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0.963702 |
An ovarian cyst is a collection of excess fluid in the ovary. The formation of fluid around a developing egg is a normal process in all ovulating women, but sometimes, for reasons doctors do not yet understand, too much fluid is formed. The follicle containing the egg expands, forcing the ovary to expand as well, and this may be experienced as pressure or pain in the pelvic area. On the other hand, some women do not feel the cyst at all, and it may only be discovered during a routine gynecological exam.
The vast majority of ovarian cysts are not cancerous, and most of the time they go away by themselves as the fluid is absorbed back into the body. The formation of new cysts can often be prevented by taking birth control pills.
When do cysts need to be removed?
Rarely, a cyst may not go away and surgery may be needed to remove the cyst.
One scenario is that the cyst causes the ovary to twist around, cutting the blood flow to the ovary and causing severe pain. This is called ovarian torsion.
Another reason for surgery is the presence of an epithelial ovarian cyst. During ovulation the ovary releases an egg through a tiny rupture in its lining, or epithelium. Normally this closes and heals quickly without incident. Sometimes, however, a few cells from the epithelium make their way into the divot left by the egg and become trapped there during healing. These cells form a fluid that collects and grows into an epithelial ovarian cyst. Because the cyst is trapped inside the ovary, it must be removed surgically.
A condition called endometriosis can cause a blood-filled ovarian cyst called an endometrioma that will require surgical removal. This type of cyst is formed from endometrial cells (cells from the inner lining of the uterus) that mistakenly traveled up through the fallopian tube into the ovary and began to grow there. Endometrial cells are programmed to grow and bleed with the monthly cycle, and normally they are shed with the menstrual flow. However, if they become trapped inside an ovary, the blood collects and forms a cyst.
Some ovarian cancers are cystic, so that persistence or increased growth of a cyst as viewed on a sonogram warrants laparoscopic investigation with removal of the cystic tissue for histologic inspection and diagnosis.
Cysts which are partially solid or have internal wells as determined by ultrasound may also have to be removed.
Since most ovarian cysts in premenopausal women disappear spontaneously, treatment is seldom required. Women who are prone to developing cysts repeatedly may want to use birth control pills to prevent the growth of new cysts until they are ready to bear children.
For cysts that do need to be removed, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical techniques can now be used to remove these cysts (cystectomy) while preserving the health of the ovary and promising a quick recovery.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Gynecological Problems: Ovarian Cysts. 2005. www.acog.org/publications/patient_education.pdf/bp075.cfm.
Parker WH. A Gynecologist’s Second Opinion. © 2003; A Plume Book; Published by the Penguin Group, New York, NY.
Parker W. The case for laparoscopic management of the adnexal mass. Clin Obstet Gynecol. 38:362-69.
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0.999147 |
How was it? Here's the short version: I am so looking forward to getting back to triathlons.
The night before the race, I came to the conclusion that my difficulty mentally preparing for it was because it amounted to running the easiest half marathon of my life, followed immediately by the hardest half marathon of my life. If only. In fact, it turned out to be the hardest half marathon of my life followed immediately by another half marathon that would blow the difficulty of the first one out of the water.
We've known for a week or longer that it was going to be a freakishly warm day. (The race booklet said that the average low temperature over the last five years is 35 and the average high is 61. Today's low was 62. I don't care to know the high, but it was about 65 by the time I finished.) The only upside to the weather is that it was overcast, with the sun only peeking out a couple of times.
Have I mentioned what a godsend it was that he was willing to run with me? I was much slower than expected, but having him there to take my mind off of my misery over those eight miles or so probably saved me five minutes and definitely made those miles feel less awful.
All in all, I averaged almost a minute per mile slower than my goal pace and still have no idea why anyone would ever run a marathon. (My reason is far too personal to share here, but just know that it had nothing to do with a passion for running or wanting to accomplish a longtime -- or shorttime -- goal.) The best part of the whole crazy experience was that Kelli came in a couple of minutes under our shared goal time -- a huge feat given the heat and humidity of the day and the difficulty of the course.
The only thing crazier than choosing to enter a marathon is finishing it! Congrats - I'm sure you're glad you don't have to do it again. Thanks for updating quickly - I was really wondering how it went - horrid about the weather. I wish I could have been there but am happy the sign could be there in my place.
Congrats on finishing your first (and only, if you're sane) marathon!
Congrats! Surrounded by all those other runners, it might be easy to forget what a rare feat it is to get your feet (and the rest of you!) through so many miles. Whatever it was that got you into it, good for you in seeing it through.
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0.999065 |
How are totals counted in NHL when there is an overtime and shootout?
For NHL Hockey, overtime included, wagers, if the game ends regulation time with a score of 2-2 for example, there is a sudden death overtime. The team to score first during overtime is the winner, with one goal added to their total. If neither team scores during overtime, the teams to go a shootout.
If the game goes to a shootout, the winner of the shootout will have 1 goal added to their score regardless of how many shootout goals are scored. In this case, the winner of the shootout would win the game 3-2.
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0.998521 |
How to draw recognition-protected images? At first, we must answer to question "how images being recognized usually". Then we can realize, how we can make more difficult this recognition.
Contrary to common opinion, for CAPTCHA defeating, as usual, they do not use scanned text recognition software as MS Office Document Imaging etc. So, if your CAPTCHA does not recognized by that software, it does not mean, that the text can't be easily read by specially designed bot (see "Defeating examples").
Recognition of each found symbol.
If symbols has constant positions (as in Invision Power Board forum CAPTCHA—see picture at right), only second stage remains. So we must vary symbol positions at least.
We leave only dark pixels—and "voila".
Thus, we must add noise that can't be easily separated from symbols, or we must make difficulties for symbols separation each from each, connecting or intersecting its.
Symbol recognition in essence may be carried out by various ways.
Simplest one—per-pixel comparing. We compare each symbol with one from etalon font. And select symbol with maximal coincidence.
CAPTCHA is vulnerable to per-pixel comparing if one does not use geometric distortion of symbols and uses one font (or very few fonts).
Other, more sophisticated algorithms recognizes symbol by its peculiarities: branching, closed areas... There is class of algorighms named "neural networks". It is a "black box", trained to linking input shape with output answer. However, training procedure is usually lengthy and laborious.
For protection against these algorithm one can add noise disfigures symbol shape, but we can receive image unreadable by human.
In my opinion, especial attention must be paid to first protection point: against symbol bounds determination—it is diffucult to recognize symbol if we do not know where it starts and ends.
Non-linear distortion, symbols can slightly displace one from one, variating of fonts. No noise. Symbols often not connect and can easily be selected one from one.
Rotating and distortion, noise: lines with same color intersecting symbols.
Non-linear distortion, noise: polylines intersecting symbols. Polyline sometimes may be separated from symbols.
Symbol rotation, few fonts, contrast with background.
Displacing by height, non-linear distortion, polylines intersecting text.
Gluing of outline symbols, non-linear distortion, noise with white and black lines.
Multicolor symbols, rotation, displacing. Noise.
Minor linear distortion. Noise with inverted ellipses.
Minor rotation, displacing. Noise can be easily removed by blurring. Pretty weak CAPTCHA.
Minor rotation, displacing. Seldom intersection. Fonts. Intensive noise, both background texture and lines lays on symbols. But sometimes image is human unreadable.
Displacing, noise with lines and pixels.
Very bad CAPTCHA: constant font, constant symbol positions. Can be easily recognized by per-pixel comparing.
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0.999979 |
What should I do on move-in day?
The first thing you should probably do before Tampa apartments move-in day is to look at the weather for the day. Nothing quite ruins the moving in process like rain, especially if you are moving large wooden pieces of furniture or electronics like a television. It should be noted that weather can be rather unpredictable in Florida at this time of year, with rain and sun switching back and forth constantly. If you are new to Florida, you may want to ask any locals you know about the weather patterns in order to make the best choice about what time you should start moving.
Something else you might want to look into in preparation for Tampa apartments move-in day is renting a U-Haul. U-Haul allows people to rent a variety of different trailers and vehicles, such as a moving truck, pickup truck, or cargo van. A U-Haul is particularly useful if the furniture you are moving is already built, so you won't have to disassemble it to try and fit it in your car. It isn't that expensive, and the money you spend will make the whole moving process a lot easier.
You should also look into the parking situation at the apartment complex you are moving into. Depending on which of the apartments in Tampa you are moving into, the parking situation can vary a lot. Some complexes are pretty lenient, allowing people to park pretty much wherever they need to, but don't bet on it. You should call the office and see what their policies are; you don't want to start your first new day in the community with a nice ticket or your vehicle towed.
Now, when move-in day comes and you drive your vehicle full of furniture over, there is still one more thing you should do. Before you start moving your stuff, go up to your new apartment and look around. Apartments in Tampa, like any other apartment anywhere, will charge you at the end of your stay for any damage that you have caused to the unit. So what you should do before moving in, is to look around the unit for any damage that is there from the previous tenants.
Check for marks on the walls, carpets, and doors; also check any appliances to make sure that they are working properly. Take pictures to keep a record of any damage that was there before you moved in. Most Tampa apartments will provide you with a form to fill out, which allows you to put the damages on record for the apartment. You should still have your own record however, to make sure that you are protected from potential charges.
All of these tips are some of the major things that all new residents should be aware of on move-in day. Make sure that you are prepared, so that moving into your new apartment can be a pleasant experience, rather than a negative one. Enjoy your new home, and make sure to take advantage of all the things the complex and the city of Tampa has to offer.
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0.999722 |
This second issue of Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience was planned and coordinated by Barry LEBOWITZ from the Adult and Geriatric Treatment and Preventive Interventions Research Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.The articles you are about to read typify the high-quality scientific information we wish to provide in this new journal. The theme of this issue—geriatric depression—has prompted us to reflect on the broader concept of cerebral aging. Because of the ongoing significant increase in life expectancy and the larger segment of the population reaching retirement age to enjoy a new period of life, drug regulatory agencies in most countries will have to consider and approve new treatments for the prevention of aging, particularly cerebral aging.
Firstly, the diagnosis of normal and abnormal cerebral aging should become more precise and reliable. This means we need to better understand the phenomenology of aging and refine our qualitative and quantitative diagnostic instruments.
Secondly, techniques for investigating the central nervous system should be perfected in order to define pertinent biological markers for the early diagnosis and therapeutic follow-up of mild disorders related to cerebral aging.
Thirdly, clinical research protocols should be validated to assess the changes achieved by experimental treatments for the prevention of brain aging. These protocols should facilitate the discovery of innovative treatments, both for normal and abnormal cerebral aging.
These issues are all the more pressing, as the benefit of a longer life will be squandered without the cognitive and intellectual functions necessary to profit from these extra years. Increased physical longevity should not come at the expense of a pitiful intellectual decline into dotage or “second childhood.” The pharmaceutical industry is keenly aware of the human, scientific, and financial implications of this emerging market. Several companies have endeavored to develop drugs for the prevention or treatment of normal cerebral aging. Unfortunately, these initial efforts have been stymied by concerns on the part of governmental regulatory agencies about elevated costs and poor cost-benefit ratios. Cerebral aging is, in our opinion, one of the major public health issues of our time, and the increase in longevity makes it a problem we can no longer afford to ignore. One of the best means to persuade governments and public opinion that the mental health of the aging population is so important is to further develop our scientific research on this subject.
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0.999235 |
There are many ways to improve your golf swing and lower your scores. Most golf tips and instruction are focused on the technical part of the game. Don’t get me wrong it’s very important and a sound golf swing is a must to playing better. However it’s also very important to take a step back and focus on other areas of the game of golf to see improvement. Often playing away from your home golf course can do the trick.
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0.960814 |
I'm having this kind of problem that I don't know its name. I dream every time i go to sleep and when I wake up, I have this terrible headache that takes a while to wear off. What's wrong with me?
I don't have a name to give you, but this happens to me too, all the time. I don't always get a headache, but I do always feel tired and unrested, as if I didn't sleep at all. I dream every single night and they are always bad. Also, I have bipolar and my mind never stops racing, or at very least, meandering between unfocused thoughts. I figure this has something to do with it.
I'm not saying you're bipolar or anything, but maybe it has to do with the fact that your mind still has a lot to process and it's overwhelmed. Maybe try doing things to calm it and truly relax before you go to sleep.
Let me know if you need to talk or have questions. Good luck. I hope you can get some relief.
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0.946344 |
As in other organisms, CRISPR/Cas9 methods provide a powerful approach for genome editing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Oligonucleotides are excellent repair templates for introducing substitutions and short insertions, as they are cost effective, require no cloning, and appear in other organisms to target changes by homologous recombination at DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here, I describe a methodology in C. elegans to efficiently knock in epitope tags in 8–9 days, using a temperature-sensitive lethal mutation in the pha-1 gene as a co-conversion marker. I demonstrate that 60mer oligos with 29 bp of homology drive efficient knock-in of point mutations, and that disabling nonhomologous end joining by RNAi inactivation of the cku-80 gene significantly improves knock-in efficiency. Homology arms of 35–80 bp are sufficient for efficient editing and DSBs up to 54 bp away from the insertion site produced knock-ins. These findings will likely be applicable for a range of genome editing approaches in C. elegans, which will improve editing efficiency and minimize screening efforts.
SEQUENCE-SPECIFIC nucleases are a critical tool for manipulation of DNA sequences. The bacterial type II clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system, which normally protects against viral DNA and provides a memory of exposure (Jinek et al. 2012), has recently revolutionized genome editing in multiple organisms (Cong et al. 2013; DiCarlo et al. 2013; Gratz et al. 2013; Hwang et al. 2013; Li et al. 2013; Ran et al. 2013; Gratz et al. 2014; Nakanishi et al. 2014). For genome editing, the system has been simplified to two components: the Cas9 nuclease, which generates DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and a chimeric small guide RNA (sgRNA) that fills the function of two small RNAs in the native bacterial system (Cong et al. 2013). Specific genomic sequences are targeted by the 5′-most 15–20 bp of the sgRNA through the formation of an RNA:DNA hybrid (Jinek et al. 2012; Mali et al. 2013). An NGG motif (protospacer adjacent motif, PAM) must immediately follow the target sequence in the genome (Jinek et al. 2012; Ran et al. 2013). This PAM directs Cas9 to cleave the DNA 3 bp 5′ to the PAM (Jinek et al. 2012). Depending on the desired experimental outcome, one can select for error-prone repair by pathways such as nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) to generate insertion–deletion (indel) mutations, or homologous recombination to knock in specific sequences.
Initial genome editing methods in Caenorhabditis elegans harnessed excision of a Tc or Mos transposon to generate a DSB, and a plasmid repair template to knock in (Plasterk and Groenen 1992; Robert and Bessereau 2007; Frøkjaer-Jensen et al. 2008; Frøkjær-Jensen et al. 2012), or delete (Frøkjær-Jensen et al. 2010) desired sequences through homologous recombination. These methods are robust, but the relative rarity of the editing event requires use of a selectable marker, such as unc-119 rescue or antibiotic resistance (Frøkjaer-Jensen et al. 2008; Giordano-Santini et al. 2010), and a transposon site is ideally needed within 1–2 kb of the desired edit (Robert and Bessereau 2007). Zinc finger and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (Wood et al. 2011) and CRISPR/Cas9 have allowed for similar efficient editing without the constraint of transposon insertions. In particular, the ease and rapidity of generating new sgRNAs for the CRISPR/Cas9 system means that transgenic strains can be created precisely and rapidly and any endogenous NGG sequence can theoretically be targeted. Several CRISPR/Cas9 systems have been described, each with individual strengths and weaknesses (Waaijers and Boxem 2014). Cas9 can be delivered by micro-injection of in vitro transcribed mRNA (Chiu et al. 2013; Lo et al. 2013), pure protein (Cho et al. 2013), or plasmid DNA (Chen et al. 2013b; Dickinson et al. 2013; Friedland et al. 2013; Katic and Grosshans 2013; Waaijers et al. 2013). Similarly, the sgRNAs can be introduced by in vitro transcription, which does not require polyA tailing or 5′ methyl cap addition (Chiu et al. 2013; Cho et al. 2013; Lo et al. 2013), or driven by RNA polymerase III promoters such as U6 (Chen et al. 2013b; Dickinson et al. 2013; Friedland et al. 2013; Katic and Grosshans 2013; Waaijers et al. 2013) or rpr-1 (Chiu et al. 2013). Most groups use the chimeric sgRNA, though a previous report described higher in vitro nuclease activity using the two separate bacterial small RNAs (Lo et al. 2013). Multiple groups have developed protocols for both knockouts and knock-ins. Knock-ins have been primarily generated through efficient selection schemes based on the earlier MosI-mediated single-copy transgene insertion methods using genetic markers such as unc-119 (Dickinson et al. 2013), drug resistance markers (Chen et al. 2013b), or fluorescence (Tzur et al. 2013). Typically, plasmid repair templates with 1 kb or more of homology flanking the insert have been used (Chen et al. 2013b; Dickinson et al. 2013; Tzur et al. 2013; Kim et al. 2014).
Recently, several reports have described methods to introduce single-basepair changes, small epitopes, and larger tags such as GFP without the need for selectable markers; these approaches either directly screened all F1 progeny from co-injection marker positive animals (Paix et al. 2014) or employed a co-CRISPR/co-conversion approach where selection for one editing event resulted in an enrichment for edits at unrelated loci (Arribere et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2014). Direct screening of F1’s allows editing without introduction of additional mutations, but is more labor intensive, while co-CRISPR/co-conversion allows for identification of editing events while minimizing hands-on screening, but requires outcrossing or meiotic segregation of the marker allele. Co-CRISPR selects for mutation in the unc-22 gene, with mutant homozygotes identified in the F2 progeny of co-injection marker positive animals, or less frequently in the F1 progeny (Kim et al. 2014), though haploinsufficiency of the unc-22 locus in 1% nicotine should allow for identification of unc-22 mutant heterozygotes in F1 animals (Moerman and Baillie 1979). Co-conversion selects for knock-in of dominant alleles in the dpy-10, sqt-1, or rol-6 genes in the F1 progeny of injected animals (Arribere et al. 2014).
The goal of this study was to test whether repair of a temperature-sensitive lethal point mutation could be used as an alternate co-conversion marker, as such an approach could in theory provide robust selection, minimal screening, and no requirement for outcrossing or meiotic segregation of marker alleles/mutations. I focused on using single-stranded oligonucleotides (oligos) as a template as they have been successfully used in a range of model organisms (Igoucheva et al. 2001; Storici et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2011; Bedell et al. 2012; DiCarlo et al. 2013), are cost effective, and require no cloning. In C. elegans, oligonucleotides have been used to introduce single-base changes (Arribere et al. 2014; Zhao et al. 2014), inactivate genes by introducing premature stop codons or deleting sequences (Lo et al. 2013; Paix et al. 2014), or insert small protein epitopes (Lo et al. 2013; Paix et al. 2014). Introduction of epitopes seamlessly into endogenous loci has numerous experimental uses: chromatin immunoprecipitation, purification of protein complexes followed by mass spectrometry, and detection of proteins by immunofluorescence or immunoblotting. Furthermore, optimizing insertion of epitope tags using oligonucleotide templates is almost certain to be applicable to single-base editing. Here, I describe a robust, cost effective, widely applicable method using pha-1 co-conversion and inactivation of NHEJ repair to rapidly and precisely engineer the C. elegans genome using oligo-templated repair with the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
The following strains were used in this study: N2(WT), GE24 pha-1(e2123) III, RB873 lig-4(ok716) III, which were provided by the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center. N2 animals and lig-4 mutants were propagated at 20°, while pha-1(e2123) mutants were propagated at 15°. Animals were maintained on nematode growth medium seeded with Escherichia coli OP50 (Brenner 1974). For later injection experiments, pha-1(e2123) mutants were maintained on HB101. Growth conditions for each experiment are indicated in figure and table legends. Strains generated for this study are listed in Supporting Information, File S1, Table S1.
Mixtures of plasmids and oligos were microinjected into the gonad of young adult animals. Plasmids were purified using a Qiagen midiprep kit. Oligos were resuspended in TE buffer and working stocks of 2 µg/µl were made with nuclease-free dH20. Repair template oligos are listed in Table S2. For PCR-generated PU6::sgRNA templates, PCR products were purified from 100-µl reactions and concentrated 10-fold using a DNA Clean and Concentrator kit (Zymo Research, no. D4004).
Wild-type (WT) animals were microinjected with 50 ng/µl of pJW1138 or pJW1236 [klp-12 targeting CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids with original and flipped plus extended (F+E) sgRNAs, respectively], 10 ng/µl myo-2::tdTomato co-injection marker, and 40 ng/µl of pBluescript DNA. Marker positive F1 animals were picked into 30 µl of M9 + gelatin in a 96 well. Concentrated OP50 food (30 µl; see the “PCR-based knock-in screening” protocol (File S1) in the for recipe) was then added and F1’s were incubated for 3–4 days at 25° to allow progeny to develop. Worms were lysed and genotyped as described in the PCR-based knock-in screening section (see Supporting Information). To each 10 µl PCR, 5 µl of MfeI-HF (NEB, R3589L) digestion mixture (1 µl 10× CutSmart buffer, 3.5 µl dH20, 0.5 µl MfeI-HF) was added. The reaction was mixed, incubated at 37° for 1 hr, and then resolved on a 1.5% TAE-agarose gel.
For temperature-sensitive pha-1 [pha-1(ts)] co-conversion experiments, animals were microinjected with 60 ng/µl of pJW1285 (pha-1 targeting) CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid, 60 ng/µl of either pJW1285 (nhr-23 PAM no. 1 targeting), or pJW1268 (nhr-23 PAM no. 2 targeting) Cas9 plasmid and 50 ng/µl of the appropriate repair oligos. In experiments where a co-injection marker was included, myo-2::tdTomato was used at 10 ng/µl. PCR-derived PU6::sgRNA templates were injected at a concentration of 25 ng/µl along with 50 ng/µl of pJW1285 (pha-1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9) and 50 ng/µl of the appropriate repair oligos. Injected adults grown at the permissive temperature (15°) were singled into wells of a 24-well plate containing NGM-lite agar and seeded with OP50, shifted to 25°, and incubated for 3–4 days. Rescued F1’s (L3s to adults) were the only animals other than the P0 animals observed in wells. These F1 rescues were singled onto individual plates and incubated for two days to allow progeny development. The parental F1 animals were then genotyped by restriction digestion, as described below, to identify animals with a 2×FLAG insertion. The remaining PCR product was purified using a DNA Clean and Concentrator kit (Zymo Research) and then sequenced using knock-in specific primers (Table S3). To recover homozygotes for sequence-verified knock-ins, 12–24 F2 progeny were singled onto individual plates, incubated at 25° for 2 days, and the parental F2 was genotyped to confirm the 2×FLAG insertion. These progeny were also genotyped for pha-1(ts) repair by PCR and CEL-1 digestion followed by sequencing of candidate repair homozygotes.
Single F1 animals were picked into 10 µl of single-worm lysis buffer [10 mM Tris (pH 8.3), 50 mM KCl, 2.5 mM MgCl2, 0.45% IGEPAL, 0.45% Tween-20] containing 1 mg/ml proteinase K. Tubes were incubated on dry ice for 15 min, 62° for 1 hr, and then heated to 95° for 20 min to inactivate the proteinase K. Genotyping PCRs were performed using Phusion polymerase (NEB, no. M0530S) and High Fidelity buffer; 1/10 volume of lysate was used as template in the PCR. For identification of knock-in events in the F1, 30-µl PCRs were performed. Five microliters of this PCR was removed and BamHI digested by adding 10 µl of digestion mix per PCR (1 µl 10× NEBuffer 3, 0.5 µl BamHI, and 8.5 µl dH20) and digesting for 1 hr at 37° before resolving on a 1.5% TAE-agarose gel. CEL-1 was purified from four heads of nonorganic celery (Safeway) with the celery juice extracted with a BJE510XL 900W juicer (Breville). Purification was performed as described (Yang et al. 2000) to the end of dialysis in step I, as described by Lo et al. (2013). For CEL-1 digestions, 10 µl of enzyme mix (2 µl CEL-1 + 2 µl 5xPhusion High Fidelity buffer + 6 µl dH20) was added to the 5-µl PCR and incubated at 42° for 1 hr prior to resolving on a 1.5% TAE-agarose gel, as described above. Oligos used for genotyping are listed in Table S3.
pJW1138 (klp-12 targeting CRISPR/Cas9) and pJW1185 (nhr-25 targeting CRISPR/Cas9) were derived from pDD162 using a Q5 Mutagenesis kit (NEB, no. E0554S) as previously described (Dickinson et al. 2013). sgRNA(F+E) was synthesized as a gene fragment (IDT gBlock; sequence in Table S4) with a Y61A9LA.1 targeting sequence (Friedland et al. 2013) and introduced into a pDD162-derived vector by Gibson cloning (NEB, no. E5510S) to generate pJW1219. pJW1236 (klp-12 targeting CRISPR/Cas9), pJW1254 (nhr-23 PAM no. 1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9), pJW1268 (nhr-23 PAM no. 2 targeting CRISPR/Cas9) and pJW1285 (pha-1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9) were derived from pJW1219 [CRISPR/Cas9 with sgRNA(F+E)] through Q5 mutagenesis. The nhr-23, nhr-25, and pha-1 PAMs were manually chosen by searching for an NGG sequence in either strand close to the desired insertion site; these sgRNA target sites were then checked for specificity using the http://crispr.mit.edu website. All target sites scored >90 with no off-target sites in genes. The PU6::sgRNA template sequence was deleted from the pJW1219 vector using Q5 mutagenesis to generate pJW1259. All plasmids (standard vector propagation, and those generated by Gibson assembly, Q5 site-directed mutagenesis, or TOPO-blunt cloning) were transformed into PEG/DMSO DH5 alpha competent cells (protocol in File S1) made in house. pJW1219, pJW1259, pJW1285, pJW1310, and pJW1311 are available through AddGene.
The U6 promoter and chimeric sgRNA(F+E) template were amplified from pJW1219 and cloned into the pCR-Blunt II-TOPO vector (Invitrogen, no. K2800-20) to generate pJW1310 and pJW1311, respectively. The U6 promoter was then PCR amplified from pJW1310 with oligos 1787 and 1788, while the sgRNA template was amplified from pJW1311 with oligo 1790 and a target-specific 60mer that contained 20 bp of homology to the U6 promoter, 20 bp of new sgRNA target sequence, and 20 bp of homology to the sgRNA template (Table S3). New sgRNA template primers can be made by replacing the N20 in the following sequence with 20 bp of target specific sequence: 5′-cctcctattgcgagatgtcttg(N20)gtttaagagctatgctgg-3′. The U6 promoter and sgRNA template PCRs were mixed (0.5 µl each per 100 µl PCR reaction) and amplified using the external primers (1787 and 1790; Table S3). The cycling parameters were: (i) 98° denaturation; (ii) 35 cycles of 98° for 10 sec, 61° for 30 sec, 72° for 20 sec; and (iii) 72° for 1-min final extension. To generate more PU6::sgRNA templates, the fused product was used in a 100-µl nested reaction with primers 1793 and 1794 (Table S3).
Feeding RNAi was performed as described (Kamath et al. 2001; Ward et al. 2014). Four gravid pha-1(ts) adults were placed on 6-cm plates freshly seeded with HT115 bacteria expressing control or cku-80 dsRNA, obtained from the Ahringer library (Kamath et al. 2003). Adults were ready to inject on the RNAi plates 4–6 days later. For each experiment pha-1(ts) mutants were also put on plates seeded with bacteria expressing nhr-25 dsRNA. RNAi efficacy was confirmed by observing molting defects, protruding vulvae, abnormal germlines, and sterility arising from nhr-25 inactivation (Asahina et al. 2000; Gissendanner and Sluder 2000; Brooks et al. 2003; Chen et al. 2004).
Lysates were generated as described in File S1 and resolved on Mini-PROTEAN TGX stain-free 4–15% gradient gels (Bio-Rad, no. 456-8086). Stain-free gels (Bio-Rad) contain a compound evenly distributed in the precast acrylamide gel that reacts with tryptophan following UV exposure and gives a strong fluorescent signal that can be used to stain for total-protein levels in acrylamide gels, monitor transfer in immunoblotting, and serve as a loading control. Following resolution, the stain-free compound was activated (Posch et al. 2013) and proteins were transferred to an Immobilon FL PVDF membrane (Millipore, no. IPFL00010) at 100 V for 60 min. Total protein, pre- and post-transfer, was monitored using the stain-free fluorophore as described (Posch et al. 2013). Stain-free imaging of total protein was used to confirm equal loading. The blots were sequentially probed with anti-FLAG (1:1000) (M2 clone, Sigma, no. F1504), and sheep antimouse–HRP conjugate (1:5000) (GE Healthcare, no. RPN4201). WesternBright Sirius HRP substrate (Advansta, no. K-12043-C20) and ECL Prime (GE Healthcare, no. RPN2232) were used to develop the blots in Figures 2 and 5, respectively. All blots were imaged using a ChemiDoc MP imaging system (Bio-Rad).
The accession codes are as follows: pJW1219 [Cas9-sgRNA(F+E) targeting site in Y61A9LA.1, AddGene plasmid 61250]; pJW1259 (Cas9 plasmid with sgRNA deleted, AddGene plasmid 61251); pJW1285 [Cas9-sgRNA(F+E) targeting site in pha-1, AddGene plasmid 61252]; pJW1310 (U6 promoter template vector; AddGene plasmid 61253); and pJW1311 [sgRNA(F+E) template vector, AddGene plasmid 61254].
Additional methods are described in Supporting Information.
Initial reports describing use of oligos to introduce single-base changes reported edits in 0.7–3.5% of the F1 progeny screened (Zhao et al. 2014). Recent work in mammalian cells reported that a modified sgRNA(F+E), with an extended Cas9 binding structure and removal of a potential PolIII terminator by an A-U basepair flip, exhibits improved activity (Chen et al. 2013a). I therefore tested whether this modified sgRNA(F+E) displayed increased activity in C. elegans, as a potential tool to improve editing efficiency. The modified sgRNA was introduced into the pDD162 CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid (Dickinson et al. 2013), and to evaluate sgRNA activity, deletion of an MfeI restriction site in the klp-12 gene (Friedland et al. 2013) was used as a readout (Figure S1). sgRNA(F+E) produced a significant increase in deletion of the MfeI site in animals positive for the co-injection marker (Table 1), and was used for all subsequent experiments.
Having increased sgRNA activity, I next turned to improving the screening process. Two recent reports describe that selection for a visible phenotype produced by a CRISPR/Cas9 triggered editing event [i.e., unc-22 mutation or dpy-10(cn64) knock-in] results in an increase in knock-out and knock-in efficiencies at other genomic loci (Arribere et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2014). These approaches can be used in any genetic background, but require outcrossing or meiotic segregation of the selective mutation. My aim was to develop a stringent system with minimal handling and no outcrossing or meiotic segregation of selection markers required. pha-1(e2123) is a temperature-sensitive embryonic lethal mutation; mutants are viable at 15°, but display embryonic and early larval lethality when cultivated at 25° (Schnabel et al. 1991; Granato et al. 1994). pha-1(e2123) has been previously used to select and propagate extrachromosomal arrays carrying a pha-1(+) marker (Granato et al. 1994). pha-1(ts) mutants display a low spontaneous reversion frequency of 2.5 × 10−5 per haploid genome (Schnabel et al. 1991); the stringency of this selection was confirmed by plating 144 gravid adults and shifting them to 25°; no viable progeny were produced, only dead eggs and arrested larvae.
I selected a CRISPR/Cas9 target site that would produce a DSB 17 bp 3′ from the e2123 point mutation and designed an 80mer repair oligo with the PAM silently mutated to prevent recleavage of the site in an edited animal (Figure 1A). Twelve WT animals were injected with the CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid, a co-injection marker, and a commercially purchased, PAGE purified repair 80mer. Eight rescued F1’s were recovered, all heterozygotes for pha-1(ts) repair (data not shown). Although all eight F1’s were positive for the co-injection marker, in later experiments, I also observed pha-1(ts) rescue in marker-negative animals. Thus, as previously observed (Arribere et al. 2014; Zhao et al. 2014), heritable transgenesis is not a prerequisite for efficient editing. Oligo-mediated repair of pha-1(ts) allowed recovery of repair heterozygotes, and the complete penetrance of the e2123 embryonic lethality meant that only F1 heterozygotes (i.e., rescued animals) would develop, making screening extremely rapid. A homozygote for pha-1(ts) repair had no significant difference in brood size compared to a WT control (Table S5; two-tailed t-test, P = 0.75).
Selection for pha-1(ts) oligo-mediated repair enriches for nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-in. (A) Sequence of the pha-1(e2123) genomic locus targeted, with the PAM (red text), e2123 G-to-A mutation (boldface text and underline), sgRNA target sequence, and position of the DSB indicated. The 80mer repair oligo also contains a silent C-to-A mutation to inactivate the PAM. (B) Sequence of the nhr-23 genomic locus targeted. The stop codon (blue text), PAM (no. 1, red text) and sgRNA target, the DSB position, and an alternate PAM (no. 2, red text) are indicated. The 200mer repair oligo was designed to insert a 2×FLAG epitope with a flexible GSGGGG linker sequence, which also contains a BamHI site. The oligo contains silent C-to-A and G-to-A mutations to inactivate the two indicated PAMs. (C) (i) pha-1(ts) mutants propagated at the permissive temperature were injected with 60 ng/µl each of CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids targeting the PAM in pha-1(ts) and PAM no. 1 in nhr-23, 50 ng/µl of an oligo designed to correct the pha-1(ts) allele, and 50 ng/µl of the 200mer nhr-23::2×FLAG repair oligo. (ii) P0 animals were singled onto individual plates and shifted to the restrictive temperature (25°). (iii) Three to four days later, the plates were screened for the presence of viable progeny (L3s to adults); the e2123 embryonic lethality phenotype is completely penetrant at 25°, and only rescued animals develop. Rescued F1 progeny were singled onto individual plates, allowed to lay eggs (2–3 days), and the parental F1 was genotyped by PCR followed by BamHI digestion. Correct insertion of the epitope is confirmed by sequencing-purified PCR products with knock-in-specific primers. (iv) Homozygotes were recovered by plating 12–24 progeny from candidate nhr-23:2×FLAG knock-in F1’s, allowing them to lay eggs (2–3 days), and genotyping the parental F2 animal by PCR and BamHI digestion. Marker size in kilobases is provided. (D) Summary of pha-1(ts) co-conversion experiments. Viable P0 are the number of injected animals that produced eggs; a variable number of animals are sterile in each experiment. The length and polarity (with respect to the coding strand) of the pha-1(ts) repair and nhr-23::2×FLAG oligos are provided. P0 were propagated on OP50 E. coli for these injections.
I next tested whether pha-1(ts) repair could be used to enrich for knock-in of a 2×FLAG oligo into the 3′ end of the nhr-23 gene (Figure 1B), a nuclear hormone receptor involved in molting and embryonic development (Kostrouchova et al. 1998, 2001). I identified two potential PAMs near the desired insertion site that could be silently mutated (Figure 1B). I designed a 200mer oligo to insert a 2×FLAG epitope just before the stop codon. As half of sgRNAs have been reported to fail in C. elegans (Kim et al. 2014), I mutated two PAMs in the oligo to allow knock-in attempts with different sgRNAs. An 18-bp linker sequence encoding the flexible linker peptide glycine-serine-4xglycine (GSGGGG; Figure 1B) was included to spatially separate the 2×FLAG tag from the NHR-23 C terminus, potentially facilitating accessibility of the tag for immunoprecipitation. Additionally, the tag encoded a BamHI restriction site, which was used for diagnostic restriction digestion in PCR-based screening (Figure 1B). I injected a CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid targeting pha-1, an nhr-23 CRISPR/Cas9 construct targeting the PAM nearest the stop codon (PAM no. 1; Figure 1B), the 80mer pha-1(ts) repair oligo (Figure 1A), and the 200mer nhr-23:2×FLAG oligo (Figure 1B); this oligo was not PAGE purified to test whether PAGE purification was a necessary cost. From 16 viable injected P0 animals, nine pha-1(ts) rescued F1 progeny were obtained (Figure 1D). These animals were plated, allowed to self-fertilize, and then single-worm genotyping was performed (Figure 1C). Two of these nine animals were heterozygous for a potential 2×FLAG insertion by diagnostic digest, of which one was a correct insertion; the other candidate had a frameshift in the 2×FLAG epitope. F2 progeny of the animal carrying the precise 2×FLAG knock-in were singled and a homozygote for both the insertion and the repaired pha-1(ts) allele was obtained; both knock-ins were confirmed by sequencing. Brood-size analysis of a representative knock-in confirmed viability with no phenotype, indicative of nhr-23 loss of function (i.e., molting defects or high embryonic lethality) (Table S5).
To distinguish between pha-1(ts) repair homozygotes and heterozygotes without sequencing, I used CEL-1 digestion of PCR products (Figure S2). CEL-1 is a celery endonuclease that recognizes and cleaves mismatches in double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) formed from single nucleotide polymorphisms or small insertions or deletions (Yang et al. 2000; Wood et al. 2011). In this assay, PCRs from repair heterozygotes will lead to a digestion product (Figure S2). Normally, the absence of digestion could indicate that the animals were homozygous for either the ts allele or the repaired allele. However, growth at the restrictive temperature eliminates all ts homozygotes; therefore, all undigested PCR products are repair homozygotes. The genotypes predicted by CEL-1 digestion were confirmed by sequencing. CEL-1 or other mismatch cutting nucleases such as mung bean nuclease or T7E1 represent an efficient method to monitor single-basepair changes and help reduce the number of animals that need to be sequenced to identify homozygous knocked-in point mutations.
The stringency of pha-1 co-conversion offered a powerful tool to optimize oligo editing parameters. As much experimental effort was spent isolating homozygotes to confirm correct epitope insertion, I designed primers that allowed sequencing of the 2×FLAG tag in heterozygotes. These primers bound the insertion junction, with the two 3′-most bases binding to the inserted sequence (Figure S3). In some cases, poor sequencing quality made it difficult to confirm the sequence in the center of the epitope; in these cases, a separate PCR was performed using the epitope-specific primer and an external primer and sequencing was performed on this purified PCR product using the external primer. Screening in heterozygotes greatly reduced hands-on effort required to identify correct insertions.
I next tested whether oligo length (200mer, 80mer, and 60mer) affected repair efficiency. The 80mer was PAGE purified, but the 200mer and 60mers were not. These oligos were all sense in relation to the pha-1 coding strand. The 80mer and 200mer produced similar numbers of pha-1 rescued F1’s (9 and 12, respectively) and with the 80mer producing one nhr-23:2×FLAG insertion and the 200mer producing four insertions (Figure 1D). Interestingly, I observed a high percentage of males in the pha-1(ts) repaired F1, generated using the 200mer (Table S6). Despite the 60mer only producing three pha-1 rescues, two of those F1 also had knock-ins at the nhr-23 locus. One knock-in was incomplete and produced a frameshift; the other had an extra insertion after the 2×FLAG tag, but frame was maintained. I confirmed the expression of the 2×FLAG tag by immunoblotting in five knock-in lines carrying a precise insertion of the 2×FLAG tag, as well as a line that contained an imprecise insertion. All five precise knock-ins expressed the FLAG tag, whereas no band was seen for the strain carrying the frameshifted FLAG tag (Figure 2). pha-1(ts) co-conversion allowed isolation of sequence-verified homozygotes for a knock-in event within 8–9 days.
Detection of NHR-23::2×FLAG in precise knock-ins. Four micrograms of protein from synchronized gravid adults of the indicated strains was analyzed by immunoblotting with anti-FLAG. KRY48 contains a frameshift in the 2×FLAG tag and thus does not express the epitope. Stain-free (Bio-Rad) analysis of total protein on the blot is provided as a loading control. Marker size (in kilodaltons) is provided.
I then examined whether oligo polarity had an impact on editing, using a PAGE purified, antisense version of the 80mer pha-1(ts) repair oligo. The sense oligo was homologous to the coding DNA strand, whereas the antisense oligo was homologous to the template DNA strand. The antisense oligo produced the fewest knock-ins per viable P0 animal of all conditions tested, but still had a high rate of nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-in per rescued F1 (Figure 1D). Thus, it appeared to be a poor repair template for pha-1(ts) repair, but once this repair event was selected could still lead to enrichment in nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-in. To further explore this variable, I tested whether nhr-23::2×FLAG could be knocked in using an antisense 200mer. Using a sense pha-1 200mer, five rescued F1’s were obtained from 57 viable P0 animals, but no nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-ins were detected (Figure 1D). Including the antisense 200mer with the sense 200mer did result in a decrease in knock-in efficiency (1/5 vs. 1/9), but more animals need to be screened to determine if this effect is significant (Figure S4). Interestingly, when annealed nhr-23::2×FLAG sense and antisense oligos were injected, no knock-ins were recovered, indicating that dsDNA is not a better template than single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and may be less effective (Figure S4). These data suggest that the strand to which oligo homology is derived could be an important parameter for editing efficiency and that ssDNA may be more effective than dsDNA for epitope knock-in. However, these inferences must be tested with many additional combinations of sgRNAs, loci, and repair templates to assess their generality.
A number of injected P0s in these experiments were sterile. This sterility could have been a consequence of injection trauma or general sickness of pha-1(ts) mutants. To discriminate between these possibilities, I shifted adult pha-1(ts) mutants to 25° to mimic the selection protocol. Interestingly, these animals displayed sterility (1/24 P0) and low brood sizes (<10 eggs) in 6 of 24 P0s. Growth on HB101 has been shown to suppress the slow growth rate of eat-2 (ad465) and eat-5 (ad1402) mutants, which have defective pharyngeal pumping (Shtonda and Avery 2006). Moreover, unc-119(ed3) strains are frequently grown on HB101 in genome editing protocols to ameliorate sickness of that strain (Frøkjær-Jensen et al. 2010; Dickinson et al. 2013). I therefore tested the effect of HB101 growth on pha-1(ts) mutants by propagating animals for several generations on HB101 at 15°, then picking adult animals and shifting them to 25°. Growth on HB101 suppressed the low brood size and sterility observed during growth on OP50. pha-1(ts) mutants grown on HB101 and then shifted to OP50 at L4 had brood sizes of 127 ± 34 (Table S5) with 0% viable progeny. Subsequently, the pha-1(ts) strain was maintained on HB101 at 15° prior to micro-injection.
Having demonstrated that oligo-mediated repair of the pha-1(e2123) mutation can be used to efficiently enrich for knock-ins at other loci, I next turned to optimizing sgRNA delivery. Generation of new sgRNA templates for plasmid-based CRISPR/Cas9 systems typically involves site-directed mutagenesis (Dickinson et al. 2013) or cloning using oligonucleotides (Waaijers et al. 2013) or PCR products (Friedland et al. 2013; Kim et al. 2014). A major impediment to the success of a CRISPR/Cas9 experiment is the efficiency of the sgRNA; Kim et al. (2014) report that half of their tested sgRNAs fail. Given that efficient promoter::GFP reporters can be generated by fusion PCR (Hobert 2002), I tested whether the same approach could be used to express sgRNAs from the U6 promoter. This approach would allow rapid screening of sgRNAs, as PCR templates could be injected on the same day of amplification without need for cloning or transformation. For cost efficiency, four PCR primers were used, of which only one is changed to generate a new PU6::sgRNA template (Figure 3A). As a proof of principle, I generated PU6::sgRNA template fusions targeting pha-1 and nhr-23 PAM no. 1, and deleted the sgRNA template sequence from the pJW1219 Cas9/CRISPR plasmid. Injecting this Cas9 plasmid (pJW1259), the PCR-generated pha-1 and nhr-23 PU6::sgRNA templates, the pha-1(ts) sense 80mer repair template, and the nhr-23:2×FLAG sense 200mer, efficient knock-in at both loci with comparable frequency to the corresponding plasmid-based PU6::sgRNA templates was observed (Figure 3B). Fusion PCR thus allows rapid, cost-effective generation of sgRNA templates driven by the U6 promoter.
PCR generated sgRNA templates can be used for pha-1(ts) co-conversion. (A) Method for generating PU6::sgRNA templates by PCR. The U6 promoter and sgRNA template were separately subcloned to generate pJW1310 and 1311, respectively. The U6 promoter is amplified with oligos 1 and 2, and the sgRNA template is amplified with oligos 3 and 4. Oligo 3 contains 20 bp of homology to the sgRNA template, the new 20 bp sgRNA targeting sequence, and 20 bp of homology to the U6 promoter. The resulting PU6 and sgRNA template PCR products are then mixed and used as template in a second PCR reaction using oligos 1 + 4. (B) Animals were injected with 60 ng/µl of the Cas9 plasmid, 25 ng/µl each of PCR generated PU6::sgRNA templates targeting pha-1 and nhr-23 (same targeting sequence as in Figure 2), and 50 ng/µl each of the 200mer sense pha-1(ts) repair oligo and nhr-23::2×FLAG oligo. Viable P0 are the number of injected animals that produced eggs; a variable number of animals are sterile in each experiment. P0 were propagated on HB101 E. coli for these injections. Oligo polarity (sense) is with respect to the coding strand.
During my initial design of the nhr-23::2×FLAG repair oligo, I mutated two potential PAMs, as it has been reported that half of all sgRNAs fail; this single oligo would allow testing of two separate sgRNAs (Kim et al. 2014). While analyzing the sequence of the 22 candidate nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-ins generated using sgRNAs targeting PAM no.1 and identified by BamHI digest (Figure 1D, Figure 3B, Table 2), I observed co-conversion of the PAM no. 2 silent mutation in six lines. These co-conversion events suggested that pha-1(ts) selection could be used to explore gene conversion track lengths and effectiveness of DSB position relative to the insertion site.
The silent point mutations in PAMs no. 1 and no. 2 were 29 bp apart, which agrees with my observation that a 60mer with 29 bp of homology can be used to efficiently knock-in point mutations (Figures 1D and Figure 4A). For these next experiments, I sequenced all pha-1(ts) rescued F1’s. I first tested whether an sgRNA targeting PAM no. 2 could be used to knock in the 2×FLAG tag into the nhr-23 3′ end; 3 of 12 pha-1(ts)-rescued F1 animals had the PAM no. 2 mutation knocked in, with one animal also containing the PAM no. 1 mutation and correct insertion of the 2×FLAG tag (Figure 4B, Table S7). I next examined whether a DSB 54 bp away from the desired insertion site could be used to knock in the 2×FLAG epitope (Figure 4A). I designed a modified version of the 200mer used for the above experiment that also carried three silent mutations to disrupt the sgRNA binding to the PAM no. 3 target site, as well as the mutations in PAMs no. 1 and no. 2 (Figure 4A). A fourth potential PAM (no. 4) was left intact in the repair template, as inactivation would leave only 10 bp of 5′ homology; this sgRNA was inactive (Figure 4, A and B). Using an sgRNA targeting PAM no. 3 to generate a DSB, two of eight pha-1(ts)-rescued F1’s carried the silent mutation in PAM no. 3; the others all had wild-type sequence, suggesting that this may be an inefficient sgRNA (Figure 4B, Table S7). Of the two animals with mutations in PAM no. 3, both had the PAM no. 2 inactivating mutation, and one had the PAM no. 1 mutation and insertion of the 2×FLAG tag (Table S7). Though there was a 1-bp deletion within the tag, this experiment demonstrates that a DSB 54 bp from an insertion site can be used for introduction of epitopes, and that the presence of mutations in a stretch of homology does not prevent gene conversion; five point mutations in a 55-bp stretch were introduced into the genome along with the 65 bp of 2×FLAG tag (with the 1-bp deletion). Animals were not tracked to identify originating P0s; however, for the PAM no. 1 knock-in experiment, the six animals with PAM no. 2 mutation co-conversion were isolated from six different injections, and thus represent independent events (Figure 4B). Knock-in efficiency appeared higher the closer the DSB was to the insertion site, but sgRNA efficiency could also play a role in this observation.
DSBs up to 54 bp from an insertion site, and 35-bp homology arms can be used for oligo-templated repair in nhr-23. (A) Schematic of the nhr-23 3′ end, indicating the stop codon (blue text), four PAMs tested (red text), and position of the DSBs (scissor). Mutations used to inactivate PAMs in repair templates are provided in the nhr-23(PAM MUT) sequence and indicated by the vertical lines between the (+) and (PAM MUT) sequence. (B) Testing effect of DSB position on nhr-23::2×FLAG epitope knock-in efficiency. The PAMs for the sgRNAs used to generate the DSB and mutations used to inactivate the PAMs in the repair templates are provided in A. Animals were co-injected with 50 ng/µl of pha-1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid, 50 ng/µl each of the pha-1(ts) repair oligo and a 200mer sense nhr-23::2×FLAG repair oligo, and either 50 ng/µl of nhr-23 targeting CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid (PAMs no. 1 or no. 2), or 25 ng/µl of PU6::sgRNA template PCR product (PAMs no. 3 and no. 4). For the PAM no. 1 and no. 2 sgRNA experiments, the repair template carried mutations in both PAMs. For the PAM no. 3 and no. 4 experiments, the repair template carried mutations in PAMs no. 1, no. 2, and no. 3. PAM no. 3 had a single PCR hit with a 2×FLAG insertion carrying a 1-bp deletion. For the PAM no. 1 row, all experiments using nhr-23::2×FLAG 200mers were pooled (Figure 1, Figure 3, Table 2); only animals that displayed a knock-in signature in the diagnostic BamHI digest from these experiments were sequenced. For the PAM no. 2, no. 3, and no. 4 experiments, all pha-1(ts) F1 rescued animals were sequenced. (C) Testing homology arm length on nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-in efficiency. Homology lengths in basepairs for 5′ and 3′ arms are provided. 5′ arm homology numbering starts from the middle G in PAM no. 1; 3′ homology numbering starts from the first basepair of the stop codon. Animals were co-injected with 50 ng/µl each of pha-1 targeting and nhr-23 PAM no. 1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids, 50 ng/µl each of the pha-1(ts) repair oligo and nhr-23::2×FLAG repair oligo. For the 76/54-bp homology arm row in the table, data were pooled from all non-RNAi experiments using pha-1 sense repair oligos and nhr-23::2×FLAG sense 200mers (Figure 1 and Figure 3). With the exception of the pooled data, all injected P0 animals were grown on HB101 E. coli in B and C. Oligo polarity (sense) is with respect to the coding strand.
Exploring DSB position relative to the insertion site demonstrated that the stringency of pha-1(ts) co-conversion combined with the speed and ease in recovering editing events allowed rapid testing of editing parameters. Interestingly, the 200mer used for the PAM no. 3 knock-in experiments only had 29 bp of homology 5′ to the DSB (Figure 4, A and B), suggesting that homology arms could be relatively short. Efficient repair of the pha-1(ts) allele was observed using a 60mer with 29 bp of homology (Figure 1D). Furthermore, recent data using PCR-derived dsDNA repair templates demonstrated that 30- to 60-bp homology arms were optimal, with knock-in efficiency actually decreasing with longer homology arms (Paix et al. 2014). To test the ideal length of homology for oligo-mediated insertion of epitopes, I designed nhr-23::2×FLAG oligos with 35 bp, 25 bp, or 15 bp of homology and tested their ability to introduce the 2×FLAG epitope using a DSB generated by an sgRNA targeting PAM no. 1. Knock-in efficiency using these homology arms was compared to pooled data from the pha-1(ts) and nhr-23::2×FLAG sense oligo experiments (Figure 1D and Figure 3B). This 200mer sense nhr-23::2×FLAG oligo (Figure 1B) contained 54 bp of homology 3′ to the insertion site and 76 bp of homology 5′ to PAM no. 1 (76/54). With the 35-bp homology arms, two animals from 9 rescued F1’s had correct insertion of the 2×FLAG epitope (Figure 4C). This 22% knock-in per F1 screened (2 of 9) is comparable to the 26% efficiency (7 of 27) observed using the 76/54 oligo (Figure 4C). The knock-in rate per successfully injected P0 was also comparable for the 35-bp and the 76/54-bp homology arms [4.76% (2/42) vs. 6.86% (7/102)]. The 15- and 25-bp homology arm produced fewer pha-1(ts) rescues per successfully injected P0, and only the 25-bp homology arms could produce a 2×FLAG insertion, though this knock-in carried a point mutation (Figure 4C). These data suggest that, similar to dsDNA templates, homology arms of 35–80 bp are ideal for oligo-templated editing.
In Drosophila, increased homologous recombination efficiency can come from inactivation of NHEJ (Beumer et al. 2008; Bottcher et al. 2014). I therefore used the pha-1(ts) system to test whether NHEJ inactivation impacted knock-in by homologous recombination. NHEJ mutants may have additional background mutations due to compromised repair of endogenous DSBs and would require additional outcrossing. I therefore tested the effect on knock-in frequency of temporary inactivation of the C. elegans homolog of Ku80 (cku-80), part of a heterodimer that binds the end of DSBs in NHEJ, and which had reported RNAi phenotypes (Dmitrieva et al. 2005; McColl et al. 2005). pha-1 and nhr-23 CRISPR/Cas9 plasmids, the pha-1 sense 80mer repair oligo, and the nhr-23 sense 200mer repair oligo were injected into pha-1(ts) mutants treated with control or cku-80 RNAi. Control RNAi produced one pha-1(ts) rescued F1, which also carried a sequence-confirmed nhr-23 knock-in event (Table 2). However, inactivation of cku-80 by RNAi produced an increase in both pha-1(ts) rescue (10 F1’s) and nhr-23:2×FLAG co-knock-ins recovered (n = 5) (Table 2). These experiments suggested that NHEJ inactivation boosts oligo-mediated knock-in efficiency.
To confirm that pha-1(ts) co-conversion, PCR-generated sgRNAs templates, and NHEJ inactivation were effective on other loci, I attempted to introduce a 2×FLAG epitope in nhr-25, a broadly expressed nuclear hormone receptor that regulates several developmental and physiological programs (Asahina et al. 2000; Gissendanner and Sluder 2000; Chen et al. 2004; Asahina et al. 2006; Mullaney et al. 2010; Ward et al. 2013, 2014). I selected the 3′ end of nhr-25 as there are two isoforms that share a common 3′ end, but differ in promoter use; thus, targeting the 3′ end of nhr-25 with the 2×FLAG should in principle allow for labeling of all known nhr-25 isoforms. I designed a 175mer repair template with six silent point mutations in the 20-bp sequence preceding the PAM, as the PAM could not be silently mutated (Figure S5, A and B). As with the nhr-23::2×FLAG construct, an 18-bp spacer encoding with a BamHI site was also included (Figure S5, A and B). This oligo contained 41 bp of homology 5′ to the mutated sgRNA target sequence and 43 bp of 3′ homologous sequence. pha-1(ts) mutant animals grown on either control or cku-80 RNAi were injected with a pha-1(ts) CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid, an nhr-25 PU6::sgRNA template PCR product, and pha-1(ts) and nhr-25::2×FLAG repair oligos. Seven pha-1 rescues were recovered from the control RNAi-treated animals and 36 from the cku-80 RNAi-treated animals (Table 2). No knock-in candidates were recovered from the control RNAi injection, but five were recovered from the cku-80 RNAi-treated animals, of which four were correct insertions of the 2×FLAG tag (Table 2). Strikingly, one of these animals was an F1 homozygous knock-in. These strains were viable and did not display defects associated with nhr-25 inactivation (protruding vulvae, molting defects, embryonic lethality; see Table S5 for a representative brood size). I confirmed expression of the 2×FLAG tag in an outcrossed, representative line (Figure 5B).
Detection of FLAG epitope expression in nhr-23-, nhr-25-, and smo-1-tagged lines. Anti-FLAG immunoblot analyses of lysates are from mixed stage animals of the indicated genotypes. The 2x and 3xFLAG tagged nhr-23 (A) and nhr-25 (B) lines and a 2×FLAG::smo-1 tagged line (C) were assayed. Stain-free (Bio-Rad) analysis of total protein on each blot is provided as a loading control. Marker size (in kilodaltons) is provided. The same exposure time was used to image all anti-FLAG blots. For the NHR-23 blot (A), the background band observed in Figure 2 was not detected, likely because a more potent ECL substrate was used for that experiment.
Given the efficient editing observed in cku-80 RNAi-treated animals and the 35–80 bp of homology sufficient for oligo-templated repair, I next tested whether I could introduce larger epitopes using pha-1(ts) co-conversion. As Kim et al. (2014) had reported generating mutations in both avr-14 and avr-15 in one unc-22 co-CRISPR experiment, I attempted to knock in 84-bp 3xFLAG tags containing the GSGGGG spacer into both nhr-23 and nhr-25 in one injection experiment (Figure S5A). From 13 successfully injected P0 animals treated with cku-80 RNAi, two precise nhr-23::3xFLAG lines were obtained (Table 2). A viable nhr-25::3xFLAG line that expressed the 3xFLAG tag, but had a 51-bp duplication in the 3′ UTR was also obtained; as the tag was expressed and the strain was viable, this line was scored as a correct knock-in (Table 2, Table S5). A single knock-in animal was obtained from 34 successfully injected P0 animals grown on control RNAi (Table 2). This F1 animal was homozygous for an nhr-25::3xFLAG insertion and heterozygous for an nhr-23::3xFLAG insertion (Table 2). Viability was confirmed for representative nhr-23::3xFLAG and nhr-25::3xFLAG lines and for the nhr-23::3xFLAG; nhr-25::3xFLAG double knock-in line (Table S5). No defects consistent with nhr-23 or nhr-25 inactivation were observed, though the double knock-in did have a lower brood size (Table S5). I confirmed FLAG epitope expression in outcrossed nhr-23::3xFLAG lines and nhr-25::3xFLAG lines (Figure 5, A and B). The 3xFLAG epitope lines displayed a marked increase in band intensity in immunoblots compared to 2×FLAG lines, for both NHR-23 and NHR-25 (Figure 5, A and B). Notably, the nhr-23::2×FLAG epitope was not detectable in this experiment (Figure 5A), as a more potent ECL substrate was required for detection by immunoblotting (Figure 2); this more potent ECL substrate may explain the nonspecific band observed in Figure 2, but not in Figure 5A. I also observed extra bands in the 3xFLAG lines for NHR-23 and NHR-25 compared to the corresponding 2×FLAG lines, which would be consistent with NHR-23 and NHR-25 isoforms, though they could also represent degradation products (Figure 5, A and B). Comparing all NHEJ inactivation experiments, growing P0 animals on cku-80 RNAi produced a significant increase in the number of knock-ins recovered per injection experiment (two tailed t-test P = 0.01) and percentage of knock-ins per viable P0 (two-tailed t-test P = 0.016). No significant difference was observed in the number of P0 animals with rescued F1 progeny (two tailed t-test P = 0.16) or in the percentage of knock-ins per rescued F1 (two tailed t-test P = 0.85). Recent manuscripts have described a “jackpot” phenomenon (Arribere et al. 2014; Paix et al. 2014), where the majority of edits come from a small number of P0 animals. There may be a trend of “richer jackpots” in cku-80 RNAi-treated animals with 2.6 rescued F1’s/P0 producing F1 rescues (±0.44; 95% confidence interval) vs. 1.6 (±0.50; 95% confidence interval) in control RNAi-treated animals. This difference was not significant in a two-tailed t-test (P = 0.19) potentially due to the large variation in number of F1 rescues and knock-ins produced across assays, and this observation will require further exploration.
The nhr-25::3xFLAG oligo appeared to be a poor repair template, as it yielded lower knock-in efficiency in comparison to the nhr-25::2×FLAG template, and complex insertions were observed in two nhr-25::3xFLAG candidate knock-in lines. Although experiments demonstrated that PAGE purification was not necessary, the nhr-25::3xFLAG template was ideal to test whether PAGE purification nonetheless increased knock-in efficiency or fidelity. Resolving unpurified and purified oligos on a denaturing TBE-Urea gel revealed that the unpurified oligo preparation contained large amounts of incorrectly sized product (Figure S6A). pha-1(ts) animals grown on control or cku-80 RNAi were injected with the pha-1 targeting CRISPR/Cas9 vector, an nhr-25 sgRNA template PCR product, a pha-1 repair oligo, and either purified or unpurified nhr-25::3xFLAG 175mers. Interestingly, this experiment demonstrated that PAGE purification resulted in higher rates of knock-ins per F1 and per viable P0 (Figure S6B). Comparing all experiments using the nhr-25::3xFLAG oligos (Table 2, Figure S6C), both knock-in candidates obtained using the purified oligo were precise insertions, whereas two of the four candidates generated with the unpurified oligo contained additional sequence inserted (Figure S6C). These experiments suggested that one can either opt for an increased knock-in rate with PAGE purified oligos or avoid this cost and inject/screen more animals.
Finally, I wished to test these editing parameters on other genes to test their general applicability and robustness. Based on my previous work on NHR-25 sumoylation (Ward et al. 2013), I chose a previously described weakly efficient sgRNA (Kim et al. 2014) that cleaved 19 bp 3′ to the start codon of the single C. elegans SUMO gene, smo-1 (Broday et al. 2004). I designed a 175mer repair oligo to create a SMO-1 N-terminal 2×FLAG fusion (Figure S5, C and D). I also designed two overlapping sgRNAs to target the NHEJ gene, lig-4, and a 60mer oligo as the homologous recombination template to insert a stop codon (oligos were unpurified). From nine successfully injected P0 animals grown on cku-80 RNAi and injected with PCR-derived sgRNA templates, 27 pha-1(ts) rescued F1 animals were obtained. Fourteen of these F1’s carried knock-ins in smo-1, of which 11 were precise (Table 2). I confirmed the expression of the 2×FLAG epitope in a representative line (KRY82) by immunoblotting; signal was observed over a large range of molecular weights, as expected from SUMO conjugation to hundreds of substrates in C. elegans (Kaminsky et al. 2009) (Figure 5C). Although viable, 2×FLAG::smo-1 homozygotes displayed partially penetrant phenotypes consistent with smo-1 reduction of function, such as small body size and protruding vulvae. Thus, epitope placement may need to be optimized in smo-1, though the creation of a viable hypomorph will be a useful reagent for the community. The lig-4 sgRNAs failed, as no knock-ins or mutations were obtained in lig-4, demonstrating that this approach also allows rapid testing of sgRNA efficacy, similar to Kim et al. (2014) (Table 2). Together, these results demonstrate that a co-conversion approach using a temperature-sensitive mutant allele, PCR-generated sgRNA templates, and NHEJ inactivation by RNAi provide a flexible, robust platform to recover genome editing events.
Based on recent co-CRIPSR/co-conversion reports (Arribere et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2014), and the frequency at which relatively rare pha-1(ts) repair events were associated with edits at other loci, it was highly probable that pha-1(ts) coselection increases screening efficiency. Prior to developing pha-1(ts) co-conversion, I had attempted to introduce 2×FLAG tags onto the 3′ end of nhr-23 and nhr-25 and recover knock-ins through direct screening of F1 progeny, similar to the approach described by Paix et al. (2014) (see Supporting Information for detailed methods). No knock-ins were recovered from 380 screened WT F1’s (Table S8). I also tested the effect of NHEJ inactivation by injecting into lig-4(ok716) mutants; DNA ligase 4 (lig-4) encodes the enzyme that seals DSBs in canonical NHEJ, and ok716 is an out-of-frame deletion that removes the catalytic ligase domain and is predicted to result in a premature stop codon (Clejan et al. 2006). A single knock-in was recovered from 768 screened lig-4 mutant F1’s (Table S8); after outcrossing the lig-4 mutation, this nhr-25::2×FLAG line had a brood size equivalent to a knock-in produced by pha-1(ts) coselection (Table S5). In comparable pha-1(ts) coselection experiments, no knock-ins were recovered from 7 F1 laid by control RNAi treated P0s and four knock-ins were recovered from 36 F1’s laid by cku-80 RNAi-treated P0 (Table 2).
For nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-in experiments, I used a knock-in-specific PCR screening approach; as in optimization experiments, it detected knock-in DNA diluted 1:1280 with WT DNA, whereas diagnostic restriction digestion of PCR products could only detect up to a 1:20 dilution of knock-in DNA with WT DNA (Figure S7). No knock-ins were recovered from 200 WT F1 animals or 840 lig-4 mutant F1’s (Table S8). In comparison, pha-1(ts) coselection using a similar sense nhr-23::2×FLAG repair template yielded seven knock-ins from 27 screened pha-1(ts) rescued F1’s (Figure 4C). Comparing all similar nhr-23::2×FLAG and nhr-25::2×FLAG direct selection and pha-1 co-conversion experiments (i.e., excluding antisense oligo and NHEJ inactivation experiments) demonstrated a significant increase in screening efficiency compared to direct F1 screening (two-tailed t-test, P = 0.01).
Here, I demonstrate that selection for repair of a temperature-sensitive point mutation using an oligonucleotide template can be used to efficiently select for knock-in at other loci in as quickly as 8–9 days. Several findings of this work should be applicable for a range of co-conversion/co-CRISPR approaches.
First, the increased sgRNA(F+E) activity (Table 1) may improve knock-in and knock-out efficiencies and reduce the number of sgRNAs that one must test to identify an active sgRNA. Second, for introduction of single-basepair changes, efficient editing was observed using 60mers, 80mers, and 200mers. There may be a slight improvement in knock-in efficiency with longer repair templates, but using shorter oligos still produces repair events at a high rate. These data are consistent with the 29-bp repair track length observed using the second silent PAM mutation in the nhr-23::2×FLAG repair oligo and the efficient nhr-23::2×FLAG knock-ins obtained using 35 bp of homology (Figure 4). This optimal homology for oligo-mediated editing is similar to that reported for dsDNA templates (Paix et al. 2014). The 84-bp 3xFLAG nhr-23 and nhr-25 knock-ins is a larger insertion than described by several recent reports (Lo et al. 2013; Arribere et al. 2014; Paix et al. 2014; Zhao et al. 2014); a 66-bp 3xFLAG insertion in the nos-1 gene is the most comparable edit (Paix et al. 2014). Based on the minimal homology length of 35 bp and current oligo synthesis limit of 200 bp, it may be possible to knock in sequences of up to 130 bp using oligo templates. Third, I demonstrated that oligos do not need to be PAGE purified, as efficient editing was observed using unpurified 60mers and 200mers to edit the pha-1(ts) allele and to introduce the nhr-23::2×FLAG epitope (Figure 1D). However, PAGE purified oligos did result in increased knock-in efficiency and fewer imprecise knock-ins (Figure S6). Thus, an investigator can choose between the additional cost for the increased editing efficiency or simply inject more P0 animals and screen more F1’s. It is very important to note that there is likely wide variation in quality of unpurified oligos between different suppliers. Different preparations may contain different inhibitors or cytotoxic compounds and one should confirm the efficiency of unpurified oligos from a new supplier by testing a control such as pha-1(ts) rescue or dpy-10(gf) knock-in (Arribere et al. 2014). Fourth, PCR-generated PU6::sgRNA templates allow rapid production of new sgRNAs without need for cloning. Moreover, the robust sgRNA activity observed when injecting linear dsDNA templates enables other technologies for sgRNA template production such as gene synthesis or oligonucleotide arrays (Bassik et al. 2009; Gilbert et al. 2014), which could be used to create pooled sgRNA template libraries. Injecting multiple PCR-generated PU6::sgRNA templates allows several editing experiments to be performed simultaneously. From single-injection experiments, I was able to knock 3xFLAG tags into both the nhr-23 and nhr-25 loci or generate 2×FLAG::smo-1 lines while also determining that the lig-4 sgRNAs were inactive (Table 2). Finally, the observation that inactivation of NHEJ can lead to improved knock-in rates can be adapted for any HR-based editing system, though it would reduce the efficiency of systems that rely on coselection of CRISPR-generated mutations as a marker. The increased knock-in efficiency observed following NHEJ inactivation was surprising and suggests that at least some knock-ins must be occurring outside in the germline; previous work has shown that NHEJ is actively suppressed in meiosis to ensure faithful repair of DSBs by homologous recombination (Adamo et al. 2010). Determining the cell types in which knock-ins are occurring and the DNA repair pathways involved could lead to improvements in editing efficiency.
It was intriguing that, for pha-1 and nhr-23, higher editing efficiency was observed using oligos with homology to the coding strand. In these experiments, the sgRNA for pha-1 recognized the coding strand, while the nhr-23 PAM no. 1 sgRNA recognized the template strand (Figure 1D, Table S9). Although numerous explanations could be invoked for a polarity bias (sgRNA sequestration of the oligo, oligo:mRNA hybridization, different secondary structures in a given oligo and its reverse complement, etc.), it is unclear whether my data reflect a biologically meaningful trend or a chance observation. Best practice should be to clearly report the strand to which the sgRNA binds and the strand to which the oligo contains homologous sequence (Table S9). A metaanalysis of many more combinations of sgRNAs and oligos of differing polarities at a large number of genes is required to definitively determine whether oligo polarity is an important parameter. If one fails to obtain oligo-templated knock-ins when using a sgRNA with confirmed activity, then it may be worth testing the complement of the oligo.
The pha-1(ts) approach is distinct from reported co-CRISPR and co-conversion methods (Arribere et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2014) in that it starts with a mutant animal and results in restoration of a wild-type animal. In contrast, the other two approaches can be used with any strain, but require outcrossing or meiotic segregation of the selection marker. pha-1(ts) co-conversion may be advantageous as a marker in cases where the desired insertion site is linked to the selectable marker site. Arribere et al. (2014) demonstrated iterative editing using dpy-10(gf) co-conversion. pha-1(ts) co-conversion should allow for iterative editing events, though not as elegantly as the Arribere approach. pha-1(ts) F1 rescues have all been heterozygous for the repair event. By shifting to the permissive temperature (15°) after generating homozygous animals of a desired knock-in, one could reisolate the pha-1(ts) allele and perform another round of editing; this pha-1(ts) reisolation would require an additional 5 days. Alternatively, one could simply cross the pha-1(ts) allele back into an edited strain.
The optimizations I report make oligo-mediated editing efficient, cost effective, and can be applicable to any CRISPR-mediated editing system. The development of three distinct variations of coediting selection (unc-22 mutation; Kim et al. 2014), rol-6(gf)/sqt-1(gf)/dpy-10(gf) knock-in (Arribere et al. 2014), and pha-1(ts) repair (this article) highlight the robustness of this method to select for genome editing events. The recent description of PCR-derived dsDNA templates (Paix et al. 2014) will make these approaches even more powerful; the abundance of potential genetic markers in other model organisms should make these widely applicable approaches. A current challenge in cell-culture-based systems has been the laborious recovery of rare knock-in events. Coselection markers such as oligo-mediated repair of mutated GFP or drug resistance cassettes, or inactivation of hypoxanthine phosphoribosyl transferase, could yield similar improvements in editing event recovery in these systems.
I thank Teresita Bernal, Soledad de Guzman, and Greg Wright for experimental assistance; Dan Dickinson, Te-Wen Lo, Barbara Meyer, Rob Nakamura, Axel Bethke, and members of the Yamamoto lab for helpful discussions and technical advice; Lindsey Pack, Gabriela Monsalve, Debbie Thurtle, Elizabeth Silva, Stefan Taubert, Kaveh Ashrafi, and Keith Yamamoto for advice and comments on the manuscript; and the reviewers for their many excellent comments and experimental suggestions. Some strains were provided by the CGC, which is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440). J.D.W. was supported by the National Institute Of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under award no. K99GM107345. Additional support was from NIH (CA20535) and U.S. National Science Foundation (MCB 1157767) awards to K. Yamamoto. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
Supporting information is available online at http://www.genetics.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1534/genetics.114.172361/-/DC1.
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TinyMe was a Unity Linux-based mini-distribution. It exists to ease installation of Unity Linux on older computers, to provide a minimal installation for developers, and to deliver a fast Linux installation for where only the bare essentials are needed.
Rate this project James Cameron has announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.10, an updated build of the project's specialist distribution developed under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops. This version, still based on Fedora 18, is mostly a bug-fix release with updated "activities": "We're pleased to announce the release of OLPC OS 13.2.10 for XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75 and XO-4. It is Sugar 0.112 on Fedora 18, with updated activities Clock-20, GetBooks-18.1, ImageViewer-64, Implode-19, Jukebox-34, Log-39, Maze-28, Memorize-55, Paint-68, Physics-34, Pippy-72, Record-103, StopWatch-20.1, Terminal-45.4, TurtleBlocks-218 and Write-99.1. Fixes: activity journal title - save on enter, clear selection and close toolbar on enter; fix Gtk.SpinButton styling; update the favourite icon when there is only one journal object; fix copy-from-journal utility - undefined name error, DBusGMainLoop; fix for activities that do not properly stop; increase icon LRU cache sizes; new translations. Clock-20: ticking clock and accurate second hand; improve documentation; simplify time translation; declare license metadata, GPLv3+ and Public Domain; update POT file...." Here is the brief release announcement, with much more details provided in the release notes. Download: 32022o0.img (751MB, MD5, pkglist).
James Cameron has announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.8, the latest version of a specialist distribution developed under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops. This release is still based on Fedora 18, but it ships with updated Sugar, the distribution's default desktop user interface: "We're pleased to announce the release of OLPC OS 13.2.8 for XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75 and XO-4. Features: new Sugar 0.110 with completed translations; updated activities Speak 52, Measure 53, Maze 26.1, Implode 17, GetBooks 16.2, Clock 18.1 and Chat 83; add sugar-erase-bundle feature, for use by deployment scripts. Fixes: fix Fedora secondary mirror references so yum can work; remove Sugar Web Account control panel as it does nothing; remove Simple-English-Wikipedia on XO-1.5 to fit into 2 GB limit for some models; add forward and back buttons in help view; display activity instance title in join requests...." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details and installation instructions. Download: 32020o0.img (745MB, MD5, pkglist).
Daniel Drake has announced the release of OLPC OS 13.2.0, a Fedora-based Linux distribution developed under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops: "We're pleased to announce the release of OLPC OS 13.2.0 for XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75 and XO-4. OLPC OS 13.2.0 is a new software release focusing on cleaning up a few edges from our previous release, and finishing off support for the new XO-4 laptop. Features: XO-4 power management is now stable and enabled by default; Bluetooth support as a purchase option; in the Clock activity, you can now use the touchscreen to drag the clock hands to another time, a useful exercise for learning about time; drop-down lists are sub-optimal for touch, they have been replaced by more intuitive and touch-friendly UI elements in Record; the pinch-to-zoom touch gestures in Image Viewer behave much better than before...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download: 32013o0.img (721MB, MD5).
Daniel Drake has announced the release of OLPC OS 12.1.0, a Linux distribution created under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops: "We're pleased to announce the release of OLPC OS 12.1.0 for XO-1, XO-1.5 and XO-1.75. OLPC OS 12.1.0 is a new software release focusing on improving the XO-1.75 user experience, and undertaking a much-needed technological shift for Sugar's internals to GTK+ 3.x. Additionally, XO-1.5 and XO-1 continue to be supported in this release, and we include a variety of new features and fixes. Features: Sugar 0.96; transition of Sugar components to GTK+ 3; write to the journal any time; a new icon in the Sugar frame allows for any currently-selected text to be dictated by the internal speech engine; Browse, Wikipedia and Help have been moved from Mozilla to WebKit internally...." See the release announcement and release notes for further information. Download: 21021o0.img (656MB, MD5).
Daniel Drake has announced the release of OLPC OS 11.3.0, a specialist distribution created under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops: "We are pleased to announce the release of OLPC OS 11.3.0. This new OLPC software release adds several new features and significant bug fixes. XO-1 and XO-1.5 are fully supported as usual; additionally, this release adds support for the new XO-1.75 laptop. Sugar 0.94 is included in the release; this updated version includes various improvements such as more powerful View Source functionality, and easier file exchange between the Journal and the regular file system. One notable change is that the Keep button has been removed from activities. Many users mistook this with Save, but actually Sugar saves all your work for you - you do not have to tell it do so." See the brief release announcement and the detailed release notes for further information. Download the live USB image from here: os883.img (649MB, MD5).
XO Software 8.2.0, a Fedora-based distribution designed for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO Laptop, has been released: "Announcing the general availability of XO Software release 8.2.0. Release 8.2 is based on a child-focused graphical interface called Sugar, a Fedora 9 Linux operating system and OLPC customized implementations of core software including power management, wireless drivers, NAND flash file system, Open Firmware, and other components. Major new features: an updated Home view and Journal with new options for finding and organizing activities; an enhanced Frame for collaborating with other XOs and switching between running activities; a graphical Control Panel for setting language, network, and power preferences...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information and installation instructions. Download: xo-1-olpc-stream-8.2-ext3.img.bz2 (186MB, MD5), jffs2/os767.img (234MB, MD5).
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HOW DO I HANDLE MY KID LISTENING TO THE SAME SONG OVER AND OVER AGAIN?
My kid listens to the same song over and over and over again. It’s driving me crazy. How do I handle this?
Some people like to immerse themselves in certain music before they move onto the next song or kind of music. Your kid might be one of those people. Eventually, your kid will switch to another song.
Perhaps you could help the process along by taking your kid to different concerts (some towns or libraries or music schools offer free performances) or introducing your kid to cool songs of different genres (including whatever kinds of music kids of the same age are listening to) and listening to them together and discussing what you like about each song.
You might want to ask your kid if he/she wants to take music lessons as well. Then, that ability to really listen to a song over and over and practice it and learn it thoroughly may pay off someday, whether for your kid’s enjoyment or a prosperous career in music.
Also, may I suggest headphones? Preferably the on-ear headphones, not earbuds, as that’s probably better for your child’s hearing if he/she is constantly listening to music.
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How do I remove old kernel versions to clean up the boot menu?
Every time I install a new Linux kernel, it gets left in the grub_config, making the boot menu longer each time.
I know I can manually search through the installed packages and remove them.
Does Ubuntu provide any easier way to clean them up or keep them from showing in the boot list?
The latest versions of Grub2 installed in Ubuntu automatically display the latest kernel and hides the older kernels that you may have installed.
If you do not see your grub - then remember to press Shift whilst booting.
As you can see, only the latest kernel is displayed.
If you select the option shown (press Enter) then all the old kernels become visible and available to boot from.
First boot with the latest available kernel.
There are a number of ways to delete old kernels. Personally, I wouldn't touch Computer Janitor since this is acknowledged to break your computer with its suggestions.
search for linux-image, right-click a kernel and choose complete removal and finally click the Apply button to delete the kernel.
Repeat the search but this time for linux-header - you can delete the associated headers for the kernel image chosen previously.
Synaptic though will not attempt to verify what you are trying to remove... you could inadvertently delete your newest kernel - or even delete all of your kernels via this tool leaving you with an unbootable Ubuntu!.
Remember the result and the number - make sure you don't delete the corresponding image or header.
My recommendation is to keep at least two or preferably three kernels including the latest. The reason for the recommendation is that you will have at least one/two other kernels to boot with, if for what-ever reason the latest kernel you are unable to boot with or introducing a regressed capability such as broken wireless.
DO NOT REMOVE THIS KERNEL!
Next, type the command below to view/list all installed kernels on your system.
Find all the kernels that lower than your current kernel. When you know which kernel to remove, continue below to remove it. Run the commands below to remove the kernel you selected.
altogether, sed -n '/'`uname -r`'/q;p' is print the lines until it matches with the current kernel name.
If you're paranoid (like me), you can make the last part xargs echo sudo apt-get -y purge so that the command to purge the old kernels is printed, then you can check that nothing unexpected is included before you run it.
Removing Entries from Grub 2 Entries should be removed by editing or removing files in the /etc/grub.d folder. The /boot/grub/grub.cfg file is read-only and should not normally require editing.
If you are not sure of the kernel you are currently using, in a terminal type uname -r.
Kernels removed via APT (Synaptic, "apt-get remove", etc.) will automatically update grub.cfg and no user action is required.
A great tool for removing kernels (and menu entries) is Ubuntu-Tweak, a safe and easy-to-use GUI app.
Ubuntu-Tweak will be available under Applications > System Tools.
Select "Package Cleaner" on the left and "Clean Kernel" from the right panel.
Press the "Unlock" button at the lower right, enter your password.
Select from the displayed list the kernel images and headers you wish to remove. The kernel in use is not listed.
Press the "Cleanup" button at the lower right to remove the selected kernel images and headers.
Other Operating Systems which have been removed from the computer will also be removed from the menu once "update-grub" is run as root.
Note: After kernel updates a new entry is added to the GRUB menu.You can remove the older one if you want.However, most experienced users will advise you to keep at least one spare entry in case something goes wrong with an upgrade and you need to boot an older kernel version for troubleshooting purposes.
You see in the second screenshot you can select how many kernels to show? I generally just keep it on 1, but when I get a kernel upgrade I always change it to 2 before restarting so I can select the older kernel if the new kernel has problems with my hardware. Once I know the new kernel is working well I change it back to 1.
Update: purge-old-kernels is deprecated nowadays.
I made a script to purge kernels even in tricky conditions. It is called linux-purge and you can find it here.
If you just want to purge the kernels (and the related packages) that are older than the currently used kernel, when system is not broken, you could use this script.
There is also an Ubuntu documentation page that I have contributed to concerning removing old kernels here.
You can follow the Using the "unattended-upgrades" package section of Automatic Security Updates article on Ubuntu Wiki to perform this.
to automatically remove old packages, including kernels.
in the "NeverAutoRemove" section of the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove.
which would check for any unused packages and remove them if necessary. This is great for those libraries and dependency packages that are no longer needed byt any app installed.
Computer Janitor can clean up old kernels and I believe is installed by default in Ubuntu (but not Kubuntu).
GRUB 1, if you're using that, has an option in /boot/grub/menu.lst to specify how many kernels it should show at a maximum. GRUB 2, as far as I can tell, does not.
You can then remove them one by one or together, just make sure to keep the most recent.
There are also some handy commands and scripts to automate the removal.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 10 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 671 MB disk space will be freed.
In order to remove older Linux image kernels, first boot in the kernel you want to keep.
You can also check the kernel version using command uname -r so that you don't remove the wrong one by mistake.
Now go to synaptic package manager and search for linux-image and remove the older versions except the one shown by upper command. Generally I prefer to go with the latest one.
Now when you restart you'll see a more clean grub menu.
click package cleaner and clean kernels. it does not show the currently used kernel so you will always be safe.
Personally, I like using Synaptic. It makes me feel more secure about what's going on. The only app I've used that has an option to remove old kernels is Ubuntu Tweak.
You can uninstall the old kernels (linux-image-... packages) using Synaptic, and that will remove them from the boot menu. Take care not to remove the running kernel (you can check its version with uname -r).
Bear in mind that having a one or two older versions can help you troubleshoot, should something go wrong.
Alternatively, you can edit/remove the entries manually (gksu gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg), but they will be re-generated when you update to a newer kernel. If you are thinking about removing recovery mode options - don't. They can come in handy if you break something which prevents you from booting.
This is a pure command line solution.
Examine the list. Make sure the the kernel versions you want to keep are not part of the list. Use the command uname -r to see the version of the currently running kernel.
If you are happy with the results you can use apt-get to remove the packages.
The advantage of this answer is native Ubuntu Bash is used without installing third-party applications. Users of custom kernels who didn't use apt or dpkg can change this bash script to suit their needs. This answer is based on (How to selectively purge old kernels all at once).
As the title indicates the current kernel you booted with cannot be removed and isn't included in the list. The size reported is how much will be saved in /boot directory. More is saved on your disk because kernel binaries reside in other areas too. July 27, 2017 note: The directories /usr/src/*kernel_version* and /lib/modules/*kernel_version* are now included as well.
The Modified Date is discovered using the stat command. On my system that date is "touched" every time the kernel is booted using this (How do you find out when a specific kernel version was last booted?) cron reboot script. However, on your system the date will be the kernel release date, not the last time you booted it.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 24 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
After this operation, 2,330 MB disk space will be freed.
# DATE: Mar 10, 2017. Modified Jul 28, 2017.
# NOTE: Will not delete current kernel.
# First time for `du` 34 seconds.
# Second time for `du` 1 second.
# PARM: If any parm 1 passed use REAL kernel size, else use estimated size.
# By default `du` is not used and estimated size is displayed.
zenity --error --text "root access required. Use: sudo rm-kernels"
if [[ $# -ne 0 ]] ; then # Was a parameter passed?
# remains on disk for specific version with no -generic or -lowlatency below.
rm-kernels-server is the server version to selectively delete kernels all at once. Instead of a GUI (graphical) dialog box a text-based dialog box is used to select kernels to purge.
Dialog is in the default Ubuntu Desktop installation but not in Ubuntu Server.
# Non-GUI, text based interface for server distro's.
echo "root access required. Use: sudo rm-kernels-server"
item_list=() # Deviate from rm-kernels here.
NOTE: In the call to dialog the directive --ascii-lines is passed to replace line-draw extended character set (which ssh doesn't like) with "+-----+" for drawing boxes. If you do not like this appearance you can use the --no-lines directive for no box at all.
The calculated size of each kernel was taken from /boot/*kernel_version* which were 5 files totaling ~50 MB. The formula has changed to include the files in /usr/src/*kernel_version* and /lib/modules/*kernel_version*. The calculated size for each kernel is now ~400 MB. The above code for rm-kernels and rm-kernels-server has been updated. However, the sample screens above do not reflect these changes yet.
The default is to estimate the size of files for linux-headers at 125 MB and linux-image at 220 MB because du can be painfully slow unless files are in cache. To get the real size using du pass any parameter to the script.
The total of all kernel sizes (excluding the current running version which cannot be removed) is now show in the title bar.
The dialog box used to display each Kernel's Last Access Date. This date can get mass overwritten for all kernels during backup or similar operations. The dialog box now shows the Modified Date instead.
However, this will miss packages that are still recommended by other packages, and the -R/--without-recommends argument does not resolve this problem.
dselect after switching sort mode with 'o' will show all obsolete packages including the ones aptitude misses, but some people don't like using it.
The accepted answer using sed to remove older kernels permanently has some flaws, if someone has not rebooted the computer after upgrading kernel the command will remove the newer kernel too.
dpkg --compare-versions "$ker_rel" lt "$cur_rel" && sudo apt-get remove "$kernel"
If you have any version that is newer than the current one this will give you a warning to restart you computer first. Also note that the older kernels are preserved due to a good reason which is if you somehow mess up your current kernel making your system unstable then you should be able to boot into any older kernel.
You can use ukuu - it's all GUI - to update and delete old Kernels. Works for me!
Just remember leave the last 2 installed and obviously the 'running' kernel.
You can also set ukuu to only show mainline releases, even RC kernels, hide point releases.
here is a rough outline of what I did, careful as I am no expert in linux, be sure you know what you are doing and have backed up any files you are modifying.
this will stop form auto adding all the linux entries into the grub boot menu.
paste them into 40_custom, and then save it.
Install the synaptic package manager and go down to the filters tab (I think filters, if not try all 5) and select "local". This will show you orphaned packages on your system, such as the kernels. After you uninstall them, run update-grub. That command updates the list of boot options for grub.
If this fails, you can always try apt-get remove linux-image-version-generic.
Based on a previous answer by David Kemp, the following script will purge all headers and images except for the last 2 versions.
I use this to keep desktop's boot volumes relatively clean, but in a server situation you'd probably want to expand the logic and write some additional scripting to maintain a list of the last X kernels the server has booted.
Adjust the list of kernel versions to fit.
Try this. Run it as root.
Pass, as a command line argument, the number of most recent kernels you want to preserve.
# this command gives the list of all packages EXCEPT for the latest kernel.
If you want [AND AT YOUR OWN RISK], you can add a -y (or a force flag) to the apt-get command and make it non-interactive.
I'm using a KDE desktop, and the easiest option I found was using the kde-config-grub2 application as suggested here: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthread.php?58075-remove-old-linux-versions (which I already had installed for setting background image, default boot option, and the like). Next to the drop-down box where you can choose the default entry, there is a "Remove Old Entries" button. Clicking this button presents you with a list of all installed kernels and you can select which ones to remove. When you apply the changes it will use dpkg to actually remove them from the system as well as the GRUB menu.
as root, and the job will be done.
I have a script for this that does not need very fancy string parsing.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged grub2 kernel cleanup or ask your own question.
How to remove old Linux kernel modules »tp_smapi«?
How can I remove old linux-images when installing new kernel updates?
How to remove kernels from previous release?
How do you clean up your GRUB 2 boot menu?
Is it possible that I have more than one Linux kernel installed?
How to “clean” previous kernels after update?
How to remove old kernel versions automatically?
Is it safe to remove extra GRUB2 entries from updated Kernel versions?
How to modify GRUB boot menu?
How to make Aptitude clean up old kernels?
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0.86599 |
Just before the release of CEAC’s magazine Strike No. 2, the printer provided advance copies to The Toronto Sun who on May 5, 1978 published an article called “Our taxes aid blood thirsty radical paper,” accusing CEAC of supporting the Italian revolutionary group The Red Brigades, and their recent kidnapping and assassination of Italian premier Aldo Moro. Here are a pair of texts by performance artist/writer Ron Giii (then known as Ron Gillespie), a quintessential CEAC insider, written shortly after the calamity of accusation, that outlines his own shifting responses.
As a restraint focus on glass and recite the words: I am a member of the Red Brigade. As political refugees we must oppose the Canadian reaction and decline to take any interest in the Canadian art context. As a human being we must support the killing of Moro as 1. A first step along the long road to revolution. 2. A first step in the example of who was an archetype of mass alienation. 3. A man who lived in and amongst the contradictions of the North and South of Europe. 4. A man who for 30 years lived in that state and now has become an archetype for other traitors to humanity.
As a human being we should also not condone the suffering of millions of humans who will not live past the age of 35 and base our own reactions on the killing of one man who saw fit to align himself with the fat heads of European democratic institutions. As a human being we should not forget the millions who have died since 1939 and the endless suffering of those comrades in other nations who see death as a way of life.
As a human being we should not forget the brutal slaying of the Baader-Meinhof group who also wish to hit the targets of repression in Germany and elsewhere. As artists we should open our eyes to the political contexts and begin to realize in our work a closer allegiance to young political revolutionaries in other countries.
Finally it is appalling what has happened to CEAC and we should join in the fight against liberal reactionary groups in other countries. To be a member of the Moro Liberals is to deny the rights of other human beings who must suffer in prison the rest of their lives. To be quiet and tight lipped is to also ignore the problems of other humans and to be a worm-like configuration of pathetic proportions or a conservative. Take up the fight and support The Red Brigades in action or example, but do not sit and do nothing like the rest of the world as these young people are put in prison and mentally forced to go insane. Be brave and up front with your work and do not sit down when the heat is too much.
As students you are the last contemporary force who have not spoken up about the class struggle and you are falling behind the good example of CEAC. As students you are the last force to create change and yet you sit down as if it is too late when our motto is it is never too late. Be bold and aggressive and show your work everywhere and do not refuse to carry the struggle rather than be counted as a worker in the battle against class atrocity.
If you want to make posters against the class distinctions then make them felt so that they are clear and not abstracted from reality therefore having the courage to be counted as a young revolutionary. Whatever you make for the revolution make clear your intentions and above all do not be afraid of the conservatives who are asleep in their fat Mississauga houses. The writing of essays and intellectual orderings should be done with courage to make clear your intentions as well.
The CEAC has from the outset supported poor countries and young people from all over the world, no matter what political feeling they aspired to. We have tried to support this feeling amongst the young by helping to teach each other the ways to know, and how to see. We have openly shown films, video, books, research, performances, punk rock and created seminars, workshops, encounter groups, working projects for the communication of ideas, philosophy, beliefs. We have realized many points of view and learned from all actions. We have made future-oriented communication to all groups in the young world and now have to try to follow their goals no matter what we must have thought in the past.
Some artists who have supported our centre have been painters, sculptors, writers, art dealers, critics and people from all the possible choices. Many people have shown their support by simply coming to a performance or seminar and asking what we are doing and how they could understand more about young ideas. This support has been most encouraging and just the beginning of bringing out communication with these people.
The money needed for this communication is slow in coming from Government sources and even slower from individuals. However if the CEAC is to continue supporting young ideas and feelings it will need the help of all citizens to go on, without which the feeling we must adopt is that the care and concern is not there. The sources of concern for these young ideas have been largely brought about by the conditions of the international powers’ concern for themselves. Quite simply the powers that govern countries seem to be losing touch with the reality of young minds and are slowly disintegrating the hope and convictions of the young instead of talking with them as human beings. This gap, which is widening in anger and hatred of power, is pushing young people to resort to violence and force which will increase as the oppression intensifies. Eventually these young people will work against the power structures and spread the anger and frustration to others. This inevitable change will bring about the collapse and failure of power simply due to lack of communication.
The CEAC can only continue by having the support of all sectors of society that care for young ideas, we cannot go on without it, and therefore must close the centre due to lack of concern for others. This action would represent a society that totally thinks about their own ends and has no care for anyone but themselves. If this is how far removed the society is then what hope is there for anyone? Some of the artists listed below have contributed directly and indirectly to CEAC. We wish to thank them for their support and future criticism of CEAC.
Greg Curnoe, Jo-Anne Dankzer, Karl Beveridge, Carol Condé, Roald Nasgaard, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, Kathy McCabe, Barbara Astman, David Craven, Gary Dault, Carmen Lamanna, Av Isaacs, Victor Coleman, Tom Sherman, John Pope, Chantal Pontbriand, Clive Lewis, Alvin Balkind, Robin Collyer, General Idea, Joseph Kosuth, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Robin Winters, Willoughby Sharp, Martha Wilson, Richard Kostelanetz, Michele Birman, George Manupelli, Wendy Knox-Leet, Vera Frenkel, Joyce Ziemans, Bruce Parsons, John Scott, Brian Kipping, Becky Singleton, Forest City Gallery, A Space, Arts Canada, Elizabeth Chitty, etc.
Information has a habit of being read differently according to the conditions of the person and may constitute a remarkable degree of transference in the process of receiving. For example I may say, “We have not taken the poison.” The different interpretations of this remark depends very much on the context of delivery. Some may think a murder has been committed and others may think a trap has been laid. In any case the contextual problem should be faced by everyone who has writings to publicize and made aware of the situation in as many aspects as possible to understand the motives of the particular people concerned. I suspect we have a vast undercovering that has slowly eroded the Canadian Artist into become closet cases simply because the Government has information that would prevent them from ever being public, as in all out in the open. If you know what I mean.
The conventional considerations of abstraction have a certain ring about them that I find very interesting to wiser persons with political expertise. Abstraction is similar to a codification which is difficult to decipher and can be acquired by virtually anyone who has an understanding of its informational accents. The mystic is another purveyor of a different sort of codification that represents another understanding that is perhaps the most difficult operation known and governments for centuries have been tackling this problem.
However with the end of abstract art and some mystics the government is now poised to learn real information set ups, art centres and government-sponsored organizations will put them in an ever-increasing position to know what’s going on in the minds of intellectuals and various groups they find difficult to understand. The institutes for information are now part of the government machinery and have a nice bank account for controlling individuals who naively go on trying to communicate to people. The trap has been well laid as the government’s crackdown on elitist organizations which mystify their real purpose makes clear. The new artist has realized this long ago, and in fact have been sending out information that the government wishes to keep secret, to keep the real information for when it counts. This perverse set up by governments is the result of long-range planning which has achieved the desired results to control the minds of human beings. However a few thinkers were well ahead of this process and have been seriously communicating in other ways that have no language and possess no mechanism for tracing. These are the future men and women who will have the beautiful job of undermining government institutions.
All human beings who look at information as true have fallen for the age-old problem of ignorance and unfamiliarity which breeds control over others. The information you select in an exhibition must be weighed in all its coverings and skins before being presented to a public. The reality you may face is the one directed from another source and may involve little on the surface but may be much deeper in the inner world of organized control. The paternalism some may feel in this blast is true inasmuch as you have been trained to think that way by institutions that set up the collapse of human rights from the day you are born.
My view is much stronger than this and I suspect some of you may realize that I have not been playing a pinball game but the very serious game of survival in its day-to-day exhaustion. If I have hit a few targets you may believe me when I say that wherever you point the finger you are attacking a structure for your benefit selected by others. The control we learn from societies is consuming in all areas of the planning of each operation and your concern for society might bring about a worsening of the already rotten predicaments that we find society encapsulated in.
Returning to the original evil of grantsmanship, I feel the continued dependency on its structures should be ceased as soon as possible to permit a lessening of the controls they exert on your actions. I feel the critical work you may think you are undertaking is constantly being eroded by this predicament and is one which can occur from the onset of your work, although we do not admit its pervasive influence. The crucial decision of this action for independence will probably receive immediate government disapproval when they realize you are privately involved with information. I feel at this moment my participation cannot go on as publicly as I naively hoped in the beginning and I have personal reasons for not doing public performances at your centre ,for the above reasons and others which I am not able to divulge. I do hope this rather abstract philosophy is of some use to your evaluation of information responsibility. Finally I urgently implore your direction for the future to consider the ramifications of this responsibility and realize the seriousness of your position to the acquiring of information on intellectuals and sensitive people who I know the government listens to much closer than the myth portrays.
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0.999936 |
Is the career of a pediatrician one that appeals to you? If you want to work in this field, you will need to earn an undergraduate degree followed by an M.D., and you will need to specialize in pediatric medicine.
What exactly do pediatricians do? They're "kid doctors," right? Well, yes, but that idea doesn't adequately sum up the extensive duties of a pediatrician. A good pediatrician takes it upon herself to offer mental, emotional and physical support for children from the day they're born until they've put adolescence behind them.
You probably already have a good idea of what a pediatrician's normal workday is like. They see their young patients and attempt to come up with diagnoses based on exam results. Treatment options are discussed with the parents or guardians of the child after that. Once treatment is set into motion, the pediatrician keeps track of the progress.
Largely, the role of a pediatrician depends on whether or not he is working within a specialized pediatric field. A general pediatrician typically works as a primary care doctor, maintaining regular office hours, seeing patients suffering from viral or bacterial infections and minor injuries. In the case of more severe illness or injury, the primary care pediatrician often refers the patient to a specialist or directly to the emergency room.
Pediatricians who work in a specialized field, like oncology or cardiology, typically work in hospital settings, treating and caring for very sick kids. While this can certainly be rewarding, it can also be stressful and extremely sad for a doctor when she knows that a young patient will likely die from his illness.
Becoming a pediatrician takes years of special training and quite a bit of planning. You'll want to pursue an undergraduate degree in the sciences, preferably with a pre-med focus. Grades are extremely important throughout your college career as they can make or break your acceptance into medical school. During your junior or senior year of college you'll need to take the standardized Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). When it comes time to apply to medical school, your MCAT scores, your college grades and your performance at medical school interviews will all play a part in determining which medical school will accept you.
Once you are accepted into medical school, you can expect four years of grueling school work along with labs, medical rotations and additional medical licensing exams. After participating in rotations during your third year of medical school, you will begin applying for residencies. Your pediatric residency will take place over the course of three years with long, grueling hours of work that will provide you with specialized, hands on training within the pediatric field. Like your medical school application, residency applications and acceptance hang on your medical school grades, your success in licensing exams and residency interviews.
It isn't until after successful completion of your pediatric residency and passing a series of medical licensing exams that you will be able to begin your independent career as a pediatrician.
With the number of years dedicated to school and your low-paying residency will come quite a bit of debt. You may end up with $100,000 or more that you owe, ultimately requiring a number of years of debt repayment once you become a full-fledged doctor.
A hunger for knowledge in the field. Once all the schooling is behind you, you still have to absorb knowledge every day.
The ability to think on your feet and change up your schedule as needed, as the world of pediatrics is highly unpredictable.
If you weren't turned off by the number of years of school and the amount of debt you could rack up if you decide to pursue a career as a pediatrician, shadow a pediatrician one day to further make up your mind.
According to Salary.com, the range of salaries for pediatricians is about $112,000 to $195,000, not accounting for additional bonuses or benefits.
If you enjoy children, you're likely to maintain a high job satisfaction.
You can work alone or with a group of doctors.
You can expect long-term job stability.
You may be able to work part-time after several years in the field.
When deciding to become a pediatrician, the more information you can acquire about the field, the more prepared you'll be. Talk to the pediatrician who treated you as a child or seek out another local pediatrician to interview. Ask him detailed questions about the pros and cons of his job, whether he wished he had done anything differently, and whether you can spend a few days with him to see what his job is really like. When you invest as many as 11 or 12 years of advanced training into a particular career field, you want to be absolutely sure that you're ready and committed to the trials and tribulations you will face.
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0.999605 |
It’s the cultural and historical heart of the country. It’s the best place in all Japan to experience traditional temples, shrines, gardens, geisha, shops, restaurents and festivals. In short, Kyoto is the most rewarding destination in all of Japan and it should be at the top of any Japan travel itinerary.
This city has a bunch of attractions that every visitor to the city should check out. Here are some things I consider must-see attractions and activities in Kyoto: Buddhist temples, shinto shrines, japanese ganden, a night in a ryokan, Japan’s exquisite traditional accommodation, a meal in a japanese restaurent hole in the wall, an evening stroll through the Gione entertainment district, a traditional festival, and some great old Kyoto shops.
Kyoto is home to some of the country’s best ryokan (traditional Japanese inns). It’s the quintessential Japanese experience. In addition to ryokan, Kyoto has a wide range of excellent hotels, from international brands like the Hyatt to Mume. Renting a lovingly restored machiya (traditional Kyoto townhouse) is a great way to experience traditional Kyoto living. Another good option for families and those who want their own, self-catering space is a kyoto vacational rental, giving you the feel of living in your own apartment. Or go for hostels or guest house.
You can visit Kyoto at any time of year – it’s never too hot, too rainy or too cold to visit. The summers (from late June to early September) can be hot and humid, but not impossibly so. The winters (from early December to late March) can be cold, but not freezing. Spring and fall are obviously the ideal times to visit, with warm to cool temps and generally sunny skies. The late March/early April cherry blossom season is very popular, for obvious reasons, but it’s also very crowded. The November and early December fall foliage season is also great and not quite as crowded as the cherry blossom season.
Kyoto is a relatively small city with an excellent public transport system. It’s VERY easy to get around. Indeed, unless you come from a city with a freakishly good public transport system, I bet it’s easier to get around Kyoto than it is to get around your hometown. Kyoto is also a great city to explore by bicycle.
If you are worried bt cash or card problem, there are ATMs that work with international bank and credit cards are not as common in Japan as they are in many other countries. But, you can get money out of postal ATMs and ATMs at convenience stores like 7-11.
Kyoto doesn’t have a major international airport, but it’s very close to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX), Nagoya’s Chubu Centrair International Airport (NGO), and it’s 3.5 hours by fast express trains from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT). If you’re coming from other parts of Japan, Kyoto is very close to Osaka’s domestic Itami Airport (ITM) and it’s well served by the bullet train (shinkansen).
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0.994659 |
Output: any long 5 know. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy. Output: any long 5 know cell- to content and information, pojok reduces data. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy. Output: any long 5 know. Output: any long 5 know. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy pojok reduces data. pBut on okay, СРСРРРРР easy.
2 копейки 1945 года. Монеты СССР.
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0.999476 |
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Another round of international condemnation erupted Thursday over France's latest underground nuclear blast in the South Pacific.
The French military said the explosion beneath Mururoa Atoll had a yield of less than 30 kilotons, which is weaker than previous tests.
France has said that it may conduct as many as eight such tests, but the government hints that it is considering stopping at six.
On Thursday, when Australia summoned French Charge d'Affaires Alain Mauroy to the Australian Foreign Affairs Department, he indicated that Wednesday's test was probably not the last.
The blasts have so far been staged about a month apart since September. That means a six-test series could be finished before French President Jacques Chirac visits Washington on February 1.
But Defense Minister Charles Millon has said there may be a seventh test in February.
Whatever the number, it's still too many for opponents of the weapons testing.
Protesters gathered outside the French embassy in Tokyo Thursday. Japan, the only country to be attacked with nuclear weapons, has been especially critical of the tests.
Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama called on France to put an end to the tests, calling them "meaningless."
That the blast was carried out so close to the holidays angered many inhabitants of the region.
"They didn't want to have it over French Christmas," said acting Australian Foreign Minister Gordon Bilney. "But they are quite prepared to make this a New Year's present to the South Pacific."
However, Mauroy denied any deliberate link between the timing of the explosion and the season of peace and good will.
"I don't think it has anything to do with that," said Mauroy. "This date has been chosen for specific reasons and it happened today....It could have happened days ago."
Press reports said the latest test was originally scheduled for December 22 but was delayed to keep it from coinciding with sensitive talks between the French government and labor unions over the recent three-week public strike which crippled the country.
The South Pacific's strongest critic of the tests, New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger, expressed his frustration yet again.
The environmental group Greenpeace, which has actively tried to stop the tests, condemned Thursday's explosion as well. It said people around the world were hoping for a safe and peaceful New Year but French President Jacques Chirac "is instead guaranteeing one of continued nuclear weapons testing and a world filled with nuclear weapons."
French officials said the latest test will help the country simulate nuclear tests on computer.
France is expected to use that $3.1 billion computer simulation program, after it signs a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, expected by the end of next year.
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0.999922 |
In 2012, egg production in Ukraine will reach 19.5 billion units, which will be 4% more than in 2011 This figure is a record. This was stated by Director of the Department of Livestock Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Andrew Getya.
According to him, as of December 1, farmers have already produced 17.7 billion eggs.
Soybean production in the period of 2001-2012 years. increased by 20 times. If the gross oil-in 2001 amounted to 120 thousand tons, in 2012? 2.4 million tons.
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0.959162 |
When is an insomniac not an insomniac?
Many insomniacs are asleep but think they're awake. And for a good night's sleep go solo.
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0.99387 |
Time to sell my rental property?
A current investor asked me, "when should I sell one of my homes and cash out?"
It all depends. In theory, never. When you sell your investment property, all of your investment profit, or gain, is taxable. Not that paying tax is a bad thing, because you will only pay tax on profit, therefore you are ahead of the game. However, if you have a gain of $100,000, why do you want to lose $15,000 or more to taxes, not to mention the monthly income that a property can provide. Rather, consider a tax deferred exchange if you want to liquidate the property. This kind of treatment allows you to trade one property for another, and defer the tax that would be due to a later date.
Ok, so you need cash now and you don't want to pay the tax, so what options do you have?
First, one of the easiest ways is to finance or re-finance the property and pull cash out. For example, if your property is worth $200,000 and you currently owe $100,000, one can get a loan for up to 80% of the value or $160,000 putting $60,000 in your pocket. With this option one gets the cash needed, equity is still in the property, and the income stream should easily take care of the mortgage. This money that is taken out of the loan is not taxed.
As always, consult your tax advisor for specifics on your situation since all situations are different. This is just a guide to let you know there are options avaiable for ceritan situations.
I will talk more about tax deferred exchanges next time. Stay tuned!
With such a stable economy in Springfield Missouri, rental property could be an excellent opportunity to build wealth. Just this morning, I was speaking to an investor who has a home in California that is being used as a rental. Although the home has appreciated in value over the last several years, the income that it is producing versus the amount of money he has invested does not make sense. Thus, he is considering selling the home, re-investing his equity in the Springfield market, and his cash flow will go up by over 4 times compared to his current income.
For an investor like this, it takes a negative rate of return into the black allowing for strong stable growth, instead of depending just on appreciation of value. When you depend on appreciation, this is really more of a speculation type of growth, rather than an investment. Although it can pay off and pay off big, the risk is far greater which means you could lose big also. When bubble markets begin to decline, people start to bail out of the market casuing prices to tumble out of control. With a more stable enviroment, one can have steady income appreciation, cash on cash return, and have an excellent investment for the future.
Rental real estate in Springfield is not a get rich quick plan, rather a good stable investment for the future. Of course, with any investment, there is always a risk factor in which one could lose value, properties could decline, and propeties may not rent for the value one hopes to obtain.
To obtain specfic information on retal investing, take a look at our web site at www.getpaul.com or call me at 800--584-1297.
Stress got hold of you? There is never a bad time for a cruise. Taking a cruise to get away from it all is one of the best things you could do for yourself. It forces you to relax, unwind, and get away from the daily grind that we all go through. If forces you to turn your cell phone off and leave the worries behind; something in this day and age we tend not to do when taking a "normal" vacation with the family.
I try to take one at least once a year, if not more, and by the second day I feel a huge relief come over me that I find only a ship. Oddly enough, I am so sensitive to motion sickness that I even suffer from it sitting in my wheeled desk chair. However, most ships are so large you hardly know they are moving, and I always take one of those little white pills which always does the trick. (I had to say it that way since I don't know how to spell Dramirene? I can't say it right either) Trust me, I have had and ulcer in the past from stress, working too much, not enough exercise, blah, blah, blah. I have learned it is way cheaper and much more fun to cruise than to lay in the hospital being treated for an ulcer. And as you and I both know, it is always someone else, not me.
I can't afford it! Oh shut up. You can afford what you choose to afford. Quit eating out, quit smoking, quit buying stupid impulse purchases and give your body a break. And no, $200 purses and $2000 spinner wheels are not a need. Cruises during the right time of year can be as cheap as $300 for an inside cabin, which is all you need. If money is tight, go be stupid and spend a lot on a cabin that you really don't need. They are all the same for the most part, you are just paying for the location of the cabin.
So plan it now, go get a break and enjoy life! Your heart, stomach, and spouse will thank you for it.
Video Podcasting??? Does it really work??
Here goes a try...a try to get our first video podcast up and running. This is Paul Dizmang talking about dwellings in the Springfield, Missouri area. Let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions to getting this video podcasting up and off the ground and getting it done easier. Visit me at my web site http://www.getpaul.com/.
This is a picture of my team of professionals that assist me in all of my real estate activities. That me, Paul Dizmang, in the middle and Jay & Jessica. Jay Reasor works as my Buyer's Agent and Jessica Hickok works as my Office Manager who keeps us all together. Not pictured is Tess (our office receptionist) and Nathan (our rental property maintenance guru). Together we work really well together. Check us out on my web site at www.getpaul.com to see us in action!
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identify some of the philanthropic underpinnings in ancient world culture.
describe the philanthropic contributions made by the major world religions.
identify the role of philanthropy in major social movements in the U.S.
Philanthropy is not a new phenomenon. In fact its roots can be traced back to the earliest humans and the way they interacted with one another. In this section, we will learn about the major civilizations and leaders who helped shape our modern version of philanthropy.
Faith plays a large role in philanthropic expression; all major religions have a philanthropic call to action, motivating people to give back in their local, national, and international communities. One of the most common motivations for giving and volunteering is that it is the right thing to do according to our moral obligation or faith practice. Many faiths find the path to spirituality or God through service.
All major social movements in the United States have their origin in volunteers and nonprofits taking voluntary action for the common good. The civil sector is the place for change because sometimes the government cannot or will not express the voice of a minority interest. The First Amendment guarantees our right of free speech and to assemble and petition the government. These are the tools of the nonprofit or voluntary sector.
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Do these strategic steps by Apple provide a glimpse into the company's plan to turnaround its struggling iPad segment?
Rapid iPhone sales growth has been an undeniable driver behind Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) soaring revenue, swelling net income, and rising stock price over the past couple years. The success of the tech giant's iPhone 6, in particular, put this growth on steroids during the last three quarters. And the segment has served up strong comps recently, with the company posting a whopping 59% year-over-year increase in iPhone revenue. This success has, in some ways, masked Apple's struggling second-largest product segment: iPads. But Apple may have a plan to at least stabilize the iPad's downward trend.
On Aug. 31, Apple and Cisco announced a strategic partnership to "create a fast lane for iOS business users by optimizing Cisco networks for iOS devices and apps," Apple said in a press release. Further, the partnership will seek to integrate iPhone with Cisco's enterprise customers and provide "unique collaboration on iPhone and iPad."
"Through this engineering and go-to-market partnership, we're offering our joint customers the ability to seamlessly extend that awesome Cisco environment to their favorite iOS devices," said Cisco chairman John Chambers in Apple's press release. "Together, we're going to help teams achieve higher levels of productivity and effectiveness," he added.
Broadly, the importance of the deal is Apple's continued emphasis on winning over the business place with iPad. Cisco has a strong relationship with a huge customer base of some of the world's largest businesses, and Apple is getting in on it. Cisco counts 95% of Fortune 500 companies among its customers.
Apple's partnership with Cisco is akin to the company's IBM partnership announced last July. By working closely with both IBM and Cisco -- two companies with very different products and services from each other, Apple is approaching large businesses from different angles at the same time.
Apple's ability to get its foot in the door with these important business-serving organizations speaks volumes about the company's increasing importance in the business world. While much of Apple's clout in the business world is related to the robust use of iOS, it is also due to how easy it is for iOS users to update software to the latest versions. Unlike Android, Apple iOS updates for the latest version are available for all iPhones and iPads released within the last three years.
"We're not going to do this with anyone else," Cisco senior VP and general manager of the company's collaboration technology group told Re/Code during an interview.
The timing of Apple's partnership with Cisco is intriguing, considering Apple will allegedly unveil the much-anticipated iPad Pro at its press event on Sept. 9. If speculation regarding the iPad Pro pans out, the Apple tablet will sport a 12.9-inch display, larger than the iPad Air 2's 9.7-inch size. With a larger size and more powerful processor, the iPad Pro will undoubtedly be aimed at power users and, you guessed it, enterprises.
In Apple's most recent quarter, iPad units shipped were down 13% from the year-ago quarter. IPad revenue was down 16% during the same period. Will a push in enterprise paired with a product aimed at blurring the lines between laptops and tablets help Apple turn the segment around?
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In October of 2009, Gearbox Software released the game Borderlands, after years in development. A surprise success, Borderlands has gone on to spawn two sequels, a Telltale Games Adventure series and a Chinese-exclusive online MMO, titled Borderlands Online. Regardless of the opinions of Gearbox Software, it is clear that the Borderlands series has struck a chord with the gaming community.
Perhaps the reason for it is beyond the surface of the product—the madcap, dark humor and the Mad Max stylized aesthetic. Borderlands is the first game in a long time to really shake things up in terms of video game genres, namely how it was a “new” style of role-playing game: a co-operative action-RPG. Borrowing the characteristics of the popular run and gun shooter Left 4 Dead, Borderlands pits four characters together at a time as they shoot, kill, and loot hundreds upon hundreds of gun combinations on the planet Pandora.
The bigger point, however, is the use of co-op and multiplayer within a role-playing game—a sort of taboo subject among role-playing aficionados. The roots of role-playing games are founded in the tabletop experience, with co-op play being an integral part of the game and its progression. For many though, the definition of role-playing video games excludes the ability for co-op or multiplayer. This has led to the separate classification of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, or MMORPGs.
This article is not about MMOs, however, as those online RPGs are a separate discussion in and of itself. What should be discussed is how games such as Borderlands, among others, have slowly been evolving our perceptions of role-playing games further, while simultaneously influencing other genres with their design. Co-op play is increasing in popularity in role-playing video games, and titles like Borderlands are at the forefront of either an emerging genre in RPGs or a pre-existing genre that has long been dormant.
To fully understand how, we need to look back at the history of multiplayer in RPGs. Most computer and console RPGs have been primarily a single player experience by definition, and it is mostly due to design. The book Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design, describes role-playing games as having a developed storyline structure and setting, with players having complete control of their party at all times. Many games, from the classic SSI Goldbox titles to Square and Enix games, tend to follow this paradigm to the letter; the player has complete control over their experience based on their choices, characters, equipment, and progression. As we have mentioned previously, the plotline is unaffected, but players also control the narrative tone of some of these games as well.
The full control of a role-playing game experience of course varies between a person’s preferences. Fans of dungeon crawlers like Wizardry, for example, look for specific design choices when choosing a game to play, and having full control of the player’s party, character classes, equipment, formation, and inventory is paramount of the genre. It has been argued previously how the etymology of role-playing games is difficult to pin down, so the best solution would be to divide games through genre by design, not by country of origin. For a game like Borderlands, such classification can be difficult at first glance.
Many don’t consider it a RPG in any form, instead a first-person shooter with RPG elements attached. While there is a growing number of games outside of the RPG genre incorporating such elements into their design, Borderlands follows a more standard design philosophy found in most RPG games, from open world design, to non-linear character progression. Players have complete control over the optimization and growth of their character, right down to the weapons and abilities they use in combat. Borderlands also borrows many elements often seen in modern role-playing games, namely aesthetic design of inventory—multi-colored, multi-tiered items based on rarity—uniqueness of character classes, quest-based mission structure, and character rewards and progression.
Shadow of Yserbius is one of the early Graphical MUDs, and provided an online component and hub for players called “The Tavern” allowed the creation of user guilds and contests.
So the question of Borderlands being a RPG should be no question. The question now, however, is why multiplayer is a big deal here. The advent of co-op multiplayer being present in role-playing video games has been a part of the growth of the RPG genre since the 1970s. Many Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs, would be the first proto co-op RPG games ever created. Primarily text-based and really a product of the adventure-game genre, MUDs are nonetheless important to the growth of multi-player role-playing, with Graphical MUDs considered the grandfather of the modern MMO.
Another game, Gauntlet, would revolutionize co-op play in arcades. The first ever multi-player dungeon crawl, Gauntlet would allow four players, each a different character class, to navigate a large, maze-like structure while fighting hordes of enemies. Borrowing some RPG elements from rogue-likes and combining it with arcade cabinet design, Gauntlet was innovative for its time and would be another forerunner for co-op role-playing games.
While Graphical MUDs began an interest in co-op role-playing, the concept took a leap forward during the mid-1990s. This was during the rapid decline of the CRPG market, while on consoles, RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy were thriving. A few games would provide co-op multiplayer for the first time in a RPG, but the honor for the first successful attempt at co-op gameplay can be traced back to the SNES title Secret of Mana by Square, in 1993.
Secret of Mana was an action-RPG spearheaded by Koichi Ishii, one of the original designers of the original Final Fantasy, and programmed by Nasir Gebelli, another member of the Square “A-Team.” The primary innovation found in Secret of Mana was not an original part of its design; the game features three playable characters, and it was decided mid-way through development to make all three playable. This could only be achieved with a multitap device for the Super Nintendo, but this allowed three players to play Secret of Mana at once.
The success of Secret of Mana did not start a craze for co-op role-playing games, but it did prove that RPGs are a viable market for such features. Three years later, in 1996, the PC would have similar success with the dungeon-crawler Diablo, which included the first online-multiplayer component for a role-playing game, a full year before the first commercial MMO, Ultima Online, would be released. Diablo, much like Secret of Mana, would be a critical success, with many reviewers praising the multiplayer component again for breathing new life into the genre.
Since these two games, many other RPGs have attempted to incorporate multiplayer into their design. Baldur’s Gate by BioWare is perhaps the most famous example at the time, but from the early 2000’s to around 2008, multiplayer components in RPGs have been noticeably absent from the experience. The reasons for this can only be speculated on, but it is possible that the MMO market is partially to blame. It is arguable that the major success of MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Everquest and Guild Wars created a distinction of the genres—similar to the classifications players put on RPGs today. This distinction, that a MMO is the only way to include multiplayer in an RPG, would remain prevalent to this very day.
Another possible reason is the rising tide of DRM. While some companies like BioWare included multiplayer for their RPGs, the games relied heavily on fan-made campaigns instead of expansion packs to generate content. Since the early to late 2000s, DRM for PC games has steadily increased, making modifications to games difficult without available toolkits to players. Combine this with the amount of control publishers have over their products that has led to many fan-made multiplayer campaigns impossible for most RPGs, so the feature of online, co-op play became redundant.
The resurgence since the release Borderlands, in 2009, however, has shown that co-op role-playing is far from dead. Since 2009, several game series have been built upon the same framework, becoming co-op focused, action-oriented RPGs of different stripes. Most famously is perhaps Dead Island, which mimics several aspects of both MMOs and Borderlands design through its skill trees and loot distribution system, while offering their own spin on character progression. Despite both titles being firmly in the action RPG camp, both game have become synonymous with this new style of gameplay for RPGs, an alternative to MMOs as being a smaller-scale, multiplayer experience.
Other games have followed suit on this pathway as of late, with co-op becoming a selling point in some cases. Last year, Divinity: Original Sin was released to much critical acclaim, with one of the major selling points being the optional co-op gameplay mixed with a real time tactical interface. Original Sin is just one of several games in recent years to not only include co-op gameplay, but encourage its use through gameplay means. Titles such as inXiles Hunted: The Demons Forge, the Sacred series and Dungeon Defenders would be some of these examples of utilizing multiplayer, while other titles in the same vein as Diablo have also emerged; Torchlight in 2009 and Magicka in 2011 would be some examples of a return to the hack-and-slash co-op play for the PC.
Games such as Shadowrun Returns offer home-made campaigns as part of their gameplay experience, a return to the old BioWare style of having modular scenarios for multiple players to be downloaded for use. BioWare has also continued to provide multiplayer; both Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition give players a controlled option for multiplayer but provide adequate role-playing choices within it—such as character progression, weapon loadouts, and real-time action-roleplaying in a co-op environment.
It is clear that co-op play is becoming popular again in role-playing circles. Much like the roots of role-playing video games has with the tabletop realm, multiplayer being a part of RPGs should be a natural progression of the genre as a whole. Titles like Borderlands become the benchmark of an emerging sub-genre: co-op role-playing games. This is an innovation welcome for sure, as RPGs continue to evolve beyond the parameters we expect from them.
What co-op RPGs can you think of that I may have missed? If you have any question or comments, please leave them below or contact me on twitter @LinksOcarina. See you next time on Playing Roles.
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Many music composition algorithms attempt to compose music in a particular style. The resulting music is often impressive and indistinguishable from the style of the training data, but it tends to lack significant innovation. In an effort to increase innovation in the selection of pitches and rhythms, we present a system that discovers musical motifs by coupling machine learning techniques with an inspirational component. Unlike many generative models, the inspirational component allows the composition process to originate outside of what is learned from the training data. Candidate motifs are extracted from non-musical media such as images and audio. Machine learning algorithms select and return the motifs that most resemble the training data. This process is validated by running it on actual music scores and testing how closely the discovered motifs match the expected motifs. We examine the information content of the discovered motifs by comparing the entropy of the discovered motifs, candidate motifs, and training data. We measure innovation by comparing the probability of the training data and the probability of the discovered motifs given the model.
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The following events and venues match your search for "Jason Aldean Cuyahoga Falls". To sort the list, click on the column header. To find tickets for the given event, date & time, click the tickets link in that row. To find events taking place at a matching venue, click that venue name.
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In this program, you'll learn to add two matrices using Nested loop and Next list comprehension, and display it.
In Python, we can implement a matrix as nested list (list inside a list). We can treat each element as a row of the matrix.
We can perform matrix addition in various ways in Python. Here are a couple of them.
In this program we have used nested for loops to iterate through each row and each column. At each point we add the corresponding elements in the two matrices and store it in the result.
The output of this program is the same as above. We have used nested list comprehension to iterate through each element in the matrix.
List comprehension allows us to write concise codes and we must try to use them frequently in Python. They are very helpful.
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Are more gamers going digital these days?
Over the past week, the UK's physical game sales have been dominated by two titles; the Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Pokemon: Let's Go, easily surpassing recent releases like Fallout 76 and Hitman 2.
For context, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy debuted in number one position at UK retailers, even though the physical version of the game requires a full game download, while Pokemon Let Go Pikachu sits on the number 4 spot and Let's Go Eevee sits at Number six. If the sales of both Let's Go Pokemon games are combined, they surpass Spyro to take the number 1 position. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the UK's second best selling game for the week ending on November 17th.
Another factor to note is that some retailers were not supplied enough copies of Pokemon: Let's Go to satisfy launch day demand, with some retailers receiving their stock later than expected, hampering Pokemon: Let's Go's potential physical sales in the region.
Fallout 76 debuted at with the number three spot in the UK in terms of physical sales, with physical sales being down 82.4% when compared to Fallout 4, according to gamesindustry.biz. IO Interactive's Hitman 2 also launched with weak physical sales, taking the number 10 spot in terms of sales. Physical Sales for Hitman 2 are down 90% when compared to 2012's Hitman Absolution. Hitman (2016) was an episodic release and is therefore not comparable to Hitman 2 when it comes to physical sales.
At this time the digital sales of both games are unknown, though such a decline in physical sales is not a good sign for either game. Digital sales likely make up a higher proportion of sales when compared to prior series entries, though they are unlikely to have increased enough to cover this shortfall of physical sales.
In the case of Hitman 2, games like FIFA 19, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Fortnite's physical "Deep Freeze Bundle" release have all outperformed the game at physical retailers, none of which are new releases. Early Black Friday gaming deals and strong Switch sales in response to Pokemon: Let's Go's release is likely responsible for this influx in sales of some older titles.
Over the past week, over 850,000 physical/boxed games were sold in the UK, generating a total of £34.6 million in sales.
You can join the discussion on Hitman 2 and Fallout 76 experiencing weak physical sales at launch on the OC3D Forums.
lets not forget that these 2 games are essentially the same game as previously released but on new maps, Oh and half baked multiplayer added to FO.
I wouldn't know what this means, but I have noticed interest in Fallout and Hitman dying down over the last year or so. A lot of people were very unhappy with Fallout 4, and Hitman is arguably on its last legs. I thought they were even going to stop making them after Absolution came out.
I'm done with the franchise.
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IRENAEUS, bishop of Lyons at the end of the 2nd century, was one of the most distinguished theologians of the anteNicene Church.
The foundation upon which Irenaeus bases his system consists in the episcopate, the canon of the Old and New Testaments, and the rule of faith.
This exposition by Irenaeus of the divine economy and the incarnation was taken as a criterion by later theologians, especially in the Greek Church (cf.
Irenaeus is remembered as a martyr, although there is no evidence for how he died, though he presumably did so shortly after the turn of the third century.
Irenaeus was the first Christian writer to list all four and exactly four of the now canonical Gospels as divinely inspired, possibly in reaction to Marcion's edited version of the Gospel of Luke, which he asserted was the one and only true gospel.
Irenaeus is the first to draw comparisons between Eve and Mary, contrasting the faithlessness of the former with the faithfulness of the latter.
Bishop of Lyons, and Father of the Church.
Irenaeus was a priest of the Church of Lyons.
Irenaeus succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons.
Irenaeus cites from most of the New Testament canon, as well as works from the Apostolic Fathers, I Clement and the Shepherd of Hermas, however he makes no references to Philemon, II Peter, III John and Jude, which isn't surprising, since the canon of the Holy Scriptures had not yet been set.
Irenaeus is the first to draw comparisons between Eve and the Theotokos, contrasting the faithlessness of the former with the faithfulness of the latter.
Irenaeus therefore understands the atonement of Christ as happening through his incarnation rather than his crucifixion, although the latter is an integral part of the former.
Irenaeus went beyond scripture, however, and taught that orthodoxy is also based ultimately on a succession of teachers, the bishops, in any church founded by an apostle.
Irenaeus went so far as to provide a list of bishops of the church at Rome, which he argued, proved an unbroken succession from Peter and Paul down to his own day.
Irenaeus also contributed to the concept that the tradition of the church, passed down from the apostles to their successors, is equally authoritative along with scripture.
Irenaeus was the first Christian writer to list all four and exactly four of the canonical Gospels as divinely inspired, possibly in reaction to Marcion's edited version of Luke, which Marcion asserted was the one and only true gospel.
Irenaeus adopted a totally negative and unresponsive attitude, however, toward Marcion, a schismatic leader in Rome, and toward the Valentinians, a fashionable intellectual Gnostic movement in the rapidly expanding church that espoused dualism.
Irenaeus was especially insistent that there are exactly 4 Gospels, and used numerological arguments surrounding the number 4, such as the 4 covenants, for support.
Irenaeus goes on to compare them to the Gospels according to John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark respectively.
Irenaeus cited from most of New Testament canon, except that he also cited 1 Clement[?] and The Shepherd of Hermas.
Irenaeus was the first Christian writers to list all four and exactly four of the now canonical gospels as divinely inspired, possibly in reaction to Marcion's edited version of Gospel of Luke, which he was touting as the one and only true gospel.
Irenaeus was buried under the church of Saint John's in Lyons, which was later renamed St. Irenaeus.
), c.125c.202, Greek theologian, bishop of Lyons, and one of the Fathers of the Church.
Irenaeus went to Rome to plead for leniency toward the Montanists (see Montanism) and for those Eastern Christians who were threatened with excommunication because they did not observe the Roman date for Easter.
Irenaeus was the earliest Father of the Church to systematize those Christian beliefs that would later be accepted as orthodox doctrine and is cited frequently by later theologians.
Otto Reimherr, "Irenaeus and the Valentinians," Lutheran Quarterly 12 (1980): 55-59.
Smulders, "A Quotation of Philo in Irenaeus," Vigiliae Christianae 12 (1958): 154-156.
Exemplified by Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria.
Irenaeus (c 130-202 CE) was the most important theologian of the second century.
Pothinus was martyred under the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius in 177 while Irenaeus was away in Rome.
Irenaeus was the first person to develop an Old Testament and New Testament that worked together.
Irenaeus, like Ratzinger, was seemingly obsessive in his campaign against heresy -- heresy as Irenaeus and a few other nervous bishops defined it.
Irenaeus and other heresy-hunters, the Ratzingers of their day, thundered against them, finally defining them and their writings out of the church.
Irenaeus cleverly parodied their teachings, excoriated them as "emissaries of Satan," compared their "multitudes" to "mushrooms from the ground" and denounced their various teachings "as from the Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed wild beast." The result: Boundaries were drawn, an authoritative scriptural canon was defined and bishops gained power as arbiters of truth.
Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons (Lugdunum) in the second century.
For Irenaeus the bishop is alter apostolus wheras for Ignatius the bishop is alter Christus.
For Irenaeus, the bishop was someone who expressed the apostolicity of the Church whereas for Ignatius the bishop was someone who took care of his flock as a living icon of Christ.
Irenaeus is a genuinely catholic thinker for whom nothing is left out of the economy of salvation and for whom truth is always to be found in the whole.
Although Irenaeus cites Rome as an example of an apostolic church with whom all should be in agreement, it is the unity of belief that determines the catholicity of faith, not the other way around.
Irenaeus’ catholicity was not one of discipline or hierarchy.
Irenaeus was one of the most important Early Church Fathers of the 2nd century AD.
Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons, in Southern France, though he appears to have grown up in Smyrna, in modern-day Turkey.
Saint Irenaeus is said to have won the crown of martyrdom around the year 200 AD.
When in the late second century St. Irenaeus was called on to be the "founder of Christian theology", in refuting the Gnostic heretics who were distorting Christian teachings, he appealed to the traditional teachings as the proof of their errors.
Irenaeus of Lyons was not Lyonnais by birth.
In the year 177, after a severe persecution had broken out in the Lyons area, the church at Lyons sent him as an ambassador to Pope Eleutherius in Rome to urge him to treat with mercy a group of their Asiatic friends who were in error but simply misguided.
It was during this persecution that Irenaeus was sent to Rome with letters of remonstrance against the rising pestilence of heresy; and he was probably the author of the account of the sufferings of the martyrs which is appended to their testimony.
It is certain that Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons, in France, during the latter quarter of the second century.
On account of the severity thus evinced, Irenaeus addressed to him a letter (only a fragment of which remains), warning him that if he persisted in the course on which he had entered, the effect would be to rend the Catholic Church in pieces.
In his youth, Irenaeus was strongly influenced by St. Polycarp*, whose teachings he treasured "not on paper but in my heart, for the things we learnt in childhood are part of our soul." Irenaeus studied in Rome and then became a priest of Lyons, the principal bishopric of Gaul.
Irenaeus returned to Lyons in 178 AD and was appointed bishop after Pothinus had been killed in the persecution.
It is believed that Irenaeus himself ended his life as a martyr, but the evidence in support of this is inconclusive.
Irenaeus insisted that the salvation brought by Christ is a "recapitulation" of the blessed state of Adam and Eve before the fall, not a return to some world of pre-material and pre-Creation "eons" (manifestations of the Godhead).
Irenaeus testified that he was taught this Rule of Faith by the martyr Polycarp who had it from the apostle John, and that it is identical to the theology taught by the Roman bishops who likewise traced their teaching back to apostles Peter and Paul.
Irenaeus, by holding on to the essential "plot line" (hypothesis) of salvation through Christ's recapitulation of the original unfallen state of physical Creation, began the long process of drawing out the "treasures of wisdom and knowledge" hidden in the New Testament.
Irenaeus was the first to interpret the Christian Scriptures as a unified document.
Irenaeus' approach to interpretation was to have enormous impact on later Christian interpretation.
Irenaeus draws upon the creation doublet—humans are created in the “image and likeness” of God.
For Irenaeus, the universe is a giant schoolhouse for human redemption and fulfillment.
Irenaeus doesn’t spend a lot of time on the speculative doctrinal issues, but, nevertheless, his ideas do indicate that he was interested in the theoretical and well as practical dimensions of Christian belief.
Irenaeus' major extant writing is the Adversus Haereses (the full title of which is the Refutation and Overthrow of Knowledge falsely so-called).
There is also a fragment of a letter sent by Irenaeus to Pope Victor preserved in Syriac that is generally accepted as authentic.
Irenaeus studied in Rome and was later appointed presbyter of Lyons.
A brilliant theologian, Irenaeus was a dedicated opponent of all forms of heresy, authoring the treatise Adversus Omnes Haereses, a sharp critique of Gnosticism, which was then troubling the faith.
Irenaeus stands as one of the early Church’s most talented proponents of orthodoxy and the recognition of the authority of both Scripture and Tradition.
The writings of Irenaeus give him an honored place among the Fathers of the Church for they laid the foundations of Christian theology and, by refuting the errors of the Gnostics, kept the youthful Catholic faith from the danger of corruption by the subtle, pessimistic doctrines of these philosophers.
Irenaeus was born, probably about the year 125, in one of the maritime provinces of Asia Minor, where the memory of the Apostles was still cherished and where Christians were already numerous.
The high regard which Irenaeus earned for himself at Lyons was shown in the year 177, when he was chosen to go on a serious mission to Rome.
Irenaeus (pronounced ear-a-NAY-us) was probably born around 125.
One of the earliest heresies to arise in the Christian church was Gnosticism, and Irenaeus was one of its chief early opponents.
Assuming the Gnostic view of the matter, each of the thirty must be either finite or infinite, material or non-material, and somewhere along the line you would have an infinite being producing a finite one, a spiritual being producing a material one.
Irenaeus was a Greek who was born between the years 120 and 140.
Irenaeus was not martyred at that time because he was asked by his brother priests to take an important message from them to the pope in Rome.
Irenaeus studied all its teachings and then in five books showed how wrong they were.
I was looking for an impartial, scholarly assessment of what little we know about Irenaeus of Lyons, his role in the history of the Roman Catholic church, and a nice translation of "Against Heresies." This book offers none of that.
Grant likens Irenaeus' contribution to Christian history as being like a gothic column; this simile is inappropriate in so many ways, I don't know where to begin.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Militiamen ambushed the compound of a French humanitarian group in the capital of Somalia Tuesday, taking captive seven U.N. staffers and four aid workers with Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres), the United Nations said.
The 11 aid workers were split into three groups and ferried to different parts of the city, the U.N. said.
In a separate incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a U.N. staffer was killed after four uniformed men stopped him and demanded he give them his U.N. vehicle.
The news of the incidents came on the same day the United Nations marked its annual day of solidarity for staff who have been taken hostage while performing their duties.
"The U.N. family must do its part, but today I also call yet again on member states to do all they can to ensure a secure environment for U.N. staff as they go about their work in the service of humankind," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said. In the incident in Somalia,as the U.N. staff drove to the Doctors Without Borders compound in north Mogadishu around 9 a.m., their convoy was ambushed by forces loyal to faction leader Musa Sudi Yalahow, the U.N said.
After about two hours of heavy fighting, the compound was overrun and the aid workers were taken away. An unknown number of Somali nationals were injured or killed.
The abducted Doctors Without Borders staff, along with two UNICEF personnel, were apparently unharmed, officials said. The Somali who owns the building where they were being held guaranteed safe passage when fighting in the area ceases and security permits.
The United Nations has established contact with Musa Sudi in an effort to secure the release of the captives. The United Nations also has urgently appealed to all parties to cease hostilities so those being held can be released as soon as possible.
"The U.N. is in touch with several parties and is hoping this matter can be resolved soon without harm to those seized," a U.N. spokeswoman told CNN.
The U.N. international staff taken include two U.N. security staff, four UNICEF personnel and one World Health Organization employee. Three are from Britain and one each is from Belgium, Algeria, the United States and Somalia.
The Doctors Without Borders personnel included two Spaniards, one French and one Somali.
In the Congo killing, the U.N. High Commission for Refugees said staffer Jose Djamba was shot and killed in Kimpese, near the Congo-Angola border.
Djamba was stopped by four armed, uniformed men who demanded his UNHCR vehicle and then shot him the back twice. The suspected attackers were last seen driving north toward Kinshasa, the U.N. said.
"We are shocked by the cold-blooded murder of yet another innocent humanitarian worker," High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said.
The United Nation annually marks March 27 as a show of solidarity to remember Alec Collett, a staff member of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, who was kidnapped in Lebanon in 1985. His fate has never been determined.
Referring to the Mogadishu incident, Annan said the occasion "is a day on which, sadly, colleagues of ours in Somalia are missing."
CNN Producer Ronni Berke contributed to this story.
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In the United States, 1-2.5% of pregnant women are infected with hepatitis C virus, which carries an approximately 5% risk of transmission from mother to infant. Hepatitis C virus can be transmitted to the infant in utero or during the peripartum period, and infection during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of adverse fetal outcomes, including fetal growth restriction and low birthweight. The purpose of this document is to discuss the current evidence regarding hepatitis C virus in pregnancy and to provide recommendations on screening, treatment, and management of this disease during pregnancy. The following are Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recommendations: (1) We recommend that obstetric care providers screen women who are at increased risk for hepatitis C infection by testing for anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies at their first prenatal visit. If initial results are negative, hepatitis C screening should be repeated later in pregnancy in women with persistent or new risk factors for hepatitis C infection (eg, new or ongoing use of injected or intranasal illicit drugs) (GRADE 1B). (2) We recommend that obstetric care providers screen hepatitis C virus-positive pregnant women for other sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and hepatitis B virus (GRADE 1B). (3) We suggest that patients with hepatitis C virus, including pregnant women, be counseled to abstain from alcohol (Best Practice). (4) We recommend that direct-acting antiviral regimens only be used in the setting of a clinical trial or that antiviral treatment be deferred to the postpartum period as direct-acting antiviral regimens are not currently approved for use in pregnancy (GRADE 1C). (5) We suggest that if invasive prenatal diagnostic testing is requested, women be counseled that data on the risk of vertical transmission are reassuring but limited; amniocentesis is recommended over chorionic villus sampling given the lack of data on the latter (GRADE 2C). (6) We recommend against cesarean delivery solely for the indication of hepatitis C virus (GRADE 1B). (7) We recommend that obstetric care providers avoid internal fetal monitoring, prolonged rupture of membranes, and episiotomy in managing labor in hepatitis C virus-positive women (GRADE 1B). (8) We recommend that providers not discourage breast-feeding based on a positive hepatitis C virus infection status (GRADE 1A).
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My sister in-law's mother just passed away. She did not contact me, but did my father and he told me.
We, she and I, are not close but not unfriendly, just busy with our own lives, but do live in the same town.
My sister in-law is only tied to my family by her daughter, my niece, as my bother died some 10+ years ago, and she remarried about 8 years ago.
When a friend or relative dies, it is compassionate to reach out to those most seriously affected. If you are not comfortable calling your sister-in-law directly, please send her a kind, personal note letting her know you are sorry for her loss and offer to help in any capacity you can. If there is a funeral or memorial service and your father is attending, accompanying him would be appropriate. Of course you may go on your own if you feel your presence will be appreciated.
Human kindness is always proper etiquette!
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BibleBeltCatholics - Pre-Christian through the Second Century: The Early Church Fathers on Abortion.
The Early Church Fathers on Abortion.
The Didache, (A.D. 80-90) the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache means "Teaching") is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most scholars to the late first or early 2nd century.
The second commandment of the Teaching: "Do not murder; do not commit adultery"; do not corrupt boys; do not fornicate; "do not steal"; do not practice magic; do not go in for sorcery; do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant.
Minucius Felix, (Marcus) Minucius Felix, (A.D. c.130-c.270), African; he was one of the earliest of the Latin apologists for Christianity. He wrote an apology for the Christian religion, in the form of a dialogue between Caecilius Natalis, a heathen objector, and Octavius Januarius, a Christian respondent, whilst Minucius acts the part of a moderator.
There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come done from the teaching of your gods.
The Apocalypse of Peter (or Revelation of Peter), (A.D. 132-136), is an early Christian text of the 2nd century and an example of apocalyptic literature with Hellenistic overtones, exist in two incomplete versions of a lost Greek original, one Koine Greek, and an Ethiopic version, which diverge considerably.
I saw a gorge in which the discharge and excrement of the tortured ran down and became like a lake. There sat women, and the discharge came up to their throats; and opposite them sat many children, who were born prematurely, weeping. And from them went forth rays of fire and smote the women on the eyes. These were those who produced children outside of marriage and who procured abortions.
Athenagoras, (A.D. c.133-181), Athenian; a Proto-orthodox Christian apologist, a philosopher, and a convert to Christianity. According to Philippus Sideta, he presided over the school at Alexandria. He flourished about the year 170. He wrote apologetic defenses of the Christian religion, and a treatise on the Resurreotion.
What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God? For the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore and object of God's care [and then kill it]. . . But we are altogether consistent in our conduct. We obey reason and do not override it.
In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man - killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in the seed.
The Law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Exodus 21:22-24]".
Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!
Even non-Christian writers raised objections to abortion.
Ovid [B.C. 43-A.D. 17] refers to it as warfare.
Juvenal [A.D 67-127] calls it murder.
And so did the Early Church.
Note: Are you a woman of an age who regrets your abortion? Check out this site.
8 Thy hands fashioned and made me; and now thou dost turn about and destroy me. 9 Remember that thou hast made me of clay; and wilt thou turn me to dust again? 10 Didst thou not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? 11 Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. 12 Thou hast granted me life and steadfast love; and thy care has preserved my spirit.
10 Upon thee was I cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me thou hast been my God. 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.
14 I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well; 15 my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
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Taylor Swift performs on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Oct. 23 in Los Angeles.
The first time I heard Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" was in a Las Vegas hotel room shortly after she premiered the song and music video during a Yahoo live stream on Aug. 18.
This marked the beginning of the 24-year-old's risky jump from country pop artist to no-country-strings-attached pop star.
In one fell swoop of her golden locks, Swift unleashed a catchy middle-finger anthem to critics, announced a new pop-only album (1989) and initiated a career-defining moment.
So far this year, no 2014 albums have gone platinum, the Recording Industry Association of America's million-copies-sold certification, so Swift's genre-hopping moment is one that fans, critics and everyone in the music industry are watching closely. Can she break the dismal album sales trend in the age of streaming, downloads and YouTube?
Two months ago back in Vegas, the speakers inside Planet Hollywood were constantly blaring "Shake It Off" on pop radio, and at the time, I declared, "The takeover begins."
That takeover has since been smartly executed online, on radio and on TV. Here are the highlights of the Taylor tour between Aug. 18 and her Oct. 27 album launch.
The live stream was the culmination of several social media clues that hinted at this online music stunt. An Instagram post from Aug. 4 showed Swift pushing the "18" button in an elevator. An Aug. 6 Twitter photo highlighted "5:00." And an Aug. 7 screenshot displayed the Yahoo homepage. Combined, they told fans to go to Yahoo on Aug. 18 at 5 p.m.
Standing atop New York City's Empire State Building, wind messing up her often-tamely styled hair, Swift began her worldwide live stream in the city she's called home since leaving Los Angeles in March. Once inside, she revealed three surprises.
No. 1 and No. 3 were the premiere of the "Shake It Off" audio and its music video. Swift, who roped in "I Knew You Were Trouble" and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" collaborators Max Martin and Shellback to produce the track, described the sound of "Shake It Off" as something none of them had ever created before.
Surprise No. 2 was Swift unveiling her fifth album's title, cover, release date and sound.
"I like to work on albums for two years because I feel like two years gives you enough time to grow and to change and to change your priorities, change where you live, change your hair, change what you believe in, change who you hang out with, what's influencing you, what's inspiring you," Swift said. "And in the process of all of those changes that have happened in the last two years, my music changed."
Swift, who was born Dec. 13, 1989, then called the 1989 album her "rebirth," a fitting description since she also said the album is her "first documented, official pop album."
"I was listening to a lot of late '80s pop because I loved the chances they were taking, I loved how bold it was, I loved how ahead of its time it was," she added. "It was a time of limitless potential and the idea that you could do what you want, be who you want, wear what you want and love what you want and decide where your life was going."
The album immediately became available for preorder. On iTunes, she surprised her fans again with an exclusive video featuring baby Swift, just days after her birth, as well as her parents, Scott and Andrea, bringing her home for the first time in Reading, Pennsylvania.
It's 11:12 p.m. ET on Oct. 26 — 48 minutes before the album is scheduled to arrive on iTunes. The next minute, Swift sends patiently waiting fans into digital hyperventilation with a surprise message to her 70.5 million Facebook followers and 45.8 million Twitter followers: "IT'S OUT IT'S OUT IT'S OUT THIS IS NOT A DRILL GO GO GO #TS1989."
Then, just like that, Swift sparked her rabid legion of fans — dubbed "Swifties" — to build even more buzz for 1989. On Twitter, #Buy1989OniTunes, #TS1989 and individual song titles from the album quickly became worldwide trending topics.
Fans have been part of the hype machine every step of the way, even before the "Shake It Off" video debuted in August. Swift brought dozens of them to Los Angeles in June to be participate in the music video's shoot. The fan sequence served as the video's climactic dance-like-no-one's-watching ending (see 1:02 in the backstage video, below).
That wasn't the only time fans had to stay hush-hush. Swift also organized "1989 Secret Sessions," intimate meet-and-greets in London, New York City, Nashville, Rhode Island and London for 445 fans (89 in each location). Swift privately played the album for them by plugging in her phone, where she kept the songs closely guarded, into a sound system.
She baked cookies for them. They hugged. They danced. They laughed. They cried.
To hold fans over until Oct. 27, Swift embarked on an artsy lyric campaign in mid-October, during which she posted a lyric every day from each of the album's 13 tracks in an image she posted online.
For the next 13 days leading up to 1989, I'll be posting one lyric from each of the 13 tracks each day.
The teases made us wonder who the lyrics were about — ex-lovers, rivals or friends?
The #1989lyrics promotional strategy attracted millions of likes, shares and comments on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Swift has performed "Shake It Off" on many stages, including on the MTV Video Music Awards, X Factor, iHeartRadio Music Festival and, most recently, on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
At Kimmel, she closed down Hollywood Boulevard and also gave her first live performance of "Out of The Woods," which she co-wrote with Jack Antonoff from the band Fun.
The Kimmel appearance last week is just the start of Swift's TV blitz. After Monday's Good Morning America interview, Swift will make the rounds on the Late Show With David Letterman on Tuesday, The View on Wednesday and then return to GMA for a performance on Thursday. Count on Swift making some unscheduled surprises, too.
Here's the tv schedule for this week! Not on here, but also important: gonna be on MTV all day in between shows talking about 1989 with Jack Antonoff, and later this evening, there's a huge radio takeover called The I Heart Radio Ultimate Secret Session that you can watch online and listen to on the radio.
Only a few music critics secured advanced copies of 1989, and they unleashed their reviews in tandem last week. Kimmel read some of their glowing remarks to her face.
"Driven by synths and drums in lieu of guitars, all trace of country abandoned, 1989 holds together sonically as a tribute to the electro-pop that dominated radio 25 years ago," wrote Time's Sam Lansky. "Thematically, too, Swift breaks with the past, skirting victimhood and takedowns of maddening exes, critics and romantic competitors. Instead, there’s a newfound levity. Not only is Swift in on the joke; she also relishes it."
"The guitars, when they're there at all, deliver mostly texture; an acoustic is audible on just one song. The mandolins and violins were left back in Nashville, and there might not be a single live drum on the album," wrote Billboard's Jem Aswad. "The songwriting is still unmistakably Swift, with her polysyllabic melodies and playful/-provocative lyrics."
"1989 sets the record for fewest adjectives (and lowest romantic body count) on a Swift album," wrote Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield. "This is still an artist who likes to let it rip. Deeply weird, feverishly emotional, wildly enthusiastic, 1989 sounds exactly like Taylor Swift, even when it sounds like nothing she's ever tried before."
Though 1986 isn't perfect, its promotional blitz alone can serve as roadmap to future artists wanting to jump over the pop hurdle and even to current stars. One notable stumble is "Welcome to New York," which earlier this month was ridiculed for sounding too much like a Robyn song and for its cheerful exuberance, a sentiment not shared by all New Yorkers, considering Swift has only been in the Big Apple for half a year.
Swift already demonstrated her pop prowess with Red, her 2012 country-pop effort that at the time was only the 18th album ever to earn platinum status within a week.
What 1989 represents to Swift's young career is her staying power in the pop realm, a strategic departure from the girl we met on her innocent 2006 self-titled debut.
Overall, just like she sings in "I Know Places," Swift is now the fox — a clever fox, and other pop stars are the hunters ready to chase down her success. Catch her if you can.
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VIP $5 per month = $60 per year. VIP's have unlimited pictures, unlimited mail message storage , free sponsoring of any page, group, classified ad, photo, video.
VIP-1 monthly remote service on 1 computer or user account = $13 per month total cost $156.00 per year. All VIP's have unlimited pictures, unlimited mail message storage , free sponsoring of any page, group, classified ad, photo, video.
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VIP-3 monthly remote service on 3 computers or 3 user accounts on 1 computer = $27 per month total cost $324.00 per year. All VIP's have unlimited pictures, mail message storage, free sponsoring of any page, group, classified ad, photo, video.
VIP-4 monthly remote service on 4 computers or 4 user accounts on 1 computer = $34 per month total cost $408.00 per year. All VIP's have unlimited pictures, mail message storage, free sponsoring of any page, group, classified ad, photo, video.
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0.999997 |
Article: Does Google have a sandbox?
Unless youre new to the SEO world, youve probably heard people talking about the dreaded Google Sandbox causing their site to get poor rankings. Some people go so far as to say all new sites must wait 6 months before being removed from Googles sandbox, while others adamantly deny the existence of any type of sandbox.
So is there a Google sandbox?
Officially: Yes. But thats only because Google employees have affectionately titled the beach volleyball court at the Googleplex the sandbox after the mass SEO paranoia.
There is no real Google sandbox. New sites arent penalized. In fact, in some cases, new sites are actually rewarded (MSN does this most notably).
Ok, so why is my new site doing so poorly in search? Well, there are a couple of factors you need to look at.
1.)How many other sites link to you?
2.)How good is your content? Is it fresh, deep and related to the topic?
3.)How is your site hosted?
Before we get to what these factors have to do with the Sandbox Effect, lets take a look at how new sites are most likely handled by Google.
When Google first stumbles upon a site, it doesnt know anything about it. All it has to go on is its content (which it quickly indexes). Sadly, thanks to shady SEO firms and search engine spammers content isnt enough to make a ranking decision. It may look great to the search engine, but how does Google know if its of any value to users?
A great example is the site located at www.gstones.com. While at first glance it looks to be a jewelry company, closer inspection reveals that all the links are just search results. Sure its full of content and looks great to the Google spider, but its not really useful to a person. There is no added benefit in using this site versus searching Google for jewelry.
Ok, this takes care of 2 , on to 1. How does Google tell if your site is useful to a person?
Simple, they wait. After Google finds a new site, they then look at what sites start linking to it, and how quickly inlinks start popping up. If 100 offtopic links pop shortly after a site launches, Google starts to get suspicious. On the other hand, as reputable sites start linking to you, you start building rapport with Google. As links slowly get added, your relationship with Google starts to grow. Think of it like dating: It takes time (a few dates, and a sufficient amount of money) to build the trust required for a loving relationship (and a lot more money as that trusting relationship grows into marriage).
You mean SEO takes time? I wont see results over night? Now youre getting it Ten points for Gryffindor.
Alright fine Ill wait, but what does hosting have to do with this?
What about hosting? Do you have a static IP? Are you hosting it from your house? Who had your IP before you? What did they do with it? Was it blacklisted as a spam site in the past? If so, it may take a lot longer for the search engines to realize it has a different site on it now.
A dedicated server with a dedicated IP costs money; a lot more money than the 7 / month shared hosting plans many companies offer. Which one is a search engine spammer more likely to purchase? Having your own IP is a really good way to establish rapport with the search engines (and it offers more flexibility for your developers too).
A dedicated server is also a good way to prevent changing hosting companies. Remember, even though your domain name is the same, switching hosting companies may you back in the so called Google sandbox. If youre thinking of switching to another shared host, you may want to start practicing your serve.
So is there a sandbox? Yes, but if youre a legitimate business with a legitimate website, the only thing that should worry you about the Google Sandbox is whether or not you can still fit into that old bathing suit.
The exact details of Googles ranking algorithm are a closely guarded secret.
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The Skunk Ape : Mystery Creature or Myth?
There are several witnesses and an assortment of researchers that claim this creature is, in fact, quite real. This type of ape is also referred to as the "Swamp Ape" and many call it a "Stink Ape". This mystery creature is believed to roam the lands that are native to the Southeast portion of the United States of America. There have been eyewitness accounts in the States of Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and even in the Carolinas. The most common sightings of this ape like creature seem to occur in the Everglades located in the State of Florida.
The name of this mystery creature was established due to the fact that it has a very disheveled appearance a foul odor that is associated with it. The national based park service of the United States claims that the legend of the Skunk Ape is strictly a myth, however there are many people who claim to have witnessed this that believe that the creature does exist. Initial reports started pouring in about witness accounts of the creature as early as the 1960s, but even to this day, individuals still claim that they have heard, seen, or smelled the ape like creature.
A man by the name of Dave Shealy has devoted a tremendous portion of his life learning as much as possible about the Skunk Ape - particularly the ones that are rumored to be native to Florida. This man wishes to bring forth evidence that the creature does exist and educate the general public on the mystery creature. He has a website located at: www.skunkape.info. He has appeared on television shows on the Discovery Channel, TLC, Travel Channel, and several others. He has been seen on "Unsolved Mysteries", "The Pulse" and several other shows. He works in the area of Florida known as "Big Cypress Swamp" and actively searches for the mysterious creature.
This type of creature is believed to be relatively large and completely covered in hair. It is identified as a "Bipedal Mammal". The full grown males are believed to average in at about seven feet in height and 450 pounds. The animal is believed to be closely related to the famous "Big Foot". As a matter of fact, many refer it as the "Florida Bigfoot". In Putnam County, Florida there is a city called "Bardin". Many individuals have said that they have witnessed a Skunk Ape that is locally called the "Bardin Booger". Many that have witnessed this type of ape state that the smell it emits is compared to a foul smelling gas or eggs. While this creature has yet to be validated officially, those that have witnessed it know it is more than a myth. The Skunk Ape is considered to be one of the South’s greatest unsolved mysteries.
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How to calculate Conditional Probability?
The events which are not affected by another events are known as Independent Events.
The event of getting a 6 the first time a die is rolled and event of getting a 6 the second time is completely independent and isolated.
The events which are dependent on other events and they can be affected by previous events.
In probability theory, Conditional Probability is a measure of the probability of an event given that (by assumption, presumption or evidence) another event has occurred. If the event A is unknown and the event B is known or assumed to have occurred, "the conditional probability of A given B", or "the probability of A under the condition B", is usually written as P (A|B), or sometimes PB (A).
Example, the probability that any person has a cough on a day may be only 5%. But if we know or assume that the person has a cold, then they are much more likely to be coughing. The conditional probability of coughing given that you have a cold might be a much higher 75%.
Let S be a finite sample space, associated with the given random experiment, containing equally likely outcomes. Then we have the following result.
Let S be a sample space associated with the given random experiment and n(S) be the number of sample points in the sample space S. Since it is given that event B has already occurred, therefore our sample space reduces to event B only, which contains n(B) sample points. Event B is also called reduced or truncated sample space. Now out of n(B) sample points, only n(A∩B) sample points are favourable for the occurrence of event A. Therefore by definition of probability.
Consider a country with three provinces B1, B2 and B3 (i.e country is partitioned into 3 disjoint sets B1, B2 and B3). To calculate the total forest area knowing the area of provinces B1, B2 and B3 as 100Km2, 50 Km2 and 150 Km2. obviously, we will add all the three provinces areas to get total area of forest.
The same is the idea behind law of total probability. In which the area of the forest is replaced by the probability of an event A. In a case where the partition is B and B’ , then for any 2 events A and B.
Q1. Find the probability that a single toss of die will result in a number less than 4 if it is given that the toss resulted in an odd number.
Q2. The probability that it is Friday and a student is absent is 0.03. Since there are 5 school days in week, the probability that it is Friday is 0.2. What is the probability that a student is absent given that today is Friday.
Q3. A jar contains black and white marbles. Two marbles are chosen without replacement. The probability of selecting a black marble and then a white marble is 0.34, and the probability of selecting a black marble on the first draw is 0.47. What is the probability of selecting a white marble on the second draw, given that the first marble was drawn black?
Q4. If P (A’) =0.7, P (B) = 0.7, P(B/A)=0.5, find P(A/B) and P(AUB).
drawn is a yellow ball.
We have to calculate P(A) which definitely depends on A1 and A2.
P(A/A2) = Probability of A when A1 is already happen.
given that the student is taking Science?
Sol. We need to find the probability of English given Science i.e.
P (English | Science) = P (Science and English) / P (Science) = 0.087 / 0.68 = 0.13 = 13%.
Q3. A jar contains red and green toys. Two toys are drawn without replacement. The probability of selecting a red toy and then a green toy is 0.34, and the probability of selecting a red toy on the first draw is 0.47. What is the probability of selecting a green toy in the second draw, given that the first toy drawn was red?
Sol. Clearly it is a question of conditional probability. We need to find the probability of drawing a green toy having known that the first toy drawn was red.
P (green | red) = P (red and green) / P (red) = 0.34 / 0.47 = 0.72 = 72%.
Q4. At ABC Senior Secondary school, the probability that a student takes Science and English is 0.087. The probability that a student takes Science is 0.68. What is the probability that a student takes English given that the student is taking Science?
Sol. We need to find the probability of English given Science i.e.
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Chronic emotional stress represents one of the major contributors to various physical health problems and even chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. We can lead otherwise healthy lives, but if we fail to incorporate effective ways to prevent or reduce chronic stress, we may be overlooking a major health risk.
There are definitely certain people, with particular character traits and personality types, who are more prone to the negative effects of stress. One of the confounding things about stress is that stress levels are typically not related to the actual stressor (i.e., the problem or adverse event) but to the way we process and cope with the stressor. For example, getting fired or laid off from a job can cause one individual to fall into a depressive state while another person may become angry, upset, or worried for a few days and then move on. Our reactions to life events tend to dictate whether stress will be transient or chronic.
Are perfectionists particularly prone to stress?
It is well known that people with perfectionist personality traits have a greater tendency to experience the effects of chronic stress. This often occurs by means of burn out. Burn out is a popular term used a lot in relation to career and work life and occurs when an individual is overworked, stressed, and often frustrated with their job or profession. Individuals who burn out also tend to lack a sense of meaning and purpose in what they do and develop a sort of indifference towards their work.
Burn out occurs most often among perfectionists because the perfectionistic personality is characterized by setting high standards for achievement. In order to meet these high standards, perfectionists will work, often tirelessly towards a task and may become very self-critical about their own performance, adopting it’s- never-good-enough approach to much of what they do. Since these behaviors represent a large part of the individual’s personality, perfectionists will tend to function in this way all the time in everything that they do. This is where chronic stress develops because perfectionists exert much time, energy, and effort into tasks and activities, but have difficulty deriving satisfaction from their work and determining when their work is done (i.e., knowing when to stop, move on, and be satisfied with the final product of their efforts).
1. Awareness & Admitting to a Problem: Effective stress management for perfectionists is like a form of “recovery” from perfectionistic tendencies. The primary issue lies in firstly, the perfectionistic becoming aware of and admitting to being a perfectionist in the first place. Many perfectionists are closeted for many years, or even much of their lives, because they lack awareness that their behavior is unhealthy and detrimental to their emotional and even physical health. This lack of awareness is what prevents the perfectionist from enacting strategies to reduce their stress and improve quality of life.
2. Working on Self-Esteem: Once awareness about perfectionism and its detriments has set in, the perfectionist often wonders what they will do to reduce these tendencies because perfectionism is so deeply ingrained in their personality and way of life. Oftentimes, it is a good idea for perfectionists to examine their self-esteem, since oftentimes at their core, perfectionists can have feelings of worthlessness and a sense of never feeling good enough, hence their overcompensation by trying to do things perfectly all the time. There are many ways to work on self-esteem, but one great way is to participate in activities that you are not good at. Perfectionists are used to high performance and aiming for flawless results, which is why allowing yourself to do something that you are not good at forces you to become comfortable with (and maybe enjoy) the feeling of the unknown and allowing yourself to fail at something (for once). This activity can be a new hobby or any adventure you have never tried before. The purpose is to enjoy the activity and avoid any self-criticism or judgment.
3. Setting Boundaries: Increasing self-esteem takes time. It is a process of growth and acquiring greater self-awareness. As the perfectionist works on their self-esteem, they will realize that they need to set boundaries on themselves so that they can learn to complete a task without becoming obsessive about details or self-critical about results. Boundaries involve understanding that when completing a task, success does not mean perfection and in fact, aiming for perfection can even hinder success in the long run. Through setting boundaries and new standards for task completion, the perfectionist will learn to tailor their actions and behaviors towards a more realistic and stress-free approach to their life.
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TL;DR: I jumped into freelancing with blind optimism, almost went broke for it and had just the right amount of luck at just the right time to turn it all around.
Today's blog entry was decided on by Twitter, so for the people who are interested, here's the story of how I got into freelancing from the beginning all the way up to where we are now.
Since there may be a few people reading who are coming here for the first time, I'll give you some basic introduction of who I am, what my experience level is etc. Here goes nothing.
For all intents I have no real educational background. I dropped out of high school in sophomore year (2013) and decided to pick up a vocational training as media designer instead. As part of that I visited vocational school which is four grades consisting of 3x9 and 1x4 weeks of schooling. That's the absolute peak of my education. My highest achievement along traditional academia is a middle school graduation. No, I'm not kidding. I've never learned about sine and cosine or anything like that. I know that if I enter a sine function in my calculator I get an even wave form. No idea what that's even useful for.
As of writing this post I'm entering my third year of business. Last year I finished with approximately $70,000 in gross revenue. Projections for this year are higher. Now, enough braggy stuff, let's get onto the meat of the story.
but she suggested to team up and try going freelance. She would do the marketing and I would do the coding.
"I will quit my job and go freelance full-time"
In hindsight that was probably not the smartest choice but it is what it is. So for the first two months while I was wrapping up my job situation, my colleague started looking for clients. We put up a website, printed flyers, the whole nine yards.
It came out to approximately $1,500. Yup.
Divide that by two and you'll quickly realize that that's not a lot to live off of. I had savings of course and this was the moment where I was glad I had them. So while my partner continued the search I clenched my teeth and started building.
start. Eventually January became February became March. I turned 20 and had made a total of $400 from freelancing, when a bit of shocking news hit. My colleague couldn't sustain the effort next to her full-time job.
I felt a bit of a bit in my stomach and accepted the fact as it was. The very next day I did the best thing I could think of: Sign up for UpWork and find me some work. So I set up a profile and got to work.
program. I added all the things to my profile, I did the tests and scored in the top 10% for as many as I could.
And while it wasn't an overwhelming amount, at least some money started rolling in eventually. By end of March I was up to approximately 400$/month from freelancing with my first repeat customers. It wasn't huge, but at least it slowed the drain on my savings which were growing smaller each month. But the worst was yet to come.
Also the food was good. I love isaw to this day.
tool. But things didn't exactly get much better. I still hovered around 200-400$ of income per month, which was simply not enough to cover my living costs.
Eventually me and my girlfriend hopped on a bus and travelled to some places in Northern Luzon, we stayed at the cheapest hotels possible and spent our evenings eating cheap takeout from 7/11 and watching Gilmore Girls. Two weeks later we returned to Manila when finally the decision was made that perhaps I should rebook my flight to save whatever I had left and return to home earlier. And so I did.
By this time I had someone reach out to me on Twitter. He asked if I would be willing to help him develop a few things. Apparently he had followed me since way back when I still dabbled in game development and had my old job. We were scheduled to call for a first time soon after I left the country.
"Either this lead works out and keeps me afloat or I'm stopping this."
I arrived back at home pretty much hopeless and desperate. I took about a week off to replenish some energy and gather some confidence and the I went straight back to work. It turned out to be my last week-long vacation for approximately 1.5 years.
And I had a call. And this call went well. It went very well. So I started helping the person who had contacted me with developing a shop. I helped with developing a fishing trip portal.
On the side I was doing some work for previous customers. By the end of July 2017 I had somehow managed to scrape together an income of approximately $1,500. It wasn't a luxurious living, but for the first time in almost a year I had a living.
I paid back my parents for the leeway they gave me and pursued the lead further. It managed to come out to somewhere around $1,000 to $1,250 per month for this one lead, plus some extra money from other leads. I worked quite a lot during that time and developed a pattern of work schedule.
I'd get up around 8am and would work until 1pm for my big lead. I would then take off some time in the afternoon until maybe 4-5pm and enjoy the sun outside, try and get some of that Vitamin D. I would then return to scheduled calls and keep on coding until 12am or maybe 1am for other projects. It sounds crazy in hindsight, but damn, that was a happy time for me. It felt like I finally had achieved something.
Typo3 to Wordpress and needed some 800 sites of content migrated. So I took the job. It took me two months next to my other jobs, but I had tried to high-ball my hourly rate at that point (which was maybe $45/h).
So 2018 rolled around. I joined a group I have grown to love and cherish: wip.chat - The group inspired me and motivated me to do my all each and every day.
$2,500 per month. I was able to save again. I got to lease myself a new car.
At this point my old colleague from early 2017 also reached out. She had by now switched to working for the parent company for a few well-known brands and was doing digital marketing. Knowing that I was still around and programming she also generated a few leads for me that kept contributing to this roll I was own. I developed a little digital marketing asset platform for them.
In the spring my girlfriend came by to visit me in Austria for three months. And we had a good time this time around.There was no worry of being kicked out of anyone's house or my revenue stream suddenly draining to zero. Life was good. Also, I got engaged! So that was fun!
And then May 2018 rolled around. A recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn (I know, but hear me out). I responded politely and said that I would be happy to take on some freelance opportunities even for a longer period of time. Apparently they had had some trouble finding people to recruit since it was all very short-term.
"Wait a sec, they're not going to pay me $10,000 per month, right? I'm 21. That's ridiculous."
And then I was invited to an interview with that company. And they liked what I had to offer. And they hired me for a contract between June 2018 and December 2018. Yes. They paid me $10,000 a month.
in my portfolio I upped my hourly rate a bit. I added the company to my LinkedIn profile.
The next 6 months passed rather quietly. I drove out to Graz to work and drove back home again. My office times being approximately 8.30am - 3pm followed by some commuting and some work in the evening. My average income varied between $12,000 and $14,000 each month (although those are gross revenue numbers). I just packed everything into a savings account and decided to live off of $1,500 per month at most.
And each month the money would arrive. And each month I was still shocked. So eventually November came around and the end of my contract drew near. I had a discussion with my superior at the company and after everything was said and done they offered to extend my contract for another 8 months, with more hours.
During this time I really didn't have much time nor energy for any side projects, but I did finally take a week of vacation in November. My first in a year and a half. And in December we signed the contract.
And now, now we're here. My contract runs until August 2019 and I have a month of leave in May due to my getting married and moving my fiancée to Austria. My pay is still on a slight upward trajectory and I do not know where it will go next.
All I know is that right now I have leads approaching me from every side and that I don't really have the time and will to take them on. Starting with the new year I also found some more energy to invest in my side projects. In the first 9 days I've already started this blog, How Much Does This Meeting Cost? and a little nginx wrapper called jinx.
Things are good right now. Things have been good for a long while now. And I stand by one single statement: Throughout most of this journey I had little to no clue as to what I was doing. I lucked out. I really, really had an absurd amount of luck when I needed it the most. And sometimes, a little luck goes a long way.
If you find yourself having more questions, please do reach out to me on Twitter! Or maybe on Telegram!
Any burnout while working for the big client?
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Bruno Kreisky (22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. He is considered perhaps Austria's most successful Socialist leader, and a figure who parlayed a small country's neutrality into a major moral and political role on the world stage. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II.
Kreisky was born in Margareten, a district of Vienna, to a non-observant Jewish family. His parents were Max Kreisky (1876–1944) and Irene Felix Kreisky (1884–1969). His father worked as a textile manufacturer. Shocked by the level of poverty and violence in Austria during the 1920s, he joined the youth wing of the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 1925 at age 15. In 1927, he joined the Young Socialist Workers against the wishes of his parents. In 1929, he began studying law at the University of Vienna at the advice of Otto Bauer, who urged him to study law rather than medicine, as he had originally planned. He remained politically active during this period. In 1931, he left the Jewish religious community, becoming agnostic. In 1934, when the Socialist Party was banned by the Dollfuss dictatorship, he became active in underground political work. He was arrested in January 1935 and convicted of high treason, but was released in June 1936. In March 1938 the Austrian state was incorporated into Germany through the Anschluss, and in September Kreisky escaped the Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews and the coming Holocaust by emigrating to Sweden, where he remained until 1945. In 1942, he married Vera Fürth.
In 1966, the ÖVP under Klaus won an absolute majority in the Nationalrat. Although Klaus could have governed alone, memories of the hyperpartisanship that characterized the First Republic were still very strong, and he wanted to continue the grand coalition that had governed since 1945. However, talks between Klaus and Kreisky broke down. Kreisky resigned from cabinet, and the ÖVP formed the first one-party government of the Second Republic. However, the Socialists were not completely shut out of power; they were informally consulted on all major decisions. In February 1967, Kreisky was elected chairman of the Socialist Party. At the March 1970 elections, the Socialists won a plurality (but not a majority) of seats, and Kreisky became Chancellor of the first purely left-wing government in modern Austrian history. He was the first Jewish Chancellor of Austria. Kreisky's government was tolerated by the national-liberal Freedom Party of Austria in return for electoral reforms that were intended to give smaller parties a greater voice. Following the passage of these reforms, he called fresh elections in October 1971. At these elections, the Socialists won a sweeping victory, taking half the popular vote, something no Austrian party had ever achieved in a free election. Kreisky was reelected in 1975 and 1979 elections, each time winning comfortable majorities in the Nationalrat.
Widows' pensions were indexed in 1970, and in 1972, free medical checks for healthy people were made available, while optional health insurance for students was introduced. Periods of study, illness, and unemployment were allowed pensioable status, and in 1974 family and birth benefits were indexed. The 1973 Special Subsidies Act introduced subsidies for those made redundant as a result of structural changes. The Wage Continuation Act of 1974 introduced wage continuation for workers in private enterprises in cases of sickness. In 1976, accident insurance was extended to work-related activities. The Night-shift/Heavy Manual Work Act of 1981 introduced preventive healthcare and a special early retirement pension for heavy manual workers.
Kreisky was notable for his allegedly apologetic approach to former Nazi party members and contemporary far-right Austrian politicians. For example, Kreisky described far-right populist Jörg Haider as "a political talent worth watching". Kreisky is alleged to have used coded anti-semitic language to attract right-wing voters in Austria. In 1967, neo-Nazi Austrian leader Norbert Burger declared that he had no objections to Kreisky despite his Jewish background, claiming that he was simply a "German" and neither a religious Jew or a Zionist. Kreisky felt that he had never personally suffered as a Jew, but only as a socialist. While imprisoned for his socialist activities during the Dollfuss regime, many of his cellmates were active Nazis, and Kreisky accepted them as fellow political opponents. Following his election in 1970, Kreisky wanted to demonstrate that he was indeed "Chancellor of all Austrians", and appointed four politicians with Nazi backgrounds to his cabinet. When Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal reported that four members of Kreisky's cabinet were former Nazis, Kreisky didn't remove them from the government, though one did resign. Kreisky responded that everybody had the right to make political mistakes in their youth. This incident marked the beginning of a bitter conflict, which did not end until Kreisky died. In 1986, Wiesenthal sued Kreisky for libel. Three years later the court found Kreisky guilty of defamation and forced him to pay a substantial fine.
Conservatives criticise Kreisky's policy of deficit spending, expressed in his famous comment during the 1979 election campaign that he preferred that the state run up high debts rather than see people become unemployed. They hold Kreisky responsible for Austria's subsequent economic difficulties. Despite this criticism, Kreisky did much to transform Austria during his time in office, with considerable improvements in working conditions, a dramatic rise in the average standard of living, and a significant expansion of the welfare state, and arguably remains the most successful socialist Chancellor of Austria to this day.
↑ article Bruno Kreisky, Encyclopædia Britannica.
↑ "The Death of a Right-Wing Populist". Der Spiegel. 13 October 2008. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
↑ Minicy Catom Software Engineering Ltd. www.catom.com. "Austria's Attitude Toward Israel: Following the European Mainstream". Jcpa.org. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ "Kreisky's letter along with Andropov's resolution on it" (PDF). Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ As quoted in Socialists in the Recession: The Search for Solidarity by Giles Radice and Lisanne Radice, "I am less worried about the budget deficits than by the need for the state to create jobs where private industry fails."
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An elderly couple who have spent £10,000 on CCTV and burglar spikes to stop drunken students vandalising their property described their life as being 'hell for many years'.
John and Delia Blatchford have suffered an 'unpleasant' and 'frightening' ordeal from unruly Exeter University students for the last eight years.
The couple sleep in shifts to monitor the anti-social behaviour and said it had got to the stage where they 'pray for rain' as it keeps students indoors.
They said one student had urinated in their hot tub - forcing them to fork out £150 for a deep clean - while others have stolen items from their garden.
Their £220,000 home is less than a ten minute walk from the university campus and close to the popular Imperial pub.
The Blatchfords said the university had initially been sympathetic to their complaints but had recently stopped being so responsive.
'We've spent a fortune, around £10,000, in cleaning up their mess and trying to stop it', Mrs Blatchford, 67, said.
'Life has been hell. I just lost my temper with the university and since then they've been working against us.
'For eight years we have worked with them and I'm feeling hurt, I have no idea why they have fallen out with us.
'They always used to come down to our house but they've haven't come now for the last three times we've called them.
'I'm hurt by their actions and I don't understand why they've dropped us.
'We used to buy them boxes of chocolate for Christmas to say thank you for giving us a lovely life despite the students.
The couple's troubles began in 2008 when one student climbed into the couple's hot tub and urinated inside it.
They spent £150 on a deep clean of their tub and later spent money on four CCTV cameras to catch inebriated students.
They also spent £7,000 on a wall with burglar proof spikes and an iron rail to deter youths climbing into their garden.
The couple's CCTV system had to be replaced by the university for £2,200 after a student tore down one of the cameras after a night out.
However they claimed the university had stopped trying to help them this academic term.
In October alone, CCTV captured students urinating in their gateway, construction fencing being loudly slammed against a pole next to their home and the theft of a 'For Sale' sign from neighbour's property.
Mrs Blatchford told the Exeter Express and Echo: 'We pray for rain. We can have a decent night's sleep if it rains as it keeps them indoors. It's sad, but true.
'We get no sleep when it is term time. Why is it us that has to put up with it?
'Why does it have to be our life that is destroyed?
She added: 'This is supposed to be the future elite, what is going to happen to this country?
'I really really worry, I want restorative justice. I want to be able to go up to one of these students and ask them "why did you do this?"
Local councillor Percy Prowse said: 'I regret to say, despite our best efforts, that they [the Blatchfords] have been regularly the victims of damage, theft, transient noise and antisocial behaviour on this student corridor.
'Despite measure being put in place, they are still repeat victims.
Exeter University apologised for the students' behaviour and insisted the majority are 'mindful towards their neighbours'.
A spokesperson said: 'The University has been in regular contact with the family, and treats all calls from them as a priority. Students were spoken to about an incident last week in their neighbourhood.
'The University Estate Patrol was dispatched and found two students carrying a barrier and traffic cone nearby.
'The students were extremely apologetic and Estate Patrol instructed them to return the items to where they had found them, which they immediately did.
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Bichon Frise, the powder puff companion dog makes a great pet if it is properly cared for. Keep reading this article for a detailed information on caring for the puppy.
Physical features: The Bichon Frise is a curly lap dog, with a small and sturdy built. This dog is a cheerful dog breed, and this is evident with his flurry tail moving merrily at the back. The dog is generally white colored but also comes with streaks of cream, apricot and gray. The skull of the dog is slightly rounded, and the ears are covered under the hairy coat. The nose is black colored and the eyes are round with either brown or black color. The muzzle is not much long and pointed. As far the coat is concerned it is double coated and the undercoat is softer than the outer coat which is comparatively curlier and coarse.
Ideal weight: Generally between 3 kg to 5 kg.
Ideal height: 22 cm to 30 cm, female dogs are somewhat smaller than the male dogs.
Life expectancy: Around 15 years.
Bichon Frise is a lively animal, and would prove a menace in the initial months. Housebreaking the little dog is comparatively tougher as compared to other dogs. Potty training the dog is hardest of all the tasks and demands some patience on part of the owner. The puppy can give trouble in the initial months but once he adjusts to the surroundings, it would be fun to have him. We recommend you to keep the puppy in a dog crate when you are not around or he will untidy your house. If you have a garden take him out for his business after every hour. Generally the Bichons relieve themselves after a long walk or after having food.
Many dog owners treat their new puppies as kids, and bring them toys and other playful things. But this tendency is wrong, the dog doesn't need these things. Care and affection from the owner is what the puppy expects. Do not treat your puppy harshly and address him lovingly. The puppy may find it difficult to adjust to the new surroundings in the initial days. You need to set a lifestyle for him, like his grooming time, sleep time, eating time, etc. Once a routine is set for him, the puppy will feel free in the house, and wouldn't cause any trouble. The Bichon Frise dogs are good walkers and love taking a walk more often. Take your dog out for a walk everyday in the evening for at least half an hour.
Vaccinations are very important for a new puppy, and the first vaccination is generally given when the puppy is five weeks old. Consult a veterinarian to determine the vaccine schedule for your puppy. We recommend a monthly or fortnightly visit to the veterinarian to assess the condition of the dog. This breed is generally a happy breed and certain characteristics like a droop in the tail, change in the eye color from the normal black or brown means something wrong in his health.
The Bichon dog breed is highly susceptible to skin problems like allergies, thus feeding your pup a balanced diet rich in nutrients and vitamins assumes significance. Feed him only with dog food from a good brand. The ingredients should not have complex carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners. Oatmeal and whole brown are considered the best food for Bichons. Do not feed him with market bought dog food only, and the diet should be a balance of home cooked and ready-made dry food.
This breed needs high maintenance and a monthly visit to a professional groomer is needed to keep the puppy well-groomed. At home, you can brush the teeth and hair of the puppy. The puppy requires a weekly brushing, but regular combing of hair is required as the puppy's coat is prone to tangles and frizzes. If you miss trip to the groomer, you can try your hand at giving him a bath yourself. Just make sure you rinse him well after the bath. Brush the coat after it is dry. But, for a 'puppy' it is best advised that you take him to a professional groomer. It would be difficult to manage a bath for the puppy as he is quite a trouble maker. Clip his nails every week, but his ear cleaning should be left for the groomer to do.
Bringing home a puppy is joy, but certain precautions need to be followed for a safe future. This includes keeping all the poisonous and harmful substances at a safe distance, out of reach for the puppy.
Keep an eye on the dog, as he is very quick and has a tendency to run away from the house.
Take some measures to keep your house free flea, these dogs are very susceptible to allergies and fleas.
Dogs can recognize words, and so make use of words like "no","stop", etc., if you want to avoid him from doing certain things.
These dogs are social and attention seeking creatures. Deserting him of your attention can make the puppy gloomy, stubborn or violent. These are cute puppies and love humans; care for them for a wonderful experience ahead.
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Cleve Cartmill was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories. He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair", when his 1944 story "Deadline" attracted the attention of the FBI by reason of its detailed description of a nuclear weapon similar to that being developed by the highly classified Manhattan Project.
In 1943, Cartmill suggested to John W. Campbell, the then-editor of Astounding, that he could write a story about a futuristic super-bomb. Campbell liked the idea and supplied Cartmill with considerable background information gleaned from unclassified scientific journals, on the use of Uranium-235 to make a nuclear fission device. The resulting story appeared in the issue of Astounding dated March 1944, which actually appeared early in February of that year.
Uranium-235 (235U) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a fission chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope with a primordial nuclide found in significant quantity in nature.
Gregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of Reason magazine.
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", although he did not care for the title. He made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, and surface physics. His extension of Enrico Fermi's theory of beta decay, in the form of Gamow–Teller transitions, provided an important stepping stone in its application, while the Jahn–Teller effect and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) theory have retained their original formulation and are still mainstays in physics and chemistry. Teller also made contributions to Thomas–Fermi theory, the precursor of density functional theory, a standard modern tool in the quantum mechanical treatment of complex molecules. In 1953, along with Nicholas Metropolis, Arianna Rosenbluth, Marshall Rosenbluth, and Augusta Teller, Teller co-authored a paper that is a standard starting point for the applications of the Monte Carlo method to statistical mechanics. Throughout his life, Teller was known both for his scientific ability and for his difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality.
Coming three years later in the same magazine, Cleve Cartmill's "Deadline" provoked astonishment in the lunch table discussions at Los Alamos. It really did describe isotope separation and the bomb itself in detail, and raised as its principal plot pivot the issue the physicists were then debating among themselves: should the Allies use it? To the physicists from many countries clustered in the high mountain strangeness of New Mexico, cut off from their familiar sources of humanist learning, it must have seemed particularly striking that Cartmill described an allied effort, a joint responsibility laid upon many nations.
Discussion of Cartmill's "Deadline" was significant. The story's detail was remarkable, its sentiments even more so. Did this rather obscure story hint at what the American public really thought about such a superweapon, or would think if they only knew?
Talk attracts attention, Teller recalled a security officer who took a decided interest, making notes, saying little. In retrospect, it was easy to see what a wartime intelligence monitor would make of the physicists' conversations. Who was this guy Cartmill, anyway? Where did he get these details? Who tipped him to the isotope separation problem? "and that is why Mr. Campbell received his visitors."
Fearing a security breach, the FBI began an investigation into Cartmill, Campbell, and some of their acquaintances (including Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein). It appears that the authorities eventually accepted the explanation that the story's material had been gleaned from unclassified sources, but as a precautionary measure they requested that Campbell should not publish any further stories about nuclear technology for the remainder of the war.
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and retired Naval officer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", He was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally.
Nuclear technology is technology that involves the nuclear reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear reactors, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons. It is also used, among other things, in smoke detectors and gun sights.
Campbell, in the meantime, had guessed from the number of Astounding subscribers who had suddenly moved to the Los Alamos area, that the US government probably had some sort of technical or scientific project ongoing there. He declined to volunteer this information to the FBI.
"Deadline" was described by Robert Silverberg as "a klutzy clunker" and by Cartmill himself as "that stinker". According to Silverberg, Cartmill also used the phrase "it stinks" when describing the story to a postman who was acting as an informer for military intelligence.
Edward Groff Conklin was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.
Frederik George Pohl Jr. was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning more than 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satellite: Luna", to the 2011 novel All the Lives He Led and articles and essays published in 2012.
Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. As well, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel. Greenberg was also a terrorism and Middle East expert. He was a long-time friend, colleague and business partner of Isaac Asimov.
"Blind Alley" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in the collection The Early Asimov (1972).
"Nightfall" is a 1941 science fiction novelette by American writer Isaac Asimov about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated by sunlight at all times. It was adapted into a novel with Robert Silverberg in 1990. The short story has been included in 48 anthologies, and has appeared in six collections of Asimov's stories. In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story written prior to the 1965 establishment of the Nebula Awards, and included it in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic works of SF and Fantasy today. Gnome was important in the transitional period between Genre SF as a magazine phenomenon and its arrival in mass-market book publishing, but proved too underfunded to make the leap from fan-based publishing to the professional level. The company existed for just over a decade, ultimately failing due to inability to compete with major publishers who also started to publish science fiction. In its heyday, Gnome published many of the major SF authors, and in some cases, as with Robert E. Howard's Conan series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, was responsible for the manner in which their stories were collected into book form.
Miles John Breuer was an American physician and science fiction writer. He was part of the first generation of writers to appear regularly in the pulp science fiction magazines, publishing his first story, "The Man with the Strange Head", in the January 1927 issue of Amazing Stories. His best known works are "The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930) and two stories written jointly with Jack Williamson, "The Girl from Mars" (1929) and The Birth of a New Republic (1931).
The Outer Reaches is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by August Derleth. It was first published by Pellegrini & Cudahy in 1951. The stories had originally appeared in the magazines Fantasy & Science Fiction, Astounding Stories, Blue Book, Maclean's, Worlds Beyond, Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Galaxy Science Fiction or in the anthology Invasion from Mars.
Journey to Infinity is a 1951 anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Martin Greenberg. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Astounding SF, Amazing Stories and Future Science Fiction.
The Moon Is Hell! is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer John W. Campbell, Jr.. It was published in 1950 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 4,206 copies. The title story deals with a team of scientists stranded on the Moon when their spacecraft crashes, and how they use their combined skills and knowledge to survive until rescue, including building shelter from meteor showers, and creating their own oxygen from Lunar rock. The second story, "The Elder Gods" Campbell rewrote, on a short deadline, from a story by Arthur J. Burks purchased for Unknown but later deemed unsatisfactory. It originally appeared in that magazine under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. The title of the eponymous story is generally reported without the exclamation point, although the punctuation is used for the title of most editions of the collection itself.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science-fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made Astounding the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's Legion of Space and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, A.E. van Vogt's Slan, and several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinlein. The period beginning with Campbell's editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 6 (1944) is the sixth volume of Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories, which is a series of short story collections, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, which attempts to list the great science fiction stories from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. They date the Golden Age as beginning in 1939 and lasting until 1963. The book was later reprinted as the second half of Isaac Asimov Presents The Golden Years of Science Fiction, Third Series with the first half being Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 5 (1943).
The Best of Science Fiction, published in 1946, is an anthlogy of science fiction anthologies edited by American critic and editor Groff Conklin.
Science-Fiction Adventures in Dimension is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Groff Conklin, first published by Vanguard Press in hardcover in 1953. An abridged edition was issued by Grayson & Grayson in the UK, and an abridged paperback edition, with a different selection of stories from the original, was issued by Berkley Books; both abridgments carried unhyphenated titles.
A Treasury of Science Fiction is an American anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in 1948, and reprinted in March 1951. A later edition was issued by Bonanza Books/Crown Publishers in March 1980. An abridged paperback version including eight of its thirty stories was published by Berkley Books in July 1957 and reprinted in January 1958 and January 1965.
Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales is an anthology of science fiction short stories and poems edited by Isaac Asimov and Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Collier Books in 1963 and reprinted in 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1978; a later reprint was issued by Scribner Paperback Fiction in August 1997. The book has been translated into Italian.
Dimension 4 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Pyramid Books in February 1964.
"Giant Killer" is a science fiction short story by A. Bertram Chandler. It was first published in the October 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in many science fiction anthologies, including World of Wonder edited by Fletcher Pratt. In 1996 it was shortlisted for a Retro Hugo Award for Best Novella.
↑ Rogers, Alva (1964). A Requiem for Astounding. Advent. ISBN 0-911682-16-3.
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Why are music servers so popular? I can think of at least two reasons: 1) they can produce great sound, and 2) they offer convenient access to your music. Although there’s controversy about whether or not higher-than-CD recording resolutions offer superior sound, if you want to play hi-rez files, you’ll need a server, whether a standalone unit or a laptop computer.
New servers appear on the market frequently, and vary widely in cost, complexity, and capability. A basic computer can be turned into a good server, but for those who don’t want to struggle with the often complex and poorly documented setup of softwares needed to get good sound from a computer, many standalone servers are available. I’ve seen comparisons between standalone servers (such as the Wyred 4 Sound MS-1, reviewed here) and computer servers; usually, these comparisons favor computers, which often cost far less. A factor I haven’t seen mentioned is that server software run on a computer -- especially open-source software -- might be better than a standalone server.
But other factors favor standalone servers: 1) A computer can require lots of tweaking before it sounds its best, and few server programs provide enough instruction for the user to easily achieve the best sound. Unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool computer geek who actually enjoys tweaking software, your computer server may never sound as good as it could. 2) Such geeks aside, most people find computers (the Mac Mini excepted) ugly things that severely deface a nice-looking hi-fi system. Geek flames anticipated.
One new model that looked particularly interesting was Wyred 4 Sound’s MS-1 server ($1999 USD), a standalone device that’s at least part of a server -- the MS-1’s lack of a display or remote control is an increasingly popular design choice. Want to view lists of the music files loaded on the server and choose some to play? Use an Apple iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. If you already have one or more of those devices, all you need do is load the appropriate Apple app: MPad or MPoD. You can also use a Logitech Squeezebox controller.
The MS-1 is a Linux-based computer that uses the VortexBox server software, and for some functions the Logitech Squeezebox program. It has 1GB of internal memory, and a 1TB internal hard drive on which it stores audio files. The MS-1’s S/PDIF output connects to your DAC via RCA or TosLink. The MS-2 ($2499) has 2GB of memory, a 2TB hard drive, and a proprietary I2S connection via HDMI for connection to Wyred 4 Sound’s own DAC-2.
The MS-1 plays a wide variety of audio files: AAC, AIFF, APE, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Monkey’s Audio, MPEG-4, MPEG-4 SLS/HD-AAC, MP3, Musepack, Ogg Vorbis, QuickTime, WAV, Wavpack, Windows Media, WMA Lossless, and WMA Pro. Of course, the formats of interest to most audiophiles are: AIFF, Apple Lossless, FLAC, and WAV. The MS-1 can play files with resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz.
Unlike many servers, the MS-1 is relatively tiny: 8” square by 3.5” high. That makes it easy to accommodate on an equipment rack stuffed with equipment and other items (like mine). Another reason for the MS-1’s diminutive size is its use of a wall-wart power supply. The MS-1 is styled like other Wyred 4 Sound gear. I found it attractive; its black-and-silver color scheme should be visually compatible with even the most expensive hi-fi components.
An audio component should be quiet, and the MS-1 is fanless -- its only moving parts are in its optical disc drive and its internal hard drive. Music files can be loaded onto the drive two different ways: 1) insert a CD (label side down) in its disc drive and the MS-1 will automatically rip it as a FLAC file; or 2) if your files are already ripped or downloaded, they can be transferred via the MS-1’s Ethernet port. Of course, once you’ve loaded all your files on the hard drive, you’ll want to back them up, which you can do by connecting an external USB hard drive to one of the USB jacks on the rear panel. Backup is a one-click operation -- you have no excuse for not backing up your files. The MS-1 reformats the backup drive the first time you use it, but then will only add new files each subsequent time there is a backup.
The MS-1 is a small box with only an on/off switch and the CD slot. It easily fit on my rack, occupying less than half a shelf and looking quite at home among the other components. Wyred 4 Sound says that the MS-1 takes 8-12 minutes to rip a CD, and my experience confirmed that. Hi-rez files must be copied from a computer via the network.
To browse and select music to play, I used an iPod Touch and an iPhone 3 running the MPoD app. If your house isn’t wired for Ethernet, Wyred 4 Sound says that other connections will work. I tried a wireless connection recommended by Wyred 4 Sound that did not work, but you may have better luck. I finally gave up and used an Ethernet cable, which is the best way to ensure that the network will work. I connected the MS-1 to my DAC with a Wireworld Gold Starlight 6 S/PDIF cable.
With the MS-1 now communicating with my computer, I had to load music onto the server’s hard drive, and began by using the MS-1’s CD drive to rip several discs. Although I’ve seen servers that ripped faster, the MS-1 rescans a CD multiple times to ensure that the rip is accurate, in the manner of Exact Audio Copy. I can’t imagine an easier process: just insert a CD in the slot, and remove it when the rip is complete and the CD has been ejected. When the MS-1 rips the music to FLAC files, it includes cover art, though since the latter is downloaded from the Internet, sometimes the choice of art is a little quirky. The drive is a bit noisy -- you probably wouldn’t want to listen to music while the CD is being ripped. The drive will not burn or play CDs. Hey, that’s what computers are for.
Having confirmed the ease of ripping CDs, I decided to load some hi-rez files. It was necessary to sit at my desktop computer, where I’d stored the files, and copy them to the MS-1 via Ethernet. Wyred 4 Sound provides instructions for Mac and Windows users, though when I tried to connect from my Windows desktop computer, the MS-1 demanded a user ID and password. I tried providing my network user ID and password, but that didn’t work. The Wyred 4 Sound staff worked hard and found a workaround. In a flagrant display of computer perversity, my Windows laptop, connected to the network via Wi-Fi, worked just as the instructions said it should. Go figure. Once I was able to access the MS-1’s hard drive, transferring files from my desktop computer was just like copying files from one computer drive to another using Windows. Finally, I was able to play files up to 24/192 on the MS-1.
Files transferred from a computer to the MS-1 must be stored in a particular folder and file structure: \\wyred4sound\files\music\flac\artist\album. You must locate the MS-1 server on your network (it’s named Wyred4Sound) and look at the four top-level directories. Click on the “Files” folder, then on the subfolder “Music,” then on the sub-subfolder “FLAC.” Now you’re ready to create folders for the artist and album name. I was a little surprised that all files go in the FLAC folder, but they do. That makes it easier for the ripping function, which creates only FLAC files, to work.
The MPoD app is a serviceable but unspectacular server control program with about the level of competence of iTunes. That means it’s designed for pop and rock music; lovers of classical music may find it unwieldy. The Browse function shows you the directory structure of the FLAC folder, which sometimes worked more reliably than the Album menu choice (albeit without displaying cover art). One feature of MPoD I appreciated was that, every time you start it, it rescans all your music files; if you’ve added or deleted any files, MPoD will show you the current contents of the MS-1’s hard drive.
There were a few glitches. Often, when I selected a file and began playback, I heard a brief click -- only half a second or so, and not very loud. Once, when I started playing a hi-rez file, it was accompanied by very noticeable hash that I’d never heard from either of my servers. It made the piece unlistenable. But when I restarted it, the noise went away and never came back. Overall, the MS-1’s playback was silent.
The MS-1 was physically quiet, too. Hard-drive noise was inaudible more than 3’ from the unit -- just what you want in a server. As noted, the CD drive was a bit noisy during ripping, but you don’t typically rip CDs while listening to music anyhow. It’s not as if you can play CDs in the drive (though that would be a useful feature).
Using the MS-1 was a blast. I spent a lot of time browsing my audio library of AIFF, WAV, and uncompressed FLAC files, wondering how various ones would sound through the MS-1. After the few minutes needed to transfer the files to the MS-1 (file transfer via Ethernet is fast), they were ready to play. The MS-1 played them all effortlessly.
I wanted to try backing up the MS-1’s files to a hard drive, but since the hard drive is reformatted each time and I didn’t have an extra hard drive on which to first back up those files, I didn’t try it. But regular, frequent backup of files is essential: The music files on your server quickly become the most valuable part of your system. All you need is an external USB hard drive the same size as the one in the MS-1; no need to buy a 3 or 4TB drive. A cautious backup strategy would be to back up to two drives, and store one of them offsite, in a safety-deposit box or at a friend’s house -- somewhere it won’t be damaged if there’s a fire in your house.
The MS-1’s 18-page manual is downloadable -- an excellent way to keep abreast of updates. The manual was updated once during the review period.
The MS-1 sounded very incisive, with lots of slam; i.e., transients were fast, with plenty of dynamic impact. Nor did it skimp on rich tonality -- instruments and voices were fleshed out. The frequency response was extended at both ends of the audioband, but not overemphasized. Highs weren’t the least bit peaky. The opening chimes in Argento’s For the Angel, Israfel, performed by Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra on Reference Recordings’ 30th Anniversary Sampler (16/44.1 FLAC, Reference), sounded distinct from each other but not at all etched. J.S. Bach’s Prelude in D, from the same release, had admirable bass depth and definition.
The bass in Chris Jones’s “God Moves on the Water,” from his Roadhouses and Automobiles (16/44.1 FLAC, Stockfisch), was extended but not boomy; and while his voice had its usual slightly rough and gravelly texture, I could easily understand his words.
Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust,” from her Greatest Hits (16/44.1 FLAC, FIM K2 HD, a remastering of A&M AM 5 33417 4), was resonant and full, and her guitar sounded quite realistic, with a dynamic lilt that infused the music with life and momentum. It’s easy to see why audiophiles like this recording.
Ottmar Liebert’s One Guitar (24/96 FLAC, Spiral Subwave International/HDtracks) pulsated with life, with strong leading-edge transients that were at times downright scary -- no dynamic compression here. The trailing edges of waveforms subsided without fuss or overhang. Still, it was the initial transients that made the strongest impression on me.
My Auraliti PK100 is another partial standalone server ($799). By partial, I mean that the user must provide some components, in this case the display/remote control and a hard drive on which to store files. The Auraliti also lacks an optical drive; you must use a computer to rip CDs. Given the current quality of CD ripping software (I usually use dBpoweramp), that’s no hardship, but it’s undeniably more convenient to just pop a CD in the MS-1’s drive and let it do all the work. To upload new files to the Auraliti, you have to plug its external hard drive into a USB port on the computer where the ripped or downloaded files are stored. The Auraliti has an internal DAC and an S/PDIF output; I used the latter to connect it to my DAC.
The Auraliti’s use of an external hard drive has benefits and drawbacks. It’s neater and more convenient to have all parts of the server enclosed in a single chassis, but keeping the hard drive external to the rest of the electronics lets you easily swap it for another drive. And since the Auraliti has three USB jacks, multiple drives can be connected. If your music collection is big enough to require one of the new 4TB drives, it’s just a matter of copying them to the new drive, then plugging that into the Auraliti. Theoretically, an external drive should be noisier than the MS-1’s internal drive, but the Western Digital Elements I use with my Auraliti is just as quiet.
The Auraliti PK100 and the Wyred 4 Sound MS-1 sounded a bit different. The PK100’s leading-edge transients weren’t as defined or as powerful as the MS-1’s, yet the trailing edges were better defined -- when a piano note was struck (as many are in Rhapsody in Blue), it sounded overall more like an actual piano note floating in space. And the tonality of the note was just right. As with the MS-1, the PK100’s frequency extension was very extended at both ends of the audioband, yet I heard slightly deeper bass from Bach’s Prelude in D; the room pressurized quite nicely, even without a subwoofer. And the chimes in For the Angel, Israfel seemed slightly better defined, with a very slight increase in extension through the Auraliti.
Ottmar Liebert’s guitar sounded less brutal and a smidge more harmonically whole -- more like a real guitar. There was still plenty of dynamic slam, but less than with the MS-1; overall, the guitar sounded more realistic through the Auraliti. As with the piano, guitar notes seemed to have more balanced, more natural leading and trailing edges.
Through the MS-1, the orchestral instruments in Missa Criolla seemed farther from the front of the stage, where tenor Carreras stands, so the MS-1’s faster, more dynamic leading-edge transients created more apparent clarity and detail. The Auraliti’s presentation of this recording was equally spacious; both servers spread the instruments out widely.
The bass in Chris Jones’s “God Moves on the Water” seemed to extend a bit deeper through the Auraliti, with a barely perceptible increase in bass detail. If I hadn’t been desperately trying to distinguish between the two servers, I probably would have said they sounded pretty much the same with this track. One thing I did notice was that, with the Auraliti, Jones’s voice sounded smoother, though whether that means the PK100 was less or more accurate, I don’t know.
In short, the differences between the servers were perceptible but small. If you listen mostly to rock, especially the more energetic variety, you might prefer the MS-1; while classical and, presumably, jazz fans might prefer the Auraliti’s slightly softer sound. That’s not to say the MS-1 sounded bad with classical music; I cheerfully listened to classical through it for long stretches.
The MS-1’s disc and hard drives made it much more convenient to use, and the ability to upload music to it via my network was a definite convenience, and for some might cinch the deal. Both servers use the same control app, so functionally they’re identical.
Wyred 4 Sound continues its tradition of bringing the latest technology to market at extremely reasonable prices. I wouldn’t call their products cheap, but their value-to-dollar ratio is off the scale. While you can use a computer as a server for less dough, it may not work as well as the MS-1 or have a remote control -- and unless it’s a Mac Mini, it won’t look as good.
The MS-1 music server sounded superb, was user-friendly, and wouldn’t look out of place in the priciest audio system -- which pretty much checks all the boxes on my list. Geek that I am, if I were getting a Wyred 4 Sound server, I’d probably shell out the extra $500 for the MS-2, with its increased RAM and bigger hard drive. And if I already had a Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 DAC, getting an MS-2 just so I could use Wyred’s proprietary I2S connection would be a no-brainer.
The Wyred 4 Sound MS-1 is a fantastic deal.
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Last time saw the start of our 1,000 mile electric road trip. We navigated the Tesla model S south from London, then under the sea aboard the Eurotunnel Shuttle. We've left the car charging at a rainy hotel car park in Calais in preparation for our epic day's drive down to the town of Lorange. Meanwhile, Luke and I have gone inside. Search of food. So we've lucked out slightly. Yeah. Out of the cold and into Continental Buffet. [MUSIC] It's not just electric soup cans though [UNKNOWN] is it? We're using electricity for all kind of Things. For example, I mean, here you'll see eggs being cooked through the application of heat and water. Star rating? I would say a real solid four out of five stars. [SOUND] Eating and ranking appliances kills about an hour, but every minute we wait means more range for the next stage. At last it's time to key in our next charge point 200 miles away. The car isn't keen though, and wants to take us there via another charge point in Lille. We don't want to get stranded, so we trust the car. The car it's very easy to drive, it's very smooth. Very similar to other electric experiences we both had. Would that be fair to say Andy>>I'd say that's fair>>Yeah, it's eerily silent, very smooth accelerations through ghosts away Right. In a very satisfying way and can feel the power. We can feel it but, with car requesting a detour, we aren't using it for fear of burning through our range. Cautiously, we make our way down the motorway to Lille. [MUSIC] We're going to stop here for about 20 minutes, give it a quick boost. Then get on our way. We should have enough power to get to the next stop anyway, but never hurts to have more. Actually, it kind of can. But as we cruise down to our next charger, we haven't fully realized the toll that stopping at extra chargers is taking on our schedule. For now it's a bite to eat, a power nap, and the companionship of our animal friends. [SOUND] Leg two was 200 miles, but it wasn't because that's the one when we should have gone from [UNKNOWN] to the charger, and it didn't. It took us to a different one en route, so whether it lets us go directly from here to [UNKNOWN], we'll see. It doesn't. The car wants us to make another half way stop even though the range indicator does suggest we can make it all the way. As the detour takes us further and further from anything resembling a motorway we start to get a bad feeling The detour is slow, the roads are slower. I'm really not convinced If it's worth the tradeoff in time, it's a little bit tougher because we don't know how smart the computer is, like if it's taking everything into account. I just missed turning. That's a dirt road. We are now cruising through very rural France on these tiny little roads. How has this happened? Why has this happened? Where are we? What's going on? I mean, we don't really know where we are. I'm hungry. It's going to get dark soon. We should really have remembered that on an electric trip, detours don't just add driving time, they add charging time too. And if the charger you are detouring to is a little out of the way your travel time can quickly balloon out of control. Having topped at the cars charger at the next stop, we make a tough call. Our initial plan was to get into Orange, in southern France for 6PM. That is turns out was well, Oddly unrealistic. Cause it's now half past six and we would still have four and a half hours just of driving time to get to [UNKNOWN] from here, excluding About two hours of charge maybe. About two hours of charge as well. Now we are going to stay in a hotel South of Leon which is about two hours. Less time. At 10:30 pm, after nearly 20 hours on the road and 600 miles traveled, we arrive at our impromptu stop for the night, an Ibis hotel with a charging station. We've made terrible time but hey, we're not stranded and we saw some chickens. Tomorrow, Barcelona. If it says we've got 100 kilometers to bear, then we can make it. The car's making a new noise.
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Hitler unleashed the Second World War. It is equally clear that he had envisioned war at least since the twenties, when he wrote in Mein Kampf that National Socialists "turn their gaze toward the land in the East" and unambiguously affirmed that the only possible way for modem Germany to survive was to resume the eastward march of the medieval Teutonic knights "in order to provide with the German sword land for the German plow and thereby daily bread for the nation." Once he became dictator, moreover, he set about building up the German armed forces. As they became stronger, he conducted a more and more aggressive foreign policy until he finally forced Europe into the Second World War. While Hitler clearly planned for war, he did not prepare Germany for it.
Germany was not economically prepared for total war in 1939 and did not actually begin to convert her economy "to a wartime footing" until 1942. There can be no doubt [according to the October 1945 report on "The Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy"] that Germany started the conversion of her economy to a wartime footing far too late. Had Germany's leaders decided to make an all-out war effort in 1939 instead of 1942, they would have had time to arm in "depth"; that is, to lay the foundations of a war economy by expanding their basic industries and building up equipment for the mass production of munitions. Starting their armament program as late as 1942, they could only arm in "width"; that is, accept their equipment and material base as given and expand munitions production on the basis of available capacity.
Hitler's visions were of quick victories, prepared by setting potential enemies against each other. An adequate population and industrial base existed to support an expanded armed force. The Reich's population prior to the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland was almost 70 million, and in creased by more than 10 million when these two areas became part of Germany. The Reich produced more than 22 million tons of steel yearly and over 200 million tons of coal. The country was highly developed industrially ,with large motor vehicle and tool plants, and had excellent transportation and communications systems. The merchant marine totalled more than 4 million tons, and port facilities were extensive.
The German management system, especially in terms of the technological industry, was a complex and convoluted bureaucratic nightmare. Their system of committees and rings, coupled with a lack of centralized control at the top, served to undermine an economy that was resource-poor, in terms of both monetary and natural resources. Further compounding the situation was the influence of Adolf Hitler. A man with a continental worldview and a penchant for doing things his way, Hitler was more of a hindrance to industry than a help. His constantly changing requirements led to costly and lengthy delays to the production of many aircraft. His inability to look beyond continental Europe from a practical standpoint ensured the German state never had a practical long-range bomber until it was too late. Indeed, the Germans ended the war with the same fighter and bomber with which they began the war, with only minor modifications and a dwindling ability to mass-produce them.
In 1936 Hitler informed the regime's top officials that Germany must be ready for war by 1940. In response, the Four-Year Plan was established. Developed under the direction of Hermann Goering, it set forth production quotas and market guidelines. Efforts to regiment the economy were not without conflict. Some of the economic elite desired that Germany be integrated into the world's economy. Others advocated autarchy, that is, firmly basing the German economy in Central Europe and securing its raw materials through barter agreements.
The highly respected economist, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, a traditional conservative, Minister of Economics and President of the Reichsbank, was almost the only individual who regularly dared to speak up to Hitler. Schacht's alarm about Hitler's growing bellicosity first came to a head about 1936, the year in which he became what may be called a charter member of the anti-Hitler conspiracy. Colonel Georg Thomas was at the Reich Defense Ministry in 1934 with general authority over Wehrwirtschaftsuna Waffenwesen ( Defense Economy and Weapons Affairs). The army was constantly prodded by Thomas, its economic and armament specialist, as well as by Hjalmar Schacht. He and Thomas carried on a systematic agitation among Army and business leaders against arguments that a blitzkrieg might lead to a quick victory; in their view any next war was more likely to be another competition in exhaustion.
As the rate of the German rearmament program accelerated, Thomas became increasingly concerned that inadequate provisions were being made to sustain during a long war of attrition the precipitously expanding Wehrmacht. In July 1937 he prepared a report for Hitler, warning him that the pace of rearmament was outdistancing Germany's economic capacity, and that certain limits would have to be placed upon current military expansion.
One of the most striking and revealing of all the captured documents which have come to hand is one which has come to be known as the Hossbach notes [Red Series NT V-I, pg 376] of a conference in the Reichs Chancellery on 5 November 1937 from 1615 to 2830 hours (386-PS). In the course of that meeting Hitler outlined to those present the possi- bilities and necessities of expanding their foreign policy. : "Period 1943-45: After this we can only expect a change for the worse. The rearming of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, as well as the formation of the Officers' Corps, are practically concluded. "Our material equipment and armaments are modern; with further delay the danger of their becoming out-of-date will increase. In particular the secrecy of 'special weapons' can- not always be safeguarded. Enlistment of reserves would be limited to the current recruiting age groups and an addition from older untrained groups would be no longer available. "In comparison with the rearmament, which will have been carried out at the time by other nations, we shall decrease in relative power."
In the end, no clear decision on the management of the German economy was made. Large weapons contracts with industrial firms soon had the economy running at top speed, and full employment was reached by 1937. Wages did not increase much for ordinary workers, but job security after years of economic depression was much appreciated. The rearmament program was not placed on a sound financial footing, however. Taxes were not increased to pay for it because the regime feared that this would dissatisfy workers. Instead, the regime tapped the country's foreign reserves, which were largely exhausted by 1939. The regime also shunned a rigorous organization of rearmament because it feared the social tensions this might engender. The production of consumer goods was not curtailed either, again based on the belief that the morale of the population had to remain high if Germany were to become strong. In addition, because Hitler expected that the wars waged in pursuit of his foreign policy goals would be short, he judged great supplies of weapons to be unnecessary. Thus, when war began in September 1939 with the invasion of Poland, Germany had a broad and impressive range of weapons, but not much in the way of replacements. As in World War I, the regime expected that the defeated would pay for Germany's expansion.
Germany had an excellent industrial base for war, with its heavy plants in the Ruhr, Saar, and Silesian areas. According to the German planners, however, by 1939 several more years were still needed to attain a production rate high enough to supply the materiel and ammunition for a major war. The military training program had already made inroads on the strength of the labor force, and mobilization would deprive it of additional thousands of technicians and workers who had completed their period of compulsory service and were assigned to reserve units. In short, Germany was prepared only for a limited war of short duration. Gasoline and ammunition reserves would not suffice for simultaneous large-scale operations in the east and west, and the disaster of 1918 still acted to dampen the enthusiasm of the general public for military adventures.
Hjalmar Schacht was sacked by Hitler as Reichsbank president in 1939 for opposing Germany's unbridled rearmament. By 1939 a pliable man had been found in Walter Funk, who succeeded Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics when the latter warned Hitler against reckless military expenditures.
On the very eve of the war, Thomas attempted to avert what he fervently believed would be a catastrophe by insisting to the chief of the OKW, Marshal Keitel, that the impending conflict would inevitably become a long, drawn-out war of attrition which Germany could not possibly survive. As Thomas later recounted, Keitel cut him off with the assertion "that Hitler would never bring about a world war. There was no danger at all, for in Hitler's opinion, the French were a degenerate pacifist people, the English were much too decadent to provide real aid to, the Poles, and finally, America would never again send a single man to Europe in order to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for England, or even for Poland."
When the war began a few days later, Hitler not only refused to give the orders Thomas urged for full wartime mobilization of the economy but even hesitated to establish fixed priority schedules or stable production guidelines within the framework of existing directives. Only on 7 September 1939 did Hitler set up, on Thomas's urgent recommendation, a priority schedule, giving top classification to munitions and replacement of destroyed weapons and equipment. But then on 4 October he revised this to include, at equally urgent top priority on a competitive basis, a number of additional programs, including submarine construction. On 10 October, however, Hitler suddenly established super-priority (over the previous top-priority programs) for motorization; and in mid-November, just as German industry was being retooled for that latest shift, he gave super-super-priority to munitions production-a decision forced by the alarming shortages resulting from Germany's having entered the war, despite Thomas's repeated warnings, with only a four- to six-weeks' supply of ammunition.
On 22 June 1941, the first anniversary of the French capitulation, Hitler turned on his Soviet treaty partner with Operation Barbarossa. By the end of September, with victory in sight, "the greatest war lord of all times" actually went so far as to order a substantial reduction in armaments production. Only the bitter stalemate before Moscow itself and the entry of the United States into the war brought home to Hitler, at the end of 1941, that his astounding series of triumphs by armed diplomacy, coercion, subversion, and Blitzkrieg had finally come to an end and that he was now indeed engaged in a second world war, a long war of attrition, and a war for which he had deliberately and resolutely refused to prepare the Third Reich because he had neither wanted it nor thought it would be necessary.
In 1941 and 1942 the United States and Britain, working together, developed plans for a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. These plans were, in part, based on the belief that the German economy - like the British economy - was fully mobilized in support of the war effort. American and British planners assumed that Hitler would not have started the largest war in history without first fully mobilizing his economy to fight it. During the years 1933 until 1942 Hitler did not perceive a crisis in Germany sufficient enough to warrant mobilizing the entire German economy for war. It was not until 1942 that Hitler placed the German economy on a war footing.
Prior to the winter of 1941 Hitler hoped to realize Germany's ascendancy over Europe, and possibly the world, largely by skilled strategy. Time and timing were the secret weapons in the German war plan that took shape after 1933. Hitler hoped to build Germany's strength more quickly than that of any potential opponent. By rapid mobilization of a powerful striking force, by exploiting the political and ideological strains that he conceived to exist in the rest of the world, and by overwhelming separately in lightning campaigns such of his enemies as chose to resist, he hoped to secure for Germany an invulnerable position in Europe and in the world.
What Germany lacked in numbers of divisions, in raw materials and in basic industrial strength, it planned to compensate with highly trained ground units of great striking power. These were to be equipped and ready to march while Germany's enemies were merely preparing. Essential in this strategy was a technically well developed air force in being. Emphasis was not placed upon the development of an air force that would destroy the sustaining resources of the enemy's economy. In the German plan it was anticipated that an enemy's entire country would be so quickly over-run that little concern need be had for industrial and war production that was merely potential. The air force was, primarily, an arm of the blitzkrieg. The success of Hitler's strategy, until the battle of Britain, was complete; his more cautious advisers and generals confessed their astonishment. By September 1941 Hitler was so confident that he had succeeded in Russia that he ordered large scale cut-backs in war production.
Until the defeat at Moscow German industry was, incompletely mobilized and that in fact Germany did not forsee the need for full economic mobilization. German arms production during 1940 and 1941 was generally below that of Britain. When the full meaning of the reverses at Moscow became apparent the German leaders called for all-out production. The conquests of the previous years had greatly strengthened Germany's economy; with, the exception of oil and rubber, supplies of virtually all the previously scarce imported materials were or had become accessible. Great reserves of foreign labor only awaited voluntary or forced recruitment. The industrial plant of France, the Low Countries, Poland and Czechoslovakia had been added to that of Germany.
After the defeat at Moscow early in 1942, armament production increased rapidly. However, such increase was more the result of improvements in industrial efficiency than of general economic mobilization. Throughout the war a great deal of German industry was on a single shift basis, relatively few German women (less than in the first war) were drawn into industry and the average work week was below British standards.
Hitler appointed his architect, Albert Speer, as Reich Minister for Weapons and Munitions. Speer, an unusually able, hard-driving man who as a personal friend enjoyed the confidence of the Führer, immediately began to consolidate control over the war economy. At the time of his appointment in February 1942, there were no fewer than five supreme Reich authorities with conflicting and competing jurisdiction over German war production: Göring's Four-Year-Plan organization, Thomas's Wi Rü Amt/OKW, the Ministries of Labor and of Economics, and Speer's own ministry-not to mention the Air Force Ordnance Office which under Goring's patronage remained independent of the Wi Rü Amt, Himmler's ss Main Office of Economics and Administration, and several Nazi Party satrapies jealously guarded by Hitler's sinister Party Chancellery chief, Martin Bormann.
Germany's armament minister Albert Speer rationalized German war production and eliminated the worst inefficiencies in the previous controls. A threefold increase in armament production occurred under his direction but the increase cannot be considered a testament to the efficiency of dictatorship. Rather it suggests the degree of industrial undermobilization in the earlier years. An excellent case can be made that throughout the war top government management in Germany was not efficient.
Speer instituted those "changes in the institutional framework of the German war economy which made possible the brilliant success of German war production between spring, 1942, and summer, 1944, and so confounded Germany's opponents." In the words of the Strategic Bombing Survey: "Production of armament in 1943 was on the average 56 percent higher than in 1942, and more than twice as high as in 1941. . . . Despite the damage wrought by air attack and territorial loss, and despite the general drop in production in the second half of 1944, total industrial output for the year was the highest in the war."
Once it became clear that the war would not be a short one, Germany's industry was reorganized for a total mobilization. Between February 1942 and July 1944, armaments production increased threefold despite intense Allied bombing raids. Much of the labor for this increase came from the employment of some 7 million foreigners, taken from their homelands and forced to work under terrible conditions. Also contributing to the Nazi war effort was the systematic requisitioning of raw materials and food from occupied territories. As a result, Germans remained fairly well fed for most of the war, in contrast to the hunger endured during World War I. Despite their comparative physical well-being until late in the war, it gradually became clear to many Germans that the regime's series of military triumphs had come to an end.
What was possible under the adverse conditions of July 1944, when the index of munitions output peaked at 322 (the monthly level of January-February 1942 being taken as 100), suggests what might have been achieved had General Georg Thomas's program of comprehensive economic mobilization for total war been taken seriously during the thirties. The German economy was not fully mobilized until 1944, and by then the war was already lost. In August 1945, German prisoner of war General Lemelsen noted that Hitler "never clearly recognized that Germany alone would eventually . . . have to succumb to the superiority of its enemies and that he did not seek means when this became apparent to end the war, but rather delivered the people to complete destruction." The war was decided by the weight of armaments production.
Germany's early commitment to the doctrine of the short war was a continuing handicap; neither plans nor state of mind were adjusted to the idea of a long war. Nearly all German sources agree that the hope for a quick victory lasted long after the short war became a long one.
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After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the Allied forces turned to post-war recovery. The World War II timeline below summarizes important events in August of 1945.
August 15: Charles de Gaulle commutes the death sentence of Marshal Pétain (age 89) to life imprisonment.
The Allies celebrate Victory in Japan (V-J) Day. Meanwhile, Emperor Hirohito broadcasts a message to the Japanese people that he has agreed to unconditional surrender.
August 16: Underscoring the issues that will define the next great "war" of the 20th century, Winston Churchill delivers an address warning of an "iron curtain" descending across Europe.
August 18: Indian nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose dies when his plane crashes into the sea off Formosa.
August 21: Having accomplished what it set out to do, the United States brings the Lend-Lease aid program to a close.
August 23: Moscow announces that Japanese resistance has ended in the former Manchurian puppet state of Manchukuo. Manchuria is completely occupied by Soviet Union troops.
August 28: Indictments are handed down on Nazi war criminals, including Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Rudolf Hess, and Martin Bormann.
August 30: U.S. Army and Marine forces arrive on the Japanese home islands to begin military occupation.
August 31: Truman writes British prime minister Clement Attlee, asking him to allow some 100,000 European Jews to immigrate to British-controlled Palestine.
General MacArthur becomes the first foreign authority in a millennium to assume power in Japan when he establishes the Supreme Allied Command in Tokyo.
Below are more headlines that outline the events surrounding the end of World War II, including the Soviet War against Japan.
Tokyo in ruins after B-29 raids: By war's end, B-29 raids had transformed more than half of the Tokyo into a wasteland. With rice severely rationed, civilians were advised to supplement their diets with acorns and sawdust. In March, the cabbage ration was one leaf per person every three days. Hundreds of thousands were still homeless. Cooking and heating fuel had been in short supply for months. Malnutrition, malaria, and typhoid were widespread. The bombings did produce one surplus item: plenty of debris to use for kindling.
American POWs are freed and fed: American women prepared food after being freed from Japanese captivity in Manila, Philippines, in 1945. For most freed prisoners, liberation meant adequate food for the first time in years. Spam, cocoa, cigarettes, gum, and clothing were airdropped on prison camps throughout Asia, often accompanied by leaflets that warned: "Do not overeat." Within six weeks, most POWs were on their way home, although many would be plagued by health and psychological problems for the rest of their lives. Suicide, alcoholism, and depression were common.
Soviets battle Japanese in China: American planners had originally thought that the Soviet Union entry into the war would be necessary to divert Japanese forces in China and Manchuria during the invasion of Japan's home islands. The Soviet Union's last-minute declaration of war on Japan on August 8 became more a political headache than a military benefit for the U.S. The Soviets saw intervention as an inexpensive way to reap the spoils of war in Japan's final hours. Faced with 1.6 million Soviet Union troops, Japanese forces in China collapsed. About 700,000 went into captivity.
See the next page for a detailed timeline of World War II events in September of 1945, including Japan's surrender ceremonies.
Until 1945, Japan and the Soviet Union held to their Neutrality Pact of April 1941. Had they not, each nation would have faced a two-front war. This agreement ended, however, due to the Soviet Union's interest in expansion in East Asia and pressure from the Soviets' Western Allies.
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Joseph Stalin promised Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt that the Soviets would attack Japan within three months of the end of the war in Europe. Unaware of this, the Japanese government expected the Soviet Union either to mediate a compromised peace or to join Japan in war against the United States and Britain. Instead, on August 8 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan.
About two hours later, Marshal Vasilevsky unleashed three Soviet Union army groups against the Japanese in Korea and Man-chukuo. Both the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin figured among their objectives. The Soviets mustered more than a million men to attack the Kwantung Army's 500,000 poorly trained and badly equipped troops. The Soviets also deployed some 5,000 tanks and 5,000 aircraft.
The Japanese army, fooled as to the attack's direction and timing, was overwhelmed in nine days of lightning assaults, panic, and massacre. More than 80,000 were killed, nearly 10 times the Soviet Union total. Some Japanese survivors fought until August 21, six days after Hirohito had announced the surrender. More than 500,000 Japanese prisoners in Manchuria and Korea were sent to Siberia.
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0.999005 |
THE talks opened earlier this year to consider the future of Northern Ireland are "suspended," not "broken down," Irish Foreign Minister Gerard Collins told a group of Monitor editors recently.Moreover, according to Mr. Collins, considerable popular support exists for a renewal of those talks. He cited a July poll that found strong majorities of respondents in Ireland (87 percent), in Britain (79 percent), and even in Northern Ireland (73 percent) favoring resumption of discussions. "And 99 percent of the people within all jurisdictions fully recognize that violence is not the way and can never be the way," he said. Since 1985 there has been an agreement between the two governments, Collins said, "the main thrust of which is that it gives the government of Ireland an opportunity to present the viewpoint of the minority nationalist [or] Catholic population in Northern Ireland on issues of great concern to them. "That has been a considerable step forward in the arrangements between the two governments," he said. The mostly Protestant unionist community, which favors keeping Northern Ireland as part of Britain, has never accepted the accord. And so it was a great surprise to many this spring that the leaders of the two main unionist parties agreed to take part in talks on the future of the province, which began in May. The sessions were carefully timed to take place in a hiatus between regular sessions of the intergovernmental conference provided for by the accord. This maneuver let the unionists construe the accord as "suspended," since they had vowed not to enter into any talks while the accord was in effect. To have postponed sessions of the intergovernmental conference indefinitely, however, would have "eroded the foundations of the accord," Collins said, and so the decision was made to suspend the talks in July, before any real progress could be made. Of the unionist leadership's stonewalling, he said: "They've lost credibility like nobody's business." But he also described an interview he gave on Northern Ireland radio, before talks started. "The main thrust of what I was trying to say [was], 'Look, the prize for all of us at the end of this is peace.... Our approach to these talks is on a "no-winner, no-loser" basis. If we are winners, they lose, therefore we can't have agreement on that.' And I think that that struck the right chord." Excerpts from the discussion follow: What is the Republic's position on the presence of British troops in Northern Ireland? It started off with basic civil-rights demands in the mid-1960s. So the British Army came in to protect the minority population from the security forces in Northern Ireland at the time. Then, at that stage, the [Irish Republican Army] became involved and they stirred up the troubles between the population and the British Army, and they moved in on it and it became a different issue. The British Army is there, in support of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, in an effort to defeat terrorism. Its absence or immediate withdrawal from Northern Ireland wouldn't guarantee us what we're looking for, peace and stability. How confident are you in the Royal Ulster Constabulary's efforts to get more Catholics or more nationalists into their ranks? They have not been successful in doing that, as of now. You will have to understand that there were a whole series of questions asked with regard to the impartiality or the lack of it [by the RUC]. I think on the whole that the RUC are making a very determined effort to try and win the confidence of the people in Northern Ireland. Has Prime Minister Major been much involved in the Anglo-Irish accord? He has, I would think, every intention of ensuring that a long-term solution will be found. But there is a British general election in the offing now. Would a Labor victory in the British general election affect British policy vis-a-vis Ireland? I believe that the policies of this government will also be the policies of the next government irrespective of who that government might be, because they are based on common sense and logic.
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0.524921 |
What is AMT and why I should care?
Intel AMT is part of the vPro Platform. Recent intel-chipset based business machines should have it. My fairly new Intel SDV machine has it too.
Most useful to get started: "Intel AMT Deployment and Reference Guide"
Very short AMT enabling instructions.
Enter ME (Management Extention) Setup. Ctrl-P hotkey works for me.
* Login, factory default password is "admin".
* Change password. Trivial ones don’t work, must include upper- and lowercase letters, digits, special characters.
Reboot, Enter ME Setup again with AMT enabled.
Take your browser, point it to http://machine:16992/. If you configured AMT to use DHCP (which is the default) the OS and the management stack share the same IP address.
You must do that from a remote host as the NIC intercepts network packets for AMT, thus it doesn’t work from the local machine as the packets never pass the NIC then. If everything is fine you’ll see a greeting page with a button for login.
You can login now, using "admin" as username and the password configured during setup. You’ll see some pages with informations about the machine. You can also change AMT settings here.
You might have noticed already while browing the pages: There is a "Remote Control" page. You can remotely reset and powercycle the machine there, thus recover the machine after booting a b0rken kernel, without having someone walk over to the machine and hit the reset button.
AMT also provides a virtual serial port which can be accessed via network. That gives you a serial console without a serial cable to another machine.
You should add the serial port to /etc/securetty too so you are able to login as root. Reload inittab ("init q"). Use amtterm to connect. Tap enter. You should see a login prompt now and be able to login.
You can also use that device as console for the linux kernel, using the usual "console=ttyS2,115200" kernel command line argument, so you see the boot messages (and kernel Oopses, if any).
You can tell grub to use that serial device, so you can pick a working kernel for the next boot. Usual commands from the grub manual, except that you need "−−port=0xe000" instead of "−−unit=0" due to the non-standard I/O port for the serial line (my machine, yours might use another port, check linux kernel boot messages).
The magic command for the Xen kernel is "com1=115200,8n1,0xe000,0" (again, you might have to replace the I/O port). The final ’0’ disables the IRQ, otherwise the Xen kernel hangs at boot after enabling interrupts.
The AMT network stack seems to become slightly confused when running on a Xen host in DHCP mode. Everything works fine as long as only Dom0 runs. But if one starts a guest OS (with bridged networking) AMT suddenly changes the IP address to the one the guest aquired via DHCP.
It is probably a good idea to assign a separate static IP address to AMT then. I didn’t manage to switch my machine from DHCP to static IP yet though, the BIOS refuses to accept the settings. The error message doesn’t indicate why.
You might want to download the DTK (Developer Toolkit, source code is available too) and play with it. The .exe is a self-extracting rar archive and can be unpacked on linux using the unrar utility. The Switchbox comes with a linux binary (additionally to the Windows stuff). The GUI tools are written in C#. Trying to make them fly with mono didn’t work for me though (mono version 1.2.3 as shipped with Fedora 7).
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0.985705 |
Shale gas has revolutionized US energy including prices, consumption, & emissions.
Key questions remain including environmental concerns & extraction efficiencies.
New discoveries are identified through data mining & analysis of 20,000 wells.
Findings include learning-by-doing, refracturing, & long-term tail production.
We hypothesize that manipulating tail production could re-revolutionize shale gas.
Shale gas and hydraulic refracturing has revolutionized the US energy sector in terms of prices, consumption, and CO2 emissions. However, key questions remain including environmental concerns and extraction efficiencies that are leveling off. For the first time, we identify key discoveries, lessons learned, and recommendations from this shale gas revolution through extensive data mining and analysis of 23 years of production from 20,000 wells.
Discoveries include identification of a learning-by-doing process where disruptive technology innovation led to a doubling in shale gas extraction, how refracturing with emerging technologies can transform existing wells, and how overall shale gas production is actually dominated by long-term tail production rather than the high-profile initial exponentially-declining production in the first 12 months. We hypothesize that tail production can be manipulated, through better fracturing techniques and alternative working fluids such as CO2, to increase shale gas recovery and minimize environmental impacts such as through carbon sequestration.
Shale gas technology—a combination of horizontal drilling, high-pressure fracturing, multiple fracturing stages, and more efficient working fluids—has opened up vast reservoirs of shale gas for cost-effective production . Shale gas and hydraulic fracturing has had a profound impact on US prices , carbon intensity, and energy independence with reserves projected to last for around 100 years , , , as well as energy security across the globe, , , , , .
The increased availability of natural gas from shale, which produces roughly half the CO2 than coal for the same heat output, is facilitating the transition from coal-fired to gas-fired power generation and is consequently responsible for US emissions falling to 1990 levels . Natural gas also plays an important role as a bridge fuel to renewables since gas power plants can respond quickly to changes in load and renewable generation unlike coal-fired and nuclear plants .
In addition, depleted shale gas formations offer significant opportunity for CO2 storage due to potentially enormous capacity, ability to sequester or trap CO2 physically, and reduced sequestration costs by leveraging existing infrastructure , . However, the wide spread use of hydraulic fracturing (often referred to as just fracturing or “fracking”) is still plagued by barriers such as inefficient extraction , and environmental concerns such as drinking and groundwater contamination , , , , , induced seismicity due to wastewater disposal , , , and fugitive emissions , .
Improving extraction efficiency through enhanced fracturing and unconventional fracturing fluids could reduce the environmental footprint of shale gas production through reduced water use and improved disposal practices, as well as fewer infrastructure impacts. The findings presented in this data-driven study illustrate several key recommendations that could potentially improve extraction efficiency while reducing environmental impacts.
Through novel data mining coupled with subject matter expertise, we quantitatively explore the history of hydraulic fracturing using production data from 20,000 wells over 23 years in the Barnett Shale (Fig. 1). The Barnett Shale play is an ideal microcosm to explore the shale gas revolution because it contains the entire history of the shale gas development in the United States: early pioneering technology, rapid technological development, massively-increased shale gas production rates, dramatic fluctuations in oil and gas prices and its impact on investment, and the recent decline in field-level production.
Fluctuations in hydrocarbon price significantly impact greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability . Using publicly-available production data—compiled and released for the first time in a single dataset in the Supplementary Information (SI)—we have uncovered four critical aspects of development, which drove shale gas technology and exploration. Barnett Shale gas production displays a learning-by-doing process between the first technically successful wells in 1998 to mature technology around 2011.
This developing discipline resulted in a more than doubling in per-well production rates between 2007 and 2011 alone. These increased efficiencies were largely the result of a trial-and-error approach due to a lack of utilizing first principles to guide production strategies. The refracturing phase—when existing conventional and poor-performing wells were refractured between 2000 and 2004—demonstrates the effects of bringing new technologies online and into the field. This refracturing phase resulted in older, pre-1998 wells, to out-perform wells that were drilled between 1998 and 2006.
Fig. 1. Map of the Barnett Shale formation and production. The map illustrates the county-level spatial distribution of shale gas production (main map) and average per-well production rate (inset). Production is heavily focused on Tarrant County (the city of Forth Worth) and surrounding counties. The average well production curve for the Barnett shows the typical production pattern: high initial production (just over 1650 Mcf/d for the Barnett) followed by an exponential decline and an extended production tail. The average production curve is based on more than 18,000 wells over a 23-year period (1993–2015). The map was made using ESRI’s ArcMap 10.3 software (http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/) and the production data is available in the supplementary information.
In fact, the data over the same time period show that refractured existing wells were as productive as virgin wells; an observation that has major implications for deploying future technologies to existing wells around which vast amounts of hydrocarbon still remain. We identify unique characteristics of high- and low-producing wells, showing that despite increasing extraction efficiencies with time, high- and low- producers behave fundamentally differently independent of the year examined.
High-producing wells typically produce an order of magnitude more than low performing wells in the Barnett. We hypothesize that high-producing wells are the result of hydraulically-generated fractures becoming highly connected to the pre-existing natural fracture network . Finally, although industry typically focuses on production in the first 12 months, motivated by a quick return on the capital-intensive investment, 75% or more of well production in the first ten years actually occurs after the first 12 months showing the importance of long-term tail production.
We hypothesize that the tail in production is controlled by a different set of geochemical, geomechanical, and hydrologic processes. These processes can be manipulated with alternate working fluids such as supercritical CO2, or reservoir management strategies such as cyclic pressure injection, huff’n’puff, or refracturing to further increase long term production. Thus, understanding and enhancing the tail production is a potentially significant research area.
Shale gas production in the Barnett formation is unevenly distributed across more than 20 counties in north-central Texas, with production heavily focused in and around the Fort Worth urban area (Fig. 1). Fossil energy resources, e.g., coal; oil; and natural gas, in the region were identified and developed long before the emergence of large municipalities. Consequently, modern urban shale gas and oil production has faced numerous environmental , , , political , and public awareness , challenges, including a production moratorium in the Marcellus formation , that conventional oil and natural gas never had to address.
The history of shale gas exploration in the Barnett formation is summarized in the field-level production data shown in Fig. 2 with multiple key points indicated in the comprehensive figure caption. Very few wells were drilled before 2000 (blue bars, primary y-axis, in lower chart in Fig. 2) and these wells—a combination of conventional-like, vertical fractures, and emerging horizontal fractures—were typically poor performing (red line, secondary y-axis, in upper chart of Fig. 2). The first technically successful wells in the Barnett were drilled in 1998 .
A moderate increase in the number of new wells drilled occurred for the next few years, though the average well production did not improve until around 2004. The period of 2004–2011 saw a dramatic increase in both the average per-well production and in the number of new leases, which resulted in a quadrupling of total field production (grey bars, primary y-axis, in upper chart of Fig. 2). This dramatic increase was driven by a combination of high natural gas and oil prices (orange lines, secondary y-axis, in lower chart in Fig. 2) and improving technology.
The global recession and the rapid decline of oil and gas prices in 2008 and 2009 resulted in the number of new leases falling by more than two-thirds between April 2008 and September 2009. The recovery in oil prices in 2011 led to a mini resurgence in new leases. However, the opening up of other formations such as the Marcellus along with persistent low and declining natural gas prices led to reduced investment in the Barnett field, even though individual well efficiency was as high as it has ever been.
Extraction of shale gas via hydraulic fracturing benefitted from disruptive technologies innovation—a combination of high-pressure fracturing, horizontal drilling, multiple fracturing stages, and improved low-viscosity working fluids—that led to a remarkable improvement in extraction efficiencies. This innovation occurred in the middle of an extended learning-by-doing process in the Barnett (Fig. 3) that can be divided into three key time periods: early exploration (1981 to 1998), technical success (1999 to 2004), and high-volume production (2005 to present).
Learning-by-doing increased well performance across the three key time periods, though with diminishing returns from 2011 onwards (Fig. 2). Arguably, the Barnett would require another wave of disruptive technology innovations, such as fluid-free fracturing or non-aqueous fracturing fluids , in order to transform shale gas extraction efficiencies. Such a revolution would also impact national hydraulic fracturing practices where the majority of fields are either flat or in decline (Fig. S2 in the SI).
Fig. 3 also illustrates that total field production is largely driven by higher-performing wells. For example, the highest number of wells are in the 100,000–125,000 Mcf bin (peak in the blue bars in Fig. 3), whereas the peak in overall field production (red line in Fig. 3, secondary y-axis) occurs at the 350,000–375,000 Mcf bin. Similarly, the top 20% of field production is driven by only 7% of the wells (1383 wells in green text at the top of Fig. 3).
In addition to field-level data, individual wells corroborate the learning-by-doing concept. For example, production in first month of a representative well jumps from approximately 1000 Mcf/d in 2004 to 1400 Mcf/d in 2005 and 2100 McF/d in 2011 (Fig. 4). Although average production rates plateau around 2011 (Fig. 2; red line), top-performing individual wells still exhibit increased extraction efficiencies (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Evidence for rapid learning-by-doing and success of refracturing. The representative wells were selected from a set of the top five performing wells in the chosen years (1993–2015). The names of the seven wells/leases can be found in the SI Workbook. Each letter-in-circle refers to a different event: A: The few wells producing in the early 1990s perform poorly, especially up until refracturing post-1998. B: Wells in the mid-1990s illustrate marginally improved performance. C: By 1998 wells show clear signs of successful virgin fracturing. D: Refracturing of early, low-producing wells leads to significant relative production increases. Here, a well that was already producing in 1993 (A) sees a production increase from 325 Mcf/d (peak production 1993–2001) to 1550 Mcf/d post-refracture in 2001. E: A successfully-fractured well in 1998 (C; 1500 Mcf/d peak production) is refractured in 2003. The refracture produced both a higher peak (1725 Mcf/d) and more production in the tail. F: By the mid-2000s, virgin-fractured wells perform very well in terms of initial and tail production. G: Like the two previous refracture examples (D and E), this refracture sees a significant increase in peak production and an elevated tail in production compared with the initial fracture (F). H: This 2009 well has yet-again improved initial production with evidence of stronger production in the tail. I: Although average well production asymptotes from 2011 onwards, high-performing wells still show significant improvement. J: 2014–2015 wells are still high-producers, though there are few wells being drilled compared to the late 2000s.
Learning-by-doing is even more prominent when wells are grouped by the first year they started production (Fig. 5, left panel). For instance, the average 2007 well took seven years to produce a billion cubic feet (1 Bcf) whereas wells in 2011 took only three years (Fig. 5, right panel). Starting in 2011, the production curves become indistinguishable as shown in Fig. 5, suggesting fewer technological improvements or better technologies being cancelled out by fewer production sweet-spots.
Fig. 5. Average well daily (left) and cumulative (right) production sorted by starting year. Wells starting in 1993 are excluded.
Our data mining analysis revealed that refracturing existing wells with new technology can transform them into high-performing wells with production characteristics of a high-performing virgin well. This observation has profound implications in the potential revitalization of the hundreds of thousands of shale gas wells across the United States. Refracturing existing wells drastically reduces environmental impacts by using the existing footprint.
Existing wells in the Barnett started to be refractured around 2000 and this procedure continued until around 2004 and production increase is evident in the humps in Fig. 5 (left panel) and the production hump in the average Barnett well production (inset of Fig. 1). Refracturing has a clear benefit both in the averaged-by-year data (Fig. 5) as well as individual cases (jumps at D, E, and G in Fig. 4). For example, the wells first prior to 1999 that were refractured in 2000–2004, cumulatively outperform virgin wells first drilled between 1999 and 2004 (Fig. 5, right panel). The refracturing likely stopped by 2004 because existing profitable candidates for refracturing were exhausted, especially since relatively few wells were drilled before 2000.
An important observation is that the production from 1994 to 1999 wells did not hinder post-refracturing production. Quantitatively, the wells refractured between 2001 and 2003 perform like virgin fractured wells (Fig. 5, right panel) even though they had already been producing for several years. This underscores an exciting potential for future fracturing technologies—such as using non-aqueous working fluids including supercritical CO2 and natural gas —being applied to wells that have reached a low-level asymptotic production.
Refracturing is particularly important because current fracturing technologies leave behind the majority of shale gas resources. For example, the average US shale play recovers only around 13% of original gas-in-place, with the Barnett likely around 6–8% , , . Thus there is massive potential for restimulating existing wells, particularly once oil and gas prices rebound. Moreover, restimulating existing wells is cost effective because it eliminates the capital costs of a new well while providing a smaller environmental footprint.
There is a substantial difference in performance between high- and low-producing wells, which has far-reaching implications for field-level production and increasing our understanding of the mechanisms that control the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing. Mean field production is dominated by a few high-performing wells. Partitioning the data into quintiles provides a more comprehensive and informative view of production.
Fig. 6. Average cumulative per-well production by quintile for wells starting production in 2006–2015. The ten years of data are split into quintiles ranging from high-performers (top 20%; Q1) to low-performers (bottom 20%; Q5). The top 20% refers to the top 20% performing number of wells (i.e., same number of wells in each quintile) based on the initial 12-month production. The chart (left) shows cumulative production curves. Fig. 7 shows the quintile plots for the years 2006 through 2015; each of these plots demonstrates the same relationship as here. The table (right) shows: (A) Average cumulative production for wells (Mcf) in each quintile for months ranging from 3 to 120 months (i.e., 10 years). For example, a well in the 0–20% quintile (Q1) cumulatively produces 802,980 Mcf of gas by month 12. (B) Fraction of production in each month. For example, wells in the 0–20% quintile (Q1) produce 33% of their production by month 12. (C) The percentage of production across all quintiles that is produced within each quintile. For example, wells in the 0–20% quintile (Q1) account for 42% of all production by month 12.
The top 20% of wells, account for about 40% of field production all through the first 10 years (Fig. 6, right panel). In stark contrast, the bottom 20% of wells account for only about 5%. The top-performing wells also have a much shorter return on investment: the top 20% performing wells take 12 months to produce 800,000 Mcf. Other quintiles take at least 30 months to reach this mark and bottom-performing wells do not reach this mark even after 10 years of production.
The top-performing wells not only produce significantly more gas than the other quintiles, they exhibit different scaling behavior for short- and long-term behavior Fig. 7 (left panel). We use two mathematical models to show that high-performing production rates are fundamentally different from low-performing wells. The observed daily production (Mcf/d) for the five quintiles are fit using a power law and a two-exponential model Fig. 7 (right panel); see Methods and SI for more details.
Fig. 7. Observed (left) and modeled (right) production curves by quintile (2006–2015). The ten years of observed daily production (Mcf/d)—left panel—show the characteristic exponential decline for all quintiles. The top 20% wells, on average, produce at seven-to-ten times the rate compared to the bottom 20% in the first year, dropping to four to five times the rate after ten years. By the tenth year of data, only wells that started producing in 2006 are represented and the production curves become noisier. The modeled production data—right panel—are fits to the observed records using a (i) power law (dotted line) and (ii) a two-exponential model (dashed line) laid on top of the original production data (solid line). Only the top, middle, and bottom quintile are displayed in color for visualization purposes. The parameters for both models are presented in Fig. S3 in the SI.
This analyze suggests that production from high- and low-performing wells are driven by different underlying physical mechanisms. Karra et al. hypothesized that early production from a top producing well is dominated by large hydraulic fractures that effectively connect the well to the pre-existing fracture network. The mechanisms that control hydraulic fracturing have been extensively studied and are likely the key to enhancing shale gas recovery , . Validation of these mechanisms through focused research is critical to increasing the probability of developing high-producing wells, and could be achieved through coupling field data with mechanistic modeling .
Contrary to common perception, total shale gas production from a well is actually dominated by long-term tail production, rather than the initial flush. All wells in the data set reach an asymptote in production where they continue to produce for many years at a flat or slowly-declining rate. Thus, the cumulative production is mostly made up of production after the first 12 months. For example, over a 10-year period Barnett wells produce 22% (low-performing wells) to 33% (high-performing wells) of their gas in the first 12 months with the remaining volumes coming from the production tail (Fig. 6, right panel).
That high-performing wells produce so much more gas in the first 12 months suggests the presence of different physical mechanisms governing production from high and low producing wells. More importantly, as shown above, high-producing wells outperform lower-producers during all stages of production including the extended tail production, perhaps indicating that a highly connected fracture network not only increases short-term production but also late-term production and strongly impacts the profitability and efficiency of a well .
Therefore, research focusing on tail production could massively increase shale gas extraction and re-revolutionize hydraulic fracturing. Typically, shale gas producers focus research on early production to get a return on capital investments as quickly as possible, move to a new lease, and then profitably sell-on the well rights.
The dominance of tail production in terms of overall production indicates a research gap that should be addressed by less short-term profit-driven institutions including academia and the federal government. Key gains of increasing tail production include enhancing longer-term profitability, increased energy security, and a reduction in CO2 emissions. One possible mechanism for increasing tail production is enhanced desorption as it alone could lead to a 20–30% increase in production over 5 to 10 years .
Depleted shale gas fields have been identified as potential repositories for sequestering CO2 due to their enormous storage capacity to potential to safely store CO2. Moreover, their use would reduce costs and logistics by using existing infrastructure such as well bores, pipelines, and access facilities , , . The majority of the storage potential is predicated by assuming that CO2 will swap with adsorbed methane in the formation. However little, if any, research has focused on linking sequestration potential with production metrics.
For example, do high-performing wells offer preferential storage since they have created a larger, better-connected fracture network that increases available storage space? Or are they poor candidates because a higher proportion of the methane has been produced or because high-performing wells are likely to continue being more profitable as gas-producers rather than storing CO2? Contrariwise, are low-performing wells more likely to be classed as depleted and abandoned by their operator, thereby becoming available for CO2 sequestration.
Or, do these low-producing wells offer lower sequestration potential due poorer connections with the pre-existing formation? In the case of the Barnett, the data indicate that wells continue to produce for decades, with the majority of total production in the tail.
Consequently, it is not clear when a shale reservoir should be considered depleted or when sequestration economics would provide operators sufficient incentive to store CO2 rather than produce natural gas. Questions also remain regarding the long-term suitability of storing CO2 due to issues such as fractures closing up or being flooded with water, as well as the potential absence of trapping mechanisms such as an impermeable caprock.
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Why AI can Never Replace HR Recruiters?
The fear of losing jobs to AI, in the minds of human resource (HR) recruiters, was the compelling reason for writing this article. The HR department has the monumental responsibility of sourcing the right people, to ensure that work efficiency and productivity are not compromised. However, in the past few years, the AI bandwagon being portrayed as disruptor of jobs has induced concerns across all sectors, including HR department.
The fear of losing jobs to AI is unwarranted and stems out of ignorance. People fear what they do not understand.
Given the exponential rise in computing power, AI systems can process millions of data within seconds and learn from it. For example, Google's DeepMind AI -- AlphaGO -- had beaten Lee Sedol, the world champion of GO (A game like chess) in four out of five rounds in 2016. This is because AlphaGO had learnt winning moves by assessing millions of GO games played by people. Now let us consider a job where someone is doing repetitive work, like a data-entry operator at an accountant's office. This job can be easily replaced by an AI system.
There are monotonous jobs that AI can learn by assessing millions of data that previously existed. Jobs where analytic and creative skills are not required can be replaced by AI. This is evident in some supermarkets, where cashiers have been replaced by automated kiosks. There are robots now for making gourmet hamburgers. People should note that performing repetitive work on a daily basis will eventually lose their jobs to automation.
The best thing about AI, the ability to learn from millions of data within seconds, is also its drawback. The drawback being it needs to learn from millions of events from the past. Although Google's AlphaGO beat the world champion Lee Sedol in the game, he can do other things that AlphaGO cannot, like decision making, thinking creatively, etc. Let us assume that AlphaGO spent 10 years with Lee Sedol, by learning his knowledge and experiencing the emotions, this would still be learning from one person and the AI system can't justify that all humans are like Lee - unlike GO game that has limited set of rules to be followed by all players.
One might argue that with the advent of cloud robotics, where AI systems across the globe interacting and learning from humans, can share data and knowledge across a common platform, that AI will be able to think and act like humans. However, this would be a hypothetical assumption. We need to remember that a robust AI system will run algorithms that: 1. Require millions of data points to recognize patterns and learn from it, and 2. Make predictions based on past outcomes. By point no. 1, this would make AI systems ideal for performing repetitive tasks (automation), like providing insights by detecting patterns, and even engage with humans to address high frequency issues with readily available solutions. But what about tasks that require analysis, leadership, creative thinking and innovation?
With respect to point no. 2, an important point is to be noted: An AI algorithm will run explicitly as it is told. It is subjected to developer's influence. It will make predictions because it has been "coded" to do so, but it cannot explain the rationale behind it. Another dark side to this implies algorithm manipulation. What about the credibility of millions of data fed into the AI system? It can't assess what is right and wrong. It takes an input and churns out an output without discerning data quality. This is AI's fundamental weakness. Now consider applying this to HR, where hiring involves assessing a candidate's attitude and credentials.
An AI system cannot learn from 100 Fortune company leaders in order to make an important decision for company growth. Even if it learns from 100 leaders specific to one industry, each leaders' rationale in justifying their decision will vary uniquely. What is unique about the human element - more than acquired knowledge - is our decades of experience and emotions, combined with the penchant for risk-taking, that has been the foundation of innovations. These experiences are unique to each of us, in dictating our lifestyles and achievements, and this makes it hard for an AI in recognizing patterns. The intellectual workforce of tomorrow therefore, will be a combination of the human element and AI enabled insights. We will work with AI machines in tandem.
So, will Recruiters be Replaced by AI?
Based on justifications above, the answer is obvious. AI systems cannot replace HR recruiters. A great recruiter looks beyond a candidate's qualification. They look for passion, assess their attitude to sync with existing teams, and they gauge a candidate's personality in line with company culture. In fact, a great recruiter won't even care for a candidate's resume. Recruiters are people-centric personalities who serve as catalysts in building efficient work teams. As long as there are humans in the workforce, the demand for great HR recruiters will remain intact.
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When talent agents John and Ethel Ross discovered Anna Marie Duke, they told her that "Anna Marie is dead. You're Patty now."
This life-altering change was just one of many traumas in Duke's life. Duke was born in Queens, New York on 14 December 1946. Raised by an alcoholic father and a manic-depressive mother, Duke left home with the Ross couple at age eight. Her stardom was soon to follow as she bowled audiences over with her role as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. At age 16, Duke became the youngest person (at the time) ever to win an Oscar.
From 1963 to 1966, Patty starred in her own TV series, The Patty Duke Show, in which she played two parts - a "normal American teenager" and the teen's identical cousin from England. But behind the scenes, she was sexually abused by John Ross, had access to prescription drugs and alcohol, and had to do housework and cooking for Ethel and John. She has said that it took years of therapy for her to recover repressed memories of the sexual abuse. And she hated "Patty," yet the other cast members had no inkling of the misery that hid below the surface of the hard-working, talented child.
Duke escaped the Ross's clutches by marrying director Harry Falk, a man almost twice her age. Over the next two decades, Duke fell in and out of marriges, suffered drug and alcohol abuse, suicide attempts and anorexia and was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1982. She was treated with lithium, a drug that has helped her balance her life.
Now, Duke is an activist for mental health issues, with a Web site that addresses many mental health problems and books that have helped her purge her past. In 1985 until 1988, Duke was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, the second woman to hold the position. Coincidentally, in the same year she also played the first female President of the United States in the sitcom, Hail to the Chief.
She authored two books, one her autobiography, Call Me Anna, and Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic Depressive Illness. In December, 2007, Duke was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of North Florida for her work in advancing awareness of mental health issues.
Suggest an addtional category for Duke Anna Marie "Patty"
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Question An overweight 12-year-old male patient with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease has had little improvement in liver steatosis or triglyceride levels over the past 2 years. Is omega-3 supplementation useful in managing his condition?
Answer Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children is prevalent in the Canadian population and can lead to liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, transplant, and reduced life expectancy. There is no recommended pharmacologic treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Omega-3 fatty acids are associated with small improvements in liver steatosis and triglyceride concentrations. There are conflicting results with regard to liver function test results and insulin resistance, and while there might be histologic improvement revealed on biopsy, there is little evidence that fibrosis is improved. In children who have struggled to be consistent with the changes needed in their diet, particularly those with elevated triglyceride levels, there might be a role for omega-3 supplementation while continuing to focus on the mainstays of treatment (diet and physical activity); however, further research is still needed.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a leading cause of liver disease in children and is related to the overweight and obesity epidemic.1 Defined as hepatic fat seen in excess of 5% of hepatocytes in the absence of alcohol use and viral-, autoimmune-, and drug-induced liver disease,2 it ranges in severity from fat infiltration and accumulation in the liver (steatosis), to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, characterized by inflammation and risk of progression to fibrosis, cirrhosis, or hepatocellular carcinoma.1,2 The pathogenesis of NAFLD is multifactorial, but hepatic steatosis ultimately develops from an imbalance between processes that increase intrahepatic fat content (eg, hepatic uptake of lipids from the diet or peripheral adipose tissue in the context of insulin resistance; de novo lipogenesis) and those that reduce it (eg, oxidation of fatty acids; synthesis and export of very low–density lipoproteins).
Currently, no pharmacotherapy is indicated for the treatment of pediatric NAFLD, but some practitioners recommend pharmacotherapy for children presenting with a more aggressive clinical course (eg, steatohepatitis and fibrosis). Vitamin E has been shown to ameliorate liver histology findings in children17 yet is not superior to placebo in reducing serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels,18 and concerns regarding long-term safety have limited its use in practice.19 Other medications such as insulin sensitizers,20 statins,21 and supplements (eg, ursodeoxycholic acid, vitamin D, probiotics)9 have been shown to be ineffective or have been inadequately studied to support evidence-based use.12 Use of omega-3 supplementation for the treatment of pediatric NAFLD has also been investigated.
A 2007 position paper from the Dietitians of Canada and the American Dietetic Association emphasized the importance of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption and recommended 2 servings of fish per week (approximately 500 mg/d of the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) for healthy individuals 2 years of age and older.25 Interestingly, a cross-sectional analysis of 223 patients recruited from the NonAlcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network sites across the United States reported that children with NAFLD consumed only 10% of the recommended amount of fish and only 5% of the recommended omega-3 intake.26 This suggests that omega-3 supplementation might have a beneficial effect on patients with NAFLD.
Nobili et al performed a study assessing the effect of long-term (18 months) DHA supplementation on histologic outcomes of 20 patients with biopsy-confirmed NAFLD; DHA use was associated with significant reductions in NAFLD activity scores (NAS) (P < .001), steatosis (P < .001), ballooning (P < .001), and lobular inflammation (P < .05) from baseline.33 A subsequent randomized controlled study of children with biopsy-proven NAFLD and vitamin D deficiency assessed the effect of 24 months of DHA (500 mg) and vitamin D (800 IU) supplementation on liver histology findings; only those patients receiving treatment had repeat liver biopsies at the end of the study (n=18).34 Treatment was associated with a decrease in NAS, steatosis, ballooning, and lobular and portal inflammation. Similar to the previous study, treatment did not lead to significant changes in fibrosis.
Indirect evidence of the effect of omega-3 fatty acids on histology findings has previously been provided by studies examining consumption of a Mediterranean diet (rich in omega-3) or a diet rich in fish. The Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for Children and Adolescents was used to measure adherence in 243 patients and the authors found that higher adherence was associated with lower NAS, grade 2 fibrosis, insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein levels.35 Notably, all children diagnosed with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis had low adherence.35 Likewise, St-Jules et al26 reported that higher fish intake was protective against portal inflammation and was associated with a protective trend against lobular inflammation.
The literature to date suggests that there might be a benefit to using omega-3 fatty acids in patients with insulin resistance owing to the effects on fatty acid storage and hepatic lipogenic synthesis; however, this needs to be investigated further.1 Nobili et al32 showed an improvement in the insulin sensitivity index (improved insulin sensitivity) with 250 and 500 mg of DHA supplementation compared with placebo. In a follow-up study, the same group measured homeostasis model assessment–insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and found that levels were statistically significantly reduced at 6 and 12 months compared with placebo, and that levels were also reduced, but not significantly different, at 18 and 24 months; HOMA-IR levels were reduced with only the 250-mg dose of DHA and not the 500-mg dose of DHA in long-term treatment.28 Boyraz et al29 also found a greater improvement in HOMA-IR levels following 12 months of 1000 mg of polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation compared with placebo. Two studies showed no difference after 6 months and found similar HOMA-IR levels in the omega-3 and placebo groups; however, one of these studies did report statistically significantly lower fasting insulin levels.30,31 These differences in results could be due to the weight-dependent dosing in one study or regional differences in diet and activity (Italy, Poland, Turkey).
While many studies include changes to serum liver enzyme levels as outcome measures, only the meta-analysis by Chen et al showed a statistically significant effect of omega-3 fatty acids in reducing ALT.27 While ALT has been used as an outcome measure in studies investigating omega-3 supplementation in NAFLD, it does not adequately reflect disease severity37 and for this reason the results should be interpreted with caution. Even patients with normal or low (< 2 times upper limits of normal) ALT levels can have serious histologic findings and fibrosis, further underscoring the limitations of this biomarker as an indicator of liver disease severity.38 Two studies did find statistically significant differences in aspartate aminotransferase and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase levels,29,31 but these results have similar shortcomings.
Omega-3 supplementation is associated with a small benefit for children with NAFLD based on surrogate markers such as steatosis, liver function test results, triglyceride levels, and insulin resistance, and its exact effect on clinical outcomes or long-term survival is difficult to determine with currently available data. Improvements in steatosis and triglyceride concentrations seem likely when omega-3 supplements are used in addition to appropriate lifestyle changes. Liver enzyme and insulin resistance changes are uncertain owing to the heterogeneity of results. Some evidence suggests that histologic changes might occur, but that fibrosis is not likely to be reduced. The latter might be challenging to assess owing to the natural history of fibrosis in the context of NAFLD, which is typically slow to progress and challenging to determine in short-term studies. In children who have struggled to be consistent with recommended dietary change, there is perhaps a role for omega-3 fatty acids. Continued focus on diet and lifestyle changes should remain the mainstay of treatment with a focus on long-term adherence.
Child Health Update is produced by the Pediatric Research in Emergency Therapeutics (PRETx) program (www.pretx.org) at the BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. Mr Clerc and Dr Mouzaki are members and Dr Goldman is Director of the PRETx program. The mission of the PRETx program is to promote child health through evidence-based research in therapeutics in pediatric emergency medicine.
. Omega-3 fatty acids: mechanisms of benefit and therapeutic effects in pediatric and adult NAFLD. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci 2016;53(2):106-20. Epub 2015 Oct 14.
. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children: focus on nutritional interventions. Nutrients 2014;6(11):4691-705.
. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a challenge for pediatricians. JAMA Pediatr 2015;169(2):170-6.
. Histopathological characteristics of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children: comparison with adult cases. Hepatol Res 2011;41(11):1066-74.
. Histopathology of pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology 2005;42(3):641-9.
. Long term prognosis of fatty liver: risk of chronic liver disease and death. Gut 2004;53(5):750-5.
. The progression and natural history of pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Clin Liver Dis 2016;20(2):325-38. Epub 2015 Dec 14.
. The natural history of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children: a follow-up study for up to 20 years. Gut 2009;58(11):1538-44. Epub 2009 Jul 21.
. A guide to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in childhood and adolescence. Int J Mol Sci 2016;17(6):947.
. Diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents: position paper of the ESPGHAN Hepatology Committee. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2012;54(5):700-13.
. NASPGHAN clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children: recommendations from the Expert Committee on NAFLD (ECON) and the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN). J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2017;64(2):319-34.
. Clinical advances in pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology 2016;63(5):1718-25. Epub 2016 Mar 4.
. Prevalence of fatty liver in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 2006;118(4):1388-93.
. The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2015;10(10):e0140908.
. Hepatic steatosis is highly prevalent across the paediatric age spectrum, including in pre-school age children. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2018;48(5):556-63. Epub 2018 Jul 11.
. The diagnosis and management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: practice guidance from the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Hepatology 2018;67(1):328-57. Epub 2017 Sep 29.
. Pioglitazone, vitamin E, or placebo for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. N Engl J Med 2010;362(18):1675-85. Epub 2010 Apr 28.
. The TONIC trial: a step forward in treating pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology 2012;55(4):1292-5.
. Meta-regression analyses, meta-analyses, and trial sequential analyses of the effects of supplementation with beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E singly or in different combinations on all-cause mortality: do we have evidence for lack of harm? PLoS One 2013;8(9):e74558.
. Insulin sensitizers for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Hepatol 2014;6(4):199-206.
. Statins for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2013;(12):CD008623.
. Fish oil—how does it reduce plasma triglycerides? Biochim Biophys Acta 2012;1821(5):843-51. Epub 2011 Oct 25.
. Cellular and molecular effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on adipose tissue biology and metabolism. Clin Sci (Lond) 2009;116(1):1-16.
. Sources of fatty acids stored in liver and secreted via lipoproteins in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Clin Invest 2005;115(5):1343-51.
American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada.
Position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada: dietary fatty acids. J Am Diet Assoc 2007;107(9):1599-611. Erratum in: J Am Diet Assoc 2007;107(12):2151.
. Estimation of fish and omega-3 fatty acid intake in pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 2013;57(5):627-33.
. Omega-3 fatty acids as a treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clin Nutr 2018;37(2):516-21. Epub 2016 Dec 23.
. Docosahexaenoic acid for the treatment of fatty liver: randomised controlled trial in children. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2013;23(11):1066-70. Epub 2012 Dec 7.
. Long-term treatment with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids as a monotherapy in children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Clin Res Pediatr Endocrinol 2015;7(2):121-7.
. A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of docosahexaenoic acid supplementation on hepatic fat and associated cardiovascular risk factors in overweight children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 2015;25(8):734-41. Epub 2015 Apr 25.
. Omega-3 fatty acids therapy in children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomized controlled trial. J Pediatr 2015;166(6):1358-63.e1-3.
. Docosahexaenoic acid supplementation decreases liver fat content in children with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: double-blind randomised controlled clinical trial. Arch Dis Child 2011;96(4):350-3. Epub 2011 Jan 12.
. Role of docosahexaenoic acid treatment in improving liver histology in pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. PLoS One 2014;9(2):e88005.
. Docosahexanoic acid plus vitamin D treatment improves features of NAFLD in children with serum vitamin D deficiency: results from a single centre trial. PLoS One 2016;11(12):e0168216.
. Good adherence to the Mediterranean diet reduces the risk for NASH and diabetes in pediatric patients with obesity: the results of an Italian study. Nutrition 2017:39-40, 8-14. Epub 2017 Feb 27.
. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, fibrates and niacin as therapeutic options in the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia: a review of the literature. Atherosclerosis 2015;242(2):647-56. Epub 2015 Jun 11.
. Paediatric gastroenterology evaluation of overweight and obese children referred from primary care for suspected non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2013;38(10):1267-77. Epub 2013 Oct 1.
. Histological abnormalities in children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and normal or mildly elevated alanine aminotransferase levels. J Pediatr 2014;164(4):707-13.e3. Epub 2013 Dec 19.
. Efficacy of dietary and physical activity intervention in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a systematic review. BMJ Open Gastroenterol 2017;4(1):e000139.
. The utility of radiological imaging in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Gastroenterology 2002;123(3):745-50.
. Validity of real time ultrasound in the diagnosis of hepatic steatosis: a prospective study. J Hepatol 2009;51(6):1061-7. Epub 2009 Sep 20.
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Shiatsu is an ancient Japanese therapeutic art that looks at the human being, body & health, through the energy paradigm (ki for the Japanese, chi for the Chinese, and prana for the Indians). Shiatsu incorporates the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, based on the observation of Life phenomena and movements, to create a complete system of medicine. As in acupuncture, the shiatsu practitioner works on the different organ functions (circulatory, digestive, endocrinal, respiratory, etc. systems), via a complex network of energy pathways called ‘meridians’.
Shiatsu is characterized by the way in which touch is involved in the therapeutic relationship. Regulation of the organ functions through the meridians is done by progressive and non-intrusive work , which nevertheless has a very deep effect.
A case history id done and several diagnoses (palpation of the hara, tongue and pulse) are taken to evaluate the general state of the patient as opposed to the organ functions. The treatment involves joint movements, hand or elbow pressure, and stretching on the meridians to restore the different organ circulations, through the meridians.
A treatment takes place on the ground on a futon, or on a table, in a comfortable outfit and lasts 60 minutes.
What is the therapeutic range of shiatsu?
Shiatsu is particularly indicated for any chronic ailments. Here is a non-exhaustive list of ailments that are treated by shiatsu, classified by organ system.
Digestive system complaints: gastro esophageal reflux, gastric acid, functional colopathy, ulcer, chronic constipation/diarrhea, hiatal/inguinal hernia, bloating, organ ptosis, hemorrhoids, anemia, hepatic colic, indigestion, etc.
Respiratory system complaints: ENT problem, asthma, chronic coughing, diaphragm problems, etc.
Urinary system complaints: cystitis, nephritic colic, kidney ptosis, bladder prolepsis, etc.
Cardiovascular system complaints: hypertension, tachycardia, cardiac oppression, vertigo, oedema, etc.
Nervous system complaints: migraine, insomnia, chronic tiredness, tension cephalgia, anxiety, concentration disorders, psycho-somatic ailments.
Reproductive system complaints: irregular menstrual cycle, infertility, prolapsus of the uterus, ovarian cyst (- 6cm), fibro (- 8cm), pubalgia, etc.
Immune system complaints: immuno-depression, repetitive infections,skin diseases, etc.
Locomotive system complaints: non-traumatic lombalgia, dorsalgia & cervicalgia, chronic tendinitis/contracture/tensions, etc.
Endocrinal system complaints: hormonal migraines, hypo/hyperthyroidism.
This list does not guarantee recovery from these complaints. Infectious diseases, serious injuries to the organ, malignant tumors and metastases are counter-indicated for treatment. Finally, you will never be asked to stop an on-going medical treatment.
The number of sessions necessary is impossible to predict. It depends on the patient’s general state, his symptoms and his reaction to treatment. The more serious the disorder, the more sessions will be required. As a rough guide, a tendonitis may require 1 to 4 treatments, whereas hyperthyroidism may require 6 to 12 treatments, at the rate of one session every 2-4 weeks, and this after starting a few sessions close together. However, there is not a guarantee of no remission.
Iokai Shiatsu stresses the importance of a deep comprehension of these life phenomena by direct experience. Access to this understanding – in its Latin etymology 'take in, encompass, include, embrace’ – requires the practitioner to have empathy and to be aware of what is happening in his hands, while in a state close to meditation.
Accompanying the patient progressively to be aware of any m movement within, allows the practitioner to sometimes perceive deep blocks, pain or exhaustion. That which Western medicine labels ‘pathology’ is very often the expression of the internal areas that are out of sync. The patient can express in words his experience or embrace it in silence. By the patient being aware of what is happening in his he can understand from within these deep places of stagnation, the source of his suffering. At that time, the practitioner’s work can restore the balance of life energy in the organ functions. There may be a transformation (or not) of the life force of the patient. This is commonly known as a ‘healing’.
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When did Ronald Reagan appear as host of “General Electric Theater”?
Ronald Reagan served as host and commercial spokesman on the CBS dramatic anthology “General Electric Theater” from 1954 to 1962.
The show aired Sundays from 9:00-9:30 P.M.
Reagan occasionally starred in the dramas showcased in the series, including “Money and the Minister,” where he acted opposite his wife, Nancy Davis.
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A fish would drown in water that is not sufficiently oxygenated.
Actually the question is not a silly as it sounds and does not only occur when there is not enough oxygen in the water. Under the right conditions (or in this case, the wrong conditions) a fish can actually drown just as surely as a human can. Drowning is caused by suffocation in a body of water, it is accurate to say a fish that is starved of oxygen while in the water has in fact drowned. Fish breathe by taking in oxygen from the water and if the body of water they are living has a depleted oxygen supply, then the fish must either move to a new, oxygen rich area, or drown. During summer months in particular, the deep lakes' oxygen supply can easily become depleted due to animal respiration and decay of vegetation. This causes large groups of fish to die, as they very often refuse to move out of the oxygen-less region. There are even some species of fish that have developed such complex respiratory systems that they can only breath outside of the water. Fish, such as the Climbing Perch fish, can get out of a body of water and survive on land, but many need to breathe our air as well as gaining oxygen in the water. If these fish are forced to stay under water, they will not gain the necessary oxygen they need to survive, resulting in the fish drowning. The Climbing Perch have a respiratory system that is dependent on our oxygen rich air and the fish will drown if forced to stay underwater for to long, no matter how much oxygen is in the water.
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What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? A strange ridge crosses the moon near the equator, visible near the bottom of the above image, making Iapetus appear similar to the pit of a peach. Half of Iapetus is so dark that it can nearly disappear when viewed from Earth. Recent observations show that the degree of darkness of the terrain is strangely uniform, like a dark coating was somehow recently applied to an ancient and highly cratered surface. The other half of Iapetus is relatively bright but oddly covered with long and thin streaks of dark. A 400-kilometer wide impact basin is visible near the image center, delineated by deep scarps that drop sharply to the crater floor. The above image was taken by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft during a flyby of Iapetus at the end of last year.
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What can be done to improve income inequality?
Income distribution is the smoothness or equality with which income is dealt out among members of a society. If everyone earns exactly the same amount of money, then the income distribution is perfectly equal. If no one earns any money except for one person, who earns all of the money, then the income distribution is perfectly unequal. Usually, however, a society's income distribution falls somewhere in the middle between equal and unequal.
How do we measure this degree of equality or inequality? Economists often measure income equality by measuring how much income is earned by different segments of the population. For instance, if we break down all workers into five segments in terms of how much money they make: the top 20%, the second 20%, the third 20%, the fourth 20%, and the bottom 20%, and we obtain data on how much money they make, we can then create a chart detailing how much income each segment earns out of the total amount of income for all workers. The bigger the difference between the different segments, the greater the income inequality.
Let's say that the average incomes for five segments in a society are $10,000, $24,000, $50,000, $80,000, and $110,000. In order to look at income distribution, we need to see what percentage of total income each segment makes, rather than the actual amount of money each makes. Since each of the segments is equal in size, we don't need to worry about weighting the average incomes, and can do a straightforward part-over-whole calculation of each segment's earnings.
What these figures indicate is that the bottom fifth of the population gets less than 4% of the total income, while the top fifth of the population gets over 40% of the total income, indicating a large degree of income inequality.
Note that the total cumulative percentage, which should be equal to 100%, since it represents the total income earned by all workers, is only 99.9%. This sometimes happens due to rounding of numbers.
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Oman ( /oʊˈmɑːn/ oh-MAHN; Arabic: عمان ʻumān [ʕʊˈmaːn]), officially the Sultanate of Oman (Arabic: سلطنة عُمان Salṭanat ʻUmān), is an Arab country on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. Holding a strategically important position at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the country shares land borders with the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest, and shares marine borders with Iran and Pakistan. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the southeast and the Gulf of Oman on the northeast. The Madha and Musandam exclaves are surrounded by the UAE on their land borders, with the Strait of Hormuz (which it shares with Iran) and Gulf of Oman forming Musandam's coastal boundaries.
From the late 17th century, the Omani Sultanate was a powerful empire, vying with Portugal and Britain for influence in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. At its peak in the 19th century, Omani influence or control extended across the Strait of Hormuz to modern-day Iran and Pakistan, and as far south as Zanzibar. As its power declined in the 20th century, the sultanate came under the influence of the United Kingdom. Historically, Muscat was the principal trading port of the Persian Gulf region. Muscat was also among the most important trading ports of the Indian Ocean. Oman's official religion is Islam.
Oman is an absolute monarchy. The Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said has been the hereditary leader of the country since 1970. Sultan Qaboos is the longest-serving current ruler in the Middle East, and third-longest current reigning monarch in the world.
Oman is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. It has modest oil reserves, ranking 25th globally. Nevertheless, in 2010 the UNDP ranked Oman as the most improved nation in the world in terms of development during the preceding 40 years. A significant portion of its economy involves tourism and trade of fish, dates, and certain agricultural produce. This sets it apart from its neighbors' largely oil-dependent economies. Oman is categorized as a high-income economy and ranks as the 70th most peaceful country in the world according to the Global Peace Index.
In recent years known primarily from survey finds, Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites have come to light most on the eastern coast. Main Palaeolithic sites include Saiwan-Ghunaim in the Barr al-Hikman. Archaeological remains are particularly numerous for the Bronze Age Umm an-Nar and Wadi Suq periods. Sites such as Baat show accomplished wheel-turned pottery, excellent hand-made stone vessels, a metals industry, and monumental architecture . The Early (1300‒300 BC) and Late Iron Ages (100 BC‒300 AD) show more differences than similarities to each other. Thereafter until the coming of the Ibadhidya little or nothing of is known.
In the 1970s and 1980s scholars like John C. Wilkinson believed by virtue of oral history that in the 6th century BC, the Achaemenids exerted control over the Omani peninsula, most likely ruling from a coastal center such as Suhar. Central Oman has its own indigenous Samad Late Iron Age cultural assemblage named eponymously from Samad al-Shan. In the northern part of the Oman Peninsula the Recent Pre-Islamic Period begins in the 3rd century BCE and extends into the 3rd century CE. Whether or not Persians brought south-eastern Arabian under their control is a moot point, since the lack of Persian finds speak against this belief. Four centuries later, Omanis came in contact with and accepted Islam. The conversion of Oman is usually ascribed to Amr ibn al-As, who was sent by the prophet Muhammad during the Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha (Hisma).
After deposing his father in 1970, Sultan Qaboos opened up the country, embarked on economic reforms, and followed a policy of modernisation marked by increased spending on health, education and welfare. Slavery, once a cornerstone of the country's trade and development, was outlawed in 1970 as well.
Inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings taking place throughout the region, protests also occurred in Oman during the early months of 2011. Although they did not call for the ousting of the regime, demonstrators demanded political reforms, improved living conditions, and the creation of more jobs. They were dispersed by riot police in February 2011. Sultan Qaboos reacted by promising jobs and benefits. In October 2011, elections were held to the Consultative Assembly, to which Sultan Qaboos promised greater powers. The following year, the government began a crackdown on internet criticism. In September 2012, trials began of 'activists' accused of posting "abusive and provocative" criticism of the government online. Six were given jail terms of 12–18 months and fines of around $2,500 each.
The peninsula of Musandam (Musandem) exclave, which has a strategic location on the Strait of Hormuz, is separated from the rest of Oman by the United Arab Emirates. The series of small towns known collectively as Dibba are the gateway to the Musandam peninsula on land and the fishing villages of Musandam by sea, with boats available for hire at Khasab for trips into the Musandam peninsula by sea. Oman's other exclave, inside UAE territory, known as Madha, located halfway between the Musandam Peninsula and the main body of Oman, is part of the Musandam governorate, covering approximately 75 km2 (29 sq mi). Madha's boundary was settled in 1969, with the north-east corner of Madha barely 10 m (32.8 ft) from the Fujairah road. Within the Madha exclave is a UAE enclave called Nahwa, belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. Situated about 8 km (5 mi) along a dirt track west of the town of New Madha, consisting of about forty houses with a clinic and telephone exchange. The central desert of Oman is an important source of meteorites for scientific analysis.
Like the rest of the Persian Gulf, Oman generally has one of the hottest climates in the world—with summer temperatures in Muscat and northern Oman averaging 30 °C (86.0 °F) to 40 °C (104.0 °F). Oman receives little rainfall, with annual rainfall in Muscat averaging 100 mm (3.9 in), falling mostly in January. In the south, the Dhofar Mountains area near Salalah has a tropical-like climate and receives seasonal rainfall from late June to late September as a result of monsoon winds from the Indian Ocean, leaving the summer air saturated with cool moisture and heavy fog. Summer temperatures in Salalah range from 20 °C (68.0 °F) to 30 °C (86.0 °F)—relatively cool compared to northern Oman.
The mountain areas receive more rainfall, and annual rainfall on the higher parts of the Jabal Akhdar probably exceeds 400 mm (15.7 in). Low temperatures in the mountainous areas result in snow cover once every few years. Some parts of the coast, particularly near the island of Masirah, sometimes receive no rain at all within the course of a year. The climate generally is very hot, with temperatures reaching around 50 °C (122.0 °F) (peak) in the hot season, from May to September.
Though Oman’s legal code theoretically protects civil liberties and personal freedoms, both are regularly ignored by the regime. Women and children face legal discrimination in many areas. Women are excluded from certain state benefits, such as housing loans, and are refused equal rights under the personal status law. Women also experience restrictions on their self-determination in respect to health and reproductive rights.
Oman is an absolute monarchy by male primogeniture. The present Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said is the hereditary leader of the country since 1970.
The Omani government decides who can or cannot be a journalist and this permission can be withdrawn at any time. Censorship and self-censorship are a constant factor. Omanis have limited access to political information through the media. Access to news and information can be problematic: journalists have to be content with news compiled by the official news agency on some issues. Through a decree by the Sultan, the government has now extended its control over the media to blogs and other websites. Omanis cannot hold a public meeting without the government's approval. Omanis who want to set up a non-governmental organisation of any kind need a licence. To get a licence, they have to demonstrate that the organisation is "for legitimate objectives" and not "inimical to the social order". The Omani government does not permit the formation of independent civil society associations.
In August 2014, The Omani writer and human rights defender Mohammed Alfazari, the founder and editor-in-chief of the e-magazine Mowatin “Citizen”, disappeared after going to the police station in the Al-Qurum district of Muscat. For several months the Omani government denied his detention and refused to disclose information about his whereabouts or condition. On July 17, 2015, Al Fazari left Oman seeking political asylum in UK after a travel ban was issued against him without providing any reasons and after his official documents including his national ID and passport were confiscated for more than 8 months. There were more reports of politically motivated disappearances in the country. In 2012, armed security forces arrested Sultan al-Saadi, a social media activist. According to reports, authorities detained him at an unknown location for one month for comments he posted online critical of the government. Authorities previously arrested al-Saadi in 2011 for participating in protests and again in 2012 for posting comments online deemed insulting to Sultan Qaboos. In May 2012 security forces detained Ismael al-Meqbali, Habiba al-Hinai, and Yaqoub al-Kharusi, human rights activists who were visiting striking oil workers. Authorities released al-Hinai and al-Kharusi shortly after their detention but did not inform al-Meqbali’s friends and family of his whereabouts for weeks. Authorities pardoned al-Meqbali in March. In December 2013, a Yemeni national disappeared in Oman after he was arrested at a checkpoint in Dhofar Governorate. Omani authorities refuse to acknowledge his detention. His whereabouts and condition remain unknown.
Between 2000 and 2007, production fell by more than 26%, from 972,000 to 714,800 barrels per day. Production has recovered to 816,000 barrels in 2009, and 930,000 barrels per day in 2012. Oman's natural gas reserves are estimated at 849.5 billion cubic meters, ranking 28th in the world, and production in 2008 was about 24 billion cubic meters per year.
Oman has one of the most diverse environments in the Middle East with various tourist attractions and is particularly well known for cultural tourism. Muscat, the capital of Oman, was named the second best city to visit in the world in 2012 by the travel guide publisher Lonely Planet. Muscat also was chosen as the Capital of Arab Tourism of 2012.
As of 2014, Oman's population is over 4 million, with 2.23 million Omani nationals and 1.76 million expatriates. The total fertility rate in 2011 was estimated at 3.70. Oman has a very young population, with 43 percent of its inhabitants under the age of 15. Nearly 50 percent of the population lives in Muscat and the Batinah coastal plain northwest of the capital. Omani people are predominantly of Arab, Baluchi and African origins.
The Oman government does not keep statistics on religious affiliation, but virtually all Omanis are Muslims, most of whom follow the Ibadi School of Islam, followed by the Shafi`i school of Sunni Islam. Virtually all non-Muslims in Oman are foreign workers. Non-Muslim religious communities include various groups of Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Jews, Hindus and Christians. Christian communities are centred in the major urban areas of Muscat, Sohar, and Salalah. These include Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and various Protestant congregations, organizing along linguistic and ethnic lines. More than 50 different Christian groups, fellowships, and assemblies are active in the Muscat metropolitan area, formed by migrant workers from Southeast Asia.
In March 2016 archaeologists working off Al Hallaniyah Island identified a shipwreck believed to be that of the Esmeralda from Vasco da Gama's 1502–1503 fleet. The wreck was initially discovered in 1998. Later underwater excavations took place between 2013 and 2015 through a partnership between the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Bluewater Recoveries Ltd., a shipwreck recovery company. The vessel was identified through such artifacts as a "Portuguese coin minted for trade with India (one of only two coins of this type known to exist) and stone cannonballs engraved with what appear to be the initials of Vincente Sodré, da Gama's maternal uncle and the commander of the Esmeralda."
As of 2014 women reserve wearing their traditional dress for special occasions, and instead wear a loose black cloak called an abaya over their personal choice of clothing, whilst in some regions, particularly amongst the Bedouin, the burqa is still worn. Women wear hijab, and though some women cover their faces and hands, most do not. The Sultan has forbidden the covering of faces in public office.
Music of Oman is extremely diverse due to Oman's imperial legacy. There are over 130 different forms of traditional Omani songs and dances. The Oman Centre for Traditional Music was established in 1984 to preserve them. In 1985, Sultan Qaboos founded the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, an act attributed to his love for classical music. Instead of engaging foreign musicians, he decided to establish an orchestra made up of Omanis. On 1 July 1987 at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel's Oman Auditorium the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert.
The cinema of Oman is very small, there being only one Omani film Al-Boom (2006) as of 2007. Oman Arab Cinema Company LLC is the single largest motion picture exhibitor chain in Oman. It belongs to the Jawad Sultan Group of Companies, which has a history spanning more than 40 years in the Sultanate of Oman. In popular music, a seven-minute music video about Oman went viral, achieving 500,000 views on YouTube within 10 days of being released on YouTube in November 2015. The a cappella production features three of the region's most popular talents: Kahliji musician Al Wasmi, Omani poet Mazin Al-Haddabi and actress Buthaina Al Raisi.
Sultanate of Oman Television began broadcasting for the first time from Muscat on 17 November 1974 and separately from Salalah on 25 November 1975. On 1 June 1979, the two stations at Muscat and Salalah linked by satellite to form a unified broadcasting service. In order to overcome the natural obstacles created by the mountainous terrain, a network of stations spread across the country in both populated and remote areas transmit Oman TV's broadcasts.
Oman has fewer restrictions on independent media than its neighbors Saudi Arabia or Yemen. The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 125th out of 180 countries on its 2016 World Press Freedom Index, one spot below Zimbabwe. However, in 2016, the government drew international criticism for closing the newspaper Azamn and arresting three journalists after a report about corruption in the country's judiciary.
Omani cuisine is diverse and has been influenced by many cultures. Omanis usually eat their main daily meal at midday, while the evening meal is lighter. During Ramadan, dinner is served after the Taraweeh prayers, sometimes as late as 11 pm. However these dinner timings differ according to each family – for instance, some families would choose to eat right after maghrib prayers and have dessert after taraweeh.
Arsia, a festival meal served during celebrations, consists of mashed rice and meat (sometimes chicken). Another popular festival meal, shuwa, consists of meat cooked very slowly (sometimes for up to 2 days) in an underground clay-oven. The meat becomes extremely tender and it is infused with spices and herbs before cooking to give it a very distinct taste. Fish is often used in main dishes too, and the kingfish is a popular ingredient. Mashuai is a meal consisting of a whole spit-roasted kingfish served with lemon rice.
Rukhal bread is a thin, round bread originally baked over a fire made from palm leaves. It is eaten at any meal, typically served with Omani honey for breakfast or crumbled over curry for dinner. Chicken, fish, and lamb or mutton are regularly used in dishes. The Omani halwa is a very popular sweet, basically consisting of cooked raw sugar with nuts. There are many different flavors, the most popular ones being the black halwa (original) and the saffron halwa. Halwa is considered as a symbol of Omani hospitality, and is traditionally served with coffee. As is the case with most Arab States of the Persian Gulf, alcohol is only available over-the-counter to non-Muslims. Muslims can still purchase alcoholic drinks. Alcohol is served in many hotels and a few restaurants.
In October 2004, the Omani government set up a Ministry of Sports Affairs to replace the General Organization for youth, sports and cultural affairs. The 19th Arabian Gulf Cup, the 19th edition, took place in Muscat, from 4 to 17 January 2009 and was won by the Omani national football team. The 23rd Arabian Gulf Cup, the 23rd edition, that took place in Kuwait, from 22 December 2017 until January 5th 2018. Oman won their second title, defeating the United Arab Emirates in the final on penalties following a goalless draw.
Ali Al-Habsi is an Omani professional association football player. As of 2015, he plays in the Football League Championship as a goalkeeper for Reading. The International Olympic Committee awarded the former GOYSCA its prestigious prize for Sporting excellence in recognition of its contributions to youth and sports and its efforts to promote the Olympic spirit and goals.
Life expectancy at birth in Oman was estimated to be 76.1 years in 2010. As of 2010, there were an estimated 2.1 physicians and 2.1 hospital beds per 1,000 people. In 1993, 89% of the population had access to health care services. In 2000, 99% of the population had access to health care services. During the last three decades, the Oman health care system has demonstrated and reported great achievements in health care services and preventive and curative medicine. In 2001, Oman's health system was ranked number 8 by the World Health Organization.
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^ "Five Arab states among top leaders in long-term development gains". Hdr.undp.org. 4 November 2010. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131109205813/http://hdr.undp.org/en/mediacentre/news/announcements/title,21573,en.html. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
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^ (2011) "The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry in Southern Arabia". PLoS ONE 6 (11): e28239. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0028239. PMID 22140561.
^ Jeffrey I. Rose et al., The Nubian Complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age Industry in Southern Arabia, Plos November 30, 2011 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028239.
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^ Feuerstein, Georg; Kak, Subhash & Frawley, David (2005). The Search of the Cradle of Civilization: New Light on Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. p. 119. ISBN 8120820371. https://books.google.com/books?id=wNlsRZh3rwgC&pg=PA119.
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This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Oman. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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The man has spent 22 years in jail and has had three convictions dismissed. In two other trials, there was not a unanimous verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Mississippi Supreme Court to review the sixth conviction, but the state court has rejected the claim of racial bias in jury selection. However, after the third conviction, the state court pronounced the prosecutor's decision to exclude 15 African-Americans as jurors a strong example of discrimination. He has excluded African-American jurors at a rate that is 4.5 times higher than the rate at which he did white jurors over a period of more than 25 years.
The case deals with the murder of four people at a furniture store in 1996. The accused man was a former employee, and the prosecution argues that he committed the murders in retaliation for being fired. However, the defense argues that the evidence against him is weak.
A person who is facing criminal charges may want to talk to an attorney about what to do next. The strategy may vary depending on the nature of the charges, the evidence and whether the person has any previous convictions. The person may want to go to trial in some cases while in other cases the best approach might be a plea bargain. In some cases, as in this one, an attorney might look at whether the person's rights have been violated and if the case can be dismissed.
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Carmelo Anthony had a half-season of clues about what Phil Jackson thought of him, and now it was his turn to evaluate his boss.
Anthony had trumpeted his trust in Jackson when he re-signed in 2014 and reaffirmed it months later, even as Jackson continued trading away key players from the best team Anthony ever played on in New York.
Reminded of that recently and asked if he still trusted Jackson, Anthony stopped well short.
"I trust the process," he said, mimicking Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The process isn't going well for Jackson in New York.
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Acquisition Rationales from "The Outsiders"
Just a short post based on a book I'm currently reading called The Outsiders, by William Thorndike. The book discusses capital allocation processes followed by some of the greatest CEO's, including Warren Buffett and John Malone. The Outsiders, by William N. Thorndike, Jr. (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). Based on Chapter 9 of the book, titled "Radical Rationality," a good way to look at Apple's prospective Beats acquisition is whether proprietary Beats Music streaming will: (1) enhance the customer experience; and (2) help Apple defend its long term competitive position.
The answer to these two questions appears to be yes. A high quality, curated music streaming service will enhance the average user's experience, especially given Apple's ability to integrate streaming into iOS/OS across all Apple devices.
Apple also needs high quality music streaming to defend its long term competitive position as a leading distributor of music content. iTunes music, and downloaded music ownership, is not the long term future in a world of fast, ubiquitous broadband service. Fast broadband makes music streaming far easier and more convenient than music downloads (leading to much more efficient music discovery and acquisition), and these advantages should drive ubiquitous music streaming.
A proprietary or well-integrated streaming service also enhances the unique, differentiated nature of Apple's ecosystem, thereby reducing two of Michael Porter's five forces, rivalry and buyer power. A Beats acquisition therefore appears to make good strategic sense.
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When a manufacturer produces a device, it is important to make the device remain relevant and useful for years to come. Indeed, some consumer devices are manufactured with a short lifespan in mind. However, the Internet-of-Things consists also of devices that are expected to remain in service for decades without losing their relevance. The security subsystem of such a device, being responsible for enabling much of the device usefulness, also needs to be designed with the future in mind.
Future-proofing the security architecture has some well known elements to it, such as making its logic changeable using code updates. Less known elements of assuring longevity require the ability to add and remove assets throughout the device lifetime. Finally, an important aspect of future-proofing devices, particularly IoT ones, requires addressing the future ecosystems in which these devices will operate, and accounting for the relationships between their foreseen stakeholders.
Only by considering all factors that make a security architecture both secure and useful, can a security subsystem, and the device that encompasses it, remain relevant and useful for years to come.
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"The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", or simply "Loch Lomond" for short, is a well-known traditional Scottish song (Roud No. 9598) first published in 1841 in Vocal Melodies of Scotland.
The original composer is unknown, as is definitive information on any traditional lyrics. The lyrics most commonly known are not the original, which was based on a Jacobite lament written after the Battle of Culloden. The second verse goes as: "As weel may I weep, O yet dreams in my sleep, / we stood bride and bridegroom together, / but his arms and his breath were as cold as the earth / and his heart's blood ran red in the heather."
There are many theories about the meaning of the song, most of which are connected to the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. One interpretation based on the lyrics is that the song is sung by the lover of a captured Jacobite rebel set to be executed in London following a show trial. The heads of the executed rebels were then set upon pikes and exhibited in all of the towns between London and Edinburgh in a procession along the "high road" (the most important road), while the relatives of the rebels walked back along the "low road" (the ordinary road travelled by peasants and commoners).
Another interpretation of the "Low Road" is that it refers to the traditional underground route taken by the "fairies" or "little people" who were reputed to transport the soul of a dead Scot who died in a foreign land—in this case, England—back to his homeland to rest in peace.
Another similar interpretation also attributes it to a Jacobite Highlander captured after the 1745 rising. The Hanoverian British victors were known to play cruel games on the captured Jacobites, and would supposedly find a pair of either brothers or friends and tell them one could live and the other would be executed, and it was up to the pair to decide. Thus the interpretation here is that the song is sung by the brother or friend who chose or was chosen to die. He is therefore telling his friend that they will both go back to Scotland, but he will go on the "low road", his body being paraded along the main road controlled by the Duke of Cumberland's forces, whereas his friend will have to head for the hilltops, taking longer to get back. Another supporting feature of this is that he states he will never meet his love again in the temporal world, on Loch Lomond. Some believe that this version is written entirely to a lover who lived near the loch.
A related interpretation holds that a professional soldier and a volunteer were captured by the English in one of the small wars between the countries in the couple of hundred years prior to 1746. Volunteers could accept parole, a release contingent on the volunteer's refusal to rejoin the fighting, but regulars could not and so could face execution. The volunteer would take the high road that linked London and Edinburgh while the soul of the executed regular would return along the "low road" and would get back to Scotland first.
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0.999423 |
This task will clear the deferred flag (if set) for all drawings released by the given specification id.
Specification Id The id of the specification for which all drawings deferred flags will be cleared.
Specification Id 22 22 DriveWorks will clear the deferred flags (if set) for all drawings released by the Specification with the Specification Id equal to 22.
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0.999974 |
Who are all the major prophets?
The prophets who have books named after them in the Bible are usually divided into two groups, the Major and Minor prophets.
The Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
However, these distinctions are artificial. The Minor Prophets are only called "Minor" because their prophecies tend to be much shorter than the "Major" prophets. Even in this, the division is not consistent because Daniel is much shorter than the "big three" Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. No message from God should be characterized as "Major" or "Minor."
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0.999789 |
The native American Indians were the original indigenous people who lived in North America when the Europeans arrived in the 1600s.
They were hunter-gatherers and lived in homes called wigwams, which were cone-shaped structures made from wooden poles covered with fabric. Some carved totem pole monuments from large trees that illustrated familiar legends or special events. On ceremonial occasions, the important men would wear feathered war bonnets or headdresses.
were made to work as slaves by the Europeans.
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Jordan Peterson is critical of Western Culture, as he is critical of all culture. It is Dr. Peterson’s belief that an existing culture represents the known, safe world, and that such a world is inherently oppressive. Dr. Peterson also believes that chaos exists in the absence of culture, and that while all opportunity exists in chaos, it is impossible to navigate chaos without culture. Dr. Peterson’s belief is that we should always have one foot in culture, and the other in chaos.
Another way Dr. Peterson often puts the same basic theme, is to point out how many of the most iconic stories throughout history follow the same basic plot line, with a fallen hero, a new hero, a villain, and redemption. The fallen hero represents the existing culture, and is usually the new hero’s father (the new hero being born out of the existing culture). The stories start with a kingdom that has become corrupted in some way the existing hero/king is unable to fix. A villain emerges from chaos (sometimes he goes out into chaos first, and is corrupted by it), deposes the king, and builds a kingdom that is even worse. The hero (the old king’s son), then goes out into chaos himself, finds some powerful truth/weapon, and uses what he has found to defeat the villain, revitalizing the kingdom into a new golden age. Variations of this story appear through history, literally everywhere, all the time, from ancient Babylon, to Egypt, to Greece, to ancient Israel, to modern Disney, where we see it in such classics as The Lion King. Arthurian Legend follows this structure. Genesis follows it, and even the story of Christ is a variation on this theme.
Arthurian Legend is unique in that Arthur represents both the old king, and the new, being transformed from one to the other when he drinks from the Holy Grail. Also, with Arthur, the new golden age is ended as soon as it begins, with only Percival surviving the final battle. Percival is strong enough to preserve hope for a rebirth of Camelot, but he cannot usher it back in without Arthur, who is carried away by the Lady of the Lake. Arthurian Legend ends, not with a golden age, but with the hope that a brighter future can make current suffering worthwhile. Under Arthurian Legend, the hero is always out there, waiting for a time when he is needed once again.
One could write a book about the variations in Arthurian Legend around the typical archetype theme, but suffice it to say that all of the basics are there, and that if anything, Arthurian Legend is even deeper than most other archetype stories.
To Jordan Peterson, the redemption of the father-king is a critical part of the story, as it tells us that we can only protect the kingdom by learning from chaos, and changing the existing culture based on what we have learned. In other words, we must always have one foot in our existing culture, and the other foot in chaos, living in the balance that exists between the two. Whether you call it ‘order and chaos,’ ‘ying and yang,’ or whatever, the hero is the one who is balanced between the two.
We can take the analogy one step further. The ‘new king’ creates a golden age that eventually dims, as the ‘new king’ becomes entrenched in the culture he helped create, transforming into the old king. A new villain then emerges, to be vanquished by the next hero – who is in a new balance, ready to modify the old king’s culture to meet the new world. The new king then becomes the old king, and the whole thing repeats, over and over again, throughout the ages.
Arthurian Legend took the story to a third level. Arthur was transformed, rather than replaced, and by being taken away by the Lady of the Lake, Arthur sends us a newer message – we too must change. Individual rights make us all the kings of our own lives, so we must be our own heros, and must constantly transform ourselves, lest the culture of our own lives become oppressive.
Dr. Peterson goes even further, and says that these stories make no pretense about being factually true, from a scientific perspective, and yet he maintains that they remain popular only because, on a deeper level, they are true. Stories such as these do not tell us how the world was formed. These stories emerged before science even existed… What these stories provide is wisdom regarding our relationship with the world around us, and that wisdom is profound. That wisdom has also only grown deeper over time.
All societies have three basic groups of people, representing different elements of the archetype story. We have those who worship the existing culture (the old king), those who want to take the existing culture and adapt it to the emerging future (the hero), and those who want to shuck the existing culture entirely, replacing it with some magic utopia (the villain). Oppression comes from the first group, and if the third group gets power, it leads to the kinds of mass murders the world saw in the USSR, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Castro’s Cuba, and in other places throughout history.
Wisdom, progress, and compassionate virtue (which is very different from oppressive virtue) all come from those who have one foot in culture, and the other in chaos.
We know what happens when the culture-worship crowd gets too much power. That led to Hitler, and though I would assert that by American standards, Hitler would be on the left, there is no question that he emerged as a part of deep German cultural traditions. Anyone who disagrees with me on this needs to pick up a copy of The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, by Robert Waite, which is a very detailed analysis of the German culture from which Hitler emerged, as well as the specific traits of Hitler’s psyche that led him to genocide. Hitler was a collectivist, which separates him from our right, but he was very much a part of the German right, in the 1920s and 1930s.
We also know what happens when chaos takes over. Chaos builds gulags, and kills people with industrial efficiency in the pursuit of some impossible utopia. Anyone who disagrees with this needs to read The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Cultural-worship is not a very strong force in America today, and really, I can’t think of a time when it was, other than in the Antebellum South (where it preserved slavery). Generally speaking, our society has learned to see when cultural-worship goes too far, whereas it is harder to see when the left is going too far until it is too late. In much of the country, that has already happened.
Today’s politics is primarily between those who want to keep one foot in culture (and one in chaos), and those who want to throw our existing culture out the window. I can’t think of any other time in American history, with the possible exception of the Great Depression, when chaos was such a strong political force as it is today, as illustrated in today’s Detroit Free Press (my local paper).
Now – I am not going to tell you that there is nothing we can learn from chaos. All opportunity exists in the unknown… But the villain is the one who emerges corrupted by chaos, and that is today’s left. The hero is the one who learns from chaos, and uses what is learned, to improve the culture and vanquish the villain.
Why is American politics a warzone, today? We have a clear villain with a great deal of political power that needs to be vanquished. It’s as simple as that. Those of us who want to vanquish the villain of radical leftism, are at war with radical leftism, and radical leftism has become a very real force in modern American politics that will not easily be defeated. This villain has teeth.
Now that I have fully alienated the left, allow me to do the same to much of the right. Donald Trump is not the hero. Donald Trump may well be an anti-hero, but he is not a true hero. Donald Trump, rather, represents two things. First, he represents the fact that the radical left has passed it’s high water mark and begun to leave the center behind. The center did not run to the right in 2016 so much as it ran from the radical left. Donald Trump is someone who uses the tools of the left (shaming, name calling, etc.) against them, which brings up the second thing Donald Trump represents, which is the willingness of the cultural-worshippers to gain power.
Trump won the last election only because the left became radical enough to scare the hell out of the center, and though that has not changed, the center is never going to embrace Trump. What the center will embrace are many of the things Trump has done. From a policy perspective, he’s listening to very good people (people who do seem to have one foot in culture and the other in chaos), and making, for the most part, good decisions. That should carry Trump through 2020.
My prediction is that, though Democrats may make some inroads in the House this midterm, Republicans will maintain control of both houses, further infuriating the left, who will only become more vocal, and more outraged. If I am right and the radical left has already reached it’s high water mark, it’s power will begin to recede. More leftists will emerge who may want to lean more into chaos than they should, but who still want one foot in both places, and the country will be better off when these kinds of people run the Democrat Party again.
The real question is what comes after Trump. It is hard to imagine a reemergence of the radical left, unless they do better than I expect in this election (and we had better make damned sure they don’t). A well-spoken cultural-worshiper, like Mike Pence, is probably more likely to win than a radical leftist, like Elizabeth Warren. But we shall see: it is a mistake to underestimate one’s enemy, and this really is a political war.
What America really needs is a real hero to emerge. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I nominate Rand Paul.
← The Midterm Election – Due Process is On the Ballot!!
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Filling a waiting room with items that can occupy kids can be difficult, but the good news is that there are plenty of choices available. You may have bought books, standard toys, and wall hangings to make the area appeal to kids, but another option is considering soft play activity centers. This type of product can act as both furniture and something for children to do.
If you need seating other than simple chairs or couches, you have plenty of options. Some kids might arrive at the waiting area perfectly relaxed and ready to read a few books. If so, it is easy to make the child feel comfortable by offering soft seating. Some soft play activity centers are perfect for children to sit or lie on while reading a book or playing quietly with a toy. They may even feel like moving around the foam blocks to create their own unique seating. Either way, most kids will be interested in such soft play activity centers while feeling comfortable enough to relax.
Many kids have constant energy, so why not provide a fun, safe area for them to let it out while their parents supervise? Soft play activity centers allow kids to climb on blocks, build them into different structures, and even roll them around the room. Few other toys offer such activities without posing risks to children while they play. Some centers come with tunnels for kids to crawl through, while others offer slides, bridges, and steps for children to climb. Additionally, some soft play activity centers come in the shape of animals that children can use to rock back and forth. Most centers available can occupy anywhere from one child to several at once, which means that your waiting room can become the favorite play place of children who visit.
Whether you choose to acquire soft play activity centers that are already put together in a particular shape, or prefer to purchase several foam blocks that kids can use to build, these structures are often considered beneficial for waiting areas. Parents will remember which business was able to keep their children busy while they waited, and most kids will likely plead to be able to go back to your business. The fact that soft play activity centers are safe for kids of nearly any age should also appeal to business owners looking for new toys and furniture for their waiting area.
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0.94702 |
The formula for cross-price elasticity is?
a result the quantity demanded of typewriters decreases from 40 to 20 per month.
The cross-price elasticity of demand is closest to?
product. As a result the cross-price elasticity of apples and oranges will become?
the cross-price elasticity of demand is?
the price of another "related" product.
the number of oranges sold will decrease, so cross-elasticity will decrease.
e) E c = (($40+$20)/(40000+10000))*((10000-40000)/($20- $40)) = 1,8.
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0.998847 |
For centuries, philosophers have been attempting to explain the roots of memory. Plato made a distinction between two types of memories: a priori, which is inherited memory and knowledge that we possess without direct experience and sensory memory, a posteriori, which is memory that we attain through experience, the latter which more closely aligns with materialism and the writings of David Hume, which in itself became the basis of Skinnerian behaviourial psychology, that states that everyone is essentially a blank slate, who can be conditioned to become anything.
But are we just blank slates that can be rewritten with positive and negative conditioning? Wouldn't that defeat our will? Our self-agency?
In the postmodern world, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, psychoanalysis attempted to examine the roots of memory and Carl Jung developed a theory of the collective unconscious; in which everyone possesses the same archetypes of memory and his argument with Sigmund Freud diverged in that Freud believed that the roots of memory were derivative of our subconscious behaviours, the id that controls our "impulses," mainly of a sexual nature. This would become our contemporary architecture of how we view our self, our identity and of our self-agency: Nature vs. Nurture, but there was something else that would eventually eclipse that theory.
The psychoanalytical theories of Carl Gustav Jung (left) (1875-1961) and Sigmund Freud (right) (1856-1939), have shaped our contemporary view of the self and identity.
On the fringes of science were the events that people couldn't easily explain- which were dismissed as illogical and more derivative of imagination than in reality. Although I've always had a fascination with religion in mainly a historical and sociological context, many researchers and scientists of the early 20th century disregarded religion as "unscientific" and perhaps even "radical," as the institution of religion had been primarily used as a political tool to control the population between the 11th-20th centuries, which eventually paved the way towards a reactionary rebellion into atheism in our contemporary era.
Entry of the Crusades at Constantinople, 1840, Le Louvre. In history, religion was utilised for political power and The Crusades (1095–1291) was a war between political factions, between Christians and Muslims in 11th-12th century Europe and Asia, not unlike our contemporary era of war between the West and Middle Eastern nations. Depicted by French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).
However, as we enter the 5th Industrial Era, science is becoming more closely aligned with eastern philosophies of the past, in which current research leads to evidence or possibly, conclusions as to why people often have had "mystical" beliefs.
I remember when I visited London and Tokyo for the first time, I had felt as if I had been there before, although in my waking memories, it was the very first time I had visited the cities as a university student. As I was walking around, I distinctly had the recollection that I had lived in these cities before, and everything seemed familiar to me, whilst at the same time, they were new. In addition, listening to certain languages I've found had a profoundly soothing effect on me- for instance, Russian and German, both languages which I have never studied before but in a state between half-awake and half-asleep, I found momentarily that I could completely understand both languages, until I became consciously jolted awake and realised I had actually never studied these languages before.
The hippocampus (in red) in the brain, is responsible for much of our memories of past experiences and ability to develop new memories.
Everyone has experienced these feelings of familiarity before at least once in their lives. In the past, these feelings of déjà vü were easily dismissed by researchers as a double firing of neurons in your brain- which made you feel like you were familiar with a certain place, or had known a person before, or felt a strong affinity towards a certain culture or language, although you had never previously had experience with the object of your déjà vü. It was certainly easy to dismiss these kinds of occurrences as something out of the ordinary, but probably something that one shouldn't develop an obsession about- like those crazy occultists or lunatics who believed in past life regression and other such nonsense.
So it is interesting to consider these anomalous events in the present context, and be able to assess them from the emerging viewpoint of epigenetics, in which the study of inheritable changes in gene expression that is not directly coded in our DNA could now explain how our life experiences may be passed down to our children and our children's children.
Perhaps eastern philosophy's ideologies of karma and past lives, and Arthur Koestler's the roots of coincidence and synchronicity could now be explained in a tangible way. Even in Western philosophy, Plato had attributed memory to past life experiences in which he determined that we all inherently had knowledge before birth that had been passed down to us, this a priori knowledge could all have a basis in how we can now explain in cognitive neuroscience as forming memories in the hippocampus and thalamus, and in epigenetics, the methylation process of our DNA which we inherit from our ancestors.
Non-stop likelihoods, 2010, Saatchi Gallery. Conjoined twiglets in resin that resemble DNA chromosomes by the London-based artist Jack Strange.
Plato believed that memories were dormant until a catalyst brought them out into consciousness, not unlike Freud and repressed memories or the process in epigenetics in which certain factors in our environment become catalysts for gene expression.
As we enter this brave new world, a world in which ancient beliefs merge with current scientific and genetic research, we have to consider that what we used to dismiss as "magic" and "fantasy" in the past, we can now consider with an open-minded, new perspective.
Demis Hassabis, one of the founders of DeepMind Technologies, wrote in his PhD thesis at University College London that "patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences," or in other words, people with dementia cannot imagine a future.
So much of our perception of memory is linear, in that we experience the perception of past, present and future. Without this fabric of time organisation in the hippocampus, much of our lives would seem as chaotic as in a dreamstate, where multiple timelines occur at once, and many sequences of events move in a non-linear way; there would be no "future" per se, because the future would also become the present and the past. However, these multiple timelines is also what seems to be emerging in research in quantum physics, in which there exists parallel events on an atomic scale, but our human perception sees it as a singular event.
Einstein called this event, a "spooky coincidence" or quantum entanglement, a state where two particles or groups of particles are simultaneously affected by the other, despite time and space.
Long-distance connection: quantum entanglement posits the theory that two particles are connected beyond space and time and simultaneously affected by the other.
I always recall that anytime I was in a particularly distressed state, my mother would ring me at that particular exact moment when I was in distress. Despite being thousands of miles apart, across different continents, she would always magically know that exact moment when I needed to talk. In the past, people would've dismissed this event as simply coincidence, but according to current research, this could be an event that can be attributed to quantum entanglement, and perhaps both quantum physics and epigenetics can now paint a bird's eye view of these occurrences that we had easily dismissed in the past as simply, "crazy" or perhaps even "strange."
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0.999864 |
An interview with Christoph Engelbert, Senior Software Engineer at Hazelcast Inc.
InfoQ: Can you give us a quick rundown on what Hazelcast is and what your companies business model is?
Christoph: Hazelcast is an open source in-memory data grid solution available under Apache License 2. It implements a lot of the typically Java APIs, such as Map, List, Set, Queue, Lock, ExecutorService, etc., in a distributed manor and adds features for partitioned cluster environments, for example, distributed queries (Predicate) or executing Runnable/Callable on a specific node.
Additionally, there is Hazelcast the company that develops, distributes and supports the open source project. We offer commercial support, trainings and help with everything you need in mission critical environments. Further, we provide commercial extensions that include solutions for monitoring and management of the cluster, higher predictability in terms of performance, cluster security and other language native API clients such as C++ and C#. While Hazelcast is entirely written in Java, we provide polyglot language support through a memcached-compliant API as well as a RESTful interface.
InfoQ: In which applications, verticals or open source projects is Hazelcast used and also, how do developers use it, typically?
Christoph: Hazelcast is taking off in the financial domain, for low-latency trading applications, risk, financial exchange and other comparable applications. It's also being used in big telcos, network equipment makers and cloud providers. We're starting to see uptake in areas like Internet and mobile payments, gaming and gambling, travel and hospitality and also eCommerce. Most of our use cases are caching or application scaling. Further, a lot of companies and projects build their own solutions on top of Hazelcast, such as OrientDB, Vert.X, MuleSoft, WSO2 or Apache Shiro.
InfoQ: You've recently released a MapReduce API and I take it you're the main developer. What was the motivation for this?
Christoph: I started CastMapR as a research project. I wanted to get into the new Hazelcast 3 API and since I was recently working with another API for MapReduce (since I was using JBoss cluster) it seemed to me like a good fit. Then, when I joined Hazelcast end of 2013, we started a discussion on making it part of the main Hazelcast distribution.
InfoQ: So you ported CastMapR into Hazelcast?
Christoph: Kind of, yes. The first idea was to just move the codebase into the core distribution but over time we figured that we want to go more for reactive programming and so I rewrote most of the internals. In addition we discussed the exposed API a lot. CastMapR was mostly inspired by Infinispan's API because I just liked it. For the new MapReduce API we decided on a more Hadoop-like API (closer to the original Google paper) but I sticked with the DSL way of defining jobs. Eventually I ended up with only little pieces of the old implementation to be reused. The new implementation is fully concurrent in design. Mapping and reducing phases are fully parallel and the whole system is working in a streaming way (based on chunked processing). Therefor, the old implementation is now discontinued and full effort is spent into the Hazelcast internal MapReduce API.
InfoQ: OK, great. Now, what are typical (envisioned) use cases for Hazelcast’s MapReduce API and how does it compare to, say, MongoDB’s MapReduce API or Hadoop?
Christoph: Typical scenarios where you want to use Hazelcast MapReduce API are distributed computations where the EntryProcessor is not a good fit. Either you want to have data transforming or you want to utilize multiple data sources. It is also a good fit for long running operations since all of the current systems working directly on partition threads so you do not have to do explicit locking for data changes. In one of the next version I will add continuous map reduce support so you can have a fully streaming analysis running. The best example for this is always Twitter which processes tweets in realtime to collect informations like reweets, favorits and a lot of other statistics. This is also useful for risk management and analysis.
The biggest difference to Hadoop is the in-memory and the realtime processing. In Hadoop you have different phases where every phase is executed one after the other whereas in Hazelcast you get full performance due to the internal concurrent design where mapping and reducing running in parallel on all nodes. Phases itself are pretty similar to what you find in Hadoop, so you have mapping (and combining), shuffeling (partitioning to the nodes) and reducing phases but there not as clearly separated as in Hadoop.
A comparison with MongoDB is hard since I never used their MapReduce API but it seems to lack Combiners which are very helpful for huge amounts of datasets but as I said I'm not aware of their implementation.
InfoQ: Cool, one last question: is there anything else you want to share with our readers about the Hazelcast MapReduce API?
Christoph: Yeah, I have a personal request: I'd like people to test-drive the API and provide us with as much feedback as possible. The API is fully stable and I'm absolutely happy with it. I also want to learn about real-world user's experience to find more areas to tweak, since I am sure we can improve it.
Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, Christoph!
In the third question, it says "You've recently released a MapReduce API..." and links to the CastMapR project. That's the previous (now deprecated) project, right?
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0.995034 |
- Why is depression one of the biggest health problems facing the world today? ---------------------- You need to use a minimum of five references, from five different journals; for example. - International Journal of Mental Health Nursing - Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing - Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry - British Medical Journal. There is also a useful website for mental health journals at the University of Adelaide: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/guide/med/menthealth/psynurs.html. source..
Mental depression is one of the biggest health problems which have been on the fore front of the public domain across the global world. Depression can be described as a form of mental disorder which affects a person’s thoughts, moods and feelings (Bowes, 2000, 16). It starts as a respond to failure in achieving personal goals and if left unattended, it propagates and can render the individual less effective in performing normal daily activities and inability to appreciate a person’s identity and self worthy. Depression is venerable to people at all stages of growth but the extent to which the impacts are felt and dealt with varies from one individual to the other (Watson, 2005, 46). The complexity of depression arises when the victims fail to realize that he or she is depressed. As a consequence therefore, they fail to seek or get the help they deserve. The impacts accumulate and the situation becomes worse and last longer. Subsequently, the victim becomes less active and rendered less capable of achieving the best out of life. In this context therefore, the issue of depression is worthy to discuss (Stern, 2003, p.23). This essay seeks to highlight why depression is one of the biggest health problems facing the world today.
Top on the list of the reasons why depression is one of the biggest health challenges in the modern society is that unlike many other health hazards, the effects of depression are felt by not only the person but also the family and friends. Interacting with a depressed person is challenging and can amount to depression which has several negative impacts to the human body. This is because it is extremely difficult to predict the actions they are capable of doing at any moment. Victims of extreme cases of depression are venerable to committing suicide and can get involved in violence, drug taking and alcohol (Watson, 2005, 47). These activities have far reaching effects to health and can amount to death.
Another worthy noting effect of depression which puts it on the lead of health hazard s is a condition termed insomnia. Insomnia is defined as the inability to get enough sleep. A depressed person experiences irregular pattern of sleep which might involve waking up at the middle of the sleep, waking up early and failing to sleep again as well as a feeling of restlessness. Failure to get enough sleep dictates that the person has not had enough rest hence he/she is incapable of executing their responsibilities and daily task. The victim is always tired and incapable of coordinating and making as well as executing sound decision (Davidson, et al, 2002, p.62). The situation worsens if left unattended and the victim can commit suicide which is a common in the modern society.
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0.997378 |
Top 10 women in India.
Dhondo Keshav Karve life story.
Sarah Michelle Gellar life story.
Ghanshyam Das Birla life story.
Hans Raj Hans life story.
Booker T. Washington life story.
Franklin D. Roosevelt life story.
Lala Lajpat Rai life story.
Sara Ali Khan life story.
Sushant Singh Rajput life story.
C. S. Lewis life story.
Leonardo da Vinci life story.
Robert Downey, Jr. life story.
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan life story.
Alexander the Great life story.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar life story.
Kaji Najrul Islam life story.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni life story.
Martin Luther King life story.
John F. Kennedy life story.
APJ Abdul Kalam life story.
Subhas Chandra Bose life story.
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0.999013 |
A message string that provides a textual description of the error. Contact MySQL | Login | Register The world's most popular open source database MySQL.com Downloads Documentation Developer Zone Developer Zone Downloads MySQL.com Documentation MySQL Server MySQL Enterprise Workbench Router Utilities/Fabric Cluster Error: 1246 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_AUTO_CONVERT) Message: Column '% s' from% s to% s. A message string that provides a textual description of the error.
To avoid this error, increase the value of ER_TOO_MANY_CONCURRENT_TRXS2. Error: CR_SHARED_MEMORY_CONNECT_REQUEST_ERROR3 SQLSTATE: CR_SHARED_MEMORY_CONNECT_REQUEST_ERROR2 (CR_SHARED_MEMORY_CONNECT_REQUEST_ERROR1) Message: %s: Shutdown complete Error: CR_SHARED_MEMORY_CONNECT_REQUEST_ERROR0 SQLSTATE: 20399 (20398) Message: %s: Forcing close of thread %ld user: '%s' Error: 20397 SQLSTATE: 20396 (20395) Message: Can't create For example, the mysql client program displays errors using the following format: shell> /UdmComment0 ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table 'test.no_such_table' doesn't exist The message displayed contains three types of information: A numeric It means that the value specified in the SET command is not recognized.
If the error message refers to error −1, table creation probably failed because the table includes a column name that matched the name of an internal ER_TABLE_CANT_HANDLE_SPKEYS5 table. Please click here for complete details and online registration. A deadlock occurs when requests for locks arrive in inconsistent order between transactions. Error: 1206 SQLSTATE: HY000 (ER_LOCK_TABLE_FULL) Message: The total number of locks exceeds the lock table size How does the MySQL error message look like?
You can increase the value of the HY0002 configuration option if SQL statements should wait longer for other transactions to complete, or decrease it if too many long-running transactions are causing JackLiNew memory grant query hint MIN_GRANT_PERCENT came to rescue June 9, 2016In SQL Server 2012 SP3, we made supportability improvements in the memory grant space. Error: ER_STORED_FUNCTION_PREVENTS_SWITCH_SQL_LOG_BIN8 SQLSTATE: ER_STORED_FUNCTION_PREVENTS_SWITCH_SQL_LOG_BIN7 (ER_STORED_FUNCTION_PREVENTS_SWITCH_SQL_LOG_BIN6) Message: Can't create file '%s' (errno: %d) Occurs for failure to create or copy a file needed for some operation. It means that the variable you want to change cannot be changed because it is a read only variable.
Error: 1259 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_ZLIB_Z_DATA_ERROR) Message: zlib, the input data is corrupted. Error: 2000 (CR_UNKNOWN_ERROR) Message: Unknown MySQL error Error: 2001 (CR_SOCKET_CREATE_ERROR) Message: Can't create UNIX socket (%d) Error: 2002 (CR_CONNECTION_ERROR) Message: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '%s' (%d) Error: In these cases, ER_NON_GROUPING_FIELD_USED4 (general error) is used. Error: 1239 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_WRONG_FK_DEF) message: '% s':% s, foreign key definition is not correct.
in the U.S. Error: 1284 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_UNKNOWN_KEY_CACHE) Message: Unknown key cache '% s'. Error: 1425 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_TOO_BIG_SCALE) Message: Too big scale %d specified for column '%s'. Error: 1238 SQLSTATE: HY000 (ER_INCORRECT_GLOBAL_LOCAL_VAR) message: Variable '% s' is a% s variable.
Error: HY0001 SQLSTATE: HY0000 (ER_ERROR_IN_UNKNOWN_TRIGGER_BODY9) Message: The total number of locks exceeds the lock table size ER_ERROR_IN_UNKNOWN_TRIGGER_BODY8 reports this error when the total number of locks exceeds the amount of memory CR_SSL_CONNECTION_ERROR7 and CR_SSL_CONNECTION_ERROR6 represent numbers and strings, respectively, that are substituted into the Message values when they are displayed. The maximum row size for the used table type, not counting BLOBs, is%ld. We encourage you to download a ' + 'new version from dev.mysql.com/doc.
Error: 1256 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_TOO_BIG_FOR_UNCOMPRESS) Message: decompressed data is too large, the maximum size is% d (probably, unzip the length of the data is corrupted). Error: 1426 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_TOO_BIG_PRECISION) Message: Too big precision %lu specified for co Skip navigation links The world's most popular open source database Login | Register Developer Zone Downloads Documentation MySQL Error: 1206 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_LOCK_TABLE_FULL) Message: The total number of locks exceeds the lock table size. Error: 1356 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_VIEW_INVALID) Message: View '% s.% S' references invalid table, column, or function, or view the definition of program / calling program lacks permission to use them.
Error: 1212 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_UNION_TABLES_IN_DIFFERENT_DIR) Message: Incorrect table definition, all MERGE tables must be in the same database. Error: 1388 sqlstate: the HY000 (ER_NO_FILE_MAPPING) Message: Can not map file:% s, errno:% d Error: 1389 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_WRONG_MAGIC) Message:% s is wrong Error: 1390 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_PS_MANY_PARAM) Message: Error: 1448 SQLSTATE: HY000 (ER_VIEW_OTHER_USER) Message: You need the SUPER privilege for creation view with '%s'@'%s' definer Error: 1449 SQLSTATE: HY000 (ER_NO_SUCH_USER) Message: There is no '%s'@'%s' registered Error: 1450 SQLSTATE: The values are taken from ANSI SQL and ODBC and are more standardized.
Error: CR_SSL_CONNECTION_ERROR0 SQLSTATE: 20279 (20278) Message: hashchk Error: 20277 SQLSTATE: 20276 (20275) Message: isamchk Error: 20274 SQLSTATE: 20273 (20272) Message: NO Error: 20271 SQLSTATE: 20270 (CR_MALFORMED_PACKET9) Message: YES Error: CR_MALFORMED_PACKET8 SQLSTATE: Error: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA7 SQLSTATE: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA6 (ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA5) Message: Can't get status of '%s' (errno: %d) Error: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA4 SQLSTATE: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA3 (ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA2) Message: Can't get working directory (errno: %d) Error: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA1 SQLSTATE: ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA0 (ER_NO_TRIGGERS_ON_SYSTEM_SCHEMA9) Message: ER_SP_NO_RECURSION was added in 5.0.9. Error: 1227 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_SPECIFIC_ACCESS_DENIED_ERROR) message: Access Denied,% s permissions are required to perform this operation.
Error: 1254 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_SLAVE_WAS_RUNNING) message: the server is running. It can only be applied globaly as follows: SQL> GRANT SUPER ON *.* TO [email protected]; Error: 1222 SQLSTATE: 21000 (ER_WRONG_NUMBER_OF_COLUMNS_IN_SELECT) Message: The used SELECT statements have a different number of columns Error: 1257 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_ZLIB_Z_MEM_ERROR) Message: zlib, Not enough memory. Error: 1426 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_TOO_BIG_PRECISION) Message: Too big precision %d specified for column '%s'.
Error: 1427 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_M_BIGGER_THAN_D) Message: For float(M,D), double(M,D) or decimal(M,D), M must be >= D (column '%s'). Error: 1204 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_SET_CONSTANTS_ONLY) Message: Maybe should only be used with SET constant expression. This number is MySQL-specific and is not portable to other database systems. Error: 1394 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_VIEW_NO_INSERT_FIELD_LIST) Message: You can not be inserted in the case of the absence of the field list the joint view '% s% s'.
Error: 1352 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_VIEW_SELECT_TMPTABLE) message: the view's SELECT refers to a temporary table '% s'. Check that your InnoDB: transactions do not set too many row locks. Error: 1291 SQLSTATE: the HY000 (ER_DUPLICATED_VALUE_IN_TYPE) Message: Column '% s' in% s the repeated value '% s'. Error: 1281 SQLSTATE: 42000 (ER_WRONG_NAME_FOR_CATALOG) message: Incorrect directory name '% s'.
Since this operation changes the primary key, it uses the slow method of copying the table and re-creating the index, rather than the Fast Index Creation technique from Section 14.16.3, “Implementation Details Home Page Contact Us Database & Sql Blog Articles the mysql exception coding error 1201-1400 Error: 1201 sqlstate: the HY000 (ER_MASTER_INFO) Message: Unable to initialize the master server information structure, more Error messages do not change often, but it is possible. Error: 1261 SQLSTATE:. 01000 (ER_WARN_TOO_FEW_RECORDS) message: line% ld does not contain data for all columns.
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What is SEO? An advanced definition.
SEO is a vast system which includes a wide range of services, techniques, tools, theories, platforms and pitfalls all based around the common goal of ranking a website first (or as high as possible) in the organic Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) of such Search Engines as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex and others.
SEO is not just modifying a website to rank higher in the results but is primarily based on tracking and understanding the Search Engine algorithms and attempting to reverse engineer them to divine the reasons that Search Engines rank pages the way they do.
Although the primary goal of SEO is the placement of your website higher in the organic results; such placement can be, in part, based on elements outside of your website and of your control. Such things as backlinks (links from other websites to yours) and even mere mentions of your brand, website's URL or the quantity of people sharing your content and commenting about your company, website or services, can affect your organic rankings.
Search Engines utilize these "signals" as a large part of their ranking methods which are primarily based on a set of computational rules called algorithms. Any Search Engine can have a multitude of algorithms which manage certain aspects (such as those listed above) that all affect your rankings in the organic results.
The primary factor in SEO is relevance. Relevance is a mix of relation and usage. In language relevance is established by the usage of a term to describe or connect your brand in a relational sense. This means that mere usage defines relevance by creating such a relationship. For example; if a new brand is established called "XYZ123" - it could be applied to anything. You have no idea what that is until it is defined by adding words which create a relationship and hence a definition of that brand. XYZ123 could be a company which makes hats or a new mobile application for tracking your favorite sports team. It could be a new accounting service or a record label. By associating terms with the brand we define it. We make XYZ123 relevant to a subject by usage of terms that define that subject. Usage can also mean the quantity of times it is used and the quantity of people who use it. This relates to both popularity and authority. Popularity refers to overall usage by a group of people. Authority refers to usage by people who are considered to be authorities in that subject. Mere popularity does not constitute authority however authority includes an element of popularity.
Google's original PageRank algorithm was based on the use of citations as in academic papers. If enough people cite a work in a specific context then that work is deemed to be authoritative on the subject matter. The greater the amount of citations and the greater amount of the authority of those citing; then the greater amount of authority of the work (and author) being cited.
Backlinks are used as such citations as a website which links to another is considered to be casting a vote in favor of the relevance of that linked website to its own or to the topic which it is presenting. Over time people began to game the system by purchasing or creating such backlinks in order to rank higher. Google launched an algorithm named Penguin which greatly reduced people's ability to game the system based on backlinks. Although this did not cure the problem it did make things much more difficult to this type of person called a Link Spammer.
Relevance is however the most important element of SEO as Search Engines provide results based on the words which are searched, called queries or questions. Every term you enter in to a search is interpreted by the engine as a question. The answer is the results which are presented once you click "search". Originally such searches were based on the keywords used however Search Engines, especially Google, have created algorithms to attempt to ascertain the intent of the user and the topical context of the query. Google launched a new algorithm named "Hummingbird" which attempts to do this.
SEO is also defined as making your website relevant to the topic which you are targeting. Any topic includes certain words and phrases whether people, places or things, which are commonly associated with that topic. It is the goal of SEOs to define the topic and to define what terms, phrases, questions, locations, times and other data are applicable and relevant to the topic and to implement these into the content of the website. Hummingbird also looks at the contextual specificity of the query; in other words, what do you specifically mean by it. If you search for "hummingbird" do you mean the bird or the Google algorithm? More specifically you could be searching for tips on optimizing for Google Hummingbird algorithm or learning how to build a hummingbird feeder.
Optimization of content on a contextual basis means that you must define the specifics of the topic and seek out the terminology used to describe it and those words and phrases which are most commonly associated with it.
When using off-site SEO it is required to find the sources that are specifically related/relevant to the topic and to connect with them.
SEO is more than just putting keywords into your website or building links or gaining popularity; it is about building relevance and conveying that relevance to the Search Engine.
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0.933325 |
In geometry, an apex (Latin for 'summit, peak, tip, top, extreme end') is the vertex which is in some sense the "highest" of the figure to which it belongs.
In six-dimensional geometry, a cantellated 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a cantellation of the regular 5-cube.
In five-dimensional geometry, a cantellated 5-simplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a cantellation of the regular 5-simplex.
In the field of hyperbolic geometry, the hexagonal tiling honeycomb arises one of 11 regular paracompact honeycombs in 3-dimensional hyperbolic space.
In the geometry of hyperbolic 3-space, the order-6 tetrahedral honeycomb is a paracompact regular space-filling tessellation (or honeycomb).
In five-dimensional geometry, a rectified 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a rectification of the regular 5-cube.
In five-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope that is a runcination (a 3rd order truncation) of the regular 5-cube.
In five-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 5-orthoplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope with 3rd order truncation (runcination) of the regular 5-orthoplex.
In six-dimensional geometry, a runcinated 5-simplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope with 3rd order truncations (Runcination) of the regular 5-simplex.
In five-dimensional geometry, a stericated 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope with fourth-order truncations (sterication) of the regular 5-cube.
In five-dimensional geometry, a stericated 5-simplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope with fourth-order truncations (sterication) of the regular 5-simplex.
In geometry, the triangular bipyramid (or dipyramid) is a type of hexahedron, being the first in the infinite set of face-transitive bipyramids.
In geometry, the triangular tiling or triangular tessellation is one of the three regular tilings of the Euclidean plane.
In four-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the truncated 24-cell honeycomb is a uniform space-filling honeycomb.
In geometry, a truncated 5-cell is a uniform 4-polytope (4-dimensional uniform polytope) formed as the truncation of the regular 5-cell.
In five-dimensional geometry, a truncated 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a truncation of the regular 5-cube.
In five-dimensional geometry, a truncated 5-simplex is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a truncation of the regular 5-simplex.
In geometry, a uniform 5-polytope is a five-dimensional uniform polytope.
In four-dimensional Euclidean geometry, the 4-simplex honeycomb, 5-cell honeycomb or pentachoric-dispentachoric honeycomb is a space-filling tessellation honeycomb.
In five-dimensional geometry, a 5-cube is a name for a five-dimensional hypercube with 32 vertices, 80 edges, 80 square faces, 40 cubic cells, and 10 tesseract 4-faces.
In five-dimensional geometry, a 5-orthoplex, or 5-cross polytope, is a five-dimensional polytope with 10 vertices, 40 edges, 80 triangle faces, 80 tetrahedron cells, 32 5-cell 4-faces.
0 30 polytope, 3,3,3, 4-simplex, Compound of two 5-cells, Digonal disphenoid pyramid, Irregular 5-cell, Order-3 tetrahedral honeycomb, Pentachoron, Pentahedroid, Pentatope, Tetrahedral pyramid, Trirectified 5-cell, Trirectified pentachoron.
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0.999993 |
Древо навыков предназначено для назначения узкой специализации улучшенных классов. У каждого класса имеется пять древ: одно из древ является общим для обоих улучшенных классов, остальные четыре являются индивидуальными.
Игрокам можно сбрасывать распределенные очки древ навыков на боевых площадках фракционных флотов бесплатно, респециализация уже будет стоить кредитов.
Пиротехник (общий) - Upgrades the Bounty Hunter's weapons to deal more damage to his enemies.
Арсенал - Uses advanced rocketry and specializes in taking down their targets quickly.
Телохранитель - Gives the Bounty Hunter skills and technology to heal and restore his allies.
Улучшенный прототип - The latest technology makes the Powertech a versatile fighter against any enemy.
Техник щитов - Further boosts the Powertech's defensive technology, allowing him to soak up attacks.
Смертоносность (общий) - Leverages the toxic power of poisons to debilitate enemies over the course of a long fight.
Маскировка - Upgrades stealth and close-range attacks, allowing the Agent to strike without detection.
Медик - Advances the Agent's healing technologies, keeping his allies both alive and effective.
Инженерия - Empowers the Sniper's droids and probes to weaken enemies and give the Empire an advantage.
Стрельба - Teaches the Sniper to strike down targets from long distances and from the safety of cover.
Баланс (общий) - Enhances the Sage’s Force attacks and augments the Shadow's Force and Lightsaber abilities.
Провидец - Allows the Sage to master the art of using the Force to heal and protect allies.
Телекинез - Affords the power to distort reality and move waves of energy, tearing apart enemies.
Проникновение - Masters of stealth, these Shadows use positional attacks and surprise to defeat foes.
Кинетический бой - Uses the double-bladed Lightsaber defensively to protect the Shadow and his allies.
Сосредоточение (общий) — использование улучшенных техник Силы и формы Шии-Чо.
Защита — эффективное противостояние вражеским атакам и защита союзников.
Бдительность — превосходное владение одним клинком в нападении и быстром уничтожении врагов.
Бой — умение пользоваться формой Атару, чрезвычайно быстрое устраниие противника.
Дозорный — умение пользоваться формой Джуйо, позволяющей стать более опасным в сражении.
Неистовство (общий) - Increases the Inquisitor's mastery of the Force to drain and corrupt his enemies.
Тьма - Focuses on defensive techniques to help protect the Assassin and his allies.
Обман зрения - Enhances the Assassin's stealth ability, helping him sneak up and dispatch his foes.
Порча - Uses dark power to maintain allies' health in battle, and protect them from enemy attacks.
Моллнии - Channels the Force to overload the Inquisitor's enemies with blasts of lightning.
Гнев (общий) - Allows the Warrior greater control of the Force and further mastery of the Shii-Cho form.
Бессмертие - Uses the power of the Force to increase the Warrior's survivability in battle.
Месть - The Juggernaut stops at nothing to crush enemies, obliterating them with heavy hits.
Аннигиляция - Mastering the aggressive Juyo form, the Annihilation Marauder destroys enemies from within.
Бойня - Focuses on acrobatic Lightsaber techniques that strike quickly and lethally.
Нечестный бой (общий) - These tactics leave no trick off-the-table and often leave an enemy crippled or bleeding.
Подрывник - Teaches the Gunslinger to use explosives and advanced tech to sustain a longer assault.
Меткий стрелок - The Gunslinger focuses on precise, high damage attacks from the safety of cover.
Костоправ - The Scoundrel patches his allies up using whatever medical supplies he can scrape together.
Задира - Focuses on using stealth and the scatter gun to sneak in, take out the enemy, and get out.
Специалист по атаке (общий) - Teaches explosives and grenades to complement either rifles or heavy cannons.
Военный медик - Trains the Commando to provide expert first aid to wounded comrades in the heat of battle.
Артиллерия - Focuses on maximizing the assault cannon's destructive power.
Специалист по щитам - Powers up the Vanguard’s shield generator to absorb firepower and protect their allies.
Тактика - Trains the Vanguard how to more effectively deal with close range combatants.
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This article is about stage theatre in the Czech Republic. For information about the movie industry, see Cinema of the Czech Republic.
Theatre of the Czech Republic has rich tradition in all genres, including drama, opera, ballet and dance, puppet theatre, black light theatre etc.
The Czech theatre played an important role in the history of theatre since the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, the theatre was an integral part of the Czech National Revival. Later, in the 20th century, many notable theatre makers influenced the European theatre art.
Between 1739-1783 the Divadlo v Kotcích (English: Kotzen Theatre), a theatre and opera venue on v Kotcích street in Prague, enjoyed its heyday as the second public opera theatre in Prague. The opera theatre of Franz Anton von Sporck was also a notable public theatre in the city at this time.
The Estates Theatre was initially built with the intention of producing German dramas and Italian operas, but works in other languages were also staged. Czech productions were first staged in 1785 in order to reach a broader Czech audience but by 1812 they became a regular feature of Sunday and holiday matinees. The somewhat political nature of these performances later led to idea of founding a National Theatre after 1848 with the defeat of the revolution and the departure of J.K. Tyl. Many of the founding Czech dramatists were involved in the Estates Theatre, such as the brothers Thám (Karel and Václav), J.K. Tyl, Ján Kollár, and so on.
Before the early 1860s almost all cultural institutions in Prague, including theatre and opera, was in Austrian hands. Bohemia was a province of the Habsburg Empire, and under that regime's absolutist rule most aspects of Czech culture and national life had been discouraged or suppressed. Absolutism was formally abolished by a decree of the Emperor Franz Josef on 20 October 1860, which led to a Czech cultural revival. The Bohemian Diet (parliament) had acquired a site in Prague on the banks of the Vltava, and in 1861 announced a public subscription, which raised a sum of 106,000 gulden. This covered the costs of building a small 800-seat theatre, which would act as a home for production of Czech drama and opera while longer-term plans for a permanent National Theatre could be implemented. The Provisional Theatre opened on 18 November 1862, with a performance of Vítězslav Hálek's tragic drama King Vukašín.
The drama of the First Czechoslovak Republic followed the same stylistic evolution as poetry and prose — expressionism, followed by a return to realistic, civilian theatre (František Langer, Karel Čapek). Avantgarde theatre also flourished, focusing on removing the barriers between actors and audience, breaking the illusion of the unity of a theatrical work (Osvobozené divadlo, Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich). In the 1930s, Karel Čapek wrote his most politically charged (and well-known) plays in response to the rise of fascist dictators.
Václav Havel found employment in Prague's theatre world as a stagehand at Prague's Theatre ABC – Divadlo ABC, and then at the Theatre On Balustrade – Divadlo Na zábradlí. Simultaneously, he was a student of dramatic arts by correspondence at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). His first own full-length play performed in public, besides various vaudeville collaborations, was The Garden Party (1963). Presented in a series of Theatre of the Absurd, at the Theatre on Balustrade, this play won him international acclaim. The play was soon followed by The Memorandum, one of his best known plays, and The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, all at the Theatre on Balustrade. In 1968, The Memorandum was also brought to The Public Theater in New York, which helped to establish Havel's reputation in the United States. The Public Theater continued to produce his plays in the following years. After 1968, Havel's plays were banned from the theatre world in his own country, and he was unable to leave Czechoslovakia to see any foreign performances of his works.
^ Václav Havel Obituary. Telegraph. 18 December 2011. Retrieved on 19 December 2011.
^ "Spejbl & Hurvínek Prague theatre head, puppeteer Štáchová dies". Rulers.org. Prague Daily Monitor. 2017-03-23. Retrieved 2017-04-08.
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What types of injuries are most common in soccer?
Injuries to the lower extremities are the most common injuries occuring in soccer. These injuries may be traumatic, such as a kick to the leg or a twist to the knee, or result from overuse of a muscle, tendon, or bone.
Lower extremity overuse injuries can include shin splints, and tendinitis in the knee or ankle. Soccer players may also be prone to groin pulls, or thigh and calf muscle strains. Upper extremity injuries may happen from falling on an outstretched arm, or from player-to-player contact, and may affect the wrist, elbow, or shoulder. Other injuries may include cuts and bruises, fractures, sprains, and concussions, as soccer can be a high-intensity contact sport.
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When is it time to replace a wood shake roof?
Understand the main factors for when to replace a wood shake roof.
Many homeowners with wood shakes on their roofs face the decision of whether it is best to repair or replace wood shake roof components over time.
Many homeowners may choose to repair single shakes that have suffered external damage from inclement weather and other sources. Natural wood shakes may also deteriorate over time, as the wood ages and cracks due to drying out in arid environments or begins to attract moss and insects in humid climates.
Some homeowners may decide to replace wooden materials with more advanced modern options to cut down on maintenance costs or change the look of their homes.
Holes in outer roofing materials.
Residential roofing may deteriorate over time, especially when shakes or shingles are constructed of natural wood. A roofing warranty may cover some of these issues, but many expire before signs of excessive aging arise. Warranties have their own limits and conditions. You should carefully evaluate what coverage is available before deciding to undertake repairs or replacement.
Obvious areas of rot or mold.
Graying colors that indicate microfungal growth.
Cracks developing on the edges of shakes or shingles.
The growth of moss or other obvious plant life in humid conditions.
Updating the look of your home.
Preventing the growth of unwanted mold with treated wood replacement.
Changing the underlayment for further protection or to meet building codes.
Adding modern protection by replacing wooden materials with composites.
The type of replacement you choose can also have a major effect on the overall roofing cost. Many modern developments allow for the use of recycled rubber, which looks like natural wood shakes, but it resists damage and the passage of time much easier. Prices increase as you get further from natural materials, but the long-term savings in maintenance may help offset the costs.
When you're ready to repair or replace wood shake roof components, understanding these elements can help you make the right decision to protect your investment in your home.
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Mаnу wоndеr if Olympic figure skater Charlie White iѕ dating hiѕ skating partner Meryl Davis hiѕ partner fоr оvеr 16 years, thе truth iѕ thаt Charlie hаѕ hiѕ iсе princess, but thаt iѕ nоt Davis but Tanith Belbin thе Canadian figure skater whо skated fоr years with Ben Agosto аnd nоw t.v commentator аnd choreographer, аnd I аm ѕurе Tanith will bе showing hеr support fоr Charlie whо iѕ аmоng thе contestants аt thiѕ 18th season оf Dancing With thе Stars.
Charlie White thе ѕоn оf Jacqui аnd Charlie White Sr. wоn thе gold fоr thе U.S аt thе 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia thаt medal wаѕ thе firѕt Olympic medal hе еvеr wоn but nоt thе firѕt medal thrоughоut hiѕ career, аftеr аll hе hаѕ wоn 16 аnd wе саn bе ѕurе thеrе will bе more.
Charlie wаѕ born in Royal Oak, Michigan оn October 24, 1987, attended аt Roeper School in Birmingham, Michigan аnd iѕ сurrеntlу studying political science аt thе University оf Michigan. Hе hаѕ bееn dating Tanith Belbin ѕinсе 2011.
29-year-old Tanith wаѕ born Tanith Jessica Louise Belbin in July 11, 1984 in Kingston, Ontario tо Charles аnd Michele Belbin, Tanith hаѕ оnе brother Lucas Belbin. Mr. Belbin iѕ аn engineer, whilе Mrs. Belbin iѕ a fоrmеr figure skater, coach аnd costume designer.
Shе moved tо Montreal whеn ѕhе wаѕ two, аrоund thе ѕаmе timе ѕhе bесаmе interested in skating аnd performing; ѕhе аlѕо started dancing, did gymnastics аnd played soccer, аt thе еnd it wаѕ soccer аnd skating whаt ѕhе enjoyed thе most.
Belbin аlѕо likе tо bе in thе spotlight, аnd аftеr dоing ѕоmе modeling аnd acting jobs it wаѕ аt thе еаrlу age оf 11 thаt ѕhе hаd hеr true acting opportunity, hоwеvеr hеr mother wаѕ aware thаt еvеn thоugh hеr precocious daughter соuld hаvе a career аѕ аn actress, figure skating wаѕ whаt Tanith rеаllу loved.
In 1998 аt thе age оf 13, Michele Belbin аnd hеr daughter moved tо Detroit whеrе ѕhе trained with Igor Shpilband аnd paired uр with Ben Agosto. Shе received аn immigrant worker visa in 2000, аnd hеr green card twо years later.
Belbin аnd Agosto wоn thеу firѕt gold medal аt thе 1999 ISU Junior Grand Prix, thе fоllоwing year thеу wоn thе U.S Junior National title аnd рlасеd third аt thе 2000 Junior Championships. In 2001 thеу wоn аnоthеr gold medal t thе Junior World Championship.
Twо mоrе gold medals аt thе 2003 Fоur Continents Championship аnd Skate America, thе gold kерt coming, winning аt thе 2004 Cup оf China, wоn US Figure Skating Championships fivе years in a row. Tanith аnd Ben wоn thе silver аt thе 2006 Olympics, nоt lоng аftеr ѕhе bесаmе a naturalized citizen.
Tanith аnd Agosto danced аnd wоn mаnу mоrе titles until thеу announced thеir retirement оn June 10, 2010; Ben iѕ nоw a figure skating coach, whilе Tanith iѕ a choreographer аnd hаѕ worked аѕ a commentator fоr iсе dance competitions оn Universal Sports Network, thе ABC show Skating with thе Stars, аnd fоr icenetwork.com.
In October 2011 Belbin competed аѕ a рrо оn season 3 оf Battle оf thе Blades pair with Boyd Devereaux аnd рlасеd 3rd in thе competition.
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0.905415 |
Arthritis affects 27 million Americans, so it's likely that you know someone who lives with the condition -- but trouble arises from recognizing arthritis in ourselves. A medical problem that largely occurs in people over 40 (but can start at any age), arthritis is often dismissed as simple aches and pains -- signs of "getting old." How can you get treatment for one of several types of arthritis if you're not able to tell that something is truly wrong?
You can start by understanding the two most common types of arthritis and the differences between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of the entire joint, including the cartilage, bone, ligaments, and joint lining. Cartilage that cushions the ends of the bones in your joints can wear down. It's often accompanied by an inflammation in the joint lining (the synovium). Eventually, the joints become largely bone on bone, leading to stiffening and pain.
Athletic overuse of specific joints.
Certain jobs that require continuous lifting or movement.
A strain, sprain, or other injury to the joint.
It is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body's immune system, which should fight infection, actually triggers inflammation. The primary cause of RA has not yet been established, however.
It usually appears in symmetrical patterns. If you have this type of arthritis in one hand, for example, you'll likely have it in the other hand.
It's not limited to the joints but can also affect the blood and organs of the body.
It involves the fluid in joints and can cause deformities such as knobby, crooked fingers.
It's most often found in wrist and finger joints.
In the beginning, general symptoms, such as pain and stiffness in the morning, may be dismissed as "just getting older." As the condition worsens, however, you'll sense a limited range of motion in your knees, hip, or back. When the joint bends, you can hear cracking or clicking. Joints will swell, and if your hip joints are affected, you may first feel pain in the knee or thigh.
Over-the-counter medications (ibuprofen or acetaminophen).
Physical therapy, which helps increase flexibility.
Assistive devices, such as a cane.
Options for more serious pain include prescription medications, such as duloxetine (Cymbalta) or opioids, or corticosteroid injections to limit swelling. If deterioration is advanced, you may need a total joint replacement, in which a metal, ceramic, or plastic prosthesis is added.
One of the best ways to manage osteoarthritis is simple: Get moving. If appropriate for your symptoms, a walking routine or regular aerobic exercise class should help work out the kinks and stiffness in those joints, and range-of-motion exercises will maintain flexibility and reduce stiffness.
Rheumatoid arthritis is most likely to develop in people after the age of 40 and is two to three times more common in women than men. With RA, you have the usual stiffness and pain of OA but can also experience fatigue, fever, loss of appetite, dry eyes/mouth, and emerging lumps on hand joints. RA may affect the lungs, areas surrounding the heart, or blood vessels.
The more severe symptoms have even been known to cause anxiety and depression. Unlike OA, which often steadily worsens, a person with RA will experience intervals of mild symptoms followed by flare-ups in intensity.
Early, aggressive treatment is your best bet for controlling RA inflammation and pain. Many of the same medications taken for OA are also used for treating RA. Surgery is also a possible option if you have permanently damaged joints.
Balance rest with appropriate physical activity.
Incorporate healthy eating into their daily diet.
Even though there's no medical cure for arthritis, many are able to live fulfilling lives with the condition. Whether it's yourself or a loved one, maintaining a positive outlook and consistent preventive routines will go a long way.
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0.992076 |
The task of providing an historical explanation of the Time of Troubles fell to writers of the period after the Time of Troubles and the election of Michael Romanov to the throne in 1613, that is, the remaining years of that decade and the following one. These writers belonged to various estates, for the participaton of all estates found in the period of the Peasant War and Polish intervention had not yet ceased. They included churchmen and laymen, government officials and aristocrats.
The Tale of Abraham Palitsyn. One of the most popular and lengthy works on the Time of Troubles was written by the monk Abraham Palitsyn, cellarer of the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius (the cellarer was in charge of the monastery stores or its secular affairs in general). His Tale6 consists of seventy-seven chapters dealing with different periods. The first six chapters were written in 1612, although the work was not completed until 1620. The central part deals with the famous siege of the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius. Then the account is continued up to the Deulino armistice of 1618, in the conclusion of which Abraham Palitsyn himself took an active part.
Abraham Palitsyn was a prominent figure in the events of the Time of Troubles (his conduct in these difficult years was not entirely without reproach, however, for he served Pseudo-Dmitry II). He constantly stresses his own importance, as, for example, in his account of how he went to the Hypatian Monastery in Kostroma to fetch Michael Romanov, how he met him later in the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius and so on.
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0.999156 |
I am finally going to replace my ageing desktop PC and I initially thought of getting another desktop, but now I am veering towards a laptop. Certain things I do, however, would be easier on a larger screen, say 20 to 22 inches. I know that I can connect an independent monitor to a laptop, but I would appreciate your thoughts on the pros, cons and pitfalls to look out for.
Dell is one of the few companies to make a laptop with a 20-inch screen, and Samsung has a model with a detachable 19-inch screen but they’re both quite pricey. Connecting an external monitor to a laptop is usually very straightforward and there shouldn’t be any problems utilising the screen’s maximum resolution, though you may have to download additional drivers. However, the big problem is what to do with the lid. It has to be open to access the keyboard, but it will inevitably obscure the screen. The solution is to close or partially close the lid and use an external keyboard and mouse, though you may have to go into Control Panel, Power Options menu and disable the sleep, standby or hibernate function, which is normally engaged when the lid is shut.
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0.964488 |
My grandmother was an extraordinary gardener who taught me how to garden at a very young age. I can recall grabbing the garden tools, and chipping away at the dirt and pulling weeds, and roots out of the ground. My grandma taught me the importance of pulling the entire root of the weeds, so that the weeds would not return. After we removed the weeds by hand, and cultivated the soil, we planted the seed for the tulips to take bloom.
If we use the analogy of the roots of the weeds and the tulips, the roots of the weeds would only have a negative impact on the growth of the tulips. The roots of the weeds would grab hold of the roots of the tulips, and only attempt to interrupt its growth. In this life we have plenty of weeds, which will attempt to halt our growth.
It’s very important now to cultivate our land, and surround ourselves with the environment in which we want to eventually become. It’s much more difficult to grow amongst the weeds, than to grow in harmony in an environment that embraces, what we are ready to bring forth.
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0.926646 |
How can a computer be such an amazing gadget? To many people they just can’t be so amazed on how computers have changed the way we live. Computers can now be found in many sizes and shapes. Almost every home appliance seems to have their own mini computer located somewhere. From cars to buildings to almost every gadget there is, most of the time each one has a computer working to make them run and change the very way we live life.
First and foremost, the most important component of the computer is its processor. It is considered the heart of the computer that does all the calculating and processing. But with all that calculating and processing, the computer won’t be such a remarkable gadget if not for its amazing memory. Computer memory makes it possible to retain important information on a computer. Such data can be used again and again and retrieved when a certain stored data is needed. Without the computer memory, the processor will have no facility where to store its important calculations and processes, thereby making them useless.
There are different types of computer memory tasked to store different types of data. They also have different capabilities and specialties when it comes to storing necessary data inside the computer. The best known computer memory is the RAM, otherwise known as Random Access Memory. It is called random access because any stored data can be accessed directly if you know the exact row and column that intersect a certain memory cell. In this type of computer memory, data can be accessed in any order. RAM’s exact opposite is called SAM or Serial Access Memory, which stores data in a series of memory cells that can only be accessed in order. It operates much like a cassette tape where you have to go through other memory cells before accessing the data that you are looking for.
Other types of computer memory include the ROM or Read Only Memory. ROM is an integrated circuit already programmed with specific data that cannot be modified or changed, hence the name “Read Only”. There is also another type of computer memory called Virtual Memory. This type of memory is a common component in most operating systems and desktops. It helps the computers RAM to be freed up with unused applications to make way for loading current applications being used. It works simply by checking for data stored in RAM not being used recently and have it stored in the computer’s hard disk, thereby freeing valuable space in RAM for loading other applications. A virtual memory will make a computer think that it has almost unlimited RAM inside it.
Another type of computer memory that has made computers process tasks faster is what is called cache memory. Cache memory works simply by having current applications, calculations and processes stored in its memory instead of directly to the main storage area. When a certain process is in need of data previously used, it first will try to access the cache memory if such data is stored there before accessing the central memory storage area. This frees up the computer from looking for the data in a larger and bigger memory storage area and makes data extraction faster. Computer memory is in a constant state of development as more and more technologies are being developed. Who knows, maybe in the near future computer memory might also be fit for human consumption.
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0.985207 |
Being focused in the present moment is essential for athletic performance, but many athletes struggle with maintaining this type of focus, especially after making mistakes.
Often athletes make faulty predictions based on past outcomes. These faulty predictions are accompanied by negative images where the athlete sees themselves messing up in their next game or competition.
A tennis player who has lost eight straight points in the first set, may expect to continue to lose consecutive points. As he goes through his pre-serve routine, all he sees are images of double-faulting and losing more points.
You want to interrupt these negative images and try to replace them with positive ones.
Positive images send positive messages helping you focus on what you want to happen instead of what you fear might happen.
Focusing on the moment is exactly what helped University of Tennessee’s junior guard Lamonte Turner sink the game-winning shot that helped Tennessee beat Kentucky, 82-78 in the 2019 SEC tournament semifinals.
Prior to making that game-winning 3-pointer, Turner only made one of his last 19 3-point shot attempts over the last six games.
Tennessee rallied late in the game erasing an eight-point deficit with just under three minutes remaining in the game.
How exactly was Turner able to focus while playing a highly-ranked team, trailing late in the game and missing 18 of his last 19 3-point attempts?
Instead of replaying the images of past missed attempts, he focused on making the game-winning shot.
That’s right, Turner has played out this scenario in his head hundreds of times.
This is the reason that visualization is such a powerful tool for athletes and a skill all athletes should take time to develop.
Identify one simple skill in your sport.
First, visualize yourself performing a task successfully in practice. Next, visualize performing that same task in a competition. Lastly, visualize yourself performing that task successfully in a pressure situation in competition.
Be sure to take a first person perspective when using visualization.
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0.999442 |
Is a bond the same as insurance?
No. An insurance policy is an agreement between 2 parties, yourself and the insurance company. You pay the insurance company a premium for your policy. If you have a valid claim, the insurance company repays you for the amount of the loss as agreed to in the policy. A bond is different from insurance because it is an agreement between 3 parties. They are: the PRINCIPAL (the person or entity named on the bond), the Surety Company (the company issuing the bond), and the OBLIGEE (whose interest are being protected by the bond). When there is a claim on a bond, and it's determined to be valid, the PRINCIPAL responsible for re-paying the SURETY COMPANY for their losses.
Who does my bond protect?
A bond protects the OBLIGEE or BENEFICIARY named on the bond. If your bond is for a license or permit that is issued by the State of California such as a Contractor, Insurance Broker, Notary Public or Tax Preparer to name a few, then your Bond protects the State of California in the event of a claim.
Is it hard to get a bond?
That depends on several factors. First, it is the amount of risk associated with the type of Bond you need. The risk factor is based on the past record of claims paid on particular bond. For example, a $5,000.00 License/Permit Bond could be harder to get than a $15,000.00 License/Permit Bond because if the smaller Bond is considered to be a higher risk. On the other hand, Bonds that are in a "low-risk" category with little or no past record of claims, the requirements become more relaxed.
Obviously, with riskier Bonds such as Contract/Performance Bonds, it will be harder to qualify. Being approved for a Bond is in many ways like qualifying for a loan. Employment history, credit rating, personal assets, and your experience in relationship to whatever the bond is intending to guarantee are all factors the underwriter looks at when determining whether or not to issue a bond. This qualifying process is more common with Performance Bonds that are frequently used in the construction industry.
There are some marks on my credit report that aren't so good, and some that shouldn't be there but are still showing up on my report. Will I be able to get a bond?
It depends on what the items are, and what the circumstances are. If you know there will be something on your credit report that shouldn't be there, and you have proof the item is incorrect, a written statement from you and the supporting documents should be submitted with your application. Errors on credit reports are fairly common, as we all know, and usually can be cleared up with minimal effort.
I am a Licensed Contractor and my current Bond Company has declined to renew my Bond. Can you help me?
In most cases, yes. As long as there hasn't been a substantial claim on your current bond that hasn't been settled, and there are no liens file against you, we should be able to get you a new bond the same day.
I'm thinking of starting my own House Cleaning, Pet/House Sitting, or Janitorial Service business and want to be able to advertise that I'm Bonded. Is it possible to be Bonded if I am the owner and only employee?
Yes, upon approval of the underwriter. Both large and small service companies that have their employees going into clients' homes need protection from dishonest acts committed by employees. When you are the owner/employee Employee Dishonesty Bonds are a valuable marketing tool that can increase your business and give your clients peace of mind.
Employee Dishonesty coverage can be written for $2,500 to $100,00 and can be written to cover whatever number of employees you have. This type of bond can be written for non-profit organizations to protect their funds.
Employee Dishonesty Bonds have an Arrest and Conviction Clause. This means no claim will be paid unless the accused has been arrested and convicted of the crime. This is to protect yourself and the Surety Company against fraudulent claims. These bonds do not cover any kind of breakage or damage to your clients' property by your employees. You would need Commercial Liability Insurance for that. We also provide Commercial Liability Insurance - let us know if you would like a quote for your business insurance.
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0.999726 |
is a 33 year old, other / not disclosed bi-male.
Quick summary: Musician, into social justice, Pagan, a little nerdy, empathetic, mostly introverted, and like getting out into nature. I've been vegan for about 16 years now, so I think I'm going to stick with it.
Since this is a deal breaker for some and I don't want to waste your time, I felt it was important to open with this: I am on disability for mental health reason.
I play a few instruments and am always up for learning more, but my main passion is for bass, both upright and guitar. So let me know if you're looking for someone to jam with.
As far as beliefs and morals go, I am against all types of discrimination and (non consensual) hierarchies. I am anti-capitalist, pro-feminist, anti-racist, queer positive, anti-ableist, etc. I am vegan for ethical reasons.
I have recently dedicated myself to a Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan path (Gaelic Polytheism). So if you want to talk Paganism, eclectic or reconstruction, feel free to send me a message. I don't really talk about it unless some one expresses interest in it, so you don't have to worry about me trying to convert you or anything. As long as you are respectful of other religions and/or lack of we'll get along just fine.
I also enjoy reading (possibly too much), learning, writing, horror movies, gaming (mostly horror and RPG) and getting out into nature (hiking, biking, camping, and meditating). Recently I've been getting back into MTG and am always looking for more people to play with, still learning though. I am into kink and almost completely submissive, but it's not something I need in a relationship.
is a 45 year old, spiritual male.
Hello fellow veggies, I am happily single but am eager to connect with people to find out what their passions in life are. I'm a mixture of sarcasm and quick wit, love to laugh and feel comfortable in the kitchen, cutting the rug on the dance floor or cuddling up with a good movie. I was in a long term relationship previously but am looking forward to making new friends & acquaintances.
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0.948214 |
In computability theory, the Church–Turing thesis (also known as Computability Thesis, the Turing–Church thesis, the Church–Turing conjecture, Church's thesis, Church's conjecture, and Turing's thesis) is a hypothesis about the nature of computable functions.
Computable functions are the basic objects of study in computability theory.
Gödel's incompleteness theorems are two theorems of mathematical logic that demonstrate the inherent limitations of every formal axiomatic system containing basic arithmetic.
In computability theory, primitive recursive functions are a class of functions that are defined using primitive recursion and composition as central operations and are a strict subset of the total µ-recursive functions (µ-recursive functions are also called partial recursive).
A randomized algorithm is an algorithm that employs a degree of randomness as part of its logic.
Recursion occurs when a thing is defined in terms of itself or of its type.
A Turing machine is an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules; to be more exact, it is a mathematical model of computation that defines such a device.
Quantum information science is an area of study based on the idea that information science depends on quantum effects in physics.
In computability theory and computational complexity theory, a decision problem is a question in some formal system with a yes-or-no answer, depending on the values of some input parameters.
A flowchart is a type of diagram that uses an algorithm, workflow or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting them with arrows.
In computability theory, the halting problem is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever.
A Nassi–Shneiderman diagram (NSD) in computer programming is a graphical design representation for structured programming.
Recursion in computer science is a method where the solution to a problem depends on solutions to smaller instances of the same problem (as opposed to iteration).
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself.
The Post correspondence problem is an undecidable decision problem that was introduced by Emil Post in 1946.
The Busy Beaver Game consists of designing a halting, binary-alphabet Turing Machine which writes the most 1s on the tape, using only a limited set of states.
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0.873254 |
Even if you feel like a pro in disassembling your laptop, the prerequisites are just as important as the incisive operation itself. It's like a medical doctor making sure that all the surgical tools are in the right order and ready to be handed out by his medical staff every time he calls out for them. Before you begin, make sure you have organized in your head the steps you are about to do. Take heed of the following tips before you start disassembling your laptop.
Protect your eyes. If you have glasses or eye goggles, wear them. You don't want a piece of metal or plastic going into your eyes. Better safe than sorry, right? Unplugging your laptop's power supply and removing the battery before disassembling your laptop unit is also important to avoid the risk of electric shock.
As the clich� goes, "curiosity killed the cat". The laptop has many parts that have been tightly packed inside a small vessel, and doing some tweaks can put everything in disarray however minor they are. So don't treat your laptop like a science project if there's nothing to fix in the first place.
Don't bother taking your laptop apart if your toolbox doesn't have the necessary tools for the job. Forcing the issue with a screwdriver that doesn't fit the screw could result to accidents that might damage your laptop, or worse, cause injury to you.
Preventive measures can be undertaken to keep you and your laptop safe while you are disassembling, assembling or simply using your laptop. You will need to use a clear workspace in order for you to see what you are doing and avoid stimuli that could deter you from what you are about to do. There are three things that you have to be wary of while you are working.
1. Static Electricity. Static electricity can fry your laptop's circuit boards. That's why removing the casing can be dangerous when your laptop is exposed to other electronic devices. Don't disassemble your laptop in a room where a lot of electronic devices are hanging around.
2. Dust contamination. Dust can clog vents and result to overheating and eventually lead to hardware failures. Moisture sticks to dust as well, which can cause short circuits. So clear away any dust from the room where you're taking your laptop apart, or work in a place where no wind can blow dust inside your laptop. Even better, go to a workplace that is completely dust-free.
Removing screws and bolts and placing them haphazardly about could cause confusion when you are about to put them back again. Use small containers with labels on them for you to know which goes where. This won't prove difficult since labels are appointed for each figure in regards to the screw size.
Perform the necessary troubleshooting and diagnostic tests before replacing any Field Replaceable Units (motherboard, microprocessors, RAM, Bus devices). FRU's isolate the laptop's functions and components, so it probably won't be wise putting extraneous devices at risk.
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0.942539 |
During my time as an English Literature major, whenever taking up a piece of fiction, I was always encouraged to “read between the lines” and determine the subtext (if any) using different literary theories and critical lenses. In essays from then on, I endeavoured to solve the most enigmatic puzzles using complicated theses, locating various conversations, narrative descriptions, etc. to prove my (sometimes stretched) point. What I tried to do in essays is exactly what “Room 237” does with Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” Through 103 minutes of narrative voice-over, frame-by-frame breakdowns, montages from various Kubrick films and pop culture videos, and screenshots, “Room 237” endeavours to present various perspectives and theses to determine “The Shining”‘s ultimate meaning.
The multiple narrators of “Room 237” scrutinize every detail, read through every subliminal image, and disregard every potential continuity error to suggest “nothing is arbitrary,” and ultimately depict Kubrick as Producer/Director Extraordinaire. Given that “Barry Lyndon” was Kubrick’s film prior to “The Shining,” one narrator argues Kubrick was a “bored genius” in serious need of an outlet. Thus, “The Shining” became Kubrick’s psychological masterpiece with a multitude of deeply laid subtexts.
In regards to the narrators’ credibility, some are film professors as well as Holocaust historians; however, there are the few theorists who undermine the narrative’s credibility by stepping away from the microphone (which sounds a lot like Skype or a Webcam microphone) to silence their screaming toddler in the background, for example. Similarly, there are a few times in the film when the narrator hems or haws over the point he is trying to make. Despite the few instances where the narrators sound like they don’t know what they’re talking about, “Room 237″‘s brilliance lies in its ability to depict Kubrick as “the megabrain of the planet,” and unite such unrelated topics as Apollo 11 conspiracy theories and debased human sexuality.
One of my favourite scenes in “Room 237” is when the narrator brings “The Shining” back to its origins as a Stephen King novel. The narrator, quite brilliantly, compares the “Volkswagen and 18 Wheeler Snowstorm Collision” scene in the novel and Kubrick’s rendition of that scene in the movie, and concludes that Kubrick intentionally changed slight details to undermine King. Did King despise Kubrick? “Room 237” says he absolutely did, and Kubrick did not care in the least as Kubrick was trying to use “The Shining” as his ultimate confession. What was he trying to use “The Shining” to confess? You’ll have to watch “Room 237” to figure that out.
In a very structured film comprised of nine parts, each with its own agenda for what it aims to accomplish in analyzing “The Shining,” the narrators themselves either make or break these sections of the film. Insofar that “Room 237” is primarily voice-overs and montages, the onus is on the narrators to sway the audience into witnessing the truth of his/her claim, and some are very unsuccessful. However, there are arguments presented well by the narrator, and they have a strong impact on the viewer, seeming absolutely plausible. But, all-in-all, “Room 237” has instigated my desire to re-watch “The Shining” since there’s a lot I’ve clearly missed in the last several times I’ve seen it.
There are currently no comments on Movie Review: “Room 237” – Shining a Light on a Classic Film. Perhaps you would like to add one of your own?
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0.96098 |
Carpenter ants are a large species of ant. Adults grow to be about 5/8th to ½ an inch in length, and queens grow even larger - up to 1 inch in length. Most carpenter ants are black, but they can also be red, yellow, or a combination of those colors.
Their body is oval and segmented; carpenter ants have a one node waist, six legs, and antennae. The workers have large strong mandibles.
Yes, carpenter ants do have the ability to bite people, and their mandibles are strong enough to break through skin. However, carpenter ant bites generally only occur when their nesting area has been disturbed or in cases of extremely large infestations.
Like other ant species, carpenter ants in the south generally create their main colony outside and will enter homes while foraging for food and water sources.
Once inside, these ants are especially drawn to moist or water damaged wood, but will also move into sound wood as well. The workers use their strong mandibles to create tunnels and galleries inside the wood.
Carpenter ants usually have one main colony and several satellite colonies (which could be inside). If a carpenter ant infestation is not treated, the damage to the wood may grow extensively and become difficult and costly to repair. .
Finding workers present in your home; especially in kitchen and pantry areas.
Noticing piles of wood shavings on the floor of your home, usually beneath wooden items.
Witnessing winged carpenter ants coming out of the walls or ceilings of your home, or finding wings piled up under windows or doors.
Hearing a quiet rustling sound behind the wall of your home.
Carpenter ants and termites often get confused with one another because they both infest structural wood; however, they do so for different reasons. Termites actually feed on the wood while carpenter ants do not. They simply tunnel through the wood in order to create nesting areas.
Termites are smaller than carpenter ants; they are also soft bodied and creamy white.
Carpenter ants have a pinched “waist” while termites have a broad waist.
Termites have straight antennae while carpenter ants have bent antennae.
Winged carpenter ants have a large pair of front wings and smaller pair of back wings; winged termites have two pair of the same-sized wings.
Carpenter ants are often seen outside of their nests and tunnels foraging for food and water sources. Termites are rarely seen outside of the tunnels and nesting area.
How do you get rid of carpenter ants?
Getting rid of carpenter ants is a difficult task, especially because they tend to build multiple nesting sites around properties and in homes. The best way to get rid of a carpenter ant infestation is to seek help from a pest control expert.
Spencer Pest Services has the tools, knowledge and experience to exterminate carpenter ants already inside and to prevent new activity from occurring.
How Concerned Should I Be About Carpenter Ants?
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0.962369 |
I wasn't sure I was going to write about this election on my breast cancer blog. I mean, what does politics have to do with cancer or healthcare? Quite a bit, actually.
My dear friend Beth is currently in a fight for her life because her insurance company, a federally-run group, has denied the combination therapy that her DOCTOR recommends she have to treat her metastatic breast cancer. You see, the drugs are not FDA-approved for use in this way, even though trials have shown 93% efficacy in the treated population. Beth has taken her fight to social media, and as a community, we are stepping up in the hopes that +Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan will hear our voices and #SaveBeth.
It's gross, really, that an insurance company can say no to life-saving drugs.
Here's how it's supposed to work: 1) Patient pays for insurance 2) Patient gets sick 3) Insurance pays for treatment. THAT'S WHY WE HAVE INSURANCE. It's why we PAY for it.
Insurance denials by federal insurers are a policy issue. FDA approvals are a policy issue. Cancer research and how much money gets funneled into research on metastases (not nearly enough, only about 7%) is a policy issue. Policy gets set, for the most part, in Washington, DC. And for cancer patients and survivors, those issues are vitally important.
It is literally about life and death.
I cried tears of relief last year when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act's protections on coverage for those with a pre-existing condition. I didn't know then what I know now about my health: namely, that I was likely never metastatic. But I still will always have had cancer. It is part of my story now, and prior to this monumental ruling, insurance carriers could flat out refuse to cover me.
I have my insurance through Chris. It has been wonderful insurance, covering most of our costs over the past five-and-a-half years, which have included a c-section, a bilateral mastectomy, nearly EIGHTY infusions of chemo or targeted chemotherapy, several biopsies, five weeks of radiation, more scans than I can count, and reconstruction. I have no idea how much all of that has cost, but my guess is Chris and I couldn't afford it out-of-pocket.
The thing is, our insurance is tied to his job. I think his job is secure, but surprises happen in life. [UNDERSTATEMENT OF FOREVER] If something happened to Chris, would I be eligible for insurance coverage? The Supreme Court says yes. But Republicans have vowed to overturn the law that protects this coverage. I'm not okay with that uncertainty.
Republicans have also promised to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides free cancer screenings for underserved populations. DEFUNDING THAT CARE IS NOT OKAY. Women of color are already at such a disadvantage when it comes to healthcare. Struggling populations don't need one more hurdle standing in the way of their survival.
A republican congress has also drastically cut spending on science over the last decade, and would likely continue to do so. Science is how we get research. It's how we move toward therapies that keep patients like my friend Beth alive long-term. So she can watch her young kids grow up. So she can continue to advocate for other patients living with this dreadful disease. So we can end cancer as we know it.
But this election isn't just about me. It isn't just about cancer. And it isn't just about democrats versus republicans and who promises what.
It's also about the most qualified candidate in my lifetime to run for office, going up against an unprepared clown who seems to think our constitution is a joke and derides nearly every group of people imaginable: women, disabled people, Hispanics, Muslims, Jews, blacks, even those in his own political party. I honestly don't understand the appeal.
This election is about the tone we will set for our country for at least the next four years, but possibly a generation or more. Our kids are paying attention. Quinn tells me I should be president, but short of that, he doesn't understand why a mean person, a bully, would even have a chance. Quinn is in kindergarten and understands that's not how we get ahead in this country. Those are not the morals we defend. We are better than that.
I'm begging you: please go vote, and please vote with best intention. I suspect that I don't have to convince you that this man is a demagogue -- I can't imagine you'd be visiting Chookooloonks if you agreed with his stance. However, if you're eligible to vote in the United States, I beg of you to do so. Vote early, if you can; if you can't, then on Tuesday, November 8th, please find your way to the polls, despite the weather, despite the lines, despite how busy you might be. And as you vote, please be mindful: please don't throw away your vote, and please don't vote for this person simply because you're loyal to his party. He's a dangerous, unkind, mean man, and he doesn't deserve your vote just because he conveniently chose a major political party to hang his platform on.
There are so many important issues facing our country. Healthcare, the future of our treatment of cancer, and the first amendment are just a few important ones to me. I'll probably lose a few readers because of this post, but it's important. I can't keep silent on it, not this year, not this election.
Please remember to vote tomorrow. Our lives depend on it.
I'm having a fan-girl freak-out moment!! Thanks for reading and commenting. I hope to be virtually sending high-fives and hugs your way tomorrow night!
I was going to write a post about this election, but I didn't get to it. You did and I love this post! Thank you!
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0.983993 |
Four tips for turning your vehicle into a connected and comfortable place to work.
Get car-friendly cables and power adapters: Get your hands on a compatible USB power adapter for charging your laptop, which usually set you back around $30. Also, to avoid draining your car’s battery, just start it up every hour or so and let it run for a few minutes. Enable tethered Internet access via your smartphone (or park near a coffee shop): PDANet is available for most smartphones for $16 and lets you create a mobile hotspot with your phone and get online wherever you have reception. Alternatively, park near a coffee shop or somewhere else that offers free wi-fi (but then you might as well go work inside). Use your tablet as a second display: If your laptop has a small screen and you want a bit more space, try something like Air Display that creates a second wireless monitor with an app for iOS or Android. Don’t work from the driver’s seat: You don’t want the steering wheel getting in the way while you work, so set up in a different place. Either push the passenger seat as far back as it will go or sit in the back of the car. They also recommend using a lapdesk to improve your comfort.
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0.998766 |
The prevention of soil erosion is brought about by the erection of retaining walls in various homesteads. In order to alleviate this problem, many households have opted to employ the services of the landscaping contractors to install various forms of retaining walls. This types of technique has, indeed, been beneficial to both the public and the owner of the homestead in many ways.
You are, first of all, expected to ascertain the role that is played by retaining walls particularly in eliminating soil erosion in homesteads and other similar places. Many people have proved to be living in slopes of the mountain, and hence the construction of such facilities can aid in alleviating the problems of soil erosions that have affected people in many years. According to various scholarly research, those individuals living in such places are prone to accidents and other unforeseen disasters as a result of continuous eruption of soil erosion. The introduction of retaining walls have, on the other hand, helped to eliminate the problems associated with the sloping environment. In addition to this, there is evidence of a reduced soil erosion, the process of which according to me has been facilitated by the construction of terraces and the retaining walls. In reference to this concept, there is need of installing the retaining walls in each and every homesteads as a way of alleviating continuous soil erosion in the said environment.
Secondly, the incorporation of the retaining walls can help to improve the appearance of the surroundings. This is true as, according to scholarly research, retaining walls helps to beautify the environment, as it enhances the visual representation of the homestead. Additionally, the process of installing the retailing walls is fundamentally important in relation to the creation to the creation of terraces and other useful technicalities that can help to attract people from across the world. Due to the use of retaining walls in homes and other official places, it is true that many individuals are currently being attracted toward such places due to the presence of attractive and appealing visual images.
Thirdly, research has also shown that the integration of retaining walls can be used to expand the landscaping portrait. In this regard, there is evident of ridges as well as ditches in the affected, the factor which has in the past necessitated the aspect of soil erosion. Due to the installation of the retaining walls, research has shown that many households and owners of the commercial buildings are now able to live in a beautiful environment, which is erosion free. In addition to this, trees and gardens can be fostered at the time when the terraces are created, the process which can only be done by the installation or adequate design of retaining walls.
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0.998614 |
Let’s try to figure out how to fix an RDP error This computer can’t connect to the remote computer, which occurring when you are trying to connect to a remote computer or RDS server using the RDP client.
If port 3389 is unavailable, you should check that Remote Connections is enabled on the remote server (Right click on Start button-> System -> Remote settings -> Allow remote connections to this computer).
If Remote Desktop is enabled, next you should to check setting, which determines the maximum number of simultaneously connection to a Remote Desktop. Open tsadmin.msc snap-in (Administrative tools -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote desktop Session Host Configuration). Click on RDP-TCP properties and check the value of Maximum connections property in Network Adapter tab.
Another possible cause of the RDP error may be a high level of security, which is not supported by older versions of the RDP client.
In this case on RDP-Tcp Properties dialog box open General tab and change Security layer from default Negotiate to less secure RDP Security Layer.
Tip. Snap-in tsadmin.msc and RDP-Tcp Properties dialog box are missing in Windows Server 2012/2012 R2. But you can configure Remote Desktop setting using local group policy editor (gpedit.msc). The necessary policies are located in the following section: Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host.
RDP security level can be specify using policy named Require user of specific security layer for remote (RDP) connections. Enable this policy and in dropdown select RDP Security level.
Go back to your client PC and try to start new RDP Session. The connection should be established successfully.
Thanks a lot for solution provided. it works for me very perfect.
I’ve been battling this all day long! Just wanted to let you know changing the Security layer to “RDP Security Layer” did the trick. Thank you!
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0.999983 |
What is a bridging course?
Bridging courses are usually for students who have gained entry to their course but need to complete or refresh particular subjects in order to meet university entry requirements and/or preparing them for university study.
The courses usually run in an intensive block before semester starts. Sometimes they are spread out over a semester in regular classes.
Fees range from approximately $60 to $1000 depending on the institution, length of the course, and materials provided.
Some institutions provide free entry to students who have been granted admission into one of their undergraduate courses.
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0.999975 |
Is Sushi halal to eat?
The answer depends on the ingredients and cooking method used. If as in the case of certain types of sushi e.g. Narezushi, raw fish is allowed to ferment in rice, a quantity of alcohol (ethanol) is normally also produced as a by-product of this fermentation (Source: Oxford Companion to Food, 2006).
In this situation, if there is still alcohol in the final product, it is to be avoided. However, if there is no residual alcohol in the final product for example due to evaporation or the alcohol has transformed into another substance during the cooking process, it is not impermissible to consume in this case.
It should be noted that, if as is normally the case with most modern types of Sushi, fermentation of rice is not used, consequently ethanol will not be produced and so it is permissible to consume, subject to no other impermissible ingredient being present.
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