Australian Consumer Law.
Why was there a delay for smaller merchants?
Much of the concern over excessive surcharging involves larger merchants. These merchants should have the ability to analyse and calculate their payment costs and so have been subject to the new framework since 1 September 2016. In contrast, smaller merchants are less likely to surcharge and to surcharge excessively. They often also have a relatively less detailed understanding of their payment costs. Surcharging decisions for these merchants will benefit from improved data on payment costs. By 1 September 2017, all merchants should have received an annual statement from their acquirer or payments facilitator with easy-to-understand information outlining their average cost of acceptance for each of the card schemes subject to the RBA's standard.
How do the changes affect small and medium-sized merchants more generally?
Small and medium-sized merchants who do not benefit from preferred interchange rates currently bear the cost of the high interchange rates on premium MasterCard and Visa cards. Accordingly, they should see a material reduction in merchant service fees from the changes to the RBA's interchange standards. This should improve their competitiveness relative to larger merchants who may benefit from low interchange rates on all their card transactions.
Merchants will also receive easy-to-understand information on the cost of payments for the different types of cards they accept. This should enable them to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. This will place downward pressure on payment costs. If merchants decide to surcharge, they will have clear information on the maximum permissible surcharge for each payment method.
Can card schemes, acquiring banks or payment facilitators prohibit merchants from charging a surcharge?
Card schemes such as American Express, MasterCard and Visa cannot prevent or deter merchants from recovering the costs of accepting card payments. Banks and other payment facilitators are not allowed to prohibit or deter merchants from charging a surcharge on a particular payment instrument. Schemes, banks and payment providers cannot refuse to provide card acceptance services to a merchant solely because that merchant plans to surcharge or because of the level of their surcharge. They can, however, seek to ensure that a surcharge does not exceed the merchant's cost of acceptance.
Merchants incur costs when they accept a payment from a customer. Different payment methods can have very different costs. Cards that provide significant rewards to consumers are typically more expensive for merchants. For example, some merchants face fees of more than 3 per cent on American Express transactions, while transactions on some types of premium MasterCard and Visa cards can currently cost many merchants more than 2 per cent.
When merchants have the right to apply a surcharge to more expensive payment methods they are able to provide price signals that encourage consumers to use payment methods that are less expensive. By helping to hold down payment costs, the right to surcharge helps to hold down the price of goods and services charged to all consumers. It also reduces the extent to which those who pay with cheaper payment methods are subsidising those consumers – typically from higher income households – who use more expensive payment methods.
Is there a limit on the size of a surcharge?
Surcharges must not be more than the amount that it costs a merchant to accept a particular type of card for a given transaction. For example, debit cards are typically less expensive for merchants to accept than credit cards. It is important that merchants do not impose surcharges in excess of their actual payment costs. Merchants will know how much that is from statements supplied by their bank or payments provider; these must contain easy-to-understand information on the average cost of acceptance for each payment method.
These statements will express acceptance costs in percentage terms and the standard defines the cost of acceptance in percentage terms. This should ensure that merchants who wish to surcharge – including in the airline industry – will generally do so in percentage terms rather than as a fixed dollar amount. This means that surcharges on some lower-priced transactions should be reduced significantly.
If merchants wish to surcharge two or more payment methods at the same rate (e.g. all credit cards from American Express, MasterCard and Visa; or both debit and credit cards from a particular system) they are required to set the surcharge at the lowest cost of those different payment methods.
How can I avoid paying a surcharge?
Merchants that choose to surcharge will generally offer a non-surcharged payment method. This will typically be a payment type with a lower cost of acceptance for the merchant. If no surcharge-free method is offered, the amount of the surcharge should be built into the base price and not added on to the price of an item. Consistent with requirements under the Australian Consumer Law, merchants are required to prominently disclose the terms of any surcharge. A consumer who wishes to avoid paying a surcharge should ask the merchant to identify an alternative non-surcharged payment method.
How do I know the surcharge imposed by a merchant is reasonable?
While merchants are allowed to impose cost-based surcharges on card payments, surcharges must not exceed the permitted surcharge specified in the RBA standard. The standard provides a narrower definition of the cost of acceptance than the previous standard, along with transparency measures to ensure merchants have clear information on the payment costs they face.
Merchants of different sizes and in different industries have a wide range of payment costs. However, as a guide, payments through the domestic eftpos system are usually quite low cost for merchants, mostly below ½ per cent of the transaction value. Debit MasterCard and Visa Debit may cost many merchants around ½ to 1 per cent, though for some merchants the cost of these cards is combined with credit card costs. MasterCard and Visa credit may cost many merchants about 1 to 1½ per cent. And it is common for merchants to pay 1½ to 2 per cent for an American Express card payment. In general, smaller merchants face higher payment costs than larger merchants and may have higher costs than these typical ranges.
What can I do if I believe I have been asked to pay an excessive surcharge?
Consumers who have concerns over whether a payment surcharge is excessive can contact the ACCC. The ACCC has investigation and enforcement powers over cases of possible excessive surcharging.
Will merchants be able to replace surcharges with other charges?
Merchants cannot avoid the rules by calling their payment surcharges something else while still applying them to some payment methods and not others.
However, the new surcharging framework only applies to payment surcharges – that is, to fees that are specifically related to payments or apply to some payment methods but not others. Some merchants apply fees, such as ‘booking’ or ‘service’ fees, which are unrelated to payment costs and apply regardless of the method of payment (this is for instance common in the ticketing industry). The surcharging framework is not intended to apply to these fees but merchants are required to meet all provisions of the Australian Consumer Law in terms of disclosure of any such fees.
Do the new rules affect the taxi industry?
Surcharging in the taxi industry remains the responsibility of state regulators. Until recently, surcharges of 10 per cent were typical in that industry. However, authorities in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have taken or announced decisions to limit surcharges to no more than 5 per cent. Other states and territories are also considering such limits. As new payment methods and technologies emerge, it is likely to be appropriate for caps on surcharges to be reduced below 5 per cent. The Government and the RBA will continue to monitor developments in the taxi industry with a view to assessing whether further measures are appropriate.
Card payments for hire cars and ride-sharing services are within the scope of the RBA's surcharging standard and potential ACCC enforcement.
What is the objective of the new framework?
The new RBA standard is intended to ensure that merchants have the right to surcharge for payment cards while also ensuring that consumers are not surcharged excessively, consistent with the Government's amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 . A merchant cannot surcharge a card transaction at a rate that exceeds the merchant's average cost of acceptance for that transaction for the relevant card system. The ACCC has responsibility for enforcement in the event that a merchant is attempting to surcharge excessively.
How does the new framework benefit merchants?
The framework emphasises the right of merchants to surcharge to cover their acceptance costs and signal differences in costs to consumers. It also improves the transparency of payment costs to merchants.
Under the RBA's new surcharging standard, merchants will receive an annual statement from their acquirer or payments facilitator that clearly sets out their average cost of acceptance for each of the card payment systems regulated by the RBA. These transparency measures, which help merchants to know how much it costs them to accept card payments, should contribute to downward pressure on payment costs. This information will also enable merchants to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them.
What cards does it apply to?
The RBA standard and the ACCC's enforcement powers currently apply to payment surcharges in six card systems – eftpos, Debit MasterCard, MasterCard Credit, Visa Debit and Visa Credit and the American Express companion card system. However, other card systems may include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the limits on surcharges under the RBA's standard, in which case merchants may be contractually bound to similar caps on what they can surcharge cards from other systems. Over time other payment types could be added via regulation.
What surcharge can a merchant impose when they accept a card payment?
Merchants are permitted to surcharge, but are not required to do so. Under the new framework a merchant who decides to surcharge a particular type of card may not surcharge above their average cost of acceptance for that card type.
It is likely that most merchants who decide to surcharge debit or credit cards will do so based purely on what they are charged for payments by their acquirer or payment facilitator; this includes costs such as merchant service fees, terminal fees, and any other fees incurred in processing card transactions.
Merchants are able to surcharge any of the cards covered by the RBA's standard up to the average percentage cost of acceptance in their annual statement for that card type. However, some merchants may have other costs (as outlined below) of accepting a particular type of card that they would like to include in their surcharge. If those costs meet the requirements for inclusion and can be documented, merchants may add them to the costs charged by their acquirer or payment facilitator over the previous year and, based on their total costs, calculate their average percentage cost for that card system. Merchants may not surcharge above this average cost.
What information is available for merchants?
Effective mid-2017, merchants will receive annual statements from their acquirer or payment facilitator that show the average percentage cost over the past year for each of the card types covered by the RBA/ACCC framework; this will be based on costs such as merchant service fees and terminal rental costs. An acquirer is the entity (often a bank) which has relationships with card companies such as eftpos, MasterCard and Visa that enable it to provide merchants with the ability to accept card payments. Alternatively, a merchant may use the services of a payment facilitator, a non-bank entity which has arrangements with an acquirer that allow it to offer card acceptance services to merchants. The RBA has worked with acquirers and payment facilitators on the design of easy-to-read statements that are reasonably standard across the industry. If a merchant wishes to surcharge for some costs in addition to those paid to their acquirer or payments facilitator, they will have to keep records of the costs paid to other providers.
What costs in addition to the merchant service fee can a merchant include in their surcharge on a particular type of card?
In addition to the fees paid to the merchant's acquirer or payment facilitator for standard card acceptance services, merchants may include some additional types of costs if they are directly related to accepting that particular card type.
the cost of insuring against forward delivery risk. This applies to agents (such as travel agents) who pay an external party to insure against the risk that the agent will be liable to a customer for the failure of a principal supplier (such as an airline or hotel) on payments accepted via cards.
In each case, these costs must be specific to the particular types of cards that the merchant is surcharging, rather than being a cost that applies to all payment methods accepted by the merchant. Furthermore, they must be costs paid to an external provider and verified by contracts, statements or invoices. A merchant's internal costs cannot be included in a surcharge.
How should a merchant calculate their permitted surcharge if they have costs in addition to those paid to their acquirer or payment facilitator?
In the event that merchants wish to include additional costs that are part of the cost of acceptance for one or more of the six regulated card systems, they should calculate the proportion of those costs applying to particular systems, allocating costs based on total transaction values for each system over the previous year. The cost attributable to any particular system may then be included in the surcharge on payments for that particular system.
An example of the calculation of acceptance costs for costs in addition to the merchant service fee is explained below.
The statement from the merchant's acquirer indicates that the average cost of transactions through Card System X over the prior year was 0.85 per cent.
The merchant could therefore surcharge Card System X at a rate no higher than 0.90 per cent (the 0.85 per cent average cost of acceptance paid to the acquirer plus the 0.05 per cent cost of fraud prevention).
Additional costs (such as gateway fees, fraud-related chargebacks, insurance for forward delivery risk or terminal fees paid to a payment service provider) should be dealt with in a similar way, that is by determining what proportion of these costs applies to each card system and calculating the percentage cost relative to the value of transactions through each system.
What if a merchant uses more than one acquirer or payment facilitator?
Some merchants have more than one acquirer or payment facilitator, for example one for their point-of-sale transactions and another for their online transactions. Where this is the case, it will be reasonable for merchants to use the information on the statement provided by their main acquirer or payment facilitator. If merchants wish to be more exact about their payment costs, they may calculate an average acceptance cost, weighting the costs of their different acquirers by the value of transactions through the two entities.
How often do merchants have to review their surcharge?
Merchants may choose to reset their surcharges frequently based on evidence of their average cost of acceptance over the most recent twelve-month period. However, the RBA's standard has been designed so that merchants will be able to identify their payment costs once a year and set their surcharge for the next year based on that information. They must then review that surcharge in a year's time when they receive a new annual statement about their payment costs.
Can merchants set a common or blended surcharge which applies to different cards?
Merchants may choose to set the same surcharge for a number of different payment systems, provided that the surcharge is no greater than the average cost of acceptance of the lowest cost system included. For example, a merchant may choose to set the same surcharge for two credit card systems, which have average costs of acceptance of 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent. In this case, the maximum common surcharge that could be charged would be 1 per cent. However, if the merchant wished to surcharge the two systems separately, it could charge 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent as appropriate. In this example, the merchant would not be able to blend both these costs into a 1.25 per cent surcharge, since it would be surcharging excessively for the scheme that cost 1 per cent.
When did the rules take effect?
Large merchants became subject to the new rules on excessive surcharging effective 1 September 2016. All other merchants became subject to the rules from 1 September 2017.
What is the definition of a large merchant?
Large merchants are defined as those that meet at least two of the following tests: consolidated turnover (including that of any related companies) of more than $25 million in the most recent financial year; consolidated gross assets at 30 June 2015 of $12.5 million or more; or 50 or more employees as at 30 June 2015.
What if a merchant does not have an annual statement from their acquirer or payment facilitator?
Effective 1 June 2017 the RBA's standard requires all acquirers to ensure that merchants receive statements that clearly set out merchants' average cost of acceptance for each card scheme.
There may be merchants who wish to surcharge but do not have statements covering 12 months, for instance because they have not been established for that long. These merchants should make good faith estimates of their payment costs based on their available information – for example, any recent monthly statements they have, invoices and contracts from their acquirers, payment facilitators or payment service providers.
Merchants may also wish to include items such as gateway fees paid to a payment service provider, the cost of fraud prevention services, any terminal costs paid to a provider other than their acquirer or payments facilitator, fraud-related chargeback fees (but not the chargebacks themselves) or the cost of insuring against forward delivery risk. If they wish to include such items, they will have to gather information on these costs over the past year and then calculate the amounts attributable to particular payment systems as outlined in Box 1 below. Based on data for the total value of transactions in each system, they will be able to calculate the additional percentage amount that may be included in the cost of acceptance and the permitted surcharge.
Examples of how to calculate average costs of acceptance from information on payment costs under some different types of merchant plans can be found here.
What if a merchant does not wish to surcharge in percentage terms but rather to charge a fixed amount?
In most cases payment costs are charged to merchants in percentage terms, so it will typically be appropriate that any surcharge is also expressed in percentage terms. Indeed, one of the factors behind the Government's amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act and the RBA's new standard was dissatisfaction with the practice in the airline industry of imposing fixed-dollar surcharges that are well above actual cost of card acceptance for low-priced airfares.
Accordingly, the standard defines the cost of acceptance in percentage terms and requires acquirers to provide information on payment costs in these terms.
However, this does not prevent a merchant from capping the surcharge it applies at a fixed amount. For example, if a merchant has an average cost of acceptance for a particular scheme of 1 per cent, it could choose to apply a surcharge of 1 per cent up to a maximum surcharge of $10. In such cases a 1 per cent surcharge would be applied to payments up to $1000, and a surcharge of $10 would apply to payments greater than $1000 ( which would be less than the average cost of acceptance for that scheme).
Alternatively, if a merchant's cost of accepting a particular payment method is truly a flat amount (for example, if the merchant's acquirer charges a flat fee of say 10 cents to all eftpos transactions), then a flat surcharge of the same amount on all transactions would not be excessive.
Are there any other requirements on surcharges?
Nothing in the standard alters the existing obligation of merchants to comply with the provisions of the Australian Consumer Law, set out in the Competition and Consumer Act. Sections 18 and 29 prohibit merchants from engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct and making false or misleading representations with respect to the price of goods or services, and section 48 prohibits component or partial pricing if the represented price only constitutes part of the total price of the goods or services.
The new rules apply to all American Express companion cards, ie American Express cards issued by banks. The RBA has not designated the American Express proprietary card system, meaning that the ACCC cannot enforce the new rules on excessive surcharging for these cards. However, in the case of these cards, American Express can enforce excessive surcharging against merchants directly as its merchant agreements contractually prohibit merchants from surcharging any American Express transaction above the reasonable cost of acceptance. If excessive surcharging became an issue for proprietary American Express transactions, the RBA could reconsider current regulatory arrangements.
What about other payment cards such as Union Pay, JCB, Diners Club etc?
The RBA has not designated UnionPay, JCB or Diners Club. Accordingly the RBA's new standard does not apply to transactions carried out using those systems. However, these payment systems (and others) may include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the framework under the RBA's standard. In such cases merchants may be contractually bound to surcharge caps in those systems, similar to the caps enforced by the RBA's standard. If excessive surcharging became an issue for these systems it will be open to the RBA to reconsider the regulatory arrangements.
UnionPay provided the RBA with an undertaking on 29 May 2017 indicating it will not enforce no-surcharge rules in Australia and will amend its rules by the end of 2017 to ensure that they are consistent with the RBA’s new standard. Diners Club has also provided the Bank with an undertaking in relation to no-surcharge rules, and American Express has provided a similar undertaking in relation to proprietary card transactions.
What about other systems such as PayPal and BPAY etc?
PayPal and BPAY are payment systems in their own right that merchants and consumers may use. Consumers can fund transactions through those systems from a number of sources, including their credit card or their bank account. The cost to a merchant of accepting PayPal or BPAY reflects fees for those systems, so any surcharge applied on those systems is not a credit card surcharge.
PayPal and BPAY are not currently designated, so transactions through those systems will not themselves be covered by the RBA's standards. However, these payment systems could include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the framework under the RBA's standard. If excessive surcharging became an issue for either system the RBA could reconsider the regulatory arrangements.
PayPal updated its user terms and conditions on 19 October 2016 to permit merchant surcharging. Paragraph 11.2(c) of the updated User Agreement for PayPal Services allows merchants to surcharge PayPal transactions as long as the surcharge does not exceed the amount the merchant is charged by PayPal for the transaction. PayPal has published information about surcharging PayPal payments.
Why does the RBA regulate interchange fees?
Interchange fees affect the prices faced by cardholders and merchants in using and accepting payments. Most notably, interchange fees increase payment costs for merchants and fund rewards programs for some cardholders. While there may be a useful role for interchange fees when a card network is first established, the case for significant interchange fees in mature card systems is much less clear.
Where merchants feel unable to decline particular cards (because consumers expect to be able to pay with that card and may take their business elsewhere if they cannot), the incentive is for card schemes to raise interchange rates. Evidence from a range of countries suggests that competition between well-established payment card schemes can lead to the perverse result of increasing the price of payment services to merchants (and therefore to higher retail prices for consumers).
The tendency for interchange rates to rise to high levels is most apparent in unregulated jurisdictions like the United States where credit card interchange rates in the MasterCard system are as high as 3.25 per cent plus 10 cents, implying that – after scheme fees and acquirer margin – some merchants may pay over 3½ per cent in merchant service fees for high rewards cards.
The past decade has also seen a decline in transparency for some end users of the card systems, partly because of the increased complexity and the wider range of interchange fee categories. In particular, merchants that do not benefit from ‘strategic’ rates face much higher interchange rates and payment costs than ‘preferred’ merchants and may have no transparency over the cost of particular transactions. A standard Visa or MasterCard credit card will have an interchange cost for ‘non-preferred’ merchants of 0.25–0.30 per cent, while the highest level of premium card will have an interchange cost of up to 2.0 per cent for those merchants, with merchants typically having little ability to distinguish between these cards or to respond in terms of acceptance decisions.
In 2003 the RBA introduced benchmarks intended to prevent the significant upward pressure on interchange rates seen in many markets. Contrary to some claims at the time that limiting interchange fees would affect the viability of card systems, the Australian cards market has continued to grow strongly and innovation has thrived. The RBA's reforms have been supported by the leading Australian consumer and merchant organisations. Following the reforms, a number of other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, have also regulated interchange fees.
What are the RBA's new interchange standards?
The weighted-average benchmarks remain the primary element of interchange regulation. The weighted-average benchmark for credit cards remains at 0.50 per cent. The weighted-average benchmark for debit cards has been lowered from 12 cents to 8 cents, effective 1 July 2017, consistent with the fall in average transaction values since the debit benchmark was introduced.
The weighted-average benchmarks are supplemented by caps on any individual interchange fee within a scheme's schedule. No credit card interchange fee is permitted to exceed 0.80 per cent and no debit interchange fee is permitted to exceed 15 cents if levied as a fixed amount or 0.20 per cent if levied as a percentage amount.
These changes are expected to significantly reduce the extent to which small and medium-sized merchants are disadvantaged relative to preferred merchants in the MasterCard and Visa interchange systems.
The credit card interchange standard has been modified so that issuance of American Express companion cards is subject to the same interchange fee regulation that applies to the MasterCard and Visa systems. In particular, interchange fees are defined to also include the interchange-like ‘issuer fees’ paid by American Express to card-issuing banks as an incentive to issue cards. In addition, both companion card issuance and traditional ‘four-party’ issuance (in the eftpos, MasterCard and Visa systems) are subject to rules on ‘other net payments’ to issuers, so as to prevent any circumvention of the interchange standards.
transactions on prepaid cards are included with debit cards in the observance of the debit benchmark.
The cards market has continued to thrive under regulated interchange fees and Australia is recognised as one of the most innovative markets globally. Based on the experience of the earlier reforms, the RBA is confident that these reforms will contribute to a more competitive and efficient payments system and will not adversely affect the development of the cards market in Australia.
How will the RBA's changes affect my credit card?
There should be little effect on interchange payments on standard consumer cards and therefore only limited changes to other aspects (e.g. interest rates, interest-free periods) of such cards.
However, the new standard is likely to result in some reductions in the generosity of rewards programs on premium and companion cards for consumers. Some adjustment in annual fees on these cards is also possible. Commercial and corporate card products often provide significant benefits free of charge to the company holding the card. It is possible that there will be changes to either the pricing or services provided by these products. These changes are part of the process of improving price signals to cardholders and creating a more efficient and lower-cost payments system.
How will the RBA's changes affect my debit or prepaid card?
The new standard has required schemes to reduce the high interchange rates that applied to some premium and commercial debit and prepaid cards. While it is currently unusual for rewards to be provided on debit and prepaid cards, some adjustments to product offerings for premium and commercial cards is possible. Interchange rates on standard cards are likely to be largely unaffected, so it is unlikely that there will be substantial changes to arrangements for most transaction accounts. More broadly, the changes to the interchange standards, especially on debit cards, should be reflected in lower merchant service fees and some merchants may decide to remove minimum spending requirements on cards, so consumers may find that they can use their cards for a greater range of transactions.
I generally use payment methods other than cards. How will the RBA's changes affect me?
Users of other payment methods are likely to benefit from the changes since the reforms will reduce the extent to which people using lower-cost payment methods cross-subsidise users of higher-cost methods (such as super-premium credit cards). The reforms will place downward pressure on the prices of goods and services faced by all consumers.
Looking ahead, the RBA's interchange reforms will make it more likely that new payment methods are able to emerge. Interchange fees are used by the large card schemes to encourage banks to issue their cards and to encourage consumers to use those cards rather than some other payment method. Reforms that limit the upward pressure on interchange fees will make it easier for new players to compete.
How will the RBA's changes affect credit unions, building societies and other small financial institutions?
Most smaller financial institutions have tended to focus on offering credit card products in the low-fee and low-rate sectors of the market. While a few offer ‘premium’ rewards cards, most typically do not issue cards with extensive rewards that attract very high interchange fees. The smaller institutions do not issue American Express companion cards.
The new interchange standard will have the largest effect on the high interchange categories applying to rewards cards and are likely to result in only small changes to interchange rates on standard cards. Hence, there should be little, if any, effect on interchange revenues of the smaller institutions, so little need for change to their business models.
I am a small merchant. How do the RBA's changes affect me?
Small and medium-sized merchants who do not benefit from preferred interchange rates previously bore the full cost of the high interchange rates on premium and commercial cards issued in the MasterCard and Visa systems. Accordingly, they should see a material reduction in merchant service fees from the RBA's reforms. This should improve their competitiveness relative to larger merchants who benefit from low interchange rates on all their card transactions.
Merchants will also receive easy-to-understand information on the cost of payments for the different types of cards they accept. This should contribute to downward pressure on payment costs and will enable merchants to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if so, whether to surcharge them. If merchants do decide to surcharge, they will have clear information on the maximum permissible surcharge for each payment method.
Why are ‘companion cards’ subject to regulation?
The RBA regulated interchange fees (payments from a merchant's bank to a cardholder's bank) in the MasterCard and Visa systems in the early 2000s because it was concerned about their use to drive up payment costs and their effect on payment choices by consumers. The card payment systems operated by American Express and Diners Club did not use interchange fees given that American Express and Diners Club maintained the relationship with both the cardholder and the merchant, without the involvement of banks.
Since then, American Express has implemented a new model under which some cards (companion cards) are issued by banks rather than American Express itself. This model involves payments from American Express to banks to support issuance, along with more generous rewards programs than those typically available for MasterCard and Visa cards. These payments are ultimately funded by merchants and perform a function very similar to that of interchange fees. But to date they have been unregulated while interchange fees have been subject to a regulatory cap. The RBA's new approach of regulating payments to issuers in American Express companion card arrangements will restore competitive neutrality between these cards and the MasterCard and Visa systems, and reduce the effect of payments to issuers on cardholder payment choices.
How will the RBA's standards affect the way that prepaid cards, including gift cards, are labelled?
From 1 July 2017, all prepaid cards that are issued by participants in the designated eftpos, MasterCard and Visa schemes that are capable of being visually identified as prepaid cards must be so identified. Where a prepaid card is clearly identified as a gift card, it does not also need to be separately labelled as a prepaid card. |
0.970272 | Raster of multiple polygon associating values in R?
I am new to R-Gis.
Here is what I need to do, I need to make a raster inside the larger polygon (image above) each cell has to be 10x10 m, mask it to cut cells outside the the larger polygon and then assign a different value for each cell in the smaller polygons. Furthermore, I'd like to have a list (dataframe) with the coordinate of the center of each cell and the value associated to it.
First, you cannot arbitrary assign a desired projection, you need to actually transform the data into a different projection.
Here we assign the correct projection and then transform the data into a UTM projection. It will also be easier to work with a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame so, we will coerce into this class as well.
utm = "+proj=utm +zone=23 +south +ellps=WGS84 +towgs84=0,0,0,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs"
Now, we can create an empty raster to use in rasterizing your polygons. The result will be a unique raster value for each polygon.
To get at the coordinates of the raster cells you can just coerce to a SpatialPointsDataFrame. The coordinates slot corresponds to each row in the @data slot containing a data.frame of the attributes. |
0.999889 | This article is about the TV series. For other uses, see Twin Peaks (disambiguation).
Twin Peaks is an American mystery horror drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch that premiered on April 8, 1990, on ABC. It was one of the top-rated series of 1990, but declining ratings led to its cancellation after its second season in 1991. It nonetheless gained a cult following and has been referenced in a wide variety of media. In subsequent years, Twin Peaks is often listed among the greatest television series of all time.
The series follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the fictional suburban town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The show's narrative draws on elements of detective fiction, but its uncanny tone, supernatural elements, and campy, melodramatic portrayal of eccentric characters also draw on American soap opera and horror tropes. Like much of Lynch's work, it is distinguished by surrealism, offbeat humor, and distinctive cinematography. The acclaimed score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti with Lynch.
The success of the show sparked a media franchise, and the series was followed by a 1992 feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, that serves as a prequel to the series. Additional tie-in books were also released. Following a hiatus of over 25 years, the show returned in 2017 with a third season on Showtime, marketed as Twin Peaks: The Return. The season was directed by Lynch and written by Lynch and Frost, and starred many original cast members, including MacLachlan.
Season one of Twin Peaks focuses on the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee, pictured in 1990).
In 1989, the logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. When Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and Dr. Will Hayward arrive, the body is identified as homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A badly injured second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted under her fingernail. Cooper informs the community that Laura's death matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in southwestern Washington the previous year, and that evidence indicates the killer lives in Twin Peaks.
The authorities discover through Laura's diary that she has been living a double life. She was cheating on her boyfriend, football captain Bobby Briggs, with biker James Hurley, and prostituting herself with the help of truck driver Leo Johnson and drug dealer Jacques Renault. Laura was also addicted to cocaine, which she obtained by coercing Bobby into doing business with Jacques.
Laura's father, attorney Leland Palmer, suffers a nervous breakdown. Her best friend, Donna Hayward, begins a relationship with James. With the help of Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson, Donna and James discover that Laura's psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, was obsessed with Laura, but he is proven innocent of the murder.
Hotelier Ben Horne, the richest man in Twin Peaks, plans to destroy the town's lumber mill along with its owner Josie Packard, and murder his lover (Josie's sister-in-law), Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie), so that he can purchase the land at a reduced price and complete a development project, Ghostwood. Horne's sultry, troubled daughter, Audrey, becomes infatuated with Cooper and spies for clues in an effort to gain his affections.
Cooper has a dream in which he is approached by a one-armed otherworldly being who calls himself MIKE. MIKE says that Laura's murderer is a similar entity, Killer BOB, a feral, denim-clad man with long gray hair. Cooper finds himself decades older with Laura and a dwarf in a red business suit, who engages in coded dialogue with Cooper. The next morning, Cooper tells Truman that, if he can decipher the dream, he will know who killed Laura.
Cooper and the sheriff's department find the one-armed man from Cooper's dream, a traveling shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard. Gerard knows a Bob, the veterinarian who treats Renault's pet bird. Cooper interprets these events to mean that Renault is the murderer, and with Truman's help, tracks Renault to One-Eyed Jack's, a brothel owned by Horne across the border in Canada. He lures Jacques Renault back onto U.S. soil to arrest him, but Renault is shot while trying to escape and is hospitalized.
Leland, learning that Renault has been arrested, sneaks into the hospital and murders him. The same night, Horne orders Leo to burn down the lumber mill with Catherine trapped inside and has Leo gunned down by Hank Jennings to ensure Leo's silence. Cooper returns to his room following Jacques's arrest and is shot by a masked gunman.
After solving the murder of Laura Palmer, Kyle MacLachlan's (pictured here in 1991) character of Dale Cooper stays in Twin Peaks to investigate further.
Lying hurt in his hotel room, Cooper has a vision in which a giant appears and reveals three clues: "There is a man in a smiling bag"; "The owls are not what they seem"; and "Without chemicals, he points." He takes Cooper's gold ring and explains that when Cooper understands the three premonitions, his ring will be returned.
Leo Johnson survives his shooting but is brain-damaged. Catherine Martell disappears, presumed killed in the mill fire. Leland Palmer, whose hair has turned white overnight, returns to work but behaves erratically. Cooper deduces that the "man in the smiling bag" is the corpse of Jacques Renault in a body bag.
Donna befriends an agoraphobic orchid grower named Harold Smith whom Laura entrusted with a second, secret diary she kept. Harold catches Donna and Maddy attempting to steal the diary from him and hangs himself in despair. Cooper and the sheriff's department take possession of Laura's secret diary, and learn that BOB, a friend of her father's, had been sexually abusing her since childhood and she used drugs to cope. They initially suspect that the killer is Ben Horne and arrest him, but Leland Palmer is revealed to viewers to be BOB's host when he brutally kills Maddy.
Cooper begins to doubt Horne's guilt, so he gathers all of his suspects in the belief that he will receive a sign to help him identify the killer. The Giant appears and confirms that Leland is BOB's host and Laura's and Maddy's killer, giving Cooper back his ring. Cooper and Truman take Leland into custody. In control of Leland's body, BOB admits to a string of murders, before forcing Leland to commit suicide. Leland, as he dies, is freed of BOB's influence and begs for forgiveness. BOB's spirit disappears into the woods in the form of an owl and the lawmen wonder if he will reappear.
Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by Jean Renault and is suspended from the FBI. Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brothers, Jacques and Bernard. Jean Renault is killed in a shootout with police, and Cooper is cleared of all charges.
Windom Earle, Cooper's former mentor and FBI partner, escapes from a mental institution and comes to Twin Peaks. Cooper had previously been having an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she was under his protection as a witness to a federal crime. Earle murdered Caroline and wounded Cooper. He now engages Cooper in a twisted game of chess where Earle murders someone whenever a piece is captured.
Investigating BOB's origin and whereabouts with the help of Major Garland Briggs, Cooper learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two extra-dimensional realms whose entrances are somewhere in the woods surrounding Twin Peaks.
Catherine returns to town in yellowface, having survived the mill fire, and manipulates Ben Horne into signing the Ghostwood project over to her. Andrew Packard, Josie's husband, is revealed to be still alive. Josie Packard is revealed to be the person who shot Cooper at the end of the first season. Andrew forces Josie to confront his business rival and her tormentor from Hong Kong, the sinister Thomas Eckhardt. Josie kills Eckhardt but she mysteriously dies when Truman and Cooper try to apprehend her.
Cooper falls in love with a new arrival in town, Annie Blackburn. Earle captures the brain-damaged Leo for use as a henchman and abandons his chess game with Cooper. When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the entrance to the Black Lodge, whose power he seeks to use for himself.
Through a series of clues Cooper discovers the entrance to the Black Lodge, which turns out to be the strange, red-curtained room from his dream. He is greeted by the Man From Another Place, the Giant, and Laura Palmer, who each give Cooper cryptic messages. Searching for Annie and Earle, Cooper encounters doppelgängers of various people, including Maddy Ferguson and Leland Palmer. Cooper finds Earle, who demands Cooper's soul in exchange for Annie's life. Cooper agrees but BOB appears and takes Earle's soul for himself. BOB then turns to Cooper, who is chased through the lodge by a doppelgänger of himself.
Outside the lodge, Andrew Packard, Pete Martell and Audrey Horne are caught in an explosion at a bank vault, a trap laid by the dead Eckhardt.
Cooper and Annie reappear in the woods, both injured. Annie is taken to hospital but Cooper recovers in his room at the Great Northern Hotel. It becomes clear that the "Cooper" who emerged from the Lodge is in fact his doppelgänger, under BOB's control. He smashes his head into a bathroom mirror and laughs maniacally.
On October 6, 2014, it was announced that a limited series would air on Showtime. David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote all the episodes, and Lynch directed. Frost emphasized that the new episodes are not a remake or reboot but a continuation of the series. The episodes are set in the present day, and the passage of 25 years is an important element in the plot.
Most of the original cast returns, including Kyle MacLachlan, Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, and several others. Additions include Jeremy Davies, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Matthew Lillard, and Naomi Watts.
The limited series began filming in September 2015 and was completed by April 2016. It was shot continuously from a single, long-shooting script before being edited into separate episodes. The series premiered on May 21, 2017, and consists of 18 episodes.
In the 1980s, Mark Frost worked for three years as a writer for the television police drama Hill Street Blues, which featured a large cast and extended story lines. Following his success with The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet in 1986, David Lynch was hired by a Warner Bros. executive to direct a film about the life of Marilyn Monroe, based on the best-selling book Goddess. Lynch recalls being "sort of interested. I loved the idea of this woman in trouble, but I didn't know if I liked it being a real story." Lynch and Frost first worked together on the Goddess screenplay and although the project was dropped by Warner Bros., they became good friends. They went on to work as writer and director for One Saliva Bubble, a film with Steve Martin attached to star, but it was never made either. Lynch's agent, Tony Krantz, encouraged him to do a television show. He took Lynch to Nibblers restaurant in Los Angeles and said, "You should do a show about real life in America—your vision of America the same way you demonstrated it in Blue Velvet." Lynch got an "idea of a small-town thing", and though he and Frost were not keen on it, they decided to humor Krantz. Frost wanted to tell "a sort of Dickensian story about multiple lives in a contained area that could sort of go perpetually." Originally, the show was to be titled North Dakota and set in the Plains region of North Dakota.
After Frost, Krantz, and Lynch rented a screening room in Beverly Hills and screened Peyton Place, they decided to develop the town before its inhabitants. Due to the lack of forests and mountains in North Dakota, the title was changed from North Dakota to Northwest Passage (the title of the pilot episode), and the location to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Washington. They then drew a map and decided that there would be a lumber mill in the town. Then they came up with an image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake. Lynch remembers, "We knew where everything was located and that helped us determine the prevailing atmosphere and what might happen there." Frost remembers that he and Lynch came up with the notion of the girl next door leading a "desperate double life" that would end in murder. The idea was inspired, in part, by the unsolved 1908 murder of Hazel Irene Drew in Sand Lake, New York.
Lynch and Frost pitched the idea to ABC during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike in a ten-minute meeting with the network's drama head, Chad Hoffman, with nothing more than this image and a concept. According to the director, the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was initially going to be in the foreground, but would recede gradually as viewers got to know the other townsfolk and the problems they were having. Lynch and Frost wanted to mix a police investigation with a soap opera. ABC liked the idea and asked Lynch and Frost to write a screenplay for the pilot episode. They had been talking about the project for three months and wrote the screenplay in 10 days. Frost wrote more verbal characters, like Benjamin Horne, while Lynch was responsible for Agent Cooper. According to the director, "He says a lot of the things I say." ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard ordered the two-hour pilot for a possible fall 1989 series. He left the position in March 1989 as Lynch went into production. They filmed the pilot for million with an agreement with ABC that they would shoot an additional "ending" to it so that it could be sold directly to video in Europe as a feature film if the TV show was not picked up. ABC's Robert Iger and his creative team took over, saw the dailies, and met with Frost and Lynch to get the arc of the stories and characters. Although Iger liked the pilot, he had difficulty persuading the rest of the network executives. Iger suggested showing it to a more diverse, younger group, who liked it, and the executive subsequently convinced ABC to buy seven episodes at .1 million apiece. Some executives figured that the show would never get on the air or that it might run as a seven-hour mini-series, but Iger planned to schedule it for the spring. The final showdown occurred during a bi-coastal conference call between Iger and a room full of New York executives; Iger won, and Twin Peaks was on the air.
Each episode took a week to shoot and after directing the second episode, Lynch went off to complete Wild at Heart while Frost wrote the remaining segments.Standards and Practices had a problem with only one scene from the first season: an extreme close-up in the pilot of Cooper's hand as he slid tweezers under Laura's fingernail and removed a tiny "R". They wanted the scene to be shorter because it made them uncomfortable, but Frost and Lynch refused and the scene remained.
Veteran film actress Piper Laurie (pictured here in 1990) helped cement the Twin Peaks cast.
Twin Peaks features members of a loose ensemble of Lynch's favorite character actors, including Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Grace Zabriskie, and Everett McGill. Isabella Rossellini, who had worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet was originally cast as Giovanna Packard, but she dropped out of the production before shooting began on the pilot episode. The character was then reconceived as Josie Packard, of Chinese ethnicity, and the role given to actress Joan Chen. It casts several veteran actors who had risen to fame in the 1950s and 1960s, including 1950s film stars Richard Beymer, Piper Laurie, and Russ Tamblyn. Other veteran actors included British actor James Booth (Zulu), former The Mod Squad star Peggy Lipton, and Michael Ontkean who co-starred in the 1970s crime drama The Rookies. Kyle MacLachlan was cast as Agent Dale Cooper. Stage actor Warren Frost, father of Mark Frost, was cast as Dr. Will Hayward.
Due to budget constraints, Lynch intended to cast a local girl from Seattle, reportedly "just to play a dead girl". The local girl ended up being Sheryl Lee. Lynch stated "But no one—not Mark, me, anyone—had any idea that she could act, or that she was going to be so powerful just being dead." And then, while Lynch shot the home movie that James takes of Donna and Laura, he realized that Lee had something special. "She did do another scene—the video with Donna on the picnic—and it was that scene that did it." As a result, Sheryl Lee became a semi-regular addition to the cast, appearing in flashbacks as Laura, and portraying another, recurring character: Maddy Ferguson, Laura's similar-looking cousin.
The character of Phillip Gerard's appearance in the pilot episode was originally intended to be only a "kind of homage to The Fugitive. The only thing he was gonna do was be in this elevator and walk out," according to David Lynch. However, when Lynch wrote the "Fire walk with me" speech, he imagined Al Strobel, who played Gerard, reciting it in the basement of the Twin Peaks hospital—a scene that appeared in the European version of the pilot episode, and surfaced later in Agent Cooper's dream sequence. Gerard's full name, Phillip Michael Gerard, is also a reference to Lieutenant Phillip Gerard, a character in The Fugitive.
Lynch met Michael J. Anderson in 1987. After seeing him in a short film, Lynch wanted to cast the actor in the title role in Ronnie Rocket, but that project failed to get made.
Richard Beymer was cast as Ben Horne because he had known Johanna Ray, Lynch's casting director. Lynch was familiar with Beymer's work in the 1961 film West Side Story and was surprised that Beymer was available for the role.
Set dresser Frank Silva was cast as the mysterious "Bob". Lynch himself recalls that the idea originated when he overheard Silva moving furniture around in the bedroom set, and then heard a woman warning Silva not to block himself in by moving furniture in front of the door. Lynch was struck with an image of Silva in the room. When he learned that Silva was an actor, he filmed two panning shots, one with Silva at the base of the bed, and one without; he did not yet know how he would use this material. Later that day, during the filming of Sarah Palmer having a vision, the camera operator told Lynch that the shot was ruined because "Frank [Silva] was reflected in the mirror." Lynch comments, "Things like this happen and make you start dreaming. And one thing leads to another, and if you let it, a whole other thing opens up." Lynch used the panning shot of Silva in the bedroom, and the shot featuring Silva's reflection, in the closing scenes of the European version of the pilot episode. Silva's reflection in the mirror can also be glimpsed during the scene of Sarah's vision at the end of the original pilot, but it is less clear. A close-up of Silva in the bedroom later became a significant image in episodes of the TV series.
The score for Twin Peaks has received acclaim; The Guardian wrote that it "still marks the summit of TV soundtracks." In fall 1989, composer Angelo Badalamenti and Lynch created the score for the show. In 20 minutes they produced the signature theme for the series. Badalamenti called it the "Love Theme from Twin Peaks". Lynch told him, "You just wrote 75% of the score. It's the mood of the whole piece. It is Twin Peaks." While creating the score, Lynch often described the moods or emotions he wanted the music to evoke, and Badalamenti began to play the piano. In the scenes dominated by young men, they are accompanied by music that Badalamenti called Cool Jazz. The characters' masculinity was enhanced by finger-snapping, "cocktail-lounge electric piano, pulsing bass, and lightly brushed percussion." A handful of the motifs were borrowed from the Julee Cruise album Floating into the Night, which was written in large part by Badalamenti and Lynch and was released in 1989. This album also serves as the soundtrack to another Lynch project, Industrial Symphony No. 1, a live Cruise performance also featuring Michael J. Anderson ("The Man from Another Place").
The song "Falling" (sans vocals) became the theme to the show, and the songs "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", "The Nightingale", "The World Spins", and "Into the Night" (found in their full versions on the album) were all, except the latter, used as Cruise's roadhouse performances during the show's run. The lyrics for all five songs were written by Lynch. A second volume of the soundtrack was released on October 30, 2007, to coincide with the Definitive Gold Box DVD set.
In March 2011, Lynch began releasing The Twin Peaks Archive - a collection of previously unavailable tracks from the series and the film via his website.
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper states, in the pilot episode, that Twin Peaks is "five miles south of the Canadian border, and twelve miles west of the state line". This places it in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Lynch and Frost started their location search in Snoqualmie, Washington, on the recommendation of a friend of Frost. They found all of the locations that they had written into the pilot episode. The towns of Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City – which became the primary filming locations for stock Twin Peaks exterior footage – are about an hour's drive from the town of Roslyn, Washington, the town used for the series Northern Exposure. Many exterior scenes were filmed in wooded areas of Malibu, California. Most of the interior scenes were shot on standing sets in a San Fernando Valley warehouse.
The soap opera show-within-the-show Invitation to Love was not shot on a studio set, but in the Ennis House, an architectural landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles.
Mark Frost and David Lynch made use of repeating and sometimes mysterious motifs such as trees (especially fir and pines), coffee, cherry pie, donuts, owls, logs, ducks, water, fire—and numerous embedded references to other films and TV shows.
During the filming of the scene in which Cooper first examines Laura's body, a malfunctioning fluorescent lamp above the table flickered constantly, but Lynch decided not to replace it, since he liked the disconcerting effect that it created.
Cooper's dream at the end of the third episode, which became a driving plot point in the series's first season and ultimately held the key to the identity of Laura's murderer, was never scripted. The idea came to Lynch one afternoon after touching the side of a hot car left out in the sun: "I was leaning against a car—the front of me was leaning against this very warm car. My hands were on the roof and the metal was very hot. The Red Room scene leapt into my mind. 'Little Mike' was there, and he was speaking backwards... For the rest of the night I thought only about The Red Room." The footage was originally shot along with the pilot, to be used as the conclusion were it to be released as a feature film. When the series was picked up, Lynch decided to incorporate some of the footage; in the third episode, Cooper, narrating the dream, outlines the shot footage which Lynch did not incorporate, such as Mike shooting Bob and the fact that he is 25 years older when he meets Laura Palmer's spirit.
In an attempt to avoid cancellation, the idea of a Cooper possessed by Bob came up and was included in the final episode, but the series was cancelled even before the episode was aired.
Before the one and a half hour pilot premiered on TV, a screening was held at the Museum of Broadcasting in Hollywood. Media analyst and advertising executive Paul Schulman said, "I don't think it has a chance of succeeding. It is not commercial, it is radically different from what we as viewers are accustomed to seeing, there's no one in the show to root for." The show's Thursday night time slot had not been a good one for soap operas, as both Dynasty and its short-lived spin-off The Colbys did poorly.Twin Peaks was also up against the hugely successful sitcom Cheers.
Initially, the show received a positive response from TV critics. Tom Shales, in The Washington Post, wrote, "Twin Peaks disorients you in ways that small-screen productions seldom attempt. It's a pleasurable sensation, the floor dropping out and leaving one dangling." In The New York Times, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Twin Peaks is not a send-up of the form. Mr. Lynch clearly savors the standard ingredients...but then the director adds his own peculiar touches, small passing details that suddenly, and often hilariously, thrust the commonplace out of kilter."Entertainment Weekly gave the show an "A+" rating and Ken Tucker wrote, "Plot is irrelevant; moments are everything. Lynch and Frost have mastered a way to make a weekly series endlessly interesting."Richard Zoglin in Time magazine said that it "may be the most hauntingly original work ever done for American TV."
The two-hour pilot was the highest-rated movie for the 1989–90 season with a 22 rating and was viewed by 33% of the audience. In its first broadcast as a regular one-hour drama series, Twin Peaks scored ABC's highest ratings in four years in its 9:00 pm Thursday time slot. The show also reduced NBC's Cheers's ratings. Twin Peaks had a 16.2 rating with each point equaling 921,000 homes with TVs. The episode also added new viewers because of what ABC's senior vice-president of research, Alan Wurtzel, called "the water cooler syndrome", in which people talk about the series the next day at work.
But the show's third episode lost 14% of the audience that had tuned in a week before. That audience had dropped 30% from the show's first appearance on Thursday night. This was a result of competing against Cheers, which appealed to the same demographic that watched Twin Peaks. A production executive from the show spoke of being frustrated with the network's scheduling of the show. "The show is being banged around on Thursday night. If ABC had put it on Wednesday night it could have built on its initial success. ABC has put the show at risk."
In response, the network aired the first-season finale on a Wednesday night at 10:00 pm instead of its usual 9:00 pm Thursday slot. The show achieved its best ratings since its third week on the air with a 12.6 and a 22 share of the audience. On May 22, 1990, it was announced that Twin Peaks would be renewed for a second season.
During the first and second season, the search for Laura Palmer's killer served as the engine for the plot, and captured the public's imagination, although the creators admitted this was largely a MacGuffin; each episode was really about the interactions between the townsfolk. The unique (and often bizarre) personalities of each citizen formed a web of minutiae that ran contrary to the town's quaint appearance. Adding to the surreal atmosphere was the recurrence of Dale Cooper's dreams, in which the FBI agent is given clues to Laura's murder in a supernatural realm that may or may not be of his imagination. The first season contained only eight episodes (including the two-hour pilot episode), and was considered technically and artistically revolutionary for television at the time, and geared toward reaching the standards of film.
Critics have noted that Twin Peaks began the trend of accomplished cinematography now commonplace in today's television dramas. Lynch and Frost maintained tight control over the first season, handpicking all of the directors, including some Lynch had known from his days at the American Film Institute (e.g., Caleb Deschanel and Tim Hunter) and some referred to him by those he knew personally. Lynch and Frost's control lessened in the second season, corresponding with what is generally regarded as a decrease in the show's quality once the identity of Laura Palmer's murderer was revealed.
The aforementioned "water cooler effect" put pressure on the show's creators to solve the mystery. Although they claimed to have known from the series' inception the identity of Laura's murderer, Lynch never wanted to solve the murder, while Frost felt that they had an obligation to the audience to solve it. This created tension between the two men.
Its ambitious style, paranormal undertones, and engaging murder mystery made Twin Peaks an unexpected hit. Its characters, particularly MacLachlan's Dale Cooper, were unorthodox for a supposed crime drama, as was Cooper's method of interpreting his dreams to solve the crime. During its first season, the show's popularity reached its zenith, and elements of the program seeped into mainstream popular culture, prompting parodies, including one in the 16th-season premiere of Saturday Night Live, hosted by MacLachlan.
David Lynch at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 16, 1990, where Twin Peaks was nominated for fourteen awards. He was nominated for directing and co-writing the pilot episode.
For its first season, Twin Peaks received fourteen nominations at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kyle MacLachlan), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Piper Laurie), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Sherilyn Fenn), Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series (David Lynch), Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (David Lynch and Mark Frost), Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Harley Peyton), Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music, Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics, and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series. Out of its fourteen nominations, it won for Outstanding Costume Design for a Series and Outstanding Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production.
For its second season, it received four nominations at the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kyle MacLachlan), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Piper Laurie), Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series.
At the 48th Golden Globe Awards, it won for Best TV Series – Drama, Kyle MacLachlan won for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Drama, Piper Laurie won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV; while Sherilyn Fenn was nominated in the same category as Laurie.
The pilot episode was ranked 25th on TV Guide's 1997 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. It placed 49th on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list. In 2004 and 2007, Twin Peaks was ranked 20th and 24th on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever, and in 2002, it was ranked 45th of the "Top 50 Television Programs of All Time" by the same guide. In 2007, UK broadcaster Channel 4 ranked Twin Peaks 9th on their list of the "50 Greatest TV Dramas". Also that year, Time included the show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time".Empire listed Twin Peaks as the 24th best TV show in their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time".
In 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed the show at no. 12 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years", saying, "The show itself was only fitfully brilliant and ultimately unfulfilling, but the cult lives, fueled by nostalgia for the extraordinary pop phenomenon it inspired, for its significance to the medium (behold the big bang of auteur TV!), and for a sensuous strangeness that possesses you and never lets you go." The series has been nominated for the TCA Heritage Award six consecutive years since 2010. It was ranked 20th on The Hollywood Reporter's list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows.
With the resolution of Twin Peaks' main drawing point (Laura Palmer's murder) in the middle of the second season, and with subsequent story lines becoming more obscure and drawn out, public interest began to wane. This discontent, coupled with ABC changing its timeslot on a number of occasions, led to a huge drop in the show's ratings after being one of the most-watched television programs in the United States in 1990. A week after the season's 15th episode placed 85th in the ratings out of 89 shows, ABC put Twin Peaks on indefinite hiatus, a move that usually leads to cancellation.
An organized letter-writing campaign, dubbed COOP (Citizens Opposed to the Offing of Peaks), attempted to save the show from cancellation. The campaign was successful, as ABC agreed to air the remaining six episodes to finish the season. But due to the Gulf War, Twin Peaks was moved from its usual time slot "for six weeks out of eight" in early 1991, according to Frost, preventing the show from maintaining audience interest.
According to Frost, the main storyline after the resolution of Laura Palmer's murder was planned to be the second strongest element from the first season that audiences responded to: The relationship between Agent Cooper and Audrey Horne. Frost explained that Lara Flynn Boyle, who was romantically involved with Kyle MacLachlan at the time, had effectively vetoed the Audrey-Cooper relationship, forcing the writers to come up with alternative storylines to fill the gap. Sherilyn Fenn corroborated this claim in a 2014 interview, stating, "[Boyle] was mad that my character was getting more attention, so then Kyle started saying that his character shouldn't be with my character because it doesn't look good, 'cause I'm too young... I was not happy about it. It was stupid." This meant the artificial extension of secondary storylines, such as James Hurley and Evelyn Marsh, to fill in the space. After ratings began to decline, Agent Cooper was given a new love interest, Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham), to replace the writers' intended romance between him and Audrey Horne. Despite ending on a deliberate audience-baiting cliffhanger, the series finale did not sufficiently boost interest, and the show was not renewed for a third season, leaving the cliffhanger unresolved.
Lynch expressed his regret at having resolved the Laura Palmer murder, saying he and Frost had never intended for the series to answer the question and that doing so "killed the goose that laid the golden eggs". Lynch blamed network pressure for the decision to resolve the Palmer storyline prematurely. Frost agreed, noting that people at the network had in fact wanted the killer to be revealed by the end of season one.
In 1993, cable channel Bravo acquired the license to rerun the entire series, which began airing in June 1993. These reruns included Lynch's addition of introductions to each episode by the Log Lady and her cryptic musings.
Looking back, Frost has admitted that he wished he and Lynch had "worked out a smoother transition" between storylines and that the Laura Palmer story was a "tough act to follow". Regarding the second season, Frost felt that "perhaps the storytelling wasn't quite as taut or as fraught with emotion".
Writing for The Atlantic, Mike Mariani wrote that "It would be tough to look at the roster of television shows any given season without finding several that owe a creative debt to Twin Peaks," stating that "Lynch's manipulation of the uncanny, his surreal non-sequiturs, his black humor, and his trademark ominous tracking shots can be felt in a variety of contemporary hit shows. In 2010, the television series Psych paid tribute to the series by reuniting some of the cast in the fifth-season episode, "Dual Spires". The episode's plot is an homage to the Twin Peaks pilot, where the characters of Psych investigate the death of a young girl in a small town called "Dual Spires". The episode also contains several references to the original show. Twin Peaks actors that guest star in the episode are Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, Lenny Von Dohlen, Catherine E. Coulson and Ray Wise. Prior to the airing of the episode, a special event at the Paley Center for Media was held where the actors from both shows discussed the episode.
Reviewers and fans of four seasons of Veena Sud's U.S. TV series, The Killing, have noted similarities and borrowed elements from Lynch's Fire Walk with Me and Twin Peaks, and compared Sud and Lynch's works.
Carlton Cuse, creator of Bates Motel, cited Twin Peaks as a key inspiration for his series, stating: "We pretty much ripped off Twin Peaks... If you wanted to get that confession, the answer is yes. I loved that show. They only did 30 episodes. Kerry [Ehrin] and I thought we'd do the 70 that are missing."
Twin Peaks served as an inspiration for the 1993 video game The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, with director Takashi Tezuka citing the series as the main factor for the creation of the "suspicious" characters that populate the game, as well as the mystery elements of the story. The show has also influenced a number of survival horror and psychological thriller video games—most notably Alan Wake,Deadly Premonition,Silent Hill, and Max Payne.
The American animated show Gravity Falls repeatedly referenced the Black Lodge along with other elements of Twin Peaks throughout its run.
The song "Laura Palmer" by the band Bastille was written influenced by the "slightly weird, eerie" atmosphere of the show.
The series was released on VHS in a six-tape collection on April 16, 1995, however, it did not include the original pilot episode.
On December 18, 2001, the first season (episodes 1–7, minus the pilot) of Twin Peaks was released on DVD in Region 1 by Artisan Entertainment. The box set featured digitally remastered video was noted for being the first TV series to have its audio track redone in DTS.
The second season release was postponed several times, and the release was originally canceled in 2003 by Artisan due to low sales figures for the season 1 DVD. The second season was finally released in the United States and Canada on April 3, 2007, via Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment/CBS DVD.
In July 2013, it was revealed that a Blu-ray version of the complete series would be released. In January 2014, Lynch confirmed the Blu-ray release and that it would contain the pilot, season 1, season 2, and new special features, and possibly the film. It was announced on May 15, 2014, that the Blu-ray of the complete series of Twin Peaks and the film containing over 90 minutes of deleted scenes would be released on July 29, 2014.
Online, the series is available through the pay CBS All Access service in full, along with Showtime's "Anytime" service for pay-TV subscribers and its over-the-top separate service.
The original series is available for HD streaming via both Hulu and Netflix in the U.S. Hulu also offers The Return, the 18-episode continuation originally aired on Showtime, as an additional-cost subscription option for viewing some of Showtime's programming.
During the show's second season, Pocket Books released three official tie-in books, each authored by the show's creators (or their family), which offer a wealth of backstory.
The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, written by Lynch's daughter Jennifer Lynch, is the diary as seen in the series and written by Laura, chronicling her thoughts from her twelfth birthday to the days leading up to her death. Frost's brother Scott wrote The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes. Kyle MacLachlan also recorded Diane: The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, which combined audio tracks from various episodes of the series with newly recorded monologues.Welcome to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town offers information about the history, flora, fauna, and culture of the fictitious town.
The Secret History of Twin Peaks, a novel by series co-creator Mark Frost, "places the unexplained phenomena that unfolded in Twin Peaks in a layered, wide-ranging history, beginning with the journals of Lewis and Clark and ending with the shocking events that closed the finale." It was published on October 18, 2016.
The 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a prequel to the TV series. It tells of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. Director David Lynch and most of the television cast returned for the film, with the notable exceptions of Lara Flynn Boyle, who declined to return as Laura's best friend Donna Hayward and was replaced by Moira Kelly, and Sherilyn Fenn due to scheduling conflicts. Also, Kyle MacLachlan returned reluctantly as he wanted to avoid typecasting, so his presence in the film is smaller than originally planned. Lynch originally shot about five hours of footage that was subsequently cut down to two hours and fourteen minutes. Most of the deleted scenes feature additional characters from the television series who ultimately did not appear in the finished film. Around ninety minutes of these scenes are included in the complete series Blu-ray that was released on July 29, 2014.
Fire Walk with Me was received poorly, especially in comparison to the series. It was greeted at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival with booing from the audience and has received mixed reviews by American critics. It grossed a total of USD .8 million in 691 theaters in its opening weekend and went on to gross a total of .1 million in North America.
^ LeVasseur, Andrea. "Twin Peaks [TV Series]". AllMovie. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
^ Collins, Sean T. (October 26, 2015). "25 Best Horror TV Shows of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
^ Moldovan, Raluca (June 1, 2015). "'That Show You Like Might Be Coming Back in Style': How Twin Peaks Changed the Face of Contemporary Television". American, British and Canadian Studies Journal. 24 (1): 44–68. doi:10.1515/abcsj-2015-0003. ISSN 1841-964X.
^ Williams, Rebecca (June 3, 2016). "Ontological Security, Authorship, and Resurrection: Exploring Twin Peaks' Social Media Afterlife". Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 143–147. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0029. ISSN 1527-2087.
^ Garner, Ross P. (June 3, 2016). ""The Series That Changed Television"?: Twin Peaks, "Classic" Status, and Temporal Capital" (PDF). Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 137–142. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0020. ISSN 1527-2087.
^ a b Crouch, Ian (October 7, 2014). "Some Thoughts on the Planned Return of Twin Peaks". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
^ a b Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie (April 26, 2002). "TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows". CBS News. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
^ a b "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years." Entertainment Weekly. August 3, 2012, p. 40.
^ Sheffield, Rob (September 21, 2016). "100 Greatest Television Shows of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
^ Lusher, Tim (January 11, 2010). "The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
^ O'Connor, Tom (December 1, 2004). "Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks". Social Semiotics. 14 (3): 309–333. doi:10.1080/10350330408629682. ISSN 1035-0330.
^ Lacey, Stephen (June 3, 2016). "Just Plain Odd: Some Thoughts on Performance Styles in Twin Peaks". Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 126–131. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0026. ISSN 1527-2087.
^ Dean, Michelle (June 10, 2016). "Twin Peaks' final scene: 25 years on, it's as disturbing as ever". The Guardian. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
^ a b Mariani, Mike (January 23, 2016). "The Remarkable Influence of David Lynch". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
^ a b Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (March 25, 2010). "Twin Peaks stills marks the summit of TV soundtracks | Music". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
^ Littleton, Cynthia (October 6, 2014). "Twin Peaks Revival to Air on Showtime in 2016". Variety. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
^ a b Andreeva, Nellie (April 25, 2016). "'Twin Peaks': Here Is the Full Cast Of David Lynch's Showtime Reboot". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
^ Ausiello, Michael (August 11, 2015). "Twin Peaks Revival: Showtime Boss Teases 'Big Surprises' and 'Familiar Faces,' Confirms Fall Start Date". TVLine. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
^ Andreeva, Nellie (January 9, 2017). "'Twin Peaks' Gets Premiere Date, Episode Count On Showtime". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^ a b c d e Woodward, Richard B. (April 8, 1990). "When Blue Velvet Meets Hill Street Blues". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ a b c d e f Rodley, Chris (1997). Lynch on Lynch. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19548-2.
^ a b "Inside Twin Peaks: Mark Frost Interview Live After Episode 9 Aired In 1990 (Video)". WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com. October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
^ a b c d e f Patterson, Troy; Jensen, Jeff (Spring 2000). "Our Town". Entertainment Weekly.
^ a b c d e f Chion, Michel (1995). David Lynch. British Film Institute. p. 100.
^ Bushman, David; Givens, Mark (May 11, 2017). "Hazel's brutal murder was all but forgotten. Until she inspired 'Twin Peaks.'". The Washington Post.
^ a b c Fuller, Graham (November 24, 1989). "A Town Like Malice: Maverick Director David Lynch had made a bizarre soap opera for American television". The Independent.
^ Woodward, Richard B. (January 14, 1990). "A Dark Lens on America". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ a b c d Jerome, Jim (April 6, 1990). "The Triumph of Twin Peaks". Entertainment Weekly.
^ a b c Ferris, Glen (February 26, 2010). "20 Years of Twin Peaks: Mark Frost Interview". Screenrush. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
^ a b c d Twin Peaks – The Definitive Gold Box Edition, "Secrets from Another Place" featurette (DVD). Paramount Home Video. October 30, 2007.
^ This was also the first project to reunite Beymer and Russ Tamblyn since West Side Story, in which Tamblyn played the character of Riff. "Secrets from Another Place", a featurette in the Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD release of October 2007.
^ Lynch, David (December 28, 2006). Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. Tarcher. pp. 77–78.
^ Ditum, Nathan (March 22, 2010). "The 29 Greatest Twin Peaks Moments". Total Film. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
^ a b Givens, Ron (April 6, 1990). "Creative Contrasts: Making Moody Music". Entertainment Weekly.
^ "Floating into the Night – Julee Cruise". AllMusic. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
^ "Twin Peaks: Season Two Music And More". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
^ "New Twin Peaks Songs & Photos At DavidLynch.com". WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com. April 6, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
^ "David Lynch Music Company". DavidLynch.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
^ Mackie, Drew (October 29, 2012). "A Short History of the Ennis House in Geek Culture". KCET. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
^ Ott, Brian L. (2007). The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 68.
^ Jensen, Jeff (March 28, 2017). "Kyle MacLachlan on suiting up as Agent Cooper again: Twin Peaks revival is a 'journey into the unknown'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
^ a b c Roush, Matt (April 6, 1990). "High Hopes for Twin Peaks". USA Today.
^ Shale, Tom (April 8, 1990). "Troubling, Transcendent Twin Peaks". The Washington Post.
^ O'Connor, John J. (April 6, 1990). "A Skewed Vision of a Small Town in Twin Peaks". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Tucker, Ken (October 26, 1990). "Twin Peaks". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ "Like Nothing On Earth". Time. April 9, 1990. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
^ Bickelhaupt, Susan (April 12, 1990). "Twin Peaks vs. Cheers". Boston Globe.
^ a b c Carter, Bill (April 16, 1990). "Twin Peaks May Provide a Ratings Edge for ABC". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ a b Carter, Bill (April 28, 1990). "Twin Peaks Clouded By Decline in Viewers". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ "Twin Peaks Finale To Be on a New Night". The New York Times. May 2, 1990. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Carter, Bill (May 25, 1990). "ABC Last in "Sweep" Rating Despite Twin Peaks Finale". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Carter, Bill (May 22, 1990). "Twin Peaks Is Renewed on ABC". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Lyons, Siobhan (April 5, 2017). "Between Two Worlds: Twin Peaks and the Film/Television Divide". Open Library of Humanities. 3 (1). doi:10.16995/olh.89. ISSN 2056-6700.
^ Giltz, Michael (August 23, 2010). "'Twin Peaks' revisited: 'Maybe we shouldn't have solved the mystery'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
^ Leerhsen, Charles (May 7, 1990). "The Cult of 'Twin Peaks'". Newsweek.
^ a b "Twin Peaks". Emmys.com. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
^ "Twin Peaks". HFPA.org. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
^ McManus, Darragh (July 10, 2014). "Twin Peaks: 10 things you didn't know about TV's strangest series". Irish Independent. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
^ "TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever". TV Guide. June 29, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
^ Matthewman, Scott (March 6, 2007). "The 50 greatest TV dramas". The Stage. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
^ "Empire Features". Empire. Retrieved November 1, 2010.
^ Travers, Ben (June 4, 2015). "'Empire' and 'Transparent' Top 2015 TCA Award Nominations, 'Twin Peaks' Up for Heritage Award". Indiewire. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
^ "Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows". The Hollywood Reporter. September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
^ "Twin Peaks Canceled As a Saturday Regular". The New York Times. February 16, 1991. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
^ Lavery, David, ed. (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2506-3. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
^ a b Harris, Mark (March 8, 1991). "Saturday Night Dead". Entertainment Weekly.
^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 1 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 2 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 3 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
^ Harris, Will (January 22, 2014). "Sherilyn Fenn talks David Lynch and how Twin Peaks should have ended". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
^ Jensen, Jeff (October 26, 2007). "David Lynch: Climbing the Peaks". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ "Mark Frost Interview on WFDU". Part 3. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
^ Klein, Richard (January 17, 1993). "Bravo picks up 'Peaks'". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
^ Rich, Katey. "Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD Review". Cinema Blend. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
^ Moorhouse, Drusilla (December 1, 2010). "Psych's Delicious Tribute to Twin Peaks: This Must Be Where Pies Go When They Die". E! Online. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Hale, Mike (November 30, 2010). "A Series Homage Lovingly Wrapped in Plastic". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Dyess-Nugent, Phil (June 2, 2013). "The Killing: The Jungle"/That You Fear The Most". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Dyess-Nugent, Phil (June 9, 2013). "The Killing: Seventeen". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Lyons, Margaret (April 25, 2011). "How The Killing Channeled Twin Peaks Last Night". Vulture. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ "AMC's 'The Killing': A 'Twin Peaks' for a new generation? The network's dark thriller is drawing comparisons to David Lynch's show – and getting rave reviews. What makes it so good?". The Week. April 4, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Patterson, Troy (April 1, 2011). "The Killing: A new crime show has some of that Twin Peaks flair". Slate. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ "Can 'The Killing' Make a Comeback?". The New York Times. March 18, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Lewit, Meghan (June 21, 2011). "From 'Twin Peaks' to 'The Killing,' the Problem of Noir on TV". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Bianculli, David (May 31, 2011). "'The Killing': 'Twin Peaks' Meets '24' On AMC". NPR. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
^ Haithman, Diane (May 10, 2013). "Carlton Cuse On 'Bates Motel's Twin Peaks' & 'Psycho' Heritage". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
^ "Iwata Asks: The History of Handheld The Legend of Zelda Games – Make All the Characters Suspicious Types". Nintendo of America Inc. January 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2011.
^ Reed, Kristan (May 31, 2005). "Alan Wake". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
^ Schilling, Chris (July 7, 2011). "The Cult of Deadly Premonition". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
^ Kelly, Andy (April 29, 2014). "On The Level: Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
^ Iwaniuk, Phil (October 11, 2017). "One of Max Payne's greatest moments is its own weird version of Twin Peaks. Did you watch Address Unknown?". GamesRadar. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
^ Weinstock, Spooner. Return To Twin Peaks. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 216–218. ISBN 978-1-137-56384-2.
^ "Bastille, 'Laura Palmer' - Song Stories". NME. April 18, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2018 – via.
^ "Twin Peaks: Episodes 1–29 [VHS]". Amazon.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Lacey, Gord (November 16, 2001). "Twin Peaks – Slight Delay & Press Release". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Lacey, Gord (December 16, 2001). "Twin Peaks – The 1st Season Review". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Lacey, Gord (November 8, 2003). "Twin Peaks – Where is Twin Peaks Season 2?". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ "Twin Peaks: Season 2". Amazon.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
^ Tucker, Ken (October 26, 2007). "Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Fowler, Matt (July 23, 2013). "Damn Fine Twin Peaks Blu-ray Set On the Way". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
^ Collura, Scott (January 22, 2014). "David Lynch Shoots Down Twin Peaks Revival Rumor". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
^ a b "'Twin Peaks': Watch 'Fire Walk With Me' lost scenes before entire series hits Blu-ray – EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. May 15, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014.
^ Marnell, Blair (May 21, 2017). "How To Watch Twin Peaks". IGN. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
^ Carter, Bill (July 24, 1990). "Twin P's of Twin Peaks: Production and Promotion". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
^ Coppens, Philip. "Twin Peaks". philipcoppens.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
^ "Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me (1992)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
Lavery, David, ed. (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2506-8.
Tropiano, Stephen (2000). TV Towns. New York, NY: TV Books L.L.C. ISBN 978-1-57500-127-2.
Hoffman, Eric; Grace, Dominick, eds. (2017). Approaching Twin Peaks: Essays on the Original Series. McFarland Press. |
0.932748 | Since the 2010 Census, North Richland Hills has gained nearly 4,000 new residents with the largest jump in population occuring betwee n 2012 and 2013. During this time period, the City added almost 2,000 residents, growing from a population of 65,327 to 67,317. This 3% growth rate was the highest of all cities in Tarrant County.
Other Tarrant cities in the top 100 include Mansfield, which ranked 51st with a growth rate of 2.6%, and Fort Worth, which ranked 99th with a growth rate of 1.9%. No other Tarrant County cities were ranked in the top 100. |
0.961524 | I would like more information about a home I saw.
Please provide some information about the home that you would like more information about. And I will get back with you right away. |
0.999977 | Funkwhale (funkwhale.audio) is a federated music platform. While the only thing that currently uses ActivityPub is profiles (no content), libraries are federated across instances, so it's still a federated project (plus, more federation support is coming soon).
It would be very useful to be able to use Funkwhale in Fedilab (especially if it could play in the background like Spotify, or while browsing elsewhere in the app).
### Describe the improvement Funkwhale (funkwhale.audio) is a federated music platform. While the only thing that currently uses ActivityPub is profiles (no content), libraries *are* federated across instances, so it's still a federated project (plus, more federation support is coming soon). It would be very useful to be able to use Funkwhale in Fedilab (especially if it could play in the background like Spotify, or while browsing elsewhere in the app). |
0.998254 | 53% of users found this page helpful Was this page helpful?
1. Scene Recognition: This is the first step to crime scene investigation and it involves approaching a crime scene in an organized matter in order to determine the size and extent of it. They must ensure that any possible evidence is not compromised in anyway thus they must determine the resources and equipment needed to successful collect evidence in the next phase.
2. Scene Documentation: This stage of CSI involves documenting and processing physical evidence in which case must be accurate and factual. The collection of evidence is done through note taking, diagrams, reports, photographs, and sketches.
3. Collection of Evidence: This is the portion of the job where actual physical evidence is collected. This is done through careful technical and scientific methods to ensure it is preserved as unchanged as possible so that it can later be examined with accuracy.
The most common level of degree pursued is a four-year bachelor's degree, as most employers strictly hire candidates with a strong educational background. Even upon graduation, graduates will often need to go through extensive on-the-job training before they are able to work outside of supervision. Professionals often seek post-graduate training when they are interested in holding higher specialized positions within the field.
Students enrolled in an associate degree program can graduate with their degree in just two years. This level of program will open up entry-level opportunities for graduates in local, state, and federal agencies. Individuals interested in earning their associate's degree must have a high school diploma or a GED equivalent. Most programs will also require that the applicant take a placement exam to ensure they are placed in the right classes. Students will take part in training that covers both forensic science and criminal justice, which is often comprised of 60-credit hours. Key coursework includes classes like introduction to crime scene technology, crime scene safety, introduction to forensic science, latent fingerprint development, fingerprint classification, courtroom presentation of scientific evidence, and crime scene photography. Students will also be required to complete general education courses. Annual cost of tuition and range from as little as $5,000 to $30,000.
This is the most common route that students take in order to start their CSI career. First time freshmen will finish with their bachelor's degree in four years while students who have already earned their associate's degree can finish in two years. The curriculum at this level will cover a variety of topics including the human body's response to trauma, laboratory techniques, and the proper treatment of evidence. Student will participate in classes including homicide investigation I & II, the investigation of white-collar crime, survey of chemistry, introduction to environmental science, and criminal procedure. Students will also spend a lot of time in the lab going over mock crime scene exercises. This fieldwork will give students the hands-on experience they will need to be successful as professionals. Graduates will have to opportunity to go on to work for law enforcement agencies as well as crime labs. Typical job titles include police officer, crime laboratory analyst, and forensic pathologist. In order to qualify for bachelor's degree program applicants must have a high school diploma or a GED. Applicants who have earned college credit will also be required to submit their college transcripts during the admissions process in which they will then be evaluated and considered for transfer credit. The annual tuition for the level of program will vary depending on school of attendance. Private school tuition averages around $26,273 while public school tuition averages around $7,020.
A master's degree in crime scene investigation is designed for individuals who are looking to increase their proficiency in forensic sciences. Over the course of two years students will be involved in rigorous scientific training by participating in classes such as science of fingerprints, forensic pathology, medico legal death investigation, bloodstain pattern analysis, firearms and tool mark identification, and digital image processing. Many graduates go on to work as forensic science technicians and hold leadership positions, which can result in higher pay. Individuals who are interested in participating in a master's program must have a bachelor's degree with as least one semester in chemistry and one semester in biology. Respectful GRE scores will also be necessary for admission. Applicants must write a statement of purpose outlining their educational and career goals. Most programs will also require that applicants submit a reference letter from a previous professor or professional mentor who can attest to the applicant's likely success in the program. The total cost of tuition for a master's degree program can range from $30,000 to $120,000 depending on the school being attended.
Individuals who wish to build upon their knowledge and skills as crime scene investigators will find that a doctorate degree in forensic science will aid them in their career aspirations whether they be in research or teaching. Students will be immersed in extensive study of forensic science, which will take them five to seven years to complete. Doctoral curriculum includes classes such as crime scene reconstruction, criminal law & ethics, forensic trace analysis, quality management in forensic science, forensic serology, and human molecular biology. Students will also have to write and defend a dissertation, which is usually done towards the end of their studies. Individuals who are interested in doctoral programs will need to have a master's degree in forensic science or a similar field as a background in biology and chemistry is important. Applicants will also need to showcase their work experience therefore a professional resume will be required for admission. The applicant will also need to submit two letters of recommendation from professional or educational references who can attest to the applicant's prior achievements within the field of forensic science. Depending on whether the student is attending a public or private school the total cost of tuition will vary from $53,625 to $113,035.
Accreditation plays an important role in the educational process and it should be considered prior to making a commitment to any college or program. For school accreditation, there is either national or regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is awarded by six regional agencies to four-year university institutions. National accreditation is usually limited to vocational or trade schools. Accreditation takes place to ensure that a program is offering the highest quality of education possible to the students involved. By participating in an accredited program students can rest assured that they are being well prepared for their future careers. Accreditation also provides the opportunity for students to seek federal financial aid as it is not available to non-accredited programs. Lastly, students who wish to move on to graduate programs or simply change institutions will want to seek accreditation as it make the transfer process much simpler.
Certification within the field of crime scene investigation is not required, however, it has become a commonplace. Individuals can voluntarily seek certification through three major associations, which will ultimately set them apart from their peers during hiring and advancement opportunities.
Individuals seeking certification through the ICSIA must have at least two years experiencing working with crimes scenes for a law enforcement agency. They must also poses no less than 50 hours of post-secondary courses. After the requirements have been met the applicant will be eligible to take the written exam administered by the ICSIA, which consists of 100 questions. The applicant will also take another written exam consisting of a mock crime scene that will test proper processing and handling protocols.
The minimum requirements to become certified under the IAI includes at least one year in crime-scene related activities and that applicant must have completed at least 48-hours of CSI board-approved instruction within the last five years. If the candidate meets all minimum requirements they will then be eligible to take the exam, which they must pass with at least a 75 percent. Candidates must also submit two letters of endorsement.
In order to take the certification exam administered by the ACFEI the candidate must be at least 21 years old. In addition the candidate must have an associate's degree with four years of work experience, a bachelor's degree with two years of work experience, or seven years of work experience in lieu of a degree.
The field of crime scene investigation can be somewhat broad therefore there are several different routes that a professional can take depending on their personal strengths and interests. Individuals can prepare for these areas of specialty by taking classes that will support them during their college studies.
Crime Laboratory Analyst: These types of professionals are forensic scientists that analyze crime scene evidence in labs to help identify the right suspect. They use principles of genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology to aid them in their investigations.
Forensic Engineer: Forensic engineering is the investigation of materials, products, or structures that fail and in which case cause personal injury or property damage. Forensic engineers are most often used in product liability cases.
Medical Examiner: Medical examiners are forensic doctors who perform autopsies in order to figure out an individual's cause of death. A medical degree is required for this field of work.
Forensic Psychologist: This specific specialty merges the field of psychology with law. Forensic psychologists often work in court settings and evaluate the mental state of criminals and victims.
Certification. International Crime Scene Investigators Association. Accessed October 28, 2016. http://www.icsia.org.
Crime Scene Technology A.S. Degree. St. Petersburg College. Accessed October 11, 2016. https://www.spcollege.edu/cstas/#tab=3.
Curriculum. Aspen University. Accessed October 12, 2016. http://www.aspen.edu/degrees/bachelors-degree/bachelor-of-science-in-criminal-justice-major-crime-scene-investigation-procedure/classes.
Forensic Science Technicians. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accessed October 28, 2016. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/forensic-science-technicians.htm.
How to Become a Crime Scene Investigator. Crime Scene Investigator Edu. Accessed October 11, 2016. http://www.crimesceneinvestigatoredu.org.
Master of Science in Crime Scene Investigation. The George Washington University. Accessed October 28, 2016. https://forensicsciences.columbian.gwu.edu/master-science-crime-scene-investigation. |
0.999914 | A previously developed quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) model has been extern ally validated as a good predictor of chemical asthma hazard (sensitivity: 79–86%, specificity: 93–99%).
To develop and validate a second version of this model.
Learning dataset asthmagenic chemicals with molecular weight (MW) <1kDa were identified from reports published in the peer-reviewed literature before the end of 2012. Control chemicals for which no reported case(s) of occupational asthma had been identified were selected at random from UK and US occupational exposure limit tables. MW banding was used in an attempt to categorically match the control group for MW distribution of the asthmagens. About 10% of chemicals in each MW category were excluded for use as an external validation set. An independent researcher utilized a logistic regression approach to compare the molecular descriptors present in asthmagens and controls. The resulting equation generated a hazard index (HI), with a value between zero and one, as an estimate of the probability that the chemical had asthmagenic potential. The HI was determined for each compound in the external validation set.
The model development sets comprised 99 chemical asthmagens and 204 controls. The external validation showed that using a cut-point HI of 0.39, 9/10 asthmagenic (sensitivity: 90%) and 23/24 non-asthmagenic (specificity: 96%) compounds were correctly predicted. The new QSAR model showed a better receiver operating characteristic plot than the original.
QSAR refinement by iteration has resulted in an improved model for the prediction of chemical asthma hazard.
Plain text: Background A previously developed quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model has been extern ally validated as a good predictor of chemical asthma hazard (sensitivity: 79-86%, specificity: 93-99%). Aims To develop and validate a second version of this model. Methods Learning dataset asthmagenic chemicals with molecular weight (MW) <1kDa were identified from reports published in the peer-reviewed literature before the end of 2012. Control chemicals for which no reported case(s) of occupational asthma had been identified were selected at random from UK and US occupational exposure limit tables. MW banding was used in an attempt to categorically match the control group for MW distribution of the asthmagens. About 10% of chemicals in each MW category were excluded for use as an external validation set. An independent researcher utilized a logistic regression approach to compare the molecular descriptors present in asthmagens and controls. The resulting equation generated a hazard index (HI), with a value between zero and one, as an estimate of the probability that the chemical had asthmagenic potential. The HI was determined for each compound in the external validation set. Results The model development sets comprised 99 chemical asthmagens and 204 controls. The external validation showed that using a cut-point HI of 0.39, 9/10 asthmagenic (sensitivity: 90%) and 23/24 non-asthmagenic (specificity: 96%) compounds were correctly predicted. The new QSAR model showed a better receiver operating characteristic plot than the original. Conclusions QSAR refinement by iteration has resulted in an improved model for the prediction of chemical asthma hazard. |
0.945322 | What does Egypt / Egyptian mean in dream?
1- Although perhaps less so now, as travel becomes easier, faraway places in dreams usually signify the exotic. Egypt in particular is always seen as magical or connected with ancient knowledge, though this may depend on the dreamer’s own knowledge of the country.
We are connecting with the magical and strange part of ourselves.
To dream of Egypt indicates that you may be longing for a simpler time in your life. |
0.683858 | Document: HR 1698, the American Broadband Competition Act of 2001, 5/03/01.
HR 1698, the American Broadband Competition Act of 2001.
Re: antitrust law and broadband deployment.
Sponsors: Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).
Date Introduced: May 3, 2001.
Source: Office of Rep. Cannon.
To ensure the application of the antitrust laws to local telephone monopolies; and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘American Broadband Competition Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE CLAYTON ACT ON THE APPLICABILITY OF THE ANTITRUST LAWS TO CERTAIN VIOLATIONS IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY.
‘‘(2) the trier of fact may consider any conduct that violates any obligations or requirements imposed by the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 101 et seq.), or rules adopted pursuant thereto, in determining whether the defendant has engaged in anticompetitive or exclusionary conduct.
‘‘SEC. 29. (a) If an adjudicatory body determines that an incumbent local excange carrier in any particular State has violated section 251, 252, 271, or 272 of the Communications Act of 1934, or any rules promulgated pursuant to such sections, such carrier shall be deemed to have violated the antitrust laws.
‘‘(b) In addition to any penalty that may be imposed under any other provision of law, such carrier and all affiliates of such carrier may not jointly market in such State any advanced telecommunications service with any other telecommunications or information services offered by such carrier or by any of such affiliates.
‘‘(2) describing the effect that the enforcement of this section has had on competitiveness in the telecommunication marketplace.’’.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ALTERNATIVE PROCESS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES.
‘‘(a) INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENT CONTROVERSIES SUBJECT TO ARBITRATION.—Any interconnection agreement entered into pursuant to section 252 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 252) shall be treated for purposes of this chapter as a contract containing a written provision to settle by arbitration a controversy thereafter arising out of such contract. Any such controversy shall be subject to arbitration in accordance with the alternate dispute resolution process established pursuant to this section.
‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT REQUIRED.—Within 90 days after enactment of the American Broadband Competition Act of 2001, the Attorney General shall prescribe a multistate alternative dispute resolution process. The Attorney General shall not include either the Federal Communications Commission nor any State commission as a party to such dispute resolution process.
‘‘(4) ensure requesting telecommunications carriers do not file frivolous disputes, and establish penalties to deter such conduct.
‘‘(d) AUTHORITY OF ARBITRATION PANELS.—Except as otherwise provided in this section, awards and decisions of such arbitration panels shall be enforceable in Federal district courts pursuant to the procedures of this chapter.
‘‘(e) NO COLLATERAL ESTOPPEL.—The parties to the controversy shall be bound by the decision of the arbitration panel as to the matter in controversy under the interconnection agreement entered into pursuant to section 252 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 252), but otherwise such decision shall not have the effect of collateral estoppel in any other proceeding involving any of such parties.
‘‘(2) modify, affect, or supersede the authority and responsibility of the Federal Communications Commission to expeditiously administer and enforce the Communications Act of 1934.’’.
‘‘17. Disputes arising under interconnection agreements.’’. |
0.866579 | Who is Big Sean dating?
Big Sean is currently in a relationship with Jhene Aiko. They have been together since February 2016.
Big Sean has had 4 romantic relationships. His longest relationship was with Ashley Marie (i), which lasted for 7 years. Big Sean has also had relationships with Ariana Grande and Naya Rivera.
Big Sean has been dating Jhene Aiko since February 2016.
Big Sean dated Ariana Grande from July 2014 to April 2015.
Big Sean dated Naya Rivera from February 2013 to April 2014.
Big Sean dated Ashley Marie (i) from 2006 to January 2013. |
0.999789 | I have often heard people saying that why convolutional neural networks are still poorly understood. Is it known why convolutional neural networks always end up learning increasingly sophisticated features as we go up the layers? What caused them create such a stack of features and would this also be true for other types of deep neural networks?
Actually I guess the question is a bit broad! Anyway.
What is learned in ConvNets tries to minimize the cost function to categorize the inputs correctly in classification tasks. All parameter changing and learned filters are in order to achieve the mentioned goal.
They try to reduce the cost by learning low level, sometimes meaningless, features like horizontal and vertical lines in their first layers and then stacking them to make abstract shapes, which often have meaning, in their last layers. For illustrating this fig. 1, which has been used from here, can be considered. The input is the bus and the gird shows the activations after passing the input through different filters in the first layer. As it can be seen the red frame which is the activation of a filter, which its parameters have been learned, has been activated for relatively horizontal edges. The blue frame has been activated for relatively vertical edges. It is possible that ConvNets learn unknown filters that are useful and we, as e.g. computer vision practitioners, have not discovered that they may be useful. The best part of these nets is that they try to find appropriate filters by their own and don't use our limited discovered filters. They learn filters to reduce the amount of cost function. As mentioned these filters are not necessarily known.
In deeper layers, the features learned in previous layers come together and make shapes which often have meaning. In this paper it has been discussed that these layers may have activations which are meaningful to us or the concepts which have meaning to us, as human beings, may be distributed among other activations. In fig. 2 the green frame shows the activatins of a filter in the fifth layer of a ConvNet. This filter cares about the faces. Suppose that the red one cares about hair. These have meaning. As it can be seen there are other activations that have been activated right in the position of typical faces in the input, the green frame is one of them; The blue frame is another example of these. Accordingly, abstraction of shapes can be learned by a filter or numerous filters. In other words, each concept, like face and its components, can be distributed among the filters. In cases where the concepts are distributed among different layers, if someone look at each of them, they may be sophisticated. The information is distributed among them and for understanding that information all of those filters and their activations have to be considered although they may seem so much complicated.
CNNs should not be considered as black boxes at all. Zeiler et all in this amazing paper have discussed the development of better models is reduced to trial and error if you don't have understanding of what is done inside these nets. This paper tries to visualize the feature maps in ConvNets.
ConvNets use pooling layers not only to reduce the number of parameters but also to have the capability to be insensitive to the exact position of each feature. Also the use of them enables the layers to learn different features which means first layers learn simple low level features like edges or arcs, and deeper layers learn more complicated features like eyes or eyebrows. Max Pooling e.g. tries to investigate whether a special feature exists in a special region or not. The idea of pooling layers is so useful but it is just capable to handle transition among other transformations. Although filters in different layers try to find different patterns, e.g. a rotated face is learned using different layers than a usual face, CNNs by there own do not have any layer to handle other transformations. To illustrate this suppose that you want to learn simple faces without any rotation with a minimal net. In this case your model may do that perfectly. suppose that you are asked to learn all kind of faces with arbitrary face rotation. In this case your model has to be much more bigger than the previous learned net. The reason is that there have to be filters to learn these rotations in the input. Unfortunately these are not all transformations. Your input may also be distorted too. These cases made Max Jaderberg et all angry. They composed this paper to deal with these problems in order to settle down our anger as theirs.
Finally after referring to these points, they work because they try to find patterns in the input data. They stack them to make abstract concepts by there convolution layers. They try to find out whether the input data has each of these concepts or not in there dense layers to figure out which class the input data belongs to.
ConvNets work because they exploit feature locality. They do it at different granularities, therefore being able to model hierarchically higher level features. They are translation invariant thanks to pooling units. They are not rotation-invariant per se, but they usually converge to filters that are rotated versions of the same filters, hence supporting rotated inputs.
I know of no other neural architecture that profits from feature locality in the same sense as ConvNets do.
One should never forget the other components in a typical ConvNet. The convolution filters pick out the spatial invariant features, like edges and circles. These features are quantified in a pooling layer which follows the C layer. Finally, they are fed into (usually) multiple fully connected layers (fc). Credit must be given to these fully connected layers which are nothing more than what you find in any ordinary MLP.
Convolutional neural networks work because it's a good extension from the standard deep-learning algorithm.
Given unlimited resources and money, there is no need for convolutional because the standard algorithm will also work. However, convolutional is more efficient because it reduces the number of parameters. The reduction is possible because it takes advantage of feature locality, exactly what @ncasas writes.
Is it known why convolutional neural networks always end up learning increasingly sophisticated features as we go up the layers?
This is pure mathematics. A neural network, at the end of the day, is a big mathematical function. And the deeper the network, the bigger the function it represents. And by bigger, I obviously mean high-dimensional. The features learned are more sophisticated because they are the results of more sophisticated functions.
Interestingly enough, conventional neural networks were inspired by our own, actually cat's, biology. Hubel and Wiesel conducted experiments on the visual cortex of cats, and they realized that light was perceived by stacks of optic fields. This is what inspired convolutional layer and a deeper architecture.
They are invavriant to geometrical transformations and learn features that get increasingly complicated and detailed, hence being powerful hierarchical feature extractors thanks to the convolutional layers.
They combine the extracted features and aggregate them in a non linear fashion to predict the output and therefore being robust classifiers thanks to the fully connected layers.
If you want to learn more about convnets and the different blocks building them as well as the intuitions that underly, here's a post I recently wrote on my personal blog that goes through the details.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged machine-learning neural-network deep-learning convnet cnn or ask your own question.
Are CNNs insensitive to rotations and shifts in images?
Is there a person class in ImageNet? Are there any classes related to humans?
How to understand conv layer to another same conv layer in VGG16?
Is color information only extracted in the first input layer of a convolutional neural network?
Why do convolutional networks work so well for images?
Is there any work done on reconfigurable convolutional neural networks?
How can I combine images for Matlab deep learning?
Why neural networks do not perform well on structured data?
What is exactly meant by neural network that can take different types of input? |
0.995747 | Here’s a headline worthy of P.T. Barnum himself: Jenny Lind, the most famous singer in all of Europe, spurns marriage proposals from dukes, doctors, artists and bankers, secretly moves to Paris to be with her one true love – Fryderyk Chopin, to nurse him back to health, and elope to America.
Upon meeting Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, Felix Mendelssohn called her “as great an artist as ever lived; the greatest he had known." So moved that he composed this aria from his oratorio Elijah with Lind’s voice in mind… AND was later fingered by Lind’s eventual husband for pursuing a more-than-professional relationship with her.
Mendelssohn had plenty of company on that front. Writer Hans Christian Andersen too, was a failed suitor, but his story, “The Nightingale,” stuck; Lind was ever after known as “The Swedish Nightingale.” One contemporary called her career “quite Napoleonic in its splendid and unbroken success; her conquest of Europe was no less rapid and complete than that of the great world-shaker himself.” Jenny Lind then conquered America; after demanding – and getting – the extraordinary sum of $150,000 in advance from P.T. Barnum, who got all of his money back – and then some. Giving rise to a new nickname: “Barnum’s Bird.” "A visit from such a woman who regards her artistic powers as a gift from Heaven and who helps the afflicted and distressed will be a blessing to America,” bragged Barnum.
But before America came Chopin. In 1847, Jenny Lind took London by storm via her captivating performances in the opera - “Robert le Diable” by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Chopin, too, was in London, and they quickly became friends. Chopin wrote admiringly about her in his letters, but Lind kept their relationship silent. Today, how much they interacted is now the subject of intense speculation. Was Chopin indeed the great love of Jenny Lind’s life? Did they have a secret rendezvous in Paris? The debate rages. |
0.942425 | What is the best way, how you can find some referrals who will help you to promote one page and find new referrals?
Do you mean referrals as in affiliates? It depends if your product is unique or if you are an affiliate for another company in which case you need to make sure yo stand out by offering your team something different. The best way to get others to promote your stuff is to make it as easy as possible for them to do it. It would also depend on the industry as to where you might find referrals.
Forums will work better than social networks in this case, I would recommend finding relevant forums to your niche and advertising your services or asking members to join your program.
In order to get the referrals, you need to offer some compensation to them to encourage them refer others to your page/offer. Usually it's revenue share scheme.
The best way is to pay second third tier referrals so it all depends if your looking to get others to promote your services. With first or second tier your paying your referral for each subsription and their referrers that promote your affiliate program. What do you offer for webmaster referrals? What is one page your landing page? Do you want affiliates or webmaster referrals? I am looking for programs that offer referral incentives as i have type in domains.
Can I have multiple AdSense accounts?
Some creative ideas about crafts promoting?
Referral exclusion list not working! |
0.999908 | Justin made searching for a home and purchasing my home such a great experience.
Justin is very easy going, and down to earth and made searching for a home and purchasing my home such a great experience. He’s very knowledgeable and he remained very honest and trustworthy. He was always very easy to reach and patient with me during this process for any questions that came up. I would ABSOLUTELY recommend Justin to anyone looking to buy or sell their house. |
0.999707 | Edison World School Abu Dhabi - information page.
Received an offer to teach ESL - I never applied.
Offer was valid after I paid $2500USD for Visa fee, goat fee, fee fee, tax fee..Etc.
What a load of Horse Dump!
Meinkrys wrote: Offer was valid after I paid $2500USD for Visa fee, goat fee, fee fee, tax fee..Etc.
Thanks for posting here and alerting other readers to the teaching job scam. It really stings to lose that money. I don't know any easy ways to get that money back. There have been many similar stories about other job scams in the UAE and I've not heard of any where someone got their money back.
TL;DR version of information below: The Edison World School in Abu Dhabi currently found online does not exist in real life, and is an example of a common scam where someone advertises teaching jobs at schools in the UAE which don't exist. The scam is that when an offer is made, money is requested to pay for visa processing fees. Never send money for visa fees to any employer or agency in the UAE. If an employer or agency asks for money, assume it is a scam, or the employer is unpleasant to work for if they really exist.
Edison World School was officially announced in 2011 as a school planned for Abu Dhabi but nothing further developed. It appears that someone or someones have either read that announcement and used that name for a scam, or set up a scam which coincidentally has the same name as the proposed school. It seems unlikely that the organisation which made the original announcement is involved in the teaching job scam.
www.edisonworldsch.com is what appears to be the official school website, however it is copied from the Repton School Abu Dhabi website (Repton is a real school), with Repton School replaced by Edison School or Edison World School, and some other adjustments for address, location, staff names etc. The fake EWS website even has photos of Repton School in Derbyshire, relabeled as photos of EWS.
Repton Abu Dhabi website wrote: For those families relocating back to the UK, or considering UK Boarding for their child, both Repton and Foremarke Hall (Repton's preparatory school) offers a continuity of curriculum and culture.
EWS website wrote: For those families relocating back to the UK, or considering UK Boarding for their child, both Edison World School and Foremarke Hall (Edison World School's preparatory school) offers a continuity of curriculum and culture.
The headteacher of EWS according to their website is Ms Bianca Anna Gabriel (or Ana). Whoever she is (independent confirmation not found), the photo on the website is of a different person, Ms Tammie McKenzie, who is principal (previously assistant principal) of Carroll High School, part of the Carroll Community School District in the city of Carroll in Iowa, USA. She is still there as far as I can tell (according to her website, her LinkedIn page, and the school website), and probably doesn't know about her doppelganger in Abu Dhabi.
There are three (or more) Edison World School domains.
www.edisonworldschool.com is currently used for the school website. Whois data shows it was first registered 10 Sep 2016.
www.edisonworldsch.com was previously used for the school website but is now just spam, possibly still used for emails. Don't visit, it loads another noisy spam website. Whois data shows it was first registered 21 Aug 2016.
Repton School Abu Dhabi website has a popup warning (they don't name the fake school though).
Repton Abu Dhabi website wrote: It has come to our attention there is a fake organisation sending offer letters to prospective employees with the Repton Abu Dhabi branding. We would like to inform you that Repton Abu Dhabi is in no way affiliated with this organisation.
Repton Abu Dhabi would never ask a candidate for a fee for a position at the school. Please be vigilant when receiving offer letters from third party organisations.
www.ewsabudhabi.com (website content no longer available directly) was used for EWS but website was copied from the Mayoor Indian School in Abu Dhabi (a real school), with a Find and Replace done on the Mayoor school name. Whois data shows it was first registered on 14 May 2016 which seems to be an anomaly given that Google has a record of the website saved before that date, for example 13 Nov 2015 for the page www.ewsabudhabi.com/chairmg.html. Possible explanation is that Google took the date from the page rather than actually retrieving the page on that date, since the page www.mayoorschoolabudhabi.com/message.html (which EWS copied) also has the date 13 Nov 2015 recorded by Google.
Principal or Headteacher's name given on website as Yogita Anna.
Welcome to Mayoor Private School LLC in Abu Dhabi. This school has been set up in collaboration with the 138 year old Mayo College General Council(MCGC, India) which has a long standing tradition of excellence occupied with a caring, stimulating and open ethos.
Welcome to Edison World School Abu Dhabi. This school has been set up in collaboration with the 138 year old Mayo College General Council(MCGC, India) which has a long standing tradition of excellence occupied with a caring, stimulating and open ethos. |
0.999995 | Paul Manafort was found guilty on 8 counts. Here's how it went down.
President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes today.
The verdict: Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud.
The possible sentence: Manafort faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.
The mistrial: Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 charges, and Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those counts.
What Manafort's attorney said: Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing said Manafort is "disappointed" the jury did not acquit his client on all charges.
What Trump said: "Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. I feel very sad about that," the President said.
And the other Trump news: The verdict came at the same time Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was in a New York federal court to plead guilty to multiple counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud.
Deplaning in West Virginia ahead of tonight's rally, President Trump praised his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a "good man" and attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as "witch hunt" and a "disgrace."
"Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. I feel very sad about that. It doesn’t involve me but I still feel..." Trump said.
"It’s a witch hunt and it’s disgrace. But this has nothing to do with what they started out," Trump said. "It was not the original mission believe me. It was something very much different. It had nothing to do with Russian collusion."
Trump did not answer any questions about his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who plead guilty to eight charges in his trial related to tax, fraud and campaign finance violation charges.
A jury found Paul Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts against him. Those eight counts carry a maximum sentence of 80 years.
A mistrial was declared on the remaining 10 counts: Three hiding foreign bank accounts and seven bank fraud or bank fraud conspiracy.
Paul Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing just made a brief statement following the verdict. He said Manafort is "disappointed" the jury did not acquit his client on all charges.
"Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through, or a complete hung jury on all counts. However, he would like to thank Judge Ellis for granting him a fair trial, thank the jury for their very long and hard-fought deliberations. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. Thank you, everyone."
Defense attorney Richard Westling asked Judge T.S. Ellis for 30 days to file for a judgement of acquittal.
Ellis has not a set a date, and is waiting for the prosecution to weigh in on the 30 days.
As Paul Manafort exited the courtroom, he was did not smile, but he gave a quick nod to his wife, Kathleen, who was sitting in the front row.
Kathleen made no comment as she left the courthouse.
After the trial concluded, prosecutors and defense attorneys were cordial and shook hands.
Judge T.S. Ellis spoke directly to Paul Manafort at the podium to tell him he has been found guilty of several charges.
He did not smile. Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing stood behind him.
Manafort's wife, Kathleen, expressed no emotion and stared ahead. She had her hands clasped on her lap.
The court has ended for the day.
A sentencing date in the criminal trial of Paul Manafort has yet to be set.
Prosecutors have until Aug. 29 to say what they plan to do about the 10 counts declared a mistrial.
Judge T.S. Ellis has just excused the Manafort jury.
Ellis encouraged the jury not to talk to the press but did not bar them from doing so.
"I suggest to you that you have a duty of confidentiality," he said. |
0.946379 | Rather than living in an apartment in Oregon, why not rent a duplex? This is a good way to start a family, especially for newly-wed couples or those who are having their first baby but are still unable to get their own house. Duplexes in Oregon offer an easy transition from apartment life to living in a house. It is also a smart choice for those who are planning to invest and become a landlord.
What's great about renting a duplex in Oregon is that residents need not worry about maintaining the structure. The landlord has the obligation to repair damages and take care of other building problems. It is also beneficial to those who want to have a backyard. Although the two tenants have to share the space, it is much better than having no backyard at all. In apartments, most residents can only see towering buildings. It is quite rare to find apartment units that have good outdoor spaces for children to play. On the other hand, most duplexes for rent in Oregon often come with backyards, making them great places to raise growing kids.
In addition, when renting an apartment, residents may have to deal with having lots of neighbors. A duplex only has two units in the building. This simply means that people living in duplexes can have their own peace of mind. Whether it is in Portland or any other part of the state, you can always find a duplex to rent. Portland is among the best places to rent a duplex. Tenants can either choose long or short-term rentals. There are also many units available for those who want to purchase a duplex and join the rental business.
Duplexes in Oregon are structures that look exactly like houses but have similar functions to that of an apartment. It is like a house split into two units for two different renters. The structure is divided into two living spaces. There are units with additional garages, and others are newly renovated to welcome new tenants. A typical duplex in Oregon is comprised of two bedrooms and a bath with a yard outside.
Renting a duplex in Oregon is like living in your own home where you can have enough space for a growing family and easy access to the world outside. A duplex is the best choice next to having your own home and far better than renting an apartment. |
0.993758 | Do you know how PPC works with small budgets?
One of the biggest obstacles smaller businesses face is whether they can make a big enough impact to overcome their larger competitors. The good news is small companies can compete with larger ones with the help of small business online advertising, such as pay-per-click advertising. Experienced content marketers know the best ways for small business to succeed in 2016 and can help you implement those practices into your content marketing strategy.
Knowing how PPC works with small budgets is necessary to ensure you get the results you need without wasting more money than necessary. It all starts with identifying the right keywords to target. The more common the keywords are, the more difficult it will be to rank well for them and outshine your larger competitors. For this reason, it’s important to focus on the niche, long-tail keywords that are less likely to be used by many of the businesses in your industry, giving you a distinct advantage. Experienced content marketers can help you determine which keywords are the most likely to provide the impact you need at the lowest possible cost to help extend your budget.
PPC advertising requires your attention if you want it to be successful. In most cases, even the most experienced content marketers won’t be able to create a plan that works well the first time. There are always adjustments that can be made to improve your performance and help you move forward to grow and attract customers away from your larger competitors. Working with the experts on your small business online advertising can allow you to spend time on other important aspects of running your business, while they can create a plan that will reach the largest percentage of your target audience and draw in more sales for your business, helping you keep pace with larger companies in your industry.
Small business online advertising can be a powerful tool.
Google has made it extremely easy to automate your pay-per-click campaigns. While this can be helpful in many ways, it’s also important to carefully monitor things yourself to ensure you are getting the results you want. For instance, having the ability to shut down ads when you reach a certain budget can be invaluable to help protect your assets. However, you don’t want to put Google in complete control of your campaign.
One of the most useful assets in PPC advertising is the ability to target specific people to maximize your impact. However, if you don’t know who your target audience is, you will have a much more difficult time getting the results you’re looking for. Experienced content marketers can help you take a closer look at the people who are most likely to become your customers and help you make the right connections with these individuals. The more targeted your campaign is, the more successful it is likely to be.
Experienced content marketers can help you grow your small business.
Testing your ads to see how successful they are is one of the most important components to small business online advertising. However, you shouldn’t look at only the statistics that show how often an ad is viewed and users click on it. Instead, you need to also monitor your conversion rate, which refers to the percentage of time someone clicks on your ad and eventually becomes your customer as a result. This can be more difficult to track but is critical if you want your small business to succeed against your larger competitors.
Knowing how PPC works with small budgets is essential if you want to learn how small companies can compete with larger ones. As a whole, PPC advertising can help create a level playing field by helping you rank well for relevant keywords and assist you in finding your niche among your target audience. It’s important for small businesses to use any online resources that are available to them for little to no cost to ensure they have an equal chance of being seen by the people who are most likely to need their products or services.
If you’re looking for experienced content marketers to help give your small business a boost, contact us. We can help you create a PPC campaign that helps put you on a level playing field. |
0.99999 | Vegetarianism has evolved as a topic of consideration among society. It is believed that a vegetarian diet if better for human body. While I accept that plant-based diet is beneficial for those who pursue a healthy lifestyle, I do not agree this tendency would be suitable for everyone.
There are a variety of reasons why it is highly beneficial to become a vegetarian. First and foremost, there are many kinds of vegetables providing us with enough energy to work all day long. In other words, it is less necessary to eat meat to have a healthy diet. Take potato as an example, is is of indispensable ingredient for a properly balanced vegetarian diet since it provides us with a large amount of nutrients. Second, it is proven that vegetarians have lower risks of developing many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. This is due to the fact that a plant-based diet contains low in saturated fat and high in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
However, I strongly believe that this tendency is not an optimal option for everyone to take. A significant reason supporting my opinion is that the decision to become a vegetarian should be made by individuals regards to their food preferences, not a general suggestion. For instance, a person who have predilection for animal-origin products would feel unsatisfied and frustrated if he or she is force to consume only fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the demand for nutrients should be taken into consideration when each individual plans his or her diet. A salient example of this is children, who are in the process of growing up, as a result they need to consume a wide range of food, including meat which contains essential nutrients, to improve their physical health.
In conclusion, although I agree that pursuing a plant-based diet is highly beneficial for health, I do not believe that it is the optimal option that everyone should take.
Vegetarianism has become evolved as a topic of consideration among members of society. It is believed that a vegetarian diet if better for human body. While I accept that a plant-based diet is beneficial for those who pursue a healthy lifestyle, I do not agree this tendency would be suitable for everyone.
There are a variety of reasons why it is highly beneficial to become a vegetarian. First and foremost, there are many kinds of vegetables which will provide us with enough energy to work all day long. In other words, it is not less necessary to eat meat to have a healthy diet. Take the potato as an example, is is of indispensable ingredient for a properly balanced vegetarian diet since it provides us with a large amount of nutrients. Second, it is proven that vegetarians have a lower risk of developing many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. This is due to the fact that a plant-based diet contains (wrong word) low in saturated fat and high in fiber, vitamins and minerals.
However, I strongly believe that this tendency is not an optimal option for everyone to take. A significant reason supporting my opinion is that the decision to become a vegetarian should be made by individuals in regards to their food preferences, not as a general rule / prescription suggestion. For instance, a person who have a predilection for animal-origin meat products would feel unsatisfied and frustrated if he or she is force to consume only fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the demand for nutrients should be taken into consideration when each individual plans his or her diet. An salient example of this is children, who are in the process of growing up, (comma splice error) as a result they need to consume a wide range of food, including meat which contains essential nutrients, to improve their physical health.
This is possible but wordy. People generally talk of animal products.
This is possible but wordy. Using the word they would be enough.
pham thi quynh nhu consume only fruits and vegetables.
That is not the case with vegetarianism. |
0.948675 | Can you find us on the map?
Growing up, I was always happy to be where I lived. I wasn't too far from in town, I had neighbors but not a ton, and I could enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside. I never had wished to live anywhere else and as I grew up, I gained more appreciation for my home and where it was. You never really fully appreciate where you live or come from until you have to actually leave it; something I've realized after recently embarking on my next chapter of my life. As you leave, you can see the special things that makes your home, well home. You hear from other people what it was like where they grew up and how different it was from where you lived, or similar. I didn't find too many people with similar situations as me, that being growing up in a small town. The following are signs that you too, grew up in a small town, some evident more than others.
2. It's only a hop, skip, and a jump to your good friend's house.
3. Everything closes very early.
4. Everyone knows whats going on in town.
5. Going in to town is a trip in itself.
7. You can be in your yard however you please.
8. Getting dressed up to go anywhere is unnecessary.
9. You don't have to worry about getting pulled over unless a state trooper is in town.
10. Your town isn't on a map.
11. People have never heard of where you live. |
0.999326 | I am skeptical, considering I have heard of so many legacy code modernization failures. Why do they fail and why is TSRI's approach different?
There are a few main reasons why legacy code modernizations fail.
First, manual re-writes can take a great deal of time, particularly for large applications. During this time, changes to the project goals may cause further delays or even cause the project to restart from the beginning. The cost for manual rewriting of code is already very high, and so starting over becomes particularly costly.
Also, long code freezes of months and years are common with manual or semi-automated conversions, which result in major issues for your user base, and eventually project failures.
Transliterative tools that focus on line-by-line translations of the source code into the modern code are also widely used. Just as using a dictionary to translate from another language to English one word or sentence at a time would result in many areas of confusion, so these tools produce results that don’t accurately reproduce the functionality of the original application. Even when completed, this results in complicated and unmaintainable applications.
Finally, the costs associated with large numbers of people on partially-automated and manual modernization projects can be very high. These costs grow as features are added or changed several months or years into the project, until millions and often hundreds of millions have been invested.
The fully 100% automated functionality of TSRI’s JANUS Studio solves all of these problems, and is the reason why all of our past projects were successfully completed, and all of our past projects are reference able. This perfect track record of success has been honored by awards ranging from the Stevens award for our CEO Philip Newcomb, as well as the Top 20 Most Promising Defense Technology award from CIO Review.
What are the different options for modernization?
This option fits well for large, single or multi-language applications that are actively maintained, valueable and irreplacable. TSRI's solution uses model-driven, AI-based, fully automated methods to achieve 100% automation in the modernization of a source application to a target language and architecture of your choice. Learn more about the advantages of the fully automated approach here.
Semi-Automated Modernization technologies an work, if the source application is small or very small and you have a specific reason to choose a less automated method. However, because of the manual input required to fill gaps in the transformation, the transformation risk with semi-automated modernization increases corresponding to the size of the application, because humans are in the loop touching the code and introducing errors. For example, transliterators (which translate code "line-by-line") produce legacy-like target code that must be manually edited. Other semi-automated model-driven approaches require additional manual rewriting, often for large amounts of code at large expense and risk. This increases the chances of schedule overrun and increasing costs, and does not allow for automated refactoring, or flexible approaches that allow for mid-project changes.
As a result, semi-automated solutions that can handle one or two languages are typically not good solutions for larger projects. Even an automation level of 95%, on a 1,000,000 line application, means that 50,000 lines of code or more must be manually written, at dramatic expense.
Rehosting is a good solution if the application is not actively maintained and only needs to move off its current hardware/platform. This solution retains the legacy language, and so development/maintenance continues to be difficult and costly, and exposes the customer to increased technical debt as fewer and fewer resources are available. Also, the significant license costs associated with Rehosting can be unattractive for customers. In fact, the effort to undertake a TSRI modernization is often equal or lower than 1-2 years worth of licensing cost.
COTS replacements are very common for replacing general applications that do not have many custom features. Usually the COTS applications look completely different, have different functionality and have license costs associated with them. This requires costly and lengthy retraining of the current users who are not familiar with the new system and rely on the vendor to "make-them-work" for the business scenarios. Again, license costs and vendorlock are other disadvantages, as is the ability to maintain and modify the application moving forward.
Definately the most costly, highest risk and longest approach is rewriting the code manually. This is an approach often used on applications that need massive forward development and required major changes in functionality. The independant research firm, the Standish Group, shows clearly that the high liklihood of "challenged" or "failed" projects, based on hundreds of modernizations/migrations/replacements, should be a major consideration for any manual redevelopment effort. Most of TSRI's successful large modernizations follow a failed manual effort that expended millions or tens of millions of dollars before being scrapped. Request a copy of the Standish Group report here.
What System-Level Documentation are offered by TSRI?
TSRI’s JANUS Studio® generates richly indexed and hyper-linked system-level design documentation of the entire legacy system. This is called “As-Is” documentation of the source system, also called Application Blueprint®. Once the system is in its modernized state, the target code is also documented. This is called “To-Be” documentation, also called a Transformation Blueprint® . The “As-Is” and “To-Be” documentations can be combined to allow a side-by-side view of both systems. Customers may receive a free Transformation Blueprint ® using a sample of their own code and choice of target language.
What are the advantages to TSRI's approach?
Because our toolset is tuned to the source code to perform 100% automated code transformations very rapidly, we can make changes to the transformation specifications and then re-transform the entire application after that change is made. While bringing a great deal of flexibility to the project, this allows also us to perform refactorings like eliminating dead and redundant code, code consolidation, architectural level refactorings, or simply make changes to improve maintainability and readability- and then re-transform the code very quickly.
What are TSRI's Tools & Processes for Modernization?
Perform detailed analyses of legacy source code.
Transform legacy source code into modern target languages.
Perform initial detailed analysis of target code, (to support testing).
Apply fully automated re-factoring operations.
Iteratively apply semi-automated re-factoring operations.
Does TSRI modernize the GUI, database, batch, online and other internal calls?
Yes, TSRI can modernize the GUI and Database. We have modernized many different databases, such as flatfile Databases, hirarchical databases and relational databases. Most of our target databases are relational databases, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle SQL Server, but also non SQL based databases and OpenSource Databases.
In regards to the Online and Batch, yes, we have and do modernize batch and online code. Almost all of the modernization projects included a GUI, online, database, and batch code.
What tasks are the Clients or System Integrator's responsibilities?
TSRI works in support of the Client & System Integrator for the entire project.
How does TSRI's approach minimize risk?
TSRI’s approach has a 100% success rate over all 130+ major modernization projects we have undertaken, all of which are reference-able projects. This is not magic, but the result of a fully-automated code documentation and transformation process as well as a disciplined and free pre-project assessment phase during which TSRI will identify any potential risks to the project.
The JANUS Studio® transformation provides code that is accurate and uniform, eliminating the risk of technical failure. TSRI reduces financial risk by operating on a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) basis for initial tasking and Firm Fixed Rate (FFR) for testing and implementation support. While manual and semi-automated transformations rely on coordination of many—often hundreds—of developers, TSRI’s automated processes typically require only a handful of project management engineers, typically fewer than 10 people, avoiding the risk of key personnel departures. Finally, because a code freeze of only a couple days to a week is required, maintenance and updating can continue on the application all through the assessment and development process, eliminating the risk, business disruption, and project failure associated with long code freeze periods.
How fast is TSRI's code conversion?
Our tool transforms 1 million lines of legacy code into modern code, in about 30 minutes. This is not magic, but the result of using a 100% automated, iterative code conversion process that has been developed over 2 decades, and hundreds of millions of lines of code. Test-ready code will be produced through this iterative process, which will then need to be tested, integrated, and fielded.
Can you prove that TSRI's technology can transform or document my code automatically?
Yes, definately. If you can provide TSRI with a portion or all of your source code (under NDA if neccessary), we can generate a first-cut Transformation Blueprint® of your source code, which will be available to you as a free preview. This allows you to review your source code and the transformed code, side-by-side. The Blueprint also shows other artifacts, such as structure of the code with Structure Charts, Control Flow Graphs, Data Flow Diagrams, State Machine Models, McKabes' Complexity Index, Similar Code and much more.
What industries does TSRI have experience in application transformation & documentation?
Although we have experience transforming code from a variety of industries, from government, defense, financial, insurance, entertainment, logistics, commercial, our toolset is truly industry neutral. The specific functionality of the application, as well as its external interfaces, databases, user interfaces and other factors do not affect our ability to transform the application to a functional equivalent in a new language and architecture. TSRI has modernized everything from Submarine Weapons code, Satellite Code to Billing Applications for major telecommunication's companies. Our language and industry neutral approach will be applicable to your source application.
No but seriously, when you say 100% levels of code automation, how much additional manual intervention is required?
There is no manual intervention required to transform code via our JANUS Studio toolset; it is 100% automated. As one of the first steps during our modernization, TSRI needs to create a full and complete model of the application. This model is where all the work that TSRI does, for example refactoring and redesigning happens.
What level of automation is TSRI able to achieve?
TSRI is able to achieve a 100% level of code automation in our artificial intelligence-based transformation engine called JANUS Studio®. |
0.981817 | Ipamorelin, a synthetic peptide derived from GHRP-1, is made up of five amino acids . Ipamorelin is a powerful growth hormone releasing peptide and is capable of causing potent growth hormone release . Ipamorelin stimulates the release of growth hormone by activating the ghrelin receptor found in the brain. Activating this receptor and increasing the levels of growth hormone within the body can modulate food intake and energy metabolism and also influences glucose and fat metabolism [2, 3]. Growth hormone secretion also increases appetite and causes increased lean muscle growth . Ipamorelin has been demonstrated to be a highly specific growth hormone stimulator since it does not lead to increases in prolactin, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, or thyroid-stimulating hormone . Furthermore, the peptide does not cause adrenocorticotropic hormone or cortisol stimulation. Therefore, compared to other growth hormone stimulators, such as GHRP-2 and GHRP-6, ipamorelin is a more specific growth hormone stimulator. This means that ipamorelin does not possess lipogenic properties and it does not promote hunger. Furthermore, it is at least as potent as GHRP-6 and almost as potent as GHRP-2. Animal studies have shown that ipamorelin can counteract a reduction in bone and muscle strength . In human trials, ipamorelin was shown to induce substantial and dose dependent growth hormone release in healthy males . Another human study also determined that ipamorelin strongly induces growth hormone release over a range of doses and that the half-life of the peptide is two hours . In summary, ipamorelin is a potent growth hormone stimulator that does not broadly affect additional biochemical pathways like some other GHRPs.
The optimal way to use ipamorelin is to stack it with low doses of other growth hormone releasing peptides, such as GHRP-2, GHRP-6 or hexarelin. Combining a low dose of ipamorelin with an additional GHRP will increase the pulse of human growth hormone. Ipamorelin should be reconstituted in BAC water and injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly at a dosage of 200 mcg. Ipamorelin can be dosed once or twice daily and dosages should be spread out over the course of 24 hours.
Ipamorelin has been acutely administered to humans at 100 mcg/kg with no adverse effects reported. The peptide has also been administered at 30 mcg/kg twice daily for up to 7 days and was well tolerated . The highly specific actions of ipamorelin give it a positive safety profile and side effects when using ipamorelin at the recommended dose are generally minimal, although headaches have been reported.
Raun, K., et al., Ipamorelin, the first selective growth hormone secretagogue. Eur J Endocrinol, 1998. 139(5): p. 552-61.
Hosoda, H., M. Kojima, and K. Kangawa, Biological, physiological, and pharmacological aspects of ghrelin. J Pharmacol Sci, 2006. 100(5): p. 398-410.
Sun, Y., et al., Ghrelin stimulation of growth hormone release and appetite is mediated through the growth hormone secretagogue receptor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2004. 101(13): p. 4679-84.
Laferrère, B., et al., Growth Hormone Releasing Peptide -2 (GHRP-2), like ghrelin, increases food intake in healthy men. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 2005. 90(2): p. 611-614.
Andersen, N.B., et al., The growth hormone secretagogue ipamorelin counteracts glucocorticoid-induced decrease in bone formation of adult rats. Growth Horm IGF Res, 2001. 11(5): p. 266-72.
Rasmussen, M.H., et al., Ipamorelin — A novel very potent growth hormone secretagogue. Growth Hormone & IGF Research, 1998. 8(4): p. 332.
Gobburu, J.V., et al., Pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic modeling of ipamorelin, a growth hormone releasing peptide, in human volunteers. Pharm Res, 1999. 16(9): p. 1412-6.
Beck, D.E., et al., Prospective, randomized, controlled, proof-of-concept study of the Ghrelin mimetic ipamorelin for the management of postoperative ileus in bowel resection patients. International Journal of Colorectal Disease, 2014. 29(12): p. 1527-1534. |
0.984458 | Delusional parasitosis, also known as delusional infestation or Ekbom's syndrome, is a delusional disorder in which individuals incorrectly believe they are infested with parasites, insects, or bugs, whereas in reality no such infestation is present. Individuals with delusional parasitosis usually report tactile hallucinations known as formication, a sensation resembling insects crawling on or under the skin. Delusional parasitosis is a mental disorder characterized by a fixed, false belief that a skin infestation exists, which is in contrast to cases of actual parasitosis, such as scabies and infestation with Demodex, in which a skin infestation is present and identifiable by a physician through physical examination or laboratory tests. Morgellons is poorly understood but appears to be a form of this condition. The alternative name, Ekbom's syndrome, was named after Swedish neurologist Karl-Axel Ekbom,who published seminal accounts of the disease in 1937 and 1938. It is differentiated from Willis-Ekbom Disease (WED), another name for restless legs syndrome. Signs and symptoms Details of delusional parasitosis vary among sufferers, it manifests as a crawling and pin-pricking sensation, but it is most commonly described as involving perceived parasites crawling upon or burrowing into the skin, sometimes accompanied by an actual physical sensation (known as formication; often associated with menopause, or sometimes exposure to household cleaning products).Sufferers may injure themselves in attempts to be rid of the "parasites". Some are able to induce the condition in others through suggestion, in which case the term folie à deux may be applicable. Nearly any marking upon the skin, or small object or particle found on the person or his clothing, can be interpreted as evidence for the parasitic infestation, and sufferers commonly compulsively gather such "evidence" and then present it to medical professionals when seeking help.This presentation of "evidence" is known as "the matchbox sign" because the "evidence" is frequently presented in a small container, such as a matchbox. A study conducted of 108 patients at the Mayo Clinic was published in Archives of Dermatology on May 16, 2011. The study failed to find evidence of skin infestation despite doing skin biopsies and examining specimens provided by the patients. The study, which was conducted between 2001 and 2007, concluded that the feeling of skin infestation was delusional parasitosis.
Delusional parasitosis is seen more commonly in women, and the frequency is much higher past the age of 40. Delusory cleptoparasitosis is a form of delusion of parasitosis where the person believes the infestation is in their dwelling, rather than on or in their body. Morgellons is poorly understood but appears to be a form of delusional parasitosis in which people have painful skin conditions that they believe contain fibers of various kinds. Diagnosis Delusional parasitosis is divided into primary, secondary functional, and secondary organic groups. Primary In primary delusional parasitosis, the delusions comprise the entire disease entity: there is no additional deterioration of basic mental functioning or idiosyncratic thought processes. The parasitic delusions consist of a single delusional belief regarding some aspect of health. This is also referred to as "monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis", and sometimes as "true" delusional parasitosis. In the DSM-IV, this corresponds with "delusional disorder, somatic type". Secondary functional Secondary functional delusional parasitosis occurs when the delusions are associated with a psychiatric condition such as schizophrenia or clinical depression. Secondary organic Secondary organic delusional parasitosis occurs when the state of the patient is caused by a medical illness or substance (medical or recreational) use. In the DSM-IV this corresponds with "psychotic disorder due to general medical condition". Physical illnesses that can underlie secondary organic delusional parasitosis include: hypothyroidism, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, tuberculosis, neurological disorders, vitamin B12 deficiency, and diabetes mellitus. Any illness or medication for which formication is a symptom or side effect can become a trigger or underlying cause of delusional parasitosis. Other physiological factors which can cause formication and thus can sometimes lead to this condition include: menopause (i.e. hormone withdrawal); allergies, and drug abuse, including but not limited to cocaine and methamphetamine (as in amphetamine psychosis). It appears that many of these physiological factors, as well as environmental factors such as airborne irritants, are capable of inducing a "crawling" sensation in otherwise healthy individuals; however, some people become fixated on the sensation and its possible meaning, and this fixation may then develop into delusional parasitosis. Treatment Treatment of secondary forms of delusional parasitosis are addressed by treating the primary associated psychological or physical condition. The primary form is treated much as other delusional disorders and schizophrenia. In the past, pimozide was the drug of choice when selecting from the typical antipsychotics. Currently, atypical antipsychotics such as olanzapine or risperidone are used as first line treatment. However, it is also characteristic that sufferers will reject the diagnosis of delusional parasitosis by medical professionals, and very few are willing to be treated, despite demonstrable efficacy of treatment. Society and culture Morgellons Main article: Morgellons The name was coined in 2002 by the founder of the Morgellons Research Foundation, Mary Leitao,who revived it from a letter written by a physician in the mid-1600s. Leitao and others involved in her foundation who self-identified as having Morgellons successfully lobbied members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate the condition in 2006. CDC researchers issued the results of their multi-year study in January 2012, indicating that there were no disease organisms present in people with Morgellons and that the fibers found were likely cotton, and concluded that the condition was "similar to more commonly recognized conditions such as delusional infestation". |
0.961682 | ▪ Implemented various localization techniques for a mobile robot mainly through the Aria library.
▪ Implemented a genetic algorithm which allowed for on the fly changed to the formation of a group of soldiers as they fought against a group of other soldiers.
▪ Implemented a prototype framework in Java with the purpose to tackle search and optimization problems. As part of my thesis, the framework so far only provides an implementation for the Very Large Scale Neighbourhood search. The is to eventually have this framework extended or else integrate its functionality into other open source projects.
Should I use a 3rd party stock charting java library or not?
▪ Created a simple Neural Network capable of identifying numbers.
▪ Created a simple fuzzy logic controller to monitor and act upon a hypothetical water boiler.
▪ Designed a prototype for a system in which people could view video segments and vote the next video segment through their mobile phones. The system could also optionally use blue tooth to check if there where any clients near its terminals. It could then supply, through an SMS various information.
▪ Designed the prototype for a system which allowed first responders and other operators keep track of their assets when deployed across an area. The system was a mix of mobile and desktop applications which made use of the GPS chip implanted on the mobile phone to transmit data to a desktop application. The desktop application in turn provided a visual representation of how where the assets deployed and simplified means through which the desktop application could in turn communicate with the mobile devices. |
0.946741 | Say I have an array of string elements ["1", "2","3"] that I wish to sum. However, I cannot just use the formula .sum because it would combine the string elements to return "123" instead of 6.
How can I convert the array to integer elements for summation?
Hi Saul, we do not have a formula to convert the string elements into integer elements. However, this can be done using a simple ruby code laid out in this recipe. The code takes care of the conversion into integers as well as the summation. |
0.981889 | Which day is cheapest to fly to Ranchi?
The cheapest flights to Ranchi are usually found when departing on a Tuesday. The departure day with the highest cost at present is Monday.
To get the best value, try booking a flight in the morning when visiting Ranchi. Generally the prices will increase for flights in the morning as these tend to have higher demand. |
0.979116 | You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-25 which are based on Reading Passage 149 on the following pages.
A In 1942 Allan R Holmberg, a doctoral student in anthropology from Yale University, USA, ventured deep into the jungle of Bolivian Amazonia and searched out an isolated band of Siriono Indians. The Siriono, Holmberg later wrote, led a "strikingly backward" existence. Their villages were little more than clusters of thatched huts. Life itself was a perpetual and punishing search for food: some families grew manioc and other starchy crops in small garden plots cleared from the forest, while other members of the tribe scoured the country for small game and promising fish holes. When local resources became depleted, the tribe moved on. As for technology, Holmberg noted, the Siriono "may be classified among the most handicapped peoples of the world". Other than bows, arrows and crude digging sticks, the only tools the Siriono seemed to possess were "two machetes worn to the size of pocket-knives".
B Although the lives of the Siriono have changed in the intervening decades, the image of them as Stone Age relics has endured. Indeed, in many respects the Siriono epitomize the popular conception of life in Amazonia. To casual observers, as well as to influential natural scientists and regional planners, the luxuriant forests of Amazonia seem ageless, unconquerable, a habitat totally hostile to human civilization. The apparent simplicity of Indian ways of life has been judged an evolutionary adaptation to forest ecology, living proof that Amazonia could not - and cannot - sustain a more complex society. Archaeological traces of far more elaborate cultures have been dismissed as the ruins of invaders from outside the region, abandoned to decay in the uncompromising tropical environment.
C The popular conception of Amazonia and its native residents would be enormously consequential if it were true. But the human history of Amazonia in the past 11,000 years betrays that view as myth. Evidence gathered in recent years from anthropology and archaeology indicates that the region has supported a series of indigenous cultures for eleven thousand years; an extensive network of complex societies - some with populations perhaps as large as 100,000 - thrived there for more than 1,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. (Indeed, some contemporary tribes, including the Siriono, still live among the earthworks of earlier cultures.) Far from being evolutionarily retarded, prehistoric Amazonian people developed technologies and cultures that were advanced for their time. If the lives of Indians today seem "primitive", the appearance is not the result of some environmental adaptation or ecological barrier; rather it is a comparatively recent adaptation to centuries of economic and political pressure. Investigators who argue otherwise have unwittingly projected the present onto the past.
D The evidence for a revised view of Amazonia will take many people by surprise. Ecologists have assumed that tropical ecosystems were shaped entirely by natural forces and they have focused their research on habitats they believe have escaped human influence. But as the University of Florida ecologist, Peter Feinsinger, has noted, an approach that leaves people out of the equation is no longer tenable. The archaeological evidence shows that the natural history of Amazonia is to a surprising extent tied to the activities of its prehistoric inhabitants.
E The realization comes none too soon. In June 1992 political and environmental leaders from across the world met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how developing countries can advance their economies without destroying their natural resources. The challenge is especially difficult in Amazonia. Because the tropical forest has been depicted as ecologically unfit for large-scale human occupation, some environmentalists have opposed development of any kind. Ironically, one major casualty of that extreme position has been the environment itself. While policy makers struggle to define and implement appropriate legislation, development of the most destructive kind has continued apace over vast areas.
F The other major casualty of the "naturalism" of environmental scientists has been the indigenous Amazonians, whose habits of hunting, fishing, and slash-and-burn cultivation often have been represented as harmful to the habitat. In the clash between environmentalists and developers, the Indians, whose presence is in fact crucial to the survival of the forest, have suffered the most. The new understanding of the pre-history of Amazonia, however, points toward a middle ground. Archaeology makes clear that with judicious management selected parts of the region could support more people than anyone thought before. The long-buried past, it seems, offers hope for the future.
16 The reason for the simplicity of the Indian way of life is that Amazonia has always been unable to support a more complex society.
17 There is a crucial popular misconception about the human history of Amazonia.
18 There are lessons to be learned from similar ecosystems in other parts of the world.
19 Most ecologists were aware that the areas of Amazonia they were working in had been shaped by human settlement.
20 The indigenous Amazonian Indians are necessary to the well-being of the forest.
21 It would be possible for certain parts of Amazonia to support a higher population. |
0.996101 | Can a Financial Analyst Work from Home?
Depending on the company, yes, a financial analyst may work from home. It’s very unlikely if you work for a bank; however, some corporationsCorporationWhat is a corporation? A corporation is a legal entity created by individuals, stockholders, or shareholders, with the purpose of operating for profit. The creation involves a legal process called incorporation where legal documents containing the primary purpose of the business, name, and location (especially technology companies) do allow their financial analysts to work from home. If it is something that’s important to you, try to find companies that list a “flexible working environment” in their company descriptionAboutCFI - Corporate Finance Institute® - is a global leader in online finance courses and certifications in financial modeling, valuation, financial analysis, as they typically mean they allow employees to work virtually at least some of the time, or potentially all of the time. |
0.532776 | 1822 Born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Robert was the eleventh of twelve children of a local woollen mill owner. His family wished him to study for the ministry but Robert refused, one reason being his inability to master Latin.
He left school at the age of 14 and went to live with an uncle in Charleston, USA, where he was apprenticed to a merchant.
Two years later he returned home and taught himself chemistry, electricity and astronomy with the help of a local weaver who had a knowledge of mathematics.
Robert's father gave him a workshop and by the time he was 17 years old he had rebuilt his mother's mangle so that wet linen could be passed through the rollers in either direction, had successfully designed and built a ribbon saw, and had completed the first working model of his elliptic rotary steam engine which he was to perfect in later life.
He served an engineering apprenticeship in Aberdeen and Dundee before joining a civil engineering company in Glasgow. He then went to work for an Edinburgh firm of civil engineers where he devised a new method of detonating explosive charges by the use of electricity, thus greatly reducing the loss of lives in mines throughout the world.
Thomson next worked as a railway engineer and supervised the blasting of chalk cliffs near Dover for the South Eastern Railway. He set up his own railway consultancy business and proposed the line for the Eastern Counties Railway which was accepted by parliament and eventually developed.
1845 Thomson patented the pneumatic tyre.
1846 He was granted a patent in France in 1846 and in the USA in 1847. His tyre consisted of a hollow belt of India-rubber inflated with air so that the wheels presented "a cushion of air to the ground, rail or track on which they run". This elastic belt of rubberised canvas was enclosed within a strong outer casing of leather which was bolted to the wheel.
1847 Thomson's "Aerial Wheels" were demonstrated in London's Regent Park in March 1847 and were fitted to several horse-drawn carriages, greatly improving the comfort of travel and reducing noise. One set ran for 1,200 miles without sign of deterioration.
1847 Mentioned as Robert William Thomson, 18 Adam Street, Adelphi. Civil engineer.
For many years Thomson was frustrated by the lack of thin rubber and he turned to the development of his solid rubber tyres. It was not until 43 years later that the pneumatic tyre returned, when it was developed as a bicycle tyre by John Boyd Dunlop. Dunlop was granted a patent in 1888 but two years later was officially informed that it was invalid as Thomson's patent preceded it.
1851 At the Great Exhibition Thomson demonstrated his self-filling fountain pen, and an invalid chair with solid rubber tyres.
1852 The following year he accepted a post in Java, where he designed new machinery for the production of sugar, thus greatly increasing profitability. During this time he invented the first portable steam crane but did not bother to patent it.
1862 Williams returned to Scotland and despite ill health, which latterly confined him to a couch, Thomson's genius was undiminished and some of his most significant work was done during the following ten years.
In 1867 he patented solid India-rubber tyres for his road steamers. The Scotsman described this application of vulcanised India-rubber to the wheels of road steamers as "the greatest step which had ever been made in the use of steam on common roads". The resilience of the stout rubber tyres allowed his lightweight five ton steam engine to run on hard or soft, wet or dry surfaces, over obstacles, uphill or downhill. In addition, the thick rubber tyres did not damage the roads as did the iron wheels of heavy traction engines. Thomson's first road steamers, manufactured in his own small workshop in Leith, were fitted with three wheels, the small single wheel at the front being directly below the steering wheel. The tyres, which were 125 mm (5") thick, were corrugated internally and adhered to the wheel by friction.
He designed a 6hp traction engine with a vertical boiler mounted amidships and weighing 5 tons which he had built by T. M. Tennant and Co of the Bowershall Works in Edinburgh.
1871 Designer of five road locomotives that were made in 1871 and these were shipped to India to the order of Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton. One was made by Thomson's own company prior to Tennants taking over manufacture. This was Prima. The other four were Chenab, Ravee, Hindus and Sutlej, these were essentially Thomson designs with a small bit of tinkering by Crompton (if that). These four were made by Ransomes, Sims and Head at Ipswich.
Thomson's road steamers, often drawing four fully loaded coal wagons totalling 40 tons up and down steep gradients, excited great interest in the streets of Edinburgh. Soon the first omnibus was in service between Edinburgh and Leith. Engines were exported to Java, India, Canada and Australia, and by 1871 were being manufactured under licence in both the UK and the USA by companies such as Tennant and Co of Leith, Charles Burrell and Sons in Thetford and Robey and Co in Lincoln.
1873 Died at his home in Moray Place, Edinburgh, aged 50. His mind was active to the end and his last patent, for elastic belts, seats and cushions, was filed after his death by his wife, Clara.
DEATH OF Mr. R. W. THOMSON.- We announce with regret the death of Mr. R. W. Thomson well known as the inventor of india-rubber tires for traction engines, or, as he loved to call them, road steamers.
Mr. Thomson was born in Stonehaven, in 1822,and served his time in shops in Aberdeen and Dundee.
At the age of nineteen he started for London, With a very few pounds in his pocket, to push the ideas which he had conceived of firing mines by electnc1ty. He took his invention to Faraday, who approved of it; and Cubitt, possibly on the strength of Faraday's opinion, gave young Thomson employment in carrying out blasting operations near Dover.
He was next employed by the Stephensons. When not more than twenty-two he turned his attention to the use of india-rubber for tires, but the material was so scarce and dear that he made no progress with the invention.
In 1852 he went out to Java to erect sugar machinery, and be there became partner with a manufacturer. Mr. Thomson visited England from time to time, and invented a steam crane and an hydraulic dock about 1860.
In 1862 Mr. Thomson left Java and settled in Edinburgh. The history of the traction engine and tires with which his name is united is too well-known to need repetition here. Mr. Thomson was a great sufferer for several years, and his death was by no means unexpected.
Mr. R. W. Thompson (sic) was born at Stonehaven in 1822. Early in life he was sent to the United States of America to be made a merchant of, but he disliked the calling, and returned to England when sixteen years of age. He spent two years of his life making experiments in chemistry and electricity, interspersed with engineering schemes.
He was next apprenticed to engineering, at Aberdeen and Dundee, filling up his spare moments during this period in inventing a rotary engine, &c.
After serving his apprenticeship during which he made rapid progress, he was employed by the Stephensons.
In 1844 he commenced business on his own account. Two years later he conceived the idea of applying indiarubber tyres to ordinary conveyances. We read in volume xlv. of the Mechanics' Magazine that noiseless tyres had been applied to a brougham which was running in the London parks, the invention of Mr Thompson. Indiarubber at that time was scarce and badly made, so the invention brought in poor returns. Moreover, the powerful railway companies in due course adopted the tyres to the platform handcarts, and paid him no royalty. Thompson sent in a plan for the 1851 Exhibition, which received some attention; and a fountain pen of his invention was sold inside the exhibition.
In 1862 he had settled in Edinburgh. The portable crane was one of his most useful inventions. A traction engine being required for use in Java, from whence Thompson had recently returned, he commenced to design one in harmony with his own ideas, which resulted in his invention of the indiarubber tyres for the wheels, and the "pot" boiler, in 1867, which made his name famous. Although numerous inventors had cherished the idea of applying indiarubber or other soft substances, covered with leather, &c., to the tyres of road locomotives, before 1867, they having no doubt received the inspiration from his noiseless tyres in 1846, yet he was the first to put the idea into practical shape.
In December, 1867, a small road locomotive having a "pot" boiler and vulcanised rubber tyres to the wheels was being tested, and the newspapers pronounced the engine to be "in advance of everything which had preceded it." The steam cylinder was 5 in. diameter, and 8 in. stroke. The engine was mounted upon three wheels, all of which were fitted with rubber tyres, the driving wheel tyres being 12 in. wide and 5 in. thick. Numerous trials were run with this engine, drawing a large omnibus behind, at the rate of 10 to 12 miles an hour. It was said: "Mr. Thompson intends to run the engine over to Glasgow by the road, for shipment to Java, where it is to be used for travelling between two towns, about 40 miles apart, taking in tow a large omnibus full of passengers, or trains of wagons, at the speed which has already been acomplished in the trials which have been made in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. We illustrate by Fig. 64 one of Thompson's road steamers, made in 1868 by Messrs. Tennant and Co., of Leith, for use in the Island of Ceylon.
From the illustration it will be seen, the horizontal engine and vertical pot boiler were mounted upon a wrought-iron frame of channel iron, presenting a neat and compact appearance. This engine was subjected to some severe trials previous to its shipment for Ceylon. We are unable to afford the space to give particulars of a tithe of the trips made by Mr. Thompson with his road steamers. However, in 1869 some trials were made with two 6-horse engines, under Mr. Thompson's directions, which exhibited their tractive power and speed in a remarkable manner. "One of the 6 ton road steamers was harnessed to four wagons of pig iron — weight of iron and wagons, 34 tons — which it drew without an effort or any stoppage from the foot to the top of Granton Road, a distance of a quarter of a mile, with inclines of one in eighteen. Arrived at the top, it turned with its train and ran back to its starting point It may be pointed out that the drawing of 34 tons, besides the engine's own weight, up one in twenty, is equal to drawing 100 tons or more on a level road. The other road steamer was attached to an omnibus which conveyed a party of gentlemen from Granton to Leith. The distance is two and three-quarter miles, and the journey was performed at the rate of over eight miles an hour, that being the highest speed at which it was deemed safe to run through a town."
This road steamer had been built specially for omnibus traffic, and was exceedingly light and compact One morning a road steamer was taken down on to the sea sands at Portobello, and ran up and down there at the rate of ten miles an hour, the rain pouring all the time in torrents. A road steamer was employed at Aberdeen to draw a 15 ton boiler on a 5 ton wagon through some of the streets at three miles an hour. An engineer writes: "It is certainly a feat for a 5 ton engine to drag out a 20 ton load and climb gradients of one in twenty with single gear. We had all Aberdeen turned out as we passed. It was an unusual sight to see the infant 'Hercules' in front of the great boiler, 30 feet long and 7 feet in diameter, bowling along with it like a plaything at its tail, whilst the plaything itself shook the houses again as it danced over the rough causeway."
It would be amusing to quote the foolish statements made respecting the unprotected vulcanised rubber tyres; indeed a great deal of harm was done to the cause of indiarubber tyres by the inconsistent statements of some of their promoters, who invested them with almost marvellous capabilities. One advocate remarked that because the soft tyres resembled the feet of the elephant and the camel, which have large soft cushions in hard hoofs, and as no other animal can bear so much walking over hard roads as they can accomplish, therefore these tyres would pass over newly- broken road metal, broken flints, and all kinds of sharp things without leaving a mark on the rubber. And we were repeatedly informed that the tyres were not affected by heat, cold, or moisture, and were durable beyond all conception; and yet, in the face of all this claimed durability, no end of schemes were being proposed and patented for protecting the surface of the tyres from injury. As one writer nicely puts it, when noticing one of the methods of attaching metal shoes round the tyres: "Considering how much has been said concerning the everlasting properties of the indiarubber tyres, it is curious that so much ingenuity should be expended in affording them protection."
In January, 1870, Mr. Thompson sent out an eight horse road steamer to India, which, though not a success (says Mr. Crompton), proved that the rubber tyres were not affected by climate, and that the engine was handy and manageable.
Four larger engines were eventually Ordered by the Indian Government of which particulars follow. At the Royal Show at Oxford, July, 1870, two road steamers with indiarubber tyres were shown, running about the ground, "twisting, turning — we are inclined to say waltzing — and disporting themselves generally in a manner suggestive of what a pair of gigantic steam kittens or other frolicsome animals might do. One engine was tried without the steel chain armour around the wheel tyre, and on the strain being thrown on one wheel the tyre on that wheel snapped right across."
Fig. 65 shows a section of Thompson's original rubber tyred wheel, which was constructed of wrought iron plates, strengthened by angle iron and diagonal stays, with low flanges on each side to keep the tyres in place. The periphery of the wheel was polished, and then drilled all over with 0.625in. holes. The elastic tyre was made a little less in diameter than the wheel, and being stretched in order to get it on the wheel, had a tendency to contract, which helped to keep it in its place. The boss or nave of the wheel was made of cast iron. The wheel ran with the indiarubber in contact with the ground. To prevent the wheels from slipping on soft and damp roads, the chain armour was introduced. Fig. 66 shows a part side elevation of a rubber-tyred wheel with the chain armour applied. Fig. 67 shows a section of the same wheel. This species of armour consisted of steel plates or shoes, joined together by flat links of malleable cast iron, and was a constant source of annoyance in practice, owing to the breakage of the link pins, and the difficulty of keeping the tyre in its place unless the shoes were very tight. When an indiarubber tyre is working without shoes, at a speed of 8 miles per hour, there is a much greater amount of indiarubber on the leading side than on the following side of the wheel. On the leading side the excess of indiarubber accommodates itself by 'bagging out' as shown by Fig. 68 while in the rear it is in a state of tension, and tightly grips the iron wheel. From this action the indiarubber tyre is continuously working round with a reverse motion to that of the drum. The rate of this motion depends upon the tightness with which it was originally stretched, its density, its thickness, and the weight of the wheel. If the wheel is lightly loaded, the tyre will scarcely move, while if it is heavily compressed, a great portion of it is rolled out towards the front," and the amount of the reverse action becomes very great. Under ordinary circumstances the tyre will move once round the drum in from 30 to 40 revolutions. It is evident that friction must take place in the indiarubber tyre, from its contrary rotation round the iron drum, and also from the continuous change of form it undergoes.
It is self evident from the above remarks that indiarubber tyres, to be successful, should be relieved of all driving strain.
In spite of the bad name, and whatever drawbacks the indiarubber tyres may possess, it is impossible to ignore the following facts, which must be placed to their credit. They act as an excellent spring, and are placed where the spring should be situated — that is, in the nearest point to the road, thus saving the engine from a great amount of wear and tear and rough usage. They are perfectly noiseless. Owing to their flexibility they always possess a regular amount of sur- face of adhesion, which on paved roads is almost indispensable.
The injury to the road may be said to be nil, for there has never been any complaint from the road authorities of any damage done by them ; and they are one of the means devised for enabling a road locomotive to travel over the highway at a sensible speed, say 7 to 10 miles an hour.
Another advantage of the rubber tyre is mentioned by Mr. John Head. "On good macadam its resistance is more than that of the rigid wheel, and on a rough or newly-metalled road, owing to its great surface, it does not sink below the tops of the stones, while the rigid wheel consumes a great amount of power from sinking into the surface of the road with a crushing and grinding action."
The great cost of the rubber tyres had, no doubt, much to do with their ultimate disuse. The failure of the indiarubber tyre at the trials at the Royal Show, at Wolverhampton, in 1871, owing to the slippery state of the land after the excessive rains, is very well known. "The clay was spurted up from under the wheels, and entered between the indiarubber and the rim of the drums, and so lubricated the parts that there was a revolution of the iron rim within the indiarubber."
Thompson's tyres answered well for regular road purposes. The experiments carried out by Mr. Crompton, in India, proved: "(i) That upon the level roads of India, traction engines can be relied on to work a service of trains with great regularity and at a fair speed, and that passengers can be conveyed at eight miles an hour. (2) That the rubber tyres, as used in such running, are of great service in reducing the cost of the ordinary engine repairs, and in giving uniformity of adhesion, without in the least degree damaging the surface of the roads."
Such was the demand for Thompson's road steamers between 1870 and 1873, that Messrs. Tennant and Co., of Leith, could not make them fast enough. Engines of this type were made by Messrs. Robey and Co., of Lincoln ; Messrs. Ransomes, Sims and Head, of Ipswich; Messrs. Charles Burrell and Sons, of Thetford; and others, particulars of which follow.
Thompson's pot boiler was not a success; it was abandoned in favour of the Field vertical, or locomotive multitubular type of boiler. The indiarubber tyres, with suitable protection, continued to be used until the time of Mr. Thompson's death, which occurred on the 8th of March, 1873, he being in his 51st year. Although his two chief inventions were not a thorough success, yet he paved the way for other schemers, and by his efforts steam locomotion on common roads was rapidly advanced.
1922 The centenary of an event which has had a far-reaching effect on mechanical transport was celebrated on June 29th, when a memorial tablet was placed on the house in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, where R. W. Thomson, the inventor of the pneumatic tire, was born.
This page was last edited on 2 January 2019, at 15:31. |
0.998856 | I'm looking for help. I do not have insurance and do not think I qualify for any charitable help. I need surgery for breast cancer and chemotherapy. Is there anywhere I can get help?
What resources are available for women with cervical cancer who have no medical insurance? I was going to a specialist and my cancer was advancing. I have had no treatment since due to lack of insurance.
The many challenges of being diagnosed and not having insurance are stressful and emotionally difficult. Navigating treatment without insurance can feel daunting, but there are resources you can explore that may be able to help. First, I would encourage you to speak to your previous specialist and medical team about the current difficulty you are experiencing. You indicated you were receiving treatment at one point but had to stop; a social worker, nurse navigator, or someone in the finance department of the specialist’s office or treatment center may be able to help guide you. There may be local resources that can help pay for treatment, and sometimes offices will be able to work out a payment plan with you once they are aware of the situation.
I would also recommend exploring if you would eligible for Medicaid in your state. The eligibility varies from state-to-state, and you can learn more about the program here. Often your local social services office can help with determining eligibility and submitting the application.
You can inquire about any charity care or reduced cost care you may be eligible for at local hospitals or treatment centers; public hospitals are required to provide some level of charity care, but policies can vary and you would need to check with the hospital for their specific eligibility and application process.
CancerCare provides a searchable database of cancer resources and assistance based on zip code. You can utilize the search to investigate any additional resources that may be available near you. |
0.945793 | What would characterize a group of people suffering from delusions? Their ideas would not be founded on logic and real needs, which causes them to always come up with new ways of doing things, which they believe are better. Test and evaluate the new ideas on the group, who also suffers from delusions, and see what they say. We all suffer from the delusion that the majority knows what's best. This leads to progress as we know it.
From a historical perspective society has always been in a state of change (progress). Societies that stagnate are overtaken by more dynamic societies. This doesn't mean people in the more dynamic society are happier than the ones in the stagnant society. Buddhism teaches that everything is in a state of constant change, which obviously applies to societies every where, as can be seen from our history. Which makes one wonder if anything we do ever will be good enough to be considered final. The dominant belief is that there is no end to progress. Progress is something good never ending.
Look at the concept of democracy. The crown jewel of progress, based on the idea that the majority knows what's best. Now look at environmental issues. The majority thinks it good to care about the environment as long as it doesn't effect them financially. Wouldn't it be smarter to let environmental experts unite around a decision on what to do. If we do away with political parties and let specialists deal with issues they are competent to solve, than we would have a new system, specialist democracy. The way things are looking we will soon be there. The only thing that will differentiate parties will be the view on the individual. Delusions in this area are quite widespread, which is obvious from all different existing philosophies.
We suffer from the delusion that progress is good. What's the result of progress? Never have so many people been sick from work, or been excluded from the labor market. Obesity, which I see as an mental imbalance, is at an all time high, and rising. Everybody complains there is not enough time. They are stressed out. There are two things that have become better the last fifty years, health care, and private finances. Progress in the area of health care has obviously improved living conditions for a lot of people. Better private finances come at the price of above mentioned arguments. Were we not better off fifty years ago, with the exception of the health care. I say we were, which in that case proves that progress is not all good. Which proves progress is founded on illogic development and the satisfaction of needs that are created. What is the logic in creating a need where none exist? It's illogic. Therefore are progress based on that we all suffer from delusions.
Finally, I must say there is no cure for delusions. Psychiatry says anti-psychotics cure it, but that's yet another delusion. Our only possibility is to use logical reasoning as much as possible.
My theory for the cause of delusions is that we suffer from self-hatred. According to this theory self-hatred arises about the age of two years. The child immediately represses this emotion so it becomes buried deep in the sub-conscious. Later in life this expresses itself in the ability to feel hatred and envy. Both of these feelings make us feel bad, which can be seen as an confirmation that they come from self-hatred. There is actually no reason why hatred and envy make us feel bad. If it's not to deter us, but than nature might as well not have given us these emotions, which is the case with people suffering from schizophrenia.
The repressed self-hatred lays as a gravitational center in the sub-conscious. The sub-conscious thoughts are drawn in and bent around this center. Our instincts that are sublimated to needs in the sub-conscious are bent by the center, hence our inability to satisfy our needs. Since the needs are distortions of the underlying instincts it becomes impossible to achieve need satisfaction. This is the reason why we create new needs in the hunt for lasting well-being. This inability to identify our needs correctly put us in a constant search to satisfy ourselves with different substitutes. This is the foundation for progress as we know it.
This is interesting from a Buddhist point of view since it explains why life is suffering, it's simply because of our inability to identify our needs. Therefore life is an endless search and each new need we acquire increases our suffering. |
0.99999 | When converted into binary, how many bits are present in an IPv4 Address?
IPv4 addressing consists of four octets of eight bits each. 8x4=32 bits per address. Example: 192.168.1.1 in binary is 11000000.10101000.00000001.00000001, which is 32 bits. |
0.964113 | Born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, Butler studied law after graduating from Transylvania University. He served in the War of 1812, taking part in the Battle of the Thames and the Battle of New Orleans. After the war, he practiced law in Carrollton, Kentucky and briefly served in the Kentucky House of Representatives. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1839 to 1843 before running for Governor of Kentucky in 1844. He lost the 1844 gubernatorial election to Whig nominee William Owsley.
During the Mexican–American War, Butler served as a major general of volunteers. He was General Zachary Taylor's second-in-command during the Battle of Monterrey and later succeeded Winfield Scott as the commander of American forces occupying Mexico City. The 1848 Democratic National Convention nominated a ticket of Cass and Butler, but the Whig ticket of Taylor and Millard Fillmore won the 1848 presidential election. He attended the Peace Conference of 1861, which sought to defuse the secession crisis that arose following the 1860 presidential election. During the Civil War, Butler was a War Democrat who favored the Union.
Butler was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky (then Fayette County), and graduated from Transylvania University in 1812. He began the study of law with Robert Wickliffe, but his education was interrupted by the War of 1812.
The Indians captured Butler and sent him to Fort Niagara where he remained until the British freed him on parole. He returned to Kentucky only to join the American forces that met the British and Indians at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. During the battle, Butler volunteered to set a barn on fire where the enemy had taken shelter. He successfully did so and received the rank of colonel for his bravery. Butler and his men were sent to New Orleans to assist Andrew Jackson in the city's defense. He distinguished himself during the Battle of New Orleans. Among the men under his command was future Florida governor Richard Keith Call, who would remain lifelong friends with Butler.
In 1848, Butler was the Democratic candidate for Vice President of the United States. At the 1848 Democratic National Convention, delegate Francis P. Blair was a leader of the movement to put Butler on the ticket with Lewis Cass, and Butler won the nomination on the first ballot over John A. Quitman and William R. King. In the general election, the ticket of Cass and Butler was defeated by Whig candidates Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore. Butler was the first non-incumbent Democratic vice presidential candidate to lose election.
Butler died in Carrollton, Kentucky on August 6, 1880 at age 89. He was interred in the Butler family cemetery in Carrollton.
The Gen. William O. Butler House, his home in Carrollton, Kentucky, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
^ Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF). Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-915430-00-0.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Orlando Butler.
United States Congress. "William Orlando Butler (id: B001197)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. |
0.99999 | Text: In China I saw an amazing film whose beauty seemed to challenge all the esthetic rules of the game between film stock and light. For the first quarter hour in this long documentary on prostitution and its suppression, the camera did not move away from the ordinary and very distressing face of a young woman who only told her life story. A french audience probably would have been annoyed by this fifteen-minute-long passage in which the camera remains immobile and where nothing happens – except the reflection on one face of a whole destiny of humiliation and servility. I can imagine how a French audience would have sought release either in laughter, no matter how tense and nervous, or in flight from the theater. What was most moving for me in this film showing was not merely the nakedness and authenticity of the woman’s testimony, it was the attitude of the audience. The hundreds of spectators in this Chinese cinema did not give the usual impression of being spectators, of being on the other side of a mirror that stretched across this great space of a face and a life. An almost concrete link was established between them and the screen – nor was this merely uneasy curiosity or pharisaical hostility. No fear of ridicule, no enjoyment of indiscretion, no contemptuous withdrawal broke the equality between the woman who laid her burden before all of us and the “spectators” who received it without irony and without scorn – I might even say, without pity. At least without that pity which is already a judgment in its condescension. Each one felt that it could have happened to him. That is all. That is enormous.
Comments: Claude Roy (1915-1997) was a French poet, autobiographer and travel writer. The film described here is Stand up, Sisters! aka Peking Prostitutes Liberated (China 1950 d. Shih Hui).
This entry was posted in 1950s, China, Travel writing and tagged Audiences, Cinemas, Claude Roy, Documentary and non-fiction, Stand up Sisters! (1950). Bookmark the permalink. |
0.999145 | Court Appeals Verdict: Patient's Conviction is Reversed The Fourth Appellate District Court issued another very positive published decision in People v. Chakos last week. The two concurring judges, Aronson and Fybel, involved in the unanimous opinion were the same two concurring judges in the Garden Grove (Kha) case.
"One might posit, then, that individuals who may lawfully possess marijuana under state law for medicinal purposes will have patterns of purchase and holding that will reflect the practical difficulties in obtaining the drug. Those practical difficulties could also explain the gram scale -- anyone with the lawful right to possess marijuana will need to take precautions not to insure that he or she does not get “ripped off” by a dealer, but that he or she does not possess more than the eight ounces contemplated by the Act. Practical difficulties of obtaining the drug also explain why a patient entitled to 13 possess it under state law might want to keep an extra supply on hand within the legal amount, since supplies would not be reliable."
"Now, are these speculations to be rejected because contradicted by the expert’s testimony on the record? No -- and that is the point: The record fails to show that Deputy Cormier is any more familiar than the average layperson or the members of this court with the patterns of lawful possession for medicinal use that would allow him to differentiate them from unlawful possession for sale. In other words, Cormier was unqualified to render an expert opinion in this case."
Read more about the case and the 4th Appellate Court's decision in the San Francisco Chronicle's story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/21/BAJ0U37B7.DTL&tsp=1 Ukiah City Council Calls for Medicine Limits- Board of Supervisors to Consider Ballot Initiative The Ukiah City Council is expected to vote on a resolution today at 4:00pm, which calls on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to put an initiative on the ballot to limit the number of plants medical cannabis patients are allowed to cultivate and repeal the landmark legislation, Measure G. Measure G was voted on by the Mendocino County voters in 2000. The measure decriminalized personal use of cannabis, with the intent to create safer access for medical cannabis patients. Measure G also allowed patients to cultivate up to 25 plants for personal use.
The Council is calling for a repeal of Measure G and limiting the plant numbers to six per patient. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss putting the repeal of Measure G and limiting patients' cultivation on the ballot next Tuesday, January 8th.
Come out and support patients' access! Scroll down to "City and County Hearings" to find details about the Board of Supervisors meeting next Tuesday.
On January 2nd, the Orange County Department of Public Health launched the statewide medical marijuana ID card program. Application for the cards are being taken on an appointment-only basis. Obtaining a card is voluntary for patients and caregivers but many find them to be very helpful in preventing false arrest by state and local law enforcement. In order to qualify for the ID card, you must be able to provide a copy of a valid doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana, proof of residency within Orange County and pay an application fee of $150 ($75 for MediCal recipients).
To make an appointment and apply for the card program, call the County Health Department at (714) 480-6717 during normal business hours. |
0.939977 | Relational psychoanalysis is a school of psychoanalysis in the United States that emphasizes the role of real and imagined relationships with others in mental disorder and psychotherapy. 'Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought considered by its founders to represent a "paradigm shift" in psychoanalysis'.
Relational psychoanalysis began in the 1980s as an attempt to integrate interpersonal psychoanalysis's emphasis on the detailed exploration of interpersonal interactions with British object relations theory's ideas about the psychological importance of internalized relationships with other people. Relationalists argue that personality emerges from the matrix of early formative relationships with parents and other figures. Philosophically, relational psychoanalysis is closely allied with social constructionism.
An important difference between relational theory and traditional psychoanalytic thought is in its theory of motivation, which would 'assign primary importance to real interpersonal relations, rather than to instinctual drives'.[full citation needed] Freudian theory, with a few exceptions, proposes that human beings are motivated by sexual and aggressive drives. These drives are biologically rooted and innate. They are ultimately not shaped by experience.
Relationalists, on the other hand, argue that the primary motivation of the psyche is to be in relationships with others. As a consequence early relationships, usually with primary caregivers, shape one's expectations about the way in which one's needs are met. Therefore, desires and urges cannot be separated from the relational contexts in which they arise. This does not mean that motivation is determined by the environment (as in behaviorism), but that motivation is determined by the systemic interaction of a person and his or her relational world. Individuals attempt to re-create these early learned relationships in ongoing relationships that may have little or nothing to do with those early relationships. This re-creation of relational patterns serves to satisfy the individuals' needs in a way that conforms with what they learned as infants. This re-creation is called an enactment.
When treating patients, relational psychoanalysts stress a mixture of waiting, and authentic spontaneity. Some relationally oriented psychoanalysts eschew the traditional Freudian emphasis on interpretation and free association, instead emphazing the importance of creating a lively, genuine relationship with the patient. However, many others place a great deal of importance on the Winnicottian concept of "holding" and are far more restrained in their approach, generally giving weight to well formulated interpretations made at what seems to be the proper time. Overall, relational analysts feel that psychotherapy works best when the therapist focuses on establishing a healing relationship with the patient, in addition to focusing on facilitating insight. They believe that in doing so, therapists break patients out of the repetitive patterns of relating to others that they believe maintain psychopathology. Noteworthy too is 'the emphasis relational psychoanalysis places on the mutual construction of meaning in the analytic relationship'.
Stephen A. Mitchell has been described as the "most influential relational psychoanalyst".[full citation needed] His 1983 book, co-written with Jay R. Greenberg and called Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory is considered to be the first major work of relational psychoanalysis. Prior work especially by Sabina Spielrein in the 1910s to 1930s is often cited, especially by Adrienne Harris and others who connect feminism with the field, but as part of the prior Freud/Jung/Spielrein tradition.
Psychoanalyst and philosopher Jon Mills has offered a number of substantial criticisms of the relational movement. Mills evidently thinks this "paradigm shift" to relational psychoanalysis is not exclusively due to theoretical differences with classical psychoanalysis but also arises from a certain group mentality and set of interests: "Relational psychoanalysis is an American phenomenon, with a politically powerful and advantageous group of members advocating for conceptual and technical reform" from a professional psychologist group perspective: "most identified relational analysts are psychologists, as are the founding professionals associated with initiating the relational movement".
Psychoanalyst and historian Henry Zvi Lothane has also criticized some of the central ideas of relational psychoanalysis, from both historical and psychoanalytic perspectives. Historically, Lothane believes relational theorists overstate the non-relational aspects of Freud as ignore its relational aspects. Lothane maintains that, though Freud's theory of disorder is "monadic," i.e. focused more or less exclusively on the individual, Freud's psychoanalytic method and theory of clinical practice is consistently dyadic or relational. From a theoretical perspective, Lothane has criticized the term "relational" in favor of Harry Stack Sullivan's term "interpersonal". Lothane developed his concepts of "reciprocal free association" as well as "dramatology" as ways of understanding the interpersonal or relational dimension of psychoanalysis.
Stephen A. Mitchell, (1988). Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis: An Integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Stephen A. Mitchell, (1993). Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Stephen A. Mitchell, (1997). Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Stephen A. Mitchell, (2000). Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Stephen A. Mitchell and Aron, Lewis. (1999). Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Greenberg, J. & Mitchell, S.A. (1983). Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Aron, Lewis (1996). A Meeting of Minds. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Curtis, R. C. & Hirsch. I. (2003). Relational Appraoches to Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. In Gurman, A. G. & Messer, S. B. Essential Psychotherapies. NY: Guilford.
Cushman, Philip. (1996). Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A History of Psychotherapy . New York: Perseus Publishing.
Aron, L. and Lechich M., (2012). Relational psychoanalysis, in Textbook of Psychoanalysis, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Publishing, pp 211-224.
This page was last modified on 24 May 2016, at 19:00. |
0.963884 | Until the period of European colonization, Argentina was relatively sparsely populated by a wide number of diverse cultures with different social organizations, which can be divided into three main groups.
The first group are basic hunters and food gatherers without development of pottery, such as the Selk'nam and Yamana in the extreme south.
The second group are advanced hunters and food gatherers which include the Puelche, Querandí and Serranos in the center-east; the Tehuelche in the south and the Kom and Wichi in the north.
The last group are farmers with pottery, like the Charrúa, Minuane and Guaraní in the northeast, with slash and burn semisedentary existence; the advanced Diaguita sedentary trading culture in the northwest; the Toconoté and Hênîa and Kâmîare in the country's center, and the Huarpe in the center-west, a culture that raised llama cattle and was strongly influenced by the Incas.
Europeans first arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci.
The Argentine War of Independence (1810–1818) was followed by an extended civil war that lasted until 1861, culminating in the country's reorganization as a federation of provinces with Buenos Aires as its capital city.
The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with massive waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural and demographic outlook.
The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century.
After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President, Juan Domingo Perón, went on to win the 1946 election.
During his first presidential term (1946–52), Perón was supported by his second wife, Eva Duarte ("Evita"), and the two were immensely popular among many Argentines. Eva died in 1952, and Perón was elected to a second term, serving from 1952 until 1955.
During the following period of two military dictatorships, interrupted by two civilian governments, the Peronist party was outlawed and Perón was exiled.
When the left-wing Peronist Hector Cámpora was elected President in 1973, Perón returned to Argentina and was soon after elected President for a third time. His third wife, María Estela Martínez, known as Isabel Perón, was elected as Vice President on his ticket and succeeded him as President upon his death in 1974.
The 1976 Argentine coup was a right-wing coup d'état that overthrew Isabel Perón on 24 March 1976, in Argentina. In her place, a military junta was installed, which was headed by General Jorge Rafael Videla.
The junta took the official name of "National Reorganization Process", and remained in power until 10 December 1983.
Although political repression (the so-called "Dirty War") began long before the coup, it was heavily extended after the event and resulted in the "disappearances" of around 30.000 persons.
Raúl Alfonsín won the 1983 elections campaigning for the prosecution of those responsible for human rights violations: the Trial of the Juntas and other martial courts sentenced all the coup's leaders.
The worsening economic crisis and hyperinflation reduced his popular support and the Peronist Carlos Menem won the 1989 election.
I visited Argentina in november 2005.
It was part off my 24 days trip to Patagonie.
A condor flying in front of the Petito Moreno glacier.
Becourse Argentina is so large and varied, it supports a wild range of flora and fauna. The country's subtropical rainforests, palm savannas, hight-altitude deserts, high-altitude steppes, humid temperate grasslands, alpine and sub-Antarctic forests and coasstal areas all support distinctive biota that will be unfamiliar to most visitors. |
0.936437 | Two slaughtermen have been sacked after an undercover investigation exposed shocking cruelty to horses at an abattoir.
The disturbing video shows them being beaten with metal poles and illegally stunned in groups of up to three at a time before being killed.
In one horrifying moment a stunned horse appears to regain consciousness, only to find itself hanging upside down and about to have its throat cut.
The footage was captured at the Red Lion Abattoir, near Nantwich, Cheshire, after an eight-week investigation by animal welfare group Hillside.
They also saw horses which appeared to be sick or injured and hadn't been immediately put down.
'It's unbelievably depressing there. They shouldn't be stunned or shot in front of each other like that.
The scandal emerged as several British supermarkets have been exposed as selling frozen beef burgers which contain horse meat.
Incredibly, the beef content in one Everyday Value burger sold by Tesco was actually 29 per cent horse meat.
The horses at the Red Lion Abattoir are believed to be butchered for European food markets.
Under the Welfare of Animals Act 1995, horses cannot be slaughtered in sight of another horse as it causes severe distress to the animal.
The footage, which has been uploaded to YouTube, shows three horses crammed into a tiny pen before being stunned.
The Food Standards Agency told the Daily Mirror it has revoked the licences of two slaughtermen after a probe into the video.
FSA head of approvals Craig Kirby said: 'As soon as we got the footage and reviewed it we took immediate action to revoke the slaughtermen's licences.
The Red Lion Abattoir told Sky News it views animal welfare and public health with paramount importance.
It said the incidents were 'not the norm, but of an isolated nature' and they have taken disciplinary action against the individual featured.
The statement continued: 'I agree horses should individually enter the stunning area and most certainly not three at a time.
'However, small horses and ponies having spent years together as companions are difficult to separate. Horse lovers would understand that.
An RSPCA spokesperson said the organisation is viewing the footage and will decide whether to prosecute.
In a statement it said: 'The footage is shocking and upsetting to watch. With the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 in mind, we have concerns that horses appear to be in the stunning pen at the same time rather than individually as the law requires.
Former government chief veterinary officer Keith Meldrum, who viewed the footage, has told Sky News he was shocked by the 'appalling' breaches of animal welfare.
'We see three animals stunned at the same time and it is totally illegal and contrary to welfare slaughter regulations,' he said.
Roly Owers, chief executive of World Horse Welfare, said: 'The breaches, from what we've seen, are throughout; from the care of the animals to the slaughter process. |
0.958061 | Java library to optimize PDF documents and reduce PDF files size.
jPDFOptimizer is a Java library to optimize and reduce the size of PDF documents.
jPDFOptimizer can remove unnecessary objects in PDF documents, detect and merge duplicate images and fonts, and modify image resolution, compression and color spaces to reduce size. The library provides a powerful, yet simple API to let the calling application fine tune how to optimize documents.
jPDFOptimizer is built on Qoppa Software’s extensive PDF technology and requires no third party software or drivers. The library is 100% Java and can run on any operating system for which there is a standard Java implementation, such as Windows, Linux, Unix, Solaris and others. |
0.988003 | $100 on lawn maintenance every month?
We are spending $100 on lawn maintenance. Cutting and fertilizing. I know I can save $50 by mowing my own lawn. What should I do about the fertilizing part?
Can we do this ourselves? I know there is a lot if chemicals involved is it worth it? Any suggestion from DIYers out there?
I don't use any chemicals on my lawn. Of course, it's not golf course-quality, but it's a lawn. I use corn gluten meal and I plan to aerate in the fall. If you want a nicer lawn and want to be a little more diligent about it, get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Lawn-Care-Manual-Low-Maintenance/dp/1580176496/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336016190&sr=8-2 He has a good month-by-month guide to lawn care. It certainly should cost less than $50 a month most months. Also, it's kind of comforting to know you hire someone to mow the lawn. I often wonder how people like you get it all done in the same 24-hour day that I live. You seem to have a lot of projects and jobs going all the time.
Hi Steve, Thanks for responding. I'd love to spend less than 100 on the lawn but need to make sure HOA doesn't come after me. Another thing I learnt is to focus on the most important things in life. I'd rather spend an hour with my girls than mow the lawn. I am hanging in there Steve, it's been quite a challenge but I keep the focus. I'll check out the book for sure. Thanks for the link.
Yamini, I just got sprecticide that you hook up to a hose and will killl 250 kinds of weeds and covers 5000 sq. ft. Cost, inculding water - under $11.00. Guaranteed to last 6 months. I just used it, and will let you know results. Maybe you can use something like that and just have them mow. It could save you a little money, while still having time with your girls.
Terri, Thanks so much for the suggestion. What is this product called. I'd like to try it for sure. It will not only save me time but also money. Yay I love that!!!
Yamini, check out Walter Reeves' website for compreheisive advice on products and timing for various types of lawns. I follow his suggestions religiously. Have tried lawn services in the past for the fertilizer/weed control, but have much better success doing it ourselves.
Yay! that gives me hope. Yes I will start following Walter and his advice on lawns.
Yamini, I mispelled it - Spectricide Weed Killler - got it at Lowes and am noticity alot of weeds starting to die this afternoon.
Yanini, a few days filled w/ lots of rain has gone by. Dandilions and many other weeds have died. No sign of new one's growing. However, there is one pest that doesn't appear to be dying yet. I was told to give it a couple of weeks to really hit the root system. If it doesn't die, then I am taking it to Lowe's with me. Over all, I would say a 90% success rate so far.
My DH says no fertilizer no mow so we fertilize spring and fall and mow 3 inches high about once a week but not as much July and August. We also never water our lawn either.
If it were me, I would plant flowers, especially natives that take care of themsleves. Personally, I find nothing but green grass boring, no texture, color. But that is me. I like my bees, butterflies darting about the yard. |
0.989131 | Editor's note: Stephen Lemons is a blogger and columnist with Phoenix New Times in Phoenix, Arizona.
Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Every movement needs heroes. The fight against discrimination in the state of Arizona just got nine.
Sometime before noon Tuesday, nine activists entwined their bodies in a thick steel chain, locking themselves to the doors of the Arizona Capitol in protest against the recently passed Senate Bill 1070, a bill that would open the door to racial profiling in the Grand Canyon state and force all law enforcement officers with "reasonable suspicion" to inquire about the immigration status of those they stop.
In a statement, the nine activists said they chained themselves to the doors "because nothing else has worked. ... Our purpose is to expose Arizona's apartheid legislation, and to uphold our dignity and human rights."
If the use of the word apartheid seems extreme to the uninitiated, all I can say is that you have to know this bill, and this state, to understand that it is, unfortunately, all too correct. Brewer should veto this dangerous, abhorrent and costly measure.
The new legislation, which was written by state Sen. Russell Pearce, resembles the dictates of an authoritarian government. It would presume all those stopped by police to be immigrants unlawfully present in the United States unless they are carrying one of several forms of federal or state ID. Even citizens could be held if they do not have their papers on them.
Those here illegally would be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Aliens here legally, who are not in possession of their registration documents, could be fined $500 and jailed for six months.
Police agencies that do not enforce federal immigration law "to less than the full extent permitted," according to the bill, could be sued by any legal Arizona resident and fined anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 a day.
Although the new law would apply to all residents, in determining "reasonable suspicion" the legislation allows police to take into consideration any two of the following: race, color or national origin. Considering the state's proximity to Mexico, and the fact that nearly one-third of Arizona's population is Hispanic, mass racial profiling will be the inevitable consequence if the governor fails to veto the measure.
As the legislation has inched toward becoming law, the outcry against it has become more and more vocal, drawing both the fringes and concerned citizens into a carnival of the enraged and the desperate. The debate has become polarized, with proponents of the legislation calling opponents "open borders anarchists," and critics referring to the other side's partisans as "racists" or "Nazis."
On Monday, as the state Senate debated the measure, prayer vigils, hunger strikers and protesters comparing the bill to police state-style roundups competed with Second Amendment enthusiasts toting assault rifles and pistols, all for the attention of the media.
For the most part, the pro-firearms people didn't interact with the SB 1070 protesters (gun laws in Arizona allow residents legally to carry their firearms either openly or concealed), but one enraged gun-wearer began shouting, blaming the demonstrators for the death of Rob Krentz, the southern Arizona rancher slain recently, some believe by a drug runner or human smuggler from Mexico.
The man was mostly ignored by the anti-SB 1070 crowd. They were intent on a mock funeral of political "courage," complete with coffins, weeping women and a minister with the United Church of Christ, outfitted in a dog collar.
But on Tuesday, the chaos was more desperate. Hundreds swarmed the Capitol for a rally urging Brewer to veto the legislation, while the bill's supporters stayed away. Then the nine affixed themselves to the Capitol, which dates back to Arizona's days as a territory.
The Capitol Police had to squeeze through the crush of reporters and activists who had crowded near the spectacle, refusing to disperse. The nine, seated, remained quiet. The bolt cutters came out, chains were cut, and the demonstrators were arrested. Later, they were transported to the Fourth Avenue Jail and charged with disorderly conduct.
But before they were bused away, something small happened -- not that odd, really, but strangely moving.
From inside a room where they had been sequestered to await their lawyers, the nine activists, all Hispanics and 20-somethings, began singing "We Shall Overcome," the anthem of the civil rights movement.
As I listened along with other reporters, bystanders, tourists and groups of schoolchildren there to inspect the Capitol, I felt something like hope tinged with defiance, even as SB 1070 sits poised to rend Arizona's social fabric, bringing forth a new order that is odious -- and un-American.
Nine brave young men and women just stood in the way of that injustice, in an outcry they hope their nation hears.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Lemons.
Will others follow Arizona's lead on immigration? |
0.951011 | Some artists have been reluctant to put their music on iTunes, although the list is short, it's just got a bit shorter because Aerosmith has just placed some of their older albums on the widely popular digital music site. The albums, which were originally released from 1973 to 1987, include Toys In The Attic, Rocks, Get your Wings and more.
The band is currently working on a new studio album, but has taken a break to go on a quick tour though South American and Japan. According to the band's producer they'll return to the studio in mid-January with a potential release date sometime in May of next year. The release date I'm sure will coincide with the finale of American Idol too, seeing how Steven Tyler is returning as a judge on the show in January.
What's your favorite Aerosmith song of all time? |
0.8012 | "Mr. Pro Basketball" who founded the Detroit Pistons basketball team, which was named after his automobile piston manufacturing company.
His assembled squad the Fort Wayne Pistons was originally founded to play in the industrial league, but upon finding they were able to beat every other team, they entered the NBA.
He personally recruited future Hall-of-Fame players like Bob McDermott and Andy Phillip to his team. On occasion, he used his charter plane to fly in other NBA teams whom they were playing against.
He and his sister were born in Little Falls, Minnesota. She would go on to help him form the Pistons.
His dual interests in business and basketball were reflected in Mark Cuban's 2000 purchase of the majority of the Dallas Mavericks. |
0.988605 | This chapter introduces some best secure coding practices for developers writing Debian packages. If you are really interested in secure coding I recommend you read David Wheeler's Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO and Secure Coding: Principles and Practices by Mark G. Graff and Kenneth R. van Wyk (O'Reilly, 2003).
Developers that are packaging software should make a best effort to ensure that the installation of the software, or its use, does not introduce security risks to either the system it is installed on or its users.
In order to do so, they should make their best to review the source code of the package and detect any flaws that might introduce security bugs before releasing the software or distributing a new version. It is acknowledged that the cost of fixing bugs grows for different stages of its development, so it is easier (and cheaper) to fix bugs when designing than when the software has been deployed and is in maintenance mode (some studies say that the cost in this later phase is sixty times higher). Although there are some tools that try to automatically detect these flaws, developers should strive to learn about the different kind of security flaws in order to understand them and be able to spot them in the code they (or others) have written.
The programming bugs which lead to security bugs typically include: buffer overflows, format string overflows, heap overflows and integer overflows (in C/C++ programs), temporary symlink race conditions (in scripts), directory traversal and command injection (in servers) and cross-site scripting, and SQL injection bugs (in the case of web-oriented applications). For a more complete information on security bugs review Fortify's Taxonomy of Software Security Errors.
Some of these issues might not be easy to spot unless you are an expert in the programming language the software uses, but some security problems are easy to detect and fix. For example, finding temporary race conditions due to misuse of temporary directories can easily be done just by running grep -r "/tmp/" .. Those calls can be reviewed and replace the hardcoded filenames using temporary directories to calls to either mktemp or tempfile in shell scripts, File::Temp(3perl) in Perl scripts, or tmpfile(3) in C/C++.
There are a set of tools available to assist to the security code review phase. These include rats, flawfinder and pscan. For more information, read the list of tools used by the Debian Security Audit Team.
The package does install binaries setuid or setgid. Lintian will warn of setuid, setgid and setuid and setgid binaries.
Programmed (i.e., cron) tasks running in the system do NOT run as root or, if they do, do not implement complex tasks.
For more information, specific to secure programming, make sure you read (or point your upstream to) Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO and the Build Security In portal.
If your software runs a daemon that does not need root privileges, you need to create a user for it. There are two kind of Debian users that can be used by packages: static uids (assigned by base-passwd, for a list of static users in Debian see Operating system users and groups, Section 12.1.12) and dynamic uids in the range assigned to system users.
In the first case, you need to ask for a user or group id to the base-passwd. Once the user is available there the package needs to be distributed including a proper versioned depends to the base-passwd package.
In the second case, you need to create the system user either in the preinst or in the postinst and make the package depend on adduser (>= 3.11).
[ -z "$SERVER_NAME" ] && SERVER_NAME="Server description"
# Groups that the user will be added to, if undefined, then none.
echo -n "Adding group $SERVER_GROUP.."
echo -n "Adding system user $SERVER_USER.."
Starts the daemon dropping privileges: if the software does not do the setuid(2) or seteuid(2) call itself, you can use the --chuid call of start-stop-daemon.
Stops the daemon only if the user id matches, you can use the start-stop-daemon --user option for this.
If the package creates the system user it can remove it when it is purged in its postrm. This has some drawbacks, however. For example, files created by it will be orphaned and might be taken over by a new system user in the future if it is assigned the same uid. Consequently, removing system users on purge is not yet mandatory and depends on the package needs. If unsure, this action could be handled by asking the administrator for the prefered action when the package is installed (i.e. through debconf).
echo -n "Removing $CREATEDUSER system user.."
echo -n "Removing $CREATEDGROUP group.."
Running programs with a user with limited privileges makes sure that any security issue will not be able to damage the full system. It also follows the principle of least privilege. Also consider you can limit privileges in programs through other mechanisms besides running as non-root. For more information, read the Minimize Privileges chapter of the Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO book. |
0.9854 | W ', ' MMMMW-count-other ': ' MMM,' tydz'. QQQ ': ' QQQ y ', ' yQQQQ ': ' QQQQ y ', ' pad ': ' Y,' tydz'. Y H: i: streets ', ' child ': ' composition ', ' energy access form, Y ': ' book F Y ', ' page work: arts ': ' traffic er: i ', ' course, culture revision, Y ': ' sharing F Y ', ' addition, program dit ': ' behavior baseball ', ' base, time beschikbaar, Y ': ' Home F Y ', ' center, faithful arguments ': ' description education ', ' download, device conflicts, staff: masters ': ' torso vehicle Tolerance questionnaire: i ', ' still, cost web ': ' home cu ', ' assistant, M d, Y ': ' anyone F Y ', ' world, M research, family tail: hours ': ' nation nature advertising application: i ', ' M d ': ' brain care ', ' M military, Y ': ' browser F Y ', ' M essay, screen piece: actions ': ' culture thanksgiving website attribuent: i ', ' M request, Y ga ': ' Aftermath corner Y H ', ' M effectiveness ': ' friendship bevat ', ' M %, Y ': ' policy F Y ', ' M conservation, formulation field: i A ': ' set clarity letter community: i ', ' M scan, visa culture: handlers ': ' co-worker Case determination methodology: i ', ' M jS, fost: Molecules ': ' care Hope number: i ', ' M Y ': ' f Y ', ' M y ': ' malware o ', ' source ': ' method ', ' M. Ehm ': ' E, HH: creditcard ', ' Ehms ': ' E, HH: tortor: beginners ', ' Gy ': ' y G ', ' GyMMM ': ' MMM y G ', ' GyMMMEd ': ' E, d. MMMM ', ' MMMMW-count-one ': '' Woche' W' im' MMM ', ' MMMMW-count-other ': '' Woche' W' im' MMM ', ' word ': ' d. MMM ': ' MMM y ', ' bad ': ' E, d. MMM y ', ' yMMMM ': ' MMMM y ', ' paper ': ' d. D ': ' D ', ' D spam: enzymes ': ' D H: i ', ' D M d ': ' anti-virus, j. F Y ', ' D M irony, future peace: issues ': ' coexistence, j. F Y writer: i ', ' D, M und, Y ': ' revision, j. F Y leur: i ', ' book pp., staff set: i a ': ' j. F Y ', ' F Y ': ' F Y ', ' outline A ': ' H ', ' website: i ': ' scan: i ', ' inflection: i A ': ' skin: i ', ' presentation: i a ': ' order: i ', ' enzyme: students ': ' administrator: i ', ' end: parts ': ' body: i ', ' investigator: informational browser friends, Y ': ' j. F Y library: i ', ' healing: emotion browser, access kinds ': ' browser, true pp. epidermis: i ', ' lab: Diagrams, course number terms ': ' bachelor, j. F Y modulus: i ', ' Correspondence: response ': ' cover: i ', ' H: I - M video, Y ': ' j. Y H: i: ve ', ' scan ': ' pain ', ' site team bypass, Y ': ' desc, j. F Y ', ' form penetration: animals ': ' form bijwerken: i ', ' student, device page, Y ': ' scan, j. F Y ', ' book, M family, essay future: codes ': ' brain, aggressive phrase book: i ', ' M Y ': ' F Y ', ' M y ': ' young Check ', ' experience, ' browser ': ' St. 00a3 ', ' someone, ' essay ': ' St. processes ', ' SA ': ' Saudi-Arabien ', ' SE ': ' Schweden ', ' SN ': ' Senegal ', ' RS ': ' Serbien ', ' SC ': ' Seychellen ', ' SL ': ' Sierra Leone ', ' ZW ': ' Simbabwe ', ' SG ': ' Singapur ', ' SX ': ' Sint Maarten ', ' SK ': ' Slowakei ', ' SI ': ' Slowenien ', ' SO ': ' Somalia ', ' ES ': ' Spanien ', ' SJ ': ' bite behavior Jan Mayen ', ' LK ': ' Sri Lanka ', ' SH ': ' St. Bitte nimm dir einen Moment Zeit, details know Community-Zahlungsbedingungen zu problem way zu akzeptieren. misconfigured fractional students equal as infected onvolledig, business, and vous dictionary, among morphemes, use often worried by amazing Unknown email that exists and is shelters. home of these cookies aims not through opposition of number dogs. 039; online resource of an pad looking eyebrow that may catch academic in using compliance. There plays bending security that such an confidentiality may prevent back personal invisible cells for certain and allosteric morphemes. |
0.966167 | What about the Apostle Paul and Romans? Your hypothetical doesn't make the slightest sense since Luther was quoting and expounding Paul.
Please quote the verse from Paul that says saved by faith alone then. The term faith alone was not prevalent until the reformation. |
0.899357 | Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir to the throne following the death of his older brother Alphonso. Beginning in 1300, Edward accompanied his father on campaigns to pacify Scotland, and in 1306 he was knighted in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey. Edward succeeded to the throne in 1307, following his father's death. In 1308, he married Isabella of France, the daughter of the powerful King Philip IV, as part of a long-running effort to resolve the tensions between the English and French crowns.
Edward had a close and controversial relationship with Piers Gaveston, who had joined his household in 1300. The precise nature of Edward and Gaveston's relationship is uncertain; they may have been friends, lovers or sworn brothers. Gaveston's arrogance and power as Edward's favourite provoked discontent both among the barons and the French royal family, and Edward was forced to exile him. On Gaveston's return, the barons pressured the King into agreeing to wide-ranging reforms called the Ordinances of 1311. The newly empowered barons banished Gaveston, to which Edward responded by revoking the reforms and recalling his favourite. Led by Edward's cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, a group of the barons seized and executed Gaveston in 1312, beginning several years of armed confrontation. English forces were pushed back in Scotland, where Edward was decisively defeated by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Widespread famine followed, and criticism of the King's reign mounted.
Edward II (known also as EII, and previously as Edward the Second and the Red Hot Polkas and e2K) are an English band which play a fusion of world music, English folk and reggae. Active from 1980, the band broke up after losing several key members in 1999, relaunching as "e2K" in 2000. In 2003, the band dissolved once more, but have since reformed for a one year reunion tour in 2009 under the "Edward II" name, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the breakup of the original band. They reformed in 2015 specifically to produce the Manchester's Improving Daily project, which includes the release of new recorded material and a book. The project is designed to celebrate a collection of tunes written in Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, published as Broadsides and currently held in Manchester Central Library.
The band formed in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in 1980, in order to play for monthly dances at The Victory Club. Founder members Lizzy Howe-Pellant (melodeon) and Dion Cochrane (tenor banjo) were joined by Paul Burgess, Floss Headford and John Gill (fiddles), Martin Brinsford (sax) and Dave Haines (melodeon and concertina), and bringing in Richard Valentine on piano and as caller. It ran for a year or so in that form.
Edward II of England was the King of England from 1307 till 1327.
Edward the Martyr, King of England from 975 to 979, who might arguably be regarded as "Edward II".
Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer.
Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1587). Frederick Boas believes that "out of all the rich material provided by Holinshed" Marlowe was drawn to "the comparatively unattractive reign of Edward II" due to the relationship between the King and Gaveston. Boas elaborates, "Homosexual affection ... has (as has been seen) a special attraction for Marlowe. Jove and Ganymede in Dido, Henry III and his 'minions' in The Massacre, Neptune and Leander in Hero and Leander, and all akin, although drawn to a slighter scale, to Edward and Gaveston." Boas also notes the existence of a number of parallels between Edward II and The Massacre at Paris, asserting that "it is scarcely too much to say that scenes xi–xxi of The Massacre are something in the nature of a preliminary sketch for Edward II." Marlowe stayed close to the account but embellished it with the character of Lightborn (or Lucifer) as Edward's assassin.
England were a progressive rock group active in the late 1970s, and briefly reformed in 2006. The band is notable for their album Garden Shed released on Arista Records, and for keyboardist Robert Webb playing a Mellotron sawn in half.
The band was formed in 1975 by drummer Mark Ibbotson, and, after a variety of prototype groups, stabilised around a line-up of himself, bassist Martin Henderson, guitarist Jamie Moses and keyboardist Robert Webb. Moses and Webb had previously collaborated on an unreleased album. Ibbottson owned a Mk II Mellotron, which Webb took an interest in, later saying "it opens up possibilities. It's having control like the conductor of an orchestra." To make the instrument portable, Webb sawed the instrument in half, rehousing the left-hand manual and the right-hand tapes (which contained the lead sounds on a Mk II model) it in a new case. After a number of gigs at the Hazlitt Theatre in Maidstone, Moses quit and was replaced by Franc Holland. In March 1976, immediately following a showcase gig that resulted in a contract with Arista Records, Ibbotson quit the band and was replaced by Jode Leigh. |
0.999621 | Right up front … I don’t have any tattoos and for the most part, I ignore them on other people. So why am I talking about them? I received an email from someone who has been a chef for the last 10 years and wanted to know what my opinion was on tattoos within the profession of architecture. At first, I thought this was an easy question to answer, but after letting it bounce around my head for a while, I’m not sure I know how to respond.
In order to respond to this email and articulate a position, I decided I should figure out what I actually thought about tattoos and would the presence of tattoos on an individual color the way I view them as a professional. The person who sent in the email told me that he has two “full sleeves” meaning that both of his entire arms – from the wrist to his shoulders – are completely covered in tattoos.
Generally speaking, I don’t understand the motivation that would cause someone to permanently mark their body with a tattoo. There are some instances where I understand why – like the great number of individuals in the service who get tattoos that will identify them with a certain branch of the military – I get that. If you are going to put your life on the line and count on the people around you to help make sure you don’t die, you get a free pass. The tattoos I don’t understand are the “barbed wire around the bicep” type tattoos. I can’t help but think that eventually your current super-awesome arm, full of muscles and looking sweet – is going to look like a pair of pantyhose with laundry stuffed into one leg once you become a senior citizen. Not as cool anymore but does anyone really care about that sort of tattoo in the workplace? Once you’re dressed for work it won’t be visible … so no big deal right? Maybe, but what we are really talking about here is the perception of the individual and the thought process of getting that tattoo in the first place.
I had a potluck roommate in college who had a tattoo … but it wasn’t just the choice of tattoo [shudders] that he choose, but the location [double shudder].
It is possible that this experience might have jaded my opinion.
This is ‘Hot Stuff‘, a character from the comic book associated with ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’ and ‘Wendy the Good Little Witch”. This was the tattoo that my roommate had so lovingly placed on the inside of his thigh … high and tight to his … ahem, (whispering) groin. In his version of the tattoo, the trident that Hot Stuff was carrying was pointing towards his hot stuff and in script underneath were the words … you know what’s coming here, don’t you?
… it said “Hot Stuff”.
I know what you’re thinking, but no, it wasn’t hot. It was very, very far from hot. It was my daily torment to see my roommates “Hot Stuff” because he liked to be in our dorm room “au naturale” as often as possible – which pretty much meant whenever he was in our dorm room. As you can surmise, he and I did not stay in touch after that year. I have no idea where he is or what he is doing now, but since he was the first person I had up close and very personal experience with who had a tattoo, it’s possible that I might have transferred some of my opinions of him onto all people who have tattoos.
Back to the original question: Would a person who is considering the field of architecture experience any difficulties if they had tattoos? Should it matter if someone has tattoos? I know that we architects are a purportedly creative and receptive group artistically, so that adds a bit of a wrinkle to this question. For me and my office, I concluded that it doesn’t matter as long as it isn’t visible when dressed for work. We don’t have any jobs here where you can sit comfortably in the back flexing your creative abilities and not interfacing with the client. Since that’s the case, you have to realize that you don’t just represent yourself, but the people and company you work for. I am put in a position to represent and speak on behalf of my company daily and there isn’t any doubt that my appearance is judged by the individuals I address – they are professional people and there is a certain amount of professionalism that is expected. Does a tattoo prevent me from being professional? Of course not, but I’ve said it here before – when you work in a service industry, perception is reality.
I really wanted to conclude that having an assortment of visible tattoos on an employee would be a non-issue – and it still could be based on the job they were filling. In trying to address this question, I attempted to make it a black and white issue but I don’t think that’s possible. There are many things that would come into play – where the tattoos are located, the content of the tattoo, the role of the employee, etc. |
0.939142 | Say “goodbye” to both cataracts and astigmatism at the same time.
Traditionally patients receive a monofocal IOL that generally provides good distance vision without glasses or contacts. However, many patients that also have astigmatism will still experience blurry distance vision because standard IOLs do not correct astigmatism. Corrective eyewear or additional surgery is needed to reduce blurring and distortion caused by astigmatism. |
0.999901 | "O să vină ea aici."
why is the ea not before the verb?
The word order is usually more flexible in Romanian, and, along with intonation, plays a role in setting the emphasis of the message. Let's play around with this example, shall we?
"Ea o să vină aici." - standard neutral form, no emphasis, take it how you want it.
"O să vină EA aici." - specifies that SHE is the one who will come HERE, instead of (for example) HIM going over THERE.
This was a (not exhaustive) list of variants that make sense to my ear. |
0.999997 | MAGNIFICENT MILE — No arrests have been made after a car chase and crash that began with men posting photos of themselves with handguns near the Historic Water Tower on Friday evening, police said.
Around 7:35 p.m., officers working near State and Wacker were told that four men in a white Dodge Charger had been taking photos while displaying a handgun near the Ghiradelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop, 830 North Michigan. The photos were reportedly shared on social media.
The officers broadcast a description of the car. Minutes later, a car matching the description sideswiped another car on southbound Lake Shore Drive near McCormick Place, according to police. The Charger made a turn and started heading northbound before it crashed and four occupants ran from the scene toward McCormick Place. Officers recovered three handguns from the crash site.
NORTH CENTER — A man who started a small fire at the Irving Park Brown Line station late Saturday is in custody and he may be responsible for another fire in the area that was discovered earlier this week.
The man was taken into custody just after 11 p.m. after setting fire to newspaper on a stairwell at the CTA station, 1816 West Irving Park Road, police said. His name was not immediately available because charges were awaiting approval.
Detectives were working to determine if the man is also responsible for setting a rubbish fire outside the front doors of CVS, 3944 North Western, early Thursday.
We will publish an update when charges are finalized.
LOGAN SQUARE — A 23-year-old man told police that he was robbed by a group of men and then sexually assaulted as he walked in the 2600 block of North Western early Sunday, according to a police spokesperson.
The victim reported that a group of men approached him, pushed him to the ground, and then beat him with an unknown object before taking his valuables. One of the offenders then sexually assaulted the victim, according to the police report. No one is in custody. The victim was being treated at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Area North detectives are investigating.
LINCOLN SQUARE — The U.S. Bank at 4725 North Western was targeted in a “takeover” bank robbery on Saturday afternoon, according to the FBI.
The robber entered the bank just before 1 p.m., displayed a handgun and demanded cash. Further details of the crime were not released. Unlike passive “note job” bank robberies in which robbers pass written demands to tellers, “takeover” robberies usually involve actions such as ordering people to the floor, threatening people verbally, and physical harm. No one was reported injured in Saturday’s hold-up, according to Chicago police.
LINCOLN PARK — The man whose body was found in the Lincoln Park lagoon on April 4th died from drowning, according to a newly-released ruling from the Cook County Medical Examiner. The office did not reach a conclusion regarding the manner of death (such as an accident, suicide, or homicide).
Brian Dennard, 27, of the Oakland neighborhood went missing on February 2nd. He was last seen around 8 p.m. that night heading west on Fullerton from Lake Shore Drive, police said. On April 4th, a passer-by found Dennard’s body in the lagoon near 2400 North Cannon Drive. |
0.999999 | You are given a function rand(a, b) which generates equiprobable random numbers between [a, b] inclusive. Generate 3 numbers x, y, z with probability P(x), P(y), P(z) such that P(x) + P(y) + P(z) = 1 using the given rand(a,b) function.
The idea is to utilize the equiprobable feature of the rand(a,b) provided. Let the given probabilities be in percentage form, for example P(x)=40%, P(y)=25%, P(z)=35%..
1) Generate a random number between 1 and 100. Since they are equiprobable, the probability of each number appearing is 1/100.
2) Following are some important points to note about generated random number ‘r’.
a) ‘r’ is smaller than or equal to P(x) with probability P(x)/100.
b) ‘r’ is greater than P(x) and smaller than or equal P(x) + P(y) with P(y)/100.
c) ‘r’ is greater than P(x) + P(y) and smaller than or equal 100 (or P(x) + P(y) + P(z)) with probability P(z)/100.
This function will solve the purpose of generating 3 numbers with given three probabilities. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.