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The blog deals with new theories and observations in relation to the composition and structure of the Cosmos. If you can find observations or experiments that confirms or rejects the theory, you may place them on the blog! Is anyone able to answer these questions! What is the length of the coordinates in the two inertial systems S and S' at the velocity v, according to relativity - if the length of the coordinates are identical at v = zero? 1) Is the physical length of the coordinates greatest in S? 2) Is the physical length of the coordinates greatest in S'? 3) Is the physical length of the coordinates in S equal to the physical length of the coordinates in S'? If the physical lengths are identical, will it then be possible to have any physical length contractions according to relativity? Or, in other words, have you ever experienced a length contraction because of the movement of another coordinate system? If it isn't possible to have any length contractions according to relativity, how can relativity then explain the relativistic experiments where a Lorentz contraction occurs? In the quantum field theory, the Casimir effect is a physical force arising from the zero-point field, where the zero-point field is the quantum state with the lowest possible energy. The existence of the zero-point field, at the same time both confirms the theory about the structure and composition of the Cosmos, and overturns Einstein's principle of relativity. This can bee seen from the fact, that you cannot - as Einstein postulate - have that "the same laws of electrodynamics and optics will be valid for all frames of reference for which the equations of mechanics hold good" and at the same time have a stationary zero-point field. For instance will the velocity relative to the zero-point field be different for different frames of reference.

http://iloapp.finaltheories.com/blog/blog?Home

+ * Make things happen when buttons are pressed and forms submitted. + "ext-pdo_sqlsrv": "For MSSQL databases on Windows platform" + "ext-libsodium": "Provides a modern crypto API that can be used to generate random bytes." + "ext-mbstring": "For best performance" + * @param string $username Username, saved in lowercase. + * @param string $password Password, will be hashed before saving. + * @param string $email User's email address. + * @return int The new user's ID number in the database. + * Get where a user's account actually is. + * @return string "LDAP", "LOCAL", "LDAP_ONLY", or "NONE". + * Checks the given credentials against the database. + * Check if a username exists in the local database. + * Checks the given credentials against the LDAP server. + * Check if a username exists on the LDAP server. + * Generate a TOTP secret for the given user. + * Save a TOTP secret for the user. + * 500 most common passwords, to be used in stopping idiots from having really bad passwords. + * Checks a given password against the list of the 500 most common passwords. + "title" => "404 error" + * I18N string getter. If the key doesn't exist, outputs the key itself. + * I18N string getter (with builder). If the key doesn't exist, outputs the key itself. + * @param array $replace key-value array of replacements. + * result will be "hello 123". + * Checks if an email address is valid. + * @return boolean True if email passes validation, else false. + * Check if the previous database action had a problem. +// Base URL for site links. +// If you want to have additional password requirements, go edit action.php. +// like CaPs45$% is not actually a great idea. +// Encourage users to use 2-factor auth whenever possible.

https://source.netsyms.com/Business/AccountHub/commit/16cbf2a5f17ae16baef6506b9f41ddeeb7e7673a

This section provides a tutorial example on how to call an RPC method defined a WSDL 1.1 document with SOAP 1.1 binding. I used the local version of my WSDL document, c:/herong/GetExchangeRate_WSDL_11_SOAP_11_RPC.wsdl. The online version at http://www.herongyang.com/Service/ GetExchangeRate_WSDL_11_SOAP_11_RPC.wsdl gives me an access problem because the site does not like Perl HTTP client agent. I used readable('true') to make the SOAP request XML message is nice format. SOAP::Lite does allow you to make an RPC call through a WSDL document like a local method call: GetExchangeRate('USD', 'JPY', '2007-07-07'). SOAP::Lite is smart to convert the RPC call into a SOAP request message. SOAP::Lite is smart to provide type information xsi:type="..." to support message encoding. SOAP::Lite is smart to pick up the return value from the SOAP response message. SOAP::Lite is not smart to follow the parts="fromCurrencyPart toCurrencyPart datePart" specified in the WSDL document to order the parameters. It follows the original order of how these message parts were defined in the WSDL document. To correct the issue, you need to make the call like this: GetExchangeRate('2007-07-07', 'USD', 'JPY'). Conclusion, SOAP::Lite 0.710 does not support the parts="..." of the "soap:body" WSDL statement.

http://www.herongyang.com/WSDL/Perl-SOAP-Lite-0710-Call-PRC-Defined-in-WSDL-11.html

Want to make whole wheat bread yourself? Just follow my step by step instructions to get a fresh loaf of homemade whole wheat bread from your own oven! 4 Tbs. Butter, room temp. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water. Also to stand for 5 minutes. Add the honey, salt, butter, and 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour. Mix at a low speed. Add 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour while the mixer is running. Mix until well combined. You may or may not need to add more flour at this point. You want the dough to come together in a sticky ball that mostly cleans the sides of the bowl, but still sticks to the bottom. Add more flour a little at a time if you need to. Lean more towards a stickier dough than a stiff dough. Knead in your mixer for 3 minutes. Then cover and let rise until doubled. This should take about an hour. Dump risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Shape it into a loaf sealing the seams well. Place the loaf in a bread pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and let rise until doubled (about a half hour to 45 minutes). Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Bake risen bread for 45-50 minutes. About half way through baking you will need to tent the wheat bread with foil to avoid over browning. Run a cube of butter over the top of the hot bread. Cool 20 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

https://mindeescookingobsession.com/homemade-whole-wheat-bread/print/5185/

, where , boundary of the cube , outward pointing normal. How can I solve the integral with singularity at endpoint? Is there a solution for this integral? What have you tried so far? and where did you get stuck? Because the cube has "edges" and is not smooth, do each of the six faces separately. 1) On the face x= 0, the unit normal is <-1, 0, 0>, on the face x= 3 the unit normal is <1, 0, 0>, and F has 0 x-component so those integrals are 0. 2) On the face y= 0, the unit normal is <0, -1, 0>, on the face y= 3 the unit normal is <0, 1, 0>, and F has 0 y-component so those integrals are 0.

http://www.thescienceforum.com/mathematics/39626-surface-integral.html

London is 1pm now and Hong Kong is 9pm now. Is it correct to say "London is 8 hours behind Hong Kong"? From our point-of-view it's more common to say 'HK is 8 hrs ahead of London', but either is correct. What is the working hours? or What are the working hours? Lasts two hours vs Lasts for two hours.

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/61219-8-hours-behind

In Scandinavia they don't call it Christmas (Christ-Mass), instead they still retain the old pagan name for the Yuletide celebrations which they call Jul (pronounced Yule). Yule was a pagan festival that followed the midwinter solstice (usually around 21st December) and celebrated the return of the sun as the days slowly started to get longer again. The festivities, which involved lots of drinking and consuming of slaughtered animals, lasted up to 12 days, hence the 12 days of Christmas. In Scandinavia it is still traditional to leave food out (usually porridge with butter) for the little red-capped tomte or nisse (household spirits or house elves) and thus we have the tradition of leaving food (usually cookies) out for Father Christmas, who in Sweden is called the Jul Tomte (the Yule Elf). Another tradition in Scandinavia is that of the Christmas goat, whose origins are lost in the mists of time. The Jul Bok (Yule goat) is nowadays usually made from straw, which indicates that it was probably once an offering from the last harvest (like the British corn dollies), but other traditions have a man dressing up as goat at Yuletide, which could be distant memory of a pagan fertility ritual, or even be connected to the two goats who pulled Thor's chariot in Norse mythology. Yule is the turning of the year when, as the days slowly start to get longer, the Nordic peoples celebrated the end of the year and the return of the sun, the completion of the another yearly cycle of life, death and rebirth. The winter solstice was a particularly inauspicious the night when Odin was said to ride through the skies with the Wild Hunt collecting the souls of the dead. So everyone stayed indoors feasting, afraid to go outside lest they be caught out alone and abducted by the Wild Hunt. The Modern English word Yule comes down to us via the Middle English yol from the Anglo-Saxon Geol, though nowadays it is more commonly known as Christmastide or the 12 Days of Christmas. However in Scandinavia they still call it jul (pronounced yule) or jol. One of the many names of Odin recorded in the Icelandic sources is Jolnir, which means The Yule One. Though this name probably refers to his role as leader of the Wild Hunt at Yule, rather than to a jolly giver of gifts! (I can find no evidence for the claim on Wikipedia that Odin was known as Jolfaðr, the Yule Father). So how did Yule become Christmas? King Hakon of Norway, who was a Christian, passed a law that the Christian Christmas Day and the Pagan Yuletide celebrations were to be henceforth celebrated at the same time. While this only impacted the Norwegian territories it illustrates how these festivals were intentionally combined into one celebration. We do know that the celebration of Yule wasn’t always twelve days long. The Norse text 'Heimskringla: The Saga of Hakon the Good' talks about it lasting for three days, or as long as the ale continued. The night it began was known as slaughter night, where animals would be ritually slain and their blood collected in bowls to be splattered over the wooden idols of the gods and over the participants using a bunch of twigs. The animals' meat was then consumed in a feast which was known at the julblot. Other sources tell of the burning of a Yule log, the ashen remains of which were used to ward off evil spirits and other misfortunes, before being ignited again the following year to start the subsequent Yule fire. Also there was the eating of a Yule boar in honour of Freyr, a god associated with the harvest and fertility, who in Christian times became associated with St Stephen and his feast day of 26th December. More variations can be found in 'Gulathingslog 7', where Yule was celebrated ‘for a fertile and peaceful season,’ we also see in the 'Saga of Hakon the Good' that Odin was hailed at this time as the bringer of victory, while Njord and Freyr were hailed for peace and fertility. Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology speaks of how Frau Holle’s annual wagon toured the countryside during the Yuletide season for blessings of a fruitful year ahead. Deities associated with winters, like the winter hunters Ullr and Skadhi, were also sometimes hailed. Since this is the day of darkest night, Nott (Goddess of Night), as well as silver-gleaming Mani (God of the Moon), may be honored. Some will also honor Dagr (God of Day) and Sunna (Goddess of the Sun) as she will only grow in prominence in the months ahead. Odin, in his aspect as the God of Death and Transition, is almost always honored at this time. The Wild Hunt rages over the whole world seeking out and sweeping up the dead, ushering out the dead old year itself. It's also common to honor Freyr and an envisioned new year of growth and promise. Also, Thor is honored for driving back the Frost Giants. It was customary that no work was to be done during Yuletide. From Germanic sources we see stories of the Goddess Berchta visiting peoples houses and punishing those who had been spinning during Yule. In the Icelandic 'Svarfdæla Saga', we see a warrior who postpones a fight until after the Yuletide, and 'The Saga of Hakon the Good' also says that Yule was to be kept holy. Modern Heathens opt to celebrate this time as the Twelve Days of Yule, with the last day culminating on 12th Night. Ancient calendars followed a different method of time, the solstice celebrations, as well as later Christmas observances, can vary from place to place as to when they occur. Today, most Pagans and Heathens celebrate the Yuletide as running from approximately December 20 – December 31. Some Heathen groups opt to conduct no business matters during the time of Yule. Some practitioners of the Northern Tradition will even choose to completely withdraw and go secluded from online mailing lists, bulletin boards, and social media outlets like Facebook so they can stay focused on spending the Yuletide with friends and family. While it’s not always an option for everyone, there are those who choose to use vacation time from work so they can have the entire Yuletide off as well. Yuletide was perhaps the greatest of all Heathen holidays. It was a time of celebration and close family contact that lasted twelve days and nights; each of which can be viewed as a month of the preceding year in miniature. Many of the customs associated with Christmas may have begun from Heathen Yule rites and customs. Many Gods and Goddesses are honored during Yuletide, and most followers of Asatru believe that the gods, as well as the spirits of the earth and the ancestors, join us for the celebrations at this time of year. Many traditions and practices are traditional to the month of Yule the most well known is, of course, the 12 Days of Yule. Some Heathens may bookend Yule with Mother’s Night and Twelfth Night and not have specific observances in-between those days, and some other Heathens have taken things a step further. Pulling inspiration from the Nine Noble Virtues, and combining it with candle-lighting celebrations like Chanukah or Kwanzaa, they have come up with a reason to light a candle every night during the Yuletide. The alter on Yule should face north, the area is decorated with holly and mistletoe and dried leaves and fruit such as hips and haw. A chalice of appropriate wine, mead or cider. The oak or pine log with up to 13 green, white and red candles decorated with carvings, runes or symbols is placed centrally on the altar. The appropriate fragranced incense burning and scenting the air, e.g., bay, juniper, cedar, pine or rosemary is pretty good for this. There are several versions and variations to the 12 days of Yule. I like to call it the Twelve Nights of Yule since I usually hold the honor at night and it is the darkest time of the year. The version below is a combination with the most common points. Each night starts with the main focus followed by a reading and closed with a virtue meditation. Alternatively, a month is offered each night as a reflection. Glad Yuletide to Everyone. Hail!

https://thevikingdragon.com/blogs/news/the-12-days-of-yule

Traditionally, quantum theory has been viewed as a "difficult" topic, mainly because of the symbolic-mathematical content. For example, Francl notes that two semesters of calculus is usually required for physical chemistry (1), and this is certainly true for quantum theory. The traditional approach emphases the use of mathematical equations, derivations and calculations. How do we deal with non-chemistry majors who have a weak background in mathematics, but wish to study p-chem? Similarly, how do we deal with chemistry majors who have a weak background in mathematics? Interestingly, the last 20-30 years has witnessed a paradigm shift in the practice of quantum chemistry. Leading up to the 1970s, quantum chemistry was monopolized by theoretical chemists, who were as much mathematicians as chemists. One had to be conversant with the mathematical methodology in order to perform a quantum calculation. More recently, the amazing increases in computing power have lead to graphical user interfaces, which has enabled a new group ofcomputational chemists. These computational chemists are interested only in the significance of the computed results, not in the details of the mathematical methods used. However, the same paradigm shift in the teaching of quantum chemistry has not occurred yet: students are still required to be competent mathematicians. The "new calculus" in mathematics education (eg, 2) advocates the "rule of four" (numerical, graphical, symbolic and verbal descriptions) to deepen students' conceptual understanding (eg, 3). This "new calculus" acknowledges that a predominantly symbolic approach to mathematics is suitable for some, but not all, students. The greater emphasis on graphical and verbal descriptions of a "problem" enables students to focus on the qualitative results. The numerical approach can refer either to approximate numerical solutions (cf modern computational chemistry software) or to specific numerical examples of more general symbolic equations. This paper describes the use of spreadsheets to generate approximate numerical solutions and visual (graphical) descriptions as a method of avoiding or minimizing symbolic manipulations, mathematical derivations and numerical computation. The aim here is to teach the qualitative results that arise from quantum theory, but with less "math". The specific example of the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation and some aspects of the educational pedagogy of spreadsheet usage are discussed. Electrons (and atoms?) exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behavior. Students are usually first introduced to quantum theory through the wavefunctions for the 1-dimensional Schrödinger equation. Exact solutions are derived for the particle-in-a-box (the Kuhn model (4)) and the simple harmonic oscillator model. The shapes of the potentials for these models are shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Potential functions for the particle-in-a-box model (left) and the simple harmonic oscillator model (right). where Hn(x) is the Hermite polynomial of order n. The novice learner sees the differences between Equation 1 and Equation 2 and concludes that every potential is treated as a special case! Potentials such has the triangular and stepped-valley models, shown in Figure 2, have no closed-form (ie analytic) wavefunction solutions. Similarly, the quantized energies cannot be given by any analytic equation. Here, the novice learner concludes incorrectly either that quantum mechanics does not apply, or that many systems are not quantized! Figure 2. Simple piecewise-continuous potential functions for which the wavefunction does not have any closed form: a triangular potential (left) and a stepped-valley potential (right). In p-chem classes at Deakin University, the derivative is explained as the "slope of a function". The 2nd order differential Schrödinger equation for an electron-in-a-box (the Kuhn model (4)) is explained as "finding the slope of a slope". The 1st order Euler method for generating numerical solutions is explained. No calculus is required as the Euler method can be derived from the definition of average slope. More-able students can construct an appropriate spreadsheet (to find numerical solutions to the Schrödinger equation), but mostly, spreadsheet quantum_well.xls<http://www.deakin.edu.au/~lim/KFLim/papers/2003_Spreadsheet_CCEN/quantum_well.xls>, implementing the Schrödinger equation, is provided as a "black box" to weaker students. (The pros and cons of black box methods are discussed below.) Using the spreadsheet quantum_well.xls, students test how the shape of a trial "wavefunction" changes as the energy is varied (Figure 3). A copy of the instructions to students for this exercise can be found at<http://www.deakin.edu.au/~lim/KFLim/papers/2003_Spreadsheet_CCEN/Asgnt_1_6.pdf>. The wavefunction solutions are classed as "valid" or "invalid" depending on whether the boundary conditions are satisfied as energy is varied (the shooting method (6)). Figure 3. Approximate trial wavefunctions for the triangular potential (Figure 2), arranged from high energy (top) to low energy (bottom). Shaded domains are the forbidden region: V(x) < E. Students discover that energy determines the wavelength of the wavefunction, and that valid solutions require that only special ("allowed") wavelengths will fit the dimension of the potential (Figure 3). It is observed that, as wavelength decreases, the number of nodes (the zeroes or roots of the wavefunction) increases with energy. An extension of this exercise using a skipping rope easily verifies that it is more difficult (higher energy) to swing the rope with nodes present than without any nodes (lower energy). Since the sign of the wavefunction changes across a node, the qualitative shape of the wavefunction can be generated from the nodal pattern. (One strategy in de Bono's Lateral Thinking (7) is to concentrate on what is not present - ie the nodes or zeroes - in order to obtain what should be present - the wavefunction.) Wavefunctions can then be generated from nodal patterns in 2-dimensions and 3-dimensions. For example, the molecular orbitals for cyclopentadienyl have, in increasing order of energy, no nodes, one node and two nodes respectively (Figure 4). Similarly, the rotational wavefunctions can be generated by considering nodal patterns on the surface of a sphere. Much of Schrödinger's original work was based on Hamilton's mathematical description of standing waves on a planet completely covered by ocean (ie water waves on a spherical surface). Note that these "spherical waves" correspond to combinations of the spherical harmonic functions, and can be obtained from the symmetry - "topology" - of the nodal patterns on the surface of a sphere. Figure 4. molecular orbitals for cyclopentadienyl. Shading of the circles in the centre panels represent the sign (direction) of the pz orbitals. The pzorbitals change sign across nodal planes, which are shown as blue lines. On further exploration with the spreadsheet quantum_well.xls, students discover that the shapes of the allowed one-dimensional wavefunctions are similar (Figure 5), even for different potential models: ie, the lowest-energy wavefunctions all have one "bump", with no nodes. Figure 5. Lowest-energy approximate wavefunctions for the particle-in-a-box (top panel), simple harmonic oscillator (2nd panel), triangular (3rd panel) and stepped-valley (bottom panel) potentials of Figure 1 andFigure 2. Shaded domains are the forbidden region: V(x) < E. the use of a series of square wells separated by barriers (extended Kronig-Penney model) illustrates that interactions between wells split energy levels. As the number of wells increases, the (single-well) energy splits into a quasi-continuous band of energies, giving rise to the band theory for conductors and semi-conductors. Although there has been a substantial history in the use of spreadsheet and graphical applications in education (eg 9,10), the author believes that full utilization of the technology, especially in chemical education, has not been realized. The aim of this paper is to teach the qualitative results that arise from applying mathematics to physical and chemical systems, but without the mathematical rigor: "teaching maths with minimal maths". The "new calculus" advocates the "rule of four" (numerical, graphical, symbolic and verbal descriptions) to deepen students' conceptual understanding (2). Students who have a weak background in mathematics do not have the knowledge of calculus required for the usual symbolic algebra approach to physical chemistry. This case study illustrates how a combination of numerical, graphical and verbal descriptions can be used to overcome the lack of symbolic knowledge or ability. The Logical-Mathematical intelligence is only one of multiple "intelligences" (11). By changing the emphasis away from mathematical calculus, the numerical-experimental activity, can also cater to those students who favor Spatial or Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligences. A combination of this spreadsheet approach with the traditional calculus-based approach will enable more students (and students of more types of "intelligences") to study quantum theory. This paper has focused on the use of spreadsheets but, in principle, the simulations can be done using symbolic mathematical packages such as Mathematica, Maple or MathCAD. This would only be feasible for students who already have a strong mathematical background. This author prefers the use of spreadsheets for weaker students for the following reasons. The symbolic mathematical packages depend on the use of a symbolic, quasi-programming language, which can present an additional learning obstacle for many students (12). Furthermore, the access to symbolic mathematical packages is usually more limited than that of spreadsheets, which are widely available in home, business and community settings. The "worldware" (13,14) (also called "application-software" (15)) nature of spreadsheets means that students will have greater opportunities to use and become familiar with spreadsheets than with (eg) symbolic mathematical packages, leading to greater utility and expertise: Software that isn't designed for instruction can still be good for learning (13). (A "straw poll" of physical chemistry faculty suggests that significantly more faculty use spreadsheets in teaching and learning activities than symbolic mathematical packages (16). While weaker students will use the spreadsheets, discussed in this paper, as "black boxes", more able students can construct similar, appropriate spreadsheets (eg17-19). Instructors will need to be careful in deciding to use the "black box" approach or to require students construct their own. If successfully completed, the latter approach will promote deeper learning (19), but the greater complexity of the task (12) may mean that some students cannot complete the task, resulting in frustration and lack of learning. The key feature of using spreadsheets is that students do "numerical experiments". (There is an interesting discussion of the use of numerical experiments in (20-22). Numerical experiments (eg 23) were also a key part of the development of chaos theory (20).) By playing with "what-if" scenarios, students can test the validity of their concepts and ideas: the success of using spreadsheets in this way is supported by cognitive constructivist models of learning (15,24,25). The use of spreadsheets is intended to give students a qualitative appreciation of quantum theory, and does not serve as a pre-requisite to more advanced studies in quantum theory, for which a reasonable knowledge of mathematics is required. This paper is an expanded version of case studies to be published by LTSN Maths, Stats & OR Network <http://ltsn.mathstore.ac.uk/mathsteam> and by LTSN Physical Sciences <http://www.physsci.ltsn.ac.uk>. KFL thanks Ms Jeanne Lee ( ) (Australian Catholic University) for encouraging and helpful discussions, Dr Paul Yates<http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ch/staff/pcy/pcy.html> (Keele University, UK) for suggestions to improve the spreadsheet quantum_well.xls, and Associate Professor (Emeritus) Ian Johnston <http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/johnston.html> (Uniserve·Science, University of Sydney, Australia) <http://www.usyd.edu.au/su/SCH/> for a seminar on MUPPET (the Maryland University Project in Physics and Educational Technology) <http://www.physics.umd.edu/rgroups/ripe/computer.html> which introduced KFL to the possibilities of numerical experiments in teaching and learning. All URLs checked on 7 March 2003. Francl, M., Survival Guide for Physical Chemistry; Physics Curriculum and Instruction: Lakeville (MN), 2001. Preparing for a New Calculus; Solow, A. E., ed. Mathematical Association of America: Washington (DC), 1994; Vol. 36. Stewart, J., "Introduction" in Calculus; 4th Ed.; Brooks/Cole: Pacific Grove (CA), 1999. Kuhn, H., "A quantum-mechanics theory of light absorption of organic dyes and similar compounds", J. Chem. Phys. 1949, 17, 1198. Levine, I. N., Quantum Chemistry; 5th Ed.; Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River (NJ), 2000. Press, A. H.; Teukolsky, S. A.; Vetterling, W. T.; Flannery, B. P., Numerical Recipes in Fortran 77: The Art of Scientific Computing; 2nd Ed.; Cambridge University Press: New York, 1996; Vol. 1. de Bono, E., Lateral Thinking: A textbook of creativity; Penguin: London, 1990. McMurry, J., Organic Chemistry; 5th Ed.; Brooks/Cole: Pacific Grove (CA), 2000. Bridges, R., "Graphical spreadsheets", Mathematics in Schools 1991, 20, 2. Wood, J., "Utilizing the spreadsheet and charting capabilities of Microsoft Works in the the mathematics classroom", Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching 1990, 9, 65. Gardner, H., Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences; 2nd Ed.; Fontana: London, 1993. Galbraith, P.; Pemberton, M., "Convergence or divergence? Students, Maple, and mathematics learning", in Mathematics Education in the South Pacific; B. Barton, K. C. Irwin, M. Pfannkuch and M. O. J. Thomas, eds.; Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia: Pymble (NSW), 2002; Vol. 1; p 285. Ehrmann, S. C., "Asking the right question: What does research tell us about technology and higher learning?" Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning1995, 27 (2), 20 <http://www.learner.org/edtech/rscheval/rightquestion.html>. [supplementary material: Journal of Chemical Education: Webware, paper WW003 <http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCEWWW/Features/WebWare/WW003/index.html>]. Maddux, C. D.; Johnson, D. L.; Willis, J. W., Educational Computing: Learning with tomorrow's technologies; Allyn and Bacon: Needham Heights (MA), 1997. Miles, D. G., Jr.; Francis, T. A., "A survey of computer use in undergraduate physical chemistry", J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 1477 <http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/Issues/2002/Dec/abs1477.html>. de Levie, R., How to Use Excel in Analytical Chemistry and in General Scientific Data Analysis; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (UK), 1999. Diamond, D.; Hanratty, V. C. A., Spreadsheet Applications in Chemistry Using Microsoft Excel; Wiley: New York, 1997. Kaess, M.; Easter, J.; Cohn, K., "Visual Basic and Excel in chemical modeling", J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 642 <http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Journal/Issues/1998/May/abs642.html>. Gleick, J., Chaos; Viking: New York, 1987. Redish, E. F.; Wilson, J. M., "Student programming in the introductory physics course: M.U.P.P.E.T." Am. J. Phys. 1993, 61, 222 <http://www2.physics.umd.edu/~redish/Papers/mupajp.html>. Redish, E. F., University of Maryland, Published papers describing M.U.P.P.E.T. <http://www.physics.umd.edu/ripe/muppet/papers.html>, 1995 (accessed 20 December 2001). Hénon, M.; Heiles, C., "The applicability of the third integral of motion: some numerical experiments", Astron. J. 1964, 69, 73. Bee, H. L., The Developing Child; 8th Ed.; Longman: New York, 1997. McInerney, D. M.; McInerney, V., Educational Psychology: Constructing knowledge; 2nd Ed.; Prentice Hall: Sydney, 1998. Kieran F. Lim ( ) obtained his BSc (Hons) and PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of Sydney. He was awarded an Archbishop Mannix Travelling Scholarship to Stanford University and been a faculty member at the University of New England, the University of Melbourne and Deakin University, where he is currently a Senior Lecturer in Chemical Sciences (equivalent to Associate Professor or Professor in North America). He is a Member (MRACI), Chartered Chemist( CChem) and Certified Practising Chemist (CPChem) of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and a Member (MACS) and Practising Computer Professional (PCP) of the Australian Computer Society. Dr Lim is a recipient of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Division of Chemical Education Citation for significant contributions to chemical education (2002) and the Faculty of Science and Technology's Excellence in Teaching Award (1996 and 2000).

http://ccce.divched.org/2003SpringCCCENLP5

Bristol's decision to trial vinegar as a weedkiller in place of glyphosate grabbed headline-writers' imaginations. But with a wide choice of proven chemical-free weed control strategies available, might this experiment be "set up to fail"? EXCERPT: This is not what pesticide-free policies should look like. If anything smells fishy, it is the design of this trial. Has it - as Pesticide Action Network UK says - been "set up to fail"? Many other effective alternatives exist, as PAN-UK point out, and are already in use in other European and UK cities. * Bristol's decision to trial vinegar as a weedkiller in place of glyphosate certainly grabbed headline-writers' imaginations, writes Harriet Williams. But with a wide choice of proven chemical-free weed control strategies available, might this experiment be "set up to fail"? It's billed as an "eco-friendly alternative" to herbicides, but sadly it's not one that is tremendously effective for weed control in large public spaces. So, has "vinegar-gate" left us any the wiser about what local authorities should be using for weed control? Our experience in speaking to people in Bristol is that many people are simply not aware that glyphosate is being sprayed in roads, housing estates, parks, and play areas. When they do become aware, the vast majority of people support an outright ban on this practice, or much tighter restrictions on its use. In the latest results of our rolling online survey, only 8.6% of respondents agree that herbicide sprays are a 'wholly acceptable' means of weed control. Another respondent said, "I saw a family out last autumn innocently gathering fallen leaves, and felt obliged to advise them to keep clear of the sprayed areas. No signs anywhere that this was going to be done." * It applies only to a small area of the city, and leaves the door wide open to the return of glyphosate should the trial be deemed a failure. * At the same time it invites failure by choosing vinegar ahead of more credible technologies for safer weed control. * Worse still, large tracts of land will not receive any weed control at all as the Council's regular spray contractors down tools for the duration of the trial. Thanks to "vinegar-gate", more people know that local authorities have a problem when it comes to dealing with plants in the wrong places. In Bristol and other urban areas, it can only be a matter of time before local politicians listen to public opinion and stop dousing our streets in unsafe chemicals.

https://gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2016/16929-pesticide-free-cities-are-possible-but-there-s-more-to-it-than-vinegar

You should not receive this vaccine if you have ever had a life-threatening allergic reaction to any vaccine containing Japanese encephalitis virus. What is Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine (SA14-14-2)? Japanese encephalitis is a serious disease caused by a virus. It is the leading cause of viral encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in Asia. Encephalitis is an infection of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord. This infection often causes only mild symptoms, but prolonged swelling of the brain can cause permanent brain damage or death. Japanese encephalitis virus is carried and spread by mosquitoes. The Japanese encephalitis SA14-14-2 vaccine is used to help prevent this disease in adults and adolescents who are at least 17 years old. This vaccine is recommended for people who live in or travel to areas where Japanese encephalitis is known to exist, or where an epidemic has recently occurred. You should receive the vaccine and booster dose at least 1 week prior to your arrival in an area where you may be exposed to the virus. Not everyone who travels to Asia needs to receive a Japanese encephalitis vaccine. Follow your doctor instructions or the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This vaccine is also recommended for people who work in a research laboratory and may be exposed to Japanese encephalitis virus through needle-stick accidents or inhalation of viral droplets in the air. Like any vaccine, the Japanese encephalitis SA14-14-2 vaccine may not provide protection from disease in every person. a weak immune system caused by disease or by taking certain medicines or receiving cancer treatments. Vaccines may be harmful to an unborn baby and generally should not be given to a pregnant woman. However, not vaccinating the mother could be more harmful to the baby if the mother becomes infected with a disease that this vaccine could prevent. Your doctor will decide whether you should receive this vaccine, especially if you have a high risk of infection with Japanese encephalitis virus. Do not receive this vaccine without telling your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby. The Japanese encephalitis SA14-14-2 vaccine is given in a series of 2 shots. The shots are usually 28 days apart. Your individual booster schedule may be different from these guidelines. Follow your doctor's instructions or the schedule recommended by the health department of the state you live in. In addition to receiving the Japanese encephalitis vaccine, use protective clothing, insect repellents, and mosquito netting around your bed to further prevent mosquito bites that could infect you with the Japanese encephalitis virus. Becoming infected with Japanese encephalitis is much more dangerous to your health than receiving this vaccine. However, like any medicine, this vaccine can cause side effects but the risk of serious side effects is extremely low. Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; dizziness, weakness, fast heart rate; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat. pain, redness, tenderness, or a hard lump where the shot was given. What other drugs will affect Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine? This list is not complete. Other drugs may interact with Japanese encephalitis virus vaccine, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products. Not all possible interactions are listed in this medication guide. Copyright 1996-2018 Cerner Multum, Inc. Version: 2.03. Revision date: 1/23/2014.

https://www.adventisthealthcare.com/health/library/topic/?id=d07442a1

People often think that they need to buy it to use the car, but today, despite the car rental industry or rent car Whether renting a car without a driver or renting a car with a driver no longer needs to buy a car. Those who work well with their capital and make optimal returns, use car rentals and spend their money on earning And your business and your business‌In this way, they will provide the car they are looking for, and they will not withdraw their capital for this use of their turnover and benefit from it more capital.. On the other hand, this is a bonus for car riders 1- For current car costs such as damages; 2- Insurance costs and other annual drop in car prices Are. For customers and hire car makers, the health of the car is important in every respect, including the body engine and the cleanliness of the car. This makes it‌In order to ensure that car limousines do their best to provide a car with a precision engine and body, etc., the performance of a rented car may be the most important factor in assessing the health of the car so that if The car has a high working life. It is generally considered to be poorly worn due to wear and tear, and also from the direction of the body and from the direction of the motor.

http://rent32.org/en/why-rent.php

If a given year has more named storms than the name-list has names, how are additional storms named? they are assigned names using the Greek alphabet. If there is a tropical cyclone moving across the open Atlantic and the hurricane hunter finds it to have a maximum sustained wind of 133 mph, what classification would the National Hurricane Center assign to this tropical storm? The trade winds are one of the wind belts that help form and steer hurricanes. In what direction do they typically blow? Does air in the eye of the hurricane ascend or descend? Which of the following is an incorrect statement about Figure 24.10 on page 450? the air temperature in the center of the hurricane is cold compared to its surroundings. Many hurricanes start near the west coast of Africa and move across the open Atlantic Ocean. What do meteorologists call the "trigger mechanism" for these types of hurricanes? It is September 10th and a tropical cyclone has reached tropical storm strength over the open Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane forecasters however, are not forecasting that this tropical storm will become a hurricane. Why not? The sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are 78F. If a hurricane were centered in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and it was heading directly to the north, on which side of the hurricane would you expect the fastest winds and greatest storm surge? Which of the following destructive forces is made worse by a high tide? Which of the following hurricane destructive forces is the most deadly? What is the nickname of the Air Force C-130 hurricane hunter? If sea surface temperatures are forecast to increase over the next 100 years, how will hurricane strength respond to this increase in SST? According to the text book, if hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours, which type of public advisory is posted? The Palmer Drought Severity Index is used to rank the strength of a drought. When drought conditions are present over an area, are the PDSI values positive or negative? What type of "pressure system" is typically associated with drought conditions in the Midwest and central parts of the US? True or False: There is no formal definition for "drought". During which decade was the "Dust Bowl"? According to the journal "Weatherwise", where does the Dust Bowl rank with respect to the 20th century's worst weather catastrophes? Where does flooding rank with respect to weather-related property damage in the US? If a flood is called a 100-year flood, what does this mean? A flood of this magnitude has a 1 in 100 chance of happening in any year. In which month are flash floods most common and why? What do meteorologists call it when t-storms follow one another along a stationary front, where storms pass over the same location repeatedly? Which river in the northern US floods almost every year due to ice jams and snow melt? In which Ocean does the weather event "El Nino" take place. In which general direction to the trade winds blow? Which of the following accurately describes upwelling? the rising of colder water from deeper levels to the surface. Are there more or less hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean during an El Nino? During the winter of 2010-11 and 2011-12, the Southern Oscillation Index was positive. Does this indicate El Nino conditions or La Nina conditions? where are the most destructive winds on a hurricane?

https://quizlet.com/77715389/atms-120-exam-2-flash-cards/

Gerry gave half of his money to Jane. Next day, she gave half of all her wealth to Gerry. After the last exchange they each have exactly as much as they originally started with. Jane is twice as rich as Gerry. Gerry is twice as rich as Jane. Jane is three times as rich as Gerry. Jane and Gerry have the same amount of money.

https://www.aplusclick.org/k/4660.htm

Freedom and Flourishing: What implications does 'monitory democracy' have for the survival of democratic institutions? What implications does 'monitory democracy' have for the survival of democratic institutions? I ended my last post promising to consider whether John Keane’s observation that we now have ‘monitory democracy’ has implications for the relationship between the responsibilities and effectiveness of government, and hence the survival of democratic institutions. Can monitory democracy be expected to move political systems towards or away from equilibrium between effectiveness of government and the responsibilities that government is expected to perform? First, who is Keane and what does he mean by ‘monitory democracy’? John Keane is professor of politics at Sydney university and author of a major history of democracy, ‘The Life and Death of Democracy’ (2009), a book over 1,000 pages described by one reviewer as not ‘for the faint hearted’. (Unfortunately, I can’t claim to have read it.) In an article in the Griffith Review, Keane argues that from the middle of the 20th Century representative democracy began to transform into monitory democracy – a new historical form described by ‘the rapid growth of many different kinds of extra-parliamentary, power-scrutinising mechanisms’. ‘The combination of monitory democracy and communicative abundance … produces permanent flux, an unending restlessness driven by complex combinations of different interacting players and institutions, permanently pushing and pulling, heaving and straining, sometimes working together, at other times in opposition to one another’. In considering what implications monitory democracy might have for the survival of democratic institutions it seems to me to be worth recalling Joseph Schumpeter’s view, discussed here recently, that democracy is essentially a leadership contest in which the role of citizens ends after they have cast their votes. The reality of democracy, as described by Keane, is light years away from Schumpeter’s view that democracy can only succeed if voters refrain from trying to tell politicians what to do after they have been elected. How does monitory democracy actually impact on the balance between the responsibilities and effectiveness of governments? Some of Keane’s comments suggest that monitory mechanisms might have a positive impact on the effectiveness of government. He points out that, ‘when they do their job well, monitory mechanisms have many positive effects, ranging from greater openness and justice within markets and blowing the whistle on foolish government decisions to the general enrichment of public deliberation and the empowerment of citizens and their chosen representatives through meaningful schemes of participation’. On the other hand, he suggests that nobody ‘should be kidded into thinking that the world of monitory democracy … is a level playing field – a paradise of equality of opportunity among all its citizens and their elected and unelected representatives’. This does not provide strong grounds for confidence that monitory democracy improves the effectiveness of government. How does monitory democracy impact on the scope of responsibilities that governments are expected to perform? The discussion in a recent post about voter irrationality seems highly relevant. There is evidence that voters who say that politics is ‘not at all important’ to them are more likely than others to say that ‘the government should take more responsibility to ensure that everyone is provided for’. On that basis, monitory democracy could be expected to thrust more responsibilities on governments than they can cope with effectively. This raises serious questions about the ability of democratic institutions to survive. However, as more people perceive that existential threats are facing democratic institutions they might form new interest groups to foster norms of behaviour that might enable better outcomes to be achieved. Under favourable conditions monitory democracy might prove to be a system with self-correcting characteristics. If influential interest groups can form around the survival of some threatened species of animals, is it not reasonable to expect that stronger and more influential interest groups might form when social institutions that make a valued contribution to human well-being are seen to be threatened? I would like to draw attention to relevant comments by kvd and Jim Belshaw on Jim's blog. Jim now also has another relevant post: What would you nominate as the most asinine slogan? Neil Whitford is not faint hearted. He has read and reviewed 'The Life and Death of Democracy'. Apart from the feeling that the term 'monitory' is quite clunky and far too close to monetary, I get the feeling with some of these labels that they get a life of their own. That is to say, once nominated, they become 'an issue' where perhaps previously none existed? Think of when 'Gen X' appeared, then how it spawned the rest of the alphabet soup - each without much clear or logical distinction that I can see; more rather a progression. Thanks for your further comment, kvd. I also have problems with the terminology. For my purposes it might be better to just talk about the characteristics of modern democracy. In trying to argue that a new form of democracy has emerged it makes sense for John Keane to invent a new label. But 'monitory' does seem confusing.

https://www.freedomandflourishing.com/2012/07/what-implications-does-monitory.html

N.B. If any minutes were taken of the meeting in 1985 then they have long since been lost. These two articles, authored by Katherine, cover all of the content of her talk, and more. As anthropologists, most of us would agree with Bruner that "our first responsibility is to respect people's accounts of their experiences as they choose to present them" (1983:9). However, those of us interested in historical anthropology face a special challenge since we are rarely able to draw upon indigenous accounts of everyday life. Even when we are able to use such texts, the problem of ethnographic authority remains (Clifford 1988:8; Clifford and Marcus 1986). Considerable work is being done in historical anthropology in reconstructing indigenous histories by using the early narratives of Western observers. However, such efforts have obvious problems of observer bias (see Cohn 1987:136-171; Said 1978; Savage 1984). Furthermore, as in the descriptions discussed in this article, the outside observers have sometimes recorded opposing opinions. How are we, as anthropologists writing today, to assess such conflicting appraisals? Using the case of textiles in 19th-century northern Thailand, I should like to suggest that by reconstructing the political economy of a society, we can evaluate contradictory historical descriptions. From Veblen (1912) and Simmel (1957) to Weiner and Schneider (1989), an appreciation of the varied manner in which textiles symbolize social distinctions has been longstanding. As Bourdieu has written of symbolic goods in general, textiles can be an integral part of the "infinitely varied art of marking distances" (1984:66; see also Barthes 1984; Sahlins 1976). Often the distinctions are extremely subtle. Writing of the use of fashion, Barthes notes the importance of details as "concentrated meaning" (1984:185). For Barthes, just a detail can change an object's meaning: "a little nothing that changes everything; those little nothings that can do everything" (1984:243). However, more than just symbolizing distinctions, textiles have also been shown to constitute and consolidate social differences through their often vital role in a society's political economy. In his pioneering article on tributary textiles in the Inca kingdom, Murra notes not only that "no political, military, social, or religious event was complete without textiles being volunteered or bestowed, burned, exchanged, or sacrificed," but also that cloth served as "a primary source of state revenues" (1962:722). insights into the semiotics of consumption and an important methodology for historical anthropology. Others have made a similar point (see Schneider 1987 for an excellent review of the cultural, economic, and political significance of cloth). As Weiner and Schneider summarize, architects of centralizing polities have awed spectators with sartorial splendor, strategically distributed beautiful fabrics amongst clients, and exported the textile output of royal and peasant workshops to earn foreign exchange" (1989:2). Contradictory assessments of dress also occur in 19th-century descriptions of northern Thai dress. The anonymous author of one of the earliest surviving accounts remarked on the lack of class distinction in women's clothing: "It is curious to notice the uniformity and universality of the female dress. The higher classes vary the style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk next above the bottom piece" (Bangkok Recorder 1866). Twenty years later, an American missionary working in northern Thailand wrote in almost identical wording: "Rich and poor all dress alike, except that the higher classes vary the universal style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk into the skirt near the bottom" (Cort 1886:348). Thus, depending upon the archival source, contemporary scholars can reach opposing assessments of the character of these earlier societies. Research on textiles in mainland Southeast Asia is just beginning (see Brown 1980; Cheesman 1988; Fraser-Lu 1988; Lefferts 1988, 1990; Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman 1987). Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman's Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao (1987) is the only full-length work on textiles in northern Thailand; as such it is an important preliminary study, especially useful for describing some of the items woven and the techniques used. In this article, I examine the broader social context of textile consumption and production, drawing upon two major kinds of sources, archival and oral. The archival sources include consular reports (primarily British), 19th century newspaper accounts, travelogues, and works by American missionaries. In addition I have interviewed hundreds of villagers over the age of 80 living throughout the Chiang Mai Valley of northern Thailand.5 I use archival sources primarily for insight into the consumption, production, and acquisition of textiles by the elite; I rely more heavily on oral histories for insights into the everyday life of villagers. Based upon an understanding of the social processes of textile production and consumption, I argue that the controversy generated by the contradictory opinions of certain 19th century observers of northern Thai society can be resolved in favor of those who asserted that there were dramatic differences of dress and class in the northern Thai semiotics of consumption. The Chiang Mai Valley was the site of the largest and most important of the northern Thai kingdoms. These kingdoms were located in the region today called northern Thailand but called "Western Laos" by 19th century missionaries and other foreign observers. The courts of the various principalities were located in the mountain valleys of Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Nan, and Chiang Rai, each today serving as a provincial capital. Although these kingdoms were independent, they had been tributary to the neighboring kingdom of Burma for several hundred years. During the 19th century, they were tributary to the central Thai court at Bangkok; thereafter they were incorporated into Thailand. This article is divided into two parts. In the first, I examine the cultural significance of textile consumption in 19th century northern Thailand. I present some of the surviving descriptions of dress, ranging from the daily wear of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords, and subsequently expand the discussion from dress to other applications of textiles, arguing that there were dramatic differences between peasants and lords in this broader sphere as well. In the second part of the article, I describe how this differentiation between elites and commoners was revealed in the social process of textile production. Focusing on the two most important textiles used; cotton and silk, I consider the overall importance of textiles in the political economy of these northern Thai kingdoms, noting the role of tribute and slave labor in the acquisition of textiles by the elite. Previous studies have shown that 19th-century northern Thai society was divided into three major social statuses: the aristocrats (jao), the freeholders (phrai), and the slaves (khiikhaa). The aristocracy was internally differentiated by economic and political power. The greatest power and prestige were concentrated in those lords who occupied the five top positions in each of the kingdoms, while lesser members of the aristocracy whose inheritances had dwindled were barely separable from the peasantry at large. Free villagers were all liable to perform corvée labor and pay tribute to the ruling lords, but they were internally differentiated according to economic class. The wealthiest villagers rivaled many members of the aristocracy; in fact, many had royal titles and intermarried with the lower levels of the aristocracy. Villagers spanned the economic continuum, from those with land and numerous animals down to those who were destitute or landless beggars. The difference between slaves and free villagers was also often a gray area. Elite slaves sometimes worked very closely with their lords and received more benefits than ordinary commoners. On the other hand, the conditions for ordinary slaves were generally worse than those for commoners since the former were at the mercy of the lords. (For more on 19th century northern Thai social structure, see Bowie 1988; Calavan 1974; Ganjanapan 1984.) Nonetheless, although portions of this social spectrum overlapped, there were significant differences in lifestyle from one end of the spectrum to the other. To give an idea of the purchasing power of a rupee at this time, some indications of wage rates are suggestive. Although very few statistics on northern Thai wage labor rates survive, I was able to find three references in the archival sources.16 According to the British trade report of 1894, porters were paid 12 to 15 rupees per month, assuming they carried an average load of 15 to 20 viss; about 54 to 73 pounds (Archer 1895). Some figures on the wages paid to laborers in the teak industry also survive. According to W. J. Archer, the British vice consul, Khamu workers who could once be hired for 40 to 60 rupees a year (and their food) could in 1894 no longer "be had under Rs. 70 to Rs. 90 a year" (1895). Writing five years later, Acting Consul J. Stewart Black gave somewhat lower wage figures, while also lamenting the increasing costs. He noted that Khamu workers were paid 30 to 50 rupees per annum, in addition to their food, which cost about 5 rupees per month, or an additional 60 rupees per year. Black wrote that in 1899 some teak laborers were being paid as much as 120 rupees (food included) and went on to castigate the native villagers for their indolence, commenting that "not even the attraction of what is to him [sic] a small fortune will induce them to undergo for any length of time the hard labour and isolation of forest work" (1 900).17 Thus, forest workers in the teak industry were earning anywhere from 90 to 120 rupees per year (including the value of their food), or about 7 to 10 rupees per month. Such wages paid to forest workers were considered a "small fortune." Although the wages paid to porters were higher, it should be noted that portering such heavy loads required tremendous stamina and could be done by only the strongest villagers. Furthermore, such employment was seasonal. According to oral histories, the wages paid to agricultural workers were less. Many villagers cited rates of one win (approximately one-seventh of a rupee) per day for agricultural labor at the turn of the 20th century.18 Archival sources suggest that wages for teak workers averaged one-quarter to one-third of a rupee per day and those for porters averaged half a rupee per day. Villagers also recalled that in the early 20th century one rupee could buy a full set of clothing, including a homespun shirt and pair of pants or skirt. Clearly, the aristocracy's most luxurious clothes were not likely to serve as daily casual wear. Nonetheless they marked a significant distinction in purchasing power and social status between the elite and ordinary villagers. A tin jok skirt border that cost 60 rupees represented at least four months' wages for the best-paid porter and over a year's wages for agricultural workers. Everyday peasant dress already represented anywhere from two to seven days' wages and thus constituted a considerable expense for the ordinary wage laborer. The ruling lords of the northern Thai kingdom also had distinctive regalia, including umbrellas and spittoons. Whether a formal sumptuary code existed is, as I mentioned earlier, unclear. However, even without the evidence of sumptuary laws, I believe that there is considerable indication of significant class differentiation through dress.19 With the exception of state robes and regalia of rank, differences in dress may well have formed a continuum of wealth rather than a clear-cut differentiation based on status. Poorer members of the aristocracy, less able to afford the most elaborate of clothes, would have blended with those below them. Conversely, wealthier members of the rural elite, especially those who had intermarried with the lower ranks of the aristocracy, would have dressed more ornately. Nonetheless, overall, when one considers the cost of elite dress in light of the economic situation of poor villagers who were begging, stealing, or patching their simple clothing, a dramatic distinction emerges. Textiles were used not only for dress but also for a variety of household items and on various ritual occasions. Such uses of textiles also revealed considerable differences according to wealth. Although the poorest villagers often did without, ordinary villagers used textiles for making mattress and pillow covers, blankets, bed sheets, and mosquito nets. In general the mattress and pillow covers were plain indigo or black with red stripes or trim. Bed sheets were plain white or white with a red stripe or checked pattern; fancier sheets had embroidery and in some cases more complex weaves. Mosquito nets were woven on special large looms, and many informants complained about how heavy homespun cotton mosquito nets were to wash. Cloth also figured importantly in the lives and rites of the elite. In addition to owning more and fancier clothes, the elite had more and better household items. Instead of just having enough mattresses, pillows, and other bedding items for the family, wealthier families had additional bedding sets for guests. Furthermore, the guest bedding was considered an object of display and so was more likely to have embroidered ends and complex, time-consuming weaves. Even today wealthy village families usually have wood cabinets with glass doors along the wall of the main room of their home to showcase guest bedding sets. The possession of ornate pillows was another particularly significant attribute of elite households. Although Thais had a variety of pillows, the prestige pillows were usually triangular and were used for daytime reclining. Their importance was highlighted in a British official's passing remark that such pillows were "to be seen in every house of any pretensions" (Lowndes 1871).25 Furnishing their palaces, the northern Thai princes displayed numerous luxury items such as foreign-made weapons, chandeliers, mirrors, lanterns, curtains, reclining pillows, and even imported carpets (Taylor 1888-1930:73; Younghusband 1888:63-64). In 1830 Richardson noted the presence of Indian and Chinese carpets (1829-36:63), and in 1885 Ernest Satow recorded that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had European furniture and "a number of gaudy Brussels carpets" (1885-86:51). The full extent of the differences between commoners and aristocracy was most visible when members of the ruling elite traveled in state or participated in public ceremonies. Royal barges had large cloth canopies: the royal barge of the central Thai king, according to one observer, featured "a canopy of cloth of gold where the King sits on a golden throne wearing a gold embroidered coat and golden shoes" (Dodd 1923:289). The royal entourage often consisted of scores of boats, the rowers all clad in matching uniforms. The elite also traveled by horse or elephant, the animals gaily festooned with decorative textiles. On state occasions, the highest ranks of the nobility used gold and silver decorative caparisons. Mary Cort noted that the gold elephant trappings were "worth thousands," whereas the silver trappings were "worth hundreds" of rupees (Cort 1886:349). In addition to making public prestations such as those at the Kathin ceremonies, the elite would have given considerable amounts of textile goods away during any other life-cycle or calendrical ceremonies they might hold. Thai ceremonials usually included a merit-making component in which gifts, including monastic robes and embroidered pillows, were given as offerings to the monks (see Davis 1984). Archival sources also note the use of textiles as gifts to visiting dignitaries: the gifts given to Satow, a British official, by the ruling chief of Lampang included velvet mattresses, pillows adorned with Chinese brocade, and silk skirts (Satow 1885- 86:206). Thus, not only did the peasants and the lords differ considerably in terms of dress and household possessions, but they also differed in the extent to which they donated textiles on ritual occasions. In this article thus far I have depicted significant differences between the elite's and the peasants' uses of textiles. I have described a range of dress: from the stolen and the hand-me-down, from the threadbare and the patched, from the simple cottons of commoners to the state robes of the ruling lords. I have also outlined some of the different uses of textiles in village households as opposed to the court. Here, I should like to show how the differentiation was manifested not simply in the consumption of textiles but also in their production. As will become clear, both accounts are true; the differences lie in the type of fabric being woven. Most clothing was made from cotton. However, contrary to what is commonly assumed, weaving was not a universal household industry; only certain villagers in certain villages wove (see Bowie 1988, 1992). The weaving of simple cotton cloth was spread quite widely throughout the Chiang Mai Valley, and certain districts were especially known for their concentrations of weavers. Those districts that had a reputation for cotton weaving in the past, especially the San Kamphaeng and Bo sang districts, have maintained their reputations down to the present. Furthermore, oral histories reveal weaving to have been a highly specialized activity, with different villagers involved in the different phases of production. By far the most commonly produced cloth was a plain white cotton, often later dyed with indigo. The villagers most likely to produce such cloth were the poorer ones, who wove both for their own household needs and for sale or hire. Such village weavers were more likely to find weaving an onerous obligation from which others were freed. From the simplest and plainest of homespun white cloth to the most elaborate designs using imported fibers, the value of the fabric gradually increased. Striped or plaid cloth involved more work and skill, in both weaving and dyeing, than plain cloth and was consequently valued more highly. Cloth woven with imported threads, most often used for women's phaa sins, was more expensive than the domestic handspun cotton. The wealthier the village weaver, the more likely she was to weave the more time-consuming decorative items such as colored skirts or striped sheets. The more elaborate the design, the more likely the weaver was weaving for pleasure with a "cool heart." The more complex the weave, the more likely that the weaver was affiliated in some manner with the aristocracy, as war captive, slave, or member of the court. Virtually each of the areas known for weaving is associated with an ethnic minority brought into the Chiang Mai Valley as war captives sometime during the 19th century. Baan Ton Hen is a Khyyn village; San Kamphaeng (particularly around the original district town of Baan Oon) is also known as a Khyyn area. The Khyyn are a population who originally lived in the Chiang Tung area: Chiang Mai led attacks on Chiang Tung in 1849, 1852-53, and 1854, and it seems people were brought back on these occasions (Wilson and Hanks 1985:29). Over half of the people living in the Lamphun region are said to have descended from war captives (Freeman 1910:100). Chom Thong town has a Lawa population, many of whom served as temple slaves. Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire any information about the ethnic background of villagers in Baan Aen since the entire village was forced to relocate when a hydroelectric dam was built. Unlike villagers, who had to weave, trade for, or buy their clothing, the ruling lords were able to extract raw cotton, woven cloth, and dyestuffs as tribute. Their ability to levy tribute on broad sectors of the population provided the aristocracy with a quantity of cotton cloth no single producer could hope to match. Interestingly, the majority of villagers who sent cotton or cloth as tribute appear to have been hilltribe populations, such as the Karen and the Mussur (today more commonly called the Lahu). One of the Karen villages that Captain Thomas Lowndes visited in 1871 had just taken its year's taxes to Chiang Mai: "it consisted of Rupees 2, 2 blankets, and 40 viss of cotton" (1871). Richardson also noted tribute of cloth paid by the Karen during his travels in 1830 (1829-36:37, 45). Captain McLeod found that the KaKuis had to make presents of mats and cloths to the lords (1836:57). McGilvary commented that much of the raw cotton being purchased by the Yunnanese traders came from the Mussur; although he did not specifically mention tribute, it is likely that the Mussur too would have been expected to offer tribute to the ruling lords in the form of raw cotton or finished cloth. While the aristocracy were able to make apparently generous donations on ritual occasions, much of what they gave was in fact the contribution of others. Thus, the aristocracy appear to have been able to extract raw cotton, simple cotton cloth, and complex cotton weaves through political means. Tribute afforded them both raw cotton and cotton cloth, and the labor of war captives seems to have provided them with complex weaves such as tin jok skirt borders. Although silk was considered a more valuable fabric, cotton cloth nonetheless had a variety of uses in royal households. The tin jok borders, even those made of cotton, would have marked their wearers as wealthier than ordinary villagers, who only wore plain skirt borders. Possession of textiles ranging from mattresses to elephant headpieces made from complex woven cotton would have similarly served to add to the prestige of their owners. Such cloth could be used as rewards for favored underlings or as gifts for visitors. In addition, cotton cloth made possible the public display of largess involved in merit-making ceremonies, since monks' robes were typically made from cotton. It is also possible that royalty were involved in the cotton trade. There was considerable demand for raw cotton by Yunnanese traders and some demand for cotton cloth in Burma (Bowie 1992; Hill 1982; Reid 1988:91). British vice consul Archer mentioned in his trade report of 1894 that "women's cloths of coarse cotton, woven by the Laos [were] sought after in Burma as being very durable," although he added that the export was not very considerable (1895). Such cloth, together with silk goods, could also have been offered as tribute to other kingdoms. However they used it, lords - because they could exact tribute and slave labor - found it much easier to acquire cloth than did commoners, who had to weave fabric themselves or find some other means of acquiring it. Archival sources also indicate that royal slaves were involved in silk weaving. The British official A. H. Hildebrand noted, "There is a good deal of trade capable of being done also in silk garments and silk fancy work, at which the slaves and others are great adepts" (1875). It is not clear whether these slaves lived solely at the court or also in slave settlements established to produce cloth for the court. Silk weaving is known to have been done in only two areas outside the court itself: the towns of San Kamphaeng and Hot (and their immediate environs). While silk weaving continues to this day in San Kamphaeng, in Hot only traces survive in archival sources and in the memories of the town's oldest residents. No information survives to explain why Hot, a town some 70 kilometers from Chiang Mai, would have been a center of silk production and weaving, or why the industry died out. (Villagers said it was because the cocoons scared easily and so had died.) However, in San Kamphaeng a senior member of one of the prestigious silk-weaving families recounted the local version of the history of silk weaving in his area. According to his account, lords victorious in war would capture various kinds of artisans and resettle them in their own kingdoms. Thus, silversmiths were settled near the south end of Chiang Mai town, lacquer ware artists in another location, and weavers in San Kamphaeng. This account indeed suggests that the silk weavers in San Kamphaeng may have been royal slaves weaving at the behest of the court. Some idea of the potential scale of royal weaving was given by D. J. Edwardes, who wrote that the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had 300 slaves weaving cloth for him (1875). It appears that these Chiang Mai silks were marketed in Burma. In his summary of the Chiang Mai kingdom, Lowndes commented: "Weaving and embroidery are the principal handicrafts, the silk putsoes [phaa nung] are much sought after by the Burmans, as they wear three times as long as those of Burmese manufacture" (1871). He made a similar point about the silk woven in Hot, noting that it was "said to be very strong and durable" and adding, "A thitgoung [headman] showed me a putso that he had had in wear for 7 years, and it was by no means worn out" (1871). In San Kamphaeng, where silk production has continued to the present day, raw silk was imported from Luang Prabang, Laos, and later from Mandalay, Burma. Raw silk was also routinely imported by the Haw traders coming from Yunnan, China (Hill 1982; see also Bowie 1992). The geographical distribution of raw materials had social implications. Since sufficient quantities of cotton grew in upland regions of northern Thailand to be readily exported, cotton was more accessible to ordinary villagers and could, in turn, be extracted by the ruling lords through tribute. Since silkworms were not abundant in northern Thailand, raw silk had to be imported. Silk's scarcity heightened its price and its prestige value, serving to concentrate silk weaving in the hands of the court. Aristocratic control of silk production was further aided by the fact that the silk fiber is very fine and hence is far more difficult and time-consuming to weave than cotton. A comparison of cotton and silk production, then, reveals important contrasts. While cotton was exported, silk was imported into northern Thailand. While cotton was generally woven by freeholding villagers, silk seems to have been woven by slaves and members of the aristocracy. While villagers, except those who begged or stole their clothing, had to obtain textiles through direct economic means, aristocrats were able to augment their own production through the political means of tribute and slave labor. Furthermore, because poverty was widespread and not all villagers grew or wove cotton themselves, many villagers faced hardships in acquiring clothing of any kind for their families. Understanding the process of textile production helps contemporary readers gain insight into the cultural meaning of cloth to 19th century northern Thai. Once we understand the chronic poverty of most villagers and the difficulty with which villagers obtained even the simplest of cotton cloth, the significance of cloth in daily life and in village rituals becomes clearer. Simultaneously, we can begin to enter the cultural world of 19th century villagers to learn the social meaning of the difference between clothes made of cotton and those made of silk. Understanding the productive process also helps us appreciate the manner in which textiles were interwoven with royal authority. Because of their coercive power, the lords were able to exact cloth as tribute from freeholders and labor from slaves. Their political position reinforced their economic position, since the textiles - and other goods - they acquired through tribute and slave labor were apparently marketed for revenue. The revenue and surplus textiles they acquired through the labor of others, in turn, reinforced their political position. By sponsoring large, conspicuous merit-making ceremonies in which they gave robes and pillows to monks, the lords enhanced their prestige and, ironically, created an image of generosity. The fine silks in which the lords dressed themselves symbolized not only their distinction from the poor but also their own relationship to the political economy of the kingdom. Combining oral histories with archival sources, this article has examined textile consumption and production in 19th century northern Thailand. If we have an understanding of the social process of textile production, the "concentrated meaning" (Barthes 1984:185) of northern Thailand textiles becomes more apprehensible. Such apparently minor details of fashion as the use of a silk skirt border - or, as one early observer phrases it, "a showy strip of wrought silk" - can no longer be interpreted as meaning that "rich and poor all dress[ed] alike" (Cort 1886:346). Important differences in dress, household possessions, and ritual prestations separated the aristocracy from the peasantry. These differences signified profound differences in the relationship of each to the political economy. Thus, the semiotics of consumption in northern Thai society is illuminated by an understanding of its political economy. This article on the consumption and production of textiles in 19th century northern Thailand has been at once a description of the social context of textiles and an exercise in historical anthropology. The evaluation and appropriate application of archival sources present a challenge to every historical anthropologist, since these sources are replete with omissions and distortions. However, by interweaving oral histories with archival sources, we can recapture much of the fabric of the past. Oral histories enhance the archival sources by contributing some sense of the lived experiences of the unrecorded majority. This article has shown how developing a better understanding of a society's political economy can provide an independent means to assess the opinions of outside observers of indigenous societies. Acknowledgments. This article emerges from my dissertation fieldwork on 19th century political economy, conducted from 1984 to 1986 under the auspices of the National Research Council of Thailand with a grant from the Social Science Research Council. Subsequent fieldwork specifically on textile production was conducted during the summer of 1989 with a grant from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I would like to thank Cornelia Kammerer, Jean De Bernardi, Nicola Tannenbaum, Patricia Cheesman, Songsak Prangwatthanakun, Kristine Hastreiter, Kate Bjork, Hugh Wilson, and the American Ethnologist reviewers for their various contributions toward the research and writing of this article. 1 Edwardes' summary raises questions about Anthony Reid's conclusion that in Southeast Asia, "the difference in dress between rich and poor, servant and master, king and commoner, was less marked than in pre-industrial Europe, where each man's station and even vocation could be read in the prescribed style of dress" (1988:85). 2 The distinctions of dress appear to have been quite subtle at times. Crawfurd wrote, "The better classes permit the ends of the dress to hang loosely in front, but the lower orders tuck them under the body, securing them behind" (1987:313). Although the older men in northern Thai villages sport tattoos, the practice has fallen out of vogue among the current generation of northerners. For more on the symbolism of tattoos, see Nicola Tannenbaum (1987). 4 In the course of my interviewing I also encountered villagers who made mention of sumptuary rules with regard to housing and clothing, but they were unable to recall any of the specifics. The quotation cited suggests not only that sumptuary laws existed but also that they varied by ruler and kingdom. 5 During dissertation fieldwork in 1984-86, I interviewed more than 500 villagers over the age of 80 living in about 400 villages throughout the Chiang Mai Valley. I repeatedly asked villagers for their recollections of life when they were young as well as for their memories of what their parents and grandparents had said about life in their days (see Bowie 1988). This article emerges from accidental observations made during my dissertation research. During the summer of 1989 I interviewed another 100 villagers, specifically asking about textiles. 6 Considerable confusion is caused by the various linguistic borrowings of the 19th century English language sources, which alternately use Indian, Burmese, and central Thai words to describe northern Thai clothing. Thus, terms such as phaa nung, lungi, and putso are used in ambiguous ways. In general, these terms refer to the lengths of cloth worn by both men and women on the lower half of the body. The lengths may be sewn into a tube (as in the phaa sin) or twisted into a thick cord worn between the legs (as in the phaa toi). To add to the confusion, the usage of these terms has changed over time. During the 19th century, phaa nung referred to the length of cloth worn on the lower part of the body by central Thai men and women alike, corresponding most closely to the phaa toi worn by northern Thai men. Over time the meaning has changed to refer to the tubular cloth, or phaa sin, worn during the 19th century by northern Thai women and now worn by women throughout the country. 8 Bock, writing in 1884, observed, "A few Lao women are beginning to wear tight-fitting jackets, cut to the shape of the figure, with equally tight sleeves, something after the style of the 'ladies' jerseys' recently so fashionable in Paris and London, and involving no small amount of labour to get on and off" (1986 :327). Writing at about the same time, Cort made a similar observation: "Some are beginning to wear jackets or waists, but the usual style is for the women to have a brightly colored cotton or silk scarf tied around their chests just under the arms" (1886:348). 9 The indigo-dyed cotton daew chador and indigo shirts now identified as stereotypical of the Thai peasantry appear to have been of recent vintage, dating from about the turn of the century. Ironically, the blue farmer shirts (sya moh hoom) now worn by university students and Thai officials to demonstrate Thai nationalist pride seem to have been popularized by Chinese merchants. The daew chador has more in common with Chinese-style loose-fitting pants than with the traditional phaa toi. Additional support for the view that jackets became more common as the century progressed are provided in a few passing comments. In 1868 Henry Alabaster detailed his recollections of people's dress ten years earlier, noting: "I remember that ten years ago at any of the great festivals which attracted there 40 or 50,000 spectators, almost all wore but one garment - or a sarong and scarf. Now almost every one adds thereto a cotton or silk jacket" (1868). Stringer, writing in his trade report of 1890 specifically about northern Thailand, commented, "The wearing of singlets and coats of European pattern by the men and cotton jackets by the women is becoming more common" (1891). 10 That cloth was highly valued elsewhere in Southeast Asia is also reflected in the following Burmese proverb: "If you are on the way to an ahlu [merit-making ceremony], do not wear your jacket; carry it and put it on when you arrive; it lasts longer that way" (Nash 1965:232). 11 "A comment on the poverty of temple slaves in Burma supplies further evidence that the sheer amount of cloth in one's clothing was an indication of economic status: "They are poor these slaves, the men wear no brilliant putsoes and the women wear no vest beneath their jacket" (Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget 1899b). 12 The value of cloth is also suggested in a northern Thai rhyme describing the payment that three women received in return for sexual favors: "Miss Kum asked for silver, Miss Huan asked for cloth, Miss Noja asked for an elephant. Hurry up and finish Doctor" (Bristowe 1976:127, cited in Patel 1990:127). Cotton's value as a commodity is seen too in the fact that there were traveling minstrels who literally "sang for their cotton." A favorite form of village entertainment in the past was soh, witty and often bawdy repartee between a male and a female singer, with musical accompaniment. One especially popular form of soh was the soh kep nok, or "singing repartee to collect birds." In villages with surplus raw cotton, this soh would be performed as soh laek fai (singing in exchange for cotton). Each village household wishing a performance would build a tree as a stage prop, with cotton representing the birds in the tree. At a certain point in the plot, the male singer would then "shoot down" all the cotton birds and put them in his bag. Having collected all the cotton balls, the performers would then move to the next house where they had been invited to perform, again receiving cotton as payment. (For more on the soh kep nok performance itself, see Shim- bhanao 1982-84). 13 Nineteenth-century paintings have been preserved at Wat Phumin in Nan and Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai. 14 Because during times of peace Chiang Tung and Chiang Mai were closely linked by trade as well as by cultural and linguistic similarities, I include these descriptions of Chiang Tung in the discussion of northern Thailand. Kun or Khynn is the name of the ethnic group living in the region around Chiang Tung (Keng Tung), many of whom were brought to Chiang Mai as war captives and resettled there. 15 Stringer wrote that Manchester chowls, "of which four different sizes are sold, fetch from Rs. 20 to Rs. 24 per corge of 20 pieces, and the Bombay goods, also sold in four sizes, fetch from Rs. 17 to Rs. 20 per corge" (1891). Chowl is another word for phaa nung. According to T. Carlisle's 1899 trade report, chowl was "the Indian name for the Siamese 'phalai' or 'paley,' that is the 'phaanung' or lower portion of the Siamese costume printed and furnished with a glaze" (1900). In other words, it was a length of printed cloth some three to four meters long. A possibly higher figure for the price per length was given by Alabaster, who suggested that if the British could manufacture sarongs to sell retail at about 4 to 6 shillings apiece, they might find a market in Thailand (1868). Since the rupee was valued at 13 pence in 1895, this would suggest a cost of 3.7 to 5.6 rupees per length. However, I have no figures with which to calculate the shilling/rupee exchange rate for 1868. 16 James Ingram has done a remarkable job of gathering wage labor rates for central Thailand (1964). 17 1t is interesting that while remarking on the indolence of the natives, Black commented that it was "not uncommon to find Khamoos working for foresters who had failed to pay their wages for 5-6 years" (1900). 18 Until the early part of the 20th century, the Burmese rupee (called the taep in northern Thai) was the dominant currency in northern Thailand. The Siamese (central Thai) baht only became the standard currency thereafter. The baht equaled 100 satang. The exchange rate between the Siamese baht and the Burmese rupee fluctuated but was about 80 to 90 satang per rupee (according to interviews and Archer 1895). Since a win equaled 12 satang, it was approximately equivalent to one-seventh of a rupee. 19 The significance of sumptuary laws is ambiguous. On the one hand, the presence of such laws suggests an elite strong enough to have them passed; on the other hand, it also suggests an elite whose status is being undermined. It has been argued that in England, where a variety of such laws were passed, they represented not the strength of the aristocracy but its weakness vis-à-vis the growing fiscal strength of the bourgeoisie. Sumptuary laws have even been interpreted as the protectionist tactics of a local bourgeoisie protecting domestic production against foreign imports (see Hooper 1915). They have also been interpreted as paternalistic efforts by concerned governments to protect their citizens from profligacy (Phillips and Staley 1961). 21 Far more remains to be said about the raw materials needed for dyeing. For more on this and other dyes, see Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman (1987) and Fraser-Lu (1988). See Schneider (1976) for a fascinating discussion of the importance of dyes in the political economy of Europe. 22 A few of the traditional ordination pillows have survived. I saw one that was among a villager's last remaining unsold treasures; it had been made by his mother for his initiation. A triangular pillow made of black satin cloth, it had gold thread embroidered into a flower design at the points of the triangle. 23 Cloth that has been worn as a woman's phaa sin can be very powerful symbolically. Soldiers often wore pieces from their mothers' phaa sins to protect them in battle, with the idea that their mothers had done the most to give them life and would do the most to protect them. This symbolism becomes even more intriguing when considered in light of the famous myth of Queen Chamathevi. She wove pieces of a phaa sin into a hat for a suitor to ensure that his arrows would fall short of their mark and he would thus fail in his quest for her hand in marriage. The stratagem worked. 24 Textile production seems to have been a more important and more widespread part of the village household economy in northeastern than in northern Thailand. Consequently, I believe, cloth goods figured more prominently in wedding celebrations in the northeast. 26 The Pali word kathina means a piece of cloth that in former times was donated to a temple for making robes; alternatively, it means the wooden frame on which the cloth was traditionally sewn into robes (Davis 1984:200). 27 Even today kathin ceremonies are "most often sponsored by government agencies, private companies, and wealthy families" (Davis 1984:200). 28 The central Thai king, King Mongkut, wore robes of yellow silk while he was a monk (Feltus 1924:53). Rich people didn't know how to spin or weave. They bought their clothes ready-made or hired other people to weave their cloth for them. Rich people were too lazy to weave for themselves. But some rich people were stingy; they wove their own clothes instead of hiring poor people. 30 lronically, Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman suggest that in the past "every woman owned at least one tin chok for special occasions" (1987:12). Because these borders required so much skill to weave and were so expensive to buy, I am quite skeptical of this claim. I think that only the wealthiest of villagers, or villagers who were themselves expert weavers, would have owned a tin jok. 31 Hildebrand did not specify how the slaves of the second chief were employed; however, we know from Bock's account that one of the second chief's wives had her slaves spin silk. Hildebrand wrote, "The second chief's source of income is not so calculable; he derives a good deal from the labor of his slaves, of whom, with his wives and children, he never has less than 600 under his roof, and the number outside would probably double this amount" (1875). 1868 Trade Report of Siam of 1867. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 46, 18 January. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1895 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1894). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 28 June. 1866 The Manners and Customs of the Cheang Mai Laos. Bangkok Recorder, 30 August. 1984 The Fashion System. M. Ward and R. Howard, trans. Berkeley: University of California Press. Benda, Harry J., and John A. Larkin, eds. 1967 The World of Southeast Asia: Selected Historical Readings. New York: Harper and Row. 1900 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1899). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 22 October. 1986 Temples and Elephants: Travels in Siam in 1881-1882. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1984 A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. R. Nice, trans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1988 Peasant Perspectives on the Political Economy of the Northern Thai Kingdom of Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth Century: Implications for the Understanding of Peasant Political Expression. Ph.D. dissertation. 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New York: Fleming H. Revell. 1899 Laos Folklore of Farther India. New York: Fleming H. Revell. 1988 Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press. 1910 An Oriental Land of the Free. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 1984 The Partial Commercialization of Rice Production in Northern Thailand (1900-1981). Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, Cornell University. 1875 Report on Special Mission to Chiengmai. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 65, 15 February. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1982 Familiar Strangers: The Yunnanese Chinese in Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation. Anthropology Department, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 1915 The Tudor Sumptuary Laws. English Historical Review 30:433-449. 1964 Thailand's Rice Trade and the Allocation of Resources. In The Economic Development of Southeast Asia: Studies in Economic History and Political Economy. C. D. Cowan, ed. pp. 102-126. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. 1971 Economic Change in Thailand, 1850-1970. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1890 Trade Report of Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 18 October: 16. 1866 [Report of Expedition into Southern Laos and Camboja]. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 40, 31 May. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1860 Trade Report of Siam. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 21, 21 January. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1988 The Kings as Gods: Textiles in the Thai State. In Textiles as Primary Sources. Proceedings of the First Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Minneapolis Institute of Art, September 16-18. J. E. Vollmer, comp. pp. 78-85. St. Paul: Textile Society of America. 1990 Textile Exchange in T'ai Societies. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Thai Studies. Vol. 1. pp. 363-371. Kunming, China: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. 1871 Journal kept by Captain Lowndes, Superintendent of Police, British Burma, whilst on a Mission to the Zimme Court, 27 March to 30 May 1871. Foreign Office Series No. 69, Vol. 55, 20 June. MS, Public Records Office, London. 1900 Surveying and Exploring in Siam. London: John Murray. 1836 [Journal of Captain McLeod]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London. 1962 Cloth and Its Function in the Inca State. American Anthropologist 64:710-728. 1965 The Golden Road to Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990 Silver Challenge Cups and a Bronze Frog Drum: Colonialism and the Development of Teak Capitalism in Northern Thailand. M.A. thesis. Anthropology Department, Macquarie University. 1961 Sumptuary Legislation in Four Centuries. Journal of Home Economics 53 (8 October):673-677. 1987 Lanna Textiles: Yuan, Lue, Lao. Bangkok: Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, Chiang Mai University. 1899a From Northern Siam. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 11 September: 11. 1899b Pagoda Slaves. Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 30 October. 1988 Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1829-36 [Journal of Dr. Richardson]. MS, Manuscript Division, British Museum, London. 1976 Culture and Practical Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1978 Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books. 1885-86 [Journal of Sir Ernest Satow]. Public Record Office Series No. PR030/33 (21/1). MS, Public Records Office, London. Savage, Victor R. 1984 Western Impressions of Nature and Landscape in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Singapore University Press. 1976 Peacocks and Penguins: The Political Economy of European Cloth and Colors. American Ethnologist 5:413-447. 1987 The Anthropology of Cloth. Annual Review of Anthropology 16:409-448. 1982-84 Lokhathat chaw laanaa syksaa cak soh kep nok (The Worldview of Lanna People Based upon Soh Kep Nok Songs). Sangkhomsaat 6(2):11-36. 1963 The Burman: His Life and Notions. New York: W. W. Norton. 1957 Fashion. American Journal of Sociology 62(6):541-558. 1891 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1890). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 16 May. 1892 Trade Report of Chiang Mai (1891). Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget, 24 June. 1987 Tattoos: Invulnerability and Power in Shan Cosmology. American Ethnologist 14:693-711. 1888-1930 Autobiography of Hugh Taylor. MS, Phayab College Library, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 1912 The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: B. W. Huebsch. Weiner, Annette B., and Jane Schneider, eds. 1989 Cloth and Human Experience. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1985 The Burma-Thailand Frontier over Sixteen Decades: Three Descriptive Documents. Monographs in International Studies Southeast Asia Series, No. 70. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies. 1888 Eighteen Hundred Miles on a Burmese Tat. London: W. H. Allen.

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Trump's new immigration ad was panned as racist. Turns out it was also based on a falsehood. - Hartford Courant Trump's new immigration ad was panned as racist. Turns out it was also based on a falsehood. Trump's new immigration ad was panned as racist. Turns out it was also based on a falsehood. The expletive-filled advertisement President Donald Trump released this week, seemingly to raise fears about immigration in advance of the midterm elections, was widely denounced, with Democrats and even some Republicans criticizing it as racist. But, beyond the outrage, the ad was also reportedly based on a falsehood. The 53-second video focuses on the courtroom behavior of Luis Bracamontes, an undocumented immigrant who was convicted of killing two sheriff's deputies in California in 2014 and bragged about it during the trial. "Democrats let him into our country," the ad's script reads. "Democrats let him stay." Just one problem: It doesn't appear to be true. Bracamontes, who had been deported multiple times before his crime spree, last entered the country while George W. Bush was president, sometime between May 2001 and February 2002, when there is a record for his marriage in Arizona, according to the Sacramento Bee. He lived near Salt Lake City until 2014, when a methamphetamine-fueled road trip ended with the murder of the two Sacramento-area deputies, according to the Bee. The ad also failed to mention that in 1998 he was arrested on drug charges in Phoenix, then released by the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio "for reasons unknown," the Bee reported. Arpaio, a close Trump ally who has made waves for his hard-line immigration policies and rhetoric, was convicted in 2017 for ignoring a federal judge's order to stop detaining people on the suspicion of being undocumented immigrants. He was later pardoned by Trump. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment. Bracamontes had been deported under both Democratic and Republican presidencies. He was first arrested on charges related to marijuana possession in Phoenix in 1996 and sentenced to four months in jail, the Bee reported. He served his time and was deported in 1997, when Bill Clinton was president, only to be deported again in 2001 soon after being arrested on marijuana charges, according to the Bee. Bracamontes has been sentenced to the death penalty in the murder case.

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tl;dr Celeste is responding very well to the kitty 'roids and looking and feeling better, which all bodes well for how she will respond to the chemo. We're keeping this GoFundMe running to offset future rounds. There's no universe where I can thank y'all enough.

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What actions might be needed to jump start the tourism industry in Pohnpei? I believe much has been said about this topic in the past. However, I'd like to bring it up again; so that we can have a new and fresh look at it again. I hope those who are in the know about this subject matter--would contribute to this discussion. First, tour operators used to say that Pohnpei airport was too short for charter flights. Well, the airport was extended several years ago with financial assistance and technical assistance from Japan. Second, others use to complain that there is not enough room. Well, there is a new couple of storey hotel building in town. We probably have over 300 rooms available--more or less--Cliff, Ocean View, the new Hotel, Joy and others. 1. If there is already a serious and comprehensive report on how to start the tourism industry in Pohnpei, I am asking anybody to let us know; so that we can read it and update it; or take some actions accordingly. 2. I am assuming that a complete and good report does not exist. As such, let me offer some ideas: a) a tourism market analyst should look at the resources that Pohnpei has to offer; and b) determine whether they could attract certain type of tourists from China or Korea or Japan or America or Europe or where. 3. The question is whether at least one charter flight could be arranged from either Japan, Korea or China per week? If we start with that assumption, what are the necessary actions to take in order to accomodate the planes requirements; and to accomodate the tourists; and make them occupied or happy or contented for at least 3 days; before they return home. These are my initial comments and suggestions for now. Is it possible or not to have a modest number of tourists to come to Pohnpei consistently--every week--for a whole year at a time? If possible, then, we should go for it. Any other observations and suggestions would be appreciated. The public could give the Pohnpei Visitors’ Bureau a big pay raise and a bigger round of applause. If not, then try the opposite or something else, but don’t do nothing and expect something. For example, the US national debt was doubled; the jobs were going over-seas; so the Americans tried a different approach to the problem. They elected a billionaire CEO instead of the customary career politician. Like the idiom goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So they tried someone very different from your ordinary politician. Of course, the world is still full of insane people, who demand the usual approach to a growing problem. But that's another topic. Anyway, that is my two cents and I hope you would appreciate it, like you said that you would. There is much left unsaid about the complex issue of tourism. Other Micronesians should contribute in this discussion, rather than in those they detest. So I heard that for Guam tourism, the Korean tourists are known to prefer smaller hotels, not the fancy big ones. And they also don't spend as much. On the other hand, the Japanese tourism prefer to stay in the large hotels; and do spend a lot per visitor. Whether this distinction is related to the tourist promoters who are linked the particular hotels, it'll be good to know. It's not good to make such generalizations. I don't know what can be said of the Chinese tourists or US tourists or Russian tourist. I think if we really want to try to develop Pohnpei tourism, we need, first of all, to understand such preferences of the different groups as tourism targets; and at the same time, we need to know if Pohnpei can provide what the particular group would find as contributing to their positive tourism experience. So this is the basic principle of business an marketing analysis; and is needed before we can begin to design the tourism program and promotion. So that is my first recommendation. Just some thoughts on this nice and noisy New Year's day--Jan. 1, 2019. First and foremost Tourism critically require CLEANLINESS! Our Environment must be presentably clean without artificial rubbish. Our Air, Ocean, Rivers, streams, shores and riversides must be clean. Appropriate infrastructure must also be in place. Build it and they will come. We must invest heavily into advertisements locally and globally. Preserve our Customs and Traditions. Not what is happening today where the Tourist would come and see the traditional Leaders sitting infront in Western clothing. For Pohnpei this is what it needs for Tourism to move forward. Did you say that we need clean up our environment and rake our yards? Well, I'll be damned! Trump was right all along! So I am looking for a tourism study that shows and analyzes the "segmentation" of the potential tourism targets. Tourism, like any product lines--such as soft drink, beer, food products--could be more understood if a "marketing study" shows the segmentation of the potential market including desirable and undesirable behaviors; spending patterns; tolerance for long flights; desire for shopping vs. visiting cultural sites; duration of vacation days per different groups; what would constitute a happy tourist; etc., etc. Needless to say, once you understand your potential customers--it'll be easier to improve the sites where the tourists would visits; etc., etc.,. So the question is this: does Pohnpei have the basic assets that could be developed or improved--so that the different segments of the tourism population could be attracted to visit? Tourism matters. Don’t count the US out. We have A LOT of eco-tourists who snorkel and dive. Does FSM have the logistical capability of handling 300 avid snorkelers and divers at a time? Protect the mangroves and reefs; without them you will be left with a deserted ocean. Is it possible to Charter a non-stop flight out of Los Angeles? If so then running ads in the diving and adventure magazines might allow you to fill those planes. Sundays out of LA and back on Saturdays would allow connections to be made to any destination in the US; with the folks leaving their offices on a Friday and returning to work on a Monday. Perhaps use the planes for domestic flights during the week. Does Yap and Chuck have airports large enough to handle those kinds of aircraft? Beyond tourism: FSM has one of the largest exclusive economic zones on the planet. I can imagine as a small country your fish and ocean resources are being exploited with very little return to FSM itself. The fishing boats should be flagged in FSM. The workers on the boats should be Micronesian, the processing plants should be Micronesian; and those ocean resources should be closely monitored and aggressively protected. I know how this world works; I am confident you are receiving a few pennies on the dollar of economic return. What percentage of capital outflow is represented in diesel fuel imports for energy production? Given topography and climate that is about as big a waste as I can imagine. Given your cost of energy; tidal, solar, and wind could be gold plated and still be more profitable than diesel generation. But more imporantly it would stem the hemorage of capital those imports represent. Capitalize your own banks and businesses. That single action would probably be the second most effective way in stemming capital outflow and encouraging capital formation. Invest locally and use reinvestment to grow; it is the only way you will be free; and that matters. So, yes, US divers is just one segment of the possible many segments of the tourism market. I am assuming this segment, if you look at it closely, will have its own characteristics and behavior and spending patterns that would be very different from other segments such as tourists from China or Korea or Japan, etc. The question is what kinds of assets or attractions does Pohnpei have--or that can be developed--to cater to this segment of the tourism industry. First, is the cost: there are closer destinations such as Belize, the Carribean islands, etc. which will cost less, in terms of airline costs, to visit compared to the price of the tickets to Pohnpei and back. Second, what about the attractions for tourists: will the US-based divers be willing to bypass Hawaii and its other islands--to come to Pohnpei. Do we have such hot diving spots in Pohnpei to compete with other diver destinations? I think it's limited. These and more are some of the items in the list to be evaluated if were we to try to focus on this segment of the market. It is doable but we need to make a good case as to why the US-based divers would be attracted to come to Pohnpei and not other less expensive and accessible destinations that have more to offer. I don't want to sound negative. American divers have a lot of money to spend compared to other segments of the tourism population so it should be seriously considered. It'll be good to hear from marketing experts regarding this segment and as to whether or not, it should be the focus of the Pohnpei tourism promotion drive. Just some ideas. Has anybody considered cruise-lines. I hate traveling in airplanes for long durations. A service based economy would certainly not be a first choice. The South Pacific has multiple times the number of fauna and flora species than the Caribbean Basin. I thought Pohnpei had healthy coral reefs and good water clarity. That is the only attraction needed to attract divers and snorkelers from around the world. Has the entire planet been trawled with bottom nets? I was hoping a few spots were missed. Flora and Fauna is what the world wants to experience; it is that simple. Unfortunately the density of both flora and fauna in our oceans is rapidly decreasing. If there are healthy coral reefs with large numbers of fish then imagine a market where the product is exposure to the most species of flora and fauna on the planet. It sounds foolish to use scarce capital to hire marketing experts for such a rare market. That is like saying you don’t know what you have in your hands. Pohnpei will never be able to compete with the highly sophisticated and highly profitable casinos in places like Las Vegas, Macau, Hong Kong, Monaco, London, etc. A tourist attraction unique to Pohnpei is Nan Madol, a United Nations World Heritage site. But until it is restored and maintained, made more accessible to visitors of all ages, and supported with world class tour guides, lodging, and restaurants, not many people will spend thousands of dollars to visit the place. So if casino is out, what is it that might attract Chinese or other gamblers to Pohnpei? I don't see any. Cruise liners is one possible ways to bring tourists in. But I don't think somebody will deliberately get on a cruise-liner with Pohnpei destination solely in mind. What we can do is for our tourism promoters to contact the cruiseliner operators that pass thru our waters--so they can make a scheduled stop on Pohnpei port for a couple of days. I heard that some of these cruise-lines go to Guam or Saipan and other destinations in our neighborhood. So it might be possible to find ways to get them to stop, more often, or on a regular basis at Pohnpei port. What about Korean visitors or Japanese visitors? We do have some Japanese visitors that come thru on a more regular basis. There are Japanese-speaking local tour operators who are equipped to hold Japanese tourists--if or when they come. But I am beginning to think that we need to approach the development of the Pohnpei tourism in a slightly different way. I don't think our own government agencies and employees--who are tasked to promote and attract tourists--can do the job. It's not that they are not qualified. It's just the way the mass tourism market work. If we want to bring in, say, 200 to 300 tourists to Pohnpei on a charter flight, I think we need to have the involvement of tour packagers or tour promoters--located where the possible tourists are. The promoters will be the ones to advertise the tour packages; arrange for flights when there are about 200 to 300 interested tourists. They can facilitate and make bookings with the local Pohnpei hotel from their offices in Japan or S. Korea; and even plan out, example, a 3-day package. The tour operators are the ones who know the needs and desires of different tourists group. So they will be the ones who we can depend on the make the arrangements. It may mean that our governments will need to find partners who are tour operators; and pay them certain amount plus commission in order for them to sell Pohnpei as destination. I think tourists visiting out-o- the-way places like Pohnpei would like to be dealing with reliable and trustworthy tour operators--for their safety and for assurance about the value of their vacations. So I don't know what assets or attractions(?) are there in Pohnpei to attract a certain group. We still need to conduct tourist marketing studies, the segmentation of the market. In the end, we want some sort of tourist profiles as per different countries as segmented by age group, family group, environmental study group, historical study group, divers group, etc., etc. In short, I think we need to develop working relationship and compensation package agreement with tourist promoters. We need to bring some of them to Pohnpei to look at our assets; and advice us on how to improve Pohnpei; so that future tourists will be satisfied once they get here. Just some thoughts. Besides the Nan Madol World Heritage site, FSM has spectacular sport fishing and scuba diving to attract tourists. WWII artifacts and shipwrecks can also attract both Japanese and American families with WWII historical connections. And yes, we need experienced tourism industry professionals to propose marketing strategies for possible implementation....IF the people and the government are really serious about tourism, that is. So far, I haven't seem much evidence of serious interest, sad to say. FM, I agree that FSM has many attractions that could draw tourists to visit. But for business strategy, I think the government officials who are responsible for tourism policies should really work with professionals--so that the different FSM states' attractions will be identified and amplified--for the purpose of differentiating each one as a unique destination in itself. I say this because when we say FSM, it means a large region; so it'll be difficult for tourist to be able to visit all the destinations in the FSM. So, let's say that a typical tourist--from Japan, S. Korea, US, Europe, Russia, etc.,--has only 3 days for vacation. How do we attract those kinds of visitors to a particular destination. I would say that we should assume that these tourists with only 3-day vacation time will only be going to one destination--whether it's Pohnpei or Chuuk or Yap or Kosrae--in the case of the FSM. Of course, other competing destinations for the 3-day vacationers are Hawaii, Guam, Palau, Saipan, RMI and other nearby locations. So for the FSM, we need to define the potential destinations within the FSM. We can say that Pohnpei is unique because of its Nan Madol ruins plus its diving spots. Chuuk is unique because of the World War II wrecks. Yap is unique because of its traditional money and its sting ray alley. Also, Kosrae has its own ruins and special forests, etc. In short, we need to understand, on one hand, the tourists profiles and segmentation; so we can target the different segments--in order to lure them to the spectacular and unique attractions within each of the FSM states. On the other hand, we need to define our destinations in a way that they will attract the different segments of the tourism population. Just some thoughts but I am sure these are already well understood by government officials responsible for tourism development and promotion. Hope so. Of the three Freely Associated States, only Palau has a thriving tourist industry. Both the FSM and the RMI would be wise to learn from the ROP how to effectively attract tourists. In the meantime, fisheries remain our only significant income-producing industry....and that income will continue to fluctuate annually due to tuna migration and global warming. I learn much on tourism from your comments, but I sometimes feel you are leap frogging. I think Factsmatter pointed out a problem which is the lack of "serious interest." Shouldn't we address this problem first? Does anyone know why Micronesians, excluding Belauans and Chamorros, lack the motivation to develop their tourism industry? For example, lack of physical fitness, low energy, or maybe poor diet is to blame. Too much substance abuse maybe? Too content with no dreams or visions for greatness? Too lazy? Don't want to change lifestyle or develop self? Land's too sacred to be developed or discussed? Bored of same old leadership? Not enough public lands like in Koror and the Marianas? Are Micronesians really free men and women? If so, then why are we not "seriously interested" in building up our tourism, economy and country? Maybe we just don't like tourists and want to be left alone, like most conquered peoples living in injun reservations. Or maybe we dread the ecological, cultural, and economical impacts of tourism. Anyway, I think we should also consider the public's opinions, especially the local communities' and land owners,' when planning these ventures. Because everyone will be impacted. z, yes, you are making a lot of good points. I am hoping that by engaging in serious discussions about Pohnpei tourism, we can come to some conclusions; and some answers to questions which you have raised. I don't want to believe that Pohnpeians are lazy or don't want development thru tourism. But I also don't have an answer as to how to develop tourism in Pohnpei--to a level similar to Palau or Guam, etc. Maybe some of the reasons that you say are correct. But I am not sold yet on the idea that we are the cause of our own problem--our attitude, our way of life, low energy, etc. In the end, it might prove that tourism--in the volume comparable to Palau or Guam--simply cannot occur in Pohnpei for the following reasons which have been mentioned by different people--some in this Forum, etc. Pohnpei does not have the beaches that attract family-type tourists. Pohnpei is too far out of the way; so it'll take many vacation hours spent on the plane; so it does not attract people with only 3-day vacation. Pohnpei does not have large shopping centers such as those in Guam (Walmart, Duty-Free, etc). While Nan Madol is one of the best place in the world to visit, it would only take probably a couple of hours to make a tour to Nan Madol; and what do you do after that. Another problem that I see is restrictions for hiring quality service people, such as workers from the Philippines, to come work in Pohnpei. It is difficult to recruit these workers because they also have to get US visa just to transit thru Guam a couple of hours in order to go to Pohnpei. In contrast, Palau has good beaches although you have take boats to the nice rock island beaches. But some of the hotels in Koror have built artificial beaches by the hotels to cater to their tourism customers. The population of Palau is small; so the number of Palauans working for tourism is small. Most of the service workers such as waitress at restaurants, cooks, etc, are from the Philippines. And it's easy for Palau to bring in workers from PI because they don't have to go thru Guam--so they don't need to apply for visa which is costly as well as time consuming. Most importantly, Palau has been able to maintain its clean environment which is appreciated by the tourists. So should Pohnpei give up on tourism because it does have the same assets and attractions as Palau or Guam? At some point in time, the leadership has to decide. I would say that we still need experts on tourism development and marketing and promotion to visit Pohnpei under contract with the Pohnpei State or with the FSM. They still need to do assessments of our assets and attraction sites. They need to help us figure as to whether or not our assets and attractions can be good enough to attract a certain segment of the tourism population. We don't have to have mass tourism although the airport has been extended to accommodate charter flights. We might be able to focus on smaller number of visitors; and then, build from there. We'll see. Does anyone know why Air Niugini and Air Nauru do not want to land in Guam? Only Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean, and Philippines airlines like to land in Guam. Why is this? Anyone know why Air Niugini and Air Nauru hate Guam so much? Disregard everything that you are talking about with regards to tourism in the FSM. Let us explore this question instead. Why does the US Government allow Japanese, Chinese, South Korean, Taiwanese, and Philippine airlines to land in Guam but not Air Niugini and Air Nauru? Is it because the pilots have curly hair? Why is this? I think any airline that wants to fly to any country must be able to meet that country's standard. In order to fly to Guam or Honolulu, the aircraft must meet US safety standard; pilots must meet training and retraining requirements. The airline must also have an office and crew at the airport; to service the plane and customers. It probably can contract other airlines to provide these services at the beginning. It also probably need to lease or own those ramp walkway that are moved to connect to the plane once in place; for customers to work thru to the airport--unless you have a small aircraft which only requires customer to exit the plane; and walk on the airport open air to the building. The 2 airlines that you are talking about probably don't have the volume of customers to Guam--to be able to invest on the required infrastructure. It probably does not have enough revenue to meet insurance requirements. Lastly, I am sure the business competition from United or other more established US carrier will always be a factor. I heard that United--like the Continental before it-- keeps reducing its ticket prices whenever Air Nauru tried to have flights to Guam or other destinations in Micronesia-in order to undercut Air Nauru's attempt to get a foothold of the Guam market. So I am sure it has nothing to do with "curly hair" but more on stiff competition; as there are other "curly hair" pilots in United and other carriers that come to Guam. Air Niugini has been trying to get landing rights into Guam since 1970s. However, for some strange reason, the US Government never grants them landing rights, despite the fact that it grants landing rights to Asian country airlines from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Philippines. What would be the reason for not granting landing rights to Air Niugini? Please tell us because I think you already know this. We just need to justify why should a tourist fly over Guam and Hawaii to come to FSM. Once we can get that traveler to FSM, we will have tourist. Good question. I think some smart person--with practical experience in tourism program planning and strategizing--might be able to provide some answers. Or, it'll be a combination of experts in business development and marketing strategies; or some people from Japan or S. Korea who actually have real life experience with packaging tours from their countries to Pacific islands nations such as Guam, Hawaii, CNMI. People with such expertise could be paid as consultant--to put some of their recommendations together to answer the question above.

http://micronesiaforum.org/index.php?p=/discussion/comment/378545/

Rafael Nadal became the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam tournament after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 in the French Open final on Sunday. If Rafael Nadal truly was going to be challenged, if his bid for an unprecedented eighth French Open championship would be slowed even a bit, this might have been the moment. Ferrer glared at the ball as it flew past and landed in a corner, then smiled ruefully. What else was there to do? Dealing with Nadal's defence-to-offence on red clay is a thankless task. His rain-soaked 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ferrer on was Nadal's record 59th win in 60 matches at the French Open and made him the only man with eight titles at any Grand Slam tournament. "Winning 17 Grand Slam titles, that's miles away," Nadal said with his typical humility. "I'm not even thinking about it." Let's be plain: No one, perhaps not even Ferrer himself, expected Nadal to lose Sunday. Nadal had yet to make his French Open debut then, missing it that year because of a broken left foot. On May 23, 2005, Nadal played his first match at Roland Garros, beating Lars Burgsmuller 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-1 on Court 1, known as the "bullring" because of its oval shape. There was occasional shakiness this year. Nadal lost the first set of each of his first two matches, and was pushed to a tiebreaker to begin his third. His fourth match, a straight-set win against No. 15 Kei Nishikori, "was a major step forward," Nadal said. Still, he barely edged No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic in a thrilling semifinal that lasted more than 4 1/2 hours and ended 9-7 in the fifth set Friday. By any measure, that match was far more enjoyable to take in than the final, akin to dining on a filet mignon accompanied by a well-aged bottle of Bordeaux — each bite and sip rich, textured — one day, then grabbing a hot dog and can of soda from a street vendor 48 hours later. That's when Nadal took over, winning seven games in a row and 12 of 14 to render the ultimate result pretty clear. It was as if he simply decided, "Enough is enough." His court coverage was impeccable, as usual, showing no signs of any problems from that left knee, which was supported by a band of white tape. His lefty forehand whips were really on-target, accounting for 19 of his 35 winners and repeatedly forcing errors from Ferrer. Yes, Nadal is No. 1 at the French Open, without a doubt. When the ATP rankings are issued Monday, however, he will be No. 5, due to points he dropped while hurt. Oddly enough, Ferrer will be at No. 4. "Yeah, it's strange, no? I lost the final against Rafael, but tomorrow I am going to be No. 4 and him No. 5," Ferrer said with a grin, then delivered his punchline: "I prefer to win here and to stay No. 5."

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/tennis/rafael-nadal-beats-ferrer-to-win-8th-french-open-title-1.1392495

How do you know you're not just making karma worse?? The answer to the question in the OP is given in the first two verses of the Dharmapada. But dependent origination, when reduced to its essential components, simply means: where there is affliction, there is a cause for action; where there is action there is a cause for suffering; and where there is suffering, there is a condition for further affliction. Without affliction, there is no cause for action; without action, there is no result, suffering. A Buddhas deeds are not based on afflcition (desire, hatred, and ignorance); they are based on wisdom. Hence, they do not result in suffering. A buddha's mind stream is conditioned and relative; it is however free of affliction and endowed with omniscience. Dzogchen mainly describes how samsara begins (with an aim to reverse it), but the “mechanics” of samsara are the same: affliction—> action —> suffering —>affliction as infinitum unless one breaks the chain at affliction. An action always has a result. An affliction does not need to have a result. What is the definition (in the context of Dharma) of an affliction? What is the definition (in the context for Dharma) of an action? Per the mechanism illustrated in the sequence above, WHY is it that affliction does not need to have a result? A painful mental state, i.e., desire, hatred, and ignorance, or anything that is conducive to a painful mental state, i.e., impure conditioned phenomena. Volition is action, this produces verbal and physical acts. Afflictions do not necessarily produce volitions. When we are aware of our afflictive state, we can disengage our minds from actions related towards afflictive objects. This is why we practice śamatha, actually, so that we are aware of our mind's afflictive state. Being aware of our mind's afflictive state is called mindfulness and attention. Being unaware of our mind's afflictive stated is called being mindless and inattentive. What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build the life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind. If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart. If a person speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows as her own shadow. I think this is where faith enters the picture, is it not? "How can I be sure I'm acting from pure motives?" The answer is: you can only do your best. That's where trust of your true nature and in the dharma comes into play. We can't understand all the depths and complexities in our current state, hence, the need for the teaching in the first place! That is why it is compared to a raft. And we need to have faith in it. What are the post signs along the road I should be paying attention to? Good intention is so important but perhaps not enough and sometimes even triggering. Even someone wishes so very much to help, the help can be seen as an attack. Just like a wolf painfully entangled in a trap, will bite when a hand is sticking out to help him out of that desperate situation. He would bite, as we would, to each other and perhaps even to Enlightened help. Trapped in duality, I think your advice is a great recommendation to be less a slave of the dividing mind. As long as dualism is present, there is continuation of karma. That's why the relation to the teacher is so important. Because you need that faith until you see for yourself. I am fully accepting that I don't see into the functionalities of cause and condition. The more I practise the more firm beliefs transform into mere possibilities. We talk about karma in principle, and I am fixed (determined) on understanding it in its correct view. But not to just understand and talk about it. I want this to be done already. I'm fed up with being ignorant. It is very clear to me once I entered this practice how incredibly multifaceted every relative situation is even in ONE family for each individual.. and grasping just how many conditions contribute to stimulate habituated patterns that manifest like from "many a fiction story for every episode of one's life," yet seeing them line up, tracking the trends, hindsight helps in defining and illustrating very clearly what is priority and what isn't... I fully trust the self-perfecting process precisely because the connection proves I prioritized my connection to the teachings before, in this being inhabited by a conventional me, and wh knows how many other Me's before. It sometimes feel like the anchor was to be born where my teacher was in the years he was there (not many Tibetans in Naples) but I had a specific situation which was quite awful for many years. It was slaking off debts one by one to get to a position where the practice can really begin, one insanity after the other and many of those afflictions did exhaust themselves and no longer bind my current conditions... But some DO! Yet somehow I'm not that attached to their story anymore, I see them for their worth and only feel a kind of gratitude my conditions provided me with the correct medicine to feel the transparency of things... As if becoming more relative in my understanding in which even more precision is called for! Ogyen, you haven't responded to a question on the first page: which vehicle does your post refer to? I read so much pondering in the long posts you write. I see your longing for logic, precision which you think to attain through determination. And I think (and that is the dzogchen view) that this is not how it is going to work. Let go and rest in what is there right now. Now remembering, no expectation. Make the seeing of the true nature of your mind your one and only goal. Trying to verify your karma is just another play of the ego's mind. Of course it may be fun going down that road, but stay in awareness of its inherent emptiness. This is where the true journey starts. Karma is a difficult one to figure out. For example: My brother died earlier this year and left a heap of debts that my family and I have to pay for. This lead me to wondering: How can I know if this is due to old debts which were accrued by me towards him that I now have to pay for, OR are these new debts being accrued by him towards me? Only a Buddha can know. Sorry to hear about your brother, Grigoris. Your post got me thinking about collective karma though. What role does it play, if any, in a situation like this? Is that even how collective karma works? How much of our suffering is due to our own karmic debts? At what point can we say that suffering is not just the result of individual karmic debts? Is it when an entire country is devastated by some natural disaster or when an entire group of people is persecuted and killed? Does collective karma operate on a smaller scale - like between a group of co-workers or a family unit? I understand that there is a danger with this line of thinking, especially for someone like me, where collective karma can be a means to externalising all of my suffering and causes of suffering. But can this be notion be totally ignored when looking at suffering in its entirety? I'm probably not articulating this well due to incompetence. Apologies for the noob post. At what point can we say that suffering is not just the result of individual karmic debts? This is a very interesting question, which is going beyond my poor limitations. Instead of being able to provide an answer, other questions are popping up only: if all karmic debts would be purely individual, would there than not be a subtle belief in an "individual, a person, a one on itself"? Is not all dependent, even so subtle what our intellect cannot get? I do not reject when we are acting unwholesome or wholesome, from these, our own harvest will be coloured. Would that only be, without any influence on all around us? Then how would it be called wholesome and unwholesome? Personal only? I do not reject we must awaken ourselves, none can do it for us, (even we are temporary dependent on 'some navigation medicines' to help) But if it is solely individual ' karmic harvest', we must be energies on our own. Perhaps with a stony separating wall around body-speech and mind. ps My warm support to Greece, for the whole family. Hi, apologies.. life ate up a lot of time lately. Just seeing this. Karma applies to all vehicles. It is not even philosophy specific. It is a principle which encompasses all vehicles and beings that stumbled into Samsara. It's nicely thought out thank you for taking the time to write. I may go on and on in my posts... I guarantee I'm not a terribly lengthy thinker off the boards, I just have general existential angst I'm working out overall, as I find myself in that awkward phase between birth and death. I had a wonderful retreat recently which opened my eyes a great deal, and I have a strong confidence in the method of Dharma. I study all aspects of buddhadharma but due to karmic conditions and previous aspirations, I really resonate most with the Dzogchen vehicle. Verifying karma is a fundamental part of understanding the true nature of your actual condition, I don't think it's an ego game. To see the true nature of your mind there's a lot of layers to get thru... I mean we are caked in conditioning that prevents us from really integrating our own true nature, so much of this is a very useful exercise. The question mostly pertained to finding markers and knowing that you are going the right way (for you). We think a lot of things. That doesn't mean we see or understand what the conditions are which are producing that thinking/feeling and acting. I have now learned how to verify that and apply it. All of a sudden... Karmic conditions are maturing rather quickly manifesting in the form of obstacles and changes which I sometimes can mitigate somewhat thru the effect of secondary causes generated by the protection of practice. The rest I deal with as I can. I've also had that question pop up in some situations and I've come to think that maybe not even a personal thing between you and your brother... More like a series of conditions you both had accumulated at some point that now matured this way, you with having a kind of load to carry that is debt related, and he to leaving your family in this specific secanrio.. and now you're where this karma will run its course... The trick is to either just exhaust that karma trying to have better clarity of the nature of these relative (but very annoyingly felt) consequences, and to not generate new karma in body speech and mind. Of course it's much easier said than done... But I have been taking to welcoming exhausting karma as needed, and I've started to become sensitive to how every action and thought produces it's own kind of karma. Many good hugs and vibes to you. How do you know you're not just making things worse thinking you're making things better (good intentions and all that jazz)??? The solution is always to practice what you've been given until your mind becomes clear, meaning unhelpful states of mind have subsided & you can act based on wisdom. If you're unsure, practice more. If practicing doesn't seem like enough, you have two options... one is to accumulate more karma and wait for it to burn itself out through your experiences, and the other is to practice anyway. Mechanically they are identical, but functionally they are opposed. Blindly creating karma through mundane activity is the risky one. Practice necessarily protects you from that, always, every single time, because it's not connected to your ordinary mind, but to your wisdom mind, which is the very mind of the Buddha. More to the point, in which direction is your fear (i.e., of worsening karma) pushing you? Is it constructive or not? How much time do you spend with this fear by itself, vs. letting it spur you to action? The state of your mind, which is capable of indulging the fear in unproductive/harmful ways, is what creates the karma producing the fear you mean to escape. If the fear is there and you can't get rid of it at this time (because you can't change the conditions causing it to arise), employ practice. Let go of the mind that judges & tries to ascertain what will happen, because this is based on the Eight Worldly Attitudes; seize the mind that is committed to making your life meaningful through practice. It already exists within you, ready to be activated through conscious contemplation. Remember that the practice you've done in the past & that you choose to do currently is helping you right now, as opposed to in the future.

https://dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=28391&start=40

Hi, I am looking for some suggestions on my final decision. I have received my PhD offers in Astronomy/Astrophysics at SIfA, the University of Sydney and at IfA, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. The stipend amount is not a concern, Hawaii gives 30+k(TA/RA dependent) while Sydney gives 26k(RTP scholarship as personal funding, no TA required). Hawaii is more expensive in living though. I have visited both schools in the past and I am fine with living in both places. Of course, I have certain pro-life reasons to prefer Sydney: I am Australian, my partner will be doing her PhD in Astronomical instrumentation at Sydney, we can complete our PhD in 3-4 years(no classes or qualifiers) etc. I am astronomy majored and I have seriously no interest in taking more classes, Hawaii can provide quite the same which it has its MS very focused in doing research projects and simple classes. My partner she would love to have me come to Sydney but she is okay with Hawaii if it is important for my career. So cutting out all non-academic reasons, which school would be relatively better in academic development? Hawaii has all the best optical telescopes and a very strong faculty in exoplanets and galaxies(Brent Tully, if you know the Tully-Fisher relation), while the PhD project I have submitted for Sydney focuses on using radio astronomy instruments which is very strong in Australia. Will choosing Sydney be a terrible choice for my career? If you don't know Sydney, could anyone point out just how Hawaii PhD education really ranks in the US, apart from all the telescopes advantage. I think you have described the main (research) advantages of the two schools very well. I am studying exoplanets and I was originally going to consider the IfA at Hawaii for a postdoc but then everyone I would have wanted to work with left Hawaii. However, they are hiring *two* new faculty members right now, probably at least one exoplanets person, so I think it will be a lively place for those interested in exoplanets once again. I think the stipend would be a concern at Hawaii though. People there say that 30k isn't really enough. I have heard that some of the reasons the *faculty* members are leaving is because they aren't paid enough to be able to afford a home etc. (But this is just what I've heard). Travelling from Hawaii to other places is also very expensive and requires long journeys. But since you are asking about academic reasons here, I think the biggest question you would have to answer (don't have to say it here if you don't want to) is what you want to study and where you want to work in the future. If you are interested in a North American postdoc/future academic position, then I think you are better off in Hawaii, where you will be better connected to the North American astronomical community. In addition, the short PhD program in Australia (and other places) will put you at a major disadvantage for North American academic jobs compared to US graduates. Not having classes in your PhD program will put you at a disadvantage as well, unless you have a Masters in Australia. The US has a weird (to me, since I'm Canadian) system! However, if Australia is like Canada where you get a MSc before a PhD, then you would probably be okay. The point is that you need to have some solid background beyond the undergraduate level in Astronomy and having breadth would be really important for long term job success in North America. In addition, if you are interested in exoplanets, optical/IR observational astronomy, or a career in something like a telescope operator, support astronomer, etc. then you would be much better off at Hawaii. On the other hand, if you're not interested in leaving Australia in the long term, then I am not sure there is much advantage to choosing Hawaii. I would check out the departments you might want to work at in Australia and see where those people got their PhDs or did postdocs. When I think of Australia, I think of radio astronomy and I know tons of North American radio astronomers move to Australia to have the best possible postdoc for their career. So, if you are heading in this direction for your astronomical career, then I think Sydney is a great choice. You asked about how Hawaii ranks in the US but without the telescopes? I don't think that's a fair question to ask because the resources available to students at a school is probably one of the most important factors in determining how strong/good the school is for the student. In my opinion, the main (academic) reason for an astronomer to choose to go to Hawaii for a PhD is to have the amazing telescope access. I'm not at Hawaii but at another US school with amazing telescope access and it has really helped my career. It has allowed me to do interesting projects because we are the only people with the ability to do what we are doing. Anyways, my opinion is that you have two good options and I think you would have to think about what your long term goals are in order to make the best decision for yourself. I think both these schools could be the right choice, but they will lead you towards different career paths, so choose wisely! TakeruK wrote: I think you have described the main (research) advantages of the two schools very well. I am studying exoplanets and I was originally going to consider the IfA at Hawaii for a postdoc but then everyone I would have wanted to work with left Hawaii. However, they are hiring *two* new faculty members right now, probably at least one exoplanets person, so I think it will be a lively place for those interested in exoplanets once again. Thanks! I suppose you mean 'exoplanet-everyone' as in Andrew Howard? Yeah talking about Hawaii without the telescopes is a little bit unfair. I don't know how much will classes mean in my resume, because most of my undergrad deparment's junior and senior year classes are taught with the first year and second year masters. So our curriculum pretty much covers most of the graduate class education and its in China so I am pretty much done with all the maths and physics (don't ask me why I ended up taking the whole Chinese college entrance exam, I thought Chinese education was good), and research is pretty much a DIY learning process, my professors suggest that I will probably do fine. I suppose it is a matter of interest in research then. It sometimes makes me feel narrowing myself up after knowing all those different fields of research, I've done X-ray astronomy and asteroseismology with Kepler (with a mix of exoplanets) in the past few years, and I have no idea what the outcome will be when I graduate. X-ray is kinda in the mess right now and I haven't got a school to do that any more, but my focus was on large catalogue transients so that pretty much fits with Sydney's work except it is in radio. PS. Sydney's department is great, the Sydney Institute for Astronomy has quite a lot of famous professors such as Joss Bland-Hawthorn, Elain Sadler and Tim Bedding. The detailed program I proposed was to complete a large transient Survey using radio telescopes and novel data mining.

http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?p=52890&amp

Use the law and your employer's complaint procedures to protect yourself from on-the-job harassment. If the harasser ignores your oral requests to stop, or if you are uncomfortable talking to the harasser face to face, write a succinct letter demanding an end to the behavior. Be sure to keep a copy. If you are concerned for your personal safety or are afraid that the harasser might become more hostile when confronted, complain to a supervisor instead. Although it is often difficult to make a complaint at work, and you may prefer to skip this step, don't. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that employees who fail to use their employer's internal complaint procedure to make the company aware of sexual harassment, and to give the company a chance to stop it, cannot later hold the company liable in a lawsuit. This means that you are quite likely to lose in court, should it come to that, if you don't complain within the company first. Even if your company doesn't have a formal complaint procedure, you can put the company on notice of the harassment. You can do this by making a complaint to the human resources department, telling your supervisor (or his or her supervisor) about the problem, or informing a company executive. It is very important to document what is happening to you, and what you are doing to try to stop it, should you ever have to prove your case to a company investigator, a government agency, or a jury. Start by collecting as much detailed evidence as possible about the harassment. Be sure to save any offensive letters, photographs, cards, or notes you receive. If you were made to feel uncomfortable because of jokes, pin-ups, or cartoons posted at work, confiscate them -- or at least make copies. An anonymous, obnoxious photo or joke posted on a bulletin board is not anyone else's personal property, so you are free to take it down and keep it as evidence. If that's not possible, photograph the workplace walls. Note the dates the offensive material was posted -- and whether there were hostile reactions when you took it down or asked another person to do so. Also, keep a detailed journal about incidents of harassment. Include the names of everyone involved, what happened, and where and when it took place. If anyone else saw or heard the harassment, note that as well. Be as specific as possible about what was said and done -- and how it affected you, your health, or your job performance. Keep your journal and notes at home or in a secure location outside of the workplace. If your employer has conducted periodic written evaluations of your work, make sure you have copies. In fact, you may want to ask for a copy of your entire personnel file before complaining about a harassing coworker. Your records can be particularly persuasive evidence if your employer retaliates against you for complaining -- which is also illegal. For example, you'll want a copy of your records if you've had positive performance evaluations until you complain, and then your employer tries to transfer, demote, or fire you or claims your job performance is poor. If complaining to your employer doesn’t help, the next step is to go to either the federal agency that enforces Title VII -- the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- or to your state fair employment office. If all investigation and settlement attempts fail to produce satisfactory results, you can file a civil lawsuit for damages under either Title VII or your state fair employment practices statute. You must file a complaint with the EEOC before filing a federal lawsuit. Even if you intend right from the beginning to file a lawsuit, you sometimes must first file a claim with a government agency. For example, an employee pursuing a claim under federal law must first file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and a similar complaint procedure is required under some state laws. The EEOC or state agency may decide to prosecute your case on your behalf, but that happens rarely. More commonly, at some point, the agency will issue you a document referred to as a "right-to-sue" letter that allows you to take your case to court with your own lawyer. Note, however, that there are time limits for filing claims with government agencies and for filing a lawsuit, so be sure not to miss them.

https://www.gslawny.com/lawyer-attorney-0E020B2A-F7D9-40C2-AB52398DFAAFDC6F.html

In this world I'm working on, magic is extremely bound by the laws of physics. Magic is explicable through science, and many people study it. The study of magic itself is like studying physics; the study of applied magic is like engineering. I like to think of magic as behaving similar to electromagnetism. Humans emit electromagnetic radiation naturally, but it would be very unnatural if a human suddenly could shoot out a bolt of lightning, or if they could use their bare hands to power a circuit. In a world like that, where magic is akin to electromagnetism, how would a civilized society react to individuals capable of magical feats? Note that these mages would be incredibly rare--perhaps 1 for every 750,000. Society would view this as a threat and eliminate it entirely. Society, already advanced in studying magic, wishes to learn more and wants to determine if the condition can be induced onto others. Society finds a means of using their abilities to conduct war and trains them as soldiers. I can see a lot of possibilities. I want to know: which possibility, of the ones above or otherwise, is the most realistic one to occur, and why? 1: Does magic run in families or is it totally random? Let's say that it is beyond the scope of genetics. It is not inherited. No single race or ethnicity is more likely than another to have mages appear. Mages may also appear in animals, but the scope of ability is limited based on physical constraints. A cow's magic is different than a human's. 2: Is it a recent thing? Did mages start appearing like X-Men or have they always been? It is not a recent thing, but it gets more noticeable as time goes on due to ease of communication amongst people. Additionally, since the probably of being born a mage remains the same throughout time, having an increased population means the likelihood of mages appearing also increases over time. 3: Do mages have any historical organization/guild/power base? I doubt this largely because of how rare it is, though I can see these emerging as time goes on, for reasons stated in 2. 4: Just how powerful are they? World shattering, city shattering or small country village shattering? This I believe varies greatly depending on the individual. While some mages may only be able to, say, cause light to emerge from their hands, others may very well be capable of devastating offensive tactics. That said, since I do want magic to be at least partially tied down to a scientific study, I wouldn't imagine an individual capable of destroying the world. For cities, it'd likely have to be a small one. Humans have limits, and as such human mages also have limits. All three. Here in the US you would likely get all three in one country. The average person would probably fear them, some would find them fascinating, elevating them to the level of super-stars, 'scientists' would want to study them, and governments would want to control them and use them as a threat or worse. Re the answers: since they've existed historically I'd say that puts them in a different light. Mages aren't going to be in competition with governments: historically they've been governments or a major part of the power base of governments. But no dynasties since it doesn't run in families. If it did then mages would be the dominant group with almost all royal families being very magical. In fact I can imagine that history would look very different. Before the invention of guns/sniper rifles mages would have been the dominant force in any war. Since it's totally random and 99% of the population would have been dirt poor every generation almost all of the most powerful people in the world would would have risen from poverty to the heights of power. Any nobility that abused the poor would be facing a new ruler who had been born in poverty within a few decades. Social mobility is going to look quite different and there's unlikely to have been a history of long-term royal lines. Indeed such a world is likely to have been far more egalitarian out of practical and justified fear, any big country is going to produce a few mages and most will be born the children of peasants. For stability it's likely that mages will seek out others like themselves to form some kind of guild in order to get some kind of continuity of power and to make sure their grandkids aren't slaughtered by the next generation of mages. 2 and 3 are certain though whether mages are the ones controlling it is uncertain. Finding mages at a young age when they can still be indoctrinated will have become part of the culture but they'll have been scooped out of the regular population so predictably that social views towards them would probably be highly negative. A countries mages are likely to be viewed as a major military asset but if they've been part of the system for many centuries they're likely to have status as well. Also there will be a lot of chicken mages. Worldwide over 50 billion chickens bred every year so that well over 50,000 chicken-mages. If their power can be tapped it will be. A civilised society would probably become a mix of scared, angered, confused, curious, interested and intrigued. Here are the reasons for each of these: Scared/angered because this magic could easily be misused (depending on how destructive this feat of magic was). Confused/curious/interested because of what just happened (depending on what exactly happened though). Intrigued because of the abnormality of what just happened (depending on how dramatic this magic was). Another thing that would probably happen is if the police equivalent in your society (assuming there is a police equivalent) are there during the feat there will probably be actions taken to restrict the person who did the magic (again depending on how dramatic and how destructive this magic was) to ensure safety of the public. What exactly would happen to the person after that would mostly depend on what sort of police exists in your society (are the police more aggressive and brutal or are they more calm), how dramatic and destructive this magical feat was and what the witnesses say as well as the "magic guy"'s attitude/reaction towards the police. If the police weren't there at the time but were notified about it by a decent amount of people then an investigation would probably take place. If the police are ultra brutal and aggressive then they might take a much more direct approach like searching for this person house by house. I can't be too specific because a lot of this depends on the type of society it is and specifics but hopefully this narrows it down a bit. EDIT: I replied before you editted the question to include the three different thoughts. First of all, 1:750k isn't super-rare. Europe has almost 750 million people currently. So there would be around a thousand of your mages in Europe alone, and ten times as many globally. That is more than enough to form their own society, organisations, maybe even small country. The answers to your question depend a lot on whether or not this happens. You evade the question with your answer 2, but it is absolutely vital to the entire concept. If they don't form a guild, the governments of the world have more than enough means to control them. Some would use positive reinforcement (honours, loyalty, etc.) some would use soft pressure (prejudices in society, cultural taboos), some hard pressure (laws, regulations, punishments) and some suppression (jail, execution). Society would react much like it does to anything else. Drugs, climate change, disasters, new technology - with a variety of responses. If the mages cooperate and form an organisation, they can free themselves from outside influence. They would become a player in global politics instead of pawns - with all the opportunities and risks associated. If they have a physical location, they need to be ready for war. Someone will want to fight them, for religious or other reasons. If they don't have a physical location, they will be in the place of other international organisations, and can potentially be restrained by laws or sanctions. Many possibilities are discussed in the TV Tropes page for "Super Registration Act": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperRegistrationAct . One particular one which seems likely to me is that mages would not be explicitly forbidden to use their magic, but would be so tightly regulated that magic use became next to impossible in practice. You'd have to submit an application in triplicate three months in advance before you cured a wart. A good effect of this from the government's point of view would be that mages would be willing to join the government research programme or the army simply to get a chance to use their powers - without the government having to introduce conscription, or fend off civil rights lawyers. How would magic affect the subjects taught in school?

https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/15491/how-would-a-civilized-society-react-to-extremely-rare-mages

The task is for a small group to count to ten, collectively, without any two people saying a number at the same time and with no verbal planning. The group will need to cooperate and focus in order to be successful. Ask your group to form a circle. Your group will count to the same number as there are people in the group so that everyone is responsible for one number. Example: There are ten people in a group, they will count to ten, 23 people then have them count to 23 together. The timing of this activity will depend heavily on the size of your group. Groups of 10-15 people will take 10-20 minutes. You should allot larger groups 20-30 minutes. Explain that no talking or planning is allowed. The task is for the group to count (to the number determined above) collectively without any two people saying a number at the same time. For example, one person starts by shouting “one,” and another person shouts “two” and so on. Each number must be called out clearly by one person, and no one else may talk when a number is called. When two or more people speak simultaneously, the entire group starts back at zero. For example, if two people call out “five,” the group restarts. Every member must say a number. The group must work out an informal solution to accomplish this task. Facilitator Note: It may take awhile but group members will work out creative solutions together! If your group is successful try a larger number. If you have a large group, split them up into smaller groups to start and then bring them together to try with more people. Have them turn their backs to the inside of the circle to make the communication even more difficult.

https://leadershipinspirations.com/2018/02/25/zen-counting/

A recycling themed bowling alley in a wheelie bin! Pins represent recyclable materials. The task to knock them out of the waste stream. Players bowl at the pins situated in the mouth of a wheelie bin along a short 'alley'. The game includes a scoring system enabling two players to compete; and an automatic ball return system. Bin Strike Bowling can be used as part of wider installation - The Earth Arcade - an environmentally themed games arcade.

http://www.stickyexhibits.co.uk/page.cfm?pageid=se-binstrike

She deserves an award just for surviving bad theatre; Mark Blankenship is rooting for her. Every November and December, as I get sucked into the blackhole of watching cheesy holiday tv movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel, I'm reminded of just how far Chlumsky has grown in these last few years on "Veep". She stars or costars in at least 4 of these cheeseball Xmas movies that they replay annually on a loop. The early 00s were not good years career-wise, but she's now one of my favorite parts about "Veep". And on a shallow note, Anna Chlumsky looked damn hot on the 2014 Emmy red carpet! I don't watch Veep, but she was so good on Hannibal as Miriam Lass. I knew exactly who she was (who could forget, "Put on his glasses!!!"), and was surprised at how composed and great she did in the role. Anna has been absolutely incredible, as Amy Brookheimer. So, so funny, but also being able to convey depth and even some sympathy, despite her character's general heartlessness. It's not just the cutting dialogue, but the physical comedy, the facial expressions, the tiptoeing around Selina's sharp edges and coddling of her boss, the fact that she's always 'on', even when the scene is about someone else. She's really great. I'd only seen her in a couple of small roles, as an adult, before I saw In The Loop, and thought she was very solid in that, not at all out of place with Armando Ianucci's style of humour. But on Veep, she's been the second MVP behind JLD, in my view. I have no interest in awards, or the mixture of politicking and thoughtless 'I know that name best, that's the winner' voting, but I think she deserves a lot more recognition than she's received, for the work she's done. @kat Your point about the Christmas movies is well taken. Another sign Chlumsky worked to grow from a naturally charismatic child actor into an adult performed with real chops. Like I said, I really respect that. She is amazing and I have loved witnessing this career rebirth. The Emmy should have been hers, dammit! As the Veep cast has grown, some of the original cast are getting less screen time. Anna Chlumsky seemed a little squeezed out this past season. No longer chief of staff or campaign manager (after the election), she was around monstly to put out fires for Selena. I wonder if Selena goes back to the VP position if Amy will again be her Chief of Staff. I'd like to see Anna's screentime increase next season. I love her interactions between Dan and Gary. I've been complaining about the lack of screen time for Amy, Dan, Gary & Sue especially. All the core cast save Selena and Jonah were squeezed of screen time quite a bit this season. And my least favorite character got a big bump of focus - Catherine. I was wondering which episode would Anna Chlumsky even use for her Emmy submission because she hasn't had much to do. Hopefully the finale will have something great of Amy but realistically based on how the season has gone I doubt it. I think her problems is that she is too good. A lot of people probably think she is just playing an exaggerated version of herself. It also probably means Emmy voters are idiots. She is definitely underrated, and doesn't get enough credit for her great work on this show. Maybe Anna's "someday" winning an Emmy will be tonight! I would love to see her win, she would be so adorably emotional. I kind of doubt it will happen but the category doesn't seem to have a favorite so the odds are fairly equal for all nominees. As a non-fan of Season 5 I am rooting for another show to win for Best Comedy. I don't even care which one. I am being petty and vindictive towards my once favorite comedy show. I won't forgive David H. Mandel for turning some of the best characters ever into one-note caricatures of themselves. But I am rooting for all the cast nominees to win. Except maybe Julia although she deserves to win it is nice to spread these prizes around a little.

https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/13683-maybe-someday-anna-chlumsky-will-win-an-emmy/

Is there any way I can re-install win 98, or Win XP from the upgrade disk? I installed a new hard drive and am trying to set up windows 98 SE from the upgrade disk that I have. windows 98 oringinally came on the computer so I do not have the original Windows 98 disk. When I start set up I get the message that this can not be run from MS Dos and must be run from Windows. Is there any way I can re-install win 98, or Win XP from the upgrade disk? I'm not sure if you will be able to use the 98 Upgrade CD to comply with a XP upgrade disk.

https://www.datadoctors.com/help/question/15435-Is-there-any-way-I-can-re-install-win-98-or-Win-XP-from-the-upgrade-disk/

Answer true or false to the following italicized statements to see how much you know about B.A.A.'s most recent press trip. The TV show host with whom B.A.A. planned, coordinated and schmoozed for four months lost his passport en route, thus couldn't get into the country. One of the trip attendees aggressively hit on B.A.A. for a solid six hours at a cocktail party, with such lines as, "Your organized emails betray your hotness," and "I already drank everything in my mini-bar." B.A.A. broke her toe unceremoniously and is now sporting another boot. Despite being incredibly excited about bonefishing and deep sea fishing, B.A.A. didn't really do either. B.A.A. spent the first three days of her trip undoing all the plans she'd made for two of her media attendees: cancelling rooms, flights, charter boats, meals, etc. B.A.A. jumped from a 40-ft. cliff into a 600-ft. deep inland blue hole. B.A.A. flew on a teeny tiny plane but found it surprisingly comfortable. B.A.A. lounged on John Travolta's couch. B.A.A. went to a pirate cave in the middle of the night with a lantern and a bottle of rum. If you answered false to any of these questions, you're wrong! Each of these statements is true, and without getting too far into all the gory details, they adequately sum up a sometimes great and sometimes ho-hum press trip. Truthfully, other than the TV show host passport debacle, the aggressive macking that went down Wednesday night and the immensely painful and equally embarrasing toe-breaking incident, the trip was quite lovely. My journalists were some of the best yet - so laid back, smart and fun to be with. I can't praise them enough! The weather was quite nice and the scenery was as beautiful as ever. I can't wait to get back…in August!

http://www.bigappleangie.com/2008/06/press-trip-true-or-false.html

A new Brexit referendum with an option to remain in the EU is "likely", the Labour first minister of Wales has said. Carwyn Jones told Wales' National Assembly that people had "the right to express a view as to whether they wish to leave in circumstances that not one Brexiteer suggested would happen". It follows comments from shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer at Labour's conference in Liverpool today that nobody was ruling out a second referendum with an option to Remain on the ballot paper. In response to a question at first minister's questions from Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Steffan Lewis whether there should "also be a question there asking the people whether or not they wish to remain in the European Union", Jones said: "I think that's likely." He told the Senedd, the Assembly's debating chamber: "I think that there are two possibilities here, are there not? If there's no deal, then it would be 'no deal' or Remain. "If there is a deal, it becomes a bit more complicated, in the sense that it's: 'Do you accept the deal? But, if you don't, what do you want: "no deal" or Remain?' There are ways in which the Electoral Commission, I'm sure, can finesse that referendum. "No-one said it. Everyone said, 'There will be a deal.' That's changed." The first minister, who is standing down later this year, said that he did not like the idea of a second referendum on exactly the same issue. But, he said, "where the circumstances have changed fundamentally, where the promises that were made two years ago have come to nothing, then, at that point, and if there's an inconclusive result in a general election... who knows what parties might put forward in a general election? "There has to come a point where, if there is an impasse, the people have to decide, and they have to be allowed to decide on the basis of what they know now and not on what they were told two years ago, which hasn't happened." It followed a question from Neil Hamilton, the disgraced former Tory minister who now sits as a Ukip AM in the Assembly, who said that Theresa May had "badly bungled the negotiations with Brussels". He added that "Jeremy Corbyn, with whom I marched through many lobbies voting against EU legislation over the years, seems to be sitting on the fence". Jones said there was "increasing mood music in this chamber and outside that if there is no deal and, therefore, a disaster, it'll be the fault of the Remainers and not the fault of those who gave a pie-in-the-sky analysis two years ago of what the referendum would mean. He said: "We were told it'd be the easiest negotiation ever. It hasn't been. We were told that the EU would fold in the face of the UK's demands. It hasn't done. "We were told that German car manufacturers would ride to the rescue - or drive to the rescue - and would force the German Government to accept a deal in favour of the UK. They haven't done it. "The reality is that the UK is more divided than the EU has been at all in the course of this process." Hamilton was, Jones said, "a member of a party who, for eight years, argued strongly for a second referendum [on the establishment of the Welsh Assembly] after 1997, because they didn't like the result, and went into the 2005 general election on a manifesto of having a second referendum on the existence of the Assembly". He added: "So, there's a certain level of double standards there that has to be recognised." The first minister said that if Parliament rejected any Brexit deal, or no deal, put before it he did, not see any alternative other than a general election, and "in that general election, Brexit would be the only topic, I suspect, of discussion".

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/peoples-vote-with-remain-option-likely-welsh-first-minister-carwyn-jones-1-5710629

Where is Liu Xia, 'free' widow of Chinese Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo? Close friends, and even the artist and poet's lawyer, have not been able to get in touch with her since her husband's funeral. Where is the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo? The Chinese authorities say Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, is a free woman. But when we tried to visit her apartment in Beijing, we were immediately surrounded by security guards, who pushed and shoved our team, yelling at us to "Get out!" One of the men grabbed my hand so hard he broke the skin, leaving the bleeding imprint of his thumbnail behind. They jostled our cameraman, covering his lens with their hands, and ordering him to stop filming and leave. Liu Xia has been held under what amounts to house arrest in this compound since her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Despite never being accused of committing any crime herself, she has lived the last seven years in almost complete isolation, broken only by monthly prison visits, supervised grocery trips, and very occasional brief contact with friends. Her sentence does not appear to have ended with the death of her husband. When I asked the guards whether Liu Xia was at home, and where she was, they claimed ignorance, asking "Which Liu Xia?" and whether we had made an appointment to see her. Then they resumed shouting at us to "get out quickly" as one of the men threatened to confiscate our camera. As we left, we noticed a police car pulling up behind us and following closely until we were out of the area. Liu Xia was last seen in images released by Chinese officials after the death of her husband earlier this month. The photographs show Mrs Liu being comforted by her brother at the funeral and then looking down at the water as her husband's ashes were scattered at sea. But after the pictures were taken, she disappeared. Close friends, and the couple's lawyer, say they are still unable contact her, and believe she remain under the authorities' control. There is a rumour she has been taken to southwest China by police, but wherever she is, she has made no contact with the outside world. Sky News showed the images to Dr Yang Jianli - a long-time friend of the couple, who has spent time in a Chinese prison himself, and now lives in exile in the United States. "This is really heartbreaking," he said quietly as he looked through the photos. He pointed out the close family members by the side of the casket in one image, but could not identify the other supposed mourners looking on. "I don't think any of them is a close friend of the family," Dr Yang said, "I think they are government officials, to be there to make sure everything is under control." He is now desperately worried about Liu Xia, and called for the international community to press China for her immediate release. "This is very urgent. She has been very ill herself, both physically and mentally. She suffered very serious depression and a heart attack a few years ago." "I was so worried and still worry that she would not be able to survive." Dr Yang stressed that Liu Xia was a poet and an artist, who had never sought conflict with the Communist Party. "She is not a fighter, she is a lover," he explained. "She loved her husband fully and was devoted to her husband fully. "She has a very delicate, fragile personality, she is a poet and she would not challenge the authorities, she is not that kind of person." Human Rights Watch has called for her release and Amnesty International has started a 'Free Liu Xia' petition, which states: "especially now that her husband has passed, it's time the Chinese authorities stop cruelly punishing Liu Xia". We put the case to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. "If Liu Xia is a free woman," I asked, "Why can't she speak to her friends or leave China?" "I do not know the information you mentioned, the ministry's spokesman Lu Kang replied, "and this is not a diplomatic question. Next question." My question was later redacted from the official transcript.

https://news.sky.com/story/where-is-free-widow-of-chinese-nobel-winner-10960045

Checks if the input path is a valid path or an empty path. Path you want to check. A Boolean that specifies whether or not the input path is empty or <Not A Path>. True The input path is any value other than <Not A Path> or an empty path. False The input path is <Not A Path> or an empty path.

http://www.ni.com/documentation/en/labview/3.0/node-ref/is-path-and-not-empty/

Is network.exe safe or is this malware? Be aware that many tasks will be similiar names to existing tasks or processes. You can always view the running tasks on your computer by pressing ctrl-alt-del to view the windows "task manager", and then view the "processes" tab. This will show you all tasks running or currently active on your PC. Although this shows you all running tasks, it does not show dll file thats are loaded, as they get loaded as part of other processes. Many spyware writers attempt to hide their files on your computer, for example, network.exe may be intentionally misspelled to look like a similiar task, or spyware may be named very similiar to a Windows system task. The reason they do this is so you cannot easily recognize the name in your tasklist as I have mentioned above. Make sure always check the location of the file if you are concerned. You can always find the location of network.exe on your computer by using your Windows search options, but I will also try to list the file location of every file described on this website, so you can verify the correct location. You can view the entire tasklist directory with the link below.

http://www.justtext.com/processes-tasks/network-exe.html

1) Preheat the oven to 175℃. Lightly brush loaf tine with some cooking spray. 2) Cut bread into cubes and combine with olive oil, diced green apples, raisins, and cinnamon; mix well, and transfer to loaf tin. 3) In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs till bubbles form on surface. Stir in raw sugar, milk, apple juice, and vanilla extract. 4) Pour mixture over the bread mix into the loaf tin. Using a fork, lightly push down the bread until it soaks up the egg mixture. Let it sit for 5 mins for bread to fully absorb the egg mixture. 5) Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Make sure that the top springs back when lightly tapped. 6) Serve with a scoop of low-fat vanilla ice-cream while the pudding is warm.

https://www.thehomelook.com/cocoon/tastebuds/tastebuds-11.php

Please tell the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society that elephants do NOT belong in captivity and it is time to send their elephants to a sanctuary. The Bronx Zoo currently houses three elephants: Patty, Maxine and Happy. However, you only see two elephants on display. Where's the third? Driven mad by their captivity, Patty and Maxine killed Grumpy, a male companion to Happy, one of the Bronx Zoo's best held secrets. Grumpy was the same age as Happy and captured the same year as she, meaning he was probably a brother, cousin or other close relative (Brad Hamilton, New York Post). They were constant companions throughout their zoo-hopping lives before landing at the Bronx Zoo in 1977. After Grumpy's untimely death as a result of attacks from Patty and Maxine, Happy was removed from the exhibit and put in solitary in 2002. Happy is one of the world's most famous elephants for proving elephants have self-awareness. After being captured from the wilds of Thailand, she has spent the last 37 of her 43 years in the cramped Bronx Zoo, with inadequate room to roam and inadequate companionship. The Detroit Zoo, praised by animal advocates, scientists and behaviorists alike, has retired elephants once housed at their zoo to a sanctuary and now have better attendance in their zoo than ever. The Bronx Zoo has announced it would close its elephant exhibit after the remaining three elephants have died, but it cannot come soon enough for these very social creatures. Tell the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society that it is time to honor their commitment to animal welfare and close their elephant exhibit, sending Patty, Maxine, and Happy to a sanctuary.

http://www.humanelongisland.org/bronxthree

President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee, William Barr, has said he will allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller to finish the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday. Graham told reporters Barr assured him the investigation would continue. "I can assure you he has a very high opinion of Mr Mueller and he is committed to letting Mr Mueller finish his job," Graham said. 'I can assure you he has a very high opinion of Mr. Mueller and he is committed to letting Mr. Mueller finish his job,' Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters.

https://www.wionews.com/world/trumps-new-attorney-general-will-let-robert-mueller-finish-russia-probe-senator-189282

Save me from myself. My friend Jeff is selling his 1989 BMW 750iL. He's been talking about doing it for a year or so, but couldn't bear to part with it. Now he's serious. I've lusted after this car for as long as he's owned it. I want to own it. When new, this car sold for over $70,000.00. In 2009, with dollars adjusted for inflation, this car would be pushing $100,000.00+. Not a lightweight car, it is still able to reach 60 MPH in 7.4 seconds. It featured every possible convenience and comfort feature you could imagine in 1989. Jeff's car has 214,000 miles on it (maybe a few more as he's is still driving it). It's starting to show its age. There is a bit of rust on the door bottoms, the headliner is starting to droop and two cracks recently appeared in the dash. It's not a show car, but a really fun driver. Mechanically, what can I say? Jeff is, without a doubt, the best foreign car mechanic I've ever met. He's treated this car the same way he's treated his Ferrari, BMW 5 Series and Land Rover. Preventive maintenance is his thing. (Which often gets us into a few arguments when he works on my cars... Me: "Jeff! It's not broken, why replace it?" Jeff: "It's going to break sometime, we might as well replace it now.") The oil and filter have been changed every 3,000 miles and Jeff has a spreadsheet showing every repair he's done (Of course he does - he has a spread sheet on every car he's worked on, including mine, friends of mine - cars he may have only seen once or twice - and, of course, customer's cars.) and a folder of every receipt for every part. The car had around 130,000 miles on it when Jeff bought it. The amount of work and parts he's put into it (including replacing the troublesome and expensive transmission) is mind boggling. The car uses about a quart of oil every 1000 miles or so, which is not too bad for a car with 214,000 miles on it. The A/C needs a charge, which Jeff is doing this weekend. Other than that, there's nothing wrong with this car. Jeff claims he can get 20MPG on the highway and 13 or 14 MPG around town. I never hit those numbers when I drove it, but I wasn't exactly driving it gingerly. So, here's the reality of this car. It has 214,000 miles on it. It won't last forever, but there's still plenty of life left it it. I can't think of another V12 that you can buy for $3500.00 (A ratty Jaguar XJS, maybe, but old Jags, while fun, are not as well built as a BMW). I also seriously doubt you'll ever be able to find a another relatively inexpensive V12 BMW that has been better maintained than this one. E-mail me if you're interested in this car and I'll put you in touch with Jeff. If you buy this or any E32 BMW, check out Johan & Sean's E32 Page. It has tons of information regarding repair and maintenance of the 7 Series. Yes, this is a friend's car, but Jeff did not ask me to write this post. The other night, over big drinks and tiny hotdogs at a place called Teo's in Pittsfield, MA, Jeff mentioned that he was finally serious about selling it. I asked him if I could write about it prior to him putting it on Craigslist or eBay. I thought it would be cool to use this car, one I'm very familiar with and really like, as my first "exclusive". If Jeff had decided to sell this car two years ago, when the economy and the music industry were doing better, it would be in my driveway today and I'd have written a post at some point about my BMW 750iL. As it is, I'm still very, very, tempted to buy this car. makes as it drops down a gear and rockets to license loosing speeds.

https://www.justacargeek.com/2009/05/jeffs-1989-bmw-750il-for-sale-listed.html

Both geometrical (cis-, trans-) isomers for can exist. Also, optical isomers for cis-isomer exist. (ii) Two optical isomers for exist. Give evidence that [Co(NH3)5Cl]SO4 and [Co(NH3)5SO4]Cl are ionization isomers. planar structure is diamagnetic and the [NiCl4]2− ion with tetrahedral geometry is paramagnetic. There are 4 CN− ions. Thus, it can either have a tetrahedral geometry or square planar geometry. Since CN− ion is a strong field ligand, it causes the pairing of unpaired 3d electrons. In case of [NiCl4]2−, Cl− ion is a weak field ligand. Therefore, it does not lead to the pairing of unpaired 3d electrons. Therefore, it undergoes sp3 hybridization. [NiCl4]2− is paramagnetic while [Ni(CO)4] is diamagnetic though both are tetrahedral. Why? Though both [NiCl4]2− and [Ni(CO)4] are tetrahedral, their magnetic characters are different. This is due to a difference in the nature of ligands. Cl− is a weak field ligand and it does not cause the pairing of unpaired 3d electrons. Hence, [NiCl4]2− is paramagnetic. [Fe(H2O)6]3+ is strongly paramagnetic whereas [Fe(CN)6]3− is weakly paramagnetic. Explain. In both and , Fe exists in the +3 oxidation state i.e., in d5 configuration. Since CN− is a strong field ligand, it causes the pairing of unpaired electrons. Therefore, there is only one unpaired electron left in the d-orbital. Thus, it is evident that is strongly paramagnetic, while is weakly paramagnetic. Explain [Co(NH3)6]3+ is an inner orbital complex whereas [Ni(NH3)6]2+ is an outer orbital complex. Predict the number of unpaired electrons in the square planar [Pt(CN)4]2− ion. The hexaquo manganese(II) ion contains five unpaired electrons, while the hexacyanoion contains only one unpaired electron. Explain using Crystal Field Theory. The crystal field is octahedral. Water is a weak field ligand. Therefore, the arrangement of the electrons in is t2g3eg2. The crystal field is octahedral. Cyanide is a strong field ligand. Therefore, the arrangement of the electrons in isT2g5eg0. Calculate the overall complex dissociation equilibrium constant for the Cu(NH3)42+ ion, given that β4 for this complex is 2.1 × 1013. The overall complex dissociation equilibrium constant is the reciprocal of the overall stability constant, β4. Explain the bonding in coordination compounds in terms of Werner’s postulates. FeSO4 solution mixed with (NH4)2SO4 solution in 1:1 molar ratio gives the test of Fe2+ ion but CuSO4 solution mixed with aqueous ammonia in 1:4 molar ratio does not give the test of Cu2+ ion. Explain why? Both the compounds i.e., and fall under the category of addition compounds with only one major difference i.e., the former is an example of a double salt, while the latter is a coordination compound. A double salt is an addition compound that is stable in the solid state but that which breaks up into its constituent ions in the dissolved state. These compounds exhibit individual properties of their constituents. For e.g. breaks into Fe2+, NH4+, and SO42− ions. Hence, it gives a positive test for Fe2+ ions. Explain with two examples each of the following: coordination entity, ligand, coordination number, coordination polyhedron, homoleptic and heteroleptic. The neutral molecules or negatively charged ions that surround the metal atom in a coordination entity or a coordinal complex are known as ligands. For example, , Cl−, −OH. Ligands are usually polar in nature and possess at least one unshared pair of valence electrons. What is meant by unidentate, didentate and ambidentate ligands? Give two examples for each. (a) Unidentate ligands: Ligands with only one donor sites are called unidentate ligands. For e.g., , Cl− etc. The charge on the complex is −2. List various types of isomerism possible for coordination compounds, giving an example of each. How many geometrical isomers are possible in the following coordination entities? (i) For [Cr(C2O4)3]3−, no geometric isomer is possible as it is a bidentate ligand. Optical isomerism Since only cis isomer is optically active, it shows optical isomerism. In total, three isomers are possible. Write all the geometrical isomers of [Pt(NH3)(Br)(Cl)(py)] and how many of these will exhibit optical isomers? In both these cases, the weak field ligand water is replaced by the F− and Cl− ions. What is the coordination entity formed when excess of aqueous KCN is added to an aqueous solution of copper sulphate? Why is it that no precipitate of copper sulphide is obtained when H2S(g) is passed through this solution? Thus, the coordination entity formed in the process is K2[Cu(CN)4]. is a very stable complex, which does not ionize to give Cu2+ ions when added to water. Hence, Cu2+ ions are not precipitated when H2S(g) is passed through the solution. As CN− is a strong field ligand, it causes the pairing of the unpaired 3d electrons. 6 electron pairs from CN− ions occupy the six hybrid d2sp3orbitals. There are 6 F− ions. Thus, it will undergo d2sp3 or sp3d2 hybridization. As F− is a weak field ligand, it does not cause the pairing of the electrons in the 3d orbital. Hence, the most feasible hybridization is sp3d2. Hence, the geometry of the complex is octahedral and paramagnetic. Draw figure to show the splitting of d orbitals in an octahedral crystal field. The splitting of the d orbitals in an octahedral field takes palce in such a way that , experience a rise in energy and form the eg level, while dxy, dyzand dzx experience a fall in energy and form the t2g level. What is spectrochemical series? Explain the difference between a weak field ligand and a strong field ligand. What is crystal field splitting energy? How does the magnitude of Δo decide the actual configuration of d-orbitals in a coordination entity? [Cr(NH3)6]3+ is paramagnetic while [Ni(CN)4]2− is diamagnetic. Explain why? In [Ni(CN)4]2−, Ni exists in the +2 oxidation state i.e., d8 configuration. CN− is a strong field ligand. It causes the pairing of the 3d orbital electrons. Then, Ni2+ undergoes dsp2 hybridization. A solution of [Ni(H2O)6]2+ is green but a solution of [Ni(CN)4]2− is colourless. Explain. In [Ni(H2O)6]2+, is a weak field ligand. Therefore, there are unpaired electrons in Ni2+. In this complex, the d electrons from the lower energy level can be excited to the higher energy level i.e., the possibility of d−d transition is present. Hence, Ni(H2O)6]2+ is coloured. In [Ni(CN)4]2−, the electrons are all paired as CN– is a strong field ligand. Therefore, d-d transition is not possible in [Ni(CN)4]2−. Hence, it is colourless. [Fe(CN)6]4− and [Fe(H2O)6]2+ are of different colours in dilute solutions. Why? The colour of a particular coordination compound depends on the magnitude of the crystal-field splitting energy, Δ. This CFSE in turn depends on the nature of the ligand. In case of [Fe(CN)6]4− and [Fe(H2O)6]2+, the colour differs because there is a difference in the CFSE. Now, CN− is a strong field ligand having a higher CFSE value as compared to the CFSE value of water. This means that the absorption of energy for the intra d-d transition also differs. Hence, the transmitted colour also differs. Discuss the nature of bonding in metal carbonyls. The metal-carbon bonds in metal carbonyls have both σ and π characters. A σ bond is formed when the carbonyl carbon donates a lone pair of electrons to the vacant orbital of the metal. A π bond is formed by the donation of a pair of electrons from the filled metal d orbital into the vacant anti-bonding π* orbital (also known as back bonding of the carbonyl group). The σ bond strengthens the π bond and vice-versa. Thus, a synergic effect is created due to this metal-ligand bonding. This synergic effect strengthens the bond between CO and the metal. The d orbital occupation for Co3+ is t2g6eg0. What is meant by stability of a coordination compound in solution? State the factors which govern stability of complexes. What is meant by the chelate effect? Give an example. How many ions are produced from the complex Co(NH3)6Cl2 in solution? Thus, [Co(NH3)6]+ along with two Cl− ions are produced. Amongst the following ions which one has the highest magnetic moment value? Therefore, the complex can be written as K+[Co(CO)4]−. Therefore, the oxidation number of Co in the given complex is −1. Hence, option (iii) is correct. We know that the stability of a complex increases by chelation. Therefore, the most stable complex is [Fe(C2O4)3]3−.

https://www.freencertsolutions.com/ncert-solutions-for-class-12-chemistry-chapter-9-coordination-compounds/

How does a company demonstrate the implementation of PQS in accordance with ICH? ICH Q10 was published in its final version already in 2008. However, today many companies still have problems to understand how to implement ICH Q10 "Pharmaceutical Quality System" in practice. Quality Assurance and GMP are basic requirements which have been implemented for many years in the pharmaceutical industry (including the API industry). So what is needed to demonstrate that a Pharmaceutical Quality System has been implemented? ICH offers a set of questions and answers which provide more details about the expectations. They were published in 2009 already but are not well-known by the industry. ICH writes: "When implemented, a company will demonstrate the use of an effective PQS through its documentation (e.g., policies, standards), its processes, its training/qualification, its management, its continual improvement efforts, and its performance against pre-defined key performance indicators (see ICH Q10 glossary on performance indicator). A mechanism should be established to demonstrate at a site how the PQS operates across the product lifecycle, in an easily understandable way for management, staff, and regulatory inspectors, e.g., a quality manual, documentation, flowcharts, procedures. Companies can implement a program in which the PQS is routinely audited in-house (i.e., internal audit program) to ensure that the system is functioning at a high level." The questions and answers document also states that there is no certification program in place for a Pharmaceutical Quality System. In addition, ICH provides information about how product-related inspections will differ in an ICH Q8, Q9 and Q10 environment. ICH writes: "In the case of product-related inspection (in particular, preauthorization) depending on the complexity of the product and/or process, greater collaboration between inspectors and assessors could be helpful (for example, for the assessment of development data). The inspection would normally occur at the proposed commercial manufacturing site, and there is likely to be greater focus on enhanced process understanding and understanding relationships, e.g., critical quality attributes (CQAs), critical process parameters (CPPs). The inspection might also focus on the application and implementation of quality risk management principles, as supported by the pharmaceutical quality system (PQS)." In addition to ICH, regulatory authorities also provide further information. The British Authority MHRA, for example, answers the question: Should a company have a procedure to describe how it approaches QRM related to manufacture and GMP? The answer is: "Yes, the procedure should be integrated with the quality system and apply to planned and unplanned risk assessments. It is an expectation of Chapter 1 that companies embody quality risk management. The standard operating procedure (SOP) should define how the management system operates and its general approach to both planned and unplanned risk management. It should include scope, responsibilities, controls, approvals, management systems, applicability, and exclusions." The ECA Academy summarised the most relevant questions and answers from regulators like ICH, EMA, FDA etc in a GMP Questions & Answers Guide which allows readers of the document to search for certain GMP questions. A subject index at the beginning of the document lists the most frequent searched terms.

https://www.gmp-compliance.org/gmp-news/how-does-a-company-demonstrate-the-implementation-of-pqs-in-accordance-with-ich

Jacob Abernethy and I have found a computationally tractable method for computing an optimal (or near optimal depending on setting) master algorithm combining expert predictions addressing this open problem. A draft is here. Some extra details: The algorithm is optimal given a small amount of side information (k in the draft). What is the best way to remove this side information? The removal is necessary for a practical algorithm. One mechanism may be the k->infinity limit.

http://hunch.net/?p=84

Open Houses on the Outer Banks - To Do or Not to Do? I will hold Open Houses - and I do them on a case by case basis. An agent should not refuse an open house to a client that is requesting that they do it - especially if the agent states in their marketing plan that they will do an open house. On the other hand; I've had several clients that did not want their home held open - they felt that the serious buyers would already have a "Buyer's Agent" that would show the home to them if it fit their needs. Having random people just walk into an open home where they don't know any details about it or even the listing price - is really not in the best interest of the seller. Especially in large cities where the open house could be used by a thief to case out your home. Quite honestly, an Open House serves the Realtor more than the seller - it's a great way to generate leads, meet new people, and market the agents name to new potential clients. In the remote chance that the walk-in wants to actually make an offer on the home - then that's just a huge bonus. Home Seller's need to understand this and keep their expectations in check. As an aside; Open Houses tend to work best in new home communities were buyers come to that community because they are familiar with it and with the home prices in that community. Having worked many years in model homes it was quite often where a buyer would walk in to the model - and make an offer on that home - that day. Bottom line - If I say I will do an open house and you ask me to do it - I will definitely do it. Every market and community is different - so the results will be different. I prefer having open houses for listings that are very visible and in high traffic areas. Bottom line - If I say I will do an open house and you ask me to do it - I will definitely do it. Every market and community is different - so the results will be different. I like having open houses for listings that are very visible and in high traffic areas - I will expect to meet some new people and have a successful day.

https://www.outerbanker.com/open-houses-to-do-or-not-to-do

My best friend almost killed herself. She's the one person I can tell anything to, the one person I would do anything for. She texted me at 10:30 on Tuesday morning while I was in lunch at school. I have never been the kind of person who breaks down, but when she told me she wanted to end her life I saw my heart break in two. How could I deal with this? If she were to end her life I would not know what to do with myself. She means the very world to me. How did I deal with this? At first, I cried till I couldn't breathe, then I cried till I couldn't breathe or see. I continued to cry till there was nothing left. But as I cried I told her how I felt about her, how much I loved her, and how much she meant to me. About two months ago I made my best friend promise me if we were not married by the age of thirty we would marry each other so we would not die alone. I felt like the one person who was never going to let me be alone was giving up on life and was deserting me, so I was mad, sad, hurt, and most of all, scared. I told her there was no way in hell I'd sit back and let her take her own life, so I gave her two options. She could either want help or she would get help. So either way I was not going to lose her. I had 911 pushed in my phone ready to go at any moment. Then she texted me and said, "How can I get help? I don't want to live like this, but I sure can't give up." So after I got out of school I picked her up and we talked for quite some time. When we got to the emergency room at 4:42 PM she signed the paper and we waited to be called. We were the first to be seen since her life was in danger. We got in there and faced our first set of problems - she's 17 and had no parent with her. At first they tried telling me there was nothing they could do, so I told them we were not moving till they agreed to help her. After almost thirty minutes of talking to other nurses and head shift leaders they decided her life was more important than the law. They also thought of a way around it - they called her mom and told her because she was in imminent danger it was legal. After she got a bed, about two seconds later, a doctor came up and started asking questions. The first question was did she have a plan? (Mind you, I had not asked her this question because I knew, and I didn't want to hear the answer or the plan.) She answered, "Yes, I do. Take a handful of pills and go to sleep and pray I never wake up." At that moment I had heard the thing that would kill me, but I knew if I broke down it would hurt her, so I had to stay calm. How? Her feelings were more important at that time than mine. It was about her, not me, and I couldn't cause her any more pain. They called a psych unit. It took them four hours to get the paperwork done and another thirty minutes to get there to transport her. It was hard to watch my best friend leave when all I wanted to do was hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. My best friend is now in the hospital getting better. They are expecting her to get out on Monday or Tuesday, depending on her response to treatment. About every nine minutes someone dies of suicide; every ten minutes someone has to deal with it. It's never easy to help someone who is suicidal, but it sure is worth it. I met her my freshman year. (I'm currently a junior.) She was quiet, shy, and weird. I am not and never will be quiet or shy. One day I decided she could no longer be quiet. Boy, was that a mistake! Once I got her talking I haven't gotten her to stop since. All I did was ask for a piece of paper and I wrote, "What's up", and she said, "Doing my work." I never thought we would become the best of friends. I have so many great memories that I never get to just think about, and now I can't stop thinking about them. One night we got really bored. It was about 8:30, and she, our other friend, and I decided it was a nice time for a walk. Her mom said, "Be back by 11:30." We got back at 1:30. Between 8:30 and 1:30 we walked and talked and even laid in someone's driveway while looking at stars. We got back to her house and got blankets and fell asleep outside. At about 4:30 she woke me up and told me our friend had woken up and gone inside without us. We walked inside and saw our friend sprawled out on the bed. We picked her up and placed her on the floor and we went to sleep on the bed. This is my favorite memory because it was the first night she and I were one hundred percent real with each other.

http://sweetdesignsmagazine.com/200903lostbestfriend.php

Developers are always looking for, and sometimes making, the next tool that will simplify or eliminate steps in building an application. Abstractions are necessary for eliminating tedious and time consuming tasks. Cloud computing has proved to be a great tool for this. It simplifies the process of application development and deployment with higher level service capabilities. Miko Matsumura, deputy CTO of Software AG, explains how cloud computing will impact the future of software development in this exclusive interview with DZone. DZone: What role does the virtualization of cloud computing play in the development and deployment of applications? Miko Matsumura: Virtualization is a tremendous enablement technology for developers - it allows a huge network of computers to appear identical to that of the developer's personal computer and therefore provides the most developer-friendly abstraction layer for deployment that you can imagine - the deployment configuration simply goes away. In reality it doesn't "go away" but the infrastructure, whether outsourced or not, takes advantage of elastic scalability to provide seamless and potentially a very high ceiling to scaling performance. DZone: People are always afraid of where their data is and who has access in the cloud. What are the risks (security or otherwise) of Cloud Computing? Miko: Cloud computing like anything comes with a unique set of risks - but if I were to point to one that is most likely to be missed by present day best practices it would be the combination of low upfront cost with high elasticity and a very high ceiling on scalability. This means that it's easy for cloud apps to come into the Enterprise in "stealth mode" because they can start out very small. Because of elasticity and high upper bound scalability, there's a potential for cloud apps to grow much more massively than the previous generation of apps. So the disruptive power of cloud is much higher. People have always been bad at understanding the implications of exponential growth, and here's a platform designed to do exactly that. DZone: Envision for me a future where Cloud Computing is used everywhere. Is such a future possible or likely? What do you think the future holds for Cloud Computing? Miko: In a ubiquitous cloud computing future scenario, IT capabilities are outsourced on a massive scale into the cloud. I believe this future is not only likely but inevitable. However, the core function of Enterprise IT will remain to leverage both outsourced commodity functions as well as preserving IT functions that help the organization provide competitively differentiated services themselves. This will require a way of governing and composing a portfolio of capabilities both on and off-premise. Some would call this competency "SOA", but of course this term is unfashionable at the moment. DZone asked Matsumurua if he had any final thoughts on what cloud computing means for developers. He said that cloud computing is a "wonderful boon" to developers. "It abstracts a lot of what is most tedious about Enterprise development - the intrusive quality of deployment descriptors and clustering code and other such nuisances," explains Matsumura. The centralization of these functions a dramatic improvement, he says, It's a dramatic improvement to centralize these functions. Matsumura said, "Let them be taken care of in the cloud."

https://dzone.com/articles/what-developer-needs-know

1) Preheat the oven to 400C/Gas 6. Grease a 22.5cm square baking pan. 2) In a mixing bowl, combine the corn flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, eggs, oil, orange zest, parsley and chilli until the mixture is smooth. Do not over beat. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. 1) Place the corn bread into the food processor and crumb. 2) Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and cook the garlic and shallot gently for about 30 seconds then add the crumbs, parsley and lemon zest. Season well with salt and pepper and continue to cook over a low heat till the mixture toasts slightly. 3) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease a baking tray. 4) When cool, place the stuffing on top of one side of the fillet placed skin side down on the tray and then put the other fillet on top skin side up. 5) Wrap the salmon with string to hold the stuffing in place and bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve by cutting slices and removing the string.

http://www.foodnetwork.co.uk/recipes/salmon-stuffed-with-orange-corn-bread.html

An arbitrary statement is a statement without reason or justification. It is unsupported by any facts or reasons. Epistemologically, we may accept the validity of a statement for various reasons. The more support we have for the statement, the more likely we are to believe its validity. Arbitrary statements, though, have no support at all. Often the arbitrary statement is absurd. An example of an arbitrary statement is claiming the possibility that all blue objects will turn green after a particular date. These absurd statements are usually softened by asking whether it is at least possible. In this way, the speaker tries to gain some legitimacy be referring to reality in judging whether the statement is known to contradict reality. This appearance of legitimacy is fake. The statement has no support from reality and therefore it doesn't need to be contradicted in order to be dismissed. The proper response to any arbitrary statement is to treat it for what it is: a statement made without any factual support or reason. Not all arbitrary statements are absurd; some might conform to possibilities we accept. If someone stated that there was alien life on a specific planet, it wouldn't necessarily be absurd. We may accept that, given our knowledge of life, it certainly is possible elsewhere. The statement could be true, since it conforms to our knowledge, and we may have reason to believe it exists on some planet. It's arbitrary because someone specified a specific planet, without reason or facts to support it. People sometimes insist that you disprove one of their arbitrary statements; logically, this is flawed. The burden of proof is on those that make a claim. One need not and should not attempt to disprove arbitrary statements. As it is impossible to disprove a negative, attempting to do so leads to accepting any ideas, no matter how arbitrary they are. Since the ideas are groundless, there is no means by which they can be integrated with the rest of one's knowledge. Later, if knowledge is discovered that contradicts the arbitrary idea, the knowledge will be more likely dismissed. The proper response to an arbitrary statement is to ignore it.

http://datapacrat.com/Opinion/Philosophy/Epistemology_Arbitrary.html

He is now a four-time Grammy Award winner, but there was once a time when the superstar singer Ed Sheeran was bullied for having ginger hair. The 28-year-old singer, who recently married his childhood sweetheart Cherry Seaborn, 26, has revealed would cry every day after school after being taunted by his fellow peers for his ginger hair, glasses and a stutter. In spite of his 'odd' and 'quirky' appearance, the musician said it was his differences that finally led to his musical success. During an interview with DJ Nihal and rapper Dave for anti-racism campaign group Love Music Hate Racism, the singer also revealed that it was music that finally brought him confidence and allowed him to fit in. When asked if he felt he was different at school Ed replied: 'Well yeah because I was ginger so I was instantly ripped into from the day I started school. 'Ginger, had a stutter, wore huge glasses, just a bit odd, but then as I got older I kind of loved it. 'I have always looked a little bit quirky and I never had much luck with girls it was always like I looked a bit weird and then when I started playing music every time I would do a gig everyone was like ''oh it's the ginger guy with the small guitar'' and you get remembered for that. Now topping the charts with his global success, Ed described how there was once a time he would cry every day after returning home from primary school. He said: 'I hated primary school with a passion. I would cry every single day. 'And then I got to high school and started playing guitar, I joined a band and music is just one of these things which gives you confidence and you're suddenly like ''wow I can actually do something well'''. 'Before I picked up a guitar I literally did nothing. 'I went to a primary school that was quite sporty and I couldn't play sport and that was it. That was how you were cool. The Perfect hitmaker married partner Cherry just before Christmas last year after the pair began dating in 2015. Almost a year before their engagement was announced, the musician had hinted he was ready to pop the question in an interview on Australia's KIIS FM Kyle and Jackie O show.

https://www.albawaba.com/entertainment/ed-sheehan-reveals-he-was-bullied-school-1270926

One of the best things about the aftermath of the second task was that everybody was very keen to hear details of what had happened down in the lake, which meant that Ron was getting to share Harry's limelight for once. Harry noticed that Ron's version of events changed subtly with every retelling. At first, he gave what seemed to be the truth; it tallied with Hermione's story, anyway - Dumbledore had put all the hostages into a bewitched sleep in Professor McGonagall's office, first assuring them that they would be quite safe, and would awake when they were back above the water. One week later, however, Ron was telling a thrilling tale of kidnap in which he struggled single-handedly against fifty heavily armed merpeople who had to beat him into submission before tying him up. "But I had my wand hidden up my sleeve," he assured Padma Patil, who seemed to be a lot keener on Ron now that he was getting so much attention and was making a point of talking to him every time they passed in the corridors. "I could've taken those mer-idiots any time I wanted. " "What were you going to do, snore at them?" said Hermione waspishly. People had been teasing her so much about being the thing that Viktor Krum would most miss that she was in a rather tetchy mood. Ron's ears went red, and thereafter, he reverted to the bewitched sleep version of events. As they entered March the weather became drier, but cruel winds skinned their hands and faces every time they went out onto the grounds. There were delays in the post because the owls kept being blown off course. The brown owl that Harry had sent to Sirius with the dates of the Hogsmeade weekend turned up at breakfast on Friday morning with half its feathers sticking up the wrong way; Harry had no sooner torn off Sirius's reply than it took flight, clearly afraid it was going to be sent outside again. Sirius's letter was almost as short as the previous one. "He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" said Ron incredulously. "It looks like it, doesn't it?" said Hermione. "I can't believe him," said Harry tensely, "if he's caught. . . " "Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" said Ron. "And it's not like the place is swarming with dementors anymore. " Harry folded up the letter, thinking. If he was honest with himself, he really wanted to see Sirius again. He therefore approached the final lesson of the afternoon - double Potions - feeling considerably more cheerful than he usually did when descending the steps to the dungeons. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing in a huddle outside the classroom door with Pansy Parkinson's gang of Slytherin girls. All of them were looking at something Harry couldn't see and sniggering heartily. Pansys pug-like face peered excitedly around Goyle's broad back as Harry, Ron, and Hermione approached. "There they are, there they are!" she giggled, and the knot of Slytherins broke apart. Harry saw that Pansy had a magazine in her hands - Witch Weekly. The moving picture on the front showed a curly-haired witch who was smiling toothily and pointing at a large sponge cake with her wand. "You might find something to interest you in there, Granger!" Pansy said loudly, and she threw the magazine at Hermione, who caught it, looking startled. At that moment, the dungeon door opened, and Snape beckoned them all inside. Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl. " However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest. "She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it. " "I told you!" Ron hissed at Hermione as she stared down at the article. "I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of- of scarlet woman!" Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. "Scarlet woman?" she repeated, shaking with suppressed giggles as she looked around at Ron. "If that's the best Rita can do, she's losing her touch," said Hermione, still giggling, as she threw Witch Weekly onto the empty chair beside her. "What a pile of old rubbish. " "There's something funny, though," said Hermione ten minutes later, holding her pestle suspended over a bowl of scarab beetles. "How could Rita Skeeter have known. . . ?" "Don't be stupid," Hermione snapped, starting to pound up her beetles again. "No, it's just. . . how did she know Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer?" "What?" said Ron, dropping his pestle with a loud clunk. "He asked me right after he'd pulled me out of the lake. " Hermione muttered. "After he'd got rid of his shark's head. Madam Pomfrey gave us both blankets and then he sort of pulled me away from the judges so they wouldn't hear, and he said, if I wasn't doing anything over the summer, would I like to -" "And he did say he'd never felt the same way about anyone else," Hermione went on, going so red now that Harry could almost feel the heat coming from her, "but how could Rita Skeeter have heard him? She wasn't there. . . or was she? Maybe she has got an Invisibility Cloak; maybe she sneaked onto the grounds to watch the second task. . . . " "Well, I was too busy seeing whether you and Harry were okay to -" "Fascinating though your social life undoubtedly is. Miss Granger," said an icy voice right behind them, and all three of them jumped, "I must ask you not to discuss it in my class. Ten points from Gryffindor. " "Ah. . . reading magazines under the table as well?" Snape added, snatching up the copy of Witch Weekly. "A further ten points from Gryffindor. . . oh but of course. . . " Snape's black eyes glittered as they fell on Rita Skeeter's article. "Potter has to keep up with his press cuttings. . . . " The dungeon rang with the Slytherins' laughter, and an unpleasant smile curled Snape's thin mouth. To Harry's fury, he began to read the article aloud. "'Harry Potter's Secret Heartache. . . dear, dear. Potter, what's ailing you now? 'A boy like no other, perhaps. . . '" "'. . . Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart upon a worthier candidate. ' How very touching," sneered Snape, rolling up the magazine to continued gales of laughter from the Slytherins. "Well, I think I had better separate the three of you, so you can keep your minds on your potions rather than on your tangled love lives. Weasley, you stay here. Miss Granger, over there, beside Miss Parkinson. Potter - that table in front of my desk. Move. Now. " "All this press attention seems to have inflated your already over-large head. Potter," said Snape quietly, once the rest of the class had settled down again. "You might be laboring under the delusion that the entire wizarding world is impressed with you," Snape went on, so quietly that no one else could hear him (Harry continued to pound his scarab beetles, even though he had already reduced them to a very fine powder), "but I don't care how many times your picture appears in the papers. To me. Potter, you are nothing but a nasty little boy who considers rules to be beneath him. " "So I give you fair warning, Potter," Snape continued in a sorter and more dangerous voice, "pint-sized celebrity or not - if I catch you breaking into my office one more time -" "Don't lie to me," Snape hissed, his fathomless black eyes boring into Harry's. "Boomslang skin. Gillyweed. Both come from my private stores, and I know who stole them. " "You were out of bed on the night my office was broken into!" Snape hissed. "I know it. Potter! Now, Mad-Eye Moody might have joined your fan club, but I will not tolerate your behavior! One more nighttime stroll into my office, Potter, and you will pay!" "Right," said Harry coolly, turning back to his ginger roots. "I'll bear that in mind if I ever get the urge to go in there. " "Do you know what this is. Potter?" Snape said, his eyes glittering dangerously again. "No," said Harry, with complete honesty this time. "It is Veritaserum - a Truth Potion so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear," said Snape viciously. "Now, the use of this potion is controlled by very strict Ministry guidelines. But unless you watch your step, you might just find that my hand slips" - he shook the crystal bottle slightly - "right over your evening pumpkin juice. And then. Potter. . . then we'll find out whether you've been in my office or not. " Harry said nothing. He turned back to his ginger roots once more, picked up his knife, and started slicing them again. He didn't like the sound of that Truth Potion at all, nor would he put it past Snape to slip him some. He repressed a shudder at the thought of what might come spilling out of his mouth if Snape did it. . . quite apart from landing a whole lot of people in trouble - Hermione and Dobby for a start - there were all the other things he was concealing. . . like the fact that he was in contact with Sirius. . . and - his insides squirmed at the thought - how he felt about Cho. . . . He tipped his ginger roots into the cauldron too, and wondered whether he ought to take a leaf out of Moody's book and start drinking only from a private hip flask. "Enter," said Snape in his usual voice. "We need to talk," said Karkaroff abruptly when he had reached Snape. He seemed so determined that nobody should hear what he was saying that he was barely opening his lips; it was as though he were a rather poor ventriloquist. Harry kept his eyes on his ginger roots, listening hard. "I'll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff," Snape muttered, but Karkaroff interrupted him. "I want to talk now, while you can't slip off, Severus. You've been avoiding me. " "After the lesson," Snape snapped. "What's so urgent?" he heard Snape hiss at Karkaroff. "This," said Karkaroff, and Harry, peering around the edge of his cauldron, saw Karkaroff pull up the left-hand sleeve of his robe and show Snape something on his inner forearm. "Well?" said Karkaroff, still making every effort not to move his lips. "Do you see? It's never been this clear, never since -" "Put it away!" snarled Snape, his black eyes sweeping the classroom. "But you must have noticed -" Karkaroff began in an agitated voice. "We can talk later, Karkaroff!" spat Snape. "Potter! What are you doing?" "Clearing up my armadillo bile, Professor," said Harry innocently, straightening up and showing Snape the sodden rag he was holding. Harry had never been in this direction before. The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking toward the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then they turned a corner and saw a stile at the end of the lane. Waiting for them, its front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog, which was carrying some newspapers in its mouth and looking very familiar. . . . "Hello, Sirius," said Harry when they had reached him. "Chicken!" he said hoarsely after removing the old Daily Prophets from his mouth and throwing them down onto the cave floor. "Thanks," said Sirius, opening it, grabbing a drumstick, sitting down on the cave floor, and tearing off a large chunk with his teeth. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself. " "What're you doing here, Sirius?" he said. "Fulfilling my duty as godfather," said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretending to be a lovable stray. " He was still grinning, but seeing the anxiety in Harry's face, said more seriously, "I want to be on the spot. Your last letter. . . well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried. " "What if they catch you? What if you're seen?" "You three and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," said Sirius, shrugging, and continuing to devour the chicken leg. Harry scanned the story about Crouch. Phrases jumped out at him: hasn't been seen in public since November. . . house appears deserted. . . St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries decline comment. . . Ministry refuses to confirm rumors of critical illness. . . . "They're making it sound like he's dying," said Harry slowly. "But he can't be that ill if he managed to get up here. . . . " "My brothers Crouch's personal assistant," Ron informed Sirius. "He says Crouch is suffering from overwork. " "Mind you, he did look ill, last time I saw him up close," said Harry slowly, still reading the story. "The night my name came out of the goblet. . . . " "Getting his comeuppance for sacking Winky, isn't he?" said Hermione, an edge to her voice. She was stroking Buckbeak, who was crunching up Sirius's chicken bones. "I bet he wishes he hadn't done it now - bet he feels the difference now she's not there to look after him. " "Hermione's obsessed with house-elfs," Ron muttered to Sirius, casting Hermione a dark look. Sirius, however, looked interested. "Yeah, at the Quidditch World Cup," said Harry, and he launched into the story of the Dark Mark's appearance, and Winky being found with Harry's wand clutched in her hand, and Mr. Crouch's fury. When Harry had finished, Sirius was on his feet again and had started pacing up and down the cave. "Let me get this straight," he said after a while, brandishing a fresh chicken leg. "You first saw the elfin the Top Box. She was saving Crouch a seat, right?" "Right," said Harry, Ron, and Hermione together. "But Crouch didn't turn up for the match?" "No," said Harry. "I think he said he'd been too busy. " Sirius paced all around the cave in silence. Then he said, "Harry, did you check your pockets for your wand after you'd left the Top Box?" "Erm. . . " Harry thought hard. "No," he said finally. "I didn't need to use it before we got in the forest. And then I put my hand in my pocket, and all that was in there were my Omnioculars. " He stared at Sirius. "Are you saying whoever conjured the Mark stole my wand in the Top Box?" "Winky didn't steal that wand!" Hermione insisted. "The elf wasn't the only one in that box," said Sirius, his brow furrowed as he continued to pace. "Who else was sitting behind you?" "Loads of people," said Harry. "Some Bulgarian ministers. . . Cornelius Fudge. . . the Malfoys. . . " "The Malfoys!" said Ron suddenly, so loudly that his voice echoed all around the cave, and Buckbeak tossed his head nervously. "I bet it was Lucius Malfoy!" "Yes, there was, there was Ludo Bagman," Hermione reminded him. "I don't know anything about Bagman except that he used to be Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps," said Sirius, still pacing. "What's he like?" "He's okay," said Harry. "He keeps offering to help me with the Triwizard Tournament. " "Does he, now?" said Sirius, frowning more deeply. "I wonder why he'd do that?" "Says he's taken a liking to me," said Harry. "Hmm," said Sirius, looking thoughtful. "We saw him in the forest just before the Dark Mark appeared," Hermione told Sirius. "Remember?" she said to Harry and Ron. "Yeah, but he didn't stay in the forest, did he?" said Ron. "The moment we told him about the riot, he went off to the campsite. " "How d'you know?" Hermione shot back. "How d'you know where he Disapparated to?" "Come off it," said Ron incredulously. "Are you saying you reckon Ludo Bagman conjured the Dark Mark?" "It's more likely he did it than Winky," said Hermione stubbornly. "Told you," said Ron, looking meaningfully at Sirius, "told you she's obsessed with house -" "When the Dark Mark had been conjured, and the elf had been discovered holding Harry's wand, what did Crouch do?" "Went to look in the bushes," said Harry, "but there wasn't anyone else there. " "Of course," Sirius muttered, pacing up and down, "of course, he'd want to pin it on anyone but his own elf. . . and then he sacked her?" "Yes," said Hermione in a heated voice, "he sacked her, just because she hadn't stayed in her tent and let herself get trampled -" "Hermione, will you give it a rest with the elf!" said Ron. Sirius shook his head and said, "She's got the measure of Crouch better than you have, Ron. If you want to know what a mans like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. " "All these absences of Barty Crouch's. . . he goes to the trouble of making sure his house-elf saves him a seat at the Quidditch World Cup, but doesn't bother to turn up and watch. He works very hard to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament, and then stops coming to that too. . . . It's not like Crouch. If he's ever taken a day off work because of illness before this, I'll eat Buckbeak. " "D'you know Crouch, then?" said Harry. "Oh I know Crouch all right," he said quietly. "He was the one who gave the order for me to be sent to Azkaban - without a trial. " "No, I'm not," said Sirius, taking another great bite of chicken. "Crouch used to be Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, didn't you know?" "He was tipped for the next Minister of Magic," said Sirius. "He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, powerfully magical - and power-hungry. Oh never a Voldemort supporter," he said, reading the look on Harry's face. "No, Barty Crouch was always very outspoken against the Dark Side. But then a lot of people who were against the Dark Side. . . well, you wouldn't understand. . . you're too young. . . . " "That's what my dad said at the World Cup," said Ron, with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Try us, why don't you?" "All right, I'll try you. . . . " He walked once up the cave, back again, and then said, "Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don't know who's working for him and who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able to stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week, news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing. . . the Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere. . . panic. . . confusion. . . that's how it used to be. "Well, times like that bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Crouch's principles might've been good in the beginning - I wouldn't know. He rose quickly through the Ministry, and he started ordering very harsh measures against Voldemort's supporters. The Aurors were given new powers - powers to kill rather than capture, for instance. And I wasn't the only one who was handed straight to the dementors without trial. Crouch fought violence with violence, and authorized the use of the Unforgivable Curses against suspects. I would say he became as ruthless and cruel as many on the Dark Side. He had his supporters, mind you - plenty of people thought he was going about things the right way, and there were a lot of witches and wizards clamoring for him to take over as Minister of Magic. When Voldemort disappeared, it looked like only a matter of time until Crouch got the top job. But then something rather unfortunate happened. . . . " Sirius smiled grimly. "Crouch's own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power. " "Crouch's son was caught?" gasped Hermione. "Yep," said Sirius, throwing his chicken bone to Buckbeak, flinging himself back down on the ground beside the loaf of bread, and tearing it in half. "Nasty little shock for old Barty, I'd I magine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn't he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while. . . gotten to know his own son. " "Was his son a Death Eater?" said Harry. "No idea," said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. "I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I've found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I'd bet my life were Death Eaters - but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf. " "Did Crouch try and get his son off?" Hermione whispered. "Crouch let his son off? I thought you had the measure of him, Hermione! Anything that threatened to tarnish his reputation had to go; he had dedicated his whole life to becoming Minister of Magic. You saw him dismiss a devoted house-elf because she associated him with the Dark Mark again - doesn't that tell you what he's like? Crouch's fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn't much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy. . . then he sent him straight to Azkaban. " "He gave his own son to the dementors?" asked Harry quietly. "That's right," said Sirius, and he didn't look remotely amused now. "I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can't have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though. . . they all went quiet in the end. . . except when they shrieked in their sleep. . . . " "So he's still in Azkaban?" Harry said. "No," said Sirius dully. "No, he's not in there anymore. He died about a year after they brought him in. " "He wasn't the only one," said Sirius bitterly. "Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the dementors could sense it, they got excited. That boy looked pretty sickly when he arrived. Crouch being an important Ministry member, he and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit. That was the last time I saw Barty Crouch, half carrying his wife past my cell. She died herself, apparently, shortly afterward. Grief. Wasted away just like the boy. Crouch never came for his son's body. The dementors buried him outside the fortress; I watched them do it. " "So old Crouch lost it all, just when he thought he had it made," he continued, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "One moment, a hero, poised to become Minister of Magic. . . next, his son dead, his wife dead, the family name dishonored, and, so I've heard since I escaped, a big drop in popularity. Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him. So Cornelius Fudge got the top job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of International Magical Cooperation. " "Moody says Crouch is obsessed with catching Dark wizards," Harry told Sirius. "Yeah, I've heard it's become a bit of a mania with him," said Sirius, nodding. "If you ask me, he still thinks he can bring back the old popularity by catching one more Death Eater. " "And he sneaked up here to search Snape's office!" said Ron triumphantly, looking at Hermione. "Yes, and that doesn't make sense at all," said Sirius. "Yeah, it does!" said Ron excitedly, but Sirius shook his head. "Listen, if Crouch wants to investigate Snape, why hasn't he been coming to judge the tournament? It would be an ideal excuse to make regular visits to Hogwarts and keep an eye on him. " "So you think Snape could be up to something, then?" asked Harry, but Hermione broke in. "Look, I don't care what you say, Dumbledore trusts Snape -" "Oh give it a rest, Hermione," said Ron impatiently. "I know Dumbledores brilliant and everything, but that doesn't mean a really clever Dark wizard couldn't fool him -" "Why did Snape save Harry's life in the first year, then? Why didn't he just let him die?" "I dunno - maybe he thought Dumbledore would kick him out-" "What d'you think, Sirius?" Harry said loudly, and Ron and Hermione stopped bickering to listen. "I think they've both got a point," said Sirius, looking thoughtfully at Ron and Hermione. "Ever since I found out Snape was teaching here, I've wondered why Dumbledore hired him. Snape's always been fascinated by the Dark Arts, he was famous for it at school. Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was," Sirius added, and Harry and Ron grinned at each other. "Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters. " "Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azkaban. Avery - from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large. But as far as I know, Snape was never even accused of being a Death Eater - not that that means much. Plenty of them were never caught. And Snape's certainly clever and cunning enough to keep himself out of trouble. " "Snape knows Karkaroff pretty well, but he wants to keep that quiet," said Ron. "Yeah, you should've seen Snape's face when Karkaroff turned up in Potions yesterday!" said Harry quickly. "Karkaroff wanted to talk to Snape, he says Snape's been avoiding him. Karkaroff looked really worried. He showed Snape something on his arm, but I couldn't see what it was. " He showed Snape something on his arm?" said Sirius, looking frankly bewildered. He ran his fingers distractedly through his filthy hair, then shrugged again. "Well, I've no idea what that's about. . . but if Karkaroff's genuinely worried, and he's going to Snape for answers. . . " "There's still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn't, but I just can't see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he'd ever worked for Voldemort. " "Why are Moody and Crouch so keen to get into Snape's office then?" said Ron stubbornly. "Well," said Sirius slowly, "I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to have searched every single teacher's office when he got to Hogwarts. He takes his Defense Against the Dark Arts seriously, Moody. I'm not sure he trusts anyone at all, and after the things he's seen, it's not surprising. I'll say this for Moody, though, he never killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of the Death Eaters. Crouch, though. . . he's a different matter. . . is he really ill? If he is, why did he make the effort to drag himself up to Snape's office? And if he's not. . . what's he up to? What was he doing at the World Cup that was so important he didn't turn up in the Top Box? What's he been doing while he should have been judging the tournament?" "You say your brother's Crouch's personal assistant? Any chance you could ask him if he's seen Crouch lately?" "I can try," said Ron doubtfully. "Better not make it sound like I reckon Crouch is up to anything dodgy, though. Percy loves Crouch. " "And you might try and find out whether they've got any leads on Bertha Jorkins while you're at it," said Sirius, gesturing to the second copy of the Daily Prophet. "Bagman told me they hadn't," said Harry. "Yes, he's quoted in the article in there," said Sirius, nodding at the paper. "Blustering on about how bad Bertha's memory is. Well, maybe she's changed since I knew her, but the Bertha I knew wasn't forgetful at all - quite the reverse. She was a bit dim, but she had an excellent memory for gossip. It used to get her into a lot of trouble; she never knew when to keep her mouth shut. I can see her being a bit of a liability at the Ministry of Magic. . . maybe that's why Bagman didn't bother to look for her for so long. . . . " "It's half past three," said Hermione. "You'd better get back to school," Sirius said, getting to his feet. "Now listen. . . " He looked particularly hard at Harry. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you. " "No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, but Sirius scowled at him. "I don't care. . . I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?" He handed Harry the empty napkin and flask and went to pat Buckbeak good-bye. "I'll walk to the edge of the village with you," said Sirius, "see if I can scrounge another paper. " "Wonder if Percy knows all that stuff about Crouch?" Ron said as they walked up the drive to the castle. "But maybe he doesn't care. . . It'd probably just make him admire Crouch even more. Yeah, Percy loves rules. He'd just say Crouch was refusing to break them for his own son. " "Percy would never throw any of his family to the dementors," said Hermione severely. "I don't know," said Ron. "If he thought we were standing in the way of his career. . . Percy's really ambitious, you know. . . . " "Poor old Snuffles," said Ron, breathing deeply. "He must really like you. Harry. . . . Imagine having to live off rats. "

https://www.harrypotterfrenzy.com/Harry-Potter-and-the-Goblet-of-Fire/27

So why do I think that I'm not? About a year ago, we had some new friends over for dinner. They were lovely, their (3) children were lovely, and we had a lovely time. As I was newly pregnant with Rowan, I was closely observing the wife's parenting-several-children-at-one-time-with-MAKEUP-ON-and-NO-YELLING skills. At some point during the evening, as she and I were discussing our lives as mamas and all that it entails, she commented, "I'm just really good at being a mom". For some reason, this statement struck me the wrong way. I couldn't really figure it out. I mean, she clearly WAS a good mom (after dinner, her 6 year old daughter recited a several stanza classical poem for us, while she calmly dealt with her younger sons' repeated breakdowns), and what's more, I really liked her. So I knew it wasn't irritation or jealousy (ok, maybe a bit of jealousy). I've reflected on this conversation a lot over the last year. It always surprises me how that one moment towered over the rest. For a long time, I wasn't able to shake the feeling it left me with.... nor figure out what feeling it really was - until I realized that what I actually heard her say was, "it's really easy for me to be a good mom". What was pushing my buttons the wrong way was the idea that she was a good mom because it was easy for her, and I must not be because it isn't easy for me. Let me clear it up further - IT'S NOT EASY FOR ME. And somehow, somewhere along the way, I got the two confused. Now, I realize that I've always had this filter - whenever I see a mom laughing and chasing her kids at a park, I assume that they're having a good time because it's just so easy for her to shut out the world and focus on spending time with her kids. A mom successfully juggling morning wake up/meal prep/school drop off must be doing a great job because it's a breeze for her and she's just going to take a nap later anyways. Parents who refuse to simply plunk their kids in front of the tv must never have anything else that they desperately need to be doing. And it's not that I don't do these things - but somehow, deep down, I've felt like I'm not good at them because they're not always easy for me. It's actually ridiculous if you think about it - would you say that you're not good at your job because it's difficult for you? No, in fact - the harder your job is, the more likely you may be to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in your ability to stick with it and get the job done. Would you say that you're not good at exercising because it's really challenging? The opposite - the more resistance you face, the sweeter the reward. And we know this, intuitively. There are a lot of great parenting articles finding their way around the internet right now. Some are about how to look on the bright side of parenting, and others are about facing the challenges. I find myself in the middle - and I have a feeling I'm not alone. Because life as a mom is indeed full of bright, shiny, funny, memorable, endearing, and precious moments. But it can also contain such harsh realities as death, prolonged illness, very little sleep, behavioral issues, life transitions, sibling rivalry, teething, bullying, and maybe above all - OUR HUMANITY. I'm all for a posture of gratitude and contentment. But I also have to be realistic, and honest - IT'S NOT EASY FOR ME. So, why do I make it even harder for myself by believing that to truly be a good mom, that it should always be easy for me? What if I was able to hold the two together, in the beautiful tension that all good and truly meaningful things share? I'm going to be like my new friend. I'm going to believe that I am really good at being a mom. Not because it's easy for me, or because I always do the right thing. In fact, part of the reason I'm good at being a mom is BECAUSE it isn't easy for me. I'm not going to feel sorry for myself that it's not always easy. I'm going to "find my size" in the joy of choosing a life that requires me to grow and stretch and reach. And I'm going to dare to believe that I'm not alone (if I am, and it really is easy for the rest of you, please don't say anything. Ssshhhhhhh). Another wonderful thing floating around online right now is this video: showing a series of moms who describe themselves quite negatively, only to then be blown away by footage of their own kids' descriptions of them. I wonder how many of these moms were viewing their daily struggles and actions through the filter of whether pouring all of their heart, body and soul into another person was easy for them or not. Maybe if we saw ourselves the way our children did, we would be asking very different things of ourselves. Maybe we could believe that we are good moms. Sometimes I get impatient and have a hard time keeping my cool. And I'm a really good mom. I grit my teeth and usually punch or elbow my husband when the morning call comes too early. And I'm really good at being a mom. Sometimes I feel empty and like I have nothing left to give. And I'm a great mom. I often don't know how to engage my son and wish I was more creative and imaginative with him. And I'm a really good mom. I really struggle not to get angry when things don't go smoothly during our morning routine. And I'm a good mom. Sometimes I want to give up and go away and live another life. And I'm really good at being a mom. My favorite sweet-nothing to whisper to Aiden at bedtime is, "I'm so happy to be your mom". I usually feel like saying it after a really hard day. It's when we both need to hear it the most. Maybe it would be nice to whisper instead, "it's so easy to be your mom." But really, even as I say it, I feel it's emptiness, the way it falls flat. We all know the familiar refrain of "love is a choice". I think that loving a child, with all of the intention and forgiveness and learning that it takes, is best characterized by it's choosing. I choose to be a good mom, because I want to be one. It's not easy for me, but I'm really good at being a mom.

http://wombandhearth.com/blog/2013/9/25/im-a-good-mom

This is a Victoria plum of a collection - superbly documented, definitively performed and unrelentingly enjoyable. Recording quality is inevitably a bit variable but the sound is at very least good - often much better. It is a pity that dates and locations of recording schedules are not given however by the sound of it these recordings date from the 1970s and 1980s. It is good to see David Measham's name among the list of conductors. His recordings on Unicorn LPs never made it to CD, more's the pity. We very much need his versions of Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge (with the superb Gerald English - such an intelligent artist), Wilfred Josephs' Requiem and Symphony No. 5, the Barber Symphonies and Essays, Bax Symphony No. 3 and Goossens Symphony No. 1. Whatever happened to the masters of these recordings? In this case Measham conducts the two Carmichael concertos which are the most substantial works on this set. Each concerto runs to about 25 minutes and the WASO plays the Carmichael Country Fair with Richard Mills conducting. Neither of the concertos is desperately original but each has some wonderfully accessible material. I can imagine these works making an indelibly good impression in an orchestral pops concert. The Folklorico is played by the composer and is revealed as a work in candid tribute to de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Other 'Iberian' influences also thread their way through this work including Ravel's Rhapsodie Espagnole and Massenet's dances from El Cid. The Trumpet Concerto has similar charisma - the first movement is very singable. Overall this work rattles along like some progeny of Richard Strauss's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and Rachmaninov's Second symphony if that doesn't sound too improbable. This is not for the irredeemably serious. Great playing from Kevin Johnston. Brumby's Scena is beautifully projected by soloist Barry Davis. The work makes a nice twin to another neglected bon-bon; Jean Francaix's L'Horloge de Flore - try it! Brumby also has the place of honour on the first disc with tracks 1 and 2. The Paean is a brash ceremonial statement welding together Baroque strains and a sort of variant of Walford Davies' RAF March Past. An English voice predominates in the Festival Overture, as well, with the tune I Love my Love (as delectably used by Holst) much in play. A Gallic wistfulness languishes over the pages of A Country Fair. This must surely refer more to a fair country than to a country fair. The work is in the form of a flighty rhapsody for clarinet and orchestra. The Miriam Hyde overture is out of the Coates and Bax camps. Lindley Evans' 1945 Idyll for piano and orchestra might be expected to follow the same track as Finzi's Eclogue but in fact (whether due to Goodman's transcription or not I do not know) it is rather a florid essay, touching yes but with a decidedly Rachmaninov plangency and Delian warmth. Dreyfus's Rush (written for ABC TV) has a Victorian nostalgia about it, something of Copland's Mexico and La Cucaracha and in it there is also something of the sepia toned poignancy of the music used in NBC's major documentary series on the history of the American Civil War. Two Benjamin works kick off the second disc. The Overture we know from Myer Fredman's LP with the RPO (a Lyrita lollipop). Joseph Post directs a performance with rough edges. It lacks the fizz of the Lyrita and for that matter of the vintage Frederick Stock/Chicago version on Biddulph. The work explores territory familiar from Barber's School for Scandal overture and two overtures by Benjamin's friend, Bax: the peppy Work in Progress and the Overture to a Picaresque Comedy. It is no surprise to hear that the Benjamin used this as an overture to his own opera Prima Donna. The Fredman version is not currently accessible. For ten years now there has been a rumour, gradually fading, that Lyrita will reissue this on CD with Barry Wordsworth's very fine 1992 account of the Benjamin symphony (LPO)and Del Mar's version of Cotillon. From effervescence to neo-classicism: Cotillon is based not too tightly on original eighteenth century dances. You will know what to expect if you are familiar with Moeran's Serenade, Rubbra's Farnaby Improvisations, the outer movements of Finzi's violin concerto, the double violin concerto of Gustav Holst and the full orchestral version of Warlock's Capriol Suite. The work has a dab of Pulcinella here and a touch of tenderness there. Patrick Thomas is more successful than Del Mar in conveying the sheer zest of this work. Hamner, like Benjamin and Glanville-Hicks had strong British connections. Phil Scowcroft has written up some biographical background which I append to this review. The Blue Hills Rhapsody uses a pastoral melody, brief but potently memorable. It hints at Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and then floats off into lush English pastures. Blue Hills was a long-running ABC radio serial. The theme was written by Hamner and expanded into this Rhapsody which at one point seems to jump through at least one Korngoldian hoop - like a fugitive from the Sinfonietta and at another to saunter through the lobby of the Grand Hotel. Hurst's Swagman's Promenade (which gives the set its title) is an uproarious and raucous medley of unmistakably Australian tunes that are now so mingled with the Aussie 'way' that they might easily be taken to be folktunes - Waltzing Matilda, Botany Bay, Click Go the Shears all put in bucolic apparel. Peggy Glanville-Hicks Gymnopedies are not twins with the Satie works. They reflect the composers long-time interest in Mediterranean culture and music intertwined with her grounding in the music of Vaughan Williams (Symphony No. 5). The oriental tone in these works is as tangy as in her song cycle Letters from Morocco. If you are one of the thousands who have bought the Marco Polo British Light Music series, or the three Hyperion (Ronald Corp) discs or the blizzard of EMI light music reissues this selection is definitely for you. The recordings are culled from the coffers of the ABC archives. The whole anthology is swept onto two green camouflage fatigue discs accommodated in a single width case. A resounding welcome for this set. An enquiry to Steven will I am sure give you all the information you will need about ordering. 1300 360 150 Fax completed order form anytime night or day. Overseas orders incur economy airmail charges. Ronald Hamner, born in Reigate in 1917 and who died in 1996, has been known for perhaps half a century as a highly regarded composer and arranger for light orchestra, his output in this area alone totalling well over 500 items, including some forty of the well-remembered (by me at least) arrangements for the ITMA programme. Hamner studied at Blackheath Conservatory and was a theatre organist between 1935 and 1948. Since then he has found plenty of work as a freelance orchestrator and conductor. Music has been provided by him, for films, theatre (including adaptations for amateurs of musical shows - Viva Mexico! and The Merry Widow are examples) and radio. His orchestral tally has included potpourris, with titles like Bouquet de Paris, Capstan and Windlass, The Heather and the Thistle, Heritage of England, The Holly and the Mistletoe, The Oak and the Rose and Memories of Hungary, and original genre pieces in orchestral or piano versions such as On a Windy Day, Limelight Lady, Dot and Carry One, Pastorale, Mosquito, City Desk, The PC 49 Theme and Fashion Parade. Wind players have had particular cause to be grateful to him as many publications, useful both as instructional pieces and as concert items, have come from his pen: clarinet quartets and trios, flute trios, a Cuckoo Quartet (for two flutes and two clarinets), Two Contrasts for oboe and piano, trumpet trios, a Suite for French horn and piano, direct in its appeal, and Three Sketches for trumpet and piano. I heard the Suite for Seven (i.e. two flutes, oboe, three clarinets and bassoon) twice in Doncaster recently and was taken with its good writing and melodic and rhythmic interest; there is a Serenade for Seven also. Hamner is well respected as a composer in the brass band world, where his output ranges from light genre pieces (Latin Americana, Brass Spectacular, March With a Beat, Waltz with a Beat, Mexican Fiesta and the march, Over Hill Over Dale) through solos (Praeludium and Allegro) for trombone, Cavatina and Allegro for E flat horn, Arioso and Caprice for horn and Flight of Fancy, for cornet and euphonium) to more substantial works: the fantasy Alice in Wonderland, The Four Corners of the World, Down Under (he emigrated to Australia) and Episodes for Brass. Nor have smaller brass groups been forgotten by him, as he published Prelude and Rondo and Seven Up for septet, Prelude, Romance and Finale for brass quartet and the cornet quartet Foursome Fantasy.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/June01/Swagman.htm

The problem I am tackling is categorizing short texts into multiple classes. My current approach is to use tf-idf weighted term frequencies and learn a simple linear classifier (logistic regression). This works reasonably well (around 90% macro F-1 on test set, nearly 100% on training set). A big problem are unseen words/n-grams. I am trying to improve the classifier by adding other features, e.g. a fixed sized vector computed using distributional similarities (as computed by word2vec) or other categorical features of the examples. My idea was to just add the features to the sparse input features from the bag of words. However, this results in worse performance on the test and training set. The additional features by themselves give about 80% F-1 on the test set, so they aren't garbage. Scaling the features didn't help as well. My current thinking is that these kind of features don't mix well with the (sparse) bag of words features. So the question is: assuming the additional features provide additional information, what is the best way to incorporate them? Could training separate classifiers and combining them in some kind of ensemble work (this would probably have the drawback that no interaction between the features of the different classifiers could be captured)? Are there other more complex models I should consider? Perform dimensionality reduction (such as LSA via TruncatedSVD) on your sparse data to make it dense and combine the features into a single dense matrix to train your model(s). Add your few dense features to your sparse matrix using something like scipy's hstack into a single sparse matrix to train your model(s). Create a model using only your sparse text data and then combine its predictions (probabilities if it's classification) as a dense feature with your other dense features to create a model (ie: ensembling via stacking). If you go this route remember to only use CV predictions as features to train your model otherwise you'll likely overfit quite badly (you can make a quite class to do this all within a single Pipeline if desired). All three approaches are valid and have their own pros and cons. Personally, I find (1) to typically be the worst because it is, relatively speaking, extremely slow. I also find (3) to usually be the best, being both sufficiently fast and resulting in very good predictions. You can obviously do a combination of them as well if you're willing to do some more extensive ensembling. As for the algorithms you use, they can essentially all fit within that framework. Logistic regression performs surprisingly well most of the time, but others may do better depending on the problem at hand and how well you tune them. I'm partial to GBMs myself, but the bottom line is that you can try as many algorithms as you would like and even doing simple weighted ensembles of their predictions will almost always lead to a better overall solution. Linear models simply add their features multiplied by corresponding weights. If, for example, you have 1000 sparse features only 3 or 4 of which are active in each instance (and the others are zeros) and 20 dense features that are all non-zeros, then it's pretty likely that dense features will make most of the impact while sparse features will add only a little value. You can check this by looking at feature weights for a few instances and how they influence resulting sum. One way to fix it is to go away from additive model. Here's a couple of candidate models. SVM is based on separating hyperplanes. Though hyperplane is linear model itself, SVM doesn't sum up its parameters, but instead tries to split feature space in an optimal way. Given the number of features, I'd say that linear SVM should work fine while more complicated kernels may tend to overfit the data. Despite its name, Naive Bayes is pretty powerful statistical model that showed good results for text classification. It's also flexible enough to capture imbalance in frequency of sparse and dense features, so you should definitely give it a try. Finally, random forests may work as a good ensemble method in this case. Randomization will ensure that different kinds of features (sparse/dense) will be used as primary decision nodes in different trees. RF/decision trees are also good for inspecting features themselves, so it's worth to note their structure anyway. Note that all of these methods have their drawbacks that may turn them into a garbage in your case. Combing sparse and dense features isn't really well-studied task, so let us know what of these approaches works best for your case. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged machine-learning classification feature-selection logistic-regression information-retrieval or ask your own question. How to approach Multilingual Text Classification? Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) , Removing colinear features in cross validation set up is correct or not? How to combine sparse text features with user smile for sentiment classification? Is it valid to include your validation data in your vocabulary for NLP?

https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/987/text-categorization-combining-different-kind-of-features

The thermostat, which controls the temperature in the house, broke last night. -contains an explanation. Which statement about fairy tales suggests an indirect cause? A. Jack killed the giant because he sold the cow for magic beans. B. Sleeping Beauty was warned to stay away from needles but did not listen. C. Hansel and Gretel went out into the woods and ended up getting lost. D. Cinderella lost her glass slipper on the stairs precisely at midnight.

https://www.weegy.com/?ConversationId=2MPCPF3J

WASHINGTON — People who believe Princess Diana was murdered or that John F. Kennedy's assassination was an elaborate plot are more likely to think that vaccines are unsafe, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. "Vaccinations are one of society's greatest achievements and one of the main reasons that people live about 30 years longer than a century ago," said lead researcher Matthew Hornsey, PhD, of the University of Queensland. "Therefore, it is fascinating to learn about why some people are so fearful of them." The study is the first to test the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and antivaccination attitudes among a global sample, according to Hornsey. The research was published in the journal Health Psychology. Hornsey and his co-authors surveyed 5,323 people from 24 countries on five continents using online questionnaires between March 31 and May 11, 2016, measuring antivaccination attitudes and belief in four conspiracy theories: that Princess Diana was murdered; that the American government knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance and chose to let them happen; that a shadowy group of elites exist to plot a new world order; and that John F. Kennedy was murdered as part of an elaborate plot. Those with strong beliefs in conspiracies were most likely to hold antivaccination attitudes regardless of where they lived. For example, the more people believed that Princess Diana was murdered, the more negative attitudes they had about vaccinations. In contrast, level of education had a very small impact on antivaccination attitudes. "People often develop attitudes through emotional and gut responses," Hornsey said. "Simply repeating evidence makes little difference to those who have antivaccination attitudes." Large pharmaceutical companies, which profit from selling vaccines, are often targets for conspiracy theorists, said Hornsey. "For many conspiracy theorists, profits gained are a sign that the system is broken and the truth is being covered up by vested interests." "Trying to reduce people's conspiracy beliefs is notoriously difficult," Hornsey said. "An alternative possibility is to acknowledge the possibility of conspiracies, but to highlight how there are vested interests on the other side too; vested interests that are motivated to obscure the benefits of vaccination and to exaggerate their dangers." Anti-vaccination attitudes were also associated with intolerance of those who limit their freedom, disgust toward blood and needles and an individualistic worldview, according to the study. Article: "The Psychological Roots of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: A 24-Nation Investigation," by Matthew Hornsey, PhD, Emily Harris, PhD, and Kelly Fielding, PhD, University of Queensland. Health Psychology, published Feb. 1, 2018. The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 115,700 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

https://scienmag.com/belief-in-conspiracy-theories-associated-with-vaccine-skepticism/

Not of This Earth - A professor of archeology sets out on a mission to identify an ancient Mesoamerican ruin and a mysterious anomaly that lies beneath it. The workers she hires to excavate the ruin flee, claiming there are malevolent forces at work. Thinking that they are just superstitious, she and her team disregard the warning and continue to explore the peculiar metallic structure. What starts out as an archeological dig turns into a maelstrom of death and destruction. Alien Strain - When gold becomes scarce on his planet Phanus, Rodin and his bride explore the feasibility of extracting the precious metal from Earth. Prior to their departure, they place a copy of their psyches inside two spheres as an insurance policy. If something were to happen to them, the spheres would give them a second chance at life. Centuries later, their spheres are found in Cambodia as part of a missing person's search for an archeologist and her team. What results is murder, theft, and a battle for survival. Pandora - When a group of NASA scientists are informed that a monolithic gray mass is entrenched in the largest glacier in Antarctica, they set out on a mission in a nuclear submarine to establish contact with it. But first they must penetrate a sheet of ice two and a half miles thick so they can reach a subglacial lake. Much to their dismay, upon entering the lake, they discover that the Russians are intent on doing the same thing. When they launch a torpedo at the American submarine, an unearthly force hurls the Russian sub into the Polar Sea. Just as the scientists are about to make contact with the alien life form, an gigantic earthquake occurs. The few survivors soon experience a series of horrific events that will forever change their lives. Ghost Ship of the Desert - Against the backdrop of the polluted Salton Sea, Investigative Reporter Jonathan Bruckheimer is challenged to prove the existence of an old, land-locked Spanish galleon that many believe is the ghost ship of the desert. It is rumored to contain a large treasure trove of rare black pearls. Things become complicated when Looney, a Native American Indian, who is instrumental to this quest, is murdered. Although the desert town of Brawley is small, the hunger for riches is great. This makes practically everyone in the community a suspect. Risking the wrath of his editor, not to mention personal danger, Bruckheimer is determined to uncover the truth. Does the ghost ship of the desert actually exist? Who murdered Looney and why? Antiquated Astronaut - Due to a freakish anomaly that takes place in the far reaches of space, astronaut Rory Colt ends up back on Earth five hundred years into the future. But the world as he knew it no longer exists. In its place are two dissimilar civilizations. In one society a cyber world of self-gratification provides its occupants with electromechanical enhancements, while the other is comprised of people who emulate life as it was lived in the nineteenth century. When a beautiful woman hybrid lures Rory into her futuristic world, he soon discovers they are being manipulated by an omniscient, electronic immortal who has ensnared them into a terrifying web of betrayal and deceit. To free the new world from the monster's clutches, he must destroy him. But how does one destroy a creature who lives in cyberspace? Well of Souls - Professor Templeton gets a lot more than she bargains for when she agrees to join an expedition whose goal is to find Genghis Khan's tomb. On her quest for his sarcophagus, she stumbles upon an ancient gold medallion. Its inscription enables her to uncover a conspiracy so horrific that not only does it create an international incident, but also causes one man to go insane and another to lose his life. Room of Dark Secrets - While searching for an ancient mystical manuscript, a cardinal jeopardizes his chances of becoming pope by inadvertently disclosing to the media a Vatican conspiracy. A Las Vegas magician is looking for the same book. If he doesn’t locate it, he will lose his job and with it his lavish lifestyle. And if he does find it, he will become famous—that is, if the powers within the book don’t kill him first. Subprime - Set against a backdrop of financial intrigue, Subprime provides the reader with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the highly charged and unscrupulous world of mortgage lending. Not only must the protagonist navigate his way through the serpentine and sometimes ruthless world of big business, but he must do so amidst treachery and betrayal from a seemingly benign uncle who, consumed with making money, seeks power in much the same way an addict craves drugs. Secrets of El Tovar Canyon - When an unscrupulous antiquities dealer hires an archeologist to uncover the origin of an ancient tablet, he sets off a bizarre chain of events: Ten-thousand-year-old mummies are found in a cave in the Grand Canyon. A golden statue is discovered in the Sphinx’s paw. What's the secret linking Arizona and Egypt? The U.S. Dept. of Defense believes the answer may well put the entire world at risk. The Papyrus Document - When a noted Pakistani archeologist discovers an ancient hand-scribed document, he is murdered. With the help of a forensic pathologist, his son seeks to complete his father's work. But their death becomes more imminent with each step taken, for the content of the document may destroy the foundations of both the Muslim and Christian world. To date, all twelve of my novels contain quest plots. My characters are always searching for "something." They also manage to get themselves into a lot of trouble before they find what they're looking for. What they find isn't nearly as important as the change that occurs within them during the quest. My grandparents were Russian. During the Bolshevik Revolution they fled to China, where my mother was born. I came to America from France at the age of twelve and immediately traded in my French-version of Lederhosen for a pair of jeans. After earning B.A. and M.A. degrees, I wore a number of different career hats, but none of them ever stirred my soul—until I took up writing. I now live in Laguna Niguel, California, with my wife, Sharon. Keeska is my only spectator and critic when I play golf. Believe it or not when I make an errant shot, she yips! She is a wolf, nine generations removed from the wild. In addition, Keeska howls "in tune" to the music my grandson plays on his guitar. My wife and neighbors disagree.

http://www.foremostpress.com/readers/cole_m/index.html

It's a well-known fact that Big Brother relationships rarely go the distance, so it's not too surprising to see two of 2014's popular housemates suddenly bachelors once again. That's right, 23-year-old magician Lawson Reeves and 26-year-old Paralympian Sam Bramham are officially on the market, ladies. Lawson, who infamously had an on-screen affair with 31-year-old nurse Cat Law while he had a girlfriend on the outside, cleared up his relationship status with today's TV WEEK. "Single, I guess," the Melbourne local said. "Cat and I haven't had a conversation and said we're together. We're just taking it slow and spending time together. I'm not interested in looking for anyone else. I'm just happy spending time with Cat and hanging out. It doesn't have a label on it at the moment. Only time will tell." Big Brother's Lawson and Cat reunited with former housemate Jason Roses on January 2, after attending a New Year's Eve party with ex-housemate Marina Rakovskaia Image: Instagram. Lawson still hasn't been able to contact ex-girlfriend Candice Leeder over his love-rat behaviour. "I haven't had a chance yet, because it's not a conversation you have over the phone," he said. "I'm going back to Perth soon, so I'll give it another crack then. It's something that has to happen." Lawson's real-life roomie Sam also says he's "single" after splitting with his long-term girlfriend, Michaela Murray. "[Big Brother] played a factor," Sam said. "But if there's anyone to blame for the break-up, it's me and Michaela. We could've salvaged it if we were supposed to be together." According to Sam, there was a "communication problem" between him and Michaela and they were going in "totally opposite" directions. As a result, Sam "strongly advise[s] against anyone going into the house while in a relationship". Sam posted this shot with ex Michaela on Instagram just after his eviction in November. The photo has since been deleted. Image: Instagram. Despite "copping a bit of spray" from Michaela over his intimate massages with housemate Sandra Nixon, the Wagga Wagga lingerie store manager wasn't the cause of their split. "Once she met Sandra and saw our relationship, she was fine," Sam added. For more on Big Brother, visit 9Jump-in.

https://celebrity.nine.com.au/2015/01/15/01/31/big-brother-love-splits-reallife-housemates-lawson-and-sam-are-both-single

A palindrome is a word which reads the same backward or forward. 'abcba' is a palindrome. Write a method that detects if a string is a palindrome. Tip: Use word.charAt(i) to get the character at position i.

https://code-exercises.com/programming/medium/3/palindrome-check

The president of the University of Georgia is calling for an eight-team playoff system for college football's top division, saying the Bowl Championship Series -- which left Georgia out of its championship game -- has become a "beauty contest largely stage-managed by the networks." In a public statement and a letter to NCAA president Myles Brand, Georgia president Michael F. Adams, who is also chairman of the NCAA executive committee, called for an eight-team playoff to decide the national championship, with the opening rounds to be played in the four major BCS bowl games. He proposed the change be made as soon as the contracts that govern the BCS expire. Adams was scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Adams would support a playoff. "This year's experience with the BCS forces me to the conclusion that the current system has lost public confidence and simply does not work," Adams said in news release. "It is undercutting the sportsmanship and integrity of the game." Georgia did not win its division of the Southeastern Conference and did not play in that league's title game, but was widely regarded as one of the best teams in the nation as the college football season closed. The Bulldogs went to the Sugar Bowl instead of the BCS Championship Game, where some beleived the team belonged. Adams did not directly address that outcome in his letter or his statement. But he did claim that the BCS system suffered from built-in conflicts of interest involving the major sports conferences and the television networks. Under his proposal, the schedule would return to 11 games from its current 12, with playoffs beginning at the major bowl games and extending two more Saturdays. Under his proposal, a selection committee would seed eight teams to the four major bowls. "If one of those bowls chooses not to participate, another game could be found to fill the void," he said. Adams is the second SEC member president to advocate a playoff in the past year. Last year, University of Florida president James Bernard Machen -- whose Gators played in the BCS Championship Game and won the title -- said the time had come for a playoff system, but backed down from his position after conferring with his fellow SEC presidents. Adams acknowledged that he has long opposed a playoff system, largely for academic reasons and because the season is already too long. However, he said in his letter to Brand that he was "troubled about the commercial influence over how the college football season is played out." He said it is time for the NCAA's member institutions to regain control over the college football postseason -- control he said is now concentrated in the hands of the television networks, the major conferences and the bowl commissioners. "The television networks ... have grown too powerful in deciding who plays and when they play, and indeed, whom they hire to coach," Adams wrote in his letter to Brand. "The Bowl Championship Series has become a beauty contest largely stage-managed by the networks, which in turn protect the interests of their own partner conferences. "The situation may not quite rise to the level of collusion, but it leaves an air of dissatisfaction with the fans of most institutions, even as they celebrate successful seasons," Adams wrote to Brand. "I believe the time has come for the NCAA to take control of the college football postseason, and in so doing to create a system that our players, coaches, friends and fans can support and appreciate." "Colleges need to regain ownership of their football teams," Adams added in his letter to Brand. "While much has been made of the unique nature of the Football Bowl Subdivision [formerly Division I-A], the fact is that the networks and conferences exercise much more control over the football teams at this level then the institutions that sponsor them. Reorienting the national football championship is an important step in managing a model that benefits students, institutions and our constituents." Adams said he would regret the football season extending into the spring semester, but noted that only four teams would be involved and before most schools return from the winter holiday break. On Monday, Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said the ACC, SEC, Big East and Big 12 are open to a "plus-one" Final Four format in which the top four teams would be selected and seeded. "In our conference, there's much more open-mindedness about the plus-one than there was two years ago. There's an interest in it ... and a willingness to discuss it in full," Swofford said. The BCS is in the second of a four-year, $320 million contract with Fox that runs through the 2009 season and 2010 bowls. The BCS will begin negotiating with Fox on another deal in the fall. Fox has exclusive negotiating rights with the BCS. The Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA), Division II and Division III all have a postseason playoff. I have to see it to believe it!!! I agree but it's a start.

http://www.bettorschat.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-140253.html?s=3f3be94ab4a305ad3fb8eec739924dc5

Compare Razor Electric Scooters: Buy E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 or E300S? You don't have to be a teenager to enjoy an electric scooter which comes with a number of advantages when compared to other means of transport. First of all, these scooters are affordable and environment friendly as they do not need any gasoline to run and cost so little to buy. They are also convenient as you can ride them just about anywhere except on highways. Their maximum speed is usually under 20 mph which makes them quite safe compared to other motorized transportation means. They are very compact and can be stored in small places at home or wherever you go. Last but not least, they are so much fun to ride! There exists a number of designs of electric scooters, but the most popular are those that allow you to stand up while riding, and those with a seat and foot support. Note that the seat is often removable so that standing up riding is also possible when desired. The no-seat scooters are usually preferred by younger riders and teenagers who can easily stand on the foot rest and ride for longer periods of time. Note that it is always recommended to wear a helmet when riding a scooter. Razor is the brand that specializes most in affordable scooters of all types, including electric scooters, and Razor electric scooters are no doubt today the most popular. But Razor makes a number of electric scooter models, and it might be hard to decide which would be best for you or the teenager you want to buy one for. Razor electric scooters that are most popular are the E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S. This article will provide a detailed comparison of these scooters so you can easily make the right choice that corresponds to your needs. Note that these Razor electric scooters have also been the most popular among Amazon customers, and at the time this article was written, they had received excellent reviews from most Amazon buyers with an all-model overall average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars!. Batteries used in all models are sealed lead acid and rechargeable batteries. A charger is included with all models. The motors of Razor E90, E100 and E100 Glow require a small manual kickoff to start. On the other hand, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S start off electrically from a standing position, and once on the move, their powerful electric motor ramps up to speeds fast enough to have fun, but not fast enough to present a danger on the sidewalk or the road. E90 has urethane rear and front wheels. E100 and E100 Glow have a 8" pneumatic front tire and a urethane rear wheel. E200 and E200S have 8” pneumatic front and rear wheels. E300 and E300S have 10” pneumatic front and rear wheels. Padded seat is easily removable for stand-up riding. The Amazon prices shown in the table vary depending on the color of the scooter chosen. These prices were in effect at the time this article was written and may have changed. For exact prices, please refer to the Amazon products section below. Note that the Amazon price often includes a generous discount to the list price. If a discount exists, both the Amazon price and the list price will be displayed when you click the Amazon product link images below. Now that you have all the characteristics of all the electric scooters offered by Razor, you should be able to select below the one that best matches your requirements or the needs of your child or teenager. Razor E90, E100, E100 Glow, E200, E200S, E300 and E300S electric scooters are all available below on Amazon. When you click the scooter images below, you will get additional colors to choose from whenever available. Please click the scooter of your choice below for price information or to purchase. If you'd rather have a more sophisticated and slighly faster scooter, you might want to consider also the SWAGTRON electric scooters which are equipped with an LED screen that allows sophisticated runtime controls (such as cruise control) and runtime diagnostics display. For a comparison of SWAGTRON electric scooters, please click: Comparing SWAGTRON Electric Scooters.

https://www.topproductcomparisons.com/compare-razor-e90-e100-e200-and-e300-series-electric-scooters.html

Directions:Add chopped chocolate to a large bowl. Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat. The minute it starts boiling, remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. Add wine. Let sit for 3 minutes, then whisk continuously until smooth. Press a piece of plastic wrap over top of the bowl and press down so it adheres to the chocolate. Refrigerate for at least two hours (or overnight - perfect!), then using a small melon baller or spoon, scoop chocolate out and roll them into balls, placing on a sheet of wax paper. Roll the truffles in cocoa or sprinkles, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.These are best cold, but they can sit out at room temperature for a few hours too. I do keep them refrigerated when not serving.

https://www.makemewinellc.com/cooking/cabernet-truffles

Why are merchants allowed to apply payment surcharges? Merchants incur costs when they accept a payment from a customer. Different payment methods can have very different costs. For example, cards that provide significant rewards to consumers are typically more expensive for merchants. Surcharging provides merchants with the ability to pass the cost of accepting more expensive payment methods back to the customers who use those methods. When merchants have the right to apply a surcharge to more expensive payment methods they are able to provide price signals that encourage consumers to use less expensive payment methods. By helping to hold down payment costs, the right to surcharge helps to hold down the price of goods and services charged to all consumers. The definition of card acceptance costs has been narrowed. Acceptable costs are limited to fees paid to the merchant's acquirer (or other payments facilitator) and certain other observable costs paid to third parties for services directly related to accepting particular types of cards. Acquirers and payment facilitators must provide merchants with an annual statement that clearly sets out their average cost of acceptance for each of the card payment systems regulated by the RBA. Acceptance costs will be expressed in percentage terms. It is expected that merchants who wish to surcharge – including in the airline industry – will typically do so in percentage terms rather than as a fixed dollar amount, which should mean that surcharges on some lower-value transactions will be reduced significantly. The Government has given the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigation and enforcement powers over cases of possible excessive surcharging. Overall, the RBA expects that the narrower definition of the cost of acceptance, the proposed transparency measures and the ACCC's new powers will result in a framework that is clearer for all parties, with more effective enforcement in cases where merchants may be surcharging excessively. The goal of the RBA's revised surcharging standard is to improve price signals to consumers about the relative costs of different payment methods. Excessive surcharging diminishes the effectiveness of these price signals. The new standard is targeted at eliminating instances of excessive surcharging, through improved transparency and stronger enforcement. Merchants must be provided with easy-to-understand information about their costs of card acceptance, which will enable them to make informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. Where merchants do decide to impose surcharges, consumers can be confident that these represent the actual costs to the merchant. Consumers can make a complaint to the ACCC if they consider that a surcharge is excessive. The changes took effect in two stages. Large merchants have been required to comply with the new standard since 1 September 2016. Other merchants have been required to comply with the new standard since 1 September 2017. Information on the previous surcharging framework can be found in the RBA's surcharging Guidance Note and Surcharging Q&A. Merchants remain subject to all the obligations under the Australian Consumer Law. Why was there a delay for smaller merchants? Much of the concern over excessive surcharging involves larger merchants. These merchants should have the ability to analyse and calculate their payment costs and so have been subject to the new framework since 1 September 2016. In contrast, smaller merchants are less likely to surcharge and to surcharge excessively. They often also have a relatively less detailed understanding of their payment costs. Surcharging decisions for these merchants will benefit from improved data on payment costs. By 1 September 2017, all merchants should have received an annual statement from their acquirer or payments facilitator with easy-to-understand information outlining their average cost of acceptance for each of the card schemes subject to the RBA's standard. How do the changes affect small and medium-sized merchants more generally? Small and medium-sized merchants who do not benefit from preferred interchange rates currently bear the cost of the high interchange rates on premium MasterCard and Visa cards. Accordingly, they should see a material reduction in merchant service fees from the changes to the RBA's interchange standards. This should improve their competitiveness relative to larger merchants who may benefit from low interchange rates on all their card transactions. Merchants will also receive easy-to-understand information on the cost of payments for the different types of cards they accept. This should enable them to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. This will place downward pressure on payment costs. If merchants decide to surcharge, they will have clear information on the maximum permissible surcharge for each payment method. Can card schemes, acquiring banks or payment facilitators prohibit merchants from charging a surcharge? Card schemes such as American Express, MasterCard and Visa cannot prevent or deter merchants from recovering the costs of accepting card payments. Banks and other payment facilitators are not allowed to prohibit or deter merchants from charging a surcharge on a particular payment instrument. Schemes, banks and payment providers cannot refuse to provide card acceptance services to a merchant solely because that merchant plans to surcharge or because of the level of their surcharge. They can, however, seek to ensure that a surcharge does not exceed the merchant's cost of acceptance. Merchants incur costs when they accept a payment from a customer. Different payment methods can have very different costs. Cards that provide significant rewards to consumers are typically more expensive for merchants. For example, some merchants face fees of more than 3 per cent on American Express transactions, while transactions on some types of premium MasterCard and Visa cards can currently cost many merchants more than 2 per cent. When merchants have the right to apply a surcharge to more expensive payment methods they are able to provide price signals that encourage consumers to use payment methods that are less expensive. By helping to hold down payment costs, the right to surcharge helps to hold down the price of goods and services charged to all consumers. It also reduces the extent to which those who pay with cheaper payment methods are subsidising those consumers – typically from higher income households – who use more expensive payment methods. Is there a limit on the size of a surcharge? Surcharges must not be more than the amount that it costs a merchant to accept a particular type of card for a given transaction. For example, debit cards are typically less expensive for merchants to accept than credit cards. It is important that merchants do not impose surcharges in excess of their actual payment costs. Merchants will know how much that is from statements supplied by their bank or payments provider; these must contain easy-to-understand information on the average cost of acceptance for each payment method. These statements will express acceptance costs in percentage terms and the standard defines the cost of acceptance in percentage terms. This should ensure that merchants who wish to surcharge – including in the airline industry – will generally do so in percentage terms rather than as a fixed dollar amount. This means that surcharges on some lower-priced transactions should be reduced significantly. If merchants wish to surcharge two or more payment methods at the same rate (e.g. all credit cards from American Express, MasterCard and Visa; or both debit and credit cards from a particular system) they are required to set the surcharge at the lowest cost of those different payment methods. How can I avoid paying a surcharge? Merchants that choose to surcharge will generally offer a non-surcharged payment method. This will typically be a payment type with a lower cost of acceptance for the merchant. If no surcharge-free method is offered, the amount of the surcharge should be built into the base price and not added on to the price of an item. Consistent with requirements under the Australian Consumer Law, merchants are required to prominently disclose the terms of any surcharge. A consumer who wishes to avoid paying a surcharge should ask the merchant to identify an alternative non-surcharged payment method. How do I know the surcharge imposed by a merchant is reasonable? While merchants are allowed to impose cost-based surcharges on card payments, surcharges must not exceed the permitted surcharge specified in the RBA standard. The standard provides a narrower definition of the cost of acceptance than the previous standard, along with transparency measures to ensure merchants have clear information on the payment costs they face. Merchants of different sizes and in different industries have a wide range of payment costs. However, as a guide, payments through the domestic eftpos system are usually quite low cost for merchants, mostly below ½ per cent of the transaction value. Debit MasterCard and Visa Debit may cost many merchants around ½ to 1 per cent, though for some merchants the cost of these cards is combined with credit card costs. MasterCard and Visa credit may cost many merchants about 1 to 1½ per cent. And it is common for merchants to pay 1½ to 2 per cent for an American Express card payment. In general, smaller merchants face higher payment costs than larger merchants and may have higher costs than these typical ranges. What can I do if I believe I have been asked to pay an excessive surcharge? Consumers who have concerns over whether a payment surcharge is excessive can contact the ACCC. The ACCC has investigation and enforcement powers over cases of possible excessive surcharging. Will merchants be able to replace surcharges with other charges? Merchants cannot avoid the rules by calling their payment surcharges something else while still applying them to some payment methods and not others. However, the new surcharging framework only applies to payment surcharges – that is, to fees that are specifically related to payments or apply to some payment methods but not others. Some merchants apply fees, such as ‘booking’ or ‘service’ fees, which are unrelated to payment costs and apply regardless of the method of payment (this is for instance common in the ticketing industry). The surcharging framework is not intended to apply to these fees but merchants are required to meet all provisions of the Australian Consumer Law in terms of disclosure of any such fees. Do the new rules affect the taxi industry? Surcharging in the taxi industry remains the responsibility of state regulators. Until recently, surcharges of 10 per cent were typical in that industry. However, authorities in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have taken or announced decisions to limit surcharges to no more than 5 per cent. Other states and territories are also considering such limits. As new payment methods and technologies emerge, it is likely to be appropriate for caps on surcharges to be reduced below 5 per cent. The Government and the RBA will continue to monitor developments in the taxi industry with a view to assessing whether further measures are appropriate. Card payments for hire cars and ride-sharing services are within the scope of the RBA's surcharging standard and potential ACCC enforcement. What is the objective of the new framework? The new RBA standard is intended to ensure that merchants have the right to surcharge for payment cards while also ensuring that consumers are not surcharged excessively, consistent with the Government's amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 . A merchant cannot surcharge a card transaction at a rate that exceeds the merchant's average cost of acceptance for that transaction for the relevant card system. The ACCC has responsibility for enforcement in the event that a merchant is attempting to surcharge excessively. How does the new framework benefit merchants? The framework emphasises the right of merchants to surcharge to cover their acceptance costs and signal differences in costs to consumers. It also improves the transparency of payment costs to merchants. Under the RBA's new surcharging standard, merchants will receive an annual statement from their acquirer or payments facilitator that clearly sets out their average cost of acceptance for each of the card payment systems regulated by the RBA. These transparency measures, which help merchants to know how much it costs them to accept card payments, should contribute to downward pressure on payment costs. This information will also enable merchants to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if they do, whether to surcharge them. What cards does it apply to? The RBA standard and the ACCC's enforcement powers currently apply to payment surcharges in six card systems – eftpos, Debit MasterCard, MasterCard Credit, Visa Debit and Visa Credit and the American Express companion card system. However, other card systems may include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the limits on surcharges under the RBA's standard, in which case merchants may be contractually bound to similar caps on what they can surcharge cards from other systems. Over time other payment types could be added via regulation. What surcharge can a merchant impose when they accept a card payment? Merchants are permitted to surcharge, but are not required to do so. Under the new framework a merchant who decides to surcharge a particular type of card may not surcharge above their average cost of acceptance for that card type. It is likely that most merchants who decide to surcharge debit or credit cards will do so based purely on what they are charged for payments by their acquirer or payment facilitator; this includes costs such as merchant service fees, terminal fees, and any other fees incurred in processing card transactions. Merchants are able to surcharge any of the cards covered by the RBA's standard up to the average percentage cost of acceptance in their annual statement for that card type. However, some merchants may have other costs (as outlined below) of accepting a particular type of card that they would like to include in their surcharge. If those costs meet the requirements for inclusion and can be documented, merchants may add them to the costs charged by their acquirer or payment facilitator over the previous year and, based on their total costs, calculate their average percentage cost for that card system. Merchants may not surcharge above this average cost. What information is available for merchants? Effective mid-2017, merchants will receive annual statements from their acquirer or payment facilitator that show the average percentage cost over the past year for each of the card types covered by the RBA/ACCC framework; this will be based on costs such as merchant service fees and terminal rental costs. An acquirer is the entity (often a bank) which has relationships with card companies such as eftpos, MasterCard and Visa that enable it to provide merchants with the ability to accept card payments. Alternatively, a merchant may use the services of a payment facilitator, a non-bank entity which has arrangements with an acquirer that allow it to offer card acceptance services to merchants. The RBA has worked with acquirers and payment facilitators on the design of easy-to-read statements that are reasonably standard across the industry. If a merchant wishes to surcharge for some costs in addition to those paid to their acquirer or payments facilitator, they will have to keep records of the costs paid to other providers. What costs in addition to the merchant service fee can a merchant include in their surcharge on a particular type of card? In addition to the fees paid to the merchant's acquirer or payment facilitator for standard card acceptance services, merchants may include some additional types of costs if they are directly related to accepting that particular card type. the cost of insuring against forward delivery risk. This applies to agents (such as travel agents) who pay an external party to insure against the risk that the agent will be liable to a customer for the failure of a principal supplier (such as an airline or hotel) on payments accepted via cards. In each case, these costs must be specific to the particular types of cards that the merchant is surcharging, rather than being a cost that applies to all payment methods accepted by the merchant. Furthermore, they must be costs paid to an external provider and verified by contracts, statements or invoices. A merchant's internal costs cannot be included in a surcharge. How should a merchant calculate their permitted surcharge if they have costs in addition to those paid to their acquirer or payment facilitator? In the event that merchants wish to include additional costs that are part of the cost of acceptance for one or more of the six regulated card systems, they should calculate the proportion of those costs applying to particular systems, allocating costs based on total transaction values for each system over the previous year. The cost attributable to any particular system may then be included in the surcharge on payments for that particular system. An example of the calculation of acceptance costs for costs in addition to the merchant service fee is explained below. The statement from the merchant's acquirer indicates that the average cost of transactions through Card System X over the prior year was 0.85 per cent. The merchant could therefore surcharge Card System X at a rate no higher than 0.90 per cent (the 0.85 per cent average cost of acceptance paid to the acquirer plus the 0.05 per cent cost of fraud prevention). Additional costs (such as gateway fees, fraud-related chargebacks, insurance for forward delivery risk or terminal fees paid to a payment service provider) should be dealt with in a similar way, that is by determining what proportion of these costs applies to each card system and calculating the percentage cost relative to the value of transactions through each system. What if a merchant uses more than one acquirer or payment facilitator? Some merchants have more than one acquirer or payment facilitator, for example one for their point-of-sale transactions and another for their online transactions. Where this is the case, it will be reasonable for merchants to use the information on the statement provided by their main acquirer or payment facilitator. If merchants wish to be more exact about their payment costs, they may calculate an average acceptance cost, weighting the costs of their different acquirers by the value of transactions through the two entities. How often do merchants have to review their surcharge? Merchants may choose to reset their surcharges frequently based on evidence of their average cost of acceptance over the most recent twelve-month period. However, the RBA's standard has been designed so that merchants will be able to identify their payment costs once a year and set their surcharge for the next year based on that information. They must then review that surcharge in a year's time when they receive a new annual statement about their payment costs. Can merchants set a common or blended surcharge which applies to different cards? Merchants may choose to set the same surcharge for a number of different payment systems, provided that the surcharge is no greater than the average cost of acceptance of the lowest cost system included. For example, a merchant may choose to set the same surcharge for two credit card systems, which have average costs of acceptance of 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent. In this case, the maximum common surcharge that could be charged would be 1 per cent. However, if the merchant wished to surcharge the two systems separately, it could charge 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent as appropriate. In this example, the merchant would not be able to blend both these costs into a 1.25 per cent surcharge, since it would be surcharging excessively for the scheme that cost 1 per cent. When did the rules take effect? Large merchants became subject to the new rules on excessive surcharging effective 1 September 2016. All other merchants became subject to the rules from 1 September 2017. What is the definition of a large merchant? Large merchants are defined as those that meet at least two of the following tests: consolidated turnover (including that of any related companies) of more than $25 million in the most recent financial year; consolidated gross assets at 30 June 2015 of $12.5 million or more; or 50 or more employees as at 30 June 2015. What if a merchant does not have an annual statement from their acquirer or payment facilitator? Effective 1 June 2017 the RBA's standard requires all acquirers to ensure that merchants receive statements that clearly set out merchants' average cost of acceptance for each card scheme. There may be merchants who wish to surcharge but do not have statements covering 12 months, for instance because they have not been established for that long. These merchants should make good faith estimates of their payment costs based on their available information – for example, any recent monthly statements they have, invoices and contracts from their acquirers, payment facilitators or payment service providers. Merchants may also wish to include items such as gateway fees paid to a payment service provider, the cost of fraud prevention services, any terminal costs paid to a provider other than their acquirer or payments facilitator, fraud-related chargeback fees (but not the chargebacks themselves) or the cost of insuring against forward delivery risk. If they wish to include such items, they will have to gather information on these costs over the past year and then calculate the amounts attributable to particular payment systems as outlined in Box 1 below. Based on data for the total value of transactions in each system, they will be able to calculate the additional percentage amount that may be included in the cost of acceptance and the permitted surcharge. Examples of how to calculate average costs of acceptance from information on payment costs under some different types of merchant plans can be found here. What if a merchant does not wish to surcharge in percentage terms but rather to charge a fixed amount? In most cases payment costs are charged to merchants in percentage terms, so it will typically be appropriate that any surcharge is also expressed in percentage terms. Indeed, one of the factors behind the Government's amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act and the RBA's new standard was dissatisfaction with the practice in the airline industry of imposing fixed-dollar surcharges that are well above actual cost of card acceptance for low-priced airfares. Accordingly, the standard defines the cost of acceptance in percentage terms and requires acquirers to provide information on payment costs in these terms. However, this does not prevent a merchant from capping the surcharge it applies at a fixed amount. For example, if a merchant has an average cost of acceptance for a particular scheme of 1 per cent, it could choose to apply a surcharge of 1 per cent up to a maximum surcharge of $10. In such cases a 1 per cent surcharge would be applied to payments up to $1000, and a surcharge of $10 would apply to payments greater than $1000 ( which would be less than the average cost of acceptance for that scheme). Alternatively, if a merchant's cost of accepting a particular payment method is truly a flat amount (for example, if the merchant's acquirer charges a flat fee of say 10 cents to all eftpos transactions), then a flat surcharge of the same amount on all transactions would not be excessive. Are there any other requirements on surcharges? Nothing in the standard alters the existing obligation of merchants to comply with the provisions of the Australian Consumer Law, set out in the Competition and Consumer Act. Sections 18 and 29 prohibit merchants from engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct and making false or misleading representations with respect to the price of goods or services, and section 48 prohibits component or partial pricing if the represented price only constitutes part of the total price of the goods or services. The new rules apply to all American Express companion cards, ie American Express cards issued by banks. The RBA has not designated the American Express proprietary card system, meaning that the ACCC cannot enforce the new rules on excessive surcharging for these cards. However, in the case of these cards, American Express can enforce excessive surcharging against merchants directly as its merchant agreements contractually prohibit merchants from surcharging any American Express transaction above the reasonable cost of acceptance. If excessive surcharging became an issue for proprietary American Express transactions, the RBA could reconsider current regulatory arrangements. What about other payment cards such as Union Pay, JCB, Diners Club etc? The RBA has not designated UnionPay, JCB or Diners Club. Accordingly the RBA's new standard does not apply to transactions carried out using those systems. However, these payment systems (and others) may include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the framework under the RBA's standard. In such cases merchants may be contractually bound to surcharge caps in those systems, similar to the caps enforced by the RBA's standard. If excessive surcharging became an issue for these systems it will be open to the RBA to reconsider the regulatory arrangements. UnionPay provided the RBA with an undertaking on 29 May 2017 indicating it will not enforce no-surcharge rules in Australia and will amend its rules by the end of 2017 to ensure that they are consistent with the RBA’s new standard. Diners Club has also provided the Bank with an undertaking in relation to no-surcharge rules, and American Express has provided a similar undertaking in relation to proprietary card transactions. What about other systems such as PayPal and BPAY etc? PayPal and BPAY are payment systems in their own right that merchants and consumers may use. Consumers can fund transactions through those systems from a number of sources, including their credit card or their bank account. The cost to a merchant of accepting PayPal or BPAY reflects fees for those systems, so any surcharge applied on those systems is not a credit card surcharge. PayPal and BPAY are not currently designated, so transactions through those systems will not themselves be covered by the RBA's standards. However, these payment systems could include conditions in their merchant agreements that are similar to the framework under the RBA's standard. If excessive surcharging became an issue for either system the RBA could reconsider the regulatory arrangements. PayPal updated its user terms and conditions on 19 October 2016 to permit merchant surcharging. Paragraph 11.2(c) of the updated User Agreement for PayPal Services allows merchants to surcharge PayPal transactions as long as the surcharge does not exceed the amount the merchant is charged by PayPal for the transaction. PayPal has published information about surcharging PayPal payments. Why does the RBA regulate interchange fees? Interchange fees affect the prices faced by cardholders and merchants in using and accepting payments. Most notably, interchange fees increase payment costs for merchants and fund rewards programs for some cardholders. While there may be a useful role for interchange fees when a card network is first established, the case for significant interchange fees in mature card systems is much less clear. Where merchants feel unable to decline particular cards (because consumers expect to be able to pay with that card and may take their business elsewhere if they cannot), the incentive is for card schemes to raise interchange rates. Evidence from a range of countries suggests that competition between well-established payment card schemes can lead to the perverse result of increasing the price of payment services to merchants (and therefore to higher retail prices for consumers). The tendency for interchange rates to rise to high levels is most apparent in unregulated jurisdictions like the United States where credit card interchange rates in the MasterCard system are as high as 3.25 per cent plus 10 cents, implying that – after scheme fees and acquirer margin – some merchants may pay over 3½ per cent in merchant service fees for high rewards cards. The past decade has also seen a decline in transparency for some end users of the card systems, partly because of the increased complexity and the wider range of interchange fee categories. In particular, merchants that do not benefit from ‘strategic’ rates face much higher interchange rates and payment costs than ‘preferred’ merchants and may have no transparency over the cost of particular transactions. A standard Visa or MasterCard credit card will have an interchange cost for ‘non-preferred’ merchants of 0.25–0.30 per cent, while the highest level of premium card will have an interchange cost of up to 2.0 per cent for those merchants, with merchants typically having little ability to distinguish between these cards or to respond in terms of acceptance decisions. In 2003 the RBA introduced benchmarks intended to prevent the significant upward pressure on interchange rates seen in many markets. Contrary to some claims at the time that limiting interchange fees would affect the viability of card systems, the Australian cards market has continued to grow strongly and innovation has thrived. The RBA's reforms have been supported by the leading Australian consumer and merchant organisations. Following the reforms, a number of other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, have also regulated interchange fees. What are the RBA's new interchange standards? The weighted-average benchmarks remain the primary element of interchange regulation. The weighted-average benchmark for credit cards remains at 0.50 per cent. The weighted-average benchmark for debit cards has been lowered from 12 cents to 8 cents, effective 1 July 2017, consistent with the fall in average transaction values since the debit benchmark was introduced. The weighted-average benchmarks are supplemented by caps on any individual interchange fee within a scheme's schedule. No credit card interchange fee is permitted to exceed 0.80 per cent and no debit interchange fee is permitted to exceed 15 cents if levied as a fixed amount or 0.20 per cent if levied as a percentage amount. These changes are expected to significantly reduce the extent to which small and medium-sized merchants are disadvantaged relative to preferred merchants in the MasterCard and Visa interchange systems. The credit card interchange standard has been modified so that issuance of American Express companion cards is subject to the same interchange fee regulation that applies to the MasterCard and Visa systems. In particular, interchange fees are defined to also include the interchange-like ‘issuer fees’ paid by American Express to card-issuing banks as an incentive to issue cards. In addition, both companion card issuance and traditional ‘four-party’ issuance (in the eftpos, MasterCard and Visa systems) are subject to rules on ‘other net payments’ to issuers, so as to prevent any circumvention of the interchange standards. transactions on prepaid cards are included with debit cards in the observance of the debit benchmark. The cards market has continued to thrive under regulated interchange fees and Australia is recognised as one of the most innovative markets globally. Based on the experience of the earlier reforms, the RBA is confident that these reforms will contribute to a more competitive and efficient payments system and will not adversely affect the development of the cards market in Australia. How will the RBA's changes affect my credit card? There should be little effect on interchange payments on standard consumer cards and therefore only limited changes to other aspects (e.g. interest rates, interest-free periods) of such cards. However, the new standard is likely to result in some reductions in the generosity of rewards programs on premium and companion cards for consumers. Some adjustment in annual fees on these cards is also possible. Commercial and corporate card products often provide significant benefits free of charge to the company holding the card. It is possible that there will be changes to either the pricing or services provided by these products. These changes are part of the process of improving price signals to cardholders and creating a more efficient and lower-cost payments system. How will the RBA's changes affect my debit or prepaid card? The new standard has required schemes to reduce the high interchange rates that applied to some premium and commercial debit and prepaid cards. While it is currently unusual for rewards to be provided on debit and prepaid cards, some adjustments to product offerings for premium and commercial cards is possible. Interchange rates on standard cards are likely to be largely unaffected, so it is unlikely that there will be substantial changes to arrangements for most transaction accounts. More broadly, the changes to the interchange standards, especially on debit cards, should be reflected in lower merchant service fees and some merchants may decide to remove minimum spending requirements on cards, so consumers may find that they can use their cards for a greater range of transactions. I generally use payment methods other than cards. How will the RBA's changes affect me? Users of other payment methods are likely to benefit from the changes since the reforms will reduce the extent to which people using lower-cost payment methods cross-subsidise users of higher-cost methods (such as super-premium credit cards). The reforms will place downward pressure on the prices of goods and services faced by all consumers. Looking ahead, the RBA's interchange reforms will make it more likely that new payment methods are able to emerge. Interchange fees are used by the large card schemes to encourage banks to issue their cards and to encourage consumers to use those cards rather than some other payment method. Reforms that limit the upward pressure on interchange fees will make it easier for new players to compete. How will the RBA's changes affect credit unions, building societies and other small financial institutions? Most smaller financial institutions have tended to focus on offering credit card products in the low-fee and low-rate sectors of the market. While a few offer ‘premium’ rewards cards, most typically do not issue cards with extensive rewards that attract very high interchange fees. The smaller institutions do not issue American Express companion cards. The new interchange standard will have the largest effect on the high interchange categories applying to rewards cards and are likely to result in only small changes to interchange rates on standard cards. Hence, there should be little, if any, effect on interchange revenues of the smaller institutions, so little need for change to their business models. I am a small merchant. How do the RBA's changes affect me? Small and medium-sized merchants who do not benefit from preferred interchange rates previously bore the full cost of the high interchange rates on premium and commercial cards issued in the MasterCard and Visa systems. Accordingly, they should see a material reduction in merchant service fees from the RBA's reforms. This should improve their competitiveness relative to larger merchants who benefit from low interchange rates on all their card transactions. Merchants will also receive easy-to-understand information on the cost of payments for the different types of cards they accept. This should contribute to downward pressure on payment costs and will enable merchants to make more informed decisions about whether to accept higher-cost payment methods and, if so, whether to surcharge them. If merchants do decide to surcharge, they will have clear information on the maximum permissible surcharge for each payment method. Why are ‘companion cards’ subject to regulation? The RBA regulated interchange fees (payments from a merchant's bank to a cardholder's bank) in the MasterCard and Visa systems in the early 2000s because it was concerned about their use to drive up payment costs and their effect on payment choices by consumers. The card payment systems operated by American Express and Diners Club did not use interchange fees given that American Express and Diners Club maintained the relationship with both the cardholder and the merchant, without the involvement of banks. Since then, American Express has implemented a new model under which some cards (companion cards) are issued by banks rather than American Express itself. This model involves payments from American Express to banks to support issuance, along with more generous rewards programs than those typically available for MasterCard and Visa cards. These payments are ultimately funded by merchants and perform a function very similar to that of interchange fees. But to date they have been unregulated while interchange fees have been subject to a regulatory cap. The RBA's new approach of regulating payments to issuers in American Express companion card arrangements will restore competitive neutrality between these cards and the MasterCard and Visa systems, and reduce the effect of payments to issuers on cardholder payment choices. How will the RBA's standards affect the way that prepaid cards, including gift cards, are labelled? From 1 July 2017, all prepaid cards that are issued by participants in the designated eftpos, MasterCard and Visa schemes that are capable of being visually identified as prepaid cards must be so identified. Where a prepaid card is clearly identified as a gift card, it does not also need to be separately labelled as a prepaid card.

https://rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of-card-payments-regulation/q-and-a/card-payments-regulation-qa-conclusions-paper.html

Does a Pyrethrin-Based Spray Kill Gnats? Pyrethrins rapidly decompose after exposure to light and air. Fungus gnats are tiny insects that can quickly become a huge nuisance in outdoor areas during stretches of cool, wet weather. Harmless to people, pets and landscaping plants, adult gnat populations quickly get out of control because each female can lay up to 300 eggs, with each egg hatching in about three days. Pyrethrin-based insecticidal sprays can help you control extreme gnat infestations, but you must start treatment as soon as you notice the pests. Pyrethrins are natural, botanical pesticides derived from the flowers of certain chrysanthemums. The blooms are harvested and typically dried or ground into powder. Adult fungus gnats are highly susceptible to pyrethrins, which work as a contact poison that rapidly penetrates the insect's nervous system so it can't fly or move around. Although gnats drop almost immediately after you spray them, they don't always die. Gnats, like other insects, possess an enzyme that quickly detoxifies the pyrethrins, which allows some gnats to recover after initially being knocked down. Because of this, many pyrethrin-based products also contain a petroleum-derived synergist or carbamate to slow down that enzyme's action. Many pyrethrin products come in ready-to-spray formulations that make outdoor treatment easy. Pyrethrin-based sprays quickly reduce fungus gnat populations, but control is typically temporary. New adult gnats emerge every day, so be prepared to spray affected plants about every three days for at least 14 days to get rid of the pests. After reading the instructions on the product's label, attach a container of ready-to-spray, pyrethrin-based insecticide to a garden hose. Once you turn on the water, it automatically mixes with the chemicals to form the correct application dosage. Hold the container 18 to 24 inches away from the target plant and thoroughly spray the tops and undersides of the leaves. Spray the surface of the soil around gnat-infested plants as well. Allow the solution to completely dry before reentering the treated area. For optimal control results, use a pyrethrin spray only when rain isn't predicted for your area for at least 24 hours. Pyrethrin can cause itching, irritation or a burning sensation if it makes contact with skin, so reduce your risk of exposure by wearing protective clothing, including long sleeves, pants, socks and shoes, a face mask, goggles and rubber or latex gloves. Start spraying for gnats at the farthest corner of your target treatment area and work your way backward to avoid walking through sprayed areas. Spray pyrethrin products when the air is calm to avoid drift. Pyrethrin is highly toxic to honey bees, so spray plants just before sunup or at twilight to avoid harming the pollinating insects. Mature fungus gnats range in size from 1/15 to 1/2 inch long and have clear to pale gray wings. Although nuisances, they consume only liquids such as flower nectar and water. Fungus gnats are pretty weak fliers that prefer sticking close to their host plants. The legless larvae have clear to white bodies and black heads. They prefer feeding on fungi, algae and other decaying organic matter, which means they often infest soils, compost piles, mulch and yard litter. They occasionally feed on small feeder roots and root hairs as well, but don't usually cause severe enough damage in an outdoor setting to warrant treatment. Kelsey, Amber. "Does a Pyrethrin-Based Spray Kill Gnats?" Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/pyrethrinbased-spray-kill-gnats-92121.html. Accessed 24 April 2019.

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/pyrethrinbased-spray-kill-gnats-92121.html

The messaging upstart's track record shows why its Spectacles video-recording sunglasses shouldn't be taken lightly, even if big questions remain. Snapchat -- or Snap Inc., as it now calls itself -- has become a $20 billion company in the face of constant doubting from consumers and pundits who looked at its messaging app, shook their heads and said something to the effect of "I don't get it" or "This is a gimmick." That's worth keeping in mind when reacting to its Spectacles video-recording sunglasses. Spectacles, unveiled on Friday evening in a Wall Street Journal column, costs $130, comes in three colors and lets users record up to 10 seconds of video by tapping a button on the glasses. The video is recorded in circular, rather than rectangular, form and is taken by a lens with a relatively wide 115-degree field-of-view. As one would expect, Spectacles uses wireless links to pair with smartphones. Snap founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is trying to downplay near-term expectations for the glasses, referring to them as a toy and promising to take a slow approach to commercializing them. "It's about us figuring out if it fits into people's lives and seeing how they like it," he says. Still, it's worth remembering the Snapchat app itself was dismissed as a gimmick -- nothing more than a way for teenagers to share pictures they didn't want their parents to see, and which wouldn't be permanently stored -- not too long ago. The same has held for subsequent features such as the ability to draw and write text on top of shared pictures, the ability to create "Stories" whose content vanishes after 24 hours and the ability to add face-altering "lenses" to photos and videos. In spite of the frequent derision, Snapchat has grown to have more than 150 million users (more than Twitter (TWTR - Get Report) ), a large portion of whom are in their 20s and 30s rather than just teens. It's also now avidly used as a promotional platform by many celebrities and media firms, and its parent is reportedly aiming for at least $300 million in 2016 revenue. By creating a platform where shared content by and large isn't saved, and where users don't have to worry about likes and comments, Snap has carved out a unique social media and messaging niche and become a thorn in Facebook's (FB - Get Report) side, particularly among younger consumers. If it's able to reach lower price points, win over third-party hardware makers and sidestep the privacy and image concerns that have plagued Alphabet's (GOOGL - Get Report) Google Glass, Spectacles could provide another means of expanding Snap's reach. Facebook and Alphabet are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells FB or GOOGL? Learn more now. Limited as they are right now, Spectacles fulfill one of the goals Google Glass has long had: To let users do things they typically rely on a smartphone for while keeping both of their hands free. As the WSJ writers, "as you record, your hands are free to pet dogs, hug babies or flail around at a concert. You can reach your arms out to people you're filming, instead of holding your phone up, as Spiegel describes it, 'like a wall in front of your face.'" Moreover, Snap is going to great lengths to avoid having Spectacles viewed as a product for geeks, the way Glass has been -- just see this YouTube video for the glasses if you need proof. At the same time, just as Glass has sought to do much more than record photos and video, Spiegel hints Spectacles could have a larger set of use cases (accessing information? conducting e-commerce transactions?) if they become widely adopted as an image-recording tool. Unlike Google with Glass, Snap is taking a bottoms-up approach to the wearables market, creating a cheap, simple device that can take over a core smartphone feature and potentially expanding its feature set in time. The company's decision to simultaneously rename itself Snap is also telling. In addition to providing a more serious-sounding corporate moniker ahead of an expected IPO, the former Snapchat's new name points to a future where the company sees itself less as a provider of ephemeral messaging apps than as a provider of solutions for sharing what people see in the world around them via camera lenses. Facebook, which depends so heavily on the photo and video sharing of its users to drive engagement, and whose attempts to create rivals to Snapchat have failed to date, has to be watching carefully. This is particularly true given how the sharing of personally-created content on Facebook news feeds has been pressured by the growing popularity of messaging apps in general. For now, Spectacles is still far more an unfinished experiment by a quirky upstart than a threat to Facebook or anyone else. But that upstart's history of fending off much bigger rivals and striking gold where few expected means it's worth taking seriously.

https://www.thestreet.com/story/13752160/1/snapchat-s-new-glasses-look-like-a-gimmick-but-facebook-probably-isn-t-laughing.html

Raster of multiple polygon associating values in R? I am new to R-Gis. Here is what I need to do, I need to make a raster inside the larger polygon (image above) each cell has to be 10x10 m, mask it to cut cells outside the the larger polygon and then assign a different value for each cell in the smaller polygons. Furthermore, I'd like to have a list (dataframe) with the coordinate of the center of each cell and the value associated to it. First, you cannot arbitrary assign a desired projection, you need to actually transform the data into a different projection. Here we assign the correct projection and then transform the data into a UTM projection. It will also be easier to work with a SpatialPolygonsDataFrame so, we will coerce into this class as well. utm = "+proj=utm +zone=23 +south +ellps=WGS84 +towgs84=0,0,0,0,0,0,0 +units=m +no_defs" Now, we can create an empty raster to use in rasterizing your polygons. The result will be a unique raster value for each polygon. To get at the coordinates of the raster cells you can just coerce to a SpatialPointsDataFrame. The coordinates slot corresponds to each row in the @data slot containing a data.frame of the attributes.

https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/276620/raster-of-multiple-polygon-associating-values-in-r

This article is about the TV series. For other uses, see Twin Peaks (disambiguation). Twin Peaks is an American mystery horror drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch that premiered on April 8, 1990, on ABC. It was one of the top-rated series of 1990, but declining ratings led to its cancellation after its second season in 1991. It nonetheless gained a cult following and has been referenced in a wide variety of media. In subsequent years, Twin Peaks is often listed among the greatest television series of all time. The series follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in the fictional suburban town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The show's narrative draws on elements of detective fiction, but its uncanny tone, supernatural elements, and campy, melodramatic portrayal of eccentric characters also draw on American soap opera and horror tropes. Like much of Lynch's work, it is distinguished by surrealism, offbeat humor, and distinctive cinematography. The acclaimed score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti with Lynch. The success of the show sparked a media franchise, and the series was followed by a 1992 feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, that serves as a prequel to the series. Additional tie-in books were also released. Following a hiatus of over 25 years, the show returned in 2017 with a third season on Showtime, marketed as Twin Peaks: The Return. The season was directed by Lynch and written by Lynch and Frost, and starred many original cast members, including MacLachlan. Season one of Twin Peaks focuses on the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer (played by Sheryl Lee, pictured in 1990). In 1989, the logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington. When Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and Dr. Will Hayward arrive, the body is identified as homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A badly injured second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted under her fingernail. Cooper informs the community that Laura's death matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in southwestern Washington the previous year, and that evidence indicates the killer lives in Twin Peaks. The authorities discover through Laura's diary that she has been living a double life. She was cheating on her boyfriend, football captain Bobby Briggs, with biker James Hurley, and prostituting herself with the help of truck driver Leo Johnson and drug dealer Jacques Renault. Laura was also addicted to cocaine, which she obtained by coercing Bobby into doing business with Jacques. Laura's father, attorney Leland Palmer, suffers a nervous breakdown. Her best friend, Donna Hayward, begins a relationship with James. With the help of Laura's cousin Maddy Ferguson, Donna and James discover that Laura's psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Jacoby, was obsessed with Laura, but he is proven innocent of the murder. Hotelier Ben Horne, the richest man in Twin Peaks, plans to destroy the town's lumber mill along with its owner Josie Packard, and murder his lover (Josie's sister-in-law), Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie), so that he can purchase the land at a reduced price and complete a development project, Ghostwood. Horne's sultry, troubled daughter, Audrey, becomes infatuated with Cooper and spies for clues in an effort to gain his affections. Cooper has a dream in which he is approached by a one-armed otherworldly being who calls himself MIKE. MIKE says that Laura's murderer is a similar entity, Killer BOB, a feral, denim-clad man with long gray hair. Cooper finds himself decades older with Laura and a dwarf in a red business suit, who engages in coded dialogue with Cooper. The next morning, Cooper tells Truman that, if he can decipher the dream, he will know who killed Laura. Cooper and the sheriff's department find the one-armed man from Cooper's dream, a traveling shoe salesman named Phillip Gerard. Gerard knows a Bob, the veterinarian who treats Renault's pet bird. Cooper interprets these events to mean that Renault is the murderer, and with Truman's help, tracks Renault to One-Eyed Jack's, a brothel owned by Horne across the border in Canada. He lures Jacques Renault back onto U.S. soil to arrest him, but Renault is shot while trying to escape and is hospitalized. Leland, learning that Renault has been arrested, sneaks into the hospital and murders him. The same night, Horne orders Leo to burn down the lumber mill with Catherine trapped inside and has Leo gunned down by Hank Jennings to ensure Leo's silence. Cooper returns to his room following Jacques's arrest and is shot by a masked gunman. After solving the murder of Laura Palmer, Kyle MacLachlan's (pictured here in 1991) character of Dale Cooper stays in Twin Peaks to investigate further. Lying hurt in his hotel room, Cooper has a vision in which a giant appears and reveals three clues: "There is a man in a smiling bag"; "The owls are not what they seem"; and "Without chemicals, he points." He takes Cooper's gold ring and explains that when Cooper understands the three premonitions, his ring will be returned. Leo Johnson survives his shooting but is brain-damaged. Catherine Martell disappears, presumed killed in the mill fire. Leland Palmer, whose hair has turned white overnight, returns to work but behaves erratically. Cooper deduces that the "man in the smiling bag" is the corpse of Jacques Renault in a body bag. Donna befriends an agoraphobic orchid grower named Harold Smith whom Laura entrusted with a second, secret diary she kept. Harold catches Donna and Maddy attempting to steal the diary from him and hangs himself in despair. Cooper and the sheriff's department take possession of Laura's secret diary, and learn that BOB, a friend of her father's, had been sexually abusing her since childhood and she used drugs to cope. They initially suspect that the killer is Ben Horne and arrest him, but Leland Palmer is revealed to viewers to be BOB's host when he brutally kills Maddy. Cooper begins to doubt Horne's guilt, so he gathers all of his suspects in the belief that he will receive a sign to help him identify the killer. The Giant appears and confirms that Leland is BOB's host and Laura's and Maddy's killer, giving Cooper back his ring. Cooper and Truman take Leland into custody. In control of Leland's body, BOB admits to a string of murders, before forcing Leland to commit suicide. Leland, as he dies, is freed of BOB's influence and begs for forgiveness. BOB's spirit disappears into the woods in the form of an owl and the lawmen wonder if he will reappear. Cooper is set to leave Twin Peaks when he is framed for drug trafficking by Jean Renault and is suspended from the FBI. Renault holds Cooper responsible for the death of his brothers, Jacques and Bernard. Jean Renault is killed in a shootout with police, and Cooper is cleared of all charges. Windom Earle, Cooper's former mentor and FBI partner, escapes from a mental institution and comes to Twin Peaks. Cooper had previously been having an affair with Earle's wife, Caroline, while she was under his protection as a witness to a federal crime. Earle murdered Caroline and wounded Cooper. He now engages Cooper in a twisted game of chess where Earle murders someone whenever a piece is captured. Investigating BOB's origin and whereabouts with the help of Major Garland Briggs, Cooper learns of the existence of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge, two extra-dimensional realms whose entrances are somewhere in the woods surrounding Twin Peaks. Catherine returns to town in yellowface, having survived the mill fire, and manipulates Ben Horne into signing the Ghostwood project over to her. Andrew Packard, Josie's husband, is revealed to be still alive. Josie Packard is revealed to be the person who shot Cooper at the end of the first season. Andrew forces Josie to confront his business rival and her tormentor from Hong Kong, the sinister Thomas Eckhardt. Josie kills Eckhardt but she mysteriously dies when Truman and Cooper try to apprehend her. Cooper falls in love with a new arrival in town, Annie Blackburn. Earle captures the brain-damaged Leo for use as a henchman and abandons his chess game with Cooper. When Annie wins the Miss Twin Peaks contest, Earle kidnaps her and takes her to the entrance to the Black Lodge, whose power he seeks to use for himself. Through a series of clues Cooper discovers the entrance to the Black Lodge, which turns out to be the strange, red-curtained room from his dream. He is greeted by the Man From Another Place, the Giant, and Laura Palmer, who each give Cooper cryptic messages. Searching for Annie and Earle, Cooper encounters doppelgängers of various people, including Maddy Ferguson and Leland Palmer. Cooper finds Earle, who demands Cooper's soul in exchange for Annie's life. Cooper agrees but BOB appears and takes Earle's soul for himself. BOB then turns to Cooper, who is chased through the lodge by a doppelgänger of himself. Outside the lodge, Andrew Packard, Pete Martell and Audrey Horne are caught in an explosion at a bank vault, a trap laid by the dead Eckhardt. Cooper and Annie reappear in the woods, both injured. Annie is taken to hospital but Cooper recovers in his room at the Great Northern Hotel. It becomes clear that the "Cooper" who emerged from the Lodge is in fact his doppelgänger, under BOB's control. He smashes his head into a bathroom mirror and laughs maniacally. On October 6, 2014, it was announced that a limited series would air on Showtime. David Lynch and Mark Frost wrote all the episodes, and Lynch directed. Frost emphasized that the new episodes are not a remake or reboot but a continuation of the series. The episodes are set in the present day, and the passage of 25 years is an important element in the plot. Most of the original cast returns, including Kyle MacLachlan, Mädchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, and several others. Additions include Jeremy Davies, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Matthew Lillard, and Naomi Watts. The limited series began filming in September 2015 and was completed by April 2016. It was shot continuously from a single, long-shooting script before being edited into separate episodes. The series premiered on May 21, 2017, and consists of 18 episodes. In the 1980s, Mark Frost worked for three years as a writer for the television police drama Hill Street Blues, which featured a large cast and extended story lines. Following his success with The Elephant Man (1980) and Blue Velvet in 1986, David Lynch was hired by a Warner Bros. executive to direct a film about the life of Marilyn Monroe, based on the best-selling book Goddess. Lynch recalls being "sort of interested. I loved the idea of this woman in trouble, but I didn't know if I liked it being a real story." Lynch and Frost first worked together on the Goddess screenplay and although the project was dropped by Warner Bros., they became good friends. They went on to work as writer and director for One Saliva Bubble, a film with Steve Martin attached to star, but it was never made either. Lynch's agent, Tony Krantz, encouraged him to do a television show. He took Lynch to Nibblers restaurant in Los Angeles and said, "You should do a show about real life in America—your vision of America the same way you demonstrated it in Blue Velvet." Lynch got an "idea of a small-town thing", and though he and Frost were not keen on it, they decided to humor Krantz. Frost wanted to tell "a sort of Dickensian story about multiple lives in a contained area that could sort of go perpetually." Originally, the show was to be titled North Dakota and set in the Plains region of North Dakota. After Frost, Krantz, and Lynch rented a screening room in Beverly Hills and screened Peyton Place, they decided to develop the town before its inhabitants. Due to the lack of forests and mountains in North Dakota, the title was changed from North Dakota to Northwest Passage (the title of the pilot episode), and the location to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Washington. They then drew a map and decided that there would be a lumber mill in the town. Then they came up with an image of a body washing up on the shore of a lake. Lynch remembers, "We knew where everything was located and that helped us determine the prevailing atmosphere and what might happen there." Frost remembers that he and Lynch came up with the notion of the girl next door leading a "desperate double life" that would end in murder. The idea was inspired, in part, by the unsolved 1908 murder of Hazel Irene Drew in Sand Lake, New York. Lynch and Frost pitched the idea to ABC during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike in a ten-minute meeting with the network's drama head, Chad Hoffman, with nothing more than this image and a concept. According to the director, the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was initially going to be in the foreground, but would recede gradually as viewers got to know the other townsfolk and the problems they were having. Lynch and Frost wanted to mix a police investigation with a soap opera. ABC liked the idea and asked Lynch and Frost to write a screenplay for the pilot episode. They had been talking about the project for three months and wrote the screenplay in 10 days. Frost wrote more verbal characters, like Benjamin Horne, while Lynch was responsible for Agent Cooper. According to the director, "He says a lot of the things I say." ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard ordered the two-hour pilot for a possible fall 1989 series. He left the position in March 1989 as Lynch went into production. They filmed the pilot for million with an agreement with ABC that they would shoot an additional "ending" to it so that it could be sold directly to video in Europe as a feature film if the TV show was not picked up. ABC's Robert Iger and his creative team took over, saw the dailies, and met with Frost and Lynch to get the arc of the stories and characters. Although Iger liked the pilot, he had difficulty persuading the rest of the network executives. Iger suggested showing it to a more diverse, younger group, who liked it, and the executive subsequently convinced ABC to buy seven episodes at .1 million apiece. Some executives figured that the show would never get on the air or that it might run as a seven-hour mini-series, but Iger planned to schedule it for the spring. The final showdown occurred during a bi-coastal conference call between Iger and a room full of New York executives; Iger won, and Twin Peaks was on the air. Each episode took a week to shoot and after directing the second episode, Lynch went off to complete Wild at Heart while Frost wrote the remaining segments.Standards and Practices had a problem with only one scene from the first season: an extreme close-up in the pilot of Cooper's hand as he slid tweezers under Laura's fingernail and removed a tiny "R". They wanted the scene to be shorter because it made them uncomfortable, but Frost and Lynch refused and the scene remained. Veteran film actress Piper Laurie (pictured here in 1990) helped cement the Twin Peaks cast. Twin Peaks features members of a loose ensemble of Lynch's favorite character actors, including Jack Nance, Kyle MacLachlan, Grace Zabriskie, and Everett McGill. Isabella Rossellini, who had worked with Lynch on Blue Velvet was originally cast as Giovanna Packard, but she dropped out of the production before shooting began on the pilot episode. The character was then reconceived as Josie Packard, of Chinese ethnicity, and the role given to actress Joan Chen. It casts several veteran actors who had risen to fame in the 1950s and 1960s, including 1950s film stars Richard Beymer, Piper Laurie, and Russ Tamblyn. Other veteran actors included British actor James Booth (Zulu), former The Mod Squad star Peggy Lipton, and Michael Ontkean who co-starred in the 1970s crime drama The Rookies. Kyle MacLachlan was cast as Agent Dale Cooper. Stage actor Warren Frost, father of Mark Frost, was cast as Dr. Will Hayward. Due to budget constraints, Lynch intended to cast a local girl from Seattle, reportedly "just to play a dead girl". The local girl ended up being Sheryl Lee. Lynch stated "But no one—not Mark, me, anyone—had any idea that she could act, or that she was going to be so powerful just being dead." And then, while Lynch shot the home movie that James takes of Donna and Laura, he realized that Lee had something special. "She did do another scene—the video with Donna on the picnic—and it was that scene that did it." As a result, Sheryl Lee became a semi-regular addition to the cast, appearing in flashbacks as Laura, and portraying another, recurring character: Maddy Ferguson, Laura's similar-looking cousin. The character of Phillip Gerard's appearance in the pilot episode was originally intended to be only a "kind of homage to The Fugitive. The only thing he was gonna do was be in this elevator and walk out," according to David Lynch. However, when Lynch wrote the "Fire walk with me" speech, he imagined Al Strobel, who played Gerard, reciting it in the basement of the Twin Peaks hospital—a scene that appeared in the European version of the pilot episode, and surfaced later in Agent Cooper's dream sequence. Gerard's full name, Phillip Michael Gerard, is also a reference to Lieutenant Phillip Gerard, a character in The Fugitive. Lynch met Michael J. Anderson in 1987. After seeing him in a short film, Lynch wanted to cast the actor in the title role in Ronnie Rocket, but that project failed to get made. Richard Beymer was cast as Ben Horne because he had known Johanna Ray, Lynch's casting director. Lynch was familiar with Beymer's work in the 1961 film West Side Story and was surprised that Beymer was available for the role. Set dresser Frank Silva was cast as the mysterious "Bob". Lynch himself recalls that the idea originated when he overheard Silva moving furniture around in the bedroom set, and then heard a woman warning Silva not to block himself in by moving furniture in front of the door. Lynch was struck with an image of Silva in the room. When he learned that Silva was an actor, he filmed two panning shots, one with Silva at the base of the bed, and one without; he did not yet know how he would use this material. Later that day, during the filming of Sarah Palmer having a vision, the camera operator told Lynch that the shot was ruined because "Frank [Silva] was reflected in the mirror." Lynch comments, "Things like this happen and make you start dreaming. And one thing leads to another, and if you let it, a whole other thing opens up." Lynch used the panning shot of Silva in the bedroom, and the shot featuring Silva's reflection, in the closing scenes of the European version of the pilot episode. Silva's reflection in the mirror can also be glimpsed during the scene of Sarah's vision at the end of the original pilot, but it is less clear. A close-up of Silva in the bedroom later became a significant image in episodes of the TV series. The score for Twin Peaks has received acclaim; The Guardian wrote that it "still marks the summit of TV soundtracks." In fall 1989, composer Angelo Badalamenti and Lynch created the score for the show. In 20 minutes they produced the signature theme for the series. Badalamenti called it the "Love Theme from Twin Peaks". Lynch told him, "You just wrote 75% of the score. It's the mood of the whole piece. It is Twin Peaks." While creating the score, Lynch often described the moods or emotions he wanted the music to evoke, and Badalamenti began to play the piano. In the scenes dominated by young men, they are accompanied by music that Badalamenti called Cool Jazz. The characters' masculinity was enhanced by finger-snapping, "cocktail-lounge electric piano, pulsing bass, and lightly brushed percussion." A handful of the motifs were borrowed from the Julee Cruise album Floating into the Night, which was written in large part by Badalamenti and Lynch and was released in 1989. This album also serves as the soundtrack to another Lynch project, Industrial Symphony No. 1, a live Cruise performance also featuring Michael J. Anderson ("The Man from Another Place"). The song "Falling" (sans vocals) became the theme to the show, and the songs "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart", "The Nightingale", "The World Spins", and "Into the Night" (found in their full versions on the album) were all, except the latter, used as Cruise's roadhouse performances during the show's run. The lyrics for all five songs were written by Lynch. A second volume of the soundtrack was released on October 30, 2007, to coincide with the Definitive Gold Box DVD set. In March 2011, Lynch began releasing The Twin Peaks Archive - a collection of previously unavailable tracks from the series and the film via his website. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper states, in the pilot episode, that Twin Peaks is "five miles south of the Canadian border, and twelve miles west of the state line". This places it in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Lynch and Frost started their location search in Snoqualmie, Washington, on the recommendation of a friend of Frost. They found all of the locations that they had written into the pilot episode. The towns of Snoqualmie, North Bend and Fall City – which became the primary filming locations for stock Twin Peaks exterior footage – are about an hour's drive from the town of Roslyn, Washington, the town used for the series Northern Exposure. Many exterior scenes were filmed in wooded areas of Malibu, California. Most of the interior scenes were shot on standing sets in a San Fernando Valley warehouse. The soap opera show-within-the-show Invitation to Love was not shot on a studio set, but in the Ennis House, an architectural landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. Mark Frost and David Lynch made use of repeating and sometimes mysterious motifs such as trees (especially fir and pines), coffee, cherry pie, donuts, owls, logs, ducks, water, fire—and numerous embedded references to other films and TV shows. During the filming of the scene in which Cooper first examines Laura's body, a malfunctioning fluorescent lamp above the table flickered constantly, but Lynch decided not to replace it, since he liked the disconcerting effect that it created. Cooper's dream at the end of the third episode, which became a driving plot point in the series's first season and ultimately held the key to the identity of Laura's murderer, was never scripted. The idea came to Lynch one afternoon after touching the side of a hot car left out in the sun: "I was leaning against a car—the front of me was leaning against this very warm car. My hands were on the roof and the metal was very hot. The Red Room scene leapt into my mind. 'Little Mike' was there, and he was speaking backwards... For the rest of the night I thought only about The Red Room." The footage was originally shot along with the pilot, to be used as the conclusion were it to be released as a feature film. When the series was picked up, Lynch decided to incorporate some of the footage; in the third episode, Cooper, narrating the dream, outlines the shot footage which Lynch did not incorporate, such as Mike shooting Bob and the fact that he is 25 years older when he meets Laura Palmer's spirit. In an attempt to avoid cancellation, the idea of a Cooper possessed by Bob came up and was included in the final episode, but the series was cancelled even before the episode was aired. Before the one and a half hour pilot premiered on TV, a screening was held at the Museum of Broadcasting in Hollywood. Media analyst and advertising executive Paul Schulman said, "I don't think it has a chance of succeeding. It is not commercial, it is radically different from what we as viewers are accustomed to seeing, there's no one in the show to root for." The show's Thursday night time slot had not been a good one for soap operas, as both Dynasty and its short-lived spin-off The Colbys did poorly.Twin Peaks was also up against the hugely successful sitcom Cheers. Initially, the show received a positive response from TV critics. Tom Shales, in The Washington Post, wrote, "Twin Peaks disorients you in ways that small-screen productions seldom attempt. It's a pleasurable sensation, the floor dropping out and leaving one dangling." In The New York Times, John J. O'Connor wrote, "Twin Peaks is not a send-up of the form. Mr. Lynch clearly savors the standard ingredients...but then the director adds his own peculiar touches, small passing details that suddenly, and often hilariously, thrust the commonplace out of kilter."Entertainment Weekly gave the show an "A+" rating and Ken Tucker wrote, "Plot is irrelevant; moments are everything. Lynch and Frost have mastered a way to make a weekly series endlessly interesting."Richard Zoglin in Time magazine said that it "may be the most hauntingly original work ever done for American TV." The two-hour pilot was the highest-rated movie for the 1989–90 season with a 22 rating and was viewed by 33% of the audience. In its first broadcast as a regular one-hour drama series, Twin Peaks scored ABC's highest ratings in four years in its 9:00 pm Thursday time slot. The show also reduced NBC's Cheers's ratings. Twin Peaks had a 16.2 rating with each point equaling 921,000 homes with TVs. The episode also added new viewers because of what ABC's senior vice-president of research, Alan Wurtzel, called "the water cooler syndrome", in which people talk about the series the next day at work. But the show's third episode lost 14% of the audience that had tuned in a week before. That audience had dropped 30% from the show's first appearance on Thursday night. This was a result of competing against Cheers, which appealed to the same demographic that watched Twin Peaks. A production executive from the show spoke of being frustrated with the network's scheduling of the show. "The show is being banged around on Thursday night. If ABC had put it on Wednesday night it could have built on its initial success. ABC has put the show at risk." In response, the network aired the first-season finale on a Wednesday night at 10:00 pm instead of its usual 9:00 pm Thursday slot. The show achieved its best ratings since its third week on the air with a 12.6 and a 22 share of the audience. On May 22, 1990, it was announced that Twin Peaks would be renewed for a second season. During the first and second season, the search for Laura Palmer's killer served as the engine for the plot, and captured the public's imagination, although the creators admitted this was largely a MacGuffin; each episode was really about the interactions between the townsfolk. The unique (and often bizarre) personalities of each citizen formed a web of minutiae that ran contrary to the town's quaint appearance. Adding to the surreal atmosphere was the recurrence of Dale Cooper's dreams, in which the FBI agent is given clues to Laura's murder in a supernatural realm that may or may not be of his imagination. The first season contained only eight episodes (including the two-hour pilot episode), and was considered technically and artistically revolutionary for television at the time, and geared toward reaching the standards of film. Critics have noted that Twin Peaks began the trend of accomplished cinematography now commonplace in today's television dramas. Lynch and Frost maintained tight control over the first season, handpicking all of the directors, including some Lynch had known from his days at the American Film Institute (e.g., Caleb Deschanel and Tim Hunter) and some referred to him by those he knew personally. Lynch and Frost's control lessened in the second season, corresponding with what is generally regarded as a decrease in the show's quality once the identity of Laura Palmer's murderer was revealed. The aforementioned "water cooler effect" put pressure on the show's creators to solve the mystery. Although they claimed to have known from the series' inception the identity of Laura's murderer, Lynch never wanted to solve the murder, while Frost felt that they had an obligation to the audience to solve it. This created tension between the two men. Its ambitious style, paranormal undertones, and engaging murder mystery made Twin Peaks an unexpected hit. Its characters, particularly MacLachlan's Dale Cooper, were unorthodox for a supposed crime drama, as was Cooper's method of interpreting his dreams to solve the crime. During its first season, the show's popularity reached its zenith, and elements of the program seeped into mainstream popular culture, prompting parodies, including one in the 16th-season premiere of Saturday Night Live, hosted by MacLachlan. David Lynch at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards on September 16, 1990, where Twin Peaks was nominated for fourteen awards. He was nominated for directing and co-writing the pilot episode. For its first season, Twin Peaks received fourteen nominations at the 42nd Primetime Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kyle MacLachlan), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Piper Laurie), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Sherilyn Fenn), Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series (David Lynch), Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (David Lynch and Mark Frost), Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series (Harley Peyton), Outstanding Art Direction for a Series, Outstanding Achievement in Main Title Theme Music, Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics, and Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series. Out of its fourteen nominations, it won for Outstanding Costume Design for a Series and Outstanding Editing for a Series – Single Camera Production. For its second season, it received four nominations at the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kyle MacLachlan), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Piper Laurie), Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series, and Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series. At the 48th Golden Globe Awards, it won for Best TV Series – Drama, Kyle MacLachlan won for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Drama, Piper Laurie won for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV; while Sherilyn Fenn was nominated in the same category as Laurie. The pilot episode was ranked 25th on TV Guide's 1997 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. It placed 49th on Entertainment Weekly's "New TV Classics" list. In 2004 and 2007, Twin Peaks was ranked 20th and 24th on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever, and in 2002, it was ranked 45th of the "Top 50 Television Programs of All Time" by the same guide. In 2007, UK broadcaster Channel 4 ranked Twin Peaks 9th on their list of the "50 Greatest TV Dramas". Also that year, Time included the show on their list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time".Empire listed Twin Peaks as the 24th best TV show in their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time". In 2012, Entertainment Weekly listed the show at no. 12 in the "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years", saying, "The show itself was only fitfully brilliant and ultimately unfulfilling, but the cult lives, fueled by nostalgia for the extraordinary pop phenomenon it inspired, for its significance to the medium (behold the big bang of auteur TV!), and for a sensuous strangeness that possesses you and never lets you go." The series has been nominated for the TCA Heritage Award six consecutive years since 2010. It was ranked 20th on The Hollywood Reporter's list of Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows. With the resolution of Twin Peaks' main drawing point (Laura Palmer's murder) in the middle of the second season, and with subsequent story lines becoming more obscure and drawn out, public interest began to wane. This discontent, coupled with ABC changing its timeslot on a number of occasions, led to a huge drop in the show's ratings after being one of the most-watched television programs in the United States in 1990. A week after the season's 15th episode placed 85th in the ratings out of 89 shows, ABC put Twin Peaks on indefinite hiatus, a move that usually leads to cancellation. An organized letter-writing campaign, dubbed COOP (Citizens Opposed to the Offing of Peaks), attempted to save the show from cancellation. The campaign was successful, as ABC agreed to air the remaining six episodes to finish the season. But due to the Gulf War, Twin Peaks was moved from its usual time slot "for six weeks out of eight" in early 1991, according to Frost, preventing the show from maintaining audience interest. According to Frost, the main storyline after the resolution of Laura Palmer's murder was planned to be the second strongest element from the first season that audiences responded to: The relationship between Agent Cooper and Audrey Horne. Frost explained that Lara Flynn Boyle, who was romantically involved with Kyle MacLachlan at the time, had effectively vetoed the Audrey-Cooper relationship, forcing the writers to come up with alternative storylines to fill the gap. Sherilyn Fenn corroborated this claim in a 2014 interview, stating, "[Boyle] was mad that my character was getting more attention, so then Kyle started saying that his character shouldn't be with my character because it doesn't look good, 'cause I'm too young... I was not happy about it. It was stupid." This meant the artificial extension of secondary storylines, such as James Hurley and Evelyn Marsh, to fill in the space. After ratings began to decline, Agent Cooper was given a new love interest, Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham), to replace the writers' intended romance between him and Audrey Horne. Despite ending on a deliberate audience-baiting cliffhanger, the series finale did not sufficiently boost interest, and the show was not renewed for a third season, leaving the cliffhanger unresolved. Lynch expressed his regret at having resolved the Laura Palmer murder, saying he and Frost had never intended for the series to answer the question and that doing so "killed the goose that laid the golden eggs". Lynch blamed network pressure for the decision to resolve the Palmer storyline prematurely. Frost agreed, noting that people at the network had in fact wanted the killer to be revealed by the end of season one. In 1993, cable channel Bravo acquired the license to rerun the entire series, which began airing in June 1993. These reruns included Lynch's addition of introductions to each episode by the Log Lady and her cryptic musings. Looking back, Frost has admitted that he wished he and Lynch had "worked out a smoother transition" between storylines and that the Laura Palmer story was a "tough act to follow". Regarding the second season, Frost felt that "perhaps the storytelling wasn't quite as taut or as fraught with emotion". Writing for The Atlantic, Mike Mariani wrote that "It would be tough to look at the roster of television shows any given season without finding several that owe a creative debt to Twin Peaks," stating that "Lynch's manipulation of the uncanny, his surreal non-sequiturs, his black humor, and his trademark ominous tracking shots can be felt in a variety of contemporary hit shows. In 2010, the television series Psych paid tribute to the series by reuniting some of the cast in the fifth-season episode, "Dual Spires". The episode's plot is an homage to the Twin Peaks pilot, where the characters of Psych investigate the death of a young girl in a small town called "Dual Spires". The episode also contains several references to the original show. Twin Peaks actors that guest star in the episode are Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook, Robyn Lively, Lenny Von Dohlen, Catherine E. Coulson and Ray Wise. Prior to the airing of the episode, a special event at the Paley Center for Media was held where the actors from both shows discussed the episode. Reviewers and fans of four seasons of Veena Sud's U.S. TV series, The Killing, have noted similarities and borrowed elements from Lynch's Fire Walk with Me and Twin Peaks, and compared Sud and Lynch's works. Carlton Cuse, creator of Bates Motel, cited Twin Peaks as a key inspiration for his series, stating: "We pretty much ripped off Twin Peaks... If you wanted to get that confession, the answer is yes. I loved that show. They only did 30 episodes. Kerry [Ehrin] and I thought we'd do the 70 that are missing." Twin Peaks served as an inspiration for the 1993 video game The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, with director Takashi Tezuka citing the series as the main factor for the creation of the "suspicious" characters that populate the game, as well as the mystery elements of the story. The show has also influenced a number of survival horror and psychological thriller video games—most notably Alan Wake,Deadly Premonition,Silent Hill, and Max Payne. The American animated show Gravity Falls repeatedly referenced the Black Lodge along with other elements of Twin Peaks throughout its run. The song "Laura Palmer" by the band Bastille was written influenced by the "slightly weird, eerie" atmosphere of the show. The series was released on VHS in a six-tape collection on April 16, 1995, however, it did not include the original pilot episode. On December 18, 2001, the first season (episodes 1–7, minus the pilot) of Twin Peaks was released on DVD in Region 1 by Artisan Entertainment. The box set featured digitally remastered video was noted for being the first TV series to have its audio track redone in DTS. The second season release was postponed several times, and the release was originally canceled in 2003 by Artisan due to low sales figures for the season 1 DVD. The second season was finally released in the United States and Canada on April 3, 2007, via Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment/CBS DVD. In July 2013, it was revealed that a Blu-ray version of the complete series would be released. In January 2014, Lynch confirmed the Blu-ray release and that it would contain the pilot, season 1, season 2, and new special features, and possibly the film. It was announced on May 15, 2014, that the Blu-ray of the complete series of Twin Peaks and the film containing over 90 minutes of deleted scenes would be released on July 29, 2014. Online, the series is available through the pay CBS All Access service in full, along with Showtime's "Anytime" service for pay-TV subscribers and its over-the-top separate service. The original series is available for HD streaming via both Hulu and Netflix in the U.S. Hulu also offers The Return, the 18-episode continuation originally aired on Showtime, as an additional-cost subscription option for viewing some of Showtime's programming. During the show's second season, Pocket Books released three official tie-in books, each authored by the show's creators (or their family), which offer a wealth of backstory. The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, written by Lynch's daughter Jennifer Lynch, is the diary as seen in the series and written by Laura, chronicling her thoughts from her twelfth birthday to the days leading up to her death. Frost's brother Scott wrote The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes. Kyle MacLachlan also recorded Diane: The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, which combined audio tracks from various episodes of the series with newly recorded monologues.Welcome to Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town offers information about the history, flora, fauna, and culture of the fictitious town. The Secret History of Twin Peaks, a novel by series co-creator Mark Frost, "places the unexplained phenomena that unfolded in Twin Peaks in a layered, wide-ranging history, beginning with the journals of Lewis and Clark and ending with the shocking events that closed the finale." It was published on October 18, 2016. The 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is a prequel to the TV series. It tells of the investigation into the murder of Teresa Banks and the last seven days in the life of Laura Palmer. Director David Lynch and most of the television cast returned for the film, with the notable exceptions of Lara Flynn Boyle, who declined to return as Laura's best friend Donna Hayward and was replaced by Moira Kelly, and Sherilyn Fenn due to scheduling conflicts. Also, Kyle MacLachlan returned reluctantly as he wanted to avoid typecasting, so his presence in the film is smaller than originally planned. Lynch originally shot about five hours of footage that was subsequently cut down to two hours and fourteen minutes. Most of the deleted scenes feature additional characters from the television series who ultimately did not appear in the finished film. Around ninety minutes of these scenes are included in the complete series Blu-ray that was released on July 29, 2014. Fire Walk with Me was received poorly, especially in comparison to the series. It was greeted at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival with booing from the audience and has received mixed reviews by American critics. It grossed a total of USD .8 million in 691 theaters in its opening weekend and went on to gross a total of .1 million in North America. ^ LeVasseur, Andrea. "Twin Peaks [TV Series]". AllMovie. Retrieved November 19, 2012. ^ Collins, Sean T. (October 26, 2015). "25 Best Horror TV Shows of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 6, 2015. ^ Moldovan, Raluca (June 1, 2015). "'That Show You Like Might Be Coming Back in Style': How Twin Peaks Changed the Face of Contemporary Television". American, British and Canadian Studies Journal. 24 (1): 44–68. doi:10.1515/abcsj-2015-0003. ISSN 1841-964X. ^ Williams, Rebecca (June 3, 2016). "Ontological Security, Authorship, and Resurrection: Exploring Twin Peaks' Social Media Afterlife". Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 143–147. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0029. ISSN 1527-2087. ^ Garner, Ross P. (June 3, 2016). ""The Series That Changed Television"?: Twin Peaks, "Classic" Status, and Temporal Capital" (PDF). Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 137–142. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0020. ISSN 1527-2087. ^ a b Crouch, Ian (October 7, 2014). "Some Thoughts on the Planned Return of Twin Peaks". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 19, 2017. ^ a b Cosgrove-Mather, Bootie (April 26, 2002). "TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows". CBS News. Retrieved October 30, 2007. ^ a b "25 Best Cult TV Shows from the Past 25 Years." Entertainment Weekly. August 3, 2012, p. 40. ^ Sheffield, Rob (September 21, 2016). "100 Greatest Television Shows of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 5, 2016. ^ Lusher, Tim (January 11, 2010). "The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time". The Guardian. Retrieved November 5, 2016. ^ O'Connor, Tom (December 1, 2004). "Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks". Social Semiotics. 14 (3): 309–333. doi:10.1080/10350330408629682. ISSN 1035-0330. ^ Lacey, Stephen (June 3, 2016). "Just Plain Odd: Some Thoughts on Performance Styles in Twin Peaks". Cinema Journal. 55 (3): 126–131. doi:10.1353/cj.2016.0026. ISSN 1527-2087. ^ Dean, Michelle (June 10, 2016). "Twin Peaks' final scene: 25 years on, it's as disturbing as ever". The Guardian. Retrieved February 19, 2017. ^ a b Mariani, Mike (January 23, 2016). "The Remarkable Influence of David Lynch". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 15, 2017. ^ a b Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (March 25, 2010). "Twin Peaks stills marks the summit of TV soundtracks | Music". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved November 25, 2012. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (October 6, 2014). "Twin Peaks Revival to Air on Showtime in 2016". Variety. Retrieved October 6, 2014. ^ a b Andreeva, Nellie (April 25, 2016). "'Twin Peaks': Here Is the Full Cast Of David Lynch's Showtime Reboot". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 26, 2016. ^ Ausiello, Michael (August 11, 2015). "Twin Peaks Revival: Showtime Boss Teases 'Big Surprises' and 'Familiar Faces,' Confirms Fall Start Date". TVLine. Retrieved August 11, 2015. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (January 9, 2017). "'Twin Peaks' Gets Premiere Date, Episode Count On Showtime". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 9, 2017. ^ a b c d e Woodward, Richard B. (April 8, 1990). "When Blue Velvet Meets Hill Street Blues". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ a b c d e f Rodley, Chris (1997). Lynch on Lynch. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-19548-2. ^ a b "Inside Twin Peaks: Mark Frost Interview Live After Episode 9 Aired In 1990 (Video)". WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com. October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014. ^ a b c d e f Patterson, Troy; Jensen, Jeff (Spring 2000). "Our Town". Entertainment Weekly. ^ a b c d e f Chion, Michel (1995). David Lynch. British Film Institute. p. 100. ^ Bushman, David; Givens, Mark (May 11, 2017). "Hazel's brutal murder was all but forgotten. Until she inspired 'Twin Peaks.'". The Washington Post. ^ a b c Fuller, Graham (November 24, 1989). "A Town Like Malice: Maverick Director David Lynch had made a bizarre soap opera for American television". The Independent. ^ Woodward, Richard B. (January 14, 1990). "A Dark Lens on America". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ a b c d Jerome, Jim (April 6, 1990). "The Triumph of Twin Peaks". Entertainment Weekly. ^ a b c Ferris, Glen (February 26, 2010). "20 Years of Twin Peaks: Mark Frost Interview". Screenrush. Retrieved July 23, 2010. ^ a b c d Twin Peaks – The Definitive Gold Box Edition, "Secrets from Another Place" featurette (DVD). Paramount Home Video. October 30, 2007. ^ This was also the first project to reunite Beymer and Russ Tamblyn since West Side Story, in which Tamblyn played the character of Riff. "Secrets from Another Place", a featurette in the Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD release of October 2007. ^ Lynch, David (December 28, 2006). Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. Tarcher. pp. 77–78. ^ Ditum, Nathan (March 22, 2010). "The 29 Greatest Twin Peaks Moments". Total Film. Retrieved October 9, 2014. ^ a b Givens, Ron (April 6, 1990). "Creative Contrasts: Making Moody Music". Entertainment Weekly. ^ "Floating into the Night – Julee Cruise". AllMusic. Retrieved January 16, 2011. ^ "Twin Peaks: Season Two Music And More". Amazon.com. Retrieved January 16, 2011. ^ "New Twin Peaks Songs & Photos At DavidLynch.com". WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com. April 6, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2011. ^ "David Lynch Music Company". DavidLynch.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2011. Retrieved June 10, 2011. ^ Mackie, Drew (October 29, 2012). "A Short History of the Ennis House in Geek Culture". KCET. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2014. ^ Ott, Brian L. (2007). The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 68. ^ Jensen, Jeff (March 28, 2017). "Kyle MacLachlan on suiting up as Agent Cooper again: Twin Peaks revival is a 'journey into the unknown'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 21, 2017. ^ a b c Roush, Matt (April 6, 1990). "High Hopes for Twin Peaks". USA Today. ^ Shale, Tom (April 8, 1990). "Troubling, Transcendent Twin Peaks". The Washington Post. ^ O'Connor, John J. (April 6, 1990). "A Skewed Vision of a Small Town in Twin Peaks". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Tucker, Ken (October 26, 1990). "Twin Peaks". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ "Like Nothing On Earth". Time. April 9, 1990. Retrieved May 7, 2017. ^ Bickelhaupt, Susan (April 12, 1990). "Twin Peaks vs. Cheers". Boston Globe. ^ a b c Carter, Bill (April 16, 1990). "Twin Peaks May Provide a Ratings Edge for ABC". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ a b Carter, Bill (April 28, 1990). "Twin Peaks Clouded By Decline in Viewers". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ "Twin Peaks Finale To Be on a New Night". The New York Times. May 2, 1990. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Carter, Bill (May 25, 1990). "ABC Last in "Sweep" Rating Despite Twin Peaks Finale". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Carter, Bill (May 22, 1990). "Twin Peaks Is Renewed on ABC". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Lyons, Siobhan (April 5, 2017). "Between Two Worlds: Twin Peaks and the Film/Television Divide". Open Library of Humanities. 3 (1). doi:10.16995/olh.89. ISSN 2056-6700. ^ Giltz, Michael (August 23, 2010). "'Twin Peaks' revisited: 'Maybe we shouldn't have solved the mystery'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 8, 2013. ^ Leerhsen, Charles (May 7, 1990). "The Cult of 'Twin Peaks'". Newsweek. ^ a b "Twin Peaks". Emmys.com. Retrieved October 9, 2014. ^ "Twin Peaks". HFPA.org. Retrieved October 9, 2014. ^ McManus, Darragh (July 10, 2014). "Twin Peaks: 10 things you didn't know about TV's strangest series". Irish Independent. Retrieved October 9, 2014. ^ "TV Guide Names the Top Cult Shows Ever". TV Guide. June 29, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2011. ^ Matthewman, Scott (March 6, 2007). "The 50 greatest TV dramas". The Stage. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2007. ^ "Empire Features". Empire. Retrieved November 1, 2010. ^ Travers, Ben (June 4, 2015). "'Empire' and 'Transparent' Top 2015 TCA Award Nominations, 'Twin Peaks' Up for Heritage Award". Indiewire. Retrieved June 5, 2015. ^ "Hollywood's 100 Favorite TV Shows". The Hollywood Reporter. September 16, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2016. ^ "Twin Peaks Canceled As a Saturday Regular". The New York Times. February 16, 1991. Retrieved January 30, 2011. ^ Lavery, David, ed. (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2506-3. Retrieved January 30, 2011. ^ a b Harris, Mark (March 8, 1991). "Saturday Night Dead". Entertainment Weekly. ^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 1 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013. ^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 2 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013. ^ "TMRS: Mark Frost (Twin Peaks) Interview on WFDU (part 3 of 3)".. January 21, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2013. ^ Harris, Will (January 22, 2014). "Sherilyn Fenn talks David Lynch and how Twin Peaks should have ended". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 22, 2014. ^ Jensen, Jeff (October 26, 2007). "David Lynch: Climbing the Peaks". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ "Mark Frost Interview on WFDU". Part 3. Retrieved January 9, 2013. ^ Klein, Richard (January 17, 1993). "Bravo picks up 'Peaks'". Variety. Retrieved January 16, 2011. ^ Rich, Katey. "Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition DVD Review". Cinema Blend. Retrieved January 16, 2011. ^ Moorhouse, Drusilla (December 1, 2010). "Psych's Delicious Tribute to Twin Peaks: This Must Be Where Pies Go When They Die". E! Online. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Hale, Mike (November 30, 2010). "A Series Homage Lovingly Wrapped in Plastic". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Dyess-Nugent, Phil (June 2, 2013). "The Killing: The Jungle"/That You Fear The Most". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Dyess-Nugent, Phil (June 9, 2013). "The Killing: Seventeen". The A.V. Club. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Lyons, Margaret (April 25, 2011). "How The Killing Channeled Twin Peaks Last Night". Vulture. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ "AMC's 'The Killing': A 'Twin Peaks' for a new generation? The network's dark thriller is drawing comparisons to David Lynch's show – and getting rave reviews. What makes it so good?". The Week. April 4, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Patterson, Troy (April 1, 2011). "The Killing: A new crime show has some of that Twin Peaks flair". Slate. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ "Can 'The Killing' Make a Comeback?". The New York Times. March 18, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Lewit, Meghan (June 21, 2011). "From 'Twin Peaks' to 'The Killing,' the Problem of Noir on TV". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Bianculli, David (May 31, 2011). "'The Killing': 'Twin Peaks' Meets '24' On AMC". NPR. Retrieved July 24, 2013. ^ Haithman, Diane (May 10, 2013). "Carlton Cuse On 'Bates Motel's Twin Peaks' & 'Psycho' Heritage". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 11, 2013. ^ "Iwata Asks: The History of Handheld The Legend of Zelda Games – Make All the Characters Suspicious Types". Nintendo of America Inc. January 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2011. ^ Reed, Kristan (May 31, 2005). "Alan Wake". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014. ^ Schilling, Chris (July 7, 2011). "The Cult of Deadly Premonition". Eurogamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014. ^ Kelly, Andy (April 29, 2014). "On The Level: Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 13, 2014. ^ Iwaniuk, Phil (October 11, 2017). "One of Max Payne's greatest moments is its own weird version of Twin Peaks. Did you watch Address Unknown?". GamesRadar. Retrieved October 12, 2017. ^ Weinstock, Spooner. Return To Twin Peaks. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 216–218. ISBN 978-1-137-56384-2. ^ "Bastille, 'Laura Palmer' - Song Stories". NME. April 18, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2018 – via. ^ "Twin Peaks: Episodes 1–29 [VHS]". Amazon.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Lacey, Gord (November 16, 2001). "Twin Peaks – Slight Delay & Press Release". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Lacey, Gord (December 16, 2001). "Twin Peaks – The 1st Season Review". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Lacey, Gord (November 8, 2003). "Twin Peaks – Where is Twin Peaks Season 2?". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ "Twin Peaks: Season 2". Amazon.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014. ^ Tucker, Ken (October 26, 2007). "Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Fowler, Matt (July 23, 2013). "Damn Fine Twin Peaks Blu-ray Set On the Way". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2014. ^ Collura, Scott (January 22, 2014). "David Lynch Shoots Down Twin Peaks Revival Rumor". IGN. Retrieved January 22, 2014. ^ a b "'Twin Peaks': Watch 'Fire Walk With Me' lost scenes before entire series hits Blu-ray – EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. May 15, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014. ^ Marnell, Blair (May 21, 2017). "How To Watch Twin Peaks". IGN. Retrieved December 28, 2017. ^ Carter, Bill (July 24, 1990). "Twin P's of Twin Peaks: Production and Promotion". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010. ^ Coppens, Philip. "Twin Peaks". philipcoppens.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2018. ^ "Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me (1992)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 16, 2011. ^ "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2007. Lavery, David, ed. (1995). Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2506-8. Tropiano, Stephen (2000). TV Towns. New York, NY: TV Books L.L.C. ISBN 978-1-57500-127-2. Hoffman, Eric; Grace, Dominick, eds. (2017). Approaching Twin Peaks: Essays on the Original Series. McFarland Press.

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Help mitigate risk and coach your drivers with Verizon Connect Integrated Video, where the power of HD video, AI and driver data join forces. Context is important for harsh driving events. When unsafe driving behavior occurs, you can view the dash cam video to better understand what happened before and after and provide video evidence in the event of a false claim. You see what’s important to you with AI-classified videos. Smart video technology lets fleet managers know how severe an event was, whether it was a near miss or an actual collision. Take corrective action without sifting through hours of video. Once the engine turns on, the camera system will begin recording and continue to do so until the engine is off. The AI engine begins to review the footage based on driver behavior - hard braking, harsh cornering or hard acceleration trigger. The video clip of the harsh driving event is classified as a collision, dangerous, harsh driving, low risk or undetermined. Fleet owners can watch the video recording in Reveal on the mobile app or desktop or download it for later use. Watch video events on your phone or computer, know who the driver was and where they were with GPS tracking. Plus, you get an alert when a video is available—all on the Reveal platform. Machine learning takes user ratings from the platform to help improve the accuracy of future classifications for everyone. Choose a simple self-install or have our pros do it for you. Does Verizon Connect provide me with fleet dash cameras to use? Yes, our Integrated Video offering includes the hardware. Do I need to have Reveal to use the dashboard cameras? Yes, the dash cameras require customers to have the Verizon Connect Reveal or Reveal Now platform to function and view the footage. Learn more about fleet tracking. What events trigger the dashboard camera? The camera captures video recordings for harsh braking, rapid acceleration or hard cornering. How long does it take from when unsafe driving occurs and when I receive my video? The average turnaround time from when an event occurs and when the video is available to you and/or when you are notified that a video is available is 3-5 minutes. How long do you keep the dash cam footage for? Dash cam footage of driving events is available for download for 90 days from the day of the incident. Yes, you can download a video and save it to your desktop or email it to yourself or someone else. The dash camera will be discreetly installed by professionals on the windshield behind the rear-view mirror of most fleet vehicles and trucks. Typically, this should be no more than 5 inches below the top of the windshield and should not obstruct the driver’s view. How can fleet dash cams help with driver safety? By reviewing video footage of harsh driving events, you can better understand the context of why a driver is making a quick turn, hard stop or fast acceleration. This can help you more specifically coach your drivers to help improve future driving behavior. Do dash camera systems provide benefits through my insurance company? It’s possible that you may receive discounts through your insurance company when you install dash cams. You should check with your provider for more information. Can you live stream a driver’s camera? Our dash cams do not offer live streaming, as our goal is to help fleet managers and business owners focus on the harsh driving events that need their attention. Receiving relevant video clips helps save time, so you don’t have to sift through hours of footage. Do the cameras operate through Wi-Fi? Our dash cams do not require Wi-Fi to operate. Do your fleet cameras have night vision or low-light capability? Our cameras use the natural ambient light in the environment, plus the artificial lighting from the vehicle’s headlights, streetlights, and so on. Combined with HD quality, the camera provides good visibility during both day and nighttime driving.

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1. Cut up vegetables and measure out spice. Cut up kielbasa. 2. In a dutch oven or small stock pot (not non-stick), add kielbasa and brown lightly, making sure there are crispy bits left on the pot. 3. Take out kielbasa and put in fridge to add later. 4. Add garlic and onion. If necessary, add a tiny bit of water to get the crispy bits off the bottom. Cook for a couple of minutes, until pot is clean. Add spices and stir. Add pepper, carrot and celery and cook for a minute or two. 5. Add tomato, beans and bay leaves and stir. Then add water and bouillon to cover. Stir to dissolve the chicken bouillon. 6. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add sausage and heat through. Discard bay leaves.

http://yummyliciousness.blogspot.com/2008/11/kielbasa-bean-soup.html

Hey Anna. I was wanting to get my apartment cleaned. I had new flooring put in, and they made a mess of everything.Hey Anna. I was wanting to get my apartment cleaned. I had new flooring put in, and they made a mess of everything.Hey Anna. I was wanting to get my apartment cleaned. I had new flooring put in, and they made a mess of everything.

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US President: "We've stopped Gaddafi's deadly advance"; NATO to assume full responsibility for Libya operations. WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama told Americans on Monday the United States would work with its allies to hasten the day when Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi leaves power, but would not use force to topple him. In a nationally televised address, Obama -- accused by many lawmakers of failing to explain the US role in the Western air campaign against Gaddafi's loyalists -- made the case for his decision to intervene militarily in the Libya conflict. He cited the US role as guardians of global security saying, "for generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and advocate for human freedom." "Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks." But he also underscored the limits of US military action as he sought to counter criticism that he lacked clear objectives and a credible exit strategy in the conflict. "I can report that we have stopped Gaddafi's deadly advance," Obama told military officers at the National Defense University in Washington, 10 days after ordering US participation in Western-led air strikes. "We will deny the regime arms, cut off its supply of cash, assist the opposition, and work with other nations to hasten the day when Gaddafi leaves power," Obama said. But he added that "it may not happen overnight" and acknowledged that Gaddafi may be able to cling to power. "Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake," he said. Obama spoke on the eve of a 35-nation conference in London to tackle the crisis in the North African oil-exporting country and weigh political options for ending Gaddafi's 41-year rule. Obama's challenge was to define the limited purpose and scope of the US mission in Libya for Americans preoccupied with domestic economic concerns and weary of costly wars in two other Muslim countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. But his words may not be enough to mollify Republican opponents who say he has failed to lead in recent global crises ranging from Middle East unrest to Japan's nuclear emergency. Obama's prime-time speech came a day after NATO agreed to assume full responsibility for military operations in Libya, ending uncertainty about who would take over the lead from US forces. "The US will play a supporting role for the coalition," he stated. He said the handover would take place on Wednesday. The alliance's decision gave a boost to Obama's effort to show Americans he was making good on his commitment to limit the US military's involvement in Libya. NATO will take charge of air strikes that have targeted Gaddafi's military infrastructure as well as a no-fly zone and an arms embargo. The White House also hopes Obama can score political points at home from gains on the battlefield by Libyan rebels emboldened by the Western air assault on Gaddafi's loyalists.

https://www.jpost.com/Video-Articles/Video/Obama-says-US-wont-use-force-to-remove-Gaddafi

I have often heard people saying that why convolutional neural networks are still poorly understood. Is it known why convolutional neural networks always end up learning increasingly sophisticated features as we go up the layers? What caused them create such a stack of features and would this also be true for other types of deep neural networks? Actually I guess the question is a bit broad! Anyway. What is learned in ConvNets tries to minimize the cost function to categorize the inputs correctly in classification tasks. All parameter changing and learned filters are in order to achieve the mentioned goal. They try to reduce the cost by learning low level, sometimes meaningless, features like horizontal and vertical lines in their first layers and then stacking them to make abstract shapes, which often have meaning, in their last layers. For illustrating this fig. 1, which has been used from here, can be considered. The input is the bus and the gird shows the activations after passing the input through different filters in the first layer. As it can be seen the red frame which is the activation of a filter, which its parameters have been learned, has been activated for relatively horizontal edges. The blue frame has been activated for relatively vertical edges. It is possible that ConvNets learn unknown filters that are useful and we, as e.g. computer vision practitioners, have not discovered that they may be useful. The best part of these nets is that they try to find appropriate filters by their own and don't use our limited discovered filters. They learn filters to reduce the amount of cost function. As mentioned these filters are not necessarily known. In deeper layers, the features learned in previous layers come together and make shapes which often have meaning. In this paper it has been discussed that these layers may have activations which are meaningful to us or the concepts which have meaning to us, as human beings, may be distributed among other activations. In fig. 2 the green frame shows the activatins of a filter in the fifth layer of a ConvNet. This filter cares about the faces. Suppose that the red one cares about hair. These have meaning. As it can be seen there are other activations that have been activated right in the position of typical faces in the input, the green frame is one of them; The blue frame is another example of these. Accordingly, abstraction of shapes can be learned by a filter or numerous filters. In other words, each concept, like face and its components, can be distributed among the filters. In cases where the concepts are distributed among different layers, if someone look at each of them, they may be sophisticated. The information is distributed among them and for understanding that information all of those filters and their activations have to be considered although they may seem so much complicated. CNNs should not be considered as black boxes at all. Zeiler et all in this amazing paper have discussed the development of better models is reduced to trial and error if you don't have understanding of what is done inside these nets. This paper tries to visualize the feature maps in ConvNets. ConvNets use pooling layers not only to reduce the number of parameters but also to have the capability to be insensitive to the exact position of each feature. Also the use of them enables the layers to learn different features which means first layers learn simple low level features like edges or arcs, and deeper layers learn more complicated features like eyes or eyebrows. Max Pooling e.g. tries to investigate whether a special feature exists in a special region or not. The idea of pooling layers is so useful but it is just capable to handle transition among other transformations. Although filters in different layers try to find different patterns, e.g. a rotated face is learned using different layers than a usual face, CNNs by there own do not have any layer to handle other transformations. To illustrate this suppose that you want to learn simple faces without any rotation with a minimal net. In this case your model may do that perfectly. suppose that you are asked to learn all kind of faces with arbitrary face rotation. In this case your model has to be much more bigger than the previous learned net. The reason is that there have to be filters to learn these rotations in the input. Unfortunately these are not all transformations. Your input may also be distorted too. These cases made Max Jaderberg et all angry. They composed this paper to deal with these problems in order to settle down our anger as theirs. Finally after referring to these points, they work because they try to find patterns in the input data. They stack them to make abstract concepts by there convolution layers. They try to find out whether the input data has each of these concepts or not in there dense layers to figure out which class the input data belongs to. ConvNets work because they exploit feature locality. They do it at different granularities, therefore being able to model hierarchically higher level features. They are translation invariant thanks to pooling units. They are not rotation-invariant per se, but they usually converge to filters that are rotated versions of the same filters, hence supporting rotated inputs. I know of no other neural architecture that profits from feature locality in the same sense as ConvNets do. One should never forget the other components in a typical ConvNet. The convolution filters pick out the spatial invariant features, like edges and circles. These features are quantified in a pooling layer which follows the C layer. Finally, they are fed into (usually) multiple fully connected layers (fc). Credit must be given to these fully connected layers which are nothing more than what you find in any ordinary MLP. Convolutional neural networks work because it's a good extension from the standard deep-learning algorithm. Given unlimited resources and money, there is no need for convolutional because the standard algorithm will also work. However, convolutional is more efficient because it reduces the number of parameters. The reduction is possible because it takes advantage of feature locality, exactly what @ncasas writes. Is it known why convolutional neural networks always end up learning increasingly sophisticated features as we go up the layers? This is pure mathematics. A neural network, at the end of the day, is a big mathematical function. And the deeper the network, the bigger the function it represents. And by bigger, I obviously mean high-dimensional. The features learned are more sophisticated because they are the results of more sophisticated functions. Interestingly enough, conventional neural networks were inspired by our own, actually cat's, biology. Hubel and Wiesel conducted experiments on the visual cortex of cats, and they realized that light was perceived by stacks of optic fields. This is what inspired convolutional layer and a deeper architecture. They are invavriant to geometrical transformations and learn features that get increasingly complicated and detailed, hence being powerful hierarchical feature extractors thanks to the convolutional layers. They combine the extracted features and aggregate them in a non linear fashion to predict the output and therefore being robust classifiers thanks to the fully connected layers. If you want to learn more about convnets and the different blocks building them as well as the intuitions that underly, here's a post I recently wrote on my personal blog that goes through the details. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged machine-learning neural-network deep-learning convnet cnn or ask your own question. Are CNNs insensitive to rotations and shifts in images? Is there a person class in ImageNet? Are there any classes related to humans? How to understand conv layer to another same conv layer in VGG16? Is color information only extracted in the first input layer of a convolutional neural network? Why do convolutional networks work so well for images? Is there any work done on reconfigurable convolutional neural networks? How can I combine images for Matlab deep learning? Why neural networks do not perform well on structured data? What is exactly meant by neural network that can take different types of input?

https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/15903/why-do-convolutional-neural-networks-work/15907

A mild degree of oligohydramnios causes no direct detrimental consequences to the fetus. However, severe oligohydramnios does have severe consequences for the fetus, irrespective of cause. In the uterus, the swallowing of water by the fetus promotes the normal development of the fetal lungs, and this is disrupted when there is a marked lack of amniotic fluid (severe oligohydramnios). In other words, chronic severe oligohydramnios may alone be sufficient to cause miscarriage, even when the cause is not known, because of its severe effect on fetal development. In the first trimester of pregnancy, the main source of amniotic fluid is the mother, and a small amount originates from the fetus. In the second and third trimesters, most of the fluid is formed from fetal urine, and a decrease in the normal amount of amniotic fluid usually occurs as a result of a problem in the fetus's urinary tract. Most cases are a result of early rupture of the membranes and breaking of the waters. Sometimes there is a continuous, low-level loss of fluid that the mother does not even feel. Even slight leakage of amniotic fluid can be demonstrated using a special gynecological test. Defects in the urinary tract and/or kidneys that do not allow urination in normal quantities. These can be congenital defects in the development of the kidneys or obstruction of the urinary tract at different levels (in the urethra, ureters, etc.). Placental insufficiency. In this case, signs of delayed fetal growth also appear. There are reports in the literature of a high frequency of chromosome disorders in fetuses with oligohydramnios. In most cases of oligohydramnios arising from chromosome disorders, other defects will also be detected in the fetus. Therefore oligohydramnios alone, without other defects, is not necessarily an indication for amniocentesis, especially if the cause is known (e.g. leakage of amniotic fluid, etc.). What should be done if oligohydramnios is diagnosed? The mother should be asked whether there has been any leakage of amniotic fluid in the period preceding the diagnosis of oligohydramnios. Her excretions should be examined for the presence of amniotic fluid, etc. A 3rd level ultrasound scan should be performed to look for defects, especially in the urinary tract. In cases of severe oligohydramnios, a good fetal scan cannot always be performed. Doppler testing of the placental blood vessels should be carried out in order to check for placental insufficiency. If there is no clear cause, such as leakage of amniotic fluid or placental insufficiency, then the parents should be offered genetic counseling in order to discuss the severity of the condition, its implications, the need for further investigations, and the advisability of performing amniocentesis. In cases where amniocentesis cannot be performed, cordocentesis or chorionic villus sampling through the abdomen can be carried out instead. In cases of severe oligohydramnios, with or without defects in the urinary tract, the parents should be referred to a multidisciplinary clinic in a hospital for professional counseling by an expert in pediatric kidney diseases (nephrologist), a genetic counselor, an expert in ultrasound examinations and a neonatologist in order to collate all the data and discuss what further investigations and interventions, if any, should be undertaken. This will depend on the severity of the oligohydramnios, and whether or not there are any associated defects, etc.

http://www.geneticsofpregnancy.com/Encyclopedia/Oligohydramnios.aspx?pid=37&cid=70

A jaundiced, dying man was brought to her on a stretcher. It was his last wish that he meet with her and be blessed by her gracious presence. "A lot of artists would not consent to meeting with a dying man," she said, "but I've been through enough in my life that I can relate to people very well. I'm not tough. I'm strong." In her case, tough describes a trait, strong depicts a virtue. Who is this woman who is the object of a dying man's final request? And what has she lived through that has given her such strength? Eilleen Regina Edwards was born on August 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario. Her parents divorced when she was just a toddler. Her mother, Sharon, then took Eilleen and the older daughter to live in Timmins, Ontario. There, in this poor mining town about 250 miles north of Toronto, she married an Ojibwa Indian, a father of two boys. The new family of six was reduced to five when Eilleen's older sister left home at 14. Eilleen thus became, in her words, "the older sister by default." The family experienced excruciating poverty and the children learned painfully well what it means to be hungry. Eilleen would take a mustard sandwich to school for lunch. Her indigence made her feel embarrassed and isolated. Tragedy struck when Eilleen was 21. Her mother and stepfather were killed in a head-on collision with a logging truck. The grim and numbing accident left Eilleen with custody of her two teenage siblings and the responsibility for raising them. Catholic poet Thomas Traherne asserted, "A Christian is an oak flourishing in winter." The adversity surrounding Eilleen's life made her strong. She abandoned her first name for the Ojibwa word Shania, which means "I'm on my way." She retained her stepfather's surname, Twain. In this way, she took the name by which her millions of fans know her Shania Twain. She was indeed "on her way." Shania Twain has become one of the most successful female singers in history. She is the first woman to have consecutive albums sell more than 10 million copies in the United States. She has won innumerable awards including the Country Music Association's "Entertainer of the Year" and a Grammy Award in 1999. She was also named the "Most Beautiful Canadian Woman of the Century." Shania has not allowed her fame and wealth to obscure her past hardships or lead her to ignore the hardships of others. Her compassion for others is as strong as she is strong as an individual. During some of her singing tours, she donates proceeds from each of her concerts to local charities that aid hungry children. "My goal," she states, "is to save kids the humiliation, the anguish of feeling inferior." Hers is the compassion that is worthy of the approbation of a St. Augustine. The Bishop of Hippo wrote in his Confessions: "Although he that grieves with the grief-stricken is to be commended for his work of charity, yet the man who is fraternally compassionate would prefer to find nothing in others to need his compassion." In helping to reverse the misfortunes of others, Shania is doing through music what Charles Dickens did through his novels. Her compassion for hungry children has not abated because, as she tells us, "I was that hungry kid." Shania Twain's most personal song is "God Bless the Child," and she has pledged all royalties it earns to children's charities. The original title of the song was less catchy, though more instructive of its message: "Hallelujah, God Bless the Child Who Suffers." The term compassion is commonly misinterpreted in our society to mean pity. The compassionate person, as the word indicates, suffers with the suffering person. And more than that, the compassionate person suffers for the suffering person. Pity causes a person to distance himself from the sufferer. There is no moral union between the one who pities and the object of his pity. Consequently, pity is inclined to end suffering by removing the sufferer. Compassion intuitively understands the redeeming value of suffering. Marie Antoinette, born and raised with an aristocrat's indifference toward the plight of her indigent neighbors, suggested that they "eat cake" when informed that they had no bread. Compassion is formed in the real and heartrending experiences of deprivation. Shania Twain's adversity formed her compassion and her strength, and it is to her honor and credit that it retains priority in her heart far above all the trappings of her extraordinary success. Donald DeMarco. "Strength and Compassion." Lay Witness (Nov/Dec 2001).

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and-character/faith-and-character/strength-and-compassion.html

Edison World School Abu Dhabi - information page. Received an offer to teach ESL - I never applied. Offer was valid after I paid $2500USD for Visa fee, goat fee, fee fee, tax fee..Etc. What a load of Horse Dump! Meinkrys wrote: Offer was valid after I paid $2500USD for Visa fee, goat fee, fee fee, tax fee..Etc. Thanks for posting here and alerting other readers to the teaching job scam. It really stings to lose that money. I don't know any easy ways to get that money back. There have been many similar stories about other job scams in the UAE and I've not heard of any where someone got their money back. TL;DR version of information below: The Edison World School in Abu Dhabi currently found online does not exist in real life, and is an example of a common scam where someone advertises teaching jobs at schools in the UAE which don't exist. The scam is that when an offer is made, money is requested to pay for visa processing fees. Never send money for visa fees to any employer or agency in the UAE. If an employer or agency asks for money, assume it is a scam, or the employer is unpleasant to work for if they really exist. Edison World School was officially announced in 2011 as a school planned for Abu Dhabi but nothing further developed. It appears that someone or someones have either read that announcement and used that name for a scam, or set up a scam which coincidentally has the same name as the proposed school. It seems unlikely that the organisation which made the original announcement is involved in the teaching job scam. www.edisonworldsch.com is what appears to be the official school website, however it is copied from the Repton School Abu Dhabi website (Repton is a real school), with Repton School replaced by Edison School or Edison World School, and some other adjustments for address, location, staff names etc. The fake EWS website even has photos of Repton School in Derbyshire, relabeled as photos of EWS. Repton Abu Dhabi website wrote: For those families relocating back to the UK, or considering UK Boarding for their child, both Repton and Foremarke Hall (Repton's preparatory school) offers a continuity of curriculum and culture. EWS website wrote: For those families relocating back to the UK, or considering UK Boarding for their child, both Edison World School and Foremarke Hall (Edison World School's preparatory school) offers a continuity of curriculum and culture. The headteacher of EWS according to their website is Ms Bianca Anna Gabriel (or Ana). Whoever she is (independent confirmation not found), the photo on the website is of a different person, Ms Tammie McKenzie, who is principal (previously assistant principal) of Carroll High School, part of the Carroll Community School District in the city of Carroll in Iowa, USA. She is still there as far as I can tell (according to her website, her LinkedIn page, and the school website), and probably doesn't know about her doppelganger in Abu Dhabi. There are three (or more) Edison World School domains. www.edisonworldschool.com is currently used for the school website. Whois data shows it was first registered 10 Sep 2016. www.edisonworldsch.com was previously used for the school website but is now just spam, possibly still used for emails. Don't visit, it loads another noisy spam website. Whois data shows it was first registered 21 Aug 2016. Repton School Abu Dhabi website has a popup warning (they don't name the fake school though). Repton Abu Dhabi website wrote: It has come to our attention there is a fake organisation sending offer letters to prospective employees with the Repton Abu Dhabi branding. We would like to inform you that Repton Abu Dhabi is in no way affiliated with this organisation. Repton Abu Dhabi would never ask a candidate for a fee for a position at the school. Please be vigilant when receiving offer letters from third party organisations. www.ewsabudhabi.com (website content no longer available directly) was used for EWS but website was copied from the Mayoor Indian School in Abu Dhabi (a real school), with a Find and Replace done on the Mayoor school name. Whois data shows it was first registered on 14 May 2016 which seems to be an anomaly given that Google has a record of the website saved before that date, for example 13 Nov 2015 for the page www.ewsabudhabi.com/chairmg.html. Possible explanation is that Google took the date from the page rather than actually retrieving the page on that date, since the page www.mayoorschoolabudhabi.com/message.html (which EWS copied) also has the date 13 Nov 2015 recorded by Google. Principal or Headteacher's name given on website as Yogita Anna. Welcome to Mayoor Private School LLC in Abu Dhabi. This school has been set up in collaboration with the 138 year old Mayo College General Council(MCGC, India) which has a long standing tradition of excellence occupied with a caring, stimulating and open ethos. Welcome to Edison World School Abu Dhabi. This school has been set up in collaboration with the 138 year old Mayo College General Council(MCGC, India) which has a long standing tradition of excellence occupied with a caring, stimulating and open ethos.

http://www.desertspeak.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=6130&p=26221

Paul Manafort was found guilty on 8 counts. Here's how it went down. President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes today. The verdict: Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud. The possible sentence: Manafort faces a maximum of 80 years in prison. The mistrial: Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 charges, and Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those counts. What Manafort's attorney said: Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing said Manafort is "disappointed" the jury did not acquit his client on all charges. What Trump said: "Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. I feel very sad about that," the President said. And the other Trump news: The verdict came at the same time Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was in a New York federal court to plead guilty to multiple counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud. Deplaning in West Virginia ahead of tonight's rally, President Trump praised his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a "good man" and attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as "witch hunt" and a "disgrace." "Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. I feel very sad about that. It doesn’t involve me but I still feel..." Trump said. "It’s a witch hunt and it’s disgrace. But this has nothing to do with what they started out," Trump said. "It was not the original mission believe me. It was something very much different. It had nothing to do with Russian collusion." Trump did not answer any questions about his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who plead guilty to eight charges in his trial related to tax, fraud and campaign finance violation charges. A jury found Paul Manafort guilty on eight of 18 counts against him. Those eight counts carry a maximum sentence of 80 years. A mistrial was declared on the remaining 10 counts: Three hiding foreign bank accounts and seven bank fraud or bank fraud conspiracy. Paul Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing just made a brief statement following the verdict. He said Manafort is "disappointed" the jury did not acquit his client on all charges. "Mr. Manafort is disappointed at not getting acquittals all the way through, or a complete hung jury on all counts. However, he would like to thank Judge Ellis for granting him a fair trial, thank the jury for their very long and hard-fought deliberations. He is evaluating all of his options at this point. Thank you, everyone." Defense attorney Richard Westling asked Judge T.S. Ellis for 30 days to file for a judgement of acquittal. Ellis has not a set a date, and is waiting for the prosecution to weigh in on the 30 days. As Paul Manafort exited the courtroom, he was did not smile, but he gave a quick nod to his wife, Kathleen, who was sitting in the front row. Kathleen made no comment as she left the courthouse. After the trial concluded, prosecutors and defense attorneys were cordial and shook hands. Judge T.S. Ellis spoke directly to Paul Manafort at the podium to tell him he has been found guilty of several charges. He did not smile. Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing stood behind him. Manafort's wife, Kathleen, expressed no emotion and stared ahead. She had her hands clasped on her lap. The court has ended for the day. A sentencing date in the criminal trial of Paul Manafort has yet to be set. Prosecutors have until Aug. 29 to say what they plan to do about the 10 counts declared a mistrial. Judge T.S. Ellis has just excused the Manafort jury. Ellis encouraged the jury not to talk to the press but did not bar them from doing so. "I suggest to you that you have a duty of confidentiality," he said.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/manafort-trial/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Top+Stories%29

The first step is "I don't have a problem, I can stop whenever I want", right? This week I purchased some "gaming" input peripherals, because "gaming" has come to mean "good" in the eyes of peripheral manufacturers. I wasn't disappointed by that assumption. Logitech really has no competition for mice. My previous mouse, an MX1000, was, when I purchased it, by far the best mouse I'd ever used. My only complaint about it, aside from the "doesn't work well on reflective surfaces" problem that many optical mice have, was that it was getting to the point where the (internal, non-replaceable) battery was run down all the time, and the transmitter / stand was slightly warped after much usage, so the contacts no longer directly lined up where they were supposed to and I had to spend 20 minutes fiddling with it every time I wanted to get it to charge. Given this previous problem with stand-charger-based mice (the MX1000 is not the first wireless mouse I've had this happen to) the G7 was impressive right out of the box. There are 2 battery cartridges: one stays in the charger at all times, one is in the mouse. That means the charger is smaller, doesn't have to be located on my desk, and when the mouse does need charging, I have 30 seconds without a mouse instead of an hour and a half. The charger, while itself small, also has a tiny, detachable USB transmitter, making it a cinch to pop this mouse into my laptop bag for short trips. What else can a mouse do? Comfortable in my hand: check. Tracks smoothly: very check. I have no objective way to measure it but it certainly feels at least as smooth as any other mouse I've used. Works on glossy surfaces... check? Color me impressed, it worked on at least 3 different surfaces, including my Wacom tablet, that caused my MX1000 grief. It still gets upset if I put it on a mirror, though. The feature that impressed me the most, and that gives it a real claim to being a "gaming" mouse, was that it has a speed shifter. This never would have occurred to me. Two buttons under the scroll wheel increase and decrease the mouse's speed (in hardware, so it works with linux) from "slow" to "fast" to "crazy". Playing Quake 4 this weekend, this feature was super-handy when getting into an armored vehicle that slows down the mouse to simulate a feeling of weight . Even using regular applications, it's handy; with 2560 pixels to cover on my desktop from edge to edge, it's nice to be able to crank up the speed, rocket over to my left desktop, slow down to pinpoint emacs's title bar, then speed up again to yank it all the way over to the right. This keyboard is probably the largest that I've ever seen, let alone used or purchased. The IBM model M, named the "desk-dominator" for its unnatural size, is 492 mm x 210 mm (19.4” x 8.3”). This thing is 546mm x 267mm (21.5” x 10.5”). So far though, the size seems to be worth it. It has the best tactile response I've gotten from a membrane keyboard ever, blowing even the previous front-runner in that category, the Eclipse, out of the water. I can routinely do slightly better than usual in gtypist, even after only having used this keyboard for a day. The "squeak" I've mentioned in previous reviews is completely absent. The basic layout is a no-nonsense PC-104 key, Everything in the right place, with escape offset slightly - I find I don't mind, but I suspect die-hard Vim fans will likely have a more intense reaction, whether they love it or hate it. It also includes some special features, which are an annoyance on many keyboards, but which I am generally pleased with on this one. It has a standard set of media keys and a volume knob, all of which worked out of the box on Ubuntu. There's also a switch to turn off the "windows key". It's handy when playing games on Windows; although obviously not a terribly useful feature in Linux when Windows => Hyper and won't magically break you out of a running game. Nevertheless, it works in Linux as well. It also features backlit keys, a first in a Logitech keyboard. The backlight is subtle, and when it's off, the keycaps are almost black. There's a switch to toggle it on and off, and between two levels of intensity. The G15 also includes 2 USB ports, which is a welcome addition, and something I've wished every USB keyboard has done since I stopped using a Mac as my primary machine. I now have somewhere convenient on my desk to plug in my USB SSH key and camera. Unfortunately Windows seems to (wrongly?) believe that the keyboard hub doesn't have enough power to drive the thumb drive. Linux powers it without complaint. There are also 2 small grooves to run wires under the keyboard, which is great as they allow me to run my headset cable underneath the keyboard without it rocking slightly where it balances on the cord. The special "G" keys on the left side of the keyboard are the main attraction. On Linux they are just repeats of F1-F12 and 1-6, which isn't great, but at least the keys provide some default behavior and they're not totally dead, as many special keys are. Since I regrettably must boot into Windows for the majority of gaming these days anyway, this lack of functionality didn't disappoint me too much. On Windows, with the included driver software (which I will note, did not ask me to reboot!) the G key functionality really shines. They can be bound to any other key, or any sequence of keys, including delays. There is a Macro Record (MR) button which allows you to quickly and easily configure any key to be a timed sequence of keystrokes. This means that in World of Warcraft, I can script a sequence of attacks, including cooldown times, simply by hitting MR, a G key, doing the attacks, then the MR key again to finish. Unfortunately it's unlikely that this functionality will be useful in anything other than a MMORPG, but given how useful it is there, I think it's worth the extra few inches of desk real estate. Finally, the keyboard also includes an LCD display. I wish I had more to say about this, since it seems like it could be a really killer feature, but the included applications are really sparse; a clock, a CPU meter, a volume meter. I'll be watching g15mods.com to see if anything interesting comes out (not least of which, Linux drivers). The G7 is definitely the best mouse I've yet used, gaming or no; I think I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good wireless mouse. I can't be quite so unequivocal about the G15, but I'm still pretty pleased with it. The tactile response is good; the frame is incredibly sturdy, it looks cool, if massive, the USB ports are handy and the G-keys are really useful in the place where they're supposed to be, to wit, a video game. The jury's still out on the LCD display, and lack of linux support is always a problem with funky features, although offering the Windows SDK on the CD with the keyboard was a nice touch.

https://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2005/11/review-logitech-g15-gaming-keyboard.html

WP 3 (Pressures and Impacts) has the objective to establish an overview of driving forces, pressures and impacts on the rivers in the HKH region. Among the most relevant pressures, focus may be given to: industrial and domestic pollution, toxic contamination, disturbance caused by hydropower (hydropeaking, damming), morphological disturbance, erosion and water abstraction. The focus of investigation will be dependent on the most significant problems experienced in the respective countries. The pressures and impacts will also be evaluated in terms of their socio-economic aspects (drinking water quality, water-borne diseases, water usage etc.), which will lead to creation a list of pressures and impacts. Based on the results of the first tasks of this WP, a scheme for pre-classifying the ecological status of a site will be developed. This procedure is solely focusing on abiotic criteria (sensoric, physical and chemical features) and leads to the pre-classification of an investigation site in one of five different ecological status classes (high=reference, good, moderate, poor and bad). This preliminary classification will serve as a hypothesis and will be used to select fauna metrics reflecting the degradation of the individual sites. The pressures and impacts study is the basis for sampling design as described in WP 4 and will provide a scientific basis for testing different stream assessment methods and developing a combined methodological procedure ("ASSESS-HKH Methodology") within WP 5. Task 3.1 Identify and prioritise driving forces, pressures and possible impacts in the HKH region: Within this task insight will be provided to the current pressures in the HKH region. Selected driving forces having the most negative impact and causing the most significant problems on HKH rivers will be chosen for further investigation. This step will not be based on field work but on the evaluation of existing published and unpublished data. Task 3.2 Review of existing policies with regard to sustainable water management and describe the socio-economic aspects related to the pressures and impacts: A review of existing policies and instruments (legal and regulatory framework) that effect water quality, its availability and sustainable use (differentiation between rural, industrial and urban sector) will be compiled. Along with Task 3.1, the results of the review will be available as a report and also serve as a base for selecting stressors for investigation within this research work. Task 3.3 Define a pre-classification scheme for ecological status: Based on Task 3.1 and 3.2, but also on the results of WP2, a pre-classifying scheme for allocation of a site to one of the five ecological quality classes will be applied. The system will exclusively be based on abiotic features such as those mentioned under 3.1. Task 3.4 Select impacted sites for investigation: As final task within this WP, stream sections representing different deviations from the reference conditions will be selected. Four sites of class II and three sites per other ecological quality class (III-V) and stream type will be selected in each HKH country resulting in 13 impacted sampling sites per stream type and a total of 130 impacted sampling sites.

http://assess-hkh.at/mains/wp3.php

Although not used frequently, there may be call to create paint effects in some jobs. Here is a quick guide to what they are and how to achieve them. - All techniques that involve dabbing can be varied by turning the wrist as you work to create a random pattern. - If brush marks in the glaze interfere with your pattern, break them up by dabbing lightly with a sponge or stipple them out with a stippling brush. - Prevent a build-up of glaze on tools by rinsing or squeezing out regularly. - Wash tools and equipment in soap and water; acrylics are difficult to remove when dry. - High temperature, low humidity and thin applications result in shorter open and drying times. Low temperature, high humidity and heavy applications result in longer open and drying times. - Base coat temperature will affect open and drying times: beware of condensation - this will dramatically extend drying time. - Applying glazes to porous surfaces reduces open times considerably. Different cloths produce different patterns and textures. Paint effects can use simple techniques but achieve a stunning result. Colour washing produces a subtle decorative effect. Dab a damp cloth randomly into the surface of the wet glaze to create areas of darker and lighter shades. Edges can then be softened by stroking the surface with the tips of a soft brush to produce a cloudy effect. Use a graining comb to form lines on the brushed glaze, crossing the line to form a weave, sweeping the hand to form curves or wavy lines. Dab a damp natural sponge over the surface removing the wet glaze to reveal the base coat. Turn the wrist as you work to produce a random pattern. When creating paint effects work in a random pattern. Bunch a damp cloth or rag into a ball to form a crumpled pad and dab into the wet glaze. The texture of the cloth and the way it is gathered will determine the character of the pattern. Ragging is similar to the sponging off process. The most well known of all broken colourwork techniques. Take a flat lint-free cloth and roll it into a sausage shape. Hold it between the fingertips and starting in one corner, roll the sausage diagonally across the face of the wet glaze. Keep repeating the process, varying the angle to create a random pattern. If any blobs of glaze are left, dab flat with the corner of the cloth. Different cloths produce different patterns. You can also roll with polythene of different thicknesses. Cloths can produce a subtle texture: polythene creates a much sharper pattern. Bunch a polythene bag to form a crumpled pad and dab into the wet glaze. This creates a sharper more dramatic pattern in the glaze, similar to ragging. Dab a dampened natural sponge into the glaze, taking care to remove any surplus on the edge of the container. Then dab the sponge lightly onto the base coat, transferring small spots of glaze to create the desired effect. Gently dab the tips of a flat-headed brush into the wet glaze with the brush held at right angles to the surface. This technique is a useful way to disguise brush marks and leaves a soft, even finish on walls and furniture. Sometimes used as base to create other effects, stippling is also a decorative effect in its own right. Large areas require a stippling brush. Paint effects can be achieved by using a variety of different applicators such as cloths, a sponge and even newspaper. Paint effects can add depth and contrast to any space. The technique produces lines in the glaze surface. Holding the brush handle just above the surface, press the bristle length into the wet glaze and drag straight down to reveal a set of parallel lines. Wipe the brush clean after each stroke. Crumple a sheet of newspaper, open it out and lay it on the surface of the wet glaze. Smooth the paper to leave an imprint but not hard enough to flatten out the creases. Slowly peel back the paper to reveal the pattern. Different materials create different effects, for example cling film produces veins similar to those in marble. For more painting ideas, Brewers News and events join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

https://www.brewers.co.uk/know-how/article/A+useful+guide+to+paint+effects

Vegetarianism has evolved as a topic of consideration among society. It is believed that a vegetarian diet if better for human body. While I accept that plant-based diet is beneficial for those who pursue a healthy lifestyle, I do not agree this tendency would be suitable for everyone. There are a variety of reasons why it is highly beneficial to become a vegetarian. First and foremost, there are many kinds of vegetables providing us with enough energy to work all day long. In other words, it is less necessary to eat meat to have a healthy diet. Take potato as an example, is is of indispensable ingredient for a properly balanced vegetarian diet since it provides us with a large amount of nutrients. Second, it is proven that vegetarians have lower risks of developing many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. This is due to the fact that a plant-based diet contains low in saturated fat and high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. However, I strongly believe that this tendency is not an optimal option for everyone to take. A significant reason supporting my opinion is that the decision to become a vegetarian should be made by individuals regards to their food preferences, not a general suggestion. For instance, a person who have predilection for animal-origin products would feel unsatisfied and frustrated if he or she is force to consume only fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the demand for nutrients should be taken into consideration when each individual plans his or her diet. A salient example of this is children, who are in the process of growing up, as a result they need to consume a wide range of food, including meat which contains essential nutrients, to improve their physical health. In conclusion, although I agree that pursuing a plant-based diet is highly beneficial for health, I do not believe that it is the optimal option that everyone should take. Vegetarianism has become evolved as a topic of consideration among members of society. It is believed that a vegetarian diet if better for human body. While I accept that a plant-based diet is beneficial for those who pursue a healthy lifestyle, I do not agree this tendency would be suitable for everyone. There are a variety of reasons why it is highly beneficial to become a vegetarian. First and foremost, there are many kinds of vegetables which will provide us with enough energy to work all day long. In other words, it is not less necessary to eat meat to have a healthy diet. Take the potato as an example, is is of indispensable ingredient for a properly balanced vegetarian diet since it provides us with a large amount of nutrients. Second, it is proven that vegetarians have a lower risk of developing many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. This is due to the fact that a plant-based diet contains (wrong word) low in saturated fat and high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. However, I strongly believe that this tendency is not an optimal option for everyone to take. A significant reason supporting my opinion is that the decision to become a vegetarian should be made by individuals in regards to their food preferences, not as a general rule / prescription suggestion. For instance, a person who have a predilection for animal-origin meat products would feel unsatisfied and frustrated if he or she is force to consume only fruits and vegetables. Moreover, the demand for nutrients should be taken into consideration when each individual plans his or her diet. An salient example of this is children, who are in the process of growing up, (comma splice error) as a result they need to consume a wide range of food, including meat which contains essential nutrients, to improve their physical health. This is possible but wordy. People generally talk of animal products. This is possible but wordy. Using the word they would be enough. pham thi quynh nhu consume only fruits and vegetables. That is not the case with vegetarianism.

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Can you find us on the map? Growing up, I was always happy to be where I lived. I wasn't too far from in town, I had neighbors but not a ton, and I could enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside. I never had wished to live anywhere else and as I grew up, I gained more appreciation for my home and where it was. You never really fully appreciate where you live or come from until you have to actually leave it; something I've realized after recently embarking on my next chapter of my life. As you leave, you can see the special things that makes your home, well home. You hear from other people what it was like where they grew up and how different it was from where you lived, or similar. I didn't find too many people with similar situations as me, that being growing up in a small town. The following are signs that you too, grew up in a small town, some evident more than others. 2. It's only a hop, skip, and a jump to your good friend's house. 3. Everything closes very early. 4. Everyone knows whats going on in town. 5. Going in to town is a trip in itself. 7. You can be in your yard however you please. 8. Getting dressed up to go anywhere is unnecessary. 9. You don't have to worry about getting pulled over unless a state trooper is in town. 10. Your town isn't on a map. 11. People have never heard of where you live.

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/signs-youre-from-small-town

When Does Consumer Information Processing Research Actually Have Anything to Do With Consumer Information Processing? ABSTRACT - Consumer information processing (CIP) research relates to consumer information processing if the situation in the research is the same as the situation in the processing. This paper concentrates on what may be the most common CIP or persuasion situation, that of advertising. The advertising situation differs from the typical CIP research one in audience involvement, attention, noise, exposure time and audience control of exposure. In general, motivation and opportunity to make cognitive responses and use attitude structures is lacking in advertising persuasion and heightened in CIP-persuasion research. Several examples are given of the results of this dramatic difference, and researchers are cautioned to take care in applying results from highly artificial to natural situations. In the future CIP researchers should extend their theories and initial findings to settings like the advertising one. Michael L. Ray (1977) ,"When Does Consumer Information Processing Research Actually Have Anything to Do With Consumer Information Processing?", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 04, eds. William D. Perreault, Jr., Atlanta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 372-375. Consumer information processing (CIP) research relates to consumer information processing if the situation in the research is the same as the situation in the processing. This paper concentrates on what may be the most common CIP or persuasion situation, that of advertising. The advertising situation differs from the typical CIP research one in audience involvement, attention, noise, exposure time and audience control of exposure. In general, motivation and opportunity to make cognitive responses and use attitude structures is lacking in advertising persuasion and heightened in CIP-persuasion research. Several examples are given of the results of this dramatic difference, and researchers are cautioned to take care in applying results from highly artificial to natural situations. In the future CIP researchers should extend their theories and initial findings to settings like the advertising one. My answer to the question "When does consumer information processing research actually have anything to do with consumer information processing?" is, in general, "Sometimes." More specifically, I believe that the majority of persuasion situations involve mass media advertising which is almost always different, in at least six ways, from the artificial conditions of CIP research. 1. Advertising is a low involvement situation while the CIP research setting is a high involvement one. People don't care about the ads. They are far from as motivated to process information as are the experimental "subjects" in CIP labs. 2. In advertising attention is difficult to achieve while in CIP research attention is forced in virtually all cases. 3. In advertising there is, in an information theory sense (Shannon and Weaver, 1949), much noise (consisting of competing messages, etc.) while CIP re- search is usually conducted in a sterile environment in order to create "experimental realism" (Aronson and Carlsmith, 1968). 4. Advertising, particularly broadcast, involves short exposure time while CIP research averages much longer exposure time and time to consider messages. 5. For advertising the audience has little or no control of exposure time. In CIP research the audience often has control over exposure time. 6. So in the advertising situation there is minimal motivation or opportunity to develop cognitive responses or use attitude structures. But in consumer information processing or persuasion research the situation is engineered to produce cognitive responses and use of attitude structures. In short, the most typical persuasion situation in the world is one that is ignored by the bulk of the social psychological research on persuasion. At the same time, however, consumer information processing research--including the cognitive response analysis and cognitive attitude structure analysis approaches we are concentrating on today as well as the perceptual mapping-conjoint measurement approaches and hierarchy of effects analysis research--seems to me to hold the key to understanding this most common persuasion and, therefore, consumer information processing situation. This is because consumer information processing researchers are truly concerned with people and the way they handle the very difficult task of using tremendous amounts of information to make very complex decisions under very difficult conditions. No longer are we content to consider audiences en masse almost mindlessly stepping through the stages of cognition, affect, and conation. So despite the fact that most of the initial research in this area has concentrated on rather unrealistic conditions, it has been and will lead to rather clear implications for campaign planners attempting to deal with the consumer information processing situation represented by advertising. The point I'm making is not really too different from Hovland's (1959) in his classic paper published seventeen years ago and entitled "Reconciling Conflicting Results Derived from Experimental and Survey Studies of Attitude Change." The importance of situational characteristics was established well throughout all of the Hovland communication and attitude change studies. This tradition is represented recently by our discussant Timothy Brock's (Keating and Brock, 1971; Osterhouse and Brock, 1970) cautions that the distraction technique will only work when people are involved and antagonistic to the message position and when distraction does not impede learning. And this session's chairman has made a very valuable contribution by pointing out how situational constraints can affect the choice or aggregation model a consumer might use (Wright, 1974). But today I would like to go a bit further than just cautioning about the effects of the situation. I would like to suggest that consumer information processing researchers attempting to deal with persuasion processes must begin to realize that there is more than a quantitative difference between persuasion in their laboratory studies and persuasion in the real world of advertising. In fact the difference is qualitative. Today I would like to give a number of examples of the unusual results one can get when there is an attempt to bring "mundane realism" (Aronson and Carlsmith, 1968) into persuasion research. My main point is that by concentrating on the differences between information processing and persuasion situations we can begin to make "translations" from CIP research to advertising applications. And, in the future we can begin to bring a wider variety of persuasion situations into CIP research. The results in this paper come primarily from a program of research at Stanford in which we have tried to replicate natural exposure situations in controlled laboratory experimentation so that the findings of communication research could be examined in a more realistic way. In virtually all the studies repetition is an independent variable so that the procedure used resembles the free recall paradigm of verbal learning research, with the exception that the stimuli are advertisements rather than nonsense syllables. When we began the research we assumed a hierarchy relationship between learning, attitude and behavior that would be predicted from the rtl-component notion of attitude or most learning or information processing formulations. We are surprised to find, however, that for most of our results a different pattern emerged. This was the pattern predicted by Krugman's (1965) notions about the process of television advertising effects. In this "low involvement" hierarchy, repetitive messages worked to affect gross brand and advertising awareness and subsequently had a slight effect on purchase intention but little effect on attitude. Later we realized that a third hierarchy was possible under other conditions. In this one, which we called the "dissonance-attribution hierarchy," a choice had been made before advertising exposures and combined with the exposures to affect attitude first and finally complex cognitive learning. These three hierarchies--learning (cognitive to affective to conative), low involvement (cognitive to conative to affective), and dissonance-attribution (conative to affective to cognitive)--were more fully described in a 1973 paper which was a collaborative effort of the Stanford researchers (Ray et al., (1973). Two aspects of the findings are critical for the present purposes however. First, each of the three hierarchies represents a large body of social psychological research on particular situations which are well defined. Knowing about the hierarchies and what causes them allows a very functional analysis of situations to determine how consumers will process information in them. The second conclusion that might be made from the Stanford repetition and hierarchy research is that the majority of situations in advertising, particularly that for the broadcast media, tend to be low involvement ones. That is, the decisions being made are not salient or important, there are almost no differences between alternative brands and products, advertising is the main source of information, and consumers are very familiar with the product category in the sense that it is in the maturity stage of its life cycle. If this is an accurate description of most advertising persuasion situations, we have great reason to question the applicability of most information processing research. Certainly the likelihood of detailed cognitive response in such a situation is Low. At best it may be that cognitive response operates in some very different way. Also, since there are few product differences and the decisions are not salient to people, it isn't likely that multi-attribute attitude structures hold or that the more textured choice models apply to the use of advertising information. At the most basic level, the low involvement situation means a limit in information processing. Even with the tremendous repetition potential of advertising, researchers have found that there is a definite limit to what people get out of messages. For instance, Krugman (1972) expanded his low involvement idea by surmising that there are really only three relevant exposures in a number of repetitions of television advertising. The first one produces a "what is it?" response. The second one produces whatever information processing is going to occur, and the third exposure and all subsequent ones are equivalent to reminders of whatever was learned in the second exposure. Once again, there is much in the Stanford repetition research data that supports Krugman's idea. Although cognitive learning curves did not stop automatically at the three exposure level, there did seem to be some very low level of exposure at which point nothing further was taken out of a message exposed in the television manner. Further repetitions just reinforced the basic message. Even when there might be some involvement in the situation, consumers definitely have developed particular ways of using advertising. For instance, in one study comparing the repetition effect of advertising for convenience goods and shopping goods, it was found that the repetition response function for ad recall went up steadily for convenience goods but stopped after four exposures for the shopping goods advertisements (Ray and Sawyer, 1971). Our interpretation for that finding was that consumers did not use ads for shopping goods (e.g., washing machines, television sets, and low price cars) to gather any more than the most basic information. The important information gathering phase for shopping goods was in the store actually examining the product and discussing it with salespeople. Thus repetitions of the ads had an effect only up to a certain point. The same kind of limit to what consumers will process was found in a study of color versus B&W advertisements (Ray, Sawyer and Strong, 1971). In this study we examined the repetition results for two series of ads which were identical except that one series had one color added to the pictures of fruits or vegetables depicted. The color ads were superior in getting the message recalled, but the black and white ads, if recalled, were superior in generating learning of the main message. In a follow-up field experiment using the two ad series, the black and white print ads were more effective than the color in producing ad awareness. It seemed that, in this real advertising situation, the black and white ads generated more information processing while the color ads elicited just a surface awareness after a certain point, no matter what the repetition level. All of these examples--evidence of the low involvement hierarchy, the limit to information processing in advertising situations and the specific cases of that limit--show what can happen to cherished CIP folklore in the real advertising situation. As I have already pointed out, one of the key differences between most lab persuasion studies and the typical advertising situation is that attention is a given in the labs but a goal hard to attain in advertising. Our original assessment of this bias was that it was a main effect, that is, if an ad or message did well in the lab it would do relatively well in the field--pro-vided it had the appropriate schedule. Now we are beginning to believe that there is not only a greater main effect difference than we had originally presumed but also there are interactions. That is, ads that do well in a forced exposure lab situation may be the very ones that do poorly in the field. My evidence for this comes from a series of lab studies on television clutter carried out by Peter Webb (Ray and Webb, 1976, Webb and Ray, 1977). Peter first determined that his lab approach was producing attention patterns similar to that found in field research (e.g., Burke, 1972). Once this was established he was able to manipulate the commercial break pattern in several television program types. His main finding was that consumers don't just randomly ignore commercials. They seem to actually avoid them--and with considerable skill at that. Consumers were amazingly well-schooled as to the pattern of commercial breaks on their favorite programs. This was particularly true for soap operas. When Peter tried different commercial schedules during those programs than the schedules to which consumers were accustomed, they very often asked why this unusual pattern was being used. During debriefing respondents told us more about how carefully they watched for the pattern of commercial interruptions. For instance, one working woman actually made an audio tape of soap operas so that she could plan her housework during the commercial breaks while she was home having lunch and watching her program. The data supported the patterning beyond such anecdotal evidence, however. Even those respondents who made no visual or verbal indication of noting an unusual pattern were able to avoid being affected by the most common interruption schedule for the program. In other words, virtually all response measures were lower for the most common type of interruption schedule as opposed to the more unusual ones. Before this research we had assumed that the typical laboratory information processing of communication research studies erred in forcing people to read or view the messages while in a more natural situation consumers would not be biased toward or away from viewing the messages. NOW this research indicates that the error of typical laboratory communication research studies may be even greater than we had previously imagined. While the lab studies bias people toward viewing the material, the audience/in the natural situation may have learned to be biased completely in the other direction, that is, away from viewing and processing the messages. In advertising we have to be concerned not just with getting attention. We have to gain attention from people who are actively avoiding us. Given this bias, however, is it possible that certain commercials--which may not do well in typical persuasion research--might be less susceptible to the vagaries of clutter and consumer avoidance? Peter Webb examined the extent to which involvement would enhance message effectiveness. He used the "connections" measure developed by Krugman (1966-67). As hypothesized, those commercials shown to be high in involvement in a prestudy seemed unaffected by changes in clutter (4 versus 8 commercials) or position in a string of commercials, while low involvement commercials were dramatically effected. Even further we found that commercials which would not do well in typical persuasion research did well in a normal exposure situation, possibly because they generated involvement and attention. More specifically we showed, at least in one case, that counterarguing can enhance persuasion. In CIP and lab persuasion studies in which the respondents are forced to be exposed to the messages, counter-arguing is a negative to be avoided at all cost. But when exposure conditions are more realistic and attention is an important goal, counterarguing can sometimes enhance persuasion by increasing attention and making the message more memorable. In an NIMH-sponsored study on the effects of anti-drug abuse messages, we found exactly that effect of counter-arguing (Ray, Ward and Reed, 1976). We studied, among others, two commercials which had quite opposite patterns of cognitive response. "Walkout" was a memorable commercial which produced nearly violent counterarguing from the parents audience. "Big Brother" was not quite as memorable but produced positive cognitive responses such as "connections." In natural lab experiments and in a split cable field experiment the Walkout commercial was substantially more effective than the Big Brother commercial in producing, for instance, positive attitude change, booklet interest and reported numbers of times that respondents thought, read about, and talked about drug abuse during the time the commercials were running. In this case, as in many situations in the real world, some response was better than no response at all. In such situations the counterarguing so worrisome to information processing researchers, can be a benefit. Thus, with regard to attention, the advertising situation is more difficult than we expected and involving commercials surmounted the difficulty somewhat, even when they were the opposite of those that do well in the typical lab study. The results I've discussed thus far indicate that we must take great care in translating CIP and persuasion lab research to the field in terms of advertising. In many cases lab and field results will be markedly different. Not only should we apply lab results carefully but we should start to alter our research procedures to take account of the nature of the advertising situation. But there is another approach that might be taken and is illustrated by my final example. Instead of trying to translate to advertising, we can ignore it, and--like the drunk looking for his lost keys under the street light--we cam look for situations in the real world that are similar to those in the lab. This was and is the approach used by many applied persuasion researchers in the late 60's and in the 70's. For instance, on our campus, Philip Zimbardo trained hundreds of Stanford students--on one occasion in a mass rally--to use social psychological principles in canvassing for peace candidates and issues in 1970. This led to a little booklet entitled Canvassing for Peace which Zimbardo wrote with Robert Abelson (1970). A more general statement of this approach is in the Zimbardo and Ebbesen paperback Influencing Attitudes and Changing Behavior (1969) and in Varela (1971). In consumer research and application it is represented by those who see the most direct applications in personal selling or at the very least in print advertising, usually in an industrial or public service setting--where there might be involvement and the type of processing found in the lab. Even in such set-up situations, however, I would argue that we need to take great care in application. For our example here, I'll use the "foot-in-the door" technique. The seminal foot-in-the-door study was conducted by Freedman and Fraser (1966), who asked residents to place a small card in their window. Two weeks later these residents were asked to display a large, clumsily lettered sign. Subjects who had been approached to comply with the earlier request were much more likely to agree with the second one. Although the foot-in-the-door or small request approach has been found to be quite effective in the social psychological literature, one field experiment done by William Swinyard demonstrated a situation in which adding a small request to a sales message actually decreased the combined effect of the sales message and later advertising exposures (Swinyard and Ray 1976, 1977). The key response was intention to volunteer for Red Cross work and the small requests were to put a little sign in the prospect's window and wear a Red Cross pin for at least two shopping trips. Both in terms of main effect and interaction with advertising exposures, the small request manipulation was less effective than a persuasive message without the small request. Again, the explanation appears to be related quite directly to the situation. The Red Cross is an issue about which respondents may feel a good deal of guilt. They "know" that they should give blood or volunteer, yet they are fearful or don't want to take the time. They look for simple ways to relieve the guilt and still avoid the anxiety brought on by the needle and the inconvenience of time demands. Compliance with the small request may have provided an easy way for respondents to relieve this guilt, bringing with it a feeling that, "I have made my 'contribution' already...I don't need to do any more.". Whether you agree with this explanation or not, you should know that ours is not the only research that found the small request manipulation lacking in social marketing situations. Alice Tybout (1976) found that a small request manipulation worked only when the commitment was made salient to respondents. This obviously fits the concern in this paper with the differential involvement found in persuasion research and in the field. In conclusion, I believe I have an answer to the question that started this paper. Consumer information processing research relates to consumer information processing if the situation in the research is the same as the situation in the processing. Practitioners can use our findings if they are very careful to determine whether there is a match between the situation in the research and the situation in which real world processing takes place. At this point I perceive a difference between the situation in most research and that in the most common persuasion category, advertising Most advertising, especially the broadcast kind, represents a low involvement situation. But it is possible to take even present research findings and analyze their implications for advertising. And fortunately the trend in information processing research seems to be toward more natural exposure and response conditions. Robert P. Abelson and Philip Zimbardo, Canvassing for Peace (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, 1970). Burke Marketing Research, Inc. "Viewer Attitudes Toward Commercial Clutter on Television and Media Buying Implications,'' Presentation to 18th ARF Conference (November 14, 1972). Jonathan L. Freedman and S. C. Fraser, "Compliance Without Pressure: The Foot-in-the-Door Technique," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4 (March 1966), 195-202. Carl I. Hovland, "Reconciling Conflicting Results Derived from Experimental and Survey Studies of Attitude Change," American Psychologist, 14 (January 1959), 8-17. J. P. Keating and Timothy C. Brock, "A Myth About Distraction," American Scientist, 59 (December 1971), 416-9. Robert A. Osterhouse and Timothy C. Brock, "Distraction Increases Yielding to Propaganda by Inhibition Counterarguing," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15 (August 1970), 344-58. Michael L. Ray and Alan G. Sawyer, "Repetition in Media Models: A Laboratory Technique," Journal of Marketing Research, 8 (February 1971), 20-30. Michael L. Ray in collaboration with Alan G. Sawyer, Michael L. Rothschild, Roger M. Heeler, Edward C. Strong, and Jerome B. Reed, "Marketing Communication and the Hierarchy-of-Effects," in Peter Clarke (Ed.), New Models for Mass Communication Research, Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1973). Michael L. Ray, Alan G. Sawyer and Edward C. Strong, "Frequency Effects Revisited," Journal of Advertising Research, 11 (February 1971), 14-20. Michael L. Ray, Scott Ward and Jerome B. Reed, "Pretesting of Anti-Drug Abuse Education and Information Campaigns: Summary Report of a Marketing Science Institute Special Project," in Ronald E. Ostman (Ed.) Communication Research and Drug Education (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1976). Michael L. Ray and Peter Webb, "Experimental Research on the Effects of TV Clutter: Dealing With the Difficult Media Environment," Report No. 76-102, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts (April 1976). Claude E. Shannon and W. Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1949). William R. Swinyard, "Advertising-Selling Interactions," Journal of Marketing Research, 14 (1977). Alice M. Tybout and Bobby J. Calder, "Threats to Internal and External Validity in the Field Setting," in William D. Perreault, Jr. (Ed.) Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. IV, (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Association for Consumer Research, 1977). Jacobo A. Varela, Psychological Solutions to Social Problems: An Introduction to Social Technology (New York: Academic Press, 1971). Peter Webb and Michael L. Ray, "Experimental Research on the Effects of TV Clutter," Advertising Quarterly (1977). Peter L. Wright, "The Harassed Decision Maker: Time Pressures, Distractions, and the Use of Evidence," Journal of Applied Psychology, 59 (1974). Philip Zimbardo and Ebbe Ebbesen, Influencing Attitudes and Changing Behavior (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1969).

http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/5692/volumes/v04/NA-04

What do the Town of Hull and the Mashpee Wampanoags have in common? The Town and the Tribe are both in the same congressional district, and they have both received federal earmarks for their pet projects. In both cases it was former congressman William Delahunt that got them the money. Now both the Town and the Tribe employ citizen Delahunt to lobby on their behalf for more federal pork and consultant fees for their lobbyist. After stories this week here and in the Boston Globe, former Congressman William Delahunt has decided not to accept $15,000 a month for six months, for a total of $90,000, which he had in the pipeline for his lobbyist group. Delahunt’s first earmark for the town of Hull was for $951,500 and a second earmark was for $750,000, for a total of $1.7 million. Federal databases show Delahunt was the lone sponsor of two earmarks for the project during his final two years in office. Earmarks are legislative provisions channeling federal money to a specific project, often derided as “pork-barrel’’ spending. Read the latest Boston Globe story here. But is it smart? Probably not, and here's why. The Town of Hull is trying to get more funding for renewable energy projects, and their lobbyist, the former congressman, would have to get the current congressman to go along with new earmarks or support for federal programs money. It's bad enough if Delahunt is seen trying to profit form his work in Congress, but it's really bad if Delahunt is seen working against the new Congressman's reelection. Bottom line - There is no chance that present congressman Keating will be supporting Hull's new request if former congressman Delahunt is doing the asking. That means no more pork for you, Hull. Hull's $15,000 a month stipend for Delahunt to get a few hundred thousand dollars of federal earmarks is small potatoes compared to the stakes (pun) for the Mashpee Tribe. The work Delahunt is doing for the Indian tribe involves getting a mega-million dollar casino built for them in Southeastern Massachusetts. By a quirk of fate, the new congressman (Keating) now represents the whole of the region in which the tribe would be allowed to build its casino. Federal recognition of the tribe has to go through Rep. Keating, and a casino compact has to go through Governor Patrick. Lest we forget, Delahunt was the Governor's least favorite congressman, since he was the only one to oppose the Governor's pet project, Cape Wind. Delahunt is hedging his bet with Keating by keeping his options open with potential congressional candidates, E. Samuel Sutter of Fall River and Rob O'Leary of Barnstable. Can he help get a casino built in Southeastern Massachusetts and at the same time play king-maker in the next congressional race? No casino high-roller would ever take that bet. While Delahunt is playing with house money, the Mashpee Wampanoags are betting Delahunt can get it done, but do they know that Delahunt is knee-capping Keating? It's not enough that Delahunt gets more than one pension at taxpayers expense, now he's taking taxpayer dollars from Hull and future casino revenues from the Mashpees. You know what they say, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. To read all the Politics Etc. column in chronological order click here. To write a Letter to the Editor click here.

http://capecodtoday.com/article/2012/01/27/5193-Town-and-Tribe-What-do-Hull-and-Wampanoags-have-common

Say I have an array of string elements ["1", "2","3"] that I wish to sum. However, I cannot just use the formula .sum because it would combine the string elements to return "123" instead of 6. How can I convert the array to integer elements for summation? Hi Saul, we do not have a formula to convert the string elements into integer elements. However, this can be done using a simple ruby code laid out in this recipe. The code takes care of the conversion into integers as well as the summation.

https://support.workato.com/support/discussions/topics/1000089523

firming cream: I have a cream that says it firms skin by up to 60% in 28 days - does this mean gettin rid of cellulite? I have a cream that says it firms skin by up to 60% in 28 days - does this mean gettin rid of cellulite? Cellulite always the biggest problem for majority of women or ladies... even skinny girls will have cellulite. This unsightly bumpy appearance of cellulite on the skin is most commonly seen on the arms, hips, thighs and buttocks of women. You can try to read this article, is about cellulite reduction. Hope it can help you and for those who facing this problem. http://easycellulitereduction.comI have a cream that says it firms skin by up to 60% in 28 days - does this mean gettin rid of cellulite? Cellulite is cause by fat cells that instead of laying smooth under skin, lay a top one another and form a dimple. More small women have this than large women. Cream will not fix it, but massaging the area can break up the cells. Be wary of spa treatments as these have been known to let loose clots that have had harmful effects. I have a cream that says it firms skin by up to 60% in 28 days - does this mean gettin rid of cellulite? It's possible to firm up your skin to reduce the APPEARANCE of cellulite. But there is no way to get rid of it, and once you stop using the cream, its going to show right back up. The most creams or any topical medications can do is make skin a little firmer. Cellulite is way out of its league. Surgery is what you're looking for. LIKE THE OTHER PERSON SAID NO IT WONT GET RID OF CELLULITE BUT IF YOU HAVE MONEY JUST LYING AROUND YOU CAN GET CELLULITE REMOVED OR AT LEAST HELPED TO LOOK BETTER. It will possibly reduce your cellulite a bit, but no cream can completely rid your body of cellulite.

http://firming-cream.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-have-cream-that-says-it-firms-skin-by.html

When the customer requests a change in a function, first make sure that the function can be customized. Record the current settings before customizing. (d) Enter the following menus: Customize. This function is used to enable or disable the auto up function for the front passenger door window using the power window regulator switch assembly (for front passenger side). This function is used to enable or disable the remote auto up function for the front passenger door window using the master switch. This function is used to enable or disable the auto up function using the rear power window regulator switch assembly RH. This function is used to enable or disable the remote auto up function for the rear RH door window using the master switch. This function is used to enable or disable the auto up function using the rear power window regulator switch assembly LH. This function is used to enable or disable the remote auto up function for the rear LH door window using the master switch.

http://www.tovenza.com/customize_parameters-1855.html

Alphabet's healthcare division, Verily, formerly Google Life Sciences, has been talking to insurers about going in on contracts with them to take on risk for patients. The company will show off cloud-based services at HIMSS next week. "Patients will be expecting to have diagnostics almost live on a smartphone or at the very least available in near-real time," said the CEO of GE Healthcare Clinical Care Solutions. The company's products generate a lot of de-identified health data. "We do believe if there was a compelling value proposition, people would be more willing to share data," said the Fibitbit CEO. The company will spin off six of its early-stage drugs into a $250 million biotech company. Bing Yao will lead the company, which will also include staff from MedImmune. "The research has lagged behind in cats," said a geneticist and researcher. "I think they're taken less seriously than dogs, probably to do with societal biases."

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20180228/INFO/180229917/news-from-other-sources

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 13-25 which are based on Reading Passage 149 on the following pages. A In 1942 Allan R Holmberg, a doctoral student in anthropology from Yale University, USA, ventured deep into the jungle of Bolivian Amazonia and searched out an isolated band of Siriono Indians. The Siriono, Holmberg later wrote, led a "strikingly backward" existence. Their villages were little more than clusters of thatched huts. Life itself was a perpetual and punishing search for food: some families grew manioc and other starchy crops in small garden plots cleared from the forest, while other members of the tribe scoured the country for small game and promising fish holes. When local resources became depleted, the tribe moved on. As for technology, Holmberg noted, the Siriono "may be classified among the most handicapped peoples of the world". Other than bows, arrows and crude digging sticks, the only tools the Siriono seemed to possess were "two machetes worn to the size of pocket-knives". B Although the lives of the Siriono have changed in the intervening decades, the image of them as Stone Age relics has endured. Indeed, in many respects the Siriono epitomize the popular conception of life in Amazonia. To casual observers, as well as to influential natural scientists and regional planners, the luxuriant forests of Amazonia seem ageless, unconquerable, a habitat totally hostile to human civilization. The apparent simplicity of Indian ways of life has been judged an evolutionary adaptation to forest ecology, living proof that Amazonia could not - and cannot - sustain a more complex society. Archaeological traces of far more elaborate cultures have been dismissed as the ruins of invaders from outside the region, abandoned to decay in the uncompromising tropical environment. C The popular conception of Amazonia and its native residents would be enormously consequential if it were true. But the human history of Amazonia in the past 11,000 years betrays that view as myth. Evidence gathered in recent years from anthropology and archaeology indicates that the region has supported a series of indigenous cultures for eleven thousand years; an extensive network of complex societies - some with populations perhaps as large as 100,000 - thrived there for more than 1,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. (Indeed, some contemporary tribes, including the Siriono, still live among the earthworks of earlier cultures.) Far from being evolutionarily retarded, prehistoric Amazonian people developed technologies and cultures that were advanced for their time. If the lives of Indians today seem "primitive", the appearance is not the result of some environmental adaptation or ecological barrier; rather it is a comparatively recent adaptation to centuries of economic and political pressure. Investigators who argue otherwise have unwittingly projected the present onto the past. D The evidence for a revised view of Amazonia will take many people by surprise. Ecologists have assumed that tropical ecosystems were shaped entirely by natural forces and they have focused their research on habitats they believe have escaped human influence. But as the University of Florida ecologist, Peter Feinsinger, has noted, an approach that leaves people out of the equation is no longer tenable. The archaeological evidence shows that the natural history of Amazonia is to a surprising extent tied to the activities of its prehistoric inhabitants. E The realization comes none too soon. In June 1992 political and environmental leaders from across the world met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss how developing countries can advance their economies without destroying their natural resources. The challenge is especially difficult in Amazonia. Because the tropical forest has been depicted as ecologically unfit for large-scale human occupation, some environmentalists have opposed development of any kind. Ironically, one major casualty of that extreme position has been the environment itself. While policy makers struggle to define and implement appropriate legislation, development of the most destructive kind has continued apace over vast areas. F The other major casualty of the "naturalism" of environmental scientists has been the indigenous Amazonians, whose habits of hunting, fishing, and slash-and-burn cultivation often have been represented as harmful to the habitat. In the clash between environmentalists and developers, the Indians, whose presence is in fact crucial to the survival of the forest, have suffered the most. The new understanding of the pre-history of Amazonia, however, points toward a middle ground. Archaeology makes clear that with judicious management selected parts of the region could support more people than anyone thought before. The long-buried past, it seems, offers hope for the future. 16 The reason for the simplicity of the Indian way of life is that Amazonia has always been unable to support a more complex society. 17 There is a crucial popular misconception about the human history of Amazonia. 18 There are lessons to be learned from similar ecosystems in other parts of the world. 19 Most ecologists were aware that the areas of Amazonia they were working in had been shaped by human settlement. 20 The indigenous Amazonian Indians are necessary to the well-being of the forest. 21 It would be possible for certain parts of Amazonia to support a higher population.

http://www.ielts-elixir.com/ielts-reading/reading-samples/academic-reading-samples/542-ielts-academic-reading-sample-149-secrets-of-the-forests.html

Looking for the verb phrase soñar con ser instead? A Pedro le gustaba mucho cantar. Soñaba con ser un cantante famoso y actuar en grandes estadios.Pedro liked singing a lot. He dreamed of being a famous singer and performing in big stadiums. Celia estaba harta de su día a día. Soñaba con ser libre en algún lugar lejos de allí.Celia was fed up with her daily life. She dreamed of being free somewhere far away from there. Pamela soñaba con ser abogada o doctora.Pamela dreamed of being a lawyer or a doctor. Ha dicho en diversas entrevistas que cuando empezó soñaba con ser una autora de prestigio.You've said in different interviews that when you started you dreamed of being a prestigious author.

https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/so%C3%B1aba%20con%20ser

Introduction: What Is Meant By A Biblical Worldview? "(A) means of experiencing, interpreting, and responding to reality in light of a Biblical perspective." So who is Dr. Jeff Myers? He is President of a worldview training ministry called: "Summit Ministries". The goal of the ministry is to equip people with the tools they need to construct a Biblical way of thinking (i.e., "a Biblical worldview). In his book: "The Secret Battle Of Ideas About God - Overcoming The Outbreak Of Five Fatal Worldviews", Meyers utilizes the metaphor of a virus to describe how bad worldviews can "infect our thinking". Whenever we talk about worldviews, we are looking at how a given set of beliefs address life's most important questions. 1. Chapter 3, "Am I Loved?" 2. Chapter 5, "Why Do I Hurt?" 3. Chapter 7, "Does My Life Have Meaning? 4. Chapter 9, "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" 5. Chapter 11, "Is There Any Hope For the World?" 6. Chapter 13, "Is God Relevant?" The Worldviews Covered In "The Secret Battle Of Ideas About God" On the subject of life's meaning, we find Secularism asserting that life is about control. With respect to Marxism, it defines life's meaning as having to do with redistribution of wealth and bringing change by social revolt. With concern to Post-modernism, the main point of life is that there is no "main point", since truth and moral absolutes are defined by individuals or culture. New-Spirituality (formally known by its older moniker, "The New Age"), states that life is about human consciousness rising to find unity with the universe. Then lastly, Islam's definition of life's meaning has to do with submission to Allah. The Gospel asserts that meaning, value and purpose in life is found in God as decisively revealed in the incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus of Nazareth. 1. Secularism believes, in the words of philosopher Paul Kurtz, who also authored the Humanist Manifesto II, "No deity will save us; we must save ourselves". 2. Marxism suggests we raise taxes and confiscate property until wealth is redistributed. Only then can a future human utopia be realized. 3. Post-modernism declares that: "there is no meaning". 4. New Spirituality asserts that, "when we act as though we're one with the universe, only then can hope be discovered". 5. Islam emphasizes that hope is only discovered through submission to Allah. Dr. Meyers offers two references from the Quran to demonstrate his summation (Quran 16:36; 35:24). The last remaining two steps in arresting the influence of bad ideas in our minds is to inform and then invest in other people. Meyers certainly does a great job of informing people about how each worldview handles the major questions of life. The investment part deals with how we communicate the Gospel in a winsome way and demonstrate how it alone answers all the big questions of life. 1. "I am loved". Deep unconditional love exists, and I can have it. 2. "My suffering will be overcome." 3. "I have an incredible calling." 4. "I'm meant for community". This declaration points to the place of the local church and community of believers in Jesus Christ. 5. "There is hope for the world". This of course is found in Christ alone. Answering The Big Question: "Is God Even Relevant?" "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it; but because by it I see everything else." A. "I am loved". Meyers refers to the Greek noun "agape", which speaks of self-sacrificial love. B. "My suffering will be overcome". Meyers mentions the Greek verb used in the New Testament to describe victory, "nikao", from whence is derived the sneaker brand "Nike". C. "I have an incredible calling." Here Meyers calls to mind the Greek word "kaleo", a verb often used to describe Jesus' calling of His disciples to follow Him. D. "I'm meant for community". Here Meyers uses the Hebrew Old Testament term "shalom", which speaks of attainment of inner-peace, contentment, relational balance, as a result of living life according to the will of God. E. "There is hope for the world". In this final affirmation, Meyers references the Greek word "elpis", which is often used to translate the word "hope" in the New Testament. "The Gospel isn't just good news for those who have never heard; its good news for those who love Jesus but wrestle what this means for everyday life." I would highly recommend Dr. Jeff Meyer's book: "The Secret Battle Of Ideas About God - Overcoming The Outbreak Of Five Fatal Worldviews" for anyone desiring an introduction on how to communicate, live and defend the Gospel in today's culture.

http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2018/10/book-review-secret-battle-of-ideas.html

Association: - Food, - satisfaction, - pleasure. Question: - Which part of myself do I feed? a dream of food can be looked as a good sign, particularly if you ate and became full. The quality of the dishes and drinks in the dream and your feelings to them are important for the interpretation of your dream. For example, a dream in which you eat rests can show that you live on the most necessary. Think about the quality and quantity of the 'ingredients' of the life with which you can enrich your awake life, and how these can be procured. a decent meal or a tasty snack which were taken with pleasure to themselves can reveal a deep feeling of the satisfaction with your life. One also indicates the faith that good times approach you or that the foundation was laid for future profit. ? Did you have feelings of guilt because of quality or amount or did you eat with pleasure? Insatiably to eat or to drink, the 'ravenous' side of your personality can express, reflect unfulfilled needs and maybe provide the feeling to be unbeloved on itself put or. Such dreams can also emphasise the fear that momentary good times of short duration can be and must be enjoyed, as long as it still goes. Richly only food devours quickly acquisitiveness and lacking sympathy often registers for others. paltry food which does not taste can point out to the fact that one achieves a low success in which one cannot be glad, - feelings of guilt are also sometimes expressed in it. consolation food from child days can show the longing to return at easier times. invitation for food should point to forthcoming troubled times. Going it in the dream about the fact that he does not eat or refuses the absorption of nutrients indicates this one avoid from growth and change, so against something in our life which it is a matter to overcome. Maybe the dreaming tries to keep away from other people or to isolate himself. Or, however, the dreaming is discordant with himself because he is discontented with his body. One tries to remember what one has eaten in the dream to draw from it his conclusions, because the dream food is often to be equated with the spiritual food which could come away us and after which one crowds voraciously. Becoming the dreaming in his dream consumes, symbolises this his knowledge that he is consumed by his own feelings and fears or by that of the other people. by a wild animal to be eaten, concludes by the fact that the dreaming is 'eaten up' by his own animal nature. The surroundings in which the dreaming ate or drank - for example, a social occasion - can reflect the aspects in the life of the dreaming which need attention or spiritual food. The purchase of food can express the hidden temptation 'to buy' the attention or sympathy more different to themselves. dreams about yellow food like pasta or vanilla sauce can show cowardice. It means: The person is what he eats', and, hence, the dreaming at the spiritual level should take the best food to himself which he can get. It is to be eaten nobody good in the dream stars, except to seers and astronomers, - this it means good salary and increase in property, - to all others it prophesies the death. To eat from his own meat brings poor luck, - he will come by physical work and strain to big property and not live in this manner though on his meat, probably, however, from the salary of his meat. From good premeaning it is more distant for a foreman if he eats of those body parts by which he earns excellently his living, - namely work one with both hands, other only with one, third with the fingertips, again other with the whole body. For belletrists it is good if they give to eat mouth and tongue to others, - they will acquire by mouth and tongue a lot of money and be so able to grant also other maintenance. If one consumes his own mouth or his own tongue, he will lose his speech ability. It means private individuals to remorse for cheeky speeches. A woman who eats from own meat will go whoring and live in this manner by own body. It announces everybody which has a friend or narrow relative or beloved person on the sickbed grief, - then mourning consume her own meat, while they disfigure themselves in pain. It announces an empire and everybody which leads his life completely by wish nothing good if he eats of own meat, - it means a complete circulation of the life-style and the property relations of the dreaming just as food of own excrement. A man who had three sons dreamt, two of them slaughtered him and consumed his meat, however, the latest one comes, makes to the other reproaches serious to both, would be completely knocked down and says full loathing: 'I touch from the father nothing.' It met that his latest son died, - then he alone should not get not possibly from the meat, but from the property of the father his part, while he parted before this from the life and was not heir to him. The others, however, which had eaten inherited the fatherly property. only smell: bad news stands in the house. eat fruit: indicates at kisses which one receives with pleasure.

http://dreamtation.com/docs/9855.htm

When is Cyber Monday in US? When is Cyber Monday in US in other years? The following is a list of dates of when Cyber Monday in US will happen in the future, and past dates.

https://days.to/when-is/cyber-monday-in-us

Today I went to see Alice Through the Looking Glass with the family. (Just so you know, it's not something I would go to watch by myself, because it's a kid's movie.) Based on one non-spoiler movie review I saw beforehand, and one rumor I heard about this movie, I did not go to see it with high expectations. But I do have my own theory about such movies: if they are strong on special effects, then they are weak on plot - a lesson I learned from watching Avatar. Alice Through the Looking Glass confirmed my theory once again. Alice - a strong feminist role model - must save the Mad Hatter's family. But in order to do so she must pass through a fantastic adventure while learning a lesson along the way. The moral of the story helped her solve a problem in the movie's "real world." I enjoyed many of this movie's characters. Alice (ENTJ) was so-so. Her British "enemy" in the real world was great. I thought that they did a fantastic job casting <whoever-the-actor-was> in that role. The Queen of Hearts' ginormous head was distracting. And I couldn't stop analyzing the make-up job done on some of the Wonderland characters (the real ones, of course, not the digitally-created ones). The make-up was academy-award level. But since the story didn't interest me very much, I found myself wondering how many hours Johnny Depp spent in front of a mirror being done up by a make-up artist. I found other, similar minutiae to be more interesting than the movie itself. The movie itself, as a whole, I found to be rather bland, if not sterile, void of any creative impulse. I didn't find the Mad Hatter to be very mad, as in, crazy. The movie in its entirety lacked the Wonderland mystique of being a fantastical, illogical realm. Most of the characters acted quite normal. Even the tea party redux didn't strike me as very strange. I found myself mentally comparing The Wizard of Oz and its recent movie sequel to this one: Alice is just Dorothy, the Queen of Hearts is just The Wicked Witch of the West, Time is just (well, almost) the Wizard of Oz. (I realize this last comparison is a bit of a stretch.) And Wonderland is just the land of Oz. It wouldn't be a difficult task for a screen-writer to translate Alice Through the Looking Glass into Oz terms. If your IQ is over 90, I can't recommend this movie. If you are a "can't miss Johnny Depp's possible last hoorah" fan, then by all means, do go see it. I haven't personally seen it, but this entire series of live-action Disney remakes has really just put me off. It seems like a lazy way for them to earn more money without putting in the effort to write a new story. Granted, the stories weren't actually original to begin with, but they did significantly alter them when first bringing them to the big screen is kind of what I am trying to get at. Sorry if my point here is unclear. Well, the exception to this is Maleficent, which I have not seen, but I've heard is a great movie and would like to see it sometime. Everything else has just been making me roll my eyes. I think we've had enough of these already, but they only continue to pour out it seems. I don't know you, but what if you have a family that wants you to go with them to see this movie? I might see it, though I'm not sure it will be as good as the first movie. Seems more humorous, jocular, and colorful though. Not sure where you're getting your information from. I recently saw Cinderella and The Jungle Book, and both were well-done. The Alice stuff, however, has been kind of meh. The cast was decent enough in the first one, but the storyline wasn't great. Maleficent was actually one of the worst entries in the genre. Aside from Jolie's acting, the movie had little to contribute. The movie also came in short, like it was missing material and/or had large story holes. Aside from tinkering with the character, the reframe was somewhat cliche. Of course they are going to capitalize on properties that already exist, but I think you're being hasty by writing them all off on principle. Some have been excellent; the Alice series unfortunately hasn't been so great. Then we will pray for your soul.

https://www.typologycentral.com/forums/arts-and-entertainment/83885-alice-looking-glass.html

What is Hour Dream LTD, and what are the activities of the company? Hour Dream LTD is a prominent representative of the international computer technologies market, BitCoin encryption algorithms and mining, it is a developer of hardware and offers safe investments in this area. Is Hour Dream LTD a registered and legal company? Yes, Hour Dream LTD is registered in the United Kingdom as "Hour Dream LTD" with a registration number of 11632850. Any interested person can become the investor of Hour Dream LTD, no matter how well he or she understands the scope of our business and technical aspects of BitCoin mining as a whole. Is your business established for a long term? The company develops long-term relationships with customers and partners. Our business plan includes the phased development over the next 10 years, until at least 2027. Can I lose money by investing here? No, you can't lose money. We make every effort to ensure the safety of your assets. How do I open my Hour Dream LTD account? In the "Make A Deposit" section of your account, select the necessary investment plan, enter the amount, select the payment source (send the amount from a BitCoin wallet or invest from the account balance) and click on Spend button. After that, the system would suggest you a BitCoin address where you need to send money. Note that you have to make this payment from your BitCoin wallet. Given the fact that our company is involved in cryptocurrency mining, We accept Perfectmoney , Payeer , Bitcoin,ETH,Bitcoin Cash, Dash,Dogecoin and Litecoin as Payment Method For deposits and withdrawa.. I wish to invest with Hour Dream LTD but I don't have a BitCoin address. Where can I register it? Bitcoin address is your ID (account, wallet number), starting with 1 or 3 and containing 27-34 alphanumeric Latin characters (other than 0, O, I). The address can also be represented as a QR-code, it is anonymous and does not contain information about the owner. For example, 1TopMSEYstRatqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2 or 398Tt1WpEZ73CNmQviecrnyiWrnqRhWNLy. Each of your deposits can be for any amount from $5, and the maximum is $50000. The number of such deposits is not limited. You cannot. You can not change your username or email. The only solution is to re-register your account. Address the technical support service via the feedback form in the "Support" section or via admin@hourdream.com and send the following data: 1) your login, 2) the exact amount of the deposit in Bitcoin, and 3) the address, to which the payment was sent. After I make a withdrawal request, when will the funds will be process? All withdraw will process instantly. Hour Dream LTD Offer Referral Commission Upto 10%. I can't enter my account! What to do? Check the login data: your username and password. If you are sure you enter correct data, but it is not possible to access the account, use the password reset function, which is located below the login form. Click on forgot password link, type your username or e-mail and you'll receive a confirmation code to your email for resetting your password. I didn't set Bitcoin address during registration or specified it wrong. What to do? You can always add/edit your Bitcoin address in "Edit Account" section. To do this, you will need to get an email with a confirmation code. Please note that the email may appear in the spam folder. I don't receive emails from the company! Why? Check the spam folder in your mailbox. If the problem is not solved, contact your email provider. We strongly recommend that you use the service @gmail.com to work with the website. Yes, but we strongly recommend that you register one account and use it for investment. It will allow to reduce load on the server and database, as well as prevent any possible problems. Can my relatives register from my IP address? What investment terms does Hour Dream LTD offer? Depending on the investment plan and the amount of the deposit, your daily earnings can range from 5% to 800%. Accruals are made daily (every day), and on a permanent basis, without the return of the initial deposit. I made a request to withdraw profit, but it is pending! What to do? The most likely cause of the payment delay is invalid Bitcoin address in your "Edit Account" section, or its absence, check it out first. You can do it yourself in the Withdrawals History section by clicking [cancel]. My withdrawal request is processed, but the amount did not get in my Bitcoin wallet. Why? All cryptocurrency transactions are processed after 3 network confirmations. Just wait a little bit. You can contact us around the clock via the support form or email admin@hourdream.com. We will promptly respond to any problems. What do I need to do to earn referral commissions? You just need to register and use your referral link to attract new investors. Do I need to have own deposit to receive referral commissions? No, own deposit is not mandatory.

https://hourdream.com/?a=faq

Does Google's New Camera Live Up To The Hype? Last October, Google released a suite of new devices, many of which had already been leaked in early reports. These included the adorable, macaron-shaped Google Home Mini, the Pixel 2 smartphone, and a stylish new laptop, Pixelbook. But there was one big surprise among the bunch that had evaded the rumor mill: Google Clips. Clips is an incredibly light (less than half of a pound!) and thin hands-free camera that I was excited about the second I laid eyes on it. That's because Clips looks and works differently than almost every other camera out there. At first, I thought Clips was Google's version of a GoPro — an on-the-go action camera. While you can certainly take the device on-the-go, it isn't meant to be used like a standard action camera, which requires you to carry or wear it while you're skiing down the slopes or surfing waves. Instead, Clips is supposed to capture what Google calls the "spontaneous moments" — the ones that happen too quickly and unexpectedly for you to be able to snap them with your smartphone or any kind of manual camera. It's primarily intended for use with pets and people, especially kids. This means that the camera — which, at $249, isn't inexpensive — won't be for everyone. However, I was curious to see just how well it would capture the moments I was missing and what those moments were. Ahead, a full breakdown of everything you need to know when considering whether or not to buy Google Clips. Compared to many non-smartphone cameras, Clips is surprisingly easy to use. After a five-minute setup, which involves downloading the Google Clips app and pairing the device with your phone, you're good to go. When you want to turn the camera on, all you need to do is twist the lens clockwise; twisting it counterclockwise turns it off. Clips is not entirely intuitive and comes with a learning curve: I could see my parents or anyone over the age of 45 struggling to figure out what to do with it. That's because when you turn Clips on, it isn't recording everything you do. Instead, machine learning within the device looks for the best moments to record (think someone smiling or a dog jumping in mid-air) as a short, few-seconds long video clip. A small light to the right of the lens will turn on to indicate when the camera is actually recording something. You have to trust Clips to do its thing, which, for anyone who's used to being in control of the shutter button on their smartphone or Go-Pro, isn't easy. There is a shutter button on the device, located directly below the lens, as well as one within the app, for those times when you want to be completely sure a moment is captured. However, if you want to be in the shot, and not on your phone, you'll want to ease off the button. The more I used Clips, the more trusting I became, but it did take me a few tries to fully relax and relinquish control. Like almost every camera, there are limitations to shooting with Clips. As I tried out different angles — a live preview within the app is useful for seeing how your clips will be framed — I found the best ones were when I placed the camera at about eye level with my subject. When playing with a terrier, this was a bit annoying, since I needed to find a surface that wasn't too high. Clips comes with a rubber case that has an actual clip on the back, which you can use to prop the camera upright or attach it to the side of something, such as a standing picture frame or hardcover book jacket. However, I wouldn't advise clipping the device onto your shirt (even though it is light enough to do so), since you won't be in the frame. You also don't want to be too far away from your subject. Google suggests 3 to 8 feet and I found that range worked best, although I tended to prefer shots that were taken towards the shorter end of that spectrum since I could see more of my subject without background distractions. To view your clips, open the app. If you're an iPhone user, you'll need to be connected to the camera to see them, meaning that you'll need the device nearby. (Android users don't need to have their phone connected to the camera to view clips). This is an issue Google says it's working on. Your phone will then load any new clips, which you can swipe right to save to your phone's camera roll or left to delete. The device can hold a lot of video — with 27 clips, mine was only 2% full, so storage won't be an issue. The best thing about the app is the edit feature you'll see when you tap on any of your clips. There is a lot of flexibility around what you can do with a single clip: You can save it as a still photo and choose any particular frame; you can also save it as GIF, an MP4 video, or a live photo. If you don't want the entire clip to be included, you can shorten it. However, I did wish that I could save my Clip in multiple formats. Unfortunately, when you save a Clip to your camera roll, it's automatically deleted from the Clips app. This means that you can't go back to save a still or additional motion format from the app. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the clips captured: They often captured moments I wouldn't gotten on my own, including ones that showed the joy on my face when I was playing with the impossibly cute terrier; the terrier's face up close and personal with the lens; and some playful toy tug-of-war. Clips is also trained to look for good lighting and it shows: Even in an incredibly bright space, my clips still didn't look washed out. Clips didn't always get things right: Sometimes it captured moments where I was only partially in the frame and looking off into the distance, or doing nothing interesting at all. I was hopeful that the machine learning in the device would detect these instances and not bother recording them, but that wasn't always the case. The app also has a feature called "suggested clips" that's supposed to make it easier to sort through the video captured and find the best moments of the bunch. These suggestions weren't always on point. If you are an animal lover who keeps a photo of your dog as your phone's background or your Nest cam onscreen at work so you can watch your cat, Clips is for you. The same goes for anyone with kids or nieces and nephews. It's an incredibly fun way to do what Google said: Capture spontaneous moments you wouldn't have otherwise shot. However, the $249 price tag makes this more than just a spontaneous buy, and it's clear that Clips is still in the early stages of what it can do. So if you don't have a furry four-legged fellow, or a little one running around your house, it might be worth holding off until a future iteration or updates arrive. Still, Clips is an exciting look at how companies like Google are thinking about integrating machine learning into our everyday lives in a way that is fun and unusual. For a visual generation of Instagram lovers, there's a lot of potential here.

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/02/191873/google-clips-camera-review

What would characterize a group of people suffering from delusions? Their ideas would not be founded on logic and real needs, which causes them to always come up with new ways of doing things, which they believe are better. Test and evaluate the new ideas on the group, who also suffers from delusions, and see what they say. We all suffer from the delusion that the majority knows what's best. This leads to progress as we know it. From a historical perspective society has always been in a state of change (progress). Societies that stagnate are overtaken by more dynamic societies. This doesn't mean people in the more dynamic society are happier than the ones in the stagnant society. Buddhism teaches that everything is in a state of constant change, which obviously applies to societies every where, as can be seen from our history. Which makes one wonder if anything we do ever will be good enough to be considered final. The dominant belief is that there is no end to progress. Progress is something good never ending. Look at the concept of democracy. The crown jewel of progress, based on the idea that the majority knows what's best. Now look at environmental issues. The majority thinks it good to care about the environment as long as it doesn't effect them financially. Wouldn't it be smarter to let environmental experts unite around a decision on what to do. If we do away with political parties and let specialists deal with issues they are competent to solve, than we would have a new system, specialist democracy. The way things are looking we will soon be there. The only thing that will differentiate parties will be the view on the individual. Delusions in this area are quite widespread, which is obvious from all different existing philosophies. We suffer from the delusion that progress is good. What's the result of progress? Never have so many people been sick from work, or been excluded from the labor market. Obesity, which I see as an mental imbalance, is at an all time high, and rising. Everybody complains there is not enough time. They are stressed out. There are two things that have become better the last fifty years, health care, and private finances. Progress in the area of health care has obviously improved living conditions for a lot of people. Better private finances come at the price of above mentioned arguments. Were we not better off fifty years ago, with the exception of the health care. I say we were, which in that case proves that progress is not all good. Which proves progress is founded on illogic development and the satisfaction of needs that are created. What is the logic in creating a need where none exist? It's illogic. Therefore are progress based on that we all suffer from delusions. Finally, I must say there is no cure for delusions. Psychiatry says anti-psychotics cure it, but that's yet another delusion. Our only possibility is to use logical reasoning as much as possible. My theory for the cause of delusions is that we suffer from self-hatred. According to this theory self-hatred arises about the age of two years. The child immediately represses this emotion so it becomes buried deep in the sub-conscious. Later in life this expresses itself in the ability to feel hatred and envy. Both of these feelings make us feel bad, which can be seen as an confirmation that they come from self-hatred. There is actually no reason why hatred and envy make us feel bad. If it's not to deter us, but than nature might as well not have given us these emotions, which is the case with people suffering from schizophrenia. The repressed self-hatred lays as a gravitational center in the sub-conscious. The sub-conscious thoughts are drawn in and bent around this center. Our instincts that are sublimated to needs in the sub-conscious are bent by the center, hence our inability to satisfy our needs. Since the needs are distortions of the underlying instincts it becomes impossible to achieve need satisfaction. This is the reason why we create new needs in the hunt for lasting well-being. This inability to identify our needs correctly put us in a constant search to satisfy ourselves with different substitutes. This is the foundation for progress as we know it. This is interesting from a Buddhist point of view since it explains why life is suffering, it's simply because of our inability to identify our needs. Therefore life is an endless search and each new need we acquire increases our suffering.

http://successfulschizophrenia.org/stories/larsson01.html

The pizza base will be highlighted first, click on it. Click on the subsequent ingredients that are highlighted. Click on the pizza box. Click on pizza to put it in box.

http://gamingrover.com/game.php?id=12837&title=my-pizza-shop

Who is a man that is not angry? Let grief Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. There is no following her in this fierce vein.

https://shakespearebrasileiro.org/de/citacoes/shakespeare-quotations-on-anger/

When converted into binary, how many bits are present in an IPv4 Address? IPv4 addressing consists of four octets of eight bits each. 8x4=32 bits per address. Example: 192.168.1.1 in binary is 11000000.10101000.00000001.00000001, which is 32 bits.

https://crucialexams.com/study/questions/sy0-401/when-converted-into-binary-how-many-bits-are-present-in-an-ipv4-address/

1, How does sea-floor spreading occur? A, New materials are being added to the asthenosphere. B, Earthquakes break apart the ocean floor. C, Sediments accumulate at the area of spreading. D, Molten material beneath Earth's crust rises to the surface. You must scuba dive to the entrance of your room at Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida. The diver is 1 foot deeper than 23 of the elevation of the entrance. What is the elevation of the entrance? Consider the following reaction: 2NOCl(g) 2NO(g) + Cl2(g) Initially pure NOCl(g) is placed in a vessel at 2.96 atm. At equilibrium, 0.410% of the NOCl has decomposed. Determine the value for Kp. When Genebibe was asked how many foreign stamps she had, she answered: If i arranged them in stacks of 5, 6, or 8, none is leftover.What is the least number of coins she could have? A stunt flier is moving at 15m/s parallel to the flat ground 100m below,how large must the distance x from plane to target be if a sack of flour released from the place is to strike the target? If you were to add a dot to a quarter note, how many beats is it worth in 3/4 time? Assessment items A florist is making identical bouquets using 72 red roses, 60 pink roses, and 48 yellow roses. What is the greatest number of bouquets that the florist can make if no roses are left over? How many of each color are in each bouquet? On anne's bicycle, the ratio of the pedal turns to rear-wheel turns in second gear is 4 to 7. If her rear wheel turns 875 times per mile, how many times does she turn the pedal in one mile? HINT: setup and solve as a proportion to find x. The product of two positive integers plus their sum is 95. The integers are relatively prime, and each is less than 20. What is the sum of the two integers? A man was 27 years older than his son ten years ago.His wife is 4 years younger than he is.if their total age is 116 years now ,how old is the son? An apple falls from a tree and hits the ground 10.9 m below. With what speed will it hit the ground? The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s 2 . Answer in units of m/s. what is the theoritical value of the concentration of HCL Vin molarity and g/li when it is reacted with 0.4M of sodium hydroxide and the average volume of NaOH is 27.2ml? WHO WOULD WRITE A SUMMARY FOR ME :: THIS IS THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE : YOU CAN FIND IT ONLINE "The relationship between the volume of antimicrobial consumption in human communities and the frequency of resistance" a )what use of carbon , properties of carbon? b) is their any organic compound that synthsies like urea in lab? Let r and s be the roots of y^2 - 19y + 7. Find (r-2)(s-2). Complex numbers are often used when dealing with alternating current (AC) circuits. In the equation V = IZ, V is voltage, I is current, and Z is a value known as impedance. If V = 1+i and Z=2-$, find I. If you lived in Georgia during the colonial era, where would you go to school if you lived in Savannah? Where would you go to school if you lived in one of the parishes that were a long boat ride away from Savannah? Woman weighs= 55 kg cup of coffee = 94 mg of caffeine LDL = 400 mg/ kg Cup of coffee ( 8 oz) How many cups would it take to reach the LDL? a drug test is 97% accurate. 2000 people take the test. 1975 of the people do not use drugs, while the other 25 are drug users. How many non-drug users will pass the drug test? For what real number k does the product (25 + ki)(3+2i) equal a real number? I tried dividing by i. So I got: ((25/i)+k)((3/i+2) which would equal (-25i+k)*(-3i+2) which means k would=25i. I don't think that's right but can you guys check it? 2. Write equations illustrating three reactions of alkenes, using 1-hexene as an example. You have f(x). You find f’(x). You discover that f’(3) DNE. Does that mean there’s a discontinuity in the graph of f(x) at that point? Explain. Which religious denominations were important in early Georgia? Why? If a meal has 42 3/5 ounces how many servings can you make? Please help. Walmart's net sales for 2015 were 485.7 billion dollars. What were their average net sales per hour? please help. Americans spent an average of 13.6% of their monthly earnings on mortgage payments, whish represented a 41% decrease from the value . what percentage of monthly earnings did Americans spend on mortgage payments.

https://www.jiskha.com/archives/2017/10/08

I am wondering if the chap Roseman above might be F/Lt Noel Eric Roseman pff, RNZAF, who served with W/C Bill Simpson in No. 109 Squadron later? I too am interested in this, and the history of Levin is surprising quiet on the subject. The Weraroa strip was AFAIK and as pjw4118 states West of SH1 in CD Farm Road. However, the Air Force Base was clearly called "Weraroa" but I think it was at Kimberley, a couple of miles to the Southeast. From what I've seen, it appears to me that the strip ran between Kimberley and Tararua Roads and was roughly North-South i.e.at right-angles to the prevailing wind, which I find unusual. Yeah it was your book and other research that led me back here and then I spotted Roseman and thought it had to be the same man. Also missing from that No. 109 Squadron photo was Alan Dray DFC pff. He was from here in Leamington, Cambridge. Over Xmas I spent a bit of time in Levin looking for more details about Weraroa. Originally the CD ( Central Development )Farm road area and Kimberley Rd ( RNZAF ) were both part of an 800 acre Government owned block , munch of which remained State owned until the late 1980s. Originally an experimental farm the Wereroa part became Levin State Farm for " unemployed elderly men. " and reformatory school for boys. In 1918 it also held religious conscientious objectors. In 1939 the Kimberly Road site was commandeered by the RNZAF and the borstal moved across to CD Road over a weekend. Things happened quickly in those days , a request to the PWD to provide a satellite airfield for Ohakea at Weraroa was made on 1/7/41 and the airfield opened a month later. As well as an ITW , ground radar operators were trained there and although uniformed as RNZAF or WAAFs they did not come under Air Force control. Post war the borstal remained in CD road and was extended , having its own cell block built in 1966.The borstal closed in 1989 and today the site remains mainly empty but perhaps with Waitangi obligations. It is classified as Historic Cat 1. Three movies were made at the site and named Kohitiri , they are available on NZ on Air Film . I will post a couple of photos of the CD road remains. The site of the old Kimberley Hospital is now being developed into a retirement village, so eventually any WWII vintage buildings still on the site will probably disappear. They're keeping/renovating the chapel apparently, but I don't know if that's WWII or post-war. Maybe Bruce, but I do recall we had a lot of outdoor lectures on our Basic Training course at GSTS, Woodbourne, in 1989 too. I can see merit in outdoor lectures for some things, like the compass bearing training, parachute training (they usually popped one and infated it in the wind to demonstrate its parts), etc. The Kiwi of the air stations — it possesses no "wings' — Weraroa is the Royal New Zealand Air Force's "intake" point for all pilots, observers and air gunners. It is the place where the men who will have wings are grounded in the first steps of their training. For this preliminary course the Air Force took over from the Education Department one of its training institutions, a mile or so outside Levin, equipped with well-planned gardens, plenty of green sward and good permanent buildings. For additional accommodation new dormitories and streets of boarded tents have been spread over the adjoining paddocks. Immediately on arrival the recruit makes a complete break with the old life by packing up his "civvies" and donning the Air Force blue uniform. In an article Charles E. Wheeler gives the initial issue to the recruit, the complete total of his official possessions: one greatcoat, two complete uniforms, two pairs socks, two pairs boots, two shirts and four collars, clothes-brush, button-brush and stick, tie, gym. vest, canvas gym. shoes, two caps and badges, five blankets (more can be obtained at choice), one pair of sheets and a pillow slip (regularly replaced as they require washing). At first parades of new recruits, uniforms are closely scrutinised, suggestions for improvement noted, and a visit to the camp tailor eventually produces a smart fit. "Training makes you one step better than the enemy," is the axiom learned at the first lecture. There is so much study in the Air Force that the men are relieved of most fatigues. The course is intensive. Men must keep their uniforms clean, and modern facilities including a drying-room are available for their personal washing. But there are no cook-house fatigues, nor is the recruit required to clean up the camp grounds — he has quite enough to do with his studies, varied by some early morning physical exercises, and breaks between lectures. Most of the young men get to bed by 9 p.m. Every man has a wardrobe, and sleeps on a spring mattress. He must be tidy. In the morning bed clothes have to be folded into a neat pile like a sandwich at the end of the stretcher. The men come to mess with their own cups and cutlery; they line up to be served, and find the tables laid for the rest. Diet is planned to include raw and cooked fruit, and fresh vegetables such as lettuce. The men are represented on a messing committee, where with the camp officers including the doctor, the dietary scale is decided periodically. Recruits are immediately formed into flights of a convenient number for lectures, possibly 30 in a group. They go through the course together, and are sent as a flight to their next station. They elect two of their number to exercise control, marching them to meals and making sure that every member of the flight attends lectures. This system assists in their development of friendships and builds a disciplined body with some idea of Air Force traditions and obligations. The course for pilots is six weeks, for observers two months, and for gunners about a month. Most of the air gunners and observers go straight to Canada, under the Empire air training scheme. The "rough spots" have been knocked off. They then know a good deal about the guns used on aircraft, understand much of the technical side of radio transmission, and have a sound groundwork in navigation. So much has to be taught in this first month that only one week-end leave is given during the whole period. Experienced officers, from knowledge of the young airmen and records of their examinations, can determine what they can best do in the Air Force; that an individual is marked out for a pilot, an observer, or that he will develop into a skilled gunner. The station has many lecture rooms, and a large staff of qualified officers who invite questions and test the attention of the class by occasional discussion. "Your training," he adds, "is aimed at bringing out all these attributes." Articles like the above make me realise the RNZAF recruit training in the 1940's was so similar to when I went through in 1989, it shows they knew what they were doing, they found the best method and stuck to it. Not like the civilian education system. I also learned a new word fro that article, "sward" - an open expanse of short grass. The property at Levin which used to be the Weraroa Boys’ Training Farm, but was an Air Force training station for several years during the war, is now being used by the Mental Hospitals Department for the accommodation of children in the same class as those at Templeton farm colony, near Christchurch. The existence of such an institution in the North Island will enable children who require to live in one to be nearer their homes, if their homes are in the North Island, than they would be at Templeton. The patients which the department has at Templeton and intends to have at Levin are children who are mentally deficient but not insane, including some who are adult in years but have remained childish mentally. They require protection from the hazards of normal life, but live and work satisfactorily in an institution. This map comes from the National Library's collection. I only just found out that the property next door (ie RNZAF Wereroa) was a WW2 ground training unit from speaking with the previous owner! I then did a bit of digging and it brought me here. Fascinating stuff, I’m a bit of a military history junkie as being a serving member of the NZDF (and ex RN) such info is of great personal interest. I’m going to collate maps and aerial photos to make a display for the wall of the man cave as with the redevelopment of the site much of the remaining fabric and infrastructure will likely be lost. If I were you , get over the fence and collect any items of interest , as I am sure that there are a few boards with carefully carved names in some of the old dorms/classrooms !

http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/12818/lost-airfields-rnzaf-levin-wereroa?page=6

I think that the chapter is both an exercise in perspectivism and constructionism. However this does not imply that the perspective is just one for each vignette. There is the narrator, and there are also the protagonists`s point of view. About the constructionism, I believe that Joyce uses language in both its directions of form and content, sound and meaning, senses and thoughts. It is hard to figure out if one has more importance than the other. Compared to the vast majority of other writers, Joyce stands out for the importance given to the form. He would probably believed that the two realms need to be inseparable and almost indistinguishable one from another. I am not sure that this episode works as a model for the whole book. A microcosm should contain the totality of the elements of the macrocosm; I do not think that this is the case. It is seems to me more plausible that the form of this chapter perfectly matches the content of it. The episode describes the two more powerful entities of Dublin; compare to their influential and authoritative passage, the city population is reduced to a sort of 'wandering rocks'. They do not have the great sense of purpose of the reverend Conmee and of the governor. Of course this interpretation of reality well reveal an intrinsic irony: all the protagonists of the episode follow a very meaningful direction while the two political figures almost parade among them. I think that Joyce uses these vignettes to show the fragmentary spectacle of Dublin (aka the world) as the center of the narration; I would say, at the center of every possible narration. The wondering rocks are a metaphor for a modern city inhabitants. They seems to be unbound, as the vignettes, but they are bind together by power and its representations. They seems to be unbound, as the vignettes, but they are bind together by power and its representations. They seems to be unbound, as the vignettes, but they are bound together by power and its representations. Are these "wandering rocks" called "H", "E", "L", "Y", and "'S", by any chance? Not every part has to represent the microcosm. One part of Ulysses represents the kidneys, for example. A part of a whole. Not whole-in-part. Oops. I meant "macrocosm". My Rose of Castille was derailed. I think that the chapter is both an exercise in perspectivism and constructionism. I think that this chapter is both an exercise both in perspectivism and constructionism. It would help if you said which chapter number you are writing about. However this does not imply that the perspective is just one for each vignette. However this does not imply that the perspective is just one for each vignette contains only a single perspective. There is the narrator, and there are also the protagonists' points of view. Regarding constructionism, I believe that Joyce uses language in both its directions of form and content, sound and meaning, senses and thoughts. I don't understand "both [of] its directions" It is hard to figure out if one has more importance than the other. Compared to the vast majority of other writers, Joyce stands out for the importance given to the form. Compared to the vast majority of other writers, Joyce stands out for the importance given to [the] form. He would probably have believed that the two realms need to be inseparable and almost indistinguishable one from another. I am not sure that this episode works as a model for the whole book. A microcosm should contain the totality of the elements of the macrocosm; I do not think that this is the case. Sentence 1 is according to whom? You may want to say that "It is said that ..." especially since you say in sentence 2 that you do not agree. It is seems to me more plausible that the form of this chapter perfectly matches the content of it. It is seems to me more plausible to say that the form of this chapter perfectly matches its content. ", but that the same thing cannot necessarily be said of the work as a whole." The episode describes the two more powerful entities of Dublin; compare to their influential and authoritative passage, the city population is reduced to a sort of 'wandering rocks'. The episode describes the two most powerful entities of Dublin; compare to their influential and authoritative passage, the city population is reduced to something akin to 'wandering rocks'. You'll have to tell me what chapter this is so I can understand what you are trying to say about these "entities" and "their passage" They do not have the great sense of purpose of the reverend Conmee and of the governor. Of course this interpretation of reality well reveal an intrinsic irony: all the protagonists of the episode follow a very meaningful direction while the two political figures almost parade among them. Of course this interpretation of reality will reveal an intrinsic irony: all the protagonists of the episode follow a very meaningful direction while the two political figures almost parade among them. I think that Joyce uses these vignettes to show the fragmentary spectacle of Dublin (aka the world) as the center of the narration; I would say, at the center of every possible narration. I think that Joyce uses these vignettes to show the fragmentary spectacle of Dublin (aka the world) as the center of the narration; I would go so far as to say, at the center of every possible narration. The wondering rocks are a metaphor for a modern city inhabitants. The wondering rocks are a metaphor for the inhabitants of a modern city. They seems to be only loosely bound together, as in the vignettes, but they are bound together by power and its representations. "unbound" either isn't a word or it doesn't mean what you think it means.

http://m.lang-8.com/722984/journals/300563210917069096256013200767698704451

DIFFICULT MORAL QUESTIONS : May a woman agree to inducing delivery of her nonviable defective baby? Question 48: May a woman agree to inducing delivery of her nonviable defective baby? We were surprised, since we picked this obstetrician partly because he was recommended by prolife friends. He left us alone for a while, and we talked it over. When he returned, we told him we would not have an abortion even to save my life, both because we believe abortion is wrong and because we want our baby to be born alive. We want to have her baptized and give her all the love and care we can, no matter how short her life is. The doctor said he never does abortions, but in cases like mine he does not regard inducing labor early as abortion. He also said the baby almost certainly would be born alive, so that she could be baptized, though she might live only a few minutes. And he told us that it would risk my life to go on with the pregnancy and he would not be responsible for what might happen if I do not follow his advice. We told him we needed more time to think it over. We talked with our parish priest about it, and he referred us to a Sister Luke, who has studied health care ethics and works in the chaplain’s office at the local Catholic hospital. After listening to our story, she told us to follow the obstetrician’s advice and get the pregnancy over with. That is the right thing to do, she explained, because there is “a proportionate reason.” If we were sure her advice is sound, we would follow it. However, we are not sure, because my husband read that the Pope condemned something called “proportionalism” in his encyclical, Veritatis splendor. We want advice about what to do, and we want to make sure we do not get mixed up in something the Pope condemned. The question is whether it would be morally acceptable to induce labor at once in this case. Even if a baby never will be viable, it is abortion to induce labor in order to end his or her life, and it is unjust to do anything without a grave reason that will result in shortening an unborn baby’s life. So, if the pregnancy can be continued until near term without grave risk to the questioner, she should not consent to the induction of early labor. If early delivery were necessary to save the mother’s life, her consenting in order to save her own life would not involve the intention to kill the baby or shorten her life. Saving the mother’s life could be called a “proportionate reason” for accepting the baby’s somewhat accelerated death. This use of the expression proportionate reason differs from that of the proportionalists whose opinion John Paul II condemned in Veritatis splendor. Your letter is deeply moving. So often you speak of we! It is a sign of the love with which you, less than a year married, joyfully welcomed the prospect of your first child and now, with grief but evident faith, face the prospect of losing her so soon. Telling the doctor you would not have an abortion even to save your life also showed courageous and praiseworthy readiness to accept martyrdom. Moreover, you show your Catholic sense of values: you picked an obstetrician recommended by prolife friends; you want your baby to be born alive and baptized; you sought advice from your parish priest and Sister Luke to whom he referred you; and you question the soundness of the advice, which you otherwise would follow, because you fear it might be inconsistent with papal teaching. Your physician has a more serious reason. Your diabetes could make continuing the pregnancy seriously harmful to you. Your question, therefore, really amounts to asking whether inducing labor now so as to forestall that harm must be regarded as abortion and excluded. In my judgment, the answer partly depends on whether going on with the pregnancy would be risking your life. Without adequate knowledge of the facts and lacking medical expertise, I cannot say how much basis there is for your obstetrician’s concern. However, it is possible that what he told you is unduly pessimistic, and he may also be taking too dim a view of your baby’s prospects. Therefore, the first thing I think you should do is obtain a second medical opinion. That is your right, and in no way calls into question the competence of the physician you have been seeing. Though he told you he would not be responsible for what might happen if you do not follow his advice—which seems to me to have put you under undue pressure—he should and probably will cooperate with you in obtaining a second opinion by sending your clinical records and test results to the physician you choose to review the situation. That should be an obstetrician who practices in full accord with Catholic teaching. To identify such a person, you might try calling the offices of the obstetricians on the staff of the Catholic hospital and asking: “Does the doctor prescribe contraceptives?” If the answer is yes, ask if he or she knows any obstetrician who refuses to do so. If this approach does not succeed, tell your parish priest about the difficulty and ask him to help you—and, if necessary, to get an appropriate diocesan office to help you—find the right doctor. Do not hesitate to press your parish priest and diocesan officials on this matter; you are prepared to lay down your life, if necessary, in order to do what is right, and you have a special claim to their help. Having identified a suitable obstetrician, tell him or her you need a second opinion, and explain the situation. After obtaining and studying your medical records and the test results, this physician probably will examine you and perhaps order additional tests. Then he or she will give you a fresh, independent evaluation and explain your options. I hope the second opinion will be that any problems likely to develop probably can be dealt with easily or even forestalled, without significant risk of serious and lasting harm to you. If so, your problem will be solved. Perhaps, however, there will be a serious problem, impossible to forestall and difficult to deal with, that will impose some risk of harm on you. Even so, the second obstetrician may be able to suggest a plan of care and treatment that, without gravely risking your life, will delay inducing labor until the pregnancy reaches the stage at which inducing labor for a good reason is regarded as acceptable by all Catholic moralists. In that case, accept the plan and carefully cooperate in carrying it out, even if it is unlikely to result in your baby being born alive. Someone might disagree and argue that the point at which a baby normally is viable is irrelevant in your case, because your daughter is so seriously defective that even if you go to term she will die shortly after she is born. Assuming the accuracy of what your obstetrician has told you about your daughter’s prospects, her life after birth will be extremely brief. However, her life remains good and she probably can live within your womb until the end of the normal period of pregnancy. Therefore, inducing labor early would deprive her of what little life she is likely to enjoy, and your responsibility is to bear and nurture her, if possible, until she is ready to be born. I think it quite unlikely that both obstetricians will agree that you and your baby both probably will die unless labor is induced early. But suppose that is their judgment? Even in that case, unless the danger of death is imminent, you should not agree to proceed at once, but should delay, hoping and praying for a good outcome. In that way, you will prolong your baby’s life and keep open the possibility that, despite the dire predictions, things will work out so that no life-or-death choice becomes necessary. But if the time does come when you must choose between risking your life, which also would cause your baby’s death, and inducing labor early, then, I think, you should choose the latter. That choice plainly will not be to end or shorten the baby’s life, for, though she probably will die sooner outside your womb than within it, your reason for inducing early labor will be to prevent your own death and, if possible, to provide your baby with the benefits of living briefly outside your womb, namely, baptism and a brief period of loving care. Thus, you will not be choosing to shorten your baby’s life, but only accepting that as an unwanted side effect. That will be fair to her, not only because your life also will be preserved but because she, too, will benefit. Because this motive for accepting the shortening of your baby’s life would be fair to her, one can call it “a proportionate reason.” Perhaps that is what Sister Luke meant—though, it seems to me, her advice was defective insofar as she neglected to suggest that you obtain a second opinion and put off a life-or-death choice. A proportionate reason in this sense, however, differs from what is called “a proportionate reason” by the proportionalists whose theory John Paul II condemned in his encyclical, Veritatis splendor. Since you are anxious to avoid confusing the two, I shall try to explain the distinction. The Pope’s main purpose was to reaffirm “the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those which prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts.”167 The relevant commandment, of course, is “You shall not kill,” which always and without exception prohibits killing by private individuals—capital punishment and killing in just wars are a separate problem (see LCL, 469–81, 890–94, 897–911). The prohibited, intrinsically evil act of killing, however, is to be understood, not merely as an outward performance resulting in someone’s death, but as a freely chosen kind of behavior characterized by its “‘object’ rationally chosen by the deliberate will” or, in other words, by “the proximate end of a deliberate decision which determines the act of willing on the part of the acting person.”168 Now, if, in the life-and-death crisis described above, you agree to induce labor early, you will not be rationally choosing by deliberate will to kill your baby or shorten her life; your act of willing will not be a deliberate decision that she die sooner rather than later. That harm, as already explained, will only be accepted as a side effect of what you will be choosing: preventing your own death and bringing about her birth so that she will live, though briefly, outside your womb. In sum, if Sister Luke meant by proportionate reason what proportionalists mean by it, she thinks you would be justified, not only in accepting the shortening of your baby’s life in inducing labor at once, but even in choosing to kill her, on the theory that her death would be a lesser evil than the harm your obstetrician predicts you will suffer if your pregnancy proceeds. Since goods and bads cannot be rationally commensurated in that way, however, lesser evil here can have no definite meaning. It expresses only a subjective opinion based on feelings. On this basis, a proportionalist may regard an abortion as justified whenever the baby is expected not to live long after birth. Your minds may be boggled by the preceding explanation of the difference between the proportionalism the Pope condemns and the legitimate use of proportionate reason. If so, do not worry about the details, for I am sure you will grasp the fact that the two are different. Looking at the matter in your clear-eyed way, you were prepared to stake your life on one of the truths proportionalists deny—that abortion is always wrong—but perhaps would have followed Sister Luke’s advice had your husband not read about the Pope’s condemnation of proportionalism. Without articulating the point, you saw correctly that, though choosing to kill a baby always would be a terrible wrong, accepting the baby’s death as a side effect could be right. Still, I hope and pray the crisis will not confront you, so that there will be no need to consent to inducing labor until your pregnancy is near term. 166. Jean deBlois, C.S.J., Patrick Norris, O.P., and Kevin O’Rourke, O.P, A Primer for Health Care Ethics: Essays for a Pluralistic Society (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1994), 235–38, note that pregnancy with an anencephalic fetus can put the mother at a somewhat increased risk and that the emotional trauma to the couple of a diagnosis of anencephaly can be considerable, assert (236) that the “condition uniformly is fatal, death usually occurring hours after birth from cardiorespiratory arrest,” claim (237) that “viability has no meaning as a moral marker in such cases” and that once the defect occurs integrated development is impossible due to absence of the cerebral cortex, and conclude (237): “On the basis of the above analysis it seems that once the diagnosis of anencephaly has been made the pregnancy may be terminated at any time.” This position is rejected—I believe rightly—by the Committee on Doctrine, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Moral Principles Concerning Infants with Anencephaly,” Origins, 26:17 (10 Oct. 1996): 276: “Hence, it is clear that before ‘viability’ it is never permitted to terminate the gestation of an anencephalic child as the means of avoiding psychological or physical risks to the mother. Nor is such termination permitted after ‘viability’ if early delivery endangers the child’s life due to complications of prematurity.” Peter J. McCullagh, Brain Dead, Brain Absent, Brain Donors: Human Subjects or Human Objects? (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993), 105–42, and a child neurologist, D. Alan Shewmon, “Anencephaly: Selected Medical Aspects,” Hastings Center Report, 18:5 (Oct.–Nov. 1988): 11–15, make it clear that the diagnosis of anencephaly sometimes is mistaken and the extent of the affliction varies; if anencephalic babies are born alive, many live more than a day and a few a month or more; some such infants behave in many ways like normal babies and may be conscious; and the cause of death varies. For infants afflicted with anencephaly who could not possibly survive long after birth, viability is irrelevant as a moral marker, but that irrelevance does not entail that aborting those infants is permissible, since the relevance of viability as a marker is that, what would have been abortion before viability may be a permissible early induction of labor after it. The fact that anencephalic infants develop a more or less perfect body (apart from their brain defect) shows that the cerebral cortex is not essential for integrated development. I conclude that choosing to terminate pregnancy when anencephaly is diagnosed is homicidal if the intended end is to reduce parental emotional trauma and is unfairly discriminatory against the baby if the intended end is to avoid the slightly increased risk of a properly managed pregnancy and natural birth. 167. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 115, AAS 85 (1993) 1223, OR, 6 Oct. 1993, xviii. 168. Ibid., 78, AAS 1196, OR, xii. 169. Ibid., 75, AAS 1193, OR, xi. 171. Ibid., 76, AAS 1194, OR, xii. 172. Ibid., 77, AAS 1195, OR, xii.

http://twotlj.org/G-3-48.html

Two slaughtermen have been sacked after an undercover investigation exposed shocking cruelty to horses at an abattoir. The disturbing video shows them being beaten with metal poles and illegally stunned in groups of up to three at a time before being killed. In one horrifying moment a stunned horse appears to regain consciousness, only to find itself hanging upside down and about to have its throat cut. The footage was captured at the Red Lion Abattoir, near Nantwich, Cheshire, after an eight-week investigation by animal welfare group Hillside. They also saw horses which appeared to be sick or injured and hadn't been immediately put down. 'It's unbelievably depressing there. They shouldn't be stunned or shot in front of each other like that. The scandal emerged as several British supermarkets have been exposed as selling frozen beef burgers which contain horse meat. Incredibly, the beef content in one Everyday Value burger sold by Tesco was actually 29 per cent horse meat. The horses at the Red Lion Abattoir are believed to be butchered for European food markets. Under the Welfare of Animals Act 1995, horses cannot be slaughtered in sight of another horse as it causes severe distress to the animal. The footage, which has been uploaded to YouTube, shows three horses crammed into a tiny pen before being stunned. The Food Standards Agency told the Daily Mirror it has revoked the licences of two slaughtermen after a probe into the video. FSA head of approvals Craig Kirby said: 'As soon as we got the footage and reviewed it we took immediate action to revoke the slaughtermen's licences. The Red Lion Abattoir told Sky News it views animal welfare and public health with paramount importance. It said the incidents were 'not the norm, but of an isolated nature' and they have taken disciplinary action against the individual featured. The statement continued: 'I agree horses should individually enter the stunning area and most certainly not three at a time. 'However, small horses and ponies having spent years together as companions are difficult to separate. Horse lovers would understand that. An RSPCA spokesperson said the organisation is viewing the footage and will decide whether to prosecute. In a statement it said: 'The footage is shocking and upsetting to watch. With the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 in mind, we have concerns that horses appear to be in the stunning pen at the same time rather than individually as the law requires. Former government chief veterinary officer Keith Meldrum, who viewed the footage, has told Sky News he was shocked by the 'appalling' breaches of animal welfare. 'We see three animals stunned at the same time and it is totally illegal and contrary to welfare slaughter regulations,' he said. Roly Owers, chief executive of World Horse Welfare, said: 'The breaches, from what we've seen, are throughout; from the care of the animals to the slaughter process.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264972/Cruelty-horses-exposed-Red-Lion-Abattoir-Hillside-animal-welfare-group.html

"It is way too big to fit into my mouth," Casandra stated as she sipped her hot coffee. We decided to meet at our favorite coffee shop and catch up on each other's lives. "Too big?" I asked for clarification. The barista delivered my iced coffee and iced lemon pound cake. I politely thanked him and hoped that he did not hear Casandra's last statement. "That's what I said. Every time I put that thing in my mouth, I feel like I'm choking - gagging," Casandra replied. She gauged my expression within the crowded coffee shop. I quickly glanced around the establishment to see who was listening to our conversation. A gray-haired woman was sitting alone at a table next to Casandra and me. However, she appeared to be deep in thought. Once I was comfortable that everyone was engrossed in their electronic devices and cups of java and not paying us any attention, I continued, "I thought you had good gag reflexes." "So did I, but that thing is too big for me. I have to stop a few times to catch my breath. And of course I have do 'it' everyday - I just can't stop doing it," Casandra stated with a devilish smile. Returning a smile, I offered, "That's right. It's something that should be done everyday - regardless of how big it is. So, what's your plan?" "I've been checking around town to see who has a smaller, slimmer one. I have one in mind already. I've had it once before - a while back. Having something big and wide in your mouth for a long time isn't all that." "Yes. Really. So, I have a plan," Casandra stated as a matter-of-fact. After taking a large gulp of my coffee, I asked with hesitation, "And what will that be?" "I'm going to the store on tomorrow and buy a new, sleek Philip's Supersonic Toothbrush. And I will throw that big, clunky electric toothbrush that I'm using now in the trash," Casandra replied with a hearty laugh. "No more choking or gagging for me," she added. Joining her in laughter, the gray haired woman sitting at the next table stated," I was wondering where your conversation was going. That's the best laugh I've had all month." While I was laughing, this was making me wonder what was going to happen next and what they were talking about. Keep it coming. Love the stories.

http://www.thesmilesystem.net/2014/04/big-and-wideisnt-all-that-choking-and.html