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There are numerous explanations behind needing to change to increasingly regular corrective and healthy skin items, including the advantages they have for wellbeing, just as constraining our introduction to harmful, man-made synthetic compounds. The change can really be extremely easy to make, as long as the undertaking is drawn nearer deliberately.
The primary activity when doing the change to characteristic healthy skin is to choose which items you might want to begin utilizing most importantly. Rather than tossing out the entirety of your old items and putting resources into a scope of new, all-regular ones, it is smarter to adopt a slower strategy for various reasons.
One of these reasons is the way that it might take you some time to discover an item that you truly like. Similarly as with your old, synthetic items, you will probably need to test a couple of things – or make a couple of formulas, on the off chance that you are making your very own items – so as to discover one worth utilizing long haul.
A second reason is that some regular items carry on uniquely in contrast to man-made ones, and you may require a modification period for working out how to utilize every item best before handling the following thing. For any individual who has attempted tenderly frothing common cleanser or oil rather than face cream can confirm, items may not be very what you expect, and you ought to take into consideration that.
In view of that, compose a rundown of regular healthy skin items that you might want to change to, and pick a couple to begin off with. A mainstream decision is changing to an all-normal face healthy skin schedule, as items are regularly essential, and usually easy to get the hang of another item and routine in the event that you are doing it in any event a few times per day.
Think about whether you need to make your very own items, or rather purchase instant things. For newcomers to every single common item, it very well may be useful to attempt a couple pre-made items first, so as to figure out the surfaces, textures and application techniques that are related with a specific item formula.
This can likewise give you understanding into the characteristic aromas that you like, and you will probably fuse these later into your very own manifestations – on the off chance that you choose to go down the course of making your very own common healthy skin items, that is.
Another preferred standpoint of beginning with face or body healthy skin is that items can frequently be significantly more straightforward, implying that figuring out how to utilize them isn’t really so troublesome. Rubbing coconut oil into moist skin after a shower is all that is vital for amazing saturating, while sensitive argan oil or almond oil can be sparingly connected to the face for great skin benefits.
Subsequent to acing the utilization of a couple of essential items and working out what you like, you would then be able to wander into other normal healthy skin items, for example, toothpaste, cleanser, conditioner and uncommon answers for issues, for example, skin break out or rosacea. Utilizing just regular fixings, these can be very unique in surface and results created contrasted and man-made concoction equations, so know about this.
As you are utilizing items that might be all common however have not been guaranteed by, for instance, a dentistry affiliation or a dermatological society, practice precautionary measure when utilizing once more substance. Receive a methodology that blends the inquisitive with alert, and explore reactions of substances before you place them in or on your body.
There are a few endeavors that you can take from home and some that can be treated at a skin facility.
Potatoes have the ability to help the skin. This is a simple treatment and should be possible at home without an excessive amount of exertion. You should simply take a potato and cut it. Take a couple of drops of water and apply them on the potato. Rub this potato on the pigmented zone and abandon it there for thirty minutes. You can likewise grind the potatoes and press the juice and afterward apply it. After 30 minutes wash it with warm water.
Cucumber has a cooling impact and lemon has skin helping properties. Lemon is a characteristic blanching operator and does some amazing things without anyone else’s input as well. In the event that you apply these consistently, you will see positive outcomes in some time. Ensure that you abandon it on for 20 minutes consistently.
Different operators, for example, papaya, guava and banana are additionally amazing skin helping specialists.
On the off chance that these cures are utilized with no productive outcomes, you can generally counsel with an expert at a skin center. Different medications for the skin incorporate Laser conditioning, Skin cleaning, oxy facial and so on.
Albeit most skin medications are with no symptoms, a few medicines, for example, laser may cause a portion of the accompanying reactions. These impacts die down over some undefined time frame so there is for the most part nothing to stress over.
Soporifics are connected to your skin before you experience laser treatment, however there might be some measure of agony later on. You may feel some measure of distress after the technique.
Some laser systems leave the skin red and swollen. This can take a very long time to die down and your skin looks pinkish for a considerable length of time until it totally recuperates.
A few patients may encounter tingling. This must for the most part be kept away from and will die down inside a couple of days.
Laser skin medicines make your skin progressively touchy to the sun. This is the reason it is prescribed that you avoid the sun after the skin treatment to keep any sort of photograph harm to your skin.
Laser treatment is definitely not an onetime thing. It takes more than one skin treatment to dispose of the pigmentation. There are chances that the skin conditions will reoccur.
In general, skin medications are an incredible method to restore your skin. Regardless of whether you utilize normal methodology or clinical techniques, you will see superb outcomes! Know about the symptoms however!
Everybody realizes that coconut oil is essentially a momentum trend, an alleged wellbeing contrivance with a hot name that perhaps plays on pictures of colorful coconut trees influencing in a sultry ocean breeze to the foundation tune of African jazz, while in all actuality it has minimal healthy benefit and no genuine bring home estimation, isn’t that so?
Wrong sister. On all records. Truth be told the exact inverse is valid, and as strangely it presently has a logical cousin sitting in it’s corner. A significant enormous cousin so far as that is concerned, who gives off an impression of being becoming more grounded constantly. Coconut oil things being what they are, is in actuality particularly bravo and nutritious undoubtedly, being wealthy in fiber, nutrients, and minerals.
Alright yet truly what are the advantages of coconut oil and as vitally have these been demonstrated?
· It contains Medium Chain Triglycerides which have demonstrated helpful advantages on cerebrum issue like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s, and strikingly, these MCTs have been demonstrated to expand day by day vitality consumption by as much as 5%, possibly prompting huge weight reduction over the long haul. So it is authentic, eating coconut oil enables consume to fat, with proper logical supporting proof to boot.
· Coconut fat is useful for your heart. To some degree in comparative design to the secret of why a French populace who devours huge amounts of red wine and cheddar appear to be to some degree safe to coronary illness, South Pacific societies who expend unbalanced substantial volumes of coconut produce, where it is utilized both from a dietary viewpoint and as a basic fixing in conventional medication, have comparably been believed to experience the ill effects of astoundingly low occurrences of coronary illness. It essentially seems to have ground-breaking mending properties path past the fundamental healthy benefit it confers. It isn’t amazing that coconut trees are regularly alluded to as the Tree of Life in South Seas societies.
Ongoing exploration has likewise exhibited that the immersed fats in the oil builds HDL (great) cholesterol levels while at the same time acting to decrease Total and LDL (awful) cholesterol levels.
· The unsaturated fats normal for coconut oil are Friends with Benefits. They have a huge number of positive turn offs for us, beginning with a critical bactericidal impact on certain pathogenic microscopic organisms and yeast (for instance the gram positive Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans, the last which causes the normal thrush), conceivably maintaining a strategic distance from and diminish microbial diseases. What’s more these unsaturated fats emphatically impact our feeling of satiety, and as a result the in general diminished hunger in individuals has the affinity to decidedly impact their body weight the board, specifically with regards to lessening stomach fat. A further advantage of the unsaturated fat profile is that examination currently proposes that the unsaturated fats help with assuaging mellow side effects in Alzheimer’s patients.
· Apart from fighting heart maladies coconut oil has additionally been appeared to help with checking the side effects of diabetes Type 2 by improving the cells capacity to react to insulin in the circulatory system, along these lines better overseeing insulin obstruction. Furthermore coconut oil has been believed to help sound thyroid capacity.
· Coconut oil additionally has genuine restorative advantages and is normally utilized as a lip and skin defender and cream, hair care as far as hair insurance and the administration of dandruff and lice, and as a characteristic type of sunscreen.
Everybody commits this error. It’s particularly regular around the New Year and before the Summer Holidays. This is what occurs? You’re super-roused to change your body. Perhaps you will stop eating so much junk food. Possibly you’re going to begin working out. Or on the other hand possibly you’re going to hit it hard and do both!
The New Your begins when you rise early, having your oats for breakfast and having a plate of mixed greens for lunch. You go to the exercise center at night and get back home to a super-sound supper for supper. Up until this point, so great! Day two is great and day three? Still on track just! By day four it’s getting harder. Also, day five that is an executioner. You’re enticed with a treat – one won’t hurt – and by day six your inspiration is wavering on the edge! With your calorie admission down, your activity step up and your head harming on account of the additional exertion and determination – you’re beginning to feel the strain. This is the place most society bite the dust. They miss an exercise center session and after that their eating regimen goes to down the container. It won’t be long until a great many people quit. Presently if this sounds like you. Try not to thrash yourself and don’t stress! Proceed onward, gain from your mix-ups and accept this counsel.
There is a BETTER method to begin. It will enable you to defeat the executioner blend of a strict eating regimen and exercise while murdering off the old propensities that frequent you. This is what you do? Are you game? You begin gradually with one propensity at any given moment. It may be the case that you improve one feast at any given moment. You may substitute drinking soft drink for water. Whatever it is? Begin with one propensity at any given moment. It might appear to be moderate however tune in, you have around a 80% possibility of transforming one propensity at any given moment. Endeavor to change to propensities and the shot of progress falls flat. Include a third and fourth propensity – it’s simply a question of time before you fall flat.
Moderate and steady upgrades will get you to where you need to be speedier than beginning, stopping and beginning once more. It is a lot simpler than “do everything impeccable” approach as well. Begin moderate and begin by adjusting your calories. Eat a similar sustenance – regardless of whether they’re not too solid – simply center around eating a similar number of calories that you consume each day as opposed to eating an overabundance of calories. The outcome? No more weight gain. That is a decent begin.
Next you begin adding protein to each supper – breakfast included. It causes you feel more full and (this is cool) it takes more vitality to process so you’re knocking your digestion. So now you’re not putting on weight and you’re eating better. We’re transforming one propensity at any given moment and handling overpower in the meantime. I realize it’s moderate yet recall. A great many people make a decent attempt to do everything and come up short. Furthermore, they do it for a considerable length of time! Some will never achieve their objectives at all since they continue fizzling! Be extraordinary! All in all, what next? Pick a feast – attempt breakfast – and improve it. Make that a propensity. At that point do likewise for lunch and afterward supper.
Getting in shape can frequently be befuddling, diligent work and now and again unsafe. I state hazardous in light of the fact that there are a ton of weight control plans out there that individuals do that can harm their bodies. Consequently when abstaining from excessive food intake you ought to dependably be watchful and utilize some presence of mind.
In this article I will give you some sound weight reduction tips.
1. Continuously endeavor to eat genuine sustenances.
There are numerous weight control plans that advance squeezing your nourishments or just drinking shakes. This is a terrible thought, as drawn out eating fewer carbs thusly can make harm your gums and teeth. Calorie counters who regularly pursue these juice diets will wind up seeping from their gums, because of them not utilizing their teeth to bite. Eating genuine strong nourishment will maintain a strategic distance from this issue all together. It will likewise keep you feeling more full for more.
A great deal of weight control plans are low fat or no fat. This is out and out senseless and risky. Our bodies need dietary fat to get by, without fat in our eating regimens we would bite the dust. It is as basic as that. We can get by without sugars and even without protein, yet our body needs fat.
Dietary fat directs a considerable lot of our hormones. Not eating enough will cause significant issues and can even reason us our state of mind to feel off. Thus numerous eating regimens regularly make the general population doing them feel terrible, therefor you ought to eat well fats in your eating routine.
It makes me so furious when I see individuals who think since they are eating well that they will get more fit. No this isn’t valid. A solid sustenance or an undesirable nourishment, they all contain calories. A sweet potato could contain 300 calories while a bar of chocolate could contain 200. The sweet potato possibly progressively sound, however despite everything it contains more calories.
Eating a greater number of calories than your body needs will make you put on weight. It doesn’t make a difference if those calories are from salmon and kale or chocolate and desserts, therefor ensure you are not eating a bigger number of calories than your body needs else you will finish up putting on weight and not losing it.
Each health food nut assumes carbs are terrible. They are most certainly not. Carbs give vitality and every gram of a sugar contains indistinguishable measure of calories from protein. I suggest eating starches, for example, oats, entire wheat pastas and sweet potatoes to keep you feeling more full for more.
As I would like to think high protein consumes less calories are the best way to eat less carbs in case you’re hoping to get thinner. High protein eats less enable you to make abstaining from excessive food intake simple. Eating a high protein diet will enable you to feel like your not eating less junk food by any stretch of the imagination. Regularly I have ended up eating fewer carbs yet feeling too full to even consider eating my next feast, yet despite everything I get thinner this is on the grounds that the protein takes more time to separate.
The most vital motivation to eat a high protein diet anyway is on the grounds that it enables you to keep your bulk while losing fat. This is essential in the event that you need to look great while getting thinner.
Maxwell Keto Again and again I see individuals who lose both muscle and fat and are not content with the manner in which they care for eating fewer carbs in light of the fact that they essentially don’t look right. The explanation behind this is muscle gives you the fit athletic look, the more you have the better you will look.
Why swear off sustenance when there are nourishments out there that can really help in weight reduction? The thought appears to be outside – eating to get more fit. The accompanying five sustenances, however, aren’t simply old spouses stories. These sustenances are upheld through logical actualities in demonstrating that they help in weight reduction. The majority of the accompanying sustenances are low in calories, to help in your eating routine arrangement, and high in stomach satisfaction. These sustenances will ward off the yearning.
Eggs. These are the super-nourishments on the off chance that you are searching for a weight reduction sustenance that the two fills in as high in protein and is advantageous for your general wellbeing also. When known as a reason for heart assaults and higher cholesterol, science has affirmed the actualities that pursue this sustenance and exposed the old fantasies. That, yet the revelation of eggs as an eating regimen sustenance has turned out. This is because of the high measure of protein and solid fats making the eater feel all the more full, prompting lesser eating without the accompanying cravings for food that go with most eating routine designs.
Kale isn’t prominent in vain. This verdant green is making its name as an eating routine sustenance and has had colossal prevalence. Kale is low in calories however high in fiber- – this the two deals with the fiber segment of your feast and, because of the low calories, can be eaten in extensive sums. The incorporation of calcium is likewise an or more, as calcium has been appeared to aid the consuming of fat, in a few examinations.
Watery sustenances. What does that even mean? It alludes to products of the soil that contain water. One such super veggie is cauliflower. This malignant growth doing combating vegetable is likewise useful for helping you get more fit. That, yet the imagination in cauliflower formulas is boundless. There are interminable of decisions to fluctuate how you eat this super veggie.
Pure Primal Keto Yet, you can’t endure just on eggs and vegetables. Shouldn’t something be said about the protein? Salmon can deal with that. What it needs in calories, which is beneficial for you, it makes up with its numerous helpful advantages. Its decrease in irritation keeps the load off, yet additionally helps in the decrease of skin inflammation. The ideal protein.
The sustenance of the ages, bubbled potatoes, has continued the appetite of our precursors for a long time. It is additionally scored as the most astounding satisfying sustenance. These terrible young men will keep the yearning under control. In addition to the fact that it is low in calories and high in satisfaction, it is shabby. Potatoes can be purchased in enormous amounts for just a little measure of cash.
As individuals move beyond their 30’s it ends up more enthusiastically for some individuals to hold their load down while as yet having the capacity to live it up. Obviously there are things that should be possible to help keep your weight steady or even get in shape if need be. You simply need to take a little consideration and research everything with the goal that you will discover an eating regimen and exercise program that suits you.
There are a wide range of ways that you can keep up or get thinner. It bodes well to carry on with a sound life thus pursue a solid eating regimen. A decent assortment of sound, nutritious nourishments and activities that fit into your way of life is the most ideal approach. This will push you to gradually receive the eating routine and make it a perpetual apparatus for what’s to come.
Keeping a journal will support you. Keep note of the terrible days just as the great. Scribble down what sustenances and beverages you have expended, total with how you felt and why. Record the advancement that you are making with your activities and investigate them toward the finish of every week. Along these lines you may spot what benefits you or even what does you terrible. This will assist you with furthering change your consuming less calories and practicing till it accommodates your way of life 100%.
The sooner you start to receive a more beneficial way of life, the more you remain to profit by it. On the off chance that you pick an eating regimen and exercise program that suits your way of life you will need to keep it and won’t feel constrained into it. Thusly you can look more advantageous, fitter, more youthful and appreciate everything that life brings to the table you to the full!
Strolling likely could be sufficient to keep you fit and at a decent weight. On the off chance that you have to get thinner, at that point the exercise center may be the spot to. There are mentors that can help exhort you and with a little cardio and additionally weight lifting you will before long be feeling loaded with vitality. Beginning of with a simple short exercise program and as you become acclimated to it, add to it. Try not to murder yourself in any case, ensure that you do need to propel yourself only a bit.
To help keep your inspiration high you could generally motivate a companion to oblige you with the goal that you can support and help one another. Having somebody there that will laud you when you merit it and applaud you on will assist you with working harder and truly put it all on the line. Simply don’t try too hard!
Keto Rapid Max Make a point to examine however many eating regimens as would be prudent before picking one. Ideally you will discover an eating regimen that suits you. One that you can embrace for a lifetime, one that you will need to pursue. Getting more fit need not be hard on the off chance that you go the correct path about it. It’s anything but a race and ought to be something that you go for. For whatever length of time that you continue heading the correct way, with extra special care, you will in the end arrive.
Digestion is an essential apparatus with regards to fat-consuming and an extremely vital piece of any health improvement plan. Actually, on the off chance that you can’t help your body’s metabolic rate, at that point endeavoring to consume fat may very well be a finished exercise in futility.
Digestion is just the procedure through which the body consumes calories and make vitality accessible for the body. At a youthful age, weight gain is restrained in light of the bulk that store up vitality, however as you advance in age, you bit by bit lose those muscles and body fats start to collect. As this proceeds with, your metabolic rate backs off and weight reduction at this stage turns into a delusion.
In any case, with an all around point by point 7-day routine on the best way to build your metabolic rate, you can refocus.
Your digestion resembles the interior motor of a vehicle and there are things that should be possible to make it work all the more productively and serve you better. You should discover your body’s metabolic rate; this ought to be your first port of call to begin shedding that fat in your body. You should be arm with information, for example, the quantity of calories your body requirements for weight addition to kick in, at that point you’ll realize how to use on that data to really support your metabolic rate to consume that muscle versus fat rapidly and successfully as well.
Calories are imperative piece of our reality, for the way that they offer vitality to our cells to do their capacities. One can’t get by without calories since they fill in as the body’s fuel to play out its work. Without calories, our body won’t have the ability to move.
In any case, an abundance of calories is unwanted, and therefore, it’s spent and changed over to muscle to fat ratio. Body fats are critical to offer security to the body, yet an overabundance of fat can cause extreme illnesses. Thus, we should simply devour a specific proportion of calories and store enough body fats for us to stay sound. On the off chance that you have an overabundance of body fats, at that point now is the ideal time, to cleave down the extra calories. The inquiry: “How to lose calories?” turns into the essential worry to keep up a physically fit body.
The correct activity here is to diminish your calorie admission to 100 regularly, and thusly your body straightens out to make this conceivable.
Eat all the more as often as possible, state at regular intervals. Eating like clockwork suggests that you get your calories in huge pieces instead of little packages as the day advanced. To expand your metabolic rate, you need to eat little suppers much of the time amid the day. Exactly when you miss a dinner, your metabolic rate backs off as your body responds to an obvious nonattendance of sustenance. If there is a starvation, the people who process calories bit by bit will be in a perfect circumstance.
Guarantee that you gobble inside a hour in the wake of awakening, that way your body won’t slip into a craving mode. You can plan an eating routine for yourself; simply guarantee you eat 3 hours after every dinner. Bites should likewise become an integral factor to enhance the sustenance you eat. Research has it that tidbits can really give very impressive measure of calories – snacks dependent on 250 calories, eaten three time for each day require the admission of less sustenance at standard dinners and triggers ensuing expanded in metabolic rate.
Maxwell Keto When you’re full, your body responds because of the way that of leptin (a hormone) start a ready that your body can never again take in more nourishment so you don’t continue ingesting. The nearness of zinc in the body accomplishes this by diminishing craving while at the same time expanding your leptin levels. You can get zinc from your multivitamin or even better, purchase in parcels of 15mg.
Is it true that you are exhausted of your equivalent old rec center daily practice and exercises? On the off chance that YES, at that point you may ponder what else you can do to keep your body fit as a fiddle and dispose of that rec center bluntness until the end of time. Why not join move classes rather and get in shape quick and simple.
To be reasonable, both practicing at the rec center and moving are viewed as useful for your wellbeing. Allows simply begin with rec center first.
Exercise centers have a crucial influence with regards to fortifying your muscles and keeping your tendons fit as a fiddle, helping you shed pounds, bringing down the danger of getting heart ailments or some other issues, accelerating your digestion, enabling your heart to siphon all the more proficiently with less strain, improving your public activity, and making you feel quiet and substance. Aside from these advantages, practicing at the rec center has a few weaknesses as well. One of the greatest disadvantages of joining an exercise center is its expense. When you join an exercise center, you’ll be paying the enrollment expense first. Aside from that, you’ll be paying a customary charge as well. Likewise, on the off chance that you have a craving for contracting a fitness coach, there will be extra charges for that.
Another inconvenience is with respect to the area of the exercise center. In the event that your picked wellness focus is situated far from your home or office, achieving the rec center ON time will be a BIG accomplishment for you. Voyaging a ton before setting off to the exercise center can remove all your freshness in light of which you’ll unquestionably encounter bluntness and exhaustion amid your work out at the rec center, so it is imperative that you pick your rec center correctly, remembering all the essential elements.
Conversely, moving is viewed as a much better choice than practicing at the rec center as most of individuals consider it a clever and energizing method for getting more fit and remaining fit. Moving gives you satisfaction, yet additionally keeps your body fit and solid. Move as a rule, is a craftsmanship that comprises of conclusively picked arrangement of human developments. It very well may be arranged and outlined dependent on its movement, developments or by its place of starting point. It helps in easing pressure and gloom, enhancing your mind-set, consuming the calories, reinforcing the muscles, diminishing circulatory strain, keeping up your weight, and helping you battle against diabetes and other wellbeing related issues.
Keto Ultra Burn Besides, in the event that you don’t possess energy for moving classes, you can just turn on your radio or TV and move in your own room, or you can even go out and move pressure free with your companions at a club or a gathering. Moving without end out in the open hoists your inclination, yet additionally expands your certainty.
In light of this, your body will ingest protein very rapidly and will guarantee that all supplements discover their way into the muscles to begin the recuperation and revamping process. This makes the post exercise caffeinated drink essential to ensure that you get the best the extent that supplements are concerned, so you can recuperate and in the meantime hold your hunger in line until it is the ideal opportunity for the following supper. You need to abstain from taking extensive dinners after an exercise and your caffeinated drink will enable you to stay aware of the correct eating plan. With such huge numbers of alternatives accessible in the market, settling on a decision of the correct caffeinated drink is vital and a couple of tips can enable you to settle on a decent choice.
A caffeinated drink that guides both execution when working out and recuperation after you are done can settle on a decent decision. Such an item will give you full advantages without the need distinctive enhancements for the two essential occasions. Pick a beverage that enhances the proficient arrival of vitality from your muscle cells and advances stamina and continuance. It ought to likewise permit breath, side-effect evacuation to help legitimate muscle recuperation. A beverage that raises nitric oxide, which thusly advances productive supply of blood to the muscles, helping supplement supply and metabolite leeway in the process is valuable.
The constituents making up your recuperation drink are what make it great. Search for beverages that have B nutrients since they are extremely advantageous for muscle building and muscle building happens when your recuperation procedure is in progress. A beverage that has nutrient B12 and B9 can be an incredible decision since it helps protein amalgamation. Caffeine is another useful fixing in your post-exercise caffeinated drink since it advances the recuperation of your muscles by helping sugar admission required for the refueling of the muscles. Consider the fixings your beverage has and how advantageous they are in helping appropriate recuperation of the muscles.
Keto Viante Such items give you a simple time since you don’t have to make any estimations or experience a blending procedure before you can make the most of your beverage. The less demanding it is for you to utilize your post-exercise drink the more helpful it is so dependably consider this factor to ensure you are alright with what your beverage requires from you. | 2019-04-19T10:33:04Z | http://positivehealthcare.co.in/author/va3azxwwar/page/2/ |
What are the effects of losing a loved one?
What are the causes and risk factors ofprolonged grief?
How do health care professionals assess grief?
What are the legal issues associated with dying and death?
Where can people get help?
Grief is quite common and is the normal internal feeling one experiences in reaction to a loss, while bereavement is the state of having experienced that loss.
Although most commonly discussed in reference to the death of a loved one, any major loss (for example, breakup of a relationship, job loss, or loss of living situation) can result in a grief reaction.
Prolonged grief is a reaction to loss that lasts more than one year with the grief reaction affecting the sufferer's close relationships, disrupting his or her beliefs, and resulting in the bereaved experiencing an ongoing longing for their deceased loved one.
Mourning is the outward expression of the loss of a loved one and usually involves culturally determined rituals that help mourners make sense of the end of their loved one's life and gives structure to what can feel like a very confusing time. It is influenced by personal, familial, cultural, religious, and societal beliefs and customs.
The potential negative effects of a grief reaction can be significant and are often aggravated by grief triggers, events that remind the griever of their loved one, or the circumstances surrounding their loss.
The risk factors for experiencing more serious symptoms of grief for a longer period of time are related to the survivor's own physical and emotional health before the loss, the relationship between the bereaved and their family member or other loved one, as well as the nature of the death.
Grief-stricken individuals who feel the death of their loved one is unexpected or violent may be at greater risk for suffering from major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or prolonged grief.
The seven emotional stages of grief are usually understood to be shock or disbelief, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression, and acceptance/hope.
Symptoms of grief can be emotional, physical, social, or religious in nature.
For children and adolescents, their reactions to the death of a loved one usually reflect the particular developmental stage of the child or adolescent.
To assess grief, a health caregiver usually asks questions to assess what symptoms the individual is suffering from, then considers whether he or she is suffering from normal grief, prolonged grief, or some other issue.
Coping tips for grieving include the bereaved individual's caring for his or herself through continuing nutritious and regular eating habits, getting extra rest, and communicating with surviving loved ones.
Bereavement sometimes ultimately leads to enhanced personal development.
Consulting with an attorney or other legal expert is advisable when either planning for or managing the legal matters associated with a death.
Some of the major legal issues involved with dying include the person's right to have informed consent to receive or refuse treatment, advance directives, establishing a living will, and making funeral arrangements.
Grief is the normal internal feeling one experiences in reaction to a loss, while bereavement is the state of experiencing that loss. Although people often suffer emotional pain in response to loss of anything that is very important to them (for example, a job, a friendship or other relationship, one's sense of safety, a home), grief usually refers to the loss of a loved one through death. Grief is quite common, in that three out of four women outlive their spouse, with the average age of becoming a widow being 59 years. More than half of women in the United States are widowed by the time they reach age 65. Every year in the United States, 4% of children under the age of 15 experience the loss of a parent through death.
Although not a formal medical diagnosis, prolonged grief, formerly called complicated grief, refers to a reaction to loss that lasts more than one year. It is characterized by the grief reaction intensifying to affect the sufferer's close relationships, disrupting his or her beliefs, and it tends to result in the bereaved experiencing ongoing longing for their deceased loved one. About 15% of bereaved individuals will suffer from complicated grief, and one-third of people already getting mental-health services have been found to suffer from this extended grief reaction.
Anticipatory grief is defined as the feelings loved ones have in reaction to knowing that someone they care about is terminally ill. It occurs before the death of the afflicted loved one and can be an important part of the grieving process since this allows time for loved ones to say goodbye to the terminally ill individual, begin to settle affairs, and plan for the funeral or other rituals on behalf of the person who is dying.
Move on with life. The grieving process is over only when a person completes the four steps.
As opposed to grief, which refers to how someone may feel the loss of a loved one, mourning is the outward expression of that loss. Mourning usually involves culturally determined rituals that help mourners make sense of the end of their loved one's life and give structure to what can feel like a very confusing time. Therefore, while the internal pain of grief is a more universal phenomenon, how people mourn is influenced by their personal, familial, cultural, religious, and societal beliefs and customs. Everything from how families prepare themselves and their loved ones for death, and understand and react to the passing to the practices for preserving memories of the deceased, their funeral or memorial, burial, cremation, or other ways of handling the remains of the deceased is influenced by internal and external factors.
The length of time for a formal mourning period and sometimes the amount of bereavement leave people are allowed to take from work is determined by a combination of personal, familial, cultural, religious, and societal factors. Mourning customs also affect how bereaved individuals may feel comfortable seeking support from others as well as the appropriate ways for their friends and family to express sympathy during this time. For example, cultures may differ greatly in how much or how little the aggrieved individual may talk about their loss with friends, family members, and coworkers and may determine whether or not participating in a bereavement support group or psychotherapy is acceptable.
The potential negative effects of a grief reaction can be significant. For example, research shows that about 40% of bereaved people will suffer from some form of anxiety disorder in the first year after the death of a loved one, and there can be up to a 70% increase in death risk of the surviving spouse within the first six months after the death of his or her partner. For these reasons, questionnaires that assess how much stress a person is experiencing usually place the loss of a loved one at the top of the list of the most serious stresses to endure. When considering the death of a loved one, the effects of losing a pet should not be minimized. Pets are often considered another member of the family, and therefore their loss is grieved as well. Making the decision to euthanize (painlessly put to death) the family pet once a family works with their veterinarian to determine that the pet is suffering as a result of their age, specific illness, and/or general declining health can add stress to the bereavement process by leaving family members feeling guilty initially, but if done properly, can help families understand that they spared their beloved pet unnecessary suffering.
In addition to grief as an initial reaction to loss, the process can be aggravated by events that remind the bereaved individual of their loved one or the circumstances surrounding their loss. Such events are often referred to as grief triggers. Father's Day or the beginning of the school year may cause the parent who has lost a child (or a child who has lost a parent) to feel distraught. A shared song, television show, or activity can cause anguish by reminding the widower of the wife he lost or the child of the grandparent who is no longer living. Watching another child play with a pet may reduce a child whose pet has died to tears.
The risk factors for experiencing more serious symptoms of grief for a longer period of time can be related to the physical and emotional health of the survivor before the loss, the relationship between the bereaved and their loved one, as well as to the nature of the death. For example, it is not uncommon for surviving loved ones who had a contentious or strained relationship, or otherwise unresolved issues with the deceased to suffer severe feelings of sorrow. Parents who have lost their child are at a significantly higher risk of divorce compared to couples that have not. They are also at increased risk for a decline in emotional health, including being psychiatrically hospitalized following the loss. This is a particular risk for mothers who have lost a child.
Bereaved individuals who have experienced an unexpected or violent death of a loved one may be at greater risk for suffering from mental disorders like major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or complicated grief. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the accepted diagnostic reference for mental health afflictions, major depression is a psychiatric disorder characterized by sadness and/or irritability that lasts at least two weeks in a row and is accompanied by a number of other symptoms, like problems with sleep, appetite, weight, concentration, or energy level and may also lead to the sufferer experiencing unjustified guilt, losing interest in activities he or she used to enjoy, or thoughts of wanting to kill themselves or someone else. PTSD refers to a condition that involves the sufferer enduring an experience that significantly threatened their sense of safety or well-being (for example, the suicide or homicide of a loved one), then re-experiencing the event through intrusive memories, physical or emotional reactions, nightmares or flashbacks (feeling as if the trauma is happening again at times when the sufferer is awake); developing a hypersensitivity to events that are normal (for example, being quite irritable, getting startled very easily, having trouble sleeping, or difficulty trusting others); avoiding things that remind the person of the traumatic event (for example, people, places, or things that the sufferer may associate with the death of their loved one) and developing or worsening negative moods or ways of thinking after the traumatic event (for example, trouble recalling an important aspect of the trauma, persistent negative beliefs, blaming oneself or others for the trauma, feeling detached from others, or persistent trouble experiencing positive emotions). Being able to care for a dying loved one tends to promote the healing process for those who are left behind. That care can either be provided at home, in the hospital, or in hospice care. Hospice is a program or facility that provides special care for people whose health has declined to the point that they are near the end of their life. Such programs or facilities also provide special care for their families.
These stages also apply to the stages of dying, the grief associated with one's own death. She described the stage of denial as the bereaved having difficulty believing what has happened, the anger phase as the survivor questioning the fairness of the loss, the bargaining stage as wishing to make a deal with fate to gain more time with the one who was or will be lost, the depression stage as the period when the bereaved person gets in touch with how very sad they are about losing their loved one, and acceptance as feeling some resolution to their grief and more ability to go on with their own life.
For children and adolescents, reactions to the death of a parent or other loved one tend to be consistent with their reaction to any severe stress. Such reactions usually reflect the particular developmental stage of the child or adolescent. For example, since infants up to about 2 years of age cannot yet talk, their reaction to the loss of a loved one tends to involve crying and being more irritable or clingy. They further show physical symptoms of sleep or appetite problems, changes in activity level, and being more watchful of (vigilant toward) their surroundings.
Early school-aged children, from 6 to 8 years of age, more likely understand that death is permanent compared to younger children, often feel guilt about the death of the loved one, become preoccupied with memories about the departed, and try to master the loss they have suffered by talking about it frequently. While symptoms of grief in school-aged children from 9 to 11 years of age are quite similar to those of early school-aged children, this older group is more vulnerable to a decrease in self-esteem because they feel different from their peers if they have experienced the loss of a loved one. They are also more prone to defend against their feelings of sorrow by becoming engrossed in school, social, and/or extracurricular activities.
Symptoms of complicated grief include intense emotion and longings for the deceased, severely intrusive thoughts about the lost loved one, extreme feelings of isolation and emptiness, avoiding doing things that bring back memories of the departed, new or worsened sleeping problems, and having no interest in activities that the sufferer used to enjoy. Teens tend to react to the loss of a loved one that died through suicide similarly to the ways in which adults experience complicated grief but it is noteworthy that their lack of life experience to draw strength from and high level of involvement with their peers may make teens more vulnerable to contemplating suicide themselves when a loved one commits suicide. Mental health professionals often refer to this type of vulnerability as contagion.
Although practitioners sometimes use paper and pencil survey tests to determine if a person is suffering from grief, the assessment is usually made by the health-care professional asking questions to assess what symptoms an individual is experiencing, then considering whether he or she is suffering from normal grief, complicated grief, or some other issue. Those questions tend to explore whether there are emotional, physical, and/or social symptoms of grief, and if so, how severe and how long the symptoms have been present. The practitioner may also try to determine what stages of the grief process the person has experienced and what stage currently dominates their feelings at the time of the assessment.
There remains some controversy about how to best help people survive the loss of a loved one. While many forms of support are available and do help certain individuals, little scientific research has shown clear benefits for any particular approach for grief reactions in general. That is thought to be because each approach to support is so different that it is hard to scientifically compare one to another, intervention procedures are not consistently reported in publications, and the ways these interventions have been studied are flawed. Although there has been some concern that grief counseling for uncomplicated grief sufferers works against bereavement recovery, there is research to the contrary. One approach to treating grief is the dual process model, which endorses the bereavement process as being the dynamic struggle between the pain of the death of the loved one (loss-oriented) and recovery (restoration-oriented). This model of treatment recommends that bereaved individuals alternate between directly working on their loss (confrontation) and taking a break from (avoidance) that process when appropriate. For couples that are grieving the occurrence of a miscarriage, brief professional counseling has been found to be helpful.
Quite valuable tips for journaling as an effective way of managing bereavement rather than just stirring up painful feelings are provided by the Center for Journal Therapy. While encouraging those who choose to write a journal to apply no strict rules to the process, some of the ideas encouraged include limiting the time journaling to 15 minutes per day or less to decrease the likelihood of worsening grief, writing how one imagines his or her life will be a year from the date of the loss, and clearly identifying feelings to allow for easier tracking of the individual's grieving process.
To help children and adolescents cope emotionally with the death of a friend or family member, it is important to ensure they receive consistent caretaking and frequent interaction with supportive adults. For children of school age and older, appropriate participation in school, social, and extracurricular activities is necessary to a successful resolution of grief. For adolescents, maintaining positive relationships with peers becomes important in helping teens figure out how to deal with grief. Depending on the adolescent, they even may find interactions with peers and family more helpful than formal sources of support like their school counselor. All children and teens can benefit from being reassured that they did not cause their loved one to die, and such reassurance can go a long way toward lessening the developmentally appropriate tendency children and adolescents have for blaming themselves and any angry feelings they may have harbored against their lost loved one for the death.
Effective coping tips for grieving are nearly as different and numerous as there are bereaved individuals. The bereaved individual's caring for him/herself through continuing nutritious and regular eating habits, getting extra rest, and communicating with surviving friends and families are some ways for grief sufferers to ease the grief process. The use of supportive structure can also go a long way to helping the aggrieved individual come to terms with their loss. Anything from reciting comforting prayers or affirmations, to returning to established meal and bedtimes, as well as returning to work or school routines can help grieving individuals regain a sense of normalcy in their lives. As death involves the loss of an imperfect relationship involving imperfect individuals, forgiveness of the faults of the lost loved one and of the inherently imperfect relationship between the bereaved and the deceased can go a long way toward healing for the bereaved. While the painful aspects of dealing with death are clear, bereavement sometimes also leads to enhanced personal development.
In order to appreciate the legal aspects of death and dying, it may help to understanding death and the process of dying. In order to declare (pronounce) a person as having died, a physician performs a physical examination to assess that the person shows signs of death, such as the absence of breathing and heartbeat, and the individual does not respond in any way to pain. The doctor then completes a death certificate, which indicates the name, date of birth, and date of death, as well as the location of death and its immediate cause, like stopped breathing (respiration) or heart (cardiac) functioning and the medical condition that is thought to have resulted in the cause of death (for example, infection, cancer, diabetes, bleeding from being shot).
Consulting with a legal expert, such as an attorney, is advisable when either planning for or managing the legal matters associated with a death. Some of the major legal issues involved with dying include the person's right to have informed consent to receive or refuse treatment, advance directives, establishing a living will, and making funeral arrangements, if desired. Informed consent, which is required by law for every patient or patient's guardian to give, is the responsibility of treating practitioners to provide that opportunity to patients. It involves the doctor or other health professional explaining to the patient and/or patient's legal guardian the options for treatment of whatever condition from which the individual suffers, the possible benefits as well as risks for each treatment, and why the health professional may be recommending one treatment over another. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the professional to let their patient know that they have the right to choose whatever treatment they want or to choose to refuse treatment. Particularly when discussing chronic or terminal illness, conditions over which there is little control over the ultimate outcome of care provided, having the individual and his or her family feel as much control over their treatment options as possible is of great importance.
Advance directives are those decisions an individual would like to express to his or her family and treating professionals prior to potentially becoming no longer able to communicate their wishes prior to death. Examples of advance directives include what, if any, forms of life support the individual would like to receive to maintain their life, as well as what "heroic" or aggressive interventions, if any, they would like made immediately should their heart or breathing stop. Getting food and liquids through a tube, having their breathing or heart rate performed by a machine, and opting for palliative care (care that will address pain and otherwise make them comfortable rather than try to cure them) are choices a person often considers in terms of what they want done or not done to maintain their life. In the event that the individual expresses a desire to have no heroic or aggressive medical interventions made should their heart beat or breathing stop, a do not resuscitate order (DNR) is indicated in his or her medical chart. Opting for such an order is by no means a request to stop all medical treatment. In other words, managing any condition other than actual loss of life (for example, infections, anemia) will continue. Another important example of an advanced directive is whether or not the dying individual would like to be considered as a possible organ donor.
In order to have their medical and financial wishes carried out, it is important for individuals to name a health proxy, someone trusted to make decisions that are in keeping with the individual's in the event that those wishes are unknown and the person can no longer express his or her wishes. In order to formally appoint a health proxy, an attorney must write a durable power of attorney, the legal document appointing the health proxy. In addition to having that document signed, witnessed and notarized, a copy of it must be placed in the individual's medical chart. Similar to the medical power of attorney, a durable power of attorney of finances can be helpful to establish who would be in charge of the person's finances if she or he were living but unable to be in charge of their own financial matters. Last but not least, if the individual has any strong preferences regarding a funeral or whether his or her remains are buried or cremated, making those wishes known in writing can prevent placing the burden of those decisions on surviving family members, who may struggle with agreeing on these issues, particularly as they grieve the loss of their loved one. As painful as it is to watch a loved one die and as difficult as it may be to talk about their death with them before it happens, many are the families who suffer even more than need be because steps are not taken to address these important legal issues.
As researchers continue to examine the management of grief, the level of clarity about what is helpful and not helpful in helping the bereaved needs to be improved. Although hospital personnel have tended over the past decades to address the medical, legal, and emotional issues associated with the loss of a loved one, health-care professionals who work in clinics and private offices would serve their patients better if those issues were addressed long before a crisis of health or loss takes place.
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What helped you through your loss, grief, and bereavement?
How long did your grief last? | 2019-04-21T18:48:08Z | https://www.medicinenet.com/loss_grief_and_bereavement/article.htm |
Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb says HFT firms had helped investors cut their trading costs, and urged the US Securities and Exchange Commission not to reverse the market reforms that gave birth to the phenomenon.
We’ve come down nearly two orders of magnitude in that bid ask spread in the past 30 years. From around 0.20 percent to some 0.002 percent. That’s saved every investor huge amounts of money over all the trades they’ve done.
McGuireWoods capital markets attorneys John Servidio and Bo Harvey discuss the benefits of high frequency trading in the securities and derivatives markets.
Professor Albert J. Menkveld conducted a survey of the academic literature on HFT. He read 100+ manuscripts to identify the economic arguments for and against HFT. He concludes that electronic markets and HFTs arrived and coincidentally transaction costs declined for investors. This suggests the identified economic benefits of HFTs outweigh their economic costs.
Hal Scott, professor of international financial systems at Harvard Law School and director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, writes that “U.S. investors are actually much better off in today’s high-speed automated marketplace.” He cites transaction costs for retail investors that have been cut in half since 2007 and mutual fund giant Vanguard estimates that “$10,000 invested in a mutual fund over 30 years would now yield a long-term investor $132,000 instead of $100,000.
Professors Vincent Van Kervel and Albert J. Menkveld find that HFT provides liquidity for six hours to large buy side orders, to their benefit, and in doing so challenges the belief that HFT profits from quick “electronic front-running.” This prolonged period of HFT leaning reduces institutional trading costs by 39 percent and by extension all the individual investors they represent.
The authors create a model showing how automated HFT liquidity providers set more efficient prices, increase informed and decrease uninformed traders’ transaction costs, and have no effect on volatility.
Harold S. Bradley, former head of trading for American Century Mutual Funds, co-authors a paper that finds, in 1988, the typical market maker netted about four cents in profit for every share traded. In contrast, the typical HFT today reportedly nets 7/100 of a cent or less for every share traded. In short, the HFTs are willing to work for 98 percent less than what the average market marker of yesteryear made.
We think that much of the recent controversy surrounding “high frequency traders” and “dark pools” reflects a general lack of understanding of the benefits that such participants bring to the markets. Based on decades of experience, it is our belief that high frequency trading and dark pools contribute to a more efficient market that benefits all investors. Generally speaking, high frequency traders provide liquidity and “knit” together our increasingly fragmented marketplace resulting in tighter spreads that benefit all investors.
“…we conservatively estimate that transaction costs have declined 50 bps, or 100 bps round trip. For example, if an average actively managed equity mutual fund with a 100% turnover ratio would currently provide an annual return of 9%, the same fund would have returned 8% per year without the reduction in transaction costs over the past decade. Today’s investor with a 30 year time horizon would see a $10,000 investment in such a fund grow to approximately $132,000 in 30 years, compared to approximately $100,000 with the hypothetical return of 8% associated with the higher transaction costs. Thus, any analysis of “high frequency trading” must recognize the corresponding benefits that long-term investors have experienced through tighter spreads and increased liquidity.
Contrary to the widespread misconception that high frequency trading firms (HFTs) or Principal Trading Firms (PTFs) are reliant upon such rebates, MMI has stated publically that the abolition of the rebates is not a concern. Our Member firms trade on venues without maker-taker. And while eliminating them might mean a little less direct revenue for the firms, the incentives maker-taker provide to traders would probably find their way back into spreads and ultimately be borne by all investors. Which we assume is not the intention of regulators.
If the consolidated feed were replaced with direct feeds for all, it would not affect the strategies of our Member firms. In fact, our Members trade successfully in asset classes with only a single data feed, such as the U.S. Treasury market and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange here in the U.S., and in multiple geographies where there is also only a single data feed.
On most days, hundreds of millions of shares of exchange traded funds (ETFs) are traded with remarkable efficiency at a very low cost. The normally smooth functioning ETF market allows investors to easily get access to a wide range of investment portfolios at a very low cost. However, for about an hour on August 24th, 2015, circuit breakers interfered with regular ETF trading, and during that time some ETF’s traded at prices far from their fair value.
In an effort to help improve markets and ensure ETF prices do not get dislocated in the future, MMI wrote a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In it, we suggested measures to protect investors and help professional intermediaries maintain orderly markets in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) during times of severe market volatility.
An optional “retail circuit breaker” that would protect investors from ETF prices that were a long way from their NAV.
Requiring exchanges to make clear when they would “break” a trade in an ETF.
Easing restrictions that would make it easier to hedge long ETF positions.
Another widespread misconception is that high frequency trading firms (HFTs) or Principal Trading Firms (PTFs) rely on the opportunities presented by having several venues in which to trade. MMI advocates fewer venues and points out that its Members trade successfully in many markets and countries where there is only one exchange.
India has the eighth largest economy in the world and its exchanges trade about $750 billion worth of stock per year. Its markets have emerged to become a world-class trading ecosystem thanks in part to the increased participation of intermediaries who use high frequency trading tools.
However, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is in the midst of deciding if the progress of algorithmic trading innovations should be encouraged or suppressed. It recently sought comment letters on several proposals, most of which would impair the ability of these automated market makers to continuously provide the abundant and inexpensive liquidity to Indian investors that they contribute in other markets.
Unlike regulators in the U.S. and other markets, SEBI does not make comment letters public. Below is a list of letters that MMI has been able to collect. We will update this list as letters become available, and welcome copies of SEBI submissions from responsible parties.
The U.S. Treasury market is the deepest and most liquid government securities market in the world. However, it lags far behind the equities market in terms of informational transparency. There is little access to data around such basic metrics as which treasuries are trading and when they are trading, for example. Despite the challenges, high frequency traders (HFT) have been able to improve on the traditional and less automated ways of trading treasuries. HFT, working on razor thin margins and serving as nimble and responsive intermediaries, now represent eight of the top ten dealers in the market according to a recently published BrokerTec list.
The beneficial role of HFT in the government debt market was brought into sharp focus in the aftermath of chaotic trading in the treasuries market on October 15, 2014. On that day, extreme volatility produced a statistical deviation so severe, TABB Group Analyst Anthony Perrotta said such a move should occur once “every 1.6 billion years.” Initially, many people blamed the role of proprietary trading firms (PTFs) using HFT tools for the “Flash Rally.” But a multi-agency report analyzing the event looked separately at the actions of banks and PTFs on that day and discovered these market participants were both using HFT tools completely differently.
A supplemental finding of the report, unveiled at the conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of NY in October 2015, found that while HFT was providing bid and ask quotes, banks were ignoring customer orders.
We believe that PTFs are better at automating trading than others, despite using similar trading tools. In fact, PTFs using HFT tend to become the dominant intermediaries in the asset classes in which they participate. This has been a great outcome for investors, as it introduces competition that drives down costs and fuels innovation that creates further money saving efficiencies.
On November 24, 2015, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed Regulation Automated Trading (Reg AT), a set of rules now in the process of industry review and comment. It represents “a series of risk controls, transparency measures, and other safeguards to enhance the U.S. regulatory regime for automated trading.” In essence, it is recognition that the commodities and futures markets are increasingly served by high frequency trading firms. Therefore, the rules governing those markets need to be updated to better suit electronic markets.
Modern Markets Initiative (MMI) largely supports Reg AT and most HFT firms already comply with most of its provisions. We believe it is in the interest of all investors that participants are accountable to act in support of stable and resilient markets.
However, MMI has written three comment letters to the CFTC, a letter to the CFTC Technical Advisory Committee and contributed to a joint industry letter in opposition to the proposed rules within Reg AT allowing inspection of a trading firm’s source code under the provision of “book and records” because it makes the code accessible outside the existing, highly-regulated subpoena process. Source code is the “secret sauce” of technology firms such as high frequency trading firms, Google and Apple, for example. It is unprecedented for regulators to have routine access to this sensitive intellectual property.
MMI believes the Reg AT’s establishment of strict rules, regulations and guidelines will help instill investor confidence in the futures and commodities markets. But it should not come at the cost of the legal protections of the market participants serving them.
Amendment sponsored by Rep. Sean P. Duffy [R-WI-7] prohibits the CFTC from compelling the production of algorithmic trading source code and similar intellectual property unless it has issued a subpoena.
On March 25, 2015 the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rule amendments to require that broker-dealers trading in off-exchange venues become members of a national securities association. The amendments were aimed to enhance regulatory oversight of active proprietary trading firms, such as high frequency traders.
We support efforts at greater transparency to boost investor confidence in the modern markets. Our Member firms are all registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the CBOE and, through their registration with several exchanges, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
A Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) will hurt all investors because it will directly affect everyone who has a portion of their retirement savings or other assets, in the financial market. When investments are reallocated to reflect an investor’s changing risk profile, need for a redemption to cover expenses or rebalancing to keep an investment strategy on track, the tax will apply. That is money that could be compounding to grow assets. And gains are already taxed so this could be seen as a way to tax losing stock trades as well. It’s a bad deal for investors.
Any tax on transactions will add friction that threatens our market, which is the world’s best engine of capital formation, economic growth and job creation. History has shown a transaction tax drives trading away from the country imposing it, therefore reducing the potential revenue from trading activity such as capital gains taxes, while shipping well-paying, and highly taxed, jobs and companies out of the country.
In March 2013, the Italian government imposed an FTT on stocks of corporations with a market capitalization above 500 million euros. The result, as observed in a studypublished in August 2016 by the European Central Bank, has been “a reduction in liquidity for the stocks hit by the reform.” And increased “volatility of the ‘treated’ stocks.” In other words, the stock became more expensive and their prices less stable.
When Sweden began taxing financial transactions in the 1980s, bond trading fell by 85% and futures trading fell by 98%. By 1990, more than 50% of all Swedish trading moved to London. The tax was declared a failure and repealed in 1991. Recently, Sweden’s Finance Minister Anders Borg quipped “between 90%-99% of traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved out of Stockholm to London” because of that FTT.
After one-third of the trading in German public companies moved to London and trading in German bonds sank as much as 50 percent, Germany abolished its FTT in 1991. In Italy, a FTT caused trading in Italian stocks to fall by 34.2% within two years of the introduction of the tax according to research from Credit Suisse.
In Italy, an FTT imposed in 2012 has raised just €159 million of a targeted €1 billion. France, which introduced its FTT a year later, initially predicted €1.5 billion annually in revenue, but has yet to raise even half that much so far. Both countries may see the same results Sweden did when it instituted its FTT. Revenues on bonds, for example, were predicted to be SEK 1.5 billion per year but the average was closer to SEK 50 million.
In addition, defining how much legitimate order cancelling is “excessive” will be difficult and dependent on such factors as the complexity of the stock (some ETFs have thousands of underlying constituents) and the tradability of the stock (some stocks trade sporadically and some very often). Setting an improper limit will hinder competition among HFT intermediaries and raise costs for investors.
One thing FTT proposals have in common is its positioning as a punitive measure against “Wall Street speculators” who fueled the financial crisis of 2008 that required a taxpayer-funded bailout. But high frequency traders had nothing to do with designing the over-leveraged bank positions that caused the crisis.
In short, an FTT has proven to drive trading to other countries, fall short of revenue expectations, sharply depress trading volumes and increase investor’s costs to trade. Collectively it would be an economic disaster for America.
– PensionsEurope, an organization with 24 member associations in 19 EU Member States and 3 other European countries with significant workplace pension systems.
Victor Golovtchenko reports London’s bankers have been outspoken about their plans to leave London in light of the Brexit process that is being prepared by the UK government. As they contemplate the move, the European Union is considering a financial transaction tax. Some of the main contenders for a new European financial hub are immune from the risks of a financial transaction tax – Dublin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. The position of Paris and Frankfurt could be well jeopardized by their support for the tax proposal.
Alexander Weber and Nikos Chrysoloras report that the 10 European Union countries exploring a financial-transaction tax are struggling to agree on key parts of the plan, casting new doubt on the future of the project. A task force working on possible exemptions for pension funds has so far failed to come up with a solution that satisfies all nations involved. A general opt out for pension funds from the tax would have to be extended to insurance companies. Exempting insurance from the levy would mean that the revenue raised is too small to justify it.
A report that Deputy Laurent Mosar of Luxembourg’s Christian Social People’s Party has called on Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance to confirm whether the Benelux countries have a “common position” on the controversial Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). This was in reaction to news that Belgium and Slovakia were considering withdrawing their support of an FTT, partly over worry that it would have too great an impact on its pension funds and real economy. The withdrawals would drop EU member participation below 9 countries, the minimum needed for passage of a pan-European FTT.
Researchers Iryna Veryzhenko, Etienne Harb and Wael Louhichi analyze the impact of the French high-frequency trading transaction tax on market quality measured by market liquidity and volatility. It finds that the introduction of cancel order tax reduces only slightly HFT activities, but it significantly affects market liquidity, increases market volatility and deteriorates the market efficiency.
ValueWalk – Why Did Regulator Have Computer Trading Code On Personal PC?
Mark Melin writes that a 2016 SEC Office of Inspector General (OIG) report contains a little-noticed reprimand of an SEC quantitative analyst charged with improperly requesting and downloading confidential computer code to his personal computer. This as measures in the CFTC’s pending Reg AT call for regulators to have subpoena-less access to source code used by professional traders.
Andrew Ackerman reports Federal regulators are demanding a vast trove of private data to help them better monitor markets. But in the age of routine, sophisticated hacks, many in the financial industry worry the government will be unable to keep that sensitive information secure. Investment firms cite numerous breaches at federal agencies, most recently the late-October admission by the national bank overseer that a former employee had downloaded 10,000 records with two thumb drives and took them home. | 2019-04-25T12:03:32Z | https://www.modernmarketsinitiative.org/archive |
Centre of Excellence for integrated approaches in chemistry and biology of proteins links knowledge, experience and technology of top Slovenian research groups involved in research in biomedicine, biotechnology and understanding of life in extreme conditions.
The main research targets of CIPKeBiP are proteins together with their DNA and RNA. All together are representing the corner stone for all molecular processes in living organisms and cells. The transfer of knowledge in the industry environment is integrated into the research of the centre of excellence.
The education of the early stage researchers is finacially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency.
Mentor Prof. Dr. Dušan Turk, duration from 1 November 2011 until 30 April 2016. ARRS code: 34422. Piotr Sosnowski received Krka award in 2016 for PhD thesis titled "Structural insight in the substrate specificity of cathepsins".
Mentor Prof. Dr. Stojan Stavber, duration from 1 November 2014 until 30 April 2018. ARRS code: 37542. Klara Cebular received an award for the best poster entitled "Direct metal-free dehydrative cross-coupling of alcohols and alkenes catalysed by molecular iodine under solvent-free reaction conditions" at the 6th International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry in September 2016 in Venice, Italy.
5. In 2017 new early stage researcher will be selected, post will be at Jozef Stefan Institute. Mentor will be Prof. Dr. Dušan Turk who was selected as mentor in open call.
European Regional Development Fund (85% co-financing) and Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (15% co-financing) were co-financed the development of centre of excellence CIPKeBiP with an operation code OP13.1.1.2.02.0005. The period of financing was from 2010 until 2013.
• Investigation of intermolecular interactions from different point of view including biochemical and structural analysis and microscopy of cells and tissues.
Different mechanisms of intra and intercellular communication are responsible for correct functioning of cells, tissues, and indirectly for the whole organism. Any disturbances in mentioned mechanisms influence on the organism with some serious health consequences. Knowledge about these mechanisms is required to better understand the pathogenesis of diseases that result from damage or disturbance to inter-and intracellular communication. Additionally, the identification of the potential new drug targets is possible.
• Super-resolution optical microscopy to study subcellular organelles in living cells.
The research work was focused in investigation of proteins involved in adaptation to high salinity in the halophilic fungi. Additionally we tried to determine their potential use in addressing environmental and industrial problems. We were particularly interested in the nature of interactions between proteins involved in signal transmission along the HOG signaling pathway. For this purpose, we performed a structural characterization of the most important proteins of halo tolerance.
The new knowledge was comparable with the currently known information about the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which was sensitive to elevated salt concentration. Comparing of the two systems allowenabled the interpretation of the mechanisms of halo tolerance. The role of individual proteins were further confirmed by functional complementation of S. cerevisiae.
• System for continuous production of proteins was developed and it is in permanent use. System includes some relevant protein targets, their analysis, cloning, expression, purification, and basic bio-physical characterization.
• All DNA constructs and isolated proteins are stored in a central storage system.
• We developed a database for recording and storage protocols for expression and isolation of proteins (and other experimental data), which are always available to partners in a CO CIPKEBIP and the wider environment.
Russian coordinator Dr. Sergey V. Lapin, St Petersburg Pavlov State Medical University, St. Petersburg.
Metastasis is the most serious challenge for cancer treatment, representing the major death-determinant and causing a significant reduction in the quality of life. A hallmark of the malignant process is the acquisition of an invasive phenotype that allows neoplastic cells to invade surrounding tissue and disseminate into specific organs. The objectives of the present project are to identify molecular pathways involved in the regulation of interplay between cancer cells and their microenvironment both at primary and secondary sites.
Proteases are now recognized as key regulators of a complex network of interacting molecules that modulate the properties of cancer cells and their microenvironment. Among them are lysosomal cysteine peptidases (clan CA, family C1), so called cathepsins, involved in a number of cellular processes important for normal cell function as well as playing an important role in some pathological conditions, such as cancer. The expression of cysteine cathepsins have often been positively correlated with a poor prognosis for cancer patients and measured as potential prognostic markers for several types of cancer. Proteolytic activity of cysteine cathepsins is regulated by endogenous inhibitors stefins, cystatins and serpins. The fluctuations in their expression have been linked to pathological states including cancer; however, their specific roles in that process remain poorly defined.
This project was initiated to critically evaluate the importance of the extracellular and intracellular lysosomal cysteine peptidase inhibitors from tumor cells and different cell types in the tumor-supporting stroma for tumor progression and metastasis. The work is based on genetically modified mice with a constitutive deficiency for protease inhibitors (stefin B and cystatin C). Transgenic mouse model of mammary carcinogenesis – Tg(MMTV-PyMT) – will be initially used for analyses of different stages of tumor progression (tumor growth, histopathological grading, etc.) and metastases (incidence, growth, etc.) in correlation to protease inhibitors expression. We will immunohistochemically analyze primary tumors and metastasis of PyMT mice for processes important for tumor development and progression, including angiogenesis, cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, etc. The primary tumor cells, obtained from mammary tumors of PyMT transgenic mice (wild type and depleted in protease inhibitors expression) will be used as a basis for investigations of tumor-stroma cells interactions, pre-metastatic niche concept, in vitro invasion and other assays. In order to dissociate the effects of primary tumor cells and tumor microenvironment for tumor invasion and metastasis, we will use an adoptive transfer models, either implanting tumor cells in the fat pad or injecting them in the tail vein of recipient mice.
The use of genetically modified animals is essential to study the early steps of cancer progression and metastatic dissemination in a complete organism with an adequate associated environment. However, the current project aims at reducing the need for animal use through the development of alternative in vitro methods. Transgenic (MMTV-PyMT) mice cells will be obtained through the consortia of the EU FP7-HEALTH project “Understanding and fighting metastasis by modulating the tumour microenvironment through interference with the protease network.” (MICROENVIMET), FP7-HEALTH-2007-A / 201279 (O. Vasiljeva co-PI), 2008-2012.
Proteases are currently one of the major targets for new therapeutics. Moreover, protease inhibitors as well as the use of apoptosis-based strategies are currently of major relevance in cancer treatment. Therefore, the results of the proposed project will be of great importance in evaluation of cysteine cathepsins as possible therapeutic targets in cancer.
Oligomers of amyloid forming proteins will be the connecting theme of this project, which will encompass cross-disciplinary aspects stemming from higher oligomers structure, their role in the kinetics and thermodynamics of amyloid fibril formation, novel physico-chemical properties of the oligomers, molecular interactions of the oligomers with membranes and among themselves (protein: peptide interactions) and cellular phenomena which occur as a consequense of protein oligomerization and aggregation, such as autophagy and oxidative stress. In more detail, we will try to determine stefin B higher oligomer (higher than the tetramer) 3D structure, by using crystallography and supplemented by heteronuclear NMR. Further we will determine stability of the oligomers, dimers, tetramers and higher in comparison to the monomer, using spectroscopic and calorimeric (DSC) techniques. Role of the oligomers in the kinetics of fibril formation and role of proline residues to oligomerization and amyloid formation will be determined by the usual kinetic approaches and mutant studies. Oligomers conformational changes at membranes and permeability studies will be made. Protein protein interaction between the oligomers of stefin B (or ß2-microglobulin) and other amyloid peptides, such as a-synuclein (or amylin) will be measured by using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We will study oligomers of a globular protein human stefin B– as a good model (protocols exist how to isolate them) but not exclusively. As comparison we will study a-synuclein from the class or natively unfolded proteins, which build Lewy bodies in Parkinson's disease and ataxin – which is representative of the polyglutamine repeats disorders and possibly another member of globular proteins - ß2-microglobulin, which is found deposited in joists and bones of patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis. The mechanistic and structural studies of the prefibrillar oligomers in vitro will be supplemented by cell culture studies, with an aim to reveal cellular processes accompanying protein aggregation. Cystatins, including stefin B, are involved in important physiological processes and their gene alleles may represent a risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Cystatin C allele-B undergoes impaired secretion and represents a risk factor for AD. As recent data show, cystatin C also has a role in autophagy, which is the primary means of clearance protein aggregates from the cell. Stefin B, whose mutations cause progressive epilepsy of type 1 (EPM1), on one side prevents oxidative stress and cell death (apoptosis), which are increased in stefin B KO mice. However, stefin B on the other side reduces autophagy, which means that authophagy proceeds to completion in stefin B KO cells, which helped to clear amyloid pathology in a mouse AD model. Stefin B also is involved, by an unknown mechanism, in innate immunity. Many of these effects are cathepsin independent and cystatins alternative functions to protease inhibition are suggested. Studying cellular and membrane phenomena caused by oligomerization and amyloid fibril formation of stefin B and its EPM1 mutants as well as a-synuclein and its mutants involved in PD, is of direct medical relevance; contributes to Molecular Medicine (paper in press by Polajnar & Žerovnik in Trends Molecular Medicine).
The project will connect different disciplines and is thus interdisciplinary: it spans the fields from structure, molecular and cellular properties to eventual function and pathophysiology of the prefibrillar oligomers. The project entitled: ‘Oligomers of amyloidogenic proteins from a to z: biophysical properties, structure, function and mutual interactions’ falls under 5th priority of national (and EU) research program: health and science about life, interdisciplinary studies in the field of natural, biotechnical and medical sciences.
3-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules are the key to understanding of the chemical basis of physiological processes in the living organisms, yet they are a result of gathering the experimental data and their interpretation. The perfection of crystals of biological macromolecules seldom enables collection of dat a sets at resolutions which enable determination of individual atomic positions independently from their surroundings. Therefore prior knowledge is used to assure that the resulting structures are chemically and physically reasonable. The notions a) that the structures in the current Protein Data Bank entries are not optimal for use in the ligand binding prediction studies, b) that the extracted statistical parameters from the small molecule database may overcome this problem, and c) that modeling studies may provide better targets for ligand binding than the experimentaly determined structures indicate that there may be systematic inconsistency in the prior knowledge. The bonding parameters in use, which restrain the geometry of biopolymers, have been extracted from the small molecule crystal structures by statiostical approach, however, those for the heterocompounds as well as nonbonding parameters have other sources.
Therefore we plan to investigate the dependance of the crystal structure accuracy from these terms. In particular the nonbonding terms will be address since they effect almost every single macromolecular crystal structure. Re-refining the structrues by using the alreday developed statistical nonbonding parameters from the groups of Klebe (Uni Marburg) and Sali (UCSF), we plan to examine the orgin of the discrepencies between the small and macro molecular worlds and to improve the accuracy of 3D crystal structures deposited in PDB. This will be done by revisting the already published works of collaborating groups and applied and co-developed in a drug discovery project. The results are expected to have an impact on the whole structural biology community. The ultimate outcome of this project, extending beyond its time frame, is an automated procedure for re-refinment of all PDB entries which will be continously updated with the progress of knowledge and technology through the years to come.
The findings will be published in high quality scientific journals. The tools and procedures will be made availabe to the academic and industrial community via the www interface and as tools for the lab use.
Cancer is one of the most debilitating diseases in the developed world. Despite major investments, mortality is still very high and current therapies are still only partially successful, one of the reasons being insufficient knowledge about the molecular mechanisms leading to cancer progression. Among major factors contributing to cancer development and progression are proteases. In addition to metalloproteases, cysteine cathepsins emerged as major contributing factors, which is largely based on gene ablation animal studies. In addition they also have a critical role in autophagy, which is considered a major survival mechanism of cancer cells. However, molecular mechanisms underlying cancer progression and the involvement of cysteine cathepsins in these processes are still not well understood.
The main ideas of this proposal are to identify the cysteine cathepsin signaling pathways in cancer based on the identification of their physiological substrates, to critically evaluate their role in autophagy linked with sensitization of cancer cells to cell death, to explore the potential of novel rapamycin analogues in targeting autophagy and to validate novel tools for selective monitoring of the cathepsin activity in live cells. A long-term goal of the project is to unravel the role of cysteine cathepsins in hyperproliferative disorders such as cancer and their potential in anticancer treatment. This is based on a hypothesis that cysteine cathepsins represent one of the major components of cellular signaling in these processes with a dual role as cell death promoters or cancer promoters.
This project should thus provide a fundamental insight into how cysteine cathepsins promote cellular signaling in biological processes leading to cancer. The gained knowledge will significantly contribute to our understanding of the complex biological phenomena and will be instrumental for biomedical research to understand and develop novel strategies to combat cancer and other hyperproliferative diseases, based on the modulation of the activities of the cathepsins or on novel rapamycin analogues with improved properties. | 2019-04-21T09:06:56Z | http://cipkebip.org/projects.html |
I thought I would post another sneak peek for those that haven’t read it. Remember, the proceeds go to Covenant House, Vancouver, B.C.
This is from the prolog About A Horse. You can find the first part in my previous post Finding Heart Horse…one year later.
When my parents took me to visit my aunt and uncle who lived on a farm, I quickly and quietly made my way into the world of the barn where the horse’s lived. I would nestle into the golden straw, inhaling the fragrant honey dust, as hours magically disappeared. Listening to an orchestra of barnyard sounds while enveloped in the dusty air brought me a perfect peace.
It was into that perfect peace that my Heart Horse first made his appearance.
Just as if he were a real horse, my Heart Horse danced and pranced and snorted with joy. Sometimes when he was afraid, I could feel him inside my own heart, racing around frantically, as if to warn me of pending danger. Other times he stood quietly in the grass, munching on crispy red apples and appearing deep in thought, as if to just let me know he was near. And sometimes he galloped wildly free of restraint, tickling me with his unrestrained joy. But those happy and free rides were rare. Mostly he stood guard.
Old Uncle Willy understood my love of horses. He understood my connection to them and my ache to be closer to such a strangely forbidden desire. Uncle Willy always seemed to know where to look for me whenever we went to the farm. And he always seemed to know to look for me, when others hadn’t thought to.
One morning when I was huddled under a mountain of straw in the corner of Ginger’s stall; Uncle Willy came looking for me. He found me hiding there, buried under a pile of golden grass and crying, as Ginger stood over me with her warm breath tickling my neck as if to say, everything will be okay.
I was hiding in there because my cousin had told me, yet again, that I wasn’t real family. It seemed that each time she said that, it hurt a little bit more. Sometimes she even said it front of my mother, but instead of telling her to stop telling such awful lies, my mother would just agree. That really stung. And it made me sad.
I wasn’t sure what they meant by not being “real” family, I was just as real as they were, but I was sad that they even thought such a thing. After all, I had the pictures. My parents holding me when I was a newborn, teaching me piano when I was a toddler, posing me in front of furniture or houses or relatives to take my picture when I was a child. What could they possibly mean that I wasn’t real family? I didn’t understand at all, but I knew that there was something about me that was different. I just had no idea what it was.
Uncle Willy seemed to understand why I was crying, but he didn’t ask me about it. Instead, he told me a story about the Rocky Mountains and the wild horses that lived there. With his soft and comforting words, my uncle told me all about how magnificent it was to see a thundering herd suddenly appear in a lush green valley in the mountains. What Uncle Willy told me that day in the barn gave me the strength and desire to survive the cruel and hurtful comments of my cousin.
“Claire, you wouldn’t believe how amazing these horses are!” he told me. “They sound just like a train going by at a hundred miles an hour when they come galloping out of the mountains. Their manes blow behind them in flashes of black, silver and gold, like flying flags!” I listened to Uncle Willy’s fantastic story, enthralled.
“Tell me more, Uncle Willy! Tell me more!” I pleaded.
“Oh, it’s amazing, Claire, just amazing. You can even hear the different types of snorts and whinnies—they sound just like they’re talking! Then all of a sudden in a gust of wind and dust they’ll be gone. But . . .” and he looked left and right, like he was about to tell me a secret, then lowered his voice to a near whisper, “When they’re gone, you’re left with a feeling of magic. You know what it’s like to be free and wild but still be a part of a family. A really big family!” The images Uncle Willy conjured completely enchanted me, and I’d practically forgotten my cousins’ spiteful words.
“I tell ya girl,” he added, “Someday you have to go there. It’ll change you forever.” I watched as he got a faraway look in his eyes and sighed as if he were there that very moment. I snuggled into the straw and closed my eyes, wishing I were there, too.
I couldn’t believe my ears. If what Uncle Willy said was true, and it had to be or he wouldn’t have said it, I could actually have my own horse some day! I brushed all the straw off of my clothes and went back to the house with Uncle Willy for two big bowls of chocolate ice cream. But I couldn’t pay attention to anything else he said. All I could think about were those wild horses.
As excited as I was about pursuing wild horses, in the weeks and months that followed I knew better than to talk to anyone about my dreams. I had learned how quickly people will snuff out your dreams if you say them out loud. So I buried those words inside my Heart Horse, assuring him he would have company some day. He whinnied softly inside my heart, swaying back and forth as if to say, we will wait, we will wait, we will wait.
Mast Cell Madness…Will you love me anyway?
How many of us ask this daily in our minds when we are struggling with Mast Cell Disease and at our worst. Ever since I wrote my last blog “Coming out of the Closet” I’ve been thinking, thinking in a clear mind.
For three weeks I was in a total flare. Three very long weeks. I didn’t use the epi pen because the upper body muscle spasm was different than before and it radiated into my shoulder. Cardiac possibly, was my thought.
Now, think about it..I didn’t use my epi because it could have been cardiac. How irrational is that thought? How irrational was it not to go to emerg if I thought it was cardiac?
Very irrational now, but then it made perfect sense to me. More embarrassing is that I’m a retired nurse. I didn’t go to emerg. because I didn’t have a plan for my little blind doxie or orders set up in emerge…we all know how important that is. My last time there was a nightmare so I refused to go again until they had orders in their “black binder”. My doctors insist I cannot continue to treat myself at home with epi and nebulizer. It’s too unpredictable and I agree. I’ve been doing it for awhile now and in my clear mind I know the risk.
So from the time I was at the TMS Conference where I used an epi and prednisone for three days in order to get home, until October 18th when I went to the doctor, I was in anaphylaxis. Plain and simple. Not just a flare but extended 2 system, stage 3-4 anaphylaxis, only I just kept going. On the 18th my C-RP (sensitive indicator of inflammation) and anaphylaxis was 70.. n<5. I was in so much pain I was in tears, yet I kept going.
The reason I’m writing this part is because in my last blog I said, “no one sees me when I’m sick” “No one knew”. There was no one around to tell me my thinking was irrational and I functioned (to a point) daily with a great deal of couch time.
One week later, my C-RP is down to 15, most of the spasm has gone and I know my thinking is clear.
There have been many conversations about the different symptoms of Mast Cell Disease but we seldom discuss the emotional side, the brain side, the unpredictable side that actually has its own diagnosis. Mixed Organic Brain Syndrome.
It bothers me even using the diagnosis. I worked for over 20yrs in an active Psychiatric Unit never thinking that ten years down the road I would be talking about the diagnosis in reference to myself.
Now, with a clear diagnosis of MCAD with systemic involvement when I look back, I can clearly see times where emotion was uncontrolled, It wasn’t depression, altho’ I certainly had much to deal with in the way of stressful events.
I loved my job, the acuity and stress of the unpredictability. It was when I became quite ill with cholelithiasis and pneumonia at the age of 50, had just bought my dream house and had decided to hire a search agency to look for my biological family. No stress there! That’s when I started crying at the grocery store and couldn’t get off the couch. My face would swell up on one side, i’d be wheezing and with hives and I would carry on at work like nothing was wrong. Again, no one knew how sick I was. I didn’t know. I do now.
I don’t want anyone to think illness is just an excuse for behaving badly because it’s not. Neither is lack of education an excuse for mistreatment of those who are ill.
What I do what to explain… that this part, this brain part is real, and so badly misunderstood by all. By those of us who experience it and the people around us.
Not only do we have to deal with the endless symptoms of misbehaving mast cells in all areas of our body including the brain, but also the lack of understanding with our families and friends.
Its lack of knowledge, not love that causes the problems. Surviving with this disease is a family affair. We can’t do it without you but we need you to understand the depth of the symptomology.
I’ll just list a few that I myself have noticed. Ten years ago, I was a highly functioning, well respected nurse. I don’t want to be thought of as a diagnosis but I’ll confess anyway. I’ve had to hang up my hat, so to speak but the person inside is still the same.
Issues with cognitive functioning, changes in mood, irritability, forgetfulness, vagueness, inability to concentrate at times, strange sensations like little bugs crawling up the back of my neck into my scalp, smelling smoke or electrical fire when there isn’t any, clumsiness, feelings of doom and gloom, difficulty finding the right words, anxiety, uncontrollable tears.
I’ll stop there even tho’ i know there’s more. Most of the time now they are controlled unless I’m working up to a reaction. Then I notice I get teary and quiet. Can’t stand to be around crowds or busy activity. It causes sensory overload. Add into these “brain” symptoms, the long list of physical symptoms and you find a mast cell disease patient trying to get through the day, the moment.
Some folks have anger outbursts, depression, jittery feelings….the list goes on and on. My example of going 3 weeks in a reaction because no one knew and I wasn’t thinking clearly is important in that we need to bring understanding to those around us.
In 2003, the year I was 50, I found my biological family and my mast cells went crazy. They pushed me over the edge into the abyss of masto hell only I didn’t know what it was. They thought i was depressed and was avoiding them when I was in a place of such sensory, emotional overload I could barely handle a neighbour saying hello. I couldn’t stop crying, I couldn’t get off the couch for the unrelenting and unbearable fatigue. Every day there was a different rash. My collagen and degenerative disease took over. I tore my rotator cuff, my jaw went out of place, the disc slipped due to DDD, i was in never ending pain and had to wait almost two years for surgery managing on my own. No wonder I crashed and burned. No wonder my mast cells took over. No one understood, not even I knew what was going on. I chalked it up to reunion stress and the normal reaction of needing to regroup. My doctor said its CFIDS and FIBRO..you need rest..but it got worse.
No, what I really needed was a proper diagnosis and understanding and care from those that claimed to love and support me. It took several years of continuous decline for me to be able to put the puzzle together and by then I was having anaphylaxis every week at least.
Just before I went for diagnosis in South Carolina at Hollings Cancer Clinic, my daughter told me, during an argument that when I’m really sick my mind, emotions, and heart get all crazy and I take it out on her. At the time I didn’t see it. I do now, except for the heart part because I’ll always love her. I’ll put it in writing and send it out to the cyber world. You were right, you saw something that was different about me and voiced it. You did as so many of our family members and friends do. Unfortunately it’s done without the knowledge and understanding of “why”.
What we need as mast cell disease survivors, is compassion and kindness. Understanding the physiology of the disease helps with that. Understanding that when you see the signs of irritability, or tears that its not judgment and anger we need, its understanding and kindness in pointing out in a gentle way that perhaps we need some medication because the mast cells are acting up.
It’s not us, as a person.
It’s the mast cells. It’s the disease.
Perhaps there are small ways your kids can be involved in pointing out you are more irritable today…without judgement..with a desire to help not hinder. Stickers or magnets on the fridge perhaps as a way of communicating without confrontation. Smiley faces or angry faces, whatever works. Might even work for spouses and other family. It’s a difficult subject to bring up especially when the person isn’t themselves at the time.
For friends and family, spouses involved with caring for someone with mast cell disease. Educate yourselves as much as possible. We didn’t ask to be sick. We can’t help it, nor can we completely control everything about our bodies at will. We strive to, but perhaps we just aren’t there yet. A kind word, a phone call, a visit means more than you know.
Isolation is one of the most difficult parts of mast cell disease or any invisible disease. In order to control the mast cells we need to have a very controlled environment, with food, with smells, with stress, with activity.
Everything about life changes. It’s a grieving process for everyone involved, since life will not be what you had planned it to be.
Be gentle with each other.
Be kind with your words.
Be there with your actions expressing your love and understanding.
only now we are having to deal daily with more than most people could handle in a lifetime.
You’ll notice I left out the day I am on in the Self-Love Challenge. This is because, for me, it will continue on for as long as I have. I discovered after peeling back the layers over the years the last and hopefully final layer is learning to love and value myself as the being I intellectually know I am.
Deanna, over at Adoptee Restoration is the inspiration for todays words and also the fact that right now, in this very moment I need so badly to know I am loved and to get that, I must look inside.
How terrible it is to be ravaged by doubt as a human being, an adopted being, a lost street person or anyone that has suffered in this world and perhaps been shunned How sad to not know the impact we make on others, to not have the faith to know that we matter, that we are cherished. These are traits of many, not just adoptees. In adoption these beliefs are hardwired in and we wander through life wondering and trying to figure out what it is that makes life so difficult for us. Turns out, its those deep seated beliefs, that we are unlovable, even though we the first ones to give, the unworthy even thought we are the first to praise others.
I look at “her”….that little girl that I will probably post many pictures of as I get ready to decide which ones will go in my books. I am struck by the blank, lost, and forgotten look. She is me..she needs to be loved and nurtured. I need constant reminding of that. A persons heart is like a gas tank. It needs to be constantly topped up with fuel if we expect it to work sufficiently, to have energy to move forward. When these tanks are low or empty in some cases, our energy is the same..non existent.
I went to an I CAN DO IT conference last April in Vancouver. Hay House puts them on. I had been told by others that once you go to one, you will always go back again. Because I was getting ready to publish and I am in line with their beliefs I decided to go. My body fights against these things by setting off the mast cell cascade that leads to anaphylaxis and it was making it clear I should say home, where my environment is controlled.
I’ve never been one to avoid a challenge in that sense and something was pulling me, pushing me to go, so I went.
I found out it was true what others had said about going back, about being inspired, about feeling the LOVE and CONNECTION.
You could feel the energy in the room. You could almost taste the sweetness of loving words floating from the stage. I was soaking it up, word by word and wrapping my fragile, weakened heart in the love that was so profoundly there with these strangers. Wayne Dyer spoke all morning and one sentence he said, penetrated my soul deeply.
What if….what if we lived our lives from a place of love instead? Imagine that. Instead of coming from the pain body, the hurt heart..if we could get out of ourselves and our ego’s just long enough to see the other person, really see them and come from a place of love. I don’t mean the superficial coats we all wear. Those brightly coloured coats of anger and hostility and defensiveness..i mean the real essence of the person. Their heart, their goodness, their true being. What if we chose to look there, instead of our own fear based projections.
Come from a place of Love, Come from a place of Love, not fear.
Our complete purpose on this earth and in this life is to do just that. So it’s difficult..big deal. It’s what matters in the end. It’s what matters now .
There are only four questions of value in life.
Yet, to come from a place of love takes practice. That little adopted girl up there never felt love, never knew love. She lives within this grownup middle aged body and needs reassurance, not rejection. Love, not anger and patience. Unfortunately, or fortunately I get that it has to come from within. It would be helpful to have the luxury of outside confirmation but ultimately the love for her has to be found within.
Come from a place of LOVE, not fear.
What will matter in the final days of our lives is love, nothing more.
Today I will nurture that inner child with love and acceptance. It wasn’t her fault. She is worthy and wanted, giving and of grace.
She is Love, pure and simple LOVE. | 2019-04-20T13:13:23Z | https://clairehitchon.com/tag/fear/ |
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How many books are suppose to be in this series or is this the last one?
4.5 Stars! Review to come! I adored this sequel.
I just love this series so much!!!
i’m honestly overwhelmed by how good this series is!
Wow, this was brilliant fun and in my opinion even better than the first in the series. I think this one gave me all those nostalgic feelings of when I first read Harry Potter, and I couldn't help but to fall in love with the world once again and get emotionally invested in the characters. There was so much to like in this book, and Morrigan's story felt a bit darker and the stakes were higher too. I think if you like the first you will love the second!
This book continues where the first one lea Wow, this was brilliant fun and in my opinion even better than the first in the series. I think this one gave me all those nostalgic feelings of when I first read Harry Potter, and I couldn't help but to fall in love with the world once again and get emotionally invested in the characters. There was so much to like in this book, and Morrigan's story felt a bit darker and the stakes were higher too. I think if you like the first you will love the second!
This book continues where the first one leaves off. After some troublesome trials in book 1 we know that many of the students were dropped without a chance of making it to the Wonderous Society, but now it is time for the ones who have made it to go to WunSoc and learn about just what they can do.
What I loved about this was seeing the streets that changed as you went down them and the markets which were filled with magic and mayhem. There are seasonal celebrations, festivals, dramatic events and wondrous surprises that Morrigan can barely believe. Nevermoor has so many secrets to offer if you can just start to understand it and believe in it, and this is the real beginning of Morrigan's time to explore.
When first one, then another went missing, Jupiter was away, searching constantly. His nephew Jack was occasionally by Morrigan’s side – when his schooling allowed – as was her best friend Hawthorne. But with the blackmailing threats focused on Morrigan’s group, she feared she would have no one left by her side. Everyone blamed her for the misfortunes that were happening – what could she do? And what had Ezra Squall to do with it all? The fear rippling through Nevermoor was infiltrating everyone.
Wow! What.A.Ride!! Wundersmith is the second in the Nevermoor series by Aussie author Jessica Townsend, and it is just as fantastical and exciting as the first. Fast paced with loads of action, plenty of magic and heart stopping tension, Wundersmith is one I highly recommend. But I also suggest Nevermoor be read first so the full benefit of the series is felt.
What can I say except I LOVE THIS SERIES.
Once again, Townsend pulls you into a world of wunder and whimsy, and doesn't let go. We follow Morrigan as she begins classes as the Wundrous Society, and follow her on a journey about belonging and finding yourself.
Like many of the great classics of children's literature, Townsend plays with the fallibility of adults. What do you do when the people who are supposed to look out for you, to know what to do when faced with challenges, aren't there to help? What can I say except I LOVE THIS SERIES.
Like many of the great classics of children's literature, Townsend plays with the fallibility of adults. What do you do when the people who are supposed to look out for you, to know what to do when faced with challenges, aren't there to help? What do you do when well-meaning adults make choices that ultimately harm you or your friends? What do you do when those with power actively wield that power in harmful ways? Townsend explores these questions with care and nuance.
I love that in a book about inclusivity and belonging, Townsend has clearly taken the time to craft a world that is itself inclusive. We see a diverse range of characters, and that diversity never feels shoehorned in. We also don't get any of that, "Well, I never said Hermione wasn't Black!" retcon nonsense--characters of color are described as such, made plain in the text. All children deserve to feel seen in the stories they consume, and it's lovely to see a book that puts in the effort to include representation.
As a sequel, this is fantastic. The world is expanded, the stakes are raised, and it has a distinctly darker tone than the first book. The well-meaning adults feel more insidious, the villain is more villainous.
I can't wait for this serious to continue.
Number two in the series and a great follow up to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. The author advanced all the characters and the main story line but still left plenty hanging to keep our interest open for the next book.
Jessica Townsend writes well. These are really middle grade children's books but they still stand up for an adult reader. There is plenty of action as Morrigan begins to come into her powers. She is a little bit prone to throwing herself into situations she has been warned Number two in the series and a great follow up to Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow. The author advanced all the characters and the main story line but still left plenty hanging to keep our interest open for the next book.
Jessica Townsend writes well. These are really middle grade children's books but they still stand up for an adult reader. There is plenty of action as Morrigan begins to come into her powers. She is a little bit prone to throwing herself into situations she has been warned about, regardless of her own or anyone else's danger but I guess if she was more sensible the story would not be so much fun.
Five glorious stars. I’m obsessed.
Oh my gosh, this cover is too perfect. I AM SO HYPED!
I MAY have this preordered and there MAY be a countdown on my phone to the release date.
*SQUEAL* THERE'S A TITLE NOW!!!!!!!!
After having barely passed her trials, Mog is left confused and bewildered. Saying anything more about the finale of the first book or elaborating further on the title of this book, will amount to revealing spoilers for the first book. So, I'll keep mum.
This book gives more reasons to the reader to draw parallels with Harry Potter. The stand-offs with the adversary, questioning one's own goodness, and an outlandishly faithful, loyal and protective parental figure will stir all those feelings inside you.
But, for me, I consider HP as the trope that the Nevermoor exploits and masters beautifully!
And the fact, that I can forget my adult problems and be a child again while in this whimsically crafted universe is a reason enough for me to read each and every book in the series that are yet to come out.
After the wundrously magical and funny Nevermoor - The Trials of Morrigan Crow our main protagonist returns picking up where we left off. Having successfully made it through the trials in book one Morrigan will join Hawthorne and seven other scholars in Unit 919 studying at the prestigious Wundrous Society. The unit will need all there knacks as they navigate their ways through a challenging 6 months.
Morrigan will have to fight through the stigma of being a Wundersmith in a land that fears them. After the wundrously magical and funny Nevermoor - The Trials of Morrigan Crow our main protagonist returns picking up where we left off. Having successfully made it through the trials in book one Morrigan will join Hawthorne and seven other scholars in Unit 919 studying at the prestigious Wundrous Society. The unit will need all there knacks as they navigate their ways through a challenging 6 months.
Morrigan will have to fight through the stigma of being a Wundersmith in a land that fears them. Trying to control her abilities while learning about her kinds history is made even further complicated by one of her own who is currently banished doing everything in his power to make her, against her will, realize her full potential.
This book follows on from, “Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow.” We met Morrigan in the first book, where we discovered her story. Cursed, she was destined to die on her eleventh birthday; plus all of the bad luck that occurs is blamed on her. However, before her fate overtakes her, she is whisked away by a man called Jupiter North to the secret city of Nevermoor, where she is given the chance to join the Wundrous Society.
However, of course, despite having escaped her fate, life is not going This book follows on from, “Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow.” We met Morrigan in the first book, where we discovered her story. Cursed, she was destined to die on her eleventh birthday; plus all of the bad luck that occurs is blamed on her. However, before her fate overtakes her, she is whisked away by a man called Jupiter North to the secret city of Nevermoor, where she is given the chance to join the Wundrous Society.
My eleven year old daughter loves this series, but, without doubt, these books are designed to appeal to adults as well as children. At just over 400 pages, this has enough depth to offer more than the average novel aimed at older children. With Morrigan’s patron, Jupiter North, away, she is, again, very much on her own and there is a real sense of danger in these pages, which will entice the reader to want to read on. Overall, this is an excellent sequel.
I've just finished this book and I'm struggling to figure out the best way to sum up just how much I loved it. I can say with confidence that the Nevermoor series has already earned it's place amongst my favourite books. I adore Morrigan Crow, she is such a wonderful character, but it's not just her, it's Jupiter, Hawthorne, Fenestra, the hotel, the brilliantly crafted world that Jessica Townsend is sharing.
I'm so excited for the next one (release date unknown), but in the meantime, I wouldn't I've just finished this book and I'm struggling to figure out the best way to sum up just how much I loved it. I can say with confidence that the Nevermoor series has already earned it's place amongst my favourite books. I adore Morrigan Crow, she is such a wonderful character, but it's not just her, it's Jupiter, Hawthorne, Fenestra, the hotel, the brilliantly crafted world that Jessica Townsend is sharing.
Hach... vom Inhalt her kann ich bei einem zweiten Teil natürlich nicht viel sagen.
Trotzdem weiterhin meine Empfehlung für diese Reihe! Auch Band 2 hat mich auf jeder Seite wieder begeistert und ich war nach nur wenigen zeilen wieder in der Welt von Morrigan Crow, Nevermoor und jetzt auch der Wundrous Society (Wie heisst sie auf deutsch eigentlich?). Ich liebe Jessica Townsends Schreibstil: So wunderschön beschreibend und eindringlich, dass man mitten drin ist und alles gut nachvollziehen kann. Hach... vom Inhalt her kann ich bei einem zweiten Teil natürlich nicht viel sagen.
Miss Morrigan Crow, calamitous young lady of the Wintersea Republic is now preparing to become an esteemed scholar of the Wundrous Society, accompanying eight fellow students including the marvellous Hawthorne. Although compelled to confidentiality considering the dastardly mayhem instigated by Wundersmith Ezra Squall, Morrigan's Wundersmith ability is discovered and unscrupulously, an unknown antagonist is conspiring towards the extraordinary children with a bizarre series of anonymous notes an Miss Morrigan Crow, calamitous young lady of the Wintersea Republic is now preparing to become an esteemed scholar of the Wundrous Society, accompanying eight fellow students including the marvellous Hawthorne. Although compelled to confidentiality considering the dastardly mayhem instigated by Wundersmith Ezra Squall, Morrigan's Wundersmith ability is discovered and unscrupulously, an unknown antagonist is conspiring towards the extraordinary children with a bizarre series of anonymous notes and peculiar stipulations.
🌻 Trigger warnings for child abuse, emetophobia, kidnapping, captivity, blackmail, mild violence, bullying, and discrimination.
Morrigan zbožňuju čím dál tím víc a fantazii Jessicy Townsend taky!
it was a slow start, but man the end! I liked it a lot. And I love how Morrigan is growing and HAWTHORNE IS AMAZING. I love their friendship. And I love how MOrrigan finally has people who support and love her unconditionally!
Ahoy there me mateys! If ye haven’t read the first book in this series, nevermoor, then ye might want to skip this post and go read the first book. Worth the read. If ye keep reading this log then ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . . . . .
I absolutely loved the first book and the crew has been saying that the second book was even better. I concur. This was amazing! It was so wonderful to be back with Morrigan and the lovely crew in Nevermoor. Morrigan has made it into the Ahoy there me mateys! If ye haven’t read the first book in this series, nevermoor, then ye might want to skip this post and go read the first book. Worth the read. If ye keep reading this log then ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . . . . .
I absolutely loved the first book and the crew has been saying that the second book was even better. I concur. This was amazing! It was so wonderful to be back with Morrigan and the lovely crew in Nevermoor. Morrigan has made it into the Wundrous Society but her first year of lessons are not at all what she expected. Everyone seems out to get her – teachers, her fellow students, and the evil Wundersmith himself, Ezra Squall.
I absolutely loved Morrigan’s classes and the differences between the teachers and subject matter. I adored the mystery of the missing people and where they end up. I love Morrigan’s best friend, Hawthorne Swift. I loved the reasons behind the blackmail and how it was resolved. I thought the world-building was as stellar as in the previous book and loved how Nevermoor’s history is delved into. I absolutely loved the forgotten character (what’s her name again?) and her role in the book. I continue to love Jupiter and Jack. And the wonderful talking cat. The ending was perfect.
This book cast a spell on me and I want more mateys! I will definitely be reading these books again. And if ye haven’t begun this series . . . what are ye blasted fools waiting on!?! Arrr!
One of the difficulties for the Tales of Morrigan Crow is that it is following on from a giant.
There is more than just a little of Harry Potter in the series.
All I'll say about that is whether you love this series or not will probably have a lot to do with how you feel about those similarities. For some it will be a ripoff, for others it will be an influence.
Personally, I love it and I love the world that Jessica Townsend is building. It's working for me on every level.
This book, this series, is so wonderful and mesmerizing! Nevermoor is incredible and I want to explore it so much more.
I'm so happy that the second book has been as good to me as the first.
I read Nevermoor earlier in the year and it became one of my all-time favourite books. I wanted to re-read Nevermoor before the sequel, and I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy it as much (which happens sometimes) but it was just as fantastic and made me feel right at home.
This goes as no surprise to anyone who has had to listen to me talk about how much I loved the first book, but guess what? I LOVE THE SECOND ONE JUST AS MUCH.
Why? Because it’s magicalfunwhimsicalwittyandstupendouslyamazing! Yeah. You read that right. It’s one word good.
Morrigan is now a junior member of Wunsoc and while she thought the trials ended last year she’s come to find out more await her. There’s blackmail, disappearances, a ****boring**** class schedule, dragons, the black market, and This goes as no surprise to anyone who has had to listen to me talk about how much I loved the first book, but guess what? I LOVE THE SECOND ONE JUST AS MUCH.
Morrigan is now a junior member of Wunsoc and while she thought the trials ended last year she’s come to find out more await her. There’s blackmail, disappearances, a ****boring**** class schedule, dragons, the black market, and epic parties. | 2019-04-20T09:16:46Z | https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36260006-wundersmith?ac=1&from_search=true |
1998-12-22 Application filed by Thouin; Mark E., Cleghorn; Kevin R. filed Critical Thouin; Mark E.
The frangible card with a sealed compartment has a top sheet and a bottom sheet made from a synthetic, polymeric, plastic material, both sheets being substantially rigid and being sized and shaped substantially in the form of a conventional credit card, and thus being adapted for transport on or about the person in a wallet or billfold. An information storage medium, such as paper, film, or magnetic storage media, is interleaved between the top and bottom sheets. The top and bottom sheets are sealed around their periphery, preferably by ultrasonic welding, defining a sealed compartment. The top and bottom sheets are opaque in order to preserve the information stored in the sealed compartment in privacy. The top and bottom sheets are scored along one edge, so that access to the compartment is gained by breaking the card along the scored edge. Paper money or other flat valuables may be stored in the compartment with the information storage medium.
The present invention relates to devices having compartments for storing paper money, documents, and other printed matter while retaining personal privacy, and particularly to a frangible card laminated at the edges with a sealed compartment.
In modern society, people sometimes have a need for carrying documents or other valuables on their person, or for giving personal documents or valuables to a family member or loved one, while desiring to retain a degree of privacy or security towards the item. A common example relates to persons who have medical conditions requiring specialized treatment in the event of emergency. Such individuals may wish to have a card or other document which they may carry in a wallet, purse or other container which they would normally expect to have on or about their person, but who would prefer to carry the information about in a form in which the information is not open or in plain view. Such individuals may desire information concerning their medical condition to remain private in the event the wallet or purse is lost or mislaid and subsequently inspected by a stranger, or in the event curious or snooping individuals should come into possession of the card.
Another situation which frequently arises concerns parents who send their children away to college. The parent may wish the child to have a card available for emergencies, which may have information such as the name address and telephone of persons to contact in the event of an emergency which incapacitates the child. At the same time, the parent may wish to make a conditional gift of cash to the child for immediate use in an emergency, but retain sufficient control over the money to know whether it has been spent in order to request an accounting of the nature of the emergency. It would be desirable to have a portable, sealable container which may be carried on or about the person conveniently in which both the information card and money might be stored.
Several inventions relate to personal information cards, sealable document containers, and devices for preserving the privacy of documentary information. U.S. Pat. No. 2,408,626, issued Oct. 1, 1946 to L. B. Green, describes a device for dating documents and preserving their authenticity, in the form of an integral folder and cover which may be folded and sealed separately using gummed adhesive tabs along their edges, and a record sheet inserted in the cover portion. The original document and the record sheet are randomly perforated simultaneously to prevent alteration of the original, and the document may be mailed to obtain a postmark. U.S. Pat. No. 2,431,561, issued Nov. 25, 1947 to S. Hyman, shows a folding photo and match bookholder having a secret pocket under the matchbook held closed by a lug or by flaps.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,857, issued Nov. 20, 1979 to J. R. Koza, teaches a game or lottery ticket which preserves the privacy and security of the winning information, the ticket having a base sheet with numbers or prizes printed thereon covered by a material which may be rubbed off, and a cover sheet, the sheets being adhered by adhesive around their periphery and having "postage stamp perforations" disposed inside the adhesive along three of the four edges of the sheets. An optional bottom sheet may be used to ensure security of the numbers when they are printed by an impact printer which may leave indentations on the base sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,076, issued Jul. 2, 1991 to J. J. Danelski, describes a product having a concealed message, consisting of a sheet of paper, paperboard, cardboard, or the like with ink printing covered by a transparent film layer. Some of the areas are bonded with a heat sealable coating so that the ink comes off with the transparent film, while other areas are bonded with a releasable coating so that the ink does not come off with the transparent film. A hidden message is revealed under the areas where the ink comes off when the transparent film is removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,380,046, issued Jan. 10, 1995 to G. W. Stephens, discloses a personal information packet having a foldable paper card inserted into a transparent, thermoplastic envelope with exposed printing advising the authorities how to open the envelope. The printing includes a dashed line around the periphery of the envelope which may be cut with scissors. The packet has a hole through it so that a child's shoelace may be inserted through the hole and the packet interlaced in the child's shoe. While the patent does not describe the device as being flexible, the manner of use permits that inference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,355, issued Jul. 28, 1998 to G. W. Main, shows a single unit phone card including two sheets laminated together, the entire assembly then being laminated with plastic film. United Kingdom Patent No. 2,232,924, published Jan. 2, 1991, teaches a ticket with a voucher attached to the back of the ticket by parallel adhesive strips. The voucher is attached to the adhesive strips by perforations, so the voucher may be torn away from the ticket, permitting advertising and promotional information to be printed on both sides of the voucher.
Containers for information cards which are only sealed on three of their four sides are not calculated to deter the casual, idle curiosity seeker from pulling out the information card if the container should come into his possession. Containers which are sealed, but flexible, offer no protection to the information storage medium from damage by folding, and if made from paper of plastic, pose a risk of damage by accidental tearing of the container, the storage medium, or both. Information cards which are laminated with a rigid, transparent plastic offer no privacy protection for the information. Oversized containers are inconvenient to carry on or about the person. There is a need for a compact, relatively rigid frangible card with a sealed compartment adapted for carrying on the person which affords the bearer some degree of protection from unwanted disclosure of the contents of the compartment.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a frangible card with a sealed compartment solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The frangible card with a sealed compartment has a top sheet and a bottom sheet made from a synthetic, polymeric, plastic material, both sheets being substantially rigid and being sized and shaped substantially in the form of a conventional credit card, being adapted for transport on or about the person in a wallet or billfold. An information storage medium, such as paper, film, or magnetic storage media, is interleaved between the top and bottom sheets. The top and bottom sheets are sealed around their periphery, preferably by ultrasonic welding, defining a sealed compartment. The top and bottom sheets are opaque in order to preserve the information stored in the sealed compartment in privacy. The top and bottom sheets are scored along one edge, so that access to the compartment is gained by breaking the card along the scored edge. Paper money or other flat valuables may be stored in the compartment with the information storage medium.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a frangible card with a sealed compartment in which medical or other sensitive information may be carried on or about the person for use in emergencies, while preserving the information in some degree of privacy by sealing the information in an opaque plastic card which may be broken open to retrieve the information.
It is another object of the invention to provide a non-reusable frangible card with a sealed compartment in which paper money may be stored together with emergency information, the card having a plastic edge which must be broken in order to gain access to the contents of the compartment so that tampering with the card is immediately apparent.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a convenient, portable card which may be carried on or about the person having a sealed compartment for containing an information storage medium recording useful information concerning the bearer which may be readily accessed by police or emergency medical personnel in case of an emergency while deterring access to the information by the casual bystander by providing the compartment with a frangible edge.
Still another object of the invention is to a means for carrying information or valuables on the person in a frangible card with a sealed compartment according the information or valuables a degree of privacy which may be economically manufactured from synthetic, polymeric, plastic material.
FIG. 1 is an environmental, perspective view of a frangible card with a sealed compartment according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a partially exploded view of a frangible card with a sealed compartment according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a frangible card with a sealed compartment according to the present invention with the frangible end bent and partially torn along the score line.
FIG. 4 is a bottom perspective view of a frangible card with a sealed compartment according to the present invention.
The present invention is a frangible card with a sealed compartment, designated generally as 10 in FIGS. 1 through 4. The frangible card 10 includes a top sheet 12 and a bottom sheet 14, both of which are made from a synthetic, polymeric, plastic material. The sheets 12 and 14 are substantially rigid and generally rectangular in shape, being sized and shaped so that, when the sheets 12 and 14 are bonded together, the frangible card is sized and shaped substantially in the form of a conventional credit card. Thus, the frangible card 10 is adapted for transport on or about the person in a wallet, billfold, purse, or a shirt pocket.
An information storage medium 16 is interleaved between the top 12 and bottom 14 sheets. The information storage medium 16 may be paper, cardboard, or other flat material on which data 18 may be written or printed. An example of such information might include the bearer's name and address, the name, address and telephone number of next of kin or person to be contacted in case of emergency, medical conditions requiring special treatment in case of emergency, such as blood type and blood disorders, heart conditions, drug allergies, diabetes, etc. Of course, other types of information of a sensitive nature may also be recorded on the information storage medium 16. The information storage medium 16 might also be in a form which stores data in a condensed format, such as microfilm or magnetic tape, Such a medium 16 might be useful for condensed copies of EKG tracings, for example.
The information storage medium 16 is placed between the top 12 and bottom 14 sheets, which are then joined together about their periphery so that the top 12 and bottom 14 sheets define a sealed compartment 20 in which the storage medium 16 is stored. The top 12 and bottom 14 sheets may be joined by any method conventionally known in the art, such as vibratory welding, ultrasonic welding, adhesive glues, nylon stitching, or staples. In the preferred embodiment, the sheets 12 and 14 are joined by ultrasonic welding. As shown in FIG. 2, the sheets 12 and 14 are joined around the periphery on all four sides, the position of the welding, adhesive, or other joining lines relative to the information storage medium 16 being shown by the lines 22a, 22b, 22c, and 22d. In the preferred embodiment, an additional joining line 24 is used to join the information storage medium 16 to the top and bottom sheets along one edge of the card 10 for a purpose described infra. As noted in FIG. 2, the joining lines 22b, 22c, and 22d on three sides are outside of the periphery of the information storage medium 16, so that the information storage medium 16 is not joined to the top 12 and bottom 14 sheets along at least three sides.
The top sheet 12 includes a line 26 scored on its exterior surface 28 transversely across one edge of the card 10. The bottom sheet 14 also includes a line 30 scored on its interior surface 32 transversely across the same edge of the card 10 in registration with the score line 26 on the top sheet 12. The score line 30 on the bottom sheet is neither visible nor palpable from the exterior of the card 10, as reflected in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 3, when it is desired to access the information storage medium 16, the card is bent and torn along the score line 26, leaving a tab 34 which breaks away from the main body 36 of the card 10 to open the sealed compartment 20. In the preferred embodiment, the information storage medium 16 is joined to the top 12 and bottom 14 sheets at the tab 34, so that the information storage medium is withdrawn from the sealed compartment 20 as the tab 34 is pulled away from the main body 36 of the card 10, as shown in FIG. 1. The information storage medium 16 may be perforated transversely adjacent the tab 34 so that the tab may be torn off and discarded. Of course, once the tab 34 has been broken from the main body 36, the card 10 cannot be reassembled, so that it will be obvious that the card 10 has been tampered with or accessed. As also shown in FIG. 1, paper money A or other flat, sheet type valuables or documents may be folded and stored loosely in the sealed compartment 20 with the information storage medium 16.
The top sheet 12 and the bottom sheet 14 are opaque in order to preserve the contents of the sealed compartment 20 with a relative degree of privacy. The exterior surface 28 of the top sheet may have indicia 38 imprinted thereon. The printed indicia 38 may disclose that the frangible card 10 is an emergency card, or it may bear no relation to the information storage function of the card 10. The scored line 26 may or may not be visible or palpable, depending on the details of manufacture. The exterior surface 42 of the bottom sheet 14 may also have indicia 40 imprinted thereon. The indicia 40 may include instructions to advise police or emergency personnel of the nature of the information contained in the sealed compartment 20 and how to access the information, or the indicia 40 may bear no relation to the information storage function of the card 10.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that although the means for accessing the contents of the sealed compartment has been described as a scored line 26, 30, that other means of weakening the card 10 along an edge thereof in order to access the contents of the compartment 20 may be employed, the essence of the invention consisting of an opaque plastic card having a sealed compartment therein for the storage of information, documents, and valuables, which may and must be broken in order to access the contents of the compartment.
wherein said top sheet has an exterior surface and said bottom sheet has an interior surface, said frangible means comprising a first line scored in the exterior surface of said top sheet, and a second line scored in the interior surface of said bottom sheet, the score lines being registered and extending transversely across an end of the card to define a tab and a main body, whereby upon breaking said tab along said score lines access to said sealed compartment is obtained.
2. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said top sheet is joined to said bottom sheet by vibratory welding.
3. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said top sheet is joined to said bottom sheet by ultrasonic welding.
4. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said top sheet is adhesively joined to said bottom sheet.
5. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said top sheet is joined to said bottom sheet by nylon stitching.
6. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said top sheet is joined to said bottom sheet by stapling.
7. The frangible card according to claim 1, wherein said frangible card is sized and shaped in the form of a conventional credit card, whereby said card is capable of transport on or about a person.
8. The frangible card according to claim 1, further comprising an information storage medium stored in said sealed compartment.
9. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium comprises paper.
10. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium comprises cardboard.
11. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium comprises film.
12. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium comprises magnetic tape.
13. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium is bonded to said tab, so that said information storage medium is removable from said sealed compartment by breaking said tab from said main body and pulling said tab away from said main body.
14. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said information storage medium comprises a flat material capable of exhibiting data in written or printed form.
15. The frangible card according to claim 8, wherein said frangible card is sized and dimensioned for transport on or about a person.
US1180542A (en) * 1914-04-29 1916-04-25 Ephraim H Roden Mailing device.
US1200735A (en) * 1915-07-13 1916-10-10 Jacob J Klein Envelop. | 2019-04-19T15:51:50Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US6116655A/en |
Like most people outside Britain (and, it seems, like most British people, politicans and pundits as well as voters) I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the detailed implications of a Leave vote until it actually happened. Now that it has happened, the details matter. In particular, it seems that Boris Johnson and other leaders of the Leave campaign (though presumably not UKIP) are hoping to promote either the “Switzerland” or “Norway” options. I thought I’d check on the implications of these options for migration policy and AFAICT, both Norway and Switzerland are Schengen visa countries. So, on the face of it, those Leavers who supported continued market access on the Norway/Switerland model have voted for removal of existing controls on migration rather than the imposition of new ones.
I assume that Johnson and others have in mind a negotiation in which Britain (or England) gets the market access bits of the Norway/Switzerland options, while maintaining the existing opt-outs negotiated as an EU member. But why should the EU offer this? In particular, if Scotland becomes independent and joins the EU, the Scots will presumably want to maintain free access to England, while the rest of the EU would be unlikely to allow Scotland to remain under English border controls. In any case, the whole logic of the EU position is that Britain should not be able to pick and choose.
On the basis of an admittedly perfunctory search, I haven’t been able to find more than passing discussion of this question. Can anyone point me to more comprehensive analysis?
Answer ? Me, no, sorry.
But that an interesting thought trail, JQ.
Here is Owen Jones’ youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FqAaD_lsRw from before the vote.
Its a useful analysis and spot on in hindsight but its more about strategic what-ifs? The conclusion seems to be doom and gloom so why would he bother going further. So the devilish detail you are after seems to be more in the unthinkable department……A bit like contemplating how to rebuild Britain after an accidental nuclear strike from Russia….something best left to Hollywood to explore but not done because the British film industry is serious and doesnt indulge in such pulp except with a very big cheak in mouth (Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer comes to mind).
A further reason why there may be nothing sensible is that all of the relatively intelligent ‘establishment’ analysts didnt support ‘Leave’ and so didnt analyse it’s ramifications for fear of being labelled a closet Brexiter. Reportedly the yellow press was all for leaving so perhaps they have offerings. But on the other hand could anything useful be expected to come from UK equivalents of Devine and Bolt whose papers arent greatly noted for analysis. Besides, analysis usually starts with rational options to explore but this didnt seem one…..so calm analysis seems unlikely.
Perhaps Boris and Nigel and Gove have said something (albeit unreliable/unachievable). Their chats have been mined for absurdities. Perhaps you can mine them for more telling sound bites on where next? Even if such a channelling exercise unearths no more logic than Trump like sound bites, at least you would have an objective assessment of what position they notionally have and would be actually be taking to the EU negotiating table (a null counterfactual result is still a result).
Finally maybe there have been some second string ‘consultants’ or dodgy academics comparable to climate change denial supporters who have ideas and would most likely be brought on board to give flesh to EU negotiations (speaking of which what is the IPA saying especially after John Winston Howard’s lauding of independence today – see the Daily Telegraph ).
“High-profile pro-Brexit campaigners propose an “Australian-style points based immigration system” if the country chooses to leave the European Union.
The automatic right of all EU citizens to come to live and work in the UK will end, as will EU control over vital aspects of our social security system,” it said.
The idea of a points based system is that certain skills and qualifications are worth more than others to an economy. The more in demand the skill is, the more points a prospective immigrant will get. Those who reach a threshold would be eligible for a visa. This allows countries to tailor immigration to their needs. For example, Australia is currently accepting more skilled chefs, mechanics, architects and nurses, because it doesn’t have enough of them.
The Vote Leave campaign’s statement said there would be no changes for Irish citizens, as their rights to reside and work in Britain are already protected in the law.
There would be no change for EU citizens already lawfully resident in the country, either. “These EU citizens will automatically be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK and will be treated no less favorably than they are at present,” it said.
Britain already uses points and criteria for some visas given to non-EU immigrants, and the statement did not make clear whether the proposed system would differ.” CNN.
Britain can extend and amend its points system from non-EU to EU immigrants. It’s no big deal IMO.
Some people think the British economy can flourish outside the EU. I am not sure I would like the writer’s overall ideology (Hedge fund manager in London) but it is another opinion from inside the City. He shoots holes in the claim that the EU is about free trade.
“It is a customs union with an average tariff wall of 3-4 per cent, a tariff on cars of 10 per cent and an average tariff on agricultural products of 18 per cent. This is not only (in the case of agriculture) morally indefensible. It is also bad economics.
The reason trade agreements with the EU take so long is that they have to be agreed and ratified by 28 (now 27) separate member states. The EU-Canada trade deal, which is still not in force, was held up for years by a dispute with Greece about the naming rights for feta cheese. The EU has only 32 trade agreements in force, mostly with very small countries. It still has no trade agreement in place with Japan, the US, India, China or Australia.
You’re right, both are part of shengan. Interestingly, Switzerland is currently trying to negotiate with the EU as the result of a referendum to restrict immigration, bringing it into conflict with EU law (free movement of people). Before the referendum, voters were warned that they risked having ALL bilateral agreements thrown out, if it was passed. It did, and the result was people started to realize just how coupled Swiss and EU agreements were e.g. Exchange students couldn’t visit EU UNOs, uni research funding cut (horizon) etc. Rational view was that Switzerland would never again get as good a deal as historical agreements, in any renegotiations, especially in the new take it or leave it environment. Before the result, the populist SVP just talked of too many foreigners from the EU, the counter campaign failed to communicate the true impacts. Brexit has put even more pressure on the government to negotiate a way out superficially meeting both the referendum result (legally binding) but still keeping EU happy.
So I just have to laugh when I see Brexit pointing to “the Swiss model”.
Peter Hitchens is a self-described Burkean Conservative. This means there isn’t much that I would agree with him on (me being a Marxian autonomist of sorts. But one thing Burkean Conservatives tend to be realistic about is power. In this context I mean geostrategics and realpolitik. They may idealise themselves but their analysis of equally ruthless or at least self-interested opponents is generally spot on. This is an excellent article re European geostrategics and realpolitik. It demonstrates what the EU really is about. It is realistic about Germany and its power. It is not anti-German.
If you have in mind the deal negotiated by Cameron late last year and signed in February 2016, then this deal is gone already because it was contingent on the outcome of the referndum and not on what the sovereign, the Queen’s parliament, will do next.
I find The Guardian as well as EU documents to be good sources for elementary institutional facts.
French and German papers are another source. Can’t read Italian, so I don’t know.
Fact check: If a person whose original country of origin is Syria has lived in Germany for 8 years, has shown to have ‘integrated’ sufficiently (German language, culture…), and has no criminal record, or is married to a German citizen for a specified period and has no criminal record can apply for citizenship. Upon obtaining citizenship, a passport is issued. In general, an immigrant may have to renounce is original citizenship.
Which refugee from the war ravaged countries of Iraq and Syria, who have come to Germany during the past 1.5 to 2 years would qualify?
I checked the information of one country on the list against independent information about the same country before linking to it.
I have a post with two links in moderation. I felt obliged to provide references to substantiate my fact check.
Efficiency, effectiveness and transparency are words that gained prominence during the latest globalisation era. Whatever happened to checking on the effectiveness of transparency?
The EU is one of the most transparent organisations I’ve come across. Documents are published in a timely fashion on the EU websites in 23 languages. Furthermore, the categorisation and the web-design doesn’t change as frequently as that of other institutions (eg UniSuper).
Did the proverbial Wall Street bankers not read these easily available documents or did they deliberately ignore them when lending to Greece at German or Dutch bond rates on the expectation that they can force payment because the Greek bonds were denominated in Euros?
Surely, by now it is close to common knowledge that whenever financial market experts (ie members of the above set) point to increased volatility in financial markets that are readily observable to the public – shares, bonds and exchange rates – and the dangers for ‘the economy’, they really should tell the public by how much the value of their derivative portfolios has gone up.
The big secrecy issues in the EU I am aware of concern the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) negotiations and electronic communications surveillance.
I am not aware of evidence that the requirement for secrecy regarding the TTIP originated in the EU. On the contrary, there is evidence that parlamentarians in various EU countries as well as EU officials have fought for more transparency and so have people on the streets.
Owen Jones’s analysis and prediction based on it turned out spot on so far.
Applied Macroeconomics Professor Patrick Minford gave his explanation in favour of Brexit to UK committee, which included at least one former Member of the European Parlament. It is recorded on video.
A candidate for the IPA?
Minford was a leading adviser and ideological source for Thatcher, FWIW.
What pro-EU thinkers need to remember are that there are “d a m n e d if do and d a m n e d if you don’t” choices. There are also 50-50 choices. Being in or out of the EU is/was one of those choices for UK residents. There was no perfect solution and each choice carried risks, benefits and dilemmas of economic, political and moral natures.
The position we take depends on our assessments of risks (or costs) and benefits. Those of us leftists who supported Brexit (usually from afar on this blog and with no influence or vote in proceedings) made assessments from our broad knowledge of the power-centralising, wealth-centralising and wealth-concentrating nature of the neoliberal project. We also assessed that the EU had (a) always been a capitalist project with some statist amelioration but was now (b) a thoroughgoing late stage, neoliberal, capitalist project. On this basis it was best to wind back the undemocratic, neoliberal, centralising project, in our “leftist” judgement. This leaves a mess on the ground for the British, that is true. Frankly, all they have to do is vote for a Labour-Green-Socialist coalition and get cracking on fixing their country with Social Democratic initiatives. It ain’t that hard. If they don’t do this they will only have themselves to blame.
I’d second what Ernestine says about the EU and transparency. Complaints about the cumbersomeness of the Brussels bureaucracy are generally true, but it is also true that they are far more sincerely devoted to open government than any Australian or UK one. Indeed the problem in finding out things about the EU, its governance or its actions is not that they won’t tell you anything but they are prone to tell you absolutely everything.
And Ikonoclast, just how much chance do you think Social Democrat initiatives will have of triumphing in a xenophobic and embittered rump UK with its trade destroyed? After all, those pinko Scots and Irishmen (and in time Welshmen) will no longer be UK voters. Far more likely is a polity dominated by an alliance of old Etonians (newly poor now the City has gone) and Nigel Farage (now poorer than ever). After all, the Social Democrat tradition is far stronger in the remaining EU than it is in England.
Also my impression is that “little englander” Brexit voters are opposed not so much to immigration as such, but to *immigrant rights*.
Only about half of the immigrants to England are EU citizens, but they have attracted the worst objections. I think that because they have the right, without asking permission, to go to live to the UK or to leave it, and if they go to live in the UK they have much the same civil and many of the political rights of english citizens, as if they were immigrating from Hull to Bristol or from Bangor to Tunbridge.
That EU migrants have rights seems to greatly offend many Brexit voters.
When D Cameron tried to negotiate with the EU in advance of the referendum, his negotiating position was that the UK wanted to control immigration to the UK from the EU, but at the same time remain in the single market for everything else, including keeping unilateral freedom of *emigration* from the UK *to* the EU. In large part because most UK emigrants to the EU are older tory voters, who would cost a lot of money to the english NHS, and who then become large costs during the expensive last 20-30 years of their life to the healtcare budgets of other EU members.
The response was that lack of reciprocity was absolutely unacceptable, and that freedom of movement both ways is the cardinal goal of the single market. The reason for that is because the EU is designed to help meld the EU population a bit, by putting them in a “melting pot” of reciprocal immigration, with the inevitable cross-nationality marriages, children, troubles and successes. “Europe is made, now let’s make the europeans” could be the EU motto.
That empire gave such freedom only the the middle-upper and upper classes of Great Britain; the “home” working classes, never mind the poorer irish and scottish working classes or underclasses, had no such freedoms, only that work hard in insecure, unsafe jobs, for small wages, for the benefit of the middle-upper and upper classes.
If the current UK population votes Green-Socialist-Labor (depending on what’s available in their electorate) and holds this new coalition to its promises by large public demonstrations, they can start a full democratic socialist revolution pretty much straight away. Your statement assumes the current British people (including all current ethnic groups and immigrants) are somehow congenitally or socially incapable of creating a genuine democratic socialism. Applied to many other countries or ethnic mixes this formulation would immediately be recognised for what it is. Either that or you are assuming that a country which managed Parliamentary, democratic and industrial revolutions now can’t manage a socialist revolution.
I don’t think you understand how desperate and critical the social or rather class divide situation is becoming in the UK. It is ripe for a crisis followed by a re-formation of some kind. Now, of course there is no telling which direction this crisis may take. But belonging to the Neoliberal Empire of the EU is not going to help the UK one bit. Among many other things, the EMU (yes I know the UK wasn’t part of that) creates unworkable macroeconomics for the whole region. The EU will disintegrate, is disintegrating. from the unworkability of the EMU.
One of the details that people should pay attention to is that the so-called ‘referendum’ is actually a plebiscite ie it’s not legally binding. So probably Britain won’t leave the EU, the political elites won’t let it happen.
I’ve been wondering about that and thinking the elites might yet wriggle out of it.
What UKIP, B Johnson, and many other Brexit leaders don’t like about the EU immigration rules is that in effect they *restrict* immigration from outside the EU, and they have been very careful to avoid promising less immigration to the UK; their campaign goal was “take back *control* over immigration”, not less immigration. With national control over immigration they can greatly *expand* immigrant numbers, but from the poorest countries of the world, not from the EU, and on much harsher conditions. How are they going to sell this to their Brexit supporters? With clever wording, a speciality of the Eton and Oxford educated.
What the english Brexit leaders look to are Dubai, Kuwait, Singapore as models for London: they have at the same time negligible “immigration”, and large numberrs of “temporary guest workers” that are not counted as immigrants.
The english leaders of Brexit want to make their supporters and donors (older property owners, wealthy business owners, …) happy by letting them get lots of “temporary guest workers” from Bangladesh, Somalia, Kenya, Burma, Philippines, etc.: indentured servants. | 2019-04-19T14:24:33Z | https://johnquiggin.com/2016/06/28/the-schengen-option/ |
Admiral Dean walked in to his office, it was a pretty large room, for an office that is, there was some plain white paint on the walls and roof with a nice brown carpet covering the floor and a nice window behind my steel desk.
In the window you could see another building, mostly grey with some large white lines to indicate where the different offices where, most of them also had a window identical to mine, but between the buildings there was a little garden to look at.
Dean pulled out his little chair, it was a standard office chair but it was very comfortable and sturdy.
He then sat down and opened up his green laptop and pressed the power button, typed in the password ‘’Leanehound’’.
Leane was his wife and he loved dogs, he always had one.
We need another mechanic to fix the mechs in time for the assault, I have to supervise the progress so you have to find a mechanic and send him here ASAP.
He doesn’t have to be anything special; we just need someone who can follow orders.Dean proceeded to look at available crew in the Nebula, the human space explorers.
That was the one he needed, before bothering to look at the rest, thirty available crew showed up, four recommended, he read the recommended first.
Performance: A very experienced mechanic who has been on sixteen short missions and two long missions, mostly a hard worker but can get very frightened when things are really at stake.
Performance: A very high tempered mechanic who doesn’t go on long missions because others don’t like being around him for long, otherwise a very good mechanic who is rarely afraid, twenty-five short missions.
Performance: A self-confident mechanic who also studied science for a period of time, a fast worker but has a hard time following orders but still gets the job done most of the time, very good at improvising.
Nine short mission and one long mission.
Perfomance: A stunning mechanic with high expectations, still very young and not in full understanding of everything, he can do a good job inside his knowledge and he follows orders, two short missions.
Dean considered all of them.
Orique could be a good choice but this mission was in a dangerous zone, if the enemies were to attack he could be a lot less usefull.
Goldheim was a no, this was only a short mission so they shouldn’t need someone who could disturb the others, were at a tight schedule already.
Forsée was a good choice but in the end he went with Dimm, this could be a good chance to see his potential and he was good at following orders, which could really be needed in this tight schedule they had.
-WAKE UP VENUS! A female voice said.
-Wha? Venus replied as he slowly regained consciousness.
-Venus it’s nine already! The voice said.
-Mira, the academy lessons doesn’t start until evening today, Venus said.
Venus quickly goes out of the bed and stands in his and Miras Bedroom, it was mostly white on the walls and the roof, but the bed was black and so was most of the furniture, Mira thought it was ‘’artistic’’.
He walked into a restroom right beside the bedroom.
It was a standard white restroom with a shower, toilet and a washbasin, nothing special; he put on his clothing in a flash and hurried out into his office, a standard little home office with a desk, laptop and a lamp.
He hurried over to the desk and pulled out the small black office chair and sat down.
His laptop was already on, considering Mira knew what was on it, it wasn’t a big surprise.
You are needed in the Outer Nebula station, information is classified.
A small transport ship will pick you up at the academy, twelve hundred o clock.
This was amazing, missions were more fun than just studying at the academy, he was very excited for the mission.
-I will leave around eleven, Mira, Venus said.
-What are you supposed to do, nothing dangerous, right? Mira asked.
-It’s classified, but you know Nebula has security as their high- Venus replied when Mira interrupted and said: -est priority and bla bla bla, you said that a few hundred times.
Mira left the doorway and Venus heard the door open and close a little later, he should probably get ready to leave too.
Two hours later Venus was on the transport ship.
-Can you tell me my assignment pilot? Venus yelled.
-Negative, I haven’t heard what it is, the pilot replied.
A few hours later the ship arrived and Venus stepped of and the ship took off again instantly, must be a tight schedule.
Venus was greeted by the chief mechanic.
-Welcome, you must be Dimm, was it? The mechanic said.
-Yes I’m Dimm, chief mechanic, Venus replied quickly.
-Call me Arale, I need you to follow me.
Venus followed Arale through the space station, it was mostly grey walls but there was lots of crewmembers aboard so it didn’t feel alone, eventually there was also a door in the wall, it was still a large corridor at least 3 meters tall, which was probably an indication of the station being large.
After some time they saw a large door in the side with a sign saying ‘’Mech bay’’ above it, Arale went over and pulled the door open and as Arale and Venus walked through Venus saw the amazing room.
It was at least 20 meters tall, lots of people walked around and appeared to be building mechs, the huge metallic vehicles were all along the walls, there were also second floors on the sides of the room with another layer of mechs.
-I need you to go upstairs on the left and help Kim and Nina fixing the 3’rd mech from the right, they will brief you in what to do, Arale said.
-Okay Alice, how many mechs? Arale asked.
‘’We should have ar-‘’ Alice said when all of sudden a huge explosion came from the big gate to space at the end of the bay and flooded almost the entire bay.
Venus quickly ran against the door, Alice and Arale following close after him, when he reached the door he realized that they could not lose the Outer Nebula Station, that could cost them a great tactical location and lots of resources, way too many.
-Arale, evacuate, you’re the ranking officer, they need you more than they need me! Venus said as he noticed small pods, probably filled with Colleral soldiers flying right into the bay.
When Venus most officers would have said something like ‘’I should go down with the ship, not you’’ or ‘’I command you to go, I’ll stay’’ but Arale wasn’t stubborn or naïve, he just left with Alice, who Venus noticed had a huge bruise on her chin.
Venus realized that his chance of survival was very low but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, he saw a large wrench close by and decided it was the best kind of weapon around here, if he couldn’t reach a working mech.
He saw a mech, unfortunately it was on the second floor, he quickly ran over and grabbed the wrench then proceeded to quickly looked around, he noticed that the smoke the explosion had left covered a lot of the area but because the station could automatically block out breaches with force fields but I had to thing quickly, the force fields didn’t have unlimited energy.
I started sprinting for the ladder to the small second floor as the smoke seemed to provide cover but it also covered the Colleral, when I had almost reached the ladder I tripped over something and fell, quickly standing up because of the situation required it, he then quickly turned around and saw what tripped him.
It was a Colleral, it was also about to stand up, it was much taller than Venus, around 2.1 meters tall he assumed, slightly red skin and the some bones sticking out around the neck.
It was also covered in what looked like combat armor, grey with the Colleral sign on the kneepads and a helm covering the entire head with a small visor around the eyes, Colleral could breathe the same air as humans could but it slightly weakened them so they preferred the suits.
Before the humanoid could completely stand up Venus proceeded to hit it in the visor as hard as he could with the wrench, it broke and it was very shocked, the glass from the visor should make it even more troubling for it though.
The mech was more important than completely killing it so Venus quickly jumped on the ladder and started climbing it as quickly as he could but then he noticed that he had taken some small damage from the fall, making it troubling to climb but he still did it pretty fast.
The wounds would also be troubling but nothing he couldn’t handle.
None of those weapons could penetrate but if their ship fired at him he could be in trouble, if they had a ship of course, only the small shuttles had been confirmed.
He powered the weapons, they were big and had highly explosive rounds, it would easily be able to defeat the enemies in the room, and he didn’t know how many were outside though.
He pulled the trigger and the gatling gun like barrels started spinning, shortly after the bullets flew out and in a matter of seconds he had laid waste to the entire room, there didn’t seem to be any more living Colleral so he proceeded to activate the thrusters.
He quickly came over to the breach and the force field could easily be flown through, he was out in space in a matter of seconds.
He could see lots of stars and a huge purple nebula close by, that is how the station got its name, but he quickly noticed some pretty well camouflaged ships, shortly after he saw how large they were and that he had almost no chance to defeat them, even smaller one to escape.
While thinking about whether to engage or try to escape he didn’t notice that one ship had already detected him and was preparing weapons, Venus saw the missile just as it was about to hit him, but he couldn’t evade it.
After the missile impacted Venus noticed that he was still alive and conscious but barely, as his vision darkened he heard the friendly male voice from the mechs computer was talking.
-Weapon systems down, navigational systems down, medical support failing, power failing, the computer said before there was too little power, it was automatically redirected to medical support.
A few moments later his vision darkened completely.
Surprisingly, Venus opened his eyes again, everything was a little blurry but he thought he was in a spaceship with lots of other people; he started to hear lots of different voices.
All of sudden something grabbed his neck and turned his head, he looked at what he thought was some ones face.
-How? Venus tried to say and he thought it was understandable.
Venus vision began to clear up, he also felt the chains on his hands, and there were also some on his feet.
-How many others are here? Venus asked.
Venus looked over against the voice and noticed it was a pretty small man sitting close by a window, he was bald and wearing a green shirt, Venus couldn’t make out his pants though.
Venus started hearing low chatter around him; it was probably about the planet.
After some time the starship shook a little and then stopped, they had arrived.
All of sudden the chains opened and everyone stood up and started walking against the left wall, including Venus, when he was walking he felt something stinging in the neck, but not when he stood still, he assumed it was something that controlled some of his brain functions.
After some time the wall opened and everyone started walking through into large hallway of glass, through the glass they could see the planets surface and surprisingly for a prison planet it had a little of life, It was like one of the rainforests from earth, just in a much larger scale, the trees were absolutely huge and he could see animals everywhere, here could mostly see insects but he assumed there were some other, larger animals around.
Shortly after they passed the hallway and now all the walls were just grey with lots of doors in the sides and one person went through each door, after some time Venus wished he could go through a door soon, his legs were tired and wanted something to happen.
As people went through the doors Venus noticed how the numbers diminished and soon there was almost no one left, when Arale left there was only four other people left, including Venus, it felt like the doors got further and further away.
Shortly after the others left too and Venus was the only one left, he finally went through a door, he came inside a little room with a small light on the roof, a very uncomfortable looking bed and a small chair next to a table standing next to the wall, there was a hole in the wall right above the table and a little dish standing in front of the hole.
On the dish there was what looked like some food, he couldn’t see what though, and a glass of water, this is very he would be living for the rest of his life.
Venus noticed how hungry he washed and pulled out the chair a little and sat down, there was no knife or fork so he assumed he had to eat with his hands, he took a bit of the weird brown square food and ate, it was very dry and tasted horribly, he tried the water and hoped it wasn’t as dry as the food, it wasn’t it was just plain water.
After eating his neck started hurting a lot, he raised his hands and tried to cover the pain but as soon as his hands got close to his neck he heard static and his hands were struck by what felt like lightning, the pain got worse and worse but in the process it felt like it moved away, after a short time that felt like an eternity he felt a very painful sting and then heard something land, he quickly turned around, fighting the pain.
As he initially looked around nothing was there but when h looked down he saw some kind of small robot with four legs, it must have been the thing controlling him earlier, he tried to smash it with his left foot but it evaded the attack and ran in under the table, Venus jumped down on the floor and looked under the table as he saw nothing but a little hole, it must have been planned.
After that he decided he had nothing else to do but to go to sleep, he stood up from the floor and slowly got into the bed, it was very uncomfortable but he had nothing else to do.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the days events but eventually he fell asleep.
Venus woke up, he didn’t know for how long he had been here but he estimated six days, some of the food came in through the hole every couple of hours and he noticed he could just get rid of the dishes by throwing them back into the hole, but it was too small for him to climb through.
He sat down on the chair and put his hands on his face with his elbows on the table, he couldn’t believe his life had come to this, he had thought about trying to kill himself by throwing himself against the walls or starving himself but he didn’t want to give up hope yet, there were people waiting for him at home and he was planning to see them again.
Something was different today though, he couldn’t point his finger on what it was, what could be different anyways?
Then he heard it, it was a small wooshing sound, he didn’t know where it came from, he checked every inch of his room, he even checked if the odd robotic thing had placed itself on his neck again, but nothing, yet the sound kept getting louder.
Soon after another sound appeared, it sounded like an engine, but not like one Venus had ever heard, the engine sound was also becoming louder quickly and he couldn’t guess what was going on, as the sounds become louder and louder he suspected it was because whatever was causing them was getting closer.
Then suddenly the sounds completely stopped but now Venus shortly heard a sound, he couldn’t guess what it was before a huge explosion tore the wall open and knocked him over, he managed to stay conscious and stood up again, when he looked out he saw a lot of the rainforest area he had seen before but a pretty far away he saw a large barren area, in the middle there was something odd, probably a meteorite, but then he heard a weird pulsing sound.
Whit no other options, Venus decided to go check it out, it might be able to help him out somehow, there wasn’t very far down to the ground so Venus just jumped down, as he landed he could feel the dust fly around him, felt so nice to finally be on real earth again.
Looking up he saw the sun of this planet, he had really missed it, he also noticed that it was pretty hot, nothing to be worried about though.
He looked forward and the landscapes beauty caught him, it was like a large rainforest with lots of colors, the trees stood very tall in the air and there were lots of flowers and other plants on the ground, he also noticed lots of small insects, he also noticed an odd smell, he couldn’t make out what it was. | 2019-04-25T22:31:22Z | http://projectwill.blogspot.com/2012/01/once-in-lifetime-1-3.html |
A computer system displays, in two dimensions, a representation of a three-dimensional volume. The three-dimensional volume representation is a tessellation of cells, represented as three-dimensional units. The three-dimensional volume is represented by a plurality of digital numbers. A designator designates which of the digital numbers are to be represented in the two-dimensional display. Each digital number is represented by one cell. Also, each digital number represents a color. Each corresponding cell is colored in accordance with the digital number. A designator designates which of the digital numbers is to be represented by a cell in the three-dimensional representation. A cursor, controlled by a mouse, may be used to indicate which of the three-dimensional volume representation is to be excavated by indicating at the appropriate cells and then electronically ordering the excavation. The designator is changed thereby and the excavated cells are stripped away, exposing the cells immediately adjacent the excavated cells. The color of the cells indicates a parameter such as amplitude. The viewing angle of the three-dimensional volume representation is variable, allowing rotation in any direction of the three-dimensional display for examination of any surface.
"Three Dimensional Deta Input by Selection of Hierarchially Defined Blocks", Yamaguchi et al., Eurographics 84 K.B0 and H. A. Tucker Elsevier Holland Science Publishers B. V. 1984.
"Two Display Algorithms for Octrees"; Oliver, Eurographics 84, K. B0 and H. A. Tucker, Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (Holland), 1984.
"Experiences with New Image Component Algorithms", Samet., Eurographic 84; K.B0 and H. A. Tucker; Elsevier Science Publishers B. V., Holland 1984.
(c) interactive, visual display means, responsive to the designator means, for presenting in two-dimensions a three-dimensional representation of any desired part of the three-dimensional data including drawing means for displaying the three-dimensional volume as a tessellation of cells corresponding to the designation by the designator means.
(c) interactive, visual display means, responsive to the designator means, for presenting in two-dimensions a three-dimensional representation of any desired part of the three-dimensional data, including drawing means for displaying the three-dimensional volume as a tessellation of cells corresponding to the designated bits of the designator memory means.
(c) interactive, visual display means, responsive to the designator means, for presenting in two-dimensions a three-dimensional representation of any desired part of the three-dimensional data, including drawing means for displaying the three-dimensional volume as a tessellation of cells corresponding to the designation by the designator means; and manually operable electronic means for interacting with the display of the solid tessellation of cells for indicating a cell or cells to be excavated.
(c) interactive, visual display means, responsive to the designator means, for presenting in two-dimensions a three-dimensional representation of any desired part of the three-dimensional data, including drawing means for displaying the three-dimensional volume as a tessellation of cells corresponding to the designated bits of the designator memory means, and electronic means for interacting with the display of the tessellation of cells for indicating a cell or cells to be excavated.
5. The system of claim 4 wherein the designator memory means is operatively connected to the electronic means to permit a bit-for-cell correspondence wherein a bit set to a first digital state designates a cell and a bit set to a second digital state designates no cell, and wherein the designator memory means is operatively connected to the electronic means for setting those bits to the second digital state to of the cells to be excavated.
6. The system of claim 5 wherein the interactive visual display means further comprises color means for color presentation of the tessellation of cells, wherein the color means is operatively connected to the data memory means and wherein each number corresponds to a desired color, for coloring each cell to correspond to its associated number.
7. The system of claim 4 wherein the interactive visual display means further comprises color means for color presentation of the tessellation of cells, wherein the color means is operatively connected to the data memory means and wherein each number corresponds to a desired color, for coloring each cell to correspond to its associated number.
interactive, visual display means responsive to the designator means, for presenting in two-dimensions a three-dimensional representation of any desired part of the three-dimensional data, wherein the interactive visual display means comprises drawing means for displaying the three-dimensional volume as a tessellation of cells corresponding to the designated bits of the designator memory means, and wherein the interactive visual display means further comprises color means for color presentation of the tessellation of cells, wherein the color means is operatively connected to the data memory means and wherein each number corresponds to a desired color, for coloring each cell to correspond to its associated number.
(c) presenting in two dimensions any portion of the designated three-dimensional data, including drawing a plurality of cells to form the two-dimensional presentation as a tessellation of the cells.
(f) displaying the tessellation of cells not excavated.
(h) coloring each cell in correspondence with its associated number.
This invention relates to a two-dimensional display of a three-dimensional volume representation and more particulary to such a representation where designated portions of the volume may be excavated, revealing the portion immediately adjacent the excavated portion.
Prior art displays have generally involved two-dimensional cross sections of three-dimensional arrays.
In more recent prior art systems, a three-dimensional rectangular solid is displayed with the visible sides having varying color in proportion to a selected parameter in the array along those sides.
Another prior art technique is to produce movies of successive-two-dimensional cross-sections of a three-dimensional array, effectively allowing the user to "drive through" the array.
These prior art methods tend to rely on the imagination of human interpreters to mentally construct three-dimensional models of the data, based on the two-dimensional cross sections.
The colored rectangular solid displays come closet to conveying the desired three-dimensional arrangements, but still rely on imagination to appreciate the overall three-dimensional structure of the data on the basis of the sides of the rectangular solids.
A computer system receives a three-dimensional array, representing a three-dimensional volume. The three-dimensional array is stored in memory in the form of a plurality of digital numbers. A designator, in the form of a three-dimensional array of bits, has each bit assigned to represent one digital number in the three-dimensional array. A color is assigned to each digital number.
A two-dimensional display is employed to show a three-dimensional representation. This three-dimensional representation is a tessellation of cells, each cell representing one of the digital numbers. The cell is colored to correspond to the associated digital number. The color may be a shading from black to white in a black and white display and may be any selection of colors in a color display.
In this preferred embodiment, the three-dimensional array is in the form of a rectangular solid and each cell is also in the form of a rectangular solid. The designator array of bits designates which of the cells will be displayed. In this preferred embodiment, a "0" bit designates that the cell will not be displayed while a "1" bit designates that the cell will be displayed. A cell which is designated for display will not actually be visible in the display if other designated cells occlude it. A movable cursor is provided in the two-dimensional display. In this preferred embodiment, a mouse controls the movement of the cursor. To excavate a portion of the volume, the user moves the cursor and points to a cell by moving the mouse, to excavate a single column of cells, or to two cells to define the limits to be excavated. The excavation is done by activating a switch on the mouse which then enables the system to set all of the designator array bits to "0" for those bits corresponding to cells to be excavated. The two-dimensional display of the three-dimensional representation is then redrawn to comply with the designator array as altered by the excavation to then illustrate the three-dimensional representation revealing those cells immediately adjacent the excavated cells, but not formerly visible.
The three-dimensional viewing angle may be changed by the system to show the three-dimensional volume representation from any desired angle. The three-dimensional volume representation may therefore be effectively rotated in any direction to permit the user to see any side.
The principal object of this invention is to provide a three-dimensional representation on a two-dimensional display of a three-dimensional array wherein desired portions may be excavated to reveal the underlying portions.
Another object of this invention is to provide a three-dimensional representation on a two-dimensional display formed by a tessellation of cells, selected cells being removable when an excavation is made.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a display wherein the cells are colored in accordance with corresponding digital numbers in a three-dimensional array.
These and other objects will be made evident in the detailed description that follows.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical cathode array tube (CRT) display of this invention.
FIG. 2a illustrates a three-dimensional representation made up of rectangular solid cells.
FIG. 2b illustrates the representation of FIG. 2a, but using spherical cells.
FIGS. 3a and 3b illustrate a three-dimensional representation from different viewing angles.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the computer system of this invention.
FIG. 5 illustrates the creating of the three-dimensional representation.
FIG. 6 shows the measurement requirements for creating the three-dimensional cell.
Field 31a contains a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of a 3-D volume. As shown in FIG. 1, this 3-D representation has been excavated to display the volumes shown as 30a, 30b, 35 and 36. Before the excavation, the display would have typically been of a 3-D representation of a rectangular solid. The rectangular solid is a tessellation of cells such as 35, 36, which in this preferred embodiment, are also rectangular solids. In the accompanying Lisp program, the cells are referred to as "voxels".
Field 31b is a top view of the 3-D representation of field 31a illustrating top surfaces 32 and 38, as well as the individual cells 35 and 36.
Field 31c is a front view of the 3-D representation of field 31a illustrating solids 30a and 30b, and cells 35 and 36.
Field 31d is a right side view of the 3-D representation of field 31a with volume 30b visible, along with cells 35 and 36.
Finally, field 31e illustrates a positioning mechanism for specifying viewing the front, left, back and right sides by indication on dial 43. The top, bottom and side may be viewed by indication on dial 44.
The computer system includes a cursor which is movable in the face of the display by moving mouse 21 of FIG. 4. The cursor (not shown) may point at any specific cell in any of fields 31a-31d. By pointing at the cells which define a desired volume to be removed, an excavation is then electronically accomplished by activating a switch on the mouse 21. This program is described in detail. Also, the program for causing the viewing angle to change via dial 43 and dial 44 is explained in detail.
FIG. 2a illustrates a three--dimensional representation after an excavation has been performed showing solid object 51 with cells 52.
FIG. 2b shows a similar structure, but from a different view angle and also using spheres 62 as the cell configuration in place of the rectangular solid cells 52 of FIG. 2a. The rectangular solid is the preferred cell in this embodiment, spheres or other geometric volumes could be used.
FIG. 3a shows a three-dimensional representation 71 made up of rectangular solid cells 72.
FIG. 3b shows that the same three-dimensional representation 71 with cells 72 from a different viewing angle.
The displays of FIGS. 2a-2b and FIGS. 3a-3b are not shown in color or in shading. It should be noted, however, that the cells are customarily colored in accordance with designating digital numbers. It should also be noted that in this preferred embodiment, seismic data provides the three-dimensional source data. Any other appropriate data would serve as well. For example, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) imagery is contemplated.
FIG. 4 illustrates the LISP machine of this invention. In block form, a LISP processor 11 is connected via bus 17 (a Texas Instruments NUBUS type bus to a Motorola 68,000 processor 12, main memory 13, display controller 14 and system diagnostic unit 15. The main memory 13 stores the three-dimensional data array and the designator bit array. A display controller 14 controls video display 20 which is connected to RS232 interface 18. Keyboard 22 and mouse 21 are interfaced to the video display 20. The details of system 10 may be referred to in the aforementioned LISP Machine, Inc. publications.
Please refer to FIGS. 5 and 6, in particular, together with the other figures, for an understanding of the operation of this invention.
Referring to the LISP program listing which is set out in the Appendix and incorporated herein by reference, programs VIS001.LSP-VIS012.LSP are seen to provide the entire program for the system. With respect to programs VIS008.LSP and VIS010.LSP, entitled "Volume-Display-Method.Lisp", the following description of the method contained in these two programs is set out in detail.
A 3D array (volume) of numbers (e.g. 3D seismic or NMR data). Note: In the program the Data Array is referred to as the VOXEL-COLOR, a 3D array of integers in [0:15]. To diplay a different range of values using this program, the data must first be converted to an array containing numbers in [0:15]. The [0:15]numbers correspond to the sixteen colors of the particular display software used by the program.
A 3D array of bits, one bit for each datum in the Data Array. A one-bit designates the corresponding datum to be included in the display, and a zero-bit designates that it will not be included. A datum which is designated for display will not actually be visible in the display if other designated data occlude it. Note: In the program the Designator Array is referred to as the POINT-ARRAY.
Two angles, theta and phi, respectively specify the vertical and horizontal components of the 3D viewing angle, as in a sperical coordinate system. The X and Y axes of the Data Array are arbitrarily regarded as lying in a horizontal plane, and the positive direction along the (vertical) Z dimension is regarded as pointing upward. Note: Theta and phi can be converted to a VIEW-VECTOR, the actual input expected by the program, using the VIEW-ANGLE function (in file: VIEW-ANGLE).
Note: In the program, a Lisp Machine window must also be given. It specifies where the display will be drawn.
Each cell of the Data Array is displayed as a small cube or sphere (voxel) when the corresponding Designator Array bit is one (1). The displayed color or shade of the voxel is specified by the corresponding number in the Data Array. Thus when all designator bits are one (1), the display appears as a large rectangular solid with a colored surface that varies in proportion to the corresponding Data Array values. When all designator bits are zero, nothing appears in the display. The primary use of this method is to examine volumes by selecting some designator bits to be one (1) and others to be zero, resulting in a display representing a carving of the Data Array into arbitrary 3D shapes, voxel by voxel.
The program draws all voxels designated for display, although some voxels may not be visible when the display method is finished. That is because voxels are drawn in an order scanning the Data Array "from farthest to nearest" with respect to the viewer, to eliminate hidden voxels from view. FIG. 5 illustrates cells 81, 82, and 83 being created in the farthest corner of prospective 3-D representation 80. First, cell 81 is created, then 82, 83, and so on, until the column is completed. Then, the next designated adjacent column is created.
One of the problems solved by the COMPUTE-ORIGIN-AND-VIEWING-CONSTANTS method in the program is to determine an appropriate size for each voxel so that the display of the entire volume will fit in the window. The summary of the method below is simplified by assuming that the window is big enough to accommodate an arbitrarily chosen voxel size.
The technique used by the program to display each individual voxel picture (using a series of Lisp Machine BITBLT operations) is not explained in detail because it is a state-of-the-art techique, employed for example in part by the Lisp Machine system when it moves a blinker (cursor) to follow the mouse input device.
STEP 1: Let XMAX, YMAX, and ZMAX be the maximum subscripts of the Data Array in the three dimensions. The minimum subscript of each dimension is zero. Let VIEW-VECTOR=(A B C) be a vector pointing in the direction of gaze (this represents the viewing angle).
STEP 2: Compute the SCAN-ORDER. That is, determine an order for scanning the Data Array "from farthest to nearest" with respect to the viewer. The scan order is represented as a list of three numbers, (DX DY DZ). DX=1 indicates that the scan order, with respect the the X axis, proceeds in the positive direction (from 0 to XMAX), and DX=-1 indicates that the X axis is scanned in the negative direction (from XMAX to 0). Similarly, DY and DZ represent the scan order with respect to the Y and Z axes.
DX=-1 if A>=0; otherwise DX=1.
DY=-1 if B>=0; otherwise DY=1.
DZ=-1 if C>=0; otherwise DZ=1.
STEP 3: Let AO=(0 0 0) be the 3D coordinates of the Data Array origin, and let AX, AY, and AZ be (XMAX 0 0), (0 YMAX 0), and (0 0 ZMAX), respectively. Note: In the program the VERTICES indicated as P0, PX, PY, and PZ represent the same points as AO, AX, AY, and AZ, except there the origin of the array is regarded as being at the center of the array instead of at (0 0 0). The program uses the other origin as part of a scheme for centering the center of the Data Array in the window regardless of the particular designator and viewing angle.
STEP 4: Compute the image of AO, AX, AY, and AZ. Using a version of orthographic projection in which the vertical axis of the image lies in a plane with the Z axis of the Data Array, the four points are mapped into WO=(wxo,wyo), WX=(wxx,wyx), WY=(wxy,wyy), and WZ=(wxz,wyz), according to the VIEW-VECTOR. Note: In the program, the VIEW-TRANSFORMATION function performs the projection. The WINDOW-TRANSFORMATION function is part of the scaling to translate the image coordinates into window coordinates. Without loss of generality, the rest of this discussion assumes that WO, WX, WY, AND WZ are in window coordinates.
STEP 6: Compute a picture of the voxel. The particular picture used to represent each voxel is arbitrary. Drawing small cubes produces attractive displays. The picture only needs to be computed once and saved for replication, since under orthographic projection the shape and size of each Data Array cell is the same. The coloring or shading of voxels in accordance with the Data Array values is accomplished separately during the innermost loop of Step 8.
Note: In the program, cube pictures are computed by the CREATE-CUBE-PICTURE method of the UNIT-CUBE flavor, and sphere pictures are created by the CREATE-SPHERE-PICTURE function. Both of these procedures are straightforward exercises for students of computer graphics. Each routing actually returns two pixel arrays to represent the voxel. One is called the PICTURE (which may be thought of as a line drawing of the voxel) and the other is called the MASK (which may be thought of as a silhouette view of the voxel). The MASK designates the area of the rectangular array that PICTURE occupies, e.g. for a Lisp Machine ART-1B pixel array the MASK has one (1) bits everywhere the voxel is depicted as opaque. In the innermost loop of Step 8, the MASK is used to erase the appropriate area of the window in preparation for inserting the PICTURE, using a series of calls to the Lisp Machine BITBLT function.
STEP 7: Determine the ORIGIN=(Ox Oy) in the image where the first voxel will be drawn. The ORIGIN is computed from WO, WX, WY, and WZ using the signs (plus or minus) of DX, DY, and DZ, by the relationship in the following table, where the operations are vector addition and subtraction.
STEP 8: Scan the Designator Array and Data Array in the scanning order, drawing the voxel picture for each designated datum in sequence. This step is extremely efficient since the positions of voxels in the window can be determined with just a small number of additions and comparisons per voxel, and because the series of BITBLT operations used to copy each voxel picture into the screen exploits the speed of BITBLT. This step consists of three nested loops. The outermost loop steps X along the X axis of the Data Array and keeps track of the displacement of each voxel from the ORIGIN due to the displacement of X along the X axis. The middle loop steps Y along the Y axis and keeps track of the displacement from the ORIGIN due to the displacement of Y. The innermost loop steps Z along the Z axis, keeps track of the displacement due to Z, and draws the voxel at the window position corresponding to Data Array position (X Y Z) when the (X Y Z) designator bit is one (1). An abstract of the important portions of the Lisp program implementing the three nested loops is given below. This abstract only illustrates the special case occuring when the SCAN-ORDER=(DX DY DZ)=(1 1 1), and uses th notation consistent with this summary of the Volume Display Method (which differs somewhat from the notation in the full version of the program). The full version of the program implements the general case where the SCAN-ORDER values may have other signs.
(loop for X from 0 to XMAX by DX as WXx = Ox then (+ WXx Xdx) as WXy = Oy then (+ WXy Xdy) do (loop for Y from 0 to YMAX by DY as WYx = WXx then (+ WYx Ydx) as WYy = WXy then (+ WYy Ydy) do (loop for Z from 0 to ZMAX by DY as WZy = WYy then (+ WZy Zdy) do ;At this point, when the Designator Array bit ;at (X Y Z) is one (1), the voxel picture is ;copied into the window at (WYx WZy): A ;series of BITBLT operations on PICTURE and ;MASK is performed to produce a picture in the ;color specified by the number in the Data ;Array at (X Y Z).
VIS001.LSP is entitled "Array-Display, Lisp". This program is employed in the system to implement the display of the top, front, and sides view in fields 31b, 31c and 31d, respectively, of FIG. 1. This short program defines a virtual window of an array that is updated when the array itself is altered as by an excavation procedure.
The virtual window technique is set out in program VIS009.LSP entitled "Virtual-Windows. Lisp". The virtual window system is described in the introductory material to the program VIS009.LSP.
Program VIS003.LSP entitled "Color-Graphics.Lisp" is a low level primitive program which is used for drawing each cell and is employed in program VIS010.LSP--entitled "Volume-Display Method.Lisp", previously described.
Program VIS004.LSP entitled "Dashboard-Dials.Lisp" is a program for drawing the dials as shown in field 31e of FIG. 1.
Program VIS005.LSP entitled "Mouse-Handler-Mixin.Lisp" and program VIS006.LSP entitled "Mouse-Handler-Utilities.Lisp" describe a method for moving and operating mouse 21 of FIG. 4. As indicated earlier, a cursor is employed to point to cells in any of fields 31a-31d of FIG. 1 and also to desired directions in field 31e. In general terms, a cell may be created or deleted by "clicking" the mouse on cells of the solid object in field 31a. The first click highlights a cell at one corner of a rectangular volume to be created or deleted, and the second click specifies the opposite corner and performs the operation. In this particular embodiment, the left mouse button is for creating and the middle button is for deleting. A single click specifies the visible cell at the mouse cursor and a double clock specifies an empty cell location closest to the viewpoint at the mouse cursor. A triple click cancels a partially completed operation. These particular combinations are, of course, completely arbitrary and could obviously be rearranged to perform the same functions.
Also, cells can be created or deleted by specifying opposite corners of a rectangle in one of the three mutually orthogonal silhouette view windows illustrated in fields 31b-31d. In this case, cells are created or deleted at all cell locations in-line with the specified rectangle from that point of view. For example, when a rectangle is specified in the top view field 31b, all cells in the columns directly under the rectangle are affected. The first click of the mouse marks the position of one corner and the second click marks the opposite corner of the rectangle (which may degenerate to a single element or row). Both clicks must be of the same type (left: create or middle: delete). A double click cancels a partially completed operation. A cell can be created or deleted at a single point by clicking the two points in different orthogonal views.
With respect to field 31e, the angle from which the 3-D display is viewed is changed by clicking the dials in the viewing position window 31e. The dials are designed as if the object is at the center of each dial and the viewpoint is on the perimeter. Dial 43 controls the horizontal component of the viewing position, while dial 44 specifies the vertical component. Thus, to look at the right, front, and top sides of an object, click the mouse at dial 43 between RIGHT and FRONT, and click at dial 44 between the SIDE (horizontal position) and the TOP (looking straight down) position.
The program VIS003.LSP entitled "Color-Graphics.Lisp" controls how the cells are colored, either collectively or individually. For example, a list of six colors, one for each of the six faces, causes cube cell faces to be uniformly colored--all Right faces are, for example, blue while all Top faces are red. Cells can also be individually colored by specifying a 3-D array of colors where the color of a cell is the color in the color array position corresponding to the cell position in the 3-D bit array.
Program VIS007.LSP entitled "Movie.Lisp" provides for producing two types of movies: (1) the object rotating in place, and (2) a scan of the object as it appears while it is being drawn one frame per plane of the solid object.
Movies of the object rotating in place are made by specifying a starting viewing position and a final view (the last frame of the movie). The N frames of the movie are then interpolated between the two views; the horizon viewing position from dial 43 advances counter-clockwise. The starting view is specified before performing the make movie command. After clicking the make movie option, another window provides for optionally changing some default parameters of the movie (e.g. the number of frames). After leaving that window, the program solicits the final view specification as specified in field 31e. Clicking the middle button of the mouse 21 produces the movie; clicking the Right button aborts the procedure.
The scanning movies depict the solid object as it is being drawn, one frame per plane, in any of six scanning directions (i.e., top-to-bottom, right-to-left, etc.). Scanning movies allow extremely rapid browsing of planar sections of the object, incrementally building up and tearing down the solid object plane by plane (frame by frame).
When the Show Movie option is selected, a move dial appears in the viewing position window 31e for controlling the showing of the movie interactively using the Movie Display system on the Lisp machine.
Program VIS011.LSP entitled "Volume Inspector Method.Lisp", as can be seen, is the program employed for the excavation feature. The method of this program is described above.
Finally, program VIS012.LSP entitled "Windows.Lisp" is a low level primitive program for creating the windows in FIG. 1 to contain fields 31a-31e, plus the blank field.
The particular programming language and the hardware set out above are exemplary and are not intended to limit this invention. It is contemplated that transformation of programming language and substitution of computer components is certainly within the realm of those skilled in the art. The invention is limited only by the appended claims. | 2019-04-24T22:53:32Z | http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4685070.html |
The role of vitamin D in female reproduction has been intensively examined over the last few decades. A large body of evidence suggests that vitamin D might have beneficial effects on metabolic/hormonal parameters of PCOS and endometriosis, while it appears to be associated with IVF outcomes. However, due to the heterogeneity among observational and interventional studies, no cause-effect relationship has yet been established. The aim of this review is to analyze recent in vitro animal and human studies which examined the association of vitamin D with disease entities affecting female fertility potential. Recent research data strongly imply that vitamin D is implicated in female reproduction and might represent a beneficial and inexpensive therapeutic approach, in combination with first-line medical treatments, to female infertility.
The aim of this review is to critically assess current literature data regarding the role of vitamin D in IVF and its association with PCOS and endometriosis.
We searched Pubmed for English language publications up to February 2017 under the following terms: “Vitamin D and female infertility” and “Vitamin D and female reproduction” and “Vitamin D and PCOS” and “Vitamin D and endometriosis”, “Vitamin D and granulose cells” and “Vitamin D and IVF”. We also used the terms 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)vitamin D or 1,25-dihydroxyvitaminD or 1,25(OH)2D3 instead of Vitamin D, and the term assisted reproduction technologies (ART) instead of IVF. Additionally, we included references on relevant topics from the reviewed articles in order to widen our search. Because a comprehensive background is a prerequisite for further discussions on vitamin D-induced effects, we provide a brief description of vitamin D metabolism and mechanism of action.
VDR is expressed in human ovarian tissue and placenta.15,16 In terms of ovarian steroidogenesis, human ovarian cells stimulated progesterone, estradiol and estrone production in the presence of calcitriol.16 Furthermore, human granulosa cells cultured with vitamin D3 increased 3β-HSD messenger (mRNA) levels and progesterone release.17 In line with animal models, in vitro experiments in human models showed that vitamin D induces dehydroepiandrosterone sulfotranserase (SULT2A1).13 Vitamin D is also associated with markers of ovarian reserve, especially with AMH.18 Interestingly, a subsequent study demonstrated that the human AMH promoter contains a functional VDRE.19 Finally, human granulosa cells treatment with vitamin D3 resulted in a significant decrease in AMHR-II and FSH receptor mRNA.17 Given the inhibitory effects of AMH on the development of human granulosa cells, the decrease of AMH expression after vitamin D treatment may reflect a beneficial effect of vitamin D in the differentiation of these cells.
Recent evidence from in vitro studies conducted in human and animal cells points to the functional role of the vitamin D endocrine system in the physiology of female reproduction. However, there are divergent results, possibly attributable to its two forms and several metabolites, the different concentrations of vitamin D used and to species-specific variations. Moreover, since various cell types are involved in the reproductive machinery and a local system mainly driven by 1a-hydroxylase activity is present in almost all of these cells responsible for the concentrations of the active metabolite at the tissue level, any relevant experimental data extracted from in vitro experiments must be interpreted with caution.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endrocrinopathy and the leading cause of infertility among women of reproductive age.41,42 It is a syndrome with clinical and biochemical heterogeneity which affects about 6-10% of women worldwide.
Accumulating evidence suggests that vitamin D is associated with various metabolic and reproductive features of PCOS and thus may be involved in the pathogenesis of the syndrome. It is noteworthy that hyperinsulinemia and IR have a central role in the pathogenesis of PCOS, affecting the severity of clinical features independently of the presence of obesity. The following potential mechanisms linking vitamin D with IR have been proposed: (i) vitamin D improves insulin action by upregulating the expression of the insulin receptor and enhancing insulin responsiveness for glucose transport;43 (ii) 1,25(OH)2D3 activates the transcription of the VDRE of the human insulin gene which it has in its promoter;45 (iii) vitamin D regulates intracellular and extracellular calcium, which is crucial for insulin-mediated actions in insulin-responsive tissues;43 (iv) vitamin D exerts anti-inflammatory actions.2,9 However, most PCOS women are either overweight or obese. Obesity is associated with lower 25(OH)VitD levels, mainly due to the sequestration of the lipophilic vitamin in adipose tissue as well as due to lower sunlight exposure of obese subjects. These data raise the crucial question: Is vitamin D deficiency an additional risk factor aggravating IR in PCOS irrespectively of obesity? The following data attempt to address this issue.
The role of VDR in the regulation of the human genome has motivated researchers to examine the contribution of the VDR gene polymorphisms in metabolic and endocrine disturbances of PCOS. The results reflect an influence of VDR gene variants in PCOS features; however, because they are as yet controversial, it is difficult to establish a clear association of VDR polymorphisms with the development of PCOS.
Numerous observational studies investigated the association of 25(OH)VitD status with metabolic and endocrine parameters of PCOS (Table 1). In general, PCOS women had lower 25(OH)VitD levels compared to healthy controls. Among the PCOS population, obese women exhibited lower 25(OH)VitD levels than overweight or lean subjects.
Interestingly, low 25(OH)VitD levels in PCOS women was associated with higher levels of an antiapoptotic protein, phosphoprotein enriched in diabetes gene product (PED/PEA-15).68 This inverse association could account for the dysregulated ovarian apoptosis seen in PCOS women.
The heterogeneity of the studies could be explained by the variety of methodologies used for the assessment of VitD, the heterogeneity of study populations (small study samples, absence of control group) and the lack of adjustement for confounders, such as seasonality of 25(OH)VitD.
It could be concluded that the existing data converge towards a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among PCOS women and an inverse association with insulin sensitivity markers. However, the exact interrelationship between vitamin D status, obesity, IR and hyperandrogenism in PCOS still remains unclear and warrants further research.
In conclusion, despite the abundance of existing literature data regarding supplementation studies, their results are inconsistent and no clear conclusion can be drawn about the effect of vitamin D administration on metabolic and reproductive parameters of PCOS. The aforementioned intervention studies are subject to several limitations, which partially explain the lack of apparent concordance. Firstly, some of them include a small sample size and/or lack randomization and allocation concealment, hence increasing the risk of selection bias. There is substantial heterogeneity with respect to 25(OH)VitD status of patients at baseline, the methodology used for 25(OH)VitD assessment, dosing regimen and intervention formulations, duration, use of concomitant therapies, all of which could contribute to the discrepancy of the observed results. Furthermore, these studies were conducted in different countries and at different seasons, factors which could also influence the results. In fact, lack of adjustment for confounders such as the seasonality of 25(OH)VitD or even the existence of residual confounders are significant shortcomings in the studies conducted. The use of a single baseline vitamin D measurement which may not reflect longterm vitamin D status could also affect the validity of the interventional studies.96 Moreover, the ultrasound criteria of diagnosis of PCOS and of the definition of ovulatory cycles varies among studies this also conducing to the low quality of many of them.
Taken together, these data may indicate a plausible implication of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of endometriosis through exerting an autocrine/paracrine role in the endometrial microenvironment; however, further research is needed to determine whether vitamin D supplementation could have a role as an adjuvant therapy in the treatment of endometriosis or is merely a confounding factor.
The implication of Vitamin D in the outcome of ART (clinical pregnancy and live birth) has been examined in numerous studies. Nevertheless, the data are inconsistent and a clear role of vitamin D in the success of IVF outcome remains elusive.
In the first experimental attempt to link vitamin D status with IVF outcome, vitamin D sufficient women undergoing IVF had higher pregnancy and implantation rates compared with the vitamin D deficient women.110 The beneficial impact of high vitamin D status on IVF outcome could be attributed to the effects of vitamin D on the endometrium, since vitamin D status was not significantly associated with ovarian response parameters.
In order to test this hypothesis, a subsequent study investigated the influences of vitamin D status on ART outcomes in donor-recipient cycles.112 Egg-donation recipients with non-replete vitamin D status [25(OH)VitD <30 ng/ml] had reduced clinical pregnancy and live birth rates. Moreover, no correlation between recipient vitamin D status and ovarian stimulation parameters, fertilization rates, embryo quality or the number of embryos transferred was noted, suggesting that vitamin D appears to exert its effects on fertility via the endometrium. However, donor characteristics were not included in the latter study, which could confound these results.
Conversely, a prospective observational study found that elevated follicular fluid (FF) 25(OH)VitD levels in combination with decreased FF glucose levels were associated with poorer embryo quality and negative IVF outcome, indicating a potential negative role of vitamin D at the oocyte level.117 However, the above observation is in contrast to the detrimental effects of vitamin D deficiency on the endometrium reported in previous studies.110-112,116 Additionally, two Iranian studies118,119 failed to demonstrate any significant association between serum or FF vitamin D levels and implantation or pregnancy rates. However, the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the examined population limits the strength of their research.
Furthermore, vitamin D status was not associated with clinical pregnancy rates of women undergoing euploid embryo transfer,120 frozen-thawed embryo transfer121 and clinical pregnancy rates among oocyte recipients.122 An interventional trial examined potential effects of vitamin D insufficiency treatment on fertility outcomes regarding frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles but did not show any association.123 Finally, a recent meta-analysis failed to document any correlation between vitamin D deficiency and pregnancy rates in women undergoing IVF.124 The heterogeneity among the aforementioned studies and their contradictory results highlight the need for further research so as to clarify the exact association of vitamin D status and IVF success.
Endocrine Task Force guidelines define vitamin D deficiency as a 25(OH)VitD level of <20 ng/ml, vitamin D insufficiency as a 25(OH)VitD level of 21-29 ng/ml and vitamin D sufficiency as a 25(OH)VitD level of ≥30 ng/ml.125 The Institute of Medicine Committee defines vitamin D deficiency at a level below 20 ng/ml.126 These definitions however are related only to skeletal health and an optimal level of vitamin D levels for its non-skeletal actions has not been established. Of interest, according to the Endocrine Society Task Force, vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 are the suggested treatment options for vitamin D deficiency. On the other hand, literature data indicate that vitamin D3 is more effective in increasing 25(OH)VitD levels than vitamin D2.127-130 Clearly, the optimal level of vitamin D in female fertility and the type of supplements required for the treatment of vitamin D deficiency are two significant issues which merit further research and need to be addressed.
There are a large number of in vitro, animal as well as human observational studies which strongly point towards an association between vitamin D and female fertility. Research data indicate that vitamin D might be implicated in the pathogenesis and prevention of endometriosis, while vitamin D status has been linked to IVF outcome. Furthermore, vitamin D supplementation in PCOS women ameliorated some of the metabolic and, mainly, the reproductive disorders. Although promising, these data are not sufficient to establish a cause-effect relationship between vitamin D status and fertility issues. Moreover, there is still no general consensus as to the minimum level of vitamin D optimal for female reproductive health and fertility, while the screening of vitamin D status in women undergoing IVF is still under debate. Vitamin D administration is a well-tolerated and inexpensive treatment. However, whether vitamin D supplementation could be a novel adjunct agent in the treatment of metabolic/hormonal aspects of PCOS and endometriosis is a question still awaiting an answer. Large-scale, high quality dose-response RCTs with longer follow-up are needed 1) to determine the exact role of vitamin D in female IVF outcome, evaluated by indices such as the number of oocytes retrieved, the number and the quality of the embryo formed, the clinical pregnancy rates as well as the live birth rates and 2) to identify threshold effects of vitamin D supplementation on hormonal, metabolic and reproductive outcomes in PCOS.
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BGates | ¡ABRA EL PORTÓN CON SU TELéFONO!
the website www.bgates.it (hereinafter, the “Site”) is owned and operated by BGates S.r.l. with registered office in Via Giuseppe Ripamonti n. 44, 20141 Milan (MI) – Italy, (hereafter “BGates”), P.Iva e C.F. 05759280968.
1.3 “On-line” sales contract means the distance contract, ie the legal transaction concerning movable goods and / or services stipulated between a Supplier, BGates, and a Customer, as part of a remote sales system organized by BGates which, for this contract, uses only the remote communication technology called internet.
2.1 The use of any service of the Site gives the user the status of User.
2.2 Registration is not required for simple navigation.
2.3 For the execution of Orders it is necessary to register. Registration will take place in the form expressly provided on the Site for the specific service.
Be in possession of a valid credit card for payment, a bank account or PayPal account.
3.2 The Registered User declares that he will keep in a safe way and not disclose to third parties his access credentials (User Name and Password) provided with the registration procedure, which must be considered strictly personal and not transferable to third parties.
3.3 The User declares, under his sole responsibility, that all information provided during registration is complete, correct and true. BGates declines all responsibility for any consequences arising from the inclusion in the registration phase of false, incorrect, incorrect or incomplete information.
– Consumer User: User who uses the Site for mere personal purposes not in the exercise of an art or profession. The same is not provided with VAT, excluding as an example and not exhaustive: sole proprietorships, freelancers, partnerships or capital companies.
– Business User: User who uses the Site for professional purposes in the exercise of an art or profession, with a VAT number. By way of example and not exhaustive: individual companies, professionals, partnerships or capital companies.
4.2 The site management system automatically categorizes the Users (Consumer or Business) by inserting the VAT number. It is the sole responsibility of the User to correctly enter their data at the time of registration (in particular the VAT number); The incorrect insertion of the data of the User will not allow the evasion of the Order.
4.3 In the case of foreign companies without a VAT number, please contact our customer service before making the purchase.
5.1 The General Conditions of Use of the Site apply to Users, as established in the Preface.
5.2 Contracts for the sale of goods concluded through the Website with Consumer Users will be governed by the General Conditions of Sale (hereinafter referred to as CGV) Consumer which guarantee the rights envisaged by Legislative Decree no. 206 of 2005 (“Consumer Code”) as updated by Legislative Decree 21.02.2014 No. 21; Consumer Users are requested to consult the GCS applicable to them (published below) IN WHICH THEY WILL FIND ALL THE INFORMATION NECESSARY WITHIN THE MEANING OF ART. 49 of Legislative Decree 06.09.2005 No. 206 (Consumer Code).
– assumes all responsibility towards BGates and any third parties regarding the correctness and truthfulness of the information published.
BGates declines all responsibility for any consequences arising from the inclusion in the registration phase of false, incorrect, incorrect or incomplete information.
upload or try to upload viruses, worms, codes, files or other elements that could cause damage to the Site, software, hardware and other third-party telecommunications tools.
9.1 The Website offers Users the opportunity to purchase Garden Trains with related accessories.
9.2 For telephone users, a telephone support is available to provide information and explanations about the Products and the purchase procedures. Customer Service can be contacted, from 09.00 to 18.00, from Monday to Friday, at the e-mail address [email protected] or at the phone number +39 348 2290104.
Prices shown are VAT included and may be subject to periodic changes due to the unquestionable and exclusive judgment of BGates. Shipping costs are not included in the indicated prices.
Shipping rates are calculated directly in the shopping cart during checkout.
In case of sale of Products for export to countries outside the EU, the indicated price will be considered excluding VAT (which the user will have to pay with the methods and with the specific rate of the country of destination, the delivery of goods), charges and customs duties. The VAT will not be charged to Business Users in the event that the destination of shipment of goods is to a foreign country. In the event that the destination of the shipment of goods is Italy, VAT will still be charged to the User.
Remember, pursuant to Art. 3.3, 4.2, 4.3 and 6 of the General Conditions of Use of the Site that in case of incorrect insertion of User data (in particular P. IVA) it will not be possible to follow the Order and that Business users who do not have VAT number (some foreign companies) before making the purchase, please contact our customer service.
11.1 All processes for the management of payment methods on www.bgates.it are managed in order to minimize fraud risks.
11.2 Whether the User chooses to pay with PAYPAL, or with CREDIT CARD or BANK TRANSFER, the data will always travel on secure and encrypted servers.
For the payment by credit card a secure system with SSL certificate is used: upon confirmation of the order the credit card details will be transferred to the credit institution providing remote electronic payment services that will interface with the card manager , via secure SSL encrypted connection (Secure Socket Layer), for authorization and debit. A safe and risk-free procedure that shields the client from risks of abuse. Thanks to this system, www.bgates.it does not display in any way the credit card data of its customers.
www.bgates.it reserves the right to request additional information from the Customer or sending copies of documents that prove ownership of the card used. If the Customer does not provide such information www.bgates.it reserves the right not to accept the purchase order.
In the case of payment through the Paypal platform, all of the User’s financial data will be managed directly by PayPal and will never be shared or viewed by www.bgates.it which will only receive confirmation of the amounts credited to their Paypal account.
In case of cancellation of the order (both by the Customer and by www.bgates.it) the amount will be credited back to your PayPal account.
In the reason for the transfer, indicate the number and date of the order, indicated in the Order confirmation e-mail. The amount of the transfer must correspond to that of the total order; otherwise the goods will not be sent.
12.1 Content published or accessible through the Website is protected by applicable laws on copyright and industrial property. BGates is the holder and in any case legitimated to use the Website, the pages of the Site, the information or elements contained in the texts, documents, photographs, drawings, graphics, software, codes, logos, trademarks, trade names or other distinctive signs protected by rights intellectual or industrial property.
12.2 The User without prior authorization of BGates can not reproduce, modify, decode, distribute, copy and disclose the information or elements mentioned above.
13.1 The Site may contain links to sites managed and owned by third parties, advertising banners that refer directly or indirectly to sites managed and owned by third parties and advertising material in general. By accessing these sites, the User acknowledges that he / she is abandoning the Site at his / her own risk, knowing that the General Conditions of Use of the Site, the applicable GFCs any instruction published from time to time on the Site, do not regulate access and browsing on such third party sites. Advertising shown on the Site does not imply endorsement or recommendation by BGates.
13.2 The Site may contain references and contacts of third-party companies that offer complementary services: all relations between the User and such subjects will be managed by the User in full autonomy and governed by specific agreements between the user and those subjects. BGates does not assume any responsibility and does not provide any guarantee for the services offered by third parties through the Website.
14.1 BGates publishes information on its website www.bgates.it to provide a service to Users, but declines all responsibility in case of any technical inaccuracies and / or typographical errors. Once you know any errors, BGates will perform correction as soon as possible. BGates also reserves the right to make corrections and changes to the Website, if necessary, without giving prior notice.
14.2 BGates makes no representation that the information published on its Site complies with the laws of the competent jurisdiction for the User.
14.3 BGates declines all responsibility for any problems, damages, viruses or risks in which the User may incur during the use of the Website and declines any responsibility for any malfunctioning of the same, for the deactivation of “cookies” in the browser by The User is invited to read and expressly accept the information regarding the management of Cookies.
14.4 BGates assumes no responsibility for incorrect use by third parties of the login credentials of Registered Users who remain solely responsible to BGates and third parties for the correct use of these credentials.
14.5 BGates does not guarantee continuous and uninterrupted access to the Site and its services, which may be affected by factors, including technical ones, beyond its control.
14.6 BGates assumes no responsibility for the management of payment services and any refunds that are left to third parties.
14.7 BGates declines all responsibility for any consequences deriving from the User or third parties from the inclusion in the registration phase of false, incorrect, incorrect or incomplete information.
14.8 In all cases above, (within the limits set by the Consumer Code if applicable and other applicable laws), BGates excludes any warranty, and can in no way be held responsible in the event of any economic loss, goodwill, damage to the commercial reputation, direct, indirect or consequent damages, deriving from the use of the Site and the services offered therein.
14.9 In any case, any compensation for BGates’s liability towards the Users or towards third parties is limited to the amount of € 150.00.
15.1 Access to and use of the Site by the User are subject to Italian law.
15.2 In the event of a dispute concerning or arising from access and / or use of the Website by the Business User, the Court of Milan will have exclusive jurisdiction.
15.3 The Consumer User is guaranteed the rights provided for by Legislative Decree no. 206 of 2005 (“Consumer Code”) as updated by Legislative Decree 21.02.2014 No. 21; in this case all disputes relating to or deriving from access and / or use of the Site by the User will be devolved to the Consumer Forum in accordance with the provisions of the Consumer Code.
16.1 BGates, creator and promoter of the activities available on the site www.bgates.it, reserves the right to use personal data, voluntarily provided by Users, in compliance with current regulations (Article 13 and subsequent Legislative Decree 196/2003 ).
16.2 Users are therefore invited to periodically visit this section to keep up with changes concerning changes to current legislation.
16.3 BGates guarantees users that the processing of personal data will be reserved for uses strictly connected and related to the provision of its services, to the facilitation of site management and order fulfillment. The data voluntarily provided by the Users will in no case be communicated or disclosed to third parties.
16.4 Personal data will be processed by BGates through the use of both paper and electronic tools, in compliance with current security regulations, for the purposes that will be specified from time to time.
3. the reason and purpose of their existence and their use.
16.6 The request for the information listed above may be renewed with a minimum interval of 90 days, except for those cases where there is just cause: cancellation or modification of such data due to violation of the law; cancellation of data that can not be used for the reasons for which they were collected.
The cookies used by the site do not allow the collection of your personal information, do not try to link your IP address to your identity and are not used to propose advertising on the basis of the pages you visited.
This information may help you to understand what information we may collect about you and how it is used.
In some parts of our site cookies are essential for the proper functioning of the same. We are also always looking for ways to improve our website and to make it easier to know our services and our proposals. Cookies also help us to provide you with a better and richer experience, for example, for something you find interesting, you could put “Like” on Facebook, or tweet it: cookies make this easier. You may want to know where to view our services / purchase our products and cookies help this by temporarily storing information and allowing you to see the offers. We have proceeded to classify the most commonly used cookies based on their type of use as: (essential) technical, statistical (profiling), behavioral, third-party, session and permanent.
The “Help” section of your browser should be able to help you with managing your cookie settings. If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can change your browser so that the alerts on when they are sent. It is also possible to delete cookies that have already been stored at any time, using the browser settings. You can choose whether or not to accept cookies that are set by our site, on the cookie settings page. The Website manager is not responsible for the content of third-party websites that may or may not set other cookies.
“Monitoring” cookies are linked to services provided by third parties, such as ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ and monitor the effectiveness of advertising. The third party provides these services in exchange for information about the fact that they visited the site.
Enable the operation of Google Analytics (with anonymised IP) and help website operators to analyze information about visitors such as the use of the browser, the number of visitors and other data that help the site to improve the usability of content .
The information generated will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating the use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where this is required by law. Google will not associate the visitor’s IP address with any other data held by Google.
The information collected is accessible only from the Site manager (in aggregate and anonymous form) and from Google, which does not store, communicate or disseminate this data to third parties.
The __utma cookie is persistent. The other cookies are provisional: ten minutes (_utmt), thirty minutes (__utmb), at the end of the browsing session (__utmc) and six months (__utmz). They are not necessary cookies.
Click here for more information on Google cookies: https: //developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage.
Click here for more information on the processing of personal data carried out by Google Analytics: http: //www.google.it/analytics/terms/it.html.
The distinction between session cookies and permanent cookies can be made by reason of their persistence on the user’s terminal. Those that are automatically deleted at the end of each navigation, are called “session cookies”; if, on the other hand, they have a longer life, we are talking about permanent cookies. This site uses both session and permanent cookies.
1.1 1.1 These General Terms and Conditions of Sale (hereinafter CGV) apply to all Orders issued through the website www.bgates.it (hereinafter the “Site”) by any Business User, as defined in the General Conditions of Use of the Site (hereinafter the “Customer”) in favor of the company Business Gates srl (hereinafter referred to as “BGates” or the “Supplier”) and regulate entirely the current and future supply relationships that exist between the Customer and the Supplier.
1.2 These GCS are published in the “Conditions of sale” section of the Site and are considered in any case known and accepted, even if not signed, with the simple access to the Website and in any case by simply sending the Order through the appropriate functionality of the Website .
1.3 In the event that one or more clauses of these GCS are declared void, invalid, ineffective or illegitimate, in whole or in part, by the judicial authority or by an arbitration body, this will not affect the validity and effectiveness of the other clauses or the remainder of the aforementioned provision.
2.2 The Supplier will accept Orders up to the maximum number of available pieces indicated for each reference, for the standard references present on the Site.
2.3 In no case will the Supplier be obliged to sell its Products to the Customer before having received confirmation of payment of the Online Payment Manager, or received the actual crediting of the consideration, in case of payment by bank transfer.
2.4 All Orders are irrevocable and binding and can not be canceled by the Customer.
2.5 Orders will be confirmed, and will become binding on the Supplier only following the issuance of the Order Confirmation which will take place following the actual receipt of payment, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 4.4. and 4.6.
2.6 In the event that the payment is not actually received within 5 days from the order, or is received for an incorrect amount, the same will be suspended and the goods covered by the Order will be made available for sale to other CUSTOMERS. Consequently, BGates does not guarantee to the Customer the effective availability of the ordered goods in the case of payments made after the deadline of 5 days from placing the Order.
The Customer who makes a late payment will have to wait for the actual availability of the originally ordered goods without this leading to non-compliance by BGates.
Deliveries are made to the carrier within 7 days of receipt of payment. Following delivery to the carrier, the goods travel at the Customer’s risk.
3.1.2.1 The arrival times of goods depend on the transit times of shipments depending on destinations.
3.1.2.2 The terms indicated for the Delivery and for the arrival of the goods are not binding and constitute only a reference data for the parts. The Supplier will use reasonable endeavors to comply with these terms. Any dates scheduled for delivery are merely indicative and the delivery deadline is not essential. In any case, the Supplier will not be liable in any way for delays in the Delivery of Products caused by (i) force majeure events as defined in Article 10, or (ii) failure to provide adequate instructions for the Delivery of Products of the Customer or any other instruction relating to the sale of Products, (iii) delays in transit of shipments.
The Customer can collect the goods only by appointment at the BGates warehouse: Via Giuseppe Ripamonti n. 44, 20141 Milan (Mi). In this case the Delivery will take place with the provision of the goods to the Customer at the BGates Warehouse. (EXW).
3.1.3.2 The collection can be made following the communication of availability of the goods at the warehouse, every day from Monday to Friday by appointment only.
3.1.3.3 The Customer must collect the goods no later than 15 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of the goods in stock. Beyond this deadline, the Delivery will be deemed to have taken place with the consequences envisaged by art. 5.2.
3.1.3.4 In case of delayed collection (within and not later than 30 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of goods in stock), without prejudice to the provisions of art. 3.1.3.2, the customer can collect the goods upon payment of storage costs equal to € 0.50 per day for each day of delay beyond the end of 15 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of the goods in stock.
3.1.3.5 In case of delay in picking up the goods beyond the 30-day period from the date of sending the communication of availability of the goods in stock, without prejudice to the provisions of art. 3.1.3.2, the Customer must book a new collection by sending an email to the address [email protected]. In this case the availability of the goods in stock is not guaranteed and the delivery times foreseen by art. 3.1.3.1.
3.1.3.6 in the event that the withdrawal takes place by means of a carrier sent by the Customer, please note that the goods will be delivered to the carrier with an accompanying invoice, without any further documents being prepared. The preparation of any other travel documents required by the carrier is the full charge of the Customer or of the carrier who will make the withdrawal.
3.2 In any case, if the Supplier fails to deliver the Products, the Supplier’s liability will be limited to the difference between the price originally provided for the Products in the Order, and the cost incurred by the Customer to obtain the lowest price available on the market. same quantity of Substitutive Products having the same characteristics and the same quality.
3.3 Regardless of what is established in Article 3.1, the terms of Delivery will not run until the payment made by the Customer will actually be received by the Supplier.
4.1 The Products are invoiced by the Supplier according to the price indicated on the Website.
4.2 Prices include VAT, but do not include shipping costs (calculable by the Customer through the appropriate functionality of the Site).
4.3 The total price of the supply, including shipping costs, will be indicated in the “shopping cart” section.
In case of sale of Products for export to countries outside the EU, the indicated price will be excluded VAT (which the user will have to pay with the modalities and with the specific rate of the country of destination, the delivery of goods), charges and customs duties. The VAT will not be charged to Business Users in the event that the destination of shipment of goods is to a foreign country. In the event that the destination of the shipment of goods is Italy, VAT will still be charged to the customer.
4.6 The payment will be confirmed only after the actual crediting of the sums paid, for an amount corresponding to the amount of the order.
4.7 In case of payment by bank transfer, the Supplier reserves the right to cancel the ORDER in the event that the payment is not actually credited within 5 days from the date of purchase.
4.8 In the event that the payment is not actually received within 5 days from the Order, or is received for incorrect amounts, the same will be suspended and the goods covered by the Order will be made available for sale to other CUSTOMERS. Consequently, BGates does not guarantee to the Customer the effective availability of the ordered goods in the case of payments made after the deadline of 5 days from placing the Order.
5.1 The ownership of the Products supplied will pass to the Customer only after full payment of the price. payment is considered to be made only when the relative sum is available to the Supplier in accordance with the provisions of art. 4.6.
The Supplier shall have the right to engage and undertake all actions and legal obligations required or necessary to preserve and secure his or her title in accordance with applicable national law.
5.2 The risk on the Products is transferred to the Customer following the Delivery of the Products as defined in Article 3. From the moment of delivery, the Customer shall bear all risks of loss and damage to the Products.
5.3 The Supplier shall have the right to request payment of the price of the Products (even in judicial proceedings) regardless of the fact that the ownership of the Products has passed to the Customer.
5.4 Any advances paid by the Customer on the price of the Products will be definitively retained by the Supplier.
6.2.2 incorrect use, irregular storage of the Products.
6.2.4 normal deterioration / wear of the Products.
6.3 The Customer undertakes to inform, by adequate means, its customers, suppliers or contractors / contractors of the conditions and limits relating to the conservation, deterioration / wear of the Products.
6.4 In the wider limits granted by the law, any further guarantees with respect to the provisions of these GCS are excluded.
7.1 All Products must be examined and checked by the Customer upon receipt of the shipment, in order to evaluate the integrity of the packaging and of the Products themselves. Should damage be found in the packaging or in the Products, the Customer must immediately inform the carrier and the Supplier.
7.2 The Customer, under penalty of forfeiture, within 5 (five) working days of receipt of a complete shipment (according to the provisions of Article 7.1) must inform the Supplier in writing of any defect or discrepancy of the Products that is recognizable to a reasonable control (obvious defects and faults), without prejudice to any claims against carriers. Failing this, the shipment will be considered accepted by the Customer and the Supplier will no longer be responsible for the defects and discrepancies of the Products delivered.
7.3 In the event that the Products delivered are defective or defective due to causes not attributable to the Customer and such defects and discrepancies are not recognizable to reasonable control pursuant to Article 7.1 (“hidden defects”), the Customer must inform the Supplier, under penalty of forfeiture, within three (3) working days following the discovery of the defect or non-conformity. Failing this, the Supplier will not be liable for hidden defects and faults.
7.4 In no case will the Supplier accept any complaints or be held liable for defects or discrepancies of the Products that become recognizable or are discovered after more than twelve (12) months from the date of Delivery.
7.5 In case the Customer detects a discrepancy or a defect of the Product, it will be required to activate the procedure for the return of goods provided for in the following art. 9.
7.6 It is understood that any variation found in the Products with respect to drawings, brochures, images present on websites, and advertising (which constitute a mere reference) can not be considered as a defect or discrepancy that may be relied on solely with reference to the data contained in the technical data sheets on the Website.
7.7 The Supplier will repair or replace the recognized or proven Product which is defective or not compliant within the terms necessary for the production and delivery of the Products. If the Supplier does not intend or is unable to repair or replace the Product, especially in the case of erroneous Delivery attributable to the Supplier, or if, for any reason, the repair or replacement fails, the Customer may terminate the contract or cancel the order. A Product may be considered unrepaired or replaced only after two failed attempts at repair or replacement. Any right of the Customer to compensation for damage will be subject to the terms set forth in Article 7. The Customer will keep the defective Products that have been replaced or return them to the Supplier with appropriate authorization, in good condition, as possible in the original package. The costs related to the transport of these Products as well as the transport of the Products delivered as a replacement or of the Products repaired will be charged to the Supplier.
7.8 The remedies provided for by Articles 7 and 8.2 constitute the sole and exclusive remedies available to the Customer and the sole and exclusive responsibility of the Supplier for the breach of the guarantee referred to in Article 6.1.
8.2 Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 8.1 and 8.3, and within the limits permitted by law for Article 8.3, the Supplier’s Responsibility (arising from or connected to these GCS and to any Order, whether contractual or non-contractual by law or any other title and for any reason, and / or deriving from the violation, omitted or delayed execution of any obligation on the Supplier under the GCS or the Order and / or any defect of the Products) will be limited to the price of the Products that have given that responsibility.
8.3.7. damage from liability for defective Product, required by consumers, final purchasers. In this case, the Customer will be solely responsible for compliance with current regulations and the marketing of the Finished Products purchased or of the Finished Products that incorporate Products object of purchase.
8.4 The Client agrees to hold harmless and to keep the Supplier harmless from and against all costs, expenses, indemnity, direct, indirect and consequential damages, all of which include emergent damage, loss of profits, impairment of goodwill, damages, claims , questions, legal and procedural costs and convictions in which the Supplier should incur as a result of direct or indirect violations of these GCS.
9.2 Alternatively, it is possible to send the request, always within 5 (five) working days of receipt of a complete shipment (according to the provisions of Article 7.1), in the case of “obvious defects”, or within three (3) days working following the discovery of the defect or non-conformity (“hidden defects”), directly by e-mail to the address [email protected] indicating the Order number (provided in the Order confirmation e-mail), name and surname used to carry out the Order.
9.3 Upon receipt of the return request, a written confirmation will be sent to the Customer, containing the Return Authorization Number (R.A.N.). The return must be made by courier using the waybill attached to the email, in addition must be indicated the Return Authorization Number (R.A.N.) on the outside of the box.
9.4 In the return mode for defective goods or exchange of goods of equivalent or greater value, the return shipping will be FREE (initially charged to the customer, it will then be reimbursed).
9.5 In the return modality made for non-defective exchange of goods and of a lower value than the one purchased, if foreseen, the shipment of returned goods will be charged to the Customer.
9.6 The return of the items must be received at the BGates warehouse in Via G. Ripamonti, 44 20141 Milan, within 10 days of receipt of R.A.N.
10.1 In any hypothesis integrating the unforeseeable event or force majeure, the Supplier will have the right to cancel the Order, suspend its execution or postpone the Delivery date, without the Customer being able to claim any compensation, cancel the Order or entrust the execution of the Order to third parties.
In particular, it refers to force majeure events or to all similar events that are all events beyond the control and unrelated to the Supplier’s will, objectively preventing them from delivering the goods.
By way of example and not mandatory they are considered force majeure: technical failures, suspension of electricity supply, water, natural gas or other fuels, strikes, at production facilities – even third parties – where the products are actually made , sudden shortages and unavailability of raw materials. Also: strikes in transport, delays in the arrival of ships, airplanes and means of transport of any kind, to any due cause; riots, turmoil wars or revolutions, occurring or in progress in the countries of production of goods subject to order or in the countries that pass through them from the place of production to reach the place of Delivery.
10.2 Following the occurrence of an event integrating the hypothesis of fortuitous event or force majeure, the Supplier will promptly inform the Customer and will try to find a solution by consulting the Customer.
In the event that the event of force majeure makes the execution of the order impossible or commercially and economically disadvantageous for a period of more than 6 (six) months, the Supplier will have the right to terminate the contract, without anything being due to any title to the Customer.
11.1 The Customer undertakes, for the entire duration of his / her collaboration with the Supplier and in any case for a period of 5 (five) years from the date of delivery of the last supply, to keep strictly confidential any information supplied verbally , in writing or otherwise, which you have come to know during the negotiation and execution of Product Orders.
11.2 The obligation of confidentiality does not extend to information in the public domain or become such for reasons other than the breach of the obligations of confidentiality by the Customer, which have been legitimately disclosed by third parties, and to the extent that the Customer is required to disclose them by virtue of a provision of law or an administrative or judicial order.
Please refer to the terms and conditions of use of the Website.
14.1 The GCS and the contracts stipulated under the GCS will be regulated and interpreted pursuant to Italian law.
14.2 The parties agree that any dispute arising out of or connected to a contract concluded pursuant to these GCS (including, without limitation, disputes relating to non-contractual liability) will be referred to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Milan.
1.1 These General Terms and Conditions of Sale (hereinafter CGV) apply to all Orders issued through the website www.bgates.it (hereinafter the “Site”) by any Consumer User, as defined in the General Conditions of Use of the Website (hereinafter the “Customer”) in favor of the company Business Gates srl (hereinafter referred to as “BGates” or the “Supplier”) and regulate entirely the existing and future supply relationships that exist between the Customer and the Supplier.
1.2 These GCS are published in the “Conditions of sale” section of the Website in favor of the consumer for reproduction and storage pursuant to article 12 of Legislative Decree 70/2003 and are considered in any case known and accepted, even if not signed , with the simple access to the Site and in any case with the simple sending of the Order through the appropriate functionality of the Site.
2.5 Orders will be confirmed, and will become binding on the Supplier only following the issuance of the Order Confirmation which will take place following the actual receipt of payment, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 4.4. and 4.6. CUSTOMERS are informed that once the click on the “ORDER EFFECT” button is sent, a binding Purchase Order is sent that obliges the User to pay for the goods present in the “cart”.
2.6 In the event that payment is not actually received within 5 days from placing the Order, or is received for an incorrect amount, the same will be suspended and the goods covered by the Order will be made available for sale to other CUSTOMERS. Consequently, BGates does not guarantee to the Customer the effective availability of the ordered goods in the case of payments made after the deadline of 5 days from placing the Order.
3.1 Under Article 52 of the Legislative Decree 06.09.2005 No. 206 (Consumer Code) and subsequent amendments, the consumer Customer may exercise the right of withdrawal.
3.2 The consumer who for any reason is not satisfied with the purchase made, has the right to withdraw from the contract, without any penalty and without specifying the reason, within the deadline of 14 working days from the day of receipt of the Products. The right of withdrawal must be exercised through the activation of the RETO procedure referred to in art. 10, within the period referred to in art. 3.2.
3.3 the Customer must send the Products to BGates S.r.l., Via Giuseppe Ripamonti n. 44, 20141 Milan (MI) – Italy within 14 days from the date of activation of the RETURN procedure.
3.4 All costs of returning the Products are charged to the Customer.
3.5 All items must be received in the same conditions of receipt, provided with the original packaging and any manuals and / or instruction booklets that are part of the packaging and the original packaging; the return of the goods by another method is not permitted.
3.6 BGates will accept the returned goods reserving the right to verify that the Products have been returned in their original state and with the original packaging, that they have not been used, allowing only the handling of the same in order to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning ; only in this case will it send the amount paid by the consumer for the purchase of the Products.
3.7 By activating the RESO procedure, the Customer will be reimbursed, after BGates has checked the integrity of the returned goods.
4.1.1 The Customer may choose between delivery by courier or collection of goods at the BGates warehouse.
4.1.2.1 The arrival times of the goods depend on the transit times of the shipments depending on the destinations.
4.1.2.2 The terms indicated for the Delivery and for the arrival of the goods are not binding and constitute only a reference data for the parts. The Supplier will use reasonable endeavors to comply with these terms. Any dates scheduled for delivery are merely indicative and the delivery deadline is not essential. In any case, the Supplier will not be liable in any way for delays in the Delivery of Products caused by (i) force majeure events as defined in Article 10, or (ii) failure to provide adequate instructions for the Delivery of Products of the Customer or any other instruction relating to the sale of the Products, (iii) delays of its own or Customer subcontractors, involved in the manufacturing process of the Products, (iiii) production difficulties in the case of Custom Products for the Customer that have particular production characteristics.
4.2 In any case, if the Supplier fails to deliver the Products, the Supplier’s liability will be limited to the difference between the price originally set for the Products in the Order, and the cost incurred by the Customer to obtain the lowest price available on the market. same quantity of Substitutive Products having the same characteristics and the same quality.
4.3 Irrespective of what is established in Article 4.1, the terms of delivery will not run until the payment made by the Customer will actually be received by the Supplier.
The Customer can collect the goods at the BGates warehouse: via Giuseppe Ripamonti 44, 20141 Milano (Mi). In this case the Delivery will take place with the provision of the goods to the Customer at the BGates Warehouse. (EXW).
4.1.3.1 The goods are made available for collection within 7 days of receipt of payment.
4.1.3.2 The collection can be made following the communication of the availability of the goods at the warehouse, every day from Monday to Friday from 3 to 6 pm. Any slips necessary to the courier for collection will be charged to the customer. The warehouse will issue only the accompanying invoice.
4.1.3.3 The Customer must collect the goods no later than 15 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of the goods in stock. Beyond this deadline, the Delivery will be deemed to have taken place with the consequences envisaged by art. 6.2.
4.1.3.4 In case of delay in the collection (within and not later than 30 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of goods in stock), without prejudice to the provisions of art. 4.1.3.2, the customer can collect the goods upon payment of storage costs equal to € 0.50 per day for each day of delay beyond the term of 15 days from the date of sending the notice of availability of the goods in stock.
4.1.3.5 In case of delay in picking up the goods after the deadline of 30 days from the date of sending the communication of availability of the goods in stock, without prejudice to the provisions of art. 4.1.3.2, the Customer must book a new collection by sending an email to the address [email protected]. In this case the availability of the goods in stock is not guaranteed and the delivery times foreseen by art. 4.1.3.1.
5.1 The Products are invoiced by the Supplier according to the price indicated on the Website.
5.3 The total price of the supply, including shipping costs and the costs of preparation and packaging of the goods, will be indicated in the “shopping cart” section, before the customer proceeds to purchase.
5.4 VAT, DUTIES AND CUSTOMS CHARGES In case of sale of Products for export to countries outside the EU, the indicated price will be excluded VAT (which the user will have to pay with the modalities and with the proper rate of the country of destination, to the Delivery of goods) and excluding any customs duties and / or customs charges of the country in which the Products will be shipped. In the event that the destination of the shipment of goods is Italy, VAT will still be charged to the customer.
Remember, pursuant to Art. 4.2 and 4.3 of the General Conditions of Use of the Site that in case of incorrect insertion of User data (in particular P. IVA) it will not be possible to follow the order and that Business users who do not have VAT number (some foreign companies) before making the purchase, please contact our customer service.
5.6 The payment will be confirmed only after the actual crediting of the sums paid, for an amount corresponding to the amount of the order.
5.7 In case of payment by bank transfer, the Supplier reserves the right to cancel the ORDER in the event that the payment is not actually credited within 5 days from the date of purchase.
5.8 In the event that payment is not actually received within 5 days from placing the Order, or is received for incorrect amounts, the same will be suspended and the goods covered by the Order will be made available for sale to other CUSTOMERS. Consequently, BGates does not guarantee to the Customer the effective availability of the ordered goods in the case of payments made after the deadline of 5 days from placing the Order.
6.1 The ownership of the Products supplied will pass to the Customer only after full payment of the price. Payment is considered made only when the relative sum is available for the Supplier according to the provisions of the preceding art. 5.7.
6.2 The risk on the Products is transferred to the Customer following the Delivery of Products as defined in Article 4. From the moment of delivery, the Customer shall bear all the risks of loss and damage to the Products.
6.3 The Supplier shall have the right to request payment of the price of the Products (even in judicial proceedings) regardless of the fact that the ownership of the Products has passed to the Customer.
7.2.2 incorrect use, irregular storage of the Products.
7.2.4 normal deterioration / wear of the Products.
7.3 The Customer undertakes to inform, by adequate means, its customers, suppliers or contractors / contractors of the conditions and limits relating to the conservation, deterioration / wear of the Products.
7.4 In the wider limits granted by the law, any further guarantees with respect to the provisions of these GCS are excluded.
8.1 All Products must be examined and checked by the Customer upon receipt of the shipment, in order to evaluate the integrity of the packaging and of the Products themselves. In case any damage is detected in the packaging or in the Products, the Customer must immediately inform the carrier and the Supplier.
8.2 The Customer, under penalty of forfeiture, within 14 (fourteen) working days of receipt of a complete shipment (according to the provisions of Article 8.1) must inform the Supplier in writing of any defect or discrepancy of the Products that is recognizable to a reasonable control (obvious defects and faults), without prejudice to any claims against carriers. Failing this, the shipment will be considered accepted by the Customer and the Supplier will no longer be responsible for the defects and discrepancies of the Products delivered.
8.3 In the event that the Products delivered are non-compliant or defective for reasons not attributable to the Customer and such defects and discrepancies are not recognizable to reasonable control pursuant to Article 8.1 (“hidden defects”), the Customer must inform the Supplier, under penalty of forfeiture, within three (3) working days following the discovery of the defect or non-conformity. Failing this, the Supplier will not be liable for hidden defects and faults.
8.4 In no case will the Supplier accept any complaints or be held liable for defects or non-conformity of the Products which become recognizable or are discovered more than twenty-four (24) months after the date of Delivery.
8.5 If the Customer detects any discrepancy or defect of the Product, he / she will be required to activate the procedure for the RETURN of goods provided for in the following art. 10.
8.6 It is understood that any variation found in the Products with respect to drawings, brochures, images present on websites, and advertising (which constitute a mere reference) can not be considered as a defect or discrepancy that may be relied on solely with reference to the data contained in the technical data sheets on the Website.
8.7 The Supplier will repair or replace the recognized or proven Product which is defective or not compliant within the terms necessary for the production and delivery of the Products. If the Supplier does not intend or is unable to repair or replace the Product, especially in the case of erroneous Delivery attributable to the Supplier, or if, for any reason, the repair or replacement fails, the Customer may terminate the contract or cancel the order. A Product may be considered unrepaired or replaced only after two failed attempts at repair or replacement. Any right of the Customer to compensation for damage will be subject to the terms set forth in Article 7. The Customer will keep the defective Products that have been replaced or return them to the Supplier with appropriate authorization, in good condition, as possible in the original package. The costs related to the transport of these Products as well as the transport of the Products delivered as a replacement or of the Products repaired will be charged to the Supplier.
8.8 The customer can alternatively exercise the withdrawal provided for by art. 3 in accordance with the Consumer Code within 14 days of Delivery of Products.
8.9 The remedies provided for by Articles 8 and 9.2 constitute the sole and exclusive remedies available to the Customer and the sole and exclusive responsibility of the Supplier for the breach of the guarantee referred to in Article 7.1.
9.2 Without prejudice to the provisions of Articles 9.1 and 9.3, and within the limits permitted by law for Article 9.3, the Supplier’s Responsibility (arising from or connected to these GCS and to any Order, whether contractual or non-contractual by law or any other title and for any reason, E / o deriving from the violation, omitted or delayed execution of any obligation to be paid by the Supplier according to the GCS or order and / or any defect of the Products) will be limited to the price of the Products that have given that responsibility.
9.3.7. damage from liability for defective Product, required by consumers, final purchasers. In this case, the Customer will be solely responsible for compliance with current regulations and the marketing of the Finished Products purchased or of the Finished Products that incorporate Products object of purchase.
9.4 The Client agrees to indemnify and hold the Supplier harmless from and against all costs, expenses, indemnity, direct, indirect and consequential damages, all of which include emergent damage, loss of profits, impairment of goodwill, damages, claims , questions, legal and procedural costs and convictions in which the Supplier should incur as a result of direct or indirect violations of these GCS.
10.2 Alternatively, it is possible to send the request, always within 14 (fourteen) working days of receipt of a complete shipment (according to the provisions of article 8.1), in the case of “obvious defects”, or within three (3) days working following the discovery of the defect or non-compliance (“hidden defects”), directly by e-mail to the address [email protected] indicating the Order number (provided in the Order confirmation e-mail), name and surname used to carry out the Order.
10.3 Once the return request has been received, a written confirmation will be sent to the Customer, containing the Return Authorization Number (R.A.N.). The return must be made by courier using the waybill attached to the email, in addition must be indicated the Return Authorization Number (R.A.N.) on the outside of the box.
10.4 In the return mode made for defective goods or exchange of goods of equivalent or greater value, the return shipment will be FREE (initially charged to the customer, it will then be reimbursed).
10.5 In the return mode made for non-defective goods exchange and with a lower value than the one purchased or for WITHDRAWAL ex art. 52 ss of the Legislative Decree 06.09.2005 n ° 206 (Consumer Code), the return shipment will be charged to the customer.
10.6 The return of the items must take place at BGates S.r.l .: Via Giuseppe Ripamonti n. 44, 20141 Milan (MI) – Italy within 14 days of receipt of R.A.N.
11.1 In any case integral to the unforeseeable event or force majeure, the Supplier will have the right to cancel the Order, suspend its execution or postpone the delivery date, without the Customer being able to claim any compensation, cancel the order or entrust the execution of the Order to third parties.
11.2 Following the occurrence of an event integrating the case of fortuitous event or force majeure, the Supplier will promptly inform the Customer and will try to find a solution by consulting the Customer.
12.1 The Customer undertakes, for the entire duration of his / her collaboration with the Supplier and in any case for a period of 5 (five) years from the date of delivery of the last supply, to keep strictly confidential the information of any kind supplied verbally , in writing or otherwise, which you have come to know during the negotiation and execution of Product Orders.
12.2 The obligation of confidentiality does not extend to information in the public domain or become such for reasons other than the breach of the obligations of confidentiality by the Customer, which have been legitimately disclosed by third parties, and to the extent that the Customer is required to disclose them by virtue of a provision of law or an administrative or judicial order.
Please refer to the provisions of the General Conditions of Use of the Site.
15.2 Any dispute relating to the application, execution, interpretation and violation of purchase contracts stipulated through the Site is subject to the jurisdiction of the Court in whose district has its domicile the consumer, the correct legislation in force.
The integral or partial reproduction of any part of the site is forbidden; it is also forbidden the reproduction of texts and or photos for any use and in any form and in any case without prior written authorization of the www.bgates.it.
with registered office in Via Ripamonti, Milan, Italy.
Este sitio web utiliza cookies, también de terceros. La nota informativa completa permite entender cómo seleccionar las cookies que se desea autorizar o cómo denegar el consentimiento. | 2019-04-18T10:53:57Z | http://www.bgates.it/es/politica-de-privacidad/ |
U.S. manufacturing’s annual costs for air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement, waste removal, and wastewater treatment total 1.2% of U.S. manufacturing value-added, or $24.6 billion.
This study compares the costs of pollution control reduction faced by manufacturers in the U.S. and our largest trading partners in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. We analyzed the abatement costs for greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution that are necessary to meet regulatory reductions and the annual costs of waste disposal and wastewater treatment. The purpose of this analysis was to determine the annual additional cost burden that environmental rules have on manufacturing and determine whether the United States is at a relative cost disadvantage compared with its key trading partners. Of the nine countries, the U.S. ranks second highest for air pollution costs as a percent of sector value-added, fourth for greenhouse gases, and sixth for waste disposal and wastewater treatment.
U.S. manufacturing’s 2014 costs for air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement, waste removal, and wastewater treatment total 1.2% of U.S. manufacturing value-added, or $24.6 billion.
Annual waste disposal and wastewater treatment costs are significantly larger than new air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement costs because waste is properly disposed of and treated each year, while the latter involve the marginal addition to existing equipment.
In eight of our competitor countries—Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and the United Kingdom—air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment make up an average of 1.2% of manufacturing value-added—the same as in the United States. Canada has the highest cost burden (2.2% of value-added) and Mexico has the lowest (0.8%).
U.S. manufacturers’ 2014 costs of $24.6 billion for pollution abatement are roughly double the costs in Japan and triple the costs in Germany.
Air emissions regulations vary widely by country and region. In general, European countries have strict limitations on pollutants, the U.S. and Canada have a mix of strict and lenient rules, Japan and Korea are in the middle, and Mexico and Brazil have lax regulation.
U.S. manufacturers spend 0.27% of value-added ($5.3 billion in 2014) to reduce air pollution. Only Canada (0.8%) spends a larger share.
New greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement cost U.S. manufacturing $1.4 billion in 2014. Canada, Korea, and Japan have met their GHG targets and manufacturers in Mexico and Brazil comply with their relatively lax requirements and thus do not incur these costs. Rigorous abatement costs in Europe, however, are twice the U.S. manufacturing burden.
U.S. manufacturing spends 0.9% of value-added ($17.9 billion in 2014) to treat waste and wastewater. The U.S. burden is somewhat below the average of our major trading partners. Mexico (0.6%) has the lowest and Canada (1.5%) has the highest.
Steel and paper industries in the United States pay disproportionately more for all types of control—pollution abatement, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment.
Within U.S. manufacturing, the petroleum refining industry accounts for 27% of all greenhouse gas abatement costs and the food industry is responsible for 28% of all waste disposal and wastewater treatment costs; both industries have below-average costs for the other types of pollution.
This study compares manufacturing’s costs for pollution control in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the UK, Korea, Brazil, and France.The eight countries represent our largest trading partners, minus China. China was excluded because its government and industry data are not considered reliable. The abatement costs for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment are examined in six manufacturing industries—food processing, pulp and paper, petroleum refining, chemicals, iron and steel, and transportation equipment. These six industries account for about 80% of the manufacturing sector’s total air, GHG, and waste mitigation costs. The study scaled up the abatement spending to approximate the figures for the manufacturing sector as a whole.
A bottom-up approach was used to analyze pollution costs.The research approach was to assess newly built manufacturing plants that comply with current pollution control legislative requirements. The history of emissions control or the ability to enforce regulations was not considered. Control technologies for air emissions were determined by matching legislative pollution control requirements and emissions limitations with technology-specific emission factors at the industry level. Technology-specific cost data determined annualized costs per technology, industry, and country. For GHG emissions, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment, the approach focused on industry-specific control technologies. Total pollutant volumes and costs at a plant and industry level were constructed.
Table 1 reveals the overall cost burden for the examined countries. The 2014 costs for air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement, waste removal, and wastewater treatment in U.S. manufacturing totaled about $24.6 billion, or 1.2% of the sector’s value-added.
In the eight other countries, these costs average 1.2% of manufacturing value-added—the same as in the United States. Canada has the highest burden (2.2% of value-added) and Mexico has the lowest (0.8%). Most other countries are close to the average as a percentage of value-added.
Aggregating disparate pollution sources into a total, however, hides important details about the composition. U.S. manufacturers’ 2014 costs of $24.6 billion for pollution abatement are roughly double the burden of Japan ($12.8 billion), which ranks second in the dollar-to-dollar comparison. Manufacturers in Germany come in third ($8.7 billion), followed by Canada ($4.2 billion).
Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter (PM), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were the four types of air pollution examined in this study. Estimates were made for the current state of air pollution levels and countries’ regulatory requirements for reduction.
Air pollution reduction goals vary widely in terms of strictness and the types of regulated pollutants. As seen in Table 2, Europe has aggressive rules for reduction. For example, the average reductions in Germany, France, and the UK are 11% for PM, 33% for NOX, and 19% for SO2. In comparison, the U.S. calls for reductions of 1% for PM, 5% for NOX, and 12% for SO2.
Canada has a mixture of strict and lenient rules. No reduction is required for PM but the nation calls for reductions of 71% for NOX and 60% for SO2. Japan and Korea are in the middle of the road, with a 5% decline in PM and 2% reductions in NOX and SO2. With 5% reductions required in each category, Mexico ranks much lower than Brazil, which has requirements of 15% declines across the board.
Air pollution abatement (in tons) multiplied by the marginal abatement cost finds U.S. manufacturers spend 0.27% of value-added ($5.3 billion in 2014) to reduce air pollution (Table 3). Only Canada (0.8% of value-added) has a higher burden in this area. The three European countries spend 0.09% (France), 0.08% (UK), and 0.02% (Germany) of value-added for additional air pollution reduction. Brazil and Mexico each spend about 0.13% of value-added, which is less than half of the U.S. burden. Japan and Korea spend the least.
On a straight dollar basis, U.S. manufacturers spend more money on air pollution abatement—$5.3 billion in 2014—than manufacturers in the other eight countries combined ($2.9 billion).
GHGs such as carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone absorb energy in the atmosphere and slow or prevent the loss of heat to outer space. In this way, GHGs act like a blanket and make the Earth warmer, a process called the “greenhouse effect.”Causes of Climate Change, EPA, www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html#greenhouseeffect. Many but not all nations regulate GHG emissions. The U.S. has rules that impose costs on manufacturers. Canada, Korea, and Japan have met GHG targets so their additional abatement costs are quite low. Meanwhile, manufacturers in Mexico and Brazil do not have any binding requirements, so these countries do not incur related costs. Europe’s costs for GHG abatements are substantially larger than those that U.S. manufacturers face.
A calculation of GHG abatement (in tons) multiplied by the marginal abatement cost ($11.50 per ton of CO2 reduced) shows that U.S. manufacturers spend 0.07% of value-added ($1.4 billion in 2014) to reduce GHG emissions. The countries in Europe have the highest burden. Europe’s market-based trading system determines a price for GHG abatement ($8.36 per ton CO2 reduced) that is currently lower than the U.S. price; however, European policy sets a stricter standard for reduction. This results in GHG abatement costs that are 0.18% of value-added in Germany, 0.14% in France, and 0.13% in the UK.
In terms of total dollars, U.S. manufacturers spent $1.4 billion in 2014 on GHG abatement, the most of any country in this study. German manufacturers spent the next highest amount, at $1.2 billion. The other countries combined spent $700 million.
Waste disposal and wastewater treatment costs are calculated differently than air pollution and greenhouse gas abatement. Waste is disposed of or treated each year, while air abatement costs count only the marginal addition to existing equipment necessary to reduce pollution and GHGs to meet new government targets.
U.S. manufacturing spends 0.9% of value-added ($17.9 billion in 2014) to treat waste and wastewater. The U.S. share of manufacturing value-added is somewhat below the average of our major trading partners. Canada (1.48%), Korea (1.25%), Japan (1.13%), Germany (1.07%), and Brazil (0.97%) spend more and France (0.83%), the UK (0.73%), and Mexico (0.64%) spend less.
Canada’s high cost burden is a result of its industry structure. The nation has abundant natural resources and waste- and wastewater-intensive industries such as pulp and paper, steel, and petroleum refining account for a large share of the sector. A high concentration of steel and paper industries explains the above-average costs in Korea, Japan, and Germany.
On a straight dollar basis, U.S. manufacturers spend 43% more on waste and wastewater abatement ($17.9 billion in 2014) than Japan ($12.5 billion), twice as much as Germany ($7.4 billion), and more than the remaining countries combined ($13.9 billion).
Since abatement costs vary by industrial process, this study used an engineering approach to identify pollution and waste byproducts in major industries and reconciled the theoretical findings with mandatory reports and statistics. Food processing, paper and pulp, petroleum refining, chemicals, iron and steel, and transportation equipment account for about 80% of the manufacturing sector’s total emissions abatement and waste costs.
Some industries incur disproportionate costs relative to their value-added in manufacturing. The steel industry is a prime example of an industry that is relatively small within the sector but has significant emissions reduction and waste handling costs. As seen in Table 4, iron and steel makes up about 1.3% of manufacturing value-added but is responsible for 31% of new air emissions costs, 10% of greenhouse gas abatement, and 26% of waste disposal and wastewater treatment costs.
Paper and pulp has relatively high costs in all three categories. It accounts for about 2.6% of manufacturing but pays 5% of the sector’s new air emissions costs and a huge 29% of GHG abatement and annual waste and wastewater costs.
Petroleum refining and food each have one outlier for pollution costs. The petroleum industry is 9.1% of manufacturing yet accounts for 27% of new GHG abatement. The food industry is 11.6% of manufacturing but pays 28% of the sector’s waste disposal and wastewater treatment costs.
Alternatively, chemicals and transportation equipment are very large industries within manufacturing but have relatively lower costs for air emissions and waste handling. Their industrial processes are not water-intensive, they do not generate significant nonrecyclable waste or scrap, and they have a legacy of tight air regulation so the marginal new reductions are small.
estimate the cost of pollution abatement technologies.
Actual emissions levels were found for each country and, if available, by industry. Air emissions data are generally available from government sources but industry-specific waste and wastewater volumes are not available for most countries. In these cases, a production process flowchart of a typical manufacturing plant provided enough detail to calculate product-specific waste and wastewater generation. The calculations were aggregated to total industry waste and wastewater volumes by country.
Pollution control regulations vary by country and industry. Regulations are determined at the country level for air pollution and air quality standards for particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). For greenhouse gas emissions, countrywide reduction goals and, if available, industry-level reduction goals were found. Table 5 displays the detailed findings.
For waste and wastewater, this study assumed that in all countries, both hazardous and nonhazardous waste has to be treated.The study did not investigate detailed wastewater pollution concentrations. The assumption was that all wastewater has to be treated, either on-site or off-site. Nevertheless, a portion of wastewater that varies by industry is recycled within the industrial production process. This internal recycling was part of the calculations.
Knowing the pollution limits, the next step was to create a list of technologies that abate pollution. The most common equipment and systems for mitigating polluted air, waste, and wastewater by industry and pollutant type were identified; these technologies must comply with national regulations. Pollution control technologies were then matched with the stages in the industrial process flowchart that generate air emissions, GHG emissions, waste, and wastewater for the industries in the countries studied.
The approach used for these non-GHG emissions was to identify current regulatory air quality standards in each country for nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and sulfur dioxide emissions. The industrial process flowchart revealed the standard equipment needed for emissions sources by industry. The appropriate control technologies came from a review of numerous federal and state air emissions permits. For each technology, the standard emission factor in the EPA’s AP-42, Compilation of Air Pollutant Emission Factors, for controlled or uncontrolled emissions was used.
An investigation of state and federal air permits determined the final product-specific air emissions limits per pollutant type by industry and equipment type (in tons of emissions per ton of product). Matching the defined limits with the available control technologies and their emission factors defined a technology meeting the limit.
Outside of the United States, air permits are generally not available. For these countries, the percentage variations in overall ambient air quality standards compared with the U.S. standards for each pollutant type were calculated. Applying the same percentage variations to the plant-level emissions limits defined the complying abatement technology.
For greenhouse gas emissions, each country’s legislative requirements defined emissions reduction goals. For most of the countries, reduction targets are broken down into product- or energy-specific benchmarks. Actual average emissions per ton of product produced compared with the required benchmark represented the required reduction needed per ton of product. Multiplying the required product-specific reduction by each industry’s annual production volume determined the entire sector’s annual reduction in volume.
The EPA does not define sector-level or product-specific reduction goals.The Clean Air Act requires new source permits for more than 100,000 tons per year and requires Best Available Control Technology review that would then define the emissions limitations. Rather, they set a national goal of 17% GHG reduction in 2020 below 2005 levels. This study allocated a goal to manufacturing based on its share of total GHG emissions. For example, the U.S. emitted 6,875 million tons of GHGs in 2010 and the aim is to be at 6,021 million tons in 2020. That requires an annual reduction of 854 million tons per year from 2010 onward.Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2012, EPA, April 2014, http://epa.gov/climatechange/Downloads/ghgemissions/US-GHG-Inventory-2014-Main-Text.pdf. The manufacturing sector is responsible for 16.7% of these emissions based on its share of total 2010 emissions.
The amount of hazardous waste and wastewater for the industries and countries came from an industrial production process analysis of a sample plant in each industry to determine the number of pollutants per ton of produced product. For each industry, the product-specific tons of pollutant multiplied by the overall countrywide production volume yielded the total volume of waste and wastewater by industry and country.
Pollution abatement cost analysis includes capital costs, direct and indirect installation costs, and direct and indirect operating and maintenance costs. The calculations in this study used the methodology from the EPA Air Pollution Control Cost Manual, Sixth Edition, EPA/452/B-02-001, January 2002, www.epa.gov/ttn/catc/dir1/c_allchs.pdf. adding in the assumptions that (1) the defined abatement technologies are available in each country and (2) the World Bank’s purchasing power parity conversion factor is the “number of units of a country's currency required to buy the same amount of goods and services in the domestic market as a U.S. dollar would buy in the United States.” reflects the cost differences between countries for the technologies.
Cost data from U.S. state and federal air permits and other EPA sources quantified the cost per ton of pollutant removed for each control technology. The FY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic PlanFY 2011-2015 EPA Strategic Plan, September 2010, http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P1008YOS.PDF?Dockey=P1008YOS.pdf. defines the U.S. reduction goals by 2015 for NOx, SO2, PM, and VOCs. The baseline year was 2008 for these reductions and the goal is linear—the annual reduction percentage is the same over the entire period. This study used the 2014 absolute reduction goal (in million tons per year) and allocated it to each industry by applying the percentage share of total emissions.
For other countries, instead of absolute national reduction targets for individual pollutant types, they might have only relative percentage reduction goals compared with a baseline year. The emissions reduction goals convert into an annual absolute emissions level by assuming a linear reduction from the baseline to the target year.
For the European countries with an existing emissions cap and trade scheme, the current year’s forward market price represented the marginal cost of reduction. In the U.S. and Canada, the California cap and trade August 2014 priceCalifornia Air Resources Board Quarterly Auction 8, California Environmental Protection Agency, August 2014, www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/auction/august-2014/results.pdf. of $11.50 per ton represented the cost of CO2 reduced. This study derived other countries’ costs from GHG abatement cost curves at a country and sector level. In some countries and sectors, measures with negative costs such as energy efficiency were included. Mexico and Brazil currently do not have any GHG reduction requirements for manufacturing and thus their GHG emissions reduction costs are zero.
This study assumed that 30% of wastewater per plant is recycled, 70% of wastewater is treated off-site, and solid waste is treated off-site before going to landfills. Wastewater costs were determined using the average commercial sewer surcharge rate. Nonhazardous waste landfill costs are available for some countries; for the others, this study applied the purchasing power parity conversion factor.
CompetitivenessKristin Graybill March 10, 2015 U.S. | 2019-04-25T04:21:43Z | https://mapifoundation.org/economic/2015/3/6/an-international-comparison-of-pollution-abatement-and-waste-management-costs |
Tajikistan shares a 1,200 kilometer border with Afghanistan and is one of the countries identified by military planners as a possible base of U.S. military and humanitarian operations in the region. Tajikistan has been a low priority for U.S. foreign policy makers since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Suddenly, it has become a strategic partner in the U.S. government's counter-terrorism campaign following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.. It is also a potential haven for tens of thousands of displaced people seeking to flee Afghanistan.
Tajikistan was embroiled in a civil war from 1992 to 1997 that took a disastrous toll on the civilian population and crippled its economy. Four years after a U.N.-brokered peace accord, high-profile political assassinations and other forms of political violence remain common, and discord reigns among government military and political leaders.
Tajikistan has serious human rights problems. The government has obstructed political opposition, severely restricted the media, and arrested people on religious grounds. Police and security forces are notorious for brutal torture and ill-treatment.
Tajikistan is the poorest of the post- Soviet republics. United Nations agencies estimate that 80 percent of the population of 6.5 million live below the poverty line. Two years of severe drought have resulted in catastrophic food shortages, and humanitarian organizations have predicted the starvation of one million people in upcoming months should emergency food supplies not become available.
The country's four major geographic regions are home to distinct regional and ethnic groups, which play a critical role in internal politics and were crucial in determining loyalty in the civil war. These regions are Sugd (formerly Leninabad) province in the north, bordering Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan; the northeast, including the Gharm and Karetegin valleys; Khatlon province in the south, bordering Afghanistan; and Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, in the Pamir mountain range, bordering Afghanistan to the south and China to the east.
The civil war in Tajikistan broke out in May 1992. While its most active phase lasted a mere six months, hostilities continued through December 1996, claiming as many as 50,000 lives and displacing more than 800,000 people. The conflict was the culmination of a power struggle between a communist-led government that was dominated by people from Leninabad (known as "Leninabadis"), and an opposition coalition that drew support primarily from people whose origins were from the northeast ("Gharmis") and Gorno-Badakhshan ("Pamiris"). The government was supported in the civil war by people from Kuliab ("Kuliabis)," a district in the southern Khatlon province. The United Tajik Opposition (UTO) was an amalgam of nationalist and Islamist parties and movements. The war's greatest destruction and toll in civilian deaths was in the south, where Kuliabis and their allies conducted campaigns of "ethnic cleansing" against local residents of Gharmi and Pamiri origin.
At the height of the war as many as 150,000 Tajiks fled to northern Afghanistan, to regions dominated by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks; all were repatriated by 1997. Until 1998 the UTO enjoyed the support of the pre-Taliban government in Afghanistan, in particular President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his defense minister, the late Gen. Ahmad Shah Massoud, both ethnic Tajiks. The UTO established military bases and training camps in northern Afghanistan, from which they conducted regular cross-border raids into Tajikistan.
Emomali Rakhmonov, a Kuliabi, led the government that emerged victorious in December 1992; in subsequent years it gradually came to be dominated by Kuliabis. In September 1994, the government and the UTO agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the U.N. The U.N. Mission of Observers to Tajikistan (UNMOT) was established to monitor the ceasefire.
A breakthrough in negotiations followed the Taliban capture of Kabul in 1996, which alarmed all Central Asian governments and, significantly, Russia, a key actor in Tajikistan and mediator in the peace negotiations. Many observers of the region believe that the prospect of the UTO remaining in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan convinced Russia of the need to accept the integration of the UTO into the Tajik government, which had been a key UTO demand.
A peace accord signed by the UTO and the government in June 1997 provided for, among other things, UTO representatives to be appointed to 30 percent of all government posts. In the four years since the peace agreement, this and other major elements of the accords have not been implemented, including the demobilization of UTO troops and reform of government security and law enforcement institutions. Small-scale fighting between former opposition members and government troops, and between rival government groups, has broken out repeatedly. Parts of northeastern Tajikistan remain largely under the control of former UTO fighters who have rejected the terms of the peace settlement. Also, as political and criminal violence worsened, the country became increasingly impoverished, and corruption, drug-trafficking and hostage-taking rose sharply.
The U.N. mission, UNMOT, which at one time had at least 150 military observers and civilian personnel, withdrew from Tajikistan in May 2000, even though major provisions of the peace accord remained unimplemented. A small, Dushanbe-based U.N. peace-building office replaced it.
Assassinations of high-level political figures in 2001 reflected persistent internal power struggles among political leaders and regional groups, in a pattern persistent since the June 1997 peace accords. Three high-ranking political figures have been assassinated in 2001 alone, including Deputy Interior Minister Habib Sanginov, presidential foreign policy advisor Karim Yuldashev and, on September 8, Minister of Culture Abdurahim Rahimov.
Renewed fighting between former UTO members and government forces in 2001 highlighted shortcomings in the demobilization process and continuing distrust between the government and former UTO fighters. In June, former UTO field commanders based in the northeast took hostage at least four policemen in Teppa Samarkandi and fifteen members of a German humanitarian aid organization in Tavil-Dara. The kidnappers protested the arrest of former UTO members in connection with the murder of Habib Sanginov. All hostages were released unharmed. A military operation against the rebel fighters ensued. Local legal experts and journalists reported that government forces' indiscriminate fire killed and injured up to eighty civilians, and that Tajik law enforcement agencies beat and looted civilians in the operation and the sweep that followed. Authorities acknowledged six civilian deaths.
In addition, government-led military units and law enforcement agencies operate independently of the central government. Police and security forces often extort, kidnap, torture, and inflict wanton violence against civilians with impunity.
The Rakhmonov government has remained in power as a result of flagrantly fraudulent presidential and parliamentary elections in 1994, 1999, and 2000. President Rakhmonov was essentially the sole candidate to contest the 1999 presidential elections. Two of three opposition presidential candidates were denied registration on spurious grounds of having violated registration procedures, while a third candidate from the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) was registered against his will by authorities in an attempt to preserve a veneer of the democratic process.
A joint U.N.-Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observer mission that monitored the February 2000 parliamentary vote documented state interference that included the obstruction or exclusion of opposition parties, a wholly arbitrary candidate registration process, grossly biased coverage by the state media, and numerous grave irregularities on election day. The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) gained thirty of sixty-three seats in the parliament, while eighteen other seats went to ostensibly independent candidates who were either also PDP members or widely acknowledged to be solidly pro-government. The IRP gained two seats. Largely uncontested elections to the upper chamber of parliament resulted in the election of an overwhelming majority of presidential party members.
Former UTO members occupy senior positions in the government, and the IRP enjoys parliamentary representation, but in practice these officials and parliamentary deputies support official policy and the president on almost all points. In 2001 the government moved to consolidate its de facto one-party control by continuing to ban, deny registration to, or suspend those opposition parties blocked from participation in the presidential and parliamentary elections, and by harassing current and former UTO members. During May parliamentary by-elections the field was left open to candidates supporting the ruling party and the president because opposition candidates were denied registration on questionable charges of violating administrative procedure.
Tajikistan is the only Central Asian republic that permits political parties of a religious character. Legalizing religion-based political parties was one of the major concessions made by the government in the peace negotiations, and the IRP plays a role, though marginal, in the nation's political life. The government has arrested scores of members of Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), an Islamic group that supports the reestablishment of the Caliphate, or Islamic state, for Muslims by peaceful means. Like in Uzbekistan, Tajik courts convict Hizb ut-Tahrir members convicted on charges of inciting religious hatred, distributing anti-state literature, and membership in banned organizations. Whereas in previous years Tajik courts handed down sentences of between five and twelve years for such charges, they now hand down sentences of up to fourteen years imprisonment.
The government severely restricts freedom of expression. The sole publishing house for publishing newspapers is owned by the state and denies access to government critics. The government monitors and "counsels" all news media, enforces pre-publication censorship, and imposes burdensome licensing procedures. Electronic media is either state-owned or is dominated by the state through the measures outlined above.
The authorities threaten or harass journalists and editors who publish views directly critical of President Rakhmonov or of certain government policies. A dramatic example was the July 2001 arrest in Moscow of Dodojon Atovullo, exiled editor-in-chief of the independent opposition newspaper Charogi Ruz (Light of Day). Atovullo has in recent years published articles accusing Tajik authorities of corruption and involvement in narcotics trafficking activities. Threatened with extradition back to Tajikistan to face charges of sedition and publicly slandering the president, he was released after six days after pressure from other governments and international organizations.
Approximately 10,000 Afghans who fled fighting in northern Afghanistan in 2000 have remained trapped in the border area. Tajik authorities have refused them entry, claiming that the presence of armed combatants among the refugees poses too great a security risk to Tajikistan, and that the country lacks the necessary economic and social resources to accommodate them. The displaced continue to live in squalid conditions in various points along on the border between the two countries-the majority are on islands in the Pianj River-and are frequently caught in crossfire between United Front and Taliban forces. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has stated that up to 50,000 people could flee towards Tajikistan in the event of U.S.-led military operations against the Taliban; others put this estimate at 120,000. Refugees are fleeing the threat of military action following the September 11 attacks; forced conscription by the Taliban; politically motivated attacks by the Taliban against ethnic groups believed to be sympathetic to the opposition; fighting between Taliban and United Front forces; as well as the growing humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, exacerbated by the onset of winter.
In September 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush linked the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) to Osama bin Laden. The Bush statement suggested that the IMU might be a target of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The IMU is an armed group of fighters from Central Asian states that seeks the establishment of Shar=ia (Islamic law) in Uzbekistan. It is based primarily in Afghanistan and is closely connected with the Taliban. In August 1999 the IMU launched armed incursions into Kyrgyzstan from bases it then held in northeast Tajikistan, and in August 2000 passed through Tajikistan to launch incursions into Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The IMU's military commander, Jumaboi Khojiev (known as Namangani), and many IMU fighters, have reportedly trained in northeastern Tajikistan-in areas where Tajik government control is weak-and have held bases there sporadically since at least 1997. They reportedly enjoy the support of former UTO field commanders, with whom they fought as allies during the civil war. Former UTO combatants who were not integrated into Tajikistan's security forces were reported to have participated in the IMU=s incursions into Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
The presence of IMU fighters on Tajik territory has exacerbated already hostile Uzbek-Tajik relations. In April 2000 IRP leader Said Abdullo Nuri, at the behest of President Rakhmonov, persuaded the IMU to leave Tajikistan, but Uzbekistan has regularly accused Tajikistan of continuing to harbor IMU militants. In January 2001, Namangani, under pressure from Tajik authorities who themselves were under pressure from other Central Asian governments, was believed to have again quit bases in Tajikistan for Afghanistan.
Uzbek forces bombed Tajik territory during joint Kyrgyz-Uzbek military operations against the IMU in 1999, and in 2000 took unilateral action to lay antipersonnel landmines along the Tajik-Uzbek and Uzbek-Kyrgyz borders. Tajik authorities have said some thirty civilians have been killed and dozens wounded by landmines. A visa regime between the two countries took effect in 2000, making the already tense border controls more arduous.
Tajikistan is closely tied to Russia in the area of national defense. It is the only Central Asian country with Russian military units on its territory: more than 10,000 Russian border guards are stationed along the Tajik-Afghan border, and at least 10,000 troops of the 201st Motorized Rifle Division are headquartered in the capital and stationed in detachments throughout the country. More than 1,500 additional Russian troops have recently been sent to Tajikistan.
The Russian military presence in independent Tajikistan predates the civil war. The border guards and the 201st Motorized Rifle Division made up the majority of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping force in Tajikistan in 1997; a small number of troops from Uzbekistan's army also took part. CIS forces also helped provided security to UNMOT, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and personnel of other international organizations. Further, the 201st Motorized Rifle Division played a strategic role in the civil war by providing material support to the Kuliabi-based paramilitary groups.
Tajikistan has since at least 1997 facilitated the transport of Russian and Iranian military supplies to the United Front opposition in Afghanistan, in particular via airports in Dushanbe and Kuliab. Since September 11, Russia has increased its material support for the United Front delivered via the Dushanbe airport.
Russia�s consent was undoubtedly needed for any possible deployment of U.S. forces in Tajikistan. Soon after the September 11 attacks President Rakhmonov announced that Tajikistan would consider all means of cooperation with the U.S., but these comments were subsequently retracted. It was not until September 25, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia's cooperation in the anti-terrorist campaign that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov stated that Dushanbe airport could be used by U.S. forces should the need arise. | 2019-04-20T14:24:22Z | https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/eca/tajikbkg1005.htm |
Effect of floor cleaners on oxygen consumption and respiratory rate in carassius auratus.
Pollution of the water bodies will create physiological stress on the aquatic fauna. Among various forms of pollution in water bodies, detergent pollution has an immediate and detrimental effect. The floor cleaners are household chemical cleaning compounds required in wide range for diverse purposes. In some rivers the concentrations of cleaning products is quite high. The major components of cleaning products such as Surfactants make adverse effects on the aquatic life at very low levels of exposure. Effect of floor cleaners on the consumption of dissolved oxygen by Carassius auratus were determined by using Winkler’s method. The floor cleaners used were Lizol, dettol and lemon grass oil. This study demonstrated that dissolved oxygen consumption in Carassius auratus increases in the presence of floor cleaners. This is due to the stress caused by the floor cleaners on the normal physiological activities of the fish. Effect of floor cleaners on the respiratory rate of Carassius auratus were determined by counting its gill movements. This study demonstrated that there will be changes in ventilation rates of Carassius auratus when dissolved oxygen levels change. Thus draining of domestic sewage containing detergents into water bodies adversely affect its aquatic fauna. The project is selected because of the higher pollution nowadays. The results of the project conducted shows that while adding detergent dissolved oxygen level started decreasing with higher concentrations. Results show that Lizol shows a higher range of decrease in the dissolved oxygen level in water with higher concentration. And lemon grass oil shows less effect compared to other two floor cleaners. So, it is better to use natural cleaners for floor cleaning purposes.
Water bodies, Fauna, Pollution, Fertilizers, Pesticides.
Water, like air, is one of the most important and precious natural resource and a regular and plentiful supply of clean water is essential for the survival and health of most living organisms. The state of Kerala in Indian Union is one among the rainiest areas in the world. Unfortunately, many of its water bodies are becoming increasingly murky, smelly and chocked with growth of algae. Most of the rivers have become darkened with chemicals, oils, sewage etc. Indiscriminate use and dumping of domestic sewage into fresh water resources has taken its toll on the various life forms of the aquatic habitat. A number of fish species that were abundant years ago have failed to cope up with the stress caused by increased concentrations of various chemicals that are poured into the water bodies. An indicator of pollution in water is its amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO). Dissolved Oxygen’s presence in water is a positive sign, but low levels are a sign of severe pollution. Water with consistently high levels of DO is considered healthy and capable of supporting many different kinds of aquatic organisms. DO in water generally come from one of two sources. Most DO comes from the atmosphere and tumbling water mixes atmospheric oxygen. Another source of DO is photosynthesis by plants. Promiscuous use of pesticides and fertilizers has made these water bodies unsuitable for human use. Besides, many studies have reported the ill effects of fertilizers and pesticides on the fauna and flora of aquatic systems. However, apart from fertilizers and pesticides, another harmful chemical agent that often goes unnoticed is detergents. Pollutant acts as physiological stress or for exposed organisms as do the environmental parameters. Thus detergent stress apparently leads to higher metabolic rate which require an additional expenditure of energy. This increased energy demand perhaps interferes with the enzymatic systems of the metabolic pathway as well. Oxygen consumption is a measure of the metabolic state of the animal. Hence it is considered as vital parameters and indicates the physiological & metabolic alteration as the animal. It is known that the respiratory roles alter under the influence of a several biotic and abiotic factors. Surfactants are known to cause gill damage. Fish gills are well known to be a multifunctional tissue involved in not only respiration, but also osmoregulation. Gill damage is generally accepted as a cause of respiration difficulties and consequential death for many fishes. Nowadays, the major rivers and aquatic bodies of world were heavily polluted due to domestic, industrial discharge and detergents. A huge amount of various brands of detergent powders, flakes and various shampoos and toilet soaps. The surface-active property of detergents has been rendered them to be the most powerful cleaning agents. Because of this quality, are being used on a large scale for the past three to four decades. These detergents causes foam in the water bodies, reduce the air-water interaction leading to deficiency of oxygen to the aquatic animals under the water surface. The detergents and surfactants are non-degradable pollutant accumulated in water body. These detergents enter the food web through uptake by vegetation, planktons, fishes and zooplanktons. With the wide spread use of detergents for household cleaning purpose, it is inevitable that these compounds would find their way into rivers and ponds. Our study aims to understand the effect of various concentrations of detergents (floor cleaners) on Oxygen consumption of Carassius auratus.
Population growth and industrial development are the major causes of contamination of water resources. In developing countries, pollution of water resources has become a serious problem which leads to ecological disorders and causes many physiological as well as biological changes in aquatic animals. The toxic components present in untreated wastewater discharged from textile industries affect the freshwater habitats. This textile wastewater is rich in BOD, COD and suspended solids. In addition, it is rich in starch, bicarbonates, chlorides and metals like copper and chromium which cause mortality as well as sub lethal stress affecting the growth of aquatic organisms. Detergents and other cleansing agents have been around for a quite long time. For generations, cleaning using detergents has been considered as a measure of hygiene. Bacteria are very diverse and present in soil, water, sewage and on human body and are of great importance with reference to health. A large number of chemical compounds have the ability to inhibit the growth and metabolism of microorganisms or kill them. The number of chemicals is enormous, probably at least 10,000 with 1,000 commonly used in hospitals and homes. Chemicals exist as solids, liquids and gases. Of the many groups of chemicals used to reduce or destroy microbes important groups include hydrogen, phenols, soaps, detergents, ammonia compounds, alcohols, heavy metals, acids and certain special compound. Disinfection, decontamination, antisepsis/sanitization and sterilization, just naming a few are terms that describe the process of cleaning by either soaps/ detergents or other cleaning agents. Numerous cleaning agents are available in the market, which are presented in various forms with distinct formulation. There are two kinds of detergents with different characteristics: phosphate detergents and surfactant detergents. Detergents that contain phosphates are highly caustic, and surfactant detergents are very toxic. The differences are that surfactant detergents are used to enhance the wetting, foaming, dispersing and emulsifying properties of detergents. Detergents can have poisonous effects in all types of aquatic life. Surfactants are a diverse group of chemicals that are designed to have cleaning or solubilisation properties. They generally consist of a polar head group (either charged or uncharged), which is well solvated in water, and a non-polar hydrocarbon tail, which is not easily dissolved in water. Hence, surfactants combine hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties in one molecule. Synthetic surfactants are economically important chemicals. They are widely used in household cleaning detergents, personal care products. Textiles, paints, polymers, pesticide formulations, pharmaceuticals, mining, Oil recovery and pulp and paper industries. The compositions of the sewage vary in space and time. Sewage contains human and animal excreta, food residues, cleaning agents, detergents and other wastes . The world production of synthetic surfactants amounts to 7.2 million tons annually . According to Lenntech, international company, situated nearby the technical university of Delft, the Netherlands, all detergents destroy the external mucus layers that protect the fish from bacteria and parasites; plus they can cause severe damage to the gills, Most fish will die when detergent concentrations approach 15 parts per million, Detergent concentrations as low as 5 ppm will kill fish eggs, Surfactant detergents are implicated in decreasing the breeding ability of aquatic organisms. Chandanshive stated that the detergent causes damage to the buccal lining and gill epithelium that may result in poor utilisation of food and interfere in oxygen uptake. It has affected the level of glycogen, protein and fat in fish. The detergent has also affected the behaviour of fish, oxygen consumption, biochemical content in tissue. All fish require oxygen for long-term survival; however, the physical properties of water make oxygen uptake a challenge even at high DO. Water holds approximately 1/30th the oxygen content of air at saturation, and oxygen diffuses about 10,000 times more slowly through water than air. Further, with wide spread use of synthetic detergents for household purpose, it is inevitable that these compounds would find their way into rivers and ponds, the effect of detergents on tissue of different fishes have been studied by Abel . Gills a primary site of osmoregulation, as well as respiration, may be highly vulnerable to lesions because they are in immediate contact with aquatic toxicants. The most prominent manifestation of the acute toxicological effect of detergents is on the gill tissue of the fish. Destruction of the gill epithelium is regarded as a consequence of the reduction of surface tension by the presence of surfactants . Detergent causes impairment of chemoreceptor organs and damage to epidermis and pharyngeal wall . Eleven species of fish exposed to a mixture of hard alkyl benzene sulphonate based detergent under varying environmental conditions and during different stages of development have shown wide differences in response . Behavioural changes have been used successfully as rapid and sensitive indicators of toxic stress in fish . Fishes have a variable behavioural pattern which enable them to select environments favourable for survival and reproduction. These behavioural features provide useful measures of sublethal toxicity because they represent the integrated results of any biochemical and physiological processes. The respiratory movements are under physiological control of the respiratory centre and or modified by both internal (oxygen concentration, carbon dioxide concentration and pH) and external (temperature, oxygen depletion) factors. Increase in the rate of opercular movement in fish fingerlings in detergent exposed cases with decrease in dissolved oxygen, in above result clearly indicate the physiological stress to aquatic organisms. This stress leads to the accumulation of more lactic acid in gills along with increase in the activity of lactic acid dehydrogenase. Sprague, Dara and Mathew et al. has shown that muscular exertion in fish is accompanied by a marked increase in blood lactate. An increase in circulating catecholamines and plasmatic steroids due to stress in fish have been studied by Mazeaud. This increase in catecholamines may increase blood lactic acid level of fish directly. Exposure of fish to elevated level of surfactants cause multiple hepatomas to develop on the gill tissue resulting in diminished oxygen uptake and impairment of electrolyte balance [12-14]. To investigate the effect of detergents in dissolved oxygen consumption and respiratory rate in fishes, Carassius auratus is used for the study.
Carassius auratus, Lysol, Dettol, Lemon grass oil, jars, 250 ml bottles, Manganous sulphate, Alakaline iodide, Sulphuric acid, Sodium thiosulphate, Starch solution, Burette, Conical flask, Measuring cylinders.
Study fishes were collected. Young fishes averaging 10 g were selected. Water samples for the experiment were collected. Three different concentrations (50 ppm, 100 ppm and 150 ppm) of the popular floor cleaners, Lysol, Dettol and Lemon grass oil was prepared in the sample waters of 1500 ml. Dissolved Oxygen (DO) content of the sample water was estimated using Winkler’s method. Transferred a fish each into three jars with the said concentrations of the floor cleaners and kept for 30 minutes. Similarly three control jars with 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 150 ppm floor cleaners were kept as controls. After 30 minutes, water samples were collected from the jars and estimated their DO content employing Winkler’s method. Difference between the amounts of DO in the sample with only floor cleaner and that with both floor cleaner and fish gave the amount of DO consumed by the fish for that particular concentration of floor cleaner. All experiments were repeated 3 times .
Water sample for estimation after the experiment was taken in 250 mL bottles taking care to reduce the contact of this water to air and not to induce any air bubble in the sample bottle. The bottle was closed with a stopper. 1 mL of Manganous sulphate and 1 mL of Alkaline iodide were poured into the bottle using separate pipettes. Shook well and allowed to settle down. Shook the bottle again and 2 mL of concentrated Sulphuric acid was added to this mixture and shook vigorously to digest the precipitate. 20 mL of this solution was pipetted out into a conical flask. It was then titrated against Sodium thiosulphate solution taken in the burette until the brown colour of iodine almost disappeared. To this, added 3 drops of starch solution. The end point was marked by the first complete disappearance of blue colour.
Transferred a fish each into three jars with the said concentrations of the floor cleaners and kept for 30 minutes. Similarly three control jars with 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 150 ppm floor cleaners were kept as controls. After 1 hour count the gill movements and find the respiratory rates.
The experiment was conducted to study the effect of different concentrations of floor cleaners on dissolved oxygen consumption and respiratory rate in Carassius auratus. The floor cleaners used were Lizol, Dettol and Lemon grass oil of three different concentrations 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 150 ppm. The method used for study was Winklers method and respiratory rate was found out by counting gill movements.
After 1 hour: As per the results shown in the table the samples treated with 50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm of lizol for a time period of 30 minutes, the dissolve oxygen content showed a decreasing trend ranging from 1.9 mg/1.5l, 1.4 mg/1.5l, 1.1 mg/1.5l. Detergents are composed of complex phosphates which eventually breakdown into phosphates usable by aquatic plants (Table 1). The use of detergents has been responsible for the increase in the phosphorous in sewage effluents. Phosphate pollution of rivers and lakes causes extensive growth of algae which depletes the dissolved oxygen content of water and disrupts the natural food chains. On treating the fishes with different concentrations of detergents they exhibited a state of inactive nature with an in increase in the rate of breathing with the secretion of mucous. Dissolved oxygen consumed by fish shows an increasing trend of 0.2 mg/1.5l, 0.4 mg/1.5l, 0.5 mg/1.5l. The average respiratory rate of Carassius auratus is 120 to 99 breaths per minute (Table 2). Here the results show that dissolved oxygen consumption by fish shows an increasing trend. In 50 ppm goldfish shows a respiratory rate of 187, it is more than its average respiratory rate. In 100 ppm and 150 ppm of lizol gold fish died within 30 minutes. Detergents are lethal to fish. These results show that detergents are highly toxic to fishes which may leads to it death with its exposure for a little while.
Table 1. Oxygen Consumption of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
Table 2. Respiratory rate of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
After 1 hour: As per the results shown in the table the samples treated with 50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm of dettol for a time period of 30 minutes, the dissolve oxygen content showed a decreasing trend ranging from 2 mg/1.5l, 1.9 mg/1.5l, 1.7 mg/1.5l. Detergents are composed of complex phosphates which eventually breakdown into phosphates usable by aquatic plants. The use of detergents has been responsible for the increase in the phosphorous in sewage effluents (Table 3). Phosphate pollution of rivers and lakes causes extensive growth of algae which depletes the dissolved oxygen content of water and disrupts the natural food chains. On treating the fishes with different concentrations of detergents they exhibited a state of inactive nature with an in increase in the rate of breathing with the secretion of mucous. Dissolved oxygen consumed by fish shows an increasing trend of 0.1 mg/1.5l, 0.2 mg/1.5l, 0.3 mg/1.5l. The average respiratory rate of Carassius auratus is 120 to 99 breaths per minute. Here the results show that dissolved oxygen consumption by fish shows an increasing trend. In 50 ppm goldfish shows a respiratory rate of 166 and in 100 ppm it is 175 and in 150 ppm gold fish died. Detergents are lethal to fish (Table 4). These results show that detergents are highly toxic to fishes which may leads to it death with its exposure for a little while.
Table 3. Oxygen Consumption of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
Table 4. Respiratory rate of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
After 1 hour: As per the results shown in the table the samples treated with 50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm of lemon grass oil for a time period of 30 minutes, the dissolve oxygen content showed a decreasing trend ranging from 1.3 mg/1.5l, 0.8 mg/1.5l, 0.6 mg/1.5l. Detergents are composed of complex phosphates which eventually breakdown into phosphates usable by aquatic plants (Table 5). The use of detergents has been responsible for the increase in the phosphorous in sewage effluents. Phosphate pollution of rivers and lakes causes extensive growth of algae which depletes the dissolved oxygen content of water and disrupts the natural food chains. On treating the fishes with different concentrations of detergents they exhibited a state of inactive nature with an in increase in the rate of breathing with the secretion of mucous. Dissolved oxygen consumed by fish shows an increasing trend of 0.1 mg/1.5l, 0.3 mg/1.5l, 0.4 mg/1.5l. The average respiratory rate of Carassius auratus is 120 to 99 breaths per minute. Here the results show that dissolved oxygen consumption by fish shows an increasing trend. In 50 ppm goldfish shows a respiratory rate of 100 and in 100 ppm it is 150 and in 150 ppm fish died. Detergents are lethal to fish (Table 6). These results show that detergents are highly toxic to fishes which may leads to it death with its exposure for a little while.
Table 5. Oxygen Consumption of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
Table 6. Respiratory rate of Carassius auratus exposed to various concentration of floor cleaner.
Detergents and other cleansing agents have been around for a quite long time. For generations, cleaning using detergents has been considered as a measure of hygiene. Bacteria are very diverse and present in soil, water, sewage and on human body and are of great importance with reference to health. A large number of chemical compounds have the ability to inhibit the growth and metabolism of microorganisms or kill them. There are numerous types of cleaning products available nowadays. They are effective in cleaning purposes but they are highly toxic to lower organisms (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Effect of floor cleaners on dissolved oxygen.
In the present project conducted on Carassius auratus using three different concentrations (50 ppm, 100 ppm, 150 ppm) of three commonly using floor cleaners (lizol, Dettol, lemon grass oil), lizol is more toxic to experimental fish as it died after 1 hour exposure with two out of three concentrations (Figure 2). In case of detol and lemon grass oil, experimental fish died in one out of three concentrations. Concentration of 150 ppm is highly toxic to experimental fish as it died all three times with these three floor cleaners. Gill damage is generally accepted as a cause of respiration difficulties and consequential death for many fishes (Figure 3). So here also gill damage due to the effect of detergents is the main reason for the death of the fish. Dissolved Oxygen’s presence in water is a positive sign, but low levels are a sign of severe pollution. Water with consistently high levels of DO is considered healthy and capable of supporting many different kinds of aquatic organisms. The results of the project conducted shows that while adding detergent dissolved oxygen level started decreasing with higher concentrations. Lizol shows a higher range of decrease in the dissolved oxygen level in water with higher concentration.
Figure 2. Effect of floor cleaners on oxygen consumption of carassius auratus.
Figure 3. Comparison of effect of floor cleaners on respiratory rate of carassius auratus.
The chances of finding a higher concentration of microorganisms are high on floors as they are exposed. For the effective removal of these microorganisms various floor cleaners are used. The microorganisms that are present on the floor surface are killed when they are exposed to these floor cleaners. The action of floor cleaners against these microorganisms is due to some ingredients like Chloroxylenol, Triclosan, benzalkonium chloride etc. The most recent studies revealed that Triclosan cause cancer and it also leads to impairment of cardiac and muscles of the skelton. Over the years, cleaning agents have played an important role in the control of microbes. Some commonly used cleaning agents like Lisol, Dettol, Chandrika, were effective floor cleaners, but they seriously harm aquatic life.
Major ingredients of Lisol are: Benzalkonium chloride solution, Tartrazine yellow, Alizarincyanin green F ionic and non-ionic surfactants, perfumes, preservatives and water. Surfactants are highly toxic to aqauatic life. It has high cleaning properties but it harms aquatic organisms.
The active ingredient in Dettol that confers its antiseptic property is Chloroxylenol, an aromatic chemical compound. It also includes terpinol, alcohol absolute, caramel as colouring agent. It is not significantly toxic to humans and other mammals, is practically non -toxic to birds, moderately toxic to freshwater invertebrates and highly toxic to fish. The cleaning effect of Dettol is minimal. Excessive amount of water is needed for it.
The ingredients of lemon grass oil include Myrcene, Citronellal, Geranyl Acetate, Nerol, Geraniol, Neral, Limonene and Citral. Among which geraniol and myrcene are highly toxic to fishes. They will cause fish mortality.
The study on effect of three commercially available cleaning agents i.e., lizol, dettol and lemon grass oil on dissolved oxygen consumption and respiratory rate in Carassius auratus shows that lizol is more toxic to experimental fish (Carassius auratus). As in the case of lizol the experimental fish in two out of three concentration dead within one hour. And also the decreasing trend of dissolved oxygen is highly shown in case of lizol than other two (Dettol and lemon grass oil). From the study it was evident that the higher concentrations of floor cleaner in water will lead to the decrease in dissolved oxygen and also leads to higher respiratory rate than the average of 120 to 99 breaths per minutes. At the higher concentrations of 150 ppm the experimental fish in all the samples with these three types of floor cleaners were dead.
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Bardach JE, Fugiya M, Hall A. Detergents effects on the chemical senses of the fish Ictalurusnatalis (lesueur). Science. 1965;148:1605-07.
Thatcher TO. The comparative lethal toxicity of a mixture of hard ABS detergent products to eleven species of fishes. Int J Air Water Pollut. 1966;10(9):585-90.
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Dara SS. A textbook of environmental chemistry and pollution. New Delhi: S. Chand and Co. Ltd; 1993.
Emi Mathew, Sunitha PT, Philip Litto Thomas. Effect of different concentration of detergent (Surf) on dissolved oxygen consumption in Anabas testudineus, IOSR. Journal of environmental science, toxicology and food technology (IOSR-JESTFT). 2013;5(3):01-03.
Misra V, Lal H, Chawla G, Viswanathan PN. Pathological changes in gills of fish fingerlings (Cirrhinamrigala) by linear alkyl benzene sulphonate. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 1985;10:302-08.
Zaccone GP, Lo Casico S, Fasulo A Licata. The effect of an anionic detergent on complex carbohydrates and enzyme activities in the epidermis of the catfish. Histochemical J. 1985;17:453-66.
Chandanshive NE, SM Kamble. Acute toxicity of Surf excel and Nirma to freshwater fish Garramullya (Skyes). J Aquatic Biology. 2006;21(3):53-7.
Chandanshive NE. Studies on toxicity of detergents to Mystusmontanus and change in behaviour of fish. Res J Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sci. 2013;1(9):14-19. | 2019-04-21T00:42:50Z | http://www.alliedacademies.org/articles/effect-of-floor-cleaners-on-oxygen-consumption-and-respiratory-rate-in-carassius-auratus-7349.html |
Explore our tips and advice for every aspect of your pets care and enjoy the benefits of a companion who is happy, healthy and content.
Creating a comfortable, cozy and safe environment at home for your dog will help ensure they remain happy, healthy and content.
“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” That age-old proverb applies to both humans and dogs. Just as your home is your refuge and your haven, so it is for your dog.
But just as you put effort into making your home safe and comfortable for the human members of your family, you can do the same for the canine members of your family.
Is your pet an indoor dog or an outdoor dog? Most dogs thrive in an indoor environment. Dogs are pack animals, and you are a member of your dog’s pack. So it can be stressful for your dog to be separated from you for long periods, as outdoor dogs tend to be.
But sometimes it just doesn’t work for the dog to live indoors. If that’s the case with your dog, make sure that its outdoor home consists of a structure that is dry and comfortable. The structure should be shaded from the sun, and sheltered from wind.
And keep an eye on the thermometer.
Cold weather is uncomfortable for dogs, just as it is for humans. The ideal situation for your outdoor dog is to provide it with a heated shelter. If you can’t do that, then consider bringing the dog inside during cold snaps. But hot weather can be dangerous too. Watch for excessive panting on hot days, provide plenty of water, and consider providing a plastic children’s pool for cooling off.
Indoor dogs obviously don’t have to face the same temperature extremes as outdoor dogs, but they still have specific needs. Your dog should have it’s own space, whether that’s in the form of a crate, a kennel, or a bed.
Both indoor and outdoor dogs need to have boundaries. No digging in the garden, for example, or crawling into an open dishwasher to lick the plates!
Physical barriers such as fences can help to enforce boundaries. But for indoor and outdoor dogs, boundary training can also be an effective means of control. For outdoor dogs, boundary training supplemented with physical restrictions like fencing will minimize the possibility of your dog venturing beyond its permissible bounds. And indoor dogs can very effectively be taught to remain clear of ‘forbidden’ areas with boundary training.
Human medications. Some common medications can be very dangerous for dogs. And some dogs can be very creative when it comes to opening a stray pill bottle. So be sure to keep all forms of medication physically out of reach.
Plants and flowers. Some of the plants and flowers that grow in your yard or decorate your house may be poisonous to your pet. Be aware of the plants that are within your dog’s environment, and do a bit of research to assure that they aren’t hazardous to your dog’s health.
Food. If your dog lives indoors, it may occasionally have access (or may constantly be attempting to GET access!) to people food. But there are foods that – though scrumptious to you – are deadly poison to your dog. Preventing all unintentional access to food will obviously eliminate that concern. But if you occasionally like to treat your dog with people food – better clear it with the vet first.
Toxic chemicals. Housecleaners, detergents, fertilizers, insecticides, weed-killer, antifreeze – the list goes on and on. Whether inside or outside, there’s a chance your dog could have a fatal encounter with a toxic chemical unless YOU make certain it can’t happen.
There really is no place like home. With a bit of effort and knowledge, you can make certain that that’s always the case for your furry friend – and in a good way.
Many people feel that a house only becomes a home when a cat lives there. Here are some benefits to cat ownership which will surprise even the most devoted of cat-people.
If your family includes a cat, you’re in good company. Cats are popular pets and they bring much love and joy to their human companions. In fact, according to a recent ACAC study, more than two million of them share our homes across Australia.
The most common reason to keep a pet is for companionship, so this benefit won’t come as a surprise to anyone. People who don’t have a cat in their lives often believe that cats are unsocial, distant pets. If you’ve ever been the recipient of an affectionate head-bunt from a friendly kitty, you know that the “unsocial” myth is indeed a myth. Cats are not the solitary animals that they had been believed to be.
Cats might not need much exercise, compared to dogs and rabbits, but they do like to play with their human companions. Tossing a toy mouse around the living room can get you moving a bit, too.
People sometimes accuse their friends of turning their pet into a substitute child. By replacing a child or younger sibling as “something to nurture”, a pet often does serve that need. In today’s smaller families, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Everybody needs somebody to love, furry or otherwise.
It might be noticed more with dogs, but children who grow up with cats appear to have more practice with considering what other people are thinking and feeling. This experience ofempathy helps children learn to relate to other people, and to consider their actions in light of how those actions will affect others.
Petting a cat who’s curled up and purring on your lap is a great way to lower stress and blood pressure. In fact, recent studies have shown that the frequency (or the “pitch”: how high or low the purr sounds to you) of a cat’s purr helps bones and muscles to heal after an injury.
Earlier discharges from the hospital, fewer times when visits to the doctor’s office are needed, and lower levels of stress overall are some of the benefits that some researchers have found. Having a cat might also lower your risk of heart disease more than going on a low-salt diet would do, if current research proves to be true.
Even when social status, income level, and location are taken into account, many studies still showed a measurable advantage to having a pet such as a cat.
Of course you wouldn’t adopt a cat only because you know that keeping a pet is good for your health. A cat is a big responsibility. These benefits are just more reasons for you to love that pet.
Does your dog have bad breath? Are their teeth clean? We take a look at the importance of proper dental care for your dog and share some tips to help ensure their mouth stays clean and healthy.
Statistics suggest that over 80% of dogs have some degree of dental disease by the time they are 3 years old. Your dog can’t tell you when he has a toothache, so it’s essential that you take steps to keep his teeth clean. While your veterinarian does play a role in keeping your dog’s sparkly whites in good health, there is much you can do at home to prevent dental disease.
When you bring your new canine family member home at 8 weeks of age, he’ll have a full mouth of sharp baby teeth. There isn’t anything you need to do for these teeth, but it’s a good idea to get your pup used to having his mouth examined and his teeth cleaned. Make a game of opening his mouth, looking at his teeth and giving them a gentle rub with a soft toothbrush.
His temporary teeth will start to fall out at around 4 months of age and by 7 months he’ll have all of his permanent teeth in place. This is when you need to get serious about dental care, because these teeth need to last him for the rest of his life.
One of the first indicators that your dog’s teeth need attention is that his breath smells bad. As his dental disease progresses, he may drool and paw his mouth, and he may have trouble eating.
There are a number of things you can do to keep your dog’s teeth and gums in good condition. Bearing in mind your pet uses all his teeth for different purposes, sometimes using a combination of things works best. Not all teeth will accumulate tartar at the same rate and this can be dependent on factors like how your dog chews and whether there is good alignment of the teeth.
Dogs use their large, pointy canine teeth (fangs) at the front of the mouth for grabbing a hold of something (eg. a prey item if they were hunting, or a big bone or toy), but don’t use them for chewing. The best way to look after canines is with brushing, as these are the easiest to get to.INCISORSThere are 12 incisors in total. These are those little single-rooted teeth at the front and are mainly used for grooming and sometimes for delicate chewing (or snipping off a mouthful of grass). These are also very easy to brush and can also be kept clean with water additives.PREMOLARSBehind the canines are the sharp premolars. These multi-rooted teeth are used for cutting large food items. They number 16 in total (4 on each side top and bottom). You will notice that most dogs move larger food items to the back where the cutting teeth are. The best way to keep these clean is by brushing and using a dental food or chew.MOLARSThe larger 10 flat molars at the back are ideal for grinding up hard dry food. Using dental biscuits keeps these healthy and clean, they can be a bit tricky to brush since they are so far back.
There are various additives you can add to your pet’s drinking water that can reduce tartar formation. They do work best as a preventative, so should ideally be introduced when your dog is young or just after a dental clean. We recommend using one that has the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) seal of approval, like Healthy Mouth.
Chewing can really help to keep your pet’s teeth healthy, particularly those premolars. But we do want to recommend safe chewing. There is certainly much debate on the safety of bones in dogs and as vets we probably see the what goes wrong with bones, more than what goes right. We see countless broken, chipped and damaged teeth from dogs chewing bones. A bone that is strong enough to hold up a 1 tonne animal (cow), or even a 100kg animal (sheep) is pretty tough. And raw chicken bones are a huge choking hazard and with intensive chicken farming practices a great way to get a salmonella or e.coli infection.
The only chews that has the VOHC seal of approval are Greenies. Rawhides or pig’s ears and dehydrated chews are safer than bones, but may not do a particularly good job of cleaning teeth for many pets. Whatever your pet chews, they need to be able to sink their teeth right up to the gum line, so usually things like Kongs and Nylabones are not a good way to prevent periodontal disease (even though they are good for other reasons!).
There are a number of diets now available to help prevent tartar formation. They help by mechanically brushing the teeth, as they are formed with larger pieces. They also have ingredients that help prevent gingivitis and the build-up of plaque. Your veterinarian may recommend a prescription dental diet like T/D. Dental diets are best fed as sole-diets, but there is still some benefit in mixing them in with your pet’s regular food. There are a number of diets that make claims to prevent dental disease, however to ensure they do what they say, we recommend choosing a diet from the VOHC list to ensure the claims are backed up by evidence.
If your dog is accustomed to having his mouth examined, your vet can examine his teeth every 6 months during a physical exam. It may not be possible to probe around the teeth with a dental probe to check for pockets between the tooth and gum, but your vet can assess for tartar accumulation, gingivitis and tooth fractures.
Your home care will help to prevent plaque and tartar from accumulating on your dog’s teeth but it won’t get rid of what’s already there. Even with regular brushing, as humans we need to visit the dentist every 6 months. The same goes for our pets.
A regular dental scale and polish every 6 – 12 months is the key to keeping all your pet’s teeth and avoiding unnecessary and costly dental extractions.
Once teeth have disease around the gums and significant pockets of infection around gum line, the damage to the ligaments holding the tooth in the jaw is usually irreversible, which is why sometimes teeth need to be removed. If damaged teeth aren’t removed they will just serve as a source for further infection down the track.
WHAT DOES A DENTAL INVOLVE?
When we go to the dentist we are happy to sit back in the chair, keep our mouths open and we would most likely not bite our dentist as they work. Unfortunately pets are designed a little differently, their mouths do not open as wide and even the most well behaved dog will not allow a full dental exam and clean. It is impossible to properly clean your pet’s teeth without having them under anaesthesia and safely intubated to protect their lungs from inhaling stray bits of tartar and bacteria during the clean.
Your pet is anaesthetised and an endotracheal tube is placed to ensure no plaque, bacteria or fluid gets into your dog’s lungs.
Each tooth and the surrounding gum is checked with specialised probe to ensure there are no deep pockets between the gum and tooth.
Any teeth that have periodontal pockets of more than 3mm are xrayed to check the bone around the tooth.
The teeth are scaled with an ultrasonic scaler, like what your dentist uses.
Should any teeth be found to be unhealthy (and therefore painful) they can be removed at the same time using a local anaesthetic block, sectioning and gentle elevation to remove the tooth with minimal trauma.
All teeth are polished to ensure the surface is smooth and less likely to attract plaque.
Your pet is recovered from anaesthesia safely with continual nurse observation.
WHAT HAPPENS IF MY PET HAS MISSING TEETH?
For most dogs, they are significantly more comfortable after having diseased and damaged teeth removed. Even if all their teeth are gone, they will have no trouble eating, in fact we find most dogs have a new leasee on life once those teeth that have been aching for years have finally been treated.
Lets face it, many pets do very little chewing anyway, dogs have evolved to get that food down fast, with just the bare minimum of mastication.
Root canals and crowns are now a regular part of veterinary dental care. Dr. Christine Hawke from Sydney Pet Dentistry regularly repairs damaged teeth with advanced dental methods that your normal GP may not be able to perform. Perhaps pet braces are also in the future for those pets with the less-than-perfect smile.
With the right home care and support from your veterinarian, your dog will enjoy a clean, healthy mouth and fresh breath. Dental care for pets has advanced significantly over the last few years and your dog can enjoy similar treatments to those available to you. The link between dental disease, kidney and heart disease has long been recognised in humans. A pet with healthy teeth has the best chance of avoiding chronic illness and living a happy, healthy life full of sweet smelling doggy kisses.
Cats are capable of reproducing at a rapid rate, particularly during the summer months. Desexing can prevent the production of many kittens that may not find a home and it is an important part of keeping your cat healthy.
Most cats are desexed at around 6 months of age, before they develop any unwelcome behaviour such as spraying urine or wandering. The procedure to desex a male cat is extremely straightforward, with the testicles removed through two tiny incisions in their scrotum that don’t need suturing. Female cats have both ovaries and uterus removed through a small incision either on their abdomen or on their flank.
Tom cats are territorial, and their territory doesn’t stop at their fence line. They wander the neighbourhood in search of a girlfriend and in the process get into fights with other cats intent on defending their own turf. The result is bite wounds and painful abscesses and the chance of being infected with feline immunodeficiency virus, or feline aids. They may also be hit by a car, or get into a tussle with a dog; in both cases they are not likely to come out on top.
Spaying can protect your female cat from breast cancer and unexpected pregnancies. You can expect your feline friend to reach puberty anytime from 5 months of age. She’ll be on heat for about a week and if she doesn’t become pregnant, she’ll be back on heat again in 2-3 weeks. While she is on heat, she will yowl and roll and be extra affectionate, and you’ll have stray tom cats fighting for her affections in your garden. If your cat is mated and falls pregnant, she can be on heat again as soon as a week after giving birth, and may become pregnant again. You can see that before long, you could have your hands full with more kittens than you know what to do with.
Your cat can have dinner as usual the night before his desexing, but he shouldn’t have anything to eat or drink on the morning of his surgery. This avoids him inhaling food or water should he vomit at any time.
After his surgery, he will wake up in a comfortable hospital cage and when he is back on his feet, he’ll be able to go home with you.
When he arrives home, you can offer him a small meal but don’t worry if he isn’t interested. He may be feeling a little nauseous after his anaesthetic. You can expect him to be more interested in food after he’s had a good night’s sleep.
Male cats recover from desexing surgery very quickly and are back to normal within a day or two. Females have had a more invasive procedure and need to be kept quiet for 10 days to allow their incision to heal. This isn’t easy at all, as they feel just fine and want to run around and play. If they are too active, their surgical site can swell and become painful. Skin sutures can be removed by your vet after 10 days.
During the post-operative period, your vet will be happy to answer any questions you may have about your cat’s recovery. If you have any concerns, they are just a phone call away and will be able to set your mind at ease.
Pet cats, both male and female, should be desexed not just to prevent unwanted litters and to avoid illness or injury, but to avoid the less pleasant behaviours associated with their reproductive cycle.
We explore the common causes of arthritis in cats and methods for ensuring your feline senior citizen remains comfortable and pain free.
It’s not always easy to tell if your elderly cat is suffering from arthritis because the symptoms are subtle and slow in onset. He’s not likely to show an obvious limp, so you need to look for other indicators that he’s having trouble with mobility. You may notice that he won’t jump up as much, and he may be less enthusiastic about being stroked or brushed. He may even start to go to the toilet outside his litter box if he finds it hard to climb over the sides.
While dogs are quite happy to have their legs manipulated to identify where it hurts, cats are much less so. This can make it harder to identify which joints are painful. X-rays can help but this isn’t always accurate either. Some cats with severe arthritic changes on x-ray are quite comfortable, while those with minimal disease can be very sore. Your vet will diagnose arthritis in your cat based on your description of his behaviour, x-rays and by ruling out any other medical causes of his symptoms.
When it comes to treating arthritis in your cat, you need to be careful. Cats are very sensitive to many drugs, and they can cause more harm than good. Any drug that you give your feline best friend must be registered for use in cats, and must be used exactly as prescribed. Never give your cat any medication that has been prescribed for your dog or for yourself.
There are other ways you can ease your cat’s pain and make him more comfortable.
Weight loss. Obesity can make arthritic symptoms worse, purely because your cat’s sore joints have to carry extra weight. If you are going to put your cat on a diet, make sure his weight loss is slow and steady because rapid weight loss in cats can cause hepatic lipidosis. This is a dangerous condition.
Sodium pentosan polysulphate, or Cartrophen, has been used to ease the symptoms of arthritis in both cats and dogs. It is given by injection and is very safe. Talk to your veterinarian about a food Hills prescription diets like Metabolic or R/D or other diets.
Consider acupuncture for your cat. It can help with arthritic pain, and it is safe with no side effects.
Glucosamine, chondroitin and green lipped mussel extract may slow down cartilage degeneration and relieve symptoms of arthritis. There are no studies to prove this, but there is anecdotal evidence that they help. There are no side effects associated with using these products so there’s no harm in trying them.
Essential fatty acids such as those in fish oil can have a natural anti-inflammatory effect.
Manage your cat’s environment. You can remove part of the side of his litter box so he can walk into it easier. Give him a bed that’s at ground level, or build a ramp or some small steps to his favourite resting spot, so he doesn’t have to jump. If the weather turns cold, he’ll appreciate a heating pad or hot water bottle in his bed.
Many people think their cat is less active because they are just getting old, but in fact they may actually be in pain due to arthritis. If your elderly cat is reluctant to jump, is grooming himself less and would rather not move around too much, he may have arthritis. The right treatment could quickly put a spring back in his step.
Vaccination is a routine part of preventative health care for all dogs, but it can be confusing. There are a number of vaccinations available for dogs and a range of vaccination schedules. Learn which vaccines your dog needs and how often.
Your dog’s immune system is an amazing thing. It is designed to keep him healthy by destroying the bacteria and viruses that can make him ill. It also has a very good memory, and this is why vaccination is so effective.
When your dog is vaccinated, he is injected with the actual organisms that cause disease. These organisms have been killed or modified to make them less infectious. Some vaccines don’t contain any organisms but instead contain structural proteins that have been isolated from them. Even though the vaccine won’t cause disease, your dog’s immune system will respond to it. Should your dog ever become naturally infected, his body will quickly mount an immune response and is more likely to be able to fight the disease.
The vaccines recommended for dogs can be divided into core and non-core vaccines.
Distemper – a viral disease that causes a runny nose, vomiting and diarrhoea, and twitching. It is often fatal and dogs that survive usually have ongoing health issues for the rest of their life.
Infectious Canine Hepatitis – this too is a viral disease that causes fever, bleeding disorders and liver disease. It is highly contagious and the virus is able to survive in the environment for months. It can also be shed in the urine of recovered dogs for up to 6 months, which can spread the disease throughout a neighbourhood.
Canine Parvovirus – Commonly known as parvo, this virus causes vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, dehydration and death in dogs of all ages. The organism is very difficult to kill; it survives freezing and hot temperatures, and can remain infectious in the ground for up to 7 months.
Non-core vaccines protect dogs against diseases that may not be life threatening but still cause illness. They are usually only given to dogs that are at risk of those diseases, either because of their physical location or their lifestyle.
Canine Parainfluenza Virus and Bordetella Bronchiseptica.These two organisms are responsible for causing kennel cough, a contagious respiratory illness that can last for several weeks. It spreads readily where dogs congregate. If your dog is going to places such as dog parks, obedience clubs or boarding kennels, it’s worth protecting him against it.
Leptospirosis. This isn’t a common disease, but when it occurs, it can make a dog very ill with kidney disease. It can occur where there are large numbers of wild rats, and dogs are exposed to rat urine. Dogs that live on sugar cane farms or other places with large rat populations may benefit from being vaccinated for leptospirosis.
How often you vaccinate your dog varies with the type of vaccine and the manufacturer, but there are some general guidelines to follow.
Puppies acquire antibodies to disease from the colostrum, or first milk, so they have some level of immunity from a very young age. However, these antibodies vary in both their level and duration, so you don’t know when your pup is no longer protected by them. If there are high levels of these antibodies in your pup’s bloodstream, they will reduce his response to the vaccine and it won’t be as effective.
To take this into account, pups need to be vaccinated two to three times between 6 and 16 weeks of age. A booster vaccination is given one year later.
Core vaccines need only be given every 3 years, but non-core vaccines often need a yearly booster to maintain your dog’s protection. This doesn’t mean that you should only take your dog to the vet every 3 years when his shots are due. A yearly health check will catch any medical conditions before they become too serious, and it will give you a chance to chat to your vet about any issues that are concerning you.
Vaccination is important in controlling a number of serious, contagious and potentially fatal diseases of dogs. All dogs should be vaccinated with the core vaccines, 2 to 3 times as a puppy then 3 yearly as an adult. Whether or not your dog should be vaccinated against non-core diseases is something to be discussed between you and your veterinarian.
Many canine senior citizens become stiff and sore in their joints as they age. However, there is much you can do to slow the development of arthritis and to manage the symptoms if they occur.
The word ‘arthritis’ comes from two Greek phrases ‘arthro’ which means joint, and ‘itis’ which means inflammation, so arthritis is inflammation of the joints. There are many causes of arthritis in dogs, from infections to immune mediated diseases.
However the type of arthritis most people think of when they hear the term is the age related disease that causes stiff sore joints in canine senior citizens.
Arthritis starts when the joint cartilage that covers the ends of the bones deteriorates. Over time, this cartilage is worn down to expose the bone beneath. As the disease progresses, new bone is laid down in and around the joints, and the joint fluid becomes thin and less cushioning. The result is pain and difficulty in moving around.
Congenital diseases of the joints such as hip or elbow dysplasia.
Joint or ligament injury that makes the joint move in an abnormal way.
Age and obesity. Older dogs are more prone to joint degeneration, and if your canine best friend is carrying excess weight, it will accelerate this process.
If your dog starts to develop arthritis, the first thing you are likely to notice is that he is limping. He will try and avoid moving the sore joint. The limp is often worse when he first gets up in the morning, or when the weather is particularly cold.
As the disease progresses, he will be less likely to enjoy his usual activities. He won’t jump up on the couch for a cuddle or chase his ball, and he may be unwilling to walk too far. There can also be wasting of the muscles on the affected leg, so it will look thinner than the corresponding one on the other side. Some dogs even bite at their sore joint to get relief, and this can be mistaken for a skin problem.
The two parts to managing canine arthritis are firstly to relieve pain and secondly to return the joint to as healthy a state as possible. There are several treatment options that can help your dog.
Most dogs are prescribed a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug for pain relief. These work well and your dog will be more comfortable very quickly. For those dogs that can’t take these drugs, tramadol and fentanyl are useful. Never give your dog any drug that hasn’t been prescribed by your vet, because they could make him very sick.
There are many supplements that are thought to help dogs with arthritis. Glucosamine and chondroitin are ones that people are usually familiar with. They are thought to help protect the joint cartilage and slow its deterioration. While supplements aren’t likely to do any harm, there are few studies that confirm their effectiveness.
Polysulphated glycosaminoglycans such as sodium pentosan polysulphate are substances that are involved in cartilage production. Your vet can give your dog a course of injections of these substances, and many dogs show great improvement in their arthritis symptoms. The advantage of this treatment is that it is very safe.
Omega 3 fatty acids, such as those found in fish oil, may reduce inflammation and ease pain.
Your veterinarian may recommend a prescription diet like Hills J/D.
Acupuncture has been shown to help many dogs with painful joints.
Gentle exercise, massage and physiotherapy will keep his joints moving freely and help to prevent stiffness.
Look at your dog’s environment to see if there are changes you can make so life is less difficult for him. For example, if you have stairs leading into your house, give him a ramp so he can walk up it easier.
Arthritis is a progressive condition with no cure. In spite of this, your dog doesn’t need to suffer from painful joints. A combination of weight loss, medication, supplements and modification to his living environment will allow him to enjoy a good quality of life. | 2019-04-19T02:37:51Z | https://acpethospital.com/blog |
Susie Spanos, Tanya Snyder, And NFL Support "A Crucial Catch"
The National Football League and NFL Players Association will support October's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with their fourth-annual national breast cancer screening initiative and fundraising campaign. In collaboration with the American Cancer Society, the initiative, called "A Crucial Catch: Annual Screening Saves Lives," reminds women 40 and older about the importance of having an annual mammogram. Tanya Snyder, wife of Redskins owner Dan Snyder, Susie Spanos, wife of Chargers president Dean Spanos, and players including Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen and running back DeAngelo Williams have all embraced A Crucial Catch-each has been touched by breast cancer. In addition, Saints quarterback Drew Brees recently filmed a breast cancer awareness PSA with the American Cancer Society to show his support for A Crucial Catch.
To date, the partnership has raised more than $3 million for the American Cancer Society, with the majority of the donation coming from the sale of pink items at retail and on NFL Auction. Beginning this year, money raised through A Crucial Catch will support the American Cancer Society's Community Health Advocates National Grants for Empowerment (CHANGE) program. This program provides outreach and breast cancer screenings to women who need them. The NFL markets being supported in the first year of the program are Atlanta, Baltimore, New England, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
In 2011 alone, the NFL's A Crucial Catch campaign reached more than 151 million viewers, including 58 million women age 18 and older. The campaign's message is making a real impact-64% of NFL female fans and 61% of all NFL fans identify the importance of annual screenings, especially for women over 40, as the key message of the A Crucial Catch campaign.
Koch Industries, Inc., and the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation have announced a commitment totaling $814,000 to the Kansas State University Office of Diversity. The commitment includes a combined gift of $514,000 to increase enrollment of multicultural students in K-State’s College of Business Administration and College of Engineering and help them succeed in college and beyond. In addition, the company made a $300,000 commitment for future diversity scholarship support.
Koch Industries’ funding will continue its support of K-State’s College of Business Administration’s efforts to promote recruitment, retention, graduation and placement of greater numbers of historically under-represented students. In addition, the company’s commitment will also extend scholarship funding to students in the College of Engineering.
I'm looking forward to reading the Current Issue of Forbes Magazine. The Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy, was the greatest-ever meeting of its kind. Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Peter Peterson, Leon Black, Jon Bon Jovi, Marc Benioff, David Rubenstein, Steve Case, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, and Marc Andreessen will grace the cover of Forbes October 8th 30th Anniversary Issue.
The Reuben Foundation have provided the principal funding to construct the BFI Reuben Library on Southbank, London The library provides one of the biggest collections of printed materials relating to film and television in the world.
The BFI Reuben Library's priority is comprehensive coverage of the moving image in Britain from pre-cinema to the present, but the scope of the collection is international with material held in more than 15 languages.
Researchers, students and moving image enthusiasts of all ages will be able to use the BFI Reuben Library's collections and resources daily. The BFI Reuben Library will also lead to the creation of a BFI Academy for young people wanting to enter the film industry.
"The BFI looks after the world's greatest collections of film and television material and we opened this new library at BFI Southbank to inspire more people about the future of film," said BFI chair Greg Dyke.
"It is a vital hub and resource for everybody from filmmakers, academic researchers, students and the industry itself, or anyone with an interest in film and we are indebted to The Reuben Foundation along with our other benefactors for their incredible support."
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "This is a tremendous initiative, providing an exciting resource for Londoners that will also be a huge attraction to film fans, students and curious tourists from far and wide.
"I thank The Reuben Foundation for its support with this fantastic example of philanthropy in culture. London has provided an iconic backdrop for so many famous films, be it Harry Potter or James Bond and it's only right that we have such a fitting tribute to our great film heritage."
Designed by award-winning Coffey Architects, the BFI Reuben Library cleverly combines hanging metal mesh, timber bookcases and subtle new lighting to create a rich, vibrant yet welcoming and calm space, which serves all manner of visitors.
The Reubens said “we are delighted to support the BFI in creating the new BFI Reuben Library, which we hope will benefit film students, researchers and moving image enthusiasts of all ages for many years to come”.
Today the San Diego Chargers, Dean Spanos, and Payless ShoeSource provided funds for 1,000 pairs of shoes for San Diego children in need. Chargers Antwan Barnes, Melvin Ingram, Jarret Johnson, Ryan Matthews, Kendall Rayes, Charlie Whithurst, and Demmorio Williams took their day off to visit four local San Diego Payless Shoe stores and help kids pick out and try on new shoes for school.
Phil Knight and his wife Penny have provided a transformational gift of $125 million to the Oregon Health & Science University to advance OHSU’s world-class programs in cardiovascular medicine and research. The gift is the largest in OHSU history and may likely be the largest private contribution ever made by living donors to benefit a single Oregon organization. This is the Knights’ second landmark gift to OHSU, following a 2008 pledge of $100 million that advanced the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute.
With the Knights’ support, the leadership duo of Starr and Kaul a heart surgeon and a cardiologist will be able to move forward on a vision to build a comprehensive assault on cardiovascular disease that spans the entire health care spectrum.
Kudos to the Knights for their generosity.
Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC Children’s) today announced that Julia and George Argyros made a $5 million gift for its new pediatric emergency department – the first in Orange County. In honor of the couple’s generosity, the emergency department will open in March 2013 as the Julia and George Argyros Emergency Department. The 22,000-square-foot Julia and George Argyros Emergency Department is designed to meet the unique needs of children. It features 31 treatment rooms, including 14 rapid medical exam rooms, and three triage suites.
The Julia and George Argyros Emergency Department is part of CHOC’s new, 425,000-square-foot tower, which will also house advanced operating rooms, laboratory, pathology and imaging services – each with a dedicated pediatric environment and staff. The seven-story building, with leading design and safety principles, includes enhanced patient and families amenities to create a serene, healing environment for children.
In addition to their $5 million gift, the Argyros family helped launch the hospital’s comprehensive fundraising campaign, “Change CHOC, Change the World,” with a leadership gift of $1 million in 2009 to name the surgery center reception area in CHOC’s new tower. In recognition of that gift and in honor of Julia and George’s daughter, the area is named “The Stephanie A. Argyros Reception.” They have generously sponsored two signature hospital fundraising events, the CHOC Cherishes Children Gala and the CHOC Follies, for which Julia has also donated her time and talent as a cast member. Stephanie Argyros joined the CHOC Children’s Foundation Board of Directors last year.
With the Argyros’ $5 million gift, CHOC Children’s has raised a little more than $120 million in their “Change CHOC, Change the World” campaign.
“We are grateful to Julia and George Argyros for this transformational investment in pediatric healthcare. This timeless gift will create a lasting legacy for generations to come at CHOC. Please join CHOC Children’s and the Argyros family as together we move forward world-class pediatric healthcare in Orange County and throughout the globe,” said Graig Eastin, vice president of the CHOC Children’s Foundation.
Teen jewelry designer Linda Cifuentes was recently granted a wish to spend a day with Trump at her SoHo jewelry boutique, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Cifuentes is 16-year-old and was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma earlier this year. Her mother brought her beads to make jewelry with from her hospital bed. A passion was born.
“She’s really, really very good,” Trump says.
Trump gifted the teen with a piece from her fine jewelry collection.
Tesla made automotive history in 2008 when it launched the innovative Roadster, the world’s first high performance electric sports car. With only 1,700 miles from new, Mr. Clooney’s Tesla Roadster, car 0008, is finished in Obsidian Black Metallic over a premium, two-tone leather interior. Clooney has said that his Roadster is thrilling to drive. The Tesla’s estimate is $100,000–$125,000.
George Clooney Supports The Satellite Sentinel Project The SSP is a non-profit organization supported by other non-profits (including Not On Our Watch and the Enough Project), that monitors the sensitive borders of Sudan via satellite in an effort to prevent the return of a full-scale civil war between Northern and Southern Sudan. Part of an early warning system currently in place, the SSP gathers images of aggression and other time-sensitive information and expedites the data to news organizations, peacekeepers and key policymakers.
Gooding Company's 2012 Pebble Beach Auctions will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 18 and 19 at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center, located at the corner of Portola Road and Stevenson Drive. Preview days will start on Wednesday, August 15, and continue through Sunday, August 19. The auctions will commence at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Gooding Company’s Pebble Beach Auctions catalogues are available for $100 and admit two to the viewing and the auctions. General admission tickets to the viewing and auctions may be purchased on site for $40. Auctions are broadcast live from Gooding Company’s website. Bidder registration forms, press credentials and additional auction information are also available on http://www.goodingco.com or by calling (310) 899-1960. For additional vehicle information and up-to-the-minute results you can follow Gooding Company on Facebook and Twitter @GoodingCompany.
How Long Does It Take To See The Smithsonian?
Among the places we would like to visit one day as a family is The Smithsonian. So we were very excited to hear the National Museum of Natural History announcement today that it will construct a new dinosaur exhibition hall made possible by a $35 million donation from David H. Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries and philanthropist. “Dinosaurs have always been one of the Smithsonian’s most important and popular exhibitions,” said Cristián Samper, director of the National Museum of Natural History.
This is the largest single gift in the history of the Natural History Museum. Koch has contributed to many cultural, educational and health organizations, including Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Koch has been a member of the National Museum of Natural History’s board for five years.
The existing dinosaur hall will remain open until spring 2014. This gives us a little time to save up for a visit after the new hall is opened. We do have one question though - how long does it take, to take in the Smithsonian?
The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc. awarded its prestigious Horatio Alger Award to Greg P. Renker, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Guthy-Renker. The Horatio Alger Award is given to outstanding individuals who, despite facing adversity early in their lives, have overcome challenges to attain success.
"We are pleased to honor Greg Renker's dedication to professional success and helping others," said Tony Novelly, president and CEO, Horatio Alger Association. "His story and those of his fellow 2012 New Members are testaments to what can be achieved in America with hard work and determination."
Greg Renker learned the value of adaptability and hard work at a young age. The nature of his father's work caused Greg and his eight siblings to move frequently, forcing them to adjust to new environments everywhere they went. As a teenager, Mr. Renker began to work while attending school. He quickly developed a strong work ethic and voracious appetite for learning that would balance his studies and the various jobs he worked to pay his college tuition. After college, Mr. Renker used savings from working several jobs to found the Guthy-Renker Corporation, one of the world's largest direct response marketing companies. The company has broadened its focus into every area of electronic and digital retailing and distributes its products in 60 countries throughout the world.
In addition to Mr. Renker's success as a marketing professional and entrepreneur, he is also a well-known philanthropist. Deeply involved in his local community, Mr. Renker serves on the board of directors and is vice chairman of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA. He is a chairman emeritus of the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences and Chairman Emeritus of the ERA (Electronic Retailing Association). Joined by his wife Stacey, the pair's financial contributions resulted in The Renker Wellness Center on the Eisenhower Campus as well as The Greg & Stacey Renker Pavilion, a cutting-edge 24 -suite luxury in-patient facility.
"My parents were the first to show me that with perseverance and faith, success can be achieved. I am humbled to have my name be part of such an elite organization like the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans and use my personal and professional history as a blueprint to help others achieve their dreams," said Renker.
UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) raised more than half a million dollars at a star-studded kick-off event for its new fundraising drive, which is aimed at broadening and deepening the institute's already considerable impact. Donors contributed more than $500,000 to IoES as part of the institute's March 15 inaugural gala, "An Evening of Environmental Excellence," which was hosted by IoES board chairman Tony Pritzker and his wife, Jeanne, at their mansion in the Bel-Air hills. Tony Pritzker and IoES board member Tina Quinn co-chaired the event.
Approximately 300 donors, IoES faculty and environmentally-minded celebrities enjoyed cocktails and dinner at the Pritzker's architecturally stunning new home, which offers panoramic views from downtown to the Santa Monica Bay and has a hefty 72 kilowatts of solar power, geothermal cooling, and state-of-the-art energy-efficient lighting and climate control.
Guests included movie star Owen Wilson; music producer Quincy Jones; indie singer Lana Del Rey; IoES board member Lawrence Bender, who produced "Pulp Fiction" and "An Inconvenient Truth"; actor and musician Jared Leto; and many more.
Politicians, including former California Gov. Gray Davis, state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, state Sen. Fran Pavley, and former California Environmental Protection Agency secretary Terry Tamminen also attended, alongside California Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols and members of advisory boards related to IoES.
The institute's director, Glen MacDonald, thanked the many donors in the audience.
"Your generous support enables us to continue to expand our academic offerings, broaden our scientific efforts and host a variety of public programs," he said. "Despite economic hardship to the state and the university, the institute is growing and developing real solutions to the environment and sustainability challenges we face at our global home."
The event also featured an awards ceremony, at which the institute honored Dan Emmett, who, among his many green accomplishments, is a founding member of Santa Monica Baykeeper and a founding board member of the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at the UCLA School of Law. The Southern California Edison energy company was also honored for their environmental philanthropy, energy conservation and early use of renewable energy.
"Both Dan Emmett and Southern California Edison have been truly transformative in their vision and support for building a healthy environment and a sustainable future for California," MacDonald said.
UCLA Chancellor Gene Block was also on hand to help kick off the fundraising drive.
"I'm pleased to announce the launch of a fundraising drive that will help to build the scope and effectiveness of the institute," Block said. "No place on earth is better positioned than the Los Angeles area to address a raft of vexing environmental challenges and to provide a model for the road ahead."
"UCLA is educating and training the next generation of environmental scientists, policymakers and problem-solvers that the world so sorely needs," Tony Pritzker said.
Kiva helps to break the cycle of poverty worldwide by connecting lenders to borrowers through loans that change lives. During the free trial, new users of Kiva.org/free can take $25 out of Reid Hoffman’s account and lend it to the entrepreneur of their choice. As the loan is repaid, they receive updates and notes from the borrower on how the funds were used and how they are doing. After a user tries Kiva for free, they can then decide if they want to lend their own money to another borrower on the site.
Over the past few days more than 22,000 people have flocked to Kiva to sign up as new users—a number that Kiva would typically see only after two months. It is not just the initial sign-ups that are promising for this nonprofit organization. Kiva is experimenting with a not-for-profit application of “freemium” models that have propelled growth for companies like Zynga, Paypal, and LinkedIn.
The premise of Kiva’s freemium model is that after having the full Kiva experience, new users will opt-in to lend their own money. From Kiva’s free trial pilot last August, more than 14% became regular lenders—a rate three times what is typically expected for freemium models.
Often only a relatively small amount of money stands in the way of Kiva borrowers and their dreams. Whether it is a family in New Orleans hoping to start a small business, or a young Bolivian woman who lacks the tuition for nursing school, Kiva gives the people the chance to lend their support to these and countless other borrowers. And, by lending as little as $25 to a borrower, you not only help an individual lift themselves out of poverty, you are setting in motion a ripple effect of change for their families and communities. Check out Kiva.org/free and be a part of the ripple effect for change.
The winner of the 2011 Waikato Society of Arts New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award is Taranaki artist John McLean. His Dinghy and waka with unstable foreshore was picked for the $20,000 prize from 52 finalists by judge Warwick Brown.
In addition, the work valued at $28,000 was purchased by sponsor, the Philip Vela Family Trust, netting the artist a stunning total of $48,000. Lyn Vela represented the family.
“This year‟s show is of exceptionally high quality” said Brown “and selecting one work above the others was a most difficult task” The finalists range across most contemporary art styles from expressionist to minimalist.
The deciding point for Brown was that McLean‟s painting represented the high point of an important series that the artist has been working on for sometime.
Bruce Plested is Chairman for the ‘Duffy Books in Homes’ Charitable Foundation, which provides five new books to participating students, with the aim of developing better education and a love of reading in children. One of the main sponsors for this programme is Mainfreight. Since the initial relationship, in which Mainfreight sponsored books which were given to children in low decile schools, the firm has increased its support of the programme and has become a major sponsor of the literacy initiative.
In addition to sponsoring 54 of the 541 schools involved in the programme, Mainfreight provides a rent-free office, allowing the charity to direct more of its funding towards books which make their way into the hands of more than 100,000 children in low-income communities nationwide.
One of Mainfreight’s most anticipated contributions to the Duffy programme is the annual Mainfreight Award for Excellence in Attitude.
Each year a senior student in each Duffy school is awarded a high quality reference book, cup and certificate signed by Bruce Plested, Mainfreight’s Executive Chairman. Many schools choose to make this their major end of year prize for departing students.
This year’s book prize is The Complete Human Body – The Definitive Visual Guide by Dr. Alice Roberts. The book uses computer-generated illustrations and the latest medical and microscopic imaging to explain every aspect of the human body more clearly than ever before.
Representatives from Mainfreight, Daily Freight, Owens and Chemcouriers are invited to visit schools and help present the award – an opportunity which they all relish.
Linda Vagana, General Manager of Duffy Books in Homes believes that Mainfreight’s support has been a cornerstone of the charity’s success. “Mainfreight’s amazing success as a company over the years makes them the ideal supporter of such an award – promoting excellence and awarding our future young leaders in Duffy schools nationwide,” she said.
Since the official launch in 1995 with 80 schools, 16,000 students and 14 sponsors, the Duffy Books in Homes programme has grown to encompass 541 schools, around 100,000 students and more than 200 sponsors in 2011. More than seven million books have been distributed to children in low-decile schools since its inception and the programme now distributes more than 600,000 books annually. | 2019-04-25T20:28:35Z | https://www.mahlon.com/mahlons-missives?category=Philanthropy |
이 문서는 마인크래프트의 최신 공식 PC 버전에 관한 것입니다. 2013년 만우절 "마인크래프트 2.0"버전에 대해서는 Minecraft 2.0/Chunk format 문서를 참조하십시오.
청크는 16 × 256 × 16 지역의 지형과 엔티티를 저장합니다. 또한 미리 계산 된 물리 광학 효과, 마인 크래프트의 성능 하이트 데이터 및 다른 많은 정보를 저장합니다.
청크는 처음 마인크래프트 인프데브에 소개되었다. 청크를 추가하기 전에 MCRegion - 이는 [α로 알려진 베타 1.3 형식, 청크는 파일 이름이 청크의 위치는 Base36로 인코딩 포함 ".dat"파일 개별 청크 파일로 저장 하였다. 알파 레벨 포맷. MCRegion의 목표는 마인크래프트가 한 번에 열었던 파일을 조정해 아래로 절단하여 디스크 사용량을 줄일 수 있게 하는 것과, BASE10의 좌표와 개인 ".mcr"파일에 32 × 32 청크의 저장 그룹에 의해이 변경되었습니다. MCRegion의 후계자만 '청크 형식' 을 변경 할 수 있는게 현재의 방식입니다. 파일 영역 기술은 여전히 사용되지만 영역 파일 확장자는 ".mca" 파일이 대신합니다.
MCRegion에서의 큰 변화는 섹션으로 청크의 분할이었다. 완전히 비어있는 부분이 전혀 저장되지 않도록 각 청크는 최대 16 × 16 × 16의 개인 16 블록 섹션이 있습니다. 이전 아이디 저장이 0~255 제한에 비교해 청크 생성 예는, 4095의 범위에서 ID를 가진 모든 블록을 지원하기 위해 만들어졌다. 그러나 마인크래프트가 완전한 블록으로 작성된 것이 아니므로, 많은 항목의 ID는 이미 4095의 범위이며 256에서 촬영합니다.
블록, 데이터, 블록의 발광 및 채광 어레이는 이제 개별 청크 섹션에 저장되어 있습니다. 데이터를 천공하고 발광블록 4 비트 값의 어레이이고, 발광블록 및 천공 어레이 블록 ID의 더이상 하우스 부의. 블록 배열은 블록 당 8 비트, 그리고 4096 블록 지원은 추가 블록 ID 정보를 블록당 4 비트의 추가 바이트 배열로 존재한다. NBT 형식은 모루 형식으로 기존의 바이트 배열 태그와 유사한 정수 배열 태그를 포함하는 노치의 원래 사양에서 변경되었습니다. 이것은 단지 현재의 청크 하이트 정보에 사용된다.
X coordinateX 좌표: 청크의 X 위치.
Z coordinateZ 좌표: 청크의 Z 위치.
Last Update마지막으로 변경됨: 청크가 마지막으로 저장 될 때 같이 저장됩니다.
Populated terrain블록: 1 or present 이 청크의 지형이 특별한 것들로 채워되었는지 여부를 나타냅니다.(광석, 특수 블록, 나무, 던전, 꽃, 폭포 등) 'zero'로 설정하면 다음에 실행되는 마인크래프트는 이미 존재하는 블록에서 이러한 기능을 재생합니다.
V: 1로 저장 할 때 실제로는 게임에서 로드되지 않습니다. 가능성 청크 버전 태그입니다.
InhabitedTime플레이 시간: 플레이어의 누적 숫자는 이 InhabotedTime청크로 되어 있습니다. 멀티플레이 등으로 플레이어가 한 맵에 많아지게 되면, 이 청크의 수도 빠르게 증가합니다. Used for regional difficulty: increases the chances of mobs spawning with equipment, the chances of that equipment having enchantments, the chances of spiders having potion effects, the chances of mobs having the ability to pick up dropped items, and the chances of zombies having the ability to spawn other zombies when attacked. Note that at values 3600000 and above, regional difficulty is effectively maxed for this chunk. At values 0 and below, the difficulty is capped to a minimum (thus, if this is set to a negative number, it will behave identically to being set to 0, apart from taking time to build back up to the positives).
Entities: Each TAG_Compound in this list defines an entity in the chunk. See Entity Format below. If this list is empty it will be a list of Byte tags.
TileEntities: Each TAG_Compound in this list defines a tile entity in the chunk. See Tile Entity Format below. If this list is empty it will be a list of Byte tags.
id: 엔티티 아이디. 플레이어에는 존재하지 않는다.
Pos: 3개의 엔티티의 X, Y, Z 위치를 나타내는 더블 태그가 달려 있다.
Motion: 3개의 엔티티가 X, Y, Z 축으로 받고 있는 힘(1초당 나아가는 블록의 수)을 나타내는 더블 태그가 달려 있다.
Rotation: 2개의 엔티티가 돌아가 있는 방향을 나타내는 플로트 태그가 달려 있다.
Y 축으로 돌아가 있는 시계 방향. (yaw라고 불린다.). 서쪽이 0이다. 360도를 초과하지 않는다.
X 축으로 돌아가 있는 지평선으로부터의 방향 (pitch라고 불린다.). 지평선이 0이다. 아래쪽을 보면 마이너스가 된다. 90과 -90을 초과하지 않는다.
FallDistance: 떨어진 블록 수. 큰 값은 착지했을 때 큰 대미지를 입는 원인이 된다.
Fire: 불이 꺼질 때까지 남은 틱(1/20초) 수. 음수는 불에 있을 때 타지 않을 때까지 걸리는 틱 수. -1이 기본이다.
Air: 가지고 있는 공기의 틱 수. 기본이 300이고, 물에 들어가면 서서히 줄어들어 0이 되면 대미지를 입기 시작한다.
OnGround: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) - 엔티티가 땅을 짚고 있을 경우 참.
Dimension: 사용 불가. 엔티티가 있는 월드이다. -1가 네더, 0이 일반 세계, 1이 엔드이다.
Invulnerable: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) - 참일 경우 엔티티가 어떠한 것으로부터 대미지를 입지 않는다. 무생물체도 마찬가지이다. 하지만 크리에이티브 모드에서는 대미지를 입힐 수 있다.
PortalCooldown: 엔티티가 차원문으로 이동할 수 있을 때까지 남은 틱 수. 900틱에서 시작한다.
UUID: The Universally Unique IDentifier of this entity. Converts a hexadecimal UUID (for example: 069a79f4-44e9-4726-a5be-fca90e38aaf5) into the UUIDLeast and UUIDMost tags. Will not apply new UUIDLeast and UUIDMost tags if both of these tags are already present. The "UUID" tag is removed once the entity is loaded.
Riding: 타고 있는 엔티티의 데이터 태그. 가장 위의 엔티티가 Pos 태그를 가지고 있고, 가장 아래의 엔티티에 의해 좌푯값이 결정된다. 가장 아래에 있는 엔티티가 움직임을 담당한다.
HealF: 엔티티의 생명력의 양. 이것이 설정돼 있을 경우 Health(↓)는 무시됨. 1은 1/2 하트를 의미함.
Health: 엔티티의 생명력의 양. HealF(↑)가 설정돼 있을 경우 무시됨.
AbsorptionAmount: 흡수 효과로 추가된 생명력의 양.
AttackTime: 때린 뒤 "무적 보호막"이 생겨 없어질 때까지 남은 틱 수.
HurtTime: 대미지를 입은 뒤 빨갛게 변한 게 사라질 때까지 남은 틱 수.
DeathTime: 죽은 뒤에 늘어나는 틱.
Attributes: 몹의 속성 목록. 속성은 이곳에서 보세요.
ActiveEffects: 몹에게 적용되고 있는 포션 효과의 목록.
Duration: 끝날 때까지 남은 틱 수.
Ambient: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 신호기에게 받았을 경우에 참. 이럴 경우 보관함에 표시되지 않음.
ShowParticles: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 거짓일 경우 입자가 표시되지 않음.
Equipment: 몹이 끼고 있는 갑옷. 각각의 컴파운드 파일은 아이템 구성 에서 Slot 태그를 제외한 나머지 태그가 있다. 5개는 항상 존재한다 (플레이어에게도). 비어 있는 것은 갑옷이 없다는 걸 의미한다.
DropChances: 떨어뜨릴 확률이다. 1=100%. 0.085가 기본이고, 주운 것일 경우 2가 된다. 아이템의 내구도는 1보다 클 때 유지되고, 1보다 작을 때에는 랜덤이 된다. "Unbreakable" 태그가 있을 경우, 확률과 관계없이 내구도는 꽉 차 있다.
CanPickUpLoot: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 참일 경우 몹은 아이템 및 갑옷을 주워 입을 수 있다.
PersistenceRequired: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 참일 경우 몹은 자연적으로 디스폰되지 않는다.
CustomNameVisible: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 참일 경우 포인터를 대지 않아도 몹의 이름이 보인다.
X: 묶인 울타리의 X 좌표.
Y: 묶인 울타리의 Y 좌표.
Z: 묶인 울타리의 Z 좌표.
InLove: 짝을 찾는 행위를 멈출 때까지 남은 틱 수.
Age: 음수일 경우엔 성인 몹이 될 때까지 남은 틱 수를, 양수일 때는 다시 교배시킬 수 있을 때까지 남은 틱 수를 의미한다.
ForcedAge: 아기 몹에게 먹이를 줬을 때 늘어난다.
Owner: 1.8 이전에만 쓸 수 있는 몹 주인의 이름.
Sitting: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 앉아 있을 경우 참.
BatFlags: 블록에 거꾸로 매달려 있을 경우 1, 날아다닐 경우 0.
IsChickenJockey 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) - 치킨 조키인가의 여부. 참일 경우 자동 디스폰이 가능. 다른 효과는 알려지지 않음. 거짓일 때에도 좀비는 여전히 닭을 조종할 수 있음.
powered: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) - 라이트닝 크리퍼인가의 여부.
ExplosionRadius: 폭발 반지름. 기본은 3.
Fuse: 자폭 카운트 다운. 30에서부터 시작함.
ignited 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 크리퍼가 라이터에 의해 불이 붙었는가의 여부.
carried: 엔더맨이 옮기고 있는 블록의 아이디.
carriedData: 엔더맨이 옮기고 있는 블록의 데이터 값.
EndermiteCount: 소환된 엔더 진드기의 수. 다음 순간이동 시 엔더 진드기를 소환할 확률은 (15 - EndermiteCount)%이다.
Lifetime: 얼마나 존재했는지의 틱 수. 2400 즈음에 디스폰됨.
Bred: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) - 먹이를 주고 나면 0이 됨. 말이 고집부리는 이유가 됨.
ChestedHorse: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 참일 경우 창고가 있음. 13w39a 이상에서는 노새나 당나귀가 아님에도 불구하고 참일 경우 크래쉬의 원인이 됨.
EatingHaystack: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 풀을 뜯고 있을 경우 참.
HasReproduced: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 사용하지 않음. 항상 0임.
Temper: 0~100. 먹이를 주면 늘어나고 수가 클수록 길들이기 쉬움.
Type: 말의 종류. 0 = 말, 1= 당나귀, 2= 노새, 3 = 좀비, 4 = 스켈레톤.
Variant: The variant of the horse. Determines colors. Stored as baseColor | markings << 8.
OwnerName: 주인의 이름. 행동 양식엔 영향을 주지 않음.
Items: 아이템의 목록. ChestedHorse가 참일 경우에만 존재.
Slot 태그를 포함한 아이템 구성. 2~16.
ExplosionPower: 폭발 반지름. 기본은 1.
CatType: 오실롯의 스킨 종류. 0은 야생 오실롯, 1은 턱시도, 2는 얼룩 고양이, 3은 샤미즈이다.
Saddle: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 안장이 입혀져 있을 경우 참이다.
Sheared: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 털이 깎여 있을 경우 참이다.
Color: 0~15 양모 데이터 값에 있는 양모의 색의 값.
SkeletonType: 0은 일반 스켈레톤, 1은 위더 스켈레톤.
Size: 슬라임의 사이즈. 자연 상태에선 0, 1, 3이 존재한다.
Invul: 처음 만들어졌을 때 시작되는 무적 상태가 끝날 때까지 남은 틱 수.
Angry: 1 혹은 0 (참 혹은 거짓) 화났을 경우 참.
Profession: 마을 주민의 텍스쳐 아이디. 거래 목록에도 영향을 미침.
Riches: 사용되지 않음. 에메랄드를 거래해서 얻을 때 늘어남.
CareerLevel: The current level of this villager's trading options. Influences the trading options generated by the villager; if it is greater than their career's maximum level, no new offers are generated. Increments when a trade causes offers to be refreshed. If 0, the next trade to do this will assign a new Career and set CareerLevel to 1.
Inventory: Each compound tag in this list is an item in the villagers inventory, up to a maximum of 8 slots. Items in two or more slots that can be stacked together will automatically be condensed into one slot. If there are more than 8 slots, the last slot will be removed until the total is 8. If there are 9 slots but two previous slots can be condensed, the last slot will be present after the two other slots are combined.
PlayerCreated: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if this golem was created by a player.
IsVillager: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if this zombie is an infected villager. May be absent.
CanBreakDoors: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the zombie can break doors (default value is 0). If the difficulty is set to Hard, all zombies will have this tag set to 1. In any other difficulty, it is always set to 0.
Anger: Anger level. Determines the aggressivity of the creature towards players. 0 for neutral Zombie Pigmen.
Projectiles are a subclass of Entity and have very obscure tags such as X,Y,Z coordinate tags despite Entity Pos tag, inTile despite inGround, and shake despite most projectiles not being arrows.
xTile: X coordinate of the item's position in the chunk.
yTile: Y coordinate of the item's position in the chunk.
zTile: Z coordinate of the item's position in the chunk.
inTile: ID of tile projectile is in.
inData: Metadata of tile arrow is in.
damage: Unknown how this affects actual damage inflicted by the arrow. May not be a whole number. 2.0 for normal arrows, and increased 0.5 per level of Power enchantment on the firing bow. If the Power enchantment is present, an additional 0.5 is added on (so Power I gives a bonus of 1.0, while Power II gives 1.5).
ownerName: The name of the player this projectile was thrown by.
Potion: The item that was thrown, without the slot tag.
See Item format and Potion Effects tag tag.
potionValue: If the Potion tag does not exist, this value is used as the damagevalue of the thrown potion.
Items are a subclass of Entity.
Age: The number of ticks the item has been "untouched". After 6000 ticks (5 minutes ) the item is destroyed. If set to -32768, the Age will not decrease, thus the item will not automatically despawn.
Health: Same properties as Health in Item. However, this value is stored as a byte in saved data, and read as a short but clipped to the range of a byte. As a result, its range is 0-255, always positive, and values exceeding 255 will overflow.
CustomDisplayTile: Optional. 1 or 0 (true/false) - whether to display the custom tile in this minecart.
DisplayTile: Optional. The ID of the custom block in the minecart.
DisplayData: Optional. The Data value of the custom block in the minecart.
DisplayOffset: Optional. The offset of the block displayed in the Minecart. Positive values move the block upwards, while negative values move it downwards. A value of 16 will move the block up by exactly one multiple of its height.
Type: Type of the cart: 0 - empty, 1 - with a chest, 2 - with a furnace.
All fields from MinecartRideable, MinecartChest or MinecartFurnace depending on Type.
An item, including the Slot tag. Slots are numbered 0 to 26 for chests, and 0 to 4 for hoppers.
TransferCooldown: Time until the next transfer, between 1 and 8, or 0 if there is no transfer.
All fields from the MobSpawner Tile Entity, excluding the base Tile Entity fields.
TrackOutput: 1 or 0 (true/false) - Unknown.
Fuse: Ticks until explosion. Default is 80 (4 seconds).
Tile (deprecated): The Block ID. Not limited to only sand, gravel, dragon eggs, or anvils. Although deprecated, this value is always present.
TileID: The Block ID, as above, but now supporting the 1-4095 range. Only prior to 1.8 and its snapshots.
Block: The Block ID using the alphabetical ID format: minecraft:stone. Only in and after 1.8 and its snapshots.
TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the tile entity for this block.
Data: The data value for the block.
Time: The number of ticks the entity has existed. If set to 0, the moment it ticks to 1, it will vanish if the block at its location has a different ID than the entity's TileID. If the block at its location has the same ID as its TileID when Time ticks from 0 to 1, the block will instead be deleted, and the entity will continue to fall, having overwritten it. (This was the result of Mojang's failed attempt to "fix" infinite sand/gravel/dragon egg/anvil/etc. generators by trying to have the falling sand entity delete the duplicated block the next tick) When Time goes above 600, or above 100 while the block is below Y=0, the entity is deleted.
DropItem: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the block should drop an item that can be picked up when it breaks.
FallHurtMax: The maximum number of hitpoints of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this FallingSand. For vanilla FallingSand, always 40 (20 hearts).
FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the FallDistance to calculate the amount of damage to inflict. For vanilla FallingSand, always 2.
See Item format and Fireworks tag tag.
TileX: The X coordinate of the block the painting/item frame is placed on.
TileY: The Y coordinate of the block the painting/item frame is placed on.
TileZ: The Z coordinate of the block the painting/item frame is placed on.
Facing: In 1.8 and later, the direction the painting/item frame faces: 0 is south, 1 is west, 2 is north, and 3 is east.
Direction: Prior to 1.8, the direction the painting/item frame faces: 0 is south, 1 is west, 2 is north, and 3 is east.
Dir: Same as Direction, except the meaning of values 2 and 0 are swapped. Ignored if Direction is present.
Motive: The name of this Painting's art.
Tile Entities (not related to Entities) are used by Minecraft to store information about blocks that can't be stored in the 4-bits of block data the block has. They have also recently been referred to as Block Entities, though "Tile Entity" is still a more common name for them.
x: X coordinate of the Tile Entity.
y: Y coordinate of the Tile Entity.
z: Z coordinate of the Tile Entity.
CustomName: Optional. The name of this container, which will display in its GUI where the default name ordinarily is. For Command Blocks, the name will replace the usual '@' when using commands such as "say" and "tell".
Items: List of items in the brewing stand.
: An item, including the slot tag. Slots are numbered 0 to 3.
BrewTime: The number of ticks the potions have been brewing for.
: An item, including the slot tag. Chest slots are numbered 0-26 with 0 in the top left corner.
↑ Double chests are simply two Chest tile entities next to each other; see Chest for which tile entity is which half of the chest.
OutputSignal: Represents the strength of the analog signal output by this redstone comparator. Likely used because the block itself uses its four bits of metadata to determine its rotation, powered state, and subtraction mode state, and comparators can hold a specific amount of power even in circuits without redstone wire.
Item: The Block ID of the plant in the pot. Known valid blocks are minecraft:sapling (6), minecraft:tallgrass (31), minecraft:deadbush (32), minecraft:yellow_flower (37), minecraft:red_flower (38), minecraft:brown_mushroom (39), minecraft:red_mushroom (40), minecraft:cactus (81). Other block and item IDs may be used, but not all will render. Together with Data, this determines the item dropped by the pot when destroyed.
Data: The data value to use in conjunction with the above Block ID. For example if Item is 6 (a sapling block), the Data is used to indicate the type of sapling. See Data Values for details.
Items: List of items in the furnace slots.
Items: List of items in the hopper slots.
: An item in the hopper, including the slot tag.
TransferCooldown: Time until the next transfer, naturally between 1 and 8 or 0 if there is no transfer.
Type: Overwrites EntityId when preparing the next spawn.
Properties: Overwrites the contents of SpawnData when preparing the next spawn. Not optional; an empty one will be created if it does not exist.
EntityId: The Entity ID of the next entity(s) to spawn. Both Mob Entity IDs and other Entity IDs will work. Warning: If SpawnPotentials exists, this tag will get overwritten after the next spawning attempt: see above for more details.
SpawnData: Contains tags to copy to the next spawned entity(s) after spawning. Any of the Entity or Mob tags may be used. Note that if a spawner specifies any of these tags, almost all variable data such as mob equipment, villager profession, sheep wool color, etc., will no longer be automatically generated, and must also be manually specified (note that this does not apply to position data, which will be randomized as normal unless Pos is specified. Similarly, unless Size and Health are specified for a Slime or Magma Cube, these will still be randomized). This, together with EntityId, also determines the appearance of the miniature entity spinning in the spawner cage. Note: this tag is optional: if it does not exist, the next spawned entity will use the default vanilla spawning properties for this mob, including potentially randomized armor (this is true even if SpawnPotentials does exist). Warning: If SpawnPotentials exists, this tag will get overwritten after the next spawning attempt: see above for more details.
SpawnCount: How many mobs to attempt to spawn each time.
Delay: Ticks until next spawn. If 0, it will spawn immediately when a player enters its range. If set to -1 (this state never occurs in a natural spawner; it seems to be a feature accessed only via NBT editing), the spawner will reset its Delay, and (if SpawnPotentials exist) EntityID and SpawnData as though it had just completed a successful spawn cycle, immediately when a player enters its range. Note that setting Delay to -1 can be useful if you want the game to properly randomize the spawner's Delay, EntityID, and SpawnData, rather than starting with pre-defined values.
MaxSpawnDelay: The maximum random delay for the next spawn delay. Warning: Setting this value to 0 crashes Minecraft. Set to at least 1.
RequiredPlayerRange: Overrides the block radius of the sphere of activation by players for this spawner. Note that for every gametick, a spawner will check all players in the current world to test whether a player is within this sphere.
note: Pitch (number of right-clicks).
blockId: Block_IDs of the block being moved.
facing: Direction in which the block will be pushed.
Record: Record currently playing. 0 is no record. Otherwise, it is the item ID of the record (e.g. 2261 for the "mall" record). Other IDs can be used to make other items or blocks pop out with a data value of 0. This is always overridden by the ID in RecordItem.
Only the first 16 characters of each line are read, the rest are discarded.
ExtraType: Name of the player this is a skull of for pre-1.8.
Owner: 1.8's definition for the skull's owner.
: An item, including the slot tag. Slots are numbered 0-8.
i: The ID of the block as an integer prior to 1.8 snapshots and a string after 1.8 snapshots; used to activate the correct block update procedure.
이 문서는 2019년 1월 14일 (월) 06:54에 마지막으로 편집되었습니다. | 2019-04-20T16:12:18Z | https://minecraft-ko.gamepedia.com/%EC%B2%AD%ED%81%AC_%EA%B5%AC%EC%84%B1 |
Hundreds of activists are raising doubts about safety and environmental impact; now they’re threatening lawsuits.
Jami LaPray, of St. Louis Park, opposes the Southwest Corridor light-rail project and leads the Safety in the Park group.
The Southwest Corridor light rail once seemed like a done deal. The elected leaders of more than a million metro residents approved its route after years of planning and the federal government gave it the green light.
Then the project ran into opposition from determined activists in St. Louis Park and Minneapolis who have spent money and influence on campaigns with rhetoric that sometimes obscures their own interests.
At a rally along the shore of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis, a speaker asserted that they were fighting to prevent a wooded corridor popular with bikers “from being destroyed” by light rail.
The activists say they like light-rail transit and support running it from Minneapolis to the southwest suburbs. But they reject plans to locate either freight trains or light rail in their neighborhoods to make it happen.
With public relations campaigns and threatening lawsuits, they have forced planners to go back to the drawing board and contemplate changes that would dramatically drive up costs of the project.
Its price tag — rising from $1.25 billion to as high as $1.82 billion — drew opposition last week from government officials who must soon decide whether to fund 30 percent of it.
Concerns arose last year after an environmental analysis said a couple hundred St. Louis Park homes might experience increased noise or vibration if freight trains were rerouted to the suburb from the Kenilworth corridor of Minneapolis to make room for LRT. The reroute would double or triple freight traffic on existing St. Louis Park tracks and potentially increase the speed and length of trains.
The analysis said the benefits of the LRT project for the Twin Cities outweighed its drawbacks. But some St. Louis Park residents who live or work near the planned freight reroute argued dramatically that the additional freight created a safety hazard.
Opponents threatened legal action and seized on the opinion of the Twin Cities and Western Railroad, which declared the curves and grades of the St. Louis Park track unsafe for the additional traffic.
So the Metropolitan Council, the agency overseeing the project, designed new freight routes for St. Louis Park costing $200 million that include berms as high as two stories to straighten the curves and smooth grades.
It satisfied the railroad’s concerns about safety.
But it still didn’t quiet some St. Louis Park residents. A group that calls itself Safety in the Park said a berm would create a “Berlin Wall” in the suburb and run too close to schools.
At a rally this month, about 100 people stood next to a playground in St. Louis Park where one berm would run.
“It is ‘safer’ to literally throw children under the train than to try to keep the train as far away as possible” from the school, complained Kathryn Kottke.
Not everyone in St. Louis Park buys the safety argument.
“People are using children as a way to enforce their point because they’re trying to protect their economic interests,” said St. Louis Park resident Greg Hannon.
He points out that some of the more vocal opponents live near the tracks where the additional trains would be routed. The back yard of Jami LaPray, a leader of Safety in the Park, faces the freight tracks. She denied his claim about economic interests. “Safety has always been paramount,” she said.
Hannon favors a reroute because he lives in a condo next to tracks that currently handle the freight trains that would be moved to make room for LRT tracks.
Moving freight traffic out of the Kenilworth corridor of Minneapolis — a wooded area between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles — became an issue because the city years ago made it a condition for accepting the LRT there. It’s surrounded by some of the wealthier neighborhoods in the city.
But many of those residents were accustomed to the freight traffic and never wanted more frequent LRT trains in the corridor. After St. Louis Park residents balked at taking the freight, the Minneapolis residents offered to keep it if the Met Council built a 1.4-mile-long subway tunnel to hide the LRT in Kenilworth. The agency said the tunnel would cost $330 million.
At a recent rally at Cedar Lake, Sen. Scott Dibble and Rep. Frank Hornstein, Minneapolis DFLers who chair transportation committees, told 100 people that they talked to Gov. Mark Dayton and got an encouraging reaction.
Lee Lynch, the retired founder of Carmichael Lynch advertising agency who lives near Cedar Lake, encouraged people at the rally to contribute to a “Kenilworth litigation fund” to fight for the tunnel. Advocates have hired former Hennepin County Attorney Tom Johnson to press their case.
Proponents of hiding light rail in a tunnel through the Kenilworth corridor assert that having it running above ground next to freight would crowd the narrow corridor, require moving a portion of an adjacent bike trail and damage a parklike atmosphere.
“We will not allow the Kenilworth corridor to be destroyed,” said Stuart Chazin, who organized the rally and leads the Kenilworth Preservation Group.
The group rejected a shorter, cut-and-cover tunnel that costs half as much, saying it would harm the environment.
But much of the support for a longer tunnel comes from people with a property interest. Signs demanding the tunnel “to protect our trails, homes and beautiful community” are particularly prominent outside homes whose back yards would face the future LRT line.
Last week, Opat questioned why the Met Council was paying so much attention to “a relative few” Minneapolis residents.
This entry was posted in Southwest LRT on August 26, 2013 by Chris.
The Kenilworth Trail alongside a freight train track that is adjacent to a proposed site for the Southwest Corridor light rail line.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board says it wants freight train traffic rerouted to St. Louis Park to make way for a light-rail line from Minneapolis to the southwest suburbs.
The board’s position, in a detailed resolution passed unanimously Wednesday, could complicate the already contentious process of designing the nearly 16-mile light rail line though five cities from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, with a price tag that could approach $1.8 billion.
St. Louis Park residents have opposed a reroute of freight from the Kenilworth Corridor, which would keep only light rail and recreational trails in the area between Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake. The Park Board indicated in its resolution that it would accept all three modes of transportation in the corridor only if the light-rail tracks were dropped into a deep tunnel to run under the Kenilworth Channel connecting Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake. That tunnel could cost more than $300 million, and regional leaders have objected to those costs.
Parks commissioners also indicated they firmly oppose a cheaper “shallow” tunnel option for light rail as too environmentally disruptive. Trains would emerge from the tunnel in a trench to cross over the Kenilworth Channel, a feature that parks commissioner Anita Tabb, who represents the area of Minneapolis on the board, described as “strip mining.” The channel is a popular canoe and kayak route in the summer and ski and skate course in the winter.
The Park Board has the power to challenge the proposed route and designs under federal transportation policies, said Park Board attorney Brian Rice. Those policies were adopted a generation ago, in part due to conflicts between highway and park planners in Minneapolis over proposed enhancements to Hiawatha Avenue (Hwy. 55) through south Minneapolis, including Minnehaha Park. Under federal provisions, transportation projects cannot go through park land or historic sites if a feasible alternative can be found, Rice said.
The Park Board’s position is that the Kenilworth Corridor is part of the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway system, which has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. Eligibility provides special protections under transportation law, Rice said.
This entry was posted in Southwest LRT on August 25, 2013 by Chris.
The way forward is to honor the agreements already made in the past.
The conflict over the alignment of the Southwest light-rail corridor is a problem that already has a solution — the original agreement from 1997.
The agreement at that time was for Hennepin County to clean up one of the nation’s worst Superfund sites in St. Louis Park in exchange for diverting freight-rail traffic from the Kenilworth corridor running between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles to St. Louis Park.
At that time, I was chair of the Hennepin County Board and was the chief architect of the original Midtown Greenway collaboration. As the county commissioner representing those communities, I also helped broker the Kenilworth bike trail as the second dedicated bikeway in Minneapolis. Both of these projects served to make huge assets out of old rail lines.
Around that time, the city faced a major rail traffic reroute problem due to the construction of Hiawatha Avenue/Hwy. 55. The Hiawatha Avenue project severed the existing east/west rail service on what is now the Midtown Greenway, forcing it into the Kenilworth corridor. Understandably, there was concern over this unwanted traffic.
At the same time, the city of St. Louis Park was burdened with one of the worst Superfund sites in the country. The Golden Auto site was severely polluted with creosote and was a major source of groundwater contamination. Health concerns in St. Louis Park were rampant, and experts predicted long-term health impacts. St. Louis Park desperately needed help. It was clearly in the public interest to remediate the polluted site.
The County Board found a way to solve both problems at once.
Through our work with key legislators, the state authorized Hennepin County to impose an additional 10-cents-per-$1,000 tax on mortgage and deed registration. The proceeds were put into a newly created Hennepin County Environmental Response Fund to clean up polluted sites in the county, with the first priority being the Golden Auto site.
Not only was the site to be cleaned up, but we also collectively agreed that a rail traffic connection was to be developed there to divert freight-rail traffic north to an existing rail line. Rail traffic through the Kenilworth corridor was to be only temporary, and a new route was to be found through the cleaned-up Golden Auto site.
Hennepin County kept its end of the bargain and cleaned up the site. When I stepped down from the County Board in 1999, the county and St. Louis Park were on their way to a win-win partnership to trade freight rail for a major county-financed environmental solution on the Golden Auto site.
Today, that agreement languishes. In deciding the route for the Southwest light-rail transit, it is time for all parties to revisit the original agreement to move freight-rail traffic through St. Louis Park. To do otherwise would break faith with longstanding legislative, county, municipal, and community actions and agreements.
I understand that this option creates concern in St. Louis Park, a community I was proud to represent on the County Board. However, we need to look at the region as a whole. The burden of colocating light rail and freight rail next to the stunning biking and hiking trail is simply too much for Minneapolis to bear. Colocation endangers our neighborhoods, our parkland, our regional trail systems, and our lakes and waters. Additionally, projected costs of colocation are excessively high and impossible to justify.
The Metropolitan Council has said it will “go back to the drawing board” in order to find a solution to the Southwest route. The council should consider the original solution as was agreed to in 1997. Hennepin County lived up to its end of the bargain. The Met Council and region should assure that all parties live up to theirs, too.
Mark Andrew is a candidate for Minneapolis mayor.
The following letter from John Erwin, President of Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, to FERC points out that “Crown Hydro’s latest submission is not an amendment to a license; it is a completely new, unstudied, and potentially ill-conceived idea that raises far more questions than the previous proposal.” And he reiterates the MPRB’s position that Crown Hydro’s existing license should be terminated.
On June 14, 2012, you issued a “Notice of initiation of Proceedings to Terminate License By Implied Surrender and Soliciting Comments and Motions to intervene in This Project.” The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (“Park Board”) submitted comments on this proceeding on July 19, 2012 in support of terminating Crown Hydro, LLC’s (“Crown”) license. It is our opinion that the license granted to Crown in 1999 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (”FERC”) should be terminated. The long history of this project has demonstrated that Crown has not been able to effectuate their plans. In fact, Crown has a demonstrated history of being unable to work with local governments, state and federal agencies, local residents, businesses and other concerned parties to accomplish the project.
Crown’s latest attempt to style a completely new project as a license “amendment” is disingenuous at best. Crown has proposed a completely new project on a new site that requires a new headrace, tunnel and tailrace, and it should be considered as such.
Crown originally conceived a project to revitalize in an old milling area using an extant building, tunnels, and tailrace as a means to produce hydro power at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. The core of this idea was to use an existing tunnel and tail race to provide power in an area that the Park Board and others had already begun to revitalize. At first, the Park Board was willing to potentially collaborate on such an effort, provided Crown not seek to use Park Board land without complete agreement of the Park Board. Crown has now come forward with an idea to locate a new powerhouse and create a new tunnel on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (”USACE”) lands underneath the nationally historic James J. Hill Stone Arch bridge. The Park Board is an interested party in Crown’s proposal since it owns the top surface of the Stone Arch Bridge and has invested millions of dollars in its renovation, design, operation and maintenance. We also own and maintain much of the area surrounding Crown Hydro’s proposed project site, and any development in this area will undoubtedly impact Park Board land and park users. Crown’s proposal will require involvement of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which owns the Stone Arch Bridge itself.
Crown Hydro’s latest submission is not an amendment to a license: it is a completely new, unstudied, and potentially ill-conceved idea that raises far more questions than the previous proposal. At this point, FERC should terminate Crown’s existing license. If Crown wishes to pursue an entirely new project on entirely new land with an entirely new tunnel and other facilities, they should abide by all the existing requirements of FERC for a new license application. Any other attempt to permitting Crown on USACE lands under nationally historic assets is an attempt to circumvent FERC rules. Therefore, the Park Board requests that FERC terminate the license that was granted over fourteen years ago to Crown and be done with that project.
The Park Board believes the course proposed by Crown in its June 12, 2013 letter is a completely inappropriate means to deal with what is a new project in a new location that creates a new tunnel that has endless complications for this sensitive area. I have reviewed Crown’s letter dated June 12, 2013 wherein they propose a schedule with consultation and timeline for filing an application for an amendment of the license. I find that their proposed schedule for such a major new project is both immensely shallow and extraordinarily brief.
Crown claims that they have been consulting with the USACE for over one year on this new project. I seriously question whether or not a consultation period of four months with the USACE for the multitude of issues raised in Mr. Edward A. Abrams’s letter of April 15, 2013 is sufficient to address these concerns.
Given the myriad of issues raised with Crown seeking the use of USACE lands, I am also dubious that the consultation can be accomplished in the period laid out and concerned that the public and other interested entities cannot be provided with the information necessary to fully evaluate the project. Crown’s proposed schedule in its June 12, 2013 letter has an overlap between the work that needs to be done with the USACE and the consultation period allowed with the public. Crown suggests a thirty (30) day consultation period for the pubic. Over six weeks have passed since Mr. Abrams called these shortcomings to Crown’s attention, and yet no further information is available to the public on what issues Crown anticipates with these issues.
Ever since our comments of July 19, 2012, much has changed in the Central Mississippi Regional Riverfront in Minneapolis. Usership visits in the Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park for 2012 were just released. Over 1,600,000 people visit the park area around Crown’s proposed new facility in 2012. That is up over 500,000 user visits since the previously available number. Thousands of new housing units have been created in the area in just the last year, with many thousands more scheduled to be built. The Park Board is engaged in a new comprehensive planning process for this area which will involve the creation of new park amenities in the coming years. All of these developments make hydro production at the Falls of St. Anthony a matter of more acute interest by an ever larger number of stakeholders.
FERC reasonably provided a request for consultation with existing impacted parties in its letter dated April 15 2013. Crown disregarded that request. Instead, Crown introduced their own schedule; their proposed schedule is unrealistic and disregards FERC’s prior request. Given the intense interest that the Park Board, other public agencies, and concerned citizens and businesses have with this proposal, Crown’s proposed schedule is not only unrealistic, it is unfair to these affected parties as a whole, and disregards FERC’s prior request and timeline.
The Park Board maintains its position articulated in its July 19, 2012 letter that Crown Hydro’s license should be terminated. We applaud FERC for remaining diligent and rigorous in its requirements of whatever actions Crown would take, and we encourage FERC to apply the strictest standards to whatever proposal Crown puts forth in the next several months. We intend to remain fully engaged on how this project will affect the cultural and natural resources in this most important area.
This entry was posted in Crown Hydro on August 25, 2013 by Chris.
The following MPRB outline was compiled by Shawn FitzGerald from the 2nd Quarter goals progress report, “MPRB 2013 Goals & Performance Measures Report on Second Quarter Results”, attached to the August 21, 2013 Regular Meeting packet.
Aug. 30 2013: Conduct research to assess needs, review scholarship options and draft MRPB scholarship program. The draft will be written by 8/30/13.
Sep. 2013: Start Central Riverfront Mississippi Regional Community Engagement.
Sep. 15, 2013: Grant/Donation Committee to Develop and define MPRB donation strategies and goals for 2013-2014.
Oct. 2013: Draft Above the Falls Plan presented.
Oct. 13, 2013: Grant/Donation Committee to Develop donation program policies and procedures including recognition guidelines in collaboration with MPRB divisions and departments.
Oct. 1, 2013: Complete draft format and table of contents for full spectrum performance standards recognizing that only lighting and building sustainability will be completed in 2013. Present to the Board for feedback.
Nov. 30, 2013: Grant/Donation Committee to Develop and execute implementation plan for the new policies and procedures including timeline and staff training.
Nov. 30, 2013: Develop cost-benefit analysis for purchasing or leasing the golf course equipment fleet. Review results of analyses with Finance Department and present report and recommendation to MPRB leadership team.
Dec. 1, 2013: Create draft standards for outdoor lighting and building sustainability and present to Board for feedback.
Dec. 31, 2013: Audit of social media, MPRB website, and external communications presented.
Dec. 31, 2013: Present to the MPRB Leadership team a 10-year capital improvement, customer service and program offering plan based on community engagement for golf operations and allow for comments. Revise plan based on MPRB Leadership team comments, present to the Board and include in the 2014 Recommended Superintendent’s Budget for Board approval.
This entry was posted in Miscellaneous on August 25, 2013 by Chris.
Some bad ideas have momentum because federal funds are on the line. But this area has a better legacy to protect.
The Kenilworth Trail alongside a current freight train track that has been a proposal site for the Southwest Corridor light rail line in St. Louis Park.
Inertia has gotten me into lots of trouble. Not the sort of inertia where I am matter at rest tending to remain at rest. That keeps me out of hot water. I’m talking about the other kind of inertia — where I just can’t stop because I started something, where I keep going because to turn back would mean all my effort was a waste. I’ve written whole books that way. They are sitting in plastic tubs in my basement — rejects, but harmless rejects.
My inertia books are not going to create the sound and the fury that the Southwest light-rail transit route currently under consideration has aroused. That’s because, after 40 years of writing, I can admit when I’ve got a stinker on my hands.
This particular SWLRT process began with reasonable options like routing the rails adjacent to or on centerline piers within a highway corridor. That idea was rejected by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Yet this is the preferred way to locate express transit rails in many cities, including Chicago. But maybe we didn’t need express transit.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak proposed running the route through the Midtown corridor, which has gained so much in population that his idea now seems even more sensible than in 2006. Maybe he thought we needed a route that would serve the city and its people. There were further proposals to follow the Midtown corridor — rejected by the Southwest Alternatives Analysis committee because of the cost of relocating utilities on 10th Street.
One last proposal seemed the path of least resistance — after all, it just involved relocating people by kicking them out of their houses, rerouting freight rails to pass through the pretty streets of St. Louis Park, ruining a cherished greenway system, disrupting precious city beaches, and now proposing fixes like deep tunnels or vast berms that inflate the original costs, already outrageous, by hundreds of millions. All this for a plan now much worse than all the previous ideas, and with far fewer potential riders.
People will argue with my squeezing down the long dollar-sucking parade of expert opinion and desperate logic this way. But let me squeeze it down even farther into what all that really is: forward motion inertia. A law of physics gleaned from personal observation is that bad planning increases acceleration when federal funding is offered.
What is really at stake is much, much larger than those dollars.
Minneapolis is one of the most beautiful and livable cities in the world. As a small bookstore owner in the vicinity of a SWLRT proposed stop, I might realize a plus for Birchbark Books — an increase in traffic.
I live far enough away from the present rail system that I get nostalgic when the wind carries the faint bleat of freight train whistles. So this could be a win for my own back yard. But the thing I take personally about all of this is the identity of the city I have come to love.
Our chain of lakes is celebrated. Our parks, even beaches, free to all. Our bicycle trails and wandering paths give us extraordinary distinction. The SWLRT proposal would utterly disrupt and probably destroy a regional jewel, the Kenilworth Trail, a connector vital to the Cedar Lake Trail — the first federally designated bike highway — which had at least 620,000 users in 2012, likely up to a million, including suburban bicycle commuters. It has been built, maintained and improved by more than 20 years of selfless citizen efforts.
Charles Loring, Theodore Wirth, Horace Cleveland and other visionaries of the late-19th-century city did know. They looked forward a hundred years and worked to preserve for Minneapolis a relationship with nature rarely equaled in other urban settings. Let’s do what they did.
Loring believed that the people of Minneapolis should be able to “walk in the shade of a fine tree without having to pay for the privilege of seeing a piece of natural woods.” In a heavily industrial age, Cleveland fought ardently to preserve access to natural beauty for working people. He struggled to make the city “a work of art.” Let’s continue their fight.
Forward inertia is hard to stop. But when a plan snarls so badly that it makes no sense, and then starts eating at our legacy, it is time to summon the courage to go back to square one.
This entry was posted in Miscellaneous on August 20, 2013 by Chris.
City Council Member Meg Tuthill and the city have given developers of an Uptown mixed-use building until Sept. 27 to find a solution to deal with groundwater that they’re pumping from their basement into the lagoon between Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles.
If that solution doesn’t satisfy city concerns before the winter freeze, Tuthill says the city is prepared to file a lawsuit against the developers.
“If they do not come up with criteria that is satisfactory to the city we will start a lawsuit,” said Tuthill said.
The developers, Nick Walton and Daniel Oberpriller, are pursuing an injection well to deal with the problem, according to the deadline letter the city sent to their property manager, Lynne Wyffels.
Wyffels was out of the office today, so details of an injection well weren’t immediately clear.
However, Barr Engineering was hired by the city in April to study possible solutions. That report [attached below] details what an injection well would do: It would take water and pump it back into the aquifer via a 60-foot well.
“In this concept, the pumped groundwater would need to be monitored very closely for any contaminants and a system to bypass the injection well would need to be available in case of contamination,” the report says.
An injection well would cost $1 million to $2 million, according to the report.
Tuthill said the developers have been given notice of the deadline and the criteria needed to satisfy the city. She could not list all the criteria, but said that the building could no longer pump water into the lagoon.
Deputy City Attorney Peter Ginder said City Council approval is needed before the city can file a lawsuit.
Construction on the 65-unit building ruptured the groundwater table and now requires the building to pump 100 million gallons of groundwater per year from the garage into the lagoon, according to the Barr report. Last winter, the relatively warm groundwater water created a hole in the ice on the lagoon, and a cross-country skier fell into the open water.
The water flows at 204 gallons per minute and the Department of Natural Resources is concerned that the flow will contribute to flooding during heavy rains.
The developers hired their own engineering firm, Braun Engineering, to conduct its own testing and analysis.
This entry was posted in Lake & Knox Water Discharge on August 20, 2013 by Chris.
City of Minneapolis and Park Board staff have been meeting with the developer of the apartment building at 1800 West Lake Street to resolve the issue of groundwater discharge into the lagoon between Lakes Calhoun and Isles. Council Member Meg Tuthill has announced the City has set a deadline for the developer to implement a solution. The developer needs to provide a proposed solution by September 27, 2013. The proposed solution must satisfy all City concerns, including being implemented before this year’s freezing to avoid public safety issues this winter. If the City’s deadline is not met, the City’s recourse will be to initiate a lawsuit. City Council approval is needed to initiate the lawsuit.
This entry was posted in Board Meetings on August 19, 2013 by Chris.
This entry was posted in Crown Hydro on August 19, 2013 by Chris. | 2019-04-25T16:51:06Z | https://mplsparkwatch.org/2013/08/ |
CBS Morning Show Identifies Popular Homeschooling Book in "3 Ways to Homeschool"
An educator since 1970, Resa Steindel Brown is the author of The Call to Brilliance (978-0-9778369-0-1), a memoir in which she asserts that all children are born brilliant. She home schooled her own three children from kindergarten into college. The Call to Brilliance is endorsed by John Gatto, author of The Underground History of Education, Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Parent’s Soul, Tobin Hart, author of The Secret Spiritual World of Children, and Victoria Kindl-Hodson, co-author of Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids.
Why you know the name: Author of The Call to Brilliance. Her work as an educator has been featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
In her free time: I haven’t had any free time since 1978, when our first child was born. But when I do have free time, I write. And when I work, I write. And when I rest, I write. And when I daydream about having free time, I write. But in the summer, I kayak.
In her former life: I was a duck.
What book are you reading, and where is your favorite place to read?
The Biology of Transcendence: in bed, in the living room, in the kitchen, on the couch, at the beach, in my office, in someone else’s office, at the train station, at the bus station, at the subway station, at the airport, in line at the market, in line at the post office, in line at the DMV, at the counter of the DMV, at the counter of the dry cleaners, at the check out-line at the library and in the car waiting for my kids. My next book will be on time management.
What qualities do you value most professionally?
Honesty, punctuality and short emails.
What are you still determined to learn to do?
Parler le Francais and understand French phone operators. My youngest son went to school in Monaco for a while. I lived there with him and spoke what I thought was ‘not-too-horrific’ French. I did notice that every time I started a conversation in French, the locals switched to English. I won my daughter’s admiration when I actually understood the bus directions to the college. The phone operators, however, left me in the dust. I never understood whether I was supposed to leave a message or put another Euro in at the sound of the bong.
If you were a member of a tribe, what would be your special role in it, and why?
I would be a Shaman, because a Shaman is an elder, a survivor, and a healer. Shamans work with the elements, archaic symbols and the ancient feelings and primitive subconscious of humankind. Also, people bring them food.
What is your favorite hometown library and/or bookstore?
I love the Thousand Oaks Public Library, the Newport Beach Public Library, and Martha’s Bookstore on Balboa Island. Both libraries are flooded with light and filled with friendly, helpful staff and happy people. But Martha’s Bookstore has my heart. The converted seaport cottage is on the one main street of the island. It greets visitors through a white wrought iron trellis blooming with pink bougainvilleas, a brick front patio and an Adirondack or two for sitting. Browse as long as you want, or spend the morning chatting. The store’s owners Kathy and Stephanie will offer you their latest snack, herbal iced tea or champagne. They named the store after their mother, Martha, who loved to read.
Baroque and the sound of someone else cooking dinner.
What would you save from your home if it were burning?
Our four dogs, our horse and our daughter’s paintings. When our daughter turned seventeen, it became her BIG year for paintings…nothing less than 4 feet by 6 feet, the biggest canvas we could buy and transport home in the van. It was also her ‘Joan of Arc’ period. We live in southern California. Lots of glass to bring in the sunshine…little walls. SO…Joan of Arc hangs in the hallway, in the dining room and from the rafters of the living room. Our resident artist is now away at college. She took the horse with her, but left the dogs and the paintings. We have fire season once a year, as the surrounding mountains flame in the heat and we once again pack to evacuate. Recently our family van died, 12 years and 350,000 miles after its birth. In a panic, I thought we’d have to spend $30,000 to buy a new van just to save those paintings. “Take them off the frames, roll them and don’t let the dogs sit on them,” she explained dryly on the phone, chewing on a fruit roll-up. Never occurred to me. Maybe I should go back to college.
What question has never been answered for you?
“Why?” The question of “why” has ultimately never been answered. Why is there suffering? Why is there cruelty? Why is there war, famine, poverty or disease? Why? Why? Why? Why?
The Pope, Madonna, Osama Bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore. Although I think the seating arrangement might be problematic.
What book has impacted you the most and why?
Schools Without Failure, by William Glasser, M.D. It reinforced what I already suspected, that all children can find their strengths given the right situation and enough time and energy.
What is your prediction for independent publishing in 2007?
My children inspire me. They have shown me who we are at birth and how we can bring that miraculous divinely inspired being into adult life. They encouraged me to document our experiences so that others may benefit from our journey.
What is your favorite chapter in the book – and why?
“Stephen, Just Stephen” I enjoy reading about Stephen as an adult. It shows how the ‘chaos’ he was so good at creating as a child has facilitated him as an international entrepreneur with a big heart. It shows how what might appear to be our worst challenges can become our greatest strengths.
Do you have other books you have written? If yes, what are they?
I am currently working on a manual that well help others put their own journey into process.
Is there a particular event that stands out to you that helped you become an author?
I would have been a writer, but not a published author, had it not been for the faith, dedication, and vision of my youngest son, Matthew. Had he not taken the document, published it, promoted it and passionately believed in the message it brings into the world, it would never have become a book. It would still have been a document sitting in hundreds of files buried in my computer, and I would still be someone who writes, but not an author.
Was there a person in your life that believed in you even more than you believed in yourself? If so – who was that person?
When editing this book (20 years of writing) seemed like an impossible job, my husband just wouldn’t let me give up. Every night I went to bed feeling overly tired and overwhelmed. Every morning, sitting on my nightstand, was a gift…a love note and a new round of edits.
I don’t have just one favorite. I read different books for different reasons. I really respect William Glasser, M.D., Joseph Chilton Pearce, Thomas Moore, Parker Palmer and a number of others who focus on the issues I think are vital to the way we see life and raise our young.
“Follow your bliss.” - Joseph Campbell.
Resa Brown Is it possible to discover the brilliance within each child in a public school setting where conformity takes precedence over passion, where young minds are shaped according to an agenda rather than nurtured and personal fervor takes a back seat to rote memorization?
Educator Resa Steindel Brown, author of the newly released book, "The Call To Brilliance," believes every child is born with a wealth of passion and surprising talents. As a mother, she should know. Brown's family tale turns public education's conventions on their head and could double as a blueprint for change.
Brown heads the Las Virgenes Unified School District's home independent study program, commonly known as homeschooling. She has been a teacher for 36 years and is credentialed in all grade levels from kindergarten through 12th grade as well as college.
"The Call To Brilliance" weaves Brown's personal triumph over a cookie cutter education in 1960s Los Angeles with the incredible story of her three homeschooled children. All are now thriving adults whose individualism might have been improperly labeled a disorder by today's No Child Left Behind standards.
The No Child Left Behind Act leaves more children behind than ever, according to Brown. Children can't move forward, she said, when teachers are tied to the text and the text is tied to state standards. "It's too easy for some, too hard for others," Brown said. "We want children to learn on their own."
"I decided to use my background as a vehicle to explain how we evolved in the education system in the last 50 years," she said. She believes the system is based on an 1850s industrial age model when it was important to ready the children of farmers for work in factories.
Brown attended school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She remembers the hope and passion she had on her first day of kindergarten, only to have such passion zapped away by third grade when her teacher publicly ridiculed an art project after Brown made the mistake of not matching certain colors.
Brown's juxtaposition of her educational journey with her children's vastly different experience is shocking. When Brown's first child, Stephen, didn't quite fit the public kindergarten mold 23 years ago, Brown opted to teach him at home.
Stephen was different from the children in his play group, she said, describing him as "pure kinetic motion" in her book. Stephen didn't read until he was 9, yet entered college at 12. Now 28, he holds a master's degree from UCLA in computer electronics. Erin, 25, is now finishing her doctorate in applied mathematics.
Brown's youngest son, Matthew, didn't read until he was 11, but within a year he was attending college. He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree in science in mathematics/applied science management and accounting, with a specialization in computing. He has just published his first book.
Brown said she homeschooled all of her children and let their talents rise naturally from their interests and passions. They learned through play, laughter and life.
Brown believes Stephen and Matthew would have been labeled with a variety of learning disabilities had they been in public school, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and dysgraphia, a writing difficulty, had they been placed in public school.
"Had they been sorted, tested and labeled when they were little, they would not have had the confidence to excel," Brown writes in her book. "Their behaviors would have been molded to defeat, their minds forced to follow the format and their bodies pinned behind their desks. Their failures would have been reinforced in report card after report card. They would have lost touch with their true identities- the particular genius each child has at birth."
Matthew was dyslexic and even spoke in his own language. His sister understood him, but few others could decipher his odd chatter. He was given speech lessons, but the speech pathologist predicted Matthew would never properly read.
Reading readiness is a neurological milestone, Brown said. In public education, all children are expected to read at approximately the same time, and controlling the behavior of children may be more pernicious than forcing reading upon children before their brains are ready. Brown called social conditioning "a form of testing and conditioning that is reinforced daily- a form that will dispense their self-concepts and frame their sense of self worth."
Brown said she hopes her book will inspire change in the Las Virgenes district. Multiage classrooms would top her list of adjustments to more kidfriendly classrooms. "Kids are all at different levels anyway," Brown said. "No one feels badly wherever they are. If we could create these kinds of schools inside our school system- and we can- all we have to do is restructure. We would find children's passion and talents, and we would have brilliance everywhere."
Matt Brown was diagnosed ADHD, Dyslexic, Dysgraphic, speech-delayed and did not read until age ten. Despite those challenges, he entered college at 11, started his first company with seven fulltime employees at 15 and graduated UCLA in Math with specializations in Management, Accounting and Computing.
Matt says he owes his success to the love and expertise of his mother, award-winning educator Resa Steindel Brown and author of The Call to Brilliance.
Matt is responsible for pushing his mother's book, a 20-year project in the making. His mother continues to work full-time running the Las Virgenes School District’s Independent Study Program, not willing to leave the trenches and abandon her 60-plus kids to pursue a career in writing. Thanks to her son, she does not have to.
In his efforts to promote his mother’s book, Matt has secured endorsements from noted authors and public speakers William Glasser M.D., Joseph Chilton Pearce, Jack Canfield and Jon Taylor Gatto, among others. Matt has booked radio interviews, book signings and conferences for his mother across the United States and Canada.
“In this society, it’s rare to find someone my age so happy and willing to promote his mother’s work. Many kids view it as a weakness – and that’s a shame!” Matt says mothers have taken pictures of him wearing the shirt to show their sons that a cool guy can be publicly proud of his mother’s work. “I know what my mother can do, has done, and continues to do for her 60-plus kids and I think it is important to spread her genius to as many people as possible,” Matt says.
Matt will design and produce more “Mother Boasting” shirts, including “Have you seen my mother's book?” and wear them often.
Resa Steindel Brown's The Call to Brilliance is a rare life-changing work.
As much a personal story about an amazing family as it is philosophical treatise about modern education, this book reveals what has gone so wrong in our schools and takes you on a journey that reveals how to uncover the light of brilliance that is inside our children. A practitioner and advocate of homeschooling, Brown points out that public schools were designed for an industrial society to produce conforming drones who don't mind endless tedium. She suggests that an entirely new model is needed in order to unleash children's native creativity and curiosity and help them become truly functioning adults.
For parents, this is a must read.
Educator-turned-author Resa Steindel Brown can relate when a worried parent laments that a child who was eager to learn in kindergarten is now shrugging off school.
Steindel Brown spent 20 years trying to inspire youngsters whose gifts were being overlooked before writing "The Call to Brilliance," a road map for tapping the passion in each child that schools often seem to suppress.
Steindel Brown shared her theories and experiences with a North Shore audience recently at the Kenilworth Union Church. The two-day workshop was offered free through the Alison Tobey Smart Memorial Fund.
It’s midday on a Friday, and 9-year-old Miyana flips through a book about dragons before her attention turns to making Valentine’s Day cards at the kitchen table.
Her sister, Aeyah, 7, across the table, expertly threads a needle and sews a tiny cape for a clothespin superhero.
While other children their age are quietly sitting in a classroom, the Fisher-Miller children have the freedom to pass the time without order and doing as they please in their pursuit of knowledge.
Younger brother Ocea, almost 2, drops marbles into the bell of a trumpet. “He’s using it as a funnel,” says their mother, Suzanne Fisher-Miller. Brother Khai, 5, plays noisily with two friends, the back door slamming shut as they run in and out.
What may look like bedlam is a radical style of home schooling that the Fisher-Miller parents think is best for their children: unschooling. It’s child-directed or child-led learning. Some call it relaxed home schooling. Topics aren’t learned until a child expresses curiosity, and they’re dropped as soon as the child is ready to move on.
Their curriculum is whatever interests them in life. There are no textbooks in their East Nashville home, nor lesson plans, schedules or tests.
Their parents say this unconventional style of learning shows respect for their children as full human beings who can learn lessons from everyday life.
Children, they feel, don’t need to master reading or multiplication tables until they’re ready. These families reject the structure of formal schooling that, they say, crushes creativity and curiosity.
But some education experts — and even fellow home schoolers — feel this free-form style could lead to gaps in learning. They are afraid children do nothing all day or develop strengths but ignore their weaknesses.
When Miyana asked her mom where carrots came from, the family took a field trip to a farm. Learning often emerges in their childish games, like the time Miyana created play people from orange peels and started figuring out how many of them would have to share if she only had three forks.
Her mother, however, did not turn that moment into a structured math lesson about division. Rather, she let it unfold at Miyana’s pace.
Twenty-five Nashville-area families are on an unschooling list-serve group, but many more families in the area unschool, perhaps as many as 300, said Fisher-Miller, who established a Nashville unschoolers group last year.
“It’s trusting your children to learn for themselves,” the 33-year-old mother said.
Author Resa Steindel Brown, an educator and national expert on child-directed learning, said now, more than ever, parents should explore alternative education styles to match the fast-paced world. Youngsters are children of the Information Age, a time of technology and fast media, she said.
Is it best for children?
Some educators expressed concern that this free-form style of education isn’t good for children.
“It’s risky to put all the eggs in the child’s basket,” said Mary Jane Moran, an assistant professor of child and family studies at the University of Tennessee, where she instructs future teachers of pre-kindergarten to third-graders. She has not studied unschooling.
It may be better to have a negotiated partner ship between a child and and a parent who knows the child’s needs and abilities, Moran said.
“You can make curriculum come alive and make it more relevant and tie it in to real-world experiences without throwing out structure,” said Terry Weeks, 55, a professor of educational leadership at Middle Tennessee State University and the national teacher of the year in 1988 when he was at Central Middle School in Murfreesboro.
Retired Metro schoolteacher Clata Miller is a grandmother of unschoolers and feels torn over the learning philosophy.
“I would be doing things differently, but I can’t say what they’re doing is not going to be successful,” said Miller, the grandmother of Miyana, Aeyah, Ocea and Khai.
The Franklin woman would prefer a more planned and thought-out learning environment for her grandchildren but respects the hands-on approach their mother takes to tap into the children’s interests.
“But as an educator, I feel you have to use your knowledge and experience as an adult to bring to them the things they need,” Miller said.
What about gaps in learning, worries Tina Bean, a former Metro schoolteacher who home-schools her 7-, 9- and 11-year-olds.
“I think that’s because people ultimately do not value children or trust them,” said Sherry Knott, executive director of Abintra Montessori School in West Meade and an admirer of unschooling.
“They do not think children are capable, when in reality they are,” Knott said.
Families often turn to unschooling in rejection of what they see as a one-size-fits-all school system they say crushes curiosity and creativity. Advanced children get bored waiting for classmates to catch up, while slower learners can fall between the cracks.
“The object of school is to make everyone come out the same. That whole concept offends me,” said Chelsea Gary of Franklin, who is unschooling an 18-year-old stepson, Chris, and her other two children, ages 3 and 5. There’s nothing a school system could do to persuade her to enroll them, she said.
“I’ve learned more in the last year than I ever did in public school,” said Chris, who spent the first few months “deschooling,” getting used to his educational freedom.
A giant TV, shelves of CDs and a nearby computer loaded with video games are easy distractions in the typical teen-age bedroom. But Chris said he’s not tempted because he’s more interested in what he’s reading, Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things.
Life, he hopes, will mean either being a rock star or chef — that’s why he spends the afternoons working at a Panera Bread cafe or rehearsing in a heavy metal band. He’s not sure if he’ll go to college.
Unschooling, while still an underground movement, has been around as long as modern-day home-school education — and some say as long as humans.
Each family has its own approach. For the Fisher-Millers, there’s an emphasis on nutrition and money management.
Today’s unschooling parents tend to have college educations. Fisher-Miller has a high-school diploma and started a math degree.
They are often two-parent households in which one parent stays home.
“I thought I would never be a stay-at-home mom. I’d been a photographer and artist,” Fisher-Miller said.
Her husband, Brian Miller, too, put his photography career — and its long hours — on hold and took a pay cut to work at a Wild Oats Marketplace so he could be home with the family by 3:30 p.m.
At home, they practice “strewing,” leaving books, games and other interesting items in their children’s path for them to discover.
That’s not to say there is no parental involvement.
Rather, these parents said, they must be totally aware of the needs of their children and able to find resources to seek out information, whether that’s the local librarian, an entomologist at a nearby college or the grocer who can explain an exotic fruit.
To critics who say their children are missing out on socialization, they say there’s plenty of time to make friends outside the home, whether it’s visits to museums and the zoo with other home-schoolers, weekly gatherings of home-schoolers at a park or tae kwon do lessons, they said.
“Instead of being shoved into a class with people the same age, they can choose to be around all kinds of different people,” Gary said.
Unschooling parents talk about respect for their children, who in the outside world are often treated, wrongly they believe, as “lesser humans” without much say in things.
They trust their children to gain the knowledge they need within their own time frame.
“Elijah hates writing, coloring, and painting,” unschooling mother Amanda Slater, 30, of Hermitage said about her 5-year-old.
“It’s never a thing he chooses to do. I assume at some point, he’ll want to. I don’t like children being forced into something they’re not ready for,” she said.
Miyana loves books. The pile in the living room. The stacks they check out of the library. The hundreds of shelves full at the bookstore.
However, the 9½-year-old doesn’t read yet.
In an unschooling household, that’s no reason to sweat.
That kind of pace would not be tolerated in formal schooling, she said.
The brown-haired girl has an extensive vocabulary and can read some words but other times turns certain letters around — like “b” and “d” — because of dyslexia, her mother said.
“When she does start reading, she’ll be reading way above her grade level,” Fisher-Miller said. That’s been the case with other unschoolers who were delayed readers, she said.
Take the now-adult children of author Brown, a home-school program director in California who raised her children to learn at their pace at home.
Her oldest son did not start reading until he was 9, and by the time he was 11 he was taking electronics courses at a local college, Brown said. By 14, he was a computer system administrator for Warner Bros.
“The age of normalcy to read is between 3 and 9,” said Abintra Montessori Executive Director Sherry Knott. You’ll find 9-year-olds in public and private schools who aren’t reading yet either, she said.
But assistant professor Moran said a 9- or 10-year-old who is not reading yet could be at risk.
By the time the Fisher-Miller children reach high school age, their parents believe they’ll be learning completely on their own. | 2019-04-18T13:18:24Z | http://www.thecalltobrilliance.com/media-coverage.php |
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GMB warrants that it will render its Services in a professional and workmanlike manner. As GMB’s sole responsibility and Client’s exclusive remedy in the event of any material failure to meet such standard, GMB shall make a commercially reasonable effort to remedy any resulting discrepancies. Any claim based on the foregoing warranty must be submitted in writing within thirty (30) days after delivery or the date of performance of the pertinent Services at issue.
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This Agreement and any disputes arising out of or relating to this Agreement (including its formation or termination) or GMB’s software or Services (“Disputes”) shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of the Netherlands. If Client is located within the European Union, any Disputes will be brought before the District Court Midden-Nederland, located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. If Client is located outside the European Union, any Disputes shall be resolved in accordance with the Arbitration Rules of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute. The arbitral tribunal shall be composed of one arbitrator. The arbitral tribunal shall be appointed according to the list procedure. The place of arbitration shall be Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The proceedings shall be conducted in the English language.
If any section, paragraph, provision or clause or any portion thereof in this Agreement shall be found or be held to be invalid or unenforceable in any jurisdiction in which this Agreement is being performed, the remainder of this Agreement shall be valid and enforceable and the parties shall negotiate, in good faith, a substitute, valid and enforceable provision which most nearly effects the parties’ intent in entering into this Agreement.
Except for the payment of money, neither party shall be liable to the other party for any failure or delay in the performance of any of its obligations under this Agreement for the period and to the extent such failure or delay is caused by civil unrest, threat of or actual acts of terrorism or war, embargoes, governmental actions, acts of God, earthquakes, floods, storms, fires, supplier delay, malfunction of services provided by internet providers, accidents, explosions, epidemics, quarantine restrictions, or other such contingencies beyond the reasonable control of the applicable party (“Force Majeure”). The party affected shall notify the other party as soon as practicable of any anticipated delay due to Force Majeure.
10.5 No Third Party Beneficiaries.
This Agreement has been made and is made solely for the benefit of GMB and Client and their respective permitted subsidiaries, successors and assigns. Except as set forth in these Terms (with respect to Suppliers), nothing in this Agreement is intended to (i) confer any rights or remedies under or by reason of this Agreement on any persons or entity other than the parties to this Agreement and their respective permitted successors and assigns; or (ii) relieve or discharge the obligation or liability of any third persons or entities to any party to this Agreement. | 2019-04-26T08:48:59Z | http://www.gedmore.com/terms-and-conditions/ |
So how Can you make your WordPress website faster? Well, if you are still using a generic shared hosting company, one of the most effective options will, naturally, be to just switch to a greater performance web host. But what if you just haven’t got the time or money to make the change?
Today, I will be taking an comprehensive look at one of the primary caching plugins around. WP Rocket. In the following review, I will show you by exactly how much — and how easily — it can accelerate your website (using real-life tests and real data).
Caching Involves generating — and saving — a ready-made static (i.e. unchanging) version of your site on your server ready to show to people at a minute’s notice. This reduces the need for your site (and/or the consumer’s browser) to communicate back and forth with the server to build the behind-the-scenes information that creates your website’s webpages.
With less Communication going on between servers, and much less information being loaded each time your site is accessed, the time necessary to load your articles and pages is considerably reduced.
You might Be wondering what happens in the event that you publish a new blog article on a cached site, since, presumably, an unchanging cached version of your site would not take this newly created data into consideration.
It is worth Pointing out that, when it comes to features independently, WP Rocket contrasts fairly Favorably with its rivals. Granted, you are probably more curious about just how much faster your website will probably be following installing WP Rocket (and rightfully so), however it is wonderful to know you’re not overlooking some important features.
If you do Choose to learn more about the further settings and choices WP Rocket provides, you’ll see it’s a few tricks up its sleeve to get possibly improving speed much further, like the option to only load media files (such as images) when the visitor reaches them onto a page (a feature known as Lazy Loading).
In fact, When the plugin was uploaded and activated on your site, the cache will be automatically generated whenever someone visits the site. Everyone visiting your site thereafter should immediately begin experiencing significantly faster loading times. Simple!
WP Rocket Aims to remove all such confusion by being mechanically up-and-running right from the box without being so stiff that it is unable to deliver excellent results. After tripping WP Rocket, you will see just a few tabs around the admin panel, each with only a few easy-to-understand settings.
You can See the remainder of the basic settings screen here. While there are a few more options to work with, the plugin works just fine without any of these empowered. This really is plug’n’ play caching for WordPress!
Of Course, it is suggested that you read the online documentation to actually see what this plugin could do and how much additional performance you can squeeze from it, but, for those in a rush (or using zero technical interest from the ins-and-outs of caching), it’s safe to say that speeding up your website using WP Rocket could not be made easier.
The main Selling point of WP Rocket is how easy it makes allowing caching on your website. With most other caching plugins, you’re faced with the sometimes daunting task of knowing — and filling out — multiple pages of settings and options. Based on how you configure them, you could easily end up inadvertently doing something somewhat screwy (and even, in rare situations, inadvertently breaking your site).
There is Also the choice to modify the default cache interval. However, unless you’re displaying especially fast-changing or important external dynamic content on your own website (such as critical content from societal media feeds), the default option 24-hour lifespan ought to be fine.
One feature That is really nice here is the option to replace YouTube video iframes using a static preview image. If you embed lots of YouTube videos on your website, this is a excellent way to speed up your site without sacrificing much, if anyusability.
· Eliminate query strings from static resources (this you will not have a big impact, but it can improve your GTmetrix score, should you really care about that).
I urge Enabling as a number of these settings as possible. I state as possible because a number of those settings for CSS or JS might cause difficulties with your website (this isn’t WP Rocket’s fault — it’s always a potential issue with minification/concatenation).
Without Preloading, your site only”assembles” the cache for a page when someone actually visits the page. That means the very first visitor after the cache lifespan expires doesn’t observe the cached version (because the cache hasn’t been built yet).
Cache Preloading enables you to guarantee all visitors see the quick-loading cached page by”warming” yourself, rather than waiting for a person to visit the page.
Personally, I find this to be The least exciting area of WP Rocket because there are plenty of free plugins that do a fantastic job cleaning your database. But I guess the main advantage here is that WP Rocket eliminates the requirement for you to install another plugin.
As You can find complimentary Plugins to perform the first part, the second part, in addition to the fact that you can reserve CNAMEs for particular file types provides you more flexibility than many of those free options.
If you are using Cloudflare, WP Rocket also comprises a dedicated Cloudflare add-on which could help you to get setup with Cloudflare and control specific aspects of the Cloudflare service right from the WP Rocket interface.
Through The plugin configurations, you can also enable caching for both mobile users and logged-in users — all with a simple click. After moving on to the’advanced’ tab, however, things start to get a bit more complicated.
What’s? More, should you get stuck, the FAQ and service tabs make it incredibly easy to access the online instruction, and also open a support ticket from within your WordPress dashboard — a lovely touch!
Overall, WP Rocket intends to be everything to all people. On one hand, it is very easy to prepare and begin using on your website with default settings that actually create great outcomes, nevertheless, on the flip side, there’s also a much large selection of settings and options to cater to more sophisticated users with particular needs, or those who need more control over how caching works on their site.
Should You need to refresh everything in the cache, however (not just newly updated or altered content), it is possible to induce WP Rocket to regenerate it from scratch. Going a step farther, you will also find options to have unrelated parts of your site automatically regenerated when a new post, page, product, remark, or another type of content gets added.
While Using WP Rocket out of the box is very simple, in the event you get stuck or need to know more of the intricacies of how it functions, there’s quite a bit of high-quality documentation provided — including a getting started section, various tutorials, useful FAQs and a convenient troubleshooting section.
As Mentioned at the top of this article, I had excellent results from using WP Rocket to cache my WordPress website. By testing the speed of my site using GTmetrix — with the default settings of WP Rocket and uploading and activating the plugin prior to generating the cache and running the tests — that the ordinary page loading times dropped from 2.2 minutes to 0.9.
The Website I tested the plugin was a WordPress blog with the free Twenty Twelve theme, with approximately 80 articles and 37 active plugins. The site is hosted on a entry level shared hosting plan from HostGator, and has no CDN in drama.
No two WordPress sites are the same, though, so that these results might not be typical for all sites. They do, however, show that even a very basic WordPress site on the cheapest hosting will almost certainly have the ability to achieve significantly improved load times together with the plugin.
Whether You opt to use WP Rocket in your website or not, there are a range of different means to accelerate your WordPress site that is worth mentioning, for example.
With Prices beginning at just $39 for use on one WordPress site, WP Rocket is an inexpensive alternative for most. Additionally, there are some other strong free selections available — such as WP Super Cache, and, for the technically minded, W3 Total Cache (to mention but two of many. If you’re searching for something that’s exceptionally easy to prepare and use, though, and also provides access to an extremely beneficial premium service desk, WP Rocket is a powerful competitor.
All Options include a year’s access to plugin upgrades and support. Following this period of time, you can continue using the plugin unsupported or renew your permit to keep access. There is also a 30-day refund on offer if you are not entirely pleased with the plugin after purchase.
Most of The activities you’ll be able to execute to optimise the speed of your website take substantial time and effort — if that’s optimising media files, reviewing and consolidating your plugins, migrating to a different web host or altering topics. WP Rocket, on the other hand, can be applied to your website in just a few clicks.
What’s? More, if you’re a WordPress freelancer, whether helping clients with their existing sites or creating websites from scratch, having something such as WP Rocket on your toolkit could be of huge benefit. In only a couple of minutes, you will have the ability to accelerate a customer’s website and deliver them concrete outcomes (in the shape of’before and after’ online rates tests), and, when the very best way to separate yourself from the competition would be to provide more value to the customer, things like this can definitely help.
So how Can you create your WordPress website quicker? Well, if you’re still using a generic shared hosting company, one of the best options will, naturally, be to simply change to a higher performance hosting company. But what if you just have not got the time or money to make the switch?
Well, Fortunately, there is something different you can do that is extremely quick and easy — something which requires next-to-no technical know-how whatsoever! I’m talking, of course, about using a caching plugin.
Today, I’ll be taking an comprehensive look at a few of the primary caching plugins around. WP Rocket. In the following review, I will show you by exactly how much — and how readily — it can accelerate your website (using real-life evaluations and actual data).
Caching Involves creating — and storing — a ready-made static (i.e. unchanging) variant of your site in your server ready to show to people at a moment’s notice. This reduces the demand for your website (and/or the user’s browser) to communicate back and forth with the host to assemble the behind-the-scenes information that creates your site’s web pages.
Not so! WP Rocket will regenerate the cached pieces of your website every time you update your content, thereby ensuring that your visitors will always see the most up-to-date variant of your website.
It is worth Pointing out that, in terms of features alone, WP Rocket compares pretty Favorably with its competitors. Granted, you are probably more curious about just how much faster your website will be following installing WP Rocket (and rightfully so), but it’s wonderful to know you are not overlooking any important attributes.
If you do Decide to learn more about the further settings and choices WP Rocket provides, you will see it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to get potentially improving speed even further, such as the choice to only load media files (such as images) whenever the visitor reaches them on a page (a feature called Lazy Loading).
Actually, When the plugin was uploaded and activated on your website, the cache will be automatically generated whenever someone visits the site. Everybody visiting your website then should immediately begin experiencing significantly quicker loading times. Simple!
WP Rocket Aims to remove all such confusion by being mechanically up-and-running right from the box without being so stiff that it’s unable to deliver great results. After activating WP Rocket, you’ll see only a few tabs around the admin panel, each with just a few easy-to-understand settings.
Of Course, it’s recommended that you browse the online documentation to really determine what this plugin can do and how much additional performance you can squeeze from it, however, for those in a hurry (or with zero technical interest in the ins-and-outs of caching), it is safe to say that speeding up your site with WP Rocket couldn’t be made much easier.
The main Selling point of WP Rocket is how easy it makes enabling caching on your site. Together with most other caching plugins, you are faced with the sometimes daunting task of knowing — and filling out — multiple pages of configurations and options. Based on how you configure them, you might easily wind up accidentally doing something a bit screwy (and even, in rare situations, inadvertently breaking up your site).
WP Rocket Is also compatible with content delivery network (CDN) services. if your site is large enough to warrant dispersing its documents to multiple servers across the world for faster loading times, you will find WP Rocket over accommodating.
There’s Also the option to modify the default cache expiry interval. However, unless you’re displaying especially fast-changing or important external dynamic content on your own site (such as critical content from social media feeds), the default 24-hour lifespan should be fine.
One feature That is really nice here’s the option to substitute YouTube movie frames with a static preview picture. If you embed lots of YouTube videos on your site, this really is a excellent way to accelerate your site without sacrificing much, if anyusability.
· Remove query strings out of static resources (this you will not have a major impact, but it can improve your GTmetrix score, if you really care about that).
I recommend Enabling as a number of these settings as possible. I say as possible because a number of those settings for CSS or JS may cause difficulties with your site (this isn’t WP Rocket’s fault — it is always a possible issue with minification/concatenation).
Without Preloading, your site only”assembles” the cache for a page when someone actually visits the page. That means the first visitor after the cache lifespan expires doesn’t see the cached version (since the cache hasn’t been built yet).
One of those Benefits of all WP Rocket is the fact that it gives you two different ways to preload your cache, whereas a few caching plugins don’t even offer one.
· Sitemap preloading — preloads your cache according to each of the pages in your sitemap.xml file. It has low impact, but the drawback is that it does not cache freshly published or edited posts.
As You can find free Plugins to perform the first component, the next component, in addition to the fact that you’re able to reserve CNAMEs for specific file types, provides you more flexibility than many of those free options.
If you are using Cloudflare, WP Rocket also includes a committed Cloudflare add-on that could help you to get setup with Cloudflare and control certain aspects of this Cloudflare service right from the WP Rocket interface.
Through The plugin configurations, you can also enable caching for both mobile users and logged-in users — all with a simple click. After moving to the’advanced’ tab, however, things begin to get a little more complex.
What’s? More, should you get stuck, the FAQ and service tabs make it incredibly easy to access the online documentation, and even open a service ticket from within your WordPress dash — a lovely touch!
Overall, WP Rocket aims to be everything to all people. On one hand, it’s very simple to set up and start using on your site with default settings that actually create good results, yet, on the flip side, there’s also an appreciably large selection of configurations and options to cater to more sophisticated users with specific needs, or those who demand more control over how caching functions on their website.
If You have to refresh everything from the cache, though (not just newly updated or modified content), you can induce WP Rocket to regenerate it from scratch. Going a step farther, you’ll also find choices to have unrelated components of your website automatically regenerated when a new post, page, merchandise, remark, or another type of content gets added.
Even though Utilizing WP Rocket from the box is quite straightforward, should you get stuck or need to know more about the intricacies of how it works, there’s quite a little high tech documentation supplied — including a getting started section, different tutorials, helpful FAQs and a convenient troubleshooting section.
As Mentioned at the top of this article, I had excellent results from using WP Rocket to cache my WordPress website. By testing the speed of my site using GTmetrix — with the default settings of WP Rocket and simply uploading and activating the plugin prior to creating the cache and conducting the tests — the ordinary page loading times dropped from 2.2 seconds to 0.9.
The site I tested the plugin was a WordPress blog with the free Twenty Twelve motif, with about 80 articles and 37 plugins. The website is hosted on a entry level shared hosting plan from HostGator, and has no CDN in drama.
No two WordPress sites will be the same, though, so that these results might not be common for all websites. They do, however, show that even a very basic WordPress site on the cheapest hosting will almost surely have the ability to achieve significantly improved load times together with the plugin.
Whether You opt to use WP Rocket in your site or not, there are a range of other ways to accelerate your WordPress website that are well worth mentioning, for example.
With Prices beginning at only $39 for use on a single WordPress website, WP Rocket is an inexpensive option for many. There are also some other strong free options available — such as WP Super Cache, and, for the technically minded, W3 Total Cache (to mention but 2 of many. If you’re looking for something that’s exceptionally easy to prepare and use, though, and also provides access to an extremely helpful premium service desk, WP Rocket is a powerful competitor.
All Options include one year’s access to plugin upgrades and service. After this period, you may keep on using the plugin or renew your licence to maintain access. There’s also a 30-day refund available in case you aren’t completely satisfied with the plugin later purchase.
Most of The activities you can carry out to optimise the rate of your website take considerable time and effort — whether that is optimising media documents, reviewing and consolidating your plugins, then migrating to a different web host or altering themes. WP Rocket, on the other hand, can be applied to your site in just a few clicks.
What’s More, if you’re a WordPress freelancer, whether helping customers with their existing websites or creating sites from scratch, having something like WP Rocket on your toolkit could be of huge benefit. In just a few minutes, you will be able to accelerate a customer’s website and deliver them concrete results (in the form of’before and after’ online speeds tests), and, when the best way to distinguish yourself from the competition would be to offer more value to this client, things like this can really help. | 2019-04-26T11:50:11Z | https://whatareyouupto.org/advanced-cache-php-wp-rocket-wp-rocket-review-2019/ |
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(Washington, D.C) Elliott Stevens of Maryland has a new kidney and is cured of hepatitis C after a transplant and treatment at the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute that includes the use of newly approved anti-viral medications.
Stevens, 60 was diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease in 2015. He needed a transplant as soon as possible. But because of his blood type and a national waiting list of nearly 100,000 patients, he was told his wait could be seven to eight years. In addition to having kidney disease, Stevens contracted hepatitis C after a blood transfusion he received as a child.
But in March of 2017 Stevens got a call from MedStar Georgetown. A kidney was available. The catch was that the kidney was from a hepatitis C – positive donor.
And that’s just what happened in the case of Elliott Stevens.
“This is exciting because in Mr. Stevens’ case we were able to shorten his wait time from seven or eight years, to barely 400 days, and then cure him of his hepatitis C,” says Matthew Cooper, M.D., director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at the MGTI.
Estel Swayne, 60 of Maryland had a similar experience. After living with diabetes since 1997 she found out in 2015 that she had contracted hepatitis C.
“We know that dialysis is not a comfortable or easy way to live. Studies show that patients live significantly longer with a kidney transplant versus dialysis,” says Dr. Cooper.
After a few months on the list for a kidney at MedStar Georgetown, Swayne received a kidney from a deceased donor who was hepatitis C-positive.
After her transplant in September 2016 and a course of the new hepatitis C medication, Swayne’s blood work confirmed that she is free of the hepatitis C virus.
Mr. Stevens with his family.
The MGTI plans to increase the availability of kidneys from hepatitis C-positive donors through future studies.
A recent study of 20 patients without hepatitis C, who received hepatitis C-positive kidneys, found that all were free of the disease after transplant and treatment.
(Washington, D.C.) A mutual passion for rescuing animals has led to a successful living kidney donation between two dog lovers from Maryland.
Gary Simmont, 64 of Pasadena met 49 year old Laurel Weetall of Germantown through a German Shepherd rescue group a few years ago. Simmont has three German Shepherds and has fostered several, sometimes nursing them through their final weeks of life. Weetall has volunteered as a photographer at numerous pet adoption events, capturing the faces of shelter animals looking for permanent homes.
Luckily for Weetall, Simmont feels the same way about people.
When Weetall shared publicly with her Facebook friends that she needed a kidney due to a painful condition called PKD or polycystic kidney disease, Simmont came forward.
Simmont had donated platelets dozens of times and was listed as an organ donor on his Maryland driver’s license but had not previously considered living organ donation.
On March 13, 2018 Matthew Cooper, MD, medical director of the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute’s (MGTI) Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation program, worked with Transplant Surgeon Seyed Reza Ghasemian to remove both of Weetall’s diseased kidneys.
In an operating room right next door, Jennifer Verbesey, MD, director of the Institute’s Living Kidney Donor Transplant Program, was working to remove Simmont’s kidney. It was then carried into Weetall’s operating room where Dr. Cooper finished the transplant.
When Simmont saw Weetall two months after the transplant he couldn’t believe her transformation.
As a thank you, Weetall made Simmont a photo book of all his dogs including Sam, his prized white shepherd.
(Washington, D.C.) In April 2017 MedStar Georgetown’s Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant (BMT) Program celebrated an exciting milestone by performing its 100th transplant.
Stem cell transplantation is the only curative therapy for a number of malignant and non-malignant diseases of the blood and bone marrow. Autologous transplants use a patient’s own bone marrow or stem cells while allogeneic transplants use a donor’s bone marrow or stem cells.
June Batcheller from Arlington, VA was first diagnosed in June 2016 with solitary bone plasmacytoma in one of her ribs. After 33 rounds of radiation she thought she was on track for recovery. However, in December 2016 she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
After being referred to the BMT Program at MedStar Georgetown, Batcheller received two rounds of chemotherapy. After that physicians determined she was eligible for a bone marrow stem cell transplant.
On April 26, 2017, Batcheller became the program’s 100th stem cell transplant recipient.
Dr. Pashna Munshi performed the 100th transplant and says the highly specialized team of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals, including pre-transplant coordinators, the Apheresis team, nurses, dietitians, social workers and other support staff provide expert care to the patients and also their families.
“People in the D.C. area really do have the ability to receive state of the art care from our program since we are the only program of its kind in this area. We pride ourselves on supporting the patient and the family because that is MedStar Georgetown’s mission of cura personalis – caring for the whole person. It is important to us that our patients feel supported every step of the way,” said Dr. Munshi.
The Hospital’s BMT program is the only comprehensive BMT center within Washington, D.C. and southern Maryland with accreditation from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) for adult, autologous procedures.
The BMT Program is a joint effort with specialists from the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, and a key component of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“One hundred completed procedures demonstrates that our program has achieved a level of maturity and experience that means top-level, sophisticated care for our cancer patients,” says Scott Rowley, MD, chief of the BMT program at MedStar Georgetown as well as a member of the John Theurer Cancer Center’s Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation Division.
During the BMT Program’s first year in 2013, the team performed four autologous transplants. In just a short amount of time the program has continued to grow and reach this milestone of 100 total autologous and allogeneic transplants.
After a successful 30-year career in financial services, mostly recently serving as the chief compliance officer for a major online brokerage, Batcheller enjoys spending time with her husband, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and her family, all avid fans of the Washington Capitals. During her stay at MedStar Georgetown, the Washington Capital’s mascot Slapshot even stopped by to check on her recovery.
“Our program is continuing to grow and in 2017 we have performed 20 autologous transplants. We are looking forward to submitting our FACT accreditation for allogeneic transplants this summer and continuing to be a leader in the region,” said Dr. Munshi.
Supporting this growth and the emphasis on patient care is the newly renovated Emily and Neil Kishter Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant Clinic that officially opened in August 2016. The space features upgraded exam rooms, provider work areas, four infusion bays and a waiting room. MedStar Georgetown is also home to the largest Blood and Marrow Collection Program (BMCP) collection site for the National Marrow Donor program.
“It’s a hidden disease. A lot of people, me included, don't know they have hepatitis C until they have a blood test,” says Duncan MacInnes, during a recent visit to the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute.
MacInnes, 69, was infected with hepatitis C while working overseas, when doctors used unclean needles to give injections in the 1970’s. He didn’t know about his condition until the 1990’s. Hepatitis C damaged his liver by causing extreme scarring, called cirrhosis, a late stage of fibrosis that is now reversible with oral medications.
After five rounds of Interferon, which involves a year of injections three times each week and many side effects, doctors recently used new pills to treat MacInnes’s hepatitis C. Simple oral drugs and the liver’s ability to regenerate and heal itself cured his hepatitis C and helped him avoid a liver transplant.
About 3.5 million people live with hepatitis C in the United States, according to The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Similar to MacInnes’s experience, many people are living with hepatitis C and don’t know it or know that there is a cure. MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute offers liver screening tests and oral treatments, including a pill that can cure hepatitis C with no side effects in fewer than six months.
“Traditionally, hepatitis C has been a leading cause for liver transplant and liver cancer. Liver transplants for hepatitis C-related disease are falling, and it’s likely happening because we are able to treat more people and prevent them from getting to that point,” says Dr. Satoskar.
A simple blood test shows doctors if a person has hepatitis C. The MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute provides free liver screening tests to help with early diagnosis of hepatitis C and other conditions, which prevents the progression to serious liver diseases, like liver cancer, and the eventual need for transplant. With two small tubes of blood, providers screen for hepatitis C and receive test results within seven days.
“The test is very simple, and now that there’s a cure, there really is no reason not to get tested,” says Maccines.
“What we’ve seen with the progress against hepatitis C is truly revolutionary. Since the 1980’s we’ve gone from not knowing about the virus, to now being able to cure it,” says Dr. Satoskar.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection which causes inflammation of the liver. The disease has short-term and long-term effects, but most people will not experience symptoms until problems arise due to liver damage.
A recent CDC report shows that cases of hepatitis C nearly tripled from 2010-2015. With an outstanding undiagnosed population, doctors say baby boomers or those a part of the current opioid epidemic should especially get tested for hepatitis C.
For more information about the liver screening program at MedStar Georgetown, please contact Chloe Shreve, liver program coordinator, at [email protected] and 703-639-0616.
(Washington, D.C.) - Kai Johns, 45, of Ashburn Virginia and his wife Heather Sheeley-Johns sat in a hospital emergency room back in November 2016 getting unexpected news. The stubborn “flu-like” symptoms Johns had been experiencing were the pre-cursor to the discovery that his kidneys were functioning at just six percent.
Johns was in kidney failure and needed a transplant. Fast.
With four generations of polycystic kidney disease before him, Johns would be the first in his family to need actually require a new kidney.
While Johns immediately started dialysis treatments three times a week, Sheeley-Johns took to Facebook to inform their friends of her husband’s dire condition and to ask if anyone would be willing to donate a kidney.
Within 24 hours, one of his brothers in arms stepped up to be tested at the MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
Harmon and Johns met in the U.S. Army 22 years ago when they were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. They worked in competing platoons “jumping out of airplanes” as part of the Army’s signal telecommunications operations. Former Active and Former Reservist Johns left the Army in 2014. He has worked as an engineer for Sprint for the past 19 years.
The two had kept in touch on Facebook but hadn’t seen each other in 16 years.
Within weeks the testing was complete and Harmon was a match.
Early the morning of April 27, 2017 MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute surgeon Seyed Ghasemian took Harmon into surgery where he laparoscopically removed his healthy kidney in a three-hour operation.
Harmon’s kidney was then carried to an operating room next door, where Johns was already prepped and ready to receive it.
Director of MedStar Georgetown’s Living Kidney Donor program, surgeon Jennifer Verbesey operated on Johns.
The following day, Harmon’s kidney was working well in its new home.
(Washington, D.C.) Brenda Hudson’s transplanted kidney wasn’t supposed to function this long.
At the age of 12 in the 1970’s, then Brenda Robinson was diagnosed with lupus that slowly and steadily destroyed her kidneys and caused multiple life threatening health problems. Her face swelled from the massive doses of steroids that kept her alive. She survived a diabetic coma that lasted most of a summer. Brenda’s parents drove her from Upper Marlboro to Georgetown three times a week for exhausting dialysis treatments that were doing the work her kidneys no longer could. When Brenda was about 17 her physicians began to talk about kidney transplant.
Testing showed that her 20 year old sister Michelle Robinson Tucker was as close a match possible without being identical twins. After careful preparation, on October 20, 1976 Brenda became the first person ever to receive a kidney transplant from a living donor at then Georgetown University Hospital.
But in recent years, Brenda’s diabetes started affecting her health. She needed heart surgery in March of 2015 and had to start dialysis a year and a half ago as her transplant began to fail. Doctors told her she would need another kidney. The sooner, the better.
“I couldn’t imagine that I would get a second chance for a transplant,” said Brenda. But her husband Dana Hudson turned out to be a compatible donor. And in a surgery very different from the one she had 40 years ago, Brenda received a second kidney on June 28, 2016. In a carefully choreographed set of surgeries, Seyed Ghasemian, MD, laparoscopically removed one of Dana Hudson’s kidneys; Dr. Cooper then transplanted the kidney into Brenda Hudson.
Brenda, Michelle and Dana’s experiences with kidney transplant read like a “then and now” chapter in a medical text book and speak to the history of kidney transplantation at Georgetown - a lesson in how vastly transplant medicine and surgery have improved in the years since Brenda had her first kidney transplant.
The method for Brenda’s transplant in 1976 involved a then standard two-stage process. The first step was the removal of her injured kidneys and her spleen requiring her to immediately begin dialysis treatments. About a month later she received her sister’s kidney in a surgery that lasted several hours.
Since Brenda was Georgetown’s first patient to receive a kidney from a living donor, she remembers having her own isolated wing of the hospital and her own nurse. She was carefully monitored in the hospital for a month.
“The other nice thing is that today living donors are much more able to see the benefit of their donation. In the old days they might have been taken aback at how uncomfortable they were following surgery,” said Dr. Cooper.
Brenda’s sister Michelle remembers what is was like to donate her kidney back in 1976. She proudly shows off the large scar that stretches about 12 inches from the midline of her abdomen all the way under her right ribcage.
Dr. Cooper says the old way to remove a kidney from a living donor was to start an incision at the bottom of the rib cage and split the muscles sometimes requiring removing a lower rib to get to the organ, which was painful. Patients were usually in the hospital for 10 days and confined to the home for three to four weeks.
Transplant surgeons needed only four 5mm-1cm incisions to remove Dana’s kidney laparoscopically. He went home two days following surgery.
With the help of tutors, Brenda went on to graduate with her class in 1977 from Frederick Douglas High School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She then completed a four year degree in food and nutrition at University of Maryland College Park.
After her first transplant Brenda’s physicians advised that she should never become pregnant. Doctors couldn’t predict the stress that carrying a child to term would place on a kidney and what complications her anti-rejection medications would cause to her unborn baby.
In addition to increases in government funding and exciting new research, participants discussed the use of social media to reach out to more and younger people to express their wishes about becoming organ donors. | 2019-04-20T00:33:30Z | https://www.medstargeorgetown.org/category/news/transplant/ |
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It is a form of exercise. Whether you are watching it from home or at the field, it is hard to sit still when you are watching sports. You will find people watching this game will stand, run, or jump. When one is cheering their team they do it entirely, even if they are watching the game from the television or computer. Thus, you might have a hard time holding yourself.
Watching the game is something that promotes unity in the community. Social relations are important for well-being. by going to the games, then one gets to connect to the world. You will be supporting the same team with people who are sited next to you and have never seen you before. You might even be wearing the same t-shirt. You will start a discussion, and this is something that will lead to a long and string friendship.
Not many people like the activity of bird watching and for one to be here, he/she needs to be one in a million. This is why if you feel that this is the right place for you, you need some essential fact noted here. It doesn’t matter how long you will be considering the activity, but when you know where to start or talk to people who have the same exposure, things might become easier. However, if you are a beginner, you should not feel like it is going to be that easy or difficult. As long as you have the information needed, you will be in better position to watch like an expert.
As you all know, there is so much the internet has done to the modern world including the fact that it has brought so many changes. With so many blogs on the internet and such sites, people are becoming the best bird watchers they always liked to be. Your first step of landing here is the best now that you have settled with the best information platform where details are stored for you. With so many websites to rely on, you will be able to look at some things such as the kind of birds you can be tracking and at what time.
All bird watchers who are passionate about what they do are usually inspirational. If you are not the inspirational person, then this might be a difficult situation you will have to deal with. It is by hearing what other experienced individuals have to say that you will be gaining your inspirations and even have things work for you. They will also be advising you on how you can start the task and where certain birds are found. As long as you have the right tool, the bird watching will be interesting, and you will know what to always avoid during the task. Timing is also very essential especially because not all birds are located at the same places. If the strategies are useful for you whenever you get stuck, then it is important to know what needs to be done. I you need to enhance your memory, you can prefer to deal with images of the bird in for future references.
There’s no doubt that you may have not noticed yet but, there are fundamental differences between some of your friends and that of your tennis player friend. This changes when an upcoming birthday or celebration comes up and you’d have to give your tennis player friend something as a gift. Compared to things that you may have already gifted some friends of yours in the past, your tennis player friend would surely be able to appreciate it more if you think about tennis when giving him a gift. Find out more about them in this page and see if you could have them for your special friend.
There’s no doubt that before you even step into the market, it is important that you already spare a budget for the tennis gifts for your friend. From tennis equipment up to other miscellaneous items in this category – products and prices are extremely diverse and if you don’t properly plan for it, it is easy to hurt your bankroll in the process. Having a fixed budget would also give you an advantage in picking items in the market, since you could virtually shorten the array of items you could purchase.
Set out on a mission to find out first if your friend doesn’t have a tennis racquet yet or if he already has one. if he still doesn’t have one of his own, you could simply purchase one for him in the market. If you still decide to give him a racquet even if he already has one, you need to ensure that it’s better than what he’s got and it is one of the best tennis racquet in the industry. To make it a complete package, consider getting him the best tennis strings as well.
Another option for a gift is the best tennis ball machine you could afford in the market but of course, this is with the caveat that you are willing to slash out a considerable amount of money from your pocket. This is going to be an epic gift especially if he has the space in his property where he could use it. Having a tennis ball machine would allow the other party to showcase his skills and at the same time, hone it as well even when he’s alone at home. It can even be a pastime for him of some sort.
Even though people do watch football for leisure at times there are so many advantages which come along with watching games. When it comes to watching sport if one acquires the right characters and try to follow them one may be motivated in achieving more in life . When one is watching sports one may observe how the various disciplined players behave and learn more on their determination. Behavior of a player after injury is well understood upon conducting this service. Therefore, sports is one of the activities which brings people together and helps in making of new relationships.
The bird watching may be considered as the time when we see it fit to take pleasure in watching the birds around us.We can do the observation by the use of the binoculars which is what moist of the people prefer or by the use of the naked eyes. We can do this by looking at them in their natural habitat. Some of us may not be interested with bird watching activity but to some it may be the right thing for them to do.
In order for us to find pleasure in bird watching, we need to have some sort of special interest. It is only by being satisfied by what we do that we can realize the pleasure that is in the activity. People who love the things to do with the natural surrounding also take part in the bird watching. This is because these people are always mesmerized with what nature has to offer at the end of the day. The birds can be considered to be one of the wonders since there are various varieties of birds that we can look at any one given time.
One may be able to get the best benefits from carrying out bird watching. One of the merits is that we can realize the right way that we can make use of the free time that we have. Bird watching makes it possible for us to make use of the time that we have since there are various varieties of birds that we can observe. The benefit of this is that we can be in position to move from place to place learning about the various species available. Being able to find the best way that we can spend time with our friends is also another benefit. We can share the findings that we have with the friends which will help to build the relation that we have. The homepage of our website has a lot of information about birds.
The other benefit of bird watching is that we can get to quench our adventure spirit. We can always have the right way that we can learn about the birds that are around our places. We can do this by observing them and doing research on the behaviors of these birds ate the end of the day. This can help us to be the best with the kind of nature that we have.
One of the games that very many people in the world today enjoy and especially, the rich and elite people is golf, it has been known to be very enjoyable. This is one of the games that has been known to be widespread all over the world meaning that, it is played in almost all of the regions of the world. By participating in playing golf, you can be able to benefit quite a lot especially because this is physical exercise. Having a good golf course is usually very important because it determines how enjoyable the game is going to be and therefore, it’s very critical for very many people. Fortunately, there are a number of golf courses located in different regions all over the world and therefore, they are very available for you. One of the main requirements of playing golf is that you have to be registered to a club that is going to offer you their services. Because of the nature of golf, the number of regulations that have to be put in place by the company so that the ensure that everything is going well.Most of the companies that usually provide golf course services usually require help so that they can be able to manage the golf course properly. Hiring these companies is going to give you the following benefits.
One of the services provided by golf course management companies is usually an analysis of the schedule available for maintenance and also for the attendance of the different tournaments. You also need to have golf course management companies because they will help you to market the golf courses that people can be aware that you’re providing such services. The maintenance of the golf course usually involves checking or doing around truck analysis of the whole of the golf course to ensure that every part that has a problem has been repaired and well maintained. Golf course management companies usually provide you with the maintenance services whereby, they hire the people that can do the cleaning and maintenance. | 2019-04-23T08:55:30Z | http://movein.us/category/sports-athletics/ |
2005-10-17 Assigned to QUARANTA, PHILLIP R. reassignment QUARANTA, PHILLIP R. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: WEISS, THOMAS C.
2005-10-17 Assigned to LEVADA, VICTOR reassignment LEVADA, VICTOR ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: QUARANTA, PHILLIP R.
A method of managing computer memory pages. The sharing of a program-accessible page between two processes is managed by a predefined mechanism of a memory manager. The sharing of a page table page between the processes is managed by the same predefined mechanism. The data structures used by the mechanism are equally applicable to sharing program-accessible pages or page table pages.
The present invention relates to sharing memory among computer processes.
A virtual memory system automatically moves a program's data back and forth between slower, lower-cost secondary memory and faster, higher-cost, primary memory, so that the program's more-referenced data tend to reside in the faster memory, and less-referenced data tend to reside in the slower memory. A program's data are divided into fixed-size blocks, called "pages." More-referenced pages are kept in primary storage. As references to the page become less frequent, the less-referenced page is moved to secondary storage. In a computer with a virtual memory system, programs reference data by virtual address. Address translation hardware translates program-visible virtual addresses to physical addresses (a physical address is the address in primary memory at which the data actually reside).
The translation from virtual addresses to physical addresses is called the "mapping," and is described by a "page table," a table that associates pages of virtual addresses to pages of physical addresses. The page table is itself divided into pages. The pages of the page table are typically arranged as a tree, with a base pointer forming the root at the top of the tree, higher-level nodes in the tree indicating the mapping at coarser level, and lower-level nodes in the tree indicating the mapping at finer levels. The memory pages actually read, written, and executed by programs form the leaf nodes at the bottom of this tree.
Virtual memory systems and multi-level address translation are described in "Structured Computer Organization," second edition, by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice-Hall, 1984, "VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures," by Lawrence J. Kenah and Simon F. Bate, Digital Press, 1984, "OpenVMS AXP Internals and Data Structures, Version 1.5" by R. Goldenberg ad S. Saravanan, Digital Press, 1994, "Extending OpenVMS for 64-bit Addressable Virtual Memory," Digital Technical Journal vol. 8 no. 2 (1996), and "Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual," second edition, by Richard L. Sites and Richard T. Witek, Digital Press, 1995, each incorporated herein by reference.
It is known to provide shared memory among multiple processes executing on a computer. In a typical implementation, two processes agree on the physical page number in which the shared data are stored, and the page tables of the two processes are each set to point to that agreed physical page.
In general, in a first aspect, the invention provides a method of and a system for sharing memory among processes in a computer. The sharing of a program-accessible page between two processes is managed by a predefined mechanism of a memory manager. The sharing of a page table page between the processes is managed by the same predefined mechanism. The data structures used by the mechanism are equally applicable to sharing program-accessible pages or page table pages.
In a second aspect, the invention features a program-accessible page stored in a computer memory, shared among two processes. A translation page is stored in the memory, describing a virtual-to-physical address mapping for memory references, and the translation page is shared among the two processes. A memory manager manages the program-accessible page and the translation page, using common mechanisms for managing the sharing among the processes of the program-accessible page and the translation page.
In a third aspect of the invention, a global section and its page table structure are shared among multiple processes. For a global section that uses a multi-level shared page table structure, a single programmatic reference can be used to create and manage both the leaf global section and the global section for the page table structure.
Embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following features. Page tables shared using the predefined mechanism may inhabit several levels of a multi-level address page table tree. The shared page table pages may be pageable between primary and secondary memory, or the page table pages may be locked into primary memory. The shared program-accessible page may be pageable or locked. The memory manager may enforce a discipline in which the highest-level page table page shared among the processes may be locked into the primary level of the memory. The first and second data structures may be created responsive to a single entry in a memory reservation request. The shared page table pages may be mapped into address spaces of the plurality of processes. The sharing processes may use a single name to refer collectively to the first and second data structures in system service requests. The single name may be stored in the first data structure. The first and second data structures may each be instantiated as a pair of corresponding subsidiary data structures, each member of each pair including a reference for locating the other member of the pair. A memory manager may move the contents of the shared page table entries and the shared data pages between primary and secondary memory, for instance a disk drive. The program-accessible page may be allocated by a non-privileged process from a pool of memory reserved out of the system page pool and designated as non-pageable. Memory from the reserved pool may be allocated in groups of contiguous physical pages, or may be allocated page-by-page on page fault. Allocation may enforce an address alignment of the program-accessible page to greater than page alignment, for instance based on a length of an allocation or mapping request. An allocation or mapping request to a shared memory object that violates the alignment constraint may be mapped with process-private page tables. The shared page table page may have encoded in a single entry in the page table page a mapping corresponding to multiple entries of the page. A region of virtual memory may be attributed with a property that that memory objects mapped into the region will be mapped with shared page table pages. An implementation may refuse to map private memory objects using the shared page table page. The size of a page table section embracing the shared page table page may be determined from the size of an allocation request for a group of leaf pages.
Specific embodiments of the invention may offer one or more of the following advantages.
Performance of Very Large Memory (VLM) systems (computer systems with over 4 GB of main memory, requiring more than 32 bits of addressing) is improved. VLM applications typically consume large amounts of physical memory in an attempt to minimize disk I/O and enhance overall application performance. A VLM system allows large amounts of data to remain resident in main memory, thereby reducing the time required to access that data. For example, database cache designers implement large-scale caches on VLM systems to improve the access times for database records. Similarly, VLM database applications support more server processes. The combination of large in-memory caches and increased number of server processes significantly reduces the overall time database clients wait to receive the data requested.
Users of VLM systems can memory map very large shared memory objects (gigabytes in size) that use a multi-level shared page table structure to create and access the shared memory with a single handle. Users are not required to make major changes to their applications to take advantage of the invention. Instead, the original shared memory object handle name encoded in the application can be used to create and access shared memory that will exhibit better physical memory and CPU utilization characteristics. VLM objects exhibit the same basic characteristics (from the programmer's perspective) as other virtual memory objects created with conventional service programming interfaces. Implementations may choose not to charge the shared memory object or its page tables against a users page quota, reducing the risk of unanticipated exhaustion of working set or page file quota. Program start-up times are reduced. The time required for multiple users to map the same object is reduced. The improved management of memory improves performance when multiple VLM applications are run on a single system.
Shared memory objects with shared page tables exhibit better physical memory and CPU utilization since the page table structure that maps the shared memory is also shared among the processes that wish to access the shared memory. Significant processor time is saved in creating and deleting virtual address mappings to those shared memory objects. Contention is reduced for the locks serializing access to memory management data structures. There is a savings in physical memory required for the process private page tables that map shared memory object for each process mapping the object. More concurrent users may access each shared memory object, with less risk of exhausting computer memory resources. More processes may be simultaneously resident in memory, reducing process swapping. The physical memory cost of creating and maintaining private page tables for multiple mappers of the same object is reduced. The use of a backing storage file for shared page tables pages is reduced. Working set list accounting for these page table pages is reduced. The design allows upper levels of the page table hierarchy to be shared. By sharing leaf pages and page table pages using common mechanisms, the creation of new privileges or access rights is reduced. There is less impact on users who do not use shared page tables.
System management of a VLM system is simplified. A Reserved Memory Registry may support memory reservations for memory-resident global sections and shared page tables.
The Reserved Memory Registry provides a physical memory reservation system that : can be exploited by VLM applications. The Registry provides portions of the system's physical memory to non-privileged processes. A non-privileged process can request physical memory to make the most efficient use of system components. This reservation of physical memory may, in turn, improve utilization of the translation buffer. More efficient use of the CPU and its peripheral components leads to increased application performance. Shared memory objects may be created that do not page to disk.
The invention may simplify the creation and mapping of a shared memory object that utilizes a shared multi-level page table structure by enabling only a single handle to specify both the shared memory leaf object and the correspondent shared page tables. The system determines whether the shared leaf object can be created with shared page tables, and secondarily, by applying certain mapping criteria, whether the object can be mapped into a user's address space using shared page tables. The user has the option of adhering to or violating the mapping criteria as a means to control whether the shared memory object is mapped using shared page tables or process private page tables.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing data structures and address translation in a computer, showing shared page tables and shared leaf pages.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a prior art implementation of shared page tables and leaf pages.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing 4-level address translation.
FIGS. 4, 5, 6, and 7 are diagrams showing data structures from an implementation of shared page table pages and leaf pages.
FIGS. 8-13 are flow charts showing sharing of page table pages and leaf pages.
FIG. 14 is an example of a Reserved Memory Registry data file.
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a data structure for memory reservations.
Referring to FIG. 1, when multiple processes share data, the virtual memory address translation page tables 100 are also shared. The virtual memory manager manages the page table pages 100 as well as the leaf data/code pages 102, paging them between primary and secondary memory. The page table pages 100 are managed and shared using the memory management and sharing machinery already developed for managing and sharing the leaf pages 102 (with relatively small changes and additions), rather than by a dedicated management and sharing systems developed specifically to manage and share the page table pages. The data structure 400, 500 type used to manage shared leaf pages is the same as the type used to manage shared page table pages 100. Because virtual memory management systems are central to the performance of a modern computer, some implementations have become highly developed and optimized. For instance, a modern virtual memory manager may provide several different management policies tuned to different usage patterns of the leaf data, and may further provide automatic monitoring and policy selection to dynamically optimize the management of the pages. Similarly, these systems have developed advanced systems for sharing data pages 102. By managing and sharing the shared page table pages and the shared leaf pages by common machinery 400, 500, the benefits of the developed machinery can be leveraged to provide benefits in managing the page table pages 100 as well.
The invention offers a contrast to known methods of managing and sharing page table pages. As shown in FIG. 2, known systems if they share page tables at all, share them using different machinery. For instance, the sharing of page table pages is managed by data structures 202 of one data type, and sharing of leaf pages is managed by data structures 204 of another.
An application may require that a portion of its memory be locked down, that is, that the pages of the locked section not be paged to disk, but rather be kept permanently resident in memory. When a VLM application requests large amounts of locked memory, system tuning can be adversely affected. Once the pages have been locked, the system may no longer have enough free pages to support the number of processes it was configured to support.
The operating system supports the idea of reserving memory for use by VLM applications. Reserved memory is removed from consideration by system tuning algorithms so that a VLM application, when it uses reserved memory, does not interfere with the paging dynamics of the running system.
Multiple VLM applications may be run within one system.
During the operation of the running system, if an application reduces its need for reserved pages, the pages can go to waste unless there is a mechanism to reclaim these pages by the system. System performance is improved if these pages are made available to the system, especially if the system is retuned to take these pages into account.
In a modern computer architecture, for instance, the Alpha architecture of Digital Equipment Corporation, allows multiple contiguous pages to be treated as a single huge page--a single page table entry and translation buffer entry are marked as controlling address translation for many pages. This improves the translation buffer hit rate, which improves performance. To use the Alpha "huge page" feature, granularity hint bits are set within page table entries that map contiguous physical pages. To guarantee that contiguous physical pages are available to an application, contiguous pages may be set aside during system startup. These pages are called reserved physical pages. Reserved physical pages are locked down and do not page to disk.
A translation buffer (TB) is a CPU component that caches recent virtual-to-physical address translations of valid pages. The TB is a small amount of very fast memory and therefore is only capable of caching a limited number of translations. Each entry in the TB represents a single successful virtual-to-physical address translation. TB entries are purged when either a request is made by software, or when the TB is full and a more recent translation needs to be cached.
A computer system can make more effective use of the translation buffer by allowing several contiguous pages (groups of 8, 64, or 512 pages ) to act as a single huge page. This single huge page is called a granularity hint region and is composed of contiguous virtual and physical pages whose respective first pages are aligned according to the number of pages in the region. When the conditions for a granularity hint region exist, the single huge page is translated by a single TB entry instead of several. Minimizing the number of entries consumed for contiguous pages greatly reduces turnover within the TB, leading to higher chances of a TB hit. Increasing the likelihood of a TB hit in turn minimizes the number of virtual-to-physical translations performed by the CPU.
Since memory-resident global sections are non-pageable, mappings to memory-resident global sections greatly benefit from exploiting granularity hint regions. The Reserved Memory Registry guarantees that a contiguous set of properly-aligned physical pages, can be located to exploit the granularity hint feature.
Reserved physical pages used by an unprivileged application are zeroed prior to allowing the application to access the memory, for security reasons. When a very large amount of reserved physical memory is used, the time taken to zero the memory can degrade application and system performance.
The Reserved Memory Registry offers further advantages in controlling a virtual memory system. For instance, the Registry allows large amounts of memory set aside for use within memory-resident sections. The Reserved Memory Registry also allows a system to be properly tuned before system initialization, taking into account the pre-allocated reserved memory. With the Reserved Memory Registry, a system administrator can reserve a large block of contiguous, aligned pages from the fluid demand-paged page pool for use in locked memory object. The reserved pages can either be allocated in large chunks to satisfy alignment constraints, or may be allocated page by page on demand. The Reserved Memory Registry provides the ability to specify that the pre-allocated pages are to be zeroed during the booting of the system. This option reduces the time required to create the memory-resident global demand-zero section. The Reserved Memory Registry also allows the system administrator to specify that shared page tables are to be used for a particular memory object; the Registry may then reserve appropriate memory to allocate to the page tables for the Reserved object.
In this disclosure, the word "region" generally means a range of virtual addresses, possibly with no physical memory mapped into it. A "section" is a collection of physical pages managed as a group by the operating system. The word "object" is generally intended to generically embrace "regions" and "sections", and other resources managed by the memory manager. A "global section" is a section that can be simultaneously shared in several processes' address spaces.
The features provided by embodiments of the invention are described in section I. The system data structures are described in section II. The operation of the system is described in section III. The Reserved Memory Registry is described in section IV.
A computer and operating system with 64-bit addressing, such as OpenVMS Alpha of Digital Equipment Corporation, supports very large address spaces. A conventional computer, with 32 bits of addressing, supports address spaces of 4 GB; OpenVMS supports address spaces of 8 TB (2000 times as large), with the majority of the address space dedicated to process use. Users have the ability to subdivide the address space into manageable chunks called virtual regions. Virtual regions are simply reservations within the address space; they do not represent allocated or created virtual memory. A user creates a section and maps storage to a virtual region before accessing the addresses within the virtual region.
Virtual regions are aligned to a page-aligned virtual address and their lengths are always a multiple of the number of bytes in a page. Upon successful creation of a virtual region, the user is returned a handle that is in turn passed to the system service routines that create virtual address space.
Shared page tables are implemented as sections. A leaf section mapped by a shared page table section is aligned to a page table page boundary and its lengths are a multiple of the number of bytes in a page. Shared page table sections are used when a process wants to map or attach to a global section that has an associated set of shared page tables.
A global section may be defined to be memory-resident, that is, that it will not be paged. Locked global sections are indicated by a flag in the section's global section table entry and global section descriptor when the section is created. This flag tells the system that the section is a memory-resident section and that mapped pages are not charged against any process or the system's pagefile quota and when faulted, are not placed into the process's working set.
Memory-resident global sections have no backing pagefile nor are they backed by any other file on disk. Thus, no pagefile quota is charged to any process or charged to the system. When a process maps to a memory-resident global section and references the pages, working set list entries are not created for the pages; thus no working set quota is charged to the process.
A user may specify that a memory-resident global section is "demand zero" (DZRO), that it is to be initialized with zero contents. A demand-zero section may have one of two attributes: either ALLOC, that all pages are allocated and mapped when the section is created, or FAULT, that pages will be allocated and mapped on demand as they are touched by a process. It is recommended that the pages within a memory-resident global section be deducted from the system's fluid page count through the Reserved Memory Registry, as discussed in section IV. Using the Reserved Memory Registry ensures that the system is properly tuned to exclude memory-resident global section pages from its calculation of the system's fluid page count. This tuning sizes the system pagefile, number of processes, and working set maximum size based on the system's fluid page count.
If memory has been reserved using the Reserved Memory Registry, that memory must be used for the global section under whose name it is reserved. To return the memory to the system, SYSMAN can be run to free the reserved memory, thus returning the pages back into the system's count of fluid pages.
To initialize a very large memory-resident global section mapped by several processes, the overhead of hardware faults, allocating zeroed pages, setting process PTE's valid, and setting GPTE's valid is reduced by pre-allocating the physical pages for the memory-resident global section. This pre-allocation is done via the Reserved Memory Registry. A demand-zero memory-resident global section may either be managed under the FAULT policy (in which unaccessed pages within the global section remain fluid within the system, and are only bound to the section when touched), or under the ALLOC policy (in which pages are allocated and zeroed at system initialization or during system idle times). When the FAULT (or fault) option is used, processes or the system can use the physical pages until they are accessed. The pages remain within the system's "fluid" memory until they are needed. When the memory-resident global section is deleted, the pages are returned to the system. When the ALLOC option is used, contiguous pages are set aside during system startup specifically for the memory-resident global section.
One routine call to the Reserved Memory Registry is made to determine the range of pages pre-allocated for the memory-resident global section or to determine if the FAULT option can be used. Therefore the decision to use the FAULT or the ALLOC option is not made within the system services routine interface. The system manager can determine which option is used through the Reserved Memory Registry.
When a section is created with the ALLOC option, physical memory page frames are pre-allocated during system initialization time. Reserving a large pool of contiguous pages allows a memory allocation request to be satisfied by contiguous pages, properly aligned, to exploit the "granularity hints" feature of address translation hardware. The "map section" (possibly called as a sub-service of the "create and map" service) service will map portions of virtual address space to physical memory, in chunks of 8, 64, or 512 contiguous pages, with preference given to chunks of larger alignment. The size and alignment factor are chosen by examining the number of low-order zeros of the size of the mapping request, and choosing the largest granularity hint available for that alignment of size. The memory-resident global section size must be less than or equal to the size of the reserved memory or an error is returned from the "create section" system service call.
The SYSMAN system command is provided to manage the Reserved Memory Registry (RMR). If memory is reserved using the RMR, it is given a name by which programs can access the reserved memory. To return the memory to the system, SYSMAN can be run to free the pre-reserved memory back into the system's fluid page pool. Once the pre-reserved memory has been freed, the allocate option can no longer be used to create the memory-resident global section.
Shared page tables enable two or more processes to map to the same physical pages without each process incurring the overhead of page table construction, page file accounting, and working set quota accounting. Internally, shared page tables are treated as a special case of the general management of global sections. A special global section that provides page table sharing is called a shared page table section. In OpenVMS 7.1, shared page table sections themselves are memory-resident, though this is not a requirement of the invention.
The shared page tables are implemented using the same data structures and mechanisms used to manage the leaf pages of a process. These data structures and mechanisms will be described in sections II and III, below.
The MEM-- RESIDENT-- USER right is required to initially create a memory-resident global section, including a shared-page-table section. Once the section is created, processes that do not have this right can connect to existing memory-resident sections.
If the leaf section is memory-resident, then the shared page tables must be memory-resident. Memory for memory-resident shared page tables is obtained from the Reserved Memory Registry, using the name of the leaf section it maps.
The operating system provides several services to create new and map to existing global sections and virtual regions.
The Create Virtual Region service SYS$CREATE-- REGION reserves virtual address space within a process' address space. Once a virtual region has been created, virtual address space can be created within it using the system services that accept a region identifier argument. Note that the virtual region is simply a reservation of virtual address space. No physical memory is occupied for a virtual region until virtual address space is created within the region.
The Create Permanent Demand-Zero Global Section SYS$CREATE-- GDZRO service creates a permanent memory-resident demand-zero global section. Global demand-zero sections contain demand-zero allocation pages that are writable and are memory-resident, without disk backing store. The section is "permanent" in that the section and the data it contains persist even when no process is attached to the section. The global pages are not charged against any pagefile quota.
The Create and Map Global Demand-Zero Section SYS$CRMPSC-- GDZRO service creates a section and maps memory-resident global demand-zero pages in a previously-created region. If the "name" specifies a global section that already exists, the service maps to it only if it is a memory-resident global section. All pages in the memory-resident global section are shared by all processes that map to the global section.
The Map Global Section SYS$MGBLSC service maps a process' virtual address space to a global section, for instance a memory-resident section, a disk file, page file, or a demand-zero section. If a global section backed by a disk file or page file is being mapped, invalid page table entries are placed in the process page table. If a memory-resident global section is being mapped, and the section was registered in the Reserved Memory Registry and /ALLOCATE was specified when the section was registered, valid page table entries are placed in the process page tables.
name--The string name of the global section to be allocated.
length--the length of the object to be created. The present implementation requires that the length be an integral number of pages. The system may round this up to the number of bytes mapped by a page table page.
prot--the protection to be associated with the created region or section.
flags--flags as indicated in table 2, below.
start-- va--If specified and non-zero, the starting address for the created region, or the address at which to map the section. The specified virtual address is a CPU-specific page-aligned address, subject to limitations on use of the address space imposed by the operating system. In a region creation call, if the flag SHARED-- PTS is set and this argument is specified, the specified starting address must be aligned to a natural page table page boundary or an error is returned. If /ALLOCATE was specified when the memory-resident global section was registered in the Reserved Memory Registry, and start-- va is sufficiently aligned (8 pages, 64 pages or 512 pages) to take advantage of granularity hint, granularity hints are used to map to the global section.
region-- id--for create-section and map-section calls, the region ID returned from a prior call to SYS$CREATE-- REGION, the reserved space into which to create a section.
ident--Identification value specifying the version number of the global section.
section-- offset--for a mapping call, the offset into the global section to start mapping into the process's virtual address space. The offset specified must be a multiple of (CPU-specific page size, or page table page alignment is the region i.d. specifies a shared page table region.
map-- length--in a mapping call, the length of the global section to be mapped. The length specified must be a multiple of CPU-specific pages.
return-- region-- id--returned from SYS$CREATE-- REGION: the region ID associated with the created region, to be used as a parameter to future section creation and mapping calls.
return-- va--In a region-creation call, the virtual address of the base of the region. If the flag SHARED-- PTS is set, the returned virtual address is aligned to a CPU-specific page table page boundary. If the global section mapped by this shared page table region is large enough that multiple page table pages are required to map the global section, the page tables themselves may be mapped with granularity hints. Therefore, the alignment of the returned virtual address may be even greater than that of a single CPU-specific page table page boundary.
return-- length--The length of the region actually created or the section mapped. For SYS$CREATE-- REGION, if the flag SHARED-- PTS is set, the returned length is the input length rounded up to an even multiple of bytes mapped by a single CPU-specific page table page.
Both the start virtual address and offset of the region or section must be a multiple of the amount of memory mapped by a page table page, at least in a system that does not allow for sharing part of a page table page. The size of the region must be a multiple of the amount of memory mapped by a page table page. The size of a section must be at least page aligned. Since each page table entry maps 8 KB and there are 1024 page table entries per page table page, this means that base addresses and sizes for objects with shared page tables must be multiples of 8 MB.
In one exemplary embodiment, when using shared page tables, the leaf pages will be locked into memory, though this is not necessary in all possible embodiments.
If a memory-resident global section with shared page tables is mapped into a virtual region that does not have the shared page table attribute, the global section is mapped with process private page tables. Other address space creation services will not be allowed to create address space into a shared page table region since they have an implicit dependency on process private page tables.
On a mapping call, if /ALLOCATE was specified when the global section was registered in the Reserved Memory Registry, contiguous, aligned physical pages are pre-allocated during system initialization for this global section. Valid page table entries are placed in the global page table and valid page table entries are placed in the process page table. If the reserved pre-allocated memory is smaller than the size of the global section, the napping call returns an error status, and the global section is not created. With the proper virtual alignment, granularity hints are used to map to the global pages.
A section will be mapped with shared page tables only if both the global section was created with shared page tables, and the region in which the section is mapped also specifies shared page tables.
Whenever granularity hints are being used to map a memory-resident global section, if the "length" argument is not an exact multiple of the alignment factor, lower granularity hint factors are used as appropriate at the higher addressed portion of the global section.
The two section creation services, SYS$CRMPSC-- GDZRO and SYS$CREATE-- GDZRO, each return a system status indicating that the service completed normally, or that the section was created with shared page tables. Or, the status may indicate an error: for instance, that the request seeks to create an object with a name already in use, that the specified name is too long, that the process does not hold a required access right, that the supplied flags were inconsistent, that an address argument is insufficiently aligned, that one of the return arguments could not be written by the service, that the address space is full or that a quota is exhausted, that one of the system tables is full, that an address requested for allocation is already allocated or otherwise unavailable, that the allocation request would exhaust the system's supply of fluid pages, that the requested size for a section exceeds the size previously allocated for its containing region, or that the properties for a requested section do not match the properties of the region in which allocation is sought.
On a mapping call, if a newly-allocated global section is either not registered in the Reserved Memory Registry or /NOALLOCATE was specified when the global section was registered in the Reserved Memory Registry, invalid global page table entries are written to the global page table. In these cases, when the global section is mapped, invalid page table entries are placed in the process page table. Physical memory is not allocated until the pages are referenced.
If private page tables are used to map to a memory-resident global section, the working set quota and pagefile quota of the process must be sufficient to accommodate the increased size of the process page tables required by the increase in virtual address space.
Other system services allow a process to query for the number of pages mapped by one page table page, and to delete global sections.
Referring to FIG. 3, in an alternative embodiment, shared page tables could be extended to pageable global sections. Shared pages 102 mapped by the shared page tables 100 would be paged using the same mechanisms used to page process private pages 312. In a further variation, shared page table pages could be paged, preferably using the same mechanisms used to page unshared page table pages 310. It would be preferable to keep the highest-level shared page table 320 unpaged and memory resident.
Each process will have a consistent view of the page tables. For instance, the global pages mapped by these page tables would reside in a common working set list that is shared among all sharers of the page table. The page tables themselves would be present in that same working set. The common working set for the pageable region will be distinct from the system working set, because the pages of the shared object would evict system pages from the system working set. The common working set would be a distinct entity that is subject to the same working set list dynamics as process working sets.
An implementation might enforce several constraints, to enforce inter-process security; other embodiments might relax some of these constraints, or substitute others. A shared page table region can only map global sections that use shared page tables. An application can map more than one global section that uses shared page tables into a shared page table region. Attempts to map any other type of section into a shared page table region will fail. The starting virtual address for subsequent sections mapped into a shared page table region will always be rounded up to a page table page boundary. This will prevent two distinct sections from sharing the same page tables. Mappers can specify a non-shared page table region into which to map a section using shared page tables. However, such a mapping will not use shared page tables. Process private page tables will be created to map the section in question when a non-shared page table region is specified.
Finally, the shared page tables assigned to a global section are used exclusively by that section. Those page tables will never map pages belonging to another global section (even when there are unused PTE's within those shared page tables).
In an operating system using the invention, the modifications necessary to add support for shared page tables are small. Many portions of the memory manager require no modification at all.
Referring again to FIG. 3 in an example embodiment, the page table structure is a multi-level structure with 3 levels of page tables. Virtual address translation begins with the Page Table Base Register (PTBR) 330, which contains the physical page denoting the root 332 of a process's page table structure. Each virtual address consists of four major parts. The highest-order bits 340 of the address are used as an index 342 into the level 1 page table 332. The high-middle bits 344 are used as an index 346 into a level 2-page table 320, 362. The low-middle bits 348 are used as an index 350 into a level 3 page table 100, 310, 364. The lowest order bits 352 are used as an index to select a specific byte 354 in a code or data page 102. The four constituents of a virtual address are used to select the appropriate entries and bytes respectively, in the page table structure.
In a particular implementation of the invention, the page tables themselves, and the page frame database (the operating system's data structure that elaborates on the page tables, to assist in managing the pages) may require no modification. Other operating systems may require some modification in order to exploit the invention.
Shared page table global sections are used to represent shared page tables. As such, the same structures used to manage and share standard global sections are also used to manage and share shared page table global sections.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the management of a global section uses several basic data structures that are stored in system address space. For historical reasons, each global section is managed by two data structures: a Global Section Descriptor (GSD) 400, and an entry in the Global Section Table, a Global Section Table entry (GSTE) 500. For each global section, these two data structures, and their associated PTE's, have fields (either pointers or table index values) that maintain their association with each other.
In the invention, the data structures managing global sections were modified, to add fields (or overlay an existing field with a new field) that maintain an association between the data structures for managing the process leaf global section and the structures managing the related shared page table global section. For instance, to the GSD 400 is added a field, named RELATED-- GSTX, an index into the GST 450, indicating the GSTE 500 for the shared page table global section. With the correspondence or link in place, the user can refer to the global section of interest and leave the management of the linked page table global section to the memory management executive.
Referring to FIG. 4, the Global Section Descriptor (GSD) 400 describes the global section. GSD 400 includes the name 402 of the global section that is the handle used to manage the section. The GSTX 403 field is an index into the Global Section Table and identifies the associated GSTE. Among other items, the GSD 400 contains security related information and flags 404. Three of the flags are relevant in the invention: a "shared page tables" flag SHARED-- PTS 452, a "memory resident" flag MRES 454, and an "pre-allocate" flag ALLOC 456.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, flags 452 and 552 are shadow copies of each other, with identical meaning. Flags 452, 552 are named SHARED-- PTS, and indicate that the section holds shared page tables. The shared page table flag 452 distinguishes between the section for the leaf pages and the corresponding section for the page table pages. Both global sections have the same name 402; this bit 452 distinguishes the two.
The MRES flag 454, 554 indicates that the global section is memory-resident, that is, that once the page is allocated or faulted in, it is never faulted out until the process explicitly releases it.
The ALLOC flag 456, 556 when One, indicates that the allocation request was satisfied from reserved memory in a contiguous chunk; when Zero, the flag indicates that memory is to be faulted into existence as each page is touched.
Referring to FIG. 5, the second data structure describing a global section is a Global Section Table entry (GSTE) 500. Each GSTE contains, among other things, a pointer 502 to the corresponding GSD 400, a flags field 504 (whose contents are the same as the flags field 404 of the corresponding GSD), a reference counter 508 used for GSTE accounting purposes (the number of process Page Table Entries (PTE's) that map to pages within the global section), a count of the number of pages in the global section and information about the file that is used as the backing storage for the pages within the global section. The GSTE also contains an index 512 into the Global Page Table (GPT) of the first Global Page Table Entry (GPTE) corresponding to this global section. This index is referred to as the GPTX.
The Global Page Table is an array of entries. An entry within the GPT is called a Global Page Table Entry (GPTE). Each GPTE describes the state of each global page in the section. The system routines that create global sections allocate one GPTE for each page in the newly-created global section. The Global Page Table Entries (GPTE's) are prototype PTE's used to store information about the individual pages that make up the global section. When a global section is created (not yet mapped), each GPTE is initialized to either a valid or an invalid form. That is, each invalid GPTE contains a pointer to its associated global section. (The invalid GPTE actually contains a GSTX, a GST index. This index is used to locate the corresponding GSTE. The GST is treated as an array of GSTE's.) Each valid GPTE contains a Page Frame Number (PFN) of the physical page assigned to the global section is stored in the GPTE. Otherwise, the GPTE is "invalid" and the backing storage address of the global section page is stored in the GPTE.
The GPTE's for memory-resident global sections contain the GSTX when the GPTE is invalid. The DZRO indicator is also set when the GPTE is invalid. Once a GPTE becomes valid, it cannot become invalid while the global section still exists. The PFN that is placed within the GPTE does not change. The physical page is assigned to the global page and remains in memory.
At the user interface level, the name 402 (generally a text string) of the global section is its handle. The operating system resolves this user-visible name to a particular Global Section Descriptor (GSD). Within the memory management executive, the address of the GSD becomes the handle to the global section.
The PFN database is a array of data structures, one data structure corresponding to each physical page tracking the contents of the physical page. PFN database entry contains a reference count, a pointer to the associated backing store, a pointer to the PTE, an I/O reference count, and page state flags.
FIG. 6 illustrates the relationship between the global section data structures. When a global section is created, the operating system creates a GSD 400 for the global section, allocates a GSTE 500 for the global section, and allocates a contiguous array of GPTE's from the Global Page Table to describe the individual pages within the global section. Arrow 602 indicates the pointers that associate the GSD with the GSTE, and vice versa, using the GPTX 406 and the "address of associated GSD 502." Similarly, the GSTE and GPT have pointers back and forth to each other, as indicated by arrow 604. Invalid entries in the Level 3 page table 100 have pointers to the global page table, and the global page table in turn indicates where the backing store for the page is to be found.
FIG. 7 illustrates the relationship between data structures for a leaf global section and its shared page table global section. The interrelationships among the data structures for the shared page table section parallel the interrelationships among the data structures for the leaf section. The GSD and GSTE for the leaf section point to each other (arrow 702), and the GSD and GSTE for the page table section point to each other (arrow 704). In addition, the GSD for the leaf section points to the GSTE (and indirectly to the GSD) for the shared page table section (arrow 706), and the GSD for the shared page table section points to the GSTE (and indirectly to the GSD) for the leaf section (arrow 708). Pointers in the two GSTE's point to respective blocks of entries in the GPT.
Various fields in the PTE and page frame database function as reference counts, lock counts, a count of working set list entries, and the like. The invention maintains the function of these fields.
The operating system has a utility routine that returns the number of PTE's per page table page. The value returned will vary with the size of the PTE and with the page size, and is the quotient of the system page size and the PTE size.
This section discusses the operation of a memory management system of the invention. Shared memory is created on a system when a process calls the create and map section system service routines. The routines accept as arguments the name of the global section, its size, virtual page protection, and a number of other arguments. After validating the arguments, the routines create the global section by creating, manipulating, and linking together the GSD 400, GSTE 500, and GPTE's. Once the data structures are initialized, the memory management executive maps the global section into the process's address space by initializing page tables for the section. If criteria are met, the section will be created with shared tables. Other processes, assuming they have the access rights, can also map the global section by specifying its name to a map global section system service routine; the shared page tables will be linked into the address-translation tree of the later-mapping process.
III.E discusses faulting of shared page table pages. Section III.F discusses unmapping global sections. Section III.G discusses deleting global sections.
Referring to FIG. 8, the create virtual region system service routine, SYS$CREATE-- REGION, allows a user to reserve a block of virtual address space, and assign certain properties that will be inherited by objects mapped into the region in the future. No physical memory is committed to the region until a section is mapped to the region. Upon a successful return from this service, the user is given a handle to the newly created region. This handle or region identifier can then be passed to virtual address space creation system service routines.
Among other things, the create virtual region system service accepts a starting virtual address (start-- va) argument and a length (in bytes) argument. The start-- va argument is optional, and, when specified with a non-zero value, informs the service routine to reserve virtual address space at that specified start virtual address. If the start-- va argument is not specified (or is specified as 0), the service locates the first available space within the virtual address space to accommodate the region creation request.
Steps 804, 806, 808, 810, and 812 enforce alignment constraints, when creating a standard virtual region (i.e. not a shared page table region), the start-- va argument, if specified, must be page aligned and the length argument must be an even multiple of the system page size (step 806). When creating shared page table region, the start-- va argument, if specified, must be page table page aligned. The length argument, at the minimum, must still be an even multiple of the system page size. For shared page table regions, the service will automatically round-up the size of the region to an even multiple of bytes mapped by a page table page (step 808). The alignment constraints are imposed largely to prohibit process private pages from being mapped by PTE's within shared page tables. The constraints keep page table pages from spanning two different virtual regions. This allows the operating system to restrict process private mappings in shared page table regions and shared page table mappings in other regions by checking the shared page tables attribute of the region before starting the mapping operation.
Reserving address space prevents other threads in the process from creating address space in the reserved area, unless they specify the handle of that reserved area to the address space creation routines.
2. An alignment factor is computed based upon the type of region being created (page size for standard regions and multiple of bytes mapped by a page table page for shared page table regions) (steps 806, 808). If the size of the region would cause it to span multiple page table pages, an alignment factor is chosen such that the page table pages (once they are ultimately created) can be mapped with largest possible granularity hint factor. The alignment factor is used in the succeeding steps when the user specifies a non-zero start-- va argument.
3. If a shared page table region is being created, the length argument is rounded up to an even multiple of bytes mapped by a page table page (step 808).
4. If the start-- va argument is not specified, or is zero (step 810), an appropriately aligned virtual address will be selected. In either case, execution proceeds to step 6.
5. If the start-- va argument is non-zero, it is checked for the proper alignment (step 812) using the alignment factor computed in step 2. If the start-- va is not properly aligned, the service returns an error status. If the start-- va is properly aligned, execution proceeds to step 6.
6. The length is rounded up to the next multiple of the alignment factor.
7. The process's address space is searched to verify that the virtual address range specified is available (step 814). (The search for available address space is governed by walking a list of data structures that track the virtual address usage for the process.) If the space is not available, the routine returns an error status (stp 816).
8. For a non-zero start-- va, the virtual address range specified is reserved. For an unspecified or zero start-- va, the first available space that can accommodate the length argument is located and reserved.
9. In addition to returning a successful status code, the routine also returns (in the output arguments), a region identifier, the actual number of bytes reserved, and the starting virtual address of the range (step 818).
Referring to FIG. 9, to create a global section with shared page tables, the user calls a global section creation routine, for instance SYS$CREATE-- GDZRO. Overall, the process of creating a global section involves creating several data structures, and materializing pages table page with initialized PTE's.
1. The routine arguments are validated (step 904).
2. The GSD for the leaf section is allocated (step 908) and partially initialized, with the name of the section (the name will become the handle) and the section creation flags.
3. A GSTE is allocated (step 910) and initialized to contain the address of the GSD, the number of pages in the section, and the section creation flags.
4. The reserved memory for the process leaf section is allocated.
5. The Reserved Memory Registry is examined for an entry associated with the global section name specified in the call. If there is a Reserved Memory Descriptor for both the leaf pages and for shared page table pages, or for neither, then a shared page table global section will be created. If there is a Reserved Memory Descriptor for only the leaf pages and not for the shared page table pages, then the section will use process private page tables (step 912).
6. If there are insufficient pages for the shared page tables, GPTE's are allocated and initialized for the global section only (step 914). The create section routine returns indicating that only the global section was created.
7. If this section will use shared page tables, the GPTE's for the shared page table section are allocated and initialized (step 922). If the memory for the shared page tables was not pre-allocated, pages will be allocated from the zeroed page list. Unlike process leaf data page GPTE's that can be created in the global invalid form (see step 13), shared page table GPTE's will always be created in the global valid form.
8. If the section will use shared page tables, a GSD and GSTE are allocated and initialized for the shared table section (steps 916, 918). The initializations parallel those for the global section, with the additional step, for shared page table sections, of setting the "shared page tables" bit in the flags field of the GSD and GSTE for the shared page table global section.
9. The link between the global section's data structures and the shared page table global section's data structures is established (the GSTE RELATED-- GSTX fields are initialized as described in section I) (step 920).
10. The GPTE's for the process leaf section are allocated and initialized. The GPTE's are created as global valid or global invalid based upon whether the reserved memory was pre-allocated (step 922).
11. If the reserved memory for the process leaf section was pre-allocated, the corresponding PFN database entries are initialized.
12. The PFN database entries for the shared page table section are initialized.
13. The physical pages allocated for the shared page table global section are temporarily mapped so that their contents can be initialized to map the pages of the leaf global section.
14. If there was no Reserved Memory Registry entry for the global section, or if the Registry entry describes a global section with the FAULT option, the PTE's within the shared page tables are initialized to the global invalid form (these PTE's will be set to valid as each leaf page is faulted into place). If the Reserved Memory Registry specifies a batch of pre-allocated, zeroed pages, the PFNs are copied into the shared PTE's with the protection, ownership, and valid bits set. If the registry entry for the global section specifies the ALLOC option, the PTE's in the shared page tables are initialized as valid PTE's using the maximum granularity hint factor possible. If the size of the section is not an even multiple of pages mapped by a page table page, the unused PTE's will be zeroed.
15. The create section routine returns indicating that both the global section and its corresponding shared page table global section have been created (step 930).
Several of the above steps request physical pages. If there are no free pages available, the process is put in a wait state, and held until the physical pages are available to satisfy the request.
The bulk of the code of the memory manager is not affected by the addition of shared page tables. For instance, the code managing the PFN database is unmodified.
Referring to FIG. 10, Once a global section has been created, the next step is to map storage to the section through a call to a mapping system service. The process calls the mapping service with the handle of the global section to map, and (for some services) the file to map into the section. (The service SYS$CRMPSC combines the steps of creating and mapping a global section). The section can be mapped to demand-zero storage, a locked memory section, or a file. The system service routine determines whether the global section has a related shared page table global section. If a shared page table global section is found, and certain mapping criteria (discussed below) prevail, the virtual address space is materialized by using the shared page table global section.
The operating system enforces certain criteria on the parameters passed to the mapping call. If these criteria are not met, the system service routine uses process private page tables to establish the mapping. These criteria enforce security, for instance by preventing process private data from being mapped through shared page table pages into other processes' address spaces.
If the caller does not specify the handle of a shared page table region, any mappings to global sections that have an associated shared page table global section only use process private page tables.
If a shared page table region is specified, the map length (number of bytes to map), must be an even multiple of bytes in a page. This ensures that the last byte mapped includes the last byte of the section mapped into the address space. If the length is not page table page aligned, then the section will be mapped with process private page tables. In any event, the length must be a multiple of the page length.
The caller has the option of either specifying a starting virtual address at which to map the global section, or allowing the system service routine select a virtual address at which to perform the mapping. If the user specifies both a shared page table region and a starting virtual address, the starting virtual address must be aligned to a page table page aligned value to permit mapping the section with shared page tables.
If the user has not specified a virtual address, the system service routine will select the next available virtual address in the shared page table region that is aligned to a page table page boundary.
The system service map routine has a global section offset argument to allow the caller to map only a portion of the entire global section. The global section offset argument specifies the first byte in the global section to map. When this argument is specified with a shared page table region, the global section offset argument must be an even multiple of bytes mapped by a page table page, because this example embodiment does not allow a process to map only a portion of a shared page table page into a process's address space. If the service routine is used to memory map a file, the map offset (offset relative to the start of the file) must be page aligned. If mapping shared memory whose backing store is the system page file, the map offset must be page aligned.
If the mapping call meets the above constraints, and the region into which the section is mapped was created specifying shared page tables, then the section's mapping will use shared page tables. Note that a user has the flexibility declining to use shared page tables, by intentionally violating any one of the above mapping criteria.
The following steps highlight the specifics of mapping a shared page table global section.
1. The arguments specifying the offset into the global section, the number of bytes of the global section to map, and the starting address argument, if specified, are validated to determine if they adhere to the mapping criteria stated above (step 1010).
2. If the specified arguments allow for page table sharing, a starting address within the process's address space is located (either by looking for the next available address to use, or using the user-specified starting address). The virtual address of the L3PT (level 3 page table 100, 364 of FIG. 3) that maps the starting address is then computed (step 1020). This address is then used to calculate the address of the process L2PTE's (level 2 page table entries, the entries in the level 2 page tables, 320, 362 of FIG. 3) that must be written to materialize the shared page table global section and the global section in the process's address space (step 1022).
3. The process L2PTE's are then initialized using the data stored in the shared page table global sections GPTE's and GSTE.
4. If the specified arguments do not allow for page table sharing, a starting address within the process's address space is located (either by looking for the next available address to use, or using the user-specified starting address). The virtual address of the L3PTE that maps the starting address is then computed (step 1030). This L3PTE is used as the starting point to materialize the global section in the process's address space (step 1032).
During the above process, the memory manager uses its conventional reference count accounting. Just as reference counts are conventionally incremented and decremented during the mapping and unmapping of process leaf pages, the reference counts are incremented and decremented as shared page table pages are inserted and removed from the address translation tree.
An "overmap" condition exists when the mapping request designates a block of virtual addresses that is already mapped. If the mapping call specified the "no overmap" flag, the mapping routine returns an error status. Else, the mapping routine performs the unmapping functions (discussed below at section III.F) to release the current mapping, and then performs the mapping procedure discussed above.
If the map request will not overmap existing address space within a region, and the entire map request can be fulfilled, and the process leaf section was created with the ALLOC option, the address space will be created with the most aggressive granularity hint possible. The shared page tables, if possible, will also be mapped with granularity hints.
Granularity hints can only be used if both the process leaf section and the shared page table section were created with the ALLOC option. In this case, the shared page tables will contain PTE's with non-zero granularity hint bits. The shared page tables are only mapped with granularity hints if the region contains a properly aligned virtual address. In general, the ability to map shared page tables with granularity hints calls for more stringent alignment requirements. The alignment requirements for mapping shared page tables with granularity hint will not be enforced if the map request will not fit within the region.
As part of determining an appropriately aligned virtual address, it's possible that the specified amount of space to map will not fit within the shared page table region. In this case, as much virtual address space as remains within the region will be used. Note that the size of a region mapped by a shared page table is always an even multiple of bytes mapped by a single page table page. Therefore, even if the entire map request does not fit within a given shared page table region, an application is always guaranteed to map an integral number of pages mapped by a shared page table page.
A process that maps a global section typically has its process L3PTE's initialized in the global invalid form. That is, the L3PTE maps a page in a global section, but the page has not yet been faulted into memory. The page fault handler, will make the process's virtual page and the global page, valid once the page is accessed.
When a global section is mapped, the process has its L3PTE's initialized to point to the GPTE's of the section. (The L3PTE's actually contain a GPTX, a GPT index. This index is used to locate the corresponding GPTE. GPT is treated as an array of GPTE's.) A global page fault occurs when the process accesses a virtual page whose L3PTE is invalid and contains a GPTX.
FIG. 11 shows page fault handling in the case where both the process L3PTE and GPTE it references are in the global invalid form.
1. The page fault handler determines that a page fault for a global page occurred by examining the process L3PTE that maps the virtual page just referenced.
2. The page fault handler traverses the virtual address path of the virtual page referenced. Starting at the top of the page table hierarchy, the handler confirms the validity of each page table page in the virtual address translation path for the page just accessed. Assuming that the L1PT, the L2PT, and the L3PT are all valid, the L3PTE mapping the virtual address accessed is examined (step 1104).
3. The handler determines that the L3PTE maps a global page (step 1106).
4. The handler extracts the GPTX from the L3PTE and locates the GPTE and global page mapped by the L3PTE (step 1108).
5. The handler determines that the GPTE referenced is also in the global invalid form, indicating that a physical page has not yet been allocated for this global page (step 1110).
6. The handler allocates a physical page (step 1112) and places its PFN (page frame number) in the GPTE and in the process L3PTE (step 1114).
7. The data structure that describes the state of all physical pages in the system is updated to reflect that a page has been allocated to a global section (step 1116).
8. Accounting related tasks are performed for the global section's GSTE to indicate that another process page is mapping a global page in this global section (step 1120).
9. The GPTE and process L3PTE are then changed to a valid form (step 1122). Making the GPTE valid is an indication that the GPTE now contains an actual PFN or physical page and not a GSTX. Making the process L3PTE valid allows for successful virtual to physical address translation.
10. Finally, the handler dismisses the page fault and the process is allowed to resume execution at the instruction that originally incurred the fault (step 1124).
A global valid fault occurs when a process L3PTE (in the global invalid form) references a GPTE that is in the global valid form. A GPTE will be in the global valid form when another process has referenced that global page and caused it to transition from invalid to valid.
Copies the PFN from the GPTE to the process L3PTE (steps 1130, 1116).
Updates the physical memory data base for that page (to indicate one more process reference) (step 1118).
Updates the GSTE for the global section to indicate that another process page is mapping a global page in this global section (step 1120).
Finally, the handler dismisses the page fault and the process is allowed to resume execution at the instruction that originally incurred the fault (step 1124).
Page faults for shared page table pages are treated in exactly the same manner as a global valid fault. The difference is that the faulting virtual address will not be that of a process data page, but rather the address of the L3PTE that maps the process data page. The computation to locate the process PTE will actually result in obtaining a process L2PTE address. Upon examining the L2PTE, the handler will detect that it is in the global invalid form. Therefore the only difference in the page fault flow of events, is that the faulting VA is the address of the process L3PTE, not a process virtual data page. The rest of the page fault algorithm executes in the same manner as it would if a page fault for a process data page is to be serviced.
Referring to FIG. 12, unmapping a shared page table global section from a process address space is similar to unmapping a standard data global section, or unmapping or deleting regular virtual addresses. The DELETE virtual address system service (DELTVA) accepts arguments specifying a region identifier of the region from which the address space should be deleted, a virtual address from which to begin deletion, and the number of bytes to delete (step 1202).
The system service routine then executes these steps to unmap the global section, to delete the virtual address from the process.
1. The routine arguments are validated (step 1204).
2. The deletion process blocks if any I/O pending. A secondary check for memory-resident pages is to check the PFN reference count of the corresponding physical pages. A virtual address range mapped by shared page tables will only utilize the preliminary check since checking the memory-resident data page reference counts does not uniquely identify the current process as the process that actually established I/O to that physical page.
3. The number of virtual pages to be deleted is computed (step 1206).
4. For each page, the page type (global page versus process private page) is ascertained in order for the proper accounting to occur (step 1206). Page type information is gleaned from reading the L3PTE for each page in the range to be deleted. (Page deletion is driven by scanning each L3PTE in the range to be deleted.) The result is that virtual address space is deleted one page at a time.
The PTE address is computed by applying the PTE-- VA function. This function accepts a virtual address and returns the PTE that maps that specified address. The following highlights the return values from PTE-- VA when VA is process data or code page, a L3PTE address, and L2PTE address, and L1PTE address.
PTE-- VA (VA) returns L3PTE address.
PTE-- VA (L3PTE) returns L2PTE address.
PTE-- VA (L2PTE) returns L1PTE address.
PTE-- VA (L1PTE) returns L1PTE address.
5. If the page type is global page (step 1212), a subsequent check is made to determine whether the global page is mapped by shared page tables.
6. If the page is not mapped by shared page tables, the data structures for the global section are obtained and manipulated to indicate one less reference to that global section (step 1220). (Note that the PTE scan uses the process L3PTE's.) The L3PTE is then zeroed to actually delete the virtual page.
7. If the page is mapped by shared page tables, the data structures for the shared page table global section are obtained and manipulated to indicate one less reference to that global section. The associated data global section's data structures are also manipulated to indicate that the number of global pages mapped by the shared page table global section are no longer referenced by this process. Since shared page tables are being removed from the address space, the PTE scan uses process L2PTE's instead of process L3PTE's (step 1222). The L2PTE is then zeroed to remove the shared page table and the pages it maps from the address space (step 1226). For a system with an 8 KB page size, zeroing a L2PTE has the effect of deleting up to 8 MB from the address space.
8. The reference counts for the shared page table and leaf global sections are decremented in one step after the address space has been deleted (step 1224).
9. In addition, if the L2PTE's have a non-zero value in the granularity hint field, all L2PTE's included in the granularity hint region must have their granularity hint bits cleared, and the corresponding L3PT virtual addresses are invalidated from the TB.
Virtual pages are deleted through explicit calls to operating system services, or implicitly when a mapping call attempts to overmap an existing mapping. Pages that are mapped by shared page tables and are to be deleted are handled differently from pages mapped by private page tables. The only way to remove a page mapped by a shared page table from a process's virtual address space is to remove the shared page table page from the process's address space. Consequently, if the deleted pages are mapped by shared page tables, the start address must be page table page aligned, and the length must be page table page aligned, or to the end of the section.
When a mapping routine detects an attempt to map a region of address space that is already mapped, the mapping routine calls the deletion routine to clear the previous mapping away. In a shared page table case, the effect is to remove the reference to a level 3 page table from a level 2 PTE.
Referring to FIG. 13, global sections are deleted when there are no references to the pages in that global section.
1. The global section deletion routine locates the global section data structures for the global section to be deleted. Global sections are identified by a text string (step 1302).
2. The RELATED-- GSTX field of the GSD of the data global section is examined to determine if a shared page table global section is associated with this global section. This GSTX is saved in Data-- GSTX as a means of terminating the loop that deletes a series of related global sections (step 1304).
3. The RELATED-- GSTX will contain either the GSTX of the data global section if there is no associated shared page table global section, or the GSTX of the shared page table global section. In any regard, the contents of the RELATED-- GSTX field is extracted and the global section data structures associated with that GSTX are obtained (step 1308).
4. The data global section's GSD.RELATED-- GSTX field is updated with the contents of the GSD.RELATED-- GSTX field of the GSD (step 1310).
5. The shared page table pages will be returned to the Reserved Memory pool if they originated from there, or to the free page list.
6. The global section data structures (GSD, GSTE, and GPTE's) are deallocated (step 1312).
7. If the GSTX of the structures just deleted is the same as the GSTX saved in Data-- GSTX, the global section was successfully deleted (step 1314). The implication is that this global section had no related shared page table global sections. The routine then returns.
8. If GSTX is not equal to Data-- GSTX, a shared page table global section was just deleted, and execution branches (arrow 1316) back to step 3 so that all of the related global sections can be deleted.
Extending shared page tables to pageable global sections would require each process to have a consistent view of the page tables. There can be no process copy of the page table. In addition, the global pages mapped by these page tables must reside in a working set list that is available to all sharers of the page table. The page tables themselves will be managed as part of that same working set. All sharers of pageable global sections mapped by shared page tables have access to a common working set list. The notion of a common working set list is similar to the system working set list which tracks the residency of pageable system pages. That is, if one process faults a system page into the system working set, that page becomes valid for all processes on the system. The same will be true of the common working set.
An actual implementation of a common working set will not use the system working set for shared page table pages and the global pages they map. One reason is that the system working set is not subject to trimming. Pages are added to the system working set until it is full. Once the system working set is full, replacement paging is necessary. Placing large numbers of global pages mapped by shared page tables into the system working set can cause system pages to be ejected from the working set. If the corresponding global section is extremely large, a high rate of system paging can occur, which can, in turn, adversely affect system performance.
As a result, the common working set would be a distinct entity that is subject to the same working set list dynamics as process working sets.
The Reserved Memory Registry reserves memory out of the fluid page pool managed by the virtual memory manager, and allows users to allocate physical memory to unprivileged processes. For instance, this allows user programs to have access to locked, unpaged memory, and large contiguous chunks of memory that can exploit the "granularity hints" feature.
The Reserved Memory Registry includes the following components. A Reserved Memory Registry (RMR) data file stores information about what memory is to be reserved. The SYSMAN (system manager) utility provides a convenient interface to edit the RMR data file. AUTOGEN is a software component that tunes parameters of the operating system, for example, to retune the virtual memory control parameters to improve paging performance. A component of the system startup creates a linked list of Reserved Memory Descriptors (RMD) and sets aside the reserved memory so that it is not used by the operating system for other purposes. Each RMD structure describes a piece of reserved memory. The RMD list is used by the operating system to manage the reserved memory in the running system. The system idle loop is enhanced to zero reserved pages. The operating system provides services by which application programs allocate and deallocate memory from the reserved pool.
The Reserved Memory registry divides physical memory into a number of pools. Each pool created by the Registry has a name, and application programs can allocate memory from a given pool by specifying its name. Memory not allocated to one of the Reserved Memory pools is left in the residual system fluid page pool. Each Reserved memory pool has one of two allocation disciplines--ALLOC or FAULT. A process obtains contiguous blocks of non-paged memory from an ALLOC pool; the storage is checked out of the pool immediately when the allocation service is called. ALLOC storage is tailored for use with the "granularity hints" feature. From a FAULT pool, a process obtains "allocate on use" storage, storage that is not allocated until touched by the process. When the process is finished, it can return the storage back to the pool.
If contiguous pages were pre-allocated for a locked shared memory object, a VLM application that uses the shared memory object can realize a performance increase for the initialization of the shared memory object. Initialization includes the creation of the shared memory object, all processes mapping to the shared memory object and each process starting to access the memory.
1. The creation time for the shared memory object is improved due to the simple mechanism used to allocate the physical pages. One call is made to the Reserved Memory Registry to obtain the entire set of pages. These pages have also already been zeroed during system idle time as well so that creation is not slowed down waiting for the pages to be zeroed.
2. The mapping time for the shared memory object is improved because the page table entries that map to the shared pages are marked valid at this time. The mapping algorithm simply sets up a prototype PTE with the lowest PFN, the valid bit set and the appropriate protection bits set. To map the next PTE, PFN in the prototype PTE and the PTE address are simply incremented and the PTE written.
2.a If shared page tables were created for the shared memory object, an order of magnitude fewer PTE's are written to map to the shared memory object. This decreases mapping time as well.
2.b Mapping time is further decreased because only one system resource lock is acquired and released during the mapping algorithm to add reference information to shared memory object data structures. Thus, there is minimal contention for this system resource lock if many processes are mapping to the same shared memory object simultaneously. No system resource lock acquire/release is required because the reference accounting can be performed with interlocked instruction sequences.
3. The access time to touch the pages mapped to the locked shared memory object decreases because the PTE's were set to the valid state when they were mapped into the processes address space. No time is spent handling page faults as each process initially accesses each page. Page fault handling also acquires and releases a system resource lock. Therefore, not incurring these faults reduces the contention for this lock, thus improving application performance.
The system manager also has the flexibility to specify that a pool of reserved memory be used collectively by applications that require locked memory. This allows the system manager to have finer control over the system's memory usage based on the expected use of the VLM applications.
The use of locked memory is guaranteed to not cause the system to become starved for free pages. Therefore, VLM applications that use locked memory do not require system privileges.
The Reserved Memory Registry allows applications to take advantage of the huge page feature by supporting reserved memory that is allocated in contiguous chunks during system initialization.
Pre-allocated contiguous memory can be zeroed during system idle time so that unprivileged applications do not have to wait for memory to be zeroed.
Memory freed from the Reserved Memory Registry becomes available to the system without a system reboot. The system can benefit from the freed memory by allowing additional pages to be locked by other applications. Also, if the pages were pre-allocated at system initialization, the freed pages are deallocated onto the system's free page list.
The following sections describe the design of the Reserved Memory Registry.
The systems administrator tells the computer about desired memory reservations by making entries in a data file. A utility, SYSMAN, is provided, to edit the file. The file is read during system initialization (boot time), to establish the memory reservations.
Referring to FIG. 14, the size 1402 of the memory reservation is specified in megabytes. The name 1404 of the Reserved Memory data file entry is specified as an ASCII string. The ALLOC flag 1406 indicates that the Reserved Memory is to be preallocated as one contiguous chunk of physical memory at system initialization time. The ZERO flag 1408 indicates that the memory is to be zeroed during system idle time. This flag can be set only if the ALLOC flag is set for the same entry. The PAGE-- TABLE flag 1410 indicates that shared page tables are to be reserved and used to map the reserved memory.
The SYSMAN utility supports the RESERVED-- MEMORY command for manipulating entries in the Reserved Memory Registry.
The gs-- name field is the name of the memory-resident global section associated with this reserved memory. A name must be specified. If the /ALLOCATE qualifier is specified, contiguous, aligned pages are allocated during the next reboot of the system. If the /NOALLOC qualifier is specified, or left to default, the physical pages will be allocated only as they are touched by a process. The /ZERO qualifier specifies that the storage is to be zeroed during system initialization; the /NOZERO (or default) qualifier specifies that storage is zeroed when the page is faulted into existence, immediately before being tendered to a user process. The /ZERO qualifier is only allowed if the /ALLOCATE qualifier is specified.
If the /PAGE-- TABLES qualifier is not specified or if /NOPAGE-- TABLES is specified, additional memory is not reserved for shared page tables. When the memory-resident global section is created, shared page tables are not created for the global section.
If the /PAGE-- TABLES qualifier is specified, additional memory is reserved for shared page tables. When the memory-resident global section is created, shared page tables are created for the global section. If the /ALLOCATE qualifier is not specified or if /NOALLOCATE is specified, the additional reserved memory is only deducted from the system's fluid page count. If the /ALLOCATE qualifier is specified, additional contiguous, aligned pages are allocated during the next reboot of the system for the shared page tables and the additional reserved memory is deducted from the system's fluid page count.
The SYSMAN RESERVE MEMORY ADD command operates as follows. First, the arguments are validated for consistency: for instance, if /ZERO is specified, it is an error to specify /NOALLOC. The existing RMR data file is opened, or a new one created. If an entry already exists with the specified name, an error is reported and the command terminates. Else, a new entry is added to the file, with the specified size, name, ALLOC, ZERO, and PAGE-- TABLES flags. The entry is added to the file such that the entries are kept in descending size order. This allows for contiguous pages to be allocated in an optimal way during system initialization.
The SYSMAN command also has a MODIFY subcommand, that allows for changing entries in the RMR data file. The data file may be sorted to maintain the entries in size order.
The SYSMAN command has a REMOVE subcommand to delete lines from the RMR data file.
The SYSMAN ADD, MODIFY, and REMOVE commands only edit Reserved Memory Registry data file; they do not affect memory reservations in the running system.
Reserved Memory Descriptors (RMD's) are used to describe Reserved Memory in the running system. The RMD's are organized in a linked list managed by the operating system in the non-paged pool. The list is built during system initialization, when the RMR data file is read and translated from ASCII form to an internal data structure form. The entries in the list are kept in descending size order, to facilitate optimal page frame allocation, and reduce fragmentation.
Entries in the RMR data file that call for shared page tables create two RMD's 1500--one for the leaf section, and one for the shared page table section. The RMD describing a page table section is of the same form, and has the same name, as the memory resident section's RMD, with three exceptions. The PAGE-- TABLES flag is set in the FLAGS field 1504. The ZERO flag 1508 is always clear regardless of whether this bit is set in the memory resident section's RMD. This bit is only set for the page table RMD if the ALLOC bit 1506 is also set. PFN-- COUNT 1510 is the count of the number of physical pages in the section, equal to the quotient of the size of the leaf memory resident section and the number of bytes mapped by a page table page (rounded up as necessary).
Memory is allocated and deallocated from the Reserved Memory pool using a set of system routines. For an application to create a memory-resident global section out of Reserved Memory, the global section name must exactly match the name of the Reserved Memory Registry entry.
If the global object creation call specifies a name that does not match an entry in the Reserved Memory registry, then the call will attempt to allocate pages from the system's fluid page pool. If this succeeds, the system service routine creates the memory-resident global section with the FAULT option.
After the system service routine has obtained the Reserved Memory for the memory-resident global section, it may call a Reserved Memory Registry routine to allocate the associated shared page table global section. If page tables were not specified for the entry, this indicates to the system service routine to not create a shared page table global section.
A side benefit of using the ALLOC option for the shared page table global section is that the page tables can be mapped into page table space using granularity hint regions.
AUTOGEN is a software component that examines the system to determine what physical resources are present, and examines the RMR data file and other configuration parameters to determine what resources are dedicated to specific purposes. AUTOGEN then determines certain tuning parameters that will be used during system execution. AUTOGEN stores these values where the operating system can find them during system initialization. The operating system then manages the system according to the determinations made by AUTOGEN. Typically, the system administrator runs AUTOGEN after running SYSMAN to update the RMR data file, and before the next reboot.
Among the data computed by AUTOGEN are FLUID-- PAGES, MIN-- FLUID-- PAGES, and SLOT-- COUNT, WORKING-- SET-- MAX and other parameters.
1. Determine PHYS-- PAGE-- COUNT, the total number of physical pages in the system.
2. Read the Reserved Memory Registry data file, and compute the amount of memory registered in all Reserved Memory Registry entries and convert to pages, RESERVED-- PAGES.
3. Subtract RESERVED-- PAGES from PHYS-- PAGE-- COUNT and do some error checking to make sure there is still a minimal amount of memory for the operating system.
4. Based on the new PHYS-- PAGE-- COUNT and other parameters, calculate SLOT-- COUNT and WORKING-- SET-- MAX as well as other parameters.
5. Write new parameters to the system parameters data file.
System initialization uses the system parameter data file and the RMR data file to build a linked list of Reserved Memory Descriptors 1500, and to reserve memory out of the system fluid page pool.
To ensure that the contiguous pages can be allocated and that runtime physical memory allocation routines can be used, memory reservations are made soon after the operating system's physical memory data structures have been initialized, but before physical memory can become fragmented.
Once all descriptors are linked into the RMD list, the list is traversed, allocating contiguous aligned chunks of pages. The size request for each entry is converted to pages. The RMD's are processed in descending size order to minimize fragmentation. As each reserved block is allocated, pages are deducted from the system's fluid page count. If the system's fluid page count reaches MIN_FLUID-- PAGES, the reservation's pages are added back to the system's fluid page count and an error is displayed on the console. The descriptor is removed from the list and the RMD is deallocated. This error is not fatal and the initialization routine continues with the next entry in the data file. This allows subsequent smaller allocation requests to succeed if possible.
For entries with the ALLOC characteristic an attempt is made to locate pages that will satisfy the largest granularity hint region that will fit within the request. For example, reservation requests that are larger than 4 MB will result in the first page allocated aligned to meet the requirements of a 512-page granularity hint region.
The system's fluid page counter is reduced to account for the amount of Reserved Memory specified in each entry. This counter tracks the number of physical pages that can be reclaimed from processes or the system through paging and swapping activities. Another system defined value, minimum fluid page count, is calculated during system initialization and represents the absolute minimum number of fluid pages the system requires before overall performance is compromised. Deductions from the fluid page count are always checked against the minimum fluid page count to prevent the system from becoming starved for pages.
During system idle time, the system idle process zero's idle ALLOC pages, so that they can be given to processes that demand zeroed storage. The idle processes traverses the RMD's in the RMD list. If there is an RMD that calls for ALLOC, ZERO storage, and the ZERO-- PFN counter indicates that there are non-zeroed pages waiting to be zeroed, the process creates a window mapping to the appropriate physical page, and zeroes the contents of the page. The process of mapping the page requires acquiring the memory lock spinlock, and flushing the TB at completion.
The system services SYS$CREATE-- GDZRO and SYS$CRMPSC-- GDZRO call internal kernel mode allocation routines to "use" the Reserved Memory registered in the Reserved Memory Registry. Routine mmg-- std$use-- res-- mem allocates Reserved Memory from a Reserved pool. To allocate Reserved Memory for a leaf global section and its shared page tables, mmg-- std$use-- res-- mem is called twice: once to allocate pages for the leaf section and once to allocate the shared page table section.
pfn-- count: number of pages to allocate from the Reserved Memory Registry.
char-- count: number of characters in global section name.
name: pointer to the global section name. If this "name" matches an entry in an RMD, the memory will be allocated from the named Reserved Memory pool. If the name does not match, then pages will be allocated from the system fluid memory pool.
Bit 0: if set, zeroed pages are required if contiguous, aligned pages were pre-allocated.
Bit 1: if set, the allocation is for a shared page table section. If the allocation is for a shared page table section, the search of the RMD's must consider this bit, and not match the initial entry for the leaf section, but continue to search the list for the shared page table section. The routine will only provide memory for the page tables if (1) RMD's exist for both the memory resident section and its page tables, or (2) RMD's exist for neither the memory resident section nor its page tables.
return-- pfn: Upon successful return from this routine, the return-- pfn field indicates whether to use the FAULT option for the global section or the ALLOC option. A return-- pfn set to zero indicates that no pages were pre-allocated for the global section. A non-zero return-- pfn indicates the first PFN in the contiguous, aligned chunk of pages pre-allocated for this global section. The global section creation code sets the internal section flag MRES-- ALLOC to indicate that the ALLOC option is used.
reserved-- pages: the routine returns the total number of pages included in the Reserved Memory block. If the request does not match an entry within the Reserved Memory Registry, a zero is returned for this argument. A caller that tries to ascertain whether a Reserved Memory entry exists can check for a non-zero return value for the reserved-- pages argument.
1. Search through the list of RMD's for an entry whose name matches NAME.
2. If the size specified is zero, and an RMD is found, use the size specified in the RMD.
3. If the section name does not match any RMD, the number of pages specified is compared to the system's fluid page count. If insufficient pages remain in the fluid page pool (determined by a comparison to MIN-- FLUID-- PAGES), an error status is returned to the caller. If the number of pages specified is less than the system's fluid page count, the pages are allocated from the system's fluid page pool.
4. If an RMD is found and the ALLOC flag in the specified RMD is clear, and sufficient pages remain in the RMD's pool, fluid pages are allocated, and the IN-- USE bit is set in the RMD. If insufficient pages remain, use-- res-- mem attempts to allocate the available pages of the RMD's pool, and to satisfy the balance from the system page pool. If there are still insufficient pages, an error status is returned and the allocation fails.
5. If the ALLOC flag in the Reserved Memory descriptor is set, the request must be satisfied out of the specified Reserved memory pool, and will fail if insufficient pages remain.
"Returning" Reserved Memory releases the memory from its current use to the pool from which it was allocated. Memory that was allocated from the system fluid page pool is returned there for use by other processes. For memory that is released to a Reserved Memory pool, the RMD is updated to reflect that the memory is no longer allocated. Flag bits in the RMD are reset so that the memory will be re-zeroed. Memory returned to a Reserved Memory pool becomes available for allocation to other processes that need unpaged memory, or for use with "huge page" granularity hints.
When a leaf section is deleted, its corresponding shared page table section is also deleted. The "return reserved memory" routine is thus called twice, once for the leaf section and once for the shared page table section.
"Freeing" Reserved Memory releases reserved memory from the Reserved Memory pool to the fluid pool free list in the executing computer, but leaves the data file alone. "Freeing" is the appropriate action when the initial allocation in the RMR data file is over-generous, and the actual application determines that it requires less memory than was previously allocated. Entries are relinked in the system free list, and the FLUID-- PAGES count is increased by the number of pages freed. When all pages from a Reserved Memory pool are freed, the RMD is deleted from the RMD list.
Once an RMD's Reserved Memory has been freed, subsequent allocations from the Reserved Memory pool may only be satisfied by FAULT pages. If the system's fluid page count is large enough to accommodate the request, it will be honored.
The system administrator may invoke the "free" operation if the system becomes starved for physical memory, using the SYSMAN RESERVED-- MEMORY FREE command.
Several commands are provided for displaying the status of the Reserved Memory Registry. SHOW and LIST subcommands of the SYSMAN RESERVED-- MEMORY command show the current contents of the RMD in system memory and the RMR data file, respectively. The data are somewhat elaborated: for instance the commands will show the amount of memory consumed by shared page tables, rather than the simple yes/no stored in the data file.
Assume there is a VLM application, VLM-- APP, that would like to use some locked memory. An input to the application is the amount of locked memory the user would like it to use, LOCKED-- PAGES. The name that the application chose for its locked memory is VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM.
1. Read LOCKED-- PAGES input from the user.
2. Call a system function--CREATE-- LOCKED passing in the name "VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM" and the value of LOCKED-- PAGES.
4. If USE-- RES-- MEM returns an error, CREATE-- LOCKED returns an error.
5. If USE-- RES-- MEM returns successfully with a non-zero PFN, CREATE-- LOCKED can map the memory with granularity hints.
6. If USE-- RES-- MEM returns successfully with a zero PFN, CREATE-- LOCKED allocates pages from the system free page list and zeroes each page without adjusting FLUID-- PAGES.
7. If USE-- RES-- MEM returns successfully, the number of pages actually reserved in the RMD can be returned to the caller. This information can be used to inform the user that additional memory should be reserved or that more memory is reserved than is being used and that possibly some should be freed.
The user of VLM-- APP can tune the application's use of locked memory by specifying different sizes for LOCKED-- PAGES. The user is limited to a size that will not cause the system to become starved for physical pages.
If the system manager would like to allow VLM-- APP to use granularity hints, the system manager can register VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM in the Reserved Memory registry and set the ALLOC flag. The ZERO flag should also be set so that system idle time can be used to zero pages. The system manager can decide the maximum amount of system memory can be dedicated to VLM-- APP.
After the user tunes VLM-- APP, SYSMAN RESERVED-- MEMORY FREE VMS-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM can be issued while VLM-- APP is running to free the memory not in use by VLM-- APP. The system manager then uses SYSMAN RESERVED-- MEMORY MODIFY to reduce the size of the Reserved Memory Registry entry for VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM to match the optimal size. The next time AUTOGEN is used, the system will be retuned to this new size.
If VLM-- APP is no longer needed on the system, the SYSMAN command RESERVED-- MEMORY FREE VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM can be issued while VLM APP is not running. All Reserved Memory for VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM is freed to the running system to be used by other applications. The SYSMAN command RESERVED-- MEMORY REMOVE VLM-- APP$LOCKED-- MEM would also be issued to remove the Reserved Memory Registry entry for VLM-- APP.
1. If all VLM applications are going to be running continuously and at the same time, the system manager can reserve pre-allocated memory for each VLM application so each performs optimally with locked memory mapped with granularity hints.
2. If all VLM applications can run at the same time, but may not run continuously, the system manager can reserve memory for each VLM application but not specify the ALLOC flag. This will allow memory that is not currently in use by a VLM application to be used by the system for other purposes. In this case, granularity hints are not used in the mapping of the locked memory.
3. If each VLM application has different usage characteristics and different levels of importance relative to each other, the system manager can reserve memory for each VLM application specifying different amounts of memory and different flags.
4. If one particular VLM application is privileged and does not require zeroed memory, its Reserved Memory Registry entry can have the ALLOC flag set and the ZERO flag clear. When the locked memory is created for this application, its contents will not be zeroed.
5. If all VLM applications will not be running continuously and at the same time, the system manager can decide how much memory to tune out of the system for all VLM applications. The system manager can add an entry in the Reserved Memory Registry called, for example VMS$RESERVED-- POOL, then run AUTOGEN to tune the system without this memory.
5.a In the system startup command file that runs after the Reserved Memory Registry file has been processed, the command SYSMAN RESERVED-- MEMORY FREE VMS$RESERVED-- POOL can be executed. The FLUID-- PAGES global cell is then incremented by the number of the pages freed. The system is therefore tuned without the memory, but no RMD's are in the RMD list.
5.b. When USE-- RES-- MEM is called and no RMD is found, the cells FLUID-- PAGES and MIN-- FLUID-- PAGES are consulted to see whether the specified amount of locked memory can be used. Several of the VLM application can successfully use this pool of additional fluid pages at the same time.
The invention is further described in the "OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual" from Digital Equipment Corporation, incorporated herein by reference.
wherein each of said first and second data structures comprises a respective global section descriptor (GSD) and global section table entry (GSTE), the respective GSD describing a global section and including a handle name for managing the section, a first field containing an index into a global section table and identifying the respective GSTE, and security-related information, the respective GSTE containing a pointer to the respective GSD, and a count of a number of pages in the global section.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein said page table pages are hierarchically arranged in a multi-level tree, and further comprising a third data structure describing a set of shared page table pages at a level of said tree different than the level of the page table pages described by said second data structure.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein said shared page table pages are mapped into address spaces of said plurality of processes.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein a process from among said plurality uses a single name to refer collectively to said first and second data structures in a system service request.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein said single name is stored in said first data structure.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second data structures are instantiated as a pair of corresponding subsidiary data structures, each member of each pair including a reference for locating the other member of the pair.
7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a memory management process for moving the contents of said shared page table entries and the contents of said shared data pages between memory and secondary memory.
8. The system of claim 7 wherein said secondary memory is a disk drive.
a memory manager for managing the program-accessible page and the translation page, and for managing the sharing among the processes of the program-accessible page and the translation page, the memory manager comprising a global section descriptor (GSD) and a global section table entry (GSTE), the GSD describing a global section and including a handle name for managing the section, a first field containing an index into a global section table and identifying the GSTE, and security-related information, the GSTE containing a pointer to the GSD, and a count of a number of pages in the global section.
a second translation page stored in the memory, describing an address translation for a part of a virtual address, an entry in the second translation page pointing to the first translation page, the second translation page being shared among the two processes, the sharing being managed by the memory manager.
the memory manager pages the first translation page between a primary and secondary level of the memory.
the memory manager locks the first translation page into the primary level of the memory.
13. The computer memory of claim 9, wherein the memory manager keeps the program-accessible page locked into a primary level of the memory.
14. The computer memory of claim 9, wherein the memory manager pages the program-accessible page between a primary and a secondary level of the memory.
the memory manager enforces a discipline in which the highest-level translation page shared among the processes is locked into the primary level of the memory.
wherein the memory manager uses a global section descriptor (GSD) and a global section table entry (GSTE), the GSD describing a global section and including a handle name for managing the section, a first field containing an index into a global section table and identifying the GSTE, and security-related information, the GSTE containing a pointer to the GSD, and a count of a number of pages in the global section.
the program-accessible page is allocated by a non-privileged process from a pool of memory reserved out of the system page pool and designated as non-pageable.
the program-accessible page is a page from among a pool reserved for allocation as a contiguous group of physical pages.
the program-accessible page is a page from among a pool reserved for allocation on page fault.
enforcing an address alignment of the program-accessible page.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the enforced alignment is determined based on a requested length of the program-accessible page.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein the requested length is rounded up to a multiple of a length of a memory structure larger than a page.
encoding in a single entry in the translation page a mapping corresponding to multiple entries of the page.
allocating a process-private translation page for the program-accessible page if the process violates the enforced address alignment.
attributing to a region of virtual memory a property that memory objects mapped into the region will be mapped with shared translation pages.
enforcing a security constraint on the region, in which private memory objects are excluded from being mapped using the shared translation page.
enforcing the security constraint based on a range of virtual addresses with a start address and a length determined by the amount of address space mapped by a translation page.
wherein said first and second data structures comprise a global section descriptor (GSD) and a global section table entry (GSTE), the GSD describing a global section and including a handle name for managing the section, a first field containing an index into a global section table and identifying the GSTE, and security-related information, the GSTE containing a pointer to the GSD, and a count of a number of pages in the global section.
29. The computer of claim 28, wherein said plurality of processes use a single name to request system services involving said first and second data structures.
the first and second data structures are created responsive to a single entry in a memory reservation request.
a size of a page table section embracing the page table page is determined from a requested size for an allocation embracing the leaf page.
32. The computer of claim 29, wherein the single name is stored in said first data structure.
36. The computer of claim 28, wherein the memory manager pages the program-accessible page between a primary and a secondary level of the memory.
a process-private translation page for the program-accessible page is allocated if the process violates an enforced address alignment.
a decision to map the leaf page with the shared page table page was determined according to an attribute of a region of virtual memory.
a security constraint on the region is enforced, in which private memory objects cannot be mapped using the shared translation page.
the security constraint is enforced based on a range of virtual addresses with a start address and a length determined by the amount of address space mapped by a translation page.
Bonwick 1994 The slab allocator: An object-caching kernel memory allocator. | 2019-04-25T18:00:33Z | https://patents.google.com/patent/US6085296A/en |
The U.S. passenger transportation system has grown in both extent and use over the last several decades, despite a recent decline in overall transportation activity due to the 2007–2009 economic recession. This expansion is in response to long-term growth in the number of people who travel as well as the distance traveled by each person.
Between 2010 and 2014, passenger-miles1 of travel by commercial aviation, highway, transit, and intercity rail increased, rising by 7.5, 3.0, 8.3, and 4.0 percent, respectively. Miles traveled by aviation and transit modes reached record levels in 2014.
Over the last three decades, the total number of miles traveled by passengers has more than doubled. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which primarily examines local travel, shows a 169.5 percent increase in annual person-miles traveled2 (PMT) between 1969 and 2001. Between 2001 and 2009, however, PMT fell by 1.4 percent as people traveled less frequently and made shorter trips. The average number of person-trips declined from 4.1 trips per day in 2001 to 3.8 trips per day in 2009, while average person-trip length declined from 10.0 miles per trip to 9.7 miles per trip. Passenger travel trends also indicate that average daily PMT per person declined between 1995 and 2009.
Many demographic factors influence daily passenger travel patterns. On average, Americans traveled 36.1 miles per day in 2009, a 10.2 percent decline from 2001. Men traveled more than women, averaging 40.9 miles per day compared with 31.5 miles per day for women. For both genders, people in their prime working years traveled more, with persons aged 36 to 65 traveling the most.
Historically, higher income households travel more miles than lower income households. In 2009 person-miles of travel increased with household income. With the last national personal travel survey completed in 2009, at the end of the recession, it remains to be seen what the next survey now underway will show about the trip-making propensities of the public.
Personal local travel is dominated by frequent, repetitive patterns, such as a daily commute to work. The most common reasons for travel are for family and personal errands, social and recreational activities, and work or work-related purposes.
In 2009 work and work-related trips were longer than trips for other purposes, making up 25.3 percent of total miles traveled but only 18.7 percent of total trips. Trips for shopping, personal errands, and social and recreational purposes were shorter but more frequent than commuting trips.
During an average week, people take more trips on weekdays than weekends. Fridays were the busiest days, largely because people make social and recreational trips in addition to regular work and school trips. Over the last 15 years, about one-fifth of trips involved trip-chaining—a sequence of trips with stops of less than 30 minutes. For example, people often run errands on the way to and from work. Trip-chains can reduce travel times, distance traveled, and fuel, but can also contribute to congestion because these trips often occur during peak travel periods. The least travel occurred on Sundays, although the lower numbers of work trips were partially offset by additional social/recreational and church trips.
Time spent traveling declined to a low in 2014, falling below levels reached in the last recession. Compared with 2005, people spent 7.4 fewer minutes traveling per weekday, a decrease of 8.5 percent; and 6.7 fewer minutes traveling per weekend day, a 7.5 percent decrease.
On weekdays in 2014 the average person spent 79.5 minutes per day traveling for a variety of activities. Examining the 45.2 percent of people who engaged in travel for work, the average person spent 46.3 minutes per day traveling, the most time spent traveling for any of the selected travel activities.
On weekends and holidays people spent an average of 83.6 minutes per day engaged in various travel activities, 4.1 minutes more than on weekdays. Out of all selected travel activities, the average person spent the most (52.5 minutes) on weekends and holidays traveling for activities related to personal care, about 19.8 minutes per day more than on weekdays. Travel related to eating and drinking on weekends and holidays accounted for 31.0 minutes, about 7 minutes more than on weekdays.
Most passenger travel occurs in cars or other types of personal motorized vehicles. In 2009, 83.4 percent of trips and 88.4 percent of person-miles traveled were by personal vehicle. The shares for other modes were considerably smaller—walking and biking accounted for 11.5 percent of local trips and 1.0 percent of miles in 2009, while transit’s share was 1.9 percent of trips and 1.5 percent of miles. Between 1995 and 2009, the share of personal vehicle trips fell 3.0 percentage points, while the share of miles fell 2.8 percentage points.
Trips to and from work and for work-related business accounted for 18.7 percent of trips. Walking trips, accounting for 10.4 percent of trips in 2009, were mostly for family/personal errands and social/recreational purposes. Together these two trip-purpose categories accounted for 83.0 percent of walking trips.
Most workers (85.7 percent) drove to work in a personal vehicle in 2014, either by themselves or with others. The shares of workers using alternative modes as their primary means of transportation were smaller: 5.2 percent of workers used transit, 2.7 percent walked, and 0.6 percent biked. Although the number of commuters who drove to work increased between 2010 and 2014, the overall share of drivers decreased. The working population shifted to others modes of transportation as commuters who used transit grew by 12.3 percent, and workers who biked rose 23.7 percent.
The geography of commuting involves two opposing trends. While workers and their places of work have grown farther apart over recent decades, an increasing number of people are working at home. Part of the longer term growth in working at home had been masked in earlier decades by the number of farmers who worked where they also lived3. In 2010, 13.4 million people worked from home at least one day per week, an increase of about 4.2 million people (35.4 percent) from 1997. Home-based workers included those who worked exclusively at home as well as those who worked at both home and at a job site. Revealing a similar trend between 2010 and 2014, the American Community Survey reported an increase of over 600,000 people (10.4 percent) who worked at home the week before the survey interview.
In 1960 the number of drivers exceeded the number of vehicles by 17.6 percent—there were 0.9 vehicles for every driver. By 1972 the number of registered vehicles surpassed the number of licensed drivers. This trend, in which the number of registered vehicles outnumbered licensed drivers, peaked in 2007 with 20.5 percent more vehicles than drivers. By 2014 that ratio had dropped, but vehicles still outnumbered drivers with about 1.2 vehicles per driver.
Although household size has fallen since 1960, household vehicle ownership has increased. Before 1980 the majority of households owned one vehicle. Today the majority of households own two or more vehicles. For the last decade, about 1 in 10 households did not own a vehicle. The number of households without vehicles has remained relatively steady, at 10 to 11 million, despite a growing number of households over the past 40 years.
The majority of these “zero-vehicle” households, 64.7 percent in 2009, had a combined household income of less than $25,000. On the other end of the spectrum, the majority of households with more vehicles than drivers, 53.0 percent, had incomes over $55,000.
According to the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, 91.7 percent of households have three or less vehicles. Households with one to three drivers averaged more than one vehicle per driver, but households with four or more drivers average less than one vehicle per driver.
Although walking and biking account for a small portion of passenger travel, 11.5 percent of trips and 1.0 percent of miles traveled, the National Household Travel Survey suggests that a growing number of Americans are walking and bicycling. In 2009 walking accounted for 10.4 percent of trips, and biking accounted for 1.0 percent of trips.
Nationwide, 3.4 percent of commuters walk or bike to work, accounting for 2.8 and 0.6 percent of workers, respectively. While less than 1.0 percent of Americans bike to work on a regular basis, the number of bicycle commuters has nearly doubled since 2000.
Walking and biking commuters make up a greater share of workers in urban areas. In principal cities within metropolitan areas, 4.2 percent of workers walk to work and 0.9 percent bike to work. In rural areas, 1.9 percent of workers walk to work and 0.2 percent bike to work.
In the United States, 77.0 percent (2,600 of 3,378) of bike-share stations connect to another scheduled public transportation mode within 1 block, 13.4 percent (451) connect within 1 to 2 blocks, and 9.7 percent (327) either have no connection or no connection to a scheduled public transportation mode within 2 blocks (see figure 2-11).
High rates of walking and biking are seen in several small and medium-sized cities, particularly those with significant university or college presence. For large cities, Boston, MA, had the highest rate of walking commuters (14.7 percent), while neighboring Cambridge, MA, had the highest rate of medium-sized cities (24.5 percent). Portland, OR, had the highest rate of bike commuters for large cities, and Boulder, CO, had the highest rate for medium cities.
Between January 2003 and December 2015, U.S. airlines’ total (domestic and international) passenger enplanements rose 25.0 percent. The total number of passenger enplanements in 2015 (798.4 million) exceeded the previous high of 769.6 million in 2007. During this period, the growth of international enplanements (57.2 percent) outpaced that of domestic enplanements (21.3 percent).
U.S. airlines handled 59.5 million system enplanements in December 2015, the second highest seasonally adjusted total after the all-time high reached in October 2015 (59.7 million). Nine of the top 10 all-time highest months for domestic enplanements were in 2015. The December 2015 level for international enplanements, 8.7 million, was the highest all-time, seasonally adjusted total.
Network airlines, which operate a significant portion of their flights using at least one hub where connections are made for flights to down-line destinations or spoke cities, carry the largest portion of U.S. airline passengers. In 2015 the top three network airlines—United, Delta, and American—together carried 43.8 percent of total passengers traveling on U.S. airlines. The share of network airline passengers, however, has declined over the last decade, from 62.0 percent in 2003 to 50.2 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, low-cost airlines have carried an increasing number of passengers. In 2003 these airlines—Southwest, AirTran, JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier, Virgin America, and Allegiant—carried 16.1 percent of U.S. airline passengers. By 2015 these low-cost airlines carried 28.3 percent of passengers.
The busiest U.S. airport in 2015, measured by the number of enplanements, was Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, followed by Los Angeles International Airport. The top 50 busiest airports accounted for 84.9 percent of the 798.2 million annual U.S. passenger enplanements.
From 2014 to 2015, all of the top 10 domestic markets experienced an increase in enplaned passengers. Atlanta, served by three airports, remained the top market with 43.9 million domestic enplanements in 2015. The largest growth was again seen in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, up 9.5 percent from 2014 to 2015.
Southwest carried the most passengers from domestic airports of any airline in 2014 and 2015. Some of the 12.4 percent year-over-year growth can be attributed to the joint reporting of Southwest and AirTran following their 2011 merger. In second place, American and US Airways saw a 0.9 increase in domestic enplanements. US Airways, which merged with American in 2013, began reporting jointly with American in July 2015. Of the other top 10 airlines, only ExpressJet, a regional airline that provides contract service for mainline carriers, reported a decrease.
Transit riders in the United States took 10.3 billion unlinked passenger trips5 in 2015, a slight decline over the previous year. About half, 49.1 percent, of these trips occurred on transit buses, and 42.9 percent occurred on rail transit modes (commuter rail, heavy rail, light rail, and streetcar).
Commuting by transit makes up a greater share of trips in larger metropolitan areas: 12.7 percent in areas with populations over 5 million, 5.9 percent in areas between 2.5 and 5 million, and 2.5 percent in areas between 1 and 2.5 million. At the highest extreme, 59.1 percent of workers living in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City, commute by transit and another 22.2 percent walk or bike.
The motorcoach industry, including charter, tour, sightseeing, airport shuttle, commuter, scheduled, and special operations services, provided 604 million person-trips in the United States and Canada in 2014, down 0.2 percent from 2013. The number of motorcoach carriers fell 4.6 percent, and the number of coaches fell 1.0 percent. This reduction in size was largely due to companies that went out of business, merged with other companies, or were acquired by larger companies. Although the motorcoach industry decreased in size, the number of passenger trips per motorcoach increased every year since 2010. The average motorcoach completed 11.5 percent more passenger trips in 2014 than in 2010.
The intercity bus industry served an estimated 60.9 million passengers in 2015, up 22.0 percent since 2010. The growth in intercity bus travel is largely due to the growing popularity of discount city-to-city, Chinatown, and Latino-oriented bus operations. While the number of trips on conventional service operators, such as Greyhound and Peter Pan, remained fairly constant, these alternative bus operators saw ridership nearly double.
U.S. ferries carried an estimated 115 million passengers and just over 30 million vehicles in 2013. Washington, New York, and California had the greatest number of ferry passengers, accounting for 22.6, 11.6, and 8.8 percent of total passengers, respectively. Ferries in Washington carried the greatest proportion of vehicles as a percent of total vehicle boardings (9.3 percent), followed by Louisiana (3.7 percent) and Alaska (2.9 percent). The states with the most ferry vessels were California (53 vessels), Massachusetts (49 vessels), Washington (46 vessels), New York (45), New Jersey (39), and North Carolina (30). Nearly all of the vessels carried passengers (95.0 percent), while less than half carried vehicles (47.1 percent), and less than a quarter carried freight (22.2 percent).
Amtrak is the primary operator of intercity passenger rail service in the United States. Ridership on Amtrak has been growing since 2000, reaching a record 31 million passengers in fiscal year 2012 and has remained relatively stable since.
In fiscal year 2015, 12 of the Nation’s 25 busiest Amtrak stations served the Northeast Corridor. Passengers along the Northeast Corridor accounted for well over one-third of systemwide ridership. The busiest station within the entire Amtrak network was New York City’s Penn Station. Ridership was also high in Chicago as well as at several locations in California and the Pacific Northwest.
In 2014 U.S residents made 68.3 million overnight trips to other countries, a 12.3 percent increase from 2000. Over half, 54.9 percent, of overnight international travel by U.S. residents was to neighboring countries: 25.4 million visits to Mexico and 12.1 million visits to Canada. The busiest month for overnight international trips in 2014 was July (7.6 million), and the least busy was February (4.4 million).
U.S. residents made 30.8 million overnight visits to countries outside of North America in 2014. Between 2000 and 2014, travel to overseas countries grew by 14.6 percent. Travel to Europe fell by 9.4 percent, while visits to the Middle East nearly tripled since 2000.
A record 74.7 million foreign travelers visited the United States in 2014, up 6.9 percent from the previous year. International visitation grew every year since the end of the recession in 2009. The largest visitor markets in 2014 were Canada (30.7 percent) and Mexico (23.2 percent).
Travelers from countries outside of North America accounted for 46.1 percent of international visitation in 2014. The top tourist-generating countries outside North America were the United Kingdom (5.3 percent), Japan (4.8 percent), Brazil (3.0 percent), and China (2.9 percent). Combined with Canada and Mexico, these six markets accounted for 70.0 percent of all 2014 international visits. In 2000 China was the 24th largest market for international visitors to the United States. By 2014 visitation from China increased by over 700 percent, and the country is now the 6th largest market.
Although Canada and Mexico are the largest visitor markets, incoming persons at the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico land borders have declined since 2000. In 2015, 76.8 percent of incoming person crossings were along the U.S.-Mexico border, and 23.2 percent of crossings occurred through ports of entry along the U.S.-Canada border. Along the U.S.-Canada border, person crossings reached a low of 55.0 million crossings in 2015.
In 2015 more than one million persons crossed into the United States through each of 34 border ports of entry: 20 along the U.S.–Mexico border and 14 along the U.S.–Canada border. Texas is home to 11 Customs border ports of entry with a total of 82.7 million person crossings. Along the U.S.–Mexico border, California had the second most person crossings with 72.4 million persons crossing at 6 ports of entry. Along the U.S.–Canada border, the State of New York had the greatest number of crossings with 17.8 million persons crossing at 6 ports of entry. Washington had the second highest number of crossings with 13.6 million persons crossing at 15 ports of entry.
There were 23 airports in 2015 with more than one million incoming passengers from international origins. New York (JFK), Miami, and Los Angeles airports received the most international passengers, with 14.9, 10.5, and 10.0 million passengers, respectively. From 2014 to 2015, the largest increase in international passengers was at Orlando International Airport, up 18.3 percent, with Seattle-Tacoma International Airport second at 17.8 percent. Charlotte Douglas International Airport had the greatest decrease in international passengers, down 4.4 percent.
1 In the National Household Travel Survey passenger-miles estimates differ from person-miles traveled estimates (see footnote 2). Passenger-miles are the cumulative sum of the distances ridden by each passenger and do not include mileage accrued by the vehicle operator and crew. A passenger-mile denotes one passenger transported one mile.
2 Person-miles traveled (PMT) is an estimate of the aggregate distances traveled by all persons, including mileage accrued by the vehicle operator and crew, on a given trip based on the estimated transportation-network-miles traveled on that trip. The National Household Travel Survey measures PMT by all modes of travel, including private vehicle, transit, walking, and biking.
3 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Commuting in America 2013 (October 2013), available traveltrends.transportation.org as of March 2015.
4 This count does not include bike-share systems operated by a college or university and/or operating exclusively on a college or university campus and does not include private rentals.
5 Unlinked passenger trips are the number of passengers who board public transportation vehicles. Passengers are counted each time they board vehicles no matter how many vehicles they use to travel from their origin to their destination. | 2019-04-25T17:47:01Z | http://emedjimurje.info/archive/publications/passenger_travel_2016/chapter2 |
This episode starts off right where the last one ended, in Barry Allen’s child hood home with Zoom holding Henry Allen up. Zoom drops Henry to the floor and Barry watches as his father takes his last breath. Barry starts attacking Zoom as he is giving his speech about how him and Barry are the same now. At this point Barry is in a vengeful state, he wants to take Zoom out and he seems angry enough that no one is really going to stop him. I kind of like seeing this side of Barry.
The next scene would be the funeral for Henry Allen everyone was there and had something to say about Henry. Barry however couldn’t he just couldn’t handle it. He started to get obsessed with beating Zoom. He wanted to not only stop him but kill him in the process. During the family get together after the funeral Barry would be confronted by Zoom. Who he would end up taking out Zoom, but he finds out that its a time remnant which the real Zoom kills. Zoom offers to race Barry. If Barry wins Zoom leaves and if Zoom wins well the world will end.
Back at Star Labs Barry and Team Flash were trying to figure out what Zoom wants by racing Barry. With he help of Vibe(Cisco) and Wells they do figure out that he wants to end the multiverse. They figured out that he wants to use Barrys speed to be able to get the machine running to start the end of the Multiverse.
Team Flash can see that Barry is starting to get upset that they are against him racing Zoom. They all know that if he Races Zoom out of anger he is going to lose. So they come up with a plan to try and stop Zoom and just send him away back to Earth 2 and closing the breeches. This would have been an awesome plan but a couple of members of team Flash were not informed including The Flash and Wally West. The plan was to go to Zoom and use Caitlin as bait to hit Zoom with the Boot and stop his abilities long enough to tranquilize him and send him back to Earth 2. This plan would have worked great but Joe’s gun jammed so he had to Tranquilize Zoom himself and that caused him to get dragged to Earth 2. So Joe was being held captive in Earth 2 with the man in the mask and Zoom seemed to be doing alright.
Wally found out what had happened and was mad. He wasn’t included he didnt have any chance to voice his opinion and he thought that Joe could really be in danger being stuck with a super villain in Earth 2. All this while Barry was trapped in a cell in the particle accelerator. Wally goes and lets Barry out.
Barry who doesn’t seem to hold a grudge explains to Team Flash that he can beat Zoom they just have to let him race. They are still all against it. Except for Wally. They eventually see that Barry knows he can beat Zoom so they at least have to let him try. They decide to contact Zoom the best way they know how which is pulling Barry into a vibe. Cisco pulls Barry into a vibe like he did Iris a couple of episodes before. Barry tells Zoom that he is ready to race and that he has to bring Joe back with him to Earth 1. Zoom accepts.
Barry and Zoom have a race to see who is the fastest man alive. Just one catch when they get up to speed and start running as fast as they can the machine will start and that will cause all of the Multiverse to be destroyed. Barry knows for sure that he can beat him. This is the most confident we have seen Barry Allen in this show. He knew that he could beat Zoom. The way he did it however was great!
So they both begin running, and Zoom is still a little faster than Barry, but Barry would take Zoom’s advice. Barry would run back in time get a time remnant and bring it back with him to help take out Zoom. While Barry was beating the hell out of Zoom the time remnant of Barry ran round the machine and dissolved it into nothing. The speeds that the time remnant had to run would erase it from existence but as we know that the future Barry already exists so there was no harm in doing so. Barry seemed to be hell bent on taking Zoom out so he couldn’t hurt anyone else. However earlier on in the episode Zoom mentioned the time wraiths that had been after him because of him creating time remnants. Well Barry remembered that and as soon as Barry had Zoom down two time wraiths appeared. They would take Zoom with them, not before he became the Black Flash. His appearance changed right in front of our eyes, the disfigured face and the red lightning bolt all appeared.
Barry Allen had finally done it, he had finally stood up to the monster and beaten him just like he said he would. He still felt like he lost, which because he did in fact lose everything that he loved. He lost his dad and his mom and felt like he was alone now. Iris said it best however. She said that no matter how much time Barry needed she would always wait on him. But before we get to that part, there was an amazing moment near the end of this episode that I feel I should mention.
We all know that John Wesley Shipp played the Scarlet Speedster in the series in 1991-1992 only getting a one season run, and how he came back to play Henry Allen and we had seen him when Barry was running through to Earth 2 as that same Flash. Well the man in the iron mask who was held captive on Earth 2 was revealed. His name was Jay Garrick. The real Jay Garrick. A couple of episodes ago it was made known that Henry Allen’s mother’s maiden name was Garrick. So when Cisco and Wells removed the mask to reveal the man behind it. It was none other then John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick. Barry couldn’t handle it. The rest of us however could. I thought this was a great move. I honestly hope to see more of him as the Earth 3 Flash as he says. Cisco helped Jay, Harry, and Jesse go back to Earth 2 so Jay could go back home to Earth 3. However I don’t think thats the way things are going to stay.
I mentioned Iris talking to Barry before about how she was always going to wait on him. Well after that conversation a broken hearted Barry Allen started to run. As we all know the story he started to see the night his mother was killed and hear his screams. He would run faster and faster until he broke the time barrier and ended up back to the night his mother was killed. He could see the commotion inside with himself and the Reverse Flash. He seen himself move Henry and younger Barry out of the way and he ran in just in time to save his mother from getting killed. Barry’s former self from season 1 was still in the closet and he disappeared with a smile on his face, because the time line no longer exists. Barry saved Nora Allen and now we have a Flashpoint Paradox on our hands. Which means we could start season 3 with a powerless Barry Allen, living the life he has only dreamed of since he was a child. Or we could see a time where Barry still has his powers not being effected by what has changed because he was already the Flash in the future. I hope that we get to see the Flashpoint unfold and the characters that are in it get to be in the show.
I give this episode another perfect score 10/10. The ending was somewhat predictable, except for the Jay Garrick being John Wesley Shipp. It didnt catch me off guard but it was however a great homage to Jay Garrick and Henry Allen. Plus the suit looked pretty good. Maybe Barry should take some advice from him. Its going to be a long wait for season 3, but this is the kind of show that you can wait around for.
The Flash Episode 22 "Invincible"
This episode was the last episode before the season finale and I would say it really set up a good finale for us. I can’t wait to see how this story ends with Zoom, or even if it does end!
The show starts out with Barry and Team Flash running down Meta humans in Central City. Caitlin had been rescued and she let them know what was happening with Zoom that he had decided to attack Central City. What they didn’t know is that all of the Meta humans he was using in the streets was just a distraction to his real plan. Which we will find out about later. Barry, Joe and the police force, along with Wally West were in the streets trying to take down the Meta’s and save the people of Central City. That seems to be Zoom’s plan at this point keeping the Flash distracted so he can complete his over all plan.
Joe is trying to get Wally to understand that these are Meta Humans that they will kill him and he wouldn’t be able to stand up to them. Wally of course doesn’t listen he feels like he owes the Flash something. That the Flash gave up his abilities to save him and he wants to make it all right. What Wally doesn’t know is that Barry Allen is the Flash. He eventually will figure it out or find out, but thats later on.
Mean while Cisco is having a lot of vibes about birds. Vibes that he does not understand, he knows something is up but the parts of the vibe he can see is the birds dying at his feet. There was two vibes of the birds crashing into the building behind him and falling to the ground at his feet. It was terrifying and he didnt catch on. He should have realized that something was up when birds by the numbers were flying into the windows, but not knowing why he was vibing or why he was seeing this misled him for a while.
Barry and the group quickly realized that Barry couldn’t be everywhere at one time, so they had to come up with a way to stop the Earth 2 Meta Humans. Which Wells, and Cisco worked together on. That plan was have Barry run a circle around the city creating a barrier, and from Star Labs a frequency that only the Earth 2 Meta humans/humans would hear. This was a great plan but everything had to go off without interference from Zoom or anyone else to be able to work. This is where that was all side tracked.
Zoom had one final trick up his sleeve. That was the Black Siren or AKA Laurel Lance of Earth 2. Barry and Team Flash were all friends and cared for Earth 1 Laurel Lance so Zoom knew that this would distract The Flash no matter how optimistic he was. It in fact did distract Barry because his first encounter with Black Siren was nearly the end for him. He got caught in the middle of her screaming and that really took the fight out of him. IF it wasn’t for Wally West sliding into Black Siren with his car she could have killed Barry. They both escaped… Barry however couldn’t hear anything at all so he had to get back to Star Labs to get treated.
Caitlyn helped Barry out, but there was something just off about her. She was seeing things, and seemed like she was distracted herself. Cisco confronted her about it, and she told him that she could see Zoom everywhere. That even though he wasn’t really there it felt like he was. Cisco calmed her down and let her know that nothing like that would ever happen again. Cisco really wanted to do something more to help her but he didnt know what. They did however quickly figure it out. Cisco and Caitlyn were going to go out and dress up as Reverb and Killer Frost to distract Laurel.
Earlier in the show Barry was confronted by Zoom as buildings were falling around him. He told Barry that it was going to be his end because he always wanted to be the hero. That he himself had no need to go and save people that parading around as Jay Garrick really made him sick to have to be the hero. Barry explained to him no matter what he would save everyone and stopped him. You know the hero stuff. Barry chose to save Central City instead of take on Zoom.
Well’s had the machine ready to go, so with the help of Caitlyn and Cisco Team Flash was ready to take out the Earth 2 Meta Humans. Barry started running got up to speed and the machine was turned on. Whoever was from Earth 2 would hear the frequency and it would crash their nervous system. Jesse and Wells would have headphones to block the sound out. Jesse’s failed so Wells gave her his. He would eventually pass out and fall to the floor, because of the frequency.
Laurel confronted Cisco and Caitlyn and quickly figured them out. She knew that Reverb and Killer Frost had been killed so she threw a piece of a building to Cisco and he caught it with his right hand. Reverb was left handed. Laurel found them out. Vibe blasted her with a frequency blast. He couldn’t do it again, but by the time she was ready to attack them the frequency effected her nervous system and she passed out.
The next thing we see is her screaming at the door in the Particle Accelerator holding cells. Barry, Cisco, and Caitlyn are all standing there together. They had stopped all the Metas, but Zoom. He had escaped back to Earth 2. However he would be back before this episode would end. Caitlyn did however express that she felt great helping the group take down Meta Humans. Could this be a foreshadowing of her eventually becoming a Meta Human but instead of being a bad guy she would be a good guy with Team Flash. I hope so I would like to see her out in the field being a hero!
The next scene would be one of the most heartbreaking scenes to date on The Flash. Even more heartbreaking than the time Barry went back to save his mom but decided not to. The group was gathered for a dinner and celebrating Henry Allen’s decision to stay in Central City. Barry had just come in and was talking to everyone and decided that it was time to ask Iris out. Decided that he wanted to give it a shot with her. Iris told him that would be a good idea. The next couple of minutes would change Barry’s life yet again. While everyone was standing there. Zoom ran in and grabbed Henry Allen. He told The Flash that he knew taking away the things he cared about the most would destroy him, so he ran off with Henry. Barry took off after them both. They ended up going to Barry’s childhood home. There Zoom was continuing the conversation from earlier telling Barry that he couldn’t be the hero he needed to be while he had so many people to care about and try to save. Zoom then killed Henry Allen right in front of Barry.
Thats both of Barry’s parents killed in the same house by deranged speedsters. This will hopefully push Barry to that place he needs to be to take Zoom out. Zoom doesn’t deserve to be locked away he deserves to be beaten. He has taken everything away from Barry Allen/The Flash so now its time for Barry to take everything away from him.
I cannot wait to see how this Season ends, how this epic run with Zoom and The Flash ends next week. I believe Barry knows that he doesn’t need to let this turn into a revenge quest but use this as a reason to stop Zoom from terrorizing the multiverse. I hope to see Barry take him out once and for all without losing another one of his Team Flash team mates.
With everything that happened in this episode with Barry being able to take out the Meta Humans like he did and Laurel/Black Siren’s appearance I give this episode a 10/10. Yes a perfect score. I seen in this episode what I needed to see. A hero needs to be pushed to his limit to break through and become the hero everyone needs him to be. I believe with taking out the Meta’s like he did and stopping this part of Zoom’s plan along with the death of Henry Allen this will push Barry to his limit. I believe in the Finale Episode we will see the Hero we have waited all season for and I just can’t wait!
This episode starts out right where the last left off, with Team Flash trying to figure out what to do about Barry being missing. Where did he go? Is he dead? Or did he just get shipped to a different part of the multiverse. Cisco and the others can’t really seem to figure it out. Dr Well’s is being confronted by Henry about his missing son, and Joe isn’t sure what to do. One thing is for certain these people care about Barry just as much as he cares about them.
Dr Well’s tries to communicate with Wally, and Jessie in the time room, but he cannot get anyone. Concerned him and Joe and Iris went upstairs to check on them. They find both of them Wally and Jessie laying on the floor. They had been hit by the Particle accelerator and knocked to the floor. Wally woke up, but Jessie wouldn’t. She had the same symptoms as Barry did when he first got hit by the lightning bolt that would make him the Flash. Iris would point this out later on in the show. I believe this is a great way to bring the new speedsters into the show. Wally of course woke right up and claimed that he was okay. We didn’t really see them demonstrate any symptoms of having the speed force or a connection to the speed force, but time will tell.
Barry wakes up and realizes that he is still alive. He gets up out of bed to realize that he is back in his old room. He is confused and doesn’t clearly understand whats going on, so he starts downstairs. We can see that the house he is in is how he remembers it from the night his mother was killed. There is police tape up and what appears to be Joe gathering evidence of the murder. However this isn’t Joe this is apart of the speed force appearing to Barry with who he feels comfortable with. Barry sits down and starts a conversation with the speed force. Yes he is talking to the thing that gives him his power, which is a little confusing but makes sense. So the speed force doesn’t want Barry to leave and that is made known pretty quick. He is told that he couldn’t leave until he catches the shadow that is running by his house. So of course Barry sets off to do just that.
Meanwhile back in the basement Cisco is there. He touches the Flash suit and starts to Vibe. During the Vibe Cisco could see Barry standing in what seems to be a storm cloud. He couldn’t get Barry’s to come back through to him, but he knew that Barry was alive and that was good news for team Flash. Seeing Cisco being able to Vibe into the Speed Force was cool, he is clearly getting a better understanding of his power. I hope they keep that up into season 3, Cisco is one of my top characters of the show. Cisco informs the group that he knows Barry is alive. So Him and Wells are going to come up with a plan to bring Barry home.
Dr. Wells moves his daughter into a bed and she is hooked up to monitors, and everything seems to be fine. The group has Henry looking after her since he is an actual doctor of medicine. He cannot figure out why she is in this coma. That is when Iris mentioned that this was the same way Barry was. All of his vitals were fine, but he was in a mysterious coma for 9 month. That is when Cisco gets the idea to go check for the files in the basement that Harrison Well’s or Eobard Thawn had left behind. Which didnt seem like a good idea at all. It did however turn into a worse idea when they found out that Girder was up and walking around. A Zombified Girder at that. So they take off running and Girder escapes Star Labs.
The plan to bring Barry home is to put Cisco into the Particle accelerator with what is left of the Flash Suit to super charge his Vibe. He was able to see Barry but still not able to get him to come home, like he was on a mission.
Barry was on a mission he was getting advice from the Speed Force. He knew that his friends needed him, but he needed to be the Flash again. During this mission He would talk to Joe, Iris, his Father and then his Mother. Henry Allen/Speedforce was telling him that he needed to accept his mothers death and move past it to be the man he was meant to be. I believe that Henry was on to something. Barry keeps putting the weight of the world on his shoulders and carries that around. He felt he was at fault for what happened to his mother, but he was just a kid. Even though the events led him to be the Flash Barry had to realize that even through all the bad it was the reason why he became the Flash. Barry didnt want to hear it he was more concerned with being the Flash. So he ran off after the shadow.
Meanwhile back in the world Cisco was trying to figure out a way to stop Girder. They figured out that he was following Iris, that he was making his way to the coffee shop the night when he hit on Iris. He was lured back to Star Labs where cisco tried to use powered magnets to take away what was making him active. This failed because of loss of power. So the group had to run down to the basement to get away from Girder. Wells moved his daughter there and they all tried to come up with a way to bring Barry home.
Barry was having a conversation with his mother, one that would make you tear up at that. Nora Allen was talking to her son, and would start reading him a book about a dinosaur. She would go on to explain to Barry that the story was not only about the dinosaur but could relate to anyone. The things that made Barry special made him The Flash, not just his power. Barry was able to accept his mothers death, was able to accept that he was chosen to be The Flash and that even though he was a miracle that bad things were still going to happen and they wouldn’t be his fault when they did. At that moment Barry was able to catch the shadow which was his power. Barry was now the Flash again speed and all. This time he was more powerful because he was more connected to the speed force then he had ever been.
Cisco and Iris would show up and bring Barry home. Barry stopped Girder by running around him and powering the magnets to drain him. Which was a good idea. Glad Barry thought of it. He had a moment with Iris letting her know that her voice would always bring him home. The next moment however would be his best he went up to Jessie and just by touching her was able to bring her out of the coma she was in. This was all done through the speed force. Barry was different and everyone could tell. Well’s knew that it was the speed force, he knew that Barry was now connected to it and that was going to be their chance in stopping Zoom.
The final scene would be Zoom in the police station with Caitlyn and the Meta-Humans of Earth 2 planning their take over of Earth 1.
This episode was amazing. I mean I had no doubts it was directed by Kevin Smith. However Barry in the speed force and finally figuring out that everything is not his fault and he was meant to be the Flash was the best part. Knowing that Wally and Jessie will eventually be speedsters was kind of cool as well. Especially with Barry touching her and waking her up, which apparently only Well’s understood what was going on. Cisco and his abilities are getting stronger, he’s going to be a great help with the multiverse situation. I believe Barry knows now that he can stop Zoom. Going into the Speed Force and coming back out the way he did has changed Barry I believe he will be stronger now more accepting of his abilities. I cannot wait to see what the final two episodes of the season have in store for us!
I give this episode a 9/10. Everything was perfect!
The Flash Episode 20 "Rupture"
We start this episode out with Barry and Wells talking about how they are going to get his powers back. Their idea is that they are going to recreate the Particle Accelerator event which gave Barry his powers in the first place. Barry seems to be against the idea because of what happened before and isn’t quick to make the decision.
Currently the savior of Central City is a hologram of The Flash with Barry in a stop motion suit to capture the effect of him running and moving as The Flash should. Cisco is at the controls and they are trying to run down a high speed chase before it gets tot he tunnel. Of course this is their bright idea and a way around Barry trying to get his powers back.
When Barry decided for Cisco to open up the Earth 2 breach it allows Zoom to travel to their Earth again which to me was a bad idea but really develops the story. Zoom has Snow and is now on Earth 1 and is trying to take it over just like Earth 2. He goes to the Police station of Course ready to kill he cops standing in front of him but Snow pleaded with him to stop. Zoom let the police go. He knew that there was no one in Central City who could stop him.
About this time Cisco has a Vibe in which he can see his brother Dante. He immediately snaps out of it and runs off to find Dante thinking that he is in trouble. Cisco didn’t even think that it could have been an Earth 2 Doppleganger. to me this really shows that Cisco is slowly becoming a hero. He had a fear that he would be like Reverb but he is showing to be nothing like him.
Cisco meets Dante at a bar and they start talking and catching up. Dante lets Cisco know how he feels about when they were kidnapped by Captain Cold. While they were talking Cisco noticed on the news that Zoom has been spotted so he leaves in a hurry. Dante runs after him for a ride home. As they are going to the Star Labs van out of no where a motor cycle is hit with what seems to be a rocket or laser beam and explodes. Dante and Cisco are attacked by Rupture, who is Reverbs brother. Rupture has been led to believe that Vibe(Cisco) killed Reverb on Earth 2.
Cisco and Dante escape to Star Labs. Cisco is getting ready to go help Barry to take out Rupture. This would end badly for Team Flash and Central City. Snow has decided that she’s going to help Team Flash! She sends a text message that reveals Zoom is attacking the Coffee shop Jitters. Because thats where all the police are. So Team Flash notifies the cops, who are hiding when Rupture arrives. Barry and Cisco are there using the hologram Flash to save the day. This all goes south quickly once Zoom finds out that Snow turned on him. Zoom goes to Jitters and before the cops could do anything he kills them all but Joe and the Captain. He then goes on to tell them and Central City that the Flash is gone that what they have been seeing is no more than a fake just a hologram.
This would be the turn of events that led Barry to wanting to get his powers back.
The team goes back to Star Labs where Barry decides to go through with the recreation of the event that made him the Flash. He lets everyone know that the best part of him is the Flash. Cisco is on the roof holding the weather wizard wand to consume the lightning. Barry is injected with the same chemicals as the night of the particle accelerator. The Particle Accelerator is running as it should be and Barry is hit with the dark matter. It looks as though he is getting his abilities back, but then he fades into nothing.
While this is happening in the basement, Jesse and Wally are trying to break out of the Time room upstairs. They do get out of the time room, and are out in the main hall and they are hit by dark matter from the particle accelerator. Wells promised Barry that this would be contained, as we seen it looks as though it was contained inside of Star Labs, but how was Joe, Iris, Henry and Wells not effected by the blast? Possibly because of the way the dark matter was traveling, either way they are all broken down at what they just witnessed. Even Well’s who seems to be stone cold when it comes to emotions seems to be upset over losing Barry. No one knows what happened or if Barry is dead or alive they just know that their last effort of bringing the Flash back seems to have failed.
Zoom enters the room, and lets them know how stupid it is to have tried and given the powers back to the Flash that they have killed him. Cisco is even surprised to see that Barry was gone when he came back down stairs. Team Flash is unaware of what has happened to Wally and Jesse.
We all have seen now what Barry Allen will do to be the hero Central City needs. He decided that it was best for him to become the Flash again after giving up his abilities to save Wally. As we can see from the trailers for next weeks episode Barry Allen seems to be stuck somewhere, hopefully the speed force. I hope he manages to find his way back from the speed force because Team Flash will need him.
I give this episode a 9/10. It was right there with the action, and the idea for the hologram Flash was perfect. Zoom of course is always amazing, one of the best comic book Villains on TV. Team Flash they are lost without Barry so hopefully we can see them recover quickly after he comes back from the speed force. I also cannot wait to find out how Wally and Jesse were effected by the Particle Accelerator blast. I know who they are supposed to become, but how will they handle it is my thing. Will they both handle it like Barry did, decide to become a hero and save people or will it be different for them? I guess we will find out next week! | 2019-04-23T16:30:22Z | https://reielys1280.weebly.com/blog/archives/05-2016 |
Here is a recording of Hymn No. 22 from the “Hymns of Dawn” to aid God’s people in singing and making melody in their hearts unto God.
For this choicest gift from heav’n.
Still some new, rich gem appears.
“(9) Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
(11) Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
(17) Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
(25) My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
(28) My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
(38) Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.
(41) Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word.
(42) So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word.
(49) Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
(50) This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.
(58) I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.
(81) My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
(103) How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (104) Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
(105) Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
(107) I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word.
(114) Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
(115) Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.
(116) Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
(130) The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
(140) Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
(154) Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.
(158) I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
(160) Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
(161) Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. (162) I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
(163) I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.
(164) Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
(165) Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
(169) Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word.
(170) Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.
“(12) Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
(16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
(20) for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
(21) Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
(22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
(23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
(24) For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
(25) But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
(26) If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
No other book which the world has ever known has such a history as the Bible. Its origin and authorship, its antiquity, its wonderful preservation in the midst of the unparalleled and continuous opposition which sought to destroy it, as well as its diversity and teaching, make the Bible the most wonderful book in existence.
Those who will make a study of the Bible plan will be fully convinced of the conclusive evidence of the credibility of the Sacred Scriptures, which is furnished in the purity, harmony and grandeur of its teachings.
Our first definite information with reference to the Sacred Writings is afforded by the direction given to Moses to write the law and history in a book, and put it in the side of the ark for preservation. (See Exod. 17:14; 34:27; Deut. 31:9-26.) This book was left for the guidance of the people. Additions were made to it from time to time by subsequent writers, and in the days of the kings, scribes appear to have been appointed whose business it was to keep a careful record of the important events occurring in Jewish history, which records—Samuel, Kings, Chronicles—were preserved and subsequently incorporated with the Law.
The Jewish copyists regarded these documents with great veneration. A very slight error in copying often led them to destroy it and begin anew. Josephus says that through all the ages that had passed none had ventured to add to, take away from, or transpose, aught of the Sacred Writings.
One of the strongest evidences of the authenticity of the O.T. Scriptures is found in the fact that the law and the prophets were continually referred to by our Lord and the apostles as authority, and that while the Lord denounced the corruptions of the Jewish Church, and their traditions, by which they made void the Word of God, he did not even intimate any corruption in these Sacred Writings, but commends them, and refers to and quotes them in proof of his claims.
In fact, the various parts of the entire book are bound together by the mutual endorsement of the various writers, so that to reject one is to mar the completeness of the whole. Each book bears its own witness and stands on its own evidence of credibility, and yet each book is linked with all the rest, both by their common spirit and harmony and by their mutual endorsement. Mark, for instance, the endorsement of the account of creation in the commandment of the law concerning the Sabbath day.—Exod. 20:11. Also compare Deut. 23:4,5; Joshua 24:9; Micah. 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11-13; Isa. 28:21; Hab. 3:11; Matt. 12:40.
And even at that early date it contained the same books as at present with the exception of the Second Epistle of Peter, the Third Epistle of John, Jude and the Book of Revelation. And these omitted books we know were written about the close of the first century, and probably had not been widely circulated among the Christian congregations at that time.
The first five books of the N.T. are historical, and present a clear and connected account of the life, character, circumstances, teachings and doings of Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the Messiah promised in the O.T. Scriptures, and who fully substantiated his claim. The four accounts of the Evangelists, though they differ in phraseology, are in harmony in their statements, some important items being recorded by each which seem to have been overlooked by the others. These Evangelists testified to that of which they had positive knowledge. The Apostle John says: That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you—”that which was from the beginning (the beginning of the Lord’s ministry), which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness.” (1 John 1:1-3.) They testify also that they saw Christ after his resurrection. The fifth book [the Book of Acts] presents a valuable account of the doings of the Apostles after their anointing with the Holy Spirit, of the establishment of the Christian Church, and of the first preaching of the good news to the Gentiles.
The original copies of both the Old and New Testaments have, of course, long since disappeared, and the oldest manuscript (the Sinaitic) is reckoned to have been written about three centuries after the death of Christ.
Those of earlier date were either destroyed in the persecutions under which the church suffered, or were worn out by use. These oldest manuscripts are preserved with great care in the Museums and Libraries of Europe. During the Middle Ages, when ignorance and corruption prevailed and the Bible was hidden in monasteries away from the people, God was still carrying on his work, preserving the Scriptures from destruction even in the midst of Satan’s stronghold, the apostate [R1146] Church of Rome. A favorite occupation of the monks during the Middle Ages was the copying of the manuscripts of the N.T. … Of these manuscripts there are said to be now more than two thousand, of various dates from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. The quiet seclusion of those monks gave them special opportunities for careful copying, and years were sometimes spent in the copying of a single manuscript.
Very early in the Christian Era translations of the New Testament Scriptures were made into several languages, and the different factions that early developed and continued to exist, though they might have been desirous of adding to or taking from the original text in order to give their claims a show of Scriptural support, were watched by each other to see that they did not do so, and had they succeeded in corrupting the text in one language, another translation would make it manifest.
Even the Douay translation, in use in the Romish church, is in most respects substantially the same as the King James translation. The fact that during the “dark ages” the Scriptures were practically cast aside, being supplanted by the decrees of popes and councils, so that its teachings had no influence upon the masses of the people who did not have copies in their possession—nor could they have read them if they had them—doubtless made unnecessary the serious alteration of the text, at a time when bold, bad men had abundant power to do so. For men who would plot treason, incite to wars and commit murders for the advancement of the papal hierarchy, as we know was done, would have been bold enough for anything. Thus the depth of ignorance in the dark ages served to protect and keep pure God’s Word, so that its clear light has shone specially at the two ends of the Gospel age. (1 Cor. 10:11.) The few interpolations which were dared, in support of the false claims of Papacy, were made just as the gloom of the “dark ages” was closing in upon mankind, and are now made glaringly manifest, from their lack of harmony with the context, their antagonism with other scriptures and from their absence in the oldest and most complete and reliable manuscripts.
As to the relative values of ancient manuscripts, we quote the following comments from the pen of that eminent German scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, who spent many years of his life in diligently searching out and comparing the various ancient manuscripts and translations of the Scriptures in many languages, and who has furnished to the church the results of his investigation in a careful exhibit of the various departures of the English Authorized Version of the New Testament from the three oldest and most important manuscripts.
“As early as the reign of Elizabeth the English nation possessed an authorized translation, executed by the Bishops under the guidance of Archbishop Parker; and this, half a century later, in the year 1611, was revised at the command of James the First by a body of learned divines, and became the present ‘Authorized Version.’ Founded as it was on the Greek text at that time accepted by Protestant theologians, and translated with scholarship and conscientious care, this version of the New Testament has deservedly become an object of great reverence, and a truly national treasure to the English Church. The German Church alone possesses in Luther’s New Testament a treasure of similar value….
“The Authorized Version, like Luther’s, was made from a Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Robert Stephens in 1550, had formed from manuscripts of later date than the tenth century. Whether those manuscripts were thoroughly trustworthy—in other words, whether they exhibited the Apostolic original as perfectly as possible—has long been matter of diligent and learned investigation. Since the sixteenth century Greek manuscripts have been discovered of far greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens; as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Gothic, into which languages the sacred text was translated between the second and fourth centuries; while in the works of the Fathers, from the second century downwards, many quotations from the New Testament have been found and compared….One thing is agreed upon by the majority of those who understand the subject, namely, that the oldest copies approach the original text more nearly than the later ones.
“Providence has ordained for the New Testament more sources of the greatest antiquity than are possessed by all the old Greek literature put together. And of these, two manuscripts have for long been especially esteemed by Christian scholars, since, in addition to their great antiquity, they contain very nearly the whole of both the Old and New Testaments. Of these two, one is deposited in the Vatican, and the other in the British Museum. Within the last ten years a third has been added to the number, which was found at Mount Sinai, and is now at St. Petersburg. These three manuscripts undoubtedly stand at the head of all the ancient copies of the New Testament, and it is by their standard that both the early editions of the Greek text and the modern versions are to be compared and corrected.
“The effect of comparing the common English text with the most ancient authorities will be as often to disclose agreement as disagreement. True, the three great manuscripts alluded to differ from each other both in age and authority, and no one of them can be said to stand so high that its sole verdict is sufficient to silence all contradiction. But to treat such ancient authorities with neglect would be either unwarrantable arrogance or culpable negligence; and it would be indeed a misunderstanding of the dealings of Providence, if after these documents had [R1147] been preserved through all the dangers of fourteen or fifteen centuries, and delivered safe into our hands, we were not to receive them with thankfulness as the most valuable instruments for the elucidation of truth.
“… To us the most reverential course appears to be, to accept nothing as the Word of God which is not proved to be so by the evidence of the oldest, and therefore most certain, witnesses that he has put into our hands. With this in view, and with this intention, the writer has occupied himself for thirty years past, in searching not only the Libraries of Europe, but the obscurest convents of the East, both in Africa and Asia, for the most ancient manuscript, of the Bible; and has done all in his power to collect the most important of such documents, to arrange them and to publish them for the benefit both of the present age and of posterity, so as to settle the original text of the sacred writers on the basis of the most careful investigation.
“The first of these great manuscripts already referred to which came into possession of Europe was the Vatican Codex. Whence it was acquired by the Vatican Library is not known; but it appears in the first catalogue of that collection which dates from the year 1475. The manuscript embraces both the Old and New Testaments. Of the later it contains the four Gospels, the Acts, the seven Catholic Epistles, nine of the Pauline Epistles, and the Epistle to the Hebrews as far as 9:14, from which verse to the end of the New Testament it is deficient; so that not only the last chapters of Hebrews, but the Epistle to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, as well as the Revelation, are missing. The peculiarities of the writing, the arrangement of the manuscript, and the character of the text—especially certain very remarkable readings—all combine to place the execution of the Codex in the fourth century, possibly about the middle of it.
“The Alexandrine Codex was presented to King Charles the First in 1628 by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, who had himself brought it from Alexandria, of which place he was formerly Patriarch, and whence it derives its name. It contains both the Old and New Testaments. Of the New the following passages are wanting:—Matt. 1:1 to 25:6; John 6:50 to 8:52; 2 Cor. 4:13 to 12:6. …It would appear to have been written about the middle of the fifth century.
“The Sinaitic Codex I was myself so happy as to discover in 1844 and 1859, at the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, in the later of which years I brought it to Russia to the Emperor Alexander the Second, at whose instance my second journey to the East was undertaken. It contains both Old and New Testaments—the latter perfect without the loss of a single leaf….All the considerations which tend to fix the date of manuscripts lead to the conclusion that the Sinaitic Codex belongs to the middle of the fourth century. Indeed, the evidence is clearer in this case than in that of the Vatican Codex; and it is not improbable (which cannot be the case with the Vatican MS.) that it is one of the fifty copies which the Emperor Constantine in the year 331 directed to be made for Byzantium, under the care of Eusebius of Caesarea. In this case it is a natural inference that it was sent from Byzantium to the monks of St. Catherine by the Emperor Justinian, the founder of the convent. The entire Codex was published by its discoverer, under the orders of the Emperor of Russia, in 1862, with the most scrupulous exactness, and in a truly magnificent shape, and the New Testament portion was issued in a portable form in 1863 and 1865.
“These considerations seem to show that the first place among the three great manuscripts, both for age and extent, is held by the Sinaitic Codex, the second by the Vatican, and the third by the Alexandrine. And this order is completely confirmed by the text they exhibit, which is not merely that which was accepted in the East at the time they were copied; but, having been written by Alexandrine copyists who knew but little of Greek, and therefore had no temptation to make alterations, they remain in a high degree faithful to the text which was accepted through a large portion of Christendom in the third and second centuries. The proof of this is their agreement with the most ancient translations—namely, the so-called Italic, made in the second century in proconsular Africa; the Syriac Gospels of the same date, now transferred from the convents of the Nitrian desert to the British Museum; and the Coptic version of the third century. It is confirmed also by their agreement with the oldest of the Fathers, such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement and Origen.
St. Catherine’s Monastry, Mount Sinai – Here Constantine Tischendorf discovered the Sinaitic Codex (one of the original New and Old Testament manuscripts) in 1844 and 1859.
“These remarks apply to the Sinaitic Codex—which is remarkably close in its agreement to the ‘Italic’ version—more than they do to the Vatican MS., and still more so than the Alexandrine, which, however, is of far more value in the Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse than it is in the Gospels [R1147]….
Another remarkable means for preserving and verifying the New Testament writings is their copious quotation in other writings. Origen — who wrote in the early part of the third century, quotes 5745 passages from all the books in the New Testament; Tertullian — (A.D. 200), makes more than 3000 quotations from the N.T. books; Clement — (A.D. 194), quotes 380 passages; Irenaeus — (A.D. 178), quotes 767 passages; Polycarp — who was martyred A.D. 165, after serving Christ 86 years, quoted 36 passages in a single epistle; Justin Martyr — (A.D. 140), also quotes from the N.T. These were all Christian writers; and in addition to these, the Scriptures were largely quoted by heathen and infidel writers, among them Celsus (A.D. 150) and Porphyry (A.D. 304).
Indeed the entire New Testament, with the exception of about a dozen verses, has been found scattered as quotations through various writings that are still extant. And if every copy of the N.T. had been destroyed by its enemies, the book could have been reproduced from these quotations contained in the writings of the early Christians and their enemies.
While the means for the preservation of the Scriptures have been thus remarkably complete, and in view of the unparalleled opposition with which they have met give evidence of Divine care in their preservation, the means for their verification, and for arriving at an understanding of them in God’s due time, are found to be none the less remarkable. No other book in the world has ever had such attention as this book. The labor that has been spent in the preparation of complete concordances, indexes, various translations, etc., has been enormous; and the results to students of the Bible are of incalculable value. And while we recognize the providence of God in all this, we should and do appreciate these labors of his children and their great service to us, though we utterly repudiate, as useless, the labor that has been spent on many so-called theological writings, which are nothing more than miserable efforts to support the vain traditions of men, the accumulated monstrous volumes of which would indeed form a monument of human folly.
Just in “The Time of the End,” when the prophet (Dan. 12:9,10) declares that “the wise (the meek and faithful children of God) shall understand,” we find these wonderful aids coming forward to our assistance. And parallel with these has happened the general spread of intelligence and education and the placing of the Bible in the hands of the people, thus enabling them to use the helps provided.
The Bible claims to be a book written under divine inspiration. The word inspire signifies to breathe in, to infuse, to fill, to inhale—as to inspire the lungs with air. (See Webster’s Dictionary.) Hence, when it is said that certain scriptures, or writings of godly men, were given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16), it signifies that those men were in some way, whether through miraculous or natural means, inspired by, or brought under the influence of God; so as to be used by him in speaking or writing such words as he wished to have expressed. The prophets and apostles all claimed such inspiration. Peter says, “The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Spirit.”—2 Pet. 1:21.
Through Moses we have the law of God and the only existing credible history of mankind from the creation of Adam down to his own time, covering a period of about 2500 years. While Moses and the other Bible writers were holy men, inspired with pure motives and holy zeal, and while personal pride, ambition, etc., were no part of their spirit, we learn that Moses was inspired with the knowledge of God’s law, both in its great principles and also in the minutiae of its typical ceremonials, by direct revelation from God at Mount Sinai, and of some points of duty at the burning bush at Horeb, etc.
As for his historical writings, Moses was evidently guided of God in the collation and presentation in its present complete and connected form of the history of the world down to his day, which was really in great part the history of his own family back to Adam with an account of the creation doubtless given by God to Adam while he was yet in fellowship in Eden. Nor does a correct handing down of family information, covering a period of over 2300 years, seem impossible, or liable, as it would now be, to have become polluted; for, aside from the fact that it was handed down through the God-fearing family line of Seth, it should be remembered that at that time the bodies, brains and memories of men were not so weak as they are now, and as they have been since the flood; and finally, because the long lives of two men link Adam with the family of Abraham, the family of covenant favor,—with Isaac, the typical seed of promise. These two men were Methuselah and Shem. Methuselah was over 200 years old when Adam died, and had abundant opportunity, therefore, for information at first hands; and Shem, the son of Noah, lived contemporaneously with Methuselah for 98 years, and with Isaac for 50 years. Thus, these two living, God-fearing men acted as God’s historians to communicate his revelations and dealings to the family in whom centered the promises, of which Moses was one of the prospective heirs.
In addition to these facts, we have the statement of Josephus that Methuselah, Noah and Shem, the year before the flood, inscribed the history and discoveries of the world on two monuments of stone and brick which were still standing in Moses’ time.
The Apostle Peter tells us that the prophets of old time often did not understand their own utterances, as they themselves also acknowledge (1 Pet. 1:12; Dan. 12:4,8-10); and we should remember that the twelve apostles (Paul taking the place of Judas—Gal. 1:17; 1 Tim. 2:7) not only filled the office of apostles… they also, especially Peter and Paul and John, filled the office of prophets, and were not only given the spirit of wisdom and understanding by which they were enabled to understand and explain the previously dark prophecies, but in addition to this we believe that they were under the guidance and supervision of the Lord to such an extent that their references to things future from their day, things therefore not then due to be fully understood, were guided, so as to be true to an extent far beyond their comprehension, and such consequently were as really prophetic as the utterances of the old-time prophets. Illustrations of this are to be found in the Revelations of the Apostle John, in Peter’s symbolic description of the Day of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:10-13), and in numerous references to the same period by Paul also, among which were some things hard to be understood even by Peter (2 Pet. 3:16) and only partially then by Paul himself. The latter, however, was permitted to see future things more clearly than others of his time, and to that end he was given special visions and revelations which he was not allowed to make known to others (2 Cor. 12:1-4), but which, nevertheless, influenced and colored his subsequent teachings and his epistles. And these very items which Peter thought strange of, and called “hard to be understood,” are the very items which now, in God’s due time, for which they were intended, so grandly illuminate not only Peter’s prophecies and John’s Revelation, but the entire word and plan of God,—that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished.—2 Tim. 3:16,17.
… There were, even in the days of the apostles, ambitious men who taught another gospel and claimed for themselves the honors of special revelations and authority as apostles and teachers of no less authority than the twelve apostles. And ambitious men of the same sort have from time to time since arisen—Emanuel Swedenborg and many less able and less notable—whose claims, if conceded, would not only place them in rank far above Paul, the prince of the apostles, but whose teachings would tend to discredit entirely, as “old wives’ fables,” the whole story of redemption and remission of sins through the blood of the cross. These would-be apostles, boastful, heady, high-minded, have “another gospel,” a perversion of the gospel of Christ; and above all they despise and seek to cast discredit upon the words of Paul who so clearly, forcibly and logically lifts up the standard of faith and points to the cross—the ransom—as the sure foundation, and who so clearly showed that pseudo -apostles, false apostles, would arise and deceive many.
It not only required an inspiration to write God’s plan, but it also requires an inspiration of the Almighty to give an understanding of that revelation; yet this inspiration is of a different sort.
When any one has realized himself a sinner, weak, imperfect and condemned, and has accepted of Christ as his Redeemer, and full of love and appreciation has consecrated his heart (his mind, his will) to the Lord, to henceforth please not himself but his Redeemer,—God has arranged that such a consecration of the natural mind brings a new mind.
The spirit of the truth inspires and controls to a greater or lesser extent … their words and thoughts, and even their very looks.
Yet such an inspiration, common to all the saints, in proportion to their development, should be critically distinguished from the special and peculiarly guided and guarded inspiration of the twelve apostles, whom God specially appointed to be the teachers of the church, and who have no successors in this office. Only twelve were “chosen,” and when one of these, Judas, fell from his honorable office, the Lord in due time appointed Paul to the place; and he not only has never recognized others, but clearly indicates that he never will recognize others in that office.—Rev. 21:14.
With the death of the Apostles the canon of Scripture closed, because God had there given a full and complete revelation of his plan for man’s salvation; though some of it was in a condensed form which has since expanded and is expanding and unfolding and will continue to expand and shine more and more until the perfect day—the Millennial Day—has been fully ushered in. Paul expresses this thought clearly when he declares that the Holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, and that they are sufficient.
As we consider, then, the completeness, harmony, purity and grandeur of the Bible, its age and wonderful preservation through the wreck and storms of [nearly] six thousand years, it must be admitted to be a most wonderful book; and those who have learned to read it understandingly, who see in it the great plan of the ages, cannot doubt that God was its inspiring Author, as well as its Preserver. Its only parallel is the book of nature by the same great Author.
Posted on July 31, 2018 August 24, 2018 by Bible Students DailyPosted in Hymns of DawnTagged 1 Chron. 27"32, 1 Kings 14:21, 1 Kings 18, 1 Sam. 10:25, 100 ad, 100ad, 1475, 1611, 1628, 1844, 1859, 2 Chron. 33, 2 Cor. 12:6, 2 Cor. 4:13, 2 tim, 2 Tim. 3:15, 2043, 331ad, a beautiful temple, accept Christ, Adam, alexandrian, Aramaic, Authorized version, Bible, bible authenticity, bible credibility, bible translations, blessed bible, Br. David Rice, Br. George Tabac, Byzantium, Celsus, Charles Taze Russell, codex sinaticus, condemned, consecrated, Constantine Tischendorf, Cyril Lucar, dark ages, dawn bible students association, Deut. 31, earliest bible, earliest copy of the bible, earliest copy of the new testament, earliest new testament, Emanuel Swedenborg, Emperor Alexander the second, Emperor Justinian, Erasmus, Eusebius of Caesarea, exod 17, Exod. 14, Ezra, from God's standpoint, how can your eyes of understanding be opened, how did the bible survive, how many new testament original mauscripts exist, hymn 22, Hymns of Dawn, imperfect, Irenaeus, Isa. 30:8, Isaiah 30:8, James the first, Jer. 30, Jer. 45, Jeremiah 36, Jerm. 51, John 6:50, Josephus, Josh. 1:8, Justin Martyr, King Charles the first, language, Mat . 1:1, Methuselah, Mount Sinai, Nehemiah 8, new mind in christ, opens the eyes of the understanding, Origen, original Bible manuscripts, original watchtower, papal hierarchy, Polycarp, Porphyry, R60, reliability of present bible translations, reprint 60, reprint no. 60, Robert Stephens, Shem, sinner, St. Catherine monastry, Syria, Syriac language, temple, Tertullian, the Alexandrian Codex, the Apostles, the authorship and credibility of the Bible, the bible during the dark ages, the prophets of old, Tischendorf, Vatican Codex, vaticanus, Watch Tower, Watch Tower and Tract Society, Watchtower, weak, when was the sinaitic codex discovered, who has a new mind in christ, who wrote the Bible, Zion Watch Tower.
Dear brethren, more grace and peace.
Thank you very much for sharing. Warmest greetings and good wishes for your good health. Courage! Keep up the good fight.
Dear Brother Alex – Greetings IN our BELOVED – Christ Jesus, through whom we can BE HIDDEN IN where inside the Holy of Holies we can, by FAITH, sit down with him in, and his banner of love is over us!
Thank you for your unceasing words of edification IN CHRIST.
“(20) May the GOD OF PEACE who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, (21) equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21, ESV).
Greet all GOD’s people. We send you and our Brethren in Christ there greetings.
“Grace be with you all” (Hebrews 13:25). | 2019-04-21T04:53:27Z | https://biblestudentsdaily.com/2018/07/31/blessed-bible-hymns-of-dawn-no-22/ |
Is This Another Sign of A Market Correction?
Yesterday the IEFs and TLTs made higher moves. Is this money that would be going into the market instead going into bonds because their yield is attractive? Or, are people taking profits off the table and moving into Treasuries awaiting the next move? Click on all images for a larger image -- and ignore the last bar.
Today CBO released the Long-Term Budget Outlook. Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path—meaning that federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the U.S. population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario. Unless tax revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits and accumulating debt. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress income growth in the United States.
Keeping deficits and debt from reaching levels that could cause substantial harm to the economy would require increasing revenues significantly as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two. Making such changes sooner rather than later would lessen the risks that current fiscal policy poses to the economy. Although the policy choices that will be necessary are difficult, CBO’s long-term budget projections make clear that doing nothing is not an option: Legislation must ultimately be adopted that raises revenue or reduces spending or both. Moreover, delaying action simply exacerbates the challenge, as is discussed in the report.
Overall, the downward trend from the double top continues. Prices are moving lower and the MACD and RSI are confirming the trend. The 10 and 20 week EMA are also moving lower with the 10 week EMA going though the 50 week EMA and the 20 about to follow suit.
The daily chart is a great example of bear market rallies -- it contains two. Notice how prices are moving lower but the lower movement is interrupted by several pennant and flag patterns. These are classic bear market corrections.
The big news today was from a technical perspective. Notice that prices moved above 10 day trendlines on all four averages. That's a very important move technically. However, look at the daily charts and you'll notice that prices are rebounding from a downward movement.
The SPYs are rallying from teh 200 day SMA (a good development) but are rising from the lower point of a downward sloping channel.
The 4-week moving average is still moving lower.
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009, (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP decreased 6.3 percent.
The good news is this number keeps going higher and (or less worse).
Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased 37.3 percent, compared with a decrease of 21.7 percent. Nonresidential structures decreased 42.9 percent, compared with a decrease of 9.4 percent. Equipment and software decreased 33.7 percent, compared with a decrease of 28.1 percent. Real residential fixed investment decreased 38.8 percent, compared with a decrease of 22.8 percent.
Investment fell out of bed last quarter in a big way. Residential has been terrible for a few years now, so that number is not shocking. However, business essentially halted any expansion plans last quarter. That's very concerning. In addition, consider this chart which shows the percentage of non-residential investment as a percentage of GDP. All figures are inflation adjusted.
The median value for that chart is 10.60% -- which is right about where we are currently after the drop-off.
The key points are in bold.
Short version: things are getting a bit better although the economic condition is still extremely fragile. Inflation isn't an issue so we can keep rates really low.
Oh yeah -- we're still going to buy some fixed income pieces.
The main point with all three averages is they are all in a confirmed correction -- that is, they are all in well-formed downward sloping consolidation patterns. Notice the SPYs and the IWMs are right at their respective 50 day EMAs. A move through either of those on decent volume would signal a possible problem with the markets. However, the QQQQs still have some downside room before they hit their 50 day EMA. That still gives us a bit of breathing room -- but not much.
The weekly chart is still in an uptrend. While the market has sold-off a bit, it looks more like a bull market flag pattern than a significant sell-off. Also note the MACD and RSI are still rising as are the 10 and 20 day EMA.
The daily chart confirms that so far we are in s standard price correction; prices have gently moved to the 20 day EMA. While the MACD and RSI are moved lower on this latest move prices are still at technically important levels. If we see prices move lower -- that is, through the EMA -- then we should reconsider out analysis.
Let's take a look at the fundamental picture.
Oil supplies -- while still above normal - are dropping. The trend is bullish while the level is not.
I'll post this in the morning.
New orders for manufactured durable goods in May increased $2.8 billion or 1.8 percent to $163.9 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. This was the third increase in the last four months and followed a 1.8 percent April increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 1.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders also increased 1.4 percent.
The bottom line is this was a good number all the way around. It also gives me hope that we'll start to see a moderation in the industrial production number from the Federal Reserve.
First, notice at the end of last year the month over month number dropped hard.
Secondly, the month over month number has started to moderate over the last few months,.
Third, the year over year number bottomed in January has has sat there since. That looks like a bottoming to me.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday that developed economies will shrink less sharply this year than it previously expected, and will grow next year.
The projection was the first upward revision to the OECD's growth forecasts since June 2007, before the financial crisis began. The International Monetary Fund is likely to follow suit when it releases new forecasts July 7.
The credit crunch is ending -- yields are dropping.
People are selling the safe trade (bonds) and moving into stocks.
The output gap -- the difference between what the economy could produce and what it will produce -- is the largest it's been in 40 years. This is a primary reason why inflation isn't an issue right now.
A poster asked me to explain my position on inflation. First, here is a link to an article I wrote that outlines some of the issues. Please note the article I wrote with Invictus was published before Krugman's. Here are two other excerpts from NY Times editorials on the issue.
So if prices aren’t rising, why the inflation worries? Some claim that the Federal Reserve is printing lots of money, which must be inflationary, while others claim that budget deficits will eventually force the U.S. government to inflate away its debt.
The first story is just wrong. The second could be right, but isn’t.
Now, it’s true that the Fed has taken unprecedented actions lately. More specifically, it has been buying lots of debt both from the government and from the private sector, and paying for these purchases by crediting banks with extra reserves. And in ordinary times, this would be highly inflationary: banks, flush with reserves, would increase loans, which would drive up demand, which would push up prices.
Still, don’t such actions have to be inflationary sooner or later? No. The Bank of Japan, faced with economic difficulties not too different from those we face today, purchased debt on a huge scale between 1997 and 2003. What happened to consumer prices? They fell.
The possibilities for error are two-sided. Yes, the Fed might err by withdrawing bank reserves too slowly, thereby leading to higher inflation. But it also might err by withdrawing reserves too quickly, thereby stunting the recovery and leading to deflation. I fail to see why advocates of price stability should worry about one sort of error but not the other.
The Fed is well aware of the exit problem. It is planning for it, is competent enough to carry out its responsibilities and has committed itself to an inflation target of just under 2 percent. Of course, none of that assures us that the Fed will hit the bull’s-eye. It might miss and produce, say, inflation of 3 percent or 4 percent at the end of the crisis — but not 8 or 10 percent.
The Fed will start the exit process when the economy is still below full employment and inflation is below target. So some modest rise in inflation will be welcome. The Fed won’t have to clamp down hard.
Gold has been -- interesting. I first noticed this thanks to Tim Knight over at Slope of Hope.
Gold broke a trendline last week. In addition, there have been two gaps down since then. Both the 10 and 20 day SMA are moving lower and the 10 day SMA has crossed below the 20 day SMA.
The on balance volume was decreasing, indicating fewer people were participating in the rally.
So -- why did this happen? Part of the answer is simple market psychology -- nothing increases in price forever; at some level traders take profits off the table. However, I have to wonder whether or not people are re-thinking the "inflation scare" concept. The bottom line is there is a ton of slack in the economy from high unemployment and low capacity utilization. This is not an inflation environment. That makes gold a less attractive investment -- at least for now.
1.) Prices made a big gap down yesterday on higher volume.
3.) The 10 day EMA has moved below the 20 day EMA and both are moving lower.
This is not a good chart and indicates the market is most likely going to move lower.
The Transports are part of Dow Theory, which basically says indexes have to confirm movements. That is, when one index rises, another has to rise and so on. The transports are important because they tell us if investors think the economy will have to move more stuff from point A to point B, indicating increased economic activity.
Are the transports forming a double top? Maybe. But also notice the index could not rise above the 200 day EMA indicating traders do not want it to move into bull market territory.
On balance volume did not increase on the second top, indicating there was not an increase in trading inflows.
The primary driver of yesterday's market sell-off was a World Bank Report that saw slower growth. But, the report was a bit more complicated then that. Here is a short synopsis of its central thesis.
1.) Developed economies (The US and Europe) are slowing down. Therefore they are purchasing less heavy equipment which is made more and more by developing countries.
2.) This is leading to a slowdown in developing countries who are export dependent.
3.) The developing countries are experiencing a slowdown right as their capital needs are increasing. Therefore, countries that are in a poor fiscal position will experience increasing trouble regarding financing.
As capital became increasingly hard to come by, and uncertainty soared about future demand, there was a sharp decline in production of manufactured goods, and in global trade in these goods. The level of industrial production in rich countries has dropped by 15 percent since August 2008, and that in developing countries, excluding China, by 10 percent.
GDP growth in developing countries is expected to slow sharply, from 5.9 percent in 2008 to 1.2 percent in 2009. However, their performance surpasses rich countries, whose collective GDP is expected to fall 4.5 percent in 2009. Notably, when India and China are removed from the total, developing countries as a group will experience a contraction in GDP of 1.6 percent, a real setback for poverty reduction.
Global GDP growth is expected to rebound to 2% in 2010 and 3.2% by 2011. In developing countries growth is expected to be higher, at 4.4 % in 2010 and 5.7 % in 2011, albeit subdued relative to the robust performance before the current crisis.
Developing countries are likely to face a dismal external financing climate in 2009, according to the GDF. With private capital flows declining dramatically, many countries will find it difficult to meet their external financing needs, estimated at $1 trillion.
Private debt and equity flows will likely fall short of meeting the external financing needs of developing countries by a wide margin, amounting to a gap estimated to range between $350 billion and $635 billion. Capital flows from official sources, plus tapping foreign reserves, will help fill the gap in some countries, but in others, there will—of necessity—be sharp and abrupt macro adjustments.
A long version is available here.
Executives in charge of the largest US companies sent a signal of their concerns by selling far more shares than they bought this month, according to data based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Share sales by so-called company insiders are outstripping purchases so far this month by more than 22 times. TrimTabs, the investment research company, said insiders of S&P 500 listed companies have unloaded $2.6bn in shares in June, compared with $120m in purchases.
No indicator is fool-proof, and no indicator is 100% accurate. But this is a really important sign that the market has probably topped out for now. The people who have access to confidential sales and financial informaiton are dumping shares. That's not good.
First, it's important to note where we are in the bigger market cycle. Starting in mid-2007 when the financial sector really started to bleed, treasuries became a very popular investment. Notice the IEFs started to rally in mid-2007 until early 2008, then sold-off, then rose again at the end of last year. All of this was the result of the credit crunch. Simply put, investors started looking for safety and this is where they found it. Also notice the sell-off of the last few months has put prices near the middle of their 2008 trading range -- which occurred because of fear.
In last week's update, I speculated that the increased volume over the last few week's may be a selling climax and therefore the market may be rebounding. Higher volume is agood indicator of that, as is an extended more in one direction along with yields nearing 4%. Notice that prices appear to be forming a bottom -- or at least are leveling off before a further move lower (we won't know until prices move in one direction or the other).
There are some incredibly strong cross-currents in the Treasury market right now. On the down side we have a ton of issuance coming to market. There is also an inflation scare (which I believe is bunk). However, high yields during a low inflaiton environment is very attractive which is why I thought the 4% yield mark was very important.
In the last two Market Monday's (see here and here) I've note the market was in a downward posture. We're now in full blown correction mode. Click on all images for a larger image.
On today's chart notice the market opened much lower with a gap down and then another gaop down within 10 minutes. The market then continued to run into resistance at the 10 and 20 minutes SMA. Finally, at the end prices sold-off on high volume, indicating no one wanted to hold a position overnight.
On the daily chart notice that prices have moved through the 50 day EMA. That is avery bearish development.
Yes, they are all dropping. However, they are all still positive, indicating the rate of growth is slowing. But it is still increasing. Note the closest to actual year over year contracting is business loans. But also notice the rate of year over year change has been lower several times. Also note that consumer and real estate loans have also seen lower year over year rates as well.
Are We There Yet? Not Quite. | 2019-04-22T20:16:26Z | https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2009_06_21_archive.html |
AS the Islamist-in-Chief awaits with bated breath to sign off on “peace in our time” – duly backed up by a recent Iranian defector, a top aide to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani – it must be understood, in relation to Obama Inc. and Iran, the “negotiations” have been little more than theatrical spectacles. Window dressing. Don’t ever forget this.
NOT only that, but guess who is one of his chief adviser’s via said “negotiations”? A highly connected mouthpiece for the Iranian regime! Say what? As is said, the fix is in!
BY the way, Sec Kerry has gone native, and not least of which because his son-in-law is Iranian.
Secretary of State John Kerry exposed a secret that journalists and academics have been agonizing over for the past six weeks: the fact that his daughter has married an Iranian-American who has extensive family ties to Iran.
“I am proud of the Iranian-Americans in my own family, and grateful for how they have enriched my life,” Kerry said in the official statement.
NOT only that, since this site’s inception, mega alarm bells (seek, and you shall find) rang, and all indicators pointed towards this moment in time. But let’s use the following one (Dec. 2013) as an exemplar, in so far as one of the world’s most authoritative experts on nuclear doctrine, Professor Louis Rene Beres, gave this investigative journalist a special shout out (among many) to said effect, and this one was especially high on his register: “Iran, A (De Facto) Nuclear State: Israel’s Former AMAN Chief Concurs With Former CIA Head.” Them’s fighting words.
FOLKS, who’s still shocked…shocked. After all, how many alarms bells had to be rung here and there?
STILL, let’s dare not overlook the historical parallels to the run up to Hitler’s genocidal swathe, if any sense of history still counts among non-blinded and rational thinkers.
“Peace for Our Time,” announced a proud Neville Chamberlain after placing the Czechoslovaks in Hitler’s foaming bite, one he relaxed only to spit threats of European war and anti-Jewish genocide. “Peace in our time” promised Barack Obama in his inaugural speech of 2013. History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Obama prepares already the signature that will normalize the nuclear program of terrorist Ali Khamenei, ‘Supreme Leader’ (official title) of Iran, and would-be emulator of Hitler’s crime against the Jews.
Santayana was right: lest we understand history we are doomed to repeat it. So let us interrogate this history and find the rhymes to grasp our moment: How could Chamberlain vault over public opinion to commit his diplomatic barbarities? Historians have answered this already.
It wasn’t just the Times.
Neville Chamberlain’s Conservative Party created, in the late 1920s, “ ‘a little intelligence service of our own’ ” that jerked the conservative press around with a clandestine bridle every bit as short as that employed in the totalitarian states. It was led by Sir Joseph Ball, Chamberlain’s most intimate friend, as documented in research published by R.B. Cockett in The Historical Journal. Ball began extending his control over the rest of the British press when the Great Depression called forth the so-called ‘national’ government, in truth conservative to the hilt..
Historian Frederick Marks points out in The Historical Journal that Franklin Delano Roosevelt projected in public positions quite at variance with his backstage dealings, producing a “gap between appearance and reality” that was “very wide indeed.” To British ambassador Ronald Lindsay, Roosevelt confessed that he would be the first to celebrate the success of British and French pressure on Czechoslovakia, but that he would be impeached if the US public came to know his opinion.
Support for the ‘appeasement’ (is that what it was?) of Hitler was an Anglo-American, and not merely a British phenomenon.
In our time US and British leaders invade Afghanistan and Iraq creating voids that Iran is quick to fill. Now they rush to negotiate with Iran that country’s development of nuclear weapons. In charge is Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state, author of the deal that allowed North Korea her nuclear bombs and possessor of quite some gall for scolding the South Koreans who insist those bombs are unacceptable.
And to all this, the respected press of our day, what does it say?
On November 2014 the Economist confessed that “Iran is hard to fathom,” and that “journalists who have been able to obtain a precious visa still leave with a sense of uncertainty as few Iranians feel free to speak their mind.” Despite these limitations the British magazine, the most prestigious in the world, the most influential with ‘intelligent’ and ‘educated’ people, stated confidently that “The [Iranian] Revolution is over” and that “the country has unmistakably changed,” flooding its readers with statistics and anecdotes that speak to the supposed liberalism, modernity, and education of the Iranian population.
However, the nuclear agreement will not be signed with the Iranian population but with the tyrants who rule it. In November 2014, when the Economist published said piece, those rulers were energetically financing, as they still do, terrorist groups with a genocidal and antisemitic ideology; prosecutor Alberto Nissman was still around to denounce with his own voice the Argentinian government’s cover up of the Iranian officials responsible for the terrorist attack against the Jewish community of Buenos Aires (85 dead and 300 wounded); and one could still hear echoes of Iranian ‘Supreme Leader’ Ali Khamenei’s July threat of “annihilation” against the Jewish State.
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, orated eloquently some days ago before the US Congress on the intentions of the ayatollahs and the dangers of signing with them. The Economist replied with firm support for Obama. As did the New York Times.
Thus were we spoken to right before Czechoslovakia was thrown to Hitler. But that wasn’t (not exactly…) a free press. Have things changed? What does recent historical research reveal on the influence of the Western power elite over the media?
These same intelligence agencies were granted explicit permission, in the National Security Act of 1947, to use ‘covert actions’ to corrupt foreign media.
There is more than enough here for whoever sees in the press nothing less than Power’s megaphone. It was Chamberlain who celebrated Chamberlain’s policies; now Obama sells Obama.
History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. We should take heed, because antisemites are dangerous to us all. In World War II more than 54 million non-Jews lost their lives. For Hitler we were ‘subhumans’; for Khamenei, ‘infidels.’ Will the outcome be very different?
IN the same manner in which the geo-political stage was pre-set for World War 2, make no mistake, so too this go around is heading towards World War 3. In fact, whatever doubts one had re his intentions – as to what HUSSEIN Obama has been up to – there should no longer even be a scintilla. For when one factors in the requirements – the geo-political fault lines – for Iranian hegemony (and this is the mullahs and HUSSEIN Obama’s end goal, aside from everything else), it became necessary to alight the entire Mid East (and parts of Africa) to effectuate their plans. None of the fires were happenstance.
BASICALLY, a Sunni-Shia showdown had to take place, and the hyper-muscle of the Islamist-in-Chief was pressed into action to stir the ever-brewing cauldron of inter-Islamic/Arab struggle for regional (then global) hegemony. This was precisely what the so-called “Arab Spring” was about, followed up by the illegal thrust into Libya, Benghazigate. Precursors.
NOW, for the newly initiated it becomes confusing because HUSSEIN Obama is Sunni and in deep sympathy with the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. However, overriding factors are in play, and allowing Iran’s regime to gain nuclear weapons surpasses certain inherent fealty.
REGARDLESS, Valerie Jarrett’s Iranian roots pave his way forward, and she is his absolute right hand…left too. Therefore, rest assured, the west will soon be living under the shadowy threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
MIND you, PM Netanyahu bears partial responsibility for this nightmare, as repeatedly stated at several forums. Most recently, his onus can be found here. Indeed, he has been in power for years, and did little more than order certain counter measures to push back against Iran’s genocidal march, many of which will never (rightfully so) be known.
NEVERTHELESS, when re-elected in 2009, had he brought to bear (knowing full well that HUSSEIN Obama would never stop Iran’s mullahs) Israel’s FORMIDABLE and multi-layered strike forces, that would have been 6 years less time for Iran’s centrifuges to spin, and said determinate action would have cut the wind out of both their sails, Iran’s and the Islamist-in-Chief’s.
Adina Kutnicki: Wolff, before we review the dangers associated with the newly-formed Muslim-American party, it must be reiterated: traditional American allies are caught up in a horrifying spider’s web through their association with the Obama administration. Poisonous.
Illustrative of said entangling, one has to internalize when it is in a nation’s best interests to align with a “best friend” and when prudence demands a “trial” separation, at least for the time being.
Basically, PM Netanyahu, MIT smartie that he is, hasn’t figured out this seemingly simple calculus. Along this trajectory, through his joined-at-the-hip actions with Barack HUSSEIN Obama (don’t be distracted by their public tussles – as media grabbing as they are – that’s not where the action/collusion is) Israel now finds herself “involved” with Sunni jihadists, the likes of which include Al Qaeda, Al Nusra and ISIS! Yup.
Trenchantly, there is a “quiet” war being fought on the Syrian side of Israel’s northern Golan border to capture key sites. It may very well blow up Israel’s Golan front. Currently, the struggle is between Assad’s henchmen and the aforementioned Sunni jihadists. These are the same “rebels” whom Obama Inc. has “surreptitiously” armed, ever since the administration entered into an absolutely illegal war in Libya. Its (hidden) basis was to arm Sunni terrorists to take over the region for the Muslim Brotherhood! Full circle.
Resultant, instead of PM Netanyahu opting out of choosing between one Islamic devil over another (Assad’s forces are inseparable from Iran’s proxy pawns), thereby, reacting to whichever side illegally fires from Syria into Israel with resolute IDF firepower, Israel is now – like it or not – aiding those who abet Hamas. Ditto, Assad/Iran have been doing likewise.
Assuredly, there are times when NOT choosing sides makes the most strategic sense. However, this is definitely not the case with the Kurdish issue. Alas, it was a relief that PM Netanyahu publicly stated his support for Kurdish independence from Iraq. As is said, even a broken clock can be right once in a while.
Stipulated, sans a scintilla of a doubt, under PM Netanyahu’s missteps, the dangers to Israel have never been greater….
IN this regard, this week’s Israeli airstrike into Syria wielded a two-edge sword; a dual track. Yes, as critical as this investigative journalist is of PM Netanyahu’s penchant for spinelessness, this go around he exerted proper hyper-muscle and secured Israel’s national interests – finally.
The advanced weapons were sent over, as DEBKAfile reported exclusively Sunday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin learned that the Obama administration and the Erdogan government were close to a final draft on a joint effort to activate a no-fly zone that would bar Syrian air force traffic over northern Syria.
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned – of late in strong messages through back channels – that the establishment of a no-fly or buffer zone in any part of Syria would be treated as direct American intervention in the Syria war and result in Russian military intervention for defending the Assad regime.
According to the US-Turkish draft, American warplanes would be allowed to take off from the Turkish airbase of Incirlik in the south for operations against Syrian warplanes, assault helicopters or drones entering the no-go zone. Thus far, Ankara has only permitted US surveillance aircraft and drones the use of Incirlik for tracking the movements of Islamic State fighters in northern Syria.
The Obama administration was long deterred from implementing a no-fly zone plan by the wish to avoid riling Moscow or facing the hazards of Syria’s world-class air defense system.
But Washington was recently won over to the plan by a tacit deal with Damascus for American jets to be allowed entry to help Kurdish fighters defend their northern Syrian enclave of Kobani against capture by al Qaeda’s IS invaders.
However, the US administration turned down a Turkish demand to extend the no-fly zone from their border as far as Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, over which Syrian army forces are battling rebels and advancing slowly into the town.
The no-fly zone planned by US strategists would be narrow – between a kilometer and half a kilometer deep inside Syria. However Moscow is standing fast against any such plan and objects to US planes making free of Syrian airspace, a freedom they are now afforded over Kobani.
To drive this point home, the Russians delivered a supply of advanced anti-air missiles and radar, whose use by the Syrian army and transfer to Hizballah in Lebanon were thwarted by the Israeli air strikes Sunday.
EXTRAPOLATING further – and despite the warning that Syria’s response would be clandestine and cause Israel “unimaginable harm” – the fact of the matter is that they never cease plotting to exert “unimaginable harm”. Israel is, as is said, damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. But never mind. Its PRIMARY vested interest (by striking Syria, the transit route to Lebanon’s Hezbollah) is to ALWAYS keep advanced anti-missile hardware out of Hezbollah’s hands. In essence, these air strikes (and other clandestine operations) frustrate Iran’s proxy arm from causing grave damage to Israel. Significantly, said pre-emptive actions should be a no-brainer, even for Israel’s appeasement-oriented political leaders. Not only that, they are manifestly legal under international law, despite Russia’s (and Syria’s) shrill pronouncements before the U.N.’s anti-Israel gaggle of kleptocrats.
Nonetheless, we live in very different times. Grotius, Vattel and those later jurists who were focused on the Caroline could never have anticipated the genuinely existential risks soon to be posed by a nuclear Iran. Understandably, the permissibility of anticipatory self-defense is far greater in the nuclear age than in prior centuries. Today, after all, it is easy to imagine, simply waiting impotently to suffer an enemy nuclear attack could be entirely irrational. Even suicidal.
NOT to be lost in the discussion, this week’s strike assisted the U.S. military in its quest to block Russia from imposing a “no-fly” zone over Syrian airspace, and all that it entails. Resultant, it became a win-win to strike.
CONCOMITANTLY, Israel’s leaders must steer clear of Obama Inc.’s “relationship” with ISIS and its attendant terror arms, thus, knowing when to “part company”!
Sentient and rational folks can no longer deny the obvious: the Iranian regime, when they exhort Death to Israel and Death to America, is indeed gunning for both nations. Their genocidal war inexorably twins the “Big Satan” and the “Little Satan”. Factual. Indisputable. Take them at their exact words.
This past Monday marked the 34th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Iran, leading to 52 Americans being held hostage for several months. Contrary to what many analysts thought, and despite the recent “thaw” and optimism considering rapprochement between Iranian authorities and American leaders, tens of thousands of Iranian demonstrators packed the streets outside of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran this year. Hundreds of thousands also demonstrated against Israel and the U.S. in other cities across the country.
The protests were unprecedented in their scale and scope, reported as the biggest anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in years. According to Iran’s official media, millions of people participated in these protests and demonstrations around the country, the largest turnout in years.
Additionally, the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have designated Nov. 4 as a “National Day against Global Arrogance.” While this week, tens of thousands of Iranians shouted “death to America” and “death to Israel.” The burning of American and Israeli flags permeated throughout the cities. Furthermore, effigies of American President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were held up high by protesters….
SIMILARLY, when self-coined PA Arabs (in tandem with Hamas, their “bad cop” partners, and officially part of their terror entity) slaughter Jews, an imperative to destroy Israel, know that their hatred towards America is equally annihilatory. In fact, who recalls PA Arabs dancing and handing out sweets after 9/11/01 jihadists incinerated over 3,000 Americans under the banner of Islam? Their jihad has only gotten worse after years of perfecting their “art”. Think about it.
SO the urgent questions before Israelis and Americans – and the west at large – are: what exactly does Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s backroom deal with Iran’s mullahs portend? and, at the same time, how is PA (jihadi) “statehood” fitting into this same impending prism, both jointly and separately?
IN this regard, aside from Professor Louis Rene Beres, no one is more qualified to address these two synergistic global menaces. This too is a fact. And said qualifier is irrespective of his cornerstone at this site.
Ominously, especially for Israel, Iranian nuclearization and Palestinian statehood are progressing at roughly the same pace. Although this simultaneous emergence is proceeding without any conscious intent or coordinated design, the cumulative security impact upon Israel will still be substantial. Plausibly, and in contrast to more usual geometric orthodoxy, the “whole” of this impact will be considerably greater than the sum of its “parts.” Expressed more precisely, the appearance of Iranian nuclear weapons and “Palestine” will be synergistic.
For Israeli planners, of course, this unique and unprecedented threat should be treated with appropriate intellectual respect. In essence, and contrary to a long-prevailing conventional wisdom, Iran and Palestine do not represent separate or unrelated hazards to Israel. Rather, they delineate intersecting, mutually reinforcing, and potentially existential perils. It follows, unambiguously, that Jerusalem must do whatever possible to remove or diminish expected dangers on both fronts, and also at the same time.
Facing Iranian nuclear missiles, Israel’s “Arrow” ballistic missile defense system would reasonably require a fully 100% reliability of interception. To achieve any such level of reliability, of course, would simply not be possible. Now, assuming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already abandoned any residual hopes for a cost-effective eleventh-hour preemption against pertinent Iranian nuclear assets – an altogether credible assumption, at this late time – this means that Israeli defense planners must look instead to deterrence.
Because of the expectedly corrosive interactive effects involving Iranian nuclear weapons and Palestinian statehood, Israel will soon need to update and further refine its existing strategies of deterrence. In this connection, Israel’s leaders will have to accept that certain more-or-less identifiable leaders of these prospectively overlapping enemies might not always satisfy the complex criteria of rational behavior in world politics. In such improbable but still conceivable circumstances, assorted Jihadist adversaries in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon or elsewhere might sometime refuse to back away from contemplated aggressions against Israel.
By definition, moreover, these irrational enemies could exhibit such refusals in thoroughly considered anticipations of a fully devastating Israeli reprisal.
Sooner rather than later, and facing a new and incalculable synergy from Iranian and Palestinian aggressions, Israel will need to take appropriate steps to assure that: (1) it does not become the object of any non-conventional attacks from these enemies; and (2) it can successfully deter all possible forms of non-conventional conflict. To meet this ambitious goal, Jerusalem, inter alia, must retain its recognizably far-reaching conventional superiority in pertinent weapons and capable manpower, including effective tactical control over the Jordan Valley.
In principle, such retentions could reduce the overall likelihood of ever actually having to enter into any chemical, biological, or nuclear exchange with regional adversaries. Correspondingly, Israel should plan to begin to move incrementally beyond its increasingly perilous posture of “deliberate nuclear ambiguity.” By preparing to shift toward prudently selective and partial kinds of “nuclear disclosure” – in other words, by getting ready to take its “bomb” out of the “basement,” and in carefully controlled phases – Israel could better ensure that its relevant enemies will remain sufficiently subject to Israeli nuclear deterrence.
In matters of strategy, operational truth may sometimes emerge through apparent paradox. Israeli planners may soon have to understand that the efficacy or credibility of their country’s nuclear deterrence posture could sometime vary inversely with enemy views of Israeli nuclear destructiveness. However ironic or counter-intuitive, therefore, enemy perceptions of a too-large or too-destructive Israeli nuclear deterrent force, or of an Israeli force that is not sufficiently invulnerable to first-strike attacks, could sometime undermine this deterrence posture.
Also critical, of course, is that Israel’s current and prospective adversaries will see the Jewish State’s nuclear retaliatory forces as “penetration capable.” This means forces that seem assuredly capable of penetrating any Arab or Iranian aggressor’s active defenses. Naturally, a new state of Palestine would be non-nuclear itself, but it could still present a new “nuclear danger” to Israel by its impact upon the more generally regional “correlation of forces.” Thereby, Palestine could represent an indirect but nonetheless markedly serious nuclear threat to Israel.
Overall, the success of Israel’s national deterrence strategies will be contingent upon an informed prior awareness of enemy preferences, and of specific enemy hierarchies of preferences. In this connection, altogether new and open-minded attention will need to be focused on the seeming emergence of “Cold War II” between Russia and the United States. This time around, for example, the relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow could prove helpful rather than adversarial.
For Jerusalem, it may even be reasonable to explore whether this once hostile relationship could turn out to be more strategically gainful for Israel, than its traditionally historic ties to the United States. Credo quia absurdum. At this transitional moment in geostrategic time, when Washington may need to align itself with Tehran and Damascus against Islamic State, virtually anything is possible.
Louis René Beres (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is Professor of Political Science and International Law at Purdue. He is the author of ten major books, and several hundred journal articles, in the field. Professor Beres’ shorter opinion articles appear in many leading US and Israeli newspapers and magazines, including The Atlantic, US News & World Report, The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Times, and Oxford University Press. In Israel, where his current writings are published by the BESA Center for Strategic Studies, the Institute for Policy and Strategy, and the Institute for National Security Studies, he was Chair of Project Daniel (2003). Dr. Beres’ most recent strategy-centered publications were published in The Harvard National Security Journal (Harvard Law School), The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, Parameters: Journal of the US Army War College, The Brown Journal of World Affairs, and the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs.
FROM the onset, let’s be very clear: no stone was left unturned at this site to highlight the genocidal goals of Iran’s mullahs, to the point of collaborating with a world-class resource to said effect.
IN this regard, this investigative journalist has kept in close contact, for more than a decade, with Professor Louis Rene Beres. His contributions to all aspects of this global threat are duly noted – and gratefully appreciated – at this site’s “About” tab.
My “go to” expert on all matters pertaining to international law, and a country’s right to anticipatory self defense – via preemptive strikes – is none other than Professor Louis Rene Beres of ‘Project Daniel.’ The working group’s original policy paper is found herein. He was Chair of the above strategic nuclear policy paper given to PM Ariel Sharon in 2003 – and subsequently briefed the report to President George W. Bush and to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – in relation to Israel’s nuclear strategy in the face of Iran’s pursuit of WMD’s. He is a man of great integrity and humility. Lou, a heartfelt thank you for being my mentor.
SO when this issue crops up at these pages, rest assured, it is with a deep understanding of the subject matter. But before we get to the latest “booms”, as well as the (inevitable/eventual détente) relationship between ISIS and Iran, let’s perform a recap.
COME what may, the Jihadi-in-Chief is leading Iran to the WMD finish line. Yes, he is. The reasons are manifest and may appear convoluted, but they are no less true.
WITHIN this quest belies his Iranian point woman, communist aligned Valerie Jarrett. One can be an Islamist AND a communist.
Back in 2003, the most comprehensive report/analysis – in relation to the corresponding global menace – surrounding Iran’s race to nuclear arms status was hand delivered to both President Bush and PM Ariel Sharon. Six years later, with the genocidal program still in place, the report’s essence was requisite updated. These are facts. It was a commissioned report by the most acknowledged apolitical nuclear expert team, bar none. Therein lies its inherent value.
In the often-unpredictable theater of modern world politics, a drama that so often bristles with apparent meaninglessness, decisions that rest upon ordinary logic may quickly crumble before madness. Here, dangers can reach even the most utterly portentous level. This is the aptly-dreaded point of convergence, when madness and nuclear weapons capability would coincide, fuse, or otherwise come together.
Enter Israel and Iran. Soon, because not a single responsible member of the “international community” has ever demonstrated a determinable willingness to undertake appropriately preemptive action (“anticipatory self-defense,” in the formal language of law), the Jewish State may have to face an expressly genocidal Iranian nuclear adversary. Although improbable, a potentially “suicidal” enemy state in Iran, one animated by graphically precise visions of a Shiite apocalypse, cannot be wished away, or, capriciously, dismissed out of hand.
Iran’s current leadership, and possibly even a successor “reformist” government in Tehran, could, at some point, choose to value Israel’s physical destruction more highly than even its own physical survival. Should this happen, the “play” would almost certainly end badly for all “actors.” In recognizably theatrical terms, the “director’s” command would be both unambiguous and immobilizing.
Nonetheless, despite U.S. President Barack Obama’s disingenuous hope for “a world free of nuclear weapons,” Israel’s ultimate source of national security must inevitably lie in sustained nuclear deterrence. Although still implicit or ambiguous, and not yet open, or disclosed, this Israeli “bomb in the basement” could readily “crumble before madness.” In certain easily-imaginable instances, circumstances involving enemy “madness,” the results of failed Israeli retaliatory threats could ultimately be existential…..
IN tandem, do take the time to read Prof Beres’s special Iran report featured at the U.S. Army’s Strategic Institute Publication, Parameters.
BUT let us now turn our attention to Israel’s PM Netanyahu.
FOR over five and a half years, since March 31, 2009, “Bibi” has been in charge of Israel’s ship of state. Within any rational discourse this is a monumental burden, unlike none other. He is, at this critical juncture in history, the guardian of the Jewish people’s thousands yr old – one and only – homeland. Patrimony. And as an American-Israeli (a nationalist Zionist, now living in Israel) there is little more important on this end.
THAT being said, to remonstrate Israel’s PM before a world audience has always been a personal burden. An absolute shame and stain. Nevertheless, it is what it is. As such, let’s first recount his latest operational failure, and it will reveal why he has been incapable of ordering the complete pre-emption of Iran’s explicitly genocidal program, instead of piecemeal (delaying) actions here and there.
Burying another brave son of Israel who died to protect his people and his homeland.
Wolff Bachner: Much to our sorrow, the world is in even worse shape than the last time we spoke. Since your previous visit, Hamas managed to provoke another war with Israel, which gave all the Israel bashing bigots of the European Union the excuse they needed to rampage and riot with a truly disgusting display of virulent Jew hate. Adding to the misery, ISIS commenced their campaign of butchering and bloodshed, beheading thousands of helpless human beings as they tore through the Levant in the name of the new Caliphate. Certainly, we are witnessing what may be the beginning of the next clash of civilizations, but let’s narrow our focus just a bit and start our discussion with Israel, Hamas, and much maligned Operation Protective Edge.
Once again, we see Israel’s so-called leaders caving in to pressure from foreign governments and ending the campaign to demilitarize Gaza and disarm Hamas before the job is done.
What effect will this have on the people of Israel, and what will this ill-advised strategy allow Hamas to do to Israel in the future?
Why would Netanyahu call off Operation Protective Edge while rockets are still raining down on Israel. Is this a sane military strategy?
MOREOVER, how many toothless (and cartoonish) “red lines” can a leader use as credible threats, after which they mean less than the paper they are drawn on? Exactly.
ON the other hand, what appears to be the case – as demonstrated with Stuxnet – he is signing off on temporary “setbacks”, in the vain hope Iran won’t go nuclear under his watch and regroup after the latest rubble is cleared. In a nutshell, he will pass the buck.
The explosion that destroyed the Parchin site was massive. Various reports reveal that windows shattered up to 15 kilometers away. Satellite photographs backed up claims that the explosion was the result of an attack, and showed almost total devastation to the facility.
Israel’s government declined to issue an official statement on the incident, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks had renewed his firm warnings that Israel would not accept a nuclear-armed Iran.
A spectacular explosion on Sunday night outside Tehran took place deep inside the Parchin military base, where Iran produces crucial elements of its missiles and other munitions, raising new questions about whether the blast was an accident or sabotage.
The explosion and resulting fire, which Iranian news organizations have described in only the most general terms, could be seen from apartments in Tehran and appeared to have destroyed several buildings. But it was distant from a part of the base to which the International Atomic Energy Agency has been seeking access for years, to investigate reports of experiments on high explosives that could have been used in nuclear weapons.
The agency’s evidence about that activity dates back more than a decade, and that part of the base has been so bulldozed and reconfigured in recent years that inspectors concede it is doubtful there is much left to see or test if they ever get access.
The explosion, according to satellite photographs from Airbus that were analyzed by the Institute for Science and International Security, took place in a densely built region toward the southern end of the base, in an area that appeared from past photographs to be littered with bunkers. The damage was reminiscent of pictures of a missile-development site 30 miles west of Tehran that was virtually destroyed during a test in November 2011 that killed 17 people, including Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the leading force behind Iran’s advanced missile efforts.
REGARDLESS, those of sound mind don’t really believe that Israel’s current crop of leaders have the balls to FULLY thwart the Islamist-in-Chief’s push for a “deal” with Iran’s mullahs, whatever the costs to Israel and the west. Resultant, an all out strike on an admitted existential threat would entail going up against Washington’s dictates. And if past is prologue, as detailed within the above linked interview, a PM who couldn’t stand up to Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s demands to leave Hamas’s leaders alive (and their underground command and control structures intact), is certainly not likely to lay to waste, once and for all, Iran’s death program, even though we all know Israel has a multiplicity of strike forces to perform the hits in rapid sequence.
ASK yourselves: does anyone believe that whatever blows up in one part of Iran doesn’t have a mirror site, a redundancy, somewhere else in that vast country? On the other hand, if SEVERAL key sites are laid to waste then it will be (perhaps) decades before Iran’s mullahs catch up to speed. In effect, the open question is: will all the KEY facilities meet similar fates?
MOST significantly, even though Iran’s Shia mullahs are battling ISIS (Sunni) jihadists for Islamic hegemony, the fact of the matter is that either will aid the other when it comes to wiping out Israel. So if ISIS gets its hands on dirty bombs, well, they will unleash them without hesitation. But if Iran requires assistance from ISIS to smuggle in a nuclear bomb into Israel, rest assured, they will more than eagerly cooperate in concert with one another.
AND with the CIA backed operational/intelligence expertise of Clare Lopez, now an integral part of Washington’s Center For Security Policy – a top tier intelligence shop – connecting the regional and global dots, The Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL takes on a crystal clear focus, as does the apocalyptic visions of Iran’s mullahs. Hence, “A Lesson On The Islamic State” is a MUST view!
WITHIN this scope of looming dangers and tribal grudge matches going on between the Shia mullahs and the Sunni ISIS, the reality is that Iran – as it stands -comes out the winner, even though there are booms going off here and there.
CONCLUSIVELY, celebrating Parchin’s dust up for long-term effects is premature, but still very welcome news!
An Israeli army officer on Friday shows journalists a Palestinian tunnel that runs from the Gaza.
AS a native New Yorker – now living in Israel – the following thought experiment is highly germane. Apropo.
IMAGINE, if you will, living nearby the border between the east and west sides of NYC, somewhere in mid-Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue range, but your actual address is west of Fifth. Then, picture heavy-duty missiles flying out of the eastern demarcation into your western sphere, and for well over a decade. Hmm. Yet, in your mind’s eye, go a step further. Situate yourselves in another scenario: “wild west” east siders have upped the ante; digging tunnels into west side buildings, ever ready to cause more explosive terror! Which leader(s) in their rational mind would allow their citizens to “live” under such terrorizing conditions, ever fearful of becoming cannon fodder? Rhetorical.
NOW, as previously demonstrated, Israel’s top leadership – the buck stops with “Bibi” – commit double crimes. The first tier deals with an absolute ILLEGALITY; negotiating – thus legitimizing – with Hamas, a designated terror group, even within Washington’s listing of terror groups! This is beyond dispute. Beyond the pale, even if masking such negotiations under political/diplo cover. Whom are they fooling? NOT the majority Zionist public, that’s for sure.
A demonstration in support of the war in Gaza in Tel Aviv.
SIGNIFICANTLY, time and again, Israel’s leaders negotiate “ceasefires/deathfires” with terror groups, be they Hamas, Fatah or Hezbollah. It makes no diff. And while said “ceasefires” aren’t worth the price of bupkes, the fact of the matter is not only are they worthless and exponentially dangerous – whetting their appetites for more of the same – they are ILLEGAL. Plain and simple….
Moreover, no proper system of law can ever permit any sort of compromise or accommodation by a government with criminal organizations, even, in the case of Israel and Hamas, one that might involve a somewhat less formal arrangement than the currently proposed cease-fire.
It follows that Israel ought never to unwittingly prop up its criminal adversary in Gaza by agreeing to a cease-fire or similar “armistice”; instead, it should proceed immediately to do whatever is needed operationally, while simultaneously reminding the world that the pertinent conflict is between a fully legitimate sovereign state (one that meets all criteria of the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, 1934) and an inherently illegal insurgent organization that meets none of these criteria, and that routinely violates all vital precepts of the law of armed conflict….
IN contravention of said illegality, Israel’s mentally besieged leadership charges forward; one “cease-fire” after another, in fact, feeding, fueling and supplying the enemy!
NEVER ENDING, like drunken sailors on a sinking ship they lumber hither and on, attempting to find a life raft to latch themselves onto, instead of executing what must be done – SMASHING Hamas’s top leadership and command centers!! Alas, here they go again, even as Netanyahu yanks Jerusalem’s negotiating team – like yo-yos – back and forth from Cairo.
BUT never mind…Hamasnicks have measured the mettle (tragically, quite correctly) of Israel’s leaders, as they barrage Israel with more missiles, even before the last “cease-fire” is due to expire at midnight on 8/19…and the next “cease-fire” is surely not far behind.
G-d have mercy…save us from our derelict leaders! You may rightfully inquire: are Israel’s leaders irrational? have they truly lost their minds?
DEBKAfile’s sources report an attempt by some Israeli officials to present the draft as incorporating a process which separates the humanitarian and security issues.
However, it may be that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ya’alon are looking for a pretext to explain the concessions that were made for the sake of a ceasefire for an indefinite period – or else they are trying to ward off Egyptian-Palestinian browbeating for a deal.
— Waiving demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and disarmament of Hamas’s rockets and terror tunnels at this point.
— Lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip – economically and by the establishment of ports.
— Reversal of a government decision to abstain from negotiating the release of convicted Palestinian terrorists from jail, which the Israeli public will never accept.
— Rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip before any steps are taken towards disarming Hamas.
The danger of this waiver is already apparent in the announcement by the radical Popular Committees faction that it is not bound by any Hamas commitment to suspend rocket attacks. In any case, according to a Egyptian foreign ministry statement late Monday: Israel and the Palestinians have only agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire extension – i.e., until Tuesday midnight, for further negotiations.
SO, now that the legalities are squared away, as well as their Pavlovian responses to “cease-fires”, Israelis (this blogger included) and onlookers are left in a dizzying state of suspension, incessantly wondering: when will their madness end?and where are they leading the nation of Israel? To PROLONGED war, that’s where!
Most Israelis were stunned Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 19, when rocket fire suddenly erupted from the Gaza Strip against Beersheba and Netivot, after they had been lulled into a sense of false security by the suspension of Hamas attacks for 135 hours. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon sent the air force straight back into action to bomb “terror targets’ across the Gaza Strip, and recalled Israel’s negotiators from the indirect talks taking place with Hamas in Cairo through Egyptian intermediaries.
After a month of tough fighting and painful losses, Israelis were aghast to find themselves dumped back in the same old routine, which their leaders had vowed Operation Defensive Edge would end once and for all.
By midnight Hamas had fired around 50 rockets in a steady stream across most of Israel, including Greater Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
DEBKAfile reports that, as recently as Monday, Aug. 18, a senior intelligence source asserted that Netanyahu and Ya’alon were satisfied with the Cairo talks, because their outcome would refute their critics, ministers and security chiefs alike, by bringing Hamas to its knees.
Asked how this would come about, the source repeated the mantra heard day after day during the fighting: Hamas is looking for a way out of the conflict and wants to end hostilities, he explained. That is what we are banking on.
AMAN chief Maj.Gen. Aviv Kochavi is believed by some cabinet sources to be the author of this prescription, to which the prime minister and defense minister have stubbornly adhered, against all the evidence to the contrary. They therefore held back from inflicting a final defeat on the Palestinian fundamentalists.
ON this investigative journalist’s worst day, the above outcome could have been predicted. Clear as a bell.
STILL yet, it is not as if a certain segment of Israelis residing on the southern border – particularly within the “Gazan belt” – don’t possess special standing in this life and death struggle to “cease”, or not, Israel’s “firepower”. Why? Well, having been terrorized with missiles for over a decade, for the most part, they relied upon the political leadership to do the right thing, whatever that meant. How did THAT work out? Truth be told, an unfathomable patient response.
BE that as it may, that was then and this is now. Now that tunnels are under some of their bedrooms, kindergartens and what not…hmm…their patience has worn thin, to say the least. In this regard, over 60% of said residents FLED the area, declaring that they won’t return, unless the leaders SMASH Hamas’s terror apparatus for good!
DEAR readers, juxtapose the spectacle of many thousands of Jewish residents of Israel’s southern belt fleeing for their lives – within the Jewish homeland, no less! – to the return of the scourge of anti-semitism throughout Europe (Islamic-Nazis gaining the aid of radical leftists and far-right fascists…video linked), as Europe’s Jews flee for their lives! Is this American-Israeli the only one who sees the craziness, the irony, of said dual flights?
IN other words, while France’s Jews (and others) are running for their lives into the arms of the Jewish homeland – a land this blogger would give her life for – Israel’s leaders not only fail to protect Jews already living here, but, by dint of odds, will fail those who are fleeing into her arms! Orwellian. For the record, some of these French Jews (and other new immigrants) are encouraged by Israel’s Absorption Ministry to move to areas not far from Gaza!
Manuel Valls, France’s prime minister said: “What happened in Sarcelles is intolerable. An attack on a synagogue and on a kosher shop is simply anti-Semitism. Nothing in France can justify this violence.”…….
“I came because of anti-Semitism,” said teary-eyed Veronique Rivka Buzaglo, one of 430 immigrants who arrived from France the day before. “You see it in the eyes of people. I see it in everything,” she told HuffPost.
Buzaglo says nothing would have stopped her from becoming an Israeli citizen this week – not even the rocket sirens frequently blaring in the south of the country, where she plans to live.
BASICALLY, one has to peer into ones heart of hearts and decide: are the words of Israel’s leaders meaningful, or just over-bloated hot air? Moreover, it must be recognized that not all bullsh-t is equal. Life and death.
IN this regard, listen carefully to their words and see if they match their actions! Then, decide for yourself: what order of manure are they shoveling?
UPDATE: Let’s just assert that public pressure helps…Zionists, the majority public, are getting restless…and this is one such indicator…may their heads roll…faster…faster…but it won’t happen without blowing up SHIFA…and Deif is just one of MANY top level targets still to blow up!! Hammering Hamas Chiefs With Pinpointed Intelligence New War Effort.
AS always, pretending what is isn’t becomes the proverbial elephant in the room…the 600 lb gorilla…monkey on the back too. And as onerous as it can be within family confines – yes, “it be” – imagine how much more so it is when embedded within a nation’s belly, especially one as endangered as Israel.
IN light of this week’s BELATED operation to deal with Hamas – strangely coined “Operation Protective Edge”…this American-Israeli prefers “Operation Pulverizer…Smackdown”…no matter…after hundreds of rockets/missiles have rained down in recent weeks, let alone over many years – little is more pressing than the oft misunderstood subject of “ceasefires”. They are the death of us.
SIGNIFICANTLY, time and again, Israel’s leaders negotiate “ceasefires/deathfires” with terror groups, be they Hamas, Fatah or Hezbollah. It makes no diff. And while said “ceasefires” aren’t worth the price of bupkes, the fact of the matter is not only are they worthless and exponentially dangerous – whetting their appetites for more of the same – they are ILLEGAL. Plain and simple.
The relentless war waged against Israel has absolutely nothing to do with land per se, and this is precisely why every insane concession, gesture and withdrawal offered by Israel’s (peace-obsessed) leaders has not elicited an expected reciprocal peace gesture, but paradoxically incites to additional jihadist behavior. And in a tangible realm it makes sense for Arabs/Muslims to become hyper-aggressive, particularly after each Israeli capitulation counter intuitively whets their insatiable appetites for more of the same. So as a result of the leadership’s desperate attempt to allay international pressure, thus abating another dangling sword, they have become wedded to peace delusions. A double whammy. Never mind the fact that murderous jihad hasn’t ceased within Israel from time immemorial. But logic escapes many of Israel’s “leading lights”, except for a handful. At the top of the list heralding Israel’s “intellectual warriors” stand Dr. Martin Sherman and Professor Paul Eidelberg.
My “go to” expert on all matters pertaining to international law, and a country’s right to anticipatory self defense – via preemptive strikes – is none other than Professor Louis Rene Beres of ‘Project Daniel.’ The working group’s original policy paper is found herein. He was Chair of the above strategic nuclear policy paper given to PM Ariel Sharon in 2003 – and subsequently briefed the report to President George W. Bush and to current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – in relation to Israel’s nuclear strategy in the face of Iran’s pursuit of WMD’s. He is a man of great integrity and humility.
Lou, a heartfelt thank you for being my mentor.
It follows that Israel ought never to unwittingly prop up its criminal adversary in Gaza by agreeing to a cease fire or similar “armistice”; instead, it should proceed immediately to do whatever is needed operationally, while simultaneously reminding the world that the pertinent conflict is between a fully legitimate sovereign state (one that meets all criteria of the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, 1934) and an inherently illegal insurgent organization that meets none of these criteria, and that routinely violates all vital precepts of the law of armed conflict.
In any conflict, the means that can be used to injure an enemy are not unlimited. It follows that no matter how hard they may try to institute certain self-serving manipulations of language, those who would identify the willful maiming and execution of noncombatants in the name of some abstract ideal – any ideal – are always misrepresenting international law.
Whenever Palestinian insurgents (Hamas; Fatah; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Islamic Jihad, it makes no difference) claim a legal right to use “any means necessary,” they are attempting to deceive. Even if their corollary claims for “national self-determination” were in some fashion legally supportable, there would remain fully authoritative limits on permissible targets and weapons.
While it is true that certain insurgencies can be judged lawful, any such permissible resorts to force must nonetheless conform to the laws of war. Even if incessant Palestinian cries of “occupation” were reasonable rather than contrived, any corresponding claims of entitlement to oppose Israel “by any means necessary” would remain unsupportable.
Earlier, on November 29, 2012, the Palestinian Authority (PA) had been upgraded by the U.N. General Assembly to the status of a “nonmember observer state,” but significantly, the PA has since declared itself nonexistent.
On January 3, 2013, Mahmoud Abbas formally “decreed” the absorption of the “former “PA into the “State of Palestine.” While this administrative action did effectively and jurisprudentially eliminate the PA, it assuredly did not succeed in creating a new state by simple fiat. Leaving aside Abbas’ illegal refusal to follow the Palestinian Arabs’ binding obligation to negotiate full sovereignty directly with Israel, the evident criteria of “nonmember observer state” also fell far short of expectations of the only authoritative international treaty on statehood. This governing document is the Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (the “Montevideo Convention”) of 1934.
This expectation is explicitly and emphatically true for the United States, which already incorporates all international law as the “supreme law of the land” at Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution (the “Supremacy Clause”), and which was intentionally formed according to the principles of Natural Law. For the Founding Fathers of the United States, of course, these principles had already been “born” at Sinai.
IN furtherance of the above legal application, Israel’s leaders, by negotiating with terrorists (and releasing them from jail!), commit treason, as evinced within Israel’s internal laws! Yes, they do.
Impairment of sovereignty or integrity of the State.
97. (a) If a person commits an act liable to impair the sovereignty of the state with the intention to impair that sovereignty, then he is liable to the death penalty or to life imprisonment.
(b) if a person commits an act liable to remove any area from the sovereignty of the state or place it under the sovereignty of a foreign state with the intention to bring that about, then he is liable to the death penalty or to life imprisonment.
A year after my report of June 2, 2008 – on June 14, 2009 to be exact – PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech at Bar-Ilan University, endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, and did so without Knesset or public debate.
If (former) MK Arieh Eldad could say “[PM Ehud] Olmert’s offer to yield the Golan Heights to Syria is nothing less than treason,” what shall we say of PM Netanyahu’s offer to yield Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority?
Is it any wonder that Israel today is verging on a state of anarchy?
CONSEQUENTIALLY, in light of continuous rocket/missile barrages – more accurately, blitzkriegs – on southern Israel, one has to stand up and shout unequivocally: today’s incessant barrages – responsible for over a million of Israel’s citizens running into bomb shelters – are the poisonous fruits of the absolutely illegal “ceasefire” from 2012!
Then, as always, PM Netanyahu “ceased” Israel’s firepower during “Operation Cast Lead” in 2008 (and in 2012 during operation עַמּוּד עָנָן, ʿAmúd ʿAnán, literally: “Pillar of Cloud”…as derived from the Bible…aka Operation Pillar of Defense…this is NOT for nothing…know your Bible well…), pulling the troops back both times, as they closed in on victory! | 2019-04-24T09:55:24Z | https://adinakutnicki.com/tag/professor-louis-rene-beres/ |
This workshop is scheduled for late Spring / early Summer when the wildflowers are usually in full bloom providing a spectacular beauty around the Park.
I am an authorized CUA permit holder of the National Park Service and conduct my workshops based on the permit’s guidelines.
The slideshow above features images that were either photographed during my own scouting trips this time of year or during my previous Spring Teton Photo Workshops, providing you a good idea on what to expect.
The Tetons feature such a unique and powerful landscape. Especially when Mother Nature provides us with clouds. The colors of sunrise and sunset can be absolutely striking and if we are lucky enough for a late afternoon storm, even better!
I will be putting us in position to photograph the best light at the best locations depending on the weather and based on my years of experience photographing the Tetons at this time of year.
June is a perfect time to be at the Tetons as many wildflowers are in bloom. I will show you how to best photograph them by themselves and with the Tetons as a background.
We will be using Macro lenses and wide-angle lenses for our photographs of the flowers, and we will be using techniques such as diffused light and creative backgrounds to make the flowers stand out.
This is not an entire flower photography workshop, as our main goal is the striking landscape, but we will be using the flowers when we can to create beautiful images that tell the story of Spring in the Tetons.
While this is primarily a landscape photography workshop we will definitely have opportunities for wildlife photography as well.
I have been photographing in the park for years during the Spring and know when and where to photograph many of the common wildlife so we will spend some time looking for and photographing them. Bring your long lens!!
Past workshop students have had the chance to photograph deer, elk, buffalo, black & grizzly bears, pronghorn antelope, moose, various birds, and horses.
During the workshop I will discuss techniques on achieving long exposure photographs. This photo was created using a 16-stop neutral density filter with an exposure time of 9 minutes.
Spend 6 days in the magnificent Grand Teton National Park with me. I will be there to help you with everything from camera settings to composition, shooting techniques such as HDR and panoramas, in addition to using filters to control your exposures.
This is a shooting-intensive landscape photo workshop with both one-on-one and group instruction in the field. It is scheduled for when there are normally a lot of wildflowers to photograph. If the clouds are just right we will have the opportunity for striking sunrises and sunsets, and we will even keep an eye out for wildlife too.
6 Days instead of 5. This means more opportunity to photograph and learn.
One or Two sessions of post processing demos & instruction will be provided, so you can learn how to make the most of the photos you are creating and to also share what you photographed with the group.
6 Students instead of 8. A smaller group means more individual time for you and without the crowding that larger workshops can have.
One of my students during my 2017 Spring Tetons Photo Workshop.
With a small class size of just 6 students for my 2019 workshop there will be plenty of time to work with me on a one-on-one basis during our group setting. I can assist you individually on pretty much anything you want to focus on regarding landscape and wildlife photography.
This workshop is designed for any skill level, yet a DSLR or equivalent (like the Sony Mirrorless cameras) with interchangeable lenses and a sturdy tripod are required, as is a basic working knowledge of your camera.
Most students who take my workshops are beginners to advanced amateurs. These workshops are filled with hands-on instruction, demonstrations, and even a session or 2 in the field with my laptop going over some processing tips.
Only 6 Students! Some photo workshops allow as many as 12 students, but this workshop is limited to just 6. This means more one-on-one time with me and less distractions from a large group.
We will be going to some popular iconic locations but also many less known but stunning locations that I have found with my years of experience photographing in Grand Teton National Park.
This workshop features 3 Unique Focus Areas: Light, Composition, and Personal Style. With such a small group I will be able to work with you individually to help you begin to develop or to refine your own personal style, which will be accomplished through the use of light and composition.
We will have at least one 2+ hour sit-down session with our laptops where I will give photo demonstrations on various photo programs and show some tips on how to enhance photos, where you can ask about your own photo workflows, and where we can all view and discuss each other's photos to enhance your learning.
Photographed during my 2017 Spring Tetons Photo Workshop.
We will be at our locations photographing just before sunrise and ending our day just after sunset. During mid-day when the light isn’t great we will be taking a break for a few hours to recharge batteries, download images, and rest up for the evening sessions.
This is a landscape photography workshop and that will be our primary focus. However with the amount of wildlife in the park we will certainly keep an eye out for and photograph any wildlife we come across. In years past my students have been able to photograph Moose, Bison, Antelope, Elk, Deer, Bear, and Various Birds.
We will meet for an early dinner at approx. 4:30PM (exact time and location will be emailed to you prior to the start of the workshop) for orientation to go over our final itinerary and to discuss park layout, safety, personal goals, and get to know one another in a casual atmosphere.
I will also give a brief presentation on what we can expect photographically during our time together and talk about how I photographed the scenes shown in the presentation.
Following orientation we will head out for a sunset shoot.
We will meet at approx. 4am and drive to our first location for sunrise which is at approx. 5:40am. Following sunrise we will stop for breakfast & coffee and continue photographing until approx. noon. We will then take a break and meet again at approx. 6pm for sunset which is at approx. 9pm. Evening session will end at approx. 9:30-10pm.
We will meet at approx. 4am and drive to our first location for sunrise which is at approx. 5:40am. Following sunrise we will stop for breakfast & coffee and continue photographing. The last 2-3 hours are reserved for a processing demo by myself as well as a group critique of everyone's favorite photos. Workshop ends at approx. 11am.
Depending on how the weather is shaping up, we may end up on one night staying out in the field later than sunset or arriving way before sunrise to photograph some moonscapes (using the moon to light the landscape). If we do end up doing this, we will skip either that evening's sunset or the following morning's sunrise. Whether we do this or not will be both weather & group driven.
Class photo from my 2017 Spring Tetons Photo Workshop.
Until the start of the workshop!
Tuition: $1,495 per student, with a limit of 6 students.
Pay in full today for the workshop.
Pay $747.50 today to reserve your seat. Shortly after your registration you will be emailed an invoice for the remaining $747.50 balance which is due 90 days prior to the start of the workshop.
Before being able to register & pay you must first agree to my Workshop Policies stated below. Once read click on the checkbox and the payment options will be enabled.
I understand and agree to the Workshop Policies detailed here on this page.
Registration to any of my photo workshops acknowledges that you have read, understand and agree to my photo workshop polices outlined here.
– Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Payment is due in full at time of registration unless otherwise specified.
– I have a no tag-along policy. Spouses, family members, friends, etc. who are traveling with you and who have not registered are unable to partake in any group functions. Workshops are also not a location for pets and as such are not allowed with the exception of guide dogs.
– Cancellation Policy: All workshop tuition fees are non-refundable. I understand, however, that emergencies do come up at the last moment that could effect your participation. Should you need to cancel, I can transfer the fees you paid towards another one of my other photo workshops that still has open seats left. Note that there is a $150 administrative fee to do this, and you must sign up for one of my workshops that occurs within 1 year of the workshop you cancel. If the workshop you are transferring to is more than your original amount paid, the remaining balance will be due to complete registration. No fees are to be returned if the transferred workshop is less than your original payment. Workshop fees can only be transferred towards another workshop and can not be used to purchase artwork or other items for sale.
In the event that I deem it necessary to cancel the workshop I will provide a full refund of tuition fees which the participant(s) acknowledges as full and final settlement. In the event of a workshop cancellation airline tickets, car rentals and hotel reservations associated with participation in this workshop will not be refunded. I strongly recommend you purchase refundable airline tickets and make refundable car and hotel reservations. I also recommend you carry travel and camera equipment insurance.
Things beyond my control such as government shutdowns and weather can effect scheduling. In the event of a government shutdown that closes our location to the public, the workshop will not necessarily be cancelled, and locations near the intended location will be considered in an effort to keep the workshop continuing.
– Partial Payment: Some workshops may allow for a partial payment when registering. Partial payments are subject to the same cancellation policy stated above. Following your initial partial payment you will be contacted to see how you want to pay the remaining balance. I can bill you monthly for the remaining amount if you desire. Remaining balance must be paid in full before 90 days prior to the start of the workshop. Failure to do so will result in the cancellation of your registration. Fees already paid will be transferred to another workshop at my discretion.
– Liability Limitation: I aim to provide a safe, educational and enjoyable experience. I assume no liability for any act, error, omission, injury, loss, delay, mishap, or damage to persons or property arising from any cause during the course of the workshop or in transit thereto. I can accept no responsibility for losses or additional expenses due to delay or changes in the services to be provided. I reserve the right to change our arrangements should conditions necessitate, or to cancel any aspect of the workshop due to exceptional circumstances.
By participating in this workshop you acknowledge that you have read the information concerning responsibility and release Matt Suess, his guides, instructors and any cooperating agent from any liability. Matt Suess will assume no liability for injury, illness, or loss of personal property or expenses thereof associated with workshop participation. You also acknowledge that Matt Suess has the right to refuse service to anyone at any time and that these policies are subject to change at any time.
– Unless otherwise mentioned, tuition does not include any park admission fees. Hotel / lodging, meals, car rental, any needed gear or equipment rentals, etc. are not included and is the student’s responsibility. A list of area accommodations can be emailed to you following your registration upon request.
– Photos & Video of You: Photos & Video of you may be taken during the workshop and used for advertising future workshops on websites and print media owned by Matt Suess and/or other sites & media that advertise workshops taught by Matt Suess. Acceptance of these terms implies that you agree to such usage with no further compensation above and beyond the photo instruction received during the workshop. If requested, Matt can send you the full-resolution images being used of yourself to keep and make prints from. This also applies to any testimonials provided in-person, online, or on any public forum.
After agreeing to the terms above, click on the button below to begin your registration.
Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Payment is due in full at time of registration, or you may elect to register today with a partial payment. The remaining balance is due no later than 90 days prior to the start of the workshop. I can bill you monthly for the remaining amount if you desire.
If you are unable to register online, you can register and pay by phone by calling me at 480-818-9566. All major credit cards are accepted or you can pay by check as well. Contact me and I will call you back at the time you desire.
Tuition does not include park admission which is paid at a ranger station upon entering the park and good for 7 days. Hotel / lodging, meals, car rental, any needed gear or equipment rentals, etc. are not included and is the student’s responsibility. A list of area accommodations can be emailed to you following your registration upon request.
Looking for Even More Photo Instruction During Your Trip?
I have had workshop attendees hire me for private one-on-one instruction just before or just after the workshop to further their education.
If you are interested, contact me immediately following your registration to schedule a 4-hour or 8-hour session. The itinerary is completely up to you. Some students have used this for extra time out in the field while others have used this for photo processing training on the computer, or both.
I can only offer this to a few students and it is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Again if you are interested, contact me immediately after your workshop registration.
Rates for these private sessions are at a discount from my normal rates and are $350 for 4 hours and $525 for 8 hours.
I will be staying at the Virginian Lodge in Jackson, Wyoming – just a short drive from downtown Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park. I have stayed here for a few years now and most students also stay here. The Lodge features regular rooms and also has an RV park for those traveling via RV. It is not required that you stay at the Virginian Lodge.
It is recommended to make reservations here or anywhere else in Jackson ASAP as most places fill up months in advance!!
The Virginian Lodge phone number is 1-800-262-4999 and the RV Park is 1-800-321-6982.
You will definitely want to be staying in Jackson, WY for the workshop at least Monday night through Friday night allowing you to catch afternoon flights back home after the workshop ends on Saturday while others stay a few days before/after the workshop to photograph Yellowstone. You may also consider arriving a day or 2 before the workshop starts, arriving on Saturday or Sunday. The closest airport is the Jackson Hole Airport.
Actual testimonials from online, classroom, and field workshop students.
As someone new to photography, Matt was exceptional at cultivating my novice level while educating the group at a comprehensive level in the photography field. He worked relentlessly to provide us the knowledge necessary and incessantly positioned us in superlative places for stunning scenic and wildlife pictures. Matt has extraordinary talent in the realm of photography, however, he is equally as impressive with his teaching and relational skills with his students.
Thank you very much for a great workshop. I learned and practiced more things in this workshop than in all the others I have taken.
I found Matt’s one on one tutorial session was a perfect format for me to learn HDR. Matt’s warm and personal approach immediately put me at ease. Matt perfectly sized my skill level and personalized the pace so the information flow maximized my absorption of the subject I was able to interrupt and ask questions whenever I needed without concerns of interrupting a class. This really accentuated my climbing of the learning curve. Matt is a skilled teacher and made it “All about ME”. In two hours time Matt led me from neophyte to knowledgable user. I can’t imagine a more efficient way to enhance my photographic skills. The followup recording of our session provided positive reinforcement solidifying my new found expertise. I consider it a true value and a hyper efficient methodology for skill transfer. I will be using Matt’s skills as an expert teacher again. I look forward to our next session.
This was the class I was looking for. I had been using Perfect Photo for about a year and had watched some of the video presentations but did not really have the feel I wanted for the program. I had been searching for several months for someone to teach a face-to-face class and finally came upon Matt after seeing a link through on1’s emails. This was a crash course but it was perfect. Great explanations and demonstrations with plenty of time to ask questions and receive one-on-one time when needed. Matt’s experience as photographers and users of the software was very evident. It’s nice to have someone who actually uses a program in real life situations instead of a company representative. After sitting through this class, I can now start to do more with my photos and use Matt’s and on1’s videos as refreshers to the class. I now have a better understanding of the capabilities of the program and what I want to do or need to do with my photos.
A complete list of What to Bring will be provided for you shortly after registering. This list will mention required and suggested items regarding camera equipment and clothing. Keep in mind that this workshop takes place in the spring when the weather can range from overnight lows in the upper 30's to daytime temps in the upper 70's. Rain is always a possibility.
Is there a lot of walking/hiking during this workshop?
No there isn’t. The CUA permit I have from Grand Teton National Park that allows me to conduct photo workshops only allows us to travel 1/2 mile along any trail so that would be the longest walk. There is also little elevation gain on any walks we will do.
You should be in decent physical shape however due to the elevation of where the workshop is held as well as due to the hours this workshop has us out shooting.
Can my spouse, relative, friend, pet, etc. attend?
I have a no tag-along policy. Spouses, family members, friends, etc. who are traveling with you and who haven’t registered are unable to partake in any group functions. Workshops are also not a location for pets and as such are not allowed with the exception of guide dogs. If a spouse or friend wants to attend they will need to register.
Will we work on our computers and learn how to process our photos?
Yes! I have scheduled one to two sessions with our computers where I will demo some post processing tips. This will also be the time for you to ask your own questions on post processing and workflow. We will also have time for a group review of your favorite photos taken during the workshop.
What’s included in my tuition? Rooms, transportation, meals?
Tuition includes all lectures, fieldwork, guiding, computer demos, and critiques of your digital files.
Travel costs, lodging, entrance fees, and meals are not included.
Are there restrictions on participation?
My workshops do not normally entail strenuous activity unless specified. Nevertheless, participants must be able to complete moderate walks/hikes with their required photo gear, sometimes on uneven or slippery surfaces. If you have any health problems or physical limitations, please let me know prior to booking.
Will you be photographing too during the workshop?
Yes I often will be photographing alongside the group. When I do photograph however, my #1 priority is still my students and I have absolutely no problem stopping what I am doing to help anyone at any time. Most of the time I am photographing, it is to tell students exposure settings and to show composition ideas and other things to consider.
Students have told me that in some other workshops they have taken, it seems like the instructor is more interested in his/her own shots and often ignores or even leaves the group to photograph in better locations. My workshops are not like that at all and I am far more concerned that my students get the shot.
I am a pure beginner (or pro) photographer. Is this workshop for me?
This workshop is open to all photography levels from beginner to advanced. I have had students who didn’t know what an f-stop was and I have had those who are already selling their own prints either part time or professionally. Being an extremely small class, I am able to work with each student individually no matter their experience level to help them improve and reach their individual goals.
What is your experience photographing in Grand Teton National Park?
I have been photographing the Tetons for a number of years and finally began teaching photo workshops there in 2015. For 2018 I taught 4 scheduled group workshops including 2 Milky Way workshops as well as a spring and fall workshop, in addition to a few private one-on-one sessions.
I live just 4.5 hours away from the Tetons and often travel down there throughout the year for my own personal photos as well.
I know of numerous locations to bring my students depending on the time of day and the lighting conditions to maximize time in the field photographing.
What sets your workshops apart from other workshops?
I absolutely love teaching! I have almost 30 years of experience making my career with my cameras and teaching & sharing my experiences along the way.
I am detail orientated and put the needs of my students first. I have extensive experience dealing with all types of situations and people and love answering all of my students’ questions.
I have a unique photo background with experience creating and selling my work in such diverse fields as photojournalism, sports, portrait, wedding, editorial, and commercial photography. My specialty since 2006 has been fine art landscape photography.
I draw from all of those life experiences to provide you with whatever technical and artistic guidance you need. With my help, you will grow and expand your visual expression as well as your technical skills. In addition, I hope you have a great time in the process, immersing yourself in the total experience and sharing in my passion for photography.
Can my spouse, relative, friend, pet, etc. attend any or all of the workshop?
Do you photograph during field workshops?
Do you provide travel insurance for your workshop participants?
I do NOT provide travel insurance as part of my workshop fees, but definitely recommend it. I highly recommend trip insurance that also includes travel health insurance. Travelex Insurance Services is a BBB Accredited business with an A+ rating (although note I have no personal experience with this company). The cost for travel insurance is typically 4-7% of the total trip cost, depending upon age and other variable factors.
Tuition includes all lectures, fieldwork, guiding, classroom instruction and critiques of your digital files during our classroom sessions. Travel costs, lodging, entrance fees, and meals are not included in the cost of admission unless otherwise specified.
My workshops do not normally entail strenuous activity unless otherwise specified. Nevertheless, participants must be able to complete moderate walks/hikes with their required photo gear, sometimes on uneven or slippery surfaces. If you have any health problems or physical limitations, please let me know prior to booking.
Why should I attend one of your workshops?
I will teach you how to create inspiring and amazing fine art quality photographs. You will learn how to see more creatively and how to translate that vision into a final image that has emotional impact.
I make it easy to learn techniques and concepts that you will take with you every time you walk out the door with your camera. I have extensive experience shooting and selling my fine art photography as well as teaching the concepts of photography. I am a hands-on learner myself and teach using a hands-on approach that will give you the best opportunity to retain information and further your photography skills long after the workshop has concluded.
Lastly I love teaching small groups. Most of my workshops feature small sizes with up to 10 students on average. This allows for extremely low teacher to student ratios and provides valuable one-on-one opportunities to work with me during the workshop.
What level of photography experience do I have to have in order to attend one of your workshops?
It depends upon the workshop, so please check with the specific workshop you are interested in.
What should I bring with me to one of your workshops?
You will receive a workshop welcome kit before the start that will contain detailed information regarding the proper gear to bring with you.
I love weather of all sorts! Great photos can be found under some seemingly dreary skies. Many times we will be out in stormy weather, provided it’s not putting you or your equipment at risk. Great pictures can happen during fog, snow, rain and mist. If conditions are too extreme, we will find a location to wait out the weather. During this time, we can work on our images on our laptops while I assist you and give demonstrations.
I do not supply transportation for my workshops. During the workshop we will carpool to minimize our impact on the environment and to facilitate parking.
Consider making your purchases from one of my sponsors listed below. These are products and companies that I have personally used and highly recommend!
Save 10% on your order by using coupon code matt10 when ordering any filters direct from Singh-Ray.
For all your Photographic Needs. It is where I get most of my camera gear.
What makes Matt qualified to teach me?
Matt started his photography career when he was 20 back in 1990 and has been a full-time professional photographer & educator ever since. His passion for photography began when he was 12 years old when he had his own black and white darkroom.
Born and raised in Connecticut, Matt carved out a very successful career as a photojournalist for 17 years, culminating in his award of the 2003 New England Press Associations Photographer of the Year. In his career he has photographed celebrities, U.S. Presidents, professional sports (MLB, NFL, NHL, PGA, LPGA, & Pro Tennis), breaking news events, musicians, and more. He has worked with and/or been published by the Associated Press, USA Today, the Boston Herald, the Connecticut Post, Hartford Courant, Cape Cod Times, National Geographic Traveler Magazine, Cape Cod View Magazine, the Middletown Press, and Men’s Journal just to name a few.
During his 17 year photojournalist career he also worked in advertising, commercial, portrait, studio, stock, and wedding photography through his business Matt Suess Photography.
Matt is a digital photography pioneer and began teaching digital photography to photojournalists in the late 90's. His passion for sharing and teaching what he has learned in his impressive and long career is evident in his down-to-earth and encouraging approach with his students.
When Matt moved to Arizona in 2006 he left his photojournalism career behind to pursue a career as a fine art landscape photographer & educator. Since then, he has established himself as one of the leading fine art landscape photographers and photo workshop teachers in the area, if not the US. He has exhibited his photography in 8 states out west at such heavily juried shows as La Quinta, Utah Arts Festival, Jackson Hole Art Festival, Indio Arts Festival, and the Crested Butte Art Festival.
His main exhibition now is the prestigious Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale, where 2018 will mark his 5th consecutive year at the 10-week show which runs from January - March. The rest of the year Matt teaches field & classroom workshops in at least 5 different states each year, offers online classes, one-on-one instruction, and provides FREE webinars & education for ON1 and Macphun Software.
But it is Matt's love for teaching that really stands out!
Matt loves nothing more than to share his extensive knowledge with his students. He is passionate about photography and he is passionate about teaching photography and that passion clearly comes through with his teaching style and ability.
Knowing that photography is part technical but also part emotional, Matt is able to explain the technical parts in easy to understand language and addresses the emotional part of photography by showing how one can easily express themselves with their photography and post processing. Matt understands that each student is different in their needs and doesn’t teach them how to photograph like him but rather encourages and guides each student to find their own voice and style through their own photography.
Lastly, Matt holds nothing back. He will teach you as much as you want to learn and teach you all of his “secrets”. In his field workshops he will bring you to his favorite locations and show you how to create the best possible photos from those spots and in his classroom workshops he will show you exactly what he does to his photos and help you adapt it to your own style.
Matt has been a full-time professional photographer for almost 30 years and has quickly become one of the leading fine art photographers & educators in the United States. Matt is a digital photography pioneer and began teaching digital photography to photojournalists in the late 90's. His passion for sharing and teaching what he has learned in his impressive and long career is evident in his down-to-earth and encouraging approach with his students.
You can see his work at fine art exhibitions such as the prestigious Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale in addition to other select juried events. In addition Matt teaches field & classroom workshops in at least 5 different states each year, offers online classes, one-on-one instruction, provides FREE webinars & education for ON1 and Macphun Software, and still finds time to spend with his fiancee & fine art painter Whitney M Hall as well as his companion & Best Friend Scrappy.
Disclosure about product links and affiliations: Some of the links I provide are affiliate links which means I get a small commission, with no additional cost to you, if you click it and end up buying something. It helps me provide free educational resources and articles. So if you use them, thank you! My affiliations however never influence my opinions on any products/services and I am only affiliated with companies whose products/services I personally use. | 2019-04-25T08:46:53Z | https://learn.mattsuess.com/2019-spring-tetons-photo-workshop/ |
Microblading Over Tattooed Eyebrows – View Our Business Now To Track Down More Resources..
Eyebrow tattoos can be called permanent eyebrows and can be listed under cosmetic procedures. An blade eyebrow tattoo is recognized as permanent eyebrow makeup. You can get the cosmetic procedure completed by recommended cosmetic technicians like Permanent Makeup London.
This kind of eyebrow tattoos are meant for those who have very little or no eyebrow hair. These procedures are known as intradermal micro pigmentation in fact it is suggested by experts within the field, that you simply take great care in locating a sound and reputable cosmetic or Permanent Makeup technicians who are qualified to perform such procedures.
If you are not using eyebrow semi permanent, then before the eyebrow tattoos are applied, the cosmetic surgeon provides you with the local anesthetic. Following that, ink is injected by a vibrating needle to the dermis, which is the top layer of skin that is certainly directly underneath the epidermis. Once the ink is injected, a drop of it enters where the skin is punctured and after the procedure is finished, the patients will need to wait around for three weeks more or less for the tattoo to fade into its permanent shade.
Permanent Makeup London uses several various kinds of needles that apply eyebrow tattoos. One of these is the one and 2 prong needles and also the other is four to seven prong needles. One as well as 2 prong needles are employed to fill the eyebrow and they are round in shape. Employing a two prong needle, you can allow the ink be injected evenly into the skin and it helps make the job faster. Meanwhile the 5 prong needles are used to fill up the eyebrow after the outlining has already been accomplished for Eyebrow Semi Permanent.
Additionally, there are two types of tattoos for that Eyebrow Semi Permanent and Permanent makeup. Should you be unsure regardless if you are making the correct choice through getting eyebrow tattoos, think about the Semi-permanent Makeup methods. Semi permanent makeup London is accessible and there are several styles and types of temporary tattoos available. These temporary eyebrow tattoos are waterproof and smudge-proof. You could purchase eyebrow tattoo pens from Makeup shops anywhere and put it on all on your own.Semi permanent makeup London lgexjt state that these forms of tattoos may last as long as you require and once that need is performed, you can remove them with ease. Should you not want the irritation of re-applying then choose permanent eyebrow tattoos.
Additionally there is a form of permanant makeup called the 3D eyebrow tattoo. These types of permanent makeup tattoos are suggested by experts for people who desire the most effective technique of eyebrow tattooing. 3D tattoos are intended by Lisa Wang, a Californian aesthetician in 1996 and may be found in permanent and semi-permanent makeup locations inside london. 3D tattoos is going to take about an hour or so to apply and a few days to your week to heal. Experts warn the patient might undergo a tiny swelling near the eyes when the procedure has become completed but promise that when your eye area have healed, the 3D eyebrow tattoos will look one hundred percent natural.
Author adminPosted on January 24, 2019 Categories netLeave a comment on Microblading Over Tattooed Eyebrows – View Our Business Now To Track Down More Resources..
Renting out a dumpster, appears pretty basic? Well, prior to you put your dumpster order there are a couple of points you need to understand.
For starters, take into consideration the size. Commonly, temporary dumpster rentals will certainly can be found in four or five dimensions … 10 cubic yard, 15 cubic yard, 20 cubic yard, 30 cubic backyard and 40 cubic backyard containers. While to 10, 20, 30 and also 40 yard dumpsters prevail, the 15 cubic yard containers may be hard to find occasionally.
10 yard dumpsters – approx. 12-14 feet long x 8 ft vast x 3-3.5 ft high.
20 lawn dumpsters – approx. 22 ft long x 8 ft broad x 4 feet high.
30 lawn dumpsters – approx. 22 feet long x 8 feet large x 4 feet high.
40 backyard dumpsters – approx. 22 feet long x 8 ft vast x 4 ft high.
Implying the “things” you place in the dumpster will eventually be considered and if the weight limitation for your dumpster exceeds your rental contract you will certainly more than most likely face an added cost. Make sure you ask what your weight limit is on your dumpster service before you order.
Exactly how long do you get to keep your dumpster? The majority of companies will certainly allow you to keep your dumpster for in between 5-7 days. If you’re fortunate, you could find a firm that will allow you maintain your dumpster for up to 2 weeks.
CHARGES, CHARGES, COST = ASK, ASK, ASK!
Some people may say that the dumpster rental solutions market is recognized for all sorts of add-on or added charges. So be a smart consumer and also ask the adhering to questions.
Is there a shipment charge? A great deal of dumpster rental firms will certainly bill a delivery fee in addition to the price they estimate you, so be sure to ask. Delivery fees can range anywhere from $25 to $50 or even more.
Exists a daily leasing cost? Some companies will bill an everyday leasing cost so be sure to ask if the rental fee is consisted of or not.
Is tax obligation consisted of? Again, ask if tax is consisted of in the priced quote rate.
What can’t enter the dumpster? Depending upon the firm and/or city guidelines and also laws there will certainly most certainly be some things you can not put in the container. Some typical prohibited products consist of: paint, oil, gasoline, any type of hazardous waste, any kind of flammable liquids, and hazardous products, automobile tires, cars and truck batteries, asbestos, and so on. Once more, always ask about a banned products list. Putting any of these things in the dumpster will more than likely lead to an additional charge.
Renting a dumpster can be a really useful solution for a lot of various tasks. Just like any type of other acquisition, keep in mind the old phrase “purchaser beware”. Ask a lot concerns as well as see to it you obtain an all comprehensive, flat rate on your dumpster order. Use the inquiries and standards above to aid browse through the dumpster rental process as well as you need to come out a educated and happy consumer!
Usually, Dumpster Rental Clinton, MO short-term dumpster leasings will certainly come in 4 or five dimensions … 10 cubic yard, 15 cubic backyard, 20 cubic yard, 30 cubic yard and 40 cubic backyard containers. Indicating the “things” you put in the dumpster will inevitably be considered and if the weight limit for your dumpster surpasses your rental contract you will certainly more than most likely face an extra cost. Make certain you ask what your weight restriction is on your dumpster leasing before you order. A great deal of dumpster rental firms will charge a shipment cost on top of the price they estimate you, so be certain to ask. Make use of the inquiries and also standards above to assist browse with the dumpster rental process and you must come out a pleased and also well-informed customer!
Nisnass Coupon Code – Browse Further To Help With Making A Well Informed Choice..
Calling all fashion lovers living in the UAE: the smart shopping app, Nisnass, recently launched a unique style-savvy crew! Kicking off from October 2018, you’ll discover the trendy #NisnassCrew of influencers spreading their fashion-forward inspiration across social networking.
Seven influencers. One crew. From fitness fanatics to beauty buffs, this group of funky people are transforming Dubai’s style scene and developing a unique lifestyle which everybody can connect with. Young, fresh and oh-so trendy, this is exactly what the Nisnass brand is about!
Fulfill the #NisnassCrew – The #NisnassCrew inspires the city’s fashion lovers, serving an array of lifestyles, trends and interests. Fashion, beauty, fitness and lifestyle… you name it, this crew is rocking all the latest looks completely from your smartphone! Prepared to fulfill the #NisnassCrew?
Free returns: You may have 1 month after delivery to come back your item… free of charge! Money on delivery: You are able to pay funds on delivery without any extra charges. Speedy delivery: Nisnass offers a two-hour delivery service within Dubai, 4-7 workings days in KSA, and 2-4 working days across the rest of the GCC. Brand variety: You’ll find over 400 international brands, from Diesel and Nike to Tommy Hilfiger, Trendyol and a lot more. Innovative app: The app is super user-friendly and it is on the Apple Store & Google Play. In addition, it features innovative technology including Voice Search and Visual Search, which enables you to snap a try of the item and the app will style match it for you personally!
From beauty to fashion and everything in between, take a look at Nisnass for all of your shopping online needs! You may also stick to the #NisnassCrew on Instagram, Facebook and twitter for regular style inspo.
Having successfully launched Ounass and Nass previously eighteen months, the Dubai-based clients are now launching Nisnass, a contemporary mobile-first e-commerce site that is certainly set to radically change the way we shop.
The website will only be accessible to shop via mobile to start with included in the intend to attract millennial customers to the platform. It will also feature voice and visual image search functions to create choosing a gflbkr piece of clothing, shoes or handbag much easier. All you’ll need to do is upload a graphic in the product you’re searching for and also the app will automatically search its catalogue for the exact item, or something similar.
As for the brands it can carry? Nike, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Storets are some of the 200 lifestyle brands that might be available on site. In addition to its men’s and women’s collections, it will carry homewares, beauty and kids collections. Similar to its sister sites, Nisnass will even offer two hour delivery within Dubai, next day for the UAE and three to six days for your GCC.
Author adminPosted on January 23, 2019 Categories UncategorizedLeave a comment on Nisnass Coupon Code – Browse Further To Help With Making A Well Informed Choice..
Black Yoga Shorts – Drop By Our Business Today To Uncover Extra Specifics..
From layering to stand alone pieces, yoga shorts have become an important must-have in practicing yoga. Their appeal has blossomed through the entire yoga community. They are a means either to stay cool during the summertime or to look fashionable during the cooler seasons. Some individuals even use them as cover over tight yoga pants, to aid their confidence during yoga sessions.
Whichever reason you select, shorts or cropped pants really are a staple in almost any fitness wardrobe. Like so many other yoga apparel staples, shorts come in a large variety. From micro-shorts, to longer more conservative varieties. You will find a set to fit your body and fashion needs. From beautiful prints, vibrant colors and sleek fabrics. Whether you want a drawstring, or even a smooth seamless line. It comes with an selection for everyone!
While many people consider them as nothing more than your standard workout wear. These yoga shorts are specially made only for yoga. Giving you the ability to move freely, without the concern of flashing someone behind you. They may be seen made from conventional materials, to organic blends. Which will help you feel great not just concerning your yoga session, but keeping our earth free of harmful chemicals too. Which, as you may know already. Will assist you to gain a higher sense of inner peace, in floeoz that you will be helping our world.
Do not worry guys! You can find apparel options available for you personally too. While they are generally much longer compared to a woman’s short. They still supply the freedom of movement the female version does. Giving you a leg-up inside your yoga lessons.
The only real disadvantage to yoga shorts, is that they aren’t as readily accessible as you might want. Most mass-market retailers in many cases offering simple workout wear that isn’t conducive to yoga. Instead, you will have to find a specialty store. Either online or locally, they will give you a multitude of prints, colors, and styles for you to choose from. With the amount of different alternatives to choose from, the purchase price range can differ too. Giving everyone the opportunity to afford a set of athletic shorts. So, do your favor and locate that perfect pair, or two, or three!
Author adminPosted on January 23, 2019 Categories netLeave a comment on Black Yoga Shorts – Drop By Our Business Today To Uncover Extra Specifics..
Your fantasy football team is on the appropriate track to win your championship. In spite of your best initiatives, you have not been able to make your dream football group job. You had every dream football rip off sheet and also dream football rankings sheet.
Prior to you reach the storage, I ask that you take a min to review this write-up, reviewed a couple of mid-season dream football tips, and possibly, you can get your fantasy football group on the ideal track to success. However, if you are the individual who is running the fantasy football group that gets on the best track, you simply may take advantage of a few tips additionally that will make the remainder of your period a success. Trust me; these ideas are far better than digesting more fantasy football positions.
1. Check your dream football group. Currently, I recognize this seems common sense as well as completely ludicrous. You have been checking your dream football team the entire season, right? Well, if you have been examining your dream football team as well as making changes, ideally, you get on the right track. Yet, if you are not, understand that now in the period numerous dream football owners have actually stepped down. They are tired of adjusting their line-ups and also checking out fantasy football rankings. This will allow you to be able to maximize their late-season negligence. Merely inspecting your fantasy football group and making the appropriate modifications (e.g., benching players that are injured, etc.) will enable you to perhaps get one or two wins that you otherwise may not obtain late in the season.
2. Look in advance at the NFL timetable as well as get play-off bound players out of your fantasy football group line-up. Every year, I see a fantastic group in among my leagues obtain damaged due to an absence of preparation. And also, for a severe fantasy football player, an absence of prep work is untenable as well as tragic. Lots of dream football proprietors assume that they can simply operate with Yahoo fantasy football positions, ESPN dream football rankings, CBS SportsLine fantasy football rankings, Athlon dream football rankings, or the fantasy football positions from one more publication. Yet, at this point in the season, you need to begin looking at the timetable. This period, it is fairly clear that the Colts will certainly win the AFC South. You require to be taking a look at your fantasy football schedule-at week’s 14, 15, 16, as well as 17. You require to look at your fantasy football playoff schedule and also contrast it to the NFL schedule. Analyze who you have at running back. Analyze who you have at wide receiver. Are these gamers on groups that are outright shoe-ins for the playoffs? I will certainly give you an example to show my factor. A couple of years ago, when the Philly Eagles locked up their residence area benefit early on and Donovan McNabb was having such an exceptional fantasy football period, a buddy of mine in a league that I remain in had his fantasy football group implode due to the fact that the Eagles benched McNabb. You do not desire this to occur to you. Consider the NFL standings, see who will certainly be benched, and also strategy in advance to obtain them out of your fantasy football team’s lineup.
You had every Football Highlights dream football cheat sheet and fantasy football rankings sheet. Prior to you get to the storage, I ask that you take a min to review this post, reviewed a couple of mid-season dream football tips, and probably, you can get your dream football team on the ideal track to success. Just examining your dream football team as well as making the appropriate modifications (e.g., benching players that are wounded, and so on) will certainly enable you to potentially pick up one or 2 victories that you or else may not get late in the period.
Numerous fantasy football Match of the day owners believe that they can just operate with Yahoo dream football rankings, ESPN fantasy football positions, CBS SportsLine fantasy football rankings, Athlon fantasy football rankings, or the dream football rankings from an additional publication. A few years Watch match of the day back, when the Philadelphia Eagles secured up their residence area advantage early on as well as Donovan McNabb was having such an outstanding fantasy football season, a pal of mine in an organization that I’m in had his dream football group implode due to the fact that the Eagles benched McNabb.
How To Get Rid Of Hemorrhoids Fast – Surf To Us Now To Obtain Extra Specifics..
People suffering from hemorrhoids only know for themselves how intense its distress is. The itching and irritation caused in internal and external hemorrhoids is actually unexplainable. Most of the medicated therapy for how to get rid of hemorrhoids fast do not last long and suffering keep coming back after every day or two.
Many doctors suggest surgery since the only remedy for hemorrhoids. But as with most surgeries, hemorrhoids surgery also comes with several risks and side effects. In case you are fed up with trying all options and searching for some natural remedy, please read this article full. You will find some extremely useful information and resource here with which you may remove your hemorrhoids within 6 days.
Should you suffer with severe itching attempt to apply ice cubes on the rectal area. Ice cube serve as natural local anesthesia with which you may get immediate relieve from itching and irritation. You can also use some soft bit of cloth dumped in cold water. Placing it on the affected region provides you immediate relief from pain and itching.
he bad news about hemorrhoids is because they itch, they burn, they hurt and there are many people suffering together when you look at this. The good thing is that there are numerous of ways to achieve hemorrhoid relief, and how to eliminate hemorrhoids has stopped being an issue without an answer. Finally you can find options that you could take advantage of in the home.
The simplest way to eliminate hemorrhoids is to modify your diet. Add more green leafy vegetables for your diet, and fresh fruits. Most importantly, drink far more water. Hydration is vital to passing softer stools. Constipation is the leading cause of hemorrhoids and you want to avoid this at all costs.
The simplest way in order to avoid constipation is to minimize on junk foods and junk foods. Very easy to do when you increase the amount of fresh veggies! A basic ice pack can be used to combat the discomfort and burn of hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoid relief is a couple of minutes away – just make sure to not apply the ice directly to the area. Use a cloth or cover in a towel. Hot tip: soak the covering in crbgsd hazel for twice the soothing power.
Peanut butter is considered to alleviate hemorrhoids naturally, having said that i find so that it is messy and hard to remove. A better option from your refrigerator is yogurt, whose active cultures will attack the bacteria in hemorrhoids symptoms and carry instant hemorrhoid relief.
The most effective news is the fact now there is a natural cure that many have got benefit of to regain their lives and stay without any hemorrhoids. It is a far better option than treatments that only help symptoms while not doing anything for your underlying cause.
Try to avoid excess standing and relaxing in wrong posture. Maintain your feet up usually. Avoid doing anything that increases pressure on your own rectal muscles. Lifting weights and stretching exercises must be avoided by hemorrhoid patients under all circumstances.
Hemorrhoids are directly linked to your daily diet. The truth is an instant reaction on your condition by eating something which aggravates hemorrhoids. Eating chicken, steak etc needs to be avoided strictly. Try to drink plenty of juices and foods fiber rich and flavonoids. They ensure that your bowels remain soft and you also require the least effort while passing them.
Author adminPosted on January 23, 2019 Categories UncategorizedLeave a comment on How To Get Rid Of Hemorrhoids Fast – Surf To Us Now To Obtain Extra Specifics..
Laundry Chute Closer – Precisely What Other Companies Are Saying..
Garbage chutes. They are disgusting. Most individuals who have worked in a tall building or lived in an apartment within the city know what it’s like to have a garbage chute. Disgusting smelling air plumes out right after the latch is opened. It’s no wonder you start gagging. In almost any business or apartment, a lot of stuff gets disposed of, and plenty of it is gross stuff. Who knows how long the diapers, sanitation products, personal care items, or rotting food have been mixing and mingling down there. That, times all of the tenants within the building? How about times the days, weeks, months, possibly even years that have passed by without the chute being properly cleaned? It’s a wonder you do not die from all the bacteria you could potentially be inhaling every time you throw something away.
There’s all types of undesirable viruses, bacteria, as well as insects all residing in the grease and grime that covers the interior walls of garbage chutes. Are you aware the very last time trash chute closer was cleaned? Some chutes never get cleaned. When someone opens the latch to the chute, there’s lots of stagnant air being released to the area. Apart from the terrible smell, all of the aforementioned harmful organisms are receiving inhaled by the tenants, which is actually a major risk with their health.
Getting a proper cleaning is easy. There’s a lot of companies on the market which can be making large strides on a daily basis, offering such services as cleaning with environmentally safe solvent and carcinogen free products. They strive to ensure that anyone counting on you, multiple families or just a single person, can live healthy and breathe healthy in their own individual homes. The majority of these cleaning services offer garbage chute cleaning.
In a nutshell, they are going to seal all of the chutes, and through the highest chute, fill all of them with extremely warm water. This dislodges food, grime, and any other develop. Mixed along with this water is a safe and biodegradable detergent which will continue to dissolve this grime or food. Next comes a rinse. They then send more water with the chutes, at a lower pressure, and fully removes any dislodged build-up which was hit from the detergent but still remains. The last step of the procedure is a deodorant and sanitizer that prnsel go through the future to safeguard the walls from further smell or grime.
The green company has turned into a very successful cleaning company just through this specialized process. They keep both people as well as their environment in mind while formulating revolutionary new products and cleaning systems that reduce anyone and everyone’s indoor air pollution exposure. The green company chooses to destroy the grease, grime, food, bacteria, and dirt that is the source, as opposed to throwing a bunch of harsh chemicals with harsher smells along with what’s already there.
You need trash chute cleaning. It’s no challenge to know that many businesses and people have gone to green companies for their cleaning needs. It’s important for success to keep your family, employees, or tenants happy, so choosing to trust in a company you can depend on will not be a tough decision, it’s what eco friendly garbage chute cleaning is centered on. They had no problem establishing a good road to success simply by revolutionizing the commercial cleaning industry.
Author adminPosted on January 23, 2019 Categories binLeave a comment on Laundry Chute Closer – Precisely What Other Companies Are Saying..
Internet has been giving myriad info for net customers. If you are able to identify their demands and also demands, you will certainly have the ability to offer suitable items based upon their preferences in your online shop so that it can boost product sales on the long-term run.
Lots of people have shed their day work during the recession. It is incredibly tough for them to look for a new job as a result of competitors. Since lots of people are web savvy users, it takes much less time for them to find out the fundamentals of establishing a shopping site.
Unlike setting up a genuine retail store, you do not have to spend much cash on establishing your very own on-line shop. It has the possibility of enhancing revenues if your items are promoted in the right way. Normally, items are advertised by means of Pay-Per- Click (PPC) advertising and marketing like Google AdWords, BidVertiser and other online advertising.
As an independent individual, you can have more flexibility in your job location in addition to having more time on your family members. It is time to increase your organisation by hiring individuals to run your online service if sales are incredibly great.
Some individuals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPokDVVa9v0 might have neglected the capacity of the World Wide Internet as many individuals that have started gaining cash by establishing up their own online shop. Unlike establishing up a real retail shop, you do not have to invest much money on setting up your very own on-line shop. Usually, items are advertised using Pay-Per- Click (PPC) marketing like Google AdWords, BidVertiser and also various other on-line advertising and marketing.
As extra and a lot more organizations are restructuring or forcing older workforce into early retirement to cut fees, it’s an financial commitment in the career to do the belongings you can perform to glance as youthful while in the place of work while you in all probability truly feel. Thankfully modern health-related engineering can boost your overall look with no producing you to definitely overlook each day of labor or spend a lot more than the price of a new outfit.
Considering the fact that UV radiation depletes the pores and skin of antioxidants which include Nutritional vitamins A, C and E, it is beneficial to utilize products that comprise individuals vitamins. Oils and serums can sit around the pores and skin additional correctly than product for the reason that a cream’s major component is drinking water (creating rapid evaporation of the solution). Fractional lasers release controlled electrical power in the pores and skin and encourage it to respond and create much more collagen and elastin, hence improving upon skin integrity. You’ll find extreme laser tactics which may acquire as many as ten days to completely get well and see the benefits and there are gentler laser approaches which involve much less down time.
Allergic response is another possible complication of plastic surgery. Not a soul can forecast how one’s human body will respond to your anesthesia or the medical procedures, so this chance is usually there. An unlikely, but possible complication of beauty surgery is loss of life. A possibility with all surgical treatment this could certainly potentially happen in the handful of means. Essentially the most prevalent is that if a patient is offered an excessive amount of anesthesia and subsequently slips into a coma and dies.
How do you determine what choices are available for your visual appeal considerations? Lots of beauty physicians gives you a session at no cost, and many have aestheticians who will assistance you develop the simplest at-home system for the skin. Do your investigation and decide on a medical doctor with expertise who presents an assortment of non-surgical processes, who listens to what you are hoping to achieve, and who won’t try out to speak you into signing up for just about anything just before you’ve got experienced an opportunity to consider it. Even with just one cosmetic procedure, you could possibly obtain the form of enhancement with your physical appearance to provide you with that more self esteem which makes each of the distinction in the career.
It really is crucial during this day and age that we continue on to tell ourselves of all of the options offered prior to making any conclusions that affect our wellbeing or visual appearance. In which after “anti aging” intended that a affected individual would need to go under the knife or inject harsh poisons into their overall body to get the preferred anti ageing influence, now we have been employing way more non-surgical selections than ever before before for individuals wishing to begin their very own anti getting old regime.
Author adminPosted on January 23, 2019 Categories binTags australia, cosmetic physicians, cosmetic surgery, melbourne, plastic surgeryLeave a comment on Top Cosmetic Surgery Guide!
Renting out a dumpster, seems pretty easy right? Well, prior to you place your dumpster order there are a couple of things you need to understand.
For starters, take into consideration the dimension. Normally, short-lived dumpster leasings will certainly be available in 4 or 5 dimensions … 10 cubic backyard, 15 cubic yard, 20 cubic lawn, 30 cubic yard and 40 cubic lawn containers. While to 10, 20, 30 and 40 lawn dumpsters prevail, the 15 cubic lawn containers may be difficult to locate in some cases.
Measurements (may differ a little):.
10 backyard dumpsters – approx. 12-14 ft long x 8 feet large x 3-3.5 feet high.
20 lawn dumpsters – approx. 22 feet long x 8 ft broad x 4 ft high.
30 yard dumpsters – approx. 22 ft long x 8 ft wide x 4 ft high.
40 lawn dumpsters – approx. 22 ft long x 8 feet wide x 4 ft high.
Almost every dumpster will certainly have a weight limitation. Indicating the “things” you put in the dumpster will eventually be considered as well as if the weight limit for your dumpster surpasses your rental contract you will more than likely face a service charge. Make sure you ask what your weight restriction gets on your dumpster leasing prior to you order. The weight limit can vary anywhere from 2 to 12 tons!
For how long do you get to keep your dumpster? A lot of companies will allow you to keep your dumpster for between 5-7 days. You could locate a business that will certainly let you maintain your dumpster for up to 2 weeks if you’re fortunate. What takes place if you want to keep it longer than your agreed timespan? Extra costs. Usually, you will certainly incur a daily price charge from anywhere from $5 to $15 per day, after the initial rental period.
FEES, CHARGES, COST = ASK, ASK, ASK!
Some people may state that the dumpster rental solutions sector is recognized for all sorts of add-on or additional charges. Be a smart customer as well as ask the following concerns.
Is there a delivery fee? A great deal of dumpster rental business will certainly bill a delivery charge on top of the price they quote you, so be sure to ask. Distribution fees can vary anywhere from $25 to $50 or even more.
Is there a day-to-day rental charge? Some firms will certainly bill an everyday rental cost so be sure to ask if the rental charge is included or otherwise.
Is tax obligation consisted of? Once more, ask if tax is included in the priced quote price.
What can’t go in the dumpster? Depending upon the business and/or city guidelines as well as regulations there will certainly most definitely be some things you can not position in the container. Some typical prohibited products consist of: paint, oil, gasoline, any contaminated materials, any flammable fluids, as well as hazardous materials, car tires, car batteries, asbestos, etc. Once again, always ask about a forbidden things list. Placing any of these things in the dumpster will certainly more than likely result in an additional charge.
Ask a whole lot questions and make sure you obtain an all inclusive, level price on your dumpster order. Make use of the concerns and also guidelines over to help browse with the dumpster rental procedure and you ought to come out a educated and pleased customer!
Usually, Dumpster Rental Raynham, MA short-term dumpster rentals will come in 4 or five sizes … 10 cubic lawn, 15 cubic yard, 20 cubic lawn, 30 cubic yard and 40 cubic backyard containers. Implying the “stuff” you put in the dumpster will eventually be evaluated and also if the weight restriction for your dumpster exceeds your rental agreement you will extra than most likely face an additional charge. Make certain you ask what your weight restriction is on your dumpster rental prior to you order. A lot of dumpster rental business will certainly charge a shipment cost on top of the price they estimate you, so be sure to ask. Use the questions and guidelines above to aid browse via the dumpster rental process as well as you must come out a delighted and also educated customer! | 2019-04-21T00:30:55Z | http://bhcslondon.info/page/56/ |
We began this week’s episode of Revolution with last week’s cliffhanger: Rachel has managed to walk right up to Monroe, and stands in his tent with a live grenade. She flicks the striker, and two things happen simultaneously: one of Monroe’s men wrestles her to the ground, grappling for the grenade, while another soldier hauls Monroe around and pulls him to the ground as well, shielding him with his body. Monroe struggles with the soldier, staring over at Rachel in disbelief; she simply stares back, seemingly oblivious of the man fighting to wrench the grenade from her hands.
At the last moment, the soldier manages to yank the grenade away from Rachel, and he hurls it outside of the tent, where it promptly explodes. Monroe staggers to his feet, his expression still fixed in stunned disbelief, while Rachel makes no effort to get up as well, staring back with a kind of sad resignation on her own face.
Four miles away, a helicopter lands, and Miles, Neville, Nora, Charlie, and Jason climb out. As they all gear up, Miles quips that they likely have an entire army awaiting them, not to mention Monroe, “But, what the hell? Just another Monday, right?” They then set out in hopes of rescuing Rachel.
Aaron observes the ensuing chaos within the Monroe camp through binoculars, having apparently realized that Rachel’s plan did not succeed. He watches as Monroe hauls Rachel out of Monroe’s tent and then marches her over to the Tower entrance, followed by Randall and a contingent of soldiers. Monroe grabs one of Rachel’s hands, forcing it against the computer scanner. Both she and Randall look surprised when the computer flashes “Access Granted” and the doors begin to slide open. They reveal a tunnel, and lights flicker on inside as the group watches.
Monroe heads in, accompanied by Rachel, Randall, and a few of his soldiers. They walk out onto a causeway, with huge pipes running overhead and stairwells leading to multiple levels below. Randall points out a supercollider to Monroe, stating that it’s just the tip of the iceberg in potential weaponry. They keep walking, and Rachel berates Randall in an undertone for bringing Monroe to the tower. She says that it is an insane move, even for Randall, who responds that, unlike Rachel, he has a healthy interest in self-preservation. He then wonders how Rachel managed to get the door open, since he didn’t recall her having the clearance needed. Rachel replies that she has no idea. This leads Randall to conclude that it must have been Grace’s doing, and he informs Rachel that he left Grace in the Tower under supervision, but that she must have gotten loose. When Rachel expresses disbelief that Grace would have managed to take out one of Randall’s men, he retorts, “Who else could it be?” To which Rachel offers no suggestion.
Outside, two of Monroe’s men walk near the Tower entrance, one of them asking the other what Monroe is doing inside. When the other soldier asks the Captain if he is questioning Monroe’s judgment, the Captain quickly denies this. The sight of the Tower doors sliding shut suddenly distracts them. They race over, but the doors close before they arrive, and they pound uselessly at the entrance. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched on a camera, from within the Tower, by a man. As they shout and bang at the doors, the man hits a few keystrokes on a computer keyboard, and the monitor he is watching flips to a new view, this of Monroe, Randall, Rachel, and the soldiers walking along the causeway.
The man turns away from the monitors, addressing a group of people behind him, stating that it was time to welcome their visitors. This prompts his group to grab weapons off the wall before heading out.
In the nearby woods, Miles and the group are observing Monroe’s camp, searching for Rachel. Nora notices a light in the distance, and they sneak over to it, assuming it is Monroe’s scouts. Instead, they stumble upon Aaron, who is shocked to find them with Neville.
Inside the Tower, Randall has led the group back to the area where he had left Grace. He presses the button for the elevator, and is surprised when it lights up, and the floor indicator shows the cage moving up to them from floor 11. Monroe is more interested in the computer monitors on the opposite wall, which display live global satellites. Randall tells Monroe that the Tower was built to be impervious to everything, including the blackout, and is fully powered. He goes on to say that there is nothing they can’t do from within the Tower, including spying on anyone in the world, listen to anything they’re saying, or kill them, all with the push of a button. He is quick to add that Monroe will need his help to accomplish this. Monroe asks if all of that could really be accomplished from where they stand, and Randall hesitates, stating that they need to get to level 12 first. Rachel attempts to interrupt Randall, shocked and alarmed at what he is telling Monroe, which proves to Monroe that Randall is telling the truth. He starts walking toward the elevator, with the intent of going down to that level with the others.
Outside, Aaron and Charlie exchange a quick embrace. When Aaron asks how things are going, Nora speaks bluntly, saying that if he doesn’t get the power back on, the Rebels and Georgia army will be destroyed. Aaron then reveals that Rachel is in the Tower with Monroe, after failing in her attempt to go down there and kill him by also killing herself. He shows them Dr. Warren’s journal and explains how he can gain access to the Tower by using the override codes inside, once they figure out how to get past Monroe’s troops.
Inside the elevator, Monroe and the others watch as the floor indicator slowly dings its way down toward 12. It suddenly jars to a stop, opening its doors on floor 11. Randall steps out and looks around, before stepping back in and pushing the button again for 12. Nothing happens, and he tells Monroe that there must be something wrong with the elevator, but that they can use a stairwell to reach the bottom level. Suddenly, all of the lights go out, before flickering on and off with the sound of an alarm. A few soldiers step out of the elevator as Monroe demands for Randall to explain what is going on. Before Randall can even attempt to respond, the air is lit with gunfire, and several soldiers collapse as they are killed. Everyone jumps from the elevator, most cut down immediately. Monroe is trapped in a doorway, and notices that Rachel has managed to make it down the hall and is punching a password into a locked door. She manages to get the door open, and as she slips inside and starts to close it, Monroe appears and starts to force his way in with her. Rachel tries to keep him out, but he overpowers her, pushing the door open hard enough for her to lose her grip and fall back. Monroe gets inside, closing the door behind him, and Rachel attacks him. Again, she is overpowered, losing her weapon and pulled down to the ground by Monroe. He screams at her to stop fighting, and as they lay there, gasping, he asks her what just happened and who just attacked them, but she simply stares at him.
In Monroe’s camp, Jason and Neville have snuck into the command tent, where Monroe’s power amplifier is. They open cans of gasoline, and Jason pulls a grenade from his pocket. He and Neville exchange a long look, before Jason pulls the pin and flicks the striker. He drops the grenade on top of the amplifier, and he and Neville race from the tent. It explodes behind them, knocking out all of the power throughout the camp. While the flames distract Monroe’s soldiers, Miles, Charlie, Nora, and Aaron run to the Tower doors, and Aaron starts working on the override codes. While he is still keying in the commands, they are discovered by the Militia, who open fire. He finally finishes keying in the sequence of commands, and the doors open. They run inside, and keep exchanging fire with the soldiers, waiting for Jason and Neville to join them. However, they run out of ammo, and Jason and Neville are pinned down by gunfire. Miles orders Aaron to close the doors. He grabs Charlie as she tries to run out, screaming for Jason, and Charlie and Jason exchange looks of horror as the doors close with Jason and Neville still outside.
Within the Tower, Rachel watches a monitor that shows several different areas of the underground compound, while Monroe stalks around the room, searching it, still firing questions at her. Rachel calmly denies any knowledge of who attacked them or how they can escape or where Monroe can find weapons. When Monroe points out that she must know something of the Tower, since she knew how to access the bunker, Rachel only stares at him, refusing to admit anything. Monroe tries reasoning with her, stating that their only chance to survive is if they help each other. This causes Rachel to remind him that she only wants him dead, even if it means her death as well. Monroe accuses her of lying, stating that he has talked to several people who attempted suicide and somehow survived, and that they all expressed regret when they made the attempt. Therefore, he knows what Rachel was thinking back in the tent, and now this is her chance to get out of the Tower alive, so that she can get back to trying to kill him without putting her own life in jeopardy.
One week before the blackout, Rachel stands, holding a pendant, while nearby Ben works on a laptop. He assures her that the pendants are merely a precaution, and that the containment protocols are rock solid. Rachel is not convinced, saying that there was still a chance that something could go wrong. When Ben brushes off her concern, Rachel gets in his face, urging him to help her cancel the launch. They exchange harsh words before Rachel backs off, saying that all they ever do anymore is fight. Ben agrees, saying that they just need to get through the week, and Rachel responds that after the week is over they should spend some time apart.
As Miles leads the others along the causeway, everyone looks around in amazement. Charlie, in particular, is finally realizing the part that her parents played in instigating the events that led up to the blackout.
Back in the militia camp, Neville and Jason are handcuffed within a tent. Two men enter, and Neville greets them as Franklin and Riley. He congratulates Franklin on his promotion to Major, and Riley on being made a Captain, telling Riley that he has to be one of the youngest Captains in the Republic. Franklin informs Neville that he knows that Miles was able to get into the Tower with Neville’s assistance, and demands to know how it was done. Neville ignores the question, asking instead where Captain Baker was. He tells Franklin that Baker should be running point, unless the rumors were true, and Monroe blew his head off. Franklin merely repeats his questions, but Neville continues to ignore them, persisting with his thoughts that Monroe has been killing many good men lately, and that Neville himself was a victim of Monroe’s psychotic behavior. Franklin scoffs at Neville’s words, but is interrupted by another soldier, requesting that he go to the infirmary. As he and Riley turn to leave, Neville calls after them, telling them that it’s only a matter of time until Monroe turns on them also. Franklin leaves, but Neville’s words cause Riley to hesitate and stare at Neville for a moment before he, too, leaves. After the militiamen are gone, Jason demands to know what Neville is planning. Neville merely stares at his son, slowly starting to smile.
Once again, the elevator is in use within the Tower, as Aaron, Miles, Charlie, and Nora also attempt to access level 12. The elevator stops on 11, and everyone stares in shock as the doors open to reveal blood-splattered walls and motionless bodies. As the elevator doors close behind them, Miles catches sight of a body that reminds him of Rachel. He hurries over to it, and to his and Charlie’s relief, it is no one they know. Charlie starts to ruminate on who killed them, and with what, when the forgotten elevator dings to life, and they all look at it, suddenly realizing that it had returned to the ground floor and was now coming back down.
They race down a corridor, not wanting to be there when the elevator doors open. Miles leads them into a room that appears to be a laboratory, and they quickly barricade the door. He pries a vent off of a large air shaft at the other end of the room as someone starts pounding on the door. The group escape into the airshaft – Aaron grabbing something off a nearby table – just as the pounding stops and something blasts a hole through the door.
In the bunker, Rachel sits against a wall, watching Monroe strike a golf club against the glass panel to no avail. He finally tosses the club away in frustration, and accuses Rachel of knowing how to open the panel and access the weapons behind it. To his surprise, Rachel agrees with him, and then she proceeds to tell him that he was right about everything – that she didn’t want to die, and she wanted to see Charlie. When Monroe asks why, then, she won’t help him, Rachel responds that he also killed Danny. Monroe tries to claim that Danny’s death wasn’t his fault, as he was not there when the boy died, but Rachel calls him out for always having excuses and shifting the blame elsewhere.
Four months after the blackout, Ben is in an abandoned house, working to put a computer together. He takes his pendant and is able to power up the machine. He types out a message, asking if anybody is out there, and while he is waiting for a response, Rachel enters the room. She tells him that she went into town for supplies, and couldn’t handle the smell, saying that people were no longer burning the bodies of the dead, but simply leaving them in the streets to rot. She says that she saw a little boy around Charlie’s age, skin and bones, who ran away when he saw her. Rachel starts crying, saying to Ben that they were at fault, that the blackout and the catastrophe afterwards was their doing, and she isn’t sure if she can live with that. Ben consoles her, and goes on to say that what they did before didn’t matter any longer, and the only thing that should matter is their children. He starts to cry as well, telling Rachel that they had to hold on, and stay alive for Danny and Charlie. Rachel touches Ben’s face, and nods her understanding, and the two embrace. In the background, Ben’s computer monitor flashes a new message: Grace has seen his communication and is responding.
Deep within the Tower, Miles, Charlie, Nora, and Aaron have managed to elude those chasing them. Nora wonders at the type of weaponry used against them, and Aaron explains that they were coil guns, using electromagnets instead of gunpowder – something he saw once on Mythbusters. Miles wants to try and get ahold of their own coil guns, and Aaron tells him that there is an armory up ahead. He holds up what he had grabbed from the laboratory: a map of the compound. The group heads toward the armory, and are nearly discovered by some of the Tower inhabitants. Miles instructs the others to stay behind, as it would be easier for him to proceed alone. He manages to evade those looking for them, but when he reaches the armory, he discovers that it is empty of weapons.
Back outside, Captain Riley has returned to the tent where Neville and Jason are being held. Neville, sensing the young man’s wavering faith in Monroe, tells him that the only thing wrong with the Monroe Republic is Monroe himself. He urges Riley to see the truth of the matter – that Monroe has become paranoid, erratic, and not fit to lead. Riley responds by asking Neville if he thinks he should be the one leading the Republic; and for the first time, Jason speaks up, telling Riley that his father may be many things, but one thing he always did was take care of the men, and they always loved him for it. Neville, obviously overcome by his son’s faith in his leadership, urges Riley to help them lead a revolt, to kill the few remaining soldiers still firmly loyal to Monroe for the greater good of a better world. Riley appears torn, clearly wanting to believe Neville, but he hesitates, telling Neville and Jason that he’s not sure if they speak the truth, or are only looking to save themselves. He then storms out of the tent.
Things are heating up in the Tower, as one of the inhabitants discovers Charlie, Nora, and Aaron. He fires his coil gun, causing them to scatter. He manages to get Charlie in his sights, but Miles jumps him, and the two grapple briefly before Miles kills him. Miles takes the man’s gun and he and the others regroup and keep searching the compound.
In the bunker, Rachel notices Aaron on the monitors, followed by Nora and Miles. She is visibly shaken when she sees that Charlie is also there. Monroe comes over, and when he also observes the group, he urges Rachel again to unlock the guns, telling her that, no matter what he’s done in the past, he does not want to see another one of her kids get hurt, and he will help her keep Charlie safe. Rachel tells him that he is lying, and Monroe accuses her of wanting to kill him so badly that she’d let Charlie die rather than have him protect her. Rachel glances back at the monitors, and then asks Monroe about Miles, to which he responds that he can make no promises there. However, he swears to her that he will save Charlie, and Rachel opens the cabinet to the guns.
Another group of Tower inhabitants discovers the group. While Miles and Nora divert them, Charlie and Aaron keep moving, and, unbeknownst to them, are followed by one of the Tower guards. He fires his coil gun at Charlie’s back, hitting a nearby shelving unit by accident. The unit collapses, trapping Charlie underneath. Aaron returns to her side, and freezes as the man trains his weapon on him and prepares to shoot. Before he can, he is shot in the back, and Aaron looks in stunned disbelief as Monroe steps out of the shadows. He walks over to them as Rachel appears, also toting a gun. She and Aaron start pulling the debris off Charlie, and while they are distracted, Monroe turns and walks away. Charlie attempts to chase after him when she is freed, but Rachel restrains her, pulling Charlie and Aaron in a different direction. She leads them into another room, but they don’t get far before they are discovered, and overpowered, by another Tower faction.
Miles and Nora remain behind, Miles exchanging fire with some of the Tower occupants. Suddenly, Monroe appears, killing one of the Tower men. Monroe calls out to Miles, asking him if he’s ready to settle their conflict with each other once and for all. Miles swings out of his hiding spot, and he and Monroe scrutinize each other, weapons raised.
Rachel, Charlie, and Aaron are taken to another part of the Tower compound. They are led into a room occupied by not only Tower men, but women and children as well. As these people gather before them, their guards quickly search them, taking away any weapons. Dr. Warren’s journal is also taken, much to Aaron’s angst. Rachel is startled when Grace appears, and Aaron also expresses shock at the woman’s appearance, as she was the one he had been searching for so very long ago when Ben had given him the pendant. Grace greets them warmly, welcoming them. Another man steps forward, speaking Rachel’s name, and she stares at him in astonishment. When Charlie asks her mother who the people are, Rachel tells her that the man, Dan, and others were left in the Tower, working, the night of the blackout. She looks back at Dan, and tells him that she thought he was dead. Dan replies that they remained within the Tower, guarding it, especially Level 12, which was too dangerous to remain unprotected.
Outside the Tower, Captain Riley returns to the tent, seeking affirmation from Neville that the man is serious about his commitment to lead the militia once Monroe is removed. Neville convinces him, and Riley quickly unchains Neville, telling him that there are 12 soldiers with them, and that if Neville gets rid of Franklin, the remaining soldiers will also fall in with their cause. He hands Neville a gun, and then turns to unchain Jason. Neville praises Riley for his decision, and as Jason walks over to him, Neville asks him if he’s ready.
We end the episode with Dan taking Dr. Warren’s journal and dropping it in a metal container. As Rachel pleads with him about the validity of turning the lights back on, he dumps lighter fluid over the journal, telling her that returning power would simply give weapons to the entire world so that they could kill each other. Rachel argues that at least then, everyone would be able to defend themselves and that it would be a fair fight. Aaron also jumps in, telling Dan it would mean medicine, and clean water, and reason, and that they’d be able to help people and make things better. In response to their words, Dan strikes a match, and sets fire to Dr. Warren’s journal. As they watch it burn, a bewildered Aaron states that he doesn’t understand Dan’s reasoning. Grace tells Rachel to explain to Aaron what will happen if she flipped the switch.
Rachel simply replies that the lights will go on, but Grace refutes her words, telling Aaron and Charlie that if the power is turned back on, maybe they save the world…or maybe they set the world on fire.
So! What did everyone think of these revelations? Do you think Rachel’s one-in-a-billion estimate of a world in flames means they should take the chance and flip the power back on? How do you think Monroe and Miles’s standoff will end? Will Monroe leave the compound, only to find that his militia has been taken over by Neville? Let us know your thoughts about this episode in the comments section below! | 2019-04-20T23:09:14Z | https://www.fanbolt.com/13651/revolution-1-19-episode-recap-and-review-children-of-men/ |
Camp out in the bush - The ultimate "once in a lifetime" experience. Private Mobile Camping is the most unique and rewarding way to experience that intangible "something" that makes the Serengeti so special. Imagine total privacy in the middle of the remote African savanna, where you can embrace the peace of this wilderness completely uninterrupted by other tourists. With wildlife only a few feet away from your tent, you'll experience Africa in it's most natural state.
Do you crave seclusion, adventure, and the unspoiled beauty of nature? Do you appreciate comfort, exceptional food and first rate service? Do you want to have the ultimate "once in a lifetime" safari experience? If you said YES to any of these questions - PRIVATE MOBILE CAMPING IS FOR YOU! Private Mobile Camping is the most unique and rewarding way to experience that intangible "something" that makes the Serengeti so special. Imagine total privacy in the middle of the remote African savanna, where you can embrace the peace of this pristine wilderness completely uninterrupted by other tourists or the lights and sounds of a commercial lodge.
Think you'll miss the service or comforts of a commercial lodge? Think again! The beautiful irony of the experience is that you sacrifice little comfort by choosing to camp in this way - let's just say you won't be "roughing it!" In fact, at the Private Mobile Camp, you'll have a dedicated staff of courteous attendants catering to YOU and YOU ALONE with the same level of service you would expect at a high-class luxury resort!
Immediately upon your arrival, you'll be graciously welcomed by the staff with warm Swahili greetings, a hot towel and a chilled beverage. From that moment on, the only distance between any wish and reality is simply a request to make it so. Even laundry service is included - one of the many little perks you'll find integrated into your stay.
And did we mention the front row seats to spectacular wildlife viewing? You are, after all, spending the best parts of the day in the middle of the remote wilderness! Look for elephants and giraffe drifting among the Acacia trees, or if the migration is thundering through be prepared for an even more dramatic show! Okay, so you've got the spell-binding ambience of the Serengeti savanna, you've got the personalized service of a 5-star luxury resort, NOW throw in all those familiar creature comforts (only better!) like hot showers (by starlight!), unlimited beer or wine (by a bonfire!) and gourmet meals served on fine china (cooked to order- just for you !) The result of this combination is an overall experience that's almost too good to be true!
Let's face it, no commercial lodge can compete with the raw, authentic ambience that accompanies camping underneath the exposed African sky. In complete solitude you will be able to just soak in the peace and beauty of your surroundings, unrushed by the schedules of others. Watch an ocean of sun-drenched grasses ripple in the breeze as far as the eye can see (with no walls to block the view!) and piles of shifting clouds roll through brilliant blue skies (in lieu of hotel ceilings!) Smooth islands of granite kopjes rise from this vast sea of grass just as they have for millions of years, adorned by ornate candelabra trees that stretch their lofty arms to the heavens. Primitive, wild and beautiful, THIS is where you will really GET the Serengeti. The buildings, traffic and crowds of civilization are but distant memories of the past.
Don't feel like leaving yet? Good! You don't have to! As evening descends over the camp, sit outside your tent and watch the dying light of sunset shimmer through the long, frayed grasses of golden savanna. Indulge in a traditional bush dinner by candlelight or campfire, featuring 4 course gourmet meals that are cooked to order (just for you) and graciously served by the dedicated staff (just to you). Don't be surprised if the cooks and waiters burst into a spontaneous performance of traditional song and dance as they serve dessert! Choose your favorite beverage from the fully stocked bar (soda, beer, wine and spirits are all included with your stay!) and huddle by the dancing lights of the roaring bonfire as night cloaks the rest of the camp. Gaze at the sparkling blanket of stars that beam overhead, larger and lower and more brilliant than you've ever remembered seeing them before - there are no commercial lights around for miles to dilute this magical view!
When you are ready for a good night's sleep, retreat to your private tent and stretch out in a real, comfortable bed draped in a cozy duvet and fine linens. A hot water bottle, already placed snugly under the covers by one of the staff, nips any rogue chill that tries to sneak in. Since you are miles from civilization, expect the night to be full of life and nocturnal voices. Warm, comfortable and safe under your canvas shelter, you are coaxed to dreams by the symphony of the Serengeti - the soft throbbing of crickets, the distant whoops of hyenas and maybe even the roar of a lion!
Awake before sunrise to prepare for your early morning game drive and drench your body with steaming hot water from the open-air shower - you look up to the sky and all you see are stars! Toast the Serengeti with a delicious champagne breakfast by bonfire as you watch the sun rise and cast its ethereal glow over the surrounding land and cloudscapes. Inhale the smell of earth and dew and grass. Embrace the raw power of a wilderness still completely untouched by man. Each glorious moment is a celebration of the senses, and an incredible way to start the next day's adventure!
So if you really want the opportunity to connect with the nature of the Serengeti in a very intimate way, without sacrificing comfort, this is your chance to do it. Private Mobile Camping allows you to invest quality time in the Serengeti, especially during those magical hours like sunrise and sunset where the sights and sounds of your surroundings naturally intensify. Bask in the golden light of the setting sun, gaze up at a brilliant canopy of stars, listen for lions roaring in the night and then roll out of bed to a champagne toast at sunrise without ever climbing into the land rover. You are continually immersed in the magic of nature without interruption.
As mentioned above, the gracious staff at your Private Mobile Camp are there to serve YOU and YOU ONLY! So expect to be pampered like royalty. Expect gourmet meals and fine linens. Expect to be inspired. But don't just let us just talk about it come experience it for yourself!
"The Private Mobile Camp in the Serengeti was the showstopper! A private Tent (as big as our Family Room) so clean you could eat off the floor. A separate Dining Tent. Superb food (including the popcorn at the Fire Pit and Trout for lunch). A staff of five, to take care of the two of us, headed by Anthony. Anthony could make anyone feel welcome, he is a sophisticated, caring professional who sees to the smallest detail. It was hard to believe we were in the bush". - Bill & Maryann K.
"The whole experience at the private mobile camp was great. The service was akin to a 5-star hotel, the bed was very comfortable." - Paula and Ray M.
"Next we were off to the Central Serengeti region where we stayed at a 'mobile' Private Camp site, right out on the open plains among the animals, an absolutely incredible experience. Here you really get the feeling you are on an African Safari versus staying just at hotel like lodges." - Tom and Peg W.
"The lions roaring all night and the African dinner the last night at the Private Mobile Camp were particularly memorable." - Carl S.
"You may recall that we were somewhat reluctant, to say the least, about the private mobile camp. You will probably not be surprised to hear that it stands out as one of our most memorable safari experiences. The thrill of camping at the very site of the migration, the magnificent starry African night sky, being awakened by the sounds of roaring lions and hysterical zebras, and the extraordinary, warm personal care we received from the staff made our time spent there sensational. We thank you for insisting on it." - Martha and Monty D.
"We actually heard a pride of lions right outside our campsite in the middle of the night!! That was why we did it and it was worth it! Plus, it put us right in the thick of the animals. The food at the camp was great and the cake and song at the end was the perfect end to our camping experience."- Susie and Phillip C.
The Private Mobile Camp is a completely mobile camp and will be set up at the campsite of your choice (subject to availability) for the dates of your choice. The completely private camp is set up exclusively for just your group and can accommodate from 1 to 16 people. The camp consists of one dining tent and one or more sleeping tents depending upon the number of people in your group. Each sleeping tent is spacious and comfortable, and can be arranged as a single, double, twin or triple. The single will sleep one person in a queen size bed. Similarly, the double can be set up to accommodate a couple or two people with one queen size bed. Twin tents have two smaller beds and can accommodate two people in separate beds.
A triple can also be arranged for a family with a small child. In the triple tents there is a queen size bed and a single bed suitable for two adults and 1 child.
A blend of comfort and practicality, each canvas sleeping tent is spacious, secure and well appointed with the fundamental necessities. In each roomy tent, there is a comfortable hardwood bed with a cozy duvet, comfy pillows, smooth sheets and plenty of blankets. Hot water bottles are thoughtfully embedded in your sheets each night although this is usually completely unnecessary. Next to each bed is a handy nightstand with bottled water, solar powered lamp and flashlight for your convenience. Towards the back of each tent is a table with a hand basin with soap and water to wash your hands.
Each sleeping tent is conveniently equipped with an en-suite toilet and bladder shower in two separate compartments. These compartments are accessed from inside you own tent and are separated with a zipper from the main tent (you do not need to walk outside your tent to use the facilities). The toilet is a simple and clean chemical, manual flush toilet. The toilet is cleaned and sterilized every day while you are out on game drives. The bladder shower is quite charming, with a ceiling open to the sky, and is filled with plenty of hot water upon demand. At the front of each tent are traditional safari chairs to relax in while enjoying the setting and additional wash basins and towels so you may freshen up for those early morning game drives.
Although electricity is not supplied to each separate sleeping tent (the space is lit by solar powered lanterns as required), there is a generator at each camp used to run the refrigerator and can be used to charge any camera or camcorder batteries. If you need any batteries charged, just leave them with the staff during the day and they will charge them by the time you get back from your game drive. Please do make sure you have the proper 3-pin UK plug adapter - see our useful information section for the specifics.
Overall, the food and beverages offered at the Private Mobile Camp are among the finest in all of Tanzania. Dinners are especially delicious and the roaring campfires, full bar and attentive service makes for especially memorable bush evenings. A stay at the Private Mobile Camp is inclusive of 3 mouth-watering meals a day and all drinks (soft drinks, beer, wine, spirits, champagne, etc.) You won't have to compete with other tourists for attention because the dedicated staff caters to YOU, and you alone!
Wake up call times are taken the night before and then steaming hot coffee or tea is delivered to your tent at a predetermined time. A full breakfast can be enjoyed in the main dining tent at the time of your choosing, or you may have the cooks prepare a delightful breakfast box (to go) if you wish to have an early morning game drive.
Just let your guide know the night before of your choice but we strongly advise to try the early morning game drive with breakfast box at least once during your stay. If you choose to dine in for breakfast, a large spread will be prepared in the dining tent including cereal, fruit, breads and juices. Orders are taken for eggs, omelets, pancakes, bacon, sausage, hot potatoes, etc. On the last morning of your stay, you may choose to sit outside by the warmth of a bonfire and watch the sun rise over the golden plains with a delicious champagne breakfast served al fresco.
Similarly to breakfast, you have the choice of either having a scrumptious lunch at camp in the main dining tent or rather a box lunch, packed with care, so you may enjoy a bush picnic. As with breakfast, we recommend a lunch box in the bush at least once during your stay.
The evenings at the Private Mobile Camp are simply heaven! Upon arrival from your afternoon game drive you are greeted with warm towels and escorted back to your tent for a hot shower to prepare for the evening's festivities. You will then be escorted back to the main dining area where a roaring campfire awaits with a full bar of soda, beer, wine, champagne and spirits (all included in your stay.) Popcorn, roasted cashews and drinks are served by a blazing campfire under a mesmerizing blanket of stars.
At your convenience, dinner is served in the main dining tent by the light of flickering candles. Dinner is quite a serious production and consists of 4 amazing courses including tasty appetizers, hearty soup, flavorful salad, delectable entrees of beef or chicken, potatoes, rice, several selections of freshly prepared vegetables and luscious dessert (vegetarian meals are available on request). On your last night at the Private Mobile Camp, a traditional African dinner is served under the stars with a bottle of sparkling champagne. The thrill of the Serengeti night and all its wild wonder surrounds you.
Spacious sleeping tent(s) furnished with a comfortable hardwood bed, linens, washbasin, deck chairs, etc.
There are several ingredients that if met always create a truly incredible property and ultimately the most rewarding safari experience. These components include location with regards to wildlife viewing, lodge/camp size, authenticity, closeness with nature, comfort, service and food. We think the Private Mobile Camp meets and exceeds each of these items and will undoubtedly prove to be one of your safari highlights. This is a tall order to fill but it really is this good.
There is no where else in Tanzania where one could have complete privacy under traditional canvas with roaring campfires, lively nocturnal sounds, great food, friendly service plus the most intimate bush setting and the all the creature comforts (massive tent with en suite toilet and shower and all proper bedroom furnishings). Of course, there is always a downside and unfortunately the very high price tag for a private and luxurious bush property can be a deal breaker for many. However, for some it may be worth it to pull off a few nights at the Private Mobile Camp by downgrading the rest of your accommodations if what you're looking for is the ultimate bush adventure without compromising any comfort.
The Private Mobile Camp is commonly used in the Seronera River Valley of the Central Serengeti. The Central Serengeti is a must see on every safari (regardless of your month of travel) due its abundance of resident wildlife. The only problem with the Central Serengeti is the lack of small bush lodges and tented lodges that are found throughout the other areas of the park. There are three lodges in the Central Serengeti including the Serengeti Serena Lodge, Serengeti Sopa Lodge and Seronera Wildlife Lodge but all of these are large hotel style lodges with hordes of tourists. The main idea behind the private mobile camp is to provide a superb alternative to these large lodges for those of us looking for something a little more special than a large buffet line.
We highly recommend adding two nights at the Private Mobile Camp to every well-balanced safari itinerary as budget allows. The immediate area around the camp offers superb year round game viewing so this is a good fit regardless of your month of travel. However, the Private Mobile Camp is best combined with traditional lodges and tented lodges throughout the parks and conservation areas of Northern Tanzania. When used in conjunction with other lodges and tented lodges, a diversified and truly rewarding experience is obtained. | 2019-04-19T16:54:33Z | https://www.africadreamsafaris.com/private-mobile-camp |
Okay I am working on my Christmas one. Nice TheDoctor I love it a lot!
The impatient, bustling city noise was muffled by the large, misshapen chunks of snow falling to the white ground. Shuffling out of Target, Jimmy Barclay wasn’t the only shopper to notice the drastic change in setting as he exited the noisy store. The mid-afternoon weather was putting a crushing wall between him and his car, made all the more acute by the giant Hotwheels box he was trying to carry.
He lingered under the awning of the store a little longer, gazing past the red landmark balls with a stare that could melt butter. Alas, he couldn’t see his car.
Lifting the rectangular cardboard box a little higher, he strode into the snow, at least knowing that he had parked on the left side of the lot. The snow easily compacted under his feet, being fresh and not yet crunchy from days of ice. It made an odd squeaking sound, irritating him.
The sound of a plane flying across the sky made him think of his parents, George and Mary, who were on their way to pick up Donna at the airport. Ten-year-old Stuart probably went with them, Jimmy reflected as he crossed the driveway in front of the store. Aw, man. He trudged on, searching for his car. He could feel his breath melting the delicate flakes that landed on his goatee, which was already a damp mess. I really don’t want to see Donna.
This confession to himself had been a prevalent “deep, dark secret” of his ever since he had come back to live with his parents a few months ago. He pitied himself- forced to drive a beater car because he couldn’t find a job, he had gotten kicked out of school, and now he was living with his parents. He contrasted sharply with Donna, who had A- for- Amazing grades, and a godly boyfriend whom she wouldn’t shut up about.
“I see ya,” he said aloud to his green-and-brown SUV. The paint-chipped, flaking car was parked just a little further down the aisle, to the right. Jimmy sniffed, trying to resist wiping his runny nose on his soggy rainjacket. Snow was a nightmare when shopping for last minute gifts, he knew that now.
He pulled the freezing silver key out of his loose pocket, and jammed it into the driver’s side lock, jiggling it to make it fit. He turned it the wrong way, then the right way, muscled it back out of the lock, and opened the door. Pulling the Hotwheels box on top of himself, he slid into the seat, and quickly slammed the door shut before any more snow could find its way in.
“Whew,” he sighed in the cold, deceptively fresh air. A hint of mold was prevalent among the ancient upholstery smell, he called it Atmosphere A La Pokenberry. The little town had done wonders to his car. At least up here in Thurston people had shopping, mold-free culture, and the nearest airport. Donna was due to arrive any minute now, if they weren’t headed back to Pokenberry already.
Jimmy had been staring at the hypnotically swaying cross necklace that he had hung on the mirror. It was a cheap, brushed metal. He kicked himself out of his thoughts and fished for his keys from between his legs after shoving the brightly colored Hotwheels box over his head into the backseat.
He tried to start the car. The engine made a whining noise, doing its best to come to life. Jimmy let off the key, and tried again.
It wouldn’t budge. Jimmy took a deep breath, sitting back in his seat. He could figure this out. No way was he riding back into Pokenberry with Donna. He could salvage both his pride and his car by calling a tow truck.
He blew on his fingers, growling to himself about the car. After a moment, he summoned his courage and popped the door back open, teeth instantly beginning to chatter from the icy temperatures.
After a few minutes, he was back at the store in a single piece. Stiffly walking through the automatic doors, he scraped his feet on the rough black mats that were laid three long on the other side of the door. Despite the precautions, snow and mud were still trailed on the white tile floor beyond.
“Can I help you, sir?” The red-clad woman that had been his cashier now assaulted him as soon as he planted his feet on the white tile. She must have recognized him, worried that the vagrant was coming back for a second load.
Attempting to fake a smile, he gave a wide grimace that showed teeth and gums. Way to go. “I need a tow truck, my car won’t start.” Could he even afford a tow truck? Well, he would deal with that later, the important thing would be that his parents and Donna left town without checking up on him first.
“I’ll call one from the help desk.” She hurriedly disappeared. Well, customer service at its best.
Donna instantly brightened into a smile as she scraped her feet on the black entry mat. She was bundled in a winter fashion-statement outfit, and the tip of her nose matched her red coat. Jimmy couldn’t make sense of her fashion, though the fuzzy boots did look comfortable.
“What are you doing here?” She seemed happy to see him. He gave her a weak smile.
“Are you serious?” What, were they the mafia, watching his every move? “I’m not a baby!” He cleared his throat, then, stepping aside for an elderly couple that entered the store. Donna caught the hint and swiftly moved aside as well.
“Yeah,” he admitted. Though he wasn’t wrong in thinking that was something she would do, as so many times in the past, he was wrong this time around.
Jimmy gave her a pained smile, as if she really needed to shut up. “Uh, yes,” He turned to the clerk, as Donna interrupted him.
Jimmy held up his forefinger to the clerk. “Gimme just a minute to finish here.” The clerk backed off a few feet, and Jimmy turned back to Donna.
“Donna, I didn’t call a tow truck while you were talking to me.” He grinned, as if this was his winner argument.
“Jimmy, does your family love you?” Donna began to drive the point home.
“Yeah.” He knew what she was doing.
“Tell her you don’t need a truck.” She set her jaw as if Jimmy wasn’t going to win even if he decided to be stupid.
OMG!!! This is soo good!!!!!
Of course we both know that she means "OHMYGOODNESS!!!"
I'll take it as a complement anyway.
In the original draft at the top of the page I have "OK so the sappy Jimmy Barclay story!"
Thank you, Scientific Guy. That is precisely what I meant. LOL please take it as a compliment!!!!
Finished yours up yet, Luke?
Oh my I completely forgot about this better get to work. Nice job that was a sweet story!
Snow fell to Odyssey grass, and stuck to icy Odyssey windows. It hadn’t been snowing long, but green was already almost extinct from my window landscape. I brought my knees up to my chest, suddenly feeling a dull ache in my heart. I blinked dazedly as I recalled school that day. It had been my last day before holiday break. The day where each class played Christmas music, and despite our age, every student in art class had been forced to create some sort of Christmas, or holiday related end of semester piece. I had painted a girl with ice-like hair and eyes. She wore a sad expression as she looked at something in the distance. A tear was frozen to her cheek. Then Mrs. Meek had come over to my desk and called me “Scrooge.” I guess because most people did pretty pictures of warm fires or cosy mittens, while my picture looked much less cheery. What had they expected? Or do my teachers even know? Do they I spent the summer in JD? Do they know my father is still in prison, and will be for another nine years? Huh. Nine years. Just in time for me to graduate college. Did they know about my mom? Did they know about all the times she’s tried to have another baby? Just to end up more broken than the time prior? Four babies. Four siblings I never got to meet. One was born alive. Gloria was her name. She was never healthy though. The doctors hadn’t given her much time. She had died three months after she was born. That was December of 2012.
“She would have been five by now,” I muttered, knowing Mom would hear me.
I walked over to the kitchen counter and unfolded the letter we got monthly. He talked about how sorry he was. He was always sorry. He always made promises. The words blurred together on the page. I was so sick of it. Sick of all of it. Sick of the rejection. Sick of being suddenly poor. Sick of the happiness that I had to watch every day. Sick of Christmas. I pushed a tear away with the back of my hand. Was I really crying? How dumb. As my vision went a little clearer, I noticed another envelope on the counter.
“Mom? What’s this?” I asked, holding up the unexpected delivery.
“Vance?” I looked her in the eyes. Tears hung in them. “Please. For me.” My heart’s aching intensified. I sat down and took her hand, and whispered a soft, “Okay.” As her head rested on my shoulder.
Wow! Good job, Penny! This definitely has a different style, I like it!
Here is my entry, I spent far too much time stressing over it, but it's done. AlSo, I'm super glad that we did this, guys.
The first Christmas after Jenny's death had been the hardest. It was that Whit certainly knew it would be, and yet, when November passed into December, and the families nearby began decorating he only wanted to stay inside away from it all. He resisted the urge to keep his blinds shut, and while Emma Douglas, among others, offered to work more hours at the shop, he continued coming in. It was, after all, what she would have wanted. Jana called him every other day, and Jason made a point to call him too when he could.
They arrived in Odyssey about the week before the Holiday, Jana shepherding her two travel weary kids and a load of luggage from the car onto the front lawn. For the last hour they had grumbled impatiently yet without saying much, but when they caught sight of the snow, Monty and Jenny sprung forward, quick to begin pelting each other and making snow angels.
Whit hugged his daughter, warmly on the curb, the lines around his eyes receding a bit.
"It's good to see you." He breathed. "Do you want to come inside when it's warm? I have some tea, and there's a pot of coffee brewing."
Father and daughter sat on the striped yellow couch in the living room, Jana hadn't taken her jacket off, despite the fact Whit had started a fire. She sipped at her tea, splitting her attention between their current conversation and watching six-year old Monty balance precariously on a short stool in front of the tree.
"I'm sorry it's fake." Whit said, suddenly. "It's on the smaller side, and I didn't know -"
She patted his knee. "We have a real one back home...and you wouldn't believe the amount of time I spent cleaning up needles just from when we lugged it in." That earned a small smile from Whit.
"Remember the first time we got a real one?"
"How could I forget?" She laughed. "Gosh, the amount of effort you put in to making that day perfect. I think mom really appreciated it." She said, and bit her lip when pain flashed through his eyes.
"I think she tolerated it, honestly. That four mile walk in the sludge, on the road less travelled…"
"Three kids, one with a cold, one with mismatched shoes…" Jana continued for him. It had been fifteen years since then, and that, she thought, felt longer ago than it probably was, Whit had been absentmindedly looking towards the front window, remembering how the Whittaker clan trooped in close to midnight. Whit and Jerry carried the tree in through the door, managing to scrape it against the wall and the older man's arm.
Jenny was calm and orderly, while he had been nearly as miserable as the kids.
"I'm really sorry, Jenny," He followed her up the stairs. "I should've listened."
"Why are you still apologizing? I said I forgave you." Fiery red curls were matted, and she had her arms wrapped around herself, fingers pressing into her sides.
"I was such an idiot." Whit spoke. She halted, bit at her lip and looked away for a moment.
"John Avery. You were, but you need to stop being one now, because your family needs you. Alright?" He nodded, meekly.
"For starters, you could make some of the chamomile tea I bought, Jana could certainly use it." They could hear her coughing from the couch. Jenny looked sincerely worried in that moment. "Please." And Whit reacted quickly.
They missed church the following morning, struggled with the bereavement but it was a good day, then. The Whittakers spent it recovering by watching old movies and drinking hot cocoa, Jenny baked another pie and it was gone before the sun set.
The following evening, a hooded figure knocked twice on the oak colored door as he stepped in, careful to close it behind him.
"Dad?" He pulled the hood off and wrung a hand through his dark brown hair, turned black by the freezing rainwater.
"Hey, guys!" Without bothering to step out of his sodden coat, Jason grabbed Monty and Jenny, hugging them tightly.
"Ewwww." Jenny said. "You're dirty." She scurried out under his arms and frowned.
"You're warm. And...what is this, flour? Are you making cookies?" Jason sniffed the air, dusting off his nephew with a free hand.
"Sugar cookies!" Said Jenny, grinning toothily.
"What took you so long to get here?" Monty asked.
"The roads were all wet."
"But mom said you'd be here yesterday." There was a hint of an accusation in his tone, and Jason understood.
"Monty, I'm sorry. I was planning on it, but some things happen that you can't see coming." He said gently, hoping it was explanation enough. The young boy just shrugged, murmured that it was fine.
"Jason…" Jana came into the hall, then let out an exaggerated sigh for both her own benefit when she saw him dripping. "You stay right there. I'll get a towel." She wagged a finger, and thunder boomed outside. "Da-d! The judge is here!"
Within the hour, they were all settled at the dining table. Whit at the head, Jana and Monty to his left, Jason and Jenny opposite them. They hadn't forgotten about the two empty chairs, and it would have felt disrespectful to imagine sitting in the one on the far end. For years and years, the former Jenny Whittaker had taken her place there during dinner, not often needing to even raise her voice to be heard. She was great at getting people's attention and didn't even realize it. Sometimes Jenny would just catch his gaze and tilt her hand towards the table, smiling beautifully, as if to remind him what they had, what they were blessed with. During even the crankiest of moods, or the most stressful days, he'd be able to soften.
"Dad?" Jason had been tapping on his arm, his messy hair shoved to one side. Jana mouthing something to him he couldn't quite get. Then, after a moment, Whit realized they were waiting for him to pray.
"Dear Heavenly father," He started, breathed, "we thank you that you have brought us here together. Thank you that you for the love you have for us, that you sent your son as the gift we don't deserve, to save us. Thank you that you...care about us, and the people you've placed in our lives. Would you please bless this night, Lord, and use us to honor you. In Jesus' name, Amen." Amen was echoed, and they began eating, noisily. Jana, giving Jason a mock scowl when he took two rolls at once, then out of habit, glanced towards the empty chair. The brief, insane thought they might lose another of theirs brought a lump to her throat.
"How's Tom doing?" She forced herself to ask.
"Good, good." Whit nodded for a few seconds longer than he meant.
"Did you cook all this yourself?"
"I know how to cook, Jana." He set his fork down.
"I know, but you've been cooking regularly, right?"
"Honey, I promise you, I've been eating." Whit spoke sincerely.
"Have you been sleeping?" Asked Jason, suddenly, noting the dark corners beneath his weary eyes earlier.
"Grandpa, are you okay?" Monty himself had stopped eating.
"Yes-no. I am, Jason. Not as much as maybe I used to." Whit sighed. His son squinted suspiciously.
"Maybe I should call Jack." Whit buried his face into his hands and straightened, rising slightly.
"Kids. Listen, please." He pleaded. "Jack was down here last week, and I'm grateful for that. But I don't need people putting their own lives on hold to help me. I'm not planning on going anywhere. Not with you settling down, and you still in school."
"But you're…" Whatever Jana had been meaning to say, she choked on something dangerously close to a sob, and Monty threw his arms around her.
Whit reached over to take her hand.
"What do we do now?" Jason said quietly, lost.
"I'm here. So...we keep living."
Last edited by GJFH on Thu Dec 21, 2017 7:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.
And guys, I'm working on it, I promise. It's going well, I'm almost done.
Nah girl, you good. I'm excited, though!
All you guys are awesome!
I like your sad storys. This one has a nice touch!
this is awesome I have read it over and over. All of this are awesome! My story umm let's say its in a very long umm well I don't even have a idea or the time right now sorry guys. But you guys rock! | 2019-04-23T12:45:16Z | http://odysseyscoop.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3147&start=60 |
Author Michael Affenzeller … [et al.].
Genetic algorithms and genetics programming are known to achieve robust, high-quality solutions to difficult problems. Due to increasing computing power, these methods have been successfully applied to problems in logistics, data mining, and various other fields with complex data. “Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming: Modern Concepts and Practical Applications” introduces basic concepts in an intuitive way. Designed as both a reference and self-study guide for readers from different backgrounds, the book includes theoretical material as well as practical applications. It also provides a supplementary web page with software and source code for heuristic laboratory work, along with illustrative examples.
This book presents full coverage of the cutting-edge technology that can find anyone or anything anywhere. With the powerful force of VoIP in the telephony industry, the demand for location determination in IP networks is developing rapidly. “IP Location” tackles this new technology head on, covering all aspects of location management, delivery, and conveyance within IP networks. Providing a guided tour of location determination, this book gives you the information you need to support this breakthrough technology.
Author Zhigang Deng, Ulrich Neumann, editors.
“Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation” systematically describes the important techniques developed over the last ten years or so. Although 3D facial animation is used more and more in the entertainment industries, to date there have been very few books that address the techniques involved. Comprehensive in scope, the book covers not only traditional lip-sync (speech animation), but also expressive facial motion, facial gestures, facial modeling, editing and sketching, and facial animation transferring. It provides an up-to-date reference source for academic research and for professionals working in the facial animation field. An edited volume, the book brings together contributions from leading researchers and practitioners working in both academia and in the leading animation studios.
Author [edited by] Liang-Jie Zhang.
“Web services is rapidly becoming one of the most valued aspects of information technology services, as Web-based technological advancements continue to grow at an exponential rate. “Web Services Research and Practices” provides researchers, scholars, and practitioners in a variety of settings essential up-to-date research in this demanding field, addressing issues such as: communication applications using Web services; Semantic services computing; discovery, modeling, performance, and enhancements of Web services; and Web services architecture, frameworks, and security.
Author Klaus Engel … [et al.].
Place of Publication Wellesley, Mass.
Publisher A K Peters, Ltd.
In traditional computer graphics, 3D objects are created using high-level surface representations such as polygonal meshes, NURBS patches, or subdivision surfaces. However, these methods often do not account for light interaction that is taking place in the atmosphere or in the interior of an object. Contrary to surface rendering, volume rendering describes a wide range of techniques for generating images from 3D scalar data. These techniques generate high-quality images of volumetric objects in real time, including local and global illumination effects. This book provides the basic theory and practical examples needed to work with volume graphics by taking advantage of today’s graphics hardware to produce stunning results in real time. The authors provide: a practical introduction to texture-based volume rendering; methods for integrating different aspects of light/matter interaction; global illumination techniques; optimization strategies; code samples – and more!
Author Svetlana N. Yanushkevich, Vlad P. Shmerko.
New design techniques are constantly being developed to meet the needs of advancing technology. Placing an emphasis on emerging contemporary design techniques, “Introduction to Logic Design” presents the fundamental theory and practice of logic design. This comprehensive book reviews important data structures and explains various techniques for manipulating them. In addition to providing suggestions for further study, each chapter features numerous design examples to illustrate methods along with concise summaries to highlight key concepts. Ideal for students, the text also includes over 300 homework problems and offers a solutions manual as well as lecture transparencies for instructors.
Place of Publication Oxford, U.K.
Electronics is written as a monolog between teacher and student in an attempt to make the language as simple as possible. The various diagrams and oscilloscope plots will help students correlate the theory they learn in the class room with observations they make in their lab experiments. Thumb rules of circuital designing have been included where-ever possible and various laws of physics behind various devices have been discussed. The chapters in the book can be divided into sections explaining modeling, test equipments and circuital elements which are building blocks of a power supply. Designed as a Textbook for undergraduate students of electronics in physics and engineering, the book hopes to demystify electronics as a subject and encourage beginners to take the next step in circuital designing.
Author Pedro M. Figueiredo, João C. Vital.
“Offset Reduction Techniques in High-Speed Analog-to-Digital Converters” analyzes, describes the design, and presents test results of Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) employing the three main high-speed architectures: flash, two-step flash and folding and interpolation. The advantages and limitations of each one are reviewed, and the techniques employed to improve their performance are discussed.
Author Hermann Merz, Thomas Hansemann, Christof Hubner.
Modern buildings are increasingly equipped with actuators and sensors, communication visualization and control systems. This textbook provides an overview of industrial communication systems and stimulates a basic understanding of network and bus systems for the automation of buildings. After an introduction to EIB/KNX, LON and BACnet technologies, the authors illustrate how these systems can be utilized for specific applications, like air conditioning or illumination. This book assumes only a basic knowledge of mathematics and thanks to its simple explanations and many examples is ideal for students and professional engineers who require practical solutions.
Author Miguel A. Labrador, Pedro M. Wightman.
“Topology Control in Wireless Sensor Networks” addresses the need for a text that combines the background material needed to understand wireless sensor networks with in-depth material about topology control, which is a very important topic related to this technology; and a companion simulation tool of great value for instructors and researchers.
Digital signal processing and applications with the TMS320C6713 and TMS320C6416 DSK, 2nd ed.
Author Rulph Chassaing, Donald Reay.
“With the first edition widely accepted as the most extensive teaching text available, this valuable second edition has been fully updated to be compatible with the latest version (3.1) of Texas Instruments Code Composer Studio (CCS) development environment. Maintaining the original’s comprehensive, hands-on approach that has made it an instructor’s favorite, this new edition also features added program examples; expanded coverage of analog input and output; new material on frame-based processing; a revised chapter on IIR; and, more extensive coverage of DSP/BIOS.
Business data networks and telecommunications, 7th ed.
For undergraduate/graduate/MBA-level courses in Business Data Communications, Introduction to Data Communications, Telecommunications, and Introduction to Networking. Using a unique modular approach, this cutting-edge introduction to data communications features 11 core chapters of essential material, 6 advanced modules, and a Companion Website to provide the widest possible range of topics around which to customize courses with specific goals. This approach allows selective emphasis without requiring instructors to assemble their own additional material. Plus, 9 mini-chapters for hands-on material and case studies give students a feel for what they will encounter on the job.
Author Sukhan Lee, Hanseok Ko, Hernsoo Hahn, editors.
This volume aims at providing engineers, researchers, educators, and advanced students in the field of Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems with the recent progress in theory and applications. This was done by selecting high quality papers with appropriate themes from the IEEE International Conference on of Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems (MFI 2008) held in Seoul, Korea, August 20-22, 2008, and by editing them for a consistent flow of the chosen theme. The book has the following distinct features: the book addresses the growing interest in our society regarding the field of Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems and the book contains an introduction for each selected theme and included the editorial process to collect final manuscripts in major revision. The following topics are covered by the book: Sensor Network, Information Fusion, Robotics, Surveillance, Vision, HCI, SLAM, and, Applications (Underwater, ITS, etc).
Circuit analysis : theory and practice, 4th ed.
Written for electronics engineering technology students taking their first course in circuit theory, this exceptional book has been hailed by users and reviewers alike as one of the best on the market. The 4th Edition provides updated coverage of standard circuit analysis topics in a remarkably easy-to-understand fashion, including fundamentals of DC and AC, methods of analysis, capacitance, inductance, magnetism, simple transients, transformers, Fourier series, and more. Essential concepts are complemented with hundreds of worked out examples designed to lead readers through the critical thinking processes required to solve problems, preparing them to reason their way through life-like situations expected to be encountered on the job.
Complete wireless design, 2nd ed.
This book gives you a solid grounding in designing some of today’s important wireless systems. “Complete Wireless Design” shows you how to analyze and design – down to the circuit level – the complex wireless receivers and transmitters of modern digital communications systems. Updated to cover the latest systems and equipment, this bestseller retains its highly practical, algebra-based approach and includes a CD-ROM with wireless simulation and design software.
“This book presents methods for the optimized design of analog CMOS circuits through the design choices of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor device drain current, inversion level, and channel length. This text starts with a full introduction to why a book on this subject is needed, before giving an overview of circuit design in all regions of Metal Oxide Semiconductor operation, emphasizing the importance of methods that freely permit design in all regions of MOS. Two appendices contain CMOS test devices used to validate methods contained in the book, and an analog MOS design optimization spreadsheet describing user inputs, mapping of device operation, and equations.
This book uses MATLAB as a computing tool to explore traditional DSP topics and solve problems. This greatly expands the range and complexity of problems that students can effectively study in signal processing courses. A large number of worked examples, computer simulations and applications are provided, along with theoretical aspects that are essential in order to gain a good understanding of the main topics. Practicing engineers may also find it useful as an introductory text on the subject.
Security awareness : applying practical security in your world, 2nd ed.
‘Building on the success of the first edition, this new text provides a non-technical approach to practical computer security for all users, from business professionals to students to home users.
This book provides an introduction to Bluetooth programming, with a specific focus on developing real code. The authors discuss the major concepts and techniques involved in Bluetooth programming, with special emphasis on how they relate to other networking technologies. They provide specific descriptions and examples for creating applications in a number of programming languages and environments including Python, C, Java, GNU/Linux, Windows XP, Symbian Series 60, and Mac OS X. No previous experience with Bluetooth is assumed, and the material is suitable for anyone with some programming background. The authors place special emphasis on the essential concepts and techniques of Bluetooth programming, starting simply and allowing the reader to quickly master the basic concepts before addressing advanced features.
Author edited by Jonathan Lazar.
“Universal Usability” is the concept of designing computer interfaces that are easy for all users to utilize. It is a concept which many decry as elusive, impossible, or impractical, but this book, which addresses usability issues for a number of diverse user groups, proves that there is no problem in interface design that cannot be solved, or at least improved upon. Individuals with cognitive, motor, and perceptual impairments, as well as older, younger, and economically disadvantaged users, face a variety of complex challenges when interacting with computers. However, with user involvement, good design practice, and thorough testing, computer interfaces can be successfully developed for any user population. This book, featuring key chapters by Human Computer Interaction luminaries such as Jonathan Lazar, Ron Baecker, Allison Druin, Ben Shneiderman, Brad Myers and Jenny Preece, examines innovative and groundbreaking research and practice, and provides a practical overview of a number of successful projects which have addressed a need for these specific user populations.Chapters in this book address topics including age diversity, economic diversity, language diversity, visual impairment, and spinal cord injuries.Several of these trailblazing projects in the book are amongst the first to examine usability issues for users with Down Syndrome, users with Amnesia, users with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and users with Alzheimer’s Disease, and coverage extends to projects where multiple categories of needs are addressed. These chapters represent real world projects, being carried out on different continents. The authors of the chapters also represent diversity interface researchers and software developers in university, industrial, and government settings.In the practical spirit of the book, chapter authors provide guidelines and suggestions for those attempting similar projects, as well as implications for different stakeholders such as policymakers, researchers, and designers. Ideal for students of HCI and User Interface Design, and essential reading for usability practitioners, this fascinating collection of real world projects demonstrates that computer interfaces can truly be designed to meet the needs of any category of user.
You can find them in your wristwatch or MP3 player; they perform specific functions in washing machines, traffic lights, and even pacemakers. Embedded systems are pervasive, ubiquitous, and widespread throughout our daily lives. Developing these real-time embedded products requires an understanding of the interactions between different disciplines, such as circuit design, power, cooling, packaging, software, and human interface. This volume provides the knowledge and insight engineers need to make critical design decisions and offers a clear guide for preparing and developing projects in different markets. The book begins by laying the basic groundwork for effective processes, covering smaller, self-contained devices and subsystems, ranging from handheld devices to appliances.Highly detailed case studies, which include designing instruments for space flight, implanted medical devices, and military support equipment, illustrate industry best practices and managerial issues. Each case study is detailed in terms of concept, market, standards, integration, manufacturing, and phases.With schedule and estimation templates, this highly functional text presents numerous examples of design tradeoffs critical to successful project development. Offering even coverage and clarification of the entire development process, “What Every Engineer Should Know about Developing Real-Time Embedded Products” provides engineers and industrial designers with practical tools to make important decisions, from deciding whether to buy or build subsystems to determining the appropriate kinds of field testing.
PSpice for Circuit Theory and Electronic Devices is one of a series of five PSpice books and introduces the latest Cadence Orcad PSpice version 10.5 by simulating a range of DC and AC exercises. It is aimed primarily at those wishing to get up to speed with this version but will be of use to high school students, undergraduate students, and of course, lecturers. Circuit theorems are applied to a range of circuits and the calculations by hand after analysis are then compared to the simulated results. The Laplace transform and the s-plane are used to analyze CR and LR circuits where transient signals are involved. Here, the Probe output graphs demonstrate what a great learning tool PSpice is by providing the reader with a visual verification of any theoretical calculations. Series and parallel-tuned resonant circuits are investigated where the difficult concepts of dynamic impedance and selectivity are best understood by sweeping different circuit parameters through a range of values. Obtaining semiconductor device characteristics as a laboratory exercise has fallen out of favour of late, but nevertheless, is still a useful exercise for understanding or modelling semiconductor devices. Inverting and non-inverting operational amplifiers characteristics such as gain-bandwidth are investigated and we will see the dependency of bandwidth on the gain using the performance analysis facility. Power amplifiers are examined where PSpice/Probe demonstrates very nicely the problems of cross-over distortion and other problems associated with power transistors. We examine power supplies and the problems of regulation, ground bounce, and power factor correction. Lastly, we look at MOSFET devicecharacteristics and show how these devices are used to form basic CMOS logic gates such as NAND and NOR gates.
In this book, PSpice for Filters and Transmission Lines, we examine a range of active and passive filters where each design is simulated using the latest Cadence Orcad V10.5 PSpice capture software. These filters cannot match the very high order digital signal processing (DSP) filters considered in PSpice for Digital Signal Processing, but nevertheless these filters have many uses. The active filters considered were designed using Butterworth and Chebychev approximation loss functions rather than using the cookbook approach so that the final design will meet a given specification in an exacting manner. Switched-capacitor filter circuits are examined and here we see how useful PSpice/Probe is in demonstrating how these filters, filter, as it were. Two-port networks are discussed as an introduction to transmission lines and, using a series of problems, we demonstrate quarter-wave and single-stub matching. The concept of time domain reflectrometry as a fault location tool on transmission lines is then examined. In the last chapter we discuss the technique of importing and exporting speech signals into a PSpice schematic using a tailored-made program Wav2ascii. This is a novel technique that greatly extends the simulation boundaries of PSpice. Various digital circuits are also examined at the end of this chapter to demonstrate the use of the bus structure and other techniques.
This lecture explores the emerging area of reconfigurable antennas from basic concepts that provide insight into fundamental design approaches to advanced techniques and examples that offer important new capabilities for next-generation applications. Antennas are necessary and critical components of communication and radar systems, but sometimes their inability to adjust to new operating scenarios can limit system performance. Making antennas reconfigurable so that their behavior can adapt with changing system requirements or environmental conditions can ameliorate or eliminate these restrictions and provide additional levels of functionality for any system. For example, reconfigurable antennas on portable wireless devices can help to improve a noisy connection or redirect transmitted power to conserve battery life. In large phased arrays, reconfigurable antennas could be used to provide additional capabilities that may result in wider instantaneous frequency bandwidths, more extensive scan volumes, and radiation patterns with more desirable side lobe distributions. Written for individuals with a range of experience, from those with only limited prior knowledge of antennas to those working in the field today, this lecture provides both theoretical foundations and practical considerations for those who want to learn more about this exciting subject.
Pragmatic Circuits: Signals and Filters is built around the processing of signals. Topics include spectra, a short introduction to the Fourier series, design of filters, and the properties of the Fourier transform. The focus is on signals rather than power. But the treatment is still pragmatic. For example, the author accepts the work of Butterworth and uses his results to design filters in a fairly methodical fashion. This third of three volumes finishes with a look at spectra by showing how to get a spectrum even if a signal is not periodic. The Fourier transform provides a way of dealing with such non-periodic signals. The two other volumes in the Pragmatic Circuits series include titles on DC and Time Domain and Frequency Domain. These short lecture books will be of use to students at any level of electrical engineering and for practicing engineers, or scientists, in any field looking for a practical and applied introduction to circuits and signals. The author’s pragmatic and applied style gives a unique and helpful non-idealistic, practical, opinionated introduction to circuits.
Pragmatic Circuits: Frequency Domain goes through the Laplace transform to get from the time domain to topics that include the s-plane, Bode diagrams, and the sinusoidal steady state. This second of three volumes ends with a-c power, which, although it is just a special case of the sinusoidal steady state, is an important topic with unique techniques and terminology. Pragmatic Circuits: Frequency Domain is focused on the frequency domain. In other words, time will no longer be the independent variable in our analysis. The two other volumes in the Pragmatic Circuits series include titles on DC and Time Domain and Signals and Filters. These short lecture books will be of use to students at any level of electrical engineering and for practicing engineers, or scientists, in any field looking for a practical and applied introduction to circuits and signals. The author’s pragmatic and applied style gives a unique and helpful non-idealistic, practical, opinionated introduction to circuits.
PSpice for Digital Communications Engineering shows how to simulate digital communication systems and modulation methods using the very powerful Cadence Orcad PSpice version 10.5 suite of software programs. Fourier series and Fourier transform are applied to signals to set the ground work for the modulation techniques introduced in later chapters. Various baseband signals, including duo-binary baseband signaling, are generated and the spectra are examined to detail the unsuitability of these signals for accessing the public switched network. Pulse code modulation and time-division multiplexing circuits are examined and simulated where sampling and quantization noise topics are discussed. We construct a single-channel PCM system from transmission to receiver i.e. end-to-end, and import real speech signals to examine the problems associated with aliasing, sample and hold. Companding is addressed here and we look at the A and mu law characteristics for achieving better signal to quantization noise ratios. Several types of delta modulators are examined and also the concept of time divisionmultiplexing is considered. Multi-level signaling techniques such as QPSK andQAMare analyzed and simulated and home-made meters, such as scatter and eye meters, are used to assess the performance of these modulation systems in the presence of noise. The raised-cosine family of filters for shaping data before transmission is examined in depth where bandwidth efficiency and channel capacity is discussed. We plot several graphs in Probe to compare the efficiency of these systems. Direct spread spectrum is the last topic to be examined and simulated to show the advantages of spreading the signal over a widebandwidth and giving good signal security at the same time.
“PSpice for Digital Signal Processing is the last in a series of five books using Cadence Orcad PSpice version 10.5 and introduces a very novel approach to learning digital signal processing (DSP). DSP is traditionally taught using Matlab/Simulink software but has some inherent weaknesses for students particularly at the introductory level. The plug in variables and play nature of these software packages can lure the student into thinking they possesses an understanding they dont actually have because these systems produce results quicklywithout revealing what is going on.However, it must be said that, for advanced level workMatlab/Simulink really excel. In this book we start by examining basic signals starting with sampled signals and dealing with the concept of digital frequency. The delay part, which is the heart of DSP, is explained and applied initially to simple FIR and IIR filters. We examine linear time invariant systems starting with the difference equation and applying the z-transform to produce a range of filter type i.e. low-pass, high-pass and bandpass. The important concept of convolution is examined and here we demonstrate the usefulness of the log command in Probe for giving the correct display to demonstrate the flip n slip method. Digital oscillators, including quadrature carrier generation, are then examined. Several filter design methods are considered and include the bilinear transform, impulse invariant, and window techniques. Included also is a treatment of the raised-cosine family of filters.
Learn the essentials of developing secure software in accordance with the most current industry standards, in this comprehensive instructional guide. “Secure Software Development: A Programmer’s Guide” leads readers through the tasks and activities that successful computer programmers navigate on a daily basis, from reading and analyzing requirements to choosing development tools, to guarding against software vulnerabilities and attacks. Additional coverage includes coding with built-in quality and security measures, and follow-up testing once a project is completed. With clear, straightforward examples and actual code snippets, readers can feel confident that they will gain the skills needed to develop software with all the critical components that ensure quality and security.
Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass.
This is a textbook with a hands-on approach that leads students through the gradual construction of a complete and working computer system including the hardware platform and the software hierarchy.In the early days of computer science, the interactions of hardware, software, compilers, and operating system were simple enough to allow students to see an overall picture of how computers worked. With the increasing complexity of computer technology and the resulting specialization of knowledge, such clarity is often lost. Unlike other texts that cover only one aspect of the field, “The Elements of Computing Systems” gives students an integrated and rigorous picture of applied computer science, as it comes to play in the construction of a simple yet powerful computer system.Indeed, the best way to understand how computers work is to build one from scratch, and this textbook leads students through twelve chapters and projects that gradually build a basic hardware platform and a modern software hierarchy from the ground up.In the process, the students gain hands-on knowledge of hardware architecture, operating systems, programming languages, compilers, data structures, algorithms, and software engineering. Using this constructive approach, the book exposes a significant body of computer science knowledge and demonstrates how theoretical and applied techniques taught in other courses fit into the overall picture.
The first volume in the “Adaptation in Wireless Communications Series”, this resource is devoted to adaptation in the physical layer. It surveys adaptive signal processing techniques used in current and future wireless communication systems. Featuring the work of international experts, it covers adaptive channel modeling, identification and equalization, adaptive modulation and coding, adaptive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and cooperative diversity. It also addresses hardware implementation, reconfigurable processing, and cognitive radio.
This is a practical, concise and complete reference for the basics of modern antenna design. “Antennas: From Theory to Practice” discusses the basics of modern antenna design and theory. Developed specifically for engineers and designers who work with radio communications, radar and RF engineering, this book offers practical and hands-on treatment of antenna theory and techniques, and provides its readers the skills to analyse, design and measure various antennas.This book provides thorough coverage on the basics of transmission lines, radio waves and propagation, and antenna analysis and design. It discusses industrial standard design software tools, and antenna measurement equipment, facilities and techniques. It covers electrically small antennas, mobile antennas, UWB antennas and new materials for antennas. It also discusses reconfigurable antennas, RFID antennas, Wide-band and multi-band antennas, radar antennas, and MIMO antennas. Design examples of various antennas are provided.Written in a practical and concise manner by authors who are experts in antenna design, with experience from both academia and industry, this book will be an invaluable resource for engineers and designers working in RF engineering, radar and radio communications, seeking a comprehensive and practical introduction to the basics of antenna design. The book can also be used as a textbook for advanced students entering a profession in this field.
The real world awaits you. This book prepares you. From rockets to robots, control systems play a major role in today’s technology. You’ll find them in applications in nearly every field – electrical, mechanical, aerospace, biomedical, and chemical engineering. Control systems engineering is a real-world discipline, and you need a text that prepares you to design for that real world. “Control Systems Engineering”, now in its Fifth Edition, takes a practical approach to control systems engineering. Presenting clear and complete explanations, the text shows you how to analyze and design feedback control systems that support today’s modern technology. By working with the same physical system in each chapter, the book’s progressive case studies give you a realistic view of each stage of the control design process while a combination of qualitative and quantitative explanations provide insight into the design of parameters and system configurations.Best of all, you’ll get extensive practice in using MATLAB, Simulink, and the SISO Design Tool – industry standards that you will use in your future career.You’ll find this Fifth Edition especially valuable for these features: case studies that use the same system progressively, chapter after chapter, to show the analysis and design process with clarity are presented; helpful skill-assessment exercises, numerous in-chapter examples, review questions, and problems; tutorials on the latest versions of MATLAB, the Control System Toolbox, Simulink[registered], the Symbolic Math Toolbox, and MATLAB’s graphical user interface (GUI) tools; “What if” experiments that expand your knowledge and skills; and, a companion web site with computer programs for use with MATLAB, additional appendices, and complete solutions to skill-assessment exercises.
This is the fast and easy way to learn signals and systems. This easy-to-use guide will help students taking this difficult subject, as well as professionals who want to brush up on their knowledge. You will get straightforward information on signal processing, linear systems, and discrete systems. Advanced topics covered include Fourier analysis, filtering, spectral density, AM and FM systems, and the z-Transform.
Don’t get your circuits crossed – get “Circuit Analysis Demystified”. This new addition to the “Demystified” series is a sure cure for “circuit paralysis” – the anxiety that often comes with trying to learn this difficult electrical engineering subject. “Circuit Analysis Demystified” clarifies such topics as capacitance, inductance, steady-state analysis, transformers, and much more. Packed with hundreds of worked equations and examples, concise explanations, quizzes, and a final exam, this book is the perfect classroom supplement and self-study tool.
This manual focuses exclusively on helping readers become intelligent end-users of computers. It features 700 colour photographs and is available either with or without the accompanying CD-ROM containing interactive multimedia modules for each chapter.
Are you an aspiring game developer with a great idea, but no practical knowledge for turning that idea into reality? 3D Game Programming All in One is the comprehensive guide you need! This new edition updates the original coverage with the latest version of Torque from GarageGames, and provides the very best tools available to the Indie game maker. This hands-on book not only teaches the technical skills behind 3D game programming, but also provides you with the practical experience you need to create your own games. As you create a first-person shooter, you’ll cover the techniques behind the programming, textures, and models that go into successful game creation. You’ll also cover the Torque Engine and will learn how to integrate sound and music into your game. 3D Game Programming All in One provides you with the training, experience, and tools you need to turn your dreams of game creation into reality!
This is a practical, in-depth technical guide to understanding and deploying Carrier Ethernet technologies. This is the only book on the market to address how Carrier Ethernet – the emerging high-speed access solution – is fast becoming the de facto technology in Service Provider networks. “Delivering Ethernet in Access Networks” provides engineers and telecom professionals with an in-depth technical guide to understanding and deploying Carrier Ethernet technologies. Each chapter includes deployment and implementation strategies and examples written by global experts.
Tanja Schultz and Katrin Kirchhoff have compiled a comprehensive overview of speech processing from a multilingual perspective. By taking this all-inclusive approach to speech processing, the editors have included theories, algorithms, and techniques that are required to support spoken input and output in a large variety of languages. This book presents a comprehensive introduction to research problems and solutions, both from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective, and highlights technology that incorporates the increasing necessity for multilingual applications in our global community. Current challenges of speech processing and the feasibility of sharing data and system components across different languages guide contributors in their discussions of trends, prognoses and open research issues. This includes automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis, but also speech-to-speech translation, dialogue systems, automatic language identification, and handling non-native speech.The book is complemented by an overview of multilingual resources, important research trends, and actual speech processing systems that are being deployed in multilingual human-human and human-machine interfaces. Researchers and developers in industry and academia with different backgrounds but a common interest in multilingual speech processing will find an excellent overview of research problems and solutions detailed from theoretical and practical perspectives. It includes state-of-the-art research with a global perspective by authors from the USA, Asia, Europe, and South Africa. It is the only comprehensive introduction to multilingual speech processing currently available. It contains detailed presentation of technological advances integral to security, financial, cellular and commercial applications.
Foundations of electronics : circuits and devices (electron flow version), 5th ed.
From principles of basic circuits through analysis of passive and active circuit components, this text should be useful as an introduction to the world of electronics technology.
Provides research into the advancement, productivity, and performance of the end user computing domain.
For courses in Microprocessor/Microcontroller Interfacing. This textbook provides a comprehensive look into the architecture, programming, and interfacing of the microcontroller. Using the Microchip PIC18 family as a reference, it explains the architecture of the computer and the PIC18 microcontroller, discusses how to program in both assembly and in C-language, and then provides a solid discussion of interfacing, complete with a diverse set of examples. All programs from the text are included on the accompanying CD-ROM and problems and examples further one’s proficiency in microcontroller interfacing, programming, and system design.
3. ebrary – one content platform. many ways to use it.
4. ACS Journals. High quality. High Impact.
Subject coverage : Cutting edge articles across a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines-agricultural science, biotechnology, analytical chemistry, applied chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, chemical biology, chemical engineering, computer science, inorganic and nuclear chemistry, material science, medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, pharmacology, physical chemistry, plant sciences, polymer science, and toxicology. The breadth and scope of ACS is unparalled.
5. American Institute of Physics. Information that matters.
10. Sage Reference Online hosts more than one 80 authoritative and award-winning encyclopedias.
***The links are IP authenticated it can be accessed within UP campus premises only.
An introduction to mathematical statistics and its applications, 4th ed.
Noted for its integration of real-world data and case studies, this text offers sound coverage of the theoretical aspects of mathematical statistics. It demonstrates how and when to use statistical methods, while reinforcing the calculus that students have mastered in previous courses.
This best selling, easy to read book offers the most complete discussion on the theories and principles behind today s most advanced communications systems. Throughout, Haykin emphasizes the statistical underpinnings of communication theory in a complete and detailed manner. Readers are guided though topics ranging from pulse modulation and passband digital transmission to random processes and error control coding. The fifth edition has also been revised to include an extensive treatment of digital communications.
This book explains how to build Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems – computer software systems which use techniques from artificial intelligence and computational linguistics to automatically generate understandable texts in English or other human languages, either in isolation or as part of multimedia documents, Web pages, and speech output systems. Typically starting from some non-linguistic representation of information as input, NLG systems use knowledge about language and the application domain to automatically produce documents, reports, explanations, help messages, and other kinds of texts. The book covers the algorithms and representations needed to perform the core tasks of document planning, microplanning, and surface realization, using a case study to show how these components fit together. It also discusses engineering issues such as system architecture, requirements analysis, and the integration of text generation into multimedia and speech output systems.
Digital electronics : principles & applications, 7th ed.
“Digital Electronics: Principles and Applications” is a practical, field-tested text that prepares students for entry-level electronics jobs. This introductory text is designed for use as an introduction text for students who are new to the field of electronics. Prerequisites are general mathematics and basic dc circuits. “Digital Electronics” can be studied before or concurrently with a course in basic electronics, since knowledge of active discrete components is not a prerequisite. Changes in this edition reflect input from reviewers and instructors. PLDs (Programmable Logical Devices) are introduced in chapter 4.
Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology constitutes a breakthrough in the design of wireless communications systems, and is already at the core of several wireless standards. Exploiting mutlipath scattering, MIMO techniques deliver significant performance enhancements in terms of data transmission rate and interference reduction. This book is a detailed introduction to the analysis and design of MIMO wireless systems. Beginning with an overview of MIMO technology, the authors then examine the fundamental capacity limits of MIMO systems. Transmitter design, including precoding and space-time coding, is then treated in depth, and the book closes with two chapters devoted to receiver design. Written by a team of leading experts, the book blends theoretical analysis with physical insights, and highlights a range of key design challenges. It can be used as a textbook for advanced courses on wireless communications, and will also appeal to researchers and practitioners working on MIMO wireless systems.
Fundamentals of electric circuits, 3rd ed.
Author Charles K. Alexander, Matthew N.O. Sadiku.
The renowned communications theorist Robert Gallager brings his lucid writing style to the study of the fundamental system aspects of digital communication for a one-semester course for graduate students. With the clarity and insight that have characterized his teaching and earlier textbooks, he develops a simple framework and then combines this with careful proofs to help the reader understand modern systems and simplified models in an intuitive yet precise way. A strong narrative and links between theory and practice reinforce this concise, practical presentation. The book begins with data compression for arbitrary sources. Gallager then describes how to modulate the resulting binary data for transmission over wires, cables, optical fibers, and wireless channels. Analysis and intuitive interpretations are developed for channel noise models, followed by coverage of the principles of detection, coding, and decoding. The various concepts covered are brought together in a description of wireless communication, using CDMA as a case study.
Author Soren Bech, Nick Zacharov.
As audio and telecommunication technologies develop, there is an increasing need to evaluate the technical and perceptual performance of these innovations. A growing number of new technologies (e.g. low bit-rate coding) are based on specific properties of the auditory system, which are often highly non-linear. This means that the auditory quality of such systems cannot be measured by traditional physical measures (such as distortion, frequency response etc.), but only by perceptual evaluations in the form of listening tests. “Perceptual Audio Evaluation” provides a comprehensive guide to the many variables that need to be considered before, during and after experiments. It includes the selection of the content of the programme material to be reproduced, technical aspects of the production of the programme material, the experimental set-up including calibration, and the statistical planning of the experiment and subsequent analysis of the data.”Perceptual Audio Evaluation” provides a complete and accessible guide to the motives, theory and practical application of perceptual evaluation of reproduced sound.It discusses all the variables of perceptual evaluation, their control and their possible influence on the results. It covers in detail all international standards on the topic. It is illustrated throughout with tables, figures and worked solutions. “Perceptual Audio Evaluation” will appeal to audio and speech engineers as well as researchers in audio and speech laboratories. Postgraduate students in engineering or acoustics and undergraduate students studying psychoacoustics, speech audio processing and signal processing will also find this an essential reference.
High-voltage test techniques, 2nd revised and enlarged edition.
Author Dieter Kind, Kurt Feser translated from the German by Y. Narayana Rao.
The second edition of “High Voltage Test Techniques” has been completely revised. The present revision takes into account the latest international developments in High Voltage and Measurement technology, making it an essential reference for engineers in the testing field. High Voltage Technology belongs to the traditional area of Electrical Engineering. However, this is not to say that the area has stood still. New insulating materials, computing methods and voltage levels repeatedly pose new problems or open up methods of solution; electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) or components and systems also demand increased attention. The authors hope that their experience will be of use to students of Electrical Engineering confronted with High Voltage problems in their studies, in research and development and also in the testing field. It helps you to benefit from a completely revised edition. It brings you up-to-date with th latest international developments in High Voltage and Measurement technology. It is an essential reference for engineers in the testing field.
The current rate of deployment of wireless networks – whether cellular, LAN, Bluetooth, or sensor – is remarkable. Wireless systems are vulnerable to many kinds of attack, and the security features of fixed-line systems are not always applicable in the wireless arena. With ever-increasing amounts of data being carried on wireless netwrorks, security has become a major concern and an area of great commerical importance. This book presents the key features of wireless networks and discusses various techniques for ensuring secure communication. In particular, techniques for dealing with hacking and other forms of attack will be dealt with, as will cooperation in mulit-hop and ad hoc networks. Suitable for senior undergraduates and graduate students of electrical engineering and computer science. Given the breadth of coverage, it will also appeal to researchers and practitioners in the wireless industry.
Groundbreaking Patterns for Building Simpler, More Powerful Networks In Patterns in Network Architecture, pioneer John Day takes a unique approach to solving the problem of network architecture. Piercing the fog of history, he bridges the gap between our experience from the original ARPANET and today’s Internet to a new perspective on networking. Along the way, he shows how socioeconomic forces derailed progress and led to the current crisis. Beginning with the seven fundamental, and still unanswered, questions identified during the ARPANET’s development, Patterns in Network Architecture returns to bedrock and traces our experience both good and bad. Along the way, he uncovers overlooked patterns in protocols that simplify design and implementation and resolves the classic conflict between connection and connectionless while retaining the best of both. He finds deep new insights into the core challenges of naming and addressing, along with results from upper-layer architecture.All of this in Day’s deft hands comes together in a tour de force of elegance and simplicity with the annoying turn of events that the answer has been staring us in the face: Operating systems tell us even more about networking than we thought. The result is, in essence, the first “unified theory of networking,” and leads to a simpler, more powerful–and above all–more scalable network infrastructure. The book then lays the groundwork for how to exploit the result in the design, development, and management as we move beyond the limitations of the Internet. Using this new model, Day shows how many complex mechanisms in the Internet today (multihoming, mobility, and multicast) are, with this collapse in complexity, now simply a consequence of the structure. The problems of router table growth of such concern today disappear. The inescapable conclusion is that the Internet is an unfinished demo, more in the tradition of DOS than Unix, that has been living on Moore’s Law and 30 years of band-aids. It is long past time to get networking back on track./ Patterns in network protocols that synthesize “contradictory” approaches and simplify design and implementation / “Deriving” that networking is interprocess communication (IPC) yielding / A distributed IPC model that repeats with different scope and range of operation / Making network addresses topological makes routing purely a local matter / That in fact, private addresses are the norm–not the exception–with the consequence that the global public addresses required today are unnecessary / That mobility is dynamic multihoming and unicast is a subset of multicast, but multicast devolves into unicast and facilitates mobility / That the Internet today is more like DOS, but what we need should be more like Unix / For networking researchers, architects, designers, engineers Provocative, elegant, and profound, Patterns in Network Architecture transforms the way you envision, architect, and implement networks.Preface: The Seven Unanswered Questions xiii Chapter 1: Foundations for Network Architecture 1 Chapter 2: Protocol Elements 23 Chapter 3: Patterns in Protocols 57 Chapter 4: Stalking the Upper-Layer Architecture 97 Chapter 5: Naming and Addressing 141 Chapter 6: Divining Layers 185 Chapter 7: The Network IPC Model 235 Chapter 8: Making Addresses Topological 283 Chapter 9: Multihoming, Multicast, and Mobility 317 Chapter 10: Backing Out of a Blind Alley 351 Appendix A: Outline for Gedanken Experiment on Separating Mechanism and Policy 385 Bibliography 389 Index 399.
Author Balbir Kumar and Shail B. Jain.
Designed as a text for the students of various engineering streams such as electronics/electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, computer science and engineering, IT, instrumentation and control and mechanical engineering, this well-written text provides an introduction to electronic devices and circuits. It introduces to the readers electronic circuit analysis and design techniques with emphasis on the operation and use of semiconductor devices. It covers principles of operation, the characteristics and applications of fundamental electronic devices such as p-n junction diodes, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), and field effect transistors (FETs).What distinguishes this text is that it explains the concepts and applications of the subject in such a way that even an average student will be able to understand working of electronic devices, analyze, design and simulate electronic circuits. This comprehensive book provides: a large number of solved examples; summary highlighting the important points in the chapter; a number of Review Questions at the end of each chapter; and, a fairly large number of unsolved problems with answers.
Linear prediction theory has had a profound impact in the field of digital signal processing. Although the theory dates back to the early 1940s, its influence can still be seen in applications today. The theory is based on very elegant mathematics and leads to many beautiful insights into statistical signal processing. Although prediction is only a part of the more general topics of linear estimation, filtering, and smoothing, this book focuses on linear prediction. This has enabled detailed discussion of a number of issues that are normally not found in texts. For example, the theory of vector linear prediction is explained in considerable detail and so is the theory of line spectral processes. This focus and its small size make the book different from many excellent texts which cover the topic, including a few that are actually dedicated to linear prediction. There are several examples and computer-based demonstrations of the theory. Applications are mentioned wherever appropriate, but the focus is not on the detailed development of these applications. The writing style is meant to be suitable for self-study as well as for classroom use at the senior and first-year graduate levels. The text is self-contained for readers with introductory exposure to signal processing, random processes, and the theory of matrices, and a historical perspective and detailed outline are given in the first chapter.
Simulating physics helps cutting-edge games distinguish themselves by making virtual objects behave as we expect them to in the real world. Physics engines are the software programs that run these simulations. Building an engine is difficult, however. There are a large number of new developers (and hobbyists) coming into this market who need help through this complex process. Current introductory books are inadequate; they don’t bring enough real-world programming experience to the task. There is a need for an introductory book on game physics with solid coding guidance but which limits the math content. Ian Millington brings his extensive professional programming experience to this problem. He has developed games since 1987, has studied AI and mathematics at the PhD level, and founded Mindlathe Ltd., a company that designed and built commercial physics engines. “Physics Engine Development” carefully describes each step in the creation of a robust, usable physics engine. It introduces the mathematical concepts in a clear and simple manner, keeping to high school level topics and building a physics code library as it goes.Each new concept is explained in diagrams and code to make sure that even the most novice of game programmers understands. The companion CD-ROM includes the source code for a complete physics engine of commercial quality. This book will serve as a introduction to more mathematically advanced books on game physics, such as “Dave Eberly’s Game Physics”. It uses only high school algebra and shows how to build a complete system based on professional principles. It accompanies a CD-ROM with C++ source code for a full commercial-quality physics engine.
“Uniquely, this book proposes robust space-time code designs for real-world wireless channels. Through a unified framework, it emphasizes how propagation mechanisms such as space-time frequency correlations and coherent components impact the MIMO system performance under realistic power constraints. Combining a solid mathematical analysis with a physical and intuitive approach to space-time coding, the book progressively derives innovative designs, taking into consideration that MIMO channels are often far from ideal. The various chapters of this book provide an essential, complete and refreshing insight into the performance behaviour of space-time codes in realistic scenarios and constitute an ideal source of the latest developments in MIMO propagation and space-time coding for researchers, R&D engineers and graduate students.Features of this title include: physical models and analytical representations of MIMO propagation channels, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of various models; overview of space-time coding techniques, covering both classical and more recent schemes under information theory and error probability perspectives; in-depth presentation of how real-world propagation affects the capacity and the error performance of MIMO transmission schemes; and, innovative and practical designs of robust space-time coding, precoding and antenna selection techniques for realistic propagation (including single-carrier and MIMO-OFDM transmissions). ‘This book offers important insights into how space-time coding can be tailored for real-world MIMO channels. The discussion of MIMO propagation models is also intuitive and well-developed’ – Arogyaswami J. Paulraj, Professor, Stanford University, CA. ‘Finally a book devoted to MIMO from a new perspective that bridges the boundaries between propagation, channel modeling, signal processing and space-time coding.It is of high reference value, combining intuitive and conceptual explanations with detailed, stringent derivations of basic facts of MIMO’ – Ernst Bonek, Emeritus Professor, Technische Universitat Wien, Austria. This title presents space-time coding techniques for real-world MIMO channels. It contains new design methodologies and criteria that guarantee the robustness of space-time coding in real life wireless communications applications. It evaluates the performance of space-time coding in real world conditions.
‘This title offers a unique system focus that presents specific solutions for specific appliances. This publication presents state-of-the-art power management techniques for modern electronic appliances that rely on such very large-scale integration (VLSI) chips as CPUs and DSPs. The author thoroughly covers all aspects of the field, including semiconductor manufacturing processes, packages, circuits, functions, and systems. A unique and significant contribution to the field, the publication adopts a ‘system focus’ by first presenting the appliance and then delving into the power management architecture and topologies that best serve each appliance. In addition to specific techniques and applications, the publication discusses fundamental physical and socioeconomic issues.For example, the author examines Moore’s law and its effect on power management and heat dissipation, which points to a future breakthrough needed to continue the fast pace of advancement in the high-tech industry.The author provides a solid technical foundation and an analysis of popular electronic appliances, including: An overview of the semiconductor industry; plain-English discussion of semiconductor processes and packages; step-by-step guide to analog design building from the transistor to higher-level functions, leading to the implementation of a complete voltage regulator; popular DC-DC voltage regulation architectures; AC-DC architectures for power conversion; and, ultra-portable devices, such as cellular phones, PDAs, and digital still cameras, Desktop and notebook PCs.The publication concludes with a chapter on special power management topics and an expert forecast of future directions for the field. This is essential reading for researchers, engineers, and designers in the semiconductor and integrated circuits industries. With its extensive use of cross-section drawings as well as transistor circuit schematics, this is also a recommended textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in computer science and electrical engineering.
Author Charles Lessard, Joseph Lessard.
This lecture book is an introduction to project management. It will be of use for engineering students working on project design in all engineering disciplines and will also be of high value to practicing engineers in the work force. Few engineering programs prepare students in methods of project design and configuration management used within industry and government. This book emphasizes teams throughout and includes coverage of an introduction to projectmanagement, project definition, researching intellectual property (patent search), project scope, idealizing and conceptualizing a design, converting product requirements to engineering specifications, project integration, project communicationsmanagement, and conducting design reviews. The overall objectives of the book are for the readers to understand and manage their project by employing the good engineering practice used by medical and other industries in design and development of medical devices, engineered products and systems. The goal is for the engineer and student to work well on large projects requiring a team environment, and to effectively communicate technical matters in both written documents and oral presentations.
Author John L. Volakis, and Kubilay Sertel, Brian C. Usner.
This book provides a brief overview of the popular Finite Element Method (FEM) and its hybrid versions for electromagnetics with applications to radar scattering, antennas and arrays, guided structures, microwave components, frequency selective surfaces, periodic media, and RF materials characterizations and related topics. It starts by presenting concepts based on Hilbert and Sobolev spaces as well as Curl and Divergence spaces for generating matrices, useful in all engineering simulation methods. It then proceeds to present applications of the finite element and finite element-boundary integral methods for scattering and radiation. Applications to periodic media, metamaterials and bandgap structures are also included. The hybrid volume integral equation method for high contrast dielectrics and is presented for the first time. Another unique feature of the book is the inclusion of design optimization techniques and their integration within commercial numerical analysis packages for shape and material design. To aid the reader with the method’s utility, an entire chapter is devoted to two-dimensional problems. The book can be considered as an update on the latest developments since the publication of our earlier book (Finite Element Method for Electromagnetics, IEEE Press, 1998). The latter is certainly complementary companion to this one.
Place of Publication Amsterdam Boston, Mass.
Whether you are a professional new to the user-centered design field, or an experienced designer who needs to learn the fundamentals of user interface design and evaluation, this book can lead the way. What will you get from this book? Based on a course from the Open University, UK which has been taught to over a thousand professionals and students, this book presents an overview of the field. It illustrates the benefits of a user-centered approach to the design of software, computer systems, and web sites, and provides a clear and practical discussion of requirements gathering; developing interaction design from user requirements; and, user interface evaluation. The book’s coverage includes established HCI topics – for example, visibility, affordance, feedback, metaphors, mental models, and the like – combined with practical guidelines for contemporary designs and current trends, which makes for a winning combination. You get a clear presentation of ideas, illustrations of concepts, using real-world applications.This book will help you develop all the skills necessary for iterative user-centered design, and provides a firm foundation for user interface design and evaluation on which to build. This work covers the design of graphical user interfaces, web sites, and interfaces for embedded systems. It covers full color production, with activities, projects, hundreds of illustrations, and industrial applications. A supporting web site includes sample exam paper, numerous activities to practice the concepts learned, and a set of review questions to test your own learning – plus web resources.
Written for students and managers who do not have a technical background, “Data Communications and Network Security” comprehensively introduces students to the technology and management of data communications. This includes both wired and wireless technology as well as comprehensive coverage of network security, helping both the organization and the individual create and maintain a data-safe environment. The book’s unique organization allows the material to be presented in a variety of ways, making the book a strong match to any teaching approach.
Covering the breadth of a large topic, this book provides a thorough grounding in object-oriented concepts, the software development process, UML and multi-tier technologies. After covering some basic ground work underpinning OO software projects, the book follows the steps of a typical development project (Requirements Capture – Design – Specification & Test), showing how an abstract problem is taken through to a concrete solution. The book is programming language agnostic – so code is kept to a minimum to avoid detail and deviation into implementation minutiae. A single case study running through the text provides a realistic example showing development from an initial proposal through to a finished system. Key artifacts such as the requirements document and detailed designs are included. For each aspect of the case study, there is an exercise for the reader to produce similar documents for a different system.
Do you need to know how to write systems, services, and applications using the TinyOS operating system? Learn how to write nesC code and efficient applications with this indispensable guide to TinyOS programming. Detailed examples show you how to write TinyOS code in full, from basic applications right up to new low-level systems and high performance applications. Two leading figures in the development of TinyOS also explain the reasons behind many of the design decisions made and, for the first time, how nesC relates to and differs from other C dialects. Handy features such as a library of software design patterns, programming hints and tips, end-of-chapter exercises, and an appendix summarizing the basic application-level TinyOS APIs make this the ultimate guide to TinyOS for embedded systems programmers, developers, designers, and graduate students.
The scaling of semiconductor devices from sub-micron to nanometer dimensions is driving the need for understanding the design of electrostatic discharge (ESD) circuits, and the response of these integrated circuits (IC) to ESD phenomena. “ESD Circuits and Devices” provides a clear insight into the layout and design of circuitry for protection against electrical overstress (EOS) and ESD. With an emphasis on examples, this text: explains ESD buffering, ballasting, current distribution, design segmentation, feedback, coupling, and de-coupling ESD design methods; outlines the fundamental analytical models and experimental results for the ESD design of MOSFETs and diode semiconductor device elements, with a focus on CMOS, silicon on insulator (SOI), and Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology; focuses on the ESD design, optimization, integration and synthesis of these elements and concepts into ESD networks, as well as applying within the off-chip driver networks, and on-chip receivers; and highlights state-of-the-art ESD input circuits, as well as ESD power clamps networks.Continuing the author’s series of books on ESD, this book will be an invaluable reference for the professional semiconductor chip and system ESD engineer. Semiconductor device and process development, quality, reliability and failure analysis engineers will also find it an essential tool. In addition, both senior undergraduate and graduate students in microelectronics and IC design will find its numerous examples useful.
Author Shaharuddin Salleh, Albert Y. Zomaya, Sakhinah Abu Bakar.
“Computing for Numerical Methods Using Visual C++” fills the need for a complete, authoritative book on the visual solutions to problems in numerical methods using C++. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject and demonstrates how solving problems in numerical methods using C++ is dominant and practical for implementation due to its flexible language format, object-oriented methodology, and support for high numerical precisions.
Author R.C. Bansal, T.S. Bhatti.
Publisher Alpha Science International Ltd. | 2019-04-25T23:44:45Z | http://blog.engglib.upd.edu.ph/?m=200909 |
The fact that Catherine meant what she said is very evident from the deepening of her spiritual life and ever increasing devotion to Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the next two years, she and Tonine lived with a kindly aunt, Marguerite Jeanror, her father’s sister, in the nearby village of Saint-Remy. Catherine was pleased to discover that Saint Remy had a resident priest, which is something that her hometown did not have, and for the first time in her life Catherine was given an organized course of instruction in Catholic doctrine and guidance in cultivating the spiritual virtues. It was the only formal education she was ever to receive, a strange and mysterious thing, for she came of educated parents and her brothers and sisters all had more advanced schooling in varying degrees. And so it is hard not to see here design of heaven to keep Catherine ignorant, so that the divine origin of her visions might be the more apparent.
In the meantime she began to clear the way toward a religious vocation by training Tonine to take over the household. Catherine refused at least three proposals of marriage, only to meet with a flat “no” from her father when she asked his permission to enter religion. In fact he took steps to prevent her from becoming a nun by sending her to Paris to serve as a waitress in her brother’s cafe, with the thought that the allurements of the city might distract her from her religious intentions. After a year of living in the city, Catherine was disappointed with this type of life, and with the help of her brothers and sisters she went to study at a “finishing” school conducted by a sister-in-law at Chatillon.
Although Catherine’s calling was now crystal-clear, nevertheless, she had serious obstacles to overcome before she would be free to follow that calling. First, there was her father. By this time, Catherine was twenty-three years old and did not need her father’s permission to enter religion, but obedience was the soul of her spiritual life, and she felt that her obedience would not be perfect, should she not have his blessing. Her sister-in-law, Jeanne Laboure, came to her assistance. Jeanne was a favorite with Catherine’s father and she knew how to bend him to her will.
Soon he gave in and sent Catherine the blessing she so desperately wanted, but, in doing so, he thrust one final arrow into her heart. He refused her the dowry customarily required of those entering the Convent. It was a foolish thing to do, for it only served to humiliate the daughter who had served him so well, and to reveal his own lack of charity. Once again here Catherine showed her virtue by never uttering a word of criticism or complaint–in fact, all her life she spoke of her father in the most glowing terms. Jeanne and her husband, Catherine’s brother Hubert, supplied the dowry and the trousseau Catherine would need for her novitiate.
Now the second obstacle to Catherine’s vocation was even more difficult to surmount. The Sister Superior of the hospital at Chatillon was most reluctant to receive a religious candidate so poorly educated as Catherine. Once more, Catherine found a champion, this time in the person of the Sister Assistant of the house, Sister Victoire Sejole, Catherine had been accompanying Sister Sejole on her errands of mercy, and the good Sister, who had an extraordinary faculty for discerning souls, had come to recognize in her an unusual depth of spirituality. She begged the Superior to accept the girl, pointing out that Catherine was “a good village girl, the kind St. Vincent loved,” and promising to instruct her personally in the basics of learning that she would need in the convent. The Sister Superior acquiesced, and Catherine was now about to begin the life with Jesus that she had so desired.
Catherine entered the Sisters of Charity as a postulant at Chatillon on January 22,1830, and in the short three months that she spent there left an unforgettable impression of goodness. On April 21, 1830, she entered the novitiate, or seminary, as the Sisters of Charity call it, at 140 rue du Bac in Paris. She arrived just in time to assist at the translation of the body of St. Vincent de Paul from the Cathedral of Notre Dame to the newly erected mother church of the Vincentian Fathers. A novena of thanks¬giving was held at the church to celebrate this great event, and each evening, on returning home, Catherine was granted a vision of St. Vincent’s heart.
“On the eve of the feast of St. Vincent, good Mother Martha spoke to us of devotion to the saints, and to the Blessed Virgin in particular. It gave me so great a desire to see her that I went to bed with the thought that I would see my good Mother that very night-it was a desire I had long cherished.
“We had been given a piece of a surplice of St. Vincent’s. I tore my piece in half, swallowed it, and fell asleep, confident that St. Vincent would obtain for me the grace of seeing the Blessed Virgin.
“At once the thought struck me: Someone will hear me.
“He followed me, or rather I followed him; he kept to my left, and was surrounded with rays of light. Wherever we went, the lights were lit, a fact which astonished me very much. But my surprise was greatest at the threshold of the chapel: the door opened of itself, the child scarcely having touched it with the tip of his finger. It was the height of everything, to see that all the torches and tapers were burning-it reminded me of midnight Mass. I did not see the Blessed Virgin. The child led me into the sanctuary, to the side of M. le Directeur’s chair. There he remained the whole time.
“It would be impossible for me to describe what I felt at that moment, or what passed within me, for it seemed to me that I could not possibly look upon the Blessed Virgin.
“Looking upon the Blessed Virgin, I flung myself toward her, and falling upon my knees on the altar steps, I rested my hands in her lap. There a moment passed, the sweetest of my life. I could not say what I felt. The Blessed Virgin told me how I must conduct myself with my director, and added several things that I must not tell. As to what I should do in time of trouble, she pointed with her left hand to the foot of the altar, and told me to come there and to open up my heart, assuring me that I would receive all the consolation I needed.
“I asked her the meaning of everything I had seen, and she deigned to explain it to me. I could not say how long I stayed with her. When she left, it was as if she faded away, becoming a shadow which moved toward the tribune, the way she had come.
“We went back the same way, always surrounded with light, the child still keeping to the left. I believe that this child was my guardian angel, who showed himself that he might take me to see the Blessed Virgin, for I had often prayed to him to obtain this favor for me. He was dressed in white, and shone with a mysterious light that was more resplendent than light itself; he appeared to be four or five years old.
Catherine appended to this over-all account the actual words spoken by Our Lady during this interview. With her usual precision, she entitled it: July Conversation with the Most Blessed Virgin, from 11:30 in the evening of the 18th until 1:30 in the morning of the 19th, St. Vincent’s de Paul’s feast day.
“My child, the good God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will have much to suffer, but you will rise above these sufferings by reflecting that what you do is for the glory of God. You will know what the good God wants. You will be tormented until you have told him who is charged with directing you. You will be contradicted but, do not fear, you will have grace. Tell with confidence all that passes within you; tell it with simplicity. Have confidence. Do not be afraid.
“You will see certain things; give an account of what you see and hear. You will be inspired in your prayers: give an account of what I tell you and of what you will understand in your prayers.
“The times are very evil. Sorrows will befall France; the throne will be overturned. The whole world will be plunged into every kind of misery. (In saying this, the Blessed Virgin appeared very distressed.) But come to the foot of the altar. There graces will be shed upon all, great and small, who ask for them. Especially will graces be shed upon those who ask for them.
“Tell that to him who has charge of you, even though he is not the superior. He will be given charge of the Community in a special way; he must do everything he can to restore the rule in vigor. Tell him for me to guard against useless reading, loss of time, and visits. When the rule will have been restored in vigor, a community will ask to be united to your Community. Such is not customary, but I love them; God will bless those who take them in; they will enjoy great peace.’ [Our Lady spoke of Mother Seton’s Sisters from Emmitsburg, Maryland, who petitioned for union with St. Vincent’s Community, and were admitted in 1849].
“The Community will enjoy a great peace; it will become large.’ But, there will be an abundance of sorrows, and the danger will be great. Yet, do not be afraid; tell them not to be afraid. The protection of God will be ever present in a special way-and St. Vincent will protect you. (Now the Blessed Virgin was very sad.) I shall be with you myself. I always have my eye upon you. I will grant you many graces. The moment will come when the danger will be extreme. It will seem that all is lost. At that time, I will be with you. Have confidence. You will recognize my coming and the protection of God over the Community, the protection of St. Vincent over both Communities. Have confidence; do not be discouraged; I will be with you then.
“But it will not be the same for other communities-there will be victims (the Blessed Virgin had tears in her eyes when she said it)among the clergy of Paris there will be victims-Monseigneur the Archbishop-(at this name the tears came afresh).
Like the apparitions of St. Vincent’s heart, this apparition was a prelude to the great apparition of the Miraculous Medal which would soon happen on November 27. Catherine is to be entrusted with a mission, but she is not yet told what that mission will be. Our Lady does, however, foretell the dire happenings to befall France and the world in 1870, that year of turmoil and upheaval. There is some reason to believe that her predictions were not meant to apply only to the year 1870, for, during the revolution of 1830, which erupted just a week after this apparition, and during the revolution of 1848, these predictions were fulfilled at least in part. It is an especially striking fact that, although Archbishop Darboy was murdered in 1870, as Our Lady had foretold, so too, Archbishop Affre was shot to death on the barricades in 1848, and Archbishop de Quelen had twice to flee for his life during the “Glorious Three Days” of the revolution of 1830.
The fulfillment of these terrible prophecies of the Mother of God may be considered in a practical way as one of the many proofs of the authenticity of the visions. They may be also looked upon as hints of even more horrible punishments to befall mankind, such as World Wars I and II, for which the “mission” to be entrusted to Catherine would be in the form of a remedy for what is lacking by much of mankind.
“On November 27, 1830, which fell upon the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent, at five-thirty in the evening, in the deep silence after the point of the meditation had been read-that is, several minutes after the point of the meditations–I heard a sound like the rustling of a silk dress, from the tribune near the picture of St. Joseph. Turning in that direction, I saw the Blessed Virgin, at the level of St. Joseph’s picture. The Virgin was standing. She was of medium height, and clothed all in white. Her dress was of the whiteness of the dawn made in the style called “a la Vierge,” that is, high neck and plain sleeves. A white veil covered her head and fell on either side to her feet. Under the veil her hair, in coils, was bound with a fillet ornamented with lace, about three centimeters in height or of two fingers’ breadth, without pleats, and resting lightly on the hair.
“Her face was sufficiently exposed, indeed exposed very well, and so beautiful that it seems to me impossible to express her ravishing beauty. Her feet rested on a white globe, that is to say half a globe, or at least I saw only half. There was also a serpent, green in color with yellow spots.
“The hands were raised to the height of the stomach and held, in a very relaxed manner and as if offering it to God, a golden ball surmounted with a little golden cross, which represented the world. Her eyes were now raised to heaven, now lowered. Her face was of such beauty that I could not describe it.
“All at once I saw rings on her fingers, three rings to each finger, the largest one near the base of the finger, one of medium size in the middle, the smallest one at the tip. Each ring was set with gems, some more beautiful than others; the larger gems emitted greater rays and the smaller gems, smaller rays; the rays bursting from all sides flooded the base, so that I could no longer see the feet of the Blessed Virgin.
“I could not express what I felt at this, what I saw, the beauty and the brilliance of the dazzling rays.
“This made me realize how right it was to pray to the Blessed Virgin and how generous she was to those who did pray to her, what graces she gave to those who asked for them, what joy she had in giving them.
“The inscription, in a semi-circle, began at the height of the right hand, passed over the head, and finished at the height of the left hand.
“The golden ball disappeared in the brilliance of the sheaves of light bursting from all sides; the hands turned out and the arms were bent down under the weight of the treasures of grace obtained.
“Sister Laboure must still be in ecstasy.” Yet this Sister spoke more truly than she realised!
There can be little doubt that she received supernatural help in keeping her secret. This was especially evident when, in 1836, the Archbishop of Paris urged Catherine’s confessor Father Aladel to have her come forward and testify in person at the first official inquiry into the origin of the Medal. After Catherine had repeatedly tried to avoid testifying, with evident reluctance and anguish, she finally came up with the astonishing statement that it would do no good for her to testify anyway, for she could remember no detail of the apparitions! And the fact that this was no pure invention on her part was proven by at least two more well-authenticated periods of forgetfulness at other intervals in her life. God, it seems, intervened in her favor and drew a curtain over her memory during a few periods of time, to keep her humble and in the background.
After these days of intense mystical graces Catherine spent the remaining forty-six years of her life in complete obscurity at the Hospice d’Enghien in the environs of Paris, first as cook, then as laundress and custodian of the clothes room, and finally, for forty years, in charge of the old men who were inmates of the house. It was a singularly humdrum life, without glamour, or even much of human gratitude. The ordinariness of it obscured even her heroic sanctity, so that none of Catherine’s Sisters, except in hindsight, regarded her as more than a good and regular religious. There were certain moments when the glory shone through-as on the morning when her Sisters discovered her in ecstasy before a statue of the Virgin in the garden, or when she made some passing prediction that inevitably came true–however these were but momentary, and everyone quickly forgot them. Beneath the veneer of daily religious life, Catherine Laboure was deeply involved in the practice of heroic virtue and devotion to God.
It was only in 1876, a scant six months before her death, that the secret greatness of Catherine was finally revealed. Our Lady had asked for the erection of a statue depicting her in the attitude of the first phase of the Apparition of November 27, as the “Virgin of the Globe,” and the statue had not been made. Fearing to appear before Mary Immacu¬late without every last detail of her mission accomplished, Catherine broke her long silence in order that it might be done.
Father Aladel had died in 1865 and had been succeeded as Catherine ‘s confessor by Father Chinchon. For reasons that can only be guessed, neither of these men had seen to the making of the statue. Now Father Chinchon was suddenly sent to a distant house, and Catherine, who knew supernaturally that she had but a few months to live, found herself bereft of her trusted confidant. In panic she rejected the idea of confiding in her new confessor, and went directly to the Superior General, to beg him to restore Father Chinchon as her confessor. Whether or not she meant to reveal herself to the General as the Sister of the Apparitions, we shall never know, for she grew confused in his presence and was able only to stammer her startling request. To the General, therefore, she seemed to be just an old nun. Gently but firmly he refused her request.
The next morning, having secured the permission of the Mother of God, Catherine summoned her Superior, revealed herself as the Seer of the Apparitions, and begged that plans be set on foot for the making of the statue of the “Virgin of the Globe.” Before her death she was to see the plaster model in the studio of the sculptor.
The first phase of the apparition, popularly referred to as the “Virgin of the Globe,” however, is concerned with the doctrine which describes Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces. Briefly, this doctrine, which is not yet defined by the Church but which is considered certain by theologians, states that all prayers and petitions, whether addressed specifically to Mary, or to God and the saints, are presented to God by her, and all graces, whether answers to prayer or gifts unsought, pass through her hands to mankind. This doctrine is admirably represented by the attitude of the Mother of God offering the golden ball which represents the world, to God, her lips moving in prayer-this is the intercessory office of Our Lady-and by the brilliant rays streaming from the rings on her hands, symbolic of the actual bestowal of the graces obtained.
It was and is the fulfillment of this promise, the abundance of graces, that quickly endeared the Medal to the world. The spread of the Medal was so rapid and the flood of favors it let loose so startling, that the faithful gave it the name “Miraculous.” The number of Medals minted since 1832, when it was first struck, is beyond all counting. It is easily in the hundreds of millions. The Medal is worn by Protestant and Jew as well as Catholic.
The wonders it works are as ordinary or as extraordinary as the needs and ills of mankind. Conversions to the Faith, repentance of hardened sinners, recognition of the Will of God, peace in homes, recoveries from illness acute and chronic, critical and minor-the catalogue is endless. Each wearer of the Medal has his own story to tell. Best of all, the Medal seems to have a special power for promoting and deepening personal devotion to the Mother of God. Thus it has not merely a passing or momentary effect on the soul it touches, but an effect which is so lasting as to be, in many cases, eternal. Under this aspect, it has assumed a mighty role in the reconversion of the world, for it betters the individual soul, and the world’s goodness is exactly equal to the sum of all good hearts.
Catherine Laboure is the perfect model of what Our Lady intended the Medal to do for mankind. As already stated, the Miraculous Medal is meant to sanctify those who wear it. Catherine Laboure is not a saint because she saw the Blessed Virgin, but because she cultivated devotion to her and allowed this devotion to influence her way of life. In so doing, she realized perfectly Our Lady’s objective: not the performance of heroic, or even unusual, deeds by her clients, but the perfection of their ordinary states of life.
Catherine’s formula was very simple: she did what she was supposed to do; she did it as well as she could; and she did it for God. It is a formula that everyone can, and should, follow. No one pretends that it is easy; the pursuit of virtue entails self-discipline and sacrifice: but it is attainable.
The sanctity of Catherine Laboure is proof. She is, therefore, the “Saint of Ordinary People,” a flesh-and-blood rendering of the message of Mary to mankind through the Apparitions of the Miraculous Medal, a model for the salvation of the modern world. Mary Immaculate did not specifically ask for any set form of devotion beyond the wearing of the Medal. Therefore one must come to the conclusion that the medal itself provides the inspiration for devotion, for the medal is a lesson unto itself of the depth of love that we are to have for Jesus and Mary.
“The Lady of the Miraculous Medal” by Rev. Joseph I. Dirvin, C.M. | 2019-04-18T20:19:03Z | https://luisapiccarreta.co/?page_id=13417 |
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In the early 1960s learning to love Barcelona required, among other things, an act of will. The city was not, on its surface, attractive; its charms lay hidden beneath a dowdy, scruffy appearance. The heavy hand laid on the city by Franco after the Civil War stifled even the modicum of liberty essential for urban culture to thrive.
Still, lovers of art, who often have more porous political consciences than other members of the intelligentsia, were better served by Barcelona than the casual tourist. (Many Americans still harbored intense feelings about the Civil War and refused to set foot in Spain.) The Old Quarter, known as the Barri Gotic, with its medieval cathedral and houses, was richly atmospheric and pungently aromatic; the plumbing, like the architecture, was centuries old, and the genteel, antiseptic charms of gentrification still lay some twenty years in the future. Informed travelers could next make their way to the Museu d’Art de Catalunya on Montjuic to study the fabulous Romanesque mural paintings, which fortunately had been removed from the small churches in the Catalan countryside and thus spared the ravages of time and the fury of anarchists. The museum was almost always empty, and it was easy to be overpowered by those out-sized, wide-eyed twelfth-century divinities.
This artistic itinerary was exceptional in one respect: it listed no monuments created between the late Middle Ages and the middle of the nineteenth century. Of course, life did not cease in Barcelona during those 350 years. Something worse happened: the city fell under the power of the central government in Madrid, which alternately ignored, exploited, or repressed it, reducing it to the status of a small, provincial city. When at last Barcelona began to re-emerge as a thriving center for commerce and industry in the 1850s, and money was available for new building projects, architects cast a nostalgic eye toward the last great epoch in Catalan history, the period from the mid-twelfth century to the end of the fourteenth century, when the region was an important Mediterranean power.
The splendid buildings that arose during the Catalan renaissance, or Renaixenia, are thus situated at the crossroads between art and regional nationalism. They are as complex as they are compelling. And these were the buildings that aroused the enthusiasm of the youthful Robert Hughes, who claims, as an Australian, an innate affinity for what he calls the provincial. The act of will needed to see beneath the tatty surface of Barcelona in the 1960s was almost second nature to him, and he was launched on a long-term engagement with the city that is once again known, not least as the host to this year's Olympic Games, throughout the world.
The political and economic history of Barcelona is written all over its plans and buildings, and one cannot begin to understand Catalan architecture—particularly that of the nineteenth century, when it was such a forceful expression of national aspiration—without the image bank of local identity that lay behind it.
The issue of local identity looms large in Hughes’s book, as it is beginning to do in historical studies in general. It is logical to suppose that the renewal of interest in the regional and the local is linked to the major geopolitical changes of the last decade: the projected unification of Western Europe has made its inhabitants more aware of what they perceive to be their historical differences, which are threatened with extinction by the emergence of a new megastate; and the disintegration of the old and vast megastate to the east has really let the cat of nationalism out of the bag.
Myths of origin and cults of authenticity, in short, are returning to favor. Duly sanitized of their association with the darkest moments of Western history, and presented with conviction, these things can have an enormous appeal, as Ronald Reagan showed during the two terms of his presidency. It is still too soon to identify the effects of the new local identities with any confidence, but as far as the visual arts are concerned, one consequence is clear. More and more, art historians are questioning the “canon,” that rather exclusive group of artists and works of art that are used as the benchmark for measuring aesthetic and cultural quality.
In the modern criticism of art, the charge of provincialism has always been a grave one. It is commonly assumed that the cosmopolitan is more innovative, more valuable, more challenging; in short, that it is better. This exclusivism is now being questioned, and recognition of other art, recognition without condescension, is now being demanded. The situation in the visual arts hasn’t yet attained the sophistication and the shrillness of contemporary literary studies, in which received notions of excellence are being subjected to a hostile analysis, often from a political standpoint, that attempts to expose the ideological content presumed to be latent in the concept of the masterpiece. In the visual arts, the outcome of the struggle over who controls the definition of excellence is still far from clear; but it may be that the definition will be usefully enlarged by the new points of regard. In this respect, the genuinely open-minded study of local identity exemplified by Hughes’s book gives one grounds for hope.
As Hughes is quick to say in his preface, his book is not scholarly or academic. Its essential information is derived from secondary sources, which are cited in the bibliography. Its strengths are to be found, rather, in its author’s engaging style of writing, his keen and concise analysis of particular works of art, his ability to sustain an engaging point of view over more than 500 pages of text (which are illustrated, unfortunately, with deficient reproductions). By now Hughes is renowned as the master of an informal but analytically penetrating prose style that catches the cadence of his speech (at least as it comes across on television) and his penchant for earthy colloquialisms. He is an extremely congenial guide through almost two millennia of Catalan history.
His point of entry determines his slant on his subject. During the last twenty-five years, the fame of Barcelona as a thriving artistic center in the late nineteenth century has grown. The names of Gaudi and Picasso, the latter of whom started his career in the city, are proof enough that Barcelona was no run-of-the-mill town, even if textiles were the principal industry; and around these stars clustered lesser but still radiant lights, who constituted the constellation called modernisme. The architects Lluis Domenech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch designed some of the most flamboyant and inventive buildings of the period, which only recently have been lovingly restored. Domenech’s Palau de la Musica Catalana, a concert hall completed in 1908 for the Orfeo Catala, a choral society, is a Wagnerian opera in three dimensions, swarming with surface energy, overladen with nationalistic symbolism. The Casa Amatller by Puig, now home to an institute of art history, performs an inventive modernista turn on the Gothic style so beloved by these architects.
The artists who made up the group known as Els Quatre Gats also have come in for a share of glory. Els Quatre Gats was a beer hall started by four painters, Pere Romeu, RamOn Casas, Santiago Rusinyol, and Miquel Utrillo. Part fraternity house, part artists’ club, it was the center of Barcelona’s Bohemia, and the place where Picasso used to hang out. His reputation overshadows Casas and Rusinyol, of course, but they were very good artists indeed. They were in Paris in the 1890s and sampled the various brands of modernism, which they transformed into an authentic medium for interpreting the peculiar culture of their native city.
The renascence of high-level artistic activity in a city where it had long and conspicuously been lacking is the phenomenon that Hughes seeks to understand. As he puts it, “So much of what was built in Barcelona in the late nineteenth century was grounded in a strong, even obsessive, sense of the Catalan past, in particular its medieval past, that there was little point in trying to describe the newer without the older.” Accordingly, his book is divided into two roughly equal parts. “The Old City” is a fast-paced historical travelogue covering the first 1,850 years of the existence of Barcelona and Catalunya, the surrounding region of northeastern Spain, bordered by the Pyrenees to the north and the Mediterranean to the east. This is designed to set the stage for the densely woven narrative of “The New City,” which is more tangled and more ambitious.
The long, initial phase of Barcelona’s history can be described as an arduous climb up to a peak of glory, followed by a quick slide into a valley of obscurity. Though it was settled by the Romans, Barcelona did not begin to be significant until the twelfth century. In 1137, to be exact, Catalunya merged with the adjacent kingdom of Aragon, forming a solid block of territory and power, and spilling over into Roussillon. Barcelona was the capital of this new state. During the reign of Jaume I (1213-76), the kingdom of Aragon launched the expansion of an empire eastward as far as Constantinople, building a trading network that brought great prosperity to the region.
No matter how secure Barcelona felt, no matter how impregnable it was, its church architects obdurately kept the image of the fortress in their minds. No matter how high, long, or wide their buildings were, they retain a ghost memory of the cave, the strong troglodytic God-shelters of the Pyrenees, of Catalunya Vella.
Hughes employs the Catalan language to refer to the names of people and places of the region. Spanish would be unthinkable, even for a writer with Hughes's impatience with the politically correct. Catalan is an independent Romance language, but more to the point, it is independent from Spanish, which is derived from a more formal, cultivated Latin. Yet Catalan has only sporadically been used as a literary language, which explains its second-class status compared with other Romance languages, despite the fact that it made a splendid start. It is certainly no coincidence that the foundations of literary Catalan were laid as the Gothic buildings were rising. The central figures are Ramon Llull (c. 1235-1316), one of the greatest medieval philosophers, and the troubadour poet Ausias March (c. 1397-1459). After this moment of glory, however, written Catalan virtually disappeared until the nineteenth century, as a consequence of the collapse of the Kingdom of Aragon as an independent nation.
The history of the decline of Catalunya during the fifteenth century appeals mostly to students of economics and political factionalism, and clearly Hughes is not one of their number. As the first golden age of Catalunya draws to a close, the pace of his narrative accelerates to blinding speed; and after the dust settles, Ferdinand of Aragon has married Isabella of Castile, a union that made Catalunya the junior partner in the future development of Spain. From the first, the Union of Crowns was a misalliance. Castile, which then comprised all of the Iberian Peninsula except Portugal and Aragon, was a society ascending, and soon it would be the center of a world empire. In this order of things, Aragon (which in historical terms always includes the principality of Catalunya) became an appendage, denied the fruits of the Spanish monarchy but expected to contribute men and money to its wars.
The history of Catalunya over the next three centuries, mercilessly condensed to its essentials, is the history of futile attempts to escape this exploitation by the government in Madrid, which bypassed local civic institutions and ruled through a viceroy. It is also the story of the fitful progress and eventual success of the Catalan economy, which culminated in the late nineteenth century with the enrichment of a handful of manufacturers and the exploitation of their workers. The second golden age of art in Barcelona was created when these makers of money joined forces with makers of myths.
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, Catalunya discovered its soul, that is, its language, its history, and its folkways, in the Renaixenia. The Renaixenia was one of many movements of regional nationalism that swept Europe in the nineteenth century. (It is a force that, after several decades of dormancy, is again becoming significant: there are now said to be forty-two regional movements in Western Europe alone.) According to Eric Hobsbawm, a keen student of the phenomenon, regional nationalists staked their claim to nationhood on two points -- language and ethnicity, which were mixed together in a powerful cocktail of patriotism.
Nothing seems more natural or spontaneous than patriotism, but nothing is more susceptible to manipulation. At the heart of regional nationalism is the rewriting of history; a careful selection is made of events that lend themselves to the exaltation of a political program and its proponents. Thus mythologized, the past, at once remote and proximate, can be used to advance a wide range of nationalistic aspirations. Nationalism also demands a repertory of symbols, which run the gamut from flags to statues of the founders and heroes of the nation, and this is where artists get into the act. Of course, patriotic art is most often associated with its extreme manifestations, as exemplified by Soviet realism, Nazi neoclassicism, and (we are now being told) representations of the American West. Still, it need not be so coarse or so blatant, as Hughes nicely demonstrates by situating the architectural masterpieces of modernisme in the politics of the Renaixenia.
The search for the artistic roots of the Catalan soul could lead only to one place—the Barri Gotic, the Gothic past, one of the key points in the mythology of Catalan history. Architects of the modernist school interpreted the Gothic with varying degrees of liberty, as was only to be expected. Domenech, a flamboyant designer, kept up with the latest developments in Paris; Puig, a devoted and pioneering student of Catalan medieval art, was more archaeological in approach. Gaudi was another medievalizer, and the only member of the group who saw through the skin of the Gothic style to its structural achievements, as evinced in the amazing crypt for the chapel of the Colonia Guell.
Gaudi’s last work, the unfinished church of the Sagrada Familia, has become the most famous modernista building, and it is now routinely used to promote the image of Barcelona. Yet it was commissioned, as Hughes explains, by a right-wing religious organization that carried the ideas of the Renaixenia to an extreme of pious xenophobia. (Its leader even refused to eat French food, the sure sign of a twisted mind.) The familiar, spiky towers of the Sagrada Familia were designed, in other words, to be minarets of antimodernism. No wonder that construction stopped with the death of the architect, whose own views by then were not far removed from those of his patrons. The misguided souls who are now bending every effort to complete the church have no more sense of history than of taste.
Hughes's lucid account of modernista architecture raises the question of regional or national style not only politically, but also analytically. What exactly are such styles? How do they come into being? At any moment, works of art emanating from a given region assume common characteristics; this is what makes it possible for a trained eye to distinguish, often at a glance, a Renaissance painting done in Italy from one done in Flanders, or even a Florentine work from a Sienese work. With good reason, however, the study of the formation and the character of national styles has been treated with circumspection. Too often the explanations of these aesthetic and cultural phenomena have fallen into the trap set by the nationalist movements of the nineteenth century, that is to say, into the belief that the inhabitants of a certain region are innately imbued with spiritual characteristics that endure over time. In Spain, for example, the term invariantes castizos has been used to describe the unchanging essence of the Spanish character, which is manifest in everything that is truly Spanish. Such sweeping and tendentious definitions only flatten or eliminate the constantly changing responses of artists to new ideas and circumstances, and thus they have precisely the opposite consequence from the one they intend: they impoverish the artistic history of the people that they wish to glorify. They reduce history to propaganda.
Hughes's enthusiastic but untendentious book, though it has no theoretical pretensions whatsoever, provides an excellent example of the study of a regional style by what might be called a circumstantial approach. It involves the study of the creation of cultural identity within historically coherent blocks of time and geographically finite spaces. Within these parameters, the local roots of works of art can be identified, which in turn allows a much more precise definition of their special characteristics. And these limitations severely inhibit or make altogether impossible the process of mythologization by which framers of regional identity seek to glorify themselves and their kind.
The architecture of modernisme offers a clear-cut demonstration of the value of such an approach. Although broadly classified as an art-nouveau style, it is easily distinguishable from other manifestations of this international style, from the original art nouveau in Paris, from the Secession movements in Vienna, Berlin, and Munich, from the work of Mackintosh in Scotland, and also from the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States. These differences, as Hughes explains, can be traced to the Renaixenia and its program to construct a sense of nationhood by exalting the language and medieval past of Catalunya.
The founders and the proponents of this movement in the early decades of the nineteenth century belonged to the middle and upper-middle classes, the social groups that tend to sponsor regional movements. (The lower classes have nothing to gain, and the upper classes have too much to lose, from patriotic movements, especially those with separatist ambitions.) By mid-century the Renaixenia had entered the arena of public awareness through such vehicles as the Orfeo Catala and the Jocs Florales, or Floral Games, an annual literary competition modeled on a medieval antecedent, which tried to elevate the values of eternal Catalunya through the medium of bad poetry.
In the 1880s the ideas of the Renaixenia began to percolate up the social scale, and this gave the architects their opportunity. Patrons such as Eusebi Guell, the richest man in Barcelona, employed Gaudi to adapt the Renaixenia to the tastes of the carriage trade. Medievalism was a la mode, and therefore it was taken by the modernistas as malleable clay for their inspired flights of imagination. The sumptuous interiors of the palaces that they built on the fashionable Passeig de Gracia also betrayed the influence of the movement, particularly in the use of ironwork, long a speciality of the regional craftsmen. But there austerity stopped: the fixtures and furnishings created for the residences of Barcelona's new rich are ostentatious objets de luxe.
Hughes’s study of Barcelona proves that elitism need not be the same thing as intolerance, that the sympathetic study of regional art can open eyes and minds to forms of artistic expression that are not taken seriously by the guardians of quality. It is pointless, for example, to compare a Baroque church in Rome with a Baroque church in Puebla or Lima, if the standard of excellence is to be defined by the examples of Bernini and Borromini. Spanish Colonial architecture is a quaint enigma in the English-speaking world because there is no available critical method for interpreting its chromatic, exuberant, sensuous style. Is it all bad? Is it all good? How do you distinguish levels of quality? Nor does it occur to anyone to look at the Roman Baroque from the Latin American perspective, which would probably regard Borromini's famous church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane as cold, abstract, and colorless.
“There are two ways of disliking art, Ernest,” wrote Oscar Wilde in The Critic as Artist. “One is to dislike it. The other, to like it rationally.” This admonition to cultural relativists may seem apposite, but it was made by a snob and a dandy, smugly convinced of the rightness of his own taste. Culturally at least, the world has become a bigger place, and a more interesting place for those who are willing to consider new criteria of judgment. Those new criteria are now being contested; but the canon is not as vulnerable to this contest as some of its defenders fear. It seems safe to predict, at least about the visual arts, that as the furor subsides, the canon will have been expanded, and to the benefit of all concerned. A non-doctrinaire approach to art through the study of local identities, which will employ notions from anthropology as well as social, religious, economic, and political history, need not mean the end of excellence.
Robert Hughes’s book is an elitist’s study of a provincial culture, but that is not quite the contradiction that it appears to be. Indeed, the fact that Hughes’s book is not divided against itself may be its most lasting lesson. Among its many other virtues, Barcelona itself demonstrates a credible way out of the cloisters of the canon, or rather a credible way of introducing scanted but worthy objects into it.
Jonathan Brown is a professor at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and a writer on Spanish art. This article appeared in the May 18, 1992 issue of the magazine. | 2019-04-24T02:04:06Z | https://newrepublic.com/article/105869/homage-catalonia |
The counterpart of a deep appreciation and respect for fossils is a hands-on knowledge of the geologic formations that produce them. The San Antonio, Texas area is conveniently located directly straddling the Balcones Fault line, affording amateur and professional geologists and paleontologists alike the opportunity to view, up close, a succession of Cretaceous marine formations within a day or two of self guided adventure. Although geologic exposures of interest still abound in Bexar County, excellent fossil bearing exposures seem to be consumed by construction faster than new ones are being revealed as compared to 5-10 years ago. Several factors contribute to this trend.
1. Economic upturn equates to accelerated construction schedules. For the fossil hunter, this means that new sites are graded and built over before there is time for newly exposed rock to weather sufficiently for optimal collecting.
2. Compared to the construction in other areas, such as the DFW area, construction crews in San Antonio seem to have a stronger propensity to grind rocks into powder rather than pile up boulders which could expose fossils. Perhaps that is due to frequent dealings with some of the harder formations, such as Austin, Edwards or Buda.
3. Due to the increasingly litigious trend of modern society, more construction sites are now fenced, posted, and monitored by security personnel and/or cameras.
4. While establishment of greenway parks along many of the major waterways in is a boon for many groups of outdoor enthusiasts, prohibitive rules and signage make these traditionally collectible areas off limits to the avocational collector.
All that being said, the purpose of this guide is not so much to publicly reveal important fossil sites, which would subsequently become rapidly depleted, but rather to give the motivated neophyte a starting point that could, through perseverance, pioneering spirit and individual achievement, result in discovery of new and productive collecting sites. But it all starts with a working knowledge of local geology. (And don't worry...some cool fossil sites will still be mentioned). Had I had this sort of information in hand back when I began my personal field explorations 13 years ago, I would have saved countless hours and miles in figuring out where to look, and what I was looking at.
The sites detailed in this discussion are intended to provide an educational, up close, hands-on familiarity of each formation from a geological and lithological standpoint. Fossils are present or abundant at some of these sites, but special effort has been made to avoid revealing scientifically significant sites under study, and also to avoid openly sharing with the internet community any personal sites found through the diligence of other hard working private collectors. With perseverance and investment come a respect for the hard work of others.
Fossils shown at the end of each section are a combination of specimens found at the specific site detailed herein, and fossils that the motivated collector may find when investigating the myriad, ephemeral sites that pop up and disappear around town over time. Aerial images were borrowed from Google Earth, and most of the ground level, roadside exposure images were taken from Google Streetview.
NOTE 1: I’ll continue to make additions to this guide as time allows until the dozen or so prominent Cretaceous formations are detailed.
NOTE 2: If any portion of the content seems to be in error, I encourage PMs to bring necessary updates to my attention.
NOTE 3: If you have questions about a site you've found, feel free to PM me.
Geology: Alternating gray to yellow limestones, dolomite and marls denote marine transgressions (coastline moving inshore) and regressions (coastline moving offshore), respectively. Mostly marine sediments, although some shoreline/ lagoonal deposits are marked by dinosaur tracks and plant fragments. Alternating resistant and recessive layers create stair step topography. Lower unit generally thicker bedded and more fossiliferous than hypersaline upper unit.
Area Exposures: This formation has far ranging aerial outcrop west of the I-35 corridor beginning in North Texas, continuing west of Austin to a point north of San Antonio, where it continues west well north of Hwy 90 all the way out to the Big Bend area. Exposures are present in far northern Bexar County along Hwy 281, about 2 miles south of Cibolo Creek, with increasing prominence heading north on 281 through Comal County.
One site that has been well known since at least the 1950s, is still well exposed, and continues to produce fossils after hard rains, despite high collecting pressure from individuals as well as groups of up to 300 people at once is the road cut on the east side of 281 about 1 mile north of the intersection with Hwy 46. There is a recessive marl zone about half way up the road cut that is several feet thick and sandwiched between harder limestone benches above and below This cut is known by geologists to expose the Corbula marker bed, named after the small bivalve used to delineate the upper from lower unites of the Glen Rose Formation.
Clearly the site is no big secret if the Google camera catches a collector there, applying his craft!
Fossil collectors are quite fond of the collectible fauna of well preserved macrofossils abundant in this zone, as described below.
Paleontology: Although random searches of the Glen Rose Formation tend to turn up mostly bivalves such as Arctica, Liopistha, Neithea as well as a host of gastropods including Tylostoma and others, the Glen Rose is perhaps best known for its dinosaur bones in North Texas as well as its dinosaur tracks and echinoid fauna in South Texas. Fluctuations of sea level during Glen Rose times resulted in marine as well as shoreline/lagoonal deposits, the former preserving marine fossils, and the latter preserving dinosaur tracks created on mud flats.
Echinoid zones are present in both the upper and lower Glen Rose, concentrated in several discrete zones. Upper Glen Rose echinoid zones tend to be dominated by the dime to nickel sized regular echinoid Loriolia rosana, and the lower Glen Rose contains a zone of highly sought after, exotic echinoids, but most collectors become enamored with the Leptosalenia texana and other echinoids found just a few feet below the Corbula marker bed for their quality, quantity, and size. This zone is marked by a grainstone at the top of the lower limestone bench, and a thin layer of slender, spiral gastropods of the genus Nerinea at the top, and innumerable round, flat foraminifera (single celled microfossils) named Orbitolina texana, in the interceding marl bed.
Leptosalenia texana is the flagship echinoid of this zone, highly sought after for its size, ornamentation, and common occurrence within this specific zone. The thickness of the test (shell) often leads to good preservation of this species. Other regular echinoids such Tetragramma and Paracidaris texanus are rare prizes from this zone and valued in any condition.
Irregular (heart shaped) urchins, known collectively as spatangoids, are dominated in the L. texana zone by two species: Heteraster obliquatus (depressed unpaired ambulacrum), and to a lesser extent, Pliotoxaster comanchei (all 5 ambs depressed). The spatangoids have a thinner test than L. texana, and are thus prone to distortion and weathering to the extent that some sites may only produce 1 well preserved spatangoid per 30-50 flawed examples. Dome shaped echinoids Coenholectypus planatus, radially symmetric at a glance, but technically irregular echinoids due to periproct (excretory orifice) placement, are also found in small numbers in this zone.
L. texana in matrix. Note small disk shaped forams Orbitolina texana in matrix.
First, the spatangoids. Heteraster obliquatus has a depressed unpaired ambulacrum. Pliotoxaster comanchei has all 5 ambulacra depressed.
I don't spend much time collecting or studying these classes of mollusks, so this section is limited.
Geology: Gray to yellow limestone, marl and dolomite, nodular at certain levels, generally mapped undivided with the Edwards Group, considered by some as the basal nodular member of the Edwards. Gradational contact with the underlying Glen Rose Formation. The Walnut is thought to reflect normal marine to brackish water deposits. Bull Creek and overlying Bee Cave Marl members of the Walnut may both be represented in South Texas, the Bee Cave being the more fossiliferous of the two.
Area Exposures: I don’t know of a publicly accessible locality close to San Antonio, but a motivated enthusiast could find this zone by searching the extensive mapped contact between the Glen Rose and Edwards Formations, as the Walnut does not have sufficient aerial exposure to warrant separate mapping at the 1:250,000 map scale utilized in the Atlas of Texas series San Antonio Sheet. I’ve seen other maps at 1:100,000 scale, however, which map the Walnut separately, with the caveat that these thin ribbons of outcrop are inferred and largely subsurface.
The Walnut should, in theory, be exposed in the road cuts along Hwy 281 north of town, specifically about 2 miles south of Cibolo Creek where the geo map shows the contact between the Ked and Kgr. I have not investigated this area and leave further study to more industrious collectors.
Paleontology: While the Walnut may be tens of feet thick, I tend to focus on a recessive, nodular marl zone about 2-4 feet thick, which I believe to be equivalent of the Bee Cave Marl of Central Texas. The index fossil is the distinctive oyster Ceratostrean texanum, quite abundant in this zone. But the fossils I focus on are well preserved echinoids, listed in descending order of occurrence: Coenholectypus planatus, Heteraster texanus, Loriolia sp., Phymosoma texanum. On rare occasions I’ve found fish vertebrae and complete ammonites Engonoceras c.f. pierdenale, with fragments thereof being much more common.
Geology: The Edwards Group of South Texas correlates with the Goodland Formation of North Texas, although they are lithologically quite different.
Kainer Fm: Cyclic subtidal to tidal flat limestone and dolomite. Wackestones and packstones in lower part of this unit, localized leached evaporate and breccia in middle part of the unit, grainstones and packstones in upper part of unit. Honeycomb and variable amounts of chert nodules common.
Person Fm: Shallow subtidal to tidal flat cyclic limestone and dolomite. Recrystallized dolomitic limestone, argillaceous limestone, leached and collapsed zones (some infilled with red “terra rosa” clay), interconnected honeycomb porosity, vuggy intervals, chert locally abundant. The lowest 20-30 feet of this unit, the Regional Dense Member, is thought to correlate to the Kiamichi Fm of North Texas.
Area Exposures: The Edwards is perhaps the best exposed limestone unit in Bexar County in part due to its resistance to weathering. More important than its paleontology, this is the primary local building stone, and its honeycombed subterranean catacombs comprise the primary aquifer for the San Antonio area. My house is built out of Edwards limestone, and the Edwards also provides my house with a very stable foundation that is not subject to shifting, as can happen in softer formations.
The karst topography of the Edwards Limestone lends itself to cave formation north of San Antonio. Of notable interest, Friesenhahn Cave a few miles north of Loop 1604 near Hwy 281 and Stone Oak Parkway, when excavated in the early 1950s, was found to contain the remains of several juvenile and adult Homotherium saber cats in association with numbers of juvenile mammoth teeth and other remains. Apparently that cave was used as a den for an extended period 20,000 years ago. Web searches turn up spectacular images of these well preserved cats.
The Edwards is quarried extensively just to the north of Loop 1604 North as well as west of IH-35 heading north toward New Braunfels. The road cuts on Loop 1604 on the north side of town between Gold Canyon Road and IH-10 afford an extensive drive-by view of the Edwards, and it also extends several miles to the north on Hwy 281, approaching within 2 miles of Cibolo Creek.
Shopping centers cut into local hills tend to leave this resistant limestone exposed without retaining walls. Near the intersection of Loop 1604 and IH-10, two shopping areas (The Rim and The Shops at La Cantera) are detailed in attached images to show excellent Edwards exposures affording easy access. For those seeking a greater thrill, nearby Fiesta Texas is built in a repurposed quarry in the Edwards.
Generally speaking, the Edwards is a very hard limestone, grainy and crystalline in places, making it rather difficult to extract its fossils unbroken with hand tools. While Central and West Texas exposures of the Edwards and its equivalents are known to produce breathtakingly preserved echinoids and silicified gastropods, the San Antonio area seems to have been dealt a bad hand in terms of its Edwards fossil content, preservation, and extractability of fossils. Some of the most interesting local Edwards fossils that I've seen afield are external molds of gastropods, leaving behind cavities in the limestone festooned with elaborate surface ornamentation not seen on the steinkerns (internal molds) of gastropods so prevalent in other local formations.
Perhaps I have not searched enough amongst the local rudist reefs for desirable echinoids, such as Goniopygus. Rudists seem to dominate the Edwards faunal spectrum. These obscure, reef building bivalves are often mistaken for a number of fossils, including dinosaur teeth. Admittedly, my time afield has been biased toward other formations, and further study would be required to give a more balanced assessment.
Thickness: Sporadic exposures to 30 feet in Bexar County. Personally observed exposures only a few feet thick.
Geology: The middle and upper Albian Stage is a variably fossiliferous marine rock unit that persists along the entire Balcones Fault from NE Texas, through Fort Worth, Temple, Austin, pinches very thin over the San Marcos Arch, is very sparsely exposed around San Antonio, and reappears with greater thickness in far West Texas along the IH-10 corridor.
Members of the mid to upper Albian are most prominently exposed in far North Texas in the area between Lake Texoma and Fort Worth. In that area, the Albian formations within the Washita Group include, from oldest to youngest, Duck Creek, Fort Worth, Denton, Weno, Pawpaw and Mainstreet. Heading southward along the Balcones Fault, all of these formations gradually thin and harden, the transition from marls and limestones to predominantly harder limestones denoting increased water depth in a classic offshore sequence. At the Brazos River, the Pawpaw becomes so thin that it pinches out and is not mapped separately southward.
Around Belton, the remaining formations are sufficiently thin and of such narrow aerial outcrop that they are lumped together and mapped undivided as Georgetown Formation in areas farther south, with formations of the north referred to as members of the Georgetown. In latitudes as far south as San Marcos, the Duck Creek, Fort Worth, and Weno members have pinched out. The San Marcos area is the southernmost occurrence of Mortoniceras ammonites and Macraster echinoids encountered by the author. Both reappear in West Texas.
Most of these lower and middle members of the Washita and their wonderful fossils are absent in the surface and subsurface in the San Antonio area. However, sparse exposures of the Mainstreet member represent the Georgetown Formation locally.
This open shelf interval occurs as a thin, tan, nodular bedded limestone disconformably overlying the Person Formation of the Edwards Group, and underlying the Del Rio Clay. It is generally mapped undivided as an upper member of the Edwards, and is lithologically so similar near the Edwards contact that the two can be difficult to distinguish unless fossils are present. The upper contact, in contrast is characterized by a distinct and abrupt break from nodular limestone to clay. I find the Del Rio/Georgetown contact to be the most fossiliferous zone in the Georgetown of Bexar County and interestingly, this contact zone represents the contact of the Comanchean (Lower Cretaceous) and Gulfian (Upper Cretaceous) series. This zone is studded with rusty pyrite, which adds character when adhered to the fossils, and It is possible that much of this pyrite on Georgetown fossils is derived from intimate contact with the overlying Del Rio clay.
Area Exposures: At 1:250,000 scale, the Kgt and Ked are mapped undivided in Bexar County. At 1:100,000 scale, the Kgt is mapped separately along slopes which map Person Formation at the base and Del Rio Formation above. However, most of the outcrop area is covered by soil and vegetation, so mapped outcrop is inferred, and could be more intermittent than implied by the map.
One site that exposes this unit is the bed of Leon Creek in NW Bexar County. This area was recently annexed into the Leon Creek Greenway, and is therefore off limits to collecting. A Google Earth image has been included of the creek section exposing the Georgetown. The image is a bit out of date, as there is now a hike and bike bridge built over the creek, and a neighborhood just to the east. The narrow stretch of Kgt limestone is directly under this bridge and extends perhaps 50 yards upstream and downstream of it.
Paleontology: The local Georgetown limestone is distinguished from the Edwards by presence in the former of the small brachiopod Waconella wacoensis. Bivalves include large Neithea (possibly N. texana) scallops and steinkerns of Protocardia clams. But fleeting occurrences of ammonites and echinoids provide more excitement for the adventurous collector. Mariella brazoensis is helically spired heteromorphic ammonite which resembles a large, ornamented gastropod. Graysonites is a rare planispiral ammonite easily identified by its prominent ventral tubercles. Paracymatoceras texanum is a coiled nautiloid occasionally encountered, and it is easily distinguished by the thin, sinuous lines on its flanks. The echinoid fauna is dominated by the large, brown, dome shaped Coenholectypus, generally 1.5-2.5 inches diameter. None of these ammonites, echinoids, nor nautiloids are especially plentiful in San Antonio, so for those especially interested in finding them, a weekend trip 200-350 miles north would greatly increase odds of success.
A couple decent examples of Mariella brazoensis. Usually found as broken, partial whorls.
A rare Graysonites. This matrix presentation includes Neithea scallops and Waconella brachiopods. A great piece for diagnostic zonation.
Geology: The Grayson Formation is mapped from Lake Texoma in far north Texas to the Waco area. The names Grayson and Del Rio Formations are used interchangeably between Waco and Belton. From Belton to San Antonio, through the type locality at Del Rio in Val Verde County, and on into far west Texas, it is referred to as Del Rio Formation.
This interval marks the beginning of the Upper Cretaceous, and represents a shelf mud/prodelta deposit, predominantly a recessive, peanut butter colored calcareous, montmorillonitic (shrink /swell during wet/dry cycles) clay with minor amounts of mudstone. Gypsum and pyrite are common. Del Rio Clay is perhaps the least permeable clay in Bexar county, so it holds water well in stock tanks etc. However, its shrink/swell nature and instability on slopes makes for shifting building foundations.
Area Exposures: The soft, recessive nature of the Kdr makes for weak surface expression. It is encountered mainly on slopes capped by the more resistant Buda Limestone, as well as in valleys and flats. When excavated on hillsides during construction projects, it is quickly supported by retaining walls to prevent slumping. It can be viewed in the flats behind Costco and Discount Tire at the west corner of IH-10 and DeZavala Road, where I. arietina oysters are quite common.
Paleontology: The index fossil of the Del Rio Formation is the ram’s horn oyster Ilymatogyra arietina, quite common in the lower 2/3 of the formation. Less abundant is the oyster Gryphea mucronata, which seems to have the strongest presence in the upper 1/3 of the formation locally. These oysters persist in great numbers through the entire outcrop area noted in the Geology section. The brachiopod Waconella wacoensis, abundant in the Kgt, has phased out by the end of the Albian. San Antonio Del Rio exposures lack the extensive micromorphic ammonite fauna noted in the Waco area. I have encountered one or two spatangoids in the Del Rio, either Heteraster or Washitaster, too poorly preserved to key out with confidence. A few Palhemiaster calvini echinoids have also been found locally. | 2019-04-23T07:56:47Z | http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/52308-a-comprehensive-guide-to-the-cretaceous-strata-of-the-greater-san-antonio-area-how-to-read-the-rocks/ |
Now the above Scripture is all the more remarkable when you consider that Jesus had taught these men for three and a half years. No preacher ever got as good seminary training as these apostles got under the personal teaching of Jesus. Remember also that Jesus had already risen from the dead, and for forty days had been teaching them concerning the kingdom of God.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit was a very important thing throughout the New Testament; yet it is much minimized in the modern pulpit.
Let me call your attention to Luke, chapter 1. In verses 15 and 16 the Lord said about John the Baptist, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God." John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Ghost, would have great revivals, and many of the children of Israel would he turn to the Lord their God.
In Luke 11:13 Jesus, teaching His disciples, had said, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" We find an emphasis there on the Holy Spirit as a soul-winning power about which we do not hear very much these days.
I have read to you Luke 24:49 where Jesus said, "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
Now turn with me, please, to the first chapter of Acts. Beginning with verse 1 we read, "The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem." 'Do not start out to hold any revivals. Do not start out to take the gospel to all the world yet. You are not ready yet,' Jesus said. "But wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."
Now I do not wish to make an issue of the word "baptized" here as if it had some special meaning. If you will allow me, without any controversy, I will say Jesus said, 'You are going to be overwhelmed, you are going to be covered, you are going to be surrounded, you are going to be filled, you are going to be taken charge of by the Holy Spirit not many days hence.' "When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Now Jesus is not talking here about the second coming of Christ and His reign on earth, when He speaks of being "baptized with the Holy Ghost." 'It is not for you to know when. That is not the thing I am talking about,' He said. And that is not what they were waiting for then. No, He said in verse 8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
But I follow on. I want you to see how important in the Scripture is this term, is this matter of the Holy Spirit on people who are already saved, on people who are already converted, on people who already have the indwelling of the Spirit. There is great emphasis on a special enduement of power, a baptism of the Spirit, a filling of the Spirit, a gift of the Spirit, a pouring out .of the Spirit. All these are Bible terms, and are emphasized throughout the New Testament.
In Acts, chapter 2, again we read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind." Now the disciples were not told to wait for a miraculous sound of a rushing cyclonic wind. That was an incidental miracle, and not that for which they were told to wait. "And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and sat upon each of them." That was an incidental miracle, and not that for which they waited. That was not what God promised. Listen: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." The fullness, the baptism, the power, the gift, the enduement of power of the Holy Spirit, is what was promised.
Now in this case they began to speak in several languages. In the Bible the Greek word glossa is translated tongue, and it is translated language. It is here "language" and ought to be so regarded. The next verse says that there were Jews, devout men, out of every nation under Heaven in Jerusalem. There were fifteen different nationalities, and every man in his own language wherein he was born heard these men preaching the gospel. Now if you read further, you will find that three thousand souls were saved.
Let us not be thinking about the incidentals. No one has any right to make anything special of the fact that there was a cyclonic wind. That is not what Jesus promised and it was not repeated again, as far as we know; certainly not always, and certainly not promised. No one has any right to make anything special of the cloven tongues of fire sitting on the people. I do not care if people do have them. They are not promised, and were not repeated in Bible times, as far as we know. Certainly they are not to be expected. No one has a right to make an issue of the fact that in this case people talked in several languages to those who understood the gospel in their own language. That is not the point of the story. That is not what Jesus talked about. That is a special miracle. Someone says, "Here is a Chinaman. He understands only his own language. He cannot understand English." All right, as far as I am concerned, if God gives you the power to speak to him in Chinese and if he hears it and is converted, then that is Biblical; that is Scriptural; that is all right. That would be a miracle. It would be of God. I am not against that. But I say that is not the part God is talking about here. The important thing is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit, that they preached the gospel to everybody they saw, that they had multitudes saved. About three thousand were saved.
I am just going through some Scriptures, and showing you how important in Bible language is this matter of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Acts, chapter 2, the people said, "What shall we do?" Peter answered them in verses 38 and 39, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Notice now that "repent" is for salvation, and "be baptized" is pointing to, or with reference to that salvation. A study of the Greek shows that the word "for" there is really a translation of the little Greek word eis which means "with reference to." So it is not a matter of being baptized to get remission of sins. It is being baptized because of, or pointing to, or with reference to the remission of sins you got when you repented. Baptism does not save anybody. It is a good testimony you have been saved, if you have. Then read the rest of the verse. "And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Notice, one repents and is saved. Then the baptism means a laying of one's self on the altar, a heart obedience to the commands of God, a setting out to live the surrendered and crucified life. And then, "ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:38-39). Now every one who is ever called to be saved is called to have the gift of the Holy Spirit, too, if he will, the Scripture says.
Read on further in the fourth chapter of Acts. Again the disciples met together. Again they needed blessing and power. Again they prayed. Acts 4:31 says, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness." "Filled with the Holy Ghost." "Filled with the Holy Ghost." How often repeated!
Turn to Acts, chapter 6. Now the apostles said, 'We cannot continue always helping the widows with groceries and such matters. Look you out seven men, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, that we may appoint over this matter.' And the Scripture says, "And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost . . ." (Acts 6:5). Verse 8 reads, "And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." Stephen was "full of the Holy Ghost."
In the seventh chapter of Acts, verse 55, we see Stephen just before he is stoned: "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven," gave his testimony, and Saul of Tarsus was convicted and later converted.
Let us turn further in Acts to chapter 11. There is another man, Barnabas. Do you know what kind of a man he is? Acts 11:24 says, "For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord." "Full of the Holy Ghost." Now you see the point. The Bible makes much of that term "full of the Holy Ghost," or a synonym, "full of the Holy Spirit," which is used again and again and again in the New Testament.
Now turn with me to the nineteenth chapter of Acts. "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples [notice, these people were disciples], He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Now these had trusted in Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (John 3:36). These were converted people. These were saved people. These were disciples who had trusted in Christ. "He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" Now Christians ought to, along with, or following conversion, have another experience. At conversion one receives an indwelling of the Spirit, but a baptism or filling with the Holy Spirit for soul-winning power and witnessing was needed. Paul referred to this filling.
I am not talking about sanctification now. I am not talking about sinless perfection. I am not talking now about speaking in tongues. I am talking about what God is talking about now. Listen carefully: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Is not that a strange question? "And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." They must have been going to churches whose pastors were afraid to mention the matter, as many of our pastors are afraid to mention it today! 'We have not so much as heard about that,' they said. 'We do not know about it.' "And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized?" I think Paul means this, 'Do you not remember that when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came on Him, and He started His public ministry and went around filled with the Holy Ghost? Do you not remember when John the Baptist baptized people, that he told them, "I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost"?
Do you not remember at Pentecost that Peter told the people, "Repent! and then you will be saved, but if you want to get the power of the Holy Ghost, then you must be baptized, you must lay yourself on the altar, you must set out to live the crucified life, to follow Jesus even unto death"? Why were you baptized if you did not mean to lay everything on the altar and have the power of God to carry out the Great Commission? You know the Great Commission is that you are to get others converted, get them baptized, teach them to observe everything Jesus taught the disciples, the apostles, to observe. What about that? When they heard Paul say this, they were baptized again. You know, baptism is a picture of a transaction that has taken place. It means the counting of serf dead, the reckoning of self to be dead, and the starting out to live a new life. And if that did not happen, if you did not mean that when you were baptized, you ought to be baptized again and mean it.
Now this is the thing I lay on your heart. Here in the New Testament there is an emphasis on a certain experience, if you can call it an experience; an emphasis on a certain blessing, if you can call it a blessing; an emphasis on what the Bible calls being filled with the Holy Ghost. Again and again the Scripture says, "They were full of the Holy Ghost," or "They were filled with the Holy Ghost."
There are other cases in the Bible which I did not mention. In Acts 4:8 Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. I did not mention Zacharias in the first chapter of Luke where the Scripture says, "Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied .... " and "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: and she spake..." I say, here is a term often used in the Bible. Why don't we preach on it? Why don't we preachers, we Christians, seek this blessing that other Christians had?
There has been much quarreling, lots of fanatical, and I think, unscriptural teaching on this matter. Suppose someone went wrong on the blood of Christ. Does that mean I can never again preach on the blood? Certainly not! Suppose someone goes wrong on paying his honest debts. Does that mean I must never again preach on paying your debts? Must I never preach "thou shalt not steal" if somebody happens to misinterpret that Scripture? Does that mean I must leave it alone? Don't you see how wicked it is to ignore a plain and repeated emphasis throughout the New Testament just because there has been some fanaticism or some misunderstanding on the subject? Don't you see how wicked it is to ignore the plain teaching of the Bible that New Testament Christians again and again were filled with the Holy Ghost when they set out to win souls?
Now I am going to ask you the question in a moment, as Paul did, but first I want to give you the promise and command. In Acts 2:39 remember this promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost is to you and to your children: "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Now that says the gift of the Holy Ghost is a promise to everybody who will ever be saved. There is a promise for you. It is the same thing that Jesus said to His disciples in Luke 24:49, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you" -- 'the promise,' 'the promise'! And Peter says at Pentecost, 'The promise is to you, too. It was promised to us apostles. The same promise is to you.' "Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem," Jesus said, "until ye be endued with power from on high." That promise of power from on high, the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost, is to you, to your children, and to everybody whom God ever calls.
In Ephesians 1:13, Paul says, "In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise"- the Holy Ghost that God promised you might have, whose power you might have, whose fullness you might have for soul-winning effort.
And in Ephesians 5:18 is the plain command, "Be not drunk with wine." Now the Bible ought to be taken at face value. Here the Word of God commands, "Be not drunk with wine." Then getting drunk is a sin. Let us just take that part of the verse alone. How many believe that getting drunk is a sin? To be drunk with wine is a sin. How many believe that? Let me see your hands. All right. I wonder if you are the kind of a modernist that takes half of a verse and throws the rest of it away? Are you? Well, all of that verse reads, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit". Now I ask you, if violating the first half of that verse and getting drunk is a sin, then is not the failure to be filled with the Spirit the same kind of a sin? Do you think you can say you are a good Christian and take only one-half of that verse? No you cannot. You are not a good Christian until you take all of it. I did not say you were not converted. I did not say that a Christian never gets drunk. It would certainly be wrong to get drunk. It was wrong for Lot. It was wrong for Noah. And it is wrong for anybody else. But I am saying that just because you keep half of that and do not get drunk, that does not make you a good Christian. You are not a very good Christian until you keep all of the verse, including the part that says, "Be filled with the Spirit." You are not given any latitude. You are not left any choice in the matter. You are to be filled. There is the plain command of Jesus Christ, written down by Paul the apostle in the book of Ephesians. "Be filled with the Spirit."
I will tell you now, you had better hear me. God's people in this town of Seattle need to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, do you want to have revival? All right, I will tell you how we can have it just as they did at Pentecost, just as they did in other Bible times. I say, we can have a revival when God's people pay the price and are filled with the Holy Ghost. Now do not misunderstand me, we can have a marvelous revival if God's people are filled with the Holy Ghost. I want you to think about this a little bit.
I want you to first see what was the secret and principle of Pentecost. What was the meaning of Pentecost? The meaning of Pentecost is simply this: it was an old-fashioned, specimen revival when God's people got power to win souls and won them.
Many have misunderstood the meaning of Pentecost. When you talk about Pentecost, there are many people who think, "Well, that is the time the Holy Spirit came into the world." Oh, no! The Holy Spirit had come on Christians all down through the ages. Every sinner that was ever convicted and saved was done so by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who regenerates. And people were filled with the Spirit and witnessed for Jesus before Pentecost. No! No! The Holy Spirit did not just come into the world at Pentecost. Sometimes people talk about the descent of the Holy Spirit as if He had been in Heaven all the time. That is not the point.
Somebody says, "Well, Brother Rice, the Holy Spirit began dwelling in the bodies of Christians at Pentecost." I am sorry to tell you, my friend, but you are mistaken. That is not the time at all. That dispensation began at the resurrection of Christ, the day Jesus was glorified, the day Jesus was raised from the dead. That is when that dispensation began. We read in John 7:37-39, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" At the time of that feast Jesus was not glorified, was not raised up in His glorified body. So the Holy Spirit had not been given to dwell in the bodies of Christians.
Now turn to John, chapter 20, and you will read in verses 19 and 20 that Jesus came and showed them His hands and His side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, and He said, "Peace be unto you." That is the peace of the blood; that is the peace of the assurance of salvation. "Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you... And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (Vss. 21-22). Now the disciples, from the day Jesus rose from the dead, from the day He was glorified, received the Holy Spirit; and from that time on every Christian already has the Holy Spirit living in his body.
Don't any of you pray tonight for the Holy Spirit to come into your body. If you are converted, He is already there. Listen to I Corinthians 6:19-20: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." You see, every Christian has the Holy Spirit in his body. And the disciples had that before Pentecost. They had already had that for forty days. The Holy Spirit had been dwelling in them since the day Jesus rose from the dead. And now the Holy Spirit comes in when one is converted and lives in that body.
Now that had already happened to the disciples before Pentecost. Pentecost did not mean the beginning of the indwelling of the Spirit. They already had that. I am not trying to get anybody here to ask the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in you. When you receive Christ by faith as your Saviour, then automatically the Holy Spirit comes in and makes you a Christian, regenerates you, and you are put into, baptized into, or buried into the body of Christ, and you drink in the Holy Spirit. He lives in your body. You become a part of Christ's mystical body, the church. I say, every saved person already has the Holy Spirit. That is not what Pentecost means. That is not what Pentecost meant to the apostles.
Somebody else says, "Brother Rice, I think that Pentecost means the rounding, the origin, the beginning of the church." Now I would not care to argue with you about it. I think if I had time I could show you that it does not mean that at all. I think if I had time I could show you that that is not when the church began. But I will not argue; you cannot show me a verse in the Bible that says anything about the church's beginning at Pentecost. All right; but suppose it did begin at Pentecost, then let us say nothing about it because that is not what God says, and God is not talking about that. I do not care especially when the church began; I am just anxious that you do not miss the meaning for Christians that God has in Pentecost.
Now what does Pentecost mean? "Power from on high," an enduement of power to do the work God tells you to do. That is what the disciples had. They were given the power to win souls. They were filled with the Holy Ghost to win souls. They had three thousand souls saved then, and they went on wonderfully winning souls day after day. Now do you see the meaning of Pentecost? The meaning of Pentecost is power for soul-winning testimony!
Again, what is the meaning of Pentecost? "Ye shall receive power." Power! I am not talking about the cyclonic wind. That happened, but it was not what was promised. It is not the proof that the Lord is talking about. It is not the thing they are to get on their minds. And we ought not get our minds on it. It was not the tongues of fire sitting on their heads. That happened, but it was an incidental, outward miracle. I say, those outward signs may differ as they did then, but that is not the point. The point is that they are to receive power, to have witnessing power and to get people converted. That is the meaning of Pentecost. It isn't that they were talking in other languages. It happens that some of them did talk in known languages that people understood, and these people heard the gospel in their own tongues in which they were born. That is all right, but that is an incident. It was not promised that it would be specially in these certain particular languages. That is not the point. The point is that they got power to witness for Jesus and to get people saved. They had power. The meaning of Pentecost is power on your witnessing, power on your testimony, power on your soul-winning effort, power for the pulpit and the pew to take the gospel to sinners; in other words, revival power. That is it.
D. L. Moody said, "Pentecost was simply a specimen day." Yes, Pentecost was simply a specimen revival. If we want a revival, let us go back and have it as they did then. How is that? Let us get the power of God on us. Let us get the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit, or have the gift of the Holy Spirit, or be endued with power from on high. As Joel prophesied, and as Peter said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh" (Acts 2:16-17). Do you see the point of that? I do not care what term you may use. I prefer the term more often used in the Bible which is "filled with the Spirit," but I do not mind the term "baptized with the Holy Spirit," which was used by R. A. Torrey, D. L. Moody, Charles G. Finney, and some of the greatest evangelists who ever lived. The term "baptized with the Holy Ghost" is in some disrepute, however, because it has sometimes been misused.
Nevertheless, I do not mind your using that just so you mean what the Bible means, that Christians can have an enduement from Heaven, can have the breath of God upon us, can have a miracle-working power upon us and in us, and we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and can do what God said to do. The meaning of Pentecost is simply the power of the Holy Ghost on Christians, the power of God in and through us to do what He said to do, that is, to carry the gospel to every creature. Remember Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Oh God, give us that grace!
The power of the Holy Spirit is the only way to have a revival and the only way to win souls. Someone says, "Brother Rice, how am I going to know whether or not I am filled with the Holy Spirit? How am I going to know whether or not I am baptized with the Holy Spirit?" Well, I will tell you how. It is not going to be very difficult to tell you. In the first place, what are you looking for? What do you want ? You say, "Oh, I want to feel as light as a feather. I want to hear angels' wings flapping. I want to see a great light shining around. I want to feel electricity come in my head and run out my fingers and toes." Well, you are talking about something entirely different from what the Bible is talking about. I am not interested in that. If everybody here today were to hear angels' wings flapping, were to see a great light shining, were to feel electric shocks running through their bodies, I would not give the snap of my finger for all that. If God wants to do that, all right. But that is not what He is talking about here at all. If everybody here were to fall under a spell and fall down, I would not be interested in that. That is not what the Bible is talking about. Let God do whatever He wants to do; I will make no complaint. But that is not what the Bible here is talking about. It is talking about being endued with power from on high. Do you see? What do you want? Do you want to know what it takes? Do you want to know what the sign is? What do you want?
You say, "Well, I want to be better than everybody else." That is not the point here. I say this, whatever there is in sanctification -- and there is a Bible doctrine of sanctification on which we might not agree as to all the details--but whatever it is, that is not what happened to these people here at Pentecost. Whatever it is, that is not what God is talking about. God is talking about power to win souls. Now wouldn't you know if you had power to win souls? You say, "What signs? What signs?" Well, listen to this: I tell you, my friend, you can know as I knew last Saturday night when I preached in Portland and sixteen people came to Christ. I knew Sunday night when I came in great weariness after having missed two nights of sleep, after having slept what I could with my clothes on on a bench and on the plane, and then on the straight seats coming up on the train from Portland another night. I came with a good deal of fear and trembling and burden, but God was here and we had a great number of grown men and women saved Sunday night. I knew God's breath was on me. I am not making any boast, for I am not worthy of anything. But I needed no other sign but that.
If we have Seattle broken down and the power of God comes; if Sunday night, or Sunday afternoon or Saturday night, or if tomorrow night, or if any other time the power of God is on me to win souls, I will know. That is what I am talking about. That is what I am praying for. That is its own sign. If you win souls, that is what you want, isn't it? That is the sign itself. What is the sign of the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Acts 1:8 gives it: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." What is the sign? The power! Power to do what? "And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." That is the point. Do you see that? This is the only way to have revival.
I have sometimes thought, Wouldn't Paul the apostle feel good if he had the chance I have to be on the radio so many times! (I have preached so many times on the Christian Business Men's program in Chicago. I have preached, I suppose, on a hundred or maybe more different radio stations. For years I carried on a daily program. And in my revival campaigns I preach somewhere nearly every day of the year on the radio.) My, wouldn't Paul the apostle envy my getting to preach to all those people! Paul, you know, had to walk. And he did not have even a church house in which to preach. He usually preached in the synagogue in a city until he got kicked out of there. He preached on the temple porch. He preached out on the street. He preached in a loft. My, I am so much ahead of Paul! He just did not have opportunities to compare with what I have!
Then there is Peter. I am satisfied that if Simon Peter could have been editor of a paper such as The Sword of the Lord and have 45,000 families read it very week, and have the gospel go out that way with the principal preachers in America as contributors, he would have felt proud. But in his time, he could not do it. Wouldn't Peter have been glad if he could have printed one tract such as my little booklet, "What Must I Do to Be Saved?" If he could have gotten out three million copies of that booklet alone and heard from about 2,400 people who had been saved through that little twenty-four page pamphlet alone, wouldn't Peter have been proud? I am sure ahead of him in opportunity, am I not?
I came to preach here with all of these preachers backing me. Why, I am so much ahead of Bible Christians! Yes, I am -- in the way I am talking about. We have good church buildings, the apostles did not. We have organized Sunday Schools. We have literature. We have degrees and seminary training and help. We are in good standing in the community. Why, preacher brethren, we have everything, don't we? We have so much more than the apostles had. Yes, we have everything but the one thing that counts. We have everything these days except the power of God. We have everything except the power of the Holy Ghost. We have everything except the only thing that matters! Do you see what I am talking about? Our trouble is not whether we have physical equipment. We have that, but it never did bring revival, and it will not bring it now! I would like to have had a larger neutral auditorium for this meeting, but if we had had it, that would not have brought a revival. No! No! We lack the one essential, and that is the power of the Holy Ghost on His people. I do not care what you call it, but you had better have it. Are you filled with the Holy Ghost?
You say, "Brother Rice, I talked to some about coming to the meetings, but I just could not get them here." How many of you have tried to get somebody to the meetings, but they would not come? Let me see your hands. All right. Now what was the matter? You must not have had the power of God on you. How many of you have children, or a husband, or a brother, or a sister, or a mother, or a father, or someone you love whom you have tried to get converted, but you could not do it? Let me see your hands. Now, what is the matter? Is the gospel no good? Is there anything wrong with the gospel? Is that it? Is God dead? Is the gospel out of date? Is the Bible now passe' and not for this age? What is the matter? Or is it simply that you do not have the power of God on you? Now what do you say? Do you see where the trouble lies? Oh, I wish God would help us to believe it and to understand it. D. L. Moody said, "How wicked and how foolish it is to do the work of God without the power of God!"
Oh, in Bible times people had the power! I wish I could preach as John the Baptist did! Do you know why John the Baptist won so many souls? Jesus said, "Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." He preached in the spirit and power of Elias. Do you how why? He was filled with the Holy Ghost, so that many of the people of Israel did he turn to the Lord their God, the Scripture says (Luke 1:16). That is the only way anybody could ever have a revival.
Do you know how the Lord Jesus won souls? I remind you that you cannot find a word about Jesus' winning souls until He was thirty years of age. He lived a perfect, sinless life. But from the time Jesus was baptized and prayed and the Holy Ghost came upon Him, He went with the Spirit of God on Him, with the power on Him. And oh, the marvel of His gracious words! He was endued with power from God. Jesus is, of course, the Son of God; but He emptied Himself of His glory as the Second Person of the Trinity, and then came in the power of the Holy Spirit to preach. He loved to call Himself the Son of man. He made Himself a model for us. Jesus did His miracles and His wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do you know how it was at Pentecost? They waited. They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. They waited and prayed until they were all filled with the Holy Ghost; then they won three thousand souls in one day. A ten days' prayer meeting! We preach ten days and try to pray an hour; then we wonder why we do not have a revival. If we would pray ten days and then have one good day of preaching, we would have something happen here. Don't you see that?
What is the trouble these days? Listen to me. Lay aside your talk about fanaticism. Lay aside your talk about signs and wonders. Let me ask you a solemn question. Do you believe you are filled with the Holy Spirit? Listen to what the Bible says: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? If you are not what excuse do you have? Jesus commanded that. The Bible commands that. Christians ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is a joke to you about coming to the choir; it is a light matter to you about bringing somebody with you to church because you are not filled with the Holy Ghost. You have not the burden and passion He would give you. That is why your loved ones do not come. When you talk with them, nothing happens. That is why your own children do not believe in your religion. That is why you do not have boldness and fire and power in your witnessing. What we need is for the Holy Spirit of God to have His way with us. Revivals, I say, come through the power of the Holy Spirit and no other way.
In 1936 I drove, with my family, through New York City. We saw many of the interesting sights. We went down to the Battery and saw the Statue of Liberty. We saw the aquarium. We saw Fifth Avenue. We saw Brooklyn Bridge. We went over the George Washington Bridge. We went through the Holland Tunnel. We saw Riverside Drive, Riverside Church, Grant's Tomb, the Little Church Around the Comer, the lower east side -- we saw all those things. Then we drove down Wall Street. As I sat looking down that little narrow canyon of a street only two or three blocks long, I choked up, and team filled my eyes. I said to my children, "There is the financial center of the world." But that was not what I was thinking about. There was the stock market. There were J. P. Morgan's headquarters. The financial center of the world was down that little short block and that little narrow street, but that was not what I was thinking about. I remembered that D. L. Moody came once to seek some gifts for one of his schools. As he visited from office to office, he said, "Oh, my heart was not in the begging for money. I was thirsty for something else!" Down there in that little narrow street the Spirit of God came on him in power, and he was overwhelmed. Somebody with him said, "Are you sick, Mr. Moody? Shall I call a doctor?" "No! No! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" "Well, what shall I do?"
"Don't do anything. Leave me alone!" "Well, how can I help?"
"Get me in a room, and get everybody' out and leave me by myself!"
They put him in a room and he said there the waves of God's power seemed to overwhelm him and overflow him and run over him. Finally Moody said, "Lord, You will have to stop or I will die! I've got all I can hold! God, it is about to kill me!" Later he said, "I would rather lose everything in the world than to lose what I got then!" When he went to preach he said he used the same outlines, he used the same Scripture; the preaching wasn't any different. But where there had been seven or eight saved, now there were hundreds! The difference was in the power! Do you know D. L. Moody's secret? It was not personality. It certainly was not education. He said "ain't." He mispronounced many of his words. He had gone to about the fifth grade in school. What was the secret of his power? He was filled with the Holy Ghost. That was it! That is the Bible term "filled with the Holy Ghost."
Oh, how God's power came on Charles G. Finney! Soon after he was converted, he would go to meetings and take time off to pray all night, and the power of God would come on him. One time he walked into a mill, and a girl there saw him. She suddenly began to tremble and could not do her work. Then she began to sob and fell down on her knees and began to cry. Other workers felt the power of God so that they could not go on with their work. The unconverted mill owner said, "Everybody stop the machinery. Better have the power of God on us than to have the mill running. Mr. Finney, preach to us." He did, and many were saved. Why? Because the power of God was on him. That is it; the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit. That is what we need.
That is what R. A. Torrey had. That is what made great soul winners. The power of God is what we need. You cannot explain Billy Sunday with education. You cannot explain Billy Sunday with brains. His sermons were good sermons. Most of them he did not write himself but hired a man to work with him getting material. Then this man helped write out the sermons and Billy Sunday memorized most of them. But even at that, they were not profound. It was not Billy Sunday's brains. It was not education. He had a good personality, but it was not personality. The truth of the matter is, there came a time that when Billy Sunday preached he did not have the crowds, he did not have the power, he did not have people saved. I knew him in those days. What I am saying is that the secret of the great revivals always has been one thing, a supernatural enduement of the power of God on His people. God's people had the power of the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. That is the point. I say, that is God's secret for revival.
Now I come to the last point, and that is this: how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I want to give two or three preliminary things before I tell you how. In the first place, I want to remind you again that this is commanded. This is not to be left up to your judgment. Anyone who is not filled with the Holy Spirit just is not in the will of God. Anyone who is not filled with the Holy Spirit is living a life of disobedience, a life more or less of fruitlessness. The reason you are not winning souls is that you are disobedient, is that you are not seeking and not having upon you the fullness of the Spirit of God.
I remember back in World War I when I was acting corporal, we were out on the parade ground. The squads broke up and I had my squad out there with the close order drill. "Forward, march! One, two, three, four"; and, "Squad, right! March!" We marched back and forth. I would drill my little squad. After awhile the captain, the commanding officer, came up. I was embarrassed, and so I said, "Halt!" My squad halted awkwardly, shifted around, tried to line up and come to right attention. The captain looked them over and said to one fellow, "Button that button on your blouse." To another he said, "Hold your chin up." Then he told me a thing or two. When he got ready to go, he said, "Say, what was that command you gave as I came up ?" I said, "Sir, I said 'Halt!'" "Was that correct?" he asked. I replied, "No, Sir, it was not." "What should you have said?" "I should have said it in two counts, 'Squad, halt!'" "Why didn't you?" "Sir, I was scared." "Well," he said, "the next time do it right." As he started to leave, I saluted and said, "Thank you, Sir!"
He turned to me sternly, looked me through, then said, "Don't thank me. I'm not giving advice; I'm giving orders!" So in this matter I am not just giving you good advice: "It would be nice to be filled with the Holy Spirit." I mean to say the shame of God's people is that you are living in sinful disobedience as long as you do not have the power of God on you. I mean the shame, the sin that is damning your hundreds of thousands, your nearly 600,000 in the greater Seattle area, is that you have churches that are filled with everything else but the Holy Ghost. That is the trouble. Your children are going to Hell because you are not filled with the Holy Ghost. You talk to people; it does not do any good. Why? Because you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Year in and year out Sunday School teachers have unsaved children in their classes but never get them saved. Why? Because they are not filled with the Holy Ghost. Your own children grow up to the years of accountability, and year in and year out you never win them. Why? Because you are not filled with the Holy Ghost. We preachers, God forgive us preachers — I am for the preachers; I do not mean to be critical of them — do you know what is wrong with us preachers? We have nearly everything in the world; we have good training; we have degrees; we have good organization; we have good literature; we have good equipment; we have everything except the important thing, that is, the power of God, the power of God!
"Well," you say, "I wish I were filled— " Wait a minute. Do you really want to be filled with the Spirit? I warn you now, it will cost you something. Do not say that unless you mean you are willing to die. Do not say that unless you are willing to be scorned, hated, thought a fanatic and a fool. Do not say that unless you mean to pay a price for it.
Remember in Isaiah 44:3 the Lord says, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." Once I was reading a book by D. L. Moody. Moody didn't do what I do in my books: he didn't give the Scripture references. In one of his books he said, "God says, 'I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.' "I said, "Oh, my! That is sweet to my heart! I wonder where that is." I got my concordance and looked until I found over in Isaiah 44:3, "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring."
Are you really thirsty? Oh, unless you are thirsty, unless your heart cries out, you are not going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you do not mean business you will not pay the price. You will not pray long enough. You will not be content to give up the favor of man to have the power of God. You do not mean it unless your heart thirsts for God and thirsts for His power with a deep desire for souls.
Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? If you really want to, two conditions must be met. One of them is obedience. I do not mean just to set out to go through a certain rigmarole. I mean obedience such as Jesus showed when He came to die, when He was baptized, when He prayed in the garden. The two things are in there. Peter said in Acts 5:32, "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him." Obey Him? "You mean as the apostles did?" you ask. Yes. They were slain one way or another. Peter was crucified head downward, we are told. And another, I think, was boiled in oil. And another was dragged behind a horse and killed. John, an old, old man, past ninety, was exiled on the Isle of Patmos for his faith. "Do you mean like that? Do you mean follow Jesus if it kills you? Do you mean give up your own plans and dreams and count self dead, and live a new life?" That is exactly what God means.
Are you ready to lay self on the altar, count self dead, crucified? And when self is crucified, will you come and follow Jesus, do what He says about soul winning? That is the kind of obedience the Bible is talking about. If you are not setting out to win souls with a holy passion, you do not mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You may want some ecstasy, but you do not want what God wants to give you. You are not going to have it unless you are after what God is after, and that is the conversion of sinners and the power of God to witness to them. The thing that God said He wanted you to have He will give to you if you will use it for what He wants you to do. He commanded you to go and preach the gospel, to go carry the gospel to sinners, to get people saved. "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me." If you do not plan to witness for Jesus with the power, if that is not your point, if you do not mean it, if you are not obedient, then you will not have it. You do not have the first requirement. Obedience even to death; even a self-crucifixion. Are you ready for that?
That is why it takes so long sometimes. Why did it take ten days of waiting before Pentecost? It is an over-simplification merely to say that the day of Pentecost had not come. Jesus had not promised that the power would come on the day of Pentecost. No, the real truth is that they needed plenty of time to confess their sins and judge their hearts and make things right with one another, and to wait on God.
And. what is the second requirement? To ask God, to keep on waiting on God. That is what Jesus meant in Luke 11:13, "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" If you will give yourself wholly to the Lord and wait on Him, you may have His power. "Ye have not, because ye ask not." We have not the power of God because we ask not. We have not a Pentecost because we do not seek it, because we do not believe it, because we do not want it, because we do not pay the price for it. We can have it. "Ask?" you say. Yes. "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren." That is the way they got Pentecostal power. That is the way they got the baptism or the fullness of the Spirit. That is the way they had the enduement from Heaven. That is the way they received the pouring out of the Holy Ghost, or the gift of the Holy Ghost. They waited with pleading, burden, confession, begging God, prayer, supplication, and in due time the power of God came.
Are you filled with the Holy Ghost? I wonder how many here are contented with the life you are now living. Are you contented to go through life and never win a soul? God have pity on these seat-warming church members, these good-paying church members, these choir-singing church members, these official-board church members, these Sunday-School-teaching church members! Is that all there is to being a Christian? Why, no! What God wants is for you to be a Spirit-filled soul winner with the power of God on you. What does it matter, all the "do," "do," "do," "do"? Why, that is an abomination to God; just machinery within machinery, and wheels and wheels; just clanking, sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. What does God care about that? God does not care how much machinery you have in your church, how many ladies' meetings, how large a Sunday School, how much money you raise. That is not of interest to Him. If it does not result in one main thing, that you really have the power of God on you and get people converted, God is not concerned about it.
You say, "I gave some money to missions." Yes, I know. But do you think God is broke? Do you really think that the God who made the universe wants a little silver or some paper with the United States stamp on it? Do you think that is what God wants from you? That ought to be given as a type, as a token, as a picture, as a reminder of your love, certainly. You need to give of your means. But God does not need to receive your money. That is not what He wants. Primarily God wants your life, your hands, your feet. God wants your heart. God wants self on the altar. He wants self made over and anointed and endued so that you can be a soul winner.
Let me ask you this question, again. Are you filled with the Holy Ghost in the Bible sense? Do you really believe you have what Bible Christians had? Do you have what John the Baptist had when he was filled with the Holy Ghost so that much people of Israel turned to the Lord their God? Do you have what Barnabas had? He was a good man, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and people were added to the Lord as a result of Barnabas' ministry. Do you have that? Do you have what dying Stephen had? He was full of the Holy Ghost and faith. Multitudes of men and women believed. Do you have, I ask, what these Bible preachers and Bible laymen and Bible women had? Do you have the fullness of the Holy Ghost? "Daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ" (Acts 5:42). And the power; why, it spread like wildfire. And Jerusalem was turned "upside down." That is what they said, "Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine" and that Paul "turned the world upside down." I wonder, do you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine and turn the world upside down as they did?
We would not need to do so much advertising if we had a little more to advertise. We would not have to work so hard to get a crowd if we had anything to give the crowd when they came. Do you believe that? Our trouble primarily is with the people of God; our sinful carelessness, our powerlessness. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?" Jesus said (Matt. 5:13). Do you have saving power in you? Then what good are you as salt? "Ye are the light of the world." But if your light does not shine to sinners, what good is it? Do you see that? I wonder whether or not you are satisfied to go on never filled with the Holy Ghost? Are you?
How many can say, "Brother Rice, in the month of October," -- that is just one month past now -- "within the last thirty days I thank God I have won at least one soul"? Let me see your hand. I want to help you now. We are not bragging. All right. Now how many can say, "Brother Rice, sometime in the year 1945, I have won a soul"? Let me see your hand. Some of you have. But some of you have not had power to win one soul this year. How many can say, "I haven't won souls this year, but sometime in my life I have won at least one soul"? How many here have at least some time in your life taken the Bible and shown somebody how to be saved, and gotten them saved? How many have walked with someone down the aisle, have gotten them to trust the Saviour and confess Him? How many have led someone to Jesus? How many in your life ever did that? Hold your hand high just a minute. Thank you.
Now I want you to see several things. The first thing is that there are probably more than half of this crowd who never were filled enough with the Holy Spirit in the Bible sense to win even one soul by their own testimonies. And here is another thing. Many of you who did win a soul one time have not won one in a year's time. Now that means that you have lost some freshness, some power, some blessing that you once had. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit anew, don't you? Some of you have won souls in the year, but you have not done it in thirty days. God help you! What is wrong when a Christian cannot win one soul in a month's time? It must be you are not filled with the Holy Ghost!
How many preachers are present? God bless you, you are my friends. I will not make it embarrassing for you. Now let me ask you something: Preachers, haven't you felt this -- I have some time or another -- haven't you sometimes felt a holy breath of God on you? These are evangelical preachers. These are men who believe the Bible. These are soul-winning preachers. You preachers know what it is to have the breath of God upon you. You knew when you had it. You knew when the power was there, when souls were converted, when there was fruit to your ministry. You have known that, haven't you? How many of you can say, "Brother Rice, bless God, I do know I have had that sometime or another"? I say humbly, I know I have. Let me say this now for all of us. How many will say, "Brother Rice, I want to confess that now I do not have the fullness of blessing I ought to have. I am not filled with the Holy Ghost as Bible Christians were. I do not have the power I ought to have, that God could give me if I paid the price"? Will you say, "I want to confess that"? Most of us here ought to. Would you say, "I want to confess that though I have had God's blessing and great power sometimes, I feel I ought to confess I do not have now the fullness of God's power on me as I ought to have, and I need to be filled anew with the Holy Spirit"? Lot me see your hand. I am holding mine. God bless you.
Now how are you going to get it? I would go home and I would say, "Lord, I am going to search my heart and have a house cleaning. First, I am going to set out to do the will of God about soul winning." That is the main thing Jesus died for. That is the main thing the Great Commission is for. After you are saved, that is the thing God wants you to do more than He wants anything else in the world. I would say, "I will give myself to do the will of God, I will get ready for it, I will clean house, and I will be surrendered to it. I will!" I would do that and set out to be what He wanted me to be in soul winning and I would say, "By God's grace, I am going to wait on God until I am filled with the Holy Spirit's power."
My people, if you do not listen to me now, we have two of the saddest weeks before us we have ever spent. We have heartsickness and failure and shame to face if we do not have the power of God on us. Now you hear me. Don't anybody here believe that is a thing for one preacher to have and that everybody else may be seat warmers and hangers-on. Don't believe the cup may overflow and you may get a little splashed on you. At Pentecost "they were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost." That is the Bible pattern. It is not just for one preacher, not just for one man. "And they were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost" -- that is the pattern in Acts 4:31. Do you see that? God has commanded that for you as much as He commanded it for me. It took as much of the blood of Christ to keep you out of Hell as it did for me. God commands you to be filled with the Holy Spirit just as He does me. If we do not have the power of God, we are going into that big auditorium Sunday with small crowds, with mediocre services, and with few results. If we do not have the power of God, an anointment from Heaven, we will come here with a crowd that dwindles and wanes, with boredom in the air, and defeat upon us. Do you see what I mean? We ought to wait on God, then. Do you want the power of God enough to wait on Him, to clean house, to surrender to His perfect will, to get things out of the way, and then wait and plead with God until His anointing comes upon you, until His breath comes upon you, until you get power for soul winning?
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could go to that boy of yours and talk to him and he would be all broken and would come when you say come? If you could go to your brother, or your business partner, or somebody you know, and they would be broken up and the Spirit of God would cut them to the heart as it did in Bible times when Spirit-filled Christians talked to sinners, wouldn't that be wonderful? Do you want a Bible revival? You cannot have it without Bible power, the power of the Holy Ghost? That is what we need. God forgive me that I have not preached more about it. God forgive me that I have not sought more of His power and fullness. God forgive me that I have not put the emphasis all the time where the Bible puts it; that the people who had revivals were filled with the Holy Ghost. People who won souls were filled with the Holy Ghost. We can have this power too. But we will have to come the same way, with the same wholehearted obedience, with the dying of self day by day, and then waiting on God for His power as much as is necessary. "Tarry until . . ." "Tarry until" what? Ten days ? No! No! "Tarry until ye be endued." That is it. "Tarry until ye be endued with power." | 2019-04-26T04:12:18Z | http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Books,%20Tracts%20&%20Preaching/Printed%20Sermons/Dr%20John%20Rice/fullness_of_spirit.htm |
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You can have too much to say about the job based in your own reasons for departing, however it is most reliable to be sure it stays basic. If you opt to leave your work, it is a topic of specialist courtesy to compose a resignation letter. In the event you’ve been miserable along with your work, an announcement like I have resolved to pursue distinctive chances for individual reasons” will be sufficient. My new job will be always a promotion that will include a lot of new challenges, but also new possibilities that will permit me to grow in an area that I enjoy. In the event you’ve reckoned you have to go beforehand from your present job afterward a exact first thing you should take will be to share with your company which you might be parting ways with them. Quitting your work with good conditions with your prior employer is an excellent concept. To produce the task easier, listed here are just three good examples of resignation letters that is often employed by any employee who’d like to quit out of his office.
Even a letterhead is utilized to provide written communicating a expert look in formal correspondence. A letterhead must comprise the firm’s contact info. If you would like to set the letterhead at the bottom of the document, then double the webpage main point here. Adding a letterhead to a own or business correspondence ensures all your recipients are going to get your contact information near at hand.
A letter from the personal doctor ought to be okay, but also the school funding form or your financial aid office will let you know exactly what type of proof they require. Complimentary letters maybe perhaps not merely acknowledge your approval of the individual you’re creating to, however in addition they supply the reader with an amount of satisfaction for work well done. When you compose any correspondence in an attempt to close a bank accounts, you truly do owe to the institution to spell out why you are choosing to devote doing business with them.
When you comprehend the six aspects of an organization correspondence, producing 1 is rapid and straightforward. A small business letter is quickly recognizable by its structure and style. It is not like writing a letter into some friend and ought to be handled differently. It is an official letter that has six special parts. It might be formatted a couple of different ways. An everyday correspondence could be written in nearly any fashion you select, but there really are a couple of organizational guidelines that you can follow if you’re unsure of what things to write or the way to structure your letter. Without respect to the circumstance, a well-formatted biography letter can typically be authentic involving a seal of approval or even a very disappointing refusal.
When writing your own correspondence, make sure that you maintain it brief and effortless. In addition, a friendly letter should be all written at the suitable format so that informal sentences aren’t jammed right into an extremely proper style. Even in the current world of casual emails, focusing on how to format a expert correspondence is crucial. Indented letters demand a focused closing, even though a block-letter format closing should remain left-justified. If you’re writing a conventional self boosting letter or to get an on-line job regimen, you will need to format it as you would any expert correspondence, together with have relevant content.
Whatever you need to do is fill in your name and personalized info and potentially tailor made it a tiny bit to satisfy your exact requirements. The name is place underneath the conclusion of the letter, and therefore is not demanded from the going. In the event the name of somebody to whom you’re producing is known, always put it to use. The name should function as nicely siphoned so that it perfectly suits the niche of one’s own newsletter. You can also possess your business name at stake below your name.
The absolute best part of the business letter ought to function as the identifying information. The body of your favorable letter may comprise whatever you would like, as long as the tone is still in keeping with the remainder of the letter along with your relationship. A good heading could differ from just two phrases to a few words.
The advice regarding your goods and services will interest all of your potential customers. Following that, you will need to organize your information to be able to compose the essay. Contact advice must be very authentic. The speeches should be left-justified. The email is your purpose where the letter is currently being sent. Be certain that the electronic mail is very specialist. Formatting a letter which gets the correct type of attention will help convey the information you prefer to mail.
In the event you run a company enterprise, include your company logo. You may possibly also have to consider having a guaranteed approval loan or a no co signer student loan from the event your financial assistance is not reinstated. A business card is among the very important and costeffective advertisements and advertising tools a firm needs.
You may use the business-letter format in virtually any expert communication. Suitable salutation structure reveals that the degree of expertise possessed by the author and respects the condition of someone to whom the letter is dealt. It is very important to understand the structure of a company letter, or so that the receiver reads it and takes it seriously. There are 3 formats such as setting out a business-letter and a lot of key parts which ensure it is a company correspondence. For instance, if the document is going to be published, it has to be formatted to be published onto a normal size paper. In order to trade merge, you will need to take advantage essential record that has all of the info including text, images and other details that would be exactly precisely the exact same for most customers.
To get a larger corporation, be in touch with the Human Resources section to figure out who should get the correspondence. Letters of appreciation do not have to be prolonged, however they will need to be sincere and specific. Appreciation letter should be speech in a types of communication into the company from that you’ve fulfilled together using the services featured. A touch of admiration doesn’t need to become longenough. Notably state from the exact initial paragraph why it is you’re sending out a letter of admiration. There may be several reasons to compose a thank you for letter of admiration.
Add your signature Following finishing your correspondence using the appropriate salutation, you need to be unwilling to register the correspondence. An appreciation letter will be quite a great method to express thankyou. The appreciation letter is published when you wish to express appreciation to some other particular person.
Your correspondence should start with all the name of someone to whom you’d love to express appreciation. Make certain the correspondence is not overly long or vague. Free letters maybe perhaps not only acknowledge your approval of the individual you are producing to, in addition they offer the reader using an amount of satisfaction for function congratulations.
The correspondence needs to be dealt with into the suitable manager or representative. Delaying isn’t enabled because sending letter in the ideal time shows that your etiquettes. It is interesting to know distinctive kinds of letters. A computer-generated letter is acceptable for both very small businesses and firm organizations. For this reason, you want to get a signed letter of confidentiality by the consultant to guard your trade secrets and confidential information.
If you’re filling in a web-based type, then it is going to request some info will become necessary. Cases are able to assist you see what type of articles you will possess on your letter. A superior example must consist of supervisory skills that signature all of the employees, maybe not simply you. Below, you can encounter a few thanks note cases that it is possible to use to exhibit your admiration to get a excellent letter of the reference.
The large part of the time and at the better part of the places, it has driven honor. Individuals are interested in being paid but in addition would love to get treated with respect and admiration. Do be sure you decide on the possibility to personalize your correspondence, be aware, or e mail message, therefore it reflects your sincere appreciation and also the main reason that you are creating. Together with the training which you offer, I am confident that I’ll get a equal appreciation of the requirements of this plastic industry. Express your gratitude It’s very important to express your own appreciation in the beginning of letter itself.
Whenever feasible, handle a specific individual in the business or organization. Getting unique in your cases adds an individual touch that’ll aid your correspondence stick out. It’s sensible to include advice which permits the employee to go over the thing further should it be necessary. The information which you present into him. Additionally you will learn highly beneficial particulars about improvements your business needs.
Remember, private notes ought to be handwritten and company letters should be clicked on letterhead stationary. Letters are important method of expressing distinct beliefs and prerequisites. In cases like this, the acceptance letter arrives to rescue. It is essential to add your reason behind producing the thanks correspondence. Apology letters should prevent talking to delicate own things, given that they could be read with most other men and women. It’s critical to initiate the correspondence by simply giving a explanation of why you’re creating it at the exact original site. It turned out to be quite a cordial reminder correspondence.
The correspondence, apart from showing gratitude will also cite the aim behind the contribution. Many thanks letters are so important in all portions of your own career. Even a resignation letter could be easy, but in case comprise five or five things. An official resignation letter functions various functions. So take a moment today and record that which you realize may help you. It is essential that you abide by the structure that’s advised for such characters.
As a principle, thank you letters and cards should be routed once possible. In the event you have got personal vases, which lends the perfect bit for a handwritten thank you note to reveal your admiration to how he’s helped one to be a thriving employee. The winning art in every category are available from the business and be displayed with appropriate artist recognition. Input appropriate salutation it’s an official manner of correspondence and therefore it is essential to incorporate the name in the salutation.
If you do need to say the main reason for your resignation, say it quite officially. The explanations for resignation depend up on various factors, plus it might differ from person into individual. But not mandatory, it truly is okay to say that the main reason supporting the resignation.
Conventionally, a2 weeks’ notice is to be supplied into your own enterprise to declare that your option to resign. The genuine rationale to understand to give opinion would be to conserve the relationship. Giving resignation note is the procedure for notifying your employer you will leave from your job.
In the event you would like to measure at a formal way, then it’s wise to deliver this kind of letter well ahead of time. Comply with resignation letter template so that it is likely to write letter in the suitable arrangement. The letter may even be useful when you question your employer for a reference, or when future employers will need to learn your employment dates at the business. It might be uncomfortable to truly really have angry letter printed for each individual to see. When it’s an official letter, you need to stick to a proven template and has to compose it in a fashion that is respectful. Then you’re able to follow up with an official resignation letter. You are definitely going to be regarded as as absconding at the occasion you have not submitted an official resignation letter to your employer.
In the event you wish to find out more on the subject of the measures that you have to take just prior to delivering a resignation letter, do not hesitate to read our site’s articles that are devoted to your concern. A Standard resignation letter will be to confirm to your employer that you’ll be leaving. In the cases, if you’re creating a conventional and in depth resignation letter, then you might incorporate all optional and mandatory points, but if you should be producing a quick and straightforward letter you will include all mandatory points along with few discretionary points based on your necessity. It truly is a superb notion to recognise which you mustn’t put in an extensive resignation letter.
The next portion of one’s letter should speak about the hand-off. Keep in mind that the type of correspondence you send depends upon you personally and by how a business could understand you in the future. The resignation letter also functions as a record that is often kept for a formal record. Submitting very good resignation letter in the ideal time can likewise make sure it is simple for you to ask the benchmark or acknowledgment letter.
Sample word, excel or PDF letter templates will have the ability to help you write the ideal resignation letter that’s very likely to make your manager need to reconsider. Resignation letter templates enable one to create your correspondence immediately. Nevertheless a Professional Resignation Letter Templates need to become quick, you may want to create a bit more description on the reason why, just how and because of whom you are leaving the project. Thus its resignation letter format is not therefore easy. Remember your resignation letter goes to become a portion of their worker file. It is likely to also down load its pdf that is very functional for getting details. In a situation like this, consult with you employee psychologist or deal to come around the minimum time.
Explain the reason you might have chosen to move forward and express your gratitude into this company for the learning and chance you’ve gained throughout your tenure. It is nearly always a good notion to express empathy to get the opportunity to lead your organization because its own chief executive officer and also to present fantastic wishes for your upcoming accomplishment of their company. It is vital not to miss out the value of a resignation letter since it can actually help or hinder your probability of getting hired in the future. Now you are in possession of a very good grasp of the situations that you want to bear in your mind when writing a resignation letter, it might likewise be of immense support to you if you should be awake into the different selections of resignation letters.
If you should be in the method of writing a resignation letter, then you arrived into the correct location! To start writing your resignation letter, then utilize an immediate way of manage. After you resign, that you don’t need to reveal your future aims, though you may share details from the event that you want.
If you’ve enjoyed working in your organization and would like to stay attached with a own colleagues, it’s not sensible to provide bogus reasonsthose can eventually be revealed. Just before you depart from your company, there should be a appropriate replacement in order for the task and operations do not need to suffer. Appreciate most the help you obtained while still working in the organization. If you are moving to another firm in the precise same niche, it is probable that you might meetor even workwith a few your former coworkers again later on. If you have signed some contract with an employer, then then consult with this agreement to comprehend regarding the note period which you need to function. The organization will not wish to should have a good deal of time reading the letter. It will be potential to also address your employer as dear Mr or Mrs. In certain conditions, the preceding title of the employer is in the salutation. | 2019-04-21T22:03:29Z | http://www.ew-exchange.com/lebenslauf-vorlage/ |
Short talk/long talk is a strategy we use to reduce the potential for argument when we have to have a one-on-one talk with students about their behavior. We introduce the strategy in class by saying something like the following, "Someday I may have to take you aside and have a talk with you about how you're behaving in class. When we are alone, I'll give you the option of having a short talk or a long talk. You can choose! But I strongly advise you to pick 'short talk' because if we have a long talk, I'll be the one doing all the talking and you may not enjoy what I have to say."
Then, we have students explain short talk/long talk to each other.
When the day comes when you have to take a student aside, you say, "short talk or long talk?" Kids appreciate being given the choice ... so, make your point briefly and the one on one conversation is over. What we want to avoid is a back and forth confrontation that may raise your student's or your! emotional temperature.
I first tried short talk/long talk years ago when I was coaching a girls middle school basketball team ... and it worked wonderfully. It's a great way for you to make the point you need to make ... and then move back in to your normal teaching routine.
Q. Why do we call pennies "cents"?
A. Because there are 100 to the dollar.
Q. How many years in a century?
Q. What does "cent" mean?
Q. What does "per cent" mean?
Q. British money also contains pennies, but they are never referred to as "cents". Why?
A. Because, historically, there were more than 100 pence to the pound. For centuries, Britain had a system where there were 20 shillings to the pound, and 12 pence to the shilling.
Q. How many pence were there to the pound?
A. 12 x 20 = 240.
Since 1971, Britain has been using a modernized currency, so they now have 100 pence to the pound.
Extra credit for old folks (I might ask my student's parents): what Beatles song contains an oblique reference to the old currency system?
So we went to talk to the principal of Local Public Elementary about the possibility of sending Younger Daughter there. I told her up front that Younger Daughter has behavior issues that were causing problems at Natural Friends, and that Natural Friends wanted us to have her tested and possibly get a 1:1 aide to "shadow" her during the school day.
The public school principal was very welcoming, and laid out all kinds of possibilities for evaluating our Younger Daughter and providing the support she might need. It is amazing how many people and resources they have for these issues. As my sainted husband remarked, "special ed is what they do." I think they were happy to see us because we can keep a bunch of their people employed for another year.
Would Local Public Elementary be good for Younger Daughter next year? I honestly don't know. They think they can handle her issues, but that doesn't mean I would like their proposed solutions.
Would Natural Friends be good for Younger Daughter next year? I don't know the answer to that either.
Here's the bottom line: if Natural Friends is about as good as the public school, then the public school is the better choice. If Natural Friends is somewhat better than the public school, then the public school is the better choice. The only way Natural Friends can be the better choice is if it is so much better than the public school that it's worth the tuition.
I used to think we were shelling out the big bucks for Younger Daughter to attend Natural Friends because she's happy there. Recently, though, she's become extremely anxious and phobic about attending school, so that argument is starting to fall apart.
I know we're not sending Younger Daughter to Natural Friends for the academics, which are frankly terrible. The math program is embarrassing, and the reading program isn't so hot either. I keep coming back to an offhand remark that the first-grade teacher made during our last meeting; she said that Younger Daughter was not up to grade level for reading, and that she would need tutoring, but that was true for several kids in the first grade. What the ...? They've only got eleven kids! If several of them will need extra tutoring, that's a quarter of the class! Gee ... maybe it's time to re-evaluate your teaching methods?
Increasingly, I feel that all our school options for Younger Daughter are crummy, so we might as well go with the one that doesn't drain our bank account. That would be the public school.
The only good news is that we don't have to make a decision for several months yet.
Courtesy of the dc urban moms forum, here's a blog post about homework in kindergarten!
Next, they'll be sending moms home from the hospital with a big packet of worksheets.
Homework Elimination: Yea or Nay?
"Ours not to reason why, just invert and multiply."
The "just invert and multiply" rhyme is often quoted as a parody of bad traditionalist teaching, where kids just memorized algorithms, without understanding why they work or how to use them appropriately.
But I will confess that I've been meaning to teach "ours not to reason why, just invert and multiply" to the Trailblazers-befuddled 6th grader that I'm tutoring. At least it would help her remember the rule, and if she sees it enough times, we can approach real understanding.
While it may be true that just memorizing algorithms isn't enough, and that kids should ALSO understand how and why they work, you can't claim victory by just avoiding the standard algorithms.
To divide fractions, can you divide the numerators and divide the denominators?
…but it works only if you are careful to keep all the numbers in the right order.
Question: Why were the Britons so called?
Answer: Because they painted themselves blue.
Also, they made me do mental arithmetic to a metronome! I once wetted myself with nervousness under this torture. So my father sent me to King's College School, Wimbledon. ... My father took me away after a couple of terms because he heard me using naughty words, and because I did not understand the lessons.
I passed my childhood in P. The fact that I recollect nothing more of those days than having learnt, in company with other boys, to call our teacher all kinds of names, would strongly suggest that my intellect must have been sluggish, and my memory raw.
... I was put into a primary school ... there is hardly anything to note about my studies. I could only have been a mediocre student. ... I do not remember having ever told a lie, during this short period, either to my teachers or to my school-mates.
Let me know if you need a hint!
To the list of biases that standardized tests are accused of, we can now add: a bias against kids who don’t watch television. The most recent SAT included an essay question on the topic of reality TV, which apparently flummoxed kids who don’t watch reality shows or immerse themselves in pop culture.
Take any human quality, dumb it down until it’s unrecognizable, and you can measure it. Hardly the principle to build an educational system on, but here we are.
Here’s one teacher’s take on the kind of teaching these tests produce.
One of the most remarkable things about American classrooms is how little real teaching goes on there. Over the past five years or so, I have spent at least three or four days a month in schools studying the relationship between classroom practice and school organization. I observe classrooms at all levels—primary, middle, and secondary grades—and in all subjects. One of the most striking patterns to emerge is that teachers spend a great deal of classroom time getting ready to teach, reviewing and reteaching things that have already been taught, giving instructions to students, overseeing student seatwork, orchestrating administrative tasks, listening to announcements on the intercom, or presiding over dead air—and relatively little time actually teaching new content.
... Recent research shows that low-quality teaching results in disengagement by students.
... In all my hours in the classroom, I have yet to see a student refuse to engage in meaningful academic work. A good deal of what American students are asked to do with their time in school, however, does not meet this standard.
... I am increasingly persuaded that the use of time in classrooms is a measure of the respect adults have for the role of learning in the lives of students. I have also become aware of how profoundly disrespectful schools, and the people who work in them, are of the time and effort they extract from the lives of students and their families, without regard to the value this time adds to students’ learning and development. The way schools use time is a product of many choices: the way the curriculum is designed, the way the school day is organized, the demands of testing on instructional time, the daily routines that teachers establish in their classrooms, and the attention, or lack thereof, to students’ classroom experiences by adults in schools. It would be an enormous step forward if adults in schools treated the time that children and their families give to schools as a precious gift rather than an entitlement. The most valuable resource that schools have is the largely unexploited capacity of students to engage in high-level learning. It is the responsibility of adults in schools to make the best possible use of this resource.
When I first arrived, the kids were lying flat on their backs while the teacher read them a story in a darkened room. I believe this is a rest period to wind them down after recess. OK, fair enough. But their next activity was to sit in a circle on the carpet (several on cushions like the one I bought for Younger Daughter, I noticed) while the teacher led them through a math lesson.
It's clear that my daughter is not the only one who finds it difficult to sit still under these conditions. The teacher's lesson sounded like this: "Who can find 2 numbers that make 10? Joey, no kicking. Can we add the 9 and 1 first? Sally, back up a little ..." etc.
It's a very uncomfortable situation for the kids. They're sitting on the ground, craning their necks to look up at the teacher, who stands above them, writing on a white board. The carpet is small, so they're cramped. Also, they have nothing to do with their hands. I know that I listen better if I've got something I can fidget with. Why do we deny this to the kids?
Most of the room is taken up by tables and itty-bitty chairs (you know, the ones that parents have to perch their middle-aged behinds on for parent-teacher conferences.) Why couldn't the kids sit at their tables for the math lesson?
While I am deeply skeptical of the labels the author throws around ("tactile defensive", "sensory issues", etc.) the author's basic point is right on. We're putting the kids in an uncomfortable position, and then blaming them when they're not comfortable.
I'm writing this post as part of my thought process before I send an e-mail to the teacher. Next up, I'll show you the e-mail!
I finally bit the bullet and paid 39 clams for a subscription to the Harvard Educational Review. I am now working my way through all the articles by Richard Elmore.
My sense was that Belle Glade was cruising on its reputation and on the social capital of its community. When I said this to Kevin, the principal, he responded, "That's the world I live and work in every day—very mediocre teaching, very low-level work, mountains of mindless homework, and very flat student engagement and affect."
Elmore's observation about Belle Glade is that nobody cares about learning, as long as the kids go on to college, which he calls "attainment".
Attainment is the primary goal for Belle Glade's students and their families, and the one for which administrators are held most closely accountable. As a result, it is less important that the school provide high-quality learning for its students than that it (a) look like an attainment machine (hence the heavy-duty signaling to parents through the tracking system and the homework requirements for "higher-level" courses) and (b) provide a transcript that looks like one a college-bound student should have. In fact, since attainment is largely a function of social class, most of these machinations are probably unnecessary.
In the immortal words of Lily Tomlin, "... and that's the truth. Pblllt!"
Every time we went for a new evaluation, the doctor would recommend that we see someone else for yet another evaluation. It never seems to end. Finally, we decided that Gabriel was basically doing reasonably well, and we all needed a break from this constant running around to evaluations and therapies. I don't think many of the therapists ever tell you that your child doesn't need to see them anymore. I am getting suspicious that these kids are keeping a lot of people in business and that, as parents, we need to take some control over our time and money.
Now that everyone seems to think that we need to use the kids to maintain our “competitiveness in the global marketplace,” and that we need to make them work more and more hours to achieve that goal, why don't we just go ahead and repeal the child labor laws? What exactly do people think the reason for those laws is, anyway?
It turns out that I should be more careful about what I sarcastically suggest.
Last week was the occasion of a meeting and several discussions about what to do about Younger Daughter and her difficult behavior. She will probably continue at Natural Friends, but we are being urged through a series of hoops, and she might have a "shadow" (a 1-on-1 aide) in the classroom next year.
If a child shows certain behaviors at school but nowhere else, who is at fault, the child or the school? We all know how schools want to answer that question. Having been through this already with Older Daughter, I am constantly asking myself, how much of this problem is being caused by the school in the first place? Is Younger Daughter acting up due to anxiety or boredom? If so, couldn't we address the anxiety or boredom directly?
I have also become enormously skeptical of what I call the "disability-industrial complex." We are surrounded by an army of specialists with their hands out. Behaviors and personality types that used to be tolerated are now labeled, diagnosed, medicated and treated. And for what? It's been great for the bank accounts of therapists, doctors, and drug companies, but can we really say it's been good for the kids?
I am wary of the language used to discuss misfit kids. I know that "we want her to make better choices" means "we want to enforce compliance" (and really, how many choices does a child actually get to make during a school day?) I know that "we wouldn't want her to feel different" is all about conformity.
If they could, schools would fill themselves with clones of the same child: the compliant, easygoing, sociable, eager-to-please good student, of slightly above-average but not threatening intelligence. But where should we send the rest of our kids?
I really loathe these meetings, where we discuss what's "wrong" with Younger Daughter and how she might be "fixed". I always come away feeling dirty, as if I've betrayed her.
[The mother duck said: ] "See how beautifully he uses his legs and how erect he holds himself. He is my own chick, after all, and not bad looking when you come to look at him properly ... He is not handsome, but he is a thoroughly good creature, and he swims as beautifully as any of the others. I think I might venture even to add that I think he will improve as he goes on ... "
I always liked this story as a kid. I felt like a misfit and hoped I would eventually turn out to be a swan, metaphorically speaking. Reading it again today, I see it as a story about adoption as well. How did the swan egg wind up in the duck's nest?
Handing out more college degrees won't guarantee jobs growth, according to the brilliant Paul Krugman in today's New York Times.
Increasing the supply of educated workers doesn't increase the demand for them. It just makes them cheaper.
On the whole, six-year-old boys are not naturally cut out for the demands of boarding school, and Wei Jia was especially disorganized. Often I picked him up on Friday afternoons, on my way to the village, and I always reminded him to make sure he brought the books he needed. But every Friday evening, back in Sancha, it was a complete mystery what would emerge from within the bowels of the Mickey Mouse backpack. Wei Jia opened the bag like a magician: anything could come out, and the trick was that even the boy had no idea. Tonight he conjured up four textbooks, a few pencils, and a dozen crumpled papers. His father snatched one of the pages.
"What's this? This is your homework! How are you going to do your homework if it's torn up like this?"
Wei Jia stared down at the kang.
"I forgot it," Wei Jia said softly.
"How are you going to do your homework if you don't have the book?" Wei Ziqi's voice became sharp. "You know what Teacher Yang said today? She said that you always forget your homework. And you don't pay attention in class! What's going to happen to you if you don't study well?"
(especially in northern Chinese houses) a masonry or earthen platform at one end of a room, heated in winter by fires underneath and spread with mats for sleeping. | 2019-04-18T10:45:59Z | http://kidfriendlyschools.blogspot.com/2011/03/ |
Tinner, I found your tips very usefull. I am still trying to improve on my metal work and your photos and tricks are helpfull - thanks.
Here's a link to soldering/sweating Hope this helps And make your pans 24"-28" long.
There may be more info you can use on the rest of the site.
Wow! After I read this, I concluded that you must have conjones the size of watermelons to start a project like that. You sound like you learn fast and at least know enough to ask questions. What everyone else said and good luck.
It sounds like you have a great asset in your Wife's cousin. Good luck with the project!
Thanks for all the advice. I have enlisted the help of my wife's cousin--he is an experienced roofer and has restored and replaced many slate roofs--especially in Gas Light Clifton, a historical neighborhood here in Cincy. He loaned me his "Durable" slate ripper, which has advantages over our home made one too numerous to count!
I have proceeded to install the liner, just because I need to have SOMETHING in there for the time being. It's functional--to a degree. After getting the section of tin liner out, we rebuilt the bottom portion of the box gutter using a plank of #2 pine 1x12x12. Not sure if this is the right wood--but again, I just getting something in there for the time being. It is obvious that the entire box gutter needs to be rebuilt.
While we were installing the gutter liner, it became apparent that the last two sections had warped drastically and veered off--apparently when I was welding them together.
I plan on getting Jenkins' book and re-doing the gutter before winter. Like I said, this was a problem gutter from jump and I am glad that I picked this one to experiment on, as it is only 20' in length ( as opposed to a 60' stretch that runs down the length of the house).
The house has more elements that need restoration--flat lock roof on a balcony which has a box gutter on it; tin roof which is "pleated" ( I dont know the proper term--the little seams that are folded over and stick up vertically). I have started experimenting with some heavy card stock and glue on how to form the pans for the flat lock roof--a lot cheaper and less risky if I get it wrong!!
In any case, like I said, I did consult with a qualified slater about putting the slates back in, and everything he told me was spot on with this site. He did tell me not to use the slate hooks I bought--luckily I had also bought enough bib flashing to use the nail & bib technique.
Just want to thank everyone here for your input and will post pictures of the completed Franken-gutter once it's all the way in. Feel free to post it on the "dont try this at home" section.
Also, the slate I talked about en my last post (the freebies from a co-worker) were identified by my wife's cousin as Buckingham. How do you tell if they are worth using, or if they are are past their lifespan? The surfaces are all smooth (unlike some of the ones we took off, on which the surfaces were flaking). He knocked on the center of them, listening to the pitch apparently, and said that they were still good. Apparently if they "ring" instead of "thud" they are still good? The reason I ask is because--I found out later--they had been in this woman's backyard in several stacks since 1986. Obviously, I dont want to be installing bad slate.
Greg, your inventiveness and dedication to this project is something to admire, but the work unfortunately is not up to par. I know you already have a lot of time invested but the best route for you would be to have this done professionally or seek the help of someone in the trade if you can find them.
After seeing the pan you formed I have no doubt you could probably install a pan formed out of a proper material. Take your numbers at 10' intervals and go to a sheet metal shop. Have them fabricate copper pans. You can probably do the soldering yourself it looks like. But you'll have to be very careful soldering in place with an open flame torch. Straight seams get a single lock, and fully sweat. Miters are lapped, riveted, and sweat. The front edge should be crimped over a drip-edge style locking strip. the rear should have a hem and z clips are used to fasten the rear without actually penetrating the copper with any nails. this allows it to move. There are lots of other things to cover but it's had to do through this medium. It is very difficult for a DIYer to complete a workmanlike job on something like this. Too many opportunities for an error that will doom the whole assembly.
You really should get the slate bible or do some other reading first, It would answer a lot of your questions.
Not to be too critical , but you need some help who have had experience with these issues .
You have had some issues take place on that home that require people who have done these tasks .
Inexperienced folks have botched the repairs to that home for a long time and to restore it properly will be very challenging .
I should've been more clear. I have already fabricated the Aluminum gutter. It's ready to go in. Yes it was like working with wet cardboard when it heats up. Consequently, my pitch is now approximate at best, but at least still slopes in the right direction. It's also pretty lumpy around the seams.
I just got done with starting to take out some slates. You are correct--a proper slate ripper would have been a godsend! After only a few slates the area we were hammering on was starting to bend out of shape.
a.The starter slates we are pulling out are nailed at the top along the long end--like an umlat--at the top. Is this correct? In one video, I thought I saw the nails going in on the far left or the far right--on top of one another (oriented vertically along one edge).
b. There is no firring strip along the bottom of the starter courses (as described on this site) to push the starters up at an angle. It doesnt look like there ever was one. There is no real evidence (like a soot outline or sillouhette) that anything was there. Should I add this since I am not completely replacing all of the slates?
b. Some of the slates used in the starter row look as though they have been re-used (like I described: as if someone had taken them out, and then flipped them 180 degrees and re-nailed them. Thus, I have slates in my starter course that have 4 holes, two for the current nails holding them. Are these slates spent due to this (at least for being used in this starter course--I am sure I could trim them for use along odd angles)?
Bear in mind this was done with what I had on hand. I know it isn't pretty. In fact it's pretty damned warped. The seams are triple folded and I used a product called AlumiWeld--a general purpose brazing rod that melts at 730 degrees. With only a benzomatic, I had to make due.
In lieu of a real brake, I used a walkboard, clamped to a picnic table and a 4" x 4" x 10' piece of lumber clamped to the walkboard as my brake. I made gradual bends using a prybar, a rubber mallet, my bare hands--(I think I may officially qualify as a neanderthal by this sites definition. But hey, at least I'm inventive! In fact, this post may be an exemplary demonstration in what not to do).
Then there was the going back and forth between repatching my welds, and hammering out the warps--it was pretty much a zero sum game.
One question I do have is this: would a triple folded seam like that even need to be welded, brazed or soldered? I did it for good measure, but am sacrificing uniformity as a result. Would it be better to hammer the thing flat than to have a beefy weld with no pinholes? Again, I know that if I had used the right materials, I wouldnt be dealing with this set of design issues--but budget is another thing: I've already invested a lot of effort, time and money into this---if it will hold water, and more importantly contain and transport water--I would be sitting in a better place than I am now, and have something at least functional until I could save up the money to get the right tools in order to do it in copper in a couple years.
As you can see, the generous helping of tar around the hatch has already come into play. This is going to have to be reflashed: I know this already--but how (and with what)? Any links on this site dealing with these type of hatches and the proper way to flash them in? Currently the flashing is going over the top layer of slates, and the slates were nailed to the roof through the flashing and then tarred over. Again, I am obviously not an expert, but something tells me that is just not correct. The simple principle that your water barrier (slate tiles, gutter liners and flashing)should be free of holes when at all possible seems a fairly simple thing to understand. Around the bottom of the hatch, the flashing that was present was nailed to the slate with 1/2' nails! The gutter direcly below that is nothing but asphalt shingles layered about 3/4" thick, and all the metal had rusted away under the shingles. My theory: nailing through the flashing permitted water to get behind the vertical element of the box gutter liner and then the use of tar, silicon caulk and asphalt based products sealed the moisture in.
The main thing I am thinking about here is this: The gutter liner, where it goes up the pitch of the roof, is only about 3-4 inches up behind the first and starter courses owing to the fact that there is the roof access hatch there. I am wondering if the gutter metal needs to extend up and around the wood work of the hatch? I dont know it that is plausible, advisable, practical or correct--I just have now way to to cope with this element and any pointers would be very much welcome!!
Here is some more of what I am going to be dealing with. This is where they tuck-pointed the water-damaged brick under the leakiest part of the gutter. http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/greggy_05/IM003819.jpg Yes it's our old friend: silicone caulk (they used this 'technique' all throughout the exterior of the house--little by little we are grinding it all out, and replacing it with a historically correct lime mortar. We have a kind of soft brick. Since the area is so extensively damaged there, I am a bit worried that trying to tuck-point this "business as usual" may not work. We had a few areas in the past where the only way to repair it was to literally punch holes in the house (this is not brick and back-up). That close to the roofing beams, is it safe to be messing around with tucking this? Experience tells me that behind that silicone caulk there is probably zero remaining structural mortar. Any ideas on how to deal with that area? Any ideas on how that step flashing looks? I wouldn't really know what to look for (the area of roof below was redone in asphalt shingle before we bought the house).
This is a close up of the shallow end of the gutter that is still in tact. See the rust line just below the bottom course of shingles? That's got me concerned. My thought was to go ahead and remove the slates above that area as well, clean the area as best I can without damaging the membrane, and then coat with am acrylic marine grade DTM paint rather than asphalt or aluminum based coatings. If doing this, I am assuming that it would be prudent to coat the entire thing--even the area that will be recovered by the slates?
Speaking of acrylic DTM paint--if I painted the aluminum section with DTM, would this be an effective barrier between the two metals (tin and aluminum)and help to minimize any possible corrosion?
All in all, I know (now) that this isnt the way I should have done this. I had it in my head that I just wouldnt be able to afford copper--i'd heard a figure of $100 per linear foot, only to find out after I had this gutter liner built, bent and welded that for about the same money I spent in total (including all the brazing rods I wasted)I could have done this same section in copper and only had one seam (as opposed to five)--if you dont count the end seams.
Based on what you see here, though--I just want an honest assessment: is this doomed to failure? I already know it isnt a permanent fix, but can this work for a year or so?
In any case, thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings and by the way, a woman who works in my building recently had her slate roof replaced with asphalt shingles (at the insistence of the insurance company, and has offered me a whole roof full of slates simply for coming over and hauling them off, so I'll have plenty of spares as I learn about the craft of slate roofing! I'm picking them up tomorrow, and will post pics. Thanks again!!
Greg, do you have the Slate Roof Bible?
You should get that and read it closelly before going much further I you havent already. Also, a real slate ripper will help, it is work every cent. If you rip out the second row up first(which you probably will have to do to expose all the gutter liner) then you can epose the nail heads on the first row and then the starter row. And remove those normally. You shopuld buy plenty of extra slates and make sure the color and sizes match. There are a few rules to follow as far as side lap and head lap and making sure the starter course is on there correctly..
The slate roof bible and this site has lots of info. I would question using aluminum in this project, it may not rust but it is quickly affected by abrasion and other metals..
I can't comment on all the issues,but if i was doing the project here is how i would approch it.
I would remove the current box gutter, it may be difficult for you to get the new one installed & pitched correctly if you have to battle clumps of tar etc the whole way.
I would use copper or TCS as the box gutter material, if you are going to all this work it would be worth it to have it last a while.
If you use 20oz copper odds are you will not need an expansion joint in the middle, just leave a little room for expansion at the ends of the gutter run.
I think you will have a very difficult time getting a good braze on that that thin of aluminum-plus it will warp if it gets too hot.
I would make the back of the gutter go up the room around 16", so you would have to remove the starter and 1 or 2 courses of slate, it is a little time consuming but can be done with the right tools.
I would try to make a insicion in the current roof membrane just above the edge of the roof flange of the gutter and tuck a new piece of peel and stick under the current membrane and over the metal gutter roof flange.
I would renail the starters and nail & bib the last course.
I have about a 130 year old brick Victorian home with a slate roof in Cincinnati. One of our box gutters was a mess. My neighbor refers to our area--price hill--as the "land of deferred maintenance." After working on this gutter, I have found it to be "the land of incompetent maintenance that actually accelerates decay, corrosion and disrepair." Sick of Henry roof cement and fiberglass tape every year, I finally had a friend come over and "help." He helped by chiseling a hole through my box gutter liner while trying to remove the old patches. horray! Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands--hell or high water.
I have a few questions regarding what I have done. I have a 20 foot box gutter and I am going to be relining roughly the center 15 feet--the outer edges--the shallow end and the end with the downspout--are still in tact.
Problem one--I started this project before even knowing about this fantastic website or was even sure how my box gutter was built. When I thought that I would be able to get by with a 6' section, I went to the Depot and got two 36" pieces of 19 gauge aluminum sheet metal (my thinking was "aluminum wont rust"). I was just going to braze them with lap joints, clamp two pieces of timber together to use as a brake and shove the thing under the existing slate on the backside and nail it on the front. Problem is this: The existing liner that is in there is tin with the type of expansion joints every 2-3 feet or so, like the ones described on this site. The replacement section is aluminum--I added expansion joints (to the extreme--I think I folded it over 2-3 times)--and "soldered" with aluminum brazing rods using a propane torch--5 sections, 3 feet each. On the shallow end of the gutter-- the Aluminum section, I figured, could be tucked under the tin and then joined with....what?! That's my problem. The hillbilly way to do it would be--that's right--more roof cement and fiberglass tape, but that seems to negate all my labor and expense. Is there any good way to join these two sections at either end to create a water-tight seam? My friend has advised me also to be aware of certain incompatibilities in dissimilar alloys: that by just being in contact with one another, they can cause one or the other to corrode. Obviously I cant weld the two together, they each have different melting points, and it is unlikely that there is a suitable solder that would be able to bond both of them (pure lead maybe?). Is it sheer folly to even attempt this? The entire 15 foot section is fabricated, with the cleats at the top, ready to install. Luckily, some rain moved in (thus, I am pausing to get the communities advice) and I have not yet started ripping slates. Please advise if this is a typical "land of deferred maintenance" repair that is doomed to fail from the outset because of choice of materials. After reading this site, I want to make a repair that is going to last 100 years, not one that I am going to be re-doing in a year.
This brings me to my second logistical concern: Ripping slate. I made a slate ripper out of 3/16 spring steel and tested it on some spare (if there is such a thing) slates that we nailed up to an old picnic table and it works pretty well. In the course of being up on the roof, I began to suspect more and more that there was another course of slate under the ones I want to remove--lo and behold there's a name for it: starter slates. This was an unexpected curveball for my 3/16ths DIY slate ripper. My theory is to try and remove the starters and then the first course. We laid out some slates to mimic what we anticipate encountering, and my theory is that attempting to remove the first course before the starter course will cause a lot of damage because that nail will impact the starter slate, however, I am not sure I can get the ripper up under the two courses without breaking both! I had 18 "first course" slates to remove (that I counted) and anticipate probably 8 - 10 starters in addition. I only have 10 replacements!!
1. Will the entire bottom course and starter course need to come out? I hadnt planned on this and it is something I wish to avoid because the far shallow end of this gutter is in an akward and treacherous place on the roof.
3.Bib and Nail or Slate Hooks for either the starters (if the above question approaches the problem from entirely the wrong angle)and/or the first course. I bought stainless slate hooks for the slates on the first course (before I realized that there were more slates under there)primarily because I was not confident in my skills in nailing slate (which I have since overcome through experimenting with the spare slates.
Thanks for the fantastic site! This is a boon to those of us who cherish real workmanship. My neighbors, friends and I salute and thank you for your efforts. | 2019-04-18T20:30:46Z | http://jenkinsslate.com/messages/messages/3/3829.html?1244489378 |
ready, set, DANCE! posted 7/1/2014 (updated 7/1/2014) I can’t say enough great things about infinity!!! The music at our wedding was really important to us and our guests and once the reception started, we never left the dance floor!! Rich made sure to play songs we requested and read the crowd well. We are still getting compliments on the music. Our ceremony pianist also did a great job and the music was beautiful. I would recommend infinity to anyone looking for a fun party to celebrate their special day! Thanks infinity!
rich and team did an awesome job for us on our bar mitzvah on 11/23. i thought the prices were very fair. we hired them as the dj, lighting, two dancers, and the photo booth. all guests had an awesome time. the music was great. rich is a great dj and mc. we’d definitely hire them again and you should hire them.
Excellent Experience 🙂 posted 8/6/2013 My now husband and I had a lot of music-related requests on our wedding day and knew we needed the right DJ to make our vision come to life. We chose Infinity, and are very happy we did! Rich was extremely professional and easy to talk to, and I felt that he really understood what kind of music we wanted to hear on the big day. He did not make any decisions without consulting me first, and respected every request we had (even last minute ones the day of!). It was so important to us to get everyone dancing with a solid mix of both young and old, and Infinity captured that perfectly. Everyone said they loved the music and the dance floor wasn’t empty all night! Infinity is the best of both worlds: affordable and delivers an excellent product!
Above & Beyond posted 8/12/2013 Infinity Entertainment went above and beyond our expectations. The package we received was priced reasonably and we got everything and more that a wedding needed. Our package included a piano player for our ceremony and cocktail hour (who was absolutely amazing), two MC/DJ team, up-lighting, monogram, and photobooth. The team did a phenomenal job and everyone had a blast. The package and experience was more than we could have ever expected.
We are so happy that we went with Infinity! They were a pleasure to work with and did a wonderful job at our wedding! They did exactly what they were suppose to do which was kept the dance floor going all night! Our MC Rich and our DJ Victor were a great combination and were a perfect fit for our wedding. From start to finish Rich was great to work with. He was very responsive to all of our questions. Our wedding actually occurred two weeks after hurricane sandy. Even without electricity Rich was able to get in contact with me to finalize the details of our wedding. Also, they were very flexible with our requests and worked within our budget which was important to us. Additionally, we used their lighting services. My husband and I were on the fence with lighting since I’ve seen lighting at other weddings which just looked like someone propped a flashlight up against the walls. After seeing some imagines from our venue we decided to take a chance and order the lighting from Infinity for our wedding and we were so thankful we did. The lighting that we used with Infinity transformed our room into an amazing atmosphere. We loved what they did and would highly recommend this service if you have the budget.
I am so happy that we chose to use Rich and his team at Infinity Entertainment. They were by far the best! We used them for the music (DJ), emcee, photo montage, & lighting. We chose amber lighting. The ambiance was beautiful. My friends and I love to dance to current music but my husband prefers country or heavy metal music (yikes!) We could not agree on a song list. We also wanted to dance with our grandparents but didn’t have anything chosen. Rich put together a fabulous play list. (I wish I had it!) I danced all night long. They always knew when it was appropriate to play specific songs and the music selection was awesome. They also provided lights on the dance floor, which made dancing even more fun. I am so impressed with the DJ’s. My sister is Austistic and before they used the lighting, the DJ’s asked me how she would respond because they did not want to upset her. How amazing! Victor from Infinity put together our photo montage, which came out great. Many guests have commented on how much they loved it. I cannot say enough good things about this company. They were simple to work with and exceeded our expectations by far. I will definately use them the next time we need a DJ or lighting.
Rich was great to work with through out the year of planning our wedding. He always got back to any phone calls or emails within a few hours and was always willing to meet with us when it was convenient for our schedules! We had a piano and violin for our ceremony and cocktail hour, I spoke with Beth (piano player) a few times to set up some song choices, and she was an absolute pleasure to work with, their music was beautiful (people are still talking about them). The two DJ’s we had for our wedding reception were outstanding; they were high energy, great with the crowd and kept the dance floor full all night, could not have asked for a better group of people to help make our wedding a hit!
Rich was the DJ at our wedding April 24th; he really got the party hoppin’ right from the start! He played a great mix of music and was able to fill all of our requests the day of. I have received many compliments on the awesome music we had. Thank you Infinity!!
We had our wedding on Saturday Novenber 26, 2011. I wanted our reception to be a good party that everyone could enjoy. The D.J.’s from Infinity were AWESOME!. They had people up dancing the entire reception. They did a great job and we couldn’t have been happier with their service. I HIGHLY recommed Infinity to anyone looking for a great party!. A word of advice.let the D.J.’s do their thing and do not tie them down with a list of songs that need to be played ahead of time. These D.J.’s are like artists and they will create an atmoshere based on how your crowd reacts.I told Evan ahead of time to “do his thing ” and make people dance. He definetly stepped up to the plate! GREAT JOB GUYS!
I just wanted to thank you again for a spectacular job at our wedding.We have gotten a lot of positive comments about you and your partner from the wedding. You really got everyone up on the dance floor and having a good time which is what we were hoping for. We also really appreciate the fact that you were able to find the rare songs and versions that we wanted played at our wedding. It was an amazing time. I will be recommending anyone that needs a DJ to contact your company and hopefully get you as their DJ.
My Wife and I have to say what an amazing job your DJs did. Everyone at the party told us what a great job they did. The music, the lighting, everything was perfect. It made our wedding into a giant party just the way we wanted it! Strongly recommend the photo booth to everyone as that was a huge hit that anyone can enjoy. A big shout out to Victor who was excellent.
The music was great at our wedding! Our guests enjoyed a variety of music and the dance floor was always crowded. Rich and his team played our song list and did an excellent job mixing in Greek songs. They were professional the entire time and easy to get along with. We would highly recommend them.
Just a quick note of thanks for the awesome job Evan and his partner did this past Sunday at the Hilton Garden Inn (for our son’s Communion party). He covered all the bases – asking people to make requests, introducing Liam and making sure a few of the younger kids got some giveaways. He was ready with the latest dance songs and everyone agreed the music was great. Please pass on these thanks to him and we will defintely not hesitate to recommend your DJ services to others in the future.
Alex was the DJ for our wedding. He played exactly what we wanted and I don’t think you can ask for more than that! Even the little kiddies loved him! Thanks so much.
I would highly recommend Rich. He was energetic, fun, and played great music! He was also very affable and a pleasure to work with!
They are a fantastic company. Rich was so quick to return all of my phone calls. They were super accomodating and very fair. They were so laid back yet professional and on top of their game. It was such an easy day. Alex was amazing as the DJ. He is so friendly and warm. He was right there with suggestions that i needed and made the evening go so smoothly. There was a minor miscommunication and something was not done that was supposed to be and I encountered the best customer service when dealing with Rich again. He was quick to remedy the issue and I would recommend them to anyone! Thanks!
Rich, Thank you so much for providing such fun music at our wedding reception on July 17th. My wish was that the dance floor would be packed — I had no idea it would start off so immediately and remain that way the entire evening! Everyone said they had a wonderful time and I know it was, in large part, due to the great music. Thank you again!
Hi Rich, I wanted to thank you again for a spectacular job on Sat! The kids had a GREAT time and so did the adults. I had so many compliments on your company – and I personally could not have asked for more! You are for sure a referral – with the highest regards.put me on your list of referrals – you will not be sorry!TOP OF THE LINE!
We just want to thank you for an amazing job you guys did at Krystina’s Sweet 16. We’re still talking about it and how you made our daughter feel like a princess on her night. We were so impressed on how you made the night so perfect with music, dancing, candlelighting ceremony to the Montage. This is a great memory that will last a lifetime for all of us. Thank you for making this night so special!
Where do I even begin? Not only were the music and lighting fabulous, but you were an amazing help in getting our “surprise” movie montage for the bride and groom to work!! You are a first class operation and I am honored to have had you as the DJ for my sister’s wedding! I hope to see you again soon!!!
We cannot thank you enough for the incredible job you did at our wedding reception. The piano player and strolling saxophonist were a wonderful addition to our cocktail hour. From the minute Victor and Mike started the music, the dance floor was PACKED! The workers at our reception venue even said that they had to make people sit down for dinner. We have received countless compliments and have already shared your information with serveral of our guests. Our guests also raved about how our DJ’s were so open to requests and had a great sense of humor! We honestly could not have asked for better and we are so grateful for your fantastic work!
Words cannot describe how amazing our wedding was and part of that is because of you! The job you did for us was just spectacular and we could have not have asked for a better DJ for our wedding and for better music to have been played. You catered to every age group that was there and we were so happy that the dance floor was packed the whole night. People keep telling us that they had such a wonderful time dancing the night away. You went above and beyond everything we wanted and expected and we will definitely recommend you to anyone we know who has an upcoming wedding. Thank you so much, Rich! It was a fabulous day!
We just used Richard and his crew for a second time. They are wonderful people to work with. I have highly recommended them since my first affair and will continue to do so. I will definitely use them again for any future parties I have. You know you are in good hands with Richard, he does a great job and he is easy to work with. The music selection and games that were played at my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah were really fun. Infinity Entertainment is the best!!
We just wanted to write to tell you Alex and Anthony did an awesome job at our wedding. We couldn’t have asked for anything better!! He had everyone up dancing all night! The dance floor was NEVER empty! We loved the soft lights and all the music was great. We’ve had many people tell me it was the best wedding they had ever been to, and I bet a lot of that had to do with the great music! Thanks so much for everything!!!!
Simply awesome! Rich did a A+ job at my daughters Bat Mtizvah. The dance floor got a full work out. Do not hesitate to use Infinity Entertainment. Sincerest thanks.
Infinity did an excellent job at our wedding. The dance floor was packed all night. Alex was wonderful!! thank you so much for making our evening fun!
They were very professional and very easy to work worth. They did a terrific job.
My 18th birthday/graduation party was yesterday, June 24th 07. It was amazing. Both you guys were so much fun. Thank you so much!
Our wedding was on July 22, 2006 at the Empire Club, and it was wonderful from start to finish. The dance floor was packed the whole time and everyone had a blast, most importantly us! From the beautiful music that accompanied our ceremony to our family favorites to the very last dance, these guys did everything right. Our wedding day was worry free and we danced our hearts out! Thanks guys for making our wedding day everything that we wanted it to be.
When we think back at the DJs we considered for our wedding in the planning stages, we feel lucky that we found Infinity Entertainment DJs. Others actually refused to meet with us or told us to come to a wedding they were performing to see if we like them. Could you imagine? I wouldn’t want the DJ using my wedding as a sales pitch. strangers showing up just to observe! We met with Rich and from the first meeting on, he was professional and attentive. We felt great after leaving our initial meeting because he listened to what we wanted and showed that he understood. Between that meeting and leading up to the wedding, Rich was on top of things. He was patient, understanding, helpful and always professional. I have heard so many compliments. people tell me that our wedding was great and they had a lot of fun. People were surprised at how many people were dancing and how wonderful the atmosphere was. A large part of that was due to the music. The mix of all the different genre’s was seamless and very well blended. People would get out to dance to a country song and find themselves spinning each other around to merengue. It was a great time. Hire them. You’ll be happy you did.
My daughter, Jessica, had her Bat Mitzvah celebration at our synagogue January 14. Rich, you and your staff did a fabulous job. The kids had a great time and are still talking about it! It was a pleasure to work with you. You were always there for us answering our questions and working with us enthusiastically. I would recommend you without hesitation.
We were married in October at Flanders Valley. When we met with Rich we stressed that we wanted a fun, casual atmosphere. You could not have met our wishes any better. The dance floor was packed and everyone is still commenting on how great the music and video clips were! Thanks again for an unforgettable day.
Thank you for making our wedding on August 13, 2005 a blast! Everyone keeps raving about what a GREAT time they had and how GREAT the music was. I was pleased to know that our guests had as good a time as us.
Many friends and family commented on the beautiful piano playing during the cocktail hour, and how packed the dance floor was packed before and after dinner. Our nieces and nephews are still playing with the cowboy hats you handed out.
The music and professional execution were key in making our day so memorable. Thanks for a dream come true!
Our wedding took place at the Wayne Manor on August 6,2005. We want to thank you for the fantastic job that you did. Everyone that attended the wedding walked away with the feeling that they had a blast. Your music selection absolutely brought everyone on the dance floor. We thank you for making our day very memorable from the piano player for the ceremony and cocktail to the reception, we will recommend your service for years to come.
Sandra and I got married on May 7th, 2005 and our DJ was Alex. We were extremely happy with everything throughout the evening. Alex met with us before just to do a final check and he was very understanding and easy to deal with.
There was a great mix of music (disco and Latin) and everyone was dancing (always a good sign!). During dinner, there was some soft music at a pleasant volume — nice background music where nobody had to yell at each other to talk.
Alex and his assistant handled everything in a nice, professional manner and were never obtrusive (as we’ve seen some DJ’s can be).
Dealing with Rich has been great as well. From the first time we met him, he has been very responsive, polite, and professional.
All in all, we have had a great experience with Rich and his staff and we would recommend Infinity Entertainment to anyone looking for a DJ.
We had our daughter’s Bat Mitzvah in April. We had a blast with the music provided by Infinity Entertainment. Richard’s music selection and games were so much fun for everyone!! My daughter said it was awesome!!!! Richard was wonderful and easy to work with. We will use Infinity Entertainment for our next affair and we highly recommend that you do too!
6 June 2005 – Morristown, N.J.
Rich from Infinity Entertainment provided DJ services at our wedding- the Mayfair Farms this past May, 2005. At our request, he played a mix of 50’s 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and current music. He was able to cater to the music taste of each of our guests. We received dozens of compliments following our event. We were so pleased with his services.
We recently held a surprise 50th Anniversary Party for our Parents at the Meadow Wood Manor, where Rich and Infinity are the recommended DJs. The event was this past Sunday, and I couldn’t have dreamed it to go any better. So much of the atmosphere is reliant on the entertainment, and Rich’s music selection was just perfect. From the point lunch was served, no one stopped dancing the rest of the event! It was fantastic. I strongly recommend Infinity Entertainment if you are considering a DJ for your Wedding or Special Event.
Nice site. I like that plasma screen setup!
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Notwithstanding all the the talk in recent years about the challenges facing the financial planning industry, from including rising competition to “robo” fee compression, the financial advisor career path remains quite appealing. Not only can advisors make meaningful, life-changing impacts on their clients’ lives, but with experienced advisors making 2-3X or more than the median household income in the US, it’s also a potentially lucrative career choice as well. And, with a possible shortage of new talent to replace the wave of ageing advisors who are expected to start retiring in droves in the next decade or so, it’s little wonder why the profession holds so much appeal, particularly for those who are mid-career and looking for a more rewarding opportunity. The caveat, however, is that it still takes a lot of time to succeed and grow your income as a financial advisor, which presents a major roadblock for those who want to career-change into the industry and just don’t have a lot of “income flexibility” to take a pay cut in order to get their proverbial foot in the door. Which leads many to wonder if it’s possible to transition into a career as a financial advisor on a part-time basis.
In this week’s #OfficeHours with @MichaelKitces, my Tuesday 1PM EST broadcast via Periscope, we look at the challenges facing the part-time transition for career changers, discuss why many consider simply opening their own RIA given the lack of part-time job opportunities, and offer some practical ideas for transitioning into the industry as a career-changer without going the (not-actually-recommended) part-time route.
Notably, the challenge of finding good part-time work to grow and develop as a financial advisor is a relatively recent phenomenon. Historically, there wasn’t much need for new “advisors” to have much professional knowledge or experience because, in reality, they weren’t providing actual advice, but were rather being paid to sell insurance or investment products (which simply requires some product and sales training). For career changers, it was often quite feasible to make the transition into such a sales role on a part-time basis, soliciting their existing friends and family and former co-workers for product sales for a few hours a week. However, for those who want to provide comprehensive advice, and get paid for it on an ongoing basis, the reality is that it’s really hard to gain the requisite experience in anything but a full-time setting.
Which is why there just aren’t many part-time job opportunities with real financial planning firms in the first place. As an alternative, some career-changers explore the option of simply launching their own RIA, which on the surface makes sense, because the raw startup costs to create your own advisory firm are very low, and it’s very possible to be up and running in a few months’ time on a shoestring budget. Unfortunately, the problem remains that giving people advice about how to handle their life savings is a sacred duty, so just because you can hang your shingle and open your own financial planning practice doesn’t mean that it’s the responsible thing to do! Not to mention the fact that it’s really hard to gain credibility as a professional, to be paid for your advice services, if you’re part-time anyway.
Accordingly, for career-changers who are looking for a practical (and responsible) path to a career as a financial advisor, the best thing to do on a part-time basis is start your education to become a CFP certificant. Because, by taking and passing the CFP exam, you’ll be in a much better position to get a better paying full-time job at a real financial planning firm. The next best thing to do is to take the Series 65, because while most states offer a waiver for the Series 65 exam for CFP certificants, the reality is that you’ll still need to meet the experience requirement before you can earn your marks. Also, start building your professional network by joining your local FPA chapter or NAPFA study group, because at some point, you’ll be looking for a full-time opportunity, and it’s a good idea to get in front of the folks who might someday hire you. Finally, simply recognize the fact that you are changing careers and that it’s just not realistic to think that you can do that without taking a step down in salary in order to (literally) pay your dues. So make yourself your first financial planning client, and figure out how to build up the savings necessary to take one step back in the short-term, so you can take two big steps forward in your new financial advisor career in the long run.
The bottom line, though, is simply that there are some very real challenges when transitioning into a career as a financial advisor on a part-time basis. However, those who are willing to do hard work of studying for (and passing!) the CFP exam, getting the Series 65 license, and building a professional network will have the best options. But rather than trying to be a financial advisor on a part-time basis, do those things on a part-time basis instead… which also allows you to stay in your current job a little longer in order to save up enough so that, when the time is right, you can make the transition to a full-time role as a financial advisor in a way that makes sense financially and professionally!
Well, welcome, everyone. Welcome to Office Hours with Michael Kitces.
For today’s Office Hours, I want to talk about one of the most common questions I’m getting these days, which is how career-changers who want to become a financial planner can transition into the industry on a part-time basis.
Because the reality is that while we talk a lot in our world about the challenges and headwinds facing financial advisors, from robo-advisors and technology and the rest, at the end of the day, the median income for an associate advisor with 8 years of experience is almost $100,000 a year, and the median income for a senior advisor with 15-plus years of experience is $165,000, in a world where the median household income in the U.S. is about $61,000 a year. So, despite all the discussion of fee compression and competition and the rest, the average income for an experienced advisor is still anywhere from 50% to 150% higher than the median household income. This is an amazing profession to be in.
For which there actually appears to be an emerging shortage of next-generation talent. And I define next-generation rather loosely here because the average age of a financial advisor is 50-something and a huge wave of them are anticipating to retire in the next 10 years and have to be replaced, which makes being a financial advisor a pretty darn appealing, emerging profession to join, with the caveat, it’s still a really long time-consuming road to become an advisor and get clients.
And that can be especially challenging for career-changers, who often come to the table with existing life and family commitments, from a spouse and mortgage, to kids and looming college expenses. Very different in terms of income flexibility if you’re going to walk away from a prior career and whatever salary level you’d reached there to become a financial advisor instead. And so, I consequently often get this question, “Can I transition into being a financial advisor on a part-time basis as a career-changer?” For which I have to admit, I think the answer largely is no. You may find some opportunities, although they’re not necessarily what you’re expecting. And I actually worry more about the career-changers who try to transition to being on a financial advisor part-time basis than the ones who actually go all-in on the change.
And the fundamental reason why it’s problematic to try to become a financial advisor on a part basis is that in the end, we’re advising clients on their life savings and what are potentially life-altering career and financial decisions. It’s weighty stuff. It’s just not the stuff that should be done when you’re entirely new and inexperienced in the business of giving professional financial advice and figuring out how to give advice effectively that actually sticks.
Now, the reality is that historically, there was not much of an experience requirement to become a financial advisor. Because the truth is that in the past, being a financial advisor was actually about being a financial salesperson who got paid for the insurance or investment products that you sold, and any advice you gave was technically and legally solely incidental and ancillary to you selling the product. And companies would train new advisors in the details of their products and how to sell those products but not necessarily in advice, because you didn’t actually need professional advice experience because you weren’t in the business of advice, you were in the business of product sales.
And in that world, companies actually often likes to hire otherwise inexperienced career-changers because even if you didn’t have a lot of experience to give advice, you tended to have an existing what we call natural market. People you already know in your prior career who you could go back and sell stuff to. Thus why when you were often getting recruited in the past, and unfortunately sometimes still, companies will ask you to make a list of 50 people you know who you might do business with, or will focus on you because of the zip code you live in and whether you might have affluent neighbors, because they’re pathways to selling products, not giving advice.
And unfortunately again, though, some companies are out there that still do this. They’re offering financial advisor job opportunities, including often on a part-time basis, that aren’t actually job opportunities to be a financial advisor, they’re job opportunities to be a financial salesperson. Because you can learn a few company products to sell and then go prospect on a part-time basis, it’s a lot harder to give comprehensive financial advice about a person’s life savings on a part-time basis.
And in fact, when I look out there at the landscape of financial advisor job opportunities, it’s pretty hard to actually find part-time openings in real advisory firms. Now, in part, that’s simply because frankly, advisory firms tend not to hire until they really need someone. And by the time they need someone, they really need a full-timer. But the other reason is simply that if you’re going to learn to give comprehensive financial planning advice and get paid for it with clients on an ongoing long-term basis, it’s really hard to learn what you learn, gain the experience you need to gain and then build the relationships you need to build on a part-time basis. And that’s why firms rarely ever hire that way, and you just don’t see a lot of part-time openings for real financial advisor jobs the way you may see part-time openings for financial advisor sales jobs focused on commission product sales.
Now, the alternative that I know some career-changers explore if they want to transition to being an advisor on a part-time basis and can’t find a job opening, because there generally aren’t any part-time openings for real financial advisor jobs, is they simply hang their own shingle by launching their own independent registered investment advisor or RIA for short. As the reality is that, in order to become your own independent advisory firm and legally get paid advice fees, you just have to take what’s called the Series 65 exam, that you can really study for in a few months or even a few weeks if you’ve got time to dig in, and then go through the process of getting the firm registered with the state, which you can do on your own or maybe engage an outside consulting firm to help with the registration and setup process.
There are advisors out there who have completely started and launched and run their own RIA in the first year for less than $10,000 of hard costs. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re generating any income yet, so you still need a lot more money in the bank to do this because you have to pay your personal bills while you’re still trying to grow and generate revenue, but the actual cost barrier to launch your own firm is a very low bar and therefore appealing enough that some career-changers I know just decide to start their own firm on a part-time basis and then slowly get their own experience, take on clients one at a time rather than trying to find mostly non-existent part-time financial advisor jobs.
The problem here, though, is again, giving people financial advice about their life savings and major financial decisions is a sacred duty, and it requires some education experience to do well. You wouldn’t go see a doctor because they were really savvy about medical stuff because they read a ton of articles on WebMD. Yes, having some background knowledge and doing all that reading will perhaps make it easier for them when they go to medical school and get their medical license and actually learn to become a doctor, but personal life experience and reading articles online, even a lot of them, is not what I recommend is the foundation for building a professional career. If you want to be a recognized professional, you go and learn from another professional. You gain experience working under them and in their firm, and then if you want to, go out on your own when you’re experienced and ready. That’s been the pathway from apprentice to journeyman to master in skilled trades and professions for literally hundreds of years, and the same is true in the world of financial advising as well.
So simply just because you can start your own firm with little or no experience having just passed the Series 65 exam doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to do so. The experience you get will not likely be very good with no one else to supervise you and give you feedback. And from a practical perspective, it’s just pretty hard to get people to trust you and pay you for your services if they can see you’re still doing this on a part-time basis and haven’t even taken the full leap. So in other words, when you hang your shingle on a part-time basis, you’re only getting experience and making money if you can convince people you’re a credible expert worth paying, and it’s hard to even convey the credibility when you’re an inexperienced part-time financial advisor.
So with all that being said, what is the best way to transition in as a career-changer if it’s not to try to find a part-time job or just hang your shingle on a part-time basis to be an advisor? So the first thing I recommend that you can do on a part-time basis to at least get ready for the transition to start your career is to start your education for CFP certification. There are a lot of different CFP educational programs out there, both virtual and online as well as in-person, so choose the one that best fits your preferred style of learning. Even for people who do the exam, an educational process quickly, it usually takes them six months. For most, it’s about 9 to 12 months. If you’re doing on a part-time basis, it may be 18 months or more.
But hey, if you’re studying on a part-time basis while you’re still getting paid from your current job, that’s not a bad way to ease into the career change. And we definitely see better starting salaries and just the ability to get a starting job in a real advisory firm when you’ve completed the CFP educational program and passed the exam, so the firm doesn’t have to worry about hiring you and then find out you can’t pass it later. Now, I realize there’s a non-trivial cost associated with getting your CFP certification, but in the end, it’s not nearly as expensive as the income you’ll lose out on by trying to be a part-time financial advisor with no experience and no credibility and little ability to convince prospective clients to pay you much for your advice anyways.
Second, you can go ahead and take and pass your Series 65 exam as well. If you’re going to get your CFP certification first, technically, you actually don’t need the Series 65 if you have CFP certification because most states will accept the CFP marks in lieu of the Series 65 exam. But if you’re career-changing, you won’t have the CFP marks yet even if you take the education and pass the test because you won’t meet the three-year experience requirement yet. Which means you will need your Series 65, so go ahead and take it. There’s a small cost involved. Obviously, you’ll have to take the time to study for it. But again, if you’re transitioning in on a part-time basis anyways, these educational exam requirements are a much better way to lay the groundwork than trying to hang your shingle from scratch. They get you a much better start into your career moving forward and just make you a more compelling candidate when you actually try to go and get a full-time job and wrap up whatever is left of the requisite experience requirement at that point.
Third, recognize that eventually, you’re going to be searching for a full-time financial advisor job, join your local Financial Planning Association chapter or a local NAPFA study group if there’s one in your area, and take that part-time, that you’re willing to allocate your future financial advisor career. And don’t try to go get clients. Start networking your way to meet other advisors in your area and other firms who might someday hire you.
Fourth and final, I understand that for many career-changers, becoming a financial advisor is difficult simply because you’re accustomed to a certain level of income and standard of living from the salary you’ve got from what you were doing before and it’s hard to take that step down and backwards to an entry-level job as an advisor with a big pay cut in the hopes of working up again. But in the end, that’s just how it works if you want to change careers into a new profession. If you want to switch careers and become a doctor, you’d be going back to med school for four years and then four more years of residency, and maybe eight years out you get a paycheck again. If you wanted to switch to become a lawyer, it’s three years of law school and then probably a couple more years in a big law firm trying to get some real experience.
So by comparison, the requirements for financial advisor are a lot more reasonable. Yes, the starting salaries for full-time associate advisors is lower than entry-level doctor or entry-level lawyer, but as a financial advisor, you can do all these educational licensing exam requirements part-time on the side. You don’t have to step out of the workforce for three to four years of graduate school, losing out on income and racking up potentially large graduate school student loan debts in the process. Which means in the long run, it’s still better to take some step back on salary and then rebuild your career and a profession as an advisor than to walk away from your salary entirely for years while paying the graduate school bills on top like a lot of other career-changers.
But it does mean that you need a plan for that income gap. So welcome to the world of financial planning. The first one you have to make is your own, for those years where your salary will be lower until you rebuild your income with experience in your new career. Because the single greatest determinant of income for financial advisors is actually years of experience, just learning your trade, improving your skills and accumulating clients over time. There’s no shortcut to that. And frankly, trying to transition in part-time probably stretches out how long it will be before you really have the experience to get your own clients who will actually pay you well for your expertise. Not to mention putting your clients at risk if you don’t really have the training and education to know what you’re doing when you’re giving them advice about their life savings.
So my recommendation, if you’re really desperate to, yes, you can hang your shingle as an independent RIA and start getting clients on the side, but please, please, if you’re going to do that, at least keep the scope of your advice limited and narrow to the areas where you really, really know how to help clients and stay there. But ideally, don’t try to get financial advisor experience on a part-time basis. Use the time you would have spent doing that getting your CFP certification, finishing your Series 65 licensing exams, and perhaps if you have a little bit of flexibility about time, start networking, find an internship or some part-time work in the advisory firm, not necessarily an advisor job, just in any job to get your foot in the door, start learning more about the industry, and starting that clock on your three-year experience requirement. And if you can afford to go part-time in that effort to be a financial advisor, just stay full-time where you are a little bit longer and save up that extra income so that you can make the full-time transition when the time is right.
So I hope that’s helpful as a little bit of food for thought. This is Office Hours with Michael Kitces. Thanks for joining us, everyone, and have a great day.
Disclosure: Michael Kitces is a co-founder of New Planner Recruiting, which was mentioned in this article. | 2019-04-21T20:26:52Z | https://www.kitces.com/blog/transitioning-part-time-into-financial-planning-as-a-career-changer/ |
Nobody wants to face the hassle of living in a nursing home NJ in old age. There are a very rare number of peoples who wish to be admitted into senior living apartments NJ. Seeing your senior people or elderly friend into hospice care NJ can be a worse situation.
Nursing home facilities are for individuals who don’t require typical hospital supervision but minor medical care. It is to restore the health of sick dweller by providing continuous personal, medical and spiritual care. They cater around-the-clock assistance for residents who are unable to do certain tasks.
It is kind of residential care emphasizes 24-hour aid to its dwellers. Nursing home NJ activities include physical, medical, and occupational activities. They also provide rehabilitation services to patients who need care with dignity to overcome that bad hospitalize experience. After a serious injury, it becomes hard to restore that comfort and self-esteem. The skilled nursing at nursing home and senior living apartments aim at an integrated charge of the patient and take responsibility to manage a happy environment around him.
The people who have reached the 65+ age, they usually need temporary stays in these communities. Spending a few days in a convalescent home after a long hospital stay is suggested by most of the physicians here in America. They recommend it after doing the complete appraisal of the patient’s condition.
It is an ideal place for a person who is dealing with ending days of his life. They always carry a dedicated team of caregivers to enhance individualized care. When your loved one is already suffering from terminal disease, it is vital to find the right hospice care. It should be capable of handling serious issues like dementia and memory loss.
Senior living apartments can be a good alternative to nursing home. The difference between both organizations can be the quality of care. Although hospice care NJ can be given at home, it is considered that third-party control can engage and heal the patient in a better way. A person can be eligible for this service when qualified doctor advice for it after at least six months of medical treatments and therapies.
To avoid a package of bills and any insignificant care, it is necessary to make a formal visit to your nearest senior living apartments NJ for a deep assessment of what they are offering. Choose the best one and don’t look back to those which you find annoying and unpleasant.
These senior housing centers make the holistic approach to fulfilling every wish of their guests. They take responsibility for eating, bathing, clothing, and other custodial care. One can be allowed for hospice under Medicare or Medicaid.
What are Assisted Living and Hospice Care Services?
We somehow lose self-dependence when the aging comes. As we grow old, the things become strict for us that were once we loved to do. In such situation, we require proper help and support of people around us. An assisted living NJ service can be described as long-term care of elderly or adults who are disabled or don’t want to do few tasks themselves.
After the retirement, Americans mostly choose to live freely in an assisted living facility. There are other senior care centers also available such as nursing home, hospice care NJ, and dementia care but they all have different goals of serving their guests. The procedure of observation changes and that’s why everyone wants to know more about these institutions.
Assisted living care homes provide a wide range of supportive services to the elderly. It is preferred by the individuals who require minor assistance while enjoying their life independently. The residents are allocated with spacious apartments with bedrooms, bathrooms, and other needed things. The area of residence is typically gathered by hygienic and eco-friendly things like plants and gardens. The quality of care often depends on how much you are paying for a particular service. Some extra charges may be asked by any assisted living NJ organization for any special demand of inhabitant.
What is a Hospice Care?
The term ‘Hospice’ was evolved back in 11th century in European provinces. The NHPCO had given the definition of hospice care NJ as – “It is physical, spiritual and emotional support to patients who are at the end-stage of their life.” It is an appropriate choice for people who are chronically ill or diagnosed with a serious injury.
Hospice care doesn’t focus on medical treatments and aims at improving the quality of life of a patient. It can be catered at home, hospital or at a dedicated hospice care center. This doesn’t mean that caregivers won’t take action in painful conditions. The qualified and skilled nurses work closely with doctors to provide common treatments.
It is given to people who have gone through proper medical treatments for continuous six months and failed to see any recovery. The doctor can refer to a hospice after complete agreement and personal consent of sick. Assisted living services can also provide this type of care. A dementia care NJ center is another option for people who experience weak memory conditions.
The declining memory and brain diseases contribute to a rare condition called “Dementia.” If a person loses the ability to remember minor things and fails to recognize a few objects around him, he can be referred to dementia care NJ. With tested and tailored programs and activities, they indulge the victim in a scenario where he/she can live without any fear and confusion.
It can be difficult for family members to deal with the terminal condition of their loved ones. You can contact the suitable assisted living NJ homes near you. Make sure they are certified and licensed to provide any of the aforementioned services.
What Is A Hospice Care And How It Helps Elderly?
It is difficult to cope with senility. The elderly people often fail to handle their stress, illness and psychological conditions. It becomes more annoying for family members to look after a person who even don’t require medical treatments. Hospice Care is for the elderly who are terminally ill and doctor advised for a nursing home which offers dedicated hospice.
Hospice Care is a supportive supervision of a person who is advised by a qualified doctor, not to take further medical therapies. Elderly can find lost dignity and experience all needed amenities to be happy.
Hospice care is considered as the final phase of person’s life and the care is focused on curing his/her personal needs rather than healing illness. At the ending days of life we often go out of financial and physical support. A common individual can be terrified by the topic but with equal support of federal government it has become cheap or even free.
The service can be provided at individual’s personal residence or at nursing home. Some personalized facilities are conceived by the dementia care to support mentally disabled patients and they believe in enhancing the quality of life rather than prolonging it.
Hospice care is given by a team of professionally trained skilled nurses, doctors and physiotherapists to ensure all comforts for the patient and maintain the remaining life prosperous and challenge free.
Experienced and committed caregivers at nursing home NJ help elderly in exploring a family-like environment. The diseased person can fulfill the spiritual needs in a relaxed atmosphere.
Over 27% of Americans prefer assisted living facilities for hospice. A person who has life expectancy of just six months requires diagnosing with tailored plans to reduce painful symptoms.
The staff is available for 24-hours for any emergency conditions. In Alzheimer’s disease, patient needs proper assistance for enhancing the lifestyle. Sometimes, caretakers found steady recovery in injuries and it proves that they don’t hasten for death.
In personal chores the children sometimes neglect the fact that their parent wishes to spend valuable time with their child. The compassionate hospice care is designed beyond expectations and emphasize on valuing and respecting the guest.
Patient can benefit the care by Medicare/Medicaid programs or private insurance.
If a certified doctor gave referral for a nursing home and declare the patient incurable for next six months, a patient would be eligible for hospice care NJ. It can be provided by dementia care organizations too upon physician’s advice. These services help elderly uniquely and understand the resident’s emotions really well.
Around 5 million people are diagnosed with Dementia in the U.S, according to a CNBC report of 2014 and expected to be doubled by 2060. In that study, mostly elderly people detected suffused with Alzheimer’s disease. When your beloved parent falls under one of these shocking dementia categories, it is imperative to think about a nursing home for dementia care.
With increasing worries and concerns regarding this non-preventive and progressive condition, it can be strenuous to take care of your loved alone at home. The demand for specializing Dementia Care NJ by skilled nurses and professional doctors has increased over the past 10 years.
This is why one should consider his/her parent to be treated compassionately under supervision of these organizations.
Dementia doesn’t consider as a disease by experts rather it is reckoned as a lack of mental strength. It is divided into seven categories based on symptoms and effects. The first three categories are seen as normal for old aged people who experience minor cognitive impairment. The later stages can be horrible for family members as in those categories an individual hardly performs basic tasks normally and forgets things very frequently.
Dementia care may include reminiscing programs for people to eliminate few symptoms. The memory recovery programs are also provided in assisted living communities. The people who want to live independently but don’t want/able to do certain chores can opt out for nursing home nj and assisted living facilities to have 24-hour administration and peace of mind all the time.
Nursing homes provide better dementia care for patients who need personal and medical assistance. They evaluate the level of care a person needed and allocate staff accordingly for dedicated care. Untrained and busy children may seem the work of changing the bed sheets, grooming, eating and bathing more irritable. But nurses do these tasks without any botheration.
Dementia care can be an ideal choice for your parent as a large number of volunteers are always available there to serve your loved one with dignity. If you just noticed any signs of dementia in your parents or other family members, it is better to take the advice of knowledgeable doctor near you. Ask recommendations from friends or read genuine reviews of a dementia care official site to have a grasp of the level of care they cater.
What are Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care?
Dementia is not decease; rather it is a combination of some disheartening brain disorders like experiencing confusion, forgetting things, frustration and fear to make small decisions. Alzheimer’s disease is one of its form where memory loss and other mental disorders can been noticed. So there is a slight difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s decease.
Professional caregivers from certified nursing homes, assisted living care, Senior Living Apartments NJ care or hospital can cater skilled dementia care. There are different types of dementia e.g. vascular dementia but Alzheimer is one of its common disorders.
People with Alzheimer’s disorder may experience mental decline, confusion, delusion and many brutal difficulties. A nursing home can provide in-home dementia care. One can also admit his loved one to dementia care center for 24 hour available service.
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) also named senile dementia is a most common sort of dementia. It is a progressive ill condition which affects slowly and can become worse by time. Professional caregivers from Dementia Care NJ near you can help you in some healing.
60+ aged people often faces decent memory loss problem. Consulting with a nursing home center and recognized doctor can help in acknowledgement.
It affects mental tasks like concentration, time recognizing and learning.
One with Alzheimer’s disease can find himself failing in continuous conversation and responding to environment.
Age factor plays vital role here. Our brain cells starts slowing down eventually and individuals face difficulties in remembering certain things.
In this situation one can experience excessive anger, loneliness and depression.
Dementia can’t be fully diagnosed by any treatment as it not a decease. Alzheimer’s cure is currently not possible but researchers have founded many ways to treat its symptoms. A Nursing Home NJ can help you in reducing its speed of growth and slow down dementia progress.
What can a Dementia Care Do for You?
Nursing home care or Dementia Care Centers are referred as safe and helpful places for old aged people. Alzheimer’s patients are allowed to stay in an assisted living care where proper care is taken. They are focused to help patients in fighting with memory loss care services and providing homely environment while maintaining the security and medical care as well.
If one of your family member or friend suffering from dementia, it would be better idea to look for a suitable dementia care center. A local social service authority can assist you for better assessment of a nursing home. There are reputed dementia care and hospice care that run various types of programs, plans and facilities like reminiscence program. Consider appointment with a recognized doctor before going forward.
At least 60% to 70%, who have dementia, probably have Alzheimer’s. The majority of patients are 65+ of age, although there are many young people in America bearing the disease. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care are associated with each other.
How to Know It is Time to Prefer Nursing Home Care for Your Loved Ones?
An elderly parent’s care when they start losing control over few tasks can be difficult to manage for child. The declining health of aging person needs to have full consideration of their beloved family members. The idea of taking the parent into a Nursing Home can be beneficial for proving quality health care.
Many people find Nursing Homes difficult place to live for their parents and few of them even experience a kind of guilt in doing this. But this not the actual reasons to deny any assisted living. Some people fear to leave the aging person on someone else responsibility. The reality is that a nursing home is not a bad place. It provides supportive caregivers who work dedicatedly day and night.
The parent who can’t perform basic household chores behind their child needs regular assistant of professionals. When the roles of parent and wards suddenly reverse in this situation, it requires more energy and time for children to care for their elderly.
We can’t tend to be personal caregiver for elderly as it could be risky for their future condition. It is required to relocate people with cognitive problems like Alzheimer’s (a part of dementia), memory loss, lack of mobility and disorientation to a Dementia Care or Hospice Care NJ.
Some nursing home offers full time Dementia Care for individuals who are terminally ill and fighting with end life. While, there are many Hospice Care in US that provide complete supervision of managing medication, keeping record of everything and coping with instability of patient.
Nursing Homes are usually affordable than in-home caregivers. A senior living apartment can cut some of your financial costs based on their current offers and services. A medical healthcare insurance is not always enough for overall help.
Nursing Home NJ helps additionally for people who are not that financially strong but it depends on your research where you find that affordable one. Financial strain can harm the patient emotionally which can worsen their condition. So make sure you find right assisted living place.
A senior can enjoy numerous daily activities, gossips and schemes offered by some reputed Nursing Homes. Their dedicated staff helps in keeping an independent environment for elderly for prolong and healthy life. A senior can involve in daily physical activities like going to local market for grocery purchasing and going to temple in car carried by licensed drivers. The advantage of a nursing home is you can’t expect negligence as they offer around the clock assistance by skilled and knowledgeable persons.
You can feel relaxed knowing that your parent’s care and medication are in safe hands. Dealing with your personal fitness and parent’s condition simultaneously can be more detrimental. So preferring a nursing home or assisted living is a great decision to extend happy life of elderly.
When do you need a Hospice Care Treatment Services?
Have you ever asked an old aged ill person about his feelings? The answer can stagger you in many ways. Either he will tell you for complete cure or just he wants to die. Hospice care is a service provided to individuals who wants to live their ending life with dignity and care.
There is another term called ‘Palliative Care’. Both seem similar with their philosophy but actually they have differences. Hospice Care described as support given to people who at end of life stage. On the other hand palliative care aims at recovering a person from illness.
Nursing Home NJ includes a team of professionals who are dedicated to make ending life easy and comfortable. The people who proudly accept the fact of certain death and committed not to take any diagnosis for their extreme illness or injury are given emotional and spiritual support in hospice care.
Is it right for your loved ones?
If you live in United States, you probably heard about hospice care before. It’s popularity increasing day by day. But deciding whether it would rightful for your loved ones is quite hard. After reading this article you might be aware of all its pros and cons. Hospice care mostly given to elder people who are at their last stage, a period of maybe 6 months. It can take place at home, hospital, nursing home, assisted living nj center or hospice center.
Goal oriented care – aims at peace, comfort and dignity of dying people.
Complete surveillance of skilled nursing staff to control any sudden pain or discomfort.
It is a temporary shelter for ill ones who are on a long journey.
Hospice care is convenient facility for anyone with chronic decease.
If it is performed in home, the caregiver coaches the family members for better care.
In US, services like hospice care or nursing home have positive history.
In last stage of your loved one, most of the time he needs his closed ones to be there with him. You can’t read a dying person’s physiological condition for deciding yes or no for hospice care.
The care doesn’t focus on recovering the illness. It is not made for a prolong life.
Unlike hospital care, it has no priority on healing decease.
It is not good for family members and relatives of ill one. It realizes them of his/her death.
Hospice Care NJ at home is not convenient for family members as it makes them busy all the time.
There are many misconceptions about hospice care like it is associated with life ending. There is no such thing to be fair. It is appropriate for individuals with serious decease or injury. It targets to maintain their life comfort and physical needs with full of compassion.
Sometimes its efficiency and trust depends on organization or person who is responsible for care. There is another misconception that you need to leave home for this. According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), 70% of hospice patients take care at home.
In the end, it is recommended to family members to sit down, talk and decide. It would be even better to consult with a specialist about what would be befit the patient. | 2019-04-20T02:55:39Z | https://nursinghomenj.hatenablog.com/ |
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Just 50 miles north of San Francisco, Napa also lies 15 miles east of Sonoma. Collectively, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys have become favorite destinations among LGBT travelers for everything from spa- and epicurean-themed getaways to destination weddings. And they’re close enough in proximity that you can spend time in both during your honeymoon.
Highway 29 runs north through Napa Valley, starting in Napa itself, then linking the charming towns of Yountville, Rutherford, St. Helena and Calistoga. These communities abound with prominent wineries, stylishly rustic restaurants and romantic country inns. You can drive the entire 30-mile valley in an afternoon, but it's best to set out early for tastings—and lunch—at wineries along the way.
A scenic alternate route, the Silverado Trail is a winding road through the foothills, passing a number of fine wineries and avoiding much of the traffic along well-traveled Highway 29. Another way to explore the region is the Napa Valley Wine Train (1275 McKinstry St, Napa, 707-253-2111, winetrain.com), which offers rides from Napa to St. Helena in 1952 dome trains, classic 1915-17 Pullmans, and in summer, open-air railcars. These round-trip excursions take about three hours and include first-rate food and wine. For a fabulously fun LGBT wine tour, book with Absolutely Fabulous Tours (707-320-8043,absolutelyfabuloustours.com), offering daily excursions for Napa Valley wine-tasting.
Napa has a walkable downtown with boutiques, specialty food stores, tasting rooms, bars, cafes, restaurants and the historic Napa Valley Opera House (1030 Main St, Napa, 707-226-7372, nvoh.org). Much of the action is along Main and First Streets, which intersect near Napa Creek and its attractively landscaped waterfront. A 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook downtown Napa in 2014, causing extensive damage, but most businesses have since reopened. Still, as some are still making repairs, it’s best to call ahead to confirm hours.
Beyond downtown, there are a couple of notable arts-related attractions, including di Rosa (5200 Carneros Hwy, Napa, 707-226-5991, dirosaart.org), a dramatic lakeside art museum and wildlife preserve on 200 acres of carefully tended grounds. Visit the indoor galleries, wander the sculpture meadow, and tour the 125-year-old house on this former winery and estate. Also worth a visit is the Hess Collection (4411 Redwood Rd, Napa, 707-255-1144,hesscollection.com), an assemblage of contemporary art at Hess Winery where you can taste the acclaimed Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.
For fresh air and exercise to offset all that fine wine, head to Skyline Wilderness Park (2201 Imola Ave, Napa, 707-252-0481, skylinepark.org), a breathtaking 850-acre wilderness. You’ll find 25 miles of trails for biking, hiking and horseback riding, and when the weather’s clear, you can see as far west as San Francisco Bay.
Beyond Napa, each valley town has a wealth of wineries; at last count, there were more than 450! Wine-touring, the region’s most popular activity, can involve anything from dropping by a single tasting room to planning every day around stops at different wineries. Among the favorites is Castello di Amorosa (4045 St Helena Hwy, Calistoga, 707-967-6272, castellodiamorosa.com), an impressive 121,000-square-foot castle. Rutherford Hill Winery (200 Rutherford Hill Rd, Rutherford, 707-963-1871, rutherfordhill.com) occupies a handsome barnlike building; bring a lunch to enjoy an alfresco meal at the Olive Grove Picnic Area, just up the lane from the sumptuous wine country resort, Auberge du Soleil (180 Rutherford Hill Rd, Rutherford, 707-963-1211,aubergedusoleil.com). In Napa, Stag’s Leap (6150 Silverado Trail, Napa, 800-395-2441, stagsleap.com) boasts a beautiful patio and gardens, and it’s renowned for its Cabernet Sauvignon. If you prefer bubbly, Domaine Chandon (1 California Dr, Yountville, 707-944-8844, chandon.com) is one of Napa Valley’s preeminent destinations for crisp, sparkling wines.
Dining options in Napa Valley are as plentiful as they are notable. One of the most famous restaurants in the nation (book far in advance!) is Thomas Keller’s peerless French Laundry (6640 Washington St, Yountville, 707-944-2380, frenchlaundry.com). Downtown Napa is also packed with superb eateries, including Carpe Diem (1001 2nd St, Napa, 707-224-0800, carpediemwinebar.com), an inviting wine bar with an eclectic menu of small plates. For a quick lunch, stop by Gott’s Roadside (644 1st St, Napa, 707-224-6900, gotts.com) for gourmet burgers and garlic fries. Need a cup of coffee? Head to Ritual Coffee (610 1st St, Napa, 707-253-1190, ritualroasters.com) for tasty, single-origin artisan-roasted brews.
A great base for exploring the region, Napa offers a mix of upscale resorts and artfully restored small inns. The luxurious Meritage Resort & Spa (875 Bordeaux Way, Napa, 707-251-1900, meritageresort.com) boasts a full-service spa, along with cushy rooms and spectacular views. An intimate B&B of note is the gay-owned Inn on First (1938 1st St, Napa, 707-253-1331, theinnonfirst.com), an Arts and Crafts-style mansion with 10 sophisticated rooms, marvelous gardens and sumputous breakfasts. Calistoga has several romantic, gay-owned inns, including The Chanric Inn (1805 Foothill Blvd, Calistoga, 707-942-4535, thechanric.com), with seven posh rooms, a landscaped pool area and a tranquil massage room. The gracious Chateau de Vie (3250 California 128, Calistoga, 707-942-6446, cdvnapavalley.com) overlooks gardens of lavender and roses and contains four opulent rooms with classy perks like L’Occitane bath products, iPod docks and Cabernet Sauvignon made from grapes grown on vineyards surrounding the property. It’s an idyllic setting for your passionate honeymoon.
As the setting of the queer-themed, neo-noir thriller, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Savannah can appear as in a dream: draped in fog, mist and Spanish moss. This historic southern seaport is romantic and elegant—ideal for a honeymoon escape. Savannah also happens to be one of America's most walkable and bike-friendly cities, organized around 21 lush, graceful squares where couples kiss, musicians play and locals catch up with each other as they walk their beloved pets.
For a romantic promenade, take in the splendor of Monterey Square, widely considered Savannah's ultimate plaza, not only for its beauty and serenity—or for the Goddess of Liberty adorning its monument—but also for the imposing structures surrounding it. Mercer-Williams House (429 Bull St, 912-236-6352,mercerhouse.com) was once owned by songwriter’s Johnny Mercer’s great-grandfather; now a museum, it’s become famous as the crime scene in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Also in the square, Congregation Mickve Israel (20 E Gordon St, 912-233-1547, mickveisrael.org) is the only Gothic synagogue in the country. These buildings dominate the square, along with majestic old homes with ornate ironwork.
Savannah is surprisingly woman-centered for a city in the Deep South. Visit writer Flannery O'Connor's Childhood Home (207 E Charlton St, 912-233-6014,flanneryoconnorhome.org) or the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace (10 E Oglethorpe Ave, 912-233-4501, juliettegordonlowbirthplace.org), the city’s first historic landmark and the original home of the founder of the Girl Scouts. The Waving Girl (Florence Martus) statue is situated at the east end of River Street, a must on every itinerary, while Sylvia Shaw Judson's sculpture Bird Girl is ensconced at the stately Telfair Academy Museum (121 Barnard St, 912-790-8800,telfair.org). There’s also a beautiful memorial to the eternal child, Little Gracie, in the moss-bedecked beauty that is Bonaventure Cemetery (330 Bonaventure Rd, Thunderbolt, 912-651-6843, savannahga.gov).
Haunted houses and ghoulish tours are big in Savannah. Trolleys even do a “martini tour” of Bonaventure Cemetery. Here, as in New Orleans, you can take your alcoholic drink with you, as long as it's in a disposable cup. If that’s not romantic enough, a picnic among the live oaks, Spanish moss and springtime azaleas is sure to make for a memorable experience for you and your honey.
To experience the center of local life, wander to Forsyth Park (Drayton St, 912-651-6610, savannahga.gov) with its iconic fountain, probably the most peaceful corner of the city. If your time allows for only one museum, make it the SCAD Museum of Art (601 Turner Blvd, 912-525-7191, scadmoa.org), whose contemporary art exhibits can be innovative, inspiring, heart-wrenching—even spellbinding.
Where to hang your hats (or bridal veils)? Stay in a romantic 19th-century B&B, complete with four-poster bed and lavish bathroom, sumptuous southern breakfast and an evening wine and cheese reception. In this stylish setting, your honeymoon can be a fairy tale come true! Chief among these lodgings is the graceful Hamilton-Turner Inn (330 Abercorn St, 912-233-1833, hamilton-turnerinn.com), one of Savannah’s most celebrated homes. Nestled among the magnolias and live oak trees on Lafayette Square, in the heart of the historic district, this 1873 Second Empire mansion boasts 17 luxurious guest rooms, all thoughtfully appointed and handsomely decorated to create lasting memories. Unparalleled service, along with the gracious hospitality of innkeeper Susie Ridder, will make for an idyllic honeymoon, elopement, getaway…or tryst, why not! Prefer a hotel to a B&B? Book a room at the gay-friendly Hyatt Regency (2 W Bay St, 912-238-1234, savannah.hyatt.com) on the historic riverfront. Spacious guestrooms offer relaxing, pampering amenities—like a plush, pillow-top mattress and KenetMD bath products. You’ll also enjoy conveniences such as high-speed Wi-Fi, on-site restaurants, a 24-hour fitness center and an indoor pool.
Working up an appetite? Head to Angels BBQ (21 W Oglethorpe Ln, 912-495-0902, angels-bbq.com), located off Chippewa Square. Share the pulled pork and brisket, and don’t miss the finger-lickin' good barbecued bologna with peanuts and greens on the side—all signature dishes of this Memphis-style joint. For a fancier treat, dine at the classic Olde Pink House (23 Abercorn St, 912-232-4286, plantersinnsavannah.com) where every room is lit by a fireplace and candlelight. Courteous service and an eclectic menu coexist here, along with the amorous ambiance. You may want to linger as you romance your new wife, before making a mad dash home or going out for a night on the town.
If you're not ready to rush back to your digs, take a stroll down cobblestone River Street, dominated by restaurants, shops and a bustling nightlife. If it's a gay haunt you seek, Club One Jefferson (1 Jefferson St, 912-232-0200, clubone-online.com) features Lady Chablis’ cabaret drag show twice nightly. Chuck’s Bar (305 W River St, 912-232-1005, no website), on the far west end of River Street, is also a place to party with local LGBT folk. As in other southern states, the bar scene is mostly men, and the action doesn’t get started until late. So you might want to party alone in your room, just the two of you.
When to go? The passion and joie de vivre that is Savannah is best felt in the springtime, when the azaleas, dogwoods and camellias are all—like you and your sweetheart—bursting in bloom!
Four centuries ago, sailors on transatlantic voyages stopped at the Azores to refuel and get some R&R before heading off to their destination. Now, honeymooners are rediscovering these islands’ bucolic scenery, romantic activities and unique character.
The Azores are probably Europe’s best-kept secret. The chain of nine islands lies in the middle of the Atlantic, 850 miles west of mainland Portugal. The mild Azorean climate is like that of southern Spain and Italy—but unlike those countries, the Azores are off the beaten path, which means fewer crowds, authentic experiences for honeymooners and more bang for your Euro.
An autonomous region of Portugal, the Azores maintain a distinct personality that combines Portuguese religious and cultural traditions with a modern European attitude. In 2010, Portugal became the eighth country to legalize gay marriage. The Azores’ first Pride celebration took place in 2012 with over 2,000 participants. Though the streets of Azorean towns are crammed with Catholic churches and frequent religious festivals, LGBT visitors are welcome. The tourism bureau is reaching out to our community at travel expos in NYC and elsewhere.
Getting to the Azores is surprisingly easy. SATA Internacional, the chief airline, has partnered with JetBlue to operate flights from Newark or JFK via Boston. From Boston, it’s a four-hour flight to the Azores’ international airport in Ponta Delgada, the capital city on the largest island, Sao Miguel.
Ponta Delgada serves as your starting point on Sao Miguel. Some travelers have said that Sao Miguel packs all of the Azores’ best natural beauty, adventures and history into one island, so if time is short, stay here.
The Sao Miguel Park Hotel (Rua Manuel Augusto Amaral, 9500-222 Ponta Delgada, 351-296-306-000, bensaude.pt), near the marina, provides ocean views from the balcony in each room, perfect for gazing into the sunset with your other half. If you seek a more intimate stay in a historic setting, try the Hotel do Colegio (Rua Carvalho Araújo 39, 9500-040 Ponta Delgada, 351-296-306-600, hoteldocolegio.arteh-hotels.com). Nestled in a quiet enclave in downtown Ponta Delgada, the building is a former 19th-century school and music academy. Enjoy cocktails in the basement bar, beneath a low-arched ceiling in black-and-white masonry.
Azorean cuisine is rich in local ingredients—beef, seafood and pineapples are found on nearly every menu, and many restaurants are easy on the wallet. Sample fresh limpets on the half shell at Tasca (Rua Do Aljube 16, Ponta Delgada, 351-296-288-880), a cozy taverna on a side street. Locals and tourists recommend Sao Pedro (Largo Almirante Dunn 23A, 9500-092 Ponta Delgada, 351-296-281-600, restaurantesaopedro.com), which specializes in Portuguese dishes served in a nautically inspired interior.
About 28 miles east of Ponta Delgada, the town of Furnas boasts more than 30 different thermal springs used for therapeutic soaking since the 17th century. The luxurious Terra Nostra Garden Hotel (Rua Padre José Jacinto Botelho 5, 9675-061 Furnas, 351-296-549-090, bensaude.pt) puts guests in the heart of Terra Nostra Park, a leafy wonderland of exotic plants and a hot spring dyed red from traces of iron.
The island offers romantic to-dos for couples, from a stimulating hike on misty cliffs overlooking the ocean to a casual swim in a mineral pool. Thanks to its volcanic origin, Sao Miguel is blessed with an undulating landscape of verdant hills, crater lakes and hot springs. The top scenic walks include Ribeira Funda-Maia, a trail overlooking the north coast with rushing streams, waterfalls and windmills; and Praia-Lagoa do Fogo, offering a panorama of the south coast. Hike or drive to the Vista do Rei overlook for a spectacular view of the Blue and Green Lakes, a natural landmark. Experience one of the many thermal baths in and around Furnas, or drive to the extreme western end of Sao Miguel to visit Ferraria. This unusual thermal vent lies just under the ocean’s surface in a natural lagoon formed by volcanic rock. Go at low tide and feel the superheated spring water mix with colder seawater for an exhilarating swim. Stroll through the Antonio Borges Garden (Rua Antonio Borges, 9500-161 Ponta Delgada) and Jose do Canto Garden (Rua Jose do Canto 9, 9500-076 Ponta Delgada, jardimjosedocan to.com/en) for your botanical fix. Or spend an afternoon at the Terra Nostra Park (Rua Padre Jose Jacinto Botelho, 9675 Furnas,parqueterranostra.com) gazing at the seasonal blooms, lily ponds and ornamental fountains.
If time permits, check out Terceira, a smaller island just a 20-minute flight from Sao Miguel. Some say Terceira is the most romantic Azorean island; it’s certainly the most ancient. Angro do Heroismo, the capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with architecture from the 15th to 19th centuries. The Terceira Mar Hotel (Portoes de S. Pedro 1, 9700-097 Angra Do Heroismo, bensaude.pt) and the Angra Garden Hotel (Praça Velha, 9700-201 Angra do Heroísmo, 351-295-206-600, angragardenhotelazores.com) are both in the center of town, within walking distance of cafes, sights and activities.
Water sports, especially surfing and scuba diving, are big on Terceira. Baixa de Vila Nova offers world-class waves for experienced surfers, while Praia da Vaitoria, a sheltered reef break, is suitable for those with beginner-intermediate skills. For divers, hundreds of shipwrecks around the islands provide spots for viewing marine life. Check out the Cemiterio das Ancoras, an underwater graveyard of ship’s anchors, and the Lidador, a 19th century trans-Atlantic ship lying in shallow water in the Bay of Angra do Heroismo. | 2019-04-21T08:41:01Z | http://gomag.com/article/hip_homo_honeymoons_20151/ |
These are the guiding principles we follow when treating patients. Please take the time to read them to gain an understanding of the thought process we use in assessing and treating chronic illness.
All true healing is ultimately self-healing. Any improvements in health that come from being treated at NNM (Neighborhood Natural Medicine) are due to the patient’s own self-healing response being triggered. At NNM we do not focus on treating the disease, but on doing whatever is needed to awaken the natural self-healing mechanism inside the patient.
The reason why this happens, and this is a critically important point here, is that the body is designed to always move towards health…if given the appropriate stimulation and kept free from disease causing factors.
With extremely rare exceptions, this self-healing response can be achieved using strictly natural, drug-free methods that have been provided by Nature and available to mankind for thousands of years.
These natural healing methods include: food-based vitamins and herbs, acupuncture, energy work, homeopathy (vibrational medicine), naturopathic medicine and detoxification. These are the seven principle healing techniques used at NNM.
While this principle is not new, many in the healthcare field do not agree upon it. Many people believe that the body is stupid by design, and is not capable of proper functioning without the use of pharmaceutical drugs.
Please don’t get us wrong, we believe that everything has its proper place, including pharmaceutical drugs when they are needed. But it seems that in our culture almost everyone above 40 years of age (and that number drops lower with each year) is expected to be on some type of drug or else their body will not be capable of function. If you look around you’ll notice that this insane belief is slowly being conditioned into our belief system as a society.
After many years of searching, studying, meditating, and treating thousands of chronically ill patients at our clinic, we have narrowed down the causes of illness to only three factors.
You are probably shocked to hear that we only believe in three causes of illness, since there are now several thousand diagnosis codes in existence. Every year we hear of a dozen new diseases that have been “discovered” by modern medicine, many with long names that sound really scary and hard to pronounce. Heck, in the eye alone there are over 200 different possible vision disorders! How is it then possible for us to view only three causes of illness?
First of all, if you really look into the names of a lot of these diagnosis codes you will find that the name of the disease tells you nothing about the CAUSE of the illness. It only gives you a description of the SYMPTOMS that the patient is feeling.
Take for example the diagnosis of “fibromyalgia”. If you look at the components of the word “fibromyalgia” you will find “fibro” which means “fiber”, “my” which means “muscle”, and “algia” which means “pain”. So the word “fibromyalgia” means nothing but “muscle fiber pain”. This diagnosis does nothing but describe what the patient is already aware of…that their muscles hurt. It does absolutely NOTHING to tell you what is CAUSING the problem and thus how to treat it.
Please take a look at many of the other medical diagnosis terms that exist…including the one that you have personally. Does your diagnosis term tell you anything about WHY you are not feeling good? Or is it simply just a fancy way of describing the suffering that you already feel? Most importantly, does this diagnosis term give you any clue as to how to naturally HEAL from this condition, or have you been told that it is INCURABLE and that you need to “learn to live with it”?
If you believe what they tell you, that what you have is HOPELESS or INCURABLE, then that will be your reality. Our clinic is not the place for you and you will be better served elsewhere, because we strongly believe that as long as there is still breath within the body, the opportunity to fully and completely recover your health is ALWAYS there. And no, this is not wishful “new-age” thinking on our part, it is a FACT that we have proven thousands of times within the walls of our clinic.
The manifestations of disease are infinite, but the causes are extremely few. Treat the cause of the disease and the manifestation will dissolve.
I get very passionate about this topic. When I see the deteriorating state of our health as a society, and the lack of information about natural solutions, I get upset because I know in my heart that it does not have to be this way. Most of this suffering is completely unnecessary…and that’s the most tragic part of all.
I like to refer to this as “stuff that’s in the body that shouldn’t be there”. In this case I’m referring to things such as heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, etc.), carcinogenic chemicals (petroleum solvents, pesticides, plastics, etc.), allergic substances, endogenous cellular waste that comes from your own body and isn’t being eliminated properly, and others.
We live in a polluted society. It is becoming harder and harder to find clean water, food, and air and this has taken a progressively more severe toll on our health as a society. The effect of industrial pollution and toxicity has taken a global level, as there is now no place on Earth that is untouched by pollution. Even the breast milk of Eskimo women in isolated parts of the Arctic is filled with plastics and petroleum solvents created thousands of miles away.
The way this works is that pollution and waste created in one part of the world is taken up into the atmosphere in a water-soluble form and re-deposited onto the earth as rain. This is how pollution in Hong Kong gets dropped onto the streets of Chicago, and depleted uranium used in the Middle East gets dropped onto New York.
Because of this, a true healing program is not complete if it does not address the issue of detoxification and cleansing of the body’s tissues. In addition to cleansing the body of noxious substances through herbs, nutrients, homeopathics, and acupuncture, attention must be placed on the eliminative organs of the body such as the liver, kidneys, and bowels…all of which are under unprecedented amount of stress in this modern era.
I like to refer to this as “stuff that’s not in the body that should be there”. In this case, I’m referring to the vital nutrients that your body needs for optimal functioning such as: essential fats, amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and so on.
However this topic is more complicated than simply popping a handful of vitamin pills and eating salad once in a while. First of all, the food that we eat today is not the same food that our ancestors ate 100 years ago before the advent of commercial farming and genetically modified crops.
Due to mineral depletion of the soil, rampant pesticide use, growth hormone and antibiotic injections for livestock, the use of preservatives that prolong shelf-life at the expense of enzyme content, etc., it has become extremely difficult to eat a diet that has all the nutrients your body needs. A recent study by Rutgers University revealed that in order to get the same nutritional value from one ear of corn in grown in 1949 would require that you eat 19 ears of corn from today’s supermarket.
So even if you are eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins it is still difficult to obtain the necessary nutrients due to the fact that most of our food is calorie dense and nutrient sparse.
I feel that this is one of the major reasons for the obesity epidemic in this country. Your body looks at the meal that you just ate and although there are plenty of calories, there are so few macro and micronutrients in the food that your body tells you to keep eating because it hasn’t received the substances that it wants.
A second problem not so often addressed in nutritional therapy is that of malabsorption. Many people, including obese people, suffer from malnutrition. This may seem hard to believe since they appear to look as if they eat too much food. But a big part of the reason why they overeat is because their bodies are not efficient at assimilating the vital nutrients from the food (vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.) that they keep overeating with much of the surplus being turned into fat.
It is for this reason that nutritional therapy must address the issue of digestion and malabsorption. In clinical practice we find many patients who are taking shopping bags full of vitamin supplements who still feel ill. We often find that these patients do not have the digestive and hepatic (liver related) capacity to process and absorb these supplements. Simply correcting digestive ability allows these patients to begin processing nutrients and returning to a state of health.
A third problem is that most of today’s vitamin supplements are ineffective at restoring true health. The main reason for this is that most supplements are made from synthetic chemical extracts and not from whole foods. Your body was designed to extract essential nutrients from FOOD, not chemical extracts. It is for this reason that we do not practice vitamin therapy in mega doses using synthetic chemicals. All of the nutritional and herbal supplements that we use are derived from natural, whole foods, in a form that the body can recognize and use.
Individualized and tailored to the patients’ unique health status. This means no mindless “cookbook” recommendations like taking vitamin D for osteoporosis or selenium for prostate health. Such practices, which are not tailored to the individual and focus on merely treating a disease label, have never worked and never will.
Ok, while the first two causes of illness (toxins and nutrient deficiencies) are relatively easy to understand, this third and final one can seem a bit complicated (but unfortunately is also the most important) so bear with me as I try to explain it from several angles.
To understand how important communication grids are to human health, I’d like you to first imagine how a large city such as New York functions.
For NYC to function the way it does it relies on proper communication lines. Phone lines, e-mail, Internet, etc. are all ways of relaying information from one individual to another. It’s also a way for groups to communicate with each other such as the police department to the hospital emergency room to the fire department, etc.
If for some reason the phone lines and e-mail and radio stopped working…the city would fall into chaos. But let’s say the phone lines still worked but the signals started being transmitted incorrectly, like dialing the police department but the signal gets accidently redirected to the local pizzeria. This situation would be just as bad wouldn’t it?
Without proper and accurate information delivery the city would fall apart.
And communication grids are also seen in the streets and roadways of NYC, on which trucks deliver food and supplies, commuters go from home to work, and emergency help travels to where it is needed.
If all of a sudden it became impossible to drive on the streets in NYC, chaos would ensue. And just as bad would be to have the street signs and traffic lights disappear so that people did not know where exactly they were going or how to proceed in an orderly fashion. There would be complete chaos and anarchy.
Without proper and accurate delivery of goods, substances, and people the city would fall apart.
Now think about your body and the way it functions. You first have different SYSTEMS in the body such as your endocrine system, central nervous system, circulatory system, immune system, etc. Within each of these systems are different ORGANS that make up the system. An example would be the endocrine system that contains the thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, pituitary, and so on. And within each of these organs you have individual CELLS that make up the organ.
It’s the same as a city where you have different systems such as the police department or the educational system. Within each of these systems are specialized units such as the traffic department or high school respectively. And in each of these specialized units are individual CELLS, which represent the various people and employees that work with these units.
You see, your body relies on communication grids for proper functioning the same way that a city such as New York does. But here’s something you might want to keep in mind, while NYC has a population of about 20 million people, your body contains anywhere from 10 to 50 TRILLION cells depending on the source you read.
And it gets even more complicated because within each cell there is an estimate of approximately 100,000 biological reactions happening per second. So if we take the conservative estimate of 10 trillion cells in the human body, there are 10 trillion people living in the city known as YOU, each doing 100,000 different things each second (you do the math on multiplying 100,000 by 10 trillion), that all have to coordinate with each other in an extremely accurate and precise way or else you drop dead on the spot.
And it doesn’t stop there. Modern research shows that each cell in the body contains communication pathways that reach ALL other cells in the body. So the cells in your left big toe communicate with the cells in your heart and liver, and vice versa. It’s like a guy in NYC calling a guy in Tokyo to coordinate a business. This vast communication ability is also needed for proper health. By the way, this also explains how placing an acupuncture needle in the hand can have an immediate effect on remote areas of the body such as the heart, thyroid, and adrenals. It is an effect of the long-range communication capability in each cell of your body.
If the communication grids in your body become dysfunctional or inaccurate, you fall into a state of ill health as the city known as YOUR BODY is unable to regulate the countless number of intricate processes that happen each second of your life. You see, the assumption is that if the phone lines, power supply, and transportation pathways in a city are kept open and functional, the individual people within the city (namely, your cells) will work together in a harmonious fashion to bring productivity and efficiency to the city.
I hope you understand the analogy I’m trying to make, and how important intercellular communication is within your body, and how it is a primary factor in almost every state of chronic illness that we see at the clinic.
Without proper cell communication, you become ill as the infinite number of processes in the body turn into a mess and “stuff doesn’t get done the way it’s supposed to”. Additionally, and this is an extremely important point here, healing cannot happen if the cells are communicating with each other in a disorganized and inaccurate fashion. This is the basis for all autoimmune conditions, a form of internal cell confusion that ultimately leads to self-destruction. It is a form of not being able to recognize itself within the context of its greater environment. I would argue that at the final end stages…ALL forms of disease are autoimmune at their core nature. What you are ultimately seeing with end stage illness is the built in self-destruct mechanism of the body, activated in a pre-mature fashion, returning you to the Earth.
Your body has several major communication pathways. The nervous system communicates electrical impulses, the circulatory system transports blood (and thus nutrients and oxygen), the lymphatic system transports lymph and immune components and so on. As an acupuncturist I feel that the nervous system is the “master” communication system that dictates the functioning of the other systems. This is how restoring the function of peripheral nerves on the surface of the skin (where the acupuncture points are) can have an effect on the hormonal, immune, and circulatory health of the patient.
On a purely physical level, neurotransmitters and hormones are the “currency” of your body’s communication grids. They represent the signals that get transmitted between cells, organs, and systems in order for “stuff to get done”. We have found a way to measure and improve the functionality of these communication units using digital samples of body tissue, reflex testing, and acupuncture.
But even with that in mind, it is still really complicated considering that there are several HUNDREDS of neurotransmitters and hormones, and each year we find out about the existence of more and more. It also must be kept in mind that hormones and neurotransmitters are each interdependent upon one another. A problem with one will have a ripple effect on the hundreds of others…this makes analyzing according to hormones/neurotransmitters really difficult, even for western medicine.
So if cell communication is so vitally important, yet too complicated to assess using conventional methods, how do you make this concept practical when it comes to treating chronically ill patients?
The answer to this question lies in the meridians of acupuncture. You know, it took me a long time to understand what the meridian system really was, and how it can be used in a practical way.
Years of study, thoughtful debate, and clinical experience has revealed to us that the 14 major acupuncture meridians of the body represent a functional, MACRO view of the body’s communication grids that can be used for the assessment and treatment of chronic illness.
I say that the meridians are “functional” in nature because they are not used as an interpretation of a specific physiological process such as cell division, blood flow, energy production, etc. Each meridian represents a function that is composed of many different bodily processes that each have to coordinate into one functional unit. An example is liver function. Within liver function you have blood flow, cell division, energy production, etc., but instead of focusing on each individual process why not just focus on the concept of “total liver function” as a whole? To me, this is what an acupuncture meridian is: a functional and practical representation of a countless number of physiological processes.
In a similar vein, I say that the meridians represent a MACRO view of cellular communication because in order for a specific meridian to flow correctly at the right level of strength/amplitude, the infinite number of biochemical processes related to that meridian must all be in correct order, function, and communication. This is vastly opposite to the cumbersome and frustrating approach of trying to micro-manage the different chemical components of the body.
In our clinic, we use a unique method of acupuncture meridian assessment to determine the functionality of the various communication pathways of the body. We have developed a way to measure the functionality of the meridians so that we can track patient progress as they move from sickness towards health. We use this method of assessment to figure out what nutrients they are deficient in, what toxins need to be cleaned out, and how to perform the best acupuncture treatment for that individual.
Good question, those disorders are NOT appropriate for care at NNM. Severe psychiatric disorders such as the above require care under a professional psychologist/psychiatrist. In cases such as these the patient should ask their psychologist/psychiatrist if care at NNM would be appropriate for them, and even then we will only treat them as a supportive therapy for the treatment that they receive from a professional mental health counselor.
Yes, those are appropriate for treatment at NNM and we have helped many patients with depression, anxiety, and panic disorder. The bottom line is that when you restore harmony to the body, the mind will often follow. We have found that the healing process of the mind and spirit functions in a similar way to the healing of the physical body. One will influence the other. Another thing to remember is that the acupuncture meridians represent not only physiological communication, but psychological communication as well. In our experience, correcting energy flows within the patient has allowed them to self-heal from many debilitating psychological states.
What about infectious diseases such as Lyme disease?
Please see the drop down tab on our homepage entitled ‘Lyme Disease and Infectious Illness,’ it will explain our thoughts on the issue. | 2019-04-21T00:36:12Z | http://www.neighborhoodnaturalmedicine.com/about/our-philosophy |
Continuous monitoring of a person’s health data, such as heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure, would assist medical health care providers in early prediction and diagnosis of adverse conditions or diseases, allowing patients to be treated more quickly and effectively, thereby decreasing patient numbers and medical costs in the long term. To enable this, health monitoring sensors should be worn by people throughout the day (including during sleep), allowing a continuous collation of health data. In this regard, comfort is a key consideration in the device design. Mechanically flexible devices are ideal candidates for wearable health care sensors and have been widely studied. Various material platforms and structures have been reported for health care monitoring devices (1), such as temperature sensors (2, 3), electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors (4, 5), heartbeat sensors (6, 7), chemical sensors (8, 9), and drug delivery systems (10, 11), and multifunctional sensing has been used not only for health care monitoring but also for diverse applications (10, 12, 13). Although monitoring health conditions is valuable, simultaneous monitoring of physical activity would provide some much-needed context to the data, considering that vital signs, such as skin temperature and ECG, strongly depend on activity and that real-time health information alone is not completely sufficient for a full analysis of the wearer’s condition or for the prediction or diagnosis of disease. Although there have been several reports of sensors and actuators for this type of application (2–11, 14–16), neither printed nor flexible acceleration (motion) sensors have been demonstrated to date. Note that strain sensors have been used to monitor human motion through attachment to joints (17, 18). However, these can only monitor the motion of the joints, which is not always representative of the full range of human motion and activity. Accurate motion data collection from these devices presents a challenge because inflexible acceleration sensors, like those currently used in conventional (that is, nonflexible) wearable devices, need to be integrated onto flexible substrates with other health monitoring sensors. Another challenge is to design low-cost devices, allowing widespread usage and availability to the general public. Hence, it is important to strike a balance between device cost and functionality.
To address these challenges, we report a proof-of-concept, flexible, wearable health care monitoring device, which features a detachable multilayered design, a printed three-axis acceleration sensor for motion detection, and three separate sensors for monitoring vital signs. Notably, we have designed the devices to use carbon nanotube (CNT)–based sensors and transistors, which exploit the unique and high-performance properties of these materials, such as high mobility. Three printed health monitoring components are used: a skin temperature sensor, an ECG sensor, and an environmental sensor for detecting environmental ultraviolet (UV) light. Note that UV sensing cannot be used effectively in tandem with ECG monitoring because the device must be worn underneath clothes for effective monitoring of the latter. Hence, the purpose of the UV sensor in this study is to demonstrate the possibility of multifunctional sensor integration. Moreover, the monitoring of sunlight exposure may be applicable to other wearable devices, such as tracking devices, which are typically worn on the arm or wrist. Flexible transistors are also integrated for the switching of the sensors. The device features two detachable components (19, 20) that address cost and hygiene concerns. A nondisposable sensor sheet carries higher-cost components, whereas a disposable sensor sheet designed to be worn in contact with the skin is designed and fabricated with low cost in mind. The two sheets are attached via a flexible, stable, eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) liquid metal contact (21). Finally, to demonstrate the suitability of these devices for health care monitoring, we monitored simultaneous skin temperature, ECG, and UV exposure in tandem with real-time motion sensing under different states of physical activity, including walking, running, and sleeping.
The device consists of two sheets, as shown in Fig. 1 (A to C) and fig. S1. The fabrication process is explained in detail in Materials and Methods. The disposable sensing component for direct contact with the skin features a three-axis acceleration sensor, an ECG sensor, and a temperature sensor with a silver (Ag) interconnection, all of which were printed on a disposable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet with a kirigami structure (22), allowing it to stretch comfortably on the human body. The multilayer plastic sheets of the kirigami structure suppress its mechanical rigidity, rendering it unable to fully stretch after the device is attached to skin. However, when the wearer is active, the device can stretch slightly due to the dynamic between the kirigami structure and skin in motion. Although the device is not entirely stretchable, the kirigami structure improves the comfort for wearers. We also note that the kirigami structure was made to prevent the mechanical and electrical failures based on the stress caused by mechanical stretching, particularly where the device includes sensors and thin-film transistors (TFTs). In the future, electrodes will likely need to be formed over the structure. To confirm this possibility, we measured the electrical resistance change of printed Ag electrodes over the structure as a function of stretchability. Figure S2 shows that the resistance was increased slightly up to 2.6% when the substrate was stretched to 100%. Because the electrode resistance is ~6.12 ohms, a few percent resistance change is negligible for sensor integration, where sensor resistance is much higher than this value. The second component is a reusable sheet based on a polyimide substrate consisting of a UV sensor, CNT-TFT–mediated switching circuits for the sensors on both sheets, and a fixed EGaIn electrical connection. The electrical interface between the two sheets connects the temperature sensor on the disposable component to the CNT-TFT circuit on the reusable sheet. This was made using EGaIn contacts, which have previously been reported to be stable under mechanical bending (19). The EGaIn was placed on the reusable sheet in small chambers made of a silicone rubber and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), as described in Fig. 1B and fig. S3. All sensors were fabricated by solution-based techniques, such as a screen printing. The sensors operate through resistance changes induced in response to the respective stimuli. The acceleration sensor has three strain sensors, which respond to changes in structural strain. These strain sensors were fabricated from a mixture of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) and single-walled CNT inks. The temperature sensor was printed from a mixture of CNT ink and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) solution. Last, the UV sensor was fabricated through the deposition of ZnO nanowire networks. Images of the entire device and its individual components are presented in Fig. 1D and fig. S4.
Fig. 1 Multifunctional, flexible, wearable health monitoring patch.
Schematics of (A) the whole device structure, including both disposable and reusable components, (B) EGaIn and Ag contact region between the sheets, (C) and three-axis acceleration sensor. (D) Image of the fabricated device. Optical microscopy images showing the CNT-TFT architectures used for (E) the UV sensor and (F) the temperature sensor. (G) Atomic force microscopy image of the CNT network film used for the TFT semiconductor channel. (H) Image of the device, particularly focused on the EGaIn-Ag contact region between the sheets. IDS-VGS (I) and IDS-VDS (J) characteristics of a CNT-TFT representative of the devices used in this study. (K) Plot of electrical resistance as a function of temperature for the EGaIn-Ag contact. The inset compares I-V characteristics at 25.3°C and 55.6°C.
The channel width (W) and length (L) of CNT-TFTs were chosen such that their resistance characteristics match those of the UV and temperature sensors. These values (W/L) are 1 mm/100 μm and 10mm/50 μm, respectively (Fig. 1, E and F). The morphology of a typical CNT network used for these TFTs is shown in the atomic force microscopy image in Fig. 1G. The measurement indicates that the CNT layer has a relatively high-density, uniform network, which is required for reliable, high-performance TFTs. The representative electrical properties of the CNT-TFTs are shown in Fig. 1 (I and J), with a measured field-effect mobility and Ion/Ioff ratio of ~5.8 cm2/Vs and ~105, respectively. The mobility fabricated in this study is low compared to other reports (23) because the density of the CNT network is low, as shown in Fig. 1G. However, by sacrificing the mobility, Ion/Ioff ratio is high, which is appropriate for the switching functions that are used in this study. The relationship between mobility and Ion/Ioff ratio agrees with previous reports. The flexible EGaIn-Ag electrical contact between the disposable and reusable sheets is a unique design feature of this device and is shown pictorially in Fig. 1H and fig. S3. The electrical resistance of the EGaIn-Ag contact and Ag electrode is ~5.2 ohms at 25.3°C, which increases at a rate of ~0.05 ohm/°C, as shown in Fig. 1K. Despite this increased resistance with temperature, the overall resistance of the EGaIn-Ag interconnection is low enough to enable precise measurement of the sensor output, considering that the resistance of the sensing components is much higher: ~3.36 kilohms per square for the temperature sensor and ~17.1 megohms per square for the UV sensor under illumination. Even under human motion, electrical resistance change between the EGaIn-Ag electrodes was less than 0.1 ohm, suggesting that this contact is electrically stable for wearable device application (fig. S5).
As previously mentioned, physical activity data provide important context for vital sign data recorded by wearable monitoring devices, considering that different degrees of activity strongly affect conditions, such as ECG and body temperature. The printed three-axis acceleration sensor used to measure this activity consists of four beams integrated with three resistive strain sensors and an Ag electrode, as shown in Fig. 2 (A and B), and operates by measuring the deformation of the beams in response to external acceleration. By attaching an acrylic plate (weight = 38 mg) as a mass, as illustrated in Fig. 2C, a strain distribution is induced in the sensor, which is dependent on the acceleration force and direction (for further structural detail, see fig. S6 and the Supplementary Materials). Figure 2 (D and E) depicts the stress distributions calculated by finite element method (FEM) simulations when accelerations of 20 m/s2 are applied in the z and y axes. These data suggest that the changes in stress value in the strain sensor (for example, sensors #1 and #2 in Fig. 2) depend on the direction of acceleration. By reading the distributions of stress/strain and their magnitude, the corresponding direction and magnitude of acceleration can be readily determined.
Fig. 2 Printed three-axis acceleration sensor.
Circuit diagram (A), image (B), and cross-sectional schematic (C) of the acceleration sensor. GND, ground line. Stress distributions extracted from FEM simulations on application of (D) z-axis and (E) y-axis accelerations (20 m/s2). (F) Resistance change of strain sensor #1 under z-axis acceleration of 1 and 2 Hz. (G) Compiled resistance change of sensor #1 under x-, y-, and z-axis accelerations as a function of acceleration frequency. Resistance change of sensor #1 under y- and z-axis positive and negative accelerations (H) and their compiled results, with maximum stress extracted from the FEM simulations (I). (J) Three-axis acceleration detection by measuring the three strain sensors simultaneously when x-, y-, and z-axis accelerations are applied.
First, the frequency dependence of sensor #1 (as shown in Fig. 2B) was evaluated at ~25 m/s2 z-axis acceleration. The results are presented in Fig. 2F and fig. S7. Considering that the device is designed to monitor human motion, an acceleration frequency range of 1 to 6 Hz was chosen to test the sensor. On acceleration, vibration was observed with a duration of around 0.3 s. Because of this vibration, the precise acceleration measurement should be less than 4 Hz. However, by observing the peak value of the resistance change, it is possible to extract the measurement of motion at around 6 Hz, as shown in fig. S7. Note that positive and negative accelerations (~±25 m/s2) were applied in about 50 ms because of the measurement setup for frequency dependence measurements. Although these positive and negative accelerations were applied, because of much faster duration of acceleration than the vibration of the sensor (~0.3 s), the effect of the negative acceleration is almost negligible in terms of the maximum resistance change confirmed by comparing this to results at only positive acceleration applied to the acceleration sensor. As the simulation in Fig. 2E shows, when y-axis acceleration is applied, almost no strain is detected by the sensor #2 beam. Correspondingly, there is almost no strain in the sensor #1 beam when x-axis acceleration is applied because of the symmetric structure. The experimental results presented in fig. S7 agree with the strain distribution and magnitude extracted from the FEM simulation. Although there are some variations in the resistance change, the change in output resistance displays sufficient independence from the acceleration frequency for frequencies up to 6 Hz (Fig. 2G).
Second, the sensitivity of acceleration sensing was evaluated by applying different acceleration amplitudes to each axis of sensor #1 (these measurements were conducted on this sensor only). As shown in Fig. 2 (H and I), the threshold acceleration was observed to be around 5 to 12 m/s2, depending on the direction of acceleration, except for the x axis. After this point, the change in resistance increased in a near-linear fashion with increasing acceleration. The post-threshold sensitivities extracted from the linear fitting of z, y, and x axes are 0.064, 0.057, and 0.00% m−1 s2, respectively. When acceleration in the opposite direction (that is, negative acceleration shown in Fig. 2, H and I) was applied, maximum resistance change (R − R0, where R0 and R are resistances before and after acceleration, respectively) was negative, corresponding to the fact that the resistance at certain negative acceleration was decreased, whereas it was positive change at the positive acceleration for z-axis acceleration. For x and y axes, because of high noise and small resistance change below 25 m/s2 used in this study, no significant change was observed when the negative acceleration was applied (Fig. 2H). On the basis of the FEM simulation, the maximum stress on the beam changes linearly as a function of acceleration, as plotted in Fig. 2I. Based on both experimental and FEM results, the lower limit of stress detection by the sensor should be ~0.6 ± 0.1 N/mm2. Although this sensitivity is sufficient for monitoring higher-intensity activity, such as walking and running, further improvements should be made to detect lower-intensity activities, for example, movement of an elderly person. These could be achieved by optimizing the sensor materials and device structure. Finally, to demonstrate the operational capability of the sensor, an acceleration of ~20 m/s2 in x, y, and z directions was applied, and the device response was evaluated by measuring the resistance change of three individual strain sensors simultaneously (sensors #1 to #3, Fig. 2B). The data in Fig. 2J show that the direction of acceleration and strength can be distinguished by reading the difference in output between sensor #1 (or sensor #3) and sensor #2. These results are the first demonstration of a functional, printed acceleration sensor on a flexible substrate. Because only three-axis acceleration can be measured, it can only detect human motions of moving, standing, and lying down. To observe the detailed motions, such as directions of moving and twisting of the body, further axis acceleration sensor to measure rotation and high sensitivity is required. Although the sensor has a low sensitivity and a large size, including thickness, compared to the conventional Si-based acceleration sensor, this demonstration is an important step in realizing a printed sensor network, which allows it to integrate all sensors using printing methods, including assembly and packaging processes with a low-cost manufacture.
For health monitoring functionality, sensors for the detection of skin temperature, heartbeat, and sunlight exposure were integrated into the device—the first two were fabricated on the disposable sensing sheet, and the last one was fabricated on the reusable component. The temperature and UV sensors were integrated in series with CNT-TFTs, enabling switching of the components, as shown in Fig. 3A. This could be used to reduce power consumption and could be enabled by integrating a shift register and other circuits. The ECG sensor makes contact with the skin through a set of three Ag electrodes printed on the disposable PET sheet, and the ECG signal was monitored using commercially available discrete circuits, which consist of amplifiers and filters (Fig. 3B). To make a good contact between the electrodes and skin, we applied a conductive medical grease. Images of the sensors are presented in Fig. 3 (C to E).
Fig. 3 Multifunction sensors integrated with CNT-TFTs.
Circuit diagrams of (A) temperature and UV sensors with the intersheet EGaIn-Ag contact and CNT-TFTs and (B) ECG sensor. Amp, amplifier. Images of (C) temperature sensor, (D) UV sensor (with inset magnified scanning electron microscopy image showing the surface of the ZnO nanowire network), and (E) ECG sensor. (F) IDS-VGS characteristics at VDS = −5 V as a function of temperature for CNT-TFT integrated with the temperature sensor. (G) Normalized resistance change (ΔR/R0, ΔR = R − R0) of on-current at VGS = −5 V for CNT-TFTs with and without a temperature sensor, where R and R0 are the resistances at the measured and room temperatures, respectively. (H) Real-time resistance measurement of UV sensor under 365-nm UV exposure. (I) Compiled resistance of UV sensor and applied UV irradiation power as a function of wavelength. (J) IDS-VGS characteristics at VDS = −5 V as a function of UV exposure power for CNT-TFTs integrated with a UV sensor. Inset: Log current of IDS-VGS plot. (K) Normalized resistance change (R/R0) of on-current at VGS = −5 V for CNT-TFTs with and without a UV sensor, where and R and R0 are the resistances with and without UV exposure, respectively. (L) Recorded ECG signal after exercise and at rest condition. a.u., arbitrary unit.
Monitoring of skin temperature was achieved by measuring the characteristics of the CNT-TFT, which controls switching of the temperature sensor. The temperature output was extracted from the IDS-VGS properties (as shown in Fig. 3F), using the on-current values measured at VGS = −5 V. The results indicate that the on-current changes as a function of temperature, arising from the resistance change of the temperature sensor. To determine the origins of the on-current change, we analyzed the resistance change ratio, ΔR/R0 (ΔR = R − R0), as a function of temperature for TFTs with and without a temperature sensor (Fig. 3G). Here, R is the resistance measured at a given temperature, and R0 is the resistance value at room temperature. The results indicate that the resistance decreases linearly with increasing temperature, whereas the resistance of the stand-alone CNT-TFT (without the sensor) is almost constant, exhibiting only a very slight resistance increase with temperature. This finding suggests that the resistance change observed in the data in Fig. 3F arises predominantly from the temperature sensor. From these data, the sensitivity of the sensor was calculated to be ~0.89%/°C, a relatively high value, which is attributed to electron hopping at the interface between the CNT and PEDOT:PSS in the temperature sensor (11). In addition to the sensor function, reliability of electrical contact through EGaIn was also tested by repeating attachments and detachments between layers. Figure S8 indicates that electrical resistance measured at VGS = −5 V and VDS = −1 V is electrically stable up to at least 70 cycles.
Next, the UV sensor response was characterized by exposure to UV light, with an irradiating power of 689 μW/cm2 at a wavelength of 365 nm. Figure 3H shows that the resistance drastically decreases by around three orders of magnitude on illumination. The relatively slow response time observed for the device is attributed to the mechanism of oxygen absorption and desorption from ZnO surfaces on exposure to UV light (24, 25). Because multilayered ZnO network film (as shown in Fig. 3D) is used, oxygen absorption and desorption take a long time. Although this is speculation, this phenomenon is confirmed by changing the thickness of ZnO network film between ~3.5 and ~15 μm, as shown in fig. S9, indicating that the response time is slower for thicker ZnO layers. On UV exposure, the resistance decreased to ~1/100 of the original value over the course of 1.3 s, with saturation achieved ~150 s at a resistance of ~1/1000. On removal of the UV light source, the sensor resistance returned to the original value after a period of ~730 s. From the results in Fig. 3I, it was also confirmed that the ZnO nanowire UV sensor is sensitive to wavelengths below 390 nm, corresponding to an electronic excitation energy of ~3.2 eV, which is close to the known electronic band gap of ZnO. As with the temperature sensor, the UV sensor was also integrated in series with a CNT-TFT to enable switching. Because of the large resistance change in the sensor on exposure to UV light, the on-current of the connected CNT-TFT changes substantially with different illumination intensity, as shown by the data in Fig. 3J. A comparison between the R/R0 resistance ratios of the stand-alone CNT-TFT and the UV sensor–integrated TFT shows that the observed sharp resistance change can be attributed almost exclusively to the output from the sensor and that illumination does not significantly alter the characteristics of the stand-alone transistor for short- and long-time exposures (Fig. 3K and fig. S10). Therefore, it may be concluded that the incident UV intensity can be readily derived by measuring the on-current value of the CNT-TFT. For UV detection, it is required to measure the dose amount by monitoring the resistance change by integrating memory functions in the future.
The ECG sensor makes contact directly on the skin via three Ag electrodes, as described in Fig. 3E and fig. S4C. Because of the small magnitude of the ECG signal (a few millivolts) recorded from the skin, several amplifiers and filters were connected to the circuit to amplify the signal and remove high-frequency noise. This circuit is illustrated in Fig. 3B and fig. S11. After the sensor was attached to the body, the ECG signal was monitored, extracting a heart rate value of 82 beats per minute (BPM) at rest and 172 BPM after exercise from the measured output signal, as displayed in the results in Fig. 3L.
Finally, as a first proof of concept of the device’s full functionality (that is, flexible attachment to the body, acquisition of multiple sets of health information, and the simultaneous monitoring of physical movement), the device was attached directly onto the skin on the chest of a 23-year-old male. The placement of the device is shown in Fig. 4A. This experiment was carried out indoors, and the output of each sensor was measured simultaneously (fig. S12). Because of limitations in the measurement setup, only one beam, sensor #1, of the acceleration sensor was used to detect movement (that is, detection in the y axis; Fig. 2B). During the test, skin temperature, ECG, and UV exposure were monitored in real time under the following states of physical activity: rest, fast steps (simulating running), walking-pace steps, and lying down (simulating sleeping). The temperature and UV sensors were controlled by switching the CNT-TFTs. For the on-state, a square wave with an amplitude of −3 V and a frequency of 6 Hz was applied to the gate electrodes; for the off-state, the same wave with an amplitude of +3 V was applied. The full set of measurements is shown in Fig. 4B. The skin temperature was around 32°C, whereas the average heart rate derived from the ECG signal was measured to vary between 76.8 BPM at rest and 89.9 BPM, depending on the degree of physical activity, respectively (Fig. 4, C and D). The skin temperature was almost constant because of short measurement time and exercise, which was also confirmed by a commercially available infrared (IR) sensor (fig. S13). As expected, the results show that the measured heart rate strongly depends on the person’s motion, emphasizing the importance of monitoring health conditions simultaneously with physical activity. Because the experiments were conducted in a room, the UV exposure was measured to be ~1 μW/cm2. However, under sunlight, the UV power was increased to around 170 μW/cm2 (fig. S14). Finally, the acceleration sensor could successfully distinguish between each physical activity, and differentiation between running simulation and walking steps was possible by monitoring the frequency and amplitude of the acceleration peaks. Furthermore, a comparison between the acceleration sensor outputs from lie-down to sit-up states, as shown in Fig. 4B, reveals that the sensor output generates an increase in resistance and no peaks are observed; this is in stark contrast with the output signature obtained for all the states involving movement. This finding suggests that the acceleration sensor can monitor human movements and differentiate between active conditions and passive ones (that is, standing and lying down), and that different states can be identified from the output signature, with the exception of eating/drinking.
Fig. 4 Proof-of-concept health care monitoring demonstration.
(A) Image of the multifunctional device attached directly onto the skin. FETs, field-effect transistors. (B) Real-time acceleration (motion), ECG, skin temperature, and UV monitoring results. (C) R-R intervals at rest and during stepping (activity) measured by the device. Inset: ECG time plot showing method for measuring the R-R interval of the ECG signal. (D) R-R intervals at the lie-down state and right after the sitting-up state from the lie-down state.
Power consumption is also an important factor for the practical application of the device as a total system. The device discussed here has not been integrated with a signal processing system, so we have not measured the power consumption or source; these factors require further study.
In conclusion, this study successfully demonstrates the operation of a multifunctional, flexible, wearable health care monitoring device equipped with a movement sensor. This device also demonstrates the effectiveness of using a flexible and stable, low-resistance EGaIn liquid metal contact for the attachment of different device components. Here, the design of a disposable sensing sheet for direct contact with the skin alongside the nondisposable sheet with higher-cost devices demonstrates that this type of architecture offers a wide range of design possibilities. Hence, this concept provides a solid development platform for low-cost flexible electronics in the health care monitoring sector. For an initial proof of concept, we successfully demonstrated simultaneous monitoring of skin temperature, heart rate, and UV light exposure while also monitoring physical activity through an acceleration sensor. Although the device used in this demonstration was not wearable (that is, while the sensing components were mounted on the body, the signal processing circuits and battery were not integrated into the device, which would be required for commercially viable health care monitors), the successful real-time operation of this all-printed device is an important step in the development of flexible electronics not only for health care monitoring but also for macroscale sensor sheets in alternative applications. Furthermore, by combining this technology with flexible chemical sensing functionality reported recently by other groups (8), wearable and flexible smart health care devices could become generally available, useful for a number of purposes, and helpful to a wide range of people.
First, an Ag electrode (Asahi Chemical) was screen-printed on a 38-μm-thick PET film. After the Ag ink was cured at 70°C, four beam structures were formed by using a laser cutter tool. Second, strain sensors were printed on the beam structures using CNT ink (SouthWest NanoTechnologies) and AgNP ink (Paru) with a weight ratio of 5:3, followed by curing at 70°C (26). The sensor film was sandwiched between one 1-mm-thick and one 2-mm-thick silicone rubber film with a hole (Fig. 2C). Finally, 38-μm-thick PET films were applied to the silicone rubber films on both sides of the sensor, rendering the structure mechanically inflexible.
Ag electrodes for the ECG sensor and interconnection with the temperature sensor were printed on a 38-μm-thick PET film. This component was designed to be used as a disposable sheet. After the electrode was cured at 70°C, a mixture of PEDOT:PSS solution (Sigma-Aldrich) and CNT ink (3:1 weight ratio) was printed and cured at 70°C (3).
ZnO nanowires (~90 nm in diameter and ~1 μm in length; Sigma-Aldrich) were dispersed in deionized (DI) water with a weight ratio of 100:1 (DI/ZnO) using a homogenizer for 10 min. The solution was then dropped on the polyimide substrate with CNT-TFTs over a patterned film, followed by curing at 200°C and removing the film. This component was designed to be a nondisposable sensor sheet because it is not intended to be used in contact with the skin.
For the substrate, an ~10-μm polyimide film was spin-coated onto a Si/SiO2 handling wafer. Subsequently, a 10-nm-thick SiOx was deposited onto the substrate to act as an adhesion layer between the polymer and the metal layers. The gate electrodes consisted of patterned ~100-nm-thick Al films deposited by sputtering. Then, Cr/Au (5/30 nm) layers were deposited onto the pads of the gate electrode to protect it from an etching process of the dielectric layer. Next, 50-nm-thick Al2O3 and 10-nm-thick SiOx layers were deposited as the gate dielectric layer by atomic layer deposition (Arradiance) and electron beam evaporation, respectively. For the semiconductor channels, CNT network films were formed using a 99% semiconductor-enriched solution (NanoIntegris) mixed with a sodium cholate surfactant (27) and patterned to form TFT channels using oxygen plasma. Other Cr/Au (5/30 nm) layers were then lifted off to form the source and drain electrodes. The dielectric layer was etched using a buffered hydrogen fluoride solution to open up the contact pads of the gate electrodes. To remove solvent residue from the CNT network, vacuum annealing was conducted at 200°C for 90 min. Polymer resist and PET films were then coated and laminated over the TFTs to protect the devices from scratches and stress caused by bending. Finally, the polyimide film was peeled off from the Si/SiO2 handling wafer.
To create the contact for the reusable polyimide substrate sheet using a laser cutting tool, a 2-mm-diameter hole was made in a 0.5-mm-thick silicone rubber sheet, and a 1-mm-diameter hole was made in a 0.25-mm-thick PDMS sheet, forming the chamber and ejection holes, respectively. These two sheets were then laminated using an adhesive tape. After alignment between the holes and the electrodes on the polyimide film, these sheets were also laminated. Finally, these holes in the silicone rubber/PDMS sheet were filled with the EGaIn liquid metal (fig. S3).
After the components were fabricated, they were assembled for the multifunctional health care device. The final device structure is shown in fig. S1. First, the acceleration sensor was attached on a PET film using a double-sided tape, where temperature and ECG sensors were integrated. Second, for reusable sheets integrated with CNT-TFTs, UV sensor, and EGaIn electrode, because of good adhesion between PDMS and PET films, the reusable sheets can be attached onto the PET film without using any glue or tape. Finally, to place the device on skin, we used a double-sided tape. The double-sided tape was not confirmed as a biocompatible material because this study focuses on the demonstration of a proof of concept of health condition sensing. This adhesion needs to be explored further in the future for the practical use of wearable devices.
fig. S1. Cross-sectional device schematic image.
fig. S2. Electrical resistance change of Ag electrodes over the kirigami structure.
fig. S3. Schematic image of reusable and disposable sensor sheets.
fig. S4. Images of disposable and reusable sensor sheets.
fig. S5. Electrical stability of EGaIn and Ag contact under motion.
fig. S7. Frequency dependence of three-axis acceleration sensor.
fig. S8. Cycle test of electrical contacts between EGaIn and Ag electrodes.
fig. S9. Thickness dependence of UV sensors.
fig. S10. TFT characteristics under UV exposure.
fig. S11. Circuit diagram of ECG recording.
fig. S13. Skin temperature measurements using the printed temperature sensor and an IR sensor.
fig. S14. UV detection under simulated sunlight.
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Funding: This work was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (26630164 and 26709026) and the Murata Science Foundation. Author contributions: S.H. and K.T. conceived the idea and designed the project. Y.Y. and S.H. conducted all device fabrication and characterization, W.H. carried out the development and optimization of flexible transistor, and D.Y. conducted fabrication and characterization of the acceleration sensor. All authors contributed to analyzing the data and discussed the results. Y.Y., S.H., and K.T. wrote the paper, and all authors provided feedback. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors. | 2019-04-20T16:33:05Z | https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/11/e1601473 |
Synopsis: An innocent conversation from five years before leads to devastating consequences in the present.
“There’s an art to decorating a tree,” Adam replied as he continued to study the large Ponderosa pine in front of him. “The best ornaments should be in front, and there should be a balanced look.” He frowned a bit, then took a step forward to place a red ball of glass on a low branch to his right.
“Let’s just get this done,” suggested Hoss. Holding two glass bulbs in his hand, Hoss took a step forward and hung the ornaments on the tree branch in front of him. Adam grimaced at his brother’s haphazard placement of the decorations and quickly moved one of the ornaments to a lower branch.
“And pretty girls willing to be kissed under the mistletoe?” Adam said, arching his eyebrows a bit.
“I’ll bet you are,” observed Adam dryly.
At that moment, the front door opened and Ben Cartwright walked into the warmth of the Ponderosa ranch house. His tan coat was dotted with specks of liquid, indicating the light snow that had begun earlier in the day was still falling. Placing a large bundle of envelopes on the bureau by the door, Ben began removing his hat and coat.
The half-decorated Christmas tree was forgotten as the three Cartwright brothers moved toward their father. Ben felt like a postmaster as he pulled each envelope from the bundle and handed it to the son to whom it was addressed. The house grew quiet as Adam, Hoss, and Joe began opening envelopes and reading the notes each one contained. For a moment, Ben just stood and smiled indulgently at his sons, enjoying the look of pleasure on each of their faces as they read. Then he began opening the envelopes addressed to him.
“Looks like you’re a mite late for that party,” commented Hoss with a laugh.
“I’ve heard of mail getting delayed, but five years seems ridiculous,” Adam added.
“Why would someone do that?” asked Hoss.
“Well, if it’s a joke, it’s a pretty subtle one,” Adam commented.
The Virginia City Christmas Dance was one of the holiday festivities Joe looked forward to each year. Held annually on the Saturday before Christmas, the dance was a chance for everyone in the area to get together to exchange holiday greetings and celebrate the season before traveling to visit family or hosting guests for Christmas. People had been known to trek through snowstorms and frigid temperatures to attend the Christmas Dance. This year, however, the temperature was mild for December – a little above freezing — and the attendance at the Christmas Dance was expected to be large, especially since the day of the dance was four days before Christmas this year.
As Joe entered the old warehouse that had been converted into a dance hall for the night, he wasn’t surprised to see the floor was already crowded with people. Everyone he knew had been talking about coming to the Christmas Dance, and it appeared all of them – and more – had already arrived. While the hard-working people of the West didn’t have fancy dress suits and silk ball gowns to wear, everyone had donned their best clothes. Men wearing jackets and suits brushed clean were mingling with women clad in brightly colored cloth dresses. Joe knew he looked good in his dark blue suit, crisp white shirt and string tie; he had spent over an hour in front of the mirror at home to insure he looked his best.
“They did a nice job of sprucing up the place,” commented Adam as he stood at Joe’s right.
Looking around the old warehouse, Joe had to agree with his brother. Strings of green garland were draped along the walls, interspersed with bright red ribbons. A large green wreath hung on the back wall behind the stage which had been constructed for the musicians. Lanterns were hung everywhere, illuminating the large building with their bright glow. Two small stoves near the stage gave off enough heat to take the chill out of the room, but the crush of bodies on the floor generated more than enough warmth to keep the warehouse comfortable. To the left were long tables covered by bright red cloth on which numerous punch bowls, cookies and cakes had been placed. To the right were rows of chairs – currently empty – for people to rest between dances. Joe noted that someone had thoughtfully hung sprigs of mistletoe high on the wall, mostly in the darker corners of the building.
“Looks like pert near everyone in the county is here,” Hoss observed from Joe’s left.
“You shouldn’t have much trouble finding someone to dance with tonight, Joe,” Adam agreed.
“So many girls, so little time,” murmured Joe in reply.
The musicians were still assembling on the make-shift stage, so people were socializing in the middle of the large floor. Once the music started, the crowd would separate – some moving to the side to watch and wait, others hurrying on to the floor to dance with their spouses or selected partners.
“I think I’ll go over and sample some of them goodies at the food table,” Hoss announced, and he ambled toward the left of the building.
As his father and brothers disappeared into the crowd, Joe moved slowly around the edges of the floor. He was making note of who was in attendance, as well as compiling a mental list of dancing partners. So absorbed was he in planning his evening that Joe didn’t notice the raven-haired girl in the green dress until she lightly grabbed his arm.
“Well, I did miss you…a little,” Beth admitted with a twinkle in her eye. “But that’s not why I was looking for you. Someone asked me to give this to you.” She handed Joe a small white envelope.
Knitting her brows, Beth thought a minute before answering. “He was about thirty, had dark hair, a little taller than you. Nothing special about him…except…” Beth hesitated.
“Except what?” Joe encouraged the girl.
“You don’t know them?” asked Beth skeptically.
“Never heard of them,” Joe reiterated.
“Why on earth would someone send you a four-year-old wedding announcement for two people you don’t know?” Beth inquired.
“There’s more than one Joe Cartwright in the world? Oh, my! I’m not sure the girls of Virginia City will be able to stand the thought of that,” Beth teased.
It was almost midnight before the Christmas Dance began winding down and people started drifting toward the door. Joe was standing near the food table, refreshing himself with the last of the sweet liquid from a punch bowl. He had enjoyed himself during the evening, dancing several times with Beth Matthews and squiring a number of other girls around the floor. He had even managed to steal a kiss or two underneath the mistletoe. But the pleasure of the dance had been a bit damped for Joe by the envelope Beth had given him. He had found himself watching the men around him from time to time, trying to spot a stranger with cold eyes. Periodically, the thought of wedding notice as well as the party invitation crossed Joe’s mind, and he wondered why he had been sent these old announcements.
“Joe, you ready to go home?” Hoss asked as he threw his arm around his brother’s shoulder.
As he strolled toward the entrance with Hoss, Joe’s mind turned again to the envelope Beth had given him. He wondered briefly if he should tell his father and brothers about the wedding announcement, but quickly decided against it. Joe knew they wouldn’t understand why someone had sent it to him any more than he did, and showing the old clipping to them would be pointless. Besides, it wasn’t like the messages had a threatening tone. For some unknown reason, he was being reminded of events from Christmases in the past. Whoever was sending the notices must have thought Joe would understand why, but the fact was, he had no idea what the old announcements meant.
“Did you fellows have a good time?” Ben asked with a smile as Joe and Hoss approached him.
“It was a great party,” Hoss answered enthusiastically. “Them cakes were the best I’ve ever eaten.” Joe merely smiled and nodded.
The four men headed toward a small room off to the side of the entrance. Once an office, the room had been converted into coat closet, with pegs on the wall and a number of coat racks on which people could hang their capes, heavy jackets and other outer garments. Adam walked to a rack in the far left corner and began pulling coats off, handing a tan jacket to his father and brown coat to Hoss. He stopped suddenly, though, and looked around.
“Joe, you hung your coat on the same rack as ours, didn’t you?” asked Adam.
“I don’t see it,” Adam said, as he began pushing through the garments on the rack.
“Oh, brother,” muttered Adam, rolling his eyes.
As Ben walked out of the converted cloak room with Adam and Hoss, Joe took another look around, searching in vain for the missing coat. Finally, he just stood in the middle of the room and shook his head. “There are a lot of strange things going on,” Joe muttered, looking perplexed.
As he raised his head from his pillow, Joe peered toward the window with eyes still half closed with sleep. The pale light of a winter morning was visible through the glass, so Joe knew the time must be after 8 am. The sun didn’t rise until almost 8 in Nevada this time of year. Normally, Joe’s still being in bed so late in the morning would have been cause for loud raps on the door and shouts for him to get up. But Ben had told his sons to sleep in this morning. The dance and the late hour at which they had gotten home had made them all tired. Ben and the boys had made sure the horses had plenty of hay and water in their stalls when the animals were stabled in the barn last night, so having to wait a bit to get their morning feed wouldn’t hurt the horses.
Throwing back the covers, Joe sat up in bed and stretched his arms, then reluctantly climbed from the soft mattress to the floor. The feel of the cool wood on his feet reminded Joe of his chilly ride home last night. As Hoss had predicted, Joe hadn’t frozen to death, but the ride was still uncomfortable. He had kept his horse moving at a brisk walk the whole time, trying to shorten the time it took to reach the Ponderosa ranch house. Nevertheless, he had felt like an icicle by the time he had reached the yard in front of the house. Remembering the cold ride home, Joe once more silently cursed whoever had taken his coat.
It didn’t take Joe long to wash, shave and dress, and he emerged from the bedroom less that twenty minutes after he had awakened. As Joe started down the stairs, he wasn’t surprised to see his father and brothers were already seated at the dining room table eating breakfast. Their idea of “sleeping in” was a whole lot different than Joe’s. He guessed that they had been up for an hour or more and he hoped they had finished the morning chores by now.
The retort Joe was going to throw back at his brother died on his lips as Joe reached the bottom of the stairs. From the corner of his eye, he saw something blue hanging on the pegs by the door which held the Cartwrights’ coats and hats. Joe turned his head and stared at the coats by the door, then slowly turned to face his father and brothers. “My coat is here. Where did it come from?” asked Joe in astonished voice.
“Hop Sing, do you know how Joe’s coat got here?” Ben asked.
“Hop Sing find coat on porch this morning,” the cook answered, his irritation not abated. “It good coat. Youngest son just leave by door. Not deserve warm coat if not take care of it.” Hop Sing turned his fiercest look on Joe, then sniffed and walked out of the room.
“Whoever took the coat must have brought it back early this morning,” Ben suggested after the cook had left.
“But why just leave it on the porch like that?” asked Joe.
“Maybe,” Joe said doubtfully. As he turned to hand the coat back on the peg by the door, Joe noticed a bit of white paper sticking out of one of its pockets. When he pulled the paper out, Joe somehow wasn’t surprised to see it was another envelope. He opened it quickly and looked at the contents.
“It’s another newspaper clipping!” Joe exclaimed.
“What’s this one about, little brother?” Hoss inquired curiously.
Edwin Frye, who was convicted of embezzling almost $8,000 from the Carson City Merchants Bank, will be released from prison on Christmas day. Readers will recall Frye was sentenced to three years in prison when an audit of the bank’s book uncovered Frye had stolen money over a six month period by issuing false loans and taking the money for himself. Frye, who was the assistant manager of the bank at the time of his arrest, admitted the theft and made full restitution. He has served thirty-three months of his sentence and is being released early as part of the governor’s Christmas pardon for prisoners who have shown good behavior. It is not known whether Mr. Frye plans to return to Carson City after his release.
“Do you know this Edwin Frye?” Ben asked his youngest son.
“All right, all right,” Ben agreed in a voice obviously meant to mollify the cook. He turned to his sons. “Hop Sing is right. Our breakfast is getting cold. We can talk about this while we’re eating.” He walked back toward the dining room, followed by Hoss and Adam. Joe took a moment to read the article again, then put the envelope and clipping on the bureau by the door. Shrugging a bit, he headed to the dinning room.
Standing near the table with his arms crossed, Hop Sing watched with a scowl on his face until all four men sat down and began filling their plates with food from the serving platters. When he was satisfied the Cartwrights were bowing to his insistence that they eat breakfast, the cook gave a quick nod and padded back to his kitchen.
“Did you meet any of these people – Susan Pennington, William Johnson or Edwin Frye – at the Austin’s party?” Ben asked.
Knitting his brows, Joe tried to remember the Austins’ Christmas party. He recalled the large house on the edge of Carson City decorated both inside and out for the holidays. Inside the house, a large room had been filled with people. A single violinist provided the music, and there had been a little dancing. Mostly, though, people simply chatted with each other, exchanging news, gossip and opinions. Joe had found it to be a rather dull gathering. The mental picture of a small room – quiet, empty, dimly lit from a single fireplace – flashed across Joe’s mind, but in an instant the picture vanished.
“Yes sir,” said Joe glumly.
“I’m sure you can count on us to take as much time as necessary in Virginia City to make sure everything is done properly,” added Adam. He tried to sound solemn but the twinkle in his eye and the smile tugging at his face belied his serious tone.
“Yeah, it could take hours and hours,” Joe agreed, trying to match his oldest brother’s serious demeanor. But Joe’s natural enthusiasm couldn’t be contained, and his face broke into a wide grin.
With a bundle of envelopes in his hand and a discouraged look on his face, Joe trudged down the main street of Virginia City toward the general store. Adam’s prediction had proven all too accurate. After spending almost an hour asking questions of various people in town, Joe was no closer to finding who had been sending the strange messages than he had been at the breakfast table the day before.
The weather was unseasonable mild – so warm, in fact, that Joe was wearing only his light green jacket – so he didn’t mind traipsing all over town. What bothered Joe was that all of his questions had yielded no answers.
When he had picked up the mail, Joe had leafed through the envelopes carefully. But the only mail addressed to him had been a few cards with familiar return addresses. Joe had opened his mail right there in the post office, just to be sure, but the envelopes contained nothing but traditional Christmas greetings from friends. He had asked Tom, the postmaster, about the envelope his father had picked up a few days before – the one with only his name on the outside – but wasn’t surprised when Tom remembered neither the envelope nor who had put it in the mail basket. This time of year the postmaster was extremely busy sorting all the Christmas greetings both coming and going from Virginia City. One somewhat oddly addressed envelope wouldn’t stick in the man’s mind. Joe doubted he had done anything more than glance at it before placing it in the box reserved for the Cartwright’s mail.
Without much hope of success, Joe had spent the rest of his time questioning people about a stranger with cold eyes who might have been asking questions about him. He talked with Sheriff Roy Coffee, the clerk at the hotel, and the bartender at the Silver Dollar Saloon. No one had any recollection of a stranger asking questions about Joe.
As he neared the general store, Joe saw Hoss carrying a box from the store toward the buckboard parked in front of the building. He slowed his step a bit, as a small smile tugged at his face. There was no sense arriving at the store until he was sure Hoss had all the heavy items loaded into the wagon.
“Well, let’s get the supplies loaded and then head over to the Silver Dollar for some Christmas cheer,” Joe suggested as he put the envelopes into a box of supplies in the back of the buckboard.
“I done finished loading the supplies, as if you didn’t know,” retorted Hoss with a scowl.
The two brothers started walking down the street, but Joe stopped when he heard his name being called. He turned to see a boy about 10 years old running toward him, shouting his name.
“Hey, Tommy, what’s all the ruckus?” asked Joe when the boy skidded to a stop in front of him.
“I don’t know. He just said I had to find you right away,” Tommy answered.
“Did he say why he needed to see me?” Joe asked with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Who was the fellow, button?” Hoss asked.
“What did he look like?” Joe asked the boy.
Grinning, Tommy snatched the quarter from Joe’s hand and ran off.
“What do you think that’s all about?” Hoss asked.
Looking around cautiously, Joe entered the old warehouse. The decorations from the dance still hung on the walls, but they no longer looked festive and bright. The garland appeared wilted, and the floor with littered with the dried pine needles which had fallen from the roping. The large wreath, also looking a bit withered, had been taken down and propped against at the front of the stage. Without the bright cloths that had covered them, the long tables were merely dark pieces of wood shoved against the wall. The lanterns were no longer lit, and the only illumination was from the weak winter sunlight streaming through the small windows high on the walls. The empty floor seemed cavernous in the dim light.
“Mr. Cartwright?” The voice echoed a bit from Joe’s right. Joe spun around and saw a figure emerging from the shadows.
For a moment, Joe said nothing but rather studied the man standing in front of him. Wearing brown pants, a cream-colored shirt and string tie, Frye looked like a clerk or shopkeeper. Joe noted he wasn’t wearing a gun. Frye had a long thin face, and while not ugly, no one would have called him handsome – ordinary was the word that best described his features. But it was the man’s eyes that drew Joe’s attention. As Beth had described, Frye’s eyes seem cold and hard, showing no emotion. They seemed to suggest a man who felt nothing, who cared about nothing.
“Does my name mean anything to you?” Frye asked.
“A letter might have been ignored, and it certainly wouldn’t have had the impact,” replied Frye.
As Frye moved toward the chairs, Joe hesitated. There was something about the man that made him feel uneasy, yet Joe was curious about what was behind the strange messages. Finally, Joe decided there was no harm in listening to what the man had to say. He walked over to a chair near where Frye was sitting, laying his hand reassuringly on the pistol strapped to his hip as he moved forward.
In an instant, the image that had been a vague memory for Joe the day before became a clear picture. He remembered now. Bored by watching the games at the party, Joe had wandered around the Austins’ house. He had entered a small room – a study or library, perhaps – down the hall from the large room in which the guests were being entertained. The room had been dimly lit, with only the light from a small blaze in the fireplace providing any illumination. At first, Joe thought the room was empty, but then he heard the sound of crying. He had seen a girl sitting on a chair in the far corner of the room with her face in her hands. Joe approached her, offering help and comfort. The two had talked for awhile, and then the girl had left. Joe never saw her again.
“And that’s when you advised her not to marry me,” said Frye with a touch of bitterness in his voice.
“I did love her!” shouted Frye angrily.
“Am I?” Joe shrugged and got to his feet. “Well, you can believe whatever you want. I’m leaving. Thanks for any interesting trip down memory lane.” Joe brushed past the dark-haired man and headed for the entrance to the warehouse.
Ignoring the shouts, Joe continued toward the door until he felt a hand grab his shoulder and tug on it. Spinning around, Joe started to say something but was abruptly silenced by a fist which smashed into his jaw. Immediately, he balled his own hand and pulled it back in order to throw a counterpunch. But his thrust stopped in mid-air and Joe took a step back.
“I thought you might,” Frye admitted.
“There’s a third choice,” said Joe, pulling his gun from his holster.
Whatever emotion had manifested itself in Frye’s eyes disappeared, and the cold, dead look once more reappeared. Frye stared at Joe for a moment, and then his shoulders sagged in resignation. “It was worth the try,” he muttered.
Suddenly, Frye spun around and grabbed a chair. With incredible quickness, he swung the chair off the ground and smashed it into Joe’s side, knocking the youngest Cartwright to the ground. The gun slipped from Joe’s hand and skidded a few feet away from him.
“I’m not going back to jail,” cried Frye as he made a move toward Joe’s gun.
Surprised and stunned more than hurt, it took Joe only a moment to realize Frye’s intentions. He reached up and grabbed the man’s leg, pulling him away from the gun and onto the floor. Joe scrambled to his feet just as Frye was getting up. Joe threw a fist into the other man’s stomach, causing Frye to double over and stagger back a step or two. But Frye quickly straightened and charged straight at Joe, knocking him back to the floor. He jumped on top of Joe and belted the man below him with a quick jab to the face. Joe reached up and threw an upper cut which caught Frye just under the chin. Frye fell back and Joe kicked the man off of him.
The two combatants got to their feet, both breathing hard. They watched each other warily for a moment, then Frye charged forward. This time, Joe was ready for him and side-stepped the charge, hitting Frye on the back as the man went past him. Frye fell to the floor, then rolled quickly to his left. He threw his legs at Joe’s shins, causing Joe to loose his balance and fall.
Once more, the two men scrambled to their feet and faced each other. They began circling slowly, each man crouched and fists ready, as both waited for the other to make the next move. Frye took a step forward, and this time, it was Joe who charged. Joe’s shoulder hit Frye in the chest, causing the man to tumble into the row of chairs behind him. The chairs skidded into one another, the last one hitting the wall with a resounding thump.
The vibration from the impact caused a lantern to fall from the wall to the floor. The lamp’s glass shattered, and the oil spilled out from the lantern onto the dry pine needles scattered on the floor.
Frye got to his feet quickly, and shoved aside the chairs in which he had become entangled. The legs of one chair scratched noisily across the wooden floor, creating a spark. Almost instantly, a small tongue of fire popped up from the oil-laden needles on the floor.
A roar of anger escaped from Frye’s lips as he charged at Joe again. Joe tried to side-step the man as he had done before, but Frye altered direction at the last minute so that his body slammed directly into Joe’s. Both men crashed to the floor, and their arms began flailing as each tried to pound their fists into the other. Joe pushed Frye to the right, and the man slid off of him. But Frye grabbed Joe’s arm and pulled his opponent toward him. Joe flipped himself over the man on the floor, landing on his back next to Frye. He quickly got to his feet and joined his hands together. As Frye began to rise from the floor, Joe threw his entwined hands into the man’s stomach, then jerked them upwards to hammer Frye just under the chin. Frye’s head snapped back and his body went limp. He collapsed to the ground in a heap and laid still.
Breathing hard and coughing a bit, Joe stood over the fallen man for a moment, making sure his opponent was down for good. Suddenly, Joe realized the air around him was becoming thick with smoke, and he heard an ominous crackle behind him. He whirled around and his eyes opened wide with both fear and astonishment as he saw the fire burning behind him.
The dried-out pine needles scattered on the floor gave the fire the fuel it needed to spread quickly. With almost morbid fascination, Joe watched as the flames raced along the wall toward the back of the building and then turned toward the make-shift stage that had been erected. The fire paused long enough to set the wreath leaning against the stage ablaze, and then continued its sprint around the edge of the floor. The fiery wreath ignited the wooden stage and soon flames were shooting from the platform.
Moving his head from side to side, Frye looked at Joe with glazed eyes. Then, Frye’s eyes suddenly cleared. Without warning, he jerked his arm upward, hammering the side of Joe’s head with his fist. Joe wasn’t expecting the blow, and the punch seemed to rattle his brain. He released his hold on Frye’s shirt and crumpled to the floor, hitting the hard wood with his head as he landed.
Stunned by both the blow and the fall, Joe laid unmoving on the floor. He heard a roaring in his ears and sparks of light exploded in front of his eyes. His arms and legs felt heavy, useless. A small part of Joe’s brain was urging him to move, but the rest of his body refused to obey. Joe knew he was on the floor and wondered dully how he had gotten there. For several moments, he simply laid still and watched the black smoke that was beginning to curl and thicken above him.
At last, the part of his brain that was urging Joe to move got a response. He blinked twice and tilted his head until it was almost resting on his shoulder. Expending what felt like an extraordinary amount of effort, Joe pushed himself up from the floor. He winced and gritted his teeth as head throbbed, but Joe continued to push against the floor until he was in a sitting position.
Joe sat for a moment with his head hanging forwarded as he waited for the pain inside his skull to abate. When the throbbing finally eased, Joe raised his head slowly and looked around.
The flames that had been licking the walls had found new fuel in the wooden tables and the row of chairs on either side of Joe. He could feel the heat as the fire burned its way from the perimeter of the building toward its center. Dark smoke swirled around him and Joe coughed as the smoke found its way into his mouth and nose. He could see nothing but flames and smoke all around him.
“Frye!” Joe called loudly. “Frye! Where are you?” He coughed the smoke out of his lungs and tried again. “Frye! Answer me! We have to get out of here!” Joe listened hard but heard nothing except the crackle of burning wood. Frye either couldn’t answer or had left, abandoning Joe to whatever fate the fire had for him. Joe knew it was too late to worry about Frye. He had to concentrate on saving himself.
Dazed and disoriented, Joe peered through the smoke, trying to figure out which way he was facing. He knew he had only one chance to find the front of the building and the doorway that led to safety. If he moved in the wrong direction, he wouldn’t have time to correct his mistake. Joe could see a sea of flames to his left, but wasn’t sure what was fueling the fire. If it was the stage, then the entrance was to his right. But if the chairs were fueling the blaze to his left, then the pathway to safety was in front of him.
Turning his body, Joe began crawling to toward the flames, hoping he could tell what was burning and which way to go in order to escape. He stopped and reached out his hand, but felt nothing, then began crawling forward again. Once more he stopped and reached forward but his outstretched hand felt only heat and air. He was beginning to think he was facing the stage, but Joe knew it was worth his life to be sure. Forcing himself to continue toward the flames, Joe crawled a few more feet before stopping. Yet again, he stretched his arm forward and this time his hand bumped into something hard. He touched the smoke-obscured object, moving his hand around until he felt the thin, rounded leg of a chair.
A small smile of satisfaction broke out on Joe’s face as he backed away from the flames. The row of chairs was in front of him, which meant the entrance to the warehouse was now to his right. Joe crawled rapidly backward until he was a good distance from the fire, then turned his body to the right. For a moment, Joe considered getting to his feet and trying to run out of the burning building. But he knew the smoke would be thinner closer to the floor and he could breathe what little air was left in the warehouse. Besides, his head was still throbbing and he felt a bit dizzy. Joe decided he was better off using four limbs to balance himself than just two.
Joe heard a loud crash behind him as some piece of burning material fell to the floor. He didn’t bother to look to see what it was. He could feel the heat of the flames intensifying and see the smoke thickening. Joe knew he had no time to lose. He began crawling forward, praying that the entrance to the warehouse wasn’t too far away.
As he moved on all fours across the floor, Joe came across pieces of debris, some smoldering and others bright with flames. Joe pushed these aside, even though the fragments singed his hands. He didn’t want to crawl around the burning pieces and take a chance on getting disoriented again. He knew his only hope was to keep moving in as straight a line as possible toward the door.
The smoke near the floor was getting thicker and Joe began to cough. His head was spinning, and the roaring had resumed in his ears. His arms and legs began to tremble as his strength started to ebb away. Joe wasn’t sure if the fire or the blow to head – or both – were the cause of his difficulties, but he knew it didn’t matter. He had to keep moving forward; he had to continue crawling and pushing himself toward the front of the building.
After crawling for what seemed a mile, Joe’s right arm gave way and he fell forward. He tried to push himself up again, but his arm felt as if it was made out of putty. Joe reached out with his left arm, trying to pull himself across the floor with that one limb, but his left arm didn’t seem to work properly either. The thick smoke enveloped him and the heat from the flames seemed closer than ever. His thinking confused by the fumes from the smoke, Joe decided it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a minute before continuing toward the door. He laid his head on the floor and closed his eyes.
And then, without warning, Joe felt a pair of hands taking a firm grasp on his left upper arm, followed by a second pair of hands grasping his right arm. He felt himself being dragged for a short distance and then pulled to his feet. His right arm was flung across a neck and shoulders, and then the action was repeated with his left arm. Joe felt two arms – one from the right and one from the left – wrapping themselves around his body. He was propelled forward, being pushed and dragged at the same time. In less than a minute, Joe felt a rush of cool, fresh air against his face. He breathed in deeply, sucking the clean air into his lungs, as he continued to be pulled forward.
Pulling his horse to a rather abrupt stop, Ben Cartwright jumped out of the saddle and hurried toward the door of the brick building in which Dr. Martin’s office was housed. The man who had ridden out to the Ponderosa from Virginia City to advise Ben to come to town right away had offered him little in the way of hard facts. He had only known that the warehouse in which the Christmas Dance had been held had somehow caught on fire, and Joe had been trapped inside. Adam and Hoss had pulled their brother from the burning building only minutes before it had begun to collapse. The last thing the man had seen was Adam and Hoss carrying Joe toward the doctor’s office.
The fear and anxiety Ben felt was evident on his face as he pushed open the door and walked into the doctor’s office. In the waiting room, Ben hesitated, looking around for someone from whom he could demand information. Then the door to the examining room in front of him opened, and Dr. Paul Martin emerged.
Ben’s body sagged a bit as he let out a sigh of relief. “How bad is he hurt?” he asked, his voice trembling a bit.
“Of course,” replied Dr. Martin. He moved aside and motioned Ben toward the room behind him.
Walking rapidly, Ben entered the examining room and saw his three sons. Adam was sprawled in a chair, and Hoss leaned against the edge of the examining table. Their relaxed poses confirmed to Ben that Joe was all right. Nevertheless, he walked straight toward his youngest son. He gave Joe a quick hug and then stepped back to examine the young man himself. Sitting on the edge of the examining table with his feet dangling a few inches above the floor, Joe waited patiently as his father looked him over.
If the doctor hadn’t told him so, Ben wouldn’t have believed that Joe had escaped from the fire with only minor injuries. Joe’s pants were streaked with soot and smoke, as was the front of his shirt – the part of the shirt not protected by stained green jacket which lay in a heap on the floor by the table. A large white bandage circled Joe’s head, holding in place a small squared white cloth positioned toward the back and left of his skull. Even though Joe’s face had been cleaned, Ben could see the dark bruises on his son’s chin and cheekbone. White bandages were wrapped around the palms of Joe’s hands. Ben pursed his lips a bit as his eyes raked over Joe from head to toe. “How are you feeling, son?” he asked in a quiet voice.
After taking a deep breath, Joe related the story of his extraordinary meeting with Edwin Frye to his father. It was a story Joe had told twice already, once to his brothers and a second time to Sheriff Roy Coffee. Joe fervently hoped this was the last time he was going to have to tell it.
“What happened to Frye?” asked Ben after Joe had finished.
“But will he come back?” persisted Ben.
“You mean Tiny Tim?” asked Hoss. | 2019-04-22T08:00:49Z | https://womenwritersblock.net/2018/04/04/the-ghost-of-christmas-past-by-susan/ |
Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) can be a devastating complication of ischemic stroke. Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBO-PC) has been shown to improve blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability in stroke models. The purpose of this study is to examine whether HBO-PC attenuates HT after focal cerebral ischemia, and to investigate whether the mechanism of HBO-PC against HT includes up-regulation of antioxidants in hyperglycemic rats.
Male Sprague-Dawley rats (280-320 g) were divided into the following groups: sham, middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h, and MCAO treated with HBO-PC. HBO-PC was conducted giving 100% oxygen at 2.5 atm absolute (ATA), for 1 h at every 24 h interval for 5 days. At 24 h after the last session of HBO-PC, rats received an injection of 50% glucose (6 ml/kg intraperitoneally) and were subjected to MCAO 15 min later. At 24 h after MCAO, neurological behavior tests, infarct volume, blood-brain barrier permeability, and hemoglobin content were measured to evaluate the effect of HBO-PC. Western blot analysis of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) was evaluated at multiple time-points before and after MCAO.
HBO-PC improved neurological behavior test, and reduced infarction volume, HT and Evans blue extravasation in the ipsilateral hemisphere at 24 h after MCAO. Western blot analysis failed to demonstrate up-regulation of Nrf2 in HBO-PC group before and after MCAO. Paradoxically, HBO-PC decreased HO-1 expression at 24 h after MCAO, as compared with htMCAO group.
HBO-PC improved neurological deficits, infarction volume, BBB disruption, and HT after focal cerebral ischemia. However, its mechanism against focal cerebral ischemia and HT may not include activation of Nrf2 and subsequent HO-1 expression.
Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) of ischemic stroke contributes largely to the early mortality and poor functional recovery of affected patients. Experimental studies have shown that preischemic hyperglycemia increases the risk of bleeding into cerebral infarction area, which aggravates brain damage after reperfusion . Hyperglycemia-enhanced HT may be linked to increased activity of inflammation and oxidative stress, which cause blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and neuronal cell death . Oxidative stress leading to ischemic cell death involves the formation of reactive oxygen species/reactive nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), which induce BBB disruption through degradation of junctional proteins composing tight junction [3, 4].
Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a cap 'n' Collar transcription factor, regulates a lot of antioxidant/detoxification genes acting in synergy to remove ROS/RNS through sequential enzymatic reactions [5, 6]. Under non-stressed conditions, Nrf2 interacts with Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap l) to form the Keap 1-Nrf2 complex that limits Nrf2-mediated gene expression. Upon activation, the Keap 1-Nrf2 complex is dissociated, Nrf2 translocates into the nuclei to bind antioxidant response element (ARE) and activates ARE-dependent transcription of important antioxidant and detoxification genes (Phase II genes) . Phase II genes, including heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) and NAD(P)H quinone oxidoreductase, work in synergy to constitute a pleiotropic cellular defense that scavenges ROS/RNS, detoxifies electrophiles and xenobiotics, maintain intracellular reducing potential [7, 8]. HO-1 is a ubiquitous and redox-sensitive inducible stress protein that degrades heme to carbon monooxide, iron and biliverdin . All products of heme oxygenases exert strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic effects.
Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBO-PC) induces tolerance against brain ischemia reperfusion injury by up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes , as well as ischemia tolerance in organs including the spinal cord , myocardium , and liver . Recent investigation indicated that HBO-PC could induce cytoprotective effect on human microvascular endothelial cell via upregulation of Nrf2 and HO-1 . The purpose of this study is to examine whether HBO-PC attenuates HT after focal cerebral ischemia, and to investigate whether the mechanism of HBO-PC against HT includes Nrf2/HO-1 up-regulation in hyperglycemic rats.
All experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Loma Linda University; 96 male Sprague-Dawley rats were purchased from Harlan Laboratories (Indianapolis, IN) and randomly divided into the following groups: middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) with hemorrhagic transformation (htMCAO; n = 40), HBO preconditioned htMCAO (HBO-PC; n = 40), and sham-operated group (sham; n = 16) for analysis of Evans blue extravasation and Western blot. All rats received 50% dextrose (6 ml/kg) intraperitoneally 30 min before MCAO to induce acute hyperglycemia. Anesthesia was induced with ketamine and xylazine (80 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg respectively, intraperitoneally), followed by atropine at a dose of 0.1 mg/kg subcutaneously. During surgery and postoperative period, rectal temperature was maintained at 37.0°C by using a feedback-controlled heating pad.
MCAO was performed as reported previously . Briefly, the right external carotid artery was isolated and coagulated. A 4-0 nylon suture with a round tip was inserted into the internal carotid artery through the external carotid artery stump and advanced to occlude the origine of MCA. The suture was removed at 2 h after occlusion. Blood was obtained from the tail vein for analysis of glucose level at multiple time-points.
Rats were pressurized in a research hyperbaric chamber (1300B; Sechrist) at 2.5 atm absolutes with 100% oxygen (flow of 22 L/min). Compression and decompression were maintained at a rate of 5 psi/min. A 1-h HBO session was administered daily for 5 consecutive days; the last session was performed 24 h before MCAO.
As previously reported , 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride monohydrate (TTC) staining was performed to determine the infarct volume at 24 h after MCAO. The possible interference of brain edema with infarct volume was corrected by standard methods (whole contralateral hemisphere volume - nonischemic ipsilateral hemisphere volume) and the infarct volume was expressed as a ratio of infarct volume to the whole contralateral hemisphere .
Hemorrhagic transformation was quantified with spectrophotometric assay of brain hemoglobin content . At 24 h after MCAO (22 h after reperfusion) or sham-operation, the animals were perfused transcardially with 0.1 mol/l phosphate-buffered saline under deep anesthesia until the outflow fluid from the right atrium was colorless. The brain was rapidly removed and dissected into the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
Cerebral hemorrhage was quantified using a previously described spectrophotometric assay with some modifications . A standard curve was obtained using a "virtual" model of hemorrhage. Incremental volumes of homologous blood (0, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 μl) were added to the perfused brain tissue. The hemispheric brain tissue was then homogenized in distilled water followed by 30-min centrifugation (13,000 g). Drabkin reagent (1.6 ml; Sigma) was added to 0.4 ml supernatant aliquots and optical density was measured at 540 nm via spectrophotometer (Spectronix 3000; Milton-Roy). Hemoglobin measurements were performed and compared with the standard curve to obtain data in terms of hemorrhage volume. The total hemispheric hemoglobin content was expressed as μl of blood per hemisphere.
The integrity of the BBB was investigated by measuring the extravasation of Evans blue in sham, htMCAO, and HBO-PC group (n = 5 each). Evans blue dye (2% in saline, 5 ml/kg) was injected intravenously at 23 h after operation. One hour after Evans blue injection, the chest wall was opened under deep anesthesia and animals were perfused with 0.1 mol/l phosphate-buffered saline through the left ventricle to remove the intravascular localized dye until colorless perfusion fluid was obtained from the right atrium. After decapitation, brains were removed, weighed, and homogenized in 1.0 ml of 0.1 mol/l phosphate-buffered saline, and centrifuged at 15,000 rpm for 30 min. Then 0.6 ml of the resultant supernatant was added to an equal volume of trichloroacetic acid. After overnight incubation at 4°C and centrifugation at 15,000 rpm for 30 min, the supernatant was measured at 615 nm for absorbance using a spectrophotometer (pectronix 3000; Milton-Roy). The tissue content of Evans blue was quantified from a linear standard curve and was expressed as micrograms per gram of brain tissue .
At 24 h after MCAO, a neurological examination was performed by a blinded investigator as previously described with modifications . The scores given to each rat at the completion of the evaluation was the summation of all 7 individual test scores .
The animals were euthanized under general anesthesia at 24 h after operation (n = 6, each group), 2 and 24 h after the last HBO session (n = 5, each). Brains were collected and protein extracts from nuclear and cytosolic fraction were obtained using a nuclear extraction kit and following the manufacturer protocol (Millipore). Equal amounts of total protein (20 μg) were separated in 10% SDS-PAGE and blotted onto nitrocellulose membranes. The probing antibodies included polyclonal rabbit anti-Nrf2 antibody (1:1000; Abcam Inc), rabbit anti-heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) polyclonal antibody (1:1000; Enzo Life Sciences), goat anti-actin (1:2000; Santa Cruz), and mouse anti-histone H1 monoclonal antibody (1:500; Millipore Inc). Bands were detected by ECL plus Western blotting detection kit (GE Healthcare) and recorded on X-ray film (Kodak). Bands were quantified by optical density method using Image J software, and densities were expressed relative to histone H1 (nuclear fraction), actin (cytosolic fraction) or sham.
Data were expressed as the mean ± SEM. Statistical differences among groups were analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance followed by the Turkey method. Comparisons between the two groups for the infarction volume, hemorrhagic volume and the neurological scores were assessed by the unpaired t-test, and for mortality rate by chi-square test. P< 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
The glucose levels at 2 h after injection in both groups were significantly higher than the baseline and high glucose level was lasted by 6 h after injection. HBO-PC had no effects on the blood glucose level (Figure 1).
Hyperbarc preconditioning had no effect on blood glcose levels at 4 time-points. Blood was obtained from the tail vein for analysis of blood glcose before, 2 h, 4 h, and 6 h after administration of dextrose. There were not significant differences in the time course of blood glucose levels between HBO-PC group and htMCAO group.
To examine whether HBO-PC exerts a beneficial effect on HT after focal ischemia, neurological scores, infarction volume and hemorrhagic volume were evaluated in htMCAO and HBO-PC group. HBO preconditioned animals showed statistically better neurological function as compared with those of htMCAO group (7.00 ± 1.55 versus 12.58 ± 1.36, P< 0.01; Figure 2). HBO-PC significantly reduced the infarction volume on TTC staining at 24 h after MCAO (0.260 ± 0.017 versus 0.126 ± 0.031, P< 0.01; Figure 3A, B). Spectrophotometric measurement of brain hemoglobin showed that hemoglobin contents of HBO preconditioned animals were significantly lower than those of htMCAO group (10.37 ± 1.69 versus 15.17 ± 0.76 μL/hemisphere, P< 0.05; Figure 3C).
HBO preconditioning significantly improved neurological outcome. Modified Garcia score was used. The minimum neurological score (most severe) was 3, and the maximum was 21. HBO preconditioning significantly improved the postischemic neurological deficit at 24 h after MCAO.
HBO preconditioning significantly reduced infarction volume and hemorrhage volume. (A) Representative whole brains and brain slices with 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining of each groups were demonstrated. HBO-PC reduced infarction volume and attenuated hemorrhagic transformation. (B) Bar graphs showing average infarct size calculated in six slices. HBO-PC significantly reduced infarct volume at 24 h after reperfusion compared to htMCAO group. (C) Hemorrhage volume was significantly reduced with HBO-PC. *P> 0.05 vs. htMCAO.
Evans blue extravasation with righ hemisphere of htMCAO animals was significantly increased as compared with those of sham operated rats (4.52 ± 0.83 versus 1.99 ± 0.42 μg/g, P< 0.05). HBO-PC significantly reduced the extravasation of Evans blue as compared with those of htMCAO group (4.52 ± 0.83 versus 2.16 ± 0.47 μg/g, P< 0.05; Figure 4).
HBO preconditioning significantly reduced Evans blue extravasation. Animals were injected with Evans blue 23 h after MCAO. At 1 h after injection, animals were sacrificed after cardiac perfusion and quantitative evaluation analysis was evaluated. Extravasated Evans blue dye was significantly reduced by HBO-PC. *P > 0.05 vs. htMCAO, #P > 0.05 vs. sham.
However HBO-PC failed to improve the mortality rate as compared with htMCAO group (32.5% versus 37.5% in htMCAO group, P> 0.05, chi-square test). No animal died in the sham group.
Western blot analysis showed that HBO-PC had no effect on Nrf2 regulation. No change was found in the protein expression of Nrf2 in both fractions at 2 or 24 h after the last session of HBO, without subsequent MCAO (Figure 5). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in Nrf2 expression of both fractions at 24 h after MCAO as compared with htMCAO group (Figure 6). Result also shows that no change was found in time-course of HO-1 expression (Figure 5C). However, It is notable that HBO-PC decreased HO-1 at 24 h after MCAO as compared with htMCAO group (Figure 6C).
HBO preconditioning had no effect on Nrf2 and HO-1 regulation before tMCAO. Representative immunoblots of Nrf2 in nuclear fraction (A), Nrf2 in cytosolic fraction (B), and HO-1 in cytosolic fraction (C) at different time points after the last session of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. There was no statistically significant difference among each time points following HBO-PC.
HBO preconditioning had no effect on Nrf2 regulation, and significantly reduced HO-1 expression. Representative immunoblots and densitometric analysis of Nrf2 in nuclear fraction (A), Nrf2 in cytosolic fraction (B), and HO-1 in cytosolic fraction (C) at 24 h after MCAO. HBO-PC had no effect on Nrf2 regulation. Furthermore, HO-1 was downregulated by HBO-PC. *P> 0.05 vs. htMCAO, #P> 0.05 vs. sham.
In this study, we investigated the effect of HBO-PC on HT after transient MCAO and demonstrated that HBO-PC reduced neurological deficit, infarction volume, BBB permeability and HT at 24 h after ischemia. However, no change was found in time-course of Nrf2 in nuclear fraction and HO-1 in cytosolic fraction after repeated HBO exposure, and Nrf2 in nuclear fraction was not upregulated by HBO-PC at 24 h after MCAO. Paradoxically, HBO-PC reduced the protein expression of HO-1 as compared to htMCAO group.
It has been previously suggested that exposure to non-lethal stress can induce protection against subsequent exposure to lethal or more severe stress of a different kind, which is known as cross-tolerance . HBO-PC has been demonstrated to induce cross-tolerance against global cerebral ischemia and focal cerebral ischemia . Under the condition of critical oxidative stress like reperfusion injury, effects of HBO-PC have been attributed not only to reducing ROS/RNS but also to increase of antioxidants which are induced by non-lethal oxidative stress.
Microarray analysis showed that gene expression of Nrf2 and HO-1 was immediately upregulated after HBO administration in human microvascular endothelial cells . In in vivo models, HBO has been shown to induce HO-1 overexpression in the lung . HBO-PC could induce tolerance against ischemia-reperfusion injury by upregulation of HO-1 expression and activity in liver and kidney . Our data did not confirm these findings in the brain of glucose enhanced HT model.
It has been demonstrated that repeated HBO reduced superoxide dismutase and catalase while glutathione peroxidase was up-regulated as compared to single exposure of HBO in blood plasma of patients and the liver of rats . Hence, there is possibility that certain antioxidants may be reduced by repeated exposure of HBO as compared with single exposure. Nrf2 is considered to be activated by ROS/RNS as a non-lethal stress caused by HBO exposure. As a result, repeated preconditioning with HBO down-regulates Nrf2 activation and its downstream effector HO-1 after ischmic insult. On the other hand, several studies measured antioxidants as potential indirect markers of oxidative stress taking place in the brain with stroke . Hemorrhagic transformation and infarction volume of HBO preconditioned group was significantly reduced in this current study, which indicates HO-1 was up-regulated in proportion to the degree of hemorrhagic transformation and infarction. In any case, activated Nrf2/ARE pathway and subsequent HO-1 up-regulation could not be regarded as a cause of reducing HT after repeated HBO exposure in focal ischemia rats.
In this study, hemoglobin leakage in the brain of HBO-PC group was approximately 32% less than in htMCAO group, whereas infarction volume was approximately 52% less. These results indicate that attenuation of HT after HBO-PC can be accountable for reduction in infarction volume. However, Evans blue extravasation in HBO-PC was significantly reduced and approximating to those of the sham group at 24 h after MCAO. This result suggested that HBO-PC is expected to reduce BBB permeability more effectively if observation is undertaken over an extended period. Previous reports demonstrated that HBO-PC suppressed matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 9 activity after global ischemia and focal ischemia in brain . In the context of HT after cerebral ischemia, MMPs may degrade extracellular matrix and vascular basal lamina, weaken vessels, and predispose them to leakage and rupture. These reports indicate that HBO-PC can reduce HT not only due to the reduction of infarction volume but amelioration of BBB disruption.
HBO-PC did not reduce the mortality rate comapred to htMCAO group despite improvement in neurobehavior tests and HT. It is possible that HBO-PC did not improve systemic complications due to hyperglycemia and MCAO that contributed to the high mortality rates. Systemic complications such as extracellular acidosis have been reported to occur after transient MCAO in hyperglycemic rats . Further study will be needed to investigate the complications which are not directly related to the brain damage but may cause high mortality rates.
HBO-PC has been suggested to reduce oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis in ischemia-reperfusion injury. The result of this study indicates that there are some other mechanisms which contribute to attenuate HT after glucose enhanced ischemia-reperfusion injury in brain. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation that HBO-PC can reduce HT after ischemia. Further studies will be needed to explore the mechanism and to define the optimal regimen of HBO-PC.
YS conducted most of the animal surgery and wrote the first draft of this paper. RPO provided guidance for surgery and technical support for morphological studies. AM conducted animal behavioral testing. MF assisted in molecular biological studies. JT provided guidance in molecular biological studies. JHZ provided overall supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. | 2019-04-20T06:25:43Z | https://medicalgasresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2045-9912-2-9 |
Exposure to solid–liquid and air–water interfaces during production, freezing and thawing, shipment and storage of protein therapeutics may be a contributing factor in their degradation (e.g., aggregation, fragmentation) (1, 2). Surface exposure, particularly during manufacturing processes, often is accompanied by various degrees and durations of shear stresses originating from fluid flow and acting on proteins at interfaces. The magnitude and duration of shear rates depends on velocity gradients within each solution and varies significantly among manufacturing steps. On the low end, a shear rate of 50 s–1 (inverse seconds or Hertz) is applied to biotherapeutics during mixing processes typically lasting from minutes to hours. On the high end of the range, shear rates of up to tens of thousands of Hertz arise during filling (up to a million during high-pressure homogenization), but those usually are limited in duration to mere seconds (3). Additionally, proteins may be subjected to high shear rates when injected through thin needles (4).
No consensus yet has been reached on whether surface interaction, shear stress, a combination of those, or other events (e.g., cavitation) are causative for frequently observed protein aggregation (3, 5–7). Although Bee and colleagues found that the shear rates of manufacturing and injection are insufficient to induce protein aggregation or denaturation, Biddlecombe and colleagues have expressed an opposing opinion (4, 6). Using a rotating-disk device as a shear stress environment, they found that a shear rate of 30,000 s–1 can cause aggregation of an IgG4 as assessed by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). However, the extensive solid–water interface could be a major contributor to protein degradation in their experimental set-up.
Previously, Perevozchikova and colleagues showed that a monoclonal antibody (MAb 1) in a citrate formulation adsorbed irreversibly to solid silicon oxide (SiOx) surfaces (8). Desorption induced by gentle buffer rinses over the SiOx layer resulted in formation of subvisible, micron-sized protein particles; however, no smaller oligomers were observed using multiple techniques.
Here, we extend this area of study by introducing high shear stress and evaluating the stability of the above-mentioned formulation (MAb 1 in citrate buffer) exposed to solid–water interfaces in the presence of a 20,000-s–1 shear rate, which resembles the maximum shear stresses encountered in biomanufacturing. We compare the degradation of MAb 1 in a citrate formulation to that of MAb 1 and MAb 2 in alternative histidine formulations to determine whether a common aggregation pathway exists for shear/surface-stressed antibodies. To test whether higher shear rates but shorter surface exposures would have the same detrimental effect on protein quality, we also subject those formulations to shear rates typical of injections.
We used three MAb formulations at 20 mg/mL in this study: MAb 1 in a citrate-based formulation and a histidine-based formulation and MAb 2 in a histidine-based formulation. To mimic the effects of manufacturing stress on biotherapeutic stability, we subjected both MAbs to the shear rate of 20,000 s–1 for 300 and 1,800 seconds, respectively. Both periods significantly exceed the typical durations of milliseconds to several seconds when proteins experience 20,000 s–1, and we chose them to demonstrate a worst-case, forced-degradation scenario.
We created a controlled shear-stress environment using a rotation rheometer set-up as previously described by Bee and colleagues (3). Stress is induced by placing 0.3 mL of a MAb sample onto the lower plate of the parallel plate (PP) measuring system (0.1-mm gap) of an Anton Paar Physica M301 rheometer and subjecting it to rotational shear for a specified period. We repeated this procedure three times to collect an amount of stressed sample sufficient for our planned analytical testing.
To control for degradation induced by surface interactions alone, we placed an aliquot of the protein formulation on the PP50 unit between nonrotating plates for a selected period (300 or 1,800 seconds). To estimate the contribution of nonproteinaceous particles leached from the PP surface to the overall microflow imaging (MFI) counts observed in stressed MAb formulations, we applied an additional citrate buffer sample to the rheometer at 20,000 s–1 for 1,800 seconds.
For the high–shear-rate and short–surface-exposure stress conditions, we subjected MAb 1 and MAb 2 molecules to shear rates of ~100,000 s–1 and ~300,000 s–1 by injecting them through a 27-gauge needle at 0.0625 and 0.2 mL/s, respectively. To amplify the amount of stress applied to these samples, we injected each formulation three times. A 3-mL MAb formulation sample in a 10-mL Becton Dickinson (BD) syringe with a 27-gauge needle was placed on a syringe-pump (Harvard Apparatus) set up with one of the two specified flow rates.
To evaluate whether any particles were contributed by the surface of the syringe itself, we poured a control sample directly between the inner surfaces of two 10-mL syringe barrels for a total of three times. Table 1 describes samples created during this study. Exposed MAb samples were analyzed by visual inspection, SEC with multiple-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and MFI. We analyzed the citrate buffer sample with MFI alone.
Visual Inspection: We evaluated sample appearance by visually examining the color, clarity, and particulate content of each test article. Colors were evaluated by comparison with a certified color standard prepared to a prespecified range of intensities in accordance with the European Pharmacopoeia. Clarity was evaluated by comparison with water. We also visually examined our samples for the presence of particulate matter.
SEC-MALS: To determine the molecular-weight distribution of our biopharmaceuticals, we used high-performance SEC-MALS with UV and refractive index (RI) concentration detectors. Each species was separated on a 30 cm × 7.8 mm TSK-GEL G3000 SWXL analytical column (Tosoh Biosciences). For light-scattering measurements, we used an 18-angle Dawn Heleos II laser light scattering unit (Wyatt Technology) equipped with a QELS probe at detector 16 (140.7°). We measured sample concentration by UV detection at 280 nm.
Using a first-degree fit of the Zimm formalism in Astra 6 software (Wyatt Technology) and the standard protein refractive index increment (dn/dc) value of 0.185, we calculated molecular weight. Light-scattering detectors were normalized to the 90° detector in the mobile phase using isotropic scattering of a bovine serum albumin (BSA) monomer before all calculations.
DLS: Formation of aggregates in the nanometer-scale size range was followed by DLS using the Mobius Wyatt instrument in QELS mode. We placed undiluted 55-µL samples into disposable cuvettes and analyzed them with a DLS acquisition time of two seconds, collecting a total of 10 DLS acquisitions per measurement. Then we obtained an average of three measurements and calculated the standard deviation for adding to the graphs.
Data were analyzed using a 0.5-nm minimum and 1,000-nm maximum species size. Monomer peak 1 was assumed to represent monomer species because it ranged to 10 nm, peak 2 would represent smaller oligomers (tetramer to decamer), and peak 3 would be larger species (hundreds of nanometers). We measured the hydrodynamic radius, percent polydispersity, and percentages by intensity and mass of each defined peak.
MFI is an image-based method that measures particles as they flow through the detection zone in a flow cell. We used a Protein Simple MFI DPA4100 instrument for subvisible particle analysis, operating the instrument at low-magnification mode (5×) with a 400-µm flow cell. For each analysis, we set the sample run flow rate at 0.22 mL/min and analyzed 0.5-mL samples in triplicate. We checked flow-cell cleanliness with a blank run using water for injection (WFI) before each measurement. Particle concentrations (number of particles/mL) are reported in different size ranges based on their measured equivalent circular diameter.
Figure 1: Dynamic light-scattering (DLS) experiments evaluate the aggregation propensity of MAbs subjected to different durations of shear stress and extents of surface exposure; (top) change in molecular hydrodynamic radii; (middle) percent polydispersity with increasing exposure to shear stress; (bottom) percent by mass of monomer peak reduced for sample exposures to the large surface area but relatively low shear stress. Error bars are calculated from running experiments in triplicate on each sample.
Visual inspection indicated different initial general properties of tested formulations. MAb 1 was a hazy, colorless solution in both formulations; whereas MAb 2 represented a slightly yellow (BY6) liquid. Nevertheless, we found that all collected samples retained their original visual characteristics and remained particle free, signifying that no visible aggregates were formed by exposure to the shear stresses.
SEC-MALS Analysis: We used SEC-MALS to probe low–molecular-weight (MW) oligomers formed as a response to prolonged surface interactions in the presence of a 20,000 s–1 shear rate. Data obtained revealed no monomer loss in any of the three formulations (Table 2). We observed the same results for MAbs exposed to different injection shear rates (data not shown).
DLS: We investigated the formation of nanometer-scale aggregates using DLS. Figure 1(top) shows that no detectable changes in hydrodynamic radius (Rh) of peak 1 species (Rh cut-offs of 0.1–10 nm) resulted from low shear with long surface and high shear with short surface exposure. Similarly, we observed no trend of increasing polydispersity as a function of increasing shear stress in this study (Figure 1, middle). Both observations are in agreement with the SEC-MALS data, suggesting that formation of small aggregates is not associated with stresses induced in all conditions.
However, our assessment of the percent by mass of peak 1 (Figure 1, bottom) indicated a decrease of monomer contribution to the overall intensity in samples exposed to the lower 20,000 s–1 shear rate and longest surface interaction. Further examination of the DLS profile revealed the remaining species of the observed DLS signal to be aggregates sized in hundreds of nanometers. Because that size range is almost out of DLS detection capabilities, we analyzed the stressed and control samples using MFI.
Figure 2: Microflow imaging (MFI) measurements demonstrate the effect of low shear with high surface exposure and of high shear alone on particle formation in three formulations: (top) MAb 1 in citrate buffer, (middle) MAb 1 in histidine buffer, and (bottom) MAb 2 in histidine buffer. Error bars are calculated from triplicate measurements. Sample abbreviations are as described in Table 1 and Figure 1 (with CitrBuffer1800s for buffer alone subjected to 20,000 s–1 shear for 1,800 s). Control samples exposed to no stress; ECD = estimated circular diameter.
MFI: We used MFI to evaluate the propensity for subvisible particle formation as a consequence of surface interaction and/or shear stress. To control for particles possibly leaching from the surface of the rheometer during plate rotations, we subjected citrate buffer to the shear rate of 20,000 s–1 for 1,800 seconds. Figure 2(top) shows an increase in particles of all size ranges resulting from surface contact for both 300-s and 1,800-s periods (for MAb 1 in citrate buffer).
The most significant increase came with the 20,000 s–1 shear rate for 1,800 seconds. “CitrBuff1800s” demonstrates that ~6,000 particles leached from the surface of the PP set-up during rotation (compared with 98,000 particles in a protein solution). Those results suggest that the observed increase of particles throughout all size ranges should be attributed to formation of proteinaceous species and considered to be a consequence of shear stress and surface interaction on protein stability.
But the MAb 1 citrate sample exposed to syringe injection (high shear with low surface exposure) demonstrated a negligible increase in the number of particles, with most of those originating from silicon oil droplets in the solution (their aspect ratio being ≥0.85). Figures 2(middle) and 2(bottom) show a similar observation for both MAb 1 and MAb 2 in histidine buffers: a measurable increase in particle count related to the low shear and surface interaction of the PP, but no effect of high shear on the observed particle formation after triple needle injection.
Figure 3 shows a screening for particle-formation propensity of tested formulations and antibodies caused by exposure of protein molecules to 20,000 s–1 shear rates for 1,800 seconds. Throughout all size ranges — except for particles >50 µm, which are too few to reliably compare the formulations — the MAb 1 histidine formulation appears to be the most stable against shear/surface-induced degradation. MAb 1 in citrate is the most susceptible to stress-induced aggregate formation. Comparing formulated unstressed samples would yield no ranking insights: All controls show the comparable number of particles between them.
Figure 3: Screening MAb solutions for their propensity for aggregation induced by shear stress and surface interaction; three formulations were compared based on the extent of particle formation after exposure to 20,000 s–1 shear stress rate for 1,800 seconds. Straight and dotted lines represent stressed (20K1800s, samples exposed to 20,000 s–1 shear rate for 1,800 seconds) and control (Cntr, unexposed) samples, respectively. The y axis shows the number of particles formed within each size range measured as estimated circular diameter (ECD) — red (2–10 µm), blue (>10 µm), green (>25 µm), and yellow (>50 µm).
Expanding on the previous work of MAb 1 adsorption to a SiOx surface (8), we investigated whether additional stress would alter or exacerbate the degradation pathway of the molecule by exposing the same antibody to that solid interface both with and without shear stress. We have found that for MAb 1 in a citrate-based formulation, aggregates formed predominantly in the subvisible particle-size range, as detected by DLS (particle sizes in the hundreds of nanometers) and MFI (2–100 µm particle sizes). No visible aggregates were detected.
We also observed no signs of degradation using different analytical techniques for MAb 1 injected three times through a 27-gauge needle. Because no aggregate formation was detected following the high shear stress and short surface exposure of injection, we believe that a likely explanation for the observed protein instability is interaction of the protein with the solid surface. Protein adsorption to the surface could lead to partial unfolding of the molecular structure followed by desorption of the resulting partially unfolded species, which would then nucleate aggregation. Alternatively (or additionally), surface aggregates could slough off to become detectable in solution.
We find it interesting that exposing MAb 1 in a citrate solution to SiOx surfaces under low-shear conditions also led to formation of subvisible particles but not low-MW aggregates (small oligomers) or visible species (8). In terms of particle count, it is difficult to compare quantitatively the extent of protein degradation between both studies: In the original work, MAb 1 was diluted significantly with buffer during desorption.
In our experimental design, antibody solutions placed on the rheometer but not subjected to shear showed several orders of magnitude less particle formation than did shear-stressed material. Our results suggest that particle formation is intensified by the amplified desorption effects of shear stress. The alternative histidine-based formulations of both MAb 1 and MAb 2 also demonstrated aggregation (subvisible particles) at lower shear and prolonged surface interaction, but they did not demonstrate an effect from the high shear of injection. Consistency in aggregate types formed in these systems suggests a common degradation pathway for the antibodies tested.
Although the aggregation mechanism appeared to be consistent for both MAb molecules, the extent of degradation varied substantially between them and their formulations. This demonstrates that probing surface adsorption and subsequent desorption due to shear stresses can be an effective methodology to use in forced-degradation studies (Figure 3).
In preparing this manuscript for publication, I got to thinking about protein aggregation in bioreactors — in particular related to shear forces therein. We often hear about how those can cause trouble for sensitive eukaryotic cells, but I hadn’t really thought about them in relation to expressed protein stability. So I decided to do a little reading up on the topic, and here’s what I learned.
Impeller Shear Force: The classic bioreactor design uses a propeller-like apparatus to mix and stir the contents and keep them from settling in layers to the bottom of the vessel. Impellers may use radial or axial flow and come in a number of formats (1). Marine-blade, cell lift, and spin filters are low-shear options; Rushton and pitched-blade impellers less so.
In relation to the findings reported herein, what rate of shear does each impart upon a cell culture? It depends on the the rotational speed of the impeller (2). And that seemingly simple question takes you down the rabbit hole of fluid dynamics, the mathematics of which are beyond me. But the layman’s answer appears to be in the hundreds to low thousands of inverse seconds — not so daunting in relation to the forces discussed in this article. However, the duration of a fed-batch culture can be days long, and that’s where the trouble lies.
Sparger Shear Force: Spargers introduce vital gases into cultures, providing cells with what they need for “respiration” as well as helping to maintain pH and other conditions. Some bioreactors use bubblers for mixing as well. And we know that bubbles create shear, so what rates of shear do spargers impart?
The mathematics here make impeller forces look easy (2). Bubble shear depends on the superficial gas velocity and is a function of fluid/gas volume, consistency, and density. And I’m not an engineer; I just spend a lot of time around engineers. So again, I seek a general rule of thumb. And it’s interesting that the answer is similar to that for impellers above. Here too, duration is the deciding factor. So gentle mixing of a formulation for a few minutes or hours doesn’t compare to what the drug substance went through in its infancy! And as my grandfather used to say, “I can wrestle a bear for a little while.” So too, as the authors point out here, can even a fragile protein handle exponential shear rates for a second or two.
Osmolality describes osmoles (Osm) of solute present per kilogram of solvent (osmol/kg or Osm/kg); osmolarity describes the number of solute osmoles per liter of solution (osmol/L or Osm/L). We know that cells do best when these parameters in a bioreactor culture mimic those they would experience in their natural enviroment (a living body). But what does this have to do with expressed protein aggregation?
That question takes me back to one of our most popular articles of all time (3). In it, the authors point out that proteins are sensitive to slight changes in solution chemistry and remain stable “only within a relatively narrow range of pH and osmolarity.” Changing osmotic strength is a common option for reversing soluble aggregation, as well. Osmotic conditions are thus an important parameter in production, processing, and formulation of biotherapeutics. Adjusting them may alter how proteins (and cells) respond to the stresses that shear imparts upon them. Understandably, if you make your cells “happy,” then so too should be the proteins they express.
But not necessarily: Conditions inside those cells aren’t always the same as what’s outside them — most notably that pesky shear force. Controlling osmotic conditions along with temperature and pH will help keep the protein of interest correctly folded and safely in solution.
1 Mirro R, Voll K. Which Impeller Is Right for Your Cell Line? A Guide to Impeller Selection for Stirred-Tank Bioreactors. BioProcess Int. 7(1) 2009: 52–57.
2 Pérez JAS, et al. Shear Rate in Stirred Tank and Bubble Column Bioreactors. Chem. Eng. J. 124(1–3) 2006: 1-5; doi:10.1016/j.cej.2006.07.002.
3 Patel J, et al. Stability Considerations for Biopharmaceuticals: Overview of Protein and Peptide Degradation Pathways. BioProcess Int. 9(1) 2011: 20–31.
Thanks to Aarti Gidh, James Colandene, and Trevor Wiley for valuable input and insightful discussions.
1 Fleischman ML, et al. ShippingInduced Aggregation in Therapeutic Antibodies: Utilization of a Scale-Down Model to Assess Degradation in Monoclonal Antibodies. J. Pharm. Sci. 12 December 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.xphs.2016.11.021.
2 Hawe A, et al. Forced Degradation of Therapeutic Proteins. J. Pharm. Sci. 101(3) 2012: 895–913.
3 Bee JS, et al. Response of a Concentrated Monoclonal Antibody Formulation to High Shear. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 103(5) 2009: 936–943.
4 Rathore N, et al. Characterization of Protein Rheology and Delivery Forces for Combination Products. J. Pharm. Sci. 101(12) 2012: 4472–4480.
5 Biddlecombe JG, et al. Determining Antibody Stability: Creation of Solid–Liquid Interfacial Effects within a High Shear Environment. Biotechnol. Prog. 23(5) 2007: 1218–1222.
6 Biddlecombe JG, et al. Factors Influencing Antibody Stability at Solid–Liquid Interfaces in a High Shear Environment. Biotechnol. Prog. 25(5) 2009: 1499–1507.
7 Wang W, et al. Antibody Structure, Instability, and Formulation. J. Pharm. Sci. 96(1) 2007: 1–26.
8 Perevozchikova T, et al. Protein Adsorption, Desorption and Aggregation Mediated By Solid–Liquid Interface. J. Pharm. Sci. 104(6) 2015: 1946–1959.
GlaxosmithKline, 709 Swedeland Road, King of Prussia, PA, 19406; 1-610-270-5885; [email protected]. Shirley Shpungin is an associate scientist in drug product development at Janssen R&D, LLC (Malvern, PA), and Charlene Brisbane is director of drug product development and operations in biologics CMC at Teva Pharmaceuticals (West Chester, PA). | 2019-04-19T08:28:37Z | https://bioprocessintl.com/analytical/pre-formulation/aggregation-shear-stress-surface-interaction-molecule-specific-universal-phenomenon/ |
I have written several posts about the different types of rubrics—especially my favorite, the single-point rubric—and over time, many teachers have asked me about the most effective way to convert the information on these rubrics into points. Even if you are moving toward a no grades classroom, as a growing number of educators are, you may still be required to supply points or letter grades for student assignments.
Despite the title of this post, all I can really offer here is a description of my own process. It has been refined over years of trial and error, and the only evidence I have to back up its effectiveness is that in over 10 years of teaching middle school and college, I can only recall one or two times when a student or parent challenged a grade I gave based on a rubric. This is by no means the only way to do it—I’m sure plenty of other processes exist—but this is what has worked for me.
Before I get into the specifics of the scores themselves, I’m going to describe all the things that happen before those points go into the grade book. I’ll do this with an example scenario: Suppose I want my eighth-grade students to write a narrative account of a true story. This will not be a personal narrative, but rather a journalistic piece that illustrates some larger concept, such as the story of one student’s chaotic after-school routine to illustrate the problem of some kids having too many activities and homework after school.
I would also consult with my standards and curriculum materials, to make sure I wasn’t missing something relevant and to make sure the language in my rubric is aligned with those standards.
If you have been working with single-point rubrics, you know that the left-hand column is reserved for indicating how students need to improve. The right-hand column has a different title than what I have used in the past. In earlier versions I titled this column”Exceeds Expectations,” providing space to tell students how they exceeded the standards. I have adapted it here to “Above and Beyond” to make it more open-ended. It can be a place to describe where students have gone beyond the expectations, or it could be a place where the teacher or the student could suggest ways the work could reach even further, a place to set “stretch goals” appropriate to that student’s readiness and the task at hand.
Once my criteria have been defined, and if I will ultimately be giving points for this assignment, I need to decide how to divide those points across each category. Assuming a total of 100 points for this assignment, I would weigh certain components more heavily than others. Because my main goal is for students to write a robust, well-developed story, I would place more value on the top two categories—structure and idea development. This is an area where subjectivity can take over, and where rubrics can really vary from one teacher to another. So again, keep in mind that this is what it looks like for me.
This part is crucial. Even if students are not included in the development of the rubric itself, it’s absolutely vital to let them study that rubric before they ever complete the assignment. The rubric loses most of its value if students aren’t aware of it until the work is already done, so let them see it ahead of time. I typically provide students with a printed copy of the rubric when we are in the beginning stages of working on a big assignment like this, along with a prompt that describes the task itself.
Another powerful step that makes the rubric even more effective is to score sample products as a class, using the rubric as a guide. I often created these samples myself, building in the kinds of problems I often saw in that type of writing. Occasionally I would use a piece of writing from a previous student with their name removed. Ideally, we would score one or two of these as a whole-class activity, and then I would have students do a few more in pairs. This process really gets students paying attention to the rubric, asking questions about the criteria, and getting a much clearer picture of what quality work looks like. When it comes time to craft their own pieces, they are better at using this tool for peer review and self-assessment.
I put a check beside the criteria that has been satisfied in that draft, and add comments to the left of those that need work. In the right-hand column, I add a few suggestions for ways this student might push herself a bit more to make the piece even better.
You’ll notice that the space for scores has been left blank. There’s a reason for that: When students are given both feedback and number or letter grades, their motivation often drops and they tend to ignore the written feedback (Butler & Nisan, 1986). My own experience has proved this to be true; I have often spent hours giving written feedback on student writing, but found they often ignored that. Now I know this was because the feedback also included a grade. No-grades advocate Alfie Kohn, in his piece From Degrading to De-Grading, recommends that teachers who want to avoid this effect “make grades as invisible as possible for as long as possible.” With that in mind, in this round, students only get feedback, not scores.
Keep in mind that much of this feedback could be generated with the student, in a conference. If time permits, you could sit with the student and go through the rubric together, noting places that still need work and considering ways to take what’s already working and improve it further.
Unless the student has satisfied all the criteria on this first try, she will have an opportunity to revise her work and resubmit it, along with the original rubric. Those who did meet all the standards have the option to revise; not for a higher score (since scores haven’t been given), but to simply push the piece to an even higher level of quality.
When students have improved their work and re-submitted it, if they have gotten much closer to achieving the criteria, this would be an appropriate time to assign points to go into the grade book. If the issues raised in the first round have now been addressed, they are given a check to indicate that they are no longer a problem. In cases where all criteria in a category has been satisfied, the full number of points will be given. If a problem persists, new feedback may be added, and a portion of the points will be deducted. Again, this is the subjective part: I try to consider the work as a whole and deduct only a small percentage of the total points for a small problem. Really, if a problem is significant, the assignment should be reworked until that problem has been resolved. Once each section of the rubric has been scored, the points are totaled and that total is the score that’s entered into the grade book.
Will there be a Round 3?
That depends on you and your student. If you feel the student is growing and will put the work in to improve the piece further, and you are willing to assess it again, you should offer another round, and another, if progress is still being made.
Doesn’t this process result in most students getting an A on the assignment?
It definitely could. If a student is willing to put the time in to satisfy all the criteria, then she will get the A. Those who are used to getting A’s will have the option to push their skills to a higher level in Round 2 or will have the luxury of moving on to something else. It may bother some people that two students who may have different skill levels could end up with the same grade, but behind the scenes, the effort to reach that grade could be very different from student to student.
Heck yeah it is. Well, sort of. For me, this type of assignment would be given over the course of several weeks. By the time I have to actually give points, I have seen that student’s piece many times. I have given her informal feedback while she writes and more formal feedback in Round 1, so the time I put into all the stages ultimately results in a final product that’s much stronger than it would have been as a quick, one-time thing. And that makes the final assessment process much faster.
Doesn’t this result in students being at different stages at different times?
Yes. In many cases, you will find yourself with some students being “done” with an assignment, while others are re-doing it. Most teachers want their students to be learning the same skills at roughly the same time, and unless you are running a very personalized, Montessori-style classroom, you’ll want some kind of consistency from student to student. Consider whether you might be willing to spend only part of your class doing the more lock-step, everyone-on-the-same-page kind of work, but set aside other times for students to work on improving past assignments or doing independent work like genius hour projects.
Butler, R. & Nisan, M. (1986). Effects of no feedback, task-related comments, and grades on intrinsic motivation and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(3), 210-216.
Kohn, Alfie. “From Degrading to De-grading.” High School Magazine (1999). Retrieved 19 Aug. 2015 from www.alfiekohn.org/article/degrading-de-grading/.
Jennifer…I love the way this process lives up to Kohn’s words of keeping the grade “invisible” for as long as possible.
I’ve found that giving lots of feedback makes teaching writing less tedious and more rewarding for me, which I think is antithetical to some teachers’ opinions.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I’m going to be trying out a “criteria for success” this year–have you heard that term? I was blown away when I learned about the CFS during some summer PD. It’s much simpler to create than a rubric. It looks somewhat similar to your single-point rubric, so reading your thoughts about how to determine points was really helpful for me in allaying my concerns re: moving away from the busy, text-heavy rubrics I’ve used before. Thanks again!
Shari, if you have a link to any CFS materials, I would love to see them, and I’m sure anyone coming to this post would as well. Thank you!!
I can definitely share this one that I created for the course I was taking: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6kDpYerNa0hV3JlMkFRNVlzanM/view?usp=sharing. This one would be used for an original vignette students would write after reading The House on Mango Street.
Credit for introducing me to the Criteria for Success goes to WriteBoston. The course facilitators, who are writing coaches in public schools, explained the CFS as the first column of a rubric. It provides more flexibility for grading, is easier to develop, and is easier for some teachers to use. They reported that students respond positively to the extra white space–which your single-point rubric offers, too.
I am going to implement CFS across the board this year in the senior elective for which I am the only teacher–and plan to propose that my course partners and I adopt it for some of our common 9th grade assessments too. I think it could be tricky to align grading practices, but better in the long run for delivering individualized feedback to students.
Shari– thank you so much for sharing that. I’m creating a rubric for an assignment and that example you linked to is spot-on for what we’re doing.
This is my 18th year of teaching and I still feel like I just started learning all of the best techniques!
Gotta reply again– I am having a tough time coming up with stuff for this class (it’s health & fitness, brand new to the school, no textbook, open to whatever I want to teach) and l just finished writing the rubric in CFS style. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I got a tiny bit teary with relief at how easy that was. THANK YOU again!
Abby, I’m so, so glad this was as helpful for you as it was for me! I’m going in to year 5, and I feel so lucky to have found a profession where exploration, reflection, and trying new things are encouraged. I hope we BOTH get to experience the anticipated benefits of this new approach to grading!
Would you be willing to share that rubric?
Thank you for this! Your examples provide a very clear picture of how this could work in a Literacy class. I’m wondering, have you used this single-point format for other subjects? If so, how does it differ from a language-based assignment?
I have been using rudimentary forms of single point rubrics for years now. In my old rubrics I gave more space to the points that to the feedback. I have now shifted that.
I did not get exposed to this format until I left the classroom. Now that I am working as a Professional Learning Coordinator I have been both using this to give feedback to teachers on their curriculum work and have been pushing it as the format we should use for rubrics district wide. I am going to share this post with my colleagues since you do a far better job of explaining it than I do. I have been using different headings “Consider for revision” “Proficient” and “Area of strength” In the feedback I have been giving I also tend to write something in proficient to either explain why it was proficient or to push the recipient to think about what a next step might be.
I have always struggled with balancing the amount of feedback I give. How much can my students take and how much do I have time to write. I don’t think single point rubrics solve this but they do help us be more focused and they do save time over agonizing what box to put the student work in.
Hi Jennifer. After coming across the single-point rubric, it answered a lot of questions for me! I have spread the word in school, and others have taken a real liking to it. This point distribution system also makes a lot of sense as we usually have some kind of “hidden” hierarchy of criteria in our scoring brains. This brings that out into the light. I have experimented using the google docs preferences tool to create comment shortcuts (3-letter/punctuation combinations), so that I can quickly add oft-used comments to either side of a single-point rubric created in google docs. (I got the preferences idea from a post on Google communities.) Thanks for the Blog and the ideas therein!
Initially I wondered why people needed this post but I’m really glad I read it. It hits the formative assessment activity I needed for my classes perfectly. Thank you. Just FYI all of my extended tasks are set with rubrics which translate easily to grades or marks (points) because I generally use a 3 or 5 point category scale. With a 5 point scale each item (which comes from my state syllabus) has criteria for grades from A-E or points 5-1. I usually mark out of 15, but it’s easily adjusted to suit the task.
Shari – I really like the CFS rubric and I’ve used something similar with the scale. I’m curious as to how you would translate that into a grade? If a student was “approaching expectations” in each category (7, 4, 4, 2, 2) they would have 19 out of 30. As a percentage, that’s a 63, which is close to failing (below 60) where I work (university). Do you then take these points and convert them? Thank you!
I am curious about the scoring, too, Shimon. I teach a support-basic skills class, that follows a 7th grade curriculum. We use a district-wide rubric for our writing, and often my “best score” will look something like 19/32, which is a 59%. How do you go about converting them, please?
Thank you for your great work and sharing. I am from Spain, a Primary teacher. I have a question. I am once of those who think grades shoudn’t be to soon because I expirienced it many times. But at the end we have to. How do you go from a 100 to a grade A, and so on?
Sory for the spelling and thank you.
Hi Angela, this is Debbie, a Customer Experience Manager with CoP. Turning rubric scores into letter grades can be challenging. I’m just wondering…are you wanting to know more about how to convert an overall rubric score to a letter grade? For example, what range of scores is an A, what range is a B and so on? Or was it something else we can help with? Thanks for clarifying.
I am really glad I came in and read your piece. I was about to use a rubric structure I’ve used before and I’m going to go to 1 pt w comments for this first assignment of the marking period. I have wanted to make grades as “invisible as possible for as long as possible” for some time and I think this does it better than what I had in mind. It’s less verbose, it puts more energy into the comments than into a rubric that tries to be all things to all people. Thank you!
I ended up on this post after listening to episode 94 of your podcast, and then reading the single-point rubric post. While I have been using a variation of a single-point rubric for some time (though I had never heard of the name), I am struggling with your approach to converting the rubric to a grade.
The way we approach grades at my school is that a C is meeting expectations – which would mean the middle column on a single-point rubric would score at most a 79%. Anything that went “above and beyond” could earn a B or A grade, and anything that doesn’t meet the expectations would earn a D (or F). Generally, how I do this is to create a scale. The middle column would be worth 2 points (or a weighted version, so multiples of 2), not meeting would be worth 1 point and exceeding 3. Adding up the points possible in the entire middle column would give me the middle of my scale, and I calibrate up and down from there.
I’m wondering why there is such a big disconnect in our approaches. If meeting the grade level expectations earns an A, then a student who isn’t meeting expectations in many categories could theoretically still earn a passing grade. Is there research on grading that shows that meeting grade level expectations should earn a grade of A? I really love listening to and reading Cult of Pedagogy, and it has helped me be reflective on my own teaching practice, but I’m curious to hear more from you about this!
I guess the disconnect is really in our definition of a “C.” I have taught in two different states and have been a student in many more, plus I also have 3 kids in the public school system, and at no point have I gotten the impression that a C was really viewed as equivalent to “meeting expectations.” There have always been conversations around the idea that C was originally meant to represent “average,” with B and A representing something above that, but I think I would be hard-pressed to find a teacher who thought a student showing 75% mastery was “meeting expectations.” I think this has more to do with the connotation of a C, rather than whatever definition we’ve given to it.
What I’m presenting in this post is how I used both rubrics in a school that gave percent/letter grades, and how all of that was communicated to students, so they understood the expectations. It was not meant to prescribe a specific course of action for all teachers, but to show the process, if that makes sense. So if everyone in your school agrees on what a C, B, or an A means, and those expectations are outlined clearly ahead of time, then you’re good to go.
For me, this conversation really highlights the fallibility of grades in general, because if we just gave students feedback and didn’t try so hard to define things with letter grades, our students would get what they need and would probably be better off — it’s so difficult for everyone to agree on what grades mean, anyway. In episode 94 (and the post that goes with it), I mention the Teachers Throwing Out Grades Facebook group. I think you’d find their conversations really interesting. | 2019-04-21T12:18:00Z | https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/calculate-points-with-rubrics/ |
Blood is thicker than water… and for the Klingons, it flows just as freely.
Tall grasses swayed in the warm wind as the man stood atop his hill and observed the plains. Fat seeds pulled the grain low to the earth, but this bounty was not for a Klingon, but for the lesser animals that would feed the sacred targ. He stood tall and upright, like his ancestors since the beginning of their recorded history, as he searched the air for the scent of prey. The sunset shifted to blood red as it passed the horizon and signaled feeding time on the plains. A rumbling began, almost below the threshold of his senses, and far off in the distance a cloud of dust rose, in spite of the muggy air—a testament to the power of the approaching storm.
Turning to the grasses, he saw three hunters lying in wait. They crouched low and allowed the plants to hide them; positioning their crude spears at the ready, they waited.
Every night, Kalan journeyed to this place in history, triggered by something buried in his blood. The sea of grass rippled one way, then the other on the plains, just as they did on thousands of fields on hundreds of planets that his people had visited and conquered since long before his time. Back and forth with the wind, this was an eternal rhythm never broken by a single man, no matter how powerful. The timelessness reassured him.
The targ drew near and the men, acting as one unified being, turned to each other and displayed faces of fierceness rarely seen in the modern age. They were wary, but not afraid of the goring tusks and trampling hooves that approached from the horizon. The three waited, motionless, until the throng of angry beasts was almost upon them. Bolting upright and shrieking they instantly diverted the stampede.
He knew this tactic well. The targ would only redirect if the hunters appeared threatening enough to frighten the thoughtless beasts. Then the hunters would be able to spear them as they passed, each jab bringing down one after another.
This time, it seemed, one of the hunters did not survive. With regret, Kalan looked upon him and reflected on his selfless act. It did happen sometimes, but as a strong and healthy targ could feed a family for a week, they took the chance—this time, one paid with his life. He began his silent prayer of homage for the fallen, but then spied the other two arguing, with no slain animals at their feet. This juvenile conduct did not befit the role of a hunter, so Kalan moved towards them, to understand the nature of their quarrel.
His sense of unease grew as he closed the distance, so he increased his pace, first to a gait, then to a sprint. He was fit and graceful as he swiftly closed the distance and his silent footfalls did not attract their attention. Only when he was nearly upon them did they react by looking at him with horror and, Kalan thought, shame. They said nothing, so Kalan crouched to perform the death ritual and as he did, he came to an awful realization. While neither of the two remaining had a spear in his hands, the dead hunter had one in his hand and one in his back.
Kalan awoke with a start to the sound of his captain summoning him to the bridge. "Kalan here," he called out to the intercom.
"Sorry to disturb you, XO," came the voice of Harry Kim from the darkness. "We’re receiving a hail from the Victorious. She’ll be arriving in-system shortly."
"I’ll be on my way," he acknowledged and prepared himself for duty. The arrival of the Victorious weighed heavily on his mind, but the dream tore at him even more.
After several weeks, our efforts here in the Delta Quadrant are finally beginning to pay off. The treaty between the Talaxians and the Haakonians has been successfully negotiated and both sides are earnestly trying to make it work. Delta One is now up and running and the hyperlink node appears to be working flawlessly. We’ve managed several clear transmissions to Delta Fleet Command and Commander Vorik assures me that we’ll have full holographic communications capability by end of day today. After being out of touch with their loved ones for so many weeks, I’m sure the crew will be pleased with that.
Even more welcome is the upcoming arrival of our sister ship, the Victorious. Just knowing that the rest of the fleet will soon be joining us out here makes us all feel a little less lonely in this distant part of space. And as gracious as the Talaxians have been as hosts, I think we’re all eager for the Victorious to relieve us so that Enterprise can finally begin the active phase of our mission and start exploring the Delta Quadrant.
Captain Harry Kim nodded slightly at the turbolift entrance as Kalan emerged and took his customary seat to the right of his commanding officer. His terminal displayed miniature holograms of the Victorious as she came on approach to the Talaxian system, but only the viewscreen on long-range scan displayed her true majesty. It was easy to forget, while on the bridge, how large the Enterprise really was, but seeing the other vessel gave them an idea of the scale and importance of their mission.
"Sorry to wake you, Commander," said Harry gently. "I thought you’d want to be here when Victorious pulled in. I know you were on with Gamma shift last night."
"It’s of no consequence," said Kalan proudly. "Some nights one is better off without sleep."
"Captain," Lieutenant Wildman said from Ops, "we’re receiving a hail from the Victorious,"
"Put it onscreen," Kim directed.
The image from the bridge of the Victorious flashed onto the large screen, showing a confident middle-aged Ferengi wearing a Starfleet captain’s uniform. Even after so many years, Kalan was still uncomfortable with a Ferengi in charge of a starship—and even commanding Klingons. Yet, Captain Nog had a certain dignified presence, one he had seen in the leaders from his past that he respected.
"Captain Kim!" Nog greeted him. "It’s been far too long."
"For both of us, Captain Nog," Harry replied joyfully. "Being this far from home it means a lot to see another familiar face. Welcome to the Delta Quadrant, and to Talax."
"Thank you, Captain," the Ferengi chuckled. "I hope our dropping in like this hasn’t given the Talaxians a fright."
Kalan was also struck by how youthful Nog acted, despite stories he had heard of his past, such as the grave injuries he suffered during the Dominion War.
"Not at all," said Harry. "I think they’re getting used to Discovery-sized starships dropping in on them. In any event, the People’s Assembly asked me to convey their respects to you and your crew. I’ll be happy to provide all the necessary introductions."
"I’m just pleased you arrived to find the political climate so welcoming," Nog answered. "It makes our job a lot easier."
"Not to mention mine," said a familiar light-hearted voice from off screen, the speaker of which then leaned into view.
"Neelix!" Harry exclaimed joyfully. "Or should I say, Mr. Ambassador?"
"Oh, just plain old Neelix will do fine from you, Captain," the elder Talaxian answered with a chuckle. "It’s always a pleasure to see you again." His attention then glanced over to the rear of the bridge, the where Naomi stood at her station. "And that goes double for you too, Lieutenant."
"Hello, Neelix," Naomi answered with a flush and a wide smile. "I should say ‘welcome,’ but I think ‘welcome home’ might be more appropriate."
"I suppose it does," he said with greater thought and less levity. The designated Federation ambassador to Talax had always had his misgivings about one day returning to the world that he had left behind so many decades ago. Now he was back, and in an official capacity, no less.
Captain Nog then coughed, indicating to the gregarious diplomat that he was requested a turn to speak. Only this time, the Ferengi shifted his attention to Harry’s side. "Commander Kalan," he said, "your cousin Mokar has been a fine addition to our Gamma shift, so much so that I invited him to join us here for the rendezvous." Nog then gestured to an auxiliary bridge station. A Klingon officer wearing a lieutenant’s golden shirt was seen at his station. He had a more youthful face than Kalan’s, narrower with a more pointed beard. But the familiar resemblance was unmistakable.
"Mokar," Kalan acknowledged him neutrally, not displaying any hint of affection or resentment.
"Cousin," Mokar answered, equally dispassionate.
Perplexed, the two captains looked at each other. Harry had know that his first officer had a relative aboard the Victorious, but somehow he had expected a reunion between two Klingon relatives to be somewhat more…Klingon. Looking to move on from the uncomfortable silence that had been left hanging in the air, Kim spoke: "Well, Captain, why don’t you bring your command team over to the Enterprise for dinner as soon as you arrive?"
"Thank you for the invitation," said Nog. "We should up at Talax shortly. Say at 1900 hours?"
"I’ll have our chefs prepare something special," said Harry.
"Excellent," Nog answered. "We’ll see you then. Victorious out."
Harry then looked over his shoulder at his Ops officer. "Lieutenant, I’ll trust you to see to the arrangements for our guests?"
"I’m right on it, sir," Naomi answered proudly.
Harry grinned warmly at his young officer. "Knowing Neelix, I’m sure he’ll want to spend some time with you and Sabrina before dinner. Feel free to take the rest of your shift off as soon as you have our reception taken care of."
"Thank you, sir," she answered with a blush.
Before Kalan could say anything, Kim turned to him, "Commander, why don’t we take a tour of engineering in the meantime?"
The pair stepped into the turbolift and when the door closed, Kim said, "Tell me about your cousin."
"Sir?" Kalan did not like the way this conversation was heading, as family matters were not something he thought should be aired with a superior. Unfortunately, a captain’s question was not easily avoided.
"I sensed some tension in that conversation," said Harry. "Normally I don’t like to pry into anyone’s personal affairs, but if there’s something between you two that might affect our mission…"
"There is nothing," said Kalan, a bit too quickly. "Mokar is merely…unexceptional. He has not yet distinguished himself in battle, and my rank and appearance by your side is a reminder to him of that fact. However, he is of the House of Kritis and will not falter if called upon."
"Well, are you two close? Did the two of you grow up together?"
The Klingon replied, "Of course. As is our custom, all of the household’s children are raised together."
Captain Kim looked directly at him and asked, "I get the sense you’re being deliberately evasive, XO. Are you sure there isn’t something between you two that I should know about?"
"Respectfully, sir, I prefer to keep my family life… within the family. Be assured that my relations with Lieutenant Mokar do not in any way affect Enterprise or our mission."
"Okay, then," said Harry warily, still not quite convinced, but willing to let the matter drop. They rode the rest of the way in silence. When the doors opened, they turned to the usual work-related discourse. However, while the captain was absorbed by the duties of command, Kalan couldn’t help but feel if somehow his dream of the hunt had something to do with Mokar. And if it did, what would that mean for him.
Katrina Kim carefully made her way towards the closed door of Science Lab 2. They quietly swished open for her the moment she moved in front of them. The young raven-haired Romulan slowly glanced around the spacious room before she stepped inside.
Earlier in the day, Katrina was in the school library trying to study when she suddenly came up with a great idea. She called up an HPADD to cross-reference the words "observation within a natural environment" and "Anthropology, famous scientists." The first result that appeared before her was an image of a human woman and a chimpanzee. Katrina brushed the other pictures away as she concentrated on the text that surrounded the two holographic figures. She then spent the next half an hour reading all she could about Dr. Jane Goodall.
And now, the zealous teenager had decided to test out her own hypothesis. She was going to spy on a pair of Romulan scientists as they performed their regular series of assignments. Katrina knew that Dr. T’Villet and his assistant, Lt. Rinh’tva, would be the only people on duty tonight. She’d seen the daily roster floating in front her mother’s place during breakfast. It only took a few seconds for her to read the twin Romulan names placed at the bottom of the list and figure out what time they’d be arriving.
She was lucky that no one else, including her mother, would be coming into the Lab this night. Technically speaking, Katrina was not supposed to be in here at all. But regardless of the break in protocol, the young girl felt that it was worth the risk. Her experiment was going to be the same type of endeavor that Dr. Goodall had gone through, and it made her pretty nervous as she examined the room while trying to find a good place to hide.
Most of the extraneous scientific equipment was pushed against the wall and arranged into tall stacks. But after a few minutes of searching, Katrina saw that there was a tiny amount of space hidden behind a pile of metal boxes. She had to duck under a table and crawl a few feet before settling down onto the cold, hard floor. She pushed two of the heavy containers apart and stared at the main workstation in the center of the room.
Katrina was insatiably curious about all of the other Romulans she’d seen on board the Enterprise. So far, she’d only been able to have a few conversations with the ship’s CMO, but Dr. Saldeed wasn’t very helpful to her at all. Her final decision was to venture out on her own and see what she could discover. All she really wanted to do was listen to what Romulans say to each other and watch how they act amongst themselves.
She tucked her knees under her chin and tried to get comfortable. There wasn’t anything to worry about now. No one knew that she was there, and none of Krell’s "Yellows" were on patrol. The only thing she could do was sit there, and wait.
By 1750 hours, the Victorious had arrived in orbit around Talax and pulled up alongside her sister ship. The sight of a second Discovery-class vessel just outside of Enterprise’s viewports excited many of the crew, eager for anything that reminded them of home.
But for Lieutenant Naomi Wildman, the only timetables that mattered were those of the last minute preparations with the Mess staff via the intercom, and waiting for the babysitter to arrive.
"No, Crewman," she called out to the ether as she struggled with the collar of her formal dress uniform in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom. "You’ll be serving dinner for a party of at least four humans, three Klingons, an Andorian, a Vulcan, a Romulan, a Talaxian, and a Ferengi. Under the circumstances, I’d be very conservative with the choice of liqueurs." She then broke away from the conversation to glance downward, where her daughter stood patiently at her side. "What do you think, sweetie?" she said to Sabrina with a smirk. "Does my collar look okay?"
"Ma’am?" came the nervous voice of the mess officer.
"I was talking to my daughter!" Naomi called out with a groan. "Just…just don’t serve anything too sweet for after dinner drinks. Wildman out."
"Very nice," Sabrina beamed up at her mother, giving the formal uniform an approving nod. "You look like an admiral, Mommy."
"Maybe that’s not such a good idea," Naomi chuckled. "I wouldn’t want the captain to think I’m bucking for a promotion." The door chime then rang out, and Naomi exited the bedroom into the main living room to answer it.
"Neelix!" Naomi shouted with glee as she answered the door to see her Talaxian godfather standing with bearing and dignity in his understated diplomatic attire. She immediately bent down to embrace him with affection, seeing as she now stood a head taller than him.
"I requested to beam over early," said Neelix. "We had so little time to speak before Enterprise left Beta Antares, I wanted the chance to spend some time with you and Sabrina before dinner."
"I know, and I’m sorry," she said regretfully as she led him inside to the sofa. "Launching a new ship, getting everything ready, you deserved more than just a com call."
"Oh, that’s not it at all," he gushed. "In fact, I’m very proud of you. Lieutenant Naomi Wildman. Look at you, all dressed up. You’ve come a long way, sweetie."
"Not as long a route as you, Mr. Ambassador," she answered with a smile of her own.
"Only because I was the only Talaxian available," he replied modestly. "I was…"
"Uncle Neelix!" came an angelic explosion from behind them as Sabrina burst into the room and ran up to the Talaxian. "I knew it was you!"
"Well, bless my heart," said Neelix as he hugged the little girl warmly. "I didn’t think you’d be up so late, little one. And here I thought I wouldn’t have time to read you a bedtime story."
"I don’t have to sleep this early," Sabrina chuckled. "I’m waiting up for Professor Mahat and Quozl!"
"Quozl?" Neelix asked as he looked curiously at Naomi. "Is he one of her new friends?"
"Quozl takes a little explaining," Naomi chuckled back, before leaning over to her daughter. "Honey, do you think you can change into your jammies now? Uncle Neelix and I have a lot to talk about before dinner."
"Okay, Mommy," said Sabrina, as she gave Neelix one last hug and kiss before darting into her own bedroom.
"She’s so precious," said Neelix. "Have you taken her down to Talax yet?"
"Three times," said Naomi. "She was a little disappointed to find out that there really weren’t any Ice Demons living in the Norax Mountains like in the Summer Queen stories. But other than that she found everything enchanting."
"Is that so?" he said with a giggle. "And how did you find Talax?"
"I think you’ll be very pleased by what you’ll find down there. It’s all very beautiful, and very hopeful."
The Talaxian ambassador sighed. "It was always beautiful. Just not always hopeful."
"Oh, Neelix," said Naomi sadly. "Are you sure about this? You’ve been away for so long, is this really what you want? When they offered you this position, you didn’t have to accept."
"I know," said Neelix. "Believe me, Naomi, this is what I want to do. Even if they hadn’t offered me a formal position, I’d have asked to come as a passenger sooner or later. As happy as I’ve been living in the Federation, I know that it’s time for me to come home. I’m getting old, you know."
"Oh don’t talk like that," said Naomi. "You’ve got decades ahead of you. You’re sounding like you’re going home to die or something." Then a look of panic came across the young woman’s face. "Neelix, you’re not…"
"What? Oh, goodness no!" Neelix laughed. "That’s not it at all. Its just…" he continued, his tone becoming more serious. "Well, I’m getting nostalgic in my old age, that’s all. When I left Talax behind to take up with Voyager, all I could think about was everything I had lost. But so much time has passed since then. Now when I think of Talax, I don’t think about the war or Rinax. I think about the Talax of my childhood. I want to hear Talaxian children singing Prixin hymns around the Guilding Trees again. Or see the glow of flixot swarms just before they leave for migration. Or maybe, just to taste a freshly baked piece of spiced mixi pie when its fresh out of the over and the temperature is just right!"
"Then I guess your mind is made up," she said sadly. "You know, you’ll be giving up a lot, everything you built up back in the Alpha Quadrant, and all your friends."
"Who says I’m giving anything up?" he replied jovially. "With hyperlink, everyone’s practically next door. And I’m sure that you, Harry, and Annika will be by to visit Talax any number of times."
"I suppose," she said with resignation, feeling the finality of his decision, wondering how often they’d have to speak once the Enterprise’s exploration mission went underway. After her mother’s death and her father’s emotional withdrawal, when she had found herself pregnant and alone, it was Neelix who had stood by her, her only real family left. "Is there anything I can do?"
"There is one thing," he said, his face crunched seriously, before melting into a buoyant grin. "You can take me into Sabrina’s bedroom so I can tell her the story of the Winter Princess and her rescue from the tower of the Ice Demons while waiting for your sitter to arrive."
Naomi giggled as though she were a little girl again. "You know, Neelix. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that story. Maybe I can sit in for this one?"
"Why of course," he said warmly. "You’re never too old for a story from your Uncle Neelix."
Kalan swiftly marched down the hallway and slipped inside the conference room doors, tugging at the dress uniform hastily adorned. He disapproved of lateness, but he was unavoidably detained by officiating over an honor challenge when he had to drag the loser to the infirmary. By the time he arrived, the dinner had begun. Captain Kim glanced at his XO with silent disapproval, but did not elaborate on his tardiness, allowing his first officer to take the empty seat to his right without comment.
He saw the command staff of the two starships seated along opposite sides of the dining table. From the Enterprise, there was the captain and his wife, Commanders Bartok and Vorik, and Dr. Saldeed. Seated next to the ambassador was Lieutenant Wildman, eagerly listening as the Ambassador regaled the two crews with a tale from his past. All were in their formal dress whites except for Dr. Kim, who was wearing a conservative green civilian gown, the only one present other than Ambassador Neelix in civilian attire. Directly across from them were the senior crew of the Victorious, including Captain Nog and his executive officer Thirishar ch’Thane, an Andorian with whom he had served for many years. Kalan recognized a burly Klingon seated near Captain Nog, Lt. Commander Toloth, the Victorious’ Chief Engineer. He knew of Toloth and his House and their many honorable deeds during the Dominion War. And a few seats down from Toloth was Mokar, who looked across the room at his cousin with a uneasy stare.
"You were right about Talaxian hospitality, Captain Kim," said Nog jovially to Harry. "I’ve received invitations from the People’s Assembly for three different receptions already."
"I think they just want to size you up," Harry said with a laugh. "After all, Victorious will be here for a while until more of the Fleet arrives."
"Quite true," said Commander ch’Thane. "The Odyssey and the Klothos should be coming out of slipstream in the next two weeks, with the Prosperity and the Majestic not long after."
Kalan listened as he moved to his seat, clapped a hand on the back of one of the Klingon lieutenants from the Victorious. The man looked up at him and offered a half-eaten haunch of pig. Kalan shook his head and moved on to the other officers that he had not seen since their departure from the Alpha Quadrant.
Just as he took his seat, Toloth from the Victorious hailed him with a hearty call. "You honor us with your presence, ZhantaI Kalan. Come, tell us of your tales of battle against the Kazon. Surely there are songs to be sung about these new foes, after so many years of peace back home."
Kalan bristled at the use of the title ZhantaI, especially this far away from the Empire. But he did not wish to delve into matters of Klingon politics in front of his new crewmates. "The battle was not worthy of song, Commander Toloth. The Kazon have yet to prove themselves an opponent equal to the Enterprise."
"And let’s hope they never do," Bartok interjected jovially.
Toloth’s eyes glanced over to where Mokar was seated, and then back again towards Kalan. "Two of the powerful House of Kritus are here before us, yet they do not sit together."
Kalan had not consciously considered that he should sit anywhere other than to the right of his Captain. It was already a habit for him, from his time on the bridge and in the conference room. In fact, it was his right to sit in that place of honor. He wasn’t trying to slight his cousin—or was he? He did not feel compelled to defend Mokar, even though the insult would be obvious had they been on Qo’noS. However, when he noticed the look of shock on Captain Nog’s face, Kalan said, "Toloth, you have had too much blood wine. You would do best to keep your mouth closed until you are sober, lest you provoke a challenge you are unable to defend against."
Toloth looked at him, confused, but did not speak. Across the table, Mokar sported a look of satisfaction upon his round and unblemished face.
The evening went on with much idle chitchat and pleasantries. By the time desert and after-dinner drinks were served, the two crews were mingling about the room. It was while Kalan was idly staring out the observation window that he heard his cousin approach him. "I would speak with you, Kalan," said Mokar.
Kalan studied him through narrowed eyes and gestured towards the door. What they most likely had to say to each other was not for anyone else to hear, and so they both walked out. In the outer hall, Mokar began, "It is good to see you again, cousin."
"Yes," said Kalan quietly, his discomfort barely hidden. "I assume your service aboard Victorious has gone well?"
"It has," said Mokar. "I feel at peace with this crew, more so than I ever did with the Imperial Forces."
Kalan said nothing, but just nodded his head in quiet agreement.
"You seemed troubled by Toloth’s words at dinner," said Mokar, his voice rising in timber. "Were you not glorious in battle against the Kazon? You have always fought fiercely and honorably in the past."
Ignoring Mokar’s comments, he stated, "I had another dream. I need your interpretation. I presume that you still study naj laD’taH," using the Klingon term for the ‘science’ of reading visions.
Mokar scowled at his cousin. "You barely acknowledge my presence since coming aboard your ship and now you snap your fingers at me as a ZhantaI." Seeing his words having the desired effect, he smiled and continued, "On the plains again?"
"Yes," Kalan growled, before calming himself and going on. "It is feeding time and I see the three hunters. One of them murders another in a most dishonorable way—by spearing him in the back."
Mokar nods. "That means they cannot be the Three Hunters of Qu’Inlat from the Book of To’Mar. They could be from the opera qorDu’ jagh if the third hunter avenged the death."
Kalan was growing frustrated. "No, I could not even tell which one did the killing, as they just stood there, bickering like children."
Mokar began to look uncomfortable. "Like children? Do you think they were related?"
"Perhaps," said Kalan wearily. "In fact, I am certain they were."
Mokar’s eyes then narrowed furiously at Kalan as realization of the dream’s meaning became clear to him. "Morath," he hissed. "The betrayal on the Plains of Takta, the dishonor which led brother to fight brother. Tell me, Kalan, have so many come to bow and scrape at your feet these many years that you’ve come to believe yourself as like Kahless himself?"
"I never asked for anyone to grovel before me," Kalan snarled in reply. "I have no use for such nonsense."
"Indeed?" Mokar shot back. "No use for being Kalan, son of Kritus, heir to the House of Kritus? No use for the future my father planned out for you? The rising star of the Empire, they call you. Even aboard the Victorious they speak your name. No matter how far I travel I can’t get away from ZhantaI Kalan. Even the Delta Quadrant isn’t far enough, so it would seem."
Kalan glared at his cousin with a look that would freeze hydrogen. "If I seem so high upon a pedestal to you, Mokar, it only looks that way from where you stand. I should never have bothered reaching out to you."
His cousin then roared back. "Don’t you mean ‘reaching down,’ cousin? If you are going to insult me, at least be more original than likening me to Morath in your visions. It’s not as though you’d be the first."
At that, Mokar walked away. Kalan was left with the feeling that he had not just been insulted, but smugly dismissed as well.
Only a moment later, Captain Kim stepped out of the conference room. He looked one way down the hallway, then the other and smiled.
"Kalan," he said, "there you are. I was wondering if you were ever going to join us. I guess I should have known that social gatherings were not your cup of tea. I know the feeling. At this point, even I needed to get some air."
Kalan said, "On the contrary, Captain, I have had all the air that I care to stand." He looked uncomfortable as he went on. "How much did you hear?"
"Just the insults at the end, I’m sorry to say," said Harry regretfully. "I don’t mean to be privy to family difficulties."
"It is…of no consequence," said the first officer with a brooding sigh.
"It didn’t sound like it was of no consequence from where I stood," said the captain. "Commander, as much as I hate to meddle, I think I need to know what’s going on here. You’re both officers of the Fleet, and I can’t have any family grudges clouding your judgment. What’s this all about?"
Kalan just shook his head, not looking his captain in the eye as he turned to look down the long corridor, in the direction to where his cousin had departed. "This has been brewing between us for a long time, Captain. It will not be solved today, I assure you of that."
Harry walked over to close the gap with his first officer. In retrospect, Kalan realized that a moment before the event, the hairs stood up on the back of his neck in anticipation of the coming danger. But it happened so quickly that there was nothing he could have done. There was simply a blinding flash of light where the HPADD projector panel had been along the wall, a great sudden force of wind, and then nothingness.
After she’d spent more than an entire hour conducting her "experimental observations," Katrina was able to deduce only one thing about the Romulan scientists: they were boring. She tried to make the situation more interesting by deactivating her combadge while listening to the two men. She hoped to gain a better understanding of the Rihannsu culture by hearing them speak in their own language.
Unfortunately, Dr. T’villet was proving himself to be a rather difficult subject for her to examine. He was intent on maintaining the same droll conversation that he’d been having with his assistant ever since they both walked into the room. If she had wanted to hear a detailed lecture regarding the wide variety of Talaxian geological compositions, Katrina would have simply asked her mom about it. But instead, she was stuck sitting on the uncomfortable metallic floor of this Science Lab, hiding behind some of the ship’s surplus material. She could hear the foreign voices echoing throughout the vast room, but the young teenager had stopped paying attention to them. She’d fallen into a sullen mood, and was now concentrating on a way to escape without being detected.
Suddenly, the doors to the Lab opened as if a great force had thrown them apart. Katrina flinched when she heard the staccato rhythm from a pair of heavy boots as they stomped past her. The new arrival was now standing directly in front of the two scientists, and before she heard the sound of the woman’s voice, Kat already knew whom it was. She began to worry about what kind of strict punishment her mother was going to enforce upon her. She’d been looking forward to spending some time with her friends before curfew, but she doubted that would still be the case now. Her mom was probably going to confine her quarters for the rest of the night, and that would be if she got off lucky.
Something was wrong though. Annika Kim’s voice normally sounded very stern, but it was quivering now as she spoke to the Romulans. Katrina heard one of them gasp and saw another rise to console her, but they were both pushed away as her mother quickly turned to face the area where her daughter was hiding.
"Katrina Kim," she called out, "I have detected your life signs within this room. There is no longer any need for you to hide. You will reveal yourself to me – now!"
Katrina swallowed hard and slid all the way out from behind the boxes that had concealed her. She meekly stood but couldn’t bring herself to raise her chin in order to look up at her mother. She waited for what seemed like forever, but just as she was about to open her mouth and speak, her mother made a quiet announcement that instantly silenced her.
"Why were you not wearing your combadge?!" Annika demanded frantically.
"Unacceptable!" her mother shouted, her breathing ragged, her normal composure becoming undone as she spoke. "There was… an explosion. We must go to Sickbay and see your father, immediately."
A million thoughts flew through her head at once. An explosion – where? Her father? Was he hurt? Of course he was! Why else would he be in Sickbay? But how badly… and why did this happen?
She raised her eyes to see her mother looking directly at her. Both of them were clearly shaken by what had just happened, but now it was time to go. Katrina watched as her mother spun on her heel and left the room. Before her mind could run any further astray, she swiftly scurried after her.
It was sunset on the plains. Kalan once again stood on his hilltop and watched the landscape. This was his place of peace, where he could simply be, without the worries of being a son of the House of Kritus or even the expectations of being a first officer.
"There are the times of battles and the times in between, and each fills the heart for the other," the old line went. It was from the warrior-philosopher Takas, in a book that Mokar had given him, years ago, before…well, before. He had not read it until embarking on this trip, unfortunately, but until now he just had not had the time. It seemed that every moment of his life was filled with study and training for the day when he would lead his household. In his heart, though, he yearned for a few moments of peace.
In the distance, he could see three children playing in the tall grasses. They bounded and wrestled like hearty children should. They seemed so happy, but for some reason, he felt uneasy. He was so absorbed in his observations of the children, he almost didn’t notice until the last moment that the evening stampede of the targ was well underway. This would not be a cause for worry among adults, but these youngsters looked up and were suddenly very afraid.
He awoke to the calm and even voice of the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Saldeed.
"Glad to see you’re awake, Commander," said the Romulan physician. "Of course, I was confident that nothing could penetrate the Klingon skull."
Kalan glared at Saldeed as his vision came into focus and the herd faded into the recesses of his unconscious mind. "Your bedside manner is not appreciated, Doctor," he scowled at her. Looking past the attentive doctor, he could see that he was in Sickbay, laying on his back on a biobed. Standing just past him were two other familiar faces, Lieutenant Commander Vorik and Lieutenant Krell.
"I am pleased to see that you have awakened, Commander," said Vorik crisply. "Mr. Krell and I had hoped you might provide some clue as to what transpired in the corridor."
"The corridor…" he said, trying to remember. There had been a flash of bright light, and a loud thundering sound. "There was an explosion! The Captain! He is…"
"He’s recovering," said Saldeed. "He took more of the blast than you did, it would seem. He had some serious burns and a concussion, but he responded very well to dermal regeneration and he’s resting. The ship has been in the capable hands of Commander Vorik for the past twelve hours."
"Twelve hours!" Kalan sat up in alarm. "I have been unconscious for half a day! The ship…"
"Enterprise appears to be in no immediate danger," said Vorik calmly, "other than the fact that her two most senior officers have been assaulted." Kalan looked past the Vulcan officer to see the small gathering around another biobed further across the room. The captain was lying there, weak and hurt, but alive, his family surrounding him with their affection. And standing silently at his side, was…one of the Jem’Hadar. Obviously the captain had learned to make use of his new bodyguards quickly enough.
Krell stepped forward and looked uncomfortably at Kalan. "The explosion came from an access panel in the corridor where you and the captain were standing."
"Who…who was responsible?" asked the Klingon, his blood at a continuous boil. "Was there anything on the security logs?"
"That’s just it," said Krell. "There’s a fifteen minute gap in the logs for that section of the ship, from 1920 to 1935 hours, just after the crew from the Victorious beamed over. At first I thought because it was so close to the dinner reception that it might have been some kind of terrorist strike, maybe retaliation by some Talaxians for our involvement in the peace talks. But my people managed to identify the explosive. It’s sorium argine."
"What?" said Kalan with confusion, his head still ringing as he slid off of the biobed. "Sorium argine is a demolition explosive used by the Klingon Defense Forces. No race encountered by Voyager in the Delta Quadrant was known to employ it."
"Right," said Krell. "It’s difficult to detect on sensors unless you know what to look for, and the security lock on all shipboard replicators would never allow it to be made on board. I’m certain this wasn’t the work of Talaxian agitators or Kazon agents. The problem seems a lot closer to home to me."
"Precisely what are you saying, Lieutenant?" said Kalan sharply.
"Commander," said Krell reluctantly. "I don’t want to be making any accusations at this point of the investigation, but…there were several witnesses at the reception who saw you leaving with your cousin. A short while later, the captain steps out into the hall. A minute after that, the explosion goes off. Do you see where I’m heading, sir? I need to know if you think Lieutenant Mokar was action oddly last night."
Kalan’s thoughts were as black as night, as he pieced together more of Krell’s logic. Mokar acting oddly? He had been odd and out-of-step as a Klingon from the day the two cousins had come to be raised together. True, he was a sullen and unaccomplished warrior, one who held no regard for the honor of his House. But to settle his differences in such a manner, to attempt an assassination using explosives rather than challenging him to his face in honorable combat, it was almost unthinkable…except for one such as Mokar.
"Commander," said Krell, "I don’t want to suspect your cousin, but the evidence is beginning to look that way, especially since all the Klingons I questioned said Mokar was untrustworthy, though they wouldn’t say why."
Suddenly, Kalan grew furious, but not at Lieutenant Krell. "Why he is untrustworthy should be apparent to all!" he shouted. "Mokar is a weak and traitorous dog, who could not be bothered to look me in the eye if he wanted me dead!"
"Commander," said Vorik cautiously, "perhaps such a conclusion is premature at this time. Lieutenant Krell is still conducting his investigation, and…"
"Does Lieutenant Krell have an opinion?" Kalan retorted facetiously as he turned to the security officer.
Krell stood his ground, not showing any intimidation in the face of everyone’s attention. "Begging the Commander’s pardon, but I usually don’t like to rush my investigations until I’ve dotted and crossed everything. But speaking from where the evidence is headed, then I’d say yeah, it looks like Lieutenant Mokar is our man."
"Then that is all that I need," said Kalan to Krell, but also for Vorik’s benefit as well. "Mr. Krell, you will accompany me to find my cousin and place him under arrest." He then turned sharply towards Doctor Saldeed. "May I presume that I’ll be allowed to leave Sickbay and resume my duties?"
"Limited duty schedule," said Saldeed. "Just until I’m certain your skull is still in one piece. Besides, I doubt I could keep you here."
"Commander," said Vorik, evidently perturbed by this passionate rush to judgment, "what precisely do you expect to accomplish by having Mr. Krell accompany you to arrest Lt. Mokar?" Logic clearly showed that the facts of this matter were still incomplete, and that Commander Kalan was making accusations in the face of only circumstantial evidence and a questionable motive as to the accused’s character.
"What I expect, Commander," said Kalan angrily, "is that Mr. Krell will be there to keep me from killing my cousin on the spot, should I be so inclined when I next lay eyes upon him."
Harry Kim awakened, and he knew right away that he was lying flat on his back. He groaned while trying to flex his muscles, and then he slowly peeled his eyes open. His sight wandered around aimlessly for a few moments before it settled upon something familiar. An incredibly beautiful woman was sitting next to him, and the long strands of her golden hair dipped onto his face as she leaned over to gently embrace him.
When his wife eventually let go and sat down by his side, Harry saw that there was another well-known person in the room with him. He felt two small hands pressed tightly against one of his. Very softly, he raised his head and gazed lovingly at his daughter. Katrina leapt up to throw her arms around his neck, but she remembered to restrain herself and gave him a light hug instead.
Dr. Saldeed had been kind enough to put a partition around the Captain’s bed in order to ensure some privacy for him and his family. Harry stared at the ceiling and noticed that the lights within it were significantly darker compared to the rest of Sickbay. Nurse Baker casually strolled by, and he watched as the holographic woman continued to walk right past him directly into the CMO’s office. When he realized that none of the medical staff was going to come out and disturb him, Harry returned his attention back to his family.
He could plainly see that Annika and Katrina were both deeply upset, but he also sensed that there was something else beneath the surface of their despair. The two women were acting very cold to each other, and Harry felt as if an invisible barrier had been placed in between them. He tried to speak but found that he could only whisper a few weak-sounding words before struggling to catch his breath.
The captain looked at his wife and asked her, "What’s… wrong?"
"Please, do not try to speak." Annika reached out and laid her hand on the side of his face before continuing. "Dr. Saldeed says your body absorbed a majority of the blast from the explosion, but she’s confident that you and Commander Kalan will both make a full recovery."
"He’s already left, dad." Katrina said as she pointed behind her. "He was laying on top that biobed for hours, but he woke up before you did."
"He and Lt. Krell have gone to look for some answers behind the cause of the explosion." Annika calmly told him.
Harry was able to make out the indented shape of a large body within the cushions of the bed that his daughter had indicated. He thought about contacting the XO for a moment, but he quickly erased the idea from his mind. If Kalan was well enough to walk out of Sickbay, then he could definitely handle things without any interference from a superior officer.
Kim suddenly detected an abnormal shadow along the wall next to him. He twisted his body to get a better look at it, and received an incredible shock that almost put him back into a coma. Jor’Marak was standing there with his back against the wall. The enormous Jem’Hadar was quite menacing to behold. He didn’t make a single move to give away his presence, and Harry couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or not.
"Annika…" he exhaled, "How long… has he…?"
"The Jem’Hadar First has been standing there ever since the Doctor brought your body out of its stasis." His wife gave the hefty alien an unpleasant look before continuing. "You have been slowly recovering in Sickbay for several hours and were allowed no visitors except for family and… him."
The Captain struggled to face the reptilian creature next to him. The imposing Jem’Hadar looked like a menacing statue, and Harry merely stared at him for a while before speaking. "Jor’Marak?"
The Jem’Hadar turned and acknowledged Harry once he had directly spoken to him. "Yes, Captain?"
"I don’t suppose… you feel like… taking a break."
Jor’Marak merely looked at him as if he didn’t understand. When he eventually spoke, his deep voice remained completely neutral as he phrased his words. "We live to serve. I shall not abandon your side."
"That’s what… I thought… you’d say." Harry muttered. He watched as Jor’Marak shifted back into place against the wall, and then he tried to carefully slide his body into a prone position. He decided to ignore the body guard at his side and focus on his family again.
Katrina gave him a tiny smile, but he could still see a great amount of tension between her and Annika. It caused him even more pain internally when he saw the troubled look on the teenager’s face every time she glanced at her mother.
Harry repeated his original question. "What’s… wrong…?"
Katrina knew that her father was speaking to her exclusively, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him what had happened. She was still shaking at the memory of her mother finding her in the Science Lab. It would have been bad enough for her to be in trouble for spying on the Romulans, but things got even worse when Annika also delivered the horrible news.
She had a million questions for her father, and she also wanted to tell him how thrilled she was to see him – even if he couldn’t talk well or sit up without wincing in pain. But just as Katrina was about to say something, her mother invasively cut her off.
"It is a juvenile matter that you should not be worried about. We will discuss Katrina’s troublesome activities another time." She leaned over him and laid her hand flat on his chest. "You must rest now."
"Never mind… about me," Harry said. His voice sounded very tired and his words began to fade at the end of each statement.
Katrina’s emotions flared and she hissed at her mother. "Why do you always have to make things worse, mom? Isn’t it bad enough that dad’s been hurt?" She couldn’t help herself, and her seething words immediately brought wet tears to her eyes. Kat began to cry but quickly covered her face and turned her head away from where her father could see.
Harry felt remarkably frail in his present condition. He wanted to reach out to his daughter and try to console her, but he knew that the effort would’ve caused him to loose consciousness. To the surprise of both her parents, Katrina pushed herself off her father’s bed and darted away from them. Before Annika could even cry out to prevent her from leaving, the agile Romulan had flown through the opening in the sheet that surrounded them. Less than a second later, she stepped out the doors of Sickbay and was running through the ship.
Annika was completely stupefied; she never expected her daughter to run away from her. She wanted to chase after her but felt more compelled to remain with her injured husband. The former Borg slowly shook her head in bewilderment. She couldn’t understand why Katrina would act in such a way when she saw how vulnerable her father was.
Harry didn’t have it in his heart to be mad. All he really wanted to do right now was reassure Annika. They’d all have to sit down and talk about what had happened in their personal quarters later. He reached out and grabbed her sleeve, forcing her to face him. "Just… let her go…"
He could still see a small amount of doubt flickering on his wife’s face. The captain was too tired to say any more, but he managed to mumble one last sentence before he fell asleep. "We’ll talk to her… later."
Annika watched her husband as he rested. She bowed her head over his and listened to him breath, and then she moved her mouth next to his ear and silently mouthed the words, "Very well."
Nurse Baker came back out of the CMO’s office, quietly humming an upbeat song to herself while tending to her duties throughout the entire ward.
After the explosion, a security lockdown had been put in place, preventing anyone, even the crew of the Victorious, from beaming off the ship. According to the ship’s computer, Mokar was still aboard, which was to be expected. What was unexpected was the location where he was to be found.
"The Delta Café?" said Krell as he walked with Kalan and two of his deputies along the walkway of the Galleria. "I didn’t think bistros were part of the Klingon scene."
"Mokar is not a Klingon of distinction," said Kalan frostily, his eyes riveted forward as he walked with haste towards the ‘outdoor’ deck of the café. All around, shopkeepers and civilian passers-by were looking on with bewilderment at the security detail as they marched forcefully to carry out their duties, quickly getting out from underfoot. News of the explosion and the captain’s injury had spread throughout the ship, and people were understandably unnerved. The sight of a security team in action led by the ship’s first officer did nothing to relieve that anxiety.
"Mokar!" Kalan shouted furiously, his face twisted in rage. "Look at me, if you dare!"
The other Klingon looked up at his cousin calmly, not returning any of Kalan’s intensity. "I see that you are well, cousin. I knew that you were far too stubborn to make the passing to Sto’Vo’Kor just yet."
"Do not speak of Sto’Vo’Kor, petaQ!" swore Kalan, his posture coiled as though he were ready to strike. "It is a place you will never reach! What was it, Mokar? Was it your envy that drove you to attempt murder, or was your cowardice even stronger so you could not bring yourself to challenge me directly?"
Mokar glared back at Kalan, standing up from his seat, his body equally poised for a fight. "You are full of insults this day, aren’t you, Kalan? Are you accusing me of what happened to you and your captain?"
"Do not deny it, bIHnuch!"
"I do deny it," Mokar seethed. "Take heed, cousin. Despite what you might think, I am Klingon enough to take offense at your calling me a coward and challenge you right here!"
"Just what the hell is going on here?" came a harried voice as Vic Fontaine rushed out onto the café deck from the establishment’s interior. "This is a peaceable establishment here, boys. You two want to fight, you take it somewhere else."
"This is not your concern, Mr. Fontaine," Kalan growled at the holographic proprietor. "This is a matter of honor."
"Now hold on there, Commander," said Vic. "What goes on in my place is my business. If my customers want a floor show, they can wait till after hours with a two drink minimum."
"Commander," Krell spoke up from behind as he and his team approached the scene. "I can take it from here, sir." Turning to Mokar, the security officer spoke in a tone of voice that was all business. "Lieutenant Mokar, your name has come up in our investigation in the attack on your cousin. Can you account for your whereabouts prior to your arrival at the dinner reception?"
"Am I to consider myself an official suspect, Lieutenant Krell?" asked Mokar, his eyes never leaving Kalan’s angry stare.
"Not officially at this time, Lieutenant," said Krell. "But I would like to ask you some questions about your activities the other day. All very routine."
"Very well," said Mokar. "I’ll cooperate fully with your investigation, Lieutenant. You will inform my commanding officer about your questioning me?"
"By the book, Lieutenant," said Krell. "If you’ll come with me and my people," he said as he gestured broadly with his arm towards the stairs leading down from the dining deck. Mokar left ahead with his two security escorts, leaving Cyrus, Kalan and Vic behind.
"Always good to have the local cop on the beat," said Vic, looking at Krell appreciatively. "Did that guy really do it? Set off that bomb and hurt poor Harry?"
"We’re not sure," said Krell.
"Some of us have fewer doubts than others," Kalan interjected harshly.
The hologram looked Kalan over sourly. "Well, next time you wanna bust someone in my place, take him somewhere else before you make with the rubber hose treatment." And with that, Vic turned and retreated to the interior of his establishment.
Krell looked askance at his commanding officer, his golden irises dimmed through narrow eyelids. "I suppose you were right, Commander. It was a good idea for me to be here." He then glanced down at Kalan’s right hand, and saw a steak knife that he had absent-mindedly picked up from the nearby table.
"It was not my intention to kill him, Lieutenant," said Kalan, "unless he offered resistance and refused to come quietly."
Krell’s face was impassive, not revealing any indication if he believed the first officer or not. "Not to worry, sir. This won’t be going into my report." Looking around to see his people leading Mokar off down the main walkway of the Galleria, Krell motioned to leave. "I suppose we call his captain and let him know what’s going on."
"I’ll have my people question Mokar about his activities. I plan to beam over to Victorious and look for any incriminating evidence there."
"Perhaps," said Kalan as he took in a deep breath, "it would be best if I were to accompany you there."
"Versus sitting in on your cousin’s interrogation?" quipped Krell. "Yes, I think that would be a very good idea, Commander."
On the Victorious, Kalan and Krell stood outside of Mokar’s quarters, while the ship’s security chief, Lieutenant Nyssa Lang, a firm, muscular woman in her mid-thirties, accessed the door’s security code.
"I’m telling you, you’re both wrong about Mokar," said Lang, as she overrode the door panel and let it slide open. "I think of myself as a pretty good judge of character, and there’s no way he could have done this."
"Your captain voiced similar feelings when we came aboard," said Kalan coolly. "Mokar has admitted that he wandered from the group prior to the reception, with ample time for him to set the explosive. And he is certified in the use of explosives from his tactical training."
"Look, Commander," said Lang, "even if I believed that Mokar wanted to kill you, why not just issue a challenge? That is the Klingon way, isn’t it? I mean, killing someone by hiding behind an explosive? That’s not very honorable, is it?"
"It is not," said Kalan. "I am the better fighter, and Mokar knows it. Were he to challenge me, I would easily defeat him."
"Well, I’m still not buying it," said the female security officer as the three stepped into the room. "He doesn’t seem like he’s got that much hate in him to stoop to that level. He’s moody, no question about that. But he’s got too much honor to violate his uniform like that."
"Then you apparently don’t know him at all, Lieutenant," said the Klingon first officer. "I have known him most of my life, and he has disgraced his station before."
Krell wanted to ask what he meant by that, but was busy taking in the surrounding of Mokar’s quarters, which appeared much different than what he expected. There were no ceremonial weapons on display, no tributes of battles fought or trophies of military prowess. Instead it was remarkably Spartan, even by Klingon standards. The walls were completely bare, and the regulation sofa, chairs, coffee and end tables were gone. The only furnishings were a pair of synthetic flame stands, and a large circular mat in the center of the room. It looked more like the residence of a Zen mystic than that of a Klingon warrior.
"There’s no furniture," said Krell in subdued bewilderment. "What the hell happened in here?"
"He requested everything be removed when he was assigned here," said Lang. "He said that the comforts of the body are meaningless, that a true Klingon resides only within the spirit, or something. He’s always spouting mystical quotes like that."
"Indeed," said Kalan with a heavy sigh, not showing the least bit of surprise. "My family has heard more than their share of mystical quotes over the years."
Krell went over to the room’s wall replicator and accessed the internal log. "He didn’t replicate any explosives with this unit. In fact," he said, viewing the readout with disbelief, "he hasn’t replicated any food since coming on board. The only thing he’s ever ordered is…water."
"Yeah, that sounds like him," said Lang with a chuckle. "He only eats in the mess hall, and even then, he eats sparingly, never anything rich like gach or roc-egg blood pie. It has to do with spiritual purity, or something."
"He regards his quarters as a nIt’lulIgh," Kalan observed, "a sanctuary of the spirit. Not to be sullied with temptations of the flesh, so that he may freely receive visions from Kahless and Sto’Vo’Kor."
"Yeah," Lang chuckled. "About the only vice I’ve seen him indulge in is an occasional drink of root beer."
"Root beer?" Krell said with bemusement. "A Klingon drinking root beer? Was that what he was drinking at the café?" Kalan only shook his head and grumbled in response.
After a few sweeps with his tricorder, Cyrus scratched his head. "Well, there’s no sign of any sorium argine in here. Not that there’s anywhere he could have hid it. The man doesn’t even have a bed."
Kalan then turned to Lang with urgency. "Were there any Klingons with whom Lieutenant Mokar associated frequently? Any who showed him deference or authority?" He then looked over at a confused Cyrus Krell. "It is possible that he may have employed agents to carry out his bidding for him."
"That’s a bit of a reach, sir," said Krell.
"Not to mention it doesn’t square with Mokar’s activities," said Lang. "He never associated with any of the Klingon crew outside of work. He didn’t really associate much with anyone really. He did his job and was respected for it. He’d come to a shipboard event once in a while or sit with the Tactical staff in the Officer’s Mess. But that was it. If anything, some of the Klingons have given him a lot of attitude. Even Commander Toloth had to get a talking-to from the captain to get him to lighten up on Mokar."
"Don’t ask me," Lang replied. "I figure its some Klingon honor thing. Mokar won’t talk about it, and neither will any of the other Klingons. They all say it’s a personal matter and that they won’t let it get in the way of ship’s business."
"I would like to question some of them myself," Kalan announced. "Lieutenant Lang, have the senior Klingon crewmembers meet with me. Perhaps they may shed some light as to Mokar’s activities aboard this ship."
"I think I’d like to tag along, sir," Krell said sourly. "There are questions I’d like to have answered also."
The Enterprise contained a wide variety of places for people to congregate, but at night, the teenage population on board the ship always wound up dominating the area within the Botanical Garden. There were only a few scattered adults prowling about tonight, and all of the Yellows, were still busy looking for the mysterious bomber that had attacked the Captain.
Whenever the evening time rolled around, all of the artificial heat lamps and environmental regulatory systems were turned off. The natural insulation of the large forest kept the entire area slightly warm, yet still very brisk. On the other side of the tiny indoor lake, a steady wind was generated by a series of fans that ran within the flat metal wall. Katrina and her three girlfriends had decided to meet by the edge of the water, but each had their own private reason for choosing this particular spot.
Breeshal liked to study in the garden during the day. She also preferred to come there late at night by herself whenever she couldn’t sleep. Sometimes, the young Betazed would merely sit and meditate within the darkened corners made by the trees, or else she’d stare at the lake for hours, peering into the distorted reflection of the surrounding foliage as it swirled along the smooth liquid surface.
Tiffany Limos had first found this place when her parents dragged her out of their quarters to go with them on a picnic. This was during the first weeks of the ship’s slipstream flight and everyone was still trying to settle in and become familiar with the Enterprise. She had rarely gone back to the beautiful lush area since then, except to occasionally hang out with her friends.
Pana was often very restless and she tended to constantly fidget whenever they chose to come to the lake. However, she knew that a giant Parises Squares field was within fifty meters of the water, and this always meant that there would be a group of meddlesome boys nearby. The agitated Andorian paced the area repeatedly, cracking her knuckles and hopping around on the tips of her feet as she practiced kicking an imaginary ball across the grass.
Katrina sat alone on top of a large smooth boulder. She was spending her time quietly skipping stones, picking them up from a small pile down by her feet and then flinging them as hard as she could. If this had been a normal evening, she would’ve been interacting with her friends and enjoying their company like she’d always done before. But tonight, she had her back to them, and all of her attention was focused on the tiny rock she currently held in the palm of her hand.
Kat had never felt so torn in all of her life. She wanted to go back to Sickbay and see her father; badly. But she couldn’t bring herself to face him, not after running away like she did. And then there was her mother, the most callous witch on board the entire ship. Just thinking about that woman made her so furious, but all she could do was throw another rock and watch it bounce.
Pana and Bree climbed up to join her after watching their friend for a few minutes. Tiff decided to act as a lookout and alert them as soon as she saw any Joes approaching. Kat noticed their arrival, but she didn’t speak to them just yet. She had stopped crying a while ago, but the young Romulan still felt very queasy and wretched. She absently brushed back a lock of her dark black hair as it fell over her eyes and turned to look up at the two girls as they drew closer.
"Is this seat taken?" Pana asked, smirking as she immediately sat down without waiting for an answer. She couldn’t help but notice the sad expression that remained on her best friend’s face, and it made her cringe with guilt at her inability to console her.
Bree was busy trying to shuffle her way over to where Katrina kept the miniature rock pile. Her balance was very flimsy, and it took her a while to get settled. The overly cautious girl held up the edge of her long skirt, staring at each spot below her feet before she touched it.
Her limited telepathic skills had been increasing recently, and the Betazed was able to sense the torturous array of emotions that boiled around inside of her friend. She decided to say something and attempt to sooth her friend’s mental state. "Kat," she lightly said, "try to be a little more optimistic. I know it isn’t easy, but you can’t stay here and be miserable all night." Bree put her hand over Kat’s and plucked the stone out of it. "We were all upset when we heard the news, but there’s a new rumor floating throughout the ship that’s certainly going to cheer you up."
Katrina sighed heavily before speaking. "What are you all gossiping about now?"
"It’s about your dad," Bree announced, "Doctor Saldeed says he’s doing well, and she’ll probably let him out in another day or two."
Kat perked up a bit and turned to face her. "Who told you this?"
Bree smiled and pointed to Katrina’s other side. "Pana’s mom did," she said. "One of them, anyway. She was working in Sickbay earlier and Dr. Saldeed spoke to her."
"Oh yeah?" Katrina felt a small smile spread across her face. It felt odd and a little painful, but she left it there as she shifted over to Pana, pestering her for more details. "So, what’d your mother say to you?"
"Well," Pana began, "my zhavey’ti heard it first from Nurse Baker, and double checked with Dr. Saldeed. Your dad will be stuck in Sickbay for a few more days, but he’ll be jingo plus in less than a week." Pana’s antennae twitched sporadically as she spoke. She was obviously glad to see that her friend had started to brighten up.
Bree tenderly patted Katrina. "Yeah," she said, "So don’t be so tocky tonight, ok?
Pana snorted loudly. "That’s a first!" she yelled, "I never thought I’d see the mouse calling the lion a lame beast." She nudged Katrina in the ribs with her elbow and asked, "Are you going to let her get a way with that?"
Kat glared at Pana, silently telling her to calm down, and she gave Breel a gentle hug right before all three of them stood up. They clambered off the large rock and gathered around Tiffany who instantly became annoyed at their presence. She began complaining that they were distracting her from looking out for any boys. "Back up, will you? Give me some room to see!" Katrina and Bree laughed as Pana danced mischievously and made "kissy" faces in front of Tiff.
"Will you stop that?" she squealed, puffing out her cheeks. "They’ll be here any second. Oh, no – how do I look? Kat, do I need to get prepped?"
"Never mind that now," Bree told her, "here they come."
Two guys walked out of a nearby grove, Curtis Obadae and Jason Lowe. Both humans waved and picked up their pace as they saw the four girls down by the water. Curtis ran the last few steps and scooped up Tiffany into his arms, embracing her lavishly. Jason threw a quick glance at this over his shoulder, but he soon ignored his friend’s romantic activities and moved directly in front of Katrina.
"Hi," he said to her, briefly nodding to the other two other girls. "I’m glad to see you here."
Katrina steadied herself as she looked up at Jason. "Yeah, I had wanted to be with my friends for a while." She tried to calm the fierce beating of her heart as it thumped against the left side of her chest. She had developed such a major crush on him that her pulse suddenly flared whenever he was near.
He nodded while staring at her, but then he stopped himself and became serious. "How’re you feeling?" he asked, and she could see that he was generally concerned.
"A little bit better, thanks." Another thick piece of hair fell in front of her face, and she nervously reached up to push it behind her pointed ear.
"Good, I’m glad to hear that." He gave her a broad grin, curling up the sides of his face while holding her gaze. "You know, I was thinking about you today."
"Oh yeah?" she asked him, feeling her inner level of excitement threaten to rise even further. She regained control and calmly said, "I mean – you were? How come?"
"I was worried… about the explosion." He stammered over his words, but soon found his voice again and continued. "I’ve been hearing nothing else the whole day, it’s practically everywhere I go on the whole ship."
"Well, I just found some very good news. I know for certain that my dad is going to be okay." Katrina flashed him a genuine smile, and felt truly better for the first time all day.
"Oh yeah?" he said, laughing out loud as he imitated her. She immediately giggled at him and enjoyed the amusement he had created. She totally forgot about her dreary state of mind and resolved to simply revel in his presence.
Something else caught Katrina’s attention, and she looked past Jason to see Pana impishly covering her mouth. The Andorian was blatantly pointing at her and Jason, and Kat watched in shock as she pursed her lips and made the same smooching motion that she’d been teasing Tiffany with earlier.
Kat merely glared at her, burning daggers of ice into the other girl’s blue tinted face. Before Jason turned around and picked up on what was happened, the feisty Romulan took his arm and led him over to her "skipping" boulder.
At least a dozen Klingon officers were gathered in the briefing room of the Victorious, with Kalan and Cyrus eyeing them each over. Standing at the back of the room was Lieutenant Lang, along with Captain Nog and Commander ch’Thane. Both commanding officers were looking on with frayed patience, watching the entire proceedings from a detached distance. Kalan was parading before the assembled group, acting very much in charge of things an in a manner well beyond the role of a senior officer. What was even more dismaying to Krell was the fact that the other Klingons seemed to be perfectly fine with this.
"He is a…capable officer," said Lieutenant Batath hesitantly, a Klingon female from Engineering. "I have always been satisfied with his performance."
"This is not a performance evaluation, Lieutenant," Kalan barked. "This is an investigation into an attempted assassination, a cowardly attempt on my life, and it will not stand!"
"But surely Lieutenant Mokar has reason to do harm to you, sir," said Batath.
"What makes you so certain of that, Lieutenant?" Cyrus asked.
"It…it is obvious," she struggled to say. "It is…who he is. Surely you know of what I speak, ZhantaI Kalan. I need not say it aloud." Kalan simply grunted in response.
"Is it not true that Mokar has already been taken into custody for this crime aboard Enterprise?" said Lieutenant Tovask, a young-looking Klingon wearing another uniform of an engineering officer.
"He’s being questioned," said Cyrus. "That’s all."
"Well," said Tovask, as he looked up at Kalan with a conspiratorial grin, "if the evidence does not meet the standard of Federation justice, then perhaps we in this room are better equipped to deal with those who would dishonor the House of Kritus!"
At those words, Commander ch’Thane’s antennae perked up and twitched in fury, and his blue skin darkened to a deep pitch of violet with the rush of blood. "What was that, Lieutenant? Tell me I didn’t hear what I just heard! That’s one of your fellow officers you’re talking about, mister!"
"Sir!" Tovask stammered. "I…I only meant…"
"Be silent, you intemperate fool!" Toloth berated his junior officer. Turning to Nog and ch’Thane, Toloth looked at them imploringly. "Sirs, pay Tovask no mind. He is young and impetuous and does not speak for us. We would never dishonor our posts by acting in defiance of you."
"I should hope not, Mr. Toloth," Nog spoke coolly, before turning to Kalan and Cyrus, "especially considering how circumstantial the evidence against Lieutenant Mokar appears to be. I won’t hold a court martial against one of my officers based on what little you’ve shown me so far, despite what you and every Klingon on my ship seems to think."
"We are all appalled and disgusted by what has happened, ZhantaI Kalan," said Toloth, the senior-most Klingon present among the crew of the Victorious.
"Do not address me by that term, Commander!" Kalan shouted, surprising everyone with his tone.
"It is…a sign of respect, Commander," said Toloth, sounding almost apologetic.
"I…I have not proven myself worthy of such an accolade," he replied.
Cyrus looked on at the undercurrent among the Klingons in the room. Obviously they all knew something about Mokar, something they were all reluctant to speak aloud amongst outsiders. Even Kalan was holding back from him. But whatever it was they knew about Mokar, it had convinced them all that he was guilty of the crime, regardless of whatever lack of evidence there was.
"Commander," said Krell to Kalan quietly, "I’d like to speak with you out in the hall. Privately."
Kalan nodded his assent and the two officers stepped out of the room. Once he was certain of their privacy, Cyrus addressed his commanding officer. "Sir, what does ZhantaI mean?"
Kalan sighed. "It is a term of respect, one given to those who have displayed acts of great honor to the Empire or those of high office."
"And you don’t feel you’re worthy of such respect? If I may say so, sir, you are a decorated and accomplished officer."
"It is…inappropriate!" Kalan blurted out. "ZhantaI is a title reserved for great generals or those who sit upon the High Council. For me to be called such a thing, simply because of my birth…it’s not right. I’ve yet to earn such a mark of honor. But too many have been led to believe otherwise by my uncle. He’s sold my image to the people like Ferengi gold." Looking over at Krell with annoyance, he continued. "What has this to do with anything?"
"Sir, what exactly is going on here?" Krell asked impassively.
"We are conducting an investigation into an attempt on my life, Lieutenant. I would think that was obvious."
"No, sir. I’m talking about this secret about Mokar that every Klingon on both Enterprise and Victorious seems to be in on. Now, if it’s something related to this investigation, then I should know about it."
"It is…not relevant to outsiders."
"If it provides a possible motive for the crime, sir, then I’d say it’s very relevant. Commander, I take my work very seriously. If I’m going to end a man’s career, and quite possibly his life if your government has a say in the matter, then I have to know all the facts involved. That’s part of my job, sir. Believe me, secrets…" he said, before strangely going silent, as if he were collecting himself before going on, "secrets can get people killed."
After a moment of consideration, Kalan spoke to him. "When we were younger, when his father married my mother, Mokar and I were raised together as brothers. But as the elder, and the son of the original head of my father’s House, I was designated the heir to the House of Kritus, as well as my father’s legacy. I excelled in all areas whereas Mokar…did not."
"And this is why everyone is so down on him?"
"No," said Kalan solemnly. "Do you know the tale of Kahless and Morath, Lieutenant?"
"I think so," said Krell. "Morath was Kahless’s brother, wasn’t he? Kahless fought him because he had dishonored the family, or something to that effect."
"Indeed," said Kalan. "He killed a friend in a cowardly fashion while on a hunt, and then lied afterwards to his family to conceal his crime. Kahless fought his brother for twelve days straight in order to assuage that dishonor. According to the legend, Morath was marked by shame from his very birth. He was the younger child. His birth killed his mother, and thus showed dishonor to the very woman who gave him life."
"But that’s just a legend, Commander. What does it have to do with Mokar?"
"Mokar…his mother died in childbirth as well," said Kalan with finality. "I know such things are unknown today in the Federation, but in the Empire it happens on occasion. From that moment, many of the more superstitious regarded him as marked with dishonor, just as Morath was."
"And this is why everyone is convinced he’s guilty?" said Krell incredulously. "Because of an old legend? I can’t believe that. We’re talking about officers here. Educated people. There has to be more than that."
"There is," Kalan continued with great difficulty. "When Mokar came of his Age of Ascension, he resented the favor shown to me. But there was no excuse for what he did then. He openly defied my uncle and refused a commission to serve with the Klingon Defense Forces, choosing instead to study with the Guardians of Boreth."
Cyrus almost did a double take. "He became a monk?"
"Yes," said Kalan. "It was a particular insult given the animosity that exists between the Order of Boreth and the Great Houses. If Mokar had wanted to find a way to publicly shame his father, he couldn’t have found a better way. Eventually he left the Order and returned to his obligation of military service, but I cannot forgive his snubbing of my father’s House."
"To Hirak, my cousin was lost to him a long time ago. His joining the Order only made public what was already a fact."
"What I don’t understand," said Krell, "is that if Mokar was so dishonored, then how the hell did he get placed for a slot in the Delta Fleet?"
"My uncle’s doing," said Kalan bitterly, "a final act of acknowledgement. He wanted Mokar sent as far away from the Empire as possible, so as not to further cause him shame. He probably believed him to be a detriment to his political ambitions. And with me as first officer of the flagship of the fleet, my accomplishments would eclipse any notice of him."
"It’s a damn shame," said Krell shaking his head. "Sounds like the guy never had a chance from day one."
"I never wanted him to fail or fall by the wayside in his father’s eyes," Kalan fumed. "As children, I defended him against the taunts of others. But there is still no excuse for him to act like…a sullen human teenager! Other Klingons have been born into greater adversity than he, yet they have risen above their circumstances and achieved glory and honor. Instead he runs away from his sorrows and feels the universe owes him recognition! Is it any wonder that Mokar would seethe with resentment towards me and want me dead?"
"That isn’t the picture that I’m getting, sir," said Cyrus. "From what I see from his crewmates, this isn’t a guy burning for revenge. This is someone who’s simply trying to find a place for himself, someone trying to find peace, not create more trouble."
"What are you saying, Lieutenant?" inquired Kalan with a skeptical eye.
"What I’m saying is that even though all our circumstantial evidence is pointing to Mokar, I don’t believe he did it."
The holo-chronometer hovering along the wall told Katrina exactly how late she was. She walked passed the stationary digits and dragged herself around the corner to reach the door to her family’s quarters. The exhausted adolescent simply stood there for a moment, trying to catch her breath.
It had been an exceedingly stressful day, and all she really wanted to do now was crawl on top of her soft bed and turn her brain and body off. She felt totally phased, and didn’t even want to take of her skins before falling down to achieve blissful slumber. Kat couldn’t believe that on top of the major calamity with her parents, she now had to deal with all these overpowering feelings she had for Jason. He had asker her to call him Jay, saying how he preferred that nickname to the one his parent’s had given him.
Too many different things were floating through her mind as she entered the main living room. She took about four steps, and then froze in her tracks. Her mother was standing there, hands clasped behind her back, directly within the entrance to her room. Katrina wished she could shrink out of sight, or maybe spontaneously disappear, but she knew that these ideas were pure fantasy. The witch had caught her again, adding another credit to the reputation of Borg efficiency.
The most unsettling thing was the way she was just staring at her. The elder woman’s eyes were as unflinching as the Jem’Hadar down in Sickbay with her father. Kat felt severely drained enough as it was, but her mother’s fierce glare seemed to drill straight through her. It was almost as bad as the look she’d given to Pana a few hours ago.
Annika eventually stepped forward and confronted her daughter. She tried to maintain a dispassionate attitude while talking to the young girl, but the severity of the situation plainly called for her to enforce a more disciplined position when dealing with Katrina.
"Why did you behave so drastically?" her mother demanded. "Explain your actions."
"I…" Katrina stammered. "I don’t know why. I just didn’t want…" What she wanted to tell her was that she didn’t want to be around her at that moment, but given the stress of what happened to her father, she knew it would be a cruel thing to say to her. She could see the hurt in her eyes, and for all of her mother’s icy toughness, Katrina knew that she had a vulnerable side, especially where her dad was concerned.
"I just didn’t want to be there, okay?" she said with finality.
Annika stood there silently, not speaking a word, as though she didn’t trust herself to control what she might say next.
"Wildman to Dr. Kim," came Naomi’s voice over the intercom. Katrina watched as her mother slowly raised her eyes away from her. "Hey, Annika, have you got a moment?"
"Kim here," the former drone replied, calling out to the air, her voice easing from its earlier frosty tone. "What can I do for you?"
"Sorry if I’m disturbing you," said the Ops officer. "I know this is last minute. Neelix and I just came back from visiting the captain. The Talaxian government is eager to meet with their new ambassador and I’m going to beam down with him. You know, just to see him off."
"A commendable gesture," said Annika. "Were the circumstances different with Harry…"
"Hey, Neelix says he understands. Anyhow, I was wondering if Katrina was available tonight to babysit for Sabrina. I was going to ask Professor Mahat again, but I feel I’ve imposed on her too much already. Like I said, I know that this is short notice…"
"I am afraid that Katrina will not be available tonight," said Annika sternly as she glared in her daughter’s direction. "She is grounded until further notice."
Grounded?! Katrina wanted to scream out in protest, but a harsh stare of warning from her mother told her that there would be no debate on the subject. The Queen Bee had decided the matter for her.
So Katrina dealt with the situation in the way any girl her age would have. She stormed off to her room and immediately commanded the door to shut behind her, shutting out the rest of the world as well.
As soon as Lt. Wildman entered Transporter Room Two, she caught the attention of the Ops officer on duty and signaled for him to remain at his station. Naomi wanted him to understand that she wasn’t there on any official assignment. She didn’t need to perform a surprise inspection or evaluate any of the system’s logs. Everyone on the senior staff already knew that Comm. Kalan and Lt. Krell were the only people taking care of the investigation behind the blast that had injured the Captain. Vorik was currently in command of the Enterprise, and the half-K’Tarian woman had a lone task of her own to deal with.
She merely had to take the newly instated Federation Ambassador down to his home world. But this was easier said than done because Neelix had been acting very eccentric for most of the time she’d spent with him. Naomi initially thought that he was upset by the attack against their old friend, but she now believed that the severe change in his behavior was due to something else. He was still reluctant to return to his native soil.
Earlier in the day, the energetic Talaxian had tried to drag the overworked officer *all* around the Enterprise, asking her to show him everything on board that was different when compared to the internal structure of the Victorious. There wasn’t much to see, the two ships were nearly identical. And now that he was finally inside the transporter room, Neelix realized that it was time to go.
Naomi directed him over to the far side of the room as she headed towards the duty station. Neelix stepped within the large white circle that was sunken into the floor. He began to brush some imaginary lint off his clothes, and then he cleared his throat – loudly. Wildman leered at him out of the corner of her eye, but she soon ignored him and peered over the holographic display of the landing coordinates. Everything appeared to be in perfect order; the picture matched the designated area that the Talaxian authorities had assigned to them. She gave the crewman a light nod and moved away from him to go and join Neelix.
Just as she placed her foot onto the platform, Naomi heard a quiet voice permeate the air through the comm system. "Annika Kim to Naomi."
"This is Naomi speaking," she automatically replied, but she instantly felt that something was wrong. Her ears distinctly heard a tiny amount of sadness and pain hidden within the other woman’s words. "Annika, what is it? How can I help you?"
"This is… not an easy topic to discuss. It concerns Katrina, and I would prefer to speak privately with you about this."
"One moment," Wildman said as she slid off the transporter. She called out, "Take a break crewman," and jerked her head towards the door, signaling for the technician to leave.
Once she was alone, except for Neelix who quietly waited for her to finish, Naomi freely spoke to her old friend. Every time the content of their conversation became too painful for her to continue, Naomi would tell her to stop and take a deep breath. She instructed Annika to proceed only after she felt calm and capable to discuss her problems without choking over the words.
They talked for a very long time, with the younger parent listening to the worried voice of the elder. The problems that Annika faced were quite severe; not only had Katrina run out of Sickbay, but her mother had also found her eavesdropping on a pair of Romulans. In addition to that, her husband was extremely weakened as a result of the explosion. Harry could do only two things during his recovery; sleep, and then mutter a few soft words to her once he was awake.
Through the details they shared during their intimate conversation, Naomi soon managed to soothe away most of the tension that Annika had been experiencing. She also figured out a way deal with the current dilemma that was bothering her.
The K’Tarian took her own advice and inhaled deeply before ending the com link she had been sharing with Annika. Less than a second later, she initiated a new one. "Lt. Wildman to Yola Mahat."
The Cardassian woman answered right away. "Mahat here."
"I need to speak to you for a moment," she clearly stated. "And also, I have a favor to ask you."
"Of course, please proceed." The scientist had a neutral tone in her voice, but she sounded willing enough to offer some help.
Naomi went back over to where Neelix had been waiting and held up her hand. She spread the fingers apart to indicate that she wanted him to wait five more minutes. He silently acknowledged her with a shrug of his shoulders and she returned her attention to the latest problem that had been dropped into her lap.
Kalan had been walking steadily throughout the corridors upon his return to Enterprise, but he promptly slowed down his pace as Yola Mahat approached him. The sleek Cardassian woman glided over to his side and matched his steps. She casually turned to him and whispered, "I must speak to you. It’s about the explosion." The gruff Klingon slowly nodded, and then he waved at the closed doors of a nearby turbolift.
Once they were inside, Yola called out, "Deck Nine," in order to go to the level where the Kim family lived. She moved all the way to the back and relaxed against the wall. A moment later, Kalan ordered the Lift to halt. He merely stared at the female scientist, patiently waiting for her to speak.
Mahat could clearly see the stress and aggravation building up within the XO, so she wisely decided not to waste anymore of his time. "I know that this is none of my business," she began, "but I’ve done some personal investigation into the cause of the explosion."
Kalan clenched his hands into fists as his posture stiffened. Yola heard a low growl escape from somewhere deep inside of his throat. "You do not have the authorization to go anywhere *near* that area," he said, barking his words at her. "Do you think that you’ve suddenly become one of Krell’s detectives?"
"Please allow me to finish, Commander, and you shall see the reason why." Mahat was completely unfazed by Kalan’s overly aggressive attitude. She continued with her explanation as if he hadn’t even interrupted her. "I have an abundant amount of information to give you. All of it concerns the nature of the material that was used in the explosion."
Yola turned to the wall and called out for an HPADD. A variety of chemical equations were immediately displayed, along with several paragraphs of statistical information. The text scrolled down the edges of the square-shaped image as the remaining pictures floated before him. "This will help you with your search," she said. "It contains an analytical comparison of the molecular residue that I found at the site of the incident."
She brushed her hand through the hologram and watched as it evaporated. "The proof is incontrovertible. It states that the explosive material was synthesized from two unique elements. One was a highly complex chemical, and the other was a specific type of plant. Both of these are available to any of the engineers on board our ship.
"Also," she continued, "I compared my results with the security team investigation. They both show that the detonator was the type which is triggered by an outside signal, probably done at extremely short range."
"Our sensor logs of the scene were unable to find any transmissions in the area," said Kalan shortly. "There were no anomalous signals that we could identify."
"Then perhaps the signal in question was not an anomaly at all," she said, "but rather something that should have been there from the very beginning."
"I don’t suppose you were able to identify the signal in question?"
"I’m sorry, Commander," she said regretfully. "There was too little left over from the explosion to determine that."
Kalan considered her words, and shook his head in puzzlement. She spoke in the same kind of mystic riddles that the monks of Boreth tended to favor. "Thank you, Professor Mahat," he reluctantly grumbled, "this data shall be added to the rest of the evidence."
The Cardassian woman smiled lightly as she tipped her head towards him. "You are welcome, Commander. It is both an honor and a privilege to be able to help you find out what happened." The two strangers held each other’s gaze for a few seconds before Kalan ordered the Lift to resume its course.
Less than a minute later, Yola stepped out into the corridor and went towards the front of the ship. Kalan called out to her, "I will continue with the rest of this investigation on my own."
She paused and delicately spun around to face him. "But of course, Commander. You already have." And before he could respond, the doors swished shut in his face.
Kalan sat at the workstation in his office, more confused that ever. He kept the lights dim, helping him to concentrate his thoughts. He had hoped that a search aboard Victorious would find conclusive evidence to prove Mokar’s guilt, but instead there were only more doubts. On top of that, he thought, Professor Mahat discovers that perhaps the sorium argine could have been manufactured from more basic components, thus evading the replicator security lockout, another trick that only someone familiar with the compound would know. The base compounds could have easily been replicated here on Enterprise.
But he considered Mahat’s observation about the triggering mechanism. Could there have been a signal that the security teams hadn’t noticed?
"Computer," he called out, "access security logs for Deck 5, Section 3 at 1920 hours, Stardate 76449.8."
"Unable to comply," said the computer. "Security logs are unavailable from 1920 to 1935 hours."
It was as he expected from Lt. Krell’s initial report. "View logs from 1935 hours onward," he said.
A viewpanel hologram was generated above his uncluttered desk, showing the scene of the corridor outside the reception, before the explosion. He identified the access panel where the explosive had been set. For a long time, there was nothing. Then he saw the image of himself exiting the dining room with Mokar, the two of them in silent discussion as he muted the sound. He didn’t care to hear that same foolish argument all over again.
There he was on the screen with Mokar, just standing there. What possible signal could have been used to trigger the device, he thought as he studied the scene, one that could have ensured that he would have been killed?
Then it occurred to him. The combadges! It made perfect sense. Each combadge relayed information to the ship’s computer network as to the wearer’s identity, location and physical health. The data stream was so ubiquitous that it was considered a part of the standard background noise of shipboard life. If the detonator had been designed to read a combadge signal of a specific individual, it would make an ideal tool for assassination.
Only there was one problem with the theory, Kalan realized. The holographic image of the security log showed him and Mokar standing right next to the rigged panel, yet there was no explosion at that point. Perhaps the trigger was intended to detonate on a timer, giving Mokar time to get clear, but it would have been a risky gamble for him to take, as there was no way he could guarantee that Kalan would remain behind long enough. Kalan almost hoped that it had been Mokar’s intention to die with him in the explosion, and that something had simply gone wrong. It would have revealed at least a semblance of honor in his cowardly plan.
But then something else happened. Captain Kim came out into the hallway. He watched as the captain spoke to him, and then approached him, walking right past the access panel. And then there was the explosion, knocking Kalan down and sending the captain across the corridor and slamming against the opposite wall.
Unless there had been some kind of glitch with the detonation program, the truth was now obvious to Kalan. He had never been the intended target at all. The explosion was meant for the captain.
But what possible reason could Mokar have for killing Harry Kim? It was with great shame that Kalan realized that there was no reason. Mokar was not the assassin. Someone else was, someone who could still be aboard Enterprise and make another attempt.
But first Kalan called up a list of the crew. If someone with knowledge of sorium argine explosives was aboard Enterprise, then he had to consider what the motive for the assassination was. And that would start to narrow down the suspects.
Harry Kim rested quietly in Sickbay, the only patient in a quiet room. He felt so helpless lying here, while someone was out there posing a threat to his ship. But he had to trust his people to take care of the job and see things through. Unfortunately, he couldn’t delegate to anyone the responsibility of easing the tensions between his wife and daughter.
Dr. Saldeed walked by on her way to her office. She noticed the young Klingon security guard standing on duty, along with Jor’Marak. She tried to recall his name. Durok, she believed it was. He had come on duty only a few hours ago, but she knew that the Jem’Hadar has been there all day without relief.
"Feeling any better, Captain?" she inquired.
"I’d feel better if I could get out of here, Doctor," said Harry.
"Be patient, Captain," she said with a crooked smile. "You need a few more days of rest before you’re ready to sit in the big chair. Be grateful that someone else is handling the load for you." She then glanced over at the Jem’Hadar. "What about you? You’ve been standing there for almost a day straight. Don’t you need to be relieved at all?"
"I require no rest," said Jor’Marak flatly. "But there is something I must research. I dare not leave my watch."
"It’s all right, Jor’Marak," said Harry. "Ensign Durok will be here to keep an eye on things. Won’t you, Ensign?"
"Um, yes sir," said the young Klingon. He looked on as the CMO went to her office, while Jor’Marak stepped out of the room.
After several minutes, Durok looked over to the captain. "Sir?"
"I…I just wanted to tell you that it has been an honor to serve under you on this mission."
Harry considered the odd comment graciously, "Uh, well, thank you, Ensign. You’ve done a fine job."
Durok nodded, almost looking sad and forlorn. "I just wanted you to know that, so that you would know…it was not personal."
At that point Durok pulled out a long blade from his uniform tunic and grabbed Harry by the neck. It all happened so quickly, Harry wanted to cry out, to make sense of what was going on.
"Do not call for help, Captain," said Durok, as he gestured over to Saldeed’s office, where she sat poring over her medical files. "I wouldn’t want to have to kill the good doctor as well."
Through the shock and his weakened state, Harry could mutter only one word softly. "Why?"
"For the glory of the House of Kritus," said Durok with a wild, faraway look. "As I said, Captain, it is nothing personal. But it must be done. So that ZhantaI Kalan may ascend."
Harry tried to resist against Durok’s tight grip, but his body was weak and tired. He could not fight, nor did he want to risk the lives of anyone else, if the only thing this lunatic wanted was to eliminate him.
"I heard the words of ZhantaI Kalan before," Durok continued. "He was right. My earlier attempt on your life was dishonorable. I should have come for you directly rather than hiding behind an explosive. But I was selfish. I didn’t want to be caught or killed. I wanted to see ZhantaI Kalan achieve his full destiny, to return to Qu’Onos in glory. But know this, Captain, that with your death, a greater good to the Klingon people will have been achieved."
Harry wanted to say something in response, but was cut short by the sound of the Sickbay doors sliding open. He hoped that it was a contingent of security guards, or even Jor’Marak returning. But his hope turned to horror when he saw it was Katrina, coming to visit him. As soon as she saw the large Klingon hovering over her father with a knife, she instinctively screamed. Durok turned with a panic, feeling as though everything was falling apart. He lunged at the entrance, his knife raised threateningly at the young girl.
"No!" Harry cried out, helpless to do anything to stop him as Katrina stared in terror at the oncoming attacker. But then, Durok seemed to slam into something invisible, causing him to fall back to the floor with a heavy thump. At that moment, Jor’Marak ‘unshrouded’ right between the Klingon and Katrina, and knocked him to the ground again, taking his phaser and breaking his arm in a single motion. His heavy foot stomped onto Durok’s outstretched arm, where he was desperately reaching for his fallen knife. He looked ready to kill the attacker, but Harry called out in time.
"Jor’Marak," he said with authority. "Stand down." The Jem’Hadar complied, and stood his ground, his boot firmly in place. Katrina rushed to her father and hugged him while sobbing. "Daddy," she cried, "I was…I thought…"
"It’s okay, princess," he said, finding the strength to hold his little girl. "I’m just grateful that you’re okay." Harry then looked over to the Jem’Hadar bodyguard. "You were here all the time. You knew?"
"I suspected," said Jor’Marak. "Ensign Durok’s behavior since coming on duty was suspicious. He would constantly watch you and look about for others whenever Sickbay was empty. I sensed fear from him. So I provided an opportunity to test him." Looking stone-faced at the captain, he continued. "You were in no danger, Captain. I was prepared to strike the moment he tried to hurt you."
Saldeed came out of her office just as the Sickbay doors opened again, with Kalan, Cyrus Krell, and three security officers in tow. As soon as he saw the scene before him, Kalan looked at his captain with relief, and then down at the fallen Durok with furious contempt.
"How many?" he demanded. "How many of you did my uncle send here?"
"ZhantaI Kalan…" Durok tried to speak. "I acted alone. I sought only to honor you…"
"Honor me?!" Kalan exploded. "You have shamed me, Ha’DIbaH! For such a cowardly act to be perpetrated in my name, you have dishonored the House of Kritus and yourself!" And with that, he backhanded the young officer across the face, knocking him back to the floor. Harry could see the look on Durok’s face, one of utter deflation and emptiness. He also saw after a moment of reflection that he tried to get up and reach for his knife.
"Stop!" he called out, but it was too late for anyone to do anything. Jor’Marak’s reflexes were too fast as he reached out and smashed his hand into the Klingon’s forehead, crushing the front of his skull. Kalan grabbed the dying Klingon, seeing the blood trickle down from his mouth, looking into his eyes.
"For the honor…" said Durok weakly and then fell still. Saldeed rushed over to run her tricorder over Durok, but her results showed only what Kalan already knew, that he was dead.
"What could he have been thinking?" said Krell with astonishment. "Four security officers and a Jem’Hadar? Going for the knife was suicide."
"That was what he wanted," said Kalan solemnly, "to die in battle." Looking down at the dead Klingon, he let out a regretful sigh. "What a selfish attitude," said Kalan to the fallen corpse. "You think there are shortcuts on the way to Sto’vo’kor, but there are none."
"Well, I guess this is it," said Naomi Wildman, as she stood on the transporter pad in the Paxau Administrative District of the city of Talax’ul’Rhee. The pad was situated on an outdoor platform among the thick trees of the central city, with multicolored awnings draped overhead.
"I suppose it is," said Ambassador Neelix, as he looked around, trying to take in his new surroundings, letting his memory take him back to his youth. "The city has changed since I was here last. I don’t remember so many colors."
"I guess they have a lot more to be proud of," she said, choking on her words, not able to say any more.
"I guess so," he said back as he wandered over to the railing to look out upon the city proper. Neelix smiled as he saw the bustle of activity below and off into the distance. The city, the entire planet, seemed vibrant and alive in a way that it hadn’t been during those dark days after the war. Naomi had been right. There was hope here once again.
"Excuse me, Mr. Ambassador?" came a feminine voice from across the platform. A mature Talaxian woman was approaching them with two younger assistants. "I apologize for the delay. I was supposed to meet you upon arrival."
"Oh, that’s quite all right, Minister…"
"Dexa," she said as she came up to him and Naomi. "A pleasure to meet you in person at last. Captain Kim already showed me and my colleagues your pre-recorded message."
"Oh, that," he said humbly. "I’m surprised you even recognized me. The camera always adds on a few kilos with me."
"Not at all," she answered. "I thought you made quite a distinguished presentation."
"Why, thank you, Madame Minister," he said graciously. "It certainly feels…well, different to be on Talax again."
"I hope you don’t find the changes too bewildering, Mr. Ambassador," she said amiably.
"Please," he said with a chuckle. "When we’re not at any official functions, I’d rather just be called Neelix. I’m still getting used to the title."
"Of course…Neelix," she said, returning his grin with one of her own. "If you’ll come with me, I’ve been asked to introduce you to the rest of the People’s Assembly."
"I’ll be along in just a minute," he said, before turning back to Naomi, who had stood silently by the wayside, watching him and Dexa interact. "I…I guess I have to be going now."
"Yeah, me too," she said. Despite her best intentions, a tear formed at the corner of her eye, which she wiped away quickly. "God, I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry."
"Me too," he said, just as Naomi reached over and the two of them hugged each other goodbye.
"You know," she said, "I remember what you told me all those years ago, when Voyager first came back to the Alpha Quadrant. You said you had to find your own path in the Alpha Quadrant, just like my path involved learning to live my life there."
"Yes," he said as the two parted, "I remember that."
"Will you still be my Uncle Neelix?" said Naomi as she echoed her words of so many years past, feeling like a child once again with the man who had been family to her for so long.
He gave her a smile as wide as his embrace, as he wiped away a tear from her cheek. "I’ll always be your Uncle Neelix," he said as he let her go, and went to leave with Dexa.
Naomi wiped her tear away as she returned to the transporter pad to beam back to Enterprise. She knew that her Uncle Neelix had finally come home, just as it was now time for her to do the same.
After another day of rest, Dr. Saldeed reluctantly agree to allow Harry Kim’s release from Sickbay and a limited returned to duty. He sat up in his chair in his ready room, listening to Lieutenant Krell give his final report on the incident with Durok. Finn Bartok and Kalan sat quietly to the side listening, Kalan being especially subdued.
"We know that Durok was from the House of Garon, which is related by blood to the House of Kritus," Krell reported. "We think it was Durok’s intention to kill you, sir, so that Commander Kalan could, well…"
"So I would assume command of Enterprise, and thus return home as the captain of the flagship of the fleet," Kalan finished, his tone dark and somber.
"That seems to be the case," said Krell, showing discomfort at having to be the bearer of uncomfortable news. "We did some checking and found out that Councilor Hirak pushed hard to have Durok placed aboard Enterprise, but no one took any notice. They figured it was just some political back scratching. In any case, we haven’t found any evidence that any other Klingons were working with Durok, but we’ll keep a close watch on some of his friends aboard ship, just to make certain."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," said Kim. "That will be all."
"Yes, Lieutenant," said Kalan with a confident nod. "Thank you." For a moment, the two nodded at each other, silent, yet speaking volumes. Krell then turned and left the three officers to their own counsel.
"Sir," said Kalan with uncharacteristic humbleness as he got up from his seat and stood before Harry’s desk, "I will understand if you wish for me to transfer off of Enterprise."
"Why would I want you to do that?" asked Harry.
The Klingon looked at his captain curiously. "I would think that after what has happened, you would no longer trust me. How can you ever be certain that I was not a part of the plot to eliminate you? If you cannot trust your first officer, than I cannot be effective to you."
"Relax, Commander," said Harry lightheartedly. "I have complete confidence that you were in no way a part of any plot. We may have only served together for a short time, but I think I’ve come to understand a few things about you. You’re a man of honor, XO. You wouldn’t have done anything like this just for power or political advancement. And even if you had wanted to kill me, you never would have hidden behind underlings and bombs in the hallway. You’d look me in the eye and face me; the way Durok finally did in the end.
"I also remember you telling me once that whatever differences we might face, you’d always serve me honorably. Now, I know that a warrior never goes back on his word."
"Indeed," said Kalan, a feral smile curling at the corner of his mouth, "he does not."
"Do you think that Durok could have come up with this plan by himself?" asked Bartok.
"Unlikely," said Kalan, the bitterness in his voice obvious to all. "This is my uncle’s doing. Hirak fought hard to have me elevated to a command position, and was not pleased that I was only made executive officer to the Enterprise. This was his work, I’m sure of it. All to raise my political stature upon my return."
"Unfortunately," said Harry, "there’s no proof connecting your uncle to the crime. Any hard evidence we had died with Durok."
"So what do we do?" asked Bartok. "Do we inform Fleet Command?"
"That would create problems," said Harry. "We don’t know if any of the Klingons on the Command Staff are tight with Councilor Hirak or not. As much as I’d like to nail him for the crime, if it gets out we’re accusing a Councilor of murder without evidence, it could create a huge political firestorm. I’ve sent a private communiqué to Admiral Janeway letting her know what’s happened here. If there’s any dirt to be found, it’s in the hands of Starfleet Intelligence now."
"Doesn’t sound very satisfying," said the counselor, "does it?"
"Do not be concerned with Hirak," said Kalan as he stood at attention. "I will handle him in my own way."
Kalan stood fiercely at the center of the holocom chamber, waiting for the computer to finish making the connection. The room was somewhat smaller than a standard holodeck, circular-shaped, its dark walls crisscrossed with diagonal silver gridlines. But with the hyperlink system now operational, this would not be the kind of entertaining diversion that humans were so fond of.
"Qo’noS hyperlink connection established," the computer announced. "Stand by for holographic interface."
The air around him shimmered as the gridlines were replaced by red and gray marble and stone. The Great Seal of the Empire hung proudly at the back of the room, with a large desk dominating the center. Standing before the desk was an older Klingon male, his hair and beard tinged with gray, his broad chest and plump midsection draped with a heavy sash bedecked with medals and icon in an ostentatious display.
"Kalan, my boy," the man said heartily, bordering on obsequiousness. "This is truly amazing. This dogh holoprojector they installed in my office actually works. It’s hard to believe we’re actually talking across seventy thousand light-years. It looks like you’re right here in the room with me. I hear you ran into a bit of trouble out there…"
"Pah!" Kalan shouted as he spat at the feet of his uncle. The fury and contempt on his face were unmistakable.
Hirak’s jaw hung open in shock. "Have you lost your mind, boy? Are you challenging me? Me?"
"I know what you did, uncle," said Kalan frostily. "You had Durok placed aboard Enterprise to kill my captain."
"Kalan, I haven’t the slightest idea…"
"Do not lie to me, old man! Your man practically confessed your patronage before he died! I tell you this now, uncle. If you placed any more minions on my ship, they had best hope I never learn their identities. I promise they will not be dispatched as quickly or as cleanly as Durok."
"You call me a liar?" Hirak sputtered. "You ungrateful tIch! After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me? I practically raised you as my son and you…"
"You have a son! Mokar! Have you forgotten? Or is simply that he has nothing to offer you to elevate you into power?"
"Mokar?" Hirak almost laughed. "He’s useless! He’s been nothing but a disgrace to me from the day of his birth! You, you were my hope, the son I truly wanted. I did everything for you…"
"You are not my father!" Kalan fumed. "You were never my father. My father was Kritus, son of Talankar, of the House of Kritus! He was a hero of the Empire and a man of honor. Everything that you have, everything you are, you took from him."
"A hero of the Empire," Hirak sneered. "He was always the lucky one, Kritus was. He had every opportunity, every chance. Even in death, he was luckier than any man deserved to be. But after he was gone, who was the one who raised you? I took you and your mother in…"
"You let yourself in!" Kalan snarled. "What you did, you didn’t do out of love or affection. You did it for yourself. You let everyone know that you were the brother of a hero and built career around that, just as you have tried to do with me. You are a parasite, uncle; a parasite who uses others to further the dreams of ambition that you could never hope to achieve on your own. And you are not fit to lead my father’s house!"
Hirak’s entire demeanor changed at that point. The defensive, wounded expression he wore before was now gone, replaced by a cold and confident posture. Any doubt that Kalan might have had regarding his uncle’s guilt was gone now. "What are you saying, boy? Are you challenging me for leadership of the House of Kritus?"
Kalan did not waver at all, but returned his icy glare with one of equal intensity. "I will be away from the Empire for some time, uncle. So you have that long to ensure your position. But upon my return, there will be changes in how things are done."
Hirak responded with a cruel laughter, showing no fear. "You must truly have been seduced by the mindless praise the masses are heaping on you if you think you can unseat me, nephew. A warrior is no substitute for a politician. They fight on different battlefields, ones that you haven’t begun to map out yet. I may not have created much on my own, but if you try to challenge me, I think you’ll find that there’s no one who is better at holding on to what he has."
The son of Kritus showed no fear in his reply. "I will be here in the Delta Quadrant for a good number of years. I have ample time to learn. And I’ve always been a quick study. Isn’t that what you’ve always told me?"
The elder Klingon simply growled something unintelligible and ended the transmission. The Great Seal and the marble were gone. There was nothing left to say. As the humans liked to say, the gloves were off now.
Katrina lay out on her stomach on her bed, sounds of FreeFusion vibes wafting through the air. Her eyes were focused on the HPADD hovering before her face. Instead of a translucent scroll of data, it was configured into the unique image of a printed book bound in old leather. Since the manuscript was so old, she selected an appropriate format to read by. With each wave of her hand, the false pages would dissolve and reformat to the next page. There wasn’t much else for her to do except listen to music and read, as she was still grounded. No time outside her family’s quarters for two weeks, except for school and visiting her father in Sickbay. Of course, after the last visit, she doubted her mother would ever let her out of her sight again.
The bedroom door chimed, and Katrina answered it with great reluctance. It was her mother, looking…well, not quite so witch-like this time. In fact, she seemed almost, well, like a mother.
"May I come in?" Annika asked.
"Sure," Katrina replied. Her mother came into the room and, instead of glaring from a distance, sat down gently next to her on the bed.
"I’m…I’m fine, Mom," said Katrina, sitting up from her reading, more puzzled than before.
"When I heard about what happened in Sickbay, I…"
"Mom, really, I’m okay," the Romulan girl said reassuringly. "I was scared for a little while, but Jor’Marak really slammed that rimrule down. After that, I was mostly worried for Dad."
"Yes," she said, her hand touching her daughter’s shoulder. "Just as I was worried for both of you."
"I know," said Katrina sheepishly.
"Katrina," her mother said, more seriously, "I realize that you feel I am too strict at times. Perhaps, I am. I only want what is best for you and for you to reach your full potential. When you are a mother, you will understand."
"Look, mom," Katrina sighed, "I know all this. I just…well, I wish you’d just trust me more. I’m not trying to get into trouble."
"Then why did you spy on Doctor T’Villet in Science Lab 2 the other day?" asked Annika.
"I…I just wanted to see Romulans at work, that’s all," she answered, trying to look too embarrassed. "I was just curious, Mom, that’s all. I didn’t mean to break any rules."
Annika leaned over, casting an eye upon the holographic book her daughter was reading. "This is written in Romulan script."
"Yeah," said Katrina. "It’s something that Dr. Saldeed recommended. I switched off the universal translator system in the room. I wanted to try and decipher the language myself."
"Have you been successful?" asked her mother.
"Well," her daughter answered with a blush, "I get maybe one out of every five words. Rihannsu can be a pretty dense lingo. Three different noun cases and a spelling system that makes English look like, well, Binary. Lucky this is just a children’s story."
"Indeed?" said Annika, showing more interest. "What is the tale about?"
"It’s a kind of historical adventure," said Katrina, perking up at her mother’s expressed involvement in what interested her. "A big saga about the earliest Romulan pioneers and their first visit to Remus."
"Does the story have a happy ending?"
"Not for the Remans," Katrina answered wryly. "Of course, I doubt I’ll ever get through to the ending. Reading Rihannsu is a lot tougher than trying to speak it, and I still haven’t had any luck there."
"Do not belittle yourself, Katrina," said her mother reassuringly. "You are capable of anything you set your mind to. I have always believed so."
"Really," said Annika with a confident smile. "As long as you show the proper focus."
Katrina held back a wry laughter. Some things just don’t change overnight, she supposed. It wasn’t quite peace, but it was a start.
Kalan and Mokar walked silently down the corridor towards the transporter room, their faces revealing nothing. There was so much that had to be said between them, but neither knew where to begin. So they each did what came easiest. They said nothing.
As they entered Transporter Room One, Kalan glanced over at the officer on duty and requested that he leave. Mokar glanced over at him with concern.
"Do not be alarmed, Mokar," said Kalan. "I have no intention of challenging you. I simply wished to speak with you…privately. I…wish to apologize for my assumption of your guilt. I have always prided myself on being clear of mind and rational, but with you…"
Mokar nodded stoically with acknowledgement. "You would not be the first to have done so, cousin. I understand your anger with me. What I did, fleeing to join with the Order of Boreth, I did to hurt my father. I did not intend to disrespect the House of Kritus. Or you, Kalan."
"I know that, now," he said. "Perhaps it took your coming here for me to realize who is really standing with me, and who is standing against me."
"You refer to Hirak," said Mokar.
"I intend no disrespect against your father," said Kalan.
"Of course you do," said Mokar, "nor should you apologize for it. I know that it’s no coincidence that my father’s agent made his move against your captain the moment I came aboard Enterprise. It was no secret that Victorious would be the first ship of the fleet to rendezvous with you. It was his intention to cast suspicion against me all along."
"How could you know this?"
"I know my father," said Mokar sadly. "There is little love in Hirak’s heart for anyone other than Hirak. I know that he has no use for me, just as I learned long ago that I have no use for him. If my time with the Order taught me anything is that honor and ambition are not one and the same. Kahless did not choose the path he did out of a desire for power or wealth. It was his faith in the Klingon people that drove him, his belief that a life lived honorably and gloriously would bring its own rewards."
"I remember the lessons well," said Kalan with a smile. "Every Klingon must search for honor along his own path. Do not envy me for the path I have taken, Mokar. It may lead me to an early passing to Sto’vo’Kor."
"Or to the office of Chancellor," Mokar replied. "I admit I was once envious of your accomplishments, Kalan, and the fact that you and your mother supplanted me from my father’s life. It was part of the reason I fled to Boreth. I learned to meditate to cast aside such useless feelings. I still struggle with them. Perhaps I am still seeking my path to honor."
"Perhaps you have already found it," said Kalan generously. "Many of the crew of the Victorious think well of you."
"That may change," he said. "Hirak’s actions will be known to all one day. Perhaps as his estimation goes down, yours will rise."
"Perhaps," said Mokar, as he strode up to the transporter pad, noticing Kalan’s proximity to the control panel. "You realize that this could be your last opportunity to kill me, Kalan."
"Another time, cousin," Kalan answered with a grudging smile. "I must have something to look forward to the next time we meet, eh?" The two laughed heartily. Maybe it wasn’t peace, but at least it was acceptance.
"Qapla’, Kalan, son of Kritus," said Mokar.
"Qapla’, Mokar," he said back, as the transporter cycle initiated, beaming him back to his ship. Yes, it was Mokar, not Mokar, son of Hirak. He was his own man now.
Kalan stepped off the turbolift onto the bridge, where his seat by his captain’s side awaited him. The Counselor Bartok occupied the chair opposite to his, while the captain’s wife sat at one of the observation chairs along the rim of the bridge. All eyes were upon Kalan as he arrived. Their tasks in establishing the bridgehead at Talax now complete, it was time for Enterprise to move on to the next phase of her mission and resume the exploration of the quadrant.
"Did you take care of what needed doing, XO?" asked Harry as his first officer took his sear.
"Mokar has returned to the Victorious," answered Kalan. "And I have had my conversation with my uncle."
Bartok leaned over with a look of concern. "I hope that didn’t create too much trouble for you back home."
"It was something that should have been said a long time ago," answered the Klingon.
"Sir," Naomi Wildman called over from Ops. "We’re getting clearance from Talax Orbital Traffic Control. We’re clear to leave on your mark. We’ve also received farewells from the First Chair, the People’s Assembly, and…" she paused as she briefly collected herself, "from Ambassador Neelix."
Kim smiled as he turned to Ops. "Please return my complements to them all. I’m sure we’ll be back this way soon enough." Harry them turned to the console on his right, opening a channel to the Victorious. "Captain Nog, we’re ready to depart. I leave Talax and Delta One in your capable hands."
"Good luck to you, Enterprise," came Nog’s reply over the intercom. "Victorious will be out there with you soon enough. Let’s hope when our ships meet again, there will be less drama and more of a chance to swap stories."
"Amen to that," Harry responded, before turning to his XO and giving him the word. "Commander?"
Kalan smiled and glanced forward towards the helm station. "Ensign Paris," he said to Miral. "Take us out of orbit."
"Aye, sir," said the young officer. "Heading?"
The Klingon stood and scratched his bearded chin with a wry expression. "Set course for the Rectilia Cluster. It’s time for Enterprise to begin its own saga of glory." | 2019-04-26T05:51:21Z | https://fanfiction.trekipedia.com/df-103/ |
A cap on carbon emissions, a health care scandal and fights over firefighting will pump political adrenaline into the Capitol this week. Most of the 30-plus meetings starting Monday will follow the normal pattern, with reports from state agencies and legislative analysts. Testimony is limited to invited speakers only. But a few of the meetings promise a preview of next year’s drama in the House and Senate.
Idaho Power wants to retire two coal-fired power plants it says won’t be able to produce electricity at competitive prices as part of a 20-year plan to provide energy for Idaho and Oregon that has drawn concerns about cost, pollution and energy needs.
How McMinnville schools do it is deceptively simple, according to school and district leaders who helped make it happen. The secret sauce? Super-skilled teachers with all the right techniques in their tool kits paying close attention to every child, they say. How do leaders of the small-town Yamhill County district accomplish that? First, they comb research to find “high-leverage” techniques that teachers can use to make the biggest difference. Then, Superintendent Maryalice Russell makes sure every principal and central office honcho gets trained to know those techniques in and out.
Oregon may not seem like it is on the front lines of the battle over immigration policy. But the state appears headed toward a bitter election fight on the issue that could reverberate nationally. Opponents are gearing up to fight the measure and their feelings are also intense.
“Their ultimate goal is to get rid of immigrants because they want white nationalism in this state,” said state Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland. He argued that Oregon’s sanctuary law helps encourage cooperation with local police.
Southern Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is one of four federally protected areas that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended President Trump scale back in size, according to a copy of a government report obtained by The Washington Post.
Voters would decide whether to add a 1.5 cents tax per ounce on sugary drinks including soda, energy drinks and sweetened teas. That means an 18-cent tax on each 12-ounce can. Backers say half of the revenue would go toward expanding access of quality preschool programs for thousands of children. The remainder would pay for programs on literacy, physical activity and healthy eating habits for kids.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will reportedly be in Portland on Tuesday to discuss immigration policies with local law enforcement officials.
The really distressing thing about all of this is that it’s not that surprising. When Brown took office after the resignation of John Kitzhaber, she made a point of talking about working to rebuild trust in Oregon state government. One big way to do that, she said, would be to increase government transparency. To be fair, she’s taken some small steps in that direction. But the governor too often has been too willing to hold vital discussions behind closed doors. That’s no way to build trust in government.
Gov. Kate Brown last month asked the federal government for more resources to help fight wildfires in Oregon that are burning, in many cases, beyond control. The response she got was less than hoped for, and we believe Oregonians deserve an explanation.
As Senator Bob Menendez’s (D-N.J.) trial for felony bribery and corruption continues, Senate Democrats are mum on their Menendez Money.
Senator Merkley accepted $17,500 from Senator Menendez’s PAC, but has yet to say if he will return the dirty money. In fact, he supports Menendez so strongly, Senator Merkley donated to Menendez from his own PAC, even after he was indicted! This typical Democrat dodge should come as no surprise, as Senator Merkley also refuses to say if his colleague should continue to serve in the U.S. Senate or resign immediately if convicted.
By refusing to return contributions made by a senator charged with felony bribery and corruption, Senator Merkley is sending a clear message to the people of Oregon that lining his campaign coffers with tainted money is more important than maintaining the integrity of the U.S. Senate.
The people of Oregon deserve better. Senator Merkley must return the Menendez Money now.
See below for the latest from RNC Research on the more than 29 Democrat Senators who have yet to return Menendez’s PAC contributions.
Through his New Millennium Political Action Committee, Sen. Menendez contributed an average of $275,000 per election cycle in direct contributions to fellow Democrats.
Following Sen. Menendez’s indictment, most Senate Democrats hung on to his political contributions, with only a few announcing they would return the funds or donate them to charity.
As recent as this year, Sen. Menendez contributed to Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jon Tester (D-MT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
Since Sen. Menendez’s indictment, Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) contributed to Sen. Menendez this year from their PACs.
Businesses hurt by Oregon wildfires can obtain advice from government-sponsored small-business development centers, the state said. “Our centers have advisers who are here and ready to help work with businesses through supply chain interruptions, personnel issues and fewer customers” caused by the dozens of fires in the state, Mark Gregory, state director of the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network, said in a statement.
Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke, who’s only been at that post for a few weeks, expressed that this has been one of the most dire fire seasons on record for their agency. “We’re nearing a lot of records … we’ve been at planning level 5, which is the highest planning level, for 31 straight days,” he said. He said they’ve had 8 million acres burn across the United States, while the average is about 5.7, and that there are 80 large fires happening right now. “That’s fires greater than 100 acres, across the country. Normally for this time of year, it’s about 20. So this season has been longer, and still has got a ways to go yet,” Tooke said. With a heavy tone, he told reporters that the agency is tapped out on resources, with 28,000 people fighting fires across the country. They’ve had to dip into other accounts for funding, and he worries about firefighter fatigue. The Chetco Bar Fire still rages in Southern Oregon.
We talked with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden about how to prevent these massive wildfires in future seasons, and what we need to handle the current blazes across the state. KATU’s Steve Dun also hears from two hikers who share their story of how they became heroes while rescuing the 150 others who were stranded on the Eagle Creek Trail.
An amendment pushed by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., to effectively block Oregon from putting tolls on Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 passed the House Wednesday, causing unease among state lawmakers who worked to establish such tolls.
Hundreds of counter-protesters turned out on Sunday on the Willamette River waterfront to confront members of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group. One of them, Sean Mitchell of Troutdale, says counter-protesters and critics misunderstand Patriot Prayer. “I came to Portland to show support for America, for the flag,” Mitchell tells WW. “To them, if you love America then you’re a racist, a Nazi and a bigot. “If loving America makes me a bigot, then so be it but that’s not who I am. I’m here out of peace. I’m here out of love, I didn’t come here to throw punches and fight.” Counter-protesters threw rocks and water bottles at police and sprayed them with silly string and in one case, a fire-extinguisher.
But the debate over what U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, calls “ground rules for the internet,” is moving to the legislative front, and he is leading that effort. Walden, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, invited CEOs from Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon and Netflix to a full hearing alongside CEOs from broadband providers Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and Charter Communications. The hearing was postponed Thursday, committee spokesman Zach Hunter said, to allow talks between stakeholders to continue. He’s called for bipartisan legislation to set out the “ground rules for the internet.” “Too much is at stake to have this issue ping-pong between different FCC commissions and various courts over the next decade,” Walden said in an Aug. 8 prepared statement.
When Americans are fighting each other, instead of uniting for the common good, the United States suffers. This doesn’t mean a nation of people marching in lockstep, strait-jacketed into group-think. From the Founding Fathers onward, lawmakers and the courts have protected and encouraged vigorous and open debate and disagreement. From these debates come solutions. Any observance of the anniversary of Sept. 11 should include remembering what it felt like to be a nation united, in the face of unspeakable horror. It should honor the sacrifices made by many that day by vowing to continue to work for a unified, and strong, country.
In short, letting Dreamers work is all economic upside for the rest of our nation, with no downside unless you have something against people with brown skin and Hispanic surnames. Which is, of course, what this is all really about.
Steve Schell is a Portland lawyer.
Research into the new tolling requirements, which Oregon adopted last session, for the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 bridges will help assess the extent of the need to ease congestion. Oregon’s new joint Transportation Committee should get authority to accept this olive branch and restart the effort to restore to the public loss of those frozen freeway hours. It’s time.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, said he plans to decline an invitation to join the work groups.
Deciding whether to adopt “cap and invest” should wait until 2019, when the Legislature will have a session of more than five months, Mann said. The session in 2018 lasts only 35 days.
“We are talking about an extremely complicated issue, and a 35-day session we do not think that is appropriate,” Mann said. Opponents also say costs of the program would eventually trickle down to consumers. “We would have a lot of concerns about the way the program is presented so far because the individuals affected by this are in rural and low-income communities who already have taken the brunt of policy changes recently and in the last several decades,” Mann said.
After the August meeting of the task force, Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, wrote an opinion essay for the Eugene Register-Guard saying Brown had failed to lead on reforms.
Richardson said representatives of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity bought the list Sept. 8. The commission had requested the information in June, when commission Vice Chairman Kris Kobach sent a letter to states asking for detailed information about voters, some of it personal and outside what most states usually provide.
Oregon’s campaign finance law was built around a trade off. Any donor — whether in-state, out-of-state, special interest or corporate — can give unlimited amounts of cash to any state candidate as long as there is complete transparency. This keeps citizens informed and candidates aware their actions are public. But there’s a hole in the system.
“Where Oregon is in a better position than a lot of states that use HealthCare.gov is that we do have funding here at the state level,” said Elizabeth Cronen, communications and legislative manager for Oregon’s Health Insurance Marketplace, the state agency in charge of ACA outreach. “We have both the funding and the framework to do our own outreach and education to consumers.” The funding in Oregon comes from a $6 per-member, per-month fee on health insurers for every medical policy sold via HealthCare.gov and 57 cents for every dental policy. That’s expected to amount to $9.25 million this year.
But by making those compromises, lawmakers left the state without enough money to pay for all essential road and bridge upgrades, said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, a co-author of the bill. Without tolling, the carefully-balanced funding plan goes awry. “If we don’t have tolling we will not have the money to replace these essential structures,” he said.
Upon graduation, 68 percent of Southern Oregon University’s Class of 2016 had student debt, and that debt averaged $27,375, according to a report published in August by LendEDU.
Public officials have thrown more than 7,000 firefighters, 400 fire engines and other pieces of ground equipment, and about 40 helicopters into the fray against the forest fires besieging Western Oregon. Federal agencies alone have spent more than $200 million thus far combating the string of blazes from the Columbia River Gorge to Brookings.
“If we need to use it, we’ll just order it up,” Doug Grafe, fire protection chief for the Oregon Department of Forestry. “But the broken terrain won’t allow it.” Strong and unpredictable winds, abetted by the heat of the fires burning in both ends of the state, also make maneuvering the 747 through the mountainous regions difficult enough.
How big are Oregon’s wildfires?
The past month has been one of the smokiest in Oregon history, but in terms of how much Oregon forest has burned, 2017 is far from being the state’s worst fire season.
Oregon Republican Congressman Greg Walden introduced a bill to Congress Friday to expedite salvage and reforestation projects in the Columbia River Gorge and other National Scenic Areas after catastrophic events like the Eagle Creek Fire. That blaze, which ignited Sept. 2, is now the nation’s top priority wildfire and is burning more than 33,000 acres in the Gorge.
The truth is more complex. With weeks left in the fire season, more than a half-million acres have burned – a little more than the yearly average over the past decade. That total, however, is far less than the devastation of 2012, when nearly 1.3 million acres burned. But the climate is changing and with that, experts warn, comes a “new normal.” The precipitous drop in air quality, a run on face masks and widespread event cancellations may become more commonplace.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., joined a small group of congressional Republicans who voted last week against blocking some federal funds from states and cities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement agents.
Unfortunately, the proponents of the funding package can’t even stomach calling a tax a tax. If they believe the funding plan, inequities and all, is the best way to keep Medicaid going, they should make that case to the public. Disguising the truth never works as long as people hope it will.
Yet as the smoke slowly dissipates this year, we cannot let the memory of yellow haze and choking winds erase what should be very clear now to us all. Wildfires are a constant in our summers and we must do more to help our forests withstand the flames. We can’t control lightning. Or, it seems, the mistakes of adolescents with fireworks. But we can push for better management practices from the federal agency in charge of the forests that blanket a majority of our state.
Attendance trails off badly toward the end of high school, when students should instead be gathering momentum for careers by doing well in classes. More than 28 percent of juniors and seniors at Astoria High School, more than 30 percent at Warrenton High School and 40 percent at Seaside High School are chronically absent. Active intervention is needed well before the final years of K-12 schooling to make sure to minimize the underlying reasons for missing classes.
The anger many Oregonians have expressed toward the careless teenager who allegedly started the Eagle Creek inferno is understandable. But it must be matched by a commitment to make changes that will allow us to minimize the effects of future fires — whatever their cause.
There should be a buffer where federal land managers have the freedom they need to reduce fire danger and fight fires however they see fit. Walden has been working hard to fix that problem for Crooked River Ranch. Congress should take action on his bill to do that, too.
The rationale behind allowing small, supposedly non-threatening fires to burn is that such fires clean out the woody debris and brush that’s often, but not universally, seen as a major contributor to wildfires.
Beyond the consideration of racial and ethnic bigotry, non-unanimous verdicts make it easier for prosecutors to win convictions in Oregon than in other states. A 12-member jury that takes a poll at the beginning of deliberations and comes up 10-2 for conviction is unlikely to take the time to deliberate and persuade the two dissenters to change their minds when that isn’t necessary.
As the country’s political landscape has become more and more divided, the kind of leadership shown by Brown is becoming all too rare. The hyper-partisan debate in our nation’s capital certainly isn’t helping the problem. It’s honestly refreshing to see our governor bringing together business and labor leaders and politicians from both sides of the aisle to solve a problem and make things better for everyone.
For decades, aggressive fire suppression was an unquestioned paradigm with mounting costs to society. Fire-dependent ecosystems such as the forests of Southern Oregon were starved of fire, while at the same time our forests were being logged at an ever-quickening pace. Forests composed of large, fire-resistant trees were replaced with highly flammable plantation stands and logging slash. The effect of logging on the forests of Southern Oregon has been as pronounced as fire suppression, and the compounding effect of both logging and fire suppression has got us where we are today.
The overall solution is not complicated — in fact it’s simple. Let’s allow balanced human wisdom, ingenuity, and expertise a voice at the table to bring common sense and local control back to our forest management. | 2019-04-19T04:15:54Z | http://ucrcc.org/page/37/ |
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I know that quite a few of you are, like me, owners of the Rigol DSA815-TG. It’s been a reliable workhorse in my lab since I’ve acquired it, but the one thing I believe that I’ve wanted to most from it is a an RBW minimum of 10 Hz instead of the specified 100 Hz. That would allow for better characterization of narrow filters like crystal ladder filters and would let you better see fine details about signal.
Existing DSA815 owners at 1.09 FW or above can upgrade to the latest 1.18 FW version to activate the 10 Hz capability.
I believe that the link provided at the end of the email was a custom tracking URL for me, so I’ll direct you to the Rigol NA DSA800 product page, which has a link for acquiring the latest firmware. Make sure that you are getting the 1.18 version of the firmware. The installation is a snap and the RBW improvement is an exciting new feature to get for free. Thanks Rigol!
Back when I was working at Tektronix (wow, this summer it’s been 10 years since I graduated with a AAS in EET and started at Tek), they had a one-time program where an employee could purchase a new TDS1000/2000 series oscilloscope for half of the list price. This was back in the day before the era of cheap and decent Chinese-manufactured scopes, so naturally I jumped on the deal. Even though I wanted more, I found that I could fit the TDS1012 into my budget (list price was a bit more than $1000 at that time).
The TDS1012 was a very faithful instrument on my bench for many years. I came to depend on it quite heavily. Too heavily, in fact, as I left it on a lot. Not thinking about the ramifications of it at the time. A few years ago, the backlight in the scope started fading, and not long after that, gave out completely. I figured I could just replace the display module, but finding a replacement turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. Tektronix repair didn’t stock it by the time that I inquired about it, and I could not find any through the back-channels that I checked with my Tektronix contacts. Even looking for NOS on eBay was fruitless (although later on, some grey market displays started turning up there for expensive list prices).
Eventually I gave up hope of realistically finding a replacement display and tried to sell the scope, although not very enthusiastically. The scope stayed in this state for quite a while, until I found something fortuitous. One of my favorite vlogs is The Signal Path, and Shahriar recently released a short video about repairing an VNA with a broken CCFL backlight with a LED replacement.
I’m not sure why it never occurred to me to try this, but I was grateful to have seen a path forward with the TDS1012. I didn’t even know that there existed LED backlight upgrade kits, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Long story short, I ordered a handful of parts from eBay and took a chance, and was rewarded with a working display that was able to bring my beloved TDS1012 back from the dead! I’ll give you some details below so that hopefully this can be of help to others in the future.
The first thing to do was disassemble the TDS1012 so that I could get to the guts. Fortunately, I had done this in the past, so I knew exactly what to do. It’s actually quite easy to do in the home lab with just two tools: a deep Torx T15 screwdriver and a small pair of hook-nosed tweezers. Pry off the knobs on the front panel by wedging the hook-nosed tweezers in the gap between the knob and panel, and then using them as a lever.
Remove the back case from the instrument by unscrewing four T15 screws: one on the bottom-left, one on the bottom-right near the AC power connector, and two hidden under the fold-up handle.
Next, the front panel can be removed by unscrewing five T15 screws: one on each corner and one hard-to-find screw that is between the CH1 and CH2 BNC connectors (on the back of the chassis). You can see side where those screws need to be removed from the chassis in the photo above.
Once the front panel is off, you can now remove the display module. There are two cables to disconnect: the CCFL backlight cable going to the HV supply, which is on the top-left of the above photo, and the data cable which is on the right side (unseen in the above photo). Disconnect the CCFL cable and the data cable from the main board, and then remove the four T15 screws from the four corners.
Now with the display module removed, you can see where the CCFL lives on the left side, under the beige plastic. I removed the Kapton tape securing the CCFL leads to the module, and then tried to pry the plastic apart at what looked to be interlocking snap tabs.
That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. The plastic was quite brittle and broke on the back side, including a few fragments from each end that snapped off completely. I think I should have removed that tiny screw that you can see on the center-left of the front of the display module before trying to take the CCFL out.
There is some metallic foil that loops around the CCFL. I used a craft knife to slit it down the length of the display, freeing the CCFL from the module.
You can see the burned-out CCFL in the photo above, removed from the display module. Now that the defective part was removed, it was time to figure out how to rig up the new LED backlight.
Here you can see the LED module as packed by the seller. I was pleasantly surprised. Quite nice and secure.
And here is the LED kit. This kit was made for a 15 inch monitor, so I would only need part of the LED strip. As was the case with other LED strips I’ve used, this module was wired so that groups of three LEDs were in series, with each of those groups in parallel with each other. I cut the LED strip at a multiple of three at a size that would fit where the CCFL used to live. Be very careful with this strip, as it is quite fragile and could easily break at the length it is shipped (which I’m sure it why the seller packaged it so well).
Next, I lashed up the LED driver module on the breadboard to see how it should be wired. As is common with these eBay modules, the documentation is pretty lacking, so I had to put in a bit of work to make sure I got the wiring right. There are four input pins on this module: VCC, GND, ENB (enable), and DM (dim). A bit of experimentation showed me that you needed to tie ENB to VCC and that DM could be fed using a simple voltage divider with a trimmer and fixed resistor to provide an adjustable voltage to DM that ranged from about 0.5 VCC to VCC.
The product page recommends that the DC input be at least 10 VDC, and when driving it with >11 VDC the LEDs were quite bright. Any voltage below about 9 VDC, and the LED just won’t light. In a lot of instruments, that may not be a big deal, but it was a problem with the TDS1012. It turns out there is no 12 VDC available, nor anything even close. The only other appropriate DC voltages available from the power supply are 6 VDC and 3.3 VDC. But the module just won’t run on a voltage that low. I identified the IC on the LED driver module to be a DF6113. By the looks of the datasheet, it should be able to function as both a boost converter and constant current source for the LEDs, but this particular module will not run at 6 VDC.
A bit of half-hearted reverse-engineering showed me that while the DF6113 has the capability to function as a boost converter, that functionality was not being used here. In the reference design on the datasheet, it shows it being used as a boost converter with an LED output which is ground-referenced. However from what I could suss out of the eBay module, this one was configured to not be ground-referenced. Instead, the lower potential terminal of the LED driver was set at approximately 9 VDC lower than the input voltage, hence the reason why it would not function below 9 VDC input.
Rather than try to hack this module, I figured it would be easier to purchase a DC-DC boost converter module off of eBay from a US seller. After a few days, I had a XL6009-based module in hand, which looks to have a wide range of usable input and output voltages, and can easily source enough current to drive a small strip of LEDs. With the plan to drive the boost converter from the 6 VDC rail available from the TDS1012 power supply board, I set my bench supply to supply 6 VDC to the boost converter, set the boost converter to supply 12 VDC to the LED driver, and managed to get everything set up to light that LED strip from 6 VDC input. I just had to hope that the power supply had enough current margin for this LED strip, plus the losses in the boost converter and driver board.
Now that the LED has been verified to work correctly, it was time to fit it into the display module in the place where the CCFL used to be. With the CCFL removed, you can peer down into the cavity it has left behind and see the glass panel that diffuses the backlight. The LED strip was placed facing into the edge of this glass so that the terminals came out of the top of the module (where the old CCFL wiring ran), and I used RTV silicone to secure it in place. I chose RTV silicone for two reasons: it would be easy to remove if I messed up the placement of the LEDs and it would be reasonably transparent if I got some adhesive in between the LEDs and the glass. It appears that was a good choice.
Now I used epoxy (the cheap stuff from Harbor Freight) to seal up the plastic cover that I cracked earlier, mainly to provide mechanical stability and extra protection to the LED strip.
Once that was dried, I lashed everything up to breadboarded driver circuitry to ensure that the backlight was actually do the job. As you can see above, it looked good so far!
The real acid test for me was to see if the TDS1012 could actually drive the new backlight from its own power supply. I really had no idea if the current budget was there in the instrument, as there weren’t enough details in the service manual to know. So I had to just lash it together to try. The boost converter was soldered into the 6 VDC and GND terminals on the J9 connector on the power supply board, and then power was applied to check for magic smoke. Nope, success! BTW, if you are replicating this test, be sure to plug all of the modules together, as the instrument won’t power up unless all of the cables are connected.
Now the job was to stuff the boost converter, trimmer pot, and LED driver module into the existing chassis so that it was secure and safe. The modules were test fitted into spaces where they looked like they would conveniently fit, and then Kapton tape was generously laid down on the chassis to give them a safe mounting point.
Fortunately, both of the modules were small enough to fit quite nicely in existing space, and both were single-sided boards, which meant that they could sit flush against the Kapton tape easily. The modules and pot were secured in place using more of that epoxy (although hot glue would have probably also worked well).
The leads to the LED strip were routed back through the hole in chassis where the old CCFL leads went, and easily were able to reach the new LED driver module. After that, it was a simple matter to reassemble the instrument and power it on for a final smoke check.
Although not the most skillful of hacks, it’s always quite satisfying to recover something of value from the scrap heap with a handful of parts (about $15 worth in this particular case). I think the new LED backlight is actually brighter than the old CCFL backlight, but it has been a while since I’ve seen it with the original backlight, so that’s a pretty poor subjective observation on my part.
One small warning here: I have only done rudimentary checks to see what effect the DC-DC boost converter would have on the measurements from the scope. I don’t see any obvious hash from the switching power supply on the most sensitive vertical setting, but it’s possible that the this might introduce some low-level unwanted spurious into the instrument, which perhaps may be visible when using the FFT function. Caveat emptor. You have been warned.
So for those of you with older instruments with busted CCFL backlights, I would highly suggest that you can retrofit a new LED backlight if you have some moderate electronics skills. There’s nothing particularly magical here. The biggest concern is whether you can pull enough current from the existing DC power supply, but I imagine most instruments have power supplies that are designed to easily give up enough extra current to power a small LED strip without and difficulty. And if you have an instrument with 12 to 24 VDC already available, you can skip the boost converter that I had to use and not even have to worry about that. Give it a try and give some old junk new life!
Yes, a belated Happy New Year greetings! It’s hard to believe that 2013 is already well under way. I figured it was about time to give you a quick update on what’s going on in the shack right now.
First up is the discrete component grabber receiver for 14.141 MHz that I prototyped to be paired with the OpenBeaconMini project. The receiver itself consists of a roughly 2 kHz wide crystal filter on the front end, feeding into a single-balanced diode ring mixer, which drives an AF amp using 2N4401 and 2N4403 transistors. Because I’m not able to put up a proper outdoor antenna for the grabber right now, I decided to put the VE7BPO cascode active antenna on it instead. It seems to work well, but I don’t know for sure because there are basically no signals on this part of the band. I intended to use my Raspberry Pi with the receiver as a grabber, but I had no luck getting either LOPORA or QRSSVD to work properly and reliably. It may just be asking too much of the poor beast. So I’m going to try to appropriate another PC in order to get the grabber receiver QRV so that on-air testing of OpenBeaconMini can begin in earnest.
Next, I wanted to give you a very brief overview of my most recent purchase for the lab: a Rigol DS1022U arbitrary waveform generator. As far as I can tell, this appears to be pretty much the same as the DS1022A model that is sold in the US. But being a typical ham, I wanted to save a few dollars, so I purchased it off of eBay from seller who says he is an authorized Rigol dealer.
The DG1022[U|A] has two channels that can output a sine wave up to 25 MHz in 1 mHz (as in millihertz) steps. It can also provide square, ramp, pulse, noise, and arbitrary waveforms at lesser frequencies. It can modulate the waveform in a variety of ways, including AM, FM, PM, PWM, and FSK. It can, of course, also do sweeps of various parameters. The output amplitude into 50 Ω ranges from 10 Vpp on Channel 1 or 3 Vpp on Channel 2 down to 2 mVpp on both channels (or -50 dBm). The shielding on this AWG seems to be excellent. Using my HP 355C/355D attenuator combo, I can get a signal down to about -140 dBm (disclaimer: not a scientific measurement, made using my ear as a detector and listening on my IC-718). The dual outputs makes it very useful for a variety of two-tone receiver measurements, one of the big reasons driving my purchase. The Channel 2 output also doubles as a 200 MHz frequency counter input. Paired with the USB connectivity of the device (it seems to enumerate as a usbtmc device), that will be extremely handy for measuring oscillator drift. The DG1022 can also link the two channels together and give them a specific phase difference, as you can see below. This will make it very handy as a I/Q LO when I want to experiment with phasing and SDR rigs.
So far, I’ve been very pleased with my purchase. I don’t feel like I’ve had it or used it long enough to give you a full review, but I thought that this preview would at least be a bit helpful for those thinking about using it. One of my goals for the new year is to do a much better job of characterizing everything that I build. Since I intend to start selling transceivers in the near future, it’s doubly-important that I can make accurate measurements of my products so that I can properly state their specifications. To this end, I’ve decided to sell off a bunch of my unused or replaceable test equipment (please take a look at the for sale posting) in order to finance the new, calibrated test gear. Next up on my purchase list is a Rigol DSA815TG spectrum analyzer (just reviewed favorably in the February 2013 QST), but that’s going to require the sale of everything on that page!
Finally, I’ve got the CC1 prototype PCBs on their way from Seeed Studio right now. It looks like they just cleared customs in the US, so hopefully they will be in my hands in the next few days. With any luck, I’ll have the first one built by the weekend and will be well on the way to a new beta test. I’ll put up a quick post to show off the PCBs, and when the first prototype unit is completed. Stay tuned! | 2019-04-18T17:15:43Z | https://nt7s.com/category/test-equipment/ |
Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC), a Canadian subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) defense contractor, pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act by crafting false statements, and illegally exported U.S.-origin military software used for the development of China‘s Z-10 military attack helicopter to the Peoples Republic.
In addition, United and its U.S.-based subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation (HSC) agreed to pay more than $75 million collectively as part of a global settlement with the Justice Department and State Department. Roughly $20.7 million will be paid to the Justice Department and $55 million is payable to the State Department as part of a separate consent export agreement issues, including those related to the Z-10. The DOJ said up to $20 million could be suspended if applied by UTC to remedial compliance measures. The intensive investigation was led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
During the development phases of China’s Z-10 program, PWC supplied the engines. PWC delivered 10 of the development engines to China in 2001 and 2002. Even though the Z-10 helicopter is identified as military equipment, PWC determined on its own that the Z-10 engines did not represent “defense articles,” requiring a U.S. export license.
Court documents also show that PWC’s illegal action was driven by profit. The DOJ contends that PWC anticipated its work on the Z-10 military attack helicopter would open the door to highly lucrative civilian helicopter contracts with China, which PWC estimates could be worth $2 billion.
Today, the Z-10 helicopter is in production and initial batches were delivered to the People’s Liberation Army of China in 2009 and 2010. The Z-10 mission is to provide anti-armor and battlefield interdiction by using weapons like 30 mm cannons, anti-tank guided missiles, air-to-air missiles and unguided rockets.
The Chinese arms trafficking plea also highlights the increasing reach of ICE as an international investigative agency.
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A stunned Republican party vowed to mount an aggressive fight to repeal the law. GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, responded briefly to the Supreme Court ruling: “I will repeal and replace Obamacare.” He also conceded that health care does need to be reformed and mentioned pre-existing conditions, affordability for all and removing limits as areas the Congress needed to address.
At the heart of the legislation, the mandate, five Justices ruled to let it stand, not under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause as the government originally sought, but as a tax, a power the Congress can regulate.
An example of the taxes Americans’ can expect to pay if they don’t have insurance look like this. Beginning in 2014, those earning $50,000 will pay approximately $500 or 1 percent, in 2015 it doubles to 2 percent and finally in 2016 the penalty tax reaches 2.5 percent. To enforce the new law the government will turn to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Additionally, Obamacare counts on approximately $500 billion in new taxes as a funding mechanism, as well as a $500 billion cut in Medicare spending by the government. Currently, nearly 50 million Americans rely on Medicare, more than 40 million of those are senior citizens.
Critics have argued that drastically cutting Medicare isn’t the way to reform health care, but haven’t revealed the best way to fix a broken health care system.
Nevertheless, the ruling was not a complete victory for Democrats, as Chief Justice Roberts protected the states through the Commerce Clause. The ruling now gives states more control to limit the reach of the federal government, according to the majority dissent. Here, the liberal Justices described their skepticism and said under the Commerce Clause Obamacare remains unconstitutional, explaining a states’ refusal to expand the federal-state Medicaid program could not threatened states’ existing funding. In essence, the Court said the federal government couldn’t penalize states if they forgo Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
While the issue reclaims 2012 political implications, attendees in front of the Supreme Court were either fans of Obamacare or fans of repeal and replace.
San Diego Border Patrol took more than one million in illegal drugs off the streets. The two thwarted drug smuggling attempts netted methamphetamine (Crystal Meth) and cocaine with a street value of $1,093,000.
Border Patrol spotted a suspicious Black GMC Envoy driving along Interstate 8 just east of San Diego near the Pine Valley checkpoint. Once the SUV stopped agents approached and questioned the female driver. Agents said, the U.S. citizen was clearly nervous and they called in the K-9 team to inspect the SUV for illicit drugs. The K-9 team alerted agents to a positive scent and brought the vehicle to the checkpoint for a thorough inspection.
The suspected smugglers and illegal narcotics were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for further investigation. The U.S. Border Patrol seized both the vehicles.
Ardent Middle East War critic, Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) voiced his displeasure with the Obama Administration’s latest Afghanistan deal that calls for U.S. personnel and resources to be used to protect Chinese interests’ inside the war ravaged tribal nation. The discovery and confirmation of huge natural resources in Afghanistan has suddenly cast a new light on Obama’s Right War.
Last year it was discovered that Afghanistan was much more useful to western countries than previously thought. After a decade of war, the Department of Defense commissioned an examination for rare earth resources that could be used to support the tribal nation.
The U.S. Geological Survey uncovered $1 trillion of potential wealth in the form of minerals, copper, iron, gold, cobalt and most importantly, lithium. The Chinese recognized the mineral bonanza and immediately negotiated with the Afghan government to claim rights for precious resources that Americans use on a daily basis.
The research to uncover Afghanistan’s potential natural resources came from a 2009-2011 USGS study that was funded by the DOD Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO).
According to the surveys, Afghanistan’s lithium reserves may be the largest in the world. In fact, most U.S. citizens use lithium powered products everyday in the form of cell phones and laptop computers.
The New York Times, uncovered a Pentagon memo that said Afghanistan could be the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” rivaling Bolivia who currently holds the world’s largest lithium resources.
According to a story in the UK paper the Independent, American and European companies have complained about improprieties from the Afghanistan government allegedly evoking underhanded methods to ensure Beijing gets contracts.
Alas, corruption is nothing new in Afghanistan in fact the United States Congress commissioned a study, and the results concluded American troops pay warlords billions a year for protection money. Even Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was a known heroin kingpin. Moving forward diplomats warn the newly discovered mineral jackpot will only lead to more unsavory activities between tribes in the war torn region.
Nevertheless American leadership will most likely take advice from Jawad Omar, a senior official at the ministry, who said, “The natural resources of Afghanistan will play a magnificent role in Afghanistan’s economic growth. The past five decades have shown that every time new research takes place, it shows our natural reserves are far more than what was previously found. This is a cause for rejoicing, nothing to worry about.” This of course is fantastic news for the corrupt government; unfortunately it’s just another lie in a long list of falsehoods about the tribal nation.
Which brings us back to Congressman Jones’ outrage that came after the Afghan government settled a deal with China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) allowing China to be the first foreign country to access Afghanistan’s oil and natural gas reserves.
In a letter to President Obama, Rep. Jones demanded an explanation of U.S. military operations in the Chinese economic zones.
“It is completely unacceptable to send our young men and women to protect China’s interest in Afghanistan’s natural resources,” said Jones. “How many more of them have to die for a corrupt leader and a corrupt government?
So it was particularly disturbing to learn that the Afghan government had entered into its first oil contract, not with Americans, but rather with China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). This is on top of ongoing reports of US military personnel effectively providing security for Chinese mining activities already ongoing in that county’s mineral-rich provinces. The United States is effectively borrowing money from the Chinese, and then spending that borrowed money to provide security to money making Chinese operations in Afghanistan. This is unacceptable.
I would like to request that you provide an accounting of dollars spent directly and indirectly providing security to Chinese mineral extraction activities in Afghanistan, as well as an accounting of Americans killed and wounded providing security to those same operations.
American lives are being lost, bodies wounded, and children’s futures mortgaged in order to prop up a profoundly corrupt and dysfunctional regime half a world away. Given that the Karzai government continues to make deals with the Taliban and to demonstrate a preference for our economic rivals, I would urge you to dramatically accelerate your projected time table for withdrawing our forces from that country. The projected 2014 withdrawal date means several more years of lives lost, and several hundred billion more borrowed dollars enabling interests that are at odds with the interests of American taxpayers,” the letter to President Obama said.
Rep Jones isn’t the only one who thinks the administration is lying to the American taxpayer. Army LTC Anthony Shaffer (ret), author of NYT bestseller “Operation Dark Heart,” says the Afghanistan War has been off-track for sometime. Shaffer spent a number of years in the Middle East and penned “Dark Heart” after his frustrations were not taken seriously.
More misguided U.S. priorities come from Global Times reporter Gao Lei, who recently talked to Jeffrey Reeves, a research fellow at Griffith University’s Asia Institute in Brisbane about the possibility that China presents a competing prospect for America in Afghanistan.
According to a newspaper report in The Telegraph, headquartered in Calcutta, India, China is trying to open its narrow border with Afghanistan building roads or possibly a tunnel under the Pamir mountain range. This development poses significant strategic implications for India, says General V.K. Singh, India’s former Chief of Army staff who retired a week ago.
The new passage between China and Afghanistan would mark the first border crossing since Mao Tse Tung’s communist forces took over China in 1949 and permanently closed inter-country travel.
It’s important to note the 16,000-foot Wakhji mountain pass remains closed half the year due to inclement weather. Singh contends the most reliable border crossing would be a tunnel, but admits designing a tunnel under the mountains would take a true engineering wherewithal. The Chinese certainly know something about building technically challenging infrastructure, they demonstrated that ability where they built its all-weather access railway line to Tibet.
Singh’s inkling that China is building a tunnel advances the “garland of pearls” strategy that surrounds India with military bases and logistics centers – stretching from naval outposts in countries like Sri Lanka and the Maldives, to ports in Pakistan and Myanmar completing the circle in the High Himalayas north of Kashmir. This strategy should alert American leaders to China’s true intentions of exploiting resources to gain the wealth required to become a super-power.
It’s also been reported that President Karzai had discussed a project with China’s President Hu Jinatao, however Outlook Afghanistan says the proposal has not moved forward. “A direct road connection between China and Afghanistan is important for the increasing Chinese investment and Afghanistan needs land access to Chinese goods. It would also allow us quick access to South East Asia through Chinese ports. There were also talks about construction of an electric plant and a railway system from Tajikistan to Pakistan as part of a $500 million investment from China.
Another point American’s may remember is that in December 2009, U.S. diplomats requested Beijing’s authorization to allow U.S. military supply lines to enter Afghanistan through the Wakhan Corridor. Apparently the U.S. wanted the route as an alternative supply line for NATO, however, China refused to grant permission.
American retaliation against Afghanistan’s Taliban for harboring Al Qaeda came full circle last year when the 9-11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden was killed. The issue for Americans, its allies, and American voters is what are our objectives now? Have we reduced our role to providing security for our major competitor (China) so it can prosper on American blood and ideals?
While the economy may be driving the 2012 election cycle, a couple of Congressmen have hit the campaign trail to raise the awareness about the impending half-a-trillion dollar cuts that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said would hinder America’s national security.
Congressmen Duncan Hunter Jr. (R-CA) and Randy Forbes (R-VA) both serve on the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee that is tackling the enormous defense spending cuts set for January 1, 2013.
“Defending Our Defenders,” town hall-style events embarked on a seven-city tour to military rich communities hoping residents will acknowledge the regional impact that $500,000 billion in cuts would bring to their cities.
In fact, Hunter stressed the U.S. will be forced to control the international waters with a much smaller Navy. And a smaller Navy adversely affects the Naval shipyards in San Diego that employs countless civilian workers.
Local San Diego statistics show there are approximately 300,000 jobs directly or indirectly tied to defense industry.
“If these cuts go through, we are going to be dangerously close to where we cannot guarantee our national security. An economic tidal wave will hit San Diego and the rest of the country and we could lose as many as one million jobs nationwide,” according to Rep. Forbes.
As for the Golden State, the massive military cuts are estimated to end 125,789 jobs and remove $10.79 billion in state revenues California desperately relies on to cover its bills.
“This is something that ought to be in every Congressional debate, as we go into the November election. I think it’s a fair thing to say, ‘Where do you stand on defense cuts, and what’s your proposal to stop them?’” said Rep. Forbes regarding the consequences from scaling back America’s national defense.
Hunter also lambasted local media for leaving early, and voiced his disappointment that neither San Diego mayoral candidates bothered to show up and learn more about the impending financial set back the city will face next year. One candidate Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) has served on numerous veteran committees in DC during his tenure as a Democrat.
Forbes told the roughly 100 attendees that he didn’t understand why Americans don’t care about the Middle East Wars and encouraged the audience to begin a dialog in their neighborhoods.
However, critics point to the size and scope of U.S. military compared to the rest of the world and told the Congressmen that America’s constant need to rule the world needs to come to an end.
• Outnumbered 2 to 1: By 2020 the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) will have 75 submarines, while our Pacific submarine force will number less than half that at 32.
• Outgunned by 50 percent: China’s anti-ship cruise missiles out-range us by nearly 50 percent, 185km to 124km. Meanwhile the PRC is developing an anti-ship ballistic missile that can strike our carriers far from the coast.
• Cuts set to take effect next January would force a reduction in the fleet to just 230 ships, according to Congressional testimony and public statements from Navy leadership.
• Last year, “the Navy was only able to source an average of 59 percent of the Combatant Commanders’ requirements. Without question, the Fleet is operating now at an unsustainable level,” according to Nov 2011 HASC Testimony of VADM Clingan, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans and Strategy.
The Navy has proposed scrapping seven cruisers well before the end of their service lives. The battle force missile capacity of these ships is more than double that of the entire United Kingdom Royal Navy surface fleet.
Given its current commitments in Afghanistan, the Marine Corps would be unable to meet combatant commander timelines necessary for success in a second major contingency operation, according to 2011 testimony from the Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps GEN Dunford.
Roughly 200,000 active duty service members will have to leave service. This would be the equivalent of eliminating the entire Marine Corps.
80-100,000 of these cuts could come from the Army National Guard. This would cripple states’ ability to respond to a natural disaster or terrorist attack, and severely limit the Army and Marine Corps’ flexibility to respond to a major contingency overseas.
In just ten years, the United States has gone from a position of dominant air superiority over the Chinese in a conflict over the Taiwan Strait, according to a study by the RAND Corporation, to a place where the same organization says the United States ‘can no longer be confident in winning’ an air war against China. Over that same period, the Air Force cancelled the F-22, retired 235 legacy fighters early, and is now proposing retiring another 123 combat aircraft.
Today the President unleashed a fiery platform pitting unemployed Americans against a critically important voting block Mr. Obama needs to ensure reelection, Hispanics. With the swipe of his Presidential pen, Obama announced that “younger illegal immigrants” are eligible for deferment on deportation and will get work visas.
However, the defacto “amnesty” orders bypassed Congress, is effective immediately and will set up key immigration promises for the hotly contested presidential race.
Essentially, those who demonstrate they meet set criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years. The application will be subject to renewal every two years, and will allow applicants to apply for work authorization.
* Are not above the age of thirty.
While the Obama Administration plays the “fairness” card, those who can’t find a job are cringing at the prospect of competing with an additional 800,000 Hispanics under the age of 30.
“Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.8 percent) and Hispanics (11.0 percent) edged up in May, while the rates for adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (24.6 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and blacks (13.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.2 percent in May, down from 7.0 percent a year earlier. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose from 5.1 to 5.4 million in May. These individuals accounted for 42.8 percent of the unemployed,” the federal government reported.
The Executive Order takes effect immediately, and USCIS and ICE said they expect to begin implementation of the application processes within sixty days. For more information on the new policy www.uscis.gov, ICE www.ice.gov or DHS www.dhs.gov. Beginning Monday, individuals can also call USCIS’ hotline at 1-800-375-5283 or ICE’s hotline at 1-888-351-4024 during business hours.
Law enforcement officials disrupted three drug smuggling efforts in San Diego and Ventura Counties the past few days. Border Patrol agents apprehended a total of 22 suspects and confiscated approximately $2.4 million in marijuana and crystal methamphetamine.
The California National Guardsmen working with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) alerted area Border Patrol agents assigned along the state’s coastline to a suspicious panga-style boat coming ashore near Deer Creek beach in Ventura County. Working with several law enforcement agencies, U.S. Coast Guard, California National Guard, California State Parks and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, agents captured 20 suspected drug smugglers and seized marijuana with a reported street value of $2 million.
“Border Patrol agents responded to the scene and, through the collaborative efforts of several agencies, arrested 20 suspected smugglers and confiscated 4,087 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $2,048,095,”according to the CBP. All the suspects, narcotics, and the panga-boat were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) for further investigation.
In another incident Border Patrol agents assigned to the Interstate 5 checkpoint encountered two male American citizens driving a Mazda 626. The men’s nervous demeanor alerted agents who sent the vehicle to the secondary inspection area. After Border Patrol K-9 performed a cursory inspection, the dogs warned agents to a positive scent for illegal drugs.
“Agents searched the vehicle and discovered four bundles of methamphetamine inside the trunk in plastic grocery bags,” according to Michael Jimenez, a CBP supervisor in San Diego. “The methamphetamine weighed 12.02 pounds and had an estimated street value of $240,400.” Both the suspected smugglers and the illegal narcotics were taken into custody and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for further investigation.
Border Patrol encourages citizens to contact the San Diego U.S. Coast Guard Joint Harbor Operations Center at 800-854-9834 to report any suspicious maritime activity along Southern California’s coastline.
Afghan operative tied to Taliban gets life for heroin sales in U.S.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that an Afghanistan national that has ties to the Taliban will spend the rest of his life in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin in the U.S. and using the drug proceeds to purchase arms and supplies for a known terrorist organization.
Haji Bagcho, a large scale drug trafficker, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle in the District of Columbia, according to Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the (DEA). In addition to prison, Bagcho’s will forfeit the $254,203,032 in drug proceeds as well as his property in Afghanistan.
Heroin is one of Afghanistan’s most profitable crops and it’s a point of contention with American military forces that are not allowed to rid the tribal nation of the profits from poppies that are used to kill soldiers.
The Afghan national was convicted after a three-week trial. Bagcho was found guilty of “one count of conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, knowing and intending that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States; one count of distribution of one kilogram or more of heroin knowing and intending that it would be unlawfully imported into the United States; and one count of narco-terrorism,” the DEA said. In 2006, the U.S. implemented the narco-terrorism statute in an effort to crack down on international drug trafficking.
Bagcho was charged in 2010, after he was arrested and extradited to the United States from Afghanistan in May 2009. The DEA worked with their Afghan counterparts to conduct the investigation that uncovered Bagcho as one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world who manufactured the drug in clandestine laboratories along Afghanistan’s border region with Pakistan.
“With the help of cooperating witnesses, evidence showed that the DEA purchased heroin directly from Bagcho’s organization on two occasions, which Bagcho understood was destined for the United States,” a DEA statement read. The DEA also conducted several searches of Bagcho’s residences and his known associates that retrieved evidence consistent with drug trafficking.
During the trial, prosecutors presented ledgers recovered from Bagcho that catalogued his drug trafficking activities during 2006 alone. The ledger reflected heroin sales totaling more than 123,000 kilograms, with a street value of more than $250 million. Based on heroin production statistics compiled by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime for 2006, Bagcho’s heroin trafficking business accounted for 20 percent of the world’s heroin supply.
“Over several years, evidence at trial established that Bagcho used a portion of his drug proceeds to provide cash, weapons and other supplies to the former Taliban governor of Nangarhar Province and two Taliban commanders responsible for insurgent activity in eastern Afghanistan, so that they could continue their ‘jihad’ against western troops and the Afghan government,” court papers showed.
A bipartisan effort is currently underway to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the “war on drugs.” Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), co-chairs of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, released a bipartisan report entitled “Reducing the U.S. Demand for Illegal Drugs” that highlights education as a way to curtail drug use by Americans.
The report openly admits America’s insatiable demand for illicit drugs (the U.S. is the largest consumer) is destroying our youth and directly responsible for the Mexican drug cartel violence that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in the past few years.
According to the new report, drug abuse in the U.S. presents a major public health challenge and it also costs the country roughly $193 billion a year in health care, law enforcement and addiction expenses. Even with more drug enforcement resources along the U.S. southern border, approximately 22.6 million Americans over 12 were known illegal drug users. These numbers have consistently edged up during the last decade.
The bipartisan report discloses a number of causes for drug use and explores several different solutions to slow addict rates and prevent minors from experimenting with drugs.
Texas has already implemented one such program. “Operation Detour” offers insight into the entire cartel process currently in place to move drugs north of the border. The educational DVD takes the flashback approach to show the life of drugs. It’s not pretty, but children get a birds eye view of the death and destruction associated with illegal drugs.
“We appreciate the willingness of the schools to provide this opportunity and we certainly couldn’t get the message out without the assistance of our partners from the law enforcement and criminal justice agencies,” he said.
“For six years, I’ve been investigating the cartels. I went inside one of the cartels for about a year back in 2006-2007. I have worked around the border, particularly in Texas, for these six years, doing nothing but working border security issues and the cartels,” according to Rusty Fleming, Operation Detour filmmaker.
Once Fleming finished his narco-documentary, “Drug Wars; Silver or Lead,” Border Patrol agents sought his help.
“Shortly after I released ‘Drug Wars,’ the documentary, I got a phone call from the Border Patrol in Del Rio,” he said.
Operation Detour, as it was named, is different from past anti-drug abuse campaigns, Fleming said.
“Historically we’ve always warned kids about getting involved in drugs and using drugs,” he said. But Border Patrol has first hand knowledge of young people getting “busted” for drugs.
The first part of the Operation Detour program includes 12 minutes of excerpts from his graphic drug cartel documentary.
Fleming says Border Patrol agents are very serious about its effort to keep young people from the drug trade.
“Once Border Patrol put (Operation Detour) together, I have to tell you, I’ve never seen so many resources put together and thrown at a prevention program, an awareness program as I have in the Rio Grande Valley.
Some of the new tactics Mexican drug cartels practice is to lure local street gangs and other, gangs like the Latin Kings, Mexican Mafia or Texas Syndicate to distribute drugs in their Texas communities. Eventually, some American kids will move drugs to major markets, Fleming said.
However, the profits will go back to major trafficking organizations not the kids moving the drugs. Border Patrol Agent Jose G. Treviño said Operation Detour is effective and finds a receptive school audience.
On the flip side, there are other experts who believe America may be better served by decriminalizing drugs and ramp up rehabilitation centers to treat the real addiction problem.
Ryan Hoskins wrote a paper for George Mason University regarding this very issue (Mexico Drug Violence: Why the Merida Initiative, gun bans and border controls will fail and drug reform is the solution).
“It would be great if President Obama would reallocate the money currently set aside for drug interdiction and make an effort to fix the drug addiction problems American’s face each day,” Hoskins proposed.
Hoskins contends that drug usage didn’t increase in Portugal as many expected and police actually handed out more “fix-it” type tickets if you will. “By de-stigmatizing drugs, users were more likely to get treatment,” Hoskins explains.
While America may be a long way from decriminalizing drugs, states like New York, are moving forward by adding small amounts of marijuana to the “okay” list. Last year, the Golden State’s voters said “no” on proposition 19, a ballot initiative that would have legalized the Mexican drug cartel’s biggest money maker- pot. However, many say it’s only a matter of time before medical marijuana users gain acceptance and convince the voters the state can gain valuable tax revenues.
The latter, legalizing drugs would certainly bring an end to most black-market sales, but the notion drugs would be legalized in a country in which excess is the norm, may take a little getting used to.
If American’s saw the dramatic escalation of violence and the consequences in drug supplying countries, like Mexico, the senators think it could give some potential U.S. drug users some pause.
Another unsuspecting form of illegal drug use stems from the medicine cabinet located in most homes. “We have to reduce the demand fueled by easy access to drugs, such as the dramatic increase in the abuse of prescription pain killers that are readily available in medicine cabinets across the country,” Grassley said.
• Improved collection of data on U.S. drug use and treatment.
Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and John Cornyn (R-TX) endorse the illegal drug report. The entire report can be found here.
In April, President Obama released the 2012 National Drug Control Strategy, it is the Administration’s primary blueprint for drug policy in America. “The new Strategy supports a ‘third way’ approach to drug policy, proposing alternatives to a law enforcement centric ‘war on drugs.’ The new drug policy strategy outlines 113 specific actions to be undertaken throughout the Federal government to reform U.S. drug policy through innovative and evidence-based public health and safety approaches including reviewing laws and regulations that impede recovery from addiction, expanding access to drug treatment, and expanding community-based recovery support programs,” said Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
For more information about the Office of National Drug Control Policy, visit: www.WhiteHouse.gov/ONDCP.
But for now, law enforcement will continue to enforce the country’s drug laws and hope parents and schools are successful at keeping kids off drugs. | 2019-04-22T06:15:24Z | https://thekdreport.me/2012/06/ |
Why was the Apollo CM Much Lighter than Stated?
Could underweight Apollo command modules (CMs), weighing 36% less than claimed, indicate that these modules did not actually make the specified journeys?
What was the actual weight of the Apollo CM? Doubts have arisen regarding the reliability of the weight values as stated by NASA for the CMs that returned from the Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early 70s.
The details that can guide analysis of the available film/video and photographic documents are highlighted in Fig. 1. In particular, the side engine nozzles were of interest, underlined in red, the REACTION CONTROL YAW ENGINES (YE), and the front engine nozzles, REACTION CONTROL PITCH ENGINES (PE), underlined in green.
The radius of the sphere can be determined in a computer application such as CorelDRAW®. A circle was superimposed on the CM image. Then, by adjusting the radius of the circle, it was possible to match the curvature of the bottom of the CM with the circle. The resulting radius was calculated by comparing with the known CM diameter (3.91 metres).
In Fig. 4 the spherical segment with the specified parameters is highlighted in blue: R – the radius of the sphere, h – the height of the segment. The disk with radius Rd and height hd is highlighted in pink. The truncated cone with height hc, which was adjusted to the final volume of 0.9m³ is highlighted in green.
Totalling these volumes gives 5.3m³, with a margin of error of 3% (due to the density of sea water of about 1025-1028 kg/m³), according to NASA (see Fig.1) means that the weight of the CM was 5.3 tonnes.
Thus, according to the drawing in Fig. 4, the underwater level of the CM floating in an upright position must coincide with the upper edge of the green sector, and the engine nozzles (YE, PE) would be partially below the water level. The depth that the CM would sit in the water was then ascertained based on film/video recordings and photographic evidence.
Fig. 6. Is the CM scale model. Fig. 7. Is the CM scale model floating vertically submerged in water up to the level of RCS nozzles – marked with horizontal lines. And Fig. 8. is the CM scale model floating with off-centre mass.
Prime crew for the first manned Apollo mission relax in a life raft during water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico with a full scale boilerplate model of their spacecraft.
Both cases (Figs. 9 & 10) show that the top of the ‘curved bottom’ in the zone of the side engines (YE) was under water, and although there were no engines on the model, the depiction of the extent of the submergence roughly corresponds to Fig. 8.
Correlating Fig. 12 to the drawing in Fig. 4, the weight of the Apollo 4 capsule was estimated. It corresponded approximately to the sum of volumes of the blue sector and one third of the pink sector, which is 3.2 tonnes.
Again, there are no other suitable Apollo 7 resources. But even here it is clear that the YE nozzles were above the waterline, which suggest an underweight capsule. This may, however, raise the question of an inflatable raft hanging on the CM: would it increase the buoyancy or not? Elementary arguments suggest that the answer is no. Moreover, limited information did not provide sufficient grounds for full confidence in the capability to correctly estimate the CM's weight.
It was noted that crew of the Apollo 7 craft, (as seen in the photographs) all of whom had allegedly been in Zero-G for 11 days, looked surprisingly cheerful, showing no discomfort whatsoever from having endured such a long stay in space, a factor that must be attributed to a very mysterious and never-properly-explained phenomenon!
Fig. 14 YE is high above the water level; the top edge of the curved bottom is visible, which is entirely above the surface; the black strip of the curvature itself is visible; the foam on the right is surging up from under the bottom.
Fig. 15 YE is high above the water, the top edge of the curved bottom is visible which is entirely above the surface; the foam on the right is surging up from under the bottom.
Fig. 16 foam surging up from under the bottom of the craft created a white rim; YE is high above the waterline; the top edge of the curved bottom is visible, which is entirely above the surface; the black strip of the curvature itself is visible.
Fig. 17, the view from the other side, YE is high above the water; the right edge is hanging over the surface of the water; at the back the foam is surging up from under the bottom.
Fig. 18 is similar to the previous image (Fig. 17); the strip of the curved bottom is clearly visible.
According to Fig. 4, it was necessary to combine the blue sector and half of the pink sector, which matched roughly 3.5 tonnes of the CM’s weight.
The YE nozzles were above the water level. Comparing Fig. 21 with Fig. 20, it can be concluded that the rocking axis in Fig. 20 proximately passed through the engine PE, which as we have seen, was also above the water surface.
In this case, the depiction of the submersion corresponds to Fig. 19; for which the weight estimate gave 3.5 tonnes.
Fig. 23a — left side view, b — right side view.
Unfortunately there are no photographs in the archives of the freely-floating capsule. Fig. 23a shows a moment when the heavily rocking CM was ‘caught’ in a position close to vertical. We can clearly see that the YE nozzles were above the surface, which intersects the top line of the curved bottom to the right of the YE engine.
We then moved the focus of our observations to the CM drawing in Fig. 24a. The waterline is shown in red; pink is the level of submersion of the vertically-floating module. From a comparison with the drawing in Fig. 4 it was concluded that it is necessary to add 2/3rds of the pink sector to the blue one. When converted to the CM weight it totalled 3.8 tonnes.
Fig. 24a – the waterline for Fig. 23a, b – the waterline for Fig. 23b.
In the second image of the floating Apollo ASTP CM (Fig. 23b) the moment was captured when swimmers had somehow managed to ‘pacify’ the rocking capsule which allowed them to proceed with attaching an inflatable raft. Since it was not inflated, its effect on the CM buoyancy was insignificant, and could even make the CM heavier.
A characteristic detail is thereby emphasized – the right YE engine nozzles rose above the water level which, generally speaking, was recorded in almost all of the CM pictures with an inflatable raft (e.g., Fig. 13). A curved bottom under the nozzles was exposed as well. The diagram in Fig. 24b, similar to Fig. 24a shows the observed waterline – red in colour and pink for the upright position.
As these results of the measurements have demonstrated, to determine the volume of displaced water, the blue sector (see Fig. 4) and 0.4 of the pink one have to be added to each other which results in the CM weighing 3.3 tonnes.
The average for the two Apollo ASTP CM weight values obtained above, results in a figure of 3.6 tonnes.
In the end, the four CM weight measurements obtained were: (3.2 + 3.5 + 3.5 + 3.6)/4 = 3.5 tonnes. Thus, the assessment of the capsule’s weight carried out based on the available NASA’s photographic and film/video recordings provided the following result: 3.5 ± 0.3 tones, which is 1.8 tonnes (36%) lower than the NASA stated value.
This paper has evaluated the weight of the Apollo command module, which confirms the assumption made above. The capsule weight was found to be 3.5 ± 0.3 tonnes instead of 5.3 tonnes, as stated in NASA’s document .
The method of calculation was based on visual assessment of the nature of the CM submersion after splashdown in the ocean. NASA’s photos and film/video recordings that are available to the public were used as the source of data.
The significance of such pictures is that there are many in NASA’s archives and they can more accurately capture the depth of CM submersion. In particular, this image shows clearly that the upper edge of the curved bottom below the YE nozzles was above the water, and the submersion depth corresponds to the CM weighing about 3.5 tonnes, against a claimed weight of 5.4 tones. However, once again, to avoid possible objections we have made a reservation – the main calculations were made without the use of any photographic and film/video recordings with inflatable rafts.
The reason for the CM’s weight discrepancy is obviously related to the fact that a lightweight version of the descent capsule was used. And in the case of the Apollo 4 CM (see Fig. 11) an even greater difference in weight was found – it ‘lacks’ about 300 kgs compared to the capsules returning with crew.
The weight of three adult men to a large extent compensated for this ‘shortage’, but the issue with the ‘shortage’ of almost 2 tonnes of weight requires a different explanation. And now it would be appropriate to discuss the above-noted oddity in the behaviour of the crew of Apollo 7, allegedly returning after a long mission (11 days, which was considered an extremely long period at the time) without any signs of distress or adversity.
Moreover, no Apollo crew reportedly complained about the vestibular system disorder and other ailments caused by a prolonged stay in weightlessness. This condition of these astronauts was in very sharp contrast to that observed in the Soviet cosmonauts, who had to be literally carried out of their re-entry capsules.
“Coming back was [a] very difficult physical test. In space you get used to different conditions", said Guy Laliberté at his press conference in Moscow.
According to Guy Laliberté returning to Earth kicks a lot of adrenaline, but "when you come out of the capsule, it seems that no strength for the next step is left".
But to all the US astronauts, their landings came with remarkable ease! They were never taken out of their CMs helpless an/or powerless; they jumped out of the capsules entirely unaided. What can explain such a surprising tolerance by the Apollo crews to the adverse effects of space travel?
The only possibilities are: either there was no prolonged exposure out in space, or the Apollo crews did not return from space at all.
A lightweight Apollo descent capsule, as identified in this study, fits this context. If these returns from space were actually simulated, then the CM was a substitute for a fully-fledged space module, so there was no need to load it with unnecessary equipment and supplies for a prolonged space journey.
A deviation of a few tens of kilometres from the landing target for Soyuz spacecraft was considered to be the norm. But even an ideal Soyuz spacecraft was often thrown by ballistic re-entry, and then the miscalculation was over 400 kms [18-20].
However, for craft returning from lunar orbit, the re-entry trajectory was much more complicated due to their higher velocity (escape velocity is 11 km/s), and it was necessary to perform either a skip re-entry or a lifting re-entry followed by the descent to the Earth’s surface.
The number of factors (that cannot be predicted in advance) to be taken into account to accurately determine the re-entry trajectory were certainly higher than for a craft performing low-Earth orbit re-entry. An error in just one parameter – at a speed of 10 m/s results in a miss at the landing point of about 350 kms . Consequently, the chances of hitting a location with radius of several kilometres were practically zero.
But in the special case of Apollo, in spite of everything, NASA demonstrated phenomenal accuracy – the returning craft managed to splash down at the reference points in 12 cases out of 12. Moreover, how the crippled Apollo 13 actually managed to hit the target (the miss was less than 2 km!) is known only to the late Arthur C. Clarke .
The aforementioned circumstances clearly indicate the fact that NASA simulated the Apollo re-entry, dropping the CMs from a cargo aircraft , the pilot of which was only required to accurately ‘target’ to avoid hitting the waiting recovery carrier below.
It is interesting to note that the above arguments are valid for the Apollo ASTP as well! Its CM weight was almost the same as for the Apollo mission models. Judging by the video recording , the crew of Apollo ASTP held fast on their feet after allegedly spending nine days in space, looking healthy and happy, cheerfully speaking at the meeting immediately after splashdown.
However, during re-entry the crew was allegedly poisoned and nearly killed by toxic propellant vapours. But their faces show neither traces of any poisoning nor the signs of enduring many days in a Zero-G environment.
In 1961 NASA was given the task to land US astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. In this race to the Moon not only was the reputation of the great powers at stake, but also the ability of world's political systems to overcome the most difficult problems. And at a time when the Soviet Union was perfecting various technical options to achieve victory in this Moon race, the US took its own route, leaving them no alternatives, the main components of which were the Saturn V booster and the Apollo spacecraft itself.
However, the Saturn V had not reached an acceptable performance – the last test launch (second in a row) in April 1968 was unsuccessful , but Apollo had previously suffered an even more tragic fate – during training the crew of Apollo 1 was burnt alive in its oxygen atmosphere . NASA learned the hard way that a spacecraft with an oxygen atmosphere was a dead end. But there was no time to develop a new craft with a robust case and near earth atmosphere less than two years before the scheduled lunar orbital mission.
Furthermore, the lunar module (LM) was also designed for an oxygen atmosphere, and therefore it would also have been subject to complete redesign. Robust spacecraft cases would significantly increase the requirements for the Saturn V payload, which already was not mission worthy. As a result, by 1968 NASA was left without any foundation for its lunar missions.
But Americans would not be Americans if they didn't consider all possible scenarios, including the most negative – which, in the end, they had to adopt. Using breakthrough Hollywood photographic technology NASA was able to pull off an unprecedented-in-scale set of missions, enabling all of mankind to believe in the American miracle.
With the assistance of the Soviet Union [25, 26] NASA successfully bluffed its way through the Moon race. But the nature of any bluff, as is well known, is the art of concealment. In confirmation of this fact NASA defiantly dumped all the previous developments which allegedly brought them the international fame and leadership, scrapping the marvellous Saturn V booster, the Apollo spacecraft and Skylab Space Station.
The next chapter in its history had to be written from scratch – a ‘start again job’ – the development of the Space Shuttle spacecraft which had nothing whatsoever to do with its famous predecessors.
For purposes of clarification, the tonnes referred to in this article are metric tonnes. NASA’s CM weight of 5.3 tonnes refers to the splashdown weight of 11,700lbs. Documentation from North American-Rockwell states that the CM at launch weighed 12,800lbs including crew, plus 270lbs of fuel, a total of 13,070lbs. Other NASA documents as shown above, have managed to lose 70lbs/31.75kgs, saving weight any which way.
9. "APOLLO 13 - all BBC's TV original re-entry & splashdown footage – part 4 of 5"
Andrey Kudryavets was born in 1961. In 1985 he graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI) one of the most respected and recognised technical universities in Russia.
Kudryavets majored in Technical Physics, and in 1990 he graduated in his specialised subject of Experimental Physics. He is the author or co-author of 13 research works in the field of applied nuclear physics.
Since the late 1990s Andrey Kudryavets has studied history and contemporary history as a hobby. As far back as twenty years ago, like most of people he believed that Apollo landings were real. But his acquaintance with the documentary evidence shattered that faith and prompted his study of NASA’s archives and documents in detail. To date, Andrey Kudryavets has published a series of articles online exposing NASA’s missions to the Moon as a hoax. | 2019-04-24T14:56:57Z | https://aulis.com/command_module.htm |
On July 21, 1969, Buzz Aldrin climbed gingerly out of Eagle, Apollo 11’s lunar module, and joined Neil Armstrong on the Sea of Tranquility. Looking up, he said, “Beautiful, beautiful, magnificent desolation.” They were alone; but their presence on the moon’s silent, gray surface was the culmination of a convulsive collective effort.
Eight years before, President John F. Kennedy had asked the United States Congress to “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” His challenge disturbed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s original plan for a stepped, multi-generational strategy: Wernher von Braun, NASA’s chief of rocketry, had thought the agency would first send men into Earth’s orbit, then build a space station, then fly to the moon, then build a lunar colony. A century hence, perhaps, humans would travel to Mars. Kennedy’s goal was also absurdly ambitious. A few weeks before his speech, NASA had strapped an astronaut into a tiny capsule atop a converted military rocket and shot him into space on a ballistic trajectory, as if he were a circus clown; but no American had orbited the planet. The agency didn’t really know if what the president asked could be done in the time he allowed, but it accepted the call.
This required the greatest peacetime mobilization in the nation’s history. Although NASA was and remains a civilian agency, the Apollo program was possible only because it was a lavishly funded, semi-militarized project: all the astronauts (with one exception) had been Air Force pilots and naval aviators; many of the agency’s middle-aged administrators had served in the Second World War in some capacity; and the director of the program itself, Samuel Philips, was an Air Force general officer, drafted into service because of his effective management of the Minuteman missile program. In all, NASA spent $24 billion, or about $180 billion in today’s dollars, on Apollo; at its peak in the mid-1960s, the agency enjoyed more than 4 percent of the federal budget. The program employed around 400,000 people and demanded the collaboration of about 20,000 companies, universities, and government agencies.
If Apollo commanded a significant portion of the treasure of the world’s richest nation and the coöperation of all its estates, that was because Kennedy’s challenge required NASA to solve a bewildering number of smaller problems decades ahead of technology’s evolutionary schedule. The agency’s solutions were often inelegant. To escape from orbit, NASA constructed 13 giant, single–use multistage rockets, capable of lifting 50 tons of payload and generating 7.6 million pounds of thrust. Only an ungainly modular spacecraft could be flown by the deadline; but docking the command and lunar modules midflight, sending the lunar module to the moon’s surface, and then reuniting the modules in lunar orbit demanded a kind of spastic space dance and forced the agency’s engineers to develop and test a long series of astronautical innovations. Men died, including the crew of Apollo 1, who burned in the cabin of their command module. But before the program ended in 1972, 24 men flew to the moon. Twelve walked on its surface, of whom Aldrin, following the death of Armstrong last August, is now the most senior.
Why did they go? They brought back little—841 pounds of old rocks, Aldrin’s smuggled aesthetic bliss, and something most of the 24 emphasized: a new sense of the smallness and fragility of our home. (Jim Lovell, not untypically, remembered, “Everything that I ever knew—my life, my loved ones, the Navy—everything, the whole world, was behind my thumb.”) The cynical, mostly correct answer is that Kennedy wanted to demonstrate the superiority of American rocketry over Soviet engineering: the president’s challenge was made in May of 1961, little more than a month after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. But it does not adequately explain why the United States made the great effort it did, nor does it convey how the lunar landings were understood at the time.
To contemporaries, the Apollo program occurred in the context of a long series of technological triumphs. The first half of the century produced the assembly line and the airplane, penicillin and a vaccine for tuberculosis; in the middle years of the century, polio was on its way to being eradicated; and by 1979 smallpox would be eliminated. More, the progress seemed to possess what Alvin Toffler dubbed an “accelerative thrust” in Future Shock, published in 1970. The adjectival swagger is pardonable: for decades, technology had been increasing the maximum speed of human travel. During most of history, we could go no faster than a horse or a boat with a sail; by the First World War, automobiles and trains could propel us at more than 100 miles an hour. Every decade thereafter, cars and planes sped humans faster. By 1961, a rocket-powered X-15 had been piloted to more than 4,000 miles per hour; in 1969, the crew of Apollo 10 flew at 25,000. Wasn’t it the very time to explore the galaxy—”to blow this great blue, white, green planet or to be blown from it,” as Saul Bellow wrote in Mr. Sammler’s Planet (also 1970)?
Perhaps the most influential photograph from the Apollo lunar landings: Buzz Aldrin’s footprint in the moon’s gray, powdery surface.
Since Apollo 17’s flight in 1972, no humans have been back to the moon, or gone anywhere beyond low Earth orbit. No one has traveled faster than the crew of Apollo 10. (Since the last flight of the supersonic Concorde in 2003, civilian travel has become slower.) Blithe optimism about technology’s powers has evaporated, too, as big problems that people had imagined technology would solve, such as hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age, have come to seem intractably hard.
I remember sitting in my family’s living room in Berkeley, California, watching the liftoff of Apollo 17. I was five; my mother admonished me not to stare at the fiery exhaust of the Saturn 5 rocket. I vaguely knew that this was the last of the moon missions—but I was absolutely certain that there would be Mars colonies in my lifetime. What happened?
That something happened to humanity’s capacity to solve big problems is a commonplace. Recently, however, the complaint has developed a new stridency among Silicon Valley’s investors and entrepreneurs, although it is usually expressed a little differently: people say there is a paucity of real innovations. Instead, they worry, technologists have diverted us and enriched themselves with trivial toys.
The argument, of course, is wildly hypocritical. PayPal’s capos made their fortunes in public stock offerings and acquisitions of companies that did more or less trivial things. Levchin’s last startup, Slide, was a Founders Fund investment: it was acquired by Google in 2010 for about $200 million and shuttered earlier this year. It developed Facebook widgets such as SuperPoke and FunWall.
But the real difficulty with Silicon Valley’s explanation is that it is insufficient to the case. The argument that venture capitalists lost their appetite for risky but potentially important technologies clarifies what’s wrong with venture capital and tells us why half of all funds have provided flat or negative returns for the last decade. It also usefully explains how a collapse in nerve reduced the scope of the companies that got funded: with the exception of Google (which wants to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”), the ambitions of startups founded in the last 15 years do seem derisory compared with those of companies like Intel, Apple, and Microsoft, founded from the 1960s to the late 1970s. (Bill Gates, Microsoft’s founder, promised to “put a computer in every home and on every desktop,” and Apple’s Steve Jobs said he wanted to make the “best computers in the world.”) But the Valley’s explanation conflates all of technology with the technologies that venture capitalists like: traditionally, as Gibney concedes, digital technologies. Even during the years when VCs were most risk-happy, they preferred investments that required little capital and offered an exit within eight to 10 years. The venture capital business has always struggled to invest profitably in technologies, such as biotechnology and energy, whose capital requirements are large and whose development is uncertain and lengthy; and VCs have never funded the development of technologies that are meant to solve big problems and possess no obvious, immediate economic value. The account is a partial explanation that forces us to ask: putting aside the personal-computer revolution, if we once did big things but do so no longer, then what changed?
Silicon Valley’s explanation has this fault, too: it doesn’t tell us what should be done to encourage technologists to solve big problems, beyond asking venture capitalists to make better investments. (Founders Fund promises to “run the experiment” and “invest in smart people solving difficult problems, often difficult scientific or engineering problems.”) Levchin, Thiel, and Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, had planned a book, to be titled The Blueprint, that would “explain where the world’s innovation has gone.” Originally intended to be released in March of this year, it has been indefinitely postponed, according to Levchin, because the authors could not agree on a set of prescriptions.
Let’s stipulate that venture-backed entrepreneurialism is essential to the development and commercialization of technological innovations. But it is not sufficient by itself to solve big problems, nor could its relative sickliness by itself undo our capacity for collective action through technology.
The answer is that these things are complex, and that there is no one simple explanation.
Sometimes we choose not to solve big technological problems. We could travel to Mars if we wished. NASA has the outline of a plan—or, in its bureaucratic jargon, a “design reference architecture.” To a surprising degree, the agency knows how it might send humans to Mars and bring them home. “We know what the challenges are,” says Bret Drake, the deputy chief architect for NASA’s human spaceflight architecture team. “We know what technologies, what systems we need” (see “The Deferred Dreams of Mars”). As Drake explains, the mission would last about two years; the astronauts would spend 12 months in transit and 500 days on the surface, studying the geology of the planet and trying to understand whether it ever harbored life. Needless to say, there’s much that NASA doesn’t know: whether it could adequately protect the crew from cosmic rays, or how to land them safely, feed them, and house them. But if the agency received more money or reallocated its current spending and began working to solve those problems now, humans could walk on the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s.
We won’t, because there are, everyone feels, more useful things to do on Earth. Going to Mars, like going to the moon, would follow upon a political decision that inspired or was inspired by public support. But almost no one feels Buzz Aldrin’s “imperative to explore” (see the astronaut’s sidebar).
Sometimes we fail to solve big problems because our institutions have failed. In 2010, less than 2 percent of the world’s energy consumption was derived from advanced renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels. (The most common renewable sources of energy are still hydroelectric power and the burning of biomass, which means wood and cow dung.) The reason is economic: coal and natural gas are cheaper than solar and wind, and petroleum is cheaper than biofuels. Because climate change is a real and urgent problem, and because the main cause of global warming is carbon dioxide released as a by-product of burning fossil fuels, we need renewable energy technologies that can compete on price with coal, natural gas, and petroleum. At the moment, they don’t exist.
Happily, economists, technologists, and business leaders agree on what national policies and international treaties would spur the development and broad use of such alternatives. There should be a significant increase in public investment for energy research and development, which has fallen in the United States from a height of 10 percent in 1979 to 2 percent of total R&D spending, or just $5 billion a year. (Two years ago, Bill Gates, Xerox chief executive Ursula Burns, GE chief executive Jeff Immelt, and John Doerr, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, called for a threefold increase in public investments in energy research.) There should be some kind of price on carbon, now a negative externality, whether it is a transparent tax or some more opaque market mechanism. There should be a regulatory framework that treats carbon dioxide emissions as pollution, setting upper limits on how much pollution companies and nations can release. Finally, and least concretely, energy experts agree that even if there were more investment in research, a price on carbon, and some kind of regulatory framework, we would still lack one vital thing: sufficient facilities to demonstrate and test new energy technologies. Such facilities are typically too expensive for private companies to build. But without a practical way to collectively test and optimize innovative energy technologies, and without some means to share the risks of development, alternative energy sources will continue to have little impact on energy use, given that any new technology will be more expensive at first than fossil fuels.
Sometimes big problems that had seemed technological turn out not to be so, or could more plausibly be solved through other means. Until recently, famines were understood to be caused by failures in food supply (and therefore seemed addressable by increasing the size and reliability of the supply, potentially through new agricultural or industrial technologies). But Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate economist, has shown that famines are political crises that catastrophically affect food distribution. (Sen was influenced by his own experiences. As a child he witnessed the Bengali famine of 1943: three million displaced farmers and poor urban dwellers died unnecessarily when wartime hoarding, price gouging, and the colonial government’s price–controlled acquisitions for the British army made food too expensive. Sen demonstrated that food production was actually higher in the famine years.) Technology can improve crop yields or systems for storing and transporting food; better responses by nations and nongovernmental organizations to emerging famines have reduced their number and severity. But famines will still occur because there will always be bad governments.
Yet the hope that an entrenched problem with social costs should have a technological solution is very seductive—so much so that disappointment with technology is inevitable. Malaria, which the World Health Organization estimates affected 216 million people in 2010, mostly in the poor world, has resisted technological solutions: infectious mosquitoes are everywhere in the tropics, treatments are expensive, and the poor are a terrible market for drugs. The most efficient solutions to the problem of malaria turn out to be simple: eliminating standing water, draining swamps, providing mosquito nets, and, most of all, increasing prosperity. Combined, they have reduced malarial infections. But that hasn’t stopped technologists such as Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold, the former chief technology officer of Microsoft (who writes about the role of private investors in spurring innovation), from funding research into recombinant vaccines, genetically modified mosquitoes, and even mosquito-zapping lasers. Such ideas can be ingenious, but they all suffer from the vanity of trying to impose a technological solution on what is a problem of poverty.
Finally, sometimes big problems elude any solution because we don’t really understand the problem. The first successes of biotechnology in the late 1970s were straightforward: breakthroughs in manufacturing, in which recombinant E. coli bacteria were coaxed into producing synthetic versions of insulin or human growth hormone, proteins whose functions we thoroughly understood. Further breakthroughs in biomedicine have been more difficult to achieve, however, because we have struggled to understand the fundamental biology of many diseases. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971; but we soon discovered there were many kinds of cancer, most of them fiendishly resistant to treatment, and it is only in the last decade, as we have begun to sequence the genomes of different cancers and to understand how their mutations express themselves in different patients, that effective, targeted therapies have come to seem viable. (To learn more, see “Cancer Genomics.”) Or consider the “dementia plague,” as Stephen S. Hall has. As the populations of the industrialized nations age, it is emerging as the world’s most pressing health problem: by 2050, palliative care in the United States alone will cost $1 trillion a year. Yet we understand almost nothing about dementia and have no effective treatments. Hard problems are hard.
It’s not true that we can’t solve big problems through technology; we can. We must. But all these elements must be present: political leaders and the public must care to solve a problem, our institutions must support its solution, it must really be a technological problem, and we must understand it.
The Apollo program, which has become a metaphor for technology’s capacity to solve big problems, met these criteria, but it is an irreproducible model for the future. This is not 1961: there is no galvanizing historical context akin to the Cold War, no likely politician who can heroize the difficult and dangerous, no body of engineers who yearn for the productive regimentation they had enjoyed in the military, and no popular faith in a science-fictional mythology such as exploring the solar system. Most of all, going to the moon was easy. It was only three days away. Arguably, it wasn’t even solving much of a problem. We are left alone with our day, and the solutions of the future will be harder won.
We don’t lack for challenges. A billion people want electricity, millions are without clean water, the climate is changing, manufacturing is inefficient, traffic snarls cities, education is a luxury, and dementia or cancer will strike almost all of us if we live long enough. In this special package of stories, we examine these problems and introduce you to the indefatigable technologists who refuse to give up trying to solve them. | 2019-04-19T18:24:00Z | https://www.technologyreview.com/s/429690/why-we-cant-solve-big-problems/ |
First Quarter GDP 2009 in the USA was down 6.1%. This is after a revised 6.3% drop in fourth quarter of 2008 (preliminary fourth quarter report showed a 6.2% decline). Real exports of goods and services decreased 30% in the first quarter, compared with a decrease of 23.6% in the fourth. Real imports of goods and services decreased 34.1%, compared with a decrease of 17.5%.
The personal saving rate — saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — was 4.2% in the first quarter, compared with 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that the economy has continued to contract, though the pace of contraction appears to be somewhat slower. Household spending has shown signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, lower housing wealth, and tight credit. Weak sales prospects and difficulties in obtaining credit have led businesses to cut back on inventories, fixed investment, and staffing.
Although the economic outlook has improved modestly since the March meeting, partly reflecting some easing of financial market conditions, economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time. Nonetheless, the Committee continues to anticipate that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, fiscal and monetary stimulus, and market forces will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth in a context of price stability.
True, those words hardly sound like great news but the markets were quite happy.
Although banks are scooping up billions in bailout money or borrowing money from the Federal Reserve at as low as 0%, they aren’t passing on those savings to consumers. Credit card interest rates have increased for many major card issuers and even doubled or tripled for some consumers who pay their bills on time. Bank of America is raising interest rates on about 4 million customers with balances. Citigroup and Capital One have also jacked up rates.
* The standard balance transfer fee has risen to 3%, and Bank of America recently joined Discover in increasing that fee to 4% on certain offers.
* Cash advance fees had been 3%, but Bank of America now has 5% cash advance fees for money obtained through ATMs and at banks, and 4% fees on advances via direct deposit and checks.
* Foreign transaction fees — charged when you make purchases in other countries or use foreign banks — are going up for many cardholders. Starting June 1, Bank of America will begin charging for a service it had previously provided free: Transactions made in U.S. dollars but processed through foreign banks (such as online purchases from overseas merchants using foreign banks) will be hit with 3% fees.
The incredibly large fees are a good reason to not use your credit card for these activities. 5% to get money from an ATM. You have to be crazy to submit to such a fee. The banks continue to fight with the airlines for who can keep providing the most horrible customer service.
But over the past year, Moayyad has taken on a new type of challenge. Peet’s has joined an effort to develop a vibrant coffee industry in sub-Saharan Africa. The Coffee Initiative, as it’s called, is run by TechnoServe, a nonprofit, and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal: to double the income of poor coffee farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda by linking their products with coffee lovers in the developed world.
Because of bad roads and delays at border crossings, it took 12 days for a truck with a container full of green coffee beans to travel 1,000 miles to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The sea journey from Mombasa took nearly two months. Worse, when the shipment arrived in Oakland, Calif., in late February, a portion of the coffee was slightly damaged.
Moayyad traveled to Rwanda to cement relationships with farmer groups and gather stories about the farmers for use in marketing. With a videographer tagging along, she navigated molar-crunching roads in a four-wheel-drive pickup to remote villages and farms perched on hillsides high above Rwanda’s Lake Kivu. On the roadsides, children greeted the passing truck with an excited cry of “Abazungu [white people]!” Moayyad plans to post a journal of her travels on Peet’s Web site, aimed at the company’s most loyal customers, called Peetniks.
A good effort. Real world issues confront you when you take steps to build the capacity for capitalism to help people live better lives. We need more such efforts to help capitalists make better lives for themselves around the world.
It seems to me the situation that lead to the current economic problems are due to the overthrown of the Glass-Steagal and other long time sensible regulation put in place to restrict economy wide destruction caused by a few large financial firms (well, that plus incredibly poor management by people that paid themselves many times more than anyone else and other factors – huge consumer debt…). But the most significant systemic problem was failure to regulate even close to sensibly. I have several posts on this topic on previously: Congress Eases Bank Laws, 1999 – Treasury Now (1987) Favors Creation of Huge Banks – Canadian Banks Avoid Failures Common Elsewhere and Greenspan Says He Was Wrong On Regulation.
Capitalism requires sensible regulation. Regulation is not a friction on capitalism it is a necessary component. Poor regulation is a friction that is waste that should be excised. Unfortunately that is a very challenging task and when you allow those with the most gold to set the rules it is no surprise you have them saying they should not be regulated but should be protected. The failure of financial regulations do show the very obvious problem we have currently of those that donate huge amounts to politicians are granted favors that are paid for by the economy overall.
The widespread failure to regulate financial markets recently is almost certain to lead to this exact type of situation every time. Companies will over-leverage, take huge risks, take huge pay while times are good and just go bankrupt when times are bad. Think about how a bank makes money. They charge fees for things like: writing a loan, overdraft charges on your account, arranging financing (loan or stock sale)… They charge more for in interest than they pay. Some money there but really they are doing nothing special so they should not be able to charge too much. Even the ridicules fees companies pay (often those in the companies have arrangements to get personal special deals – allocations of IPO’s, jobs later…) for arranging stock sales do not have a systemic risk. Those risks should be very easy to manage sensible.
They speculate in currency markets, commodities markets, futures, derivatives… If you want a stable economy if you allow huge speculative investments to be assumed to such an extent they risk the economy you are in trouble. If you refused those risks to limited liability companies perhaps your limited regulation model might work. Where those profiting on products with negative economic externalities would personally go bankrupt prior to the losses becoming economically crippling. But I doubt even that would work. And we don’t have that now. We allow people to setup limited liability corporations, drain them of capital on speculation of potential value and then walk about with hundreds of millions of dollars if the company fails. And the negative externalities (due to huge leverage) are huge.
Regulation seems the obvious solution. And it works when applied. It wasn’t until the USA decided to abandon the financial system regulation and enforcement that the problems became systemic. And see the current Canadian banking system for what happens, even while the world economy is collapsing if you required banks to remain banks instead of massively leveraged speculators paying huge bonus to the executives based on their claims of profitability.
I agree trying to control risk is dangerous. There are however, very sensible measures to take. Do not allow huge financial companies to exist (we have laws on anti-trust, anti-competitive behavior…). Do not allow banks to speculate (more than a careful controlled regulated amount). Do not allow massive leverage of massive amounts of money. Do require audited financial records. Do require companies that want to speculate to be much smaller than regulated bank, and bank-like companies. Do elect politicians that will appose allowing companies to undertake systemic risks to the economy for short term financial gains.
We continue to elect politicians that provide large favors to those giving them money at the expense and risk to the rest of us. Therefore we are bringing this upon ourselves. When we chose to stop supporting politicians that behave in that way then we will get different behavior. Until that point it will continue. We don’t seems to be in any mood to change what we have been doing.
Conventional mortgages averaged 4.61 percent in 1951, 4 percent when backed by the Veterans Administration, and 4.25 percent by the Federal Housing Administration, according to The Postwar Residential Mortgage Market, a 1961 book written by Saul Klaman and published by Princeton University Press. Rates during the 1930s were as high as 7 percent.
Mortgages were cheaper through most of the 1940s, ranging from about 4 percent to 5.7 percent, depending on whether the lender was a life insurer, a commercial bank or a savings and loan. In that era, most loans were for 14 years and less.
The central bank has purchased more than $300 billion of mortgage-backed securities in 2009 through the week ended April 8, helping to cut home-loan rates to 4.82 percent last week from 5.1 percent at the start of the year, according to Freddie Mac data.
The difference between 30-year mortgage rates and 10-year Treasury yields has narrowed to about 2.2 percent from 3.1 percent in December, which was the widest since 1986. The spread remains almost 0.7 percentage point above the average of the past decade, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Rates for 15-year mortgages are about 1.8 percent above 10-year Treasury yields, compared with an average 1.4 percent since 1999.
Excellent article with interesting historical information. I don’t believe mortgage rates will fall to 4% but differences of opinion about the future is one function of markets. Those that predict correctly can make a profit. I am thinking of refinancing a mortgage and I think I am getting close to pulling the trigger. If I was confident they would keep falling I would wait. It just seems to me the huge increase in federal debt and huge outstanding consumer debt along with very low USA saving will not keep interest rates so low. However, as I have mentioned previously, it is interesting that the Fed is directly targeting mortgage rates and possible they can push them lower. The 10 year bond yield has been increasing lately so the slight fall in mortgage rates over the last month are due to the reduced spread (that I can see decreasing – the biggest question for me is how much that spread can decrease).
Related: Fed to Start Buying Treasury Bonds Today – Federal Reserve to Buy $1.2T in Bonds, Mortgage-Backed Securities – Low Mortgage Rates Not Available to Everyone – what do mortgage terms mean?
The Obama administration must break up the biggest financial firms if the nation is to return to economic health, three prominent bailout skeptics told a congressional panel Tuesday. Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz and MIT professor Simon Johnson warned the Joint Economic Committee of Congress that the current government policy of propping up troubled financial giants could impede an economic recovery.
I must say this is the is how I feel, but I don’t have the time to research all the details – to know all the existing limitations for realistic solutions. But I can’t believe allowing huge, incredibly poorly run financial organizations to remain in place with the same bozos that have looted the treasuries of their companies and then taken huge handouts from the federal government, is good policy. It was a very bad idea to allow such anti-competitive large financial institutions to exist in the first place. Then the extremely bad behavior of thousands of people taking millions from those banks treasuries and imposing huge risks on the financial system certainly should result in government finally doing their job to prevent harm to the economic system.
Hoenig said authorities must set up a procedure that would allow big nonbank financial firms to be temporarily taken over by the government. Regulators would then replace management, wipe out shareholders and seek to sell the cleansed institution back into private ownership. Stiglitz, formerly an aide in the Clinton administration [and Economics Nobel Prize winner], said the process of briefly taking over banks then selling them back to investors would be much less costly for taxpayers.
This sounds like a much more sensible strategy to me. It is certainly much much better than increasing consolidation with moves like having huge financial firms buy other huge firms. Obviously I would not support the selling of pieces of the old broken institution to remaining large organizations. The anti-competitive market power must be sharply reduced.
I made my 100th contribution to a micro-loan through Kiva last week. Participating with Kiva is a great antidote to reading about the unethical “leaders” taking huge sums to run their companies into the ground (or even just taking obscene sums to maintain their company). The opportunity to give real capitalists an chance at a better life is wonderful.
Kiva allows you to lend money to entrepreneur (in increments of $25). The most you get back is the amount you loaned, and if the entrepreneur, does not pay back the loan then you take a loss. This is something you do if you believe if giving people an opportunity to make a better life for themselves through hard work and intelligent economic choices.
I encourage you to join me: let me know if you contribute to Kiva and I will add your Kiva page to our list of Curious Cat Kivans. Also join the Curious Cats Kiva Lending Team.
My loans have been made to in 32 countries including: Ghana, Cambodia, Uganda, Viet Nam, Peru, Ukraine, Mongolia, Ecuador and Tajikistan. Kiva provides sector (but I think this data is a not that accurate – it depends on the Kiva partners that are not that accurate on identifying the sectors (it seems to me). A large number of the loans are in retail, clothing and food. I like making loans that will improve productivity (manufacturing, providing productivity enhancing services…) but can’t find as many of those as I would like (8% of my loans are in manufacturing, 11% agriculture, retail 18%, 23% food, 25% services (very questionable – these are normally really retail or food, it seems to me).
Some examples of the entrepreneurs I have lent to: welding workshop (Nicaragua), expanding generator services business with computer services (Cambodia), food production (Ghana), manufacturing nylon (Nigeria), internet cafe (Lebanon), electronics repair (Benin), new engine for mill (Togo), weaving (Indonesia) and a food market (Mexico).
21 of my loans have been paid back in full. 3 have defaulted. Those figure give a distorted picture though (I believe). There was a problem with a Kiva partner (they partner with micro-finance banks around the world) MIFEX, in Ecuador. Kiva discovered that MIFEX (i) improperly inflated the loan amounts it posted for entrepreneurs on the Kiva website and (ii) kept the excess amount of the posted loan to fund its own operational expenses. Kiva does not expect any further payments on these loans. I had 2, so I think those 2 give a fair impression. The 3rd default is from Kenya. That loan was to a business selling bicycle parts. In 2008, in Kenya, the prevailing political crisis deteriorated and businesses have either been destroyed or closed in fear of looters. Technically the loan did default, however, I was paid $71.50 out of $75 loan (so the defaulted amount was very small.
Home Ownership Shelter, or Burden?
The collapse in house prices matters most directly to two overlapping groups: those who bought property at the peak of the market and now face “negative equity”; and those (in America) who took out subprime mortgages. Roughly 10m Americans are in negative equity—ie, the cost of their mortgage exceeds the value of their home. In Britain about 3% of households are in negative equity. For homeowners, negative equity makes houses more like a trap than a piggy bank. Those who cannot meet their payments lose their house, their savings and (in America, usually) their credit rating for seven years.
The other area of concentrated distress is subprime mortgages, which increased their share of the American mortgage market from 7% in 2001 to over 20% in 2006. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the delinquency rate was 22% in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with only 5% for prime loans.
“Perhaps the most compelling argument for housing as a means of wealth accumulation”, argues Richard Green of the University of Southern California, “is that it gives households a default mechanism for savings.” Because people have to pay off a mortgage, they increase their home equity and save more than they otherwise would. This is indeed a strong argument: social-science research finds that people save more if they do so automatically rather than having to choose to set something aside every month.
Yet there are other ways to create “default savings”, such as companies offering automatic deductions to retirement plans. In any case, some of the financial snake oil peddled at the height of the housing bubble was bad for saving.
The debate over whether home ownership is a wise investment or not, is contentious (more so in the last year than it was several years ago). I believe in most cases it probably is wise, but there are certainly cases where it is not. If you put yourself in too much debt that is often a big problem. I also think you should save a down payment first. If you are going to move (or have good odds you may want to) then renting is often the better option.
The “default saving” feature is one of the large benefits of home ownership. That benefit is destroyed when you take out loans against the rising value of the house. And in fact this can not just remove the benefit but turn into a negative. If you spend money you should have (increasing your debt) that can not only remove you default saving benefit but actual make your debt situation worse than if you never bought.
Federal Reserve Beige Book highlights for April 15th. The Beige Book documents comments received from business and other contacts outside the Federal Reserve and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials. The book is published eight times a year.
Manufacturing activity continued to decline in most Districts and across a wide range of industries. Several reports, however, noted that the pace of decline had slowed or that factory activity had stabilized. The Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Atlanta, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and San Francisco Districts cited decreases in production. The Chicago and Kansas City Districts said declines in production had slowed.
Manufacturers’ assessments of future factory activity improved marginally over the survey period as well.
Consumer spending remained generally weak. However, several Districts said sales rose slightly or declines moderated compared with the previous survey period.
Home prices continued to decline in most Districts, although a few reports noted that prices were unchanged or that the pace of decline had eased. Low mortgage rates were fueling refinancing activity. Outlooks for the housing sector were generally more optimistic than in earlier surveys, with respondents hopeful that increased buyer interest would lead to better sales.
Commercial real estate investment activity weakened further.
Labor market conditions were weak and reports of layoffs, reductions in work hours, temporary factory shutdowns, branch closures and hiring freezes remained widespread across Districts.
Sales of so-called immediate annuities are climbing as retirees are drawn to lifetime payments guaranteed by U.S. insurance companies. Immediate annuities pay a periodic fixed amount of money for life in exchange for a lump-sum payment.
Payouts among insurers vary significantly, said Weatherford of NAVA. Monthly payments range from $629 to $745 for a $100,000 investment by a 65-year-old male, according to a survey of six issuers by Hueler Companies, a Minneapolis-based data research firm and provider of an independent annuity platform.
An annuity is a comforting in that you cannot outlive your annuity payment. However, there are drawbacks also. Having a portion of retirement financing based on annuity payments does help planning. Social security payments are effectively an annuity (that also increases each year, to counter inflation). While living off social security payments alone is not an enticing prospect, as a portion of a retirement plan those payments can be valuable. If you have a pension that can also serve as an annuity.
It can make sense to put a portion of retirement assets into an annuity however I would limit the amount, myself. And the annuity payout is partially determined by current interest rates, which are very low, and those now the payout rates are low. If interest rates stay low, then you lose nothing but if interest rates increase substantially in the next several year (which is certainly possible) the payout for annuities would likely increase.
Choosing to purchase an annuity is something that should be done after careful study and only once you understand the investment options available to you. Also you need to have saved up substantial retirement saving to take advantage of the option to buy enough monthly income to contribute substantially to your retirement (so don’t forget to do that while you are working). | 2019-04-24T01:05:20Z | https://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2009/04/ |
The routing info (destinations, carriers, rules, groups) is stored in a database and loaded into memory at start up time; reload at runtime via a Management Interface command.
weight-based or random selection of the destinations (from a rule or from a carrier), failure detection of gateways (with switching to next available gateway).
blacklisting - the module allows definition of blacklists based on the destination IPs. This blacklists are to be used to prevent malicious forwarding to GWs (based on DNS lookups) when the script logic does none-GE forwarding (like foreign domains).
loading routing information from multiple databases - the gateways, rules, groups and carriers can be grouped by partitions, and each partition may be loaded from different databases/tables. This makes the routing process partition based. In order to be able to use a table from a partition, its name must be found in the "version" table belonging to the database defined in the partition's db_url.
There were several tests performed regarding the performance of the module when dealing with a large number of routing rules.
After loading the data into shared memory ~ 96M of memory were used exclusively for the DR data.
DR engine uses several concepts in order to define how the routing should be done (describing all the dependencies between destinations and routing rules).
These are the end SIP entities where actually the traffic needs to be sent after routing. They are stored in a table called “dr_gateways”. Gateway addresses are stored in a separate table because of the need to access them independent of Dynamic Routing processing (e.g., adding/ removing gateway PRI prefix before/after performing other operation -- receiving/relaying to gateway).
The Gateways are to be used from the routing rule or from the carrier definition. They are all the time referred by their ID.
The carrier concept is used if you need to group gateways in order to have a better control on how the GWs will be used by DR rules; like in what order the GWs will be used.
Basically, a carrier is a set of gateways which have its own sorting algorithm and its own attribute string. They are by default defined in the “dr_carriers” table.
The Carriers are to be used only from the routing rule definition. They are all the time referred by their ID.
These are the actual rules which control the routing. Using different criterias (prefix, time, priority, etc), they will decide to which gateways the call will be sent.
Default name for the table storing rule definitions is “dr_rules”.
A date-time expression that defines the time recurrence to be matched for current rule. Time recurrences are based closely on the recurring time intervals from the Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (calendar COS), RFC 2445. The set of attributes used in routing rule specification is a subset of time recurrence attributes.
When an attribute is not specified, the corresponding place must be left empty, whenever another attribute that follows in the list has to be specified.
the module discovers the routing group of the originating user. This step is skipped if a routing group is passed from the script as parameter.
within the set of rules is applied the time criteria, and the rule which has the highest priority and matches the time criteria is selected to drive the routing.
Once found the rule, it may contain a route ID to execute. If a certain flag is set, then the processing is stopped after executing the route block.
The rule must contain a chain of gateways and carriers. The module will execute serial forking for each address in the chain (ordering is either done by simply using the definition order or it may weight-based - weight selection must be enabled). The next address in chain is used only if the previously has failed.
With the right gateway address found, the prefix (PRI) of the gateway is added to the request URI and then the request is forwarded.
If no rule is found to match the selection criteria an default action must be taken (e.g., error response sent back). If the gateway in the chain has no prefix the request is forwarded without adding any prefix to the request URI.
The module has the capability to monitor the status of the destinations by doing SIP probing (sending SIP requests like OPTIONS).
script detection - by calling from script the dr_disable() function after trying the destination. In this case, if probing mode for the destination is (1) or (2), the destination will be automatically re-enabled when the probing will succeed.
MI command - by calling the dr_gw_status MI command for disabling (on demand) the destination. If so, the probing and re-enabling of this destination will be completly disabled until you re-enable it again via MI command - this is designed to allow controlled and complete disabling of some destination during maintenance.
clusterer - only if "cluster_id" option is enabled.
The name of the db table storing gateway addresses.
The name of the db table storing routing rules.
The name of the db table storing groups.
The name of the db table storing definitions of the carriers that will be used directly by the routing rules.
The name of the avp for storing Request URIs to be later used (alternative destiantions for the current one).
Default value is “$avp(___dr_ruri__)” if use_partitions parameter is 0 or “$avp(___dr_ruri__partition_name)” where partition_name is the name of the partition containing the AVP (as fetched from the database) if use_partitions parameter is 1.
The name of the avp for storing the id of the current selected gateway/destination - once a new destination is selected (via the use_next_gw() function), the AVP will be updated with the ID of the new selected gateway/destination.
Default value is “$avp(___dr_gw_id__)” if use_partitions parameter is 0 or “$avp(___dr_gw_id__partition_name)” where partition_name is the name of the partition containing the AVP (as fetched from the database) if use_partitions parameter is 1.
The name of the avp for storing the PRI prefix of the current selected destination/gateway - once a new destination is selected (via the use_next_gw() function), the AVP will be updated with the PRI prefix of the new used destination.
The name of the avp for storing the id of the current matched routing rule (see dr_rules table).
The actual prefix that matched the routing rule (the part from RURI username that matched the routing rule).
AVP to be populate with the ID string for the carrier the current GW belongs to.
The name of the avp for storing sockets for alternative destinations defined by ruri_avp.
Default value is “$avp(___dr_sock__)” if use_partitions parameter is 0 or “$avp(___dr_sock__partition_name)” where partition_name is the name of the partition containing the AVP (as fetched from the database) if use_partitions parameter is 1.
The name of the avp for storing rule attrs in case they are requested at least once in the script.
Default value is “$avp(___dr_ru_att__)” if use_partitions parameter is 0 or “$avp(___dr_ru_att__partition_name)” where partition_name is the name of the partition containing the AVP (as fetched from the database) if use_partitions parameter is 1.
Defines a blacklist based on a list of GW types - the blacklist will be populated with the IPs (no port, all protocols) of the GWs having the specified types.
If partitions are used, prefix the blacklist definition string with the name of the partition followed by ":" separator.
Multiple instances of this param are allowed.
Group to be used if the caller (FROM user) is not found in the GROUP table.
Force DNS resolving of GW/destination names (if not IPs) during startup. If not enabled, the GW name will be blindly used during routing.
Specifies whether the state column should be loaded at startup and flushed during runtime or not.
Default value is “1” (enabled).
If enabled, the module will not allow do run multiple dr_reload MI commands in parallel (with overlapping) Any new reload will be rejected (and discarded) while an existing reload is in progress.
If you have a large routing set (millions of rules/prefixes), you should consider disabling concurrent reload as they will exhaust the shared memory (by reloading into memory, in the same time, multiple instances of routing data).
Default value is “0 (disabled)”.
The SIP method to be used for the probing requests.
The FROM SIP URI to be advertised in the SIP probing requests.
A comma separted list of SIP reply codes. The codes defined here will be considered as valid reply codes for probing messages, apart for 200.
A socket description [proto:]host[:port] of the local socket (which is used by OpenSIPS for SIP traffic) to be used (if multiple) for sending the probing messages from.
For probing gateway the highest priority has socket from gateway configuration in dr_gateways table. Then socket from global probing_socket parameter and the lowest priority is default behaviour with auto selected socket wich OpenSIPS listens on.
The ID of the cluster the module is part of. The clustering support is used in drouting module for two purposes: for sharing the status of the gateways/carriers and for controlling the pinging to gateways.
If clustering enbled, the module will automatically share changes over the status of the gateways/destinations/carriers with the other OpenSIPS instances that are part of a cluster. Whenever such a status changes (following an MI command, a probing result, a script command), the module will replicate this status change to all the nodes in this given cluster.
The clustering with sharing tag support may be used to control which node in the cluster will perform the pinging/probing to gateways. See the cluster_sharing_tag option.
For more info on how to define and populate a cluster (with OpenSIPS nodes) see the "clusterer" module.
Default value is “0 (none)”.
The name of the sharing tag (as defined per clusterer modules) to control which node is responsible for perform the self-triggered actions in the module. Such actions may be the gateway probing or sharing the gateway/carrier status changes. If defined, only the node with active status of this tag will perform the actions (pinging and sharing status).
The cluster_id must be defined for this option to work.
This is an optional parameter. If not set, all the nodes in the cluster will individually do the probing and share the status changes.
Default value is “empty (none)”.
Flag to configure whether to use domain match when querying database for user's routing group.
The name of the column in group db table where the username is stored.
The name of the column in group db table where the domain is stored.
The name of the column in group db table where the group id is stored.
Flag to configure whether to use partitions for routing. If this flag is set then the db_partitions_url and db_partitions_table variables become mandatory.
The url to the database containing partition-specific information. (partition-specific information includes partition name, url to the database where information about the partition is preserved, the names of the tables in which it is preserved and the AVPs that can be accessed using the .cfg script). The use_partitions parameter must be set to 1.
The name of the table containing partition definitions. To be used with use_partitions and db_partitions_url.
Variable which will store the name of the name partition when wildcard(*) operatior is used. Use_partitions must be set in order to use this parameter.
NOTE: The variable must be WRITABLE!
Default value is “null(not used)”.
Parameter set to enable restart persistency for the Dynamic Routing module. When this parameter is set, the drouting module no longer loads the data from the database after restart, but uses the persistent storage file, and loads data from it “on demand”, improving the startup performance.
NOTE: If the restart persistent cache is not populated from a previous run, then the data will be loaded from database at startup!
NOTE: A reload will update the cached data.
Function to trigger routing of the message according to the rules in the database table and the configured parameters.
This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, FAILURE_ROUTE, BRANCH_ROUTE and LOCAL_ROUTE.
If you set use_partitions to 1 the partition last parameter becomes mandatory.
All parameters are optional. Any of them may be ignored, provided the necessary separation marks "," are properly placed.
W - Instead of using the destination (from the rule definition) in the given order, sort them based on their weight.
F - Enable rule fallback; normally the engine is using a single rule for routing a call; by setting this flag, the engine will fallback and use rules with less priority or shorter prefix when all the destination from the current rules failed.
L - Do strict length matching over the prefix - actually DR engine will do full number matching and not prefix matching anymore.
gw_whitelist - string with a comma separated white list of gateways. This will force routing over, at most, this list of carriers or gateways (in other words, the whitelist will be intersected with the results of the search through the rules).
rule_attrs_pvar - a variable to be used for output purposes - a writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched dynamic routing rule.
gw_attrs_pvar - a variable to be used for output purposes - a writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched gateway.
carrier_attrs_pvar - a variable to be used for output purposes - a writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched carrier.
partition - a string with the name of the DR partition to be used. This parameter is to be defined ONLY if the "use_partition" module parameter is turned on. Besides specifing the name of one partition, you can use the "*" wildcard sign to force routing over all partitions.
# all groups, sort on order, use_partitions is 1, route by partition named "part"
# group id 0, sort on order, use_partitions is 1, route by partition named "part"
Function to trigger the direct routing to a given set carriers (one or more). So, the routing is not done prefix based, but carrier based (call will be sent to the GWs of that carrier, based on carrier policy).
If you set use_partitions parameter to 1 you must supply the "partition" parameter also (where the carrier are to be found).
gw_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the currently matched gateway of this carrier.
carrier_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of this carrier.
partition - a string with the name of the DR partition to be used. This parameter is to be defined ONLY if the "use_partition" module parameter is turned on. Wildcard sign is not accepted by the function.
Function to trigger the direct routing to a given gateway (or list of gateways). Attributes and per-gw processing will be available.
If you set use_partitions parameter to 1 you must supply the "partition" parameter to instruct on the partition where the gateway has been defined.
gw_id - mandatory string with the comma separated list of gateway IDs to be used.
gw_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the currently matched gateway.
The function takes the next available destination (set by do_routing, as alternative destinations) and pushes it into the RURI. Note that the function just sets the RURI (nothing more).
If a new RURI is set, the used destination is removed from the pending set of alternative destinations.
rule_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched dynamic routing rule.
gw_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched gateway.
carrier_attrs_pvar - an optional output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched carrier.
Function returns true if the destination of the current request (destination URI or Request URI) points (as IP) to one of the gateways. There no DNS lookups done if the domain part of the URI is not an IP.
This function does not change anything in the message.
type - optional number for the GW/destination type to be checked; when omitting this parameter or specifying the special value "-1", matching will be done against all types.
gw_attrs_pvar - an optinal output writable variable which will be populated with the attributes of the matched gateway.
partition - a string with the name of the DR partition to be used. This parameter is to be defined ONLY if the "use_partition" module parameter is turned on. Wildcard sign is accepted by this function.
The function checks if the sender of the message (source IP + source port) is a gateway from a certain group.
The function checks if the SIP URI hostname part stored inside the "src_pv" pseudo-variable is a gateway from a certain group.
sip_uri - mandatory string containing a SIP URI. If the URI hostname part is a FQDN, it will be resolved prior to matching.
This function can be used from REQUEST_ROUTE, FAILURE_ROUTE, BRANCH_ROUTE, ONREPLY_ROUTE and LOCAL_ROUTE.
Command to reload routing rules from database.
if use_partition is set to 0 - all routing rules will be reloaded.
partition_name (optional) - if not provided all the partitions will be reloaded, otherwise just the partition given as parameter will be reloaded.
Gets the status (enabled or disabled) of one or multiple gateways. The function can also be used to set the status of a single gateway.
gw_id (optional) - the id of a gateway. If provided, the function will return/set (depnding if the second parameter is given) the status of that gateway, otherwise it will list all gateways along with their statuses.
status (optional) - the new status to be forced for a GW (0 - disable, 1 - enable). Only makes sense if gw_id is provided.
gw_id (optional) - the id of a gateway. If provided, the function will return/set (depnding if the third parameter is given) the status of that gateway, otherwise it will list all gateways in the given partition along with their statuses.
Gets the status (enabled or disabled) of one or multiple carriers. The function can also be used to set the status of a single carrier.
carrier_id (optional) - the id of a carrier. If provided, the function will return/set (depnding if the second parameter is given) the status of that carrier, otherwise it will list all carriers along with their statuses.
status (optional) - the new status to be forced for a carrier (0 - disable, 1 - enable). Only makes sense if carrier_id is provided.
carrier_id (optional) - the id of a carrier. If provided, the function will return/set (depnding if the third parameter is given) the status of that carrier, otherwise it will list all carriers contained in the given partition along with their statuses.
Gets the time of the last reload for any partition.
if use_partition is set to 0 - the function doesn't receive any parameter. It will list the date of the last reload for the default (and only) partition.
partition_name (optional) - if not provided the function will list the time of the last update for every partition. Otherwise, the function will list the time of the last reload for the given partition.
Gets the matched prefix along with the list of the gateways / carriers to which a number would be routed when using the do_routing function.
Enables/disables gateway probing or returns the current gateway probing status.
This event is raised when the module changes the state of a gateway, either through an MI command, probing or script function.
partition - the name of the partition.
gwid - the gateway identifier.
address - the address of the gateway.
status - disabled MI if the gateway was disabled using MI commands, probing if the gateway is being pinged, inactive if it was disabled from the script or active if the gateway is enabled.
The module requires 4 tables in the OpenSIPS database: dr_groups, dr_gateways, dr_carriers, dr_rules. The SQL syntax to create them can be found in the drouting-create.sql script, located in the database directories of the opensips/scripts folder. You can also find the complete database documentation on the project webpage, http://www.opensips.org/html/docs/db/db-schema-devel.html.
The module provides no function to be used by other OpenSIPS modules.
All remaining contributors: Anca Vamanu, Jeremy Martinez, Dusan Klinec, Matt Lehner, Julián Moreno Patiño, Sergio Gutierrez, Le Roy Christophe, Nick Altmann (@nikbyte), Peter Lemenkov (@lemenkov), Alexey Vasilyev (@vasilevalex), Ozzyboshi, Walter Doekes (@wdoekes).
All remaining contributors: Ionut Ionita (@ionutrazvanionita), Ozzyboshi, Julián Moreno Patiño, Dusan Klinec, Andrei Datcu (@andrei-datcu), Mihai Tiganus (@tallicamike), Walter Doekes (@wdoekes), Nick Altmann (@nikbyte), Matt Lehner, Anca Vamanu, Andrei Dragus, Sergio Gutierrez.
Last edited by: Razvan Crainea (@razvancrainea), Bogdan-Andrei Iancu (@bogdan-iancu), Liviu Chircu (@liviuchircu), Alexey Vasilyev (@vasilevalex), Peter Lemenkov (@lemenkov), Vlad Patrascu (@rvlad-patrascu), Ionut Ionita (@ionutrazvanionita), Vlad Paiu (@vladpaiu), Mihai Tiganus (@tallicamike), Andrei Datcu (@andrei-datcu), Matt Lehner, Anca Vamanu, Andrei Dragus, Sergio Gutierrez. | 2019-04-20T08:27:46Z | https://opensips.org/html/docs/modules/devel/drouting.html |
The Examination of Benjamin Franklin before the House of Commons occurred on February 13, 1765. The purpose of the examination was for Franklin to help Parliament understand the colonists' resistance to the Stamp Act. Franklin was invited to the House at the invitation of Prime Minister Rockingham. Franklin was interviewed by several prominent members including Lord Grenville, the creator of the Stamp Act, Lord North, Charles Townshend, creator of the Townshend Acts and Edmund Burke. The questioning focused on matters of trade, manufacturing in the colonies, quantities of goods traded with England, taxes paid in America, etc., in order to understand the colonists' obstinate reluctance in paying the new taxes of the Stamp Act. Edmund Burke said Franklin's response was like "an examination of a master, by a parcel of schoolboys." Franklin's responses are considered partly responsible for persuading Parliament that enforcing the Stamp Act was futile, leading to its repeal in March. Read the Examination of Benjamin Franklin before the House of Commons below.
--A. Certainly many, and very heavy taxes.
Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania, laid by the laws of the colony?
--A. There are taxes on all estates real and personal, a poll-tax, a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine, rum, and other spirit; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all negroes imported, with some other duties.
--A. For the support of the civil and military establishments of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted in the last war.
Q. How long are those taxes to continue?
--A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772, and longer, if the debt should not be then all discharged. The others must always continue.
Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner discharged?
--A. It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain; but a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of debt was incurred, and the taxes, of course, continued longer by a new law.
--A. No. The frontier counties, all along the continent, having been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late tax laws do expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I suppose the same is done in other governments.
Q. Are you not concerned in the management of the post office in America?
--A. Yes; I am deputy post-master general of North America.
Q. Don't you think the distribution of stamps, by post, to all the inhabitants, very practicable, if there was no opposition?
--A. The posts only go along the sea coasts; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expence of postage, amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves.
Q. Are you acquainted with Newfoundland?
--A. I never was there.
Q. Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that island?
--A. I have heard that there are no roads at all; but that the communication between one settlement and another is by sea only.
Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada?
--A. There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other, in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them, and therefore they cannot get stamps per post. The English colonies too, along the frontiers, are very thinly settled.
Q. From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the Stamp Act be extremely inconvenient to the inhabitants if executed?
--A. To be sure, it would; as many of the inhabitants could not get stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking long journeys, and spending, perhaps, three or four pounds, that the crown might get sixpence.
--A. In my opinion, there is not gold and silver enough in the colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.
Q. Don't you know that the money arising from the stamps was all to be laid out in America?
--A. I know it is appropriated by the act to the American service; but it will be spent in the conquered colonies, where the soldiers are, not in the colonies that pay it.
Q. Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the old colonies?
--A. I think not. I believe very little would come back. I know of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come from the colonies where it was spent directly to England; for I have always observed, that in every colony the more plenty of means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent for, and the more trade with England carried on.
Q. What number of white inhabitants do you think there are in Pennsylvania?
--A. I suppose there may be about 160,000.
Q. What number of them are Quakers?
Q. What number of Germans?
--A. Perhaps another third; but I cannot speak with certainty.
Q. Have any number of the Germans seen service, as soldiers, in Europe?
--A. Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America.
Q. Are they as much dissatisfied with the stamp duty as the English?
--A. Yes, and more; and with reason, as their stamps are, in many cases, to be double.
Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North America?
--A. About 300,000, from 16 to 60 years of age.
Q. What may be the amount of one year's imports into Pennsylvania from Britain?
--A. I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports from Britain to be above 500,000 pounds.
Q. What may be the amount of the produce of your province exported to Britain?
--A. It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed 40,000 pounds.
Q. How then do you pay the balance?
--A. The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West Indies, and sold in our own islands, or to the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch; by the same carried to other colonies in North America, as to New England, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina, and Georgia; by the same carried to different parts of Europe, as Spain, Portugal and Italy. In all of which places we receive either money, bills of exchange, or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which, together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants and mariners, arising in those circuitous voyages, and the freights made by their ships, centre finally in Britain to discharge the balance, and pay for British manufactures continually used in the province, or sold to foreigners by our traders.
Q. Have you heard of any difficulties lately laid on the Spanish trade?
--A. Yes, I have heard that it has been greatly obstructed by some new regulations, and by the English men of war and cutters stationed all along the coast in America.
Q. Do you think it right, that America should be protected by this country, and pay no part of the expence?
--A. That is not the case. The colonies raised, clothed and paid, during the last war, near 25,000 men, and spent many millions.
Q. Were you not reimbursed by parliament?
--A. We were only reimbursed what in your opinion, we had advanced beyond our proportion, or beyond what might reasonably be expected from us; and it was a very small part of what we spent. Pennsylvania, in particular, disbursed about 500,000 pounds, and the reimbursement, in the whole, did not exceed 60,000 pounds.
Q. You have said that you pay heavy taxes in Pennsylvania; what do they amount, in the pound?
--A. The tax on all estates, real and personal, is eighteen pence in the pound, fully rated; and the tax on the profits of trades and professions, with other taxes, do, I suppose, make full half a crown in the pound.
Q. Do you know anything of the rate of exchange in Pennsylvania, and whether it has fallen lately?
--A. It is commonly from 170 to 175. I have heard that it has fallen lately from 175 to 162 and a half, owing, I suppose, to their lessening their orders for goods; and when their debts to this country are paid, I think the exchange will probably be at par.
Q. Do not you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty, if it was moderated?
--A. No, never, unless compelled by force of arms.
Q. Are not the taxes in Pennsylvania laid on unequally, in order to burden the English trade, particularly the tax on professions and business?
--A. It is not more burdensome in proportion than the tax on lands. It is intended, and supposed to take an equal proportion of profits.
Q. How is the assembly composed?
Of what kinds of people are the members, landholders or traders?
--A. It is composed of landholders, merchants, and artificers.
Q. Are not the majority landholders?
--A. I believe they are.
Q. Do not they, as much as possible, shift the tax off from the land, to ease that, and lay the burthen heavier on trade?
--A. I have never understood it so. I never heard such a thing suggested. And indeed an attempt of that kind could answer no purpose. The merchant or trader is always skilled in figures, and ready with his pen and ink. If unequal burdens are laid on his trade, he puts an additional price on his goods; and the consumers, who are chiefly landowners, finally pay the greatest part, if not the whole.
Q. What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763?
--A. The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to acts of parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons or armies, to keep them in subjection. They were governed by this country at the expence only of a little pen, ink, and paper. They were led by a thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an Old-England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us.
Q. And what is their temper now?
--A. O, very much altered.
Q. Did you ever hear the authority of parliament to make laws for America questioned till lately?
--A. The authority of parliament was allowed to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal taxes. It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce.
Q. In what proportion hath population increased in America?
--A. I think the inhabitants of all the provinces together, taken at a medium, double in about 25 years. But their demand for British manufactures increases much faster, as the consumption is not merely in proportion to their numbers, but grows with the growing abilities of the same numbers to pay for them. In 1723, the whole importation from Britain to Pennsylvania, was but about 15,000 pounds sterling; it is now near half a million.
Q. In what light did the people of America use to consider the parliament of Great Britain?
--A. They considered the parliament as the great bulwark and security of their liberties and privileges, and always spoke of it with the utmost respect and veneration. Arbitrary ministers, they thought, might possibly, at times, attempt to oppress them; but they relied on it, that the parliament, on application, would always give redress. They remembered, with gratitude, a strong instance of this, when a bill was brought into parliament, with a clause to make royal instructions laws in the colonies, which the House of Commons would not pass, and it was thrown out.
Q. And have they not still the same respect for parliament?
--A. No; it is greatly lessened.
Q. To what cause is that owing?
--A. To a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves; and then demand a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away at the same, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions.
Q. Don't you think they would submit to the Stamp Act, if it was modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty reduced to some particulars, of small moment?
--A. No; they will never submit to it.
Q. What do you think is the reason that the people of America increase faster than in England?
--A. Because they marry younger, and more generally.
--A. Because any young couple that are industrious, may easily obtain land of their own, on which they can raise a family.
Q. Are not the lower rank of people more at their ease in America than in England?
--A. They may be so, if they are sober and diligent, as they are better paid for their labour.
Q. What is your opinion of a future tax, imposed on the same principle with that of the Stamp Act, how would the Americans receive it?
--A. Just as they do this. They would not pay it.
Q. Have not you heard of the resolution of this House, and of the House of Lords, asserting the right of parliament relating to America, including a power to tax the people there?
--A. Yes, I have heard of such resolutions.
Q. What will be the opinion of the Americans on those resolutions?
--A. They will think them unconstitutional and unjust.
--A. I had never heard any objection to the right of laying duties to regulate commerce; but a right to lay internal taxes was never supposed to be in parliament, as we are not represented there.
--A. I know that whenever the subject has occurred in conversation where I have been present, it has appeared to be the opinion of every one, that we could not be taxed in a parliament where we were not represented. But the payment of duties laid by act of parliament, as regulations of commerce, was never disputed.
--A. I do not know that there was any; I think there was never an occasion to make any such act, till now that you have attempted to tax us; that has occasioned resolutions of assembly, declaring the distinction, in which I think every assembly on the continent, and every member in every assembly, have been unanimous.
Q. What then could occasion conversation on that subject before that time?
--A. There was, in 1754, a proposition made (I think it came from hence) that in case of a war, which was then apprehended, the governors of the colonies should meet, and order the levying of troops, building of forts, and taking every other necessary measure for the general defence; and should draw on the treasury here, for the sums expended, which were afterwards to be raised in the colonies by a general tax, to be laid on them by act of parliament. This occasioned a good deal of conversation on the subject, and the general opinion was, that the parliament neither would, nor could lay any tax on us, till we were duly represented in parliament, because it was not just, nor agreeable to the nature of an English constitution.
Q. Don't you know there was a time in New York, when it was under consideration to make an application to parliament, to lay taxes on that colony, upon a deficiency arising from the assembly's refusing or neglecting to raise the necessary supplies for the support of the civil government?
--A. I never heard of it.
Q. There was such an application under consideration in New York; and do you apprehend that they could suppose the right of parliament to lay a tax in America was only local, and confined to the case of a deficiency in a particular colony, by a refusal of its assembly to raise the necessary supplies?
--A. They could not suppose such a case, as that the assembly would not raise the necessary supplies to support its own government. An assembly that would refuse it, must want common sense, which cannot be supposed. I think there was never any such case at New York, and that it must be a misrepresentation, or the fact must be misunderstood. I know there have been some attempts, by ministerial instructions from hence, to oblige the assemblies to settle permanent salaries on governors, which they wisely refused to do; but I believe no assembly of New York, or any other colony, ever refused duly to support government, by proper allowances, from time to time, to public officers.
Q. But in case a governor, acting by instruction, should call on an assembly to raise the necessary supplies, and the assembly should refuse to do it, do you not think it would then be for the good of the people of the colony, as well as necessary to government, that the parliament should tax them?
--A. I do not think it would be necessary. If an assembly could possibly be so absurd as to refuse raising the supplies requisite for the maintenance of government among them, they could not long remain in such a situation; the disorders and confusion occasioned by it must soon bring them to reason.
Q. If it should not, ought not the right to be in Great Britain of applying a remedy?
--A. A right only to be used in such a case, I should have no objection to, supposing it to be used merely for the good of the people of the colony.
Q. But who is to judge of that, Britain or the colony?
--A. Those that feel can best judge.
Q. You say the colonies have always submitted to external taxes, and object to the right of parliament only in laying internal taxes; now can you show that there is any kind of difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they may be laid?
--A. I think the difference is very great. An external tax is a duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the first cost, and other charges on the commodity, and when it is offered to sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do not like it at that price, they refuse it; they are not obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the people without their consent, if not laid by their own representatives. The Stamp Act says, we shall have no commerce, make no exchange of property with each other, neither purchase nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall neither marry nor make our wills, unless we pay such sums, and thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by the consequences of refusing to pay for it.
Q. But supposing the internal tax or duty to be laid on the necessities of life imported into your colony, will not that be the same thing in its effects as an internal tax?
--A. I do not know a single article imported into the northern colonies, but what they can either do without or make themselves.
Q. Don't you think cloth from England, absolutely necessary to them?
--A. No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management, they may very well supply themselves with all they want.
Q. Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture among them; and must they not in the mean while suffer greatly?
--A. I think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And I am of opinion, that before their old clothes are worn out, they will have new ones of their own making.
Q. Can they possibly find wool enough in North America?
--A. They have taken steps to increase the wool. They entered into general combination to eat no more lamb, and very few lambs were killed last year. This course persisted in, will soon make a prodigious difference in the quantity of wool. And the establishing of great manufactories, like those in the clothing towns here, is not necessary, as it is where the business is to be carried on for the purposes of trade. The people will all spin and work for themselves, in their own houses.
Q. Can there be wool and manufacture enough in one or two years?
--A. In three years, I think, there may.
Q. Does not the severity of the winter, in the northern colonies, occasion the wool to be of bad quality?
--A. No, the wool is very fine and good.
Q. In the more southern colonies, as in Virginia, don't you know that the wool is coarse, and only a kind of hair?
--A. I don't know it. I never heard it. Yet I have been sometimes in Virginia. I cannot say I ever took particular notice of the wool there, but I believe it is good, though I cannot speak positively of it; but Virginia, and the colonies south of it, have less occasion for wool; their winters are short, and not very severe, and they can very well clothe themselves with linen and cotton of their own raising for the rest of the year.
Q. Are not the people in the more northern colonies obliged to fodder their sheep all the winter?
--A. In some of the most northern colonies they may be obliged to do it some part of the winter.
Q. Considering the resolution of parliament as to the right, do you think, if the Stamp Act is repealed, that the North Americans will be satisfied?
--A. I believe they will.
Q. Why do you think so?
--A. I think the resolutions of right will give them very little concern, if they are never attempted to be carried into practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves in the same situation, in that respect, with Ireland; they know you claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never exercise it. And they may believe you never will exercise it in the colonies, any more than in Ireland, unless on some very extraordinary occasion.
Q. But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary occasion?
--A. Though the parliament may judge of the occasion, the people will think it can never exercise such right, till representatives from the colonies are admitted into parliament, and that whenever the occasion arises, representatives will be ordered.
Q. Did you never hear that Maryland, during the last war, had refused to furnish a quota towards the common defence?
--A. Maryland has been much misrepresented in that matter. Maryland, to my knowledge, never refused to contribute, or grant aids to the crown. The assemblies every year, during the war, voted considerable sums, and formed bills to raise them. The bills were, according to the constitution of that province, sent up to the council, or upper house, for concurrence, that they might be presented to the governor, in order to be enacted into laws. Unhappy disputes between the two houses, arising from the defects of that constitution principally, rendered all the bills but one or two abortive. The proprietary's council rejected them. It is true, Maryland did not contribute in proportion, but it was, in my opinion, the fault of the government, not of the people.
Q. Was it not talked of in the other provinces as a proper measure to apply to parliament to compel them?
--A. I have heard such discourse: but as it was well known that the people were not to blame, no such application was ever made, or any step taken towards it.
Q. Was it not proposed at a public meeting?
--A. Not that I know of.
Q. Do you remember the abolishing of the paper currency in New England, by act of assembly?
--A. I do remember its being abolished in the Massachusett's Bay.
Q. Was not lieutenant governor Hutchinson principally concerned in that transaction?
--A. I have heard so.
Q. Was it not at that time a very unpopular law?
--A. I believe it might, though I can say little about it, as I lived at a distance from that province.
Q. Was not the scarcity of gold and silver an argument used against abolishing the paper?
--A. I suppose it was.
Q. What is the present opinion there of that law?
Is it as unpopular as it was at first?
--A. I think it is not.
Q. Have not instructions from hence been sometimes sent over to governors, highly oppressive and unpolitical?
Q. Have not some governors dispensed with them for that reason?
--A. Yes, I have heard so.
Q. Did the Americans ever dispute the controuling power of parliament to regulate the commerce?
Q. Can any thing less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution?
--A. I do not see how a military force can be applied to that purpose.
--A. Suppose a military force sent into America, they will find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chuses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion; they may indeed make one.
--A. A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends upon that respect and affection.
Q. How can the commerce be affected?
--A. You will find, that if the act is not repealed, they will take very little of your manufactures in a short time.
Q. Is it in their power to do without them?
--A. I think they may very well do without them.
Q. Is it their interest not to take them?
--A. The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, &c. with a little industry they can make at home: the second they can do without, till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of fashion, purchased and consumed, because the fashion in a respected country, but will now be detested and rejected. The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.
Q. Is it their interest to make cloth at home?
--A. I think they may at present get it cheaper from Britain, I mean of the same fineness and neatness of workmanship; but when one considers other circumstances, the restraints on their trade, and the difficulty of making remittances, it is their interest to make every thing.
Q. Suppose an act of internal regulations connected with a tax, how would they receive it?
--A. I think it would be objected to.
Q. Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?
--A. Their opinion is, that when aids to the crown are wanted, they are to be asked of the several assemblies according to the old established usage, who will, as they have always done, grant them freely. And that their money ought not to be given away, without their consent, by persons at a distance, unacquainted with their circumstances and abilities. The granting aids to the crown, is the only means they have of recommending themselves to their sovereign, and they think it extremely hard and unjust, that a body of men, in which they have no representatives, should make a merit to itself of giving and granting what is not its own, but theirs, and deprives them of a right they esteem of the utmost value and importance, as it is the security of all their other rights.
Q. But is not the post office, which they have long received, a tax as well as a regulation?
--A. No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of the nature of a tax; it is merely a quantum merit for a service done; no person is compellable to pay the money, if he does not chuse to receive the service. A man may still, as before the act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper or safer.
Q. But do they not consider the regulations of the post-office, by the act of last year, as a tax?
--A. By the regulations of last year the rate of postage was generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America; they certainly cannot consider such an abatement as a tax.
Q. If an excise was laid by parliament, which they might likewise avoid paying, by not consuming the articles excised, would they then not object to it?
--A. They would certainly object to it, as an excise is unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid which they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them if they are to pay it, and can be granted for them, by no others whatsoever, whom they have not impowered for that purpose.
Q. You say they do not object to the right of parliament, in laying duties on goods to be paid on their importation; now, is there any kind of difference between a duty on the importation of goods and an excise on their consumption?
--A. Yes; a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I just mentioned, they think you can have no right to lay within their country. But the sea is yours; you maintain, by your fleets, the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of pirates; you may have therefore a natural and equitable right to some toll or duty on merchandizes carried through that part of your dominions, towards defraying the expence you are at in ships to maintain the safety of that carriage.
Q. Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the produce of their lands exported?
And would they not then object to such a duty?
--A. If it tended to make the produce so much dearer abroad as to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to such a duty; not to your right of laying it, but they would complain of it as a burden, and petition you to lighten it.
Q. Is not the duty paid on the tobacco exported a duty of that kind?
--A. That, I think, is only on tobacco carried coastwise from one colony to another, and appropriated as a fund for supporting the college at Williamsburgh, in Virginia.
Q. Have not the assemblies in the West Indies the same natural rights with those in North America?
Q. And is there not a tax laid there on their sugars exported?
--A. I am not much acquainted with the West Indies, but the duty of four and a half per cent., on sugars exported, was, I believe, granted by their own assemblies.
Q. How much is the poll tax in your province laid on unmarried men?
--A. It is, I think, fifteen shillings, to be paid by every single freeman, upwards of twenty one years old.
Q. What is the annual amount of all the taxes in Pennsylvania?
--A. I suppose about 20,000 pounds sterling.
Q. Supposing the Stamp Act continued, and enforced, do you imagine that ill humour will induce the Americans to give as much for worse manufactures of their own and use them, preferably to better of ours?
--A. Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one passion as another, their resentment as their pride.
Q. Would the people at Boston discontinue their trade?
--A. The merchants are a very small number compared with the body of the people, and must discontinue their trade if nobody will buy their goods.
Q. What are the body of the people in the colonies?
--A. They are farmers, husbandmen or planters.
Q. Would they suffer the produce of their lands to rot?
--A. No; but they would not raise so much. They would manufacture more, and plough less.
Q. Would they live without the administration of justice in civil matters, and suffer all the inconveniencies of such a situation for any considerable time, rather than take the stamps, supposing the stamps were protected by a sufficient force, where every one might have them?
--A. I think the supposition impracticable, that the stamps should be so protected as that every one might have them. The Act requires sub-distributors to be appointed in every county town, district, and village, and they would be necessary. But the principal distributors, who were to have had a considerable profit on the whole, have not thought it worth while to continue in the office, and I think it impossible to find sub-distributors fit to be trusted, who, for the trifling profit that must come to their share, would incur the odium, and run the hazard that would attend it; and if they could be found, I think it impracticable to protect the stamps in so many distant and remote places.
Q. But in places where they would be protected, would not the people use them rather than remain in such a situation, unable to obtain any right, or recover, by law, any debt?
--A. It is hard to say what they would do. I can only judge what other people will think, and how they will act, by what I feel within myself. I have a great many debts due to me in America, and I had rather they should remain unrecoverable by any law than submit to the Stamp Act. They will be debts of honour. It is my opinion the people will either continue in that situation, or find some way to extricate themselves, perhaps by generally agreeing to proceed in the courts without stamps.
Q. What do you think a sufficient military force to protect the distribution of the stamps in every part of America?
--A. A very great force; I cannot say what, if the disposition of America is for a general resistance.
Q. What is the number of men in America able to bear arms, or of disciplined militia?
Q. Is the American Stamp Act an equal tax on that country?
--A. The greatest part of the money must arise from lawsuits for the recovery of debts, and be paid by the lower sort of people, who were too poor easily to pay their debts. It is therefore a heavy tax on the poor, and a tax upon them for being poor.
Q. But will not this increase of expence be a means of lessening the number of lawsuits?
--A. I think not; for as the costs all fall upon the debtor, and are to be paid by him, they would be no discouragement to the creditor to bring his action.
--A. Yes, as an oppression of the debtor.
Q. How many ships are there laden annually in North America with flax seed for Ireland?
--A. I cannot speak to the number of ships, but I know that in 1752, 10,000 hogsheads of flax seed, each containing seven bushels, were exported from Philadelphia to Ireland. I suppose the quantity is greatly increased since that time; and it is understood that the exportation from New York is equal to that from Philadelphia.
Q. What becomes of the flax that grows with that flax seed?
--A. They manufacture some into coarse, and some into a middling kind of linen.
Q. Are there any slitting mills in America?
--A. I think there are three, but I believe only one at present employed. I suppose they will all be set to work, if the interruption of the trade continues.
Q. Are there any fulling mills there?
Q. Did you never hear that a great quantity of stockings were contracted for, for the army, during the war, and manufactured in Philadelphia?
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the Americans think they could oblige the parliament to repeal every external tax law now in force?
--A. It is hard to answer questions what people at such a distance will think.
Q. But what do you imagine they will think were the motives of repealing the Act?
--A. I suppose they will think that it was repealed from a conviction of its inexpediency; and they will rely upon it, that while the same inexpediency subsists, you will never attempt to make such another.
Q. What do you mean by its inexpediency?
--A. I mean its inexpediency on several accounts; the poverty and inability of those who were to pay the tax; the general discontent it has occasioned; and the impracticability of enforcing it.
Q. If the Act should be repealed, and the legislature should shew its resentment of the opposers of the Stamp Act, would the colonies acquiesce in the authority of the legislature?
What is your opinion they would do?
--A. I don't doubt at all, that if the legislature repeal the Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesce in the authority.
Q. But if the legislature should think fit to ascertain its right to lay taxes, by any act laying a small tax, contrary to their opinion, would they submit to pay the tax?
--A. The proceedings of the people in America have been considered too much together. The proceedings of the assemblies have been very different from those of the mobs, and should be distinguished, as having no connection with each other. The assemblies have only peaceably resolved what they take to be their rights; they have not built a fort, raised a man, or provided a grain of ammunition, in order to such opposition. The ringleaders of riots they think ought to be punished; they would punish them themselves, if they could. Every sober, sensible man would wish to see rioters punished, as otherwise peaceable people have no security of person or estate. But as to an internal tax, how small soever, laid by the legislature here on the people there, while they have no representatives in this legislature, I think it will never be submitted to. -- They will oppose it to the last. -- They do not consider it as at all necessary for you to raise money on them by your taxes, because they are, and always have been, ready to raise money by taxes among themselves and to grant large sums, equal to their abilities, upon requisition from the crown.
--A. They have not only granted equal to their abilities, but, during the last war, they granted far beyond their abilities, and beyond their proportion with this country, you yourselves being judges, to the amount of many hundred thousand pounds, and this they did freely and readily, only on a sort of promise from the secretary of state, that it should be recommended to parliament to make them compensation. It was accordingly recommended to parliament, in the most honourable manner, for them. America has been greatly misrepresented and abused here, in paper, and pamphlets, and speeches, as ungrateful, and unreasonable, and unjust, in having put this nation to great expence for their defence, and refusing to bear any part of that expence. The colonies raised, paid, and clothed, near 25,000 men during the last war, a number equal to those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion; they went deeply into debt in doing this, and all their taxes and estates are mortgaged, for many years to come, for discharging that debt. Government here was at that time very sensible of this. The colonies were recommended to parliament. Every year the King sent down to the House a written message to this purpose, That his Majesty, being highly sensible of the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects in North America had exerted themselves, in defence of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommended it to the House to take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation. You will find those messages on your own journals every year of the war to the very last, and you did accordingly give 200,000 pounds annually to the crown, to be distributed in such compensation to the colonies. This is the strongest of all proofs that the colonies, far from being unwilling to bear a share of the burden, did exceed their proportion; but they never murmured at that; they esteemed their sovereign's approbation of their zeal and fidelity, and the approbation of this House, far beyond any other kind of compensation; therefore there was no occasion for this act, to force money from a willing people; they had not refused giving money for the purposes of the act; no requisition had been made: they were always willing and ready to do what could reasonably be expected from them, and in this light they wish to be considered.
Q. But suppose Great Britain should be engaged in a war in Europe, would North America contribute to the support of it?
--A. I do think they would, as far as their circumstances would permit. They consider themselves as a part of the British empire, and as having one common interest with it; they may be looked on here as foreigners, but they do not consider themselves as such. They are zealous for the honour and prosperity of this nation, and while they are well used, will always be ready to support it, as far as their little power goes. In 1739 they were called upon to assist in the expedition against Carthegena, and they sent 3,000 men to join your army. It is true Carthegena is in America, but as remote from the northern colonies as if it had been in Europe. They make no distinction of wars, as to their duty of assisting in them. I know the last war is commonly spoke of here as entered into for the defence, or for the sake of the people of America. I think it is quite misunderstood. It began about the limits between Canada and Nova Scotia, about territories to which the crown indeed laid claim, but were not claimed by any British colony; none of the lands had been granted to any colonist; we had therefore no particular concern or interest in that dispute. As to the Ohio, the contest there began about your right of trading in the Indian country, a right you had by the treaty of Utrecht, which the French infringed; they seized the traders and their goods, which were your manufactures; they took a fort which a company of your merchants, and their factors and correspondents, had erected there to secure that trade. Braddock was sent with an army to re-take that fort (which was looked on here as another incroachment on the King's territory) and to protect your trade. It was not till after his defeat that the colonies were attacked. They were before in perfect peace with both French and Indians; the troops were not therefore sent for their defence. The trade with the Indians, though carried on in America, is not an American interest. The people of America are chiefly farmers and planters; scarce any thing that they raise or produce is an article of commerce with the Indians. The Indian trade is a British interest; it is carried on with British manufactures, for the profit of British merchants and manufactures; therefore the war, as it commenced for the defence of territories of the crown, the property of no American, and for the defence of a trade purely British, was really a British war -- and yet the people of America made no scruple of contributing their utmost towards carrying it on, and bringing it to a happy conclusion.
Q. Do you think then that the taking possession of the King's territorial rights, and strengthening the frontiers, is not an American interest?
--A. Not particularly, but conjointly a British and an American interest.
Q. You will not deny that the preceding war, the war with Spain, was entered into for the sake of America; was it not occasioned by captures made in the American seas?
--A. Yes; captures of ships carrying on the British trade there, with British manufactures.
Q. Was not the late war with the Indians, since the peace with France, a war for America only?
--A. Yes: it was more particularly for America than the former, but it was rather a consequence or remains of the former war, the Indians not having been thoroughly pacified, and the Americans bore by much the greatest share of the expence. It was put an end to by the army under general Bouquet; there were not above 300 regulars in that army, and above 1000 Pennsylvanians.
Q. Is it not necessary to send troops to America, to defend the Americans against the Indians?
--A. No, by no means; it never was necessary. They defended themselves when they were but a handful, and the Indians much more numerous. They continually gained ground, and have driven the Indians over the mountains, without any troops sent to their assistance from this country. And can it be thought necessary now to send troops for their defence from those diminished Indian tribes, when the colonies are become so populous, and so strong?
There is not the least occasion for it; they are very able to defend themselves.
Q. Do you say there were no more than 500 regular troops employed in the late Indian war?
--A. Not on the Ohio, or on the frontiers of Pennsylvania, which was the chief part of the war that affected the colonies. There were garrisons at Niagara, Fort Detroit, and those remote posts kept for the sake of your trade; I did not reckon them, but I believe that on the whole the number of Americans, or provincial troops, employed in the war, was greater than that of the regulars. I am not certain, but I think so.
Q. Do you think the assemblies have a right to levy money on the subject there, to grant to the crown?
--A. I certainly think so; they have always done it.
Q. Are they acquainted with the Declaration of Rights; and do they know that by that statute, money is not to be raised on the subject but by consent of parliament?
--A. They are very well acquainted with it.
Q. How then can they think they have a right to levy money for the crown, or for any other than local purposes?
--A. They understand that clause to relate to subjects only within the realm; that no money can be levied on them for the crown, but by consent of parliament. The colonies are not supposed to be within the realm; they have assemblies of their own, which are their parliaments, and they are, in that respect, in the same situation with Ireland. When money is to be raised for the crown upon the subject in Ireland, or in the colonies, the consent is given in the parliament of Ireland, or in the assemblies of the colonies. They think the parliament of Great Britain cannot properly give that consent till it has representatives from America; for the Petition of Rights expressly says, it is to be by common consent in parliament, and the people of America have no representatives in parliament, to make a part of that common consent.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and an act should pass, ordering the assemblies of the colonies to indemnify the sufferers by the riots, would they obey it?
--A. That is a question I cannot answer.
Q. Suppose the King should require the colonies to grant a revenue, and the parliament should be against their doing it, do they think they can grant a revenue to the King, without the consent of the parliament of Great Britain?
--A. That is a deep question. As to my own opinion, I should think myself at liberty to do it, and should do it, if I liked the occasion.
Q. When money has been raised in the colonies, upon requisitions, has it not been granted to the King?
--A. Yes, always; but the requisitions have generally been for some service expressed, as to raise, clothe, and pay troops, and not for money only.
Q. If the act should pass, requiring the American assemblies to make compensation to the sufferers, and they should disobey it, and then the parliament should, by another act, lay an internal tax, would they then obey it?
--A. The people will pay no internal tax: and I think an act to oblige the assemblies to make compensation is unnecessary, for I am of opinion, that as soon as the present heats are abated, they will take the matter into consideration, and if it is right to be done, they will do it of themselves.
Q. Do not letters often come into the post offices in America, directed into some inland town where no post goes?
Q. Can any private person take up those letters, and carry them as directed?
--A. Yes; any friend of the person may do it, paying the postage that has accrued.
Q. But must not he pay an additional postage for the distance to such an inland town?
Q. Can the post-master answer delivering the letter, without being paid such additional postage?
--A. Certainly he can demand nothing, where he does no service.
Q. Suppose a person, being far from home, finds a letter in a post office directed to him, and he lives in a place to which the post generally goes, and the letter is directed to that place, will the post-master deliver him the letter, without his paying the postage received at the place to which the letter is directed?
--A. Yes; the office cannot demand postage for a letter that it does not carry, or farther than it does carry it.
Q. Are not ferrymen in America obliged, by act of parliament, to carry over the post without pay?
Q. Is not this a tax on the ferrymen?
--A. They do not consider it as such, as they have an advantage from persons travelling with the post.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the crown should make a requisition to the colonies for a sum of money, would they grant it?
--A. I believe they would.
--A. I can speak for the colony I live in; I had it in instruction from the assembly to assure the ministry, that as they always had done, so they should always think it their duty to grant such aids to the crown as were suitable to their circumstances and abilities, whenever called upon for the purpose, in the usual constitutional manner; and I had the honour of communicating this instruction to that hon. gentleman then minister.
Q. Would they do this for a British concern; as suppose a war in some part of Europe, that did not affect them?
--A. Yes, for anything that concerned the general interest. They consider themselves as a part of the whole.
Q. What is the usual constitutional manner of calling on the colonies for aids?
--A. A letter from the secretary of state.
Q. Is this all you mean, a letter from the secretary of state?
--A. I mean the usual way of requisition, in a circular letter from the secretary of state, by his Majesty's command, reciting the occasion, and recommending it to the colonies to grant such aids as became their loyalty, and were suitable to their abilities.
Q. Did the secretary of state ever write for money for the crown?
--A. The requisitions have been to raise, clothe, and pay men, which cannot be done without money.
Q. Would they grant money alone, if called on?
--A. In my opinion they would, money as well as men, when they have money, or can procure it.
Q. If the parliament should repeal the Stamp Act, will the assembly of Pennsylvania rescind their resolutions?
Q. Before there was any thought of the Stamp Act, did they wish for a representation in parliament?
Q. Don't you know that there is, in the Pennsylvania charter, an express reservation of the right of parliament to lay taxes there?
--A. I know there is a clause in the charter, by which the King grants that he will levy no taxes on the inhabitants, unless it be with the consent of the assembly, or by an act of parliament.
Q. How then could the assembly of Pennsylvania assert, that laying a tax on them by the Stamp Act was an infringement of their rights?
--A. They understand it thus: by the same charter, and otherwise, they are entitled to all the privileges and liberties of Englishmen; they find in the Great Charters, and the Petition and Declaration of Rights, that one of the privileges of English subjects is, that they are not to be taxed but by their common consent; they have therefore relied upon it, from the first settlement of the province, that the parliament never would, nor could, by colour of that clause in the charter, assume a right of taxing them, till it had qualified itself to exercise such a right, by admitting representatives from the people to be taxed, who ought to make a part of that common consent.
Q. Are there any words in the charter that justify that construction?
--A. The common rights of Englishmen, as declared by Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, all justify it.
Q. Does the distinction between internal and external taxes exist in the words of the charter?
--A. No, I believe not.
Q. Then may they not, by the same interpretation, object to the parliament's right of external taxation?
--A. They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately used here to shew them that there is no difference, and that if you have no right to tax them internally, you have no right to tax them externally, or make any other law to bind them. At present they do not reason so, but in time they may possibly be convinced by these arguments.
Q. Do not the resolutions of the Pennsylvania assemblies say, all taxes?
--A. If they do, they mean only internal taxes; the same words have not always the same meaning here and in the colonies. By taxes they mean internal taxes; by duties they mean customs; these are the ideas of the language.
Q. Have you not seen the resolutions of the Massachusett's Bay assembly?
Q. Do they now say, that neither external nor internal taxes can be laid on them by parliament?
--A. I don't know that they do; I believe not.
Q. If the same tax should say neither tax nor imposition could be laid, does not that province hold the power of parliament can lay neither?
--A. I suppose that by the word imposition, they do not intend to express duties to be laid on goods imported, as regulations of commerce.
Q. What can the colonies mean then by imposition as distinct from taxes?
--A. They may mean many things, as impressing of men, or of carriages, quartering troops on private houses, and the like; there may be great impositions that are not properly taxes.
Q. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of parliament?
--A. I have answered that.
Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay taxes?
--A. No, certainly; the frontier parts, which have been ravaged by the enemy, are greatly disabled by that means, and therefore, in such cases, are usually favoured in our tax laws.
Q. Can we, at this distance, be competent judges of what favours are necessary?
--A. The parliament have supposed it, by claiming a right to make tax laws for America; I think it impossible.
Q. Would the repeal of the Stamp Act be any discouragement of your manufactures?
Will the people that have begun to manufacture decline it?
--A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the same time, the trade is opened again, so that remittances can be easily made. I have known several instances that make it probable. In the war before last, tobacco being low, and making little remittance, the people of Virginia went generally into family manufactures. Afterwards, when tobacco a better price, they returned to the usual British manufactures. So fulling mills were very much disused in the last war in Pennsylvania, because bills were plenty, and remittances could easily be made to Britain for English cloth and other goods.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the assemblies of America to acknowledge the right of parliament to tax them, and would they erase their resolutions?
--A. None, that I know of; they will never do it, unless compelled by force of arms.
--A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their opinions.
Q. Do they consider the post office as a tax, or as a regulation?
--A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency; every assembly encouraged it, and supported its infancy, by grants of money, which they would not otherwise have done; and the people have always paid the postage.
Q. When did you receive the instruction you mentioned?
--A. I brought them with me, when I came to England, about months since.
Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister?
--A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of America was under consideration, and before the Bill was brought in.
Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain, to employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in manufactures?
--A. In tobacco, to be sure.
--A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great Britain.
--A. To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make new ones. -- Withdrew.
Read the text of the Stamp Act here.
Read the Act Repealing the Stamp Act here.
You may also like to check out our Benjamin Franklin Facts page. | 2019-04-18T16:28:04Z | http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/examination-of-benjamin-franklin-before-the-house-of-commons-february-13-1766.html |
When the Jews were exiled from the Land of Israel, nearly two thousand years ago, they dispersed across many countries, fragmenting into small groups among widely divergent cultures and empires. Under Christian and Islamic rule, in the German ghetto or in the Polish shtetl, however, the Jews remained internationally united. The glue was an allegiance to a code of laws and rituals set forth in the Torah and Talmud.
But Judaism is more than a religion; it is a way of life experienced through the kehillah, the community. Forced to endure harsh conditions, without anyone to rely on for assistance but themselves, Jews developed a communal infrastructure that was uniquely Jewish. With an obligation in Jewish law to help the less fortunate, everyone in the community made regular contributions to the collection box, the kuppah. This fundraising system neither shamed nor glorified: both recipient and giver remained anonymous.
Community trustees divided the funds among a plethora of welfare providers. From the burial society to the soup kitchen to the dowry fund for poor girls, a communal organization existed to fit virtually every need. The kuppah, then, was the ultimate safety net for Jews who, throughout the centuries, lived through difficult times, from poverty to pogroms.
This system continued in the new country, as eastern European Jews, many destitute and illiterate, streamed into America’s largest cities. They settled in Philadelphia’s South Side, Boston’s North End, Baltimore’s South Side and Chicago’s West End around Maxwell Street. New York’s Lower East Side became the heart of the migration, with 330,000 Jews jammed into impoverished, dumb-bell- shaped tenements.
As hard as it was, these Jews, for the first time, went about their business with relative freedom — and many immigrants became quite successful. They continued to be involved with human rights and now looked out for their less fortunate neighbors by creating a sophisticated philanthropic network that served the needs of the whole community.
A multiplicity of Jewish relief and welfare groups struggled at first in these cities to “take care of their own,” feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, securing jobs, and treating the sick and elderly. In 1895, the Jews of Boston created a centralized, communal organization — later to become the Combined Jewish Philanthropies — which brought together under one umbrella all the different local fundraising groups. It offered the first one-stop philanthropy ever formed on this continent. Each welfare agency maintained its full independence and gained proportionate representation on the CJP board of trustees. It was the perfect marriage of heritage and innovation: the Jews adapted to their new situation by revising the old European fundraising model.
Jews in other cities quickly recognized the genius of the Boston federation, for it allowed the community to raise more funds at less expense and distribute them more wisely to meet greater needs. Today, there are nearly 200 federations across North America — one in every city with a Jewish population of more than 1,000.
In the early years, federations devoted themselves almost exclusively to local concerns — health care, child welfare, assistance for the handicapped, and homes and housing for the aged. In addition to looking after the immigrants’ physical health, federations opened Jewish community centers to offer cultural and recreation activities, and education programs for adults and children. Cultural assimilation, another priority, prompted federations to offer vocational training, day camps, and community development programs. It’s no wonder that the new Americans broke through anti-Semitic glass ceilings to become successful in all areas of the professions, arts, and business. The Jewish immigrant had become, in a word, Americanized.
External forces in Europe, meanwhile, put Jewish lives on the line. By joining forces in the 1920s and 1930s with overseas agencies — the United Palestine Appeal (UPA) and the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) — federations embarked on a massive campaign to rescue and rehabilitate Jews living in conditions of discrimination and distress. In response to the 1939 Kristallnacht pogrom in Nazi Germany, the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was formed, combining the national fundraising efforts of the UPA and JDC. Working together with the UJA, federations provided the bulk of the funds to settle the survivors of Hitler’s concentration camps and helped refugees create new lives in Israel. Federations also assisted the dislocated Jewish communities of Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and other countries.
Rescues have continued unabated in recent times, with the dramatic airlift of the Ethiopian Jews, the return of the Lost Tribe to their homeland after thousands of years, and the release and resettlement of Soviet Jews, resulting in the largest mass exodus of Jews since the turn of the 19th century.
“Rescue” means more than paying for and distributing plane tickets. It entails creating a network of human services that allow refugees to rebuild their lives. It also means watching out for those affected by other external factors, like natural disasters. Over the years, federations have rushed to provide emergency assistance to communities stricken by floods and earthquakes. In 1992, in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew, federations around the U.S. collectively raised $2 million (the Miami federation raised $1.25 million alone) to help provide support services and rebuild south Florida for its victims, Jews and non-Jews alike. The system raised another $2.5 million after the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. Caring Jews, through their local federations, carried out these extraordinary missions in the spirit of tikkun olam.
Jewish communal fundraising has grown more sophisticated today than in the days of the kuppah, yet the principles remain the same. Individual commitment to the greater good of the community drives the federation system. Volunteers — women and men with passion for improving the conditions of Jews in their city and around the world — donate countless hours for the cause. These “lay leaders” determine community priorities and raise funds. Working with other members of the community through federation activities is a meaningful experience. Leaders in the Women’s Division, for instance, are not only enormously effective policy makers and fundraisers, they also empower themselves, gain political clout, and nourish their Jewish spiritual needs. The Annual Campaign is the central fundraising mechanism of the federations. By writing a single check for the Annual Campaign, the donor both fulfills a religious duty and contributes to the well-being of the community at home, in Israel, and around the world.
In its first hundred years, federations saved persecuted Jews around the world, helped Israel grow from a vulnerable, developing country into a vital nation, and assisted people in rebuilding their lives in North America. Today, as federations enter a new phase, the commitment to tikkun olam remains as strong as it was in 1895. The landscape however, looks different.
The great rallying cries of the past are vanishing. Approaching is a day when all Jews overseas who need to be rescued will have been saved and anti-Semitism will be but a bad memory. As a result, the Jewish community finally needs to address an issue that has long been swept aside: Jewish affiliation and identity.
Once integrated into North America culture, generations of Jews have become enormously successful as entrepreneurs, in culture and the arts, in commerce and the professions. Individualism has become an important trait of the Jewish people, serving them well in their ability to explore bold, risk-taking ventures and thoughts. However, this individualism has made it difficult for many Jews to maintain their heritage and continue working toward the collective good.
The tension between Americanism and Judaism first exploded in 1969 at the General Assembly, the annual gathering of the local federations. In a year of student unrest at campuses around the country, a group comprised primarily of graduate students arrived in Boston with pickets and placards. They demanded a redirection of funds from non-sectarian causes, such as hospitals and social service agencies, to Jewish institutions offering educational, religious, and cultural services. The only way to get young Jews excited about being Jewish, they protested, was to educate them about their heritage and their religion.
The protesters had a profound psychological impact, but they were ahead of their time.
There are more than 5.5 million Jews in the United States, representing 2.5 percent of the population.
Half the Jews in the U.S. were born in 1955 or later, after the Holocaust and World War II and after the establishment of the State of Israel.
There is a clear inter-generational pattern of assimilation with increasing remoteness from Judaism in each generation of American Jews.
Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are increasingly moving to the Southeast and Southwest, geographical locations where Jewish infrastructures tend to be new.
The percentage of Jews marrying non-Jews is now at 52 percent, up from nine percent in 1965.
Sobered by these findings, Federation leaders realized that Jewish affiliation could no longer be taken for granted. Because of the reduction in anti-Semitism, high mobility rates (especially among younger generations), and looser social networks, maintaining Jewish community and Jewish identity had become precarious.
And so, as previous generations have adapted to confronting the external challenges of their times, federations today have responded to the internal challenges of fostering Jewish continuity — for children, teens, and adults. The findings and analysis of The National Jewish Population Survey 2000 will provide further insights for federations to refine their activities.
Just as the Jews of Boston in 1895 combined their efforts to create a stronger Jewish community, federations today are working to bind Jews together in new partnerships. Lay leaders, professionals, affiliated agency leadership, rabbis, educators, parents — all are participating in the difficult yet inspiring task of meeting the challenges of our times.
Jews in North America comprise a unique Diaspora community. Having lived in a pluralistic society, they have found acceptance. Having lived in an individualistic society, they have made important contributions and been recognized for them. These very strengths of the North American Diaspora have produced ironic challenges to Jewish continuity.
In an accepting environment, what is the positive basis for Jewish identity? In an environment of individualism, changes in family life and increased mobility, what is the basis for sustaining Jewish community? As Jews confront these questions, they may also provide guidance to others who are also grappling with issues of identity, family, and community.
The issue of Jewish continuity and identity is merely one of four strategic concerns facing the federation system. The other three — maintaining social policy and human services, securing necessary financial resources, and redefining the Israel-Diaspora relationship — also require focused energy and innovative responses.
Prior to the passage of the New Deal legislation in the 1930s and the Great Society in the 1960s, the federations already had an established network of social services. As government funding became available, these monies were combined with federation dollars, resulting in an expansion of services to meet growing needs in local communities. Over the years, Jewish agencies’ reliance on government funding has increased. Today, for example, Jewish nursing homes derive 76 percent of their annual budget from government funding. The government funding of family service agencies and vocational services has also grown to keep pace with increased needs. As a result, the cuts at the federal and state levels threaten to change the way services are provided and how federations can support their beneficiary agencies in the next 100 years.
No matter what solutions federations generate, the budget shake-up calls into question the imperative for involvement in the delivery of health and human services. Now that anti-Semitism has subsided — and Jews have been welcomed at hospitals and community-based services across the continent — should the federation system continue to support these services? What makes them “Jewish” in the first place? And, even if the federations decide that the services are not innately “Jewish,” do Jewish ethics nonetheless obligate the federations to continue delivering these services? How can the federations work most effectively with government leaders so that people in need are not left out in the cold?
The federation system has raised billions of dollars since its inception. More than just a charitable gift, the Annual Campaign fulfills the Jewish obligation of communal tzedakah and is the centerpiece of the federation fundraising effort; it provides unrestricted, general support monies to the communities. However, while Jews give generously to religious, secular and political causes, fewer are contributing to the federation’s Annual Campaign.
The pattern of gifts to the Annual Campaign illustrates a clear generational shift. Many older Jews give to Federation each year without a second thought. As generations get younger though, they lack the same attachment to Israel or the memory of the Holocaust. As a result, they are less likely to be affiliated with Jewish organizations and more likely to give to secular causes. Furthermore, Jews in younger generations have higher rates of intermarriage, which has also had an impact on Jewish philanthropy: research shows that Jewish households where both partners are Jewish are four times more likely to give to federations.
With less government funding available, the Annual Campaign takes on greater importance. A growing Annual Campaign is the key to long-term financial stability. Together with endowments, specifically earmarked gifts, and “once in a lifetime” or extraordinary contributions, the Annual Campaign provides philanthropic opportunities for a wide range of contributors. Thus, more dollars will be available to meet the growing needs of the Jewish community as we move into the next century.
Israel’s changing fortune — from a fragile, dependent entity to a prosperous country — has greatly altered its relationship with Jewish communities in the Diaspora. Today, Jews in North America are challenged to relate to Israelis and the future development of Israel in new ways. Israelis also need to adapt to changes in Israel and in the Diaspora.
There is a new emphasis on strategic investment in Israel, support of culture and the arts, and the creation of new philanthropic models. Underlying all these mutual efforts will be a joint response to these historic questions, which can only be answered together: What is the Jewish meaning and future role of the bond between Israel and the Diaspora? Can that relationship contribute to the development of the meaning of Jewish identity and the Jewish meaning of being an Israeli?
Maimonides declared that there are eight degrees of tzedakah, each one superior to the other. The person at the highest level, he said, “is one who enters into a partnership with a Jew reduced to poverty, or finds work for him, in order to strengthen his hand, so that he will have no need to beg from other people.” Helping another human being become self-sufficient, according to Maimonides, is the most elevated form of charity.
Over the last century, through its vast network of social services, through rescues and special campaigns, the federation system has helped millions of people around the world. To continue and enhance this role, however, federations must confront new issues and make new choices while still maintaining the essence of their responsibility to the Jewish people and the world.
The changing landscape forces the federations to struggle, once again, to move in new directions. It will not be easy. But then again, it never has been easy. The past, however, offers reassurance.
The heritage of the federation system is a remarkable one. Its work over the last century has literally transformed the world. Millions of volunteers and professionals at federations across North America have marshaled the necessary energy and resources to break down impenetrable barriers and to accomplish the impossible.
Each generation has changed, tackling the insurmountable problems of its times. As the new century beckons, this generation will do the same. | 2019-04-20T06:18:40Z | https://jewishatlanta.org/about-us/our-history/ |
The perinatal period precipitates significant intra- and inter- personal changes. How heterosexual couples understand and account for such changes, however, has received relatively little attention.
Semi-structured individual interviews were undertaken as part of a longitudinal study on planned first-time parenthood. This article reports on an inductive thematic analysis of a data corpus focused on six interview questions (three from interviews conducted during pregnancy, and three from interviews conducted six months after the birth of the child), derived from interviews with eight individuals (4 women and 4 men) comprising four couples.
In antenatal interviews, the theme of intrapersonal changes differentiated participants by two sub-themes that were then linked to postpartum experiences. Those who ‘prepared for the worst’ reported positive experiences after the arrival of a child, whilst participants who during pregnancy viewed life after the arrival of a child as ‘an unknown’ experienced challenges. Similarly in terms of the theme of interpersonal change, antenatal interviews were linked to postpartum experiences by two sub-themes, such that participants who approached the impending arrival of a child as a team effort reported that the arrival of a child cemented their relationship, whilst participants who expected that the couple relationship would buffer child-related stressors experienced challenges.
Findings highlight the importance of a focus in antenatal education on the psychological effects of new parenthood, and support for the couple relationship during the perinatal period.
Pregnancy and the transition to parenthood are major adjustment periods within the lives of many adults, with important implications for new parents, couple relationships, and infant development . Research has consistently demonstrated that the perinatal period is often stressful, and can result in both intra and inter personal changes. In terms of negative intrapersonal changes, previous research has identified a relationship between expectations of parenthood and adjustment to the new role [2–6], such that negative prenatal expectations of parenthood are known to predict postnatal difficulties in both mother-infant and marital relationships [4, 6]. At the same time, however, researchers have hypothesised that negative prenatal expectations may be employed by parents as an adaptive cognitive strategy to ‘prepare for the worst’ and thus protect themselves against a negative postnatal experience .
In contrast to research on negative expectations, the evidence regarding positive expectations at the intrapersonal level is inconsistent. High prenatal expectations have been associated with improved mood and affective states, adaptive behaviour and marital satisfaction . However, unmet expectations – which tend to be unrealistic or overly positive – have been found to influence women’s evaluations of their experience and are associated with difficulties in the transition to parenthood, including postnatal distress amongst mothers [9, 10]. Conversely, research by Delmore-Ko et al. found that expectations incorporating positive aspects of parenting that were present in conjunction with expectations of being able to cope with challenges were associated with better adjustment to parenthood. Collectively, these results support the proposition of Churchill and Davis that a ‘Realistic Orientation’ – giving frequent thought to both positive and negative possibilities – better prepares women for the transition to motherhood, and promotes resilience in the face of adversity.
In terms of changes to interpersonal relationships accompanying the transition to parenthood, the literature also suggests that there is a link between prenatal expectations and postnatal outcomes [5, 12, 13]. Previous research has demonstrated that when partners’ expectations are not met, there is an increase in marital conflict, and decline in marital satisfaction – and that this association is more evident in women than men . Delmore-Ko and colleagues found both similarities and differences in women’s and men’s expectations about parenthood, and concluded that discrepancies in partners’ prenatal expectations may put extra stress on partner relationships in the postnatal period. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that any potential decline in relationship satisfaction can be mitigated by greater paternal involvement in infant care and household labour , and that the provision of emotional and practical partner support is a strong protective factor against postnatal depression in women [16, 17].
Yet despite the mitigating role that paternal involvement can play in terms of relationship satisfaction amongst heterosexual couples negotiating the transition to parenthood, the transition to parenthood literature has predominantly focused on the role of mothers, with fathers and couples receiving less attention. It has also been noted that much of the literature is dated, and may not accurately reflect the transition to parenthood in a contemporary social context . Additionally, much of the existing literature focuses on the postnatal rather than the antenatal period, leaving this initial period of adjustment relatively understudied, particularly with regard to men undergoing the transition to fatherhood. Furthermore, many studies have asked new parents retrospectively about their expectations and experiences during their pregnancy and the early postnatal period, rather than prospectively.
The current paper seeks to address the aforementioned limitations by undertaking an analysis of in-depth, qualitative longitudinal interview data exploring the antenatal expectations and postnatal experiences of a sample of heterosexual couples living in Australia. The findings presented emphasise experiences that may indicate a positive adjustment to parenthood in both individuals and couples, as well as those experiences that may indicate challenges for individuals and couples, and highlight the importance of support for the couple relationship during the perinatal period.
The findings presented in this paper draw on an ongoing qualitative longitudinal study examining the experiences of ten heterosexual couples through their journey to conception, pregnancy, and birth. The study is focused on the desire to have children, decision-making and expectations related to planning for a first child, and subsequent experiences during pregnancy and after the child is born. (For detailed information about the broader study and sample, see .) Ethics approval was granted by the Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee. Potential participants contacted the researchers via email and were emailed an information sheet, consent form, and list of supports. Participants returned their signed consent forms prior to the start of the first interview, by email or in person at the interview.
Key selection criteria for inclusion in the study were that people were (1) in a heterosexual relationship (married or de facto), (2) planning for a first child, (3) Australian citizens living in Adelaide, South Australia, and (4) not aware of any significant fertility concerns. Participants were recruited during February–May 2015 by advertising in local media, and on Facebook, Twitter, and a range of internet forums that focus on parenting. These purposive recruitment strategies generated a normative sample of 20 white, middle-class participants, comprising 10 couples.
The current study draws on two rounds of interviews with four couples: Deb and Sam, Cate and Simon, Lucy and Jon, and Mary and Max (all pseudonyms), yielding a total of 16 interviews. All women participating had a bachelor degree or higher, whereas the highest qualification obtained by four of the men was either secondary school or trade certificate. All couples were married and working fulltime in paid employment at the second interview. At the third interview, three of the men were in fulltime paid work and two part-time. Two of the women were in part-time paid employment, two were fulltime carers, and one was studying part-time.
Individual semi-structured interviews occurred (or will occur) over four waves: 1) when the couple was planning a pregnancy via reproductive heterosex, 2) when the couple is six months pregnant, 3) six months after the birth of the child, and 4) 18 months after the birth of the child. The findings reported in the present paper focus on interview data collected at waves 2 and 3. The second interviews conducted focused on the experience of pregnancy, preparation to become a parent, and plans for the birth and early postnatal period. The third interviews focused on experiences at the end of pregnancy, the birth, the first few weeks of parenting, and current experiences now their baby is six months old. Men and women were interviewed separately. Participants selected the method of interview they preferred, with most interviews conducted in person for the first and second rounds, with others conducted via Skype or telephone. All interviews were audio-recorded, with the average length of each interview recording for the five couples discussed in this article being just over 60 min. Recordings were transcribed verbatim by a professional transcription service and participants were allocated pseudonyms by the authors following transcription.
Drawing on the literature summarized in the introduction of this paper, an inductive thematic analysis was undertaken, focusing on participants’ accounts of the expectations and reality of new parenthood in terms of change both in intra and interpersonal contexts. Braun and Clarke refer to such an inductive theoretical approach as ‘contextualist’, in that it seeks to understand how people create meaning in their lives, and how this meaning reflects broader social constructs. Given that the focus in this paper is on men’s and women’s experiences, gender as a social construct was a likely contextualising factor shaping how participants viewed the transition to parenthood. For the purposes of the analysis, responses to the following questions from waves two and three of the interviews were examined: “What are your plans for post-birth?”, “What changes do you think will happen in your household?”, and “How do you feel about your relationship with your partner now you are having a child?” (Interview 2) and “Tell me about bringing your baby home from hospital”, “Is having a child like what you expected?”, and “What is your relationship like with your partner now you have a child together?” (Interview 3). For the purposes of the analysis, these two waves were treated as distinct data sets, though connected via the couples contained within each.
Data analysis followed the six phase thematic analysis process outlined by Braun and Clarke : (1) becoming familiar with the data, (2) generating codes, (3) identifying themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) refining specifics of the themes, and (6) selecting extracts that best illustrate the themes identified. Following repeated readings of the two data sets (wave 2 and 3 interviews), each was coded by the second author. These codes were then used to identify key themes within each data set. In outlining their approach to thematic analysis, Braun and Clarke eschew the need for inter-rater checks of coding, arguing that all analyses of data are subjective, and that two or more researchers cannot be expected to arrive at exactly the same interpretation of the data. Nonetheless, the themes generated by the second author were reviewed and confirmed by the first author.
Given the longitudinal nature of the data, they are presented in three intersecting ways. First, they are presented as themes according to whether they focus on intra or interpersonal change. Second, they are presented by time (i.e., second or third wave interviews). Third, subthemes are presented within each theme differentiated by time. Couples are matched across subthemes, differentiated by time. Due to space constraints, each couple appears under both interview waves of either inter or interpersonal change. The couples that appear under each are those that best illustrate the subthemes.
Participants engaged in detailed discussion regarding their experience of the transition to parenthood. Their accounts referenced two clear overarching themes: Intrapersonal change, in which they oriented to issues of individual hopes and fears, and Interpersonal change, where participants reflected on the changing nature of their relationship in the context of pregnancy and new parenthood. Within each of these overarching themes, four subthemes were identified (two for each of the waves of data collection included in this paper). These eight subthemes are presented below, with a focus on how couples reported experiencing the transition to parenthood in terms of intra and inter personal change.
Participants indicated that intrapersonal change captures aspects of the transition to parenthood such as the acquisition of new roles and identities as mothers and fathers, individual expectations, and references to emotions, including notions of ‘coping’ with changes associated with parenthood. In their accounts of intrapersonal change, women discussed their emotions and the challenges of parenting an infant more frequently than men, who accounted for the transition to parenthood in the context of increased responsibility, and broad references to family. Within this overarching theme, subthemes based on second wave interviews were: (1) Preparing for the worst, and (2) Future as unknowable. Subthemes for the third wave interviews were: (1) Better than expected, and (2) Unexpected worries and challenges.
The data collected during pregnancy contained a prevalent ‘future focus’ with regard to intrapersonal change. Participants provided detailed accounts of their thoughts about impending parenthood, often drawing on the parenting experiences of others.
Deb: That’s the period I’m scared of. I just truly imagine that I won’t be doing anything except feeding and trying to get the baby to sleep and me trying to sleep. Remember to go to the toilet and shower every now and again and eat every now and again. So I’m expecting it to be fairly chaotic and completely baby focused at least in those first two weeks and the household and everything else will just fall to disarray.
Sam: Very difficult and very tough just from what the guys have told me, they don’t shy away from it. It’s the lack of sleep and trying to support the partner through it all. So very tough and a lot of hard work.
Slightly different to Deb, who appeared focused primarily on the baby and if possible remembering to care for herself, Sam appeared focused on supporting Deb through the early weeks following birth.
Lucy: I think it might be a little bit stressful because we might be like ‘oh, is this normal?’ We won’t know for this first child, though with the second child we might be like yeah, yeah, we know what to do.
Jon: First couple of weeks I’ve got no idea and don’t want to plan too much there that’s for sure, I’ve no idea, no idea… It’s going to be weird, the first few months, I mean holding the baby and being like this is my kid, all that kind of stuff.
On the one hand, Jon has potentially positive expectations related to holding the baby, yet on the other hand he does not report an awareness of any potential challenges, instead indicating no intentions to plan ahead.
In contrast to the future orientation that was evident during pregnancy, data collected six months after birth related to the experience of making sense of the significant intrapersonal changes associated with the postnatal period. Whilst some participants provided accounts of processing, embracing, and accepting change, it was clear that others were still negotiating and coming to terms with the reality of parenthood.
Deb: I truly think I was expecting it to be the hardest time of my entire life and I don’t necessarily think it was because I think I was quite blessed in that I knew what to expect to some degree. Like I’d seen some people struggle so much with it and I’d seen really difficult breastfeeding experiences, but he slept well and he fed well and I realise that because of those two things it was a lot easier than I was expecting. It wasn’t easy but it was certainly not as challenging as I was expecting. So I think I did feel prepared.
Sam: you feel surprised that you know this is a bit better than I thought. You know I thought he’d be crying 24/7 but he was rather sleepy. And we had a few visitors come by so that was special as well because it was Deb’s side, like for her parents it’s their first grandchild. So it was a very special moment when her family and that came over and visited.
Despite preparing for the worst in terms of crying and lack of sleep, Sam was pleasantly surprised that things had gone well following the birth of the child. Having family visit during this early period following the birth appeared to further engender a sense of positivity in the face of having prepared for the worst.
Jon: Lucy has been, obviously, the one in control of that. [….] She really had a hard time with that. “What’s wrong with me?” kind of thing. “I want to be the perfect mum.” I think that’s why a lot of mums don’t talk about mastitis, because they feel like they’ve failed or something like that. There were a couple of weeks there where Lucy was quite depressed, quite distraught about it.
Lucy: I remember feeling so lost, like, “What’s wrong with me?” If I knew that it’s fine, then maybe I wouldn’t have come across as so stressed out with it.
Interviewer: Did you look for information to help you with that or with anything else?
Lucy: I was just asking Jon what should I do? What should we do? He suggested that maybe we can buy a pump and I can express from that breast [....] So, it was good to have Jon there to talk about it. He said, “Look, I’m just going to get you a pump”, and then he just went and did that. That was really good for me.
Not being aware of potential challenges left Lucy feeling stressed, however Jon was able to identify a solution to the challenges.
Interpersonal change captures aspects of the transition to parenthood pertinent to the couple relationship, such as the changing dynamic, relationship intimacy and stress, and descriptions of the source of increased commitment or challenges. Within this overarching theme, subthemes identified during pregnancy were: (1) Pregnancy demonstrates commitment, and (2) Confident that the relationship will mitigate potential stressors. Subthemes identified in the postnatal period were (1) Arrival of baby cements commitment, and (2) Relationship challenges due to stressors.
With regard to interpersonal change, the data collected during pregnancy again contained an overarching ‘future focus’. However, in contrast to their accounts of intrapersonal change during the transition to parenthood – which contained both positive and negative expectations – participants’ descriptions of potential negative interpersonal change appeared to have been reflected on in less depth.
Mary: It’s nice and reassuring that he is what I think he is, he is the guy that I thought he was, and we do work like I thought we would. We are the team that I thought we were. So, I think it’s just reaffirmed lots of those things. He’s beautiful. I always saw him as a dad, anyway. It’s really sweet to see him – most nights he goes to sleep with his hand on my belly because he likes feeling the kicks and that kind of stuff.
Interviewer: How do you feel about your relationship with Mary now you’re having a child?
Max: Really good. Really happy. It has brought us together heaps. There’s just a shared goal or project to do well at, I think, and we’re both pretty excited to see bits and pieces of each other in it.
Whilst different to a degree in nature to Mary’s account, Max nonetheless appeared emotionally driven by the pending arrival of their first child, indicating that he was ‘excited’ about how the baby would reflect them both as parents.
Cate: Because everyone seems to have those moments where they almost go nuts, I’m thinking, okay, that will happen I just have to prepare myself that will happen, we will have those nights where she will not stop crying or not settle and we’re just so exhausted we’re both about to burst out crying. But we are both extremely excited about being parents and we both feel that the other person will be an amazing parent.
Simon: I’m not sure how it will affect Cate, like Cate and me as far as our relationship, we’ve gone through quite a lot of stuff already I’d say and so I think we’re fairly well suited to stress and stuff like that. I think we’ll get there it’ll just be a case of trying to function with not a lot of sleep.
Again, Simon acknowledges that he is prepared for the worst, however feels that ‘we’ll get there’, because as a couple he and Cate have managed to navigate challenges in the past.
At the six-month postnatal interview, participants reported both heightened connection and challenges in their interpersonal relationship. The postnatal data offered richer and more reflective accounts of interpersonal change than those given during pregnancy, reflecting the significant changes to the couple relationship between the two interviews.
Interviewer: What’s your relationship with Max like now that you have a child together?
Mary: I would say, if anything, better, but it still feels the same to me in most ways. I think because we’ve approached it like as a team, as we always have done for everything else, it…I wouldn’t even say it has bonded us closer because I think we were impossibly closely bonded before. I don’t think there’s ever any closer we could get. And so, yeah, I feel like we’re as close as we’ve ever been and I’m probably more proud of him that I’ve ever been because of the way he interacts with her.
Max: Still - yeah, like really close. Like we pretty much spend like I guess the whole time we’re together with [baby] as well and it doesn’t seem to take anything away from what we had before she was born. So, yeah, still really good. It’s really good to share [baby] growing up with each other and learn about her together.
Here Max is explicit that sharing time together with the baby doesn’t subtract from the happiness they shared as a couple prior to the birth. Indeed, if anything it adds an extra dimension, as he expected it would in his second interview.
Interviewer: What’s your relationship like with Cate now you have a child together?
Simon: We, I suppose – I wouldn’t say argue – but when we’re tired and you get a bit snarky at one another, that happens more than it ever did before [….] We certainly have a lot less time for us. That’s one thing that we’ve definitely come across. It is a lot harder to have time for us as a couple, not as individuals.
Cate: The long-term effects of tiredness have meant that I’m a lot more irritable generally. And so, yeah, our relationship has definitely changed and I think we’ve definitely had more conflict. It’s not easy because there’s the feeling of resentment that I have that whenever there’s a problem it will come down to me… And I get this jealousy about the fact that he gets to go to work and leave it all behind, which is stupid because I don’t want to go to work, but there’s a sense of resentment I think that he has the freedom that I don’t have anymore because that’s it, it’s all taken away and I’ll never have that again.
Expecting that the strength of the relationship would mitigate challenges appeared in reality not to be the case for Cate. Feelings of primary responsibility for the baby and that “it’s all taken away and I’ll never have that again” may have exacerbated any conflict that was present prior to the arrival of the baby.
Through an examination of accounts of new parents’ expectations, experiences, and relationships during the transition to first time parenthood, this study has explored important aspects of intrapersonal and interpersonal change during the perinatal period. In terms of intrapersonal change, whilst previous studies have reported that negative prenatal expectations of parenthood predict postnatal difficulties for mothers [4, 6], the participants in our sample who ‘expected the worst’ reported an easier adjustment to the early postnatal period. These findings are consistent with those of Muscat, Thorpe and Obst , whose work suggests that some new parents may employ an adaptive cognitive strategy to protect themselves against the possible disappointment associated with a potentially negative parenting experience. Also in contrast to previous research, which has suggested that the ability to embrace the unknown enables women to successfully renegotiate and adjust their expectations according to reality [10, 21], the findings reported in this paper with regard to some couples treating the impending arrival of a baby as ‘unknowable’ (and hence able to be planned for) appeared to lead to challenges in adjusting to the baby when it arrived.
With regard to interpersonal change, participants experienced pregnancy as a time of happiness and connection. Having a child together was central to descriptions of greater commitment, and both men and women expressed positivity with regard to their future relationship. Consistent with previous research , and in keeping with their own prenatal expectations, some participants did indeed report experiencing increased connection and relationship satisfaction following the birth of their baby, and this appeared to contribute to a relatively smooth and positive transition to parenthood. By contrast, for participants who reported relationship challenges that pre-existed the pregnancy, it would appear that the relationship was unable to buffer the additional challenges that arose following the birth of a baby. The findings would suggest that key to these differential outcomes was paternal involvement, reflecting previous research demonstrating that decline in relationship satisfaction can be moderated by greater paternal involvement in infant care .
Taken together, the findings reported in this paper suggest that at the intrapersonal level, the development of ‘realistic’ expectations allowed some of couples in the sample to experience the early postnatal period as having met or exceeded their expectations of new parenthood. By contrast, for participants who did not have a clear perception of what might lie ahead, this appeared to be related to poorer outcomes after the birth of the child, though these participants were nonetheless able to identify solutions to challenges as they arose.
At the interpersonal level, the assumption that the couple relationship would mitigate child-related stressors appeared for some participants to be unfounded, whilst for other couples seeing the pregnancy as a joint project that would cement their commitment to one another appeared to be related to more positive outcomes.
These findings suggest potential implications for practice. The majority of antenatal education programs focus on the physical processes of pregnancy, birth and infant care , and new mothers report feeling well educated yet psychologically unprepared for parenting . In keeping with recommendations arising from previous research [5, 9, 13, 24], the findings of the present study suggest the need for a greater educational focus on the social and emotional changes associated with parenthood. Specifically, this may include the importance of psychological preparedness (rather than viewing the birth of a child as psychologically unknowable), and recognising that for some people preparing for the worst may be a useful psychological strategy. For couples, the findings suggest that whilst for some the challenges that may come with a new baby cannot be predicted or avoided, presuming that the couple relationship will mitigate challenges may leave some unprepared. This may be especially so if relationship challenges are already present prior to conception and birth. Access to services that encourage couples to explore existing challenges prior to pregnancy and the birth of a child may thus be beneficial.
We acknowledge that when considering the implications and relevance of these findings explored in this paper, there are limitations to the research that should be considered. We particularly note the limitations of the small sample size. However, the depth of the interviews allowed for a detailed exploration of the experiences of participants, and the inclusion of both male and female participants makes this a useful contribution to the literature. It is also possible that the findings may have been influenced by a degree of social desirability. As noted elsewhere , the social ideology of motherhood restricts women from speaking negatively about their babies, which may explain the tendency of women in our sample to attribute negative postnatal emotions to the experience of conflict with their partners, rather than to negative thoughts and feelings towards the infant.
In conclusion, the transition to parenthood precipitates an array of intra and inter personal changes that underscore the need for programmes that help facilitate the transition to first time parenthood. Targeting the couple relationship prenatally is an inclusive approach that positions perinatal mental health as a family issue, rather than something specific to women [25–27]. Given the consistent finding of previous research that relationship functioning predicts postnatal distress in both women and men, it is critical that the couple relationship is supported during this time. Such support is vital for the psychological wellbeing of mothers, fathers and infants.
The authors acknowledge the involvement of all of the longitudinal study participants.
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council under a Future Fellowship (FT130100087) awarded to DR.
The datasets generated during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical concerns. Participants did not consent to having their anonymised transcripts made available to others and privacy may be compromised due to the qualitative nature of the study.
DR conceptualised the study and secured funding. DR and CB wrote the ethics application and refined the study. CB conducted all the interviews and provided data excerpts and context of the interview data. AW conducted the thematic analysis and wrote the introduction. DW and CB wrote the method. DW and AW wrote the findings. AW and DW wrote the discussion. CB proofread and edited the manuscript and prepared the manuscript for each submission. DR and CB undertook all revisions. All authors approved the final manuscript.
DR is an Associate Professor in social work at Flinders University, and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He is the author of over 200 publications including the book (with Clemence Due) A Critical Approach to Surrogacy: Reproductive Desires and Demands (Routledge, 2018). AW recently completed a Master of Psychology (Clinical) at the University of Adelaide. Her research interests include perinatal and infant mental health, gender, and sexism. CB is a Research Associate in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University. Her research interests include gender, diversity, children/young people, and families.
The research was approved by the Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee (project no. 6694). Participants were emailed an information sheet, consent form, and list of supports. Participants returned their signed consent forms prior to the start of the first interview, by email or in person at the interview. The research was performed in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council’s National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/e72). The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/) is not applicable to the research as it is not medical research.
Consent for publication was obtained from each participant via a signed consent form. An information sheet also provided to participants noted that whilst every effort would be made to protect their confidentiality with regard to the general public, certain aspects of the experiences they shared may make them identifiable to family members or close friends. | 2019-04-20T22:14:01Z | https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com.preview-live.oscarjournals.springer.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-018-1985-9 |
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If this Agreement permits or requires the use of a letter of credit, the letter of credit shall be assignable, irrevocable, confirmed by a United States bank acceptable to Seller, payable in installments, and require payment to Seller on submission of Seller’s invoice and a bill of lading.
The Agreement shall be a shipment contract, and the Products shall be delivered F.O.B. Seller’s shipping dock, Ann Arbor, Michigan, unless otherwise provided in the Agreement. Whether or not Seller prepays shipping charges, title to each shipment of the Products sold hereunder and risk of loss thereon shall pass to Buyer when Seller or its agent delivers such shipment to a common carrier or licensed trucker consigned to Buyer or his agent, but such shipment shall remain subject to Seller’s rights of stoppage in transit, rights of reclamation and other legal rights of Seller. Seller’s breach of the Agreement shall not affect the passing of the risk of loss to Buyer notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary.
If this Agreement involves a blanket order or an order where Buyer does not state a quantity at the time of the Agreement, Seller shall not be obligated to sell the quantity estimated by Buyer or ordered by Buyer in any subsequent order or release specifying quantity, unless otherwise set forth in the Agreement. Any subsequent order or release specifying quantity issued by Buyer with respect to the Products shall constitute a separate and independent offer to purchase that certain quantity of the Products on the terms of the contract and shall not obligate Seller to sell the quantity of the Products specified in such order or release unless and until Seller accepts such order. If and when Seller accepts such order, a separate or independent contract shall be deemed to have been formed on the terms and conditions of the Agreement.
Where a shipping/delivery date is specified by Seller, that date reflects Seller’s best estimate for the probable time required for completion of Buyer’s order, based on Seller’s then-current engineering and manufacturing capacity and scheduling. All shipping dates are approximate and shall be computed from the date of entry of the order on Seller’s books. All shipping/delivery dates are further subject to Seller’s prompt receipt from Buyer of all drawings, information and approvals necessary to provide the Products and satisfaction of any other conditions under the Agreement. Seller will use reasonable and diligent efforts to effect shipment on or before the date indicated. Buyer may request a specific shipping date or shipping schedule; however, unless otherwise indicated herein, Buyer may not request that a shipment be scheduled beyond one year from the issuance of its purchase order.
Seller shall put the Products in the possession of a carrier and, without liability, make such contract for their transportation as Seller decides having regard for the nature of the Products and other circumstances. On Buyer’s request, Seller shall obtain and deliver to Buyer documents necessary to enable the Buyer to obtain insurance. The Seller is not responsible to prepay transportation or insurance costs. The Buyer shall pay all handling and other charges incidental to transportation. Seller will generally follow the Buyer’s shipping instructions, but may make reasonable changes thereto without liability and at Buyer’s cost.
Products shall be packaged and labeled in accordance with standard labeling of Seller. Identification of all packages shall be with the standard labels of Seller. Identification of all packages shall be with the Seller’s part number. Special packaging or labeling shall be an additional charge to Buyer.
Buyer assumes responsibility for compliance with all U.S. federal, state and local laws governing exports from the United States in connection with the sale and use of the Products covered by the Agreement, and/or any subsequent re-export of such Products. All export and import duties, fees, permits, licenses, etc. for Products to be delivered outside of the United States shall be the responsibility of the Buyer.
If shipment of any Products or other performance by Seller is delayed at the request of or due to the fault of the Buyer, the Seller may at its option hold the Products at the place of manufacture at the risk and expense of the Buyer from the time the Products are ready for shipment. In the event of any such delay to shipment, full and final payment for an item shall be due and payable thirty (30) days after the Buyer is notified that the item is ready for shipment and an invoice issued for such Products. If the Seller is unwilling to accommodate the Buyer by holding such item, then Buyer agrees to accept shipment immediately. Delivery rescheduled at Buyer’s request, if agreed to by Seller, is subject to an additional charge of 2% of the selling price if rescheduled within ten (10) days immediately preceding the then-current scheduled delivery date, which will be invoiced at the time of shipment.
delays by Buyer in inspecting and acceptance, in furnishing requested specifications, materials, tooling or information, in making payments, or otherwise. In the event of any such delay or failure in performance, Seller shall have such additional time within which to perform its obligations under the Agreement as may reasonably be necessary under the circumstances; and Seller shall also have the right, to the extent necessary in Seller’s reasonable judgment, to apportion fairly, among itself and its various customers in such manner as Seller may consider equitable, Products then available for delivery. If, as a result of any such contingency, Seller is unable to perform under the Agreement in whole or in part, then, to the extent that it is unable to perform, the Agreement shall be deemed terminated without liability to either party, but shall remain in effect as to the unaffected portion of the Agreement, if any. This section shall be effective even as to circumstances which exist at the time of quotation or as of the date of the Agreement.
in the case of defects not discoverable through inspection, within 30 days or other reasonable time established by Seller after receipt of the item.
Failure to so act shall constitute an irrevocable acceptance by the Buyer of the item. All defects and non-conformities which are not specified are waived. If the Buyer rejects any tender of the Products or other items and if requested by Seller, Buyer shall return them to the Seller, pursuant to Seller’s direction. In the case of Buyer acceptance of non-conforming Products, Buyer shall immediately notify Seller whether or not Buyer will continue to accept similarly non-conforming Products and failure to do so shall constitute a waiver by Buyer of specification requirements for said Products. In any event, when any Products shall have been altered from their original state, Buyer shall be deemed to have accepted such Products. Buyer’s acceptance of Products tendered under this Agreement shall be final and irrevocable. No attempted revocation of acceptance shall be effective, and Buyer shall be limited to the remedies specifically provided in the Agreement.
If the Agreement requires inspection or testing, the Buyer shall provide at the place of manufacturer at its own expense, one or more qualified and authorized employees to inspect and/or test the Products, check them for general compliance with the Agreement, and authorize shipment. If Buyer fails to do so within seven (7) days, then the Seller may, at its own discretion, determine that Buyer has waived the right of inspection, testing and/or acceptance prior to shipment of the Products. Correction of defects or non-conformities, which would likely have been discovered by Buyer’s inspection and/or testing and otherwise covered by Seller’s warranty, will be at the Buyer’s expense. Buyer shall also provide, at its cost and risk of loss, all materials, fixtures, tooling and other items necessary for any inspection and/or testing required by the Agreement or requested by Seller. If the Buyer fails to supply such items within the time required, Seller may supply them at Buyer’s expense. Equipment, parts and materials furnished by Buyer for Seller’s testing and/or inspection will be returned to Buyer at Buyer’s cost, unless Buyer authorizes their disposal. If the Products include the necessary fixtures and tooling, the inspection and/or testing at the place of manufacturer may be performed on equipment similar to but other than that identified to the Agreement.
Any expense incurred by Buyer in the inspection or testing of Products shall be paid by the Buyer, whether or not the Products have been rejected as defective or non-confirming or the Products have been accepted and a warranty claim has been made for correction of a defect or non-conformity.
Any claim by the Buyer for shortages in any delivery must be in writing with satisfactory evidence delivered to the Seller within 30 days of receipt. Carriers are responsible for Products lost or damaged in transit. In the case of loss or damage to Products in transit, Buyer shall immediately notify the carrier or its agent in writing of such loss or damage and shall do all things necessary to assert and prosecute a claim against the carrier for such loss or damage.
Seller may charge Buyer a restocking charge equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of the invoice price of returned Products. Returned Products must be returned to Seller in the original packaging and Buyer must first obtain a written consent from Seller to return the Products. Seller may offset the restocking charge against any amounts Seller owes to Buyer.
the Products will be free and clear of all liens, encumbrances, and other claims except for Seller’s reservation of a security interest in the Products prior to receipt of payment in full.
The warranty period for Products is twelve months from the date of shipment or if only services, is ninety days from the last date of the service. Products which are supplied by other vendors and which are resold by Seller hereunder without alteration or change shall only have the warranty furnished by said vendor, which, to the extent possible, Seller passes on to the Buyer. Seller retains the right to change the dimensions, composition, design, performance, color and appearance of the Products without liability if, in its judgment, the change is non-material. Products which are manufactured by Seller may include new parts or serviceable used parts that are functionally equivalent to new parts. IMRA does not return to the customer failed components removed whenever replacement components are installed, whether the components are replaced under warranty or not. Seller may, in its discretion, also rely on any generally accepted industry standards.
the Products not having been subjected to misuse, neglect, or accident, or to alteration, improper installation, repair or improper testing in any respect which, in the judgment of Seller, adversely affects the condition or operation of the Products.
Seller will indemnify Buyer against and defend all suits and pay all damages and costs finally adjudicated against Buyer for infringement of United States patents by Products purchased under the Agreement; provided that Buyer will promptly notify Seller in writing of any claim asserted and suit or action brought against Buyer alleging that the Products purchased under this Agreement infringe one or more United States patents, and provide Seller with assistance and information requested by Seller for its defense, and provided that the indemnity of Seller under this Agreement shall not extend to claims, suits or actions for infringement based upon the use of any Products in combination with apparatuses, circuits or devices not furnished by Seller or upon the use of any such combination, or based upon the application or use to which such Products are put, including any application or process performed or facilitated by such Products (“Excluded Claims”). Seller shall defend with its counsel or other counsel of its choice and shall have the sole right, without consultation with Buyer, to take all action Seller deems appropriate to prosecute or settle such claims. Buyer shall not be entitled to indemnification or contribution from Seller with respect to any Excluded Claims, and Buyer will indemnify Seller against and defend all suits and pay all damages and costs awarded against Seller arising out of any such Excluded Claims. In addition, Buyer will indemnify Seller against and defend all suits and pay all damages and costs awarded against Buyer with respect to claims of infringement for Products manufactured wholly or partially to Buyer’s design or specifications.
request the return of such Products and refund the purchase price less an allowance for depreciation and shipping costs thereof. The foregoing expresses the entire obligation and liability of Seller with respect to infringement of patents by said products.
The limited express warranties in this agreement are in lieu of all other warranties, express or implied, and Seller disclaims all implied warranties including but not limited to any implied warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability and non-infringement.
All descriptions, shipping specifications and illustrations of the Products in catalogues, brochures and price lists otherwise provided by the Seller and not expressly and specifically incorporated in the Agreement were and are for general guidance only, and the Seller is not responsible for any errors or omissions therein or for any loss or damage resulting from reliance thereon. Seller does not warrant that it or the Products are in compliance with any industry standards, guidelines, or procedures, or with the requirements of any safety or environmental code or regulation of any federal, state, municipality or other jurisdiction unless otherwise specifically provided in the Agreement. Buyer affirms that it has not relied upon the Seller’s skill or judgment to select or furnish Products for any particular purpose beyond the specific express warranties in this Agreement.
Seller’s examination of such Products shall disclose to Seller’s satisfaction that such Products are defective or nonconforming under the Agreement. Buyer’s remedies shall be limited (even in the event of Seller’s default of its warranty obligations) exclusively to those provided for in this Section.
Notwithstanding anything set forth in this agreement (including its attachments), and to the extent permitted by law, in no event shall Seller by responsible or liable to Buyer for any loss of use, revenue, or anticipated profits, or for any incidental, consequential, indirect, special, contingent or punitive damages in connection with any breach of warranty of other breach of seller’s obligations under this agreement (including any attachment hereto). Seller’s aggregate liability for any damages or claims arising out of or relating to any Products hereunder shall in no event exceed the amount Buyer paid for the Products giving rise to the claim or damages. Buyer waives any causes of action or theories of liability including, but not limited to, those arising under contract, tort, strict liability, product liability, statutes, or otherwise, except as specifically provided by the UCC as modified and limited herein. The replacement or repair of Products by the Seller does not give rise to any new warranty except the warranty period provided for herein shall be extended by the length of any period in which defective or non-conforming Products are in possession of the Seller.
The Agreement is only for the benefit of the parties, except all disclaimers and limitations applicable to Seller and all indemnification to which Seller is entitled shall be also for the benefit of Seller’s parent, subsidiary and affiliate companies (and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, and suppliers). If any other provision of the Agreement is determined to apply to other parties, all other provisions including limitations, waivers and disclaimers shall also apply.
if the claim asserted is inconsistent with the limitation of warranties, limitation of liability and/or limitation of remedies set forth in this Agreement.
After the shipments have been scheduled, Buyer may not cancel or postpone a scheduled shipment unless Buyer submits a request in writing, and Seller consents by issuing a new formal acknowledgement. Any request by Buyer to cancel or to reschedule the shipment of any product may be rejected as untimely or, at Seller’s option, may be accepted upon payment of the appropriate cancellation charge or rescheduling charge. Alternatively, in Seller’s sole discretion, Buyer may cancel its order for the Products prior to their shipment by immediate payment to Seller of liquidated damages in the amount of Thirty-Five percent (35%) of the invoice price of the Products. The parties acknowledge the great difficulty of proving damages for the cancellation of products such as the Products and the reasonableness of this liquidated damages provision.
may cease performance of its obligations and defer shipment under the Agreement and/or any other agreement between Buyer and Seller until such default, breach or repudiation is removed, (3) may cancel any undelivered portions of the Products and/or any other agreement with Buyer in whole or in part and/or (4) may recover Products in transit or delivered, retrieve delivered Products, repossess all Products which may be stored by Seller for Buyer’s account and otherwise enforce its remedies for Buyer’s default.
Buyer shall remain liable for all damages suffered or incurred by Seller in any such circumstances. Seller shall be awarded incidental damages including, without limitation, reasonable profits and costs such as actual reasonable attorney fees in any proceeding to enforce its remedies in which it obtains relief for damages or injunctive relief. All rights granted to Seller in the Agreement and by law are cumulative, provided Seller shall be entitled to only a single full recovery.
Seller shall not be liable for any action taken pursuant to a good faith exercise of any of its rights under the Agreement or law.
In addition to any security interest granted by the UCC, the Buyer hereby grants a security interest to the Seller in all Products and documents related thereto and proceeds and products there from to secure all obligations of the Buyer to the Seller, whether or not arising under the Agreement. Buyer shall sign financing statements evidencing the security interest as reasonably requested by Seller, or Seller may file a copy of the Agreement or portion thereof as a financing statement. Buyer grants Seller an irrevocable power of attorney to sign Buyer’s name to a financing statement if necessary or convenient to perfect Seller’s security interest. Buyer shall provide a landlord’s waiver of any lien rights at the premises to which the Products are to be installed. In case of a default by Buyer, Seller may peaceably enter the premises of the Buyer and others to repossess or render inoperable all Products in which it has a security interest. In case of a default by Buyer, Buyer hereby irrevocably appoints the Seller as its agent to obtain possession of the Products and documents related thereto. Buyer shall not sell, exchange, transfer, convey, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, or grant a security interest in any Products or the proceeds thereof (including cash, accounts, contract rights, instruments and chattel paper) which are the subject to this Agreement if payment therefore shall not have been made in full to Seller.
Buyer shall insure all materials, fixtures, tooling, and other property delivered to Seller against all risks and waives subrogation in the event of loss of or damage to such property.
Unless otherwise agreed, Buyer acknowledges that any information disclosed to Seller is subject only to Buyer’s patent rights, without any other restrictions on Seller’s use, including reproduction, modification, disclosure or distribution of the information. Buyer agrees not to label any such information with a notice asserting that the information is proprietary or confidential to Buyer. In addition, Buyer agrees not to assert any claim (other than a claim for patent infringement) against Seller, Seller’s customers, or their respective suppliers, with respect to any information that Buyer has disclosed or may disclose to Seller in connection with the Products.
All proposals, plans, specifications, models, tools, patterns, processes, fixtures, designs and other information furnished by the Seller or Seller’s parent, subsidiary or affiliate companies in bidding, negotiating and performing the Agreement, are proprietary to Seller and shall not be shown or disclosed to any other bidder, and shall not be shown or disclosed to any third party or used by Buyer except as may be necessary for the selection or use of the Products. Seller is not obligated to furnish detailed or shop working drawings, engineering calculations, computer programs, or other information for any Products or part thereof unless specifically required by the Agreement.
Any invention or other information, whether patentable or not, developed by Seller in the performance of the Agreement shall remain the property of Seller. Seller shall be under no obligation to refrain from using in its business any of Seller’s proprietary information disclosed to Buyer under this Agreement.
The Buyer shall not engage in any transaction with respect to the Products, by way of resale, lease, shipment or otherwise which violates any statute or regulation of the United States of America. Among other matters, Buyer shall neither export nor re-export, directly or indirectly, any Product purchased from Seller to any country to which such export or re-export is restricted by United States law or regulation without the prior written consent, if required, of the Office of Export Administration, Department of Commerce, or Office of Munitions Control, Department of State, Washington, D.C.
If the Products purchased under this Agreement are to be used in fulfilling a contract or subcontract with the United States Government, Seller agrees to accept only those U.S. Government contract provisions listed on the attached supplement, if any. Seller will review with Buyer its ability to accept other Federal Acquisition provisions upon request.
Seller certifies that any Products produced in the United States shall be produced in compliance with all applicable requirements of Sections 6, 7 and 12 of the United States Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, and of the regulations and orders of the United States Department of Labor issued under Section 14 thereof. No other certifications or waivers regarding payments to Seller’s suppliers or laborers are required.
Buyer deposits any unpaid portion of the purchase price for Products with the tribunal pending final adjudication. An action shall accrue no later than shipment of the Products.
support or sustain life and whose failure to perform when properly used in accordance with instructions for use provided in the labeling, can be reasonably expected to result in a significant injury to the user.
A critical component is any component in a life support device or system whose failure to perform can be reasonably expected to cause failure of the life support device or system or to affect its safety or effectiveness.
Seller’s Products have not been tested of approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other United States of foreign agency for use as a device or a component of a device for the diagnosis of disease or other condition of the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease in man or animal (“Medical Use”). Any Medical Use of Seller’s Products is done at the user’s sole risk and liability. The party to this Agreement and the user of Seller’s Products assume all risk of injury to the user or third parties resulting from Medical Use of Seller’s Products.
either party may seek injunctive relief from a state court located in Washtenaw County, Michigan, or federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan, to enforce provisions of the Agreement relating to confidential information. Judgment upon any arbitration award may be entered and enforced in any court having proper jurisdiction. No demand for arbitration hereunder may be filed by Buyer as a claim or counterclaim if Buyer has not given timely written notice of its claim to Seller or if more than one year has expired from the date of the cause of action accrued, as provided in the Agreement. The arbitrator(s) may enter an interim award that the Products be returned to Seller for appropriate disposition and the application of any proceeds to amounts owed to Seller.
Upon the filing of a demand for arbitration by Seller or Buyer, the Buyer shall deposit with the arbitrator(s) any unpaid balance of the purchase price for any Products and any other unpaid amount under the Agreement to be held in an interest bearing account. If such deposit is not made, the arbitrator(s) shall enter a final award against the Buyer in the amount of the unpaid purchase price and other amounts owed by Buyer to Seller under the Agreement. The arbitrator(s) shall be bound by the terms of the Agreement, shall not apply principles of equity or allow any claims not permitted by the Agreement, may only award or grant to the parties such remedies as a court of competent jurisdiction could award or grant within the locality where the arbitration takes place and which are authorized (and not excluded or otherwise limited under the Agreement), and may not award consequential or punitive damages. The arbitrator(s) may include the arbitration fees in an award.
This agreement shall be governed, construed and enforced under the law of the State of Michigan including the uniform commercial code in force on the initial date of the agreement (“UCC”), without regard to its conflict of law rules and except as provided herein. The U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Products shall not apply. Any services to be provided hereunder, whether or not they are otherwise ancillary to and part of a sale of Products (whether as separate units or included in a construction project), shall be considered ancillary to a sale of Products and the UCC shall apply to all Products and services to be provided hereunder (“Products”).
State courts in Washtenaw County, Michigan and federal courts in the Eastern District of Michigan shall have exclusive jurisdiction over the parties and the claims arising under the Agreement, subject to the provisions of Section 18 above regarding arbitration. Neither party shall assert any objection to such jurisdiction, or that any such court is inconvenient or otherwise improper. Buyer and Seller consent to service of process by personal delivery or by postage prepaid, certified U.S. mail, mailed to the address of such party set forth in this Agreement.
The Agreement and Buyer’s rights and obligations hereunder may not be assigned, pledged, hypothecated or otherwise transferred by Buyer except with the prior written approval of Seller, which shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed. Any assignment attempted by Buyer shall be void and ineffective for all purposes unless made in conformity with this section. Seller may freely assign all rights and obligations it has under this agreement and may subcontract performance of any aspect of this Agreement.
The relationship between Buyer and Seller is solely that of a vendor and vendee. Buyer is not an agent of Seller and has no authority to act on behalf of Seller, accept service or process, to create obligations of any kind or bind Seller in any respect.
To the extent any express terms set forth in Seller’s quotation to which these Terms and Conditions are attached or in which they are incorporated by reference are inconsistent with these Terms and Conditions, the express terms set forth in Seller’s quotation shall control (to the extent, and only to the extent, of such inconsistency).
Waiver by Seller of any provision of the Agreement or of a breach by Buyer of any provision of the Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of future compliance with the Agreement and such provision, as well as all other provisions of this Agreement, shall remain in full force and effect.
The Agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of the Agreement of the parties and supersedes any and all previous quotations and/or agreements relating to the Products.
The Seller is willing to consider negotiating written changes to the Agreement, including these terms and conditions, but reserves the right to make an adjustment in the price of the Products.
No amendments, modifications, supplements, limitations, waivers or discharges of this Agreement or any of its terms shall bind Seller unless in writing and signed by an authorized representative of Seller, making express reference to amending the Agreement. No agent, employee, or representative of the Seller has any authority to sign and bind the Seller with respect to any of the foregoing (including without limitation any representation or warranty concerning Products not contained in the Agreement), except Takashi Omitsu, President [Seller’s authorized employee at Seller’s Ann Arbor, Michigan office] (“Authorized Representative of Seller”).
Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Agreement, no modifications, limitations, waiver or discharge of any provision of the Agreement shall affect the Buyer’s liabilities to Seller accrued prior thereto.
Orders submitted in any Buyer’s purchase order or other writing (whether or not it contains terms or conditions modifying, adding to, repugnant to, or inconsistent with the terms and conditions of the Agreement), may be accepted, approved, or filled by Seller, but any resulting contract and the liabilities or obligations of Seller shall be determined solely by the Agreement, and (unless Seller otherwise advises Buyer in writing signed by an Authorized Representative of Seller) notice is hereby given that Seller objects to any such terms or conditions in Buyer’s purchase order or other writing. Seller shall not be deemed to have in any way enlarged or modified its liabilities or obligations under the Agreement by filling such purchase orders or by failing to further object to Buyer’s terms or conditions.
Obvious stenographic and clerical errors contained in the Agreement are subject to correction by Seller.
The heading and definitions in the Agreement are inserted for convenience only and shall not constitute a part hereof.
If any provision of the Agreement shall be held to be unenforceable or invalid, such provision shall be ineffective to the extent of such prohibition or invalidity, and the balance of the Agreement shall be interpreted as if such provision were so excluded. Any declaration of unenforceability of a provision shall be as narrow as possible.
Any interpretation of the Agreement shall be construed consistently by and against both parties, and shall not be construed against the draftsperson hereof. Buyer and Seller acknowledge that they are merchants in respect to the Products, they have had an opportunity to review the Agreement, and the previsions of the Agreement are reasonable when considered as a whole. | 2019-04-18T22:45:32Z | https://www.imra.com/terms-and-conditions-of-sale/ |
Chapter 282. Cordelia and Loyal's Agreement.
Cordelia glared fiercely at Loyal who was trembling and making small whimpering noises.
Cordelia: Loyal, spit that out and hand it over!
Loyal obeyed Cordelia but never gave her the stone.
Loyal: No, I will not.
Cordelia: I will do away with Death if you are too scared, Loyal.
Loyal: I'll do it, Cordelia. If Death is a murderer, then so am I.
Cordelia: You? You haven't done anything.
Loyal: Not yet I haven't.
Loyal: I'm just as bad as a murderer, Cordelia.
Cordelia: Why do you have your brothers knife?
Loyal: Did you know that if my brother and I put our powers together, we can kill each other?
Cordelia: No, I didn't know that.
Loyal: Death's power surges through his weapons.
Loyal: All it takes is one crack in my stone to stick Death's knife in it.
Furious, Cordelia stomped over to Loyal but stopped when Loyal cried out as if he was in pain.
Cordelia: Stop this nonsense, Loyal.
Loyal: If Death dies, so will I.
Cordelia: What about your other deities? Are you going to leave them alone like this?
Loyal: If I kill Death, my beautiful deities do not deserve a murderer for their God!
Cordelia: So you are going to leave them all?!
Loyal: They can't live with a heartless murderer, Cordelia!
Cordelia: All of this just for your brother!? Would you do this for anyone else?!
Loyal: YES!! If I had to kill you, I would die along with you!! For you and everyone!!!
Quickly, Loyal shoved the stone in his mouth and bit down on it.
Cordelia yelped hearing the noise, Loyal spat out his stone looking at it.
The glowing stone had a deep crack on the side.
Large enough to stick a finger in it the crack.
Loyal: I'm sure Sun would do a great job.
Standing up, Loyal raised his arm to stab his stone. The black and red knife shone brightly as the white rays of light from the stone struck it.
Loyal fell down with a yelp. Cordelia stood there breathing hard.
Beside Loyal was Death's stone.
Cordelia: Damn it! YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN TO STOP!!!
Loyal said nothing but smile at Death's stone. While Cordelia scolded Loyal, Loyal touched Death's stone with his fingertips.
Loyal glanced at Cordelia with large eyes. Cordelia shut her eyes and counted to ten deliberately.
Cordelia: I can see how much you love and want your brother, Loyal.
Cordelia: And you are not a liar. If you say you would do this for the others, then you are speaking the truth.
Loyal: I would, I really would!
Cordelia: I'm not a heartless Goddess, Loyal. If you want this to be so, then I'll... spare Death's life.
Cordelia crossed her arms frowning at Loyal who was sitting up now.
Cordelia: I want something in advance, alright? Now get out.
Cordelia nodded sharply at Loyal and turned away. Taking only one step, Cordelia felt Loyal jump on her hugging her tightly.
Loyal: Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You won't regret this!!
Gagging, Cordelia tried to pry Loyal off. Laughing with joy, Loyal held onto Cordelia like a barnacle.
Cordelia: Off! I don't like hugs!
Loyal: I'll be back soon, Cordelia! Bye-bye!
Loyal kissed Cordelia on the cheek before running out the door. Growling, Cordelia wiped her face with her sleeves.
The things Cordelia has to deal with.
Chapter 283. Death the Exiled.
Death sat on his bed holding onto his stuffed octopus tightly. "Loyal" was silent now; his harsh voice still rang in Death's ears.
Death never felt so alone at this moment. First, he lost Himitsu. Then his new family and Moon.
How can Death be so blind?
"I never knew all of this, Loyal."
"Yeah, well, that's my truth. I can't keep up with this lie forever."
"I'm sorry. Why were you keeping me here?"
"I thought I could handle this, but I can't."
"Oh, Loyal... how could I've been so stupid?"
"How could I think I could handle all of this?"
"Now that I know this, what must will you do?"
"Death, you do know what happens to murderers, right?"
"No, I don't... Is it the death penalty?"
"No, it's worse than that."
"What can be worse than-"
Why? Why such a harsh punishment as this? The death penalty was frightening, but it will soon be over.
To live the life as a criminal, vagabond, outcast. Each day knowing you have no place to call home, no one to call family.
Yes, exile indeed is the worst punishment any human or deity can receive.
"Kill me, please! Anything but this!!!"
"Why should I give you the blessing of death? What makes you think you deserve it?"
"I don't want to live a life alone!!"
"And Himitsu didn't want to die."
"My deities and I don't want to suffer like this anymore."
"I'm sorry! I didn't- I'm-"
"I'm scared! I don't want to go like this! I don't want to leave knowing you are angry with me!! Are you!?"
"Why the hell do you think I am banishing you?"
"It's not going to make up for the death of our father, Death!!"
"Stop calling me that! You're not a child anymore, damn it!"
Death balked when "Loyal" screamed at him. Was Loyal really this upset about Himitsu.
Even though their father hated Loyal, Loyal still loved him.
And Death took Himitsu away.
"Alright, Loyal. If you want this. I'll leave."
"Then go. Why are still here?"
"That I would change my mind? -Scoffs-"
Trembling, Death got up from his bed and headed to the door. The clock ticked loudly.
"Will we ever see each other again, Loyal?"
"I pray that we won't, Death."
Death nodded his head and covered his face with his right hand so "Loyal" wouldn't see the tears.
"Buck up, Death. It's not the end of the world."
"It is for me, Loy-loy..."
Death shut the door and locked it with "Loyal" inside.
Everyone in the house was asleep. No one saw Death going down the stairs and out the door.
The cold wind blew harshly at Death as if his friend, Wind was mad at him. Pulling his jacket on, Death went down the trail, opened the gate, and left.
It was so dark, that Death worried that he would get lost.
It didn't matter anymore. Death was an outcast, vagabond, nothing.
Inside the house, Amagna Okubi laughed softly into his closed fist watching Death leave.
Chapter 284. The Perfect Birthday Gift.
Practically dancing, Loyal paraded around the town looking at each stall full of colorful clothing and unique gadgets to buy. The people smiled at Loyal who was ogling a fairy light. The fairy light spun around slowly making Loyal grin with delight; it was perfect for his mother. After paying for it, Loyal moved onto the next stall looking for a gift for his father and brothers.
Smiling, Loyal sat on the steps thinking about what he should get Death.
A kitten? He has plenty of those.
Loyal sat up in surprise. Yelp? Looking up, Loyal saw a man with a large cage full of yelping puppies.
Quickly, Loyal jumped up and hurried over to the cage. Six loud puppies ran around chasing each other or just wagging their tails at Loyal.
Petting each one, Loyal begin to check which one he should buy. They were all so adorable, that it was hard to choose. The man smiled at Loyal when he asked him what kind of breed they were.
Great ducks, those dogs grow up to be huge!
Would his parents like such a large animal?
Eh, Loyal will deal with them later.
Reaching down and closing his eyes, Loyal picked up one of the puppies.
This one was coming home with Loyal.
After paying the man and saying goodbye to the puppies, Loyal set off to go home.
Loyal: Okay, puppy! You are mine for now.
The puppy cocked her head at Loyal as he cradled her in his arms. The lantern bobbed gently lighting the way for Loyal. Chuckling, Loyal placed the puppy on the ground and knelt next to her.
Loyal: Soon you will belong to my brother. Today is his birthday.
The puppy whined at Loyal as he pulled out a glossy paper.
Loyal: This is him. This is Death, isn't he handsome?
The puppy bit down on the picture thinking it was a treat. Loyal watched in horror as the puppy tore up the picture.
The puppy wagged her tail at Loyal as he rubbed her head. The wind was so cold tonight.
Slightly nervous, Loyal got up, picked up the squirming puppy and walked on.
Loyal: You need a name.
As Loyal walked home, he couldn't think of any names for the new puppy.
Death's cats puffed up at the puppy when she bounced into the living room.
Loyal didn't have enough time to escape to his room, that and Rayon was already at the door with Faisceau.
Faisceau: What are you doing with that dog!?
Loyal: It's for Death, mama.
Faisceau: Good heavens, why!? He has smelly cats already!
Loyal: It's my birthday gift for him.
Rayon: Aw, how cute. Please, Faisceau? Let's keep her?
Faisceau was interrupted when the puppy yelped in pain after being scratched on floppy ear One of the cats hissed at her, Faisceau grabbed her broom and slapped the naughty cat outside. The puppy whined mournfully and hid her face in Faisceau's nightgown. Loyal and Rayon held their breath watching Faisceau nurse the puppy's bleeding ear. The puppy licked at Faisceau's hand whining softly.
Faisceau: -Sigh- Why do puppies do this?
Loyal: Can we keep her?
Faisceau: If it's Death's birthday gift, then alright.
Faisceau silenced her husband and son as they begin to cheer out loud.
Faisceau: What is her name?
Rayon: You don't know? Pfft. Name her anything.
Faisceau: Baby Waffles is her name. Don't wear it out.
Rayon: What kind of a name is that?!
Faisceau: Her name. Now be quiet!
Chapter 285. Where is Death?
"Ssh! Be still, you three. Death might wake up."
"I did not, the puppy nipped me and pulled away from her."
"Ow! She nipped my arm, Loyal!"
Loyal cried out quietly when Sun slapped him on the forehead. Rayon turned around quickly and slapped Sun on the head making him yelp. Fire was in the back with Faisceau who reached over and took the puppy from Loyal.
"Rayon, they are cursing at each other again."
"I have ears, Faisceau. If you don't shaddap and stop cursing at you brother, Sun, I'll whip you with the strap."
"See? This is why they curse like this."
Ha-ha, dad yelled at you."
"Dad didn't yell at me, He whispered harshly at me. There is a difference, you idiot."
"Why are you getting mad at me? Fire-"
Faisceau begin to scold her sons as Sun held Fire in a headlock. Loyal pulled on Sun telling him to stop.
"Ow, he bit me. Ma, the savage bit me."
Rayon led his bickering family up the stairs leading to Death's room. A few cats hurried down the stairs making Baby Waffles whine.
"Just wait, let me pull my hair back."
"Don't forget to freshen your makeup, Sun."
As Sun pulled his hair back, he kicked Fire hard in the knee.
Rayon opened the door slowly so he wouldn't wake Death up. Sun, Fire, Loyal, and Faisceau tiptoed behind him. Death's bed was empty except for one cat that was resting there.
Faisceau turned on the light making her sons screech out Happy Birthday thinking it was the signal.
Sun: Eh? Where's Death, Loyal?
Loyal: I thought he was asleep in here.
Rayon went over to the bed and looked under it. All was there were a few books, a plate, a cat toy, and shoes.
Rayon: He might have gone out to see Moon.
Rayon: They are friends, right? She probably had a present for him.
Fire was too worried to make a joke about it to Sun. Baby Waffles jumped out of Faisceau's arms and went over to Cricket who blinked sleepily at her.
Faisceau: How strange... Come on, everyone. I have to make breakfast.
Rayon, Sun, and Loyal went after Faisceau while Fire stayed behind staring at Death's empty bed. Where was he? He should've been here.
Rayon, Faisceau, Sun, and Loyal sat at the table talking about the party they planned in the temples. Fire came thumping down the stairs with Baby Waffles and Cricket at his heels.
Rayon: It's hard to believe that Death is twelve already, Faisceau.
Faisceau: I know. I still remember wrapping him up in a blanket and giving him to Seikatsu.
Faisceau: Ah, Loyal, your brother was so tiny and weightless. It frightened everyone!
Faisceau: No, that made matters worse, Death wouldn't come to even after we slapped him.
Fire: What made him start breathing?
Rayon: We don't know. Death just begin to breathe.
Loyal looked around remembering when he had to breathe for his brother after hearing his mother and father panicking.
He never told anyone though.
The front door opened making Faisceau jump up excitedly. It wasn't Death. Wind and Moon peeked in.
Wind: Hi, sorry to bother you, the door was open.
Fire leaned over and muttered 'rude' to Loyal.
Faisceau: We thought he went to see you?
Moon didn't have enough to answer when Cloud and Rain shoved her aside.
Rayon: Okay, what's going on?
Cloud: You tell me. Where's Death?
Now, everyone was confused or scared. Death was nowhere to be seen. Fire felt Loyal squeeze his hand tightly. Loyal was trembling.
Faisceau: Now, now, Death might have gone off to be alone for a few minutes. He'll be back soon.
Wind: Who wants to be alone on their birthday?
Wind: Whatever- I mean, yes, ma'am.
Fire: He'll be here, right?
Rayon: Of course. Death wouldn't leave.
Wind shrugged and left saying bye. Moon came up and glared at Rain who stuck out her tongue. Cloud's mouth made a tight line as she pulled her sister along. The morning went on with everyone thinking Death would come back soon.
*one sec later* THEY KNOW!
Chapter 286. The Unfinished Birthday Song.
Tired and falling to his knees, Death stopped to catch his breath. The freezing wind blew severely making Death's feet feel numb even in his boots. Heavy storm clouds gathered in the sky covering the winter moon. Shielding his eyes from the now falling snow, Death wondered if Moon was upset with him as well.
Like his brother said, they all are. Even his best friend.
No deity saw the freezing young God trudging through the snow.
Death longed for Himitsu to be with him in his now perilous life. It would have been better if he and Himitsu were both exiled in the beginning. Why did Death think he could stop his father from hurting his brother?
Loyal was no longer his brother. He cut ties off with him in just one night.
Death had no one now.
The cold feeling of abandonment began to sink within Death's warm heart causing him to wince from the cutting cold pain.
Death never knew it would hurt this much. Is this how Loyal felt? All these years of Himitsu's hate, is this how Loyal felt each passing day? Death bit down on his bottom lip berating himself for not thinking of asking how Loyal felt. Death was too busy basking in Himitsu's love for him.
Loyal had every right to hate him.
It was only fair and just.
The stinging snow pierced Death's skin cutting him as it hit him. Thin trails of blood seeped from the tiny openings.
Death had nothing. The only thing Death remembered is that it's his birthday. He is now twelve years old.
If only the deities had started their search party, they would have found Death.
Wringing a napkin, Loyal puttered back and forth complaining to Sun and Fire about Death's absence. Sun and Fire sat on the table listening to Loyal while the others fussed over the party streamers to keep their mind that Death is gone.
"Calm yourself, Loyal. Death will come to the temple."
"He never showed up like you said, Sun. I need him here now!"
"Loyal, it's alright. Death will show up."
"No, Fire, this has gone long enough. Death never leaves without telling me."
The clock struck eleven and Sun told his friends and deities to go home to rest already. Loyal stood by a pillar hanging onto it. Wordlessly, Sun walked over to Loyal and pulled him away.
"It's getting late. We should be in bed now."
Fire came up and patted Sun's arm motioning for him to let go of Loyal. The snow continued to fall making huge drifts outside.
"Ssh. We'll wait with you."
Loyal smiled weakly at Fire who pulled on his scarf on tighter. Sun, Fire, and Loyal huddled close together to keep warm in the freezing temple. A lone candle flickered in front of them.
Together, the young Gods whispered happy birthday to Death.
"Happy birthday, dear Death... happy birthday to you."
The beautiful song Death never finished.
Fire awoke in his bed next to one of Death's cats. Sun and Loyal were nowhere to be seen. Getting up quickly, Fire rushed downstairs calling for his parents who were talking in the living room. Faisceau's eyes were red from crying.
Fire: Where's Sun and Loyal?
Faisceau: Sun is with Ocean and Loyal is sleeping in his room.
Rayon: We did. We worried that you and your brothers ran away.
Rayon: Fire, your brother ran away.
Fire sucked in his breath and reached for a chair to support him as his knees weakened. Ran away? Why? Faisceau begin to weep again hanging onto her husband as he smoothed her hair down telling her it will be alright.
Rayon: What is it, Fire?
Fire: Are you sure he ran away?
Fire: Did Cosmic's and Galactic's parents find any trace?
Rayon: No, they found nothing. Even though it was snowing, there were no footprints.
Fire: No feather? No scent!?
Rayon: Hush, Fire. You'll wake up your brother.
Fire: How are we going to tell Loyal?
Rayon: I'll think of something. I'll try to break it down to him.
Rayon and Faisceau looked up quickly and stared. Fire gulped down the hard lump forming in his throat afraid to turn around.
That noise wasn't the cats or dog. Fire turned his head and looked over his shoulder.
Loyal stood there on the steps gripping the wooden railing with one hand.
Rayon and Faisceau looked at each other and back at Loyal.
Loyal: Is this a sick joke?
No one answered Loyal as he slowly came down the stairs. Loyal stared directly at his father who stuttered and swallowed loudly.
Loyal: Where did I go wrong?
Loyal: How could I've failed so terribly?
Faisceau didn't get to finish her sentence. Loyal ran past her and headed to the front door.
The front door lew open and Loyal ran out into the cold morning air. Rayon bolted after Loyal and ordering Fire to stay inside.
Faisceau and Fire stood in the living room hearing Rayon yell Loyal's name.
Faintly, they heard Loyal screaming for his brother.
Faisceau cried quietly into her tissue holding onto Fire.
Faisceau: Oh, Fire, what will become of your brother?
Faisceau: We looked everywhere, but Death never showed up!
Faisceau: Everywhere, Fire! I should've been listening to my son!
Fire: It will be alright, mama.
Faisceau: Pray that there is some sort of miracle, Fire.
Gently, Fire hugged his mother patting her on the back. Faisceau gripped Fire still weeping sorrowfully.
Faisceau feared that it would be Fire who would run away. Some deities talked so negatively about him.
But it was Death who ran away. Fire was still here.
Faisceau: I lost one son... Don't leave me, baby.
Fire: I won't. Not now, not ever.
Despite her misfortune, Faisceau smiled weakly through her tears.
A few days passed and still no sign of Death. Each deity searched in packs looking for him, but they returned with nothing. It came to a point where some of them begin to question each other. Loyal hated to do it, but he had to.
Loyal had each deity see him for questioning. Even his friends. In the temple, Liberty told Loyal he might have to be strict with the questions so they would be afraid and tell him the truth. Loyal sighed and obeyed Liberty.
Each deity begin to worry when Loyal begin to question them, and one burst into tears.
Nothing. No one, not even Cordelia knew where Death was or how he ran off. It was a mystery Loyal could not solve.
The words that replayed over and over in Loyal's head.
One sunny afternoon, Loyal flew up high in the sky with Cloud who molded her clouds into words begging Death to come back.
Fire and Sun stood with Doragon looking at the cloud message. Fire held Death's scarf.
A week passed, and Rayon and Faisceau begin to worry about Loyal. Loyal went on with his work but barely slept. Each day, after school and his work, Loyal searched for Death.
Sometimes, Faisceau would force Loyal to go to bed. Loyal just sat on the bed calling Death's over and over.
The deities and Loyal went down into the world asking the people if they had seen Death.
"Have you seen the God?"
"Have you seen this God?"
"Well, if you see him, light this candle."
"Have you seen this God? His name is Death."
Even after it was time to go home, Loyal still went around pleading to the people if they find Death, please to keep him safe until he arrives.
The people nodded their heads sadly at Loyal.
Loyal refused to stop his search, a few weeks later, Loyal turned twelve.
Loyal was becoming desperate, he searched high and low looking for his lost brother. Each day, Loyal put up signs all over the worlds that had information about Death and what to do they see him.
No one ever lit a candle to let Loyal they found Death.
One night after hearing Loyal rant upstairs, everything was quiet. Rayon and Faisceau peeked in the room to find Fire who holding back his tears and hugging Loyal as he cried in his neck.
Loyal put up signs, Fire was next to him shivering and holding the extras.
"Fire, where do you think he is?"
"I don't know, Loyal. Death will come back soon."
"Now, Fire, I need Death now."
"I know, Loy-loy. If I could find Death, I would bring him back."
"Why did he leave, Fire?"
Faisceau and Rayon stood inside the house watching Loyal and Fire trudge off.
"Faisceau, how I failed my son so bad?"
"It's not your fault, Rayon."
"Death lost his father, I should have been listening to him."
"If I did, why did Death leave? I'm the worst father in the kingdom!
"It's true! I failed Himitsu by losing his son!!"
"I failed Death, Faisceau! Why did I think I could take care of him? I should've just butted out."
"If you had kept silent, Loyal would still be alone."
"I don't deserve him anymore... I couldn't protect his brother."
Rayon sat on his chair and hid his face in his hands. Faisceau knelt down next to him rubbing his knee.
"I wish I could go back, Faisceau."
"You were there in Loyal's darkest hour. After Himitsu died, they had no one. Right now, Loyal needs you and us. We are his parents he never had."
"Are you going to leave Loyal now?"
Rayon looked into Faisceau's golden eyes. Even though Loyal was their God, he did need him and Faisceau.
"No, I won't leave him..."
"It looks bad, Rayon, but families stick together. I need you to help me as well with our remaining sons and the life we must live now. Will you help me?"
"Why do you think I married you?"
Smiling, Faisceau kissed her husband on the mouth before getting up to help Fire and Loyal as they walked in with Sun.
While Faisceau and Rayon put the signs away, Loyal glanced at Sun who only shook his head sadly.
Still no sign of Death.
Loyal clapped his hands together to warm them and to keep from crying. Sorrowfully, Fire took Loyal's cold hands into his to warm them.
Loyal winched as Fire rubbed them until the color came back. As soon as Loyal's hands were warm, Fire didn't let go. Instead, he took Sun's hands as well.
"It will be alright, Sun and Loyal... Be strong. No matter how long it takes, Death will come home."
Faisceau and Rayon came up and hugged their sons.
"I promise Death will come home."
The search for Death went on, but each night Rayon and Faisceau made sure they spent a little extra time with their sons.
Families never give up in each other.
Chapter 290. Doragon's World. Part One.
Sighing loudly, Sand sat on the porch steps listening to Cloud and Rain talk about what they should do for their fathers birthday as they made clay jars.
Cloud: Make a clay jar.
Rain: Then you're not bored.
Sand: I wish I wasn't bored.
Cloud rolled her eyes and went back to Rain who looked at Sand through half-lidded eyes.
Rain: Wanna wish for something else?
Sand perked up when she saw Fire walking by with Loyal. Cosmic and Galactic were leading them.
Sand: This better than pudding.
Sand: Oh, Loooyaal~ Where are you going?
Loyal: We are going to check out Doragon's world.
Sand hurried over to where Loyal was standing with Cosmic who stopped walking and glared at her.
Fire's the reason why Sand wanted to tag along.
Sand: How long will this take?
Sand patted Loyal's arm and turned back to Fire who smiled stiffly at her.
Sand: You? How are you holding up?
Fire: One day at a time, Sand.
Galactic: Wanna come along, Rain and Cloud.
Cloud: No thanks, we'll stay here.
Sand smiled and waved goodbye at her friends. Cloud winked at Sand who grinned at her.
Confused, Loyal glanced over to Galactic who shrugged. Before Sand could start talking to Fire, Wind got in between them grinning madly.
Wind: Heeeey! What's going on?
Wind: Sounds awesome! Can I come?
Cosmic: Can we get going?
Nodding at Cosmic, Wind shoved Sand aside and turned to Fire and started talking about Baby Waffles. With fierce determination, Sand tried to get Fire's attention, but Wind kept pushing her aside.
Wind:How's that smelly mutt of yours?
Fire: She's good, Wind. We taught her how to use the bathroom outside.
Wind: Yuk, Fire. You should get a bird instead.
Fire: Birds are stinky things.
Wind: Birds are okay, Fire.
Fire: Oh, please, Wind. Birds smell up the cage and once they fly out the window, you can kiss your pet goodbye.
Wind: Sand, please. You are bothering Fire.
Wind: So, Fire, were are heading to Cosmic's house, yes?
Wind: Cosmic, Me and Fire are going to race ahead!
Fire: Loser eats a stinkbug!
Sand opened her mouth to object, but Wind and Fire zoomed off hurling insults at one another. Cosmic turned around and smirked at Sand.
Cosmic: Looks like you're the loser, Sand. Still wanna come along?
Sand glared at the ground as she trudged after the group.
Cosmic: Let's hurry and get to Blessing.
Loyal: Pick up the pace, Sand.
Sand grumbled about how she wished she had pudding to throw at Wind.
Chapter 291. Dragon's World Part Two.
Doragon nibbled at her claws waiting impatiently for Cosmic to show up with his friends. Nova peeked out the window to check on her daughter and to see if Cosmic was here.
Nova rolled her but didn't turn around to see who it was. Wind and Fire were sprawled out on the floor looking up at her.
Wind: Did not. You fell down the hill and knocked me down.
Wind: You bet! Sadly, we came in at the same time, so there is no loser.
Fire: Good. Who wants to eat a stinkbug?
Nova: Where are the others?
Wind: They should be coming up.
Doragon peeked in staring at her mother. Wind booted Fire off and stood up smoothing his hair down.
Wind: We have plenty of time to murder, can we help with anything?
Nova kept Fire and Wind busy until Cosmic strolled up with his friends in tow. Sand went over to Fire and winded up slipping because of Wind who "accidentally" left a wet rag on the floor. Doragon perked up when Loyal walked in. Smiling, Loyal waved at her.
Cosmic: God! We came here to find the world, not to have dates!
Cosmic: Nothing, let's get going.
Wind: Sand, if you keep tripping like that, you're going to break your head wide open!
Loyal: Hello, Nova! How are you?
Nova: Fine, fine. Going to see Blessing's world, yeah?
Loyal: Yep! I'm so excited, Nova!
Cosmic: You like getting in the way?
Nova: I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did, Loyal.
Loyal: Is it beautiful? How beautiful?
Nova: It's very beautiful, Loyal.
Loyal: I wish Death was here to see it with me.
Everyone in the kitchen became quiet thinking about Death.
Nova: Death will see it when he comes back, Loyal.
Loyal nodded his head solemnly which made Doragon's heart ache terribly. Cosmic slapped her head.
Cosmic: We have to go now, Mommy. I'll be back soon.
Cosmic kissed his mother on the cheek before leading everyone outside.
Cosmic: It shouldn't take long if we get moving.
Wind: How do we get there?
Cosmic: Climb onto Blessing's back.
Everyone except Loyal scurried onto Doragon's back. Standing up Cosmic stared at Loyal with half closed eyes.
Cosmic: Aren't you climbing on?
Loyal: I'll fly beside Doragon.
"Because you're getting mad over nothing."
Loyal: Just because, is it alright if I do?
Cosmic: Alright. Wear yourself out.
Loyal made a face at Cosmic when he turned his head to explain a few rules to his friends.
Seriously, why was Cosmic so irritated whenever he showed up? He wasn't like this when Doragon isn't around, but as soon as Doragon shows up, Cosmic is angry. Doragon turned her head and winked at Loyal.
Cosmic: Okay, everyone? Obey the rules, alright?
Fire: Gotcha, can we get going now?
Doragon begin to trot to the grassy area and jumped high into the air. Loyal flew after her listening to his friends laugh with glee.
As Doragon flew near the beach, Fire waved to Sun who was waving back at him and running after Baby Waffles who was loose and was running after them barking loudly.
As they flew farther and farther away from their home, Loyal scanned the area hoping to see Death.
Sighing sadly, Loyal flew up next to Doragon's head failing to notice that Doragon was getting nervous seeing him next to her.
Loyal: Tell me, do you know why your land was hidden for so many years?
Loyal: Will I get to see your parents?
Loyal: You haven't found them yet? I hope you find them soon.
Doragon turned her head to look at Loyal who was smiling at her. Cosmic peeked over Doragon's horns and saw them.
Cosmic: Blessing, are we almost there!?
Quickly and embarrassed, Doragon nodded at Cosmic. Sand and Galactic laughed as they told each other jokes while Fire and Wind looked up at the sky in awe.
Wind: I've never been this high up before... Look how close we are to the sky, Fire.
Wind: That's silly, Fire. You can't touch the sky.
Fire: We haven't tried it yet, have we?
Wind: You do it. The thought of it is terrifying me.
Fire smiled at Wind and reached up to see if he can touch the sky.
Galactic: Look, Fire! We're here!
Fire pulled his hand back and glanced over Doragon's head. Just clouds.
Galactic: Blessy is going to land soon! Look!!
Galactic pointed frantically at red and gold dragon that was flying next to them looking at them curiously.
The dragon nodded at Galactic and flew past them.
Galactic: Wasnt that cool!? Look! There is more flying by!
Sure enough, there were more dragons flying next to Doragon. Loyal became nervous when a massive dark blue dragon flew next to Loyal eyeing him suspiciously. Loyal could see himself in its angry red and orange eyes, Loyal smiled and waved, but the dragon just snarled at him.
Doragon growled menacingly at the angry dragon warning him to leave. The dragon bared its teeth at Loyal before flying off.
Fire: I saw it, Loyal.
Loyal: What did I do?
Galactic: You know, Loyal. A male dragon will fight to win its mate or it will fight if it is jealous.
Cosmic: Just ignore that dragon, Loyal.
This wasn't fun anymore. Loyal was slightly hurt and wished for Death. Death would've done something. Seeing Loyal's face, Fire called him over.
Loyal perched on top of Doragon's back and snuggled close Fire. Fire smoothed down Loyal's hair as Doragon flew a bit farther before landing.
At least Fire was here.
Chapter 292. Doragon's World. Part Three.
Ever so carefully, Doragon landed on a cobblestone trail and waited for Cosmic and his friends to climb off her back. Wind stood with his hands on his hips scanning the area, trees, birds, grass, not very exciting. Loyal walked around with his hand on his heart drinking in the beauty.
Wind: Soooo. I came along only to see what we have back at home?
Wind: What do you think, Fire?
Fire: I'm pretty dang sure if we look around we'll find it more interesting.
Fire smiled weakly at Wind and walked down the trail. Loyal was still walking around slowly looking at each plant and stone.
Cosmic: What's the matter with you guys? It's beautiful here!
Sand tackled her cousin. While Sand and Wind fought on the floor, Cosmic headed over to Loyal.
Loyal: I can see why my grandmothers hid this place.
Poor Loyal. They never hid it because of the beauty.
Galactic: Blessy, Wind and Sand are fighting.
Growling at them, Doragon bit down on Sand's dress and pulled her off of Wind.
Wind: I'm already bored, Cosmic.
Wind: Doragon, where are the other creatures? All we saw were dragons and a hard*** dragon who got mad at Loyal.
Loyal was too busy looking at a rainbow colored flower to notice Wind who was ranting.
Cosmic: Blessy, where are they?
Cosmic: Poop. We'll find a pixy soon.
Wind: -Sigh- Whatever, Cosmic. I'm starved.
Spying a pear tree, Wind looked back at Sand smiling rudely.
Wind: Look, Sand. Not even the fruit here is exotic or strange looking.
Sand flipped Wind off. Wind hurried down the trail, grabbed a pear, and bit down into it.
Wind: The pears taste like the ones back home.
Galactic glared at Wind who continued to eat the large pear and judging everything he saw. Fire hated to admit that he was bored.
Wind stopped talking when a small winged creature flew right into his face. It's high pitch irritated voice made Doragon's head hurt.
Terrified, Wind gaped at the winged creature as it scolded him.
"Who do you think you are?! Eating my lunch!! This is my pear!!"
Cosmic and Doragon snickered watching Wind get berated by a pixy.
Pixy: Who are you?! What do you have to say for yourself?!
Wind passed out. The pixy grabbed his pear, kicked Wind's finger, and flew back into the tree. Fire grabbed Doragon's leg and pointed at the pear tree.
Fire: Doragon, a pixy yelled at Wind!!!
Loyal: I can't beileve it!!
Everyone was so excited that they forgot about Wind who was still on the ground.
Sand: Doragon! Where did that pixy go!?
Galactic: I'll go get him.
Bravely, Galactic marched over to the pear tree, reached into the leaves, and pulled out the angry pixy by his legs.
Galactic: Ssh. My friends want to see you.
Sand, Fire, and Loyal yelped as Galactic got closer with the pixy who quieted down seeing Cosmic and Doragon.
Galactic held out her dark hand to her friends. Just like in the book, a small pixy stood in Galactic's hand staring at each deity.
Fire: I'm Fire. This is Sand and Loyal.
Fire: Over there on the floor is Wind.
Wind groaned as he sat up rubbing his head. Tiny pixies flew off him.
Fire: You fainted. Look, Wind.
Wind: That's what it was? I thought it was a fairy.
Wind: I just passed out, do I look like I know what a damn pixy looks like?
Wind stood up and brushed the dirt off his robes. Loyal turned back to Wormberry.
Loyal: I apologize for this mishap, Wormberry.
Wormberry: It's alright. Can I go now?
Wormberry flew off into the sky with a few more pixies carrying pears and other fruits.
Wind looked around hoping to see something or someone else. Loyal glanced over at Doragon.
Loyal: Can we go exploring?
Cosmic: Why are you asking her?
Loyal: She's an Imperial dragon, right? That kinda means she is the daughter of an emperor or empress.
Cosmic: So, we take orders from her?
Heck, should they? Doragon is the daughter of an emperor and empress, Loyal was a God of Life.
Galactic: Blessy said we could go look around.
Everyone whooped with joy and ran off together leaving Doagon hurrying after them.
Chapter 293. Doragon's World. Part Four.
Doragon sat next to Cosmic watching over her friends as they examined each little thing they saw. Of course, Wind had to be stupid and get too close to a singing siren that pulled into the water for fun. Hiding his smile, Loyal pulled Wind from the water and led him to a sunny spot to dry. The sirens giggled at Wind who glared at them.
Fire wandered off a bit too far and found a large red and orange, fiery bird. Carefully, Fire walked over to the bird who blinked at him. Sand warned Fire not to get too close, but Cosmic reassured her that Fire will be alright. The bird flapped her wings at Fire warning him to stay away, but Fire only walked closer.
Talking quietly, Fire reached out and petted the surprised bird on the beak. Fire later learned that the bird he touched was a Pheonix.
Sand adored the fairies, as she played around with them, she noticed a small wilting rosebud. Galactic knelt next to Sand watching her as she poked at a wilting rosebud with a stick. The rosebud opened, and a tiny fairy came out looking at Sand with wide eyes. Galactic and Sand looked at each other squealing quietly seeing a new friend.
"Can't you talk? What's your name?"
"You know, Sand. Fairies are born from flowers."
"Nope. And fairies stay with anyone who helps them."
"Sand, you just helped that fairy come out of her flower."
"That wee fairy is now yours."
"I can't, Sand. Looks like you have a new friend."
The fairy flew onto Sand's knee and smiled.
"Oh, I can't take her home."
"But, Sand, she likes you."
The fairy flew up, landed on Sand's soft hair, and went to sleep using Sand's hair as a bed. Sand felt a small buzz go through her body thinking about the fairy. She was cute, but she can't come home with her. She belonged here in this beautiful world.
While everyone watched Sand and the fairy, Loyal made his way over to the berry bushes by a lake. The small dark berries tempted Loyal to eat one. Eating a few and not paying attention, Loyal reached to get another one.
Pulling back, Loyal saw a girl with long blond hair looking at him. The girl spoke in a very hushed tone.
"I'm- I'm sorry. I shouldn't be eating these."
"It's alright. We share everything around here."
The girl stared at Loyal who clapped his hands together.
"Hello, Riverheart. What are you doing here?"
"I was playing and I saw you eating my berries."
"Yours?? Ow, I made more than a mistake."
"I told you it's alright, Loyal."
"-Gulps- Mind if I ask?"
"Are you a human? You don't look like the others around here."
"You look a little like me, but you can't be a deity."
"I've heard about deities. Are you one?"
Riverheart scowled at Loyal who bowed his head.
"You don't look like one."
Riverheart and Loyal both turned a bright red.
"I'm sorry, Loyal. That came out wrong."
"Oh, it's alright. My mother- never mind."
"Are you positive you are a deity?"
"Sorry for interrupting, can we get back to my question?"
"What's that? Sorry. That was rude."
"How many times am I going to be sorry?"
Riverheart and Loyal begin to laugh softly. Fire raised an eyebrow seeing them.
"Look at that, Sand. Not even a week here and Loyal is chasing after a weird thing. Jeez, Sun has a girlfriend and now Loyal is getting one? Damn. I don't see any females chasing me like that."
Sand opened her mouth but then shut it when Wind pinched her.
Loyal stood up and said goodbye to Riverheart. Fire tapped his foot as Loyal came walking up.
"Fire, did you see that?"
Nasty Undine. Charming Loyal like that.
Blessing and Riverheart were both after Loyal.
Galactic told the others it was time to go look somewhere else. Riverheart watched Loyal leave. | 2019-04-24T18:59:50Z | http://www.flipline.com/forum/index.php?topic=18600.675 |
How does Greed, Fear and Herd Mentality affect humans?
I think everyone is aware of how stock markets affect people. The general rule while investing( not day trading, investing) is that you buy low, wait for a few years and then sell at giant profits. This formula may not work all the time , but nothing better has been devised. Hence it comes out as the best formula to make good profits.
However , we see hordes of people selling while stocks are falling and buying when they are rising. It is exactly opposite of making profits.
A lot of booms and busts in recent 50 years across the world has shown that most of the people have lost money by betting on companies for much lesser time then it needs to create the value to be profitable.
In Holland, in year 1637, prices of Tulip bulbs were pushed to extreme heights and prompted people to buy them at inflated prices. All was well till the prices came tumbling down and almost everyone lost their invested money.The desire to get quick rich was undoing of so many.
Remember those days when just getting an idea could get you million dollars from venture capitalists. Thousands of dotcoms were launched in those days. Now you can count on your fingers how many are still there. The dotcom boom saw a lot of investor and venture capitalist money being wasted.
The extremely high valuations of social media companies ( the kind of which are only commanded after years in traditional industries) may be an onset of social media bubble. Extremely high expectations and loud noises made about viability of social media businesses is leading up to building of this bubble.
So why does these bubbles occur? An interesting theory to as to why booms and busts happen is based on emotions such as greed and fear.
Human beings evolved from animals and I think it is an acceptable fact now(some would disagree :) ). Have you ever observed how animals act or react? They either need food or need to protect themselves from predators. The animal brain is attuned to survival and making most out of the recent situation. If we assume that humans evolved from these animals, the human brain still does not work different than animal brains.
Seth Godin calls it a lizard brain. A lizard brain is the brain of animal( which we already head) on which new human brain has grown upon. Unfortunately in times of crisis or opportunity, the lizard brain takes over and humans either become too greedy or too fearful.
When we are greedy we see opportunities that don’t really exist and when we are fearful, we don’t even want to look at anything useful.
A great example of fear is when you see during stock market crashes. Stock Markets crash around the world in a matter of hours as if all fundamentals have gone bad in whole of the world. At that time, often in newspapers we see images of distraught stock brokers holding to their phones reminding us of the survivors of a sinking sip. It does not matter to them that stock market is up in a few months or even days. They have seen it many times before but they refuse to learn from the past.
Most of these traders often fear losing everything that they have got, in a market crash. From experience, everyone knows that it is not true. No economy will be forever down, no company will close because suffered a small hiccup on the way. ( Some do however as an exception) .
Fear also stops most of the people from taking risk. If someone is fearful of accident, he(she) would not drive and thus lose out on the fun and independence that comes with driving.
People do not take risks and become entrepreneurs even though they are capable and possess great ideas that needs execution. They wait for the right time until its too late. They fear that they will lose all their money and will not be able to survive once their venture does not work out.
It is also called as “Keeping up with the Joneses” . It means that you are benchmarking your lifestyle based on what your neighbour, peer or co-worker has presently.
Often people are influenced by or mimic the behaviour of their peers , bosses, parents just to follow a well known path. While this may not be a particularly bad strategy , it does limit one’s option of making more money or living a more fulfilling life. It also puts them in comfort zone thus not utilizing their talents effectively.
It also stops them from taking risks because they see life as a race and they need to constantly keep up with the others.
Finally, the most dangerous fear detrimental to the progress of mankind. Thousands of people have been lulled and cheated by preachers on the promise of better future. The fear of uncertain ( losing your income, family, possessions etc) keeps most people from being their best. The uncertain is a like an invisible predator that may or may not strike later but is strong enough to induce paralysis in present world.
Though there are no evidence that what people think eventually happen or they have any control on things that do happen, people just refuse to take calculated risks and enjoy life on their own terms.
Greed is an excessive desire to possess wealth or goods with the intention to keep it for one’s self.
Greed is totally opposite of fear. Here the tendency is to hoard and not share your knowledge or possessions with the world. Greed also is tendency to make short term gains as a replacement to gains in the future.
Tendency of being greedy to make money in short amount of time caused immense havoc in the history. Dotcom boom, mortgage crisis and booms and further recessions are big examples .
In one of the experiment, Kahneman and Tversky postulated two scenarios.
Participants in the experiments were granted 1000$ each. They had to chose from one of the following options.
They would be granted 500$ additionally if they chose to take it now.
Participants chose the less risky option ( 1) .
Taking risk which has 50-50 chance of losing $1000.
Participants chose more risky option (2) .
This experiment showed that humans are indeed geared towards less risky, less uncertain future and also that people are more sensitive to losses then to gains.
Probably this explains why people still live in difficult relationships, jobs that do not provide satisfaction and risky entrepreneurial ventures.
It may also explain why people want to get instantly ingratiated( for e.g. using black hat SEO techniques to get more traffic to blogs, making unsavoury alliances to get more business and helping to increase corruption). It also tells us about the emotions that shape our thinking when we are dealing with real world.
Looking at this it is very clear that being an entrepreneur when surrounded by non – risk takers is almost a leap of faith.
Also some entrepreneurs may fail because they want to be called as entrepreneurs but still have not been able to overcome herd mentality which can bring long lasting success. How far such entrepreneurs last ? And how fast they rush back to security?
I hope I got across the important points that prevent human beings from utilizing their talents and taking calculated risks.
What do you think about the post ? Do comment and let me know .
What you say unfortunately is so true Ashvini!
But the really interesting this about the (so called) herd mentality is when you put a so called negative or pessimistic thinker (or thinkers) in a room or immerse them in an environment of dynamic cutting thinking entrepreneurs!
Then you’ll observe them fight tooth and nail-mentally- trying to go against the overall thinking of the herd!LOL! Odd behavior indeed!
So you have to wonder if (at least) part of the herd or group thinking mentality has to do with finding a kindred mindset that espouses their same negative defeatist attitudes!
In any event Ashvini you did an excellent job stating your case! This was a very enlightening post! And a great topic for some extremely lively discussions!
In any business endeavor, especially in investments, it’s very important that one has the ability to think independently. This is the trait most successful entrepreneurs and investors have. And that’s why they succeed where most people fail. They learn everything that they can about the business and make decisions based on what they know, based on what works for them. There’s no way these people can be influenced by anyone or by any condition. And that’s the trick!
What an interesting post and you got a lot of great input from this as well.
I’m too aware of all the evil and the greed in this world but like the example that Carolyn gave about the patient helpers of those severely disabled adults. My brother’s mother-in-law is in an alzheimer’s facility and to watch those caretakers being so gentle with them just warms my heart. I definitely prefer thinking of all the good in this world instead of the fear and greed that is all around us as well.
Welcome once again and thanks for your comment.
Kudos to all people who help each other. We are really indeed indebted to them .
I wanted to bring out scenarios that why people are either scared to take a risk or they take undue risks. The present recession is because of greed of some people to make money fast. They took undue risk with money that was not theirs and thus brought whole of the world in such a perilous state.
On the opposite side, people do not take a risk at all because they feel they would lose everything and would never recover from it.
From our experience we know that most of the things we fear never happen at all. Also greed never pays and is more harmful. Unfortunately these both emotions still rule the masses educated and uneducated both.
Appreciate the link luv on the blogroll brother!
What a great dissection brother!
Lizard brain takes over during times of crisis and opportunities. So very true.
Behaviors of people around us does affect our mentality; one more reason to surround ourselves with successful people and people that are motivated and dedicated to succeed.
Seth’s words and insights are amazing as always but overpowering lizard brain is by no means an easy feat (O: What do you say Ash?
How are you doing bro :) ?
You are correct when you say lizard brain is tough to overtake, sometimes too tough. With enough practice and experience we can train our mind to think positively and that is where interacting and meeting with positive people comes into use.
I wanted to raise awareness about the emotions that an entrepreneur goes through while he or she is just starting. I hope I was able to do that.
I tend to be more risk-averse when dealing with other people’s money or well-being than if it’s purely my own gamble. I sometimes wonder, if I didn’t have a family, would I find skydiving more appealing? Maybe.
I think you are fit and ready to go for skydiving and with your family in tow , you will have them cheer you on your touchdown. Go for it, I say :).
Ashvini, I have to agree with Steven on this one. I am constantly amazed at how much altruism there is in the world, especially on the internet. You could focus on the evil and the greed, but you could also focus on the others who are giving and supportive. How about Wikipedia, that you quote often in this post? That’s groupthink of educated people who are willing to share their knowledge with others for free.
Tonight I was in the mall and saw a group of severely disabled adults visiting, accompanied by very patient helpers. I so admired the helpers who have the patience and kindness to take care of those who are less fortunate.
Yes, there is greed and fear. But there is so much more in the world!
Great to see you here again and thanks for commenting.
I am really very proud of people who go above and beyond these emotions. I stated in my post that there are so many people who have been able to give back to society. My post, being a little academic in nature, wanted to highlight that a lot of majority is still influenced by herd behaviour. It was about making people aware of the emotions. Once they are aware they can take positive steps to improve their lives.
I have met a number of people who say “I want to do something on my own but I dont have….. , I don’t feel…. ” . They are scared of uncertainty and taking that first step. By reading our posts and comments , if they get aware of what emotions they feel at different times, I think it served my purpose.
I hope you get my point :).
Have a great day and thanks for dropping by.
I do believe that there are other emotions that affect us, but fear is number one. That’s why many people don’t achieve great success. That’s why about 95% of the world wealth is owned by less than 5% of the world population. The generality of people don’t step out of the crowd. Very few take that risk.
You got it so right. Most of the people never make it, you know why? They never start. They are hold up by fear. Fear of uncertainty and pain that comes along. On the opposite spectrum are people who want to become quick rich and in the end they are fodder for scams.
The path to doing it right and making it to the top is somewhere in the middle ( hard work and independent thinking). Warren Buffet has talked volumes about patience and being steady.
My post was to bring awareness about human behavior and taking it from there.
Thanks you so much my dear friend for commenting.
Ashvini…great writeup! I couldn’t have agreed more. I can relate your article to many real life events especially the recent 2G Scam where you can find all these 3 evils coexisting. A very harsh reality indeed! The thing here is that it never looks easy to get out of the same. We have become used to this fear, greed, selfishness and herd mentality. The more we can do is to self-introspect on ourselves and see if we can get out of such attitude ASAP otherwise we are bound to suffer in the long run. The same thing is applicable for the budding entrepreneurs.
Aswani , my awesome friend. These are golden words. Everyone does mistakes and learn from it. No one is perfect sinner or saint but how much we learn from them to bring out positives in this world is the key.
Herd Mentality stops us from making rational decision and greed and fear make us run around for money. I think everyone should introspect as you said it.
Keep coming back my dear friend.
Hi Ashvini, that’s a very meaty post you’ve got here!
I especially like your point about the social media bubble and how you link it to greed and fear. Social media are obviously important and have changed the way we interact online, but sometimes it seems like there are more social media consultants out there than there are users! I also don’t think social media is rocket science. If you just have a giver’s mentality and treat others as you’d like to be treated, you’ll go a long way.
It is so true that there are more social media consultants than users :). Giving is the opposite of hoarding and it takes a lot of character to give than just to hoard. That is why we see too many hoarders and so less givers.
The reason people become entrepreneurs these days is either following a fad or to make a lot of money quickly. So do make it but it is not a formula that works in all situations.
I am glad you like the post ( meaty ;) ).
We aren’t primarily motivated by fear and greed, that is only 1 side of the coin. We are also motivated by inspiration and love. Of course many of us still have primitive “lizard brain” instincts, but those can be subsided through conscious change.
I agree that it is one side of coin but indeed it is a side you would find a lot of people . It is difficult to understand that despite so many examples in history, people in general are still motivated to make a kill during good times and are too much afraid during bad times( both don’t last forever).
However changes can be brought through learning and experience, if people are aware of these emotions. Herd mentality is still a very common phenomena.
The purpose of discussion here is to make people aware of such emotions and then they can be introduced to positive emotions as you have mentioned.
There are thousands of examples of people with an open heart and independent thinking and I think they should lead the way.
Thanks for dropping by and hope to see you more here. | 2019-04-25T21:55:37Z | http://aks-blog.com/2011/06/23/how-does-greed-fear-and-herd-mentality-affect-humans/ |
In MIT v. Shire and Poly-America v. API, the Circuit arguably reaches two different conclusions from similar factual scenarios. In MIT, a first panel rules that there is no prosecution history disclaimer where the claims being argued at the time did not include the pertinent language allegedly being disclaimed. In Poly-America, a second panel concludes that there is such a disclaimer even though the pertinent language was not in the claims being argued. The apparent justification is that in the latter case the specification also supports the disclaimer but one wonders why the panel did not just rely on the specification to reach its claim construction.
In FairWarning v. Iatric, patent claims directed to a system for monitoring access of a patient’s protected health information fail under an Alice analysis, with the panel distinguishing the recent McRO and Enfish cases.
Thanks to my colleague in Seattle, Katherine Lee, for her help with this week’s report.
MIT v. Shire – MIT sued Shire Pharma for infringement of two patents directed to a system for growing artificial organ tissue, based on Shire’s sale of its Dermagraft product for treating diabetic foot ulcers. The district court broadly construed the claims to cover skin that is grown using the claimed process. The panel affirms the broad construction and rejects Shire’s argument that the claims are indefinite.
The panel first rejects Shire’s argument that MIT disclaimed a construction of “vascular organ tissue” that included “skin.” This ruling is based on the ordinary meaning of the term, that the specification supports the broad construction, and that the prosecution argument on which Shire relies did not constitute a “clear and unmistakable” disavowal of the broader construction. The portions of the prosecution history cited by Shire were in the course of MIT’s arguments that it was entitled to coverage for “non-skin” cells. When MIT presented that argument to the Examiner, the claims did not include the term “vascularized organ tissue,” so there was no clear and unmistakable disavowal.
The panel also affirms the construction of “cells derived from a vascularized tissue” to include both parenchymal and non-parenchymal (e.g., bone-forming) cells. Shire argued that the specification repeatedly refers to the cells of the invention as “parenchymal,” but the panel holds that the specification’s noting “an advantage of the present method” being “a means for selective transplantation of parenchymal cells” does not amount to a clear and unmistakable disclaimer.
Finally, even though the district court used non-technical and contemporaneous dictionaries, Shire does not explain how technical dictionaries contemporaneous with the filing date would define the term any differently. Given the foregoing, the panel also agrees with the district court that the claim language is sufficiently definite under Nautilus.
While conceding she is bound by the Circuit’s 2013 en banc Bosch decision, Judge O’Malley writes in concurrence that she agrees with the panel’s construction and ruling on definiteness, but believes the Circuit should not continue its practice of exercising jurisdiction in cases where the district court has yet to determine damages and/or willfulness.
Poly-America v. API – The panel holds that the specification and prosecution history of Poly-America’s patent contain clear and unequivocal statements that the inventor intended to limit the claimed invention to a trash bag with “short seals” at its upper corners that extend inwardly to narrow the bag’s upper opening. In light of the inventor’s disavowal, the panel affirms the district court’s construction.
Specifically, the specification states: “In looking at both FIG. 1 and FIG 2, it is important to note that one of the characteristics of the present invention is a reduction in upper width . . . resulting from the extended short seals.” According to the opinion, directing the reader to Figures 1 and 2 does not limit the import of this clear statement that describes a characteristic feature of the invention. The panel also holds that the inventor disavowed a broad construction because the specification disparages prior art based on the absence of that feature.
Poly-America’s reply to the examiner’s second rejection of all claims also contains a clear and unmistakable disavowal of short seals that do not extend inwardly: The argument was that the relaxed upper opening width of Schneider is the exact same as the bag proper width, not less than the bag proper width as required by Applicant’s independent claims. According to the opinion: “It is irrelevant that the terms “bag proper width” and “relaxed upper opening width” are not present in claim 10 [an independent claim], which was being argued at the time, because when considered in light of the specification, it is clear that all of the claimed trash bags have a “relaxed upper opening width” and a “bag proper width.” Ultimately, according to the opinion, the only meaning that matters in claim construction is the meaning in the context of the patent.
Finally, as the Circuit has done in several recent cases, it rejects Poly-America’s argument based on claim differentiation, holding that claim differentiation cannot override clear statements of claim scope found in the specification and prosecution history.
In the field of organ transplantation, surgeons face the challenge of donor scarcity in addition to the technical complexity of transplanting whole or segmented organs into organ recipients. Given the limited availability of implantable organs, scientists have developed methods of growing artificial organ tissue in vitro by seeding cells onto support structures, known as scaffolds or matrices. These scaffolds are engineered to allow cells to attach and grow, while enabling the diffusion of vital cell nutrients to the cells to contribute to the growth of new functional tissue. The ’193 and ’830 patents claim three-dimensional, synthetic, biodegradable structures for growing tissue for vascularized organs as well as methods for creating those structures.
The parties dispute whether prosecution history disclaimer applies to the asserted claims. In particular, Shire argues that prosecution disclaimers apply to the terms “vascularized organ tissue” and “cells derived from a vascularized tissue.” During claim construction proceedings in the district court, Shire argued that the term “vascularized organ tissue” should be construed to exclude skin as an organ based on various statements made during the prosecution of the asserted patents. Shire made similar arguments regarding construction of the term “cells derived from a vascularized tissue,” arguing that MIT had made statements during prosecution that limited the term to certain types of cells, namely parenchymal cells and bone forming cells. Shire further argued that the term “three-dimensional scaffold” was indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112. The district court, however, determined that prosecution history disclaimer did not apply and additionally held that the term “three dimensional scaffold” was not indefinite.
The doctrine of prosecution disclaimer precludes patentees from recapturing through claim interpretation specific meanings disclaimed during prosecution. In order for prosecution disclaimer to attach, the disavowal must be both clear and unmistakable. Where the alleged disavowal is ambiguous, or even amenable to multiple reasonable interpretations, we have declined to find prosecution disclaimer. Avid Tech., Inc. v. Harmonic, Inc.,812 F.3d 1040 (Fed. Cir. 2016). The party seeking to invoke prosecution history disclaimer bears the burden of proving the existence of a “clear and unmistakable” disclaimer that would have been evident to one skilled in the art. Trivascular, Inc. v. Samuels, 812 F.3d 1056 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
On the first term, “vascularized organ tissue,” the district court determined that there was no clear and unmistakable disclaimer that would exclude skin from the term’s ordinary meaning. The court therefore construed the term “vascularized organ tissue” according to its ordinary meaning as “vascularized tissue from an organ,” reasoning that because “the dermal layer of skin contains blood vessels, this term encompasses skin.” We agree with the district court.
Shire nonetheless argues that skin should be excluded from the construction of “vascularized organ tissue” based on certain statements made by MIT during prosecution of the asserted patents’ family. First, Shire pulls out a single sentence from the 1988 interview summary prepared during prosecution of the parent ’018 application, which stated that the asserted prior art “was limited to extremely thin pieces of collagen matrix for use in preparing skin substitutes, which could not be used to create organ equivalents.” These statements, however, were made in the context of different claims that did not include the terms “vascularized organ tissue” or even “organ tissue.” Reading the selected sentence in the context of the entire summary and the claim terms then at issue reveals that MIT emphasized the structure of the invention’s scaffold, not the type of organ it can be used to grow.
MIT’s attempt to add the “non-skin” limitation during prosecution of the asserted patents reinforces our conclusion that the asserted claims as issued include skin within their scope. MIT tried to narrow the application claims early in prosecution to exclude skin organ cells, but the examiner rejected the “non-skin” limitation under § 112 as new matter. MIT never again sought to limit the claims to exclude skin organ cells. Since claims to “vascularized organ tissue” were ultimately allowed over the prior art without the proposed “non-skin” amendment, it is difficult to infer that a skilled artisan would interpret other isolated statements by MIT during the course of the prosecution history as a clear and unmistakable disclaimer of claim scope. Rather, we determine that a skilled artisan, reading the prosecution history as a whole, would conclude that MIT’s invention does in fact cover vascularized skin.
The claims themselves do not distinguish between parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells. Shire acknowledges that bone-forming cells, a type of non-parenchymal cell, fall within the claims’ scope. Similarly, Shire’s expert agrees that the ordinary meaning of “cells derived from a vascularized tissue” would encompass both the parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells. In addition, several dependent claims expressly include organs with parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells. For example, claim 11 of the ’193 patent lists smooth muscle cells, which are non-parenchymal stromal cells, not parenchymal cells.
Moreover, the respective specifications do not limit the term “cells derived from a vascularized tissue” to parenchymal cells, but instead use the term to also refer to several types of non-parenchymal stromal cells, namely cells forming smooth muscle and blood vessel endothelial cells. Shire points out that the specifications “repeatedly refer to the cells of the invention as ‘parenchymal,’ ‘functional,’ or cells possessing the ‘necessary’ or ‘desired’ function.” But Shire has not shown that these descriptions are synonymous, such that the invention should be limited to only parenchymal cells, especially in the face of the broad ordinary meaning of “cells derived from a vascularized tissue.” And the specifications’ reference to “an advantage of the present method” being “a means for selective transplantation of parenchymal cells” does not amount to a clear and unmistakable disclaimer restricting the claims to only parenchymal cells.
Finally, Shire pulls out statements from the prosecution of the ’193 patent and a related patent that it argues disclaim non-parenchymal cells. The pending claims in these patent applications at the time of the statements, however, did not include the limitation in dispute—“cells derived from a vascularized tissue”—and do not clearly and unmistakably show that MIT intended to limit the claims at issue to only parenchymal cells.
After reading the full prosecution history in light of the then-pending claim language, we conclude that a skilled artisan would not read MIT’s statement made during prosecution of the ’417 patent—and directed to very different claim language—as limiting the term “cells derived from a vascularized tissue” to parenchymal cells. We, like the district court, determine that the ordinary meaning applies because Shire has not shown that a clear and unmistakable disclaimer attaches to limit the claim scope.
Finally, Shire appeals the district court’s determination that the term “three-dimensional scaffold” is not indefinite, as well as the court’s ultimate construction of the term as “a supporting structure that allows cells to attach along its width, length, and height.” We affirm the district court’s validity determination and adopt its claim construction.
Shire asserts that the term “three-dimensional scaffold” is indefinite because the intrinsic record provides “no guidance” as to the meaning of “three-dimensional.” The district court rejected this argument and construed the term “three dimensional” according to its accepted, ordinary meaning, as confirmed by dictionary definitions. Shire complains that the dictionaries cited by the district court are from the present day and are not technical in nature. Yet Shire does not explain how technical dictionaries or dictionaries contemporaneous to the patents’ filing date would define the term any differently. Moreover, the district court’s construction is consistent with Shire’s own expert’s opinion regarding the term’s ordinary meaning at the time of the invention.
I agree with the majority that the district court did not err either in its construction of the disputed claim terms or in its conclusion that the term “three dimensional scaffold” was not indefinite. However, while I understand I am bound by the Bosch decision (Robert Bosch, LLC v. Pylon Manufacturing Corp., 719 F.3d 1305 (Fed. Cir. 2013) (en banc)), I continue to believe that case was in error, so I do not believe this court should continue its practice of exercising jurisdiction in cases where, as here, the district court has yet to determine damages and/or willfulness.
The ’308 patent is directed toward a trash bag made from two panels of polymeric material joined at the sides and the bottom to form an enclosed bag. Each panel is folded over and sealed to form a “hem,” and inside each hem is a drawstring. A principal feature of the claimed invention is Poly-America’s use of inwardly extended short seals to reduce the width of the trash bag’s upper opening. When coupled with elastic drawstrings, the narrowed opening allows those drawstrings to wrap around the rim of a trash receptacle more securely than prior art trash bags that do not have a narrowed upper opening.
Throughout its written description, the ’308 patent indicates the significance of the extended short seal feature and the reduced upper opening width the extended short seals provide. It is important to note that one of the characteristics of the present invention is a reduction in the upper width (when the bag is in a relaxed state) of the bag resulting from the extended short seals.
The ’308 patent has three independent claims: 1, 10, and 16. Claim 10 differs from claims 1 and 16 in that it does not explicitly provide for a narrowed opening. Claim 1 includes a limitation of “the relaxed upper opening width being less than the bag proper width.” Claim 16 describes “the distance between an interior edge of the first short seal and an interior edge of the second seal being less than a bag proper width.” In contrast, claim 10 does not expressly state any limitation as to the size of the short seals or the relationship between the size of the upper opening and the bag proper.
API’s proposed construction was: “A seal for securing the elastic drawstring, which seal is located adjacent to a side seal, and that is not substantially aligned with the side seal, but extends inwardly from the interior edge of the side seal.” The district court explained that this construction was consistent with the specification and the prosecution history. Under the district court’s construction of short seal, the accused device would not infringe claim 10, because API’s accused bags are conventional drawstring trash bags with short seals that are substantially aligned with the side seal—i.e., the short seals do not extend inwardly, so the width of the relaxed upper opening is equal to the bag proper width.
Poly-America argues that in construing the term “short seal” to require inward extension, the district court erred by importing limitations from embodiments described in the specification, misreading the prosecution history, and ignoring principles of claim differentiation. We disagree.
Claim terms are generally given their ordinary and customary meaning, which is the meaning they would have to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (en banc). We depart from the plain and ordinary meaning in only two instances. HillRom Servs., Inc. v. Stryker Corp., 755 F.3d 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2014). The first is when a patentee acts as his own lexicographer. The second is when the patentee disavows the full scope of the claim term in the specification or during prosecution. There is no indication or assertion of lexicography in this case. The only question is whether the inventor disavowed trash bags with short seals that do not extend inwardly to narrow the upper opening width in relation to the bag proper width.
Disavowal can be effectuated by language in the specification or the prosecution history. In either case, the standard for disavowal is exacting, requiring clear and unequivocal evidence that the claimed invention includes or does not include a particular feature. While disavowal must be clear and unequivocal, it need not be explicit. Trs. of Columbia Univ. v. Symantec Corp., 811 F.3d 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2016). For example, an inventor may disavow claims lacking a particular feature when the specification describes “the present invention” as having that feature. Luminara Worldwide, LLC v. Liown Elecs. Co., 814 F.3d 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2016). Here, the specification states that: “In looking at both FIG. 1 and FIG 2, it is important to note that one of the characteristics of the present invention is a reduction in upper width . . . resulting from the extended short seals.” Directing the reader to figures one and two, which demonstrate the extended short seal feature, does not limit the import of this clear statement that describes a characteristic feature of the invention.
Similarly, an inventor may disavow claims lacking a particular feature when the specification distinguishes or disparages prior art based on the absence of that feature. That is exactly what the specification to the ’308 patent does by stating that prior art bags are difficult to secure over trash receptacle lips and explaining that the use of extended short seals reduces the claimed bag’s upper opening, making it easy to fit around a trashcan.
Poly-America’s reply to the examiner’s second rejection of all claims also contains a clear and unmistakable disavowal of short seals that do not extend inwardly: “The ‘relaxed upper opening width’ of Schneider is the exact same as the ‘bag proper width,’ not less than the ‘bag proper width’ as required by Applicant’s independent claims.” Despite Poly-America’s contentions, it is irrelevant that the terms “bag proper width” and “relaxed upper opening width” are not present in claim 10, because when considered in light of the specification, it is clear that all of the claimed trash bags have a “relaxed upper opening width” and a “bag proper width.” Ultimately, the only meaning that matters in claim construction is the meaning in the context of the patent.
Poly-America argues that requiring the short seals in claim 10 to be inwardly extended would render redundant dependent claim 13’s provision for “a distance between the first seal and the second seal to a width of the bag proper being greater than 94% but less than 100%.” Construing short seals to require inward extension would inherently provide for a distance between short seals that is less than 100 percent of the bag proper width, but that does not render the more specific range provided by dependent claim 13 redundant.
Poly-America also argues that because other independent and dependent claims explicitly provide for reduced upper opening width, claim differentiation principles preclude importing that limitation into claim 10, which does not contain such an explicit limitation. But claim differentiation does not serve to broaden claims beyond their meaning in light of the patent as a whole, and it cannot override clear statements of claim scope found in the specification and prosecution history.
We find that, under step one of Alice, the claims are directed to an abstract idea. As the ’500 patent specification explains, the invention relates to a system and method of detecting fraud and/or misuse in a computer environment based on analyzing data such as in log files, or other similar records, including user identifier data. The district court found that the ’500 patent is directed to or drawn to the concept of analyzing records of human activity to detect suspicious behavior. We agree. The patented method, as illustrated by claim 1 quoted above, collects information regarding accesses of a patient’s personal health information, analyzes the information according to one of several rules (i.e., related to accesses in excess of a specific volume, accesses during a pre-determined time interval, or accesses by a specific user) to determine if the activity indicates improper access, and provides notification if it determines that improper access has occurred.
We have explained that the realm of abstract ideas includes collecting information, including when limited to particular content. We have also treated analyzing information by steps people go through in their minds, or by mathematical algorithms, without more, as essentially mental processes within the abstract-idea category. And we have found that merely presenting the results of abstract processes of collecting and analyzing information, without more (such as identifying a particular tool for presentation), is abstract as an ancillary part of such collection and analysis. Here, the claims are directed to a combination of these abstract-idea categories. Specifically, the claims here are directed to collecting and analyzing information to detect misuse and notifying a user when misuse is detected.
While the claims here recite using one of a few possible rules to analyze the audit log data, this does not make them eligible under our decision in McRO, Inc. v. Bandai Namco Games America Inc. (Fed. Cir. Sept. 13, 2016), which also involved claims reciting rules. In McRO we held that, in analyzing step one, the claims are considered in their entirety to ascertain whether their character as a whole is directed to excluded subject matter. Of course, claims cannot be directed to laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas, but must instead claim patent-eligible applications of those concepts. Indeed, even though a claim can be abstracted to the point that it reflects a patent-ineligible concept—for, at some level, all inventions . . . embody, use, reflect, rest upon, or apply laws of nature, natural phenomena, or abstract ideas—that claim may nevertheless be patent eligible if the claim language is directed to a patent-eligible application of that concept.
The claims in McRO were not directed to an abstract idea, but instead were directed to a specific asserted improvement in computer animation, i.e., the automatic use of rules of a particular type. We explained that the claimed improvement was allowing computers to produce “accurate and realistic lip synchronization and facial expressions in animated characters” that previously could only be produced by human animators. The claimed rules in McRO transformed a traditionally subjective process performed by human artists into a mathematically automated process executed on computers. Indeed, Defendants conceded that prior animating processes were driven by subjective determinations rather than specific, limited mathematical rules, such as the mathematical rules articulated in McRO’s claimed method. Thus, the traditional process and newly claimed method stood in contrast: while both produced a similar result, i.e., realistic animations of facial movements accompanying speech, the two practices produced those results in fundamentally different ways.
As such, we explained that it was the incorporation of the claimed rules, not the use of the computer, that improved the existing technological process by allowing the automation of further tasks. This was unlike Flook, Bilski, and Alice, where the claimed computer-automated process and the prior method were carried out in the same way.
The claims here are more like those in Alice than McRO. FairWarning’s claims merely implement an old practice in a new environment. The claimed rules ask whether accesses of PHI, as reflected in audit log data, are 1) “by a specific user,” 2) “during a pre-determined time interval,” or 3) “in excess of a specific volume.” These are the same questions (though perhaps phrased with different words) that humans in analogous situations detecting fraud have asked for decades, if not centuries. Although FairWarning’s claims require the use of a computer, it is this incorporation of a computer, not the claimed rule, that purportedly improves the existing technological process by allowing the automation of further tasks.
Because we find these claims are directed to an abstract idea at step one of the patent-eligibility inquiry, we turn to step two.
None of claims 12-13 and 14-17 add limitations that impart patent eligibility. Claim 12 and its dependent claim 13 are system claims that add the requirement that the system include a “user interface” for selection of a rule, as well as a microprocessor that analyzes audit log data under various rules. But, under our precedent, the features of claims 12 and 13 do not recite that “something more” required to make these claims patent eligible. As we have explained, the use of generic computer elements like a microprocessor or user interface does not alone transform an otherwise abstract idea into patent-eligible subject matter. Claim 14 is a system claim, but it recites limitations that FairWarning admits are analogous to that recited in method claim 1 and argues that they are patentable for the same reasons as claim 1. Claims 15–17 depend from claim 14 and, like claim 14, add nothing more than similar nominal recitations of basic computer hardware, such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium with computer-executable instructions and a microprocessor. The claims here are decidedly not the exception to that rule. The limitations added in FairWarning’s system claims merely graft generic computer components onto otherwise-ineligible method claims. As such, these claims are patent ineligible along with claim 1 and its dependents.
Nonetheless, FairWarning argues that all of the claims, without exception, solve technical problems unique to the computer environment and thus should be patent eligible under DDR Holdings. FairWarning explains that, at the time of the ’500 patent’s filing, audit log data of patient health information tended to have different file formats and that this information was stored in different applications and data stores. FairWarning contends that its system allowed for the compilation and combination of these disparate information sources and that the patented method made it possible to generate a full picture of a user’s activity, identity, frequency of activity, and the like in a computer environment. The mere combination of data sources, however, does not make the claims patent eligible. As we have explained, merely selecting information, by content or source, for collection, analysis, and announcement does nothing significant to differentiate a process from ordinary mental processes, whose implicit exclusion from § 101 undergirds the information-based category of abstract ideas. Furthermore, to the extent that FairWarning suggests that its claimed invention recites a technological advance relating to accessing and combining disparate information sources, its claims do not recite any such improvement. | 2019-04-26T08:38:26Z | https://www.schwabe.com/newsroom-publications-14638 |
It’s been a long time since I visited the Old Man of Coniston. Probably more than ten years have passed since I was last in this picturesque Lakeland village on the shores of Coniston Water. Not much seemed to have changed as I parked the car and walked toward the trail head that would take me to Walna Scar, and then along a well worn route to the summit of this iconic Lake District hill. Snow capped the hills behind the village creating the perfect winter landscape. Although the weather was cloudy, the forecast was for sun later in the day and I set off in good spirits.
Just as the climb starts to get steep, the route passes through the decaying remains of an old mining operation. Dotted all around are spoil heaps, rusting iron cables lie along the path, bits of old machinery lay abandoned on the mountainside, and a metal tower from an aerial tramway lays toppled on its side. It’s an atmospheric, slightly haunted, place, a reminder that the Lake District has an industrial heritage and isn’t just Beatrix Potter and daffodils “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”.
This area was famed for its copper deposits and mining of ore probably dates from pre-Roman times. A big boost came when Elizabeth I brought German miners to the region to extract the copper. Production remained on a small scale until the 19th century, when the mines were enlarged making them the largest copper mines in the north of England. Remarkable really, given that it’s half way up a mountain. The mines closed in the late 19th century, but the remains of this history make for interesting exploration.
I carried on along the snow-covered trail past the small tarn of Low Water, which was partially frozen. It was then that the sun seemed to part the clouds and illuminate the mountains and the valley below. It was a magnificent sight, but the snow along the trail was getting deeper and the wind was beginning to blow hard. I made a small detour to the side of the trail to get a better view over the valley below, the wind made standing upright a real challenge.
I could see the final ascent to the summit and a small group of hardy souls were making their way through the snow fields. I set off after them, but the last bit of the climb was made very difficult by the increasingly ferocious wind. As I reached the summit the sun disappeared and low cloud swept across, obscuring the entire landscape around me. I trudged onwards and finally arrived at the cain which marks the summit. There, I found four people huddled behind it protecting themselves from the wind.
On a good day, arriving at the cairn brings with it the reward of wonderful views over the surrounding fells and over Coniston Water. When I got there, visibility was around 100 metres and a vicious wind was blasting ice crystals across the the mountain and into my face. The top of the mountain had become an icy wasteland, and the wind was so strong that just trying to stand up was difficult. What had started as a pleasant walk had turned into a hostile environment.
I’d intended to continue on along the ridge to the north, and complete a circuit back to where I’d started. The wind was so strong, the visibility so bad, and conditions quickly becoming dangerous, that I decided to turn around and retrace my steps down the mountain. This wasn’t exactly a barrel of laughs, the wind was howling up the mountain directly into me as I walked down. The cold was piercing and the shards of ice almost lacerating … and yes this is considered a fun pastime.
Finally, down the mountain, the sun reappeared and the clouds that had covered the summit seemed to have vanished. This happens a lot in the Lake District, where the weather can change remarkably quickly. I cursed my luck but was glad to be walking back in warming sunlight.
Small but perfectly formed, dramatically located with spectacular views, would be an estate agent’s description of Swinside Stone Circle. They’d probably skip over the tale about how the stones were actually being used to construct a church when the Devil pulled the building down and sunk the stones into the ground. No one wants to know their favourite stone circle has an association with the Devil.
This local superstition, an invention of the 15th or 16th Century, gave Swinside Stone Circle the alternative name of Sunkenkirk Circle but ignores the long history of stone circle building in the English Lake District. This northern region may be something of backwater these days, but 5000 years ago this was the epicentre of Neolithic civilisation in the British Isles. There is a high concentration of stone circles in and around the area.
I’d set off in the late morning, the southern Lake District was bathed in bright winter sunlight and there were some beautiful views of snow-capped hills and red-golden bracken on the hillsides. The sort of day when the English Lake District is breathtakingly beautiful.
This was the first time I’d visited Swinside, but after my visits to Castlerigg Stone Circle and Long Meg and Her Daughters I was keen to see Swinside Stone Circle as well. If you want to visit this off-the-beaten-track stone circle be aware that there are no road signs to help you in the adventure. I drove past the track I wanted twice before working out where I needed to be.
I parked the car on a roadside near the tiny village of Broadgate and walked for 30 minutes or so to reach Swinside, climbing up a steep hill before the track flattened out across the fell side offering views for miles to the north. A few desolate-looking sheep munched on grass and I knew how they felt as the sun disappeared to be replaced by dark clouds and intermittent freezing rain.
The stone circle sits on a remote plateau in the middle of the fell which you might think is natural, but excavations have shown that this area was created by Neolithic peoples several thousand years ago. The fifty-five stones, hauled here from some distance, are held upright in holes filled with small pebbles.
I’ll say this of the builders, they had an eye for a beautiful and atmospheric location and weren’t too concerned about the effort it took to construct these monuments. To the north are the mountains of the Lake District, importantly though, a short distance south hidden by the fells is the Irish Sea coast and the port of Millom. Presumably this was an auspicious site for trade and fishing.
Perched on a hilltop plateau dramatically located in a natural amphitheatre created by the mountains of the northern Lake District, the Castlerigg Stone Circle must be one of the most atmospheric sites for a neolithic stone circle anywhere in Britain. Stonehenge may be bigger, but it can’t rival the intense sense of place you feel when you stand in the centre of Castlerigg Stone Circle.
Constructed over 5000 years ago, sometime around 3200 BC, Castlerigg is one of the oldest stone circles in Britain and Europe. The people who built it knew what they were doing. The 360º panoramic views offer spectacular vistas of some of the grandest Lake District mountains, including the towering Blencathra, Skiddaw to the north, Helvellyn, Catbells and Great How to the south.
It is a magical place to visit at any time of year, although I prefer it when it is freezing cold and the rain is accompanied by driving winds that chill you to the core. Luck would have it that on my recent visit these were the exact weather conditions I encountered. Even the local sheep looked fed up and they’re used to this weather.
One of numerous neolithic sites in the northern English county of Cumbria and the Lake District National Park, Castlerigg probably has forty large stones. I say ‘probably’ because local folklore has it that it is impossible to count the real number of stones, and the ‘official’ number has fluctuated over the years.
Depending upon who you ask the stones number either thirty-eight, forty or forty-two. Although on the information board at the entrance they show forty-seven stones. I counted sixty-five, although I was seeing double thanks to the gale force wind making my eyes water.
The tallest stones are around 2.5 metres high, including two large stones which mark the northern entrance into the circle. On the eastern side of the circle is a rectangle of stones that jut into the circle and probably had a ceremonial function – no artefacts have been unearthed to prove this claim although the solar alignment indicates a religious role.
Visiting this place at Christmas started me thinking about the origins of the Christian festival, and the pagan traditions it displaced when Roman Emperor, Constantine, adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Empire in 380 AD. Attempting to displace the traditional cult of sun worship, the new religion absorbed much of the old for its own ends. Christmas merged seamlessly with the Roman celebration of Saturnalia.
Similarly the pagan Celtic tradition of Yule, celebrated by northern European tribes, was also absorbed into Christianity, which came late to northern parts of the Roman Empire. Yule, or the Winter Solstice, is a traditional Celtic ‘Fire Festival’ celebrating the end to the darkest days of the year; it still influences our modern rituals around Christmas. Castlerigg Stone Circle, aligned to celebrate the solstice, was part of this tradition.
Yule logs, Christmas trees, holly wreaths and mistletoe owe their origins to numerous pre-Christian beliefs and traditions that survived the onset of the Christianisation of northern Europe. Even Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) is pagan in origin, although I’m pretty sure he was invented by the marketing team at Coca Cola.
All this paganism goes some way to explaining why those religious zealots, the Puritans, outlawed the celebration of Christmas when Oliver Cromwell was running England in the 1640s. What Cromwell and his regicidal compatriots would make of our commercialised Christmas we can only guess at, although I have a feeling Christmas would be cancelled once again.
It started so promisingly. Blue skies, sunshine illuminating the golden hills surrounding Haweswater and a crisp early morning that normally means a glorious day and wonderful views. Then again…you can never take anything for granted when walking in the English Lake District. As I was trudging up Kidsty Pike on my way to High Street the weather turned, the clouds descended and the snow began to fall, obscuring the valley below.
This corner of the Lake District National Park feels remoter than its more illustrious counterparts in the central and western Lakes, but it offers fabulous walks and views to rival any in the region. The plan was straightforward, from Mardale Head on Haweswater I’d skirt the shoreline and go up Kidsty Pike to High Street; pausing to take the views before descending over Mardale Ill Bell and past Small Water Tarn.
My start point, Haweswater, was a natural lake until 1935 when the valley was dammed and flooded to provide water for Manchester. The decision caused an outcry, not only was this a beautiful valley but construction of the reservoir meant that two communities would be submerged.
The villages of Measand and Mardale Green were lost forever under the water but occasionally the water level drops enough to reveal the old buildings. When I was a child during the drought of 1976 my parents took me there, the water so low it was once again possible to walk through the streets of Mardale Green. The reservoir contains 18 billion gallons, providing North West England with around 25 percent of its water.
There is more than mountains and drowned villages to this walk though. The name High Street, at 828 metres the highest point of my walk, originates 2000 years ago when this was the most elevated Roman road in Britain. Linking settlements at Brougham and Ambleside, it was part of Roman supply routes to Hadrian’s Wall, the border between Scottish barbarians (a Roman term, not mine) and the Roman Empire.
Climbing steadily upwards towards the summit, there is something wonderful in the knowledge that you’re walking in the footsteps of ancient history. The tops of this range of hills are broad and ‘flat’, perfect for road building so Roman armies and supplies could avoid ambush in the wooded valleys below.
These characteristics also lent themselves to the hosting of summer fairs in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Local farming communities would gather on the summit to exchange lost sheep, buy and sell animals, and take part in traditional games such as Cumberland Wrestling and horse racing. Some locals still refer to High Street as Racecourse Hill, making it one of the more unusual racecourses in the country.
On a good day the views across the Lake District from High Street are nothing less than spectacular. Today the weather was determined to deny me the full 360º panorama, but views aren’t everything. There is something profoundly moving about standing alone on a hill top, all noise muffled by a blanket of snow, hearing only the sound of the wind.
The walk along the ridge was accompanied by gusting snow; by the time I reached the trig point on High Street’s summit it was pretty much a blizzard. I set off for Mardale Ill Bell but the cloud persisted for much of my descent until, suddenly, the sun burst through and illuminated the landscape around me. It was quite magical. Finally, below the cloud, I got good views over Small Water Tarn and Haweswater before returning to Mardale Head.
Just in case anyone was thinking of taking a cooling dip in the reservoir after their exertions, this warning sign should give them pause for thought…although it would need to be a warmer day than the one I spent on High Street to persuade me to take the plunge.
Just to be clear, the Catbells referred to in the title of this post is a picturesque hill in the northern part of the English Lake District, and not some weird tradition involving cats, their bells and my size ten walking boots. Please don’t call any animal rights groups, no cats were hurt during the entirely harmless activity of fell walking. Well, I say entirely harmless, but after ten months in the Netherlands my legs were in pieces on the hills.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the Lake District but it is quite rare for me to visit the northern edge of the National Park. The moment I started the steep ascent up Skelgill Bank to Cat Bells I remembered why: whenever I walk in this area the weather almost always turns violent, typically involving strong winds and driving rain. True to form, I was greeted by a sudden downpour which turned to hailstone. I’d been warned.
Once, climbing Skiddaw – a short distance away – I was forced to crawl on my hands and knees by winds gusting in excess of 100mph. I actually saw someone blown off their feet that day. The winds on Catbells weren’t that vicious, but when I reached the top of High Spy I could hear the wind roaring up the valley and through a gap in the crags. It sounded like a jumbo jet taking off.
On a good day this is one of the most beautiful walks there is in the northern Lakes. There are sweeping views over Derwent Water, Bassenthwaite Lake, Newlands Valley, the Skiddaw range and Blencathra. It is stunning, but who wants perfect weather conditions when you can have gale force winds, driving rain and low cloud obscuring the views?
My plan was simple, walk the horseshoe which goes over Catbells, Maiden Moor and High Spy before dropping down to a gap at the top of the valley and climbing up Dale Head and Hindscarth before winding my way back down into the valley below. Fate, and the weather, had different plans.
Descending from High Spy to the top of Newlands Valley where Dale Head Tarn sits bleakly on the fell, I started the long slog up Dale Head. A small voice in my head had urged me to descend into the valley and head back, but I persevered upwards only for the cloud to suddenly obscure the entire top of Dale Head.
This sort of thing happens all the time in the Lake District, one of the reasons walking here can be tricky, sometimes dangerous. It is easy to be caught out by the weather and find yourself lost. I wasn’t especially keen to spend the next two hours in cloud, spotting a zig-zag route down to the valley I made good my escape.
Catbells is a relatively easy walk offering great views and is rightly popular. Get beyond the short loop that drops into the valley from Catbells though and you soon find yourself alone, occasionally bumping into another walker. If Catbells is the epitome of picturesque Lake District, things get a little more rugged further up but the scenery is never less than spectacular (at least when you can see it).
Amidst all this natural beauty it is hard to imagine that you are walking through an industrialised landscape. Every now and then you can spot some old mine workings, evidence of the once thriving lead mining industry which this area was famous for up until the end of the 19th Century. Long gone now, but the physical scars still remain.
Spring may have finally sprung in the UK, but no one has told England’s third highest mountain that winter is over. As this was likely to be my last time in the area for a while, the free day I had in the Lake District National Park was reserved for hill walking, and Helvellyn was my destination. Unfortunately, I hadn’t factored in a considerable amount of snow and ice on top of the hill. I should have been better prepared, I’ve encountered snow on the summit of Helvellyn in May.
Helvellyn is a mountain I’ve climbed too many times to recall, but I never tire of clambering over the classic horseshoe trail: up Striding Edge, over the crown of the hill and back down Swirral Edge – familiar names on this legendary mountain. Situated in the heart of the English Lake District, Helvellyn is a popular hill amongst Lake District enthusiasts, so-much-so that there is a website dedicated to promoting the mountain’s glories. Even to me that seems a step too far.
Although I clambered to within 20 or 30 metres of the top, the last section of Swirral Edge was too icy to risk without crampons or an ice axe. A slip either way would result in a fall of several hundred feet. I was lucky that a person coming down had a spare ice axe, which he was generous enough to offer to me to help with the descent. It was disappointing to get so close and not reach the summit but the rest of my walk was wonderful.
Starting out from the village of Glenridding – which sits on picturesque Ullswater, the inspiration for Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem – I chose to avoid the steeper, faster route up Little Cove towards Hole in the Wall. Heading instead towards Red Tarn by skirting around the base of Birkhouse Moor, en route passing one of the Lake District’s many disused mines. The Greenside Mine was the largest lead mine in the Lake District and was mined from the 1690s until the 1960s. There are still some mine buildings, and the scar of the mine works is carved into the hillside.
In an area notorious for bad weather, there was barely a breath of wind as I started the long ascent to Red Tarn. Under a warm Spring sun, I suddenly found myself wearing several layers of unnecessary clothing and was glad when I finally reached the tarn and the glorious view of snow-capped Helvellyn. Although it was mid-week, there were plenty of people taking the opportunity to do the walk; I could see small shapes dotted along Striding Edge and on the summit.
I decided Striding Edge might be icy and opted to go up Swirral Edge, which afforded tremendous views over Red Tarn and back down the fells. After falling short of the top I headed to Hole in the Wall and descended into the beautiful parallel valley of Grisedale, finally reaching Patterdale and the road back to Glenridding.
After the horrendous weather when I was in the area in December I wasn’t expecting great things. This time though, thankfully, the weather chose to be hospitable. It made for one of those days which make the Lake District so special. | 2019-04-19T15:27:48Z | https://notesfromcamelidcountry.net/category/lake-district-national-park/ |
Sanum Investments Ltd v Government of the Lao People’s Democractic Republic SGCA 57 (“Sanum CA”) is the first dispute brought pursuant to a bilateral investment treaty (“BIT”) to have ever reached the Singapore court. The Court of Appeal decision elucidates that, generally, the review of jurisdictional awards under investor-state dispute settlement (“ISDS”) is not significantly distinct from those under international commercial arbitration (“ICA”) – they are not so different after all.
In 1987, the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) and Portugal signed a joint declaration stating that the PRC would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macau (then under the sovereignty of Portugal) with effect from 20 December 1999 (the “Joint Declaration”).
Subsequently on 31 January 1993, the PRC and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (“Laos”) (collectively, the “Contracting States”) concluded a BIT (the “PRC-Laos BIT”). The PRC-Laos BIT, however, does not expressly provide if it would apply to Macau after the handover.
In 2007, Sanum Investments Ltd (“Sanum”), a Macanese entity, began investing in Laos. Thereafter in 2012, Sanum initiated arbitral proceedings under the PRC-Laos BIT alleging an act of expropriation in violation of the BIT.
Before an arbitral tribunal constituted under the PRC-Laos BIT (the “Tribunal”), the Lao Government raised preliminary objection to the Tribunal’s jurisdiction on two grounds: First, the PRC-Laos BIT does not extend to protect a Macanese investor; and second, the dispute falls outside the Tribunal’s subject-matter jurisdiction. The Tribunal (composed of Andres Rigo Sureda (chair), Bernard Hanotiau and Brigitte Stern) rejected these arguments and concluded that it has jurisdiction to hear the claim.
The Lao Government then brought an application under s 10(3)(a) of the Singapore International Arbitration Act (the “IAA”) to challenge the Tribunal’s award on jurisdiction. The Lao Government also applied to have two Notes Verbales (the “2014 NVs”) be admitted as evidence: First, an NV by the Laotian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the PRC Embassy in Vientiane expressing Laos’s view that the PRC-Laos BIT does not extend to Macau; and second, a reply by the PRC Embassy stating its concurrence with Laos’s view.
At the High Court (Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic v Sanum Investments Ltd SGHC 15 (“Sanum HC”)), Edmund Leow JC substantively held that even though the PRC-Laos BIT applied to Macau, the subject-matter of the dispute falls outside the Tribunal’s jurisdiction as provided under the PRC-Laos BIT.
Rarely, a five-judge panel was constituted to hear the appeal; and even rarer, the Court of Appeal appointed two amici curiae to assist the Court: Mr. J Christopher Thomas, Q.C. from National University of Singapore, and Professor Locknie Hsu from Singapore Management University. The Court of Appeal unanimously reversed the High Court’s decision and held that the Tribunal had jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute.
As a preliminary issue, the Court of Appeal held that the interpretation and application of the PRC-Laos BIT are matters entirely within the scope of the Singapore court’s competence – in fact, the Singapore court was “obliged” to do so because parties have designated Singapore as the seat of the arbitration. The consequence flowing therefrom is that the arbitration is governed under the IAA, which “requires” the Singapore court to consider issues such as the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. This is so notwithstanding Singapore is not a party to the BIT.
The Court of Appeal rejected Sanum’s argument that the court should accord deference to the Tribunal’s finding, affirming its earlier holding in PT First Media TBK v Astro Nusantara International BV 1 SLR 372 (“PT First Media”) that a review of jurisdiction should be undertaken de novo. The Court commented that the tribunal’s reasoning may well be persuasive depending on the “cogency and quality of their reasoning”, but the court is not bound to accept or consider the tribunal’s findings on the matter.
Agreeing with Prakash J’s observation in AQZ v ARA 2 SLR 972 (“AQZ”), the Court clarified that a de novo hearing does not mean that whatever that transpired before the Tribunal should be disregarded – it simply means that the court is at liberty to consider the material before it, unfettered by any principle limiting its fact-finding abilities.
The Court of Appeal identified two sets of principles of international law relevant to the dispute. First is the set of principles on treaty interpretation under Art 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (“VCLT”).
Second is the principles of state succession in respect of treaties governed by Art 15 of the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties (“VCST”) and Art 29 of the VCLT – both of which reflect the customary international law (“CIL”) rule known as the “moving treaty frontier” rule (the “MTF Rule”). Simply put, the MTF Rule provides a presumption that a treaty is automatically extended to a new territory of a State as and when the new territory becomes a part of that State, unless an exception under Art 15 of the VCST or Article 29 of the VCLT was established. This means that on the facts, the PRC-Laos BIT will be presumed to automatically apply to Macau upon the handover to the Chinese sovereignty with effect from 20 December 1999 unless an exception was established.
The Court held that the only applicable exceptions are those set out in Art 29 of the VCLT: either (a) there “appears” an intention from the BIT that it does not to apply to Macau, or (b) the evidence must “otherwise establish” that the BIT is not meant to apply to Macau.
On the first exception, the Court noted that the BIT contains neither an express provision stating it applies to Macau, nor one excluding its application to Macau. To the contrary, the Court pointed out that there are two facts supporting the applicability of the PRC-Laos BIT to Macau: First, the fact that the Contracting States did not exclude the applicability of the BIT to Macau is a factor pointing towards the applicability of the BIT to Macau; and second, in any event, the Contracting States did not include any provision expressly excluding the applicability of the BIT to Macau even though the structure of the BIT allows for a review to be conducted after the handover. The Contracting States’ decision to remain silent on the applicability of the BIT to Macau would favour the conclusion that the presumption under the MTF Rule had not been displaced.
On the second exception, the Court held that based on the evidence presented, the second exception has not been established. As a preliminary note, the Court accepted the amici’s view that there is no established standard of proof that must be met before “different intention” can be established under Art 29 of the VCLT. The Court of Appeal then held that on balance, it is appropriate to apply the standard of satisfaction on a balance of probabilities.
Art VIII of the 1987 Joint Declaration recognises that Macau would retain a measure of international personality that it could develop relations and conclude agreements with other States in limited areas. In Sanum HC, Leow JC held that the Joint Declaration suggests that a positive act would be required in order to extend the PRC-Laos BIT to Macau, and the absence of that positive act meant that the PRC-Laos BIT did not extend to Macau.
The Court of Appeal, disagreeing with Leow JC, held that the Joint Declaration is a bilateral document between PRC and Portugal, which would not ordinarily create rights or obligations for other States, including Laos. Hence, the Joint Declaration could not override the MTF Rules (being CIL Rules that bind all States) as being automatically applied to the PRC-Laos BIT.
The Court of Appeal held that there was insufficient evidence establishing that the PRC-Hong Kong situation is analogous to the present case.
The Court of Appeal held that the Note (which states that the PRC would notify the UN whether international instruments not otherwise listed on the note would apply to Macau) bears no weight at all as it only applies to multilateral treaties for which the United Nation Secretary-General acts as depository, and not bilateral treaties.
The Court of Appeal held that Leow JC’s reliance on the Report (which states that other than agreements entered into with Portugal, Macau has no other bilateral investment treaties or bilateral tax treaties) was misplaced because the Report itself, and other dispute resolution tribunals, including those established under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, have stated that such reports should not be relied upon.
On the admissibility of the 2014 NVs, the Court of Appeal held that even though the test under Ladd v Marshall 1 WLR 1489 as laid down in Lassiter Ann Masters v To Keng Lam 2 SLR(R) 392 is helpful (i.e. the principles of relevance, reason for prior non-admission and credibility), in the present case, the Court ought to take into account the applicable principle of international law, such as the “critical date” doctrine, because the dispute engages question of public international law. The critical date doctrine provides that self-serving evidence, which comes into being after the “critical date” and is intended by the party putting it forward to improve its position bears little weight, if any.
The Court then held that the 2014 NVs should not be given any weight since it only came into existence after the critical date (i.e. the commencement of arbitration) and was intended to contradict the presumed position as per the MTF Rule before the critical date.
Critically, in concluding its finding, the Court recognised that this conclusion might appear counter-intuitive because the Contracting States posited the opposite view that the PRC-Laos BIT did not extend to Macau. In response, the Court pointed out that this conclusion has to be seen in the context of international law framework: that the MTF Rule being a CIL Rule can only be derogated from if the parties expressly agree. However, there is nothing in the evidence to suggest that the Contracting States shared a common understanding to displace the MTF Rule – the 1987 Joint Declaration which underlies the 2014 NVs concerns the PRC’s domestic legal framework, and hence should not be relied upon to determine if the MTF Rule had been displaced. Further, it may be open to the Contracting Parties to enter into an express agreement today to modify the scope of the BIT, but this does not apply retroactively.
Art 8(3) of the PRC-Laos BIT provides that “if a dispute involving the amount of compensation for expropriation” cannot be settled through negotiation, the dispute may then be referred to arbitration [emphasis added]. Art 8(3) of the BIT also provides for a fork-in-the-road provision, i.e. where the investor has to elect whether to bring the dispute to the host State’s national court or arbitration.
Essentially, the main controversy is whether the present dispute falls under Art 8(3) of the PRC-Laos BIT being a “dispute involving the amount of compensation for expropriation”. Sanum argued that a broad interpretation should be taken such that any claim—including a dispute over the amount of compensation—may be submitted to arbitration. On the other hand, the Lao Government argued for a restrictive interpretation that recourse to arbitration may be had only when the only issue in dispute is the amount of compensation for expropriation.
The Court of Appeal held that a proper interpretation of Art 8(3) of the BIT applying the CIL rule of treaty interpretation under Art 31 of the VCLT shows that Sanum’s broad interpretation should be adopted. This is because the mechanism of the PRC-Laos BIT does not allow for the issues of liability and quantum to be segregated when adjudicating a claim of expropriation. This means that one cannot decide on the issue of expropriation without first deciding whether effective and appropriate compensation has been paid by the Contracting State. Hence, if recourse to arbitration is limited to the issue of quantum, and the issue of lawfulness of the expropriation had to be referred to national court, this would render Art 8(3) wholly ineffective as the national court would already have to deal with the issue of quantum in the course of deciding the lawfulness of the expropriation. This would offend the principle of effet utile (principle of effective interpretation).
Further, the fork-in-the-road provision means that if any dispute is brought to the national court, the claimant will no longer be entitled to refer any aspect to that dispute to arbitration.
Following the adoption of the broad interpretation, the Court of Appeal held that the Tribunal had subject-matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute.
This decision is highly anticipated to understand how the Singapore arbitration regime operates in relation to ISDS awards. Four comments follow from a scrutiny of this decision.
First, this decision confirms that question of law pertaining to international law is justiciable before the Singapore court, and is indeed is argued as a matter of law (as opposed to being proved as facts in the common law system of proving the content of foreign law). This is rightly so as the determination of the issues is material in the exercise of the court’s supervisory jurisdiction under the IAA. The Court of Appeal even held that that by virtue of the parties’ election of Singapore as the seat of arbitration, the Singapore court is “obliged” to tackle the issue of international law notwithstanding that Singapore is not a party to the BIT. This is in line with the judicial decisions handed down in the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
That issues of international law are justiciable by a municipal court reflects the primacy of party autonomy. By providing for a non-International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) forum, the Contracting States chose to anchor the arbitration process in accordance with municipal arbitral legislation, under which a municipal court might be entitled to review a tribunal’s jurisdiction. Such review process, at least in Singapore, would necessarily entail a de novo review of jurisdictional decision. This has also been agreed by the investor when it accepted the host State’s ‘offer to arbitrate’ (by way of notice of arbitration). In light of the above, States nor investor should dispute the justiciability of such issues before the municipal court.
The Court’s readiness to tackle the issue of international law coupled with its thorough analysis and expertise of the issue should bolster confidence in Singapore as an attractive seat for investor-state arbitrations. This is especially in light of the highly anticipated release of the Investment Arbitration Rules by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (the “SIAC”) (the draft Rules was released during the SIAC Congress on 27 May 2016, and can be accessed here:http://www.siac.org.sg/images/stories/articles/rules/IA Rules (rev 20160115).pdf (last accessed: 5 November 2016)).
Second, in holding that the jurisdiction of investor-state arbitral tribunal is subject to a de novo review, the Court saw no practical distinction between treaty arbitration and commercial arbitration. The standard of review for tribunal’s jurisdiction is therefore uniform in both treaty arbitrations and commercial arbitrations. This is consistent with the fact that both ICA and (non-ICSID) ISDS arbitrations fall within the purview of the IAA as the lex arbitri.
In the same vein, consistent with ICA cases, Sanum CA might lend support to the view that the same standard of de novo review would similarly be applied in the instances of setting aside and enforcement of (non-ICSID) investor-state arbitral awards in Singapore (see for example, PT First Media, AQZ, and Galsworthy Ltd of the Republic of Liberia v Glory Wealth Shipping Pte Ltd 1 SLR 727).
Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal did not take the opportunity to determine the scope of the exercise of de novo review, especially with respect to parties’ rights to adduce new evidence that had not been put before the arbitral tribunal. Case law reflects two conflicting positions in respect of parties’ right to adduce new evidence: on one hand, the Sanum HC decision seems to stand for the position that the criteria under Ladd v Marshall must be satisfied before new evidence can be adduced; on the other hand, AQZ suggests that fresh evidence is admissible as of right.
In the Singapore Law Blog’s earlier contribution, Darius Chan attempted to reconcile these two cases and suggested that the starting point is that a party has a right to adduce fresh evidence but the court retains control to prevent any abuse of process (citing Central Trading & Exports Ltd v Fioralba Shipping Co EWHC 2397). In that light, Sanum HC may be understood as suggesting that the court is entitled to consider inter alia the Ladd v Marhshall test for purpose of admissibility. At the same time, in AQZ, Prakash J (as she then was) did not foreclose the possibility of the court retaining residual discretion to allow admission of fresh evidence as of right (Darius Chan, “The scope of ‘de novo’ review of an arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction”, Singapore Law Blog (8 October 2015) (http://www.singaporelawblog.sg/blog/article/140)). It is suggested that the Court of Appeal’s reasoning is consistent with Chan’s analysis, in its agreement with Prakash J’s observation in AQZ and its emphasis that the question of admissibility must be decided within the framework of international law.
Third, the Court of Appeal’s clarification on the standard of proof on matters concerning public international law adds clarity to the adjudication process because under the public international law regime, there is no definite level of specificity with respect to standard of proof. As explained by the amici, international law can be viewed as a “common denominator” of the expectations and practices of States of widely varying legal traditions.
Finally, perhaps the only material difference between the court’s methodology of review in ISDS and ICA is that in the former, the court has to consider and apply the relevant principles of public international law within the framework of domestic legal system in Singapore. As Sanum CA shows, the Singapore court is willing to apply the relevant test and/or principles under international law in place of the pre-existing domestic legal test. For instance, the critical date doctrine was heavily featured in determining the evidential weight of the 2014 NVs, in place of the test of admissibility of evidence under Ladd v Marshall, on the basis that the applicable law with respect to the dispute is public international law.
The review of ISDS tribunal’s jurisdictional finding inevitably involves complex and inextricable issues of international relations and international law. As such, decisions by courts and tribunals relating to ISDS are, more often than not, prone to scrutiny and criticism by States or other relevant parties. This case is no different. The PRC Foreign Ministry has recently proclaimed the Court’s finding as “incorrect” – the Foreign Ministry reasoned that under the “one country, two systems” policy and the Basic Laws, as principle, investment agreements concluded between the central government do not apply to the SARs (i.e. Macau and Hong Kong) unless otherwise decided (“Foreign Ministry Spokeperson Hua Chunying’s Regular Press Conference on October 21, 2016”, accessible at: http://www.italaw.com/sites/default/files/case-documents/italaw7687.pdf (last accessed: 5 November 2016)).
Being the first ISDS award to be reviewed by the Singapore court, this decision has certainly provided a glimpse as to how the Singapore court would treat disputes concerning investor-state arbitration in the future, and how the Singapore arbitration regime operates in relation to investor-state arbitration. | 2019-04-25T05:08:05Z | http://www.singaporelawblog.sg/blog/article/172 |
Congratulations to this year's 2015 NASW Illinois District Social Work Awards! The below individuals have exemplified in their professional and personal work the basic tenets of the social work profession-giving voice to those who are without voices. Award ceremonies will be held in the corresponding district across the state. To find out more information about the award ceremonies, be sure to check out district page: www.naswil.org/naswil/districts/.
Marcus L. Strother(MEd, Olivet Nazarene University) is an advocate for youth through education and has been teacher and administrator for the past sixteen years. His most passionate love is to work with students through leadership development and mentoring. In this work Marcus has developed community-minded students that contribute over 1,000 hours of work to the local community and abroad in the Dominican Republic.
Gwen Pearson-Ginski (MSW, Loyola University Chicago; MEd, Benedictine University; LCSW)is a school social worker serving K–8 students in Rockdale, IL. She has served in regular and alternative school settings. She has also served as agency director and in foster care at Campagna Academy. She raised awareness in her community of the link between cancer and pollution. This was featured in the book, Taking Action, Saving Lives, by Kristin Shrader-Frechette. She volunteered as CASA and group facilitator for Compassionate Friends. She currently is a psychotherapist at Behavioral Health and Educational Specialists in Plainfield, IL. She has always been passionate about serving youth and promoting children’s health and wellbeing.
Click here for details about the Calumet District awards event in Plainfield: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3494/.
Edna Flowers(MSW, Loyola University Chicago) has over five years of experience working with diverse populations in nonprofit and education settings. She is career specialist at Inspiration Corporation and assists participants in reaching self-sufficiency through employment training and support. She currently serves as a member of the NASW Illinois Chapter Diversity and Cultural Competence Committee.
Derrick Young is a member of the CBS Chicago morning news team alongside anchors Kris Gutierrez and Erin Kennedy, and meteorologist Megan Glaros. In addition to working as the CBS 2 Traffic Reporter, Derrick is also a motivational speaker and professional health coach. Since 1990, Derrick has mentored, coached, and trained individuals on a wide range of personal development topics. Derrick continues to spend time in classrooms mentoring and inspiring students to make the most of their lives. He facilitates programs for youth focused on building life-skills, character development, and fitness and health. Derrick grew up in the Roseland community and currently lives in the South Loop.
Jeff Zacharias(MSW, Loyola University Chicago; LCSW; CSAT; CAADC) is clinical director of New Hope Recovery Center Chicago and maintains a private practice. His areas of interest include working within the LGBTQI community, all forms of addiction both individually and with partners, severe and persistent mental health, personality disorders, and trauma and its impact on recovery. He is a member of NASW, serves on the board of directors for NALGAP, NAADAC, and Alexian Brothers/Bonaventure House—a home for people living with HIV/AIDS. He's had numerous articles published as well as spoken extensively as conferences including NCAD, NAADAC, NASW Illinois, NASW Nations, NAMI National, and IITAP, focusing on issues within the LGBTQI community.
Daniel Kuhn(MSW, University of Illinois at Chicago; LCSW) has a person mission to enhance the wellbeing of people living with dementia and to support and educate their families and professional caregivers. For more than forty years he has accomplished this work through direct service, training, consulting, applied research, and program development in healthcare and aging service organizations in the Chicago area. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications including Alzheimer's Early Stages: First Steps for Family, Friends, and Caregivers (Third edition, 2013). He has given more than a thousand presentations on dementia, caregiving, and end-of-life care issues throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.
Click here for details about the Chicago District awards event in Chicago: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3505/.
Honorable Elizabeth A. Robb (JD, Loyola University Chicago) has served for twenty-two years as judge in McLean County, Illinois, retiring in December 2014. In 2005 she was elected as the first woman chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit and served in that capacity for ten years. She was elected vice chair of the statewide Conference of Chief Judges in 2008 and elected as chair of the conference in 2014. As Chief Judge she worked collaboratively with criminal justice and community organizations to establish the McLean County Drug Court and Recovery Court (mental health), a Pro Se Small Claims Mediation program, the McLean County Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation program, and numerous juvenile justice/child welfare programs.
Karen Major (MSW, University of Illinois; LCSW)has spent the majority of her 35-year career in social work in the fields of child welfare and children’s mental health. Karen has worked in both the public and private sectors and has spent the past fifteen years in leadership at The Baby Fold in Normal. She is currently director of the Family and Community Services department which provides home and community-based services to over 300 families in the central Illinois area. Programs include prevention and early intervention (Healthy Start), adoption preservation, foster care, and special needs adoption. Karen serves on several community and statewide committees related to social work education and practice, mental health awareness, affordable housing, and prevention services for at-risk youth and their families.
Barry J. Ackerson (PhD, University of Alabama; LCSW) began his career in 1975 as psychiatric social worker. Prior to his academic career he was clinician and administrator in Alabama for twenty-three years, becoming involved in mental health system reform for the state. His practice background is reflected in his research on mental health services. He serves on the boards for the NASW Illinois Chapter and Community Elements. He presents at national conferences and publishes in a variety of social work and mental health journals. He has been at UIUC since 1998, associate dean since 2002, and has directed the MSW and PhD programs during that time.
Click here for details about the East Central District awards event in Champaign: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3493/.
Michael Schablaske(MT, DePaul University) is executive director of Transform Rockford, a nonprofit whose mission is to facilitate the creation and implementation of a strategic plan by the community for the purposes of dramatically improving the social and economic wellbeing of the community and its residents. The initiative is about true transformation in which everyone’s thoughts and voice will contribute to its success. Michael has held various professional roles in accounting, finance, corporate tax, and treasury.
Maureen Mostacci(MSW, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; LCSW) is director of Rockford Sexual Assault Counseling (RSAC). Maureen started her social work career as clinical director at RSAC in 1993 and became executive director in 1996. Maureen provides direct service to survivors of sexual assault/abuse as well as professional training. In addition she focuses on advocating with various institutions, increasing the understanding of sexual violence and its effects. Maureen has held positions in the statewide organization including Convener and Program Committee Chair. Currently she is a member of the Institutional Review Board of the UIC School of Medicine at Rockford.
Richard Apple(MSW, University of Wisconsin; LCSW) served as clinical social worker and clinical supervisor with Family Advocate from 1982 to 1988. He provided individual, group, and family therapy for children and adolescents who had been severely abused by a parent. He served as social worker, social work supervisor, and senior public administrator for the State of Illinois at Singer MHC from 1988 to 2012. He worked collaboratively to implement significant culture change such as reduction of restraint/seclusion and consumer empowerment. Richard has served from 2012 to present with the Alzheimer's Association. His passion is assisting people to find joy in life in the midst of the losses of dementia as well as developing an ongoing support plan.
Click here for details about the Jane Addams District awards and CEU event in Rockford: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3492/.
Arthur J. Diers (MA, University of Chicago; LCSW) has been practicing psychotherapy in Evanston and the Loop for forty years. He was president of the Chicago Chapter of NASW (before consolidation into the Illinois Chapter), initiating creative professional programming, developing standards, and obtaining licensure for the profession, and was also on the founding board for the Illinois Society of Clinical Social Work. As chairman of the Mental Health Board of Evanston, he facilitated the allocation of funds to local social agencies. He was chairman of the Life Enrichment Committee of the Levy Senior Center in Evanston. Arthur served as past president of the Chicago Literary Club and is currently a member.
Contact district chair Rich Jezioro for details about the Northeastern District awards event.
Stephanie McKinney (BS, Greenville College) is CCAP Specialist for Rend Lake College at Project CHILD. Her employment is a great match and allows her to help others help themselves in achieving their goals of working and/or attending school by assisting with securing quality childcare for their children.
Kim Ratermann Peek (MSW, Southern Illinois University; LCSW; ACSW) has been working in the social work field for over twenty-two years. During this time she has held several different positions from direct service, quality improvement, and management. She has worked in several different settings such as community mental health, medical hospital, and residential treatment. Her emphasis on services is consistent with her compassion toward others.
Connie Baker (MSW, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; LCSW)has been a social work practitioner and educator for nearly forty years. She has expertise in child welfare, addiction treatment, behavioral health, supervision, administration, training, and private practice. She holds certifications in divorce mediation, bereavement counseling, EMDR, DUI Services, and the ARISE intervention model. After practicing in community mental health, she joined the SIU School of Social Work faculty where she coordinated field placements and taught numerous classes in the BSW and MSW programs. She has presented at international training programs in Russia, Egypt, and Ireland. She has served on local boards, was the 1999 Southern District Social Worker of the Year, and was a 2005 Delegate Assembly representative.
Click here for details about the Southern District awards event in Mt. Vernon: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3479/.
VaLarie Humphrey(MA, Benedictine University) has been in the education arena for over twenty-three years. She has been labeled as the at-risk educator because of her outside-the-box thinking. She received the New Teacher of the Year Award from Chicago Public Schools her first year. She later took a position in the Bellwood School District 88. After thirteen years she became the principal of the Quad County Urban League’s alternative school. She then became assistant principal in Indian Prairie School District 204. She is member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. In 2012 she founded True Eagle Beauty Foundation, Inc.
Ellen Carbonell(MSW, Loyola University Chicago; LCSW) is associate director of family programs for the Alzheimer’s Association’s national office. She is responsible for creating dementia-related family programs, training chapter staff, offering corporate webinars nationally and internationally, and overseeing support groups for the association. Ellen has over thirty years of experience working with individual and family programs in mental health, EAP, and voluntary health care settings. She is a member of the American Society on Aging and the Programs Committee of the Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition; is a caregiver coach in private practice; and is founder of CaregiverTools.org which provides resources for caregivers of older adults.
Robert Skrocki (MSW, University of Illinois at Chicago; LCSW) spent thirty-seven years at DuPage County Health Department, Mental Health Services, where he provided direct clinical services, supervision, and management in programs serving children, youth, and adults that emphasized collaboration across the child welfare, special education, justice, and behavioral healthcare service systems. He is now working as a faith community consultant and care ministry development coordinator at Samaritan Center for Congregations. He continues his work as communications coordinator for the Interfaith Mental Health Coalition. He chairs the board for the Pathways to Promise organization that is helping promote mental health training coalitions for faith communities all over the country.
Click here for details about the Three Rivers District awards and CEU event in Carol Stream: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3495/.
Karen Grotts has been a realtor since 2006 and obtained her GRI designation. This year she received the Maloof Realtors President’s Council Award for sales exceeding $6 million. She previously obtained 28 years of corporate background experience. Karen, with her husband Earl, started Whitney’s Walk for Life, a local walk held at Jubilee State Park to raise money for depression awareness and suicide prevention programs in central Illinois. Since its inception in 2004, Whitney’s Walk for Life has raised more than $917,000 for local suicide prevention. For their instrumental work with Whitney’s Walk, Earl and Karen were named the 2015 recipient of Hult Center for Healthy Living’s Volunteer of the Year award. They also received the Mental Health Association’s Dr. Walter Baer Award for promoting excellence in mental health in 2005. Karen serves on the Hult Center for Healthy Living Board of Directors, the Hult Center’s Mental Health Subcommittee, the Brimfield Area Health Services Board, the Brimfield Comprehensive Planning Committee, and is president of the Business Networking International (BNI) Peoria Chapter.
Kelly McKenna(MSW, Illinois State University; LCSW) serves as program manager for True North Solutions. She began her social work career in Danville, IL, at Crosspoint as outpatient therapist. She then went to Human Service Center in 2007 and was hired to develop an outpatient medication-assisted treatment program for opiate dependence using a new medication. After establishing that program in the area as a quality alternative to methadone treatment, she transitioned to program manager at True North. At True North she provides therapy and supervises a staff of 17.
Shipra Somani (MSW, University of Pittsburgh; ACSW; LCSW) began her career in 1960 as a case worker for the Child Guidance Center in Calcutta, India. In 1964 she came to the U.S. to pursue her master’s in social work. After graduating in 1966 she became the Neighborhood Development Supervisor of the Hill House Association in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1974 she joined Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, IL, as renal social worker. Over the years she has received numerous awards including Social Worker of the Year (in 1988 from NASW and in 1993 from Illinois Kidney Foundation). Somani has also been an active member of the Springfield community. She retired in 2005.
Click here for details about the West Central District awards event in Peoria: http://www.naswil.org/calendar/events/3497/.
Congratulations to all of our 2015 District Award Winners! | 2019-04-23T18:49:11Z | http://naswil.org/news/chapter-news/featured/2015-nasw-illinois-district-awards/ |
All pet owners have the obligation of ensuring that all domestic pets are taken care of adequately. Taking good care of your pet will involve taking it for a checkup to the vet, giving it the right food and making sure the general health is good. Because all domestic pets are incompetent or not responsible for venturing out and looking for their food, it is vital that the owner ascertains that they have excellent diets and continue feeding them these diets all through their life. It is the task of the dog owner to understand how and where to get the best dog food.
For your dog to be very happy, you have to be very keen on what it eats. Owed to the variety of dog food in the market, selecting the best is not a simple task. Many people mistake by thinking that the most expensive dog food is of the best quality; this is not necessarily the case. Natural foods for dogs are both complete and balanced, providing the best nutrients for the dogs. These natural diets comprise of natural ingredient and do not include artificial things like fillers, flavors, and preservatives. All products marked organic are bought by most people in the stores. Many people will choose the healthy options off dog foods since they know that their kids will eat them as well. You should also be very kept to buy top quality and healthy diets for the pets. This is the reason why the natural pet food is gaining in popularity nowadays.
Health and nutrition are the main benefits of choosing for natural foods. The reason why most of the generic foods have a foul smell is that they contain castoff products not suited to be consumed by humans. Thee waste products used from the slaughterhouses include animal hooves, teats, and organs. The generic foods also contain high contents of additives and preservatives. Are you contended feeding your beloved furry friend this stuff?
Besides the many health benefits of the natural foodstuff, your pet is assured of living long since it will not have skin problems, digestion issues or high levels of energy. If your dog does not suffer illnesses frequently, it will stay in good shape for long. This is also the case for people. If you consume high quality and natural diet, you are certainly better off compared to the individuals who indulge in very processed junk that is filled with fats and sodium. Since the pets are incapable of reading labels, it is up to their owners to make the informed decision of buying them natural foods.
Nowadays we have lots of travel sites online and as such offer such an ability to book for a travel from anywhere with nearly any kind of airline, hotel, cruise line and any other service and as such looking at this, the relevance of the travel agencies may be seen by the inattentive to be dwindling. But all in all, the facts have actually revealed that the services of the travel agents still remain so high in demand and are quite still upbeat in the industry with reports showing so high sales of cruise deals and much more on tour and travel packages across the board. As a matter of fact, you need to appreciate the services of the travel agents as they offer lots of benefits when you are up to making a travel or vacation plan. Here are some of the benefits and reasons why you need to leverage on the services of the travel agencies when it comes to vacation and travel planning.
One of the main benefits of using the services of the travel agencies is the fact that they will quite see you making such enormous savings on your time and money, looking at planning your travels. Certainly, going through the travel webistes looking for the best travel deals may at times get you results but on other occasions this may only be but such a frustration to you, as you may only end up making as much effort on the search but never quite result with the deals that you will be looking up to. And this is right where we get to see the benefits of the input of the travel agencies when it comes to making plans for travels as they happen to be so well informed on what its is that goes into making travel plans with the best deals and information on the best offers at their fingertips as such their services happen to save as much time and money with the need to make such reservations in spite of the agency’s fees.
When there happens to be a need for travel assistance while on travel, the travel agencies happen to be so handy to make any arrangements and as such this as well has proved to be one of the core benefits of making plans for travel with the travel agencies. Should there be any issue that may cause you delays on interrupt your travels and you happened to have booked your travels via a travel agency, you can be sure to have this issue addressed and a solution found as soon as is possible as opposed to the cases where you made the arrangements on your own.
Any time that you are having a teeth related issue it is advisable that you hire the top dentist. Most are the dentist in the market, but only a few are qualified for the job. Since many people have a need for dental care services many companies have been put up to offer dental services. Any time that you are in need of dental care services you can experience many hardships. You thus need to take your time when you are selecting the best dentist. As you are planning for the dentist it is expected of you to seek more data from other people who have benefited. This site provides you with the features of the best dentist that you have to ensure during your selection. The following are the essential qualities to ensure when you are hiring the best dentist.
Educational qualification of the dentist that you are planning to work with is one of the areas that you need to put more emphasis as you are seeking dental care services. Any time that you are a hiring a dentist, you have to visualize the type of training that he possesses. If you are seeking dental care services you ought to hire the dentist that comes from a recognized school. You need to look at the skills that the dentist that you are hiring employs. You can even look at the website of the dentist so that you may get more information. When you are working with a learned dentist, then you have the assurance of quality services.
The number of years that the dentist has been in the field marks the other aspect that you need to consider when you are hiring the dentist. When you are choosing the dentist of your choice, you have to hire one that has a good understanding when it comes to dental issues. For the dentist with the best tips then this implies that the dentist knows more about the challenges affecting the teeth. When you are looking for the dentist it is good that you work with on who is equipped with current knowledge in dental issues.
The other essential qualities that you must think of any time that you are picking a good dentist is the charges. You need to think of the cost that the best dentist charges. You need to know the amount of money that you need to employ in catering for the dental services offered. With the help of the budget, it will be easy for you to avoid over the spending of your money even as you are seeking dental services.
Quito has hotels for every kind of traveler. If you opt for an international hotel chain then Quito has all of the popular brands as well as some local hotels that are still good. You may be torn between choosing a local hotel or an international brand that you are familiar with. To help you in this dilemma I have made a list that addresses your travel needs as well as your budget.
Go for a hotel that is in line with your travel needs.
Quito is a big city that has lots of neighbourhoods. If you want to visit various cultural sites then choose a hotel that is close to the historic churches, plazas and squares. If you want to be centrally located in the city then choose a hotel in the New Town area that is close to clubs and restaurants.
There are many hotels in Quito that are comfortable to stay at an affordable price. Unlike in other places where most budget friendly hotels lack the personal touch and charm; in Quito you can always get a good hotel. If you do your research well most hotels that have the same prices as a regular five-star hotel offer great services and give you a feel of the culture and the history of the people of Equador. If you take some time and do your research you are bound to get a good hotel.
Quito is a plethora of various restaurants that serve various cuisines. These joints are good places for a fun night out but in order to choose a regular eating place you need to find out what each place serves. Not all the restaurants serve three meals thus you need to scout the place and find out which restaurants serve all three meals (that is breakfast, lunch and supper) so that you can have a regular place to eat.
Hotels in Quitos have various travel plans for tourists. Some hotels have a tour package that takes tourists around the major historical sites whereas others just offer airport transfer services. If you are in the city briefly for like for just a night before a morning flight then you can opt to stay near the airport. In case you plan to stay in Quito for a while and want to walk around and see the city then choose a hotel that offers travel packages.
It is wise to talk to someone on the ground who knows about hotels in Quito. A fact worth noting is that online reviews are not the best source of information when choosing a hotel since the management might have changed. Personal references and word of mouth remain crucial sources of information.
Colors make our homes more appealing to our eyes hence lightening them up.It is important to note that in interior painting, different colors are to be applied to different places in the house. Ensure that you choose a painter who will best fit into your needs.Your interior painter will be responsible for making your dreams come true regarding how you would want your interior to look like. When choosing an interior painter, look out for the following.
Ensure that your interior painter is proficient. The painter should be aware of the different materials that have been used in the making of the interior of the house. When the painter knows this, they know the different products to use in any given section.A competent painter also checks out the quality of paint and materials he or she uses for their job, ensuring that they use the best equipment as this facilitates good results.
A good interior painter should also be good at listening. Attention should be paid to the needs of the client by the painter. The client ought to ask the painter if they are familiar with products that can add value to the whole work of interior painting.
A good interior painter should be able to adapt easily to change. For a good painter to meet the preferences of a customer, they must be willing to go an extra mile and try out new ideas. The painter should be able to use the various tools that are required for painting. A good painter is a good timekeeper and ensures that they complete their work within the timelines given.
Your interior painter should be able to pay attention to the small things. Edging lines ought to be straight.When it comes to mixing colors; the painter should mix the colors well in order to get the desired outcome. It is the work of the painter to remember all the agreed things between them and the client in order for them to produce the desired results. Small errors should be noticeable to them.
A good painter needs to be experienced in their work.It is essential to bring in board someone who has done the job many times to avoid disappointments.An experienced painter will notice the small things before proceeding with his painting work.He or she may notice a crack that requires to be repaired. A good interior painter must ensure that all surfaces they intend to paint are in good condition before painting.
It is hectic when it comes to the selling of a home, this because it will take time to find a willing individual buyer within a short period. You need to get a fast buyer of your house thus; you need to look for buyers who can buy house fast on cash basis especially when you need to make a fast sale. To curb this problem of looking for buyers who can sell your house, you need to consider the real estate agencies. The real estate agencies are fast in house buying services, you need to choose the best agency that is near when you need to sell your house. In Kansas City, there are real estate agencies services that deal with house buying and selling services, you need to choose the best real estate agency company when selling. There are significant important of selling houses to real estate agencies company this includes .
Selling houses fast is one of the advantages of selling a house to real estate agencies. It is important to make a fast sale cash of your house especially when you are in need to make fast cash of your house thus you need to choose the best real estate agency that is near you. There is no wasting time when you are selling your house to real estate agencies since all they do is perform the house valuation just the way the house looks, then they buy the house within no time.
There is the advantage of buying houses on a cash basis. The real estate agencies buy houses from their customers on a cash basis thus you will be able to make a fast sale and fast cash. The real estate agencies companies have a quick cash payback period thus there are no delays on the cash payment, this helps you to get a fast cash of your house when you sell to real estate companies.
There is the significant importance of saving your cash when you sell your home or house to real estate agency. You need to save your cash thus you should sell your house to real estate agencies company, there are no repair or renovation of the houses since they buy it just as it is thus you will save your cash from the costly expenses of repair.
There is also a significant importance of buying houses just the way they are. There are houses that are ugly in looks thus they need repairs or renovation, this should bother you on how it makes the house attractive since the real estate agencies buy the house just as it is thus no repairs during the sales.
Now in this modern world many people are striving to get the best of what they want. , As a result, those people in need of the plumbing fixtures will go a long way to ensure that they only get the best plumbing fixtures. No one is willing to spend his or her income in those goods that are of poor quality. It is because when it comes to pocketing cash a large part of the community will have to sweat. As a result they will ensure that their income is spent in the best way.
Nowadays it is common to get a large number of people who are in the pursuit of getting a house. In most cases not just a home but the best house. The factor that is making people go to the deep end to ensure that they acquire a right house is that most of the time they spend in the house. It was evident after the long day working a good portion of the population in various parts of the world will head to their house to relax. There is a long list of techniques that one can incorporate to make sure that he or she has an appealing home. A home that will be having the most effective plumbing system will be a good one. A proper drainage system, as well as adequate water supply, will all be achieved by having the best plumbing system in the house. It is common to see a plumbing fixture in an effective plumbing system. Now if you need plumbing fixtures to serve the want in the house it is good to consider buying the best. For anyone in the pursuit to purchase the leading plumbing fixtures he or she should consider the following tips.
To be sure that you only purchase the right plumbing fixtures it’s recommendable to buy them from a shop that was in existence from the past. As a result this particular store will have acquired the necessary level of expertise. Usually those companies that will be in a position to attend to the wants of the clients in a right way will be those with the best level of expertise in their specific careers. It is because this particular store will have bought the practical techniques to attend to the desire of the clients. Here a store that has been selling the plumbing fixtures for a long time will have gained the ability to be able to distinguish between a legit plumbing fixture and a fake one. In the long run this specific company will at all the time have the best quality of the plumbing fixtures in store.
The value of a good home is absolutely undeniable. Remember that your home will have a remarkable influence on the overall quality of your life. A great house is an investment in your future, and it can also make your life more stable. There are a number of things that you will need to worry about as a homeowner.
It’s important to have a great heating system, and you should also assess your carpeting. When it comes down to it, though, nothing is more important than your roof. If you have a good roof, your home will be much stronger and safer. Obviously, this isn’t easy. Your roof could develop problems as time goes on. You may be dealing with a leak, or there could be discoloration.
If you find yourself in this situation, you need to do something. A skilled commercial roof service will help you make sense of this difficult situation. It’s worth pointing out, of course, that every commercial roof service is unique in some way. You will want to find a commercial roof service that meets your unique needs. Take the time to consider your own needs before you choose a commercial roof service.
To begin, you will want to assess the price. As you may know, a good commercial roofing service can actually be quite affordable. If you do your homework, you can find a commercial roofing service that fits within your budget. The next step in the process is to consider your schedule. An issue with your roof can easily spread to your entire home. If you want to avoid issues, you will need to take action at your next possible convenience. You need to have confidence that your commercial roof service will help you in a timely manner. If you’re serious about solving this problem, it only makes sense that you talk to a skilled commercial roofing service.
It’s important to look in the right places if you want to find a good commercial roofing service. The first step in the process is to get in touch with your friends and family members. The truth is that every homeowner will eventually need to work with a commercial roofing service. This means that by asking around, you can find a roofing service that inspires confidence. You also have the option of going online. You will want to find a commercial roofing service that has some type of presence on the Internet. A strong search engine will help you find good contractors who are located near you. A good commercial roofing service will help you make sense of this difficult situation.
When you are looking for a public relation company, you should find a company that matches your expectation. You will achieve your public relations goals when you find a decent company. Due to the fact that there are so many public relation companies, you should look for a company that will offer you with services that will fit into your needs. You can use the following tips when you are looking for a public relation company.
A company that has a good track record is what you should look for. This will help you to find a company that has good experience in service delivery. The company should be in a position to produce results. This is very important since when you hire a good company, the company will offer you with good services that will meet your expectations. You can sample that work that the company has been doing. When you find a good company, you will know what to expect from the public relation company. You should be offered with references by the public relation company, this references will help you understand the company better hence you should talk to the references.
References will play a vital role in ensuring that you understand the services that the company is offering.
When you are looking for a public relation company, you should find a company that has specialized in public relation. You should look for a company that has specialty in your industry. Finding a company that has specialized in your industry will be advantageous for your business since the company will offer you with services that will fit your needs and requirement. When you find a good company that has specialty in your industry, you will be offered with good service.
You should get a company that is transparent. This is very important when you are looking for a good company since clients should know what they are getting from the company. A good public relation company should be transparent in the services that they are offering. The services that you are being offered by the public relation company should matter a lot hence you should look for a company that you are comfortable with. Due to the fact that you will find a company that will meet your needs, you will find a good company.
You should get a company that is result oriented. When you are looking for a public relation company, you should find a company that is result oriented. The services that will be offered by the firm should start after some few weeks. In order to achieve the objectives that have been set, you should find a firm that is objective.
According to statistics, a lot of home owners now prefer having pools in their homes. An individual is therefore required to ensure that the pool is completely safe for whoever is visiting them or even the family members. By ensuring that there is perfect pool and patio protection, then a lot of damages will be greatly reduced. Getting the best pool and patio protection service provider might however be quite of a challenge given that there are a lot of them that are in the industry. Getting to hire the most reliable pool and patio protection service provider will be geared is one factors in the factors below.
The first tip that an individual has to put into consideration is the professional experience of the pool and patio protection service provider. It is advisable for an individual to settle for a provider who has worked for a couple of years as it will mean that they have the necessary skills. An individual will then have the assurance that the services that will be offered by such a provider are simply the best. An important point to note is that a pool and protection service provider that ahs ben around for a long time is a trustworthy one.
The second relevant factor that one needs to look into is the reputation that the provider has. The fact that there are many pool and patio protection services providers mean that each of them has different reputations. The opinion of the general public is therefore very significant. An easier way in which an individual will be able to know of the reputation of the pool and patio protection service provider is through going through their reviews. Choosing the highly ranked pool and patio protection service provider will guarantee and individual of getting the best services.
Having a look at the budget is also a very necessary step to be considered. It would be important for an individual to go ahead and do a research so that they can be able to know how the various providers charge for their services. Given that affordability is relevant, then an individual will be needed to settle for the one that is within their price range. Spending more money is however very mandatory if at all one needs the best pol and patio protection service provider. An individual will have to come up with strategies in how they can be able to pay the providers if at all they want to get rid of any worries. | 2019-04-21T04:23:52Z | http://indianapoliscoltsvsseattleseahawks.us/category/employment/page/3/ |
Making Every Day a Great "First Day of School"
It’s back to school time! For some, this time of year may elicit memories of excitement, joy and wonder. For others, it may be on the other end, fear, uncertainty, dread or even indifference. You wake up in the morning, head out to the bus and before you stepped foot in the building, you already had thoughts, feelings and expectations, negative or positive, based on the environment you were returning to, which then impacted how your day went.
Thinking about your “school leaders,” your teachers, who did you learn best from and perform the best for? It was likely those who encouraged you, who listened to you and who took a collaborative approach to teaching, working in concert with you and your classmates. These basic needs to be heard and valued do not change much as we enter adulthood.
Similarly, no one walks into work an empty slate. They bring their own residual thoughts, feelings and expectations based on their prior experience in your organization and with you as a leader. What can you do or what are you doing, to make your organization a place that people look forward to coming to every day? How can you make it so that they get ready for their “school day”, excited for what they’ll get to create and learn? How can you better listen and find ways to collaborate with the people that have so thoughtfully been chosen to join your team?
Here’s to a great first day, every day!
Ann: Hey Steve, that is an interesting red t-shirt you’re wearing today.
Steve: Yes, this is an interesting red t-shirt and I bought one for you as well!
Ann: Yes, you bought one for me and we will look very well coordinated as we present our strategic plan for the Board this afternoon.
Forces us to suspend judgement of our partner. Due to the rule of saying “Yes, and,” we have no choice but to put our energy into supporting our partner’s idea, regardless of what we may think of it, going against our natural tendency to immediately say, “No” to unconventional or outside the box ideas.
Because of the pace, encourages us to go with the first thought that comes to our mind, instead of allowing the ego to come in and tell us that our idea is not good enough.
Allows us to become comfortable sharing outside of the box ideas because, within the confines of “Yes, and,” we know that our partner is required to support us as we support them.
Rendered powerless, the part of our ego that wants to be in control and have everything figured out. Scenes are build line by line. Not knowing what our partner is going to contribute until it comes out of their mouth, enables us to be in the moment, instead of thinking about and planning what we are going to say next while they are talking.
Creates an even playing field. No one can be “in charge” in an improv scene, as we’re building it together. No one person is better than, or more important than another.
When we are able to circumvent the ego, our best ideas emerge and we are much better equipped to be a fantastic teammate.
Have you ever lost an opportunity or even a job because you were too afraid to fail? I nearly lost my college education because of it.
I was an acting major at SUNY Fredonia. In addition to the traditional academic acceptance, we also had to audition to be accepted into the program. At the end of every semester, we had “Juries”, where we had to perform a monologue for the faculty and they would decide if we had improved enough to stay in the program. A little back-story on me, I entered into college as a traditionally “good student”. I graduated third in my class and was always on the high honor roll. In my mind, if I studied hard enough and could get the answers “right”, I would get a good grade. The same was not true when it came to these acting Juries.
In acting, there are no right or wrong answers, it's all subjective. Think of how two actors can portray the same character in completely different and fascinating ways. Your performance either speaks to the audience, or it doesn’t. At the end of my freshman year, I was put on probation because of my performance. I had been so stuck on doing it “right”, that my performance was too safe. It was not compelling, it was boring. One faculty member put it this way; I was “acting in a bubble”.
Coming back my second year, I was in a situation where, if I did not improve, I would be kicked out of the acting program. Talk about needing to perform under pressure.
Now, I understand that in an organization or in your life, the stakes may be higher than being kicked out of an acting program. Risking failure is never an easy option, but ask yourself what will happen if you don’t do anything? Sometimes if we really look at it, doing nothing is even more risky.
You were chosen because of your talents and skills. What are you keeping from your organization, family or more importantly, the world, if you allow a crippling fear of failure to hold you back from at least trying?
More recently, I designed and facilitated my first group-coaching program, “Leap - Make your next step a bold step.” Of course there was fear in putting myself out there in that capacity. What if no one signs up? I’m not ready, I need to know more about this! What if no one finds value in it?
In the face of these thoughts that clearly came from my ego, which tries so hard to keep me in that same safety bubble, I went for it and oh, how glad I am that I did! Not only was it a stretch for me professionally, it was some of the most rewarding work that I’ve done yet. I was able to provide a space for women to think, to define who it is that they want to be and how they want to move forward in their lives and most importantly, have a community of women to walk with. I’m so glad that I did not let the ever-present threat of failure get in the way.
How will you face your fear and bestow your gifts and talents to the world?
I have a busy two year old at home. The other day I observed the way he climbs up on the couch… face first. It makes sense. The head is a heavy part of his body, so it provides a good anchor while he works on pulling up the rest of his body. It made me think about how I attack challenges and take risks and what I can learn from his approach. Here’s what stuck out.
1. The Quickest way to get where you want may seem awkward, but it does the job.
How often do we over-prepare, getting stuck at 90% readiness thinking that we have to get to 100% before taking a risk or putting something out there, whether it’s a project, career choice or simply an idea for a solution to a challenge in a team meeting. There are certain things we’ll never be fully ready for, so let’s not get stuck in the present simply because the plan for the future isn’t perfect.
2. Vulnerability is the key to breakthroughs.
I’d say the face is a pretty vulnerable part of the body right? Does it keep my son from risking a smashed nose in order to get where he wants to be? Nope!
That voice in our head that says, “Don’t do that, everyone will laugh at you.” may guard us from embarrassment, but it also keeps us from stepping out of our comfort zone and into personal growth. What if you put that message aside? What would it look like to dive into life with the most vulnerable part of you leading the way?
Yes, making the leap is exciting, but what follows is equally as important, otherwise you’re just stuck with your face in a couch.
A toddler does not question whether or not they can do something, if they really want it. They have a wealth of courage and simply go for it. This is not to say that we should all throw caution to the wind and quit our jobs to go write blogs from a tropical island. I’m simply suggesting that you give yourself the benefit of the doubt every now and then.
It is my firm belief that we are much stronger, wiser and more creative and capable than we give ourselves credit for. Remember, you were once that kid.
I moved to Los Angeles when I was 21 with a BFA in Acting and very little entertainment industry or business experience.
I went to an open audition for an improvised character within the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. At this point, most of my training was around scripted material. But when it came to improv (unscripted theatre), I had very little experience, besides a workshop here or there. What I did know, was that you were supposed to say, “Yes, and”. This means you always listen to and accept your partner’s idea and then add onto it, so that the two of you can effectively create something together without the security of a script.
As I was watching another pair of actors go before me, one of the actors threw their partner under the bus, in order to make themselves look clever and funny. One of the other actors sitting in the audience called out, “Make each other look good!” It made a lot of sense. If we strive to make one another look good in the scene, instead of only looking out for ourselves, then we both look brilliant!
Before I knew it, it was my turn. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I’m a rule follower and went in with the goal of following those two simple rules; say “Yes, and” and “make each other look good.” My partner started the scene (thank goodness!) and I simply agreed with her idea and helped to move the scene forward by adding my own ideas to further support and develop the initial premise. We looked out for each other, and found ways to set the one another up for a laugh. At the end, we had created something together that we would not have created on our own.
A few days later, I got the call that I was hired!
Putting my focus on supporting my partner had not only reduced the pressure that I tend to put on myself, it showed that I could listen, collaborate well and set aside my own ego for the good of the company.
When you’re in a stressful or unexpected situation yourself, possibly feeling out of your element or that you’ve been given more than you can handle, try following these rules yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised at the effect that simply saying “Yes, and” and striving to “make each other look good” can have.
When an unexpected situation arises, start with “Yes”. Instead of reasoning why something won’t work, first give it some space and consideration, explore how it could work.
Actively listen to your co-workers and clients. Instead of thinking about what you're going to say, be present with them. After all, you can’t say “Yes” and add on to, or effectively respond to something you didn’t hear.
Turn your silo into a spider web. Actively look for ways to reach out and support your teammates to make them look amazing.
Who's Afraid of The Big Bad Interview?
The next time you have an interview, remember that you are on the same team and they want to see you succeed. Now get out there and play the role you’ve always dreamed of!
Wait, I'm Supposed to Say "Yes" to Everything?!
The cultural change that I encourage companies to embrace is the “Yes and” mindset. This comes from the number one rule in improvisation, that you always say “Yes” to your partner’s ideas and then take it one step further, by adding on to it, therefore building something together that you would not have come up with individually. It goes against our natural tendencies to automatically say “No” to uncomfortable or unexpected ideas and opens us up to other possibilities.
The first question I get is, “But what if you KNOW that the idea won’t work?” This usually comes from a leader, someone who has wisdom and experience, someone who perhaps already tried that particular idea years ago and doesn’t want their team member wasting time, letting history repeat itself. This thought makes sense, so how do you keep that “Yes and” mindset in these situations?
Let’s start with some clarification. When performing improvisation on stage, no matter what, we abide by the “Yes and” rule. By practicing it, in a safe and supportive space, leaders and teams learn to put their tendency to say “No” aside, in the most extreme form. When we take this mindset back to the workplace, the intent is not to say “Yes and” to everything. The intent, is to let our minds (and hopefully, more often than not, our mouths) say “Yes” and consider that idea for a moment, instead of jumping straight to, “No, and this is why it won’t work.” I call this a Yes Loop.
In those situations, where your experience leads you to believe that an idea will not work, my suggestion is this: help them to get there too, in a collaborative way. Go down the road with them, say “Yes” by taking the time to walk through the idea fully. Get curious, ask questions and certainly let them know what occurred the last time you tried that idea.
You will not only allow them to learn by figuring out the answer with them, you’ve built trust and created a relationship where they will be more likely to continue to come to you with innovative ideas, knowing that you will be there to listen and consider, rather than jumping to “No”.
Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised with a new aspect of the plan that no one thought of last time. It could be the key to making it work!
My son will be one this weekend. He arrived two weeks early and my life changed overnight. It has been an amazing year.
What would you do if you knew that your life was going to change overnight and that it was all going to be okay? So many of us are terrified of change weather it’s a restructuring within our organization or a new addition to our family. What I do know is that there are two ways things could go. It could all blow up in our face, or it could all be okay. So why do we concentrate so much on the former, completely forgetting the latter?
In improvisation, nothing is planned ahead. Therefore, it is all an unexpected situation that can change on a dime and we need to be able to respond immediately. What makes it doable is the fact that we are abiding by the rule that everyone will say “Yes” to the new, and possibly scary situation or idea, and jump on board! Then, we take it a step further by adding onto it, allowing the team to create something together that none of us could have created on our own.
This moves us to a mindset where we know that everything will be okay because we’re all going to support one another. We are not out there struggling alone; we lean on our team and allow our team to lean on us. In improv, we call this, "Making each other look good."
Has your organization gone through a big change recently? Was each person out for themselves, just trying to keep their head above water or were they looking for ways to support one another and find ways to make it work for the whole team?
The former is a default instinct. The latter takes practice, it means taking a moment in a time of stress and checking in, being fully present and taking stock in not only what people are feeling, but also looking for what they need and how you can support them.
Today, weather you in the midst of a big change or not, try to do just that, take a moment to check in, be present and look for a way to support someone in your organization.
1. Sit at the table: This is a great concept from Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. It’s easy to sit yourself at the back of the room and blend into the wall. Instead, assume that your position is at the front, with the other big players. Assume that you belong there as much as anyone else. You’ll give off a different energy, an energy that people will notice and remember.
If your mind is getting in the way of embracing that concept, there is a great Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy, about how your physical positioning can affect how confident and calm you feel in a given situation. Start there.
2. Speak up: Have you ever been in a meeting where you have an idea, but you’re afraid to voice it, and then someone else says exactly what you were thinking? Intuition isn’t just some warm, fuzzy concept, it is a gift and a tool. If your gut gives you a great idea, share it!
3. Ask questions: Chances are, like that great idea, someone else is wondering the same thing, but is also too afraid to ask. Let’s reframe how we think about questions. Rather than assuming that it indicates that we have no idea what is going on, remember that it can also mean that we are listening, engaged and are invested in having a complete understanding of the situation, all of which characteristics that set us apart.
4. Stand out: Here’s a simple one that I got from my theatre teachers as we were entering the world of auditions. When you go to a networking event, a big meeting or an interview, wear something that makes you feel great. In a sea of black suits, don’t be afraid to pop out!
In short, allow yourself to confidently take up space, mentally, physically and vocally. | 2019-04-22T15:58:59Z | http://inspireimprov.com/blog/ |
That this House has considered broadband speeds and advertising.
This House has considered broadband many times before and will, I am sure, do so again. It is only fair for me to begin by saying that this Government, like the previous coalition Government, have made real efforts to roll out broadband across the country. With their track record, they genuinely lead the class in Europe, and we should all welcome the additional money in today’s Budget for yet more broadband. But this debate is not about the provision of broadband itself; it is about a rather simpler fact—the price that people pay for the speed they think they are buying when they sign up to a service.
I shall draw a brief analogy. If you went to a supermarket to buy a bunch of organic grapes, Mr Owen, and you paid for those organic grapes at the checkout but found out afterwards that, in fact, you had only a tenth of the grapes that you thought you had bought and they were not actually organic, you might be rather grumpy. That is analogous to the situation with broadband advertising.
I congratulate my hon. Friend on obtaining this debate. Is it not the case that, in effect, those who advertise in that way obtain by false pretences? They use statistics selectively and in a misleading way to obtain business.
Elsewhere, I have called that practice a fraud on the consumer, and I agree with my right hon. Friend that current practices are simply not fair, reasonable or easily understandable to consumers. Presumably, hon. Members are here because they know that, according to the regulations, just 10% of people who sign up for a service have to receive the advertised speed, so 90% of people do not receive that speed.
I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. Is this debate not also about the need to educate people about their broadband service? It is no use saying that it will be 20% or 30% faster; we need to be specific and ask for specific things to be detailed.
I agree, and I will come on to what those things might be. I think we can all agree that is a pretty well attended Westminster Hall debate. That is because we all agree that things are not working. That is a good place to start.
I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. In many places where broadband is delivered, people ring up BT or another provider, which says, “You will get x speed,” but when they actually get the service in their home, they find that it is a lot slower. That is one issue. There is also a general issue of areas getting broadband but not enough people signing up for it. The problem is a combination of all those things. I think that if people actually got what they thought they were going to get, they would sign up.
I agree. There is a genuine issue with consumer confidence in headline speeds actually being delivered.
My hon. Friend is being most generous in allowing so many interventions. He mentioned that only 10% of people get the broadband speed they want. Will he reflect on the fact that, if that happened in any other sphere of consumer interaction—financial services, for example—there would be major investigations and fines?
I agree. That is why you would be so angry about the bunch of grapes that I imagined you buying, Mr Owen. We need new guidelines from the Advertising Standards Authority. To be fair to the Government, they are keen on such new guidelines emerging, but we should bear in mind that someone, at some point, thought that 10% of people being able to get the advertised speed was a perfectly decent guideline. We need to move on from that mentality.
It is only fair that I do.
I am grateful. One of my constituents, who does not receive the advertised broadband speed, consulted a telephone engineer, who said that the cable that carries the signal is incapable of carrying the advertised speed. That cable is provided by BT, which knows that it is not capable of carrying the advertised speed. Surely that is fraud.
I agree. That is the second of the two issues that I hope to be able to raise. The first is that I think we can all agree that 10% is not enough, and we should have different rules for the number of people who are able to receive a certain speed. We should also be clear about whether the technology is able to deliver what people are sold. I would like there to be a more accurate way of describing the number of people who are able to receive a service and much tighter and more accurate descriptions of the kind of technology that is used to deliver that service. That comes back to the right hon. Lady’s point.
My hon. Friend is making a powerful argument. On that point, is it not the case that a community may get fibre to the cabinet, but speed is lost when the signal goes on to copper, so there can be different speeds right across a rural community?
Houses in such communities get completely different speeds right across the board. Is that not an issue that we must tackle?
Exactly. The right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) is right to mention that this is not just a rural issue but an urban one too.
My hon. Friend is being generous; he has given way to 100% of the official Opposition’s Back Benchers who are here and nearly 100% of the Government Back Benchers. This is not just a rural and urban issue; it affects semi-rural areas, too. Will he reflect on the fact that in individual postcodes, speeds differ vastly from those that are advertised, possibly because of different exchanges?
Absolutely. We need to end up in a position where at least half the people to whom a service is advertised—the distribution of advertising, particularly postal advertising, is often based on postcodes—should be able to receive the service that they are invited to pay for.
I should have said no at the beginning, but since I have been so consistent, I shall give way.
I thank my hon. Friend—I am trying to make it up to 100% on the Government Benches. Does he agree that this whole thing is a minefield? We have just had more money for connecting Devon and Somerset. We all thought that everything would be fine and everyone would get the right broadband speed, but a minefield of confusion has transpired. Should not we have much clearer labelling, adverts—everything, really?
Yes. As I understand it, we could have a separate debate about the broadband roll-out in Devon and Somerset, so let us park that.
We need to end up in a situation where at least half of the people who are offered a service can receive it. On the one hand, that would be a fivefold increase on what is currently offered; on the other, the half of people who, by implication, could not receive that service would still be let down. So a starting point for the ASA to consider would be not only that 50% of people can receive the advertised speed but that a certain amount either side of the average can also receive within a certain percentage of that speed. Let us say that 50% receive the advertised speed and 20% either side can receive within 10% of that. That way, customers would basically know what they were getting.
That would be a revolution compared with the shambles we have at the moment. It would restore consumers’ confidence that the service they were paying for was what they were getting. I hope it would also encourage some businesses to adopt the good practice that, to be fair, BT has adopted of trying to provide each individual customer at the point of signing up with a personalised suggestion of what their speed will be. We should not pretend that the industry has not tried to make progress, but we should certainly acknowledge that the ASA guidelines do not compel it to do so, and that is a position that we would like all to get to.
The hon. Gentleman has outlined clearly the difficulties for domestic properties. In my constituency, a large number of people who have become self-employed and work from home were misled by advertising that they would get broadband at the speed they needed—the fact of the matter is that they do not. Does he agree—perhaps the Minister will respond to this—that there is a need for people who were misled by advertising and have not had delivery of what they need to get compensation?
The hon. Gentleman pre-empts my next sentence. Business or consumer, if a person does not fall within the prescribed bounds of the new guidelines, which I hope will be much more stringent, they should be entitled to get out of the contract immediately, whatever terms they signed up to. Getting into the realms of compensation would probably open up a can of worms and not solve the issue for that consumer or business, but people should certainly be able to escape immediately and try to find another solution.
The second part of the discussion is to say that where a service is advertised as fibre, it should be entirely a fibre service. If a service is compromised by the use of copper as it enters a person’s premises, at the very least they should know that when they sign up to that service. If they do not, my fear is that we will encourage the continuation of a network that is not a full-fibre network across the country. That is what our constituents would all like to see, and it is what we and they all know is essential to planning for a new world, whether it is the internet of things or simply keeping up with our cousins abroad who are rolling broadband out even faster than we are.
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend and neighbour for giving way. May I say that I am delighted to see so many Lincolnshire MPs in the debate?
And other counties—sorry. As my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) knows, I held a broadband summit in my constituency, and many constituents in rural areas made the point that they get so far and then the copper lets them down. Is it not critical that advertising for services is straight with the consumer and tells it like it is?
Exactly. A fibre service should be fibre from beginning to end. If it is not, providers should not be ashamed of telling the consumer that it is not. At the moment, part of the fraud being perpetrated on consumers is that not only can just one in 10 sometimes get the service they are paying, for but many of them are signing up for a service that is simply not in the ground full stop. Those are two simple issues that I hope the Advertising Standards Authority, in a process that it has already begun, will be able to resolve relatively swiftly.
There are not many things on which we come to the House asking for simple and attainable solutions that do not cost anyone any money. However, I would submit—not only to you, Mr Owen, but even to the Minister—that we could solve this problem relatively quickly if the ASA is listening, which I hope it is. My two requests are simple. They are that at least half of all consumers should be able to receive the service they are paying for, with 20% either side being able to receive within a certain range of that service, and that a service that is fibre should be fibre from beginning to end.
May I suggest that the hon. Gentleman’s ambition is too low? I cannot think of anywhere else I buy something and am guaranteed to get only 50% of what I buy—I expect 100%. It seems to me that, from the beginning of the contract, we have been satisfied with less than 100%, and the consequences are that not just rural areas but urban areas such as Slough—big business areas—are not being treated properly.
I am surprised that it has taken 15 minutes for someone to raise that point, but perhaps I should not have taken so many interventions. I agree with the right hon. Lady that the accusation could be made that I am not being ambitious enough. The fact remains that a large number of our constituents will be signing up to part-fibre services. The only practical way to have large-scale advertising of those services is to stick with an “up to” model, and 50% with a range either side is a heck of a lot more stringent than we have had thus far, but it is attainable. I would like the ASA to come back and say, “Actually, we could be tougher, and we think that is perfectly reasonable,” but I suspect the pressure is on it to stay closer to 10% than 50%. I therefore accept the principle of her point, but given that an awful lot of people will still require copper connections in the near future at the very least, we are lumbered with a situation where we have to try to make a nod towards the problems they will face.
I accept that there is a sort of third way of saying, “If you have a full-fibre connection, you can demand that it is within 90% of the advertised speed,” or something like that. It is important that we preserve the sense of such advertising, which can be clear and relatively straightforward. I think it might be too complicated to say, “If you are on a full-fibre connection you are guaranteed to get within 90%, if you on a part-fibre connection you are guaranteed to get within 50%, and if you are on a satellite connection, it will be a rather different ball game altogether.” We have to be pragmatic when we seek to influence the deliberations of the ASA, but, as I said, the Government and many Members are on the same page in seeking to get the guidelines amended. We all acknowledge that the way broadband is currently advertised to consumers is fundamentally broken. If we do not fix it, we risk compromising consumer faith in the service offered. More fundamentally, if we do not force advertisers to be open about when their services are full-fibre, as our constituents deserve, we risk not just bad advertising but the roll-out of broadband in the country being further delayed and even less perfect than it already is.
This debate is not purely about advertising. If we get the rules on advertising right, that will foster the improved roll-out of broadband across the country and greater take-up of services already available to consumers, and that enhanced take-up will result in further money going back into the system and further roll-out of the broadband service. I hope that we can all support my relatively modest—perhaps too modest—proposals, that the Government can support them and that, further, the ASA will listen to them. With that, I will hand over to all my colleagues who have intervened already.
Before calling Patricia Gibson to speak, I remind hon. Members that I will call the Scottish National party Front-Bench spokesperson at 5.10 pm. The SNP and Labour spokespeople will have five minutes and the Minister will have 10, of which he may want to give some time for a brief conclusion from the sponsor of the debate.
I thank the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) for bringing the debate to the House. Another day, another debate on broadband—the subject never gets old. Even though we seem to debate broadband every day, it still pulls a big crowd. Our postbags are bulging with quite justifiable complaints about broadband; every Member here will be well versed in their constituents’ problems with broadband.
As we have heard, the issue for consumers is that when they purchase a broadband service, they deserve transparent, accurate information on their broadband speeds. I am sure that is why so many of us welcome the review of how broadband speed is advertised and why there really needs to be a change in the advertising guidance. Most broadband packages are advertised with their headline speeds—for example, 20 Mbps—but as many constituents tell us, it is unlikely that a customer will be able to receive that headline speed all of the time, and some customers will not receive it any of the time. That may be because of where that customer lives, electrical interference or the demand on the network at peak times.
There is a problem with how headline broadband speeds are advertised and presented to consumers. The broadband speed claims advertising guidance explains that headline speed claims are permitted to be advertised if they are achievable by at least 10% of the relevant customer base where the qualification “up to” is used when presenting the headline broadband speed. That is not good enough. Hon. Members have asked today what other consumer group for another product would be happy with that level of service and advertising.
In November, the Advertising Standards Authority published independent research into consumers’ understanding of broadband speed claims made in advertisements and found—not surprisingly—that speed is an important factor for a significant proportion of consumers when deciding between providers. While levels of knowledge and understanding of broadband speeds vary, overall knowledge, as hon. Members probably expect, is quite low, with many consumers not knowing what speed they require to carry out daily online tasks. As hon. Members may also expect, most consumers believe that they are likely to receive a speed at or close to the headline speed claim, when in most cases that is not likely.
What does that tell us? It tells us that, in the interests of transparency and accuracy, there simply has to be a change in the way broadband speed claims are advertised to ensure that consumers are not misled, as they clearly are currently. The Advertising Standards Authority has now called for that, and the Committee of Advertising Practice has announced it will review its guidance to advertisers and is expected to report publicly soon. Further to that, Ofcom has asked internet service providers to sign up to a voluntary code of practice for residential broadband speeds that would require internet service providers to provide consumers with clear, accurate information on broadband speeds, including the maximum speeds they can achieve, the estimated speed on their line and factors that may slow down the speed, with a route of redress when speed performance is poor.
The hon. Lady is making a powerful speech. She mentioned speeds of 100 Mbps; in parts of my constituency, speeds of between 1 and 2 Mbps are not unusual. Will she join the call from my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) for accuracy in advertising about 100% fibre—not just the part-fibre, part-copper solution?
I will absolutely join him in that. The important thing we all agree on is that consumers need to be given all of the information. As somebody said, it does not matter how bad that information might be; if customers are not given all of it, how on earth are they supposed to make an informed choice about their service provider?
I will finish by pointing out that many consumers are bamboozled by the technicalities of broadband speeds, but every consumer wants and deserves the clearest, most accurate and transparent information and experience possible from internet providers. That is expected—indeed, it is not even debated—in other areas in the marketplace, so why should it not apply to internet service providers? Only then can consumers freely and knowingly enter into a contract with an internet service provider and understand what expectations they should have.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) for bringing this important debate on broadband speeds to the House.
Broadband speeds and broadband in general are probably the biggest issue we deal with in my constituency office in North Cornwall. Broadband is increasingly becoming a necessity, and I am pleased with the Government’s announcements around new builds and some of the changes to building regulations that will help many of my constituents to get speeds of 10 Mbps by 2020. That will go down well in some of the villages in my constituency. Cornwall is one of the most superfast-connected areas in Europe, with around 95% of people having access to it, but that does not help the 5% of people who do not have access. I assure hon. Members that they write to me regularly.
A number of villages—Treven near Launceston, Stoke Climsland, Blisland, Tintagel, St Minver—currently receive an inadequate service. Either there is no service at all, or there is a copper-fibre solution that really does not work for them. There are many households that do not have access to a decent broadband speed, and the fibre-to-the-cabinet but copper-to-the-door solution is not beneficial to anyone. I am pleased that Ofcom is looking at how to check speeds on the doorstep, rather than from the cabinet. That will mean customers have much better access to the speed that they have been offered.
My office is compiling a “notspot” map for North Cornwall to plot constituents with poor broadband access and who want access to superfast—or to any connection at all that is faster than they currently have. Unfortunately, many people have been turned down for superfast because they are deemed to be in an area that is not viable. We have a local solution: Cornwall Broadband is filling in the gaps and maintaining speeds where superfast is not being provided by the current provider. Our notspot map is proving to be very useful, because we can plot whole communities and areas that do not have access to superfast—even for some of our small villages and hamlets.
Everyone now relies on broadband as they go about their day-to-day lives. Small businesses in the countryside and some of our farmers who submit returns online have to have access to that information. It is not an effective use of an architect’s time to wait for six hours to download his plans, and the productivity of some of our rural businesses is affected. Reaching a target of 99% superfast connectivity is therefore very important to rural communities.
More generally, we need access to mobile connectivity across Devon and Cornwall. I am pleased to see some of the changes to the electronics code in the Digital Economy Bill that will provide better access to sites and masts. Hon. Members present, including my hon. Friends the Members for Taunton Deane (Rebecca Pow) and for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish), will know that there are problems with accessing broadband on trains to the south-west. It is frustrating when trying to work through a journey and be productive and broadband is not available.
I am pleased with the Government’s announcement on 10 Mbps. We need greater transparency on upload and download speeds, and we need Ofcom to ensure that connections can be checked on the doorstep so that people get exactly what they have paid for and what is on the tin. I welcome what the Government have done so far and I look forward to further announcements.
from Slough. That is the situation.
I am very glad that the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) raised the advertising issue, because many people are being conned, but I want us not to add to the confusion by implying that this is only an issue in rural areas. It is horrifying that in such an important industrial centre as Slough, our businesses cannot get the speeds that they need in order to compete.
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I wish to add to the cacophony of congratulations for my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) on securing this important debate. In many respects, my speech will mirror that of the right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart).
According to the latest figures we have, Solihull enjoyed an economic growth rate of 7.2% in 2015, which is akin to the growth seen in China. It is a go-ahead town. It has many of the modern industries and a trade surplus with the EU. It is a centre of the country and is leading with the combined authority. However, we are hobbled and hamstrung by poor broadband provision and misleading advertising. My constituents have had enough, to such an extent that there is a petition with many hundreds of names on it calling for better broadband provision and honest advertising.
The figure of 10% of customers achieving the advertised speeds is absolute nonsense. A point that other hon. Members have made and I will repeat is that fibre should refer only to actual fibre broadband, not to part-fibre, part-copper or aluminium solutions. I hope the Advertising Standards Authority understands that fundamental point and that that message rings loud and clear today.
Among the cases I have come across in my constituency are businesses telling me that, despite the fact they have a superfast cabinet right outside their building, they are still suffering slow broadband speeds because the cabinet is routed to many miles away.
Some constituents tell me they have given up. We try to have a flexible labour market and a flexible economy. They have heard that and so have stayed at home to look after others and have what we call a portfolio career and lifestyle, yet they are finding when they turn on their computer that they cannot perform the tasks they need to in order to put bread on the table and make that commitment work. That is a great let-down.
I have heard a litany of complaints from a brand-new estate in my constituency, the Berry Maud estate, about its broadband connection. Young professionals cannot work from home because they cannot connect to the internet and therefore cannot stream videos. We ask children now to have iPads and use the internet for their vital schoolwork; they are at a disadvantage because they are so poorly served by their broadband. We need to consider that.
I know that other hon. Members want to speak, so I will finish. It is time for honesty, openness and transparency. It is time we looked at a nationwide solution. I understand the particular concerns about rural broadband, which my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Scott Mann) spoke about, but as the right hon. Member for Slough said, this is a nationwide problem. It is hampering our economy and hurting people’s lives.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) for bringing this subject to the House for discussion.
The importance of having access to reliable and fast broadband should not be underestimated. It increases every day, as more and more of our lives and work rely on access to the internet. As such, empowering consumers and businesses with greater knowledge about the services being offered to them so that they can make better informed choices about which provider suits their needs best is vital.
While I accept the point made by the right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) about this being a national issue, it is particularly prevalent in rural areas, such as my constituency. I will take this opportunity to talk about the importance of broadband to rural areas and lend my voice to the call for greater transparency in advertising regarding broadband speeds. Access to broadband is vital to both individuals and businesses in rural areas, yet they are all too often receiving an inadequate service.
Before Christmas, I campaigned for election on a platform of increasing broadband access to 100% in Sleaford and North Hykeham from the current level of 89%. Access to broadband is not a luxury but a necessity. I have had productive conversations with the Minister for Digital and Culture and am confident that that aim will be realised, but it is not enough to have connectivity. Consumers must also have a suitably fast broadband speed and clear information about which providers can achieve that.
As my hon. Friend the Member for North Cornwall (Scott Mann) said, areas of low population density need access to broadband more, to order grocery shopping and manage bank accounts. A local barrister wrote to me to say he is not able to work from home any more because it takes so long to download his court papers that he cannot get them done in time. As local government goes digital by default, many who lack broadband will take twice as long to complete online tax forms and suchlike, with rural businesses suffering unfair economic losses as a result.
The importance of the internet cannot be overstated, and it is wrong that some people are being left behind, creating a situation of haves and have-nots. It is wrong that people who are excited to at last receive a better broadband connection find they are not getting what they think they have paid for. The key issue is the advertising of not only potential maximum speeds and fibre-optic or fibre-copper combinations but the realistic minimum speed that people are likely to achieve.
There have been important steps forward, such as the Government’s plan to build a world-class digital infrastructure as outlined in the UK digital strategy, which is welcome. The Ofcom voluntary code of practice for broadband speeds has been adopted by many of our largest internet service providers, but that code is voluntary and only two thirds of internet service providers used by small and medium-sized enterprises have signed up to it. I hope that the review currently being undertaken by the Committee of Advertising Practice will result in guidelines that create more honesty and transparency, as all hon. Members have said, for consumers and businesses. That is what our constituents need and deserve to keep pace with the digital world.
We will now begin the Front-Bench speeches. Calum Kerr has an extra minute, as does Ms Haigh.
Fantastic. Thank you very much, Mr Owen; you are now my favourite Chair.
I thought I was going to have to write to the ASA about the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman), who was supposed to lead this debate, but only about 10% of the content was him; the other 90% was his colleagues. I am sure he will not be lacking people buying him a beer at the bar. I congratulate him on securing the debate and on having a good evening.
This is a welcome debate, and I am sure the hon. Gentleman is destined for great things. The focus on broadband is appropriate. Today we are homing in on a particular aspect, so this debate has not been the usual venting of frustration about poor broadband speeds. He made some interesting suggestions.
It is important to recognise that in a world where the majority of our broadband is delivered through fibre to the cabinet, broadband speeds will, by definition, vary because of the delivery mechanism. It is hard to nail down a top-line speed that everyone will always receive. Granted, the Minister is leading us on a crusade towards fibre, which we endorse and encourage to happen faster. That will make things simpler, because if everyone is fibre-connected it is much easier to say that people can get a certain level of speed. The hurdle is normally in the last mile. Going forward, with fibre everywhere, the potential bottleneck is in the backhaul, but things will at least become much easier. I thought that the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness gave an excellent introduction, despite his colleagues’ “help”.
On the point that fibre means fibre, that was actually said in proceedings on the Digital Economy Bill. The Minister, who I am sure will remind us of this, was very pleased with himself, because it came shortly after “Brexit means Brexit”. When asked what fibre meant, the Minister said that “fibre means fibre”, and we all thought, “Actually, that’s pretty good.” He should tell the ASA that, because if we look on its website, we find that when challenged on this issue, it has repeatedly said that it is acceptable to call FTTC “fibre broadband”.
The problem is that we have given advertising agencies far too much scope over the years. It is a fact that life does not go better with Coca-Cola and a Mars bar does not help you work, rest and play, and if companies are not giving fibre to the house—that is not the same as giving copper to the house— they should say so. That is what the adverts should be telling us.
I completely agree. I saw a bizarre exchange on Twitter, in which a very senior individual in BT, when challenged on its claims about fibre delivery, said, “Well, we deliver fibre broadband by a different route.” The reply was, “You mean copper, in other words, so it’s not really fibre, is it?” That is something that should be flushed out. The point that the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness made, and others reinforced, was that there needs to be integrity in the offer.
I would like to touch on a couple of aspects of the problem. The issue is not just the speed, but how broadband is packaged. If people go on BT’s site or Virgin’s site, they will find an “up to” package. Part of the frustration is that those buckets are very large. Whether I get 1 Mbps, 2 Mbps or 10 Mbps, if I have signed up to an up to 17 Mbps package, that really rankles. I am paying the same as someone with 17 times the speed that I have. There is not actually an answer to that. Ofcom will tell us that the market has to deliver more choice, but in rural areas more than urban areas, the market does not function. There are challenges there.
I will make a few other quick points, but by the way, the idea of grapes was genius. That was the sort of thing we used to bring the teacher. I do not know whether that was what the hon. Gentleman was hinting at. He will be turning up with seedless grapes for you next time, Mr Owen.
Compensation, which the Digital Economy Bill empowered being put in place, is a welcome addition. At the moment, Ofcom is minded to make it possible only in a loss of service situation, and I accept that that is a reasonable starting point, but our direction of travel should be to say that broadband is far more than just a headline download speed. It is about download, upload and potentially latency, although not if we go with fibre. We should be able to expect a maximum and an average. The idea of a broadband package doing what it says on the tin should be considered, and ultimately compensation should go far further.
I repeat the congratulations to the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness on bringing this debate forward. We clearly need to improve clarity about what broadband packages involve. I am sure that the Minister is keen to ensure that fibre means fibre and that people get broadband that does what it says on the tin.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen—you have always been my favourite Chair.
As the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) outlined excellently, with the Committee of Advertising Practice due to report imminently, this is a good moment for the House to influence the debate about advertising speeds—I am sure the committee will have been taking note of the debate. As all hon. Members who have spoken have outlined, businesses and people in homes up and down this country are sick and tired of being sold broadband only to realise that the advertised speed was only a headline and that, in many cases, consumers will never be likely to receive it.
In part, that is a reflection of the fact that for more than 400,000 small businesses, the market has failed to deliver superfast broadband fit for the future. Many people in business parks in places such as Slough have been badly let down, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) mentioned. However, it is also because of the utterly absurd existing advertising standards, which allow providers to claim speeds that are achievable by only 10% of the relevant consumer base. That undoubtedly leaves people duped or, as the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness said, perpetrates a fraud on the consumer.
Research by independent testing groups has found that up to three quarters of households are paying for advertised broadband speeds that they have never received. Obviously, that is completely unacceptable. It is incomparable to the situation with similar advertising claims across industries, which reveals just how desperately weak those advertising standards are. The hon. Gentleman mentioned grapes, but if a consumer is sold a burger that is advertised as 80% to 90% meat, the producer is legally bound to ensure that that meat is of the advertised quality. There is absolutely no leeway. Thanks to the strict regulation that governs that industry, consumers can be confident in what they are buying. That is why the Opposition support the calls from hon. Members for much more stringent guidelines based on what a majority—figures of 50% and 100% have been mentioned—can receive. We need to ensure that advertised broadband speeds are upheld.
That would be a good start, but the upcoming report and recommendations are also an opportunity to insist that broadband providers be honest with their consumers—honest about the technology that connects them, as well as about the speed that they are actually receiving. I therefore hope that consideration is given to another way of measuring speed—measuring the average for each individual user. That would reflect recommendations made by the National Infrastructure Commission on mobile coverage. It raised concerns, which I share, about the need to develop a meaningful set of metrics that represent the coverage that people actually receive.
As we have heard, the FTTC roll-out means that once the connection has made its way along the copper from the cabinet to the home, speeds are highly unlikely to be at superfast level and are much more likely to be in the region of 17 Mbps. Advertising an average speed for each user is clearly far preferable. That would put power back in the hands of the consumer and small businesses and demonstrate to them the reality of the claims made by providers. That in turn might induce a certain amount of consumer activism, with consumers pushing for a much more ambitious roll-out of fibre-to-the-premises and viewing superfast broadband as the bare minimum as they come to recognise that the speeds they receive are simply not fast enough. It would potentially give consumers the tools to encourage the Government and industry to get them up to speed. It might even be the final nail in the coffin for the Government’s plan to deliver only a 10 Mbps universal service obligation. As the other House has now found, that is simply not fit for purpose.
I urge the Government once again to accept a superfast designation. The industry itself is potentially coming round to that. I want to give the Minister time to respond, so I will finish by saying that the recommendations by the Committee of Advertising Practice mark a significant moment, and I hope that the Government will take this opportunity to ensure that consumers can have the confidence they deserve.
Mr Owen, you are also my favourite Chair. Responding to the debate is a great opportunity, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman) for securing it. It is an unusual debate, because on the broad principles that have been set out, everyone—across parties and across rural and urban areas; the Government, the Opposition and Back Benchers—is in agreement.
Hon. Members have spoken passionately today. In some cases, they gave precise details of problems with broadband roll-out. We are making progress there, but clearly there is more to do. In fact, thinkbroadband, which measures these things independently, announced today that the figure for superfast broadband availability is now up to 92.5% of UK premises. We are on track for our target of 95% by the end of this year. That is good news on the roll-out. That is superfast broadband measured at 24 Mbps, which brings us to the meat of the debate—the clarity with which these things are recorded and measured.
I stand by that, not least because we launched the strategy last week. I hope that Members will forgive me for the length of that direct quotation, but it is important. I also hope that I can accurately put some advertising in place myself; for those who have not read the digital strategy, it is well worth a full read.
On the mechanics of this, as many Members have said, the broadband speed claims that can be made in adverts are regulated by the independent Advertising Standards Authority. It is a good thing that the Government do not directly regulate advertising. However, I am sure the ASA will want to listen to the strength of feeling that has been expressed unanimously during this debate by Members representing hundreds of thousands of people and many businesses.
Will the Minister commit to writing to the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure that it follows through on this issue?
Yes—I might include a copy of the Hansard, although I know that the Advertising Standards Authority will be listening because I spoke to its chief exec yesterday to explain that this debate was going to take place. I explained that it is not only the Government’s view that we need to have more accurate advertising, but a widely held view in Parliament.
To give the ASA credit, it has made serious progress in one area. Last year it changed the rules on prices for landlines and line rental being advertised separately from the price for just the broadband element. Previously, an advert might have had the broadband cost and then said in the small print at the bottom, “You also need line rental of £19.99 a month.” Now it has changed those rules, so the costs are amalgamated. That has been a success and, in a way, shows what an effective body the ASA is when it insists on accurate advertising.
That is a really important point, because we have seen that there is real competition in the line rental part of the sector. It is a bit like the case of low-cost airlines—once the whole price is considered, competitors compete across every part of it. By making that change the ASA has driven far greater competition, and it should be encouraged by that.
Yes, it should. Its sister body, the Committee of Advertising Practice, which is responsible for writing the UK advertising codes, is now in the midst of reviewing its guidance on broadband speed claims and is on course to publish the findings of that review this spring—I am sure that it will listen carefully to this debate.
“A higher proportion of UK premises can access fibre broadband than in any of the other four major European economies (Germany, France, Spain, and Italy)”.
That is not true. It is true only if “fibre” is defined as being part fibre and part something else, whether copper or aluminium. If fibre is defined as being fibre—I believe that fibre means fibre—in fact we are not the best of the five major European economies, but the worst. Accuracy would help BT to provide more accurate briefing notes, and its use of the term “fibre” should be updated. I am sure that the ASA will be able to take that forward in due course.
I want to touch on a couple of the other comments that were made. My hon. Friend the Member for Solihull (Julian Knight) and the right hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart), in a commendably crisp speech, made points about business connections. If anything, this issue is more important for business customers, because businesses of different sizes may need services of different scales. Whereas a superfast connection is more than most households would need at the moment, if businesses have several people working on data-heavy projects they might need a highly scalable product, and for that, the technology really matters.
I am sure that everyone is delighted that in the Budget this afternoon, the Chancellor announced significant progress on having a full-fibre business voucher. I am delighted that that will now be rolled out. We proposed it first in the autumn statement and consulted on it in the last couple of months. I am delighted that it was part of the Budget; it will be an important step forward. However, we have had to describe that as “full fibre” to get away from the completely unnecessary ambiguity over the term “fibre”. I am confident that that will change soon.
The second point I want to touch on—again, this was raised by the right hon. Member for Slough—is the appropriate proportion of customers who should be able to get a particular speed. That is technically difficult, especially because speeds vary when more people get on to the network, so it is important to ensure that we get the technical specifications right. I have full confidence that the ASA, in listening to this debate and to customers around the country, and in considering the technical challenges, will come to a reasonable conclusion. I look forward to working with it to get there and to engaging with Members on both sides of the House to make sure that we have a fully functioning, competitive, well-informed and accurate broadband market, and that people no longer feel the frustration of being misled by thinking that they are buying one service when, in fact, they are delivered another.
I thank the Minister for that response and echo what he said. We are clearly all on the same side of this argument, and it would be good if the ASA took note of that. I would be surprised if the ASA was not looking at a majority rule of some sort. I am sure we would all agree not only that that is the right thing to do but that implementing an improved standard of advertising cannot come soon enough. As we have discussed, it should ensure that more than 50% of people receive the speed that they pay for and that fibre means fibre.
I thank all Members who have taken part in this debate. Mr Owen, you are, of course, my favourite Chair as well—I look forward to serving under your chairmanship in the next broadband debate. | 2019-04-20T22:38:50Z | https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-03-08/debates/ADC938E7-C174-4C41-A67E-DBAFF0011AFD/Broadband |
The name may not ring a bell, but Carl Chambers was a major contributor to the garage band scene of the 1960's. After he launched his musical profession as lead guitarist for various local bands in Florida, Carl parlayed his earlier successes into a flourishing song writing venture during the '70s and '80s, and eventually composed a number one smash hit for the country super group, Alabama. It is, of course, his work with his many '60s bands that piqued our interest. From his playing days with the Dynamics, Ron & The Starfires, and the legendary, We The People, through his association with the Canadian Rogues and, later, the Shadows of Knight, Carl has had an illustrious career. The Lance Monthly gives a big thanks to him for sharing his early highlights with us. LM) Prior to you joining the Starfires in 1963, the band was well established in the Florida area. What were your thoughts on the band?
[Carl] The Starfires were the first "live" rock and roll band I had ever seen or heard. They were musically raw and crude and my heros. I spent many a Saturday night along the wall of the Auburndale Teen Center in a trance, tappin' my toes to that simple drivin' beat. They made me want to do that.
[LM] How did you, then, become an official member of the Starfires?
[Carl] The Starfires had been together about three to four years when some of the guys decided to walk some other paths. Ron Whitney (the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist) and Charlie Brown (the lead guitar player) wanted to keep the group alive and called me because I played lead guitar in another band there in Auburndale at the time. Charlie switched to playing bass for a while and they hired another local by the name of Ray Lee as the drummer. Originally, when I joined the group, it was a quartet and we played that way for several months until the original drummer (Allen Keefer) returned to that position and my cousin Jesse Chambers (bass) joined the band after leaving the Legends.
[LM] What was the name of the band you were with prior to joining the Starfires?
[Carl] The first band I put together was the Dynamics. In those days personnel would vary, often from job to job, mainly because we were all teenagers and had not learned the value of commitment and loyalty. Most of the time, it consisted of my cousin, Jesse Chambers (bass), Jon Corneal (drums), Buddy Canova (sax) and Billy Joe Chambers (vocals and rhythm guitar). Toward the end it also included Bobby Braddock (now a legendary country songwriter) on piano who also taught us the value of serious rehearsal and professionalism and also used me as lead guitarist on my very first recording session. We played roughly from 1960-1962.
[LM] Earlier you mentioned The Legends. That band is best remembered today for including both Gram Parsons and Jim Stafford.
[Carl] The Legends were from Winter Haven, another small town about five miles south-east of Auburndale. Gram Parsons and Jim Stafford were the anchors of the group and had played with a loose group of various Winter Haven high schoolers until they lost several members to graduation and college. Gram convinced Jesse and Jon (from the Dynamics) to join up with him and Jim, and they played for about a year in that configuration. The Legends had a Volkswagen van with their name painted on the side. For 1962 that was a lot of class. All four of these guys would go on to leave their marks on the national and international music scenes. Jim Stafford and I were pretty good friends and would often trade guitars and licks although he was such a phenomenal guitar player I usually couldn't do the stuff he could work out. He'd let me show him a blues lick every now and then. Gram Parsons was a spoiled rich kid with lots of talent and big ideas. We jammed in his room a few times but I never actually played out with him anywhere. He was very charismatic and had a way with the ladies.
[LM] Ron & The Starfires started out playing mostly blues and rhythm and blues cover songs, but changed once the British Invasion hit America full stride. What did you think of the English bands at that time?
[Carl] We always did a lot of R&B, but the first time I heard the "Meet The Beatles" album, I knew the future of music had taken a turn. This was like nothing I had ever heard before. A little bit R&B, a little bit country, a lot of rock and roll. I liked several others of the English groups of the era, such as the Zombies and Rolling Stones, but none impressed me like The Beatles. Eventually we were doing about a 50/50 split of R&B and English-style rock. What did I think of them? I thought it was incredible that people so far away were listening to and playing our (American) music. I'm still amazed at the impact a few rock and roll pioneers had on what is called popular music in the world today.
[LM] What were some of the more popular venues that Ron & The Starfires played? How popular was the band locally?
[Carl] Ron and the Starfires played an extensive circuit of municipal teen centers and teen clubs that were very popular venues in the early and mid sixties. During the Fall and Spring, we played primarily in Gainesville on and around the campus of the University of Florida and in the Daytona Beach area. We were made honorary pledges at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity at the University of Florida, and played most of their house functions. We were also very popular at several other fraternities in town, as well as at The Pier in Daytona Beach. We did a few out of state jobs up into Georgia. Our longevity speaks of our popularity. The Starfires were together (with only a couple of personnel changes) from 1963 until 1970. (That is) a long time for a local band that rarely played in a night club or lounge.
[LM] Did this popularity translate into any local TV appearances?
[Carl] I don't think so. There was a "live" 'American Bandstand'-style television show, Saturday afternoons on WFLA-TV in Tampa, that the original Starfires, the Dynamics, and the Legends played quite often, but I think the show had run it's course by the time I joined up with the Starfires.
[LM] Ron & The Starfires played with two of the best Florida garage bands of that era, the Nightcrawlers and the Birdwatchers. What do you recall about these bands? What other local bands impressed you during this time?
[Carl] Both were great bands and enjoyed "star" status in Florida. We were pretty close friends with the Nightcrawlers (in the Daytona area) and recorded some of Charlie Conlon's tunes in 1966 or so. We got to know the Birdwatchers' Bobby Puccetti when he played some keyboards on one of our recording sessions in Miami. Some time later we had the opportunity to open a show for them. Another group we often hung out with when we were in the Daytona area was the Allman Joys. Greg (Allman) could do Ray Charles like nobody I'd ever heard and Duane (Allman) always insisted that Ron sing "that Bobby 'Blue' Bland song" we did call "Stormy Monday Blues."
[LM] Ron & The Starfires had a regional hit in the Gainesville and Daytona areas with "The Grass Is Greener" on the Lee C label. Do you recall the circumstances leading to the single?
[Carl] Michael Stone, the manager of the Nightcrawlers, really liked us and set up and produced a recording session for us at Criteria Studios in Miami. Ron had written three or four tunes and we recorded those as well as a couple of covers we had rearranged. "The Grass is Greener" was actually the "B" side of the single but it was the one that got the most attention and airplay. The flip side was, in my opinion, a more commercial tune called "Why Did You Cry?" I believe Mike still has the masters from this session.
[LM] Did any of these other songs ever get released?
[Carl] Yes, we did get a release on another song we recorded in Miami about a year or so later, that Ron, Jesse, and myself wrote called "Lyla" but I don't think it was ever promoted. It was produced by Brad Shapiro on the Kim Records label, and the artist was listed as Ron Starr (??). The flip-side was a Charlie Conlon tune called "Crawl Into My Shoulder."
[LM] How many unreleased Ron & The Starfires recordings are in the can?
[Carl] During the second session we recorded several songs Charlie Conlon, of "Little Black Egg" fame, had written. It's too bad the masters of these recordings didn't survive (at least to my knowledge) because a couple of these were the best stuff we ever did. [They were] very commercial for the time. I managed to get, and still have, a board mix of the session on cassette but the quality is less than ideal.
[LM] In 1967, Ron & The Starfires filmed some of the very first music videos with Eric Shaubaker of the Bee Jay Booking Agency and Recording Studio. What do you remember about these videos?
[Carl] Eric had this idea that the future of music was gonna be in video. He had this huge video tape machine and camera that he would cart out into the parking lot and video tape the acts that he handled. Then he'd carry this contraption, along with a monitor, around to the various buyers and let them choose the acts they wanted from the video. In our portion of the video, we performed a Neil Diamond song "Solitary Man." Many years later he had the original video restored as best as was possible and sent both Ron and myself a copy of the Starfires performance. My VCR has been busted for some time so I'm not sure if my copy still plays.
[LM] As noted, the Starfires started out as a blues/rhythm and blues cover band, changed with the arrival of the "British Invasion" to sound more like the English bands, and then finally adding horns. Which one of these musical styles--or sounds--was your favorite?
[Carl] I've always been partial to '60s R&B and I loved playing with the horns (I had another "horn" band in the early '70s). It's just hard to beat the power that an eight or nine piece band generates. But then I also really enjoyed playing the other styles too. We could mix 'em up and do both styles equally well. During the '60s and early '70s, rock and roll in general was fun to play. Then it started to fragment and get weird (to say nothing of the artists). I still play in a retro-rock band with a couple of the original members of another local '60s garage band, the Canadian Rogues.
[LM] The Canadian Rogues? Do you know them from your playing days in the '60s?
[Carl] Actually, during the '60s, I'm not sure if any of us actually knew each other, but we were definitely familiar with each other's reputations and on occasion played jobs on the same bill in and around Lakeland--a larger city, about 10 miles west of Auburndale--where they were from. Willie Metts, the Canadian Rogues lead singer, was a great and charismatic R&B singer. Willie was acquainted with and could sound just like Otis Redding when he wanted to. It was in the early '70s that we first got together with Willie. In about 1973, Jesse and I put together Raintree County, an eight-piece horn band that featured Willie on vocals. In about 1991, Jesse and I started playing with Willie, Ronnie Harrell, and Dane Streets, all three from the original Canadian Rogues, in a new version of the Rogues doing retro-rock from the '50s, '60s and '70s. Willie passed away (heart attack) in the mid-'90s and Jesse left the group soon thereafter. I still play with the Rogues a few times a year.
[LM] In late 1968, you joined another popular--and now highly revered--garage band in the We The People. How did your association with that band begin?
[Carl] Ron and the Starfires were well known in the Orlando area where We The People were located. When Tommy Talton left them, Ron Dillman (their manager), for some reason, thought I would fit into the group.
[LM] Were you aware of Talton, or Wayne Proctor, the main songwriters for the band, prior to joining We The People?
[Carl] I was familiar with their reputations but I didn't know either Talton or Proctor. It really had not yet dawned on me that songwriting was where it was at. It took about ten more years for that to happen. The band played quite a bit and seemed to be popular and well respected during the time I was with them but, in all honesty, I think the guys were a bit bummed by that time, because RCA had lost interest and Talton had left. We never performed any of the groups "hits" while I was with them. But we made some fine music. They were a truly talented group of players.
[LM] Did this version of We The People record?
[Carl] No. Although I do have probably close to two hours of live recordings I made while I was with them. The quality varies from fair to very good.
[LM] You sang lead for the first time in years after joining We The People. Was there any particular reason that you decided to start singing again?
[Carl] Actually, I sang in my first band, the Dynamics, because no one else would. But when I heard myself on tape I sounded very nasal and corny. After I started working with Ron Whitney in the Starfires, I had no need to sing lead and became an adept harmony singer. Ron Dillman insisted I carry part of the vocal load with We The People, so I did. I was still nasal, but from then on I worked at getting better as a lead singer.
[LM] How did your stint with We The People come to an end?
[Carl] I left We The People because they were in Orlando and I was in Auburndale--about 50 miles apart. I was a young married man at the time and money was very tight. While they played almost every weekend, the pay didn't quite cover the added expense of the sometimes daily commute (rehearsals, etc.) and I didn't have the means to pick up and move. It was unfortunate, because we made some good music. I think they hired another guitar player and played for another year or so before disbanding.
[LM] You probably scored your biggest career successes post-We The People and Raintree County.
[Carl] In 1978 Jesse and I got the opportunity to both tour and record with Howard and David, the Bellamy Brothers who had garnered an international number one pop hit in 1976 with "Let Your Love Flow" but were now looking to crash the country music market. The Brothers contacted us because they remembered Jesse and me from when Ron and the Starfires used to play the Dade City Teen Center (near where they lived) during the '60s. I was with them through two albums and four number one hits and left them at the very end of 1979. While I was with them I came to the realization that song writing was where the money was. In 1980, as an artist, I managed a minor showing on the Billboard "Hot 100" chart, with the song "Take Me Home With You" (on an indie label out of Nashville) that I had co-written with my wife Nancy. In 1982, I had the good fortune to get a single release by the group Alabama of a song I had written while I was on the road with the Bellamys. The Song was "Close Enough To Perfect" which was a number one hit for them and a BMI award winner in both 1982 and 1983. In 1984, Ricky Skaggs released one of my tunes, "Loves Gonna Get You" that managed a number four on the Billboard chart. 1985 through 1990 were spent playing Central Florida theme parks Circus World and Boardwalk and Baseball with the Dizzy Rambler Band. The '90s were slower, but we did a few really great shows and opened for some pretty big country acts.
[LM] You've obviously had a very impressive and successful career. Aside from the retro rock band, what else keeps you busy today?
[Carl] The new millennium has started with some promise. Last May, the retro rock band I play with, did a show in which we backed up Jimy Sohns, who was the lead singer with the Shadows of Knight and sang the hits "Gloria" and "Shake" back in the '60s. That was a blast.
[LM] What is Jim Sohns like? Being from his hometown of Chicago, I've heard stories of him being a bit, umm, eccentric.
[Carl] I found him to be no more eccentric than most musicians that have had some degree of success in this business. He was friendly and easy to work with and I have definitely worked with much bigger egos. Of course, we have all mellowed somewhat in our old(er) age.
[LM] Tell me about the PolKats Reunion.
[Carl] On January 19th, 2001 we had a PolKats reunion dinner/show/jam, an invitation only affair, that included performances by Jim Stafford, Lobo, country super-writer Bobby Braddock, myself, Jim Carlton, Jon Corneal, Jesse Chambers, Ron and the Starfires, the Canadian Rogues, and everybody we could run down from the old '60s peer group. It was a night that will be remembered in Polk County, Florida for a long, long time.
[LM] So you're still very obviously involved in the music industry . . .
[Carl] Currently, we manage and produce wanna-be country artists and do a lot of demos for songwriters in our home studio. I still play songwriter shows when I can and also play retro-rock gigs with the Rogues when those opportunities arise.
[LM] Gear Fab will be releasing the second volume of its 'Psychedelic State: Florida' series shortly, and a Ron & The Starfires song will be included. That's got to be exciting for you.
[Carl] I have been providing Roger Maglio at Gear Fab Records in Orlando, with some material (bio and photo) for the CD. Roger had sent me Volume 1 and I was impressed that the Canadian Rogues were on it, but I didn't recognize any of the others except for the Maundy Quintet who we used to be in competition with in the Gainesville area (where they were located). I always remember them because that was Bernie Leadon's (of the Eagles) group. I'm looking forward to the CD. | 2019-04-20T10:56:21Z | http://home.unet.nl/kesteloo/ronstarfires.html |
Compared to the traditional thermal power , wind energy is a significant aspect of renewable energy and it is getting more and more attention due to it is a renewable, inexhaustible and free source. Therefore, the corresponding wind energy forecasting becomes a critical issue for dispatch and scheduling of power systems . Precise wind energy forecasting can balance and integrate the multiple volatile power sources at all levels of the transmission and distribution grid . Moreover, accurate short-term wind power forecasting can reduce the problems which are caused by grid integration and energy trading .
Short-term wind distribution is essentially a random one although it can be described by a continuous probability distribution named Weibull distribution in a long term. It is hard to obtain the intrinsic regulation of wind speed in a short-term; thus, the soft computing can play a significant role in short-term wind power forecasting. SVR technique has already been employed for the short energy forecasting in the existing literatures; however, many of them assume that the employed data have good quality. In fact, it is impossible to acquire the data without noise because there are many reasons that are sometimes beyond the control of human operators . Generalization capability of traditional forecast approach is relatively low because the employed approach is seriously dependent on the quality of sample. In this paper, we optimize the parameters for two different kernel functions, radial basis function (RBF) or polynomial function (PF), based on the Grid-search method for SVR such that the accuracy of forecasting results is improved. The main algorithm flow is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1 provides a brief illustration for the main processing step of proposed approach in this paper. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: formalization and illustration related to the dataset are investigated in Section 2. A brief review on wind energy forecasting is given in Section 3. Section 4 presents the detailed information related to our proposed approach including the basic employed theory. In Section 5, firstly, the missing value of employed data is filled by the data interpolation techniques. Secondly, two different filter methods (median absolute deviation (MAD) filter and wavelet decomposition and denoising) are used to eliminate the irrelevant, noisy, and outlier value. Thirdly, the input variable selection is investigated by Partial least squares (PLS) technique. Fourthly, the data order estimation is implemented through the cross-correlation methods. Fifthly, the multiscale SVR in combination with Grid-search technique is applied to forecast the short-term wind power. Finally, the performance evaluation and error analysis are given. In Section 6, the proposed results and the prospective research questions are summarized and discussed, respectively.
The quality of data samples plays an important role in wind power forecasting because it has a direct impact on forecasting performance. The data quality is the fundamental issue for the data analysis; in particular, data do not exist without noise in the real application. The main objective of data analysis is to discover knowledge which will be used to solve real problem and make decisions . The wind tower which is employed to collect the data contains two different heights, 30 m and 60 m. The data have been measured every 3 minutes, a total of about five days of measurement data are selected. Specifically, the employed data contain few irrelevant, corrupt, and noisy ones which must be removed and filled from the data in order to proceed with further data analysis. Taking into account the real application, because the data sampling equipment sometime encounter a temporary mistake and the associated data are recorded as zero, therefore, these data with bad quality are eliminated. Typically, the short-term wind power prediction is within 4 days and ultra-short-term one is within 4 hours. The paper mainly discussed the short-term wind power prediction by SVR techniques based on Grid-search method.
In this paper, the short-term wind forecasting issue is formulated as a regression problem. The time series is denoted bywhere 10 variables indicate 30 m average wind speed, direction, temperature, humidity, and pressure and 60 m average wind speed, direction, variance, real wind speed, and real wind direction, respectively; is a positive integer with the value more than one. In general, (1) provides all the factors in real application for short-term wind power forecasting. The primary task of this paper is to predict the output wind power , at time based on the wind measurements through at time , , , past observations.
Short-term wind power forecast has attracted more and more attention in recent decades. Alessandrini et al. discussed the comparison between ECMWF EPS (Ensemble Prediction System in use at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and COSMO-LEPS (Limited-area Ensemble Prediction System developed within Consortium for Small-scale Modelling) based on two forecasting models. As a survey associated with short-term prediction in the last 30 years; Costa et al. investigated the performance of two principal approaches (mathematical and physical). Kramer and Gieseke applied the SVR techniques for short-term wind energy forecasting based on the real world wind power data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) western wind resource dataset, and Osowski and Garanty utilized the SVR and wavelet decomposition method to forecast the short-term air pollution. Chen et al. proposed new learning techniques based on support vector machine (SVM) model for the power load forecasting and conducted experimental results for the short-term load forecasting. Chang proposed a hybrid method which combined the orthogonal least squares (OLS) algorithm and genetic algorithm (GA) for short-term wind power forecasting based on the radial basis function (RBF) neural network. Che et al. applied a two-voltage stage topology with boost converter to improve the conversion efficiency of commercial small wind grid inverter by proposed control strategy. Based on the combination of wavelet transform and neural network arithmetic, Song et al. dealt with an energy management related to a hybrid power generation system such that the stability of power generation system was improved greatly. Moreover, a bibliographical survey associated with the general application of research and developments was presented by Lei et al. in the fields of wind power forecasting. Li et al. presented ideal subspace approximation techniques based on a chaotic time series and nonlinear Kalman filtering, and the wind speed prediction experiments were used to demonstrate the high chaotic prediction accuracy. Hoai et al. optimized an empirical-statistical downscaling technique for prediction based on a feed-forward multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network, and they gave the numerical simulation to demonstrate the robustness of proposed technology. Sánchez gave a statistical forecasting system for short-term wind power prediction in 48 hours ahead based on the techniques combination with recursive methods and schemes with adaptability. An in-depth review of the current wind power generation method and advances in wind power forecasting was formulated by Foley et al. , and Botterud et al. discussed the current development of wind power forecasting in US ISO/RTO markets and the application of state-of-the-art forecasts refers to associated forecasting. Based on the numerical and statistical models, Stathopoulos et al. proposed some strategies for accurate local wind forecasts by the combination with statistical post processes.
Data analysis is the fundamental approach for the knowledge investigation . Proper data preprocessing can eliminate the unreasonable trend of data without loss of data characteristics. Therefore, efficient techniques for automatic data preprocessing are crucial . In this section, the basic theory illustration refers to data preprocessing and multiscale SVR are introduced as follows.
In the data preprocessing, the issues that must be considered are about the irrelevant, missing value, and noisy data. The data with poor quality will result from the poor performance of final employed approaches. In this case, the data are not complete because there are missing values which cannot be eliminated because of the requirement for time continuity as well as they may contain useful information . In this paper, the missing value is filled via data interpolation by the intrinsic relationship between data; for instance, the missing value of wind power can be filled by its associated influential factor wind speed. The nearest-neighbor interpolation (also named as proximal interpolation) is a typical method of multivariate interpolation in one or more dimensions, which can be used to approximate the value of a nongiven point based on the corresponding point of the neighborhood. Under normal circumstances, the filled data is reasonable because the value of data is not suddenly changed in the real application, and the neighboring data correlation is taken into account in nearest-neighbor interpolation method.
Median absolute deviation from the median for a data sequence is more robust with good performance in the presence of multiple outliers [21, 22]. The Hampel filter (also known as MAD filter) which is used to eliminate the outlier is denoted by where and is the median value of . is the threshold employed to control range of convergence, and it can be estimated based on the sample standard deviation of the distribution. The MAD filter can replace the outlier-sensitive mean and standard deviation estimates with the outlier-resistant median as well as MAD from the data .
Unlike the MAD filter, the wavelet decomposition and denoising analysis for data is localized in both time domain and frequency domain, and it can be used to decompose the original data into high-frequency component (HFC) and low-frequency component (LFC). Typically, the HFC denotes the detailed information such as mutant value, while the LFC usually represents the generalized or stationary characteristic related to employed data. The more detailed discussion of wavelet decomposition and denoising can be founded in [24–27].
Comparing to the continuous wavelet transform, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is more commonly used in real application and defined by where means for any is a basic wavelet, and , , . The above DWT is also known as Mallat algorithm , in this paper, the Vaidyanathan filter [29–31] is applied for the implementation of data decomposition and denoising.
Swedish statistician named Herman Wold first introduces Partial least squares (PLS) technique which is used to find the fundamental relations between two variables ( and ); that is, a latent variable approach is employed to investigate the covariance structures between variables. Partial correlation can be used to explore the association between pairs of random variables in the presence of other variables [32, 33], and its coefficients can be calculated between the variables and exclude the influence of other variables, then the main instruction of PLS coefficients can be derived via the following three steps.
(i) Hypothesis. Consider three variables, , , and ; the partial correlation coefficient between and given is defined by where is the product-moment correlation coefficient between variables with subscripts and . The range of PLS coefficients values is , in particular, 0 indicates no association between and .
(ii) Statistic. A test associated with the full correlation coefficient is used to test the original hypothesis in Step (4) under the assumption that data has an approximately normal distribution. If the is the obtained partial correlation coefficient, then the appropriate statistics is denoted as where has an approximate Student’s -distribution, and its degrees of freedom are ; is the number of observations from the computed full correlation coefficients.
(iii) Probability Calculation. Calculate the observation of test -statistics as well as its corresponding values of probabilities . If the value of probability , which is used to test -statistics, is less than the value of given significance level , then the original hypothesis should not be accepted; otherwise, it is available for the test.
In MATLAB, ACF and CCF are computed with the function “xcorr” which are defined by (6) and (7) in the frequency domain, respectively.
SVM for regression was proposed in 1996 by Drucker et al. in ; this method is called support vector regression (SVR), and its basic idea is based on support vector classification, more precisely, the fact that the cost function does not take into account the training points that lie beyond the margin; thus, the SVR only depends on a subset of the training data. Analogously, least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) which is known as another SVM has been presented by Suykens and Vandewalle . Vanik-Chervonenkis theory and structural risk minimization (SRM) are the fundamental theory for the SVM [35, 36]. SVM is to investigate the intrinsic relationship between the prediction model related to wind time series and learning capability and derive the best generalization capability, if the given sample dataset is .
Consider where MAE is the absolute average error between forecasting power and real power over the time . is the number of test sample; RMSE and RMAE are the root mean square error and relative average absolute error, respectively.
In this section, the numerical simulation is constructed for each part of Section 4 based on the wind resources dataset which are presented in Section 2.1.
In this section, the data interpolation, MAD filter, wavelet decomposition, and denoising technique which correspond to the theory analysis in Sections 4.1–4.3 are, respectively, to handle the missing value, irrelevant, outliers, and noisy data. The variables which can be used as the forecasting factors consist of two groups, that is, 30 m average wind speed (AWS), direction (AWD), temperature (Tem), humidity (Hum), and pressure (Pre) and 60 m AWS, AWD, AWS variance, real wind speed (RWS), real wind direction (RWD), and power. The above variables are labeled in accordance with the above order as the first variable to eleventh variable, respectively. Moreover, the state trajectory of original data, filled data, and filtered data are given in Figures 2, 3, and 4, respectively.
Figure 2: State trajectories refer to the 1st variable and 2nd variable.
Figure 3: State trajectories refer to the 3rd variable and 4th variable.
Figure 4: State trajectories refer to the 11th variable.
Figures 2–4, respectively, denote the trajectory of original data, filled data, and filtered data which are derived, respectively, by nearest-neighbor interpolation (NNI), MAD filter, wavelet decomposition, and denoising techniques, where NNI is mainly focused on the relationship between 30 m AWS and power based on the discussion in Section 5.2. Because 10 samples are collected in half an hour according to sampling frequency, half of windows size of MAD filter is set as 5, and the Vaidyanathan wavelet filter is employed for the data preprocessing. Without loss of generality, other wavelet transform such as Daubechies wavelet are also accepted. From Figures 2–4, irrelevant, outliers, and noisy data of employed data are, respectively, eliminated and filled by the MAD filter and wavelet transform. The data become a relative stationary and smooth time series now, which is a necessary step for the further analysis.
This section provides the simulation results with respect to the theory analysis of Section 4.4. The quality and quantity of samples have significant impact on the accuracy of forecasting because more data will increase the difficulty of real operation, and less data may not contain enough information for analysis. As the discussion of Section 5.1, the PLS coefficient with regard to eleven variables is computed by (4) and (5) and are given in Tables 1 and 2.
Table 1: PLS coefficients refer to eleven variables.
Table 2: Lower and upper bound related to Table 1.
Based on the discussion of Section 4.4, all the value of “significance value” is equivalent to about , which is far less than the set value ; in other words, the original hypothesis should not be accepted because there are significant correlation between variables. Moreover, the lower and upper bound with confidence level of 95% are provided in Table 2, where UB represents the upper bound and LB represents the lower bound. From Tables 1 and 2, we can learn two facts: one is that all the obtained data in Table 1 are accepted because of the corresponding testing value which is presented in Table 2; the other one is that one group is enough for the wind power forecasting because of the similarity between different variables.
Based on the discussion of Section 5.2, the 30 m variables except for the pressure are selected as the input variables because there is no significant change about pressure. The data order estimation is implemented through (6) and (7) and denoted in Figures 5 and 6, respectively.
Figure 5: ACF discrete trajectory.
Figure 6: CCF discrete trajectory.
From Figures 5 and 6, we can learn that the two past values are the most significant impact factors for the current value because the ACF value is about more than 0.9 and CCF value is more than 0.7. Thus, 2 can be set as the data order based on the data estimation by performance of ACF and CCF.
The following simulation is based on [37, 38] libsvm (2013, version 3.17, platform: MATLAB 2012b, Microsoft Visual C++ 2010), and the kernel functions are radial basis function (RBF) and polynomial function (PF). Without loss of generality, 80% and 20% of employed data (2297) are selected as the training sample and testing samples, respectively. Because the changes in wind direction are not obvious, so both sine and cosine with regard to AWD are selected as the input variables. Therefore, the number of input variables is essentially about 10 because the data order is set as 2. In order to obtain the accuracy comparison between the different variables, all the variables value are normalized at the range (1,2). Moreover, the k-fold cross-validation (K-CV) [39–42] and “Grid search” are utilized for the parameters selection. “Grid search” is to try every possible value of the parameters , and the best accuracy of the can be derived based on the K-CV, where and are, respectively, penalty factor and kernel function parameters. The state trajectory of original data and forecasting data are given in Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10. Moreover, the detailed information refers to simulation results comparison between multiscale SVR and MLP neural network will be given in Tables 3 and 4.
Table 3: Simulation results refer to multiscale SVR.
Table 4: RMSE, MAE, and RMAE refer to SVR and MLP.
Figure 7: 2D and 3D parameter selection results. (Grid-search method and contours method, RBF).
Figure 8: Final forecasting results via RBF.
Figure 9: 2D and 3D parameter selection results. (Grid-search method and contours method, PF).
Figure 10: Final forecasting results via PF.
In this section, the error with respect to the forecasting results is given to evaluate the performance of multiscale SVR and MLP network of Section 5.4. Number of cross-validation for testing set is, respectively, set as 3, 6, and 10 for RBF and PF, moreover, the original data, filtered data via MAD, and wavelet are, respectively, utilized in the SVR with RBF and PF. Specifically, MLP neural network is applied to compare the performance of SVR based on the RMSE, MAE, and RMAE which are defined in Section 4.7. In addition, the best cross-validation mean squared error, regression mean squared error, regression squared correlation coefficient, and best kernel function parameters are provided. The detailed information is given in Tables 3 and 4.
Based on Tables 3 and 4, we can learn that the performance of SVR is better than the tradition MLP neural network. Because the best performance of SVR employed MAD filter, therefore, data for MLP neural network are still filtered by MAD. In fact, SVR turns to be a robust time series forecasting method even with different parameters such as different number of cross-validation for testing set, different kernel function, and associated parameters. The simulation results denote that the SVR is an effective approach for STWPF.
In this paper, the multiscale SVR technique is applied for the short-term wind power forecasting. Firstly, we introduce a brief illustration for the main processing step and its corresponding theory analysis. Secondly, the data interpolation technique is used to fill the missing value of employed data. Thirdly, median absolute deviation filter and wavelet decomposition and denoising technique are applied to eliminate the irrelevant, noisy, and outlier value. Fourthly, Partial least squares technique, autocorrelation function, and cross-correlation function are, respectively, employed to the input variable selection and order estimation. Fifthly, the multiscale SVR in combination with Grid-search technique is utilized to forecast the short-term wind power. Finally, the performance evaluation and error analysis are applied to evaluate the performance of multiscale SVR. Comparing to the multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network, the performance demonstrates that SVR technique is a fast and robust time series forecasting approach. We believe that the proposed strategy has reference value for short-term wind power forecasting and other energy consumption on the demand aspect.
The authors would like to thank the Professor Hongjie Jia and editor Dean who gave valuable comments by means of considerable suggestion and comments which improved highly the quality of this paper; the authors gratefully acknowledge Professor Xueliang Huang from the School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University. This paper is partly supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program) (2011AA05A107).
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C. C. Chang and C. J. Lin, “LIBSVM: a library for support vector machines,” version 3.17, 2013, http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/libsvm/. | 2019-04-19T04:57:19Z | https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jam/2014/835791/ |
The Director Quality and Safety Improvement serves as a highly visible energetic leader and champion for patient safety and team member safety throughout the organization and is responsible for design and implementation of change management and safety improvement methods, tools, strategies and projects. The Director promotes high reliability for recommended evidence based safety behaviors and practices assuring a focus on people process and technology to improve performance. The Director creates a continuous learning environment focused on patient and team member safety where just culture principles are applied and evident throughout the organization. The Director is a content expert on change management and quality performance and process improvement methods tools and strategies. The Director plans develops and implements improvement projects focused on short and long term improvement is able to scale improvement to impact the health system. Improvement projects and processes include the safety culture survey and action planning the safety event reporting system and improvement priorities identified through safety risk assessments safety event (rCare) data accreditation audits and reports as well as identified organizational priorities. The Director coaches and mentors leaders clinical and non-clinical team members throughout the health system providing direction guidance and leadership for effective change management teamwork and achievement of established goals and objectives. The Director works closely and collaboratively with medical nursing and clinical leadership to implement improvement strategies to continually improve safety; and provides input into the annual safety plan and year end summary report of progress toward goals and related achievements.
This position works under the direct supervision of the Facility Services Director. The Coordinator manages the facility service center operation department regulatory compliance and contractor/ vendor coordination. Service center operation includes the work order system facility key control and facility phone system operation. Regulatory compliance includes managing the facility life safety program work permitting and managing the compliance document preparation program. Contract coordination includes identifying the contract service need and aligning to the correct contract source. The Coordinator also maintains facility service department employee work time through Kronos. Maintains and generates facility service department call schedule. Serves as the point of contact for facility staff/ customers and is liaison to facility service department vendors and the department customers. This position may perform other duties as assigned. Riverside Walter Reed Hospital is a 67-bed acute care facility located in Gloucester, Virginia. With 24-hour emergency services, a 12,000 square foot Intensive Care Unit, a complete range of outpatient services, a highly professional, caring staff and more than 50 outstanding area physicians, Riverside Walter Reed provides comprehensive health care services to the communities of the Middle Peninsula. The Middle Peninsula is bordered on the south by the York River and the lower Chesapeake Bay on the east. Gloucester is a growing and increasingly changing county that is an integral part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. Growth in the Peninsula area has encouraged development in the Gloucester Point and the Courthouse regions of Gloucester.
The Licensed Practical Nurse works under the supervision of the Registered Nurse to assist the Physicians/Registered Nurses in the care of terminal patients in their homes by provision of comprehensive skilled nursing services directed toward end of life care. Assists the RN in carrying out the plan of care. Uses appropriate aseptic technique when preparing equipment and materials for treatment. Assists the patient in learning appropriate self-care technique and is able to assess the patient/family response to care. He/She will keep fully cognizant of Medicare/Medicaid/Commercial insurance requirements Agency Policies and Procedures. In addition this position must be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient served by his/her team. He/she must possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patient's status and interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient's requirements relative to his/her age specific needs. He/She must be able to prepare clinical/progress notes documenting outcomes of interventions. He/She must be able to provide the care needed as describe in the departmental policy and procedure guides and regulations that define scope of practice. The LPN may be required to work every other weekend depending on patient census and acuity. He/She supplements the nursing care needs of the patient as provided by the RN. Participates as a member of the IDT. Supports the Hospice Philosophy. Riverside Home Care provides the trained staff and complete array of specialized services to help you maintain your safety and independence, and we do it in the comfort of your very own home. Riverside Home Care offers home health, usually provided to individuals recovering from an illness, surgery or hospital stay, and short- or long-term in-home private care for assistance with everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning.
It’s a great time to be part of the Riverside Family!! We are seeking a talented Registered Nurse who is committed to nursing practice that aligns with our mission—to care for others as we care for those we love. This opportunity is for a Palliative Care Registered Nurse for our Newport News Home Health team. This department provides outstanding care to patients with excellent patient quality of care outcomes. The selected Registered Nurse will be part of a team that works in a supportive and collaborative culture that with others, provides competent and compassionate care to all patients and their families. There are many opportunities for growth for a Riverside Nurse with a Clinical Ladder that was developed collaboratively with both staff and leadership, Shared Governance, membership on facility as well as system wide committees where your voice can make a difference. Across our Health System, the Riverside Nurse provides competent clinical practice and care coordination through her/his understanding of patient, family and the healthcare delivery team. Consistently provides safe, therapeutic care in a holistic and systematic way. All patient care and interactions are patient and family centered. She/he will integrate knowledge, skills, and experiences to meet the needs of patients and families throughout the continuum to include patient and family education. Communicates effectively and works cooperatively with others. Uses an integrated approach toward patient outcomes. Nursing serves as an empowering body to influence patient empowerment as well as successful outcomes of financial and clinical quality through relationships and access based knowledge. Utilizes standards, guidelines, and pathways for care delivery. Ensures improvements in practice settings by assuming responsibility for self-development in life-long learning. Provides direction and guidance to others regarding practice; serves as a resource, preceptor, and mentor. Leadership skills demonstrated in decision making and problem solving. Works under the supervision of the Nurse manager and the Director and is responsible for the assessment planning implementing and evaluating the total nursing care of assigned patients on an intermittent visiting basis. The RN may work in a variety of settings (typically in a home care type setting) and roles within Riverside Health System. The focus of this position will be in the Palliative Care setting. The RN utilizes communication critical thinking problem solving and decision making to create a care plan for each patient based on physiological psychosocial and cultural diversity. Responsible for supervising and delegating non-professional personnel working directly with him/her to ensure optimum patient care. Must demonstrate competence in dealing with age related needs of specific patient populations served in their assigned area. Works under the direction of leadership and a multi-disciplinary team (physical speech or occupational therapy; medical social services and Home Health Aide services) to provide a comprehensive range of services or clinical care associated with and in accordance with standards of excellence established by Riverside Health system and facility goals and strategic plans. Riverside Home Care provides the trained staff and complete array of specialized services to help you maintain your safety and independence, and we do it in the comfort of your very own home. Riverside Home Care offers home health, usually provided to individuals recovering from an illness, surgery or hospital stay, and short- or long-term in-home private care for assistance with everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning.
Works under the supervision of the Protection Manager/Supervisor and or Director of Facilities. Functions to protect facility and personnel from property loss and criminal activity. Provides services and assistance as outlined by policies and procedures and directed by Management to make the facility safe for employees patients and visitors and to meet the expectations of Riverside Health System. Patriots Colony, located in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, is a distinguished LifeCare Retirement Community offering Active Residential Living to former officers of the uniformed services and federal civil government retirees. Independent and active, these residents enjoy an unparalleled lifestyle in spacious villas, apartments or freestanding homes. Patriots Colony has assisted living apartments, with special apartments to accommodate those with Alzheimer's and other dementia and a nursing home for 24-hour nursing and rehabilitation care. Williamsburg, Virginia is best known for tourist and historical point of interest. Colonial Williamsburg has many historical sites and the College of William and Mary is the second oldest institution for higher education in the United States.
Work under the direct supervision of the Office Manager. Responsible for supervising front office team members to ensure optimum patient care and customer service. Office supervisor will maintain working knowledge of all front office positions so appropriate leadership and expertise can be give to team members. Maintain working knowledge of software and reports utilized in front office. Coordinate with office manager and physicians to maintain smooth office function.
Works under the supervision of a qualified physician, Imaging Service System Director and/or the management staff. Works within their defined skill sets and utilizes established policies and protocols to perform a variety of imaging procedures at a technical level not requiring constant supervision of technical detail. Routinely responsible for all aspects of medical imaging in two or more identified modalities Functioning as a team member, the technologist is flexible in the work assignments, rotates to support all aligned imaging facilities when needed and assists with training. Responsible for the preparation and maintenance of equipment, instrumentation and departmental supplies required to support quality patient care. Requires utilization of simple to complex equipment. Requires independent judgment, with ingenuity and initiative to apply safety and ALARA standards as applicable. Assume responsibility for designated areas or procedures as required. Responsible for necessary quality control performance and documentation that supports accreditation initiatives. Maintains medical imaging credentials as defined by the “Qualification requirements” policy of Imaging services. Complies with National Patient Safety Goals, HIPAA guidelines, and Corporate Compliance polices. Participates in quality and customer service programs and meets all CBL,CME requirements. This employee must demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient serviced by his or her assigned department. The individual must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the human life span and possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patients status and interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient’s requirements relative to his or her age-specific needs, and to provide the care needed as described in the departmental policy and procedure guide. Assists with the coordination of patient care for all patient types and functions as a team member. Shore Memorial Hospital is located in Onancock, Virginia on the beautiful Eastern Shore! Onancock is a rural area with beaches and wildlife to include the 9,000 acre Chincoteague wildlife refuge. This brand new, state of the art facility is a 52-bed hospital with private rooms, a Surgical Suite with three operating rooms, a ten bed Intensive Care Unit, and an advanced Emergency Department with all private treatment rooms. The hospitalA has expandedA the outpatient services to include a diagnostic center with advanced imaging services including MRI and CT scanner, on-campus Cancer Care Center and a freestanding medical office building housing our specialty physician offices. The Virginia Delmarva Peninsula is nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and offers that rare treasure - peace. Northampton County has the distinction of being one of the earliest settlements in our nation's history and this rural County retains its pastoral beauty and leisurely pace to this day. With its numerous saltwater bays, marshes and creeks, the county is one of the few unspoiled coastal areas on the Eastern Seaboard.
Works under the supervision of a qualified physician Imaging Service System Director and/or the management staff. Works within their defined skill sets and utilizes established policies and protocols to perform a variety of imaging procedures at a technical level not requiring constant supervision of technical detail. Functioning as a team member the technologist is flexible in the work assignments rotates to support all aligned imaging facilities when needed and assists with training. Responsible for the preparation and maintenance of equipment instrumentation and departmental supplies required to support quality patient care. Requires utilization of simple to complex equipment. Requires independent judgment with ingenuity and initiative to apply safety and ALARA standards as applicable. Assume responsibility for designated areas or procedures as required. Responsible for necessary quality control performance and documentation that supports accreditation initiatives. Maintains medical imaging credentials as defined by the Qualification requirements? policy of Imaging services. Complies with National Patient Safety Goals HIPAA guidelines and Corporate Compliance polices. Participates in quality and customer service programs and meets all CBLCME requirements. This employee must demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient serviced by his or her assigned department. The individual must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the human life span and possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patients status and interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient's requirements relative to his or her age-specific needs and to provide the care needed as described in the departmental policy and procedure guide. Assists with the coordination of patient care for all patient types and functions as a team member Shore Memorial Hospital is located in Onancock, Virginia on the beautiful Eastern Shore! Onancock is a rural area with beaches and wildlife to include the 9,000 acre Chincoteague wildlife refuge. This brand new, state of the art facility is a 52-bed hospital with private rooms, a Surgical Suite with three operating rooms, a ten bed Intensive Care Unit, and an advanced Emergency Department with all private treatment rooms. The hospital has expanded the outpatient services to include a diagnostic center with advanced imaging services including MRI and CT scanner, on-campus Cancer Care Center and a freestanding medical office building housing our specialty physician offices. The Virginia Delmarva Peninsula is nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and offers that rare treasure - peace. Northampton County has the distinction of being one of the earliest settlements in our nation's history and this rural County retains its pastoral beauty and leisurely pace to this day. With its numerous saltwater bays, marshes and creeks, the county is one of the few unspoiled coastal areas on the Eastern Seaboard.
Works under the supervision of a qualified physician Imaging Service System Director and/or the management staff Works within their defined skill sets and utilizes established policies and protocols to perform a variety of imaging procedures at a technical level not requiring constant supervision of technical detail. Functioning as a team member the technologist is flexible in the work assignments rotates to support all aligned imaging facilities when needed and assists with training. Responsible for the preparation and maintenance of equipment instrumentation and departmental supplies required to support quality patient care. Requires utilization of simple to complex equipment. Requires independent judgment with ingenuity and initiative to apply safety and ALARA standards as applicable. Assume responsibility for designated areas or procedures as required. Responsible for necessary quality control performance and documentation that supports accreditation initiatives. Maintains medical imaging credentials as defined by the Qualification requirements? policy of Imaging services. Complies with National Patient Safety Goals HIPAA guidelines and Corporate Compliance polices. Participates in quality and customer service programs and meets all CBLCME requirements. This employee must demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient serviced by his or her assigned department. The individual must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the human life span and possess the ability to assess data reflective of the patients status and interpret the appropriate information needed to identify each patient's requirements relative to his or her age-specific needs and to provide the care needed as described in the departmental policy and procedure guide. Assists with the coordination of patient care for all patient types and functions as a team member Shore Memorial Hospital is located in Onancock, Virginia on the beautiful Eastern Shore! Onancock is a rural area with beaches and wildlife to include the 9,000 acre Chincoteague wildlife refuge. This brand new, state of the art facility is a 52-bed hospital with private rooms, a Surgical Suite with three operating rooms, a ten bed Intensive Care Unit, and an advanced Emergency Department with all private treatment rooms. The hospital has expanded the outpatient services to include a diagnostic center with advanced imaging services including MRI and CT scanner, on-campus Cancer Care Center and a freestanding medical office building housing our specialty physician offices. The Virginia Delmarva Peninsula is nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and offers that rare treasure - peace. Northampton County has the distinction of being one of the earliest settlements in our nation's history and this rural County retains its pastoral beauty and leisurely pace to this day. With its numerous saltwater bays, marshes and creeks, the county is one of the few unspoiled coastal areas on the Eastern Seaboard.
Riverside Doctor's Hospital, located in Williamsburg, VA is looking for an experienced RN to join their ICU team! Works under the supervision of the Nurse manager and the Director and is responsible for the assessment planning, implementing and evaluating the total nursing care of assigned patients The RN may work in a variety of settings in the Critical Care/Telemetry Complex and roles within Riverside Health System. The RN utilizes communication critical thinking problem solving and decision making to create a care plan for each patient based on physiological psychosocial and cultural diversity. Responsible for supervising and delegating non-professional personnel working directly with him/her to ensure optimum patient care. Must demonstrate competence in dealing with age related needs of the specific patient populations served in the Critical Care/Telemetry units/departments. Works under the direction of leadership and a multi-disciplinary team to provide a comprehensive range of services or clinical care associated with and in accordance with standards of excellence established by Riverside Health system and facility goals and strategic plans. Designed and built with a focus on patient-centered care, Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg is the pinnacle of Riverside's commitment to the residents of the Williamsburg region. Set on over 25 beautiful acres, the hospital offers state-of-the-art care, comfort and convenience. Riverside Doctors' Hospital opened in May 2013 and is licensed for 40 private rooms - 33 Medical/Surgical rooms and 7 Intensive Care rooms. Surgical Services features 2 operating rooms and 8 private patient preparation and recovery rooms dedicated to patients undergoing surgical procedures. Williamsburg, Virginia is best known for tourist and historical point of interest. Colonial Williamsburg has many historical sites and the College of William and Mary is the second oldest institution for higher education in the United States.
Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg- ED is seeking an energetic Registered Nurse to join their team! Works under the supervision of the Director and is responsible for the assessment, planning, implementing, and evaluating the total nursing care of assigned patients. The RN utilizes communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making to create a care plan for each patient based on physiological, psychosocial and cultural diversity. Responsible for supervising and delegating non-professional personnel working directly with him/her to ensure optimum patient care. Must demonstrate competence in dealing with age related needs of the specific patient populations served in the Emergency Services units/departments. Works under the direction of leadership and a multi-disciplinary team to provide a comprehensive range of services or clinical care associated with and in accordance with standards of excellence established by Riverside Health system and facility goals and strategic plans.
Riverside Doctors' Hospital, located in Williamsburg, VA is looking for an energetic RN to join their Med/Surg team! Works under the supervision of the Nurse manager and the Director and is responsible for the assessment planning, implementing and evaluating the total nursing care of assigned patients The RN may work in a variety of settings in the Medical/Surgical Complex and roles within Riverside Health System. The RN utilizes communication critical thinking problem solving and decision making to create a care plan for each patient based on physiological psychosocial and cultural diversity. Responsible for supervising and delegating non-professional personnel working directly with him/her to ensure optimum patient care. Must demonstrate competence in dealing with age related needs of the specific patient populations served in the Medical/Surgical units/departments. Works under the direction of leadership and a multi-disciplinary team to provide a comprehensive range of services or clinical care associated with and in accordance with standards of excellence established by Riverside Health system and facility goals and strategic plans. Designed and built with a focus on patient-centered care, Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg is the pinnacle of Riverside's commitment to the residents of the Williamsburg region. Set on over 25 beautiful acres, the hospital offers state-of-the-art care, comfort and convenience. Riverside Doctors' Hospital opened in May 2013 and is licensed for 40 private rooms- 33 Medical/Surgical rooms and 7 Intensive Care rooms. Surgical Services features 2 operating rooms and 8 private patient preparation and recovery rooms dedicated to patients undergoing surgical procedures. Williamsburg, Virginia is best known for tourist and historical point of interest. Colonial Williamsburg has many historical sites and the College of William and Mary is the second oldest institution for higher education in the United States.
It's a great time to be part of the Riverside Family!! We are seeking a talented Registered Nurse who is committed to nursing practice that aligns with our mission- to care for others as we care for those we love. This opportunity is for a Certified Nursing Assistant for our Med Surg Team team. This Department of Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg provides outstanding care to patients with excellent patient quality of care outcomes. The selected Certified Nursing Assistant will be part of a team that works in a supportive and collaborative culture that with others, provides competent and compassionate care to all patients and their families. Works under the supervision of Registered Nurse/LPN and Nurse Manager/Director in personal care of the patients and their environment (including those needing special precautions) and performs specified treatments. In addition this position must be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age of the patient served in assigned unit. The individual must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development over the life span and provide the care needed as described according to the departmental policy and procedure. Promotes and maintains safe work environment for staff as well as our customers incorporating national patient safety initiatives. Designed and built with a focus on patient-centered care, Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg is the pinnacle of Riverside's commitment to the residents of the Williamsburg region. Set on over 25 beautiful acres, the hospital offers state-of-the-art care, comfort and convenience. Riverside Doctors' Hospital opened in May 2013 and is licensed for 40 private rooms - 33 Medical/Surgical rooms and 7 Intensive Care rooms. Surgical Services features 2 operating rooms and 8 private patient preparation and recovery rooms dedicated to patients undergoing surgical procedures. Williamsburg, Virginia is best known for tourist and historical point of interest. Colonial Williamsburg has many historical sites and the College of William and Mary is the second oldest institution for higher education in the United States.
Riverside Regional Medical Center is currently seeking a full-time Social Worker Care Coordinator. Job Summary: Works under the supervision of the Manager and the Director and is responsible for working in collaboration with the healthcare team to coordinate the care and service to patients across the continuum of care promotes effective utilization and monitoring of healthcare resources and assumes a leadership role with the interdisciplinary team to achieve optimal quality clinical and resource outcomes. Works under the direction of the leadership team to provide a comprehensive range of services or clinical care associated with and in accordance with standards of excellence established by Riverside Health system and facility goals and strategic plans. Riverside began serving the Virginia Peninsula community in 1916. In 1963, Riverside moved to the present 72-acre location in Newport News on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard. A 450-bed facility, Riverside Regional Medical Center is the Virginia Peninsulas most comprehensive medical facility combining the most recent computerized medical technology with a healing environment. The Pavilion is a 250,000 sq. ft., $107 million, 3-story addition to Riverside Regional Medical Center, which opened in 2013. This acute care facility provides a regional cancer care center, the Peninsula regions only comprehensive stroke center, the areas only open-heart surgery program, the regions only Level II Trauma Center, and a cornerstone neurosciences program that includes the Chesapeake, Riverside and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center.
It's a great time to be part of the Riverside Family!! We are seeking a talented Registered Nurse who is committed to nursing practice that aligns with our mission- to care for others as we care for those we love. This opportunity is for a Registered Nurse for our Hampton Rds Urology-Nn Ops team. This Department of Riverside Medical Group provides outstanding care to patients with excellent patient quality of care outcomes. The selected Registered Nurse will be part of a team that works in a supportive and collaborative culture that with others, provides competent and compassionate care to all patients and their families. There are many opportunities for growth for a Riverside Nurse with a Clinical Ladder that was developed collaboratively with both staff and leadership, Shared Governance, membership on facility as well as system wide committees where your voice can make a difference. Across our Health System, the Riverside Nurse provides competent clinical practice and care coordination through her/his understanding of patient, family and the healthcare delivery team. Consistently provides safe, therapeutic care in a holistic and systematic way. All patient care and interactions are patient and family centered. She/he will integrate knowledge, skills, and experiences to meet the needs of patients and families throughout the continuum to include patient and family education. Communicates effectively and works cooperatively with others. Uses an integrated approach toward patient outcomes. Nursing serves as an empowering body to influence patient empowerment as well as successful outcomes of financial and clinical quality through relationships and access based knowledge. Utilizes standards, guidelines, and pathways for care delivery. Ensures improvements in practice settings by assuming responsibility for self-development in life-long learning. Provides direction and guidance to others regarding practice; serves as a resource, preceptor, and mentor. Leadership skills demonstrated in decision making and problem solving. Riverside Medical Group has over 500 providers and we are continuing to grow! One of the largest and most diverse multi-specialty group practices in the state of Virginia, our physicians are linked by an electronic medical record system that is leading the nation, now able to provide fast access to quality medical care for our 485,000 patients by interconnecting 500+ providers in 132 locations across all of the Riverside regions. The Peninsula has over 30 specialty practices and 14 primary care practices. The peninsula in southeast Virginia is bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north (Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck). With a population of 1.8 million people, it is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast and the 32nd largest in the United States. The Virginia Peninsula is a diverse area made up of many neighboring cities with unique character and opportunities. The area is very unique with a large number of military bases and several large colleges and universities as well as other large healthcare systems. The attractions are endless with so many historical sites to visit and a long list of museums and theaters.
Completes administrative functions for new hire processing accurately and timely. Follows established organization and department policies and procedures to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Provides support to the Talent Recruitment Center team. Exhibits exceptional customer service and professionalism to both internal and external customers.
Responsible for acquiring exceptional talent through attracting and sourcing viable candidates to fill vacancies throughout the Health System. Must build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external customers. Develop execute and update recruitment strategies to include pro actively sourcing and identifying active and passive candidates through a strong focus on networking relationship building and the use of the most up-to-date recruiting technology techniques and social media. Evaluates current RHS job postings and makes recommendations to maximize candidate activity. Participates in job fairs recruitment and various networking events. Follows established organization and department policies and procedures to ensure compliance with regulatory federal and local employment law requirements. Exhibits exceptional customer service and professionalism to both internal and external customers at all times. Performs other duties as assigned.
Works under the supervision and leadership of the RRMC Valet/Protection Manager. Functions to provide excellent customer service to those who select the RRMC Valet service to assist in their healthcare needs. Provides services and assistance to guest utilizing the Valet service to include assistant to/from vehicle locating wheelchairs Provides exceptional service to all guests and potential guests by assisting them in a friendly efficient courteous and professional manner. Provides valet parking services to safely and efficiently move guest automobiles to a designated parking location while following Company policies and procedures. This function may include assisting with loading and unloading of personal items providing information in regard to the hotel's facilities and events and directions to local attractions campus beautification. Riverside began serving the Virginia Peninsula community in 1916. In 1963, Riverside moved to the present 72-acre location in Newport News on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard. A 450-bed facility, Riverside Regional Medical Center is the Virginia Peninsulas most comprehensive medical facility combining the most recent computerized medical technology with a healing environment. The Pavilion is a 250,000 sq. ft., $107 million, 3-story addition to Riverside Regional Medical Center, which opened in 2013. This acute care facility provides a regional cancer care center, the Peninsula regions only comprehensive stroke center, the areas only open-heart surgery program, the regions only Level II Trauma Center, and a cornerstone neurosciences program that includes the Chesapeake, Riverside and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center.
It's a great time to be part of the Riverside Family!! We are seeking a talented Registered Nurse who is committed to nursing practice that aligns with our mission- to care for others as we care for those we love. This opportunity is for a Registered Nurse for our Home Health Nursing team. This Department of Shore Healthcare At Home provides outstanding care to patients with excellent patient quality of care outcomes. The selected Registered Nurse will be part of a team that works in a supportive and collaborative culture that with others, provides competent and compassionate care to all patients and their families. There are many opportunities for growth for a Riverside Nurse with a Clinical Ladder that was developed collaboratively with both staff and leadership, Shared Governance, membership on facility as well as system wide committees where your voice can make a difference. Across our Health System, the Riverside Nurse provides competent clinical practice and care coordination through her/his understanding of patient, family and the healthcare delivery team. Consistently provides safe, therapeutic care in a holistic and systematic way. All patient care and interactions are patient and family centered. She/he will integrate knowledge, skills, and experiences to meet the needs of patients and families throughout the continuum to include patient and family education. Communicates effectively and works cooperatively with others. Uses an integrated approach toward patient outcomes. Nursing serves as an empowering body to influence patient empowerment as well as successful outcomes of financial and clinical quality through relationships and access based knowledge. Utilizes standards, guidelines, and pathways for care delivery. Ensures improvements in practice settings by assuming responsibility for self-development in life-long learning. Provides direction and guidance to others regarding practice; serves as a resource, preceptor, and mentor. Leadership skills demonstrated in decision making and problem solving. Riverside Home Care provides the trained staff and complete array of specialized services to help you maintain your safety and independence, and we do it in the comfort of your very own home. Riverside Home Care offers home health, usually provided to individuals recovering from an illness, surgery or hospital stay, and short- or long-term in-home private care for assistance with everyday tasks like cooking and cleaning. | 2019-04-21T05:06:32Z | https://careers-rivhs.icims.com/jobs/search?pr=0&schemaId=&o= |
Favorite question asked on tours: What's it like to be pre-med at a small, liberal arts college?
Hi! My name is James Flatow, and I’m a senior from New York City (yes, the city itself – unsettling peace and quiet have replaced the horns and sirens to which I fell asleep growing up). I’m a pre-med psychology major at Amherst, but the open curriculum has allowed me to take classes in nine departments and counting. In addition to giving tours, I’m an EMT with and board member of ACEMS (Amherst College Emergency Medical Services), our round-the-clock, student-run EMS. Though schoolwork and extracurriculars claim most of my time, I’m rarely too busy to watch the Yankees, jam with friends in a music practice room, or run on the scenic bike path alongside campus. Please feel free to send me questions at [email protected].
Hello! My name is Kathleen, and I am a junior studying Political Science and Environmental Studies. I grew up in San Pedro, a port community in the City of Los Angeles, and moved across the country in 2016 to attend Amherst College. Along with my position as one of the Head Tour Guides, I also work as a Resident Counselor on campus, and have spent my time over the past few years writing for our student-led newspaper, serving as an Eco-Rep to encourage sustainability within our dorms, and coordinating events as an Office Assistant for Amherst's Conferences and Special Events team. While I tend to stay busy on campus, I also enjoy checking out coffee shops and restaurants in Downtown Amherst and hiking with friends in the nearby Holyoke Range. I absolutely love speaking about our college, my majors, and my personal experience as an Amherst student, so please reach out to me at [email protected] if you have any questions!
Favorite question asked on tours: Do you have really good calves from walking backwards?
Hey! My name is Jana Barber and I’m a junior from Oak Park, IL, which is right outside of Chicago. I am a French and Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought double major. When I’m not hanging on the quad or studying with my friends in my favorite place, Frost library, you can find me at one of the practices for the crew team or rehearsals for Step Team in DASAC. So far my Amherst experience has been incredible; I love how the open curriculum has allowed me to take advantage of the humanities courses while avoiding the math and sciences, at least for now! I look forward to meeting you all on my tours and showing you the amazing experience Amherst can be!
Favorite question asked on tours: How did we end up with the best tour guide?
Hi everyone! I’m Aahnix, and I’m not in Kansas anymore! Actually, I just got back from studying abroad in Göttingen, Germany, where I took Biology, Linguistics, and history classes! Of course, I also traveled around Europe a bit, and walked across an entire country. At Amherst, although I’m majoring in German, I’m taking advantage of the Open Curriculum by taking a neuroscience course and a Statistics course in addition to my German courses this fall, and I have taken 5 linguistics courses at Umass Amherst, via the 5-College Consortium. When It comes to extracurriculars, I’ve been the Glee Club Librarian and later Co-president, Outing Club Gear Master and later Secretary, Christian Fellowship Bible study leader, and I’ve lived in the German Theme house. When I’m not performing in concerts or talking to the Pioneer Valley through the airwaves, you can find me playing basketball with my friends, Val-sitting, or taking apart my bike.
Favorite question asked on tours: Where should we get lunch after this?
When I came to Amherst College, I was 100% prepared to be the kid who couldn’t stop sobbing after their parents pulled out of the parking lot. I certainly would never have expected that, on my first night here, I would hug my parents goodbye and then end up happily busting out my sweetest dance moves on the Val Quad with people who are still some of my closest friends to this day. I came to Amherst because I loved the idea of being able to craft my own education through the Open Curriculum, because the view at Memorial Hill never gets old, and because I wanted to be a member of the Five College community (the fact that purple is my favorite color was just an added bonus). While I was right about all of that, I realized that I would be happy staying at Amherst for other reasons: the professors and staff who go out of their way to get to know us, the students who never cease to amaze me, the infinite supply of roasted sweet potatoes at Val. I was truly surprised by how quickly I grew to love Amherst College, and as a tour guide, I want to share this with you! This may all seem a little cheesy, but it’s true (speaking of cheese, check out Grilled Cheese Day at Val and thank me later). Please feel free to send any questions to [email protected]. And, just for the record, I haven’t cried once since I’ve been here – except that one time when I was watching the end of Forrest Gump.
Favorite question asked on tours: Where is your favorite place to read on campus?
Hi! I'm Mikayla Gordon Wexler, and I am a current senior from West Hartford, Connecticut (about an hour directly south of Amherst). I cannot believe how quickly three years have flown by, but I am excited to spend my final year enjoying the beautiful Western Mass landscape and writing a Senior Anthropology thesis. Here at Amherst, I am a pre-med anthropology major, which perfectly combines my interests in the sciences and humanities -- part of the reason I love the open curriculum at Amherst so much. My biggest commitment on campus outside of academics is working with other amazing Amherst students as an EMT and board member for the Amherst College Emergency Medical Service. When I am not busy working on a paper or lab report, you can find me reading poetry on a bench overlooking Memorial Hill, running on the bike path, or Val-sitting (an Amherst term for hanging out in Valentine Dining Hall for an embarrassing amount of time) with friends. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] with any questions about studying abroad ( I was in Hungary the Fall of last year), being premed with a humanities major, or any other concern!
Favorite question asked on tours: Is the dining hall food good?
Favorite question asked on tours: What’s the longest amount of time one could spend at Val?
Hi! My name is Mariana, and I’m a senior from Greensboro, NC. On campus, I am involved mainly in Choral Society, Project Salud, and the Roosevelt Institute. I've also worked for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and locally-based non-profit Reader to Reader, Inc. Some of my favorite parts of Amherst are getting to explore various interests due to the open curriculum, being able to run into friends at any time in Val, and enjoying the “small school” sense of community while still having access to the tremendous amount of resources offered on campus, within the Five Colleges, and beyond! I am back on campus after a wonderful semester in Stockholm, Sweden and am excited to reunite with friends and take on my senior thesis in sociology! If you have any questions about life at Amherst, think we may share a common interest, or would like a senior's perspective on college, feel free to reach out to [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Why do you give tours?
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: honestly, the hour allotted for a tour is not enough. Throughout my time at Amherst, the school's student body, academics, and resources have created a culture that has offered so much to me; there is just no easy way to condense my experience into sixty minutes. From the strong student-faculty relationships (I've sat a house, a dog, and children for various faculty members!) to going "abroad" to Taiwan, my family's home country, Amherst has made numerous unimaginable experiences not only imaginable, but attainable. Send over any of your Amherst-related inquiries to [email protected]! Hope to meet you on campus sometime!
Favorite question asked on tours: How'd you end up at Amherst?
Originally from Greensboro, NC, I actually found out about this school by accidentally applying to a fly-in program in my senior year of high school. Ever since I first set foot on campus, I've been in love. Since coming here, I'm constantly amazed at the sense of community I feel here. One of the best elements of the school itself is the freedom to know people outside of your major, and the ability to take courses outside of your major as well! One of my favorite things to do on campus is to go to the ice rink and practice skating in between classes, which is surprisingly empty and fun! As a senior, I've had the opportunity to study abroad in France and in South Africa, as well as network with amazing people, and cannot wait to see what my final year holds!
Favorite question asked on tours: Do you ever get tired of the hills?
Coming to Amherst has been a big change for me: colder weather, more diverse community, and the coolest people I've ever met make this place a far cry from Dallas, TX. Sure, it's hard to be away from my sisters (splitting up triplets is never easy), but I have quickly learned to love this place and it's become another "home." Right now I am working on figuring out what I want to do here at Amherst, but the current plan is to double major in Political Science and Asian Languages and Civilizations, but I have some Math credits under my belt so who knows what is going to happen? One of my favorite things about this place is I can change my mind a million times and they’ll still let me stay. When I am not doing coursework, I enjoy Mock Trial and attending Mr. Gads Improv Comedy shows. If you want to know more about Amherst from my perspective, hit me up at [email protected] or in the Admissions Office.
Favorite question asked on tours: Where should we get lunch?
Hi there! I’m a senior here at Amherst College and I’m in love with it. I’m happy to be a part of such a close knit community, and get to know people from all walks of life. There are so many opportunities to get involved in and around campus so I’m always wishing I could do more. Already Amherst has really opened me up to a ton of new interests like West African Dance and farming. My email is [email protected] if you want to ask me about Amherst or send me some sick puns. I hope to see or hear from you soon!
Hobbies: Art! I actually have a small quasi business called Vans by Grace in which I customize blank white sneakers. I paint the shoes according to whatever college, theme, or personalized design my customers ask for!
Favorite question asked on tours: What do you do for fun?
Hi! My name is Grace and I’m a senior from outside of New York City. I love Amherst for so many reasons, but two in particular stick out in my mind. For one, I had no idea what I wanted to study before going to college. I thought maybe I’d study chemistry and be pre-med, but as I explored the open curriculum, I found that actually architecture was so much cooler! Plus, the freedom to choose my own academic path has allowed me to major in psychology as well, while also taking Spanish classes on the side. The other (more important) reason I love Amherst is that I remember visiting for the first time and leaving with the impression that everyone I met was so friendly. And it’s true! Every individual person you meet here is outgoing, unique, and incredibly talented in his or her own way, so that you will learn something new or interesting or fun with every conversation and friendship that you have. As a junior now I'd like to say I've learned a thing or two over the past couple of years here, and I’d love to share whatever sparse knowledge I may have with any and every prospective student to help make your college decision easier!
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did you choose Amherst?
Hi! My name is Julia Pike, and I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I'm a senior English major. Here on campus, I'm one of the captains of the Women's Ultimate Frisbee Team, Sparkle Motion, I write for one of our school publications, the Indicator, and I intern with The Common, a literary magazine based out of Amherst. In my free time, I like to run on the beautiful Amherst trails, draw, and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine. My sophomore year I lived in Marsh, the Arts theme house, and I studied abroad in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fall of my junior year. I'm currently working on a creative writing thesis with the English Department. I can't wait to meet you all and show you around Amherst!
Favorite question asked on tours: What is there to do in Amherst, Massachusetts?!?
Hi, I’m Molly Pines! I'm a senior from a small suburb of San Francisco (and I will always be a West Coaster at heart, no matter how much I love Amherst). At school when I’m not eating, sleeping, or studying English and Spanish, I swim breaststroke for our Varsity Swim & Dive Team and participate in Amherst Dance beginner pieces (think Justin Bieber medleys and the like). If you have any questions about Amherst in general or about my specific interests, don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. I’m happy to talk about anything and everything Amherst!
Favorite question asked on tours: How does town life at Amherst compare to life in New York City?
Hi! My name is Ethan Rosenthal, and I am a senior from New York City, New York. I am a history major focusing on modern nationalist movements. Outside of the classroom, I have been able to be a part of some amazing groups like Amherst College Hillel and the Amherst Political Union among others. Both my studies and extra-curricular activities have been typical of the Amherst experience: engaging and intimate. If you have any questions or concerns about academics, student life, or anything else that might be on your mind, feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected]. Looking forward to seeing you on campus!
Favorite question asked on tours: Does Amherst ever feel TOO small?
Hi there! I'm Dorit, a senior from North Potomac, Maryland. Coming from a high school of 1200 students, I knew I wanted to attend a small school that would allow me to make meaningful connections with my peers and professors. When I took a tour of Amherst my junior year of high school, I was amazed by how easily I could see myself sitting on the first-year quad and staring off at the amazing view from Memorial Hill. I was also drawn to the Amherst students I interacted with during my visit; everyone was so genuine and welcoming - just my kind of people! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Amherst so far, largely thanks to the wonderful residents of North 4th floor last year (shout-out to my fellow nuns), and can't wait to share more about the wonderful things this community has to offer with you on a tour! In the meantime, you are more than welcome to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions about anything I've mentioned above or really anything for that matter, and I'll do my best to give you a timely and meaningful response! Can't wait to see you on campus!
Favorite question asked on tours: What's your favorite place to eat in town?
Hello! My name is Allison and I’m a senior spending the year writing an Environmental Studies thesis on community forestry management in Madagascar. I come from a small town so I really appreciate the charm of Amherst and all the amazing restaurants in town! Thanks to Amherst, I was able to spend not only last fall semester, but also a month this past summer studying in Madagascar and falling in love with the island culture. Catch me on campus tossing around a frisbee on the freshmen quad, working to make the College more sustainable, or fully utilizing the open curriculum to try and figure what I want to do with my life. Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to talk more!
Favorite question asked on tours: What's your favorite restaurant in town?
Hi everyone! I'm a senior from Northern California interested in the intersection between healthcare and business. I've been incredibly happy with the experience that I've had at Amherst so far, from the way I felt at home on campus almost immediately to the relationships I've formed with my peers, professors, and alumni. Some of the best aspects about Amherst are definitely the friendly college town vibe and the open curriculum. I now can't imagine being at a school where I'd have general requirements! I love talking about Amherst, so if you have any questions about what it's like to actually have weather, track, or anything else, please feel free to email me at [email protected].
I came here on a scholarship from Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, so the school chose me more than the other way around. The culture and academics here are different than what I've known and it's a lot to get used to. But being at Amherst as an international student, a transfer student, and an older student has been a worthwhile experience. Don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected] for any lingering questions!
I chose to come to Amherst because I was excited to immerse myself in a close-knit, diverse community where I knew I would be challenged to grow and learn. With my first two years at Amherst behind me, I am amazed by the connections I have formed with my peers and professors, and feel enriched by the environment that Amherst has provided for me. I'm excited for my next two years here, as I know they will bring new friendships, stimulating courses, and important moments of personal growth. I would love to talk more with anyone about Amherst, so please don't hesitate to reach out! [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did you decide to move to the East Coast?
My name is Julia, and I am from Los Angeles, California. Coming from such a large and cosmopolitan city I was a little nervous to switch to a smaller setting so far away from home. But I can happily say that Amherst has truly become my second home. The diverse community here with ready access to the other colleges in the consortium truly lends itself to being a little big world. Although I would like to major in art history, I'm happy that I can take advantage of our unique open curriculum and take as many classes as I can in various subjects. Outside of taking classes and going to practice, I enjoy spending time on the third floor of Frost, doing long Val sits, and hanging out with friends. I look forward to meeting as many prospective Amherst students and their families as I can! Feel free to reach out with any questions at [email protected].
Hobbies: Running, watching Chef's Table, watching the Great British Baking Show while actually baking in real life, babysitting, and making friends!
Favorite question asked on tours: "How did you get in here?!"
Hello! My name is Rachel, I am a dessert-loving, friendship-seeking Northern Californian, and have been told that I am a real life version/combination of Jessica Day and Leslie Knope, which should give you a sense of the level of energy and extroversion I operate at on a daily basis. I am in my third year at Amherst, and I am studying Psychology and French (although you'll also find me in English, History, Film & Media Studies, or Black Studies courses each semester). A lot of people have asked me why I chose Amherst, and my answer has pretty much always been the same. When I first visited Amherst, I was expecting to be most impressed by the facts I already knew and loved about it: the small student-to-faculty ratio, the open curriculum, the intimate and idyllic campus, the Pioneer Valley itself. I did love all of those things, but what really drew me to Amherst College ultimately was the people. I was amazed by the positive, welcoming, diverse student body on campus, and perhaps even more amazed by the attention and care that professors give students at Amherst. Two years later, I've found that that first impression was spot-on, and even on the days that I miss California or slip on ice (not a rarity), I have remained confident and secure in my decision to come to Amherst primarily because of the people here. Students visiting Amherst are also often curious about what my favorite class has been at Amherst so far! I've honestly loved all of my classes at Amherst, but I especially loved every single discussion and assignment in Reading the Novel with Professor Sanborn, and learned a whole new way of writing from Professor Grobe's patient, honest comments in Engaging the Arts. I hope that gives you a good sense of what my own experience of Amherst has been like, but please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any specific questions! Hope to see you on campus soon.
Hi! My name is McLean, and I was born and raised in the City of Lakes: Minneapolis, Minnesota. Winters here are a little shorter and much less cold than those I grew up with, so at Amherst I'm basically living in my tropical paradise! This paradise would be incomplete, though, without the good company I have found here, and these personal connections are the true highlight of my time at Amherst. Between students, staff, and professors, I am constantly around people who encourage me and support me, while challenging me to grow and learn. From seminar discussions on John Locke and free speech to late night common room discussions on high school slang, I encounter and engage new ideas every day here at Amherst. I find this to be a beautiful and exciting place to live and learn, and I hope to help you feel the same.
Favorite question asked on tours: Why would you ever leave California?
My name is Claire and I am a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area. It's hard to believe that I'm already halfway done with my time at Amherst, but I'm loving every minute of it. Although I'm majoring in Political Science, I've enjoyed exploring other departments with the open curriculum such as Math, Computer Science, Spanish, Economics and History. Outside of the classroom, I love competing on the volleyball court (Go Firedogs!) and hanging out with friends. You can find me in the classroom, at the gym, hanging out in my floor’s common room, or getting boba at Lime Red. I chose Amherst for the close community that is fostered here, and I couldn't be happier with my decision. The small classes and intimacy of a residential campus have helped me form lasting bonds with both faculty and other students. I would love to talk with you about what makes Amherst so special (or literally anything else!) so please feel free to send me an email at [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did the school change the mascot?
Haitian born, NYC raised junior coming at you from Amherst College. When I first came to Amherst, I expected to be challenged academically, form deep friendships, and finally go camping. Even though I haven't gone camping (yet), I have already done so much on and off campus. Between my wonderful SWAGS classes and frequent visits to Northampton, I'm always busy and having fun. My passion lies in health education and I'm able to channel it through my work as a Student Health Educator. If you want to know anything else about the college, please email me at [email protected]!
Hobbies: Exploring Western Mass, Reading, Crafting, and Eating!
Hey all! My name's Will, and I'm a junior from Oak Park, Illinois. On my first visit to Amherst a couple of years ago, I was struck by the overwhelming sense of community that I felt on campus. Today, the diverse, empathetic, and intellectual community that is Amherst College still continues to amaze me. The people here at Amherst - from the students, to the professors, to the individuals who work around campus - are truly awesome. If you happen to visit campus, there’s a good chance you might find me in Frost Library trying to figure out some Organic Chemistry homework, down at Hitchcock Field kicking some balls around, or in Val trying to make mac n’ cheese at the stir fry station. If you have any questions about Amherst (even if you’re just curious to how one goes about making mac n’ cheese in a wok) please feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected]. I’m happy to answer any of your questions!
Favorite question asked on tours: Did Zephaniah Swift Moore (Amherst's Founder) just really like purple?
Hi Everyone! My name is Max Fox-Jurkowitz, and I am a junior from Arlington, MA. The warm, inclusive Amherst community and the always accessible professors are just a few of the things that make me feel at home here. The open curriculum at Amherst has allowed me to explore many disciplines, and I’ve even been able to take four history classes already, despite majoring in Math and Stats! Also, I’ve enjoyed my Math and Stats classes so much that I’ll be studying Math in Budapest this Fall. Outside of the classroom, I am on the Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. I am also a Statistics and Data Science Fellow and a member of Project Sunshine, a community volunteer group. In addition to these activities, I enjoy watching sports, reading historical fiction, and running. Email me with questions about Amherst at [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did you apply to Amherst?
Yooo my name is Daniel Lee. I am a junior at Amherst thinking about pursuing a Psychology and LJST double major. I love learning about theories of people's behaviors, and Amherst's open curriculum allows me to pursue multiple historical and philosophical perspectives on the subject. Dancing and music are welcome breaks from academic life, and I have made great friends doing what I love. Learning new perspectives every day is wonderful, and I love attending this school. If you have any question you can email me at [email protected]!
Hello! My name is Jiwoo, and I'm a junior from the suburbs outside of Denver, Colorado. At Amherst, I am a pre-med Neuroscience major and also pursuing the 5-College Culture, Health, and Science certificate. Ever since I visited campus during the Diversity Open House I knew that it would be home. The people make Amherst the place that it is--I'm constantly inspired and supported by the incredible students, professors, and staff members here. It's been an absolutely wild and amazing experience so far, and I'd love to share it with you. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions about the best place to grab coffee in town (Share), best Val meal (Chicken Tikka Masala), or anything else about Amherst!
Activities on campus: Here on campus I'm on the board of the radio station, WAMH and the board of Jazz at Amherst. I also play guitar in a jazz combo. I am involved with theater in many ways, including working in the scene shop, and am the RC of the Arts House.
Hobbies: I play guitar, read, whittle (poorly) and watch standup comedy.
Favorite question asked on tours: You say there's no Greek life here, does that mean that if you're from Greece you're not allowed to apply?
Hello! My name is Theo Pérez and I very much so like it here at Amherst. Between the open curriculum and the wide range of student activities, I feel that I have complete control over the structure of my day and am really able to personalize and adapt my experience to be whatever I want it to be.
Amherst is a really special place because of the amazing individuals who make up our community. One piece of advice I was given upon arrival to campus was to genuinely make an effort to get to know the faculty and staff members who work at the college. After living on campus for two years I can say that following this advice has given me the chance to connect with and learn from some of the most interesting people I've met in my life. My fellow students constantly amaze me with their ambition, curiosity, and hobbies. If you have any questions about LGBT life on campus, the non-athlete experience at Amherst, or anything else please feel free to reach out to me via email at [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did you pick Amherst?
I chose Amherst because of the people I met when I first visited. It was clear that this was a community that loved where they were and were determined to make Amherst, and the world, a better place. I love being apart of this community now and I know that it has made me a more well-rounded person. Not only do I appreciate the Amherst community, but the campus is so picturesque it now seems impossible for me to imagine myself anywhere else.
Favorite question asked on tours: How tall are you?
My name is Audrey Stromberg, and I'm a junior at Amherst. I chose Amherst for all of the obvious reasons, such as the open curriculum, student-to-faculty ratio, and the diverse community of friendly Amherst dogs. Thanks to Amherst, I've been able to fully explore all of my academic interests, finally and happily landing on a psychology major. Along the way, I've taken classes with and gotten to know some of the most intellectually curious minds in the country. As a result, I have grown not only as a student, but also as a person. Amherst is truly a unique experience, and I hope to show you that too! Feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions or just to talk Amherst!
I love being at Amherst and engaging in incredible conversations with people from such diverse backgrounds! People here--students, faculty, and staff--are all so passionate about a range of things. The conversations with my peers and with adults in the community extend far beyond the classroom, ranging from talking about current events and politics to discussions about family traditions back home or new books that we've read. Every single day, these interactions solidify my decision of choosing Amherst!
Hi there, I'm Hana! I am a junior from New York City, born in Ethiopia. I will soon be majoring in Political Science but have a variety of interests that range from English to Religion. I love to learn both from my amazing professors and my classmates. One of my favorite things about a liberal arts education like that at Amherst is the small sized classes which allow for great conversations that challenge the ways I think as well as what I think. Outside of the classroom you can find me bothering my friends or taking a Buzzfeed quiz about which country I should visit based on how I style my non-existent mansion. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions at [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: What's your favorite meal at Val?
My name is Sarah Weintraub and I am a junior from Scarsdale, New York. As soon as I started looking at colleges, I immediately fell in love with Amherst College because of its size, open curriculum, and sense of community. I am currently a member of the women’s crew team on campus and I am the president of the Ski and Snowboard Club. I have been able to explore so many different interests in a variety of classes here because of the open curriculum. Amherst is an amazing place because students, professors and faculty are able to come together to learn from each other every single day. The students here are diverse and interesting and it's great to continue to meet new people all the time on campus. I am excited to be a tour guide to share my knowledge about and love for Amherst with potential students. Feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions about anything Amherst!
Amherst College has been the perfect school for me, and I believe it can be the perfect college for many prospective students. My professors are all at the top of their respective fields, but still put in the time to make sure each student reaches their full potential (by asking challenging questions, leading discussions, and having accessible office hours). Similarly, Amherst students are cooperative, hard-working, and talented, which expedites learning and significantly reduces the stress of schoolwork. Amherst's small size allows you to become close with some of these incredible people, which you will especially appreciate when you always find a friend to sit with at Val or Frost. If you have a question about student life at Amherst College, please feel free to email me at [email protected]! Go Mammoths!
Hi! My name is Morgan Yurosek and I am a junior from sunny Southern California. Calling the East Coast home has been an amazing experience and I have enjoyed the fall foliage, snow, and change of scenery. At Amherst I am a member of the Women's Golf Team and am an Economics major. Since coming to Amherst I have met a ton of people from diverse backgrounds and have taken classes that have introduced me to new and interesting subjects like Russian. I was drawn to Amherst because of the small size of the student body and have enjoyed its perks including small class sizes and the ability to form relationships with the professors. I can't wait to share my wonderful experience here with prospective students. If you have any questions about the school feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Hi! I’m Maggie and I’m a sophomore from Oxford, Massachusetts. When applying to colleges, I was drawn to Amherst by the open curriculum, the diverse community, the amazing students and faculty I met, and the level of comfort I felt while being on campus. Ever since I arrived on campus last fall for orientation, I’ve felt very much at home and have come to love Amherst even more, as well as the people I have gotten to know here. I plan on majoring in psychology, although I have not declared yet. Outside of the time I spend in classes and studying in Frost, you can find me singing with Resurrect (the Amherst College Gospel Choir), lounging in the hammocks by the Greenway dorms, enjoying some fries from Keefe Cafe, or just walking around and admiring the beautiful campus! I look forward to meeting you and sharing more about my experience at Amherst with you! Feel free to send me an email at [email protected] if you have any questions!
Hi, my name is Armando and I'm originally from Caracas, Venezuela but lived most of my life in Miami. It was during move in day at a Spanish speaking families reception that I knew Amherst and I were meant to be. I was told "esto es tu casa" (this is your home), and it has been so much more. From having an inspiring seminar professor who encouraged me to take advantage of the open curriculum and pursue a second major, to friends who want to have picnics on the quad, and crying from laughter with teammates over movies, I know Amherst has been the place for me to grow academically and personally. Amherst to me means the smell of fresh air at the end of a hiking trail, the changing colors of the leaves, talking to really excited alumni, the cheers you yell with friends at homecoming, and the passion in the teacher’s eyes that’s mirrored by the students. If you have any questions about the school feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Favororite question asked on tours: "How'd you manage to get a dog on Campus?
Buon giorno! I'm Bridget and I'm currently a sophomore at Amherst College. I am a Psychology major with a strong academic interest in Italian Language and Cultural Studies which I am able to pursue through the Five College Consortium here. But what I am most passionate about? My fur baby, Capri. Named after the beautiful island in Italy, Capri is a 9 month old Cavapoo puppy who lives with me here on campus. She's a big hit on campus and loves all the pets and treats she receives from students when we go on walks around campus. You can find Capri and I on the first year quad doing some homework or walking around Pratt field for football games! Feel free to reach out with questions, or just to say hi at [email protected]. Ciao!
Favorite question asked on tours: Is it always this cold?
Hi! My name is Joshua Choi and I am from Los Angeles, California. I applied to Amherst because I was looking for a tight-knit community that provided excellent academic opportunities. Amherst has not left me disappointed. Taking advantage of Amherst’s location, I could enjoy breaks from the schoolwork with walks through the woods while also organizing trips to cities like Boston or New York. Amherst College’s open curriculum gave me the chance to take classes that I would have never had the opportunity to otherwise and explore different fields of study that I was completely unfamiliar with. Small class sizes have let me connect with my professors on levels not possible at other schools. From trying out the East Coast lifestyle with new friends to receiving individualized attention from professors, my time at Amherst has been an unforgettable experience so far.
Hi! My name is Vivian Cordon, and I'm sophomore. Although Amherst is way more quiet than my home in New York City (hearing crickets instead of traffic is so strange!), over the course of my first semester, I've truly been able to call Amherst home. Since coming to Amherst, I've become friends with people from all over the country and the world. My favorite thing about Amherst is the diversity of experience that its students have. I never thought I would meet so many diverse people, coming from New York, so the variety experiences of Amherst students was a big surprise. These students bring their experiences to the classroom (or to a meal at Val) and really change the shape of the conversation. I would be more than happy to answer any questions about my experience or Amherst College itself! Feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Did you have to train to walk backwards?
Hey all! I'm Thomas, a sophomore and ardent supporter of all things Chicago. After graduating from a school that fed from all parts of the city, I knew I would need a college that was equally diverse. Here in such a close-knit community, we all celebrate and cherish each other's differences. Amherst students know that together, not apart, we change the world. In my studies I take advantage of our open curriculum daily. As I study the hard sciences for pre-med and legal systems I realize that logic and creativity overlap. Otherwise, on campus you may find me arranging music at a table in Beneski, jamming on a piano in the basement of Jearns, or putting some strange variety of spices on Val's lighter-side catfish. One of my favorite activities running among fall's changing leaves on the bike trail. I am so grateful to Amherst Select, our school's internship program, for exposing me to HIV-related health disparities in my hometown. I can't wait for three more years of learning, goofing-off, and East-coasters saying "word" to everything. Please shoot me an email at [email protected] with any questions – I love to chat!
Hi! My name is Rafi and I am a sophomore from the southern paradise of Northern Louisiana. Already within my first year I have been welcomed into so many accepting communities like the crew team, Blue Sox, and even the floor I live on (South fourth floor represent!). I absolutely love that there is no limit to the communities you can continuously make here at Amherst. Being far away from home is easy with such a supportive group of people always there for me. I can't wait for the next three years here and all the memories I'll get to make here at Amherst! I would love to answer any questions you may have, you can reach me at [email protected].
Hey everyone! My name is Eve De Muheto and I am from New York City. I am a sophomore intending to major in Political Science. Although I have only been here a short time, I have loved my experience at Amherst because despite its size I still feel like I belong in so many different communities within the student body. Between my classmates, professors, and peers from clubs I always feel supported, which I attribute to the tight-knit nature of the school. I am incredibly excited to see what my next two years here bring and share with you all how special Amherst is to me.
Favorite question asked on tours: Why would you leave Florida weather and move to Massachusetts?
Hi everyone! My name is Hayley, and I'm a sophomore from the wonderful paradise of Tampa, Florida. I came to Amherst intending to study Political Science, but thanks to the open curriculum and a twist of fate, I'm now double majoring in music. My favorite things to do at Amherst are sitting in boats with the sailing team (ask me about how much I love Lake Arcadia), talking politics with AC Democrats, and Val Sitting to hide from the cold weather. I've also gotten really involved in off-campus activities by becoming the leader of a local Girl Scout Troop and getting involved in College Democrats of Massachusetts. For me, the best parts of going to Amherst are taking advantage of the 5 College Consortium and enjoying the amazing scenery from campus--coming from Florida, I still feel a little alarmed whenever I wake up and see the mountains outside of my dorm room window! Feel free to email me with questions about Amherst at [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: Why did you decide to come to Amherst?
Hi, I'm Sarah, and I'm a sophomore from the San Francisco Bay Area of California! I really wanted to try something new when I came to college, so I decided to travel across the country to Amherst. Everyday I am grateful that I chose this school. The professors are always very helpful, the campus is beautiful, the community is close, and the people are great! The open curriculum is one of my favorite aspects of the classes here, and I am enjoying using it to its fullest potential. When I'm not studying, you can catch me running cross country and track! I also participate in Amherst Dance and Amherst Connects. I hope you enjoy Amherst as much as I do, please feel free to email me with any questions at [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Why do you go here if you live here?
Hey guys! My name’s Elly and I’m a sophomore from Los Angeles, California (Pasadena specifically for any fellow Angelenos out there). I'm still not 100% certain on my major, but I'm very passionate about the arts and humanities. I chose Amherst for the breadth offered by the open curriculum, its reputation for academic rigor, and the diversity of its student body. I’ve been able to take classes as diverse as theater, Chinese, and psychology as early as the first semester of freshman year while making friends from all over the country and world. But my favorite thing about Amherst is its strong sense of community. One of the blessings of a small college is that you see your friends constantly, and as soon as the first few weeks Amherst started feeling like home. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions! I’m happy to chat anytime, and I hope to see you at Amherst!
Hi! My name is Lauren Lamb, and I am a sophomore from Connecticut. I spent four years at boarding school in New England, so in many ways Amherst is quite similar, but in other ways, Amherst is very different, but I love both. On campus, I run on the Varsity track and field team and help promote environmental sustainability as an Eco Rep. When I’m not running or explaining the importance of bee conservation and downsizing, I like to walk to town for a donut at Glazed or the bike trail with my friends. I love the open curriculum at Amherst, so I can focus on classes in areas I’m passionate about, while feeling free to explore other disciplines. The people at Amherst are what really make the college special. Everyone is driven and passionate, while also quirky and caring. I find myself spending way too long in the dining hall talking to my friends about everything and anything. I’m looking forward to studying abroad my junior year and meeting a lot more people on campus. I’m excited to share my experiences at Amherst with you, so if you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].
Favorite question asked on tours: THIS is a lecture hall?
Hello! My name is Hunter, and I’m from Portland, Oregon. At Amherst, I serve on the Amherst College Senate and the executive board of the Amherst College Pride Alliance. As a sophomore, I have enjoyed taking many courses in differing departments and have come to love the ways in which my classes in seemingly disparate disciplines connect with one another. Each morning I wake up I am excited to be at Amherst, and I hope to be able to convey my love for the college as a tour guide. Amherst is a special place, created and sustained by the special people who are part of it. If you have any questions feel free to reach me at [email protected]. Happy touring!
Favorite question asked on tours: What distinguishes Amherst from its peers, particularly other small liberal arts colleges?
Dear all, My name is Jeremy and I am a sophomore from New York City. I picked Amherst because I believed the school best provided the tools and academic environment to allow me to explore my academic interest. I am very passionate about cities, architecture, and art, which led me to a our architectural studies program which is unlike any other architecture program given the interdisciplinary nature of Amherst. Our courses and open curriculum have allowed be to really dig deep and explore my interests and achieve my goal of having a better understanding of myself. Furthermore, I also have a deep interest in history and being able to take classes in both departments has allowed me to have a better understanding of each other. I am a die heart Yankee's fan, who loves to watch the game on while I do homework. I also enjoy sneakers and streetwear probably a bit too much for my (or my bank account's) own good.
Favorite question asked on tours: Where is your favorite place to study in town?
Hi! My name is Margot, and I’m a sophomore from Denver, Colorado. From the moment I stepped on the Amherst campus as a prospective student, I felt at home. I had a sense that it was the right place for me both academically and socially, and so far it has exceeded my expectations. As someone with a wide variety of academic interests, I believe the opportunities for exploration afforded by the open curriculum are invaluable. I didn’t enter the college with a clear major in mind, and I love the freedom to explore many departments, knowing that I could never take all of the classes that interest me. I couldn’t have anticipated how incredible my professors would be; they are not only great educators but also caring and generous with their time. My academic experience has been enhanced by the kind, interesting group of students I get to live and learn with. If you have any questions about Amherst please feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Where is your favourite place to study on campus?
Hello! My name is Jake Montes-Adams and I am a sophomore here at Amherst College from San Diego County, California. I am a declared political science major, but I have also had the opportunity to take classes in diverse areas of interest from architectural studies to sexuality, women's, and gender studies. I also took a geography class at UMass last semester, which was a fantastic way to spend some time off campus and to explore in a classroom setting a niche interest of mine that I'd previously never had the opportunity to formally study. After I graduate, I hope to work abroad as a policy researcher and advocate for human rights and/or labour rights, but I am also interested in investigative journalism. When I'm not studying or at work, I like to listen to selections from my record collection, watch YouTube videos, and listen to podcasts. I love to travel (I've been to 26 states plus DC!), I'm a huge baseball and soccer fan, and I visit every art museum I can find. This year I'm be living in Marsh Arts House and hope to develop my prose writing and photography skills while continuing to explore across the curriculum and around the Five Colleges.
Hello! My name is Lea Morin and I am a second year at Amherst College. I was born and raised in the Lone Star State and could not be prouder. Yet I decided to attend college thousands of miles away from Texas because I could not resist the allure of Amherst. I participated in DIVOH and fell head over heels for the campus and the people brought together by the college. Amherst offers an exceptional academic atmosphere as well as a diverse community which proves conducive for intellectual and personal growth. Amherst’s community was its greatest attractive force for me as well as my favorite aspect of the college because my undergraduate experience is about far more than just acquiring a degree. I have the incredible opportunity of learning and growing with a diverse array of people I would not have encountered elsewhere which has broadened my personal horizons. I love discussing Amherst and I would like the opportunity to do so with prospective students or their parents and may be contacted at [email protected]. I am excited to share my experiences with you!
Favorite question asked on tours: Is everyone on campus as lovely as you?
Hey! My name is Abigail Offei-Addo, and I am a sophomore here at Amherst. I first learned of Amherst when two of my older brothers decided to attend Amherst and its rival school (which shall not be named). As I learned about the opportunities that Amherst offered academically, I decided to apply. Now that I'm here, I can't imagine being anywhere else; the friends that I've made, the professors I've interacted with, and the classes that I’ve taken make being here on campus truly worth it. I can genuinely say that I’ve found a family here, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Normally, I try to focus more on the academic side of life, but when I need to procrastinate (which is often), YouTube, Spotify, anime, and K-dramas are my go-to’s. I also enjoy playing volleyball, hanging out with friends, talking about the latest video game developments, and debating random topics. I was a part of Women’s Club Soccer for a hot second, but I am more than willing to talk about anything from football to water polo. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions about Amherst.
Hi! My name is Lorelle Sang and I’m a sophomore from Brooklyn, New York. I’m planning on double majoring in Neuroscience and Music. I was immediately attracted to Amherst because of the open curriculum. I really liked having lot’s of control over what I studied, and since coming to Amherst have met so many encouraging people who have helped me continue to pursue my interests and passions to the best of my ability. If you have any questions about my experience at Amherst send me an email at [email protected]!
Favorite question asked on tours: Where is your favorite place to study?
When I was in high school, I never imagined that I would end up at a liberal arts school on the opposite side of the country. In fact, I seriously considered just going to my local community college. I had no idea what I wanted to study, let alone how I could afford college; thus, I thought it would be safer to transfer later. But Amherst gave me the freedom to pursue bigger opportunities. Amherst has certainly strengthened my academic mind and eased my worries about affording college, but I have also been encouraged to cultivate a broader perspective of my place in the world and in relation to other people. As a tour guide, I hope to express how much I've been able to grow here. Feel free to reach out with any questions at [email protected]!
Howdy! I'm a second-year from Houston, Texas double majoring in English & Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought. I love it here and I'm sure you will, too! I have a strong interest in domestic and international human rights--grounded in American carceral practices. With the open curriculum, I've had the studied subjects I have legitimate interest in--without worrying about fulfilling tedious general education requirements. Although it's a far cry from Houston, Amherst is my home away from home--thanks to all the genuine, kind people here. If you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected]. I'm more than happy to talk about anything from Toni Morrison to what Kim's entrepreneurial spirit.
Hi guys! My name is Jack Vasquez, and I am a sophomore at Amherst College. I came to Amherst because I wanted a small liberal arts college that would both support me in my academic and career endeavors and challenge me to grow intellectually. In these respects, Amherst has far exceeded my expectations. My favorite part of the college is its professors. They always seem to go out of their way to help students who ask for it, but at the same time will challenge students to see the world in a different way. I have also found the career center at Amherst extremely helpful, especially coming into college not really knowing what I wanted to do after college. If you decide to come to Amherst College, I'm confident you'll find the students and professors at the college will provide you a top-notch experience. If you have any questions about life at Amherst or the application process, don't hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Best of luck!
Hello! My name is Javier and I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. My favorite thing about college so far is that Amherst makes it easy to pursue what I enjoy. In my first year it was exceptionally straightforward to join student clubs and other on-campus activities that I liked. Academics at Amherst are also very accessible; teachers are always ready to meet one on one and, thanks to the open curriculum, I will be able to double major despite starting one of my majors in my second year. If you think of any questions related to what I do on campus or about being an Amherst student in general please send them my way and I'll send a detailed and honest response. My email is [email protected].
Hi! My name is Ben and from the moment I visited Amherst I fell in love with the college. Back home in Michigan, however, very few people have heard of this “little” school. Despite that, I’m so happy I came to Amherst, as it has been everything I’d hoped for and more. There is a unique and strong sense of community that makes the Amherst experience very enriching. The entire student body is so friendly, and the professors genuinely care about their students, even outside the classroom. The open curriculum is allowing me to easily pursue a double major while still taking many other fascinating classes outside my majors. The college also provides so many non-academic opportunities for all students to get involved in every aspect of college life. Amherst is a place where you can truly come to grow and discover what you’re passionate about. I love to talk about Amherst, so if you’d like to talk about academics, student life, sports, political activity or anything else, don’t hesitate to contact me! My email is [email protected].
Hi! My name is Marina and I am from the northern suburbs of Chicago. I am a Sophomore at Amherst and am double majoring in Chemistry & Spanish. I spend most of my time on campus in the new science center or hanging out at Marsh House (the arts house on campus). I am a member of the Women's Club Soccer team and am enjoying every second of it! Club sports are a big part of my life here on campus and I have found some of my best friends through being on the team. I grew up on the lake, so I love to swim, kayak, and sail. My favorite thing to eat on campus are the mac & cheese bites at Schwemm's. I first learned about Amherst through DIVOH (Amherst's Diversity Open House). If you are considering applying or have any questions about the program, feel free to email me at [email protected]. I'd be happy to share a little bit about my experience. I hope you enjoy getting to know Amherst a bit better and I hope you'll consider joining our community. Roll Mammos!
Favorite question asked on tours: How's the winter?
Hi! I’m Lisa, a sophomore from Florida (yes, I am adjusting to the weather here!). As you saw above, I am interested in many subjects so I’m not sure what I am going to major in yet, but the open curriculum here is helping me figure that out! It’s super easy to get involved in extracurriculars at Amherst. I’m passionate about intersectional feminism so I’m in the Reproductive Justice Alliance, and I love writing so I am a writer for the Amherst Student (our newspaper) and an editor for The Indicator (our magazine). Also, I had never done improv comedy before coming to college but now I'm a part of our improv group on campus called Mr. Gad's. Besides those fun tidbits, I pride myself in being a lava cake enthusiast and you’ll probably see me around campus in colorful, funky outfits. My favorite parts about Amherst are the quad, the size, the people, the professors, and the sense of community here. I want you to love Amherst too, so feel free to email me if you have any questions at [email protected].
Being not even a year removed, I remember how scary, yet exciting of a time it is venturing out and exploring where you'll potentially spend 4+ super important years of your life. And so, hopefully I can bring that human element to discovering Amherst more than just the website or admissions brochures to help everyone who visits this campus feel welcome and free to determine how well of a fit it is for them the same way that I would have wanted for myself not too long ago. And so, ask away, I love questions and I love communicating with people and can't wait to meet you guys!
Hey! I'm Mattea, and I'm a first-year student from Utah (there's only a couple of Utahns here at Amherst!) I'm very excited to be able to share my love of Amherst with you. Amherst is a remarkably special place, and I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to be a student here. The student body is absolutely incredible. I am continually blown away by the amazing life stories each student has to tell. Everyone here has a different background and something to offer to the school as a whole, and that makes Amherst a very inspiring place to be. Another thing I love about Amherst is the open-curriculum. It has allowed me to follow both of my passions by double-majoring, along with providing the opportunity to explore subjects outside of my majors. Amherst truly is a place where you can grow, explore possibilities, and broaden your horizons. I'm excited to be able to share all the wonderful things this school has to offer with you! Please feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions you may have, or if you just want to talk about Amherst!
Hey! My name is Luyao Fu, and I go by Mimi. I grew up in China, but moved to Boston 8 years ago. My prospective majors are economics and Japanese (even though I am in Japanese 101 right now). In my free time, I like to dance, sing, and draw with friends, but I am by no means a professional at any of these skills. Amherst stood out among other small liberal arts colleges because of its diverse community and non-toxic competition. In this atmosphere, I truly feel that I receive an education for its inherent fulfillment, not for an end goal. Contrary to my high school experience, receiving a good grade became an affirmation of my hard work, rather than a letter that looks good on my transcript (Of course grades still matter). I can't imagine myself going to any other school. I've met so many amazing and unique people, and I've learned a lot from them. But if you have any questions about my experience, please feel free to email [email protected]!
Hey! My name is Shikha, and I'm from just outside Detroit, Michigan. I'm only a first-year and a lot of my plans are subject to change, but I'm currently thinking of studying psychology on the pre-med track (we'll see if the Open Curriculum says otherwise). The few months I've spent at Amherst have already been some of the most enjoyable to date, and I wake up every morning excited for the new people I'll meet and the new experiences I'll have. I'm always happy to share my thoughts and stories from this first year at Amherst, especially if it can help make your college application process easier - feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions!
Hello! My name is James Kwak and I'm a first-year from Tampa, Florida. I expected the transition to Amherst to be difficult, but I was surprised to find that engaging with Amherst's passionate and diverse student body as well as building intimate relationships with my professors immediately made me feel at home! My favorite thing about Amherst is that you're given so many opportunities to explore things outside your normal realm of interests. For example, despite being in rural Western Massachusetts, I was able to attend several unique musical concerts funded entirely by the college. One of these concerts, which featured esteemed saxophonist Darius Jones, helped expand my definition of music and challenged my preexisting outlook on performative art. I believe that college is a place for growth and exploration, and Amherst encourages me to do exactly that every single day! If you have any questions or would like to reach out to me, please do so at [email protected]!
Hey y'all! My name is Alexi Lee, and I am a first-year from TN. I love Amherst with my whole heart, and I am so excited to get to show others around this wonderful second home of mine! I am currently planning on double-majoring in LJST and Psychology; outside of class, you can catch me on the Connecticut rowing for the women's crew team, Val sitting with my friends, being way too loud on A Level in Frost, or dancing with the lovely dancers of DASAC! I hope you have an amazing time exploring Amherst; feel free to email me at [email protected] with any questions you might have!
Hi! My name is Andrea Mirow and I’m originally from Miami, Florida. I first visited Amherst through the Diversity Open House (DIVOH) program at the beginning of my senior year of high school. I was really curious to see what made Amherst special, and I instantly realized it is the beautiful, vibrant community on campus. After meeting so many amazing people, I decided this was the place for me. Already a semester in, I feel like I’ve found a second home. Amherst also offers a ton of really cool opportunities for students to get out there and explore their interests. The open curriculum has allowed me to take classes in history of science and art while also testing out physics and chemistry. My professors genuinely care about how I’m doing, not only in class but outside as well, and they continue to guide and help me figure out what I want to do. I am so proud to be a student at Amherst (and a mammoth!), and I can’t wait to share that with you! If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected].
Hi! My name is Diego and I’m a first year student from Boston, Massachusetts. The main thing that drew me to Amherst was the open curriculum, but what I’ve found since then has been a world of possibilities. I got involved and fell in love with things I had never tried before like rugby, archery, and giving tours. I fell in love with the College because of how authentic and passionate everyone is. Everyone is happy to be who they are, and are excited to find out who you are. The best part of the open curriculum is that everyone in class – including the professors – is there because they want to be, and everyone feeds off that energy together. The same goes for extracurricular activities and even just hanging out with friends: everyone puts their heart into what they do. If you have any questions about applying to Amherst or what life is like here, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected].
Favorite Question Asked on Tours: How are you fitting into Amherst?
Hola mis amigos! My name is Ramses Rubio and I'm a first year from Northern Virginia (basically DC). My mom is from Panama and my dad is from Peru. I love Amherst for the beautiful surroundings and tranquility that it provides while still not feeling that I'm in the middle of nowhere. I really love the Amherst Community for all the friends that I've made and being part of multiple clubs. The most amazing thing has been all the ski trips I've been able to take this year which are all paid for by the school. Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] and I look forward to seeing you on campus!
Hi! My name is Virginia and I'm a first year here at Amherst College. Ever since I first stepped foot on campus, I knew that Amherst was a special place. Through my time here, that has only become more true. I find new things I love about this school nearly every day I am here, whether it is discovering a new study nook, a caring facilities worker, a relaxing run on the bike trail, or a positive and informative one-on-one experience with a professor. I love walking around campus at a small school like Amherst because there’s a very high chance that I'll see people I know, and it's always encouraging to see friendly faces. One of my favorite parts about Amherst is its open curriculum because I can create my own unique academic experience that would reflect my interests and ensure that I can learn things I feel passionately about. From the exceptional character of the student body to the passionate, brilliant, and caring professors and gorgeous campus, I believe that Amherst really is the ideal place to study and spend four years.
During my college search I realized I needed both academic rigor and a strong sense of community. The moment I stepped onto the Amherst campus, I found both in spades. As expected, my favorite part of my Amherst experience has been the community. Fellow students act in collaboration rather than competition because we know this is the best way for all of us to learn and enjoy our time here. Professors take the time to understand how each student can be successful. Students get to know one another regardless of club or sport affiliation. We also get to know the staff at Val and in our dorms, too. I’ve made fast-friends here, and already have a tradition of hosting movie and game nights with my new friends on weekends. Amherst is a great place to learn, and I’m excited to share that with you!
Hi there! My name is David Xu and I'm a first year student here at Amherst College. Like many students on campus, I am undecided on my major and am taking a variety of classes in Economics, Music, Math, Physics, etc. I've actually found that I'm even more undecided and sometimes wish I could just major in everything, but I'm certain I'll come to a decision (eventually). Outside of classes I love taking naps, playing in the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, being dramatic during opening statements in Mock Trial, and checking out the variety of activities on campus. If you want some insight into the first year experience, want tips on the quietest study spots on campus, or have any questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected]! | 2019-04-23T18:15:19Z | https://www.amherst.edu/admission/meet/tour-guides |
The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have published their response to the European Commission on the amendments the Commission proposes to make to the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) on key information documents (KIDs) for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPS).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Report on cyclicality of banks’ capital requirements aiming at clarifying whether risk-sensitive bank capital requirements as laid down in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) create unintended pro-cyclical effects by reinforcing the endogenous relationships between the financial system and the real economy. This report, which has been drafted in close cooperation with the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and the European Central Bank (ECB) is in response to a request by the European Commission to understand whether CRDIV/CRR requirements exert significant effects on the economic cycle and, if so, whether any remedial measures are justified. In addition, this Report may inform the European Commission’s currently ongoing reviews of the EU micro- and macro-prudential frameworks and could serve as a valuable complementary contribution to the global discussions about the bank capital regulatory framework.
In its meeting on 6 December 2016, the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA) decided to carry out its next EU-wide stress test in 2018, in line with its previous decision to aim for a biennial exercise. The EBA will start immediately to prepare the methodology for the 2018 stress test exercise, which will also include an assessment of the impact of IFRS 9, which will be implemented on 1 January 2018. This decision has been communicated to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. In 2017, the EBA will perform its regular annual transparency exercise.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its third impact assessment Report for the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), together with a review of its phasing-in period. The Report shows a constant improvement of the average LCR across EU banks since 2011. At the reporting date of 31 December 2015, EU banks’ average LCR was significantly above the 100% minimum requirement, which will have to be fully implemented by January 2018, and no strong evidence was found suggesting that the EBA should recommend an extension of the phasing-in period of the LCR. The Report, which is based on liquidity data from 194 EU banks across 17 Member States, is the first publication after the implementation of the minimum binding standards in 2015 and accounts for the provisions of the Commission’s Delegated Regulation on the LCR.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the supervision of significant branches. Prompted by the increasing demand to establish branches across the European Union, these Guidelines are designed to facilitate cooperation and coordination between the Competent Authorities (CAs). They will assist them in supervising the largest systemically important branches, the so-called “significant-plus” branches, which require intensified supervision.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report including recommendations on how to harmonise covered bond framework in the EU. This Report represents an unparalleled attempt to further strengthen the covered bonds across the EU and seeks to ensure that only those financial instruments that comply with the harmonised structural, credit risk and prudential standards can be branded as ‘covered bonds’ and have access to special regulatory and capital treatment as provided in the current EU financial regulation.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a data collection for commodity derivatives firms that will support the European Commission in the calibration of the new prudential regime for investment firms. This exercise follows up on the consultation the EBA launched on 4 November 2016 in response to the European Commission's call for technical advice on the design of a new prudential regime for investment firms, including the extent to which the new regime would also be suitable for or adaptable to specialised commodity derivatives firms.
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) launched today a public consultation about the potential benefits and risks of Big Data for consumers and financial firms to determine whether any further regulatory or supervisory actions may be needed.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a qualitative survey on internal ratings-based (IRB) models to analyse the impact of the EBA draft Guidelines on the estimation of risk parameters for non-defaulted exposures, namely of the probability of default (PD) and the loss given default (LGD), and on the treatment of defaulted assets, which are currently under consultation.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the framework for cooperation and exchange of information between Competent Authorities for passport notifications under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The technical standards will ensure that information about payment institutions and e-money institutions that carry out business in one or more EU Member States is exchanged consistently between the national authorities of the home and host Member States.
The EBA published today its final Report on the implementation and design of the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). The Report quantifies the current MREL stack and estimates potential financing needs of European Union (EU) banks under various scenarios. It also assesses the possible macroeconomic costs and benefits of introducing MREL in the EU. Finally, the Report recommends a number of changes to reinforce the MREL framework and integrate the international standards on total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) in the EU’s MREL.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines developed in close cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB) under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The draft Guidelines specify (i) the criteria for classifying operational or security incidents as major, (ii) the template to be used by payment service providers when notifying them to the Competent Authorities (CAs,) and (iii) the indicators CAs need to use when assessing the relevance of such incidents. These Guidelines are in support of the objectives of the PSD2 of strengthening the integrated payments market across the European Union (EU), ensuring a consistent application of the legislative framework, promoting equal conditions for competition, providing a secure framework on the payments environment and protecting consumers.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its ninth report on risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector. The report is accompanied by the EBA's 2016 transparency exercise, which provides essential data, in a comparable and accessible format, for 131 banks across the EU. Overall, banks have further strengthened their capital position, allowing them to continue the process of repair. The report identifies as the key challenges in that process the remaining high levels of non-performing loans (NPLs) and sustained low profitability. Operational risks also appear to be on the rise and volatility in funding markets remains high.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its fourth updated list of capital instruments that Competent Supervisory Authorities (CAs) across the European Union (EU) have classified as Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1). Since the publication of the previous update in September 2016, some new CET1 instruments have been assessed and evaluated as compliant with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The list will be maintained and updated on a regular basis.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its amended final draft implementing technical standards (ITS) on the reporting of financial information. The amended ITS follow the finalisation of IFRS 9 in July 2014 by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and its endorsement into EU law on 22 November 2016 and aim at aligning the reporting framework with the new IFRS 9 requirements while ensuring reporting institutions have adequate implementation time.
The EBA announced today that its annual risk assessment report accompanied by detailed individual data for the banks participating in the 2016 EU-wide transparency exercise will be published on Friday 2 December 2016 at 22:00 Central European Summer Time (21:00 GMT).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a second impact assessment of IFRS 9, which builds on the results of its first exercise published on 10 November 2016. The EBA expects that institutions will be able to provide more detailed and accurate insights into their implementation of IFRS 9 as the information provided by the respondents in the first exercise reflected the early stage of implementation.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) that specify the conditions under which Competent Authorities assess the significance of positions included in the scope of market risk internal models, as well as the methodology they shall apply when assessing an institution’s compliance with the requirements to use an Internal Model Approach (IMA) for market risk. These draft RTS are a key component of the EBA's work to ensure consistency in models’ outputs and comparability of risk-weighted exposures and will contribute to harmonise the supervisory assessment methodology across all EU Member States and, ultimately, to restore confidence in the use of such models for regulatory purposes.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today additional information on the application of the proportionality principle to the remuneration provisions laid down in the Capital Requirements Directive in response to a request for advice from the European Commission.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the list of public sector entities (PSEs) that may be treated as regional governments, local authorities or central governments in the area of credit risk, in accordance with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). This list will assist EU institutions in determining their capital requirements for credit risk.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today for consultation a proposal to review its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on additional monitoring metrics for liquidity, which mainly consists of reintroducing a maturity ladder in line with the reporting requirements laid down in the Commission’s Delegated Act on the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR). These revised ITS aim at providing Competent Authorities with harmonised information on institutions’ liquidity risk profile, taking into account the nature, scale and complexity of their activities.
The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) published today its final Guidelines on the characteristics of a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing supervision and the steps to be taken when conducting supervision on a risk-sensitive basis. These guidelines form part of the Joint Committee's work to establish consistent, effective and risk-based supervisory practices across the European Union and contribute to a more robust European anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. They are consistent with international AML/CFT standards.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the estimation of risk parameters for non-defaulted exposures, namely of the probability of default (PD) and the loss given default (LGD), and on the treatment of defaulted assets. These draft Guidelines are part of the EBA’s broader work on the review of the IRB approach aimed at reducing the unjustified variability in the outcomes of internal models, while preserving the risk sensitivity of capital requirements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today for consultation revised Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting. The proposed amendments concern new requirements for the reporting of information on sovereign exposures and changed requirements for the reporting of operational risk data. The standards on supervisory reporting aim at collecting information on institutions’ compliance with prudential requirements in a consistent way and need to be updated whenever prudential or supervisory requirements change. This consultation runs until 7 January 2017.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report including some qualitative and quantitative observations of its first impact assessment of IFRS 9. This exercise, which helped the EBA understand the way in which institutions are preparing for the application of IFRS 9, also contains some recommendations relevant to the observations as well as some future actions, including the interaction of IFRS 9 with existing prudential requirements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on (i) regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the information to be provided to Competent Authorities for the authorisation of credit institutions and (ii) implementing technical standards (ITS) on the templates and procedures for the provision of such information. These standards aim at harmonising the information requirements in the authorisation process across the EU, thus facilitating the application process and ensuring a level playing field.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report in response to two calls for advice to assist the European Commission in the adoption into European legislation of two new international frameworks proposed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS): (i) a new standardised framework for counterparty risk (CCR), i.e. the so-called SA-CCR, and (ii) a new market risk (MKR) framework - the so-called fundamental review of the trading book (FRTB). In the Report, the EBA focuses on the envisaged impact of these two frameworks, for both large and small firms, and issues recommendations on their implementation.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation in response to the European Commission's call for technical advice on the design of a new prudential regime for investment firms, which is specifically tailored to the needs of investment firms’ different business models and inherent risks. The aim of this work is to develop a single, harmonised set of requirements that are reasonably simple, proportionate, and more relevant to the nature of investment business. The consultation runs until 2 February 2017.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines specifying the information to be provided by applicants intending to obtain authorisation as payment and electronic money institutions as well as to register as account information service providers under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2).These Guidelines are in support of the objective of PSD2 of strengthening an integrated payments market across the European Union, ensuring a consistent application of the legislative framework, and promoting equal conditions for competition. The consultation runs until 3 February 2017.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on the collection of information related to the internal capital adequacy assessment process (ICAAP) and the internal liquidity adequacy assessment process (ILAAP). These Guidelines aim at facilitating a consistent approach to the supervisory assessment of ICAAP and ILAAP frameworks across the EU as part of the supervisory review and evaluation process (SREP).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final report on the reference point for the target level of national resolution financing arrangements. In the report, the EBA recommends changing the basis from covered deposits to a total liabilities-based measure and, in particular, total liabilities (excluding own funds) less covered deposits. The proposed methodology would align the target level basis with the reference base used for the calculation of individual contributions to national resolution financing arrangements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on its revised Guidelines on internal governance. These draft Guidelines aim at further harmonising institutions’ internal governance arrangements, processes and mechanisms across the EU, in line with the new requirements in this area introduced in the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) and also taking into account the proportionality principle. The consultation runs until 28 January 2017.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) launched today a consultation on Guidelines on the Assessment of the Suitability of the Members of Management Body and Key Function Holders (the Guidelines). The draft Guidelines aim at further improving and harmonising suitability assessments within the EU financial sectors and so ensure sound governance arrangements in financial institutions.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on the procedures and templates which Resolution Authorities should use when informing the EBA of the minimum requirements for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) that have been set for each institution under their jurisdiction. These standards will enable the EBA to monitor on a consistent basis the implementation of MREL across the Union.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its response to the European Commission’s call for advice of 26 April 2016 on the review of the large exposures framework laid down in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The EBA’s response has been provided in the form of a report divided in three different sections and including also recommendations to entrust the EBA with additional mandates to further simplify and harmonise the large exposures regime. This report will support the Commission in its review of the large exposures framework as part of the overall CRR review.
On 18 November 2016, from 13.00 to 16.00 UK time, the European Banking Authority (EBA) will be holding a public hearing to outline its draft proposals on the European covered bond framework. The hearing comes as a follow-up to the recommendation by the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and ahead of the expected publication of the final report by end of 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) responded today to the European Commission’s call for technical advice on the criteria to identify the class of investment firms for which the prudential regime laid down in the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) and Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) is applicable. In general, the EBA recommends that only those investment firms that are currently identified as Other Systemically Important Institutions (OSIIs) remain subject to the full CRD/CRR regime.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its detailed annual work programme for 2017, describing the specific activities and tasks of the Authority for the coming year, as well as a multiannual work programme, highlighting the key strategic areas of work in the coming years (from 2017 to 2020).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a reminder to competent authorities of the key dates for the submission of data for the 2017 benchmarking exercise for internal approaches for credit and market risk. This would ensure a smooth and timely start of the exercise although the Commission’s endorsement of the amended version of the Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on benchmarking of internal approaches for running the 2017 exercise is still pending.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on corrections to modified duration for debt instruments. The objective of these Guidelines is to establish what type of adjustments to the modified duration (MD) - as defined according to the formulas in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) - have to be performed in order to appropriately reflect the effect of the prepayment risk. The Guidelines will contribute towards the successful implementation of the Commission's securitisation package under the Capital Markets Union reform, giving clarity on the matter to credit institutions.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) updated today the list of closely correlated currencies that was originally published in December 2013 and updated in May 2015. The list is part of the implementing technical standards (ITS) that were drafted for the purposes of calculating the capital requirements for foreign-exchange risk according to the standardised rules. The list was updated according to the procedure and methodology laid down in the ITS.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its updated Report on the monitoring of Additional Tier 1 (AT1) instruments and proposed standardised templates for AT1 instruments.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the assessment of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) risk in the context of the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP). These draft Guidelines are addressed to competent authorities and aim at promoting common procedures and methodologies for the assessment of ICT risk.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on implicit support for securitisation transactions. The objective of these Guidelines is to clarify what constitutes arm’s length conditions and to specify when a transaction is not structured to provide support for securitisations. The Guidelines will contribute towards the successful implementation of the Commission’s securitisation package under the Capital Markets Union reform, giving clarity on the matter to credit institutions.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the periodic update of its Risk Dashboard. This report summarises the main risks and vulnerabilities in the banking sector by the evolution of a set of Risk Indicators (RI) across the EU in Q2 2016. The update shows an increase in EU banks’ capital ratios, while the low profitability and the high level of NPLs remain a concern.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines specifying the application of the definition of default across the EU and its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the materiality threshold of past due credit obligations. The EBA also released the results of a quantitative and qualitative impact study (QIS) aimed at assessing the impact on the regulatory capital requirements of selected policy options to harmonise the definition of default used by EU institutions. Both the Guidelines and the final draft RTS will harmonise the definition of default across the EU, thus contributing to improving consistency and comparability of capital requirements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on remuneration policies and practices related to the provision and sale of retail banking products and services. The EBA had previously identified poor remuneration policies and practices as a key driver of miss-selling of financial products and services. The Guidelines aim, therefore, to protect consumers from related risks and to reduce conduct costs for financial institutions. They will apply from 18 January 2018.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on the procedures, forms and templates that Competent Authorities in the EU should use when consulting each other on qualifying holdings. The objective of these ITS is to streamline information exchanges and ensure effective communications between concerned authorities, both on a cross-border basis and across sectors.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a consultation paper on draft technical standards setting out the standardised terminology for services linked to a payment account, the standardised format and common symbol of both the fee information document (FID) and the statement of fees (SoF).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the criteria Competent Authorities should consider when stipulating the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance (PII) or comparable guarantee for payment initiation and account information service providers under the revised Payment Service Directive (PSD2).
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) today hosts its 4th “Joint ESAs Consumer Protection Day” in Paris.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its tenth report of the CRDIV-CRR/Basel III monitoring exercise on the European banking system. This exercise, run in parallel with the one conducted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) at a global level, presents aggregate data on capital ratios – risk-based and non-risk-based (leverage) – and liquidity ratios – the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and net stable funding ratio (NSFR) – for banks across the European Union (EU). It summarises the results using data as of 31 December 2015.
The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA, ESMA - ESAs), published today their Opinion addressed to the European Commission expressing disagreement with its proposed amendments to the final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on risk mitigation techniques for OTC derivatives not cleared by a central counterparty, which were originally submitted for endorsement on 8 March 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report analysing the core funding ratio across the EU. The Report is in response to a request from the European Commission to explore the possibilities of the core stable funding ratio (CFR) as a potential alternative metrics for the assessment of EU banks’ funding risk, taking into account proportionality. The Report concludes that, overall, it would be misleading to rely only on the CFR to assess banks’ funding needs because, unlike the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR), the CFR does not look at the whole balance sheet of a bank and, therefore, cannot fully assess a potential funding gap. This Report is based on the same QIS data used for the NSFR Report published in December 2015.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its third updated list of capital instruments that Competent Supervisory Authorities (CAs) across the European Union (EU) have classified as Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1). Since the publication of the previous update in October 2015, some new CET1 instruments have been assessed and evaluated as compliant with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The list will be maintained and updated on a regular basis.
In an Opinion issued today, the EBA welcomed the Commission’s proposal to bring virtual currency exchange platforms and custodian wallet providers within the scope of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The Authority also makes several recommendations aimed at supporting the consistent pan-EU implementation and supervision of the proposals that the Commission had published on 5 July 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the outcome of a review of its Single Rulebook Q&As, which provides an overview of possible errors, inconsistencies as well as fundamental issues in relation to the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) observed via the Single Rulebook Q&A tool managed by the ЕВА.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today indicators from 36 large institutions in the EU, as provided for in the Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) and Guidelines on disclosure rules applicable to institutions whose leverage ratio exposure measure exceeds 200 billion Euro.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an amended version, submitted to the EU Commission, of its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on benchmarking of internal approaches, for running the 2017 exercise . The amended ITS will assist Competent Authorities in their 2017 assessment of internal approaches both for credit risk, and for market risk.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its report on the impact assessment and calibration of the Leverage Ratio (LR), recommending the introduction of a LR minimum requirement in the EU to mitigate the risk of excessive leverage. The analysis suggests that the potential impact of introducing a LR requirement of 3% on the provision of financing by credit institutions would be relatively moderate, while, overall, it should lead to more stable credit institutions. The report will inform the work of the European Commission on potential legislative proposals on LR.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a list of designated Resolution Authorities. Under the EU framework, each Member State has to designate one or, exceptionally, more Resolution Authorities that are empowered to apply the resolution tools and the resolution powers.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the requirements with which payment card schemes and processing entities must comply to ensure the independence of their accounting, organisation, and decision-making processes. These final draft RTS aim at facilitating greater competition among processing services providers, supporting the general objective of the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR) to create a Single Market for card payments across the EU.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on criteria for the application of a preferential treatment in cross-border intragroup credit or liquidity lines, or within an IPS. These RTS further specify the additional criteria listed in the in the context of the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) Delegated Act for the application of the preferential treatment.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an example of the transparency templates, which will be used to disclose the results of the upcoming 2016 EU-wide stress test. These templates are provided for information and to facilitate understanding of the format and type of data that can be expected on Friday 29 July.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on draft Guidelines on credit institutions’ credit risk management practices and accounting for expected credit losses; it follows the publication of Guidance by the Basel Committee in December 2015 on the same matter. These Guidelines aim at ensuring sound credit risk management practices associated with the implementation and on-going application of the accounting for expected credit losses. The consultation will run until 26 October 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the treatment of connected clients for large exposures. These draft Guidelines review and update the ‘Guidelines on the implementation of the revised large exposures regime’ issued by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) on 11 December 2009. Their focus is exclusively on the issue of connected clients as defined in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and they reflect the developments in the area of shadow banking and large exposures both at EU and international level. The consultation runs until 26 October 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on the communication between competent authorities supervising credit institutions and statutory auditors of those institutions.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched a consultation on its report on the reference point for the target level of national resolution financing arrangements. The appropriateness of the basis for the target level is assessed on the basis of a number of qualitative criteria and historical data. The draft report recommends changing the basis from covered deposits to a total liabilities based measure. The consultation will run until 2 September 2016.
The EBA today issued a report on recent trends in asset quality in the EU banking sector. The analysis is based on supervisory data on non-performing loans (NPLs) and forbearance (FBL) for over 160 EU banks. The report shows that despite improvements NPLs remain high, with associated implications for the economy and bank’s profitability. The report identifies various structural impediments to addressing NPLs and sets out three key areas for improvement.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the assessment methodology competent authorities shall follow in assessing the compliance of an institution with the requirements for the use of the Internal Ratings Based Approach (IRB Approach). The purpose of these RTS is to harmonise the supervisory assessment methodology with respect to the IRB Approach across all Member States in the European Union (EU).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has launched today a public consultation on its interim report on the implementation and design of the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). The interim report is addressed to the European Commission, and it will inform a future legislative proposal on the implementation of the Financial Stability Board’s “total loss-absorbing capacity” (TLAC) standard in the EU and the review of MREL. Further elements will be covered in the EBA’s final report which will be provided to the European Commission by 31 October 2016.
The EBA announced today that detailed individual results for the banks participating in the 2016 EU-wide stress test, along with detailed balance sheets and exposure data as of end 2015, will be published on Friday 29 July 2016 at 22:00 Central European Summer Time (21:00 British Summer Time).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a data collection aimed at supporting the response to the European Commission's Call for Advice on a new prudential framework for MifiD (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) investment firms, which should be less complex, more risk sensitive and more proportionate than the current regime.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a benchmarking analysis of diversity practices at EU level showing that only a limited number of institutions have already adopted a diversity policy. In particular, the report highlights that the actual level of diversity in the composition of the management body in institutions differs significantly between Member States, namely regarding the gender diversity. The Authority calls on institutions and Member States to consider additional measures for promoting a more balanced representation of both genders. The report is based on data from 873 institutions from 29 EU and EEA Member States, and covers credit institutions of different sizes as well as investment firms.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the periodical update of its Risk Dashboard summarising the main risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector on the basis of a set of Risk Indicators in Q1 2016. Together with the Risk Dashboard, the EBA published, for the first time, the results of a Risk Assessment Questionnaire, which it conducted with banks and market analysts in April and May this year.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) announced today that it will be conducting a transparency exercise in December 2016 on a wide sample of over 100 banks, which will provide actual information on banks’ balance sheet based on supervisory reporting data. Transparency exercises are an annual feature of the EBA’s work but this year’s exercise will be independent from, whilst complementary to, the 2016 EU-wide stress test. This will ensure appropriate coverage of banks across all countries in the EU.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a comparative Report on governance arrangements and indicators in recovery plans. Such a benchmarking exercise is aimed at supporting supervisors and institutions in identifying the crucial elements that should be considered when designing credible governance arrangements and effective indicator frameworks. This is the third thematic comparative analysis the EBA has conducted in the area of recovery planning.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its second analysis of the level of asset encumbrance across EU banking institutions. The report, which is part of a regular annual monitoring of asset encumbrance, aims to provide important elements for EU supervisors to assess the sustainability of banks’ funding sources and their ability to withstand funding stress.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today additional information on how the results of the EU-wide stress test will inform the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP). The focus of today’s update is to explain how additional “capital guidance” can be used as a tool to address the quantitative outcomes of the stress test. Such guidance will not be relevant for the Maximum Distributable Amount (MDA), but will ensure banks’ ability to meet applicable capital requirements under stressed conditions. While serving the purpose of helping supervisors manage expectations towards banks and market participants, the information released today does not establish restrictions or constraints on existing supervisory powers.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on a set of Guidelines on regulatory disclosure requirements following an update of the Pillar 3 requirements by the Basel Committee in January 2015. These Guidelines are part of the EBA’s work to improve and enhance the consistency and comparability of institutions’ disclosures and aim to ensure market discipline. The consultation runs until 29 September 2016.
At its meeting held on 22 June 2016, the Banking Stakeholder Group of the European Banking Authority elected Santiago Fernandez de Lis, representing the credit and investment institutions, as Chairperson and Alin Eugen Iacob, representing the users of banking services, as Vice-Chairperson.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its fifth annual Consumer Trends Report, which provides an overview of the trends observed in 2016, the issues that will or could have an impact on consumers and other market participants and the areas where the EBA may take any action, if needed. The report covers all the products that fall into the EBA’s consumer protection mandate, such as mortgages, personal loans, deposits, payment accounts, payment services and electronic money.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying how institutions should take into account and treat several factors when assigning risk weights to specialised lending exposures. The purpose of these RTS is to harmonise the assignment of risk weights to specialised lending exposures for institutions that apply the so called ‘supervisory slotting criteria’ approach. These final draft RTS will be part of the Single Rulebook aimed at enhancing regulatory harmonisation in the banking sector in Europe.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Decision on data for supervisory benchmarking. This Decision comes after the publication of the amended technical standards on benchmarking of internal approaches and requires Competent Authorities to submit data for the 2016 benchmarking exercise, focusing on High Default Portfolios and with reference to end-2015 data.
On 31 May 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Investment Bank Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund) hosted a seminar to discuss opportunities and challenges on the role and potential use of credit guarantees and synthetic securitisation in the banking sector.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomes the enhancement of the FX Global Code (the Code) and the publication of its May 2016 update. The objective of the Code is to promote the integrity and effective functioning of the wholesale FX market. The Code’s guidelines for responsible participation in the FX market are in line with the EBA’s work fostering financial institutions’ effective governance and enhanced consumer protection in all areas of financial products and services.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on stress tests for deposit guarantee schemes (DGSs). The Guidelines provide a systematic methodology for planning, running and reporting on stress tests conducted by DGSs to assess their resilience to various types of scenarios in times of banking stress. In line with the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (DGSD), these Guidelines will promote the quality and the consistency of these stress tests. The resulting data will also facilitate future peer reviews by the EBA, contributing to a safe and sound EU framework for the benefit of depositors and financial stability.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Decision confirming the use of unsolicited credit assessments assigned by certain External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAIs) for calculating institutions’ capital requirements. The Decision is part of the Single Rulebook in banking and will ensure regulatory harmonisation across the European Union (EU) regarding the use of unsolicited credit ratings for determining institutions’ own funds requirements.
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA, ESMA - ESAs) published today its Opinion on the European Commission’s (EC) intention to amend the draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on the mapping of External Credit Assessment Institutions’ (ECAIs) credit assessments under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and Solvency II Directive. The Opinion was produced in response to the EC’s proposed amendments to these draft ITS.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on its draft Guidelines on the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) disclosure. These Guidelines harmonise and specify both the qualitative and quantitative information that institutions are required to disclose on liquidity and namely on the LCR. The consultation will run until 11 August 2016.
EBA acknowledges another notification from the Central Bank of Hungary on the ongoing resolution of MKB Bank Zrt.
The EBA has received another notification from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary) related to the application of the sale of business tool in the ongoing resolution process of MKB Bank Zrt.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a guidance document to assist competent authorities in compiling IMF Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI) for deposit takers using statistical input derived from the EBA Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting. Authorities are encouraged to use this guidance and the comprehensive mapping between the FSI forms and the EBA ITS templates to foster harmonised FSI reporting by the EEA authorities. In addition, it provides transparency to FSI users on how they have been computed for EEA countries.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Discussion Paper on innovative uses of consumer data by financial institutions, in line with its mandate to monitor financial innovation. The paper identifies risks and benefits for consumers and financial institutions, as well as for financial integrity in general. Feedback received on this Discussion Paper will inform the EBA’s decision on which, if any, further actions may be required to mitigate the risks arising from this innovation, while also allowing market participants to harness its benefits.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today corrective updates to two versions of its XBRL taxonomies for supervisory reporting, correcting technical errors in the implementation of some validation rules.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today an Opinion to the European Commission supporting its proposed amendment to the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on additional collateral outflows with regard to the historical look-back approach (HLBA) calculation method. The amendment follows the European Commission’s request to amend the draft RTS using the specifications provided by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the disclosure of encumbered and unencumbered assets for the provision of transparent and harmonised information on the topic, as laid down in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). These draft RTS, which build on the EBA Guidelines on the same topic, detail the disclosure requirements and provide additional information. The consultation will run until 25 July 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the first list of Other Systemically Important Institutions (O-SIIs) in the EU. O-SIIs are those institutions which are deemed systemically relevant in addition to Global Systemically Important Institutions (G-SIIs), already identified. The institutions have been identified by relevant authorities across the Union according to harmonised criteria provided by the EBA. This list reflects also the additional capital buffers that the relevant authorities have set for the O-SIIs they have identified.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines defining how confidential information collected under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) should be disclosed in summary or collective form without identifying individual institutions or relevant entities.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued its Banking Stakeholder Group (BSG) end of term of office report. The document covers the outputs of the BSG for the second term of the Membership whose appointment fell between October 2013 and 15 April 2016, as well as information on its working methodology and its interaction with the EBA.
EBA acknowledges additional notification from the Central Bank of Hungary on the ongoing resolution of MKB Bank Zrt.
The EBA has received an additional notification from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary) related to the application of the sale of business tool in the ongoing resolution process of MKB Bank Zrt.
Following an open selection process, the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA) appointed 23 new members to its Banking Stakeholder Group (BSG), as the mandate for the majority of them expired on 14 April 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Opinion setting out measures credit and financial institutions can take to comply with EU Anti- Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) requirements when providing asylum seekers from higher-risk jurisdictions with access to basic financial products and services.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report analysing measures taken by Competent Authorities in 2014 to ensure compliance by institutions with securitisation risk retention, due diligence and disclosure requirements. Based on the EBA findings, the EBA has identified best practices, which will help Competent Authorities in their supervisory assessments of compliance of these requirements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launches today a call for research papers in view of its fifth policy research workshop taking place on 28-29 November 2016 in London on the topic ‘Competition in banking: implications for financial regulation and supervision’.
On 31 May 2016, the European Banking Authority (EBA), jointly with the European Investment Bank Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund), will host a seminar at the EBA premises to discuss opportunities and challenges on the role and potential use of credit guarantees and synthetic securitisation in the banking sector.
The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA, ESMA - ESAs) published today its Spring 2016 Report on Risks and Vulnerabilities in the EU Financial System.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the periodical update of its Risk Dashboard summarising the main risks and vulnerabilities in the banking sector on the basis of the evolution of a set of Risk Indicators (RI) across the EU in Q4 2015. The update shows a further increase in EU banks’ capital ratios. Profitability remains low and NPL ratios are still high.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on draft amending Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on credit valuation adjustment (CVA) proxy spread. These RTS propose limited amendments to Commission’s Delegated Regulation (EU) No 526/2014 based on two policy recommendations contained in the EBA’s CVA report published on 25 February 2015. Through the proposed amendments the EBA expects to ensure a more adequate calculation of own funds requirements for CVA risk. The consultation runs until 06 July 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) report on remuneration practices published today shows that the number of high earners in EU banks increased significantly in 2014, while the average ratio between the variable and fixed remuneration dropped significantly for high earners, as well as for all other identified staff. The report, which is part of the regular activities of the Authority, focuses on the identification of staff, the application of deferral arrangements, the pay-out in instruments and the impact of the bonus cap on institutions financial stability and cost flexibility, which was found to have no significant effect. The report differentiates between data on the remuneration of “high-earners” and benchmarking data for “identified staff”.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on reporting financial information using Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) across EU jurisdictions. This is a decentralised public consultation, which takes place through National Competent Authorities across the EU and not through the EBA, so as to allow for a better informed discussion on questions that may be specific to the individual jurisdictions across the EU. All interested stakeholders can provide feedback directly to their National Competent Authorities (NCAs) by 15 April 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which analyses (i) the evolution of lending trends and conditions for SMEs, (ii) the effective riskiness of EU SMEs over a full economic cycle and (iii) the consistency of own funds requirements laid down in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) for credit risk on exposures to SMEs. Overall, the results of the EBA analysis show limited effectiveness of the SME Supporting Factor (SF). However, more data is needed before drawing firm conclusions and, therefore, the EBA recommends continued monitoring of the application of the SF.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on draft Guidelines on corrections to modified duration for debt instruments. These Guidelines aim to establish what type of adjustments to the modified duration (MD) - as defined according to the formulas in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) - have to be performed in order to appropriately reflect the effect of the prepayment risk. The consultation runs until 22 June 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Decision specifying the formula to be used by creditors when calculating the benchmark rate under the Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD). The MCD requires creditors to use, under certain circumstances, a benchmark rate specified by the EBA for the illustrative examples in the European Standardised Information Sheet (ESIS) for variable rate mortgages. The EBA formula will apply 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal but can also be used by creditors prior to its formal publication.
The EBA submitted on Friday its response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Retail Financial Services. In the response, the EBA conveys the views of its member authorities on a subset of the questions asked in the Green Paper, with a particular focus on the risks and opportunities of digital services in the banking sector and the enforcement of consumer protection regulation in the EU.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) will hold a public hearing on its draft report on the calibration of the leverage ratio on Friday 15 April 2016 from 9.00 to 11.30 UK time.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) amending the Commission's Implementing Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 on supervisory reporting.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a corrective update (2.4.1) to the XBRL taxonomy that Competent Authorities shall use for the remittance of data under the EBA Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting. The revised taxonomy will be used for the first reports under the revised Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Leverage Ratio (LR) requirements resulting from Delegated Acts of the European Commission.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on the inclusion of prudent valuation into COREP, the reporting framework through which EU banking institutions report supervisory information. The amendments proposed by the EBA reflect the prudent valuation requirements in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 2016/101. This public consultation will run until 30 March 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its ninth report of the CRDIV-CRR/Basel III monitoring exercise on the European banking system. This exercise, run in parallel with the one conducted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) at a global level, allows the gathering of aggregate results on capital – risk-based and non-risk-based (leverage) ratios – and liquidity ratios – the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) and net stable funding ratio (NSFR) – for banks in the European Union (EU). It summarises the results using data as of 30 June 2015.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its annual assessment of EU colleges of supervisors, the forum within which joint decisions on capital and liquidity and recovery plans are organised for EU cross border banking groups. The report assesses how colleges have functioned during 2015 and identifies key activities for the effective oversight of EU cross border banking groups in 2016. In addition, it draws the attention of supervisors to some specific items for 2016, including non-performing loans (NPLs) and balance sheet cleaning, business model sustainability, conduct risk and IT risk.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion following the notification by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) of its intention to extend a measure introduced by the NBB in 2014 to modify capital requirements in order to address an increase in macroprudential or systemic risk. Based on the evidence submitted by the NBB, the EBA does not object the deployment of the macroprudential measures to address this issue.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) released today the methodology and macroeconomic scenarios for the 2016 EU-wide stress test. The stress test is designed to provide supervisors, banks and other market participants with a common analytical framework to consistently compare and assess the resilience of EU banks to economic shocks. For this exercise, no single capital thresholds have been defined as the results will inform the 2016 round of Supervisory Review and Evaluation Processes (SREP) under which decisions are made on appropriate capital resources. The EBA expects to publish the results of the exercise in early Q3 2016.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the periodical update to its Risk Dashboard summarising the main risks and vulnerabilities in the banking sector on the basis of the evolution of a set of Risk Indicators (RI) across the EU. The dashboard is based on a larger sample of banks (154 institutions on a consolidated basis ) and the “Statistical Annex” provides further data on EU banks. The ratios published in the Dashboard are computed according to the “Methodological guide on risk indicators and detailed risk analysis tools”, also published today.
The EBA has received a notification from the Bank of Italia, in its capacity as the Resolution Authority, in relation to the application of resolution measures to the Banca delle Marche, Banca Popolare dell’Etruria e del Lazio, Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara and Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Chieti.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) will formally launch the 2016 EU-wide stress test on Wednesday 24 February 2016 at 5pm. Along with the announcement, the EBA will publish the common methodology and macroeconomic scenarios for this exercise.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on cooperation agreements between deposit guarantee schemes (DGSs). These Guidelines include a multilateral cooperation framework agreement and minimum prescriptions to promote the rapid and consistent conclusion of cooperation agreements between DGSs, as provided under the new Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive (DGSD).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today final draft Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on the mapping of External Credit Assessment Institutions’ (ECAIs) credit assessments for securitisation positions. These ITS will be part of the Single Rulebook in banking aimed at enhancing regulatory harmonisation across the European Union (EU) and will allow the credit ratings on securitisations assigned by registered credit rating agencies to be used for the purposes of calculating institutions’ capital requirements.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today an Opinion to the European Commission expressing its dissent over some of its proposed amendments to the EBA final draft Regulatory Technical Standard (RTS) on the criteria for setting the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) and encouraging the prompt adoption of the standard.
Andrea Enria, Chairperson of the EBA, in his opening remarks at the EBA’s 5th Anniversary Conference, touched on the EBA’s achievements in the last five years and the challenges that still lie ahead for the Authority.
As the European Banking Authority (EBA) gets ready to mark its first five years of activities with its conference in London this Friday, Chairperson Andrea Enria explains the conference will be about dialogue with banking stakeholders on achievements and remaining challenges in strengthening the EU banking sector.
In the context of the forthcoming implementation of the IFRS 9 Financial instruments standard (IFRS 9) in the EU, the European Banking Authority (EBA) is launching an impact assessment of the standard on a sample of approximately 50 institutions across the EU.
The Chairpersons of the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – sent a joint letter on cross-selling of financial products to Jonathan Hill, the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union.
The Joint Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs – European Banking Authority, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and European Securities and Markets Authority) published today its decision in an appeal brought by four appellants, Andrus Kluge, Boris Belyaev, Radio Elektroniks OÜ and Timur Dyakov, against a decision of the European Banking Authority (EBA). The Board of Appeal decided it does not have any jurisdiction with respect to the party’s appeal to challenge a decision by the EBA not to commence an investigation.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on draft Guidelines on implicit support for securitisation transactions. The objective of the Guidelines is to provide clarity on what constitutes arm’s length conditions and when a transaction is not structured to provide support for securitisations. The consultation runs until 20 April 2016.
On 19 February 2016 from 14:00 to 16:00, the European Banking Authority (EBA) will hold a public hearing on the consultation launched on its draft technical standards on the separation of payment card schemes and processing entities under the Interchange Fee Regulation (IFR).
The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today revised final draft technical standards and Guidelines on the further specification of the indicators of global systemic importance and their disclosure. The need for this revision was prompted by the new data template and some minor changes introduced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in January 2015 for the identification of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs). The full data template with the detailed specification of the indicator values will now only be incorporated in the EBA Guidelines and will be updated on an annual basis.
The EBA has received a notification from the Bank of Greece, in its capacity as the Resolution Authority, in relation to the application of resolution measures to the Cooperative Bank of Peloponnese Coop Ltd, following the withdrawal of its license.
The EBA acknowledges updated notification from the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary) with respect to its decisions on the application of the asset separation tool and related resolution measures in the ongoing resolution process of MKB Bank Zrt. | 2019-04-20T06:12:27Z | https://eba.europa.eu/news-press/news/2016 |
A wide range of solutions to this annoying, frequent problem that happens in the studio and on the stage. Plus, a discussion of power issues, including a sidebar by noted audio consultant Jim Brown.
You’re recording an electric guitar, or amplifying it through a P.A., and there it is: hum! This annoying sound is a common occurrence. Acoustic guitars fitted with pickups can have the same problem.
Hum is an unwanted 60 Hz tone — 50 Hz outside the U.S. — plus harmonics. If the harmonics are especially strong, the hum becomes an edgy buzz.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on and how to fix it. First we need to review how an electric guitar works.
Built into the guitar, under the strings, is a magnetic pickup: a transducer that converts the strings’ vibration into an electrical signal. The pickup is a bar magnet wrapped with thousands of turns of wire, forming a coil.
When the player plucks the steel strings, they vibrate next to the magnet, producing a similar vibration in the magnet’s magnetic field, which in turn causes a varying current in the coil.
Another type of pickup uses a separate magnet under each string. Some pickups have a screw on each magnet’s polepiece to adjust the distance between the polepiece and string, allowing level control of each string.
A humbucking pickup uses two coils wired in series but with opposite polarity so that they cancel common hum fields. One coil is mounted far from the strings. The high-impedance signal from the pickup coil goes through a simple circuit (Figure 1) and comes out the unbalanced guitar jack.
Components in the circuit are usually connected by single wires. The sleeve (ground) terminal on the jack is connected to the pickup coil, the strings, and the shield around the circuit. From the guitar jack, the signal travels through a guitar cord: an unbalanced shielded cable.
At the end of the cable, the signal can go to several destinations: a direct box, a guitar amp, a mixer’s high-Z input, or guitar stomp boxes/processors.
Most acoustic-guitar pickups are piezoelectric types installed under the bridge or saddle. Vibrations of the guitar body flex the pickup, which generates an electrical signal. It’s very high impedance, and often is run through a preamp built into the guitar which reduces the impedance.
Whether the guitar is electric or acoustic, any component in the signal chain is susceptible to picking up hum and buzz, especially because the entire circuit is high-impedance unbalanced.
Alternating current in a building’s power wiring generates electric and magnetic fields that oscillate at 60 Hz and its harmonics. Hum fields also radiate from lighting circuits and fluorescent lights. The magnetic fields couple inductively to the guitar wiring. When the magnetic lines of force cut the conductors in the guitar and its pickup, the conductors generate a 60 Hz signal, which is amplified by the mixer or guitar amp.
Also, the power wiring and pickup act as two plates of a capacitor. The varying electric fields from the power wiring couple capacitively to the pickup and guitar wiring.
Another hum source is radio-frequency fields from computers, motors, and TV transmitters (vertical sync, blanking and vertical component video). This RFI can be detected by the guitar or audio equipment.
A major cause of hum is the ground loop. It is the circuit loop that is formed when two pieces of audio gear are connected to each other through a cable shield and also through the AC safety ground. If the two chassis are at different ground potential, a 60 Hz current can flow on the cable shield connecting them, causing audible hum.
Figure 2 shows a ground loop. Two equipment chassis (guitar amp and mixer) are connected to two separate safety grounds by their AC cords. Also, the equipment chassis are connected together by the shield of the audio cable coming from the direct box. The shield and safety-ground wires form a ground loop.
Let’s look at several examples of causes and cures of hum related to electric guitars.
Magnetic Hum Fields: As noted, AC in a room’s power wiring generates electric and magnetic fields that oscillate at 60 Hz and its harmonics. When the magnetic lines of force cut the conductors in the guitar and its pickup, the conductors generate a 60 Hz signal, which is amplified by the mixer or guitar amp.
Cure: The amount of hum generated depends on the angle between the pickup coil wires and the magnetic hum field. At certain angles, a lot of the hum goes away. So the player can rotate or move around to find a spot with minimum hum.
Electric Hum Fields: The power wiring and pickup act as two plates of a capacitor. The varying electric fields from the power wiring couple capacitively to the pickup and guitar wiring.
Cure: A grounded Faraday shield. In the guitar body are cutouts that house the electronics, wiring and pickups. These cutouts should be lined with conductive foil (such as copper foil) that is soldered together to form one continuous piece. This shield must be connected to the guitar jack’s ground terminal so that the hum fields are bypassed to ground (ideally, to the mixer chassis).
The guitar cord should also be well shielded. Use only high-quality cords with plugs having a metal jacket, which acts as a shield to the wires inside it.
Some guitar amps are painted on the inside with conductive paint that acts as a shield, but this paint coating can crack when the amp cabinet is jostled, breaking the shield connection. It’s best to run a ground strap between all panels of the amp head cabinet.
RFI (Radio Frequency Interference): A strong TV signal can be rectified and demodulated by some electronic components or a bad solder joint.
Cure: This is a subject in itself (see the references at the end of this article). But for a quick fix, install ferrite beads and .001 microfarad capacitors on mic inputs. Install RFI chokes on guitar cords or mic cables. Check solder joints.
Ground Loop: Suppose you’re recording a guitar direct, and the guitar is plugged into a guitar amp. The amp and your mixer have 3-prong power cords that connect to the safety ground. The amp is plugged into an AC outlet across the room, and your mixer is plugged into a nearby outlet. When you connect the amp ground to your mixer ground through the mic-cable shield, and monitor the signal, you hear hum.
Chances are that the outlets are fed from different circuit breakers, so the outlets are at different ground voltages. When you plug your amp and mixer into these separated outlets, and connect the equipment together with a mic cable from a direct box, the difference in ground voltages can make a 60-Hz hum current flow between the guitar amp and mixer. That’s a ground loop.
Cure: Flip the ground-lift switch on the direct box to break the loop. Also, it’s a good idea to power the mixer and guitar amp off the same outlet strip. That way, the ground voltage for all the equipment is about the same, so little or no hum current can flow between their chassis. Run a thick extension cord from the mixer’s outlet strip to the guitar amp, and plug the amp into the extension cord.
There still may be a slight voltage difference between components because their power supplies reflect different voltages onto their chassis. A balanced AC power supply can eliminate this problem. Before you plug in all those power cords, make sure that the sum of the equipment fuse ratings does not exceed the amperage rating for that circuit. In most cases, a single 20-amp breaker will handle a small studio.
Guitar Not Grounded: Suppose you’re recording a guitar with a direct box, and the guitar is NOT plugged into a guitar amp. If the ground is lifted on the direct box, the guitar is not grounded, so you hear a loud buzz.
Or if the shield connection is broken in the guitar cord or mic cable, the guitar is not grounded.
Cure: Flip the ground-lift switch to the grounded position when not using a guitar amp. Check inside the cable connectors to make sure the shield is soldered at both ends. Replace or repair guitar cords that have broken shields.
Player’s Body Not Grounded: When the guitar player touches the strings, does the hum stop? This indicates that the player’s body is acting as one plate of a capacitor.
The capacitance between the body and power wiring adds to the capacitance between the guitar and power wiring, increasing the level of the hum transmitted from the power wiring to the guitar. (Incidentally, the same thing happens if you replace the player’s body with a sheet of aluminum foil).
Cure: Run a wire between a ground point on the guitar and the player’s skin. Figure 3 shows a ground wire (highlighted in yellow) between the guitar-jack ground and the player’s big toe! This grounds the player’s body, so that it acts as a partial shield for the guitar, rather than a capacitor.
Note: For a technical discussion of body grounding, please see at the bottom of this post.
A body close to the guitar increases hum, and connecting the body to the guitar ground stops the hum. The body is not a ground for the guitar. Rather, the guitar ground is a ground for the body.
So now we know why some heavy-metal guitarists play without a shirt. They’re removing the dielectric between their skin and the guitar. (Thanks to Chris Vice of Crown for that insight).
Do NOT use this ground wire in a concert situation if the guitar is plugged into a guitar amp. There might be a shock hazard if the player touches a mic. That can happen if the mic, which is grounded to the FOH mixer, is at a different ground potential than the guitar amp onstage.
To reduce the potential between mixer and guitar amp, power the mixer through a thick extension cord plugged into the AC distro outlet that the guitar amp is plugged into.In other words, do NOT make a permanent connection between the player’s skin and the guitar ground in this situation. You might ask the player to keep their hands on the strings whenever possible.
This is not about hum, but is an important related issue. In concerts, electric-guitar players can receive a shock when they touch their guitar strings and a mic simultaneously. This occurs when the guitar amp is plugged into an electrical outlet on stage, and the mixing console (to which the mics are grounded) is plugged into a separate outlet across the room.
As previously stated, these two power points may be at widely different ground voltages, so a current can flow between the grounded mic housing and the player touching the grounded guitar strings.
Electric guitar shock is especially dangerous when the guitar amp and the console are on different phases of the AC mains.
The cure is to power all instrument amps and audio gear from the same AC distribution outlets. That is, run a heavy extension cord from a stage outlet back to the mixing console (or vice versa).
Plug all the power-cord ground pins into grounded outlets. That way, you prevent shocks and hum at the same time.
Using a neon tester or voltmeter, measure the voltage between the electric-guitar strings and the metal grille of the microphones.
If there is a voltage, flip the polarity switch on the amp. Use foam windscreens for additional protection against shocks.
Turn up the guitar’s volume and treble controls so that the guitar signal overrides hum and noise picked up by the guitar cable and guitar amp.
Ask the guitarist to move around, or rotate, to find a spot in the room where hum disappears.
Flip the polarity switch on the guitar amp to the lowest-hum position.
To remove buzzes between guitar notes, try a noise gate.
Set the direct-box ground lift switch to the position where you monitor the least hum.
Replace or repair guitar cords that have broken shields. Use only high-quality cords with metal-jacket plugs.
Power the guitar amp off the mixer’s outlet strip.
Use guitars with humbucking pickups, or install modern humbuckers in older guitars.
Line cutouts in the guitar body with copper foil wired to the guitar jack ground.
If you suspect RFI, install ferrite beads, capacitors and chokes. Also see the references below.
Replace any defective tubes in the guitar amp. If the power-supply filter capacitors in the guitar amp are corroded, replace them. This replacement should be done by an authorized technician.
Don’t use a noisy amp. Instead, record the guitar direct, then process its track with a guitar-amp modeling plug-in or processor.
Don’t use SCR lighting dimmers because they add noise and hash to the AC power. Instead, use multiway incandescent bulbs to vary the studio lighting levels. If you must use a SCR dimmer, rotate its knob to find a position with the least hum (maybe the “off” position!).
Run the studio off its own breaker, not shared with noisy loads such as air conditioning, power tools, etc. Don’t ground the neutral at more than one point (have an electrician check this). Use an AC line isolation transformer between the AC power and the studio equipment.
If you follow these suggestions, the only buzz you get should be from the guitar player’s solo!
Acknowledgement: Many thanks to these SynAudCon members for their helpful discussions: Jim Brown, Rick Kamlet, Bob Hagenbach, Mike Miles, Pat Brown, Steve Roth, and Peter Patrick.
The human body is a conductor with relatively high resistivity, and it is a fairly large conductor. This means that when it makes contact with an electrical circuit it can act as an antenna, and it can also act as one “plate” of a capacitor.
The other “plate” of that capacitor might be a noise source like a power line, a noisy electric light, or computer wiring. The noise might be base band (that is, audio frequency), or it might be modulated RF, or it might be both.
The body will react differently to those noise sources depending on what they are—their frequency content, their internal impedance, their orientation with respect to the body, etc. And the body will interact with the circuit of the audio equipment and its wiring.
The various effects of the body in any given circuit will add algebraically—that is, they may be varying degrees of in phase, and they may be in or out of polarity, and they will be at various relative levels with respect to each other, so in any given field condition they will be different.
Some examples of the guitar problem. Let’s say that the body touches the “hot” conductor of a guitar cord plugged into an amplifier. The body can act as both a capacitor, coupling both audio and RF into the equipment, and it can act as an antenna. What’s the difference?
The word “antenna” implies reception or transmission of an electromagnetic field—that is, the simultaneous existence in space of an electric field and magnetic field at right angles to each other, and in which energy is traded back and forth between electic and magnetic fields.
An antenna has both current flow along it and a potential difference along it that either is caused by the field (reception) or generates the field (transmission).
So when the body is acting capacitively, it is NOT acting as an antenna, it is not “receiving noise” and coupling it to the equipment. It has become part of the equipment’s wiring and is an element in the equivalent circuit. Now, the body may be acting as a capacitor to one noise source (or in one frequency range) and as an antenna to another, and may be doing so simultaneously!
Another way that the body can get into the act is by causing current flow on the shield of an unbalanced cable. That current can couple noise in at least two ways. First is the IR (or IZ) drop in the shield, which is added to the signal. Second is via a pin 1 problem.
When the orientation of the guitar is important, there are three mechanisms I can think of that can be at play. First and most obvious is the null that occurs when the circuit that is inductively coupled to a magnetic field is at right angles to that field.
Second is the movement of the body and the guitar so that it is physically closer to the noise source, and thus has a higher capacitance to the noise source.
Third is the directivity of the antenna that it is part of. | 2019-04-25T22:18:35Z | https://jaazz.me/2018/12/18/how-to-eliminate-hum-buzz-coming-from-your-electric-guitar/ |
It has passed the 400,000 subscriber mark for its digital cable phone service, edging the company closer to its year-end telephony subscriber goal of 500,000 to 600,000 subs.
It kicked off its Colorado trial of multiple ISPs over its broadband network. Known as AT&T Broadband Choice, it will offer up to 500 customers a choice of 8 participating ISPs for high-speed service, including Excite@Home, EarthLink, Juno, WorldNet, FriendlyWorks, RMI.net, Winfire and Flashcom.
CableLabs said four cable-modem manufacturers and four CMTS vendors have submitted products for the first DOCSIS certification/qualification wave involving version 1.1 products. DOCSIS 1.1 provides the foundation for PacketCable, which will provide an HFC-based, multimedia architecture for VoIP services and more advanced applications. DOCSIS 1.1 and PacketCable also provide the basis for higher-tier differentiated services over cable.
CableLabs announced that more than a dozen companies have joined a royalty-free pool for intellectual property rights (IPR) in the proposed CableHome home networking interface specification. CableHome has a primary objective of extending cable services into the home networking environment. The specs will be issued in stages, with the first group to be issued in 1Q 2001.
CableLabs has completed the second phase of the PacketCable project and has released several new PacketCable interim specifications and technical reports describing call signaling, QoS, and event messaging extensions that will enable cable operators to directly exchange multimedia traffic over managed-IP backbone networks. Known as the PacketCable interdomain specifications, these new documents build upon PacketCable 1.0 and extend those capabilities to cover a national or international footprint.
IDC's new report on DSL in Western Europe forecasts that shipments of DSL kits will grow from 1 million in the region this year to 12.4 million in 2004 and will be mainly driven by local loop access and strong price and service competition among all xDSL players. The report says that Germany will continue to be the largest market throughout the forecast period, followed by the UK and France. ( www.idc.com ).
Microsoft unveiled the Microsoft Home in New York, a networked apartment meant to demonstrate how networked products will fit into the life of a consumer in the coming years. Appliances include an Ultimate TV, Pocket PC, and an MSN Companion device; the devices are networked with CAT 3 cables, HPNA, and 802.11b wireless. See a virtual tour at www.microsoft.com/mshome/.
We made our first trip to Hong Kong this month. Our agenda included speaking at several sessions at VON Asia and meeting with broadband companies based in the region. We wanted to learn more about Hong Kong specifically and the Asia/Pacific region more generally, given its dual role as one of the leaders in broadband deployments and as a worldwide equipment supplier for many elements of the broadband home.
From our friends who had been to Hong Kong, we were prepared for the crowds, the views, the mass of vertical buildings, the shopping and the pervasive emphasis on business. One surprise was how these elements intersected. Most business meetings started by being asked "Have you been shopping yet?" followed by offers of helpful suggestions on where to go. So before we tell you about broadband in Hong Kong, we want to let our Hong Kong hosts know that we did our part for the economy in Kowloon and Stanley. We especially treasure the ceramic oil jar, circa 1720, which now has a prominent place in our house.
Having been returned by Great Britain to China in 1997, it is now a Special Administrative Region (SAR) with a separate governmental system. Hong Kong has a population of 6.7 million and a land mass somewhat larger than New York City. However, much of Hong Kong is mountainous, and the majority live in the central area with a population density higher that of Manhattan. The HK SAR has approximately 2.2 million households and a GDP per capita of US$26,800.
The central area is bi-lingual, with all signs in both English and Chinese. The outlying areas are said to be more traditionally Chinese than mainland China.
The predisposition of the society seems to be to emulate best practices, wherever they may come from. We were told that Hong Kong looks to the US for much of its technology, to Paris for fashion, to Germany for cars, etc. This attitude plays a role in the products they buy, the technology they use, and the government regulatory policies they follow.
Hong Kong's goal is to build on its current position as a trade and finance hub for Asia, so that it can become the leader in the digital world of tomorrow. To support this thrust they have created a project called "Digital 21". Their leaders believe that making the Hong Kong telecommunications market competitive is important in making it an information and technology center and a prime headquarters location for multi-national businesses. Other countries in the region, such as Taiwan and Singapore also aspire to that same goal and have similar initiatives being supported by their governments.
A recent survey by HK's Census and Statistic Department indicates 49% of households have a PC and about 73% of those are connected to the Internet. Companies we visited say that there are about 250k residential broadband accounts, a penetration of ~11% of households. Broadband is currently being supplied mainly by Hong Kong Telephone (200k subs) and secondarily by HK CableTV (50k subs). We'll talk more about both these companies below.
Because space is at a premium, most of the population is clustered in high rise buildings with many (generally small) apartments. This structure means that broadband connections are shared over a compact geographical area compared with the usual single-family dwellings in the US.
The connection between the building and the central office or cable head end is not the only potential bottleneck for broadband services. The other is the in-building wiring which is often controlled by the property developer, although pre-1995 telephone wiring was owned by Hong Kong Telephone.
There were three reasons we felt our time getting immersed in broadband in Hong Kong seemed particularly relevant.
1. Broadband is rolling out rapidly in Hong Kong, providing a good opportunity to assess some of the factors that can create significant penetration.
Broadband penetration is over 11% of households in Hong Kong. This compares favorably with penetration of about 5% in the US. Penetration clearly is a result of both supply and demand.
--Supply is made much simpler in Hong Kong because of its high population density, especially the large proportion of families living in multiple dwelling units (MDUs). Most of the housing is well within the distance limits of DSL. We were told that broadband is now available to 95% of the households in Hong Kong.
Supply is enhanced when there are multiple providers competing to attract the customer. In Hong Kong, the main suppliers are PCCW/HKT (the telephone/DSL provider) and HK Cable/i-Cable (the cable modem provider). Government policies (such as broadband interconnection rules) are designed to attract additional participants to encourage the growth of broadband and Internet use.
--Demand is a function of PC penetration which is high, given the many Asian suppliers, the high level of education and the intense focus on business, fashion and staying current. Internet awareness is very high: URLs are all over signs and newspapers and miniature MP-3 players seemed like fashion statements.
Demand is also a function of price. Unlike the substantial price differential between dial-up and broadband in the US, the price differential in Hong Kong is relatively small. PCCW's Netvigator dial-up service costs HK $138/month (~US $17/mo.) and their DSL broadband service costs HK $198 (~US $25). Cable modem service is priced competitively.
2. Many of the same factors are also important in other areas in the region, including Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, and with similar results.
Korea is currently the hot spot for vendors deploying broadband infrastructure and equipment, particularly for DSL; some telcos elsewhere in the region have reportedly had their equipment shipments delayed because so much equipment is being sent to Korea. In July, broadband penetration was at about 12% and some numbers we saw recently indicate it has exceeded 15%. The government is playing a role in this rapid expansion through the Ministry of Information and Communication. It has, for example, created financial subsidies for innovative new technologies, including those in communications.
Hong Kong is competing with Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan as a prime location for corporations in the Asia-Pacific region. All are strongly encouraging pro-broadband, Internet-friendly environments.
3. Suppliers based in the Asia Pacific region intend to be strong players in manufacturing low cost, high technology broadband products for markets worldwide.
This is the world's leading region for contract manufacturing and one of the companies we met with supplies components for cable and DSL modems, LAN cards and other networking products. This is the front end of the supply chain for many of the products not yet on the market and it is clear that home networking and home gateway products of various flavors are on the drawing boards and that the demand for broadband modems is expected to accelerate.
We had the opportunity to meet with the dominant telephone company PCCW/HKT; the cable operator HKCTV; and the regulator OFTA. We traded views on the evolution of services and networks, the state of competition and open access and the technologies they are betting on. Here's an overview of what they shared.
Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) was formed after Richard Li's young company acquired Hong Kong's dominant telecommunications company, Cable & Wireless HKT. We met with KH Cheng, CTO; Peter W C Lam, who has responsibility for wholesale services; and Eric Yang, the Principal Network Architect. Here's an overview of what we heard, provided in the form of questions we asked and a boiled down version of our interpretations of the answers.
Q: How will PCCW's role in providing broadband services evolve in Hong Kong? A: PCCW is currently the dominant local carrier in Hong Kong and has gone into residential broadband services in a big way. They encourage the deployment of broadband by having a relatively small price differential between dial-up and broadband service. Their broadband service is available to 95% of the households in Hong Kong (although we suspect the reality may be less because of the control building developers and associations have over the building wiring). There is strong pressure from the government for competition, interconnection and increasingly open access (see OFTA section below). This will accelerate as additional new entrants will be allowed into the market in 2003.
As competition accelerates, the retail market for broadband will commoditize. Building/property developers will continue to have and develop close relationships with service providers. There is also the prospect of players who will compete using direct fiber and gigabit Ethernet with pure IP services, including telephony. To prepare for that future, PCCW is positioning itself to be a "communications ASP" by having a low cost underlying structure and selling wholesale to all providers. They envision having a diminishing share of retail customers and will compete to sell value added services.
Q: How does a company grow in a market as small as Hong Kong? A: The China market is the prize that many companies have their eye on. Most competitors in Hong Kong and the Asia/Pacific region are honing their skills to participate in mainland ventures.
Q: What are the relative roles you see ATM and IP playing in your current and future networks? A: ATM will be used initially since it is widely deployed, even to the building in many cases. But the future clearly belongs to IP and PCCW expects to build its future network and applications on native IP.
Q: How is PCCW going to manage such a significant transformation in both direction and mindset? A: It is a big job, but we have both a technical and a strategic plan.
Our second meeting with PCCW included MT Louie and Chuen Law to see their interactive TV services. These services have been available to their customers for about 2 1/2 years and include entertainment -- especially movies on demand -- news, banking, shopping and karaoke. Their vision of interactive TV focuses on content they specifically port to the service; it does not include integration with live TV, nor does it include standard Internet services on the TV.
The iTV service has about 70,000 subscribers, about 22,000 of whom are also broadband Internet subscribers. The pricing is about HK$238 per month (US$30), including some number of movies, or HK$178 (US$22.50) for the service without movies. There is a bundled price for both iTV and broadband Internet, and there are several promotional offers.
PCCW is clearly an important player with big broadband plans and a very full plate of work ahead. We appreciate their candor and the introductions they provided to help us fill out the competitive and regulatory pictures.
HKCTV has the second largest number of broadband data subscribers in Hong Kong. We met with three of the General Managers of i-Cable, the cable modem service subsidiary of Hong Kong Cable TV.
HKCTV passes 1.3M households with its HFC plant (the rest is still microwave and is being re-built.) They have 500,000 cable TV subscribers and since starting to offer broadband Internet in March have gotten about 50,000 broadband subscribers. Because of the many large apartment buildings they serve, in which each of the apartments is a potential source of ingress, they have chosen to use Terayon modems which have high noise immunity, rather than DOCSIS modems.
One of the most important understandings we gained from this meeting was how different regulatory structures can make significant differences in how competitors are able to participate in a market. HKCTV has built a 750 MHz cable plant and is using 470 Mhz for television services. We assumed they would be free to use the additional frequencies for data services, as an US MSO could. However, their franchise requires HKCTV to provide frequencies to competitors offering TV and data services, and they need to get a license from OFTA to use additional frequencies on their plant. They are presently licensed to use only one frequency for data and when traffic exceeds the available capacity, they must get a license to use additional frequencies or must build additional facilities to divide the traffic.
HKCTV is planning a market trial of VoIP in late December. Such trials have to be approved by OFTA. The trial, lasting up to six months for about 50,000 subscribers will be a "best efforts" second line service. Since it is a market rather than a technical trial, they are planning to use H.323, and are deferring a decision on other protocols until committing to a service roll out. Part of the rationale for targeting second line service is that most customers already have a mobile phone which can provide primary line capabilities.
While we saw many differences between Hong Kong and the US, we were struck by the familiar contrast between the environments and cultures of the telco and cable participants. The telcos are the big, established, well-financed, well-staffed players, while the cable company has more of the plant and engineering driven, no-frills, "get it done--fix it later" heritage.
OFTA (Office of the Telecommunications Authority) is the HK telecommunications regulatory organization. Its Web site provides excellent information about the Hong Kong regulatory structure, goals and policies. Their policies are pro-competitive and pro-liberalization.
OFTA has been studying the question of broadband interconnection and issuing consultation papers in the process of finalizing a regulatory framework; the actual broadband interconnection statement was issued on November 14th while we were in Hong Kong. These papers present very clearly the arguments of multiple stakeholders and the rationale for the decisions reached. The net of their ruling was to mandate line unbundling/sharing and broadband open access for both wireline telephone and cable and to intervene in situations only when commercial negotiations between parties fail.
We had the opportunity to meet with Lawrence Kwan, Acting Chief Telecom engineer, to discuss the ruling. Because Hong Kong is small relative to many countries working on pressing issues like broadband interconnection, OFTA tries hard to find and emulate best practices and learning from other countries. This is clearly a huge job, given the range of complex topics which are current.
Hong Kong has been successful in introducing competition in wireline based fixed networks, in encouraging Internet access growth (there are over 100 ISPs although there are about 10 large ones), and current regulations aim at eliminating bottleneck facilities for broadband. The translation of their broadband interconnection rulings into practice, especially in the area of in-building wiring, appears to have some challenges still ahead.
We're especially interested in OFTA's approach to opening the cable TV plant to competitors. The November 14, 2000 statement mandates frequency sharing of both plant and in-building coaxial cable, and reiterates their original licence requirement that HKCTV provide open access. OFTA is emulating what they see as the Canadian model for open access to the cable plant. The devil is in the details regarding how this mandate will be translated into action.
We gave two talks at the recent VON Asia conference, one on the present state of broadband access systems and approaches to telephony over broadband, the second on home networking and home gateways.
Please visit http://www.thebroadbandhome.com/presentations.html for more information. It contains links to download and view our presentations.
Nancy Goguen of TI also spoke in our broadband sessions. Please visit http://slides.pulver.com to register and download her presentation and others from the conference.
Broadband Home Spring 2001 will be held in Miami, February 27-March 1, 2001.
Any readers interested in speaking, or organizing and moderating a session, can visit www.thebroadbandhome.com/speak/index.html . Although the official date for submissions has passed, we'll consider submissions from our readers for another week while we're completing the conference planning.
What Comes Next - The Network or the Gateway?
Those of you we've been fortunate enough to meet may have noticed that we (Sandy and Dave) don't necessarily agree on everything. As we've been planning for the spring conference, we're having another friendly debate "What comes next in the broadband home, the network or the gateway?"
With the majority of North American homes able to receive cable modem or DSL service, and satellite services now rolling out as well, broadband access is starting to be taken for granted (though you couldn't prove it by us - we still can't get it!). But access is just the first element of "the broadband home". Home gateways, home networking, new devices, and new applications and content are additional pieces of the puzzle.
Sandy: "Home networking comes next after broadband access." Once people have broadband access, they start fighting over who uses the PC; even if they didn't have a second PC before, they quickly get one. Then the issue is how to share the fast pipe to the Internet. At that point they start asking their computer-savvy friends how to do it; networking the machines is the obvious answer. Since there are already 20 million US homes with more than one PC and only a million are networked today, there's a great opportunity for the home networking products rolling out next year which don't require any new wiring.
Dave: Yes, but the minute they try to install the network, they discover they need a way to share the IP address the broadband provider gives them so both PCs can be connected at the same time. They could call the broadband provider and they'll discover that most will charge extra for each additional IP address. And they're probably on their own in setting up the addresses, since service providers don't generally provide support for home networking. Instead of paying 5 to 10 dollars a month for each additional address, they could buy a simple gateway for $100 or so which automates address assignment for as many PCs as they want. And it also provides a firewall for security.
Sandy: True, but that's a pretty primitive "gateway" - it's really just a simple router and their computer-savvy friends will tell them to buy it along with the network. The emphasis at first is on sharing the high-speed Internet connection, not on the many additional features a real gateway can provide, like personal portals and telephony.
Dave: Yes, that makes sense if the gateway is primarily serving our needs. But service providers are interested in providing the gateway because they want to generate additional revenue from additional machines -- which are, after all, using more bandwidth. They think you'll find their ability to do remote management of your network configuration well worth paying for. They'll throw in the router and firewall for added security, and many of them have in mind integrating multiple lines of telephony and other value-added services. So they're interested in putting in the gateway -- which might also include a network to make it easy for you to connect additional machines and make them more money.
So, tell us what you think. Do gateways and networks go in together, or do providers and vendors need to focus on one step at a time to bring consumers along the path to the broadband home? We'd love to hear from you - write us at [email protected].
The good news is that Broadband Home Spring 2001 will have multiple sessions on both networking and gateways, as well as updates on the emerging devices and applications. So we'll have lots of opportunities to explore their evolutions and interrelationships.
The conference schedule including session topics will be available soon. Keep an eye on www.thebroadbandhome.com/bbh2001/index.html for more information including registration and hotel reservations. | 2019-04-19T04:19:22Z | http://broadbandhomecentral.com/report/backissues/Report0012.html |
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Visit one of the most important archeological masterpieces in the world. On this special 2.5-hour small-group walking tour, you'll discover the Colosseum from the inside, where gladiators fought to the death in front of senators and scavengers.
Take the worry out of your transfer needs from your Rome city center hotel to Fiumicino Airport with a pre-booked, shared shuttle transfer by small minivan (maximum 8 passengers). Sit back and relax as your driver takes you direct to the airport.
Walk in a gladiator's footsteps, discovering the Impressive Colosseum, the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, and the gladiators' school of the Ludus Magnus.
Train to be a gladiator at a school in Rome. Suitable for adults and children alike, the fun 2-hour lesson will teach you how to fight like a warrior of Ancient Rome, while learning about life in the imperial city, Roman weapons, and more.
Save money on expensive taxis with a direct coach transfer between Rome’s Fiumicino Airport and Naples city center. Sit back and relax in comfort on the 2.5-hour journey and arrive faster than the train. Benefit from a generous luggage allowance.
Enjoy a walking tour of the Colosseum's underground chambers. Discover where the Romans caged wild animals, walk on the arena floor where the gladiators fought and visit the Roman Forum to see the center of ancient Roman life.
Enjoy a full-day panoramic tour of Rome and learn about its history from ancient Rome to the Baroque period. Travel with a professional tour leader in a comfortable air-conditioned coach from Civitavecchia port. Choose optional tours of major attractions.
Skip the Colosseum entrance line and take a 1.5-hour tour of this iconic Roman landmark. Access the usually off-limits arena floor, and see where the gladiators once stood.
Book your transfer between Fiumicino Airport and Rome city center (Termini Station) online and save. Enjoy direct transfer service in the comfortable, air-conditioned coaches and bring your luggage on board free of charge.
Skip the ticket lines and enjoy a tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel with an official guide, followed by a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica at your own pace.
See the top sights of South Cappadocia on a full-day tour. Visit Turkey's largest excavated underground city, trek in the Ihlara valley and more.
Play a city exploration game as the main character in the 'Angels & Demons' movie and novel. Solve clues to unlock stories and get directions to locations seen in the movie. All happening with the help of your smartphone, without a map, GPS or a guide.
Skip the line and pass through the ‘stage door’ of the Colosseum, the Gladiator’s Gate, directly onto the partially reconstructed, exclusive Arena Floor, before ascending to the arena’s second tier, where fans once sat.
Explore Rome at leisure with a 24-hour ticket to a river boat cruise along the Tiber. Soak up the sights from the boat deck, hopping on and off-on hop-off at stops close to sites such as Piazza Venezia, Piazza Di Spagna, the Castel S. Angelo and more.
See the highlights of Rome by Segway on a 1-hour guided tour. Explore the heart of the “Eternal City” as you glide past the Colosseum, Forum, and Capitoline Hill. Discover the ruins of 4 Roman temples, go to a piazza designed by Michelangelo, and more.
Appreciate all the best of the Pantheon in less than an hour, saving your time and your money with our digital self-guided tour.
An exciting multimedia journey that will allow you to discover the history and development of the Eternal City throughout its 2700 years of history. An immersive and emotional way to discover the secrets of the city, its development, and its monuments.
Gain priority access into one of the most famous and impressive monuments of ancient times. This special entrance allows you to skip the line and lets you experience the grandeur of walking directly on the Colosseum arena floor.
Pre-book a convenient and comfortable, 1-way shared shuttle service between Ciampino Airport and hotels located within the Walls of Rome and avoid the stress of trying to find a taxi at the last minute. Be met by a professional driver.
Save time and money with a comfortable round-trip transfer from Civitavecchia cruise terminal to Rome city center, and then climb aboard the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus to discover the best of the "Eternal City" in a day.
Take an amazing journey to discover the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, who was an artist, engineer, sculptor, architect and scientist. Admire a full-sized reproduction of The Last Supper, the controversial painting in Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code.
Coming to a city as (wonderfully) chaotic as Rome can be daunting. Your guide will give you a warm, Italian welcome and get you set up for the rest of your visit.
Depart Rome for a 3-hour bike tour from the city center to the rich landscape of the Appian Way. Follow in the footsteps of ancient armies, stopping at sites such as the Circus of Maxentius and the catacombs of San Callisto.
Skip the long lines to the Colosseum and enter the arena of the monumental amphitheater through the same entrance that the gladiators used. Learn more about the Roman Empire and life in Ancient Rome from an expert guide.
Embark on a small group tour with an expert guide of the most impressive ancient sites in Rome. Learn about the bloody history of the Colosseum before exploring the Roman Forum. Marvel at the views over the city from atop the Palatine Hill.
Take the load off your shoulders and store your bags is a safe luggage storage unit in Rome city center. Located in the Campo de Fiori area, within walking distance of Piazza Navona, the unit features free Wi-Fi and printing facilities, and a restroom.
Do not miss the opportunity to visit the Colosseum, the largest amphitheatre ever built, with an expert guide. Return to the time of Imperial Rome while walking throught the ruins of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Experience the majestic St. Peter's Basilica and climb the Dome with an expert guide.
Walk in the footsteps of Roman emperors and citizens on a skip-the-line tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Then, marvel at the Baroque and Renaissance monuments of Rome city center, such as the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.
Skip the Line at the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. Then, get privileged access to St. Peter's Basilica.
Take the stress out of your arrival in Rome and pre-book a superior transfer service from Ciampino or Fiumicino Airport to the city center. Travel by well maintained vehicle and arrive refreshed. The service is also available for airport departures.
Take the worry out of your arrival at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport and pre-book a comfortable shared transfer to your hotel inside the Aurelian Wall by small minivan (no more than 8 people). Sit back and relax as your driver takes you direct to your hotel.
Enjoy a glass of Prosecco with snacks before learning how to make fresh pasta with a professional Italian chef. Sit down with your small group after the class to enjoy the fruits of your labor, on a balcony overlooking Rome’s historic center.
Explore Saint Peter's Basilica from top to bottom! Wander at the majestic interior of the Basilica, climb all the way to the top of its magnificent Dome designed by Michelangelo, and descend deep down into the Papal Tombs.
This 3-hour guided tour of the Borghese Gallery combines the beauty of art with the beauty of nature! Admire the magnificent works of art in the Museum and the charming estate as well, taking a pleasant stroll to admire the stunning gardens.
Get ready to have your assumptions about Rome turned upside down on this incredibly unique journey of discovery. The itinerary includes some of the most uncommon, mysterious, and outlandish sites the Eternal City has to offer.
Escape Italy's busy capital for one day on this trip to Assisi and the Umbrian hill town Orvieto. You will see the famous Cathedral of Orvieto and discover the wines and local products of Tuscany.
Skip the lines on a 2-hour small-group tour through the Colosseum and the brilliant days of ancient Rome. Visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Discover what lies beneath the historic streets of Rome on a guided tour of the Capuchin Crypt with an English-speaking guide. Discover a macabre art collection completely made of human bones!
Enjoy a cooking class in the heart of Rome to learn how to make pasta from scratch, and the famous Tiramisù dessert from simple and fresh ingredients. Relax after your class as you enjoy the meal you have prepared.
Head out on your bike to the Roman countryside for a look at ancient monuments, breathtaking natural beauty, and fascinating ruins. Your guide will tell you about the sights as you appreciate the area’s unspoiled beauty on a half-day tour.
Arrive at Civitavecchia Port and save time with a pre-booked ticket for the shuttle bus service to or from Rome Termini railway station.
Enjoy a guided tour of the unique museum founded by Pope Sixtus IV and admire the stunning bronze sculptures of the emperors of Rome. Explore the entire Capitoline Hill complex, designed by Michelangelo, as your guide brings the past back to life.
Travel back to the days of the Roman Empire and feel like an emperor as you skip the long lines to some of Ancient Rome’s most important monuments. Take a 3-hour guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill for panoramic views.
Explore the ancient Via Appia of Rome on a relaxed 4-hour electric bike tour, and discover the old ruins and pristine beauty of the Appian Way Regional Park. Marvel at the monuments of the Imperial City such as the Colosseum and Circus Maximus.
Discover the highlights of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica on this incredible 3-hour tour with a professional guide.
Experience the magnificence of Rome’s Colosseum on a 80-minute night tour. Skip the long lines to the mighty arena, and enjoy access to levels above and beneath the ground. Learn the Colosseum’s glorious history, and hear stories about emperors.
Travel back in time and experience a unique blend of art, history, folklore, and archaeology in Naples and Pompeii. Relax as you head to the Gulf of Naples, where Mount Vesuvius erupted almost 2,000 years ago, destroying the Roman settlement of Pompeii.
Discover the secrets of traditional, Italian cuisine with the help of an expert chef. Prepare your own meal for the night and top it all off with local wine.
Explore the historic Catacombs of St. Callixtus on a 2-hour excursion from Rome. See where dozens of martyrs and 16 Catholic popes were buried.
Experience this fantastic combination pasta and pizza making cooking class starting from scratch with a chef. Enjoy a 4-hour kid-friendly lesson and learn more than ten different pasta shapes and Neapolitan pizza making in a real pizza oven.
Take a break from the crowds in Rome and head to Tivoli on this full-day excursion. Visit the ruins of Hadrian's Villa with it temples, theaters, and statues. Admire the romantic Villa d'Este and its garden’s waterfalls, pools, and fountains.
Book a stress-free transfer between Fiumicino Airport and anywhere in Rome. Get help with your luggage and have more free time to spend on your trip.
Immerse yourself in Roman history with a walking guided tour into Ancient Rome with VIP entrance to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.
Watch the sunset across the romantic squares of Rome on a 3-hour small group tour of the city’s historic piazzas. Marvel at baroque fountains and statues, and learn the story of some of the city’s most important meeting points, such as Piazza Navona.
Journey back in time and explore the Roman town of Pompeii, situated under the shadows of the Vesuvius volcano. Explore the dramatic site with a guide in your language, and then go to Naples for a 1.5-hour panoramic bus tour.
Join a tour to see the most important sites of Ancient Rome brought to life. Visit the Colosseum, Forum, and Palatine Hill with an expert guide and learn all about a day in the life of Ancient Rome.
Get VIP priority seating at the Hard Rock Cafe Rome and feel like a rock star! Dine on great American classics in a fun-filled environment, and pick up some unique, and authentic merchandise to commemorate your visit.
Take a break from the hustle and bustle of Rome with a trip to picturesque Tuscany. With travel and sightseeing all arranged, you can enjoy the region’s famed wine, food, and scenery all in one day.
Skip the long lines to the Colosseum and learn more about Ancient Rome with the help of a guide. Discover the heart of the city during the days of the Roman Empire at the Roman Forum and get panoramic views from Palatine Hill.
Pick-up service is available from Fiumicino Airport or from your hotel in the interior of the Aurelian Walls. Your driver will collect you from your hotel 3 hours before the return flight and in sufficient time for you to check in.
Save precious time on a 1-hour skip-the-line tour of the Colosseum and look inside one of the greatest monuments of the Roman Empire. Follow in the footsteps of emperors and gladiators, and then get some free time to explore on your own.
Explore 2 historic sites of Rome on a 3-hour walking tour of the Castel Sant’ Angelo and St. Peter’s Square. Learn the history of an ancient fortress, commissioned by Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum. Marvel at Bernini’s colonnades in the Vatican City.
Enjoy the best of Trastevere, one of Rome's most picturesque districts. On this 3-hour tour, taste samples of traditional street food including fresh pizza, biscuits, cheese, salami and other delicacies, enriched by the history of the quarter.
Skip the lines to the main monuments of Ancient Rome on a small group guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Get exclusive access to restricted areas and investigate the workings of the Colosseum beneath the arena floor!
Treat yourself to this practical transfer service from Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport to Rome and enjoy a relaxing journey to your onward destination. Your friendly driver will help you carry your luggage and chauffeur you safely to your hotel.
Visit Capri, the “Pearl of the Mediterranean,” on a day trip from Rome. You’ll see the renowned Blue Grotto, stop in scenic Anacapri, and enjoy lunch in a local restaurant. At the end of the tour you’ll have time to explore the island on your own.
Rome: so much to see, so little time. With this Sistine Chapel express tour, you will focus on what everyone really comes to see: the Sistine Chapel. Get skip-the-line access plus a full background on Michelangelo's masterpiece.
Enter the Colosseum without the wait by the Gladiator's Gate. Tour the amphitheater with your guide before visiting the Forum and Palatine Hill.
Catch the train from Rome to the former harbor town of the imperial city on a 4-hour tour of Ostia Antica. Learn what life was like for ordinary Roman citizens as you see the main monuments of the commercial and military seaport of the Roman Republic.
Walking the same streets as the Roman Emperors did, an expert guide will accompany you across the vast archeological site where, in 753 BC, Ancient Rome was born. The tour will finish on a terrace with breathtaking views of the city.
Get a unique gladiator’s-eye view of the Colosseum during this Skip-the-Line tour. Your expert guide will take you backstage into areas that are normally off-limits. Plus, visit the Palatine Hill and Roman Forum.
Travel between Vatican City and Civitavecchia Port with a hassle-free shuttle bus transfer.
On this 3-hour VIP semiprivate tour with skip-the-line entrance, visit one of the largest and most famous museums in the world, avoiding queues and crowded groups.
A cycling tour to the gardens that surround the world famous "Borghese Gallery". This historical place (turned into a public park) will let you discover the art and history of the famous Borghese family, all the while breathing in some fresh air!
Skip the long lines to the iconic monuments of Ancient Rome on a 3-hour walking tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. Learn more about the imperial city from an expert English or Spanish-speaking guide.
Visit the relics of Christ's Passion and Crucifixion that were brought to Rome from the Holy Land by St Helena and around which magnificent Basilicas were constructed. This is the perfect tour for Christians & pilgrims to Rome.
Join a small-group Colosseum tour and skip the long lines. Hear about its bloody history and explore the first and second tiers for great views.
Enjoy priority access to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Dive into the past and walk in the footsteps of Roman emperors and gladiators, which your passionate guide will bring back to life. Enjoy spectacular views from the Emperor's Palace.
Visit the Vatican Museums early, before the crowds arrive. Marvel at the artistic masterpieces and Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
Explore 2000 years of art through the lens of the greatest masterpieces.
Hop on a cruiser for a bike ride around Rome, discovering the timeless beauty of the city on a 3-hour tour. The Italian capital is full of monuments, culture, and history, and on this tour you will see its many famous landmarks and historical locations.
This 3.5-hour walking tour includes all the must-see works in the Vatican Museums, such as Raphael's Rooms, the Gallery of the Maps, the Gallery of the Tapestry, Pine Courtyard, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.
Reviewed in the prestigious guide Gambero Rosso in 2017, learn how to make many types of homemade fresh pasta inside a real professional laboratory of Italian pasta. You will be able to do this home without any difficulty.
See the armor, masks, helmets, and weapons used by the Colosseum entertainers. Hear about how these ancient crafts of battle were made and used with your audio guide.
See the monuments and Baroque architecture of Rome on a 3-hour Segway tour that covers more of the city than is possible on a walking tour, and leaves a kinder footprint than motorized tours. Marvel at the ruins of the imperial city, and more.
See the sights of Rome from a fresh perspective on a 3-hour private tour by Vespa with optional driver. Benefit from a fully interactive and customizable itinerary, and learn more about life in the city on this family-friendly activity.
Explore Ancient Rome's most intriguing and best preserved monument in a 40-minute informative tour with a professional guide. Discover the history and building secrets of the largest dome in the ancient world and visit Raphael's tomb.
Skip the lines at the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with exclusive no-wait access. Experience the highlights of the Vatican City on this group tour, as you admire masterpieces by Michelangelo and Raffaello and visit the Sistine Chapel.
Skip the lines at the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel! See all the highlights of Vatican City on this popular guided tour and benefit from special access to the Papal Tombs underneath St. Peter’s Basilica.
Explore Rome like a Roman by 125cc Vespa scooter, and access more of the city than you can by car or bus. Nip around historic monuments such as the Forum and Spanish Steps. Rent a scooter from 12 hours to 1 week.
See the famous sites in Vatican City on a small group, personalized 3-hour tour. Your expert guide will take you through the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica on an informative journey focusing on art, history and archaeology.
Take a guided tour of the Vatican state and discover the Vatican Museums, walk inside the Sistine Chapel, see the glorious work of Michelangelo and take a trip to St Peter's Basilica.
Discover a secret world beneath the streets of Rome on a 3-hour coach tour of the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. Travel along the Appian Way, one of the most historic roads of Ancient Rome, and see the stunning aqueducts of the Appian Park.
Skip the long lines to the Vatican and Colosseum on a combined tour. See miraculous art from the papal collections in the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Follow in the footsteps of Roman emperors at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Save precious time with skip-the-line access on your guided tour of the Coliseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Let your guide take you back in time to ancient Rome and let the unforgettable architecture take your breath away on this 3-hour tour.
Discover the Castle and its changes throughout the centuries, admiring paintings, ancient fortified walls, statues, the treasure room and even a breathtaking view over the city, in a one and a half hour tour with a local guide.
Discover one of the most important private art collections in the world on this visit to the Borghese Gallery. Skip the lines and enjoy an extraordinary tour of masterpieces by Titian, Raphael, Bernini, and Caravaggio, and explore the gardens as well.
Take the worry out of your arrival or departure from Rome Ciampino Airport and pre-book a private transfer with an English-speaking driver. Skip the long lines for taxis and travel in air-conditioned comfort.
Visit the city of Naples and the stunning ruins of Pompeii on a full-day excursion from Rome by private motor coach. An onboard assistant and a personal guide will ensure that you see the top highlights of Naples and of the Pompeii excavations.
Follow in the footsteps of Roman emperors and fearless gladiators on a small group skip-the-line tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Learn about the main monuments of Ancient Rome and more.
Marvel at masterpieces of arts, history, and culture present in the most incredible museum in the world. With priority access, skip the lines to the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.
Relax in air-conditioned comfort on a private 1-way transfer between Fiumicino Airport and your hotel in Rome. This sedan or mini-can service is available for 1 person or a small group of up to 8, with the vehicle depending on the number of passengers.
See the sights of Rome at night in all their majesty. On this 3-hour guided walking tour you’ll have a chance to learn about the history and architecture of this magnificent city, without the hustle and bustle of the tourist crowds of the daytime hours.
Ever dreamed of gazing up at the Sistine Chapel in peace & quiet? This exclusive Vatican Partner tour allows you to be one of the select few to enter the chapel first in the morning & includes no-wait entry to St. Peter’s Basilica.
Experience a once-in-a-lifetime event at St. Peter's Square. Attend the weekly audience held by Pope Francis at the Vatican with this ticket.
Discover the taste of authentic Roman and Jewish cuisine with a cozy 6-course meal in the old town of Rome. Visit the Jewish Quarter with its archaeological sites and a very special atmosphere.
Enjoy the full Ancient Rome guided experience. Explore the beautiful Roman Forum and the scenic Palatine Hill. Finally, visit the mighty Colosseum avoiding the busiest hours.
Skip the regular queue and enjoy a tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with an official guide, followed by a tour of St Peter’s Basilica at your own pace.
See the sights of Rome on a 3-hour electric bike tour, and explore the historic neighborhoods of the “Eternal City” without breaking into a sweat! Make easy work of some of the city’s legendary hills, and marvel at monuments in baroque piazzas.
Discover the real dark heart of Rome on this combination tour. Visit the ancient part of the city that’s buried beneath the busy streets and join in a nighttime adventure that leaves no stone unturned and unveils the Eternal City’s unseen history.
Explore the marvelous Lazio region on a food and wine tour to a medieval cellar, to learn the secrets of wine making. Enjoy a meal where each course is paired with an elegant local wine.
Beat the crowds and admire Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel masterpiece in peace. Enjoy a full buffet breakfast in the Pinecone Courtyard, visit the museums, and get special access to St. Peter's Basilica.
Discover Rome with a local on an electric bike. Visit the Eternal City in environmentally friendly way and experience an easy, panoramic tour of Rome's highlights.
Enjoy the best of Rome by taking this relaxing private service with a luxury vehicle accompanied by a knowledgeable local driver eager to make your experience in Rome enjoyable and memorable!
Transform the way you travel and make it as much about the people you meet as the places you see. Get a welcome to Rome by a local guide on a fully customized private walking tour.
See some of the lesser-known but culturally significant sites of the Vatican on an informative walking tour that gives you insight into the city's complex history and thrilling lore.
Start your stay in Rome the stress free way and book your transfer into the city in advance. Enjoy a comfortable ride through Rome and arrive at your destination via a direct route.
Discover a different side to Rome on the city’s only night-time walking tour in English. Explore the hidden side of the Eternal City on a mysterious 1.5-hour night tour, and learn about Rome's supernatural side as you check out Campo de Fiori and more.
Travel back to the days of the Roman Empire and take a 3-hour guided tour of the main monuments of ancient Rome. Skip the long lines to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill as you follow in the footsteps of Roman emperors and gladiators.
Join this exclusive small group (max 6 people) tour and plunge into the wonders of ancient Rome and let your guide narrate stories of gladiators and Roman Emperors letting the ruins of the amphitheater come to life again.
Get skip the line access to the icons of the Roman Empire on this 3-hour tour. See the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine as you learn the history of Imperial Rome and its golden Emperors.
Descend 100 feet underground in the Basilica of San Clemente and discover 2,000 years of history. Then, visit the Church of St. Peter in Chains.
See the sights of Rome illuminated for the night on a 2-hour Segway tour, and experience “La Dolce Vita” of the “Eternal City” after dark. Glide down historic streets to iconic monuments, such as the Pantheon, Castel Sant’ Angelo, and more.
Taste the foods of Rome on a private 3-hour tour, and indulge your taste buds at 10 different tastings. Sample fresh fruit from the market at Campo de’ Fiori, visit an amazing Sicilian delicatessen, try some of the best chocolate in town, and much more.
Escape the hustle and bustle of Rome and spend the day at the amazing archaeological site of Pompeii. Take the shuttle bus direct to Pompeii, where you can wander the grounds independently or add on a tour with an expert guide.
Learn the history of one of Ancient Rome's most magnificent buildings on an English-speaking tour of the Colosseum. Access exclusive areas and experience the monument like a Roman emperor!
Walk with an expert guide to see far-flung sights scattered around Rome. Visit some incredible places rarely seen by visitors. Learn about the influence of the old Jewish Ghetto on Rome’s culture, stop at the Mouth of Truth, and walk along the Appian Way.
'Best of the Colosseum: arena floor and Gladiator Gate' is the see all Colosseum tour in 90 minutes for busy tourists! Walk in the footsteps of emperors, slaves, gladiators and perhaps even the Gods which ruled Rome and the Roman Empire in antiquity.
See the most famous sights of Rome in a half day! Discover brilliant attractions throughout the centuries and walk along picturesque squares and monuments. See the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Colonna Square, church San Luigi dei Francesi and many more.
Explore the ruins of ancient Pompeii on a daily group excursion from Rome. Discover many of the well-preserved buildings at the incredible archaeological site that was covered by volcanic ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.
Tour Rome’s historical district by street legal golf cart and see more sights than you would see on a walking tour. Discover hidden gems, such as the Aventine and Celio hills, and pass famous sites such as the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Venezia.
Go to historic Tivoli in Roman Campagna on a 4-hour coach tour from Rome, and explore Hadrian’s imperial villa. Continue to the Renaissance Villa d’Este, where you can stroll around the lovely grounds and marvel at the abundant fountains.
Explore the villas of a summer retreat for the Romans and Renaissance on a 5-hour tour of Tivoli from Rome. Discover the breathtaking gardens of the Villa d'Este, and the Roman ruins of the Villa Adriana, and travel back to the days of the Roman Empire.
Enjoy skip-the-line access to the treasures of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. Avoid the crowds and spend more time admiring the masterpieces of art on this 2.5-hour tour with a professional art historian guide.
Take this guided tour to explore the fascinating archaeological monuments of Rome and journey into the history of the Roman Empire. Marvel at the splendid Colosseum, walk the Via Sacra, visit the arch of Constantine, and stand on the sacred Palatine Hill.
Visit the most important attractions in Rome on the same day with a half-day skip-the-line guided tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica in the morning and a half-day guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum in the afternoon.
Skip the lines to the Vatican and enjoy a 4.5-hour tour of the Gardens, Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. The access-all-areas tour is a magical journey through centuries of art, with sneak peaks at areas normally closed to the public.
See the sights of Rome on a relaxing evening panoramic tour by motor coach. Discover the magic charm of the city’s iconic monuments illuminated at night. Dine on traditional Roman cuisine at a restaurant in the lively and popular Trevi area.
Follow the footsteps of Tom Hanks’ character Robert Langdon from the film “Angels & Demons” with visits to the original sites in Rome and the Vatican. This 3.5-hour tour is a must for all fans of the film or the novel.
Skip the long lines to the main monuments of the Vatican City and see the most interesting highlights of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.
See the main monuments of Ancient Rome on a 3-hour, small group tour. Travel back to the days of the Roman Republic as you explore the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and the Pantheon. Walk in the footsteps of Roman emperors and fearless gladiators.
Enjoy a private tour of the Colosseum and the ancient Roman Forum archeological area, skipping the long lines at the entrance with your fast-track tickets. An expert guide leads this informative tour as you visit the most important sites of ancient Rome.
Go on a romantic night tour and enjoy access to the Colosseum Underground and Arena to experience the wonderful achievements of Roman civilization, under the golden moonlight.
Experience the romance of Rome on a 2.5-hour cruise along the River Tiber. In a stylish atmosphere of flowers, fine china and linen-draped tables, enjoy superb views, tasty cuisine and Italian wines to the background of the city in its evening lights.
Explore the Colosseum arena and underground area, where gladiators and beasts prepared for battle. Visit the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill as well.
Explore ancient Rome with an immersive tour that will take you into the heart of gladiator combat and into the archaeological sights of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Areas rich with roads, temples, basilicas, and villas brought to life.
Taste the typical food and wines of Rome on a guided walking tour of the Campo de’Fiori and Trastevere. Experience the city like a local with a classic aperitivo of meat, cheese and wine, sample homemade dishes at secret locations and more.
Go on a quest around the haunted parts of the city by solving clues that will unlock stories. Use a mobile app which works as your personal guide to discover the captive souls, spirits and mysterious skeletons of Rome during an interactive game.
Take the convenient shuttle bus transfer from Rome to Pompeii and spend the day exploring the archaeological site on your own. Book a guide on arrival to upgrade your experience and learn more about life in the Roman Republic.
This short introduction to the Colosseum and Roman Forum reveals a lost civilization to you via the stories of one of the local guides with a background in archeology.
Use your precious time in Rome effectively with an express tour of the Colosseum. Benefit from skip-the-line tickets then receive the most important information about this important historical site during a 1-hour tour.
Get an exclusive tour of the Colosseum that very few tourists have the chance to. With your friendly and informative guide, visit the Colosseum and its ominous underground labyrinth and get an in-depth look at one of Italy's most popular sites.
Maximize your time in Rome with this convenient combo ticket. Explore the city on a panoramic hop-on-hop-off bus tour with 24 or 48-hour access. Discover the Colosseum during a guided group tour lead by an expert professional guide.
Receive privileged entrance to the Colosseum directly onto the Arena floor, where gladiators gave their performances. You will hear fascinating stories of combat throughout the first and second ring, before then exploring the Roman Forum & Palatine Hill.
Cycle past the main sights of Rome on a 3.5-hour bike tour. Marvel at monuments from the Roman Empire, such as the Colosseum and Pantheon, temple to all gods. Discover the baroque and renaissance buildings of legendary piazzas, and much more.
Enter the Sistine Chapel before it opens to the general public and enjoy Michelangelo’s masterpieces in peace before embarking on a thorough guided tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Take the worry out of your travel and save money with a pre-booked, two-way shuttle transfer between Ciampino Airport and Vatican City.
Enjoy exclusive access to the restricted areas of the Colosseum on this small-group tour for up to 24 people.
Travel back in time and re-live centuries of Roman history on a small-group Segway tour. Glide effortlessly from the Pantheon to the Coliseum, and take in some of the top landmarks and monuments of the Eternal City along the way.
Ride through the beautiful grounds of the Villa Borghese and discover its magnificent monuments on a 2-hour Segway tour. Discover the landmarks of the city center, such as the Pantheon and Spanish Steps.
Skip the lines on a visit to Rome's most iconic monuments. Enjoy a small-group guided tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill.
Take a three-hour guided tour of the magnificent Borghese Gallery that houses works by famous Italian artists. Then visit the spectacular gardens with your specialist local guide.
Take the high-speed train from Rome to Venice and spend the day touring the Byzantine architecture and canals of the famous “Serenissima”. Relax on board of the train during the 3.5-hour journey, use your free ferry pass to visit the best parts of Venice.
Experience three of Rome's ancient highlights on this private tour. Together with your guide, you will encounter the Colosseum (including the Arena Floor), Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum, each with skip-the-line access.
Impress your friends with a set of amazing Italian cooking skills! On this unique small-group cooking experience, learn how to hand-make pasta, ravioli and tomato sauce from scratch in a professional kitchen.
Take the worry out of your transportation arrangements at the end of your cruise to Rome and pre-book a private transfer from Civitavecchia Port to Rome Fiumicino Airport. Save time and money, and avoid the hassle of taxi touts or shared shuttle buses.
Enjoy this Vatican Museums small group tour on Friday nights - access the museums outside of regular hours to admire these masterpieces, including the Sistine Chapel.
Skip the line and enter the Colosseum through a special access gate directly onto the restricted area of the Gladiator's Arena. Enjoy spectacular views of the Colosseum's underground chambers and learn about the gruesome history of the Gladiator games.
Take a guided tour of the first papal residency and marvel at the interior of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. Your guide will take you to see the Chiostro, the Holy Stairs, and the fantastic Baptistery of the Lateran complex as well.
A morning tour with an expert guide at the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Later, enjoy a DIY tour of the magnificent Vatican Museums. This combo tour & skip-the-line Vatican Museums ticket delivers it all.
See the highlights of the Vatican and Ancient Rome on this 6.5-hour guided walking tour. This combination of 2 popular offerings takes you on a morning visit to the Vatican followed by an afternoon spent admiring Rome’s architectural gems.
Make your stay in Rome special by joining a tour of the Coliseum Arena, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Explore with your guide for 3 hours the most important sites in the history of Rome without waiting in any lines.
Take the worry out of your arrival or departure from Rome city and pre-book a private transfer from or to Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport or Ciampino Airport. Skip the long line for taxis and relax in the comfort of executive class vehicles.
This Early Morning Private Vatican Tour will take you on a lucrative journey through the artistically opulent Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Combine two of the best spectacles in Rome with a unique package deal. Visit the Last Judgment theatre show and enjoy skip-the-line entrance to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.
Travel back to the days of the Roman Empire and take a 3-hour guided tour of the main monuments of Ancient Rome. Skip the long lines to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. Follow in the footsteps of Roman emperors and gladiators.
The tour is tailored to meet your specific needs and interests with maximum freedom to discover Ancient Rome's landmarks. You will have your own custom-made itinerary and a dedicated native speaking guide providing you with the best experience possible.
Enjoy a romantic 90-minute evening cruise in Rome along the Tiber River. Sip a glass of wine and savor delightful appetizers as you take in the sunset. Admire some of the Eternal City’s top landmarks and monuments along the way.
Explore Rome's Colosseum and Ancient Roman sights on this two-hour express Segway tour. Enjoy views over the Roman Forum from the city's oldest hills as you have fun with your expert tour leader.
Skip the lines at the Colosseum on this 1-hour Gladiator Arena Tour. Explore the restricted-access area with a professional guide.
Experience the magical lights of Rome in the evening on this small group golf cart tour. Enjoy drinks and an appetizer along the way as you explore the streets of the Eternal City with a dedicated local guide.
Rent a quality bike and see the sights of Rome you want to see. Explore more than 2000 years of history at sites like the ruins of the Roman Forum and Pantheon, marvel at Romanesque squares, travel up the “7 Hills of Rome,” and more.
Treat yourself to the Visit Rome Gold Pass and gain fast-track access to the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and Castel Sant’Angelo. All that with the benefit of an audio guide and an interactive CityPass map full of handy tips.
Explore the “Eternal City” of Rome at your own pace with a combined 1-day ticket to the open top hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus, and a cruise along the River Tiber. Marvel at the monuments of Ancient Rome, and the Baroque fountains of the historic center.
Discover the secret history of Rome buried beneath the streets of Trastevere. Go 7m below street level to see preserved underground churches, Roman houses, frescoes, and crypts. Explore hidden locations with an expert archaeologist guide.
Experience the "Sounds and Visions of Caravaggio" in the heart of the Eternal City. Let yourself be inspired by an innovative blend of art and music, and watch as historical instruments help recreate Baroque and Renaissance music.
Take home a unique souvenir of your time in Rome with a 1-hour photo shoot by professional camera. Your photographer guide will arrange a shoot at any location in the city that takes your fancy, and send the best results by email to download.
Enjoy a spiritual experience in the Pope's Wednesday audience after learning about Rome's history from your Spanish-speaking guide.
Explore Imperial Rome in all its glory on a unique mode of transport. Ride a Segway in the footsteps of ancient Roman rulers. Learn about their influence on the Eternal City, while visiting majestic monuments.
Enjoy a relaxing private transfer service in a luxury Mercedes vehicle on your Rome arrival or departure. A knowledgeable local driver will ensure that your experience is an enjoyable one. Choose a 1-way transfer either from or to Rome Ciampino Airport.
Travel back to the days of the Roman Empire on a 3-hour skip-the-line tour of the Colosseum, Imperial Forum and Palatine Hill. See the ruins of the temples and the mighty arena of the Flavian Amphitheatre and ascend one of the legendary 7 Hills of Rome.
Enjoy a 3-hour golf cart tour that stops at Rome's top attractions, such as the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, the Pantheon, and more.
This audio tour is a great way to visit St. Peter's Basilica and avoid the crowds. Enjoy the self-guided tour with a city pass and a visit to Vatican City.
Leave your luggage in a safe place, available at various location around Rome, including the Termini Station, close to the airport bus terminal, the local public bus terminal and metro lines A/B.
Save precious time with a skip-the-line entrance ticket to the Vatican Museums, and discover the papal collections with an English-speaking guide. Pause to reflect in the Sistine Chapel, and get fast-track entry to St. Peter's Basilica.
Enjoy the spectacular attractions of Vatican City with an expert guide on a 3-hour small group tour. Skip the lines waiting to enter the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and have more time to marvel at the treasures within.
Skip the long lines to the main monuments of Ancient Rome on a guided tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Get exclusive access to the newly opened Belvedere area and enjoy panoramic views from the 5th tier.
Explore one of the most important monuments in the history of the Christian faith with a smartphone app audio guide to St. Peter's Basilica. Continue to the former mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Explore the most important sacred Christian sites in Rome on a 3-hour sightseeing tour by air-conditioned coach. The tour stops at the well-known Basilicas of Santa Maria Maggiore and Saint John in Lateran. Then, travel along the ancient Appian Way.
Enjoy a comfortable, convenient, and affordable shared shuttle service from Civitavecchia cruise port to Rome city center accommodations, or Fiumicino Airport. With door-to ship services available every day, relax at the start or end of your vacation.
Explore a secret, subterranean world beneath the streets of Rome on a 3-hour, small group walking tour. Experience the city from the days of the Roman Empire at sites such as the Pantheon, Vicus Caprarius and the Stadium of Domitian beneath Piazza Navona.
Skip the lines on this private tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. Learn about life in ancient Rome from an expert guide.
A unique early morning e-bike tour of Rome.
Explore Rome at your own pace with a digital tour guide, and an audio guide of the Pantheon. Enjoy a huge high-quality gelato from GROM.
See Rome’s top sights by Segway on this 2-hour panoramic tour. Visit the Aventine Hill and glide to the Eternal City’s landmarks, including the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and Roman Forum. Discover Capitoline Hill and the ancient Jewish Quarter.
Watch an amazing 1.5-hour gladiator show at the Museum of the Roman Legionary in Rome and recreate the days of the Roman Empire. Touch real weapons and armor.
A 1.5 hour pizza making class on the banks of the Tiber River, in the heart of Rome, next to Castel Sant'Angelo and San Pietro Basilica.
Head out from Rome on a day visit to Florence and Pisa, 2 of Tuscany’s most popular cities. Learn about the ancient traditions of Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, and see the Leaning Tower of Pisa and other monuments in the Square of Miracles.
Our street food tour is a delicious walk through the heart of the eternal city. Discover the street food delicacies loved by today’s Romans and visit historical boutiques and contemporary eateries.
Welcome to the world’s first museum! At the Empire Roman Museum, you will discover a fascinating collection of art and artifacts, all telling the fascinating history of Rome.
When in Rome do as the Romans do and ride around the ancient city streets on an iconic Vespa moped. Rent a Vespa 125 LX for 24 hours and see sights, such as the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia, from the saddle of a typical Italian mode of transport.
Discover Rome at your own pace with a high-quality electric bicycle. You’ll be able to explore a lot more of the city and do so effortlessly. In addition to the electric bike you’ll receive a map along with some recommended routes for your excursion.
Discover the early, underground Basilica of San Clemente in Rome on a 1.5-hour guided tour, and admire the 13th-century mosaics and Arabesque motifs in the Apse. Get access to hidden rooms, including the Altar of Mithras and Mithraic Schoolroom.
Experience Rome like a local on a 2-hour private tour and get a personalized itinerary created just for you. Decide where you want to go and what you want to see and benefit from the insights of a local guide.
Segway is the best way to visit the city. See Rome's top sights with ease and hear about the history from your local guide. Drive through small alleyways and get tips on the best places to eat and drink in the eternal city.
Uncover the mysteries of the unknown Catacombs of San Callisto, also referred to as the Cemetery of Callixtus. This walking tour of Rome takes you around the intriguing grounds containing the tombs of several different popes from the 2nd to 4th centuries.
Enjoy a fun and instructive guided tour with a Dutch-speaking guide through the Colosseum, the ruins of the Roman Forum with a view of the Palatine.
Take a trip from Rome on a high speed train and discover the heart of Florence and the one and only Accademia Gallery. With all your travel taken of, enjoy a day exploring with a knowledgeable guide.
Combine your love for coffee and gelato with your passion for Rome on this 2.5-hour walking tour of the Eternal City and see, smell, and taste delicious Italian coffees, cakes, and ice-creams under the shade of some of the city’s most historic monuments.
Taste some of the finest traditional Italian foods on offer in Rome on a guided walking tour of the city’s historic center. Sample pizza and pasta, and Italian hams, wines, and cheeses, and finish off with some refreshing Sicilian gelato.
Leave the crowds behind with a skip-the-line Colosseum ticket, and visit one of the ancient world’s most spectacular monuments. Discover the Roman Forum, heart of the roman Empire, with its copious amounts of temples, basilicas, and vibrant public spaces.
Enjoy a 3-hour walking tour through the vast art collections inside one of the most beautiful museums in the world with an expert guide. Gain privileged access to the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica during an exclusive skip-the-line Vatican tour.
Discover the main monuments of the Roman Empire in Rome on a 3-hour small group tour of the imperial city. Bring history to life at landmark sights, such as the Roman Forum and Colosseum. Enjoy panoramic views from one of the 7 hills of Rome.
Discover masterpieces of art at one of Rome’s most impressive museums on a 3-hour tour of the Borghese Gallery. Admire sculptures, paintings, and floor mosaics by artists such as Canova, Bernini and Caravaggio. See one of the Rome’s most exquisite villas.
Get outside the walls of Rome and into the ancient tunnels of its catacombs. Enjoy a 3-hour tour that gives you a unique perspective on ancient Rome that you won't experience in the city center.
Travel with this comfortable and air-conditioned shuttle service from Rome to discover the buried city of Pompeii. Create your own itinerary and explore Pompeii at your own pace on this independent full-day tour with round-trip transportation.
Take in the very essence of Roman history, culture, art, and architecture. Enjoy skip-the-line access to monuments including the Colosseum and Vatican Museums.
Experience the enchanting city of Rome by night on a comfortable E-bike tour. Ride to the top of Aventino hill and soak up the colorful sunset panorama over the city. Make a wish by throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain.
You control your Vatican experience on this private tour. With only your small group, a dedicated guide, and No-Wait Access through a special Partner Entrance, there’s plenty of time to uncover the stories behind the Vatican’s hidden treasures.
See the sights of Rome floodlit for the night on a 3-hour, private tour by golf cart. Marvel at Borromino’s beautiful church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, go to Piazza Barberini, see Piazza di Spagna in all its glory, and much more.
Begin your Vatican City experience with a rich breakfast buffet followed by a ride through the hidden parts of the Vatican that have just been opened to the public. Visit the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica as well.
Enjoy an exclusive small group tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel at night when most of the tourists have left. You'll be guided by a professional English-speaking guide, who will share the history and most important stories of the museums.
Choose your opera experience in Rome with an open ticket. Enjoy a wonderful evening listening to the masterpieces of Vivaldi, La Traviata, or Rigoletto whilst seated in fantastic and innovative locations such as cathedrals, museums, or Roman ruins.
Partnered with a guide, you will receive an overview of the history and the art of Rome before entering the Vatican Museums. You can admire the many ancient treasures, before visiting the Sistine Chapel and its famous frescos.
Discover the wonders of the Colosseum during a 1-hour guided tour with skip-the-line tickets. Learn about the history of the impressive amphitheater partnered with your knowledgable guide.
Experience the sacred atmosphere of the Vatican City with a guaranteed entrance ticket to the Papal Audience on St. Peter's Square. Listen to Pope Francis address an adoring crowd during his weekly public prayer service.
The Imperial Rome tour perfectly combines walking with relaxed sightseeing by coach and gives you a comprehensive overview of the remains of the impressive Roman Empire!
Immerse yourself in the art and culture of Vatican City on this early morning tour that gives you VIP access to the Vatican Museums and skip-the-line entry to St. Peter’s Basilica. Marvel at the spectacular frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.
Learn how to prepare and cook homemade pasta like an Italian Mamma at an amazing cooking class in Rome. Visit a food market, learn the secrets of local chefs and enjoy a leisurely lunch of the fruits of your labor.
Save precious time with a skip-the-line entrance ticket to the Vatican Museums and discover the vast papal collection on your own. Enjoy an Italian lunch of dishes prepared by the pope's chefs in one of the nicest courtyards in the museum.
See a slice of Roman history that is hiding in plain sight, which reveals the persecution of Rome’s Jewish population as well as their eventual triumph over adversity.
Start or end your cruise to Rome stress free with a pre-booked private transfer to or from Fiumicino Airport, from or to Civitavecchia Port. Enjoy a professional service by luxury Mercedes or similar as you travel to your destination.
Enjoy a fascinating 3 hour tour of the massive museums of the Vatican and then stand beneath some of Michelangelo's masterpieces in the Sistine Chapel, all by night.
No trip to Italy is complete without a visit to Pompeii. This luxury van tour from Rome will show you a city immortalised by a volcanic eruption, followed by lunch and a visit to the crater of Mt. Vesuvius!
Experience the stunning Amalfi Coast from both land and sea as you spend a day exploring various towns along this storied stretch of coastline.
Visit a little cozy Gelateria to explore the delicious world of Gelato. Take a 1-hour workshop led by an instructor the discover the secrets to producing the best ice-cream.
Visit the Vatican Museums, avoiding the long wait with your skip-the-line ticket. Admire the ancient sculptures, stunning frescoes, medieval maps, and priceless paintings with your expert guide during this 3-hour after-hours tour.
Discover Rome in a completely new way, tasting the best typical products and getting to know the incredible culture and heritage of Rome, for a multi-sensorial experience. Feel the real spirit of Rome.
The Vatican is the smallest worldwide state and also the richest. Enjoy early entrance with a skip-the-line ticket for a guided tour of this magnificent site.
Experience one of Europe's most exciting aviation museums in complete convenience with this ticket and transfer package. Travel from the Civitavecchia harbour to the Italian Airforce Museum with a professional, English speaking driver.
Enjoy an exclusive experience of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Visit the Sistine Chapel with no crowds at 7:30 AM, a full hour and a half before the general public.
Take an afternoon walking tour of Rome’s famous monuments and piazzas. Visit sites that date back to Roman times, such as the column of Piazza Colonna and the Pantheon, to Renaissance and Baroque squares, palaces and fountains.
Discover masterpieces of art and classical antiquities on a 3.5-hour tour of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel. Admire Michelangelo’s sacred frescoes inside a chapel of the most important Catholic church in the world and much more.
Walk in the footsteps of Roman emperors on this tour of Ancient Rome with skip-the-line tickets to the Colosseum & Roman Forum. Complete your tour with a walk along the Sacred Way as you immerse yourself in the vivid Roman history that surrounds you.
An amazing tailor-made private tour for kids and families through the heart of Ancient Rome. You will be captured by the magic of this special itinerary designed to catch the attention of your children.
Enjoy a private guided tour of the Vatican City State with skip-the-line tickets. Discover the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica.
A 3-hour tour for those who wish to visit the Vatican as part of group, away from the daily crowds. You will enter the museums before opening to the general public and visit highlights of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica.
Enjoy an exclusive open–air concert, with a terrace aperitif of Italian food and wine served on the best rooftop of Piazza Navona!
Explore southern Italy in style on this day tour for those between 18 and 39 years old. Travel to Naples and Pompeii on the high-speed train from Rome.
Join this invigorating tour of the Colosseum and Ancient Rome to get to the heart of Rome’s ancient empire. Learn about the trials and traumas of the gladiators who battled in the Colosseum and continue to the beautiful Roman Forum.
See masterpieces of art from the papal collections on a 2.5-hour small group guided tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. Skip the long lines to the popular monuments to get a complete Vatican City experience.
Explore the astonishing Roman Colosseum without having to wait in line. There’s so much to explore, and with this special ticket, you’ll have more time. Afterwards, see St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and many other sights, all at your own pace.
Enjoy the highlights of one of the world’s great museums and Rome's best art collection on this specially designed 2-hour Vatican Museums tour designed exclusively for families with children aged between 7 to 12-years-old.
A local, multi-course food tour through the Roman district of Trastevere that offers an excellent introduction to one of the best local food districts in Rome.
Start your unique tour in the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Have a short break and the descend into Nero’s buried “Golden House”. Visit the underground rooms and corridors of Rome’s Domus Aurea on a virtual reality tour using 3D glasses.
Tour in the ancient city of Ostia with skip-the-line tickets included.
Experience romance with love songs and music by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Bellini on the most exclusive terrace of Piazza Navona.
There's a new way to feel at home in Rome. Combine public transportation and walking tours with high-quality audio narration, rich visuals, and offline navigable mapping to transform your smartphone into a smart assistant.
Save precious time with a skip-the-line entrance ticket to the Vatican Museums before they open to the public, and discover the papal collections before the crowds. Look inside the Sistine Chapel, and get fast-track entry to St. Peter's Basilica.
See the most visited archeological monument in the world on this special 1 hour tour. Explore the Colosseum from the floor where the Gladiators fought while listening to the incredible history of Ancient Rome life.
Take part in a mystical cultural experience during a special visit to the Vatican Necropolis and St Peter's Basilica. Take advantage of reserved entrance to visit the Necropolis.
On this 2-hour private guided tour, discover the main treasures of Castel Sant'Angelo staying away from the crowded group tours. Admire the impressive architecture of the castle and admire the incredible masterpieces hosted inside.
Discover Rome at your own pace aboard of an innovative and eco-friendly electric car. Freely reach all of the most important monuments of the Eternal City and take pictures to save these moments forever.
Take an easy and relaxing ride through a Roman night on an electric bike! With your guide, pass by all the most important monuments of the city and see the sun go down!
Take an unusual and evocative tour that will get you in contact with nature and take you to discover the beauties of the Ancient Appian Way and its Roman aqueducts.
Get your baggage transported from the airport to your accommodation with a convenient same-day luggage delivery service. Explore Rome with more freedom without having to worry about carrying your heavy luggage around.
Enjoy some of the sights around central Rome made famous by classic movies on this short walking tour. Visit the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, as your guide explains both the ancient history and the Hollywood significance of each landmark.
Enjoy an audience with Pope Francis for a once-in-a-lifetime encounter at the Vatican City. Share a religious and multi-cultural experience with the Pope, while listening to the papal audience together with people from all over the world.
Experience the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon and more on this special Segway tour. Get a chance to admire the architectural and artistic wonders of this Renaissance city in a small group alongside an informative, local guide.
Get behind the wheel of a vintage Fiat 500 and follow a tour leader's car along a 3-hour panoramic route of Rome. Feel like a celebrity as tourists take pictures of your candy-colored vehicles, and Romans gaze wistfully at their own Fiat 500 memories.
This tour will bring you to the famous "Bones Church" of Rome, famous for the decorations made out of bones of deceased Capuchin monks. See the early Christian catacombs on the Appian Way. Admission to all sites & transportation between them are included.
Discover the Vatican Museums on this 4-hour evening tour of the key sites, led by an expert guide. This is a rare opportunity to visit these world-famous at night and see the magical sight of them illuminated in the twilight.
Skip the lines at the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel on this 3-hour Vatican walking tour. You’ll be picked up at your hotel in Rome and enjoy a drive that takes in the city’s most important sights on the way to the Vatican.
Why wait in line and then waste time wandering aimlessly through the world's greatest collection of classical and Renaissance art? Book a guided tour and your whole visit will be as unforgettable as the Sistine Chapel.
This semi-private small-group Vatican tour provides early access to the Vatican Museums, before the general public arrives. With an expert guide at your side you’ll take in highlights of the Museums, Raphael Room, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica.
Appreciate the real taste of Rome with this special walking food tour. Walk the city to discover local cuisine and popular culture. Live the city streets and appreciate Roman’s food like a local.
Visit the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica with a Dutch-speaking guide. With your guide in Rome, you will enjoy a 3-hour tour without standing in line.
Enjoy an English-speaking driver at your leisure in Rome for any activity: shopping, business meetings, sightseeing or a comfortable transportation within the city.
Get special access to a restricted area of the Colosseum and see a partially reconstructed section of the arena floor. Enter the impressive amphitheater via the Gladiator’s Gate, explore the Roman Forum, and more.
Maximize your time and explore Rome at your leisure with this hop-on-hop-off ticket valid for 24 or 48-hours. Enjoy skip-the-line access to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Listen to audioguide commentary in 9 languages onboard the bus.
If you want to experience the sights of Rome illuminated at night, and avoid the city’s crowded attractions by day, sit back and take in Rome's night-time magic from the comfort of an air-conditioned coach. Stop at the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.
Take the stress out of your arrival at Civitavecchia Port, and pre-book a private one-way transfer at the end of your cruise to Rome. Relax in comfortable executive class vehicles, and enjoy door-to-door service from your personal chauffeur.
When the sun sets, an older and more mysterious Rome comes to life. You are invited to discover this mysterious side on this romantic evening walking tour.
On this half-day tour, see the main features of the Eternal City. Enjoy a skip-the-line tour to the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Live an unforgettable tour in a comfortable short limousine for an amazing sightseeing experience.
Plunge into the wonders of ancient Rome on this skip-the-line Colosseum and Roman Forum tour, and let your guide narrate stories of gladiators and Roman Emperors, letting the ruins of the amphitheater come to life again.
A walking tour of the highlights of Civita di Bagnoregio, the "dying city", before heading onward to explore the "Monster Park" in Bomarzo.
Taste the simplicity of ingredients and the surprising flavours of Roman cuisine. Roman people reflect authenticity of their culture and when it comes to food they are very proud of their food and wine tradition. Taste the city from locals' point of view.
Get straight to business instead of spending hours digging on review sites looking for the authentic places. A passionate local guide will teach you all about Italy’s slow food movement as well as share traditions and anecdotes about every tasting.
Enjoy a catch-all 2-day tour package with a professional guide in Rome. See all of the most important landmarks and still have both afternoons free to explore, eat, drink, and people watch on your own. Visit the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums, and more.
Enjoy a special Tour of the Colosseum. Discover the third, fourth and fifth tiers of this ancient structure. Arrive at the rooftop terrace to witness spectacular views of the Colosseum and the surrounding areas.
Enjoy an audience with the Pope and get a once-in-a-lifetime experience with guaranteed reservation. The half-day tour also includes sightseeing of Rome’s major attractions before heading to St. Peter’s Square.
Indulge your taste buds and enjoy an evening of gourmet dining in Rome. Savor the foods and wines of Italy at a fine dining establishment, guided by an expert food and wine connoisseur. Try a typical Italian aperitif, local cheeses, and much more.
Despite its being just a ruin, the Colosseum manages to impress its every visitor… If you crave to find out more about the stage of gladiator battles in a personalized manner, book this private Colosseum tour today.
Discover the highlights of Florence on a self-guided day trip from Rome. Save precious time with a high-speed train transfer with on-board assistance.
Enjoy an enchanting tour through the heart of the Eternal City, discovering Rome's most intriguing sights and highlights, with a stop for traditional gelato!
This tour invites you to a tasting in a traditional Italian wine bar. Taste different wines with cheese in the 18th-century Palazzetto Giangiacomo. Enjoy the Italian way of life in the heart of Rome.
Discover the magic and mystery of the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel at night on a 3-hour tour in Rome. Skip the lines and enjoy the galleries when the large crowds have departed. See masterpieces by Raphael, Michelangelo, and more.
Take the stress out of your arrival at Civitavecchia Port and pre-book a private 1-way transfer at the end of your cruise to Rome. Relax in comfortable executive class vehicles, and enjoy a door-to-door service from your personal chauffeur.
Travel back in time and skip the long lines to the most important monuments of imperial Rome, and learn about the great dynasties from Augustus to Commodus at the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Enjoy exclusive entrance to Navona Square Underground and see the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum and Roman Forum.
Relax on a bus journey to Castel Gandolfo, just 25km from Rome, and visit the exclusive Papal Palace and Barberini Gardens with an audio-guided tour.
Experience all levels of the world’s most famous amphitheater on this Colosseum tour. Go underground to learn about the lives of the gladiators, and ascend to the 5th floor for views over Rome. Later, see the Roman Forum for a different perspective.
Get away from the hustle and bustle of the city on a Segway tour through Rome’s stunning Villa Borghese. Enjoy the park’s natural beauty and architectural delights on this convenient three hour tour.
See the highlights of Rome under the magic of their evening illuminations on a 2.5-hour Segway tour. Marvel at the ruins of the former empire from Capitoline Hill, experience the evening buzz of Piazza Navona, throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, and more.
Discover an oasis of art on an 11-hour private tour of Assisi from Rome, and explore the birthplace of one of Italy's best-loved saints. Marvel at the historic buildings of the city center, such as Piazza del Comune and the Basilica of San Francesco.
Enjoy a 3-hour guided walking tour to take in the highlights of the historical center of Rome. An expert guide will be your storyteller as you visit the spectacular fountains, monuments, and piazzas of the Eternal City.
See the highlights of Rome and other great places off-the-beaten-track, including the breathtaking Colosseum and other must-sees, with a local private guide.
Take a comprehensive guided walking tour of the most famous and breathtaking sites of ancient Rome -- the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
Experience Rome like a resident on a flexible walking tour with a local host. Choose what you want to see or do and avail of the expert insights of your new friend to create a bespoke itinerary exclusive to you.
A special tour that lets you explore hidden parts of the Colosseum on a shared tour of up to 25 people. Go back in time with this 1-hour skip-the-line special tour of the Colosseum. Bypass the queue at the Colosseum to avoid long waits.
Explore one of Rome’s most historic districts on this 3-hour tour of Trastevere, which includes a typical Italian aperitif.
Good morning sunshine! Join this Early-Bird Rome City Tour to enjoy your Roman holiday in style. Beat the crowds and see the highlights of Rome’s historic center – like the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps – before the city wakes up!
Discover the history and legends behind the most famous pieces of art in western civilization, on a small group tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica. Gain special access to a secret room called the Cabinet of the Masks.
Travel to Fiumicino Airport (FCO) in comfort from your accommodation in Rome with a private, 1-way transfer. Pre-book this service and relax knowing that a professional driver will ensure your timely arrival. Transfers for 1-16 people are available.
Relive the days of Ancient Rome on a small group 3-hour tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum. Skip the long lines to enjoy fast track entry, and explore the main monuments of imperial Rome, such as the Temple of Jupiter, Arch of Titus and more.
Discover the beauty of Rome by night on this unique guided Segway tour through the ancient city. Zip through Rome's illuminated ancient streets and visit some of its most famous sites, including the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.
Learn about Rome’s cuisine and its history while tasting some of the best food in the city on a tour of trendy Trastevere. Discover open markets, family run pizzerias, famous restaurants, and more at many of the city’s most well-known food stops.
Experience the magic of Rome at night and marvel at landmark monuments illuminated after dark on a guided Segway tour. Glide past icons such as the Colosseum and Piazza di Spagna at the foot of the Spanish Steps.
This day out gives you complete freedom to enjoy the best that Rome has to offer. Rent a scooter for a day, and enjoy skip-the-line guided tours of some of the city's most iconic sights.
This pre-cruise tour of Rome includes a meet and greet service upon arrival at the airport, luggage handling, city tour of Rome and the transfer to the Civitavecchia cruise dock. If you are already in Rome pick-up will be from your hotel.
Explore the ancient Appian Way by bike. Visit the San Callisto Catacombs and see the ruins such as the Tomb of Cecilia Metella, Villa of the Quintilii through Caffarella Park and then skip-the-line with small group official Colosseum guided tour.
See how ancient Roman traditions have influenced the lives of the local people. See Rome through the antiquated eyes of emperors, slaves, gladiators and even the Gods which ruled Rome and its Empire.
Book this door-to-door transfer, a comfortable and hassle-free service that will allow you to enjoy your journey from the moment you arrive in Rome.
Discover the enchanting Villa Farnesina with an art historian. See a magnificent example of a Roman Renaissance villa, enriched by unique frescoes by Raphael.
Enjoy a unique guided tour through the Jewish quarter of Rome with a local guide who was born and bred in the heart of the Jewish-Roman community. Visit the Jewish Museum and The Great Synagogue.
Get the day started early at the Vatican Museums, with an exclusive 4-hour banquet breakfast and tour of the Vatican City. Enter before opening time and enjoy no-wait access to explore the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica at leisure.
See the sights of Rome on a full-day private shore excursion from Civtavecchia. With a personal driver at your disposal for the day, relax as you marvel at sites such as the Colosseum, Imperial Forum, Circus Maximus, Capitoline Hill, and more.
Follow the final hours of Christ’s life through the relics preserved in several Roman churches. Discover the religious heart of Rome, on a 3-hour private tour that takes you to see relics from the Passion of Jesus brought to Rome from the Holy Land.
Discover one of the world’s finest art collections on a 3-hour semi-private tour of the Vatican City in Rome. Skip the long lines to the Vatican Museums. Then, marvel at Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. End in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Enjoy a small group Segway tour designed for those looking to take in some of Rome’s top attractions in a convenient and effortless way. Begin at the impressive Castel Sant’Angelo and ride through the oldest quarter of Rome en route to the Villa Borghese.
Tour the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine Hill and see one of the world's greatest historical sites . Then leave the crowds behind in the Roman Forum and explore the Case Romane, a third century Roman villa composed of 20 rooms lined with opulent frescoes.
See the best places to visit in Rome with this 6.5-hour special package. This walking tour includes the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Roman Forum and Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.
Experience the top level seating areas of the 4th and 5th tiers of the Colosseum for the first time in 40 years. Climb to the final tier and receive breathtaking views of the Eternal City and learn about the social hierarchies of the ancient world.
Join this amazing three hour journey through famous Roman squares and streets with an informative, friendly, and engaging guide.
Join a small-group or private tour, no larger than 12, and enjoy exclusive access to The Vatican Museums an hour before they open to the public. Experience the perfectly peaceful Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica, without any of the midday crowds.
Explore some of the highlights of the historical center of Rome, while visiting five locally loved spots to taste some of the finest food and wine Italy has to offer. Try handmade pasta, gourmet cheeses, 25-year aged balsamic vinegar, tiramisu, and more.
Become an Italian for the day as you learn how to cook a classic Italian meal. The tour takes you to a rustic farm one hour from Rome, where you will learn to prepare all 3 courses of a typical Italian meal.
Explore the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, and get a unique understanding of the history and world-class art collection of the Vatican. Enjoy priority access to St. Peter's Basilica as well.
Explore Rome like a true Roman from the seat of a 125cc Vespa scooter. Enjoy 24-hour rental to access more of the city, and scoot around the historic monuments and neighborhoods, such as the Colosseum, Vatican City and Trastevere.
Enjoy a relaxing private to or from the airport in Rome. Enjoy a stress-free arrival or departure with exclusive service, a ride in a comfortable limousine and a professional chauffeur.
Explore the most famous sites of Ancient Rome away from the crowds on this guided tour with skip-the-line access. With a group of no more than 20, discover the incredible amphitheater, learn about the ruins of the Roman Forum, and visit Palatine Hill.
In this fantastic tour, enjoy the highlights of the museum and the remarkable Sistine Chapel in its entirety. You can experience the highlights of the Vatican City through the convenience of a private group tour.
Decode the riddles of Rome in the heart of the Eternal City on a half-day tour of the locations from the “Angels and Demons” novel and movie. Discover a secret passage unused for many centuries, who the Illuminati were, and much more.
Leave your luggage and enjoy Rome until your departure or until your room is ready. You will also have the opportunity to rent a bike and explore the city.
Discover Rome's greatest highlights in the most unique setting, at night time with a professional guide. This evening tour will allow you to explore the Eternal City's secrets and learn about its history, while visiting its incredible attractions.
Discover the most awe-inspiring and remarkable buildings in the world on a combo tour through Vatican City and the Colosseum. Enjoy Skip-the-Line entry at the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica, and the Colosseum.
Enjoy the Vatican Museums in a small group of 10 people. An expert guide will show you the apartment of Pope Julius II, Sistine Chapel, Last Judgement, Creation of the World, and Bernini’s Baldachin in the Basilica. | 2019-04-24T22:43:19Z | https://www.taxidio.com/searched-attraction/rome-attraction-tickets |
In most of the examples the rule of writing comments has been omitted due to consistency and clarity of this document.
All of us highly value our time, so we want the results of your work (especially when confronted with other people) to comply with the accepted quality standards. This is meant to assure that you don't build a castle that is accessible only by yourself. Guides defined in this chapter address not only the quality of the visual side of the source code, but also allow us to avoid common errors that are created by poorly structured source code. It is our intention to create a friendly and healthy work environment, so it is neccessary to communicate with each other in an elegant way.
Always include braces in the source code. Even if the body of some construct is only one line long, do not drop the braces. Opening braces never go on their own line and are separated by a single space from previous block. Closing braces always have their own line, except for if..else and try..catch statements where else and catch are preceeded by closing and succeeded by opening brackets.
Direct usage of parentheses is allowed only after methods. Keywords (like if, while...) should be separated with a space from the opening bracket.
Note that when instantiating a class, we are actually calling its constructor method, so this is the only exception from rules defining parentheses usage.
You are not allowed to use parentheses with the "return" statement.
All operators need to be separated from corresponding values with spaces. Also, the equation defined by usage of every single operator has to be enclosed within parentheses.
Above rules do not apply to operator NOT (!). This operator should be preceded with a space and should be applied directly before the value to be negated. Operator NOT does not have to be preceeded with space if there is an opening parenthesis just before it.
You should only use C-style operators (&&, ||).
In case of the need to break the line, the line break should be done on the operator and the operator should start the next line. Next line that continues expression from the previous one, always has to be be indented one more level (with regards to general indenting rules).
You should always use single quotes unless you specifically need variable interpolation to be done on that string. Remember that all literals should be used in conjuction with constants. Double quoted strings will be evaluated/parsed by PHP creating an unnecessary performance decrease.
Operators - it is allowed to use a shortcut operator (++, --) only in separate line and for loops.
Conditionals - it is allowed to use short form of conditionals only in assignments that are one-liners.
PHP tags - it is allowed to use only this form of <?php tag. All other forms are strictly forbidden.
strings concatenation - it is allowed to use "." operator for string concatenation. Always add a space before and after the operator. It is allowed to break the lines while concatening strings, but in this case each new line has to start with "." operator (as with all operators).
Use an indent of 1 tab character. Do not align your code other then adding additional indentation level. It is advised to have editors configured to expand a tab character to the width of 4 spaces. All additional tools displaying source code will have this configured. The target line length is 80 characters; i.e., developers should aim to keep code as close to the 80-column boundary as is practical. However, longer lines are acceptable. The maximum length of any line of PHP code is 120 characters.
In a special case when there is a need to break the line within a logical equation, it should be indented by one more level. In this case each new line should be started by a logical operator that should be applied to the equation.
When passing arguments to a method, they must be separated by comma-space (', ').
This subchapter defines a standard to write code blocks. It contains mostly self-explenatory examples of specific blocks of code with comments where neccessary.
Do not enter too many routines in each case statement. switch..case is a control block, not a group block. Usually we should limit it to 4-5 commands, but it cannot exceed 15 lines per switch. Since this block will be contained inside the methods, see also a point about defining proper method for additional size limits.
The default case has always to be defined and the break statement has to have the same indentation level as the source code.
Falling through case statements is strongly discouraged except where several options share the exact same code. If you have few similarities in your case statements, most of the times an additional method encapsulating these routines should be defined.
All comparisons should be positive whenever possible.
Do not implement checks like "if ($myVariable)" if $myVariable might not be a boolean value. Also, the variable has to be named with accordance to bool semantics ($is...) to make this even more clear.
It is strongly suggested to use a "else if" form instead of "elseif".
Define iterators for collection classes that are being used in your code.
Do not write code that is not encapsulated within a class.
As a rule each class should be created within a separate file. It is acceptable to create proper Exception classes inside the class "owning" them. See exception handling for more details on exceptions.
Do not write routines that are not encapsulated in methods.
A public method should preserve the class invariants of the object it is associated with, and should always assume that they are valid when it commences execution (private methods do not necessarily need to follow this recommendation). To this effect, preconditions are used to constrain the method's parameters, and postconditions to constrain method's output, if it has one. If any one of either the preconditions or postconditions is not met, a method may raise an exception. If the object's state does not satisfy its class invariants on entry to or exit from any method, the program is considered to have a bug.
A size (in lines) of the method content should not exceed 25 lines of code.
See Proper method code for more information on methods.
If your code can fix the exception, then always encapsulate unsafe code in a try..catch clause and handle all exceptions that can be thrown by enclosed routines. Do not catch base exception class, but provide specific behavior for each type of exception. Exceptions are meant to communicate the developer information about the problem, not to hide information about an error from end-user. This is why we need to be specific when throwing and catching exceptions. Also, if a try..catch clause encloses too much of the code it usually means your code design is probably broken.
Remember that, the catch clause always has to be sorted from most detailed (in terms of inheritance) exception to most general one.
It is our intention to create a preconfigured development environment that will help developers in documenting their source code.
Consider your comments a story describing the system. Expect your comments to be extracted by a robot and formed into a manual page. Class comments are one part of the story, method signature comments are another part of the story, method arguments another part, and method implementation yet another part. All these parts should weave together and inform someone else at another point in time just exactly what you did and why. Do not swear in comments or use words that are considered vulgar.
Comments shoud document decisions you made while writing the code. See missing code for a good example of that kind of decisions.
All documentation blocks ("docblocks") must be compatible with the phpDocumentor format. For more information, visit phpDocumentor webpage.
The sharp, '#', character should not be used to start comments.
Each comment has to be indented to the left.
Always write comments before the statement.
Code commented out should be deleted before merging back into the main branch.
If a method or a class is deprecated from a specific point in time onwards, a leading comment has to be expanded by @deprecated command containing information about the date from when this code is deprecated, the deprecating reason and should point to the new valid code.
* LICENSE: This file can only be stored on servers belonging to Tuenti Technologies S.L.
* @copyright 2008, (c) Tuenti Technologies S.L.
If there are multiple people working on the file, list each author in a separate doc-param providing general scope of responsibilities in addition to your name.
If there are multiple people working on the class, list each author in a separate doc-param providing general scope of responsibilities in addition to your name.
If there are multiple people working on the method, list each author in a separate doc-param providing general scope of responsibilities in addition to your name.
It is possible, that the return values of your methods will not be simple types nor objects. In case of arrays you should apply more detailed rules for describing your possible return values. Below you'll find examples demonstrating how the TypeOfParameter? and Description should be expanded to provide full information for array based results.
@epoint-public-action - Defines if the method is an entry point. If it's not, the tag is optional.
@epoint-privacy-control - Description defines a way in which the privacy check is being done on the entry point.
@epoint-summary - Describes the risks, how it should be tested and any additional information associated with the entry point.
* tests should pass wrong keys or privacy-closed photo keys.
When commenting imported modules, you should provide a comment block describing the usage scope of that module (see below). In other cases - general imports etc, the comment block is not necessary.
The names of packages and subpackages can be only one word containing only letters, digits and "_", "-", "[" or "]" characters.
If below structure is not sufficient, feel free to create new subpackages to address your documentation needs but keep the same naming style and update A-Team on the new packages.
... name of the domain/control module.
This chapter introduces practices that have to be respected within the source code. They aim in increasing safety of the code and its performance.
We hope to expand this list with time, so do not hesitate to submit new ideas to the content owner (defined on top of this document).
Do not do any real work in an object's constructor. Inside a constructor initialize variables only and only perform actions that can't fail and do not require too much time to compute. It is not our intention to always define open method. This situation should be only happening if the object needs to be prepared by performing some specific routines at runtime. Nevertheless, those routines cannot be put into the constructor.
Create an open() method for an object which completes construction. open() should be called after object instantiation.
Methods are not designed to remember data. Each of them should work strictly on the arguments passed through parameters. It is acceptable for methods to access state of the object in which they are defined.
Method, being associated with a particular object, may access or modify the data private to that object in a way consistent with the intended behavior of the object. Consequently, rather than thinking "a method is just a sequence of commands", a programmer using an object-oriented language will consider a method to be "an object's way of providing a service" (its "method of doing the job", hence the name); a method call is thus considered to be a request to an object to perform some task.
Always define methods with lowest visibility possible, to ensure the clarity of object's interface. Remember, that after you define a method public, it is probably going to stay that way for a long time.
Try to avoid usage of PHP magic methods (get, set, call) due to performance reasons. It is acceptable to use them only in situations that bring a huge value to the clarity of the code, and where they are not called too frequently.
See method description for more information on methods.
Continue and break should be used very cautiously.
Mixing continue with break in the same loop is a sure way to disaster. In general you are strongly discouraged from using these commands.
When writing an empty code block, always insert a comment describing why this block is (and should continue to be) empty. This rule also applies to code that was intentionally omitted. If you see a possibility of the code to execute and decide to ignore it (because of some environment boundaries) write a comment about it so the reader of the code will have the same knowledge as you have.
Communication between classes on the level of sending messages and polymorphic calls, should be properly secured. Each message sent from different class inheritance level or a different object should be checked for validity upon arrival. Also, calls to subclass routines have to be enclosed in exception handling routines to prevent unexpected termination of execution.
Don't use floating-point variables where discrete values are needed. Using a float for a loop counter is a great way to shoot yourself in the foot. Always test floating-point numbers as =, never use an exact comparison (== or !=).
If higher precision is necessary, the arbitrary precision math and gmp functions are available.
Also, it is important to remember about locale settings (0.1 vs 0,1) when converting floating values to strings.
// It can be assumed that the numbers are equal.
Remember that NULL is not a value. It should be treated and identified with unknown state rather then empty. This is especially important with SQL queries (check SQL Coding Standard for details).
The use of type hinting is encouraged where possible with respect to the module design.
If a module uses another module, then the using module is responsible for loading the other one. If the use is conditional, then the loading should also be conditional.
If the file(s) for the other component should always load successfully, regardless of input, then use PHP's require_once statement.
The include, include_once, require, and require_once statements should not use parentheses.
Defined paths for including/requiring modules should always start with LIB_PATH constant to avoid lookups during the execution. If you are including/requiring files that are placed in a different root directory, use different constant to define a full path pointing to the file.
In general you should use only use require_once. Other forms are permitted (with a strong preferrence of require), but only in special cases like in templating, configuration loading etc.
Each line of the code can contain only one statement. The exception from this rule are logical statements, that contain execution and logic substatements. Still, in this case it is required to preserve as much clarity as possible. Also, the usage of time-consuming execution substatements is highly discouraged in logical statements.
The only acceptable way to break your code execution in the middle of the routine is by throwing an exception. Do not put return in the middle of the method / code.
If the method you have just written can accept a parameter to be a single value or an array of these values, you need to assure that the method will perform properly in both cases. To assure that check if the variable that represents the input parameter is an array. If not, wrap in into one and proceed like in the case of an array. This approach is meant to assure that there is only one processing code in your method.
Do not use the closing PHP tag. Ever.
Do not use improper language in your source code. Ever. It is advised to put in funny comments though.
This chapter describes general rules that didn't fit in previous chapters.
All files containing code or being inserted into PHP files / parsed by the PHP have to have a ".php" extension.
Introducing global variables is forbidden.
Always try to optimize your loops if operations are going on at the comparing part, since this part is executed every time the loop is parsed through. For assignments a descriptive name should be chosen.
Also, avoid using in_array() on huge arrays, and do not place them into loops if the array to check consist of more than 20 entries. in_array() can be very time consuming and uses a lot of cpu processing time. For little checks it is not noticable, but if checked against a huge array within a loop those checks alone can be a bunch of seconds. If you need this functionality, try using isset() on the arrays keys instead, actually shifting the values into keys and vice versa. A call to isset($array[$var]) is a lot faster than in_array($var, array_keys($array)) for example.
First make it work, then make it fast. Beware of premature optimization.
Optimize only the slow stuff.
This is a list of functions that are commonly mistaken to do something else. The list also includes the recommendation for function usage.
empty() - commonly mistaken due to different results with different content. Most of the time it will not be neccesary to use this function. Usage of this function is discouraged.
isset() - commonly misused to verify if the variable has a value. In case of standard variables check against a NULL should be performed. In case of array values, array_key_exists check should be performed. Do not use this function.
unset() - commonly misused to reset a variable. In case of standard variables assign a NULL value rather then unset it. Only use this function to remove an array value.
goto - that was introduced in PHP 5.3. Do not use it.
Proper naming convention is crucial to achieve readability of the code. If you don't create a proper name for the class/method/property, you can be sure that the next person trying to read your code will start asking stupid questions. Worst case scenario includes yourself analyzing your own source code and trying to figure out what you had in mind while writing this.
Remember, creation of naming convention is not only meant to increase code readability. It will ensure that the implementation is semantically correct and while the semantics match, our brains will be able to easily and intuitively understand the structures incorporated in the source code along with relations between different parts of the system. Also, when you switch the sides of this equation, you'll be able to base on your speech analysis to define and check the correctness of the source code.
You have to create names basing on the context in which the code is being implemented. This means that, you need to visualize a way the class, method or property names will be used and name them accordingly. Calls made using your names have to make sense in a semantical way. Also, since PHP is not handling namespaces, you need to carefully pick names that will fit both the design and that will be as much specific as possible (to prevent repetitions).
* Never repeat the class name in the names of it's methods. * Always write in English. If you don't know the proper English word, consult the dictionary or a native English speaker, both you and the code will benefit from it. * Name things precisely. If you can't think of a precise name, you probably need to rethink code design. * Avoid using more then 3 words to describe the subject. Again, if you can't do that, you probably need to rethink code design. * Class and property names have to be nouns and methods have to be verbs. * In method names don't be afraid to use prefixes (is, get, set) and suffixes (Max, Count, Value). * When describing a collection of entities, always use plural, in all other cases use singular version.
A common misunderstanding arises, when developers derive the name of the subclass directly from its parent. It's not a big issue, but decreases readibility of the source code and therefore is undesired. Imagine, that in the below example instead of naming the class "Message" we'd use "MessageDataObject?". It doesn't mean that you can't reuse part of the parent class' name in the child. Just think if it makes sense and another developer will know why did you have added a specific suffix/prefix to the class name. Remember, that class names should be self-sufficient and precise in describing the purpose of the class.
And above all remember: all names have to be descriptive and accurate in describing the purpose of the source code.
Always use camel caps to separate words in the name. Class names may only contain alphanumeric characters. Numbers are permitted in class names but are strongly discouraged. If you have a neat chance of using a "pro-abbreviation", skip it. Write all words capitalizing only the first letter.
* Class names: first letter should be uppercase. * Method names: first letter should be lowercase. * Field names: first letter should be lowercase. * Method arguments: first letter should be lowercase. * Properties (virtual): first letter is assumed to be uppercase.
All constants should be written using all caps. Words should be separated with underscore "_".
* ..._PERCENT - meaning the scope is defined in range 0..100 with 0 meaning none and 100 all. * ..._PERMIL - meaning the scope is defined in range 0..1000 with 0 meaning none and 1000 all.
If you find a situation when you lack a standard suffix for this use, contact with the content owner to expand the list accordingly.
Don't use them. Use named constants for any literal value other than obvious and special cases. Basically, you can check if an array has 0 elements by using the literal 0. But you should not assign a special meaning to a number and then use it everywhere as a literal. Also, accessing array value, you should use either a constant or a variable. The constants TRUE and FALSE should be used rather then literals 1 and 0. Typecast variables where it is needed, do not rely on the correct variable type (PHP is currently very loose on typecasting which can lead to security problems if a developer does not have a very close eye to it).
In the most unlikely event, when you will be forced to define a "for" loop you should use variables i, j, k for consecutive loop levels. This kind of variables should also be applied when using loop indexing in while and do..while loops.
If you happen to get over 3 levels of loops, you should seriously reconsider your code design.
* assert... - defines an assertion method that will check the correctness of the concept that is being asserted. For example to assert that the variable $field actually contains a field. A call to the assertField($field) will break the execution if the value passed in the parameter is not a field. Assertions always throw exceptions on failure. * assure... - defines a method that will validate and fix if neccesary the variable given by the parameter. It has to return a fixed value, or throw an exception if it is not possible to fix it. For example a call to assureFieldIsLoaded($field) should check if the field has all the data that can be loaded, if that is not the case load it and return a fixed $field variable. * is... - performs the check on parameters and returns a TRUE / FALSE result. Does not throw any exceptions or break execution. Using above example, method isField($field) will return TRUE if the variable $field contains a valid field object and FALSE otherwise. * get... - just make sure that the name actually corresponds to what is returned. For example if one needs an id of the user it can be either getUser()->getId() or getUserId(). * set... - just make sure that the name actually corresponds to what is being changed. * can... - returns a boolean result with answer to a question asked in the method name. For example: canAddField($field) will return TRUE if the field can be added to the object. * as... - this prefix should be followed by the type/class name that will define a format in which the data of the object will be returned. For example: asArray(), asString. * from... - this prefix should be followed by the type/class name that will define an input format. Method will replace internal fields of the object basing on data provided to the method. Examples: fromArray, fromString. * has... - method has to return a boolean result that will provide information if the object(usually representing a set) contains/has an item basing on a given search item type (shown in the 2nd part of the method name) is found for a given value (provided via a parameter).
You should also join prefixes into forms like getBy..., getFrom... etc.
Folder names should ideally contain only one word, but in case it's impossible use "-" to separate the words in the name.
Both, the effectiveness and readability of the source code requires developers to use proper variables handling in their source code. Each of the variables has a lifespan defined within the scope of a method that defines it. As long as the class fields are tied into the existence of an object, the regular variables are tied into the methods they're defined in. Defining a reasonably sized method (in terms of lines of code) also has a positive impact on the amount of memory used in each execution of the method.
The variable usage can and will overlap, but we can optimize this by moving parts of the code into separate private methods that will narrow the scope of availability of the value to the part where it is actually needed.
Don't be lazy writing the source code. Always make it complete in terms of error handling to the extent of your current knowledge. Actively fight the temptation of leaving something "as-is" and if you see a way of improving, do it. The benefit of this approach not only affects the source code, but also yourself. With time, the good practice will be an obvious thing to do from the beginning and your coding experience will be much more satisfactory.
Do not use arrays to pass many parameters into a method. Instead of that, personalized collections should be implemented to handle groups of objects. If you need to define much more complex way of handling things within a method that requires to pass many input parameters to it, that means that you should define a specialized class to handle that kind of routines. | 2019-04-22T12:56:58Z | https://corporate.tuenti.com/en/dev/blog/tags/Coding%20Standards |
UNICEF will host the second gathering of the GPcwd. The GPcwd is a network of more than 240 organizations, including Governments, UN agencies, international NGOs, national/local NGOs, Disabled People?s Organizations (DPOs), academia and the private sector, working to advance the rights of children with disabilities at the global, regional and country levels. With a rights-based approach, the Partnership provides a platform for advocacy and collective action to ensure the rights of children with disabilities are included and prioritized by both the Disability and Child Rights Movement.(www.unicef.org/disabilities/index_65319.html;[email protected]).
A former professor of philosophy at the California State University, Long Beach, and current head of the Lovevolution Foundation and a Maui, Hawaii, resident was forced to crawl in his nicest suit hand over hand through the main cabin floor of the Delta aircraft, down a narrow flight of stairs and across the tarmac to his wheelchair. There were a great number of people watching, but not helping. Flight attendants gave no assistance.
Delta Airlines was served with a legal complaint number CV13-00365KSC filed on July 23, 2013 in the US District court in Hawaii by D. Baraka Kanaan. Mr. Kanaan, who suffers from paraparesis, a partial paralysis of his legs, which renders him unable to walk, was subject to this appallingly outrageous treatment by Delta Airlines agents.
It was alleged Mr. Kanaan suffered intense physical and extreme emotional suffering as a result of the defendant's action and omissions.
Mr. Kanaan was involved in an accident in 2000 and his condition has deteriorated.
Mr. Kanaan had called Delta Airlines several weeks in advance of his flight and spoke to a customer service representative to confirm that he is disabled, that he would be traveling with his own wheelchair, and that he required the use of an aisle seat and lift to access the aircraft, because he cannot walk.
The Delta representative assured him that all was noted in the company's computer and his PNR, and that he would be received and given reasonable accommodation for his disability.
The Delta flight that he was scheduled on (DL4245) was cancelled on July 26, 2012 for weather-related conditions. Mr. Kanaan was then rescheduled on a flight on a connecting flight on July 27 from Maui to Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA, on DL 4110.
Upon his arrival at Nantucket Airport, Mr. Kanaan was informed by one of the flight attendants that the airline did not have the required safety equipment to bring him from his seat to the airplane door, nor did they have a lift to go down the stairs from the aircraft to the tarmac to retrieve his wheelchair.
The Airline Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and applicable federal regulations require airlines to have such equipment available in order to accommodate disabled passengers such as Mr. Kaanan.
When Mr. Kanaan asked what his options were, the flight attended said, they could not get him off the plane.
Despite a clearly visible lift at an adjacent gate, Mr. Kanaan was forced to crawl down the aisle of the airplane, down the stairs of the aircraft and across the tarmac to his wheelchair without any assistance from the crew or the use of any mandated safety equipment.
During this entire incident, no efforts were made by Delta Airlines to secure the lift of an aisle chair from Jet Blue or any other airline operating in the airport. Purportedly fearful of liability, the flight crew refused to assist Mr. Kanaan, instead serving as spectators themselves.
Once Mr. Kanaan was in his wheelchair and made it to the airport terminal without assistance, he filed a complaint and spoke with Dough Dole of Delta's Salt Lake City disability desk. He was given a reference number and was offered a US$100 voucher.
During this call Mr. Kanaan specifically and adamantly informed Mr. Dole that he would be flying out from Nantucket to return to Maui in 2 days and that he would need the proper equipment for his return trip. Mr. Dole assured Mr. Kanaan that the proper equipment was available at Nantucket airport and would be made available to Mr. Kanaan for his return trip.
Two days later Mr. Kanaan's return flight, DL4245, was again delayed. When boarding finally began, Mr. Kanaan was again informed that the necessary equipment, an aisle chair and a lift, were unavailable, but that they could provide a piece of cardboard to put down so that his clothes wouldn't get dirty.
Again, Mr. Kanaan was forced to crawl across the tarmac, up the stairs of the Delta aircraft, down the aisle, and hoist himself into his seat on the aircraft, which was physically painful. Again many passengers watched this transpire, causing grave embarrassment and a feeling of dehumanization.
It appears such complaints are nothing new to Delta. Just a year before, Delta received no less than 5,000 complaints against it and was ordered to pay record-breaking fines for this egregious mistreatment of disabled passengers.
- Delta left a blind woman alone in a wheelchair on a moving walkway.
- Delta failed to bring an 81-year-old man to a hotel after canceling his flight. The man had to sleep in a wheelchair.
- An elderly couple in wheelchairs missed an international flight because Delta failed to board them.
- A woman who needs a ventilator to breathe was removed from a Delta flight, which was a return flight, because the Delta flight crew inexplicably determined that her ventilator and medical equipment could not be brought to the plane.
This time Delta offered Mr. Kanaan 25,000 Skymiles as a compensation. Mr. Kanaan found this offer insulting and refused to accept it.
Mr. Kanaan was then connected with Delta's corporate headquarters. There, Mr. Kanaan was told he was speaking to the highest person available, a women named Rachel, who provided Mr. Kanaan with a corporate case number. To literally add insult to injury, Rachel offered an even smaller amount of Skymiles. When Mr. Kanaan declined, Rachel terminated the phone call, hanging up on him, saying there was nothing more Delta could or would do.
ETN today called the same number (404-773-0305) and finally was connected to a recording saying due to many complaints, Delta was unable to answer the call and to try again later.
This week, people with disabilities across the country are celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This was the first comprehensive federal civil rights statute protecting the rights of people with disabilities. The ADA established that people with disabilities have equal opportunity in employment, state and local government, places of public accommodation, and telecommunications.
Despite the ADA's promise of equal opportunity for people with disabilities, it is clear that more work must be done so that people with disabilities are to be valued as equal citizens and welcomed in all aspects of American life. Today, far too many people with disabilities are forced to live in institutions, forced to receive unwanted treatment, denied programs and services, or to be paid less than minimum wage. On a regular basis, our civil, constitutional, and parental rights are disregarded or stripped away.
Our lives and expertise are not valued equally - with dire consequences. Healthcare professionals refuse to communicate with us, overrule the decisions we make or those made by our authorized surrogates; law enforcement and the courts too often fail to treat those who kill people with disabilities the same as those who kill nondisabled people, particularly when an individual has been killed by a family member.
Our very freedom of movement can be deprived and our rights stripped from us on the basis of arbitrary and capricious decisions about our capacity. Furthermore, the voices of people with disabilities are frequently ignored in favor of parent and provider organizations that speak about us, without us. Policymakers have ignored our expertise about our own lives, issues and desires, instead of allowing providers, academics and family members to speak for us even though we may have very different priorities and interests. For those in the disability community from diverse communities, the discrimination that they face as people with disabilities is compounded by issues of race, gender, religious affiliation and sexual orientation.
We must assure that America's 57 million people with disabilities are able to participate fully in society by updating accessibility standards, including those related to nonvisual access by people who are blind and non-auditory access by people who are deaf or hard of hearing, to address newly developing technologies and assuring that people with disabilities have access to the modern assistive devices necessary to fully participate in American life, from hearing aids to screen readers to complex rehab technology.
We must assure that people with disabilities have real economic opportunities by eliminating the discriminatory employment laws and rules that allow people with disabilities to be paid less than minimum wage, by creating incentives for employers for hiring and promotion of people with disabilities, by expanding customized, supported work opportunities including self-employment, paid community service, job restructuring and other flex arrangements and by fostering new opportunities for youth with disabilities transitioning from school that promote competitive integrated employment.
We must strengthen the ADA's integration mandate so that people with disabilities have the services and supports they need to live in their own homes and apartments in the communities of their choosing. We must end the institutional bias in the Medicaid program by requiring that every state participating in Medicaid pay for home and community based services so that every individual who is eligible for Long Term Services and Supports under Medicaid is guaranteed their federally protected right to a real choice in how they receive services and supports. We must reform the services and support systems that are now based on arbitrary medical or governmental labels to remove conflicts with the principles laid out in the ADA and assure that people with disabilities have the opportunity for full integration by developing and funding service and support approaches that promote the cross-disability and "most integrated setting" concepts that underpin the ADA.
We must assure that people with disabilities - including those with chemical or electrical sensitivities - are able to access the full range of affordable, accessible and integrated housing options in the communities of their choosing. We must assure that all newly constructed, federally assisted single family homes and townhouses include basic accessibility so that these homes are not being built to exclude people with mobility disabilities.
We must end our broken and arbitrary system of guardianship and substituted decision making, in accordance with Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. For too long, the legal capacity of people with disabilities who require assistance with their finances and/or healthcare or who have expressed desires inconsistent with those possessed by their family members have been permanently stripped and denied to them. By putting in place a stronger infrastructure for supported decision-making, our community can facilitate the provision of support where people require it while not requiring a loss of legal capacity as a pre-condition for receiving such support. Additionally, we must work to restore the legal capacity and rights of the many people with disabilities who currently suffer under a system of guardianship with no acknowledgement of, or recognition for, the preferences of people with disabilities independent of their guardians.
We must assure that the lives of people with disabilities of all ages are equally valued, protected, cared for and preserved as the lives of nondisabled people. Healthcare providers must always communicate with persons with disabilities including through interpreters and other auxiliary aids and services to ensure equivalent healthcare services. Healthcare providers must never use perceived quality of life judgments, the cost of care, or other factors to overrule the decision to receive life-sustaining healthcare made by a person with a disability or their authorized surrogate. Healthcare providers must also zealously provide suicide prevention services for people with disabilities of all ages that are equivalent to the suicide prevention services they provide for nondisabled people. As such, we should never encourage or provide the means for any individual to commit suicide.
We must assure that violence in any form against people with disabilities is not tolerated, and the prosecution and sentencing for homicides of people with disabilities must be treated in the same manner as homicides of people without disabilities. With the recent addition of disability as a protected class under the federal hate crimes statute, federal investigators and prosecutors must work to bring cases against those who take the lives of people with disabilities because of their disability, particularly when the perpetrators are a member of the victim's own family. We must assure that adequate funding is provided to support programs that assist people with disabilities who are victims of crime, including training for first responders, the creation of accessible shelters, and victim rights programs. We must ensure that the justice system is accessible to people with disabilities, using the ADA as a tool to support restorative justice. We must develop strong working relationships between the disability community and the justice system to address violence against people with disabilities.
We must assure that the constitutional and civil rights of people with disabilities of all ages are safeguarded, particularly with respect to self-determination and direct communication. It is critical that these safeguards are in place regardless of the individual's actual or perceived capacity to make and communicate their own decisions. People with disabilities should not be subjected to forced treatment - including forced medication and hospitalization, and disability should never be used as a reason to diminish or remove our rights as parents.
We must protect children with disabilities from the use of aversives (painful stimulation used as negative reinforcement), as well as seclusion and restraints in schools by establishing strong, comprehensive national standards, an effective enforcement mechanism and the involvement of the disability community on effective alternatives for positive behavior change.
We must protect and vigorously enforce accessibility requirements in the Help America Vote Act so that every American can vote privately and independently and so that poll workers have the training they need.
We must create a bipartisan Congressional Task Force on human genetic technologies and disability rights to ensure that research and the results of research on these technologies include the voice of people with disabilities.
We must confront and condemn organizations that speak about people with disabilities without us. Too often, organizations run without the voices of the people they purport to serve lobby policymakers to deprive the rights of people with disabilities, silence the voices of organizations run by people with disabilities and place their own ideologies and financial self-interests before the real needs and preferences of our community. Policymakers must acknowledge the necessity of hearing the voices of organizations run by and for people with disabilities as the primary stakeholder in policy discussions about disability, and people with disabilities must have substantive involvement in making the policy decisions that impact our lives. Finally, we must expand and support with funding the disability-led peer support and advocacy organizations that truly empower people with disabilities instead of channeling funds into outdated medical model organizations.
Since 2008, leaders from the organizations that make up the National Disability Leadership Alliance have developed strong working relationships with each other. We understand the power our community has by working together more effectively on a common agenda. We are preparing detailed recommendations that propose administrative and legislative approaches to achieve the goals we describe above. We are also expanding our national community by organizing teleconference calls to use them to promote greater understanding of these issues, to explain how we are all impacted by them, and to explore strategies to work together to achieve the necessary changes.
As we celebrate the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the ADA, excitement is already building and planning has already begun for the quarter century anniversary. Today, we call on policymakers to work with us to achieve this vision so that - on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act - we will not just be celebrating disability rights victories from a quarter century earlier, but heralding a new day in our movement.
National Disability Leadership Alliance (NDLA) is a national cross-disability coalition that represents the authentic voice of people with disabilities. NDLA is led by 14 national organizations run by people with disabilities with identifiable grassroots constituencies around the country.
The Disability Matters Awards annually honors companies in the areas of: Marketplace, Workforce and Workplace that through innovative programs result in the successful outreach, recruitment, support and retention of candidates, employees and/or customers who have a disability. This year's winners will be honored at the inaugural 2013 ASIAPAC Region DISABILITY MATTERS Conference, on September 19, at Cisco's Globalization Centre in Bangalore, India.
The honorees represent the best of the best when it comes to the commitment required and actions necessary to successfully mainstream disability. These forward-thinking companies achieve their diversity vision through implementing cutting edge disability initiatives which improve performance, employee development, retention, and build market share.
"I am proud of in which ways companies are proactively seeking innovative approaches to include persons with disabilities weather they are customers, stake holders and/or employees. We are pleased and honored that Cisco is hosting this most important corporate event, along with this year's partner, Community Business and sponsors to include ABB, Accenture, as well as Intuit. Global sponsor is Ingersoll Rand", said Nadine Vogel, CEO of Springboard Consulting LLC.
The Inaugural ASIA-PAC Region DISABILITY MATTERS Conference will feature executive presenters from best practice corporations along with thought leaders, experts from academia and the non-profit sectors.
Companies interested in becoming a sponsor, or purchasing tickets, will find details by visiting: Trang web cá cược trực tuyếnhttp://www.consultspringboard.com/category/disability-matters/disability-matters-2013-ap/.
When booking your trip, always tell the airline, cruise company or train company that you are a wheelchair user (or have any other mobility needs).
Let them know if you require assistance and if you do, what kind. If you are blind or deaf, make sure they are aware of this then they know you may not see or hear important information.
If going overseas, insure your wheelchair or other mobility aid. Although companies like Air New Zealand do their best to be careful with your equipment, things do happen during travel.
If going on a cruise, their accessible cabins are first in, first served unless you are willing to pay more and get a mini suite or a more expensive one.
When booking restaurants, always prebook early and alert them if you are a wheelchair user, this allows them to seat you appropriately. I recommend you arrive at the shows early too as there are only a number of wheelchair accessible spaces and they usually on one floor. I recommend you attend at least one show, they are well done and will have you in stitches.
Be prepared that on cruise boats, the ships going to the shore for day visits are not wheelchair accessible unless you can walk a little and the chair can be folded up.
The Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation is dedicated to increasing the self-reliance and dignity of blind and visually impaired persons. The foundation has issued a Request for Proposals for initiatives that align with its mission to assist the visually impaired and blind in leading independent and productive lives.
Through the RFP, the foundation seeks to fund sustainable projects with broad, practical applications and measurable outcomes. Priority will be given to new initiatives, but projects currently in development and requiring additional funding in order to be implemented will be considered as well.
In the first year of funding, grants of up to $300,000 will be awarded to qualified projects. Based on proven results, additional grants of up to $200,000 each will be awarded for up to two additional years.
To be eligible, organizations should be tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, although other options will be considered. The foundation does not award grants to individuals, lobbying organizations, medical research institutions, endowments, or charities operating outside the United States, or organizations or entities whose primary function is fundraising.
Brief pre-proposals must be received no later than September 30, 2013. Upon review, selected organizations will be invited to submit full proposals -- including a more detailed grant request, project narrative, and proposed budget -- which will be due by the end of January.
For complete program information and application guidelines, see the Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation Web site.
Thursday, July 25, at 12:45PM on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool. More details are below.
Please reserve 12:45PM-1:15PM on your calendars and gather as many colleagues as you can to be present for the press conference.
Kéroul will participate in the 6th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN Headquarters, New York, July 17-19 2013.
c) To establish a world partnership and a common international strategy to develop universal accessibility for infrastructure and tourism services, transport services, and to increase the availability of information on different destinations' accessibility.
Keroul's presentations at the Conference of States Parties will demonstrate how theWorld Summit Destinations for All will support the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and how the Summit will contribute to determine what the targets will be after 2015.
Kéroul and its partners view tourism as a means of integration. Assessing whether a destination is accessible can mean verifying the accessibility of tourist services, accommodations, restaurants, transportation, urban infrastructures, attractions and shops. The first market segment to benefit from a destination's increased accessibility is the local population. Developing accessible destinations is also an investment that can be profitable in terms of hosting travellers with disabilities, an important and growing part of the world's population, currently estimated at 15%. Few businesses have the luxury of ignoring this significant market segment, which will only increase in the coming years with an aging population.
Tourism permits an international integration: those with disabilities want to know if they can find lodging and have accessible restaurants when they reach their destination. The accuracy of such information vis-à-vis internationally recognized standards becomes thus an essential consideration in their decision to travel or not.
The World Summit will prompt international organizations to join in an effort to make accessibility benchmarks and standards uniform across tourist establishments, attractions and transportation services.
Keroul and JPdL International are the official organizers of the Summit. The UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO), and the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), are some of the international organizations involved in the guidance of this Summit.
The Trang web cá cược trực tuyếnUnited Nations programme is encouraging the adoption of accessibility and universal designstandards by a wide variety of actors within society - from municipalities to private sector companies.
trusts need to know how to sustainably build hiking trails that provide access for everyone. This conference will help you understand the guidelines and will provide an overview of the techniques and handson skills needed to build sustainable hiking trails that provide enjoyment for all.
Whether you work with n existing trail or are contemplating a new trail, this conference is for you!
Are you a traveller with particular access requirements? Do you have a disability, or do you regularly travel with young children?
The European Commission is conducting an online survey in order to better understand the demand for accessible tourism, undertaken by GfK, theUniversity of Surrey, ProAsolutions andNeumannConsult.
The aim of this survey is to research the travel patterns and behaviour of people with specific access requirements. The topics covered in the questionnaire are designed to gain an understanding of your personal situation, your travel experiences and your thoughts about travelling in future, so that we can build up a picture of the demand for accessible tourism.
The survey results will be used for a report identifying options for improving the range of accessible tourism services, which will be widely disseminated among and evaluated by stakeholders in the sector, and your responses will ultimately help inform future policy.
To participate, register atwww.accessibletourismsurvey.com and enter your email address to receive a link to the questionnaire. The survey will be open until 22 August 2013.
We would also be very grateful if you could circulate this email to anyone who may be interested in participating.
Universal Access in Airports, hosted biennially by ODO since 2006, will return to the organization's home town of Chicago in October 2014.
This 2-day conference, which brings together various stakeholders in aviation, offers an open exchange of ideas and best practice solutions on customer service and accessibility for travelers with disabilities and seniors. Exact dates and conference hotel to be announced shortly.
DESA, as the global focal point on disability issues of the UN system, organized its inaugural global forum to promote a dialogue on the post-2015 development framework and disability. The Forum held at UN Headquarters from 19 to 20 July, immediately following the closing of the sixth session of the Conference of States Parties, worked to contribute to on-going discussions toward a post-2015 UN development framework through exchange of experiences and ideas for disability-inclusive development.
Discussions covered the post-2015 development frameworks and specifically focused on: disaster risk reduction and disability inclusion; and accessibility for sustainable and equitable development for all: transportation, infrastructure and access to basic public services.
The Forum consisted of two interactive panels and a dialogue presided by H.E. Ambassador Dejan Sahovic, Deputy Chef de Cabinet of the Office of the President of the General Assembly.
The Forum contributed to an energetic and robust exchange of experiences and ideas on inclusion of the disability perspective in development. The Forum worked to expand networks of Member States, experts and civil society and academic organizations, as well as informal networks of practitioners on specific development issues. DESA will be working to strengthen partnerships with and among participants to continue dialogue and action towards a disability-inclusive post-2015 international development agenda.
The Forum was sponsored by the Governments of Brazil, Kenya, Philippines and Thailand, and the World Bank, Disabled People's International (DPI), the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD), Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) and Rehabilitation International (RI).
Further details and presentations are available at:www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=1611.
We have made a customer survey to gather visitors' views about the accessibility of tourism services and find out where improvements may be needed.
The survey has just 14 questions and will probably take you less than 10 minutes to complete.
Data collected in this survey will be treated anonymously and we do not ask for any information which can identify individual persons. We will not identify individual businesses that may be mentioned in answers, unless we have their permission, in advance, to do so.
If you live and travel in one of the European Union Member States or have visited an EU country in the last two years (that is, since June 2011), we would like to hear about yourexperiences and impressions of accessible tourism services in Europe.
(You will need to copy it exactly like this, as once you put it in the browser the URL changes).
You may forward this email to any friends, family members or consumer / advocacy associations who may be interested, so they may also fill in the survey form.
The survey is open until 30 September 2013 but we would like to analyse the "first wave" of results already in August, so please answer early if you can.
The results of the survey will be published online and disseminated at a European seminar hosted by the European Commission, scheduled for early 2014.
(A parallel study will take an in-depth look at the economics and market demand for accessible tourism, with a more detailed questionnaire survey).
If you are a tourism supplier in Europe or serving Europe-inbound markets, please answer the Suppliers' Survey!
Accessible Tourism refers to tourism services that are suitable for people with disabilities or others who have specific access requirements when travelling or in destinations, accommodation, attractions, restaurants or other tourist facilities and activities.
A growing number of tourism suppliers in European countries, cities and regions are making adjustments to their offers and services to cater for this large and growing market.
We are now seeking the experience and advice of visitors to learn how accessible offers, facilities, transport and other tourism services are working in practice and how they could be even better.
Over the next half year ENAT and partners will map out the supply of accessible tourism services in all 28 Member States and carry out a "performance" check of what is on offer.
The study has been requested by the European Commission DG Enterprise and Industry, Tourism and Cultural Instruments Unit, in order to assess the need for possible policy support for this area.
You can find more information about the accessible tourism supply study here.
Australians with disability will be supported to attend conferences across the country, thanks to $350,000 from the Gillard Government under the National Disability Conference Initiative.
Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers Amanda Rishworth, today announced 34 conference organisers will receive grants of up to $12,000 to assist people with disability and their carers to attend a range of disability-focused conferences in 2013-2014.
"Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for people from all walks of life, including disability advocates and leading academics, to come together to learn and share experiences," Ms Rishworth said.
"Conferences support professional development and provide an opportunity for people with disability to further develop their leadership skills. Sadly, people with disability can still face barriers in accessing them. It is through initiatives like this that the Gillard Government is helping ensure that people with disability have the same opportunities as other Australians to fulfill their potential and participate fully in community life.
The High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on Disability and Development (HLMDD) will take place at UN Headquarters on 23 September, the day before the opening of the General Debate of the 68th session of the General Assembly. The meeting is expected to adopt an action-oriented outcome document in support of the aims of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and other internationally agreed development goals for persons with disabilities.
Currently, the draft outcome document is in its final phase of the negotiation process. The document is a result of an extensive preparatory process that began in 2012 and consisted of informal consultations, online and regional consultations to ensure that concerns of all stakeholders were taken into account. The co-facilitators of the meeting, Philippines and Spain, will be taking necessary steps for the final phase of the negotiation of the outcome document.
The sixth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COP) was held from 17 to 19 July 2013 under the theme ?Ensuring adequate standards of living: empowerment and participation of persons with disabilities within the framework of the CRPD.?
The Conference is a unique global mechanism that allows for exchange of experience, ideas and best practices for implementation of the Convention, as well as for the building of multi-stakeholder partnerships for practical action. The Conference serves as a catalyst to realize the human rights and development of persons with disabilities, as well as to advance a disability-inclusive society for all.
While the number of States Parties to the Convention continues to grow, other stakeholders, including organizations of persons with disabilities, are increasingly becoming important partners in the implementation of the Convention, particularly in the common endeavor toward an international disability-inclusive development framework.
More than 650 participants attended this session with almost 300 representatives from civil society organizations. A record number of 75 statements were delivered during the general debate, including 12 statements at the Ministerial level. A total of 26 side-events were organized, including the multi-stakeholder Civil Society CRPD Forum, coordinated by the International Disability Alliance with the support of Disabled People?s International (DPI), Disability Rights Fund (DRF), the Global Partnership for Disability and Development (GPDD), Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC) and Rehabilitation International (RI), co-sponsored by the Governments of Australia, Bulgaria, Mexico and New Zealand, and DESA.
With a view to enabling the broadest possible participation, the live webcast from the Conference, for the first time, included sign language interpretation and closed-captioning.
During the course of the two formal and one informal roundtable discussions, participants set out concrete ideas to improve and implement policies and programmes concerning social protection and poverty reduction; disability-inclusive development in national, regional and international processes; as well as community-based rehabilitation.
The last segment on the implementation of the Convention by the UN system included presentations by OHCHR, UNISDR, UNICEF, UNDP, UNWTO, World Bank and DESA. DESA also reported on the progress of the Inter-Departmental Task Force on Accessibility of the United Nations Secretariat and made an announcement concerning on-going work to establish an Accessibility Centre at UN Headquarters. The Chair of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Special Rapporteur on Disability of the Commission for Social Development also reported on their respective mandates.
In his closing statement, the President of the Conference H.E. Ambassador Macharia Kamau, stated that the Conference was best positioned to spearhead the mainstreaming of disability in all aspects of the work of the United Nations. He also proposed that the Conference consider strengthening its financial and institutional foundation to carry out its important work.
The European Commission has launched two surveys to gather information about the accessibility of tourism facilities.
The surveys are part of a study which aims to map "accessible tourism services" across Europe and find out tourists or business people with disabilities specific needs when travelling. Tourism businesses and travellers with a disability or special accessibility needs can share their experiences in accommodation, travel, attractions and restaurants or in other tourist facilities and their satisfaction of travelling, reporting the barriers they might face.
The completely anonymous surveys are running between June and September 2013. The results will converge in a report aiming to identify options for improving accessible tourism services.
BRANZ is an independent research, testing, consulting and information company that provides resources and advice for the building industry.
"Human behaviour isn't the only factor behind injuries in the home - structural aspects can play their part, which is why ACC is supporting BRANZ's new resource on universal design," says ACC Programme Manager Megan Nagel.
"Universal design describes buildings that are safe, aesthetic, and accessible to all people. Examples of universal design features include level access ways, non-slip surfaces, and wider doorways and passageways.
Ms Nagel says that approximately 40% of the roughly 1.7 million claims Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) receives each year are for injuries that happen in or around the home.
"It makes sense to incorporate universal design ideas when planning your home. They will make your house safer by reducing the risks of trips and slips, while also ensuring it can accommodate your physical needs as they change over time, for example because of age or injury.
"It costs very little to incorporate universal design features at the blueprint stage, especially compared with the cost of modifying an existing home. It is also a smart investment for the future. As New Zealand's population ages, there will be a growing demand for safer homes with better access," says Ms Nagel.
- Remove moss from paths, especially during winter.
The Advocate's Guide to California's Coordinated Care Initiative helps advocates understand the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI), a new state program that is changing the way people who have both Medicare and Medi-Cal (referred to as dual eligible beneficiaries) and other seniors and people with disabilities get their health care in eight California counties.
The Guide includes a description of the CCI, information on who will be included, how they will be affected, why California is implementing the CCI, and when and where the new program will be taking place. The Guide, which will be updated as program rules are developed, also includes a pull-out table that advocates can use to determine which beneficiaries the CCI includes and how it affects them.
Just as the "green" movement focuses on environmental sustainability, "universal design" focuses on social sustainability.
While environmental concerns are at the heart of the green movement, universal design recognizes that all people exist somewhere on a wide continuum of human ability - we all pass through childhood, periods of temporary illness or injury and old age. If you design for all the abilities on the continuum, you create environments, products and services that will be easier for all people to use, regardless of their abilities, age or current state of health.
Ronald L. Mace, Founder and former Program Director of The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, collaborated with a group of architects, product designers, engineers and environmental designers to develop the "Seven Principles of Universal Design" in 1997. | 2019-04-21T10:49:09Z | http://www.themiracleofkangaroomothercare.com/a2c/2013/07/ |
For more than 20 years, Progent's Microsoft and Cisco-certified computer support experts have been a reliable source of online and onsite IT consulting services for businesses of all sizes throughout the U.S. Progent’s Technical Response Center (TRC) offers phone support and remote troubleshooting for networks based on technology from Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Juniper, VMware and other leading technology providers. Progent has participated in the virtualization, cloud computing and DevOps revolutions and has the experience to help you plan and deploy any networking model and resolve the most challenging IT problems quickly and affordably.
Progent is a pioneer in providing remote technical support and consulting and has delivered online help to clients in every state in the U.S. Progent has also assembled full-service consulting teams capable of providing onsite expertise in New York City, Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Toronto. In addition, Progent manages a network of more than 120 seasoned consultants who can provide on-premises support in dozens of metropolitan areas throughout the country.
Whether your business needs a support technician, IT consultant, applications programmer, security specialist, or a Cisco-certified CCIE network infrastructure engineer, Progent is the smart choice for a full spectrum of computer help including unified communications and email migration support, security and compliance, Help Desk outsourcing, network infrastructure design, project management outsourcing and co-sourcing, configuring Cisco routers and switches, hybrid cloud and on-premises solutions, smartphone integration, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, and Linux application support.
Progent offers a range of IT support models to meet virtually any client's technical needs and budget. If you're looking for occasional guidance from a subject matter specialist or urgent support from a desktop technician or network infrastructure engineer, Progent offers online access to seasoned IT experts at a per-minute billing rate. If you want turn-key outsourcing of a particular area of network management such as backup/recovery or active security monitoring, Progent offers the extensive ProSight suite of managed services, which are available on a subscription basis for a low monthly rate. Progent also offers specially priced packages of one-time services such as ransomware vulnerability assessment or stealth penetration testing. Progent's expertise in online support and troubleshooting and Progent's investment in the industry's most advanced remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools allow smaller organizations with little if any fulltime IT staff to benefit from the same level of support as major enterprises with large IT management and support organizations.
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants offer businesses of any size comprehensive support services including network consulting services plus remote or onsite technical support, Office 365 integration, Microsoft Office training, Windows 10 migration, Windows 8.1 support, Microsoft Windows 7 expertise, Windows Server 2019 migration consulting, Windows Server 2016 hybrid cloud configuration, Windows Server 2012 R2 support, Windows 2008 Server R2 integration, Microsoft Exchange 2016 planning and deployment, Microsoft Exchange 2013 integration, Microsoft Exchange 2010 support, Microsoft SQL Server integration and development and Skype for Business Consulting.
Traditional delivery of IT support services to individuals or small businesses is based on the efforts of a local consultant on whom a client company relies for virtually all network support. This model is fraught with problems due to the absence of a complementary remote support organization. Many issues that could be resolved immediately via a skilled team of remote support engineers are often unnecessarily prolonged while waiting for a local consultant to show up in person or to get up to speed on new technologies such as cloud integration. The resulting losses in productivity are often compounded by a cost structure that requires minimum on-site bill times that can turn a 10-minute problem into a 2-hour invoice. Progent’s business model of billing by the minute and charging only for service actually delivered allows Progent’s remote support experts to solve hundreds of small problems daily at the lowest possible cost. Further, the confidence of having ready access to a large team of technical professionals opens the door to a new realm of powerful IT solutions that many small organizations might otherwise shy away from for fear of having inadequate support resources.
The complexities of today’s network infrastructures combined with competition for dependable local talent has motivated companies to seek new avenues for obtaining the support they need to build and maintain productive, secure and reliable IT networks. Thousands of companies have entrusted their IT support needs to Progent’s engineers who specialize in providing affordable, enterprise-level expertise to small businesses. Progent delivers remote support to customers in all 50 US states, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, Grand Cayman, England, Australia, Barbados, and St. Thomas. Remote support tools and high-speed Internet connectivity have matured to the point that there are very few IT support tasks that cannot be performed remotely.
Progent uses the ConnectWise suite of Help Desk tools to allow customers to create IT service tickets, track status and progress, and view reports from an easy-to-use web-based client portal. ConnectWise is the leading Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform among Fortune 500 companies and gives Progent's customers, from individuals to large organizations, the same best-in-class Help Desk experience as the world's largest enterprises. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) can also be used for transparently extending the availability, scope and support escalation of mid-size companies and enterprises whose in-house IT service desks are powered by ConnectWise. In addition, Progent uses ConnectWise remote control capabilities to troubleshoot and resolve IT issues without requiring onsite visits and to monitor IP-based resources to detect potential problems before they can disrupt productivity.
Progent has built a team of top technology experts across the US and Canada. Many IT support organizations have pursued a path of cost reduction by outsourcing expertise to countries where labor is cheap but where language and cultural barriers pose significant challenges to providing effective support. Progent has succeeded by leveraging its proven, state-of-the art virtual office infrastructure and the efficient delivery of online support to create a unique value proposition. Progent’s engineers are a readily available resource to help organizations through occasional technical impasses or to manage or co-manage major IT initiatives. Progent's solutions-driven support team knows how to work effectively with a client's in-house support personnel to deliver fast solutions that minimize both consulting fees and lost productivity. Progent is also committed to knowledge transfer through multiple mechanisms including detailed service documentation, custom training videos, interactive webinars, advanced technical mentoring, or executive outbriefs.
Progent's team of more than 120 consultants includes IT generalists together with subject matter experts (SMEs), making it possible for clients to get the most efficient and cost-effective IT support possible. Rather than having IT generalists flail around with niche technologies with they may have little experience, Progent's first-level support personnel can escalate problems to veteran consultants. We draw on their deep technical knowledge to deal with complex issues. We follow industry best practices to provide solutions that build a solid foundation for today’s requirements and future growth.
ProSight Email Guard is Progent's spam filtering service that incorporates the infrastructure of top information security companies to deliver web-based control and comprehensive protection for all your email traffic. The hybrid architecture of Email Guard integrates a Cloud Protection Layer with a local security gateway device to provide advanced protection against spam, viruses, Denial of Service Attacks (DoS), DHAs, and other email-borne threats. Email Guard's Cloud Protection Layer serves as a preliminary barricade and blocks most unwanted email from reaching your network firewall. This reduces your vulnerability to external threats and saves system bandwidth and storage. Email Guard's onsite security gateway appliance adds a deeper layer of inspection for inbound email. For outbound email, the local security gateway provides AV and anti-spam protection, protection against data leaks, and encryption. The local security gateway can also assist Exchange Server to monitor and protect internal email that stays inside your security perimeter. Find out more about Progent's Email Guard spam filtering, virus blocking, content filtering and data leakage protection.
Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring is an endpoint protection (EPP) service that uses dynamic behavior analysis in addition to traditional signature matching to guard endpoints and servers against modern malware threats such as ransomware and phishing, which routinely evade signature-based anti-virus tools. ProSight ASM protects local and cloud-based assets and offers a cohesive, unified solution for addressing the complete malware lifecycle. ProSight ASM features initial blocking, intrusion detection, threat mitigation, post-attack cleanup, and forensics. Important capabilities include single-click rollback to a trusted state, network-wide immunization in real time, and clear visualizations of an attack's progress across a network for actionable forensics. Find out more ProSight Active Security Monitoring behavior-based endpoint protection and ransomware defense.
ProSight Enhanced Security Protection managed services deliver ultra-affordable in-depth security for physical and virtual servers, desktops, mobile devices, and Exchange Server. ProSight ESP uses adaptive security and advanced machine learning for continuously monitoring and responding to security threats from all vectors. ProSight ESP offers firewall protection, penetration alerts, endpoint management, and web filtering through cutting-edge technologies incorporated within a single agent accessible from a single control. Progent's security and virtualization experts can assist you to plan and implement a ProSight ESP deployment that addresses your organization's specific requirements and that allows you achieve and demonstrate compliance with government and industry data security regulations. Progent will help you define and configure security policies that ProSight ESP will enforce, and Progent will monitor your network and react to alarms that require immediate attention. Progent's consultants can also assist you to set up and test a backup and disaster recovery solution such as ProSight Data Protection Services so you can get back in business quickly from a potentially disastrous cyber attack like ransomware. Read more about Progent's ProSight Enhanced Security Protection (ESP) unified physical and virtual endpoint security and Microsoft Exchange filtering.
ProSight Data Protection Services offer small organizations an inexpensive, fully managed solution for data backup and restoration. ProSight DPS automates and verifies your backup procedures and enables fast recovery of protected resources that have become unavailable for any reason including hardware breakdown, software bugs, configuration issues, natural or man-made disasters, human error, or malware such as ransomware. ProSight DPS can help you back up and restore files, folders, applications, system images/, plus virtual machine images/ based on Hyper-V and VMware. You can back up crucial data to the cloud, to local storage, or mirror your data to both. Progent's backup/recovery consultants offer advanced expertise to help you deploy ProSight Data Protection Services according to best practices and in compliance with key regulatory requirements such as HIPPA, FINRA, PCI and Safe Harbor. Progent can also help you restore vital information quickly and thoroughly after a disruptive event. Learn more about ProSight Data Protection Services managed backup and disaster recovery.
ProSight WAN Watch is a network infrastructure monitoring and management service that makes it simple and affordable for small and mid-size businesses to map, monitor, configure and troubleshoot their network appliances such as routers, switches, firewalls, and Wi-Fi access points as well as servers, endpoints, peripherals, and other connected devices. WAN Watch utilizes state-of-the-art RMM technology to ensure that network maps are always up to date, stores and manages the configuration data for almost all networked devices, tracks and analyzes performance, and alerts you when looming issues threaten to disrupt your network. By automating tedious management activities, ProSight WAN Watch can knock hours off common jobs such as making topology diagrams, reconfiguring your network, locating devices that require crucial patches, or understanding the reasons for traffic bottlenecks. Find out more about ProSight WAN Watch network infrastructure remote monitoring and management.
ProSight LAN Watch is Progent’s server and desktop monitoring and reporting service that uses advanced Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) technology to help keep your IT system running at peak levels by checking the health of all your critical servers and desktops. As soon as ProSight LAN Watch detects a problem, an alert is sent to your designated IT staff and your assigned Progent consultant so that any looming issues can be resolved before they impair or crash your network. On monitored computers, a single click can create a prioritized trouble ticket for Progent’s Technical Response Center (TRC).
ProSight Virtual Hosting service allows small businesses to have their servers and mission-critical applications hosted in a world-class data center in a virtualized environment set up and managed by Progent's networking experts. With Progent's ProSight Virtual Hosting services, the client retains ownership of the data, the OS licenses, and the applications. Since the ecosystem is virtualized, you can port it almost instantly to an alternate hardware host without time-consuming and technically risky reconfiguration. ProSight Virtual Hosting does not lock you into a single hosting service. For details about ProSight Virtual Hosting services, visit ProSight Virtual Hosting Services.
ProSight IT Asset Management service is an IT infrastructure documentation management service that makes it easy to capture, update, retrieve and safeguard information related to your IT infrastructure, processes, applications, and services. You can quickly find passwords or IP addresses and be warned about upcoming expirations of SSLs or domains. By updating and organizing your IT documentation, you can save up to 50% of the time thrown away searching for vital information about your network. ProSight IT Asset Management features a centralized location for storing and sharing all documents related to managing your network infrastructure such as recommended procedures and self-service instructions. A sophisticated password management tool features an enterprise-class password vault and management platform, policy enforcement, easy lookup for authorized personnel, and extensive usage tracking. Whether you’re making improvements, performing regular maintenance, or reacting to an emergency, ProSight IT Asset Management gets you the data you require the instant you need it. Learn more about ProSight IT Asset Management service.
Progent's ProSight Network Audits offer a fast and low-cost way for small and mid-size businesses to get an unbiased assessment of the health of their network. Based on some of the top remote monitoring and management platforms in the industry, and supervised by Progent's world-class team of information technology experts, ProSight Network Audits help you see how closely the deployment of your core infrastructure devices adhere to best practices. Both the Basic and Advanced options for ProSight Network Audit services are available at a budget-friendly, one-time cost and provide instant benefits such as a more manageable Active Directory environment. Both versions also come with a year of advanced remote network monitoring and management. Benefits can include easier network management, improved compliance with information security regulations, more efficient utilization of IT resources, quicker problem resolution, more dependable backup and recovery, and less downtime. See more information about Progent's ProSight Network Audits network infrastructure review.
Progent’s Technical Response Center offers nationwide remote support for organizations of any size. Progent's certified nationwide support experts offer phone support and remote computer control to help you troubleshoot and resolve network problems quickly and affordably. The breadth of technical expertise represented by Progent's team of nation wide support engineers makes it possible to escalate even the toughest problems to appropriate specialists as required.
Progent's worldwide virtual office infrastructure eliminates needless overhead and ensures that a technician or IT consultant is ready to solve your problems quickly.
Progent's founder and chief technologist, Les Kent, was the architect for a Windows network application that won Microsoft's “Best Application of the Year Award.” Mr. Kent, a 35-year computer industry veteran and a former technical editor for InfoWorld magazine, has designed and implemented hundreds of innovative business solutions.
Progent can provide quick online access to a Cisco-certified CCIE network engineer or a Juniper Networks JNCIE consultant so you can get immediate help for urgent network problems that are impacting business productivity but are beyond the scope of your local network support resources. Progent's Cisco CCIE and Juniper Network experts can establish secure remote connections to your system, so it's like having a high-level engineer in front of your computer. Advanced network monitoring and analysis software help Progent's CCIE-certified and Juniper JNCIE-certified network consultants to provide quick and affordable fixes to even the most challenging infrastructure problems.
Progent is a certified Microsoft Partner and offers Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 planning and migration support, Exchange Server 2010 consulting, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 support, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 expertise to help small businesses maintain their current email environment or migrate to the latest unified communications technology.
To help you deal with the BYOD revolution, Progent's iPhone and iPad experts, Android integration consultants, and BlackBerry specialists can help you integrate workers with smartphones securely and productively with your messaging solution, troubleshoot synchronization issues, help you enforce security policies, and show you how to facilitate collaboration.
Progent's Windows Server 2012 R2 experts can help your business benefit fully from the enhancements built into Windows Server 2012 R2 so that your network can be more secure and fault tolerant, easier to virtualize, less expensive to manage, faster, and able to provide a better environment for web hosting. If you are considering the creation of a hybrid network model that integrates on-premises resources with public cloud services like those offered by Microsoft Azure, Progent can help you evaluate and deploy Windows Server 2016, which incorporates major elements of Azure technology and is designed to support hybrid networks. See Progent's Windows Server 2016 hybrid cloud solutions.
Progent's security services include comprehensive security audits, disaster recovery and business continuity planning, virus protection and mitigation, ransomware defense, spam filtering, data leakage protection, firewall configuration, active monitoring, automatic fault isolation and forensics, and email encryption. Advanced certifications earned by Progent's security team include CISA, CISM, CISSP, GIAC, and ISSAP.
Progent offers online support for integrating business networks with leading public clouds and can help organizations create and manage viable IT ecosystems that incorporate Windows and Linux servers and applications into cohesive hybrid networks that combine internal datacenters, branch offices and private clouds with public cloud services. Progent's cloud integration expertise includes Microsoft Azure hybrid cloud planning and deployment, Amazon AWS migration and troubleshooting, and Amazon Web Marketing Service (WMS) software development and debugging.
Progent's Office 365 consultants can help you integrate and manage Microsoft's Azure-based software and services, and Progent's Office 365 Exchange Online consultants can help you help you design either a cloud-based or hybrid Exchange solution.
Progent offers a full range of consulting services to support IP voice and video solutions including readiness assessment, product specification, infrastructure optimization, migration from a PBX system or from another VoIP platform, upgrading from older Cisco VoIP technology, configuring management servers and software, installing administrative and user workstations, setting up VPN connections resolving QoS issues, extending Cisco VoIP services with Microsoft Exchange and with IM and Presence-enabled applications through Skype for Business integration, connecting mobile and remote users, troubleshooting your VoIP solution, and training managers and end users.
Progent’s Wireless Site Survey makes it easy to design and implement a Wi-Fi wireless LAN optimized for your environment, offering your business a WLAN that delivers the coverage, performance, capacity, QoS, data protection, and roaming capability your business needs. Progent's Wireless Site Survey services are offered either as an economical remote service or as a more detailed on-premises service. Progent’s on-premises wireless survey includes onsite walkthroughs, RF and security assessment of your current WLAN, analysis of your building’s layout, testing for radio frequency contention, RF propagation modeling, identification of optimum placement for client-requested Wireless APs including Aironet access points, Cisco Meraki cloud-managed APs and Apple AirPort devices, and a detailed report defining the new wireless network.
Progent can help you plan and manage an efficient move of your IT infrastructure to a new facility, including data center design and setup, project management, ISP and telecommunications carrier selection and coordination, cloud integration, and coordinated system upgrades – all with comprehensive support as well as thorough testing and documentation.
Progent has helped larger organizations successfully carry out complex DevOps projects that included advanced monitoring and automation technology.
Call 800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.
For urgent troubleshooting or desktop support or to find out how to get in touch by phone with a Cisco-certified CCIE for fast assistance with your network infrastructure, visit Progent's Urgent Support. | 2019-04-20T02:13:08Z | https://www.progent.com/about.htm |
Leah was vice president of her senior class. She received the FFA state degree in 2018. She was the 2017 cheerleading captain. She was a 2015 HOBY ambassador. She will attend Arkansas State University.
Thomas drafted his student council's constitution. He attended Missouri Scholars Academy. He was vice president of the National Honor Society. He also placed 1st in poetry at Word Fest. He will attend Columbia University.
Sydney served as Beta Club and Student Council president. She was the 2018 Homecoming Queen. She was a Fellowship of Christian Athletes student leader and varsity cheerleader. Sydney will attend College of the Ozarks.
Allison was named to all-state band and all-state choir. She was captain of the district champion Scholar Bowl team. She was a Drum Major. Allison was also a People to People Student Ambassador. She will attend the University of Evansville.
Clara was a member of choir. She served as Beta Club president. She also served as senior class vice president.
Lanaya was named a Southern Illinois Scholar. She served as Illinois Beta Club state vice president from 2017-2018. She was named to the Egyptian volleyball all-tournament team. Lanaya will attend Grambling State University.
Michael placed 5th at the State Governor's Cup Academic Team Tournament. He was a Kentucky Music Teachers Association state piano champion. He was a Kentucky Governor's Scholar. He was state champion in Accounting 1 and Talent Show. Michael will attend Brigham Young University.
Sydni served as senior class president. She qualified and attended FBLA nationals in Anaheim, CA. She attended Beta Convention every year. Sydni will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Morgan was named to Academic All-State for cross country and track. She received Missouri Scholar Top 100 Honorable mention. She was named a scholar-athlete. She was also a member of the National Honor Society. Morgan will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Shanna was named to the Southern Illinois Society for High Achievement. She was a member of the National Honor Society and FFA. Shanna will attend Southeastern Illinois College.
Amory participated in the Missouri Scholars Academy. She attended the Mizzou high school mini-medical school. She was selected to attend Sophomore Pilgrimage. She also served as Beta Club treasurer. Amory will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Daniel was named an Illinois State Scholar. He was named to the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. He received Advanced Honors Escrow. He was also a member of Beta Club and FFA. Daniel will attend Lipscomb University.
Cason played baseball and basketball for 4 years. He was an FCA leader. He was a member of the Beta Club and served on Student Council for 4 years. He received the Centurion Award and Baseball Player of the year in SEC.
Katie received the Steven Goetz Award. She received the Student Athlete Award. She was also an academic letter recipient. Katie will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Connor was an all-state track athlete for 3 years. She has received a basketball scholarship to play in college. She attended Missouri Girls State. She was a 2-year member of the National Honor Society. She was also a 4-year award winner in all 4 core subjects. Connor will attend Mineral Area College.
Abigail was a cheerleader for 4 years. She served as President and Treasurer of the Interact club. She was also a member of Beta Club and National Honor Society. She will attend Three Rivers College.
Miriam served as captain of the track team and holds the school record for long jump and triple jump. She received the DAR Good Citizen Award and President's Volunteer Service Award. She was also a dedicated 4-H member, completing 59 grade A projects with 24 state recommendations having appeared at the state fair the last 7 years with 8 more projects to present. Miriam will attend the College of the Ozarks.
Khortnee was named an Illinois State Scholar. She was a member of the National Honor Society. She is a Certified Nurse's Assistant. She served as yearbook editor. She played basketball and was named a scholar-athlete. She also participated in WYSE. She will attend Rend Lake College.
Seth was named an Illinois State Scholar. He earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He was a World Youth in Science & Engineering (WYSE) medalist. He also founded a recycling program at his high school. Seth will attend Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Grace was named an Illinois State Scholar. She was captain of the volleyball team. She was named the Outstanding Senior. She served as President of Beta club. Grace will attend the University of Kentucky.
Joseph was a member of the FFA and National Honor Society. He also was a member of the Tilsit 4-H club. Joseph will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Jonni served as secretary of the Interact Club. Jonni was named an Elk's Student of the month. Jonni was the Missouri Beta Convention Math Division 2 Champion. Jonni also received the American Legion Award and Bearcat Scholar award. Jonni will attend Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Jessie was named the player of the year in volleyball and basketball. She will play volleyball in college. She received the American Legion Award. She also received an internship with the CIA and DEA in Indonesia. She will attend Columbia College.
Emma attended Missouri Girl's State. She served as president of Beta Club and the FTA. She was received honorable mention, all-conference honors in softball. She was a member of the basketball team. Emma will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Kayla was a member of the Beta Club. She was on the Student Council. She was also in the FFA and Science club. She will attend Shawnee Community College.
Kelsey served as president of the Senior Beta Club, Science Club, and the FFA. She received the FFA State Degree. She was also a National Little Britches Finals Rodeo 2017-2018 Contestant. She will attend Murray State University.
Jordan placed 8th at ICTM State in pre-calculus. He received bronze at Phi Rho Pi nationals. He placed 1st in Math Division 2 at Beta club State two years in a row. He has already graduated with an associate's degree. Jordan will attend the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign.
Makenna served as Beta Club and Senior Class vice president. She was student council class representative. She was named to second team all-district in volleyball. She was also a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She will attend Missouri State University.
Bethany was named an Illinois State Scholar. She served as treasurer and senior vice president of FBLA. She was senior editor of the newspaper. She was Beta Club president. She received Best of Show at Southeastern Illinois College's High School Art Show in 2017. Bethany will attend Southeastern Illinois College.
Erika served as captain of the volleyball team and cheer team. She also served as senior class president. She was a member of the National Honor Society and BETA Club. Erika will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Beth served as FFA and Beta Club President. She was an all-district and all-conference basketball player. She was a 1st place district winner and state finalist in the National History Day Competition. Beth is a three-time academic all-state softball player. Beth will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Kaitlyn served as Student Council President. She was prom queen. She was a member of the WYSE Team and the varsity Scholar Bowl. Kaitlyn will attend Southeastern Illinois College.
Tanisha was an FCCLA State Competitor. She served as president of the senior class and FCCLA. She was also a member of the FBLA and student council. Tanisha will attend Arkansas State University.
Shania was a FCCLA state Competitor. She served as secretary of the senior class. She was also a member of the FBLA and student council. Shania will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Nicholas was named an Illinois State Scholar. He received a seal of biliteracy for French. He achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He served as student body president. He was also a 4-year qualifier for FBLA national convention. Nicholas will attend Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Luke achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. He was an academic team top scorer. He was an FBLA National Qualifier in Accounting 1. He served as FFA treasurer. He also was a member of the Beta Club. Luke will attend Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Benjamin attended the Missouri Scholars Academy. He was named to the Missouri Scholars 100. He served as captain of the Academic Team for 4 years receiving all-district individual honors the last 2 years. He attended PAN, Physics of Atomic Nuclei camp sponsored by the National Science Foundation at the University of Notre Dame. He was promoted to crew trainer at McDonald's. He will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Brice was named a National Merit Finalist. Brice was a FIRST Robotics Dean's List Finalist. Brice was the National BETA oratory champion. Brice was also a Letters About Literature National Honor Winner. Brice will attend Stanford University.
Peyton was a member of the Future Business Leaders of America. Peyton was also a member of the National Beta Club and FCCLA. Peyton received the George Washington Carver Award. Peyton will attend Mineral Area College.
Austin received the Independence Bank Scholarship. He was a member of the Academic Team. He participated in the sportsman's club. He was also a member of FBLA and Interact. Austin will attend Murray State University.
Mollie received Missouri Scholars 100 Honorable Mention. She served as Beta Club Secretary. Mollie received the DAR Good Citizen Award and Marble Hill Optimist Outstanding Youth Award. Mollie will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Alexis' basketball team won regionals three years in a row and won sectionals for the first time ever. She received the State FFA Degree. She participated in the Fast Start Program, which means she has 1 year of college completed. She also received a SISHA Award. Alexis will attend Southeastern Illinois College.
Naylor High School Abby Roach Abby was an FFA officer for 3 years. She served as Senior Beta president and earned sixth place in Senior Beta Spelling Division 1 at National Beta Convention. She was co-captain of cheer squad. She also competed in FBLA public speaking for 2 years. Abby will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Mary was a cheerleader for 4 years. She was an FBLA district winner twice. She served as president of the National Honor Society. She also served as vice president of the Student Council. Mary will attend the University of Arkansas.
Mason was a member of Student Council and had the opportunity to attend MASC (student council state convention). He received numerous class awards. He went to state for track. He was also a member of the academic team. Mason will attend Baylor University.
Riley was a member of Student Council and the FBLA. Riley was in pep club and band. Riley was also a member of Renaissance Club. Riley will attend Murray State University.
Shelbie played volleyball and her team won districts her sophomore year. She also played softball and her team won districts 2 years in a row. She served on the student council. She received the Renaissance award. She also served as President of NAHS. Shelbie will attend the University of Arkansas.
Shelby was corresponding secretary of NHS. She received Gold renaissance all 4 years. She received 2nd and 3rd place at FBLA districts. She was dance captain for varsity competition cheer. Shelby will attend Murray State University.
Yamika was president of Beta Club. She was nominated to Missouri First Team All-District volleyball. She served as secretary of the student council. Yamika will attend the University of Central Arkansas.
Samantha was president of National Honor Society. She was liaison for National Spanish Honor Society. She is a Bright Flight Scholar. She received student of the year in Honors Geometry. She received a Christian Leadership Award. She also received a distinction award for the National Spanish Examination. Samantha will attend the UMKC - School of Medicine.
Jordan participated in volleyball, cross country, cheerleading and softball all 4 years. She qualified for state in cross country. She served as Student Body president. She also qualified for State in FBLA competition. Jordan will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Dalton was a member of Senior Beta Club and Science Club. She received the trigonometry award and advanced math award. Dalton received a Regent's Scholarship to attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Malia's team won the SEMO Spike volleyball tournament. She was president of FCCLA. She graduated with 24 college credit hours. Malia will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Kayla participated in concert and jazz band. She was also part of the drumline in the marching band. She was a member of the drama club. She was also a member of NHS. Kayla will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Kyle was named an Illinois State Scholar. He was honored at the Southern Illinois Society for High School Achievement Banquet. He was an IHSA All-State Academic Team Nominee. He was a member of the Beta Club. Kyle will attend Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Kaitlyn served as Spanish Club President. She made honor roll all 4 years. She was voted most dependable in the senior class. Kaitlyn will attend Truman University.
Peyton was named to all-state in Scholar Bowl for 2 consecutive years. He received National Merit Scholar Commended Status. He was a finalist for the title of Missouri FBLA's Future Business Leader. He also earned 3rd place in the National Beta Social Studies competition. Peyton will attend Dartmouth College.
Kaytlynn was a district basketball and softball player and will be going on to play college basketball. She received the Harris Leadership Award in Beta Club. She was vice president of her senior class. She was also a Fellowship of Christian Students Leader. Kaytlynn will attend Crowley's Ridge College.
Richland High School Bailey Glass Baily will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Riley was cheerleading captain. She won 1st place in 'Spotlight on Service' for Senior Beta Club. She completed all BAA level for FBLA and went to Nationals. Her team won volleyball districts and conference. Riley will attend Missouri State University.
Emily attended Missouri Girls State. She served as Spanish Club president and student council treasurer. She was a member of the National Honor Society. She also was a winner of the annual Catholic appeal essay contest. Emily will attend Saint Louis University.
Mattilyn was crowned Homecoming Queen. She was awarded a full-tuition scholarship and asked to speak at baccalaureate. She was also named Outstanding Senior Girl. Mattilyn will attend Maryville University.
Nate received all district and state music honors for percussion trio and piano solo. He participated in Math Field Day. He was part of the small group ministry. He was also on the Scholar Bowl Team. Nathan will attend Murray State University.
Londyn was student body treasurer. She was president of the choir. She played softball and was named to First Team All District. She also was on the Scholar Bowl team and was top scorer in the District. Londyn will attend the University of Mississippi.
Emma was a Nationl Merit Scholarship Finalist. She was a Southeast Hospital volunteer. She was a member National Honor Society and Beta Club. She was also a small group ministry leader. Emma will attend Washington University in St. Louis.
Emily was a member of the National Honor Society and Beta club. She was a Mission Task Force member and Class representative. She was Girls Swim team captain and received all-conference swimming honors for 3 years. Emily will attend St. Louis University.
Ireland was a member of Beta Club and the National Honor Society. She participated in small group ministry. She always participated in dance competitions. Ireland will attend Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.
Jade attended Missouri Scholars Academy and was named to Missouri Scholars 100. He was the founder of the praise and pep band at school. He was an international Science Fair Participant. He also served as Student Body President and National Honor Society President. Jade will attend St. Louis University.
Sofia served as vice president of the Beta Club, Spanish Club, and National Honor Society. She was on the Scholar Bowl for 4 years. She served as stage manager for the Drama Club. She was also on the tennis team. Sofia will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Makayla attended Missouri Scholars Academy. She went to state for robotics her freshman year. She was a National Merit Scholar commemorated student. She was a member of the National Honor society. She also competed in FTC state competition for 4 years. Makayla will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
Hailey's basketball team won 2 district titles. Hailey has the opportunity to play softball in college. Hailey was a member of the National Honor Society. She will attend Webster University.
Evan was Beta Club Vice President. He earned best in class for a group project at the 2017 SIU History Fair. He placed 3rd in Math at the 2017 WYSE competition. He was also a member of the FFA. Evan will attend Shawnee Community College.
Donald qualified for Future Business Leaders of America national competition twice. He was a drama club member. He will attend the University of Mississippi.
Macy was named an Illinois State Scholar. She was a Southern Illinois Society for High School Achievement Academic Honoree. She was Student Council President. She was also a member of the National Honor Society. Macy will attend the University of Kentucky.
Ryan was named an Illinois State Scholar. He was a member of the National Honor Society and FBLA. He was a 4-year student-athlete in golf, basketball, and baseball. He was on the 2018 golf regional champion team, finishing 5th place overall individual. He was on the 2016-2017 Baseball regional champion team and was named to the Black Diamond All-Conference Team that year. Ryan will attend McKendree University.
Hannah was a volleyball school record holder. She was also part of the 2016 district champion volleyball team. She was an FCA leader. She was Student Council Vice President. Hannah will attend Southwest Baptist University.
Cameron was named to Missouri Scholars 100. He was a member of the Beta Club, Scholar Bowl, and FBLA. He was also on the Robotics team. Cameron will attend Washington University in St. Louis.
Christine was an Army ROTC 4 year scholarship winner. She served as class president. She was National Honor Society Treasurer. She was named prom queen. Christine will attend Emory University.
Katie was named an Illinois State Scholar. She served as class president all four years. She was also president of the FFA. She was vice president of the FBLA. Katie will attend Rend Lake College.
Heidi was on the cross country team and qualified for state competition. She also participated in track and field. She served as president of the FBLA. Heidi will attend the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Jacob served on the student council for 4 years. He was in Senior Beta and FCCLA. He was an MMASC National Karate Champion. He also served as the school mascot. Jacob will attend Southeast Missouri State University.
CLICK HERE for pictures from the Heartland's Best banquet. | 2019-04-21T11:23:24Z | http://www.kfvs12.com/story/38381992/heartlands-best-students-for-2018/ |
MR. MCCURRY: All right, ladies and gentlemen, shall we?
Q Hey, Mike, can you put a more precise time on the release of this information?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, the -- we've arranged some -- tried to be of help so people can understand more about the President's seven-year balanced budget proposal. But the information we've shared, we think needs to be in the custody of the negotiators first. And Mr. Panetta plans to hold a press conference with Senator Daschle and Congressman Gephardt at the conclusion of those meetings. That's -- for my purposes, that's when it would be an appropriate time to make use of the information you got.
Q Is the White House upset with the slow deployment of the enabling force?
MR. MCCURRY: No, the White House and the Commander in Chief are delighted with the progress that the advance team has been making. There's been some bad weather in the Balkans, but the group that's there doing the advance work and the logistics work that needs to be done for the arrival of the main force has been proceeding satisfactorily.
Q You haven't made any complaints to the Pentagon?
MR. MCCURRY: There's absolutely no reason to complain.
Q The enforcement mechanism that you're talking about to ensure a balanced budget in seven years, Mr. Panetta suggested that you would favor tax increases or across-the-board cuts. Is it either/or, is it both, is it a combination? Could you describe this more?
MR. MCCURRY: Mr. Panetta and White House negotiators will be meeting with their congressional counterparts in about 45 minutes. And at the conclusion of their negotiations, they will be holding a press conference and answering questions.
MR. MCCURRY: Well, it wasn't possible at that time because we were in a negotiation with a congressional majority that we were trying to convince to accept the President's views on a budget proposal he submitted in June. And that proposal sat there month after month ignored by a Republican majority. But we're at the point now where it's the end of the year -- we are well into the fiscal year -- and we've got to get on with business. And the President gave instructions to his negotiators to roll up their sleeves and get on with work. So there are things now that we have to do that under the best of circumstances earlier in this year we would not have done.
Q Mike, on this embargo -- if all of these numbers have come out from the Hill, from sources on the Hill that reported it, and they're identical to the numbers that were released here on an embargoed basis, what's the theory behind delaying releasing the numbers from here if they're already out there?
MR. MCCURRY: Your news organizations have been able to talk to people on the Hill who have talked to some of our negotiators. Frankly, I've seen wire stories now that have got wrong numbers in them. We tried to help out news organizations here earlier today, but I've learned a valuable lesson: Just save it for later in the day. And we'll do future events like this around 6:00 p.m., 6:30 p.m. at night.
MR. MCCURRY: No, no, no.
Q -- why you couldn't do it then.
MR. MCCURRY: A seven-year budget, doing some of the things that were proposed by the Republican majority in Congress, we felt quite concerned about the macroeconomic effects of policies like that. Taking $440 billion out of the health care sector, the impact of that, we felt, would have negative consequences for the economy. More importantly, raising taxes on working Americans who live at -- in marginal economic circumstances to begin with, which is bad economic policy in addition to being bad budget policy. So it's not just the number of years, it was the number of years matched to the policies. That's why the President has stressed steadfastly in these discussions that they -- his priorities need to be addressed, because we believe, especially in the area of investments, you'll see throughout the day today that the President's proposals rest on the premise that we have to make investments that will help grow this economy in the future -- investing in people's education, making it easier for them to have job situations when child care is provided. Those are the types of investments that we preserve in our approach to a balanced budget that will protect the economy into the next century.
Q Mike, would you characterize what Panetta is presenting to the Republicans today as a bottom-line or a fresh starting point, or something else?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, we -- we presented back in June a balanced budget proposal, and it lay dormant for far too long. And in order to break the impasse that exists now, the President instructed his negotiators to come forward with another proposal. But there darned better be some movement on the part of the Republican congressional negotiators now, the President having taken this additional step to try to find common ground on a budget. If there's not, this will be a very short negotiation, I suspect.
Q Can the President possibly be endorsing a tax increase?
MR. MCCURRY: No, the President is determined to make sure we make good on the deficit track. There are a lot of different ways you could do that. And enforcement mechanisms, as they've existed it the past, have used different devices to address that. We're not ruling in or any particular form of mechanism, but the Chief of Staff is prepared to discuss with Republican negotiators a variety of ways you can make absolutely certain that you reach the deficit targets that are contained in any final agreement. And thus the issue of who scores the final agreement becomes sort of a moot point.
Q Mike, the Republicans better hurry up and move, or what?
MR. MCCURRY: No, I'm not saying they better hurry up and move; I'm just saying that the President having come forward with a proposal that addresses their concern, which has always been a process concern, do something in a time certain, seven years, we have done that consistent with what the President's priorities have been in developing a budget. And what I'm suggesting now is that they better come forward and address the President's priorities, which they've consistently failed to do. And if they do that, then there will be reason to believe that a good-faith negotiation could lead us to a balanced budget.
Q I noticed that the -- while he Republicans are refusing to come down on their Medicare and Medicaid tax cut numbers, in your latest plan, the President's not changing his numbers either in those three key areas -- Medicare, Medicaid and tax cuts. The question, obviously is that -- are you not going to change until they change? In order to reach an agreement, Medicare and Medicaid and tax cut numbers are going to have to change someplace.
MR. MCCURRY: Well, the President has gone a long ways towards addressing some of the concerns that members of Congress have expressed. In good faith, he's put forward a proposal that answers the persistent request on the part of the Republican majority for a plan. And he's confident that this is a document that can certainly move this discussion forward, and in fact, move it forward rather quickly.
MR. MCCURRY: The President has answered that question on prior occasions. I think you know his views on the utility of capital gains tax reductions that are targeted, that stimulate the creation of small business. And I don't believe his views have changed on that.
Q But that's not in here.
MR. MCCURRY: Well, he's addressed where he is before. He believes there's a better way to provide tax relief to working Americans, and we've done so in the Middle Class Bill of Rights, the features of which most likely will be included in the seven-year proposal as is presented to the negotiators.
MR. MCCURRY: He's well satisfied that this represents an effort to move this discussion forward. And he recognizes that -- the President had to make some very difficult choices in the course of agreeing to the proposal laid down today. But he made those difficult choices, which are going to make some of our constituencies and our supporters unhappy in the name of advancing the goal of a balanced budget and in the name of getting this negotiation process moving forward so we don't shut down the government and we move on with the orderly conduct of business. But that's what we pay presidents to do -- to make tough choices.
MR. MCCURRY: No, I'm saying that the President's tax relief proposals are clear. We think there are better ways to provide tax relief to Americans who really need tax relief, and those are hard-working, middle-income Americans who don't frequently find themselves in the beneficial position of having a lot of capital gains to deal with.
final agreement that has to be negotiated between Congress and the President. And I think everyone here knows how Congress -- the majority in Congress feel strongly on the issue of capital gains.
Q Well, is anything that's come out of the Republicans so far in the last few days that gives you more hope?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, nothing's come out of them in the last couple of days.
MR. MCCURRY: They've been sitting waiting for us, and the President has come forward with his proposal in an effort to move the discussions forward.
Q Has any action of a disciplinary nature befallen any of the staffers who failed to have ink in the pen yesterday?
MR. MCCURRY: No, because it was determined that waving the pen in the air dried the ink in the -- we were trying to think of the name of the little metal piece at the end.
MR. MCCURRY: The nib. See, that shows you how fast technology changes. But it's a good endorsement of ball point pens, I think.
Q Mike, I understand from your perspective while you feel the President has made a good faith effort here. He's indeed moved, as we've all been discussing, a great deal from where he was earlier in the year. But if you were the Republicans, why wouldn't you just sit there thinking that you have priorities, not just process you want to protect, think if he's come this far, let's see how far he'll come by the end of the year and just sit here?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, because -- well, first of all, they have moved on their priorities. We would acknowledge that. They were determined to do things to Medicare, to education, to environmental protection that we felt were not in the best interests of this country. And by agreeing to the language in the continuing resolution, they did move off their effort to really throttle back or wither away the role the federal government would play in very important programs that help the American people. So we acknowledge that they have, in a sense, moved in that sense.
Now, what they need to do is to do exactly what the President has done. The President has now been willing to take that agreement reached in a continuing resolution, that promise, to address the priorities that were contained in the continuing resolution in the time frame specified. We have now put forward a very detailed, comprehensive balanced budget proposal, and it's now up to the Republicans in a sense to do the same. The only thing they've done is to pass a budget in the reconciliation act that failed to meet that test. That bill is history now because it's no longer available. So they need to come forward and do, in a sense, the same thing the President has done, which is to address the question, how do you match these priorities? If they just sit there and wait, then we're going to be back in the situation next week where the federal government shuts down and a third of a million federal workers are going to have to face a holiday period with, you know, the same uncertainty that they faced the recent shutdown with.
Q Mike, a couple of questions. On the farm bill, it says for -- sorry, I don't know what we're allowed to quote from -- but does the President accept cutting any of the farm subsidies?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, the President has some ideas on agriculture that will be contained in the plan that Mr. Panetta will present to the congressional negotiators.
Q Is he likely at this point to veto the farm bill as now being proposed, the Republican farm bills that have a cut in the subsidies?
MR. MCCURRY: I don't know what the status of the agriculture -- what is the status of ag appropriations? I'll have to check on what the current status of the agriculture appropriations bill is. We signed that bill, I think. Yes, ag appropriations has already been signed. Now, there are some out-year consequences in the way they do farm subsidy programs, but those will most likely be under discussion.
Q By how much do you want to increase the minimum wage?
MR. MCCURRY: I can't -- it's consistent with our proposal as we advanced it before. We'll have to -- I forget the incremental amount. It went up incrementally -- went up about 50 cents, I think -- it went up 90 cents in stages. But we'll -- let's pull the paper on that.
Q Why are you attaching the minimum wage to this budget proposal?
MR. MCCURRY: Because it's -- this is -- we got a question earlier, which was a good question, about what is the macroeconomic effect of federal budget policy. And what are you trying to do to the economy as you take care of the FISC**. And our view is that all of these things connect. Giving working Americans tax relief, as we would do with the Middle Class Bill of Rights, and rewarding those who work -- who are in marginal economic circumstances by raising the minimum wage is part of a coherent approach to the economy that is reflected in the budget policies that we've developed in connection with this proposal. So it fits because it fits as part of our overall economic strategy to reward work and to grow the economy.
Q The enforcement mechanism that you're exploring, are you concerned that this might be perceived as a back-door tax increase bill?
MR. MCCURRY: No, not necessarily, because, as I said, there are a lot of ways in past budget agreements where you enforce a deficit track. And the congressional negotiators will have to meet with our team negotiating from the White House and develop the best mechanism if that's the approach that they want to pursue.
MR. MCCURRY: Well, if you -- I mean, you could develop something if the track produced surplus in some years, that you could be in a position to give more tax relief to average working American families. We'd love to be in that position. That's one possibility. But, again, that's -- the mechanism itself will have to be developed by negotiators.
MR. MCCURRY: Well, later -- you'll be able to see later in the day, after it's available for your use, some information on both the strategic petroleum reserve; and you're right on the subject of ANWR. We are quite clear that that -- to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling would run contrary to the agreement between Congress and the President in the continuing resolution, that there wouldn't be steps to damage the environment as part of an overall approach to a balanced budget. And that clearly would run contrary to that type of an agreement.
MR. MCCURRY: You'll have to -- I'll have to defer that question until after the negotiators meet today.
Q What happens after they get them the CBO figures?
MR. MCCURRY: Well, our hope would be that, as Joe Stiglitz said today, since there have been no consultations formally between CBO and OMB on how you structure economic assumptions and technical assumptions for the drafting of a budget, that once CBO updates its numbers next week that they then agree -- in the consultations required now by law with both outside experts and between OMB and CBO -- that they agree to a set of assumptions that reflect the best educated, expert judgment on where the economy will go.
And, Joe, you know, today went through, you know -- everyone says well, it's easily imagined that the initial Republican reaction on the Hill is going to be, oh, you know, hocus-pocus, these are all numbers that, you know, are cooked up. But the point that the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors made today is worth going over because it was right on the money.
The OMB has been better at predicting the course of the economy and forecasting the economy in the last three years than has been CBO. The point is to use the best numbers available, to use the best expert advice you can get. In 1993, when the President came to office, the organization that had the best track record was CBO, we used CBO numbers. Now the organization in town that's got the best track record is the OMB. And that seems to be the best place to start in making assumptions about what the economy will do.
And I really do -- you know, since nobody has -- has everyone read this speech, Dr. Stiglitz's speech? Okay, good, then I'll read it for you. Because the point he makes today is that -- and there are three areas that he looked at. One was real GDP growth. The administration projected that real GDP would grow at an average rate of 3.1 percent over the period from the end of '92 up to the third quarter of this year. CBO projected 2.9 percent. In fact, the final number was 3.4 percent. So, in other words, our figure was too conservative, but it was not as pessimistic as the CBO number.
In nominal GDP, which is another key assumption that goes into the budget, the administration expected nominal GDP to rise by about 5.4 percent; CBO expected it to rise 4.6 percent. The final number, 5.3 percent. So, again, you know, we were closer. Our original forecast was more accurate.
On unemployment the administration and CBO both overestimated unemployment because, in fact, employment has been stronger and the economy has been doing better than we had imagined. We had expected unemployment to be about 6.5 percent from a period of the fourth quarter of '92 to the third quarter of '95; CBO thought it was going to be 6.7 percent. It actually averaged 6.2 percent.
On long-term interest rates -- see, next time you guys will read the speech so I won't do this to you -- but we've got it, it's out. It's out and it's available. The administration, on predicting long-term interest rates, which is very key in calculating what the interest burden is going to be, we were more accurate than CBO. The average error rate for us was zero. The average error rate for CBO was .5 percent. So we were much more on the money.
So the point is we use OMB numbers because they're better, not because, you know, we're trying to do something and cooking up a scenario for the budget. They're just flat-out better.
Q Because you've got Rivlin on your side now.
MR. MCCURRY: Yes, she did a good job there, and now she does a good job here.
The minimum wage -- the President's proposal would increase the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 over two years through two $0.45 cent increases.
Q Could you repeat that again?
MR. MCCURRY: That was the President's original minimum wage proposal and that has been reflected in the proposal today.
Q -- $4.25 to $5.15?
MR. MCCURRY: It would go from $4.25 to $5.15 in two increments of $0.45. | 2019-04-24T23:56:17Z | https://clintonwhitehouse6.archives.gov/1995/12/1995-12-07-press-briefing-by-mike-mccurry.html |
Joubert, A. J., Chimphango, A. F. A., and Görgens, J. F. (2016). "Effect of integrating xylan extraction from E. grandis into the kraft pulping process on pulp yield and chemical balance," BioRes. 11(1), 2417-2437.
Kraft mills have the potential to pre-extract hemicellulose from wood as another value added product. The impacts of pre-extracting xylan on pulp and handsheet properties, sodium and sulfur balances, and chemical make-ups in the kraft pulping process of Eucalyptus grandis were assessed. Xylan extractions using white liquor, green liquor, and NaOH were done under varying extraction times, temperatures, and alkaline concentrations; residues were subsequently pulped at 170 °C for 45 min. The highest xylan yield (15.15% w/w) was obtained with 2 M NaOH, at 120 °C for 90 min followed by white liquor (13.27% w/w), utilizing 20% AA at 140 °C for 90 min. Green liquor extraction with 2% total titratable alkali (TTA), at 160 °C and an H-factor of 800 produced the lowest yield (7.83% w/w). However, the green liquor extractions were the most practical for integration into the kraft process due to their limited effect on pulp yield and properties of handsheets produced from the pre-extracted woodchips and the sulfur and sodium make-up increase. White liquor extractions would favour high pulp yield with low kappa number and reduced chemical charge and cooking time. These results are important for technical-economic assessment of integrated kraft pulp biorefineries.
Pulp mills are facing increased environmental and economic pressures. Consequently, it is important that mills maximize the economic value derived from woody biomass that they process. Establishing integrated biorefineries (IFBRs) where additional value added products can be produced instead of pulp alone, entails important economic benefits (Ragauskas et al. 2006). Kraft pulp mills are especially well suited for conversion into IFBRs as they already have the required infrastructure, support networks, and specialized manpower (van Heiningen 2006; Mateos-Espejel et al. 2011).
A promising concept towards establishing IFBRs is the extraction of hemicelluloses prior to the pulping process (van Heiningen 2006; Tunc et al. 2010). Hemicelluloses have a wide variety of potential industrial uses, including not only the pulp and paper industry itself, but also the food and pharmaceutical industries. In the standard kraft pulping process, half of the hemicellulose, equivalent to about 15% of the wood weight, and almost all of the lignin present in woodchips raw material, is dissolved into the black liquor (Christopher 2013).
The fairly high heating value of lignin, 26.9 MJ/kg, makes it cost-effective to recycle it back to the reboiler for combustion. The heating value of hemicellulose, on the other hand, is about 13.6 MJ/kg, thus causing it to be underutilized when it is incinerated in the reboiler, as it provides only about a quarter of the energy recovery (Christopher 2013). It is more valuable to extract hemicellulose prior to the pulping process to generate an additional stream of high value products (Um and van Walsum 2010). Any hemicellulose pre-extraction method needs to be compatible with the existing kraft mill processes, while ensuring that the pulp and resulting paper qualities, obtained after hemicellulose pre-extraction, are still within the required industry standard. Importantly, the quantity of xylan extracted also needs to be sufficient to ensure that the pre-extraction process is viable, but without compromising subsequent pulp production.
A number of hemicellulose pre-extraction methods have been investigated by researchers, ranging from hot water extraction, to more “mild” extraction methods using alkaline chemicals. The recovery of the hemicellulose, in particular xylan, can vary considerably during alkali extraction (Al-Dajani and Tschirner 2008; Jun et al. 2012). Relatively higher xylan yields of approximately 25% of the original xylan fraction in the aspen hardwood chips were reported by Al-Dajani and Tschirner (2008) and Jun et al. (2012) when using white liquor and NaOH, respectively.
Although water and acid methods for hemicellulose extraction may achieve high hemicellulose yields, the severity of such extraction methods reduces the final pulp yield and paper quality obtained by pulping of solid residues from hemicellulose extraction (Mendes et al. 2010; Vena et al. 2013). These are key concerns of pulp and paper manufacturers (Jun et al. 2012).
Alkaline extraction methods alleviate some of these concerns, as they have minimal effect on pulp yield reduction when compared to other extraction methods, such as acid and water extraction methods (Vena et al. 2013). Moreover, acid-based methods for hemicellulose pre-extraction will neutralize pulping chemicals in subsequent process steps, resulting in inefficient use of these chemicals. The water and acidic extraction methods are also more prone to degradation of extracted xylan biopolymers to oligosaccharides and monomers when compared to that of alkaline extraction methods, thus impeding the potential to produce high value biopolymers (Fiserova and Opalena 2012).
The qualities of paper produced from solid residues of woods from xylan pre-extraction using alkaline methods such as NaOH, green liquor as well as white liquor, have been comparable with those obtained by pulping of non-extracted woodchips. In some instances, the qualities have improved properties (Helmerius et al. 2010; Walton et al. 2010; Jun et al. 2012; Vena et al. 2013). In striving for commercial feasibility, increased attention is being directed towards using pre-existing alkaline chemicals within kraft mills for hemicellulose pre-extraction (Johakim and Andrew 2013).
Eucalyptus grandis species is one of the most important sources of fiber in the pulp and paper industry (Magaton et al. 2009) and is widely used by South African mills due to its high pulping yield and low production costs. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of the xylan pre-extraction by green liquor, white liquor, and NaOH on pulp yields and paper properties from kraft process of E. grandis at a South African pulp mill. Furthermore, the study assessed the impact on the sodium and sulfur balances of the kraft mills, and the requirement for make-up chemicals to the kraft pulping cycle.
Green liquor, white liquor, and NaOH were used to extract xylan from E. grandis woodchips prior to kraft pulping. Pre-extracted woodchips from selected extraction conditions were subjected to varying pulping conditions, to compare pulp yields and properties with those obtained from untreated E. grandis chips with conventional pulping. Handsheets were also made from the pulps produced under the highest pulp yield conditions, and these were tested for pulp quality properties. Furthermore, mass balances were performed to gauge the impact that hemicellulose pre-extraction would have using green liquor, white liquor, and NaOH on the sodium and sulfur balances of the mill. The most feasible method for hemicellulose (xylan) pre-extraction in an existing kraft process could thus be identified.
Experiments were performed using wood chips obtained from an 11-year-old E. grandis plantation grown in Tzaneen in South Africa. The wood was chipped and the resulting wood chips were screened for size fractions ranging between 4 to 8 mm. The screening was done by a six-component chip screen driven by an electric motor. Before use, the wood chips were conditioned in a conditioning room allowing for constant temperature of 23 °C coupled with 55% relative humidity.
The E. grandis chips were sub-sampled as prescribed by British Standards DD CEN/TS 14780 (2005).E. grandis chips were milled to a particle size below 625 μm with the use of a Condux-Werk mill (Netzsch, Germany) as well as in a Retsch ZM 200 mill (Retsch GmbH, Germany). The particles produced were then sieved using a Retsch AS200 vibratory shaker (Retsch GmbH, Germany), with the 425 μm and 625 μm size fractions being utilized for further analysis.
Moisture content was determined using the NREL-TP 510-42621 (Sluiter et al. 2008a) method, with the extractives content being determined by a two-step extraction process, where both water and ethanol/cyclohexane extractives were quantified as described by the NREL-TP 510-42619 method. Klason lignin as well as carbohydrate composition of both the feedstock and the residue from alkaline pre-extraction were determined using NREL-TP 510-42618 (Sluiter et al. 2007), whereas the ash contents were determined via NREL-TP 510-42622 (Sluiter et al. 2008b).
where WIO = the oven dry weight of the initial sample subjected to pre-extraction; WEO = the oven dry weight of the remaining residue after pre-extraction; and AshE = the ash fraction of the remaining residue after pre-extraction.
The liquor fractions from NaOH and white liquor extractions (pH > 13), were neutralized using 37% HCl to pH 7. Subsequently, the samples were frozen at -4 °C until they were prepared for HPLC analyses. Liquid fractions obtained from green liquor extractions, with pH between pH 5 and pH 7, depending on the initial alkali charge, were frozen at -4 °C without neutralization, before high performance liquid performance (HPLC) analysis. The sugars (glucose, xylose, galactose, and arabinose) and acetate composition were analyzed using HPLC according to the method described by the NREL-TP 510-42623 (Sluiter et al. 2008c). The HPLC system used consisted of a Thermo Separations Spectra P 2000, which was equipped with both an Aminex HPX-87H column, operating at 65 °C, and an IG cation H guard column, with a Shodex RI-101 refractive index detector. The mobile phase was 5 mM H2SO4 at a flow rate of 0.6 mL min-1, with the IG cation H guard column.Furthermore, the liquor samples were subjected to FT-IR analysis using a Thermo Nicolet Nexus 870 Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) system via the attenuated total reflection (ATR) Golden Gate measurement device. The data analysis was done with the use of Omnic 7 software which was subsequently exported to Microsoft Excel.
White liquor xylan extractions were performed at both mild as well as more severe extraction conditions. The mild extraction experiments were performed via a face centered central composite design with temperatures from 50 °C to 90 °C coupled with active alkali (AA) charges ranging from 16% to 20%. Extractions were performed by mixing 50 g (over dry weight, O.D.W.) E. grandis chips with white liquor (4:1 liquor to wood ratio) in 500 mL Schott bottles and subsequently placing them in a shaking hot water bath. Xylan content in the liquor fraction was considered a response of the central composite design with data interpreted using Stat Soft® Statistica 9.0. Table 1 shows both the extraction conditions as well as the corresponding results.
E. grandis chips were also subjected to green liquor, white liquor, and NaOH at liquor to wood ratio of 4:1 at extractions exceeding 100 °C, through the use of a pressurized oscillating digester. Extractions were carried out using batches of 50 g (O.D.W.) of E. grandis. During the extraction cycles the digester oscillated through 45° in order to ensure sufficient liquid contact with the wood chips. The temperature and pressure of the digester were monitored with a thermocouple and pressure gauge fitted to the lid of the digester. A programmable logic computer (PLC) was used to control the entire extraction cycle. Pressure in the digester was liberated through the use of a blow valve, with operating pressure during pulping being around 8 bar and that of the extractions varying between 2 and 7 bar.
The white liquor extractions were carried out at a temperature range from 100 °C to 140 °C using AA charges of 16% and 20% for a period of 90 min at each given temperature interval. The NaOH extractions were performed at temperatures of 100 °C, 110 °C, 120 °C, and 130 °C and at molar concentrations of 1 M and 2 M for 90 min.
The green liquor extractions were carried out at 160 °C with H-factors between 200 and 800. The total titratable alkali (TTA) charges that were investigated included 2% and 6% for extractions performed using green liquor. For the green liquor extractions that were performed, a charge of 0.05% of anthraquinone (based on oven dry weight of wood chips) was added (Walton et al. 2010). The extraction conditions that were used are summarized in Table 1.
As a benchmark, non xylan–extracted E. grandis was subjected to pulping by simulating batch cooking conditions. Pulping conditions included a liquor to wood ratio of 4.5:1, 170 °C pulping temperature, 18% AA coupled with 25% sulfidity. Cooking conditions were based on suggested pulping conditions of South African E. grandis (Myburgh 1967). Pulping time at 170 °C was set to 45 min to achieve a kappa number of 20.
After pre-extraction, the wood chips residues were removed from the micro-bombs and the resulting liquor was drained from the chips through a 100 mesh screen. The solid residue (unwashed) from the extractions was placed in micro-bombs for further pulping.
Pulp fibers were separated from the pulping black liquor by washing it through a 10 mesh screen with running water until all the pulp had passed through with the uncooked fibers (rejects) retained on the screen. Thereafter, the pulp was screened with a packer slotted laboratory screen. Excess water from the pulp was removed through spin drying, to a moisture content of approximately 70%. The pulp yield was determined as the percentage of the original oven dry mass of the E. grandis chips using Eq. 2 (Vena et al. 2013).
The kappa number of the pulps was determined using the method that is outlined by ISO 302:2004. The unbeaten pulps, which were comparable in pulp yields to that of non-extracted chips, were subsequently formed into handsheets according to TAPPI T 205 om-88 method.
The physical properties of handsheets formed from the pulps that were produced were also analyzed. These properties included the burst, tear, as well as the tensile indices of the handsheets produced. Methods used for the determination of the physical properties of the handsheets are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Analytical Standard Methods Used to Determine Physical Properties of Handsheets Formed.
To investigate the effect the pre-extraction conditions would have on the make-up of chemicals required in the kraft mill, sodium and sulfur mass balances were calculated for the modified kraft processes. The sodium and sulfur mass balances were done using extraction conditions selected for pulping of wood chips to form handsheets. The estimated kraft chemical recovery cycle in the conventional process was assumed to be 97% (Tran and Vakkilainannen 2012). The amount of sodium and sulfur (kg) used for each specific hemicellulose extraction condition, per ton of air dried pulp produced, was calculated with Eqs. 3 to 6.
NaNa2S, NaNaOH, and NaNa2CO3 represent the mass (kg) of sodium, if one ton of air dried pulp is to be produced, from Na2S, NaOH, and Na2CO3 respectively. SNa2S represents the mass (kg) of sulfur used during hemicellulose extraction, if a ton of air dried pulp is to be produced, from Na2S. In order to calculate the total amount of sodium used during white liquor extraction, the sodium used from Na2S and NaOH was added together, while, as green liquor consists of all three Na2S, NaOH, and Na2CO3, the Na from all these components were added together. With NaOH extraction, only the Na from the NaOH was used for the calculation. The only component containing sulfur was Na2S, which is found only in white and green liquor. The values 23, 32, 78.1, 40, and 106 are the molecular weights (g/mole) of sodium, sulfur, Na2S, NaOH, and Na2CO3, respectively. The value 0.085 is the oven dry mass (kg) of the wood chips used during extraction, while Y represents the pulp yield as a fraction. PMis the moisture fraction for air dried pulp which was assumed to be 10%.
The chemical composition of the E. grandis feedstock for combined hemicellulose extraction and pulping is shown in Table 3. The cellulose fraction is expressed in terms of the glucose content, while the hemicellulose content is expressed as monomeric xylose and arabinose contents.
The contents of xylan and cellulose, which were polymers of particular interest in this study, were typical for E. grandis. Previous reports show xylan contents between 11.5% and 21%, and cellulose contents between 43% and 53% (Magaton et al. 2009; Vena et al. 2013).
The lignin content for the species was typical of E. grandis with reported values between 21% and 30% (Cotteril and Macrae et al. 1997; Vena et al. 2013). Low lignin content is especially desirable for pulping purposes due to easier delignification. Moreover, lignin can also hinder the release of sugars during hemicellulose pre-extraction (Studer et al. 2011). The extractives content was higher than those reported in previous reports of 2.9% to 4.2% for E. grandis (Emmel et al. 2003; Magaton et al. 2009).
The xylan yield was influenced more by level of alkalinity than temperature. Higher xylan yields were obtained with alkaline extraction from E. grandis at temperatures above 100 °C. The highest yield of 15.5% was obtained with NaOH (2M) extraction at 120 °C for 90 min, followed by white liquor, 13.27% obtained at 20% AA, 140 °C for the same duration (Fig. 1). The green liquor extraction, which had lowest alkalinity (Table 1), yielded the lowest xylan (7.83%), despite using higher extraction temperatures of 160 °C than the other two methods. This indicated that the higher alkali charges used during the white liquor and NaOH extractions had a more significant impact on xylan yield than the higher extraction temperature utilized by the green liquor extraction.
The specific E. grandis used in this study showed recalcitrance in releasing xylan at lower temperatures. At temperatures ranging from 50 to 90 °C, the maximum recovery of xylose was 5.63% (5.41% predicted by the model) from white liquor extractions (Table 4), which was lower than that ofnearly 25% from aspen under similar conditions (Jun et al. 2012).
Table 4. Central Composite Design Output of White Liquor Xylan Extraction from E. Grandis at Temperatures Lower than 100 °C.
Under mild alkali conditions of 1 M NaOH at 90 °C, Vena et al. (2013) extracted 12.4% of the xylan present in E. grandis feedstock that had lower lignin content (21.1%). The low yield may be attributed to the high extractives content (4.3%) and lignin in the E. grandis (Table 3).
Some of the extractives are hydrophobic and can aggregate on the surface of the fiber, blocking both the penetration of chemicals and the diffusion of lignin from the fiber wall (Dai et al. 2004), thus affecting the xylan yield. Feedstock with low lignin is particularly amenable to xylan release, during alkali extraction (Studer et al. 2011). The E. grandis in the present study had a higher lignin (Table 3) than one Vena et al. (2013) used. The decrease with increasing lignin content is possibly due to the presence of lignin-carbohydrate complexes (Jeffries 1990).
White liquor pre-extraction performed at temperatures below 100 °C had a significant effect (p<0.5) on xylose recovery. However, alkaline charge in the range of 16% and 20% for the same temperature range (< 100 °C), had no significant effect (p>0.5) on the xylose recovery. Therefore, the effect alkali charge on xylan extraction is temperature dependent (Liu et al. 2011). The R-squared value of 0.78 of the model itself implies reasonable predictability of xylose recovery.
Fig. 1. Mass of solubilized sugars recovered in extraction liquor per 100 grams of E. grandisfeedstock. Temperature on the bottom x-axis is for white liquor and NaOH extractions, while H-factor on the top x-axis is for the green liquor extractions that were performed.
The lower quantities of xylan recovered from the green liquor liquid phase, compared to white liquor and NaOH, reflect the lower xylan solubilisation and release from the residue (Fig. 1), which corresponded to the maximum wood weight losses of 7.67% for green liquor extractions compared to 20.67% and 16.44% for white liquor and NaOH, respectively (Fig. 2).
The xylan was extracted by green liquor with relatively higher purity than when utilizing white liquor and NaOH, as reflected by the presence of lower content of lignin derivatives than those extracted by the latter two methods (Fig. 3). The FTIR spectra for xylan from white liquor and NaOH extractions displayed peaks at 1193/1192 cm-1, associated with Caryl-O (Collier et al. 1992) as well as at 1052 cm-1, which depicts the deformation of C-O coupled with the deformation of aromatic C-H associated with lignin (Collier et al. 1992; Akerholm et al. 2005).
In contrast, peaks at the aforementioned bands were absent in the spectra for green liquor extracted xylan (Fig. 3). Notably, the green liquor extraction conditions were less severe (lower alkalinity) than those of white liquor and NaOH, which may have limited the co-release of lignin and xylan. Depending on the application, a purer xylan may offset cost of purification and lower yield, thus making green liquor pre-extraction more practical for integration in the kraft process.
Fig. 2. Wood weight losses obtained using three different extraction methods. (a) White liquor extraction for 16% and 20% Active Alkali. (b) Green liquor extraction using 2% and 6% TTA. (c) NaOH extraction for 1M and 2M.
The final selection of the most feasible extraction method, for integrating with kraft pulp production would have to be based on the subsequent properties such as tensile, tear, burst indices of the pulp, and paper products as well as the make-up chemicals required. Green liquor had a pulp yield of 43.19%, which corresponded to a kappa number of 18.70 (Table 5). The pulp yield of the non-extracted chips was 41.67% with a corresponding kappa number of 20.3, indicating that green liquor pre-extraction benefited the subsequent pulping processes in yield and kappa number. The average pulp yield of 41.67% from the non-extracted chips (Table 5) was on the lower side when compared to industrial process yields of above 50% (Vena et al. 2013). Significant variations in wood properties between E. grandis trees, even with trees that grow within the same location, are known to occur (Malan 1988), making the deviation of pulp yield of this particular feedstock not particularly exceptional. The higher extractives content than normal (Table 3) for this E. grandis species might have lowered the pulp yield by preventing chemical penetration during pulping. Therefore, it is desirable that the extractives content should be as low as possible for efficient pulping (Macleod 2007).
The unbeaten handsheets from pulps obtained from green liquor extracted chips, had tensile, tear, and burst indices of 18.2 N.m-1.g-1, 3.2 mN.m2.g-1, and 0.924 kPa.m2.g-1, respectively. These values were almost identical to that of the reference pulp (Fig. 5). The inherent high alkalinity of the white liquor extractions allowed for a greater reduction in chemical charge during the subsequent pulping of the pre-extracted residue when compared to that of green liquor extraction. The resulting pulp yield of 41.60% was comparable with that of the reference pulp of 41.67% (Table 5) but with a lower kappa number of 12.86 compared to kappa number of 20.3 of pulp produced from non-extracted E. grandis(Table 5). Maintaining the pulp yield with a lower kappa number indicates that the white liquor extractions reduced both the cooking time and chemical charge and had selective dissolution of lignin, thus increasing pulping efficiency. There was no statistical significance observed in terms of burst, tear, and tensile indices of handsheets produced from white liquor pre-extracted residues when compared to those of the non-extracted E. grandis (Fig. 4). However, beating could potentially result in more significant deviations being exhibited in the properties of handsheets produced from pulps of non-extracted E. grandis chips.
The E. grandis chips that were subjected to NaOH pre-extraction had a pulp yield of 40% (Table 5) with a corresponding kappa number of 18.85. The resulting yield was lower than the yields of 43.19% and 41.67% (Fig. 4) for pulps resulting from green liquor and white liquor pre-extraction, respectively. Furthermore, disparities were observed in terms of both the tear and burst indices of pulps resulting from NaOH pre-extracted chips when compared to that of the non-extracted chips (Fig. 4). An increase of 28% was observed for the tear index of pulps derived from NaOH extracted chips; however, a reduced burst index of 9.6% was also observed (Fig. 4). This indicates that the quantity of xylan removed from the NaOH pre-extracted chips was significant enough to start impacting the pulp fibers and subsequently the paper properties. The increase in tear strength becomes apparent when there is significant reduction in flexible inter-fibre bonding that is enhanced by presence of hemicelluloses (Wan et al. 2010). The effects of decreased flexibility of inter-fibre bonding on the tear strength properties of the paper have been discussed before (Helmerius et al. 2010) and are attributable to the contribution of hemicelluloses to the electrostatic character of pulp fibres. As hemicellulose content of pulp is reduced there is reduction in accessible fibril surfaces for water molecules, which results in dried pulps being less conducive to swelling when soaked in water as a result of fiber separation. The effect becomes more challenging for fibre bonding because it provides less contact area with water (Wan et al. 2010; Reyes et al. 2015).
Pre-extraction of E. grandis with the green liquor reduced the chemicals requirement for subsequent pulping of the solid residues, without compromising the pulp yield or quality. A reduced chemical charge of 35% was obtained with improvements in both the yield and kappa numbers of pulps, which indicates that extraction of hemicellulose preserved the cellulose fiber quality, which in turn is an indicator of how the integration process economics would be affected (Walton et al. 2010). The reduction in chemicals obtained is much higher than the 20% reduction in pulping chemicals for a kappa number of 20 (Johakim and Andrew 2013). A pulp yield of 41.67% obtained from pulping of pre-extracted residues from xylan extraction by white liquor at 120 °C and 20% AA for 90 min, resulted in a 50% reduction in chemical charge and 15 min reduction in cooking time, relative to the standard cooking conditions of non-extracted chips (Table 5).
a No additional chemicals were added to chips after extraction.
b Only half the amount of Na2S required for 85 g (O.D.W.) of non-extracted chips was added. No NaOH added.
c Same amount of Na2S as is required for 85 g (O.D.W.) of non-extracted chips was added. No NaOH added.
d Same amount of Na2S and 25% of NaOH as is required for 85 g (O.D.W.) of non-extracted chips added.
e Extraction and pulping combinations selected for handsheet formation.
*Represents percentage reduction of Na2S and NaOH relative to Na2S and NaOH required for 85 g (O.D.W.) of non-extracted chips.
**Wood chips after pulping were not in pulp form as they weren’t sufficiently pulped.
Such an effect was reported earlier by Johakim and Andrew (2013). The E. grandis chips that were subjected to NaOH pre-extraction produced the best pulp properties with a 25% reduction in the quantity of NaOH requirement relative to that of the standard pulping conditions when the residues were pulped with the same amount of Na2S as that of the non-extracted chips for 45 min (Table 5).
The practicality of hemicellulose extraction integrated in the kraft pulp process lies both in the extraction technology and the chemical recovery technologies. About half of all the technical equipment in the kraft process is physically used for pulping, with the remaining used for chemical recovery from the spent liquor. About 97% of the alkaline chemicals are recovered (Blechschmidt et al. 2013) to reduce operating costs. In hemicellulose extraction streams the recovery was 90%. The chemical balance assessments to evaluate the losses of sodium and sulfur during hemicellulose pre-extraction against the amount of Na2SO4 and NaOH needed to compensate for the lost sodium and sulfur per ton of pulp produced are depicted in vector diagrams for white liquor (Fig. 5b), and for NaOH and green liquor extractions (Figs 6,a and b, respectively) . When compared with a kraft process without hemicellulose extraction (Fig. 5 a), the sodium and sulfur exiting with the hemicellulose stream in white liquor extraction represented 4.46 and 5.08 times increase in make-up of sodium and sulfur (Fig.5 b). In NaOH extraction the increase in chemical make-up, thus sodium make up was found to be increased 4.96 times (Fig. 6 a). On the other hand, the loss of sodium and sulfur from the green liquor extraction for the same chemical recovery led to 1.73 and 1.29 times increases in the make-up for sodium and sulfur, respectively (Fig. 6 b), which is attributed to the low alkali concentration used during the initial extraction process. The results imply that sodium and sulfur balances in NaOH and white liquor xylan extractions can be closer to those of standard pulping if there is close to 100% recovery of chemicals used in the-extraction-of-the-hemicellulose. This information is important for techno-economic assessment of establishing integrated forest biorefineries.
Green liquor was found to be the most feasible pre-extraction method to be integrated into the kraft pulp cycle compared to the white liquor and NaOH extraction methods.
The green liquor extraction demonstrated a better sodium and sulfur balance as reflected in the reduced increase in the make-up chemicals of the kraft process.
Green liquor was selective for xylan release and preserved the pulp fibers, thus giving xylan with greater purity and increased pulp yield relative to the pulps obtained from xylan non-extracted wood chips.
Green liquor xylan pre-extraction maintained the burst, tear, and tensile properties of handsheets derived from unbeaten pulp.
About 100% recovery of chemicals from the hemicellulose extract is necessary in white liquor and NaOH xylan pre-extraction to minimize the impact of hemicellulose pre-extraction on the kraft cycle chemical balance.
The white liquor extractions allowed for a greater reduction in chemical charge during the subsequent pulping of the pre-extracted residue and can be used to obtain high pulp yield and low kappa number with reduced cooking time.
Chemical balance and effect of xylan pre-extraction were demonstrated to be important parameters for techno-economic assessment of integrated forest biorefineries based on kraft mills.
The authors are grateful for the financial support of The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA), The Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP) of the National Research Foundation (NRF), and the support by the technical staff at the Departments of Wood Science and Forestry and Process Engineering, Stellenbosch University. The study would not have been possible without the technical and material support from The Mondi Group, Richards Bay.
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Article submitted: May 5, 2015; Peer review completed: October 13, 2015; Revised version received and accepted; January 5, 2016; Published: January 26, 2016. | 2019-04-24T22:22:58Z | https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/effect-of-integrating-xylan-extraction-from-e-grandis-into-the-kraft-pulping-process-on-pulp-yield-and-chemical-balance/ |
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 pm by rtmsf and is filed under team of the 2000s. Tagged: arizona, ben howland, bill self, bruce weber, chris webber, dee brown, deron williams, derrick rose scandal, duke, florida, gonzaga, illinois, james augustine, jamie dixon, john calipari, kansas, lute olson, luther head, marcus camby, mark few, massachusetts, memphis, michael redd, michigan, michigan st, ncaa tournament, north carolina, ohio st, pittsburgh, team of the 2000s, unc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Texas does not merit an Honorable Mention? Really? In this decade, the Horns went to one Final Four and two Elite Eight. Although with Memphis getting stripped of its 2007-2008 season, does that mean the Horns have a second Final Four appearance? Twice, conference co-champions. Individually, TJ Ford and Kevin Durant highlight a talented decade.
Bevo, Texas was the proverbial “last team out.” It was tough but somebody had to drop out, and Texas’ stats looked almost identical to Pitt and Arizona. We probably could have raised the Horns over Gonzaga, but we did want to throw a bone to the best mid-major of the decade too.
To be honest, I wanted Texas to be an honorable mention team, but others on the committee overruled me. I can see your point although I’m not a big fan of the “take Memphis out and we advance further” argument for a bunch of reasons, which were in the original text of my contribution to this post that rtmsf edited out. Personally, I would have put Texas above Gonzaga (no Elite 8s) and Pittsburgh (no Final 4s and missing 2 NCAA tournaments).
I am an Arizona fan, just so you know, but AZ should be #8 on this list in spite of 2 years turmoil. Gonzaga gets a lot of love for no good reason just like Texas and Pitt.
It’s funny that the author broke down his negative points against UA into four distinct categories, but not anyone else. The other Honorable Mentions were def. more positive comments even though Pitt, Gonzaga, maryland, and syracuse have way less of a resume for top ten.
1. The Pac10 plays every one twice, unlike some other leagues. This guarantees more losses.
The Pac10 was the best league in 2001, ask Duke. They beat four Pac10 teams to reach the NC. being the best league 20% of the decade ain’t too shabby.
2. Wins in the tournament is a result of seeding, a maority of the time, check the stats. In fact, just scroll up and look: maryland, Pitt and Illinois all have better avg seeds but worse (or same) win avgs!
3. Once again, only 5 teams won more conf. titles than Arizona, not ten or thirteen of the top decade teams.
“Pales” in comparison?? Try being accurate. The SEC was a joke last year. The Big10 was a couple of baskets from having no one in the Sweet Sixteen (although I am a big fan of Mich ST), and the ACC, other than NC, was not impressive. The 2 best conferences were the Big East and Big 12, by far.
The AUTHOR actually says JUST THE YEAR BEFORE that the Pac10 was dominant –in point #1. Not my words, his.
4. You could argue that the Wildcats got lucky the past two years. 2 years does not equal many. You could argue that, but you would still be in the minority, and you would still be wrong, and Arizona still went to the Sweet Sixteen this year.
Your criteria is bogus. Florida is the team of the 2000’s in college basketball!
Florida is a new basketball power & outperformed every team in the NCAA during the 2000s!
When you compare these teams, it’s appropriate to do a top-down analysis (i.e., NC’s, NC-runner up, F4,..etc) and not a bottom-up analysis. This blogger did not give any credit for NC-runner up yet makes a big deal about number of S16’s & conference tourneys/championships.
Only, North Carolina is even close to Florida’s achievements this decade (see below). And after this year, Florida will be the team of the 2000s in Football as well. No other program in the history of the NCAA can make such a claim! Tops in the 2000’s decade in both Football & Basketball. Oh my! Gator-haters Beware!!
The simplest way to compare who is the best college basketball team of the decade is by determining which team won the most NC’s that decade (i.e, the same way we are comparing it in college football – between Florida, LSU, & maybe USC). Who is number 1 in college basketball for the 2000s decade is strictly between Florida & North Carolina (and nobody else as each won 2 NC’s apiece & other contenders won only 1 NC).
Here is my criteria (& my reasoning given below) for rating the best college basketball teams.
As you can see from my above table, North Carolina missed 2 NCAA Tourney appearances earlier in the decade just like FLorida has in the last two years. Florida (0.754), Michigan State (0.721), Kansas (0.798), Duke(0.826) and others have a higher winning percentage than North Carolina (0.711); yet, this blogger names Carolina as its “team of the 2000s”, followed by Kansas, Florida, Duke, and Michigan State. How can a team with one of the lowest winning percentages be the team of the decade?
How can this be? Is it because NCAA tourney performance count the most (i.e, NC’s, NC-runner ups, Final4’s …….S16’s, NCAA tourney appearance)?
By the way, this blogger did not give any credit for NC-runner up yet makes a big deal about number of S16’s & conference tourneys/championships.
Conference Tourneys & Regular conference champions are for seeding purposes only in the NCAA tourney – and doesn’t determine how you do in the NCAA tourney. The only thing people remember most about a team is what it does in a final 4.
Duke & Kansas won 10-11 conference tourney/championships each; yet, each team only won one NC. Duke made only 2 F4’s and Kansas made 3 F4’s the same number as UF. Florida, with less NCAA tourney appearances (8 vs.10) and far less conference tourneys/chmps (6), made 3 F4’s and won 2 NC’s and one NC-runner up. Even though Duke & Kansas went to more S16’s (8 & 7, respectively), they accomplished less overall in the NCAA tourney than FLorida or North Carolina.
Wouldn’t you agree? You tell me who is more consistent between Florida and Kansas. The extra S16 appearances by Kansas doesn’t trump that second NC by Florida! Kansas went to 3 F4’s and lost twice in the semifinals. They were lucky they did not become a runner-up to Memphis and have zero NC’s.
Another thing, Michigan State actually outperformed Kansas during the 2000s despite going to less (7 vs. 10) NCAA tourneys. MSU went to more F4’s (4 vs 3) than Kansas. They each have one NC but MSU also has a NC-runner up finish to edge out KU for 3rd on my list.This blogger has KU #2 above Florida and ranks MSU 5th which I think is wrong!
Gators! Rule – we happen to believe that College Basketball is more than just the NCAA Tournament, and that the NCAA Tournament is more than just the Final Four. You’re welcome to your opinion, but we take a more holistic view of the game than that.
Besides, you value NCs five times as much as the runner-up – why not just make it 50x as much, or 500x as much?
And as far as we’re concerned, Utah won the MNC in football last year as the only team to not lose a game all year.
Texas may not have done anything remarkable (other than produce Kevin Durant–easily one of the top 5 players to come out of college basketball in the past decade), but they have had consistently solid teams. They haven’t been great. That’s why they aren’t in the top 10 just like the teams listed here. I just felt they had a stronger case than some of the “also receiving votes” teams (particularly Gonzaga).
Syracuse and Maryland are in there because they won a title. Arizona got the title game once, but failed to capitalize. If they had won that game, they might have ended up as high as #8. Heck, if they hadn’t choked against Illinois in 2005 they might have made the top 10 anyways.
(1) Playing each team twice only means that you play each team twice. It helps an average team’s record just as much to play Oregon as it hurts the same team to play Washington. Last year, the Pac-10 teams played 18 conference regular season games. Here is the breakdown of conference regular season games for the other BCS conferences: ACC (16), Big 12 (16), Big East (18), Big Ten (18), and SEC (16). So 2 conferences played the same number of games while the others played 2 less. Hardly a noticeable difference even before you consider who these conferences play in their non-conference schedules. As for 2001, having 4 of your teams get beat by the eventual champs doesn’t make that strong of a case for being the best league that year. Having 3 of your teams in the Final 4 would, but just getting beat by Jason Williams and Company doesn’t. If you want to pull out some 2001 Sagarin ratings I would pay attention, but getting beat doesn’t mean you are good. You could also make a strong argument for 2 other conferences that year just off the top of my head: Big Ten (7 bids, 1 S16, 1 E8, and 1 F4) or the ACC (5 bids, 1 F4, and the champs–not to mention a good UNC team that got upset in the 2nd round). You’re also neglecting all the years the Pac-10 was awful in the middle of the decade.
(2) That’s not a particularly shocking observation especially when a #1 has never lost to a #16. Of course you can’t argue causation since teams that continually get #1 seeds tend to be better than those than get the last bid. As for Illinois and Gonzaga, like I said I would have killed them too if I had written their section.
(3) I’m hardly alone in considering the Pac-10 far below the Big East (2 top 10 programs, 1 “also receiving votes”, and 2 titles) and ACC (3 top 10 programs and 4 titles) in terms of quality of basketball the past decade. The Big Ten and the SEC in particular can be debated, but I would argue that they have had better top level teams than the Pac-10 in the past decade.
(4) “Many” may have been the wrong word there, but it was in reference to questioning how strong their 10-year consecutive streak of NCAA tournament bids was. The S16 run was nice, but it doesn’t diminish the fact that their case for being in the NCAA tournament was very tenuous.
You might want to check your table. Michigan State was at every NCAA tourney during the 2000s. Not sure whether that changes your thoughts, but you gotta give them some props for that!
Sparty! My apologies for my mistake. I think I misread the data from this site! I re-computed the total for MSU again using my rough criteria to be 170 which is still a strong 3rd place for the decade!
Rtmsf! You are funny & weird in your logic! Let me address your points in reverse order!
It’s laughable that your “holistic” group of people think Utah was the mnc! All of college football tries to use logic to set up the annual BCS National championship by pitting the two best teams against each other once the regular season is completed – the final AP & Coaches poll determined that Florida is #1 for 2008 as National champs.
Who did utah defeat to become the NC? The Pac-10 champion? The Big-12 champion? Or was it the SEC champion? No?
Utah was only ranked #6 in the final regular season BCS poll. They were not chosen as one of the two best teams remaining once the regular season ended.
The National championship game was played between #1Oklahoma & #2 Florida.
To get to this game, UF defeated many teams playing the 4th toughest schedule including the defending National champs LSU tigers (51-21), the preseason #1 team Georgia bulldogs(49-10), an undefeated #1 Alabama crimson tide (31-20) in the SEC championship game and finally the Big-12 champion, #1 Oklahoma sooners (24-14).
Utah may have finished undefeated but they have played only the 76th rated SOS. With such a weak schedule, no wonder they were not even considered for the championship game.
UF played the 4th toughest schedule. As the #2 team, Florida defeated two #1 ranked teams in consecutive games they have played. Has a team ever done that in the history of college football?
If teams from a non-BCS conference such as Utah want to compete for the NC, they have to schedule & defeat the power teams on the road to be considered for the BCS championship game. For instance in the regular season, Utah has to go to Los Angelas and defeat Southern Cal or they have to go to Big 12 territory and defeat Texas in Austin or Oklahoma in Norman.
Incidentally, when Central Florida canceled its game with Florida this year, UF tried to schedule one game with Utah in Gainesville. But the Utes were too chicken to play the gators and the best game we could get on short notice is Charleston Southern (which we are getting big grief for playing them; since, we are 73 point favorites)!
These piss-ant little teams like Utah, TCU, Boise state, etc. need to prove they belong by scheduling and defeating a perennial top 5 team that I mentioned above. That is how former Independents like Florida State & Miami achieved their past success in the 1980s – by scheduling & defeating teams like Nebraska, Oklahoma, Ohio State, etc. Even Notre Dame scheduled national teams in the 1920s-1940s in order to compete for NC’s!
But, getting back to college basketball!
By the way great job on your staff writing up the content for “The Team of the 2000s”. Even though I didn’t agree with your rankings, it was still fun reading!
Don’t be daft, what would be the point? By using a minimum weight as necessary, I wanted to make a distinction of winning a NC is significantly greater than winning several S16’s, conference championships, etc. I also wanted to reward a NC runner-up (who is one of only two teams out of 64+ teams remaining who had the best chance of winning a NC) over a F4 participant that did not advance – by simply doubling the points (2 x 10) over a F4 particpant (10 points) received.
Winning the National championship is the greatest achievement, relatively speaking, when compared to winning a conference championship, S16, E8 or Final 4 appearance. So, I gave this achievement the highest weight (100 points).
Earlier events (i.e., S16, E8) are insignificant when compared to the ultimate event (i.e, winning a national championship). But later events (i.e., F4 appearance, National runner-up) become more significant when comparing to the ultimate event. The earlier events are “noise” in the background that can be ignored when trying to determine the big picture (i.e, which set of teams are the best by looking at their ultimate achievements).
(100 >> n*(4 or 6)?
But, an achievement of multiple F4’s or NC-runner-ups become more significant when comparing to the ultimate achievement.
Now are you really going to tell me that all conference championships & tourneys are weighted the same?
Is a Big Ten championship equivalent to a Big Sky conference championship?
Like I said before, they are just for seeding purposes in the NCAA tourney and shouldn’t count when determining the best teams.
What’s the deal between number of All-Americans vs NBA draft picks? Have you noticed that Duke, North Carolina, Kansas have the most All-Americans yet all of the other elite teams you are comparing have roughly produced a similar amount of NBA draft pics? Could it be that ESPN & other media cover certain teams 24/7 during basketball season more than the other teams and that these teams’ players are favored to receive more accolades? Why the discrepancy & why bother giving credit here?
The only way to compare teams objectively is by direct competition in the NCAA tourney. That’s why you look at NCAA tourney performance. Anyways, years from now, you think the average lay person is going to delve deeper than how many NC’s a team wins per decade. They are not going to care about how many conference championships, S16’s, or how many All-Americans a program achieved.
I don’t believe that we have any math majors in our group, but I don’t doubt for a second that every member of our group (with a combined 4 professional degrees by my last count) can easily follow your model. I think your mathematical model is the basic reason why didn’t try to create one. You can manipulate the relative weights a million different ways until you come up with a result you like, which isn’t that different than what a lot of businesses and consultants do. The Utah comment was obviously a joke, but you can certainly create a formula to make it so that the Utes were the national champs. Rtmsf wasn’t the one in the discussion who was being daft. As for your logarithmic scale, I’m not sure how you are deciding on those intervals as it seems somewhat arbitrary (just like the rest of the formula). Now you can argue that we are being subjective in our evaluation of the teams and we readily admit that. Just be aware that the very nature of mathematical modeling in cases where you can’t directly test the outcome is by its very nature subjective.
(2) Translating All-Americans into NBA Draft Picks. The AAs were only for consensus picks, which obviously is a much rarer designation than being a “NBA Draft Pick”. You should notice that there are much fewer AAs than Draft Picks (yes, even at Duke, North Carolina, and Kansas). The different categories signify the difference between Jason Williams (the college version) and Chris Duhon. I am guessing that if you created a subset for “Lottery” or “Top 5” picks it would correlate much more closely with the number of AAs in our chart. I haven’t bothered running through the numbers, but feel free to since you seem to have the time.
(3) The “average lay person” would probably forget to factor in NIT titles from the earlier decades when determining the “Team of the Decade”.
Wow the pac-10 bashing is pretty flippant and consistent throughout your site. Thanks for keeping the stereotypes alive.
Here is one way to rank conferences using actual data. I am just used to comparing things with data. Sorry its a problem I have. I averaged the conference ranking calculated by kenpom for the last five and ten years. it seems the Pac-10 is not quite the Missouri Valley that you make it out to be. Really only the ACC stands out.
Average conference ranking for last 5 or 10 yrs.
And I believe UCLA was punished for Sam Gilbert after Wooden left so I don’t see how that makes them an example of getting off for various digressions.
Thanks. We try to be consistent in our analysis.
Actually we just call it like we see it. We have been accused of hating almost every team/conference at one time or the other by various visitors. With very few exceptions, the Pac-10 has lacked the great teams that the other conferences have had, which makes Arizona’s lack of success within the conference a much bigger minus than it would be if they finished as a runner up to a Duke, UNC, or Kansas.
The probation UCLA got was a relative slap on the wrist compared to what the NCAA could have done (erasing Wooden from the record books). Obviously the NCAA would never do that to save face, but I think pretty much everybody who follows basketball closely knows that a lot of shady stuff went on during the Wooden era because of Gilbert.
Its just too convenient for those who say that the fact UCLA has as many championships as the entire ACC is because of some guy named Sam Gilbert. If you are relying on Jerry Tarkanians book to support your claims then you should ask about your source and his motives. Obviously something was going on but its far from proven that it was responsible for significant contributions to that amazing run. I certainly don’t lump it in with Reggie Bush but I am biased on that.
The other topic is the discussion of relative conference strength. As long as the argument is framed as conference championships then I guess you have an argument. However, four different pac-10 teams have been top seeds this decade and UCLA with three straight final fours was pretty good compettion in the later years and Stanford was good in the first part of the decade. But when people ignore the size of a conference when talking about an entire conference it drives me crazy. The Big East was good last year but had more then enough dog teams that people like to forget about.
Besides next year everyone will be dogging on the pac-10 so why do you have to dog it after one of its better periods. | 2019-04-23T17:07:36Z | http://rushthecourt.net/2009/08/23/team-of-the-2000s-wrap-up-and-honorable-mention/ |
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Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne bacterial pathogen that can cause listeriosis, a severe disease that can result in septiceamia, meningitis and spontaneous abortion. Given the importance of this disease, the “USA Healthy People 2010” goals for national health promotion and disease prevention called on federal food safety agencies to reduce food-borne listeriosis by 50 percent by the end of the year 2005. While increased government and industry attention to general aspects of L. monocytogenes control would result in some decrease in incidence, specific risk management actions were needed.
This case study illustrates application of the generic RMF presented in this Guide.
Listeriosis typically occurs in susceptible individuals including the elderly, pregnant women and immunocompromized people (e.g. patients undergoing cancer therapy, transplant recipients and people with AIDS). Although the total number of cases in any population is relatively low (about 2,500 cases per year in the United States), listeriosis has an estimated case fatality rate of 20 to 40 percent.
L. monocytogenes is widespread in the environment but the predominant food-borne disease pathway is via ready-to-eat49 foods. In addressing the L. monocytogenes problem in the United States, risk managers made an early decision to only evaluate risks associated with ready-to-eat foods because the organism is destroyed in other types of foods that are cooked or further processed before consumption.
In addition to good hygienic practice (GHP), a “zero tolerance” regulatory standard of no L. monocytogenes cells being detected in the food sample tested is maintained in the United States. A typical food test for L. monocytogenes is two samples at 25 grams each, which equates to a standard of less than 0.04 cfu/g. The existing regulatory standards are not achieving the level of public health protection required and better “risk-based” control measures are needed.
The concerned government agencies gathered all relevant information on L. monocytogenes in foods to inform further action. Different types of ready-to-eat foods were considered including meat products, seafood, dairy products, fruits, vegetables and delicatessen salads.
Preliminary data collection activities identified many gaps in the scientific information available on L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. In particular, exposure data was deficient for a number of ready-to-eat food types and a specific survey was commissioned to fill this data gap. While most samples were found to be negative for L. monocytogenes, those that were positive typically contained less than 1.0 cfu/g, with almost all foods containing less than 100 cfu/g.
The primary risk management goal was to estimate relative risks associated with different types of ready-to-eat foods and develop targeted food control measures that would significantly reduce the overall incidence of food-borne listeriosis in line with “USA Healthy People 2010”. The relative risk ranking would identify priority food categories for risk management.
A subsidiary goal was to estimate the relative risks of serious illness and death for three age-based subpopulations: i) prenatal/perinatal (16 weeks after conception to 30 days after birth); ii) the elderly (60 years of age or more); and iii) an intermediate age population.
Interventions in the ready-to-eat food chains that presented the greatest relative risks would be evaluated for their individual ability to reduce risks.
In the United States, government agencies are required to do risk assessments when making major food safety policy decisions. In this case, the risk managers decided that the most value would be gained from estimating relative risks from a wide range of ready-to-eat food categories. The decision to base control measures on estimates of relative risk was predicated by limitations in data availability.
While this is a formal step in the generic RMF developed in this Guide, establishment of risk assessment policy was not conducted as a discrete exercise in this case study. However, there were a number of situations where a standardised approach to dealing with scientific data was agreed. A policy decision was made that data sets that were more recent and/or came from peer-reviewed publications would be given a higher weighting than others, and data collected outside the United States could be used if the product was imported. Exposure data would be represented as presence/absence data rather than actual numbers of L. monocytogenes in foods and this allowed all the available exposure data to be utilized in some form.
For the dose-response assessment, a policy decision was made to use a non-threshold model rather than a threshold model. A non-threshold model assumes that there is a small but finite probability of illness even if only a single organism is consumed.
Before commissioning, a public meeting was held to invite comment on the planned assessment and a request was made for scientific data and information to be submitted for use in the assessment. The advice and recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods were sought on the assumptions therein and the model structure to be used.
The risk assessment was carried out by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over a period from 1999 to 2003. The risk assessment team was a multidisciplinary group of government scientists including food microbiologists, epidemiologists and mathematicians.
A total of 23 separate assessments were undertaken, which allowed an analysis of the relative risks of serious illness and death associated with a wide range of ready-to-eat food categories (http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/lmr2-toc.html). Primary considerations were: consumption by susceptible persons; types of contaminated foods; foods that support growth; storage time; and storage temperature.
Risk communication included presentations at scientific meetings and public meetings, the latter being held for the purpose of soliciting feedback and peer review. An initial draft risk assessment was released in 2001 to allow public comment and input from the scientific community before the assessment was finalised. This generated additional data for risk assessment and was an effective method for communicating with all stakeholders before the assessment was finalised.
Elements of the risk assessment are summarized in Box A3-1.
The primary output of the risk assessment is shown in Figure A3-1 as estimated cases of listeriosis associated with different ready-to-eat food categories for the total United States population on a per serving basis. In the United States, delicatessen meats, frankfurters (not reheated), pâté and meat spreads pose a much greater risk (about 1 case of listeriosis per 107 servings is predicted) than hard cheeses, cultured milk products and processed cheeses, where the predicted level of illness is approximately 1 case of listeriosis per 1014 servings. The main reason for this is that the former group of foods supports the growth of L. monocytogenes to high numbers even during refrigerated storage, while the latter group does not.
The risk assessment generated risks per serving to an individual consumer and risks per annum to various populations; the latter representing total disease burden. Ready-to-eat foods ranked as very high risk, both risk per serving and per annum, included delicatessen meats and frankfurters (not reheated). This is due to high consumption, high rates of contamination and rapid growth to high numbers in stored products. Ready-to-eat foods ranked as high risk included pâté and meat spreads, smoked seafood, pasteurized and unpasteurized fluid milk, and soft unripened cheeses. Here, high relative risks are generated either from high contamination but low consumption rates or low contamination but high consumption rates e.g. pasteurized fluid milk. Ready-to-eat foods ranked as moderate risk (e.g. dry/semi-dry fermented sausages and frankfurters (reheated)) include a bactericidal step or inhibitors, so that growth to high numbers is prevented or retarded. Ready-to-eat foods ranked as low risk (e.g. preserved fish and raw seafood) have both low contamination rates and low consumption rates, and may have natural barriers to growth. Ready-to-eat foods ranked as very low risk (e.g. hard cheese) do not support growth.
The dose-response curves show that elderly and perinatal populations are more likely to contract listeriosis than the general population. The dose-response curves also suggest that the relative risk of contracting listeriosis from low dose exposures is less than previously estimated, even for susceptible populations.
Hazard characterization: Severe illness or death in three age-based populations were considered: prenatal/perinatal; the elderly; and an intermediate age population. Dose-response relationships were estimated by using contamination and growth data to predict levels of L. monocytogenes at the time of consumption for all ready-to-eat foods. These data were combined with epidemiology data to derive a dose-response model for each population group. The shape of the dose-response curve was based on mouse lethality data for L. monocytogenes but the position of the dose-response curve was fixed by “anchoring” the curve to annual disease statistics for the United States. Mild non-invasive listerial gastroenteritis was not considered in the risk assessment.
Exposure assessment: Exposure assessments were based on estimates of the frequency of contamination of foods, the numbers of cells on ready-to-eat foods, the amount of growth before consumption, the amount of each food type consumed at a typical serving and the number of servings consumed per year.
Servings per year of each ready-to-eat food category varied considerably, as did the amount of food eaten at each serving. As examples for the whole United States population, there were 8.7 *1010 servings of pasteurized milk per year at 244 g, 2.1*1010 servings of delicatessen meats at 56 g, and 2*108 servings of smoked seafood at 57 g. Initially “expert opinion” was used to fill a significant data gap on the length of time for which foods were stored by consumers and its effect on L. monocytogenes numbers. Later, a survey of consumer practices was commissioned by the meat industry to obtain data to allow better estimates to be made for hot dogs and delicatessen meats.
Most (1,300) contaminated servings of food per person per year contained fewer than one organism per serving; 19 servings contained between 1.0 and 1,000 cfu/g; and 2.4 servings contained between 1,000 and 1,000,000. Less than one serving per person per year contained more than one million L. monocytogenes.
Risk characterization: Individual food category data and the dose-response model were used to estimate the number of cases of illness per serving and per year for each food category and each population group. This allowed foods to be ranked according to two different measures of relative risk. An uncertainty analysis was performed and results were compared with existing epidemiological knowledge to validate the outputs of the risk assessment. The ability of a food to support growth of L. monocytogenes to high numbers and the opportunity for growth is a key risk factor in food-borne listeriosis. The model indicates that it is the few servings with very high levels of contamination that are responsible for most of the illnesses and deaths.
Ranking of risks associated with the 23 ready-to-eat food types was a key design element of this case study and provided the platform for the risk management options subsequently chosen. Relative risk rankings are shown in Figure A3-1.
Once the risk assessment was finalised, a series of reports were released. The first report was a short executive summary of the findings. The second report was an interpretive summary, with a more detailed review of the findings. The third report was the risk assessment. A fact sheet with questions and answers was also released. By providing the information in many formats, different audiences were properly addressed.
The box indicates the median predicted number of cases of listeriosis (log scale) and the bar indicates the lower and upper bounds (i.e. the 5th and 95th percentiles). The y-axis values are presented on a log scale. For example a log of –6 is equivalent to 1 case of listeriosis in a million servings.
DM = Delicatessen meats; FNR = Frankfurters (not reheated); P= Pâté and Meat Spreads; UM= Unpasteurized Fluid Milk; SS= Smoked Seafood; CR = Cooked Ready-To-Eat Crustaceans; HFD = High Fat and Other Dairy Products; SUC = Soft Unripened Cheese; PM = Pasteurized Fluid Milk; FSC = Fresh Soft Cheese; FR = Frankfurters (reheated); PF = Preserved Fish; RS = Raw Seafood; F = Fruits; DFS= Dry/Semi-dry Fermented Sausages; SSC = Semi-soft Cheese; SRC = Soft Ripened Cheese; V = Vegetables; DS = Delicatessen-type Salads; IC= Ice Cream and Frozen Dairy Products; PC = Processed Cheese; CD = Cultured Milk Products; HC = Hard Cheese.
The results of the risk assessment were used in different ways by the different government agencies. HHS used the risk assessment to develop a risk management action plan for L. monocytogenes (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/ ~dms/lmr2plan.html) whereas USDA FSIS used the risk assessment primarily as a basis for new regulatory measures.
Develop and revise guidance for processors, retail outlets, food service and institutional establishments that manufacture or prepare ready-to-eat foods.
Develop and deliver training for industry and food safety regulatory employees.
Enhance consumer and health care provider information and education efforts.
Review, redirect and revise enforcement and regulatory strategies including microbial product sampling.
Refrigerator temperature scenario, where the impact of ensuring home refrigerators do not operate above 45 °F was evaluated. Here, the predicted number of cases of listeriosis would be reduced by approximately 69 percent. At 41 °F or less, the predicted number of cases would be reduced by approximately 98 percent.
Storage time scenario, where maximum storage time scenarios were evaluated. Limiting the storage time for delicatessen meat, for example, from a maximum 28 days to 14 days, reduces the median number of estimated cases in the elderly population by 13.6 percent. Shortening storage time to ten days results in a 32.5 percent reduction.
Other scenarios included modelling of different contamination level scenarios in retail foods and specifically modelling fresh soft cheese made from unpasteurized milk. Risk assessment outputs and modelling of “what if” scenarios resulted in development of new published guidance for processors on prevention of post-processing contamination with L. monocytogenes, including improved sanitation practices and environmental sampling for ready-to-eat foods, and improved distribution practices. This includes updated guidance on enhancing the safety of milk and milk products and fresh-cut produce. Existing training programmes and long-distance teaching instruments were also updated.
Additional messages to consumers and health care providers on the prevention of listeriosis were developed. These include advice on safely selecting, storing, and handling foods with special emphasis on short storage times in combination with minimising storage temperatures to as cold as necessary (and not exceeding 40 °F). Educational programmes aimed at pregnant women, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems were also updated. As examples, these population groups are advised not to eat hot dogs and luncheon meats unless they are reheated until steaming hot, soft cheese unless it is labelled as made with pasteurized milk, refrigerated smoked seafood unless it is contained in a cooked dish, and raw (unpasteurized) milk.
Regulatory risk management options include increased inspection of regulated food processing facilities that produce ready-to-eat foods ranked moderate to high risk in the risk assessment. This focuses inspection efforts on post-process contamination potential, sanitation practices, and environmental testing programmes.
During the development of the HHS/USDA risk assessment, FSIS initiated several regulatory actions based on current scientific knowledge with the aim of reducing food-borne listeriosis associated with meat products. When the first draft of the risk model was released in 2001, it showed that delicatessen meats (such as cooked ready-to-eat turkey or ham) presented a relatively high risk for listeriosis. As a consequence FSIS decided to focus risk management activities on delicatessen meats and initiated a further risk assessment specific to the product group. “What if” scenarios showed that combinations of interventions (e.g. sanitation/testing of food contact surfaces, pre- and post-packaging lethality interventions, and growth inhibitors) were much more effective than any single intervention in reducing estimated risks from deli meats (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/ Lm_Deli_Risk_Assess_Final_2003.pdf).
As a consequence, FSIS amended its regulations to require that official establishments that produce certain ready-to-eat meat and poultry products put in place specific controls to prevent contamination with L. monocytogenes if those products are exposed to the environment after lethality treatments. So as to provide flexibility to industry, the regulatory rule allows establishments to incorporate one of three strategies: i) employ both a post-lethality treatment and a growth inhibitor for L. monocytogenes on ready-to-eat products; ii) employ either a post-lethality treatment or a growth inhibitor; or iii) employ sanitation measures only. These in-plant requirements are underpinned by new compliance guidelines and FSIS inspection procedures (see below).
Regulatory change was accompanied by education and outreach programmes. These risk communication activities were harmonized with those of FDA to ensure that consumer messages on listeriosis remained consistent.
FDA and CDC continue to work on implementation activities, including disseminating guidance for processors. Technical assistance is provided to small and very small establishments (e.g. dairy facilities) on an ongoing basis.
Consumer information and education efforts continue, including specific education packages for highly susceptible population groups and medical guidance for health care professionals. An example of a targeted education programme is that to Hispanic women of child-bearing age to only eat fresh soft cheeses made with pasteurized milk.
Regulatory risk management options that focus on increased inspection of establishments that produce “high risk” ready-to-eat foods have also been implemented. FDA is also working with states to eliminate the unlawful production and sale of raw milk soft cheeses.
A specific aspect of implementation of the new FSIS regulations is the matching of FSIS verification activities to the specific control strategy chosen by the processor. Establishments that chose sanitary measures alone have the highest frequency of inspection whereas establishments that chose both a post-lethality treatment and a growth inhibitor for L. monocytogenes on ready-to-eat products are subject to FSIS activity that only focuses on verification of post-lethality treatment effectiveness. This way, establishments are encouraged to select the most effective strategies to control for L. monocytogenes. FSIS also places increased scrutiny on operations that produce hotdogs and delicatessen meats. Compliance guidelines to control L. monocytogenes in post-lethality exposed ready-to-eat meat and poultry products were published in the United States Federal Register in May 2006 (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oppde/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F/LM_Rule_Compliance_Guidelines_May_2006.pdf).
FSIS is currently working on a risk-based L. monocytogenes verification algorithm that rewards highly-performing establishments by reducing inspection frequency.
Enhance disease surveillance and outbreak response.
Coordinate research activities to refine the risk assessment, enhance preventive controls, and support regulatory, enforcement, and educational activities.
Monitoring of both domestically-produced and imported food is focused on “high-risk” ready-to-eat foods.
To detect illness outbreaks more quickly and accurately, CDC is continuing to increase the number of laboratories capable of L. monocytogenes analysis through CDC’s “PulseNet” laboratory network and will evaluate additional methods for rapid subtyping of pathogenic strains. A CDC comprehensive case-control study to gather additional information about food-borne listeriosis is also being undertaken.
Risk managers identified a number of future research needs to refine the existing risk assessment so as to facilitate review the risk management options chosen. These include scientific evaluation of: the effectiveness of post-packaging pasteurization; use of bacteriocins, irradiation, high pressure processing, and inhibitory compounds to eliminate or prevent the growth of L. monocytogenes; and development of improved epidemiological methods for food source attribution.
Establishments must share data and information relevant to their controls for L. monocytogenes with FSIS. Additionally, FSIS carries out its own random testing of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products and this is used to rank establishments for verification purposes. These data are subject to ongoing evaluation, with review of regulation if necessary. It should be noted that human health surveillance as a specific “monitoring and review” activity is not within the jurisdiction of USDA.
Risk communication was incorporated at various points throughout the risk analysis as indicated in the above discussion. Different approaches were used to communicate with external stakeholders about the nature and effects of the specific food safety risks faced. These included public meetings and calls for scientific data and information before the risk assessment was commissioned, public meetings to seek feedback from interested groups (including the scientific community) and peer review an initial draft risk assessment, and complementary activities to enhance knowledge among consumers and health care providers about the prevention of listeriosis.
In the case of proposed risk management options for ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, FSIS published proposals for interim regulatory requirements in the Federal Register and are continuing to engage with industry on practical aspects of their implementation.
Risk analysis offers a tool that national food safety authorities can use to make significant gains in food safety. Encompassing three major components (risk management, risk assessment and risk communication), risk analysis provides a systematic, disciplined approach for making food safety decisions. It is used to develop an estimate of the risks to human health and safety, to identify and implement appropriate measures to control the risks, and to communicate with stakeholders about the risks and measures applied. Risk analysis can support and improve the development of standards, as well as address food safety issues that result from emerging hazards or breakdowns in food control systems. It provides food safety regulators with the information and evidence they need for effective decision-making, contributing to better food safety outcomes and improvements in public health.
FAO and WHO have developed this Guide to assist food safety regulators’ understanding and use of risk analysis in national food safety frameworks. The primary audience is food safety officials at the national government level. The Guide provides essential background information, guidance and practical examples of ways to apply food safety risk analysis. It presents internationally agreed principles, a generic framework for application of the different components of risk analysis, and wide-ranging examples rather than prescriptive instructions on how to implement risk analysis. It complements and is aligned with other documents that have been produced or are being developed by FAO, WHO and the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
This Guide is the first part of a two-part set, all of which is available on CD-ROM. The second part comprises a number of educational elements for capacity building, which include a slide presentation for use in training, a collection of up-to-date FAO and WHO tools and training materials related to food safety risk analysis, and specific examples and case studies of risk analysis carried out at the national and international level. | 2019-04-23T20:56:40Z | http://www.hyfoma.com/de/content/datenbank/nahrungsmittelsicherheit-qualitaet/risikenanalyse-nahrungsmittelsicherheit/fall-l-monocytogenes/ |
We report the safety findings from a 3-year phase 3 study (NCT00205777) of bazedoxifene, a novel selective estrogen receptor modulator under development for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.
Healthy postmenopausal osteoporotic women (N = 7,492; mean age, 66.4 years) were randomized to daily doses of bazedoxifene 20 or 40 mg, raloxifene 60 mg, or placebo for 3 years. Safety and tolerability were assessed by adverse event (AE) reporting and routine physical, gynecologic, and breast examination.
Overall, the incidence of AEs, serious AEs, and discontinuations due to AEs in the bazedoxifene groups was not different from that seen in the placebo group. The incidence of hot flushes and leg cramps was higher with bazedoxifene or raloxifene compared with placebo. The rates of cardiac disorders and cerebrovascular events were low and evenly distributed among groups. Venous thromboembolic events, primarily deep vein thromboses, were more frequently reported in the active treatment groups compared with the placebo group; rates were similar with bazedoxifene and raloxifene. Bazedoxifene showed a neutral effect on the breast and an excellent endometrial safety profile. The incidence of fibrocystic breast disease was lower with bazedoxifene 20 and 40 mg versus raloxifene or placebo. Reductions in total and low-density lipoprotein levels and increases in high-density lipoprotein levels were seen with bazedoxifene versus placebo; similar results were seen with raloxifene. Triglyceride levels were similar among groups.
Bazedoxifene showed a favorable safety and tolerability profile in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis.
Postmenopausal women experiencing declining levels of endogenous estrogens are disproportionately affected by osteoporosis, which affects one third of women between the ages of 60 and 70 years and two thirds of women 80 years and older . Numerous agents for the prevention and/or treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis are currently available, including bisphosphonates, estrogen therapy, parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcitonin, and the selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) raloxifene . Although existing pharmacologic agents for postmenopausal osteoporosis have been shown to be effective in preventing bone loss and fractures , there remains an ongoing need to provide women with new therapeutic options, primarily due to variable safety and tolerability profiles.
SERMs, also referred to as estrogen agonists/antagonists, are a structurally diverse group of compounds that can confer estrogen receptor agonist or antagonist effects depending on the target tissue, making them attractive candidates for the prevention and/or treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis . Bazedoxifene is a novel SERM that was developed using a stringent preclinical screening process designed to select compounds with favorable effects on bone and lipid profiles while minimizing stimulation of uterine or breast tissue [4, 5]. In a phase 2 study of healthy postmenopausal women, daily oral doses of bazedoxifene 2.5, 5.0, 10, 20, 30, or 40 mg were generally well tolerated and did not stimulate the endometrium . Moreover, bazedoxifene 30 and 40 mg showed significantly smaller increases in endometrial thickness and significantly reduced the incidence of uterine bleeding compared with placebo . In a 2-year phase 3 study of postmenopausal women at risk for osteoporosis, bazedoxifene 10, 20, and 40 mg was shown to prevent bone loss and reduce bone turnover and was associated with a favorable endometrial, ovarian, and breast safety profile [7, 8].
A pivotal, global phase 3 study in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis showed that bazedoxifene 20 and 40 mg and raloxifene 60 mg significantly reduced the risk of new vertebral fracture relative to placebo over 3 years of therapy . A post hoc analysis of a subgroup of women at higher risk for fracture showed that bazedoxifene 20 mg significantly reduced the risk of nonvertebral fracture . Here we report the results of the safety evaluations from that study.
Full details of the study design and methodology have been previously reported . This was a 3-year multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled phase 3 trial (NCT00205777) conducted at 206 sites worldwide (and continuing as an ongoing study extension for 4 additional years). Eligible subjects were generally healthy postmenopausal women aged 55 to 85 years with osteoporosis, defined as low bone mineral density (BMD) or radiographically confirmed vertebral fractures. Subjects without prevalent vertebral fracture were required to have lumbar spine or femoral neck BMD T-scores between -2.5 and -4.0 (inclusive), whereas subjects with prevalent vertebral fracture (at least 1 mild vertebral fracture) were required to have lumbar spine and femoral neck BMD T-scores not worse than -4.0.
Exclusion criteria included diseases that may affect bone metabolism or conditions that could interfere with measurement of BMD, pathologic vertebral fractures, vasomotor symptoms requiring treatment, active or past history of venous thromboembolic events (VTEs), endometrial hyperplasia or carcinoma, abnormal vaginal bleeding, or malignancy within 10 years of the study. Subjects were prohibited from the use of any drug known to have an effect on bone metabolism, including androgens, systemic estrogens (except estriol ≤2.0 mg/day), topical estrogens (>3 times/week), progestogens, SERMs, bisphosphonates, calcitonin, PTH, and cholecalciferol (>50,000 IU/week) within 6 months of screening.
Eligible subjects were randomly assigned to receive a once-daily oral dose of bazedoxifene 20 or 40 mg, raloxifene 60 mg, or placebo for 3 years. All subjects were to receive daily supplementation with oral calcium (1,000-1,200 mg) and vitamin D (400-800 IU).
Non-hysterectomized women were eligible for participation in an endometrial safety substudy designed to examine measures related to the endometrium and ovaries . Subjects with endometrial thickness >5 mm as measured by transvaginal ultrasound (TVU) or endometrial hyperplasia or carcinoma on baseline biopsy were excluded from the substudy.
The study protocol and an informed consent form were submitted to the independent ethics committee or institutional review board at each institution for review and written approval. All subjects provided written informed consent prior to enrollment in the study, which was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.
Full details of the efficacy assessments and related findings have been reported elsewhere . Subjects were monitored throughout the 3-year study, with clinic visits occurring quarterly during the first year and biannually during the second and third years.
Safety was monitored by means of physical examinations, gynecologic and breast examinations, mammography, cervical cytology smears, clinical laboratory determinations (including blood lipid assessments), and recording of adverse events (AEs), which were classified using the US Food and Drug Administration's Coding Symbols for Thesaurus of Adverse Reaction Terms (COSTART). For subjects enrolled in the endometrial safety substudy, TVU of the uterus and ovaries was performed at baseline and at Months 12 and 24 (or upon withdrawal from the study if more than 9 months had elapsed since the last assessment) and endometrial biopsies were performed at baseline and at Month 24. Mammography was performed at baseline and at Months 12, 24, and 36 (or upon withdrawal from the study if more than 9 months had elapsed since the last assessment). Subjects in the overall safety population who reported abnormal uterine bleeding at any time during the study were also evaluated by TVU and endometrial biopsy according to a protocol-specific algorithm for the assessment of uterine bleeding.
Independent blinded adjudication boards were formed to ensure a consistent, accurate, and unbiased assessment of the following AEs of interest: VTEs, stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), and breast cancer. The adjudication boards were composed of consultant physicians specializing in the fields of internal medicine with expertise in VTEs, cardiology, breast cancer, neurology, and neuroradiology. All adjudication board members reviewed each case independently in a blinded manner. Thereafter, a final decision was determined for each case based on majority or consensus decision, according to the guidance set forth in each of the adjudication board charters.
Safety data were analyzed in all subjects who received at least 1 dose of study medication. Differences in the incidence of AEs, serious AEs, and discontinuations due to AEs among treatment groups were evaluated using Chi-square analysis, with a significance level set at 0.05. The incidence of VTEs and cerebrovascular events, based on adjudicated data, was expressed as the rate in 1,000 women-years. Hazard ratios (HRs) of treatment versus comparator were calculated using a proportional hazard model without adjustment for possible covariates; corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and P values were obtained.
The median percent changes from baseline in lipid parameters at 36 months were analyzed using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on ranked data, with treatment as factor and baseline as covariate.
Of 26,749 women screened for the study, 7,609 women were randomized to treatment with bazedoxifene 20 or 40 mg, raloxifene 60 mg, or placebo (Figure 1). A total of 7,492 women received ≥1 dose of study medication and were included in the safety population. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were generally similar among treatment groups (Table 1). The mean age of subjects was 66.4 years. The vast majority of women (91.2%) had experienced natural menopause, and the mean time since last menstrual period was 19.5 years.
aIncludes Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, and other ethnic origins.
b P < 0.05; Chi-square test.
Subject disposition. The number of subjects who were screened, randomized and received at least 1 dose of study drug (safety population), and completed the study is shown. aDoes not include subjects (n = 92) who completed the 3-year core study and did not enter the extension study. bDefined as occurrence of new vertebral fracture or ≥7% decrease in BMD of the lumbar spine or hip at any time during the study (P < 0.01 among treatment groups, Chi-square test).
There were no significant differences among treatment groups in the number of subjects who discontinued from the study (n = 2,501 [33%]; Figure 1). The most common reason for discontinuation was AEs. Overall, the incidence of AEs, serious AEs, and discontinuations due to AEs in the bazedoxifene treatment groups was not different from that seen in the placebo group (Table 2). Sixty-three subjects had deaths that resulted from AEs that began during the study and were reported to the sponsor: bazedoxifene 20 mg, n = 19 (1.0%); bazedoxifene 40 mg, n = 14 (0.7%); raloxifene 60 mg, n = 19 (1.0%); and placebo, n = 11 (0.6%). Differences between groups were not statistically significant.
a P < 0.01; Chi-square test.
b P < 0.001; Chi-square test.
c P < 0.05; Chi-square test.
The most frequently reported AEs (≥20% of subjects in at least 1 treatment group) included back pain, arthralgia, pain, flu syndrome, infection, abdominal pain, accidental injury, headache, and hypertension (Table 2). The incidence of leg cramps and hot flushes was higher (overall P = 0.002 and P < 0.001, respectively) in the active treatment groups compared with the placebo group. Most reports of leg cramps and hot flushes were mild or moderate in severity and did not result in study discontinuation.
Overall, the number of subjects reporting cardiac disorders (n = 66 [0.9%]) was low and similar among treatment groups. The number of subjects among the bazedoxifene 20- and 40-mg, raloxifene 60-mg, and placebo groups reporting coronary occlusion (2 [0.1%], 0, 0, and 2 [0.1%], respectively), myocardial infarction (8 [0.4%], 8 [0.4%], 6 [0.3%], and 8 [0.4%], respectively), and myocardial ischemia (7 [0.4%], 9 [0.5%], 11 [0.6%], and 9 [0.5%], respectively) was not significantly different.
Analysis of the incidence of cerebrovascular events based on adjudicated data showed no significant differences among treatment groups (Table 3). The rate of total strokes per 1,000 women-years was 2.6 with bazedoxifene 20 mg, 3.1 with bazedoxifene 40 mg, 2.6 with raloxifene 60 mg, and 3.0 with placebo (Table 3); corresponding HRs (95% CIs) relative to placebo were 0.9 (0.40, 1.86), 1.0 (0.49, 2.17), and 0.9 (0.40, 1.88), respectively (Table 4). There were no significant differences in the risk of stroke (hemorrhagic, ischemic, or unspecified) or of TIA for bazedoxifene 20 or 40 mg or raloxifene 60 mg compared with placebo (Table 3). There were no deaths due to ischemic stroke in the bazedoxifene or raloxifene treatment groups; there was 1 death due to ischemic stroke in the placebo group. There were 4 deaths due to hemorrhagic stroke (1 in each treatment arm).
CI, confidence interval; TIA, transient ischemic attack.
HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; VTE, venous thromboembolic event; TIA, transient ischemic attack; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; PE, pulmonary embolus; RVT, retinal vein thrombosis.
A total of 43 subjects (0.6%) reported VTEs based on adjudicated data (Table 5); the overall incidence of VTEs (deep vein thrombosis [DVT], pulmonary embolism [PE], or retinal vein thrombosis [RVT]) was generally higher among the active treatment groups compared with the placebo group. The rates of any VTE per 1,000 women-years were 2.8 with bazedoxifene 20 mg, 2.9 with bazedoxifene 40 mg, 2.0 with raloxifene 60 mg, and 1.7 with placebo (Table 5); corresponding HRs (95% CIs) relative to placebo were 1.6 (0.68, 3.94), 1.7 (0.70, 4.07), and 1.1 (0.44, 2.96), respectively (Table 4). There were no significant differences in the risk of any VTE, including DVT, PE, and RVT, between the bazedoxifene and raloxifene treatment groups. Reports of VTEs were highest during the first year of therapy with bazedoxifene 20 mg and subsequently decreased over the second and third years; no clear pattern over time was observed with bazedoxifene 40 mg or raloxifene 60 mg (Table 5).
CI, confidence interval; VTE, venous thromboembolic event; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; PE, pulmonary embolism; RVT, retinal vein thrombosis.
The overall incidence of DVTs (n = 25 [0.3%]) and superficial thrombophlebitis (n = 50 [0.7%]) was higher among the active treatment groups compared with the placebo group (Table 5). The rates of DVT per 1,000 women-years were 1.7 with bazedoxifene 20 mg, 2.0 with bazedoxifene 40 mg, 1.5 with raloxifene 60 mg, and 0.2 with placebo (Table 5); corresponding HRs (95% CI) relative to placebo were 8.0 (1.01, 64.25), 9.4 (1.18, 73.82), and 7.1 (0.88, 57.95), respectively (Table 4). There were no differences in the risk of PE or RVT with bazedoxifene 20 or 40 mg or raloxifene 60 mg compared with placebo.
The rates of breast- and reproductive system-related AEs are shown in Table 6. The incidence of breast carcinoma and breast cysts was not significantly different among treatment groups, although the number of cases was lower with bazedoxifene 20 and 40 mg compared with placebo or raloxifene 60 mg. Reports of breast pain were evenly distributed among treatment groups. The incidence of fibrocystic breast disease was lower in the bazedoxifene 20- and 40-mg groups compared with the raloxifene 60-mg or placebo group, and was significantly lower in the bazedoxifene 20-mg group compared with the raloxifene 60-mg group (P = 0.050) and in the bazedoxifene 40-mg group compared with the raloxifene 60-mg group (P = 0.011).
a P < 0.05; Chi-square test.
bEvents reported as breast neoplasm included breast mass, breast lump, solid formation, lipoma, fibroadenoma, tumor, nodule, microcalcification, intracanalar papilloma, and cyst.
cEvents reported as endometrial neoplasia included endometrial polyps, uterine polyps, thickening of endometrium due to polyps, hyperplastic endometrial polyps, accentuated cystocele and polyps, and endometrial polyps with cystic atrophy (benign).
TVU data were available for a total of 753 subjects; after 2 years, there were no differences in the change in mean endometrial thickness (± standard error) from baseline with bazedoxifene 20 mg (-0.07 ± 0.11 mm), bazedoxifene 40 mg (0.10 ± 0.11 mm), raloxifene 60 mg (0.16 ± 0.12 mm), or placebo (-0.08 ± 0.11 mm). Endometrial hyperplasia was reported by 1 subject in each treatment group, and endometrial carcinoma was reported by 0, 2, 2, and 3 subjects in the bazedoxifene 20- and 40-mg, raloxifene 60-mg, and placebo groups, respectively. The incidence of uterine or vaginal bleeding was low and similar among treatment groups.
The median percent changes from baseline in total and LDL cholesterol were significantly reduced in the bazedoxifene and raloxifene treatment groups compared with the placebo group after 36 months (P < 0.001; Table 7). The reduction in total and LDL cholesterol was significantly greater (P < 0.01) in the raloxifene treatment group than in the bazedoxifene 20- or 40-mg treatment groups. The increase in levels of HDL cholesterol was significantly greater in the active treatment groups compared with the placebo group after 36 months (P < 0.001). Triglyceride levels were significantly increased from baseline in all treatment groups (P < 0.001); however, there were no differences in the median percent change from baseline among treatment groups.
LDL, low-density lipoprotein; HDL, high-density lipoprotein.
aIncludes subjects in the intent-to-treat population (n = 6,847) with an assessment at baseline and at Month 36.
b P < 0.001 vs baseline; t test.
c P < 0.001 vs placebo; t test.
d P < 0.01 vs raloxifene 60 mg; t test.
SERMs represent a growing class of compounds that are under development for the prevention and/or treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Because certain "class effects" are associated with SERMs, including increased incidence of hot flushes, leg cramps, and VTEs [11–14], as well as the potential for endometrial effects/stimulation, a careful evaluation of the safety and tolerability profile of each SERM is of considerable importance.
Findings from this large, prospective phase 3 study showed that bazedoxifene was associated with a favorable safety and tolerability profile in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis over 3 years of therapy. Overall, the incidence of AEs, serious AEs, and discontinuations due to AEs with bazedoxifene was similar to that seen with placebo. Although the current study showed an increased incidence of hot flushes and leg cramps in the active treatment groups, most of these events were mild or moderate in severity and did not lead to study discontinuation.
Overall, VTEs were more frequently reported in the bazedoxifene groups compared with the placebo group. This was primarily the result of a significantly increased incidence of DVTs, while the incidence of PE or RVT was not different among all treatment groups. The relative risk of VTEs with bazedoxifene (HR, 1.6-1.7) was consistent with that previously reported with raloxifene (HR, 2.1-3.1) [13, 14] and lasofoxifene (HR, 2.2-2.6) . In addition, the rate of VTEs with placebo (1.7 per 1,000 women-years) in this study was similar to that seen in earlier studies of raloxifene (1.7 per 1,000 women-years) and lasofoxifene (1.2 per 1,000 women-years) . Collectively, these findings provide strong external validation of the risk estimates observed with bazedoxifene in the present study.
The rate of VTEs was highest during the first year of therapy with bazedoxifene 20 mg and subsequently decreased over the second and third years; such a pattern was not seen with bazedoxifene 40 mg or raloxifene 60 mg, although a decrease in VTE risk over time has previously been reported with raloxifene (HR, 6.0, 6.6, 0.9 at Years 1, 2, and 3, respectively) . Overall, the absolute risk of VTEs was low among all treatment groups in the current study, with the attributable risk for bazedoxifene estimated at 1 case per 1,000 women-years (ie, 100 women over 10 years of treatment).
Raloxifene has been associated with a 2- to 3-fold increase in VTE risk over 3 years (1.4-fold increase over 5 years) in previous studies [13, 14, 16], which was higher than that seen in this study. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear and may be attributed to the small number of VTEs reported in the current study. The risk of DVTs, however, was similarly increased with raloxifene relative to placebo in the current study and in previous studies of raloxifene [13, 14, 16].
The incidence of cardiac disorders and cerebrovascular events in the active treatment groups was not different from that seen in the placebo group. Raloxifene has previously been associated with a small but significant increase in the risk of fatal stroke compared with placebo (1.49; 95% CI, 1.00-2.24; P = 0.05), although there was no difference in the overall incidence of stroke . In the current study, there were no deaths due to ischemic stroke with bazedoxifene or raloxifene; there was 1 case of death due to hemorrhagic stroke in each treatment arm.
Endometrial safety is an important consideration for investigational SERMs, as the clinical development of several SERMs for postmenopausal osteoporosis (eg, idoxifene, levormeloxifene) in recent years was discontinued, in part, because of unfavorable uterine effects [17, 18]. In this study, bazedoxifene was associated with an excellent endometrial safety profile and a neutral effect on the breast over 3 years of therapy. There was no difference in the rates of endometrial hyperplasia or carcinoma with bazedoxifene compared with placebo, or in the change in endometrial thickness. The incidence of breast- and reproductive system-related AEs were small and similar among groups. There was a lower incidence of fibrocystic breast disease in the bazedoxifene treatment groups compared with the raloxifene or placebo group. Raloxifene was not associated with a reduction in the incidence of breast cancer in this study, which is in contrast to findings from previous studies [16, 19, 20] and may be attributable to the relatively smaller number of subjects evaluated and the lower baseline risk for breast cancer (mean Gail Index 5-year risk score of 1.59). In this study, the overall incidence of breast cancer in the placebo groups was lower than that observed in other clinical trials [8, 14, 19].
Bazedoxifene was associated with favorable effects on the lipid profile. Significant reductions in the levels of total and LDL cholesterol and significant increases in levels of HDL cholesterol were observed with bazedoxifene compared with placebo. Triglyceride levels were similar among all treatment groups. The clinical significance of these results is unknown. Overall, findings are consistent with those seen in the 2-year phase 3 study evaluating the efficacy and safety of bazedoxifene in postmenopausal women at risk for osteoporosis .
Overall, bazedoxifene was associated with a favorable safety and tolerability profile over 3 years of therapy, with no evidence of endometrial or breast stimulation. Bazedoxifene was associated with a small increase in the risk of VTEs, consistent with that seen with other SERMs, including raloxifene and lasofoxifene; however, the absolute risk of VTEs was low and did not increase over time. Combined with its demonstrated efficacy in preventing new vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis, as well as in preventing nonvertebral fractures in higher-risk women , bazedoxifene appears to have a favorable risk-benefit profile in the treatment of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
This study was sponsored by Wyeth Research, Collegeville, PA, which was acquired by Pfizer Inc in October 2009. Medical writing support for this manuscript was provided by Bo Choi, PhD, of MedErgy and was funded by Wyeth.
Dr Christiansen has served as a consultant for Wyeth, Eli Lilly, Roche, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Procter & Gamble, Groupe Fournier, Besins EscoVesco, MSD, Chiesi, Boehringer Mannheim, and Pfizer. Dr Chesnut has been a consultant and speaker for Amgen. Dr Adachi has been a consultant and speaker for Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Nycomed, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Roche, sanofi-aventis, Servier, and Wyeth. Dr Brown has been an investigator for Wyeth and has served as a consultant for and/or received honoraria or research funding from Abbott, Amgen, ArthroLab, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Frosst, Novartis, Nycomed, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Roche, sanofi-aventis, Servier, and Wyeth. Dr Fernandes has been an investigator for Wyeth and Eli Lilly. Dr Kung has received research support and speakers honoraria from Eli Lilly, MSD Asia Pacific, Novartis, Roche, and Servier. Dr Palacios has been a symposium speaker or advisory board member for Bayer Schering Pharma, Novo Nordisk, Servier, Lilly, Daiichi-Sankyo, sanofi-aventis, MSD, and Procter & Gamble. He has also received research grants and/or consulting fees from Wyeth, Servier, Lilly, Daiichi-Sankyo, Amgen, Arkochim, and Bayer Schering Pharma. Drs Levine, Chines, and Constantine were previous employees of Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer Inc in October 2009.
CC, CHC, JDA, JPB, CEF, AWCK, SP, and ABL analyzed and interpreted data; AAC participated in the acquisition of data and analyzed and interpreted data; GDC was responsible for the conception and design of the trial and analyzed and interpreted data. All authors critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and read and approved the final manuscript. | 2019-04-18T13:04:32Z | https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2474-11-130 |
There are no national laws that specifically regulate outsourcing transactions. Outsourcing is not specifically recognised as a commercial or operational concept and is therefore not specifically regulated under Japanese law.
Most public sector services may be outsourced with the exception of certain services operated only by public authorities such as tax levying and family registration (“koseki”) control. For example, water supply is provided by local government agencies acting as the public water supplier. Under the Water Supply Act, a water supplier may outsource water supply management to other water suppliers that meet certain economic and technical requirements.
There are no additional legal or regulatory requirements for business process transactions.
■ how the financial institution resolves problematic issues.
However, even if the FSA identifies concerns in relation to the above, there are no criminal penalties, although the FSA may take these points into consideration when deciding whether to make an order, including an order for the business to submit a business improvement plan.
The manuals described above refer to the security standards for computer systems. When outsourcing, financial institutions must comply with these standards and ensure that outsourcing agents comply with these standards.
■ how to deal with accidents occurring during outsourcing.
The paper includes suggestions as to how to carry out outsourcing for financial institutions. It does not prescribe penalties. The Bank of Japan will take the paper into consideration when overseeing bank operations.
Any telecommunications carrier or agent shall, before the conclusion of a contract of services for general consumers, explain the service contents, such as the type of service, the name of the telecommunications carrier, points of contact for the telecommunications carrier including business hours, and the content of telecommunications services to users. The telecommunications carrier (or agent) shall deliver documents containing the above matters and make subsequent verbal explanations to potential users if necessary.
■ cleaning facilities for medical care.
There are no criminal penalties for breach of the above provisions under the Medical Care Act.
There are no legal restrictions on the outsourcing of legal services from lawyers to outsourcing agents, such as translators, and even other lawyers.
In Japan, lawyers are self-regulated and are not governed by a regulatory agency. From a financial perspective, law firms are operated entirely from client fees and other revenues collected from members.
Under the Lawyer Act, dispute resolution services can only be operated by lawyers. Debt collection usually goes together with disputes and thus, debt collection outsourcing should only be made to lawyers or debt collection servicers approved by the government under the Act on Special Measures Concerning Claim Management and Collection Businesses.
There is no requirement for an outsourcing transaction to be governed by local law. Also, there is no generally accepted norm relating to the choice of governing law.
The most common types of legal structure used for an outsourcing transaction are: (i) entrusting certain work to a third party by a delegation agreement, a service agreement or a subcontract agreement in IT outsourcing and BPO; and (ii) the supply of temporary labour by a temporary labour agreement in BPO. For local public services such as libraries and prisons, PPP (Public Private Partnership) and PFI (Private Finance Initiative) models are used.
The most common type of procurement process that is used to select a supplier is tendering.
No, there is no requirement on maximum or minimum terms for an outsourcing contract under Japanese laws.
No, there is no requirement on the length of the notice period that is required to terminate an outsourcing contract under Japanese laws.
The most common charging method used in outsourcing transactions is a calculation based on the number of staff allocated to the outsourcing and the number of days such staff provide these services.
The delivery schedule and the location where the outsourcing process is performed are important in relation to costs in outsourcing transactions.
There are no formalities required to transfer, lease or license assets on an outsourcing transaction.
There is no relevant labour and employment legislation for outsourcing transactions. In the context of outsourcing, labour and employment law would not apply to a change in initial or subsequent service providers, or transfers of undertakings or parts of undertakings.
There is no requirement to provide employee information to the other party of an outsourcing contract.
We have no legislation allowing a customer/supplier to dismiss an employee for a reason connected to the outsourcing.
With reference to personal data protection, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (Law No. 57 of 2003, as amended) (APPI) governs the protection of information that is personal in nature. The APPI was largely amended in 2015, and the amendments to the APPI were implemented from 30 May 2017.
Under the current APPI, each government agency has issued guidelines regarding the treatment of personal information in the areas that fall under the jurisdiction of that agency. Such guidelines set out in more detail the responsibilities of an information handler with regard to safeguarding personal information. After the implementation of the amendments, many guidelines will be abolished and replaced by the common guidelines issued by the Personal Information Protection Committee (PPC), an independent comprehensive supervisory authority on the issues of data protection. An information handler should verify whether these guidelines apply to it and comply with the applicable guidelines as well as the APPI.
■ Guidelines on Personal Information Protection.
The guidelines were published on 30 November 2016. They contain guidance regarding: the general rules; the offshore transfer of personal data; book-keeping; verification obligations when transferring personal data to a third party; and big data processing.
Under the APPI, an information handler may not transfer or provide personal data to any third party, including other companies within its group, unless it obtains the prior consent of the data subject (the limitation on transfer). An exemption is available with respect to external contractors providing data management services (outsourcing agents) to the extent necessary to achieve the purpose of use of the information handler. Such outsourcing agents are not regarded as third parties for the purposes of the general prohibition on transfer.
Under the APPI, where management of personal data is outsourced to outsourcing agents, the information handler must appropriately supervise the outsourcing agents with respect to the handling of personal data. Further, the information handler must ensure that the personal data in the possession of the outsourcing agents is subject to the level of protection that is required of the information handler under the APPI.
In this regard, the relevant guidelines issued by each government agency should also be obeyed.
In relation to the amendments, you should pay attention to newly-introduced international transfer regulations.
The amended APPI specifically provides that an information handler must obtain the prior consent of any data subject whose personal data will be provided to a third party located in a foreign country including: (i) offshore transfers by way of merger or business transfer; (ii) joint use of personal data by several entities; and (iii) outsourcing of the handling of personal data, unless the foreign country is white-listed under the enforcement rules of the amended APPI or the third party receiving the personal data has established similarly adequate standards for privacy protection as specified in the enforcement rules of the amended APPI. Under the amended APPI, if the data transfer is undertaken by way of merger or business transfer, joint use by several entities or through data handling outsourcing within Japan, no consent for a third party transfer is necessary. The current APPI does not require consent for (i) to (iii) above regardless of whether a domestic or offshore transfer is involved.
According to the published enforcement rules of the amended APPI, “similarly adequate standards” means that the practices of the information handler handling the personal data accord with the requirements for the protection of personal information under the amended APPI or that the information handler has obtained recognition based on the international frameworks concerning the handling of personal information. According to the guidelines for offshore transfers, one of the examples of an acceptable international framework is the APEC CBPR system. As of yet, no white-listed countries have been specified under the rules promulgated by the PPC.
If the data subject’s consent to transfer the personal data to an offshore third party was obtained prior to the enforcement of the amended APPI, this prior consent for offshore transfer is regarded as sufficient under the amended APPI. No separate consent is required upon enforcement of the amended APPI. If such consent was not obtained and the third party does not meet the requirements for protection of personal information under the amended APPI, the information handler must obtain consent of the data subject if the personal data involved is transferred offshore after enforcement of the Amended APPI commences.
■ Selection of outsourcing agents: The information handler should ensure that the security control measures for the personal data implemented by the outsourcing agent are, at the very least, equivalent to the security control measures required by the APPI. Where the need arises, the information handler should assess the outsourcing agent’s handling of personal data in an appropriate and timely manner.
■ Conclusion of outsourcing agreements: The outsourcing agreements should include a provision that the information handler will monitor the state of handling of the personal data that was outsourced to the outsourcing agent. Where the information handler is in a dominant bargaining position, it should not impose an unfair obligation on the outsourcing agent such as requiring the outsourcing agent to bear all damages arising from any claim by a data subject in disregard of the shared duty between them concerning the security control measures.
■ Monitoring of the state of the outsourcing agent’s handling of personal data: The information handler and the outsourcing agent should mutually review the extent to which the personal data is handled in accordance with the outsourcing agreement. Where the information handler does not exercise necessary and appropriate supervision over the outsourcing agent, it may have to bear responsibility in the case where the personal data is further outsourced by the outsourcing agent and the personal data is not handled properly by the sub-outsourcing agent. Where there is a high risk that secondary damages may be incurred as a result of the leakage of the outsourced personal data, the information handler should exercise a higher level of supervision.
In order to protect the rights of the data subject such as consumers, and in the interests of transparency, the information handler should inform the data subject of the fact that their personal data will be outsourced and the extent to which their personal data will be outsourced. The level of disclosure to the data subject may vary depending on the characteristics of the information handler’s business.
■ Guideline for Handling of Personal Information in the Medical and Nursing Care Business Industry.
■ Guideline for Handling of Personal Information in the Broadcasting Business.
The Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA) has issued the Guideline on Protection of Personal Information in the Financial Industry.
■ Establish criteria and standards for selecting the outsourcing agent, including the company organisation to be developed by the outsourcing agent and the basic policy and internal rules concerning security control of the personal data to be developed by the outsourcing agent. The information handler must select an appropriate outsourcing agent in accordance with these criteria and standards. The criteria and standards must be periodically reviewed.
■ the outsourcing agent’s liability for any leakage, loss of or damage to the personal data.
■ Periodically monitor, supervise and review the activities of the outsourcing agent to ensure the personal data is being handled properly.
In the event of a violation of any provisions of the APPI, the PPC or the agency overseeing a given information handler’s business field (relevant government ministry) may advise the information handler to cease the violating activity. In the event that the information handler does not properly respond to government advice and it is recognised that important individual rights are on the verge of being violated, the PPC may order the information handler to cease the violating activity. If the information handler does not properly respond to this government order, the responsible officer or employee of the information handler may be subject to a maximum penalty of either up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to ¥300,000. In such an event, the information handler itself will also be subject to a fine of up to ¥300,000.
Corporate tax, which is imposed on the income of corporations, is determined through self-assessment. The amount of corporate tax due at the time the corporation files its tax return may be reduced by the amount of income tax of the corporation that is withheld at the source. All corporations, including public corporations, charitable organisations, cooperative associations, associations without corporate status and ordinary corporations (e.g., a stock company, limited liability company or general incorporated association, etc.) are required to pay corporate taxes. However, the analysis in this question relates only to ordinary corporations.
In relation to foreign outsourcing agents, there are various factors that affect their taxation, such as whether the foreign outsourcing agent has a permanent establishment in Japan, the type of such permanent establishment, the existence or non-existence of domestic sourced income and the type of such domestic sourced income.
When foreign outsourcing agents have a permanent establishment in Japan, such foreign agents become subject to Japanese taxation in respect of their domestic sourced income and are required to pay self-assessed taxes. Therefore, it is more beneficial, in general, for foreign corporations not to have a permanent establishment in Japan. Under the Corporate Tax Act, a permanent establishment may be summarised as a branch, an agent or the carrying out of construction work (for a certain period of time).
To avoid international double taxation, tax treaties are concluded between countries. If there are conflicts between tax treaties and Japanese domestic tax laws, tax treaties theoretically should take precedence. The definition and treatment of a permanent establishment may depend on provisions found in the relevant tax treaties.
A company’s labour costs in relation to its own employees are not subject to taxation. On the other hand, the fees that a company pays to an outsourcing agent are subject to taxation and the company may claim a tax deduction on the consumption tax imposed on such cost.
Indirect taxes are not chargeable on the services a customer in Japan receives from an offshore provider.
We usually conclude or include a service level agreement (SLA) as a part of an outsourcing agreement while outsourcing to IT service vendors. Typically, service levels measure the supplier’s performance over a month or some other performance period. These service levels can be broken down into three categories: continuous service levels; event service levels; and sample service levels. We also find that many IT outsourcing agreements include a service credit mechanism, where the customer receives a credit if actual supplier performance does not meet the contracted performance standard for a service level.
The customer may claim against the supplier’s specific performance of its obligations under the relevant outsourcing agreement and monetary damages. The scope of compensation is limited to the damage which is caused by and could have been foreseen by the supplier at the time of default. Claims for damages can be made even if the agreement has not been terminated.
We often see financial penalties within a service level agreement for customer protection. In the case that the supplier fails to meet the service level standards, the service provider is liable to pay the penalty amount to the customer.
We sometimes see clauses which warrant that the outsourcing agent has sufficient capability to perform outsourced tasks, although this is not so common.
In IT outsourcing, there will be higher risks of data leaking and errors in system development. In Japan, even in the case that an outsourcer company has strict data protection policies and internal control policies, there have been many incidents where an outsourcing agent has leaked secret information and personal data. Also, many IT vendors outsource system development work and operation work to a foreign country IT vendor and such foreign vendors have some failures in their performance.
An outsourcing company should consider data protection insurance, cyber risk insurance and IT business process insurance.
Termination will give rise to a right for the other party to claim for damages, unless the contract expressly releases the terminating party from liability.
There are no relevant mandatory local laws that will override the termination rights that one might expect to see in an outsourcing contract. In Japan, a transaction is regulated under the Subcontract Act where it falls within the category of transactions between main subcontracting enterprises and subcontractors as provided under the Act against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, Etc. to Subcontractors (Act No. 120 of 1956; referred to as the “Subcontract Act” below). It will also be regulated under Subcontract Act where it falls within the category of (1) manufacturing contract, (2) repair contract, (3) information-based product creation contract, or (4) service contract as provided under the Subcontract Act. The Guidelines on the Application of the Act against Delay in Payment of Subcontract Proceeds, Etc., to Subcontractors provide guidance on the application of the Subcontract Act (Secretary General Notice No. 18 of 2003).
There are two kinds of intellectual property in an outsourcing transaction – the intellectual property that one party owns prior to the transaction and the intellectual property they own after entering the transaction.
On the other hand, during the outsourcing transaction, both parties will collaboratively improve or create intellectual property. In this case, since both parties make some contributions together to create new intellectual property rights such as patents, and it is difficult to determine which party owns the intellectual property rights, it is generally advised to clearly specify how these rights are distributed in an outsourcing contract.
Practically speaking, it is essential for both parties to properly identify and keep records of their intellectual property in order to mitigate intellectual property-related risks, and improve the competitiveness of the product or service offered by the enterprise. Therefore, an intellectual property due diligence enquiry and audit should be undertaken before the final outsourcing plan is communicated by the customer to the potential outsourcing providers.
Contracts or other agreements such as licensing agreements associated with the intellectual property must be identified. Any assigned or licensed intellectual property used by the interested organisation and any intellectual property rights of third parties or of employees must be identified and ascertained. Furthermore, it is important to identify any existing or alleged breaches and/or infringements of such assignments or licences. It is also important not to omit to determine jurisdiction and enforcement of intellectual property rights in case of any dispute that arises. Termination of the outsourcing agreement and relevant exit clauses must always be considered by the parties and whether any indemnity against infringement is required.
Know-how, trade secrets and other business critical confidential information are protected under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.
No, there are no implied rights for the supplier to continue to use licensed IP rights post-termination.
It is generally not permitted for the customer to gain access to the supplier’s know-how post-termination.
There is no requirement on limiting or excluding liability of a party to an outsourcing contract under Japanese law.
Yes, the parties are free to agree a financial cap on liability, unless a party is a consumer who is subject to consumer protection.
Some large outsourcing service providers require a dispute resolution provision that specifies that a court, located in a city where the relevant service provider has a headquarter presence, should have the exclusive court jurisdiction over disputes between the outsourcee and outsourcer. For international transactions, it is common for dispute resolution provisions to specify that all legal disputes should be resolved by arbitration procedures.
There is no overriding requirement for a customer and supplier to act in good faith and to act fairly according to some objective test of fairness or reasonableness under Japanese law. | 2019-04-26T12:29:02Z | https://iclg.com/practice-areas/outsourcing-laws-and-regulations/japan |
This week on CNE Health I blog about whether doctors should tell their patients about treatments that are not covered by third party payers. Two articles in the BMJ bring up this issue, arguing for or against. I think the disclosure side has far better arguments, and given the comments to the articles the readers of BMJ seem to agree.
Daniel K. Sokol also has a good article in the same issue, pointing out a few good heuristics for helping patient autonomy. I liked the idea of "thinking out loud" when answering the patient question "what would you do?". That shows respect and invites discourse, especially since differences in evaluation and goals become more clear.
WIKISKY.ORG is the answer to Google Earth, a zoomable sky map that includes not only catalogued stars but also sky surveys in visible light and infrared, as well as a photo collection and a wiki. Given time (and interest from enough amateur astronomers) this could become a tremendous resource. It is already great fun and quite beautiful.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey data is impressive, although there are many graphical artefacts that will no doubt keep the UFOlogists confabulating. I think the IRAS data is even more impressive, showing our galaxy as a glowing band of gas filled with shockwaves, bubbles, hotspots and globs. It feels almost like an anatomy textbook. Each object also has its own wiki, with related pictures and articles.
Science That Matters is a blog with a nice idea: to post about scientific studies that really matter.
I was especially struck by The power of hope, an entry that picks apart the claims of the "Pygmalion effect" of schoolshildren doing better when their teachers are told they would "bloom" intellectually. It turns out that that was not the result at all, but the good story got wings and spread, while the facts got left behind. A bit like how we can still hear about flatworm memory or the hundreth monkey. We really need blogs that both poke holes in this kind of factoids, as well as point out the significant research.
The Axis of Evil: Traditional Leaders in Nanotechnology since 1000 BC!
According to Iran’s Cultural Heritage News Agency Iranians Enjoyed Nanotechnology 3000 Years Ago (via Nanowerk).
The nanotechnology appears to be nanoparticles in paint (wow! just like nanoparticles in soot!) and nanoparticles "which attract harmful rays from mobiles which are employed in structures" (apparently Cyrus the Great used cellphones as construction material).
These findings remind me of North Korea's nanotech toothbrushes, nano-lubrication and nano-water improver (scroll down to middle of page). I can't find the report I read a few years ago about how a traditional stone remedy (?) had nanomedical properties.
(Korean News is an unintentionally hillarious yet sinister 'news' source. What about: "Kim Jong Il Sends Books to Grand People's Study House", where the donated books include Microsoft Windows 2000 Security Guide and Potato Food. "Scientific and Technological Presentation Held" proudly reports about reasearch into the immortal flowers "Kimilsungia" and "Kimjongilia". "U.S. Move Seeking Preemptive Attack Strategy Lambasted". And ominiously, "measures have been taken not to allow a single AIDS case in North Korea").
It is easy to make fun of this kind of breathless nationalist promotion. If nanotechnology is important, then we must have had it for ages since we are such a great nation! Part of it is of course the bad translations, but it is also the earnestness that gets us cynical westerners to smile. That humorless yet passionate approach does not work with our memetic antibodies.
It also is curious to see how nationalism makes a hash of ideological consistency. This nano-news and the recent Iranian criticism of 300 (and the Alexander movie) suggests that Iran thinks its pre-islamic past is so great that it must be defended from criticism (or merely dumb movies), while pre-islamic communities are persecuted. And apparently North Korea, despite being world leaders in everything, needs more researchers.
So what's next? Hugo Chavez revealing ancient Venezuelan micromachines?
Nick Bostrom and I have written a book chapter, The Wisdom of Nature: An Evolutionary Heuristic for Human Enhancement on the application of evolutionary biology to human enhancement.
The basic argument is simple: when you propose an enhancement, someone is bound to ask "if that's such a good thing, why haven't nature already given us the trait?" And it is a relevant question: evolution is a great engineer in the sense that it produces organisms that function well (never mind the piles of bones on the workshop floor). It might be hard to improve on quasi-perfection.
Our paper looks at ways evolution might not give us what we want. It could be that evolution designed us for an environment we are no longer living in - keeping down brain energy requirements made sense when food was scarce, but today we should rather tweak our metabolic setpoints down to avoid obesity, despite the disadvantage that and large brains would have been in the Pleistocene.
Another reason why evolution might not have done what we want is simply that evolution doesn't optimize things after human values - contraception is a great thing for people, but from an evolutionary fitness perspective it is not anything evolution would have aimed for.
Finally there are a large number of things that evolution cannot do. Some things are impossible to do with our kind of biology or surrounded by vast deserts in the fitness landscape - diamond skeletons and radios are hard to evolve. Sometimes we get trapped in local optima, such as the appendix (evolving a smaller one increases the risk of appendicitis, despite that having an appedix in itself appears to be a slight fitness disadvantage). Evolution may also have a hard time keeping up with changing conditions.
All in all, if a proposed enhancement looks like it fits one of these possibilities we have a good reason to think that we know why nature did not give it to us. If we can't find any such explanation or if we get contradictory results, then it is a signal for caution. For example life extension gets a green light (evolution does not select for post-reproductory life strongly, antagonistic pleiotropy, differing human values etc) although this by no means shows that it will be easy to do. Removing sleep on the other hand looks like a red light (obvious disadvantage in terms of predation, no function known for certainty, yet strongly conserved across a big chunk of the animal kingdom).
The chapter is still being revised, and Nick and I would like to hear your comments. If you have read it and would like to comment, email anders.sandberg at philosophy.ox.ac.uk.
This week on CNE I blogged about the evolutionary genetics of cancer. I have always thought there is something tremendously cool about how cancer cells are undergoing rapid evolution - destructive for the body, but a creative process for the cancer cells.
Speaking of creative destruction, one implication seems to be that if the NIH succeeds in making cancer merely a serious chronic disease by 2015 we will get a lot of chronically ill people. Add to this life extension, better metabolic control (diabetes) and that it may be hard to prevent many illnesses for purely social reasons. Chronic illness does not necessarily mean a low quality of life or even ill health. It is largely a state of having a condition that needs to be monitored and possibly controlled. But the current health care system is based on the assumptions of the sick being a minority that mostly become cured or die, with a small group of chronic patients. What if chronic illness (broadly defined, including medicalization of bad memory and addiction risk as well as genetic predispositions for various states) becomes the majority?
In such a world practically everyone wants and needs healthcare, but it can hardly be supplied from centralized orgamisations that have fixed prices. There are simply too many patients for the artificially low (due to very rigorous certification) number of health care professionals. Running it all by tax money or insurance money seems unlikely to work, especially since if there is a price ceiling people will likely overconsume. It doesn't take much overconsumption of healthcare if it is done by nearly everybody to completely bankrupt the system.
The solution I believe in is to try to get last week's CNE entry, supply side medicine to work. We need medical entrepreneurs that compete (keeping down prices) and innovate (meeting the new kinds of demand). That of course requires enabling patient choice, for example by voucher systems. I expect that McClinics will grow in number and sophistication; maybe we will also see Oncology King next to them?
This week on CNE I blog about why medicine is so backwards. John C. Goodman makes the point in his paper that diffusion of technologies such as telephones, email and electronic records have been extremely slow in medicine compared to other professions. The explanation he gives is the lack of incentives to innovate, and points at the far more dynamic situation in cosmetic surgery and lasik.
His graph of the cost of cosmetic surgery is interesting, because it suggests that thanks to competition and price transparency it has become cheaper over time. This is cheering not just from an aesthetic perspective, but also from an human enhancement equality perspective. One of my main worries has been that the prices of service-based enhancements will be high and remain high, possibly causing social friction (gadgets and drugs become cheaper over time). But this shows that the price does not have to remain high if there is enough competition. Given that enhancements are somewhat likely to be outside the traditional healthcare system anyway and closer to elective surgery, this might be good social news.
Media A (via via Visual Complexity) has a fascinating diagram of events in the life of a fictional designer living from 1990-2090. It mixes personal development ("Learn early networking skills at kindergarten", "Go back to school and study nanotechnology") and trends ("Child plays with HAM II: mother-in-law objects", "24-hour business and recreation hubs", "Prada fashion and Monsanto agribusiness join forces for hostile takeover of big corporation"), showing how they affect each other.
It is a mixture between plausible possibilities and bisarre wildcards, which makes it ring very true. Airport hub universities and pausing groups sounds like good ideas already. Memory telescopes, Greenpeace reincorporating as Greenpeace Innovation Design Ltd, business models for design in multiple universes, why not? Weirder things have happened. Most future speculation tries to be grounded in known facts and trends, which makes it miss the totally new trends. This design-biased play seems to come up with several good ideas.
Maybe this kind of inventive life map is something we all ought to do? Based on what we think is likely or possible, we should draw possible future lives. Maybe What If could be another inspiration. Another interesting approach is Dandelife, where people can enter their life stories. That is intended for Web 2.0 autobiography, but it could easily be extended for making potential or proactive autobiographies.
As for myself, I have known since I was about 5 that I'm going to end up as a planetary information network.
Supergänget by Tobias Radesäter is a nice example of form and function fitting perfectly. It is a little Swedish superhero RPG written in cartoon form. It is a short (28 pages), simple game intended and suited for short games.
What really delighted me was self-referential style. The cartoon describes how the players at a RPG session sneak away to act as costumed crimefighters (which is also how game sessions are intended to start in-game). The GM walks away to his secret identity as the game designer, explaining the game while the plot goes on. It all reminds me of Scott McCloud's relaxed walks through his comics.
Roleplaying games have never become very stuck in any fixed format, despite the popularity of various rules-heavy systems. There is both an obvious freedom to select new settings and ways of roleplaying them, and rule systems are explicitly visible to players and GMs alike. This invites tinkering and experimentation far more than other kinds of games where consistency of rules is paramount. Again, roleplaying games tend by their nature as multilayered fiction to develop self-referential and self-modifying loops. Be it the designer considerations stated in the open in Skymningshem: Andra Imperiet or the deliberate self reference metaplot in Over the Edge, the subtle parody of HackMaster or the self-critical rants Violence, roleplaying games are not afraid of tearing down the fourth wall.
I recently came across the paper Do you have to be smart to be rich? The impact of IQ on wealth, income and financial distress by J L Zagorsky (Intelligence, in press). The subject is interesting: does higher intelligence increase income and saved wealth, and does it protect from making bad financial decisions? Zagorsky reaches the counterintuitive conclusion that it does not improve overall wealth despite increasing income (the income part was known before), and that there is a nonlinear relationship between IQ and being in financial distress: being smarter does not reliably make you economically wiser.
Data from table 2, showing median income and net worth. The medians are at least increasing!
These conclusions would have been good if they had not been marred by "machine thinking". There was frequent references to which piece of software that was being used, as if this would be relevant when the statistical methods were stated. A number of regressions were done using multiple methods, for the stated purpose of dealing with the skewedness of financial data. But if financial data are too skew, wouldn't log data work better? I got the impression of the author simply using the entire toolbox because it was there. Using several different kinds of regressions doesn't give much information to compare with and increases the chances of spurious significance. A better approach might be something along the lines of Sala-I-Martin's "millions of regressions" method where the distribution of coefficients of a particular variable is analysed when different sets are included in the regression. This gets around the risk of handpicking explanatory variables.
"Second, a common way of ranking competing logistic models is comparing their Akaike's information criteria (AIC) (Akaike, 1974). The model with the smallest AIC fits the data best. Starting from a linear model the AIC falls until IQ cubed is added, but then it rises sharply once IQ raised to the fourth power is included." Here the author does not explain how AIC was applied, but given the skewness of financial data that does not appear to be controlled, one cannot assume normal errors and that may quite possibly give skewed results too if the software assumes normality.
be busier and less focused on routines like paying bills. Another explanation is those with a higher IQ score might lead a life-style that is closer to the financial precipice because they feel they are smart enough to calculate and understand all relevant factors. A third explanation is that smarter people have a better memory and are more likely to remember mistakes."
There is probably some truth to this. But a far simpler explanation is that it is a case of overfitting.
A fitted high degree polynomial will rush towards (positive or negative) infinity outside the interval of points it has been fitted to. The financial data seems to be mostly in the interval 75-125 (as would be expected from a normal population) but is extrapolated up to 140 in table 7. No wonder the risks start increasing!
Here is a toy example, where I simulated 1000 individuals with IQs 75-125, with a trouble probability that was a simple parabolic curve plus noise. I fitted a linear, quadratic and cubic curve to them.
The blue cubic curve suffers from clear overfitting. Zagorsky's regression is admittedly different, but the evidence for a need of third degree polynomials does not look that strong.
In the end, this paper is a good example of why we should not let our software do our scientific thinking. Research is not just about getting a dataset, plugging it into a statistical model and coming up with an explanation of why the result is plausible.
Still, what is not enough for a scientific paper may be enough for a blog. I took the WORDSUM data from the GSS as a proxy for intelligence, and plotted the frequency distribution of INCOME.
Being above average seems to make you more satisfied. maybe this is just because of the higher income, but I would suspect savings do play a role.
Not much evidence for more trouble at the high end, but it looks like some more financial distress in the lower mid part of the intelligence gaussian. This is where there are enough people to get some data, they have reasonably large incomes, and they might be stupid from time to time. There is also a pretty strong anticorrelation (-0.38) between WORDSUM and thinking that there is no point in planning, that one has little control over bad events and good events are mostly luck (I added BADBRKS, LITCNTRL, MOSTLUCK, NOPLAN). That kind of fatalism and external locus of control seems pretty likely to predispose to financial troubles and low saving.
This week I blogged on CNE about using cellphones for medical records.
The work done at the Quinn Lab is pretty fun: they turn cellphones into visualisation devices. While the medical applications are useful and impressive (and no doubt gives grant money) my bet is that interfacing with GIS might be even more of a killer app.
As soon as enough processing is in the phones the real bottleneck becomes the network and information access. A patient record system has to do authentification, privacy monitoring and ensure quality of service - not insurmountable, but making the basic system so flexible that it can be accessed using mobile devices might be tricky from both an architectural and legal standpoint. I'm worried that electronic health records may become so regulated that they can never be more than software pieces of paper.
Of course, as demonstrated by mp3 players and the iPod, sometimes alternative institutions develop outside of regulation and eventually forces a change.
A little essay I wrote on why it is a bad idea to ban holocaust denial was posted on the Eudoxa site.
The basic argument is traditional J.S. Mill (and David Brin; his The Transparent society is still the most accessible and clear explanation of just why we ought to strive for an open society I have seen). Banning certain propositions hurts the epistemic underpinnings of society, and given our inability to distinguish hurtful speech acts from hurtful truths we better allow both.
I think most genocide denial bans are simply laziness - a way to avoid debate. Instead of trying to show how wrong and misguided the deniers are and point out real evidence (takes effort) they just silence debate. But silencing public debates does not prevent views from spreading, and in our underdog-cheering culture it might actually help these "banned" views.
As neuroimaging develops it will become increasingly possible to check whether people actually hold certain views. If some views are declared beyond the pale even in democratic societies, what does that mean for freedom of thought? | 2019-04-20T23:02:31Z | http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2007/04/index.html |
Ocean Images UK - Enjoy Shopping at its Best!
Enjoy Shopping at its Best!
As individuals advance in age, they lose mobility and energy. They usually need more help with their daily tasks or health care. If any of your loved ones is in such a state, be informed that they need extra support. You might be living alone and unable to give them the necessary support. The best thing to do would be to take them to an aged care facility, which is also known as a nursing home. The staff at the facility will assist your loved ones with day-to-day chores such as cooking and laundry. In case the elderly is fragile, personal care such as grooming and dressing will be provided to him or her. Here are some of the reason home care facilities are the best for the aged.
As individuals grow old, they rarely attend social gatherings. In such a situation, they can suffer from loneliness. Old people also want a person they can share their memories and laugh together. While at home, the elderly cannot enjoy such things. A private home caring facility provides the elderly with a social network, where he or she enjoys the company of other residents.
The seniors get assistance with their daily activities such as dressing, feeding, bathroom, administering medicine, and using the restroom. In most cases, the daily chores become extremely hard with age. At some point, the ability to see and hear becomes weak, which implies that the seniors can do absolutely nothing without help. If your seniors are in such a situation, take them to any of the aged care facilities Melbourne has today and life will be easier for them. Check Aarcare for more details.
When it comes to outdoor furniture, it’s all about quality, design and comfort. To help you enjoy the open air space in style, these furniture items are designed in varieties which include tables, chairs, sofas, benches, stools and sun lounges among others. In this modern time more people are interested in creating a welcoming outdoor setting with outdoor furniture. Scott Eckman, an executive vice president of marketing and furniture leasing, states that consumer demand for resources to enhance their outdoor space grows. It is often overwhelming for first time outdoor furniture shoppers due to the variety of materials, designs, style and selections on show. This article points out factors you need to consider when buying your outdoor furniture Sydney shops sell for the best outdoor experience.
The first thing to consider is the space of your deck, patio or courtyard in which like any other room in your house needs the furniture to fit perfectly to create a harmonious effect. After taking measurements of your space you will be able to determine the size of furniture you should acquire. Choose something that not only fits but also allows room for movement around it.
The next step in your selection of outdoor furniture Sydney shops sell is deciding the type of furniture you want. This is highly determined by the space you have and type of activities you plan to engage in the outdoor space. Consider what use the furniture will be put to and how many people you want to host at a given time. For someone who entertains a lot, it is advisable to get a dining table setting while a hammock and swing chairs provide a more relaxed setting. In the long run, your space will guide you to the right direction.
Ever had a problem with pests? If yes, then you probably know that they are the worst visitors one could ever have. Pests like termites go around destroying your property, cockroaches rummage through your foodstuffs and mice destroy some of your very important documents. They can definitely cause some of the saddest situations in the life of anyone. In order to avoid all the inconveniences that are brought about by the existence of pests, you may find it rather necessary to hire pest control Sydney services. If you pick the best services, the pests will be cleared off within a considerably short period of time.
a) Safety– a number of the pest control strategies often involve the use of chemicals. It is quite obvious that these chemicals have got their own negative effects on humans and pets. There are instances in which they may even result in death. While choosing pest control Sydney companies, you should ensure that they are willing to discuss safety schemes. If possible, they should be willing to use low toxicity options to minimize the negative impacts on the environment. It is also important that you go for a company that has an insurance policy that will cover “you” and their employees.
It is advisable that you consider the level of experience the roofer has; this is vital as it helps determine the quality of work they produce. You should ensure they have a broad range of experience and are in a position to handle any challenge that comes along their way. Thus, refrain from choosing a roofer who lacks the experience that is required to perform the project at hand.
It is advisable that you request for a variety of the roofers samples and their prior work. This will ensure that you are aware of the quality of work they produce as well as their end results. Roofers should be in a position to handle all styles of homes, roofs in all the sizes and shapes they come in.
They should be in a position to prove that they indeed can perform what they claim in terms of work done. You can even ask for contacts of their previous clients in order to get first-hand information from them and know what to expect from the roof repairs Sydney has available today.
In making any investment or purchase, you will find that price is a great determinant and the case is no different for roofers. Make sure that the roofer provides you with a reliable and accurate quote to keep you up front and updated with the project charges to expect upon completion of the roofing service.
The desire for a well manicured and magnificent landscape could be the reason why you devote so much time and energy to do it on your own. But, do you give it the real treatment it deserves? Do you have the right tools and techniques? How often do you do it? Is it once every two months because of your busy working schedule? Well, you might be denying your yard its full potential by doing it yourself. If you want a truly manicured and magnificent yard, hire professionals in landscaping Perth has to offer. By hiring their services, your lawn will be in good condition all year round and you’ll have no more headaches thinking about it. So, here are some of the reasons why it makes more sense to hire experts in landscaping Perth has today instead of doing it yourself.
Even if you devote a lot of time and effort on your yard, it isn’t a guarantee that you will not mess up. And, even if you don’t mess up, you’ll simply give it an average treatment. It’s just like having a court case. You have a right to present your case by yourself, but how far can you go with it? Most likely you’ll end up losing. Having a lawyer can increase your chances of winning. Experts know their work inside out. So, hiring a landscaping expert is a great reason to expect excellent results because of their expertise.
Time saving is perhaps the biggest reason to hire a landscaping expert. If you go the DIY way, you should expect to do much. First, you have to go through landscaping books and magazines to get inspiration of good ideas. Then you have to spare time to drive to the store to buy seeds, fertilizers and equipment. Finally, there is the mowing bit which is often tiring and time-consuming. Landscaping companies have their own equipment, the expertise and many technicians. They can use a few hours to complete the same works you’d have finished in one or two days.
There’s a lot of focus on the first time home buyers not only in NSW but in most other states as well. There are many reasons for this. Many times the new home buyers get caught in some of the markets plays like demand and supply of residential units on which they themselves have virtually no control. One year more houses get built and the market stagnates and the very next year there could be a drop in approvals and construction, and then the prices move northward raising the affordability issue. But ultimately, everyone finds a way to get good house builders NSW based to make some attractive offers, probably a land and house combination and then the dream comes true for the buyers.
Staying with the first time home buyers, they might be still young having a steady income; if a couple then both might be earning. But still they might have just started out on their careers and life and they may have other priorities as well. To buy a new house, they will have to spend a lot of time looking at the properties available; maybe spend the Saturday mornings attending the auctions to know what kind of prices the residential properties are getting sold for. Some may even be put off by the sheer feeling that such amount of money may be beyond their capability to put together or borrow. Many couples may even lack the basic information and knowledge on these matters.
So, you know that you want her to be your life partner. Why don’t you let her know about your commitment by giving her an engagement ring? Is it because you cannot afford a diamond ring now? Do you think she loves you because you can give her a diamond, or because she loves you for the person you are? If you are sure that she loves you for the person you are, then why wait for a diamond ring? Commit her love with Fine Jewellery Moimoi, Moissanite Rings. They are as good as anything for committing your love, and you can surely see the sparkle on her face.
Moissanite is said to be found in a meteorite in Arizona. But then jewellery items were not made from it. It was developed in a lab by a French Nobel prize winner, Dr. Henri Moissanand, and hence the stone was named Moissanite. Although it looks similar to a diamond, yet it has its own unique features that have made it so popular among engagement or wedding rings.
This is true that diamonds are always associated with engagement rings. But, if you cannot afford diamonds, then you can always go for Fine Jewellery Moimoi, Moissanite Rings. These rings are as beautiful as diamond rings. They are a classy alternative to diamond as moissanite has more refractive index than a diamond. Thus, when you gift her a moissanite ring, you will find that it’s more sparkling than a diamond. Only experts can tell the difference. Thus, choose among the different types of moissanite rings to let her know that you want her beside you in every step of your life.
Your fiancé will never feel the difference that whether she is wearing a diamond ring or a moissanite ring. Yes, you will tell her the truth, but others who will see the ring can never distinguish and know the fact. She will feel special to know that she has you beside her and will feel happy to wear the ring.
Getting a commercial display refrigerator is one of the crucial investments in businesses that are related to food preparation. A commercial display refrigerator is important as it presents your delicacies and attracts your customers. Also, can preserve and lengthen your goods’ shelf life.
Brand matters. When buying a commercial freezer for sale, it’s the status quo, and it’s even politically correct to dismiss the brand. This is because the brand name doesn’t necessarily equate with high calibre performance in appliances. While this is true, it’s not always the case with commercial fridges, especially a commercial display refrigerator. The brand that you invest in matters the most and is, therefore, the first consideration before you buy. Reputation may not be the sole determinant of quality, but it does say a lot about performance. Choose brands that are well-known in restaurateur communities for supplying high-quality refrigerators, particularly commercial fridges.
There are brands that offer the highest quality units at a premium price. Meanwhile, there are also dealers of brands who are willing to negotiate with those restaurateurs who are pinching their pockets, such as those who sell a used commercial refrigerator. While it’s the same brand and quality, it’s always imperative to check the status or condition of a used commercial refrigerator for sale if ever you’re going to buy one.
When the whole world is amazed at the huge prospects of ecommerce, owing to the incredible jump in ecommerce sales figures every year, it would be a wonder if one particular ecommerce site fails to do business well. One possible reason that could justify the poor sales on an ecommerce website is the poorly designed look of the website. Modern customers want flashy things apart from superior deals on an ecommerce website and if your website fails to deliver either of them, it would pretty soon lose its importance. There are many firms, which offer services of cheap ecommerce website design Leicester wide and have the professional expertise to design websites for ecommerce that would make the website a hit among the visitors.
There are three major things that any ecommerce web design would need. These three things are trustworthiness, transparency and most importantly ease of use and simplicity of the site. As a customer, you would never feel confident to share your credit card details on a website that does not look professional at all. You will do business with a website only if it can instill faith in your mind that it is not a fake website. The web design has a huge role to play in getting this done.
Going hand in hand with trustworthiness is the transparency factor. Many web designers fail to fill in the Contact Us page with relevant information. Anything grey about an ecommerce website could prove lethal for the site as customers are very finicky when it comes to online financial transactions on an ecommerce website. Check Leicester Website Design for more details.
Kia is one of the fastest developing companies in the world. This automobile manufacturing company has secured a profitable market in the Australian and American car trade, and endeavors to cater to the needs of cost-efficient and gorgeous cars throughout the planet. So if you are scheming to buy an exclusive Kia car model for yourself, you may seek for an advice from Kia dealers located all over Australia, and if you have already made up your mind to buy Kia carnival Brisbane dealers sell or a Kia Sedona, then it would be a wise option to get home a multipurpose vehicle with highly efficient engines and fully equipped interior.
The presently available Kia carnival is the third generation of the model originated in the year 1998 and is loaded with awesome features. It has 3.3 L lambda V6 GDI or 2.2 CRDI VGT R-LINE I4 diesel engine with 6 speed shiftable automatic transmission. All models are equipped with A/M & F/M stereo, CD player, iPod, USB input jacks, auxiliary audio input jack, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo streaming capabilities Sirius XM satellite radio, alloy wheels, keyless entry and many other features.
Family law attorneys usually tend to understand all issues that are related to the family. They understand families’ emotional statuses and even their personal weaknesses. A family law attorney Nashville TN market has today assists family members in navigating from difficult family times and also helps them with all family law needs. The family law attorney has extensive experience to handle even the most difficult cases. They handle cases that are in relation to child support, child adoption, and termination of parental rights, relocation cases and contested divorce cases. The attorneys also represent those that are in the military in solving military divorces. Even if their main practice is family law, the attorneys also help their clients in dealing with cases that are related to bankruptcy, DUI, automobile accident cases, contract negotiations and landlord-tenant disputes. The family law attorney can be hired on a part-time basis or on consultation basis.
A family law attorney usually handles cases in different fields that are related to family law. The best attorneys in Lebanon Tennessee cover certain types of cases that are related to family lives such as cases in marriage, divorce, annulment, adoption, legal separation, marital property, child support and marital property. A family law attorney Nashville TN based helps clients in the preparation of the right marriage certifications. There is some information that a family law attorney gets to look into before issuing people to be married with marriage certifications. One of the main things that are looked into is whether the persons to be married are related in any way and whether they are presently married to another person.
Ever longed to attend an event filled with thrill, adrenaline, and roaring expensive cars? Then 2015 Singapore grand prix event is the place to be. It is the only occasion that one can meet the world’s famous racers on a three-night visit. The event will be filled with expensive cars such as Lamborghini, Ferrari, and F1 Spider. All formula 1 lovers have the opportunity to book advanced tickets and acquire their seats to the 2015 Singapore grand prix online without going through last minute hassles. Through a good website like kpt.com.au, users will be able to view different three and five star hotels that best suit their finances. They can also enter a competition in which the winner will have the opportunity to drive a Ferrari. 2015 Singapore grand prix will be set on a magnificent stage where everybody in attendance will have a candid view of everything taking place from the beginning to the end.
All tennis lovers who have ever wanted to attend the Australian open matches can do so without any worries. Australian open is one event that brings people from different cultures together in Australia. Those who seek to find further information about hospitality, venue, and tickets can do so by visiting available online page. Attendants to the event can book three or five star hotels and arrange for other services such as airport and hotel transfers to and from the venue. The clients will be able to buy VIP and premium, and advanced tickets at the right time for the match. They will receive further assistance and have any question answered by customer care providers. The client should know that the premium tickets come with additional services such as hotel reservations, airport and hotel transfers, and special seating levels.
Are you looking for good cheap new Yamaha pianos Sydney deals? Welcome to Piano City. The company stocks one of the greatest selections of piano brands in Sydney all of which are available at very competitive prices. The company has cheap Yamaha pianos in Sydney from some of the leading brands such as Yamaha grand pianos, the Yamaha upright acoustic Pianos, and the Yamaha Disklavier pianos. Apart from the Yamaha line of pianos, you can also purchase other brands such as the Beale Grand and Upright pianos and a good range of digital pianos from such big names as Korg, Roland and Yamaha. Piano City is a family owned enterprise that was founded in 1981 and guarantees professional and personalized services accompanied by unbelievably affordable prices. The cheap new Yamaha pianos Sydney offers are of excellent quality and will guarantee you good sound and resonance.
The company gives the widest range of cheap new Yamaha pianos Sydney has to offer that meet the needs and preferences of most pianists playing at all levels. The company also has some experienced hands who can give you expert advice on the best pianos to choose for your needs. Before making a purchase, you get in touch with the company’s piano experts to discuss the top options available for you. The product range is quite huge and customers can choose from a great selection.
Whether you are looking for the cheap starter pianos or the grand pianos for the concerts, you can have it all at the Piano City. One of the big advantages of the piano shop is the various options for piano ownership that it offers. Customers can choose from new or pre-owned ones. If you are buying new pianos for kids, you can always resell when the kids outgrow them. The shop also offers different financing options that you can explore to own your piano. There is also the option to rent a Yamaha piano if you do not plan to purchase it outright.
To church since they are very decent and to many other occasions.
Maxi dresses can be worn by practically anyone. You only have to know which styles are suitable for your body shape and size.
At the Frocktail Party Australia website, they have maxi dresses in all styles and shapes for all body sizes. Given that maxi dresses are suitable for many occasions they have just the right maxi dress to pretty you up. You won’t go wrong if you buy maxi dresses from their online shop.
They have cheap maxi dresses: At Frocktail Party they recognise that one does not need to spend a lot to stay stylish. Their maxi dresses are incredibly stylish and affordable for those who are on a budget yet want to remain fashion savvy.
The customers buy maxi dresses online: At Frocktail party they realise that not everyone has the time to go and shop dresses from a boutique or clothes shop. They make work easier since ladies are able to buy the maxi dresses from the comfort of their homes.
They have styling suggestions: As one shops for the maxi dresses online there is a huge array of photographs where one sees different maxi dresses on different models so one can know how to put on the dress and also the accessories that go with it. This helps the customers make informed buys.
Planning your home décor is always a very exciting process. It gives you an opportunity to dig deeper into the depths of your soul and literally discover who you are. But decorating is also a very challenging task. Whether you are planning to decorate the whole house or doing a simple furnishing of your home, there are a lot of details that you need to get right. There are costly decisions that you will make when trying to choose the best home décor online and the worst thing is that the outcome of such costly decisions is something that is going to haunt you for many years unless you decide to make another costly investment in altering your home decor online.
There are agonizing decisions that you will have to grapple with when you order home decor online. For example, what is your preferred style when it comes to home décor? Should you hire a professional to do your home décor or should you do it yourself? How much are you willing to spend on your home decor online Australia projects? How will guarantee happy results at the end of a home décor?
The home decoration process is a very intensive one. It will begin from the first inspirations that you get to build some inspired spaces in your home and ends with final plans that you will run away with in order to create beautiful spaces in your home. There is the challenging job of choosing the right colors for your home, of shopping for furniture and other decorative items for your home and finally, the task of arranging the furniture and other items inside your home. Here, you will decide the areas where you will need to cut down on our costs and the areas where you will be willing to splurge in order to create those inspired spaces that you crave.
If you are a beginner in choosing a table tennis table, it may be a tricky process to choose the best Perth table tennis table in the market. However, if you have a clear idea of what you want, you may find it easier and get a table that can meet your needs.
Choosing a wrong table tennis table can greatly affect the quality of play, which is why you need to go for the best Perth table tennis table in the market. When shopping for a table tennis table in Perth, you may need to consider the following points.
Who will be using the table?
If you are a beginner and a recreational player, you do not need a professional table as that used for tournaments. Instead, you can just have a basic home table or a high-end table. These tables are available from a reliable supplier in Perth. However, if you have limited space and you just want to play for fun, then it is advisable to buy non-standard small tables.
Ping pong tables are suitable for schools, recreational centers, and game rooms. When you buy table tennis tables for such groups, you will need to consider durability and robustness. In that situation, you can go for a high end table, especially if you are on budget or you can go for a refurbished competition table. Refurbished competition tables are often top quality at affordable prices.
If you are buying a Perth table tennis table for tournaments and table tennis clubs, you may take your selection a little higher and select a table with professional features. In such cases, a competition table, whether refurbished or not can do. Competition tables embrace a thick surface of more than ¾ inches to allow for a consistent bounce across the entire surface of the table. For more professional outlook, ensure that the table is International Table Tennis Federation approved. In the US, United States Table Tennis approval is also acceptable.
Do you need a rollaway or a stationary table?
The majestic and misty Blue Mountains are situated to the west of Sydney and are within a very easy reach of the city. It is no accident that they are some of the most preferred weekend destinations for many Sydney residents and visitors alike. With the Blue Mountain tours, you can explore them in all their magnificence.
The mountains are so alluring and include many attractions that are guaranteed to make your visit here a worthwhile one. They include a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site which is about one and half hours from Sydney. The mountains begin their rise from the coastal plains from Glenbrook which is situated some 65km to the west of Sydney.
From the M4 Motorway that passes through Windsor, you will pass by many other smaller towns such as the Leura, Katoomba and the Blackheath. In Katoomba, you will see some of the most stunning rock formations along the way which are an attraction in themselves. These are situated at the Echo Point and are known as the Three Sisters.
This offers the most scenic route through which you can explore the magic of the Blue Mountains. On this route, there are a total of 18 trails that take you to the worlds of discovery where you can explore rock formations and outcrops, towns, forests, national parks, Aboriginal heritage sites and many other attractions along the way. There are limitless opportunities here for plenty of adventures along the way.
If you take the Blue Mountain tour by train, you will enjoy the beautiful scenery and cool air here in a slow and relaxed way. The mountains are well served by the CityRail which passes through many of the main attractions here. The train departs hourly from the Sydney Central Station headed for the Wentworth Falls and will pass through many of the main sites here including Leura, Katoomba, Blackheath and Mount Victorian amongst many others.
As the saying goes, “Home is where the heart is”, most people will say they have a dream house or more appropriately, dream home. It is definitely not a waste of money and time to invest for a dream home because this is where good living starts with the loving family a person has. However, nowadays, some people like to make their homes unique, especially if they have enough money to make it so. What is unique for Industrial Furniture Online one individual may not necessarily be suitable for another.
But, uniqueness can be associated to something that took time to be found or something that not all have. In a home setting, uniqueness can be achieved if industrial furniture will be used. Industrial furniture online products in Brisbane can, fortunately, be purchased in Gorgeous Home Interiors For You or Ghify.
Industrial furniture is mostly the favorite of artists, architects, engineers, photographers, and interior designers because it gives home vintage and eclectic effect. The industrial furniture in Brisbane available through Ghify is the answer to some people’s search for this kind of furniture because it is rarely available in stores nowadays and if ever available, it is generally costly. Some may even consider building it themselves or hiring someone to build it for them, but if practicality will be considered, then this is not a good idea because it will cost a lot.
When you buy industrial furniture online in Brisbane being sold by Ghify, you are assured of products which are affordable and of good quality. This furniture is usually made from the materials of aged buildings or anything that had served its purpose but has a sturdy build. The recycled materials are perfectly mixed and furnished into new furniture that will truly bring elegance and class to homes.
Contrary to popular belief, finding work clothes for men is not that easy. Yes, it is a simple task for those who prefer to wear the same bland white or plain colored shirt to work day after day. However, some men prefer variety and would like their personalities to shine through the clothes they wear to work. If you fit into this category, your best bet is to find a mens workwear company with an in-house digitising service.
Some of you may ask, why is there a need for personalised workwear? Well, just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you should lose your sense of style. This feat seems easier for women than men, especially in offices with strict dress codes. Tradesmen like plumbers, electricians and carpenters are limited in their choices because they need to wear something that won’t get in the way of their work.
Most of the time, men are limited to wearing T-shirts to work because it’s safe and convenient. However, plain tees, whether white or colored, can get very boring in time, especially if you work five days a week. To spice things up, men wear shirts with different prints and designs, and tend to layer up their clothing by pairing plain undershirts with a collared button shirt over it. | 2019-04-23T10:09:38Z | https://www.oceanimages-uk.com/ |
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